BOW WAVE 212

Slippery Slope Edition

news and views on trade, insurance and risk

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Wavy Line	sam@wavyline.com
(c)2003 WavyLine.com	Issue No 212 15 Dec 03
Published free of charge to Readers
Editor: Sam Ignarski
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In this issue:

1. Welcome
2. Asbestos--Industry Wins One
3. Transport Law Convention Event in New York
4. Carter has left the Building
5. Unquiet Earth
6. And Finally...

1. Welcome

Dear Readers. Next week we will be publishing the Xmas edition of Bow Wave which normally consists of items of not very great seriousness. If you have something which will amuse or entertain, please send it in.

New Readers this week include:

Dan Soutar
Robert C.Goodwin of Cargo Express Inc in Yardley, Pa Ing. Franklin A. Samudio of McLarens Toplis Panamá Marine Consultant Capt. Sanjay Mittal in Singapore Editor Franck André of Pratic Export
Christopher Koch, CEO of the World Shipping Council

News of Readers

Tan Kay Hock has been appointed Independent Director and Audit Committee Member of Pacific CMA Inc., whose shares are listed and traded on the American Stock Exchange. Pacific CMA Inc., is a non-asset based international freight forwarding and logistics company providing air and ocean freight forwarding, contract logistics and other logistics related services. Its main subsidiaries include AGI Logistics ( Hong Kong ) Ltd and Airgate International Corp

http://www.pacificcma.com

Alex von Stempel is back in the business of organising specialist transport conferences. Current projects include Transport and Logistics Russia (with Informa) and Bulk Terminal Operations Amsterdam (with BTO Associates).

Contact Alex at:

a.vonstempel@ukonline.co.uk

Readers Write:

Fromra.co.uk):

Your And finally... jokes in Bow Wave usually amuse me on a Sunday, but my feelings this morning (Bow Wave Issue 211) were mixed as today's contribution is an adaptation of "Eurolish" which first appeared over 10 years ago, around the time of the Maastricht Treaty. But the original is better.

However, even in its modified form, re-reading it this morning made me smile again which is also the reason that I kept the original of Eurolish (see below) and enjoy reading Bow Wave:-

Here is the latest bulletin from the European Commission fresh from our Brussels office:

"European Union Commissioners announced today that agreement has been reached to adopt English as the preferred language for all European Community communications, rather than German, which was the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations, Her Majesty's Government conceded that English spelling required improvement and has accepted a five-year phased plan for what will be known as Euro-English ("Eurolish" for short).

In the first year, "s" will be substituted for the soft "c". Sivil servants will sertainly, resieve this news with joy. Also, the hard "c" will be replaced with "k". Not only will this klear up konfusion, but typewriters kan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year, when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced by "f". This will make words like "fotograf" 20 per sent shorter.

In the third year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkorage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horible mes of silent "e's" in the languag is disgrasful, and they would go.

By the fourth year, peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" by "z" and "w" by "v".

During ze fifz year, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou", and similar changes vud of kors be aplid to ozer kombinashns of leters.

After ze fifz yer, ve vil hav a reli sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubls or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech ozer.

Ze drem vil finali kum tru. Krauts vil be undrstod evriver.

In the run up to the end of the year, one of our Reader's has been pondering the issue of fitness to ski.

See item 6.

Enjoy.

2. Asbestos--Industry Wins One

William P. Shelley the Chair of Cozen O'Connor's Insurance Coverage Department has passed on a copy of their latest newsletter, reporting the successful outcome to a scirmish in the long running Astbestos Wars:-

Read the item at:

www.cozen.com/insalert/coverage.pdf

3. Transport Law Convention Event in New York

Vince De Orchis has passed on news of a symposium to be held on the day of 09 January 2004, at Fordham University School of Law in New York on the Draft UNCITRAL Transport Law Convention which is now under discussion at the United Nations. The event is being sponsored by the US State Department, MARAD, the US MLA and Fordham University School of Law. The event is free of charge.

For further details send an e-mail to Mika Hallakorpi:-

mhallakorpi@marinelex.com

4. Carter has left the Building

Mark Carter, a former denizen of your editor's old office in Hong Kong has been much in the news this past week, in connection from his sudden departure from Dex.

Many people--including your editor--were surprised to learn that the hull underwriters have been losing money throughout their time in the market.They were perhaps misled by the "we are selective underwriters" messages which appeared regularly in the public prints and the "we eschew growth in this soft market" line.

