Berlusconi holding Italy Hostage

A brilliant article on Berlusconi and the sorrow state of Italy by Tim Sparks can be read HERE

A brief summary below:

Vote me out of jail, or I will bring the country down with me. This, essentially, is the message Silvio Berlusconi—four-time prime minister, owner of the country’s three main commercial TV channels, criminal defendant many times over—has just sent to the Italian government, one that clarifies at last the exact nature of what is at stake in Italy at the present moment: is this a modern state where the rule of law prevails or is it the fiefdom of an institutionalized outlaw?

After a dozen trials, many of which have gone through all three levels of Italian justice (primary trial, appeal, counter appeal), after making ad personam laws to have his crimes de-penalized, or using delaying tactics to have trials thrown out because the crimes alleged in them are time-barred, or facing guilty verdicts at one level and acquittals at another, Berlusconi has finally received a definitive and unappealable criminal sentence at the highest level, for tax fraud in the region of €7 million ($9 million) and for the creation of a slush fund of some €280 million ($375 million). Sentenced to four years in prison, he has benefited from a pardon aimed at emptying the country’s jails, which has reduced the sentence to one year—this despite the fact that, being over seventy, he will be allowed to serve his sentence at one of his various luxury homes. However, as an elected member of the senate, he enjoys immunity from arrest and cannot be forced into confinement until the senate approves his expulsion, a vote that could take place in September. He has now made it clear that if that vote goes against him he will bring the whole house down.

Where are the millionaires!

Where is the wealth concentrated in the world! According to a new report from WealthInsight, Tokyo is beating out New York and London. 

The Economist notes that the city, which boasts 460,700 individuals with net assets of $1m or more (excluding their primary residences), is home to over a fifth of Japan's millionaires. However, when it comes to real money London tops the list with 4,224 multi-millionaires.  

But the real surprise is Frankfurt which has the highest millionaires per capita (with 75 out of every 1000 people having at least a seven figure net worth).

Source: The Economist

The New World Trade Center

The Detached look: Bill Cunningham

For those who are still looking out there for authenticity and detachment from the conformism of the modern society Bill Cunnigham New York is the documentary to watch.
Cunningham, 81, has been documenting the fashions found on New York Streets for the last 50 years. With a battered Nikon camera, he goes everywhere on his bicycle, snapping anything that catches his eye.
Reclusive, and fiercely private about his personal life, it took Richard Press, the film's director and his producer, Philip Gefter, eight years to convince their subject to appear in the documentary.
From Upper East Side swans, European royalty and aspiring fashionistas; to street gangs, punks, downtown transvestites and even bicycle messengers - if there is something interesting to say about the clothes, Cunningham will snap them.

Cunningham attends the fashion shows in New York and Paris, he also covers the most prestigious social events each night in New York for his page in the New York Times called "Evening Hours."
Cunningham must be history's most frugal fashion observer. He sleeps on a camp bed in his studio surrounded by filing cabinets. The bathroom is down the hall and shared with other tenants. He never eats out and owns perhaps four outfits at most - his uniform is a blue workman's smock (with lots of pockets) which he buys from a DIY store in Paris. The street-sweepers there wear the same shirt. In the rain, he cycles in a plastic poncho full of holes repaired with gaffer tape. He is on his 28th bicycle, having had 27 stolen in New York over the years.
Of his reluctance to accept even a glass of water at any of the events he covers, he tells the cameras: "You see, if you don't take money they can't tell you what to do, that's the key to the whole thing."

In 2008, Cunningham was awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres , by the French Ministry of Culture. In his speech, he was overcome with emotion. He told the assembled: "It's as true today as it ever was. He who seeks beauty, will find it".

DSK released after playing ball with the conspiracy

From the New York Times:


Dominique Strauss-Kahn was released from house arrest on Friday as the sexual assault case against him moved one step closer to dismissal after prosecutors told a Manhattan judge that they had serious problems with the case. 
Prosecutors acknowledged that there were significant credibility issues with the hotel housekeeper who accused Mr. Strauss-Kahn of trying to rape her in May. In a brief hearing at State Supreme Court in Manhattan, prosecutors did not oppose his release; the judge then freed Mr. Strauss-Kahn on his own recognizance. 
What surprise me of this entire story is the clear and manifest lack of subtlety in dealing with all the issue, all this story was stinking from the first moment when NYPD arrested the Head of the IMF in a very delicate moment for both the French Presidential Race and the Greek crisis.
You would imagine that professionals would have verified and double-checked the credibility of the accuser before moving charges and arresting the guilty party, if this is true for every case it is even more true when they were dealing with the potential next president of France and Head of the IMF.
This time though they started a very public stunt of arresting DSK before leaving the country, they sent him to to a maximum and infamous security prison and only after he relinquished his post he was given house arrest.
Then suddenly everyone forgot about him until today, 2 days after the election of the new IMF chief Lagarde (the Finance Minister of President Sarkozy) and 2 days after the Greek government has sold the entire country to the international banking system.
The date chosen for his release is rising even more doubts than the original plot to get him out of the IMF.
He could not be in time to run for president and maybe he was released before deadline simply to avoid an association of this plot with Sarkozy. What is clear is that both US and France wanted him out of the IMF (let us not forget he was an advocate of the end of the dollar as reserve currency) and that DSK has played along while being very quiet; his language has been pacate and he did avoid aside from the first days any publicity with the media. He could have started to release interviews and being vocal on why all this happened but he preferred not.
He knew most probably that he was being given a chance to get out of this conspiracy alive and quietly by playing ball with it and avoiding any fight.
It happened effectively as I thought that charges would be dropped and he would be a free man once he would have relinquished his position. I thought it would have taken more time in order to avoid ringing bells of a conspiracy, but this was not the case.
They have preferred to send a public message. The message it was sent today  is clear: we can hit everyone and everywhere regardless of the status and importance, we can manipulate the media if the case and we do not really care if the plot becomes public or not we just do what we want regardless.
Let's remember what Putin (certainly not a fan of Strauss-Kahn) said after his arrest:
"It is hard for me to evaluate the hidden political motives," the Russian prime minister said in comments posted on the official Kremlin Web site. "But I cannot believe that it looks the way it was initially introduced. It doesn't sit right in my head."

Neither in our heads Mr. Putin!

Listening to Los Angeles

An hypnotic ambiance in a surreal context. It is called You are listening to Los Angeles, the concept is deceptively simple: stream real-time LAPD police scanner transmissions against an ambient music background.
You can also listen twin sites at New York, San Francisco, Chicago and Montreal.

Visit: http://youarelisteningtolosangeles.com/