BOW WAVE 200

Busan After Bergerac Edition

news and views on trade, insurance and risk

Bow Wave homepage
Previous issue (199) / Current issue / Next issue (201)

Wavy Line	sam@wavyline.com
(c)2003 WavyLine.com	Issue No 200 22 Sep 03
Published free of charge to Readers
Editor: Sam Ignarski
Subscribe	Unsubscribe

In this issue:

1. Welcome
2. Thoughts after Busan
3. Truck Crime to become more Transparent
4. Monrovia back on the Map--sort of
5. Chess Players in London's Square Mile
6. And Finally...

1. Welcome

Cited in the London Times recently was this rejection letter sent in 1923 to Sara Haardt, the beautiful lady married to HL Mencken:

"The poem I can't take. We have 200 or 300 bales of poetry stored in Hoboken, in the old Norddeutscher-Lloyd Pier. There are 300 000 poets in America."

Can any part of this letter, we wonder, be true?

New Readers this week include:

Conference organiser Alan Perry of Zelus Ltd
Jeremy Prain of the Ipswich firm of solicitors, Prettys Dirk Polfliet and Frank de Pauw of dpsurveys in Antwerp Fergal Hogan of Shipping Guides in Reigate
Patrick Joseph of the IOPC Fund
Patxi Bediaaluneta in Spain
Craig Kersey of Financial Risk Managers Guildhall

Readers Write:

From columnist and scholar Aline de Bievre comes this salutary warning:

I did not make it to the American Salvage Conference after all .... BA stopped me at the last minute from boarding the plane on grounds that my Belgian passport, which is not machine readable, would not be acceptable to US authorities! Yet they had happily given me boarding pass and failed to query my passport at check-in. The Belgian Embassy has obviously kept quiet about the latest rule change - Belgium was kicked out of the Visa Waiver Programme (the only EU country to be blacklisted), but nobody seems to know about the rule change, which is supposed to apply to EVERYBODY as from 1st October, except the FT a few days ago printed an article saying that US authorities are CONSIDERING relaxing the deadline, because so many countries won't be in a position to comply. The State Department Web site reveals that Belgium was disgraced ahead of the deadline because too many Belgian passports are lost or stolen without being reported .Oh dear. I spent five hours at Heathrow, the plane was held up because my suitcase (not just me) had to be off-loaded. After much feet dragging BA agreed to pay for taxi back home, and I am also writing to ask for a ticket voucher! :<)

contact her at:

alinedebievre@btopenworld.com

From Canon John Hollister+:

Item 6 "And Finally" in Bow Wave 199 reminded me of three other deathless comments of the same ilk:

Warren, Ohio, hospital:
IF YOU NEED A TRANSLATOR, DIAL 729.

American Vice President (J. Danforth Quayle):
IF WE DO NOT SUCCEED, WE RUN THE RISK OF FAILURE.

New Orleans Mayor (Victor Hugo Schiro, during a major hurricane disaster with city-wide flooding, broadcasting to calm the people): DON'T BELIEVE ANY FALSE RUMORS UNLESS THEY COME FROM ME.

contact him at:

jahollister@yahoo.com

Surveyor and Editor Mike Wall writes:

The story on professional interpreters (Bow Wave Issue 199 reminds me of a Russian translator that I once met on a ship. I quipped at one stage of the survey, during lunch, referring to the state of Russian shipping companies, "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." To which the translator replied, "What do you mean the whisky is good but the meat has gone bad?"!

contact him at:

mikewall@so-net.com.hk

This week's issue comes at the end of a week away from maritime affairs for your editor spent near Bergerac in the Dordogne region of France. As an experiment, not to be repeated,the Bow Wave e-mail in box went unreviewed for five days. So we missed the march of events in Busan and elsewhere. Apologies to some of our correspondents that we have been a little slow in response.

Enjoy.

2. Thoughts after Busan

Well it happens. Every now and again the unquiet earth reminds us how fragile are the works of man. We
return to England to see the astounding pictures of the Busan waterfront and its 11 crippled cranes, caused by high winds. Sam Chambers, the editor of the Maritime Asia daily e-zine did a fine job reporting the bare facts of what can only be a major commercial blow to the Port and its customers. It was very much his week in the papers, despite the proceedings of IUMI, the Seatrade Conference in London and the thoughts of Lord Levene.

The Busan mess brings to mind the awful earthquake at Kobe nearly a decade ago. Then the Japanese marine insurance industry avoided the worst of the financial aftermath by its long-term policy withholding earthquake cover for all property located within Japan. But for the Port it was a long slow climb back.

Your editor, then at the helm of an Asian insurance operation, thanked the deity which looks after Polish orphans, for coming off risk in Kobe--with great gnashing of teeth--some eight weeks before.

Events after Kobe and the working of the Japanese stock market in response to the Kobe losses contained strange and unexpected consequences. Nick Leeson, a stock broker in Singapore was found to be making large bets on the upturn of the Japanese economy with the capital of the Baring Bank. He and the bank lost.

A direct windstorm hit and 11 cranes out is getting pretty close to a worst thinkable scenario for a working container port. With the build up of infrastructure in leading maritime locations like Busan, the scale of thinkable loss goes on climbing. Is this the end of the have-a-go reinsurance sector, whose underwriters have lived by the doctrine of "burning cost" alone? We shall see. There is still plenty of time between now and the end of the current insurance year for a hefty loss or two more. The storm season has hardly begun.

3. Truck Crime to become more Transparent

Peter Owen has sent word of this interesting initiative:

London, 18 September 2003, EUROWATCH, the pan-European counter-crime service, has signed a sponsorship agreement with the UK's Metropolitan Police to establish a web-based information service for recording road freight crimes committed in the UK. Set up to support the "TruckPol" desk, it will be a repository for information on freight crime and, eventually, will be made available via on-line access to police and other parties in the UK and Europe.

