Yesterday, here in Los Angeles, the annual Holocaust Memorial Day, “Yom Hashoah”, took place. In a city that is home to one of the biggest Jewish populations in the world, this is bound to be a big, impressive event. It was more than that.
Held in the Pan Pacific Park adjacent to the Los Angeles Holocaust Monument. It was attended by most of the local and state civic dignitaries and a large crowd, all covered by a huge tent shading them from the bright Spring sunshine. The theme this year was to commemorate 70 years since Kristallnacht, The Night of Broken Glass – Shattered Hopes.
During the speeches Britain got a special mention because it was the only country that allowed Jewish children from Germany into our country on the famous Kindertransport. No one else, including America allowed large Jewish groups, of any age, an escape from the Nazis.
The speeches, particularly those by Jacob Dayan, the Israel Consul General and Rabbi David Wolpe from LA’s Sinai Temple, were spellbinding, powerful and compelling. I had the good fortune to have had a meeting with the Rabbi a couple of days previously and I know him to be an extremely thoughtful and incisive man. Listening to him make a speech we all realized why Newsweek magazine had recently selected him as the top pulpit rabbi in America.
There was a beautiful musical interlude featuring the cellist Barry Gold from the Los Angeles Philharmoic Orchestra. In addition The Tova Concert Singers were excellent. There were so many outstanding speeches and presentations it seems wrong to select just a few. But special mention should be made of the Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who made his understanding and support for this event and Israel, from a Gentile, American perspective, clear and unequivocal.
The Rabbi told his audience that the one thing we must do, as a minimum, if we are not to repeat these horrific mistakes in the future, is remember the name of one person who perished in the Holocaust. I turned to my sister to remember the name Weisberg, the name of my father’s mother’s family who were all lost in the Holocaust, in Warsaw. None of us know their first names, what they looked like, what were their dreams and aspirations, what football team they supported, what music they listened to, or anything else, other than that they were our family. They were killed because they were Jewish. We ended with the words, Never Again.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Monday, May 5, 2008
Doing Deals
Deals are deals, but now it doesn’t mean that they are necessarily that binding. My first two film productions were small. We made them in some ancient age, nearly 40 years ago. We shook hands on the deals and received some finance, and made the films and delivered them, all before the contracts were drawn up and signed. How things have changed.
Now you can have a signed contract and it means nothing. Several times in the recent past the contracts have been longer than the screenplays. Who does this benefit other than the attorneys?
For the last many years there were two main film industries. One, the major studio system, is the one most of you are aware of. These are fundamentally the big money distribution machines that own a big pipeline that demands film product being fed down its voracious maw or it is just a very expensive waste of space.
The alternative method is known as the independent film sector. This makes smaller budget films. Despite convention this sector has always demanded some star names to make their films marketable. Not to the cinema or other audiences, but to the independent film distributors in each country. Historically the way this worked was that these films were pre-sold on a country by country basis and their value and desirability was computed against the cast, director and producer track records and the projected budget of the movie to be produced. This, in turn, relied on the banking sector accepting and underwriting these ascribed values per territory. They would advance discounted cash for the film then to be produced. They made their charges and profits based on the accuracy of these projections. This worked comparatively well for many years. But when credit got tougher, and the banks became more risk averse the whole system seized up.
The result has been other, newer alternatives in which capital funds from other sources were created. These were largely tax incentive schemes originally motivated by governments wishing to create film industries to lead the vital creative sectors in their burgeoning economies. With the recession beginning and spreading its tentacles, banks are getting tighter with their fiscal policy, governments start to panic and cut incentive schemes, just when they should be doing the opposite. The results for the independent film sector are disastrous.
Big time corporate deals will become more difficult to finance, and you’ll see further examples of this like Microsoft’s pulling away from Yahoo’s purchase. A deal that would have gone through a year back. Deals in the entertainment business for the bottom feeders, which is most of us, will become tiny or non-existent. Perhaps we’ve gone full circle. Now we can make tiny, inexpensive productions again, and the means of distribution has been democratized so we can get things done and out there, in front of the world. The trouble is this, so can millions of others. Therefore the big question now is how do you get proper exposure for your product so that it has the oxygen to grow? I think I know the answer, but that’s for another day.
Now you can have a signed contract and it means nothing. Several times in the recent past the contracts have been longer than the screenplays. Who does this benefit other than the attorneys?
