Satellite images from last year (left) and earlier this month (right) give an indication of the extent of this year's Pakistan Floods. Terrible though they are, are they just a taste of things to come?

Really, you’d have to be living in a complete news vacuum to have missed the awful disaster which this year’s monsoon floods have caused in Pakistan; The UN has now declared that the scale of the crisis is greater than the combined effects of the Haiti earthquake (Jan ‘10), the Kashmir earthquake (Oct ‘05) & the Asian tsunami (Dec ‘04) and has left over 14,000,000 without food or shelter and at risk of falling victim to the host of diseases which commonly occur in the aftermath of major flooding.
One bright note is that this disaster has seen an unprecedented response from the public, with donations actually increasing as the crisis entered it’s second, then third week; very different from the usual pattern seen in these kinds of cases, where “donor fatigue” tends to kick in after the first week irregardless of how well the effects of the disaster are being dealt with at that stage.
However, for all that the response, both in the UK and internationally, has been amazingly generous so far there is still much work for the aid agencies to do, and many, many flood victims who still need the help of the international community if they’re to have any hope of returning to a normal way of life any time in the foreseeable future!
Unfortunately there are many despicable scammers in this world, and in particular on the internet, who’ll take any chance to profit from the misery of others, so if you’re planning on making a donation it’s best to go through the DEC, or one of their well known, reputable members such as Oxfam who, like most of the major UK charities, now have a page dedicated to the Pakistan Flood appeal.

Anyway, that was all a bit of an aside, an incredibly important aside, but a tangent none the less.
The real question I wanted to ask in this blog post was whether these floods, described as a “once in a century” event, are another sign that Climate Change is indeed a real and pressing problem which should concern the whole global community?

I understand the principle that climate is a long term pattern, and that it can’t judged by single isolated events, no matter how catastrophic, but it seems to me that we’ve been getting more and more of these “once in century” type of weather events over the past decade or so, and I truly wonder how much longer the climate change deniers will be able to keep their heads in the sand and continue to refute that there is a shift occuring in the planet’s weather patterns?
I can accept that there’s still a lot of debate to be had over the extent of anthropogenic climate change, and, in turn, how much humanity can do to mitigate the global climate change, but surely we’re now getting to a stage where denying the existance of a pattern of climate change is a thoroughly asinine position, and one which is only likely to be held by either the woefully gullible or those who are motivated by profound self-interest.

It turns out that eBAM (electronic Bank Account Management) is indeed a banking product, and one which will certainly make the life’s of banks and big companies’ finance departments easier, although how much difference it will make to us “little people” is debatable; it’s most likely that any benefits which we do experience will be knock-on effects that aren’t exactly likely to revolutionise banking from the perspective of the man in the street.

It appears that eBAM is a new addendum to Corporate Treasury Management Systems (TMS, another acronym I was previously unfamiliar with,) which basically seems to be an impressive sounding name for the software systems which most any decent sized business is likely to be using to look after their finances and banking. However, eBAM apparently gives businesses a greater ability to keep an eye on the current state of their finances and banking facilities. Whereas previously a great deal of important information was transferred around businesses on paper or via emails, both of which can be all too easily misplaced, lost, or forgotten about, eBAM consolidates much of a business’ important banking information into one secure system which allows the information to be retreived electronically, at a moments notice, by anyone with the appropriate access rights.

The big difference with eBAM is that businesses will now have the capability to be far more aware of the exact state of their finances at any given point, which should make it far easier to spot potential financial problems as they emerge, as well as generally allowing a greater awareness of the exact state of their finances.

So, will it make a big difference to the majority of the population? The answer is, that as a product largely aimed at business, not really. However it does sound like this system has the potential to allow financial problems to be spotted easier, & earlier, than was previously the case, and should therefore help companies avoid becoming financially over-exposed to the point where collapse is a real danger, as happened to some very big names during the 2008 economic crash.
Unlike some writers, I wouldn’t go so far as to call any banking product “sexy”, but on the whole eBAM seems like it’s going to reduce the chances of another financial collapse or, if it does happen, at least negate the ignorance excuse on the part of bosses, and if that means there’s less chance of tax payers being forced to bail out the financial sector again that can only be a good thing!

