Trade Pacts to the South Losing Appeal
The News Review:
- Trade Pacts to the South Losing Appeal
- West End mines Billy Elliot
- Slow debut for China ship giant
Trade Pacts to the South Losing Appeal
New York Times – Jun 30, 2005
“Open trade is an essential foundation for that prosperity and that possibility. “But increasingly, Latin Americans view free trade with the United States with suspicion, as the region has in recent years shifted to the left and become increasingly wary of Washington’s economic prescriptions as growth flagged and promises of prosperity were perceived as increasingly hollow. The reasons for the caution are numerous, from a potent antiglobalization movement that has swept South America, to practical concerns in countries as varied as Brazil and Honduras about what opening markets to the United States, the world’s biggest economy, could mean to home-grown industries. Ideology has played a role, with Washington’s leading antagonist in the region, President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, calling the Bush administration’s free trade agenda “the medicine of death. ” Riordan Roett, director of Latin American studies at Johns Hopkins University, said there was more than just a backlash against market reforms and the perceived trade agenda of the United States. “It’s almost a wholesale rejection of what people believe they were fed by the folks in Washington,” he said. Already in recent months, two governments the United States hoped would sign free trade deals have collapsed in the wake of protests with a strong antiglobalization component.
West End mines Billy Elliot
The Age – Jun 30, 2005
Charles Spencer of the Daily Telegraph hailed it as”The greatest British musical I have ever seen”, outranking showssuch as Oliver! and Phantom of the Opera, and hiscolleagues say much the same. The musical about a coalminer’s son battling to become a dancer isthe work of the same creative team that made the film BillyElliot five years ago — Hall, director Stephen Daldry andchoreographer Peter Darling. The cast has changed, and Sir Elton John has written the music,but it’s still the Ugly Duckling story of a boy and his balletshoes, set against the defeat of the miners’ strike of 1984-85 byprime minister Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government. Billy is a motherless 11-year-old in the mining village ofEasington, in England’s industrial northeast. Sent to boxing class,he accidentally discovers ballet instead and joins a class of girlswith a sharp-tongued teacher. But in the macho culture of the northeast, ballet is only for”poofs” (homosexuals) and Billy’s father and his elder brother stophis lessons when they find out. While the older men are locked inviolent confrontation with the government, Billy continues dancingin secret and finds his true talent…
Not only are they on stage fortwo and a half hours, but they have to act and sing as well asdance. The result is a gold-plated success, leading a revival inthe fortunes of London’s theatreland — now more important to theBritish economy than coalmining. Sir Stephen Waley-Cohen, president of the Society of LondonTheatre, says having a home-grown musical hit like this one gives afillip to the whole of the West End. “It’s been a good year so far. There is a mood of confidence andoptimism about. It’s the quality of the shows and the generalupbeat feeling about London,” he said. Between January and May London attendances went up 6.
Slow debut for China ship giant
BBC News – Jun 30, 2005
China Cosco Holdings, the firm floated in Hong Kong, is a vehicle for ownership of a number of parts of the Cosco group. Among then is Coscon, the seventh biggest container line in the world, and a 52% stake in ports and container leasing firm Cosco Pacific. Growing painsThe problem for Cosco is, in a way, a home-grown one. The flotation takes place at a time when China’s rapid economic growth and its 20-30% annual rise in exports mean there is a huge amount of goods to ship to markets around the world. That has fed a 25% rise in shipping rates over the past two years. But at the same time, shipping firms are responding to the demand with a surge of orders for new ships. In April, shipbuilders had orders which would produce a 56% expansion in the capacity of the world’s container fleet – a development which could mean a sharp fall in the rates shipping firms can charge.