I saw the show tonight and it made me think of Eric Falt who worked at UNEP then became #2 at UN DPI in New York where he replaced an Egyptian and is taking over the #2 job at UNESCO.

Why that? It is because DRIVING THE SAUDIS was conceived in cooperation with The International Theatre Institute of Paris that is connected to UNESCO. This means that there is still some honesty left at UNESCO – something impossible to find at the  Department of Information and Communication of the UN in New York. Under Egyptian Ahmad Fawzi the Department was all about safeguarding the interests of the oil kings. Under French Eric Falt there was no change – only a make believe of bringing in the UN Correspondents Association in decision making and the results are even worse then the starting line. What will he do when he gets to Paris? Will activities like showing DRIVING THE SAUDIS in conjunction with ITI be considered not Halal anymore?

My first posting about this one woman show was based on their publicity and I thought that the waste of oil money by the oil kings is the main issue. Having seen it now my feeling is that it is much more about the place of a woman in the Saudi Royal family.

Actually – there is no Saudi State only a privately owned huge piece of real estate that belonged to King Ibn Saud and was passed on to his descendants that multiply like rabbits – with 30 wives if not one hundred. We understood that there are only 4 at one time and they are released simply by saying three times, in the presence of a witness,  that the owner sends them off. The whole thing turned my stomach and what is the UN for? What is a the new “UN Women” creation for? What did UNIFEM do all these years? Who at the UN has said anything about this sort of slavery at the age that overpopulation does us all in. A woman must produce sons in order to have a chance to survive some longer before being replace by a younger one.

I clearly will not do justice in this second posting to the content of this reality play – and reality it is in every minute of it – in the real sense of the word. I will write more about it and hope it will get to the public’s attention and people will not shy away anymore from what it presents. The UN Headquarters are not worth the money the world spends on it if no effort is made to follow up on 21st century slavery – even if the women involved think that they benefit from the lavish life-style as long as it lasts.

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The New York Fringe Festival is the largest multi-arts festival in North America, with more than 200 companies from all over the world performing for 16 days in more than 20 venues.

DRIVING THE SAUDIS, with and by Jayne Amelia Larson, was [performed at the historic SoHo Playhouse and was about 2/3 full. Those that came early – about 50 people – looked to me as Middle Easterners. Those that arrived closer to the start were younger and looked like theater students.

The SoHo Playhouse was home to playwrights like Edward Albee, Terrance McNally, A.R. Gurney … Previously it was under the Village South & Spectrum Theatre name, and even housed at the start of the last century the Tammany Hall (New York City Democrats Hall) “Huron Club.”

I met the producer of the play – Patrick Terry – who hails from the NYU Tisch School of the Arts (Drama and Production) and is connected to Peter Goldfarb, Vice President of UN’s International Theatre Institute. From Terry I learned that the content of the play will be gathered also in a book form.

Again, getting back to the history of the play, both, Larson and Terry said that it is all true. Larson who is a theater person, director, actress, in her own right, for money reasons took on this job of being part of a group of 15 drivers that were serving a family of 7 Saudi Royals and their entourage of 50 that includes cooks, nannies, security, secretaries …, that came to Los Angeles for aesthetic surgery and shopping that lasted 50 days. They were spread out in 4 hotels. When she got the job to be chauffeuring the princess and her daughter, it turned out that she had to chauffeur also the hairdresser to Las Vegas. The family came with $20 million and that money was spent. The help had to leave their passports with the hired ex-American military and one of the help, from Sudan, at the airport, when she got the passport in her hands, simply ran away and refused to board the private 747 for the return trip to Saudi Arabia.

Larson digs into the social implications of what she saw and learned. She has sympathy for the three women she talks about – the princess, her daughter that would have loved to go to UCLA but was already promised in marriage, and a Lebanese nanny that with her earnings put through college her siblings back in Lebanon. She speaks of the men as always in need to have someone to insult bellow them in the pecking order. The men never looked into he eyes and this seemingly in an attempt to show respect. And yes – when she applied for the job, she was interviewed and there was no question about her driving only if she was not Jewish. (“You are not Jewish? Not Jewish!”)

Oh yes, I will have more on this in further postings.

DRIVING THE SAUDIS Writer: Jayne Amelia Larson Director: Charlie Stratton Where does your GAS money really go? Larson’s grueling adventures as a chauffeur for Saudi Royals on a mega shopping/plastic surgery vacation in Beverly Hills explores cultural divides and common hypocrisies plus everything you wanted to know about ass implants. 1h 30m   National   Los Angeles, CA Solo Show   Multi-Media Staycation: Through Heaven & Hell In Someone Else’s Shoes www.drivingthesaudis.info VENUE #16: The SoHo Playhouse Sun 15 @ 9:30 Thu 19 @ 3 Sat 21 @ NOON Sun 22 @ 9:15 Fri 27 @ 3:45 VENUE #16: The SoHo Playhouse 15 Vandam Street (6th Avenue & Varick / 7th Avenue) SUBWAY: 1 to Houston Street A, C, E to Spring Street

written and performed by Jayne Amelia Larson
directed by Charlie Stratton

DRIVING THE SAUDIS asks where our gas money really goes — and provides some answers by following the grueling adventures of a chauffeur who whisks Saudi Royals through a Beverly Hills shopping/plastic surgery vacation. Visit www.drivingthesaudis.info.

DRIVING THE SAUDIS is a one-woman show based on Larson’s real life experience as a chauffeur for a family of Saudi Royals visiting Beverly Hills—for 7 weeks of shopping and plastic surgery. As the only woman in a detail of almost 50 drivers assigned to the family and its extensive entourage, Ms. Larson details her invitation inside one of the most closely guarded private monarchies in the world. DRIVING THE SAUDIS explores and challenges American perceptions of beauty, culture, religion, and the subjugation of women, through the curious eyes of the actress-turned-chauffeur.

This multi-media piece includes original film footage and found stills which illuminate the story and content.

JAYNE AMELIA LARSON
Miss Larson received an undergraduate degree from the College of Arts and Sciences at Cornell University, and a graduate degree from Harvard University’s Institute of Advanced Theater Training under the tutelage of Robert Brustein. She has also studied with Patsy Rodenburg from the RSC, Larry Moss, Rod Menzies, The Groundlings, and Boris Imas of the Moscow Art Theater. As a working actress, she has performed extensively in regional and New York theaters, and has made numerous television and film appearances including a series regular on Judging Amy, The Gilmore Girls, The Huntress, Club 7, and The Illusion, in which she plays opposite Kirk Douglas, released this past year. Her solo show, More Than Naked, premiered in Los Angeles as part of the acclaimed 2006 Edge Of The World Theatre Festival. She is now developing a new solo show, Driving The Saudis, and recently workshopped it at the Off Broadway Theater in Boston, at Hollins University, at the Naked Angels In Progress Series, and at Cornell University.

She has served as literary manager and part of the acting company of the award-winning theater group, The Wilton Project. Upon request, she has coached privately in Los Angeles for several years and has also taught workshops at Cornell University, University of Redlands, and the University of California State Northridge.

In addition, Ms. Larson was the VP of Development at entitled entertainment, an independent film company producing many award winning films including Thirteen Conversations About One Thing with Matthew McConnaughy, Amy Irving, and Alan Arkin; LA Riot Spectacular with Charles Dutton and Snoop Dogg; Levity with Billy Bob Thornton and Kirsten Dunst; The Illusion with Kirk Douglas and Michael Goorjian; and Aurora Borealis starring Donald Sutherland, Josh Jackson, and Juliette Lewis.

CHARLIE STRATTON (director)
Mr. Stratton has directed theater in the U.S., Europe and Asia. He was the Co-Artistic Director of the Los Angeles based Wilton Project, an award-winning theatre company which focused exclusively on the development and production of new material. He has worked extensively with the New York based theater companies Naked Angels and New York Stage and Film where he recently directed a production of FINKS by Joe Gilford starring Josh Radnor and Jennifer Westfeldt. Additionally, he frequently directs, produces and writes for television and feature films. He is a graduate of The Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard University.

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This is a re-posting as I saw the play today and found that there is much more to it then I wrote above. As such I will have several postings on Driving the Saudis – starting with a second posting today. (The editor – Pincas Jawetz)

We originally posted this on August 24, 2010.

This has become now a tradition – a tour of Jazz places/restaurants of Harlem during one of the evenings/nights of the yearly Harlem Week.
Obviously, this is a promotional thing – but if you want to find out what is going on – this is a tremendous one-time occasion.

We went by big Greyhound bus and several Greyhound employees went along. The “safari” was organized by Marko Nobles of Harlem Week Inc. and promoted through Rubenstein Adssociates Inc. Robin Verges. www.HarlemDiscover.com

We made 9 stops. I will not go over the tour chronologically, as it was very varied, but will touch upon the highlights.

Obviously – the outstanding place is the old-timers’ LENOX LOUNGE  at 288 Lenox Ave. that was renamed Malcolm X Bulevard – between 124 and 125th streets. They had Danny Coakley & Friends playing in the fabulous Zebra Room where every Jazz Great has performed.   The September program is great and for the September 15th they have booked comedian Paul Mooney.

The place was full – this was our third stop and we arrived about 6:45 pm. The food looked very good – classic American South and the drinks were named after star  musicians.  www.LenoxLounge.com

From there we drove short distance to SHOWMAN’S at 375 West 125th Street Between St. Nicholas Avenue & Morningside Avenue. This is another place with great history but it is smaller and did not hold up as well. They had Jery Weldon but the program said Henry Warner and The New Perspective. Only a few people sat at the long bar.   www.myspace.com

Next let me note the DWYER CULTURAL CENTER where lots of activities go on that galvanize the Harlem communities – that includes backing up all forms of art including the theater. www.dwyercc.org

Going to the new developments in Harlem, let us start with the newest that was actually the starting point of the tour and is heavily backed by the Harlem Chamber of Commerce. This location has actually two separate French West African (Senegalese) enterprises of the same owners: Our point of attention THE SHRINE BAR RESTAURANT and its neighbor THE YATENGA FRENCH BISTRO & BAR. As we got there at 5:30 pm both places were nearly empty and the music at The Shrine started only 5:45 in our honor. I saw the featured singer, Lady Cantrese, but never heard her. At The Shrine the food is mainly toasts and among the drinks they call Shalom an intriguing mixture of scotch and amaretto. The Bistro has quite an interesting menu. W assume the ida might be to go to the bistro for the food and then to the nicely African decor of the Shrine to listen to the music. The place has potential.

