This is an economy car, but it doesn’t look like one or drive like one.
Small car buyers are no longer content with “cheap and cheerful” basic transportation.
Yes, they want economy and reliability, but they also want style and, above all, comfort and luxury.
Easy to say, but not so easy to do when you are pumping out hundreds of thousands of vehicles from plants around the world where every tenth of a cent counts to keep costs under control.
But at first blush, it looks like Kia has found a way to merge affordability with the increasing demand for luxury in the second generation Forte
There will be two engines offered on the Forte, depending on trim level.
The LX is equipped with the familiar 1.8-litre inline four-cylinder producing 148 hp and 131 lb/ft of torque with a standard six-speed manual transmission driving the front wheel with a six-speed automatic optional.
On the EX and SX trims, this engine has been increased in size to 2.0-litres with gasoline direct injection resulting in a significant increase in power to 173 hp and 154 lb/ft with the six-speed automatic as standard with optional steering wheel mounted paddle shifters for those who care about these kinds of things.
A luxury feature which I believe is a first for small cars is the Forte’s available “FlexSteer” electric power steering that allows the driver to change the ride feel three ways—Comfort, Normal and Sport.
FlexSteer is light years away from the first generation of electric steering with its ratchet wrench stiffness. Steering on the Forte is fluid and communicative and the difference between the three modes was noticeable.
Sport, for example, was true on centre but taut, a feeling made more so by the shape and size of the steering wheel which was perfect for me.
Comfort was just that and it’s lighter feel is appreciated in low-speed situations, especially parking.
Kia being Kia, they are constantly honing and retooling their products and that holds true on the 2014 Forte with a revised MacPherson front suspension system with larger bushings. At the back, the torsion beam suspension has been tuned to match the stiffer body platform and the wider stance of the tire footprint.
Kia skews its vehicles towards European ride/handling partly because Kias are very popular over there thus we get the benefit of that engineering.
The car I drove was a U.S.-spec EX Plus which more closely equates to the SX model we will get in Canada.
My co-driver and I covered a lot of ground to the north and east of Phoenix, much of it on freeways with a nice mix of mountain roads thrown in.
With the extra torque of the 2.0-litre, the Forte was quick off the ramp onto the highway and I could pick my spot even with traffic moving around 80 mph. Lane changes were made without effort with the torque coming on song right when it was needed.
Up in the mountains, we were as high as 4,938 feet at one point with the ascent steep enough to cause our ears to pop all the way to the top.
Once again it was the torque that made the difference with no howl of protest from the engine and the transmission shifting back and forth depending on the grade with the actual shift barely noticeable and that mostly because of the change in sound of the motor.
Everybody now knows about Peter Schreyer, the styling guru Kia stole from Audi and how he literally changed the face of Kia with his signature “tiger mouth” grille and liquid bodylines.
I first met him four years ago at the launch of the first generation Forte, which was the first Kia to sport the Schreyer look.
This time the Forte is 5 mm wider, 25 mm lower and wheelbase has been increased to 2,700 mm, just the palate Schreyer needed for the next generation look.
The grille retains the signature shape but it has more glam adding to the overall it-looks-luxury image the Forte carries.
The luxury sedan look is enhanced by available LED lighting that flank the grille as well as available high-intensity discharge (HID) headlights.
The swept-back, lower roofline and very strong character line on the flanks make the Forte appear sporting for a humble econo sedan.
But where the real econo-as-luxury DNA of the Forte really comes through is in the cabin.
Imagine available 10-way heated and cooled front driver’s seat, heated back seats and a heated steering wheel with controls for all the major functions like phone, audio and cruise.
There are several interior material choices and you can have carbon fibre look accents if you chose.
Other available luxury items include climate control, air ionizer, enhanced LCD/TFT Supervision cluster, smart key push button start/stop, proximity puddle lighting, navigation and rear air ventilation.
Standard features include Bluetooth hands-free connectivity, satellite radio, power windows and locks, AUX/USB inputs, trip computer and acres of soft-touch materials.
The Forte does not scrimp on safety with six-airbags, ABS with Brake Assist Control (BAS), Electronic Stability Control (ESC), Hill Assist Control (HAC) and standard Vehicle Stability Management (VSM) that automatically intervenes when it senses understeer or oversteer.
2013年2月17日星期日
Horsemeat scandal linked to secret network of firms
Europe's unfolding horsemeat scandal took a new twist on Saturday when it emerged that key intermediaries involved in the trade appeared to be using a similar secretive network of companies to the convicted arms trafficker Viktor Bout.
The Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) identified an intermediary firm, Draap Trading, based in Limassol, Cyprus, as playing a pivotal role in shipping horsemeat across Europe.
Draap has confirmed that it bought horsemeat from two Romanian abattoirs. The company sold the meat to French food processors including Spanghero, which supplied another French company, Comigel, that turned it into frozen meals for the likes of food firm Findus, some of which had a meat content that was almost 100% horse.
Draap, which is owned by a trust in the British Virgin Islands tax haven, insists the meat it sold into France was labelled as horse. Spanghero says the meat arrived labelled "beef". Jan Fasen, who runs Draap and has denied any wrongdoing, was convicted last year of selling South American horsemeat as German and Dutch beef.
In a development that sheds light on the mysterious networks operating in the European food chain, it has emerged that Draap's sole director is an anonymous corporate services company called Guardstand, set up in 1996 and based in Limassol.
A 2011 joint report by the International Peace Information Service and TransArms, an organisation which researches arms shipments, produced evidence that Guardstand also owned a share in a business called Ilex Ventures, a connection that links the company to the global arms trade and Viktor Bout.
Documents filed in a New York court by US prosecutors allege that in 2007 Bout and an associate transferred almost $750,000 (483,000) to Ilex for the purchase of aircraft to fly arms and ammunition around Africa's trouble spots in breach of embargos.
The prosecutors said Ilex was owned and controlled by Bout, an international weapons dealer known as the "merchant of death", who last April was sentenced to 25 years in jail for arms smuggling.
But who owns Guardstand and why Draap employs it as a director is a mystery that is likely to be studied closely by fraud investigators. Guardstand's sole shareholder is Trident Trust, a business based in Cyprus that specialises in establishing companies in tax havens chiefly for Russian and Ukrainian clients and which helped set up Ilex.
Petros Livanios, who runs Trident and was once a director of Ilex, declined the Observer's requests for an interview.
While there is no suggestion anyone at Trident was aware Guardstand may have been exploited by criminal networks, the opaque nature of its ownership will be a concern for investigators trying to unpick the web of interests that facilitate Europe's meat trade.
"This illustrates why hidden company ownership is such a problem," said Rosie Sharpe, of the campaign group Global Witness. "It could be all too easy for crooks passing horsemeat off as beef, arms dealers fuelling wars or corrupt dictators nicking their country's wealth to set up a company if they so wished. The ownership or control of European companies can be hidden perfectly legally by using nominees or companies incorporated in secrecy jurisdictions."
Cyprus has been a favourite place through which former Soviet bloc oligarchs and military chiefs have laundered cash plundered from the privatisation programme of state assets that followed the end of the cold war. The island is seeking an EU bailout, but Germany is known to be balking at the prospect unless it reforms its offshore services industry.
"Cypriot companies frequently turn up in criminal investigations," Sharpe said. "They have been used by the Iranian government to evade sanctions, by Slobodan Milosevic to provide arms for the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo, and by Russian officials who used them to steal hundreds of millions of pounds." Last week the French authorities claimed the scandal had spread to 13 countries and 28 companies. Sorin Minea, head of Romalimenta, the Romanian food industry federation, blamed the crisis on "an international mafia ring".
Christos Christou, Cyprus's public health services deputy director, said investigators had seized a "variety of documents" from Draap's Limassol office which it would share with the European commission.
The scandal, which started in January when authorities in the UK and Ireland found traces of equine DNA in supermarket burgers, has raised concerns that criminal networks may be playing a role in the food chain. What seemed a UK and Ireland problem is becoming a major concern for many EU member states as they conduct tests to establish the security of their food chains.
