BOW WAVE 184

Rating Interactive Edition

news and views on trade, insurance and risk

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Wavy Line	sam@wavyline.com
(c)2003 WavyLine.com	Issue No 184 01 Jun 03
Published free of charge to Readers
Editor: Sam Ignarski
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In this issue:

1. Welcome
2. Cargo Letter
3. Standard & Poor's New Newsletter
4. Lorry Security Show
5. Pax Salam Blog
6. And Finally...

1. Welcome

To learn the Transport by the Pain
As Blind Men learn the sun!
To die of thirst -- suspecting
That Brooks in Meadows run!

To stay the homesick -- homesick feet
Upon a foreign shore --
Haunted by native lands, the while --
And blue -- beloved air!

This is the Sovereign Anguish!
This -- the signal woe!
These are the patient "Laureates"
Whose voices -- trained -- below --

Ascend in ceaseless Carol --
Inaudible, indeed,
To us -- the duller scholars
Of the Mysterious Bard!

Emily Dickinson (1830-86)
Complete Poems. 1924

New Readers this week include:

MarkAnthony Nathan of Marsh Insurance Brokers (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd
Charles Goldie

News of Readers

John Sandercock, who was the first American P&I Club man your editor ever met, nowadays works for Lester Schwab Katz & Dwyer LLP, a products liability and insurance defense firm in Manhattan,defending cases for insurers like AIG, Travelers and Firemen's Fund. His firm is involved in some of the litigation over ship fires caused by calcium hypochlorite, but most of the work has to do with serious personal injury cases in the state courts. He reports that many maritime attorneys these days look to find other kinds of work to help pay the bills in NYC.

Contact him at

john.sandercock@verizon.net

Charles Goldie, retired parter of Thomas Miller mentioned warmly the other day the work of the Apostleship of the Sea, the Roman Catholic Church for the Maritime World.

http://www.stellamaris.net

contact him at:

charlesgoldie@nascr.net

Lord Levene, the new Chairman of Lloyd's of London has turned his attention to the Market's small market share within the countries of Continental Europe.

Speaking at last week's Lloyd's European Symposium in London, he said that for 50 years the British insurance industry has hesitated over Europe and now is the time for Lloyd's to be open, creative and willing to take bold decisions.

Currently, Europe accounts for 29% of all global non-life insurance premiums, but this represents only 13% of Lloyd's business. Lloyd's hopes to double this figure. At present the market enjoys a rather unformidable market share of 1 per cent in Continental Europe.

Read the Press Release below.

http://www.lloyds.com/index.asp?ItemId=4872

Readers Write:

Our correspondent in Pudong writes:

By watching TV-DW, CNN from my apartment it seems countries outside Asia are not as affected as we are therefore people are not getting overly excited about the epidemic.

The anti-SARS virus controls in Shanghai are getting stronger day by day. I can leave Shanghai whenever I like but returning residents are quarantined for two weeks.

For the last two months since the SARS warning was announced in Shanghai there have been only eight cases of people with SARS and two deaths. But three of the eight who caught the disease were from abroad. The question arises: why?

In Beijing and nearby provinces things are not looking good. We read that medical experts and tons of medicines have been despatched but no further details have been announced

Edward Gray of More Fisher Brown writes

Somehow or other I have managed to commit myself to yomping around Mont Blanc at the end of June.

One of my old friends from college is the treasurer of a charity called Sense International, an international charity that works in developing countries with children who are both deaf and blind. He has organised this trip and persuaded me to join in, on the basis that I will try to raise some money for his charity.

If you or any of your Readers were prepared to contribute the odd fiver, it would be greatly appreciated.

Sense International does operate a website

http://www.senseinternational.org.uk.

This is a pretty general site, and doesn't say much that I can find about my particular efforts - although it amounts to about a marathon each day!! If anyone wanted more specific info, they could contact Kate Moger at

kmoger@senseinternational.org.uk
Tel: +44 20 7281 4373.

Any donations made by cheque should be drawn in favour of "Sense International" and can either go direct to the charity or can be sent via Ed at More Fisher Brown (Solicitors),1 Norton Folgate, London E1 6DB.

No real theme this week, but many interesting links.

Enjoy.

2. Cargo Letter

The May edition of one of your editor's favourite monthly reads has appeared this week. Edited by lawyer Michael S McDaniel, who is a partner in a firm of air cargo attornies located at LAX airport, the Cargo Letter should appeal to many Bow Wave Readers. We particularly admire this letter's whole hearted enthusiasm for all things concerned with freight and we always look particularly forward to reading the latest news of the air freight world and to viewing the latest images of cargo loss in the galleries.