The location is 2269-2271 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd or what is actually 7th Avenue, between 133-134 Streets.
 www.yatengabistro.com

For food lower it seems that The Debrouillard Restaurant Group has planted several sites in Harlem. I understood that two Latin American brothers are behind these enterprises located in Spanish Harlem – none of them is called Ricardo – but the RICARDO’S STEAK HOUSE is an outstanding steak house we visited, and it does not shy away from empanadas either. Further, they honored us with a very good cognac called Conjure. The featured performer was Janice Robinson and, backed up by a L:atin two-men band was very good. The location is 2145 Second Avenue between 110-111 Streets. www.RicardoSteakHouse.com

As said, they own also CEVICHE BAR & TAPAS at 2312 Second Avenue, and astonishingly, POETS DEN GALLERY & THEATER also nearby at 309 East 108 Street. They seemingly have planted here strongly a Latin American (Colombian) corner.

Not to be left behind, the Italians have also come back to Harlem, albeit not to the extreme East side but on Fifth Avenue.
That was actually the last stop at GRAN PIATTO also noted as CUCINA CON AMORE at 1429 Fifth Avenue.
 wwwthelauraman.com and the menu has something for everyone from the health conscious to the American Southern. www.Londell Restaurant.com 2620 Frederick Douglas Blvd. that is 7th Avenue.

The biggest place, and to me a disappointment, was UPTOWN GRAND at 2110 A.C. Powell Jr. Blvd. (btwn.125 & 126 Str. that did not offer anything as was advertised. Instead of a restaurant we saw a big hall with young people milling around with a rather good Latin band being totally neglected. We did not see the featured Performer Pucho, but when we came in we saw leaving Lady Cantrese whom we saw at the beginning of the evening but did not get to listen to here there either. I assume there was some misconnect regarding this place. Wednesdays must be their night for the young folks.www.UptownGrandHarlem.com

That leaves us with another place to which I cannot do justice. That is TERRACE IN THE SKY in the backyard of Columbia University on the roof of Butler Hall, at 400 West 119 Street – between Morningside Drive & Amsterdam Avenue. This is an elegant glass enclosed and roof outdoor as well, French-Mediterranean restaurant with breathtaking views, in all directions, of the Manhattan skylines. www.terraceinthesky.com That was our fourth stop – right after Showman’s, so we got there before 8 pm, but there were no guests left and the musicians was packing their instruments. In short – nothing except we got good Hennessy cognac which I insisted to drink straight. On the other hand, having arrived when darkness was starting to set in – just the right time to see the beauty of the place. This is a weekend dating place for Columbia University and I wonder what is the true reason for not

The Environment at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and THE BIG BAMBU on the roof.

THE BIG BAMBU opened on April 27, 2010 and the second stage (Stage ii) on Friday August 13th -  There will be yet a third stage!

This is a growing Environmental Sculpture if you wish, or a Roof Garden Installation if you prefer, or Elevated Pathways if you are functional.

You can climb it under the supervision of a guide – mine was Naomi Takafuchi who took me to up to 40 feet above the roof-top (which is 110 feet above Central Park ground) and made it possible for us to see the wide horizons of the New York Central Park, and the closing in by tall buildings.

The Monumental Sculpture was conceived and executed by the identical twin brothers – Doug and Mike Starn – born 1961.

They called the work BIG BAMBU: You Can’t, You Don’t, and You Won’t Stop. We found that the explanation is in the numbers – 100 feet long, by 50 feet wide, by 50 feet high and filling as much space of the Iris and Gerald Cantor Roof Garden, as available. Visitors can view the construction in progress that will go on through fall 2010. What then? Who cares? It might take off and travel somewhere else. The real joy is in building it – and for us – to walk through it. Up and down and then, vegetation on the roof has joined in by creeping along. It starts reminding me of the canopy walks of the Amazon I reached years ago via Iquitos, Peru. Only the monkeys outside, looking at us, are missing. However – clearly fun. A major financial contributor to this structure was Mayor Bloomberg, other contributors were from the Polsky  and Caroll family funds.

Oh well, there will be 5,000 interlocking 30 and 40 foot long bamboo poles held together by ropes provided by the Mammut Sports Group, Inc. Yes, there will be 50 miles of nylon ropes in use.  Don’t smoke there, but I got no clear answer if a beer cooler would be OK? I saw one ideal location up there, a bench and some bamboo ends that looked like being there exactly for the use as beer-can holders.

The installation is featured on www.metmuseum.org

For those not in the know – The Museum is at 1,000 Fifth Avenue, and you go in through the 81st Street entrance.

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Further, so we do not talk only art – I used the occasion to ask the museum’s information folks – what about Green activities at the Metropolitan? They rolled out before me the existance of a Museum’s Green committee chaired by Whitney Donhauser of the Museum President’s Office. They meet every three months to view how departments use energy, become more efficient energy users in order to turn the buildings “green.” One of the outcomes was the replacement of over 70,000 square feet of flat roofs across the museum, almost two acres, with reflective insulative material. My question, why not some photovoltaics got no answer.

Weather Beacon: Erik Guzman

Weather Beacon is an oracle for the digital age. Merging Wi-Fi technology and industrial engineering, this kinetic sculpture receives data from the Internet and emits a code of flashing lights, forecasting the weather and inviting the public to connect to their physical and invisible surroundings.

Presented by Arts World Financial Center. Sculpture operates 24 hours a day, though December 31, 2010

Weather Beacon has been made possible, in part, by a grant from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council with the generous support of The September 11th Fund.

location:   World Financial Center Plaza   map

price:	Free
website:	www.artsworldfinancialcenter.com
phone:	212-945-0505 —————————————————————————————————————————————– Also: July 12 – September 3, 2010 Monday – Friday, 12 – 4pm WFC Courtyard Gallery View Map The Drifting Encyclopedia is an assemblage of American oddities, scientific and historical ephemera, questionable accounts and implausible representations thereof. Part Victorian cabinet of curiosities, part roadside attraction, this immersive art installation houses exhibits that echo the themes of unlikely connections and contemplates the actual, illusory and anomalous nature of love. The Drifting Encyclopedia is created in correspondence to Undercurrents & Exchange, a series of performances in the WFC Winter Garden.

Dickstein Shapiro at the Upcoming Power Dealmaking Summit.
September 14-15, 2010
New York, NY

with the help of Infocast – at The Concierge Conference Center at
780 3rd Avenue, New York City.

Dickstein Shapiro’s Energy Practice supports and participates in leading conferences covering issues and challenges that are important to the energy industry. The 2010 Power Dealmaking Summit brings together buyers and sellers, asset managers, institutional investors, private equity, hedge funds, and other serious players in the power industry. This timely and comprehensive program features an outstanding faculty of industry leaders who will share their knowledge and insights into the drivers and issues that will make a difference as the M&A market heats up, the capital markets strengthen, and an $80 billion wave of refinancing hits this vital industry.

Friends and clients of Dickstein Shapiro may use Code 106709 when registering with Infocast to receive a 50% reduction in tuition for the Summit. If we may be of any other assistance, please let us know.

We hope to see you there.

Power Dealmaking SUMMIT AGENDA.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010
8:00 – 9:00 Registration & Continental Breakfast

9:00 – 9:15 WELCOME & INTRODUCTION FROM THE SUMMIT CHAIR
Bernays T. (Buz) Barclay, Partner,
DICKSTEIN SHAPIRO, LLP

9:15 – 9:45 Keynote Address: COMING TO TERMS WITH UNCERTAINTY
Pundits are saying that domestic shale production will be sufficient to keep the US in a low gas price world forever; but we’ve heard this before. They say that demand for electric power comes roaring back when recessions end; but does an increased emphasis on demand side management and efficiency make this time different? Hot weather can change the economics of power production in a summer. A delay in a new transmission lines can add millions in revenue to one power plant and send another into bankruptcy. What are the important drivers of uncertainty for energy markets? How do you measure them? And, most importantly, how do you integrate the extreme uncertainty in today’s power markets into a valuation framework that supports term sheet development and negotiations?
Art Holland, Vice President, Utility & Risk Services, PACE GLOBAL

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9:45 – 10:15 Report OUTLOOK & TRENDS AFFECTING DEALS & VALUES
The road ahead is highlighted by an expert survey and analytical insights regarding many of the factors, trends and circumstances that are driving project, asset and corporate M&A and financing deals to market and determining their value.
Interest rates, fuel prices, government policy, legislation and regulation, overhangs of un-invested capital and dis-investing capital, market functions and dysfunctions, cross-border interests, economic and monetary (FX) issues, carbon and climate change, availability and cost of equity and debt in the bank and institutional markets and more.
Robert Mudge, Partner, THE BRATTLE GROUP

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10:15 – 10:45 Morning Networking Break & Private Meetings

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10:45 – 11:15 Report THE MOUNTING CHALLENGES OF REFINANCING
$27 Billion of credit facilities and nearly $2 Billion in bonds extended to non-regulated power companies and projects will mature in 2012. Through 2015, the unregulated power sector faces about $83.1 billion of maturities, almost $61.4 billion of which is in the form of credit facilities, including revolvers, syndicated letter of credit facilities and term loans. This factor alone may cause a significant segment of the power industry to recapitalize, change ownership, and re-direct its business strategies over the next few years, while new power assets will also be vying for development, construction and growth capital. This session will provide the latest information on the scope and character of the impending refinancing challenge facing the industry.
A.J. Sabatelle, Senior Vice President, MOODY’S INVESTORS SERVICE