Several slaughtermen in the UK have been arrested in connection with the UK arm of the scandal. On Thursday the Food Standards Agency raided three more meat processing plants and removed samples for testing, computers and documents.
The FSA said it had passed on evidence to Europol, the European Union's law enforcement agency, as well as authorities in dozens of countries, suggesting at least part of the fraud has an international dimension.
As the scandal spread to school dinners and some of the UK's largest catering firms and restaurants, Catherine Brown, chief executive of the FSA, said it was unlikely that the exact number of people in the UK who had unwittingly eaten horsemeat would ever be known.
Her comments came as the FSA released test results for possible horsemeat contamination.
The watchdog said 2,501 tests were conducted on beef products, with 29 results positive for undeclared horsemeat at or above 1%. The results related to seven different products, which have been withdrawn from sale. The products linked to the positive results were confirmed as Aldi's special frozen beef lasagne and special frozen spaghetti bolognese, the Co-op's frozen quarter-pounder burgers, Findus beef lasagne, Rangeland's catering burger products, and Tesco value frozen burgers and value spaghetti bolognese.
Pub and hotel group Whitbread said its meat lasagnes and beefburgers had been affected. The firm, which owns Premier Inn, Beefeater Grill and Brewers Fayre, said the products had been removed from menus and would not be replaced until after further testing.
Tesco chief executive Philip Clarke yesterday emailed customers to tell them the supermarket was introducing "a new benchmark for the testing of products, to give you confidence that if it isn't on the label, it isn't in the product."Figures released today by market analysts, Nielsen, show retail sales of frozen burgers are down 40% year-on-year in the wake of the horsemeat revelations.
The Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) identified an intermediary firm, Draap Trading, based in Limassol, Cyprus, as playing a pivotal role in shipping horsemeat across Europe.
Draap has confirmed that it bought horsemeat from two Romanian abattoirs. The company sold the meat to French food processors including Spanghero, which supplied another French company, Comigel, that turned it into frozen meals for the likes of food firm Findus, some of which had a meat content that was almost 100% horse.
Draap, which is owned by a trust in the British Virgin Islands tax haven, insists the meat it sold into France was labelled as horse. Spanghero says the meat arrived labelled "beef". Jan Fasen, who runs Draap and has denied any wrongdoing, was convicted last year of selling South American horsemeat as German and Dutch beef.
In a development that sheds light on the mysterious networks operating in the European food chain, it has emerged that Draap's sole director is an anonymous corporate services company called Guardstand, set up in 1996 and based in Limassol.
A 2011 joint report by the International Peace Information Service and TransArms, an organisation which researches arms shipments, produced evidence that Guardstand also owned a share in a business called Ilex Ventures, a connection that links the company to the global arms trade and Viktor Bout.
Documents filed in a New York court by US prosecutors allege that in 2007 Bout and an associate transferred almost $750,000 (483,000) to Ilex for the purchase of aircraft to fly arms and ammunition around Africa's trouble spots in breach of embargos.
The prosecutors said Ilex was owned and controlled by Bout, an international weapons dealer known as the "merchant of death", who last April was sentenced to 25 years in jail for arms smuggling.
But who owns Guardstand and why Draap employs it as a director is a mystery that is likely to be studied closely by fraud investigators. Guardstand's sole shareholder is Trident Trust, a business based in Cyprus that specialises in establishing companies in tax havens chiefly for Russian and Ukrainian clients and which helped set up Ilex.
Petros Livanios, who runs Trident and was once a director of Ilex, declined the Observer's requests for an interview.
While there is no suggestion anyone at Trident was aware Guardstand may have been exploited by criminal networks, the opaque nature of its ownership will be a concern for investigators trying to unpick the web of interests that facilitate Europe's meat trade.
"This illustrates why hidden company ownership is such a problem," said Rosie Sharpe, of the campaign group Global Witness. "It could be all too easy for crooks passing horsemeat off as beef, arms dealers fuelling wars or corrupt dictators nicking their country's wealth to set up a company if they so wished. The ownership or control of European companies can be hidden perfectly legally by using nominees or companies incorporated in secrecy jurisdictions."
Cyprus has been a favourite place through which former Soviet bloc oligarchs and military chiefs have laundered cash plundered from the privatisation programme of state assets that followed the end of the cold war. The island is seeking an EU bailout, but Germany is known to be balking at the prospect unless it reforms its offshore services industry.
"Cypriot companies frequently turn up in criminal investigations," Sharpe said. "They have been used by the Iranian government to evade sanctions, by Slobodan Milosevic to provide arms for the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo, and by Russian officials who used them to steal hundreds of millions of pounds." Last week the French authorities claimed the scandal had spread to 13 countries and 28 companies. Sorin Minea, head of Romalimenta, the Romanian food industry federation, blamed the crisis on "an international mafia ring".
Christos Christou, Cyprus's public health services deputy director, said investigators had seized a "variety of documents" from Draap's Limassol office which it would share with the European commission.
The scandal, which started in January when authorities in the UK and Ireland found traces of equine DNA in supermarket burgers, has raised concerns that criminal networks may be playing a role in the food chain. What seemed a UK and Ireland problem is becoming a major concern for many EU member states as they conduct tests to establish the security of their food chains.
Several slaughtermen in the UK have been arrested in connection with the UK arm of the scandal. On Thursday the Food Standards Agency raided three more meat processing plants and removed samples for testing, computers and documents.
The FSA said it had passed on evidence to Europol, the European Union's law enforcement agency, as well as authorities in dozens of countries, suggesting at least part of the fraud has an international dimension.
As the scandal spread to school dinners and some of the UK's largest catering firms and restaurants, Catherine Brown, chief executive of the FSA, said it was unlikely that the exact number of people in the UK who had unwittingly eaten horsemeat would ever be known.
Her comments came as the FSA released test results for possible horsemeat contamination.
The watchdog said 2,501 tests were conducted on beef products, with 29 results positive for undeclared horsemeat at or above 1%. The results related to seven different products, which have been withdrawn from sale. The products linked to the positive results were confirmed as Aldi's special frozen beef lasagne and special frozen spaghetti bolognese, the Co-op's frozen quarter-pounder burgers, Findus beef lasagne, Rangeland's catering burger products, and Tesco value frozen burgers and value spaghetti bolognese.
Pub and hotel group Whitbread said its meat lasagnes and beefburgers had been affected. The firm, which owns Premier Inn, Beefeater Grill and Brewers Fayre, said the products had been removed from menus and would not be replaced until after further testing.
Tesco chief executive Philip Clarke yesterday emailed customers to tell them the supermarket was introducing "a new benchmark for the testing of products, to give you confidence that if it isn't on the label, it isn't in the product."Figures released today by market analysts, Nielsen, show retail sales of frozen burgers are down 40% year-on-year in the wake of the horsemeat revelations.
2013年2月6日星期三
Nigeria’s Banking Industry Evolving despite Initial Tension
Although the banking industry in Nigeria has in the last three years undergone successive wide sweeping financial reforms that shook its very foundation and sparked a lot of controversy, tension and uncertainty. But as the dust gradually settles, most banks seem to have emerged stronger than they were before the storm. Hilton Etakoh reports.
When in July 2009, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria announced the result of a ‘Stress test’ (audit) conducted on the 24 banks in the country, in which 8 banks were declared technically insolvent and their CEOs dismissed, little did Nigerians know that the exercise was just the beginning of a wave of reforms that would change the face of banking in Nigeria for many years to come. A joint team of officials from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Nigeria Deposit insurance corporation (NDIC) had subjected the books of the different bans to stringent scrutiny that exposed major weaknesses in corporate governance, poor risk management practices, large scale insider dealings, stock market manipulation and reckless lending in several banks.