Readers who would like to see for themselves should go to:

http://cargolaw.com

3. Standard & Poor's New Newsletter

The world of insurance is witnessing the wholesale down-grading of security ratings. Many insurers have to endure the experience of downward rating mobility, and some rush to tell you why the rating of the agency they pay is superior to the agency that simply takes a view of their numbers, sans remuneration as it were.

The people over at Standard&Poor's have taken the view that the world could do with some briefing as to the why and wherefore of ratings and have started a new newsletter. Their latest edition deals with the issue of pi rating.

http://pull.xmr3.com/p/769-824D/92083039/Issue2pdf

4. Lorry Security Show

This years UK event for Haulage Security will be on 24th June at the Heritage Motor Centre, writes Frank Heinrich-Jones of consultants PLC Consultancy Services.

A recent study has estimated that 200,000 lorry crimes are committed across Europe each year. This figure is growing at approximately 5% per annum, with estimated losses to the industry of more than 10 billion Euros a year. According to Home Office figures, 10% of all vehicles stolen in the UK are commercial vehicles. The Police National Stolen Lorry Desk statistics for 2002 show approximately 2,750 reported incidents of lorry or lorry load theft. It is estimated that the true cost to the UK is £500 million.

There has also been a noticeable increase of UK drivers being targeted abroad, and foreign drivers being targeted in the UK.

The Show will take place on 24th June 2003 at the Heritage Motor Centre, Gaydon, Warwickshire. The event will focus on covering all aspects of security that reduce commercial vehicle crime, and the scope will include all commercial vehicles, HGV's, light vans, cargo, and Goods-in-Transit.

The Show has a number of supporters such as the British Home Office, ACPO / JAGOLT, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), The Road Haulage Association (RHA) and Thatcham - The Motor Insurance Repair Research Centre.

Readers who would like to register can do so free of charge via Frank's website at

http://www.plcci.co.uk.

5. Pax Salam Blog

During the recent hostilities in Iraq, one of the must read web logs coming out of the country was written by an anonymous (and rather brave) chap who identified himself as Pax Salam. He is still at it, working around the rather erratic e-mail and electricity supplies in Baghdad.

His reportage is as good an idea as any of what things are like in the light of recent events. We understand he has been signed up by the Guardian Newspaper to write a regular piece for the paper.

Read his weblog at:

http://dear_raed.blogspot.com/

6. And Finally...

This item first came to your editor's attention courtesy of Marina Ignarski,15, who has a voracious appetite for these kinds of jokes and who guffawed mightily. Thanks also to Serena Standing for sending it in.........

KILLER BISCUITS WANTED FOR ATTEMPTED MURDER

Lisa Burnett, 23, a resident of San Diego, was visiting her in-laws, and while there went to a supermarket to pick up some groceries. Several people noticed her sitting in her car with the windows rolled up and with her eyes closed, with both hands behind the back of her head.One customer who had been in the store for a while became concerned and walked over to the car. he noticed that Lisa's eyes were now open and she looked very strange. He asked if she was okay and Lisa said she had been shot in the back of her head and had been holding her brains in for over an hour. The man called the paramedics, who broke into the car because the doors were locked and Lisa refused to remove her hands from her head.When they finally got in, they found that Lisa had a wad of bread dough on the back of her head...A Pillsbury biscuit canister had exploded from the heat, making a loud noise that sounded like a gun- shot, and the wad of dough hit her on the back of her head. When she reached back to find out what it was, she felt the dough and thought it was her brains. She initially passed out, but quickly recovered and tried to hold her brains in for over an hour until someone noticed and came to her aid. Lisa is blonde.

PS from Metro Stevedoring's Jim Callahan

A good pun is its own reword.

* A man's home is his castle, in a manor of speaking.
* Dijon vu - the same mustard as before.
* Shotgun wedding: A case of wife or death.
* Sea captains don't like crew cuts.
* Does the name Pavlov ring a bell?
* Reading while sunbathing makes you well-red.
* When two egotists meet, it's an I for an I.
* A bicycle can't stand on its own because it is two-tired.
* What's the definition of a will? (Come on, it's a dead giveaway!)
* Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
* A backward poet writes in re-verse.
* In democracy your vote counts. In feudalism your count votes.
* A chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion.
* You feel stuck with your debt if you can't budge it.
* Every calendar's days are numbered.
* A lot of money is tainted. It taint yours and it taint mine.
* A boiled egg in the morning is hard to beat.
* He had a photographic memory that was never developed.
* A plateau is a high form of flattery.
* Once you've seen one shopping center, you've seen a mall.
* When an actress saw her first strands of gray hair, she thought she'd dye.
*Bakers trade bread recipes on a knead-to-know basis.
* Acupuncture is a jab well done

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

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