For the last many years there were two main film industries. One, the major studio system, is the one most of you are aware of. These are fundamentally the big money distribution machines that own a big pipeline that demands film product being fed down its voracious maw or it is just a very expensive waste of space.
The alternative method is known as the independent film sector. This makes smaller budget films. Despite convention this sector has always demanded some star names to make their films marketable. Not to the cinema or other audiences, but to the independent film distributors in each country. Historically the way this worked was that these films were pre-sold on a country by country basis and their value and desirability was computed against the cast, director and producer track records and the projected budget of the movie to be produced. This, in turn, relied on the banking sector accepting and underwriting these ascribed values per territory. They would advance discounted cash for the film then to be produced. They made their charges and profits based on the accuracy of these projections. This worked comparatively well for many years. But when credit got tougher, and the banks became more risk averse the whole system seized up.
The result has been other, newer alternatives in which capital funds from other sources were created. These were largely tax incentive schemes originally motivated by governments wishing to create film industries to lead the vital creative sectors in their burgeoning economies. With the recession beginning and spreading its tentacles, banks are getting tighter with their fiscal policy, governments start to panic and cut incentive schemes, just when they should be doing the opposite. The results for the independent film sector are disastrous.
Big time corporate deals will become more difficult to finance, and you’ll see further examples of this like Microsoft’s pulling away from Yahoo’s purchase. A deal that would have gone through a year back. Deals in the entertainment business for the bottom feeders, which is most of us, will become tiny or non-existent. Perhaps we’ve gone full circle. Now we can make tiny, inexpensive productions again, and the means of distribution has been democratized so we can get things done and out there, in front of the world. The trouble is this, so can millions of others. Therefore the big question now is how do you get proper exposure for your product so that it has the oxygen to grow? I think I know the answer, but that’s for another day.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
The Klinger's and the Weisberg's
Today in South Pasadena Klinger family members from three continents, myself amongst them, met for the first time since 1915. Cousins, from 5 to 80 something years old met, some for the first time during the get together. We delved into our common past. About 100 years ago my father’s family journeyed from the Russian Tsar’s empire in Poland to England.
Different, exotic and colorful stories abound. We found one picture that was common to our British, American and Australian family branches. It was of four young men, one young woman, two small children and one old lady. They are all staring at the camera very intently. They are dressed in formal attire, the men resplendently displaying fine moustaches. When I first saw the picture I thought it was a joke. How had someone photo shopped me into a picture from nearly a century ago? But it turns out that I share a face with my previously unknown great uncle. Of course he is a particularly fine figure of a man. Actually my grandfather, staring confidently at the camera, is the best looking man in the picture, and I don’t look much like him. I will write more fully about this in the future.
We then started to talk with each other and old family histories were unearthed and old journeys re-trod. There was a fine picture of my uncle Max in the uniform of the Imperial Russian Army. He looks very snappy but there is another truth. I well remember my Poppa Gershon telling me how his brother, the man in the picture, was ruthlessly beaten by his Russian commanders on a regular basis, purely because he was Jewish. It was because of his treatment that his family re-considered where they should live. In those far off days the Imperial army took one brother at a time into the army. When one came back the next had to take his place, unless he was killed earlier. Apparently his tormentors permanently injured my great uncle and the decision was made to leave.
Therefore, in some twisted grand design my great uncle’s maltreatment meant that we could all meet in Pasadena. With more benign treatment I suspect that there was a very good chance the family would have stayed in the Polish part of the Russian Empire. If we had done so about thirty years later the invading Nazis would have decimated my father’s family.
I say this with some certainty because it did happen to my father’s mother’s side of our family, the Weisberg’s (I guess it could be spelt Weissberg) of Warsaw. Sixty-three of them were murdered in the Holocaust. According to our family story my grandmother, Dora, returned to her native Poland with my father, then a small boy, before the war, to try and get her family to leave. She was only able to convince one sister. That sister agreed to make the journey to England with her two children, but their application for papers was refused. They are all lost to us now. That family will never enjoy a sunny reunion anywhere as there are none of them to meet.
Ironically today is Holocaust Memorial Day. Although I am not religious I shall go to the ceremony in the nearby park and offer up a prayer for those that were lost in my family, the Weisberg’s, and millions of other families. I fell I have to do it for my late grandmother as there is no one else to do so.