Eight banks including Oceanic Bank, Intercontinental Bank, Union Bank, AfriBank, Fin Bank, Bank PHB, Spring Bank and Equatorial Trust Bank were declared technically insolvent, chronically liquid and said to have eroded their shareholders’ fund. In a bid to rescue these troubled banks, the CBN injected N620 billion as loans into them to enhance their liquidity status. However, the most intriguing part of the unfolding scenario was the immediate dismissal, arrest and resultant trial of CEOs of the affected banks.
Sanusi went on to appoint an interim management team for each of the eight banks. The new management teams were given a mandate to steer the banks out of troubled waters to tranquil harbor. This intervention, Sanusi explained was aimed at stabilizing the troubled banks rather than liquidating them.
Three of the eight rescued banks, have since been nationalized, and placed under the management of Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON) that would oversee their recovery, growth and stability, and there after sell them to suitable investors within the next 2 to 3 years. The other five banks, after a compulsory recapitalization exercise, and due consultation and agreement with their respective shareholders, a number of merger and acquisition deals were endorsed. The deals saw Access Bank acquire Intercontinental Bank, Eco Bank acquired Oceanic Bank and Fin Bank became a part of First City Monument Bank. Capital Alliance bought stakes in Union Bank while Sterling Bank and Equatorial Trust Bank merged into a single bank.
Although Wema Bank and Unity Bank both passed the Sanusi’s stress test, their positions were however considered a bit fragile. Consequently the two banks were asked to recapitalize to mach the level of their operation or risk being reduced to regional banks. While Unity Bank successfully recapitalized and raised its capital base by additional N17.7 billion, Wema Bank however opted to become a regional bank. In all, the intervention played out without any loss of fund. Today the reform is being hailed as the only banking sector intervention or bailout where depositors did not lose their deposits. According to Sanusi, ‘‘Nigeria is the only country where no depositor has lost money. Nigeria is also the only country where the banks are responsible for the cost of the clean up exercise”. Moreover, the transparent and firm manner in which Sanusi carried out his banking sector intervention and bailout has gone a long way in restoring confidence in the banking sector.
In January 2010, Sanusi issued regulations limiting the tenure of CEOs of banks to a maximum of 10 years. Under the new regulation, CEOs were limited to two renewable terms of five years each. This forced some CEOs that had exceeded their tenures to resign. The regulation also disqualified ex-CEOs from serving as directors within three years after expiration of their tenures as CEO. The reason for this reform was to Improve corporate governance of banks by avoiding the ‘sit-tight syndrome’ that allowed bank chiefs to manage the banks as personal businesses rather than as public corporations accountable to shareholders, depositors and government regulators.
Sanusi also got the approved of the Federal Government to create the Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON) to purchase toxic assets from banks. It had the responsibility of holding, managing, realizing and disposing of banks assets including the collection of interest, principal and capital due, as well as taking over the collateral searing such assets. The company had within its first year acquired about N1.7 trillion toxic assets from the rescued banks.
Recently Mustapha Chike-Obi, Director of AMCON, disclosed that the company’s total assets comprising loans, investments and debts among others had reached about N5 trillion, making it the largest financial institution in Nigeria.
In yet another reform, the CBN directed all banks and financial institutions to adopt a uniform financial year end. Before now, financial year end varied among the different banks. Usually between January and May. Consequently the new regulation made it mandatory for all banks and discount houses to adopt December 31 as a uniform accounting year end. The former practice made financial comparison among banks difficult and also limited transparency of bank’s financial statements and results. The essence of the reform according to the CBN was to avoid regulatory arbitrage, and provide a level playing field for all operations.
Also the CBN had gone ahead to impose the International Financial Reporting standard (IFRS) on Nigerian banks to ensure greater disclosure and good corporate governance. The new system is also an attempt to instill discipline in the industry and further mitigate insiders’ abuse.
Earlier had suspended the former universal bank licenses granted to 24 banks in Nigeria and introduced new regional, national and international bank licenses based on new minimum capital requirement for regional banks was fixed at N10 billion ($ 65 million), N25 billion ($ 164 million) for national banks, and N50 billion ($ 329 million for international bank license. Formerly, all 24 banks had a minimum capital requirement of N25 billion and all operated as universal banks. A regional bank’s operation is restricted to just two geo-political zones of the country. Moreover banks were asked to specialize in their areas of strength such as SMES, Merchant/investment banking, forex trading, etc.
This, the CBN argued would ensure greater product diversity, deepen specialization, curb stock market manipulative activities, ensure greater market segmentation and improve overall structural stability of the banking sector. In addition, banks were also bared from using depositors’ fund for proprietary trading, venture capital investment, asset management, equity underwriting, etc.
In July 2010, Sansui’s CBN introduced the Nigerian Uniform Bank Account Number Scheme (NUBAN). The Scheme made it compulsory for Nigerian banks to a digit bank account number format for their customers. A nine months compliance period was allowed for banks to migrate to the new system.
Before now bank account numbers ranged from 12 to 15 digits. The CBN explained that the new format would promote best practices in the account number scheme and also eliminate some of the problems associated with the Automated Clearing House (ACH), thus enhancing the e-payment system.
In November 2010, the CBN directed all customers of banks and financial institutions to update their account information. According to the directive, customers who fail to update their information would have their bank accounts suspended. According to the CBN, the exercise was part of the Customer Due Diligence CDD which involves the Know Your Customer KYC compliance which is accepted worldwide as a tool for the fight against money laundering and terrorism financing.
In 2011, Sansui once more announced the new cash withdrawal lodgment policy that placed limits on the amount of money customers could lodge or withdraw from the bank without an extra charger. The initial limits were N150,000 and N1million for individual account holders and corporate account holders respectively.
The announcement caused a national outcry and debate that alarmed the CBN, forcing it to adjust the policy by raising the figures to N1 million and N5 million for individual and corporate customer’s respectively. The aim is to reduce the high dominance of cash in the Nigerian economy. The economy is still too heavily cash-driven in transaction of goods and services. Secondly, It is estimated that about 65% of the cash in circulation in the Nigeria economy is outside the banking system thus making it cumbersome for the CBN to carry out explain that the higher the volume of cash transaction in the economy, the higher the cost of cash management which constitutes a substantial part of the operating cost of banks that is passed on to customers in the form of bank charges and lending rates. In 2009, the direct cost of cash management to the banking industry was estimated at N114.5 billion and it is estimated to reach N192 billion in 2012.
When in July 2009, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria announced the result of a ‘Stress test’ (audit) conducted on the 24 banks in the country, in which 8 banks were declared technically insolvent and their CEOs dismissed, little did Nigerians know that the exercise was just the beginning of a wave of reforms that would change the face of banking in Nigeria for many years to come. A joint team of officials from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Nigeria Deposit insurance corporation (NDIC) had subjected the books of the different bans to stringent scrutiny that exposed major weaknesses in corporate governance, poor risk management practices, large scale insider dealings, stock market manipulation and reckless lending in several banks.
Eight banks including Oceanic Bank, Intercontinental Bank, Union Bank, AfriBank, Fin Bank, Bank PHB, Spring Bank and Equatorial Trust Bank were declared technically insolvent, chronically liquid and said to have eroded their shareholders’ fund. In a bid to rescue these troubled banks, the CBN injected N620 billion as loans into them to enhance their liquidity status. However, the most intriguing part of the unfolding scenario was the immediate dismissal, arrest and resultant trial of CEOs of the affected banks.
Sanusi went on to appoint an interim management team for each of the eight banks. The new management teams were given a mandate to steer the banks out of troubled waters to tranquil harbor. This intervention, Sanusi explained was aimed at stabilizing the troubled banks rather than liquidating them.
Three of the eight rescued banks, have since been nationalized, and placed under the management of Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON) that would oversee their recovery, growth and stability, and there after sell them to suitable investors within the next 2 to 3 years. The other five banks, after a compulsory recapitalization exercise, and due consultation and agreement with their respective shareholders, a number of merger and acquisition deals were endorsed. The deals saw Access Bank acquire Intercontinental Bank, Eco Bank acquired Oceanic Bank and Fin Bank became a part of First City Monument Bank. Capital Alliance bought stakes in Union Bank while Sterling Bank and Equatorial Trust Bank merged into a single bank.