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11:15 – 12:30 CORPORATE PERSPECTIVES ON THE MARKET: CREATING VALUE IN THE NEW ENVIRONMENT.
In the wake of the financial and economic crisis, power companies find themselves in a new business environment. Their challenge is to identify the critical strategic threats and opportunities and act to change, adapt, exploit, survive and sustain. This panel of top executives from major corporate players in the power industry will discuss where they are placing their bets and how they expect to create value in this environment
• Where are we in the business cycle in the power industry?
• What value creation strategies make sense in the industry for the intermediate future? To what extent will the IPP model continue to be sustainable vs. the integrated and regulated utility model?
• Will there be a trend toward the return of utility ownership and re-regulation?
• How will financing and re-financing requirements affect business models, opportunities and competitiveness in the industry?
• What are the prospects for industry consolidation in the coming years? For asset acquisitions and divestitures in the near term? For new project development?
• How are the conditions in the credit markets going to affect buying and selling decisions?
• What are buyers’ outlooks for asset and business valuations? What are they for sellers?
• What are corporate outlooks for financing and capital markets in the next 12 months?
Moderator: Larry F. Eisenstat, Partner, DICKSTEIN SHAPIRO LLP
Panelists:
Paul Cavicchi, Executive Vice President, GDF SUEZ Energy North America
J. Andrew Murphy, Executive Vice President & Regional President, Northeast, NRG ENERGY
Paul Stauder, Senior Vice President, Covanta Americas Business Management, COVANTA ENERGY CORPORATION
Richard Straebel, Senior Vice President, MARUBENI POWER INTERNATIONAL, INC.
Kelly Tomblin, Vice President Corporate Strategy & Services, INTERNATIONAL POWER AMERICA, INC.
Thomas B. White, President & CEO, KGEN POWER CORPORATION

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12:30 – 2:00 Group Luncheon

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2:00 – 3:15 PRIVATE EQUITY ROLES IN POWER DEALS
In the past, private equity has been a prime mover in the power industry, both in asset deals and in corporate M&A and restructuring. What roles are private equity investors looking to play going forward? Is it time to liquidate and move to other industries, or are there still ways to find and create value with sufficient liquidity in reasonable investment horizons in the power industry? In this session, private equity players discuss where they are reloading for more investment and where they are changing directions or realigning their strategies.
• What market trends are the most important for private equity strategies
• How do private equity firms add value in the power sector?
• What role will private equity play in the current power market?
• What sectors of the power markets offer the most attractive opportunities for private equity firms?
• How do the financing markets affect the distinctive criteria private equity uses when making investment / divestiture decisions?
• Where are valuations headed? Are buyers able to meet the expectations of sellers in the current markets?
• How is the current credit environment affecting private equity strategies?
Moderator: Todd Alexander, Partner, CHADBOURNE & PARKE LLP
Panelists:
Scott Brown, CEO, NEW ENERGY CAPITAL
Charles Costenbader, Associate Director, Treasury & Commodities Group, MACQUARIE ENERGY, LLC
Brendan T. Fitzgerald, President, ENERGY & INFRASTRUCTURE ADVISORS, LLC
Douglas Kimmelman, Senior Partner, ENERGY CAPITAL PARTNERS
Andrew Schroeder, Senior Partner, ENERGY INVESTORS FUNDS
Juliet Wallace, Director, DENHAM CAPITAL MANAGEMENT, LP

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3:15 – 3:45 Afternoon Networking Break and Private Meetings
———-
3:45 – 5:00 M&A DYNAMICS AND TRENDS
What are the dynamics that will shape M&A deal flow in the coming year? Economic growth? Flights to safety? Foreign investment? Regulatory uncertainty? Legislative risk? Fuel costs? We have seen big deals, small valuations, significant consolidations, dramatic divestitures and great hopes. What will make sense in the coming year? Our panel of dealmakers will describe the landscape as they see it, and identify the trends to watch – or get ahead of.
• What will the deal flow look like over the coming year and why?
• How will fuel and power prices impact deal and deal flow?
• Who will be the buyers and who will be the sellers?
• What can be expected in terms of valuations and bid-asked spreads?
• How will the refinancing wave drive M&A?
• How will the capital market investor appetite affect deals?
• Will legislative or regulatory risk be a driver for any M&A activity?
• What can be expected in renewable company and asset A&D?
Moderator: Bernays T. (Buz) Barclay, Partner, DICKSTEIN SHAPIRO, LLP
Panelists:
John F. (Jay) Beatty, Managing Director, NEW HARBOR, INC.
Matt Gibson, Managing Director, GOLDMAN SACHS & CO. James Metcalfe, Global Head of Power, UBS
Timothy Vincent, Partner, GREENTECH CAPITAL ADVISORS
Carl Weatherley-White, Managing Director, BARCLAYS
5:00 – 6:00 Summit Reception
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
8:00 – 9:00 Registration & Continental Breakfast
9:00 – 9:05 WELCOME & INTRODUCTION FROM THE SUMMIT CHAIR
Bernays T. (Buz) Barclay, Partner, DICKSTEIN SHAPIRO, LLP
Power Dealmaking Summit
———
9:05 – 10:15 CREDIT, THE CAPITAL MARKETS AND DEAL FINANCING
With the capital markets back to normal, will they provide the means to support new M&A and asset deals as well as refinancing $83 Billion in existing IPP debt? At what price? Will the sellers be able to staple financing to an asset as they did once? This session will explore the deal financing opportunities available in the market, examine the deal structures being adopted, and hammer out what is the best market to raise capital in.
• What debt financing is available to support future deal flow? Under what terms?
• Does the bank market have sufficient capacity and appetite for the opportunities that are coming up?
• Is the high-yield debt and B-loan market back? What type of transactions will it finance and on what terms?
• How will transactions need to be structured in the future to be successfully financed?
• What special issues do merchant plants face in their re-financings? Will bankruptcies wash out a lot of equity from the merchant part of the power industry?
• Will new merchant plant deals be financeable in the near future
Moderator: James Drzemiecki, Senior Managing Director, FTI CONSULTING
Panelists:
Ralph Cho, Executive Director, WEST LB SECURITIES, INC.
Mark Dennes, Director, Power & Energy Project Finance –
North America, BNP PARIBAS
Jack Paris, Managing Director, CITI
Edward Sondey, Managing Director, BofA MERRILL LYNCH
David H. Williams, Managing Director, Power & Utilities Group, CIBC
Raymond Wood, Managing Director, Energy Group, CREDIT SUISSE
——-
10:15 – 10:45 Morning Networking Break and Private Meetings
——
10:45 – 11:45 DEBT INVESTORS’ PERSPECTIVES ON FINANCING AND REFINANCING POWER DEALS
The appetites and preferences of debt investors in the private placement markets will in large measure shape the outlook for dealmaking and refinancing in the capital-intensive power industry. In this session, ultimate purchasers and holders of the unregistered securities of power projects and power industry companies, and their agents, will share their perspectives on the market, their appetite for financing deals in the power industry as opposed to their alternative investment opportunities, and the factors driving market pricing and liquidity.
• What kind of deals are debt investors looking for?
• What is driving covenant negotiations and pricing?
• Is the market expected to continue to be open and liquid?
Power Dealmaking Summit
Moderator: James Drzemiecki, Senior Managing Director, FTI CONSULTING Panelists:
John Anderson, Senior Managing Director/Head, Power & Project Finance, JOHN HANCOCK FINANCIAL SERVICES
Jamie N. Manson, Head of Power, INVESTEC NORTH AMERICA LIMITED
Stephen Petricone, Managing Director, FORTRESS INVESTMENT GROUP
____
11:45 – 12:00 FINAL THOUGHTS
Bernays T. (Buz) Barclay, Partner, DICKSTEIN SHAPIRO, LLP
12:00 Noon The Summit Adjourns
 http://www.infocastinc.com/index.php/con…

 http://asiasociety.org/style-living/food…

Fasting this Ramadan? Follow these few key guidelines to eating well and staying healthy during the holy month.

(Photo by ulterior epicure/Flickr)

By Rafaya Sufi

Fasting this Ramadan? Or have friends who are? Follow these few key guidelines to eating well and staying healthy during Ramadan.

Since its foundation, Ramadan is celebrated with vigor amongst Muslim communities. A typical day of fasting consists of consuming an overnight breakfast at dawn, restricting any food and drink till sunset. Muslims may continue to eat and drink after the sun has set till the next morning’s fajr prayer at dawn.

The key to maintaining a healthy lifestyle during the month depends on a few practical points.

1. Water: For starters, proper hydration is essential. Fasting does not mean that all bodily functions stop requiring water. Headaches, fatigue, fuzzy thinking, irritability, and illness are often caused by inadequate hydration. We need half our body weight each day to just maintain normal bodily functions. To determine your water needs, use this simple formula:

Your body weight in pounds/2 = The amount of water you need to drink in ounces a day

So, If you weigh 180 lbs/2 = 90 oz/day, minimum

2. Replace Sugar With Fruit (when possible): What’s better than eating a delicious slice of cake (or baklava, or brownie, or some chocolate mousse, or….) once you break your fast? Fruit! Yes, this is a hard one, so quit complaining and follow these instructions for healthier you. You may think you deserve a piece of your favorite dessert after all those hours of restraining, but sugar robs our bodies of minerals and vitamins. During a period of fasting, our bodies need to hold on to as many minerals and vitamins as possible, so don’t let them escape just by giving in to your craving (after all, this is a month of self-restraint). Try baking this nutritious Fried Banana recipe at home as an alternative to sugar-loaded desserts.

3. Soup: A quick, easy, and nutritious food to consume during Ramadan is soup. Soup provides deep nourishment and is easily absorbed by the body. It is also a great way to meet your water needs, and if you blend all the good stuff together, picky eaters will never question what they are eating! After you break your fast, have some soup, and make it a staple diet for the month. Try making some delicious, vitamin-packed Mulligatawny soup at home.

4. Eat Slowly/Don’t Overdo It: What’s the rush? You have all evening! There is a tendency to eat really fast amongst people breaking their fasts. Trying to pack in 101 activities within the first few minutes of breaking your fast, which includes eating 101 foods, can cause some serious indigestion. Avoid that awful feeling by slowing down. Take small bites so you can chew well. The longer you chew your food, the less work your digestive track needs to do and you absorb more nurturance. So overall, it’s a win-win situation.