Different, exotic and colorful stories abound. We found one picture that was common to our British, American and Australian family branches. It was of four young men, one young woman, two small children and one old lady. They are all staring at the camera very intently. They are dressed in formal attire, the men resplendently displaying fine moustaches. When I first saw the picture I thought it was a joke. How had someone photo shopped me into a picture from nearly a century ago? But it turns out that I share a face with my previously unknown great uncle. Of course he is a particularly fine figure of a man. Actually my grandfather, staring confidently at the camera, is the best looking man in the picture, and I don’t look much like him. I will write more fully about this in the future.
We then started to talk with each other and old family histories were unearthed and old journeys re-trod. There was a fine picture of my uncle Max in the uniform of the Imperial Russian Army. He looks very snappy but there is another truth. I well remember my Poppa Gershon telling me how his brother, the man in the picture, was ruthlessly beaten by his Russian commanders on a regular basis, purely because he was Jewish. It was because of his treatment that his family re-considered where they should live. In those far off days the Imperial army took one brother at a time into the army. When one came back the next had to take his place, unless he was killed earlier. Apparently his tormentors permanently injured my great uncle and the decision was made to leave.
Therefore, in some twisted grand design my great uncle’s maltreatment meant that we could all meet in Pasadena. With more benign treatment I suspect that there was a very good chance the family would have stayed in the Polish part of the Russian Empire. If we had done so about thirty years later the invading Nazis would have decimated my father’s family.
I say this with some certainty because it did happen to my father’s mother’s side of our family, the Weisberg’s (I guess it could be spelt Weissberg) of Warsaw. Sixty-three of them were murdered in the Holocaust. According to our family story my grandmother, Dora, returned to her native Poland with my father, then a small boy, before the war, to try and get her family to leave. She was only able to convince one sister. That sister agreed to make the journey to England with her two children, but their application for papers was refused. They are all lost to us now. That family will never enjoy a sunny reunion anywhere as there are none of them to meet.
Ironically today is Holocaust Memorial Day. Although I am not religious I shall go to the ceremony in the nearby park and offer up a prayer for those that were lost in my family, the Weisberg’s, and millions of other families. I fell I have to do it for my late grandmother as there is no one else to do so.
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Economics Made Easy
Today I can be brief because I am borrowing some material from others. First is some computational work from my friend, Roy Wilkinson. He is, by training, employment and education a top flight, British engineer. As my late father was also a British engineer I revere such ability. You should know that anything such men say should be treated as accurate and well considered.
“Governments Gaining From the Misery
You might wish to write about the cuts, as in slice, that governments are getting from the rise in the price of crude oil. I have just done a study of Matthew’s gas bills as he seems to be paying over the odds. Anyway, gas prices have been going up for some time, 47% in a year, but just looking at the January v. April bills is quite interesting.
The unit cost of gas, i.e. cents per therm charged to the consumer, has gone up 30% thru’ Feb, March and April, but interestingly the commodity price paid by the gas company has gone cost up by 40%. That means that the company is absorbing part of the increase. In actual fact their markup has dropped from 37 to 28%, their standing charge has stayed the same as have the state reg. fee and the public surcharge as increased only marginally.
The ‘sinner’ in the woodpile is however the LA city users tax which having stayed at 10% is enjoying a 25% increase in its share of the overall bill.
The same thing is happening across the board in the UK particularly with the 5% vat (value added tax) on domestic energy.
Governments are frightened of inflation yet they are fueling it. Forgive the pun.“
I leave you to draw your own conclusions, mine are that things are, very often, not what they appear to be.
On a lighter note I received the following “laws of economics” by another friend. I don’t know who composed them originally although I am totally convinced that they are accurate and I doff my hat to their anonymous author, obviously a genius!
Economic Models explained with cows- 2008 update
SOCIALISM
You have 2 cows.
You give one to your neighbour.
COMMUNISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and gives you some milk.
FASCISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and sells you some milk.
NAZISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and shoots you.
BUREAUCRATISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both, shoots one, milks the other, and then throws the
milk away...
TRADITIONAL CAPITALISM
You have two cows.
You sell one and buy a bull.
Your herd multiplies, and the economy grows.
You sell them and retire on the income.
SURREALISM
You have two giraffes.
The government requires you to take harmonica lessons
AN AMERICAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You sell one, and force the other to produce the milk of four cows.
Later, you hire a consultant to analyse why the cow has dropped dead.
ENRON VENTURE CAPITALISM
You have two cows.