Although Wema Bank and Unity Bank both passed the Sanusi’s stress test, their positions were however considered a bit fragile. Consequently the two banks were asked to recapitalize to mach the level of their operation or risk being reduced to regional banks. While Unity Bank successfully recapitalized and raised its capital base by additional N17.7 billion, Wema Bank however opted to become a regional bank. In all, the intervention played out without any loss of fund. Today the reform is being hailed as the only banking sector intervention or bailout where depositors did not lose their deposits. According to Sanusi, ‘‘Nigeria is the only country where no depositor has lost money. Nigeria is also the only country where the banks are responsible for the cost of the clean up exercise”. Moreover, the transparent and firm manner in which Sanusi carried out his banking sector intervention and bailout has gone a long way in restoring confidence in the banking sector.
In January 2010, Sanusi issued regulations limiting the tenure of CEOs of banks to a maximum of 10 years. Under the new regulation, CEOs were limited to two renewable terms of five years each. This forced some CEOs that had exceeded their tenures to resign. The regulation also disqualified ex-CEOs from serving as directors within three years after expiration of their tenures as CEO. The reason for this reform was to Improve corporate governance of banks by avoiding the ‘sit-tight syndrome’ that allowed bank chiefs to manage the banks as personal businesses rather than as public corporations accountable to shareholders, depositors and government regulators.
Sanusi also got the approved of the Federal Government to create the Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON) to purchase toxic assets from banks. It had the responsibility of holding, managing, realizing and disposing of banks assets including the collection of interest, principal and capital due, as well as taking over the collateral searing such assets. The company had within its first year acquired about N1.7 trillion toxic assets from the rescued banks.
Recently Mustapha Chike-Obi, Director of AMCON, disclosed that the company’s total assets comprising loans, investments and debts among others had reached about N5 trillion, making it the largest financial institution in Nigeria.
In yet another reform, the CBN directed all banks and financial institutions to adopt a uniform financial year end. Before now, financial year end varied among the different banks. Usually between January and May. Consequently the new regulation made it mandatory for all banks and discount houses to adopt December 31 as a uniform accounting year end. The former practice made financial comparison among banks difficult and also limited transparency of bank’s financial statements and results. The essence of the reform according to the CBN was to avoid regulatory arbitrage, and provide a level playing field for all operations.
Also the CBN had gone ahead to impose the International Financial Reporting standard (IFRS) on Nigerian banks to ensure greater disclosure and good corporate governance. The new system is also an attempt to instill discipline in the industry and further mitigate insiders’ abuse.
Earlier had suspended the former universal bank licenses granted to 24 banks in Nigeria and introduced new regional, national and international bank licenses based on new minimum capital requirement for regional banks was fixed at N10 billion ($ 65 million), N25 billion ($ 164 million) for national banks, and N50 billion ($ 329 million for international bank license. Formerly, all 24 banks had a minimum capital requirement of N25 billion and all operated as universal banks. A regional bank’s operation is restricted to just two geo-political zones of the country. Moreover banks were asked to specialize in their areas of strength such as SMES, Merchant/investment banking, forex trading, etc.
This, the CBN argued would ensure greater product diversity, deepen specialization, curb stock market manipulative activities, ensure greater market segmentation and improve overall structural stability of the banking sector. In addition, banks were also bared from using depositors’ fund for proprietary trading, venture capital investment, asset management, equity underwriting, etc.
In July 2010, Sansui’s CBN introduced the Nigerian Uniform Bank Account Number Scheme (NUBAN). The Scheme made it compulsory for Nigerian banks to a digit bank account number format for their customers. A nine months compliance period was allowed for banks to migrate to the new system.
Before now bank account numbers ranged from 12 to 15 digits. The CBN explained that the new format would promote best practices in the account number scheme and also eliminate some of the problems associated with the Automated Clearing House (ACH), thus enhancing the e-payment system.
In November 2010, the CBN directed all customers of banks and financial institutions to update their account information. According to the directive, customers who fail to update their information would have their bank accounts suspended. According to the CBN, the exercise was part of the Customer Due Diligence CDD which involves the Know Your Customer KYC compliance which is accepted worldwide as a tool for the fight against money laundering and terrorism financing.
In 2011, Sansui once more announced the new cash withdrawal lodgment policy that placed limits on the amount of money customers could lodge or withdraw from the bank without an extra charger. The initial limits were N150,000 and N1million for individual account holders and corporate account holders respectively.
The announcement caused a national outcry and debate that alarmed the CBN, forcing it to adjust the policy by raising the figures to N1 million and N5 million for individual and corporate customer’s respectively. The aim is to reduce the high dominance of cash in the Nigerian economy. The economy is still too heavily cash-driven in transaction of goods and services. Secondly, It is estimated that about 65% of the cash in circulation in the Nigeria economy is outside the banking system thus making it cumbersome for the CBN to carry out explain that the higher the volume of cash transaction in the economy, the higher the cost of cash management which constitutes a substantial part of the operating cost of banks that is passed on to customers in the form of bank charges and lending rates. In 2009, the direct cost of cash management to the banking industry was estimated at N114.5 billion and it is estimated to reach N192 billion in 2012.
The Nova Effect
On the 25th of October, Durham saw the launch of new club night Nova- attracting music connoisseurs in their droves to the much-loved Fabio’s for a fresh house music experience. The night was a triumph, and due to popular demand Nova has since been forced to move to the larger venue of Loft (aka Rifts- above Studio) with an increased capacity of over five hundred.
Nova all started with three friends who were fed up with the lack of music diversity in Durham. Yousef Al-Qatami (Trevelyan), Ollie Scott (Hild Bede) and Omar Ismail (also Hild Bede) put their heads together and decided it was high time to bring house to the mainstream masses of Durham. As is usually the case, with exciting new music came exciting new fashion trends that are usually left at home for the ritual Wednesday night Loveshack. Gone were the shirts, ties and chino’s and in came the top buttons, flat caps and crop tops.
To date, Nova has had four events and there are three more planned for later this term. Despite its relatively recent birth, the night has already started to see to some definitive trends occurring among its partygoers. Adventurous t-shirts sported by the boys have proved particularly popular- ranging from intricate Ganesh prints to Nova originals worn by Jack Breton and designed by Nova’s very own Ed Little. Greg Morrison also sported a distinctive electric Pegasus design.
The girls also pioneered some exciting trends, and there wasn’t a heel in sight as Reebok Classics, Nike Airmax and animal print creepers dominated the dance floor. Top to toe, the look was chilled and often finished with a knitted beanie (definitely a must in this weather). Laura Milone caught our eye with her silk poker dot harem pants; as did Juliette Monnet in her blue knitted crop top. However, our favourite look from the girls was a quirky combination of preppy and cool: for example a cable knit jumper, buttoned shirt, patterned tights and creepers, finished off with dark lipstick.
As the night grew in popularity with those wanting a break from the norm at Durham, the shirts got wilder and the patterns got bolder. Nova founder Yousef Al-Qatami set the tone with his psychedelic fluorescent jumper while Oxford guest Tunji Adenyi-Jones was spotted in a flamboyant patterned shirt. Ed Little also scored points by teaming his tribal shirt with a Looney Toons ‘Bugs Bunny’ Flat cap.
Before we begin today’s conference, I have been asked to read the following forward-looking statements. This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 as amended. Such forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements regarding trends in the semiconductor industry and our future results of operations, financial condition and business prospects.
Although such statements are based on our own information and information from other sources we believe to be reliable; you should not place undue reliance on them. These statements involve risks and uncertainties and actual market trends and our results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in these forward-looking statements for a variety of reasons.
Potential risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to continued competitive pressure in the semiconductor industry and the effect of such pressure on prices, unpredictable changes in technology and consumer demand for multimedia consumer electronics, the state of, and any change in our relationship with our major customers and changes in political, economic, legal and social conditions in Taiwan.