Dex had a history of sound preparation, methodical planning, good personnel and many well known backers. The poor results indicate how difficult it is to make one's way in hull insurance, how important is the selection of risk and how important for survival are deep pockets

Hard lines on Carter. In any new business or expansion strategy it is rare to hit growth targets, avoid underwriting losses and control management costs, all at the same time.

Usually two out of three is all you get.

5. Unquiet Earth

The other day we were looking at the rather long list of places in the world travelling to which the British Foreign Office advises we do not go. Plenty of work for the Prince of Peace in late 2003:-

Burundi Liberia

Afghanistan (except Kabul) Albania (North East Border areas between Albania & Kosovo) Algeria (to the desert and mountainous areas of the South East) Azerbaijan (Nagorno-Karabakh and the militarily occupied area surrounding it) Chad (the Borkou-Ennedi-Tibesti provinces in the North, and in border areas with Sudan and Central African Republic) Colombia (all Provinces of Choco, Putumayo, Meta and Caqueta and to rural areas of Antioquia, Cauca, Narino and Norte de Santander Provinces only) Congo (Democratic Republic) (Outside Kinshasa, the eastern half of the DRC and the north-eastern District of Ituri) Eritrea (border areas with Ethiopia and Sudan including Tesseney and South of the Barentu-Dekemaharare line only) Ethiopia (within 20Km of border with Eritrea in the Tigray & Afar regions, West of Gambella on the Itang Jikawo Road. The border with Somalia. Guinea (border region with Liberia, Sierra Leone and Côte d'Ivoire only) India (Jammu & Kashmir except Ladakh via Manali or by air to Leh. Immediate vicinity of the border with Pakistan & the Line of Control except Amritsar & Jaisalmer.) Indonesia (Northern Sumatra) Israel and the Occupied Territories (West Bank and Gaza; along Israel's border with Lebanon; close to the Israeli side of the Israel/Gaza border) Ivory Coast (Outside the immediate vicinity of Abidjan) Kyrgyzstan (South & west of Osh and the Ferghana Valley Region only) Nigeria (Bakassi Peninsula on the border with Cameroon) Philippines (Central, southern and western Mindanao to Basilan, Tawi-Tawi and the Sulu archipelago) Russian Federation (Chechenya, Ingushetia, Dagestan & North Ossetia, Karachai-Cherkessia, Kabardino-Balkaria, including Elbrus area, & to Eastern and Southern parts of Stavropol Krai. Particularly where it borders Chechenya & North Ossetia) Sierra Leone (areas bordering Liberia) Somalia (Except Hargesia, the capital of Somaliland) Sri Lanka (north & east only unless as with an international agency or NGO) Sudan (Eritrean border/ Kassala area) Uganda (Not entire Country. Please see country advice for specific areas)

http://www.fco.gov.uk/travel

6. And Finally...

Many thanks to David Cheslin for this one:

A guy named Steve receives a free ticket to the Super Bowl from his company. Unfortunately, when Steve arrives at the stadium he realizes the seat is in the last row in the corner of the stadium -- he is closer to the Goodyear Blimp than the field.

About halfway through the first quarter, Steve notices an empty seat 10 rows off the field right on the 50 yard line. He decides to take a chance and makes his way through the stadium and around the security guards to the empty seat.

As he sits down, he asks the gentleman sitting next to him, "Excuse me, is anyone sitting here?" The man says no. Now, very excited to be in such a great seat for the game, Steve again inquires of the man next to him, "This is incredible! Who in their right mind would have a seat like this at the Super Bowl and not use it?

The man replies, "Well, actually the seat belongs to me. I was supposed to come with my wife, but she passed away. This is the first Super Bowl we haven't been to together since we got married in 1967."

"Well, that's really sad," says Steve, "but still, couldn't you find someone to take the seat? A relative or a close friend?"

"No," the man replies, "they're all at the funeral."

PS from Jeff Blum:

Walking can add minutes to your life. This enables you at 85 years old to spend an additional 5 months in a nursing home at £2500 per month.

My grandmother started walking five miles a day when she was 60. Now she's 97 years old and we don't know where the hell she is.

The only reason I would take up exercising is so that I could hear heavy breathing again.

I joined a health club last year, spent about 400 quid. Haven't lost a pound. Apparently you have to go there.

I have to exercise early in the morning before my brain figures out what I'm doing.

I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me.

I have flabby thighs, but fortunately my stomach covers them.

The advantage of exercising every day is that you die healthier.

If you are going to try cross-country skiing, start with a small country.

And last but not least: I don't exercise because it makes the ice jump right out of my glass.

BOW WAVE is published each week to around 9300 Readers in the transport,insurance,shipping and finance industries.

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