You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of
credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a
debt/equity swap with an associated general offer so that you get all
four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows.
The milk rights of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a
Cayman Island Company secretly owned by the majority shareholder who
sells the rights to all seven cows back to your listed company.
The annual report says the company owns eight cows, with an option on
one more.
You sell one cow to buy a new president of the United States, leaving
you with nine cows.
No balance sheet provided with the release.
The public then buys your bull.
THE ANDERSEN MODEL
You have two cows.
You shred them.
A FRENCH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You go on strike, organise a riot, and block the roads, because you want
three cows.
A JAPANESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and
produce twenty times the milk.
You then create a clever cow cartoon image called 'Cowkimon' and market
it worldwide.
A GERMAN CORPORATION
You have two cows
You re-engineer them so they live for 100 years, eat once a month, and
milk themselves.
AN ITALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows, but you don't know where they are.
You decide to have lunch.
A RUSSIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You count them and learn you have five cows.
You count them again and learn you have 42 cows.
You count them again and learn you have 2 cows.
You stop counting cows and open another bottle of vodka.
A SWISS CORPORATION
You have 5000 cows. None of them belong to you.
You charge the owners for storing them.
A CHINESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You have 300 people milking them.
You claim that you have full employment, and high bovine productivity.
You arrest the newsman who reported the real situation.
AN INDIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You worship them.
A BRITISH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
Both are mad.
AN IRAQI CORPORATION
Everyone thinks you have lots of cows.
You tell them that you have none.
No-one believes you, so they bomb the **** out of you and invade your
country.
You still have no cows, but at least now you are part of a Democracy....
AN AUSTRALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
Business seems pretty good.
You close the office and go for a few beers to celebrate.
A NEW ZEALAND CORPORATION
You have two cows.
The one on the left looks very attractive.
“Governments Gaining From the Misery
You might wish to write about the cuts, as in slice, that governments are getting from the rise in the price of crude oil. I have just done a study of Matthew’s gas bills as he seems to be paying over the odds. Anyway, gas prices have been going up for some time, 47% in a year, but just looking at the January v. April bills is quite interesting.
The unit cost of gas, i.e. cents per therm charged to the consumer, has gone up 30% thru’ Feb, March and April, but interestingly the commodity price paid by the gas company has gone cost up by 40%. That means that the company is absorbing part of the increase. In actual fact their markup has dropped from 37 to 28%, their standing charge has stayed the same as have the state reg. fee and the public surcharge as increased only marginally.
The ‘sinner’ in the woodpile is however the LA city users tax which having stayed at 10% is enjoying a 25% increase in its share of the overall bill.
The same thing is happening across the board in the UK particularly with the 5% vat (value added tax) on domestic energy.
Governments are frightened of inflation yet they are fueling it. Forgive the pun.“
I leave you to draw your own conclusions, mine are that things are, very often, not what they appear to be.
On a lighter note I received the following “laws of economics” by another friend. I don’t know who composed them originally although I am totally convinced that they are accurate and I doff my hat to their anonymous author, obviously a genius!
Economic Models explained with cows- 2008 update
SOCIALISM
You have 2 cows.
You give one to your neighbour.
COMMUNISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and gives you some milk.
FASCISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and sells you some milk.
NAZISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and shoots you.
BUREAUCRATISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both, shoots one, milks the other, and then throws the
milk away...
TRADITIONAL CAPITALISM
You have two cows.
You sell one and buy a bull.
Your herd multiplies, and the economy grows.
You sell them and retire on the income.
SURREALISM
You have two giraffes.
The government requires you to take harmonica lessons
AN AMERICAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You sell one, and force the other to produce the milk of four cows.
Later, you hire a consultant to analyse why the cow has dropped dead.
ENRON VENTURE CAPITALISM
You have two cows.
You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of
credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a
debt/equity swap with an associated general offer so that you get all
four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows.
The milk rights of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a
Cayman Island Company secretly owned by the majority shareholder who
sells the rights to all seven cows back to your listed company.
The annual report says the company owns eight cows, with an option on
one more.
You sell one cow to buy a new president of the United States, leaving
you with nine cows.
No balance sheet provided with the release.
The public then buys your bull.
THE ANDERSEN MODEL
You have two cows.
You shred them.
A FRENCH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You go on strike, organise a riot, and block the roads, because you want
three cows.
A JAPANESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and
produce twenty times the milk.
You then create a clever cow cartoon image called 'Cowkimon' and market
it worldwide.
A GERMAN CORPORATION
You have two cows
You re-engineer them so they live for 100 years, eat once a month, and
milk themselves.
AN ITALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows, but you don't know where they are.
You decide to have lunch.
A RUSSIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You count them and learn you have five cows.
You count them again and learn you have 42 cows.
You count them again and learn you have 2 cows.
You stop counting cows and open another bottle of vodka.
A SWISS CORPORATION
You have 5000 cows. None of them belong to you.
You charge the owners for storing them.
A CHINESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You have 300 people milking them.
You claim that you have full employment, and high bovine productivity.
You arrest the newsman who reported the real situation.
AN INDIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You worship them.
A BRITISH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
Both are mad.
AN IRAQI CORPORATION
Everyone thinks you have lots of cows.
You tell them that you have none.
No-one believes you, so they bomb the **** out of you and invade your
country.
You still have no cows, but at least now you are part of a Democracy....
AN AUSTRALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
Business seems pretty good.
You close the office and go for a few beers to celebrate.
A NEW ZEALAND CORPORATION
You have two cows.
The one on the left looks very attractive.
Friday, May 2, 2008
Coming Soon
Today, in the warm LA sunshine at lunch, I discussed with a senior entertainment company executive what was going to be the next big thing in entertainment. Our conclusion was that it would undoubtedly combine the intuition and design elements of Apple’s sexy looking, but kind of techno chunky i Phone and a cut down, smaller even lighter version of their Mac Air, on which I’m composing this story. Married to this will be increased, enhanced flash memory, and “Tivo”, UK readers will be more familiar with the “Sky Plus” brand, type television adaptability.
Of course there will have to be quicker connectivity and even faster access. There won’t be a need for much hard memory as the years roll forward. The reason for this will probably turn out to be “The Grid” being currently finalized in Switzerland. This was developed to allow the processing of the incredibly large number of computations necessary to translate the huge atom smashing mechanism built into the mountains of Switzerland. This is so huge a computing project that it was necessary for The Grid to be created to free up the Internet. The result is that The Grid will create incredible spare capacity for all our information storage and moving needs. This, in turn will result in little or no need for the average user to store their information on their PC. We will all hold our information on the Grid, calling for it only when we need it. The Internet will be consigned to the dustbin of history as it simply will not have the capacity necessary to adapt to ever increasing demands.
The results will revolutionize the type of devices we use and carry with us. Super fast, super thin and light. They will all be very desirable but the winners will be those that have the best design elements. Content will eventually be freely available to everyone because advertising concerns will pay for you to have it as long as you carry their advertisements. Personally I will be the consumer who prefers the option to pay for what I want. I think many of my age group will choose the same path but it will be a progressively harder position to maintain.
I used to maintain that content is king but I believe that this position is no longer possible to maintain. This changed when the major distribution / production powerhouses in the entertainment factories decided to turn the creative industries into a paperback type industry. The idea used to be to get the maximum revenue from each area of the industry before it passed down the food chain. This kept the values optimized. Now, for reasons of market driven, short-term capitalism the idea is to get the biggest dollar figure as quickly as possible. It is comparable to harvesting all the trees in the forest and not re-planting because you want to move as much wood to the buyers as quickly as you can. Obviously, working this way you’ll bank a lot of money, but next year you won’t have any trees to sell.
As a consequence the strategic planning for and residual values of entertainment libraries are being very rapidly diminished on the questionable alter of this quarter’s figures. Even star driven, major company big pictures are being dumped into the discount bins so what chance do the little projects have in this economic model, none?
In a world in which you can compare shop in the very limited and finite linear shelf space of your supermarket, or surf the net to see what the universe has to offer, there will only be one winner. Everything in retail is migrating to the net because it’s cheaper, less labor intensive and easier to manage. This will result in even less city and town shopping centers turning some of our cities into progressively more shop and industry free places to live.
The question is can knowledge and creativity based economies such as those in the G7 club of the richest, old first world powerhouses, survive their transition from the old economic model to the new sufficiently to prosper enough to continue to consume from the new manufacturing and raw material supplying countries such as China, India and Russia? This is going to be essential to keep the world economy moving.