5. Vitamins and Minerals: Load up on them! Unfortunately, food today is not as nutritious as it was once. Unless you’re consuming 100 percent organic foods, you’ll probably need to replenish your body with lost electrolytes and vitamins. The top nutrients to look at are vitamins C, B-complex, zinc, E, and A. Vitamins C, A, and E along with zinc are known as antioxidants, and unless you’re living under a rock, antioxidants are in–they’re the latest health trend these days because they do wonders for your body. Eat fresh fruits, berries, and vegetables in abundance! B-complex vitamins are great at relieving stress, so be generous with those. Most Americans are already deficient in the B-complex vitamins due to eating high amounts of refined and processed foods, so skip the white bread, and opt for a whole-wheat option instead. Enjoy this healthy Ginger Tea to combat that tired feeling after fasting all day.

That’s all for now, folks. Have a healthy Ramadan!

Watch and learn how to make Harira soup

Traditional Moroccan Soup (Ramadan Special)

cookingwithalia

• Harira -  moroccan soup /soupe marocaine (Ra…101,767 views sousoukitchen
• queue Soupe Harira moderne

We decided to post this in recognition of the fact that it presents material that shows ways of thinking that are very different from ours, but may also have true meaning to the several constituencies that read the source from where we picked up this article. Be they evangelical Christians, Orthodox Jews, or devout Muslims – a circle of groups that despite seeming differences among themselves are quite united in their views of the Middle East.

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The ‘Zionist plot’ to build a mosque.

By Wesley Pruden, Jewish World Review - August 24, 2010 / 14 Elul, 5770

The Ground Zero mosque, which is stirring such a sandstorm in New York City, isn’t so popular in certain precincts of the Middle East, either. Some Muslims there think President Obama and Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York are nuts. Impotent and irresolute, too.

Some of the true believers in Arabia say the mosque is a conspiracy hatched by the Jews to set out a clear and permanent connection between Sept. 11 and Islam, a constant reminder of an attack on America led by devout Muslims. Dr. Abd al-Muti Bayumi, a prominent fellow of the Islamic Research Academy of Al Azhar, sometimes regarded as “the Vatican of Sunni Islam,” says the construction of a mosque anywhere near Ground Zero is the child of a “devious mentality” to connect the dots of Sept. 11 and Islam, to stoke memories of barbarism in the name of Islam.

Another Arab notability, Dr. Amna Nazir, a professor of doctrine and philosophy at Al Azhar, calls “building a mosque on this rubble indicates bad intention — even if we wished to shut our eyes, close our minds and insist on good will.” These are not the empty sentiments of good will and sensitivity so beloved of the girly men of the West. They’re statements of concern that “Zionist conspiracy” aid in construction of the Ground Zero mosque will ultimately damage Islam. Dr. Bayumi, for one, preaches suicidal jihad to demonstrate that his heart is in the wrong place: “I say in all honesty that we recruit the people of Islam, and instill in them the spirit of the true jihad, which is death for the sake of Allah, for the sake of our faith.”

The skepticism and hostility in Arabia to building the Ground Zero mosque — and until recently the proposed mosque was bigger news in the Middle East than in Minneapolis or Memphis — contrasts sharply with the enthusiasm of Muslims for the project in America. What do Muslims in Arabia know that Muslims in America don’t?

Sounds like a lot. Raymond Ibrahim, associate director of the Middle East Forum, author of “The Al Qaeda Reader” and guest lecturer at the National Defense Intelligence College, thinks it’s a result of culture and geography: “I believe it has to do with the differing mentalities of Western, or ‘indigenous,’ Muslims. The [indigenous Muslims], who have had little experience of the West, simply cannot believe that Muslims [in America] would be so foolhardy as to pursue such an obvious affront to their host nation.” An indigenous Muslim can’t believe that even an infidel nation would tolerate the insult. He knows what a similar insult, such as the construction of a Christian chapel in Saudi Arabia, would invite in an Islamic country. Not knowing very much about the world, the indigenous Muslim expects a similar result from the infidels.

Muslims here, on the other hand, have learned to game the system in the West, particularly in America, where the elites’ thirst for moonshine is unquenchable. Muslim troublemakers have learned to expect apologies and excuses for anything they do so long as they invoke the right liberal weasel words, such as “tolerance” or “pluralism” or “dialogue.” They’ve learned that talk of “building bridges,” particularly if the bridges lead to nowhere, are preferred fare in the salons of the elites. Insulting Americans invites only apologies, accompanied by abundant bowing and curtsying. George W. Bush went to the Islamic Center in Washington only six days after Sept. 11 to preach that “Islam is peace,” that “when we think of Islam, we think of a faith that brings comfort to a billion people around the world.”

Too bad for both George W. and Islam, but that’s not what most people here think of Islam. You couldn’t expect Michael Bloomberg to understand any of this, but Barack Obama, the son and stepson of Muslims who received his early education in Islamic schools, must know better. He should be familiar with the Islamic worldview that warm and fuzzy feel-good talk — what we once called “appeasement” — correctly invites contempt from men with strongly held conviction, however evil that conviction might be.

The American elites no longer understand strongly held convictions, good or evil, religious or political. The church and synagogue is only a place for rites and ritual, a place to marry your daughters and bury your dead. But devout Muslims really believe. They never apologize for who they are or what they believe. They have only contempt for the platitudes they have learned to use so effectively in hoodwinking the West — and for presidents who peddle the moonshine.

*:-.,_,.-:*’“’*:-.,_,.-:*’“’*:-.,_,.-:**:-.,_,.-:*’“

Fareed Zakaria: Right these days – Germany is booming – not China or the other developing counties. The US is falling behind compared  to both of them.

German Consumers did not over spend on credit cards like in the US.
Germany still has manufacturing going on – they did not switch to outsourcing like the US. The government encouraged and sustained manufacturing.
German manufacturers did not fire workers – they retained them for the return of better days by going to half time work.
Germany instituted reforms in such areas as pension systems, the labor market was freed – so their workers are less expensive but still have work

GERMANY – WITH THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE GLOBAL ECONOMY HAS REGAINED BY NOW ALL THE JOBS THAT WERE LOST NEVERTHELESS DURING THE RECESSION.

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China is now in second place in the global economy. In 2030 China will overtake the US.

Niall Ferguson wrote “High Financier” about Goldman Sachs and Ascent of Money.” Sees 14% growth in China.

Zachary Karabell spoke of “Super-fusion” of the US and China economies and looks at the US where it took 18 months to make grants for green business while it took China a plain government decision to achieve a similar goal.

Minxin Pei, a former Chinese dissident that goes back to Tiananmen Square, and works now with Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said that most dictatorships misallocate resources but the Chines did better – this because they believe the government must show competence to have claim to power, but is behind in environmental protection and education.

Tina Hachigian, added – With a per capita income income one tenth of the US China chose instead to have to say more on intellectual property and trade.

Karabell thinks it is now beneficial to have China as the weaker party in Chimerica – but China wants more like we saw in its relations to Australia. China is dependent on investments from abroad and the World is doing better when China is doing well.

Ferguson thinks the marriage may be now on the rocks and perhaps beyond counselling.

Nina Hichigian did not think this will happen very fast – We work together on Terrorism, north Korea (though not as well lately, on CLIMATE CHANGE – if this will not happen we all are sunk.

Pei still did not forgive China and said they will be lucky to grow 7% for the next 10-15 years – this because workers will get higher wages. The low labor costs were the strength.

Niall Ferguson seems rather optimistic by saying that we will witness in China the fastest INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION and an economic story rather then an ideological radicalization. They have had it already and now he sees the evolution of a large middle class. THEY WANT HIGHER WAGES BECAUSE THEY WANT TO CONSUME. And here Pei added -  AND DO NOT THINK OF THE “Square.” That is as in Tienanmen Square.

Nina said that 40% of Americans think they are already the domineering power today (that is China), but if we make right domestic policy decisions in the US we could still be ahead.

——

But did she look at Washington lately? Is this Washington capable of making decisions or every tea cap holder will just stay in the way? Did anyone look at Germany? Is there anything to learn from them still, or the boat has left already and the US is just irretrievably behind?

—–

And Fareed’s reading recommendation for the week:

The Birth of Plenty: How the Prosperity of the Modern World was Created by William Bernstein.

Bernstein argues that from the birth of civilization until 1820 there was little change in the standard of living. And then all of sudden came the prosperous life.

And what brought about such a change? Science, innovation, communication and more.

Fareed says this is a fascinating look at how we got to where we are today, with lessons for how we can continue to be prosperous.

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Footnote: We read in the paper that France looking at Germany that is again doing well – says that because it fell deeper, Germany got up faster. Oh well! We would have expected better logic from a tall good looking French Finance Minister.

Imran Khan Niazi (born 25 November 1952) is a retired Pakistani cricketer who played international cricket for two decades in the late twentieth century and has been a politician since the mid-1990s. He is considered a National hero in Pakistan.

Currently, besides his political activism, Khan is also a charity worker and cricket commentator.

In April 1996, Khan founded and became the chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (Movement for Justice), a small and marginal political party, of which he is the only member ever elected to Parliament.^[3] He represented Mianwali as a member of the National Assembly from November 2002 to October 2007.^[4] Khan, through worldwide fundraising, helped establish the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital & Research Centre in 1996 and Mianwali’s Namal College in 2008.

He is an outspoken intellectual with Pakistan at his heart – if this is not an oxymoron.

