BOW WAVE 157

All in All Lucid Edition

news and views on trade, insurance and risk

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Wavy Line	sam@wavyline.com
(c)2002 WavyLine.com	Issue No 157 25 Nov 02
Published free of charge to Readers
Editor: Sam Ignarski
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In this issue:

1. Welcome
2. New US Legislation
3. New Portal for Mariners
4. Internet Forum on Bridge Equipment
5. Asbestos News
6. And Finally...

1. Welcome

This Issue finds your editor returned and suitably instructed on Australian intermodal issues not to say severely jet-lagged.

New Readers this week include:

Frank Paul of Informa
Achim Drescher of Columbus Line
Baron Delwaide Deputy Mayor of Antwerp
Keith Burren of Melbourne Port Corporation
Filipina Moore Project Officer for Ports in Melbourne John Horan of Patricks Stevedores
Patrick Quirk Director,Ports Planning,Queensland Transport Christopher Sidwell of MSC Australia
Demetrios Zoppos of GF-X.Com
David Blackburn of Miller Insurance
Helen M.Benzie of Bigham Englar Jones & Houston in New York Surveyor David Jackson of Pacific Rim Marine in Anacortes, Washington

News of Readers

Freddie Lim has resigned from TradeVest and is now with ITI Solutions Pte Ltd which has been licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore as a general insurance broker. The company will focus on marine cargo, political risk and trade credit insurance.

contact him at:

freddie.lim@itisolutions.com.sg

Readers Wants:

Photographer Susan Schulman is off to Cambodia from 24NOV02 for a fortnight to take photos of the port and docks at Sihanoukville for the Bloomberg News Agency Library. She is anxious about gaining access. If any Reader has any advice or contacts they can offer her please get in touch at:

+44 7773 800 775 (UK mobile);

+855 23 211715 (the Walkabout Hotel in Phnom Penh); or

zzusan@hotmail.com

Here is hoping this Issue is all in all lucid.

Enjoy.

2. New US Legislation

No sooner was your editor on his way to speak on the subject of maritime security at the Ausintermodal Conference than appeared a special edition of Dennis L. Bryant's Maritime Items which brought a lot more detail to the story and required some updating work in transit on the speech. The Item in part read:

"Yesterday, November 14, 2002, the United States Congress passed the Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002 (S. 1214). This measure, when fully implemented, will impose broad security requirements on the maritime industry. It will also put the United States out of step with other nations with regard to various aspects of maritime security.

This bill is a combination or synthesis of measures adopted separately by the Senate and the House of Representatives. By voice vote, the Senate passed the Port and Maritime Security Act of 2001 (S. 1214) on December 20, 2001. The Maritime Transportation Antiterrorism Act of 2002 (H.R. 3983) passed the House of Representatives on June 4, 2002, also by voice vote. Later in June, the two houses agreed to conference the measures, but other matters intervened, delaying final resolution until now.....

Summary

The September 6, 2002 terrorist attack on the French supertanker LIMBURG in Yemen made it clear to all that the need to enhance maritime security is vital. The mission is to enhance maritime security in a manner that maximizes the benefits while minimizing the costs. In the United States, the Coast Guard, Customs Service, and other agencies involved in the process should be looking to the maritime industry to assist in development of workable solutions. Many in the industry actively participated in the OPA 90 rulemaking process, and the system benefited greatly from that involvement. Similar participation is called for in this situation. The agencies will move ahead in their rulemaking programs with or without industry participation. The rules, though, will be more efficient and impose lower costs if all affected by the programs are involved in the process.

http://www.hklaw.com/maritimedev.asp?Subject=new

Contact him at:

dbryant@hklaw.com

3. New Portal for Mariners

We have received notice of a new website, designed for seafarers. Called Shiptalk.com, and originating out of the north east of England it is aiming to cater for the social and professional needs of seafarers.

Director Andrea Brown says "There are 1.2 million serving seafarers of all ranks and nationalities as well as thousands of retired and ex-seafarers working ashore. Until now seafarers have been unable to get together and exchange opinions, views and other information to improve their everyday social and professional lives at sea. Shiptalk aims to change that...We recognise the need to make the site affordable and have therefore set our annual subscription at $10 or the local equivalent. We are committed to providing a service to seafarers of all ranks and nationality."

http://www.shiptalk.com

4. Internet Forum on Bridge Equipment

We understand from Julie Lithgow that the Nautical Institute is launching an Internet forum to find out what mariners think about integrated bridge and navigation systems, with a view to obtaining feedback on the way that they use this equipment and their comments about potential improvements. This information has been asked for by the IEC Technical Committee (TC80) which is responsible for drawing up performance standards for new bridge equipment.

Advances in technology have lead to the cost-effective implementation of Integrated Bridge Systems (IBS) and Integrated Navigation Systems (INS). However, the variety in their user interfaces does cause confusion for mariners who have not been trained on a specific system or for maritime pilots who can often find themselves needing to make decisions based on equipment they may have never seen before.

To address this issue, the Nautical Institute, working closely with the Comite International Radio-Maritime (CIRM), the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), the International Federation of Ship Masters’ Associations (IFSMA) and the International Maritime Pilots Association (IMPA) held a conference on Integrated Bridge and Navigation Systems at the Inmarsat headquarters in London during November 2002

To provide an opportunity for mariners to discuss and evaluate modern bridge systems, The Nautical Institute and the marine communications and IT magazine Ocean Voice have developed an online forum linked to detailed survey questions, for mariners to contribute feedback on integrated navigation systems and AIS. Seafarers of all levels of experience are invited to take part. The forum can be found at

http://www.nauticalcampus.org/insforum

The conclusions of the conference, as well as those of the online survey, will be documented by The Nautical Institute and submitted to the relevant committees at the IEC and IMO.

5. Asbestos News

Julius S. Bannister writes

"I am researching issues relating to asbestos and have just published the ASBESTOS/APH INSURANCE BULLETIN (APH is London Market jargon for asbestos / pollution / health hazards).

I find the whole area fascinating. The genuine victims (people and companies) versus the others, the lawyers good versus bad, and their strategies. Even though I say it myself, our day-by-day developments calendar is a godsend to those who have to research / report on developments."

Readers who would like a free copy of this publication should e-mail him at:

news@biro.co.uk

6. And Finally.....

Many thanks to Reader Dave Letteney for these reflections on Politicians and Government

Liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money. --G. Gordon Liddy

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul. --George Bernard Shaw

Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries. --Douglas Casey

Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. --P.J. O'Rourke

Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else. --Frederic Bastiat

Government's view of the economy summed up in a few short phrases If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it. -- ! Ronald Reagan (1986)

I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts. --Will Rogers

If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free. --P.J. O'Rourke

Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you. --Pericles (430 B.C.)

No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session. --Mark Twain (1866)

Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself. --Mark Twain

Talk is cheap except when Congress does it. The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other. --Ronald Reagan

The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery. -Winston Churchill

The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin. --Mark Twain

We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. --Winston Churchill

What this country needs are more unemployed politicians. --Edward Langley

BOW WAVE is published each week to around 7550 Readers in the transport,insurance,shipping and finance industries.

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