Of course there will have to be quicker connectivity and even faster access. There won’t be a need for much hard memory as the years roll forward. The reason for this will probably turn out to be “The Grid” being currently finalized in Switzerland. This was developed to allow the processing of the incredibly large number of computations necessary to translate the huge atom smashing mechanism built into the mountains of Switzerland. This is so huge a computing project that it was necessary for The Grid to be created to free up the Internet. The result is that The Grid will create incredible spare capacity for all our information storage and moving needs. This, in turn will result in little or no need for the average user to store their information on their PC. We will all hold our information on the Grid, calling for it only when we need it. The Internet will be consigned to the dustbin of history as it simply will not have the capacity necessary to adapt to ever increasing demands.
The results will revolutionize the type of devices we use and carry with us. Super fast, super thin and light. They will all be very desirable but the winners will be those that have the best design elements. Content will eventually be freely available to everyone because advertising concerns will pay for you to have it as long as you carry their advertisements. Personally I will be the consumer who prefers the option to pay for what I want. I think many of my age group will choose the same path but it will be a progressively harder position to maintain.
I used to maintain that content is king but I believe that this position is no longer possible to maintain. This changed when the major distribution / production powerhouses in the entertainment factories decided to turn the creative industries into a paperback type industry. The idea used to be to get the maximum revenue from each area of the industry before it passed down the food chain. This kept the values optimized. Now, for reasons of market driven, short-term capitalism the idea is to get the biggest dollar figure as quickly as possible. It is comparable to harvesting all the trees in the forest and not re-planting because you want to move as much wood to the buyers as quickly as you can. Obviously, working this way you’ll bank a lot of money, but next year you won’t have any trees to sell.
As a consequence the strategic planning for and residual values of entertainment libraries are being very rapidly diminished on the questionable alter of this quarter’s figures. Even star driven, major company big pictures are being dumped into the discount bins so what chance do the little projects have in this economic model, none?
In a world in which you can compare shop in the very limited and finite linear shelf space of your supermarket, or surf the net to see what the universe has to offer, there will only be one winner. Everything in retail is migrating to the net because it’s cheaper, less labor intensive and easier to manage. This will result in even less city and town shopping centers turning some of our cities into progressively more shop and industry free places to live.
The question is can knowledge and creativity based economies such as those in the G7 club of the richest, old first world powerhouses, survive their transition from the old economic model to the new sufficiently to prosper enough to continue to consume from the new manufacturing and raw material supplying countries such as China, India and Russia? This is going to be essential to keep the world economy moving.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
My Heroes
Yesterday my favorite football team, (soccer for my American friends) Manchester United, qualified for the final of the European Champions League. They did so by beating Spain’s champions, Barcelona in the semi-final. In the final, set for Moscow in May, they will meet the winner of Liverpool V Chelsea, who are playing their game as I write. It has been quite a year for English club football in the world’s premiere club football tournament. This is like the Superbowl, the World Series and the Olympics rolled together. There will be billions of people around the globe watching this game.
All four of the English qualifying teams made it to the final stages of the competition, a feat never been achieved before by any national league’s representatives. In this sport England is treated as a separate nation from the other parts of the UK, so Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all have their own leagues and representation.
There is a special importance for me related to Manchester United’s accomplishment this year that transcends normal soccer elements such as skill, tribal passion and athleticism.
The first game of football I was taken to by my father took place almost exactly a half -century ago. My family all supported one of the great old London teams, Arsenal. They were going to take me to see Arsenal play Manchester United so that I, like them, would naturally become a fan of the Arsenal.
How were they to know that, at age 8, I was to fall under the magic spell of the Red Devils, the nickname of Manchester United. They were led by a colossus who was then aged 21, called Duncan Edwards. Perhaps one of the best soccer players in the world, ever, he was already a star of the full England team. He was capable of playing in every position of the team. That’s like being an American football quarterback who could also kick all the goals and be a wide receiver!
I was a small kid but was soon spellbound by this giant Edwards. He led this team of precociously brilliant young talent, which had been assembled by one of the best managers the game had ever been graced by, Sir Matt Busby. The team he had brought together was collectively known to the world as the Busby Babes. They were the youngest team in the top division of English football and had already won the competition the previous year. I remember watching them beat Arsenal 5 – 4 in one of the greatest games I was ever to see. I was in awe of them, as was the rest of the world. There was no doubt in anyone’s mind that they would dominate world soccer for the next decade.