The good looking Imran was educated at Aitchison College, the Cathedral School in Lahore, and the Royal Grammar School Worcester in England, where he excelled at cricket. In 1972, he enrolled to study Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Keble College, Oxford, where he graduated with a second-class degree in Politics and a third in Economics.^[8]

On 16 May 1995, Khan married English socialite Jemima Goldsmith, a {Jewish} convert to Islam, in a two-minute Islamic ceremony in Paris. A month later, on 21 June, they were married again in a civil ceremony at the Richmond register office in England, followed by a reception at the Goldsmiths’ house in Surrey.^[9] The marriage, described as “tough” by Khan,^[7] produced two sons, Sulaiman Isa (born 18 November 1996) and Kasim (born 10 April 1999).^[10] As an agreement of his marriage, Khan spent four months a year in England. On 22 June 2004, it was announced that the Khans had divorced because it was “difficult for Jemima to adapt to life in Pakistan”.^[11]

Khan now resides in Bani Gala, Islamabad, where he built a farmhouse with the money he gained from selling his London flat. He grows fruit trees, wheat, and keeps cows, while also maintaining a cricket ground for his two sons, who visit during their holidays.[7

He is Fareed Zakaria’s favorite Pakistani.

Today Imran said that it is when the flood waters recede we get to know the full extent of the disaster that is still growing these days.

People were left without food, shelter, the cotton crop for income, the cattle, – this is 20 million people completely destitute.

Pakistan has not come to terms how to deal with this. He went a couple of times to the camps and saw people fighting over the goods that were brought in. The government has to put the army to keep them from fighting.

You speak of Cathrina – but Bush did not go to visit his chateau and burnish the image of his son when the flooding went on!

There is no help money coming in and there is no leadership in Pakistan now.

Fareed asked: Islamic fundamentalists make inroads just because there was no government – is that true?

And the anwer was clear – The WORLD MUST STOP TO LOOK AT AN ISLAMIC COUNTRY JUST BECAUSE A RELIGIOUS PARTY DOS CHARITY WORK – FOR PAKISTAN THIS IS NOT AN ISSUE.

IF THIS CONTINUES FOR THREE MONTHS THE COUNTRY WILL IMPLODE WITH 20 MILLION PEOPLE NOT HAVING WHERE TO GO.

The US is pulling out its combat forces from Iraq, but the Sunday TV main topic was THE MOSQUE.  As always – the best conversation was on Fareed Zakaria’s CNN/GPS program.

His guest were Bret Stephens from The Wall Street Journal and Peter Beinart – Senior Political Writer at the blog The Daily Beast, Associate Professor of Journalism and Political Science at the City University of New York, and a Schwartz Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation – till 2006 he was with The New Republic and still lives in Washington DC.

Stephens said that the legalities are clear but the issue is if this Mosque at that location advances interface dialogue and the answer is NO!

Beinart said you cannot divorce the right for building a Mosque from the right to decide where to build it. What about military bases? Will you next say that because there is sensitivity to Americans killed in wars in Muslim countries you cannot have a Mosque on a military base?

Stephens asked – wait – what if the German Government decides to build a tolerance center across the street from a concentration camp – this is much more like the present case.

Zakaria said – that is about irrational sensitivity – do you call this bigotry?

Stephens answered that the rights are indisputable and Bret said that you cannot ask people in the right not to use the right – this is equal to taking away the right.

Zakaria concluded that we talk past each other so the discussion is over. And that is the true state of these matters today.

We hope that Zakaria realizes now that his returning a prize to the ADL of the Bnei Brith was – well – premature.

Also, as he said that the discussion is really not ended – we suggest he invites next time also Anne Barnard whose article in today’s New York Times he did mention.

Anne Barnard is now on the city desk of the paper, but she is not a newcomer to these issues as sh worked in the Middle East – in Israel, Palestine, Iraq and Egypt. She has seen sensitivities from very close – not your regular city desk person. We know Anne for many years – actually since she was a kid – and have met her in different locations as well. We continue here with her material and hope she continues to keep her sights on the developments we expect when Imam Raouf returns from his Middle East tour.

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Further comments about Beinart. His parents immigrated to the US from South Africa and work in Cambridge where he was born. His mother remarried theater personality Robert Brustein. Beinart is Jewish and belongs to a liberal synagogue in Washington.

Peter Beinart has written: “The Icarus Syndrome – A History of American Hubris,” HarperCollins, June 1, 2010, and
“The Good Fight: Why Liberals–and Only Liberals–Can Win the War on Terror and Make America Great Again,” HarperCollins, May 2006,

Beinart was a supporter of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.[7] and in a recent essay, he has argued that the tensions between liberalism and Zionism in the U.S. may tear the two historically-linked concepts apart.[8]

After leaving The New Republic, in 2007-2009, Beinart was a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

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Further comments about Bret Stephens: He was born in 1973 and grew up in Mexico City. Stephens went to the University of Chicago and the London School of Economics.[2]

Stephens began his career at the Journal as an op-ed editor in New York and later worked as an editorial writer for the Wall Street Journal Europe in Brussels. In 2006 he took over the “Global View” column from George Melloan, who has retired.

Between 2002 and 2004 Stephens was editor-in-chief of the Jerusalem Post, a position he assumed at age 28 – the youngest person ever to hold that position. He is the winner of the 2008 Eric Breindel Award for Excellence in Opinion Journalism.
In 2005, Stephens was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, where he was previously a media fellow. He is also a frequent contributor to Commentary magazine.[3]

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Fareed Zakaria promised that on his program this emotional discussion will be rational – what he did not say was that he is in effect pitting against each other two well qualified Jews. We do not believe that THE MOSQUE – that is that particular Mosque – is only an issue for Jews. We indeed believe that his next panel will pull in other “suffering souls” as well.

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Feisal Abdul Rauf’s Balancing Act in Mosque Furor – NYTimes.com

The full article by our friend Anne Barnard, as above, but as published front page The New York Times had the title:
Complicated Balancing Act for Imam in Mosque Furor – Complicated Balancing Act for Imam.
 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/nyregi…

It includes The Imam’s history and his father’s history – both of them highly interesting people. While the father was an employee of the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, and eventually led to the construction of the New York Islamic Center cum Mosque at the corner of East 96th Street and 3rd Avenue in Manhattan, Feisal became the Imam of the Sufi congregation downtown. Then he attempted also the building of a large Center cum Mosque.

William Sauro/The New York Times

Mr. Abdul Rauf’s father, Muhammad, in 1968. He ran the Islamic Center of New York.

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Far away from New York, in Bend Oregon (by Western Communications, Inc.) retained the New York Times in print – name of the article – but our friend’s article was reshaped  as follows:
 http://bbedit.sx.atl.publicus.com/apps/p…

Complicated balancing act for imam in mosque furor.

By Anne Barnard / New York Times News Service

Published: August 22. 2010 4:00AM PST

Michael Appleton / New York Times News Service

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf inside his mosque, housed in a building near the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan, in November. “We want to push back against the extremists,” the cleric says. Others worry about an anti-Muslim backlash.

For years, Feisal Abdul Rauf has encountered distrust as he tries to reconcile Islam with the West.

Muslims need to understand and soothe Americans who fear them; they should be conciliatory, not judgmental, toward the West.

That was Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf’s message, but not everyone in the Cairo lecture hall last February was buying it. As he talked of reconciliation between America and Middle Eastern Muslims — his voice soft, almost New Agey — some questions were so hostile that he felt the need to declare that he was not an American agent.

But one young Egyptian asked: Wasn’t the United States financing the speaking tour that had brought the imam to Cairo because his message conveniently echoed U.S. interests?

“I’m not an agent from any government, even if some of you may not believe it,” the imam replied. “I’m not. I’m a peacemaker.”

That talk, recorded on video six months ago, was part of what now might be called Abdul Rauf’s prior life, before he became the center of an uproar over his proposal for a Muslim community center two blocks from the World Trade Center site. He watched his father, an Egyptian Muslim scholar, pioneer interfaith dialogue in 1960s New York; led a mystical Sufi mosque in Lower Manhattan; and, after the Sept. 11 attacks, became a spokesman for the notion that being American and Muslim is no contradiction — and that a truly American brand of Islam could modernize and moderate the faith worldwide.

In recent weeks, Abdul Rauf has barely been heard from as a national political debate explodes over his dream project, including somewhere in its planned 15 stories near ground zero, a mosque. Opponents have called his project an act of insensitivity, even a monument to terror.

In his absence — he is now on another Middle East speaking tour sponsored by the U.S. State Department — a host of allegations have been floated: that he supports terrorism; that his father, who worked at the behest of the Egyptian government, was a militant; that his publicly expressed views mask stealth extremism. Some charges, the available record suggests, are unsupported. Some are simplifications of his ideas. In any case, calling him a jihadist appears even less credible than calling him a U.S. agent.

Growing up in America

Abdul Rauf, 61, grew up in multiple worlds. He was raised in a conservative religious home but arrived in America as a teenager in the turbulent 1960s; his father came to New York and later Washington to run growing Islamic centers. His parents were taken hostage not once, but twice, by American Muslim splinter groups. He attended Columbia University, where, during the Six-Day War between Israel and Arab states like Egypt, he talked daily with a Jewish classmate, each seeking to understand the other’s perspective.

He consistently denounces violence. Some of his views on the interplay between terrorism and American foreign policy — or his search for commonalities between Islamic law and this country’s Constitution — have proved jarring to some American ears, but still place him as pro-American within the Muslim world. He devotes himself to befriending Christians and Jews — so much, some Muslim Americans say, that he has lost touch with their own concerns.

“To stereotype him as an extremist is just nuts,” said the Very Rev. James Morton, the longtime dean of the Church of St. John the Divine, in Manhattan, who has known the family for decades.

Since 9/11, Abdul Rauf, like almost any Muslim leader with a public profile, has had to navigate the fraught path between those suspicious of Muslims and eager to brand them violent or disloyal and a Muslim constituency that believes itself more than ever in need of forceful leaders.

One critique of the imam, said Omid Safi, a professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina, is that he has not been outspoken enough on issues “near and dear to many Muslims,” from Israel policy to treatment of Muslims after 9/11, “because of the need that he has had — whether taken upon himself or thrust upon him — to be the ‘American imam,’ to be the ‘New York imam,’ to be the ‘accommodationist imam.’ “

Akbar Ahmed, chairman of Islamic studies at American University, said Abdul Rauf’s holistic Sufi practices could make more-orthodox Muslims uncomfortable, and his focus on like-minded interfaith leaders made him underestimate the uproar over his plans.

“He hurtles in, to the dead-center eye of the storm simmering around Muslims in America, expecting it to be like at his mosque — we all love each other, we all think happy thoughts,” said Ahmed.