For additional discussion of these risks and uncertainties and other factors, please see the documents we file from time-to-time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements which apply only as of the date of this press release.
For the second time in less than two weeks, the Greek government invoked rarely used emergency laws to order strikers back to work Tuesday - in a move designed to end a seamen's walkout that has left islands without ferry services and supplies for six days.
The decision by conservative Prime Minister Antonis Samaras to declare ferry crews under civil mobilization came after their unions voted to extend the strike until early Friday. Seamen who refuse to comply risk arrest and jail time of up to five years - although a union leader said workers would try to defy the order.
Samaras' three-party coalition government is facing a strong backlash from unions over new austerity policies forced upon it by international creditors, whose bailout loans are shielding debt-heavy Greece from bankruptcy.
The country's main unions have called a general strike for Feb. 20.
Merchant Marine Minister Costas Mousouroulis said the government did what it could to address seamen's demands for payment of salaries more than six months in arrears and the signing of collective work contracts with ferry companies.
"Unfortunately, arteriosclerotic and petty political views prevailed, not allowing (the end of the strike) so that our islands could regain their only means of communication with each other and the mainland," Mousouroulis said.
Samaras' government had previously hinted heavily that it would mobilize the seamen unless they stopped the strike. The rarely-invoked order was also issued last month to end a protracted walkout by Athens underground rail workers.
The Merchant Marine Ministry said ferry schedules could resume later Tuesday, depending on how fast strikers are served their mobilization papers.
But seamen's union leader Yiannis Halas urged ferry crews to resist.
"(The mobilization) will solve none of our problems," he told a protest gathering of about 1,500 seamen and supporters in the capital's port of Piraeus, Greece's largest. "We ask the crews to stay away from their ships and stay here. Courage and strength to all of us."
The strike has already had an impact on islanders, many of whom rely on the mainland for basic everyday supplies. An island trade and commerce association warned that the seamen's walkout poses a substantial threat to small businesses in the archipelago, which already face severe pressure due to Greece's three-year financial crisis.
Nova all started with three friends who were fed up with the lack of music diversity in Durham. Yousef Al-Qatami (Trevelyan), Ollie Scott (Hild Bede) and Omar Ismail (also Hild Bede) put their heads together and decided it was high time to bring house to the mainstream masses of Durham. As is usually the case, with exciting new music came exciting new fashion trends that are usually left at home for the ritual Wednesday night Loveshack. Gone were the shirts, ties and chino’s and in came the top buttons, flat caps and crop tops.
To date, Nova has had four events and there are three more planned for later this term. Despite its relatively recent birth, the night has already started to see to some definitive trends occurring among its partygoers. Adventurous t-shirts sported by the boys have proved particularly popular- ranging from intricate Ganesh prints to Nova originals worn by Jack Breton and designed by Nova’s very own Ed Little. Greg Morrison also sported a distinctive electric Pegasus design.
The girls also pioneered some exciting trends, and there wasn’t a heel in sight as Reebok Classics, Nike Airmax and animal print creepers dominated the dance floor. Top to toe, the look was chilled and often finished with a knitted beanie (definitely a must in this weather). Laura Milone caught our eye with her silk poker dot harem pants; as did Juliette Monnet in her blue knitted crop top. However, our favourite look from the girls was a quirky combination of preppy and cool: for example a cable knit jumper, buttoned shirt, patterned tights and creepers, finished off with dark lipstick.
As the night grew in popularity with those wanting a break from the norm at Durham, the shirts got wilder and the patterns got bolder. Nova founder Yousef Al-Qatami set the tone with his psychedelic fluorescent jumper while Oxford guest Tunji Adenyi-Jones was spotted in a flamboyant patterned shirt. Ed Little also scored points by teaming his tribal shirt with a Looney Toons ‘Bugs Bunny’ Flat cap.
Before we begin today’s conference, I have been asked to read the following forward-looking statements. This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 as amended. Such forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements regarding trends in the semiconductor industry and our future results of operations, financial condition and business prospects.
Although such statements are based on our own information and information from other sources we believe to be reliable; you should not place undue reliance on them. These statements involve risks and uncertainties and actual market trends and our results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in these forward-looking statements for a variety of reasons.
Potential risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to continued competitive pressure in the semiconductor industry and the effect of such pressure on prices, unpredictable changes in technology and consumer demand for multimedia consumer electronics, the state of, and any change in our relationship with our major customers and changes in political, economic, legal and social conditions in Taiwan.
For additional discussion of these risks and uncertainties and other factors, please see the documents we file from time-to-time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements which apply only as of the date of this press release.
For the second time in less than two weeks, the Greek government invoked rarely used emergency laws to order strikers back to work Tuesday - in a move designed to end a seamen's walkout that has left islands without ferry services and supplies for six days.
The decision by conservative Prime Minister Antonis Samaras to declare ferry crews under civil mobilization came after their unions voted to extend the strike until early Friday. Seamen who refuse to comply risk arrest and jail time of up to five years - although a union leader said workers would try to defy the order.
Samaras' three-party coalition government is facing a strong backlash from unions over new austerity policies forced upon it by international creditors, whose bailout loans are shielding debt-heavy Greece from bankruptcy.
The country's main unions have called a general strike for Feb. 20.
Merchant Marine Minister Costas Mousouroulis said the government did what it could to address seamen's demands for payment of salaries more than six months in arrears and the signing of collective work contracts with ferry companies.
"Unfortunately, arteriosclerotic and petty political views prevailed, not allowing (the end of the strike) so that our islands could regain their only means of communication with each other and the mainland," Mousouroulis said.
Samaras' government had previously hinted heavily that it would mobilize the seamen unless they stopped the strike. The rarely-invoked order was also issued last month to end a protracted walkout by Athens underground rail workers.
The Merchant Marine Ministry said ferry schedules could resume later Tuesday, depending on how fast strikers are served their mobilization papers.
But seamen's union leader Yiannis Halas urged ferry crews to resist.
"(The mobilization) will solve none of our problems," he told a protest gathering of about 1,500 seamen and supporters in the capital's port of Piraeus, Greece's largest. "We ask the crews to stay away from their ships and stay here. Courage and strength to all of us."
The strike has already had an impact on islanders, many of whom rely on the mainland for basic everyday supplies. An island trade and commerce association warned that the seamen's walkout poses a substantial threat to small businesses in the archipelago, which already face severe pressure due to Greece's three-year financial crisis.
2013年2月4日星期一
Cramped Quarters Gardening
No matter how small your apartment or how limited your desk space at work, there’s always room for a little plant life. In fact, having plants around you at work can help with your psychological health as well your physical well being. According to a recent study conducted by the Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture at Washington State University, placing potted plants in a windowless workplace was shown to help increase employee productivity and attentiveness while at the same time reducing stress. And having a home garden can not only provide you with a stress-reducing activity, it’s also an inexpensive way to keep healthy greens on hand year round.
Plants’ ability to fight indoor air pollution has been recognized by organizations such as the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA), which conducted a two year study on the effect of potted plants on “sick building syndrome.” The study found that plants such as bamboo palm, ficus, peace lily, and Chinese evergreen were effective at purifying the air, and spider plants helped to reduce the amount of airborne formaldehyde. Chrysanthemums and gerbera daisy were also beneficial in scrubbing the air of benzene, a carcinogen mainly found in tobacco smoke, exhaust and industrial emissions.
Other plants that do well in low light and don’t mind a little neglect include philodendrons, spider plants and snake plants. Rubber plants are also good at removing air pollutants and English ivy has been known to help eliminate mold.
The first step is to determine how much sunlight your selected garden space gets every day. This could be a balcony or fire escape, a window sill, a window, a sun-lit handrail, or even an empty outdoor wall if your landlord grants you permission to use it.