They were due to play in the quarterfinal of the European Cup the following week in Eastern Europe against Partisan Belgrade in Yugoslavia. The game resulted in Manchester United qualifying for the semi-final. On the way home the team’s airplane had to refuel in Munich, Germany. It was snowing and icy. The first two times the plane tried to take off there were problems. The third time the plane was destroyed.
The result was a catastrophe. Several journalists, team officials and eight players from the squad, the backbone of the team, were to die, including Duncan Edwards. He fought a long, hard, heroic but ultimately futile battle against his terrible injuries whilst his manager, Matt Busby, was read the last rites. It was the older man, forged in the tough working class of his native Scotland, who survived. He was fated to lead his club to greatness.
Within weeks the club managed to put together a scratch team, which got to the final of the English Cup, the semi final of the European Cup and a respectable finish in the League. Within another decade there was a Manchester United team winning that European Cup. The first English team ever to do so. They won it again, along with the English League and Cup in 1999, the only team to have ever won all three competitions in the same year.
The club just held the dignified memorial for the 50-year anniversary of that awful tragedy and, as fate would have it, the team has again made it to the final of the competition. Win or lose the club has already won. They are already the best-supported, biggest sports team in the world, a testament to what can be achieved against the odds.
Like the Red Devils of the past they play sweeping, attractive football, which captivates the world. Their concept is buccaneering, attack minded and based on the concept that they are simply better than anyone they ever play, now all they have to do is prove it, again!
Manchester United, the best sports team in the world.
All four of the English qualifying teams made it to the final stages of the competition, a feat never been achieved before by any national league’s representatives. In this sport England is treated as a separate nation from the other parts of the UK, so Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all have their own leagues and representation.
There is a special importance for me related to Manchester United’s accomplishment this year that transcends normal soccer elements such as skill, tribal passion and athleticism.
The first game of football I was taken to by my father took place almost exactly a half -century ago. My family all supported one of the great old London teams, Arsenal. They were going to take me to see Arsenal play Manchester United so that I, like them, would naturally become a fan of the Arsenal.
How were they to know that, at age 8, I was to fall under the magic spell of the Red Devils, the nickname of Manchester United. They were led by a colossus who was then aged 21, called Duncan Edwards. Perhaps one of the best soccer players in the world, ever, he was already a star of the full England team. He was capable of playing in every position of the team. That’s like being an American football quarterback who could also kick all the goals and be a wide receiver!
I was a small kid but was soon spellbound by this giant Edwards. He led this team of precociously brilliant young talent, which had been assembled by one of the best managers the game had ever been graced by, Sir Matt Busby. The team he had brought together was collectively known to the world as the Busby Babes. They were the youngest team in the top division of English football and had already won the competition the previous year. I remember watching them beat Arsenal 5 – 4 in one of the greatest games I was ever to see. I was in awe of them, as was the rest of the world. There was no doubt in anyone’s mind that they would dominate world soccer for the next decade.
They were due to play in the quarterfinal of the European Cup the following week in Eastern Europe against Partisan Belgrade in Yugoslavia. The game resulted in Manchester United qualifying for the semi-final. On the way home the team’s airplane had to refuel in Munich, Germany. It was snowing and icy. The first two times the plane tried to take off there were problems. The third time the plane was destroyed.
The result was a catastrophe. Several journalists, team officials and eight players from the squad, the backbone of the team, were to die, including Duncan Edwards. He fought a long, hard, heroic but ultimately futile battle against his terrible injuries whilst his manager, Matt Busby, was read the last rites. It was the older man, forged in the tough working class of his native Scotland, who survived. He was fated to lead his club to greatness.
Within weeks the club managed to put together a scratch team, which got to the final of the English Cup, the semi final of the European Cup and a respectable finish in the League. Within another decade there was a Manchester United team winning that European Cup. The first English team ever to do so. They won it again, along with the English League and Cup in 1999, the only team to have ever won all three competitions in the same year.
The club just held the dignified memorial for the 50-year anniversary of that awful tragedy and, as fate would have it, the team has again made it to the final of the competition. Win or lose the club has already won. They are already the best-supported, biggest sports team in the world, a testament to what can be achieved against the odds.
Like the Red Devils of the past they play sweeping, attractive football, which captivates the world. Their concept is buccaneering, attack minded and based on the concept that they are simply better than anyone they ever play, now all they have to do is prove it, again!
Manchester United, the best sports team in the world.