“Now he has set up, unwittingly, a symbol of this growing tension between America and Muslims: this mosque that Muslims see as a symbol of Islam under attack and the opponents as an insult to America,” he added. “So this mild-mannered guy is in the eye of a storm for which he’s not suited at all. He’s not a political leader of Muslims, yet he now somehow represents the Muslim community.”

Andrew Sinanoglou, who was married by Abdul Rauf last fall, said he was surprised the imam had become a contentious figure. His greatest knack, he said, was making disparate groups comfortable, as at the wedding bringing together Sinanoglou’s family, descended from Greek Christians thrown out of Asia Minor by Muslims, with his wife’s conservative Muslim father.

“He’s an excellent schmoozer,” Sinanoglou said of the imam.

Many different Islamic influences

Abdul Rauf was born in Kuwait. His father, Muhammad Abdul Rauf, was one of many graduates of Cairo’s Al-Azhar University, the foremost center of mainstream Sunni Muslim learning, whom Egypt sent abroad to staff universities and mosques, a government-approved effort unlikely to have tolerated a militant. He moved his family to England, studying at Cambridge and the University of London; then to Malaysia, where he eventually became the first rector of the International Islamic University of Malaysia.

As a boy, Abdul Rauf absorbed his father’s talks with religious scholars from around the world, learning to respect theological debate, said his wife, Daisy Khan. He is also steeped in Malaysian culture, whose ethnic diversity has influenced an Islam different from that of his parents’ homeland.

In 1965, he came to New York. His father ran the Islamic Center of New York; the family lived over its small mosque in a brownstone on West 72nd Street, which served mainly Arabs and African-American converts. Like his son, the older imam announced plans for a community center for a growing Muslim population — the mosque eventually built on East 96th Street. It was paid for by Muslim countries and controlled by Muslim U.N. diplomats — at the time a fairly noncontroversial proposition. Like his son, he joined interfaith groups, invited by James of St. John the Divine.

Hostage crisis

Unlike his son, he was conservative in gender relations; he asked his wife to not drive. But in 1977, he was heading the Islamic Center in Washington when they were taken hostage by a Muslim faction; it was his wife who challenged the gunmen on their lack of knowledge of Islam.

“My husband didn’t open his mouth, but I really gave it to them,” she told The New York Times then.

Meanwhile, Abdul Rauf studied physics at Columbia.

In his 20s, Abdul Rauf dabbled in teaching and real estate, married an American-born woman and had three children. Studying Islam and searching for his place in it, he was asked to lead a Sufi mosque, Masjid al-Farah. It was one of few with a female prayer leader, where women and men sit together at some rituals and some women do not cover their hair. And it was 12 blocks from the World Trade Center.

Divorced, he met his second wife, Khan, when she came to the mosque looking for a gentler Islam than the politicized version she rejected after Iran’s revolution. Theirs is an equal partnership, whether Abdul Rauf is shopping and cooking a hearty soup, she said, or running organizations that promote an American-influenced Islam.

A similar idea comes up in the Cairo video. Abdul Rauf, with Khan, unveiled as usual, beside him, tells a questioner not to worry so much about one issue of the moment — Switzerland’s ban on minarets — saying Islam has always adapted to and been influenced by places it spreads to. “Why not have a mosque that looks Swiss?” he joked. “Make a mosque that looks like Swiss cheese. Make a mosque that looks like a Rolex.”

In the 1990s, the couple became fixtures of the interfaith scene, even taking a cruise to Spain and Morocco with prominent rabbis and pastors.

Abdul Rauf also founded the Shariah Index Project — an effort to formally rate which governments best follow Islamic law. Critics see in it support for Taliban-style Shariah or imposing Islamic law in America.

Shariah, though, like Jewish law, has a spectrum of interpretations. The ratings, Kahn said, measure how well states uphold Shariah’s core principles like rights to life, dignity and education, not Taliban strong points. The imam has written that some Western states unwittingly apply Shariah better than self-styled Islamic states that kill wantonly, stone women and deny education — to him, violations of Shariah.

After 9/11, Abdul Rauf was all over the airwaves denouncing terrorism, urging Muslims to confront its presence among them, and saying that killing civilians violated Islam. He wrote a book, “What’s Right With Islam Is What’s Right With America,” asserting the congruence of American democracy and Islam.

That ample public record — interviews, writings, sermons — is now being examined by opponents of the downtown center.

Those opponents repeat often that Abdul Rauf, in one radio interview, refused to describe the Palestinian group that pioneered suicide bombings against Israel, Hamas, as terrorist. In the lengthy interview, Abdul Rauf clumsily tries to say that people around the globe define terrorism differently and labeling any group would sap his ability to build bridges. He also says: “Targeting civilians is wrong. It is a sin in our religion,” and, “I am a supporter of the state of Israel.”

“If I were an imam today I would be saying, ‘What am I supposed to do?’” said John Esposito, a professor of Islamic studies at Georgetown University. “‘Can an imam be critical of any aspect of U.S. foreign policy? Can I weigh in on things that others could weigh in on?’ Or is someone going to say, ‘He’s got to be a radical!’”

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Could it be that the solution leads to a true CORDOBA HOUSE OF CULTURE AND INTER-RELIGIOUS UNDERSTANDING with all Cordoba three religions having footholds at the center – not  a Mosque.

In this case what if Rabbi Marc Schneier who started together with the East 96 Street Islamic Center’s Imams his good-will exchanges gets a foothold and offices there? The Battery Park Holocaust Museum could be linked, and the Archbishop of the Trinity Church of the neighborhood as well – that is with offices in the building. This would call for a joint board and joint ownership in the name of good intentions. It would be considered a step towards healing within the possible of the memory of 9/11/o1 within reach of the 10th memorial of the event. Clearly – this does not answer the call for a larger Mosque, neither will this be a place with Synagogue and church – we know that the institutions must be separate.

If separation is preferred, then a gesture of exchange of real estate for a different location would be appreciated.

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President Obama also went on TV today – breaking his vacation because of the media attacks on him branding him a Muslim.

Obama blamed this crazzy media culture when the main issue is the pulling out from Iraq but the focus is on “THE MOSQUE” – is this just an August diversion? By whom?

Michel Martin (an Emmy Award winning American journalist and correspondent for ABC News and National Public Radio. After ten years in print journalism, Martin has for the last 15 years become best known for her news broadcasting on national topics.), asks whom are we talking about as media? It is just the Conservative Pundits that keep on drumming? Or is there by now a symbiotic relationship between the right wing bloggers and the main-stream media? It does not make sense to pretend that there is not a concern with Islam. We heard on TV that Glen Beck said Lincoln Day has no meaning for him – so he calls for a rally at the mall on that day. Aha I said – if that is so – why do you expect more consideration from adherents of Islam – Americans or otherwise? Are Americans so dam by now that they cannot see that insensitivity breeds more insensitivity?

This is written as last night I discovered new pits in the bus-network of the city.

The fact that nobody knows how you cross by bus the East River – that may be just a problem of information distribution.

The fact that many times the computerized card does charge twice when you transfer from bus-to-bus or subway-to-bus, may be a problem of intentional or just plain lack of maintenance of the charging machine.

The fact that lately buses were discontinued like cross-towns – M30 for example; routes shortened like M104 – what used to be a convenient “book reading way” to get from Columbia University to the UN, and now ends at Times Square; runs at larger intervals like the long line M15 – all this makes the taxi industry happy – we understand the political aspect and the reality of political life in New York City.

But what I discovered last night boggles the mind. In front of the Memorial Hospital and Research Center of Sloan Kattering Memorial Cancer Center – between East 67 and 68 Streets – last week a brand new bus shelter was established including the sign: “THIS IS NOT A BUS STOP – THE BUS STOP WAS MOVED ONE BLOCK SOUTH.” What? Why? Who Pays?

Now, the old stop was in front of the hospital for tens of years at the convenient location for the folks coming cross town, on East 68 Street from the West Side, with M66, catching the uptown M15, and those arriving from downtown and catching the cross-town M66 on East 67 Street. Moving it one block to the South, in front of a Church, close to East 66 Street makes no sense because M66 does not go through East 66 Street! True, there were no park meters in front of the Church either – so what?

Was this because the doctors at Sloan-Kattering needed the front available for the taxis that bring them to work?
The patients do not use that entrance. If the doctor’s lobby had to have its way, why build the new shelter in a place it was not wanted?

Is the Mayor ready to look at this little problem, and see that it is a very valid reason to investigate his own big problem with what is obvious deterioration of the Administration of his public transport system policy and management – specially when it is about the bus network? I brought the public transportation lagging policy up before – this with the Manhattan Borough President Mr. Scott Stringer. Is he ready to step in and fill the void?

It is easy to sum up the situation in regard to Muslims being believed that they intend to lead a healing attempt while creating a furor that can only result in a new heating up of deep sentiments. If the intent was by some to build a Mosque at the place of victory over the infidel, but the Muslim majority was – or was not – part of that intent – is now irrelevant. The way out can be by moving the new Islamic Center to some place – “in eye contact” – across the water – Brooklyn, Staten Island, New Jersey – and dedicate it as originally stated  to a CORDOBA HOUSE – rather then the limping  Park 51 Project.

We want also to point at the clearly sluggish pace of donations to Pakistan as another outcome from this last stand taken by Muslims in America – and the threat hanging over America’s head that 100 million young Pakistani Muslims, helped by extremists at their moment of physical constraints, rather then by their own government, nor by the Western cultures, as nothing less then the evolution of Bin Laden because of his fight against the America propped up Saudi regime.

The reality is that internal disagreements in the Islamic world are being projected against US Administrations that support out of convenience the existing regimes in these Islamic countries, and the extremists stood up in efforts to oppose their own leaders, and only secondly, took upon themselves to fight the protectors of the hated regimes.

The US people are not supposed to understand all of that when faced with a 9/11 and are not to be stepped upon even in a case where the superficial right as well as the deep meaning of American Democracy is on their side. Clever Arab States will try – like the Obama Administration is trying – to build bridges rather then burrowing in the trenches of the small print. Go ahead and show magnanimity.