Finding out the amount of sun exposure your garden space gets can be a tedious process. Some people choose to take hourly pictures of the space during the planting season (late spring to early fall) and others mark the sunny spots hourly with chalk. If you don’t have the time to hang out and take pictures on the hour, however, you could check out the sun’s movement around your neighborhood using the SunCalc app or leave your smartphone at home for the day and use a time lapse app to take pictures of your garden area during daylight hours.
If your garden space gets six or more hours of sunlight, you can plant it with full sun foliage. Four to five hours is considered partial sun and two to four hours is partial shade. Less than one hour of sunlight works best for shade plants.
Now the fun part—planting! Once you know how much sunlight your plants are going to receive, finding a place to grow them can lead to some creative innovating and repurposing. I’ve seen gardens grown in just about everything, from fragments of old tires to wine boxes and even old rubber boots. Following are a few ideas for planting in cramped spaces.
Take a plastic bottle and make sure the cap is screwed tightly on the top. Then turn the bottle upside down, cut off the bottom (now the top) and punch four holes equidistant from each other around the top of the perimeter. Run some strong wire, rope or twine through the holes to hang the bottle from and fill the bottle with gravel at the bottom and a mix of half potting soil, half mushroom compost. Plant your greenery, hang and you’re done! Water your plants as required and unscrew the cap on the bottom every once in a while to filter off the used water. You can also take it a step further and decorate the outside of the bottle by painting it, covering it in decorative cloth or even doing a creative decoupage.
If you have a little wall space, or can borrow some, you can create a quick vertical garden with several plastic plant pots and an old wooden palette. To make the garden, knock out every other slat in the palette and lean it against the wall where you want it to stay. Then wedge the plant pots in the space between the slats. Fill each pot with a small layer of gravel and then a mix of potting soil and mushroom compost, plant and you’re done.
With the floor space provided by an outdoor balcony or fire escape, consider planting some vertical and/or sprawling plants on lengths of chicken wire or even butcher’s twine spaced about one to one and a half inches apart and up to three feet high. Above the vine plants you can place hanging baskets and around them you can do layers of potted plants with plants that require more shade placed half under a small shelf and half sun plants above that. Consider doing some companion gardening as well in order to maximize your garden space. The three sisters—corn, beans and squash—grow well together, and flowers such as marigolds and mint help to keep insects away. Be careful with the mint, however, as it is invasive and can quickly overtake a potted plant. It might be wise to plant these separately and place them among your other pots.
Plants’ ability to fight indoor air pollution has been recognized by organizations such as the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA), which conducted a two year study on the effect of potted plants on “sick building syndrome.” The study found that plants such as bamboo palm, ficus, peace lily, and Chinese evergreen were effective at purifying the air, and spider plants helped to reduce the amount of airborne formaldehyde. Chrysanthemums and gerbera daisy were also beneficial in scrubbing the air of benzene, a carcinogen mainly found in tobacco smoke, exhaust and industrial emissions.
Other plants that do well in low light and don’t mind a little neglect include philodendrons, spider plants and snake plants. Rubber plants are also good at removing air pollutants and English ivy has been known to help eliminate mold.
The first step is to determine how much sunlight your selected garden space gets every day. This could be a balcony or fire escape, a window sill, a window, a sun-lit handrail, or even an empty outdoor wall if your landlord grants you permission to use it.
Finding out the amount of sun exposure your garden space gets can be a tedious process. Some people choose to take hourly pictures of the space during the planting season (late spring to early fall) and others mark the sunny spots hourly with chalk. If you don’t have the time to hang out and take pictures on the hour, however, you could check out the sun’s movement around your neighborhood using the SunCalc app or leave your smartphone at home for the day and use a time lapse app to take pictures of your garden area during daylight hours.
If your garden space gets six or more hours of sunlight, you can plant it with full sun foliage. Four to five hours is considered partial sun and two to four hours is partial shade. Less than one hour of sunlight works best for shade plants.
Now the fun part—planting! Once you know how much sunlight your plants are going to receive, finding a place to grow them can lead to some creative innovating and repurposing. I’ve seen gardens grown in just about everything, from fragments of old tires to wine boxes and even old rubber boots. Following are a few ideas for planting in cramped spaces.
Take a plastic bottle and make sure the cap is screwed tightly on the top. Then turn the bottle upside down, cut off the bottom (now the top) and punch four holes equidistant from each other around the top of the perimeter. Run some strong wire, rope or twine through the holes to hang the bottle from and fill the bottle with gravel at the bottom and a mix of half potting soil, half mushroom compost. Plant your greenery, hang and you’re done! Water your plants as required and unscrew the cap on the bottom every once in a while to filter off the used water. You can also take it a step further and decorate the outside of the bottle by painting it, covering it in decorative cloth or even doing a creative decoupage.
If you have a little wall space, or can borrow some, you can create a quick vertical garden with several plastic plant pots and an old wooden palette. To make the garden, knock out every other slat in the palette and lean it against the wall where you want it to stay. Then wedge the plant pots in the space between the slats. Fill each pot with a small layer of gravel and then a mix of potting soil and mushroom compost, plant and you’re done.
With the floor space provided by an outdoor balcony or fire escape, consider planting some vertical and/or sprawling plants on lengths of chicken wire or even butcher’s twine spaced about one to one and a half inches apart and up to three feet high. Above the vine plants you can place hanging baskets and around them you can do layers of potted plants with plants that require more shade placed half under a small shelf and half sun plants above that. Consider doing some companion gardening as well in order to maximize your garden space. The three sisters—corn, beans and squash—grow well together, and flowers such as marigolds and mint help to keep insects away. Be careful with the mint, however, as it is invasive and can quickly overtake a potted plant. It might be wise to plant these separately and place them among your other pots.
Diverse print show poses edgy questions
No one has been more active in mounting print shows recently than Bruce Brown, curator emeritus of the Center for Maine Contemporary Art. His "Prints: Breaking Boundaries" at the Portland Public Library is a good show. But it's also an important show, although a casual visit might not reveal why.
"Breaking Boundaries" is wildly diverse, and you might take this either way on first glance: You might think it lacks a compelling unifying theme, or you might get the idea that Maine has a ranging and highly energized printmaking culture.
But honest survey exhibits seek disparate range, and if Brown has anything to offer, it's range.
"Breaking Boundaries," sponsored by the CMCA, is a lousy title, because it brings to mind iconoclastically anti-establishment energies, and that's not what's bubbling in the conceptual undercurrents. These works use the professional tactics and techniques of printmaking to reach across boundaries to conceptually common ground.
Few pieces stand out as you enter. You first see Ellen Roberts' giant "Light," which you might think is a banner sign, then Kristin Fitzpatrick's "Roof," a hanging rooftop form that is weak from above but comes alive architecturally when you look up through the backlit woodcut "shingles." I don't like it, but it's a revealing piece.
The work of Tanner Gasco-Wiggin impressed me. It's an Oak Street scene in spray paint and orange cheesecloth pretending to be a farm barn and silo. It's smart, sharp and conceptually restive.
This raises questions: Are students focusing on printmaking because they get lots of art from one matrix? Do they leave printmaking after school because it is cost-prohibitive? Or are they drawn to current conceptual ideas analogous to a post-digital digestion of Walter Benjamin's "Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction"?
I am inclined to think it's all of these and more. Specifically, I think the professional/technical qualities of printmaking make it the logical medium for the process/finish-oriented conceptualism we're seeing throughout Maine. Prints also stem from the intellectual epicenter of the post-Warhol, digital, Etsy-market style of the art world in which younger artists have grown up. The original and its aura, after all, are dissolved by iTunes, digital printing and the Internet.
While photography is suffering a digitally-inspired existential crisis, printmaking is enjoying a golden moment. Artists across mediums are being drawn to technical processes such as encaustic painting, wet-plate photography, glass blowing and printmaking.
Since the Internet became ubiquitous, fine print markets -- unlike photography -- have been professionally solid. This only increases the appeal of artists who then make unique interventions with the prints.