Keeping our Nerve
My baby boomer generation is probably living in the last of the best days man has ever experienced. There have been the usual series of small, contained wars in places like Vietnam, Korea, Iraq and Afghanistan but nothing like the carnage experienced in World Wars One and Two. We have experienced unprecedented freedom, wealth and personal liberty and all of this whilst communications, technology, travel and entertainment have all become more available to more people than ever before.
We’re facing a very different, much more worrying world. Facing the twin threats of increasing terrorism and decreasing resources within the context of a diminishing economy will lead to major problems. We’ve seen the first signs of this. The sub-prime mortgage debacle in the States has now spread its contagion throughout the banking world. This has resulted in the juddering halt of inter bank lending which means you and I will not be able to qualify for a loan unless our name is Rockefeller or Rothschild.
This would be bad enough in normal times, but this banking screw up coincides with the general economy backfiring and the start of major food supply problems. Food riots have already happened in the past weeks in various disadvantaged countries. Oil prices have leapt above $100 a barrel at the same time as property prices begin to slump.
The planting of large swathes of agricultural land with ethanol crops instead of food, will, perhaps, have a short-term beneficial effect reducing our use of fossil fuels. However the concomitant, longer term cost in reducing the amount of land being used to grow our food is a disaster.
Economies depend on the general population having faith in the economic system, particularly its faith in banks and governments. That faith is unraveling and our leaders need to work on this as their priority or we will all suffer. We all saw the result in the UK when one of our biggest mortgage banks, Northern Rock, became a basket case about a month ago. Although bailed out by the British Government it is not ever going to be independently financial viable again. This all happened within days, almost immediately after the public realized the bank was under threat. That could happen anywhere operating from within our economic heartbeat in the City of London or Wall St.
This, in turn means that long term bonds, government backed, begin to look less desirable for some of their biggest investors. The big institutional Arabic and Chinese money won’t chase a losing concern which on paper we are. Right now they are, willing or otherwise, propping up our system.
We will be revisiting this theme more in the coming months as this all unravels. For now, the wise thing to do is to hold on to your cash, and hold your breath for the rest. The property market comparison for California is down 28% year on year. It will recover, because property is a finite resource that always will increase in value over the longer term, as long as the whole of society doesn’t crash and burn.
Common sense will prevail, and our economies will more forward, eventually. The amount of damage caused in the interim is going to be in direct proportion to the degree we all keep our nerve.
We’re facing a very different, much more worrying world. Facing the twin threats of increasing terrorism and decreasing resources within the context of a diminishing economy will lead to major problems. We’ve seen the first signs of this. The sub-prime mortgage debacle in the States has now spread its contagion throughout the banking world. This has resulted in the juddering halt of inter bank lending which means you and I will not be able to qualify for a loan unless our name is Rockefeller or Rothschild.
This would be bad enough in normal times, but this banking screw up coincides with the general economy backfiring and the start of major food supply problems. Food riots have already happened in the past weeks in various disadvantaged countries. Oil prices have leapt above $100 a barrel at the same time as property prices begin to slump.
The planting of large swathes of agricultural land with ethanol crops instead of food, will, perhaps, have a short-term beneficial effect reducing our use of fossil fuels. However the concomitant, longer term cost in reducing the amount of land being used to grow our food is a disaster.
Economies depend on the general population having faith in the economic system, particularly its faith in banks and governments. That faith is unraveling and our leaders need to work on this as their priority or we will all suffer. We all saw the result in the UK when one of our biggest mortgage banks, Northern Rock, became a basket case about a month ago. Although bailed out by the British Government it is not ever going to be independently financial viable again. This all happened within days, almost immediately after the public realized the bank was under threat. That could happen anywhere operating from within our economic heartbeat in the City of London or Wall St.
This, in turn means that long term bonds, government backed, begin to look less desirable for some of their biggest investors. The big institutional Arabic and Chinese money won’t chase a losing concern which on paper we are. Right now they are, willing or otherwise, propping up our system.
We will be revisiting this theme more in the coming months as this all unravels. For now, the wise thing to do is to hold on to your cash, and hold your breath for the rest. The property market comparison for California is down 28% year on year. It will recover, because property is a finite resource that always will increase in value over the longer term, as long as the whole of society doesn’t crash and burn.
Common sense will prevail, and our economies will more forward, eventually. The amount of damage caused in the interim is going to be in direct proportion to the degree we all keep our nerve.
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