By the way, could little Kuwait that offered $5 million to Pakistan, without ever having been involved in the dismantling of that country, or the UAE at $1.5 million, tell the much larger Saudi Arabia, that shipped its own Jihadists to Pakistan being part of the internal fracas there, that according to UN listings offered now peanuts to Pakistan – could they do some more when compared with the US offer of $150 million. Actually – just remember those two planes of Bin Laden family being shipped out from a US under air embargo by the Bush family, those days immediately following 9/11. There are very good reasons for Americans to be mad and for Arabs to take the low road that we suggest can be in this case the real high road.

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From all that sea of articles in the press of today – I pick the following as it is the easiest – it is from aol:

NATION
Construction Workers Oppose Mosque Near Ground Zero

by Hugh Collins, Contributor to aol News.

NEW YORK (Aug. 20) — The proposed Islamic center near ground zero is facing stiff opposition from a group that will be vital if the plan is to be realized: the New York City building industry.

Construction worker Andy Sullivan has set up a “Hard Hat Pledge” on his website, calling on construction workers to vow not to do work on the Park51 community center and mosque, the New York Daily News said.

Diane Bondareff, MCT
Mosque opponent Andy Sullivan stands outside the site of the proposed mosque and Islamic center on Park Place near lower Manhattan’s ground zero on Thursday.

Sullivan is not alone. Several New York construction workers interviewed by AOL News declared their opposition to the project.

“It doesn’t make any sense to be there,” said Eduard Nika, a marble worker. “The mentality these people have, it’s not anything to do with religion.”

The planned mosque and community center two blocks from the site of the 9/11 terrorist attacks that killed 3,000 people has spiraled from a local zoning issue into a national political debate.

Public figures such as Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich have blasted the plan, saying it is an insult to the families of the victims. The Anti-Defamation League, whose mission statement says it exists to fight “all forms of bigotry,” has said the center should be built at another location.

Others, such as Mayor Michael Bloomberg and President Barack Obama, have said that while they understand the strong resentment the project arouses, any effort to block the Islamic center would infringe on American values of freedom.

Handyman Frank Rivera, who said three of his relatives were in the World Trade Center at the time of the attack but survived, believes the project would be bad for New York City and an insult to the families of victims.

“It shouldn’t be there. It’s a slap in the face,” Rivera said.

Like Nika, he said he would sooner quit his job than work on the project.

But not everyone is opposed to the Islamic center. Mike Bakovic, who works in interior construction and painting, said he’d work on the project — even if he didn’t get paid.

“Muslim people have the freedom or religion, same as everyone else, the Jew, the Catholic, everyone else,” Bakovic said. “Islam is peaceable, like every other religion. “

Louis Coletti, president of the Building Trades Employers Association, told the Daily News that labor unions had not taken a “formal position” on the plan. Still, he said it was ” a very difficult dilemma for the contractors and organized labor force.”

The UN SAYS – “NEW UN ONLINE TOOL DETECTS GLOBAL FIRE HOTSPOTS IN REAL TIME.”

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today unveiled a new online portal to help countries monitor fires and protect property with data from satellites operated by the United States space agency NASA.

The new Global Fire Information Management System (GFIMS) shows fire hotspots almost in real time, with a lag of 2.5 hours between when satellites pass over fires to when information is available.

Developed with the University of Maryland, it also allows users to receive email alerts, allowing them to react quickly.

The launch of GFIMS comes at a time when the incidence of megafires is on the rise, according to Pieter van Lierop, an FAO Forestry Officer responsible for the agency’s activities in fire management.

“The control of these fires has become an issue of high importance, not only because of the increasing number of area burned but also because of the relations with issues of global interest, like climate change,” he stressed.

The unprecedented heat wave in Russia, which saw temperatures soar to 40 degrees Celsius and winds of up to 20 metres per second, have caused more than 14 million acres to burn. Forest fires have already claimed more than 50 lives this summer in Russia.

Globally, vegetation fires affect some 350 million hectares of land annually, with half or more of this area situated in Europe.

Until recently, people managing natural resources faced hurdles in obtaining timely and satellite-driven information on vegetation fires.

“The information was very fragmented because it was gathered from various sources making it unsuitable for precise analysis and identifying trends,” said John Latham, Senior Environment Office in FAO’s Natural Resources Management and Environment Department.

GFIMS, he said, delivers essential data to its users while fires are still burning.

————————

FAO launches NASA-developed fire monitoring system.	11-08-2010
Will help countries to detect fire hotspots in real time
GFIMS will help countries to detect fire hotspots in near real time. 11 August 2010, Rome – FAO today has launched a new online portal on fire information and real time monitoring to help countries to control fire effectively and protect property and natural resources. The new Global Fire Information Management System (GFIMS) detects fire hotspots from satellites operated by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Developed in collaboration with the University of Maryland, GFIMS has an online mapping interface for displaying fire hotspots in “near real” time meaning that there is a lag of approximately 2.5 hours between satellite overpass and the data being available. The new system also allows users to receive email alerts on specific areas of interest, enabling subscribers to react quickly. “The GFIMS has been launched at a time when the incidence of megafires tends to increase,” said Pieter van Lierop, FAO Forestry Officer, who is responsible for the agency’s activities in fire management. “The control of these fires has become an issue of high importance, not only because of the increasing number of casualties and the huge amounts of area burned but also because of the relations with issues of global interest, like climate change.” In Russia alone this year due to the unprecedented heat wave with temperatures soaring to up to 40ºC and winds of up to 20 metres per second the total area burned has reached more than 14 million hectares, according to the data provided by the Sukachev Institute for Forests, based in Krasnoyarsk. Forest fires in Russia have already killed more than 50 people this summer. Globally, vegetation fires affect an estimated 350 million ha of land each year- about half or more of this area is burnt in Africa. In the Mediterranean, between 700 000 and one million hectares are damaged by vegetation fires every year. Easy to use Until recently, natural resource managers have faced considerable challenges in obtaining timely satellite-derived information on vegetation fires. “The information was very fragmented because it was gathered from various sources making it unsuitable for precise analysis and identifying trends,” – said John Latham, FAO Senior Environment Officer in the Natural Resources Management and Environment Department. – “GFIMS is an integrated fire information system which delivers the essential data to its users while the fires are still burning.” GFIMS allows users to download fire information in minimal file sizes and in easy-to-use formats, including text files, ESRI shapefiles, Web Map Services, Google Earth/KML files, and a plug-in for NASA World Wind. “GFIMS has also provoked strong research interest,” added Latham. “Linking the system to land cover shows us what is burning. GFIMS now provides analysis on trends of prevalence of fire by year and month, and will include information on the size of burnt area by land cover type in the future. It will result in improving analytical data and timely response.” The system could be used by forest managers and fire fighters, as well as agencies involved in agricultural and natural resources monitoring. The subscription is free of charge. The system only requires a functioning email address. Initially GFIMS has been launched in three languages – English, French and Spanish. The monitoring system is hosted at the FAO’s Natural Resources Management and Environment Department. —————————– Image of smoke over Western Russia taken from NASA’s Terra satellite. Contact Irina Utkina Media Relations (Rome) (+39) 06 570 52542 irina.utkina@fao.org —————————–  http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/ Global 10-day fire maps are generated using the MODIS Rapid Response fire locations to represent the current fire activity across the world. + Read more + Fire location data Mission MODIS Image of the Day The MODIS Rapid Response System was developed to provide daily satellite images of the Earth’s landmasses in near real time. True-color, photo-like imagery and false-color imagery are available within a few hours of being collected, making the system a valuable resource for organizations like the U.S. Forest Service and the international fire monitoring community, who use the images to track fires; the United States Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service, who monitors crops and growing conditions; and the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the United States Air Force Weather Agency, who track dust and ash in the atmosphere. The science community also uses the system in projects like the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET), which studies particles like smoke, pollution, or dust in the atmosphere. More information about science and application partners, including links, is provided on our applications page. Captioned interpreted images for educators, the media, and the public are available through the Earth Observatory. The system is freely available to everyone–scientists, operational users, educators, and the general public. Please see our Usage Guidelines. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) flies onboard NASA’s Aqua and Terra satellites as part of the NASA-centered international Earth Observing System. Both satellites orbit the Earth from pole to pole, seeing most of the globe every day. Onboard Terra, MODIS sees the Earth during the morning, while Aqua MODIS orbits the Earth in the afternoon. : Tropical Storm Dianmu (05W) approaching Korea Near-Real-Time MODIS Data MODIS level 2 clouds, aerosols, snow, sea ice, fire, land surface temperature, and land surface reflectance products are available within 2.5 hours of observation at LANCE-MODIS.

These tough days for the US economy – a stand out – New Hampshire Job Growth in Recession.

• New Hampshire outpaced every other state except Kentucky in job growth over the last year, according to information released by the U.S. Department of Labor.
• According to preliminary figures, the Granite State experienced job growth of

1.43 % between June 2009 and June 2010, which resulted new 8,900 jobs.

———————————

From the New Hampshire Overview Prepared by:

Michael Bergeron, NH Business Development ManagerNew Hampshire Division of Economic Development, August 9, 2010603-271-2591 mbergeron@dred.state.nh.us

for:

———————————-

•“The magic of New Hampshire: Big enoughto get things done, small enough to reallystand out” Dean Kaman— DEKA R & D

Dean Kamen’s DEKA—Manchester, New Hampshire.

{ We wrote about the visit at his place in Manchester when we reviewed FIRST and Senator Shaheen’s visit there.
 http://www.sustainabilitank.info/categor… }

New Hampshire cuts through state government red tape so that businesses don’t have to spend time fighting a slow bureaucracy.

The contention of New Hampshire business is – Our office provides:

• Excellent customer service
• Facilitate state permits
• Help when needed but otherwise, stays out of your way

So, What makes New Hampshire
different than other states?