That is where "Breaking Boundaries" offers particularly interesting insights. Some artists, such as Elizabeth Jabar and Holly Berry, accessorize their works into sculpture (Berry's fold-out visual recipe book for squash soup is wonderful).
Shawn Brewer's classical architectural fantasy objects can be cut out and assembled (a before/after pair is on view), yet their brilliance is in the subtle dare: Could you take scissors to an etching?
I adore Meg Brown Payson's large (15 feet), subtle and quietly gorgeous "Silkwall" -- a lithograph/drawing hybrid that mobilizes the texture aesthetics of a biologically microscopic world to challenge abstract painting. The transparent silk floats 4 inches above the wall on which Payson has drawn similar images so that -- with feints and wit -- they echo each other.
I hardly have the space to list all my favorites, let alone discuss them, but highlights include our beloved Will Barnet's elegant "Interlude," Tom Hall's smartly boot-stomped landscape "John Muir once said," Henry Wolyniec's serious but dance-jumpy retro abstraction "HW12.25," Adriane Herman's symmetrically hilarious travel-spill luggage disaster "You Lose, You Ooze" and Karen Adrienne's elegantly messaged and politically unfurled abstraction ".
The most insightful, complex and important piece is Kyle Bryant's large woodblock mounted on shaped wood, "The Mouth of the Lion." Bryant reaches uncomfortably but agilely from giant-scale woodblock through art history directly into street art. The black-ink scene shows an urban house as a monster face: A terrifyingly overlooked reservoir of revolutionary energy.
The building is self-titled and graffiti-tagged, including Bryant's own signature as the house monster's ironically omniscient third eye.
Bryant is not only navigating art history within the image, but he is engaging -- and conceptually surpassing -- overrated but important artists like Swoon who have made the guerrilla-style wheatpaste art movement into a genuine cultural force.
Walter Benjamin's groundbreaking 1936 "Work of Art" essay assumes a worthy original work of art whose meaning and aura could be crushed by the weight of its reproductions. But Warhol showed us those reproductions could create overwhelming cultural power that, until he came along, had not been mobilized in fine art.
With process and conceptual art, the Internet, water-based inks, Etsy, digital printing and photography all at their fingertips, artists now have a bag of tricks unlike any other in history. They aren't caught up, like most of us always have been, in artifacts.
"Breaking Boundaries" is wildly diverse, and you might take this either way on first glance: You might think it lacks a compelling unifying theme, or you might get the idea that Maine has a ranging and highly energized printmaking culture.
But honest survey exhibits seek disparate range, and if Brown has anything to offer, it's range.
"Breaking Boundaries," sponsored by the CMCA, is a lousy title, because it brings to mind iconoclastically anti-establishment energies, and that's not what's bubbling in the conceptual undercurrents. These works use the professional tactics and techniques of printmaking to reach across boundaries to conceptually common ground.
Few pieces stand out as you enter. You first see Ellen Roberts' giant "Light," which you might think is a banner sign, then Kristin Fitzpatrick's "Roof," a hanging rooftop form that is weak from above but comes alive architecturally when you look up through the backlit woodcut "shingles." I don't like it, but it's a revealing piece.
The work of Tanner Gasco-Wiggin impressed me. It's an Oak Street scene in spray paint and orange cheesecloth pretending to be a farm barn and silo. It's smart, sharp and conceptually restive.
This raises questions: Are students focusing on printmaking because they get lots of art from one matrix? Do they leave printmaking after school because it is cost-prohibitive? Or are they drawn to current conceptual ideas analogous to a post-digital digestion of Walter Benjamin's "Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction"?
I am inclined to think it's all of these and more. Specifically, I think the professional/technical qualities of printmaking make it the logical medium for the process/finish-oriented conceptualism we're seeing throughout Maine. Prints also stem from the intellectual epicenter of the post-Warhol, digital, Etsy-market style of the art world in which younger artists have grown up. The original and its aura, after all, are dissolved by iTunes, digital printing and the Internet.
While photography is suffering a digitally-inspired existential crisis, printmaking is enjoying a golden moment. Artists across mediums are being drawn to technical processes such as encaustic painting, wet-plate photography, glass blowing and printmaking.
Since the Internet became ubiquitous, fine print markets -- unlike photography -- have been professionally solid. This only increases the appeal of artists who then make unique interventions with the prints.
That is where "Breaking Boundaries" offers particularly interesting insights. Some artists, such as Elizabeth Jabar and Holly Berry, accessorize their works into sculpture (Berry's fold-out visual recipe book for squash soup is wonderful).
Shawn Brewer's classical architectural fantasy objects can be cut out and assembled (a before/after pair is on view), yet their brilliance is in the subtle dare: Could you take scissors to an etching?
I adore Meg Brown Payson's large (15 feet), subtle and quietly gorgeous "Silkwall" -- a lithograph/drawing hybrid that mobilizes the texture aesthetics of a biologically microscopic world to challenge abstract painting. The transparent silk floats 4 inches above the wall on which Payson has drawn similar images so that -- with feints and wit -- they echo each other.
I hardly have the space to list all my favorites, let alone discuss them, but highlights include our beloved Will Barnet's elegant "Interlude," Tom Hall's smartly boot-stomped landscape "John Muir once said," Henry Wolyniec's serious but dance-jumpy retro abstraction "HW12.25," Adriane Herman's symmetrically hilarious travel-spill luggage disaster "You Lose, You Ooze" and Karen Adrienne's elegantly messaged and politically unfurled abstraction ".
The most insightful, complex and important piece is Kyle Bryant's large woodblock mounted on shaped wood, "The Mouth of the Lion." Bryant reaches uncomfortably but agilely from giant-scale woodblock through art history directly into street art. The black-ink scene shows an urban house as a monster face: A terrifyingly overlooked reservoir of revolutionary energy.
The building is self-titled and graffiti-tagged, including Bryant's own signature as the house monster's ironically omniscient third eye.
Bryant is not only navigating art history within the image, but he is engaging -- and conceptually surpassing -- overrated but important artists like Swoon who have made the guerrilla-style wheatpaste art movement into a genuine cultural force.
Walter Benjamin's groundbreaking 1936 "Work of Art" essay assumes a worthy original work of art whose meaning and aura could be crushed by the weight of its reproductions. But Warhol showed us those reproductions could create overwhelming cultural power that, until he came along, had not been mobilized in fine art.
With process and conceptual art, the Internet, water-based inks, Etsy, digital printing and photography all at their fingertips, artists now have a bag of tricks unlike any other in history. They aren't caught up, like most of us always have been, in artifacts.
BHSU assistant professor’s art show features
In his most recent art exhibit, Black Hills State University assistant professor Dustin Hinson combines the unique topographies of the Earth’s surface with random lines, shapes and contours to create abstract pieces that provide some sense of reality.
The exhibit titled “Imaginary Topographies” runs through Feb. 15 at the Apex art gallery on the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology campus. A reception with Hinson is scheduled for Friday, Feb. 8 from 5-7 p.m. with an artist talk at 6 p.m.
The more than 30-piece mixed-media exhibit includes drawing, painting, sculpture, digital illustration, and motion graphics.
Each piece depicts an overhead view of the landscape including natural formations like islands, continents, rivers, and oceans, yet with an abstract twist, Hinson said.
“A few places in the artwork I used actual images such as the North Carolina coast, river deltas from the Ganges and the Mississippi River, but the majority are hand drawn illustrations from scratch,” he said. “They are a mesh between a bit of North Carolina, Ganges River, and some made up shapes that resemble topography.”
Hinson said he has done a lot of different things with his art throughout the years, but he always likes to include abstraction. While his current exhibit is abstract, it is reminiscent of something that the viewers will recognize, he said.
“It is abstraction; I am making up shapes, but the way they look calls to mind something that does exist,” Hinson said.
“I’ve always been attracted to maps based on their purely aesthetic qualities,” Hinson said in his artist’s statement. “They have a way of bringing a sense of order to the twisting and craggy edges of continents and islands. Rendering landmasses and bodies of water as simplified, drawn images produce something that is representative of a real space and at the same time an abstraction.”