The service will support police in their efforts to target criminal activity against road freight. Information on stolen vehicles, loads and criminal activity is collated so that emerging crime trends and patterns can be identified. Once fully established, it is proposed to offer access to other European police forces and to encourage them to register freight crimes occurring in their countries. The service will thus become a powerful medium for cross-border sharing of information on freight crime and will assist police in targeting criminals who steal in one country and dispose of their stolen goods in another. As usage develops, on-line access will be provided to accredited TruckPol industry partners such as transport operators and insurance companies.

The service is to be located at:

http://www.truckpol.com,

4. Monrovia back on the Map--sort of

Rachel Bennet, the marketing person at OTAL has noted the reopening of calls on this shattered outpost of the ports industry:-

OT Africa Line is pleased to announce that they have resumed their service to war-torn Monrovia (Liberia). The 'Casablanca' left the port on the 8th September after effective discharge of her cargo. This was the first call by any line to Monrovia post conflict.

The port of Monrovia has been unsafe to enter since June. Since then there has been fighting between rebel and government forces around the port area severely damaging warehouses, port buildings and equipment. Rebel leaders from the LURD movement gained total control on July 19th and the port was closed.The rebels departure on August 18th was marked by widespread looting of food and other supplies from the harbour by both insurgents and civilians in the area. Buildings were further ransacked and port vehicles, furniture, electrical appliances, food and gasoline were pillaged - literally stripping the port dry."

The port is now well secured by ECOMIL troops and equipment is steadily being repaired. Currently there is one Toplifter, a empty (MT) handler and several trucks and trailers available. The US Navy is also supplying two 42 tonne toplifters therefore the port will be better equipment than before. Also the Port Authority will apparently be replaced within the next four weeks when a new government is installed.

Contact her at:

rmb@otal.com

5. Chess Players in London's Square Mile

Reader Ray Hamilton works for Senior Wright Ltd, Lloyd's Brokers, in the City of London as the Technical/Compliance Manager. He is also the Secretary of the Metropolitan Chess Club which is the only chess club in the City of London (the Square Mile). The Club has been there since its formation in 1890. It meets every Thursday from 6 p.m at the Middlesex Street Community Hall, Petticoat Square, London E1. It has teams in the London and Middlesex chess leagues, the Four Nations chess league and also runs internal club competitions. Anyone interested in joining this Club can contact him as follows:-
e-mail:wright.co.uk
telephone: 020 7680 5750

He has also mentioned a weekend chess congress on the 11th and 12th October next at the Bishopsgate Institute, 230 Bishopsgate, London EC2 which is open to players of all abilities. The event usually attracts some of the country's top players including Grandmasters and International Masters.
Full details and an entry form can be obtained from him or downloaded from the website. Go to:-

http://www.metchess.org.uk

6. And Finally...

Many thanks to Shell legal man Gavin Ryan in Perth for these illustrations demonstrating how often we leave our better selves behind:-

A little girl was talking to her teacher about whales. The teacher said it was physically impossible for a whale to swallow a human because even though it was a very large mammal its throat was very small. The little girl stated that Jonah was swallowed by a whale. Irritated, the teacher reiterated that a whale could not swallow a human; it was physically impossible. The little girl said, "When I get to heaven I will ask Jonah". The teacher asked, "What if Jonah went to hell?" The little girl replied, "Then you ask him". ___________________________________________

A Kindergarten teacher was observing her classroom of children while they drew. She would occasionally walk around to see each child's work. As she got to one little girl who was working diligently, she asked what the drawing was? The girl replied, "I'm drawing God." The teacher paused and said, "But no one knows what God looks like." Without missing a beat, or looking up from her drawing, the girl replied, "They will in a minute."
_____________________________________________

A Sunday school teacher was discussing the Ten Commandments with her five and six year olds. After explaining the commandment to "honour" thy Father and thy Mother, she asked, "Is there a commandment that teaches us how to treat our brothers and sisters?" One little boy (the oldest of a family) answered, "Thou shall not kill."
_____________________________________________

One day a little girl was sitting and watching her mother do the dishes at the kitchen sink. She suddenly noticed that her mother has several strands of white hair sticking out in contrast on her brunette head. She looked at her mother and inquisitively asked, "Why are some of your hairs white, Mum?" Her mother replied, "Well, every time that you do something wrong and make me cry or unhappy, one of my hairs turns white." The little girl thought about this revelation for a while and then said, "Mum, how come ALL of grandma's hairs are white?" _____________________________________________

The children had all been photographed, and the teacher was trying to persuade them each to buy a copy of the group picture. "Just think how nice it will be to look at it when you are all grown up and say, There's Jennifer; she's a lawyer,' or 'That's Michael. He's a doctor.'" A small voice at the back of the room rang out, "And there's the teacher. She's dead."
_____________________________________________

A teacher was giving a lesson on the circulation of the blood. Trying to make the matter clearer, she said, "Now, class, if I stood on my head, the blood, as you know, would run into it, and I would turn red in the face." "Yes," the class said. "Then why is it that while I am standing upright in he ordinary position the blood doesn't run into my feet?" A little fellow shouted, "Cause your feet ain't empty." _____________________________________________

The children were lined up in the cafeteria of a Catholic elementary school for lunch. At the head of the table was a large pile of apples. The nun made a note, and posted it on the apple tray: "Take only ONE. God is watching." Moving further along the lunch line, at the other end of the table was a large pile of chocolate chip biscuits. A child had written a note, "Take all you want. God is watching the apples."

BOW WAVE is published each week to around 8600 Readers in the transport,insurance,shipping and finance industries.

Thanks for reading BOW WAVE