New Hampshire’s state motto:

LIVE FREE OR DIE

New Hampshire

• Control state spending
• Lower tax burden
• Individual freedom
• Individual responsibility
• Success based on merit
• Land ownership rights
• Right to bear arms for selfdefense
• Citizens Legislature

————-

They contend that there are – Two different fundamental government approaches:

1. Give us more of your money and if you fall into a certain class and/or location, we may reimburse or credit you for a period of time, and then we will impose a tax on you so we can offer credits and grants to someone else.

or -

2. You keep more of you money and we keep taxes lower—but that means you also don’t receive a long list of special credits, exemptions, and subsidies—this is what New Hampshire does.

——————————————————————————–

Foundational differences:

New Hampshire has a Citizens’ legislature

New Hampshire does not support professional politicians

New Hampshire has 400 Representatives and 24 Senators all of whom get only $100 per year.

*No broad base personal income tax *No sales tax *No use tax *No inventory tax *No capital gains tax *No professional service tax *Corp tax: 8.5% of net business income

State of New Hampshire Net Income
Fiscal Year 2008 $1.247 Billion

New Hampshire Tax Details – 8.5% of net business income.

Business Profits Tax:

• • 1.The tax is imposed at the rate of 8.5% on the taxablebusiness profits of every business organization (RSA Sec.77-A:2).
  • Business Enterprise Tax
• 2. A business enterprise tax is imposed at the rate of 0.75%of the taxable enterprise value tax base of every businessenterprise (RSA Sec. 77-E:2). This is a dollar for dollar credit against the business profits tax.
• “Enterprise value tax base” means the sum of all compensation paid or accrued, interest paid or accrued, and dividends paid by the business enterprise, before special adjustments or apportionment (RSA Sec. 77-E:1).

————————————————————-

THEY OFFER AN -

•Economic Revitalization Tax Credit

$200,000 cap over 5 years, 40K per year cap

•R & D Tax Credit

$50,000 cap each year, 5 year maximum

•Job Training Program

50/50 cash match, customized training, no cap

New Hampshire ERZ: Economic Revitalization Zone

———————————————————–

What is the amount of the tax credit?

*$40,000 cap per year,

* Capped at $200,000 over five years, with carry over up to 10 years.

*Credit against Business Profits or
Enterprise Tax (BPT or BET).

R & D Tax Credit

• 10% of the business organization’s qualified manufacturing research and development expenditures (salaries related to new research) up $50,000 tax credit per year.

State of New Hampshire
Business Energy Efficiency

Audit Program

• No cost energy efficiency assessment & comprehensive energy audit program available through the NH Business Resource Center.
• All business sectors eligible (commercial, retail, hospitality, healthcare, arts, etc) -special emphasis on manufacturing.
• Eligible businesses must agree to try to implement at least some of the suggested measures if at all possible.
• Help with exploring various financing options.

————————————————————–

NH Job Training Grant Program

*

Customized group training

*

Cash grant–up to 50/50 match with state

*

No cap

• Training can be done at the company or other location.

Example of national rankings

New Hampshire:

6th highest per capita income in the U.S.-U.S. Census 09 “Most Livable State” in U.S., Morgan Quitno 2003-2008 (4^th in 2010) “4nd Healthiest State”, United Health Foundation 09 3^nd Lowest crime rate in U.S., Morgan Quitno 09

New Hampshire is the Most Business Friendly State in the Northeast

erom:		CCRIF <pr@ccrif.org>
date		Thu, Aug 19, 2010
subject		Caribbean Economics of Climate Adaptation Study results released.

Please see attached press release regarding the publication of preliminary results of the study on the Economics of Climate Adaptation (ECA) in the Caribbean implemented by the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility and regional partners.

The results for eight pilot countries (Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Dominica, Jamaica, and St. Lucia) are presented in a short brochure entitled, Enhancing the climate risk and adaptation fact base for the Caribbean (Preliminary Results).

The brochure is available on the CCRIF website at http://www.ccrif.org/sites/default/files/publications/ECABrochureFinalAugust182010.pdf

Regards,
Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF)

http://www.Qwanz.com/nymosque Tanya from Qwanz.com gives an update on what is happening on the Park 51 (Ground Zero Mosque/ Cordoba House) issue that has been dividing the country. Learn more on the topic and continue the conversation by clicking on the link above!

 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/15/scienc…

In Weather Chaos, a Case for Global Warming.

In Pakistan, Russia, The US …

• 
• 
• 
  Arif Ali/Agence France-Presse-Getty Images

  IN PAKISTAN – The worst flooding in at least 80 years has killed at least 1,384 people and affected 20 million in a continuing crisis.

By JUSTIN GILLIS

Published: August 14, 2010

• Times Topic: Global Warming

A blog about energy and the environment.

Go to Blog

The summer’s heat waves baked the eastern United States, parts of Africa and eastern Asia, and above all Russia, which lost millions of acres of wheat and thousands of lives in a drought worse than any other in the historical record.

Seemingly disconnected, these far-flung disasters are reviving the question of whether global warming is causing more weather extremes.

The collective answer of the scientific community can be boiled down to a single word: probably.

“The climate is changing,” said Jay Lawrimore, chief of climate analysis at the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. “Extreme events are occurring with greater frequency, and in many cases with greater intensity.”

He described excessive heat, in particular, as “consistent with our understanding of how the climate responds to increasing greenhouse gases.”

Theory suggests that a world warming up because of those gases will feature heavier rainstorms in summer, bigger snowstorms in winter, more intense droughts in at least some places and more record-breaking heat waves. Scientists and government reports say the statistical evidence shows that much of this is starting to happen.

But the averages do not necessarily make it easier to link specific weather events, like a given flood or hurricane or heat wave, to climate change. Most climate scientists are reluctant to go that far, noting that weather was characterized by remarkable variability long before humans began burning fossil fuels and releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

“If you ask me as a person, do I think the Russian heat wave has to do with climate change, the answer is yes,” said Gavin Schmidt, a climate researcher with NASA in New York. “If you ask me as a scientist whether I have proved it, the answer is no — at least not yet.”

In Russia, that kind of scientific caution might once have been embraced. Russia has long played a reluctant, and sometimes obstructionist, role in global negotiations over limiting climate change, perhaps in part because it expected economic benefits from the warming of its vast Siberian hinterland.

But the extreme heat wave, and accompanying drought and wildfires, in normally cool central Russia seems to be prompting a shift in thinking.

“Everyone is talking about climate change now,” President Dmitri A. Medvedev told the Russian Security Council this month. “Unfortunately, what is happening now in our central regions is evidence of this global climate change, because we have never in our history faced such weather conditions in the past.”

Thermometer measurements show that the earth has warmed by about 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit since the Industrial Revolution, when humans began pumping enormous amounts of carbon dioxide, a heat-trapping greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere. For this January through July, average temperatures were the warmest on record, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported Friday.

The warming has moved in fits and starts, and the cumulative increase may sound modest. But it is an average over the entire planet, representing an immense amount of added heat, and is only the beginning of a trend that most experts believe will worsen substantially.

If the earth were not warming, random variations in the weather should cause about the same number of record-breaking high temperatures and record-breaking low temperatures over a given period. But climatologists have long theorized that in a warming world, the added heat would cause more record highs and fewer record lows.

The statistics suggest that is exactly what is happening. In the United States these days, about two record highs are being set for every record low, telltale evidence that amid all the random variation of weather, the trend is toward a warmer climate.

Climate-change skeptics dispute such statistical arguments, contending that climatologists do not know enough about long-range patterns to draw definitive links between global warming and weather extremes. They cite events like the heat and drought of the 1930s as evidence that extreme weather is nothing new. Those were indeed dire heat waves, contributing to the Dust Bowl, which dislocated millions of Americans and changed the population structure of the United States.

But most researchers trained in climate analysis, while acknowledging that weather data in parts of the world are not as good as they would like, offer evidence to show that weather extremes are getting worse.

A United States government report published in 2008 noted that “in recent decades, most of North America has been experiencing more unusually hot days and nights, fewer unusually cold days and nights, and fewer frost days. Heavy downpours have become more frequent and intense.”

The statistics suggest that the Eastern United States may be getting wetter as the arid West dries out further. Places that depend on the runoff from spring snow melt appear particularly vulnerable to climate change, because higher temperatures are making the snow melt earlier, leaving the ground parched by midsummer. That can worsen any drought that develops.

“Global warming, ironically, can actually increase the amount of snow you get,” said Kevin Trenberth, head of climate analysis at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. “But it also means the snow season is shorter.”

In general, the research suggests that global warming will worsen climate extremes across much of the planet. As in the United States, wet areas will get wetter, the scientists say, while dry areas get drier.

But the patterns are not uniform; changes in wind and ocean circulation could cause unexpected effects, with some areas even cooling down in a warmer world. And long-established weather patterns, like the periodic variations in the Pacific Ocean known as El Niño, will still contribute to unusual events, like heavy rains and cool temperatures in normally arid parts of California.

Scientists say they expect stronger storms, in winter and summer, largely because of the physical principle that warmer air can hold more water vapor.

Typically, a storm of the sort that inundated parts of Tennessee in May, dumping as much as 19 inches of rain over two days, draws moisture from an area much larger than the storm itself. With temperatures rising and more water vapor in the air, such storms can pull in more moisture and thus rain or snow more heavily than storms of old.

It will be a year or two before climate scientists publish definitive analyses of the Russian heat wave and the Pakistani floods, which might shed light on the role of climate change, if any. Some scientists suspect that they were caused or worsened by an unusual kink in the jet stream, the high-altitude flow of air that helps determine weather patterns, though that itself might be linked to climate change. Certain recent weather events were so extreme that a few scientists are shedding their traditional reluctance to ascribe specific disasters to global warming.

After a heat wave in Europe in 2003 that killed an estimated 50,000 people, the worst such catastrophe for that region in the historical record, scientists published detailed analyses suggesting that it would not have been as severe in a climate uninfluenced by greenhouse gases.

And Dr. Trenberth has published work suggesting that Hurricane Katrina dumped at least somewhat more rain on the Gulf Coast because the storm was intensified by global warming.

“It’s not the right question to ask if this storm or that storm is due to global warming, or is it natural variability,” Dr. Trenberth said. “Nowadays, there’s always an element of both.”