While he usually switches subjects of his art quite frequently, Hinson said he really enjoyed working with topographies and may use them again as the subject of a future exhibit.
He also wants to explore a different way of presenting art to the public. “Digital is nice, even when it is motion graphics, but I really would like to see if I can push something into actual interaction – the ability for the person to change the artwork as they are viewing it.”
He retired as The Star’s chief photographer in July 2000 at the age of 65, ending 42 years in the newspaper industry, according to an article by Basil Penny, dated July 30, 2000, in The Star. His awards — which numbered in the hundreds and included recognitions from the Associated Press, Alabama Press Association and Press Photographers Association — gave testament to his skill with the camera, his genuine interest in people, and his knack for putting his subjects at ease.
But he had another passion. He liked taking up the paintbrush to tell a story, a part of his life that has kept a low profile until now. His subjects, primarily animals and flowers, reflect memories from the farms he knew as a young boy, according to Karen Elkins, his daughter. His TULIP series and PIGS are important examples of the light-hearted approach he took to his work.
Unlike most of the photojournalist’s black-and-white prints, Elkins’ oils and watercolors radiate almost every hue in the rainbow, with repetitions and many interpretations of the same subject. Exhibit viewers will see about 20 of his folk art pieces in Noble Gallery inside Nunnally’s custom framing on Noble Street. These include a few self-portraits and, in my view, a definite quality of contentment.
Elkins must have kept busy after retirement. His interests included family, bass fishing, painting and completing his 2005 book “Picture Taker,” a collection of his best photos of people in places such as Calhoun, Clay and Randolph counties. The book can be found at Karen Elkins’ art gallery in Quintard Mall.
Brogi defines her silver jewelry, on display in Noble Gallery’s loft, as “wearable art.” The materials used in these pieces are sterling, pure silver, bronze or copper, and the gems are semiprecious or handmade glass beads from other artists, Brogi explains in her artist’s statement.
“My style came from two very different influences,” she adds. “First, I spent a decade in Italy as home base, haunting the museums in Europe. I was fascinated by antique jewelry ravaged by time. Next, I spent two decades in Alaska on a homestead overlooking two rivers, which met at a glacier. The natural erosion of the landscape and the time-destroyed jewelry of Europe combined to shape the creation of my silver.”
Other highlights included another Madonna work, Botticelli's "Madonna and Child with the Young Saint John the Baptist," which sold for $10,442,500, well over Christie's' $6 million estimate.
Known as "the Rockefeller Madonna" owing to its five decades in the collection of John D Rockefeller, the work, along with the Fra Bartolommeo Madonna, was sold at Christie's Renaissance sale, devoted to European works from 1300 to 1600.
Both works set auction records for the artists, and Hall said that Christie's was so pleased with the $42.6 million total that it would repeat the special sale again in 2014.
Il Gaetano's "Portrait of Jacopo," fetched $7,586,500, nearly four times its estimate and also an artist's record. At Christie's Old Master drawings auction, Claude Gellee's "A wooded landscape" soared to more than 10 times its estimate, selling for a record $6.13 million.
One casualty for the auction house was "Portrait of a Young Man with a Book," an early 16th-century painting by Italian artist Agnolo Bronzino touted as one of the most important Renaissance portraits remaining in private hands, which carried an estimate of as much as $18 million but went unsold.
The exhibit titled “Imaginary Topographies” runs through Feb. 15 at the Apex art gallery on the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology campus. A reception with Hinson is scheduled for Friday, Feb. 8 from 5-7 p.m. with an artist talk at 6 p.m.
The more than 30-piece mixed-media exhibit includes drawing, painting, sculpture, digital illustration, and motion graphics.
Each piece depicts an overhead view of the landscape including natural formations like islands, continents, rivers, and oceans, yet with an abstract twist, Hinson said.
“A few places in the artwork I used actual images such as the North Carolina coast, river deltas from the Ganges and the Mississippi River, but the majority are hand drawn illustrations from scratch,” he said. “They are a mesh between a bit of North Carolina, Ganges River, and some made up shapes that resemble topography.”
Hinson said he has done a lot of different things with his art throughout the years, but he always likes to include abstraction. While his current exhibit is abstract, it is reminiscent of something that the viewers will recognize, he said.
“It is abstraction; I am making up shapes, but the way they look calls to mind something that does exist,” Hinson said.
“I’ve always been attracted to maps based on their purely aesthetic qualities,” Hinson said in his artist’s statement. “They have a way of bringing a sense of order to the twisting and craggy edges of continents and islands. Rendering landmasses and bodies of water as simplified, drawn images produce something that is representative of a real space and at the same time an abstraction.”
While he usually switches subjects of his art quite frequently, Hinson said he really enjoyed working with topographies and may use them again as the subject of a future exhibit.
He also wants to explore a different way of presenting art to the public. “Digital is nice, even when it is motion graphics, but I really would like to see if I can push something into actual interaction – the ability for the person to change the artwork as they are viewing it.”
He retired as The Star’s chief photographer in July 2000 at the age of 65, ending 42 years in the newspaper industry, according to an article by Basil Penny, dated July 30, 2000, in The Star. His awards — which numbered in the hundreds and included recognitions from the Associated Press, Alabama Press Association and Press Photographers Association — gave testament to his skill with the camera, his genuine interest in people, and his knack for putting his subjects at ease.
But he had another passion. He liked taking up the paintbrush to tell a story, a part of his life that has kept a low profile until now. His subjects, primarily animals and flowers, reflect memories from the farms he knew as a young boy, according to Karen Elkins, his daughter. His TULIP series and PIGS are important examples of the light-hearted approach he took to his work.
Unlike most of the photojournalist’s black-and-white prints, Elkins’ oils and watercolors radiate almost every hue in the rainbow, with repetitions and many interpretations of the same subject. Exhibit viewers will see about 20 of his folk art pieces in Noble Gallery inside Nunnally’s custom framing on Noble Street. These include a few self-portraits and, in my view, a definite quality of contentment.
Elkins must have kept busy after retirement. His interests included family, bass fishing, painting and completing his 2005 book “Picture Taker,” a collection of his best photos of people in places such as Calhoun, Clay and Randolph counties. The book can be found at Karen Elkins’ art gallery in Quintard Mall.
Brogi defines her silver jewelry, on display in Noble Gallery’s loft, as “wearable art.” The materials used in these pieces are sterling, pure silver, bronze or copper, and the gems are semiprecious or handmade glass beads from other artists, Brogi explains in her artist’s statement.
“My style came from two very different influences,” she adds. “First, I spent a decade in Italy as home base, haunting the museums in Europe. I was fascinated by antique jewelry ravaged by time. Next, I spent two decades in Alaska on a homestead overlooking two rivers, which met at a glacier. The natural erosion of the landscape and the time-destroyed jewelry of Europe combined to shape the creation of my silver.”
Other highlights included another Madonna work, Botticelli's "Madonna and Child with the Young Saint John the Baptist," which sold for $10,442,500, well over Christie's' $6 million estimate.
Known as "the Rockefeller Madonna" owing to its five decades in the collection of John D Rockefeller, the work, along with the Fra Bartolommeo Madonna, was sold at Christie's Renaissance sale, devoted to European works from 1300 to 1600.
Both works set auction records for the artists, and Hall said that Christie's was so pleased with the $42.6 million total that it would repeat the special sale again in 2014.
Il Gaetano's "Portrait of Jacopo," fetched $7,586,500, nearly four times its estimate and also an artist's record. At Christie's Old Master drawings auction, Claude Gellee's "A wooded landscape" soared to more than 10 times its estimate, selling for a record $6.13 million.
One casualty for the auction house was "Portrait of a Young Man with a Book," an early 16th-century painting by Italian artist Agnolo Bronzino touted as one of the most important Renaissance portraits remaining in private hands, which carried an estimate of as much as $18 million but went unsold.
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