Of course it does vary from company to company and while some are charging little more than a tenner a week others have cranked their car seat hire charge up to nearly £70, almost as much as it costs to hire a car in the first place!
The piece also claims that, not surprisingly, prices vary largely from location to location, with the research pointing to some prices at Majorca’s Palma airport being the highest, while it found the cheapest prices at Nice’s Cote d’Azur airport in France.

Obviously, as with any purchasing decision, the wisest course is to remember the caveat emptor principle, and always do your research thoroughly so you can ensure that you get the car hire deal which best suites your means, and your needs! Apart from anything else it looks as if taking the time to look before you book could save you up to £60 a week, which while not an earth shattering amount is still extra holiday spending money you could have in your pocket!

Flowering only very rarely the Corpse Plant is guarenteed to cause a stink in the botanical world whenever it blooms.

However, amongst botany geeks the Corpse Flower appears to be quite a hit; There aren’t many of them to be found outside the plant’s natural habitat, the rainforests of Indonesia, and they rarely flower in the wild, let alone in cultivation, so maybe it shouldn’t be a surprise that whenever one of these bizarre organisms blooms in captivity flora-philes come flocking to see the unusual sight, and “experience” its unique scent.

On this occasion it’s the specimen held at the Houston Museum of Natural Science (HMNS) which is due to flower, and such has been the buzz it’s created that not only have the HMNS set up a webcam, & a “Corpse Flower Watch” on their blog, complete with daily updates on the plant’s progress and measurements of its growth, but, with the fragrant flower due to open its petals any time this week, they’re also planning on opening the museum 24hrs a day while it’s in bloom.

The plant, named Lois, has also become a bit of a celebrity on Twitter, so if you’re a would-be botanist, but not based within travelling distance of the HMNS you can still keep up to date with its progress minute to minute.

Still, as the lesser partner in the coalition it’s only realistic that the Lib Dems will have to accept a large chunk of compromise, and will have to, no doubt, support policies which they wouldn’t naturally be inclined to put in their own manifestos. At least that’s what my inner pragmatist has to keep telling the part of me which is a little upset about my vote ending up shoring up a party who I didn’t want in power. Ho hum, it’s an imperfect system, although the possibility of electoral reform before the next election is a consolation, and I’m very glad that the Lib Dems (mostly) stuck to their guns on that point.

The other Lib Dem policy which I’m pleased to see survive the horse trading was the increase in the income tax allowances. OK, so it’s likely to be trickled out over several years (& I certainly won’t be holding my breath to wait for the allowance to hit 10k) but I really believe that this is one of the best moves, in terms of relieving poverty, which any govt could make; forget the Tax Credit scheme, that was a dishonest PR scam from the get go, its main purpose seemingly to be that it allowed Mr Brown to crow about how he was helping the poorest in society, while actually making a system of such byzantine complexity that many who were eligible for payments never bothered to try and claim!

I’ll be interested to see how the overall tax burden shifts under this new Govt, and, for anyone else who’s interested, Coutts bank have a pretty useful resource on their site which provides a clear and concise breakdown of the UK’s main tax rates, although their income tax section is probably the most useful for the average person in the street.

Anyway, we’ll have to wait for Osborne’s emergency budget on the 22_nd June to find out exactly how the financial future of this country is likely to look. There’s been a lot of talk about cost cutting, the tightening of belts, and times of austerity, so we’re obviously being prepared for the worst, and the internal governmental cost cutting measures which have already been widely reported are surely more about fostering the Tory campaign mantra of “all being in this together” than actually making any significant dent in the national debt.
Still, govt certainly got pretty bloated under New Labour, so it’s probably a sensible move, even if I’m not convinced by the over-arching Tory strategy of starting to make cuts while our recovery from the recession is still so potentially fragile.

Of course the news, from the Office of National Statistics, that the Govt spent £7bn less last year than predicted might make Osborne’s first budget a little less stark than it would otherwise be, but if, as chancellor, you have to put tough measures in place the best time has surely got to be just after an election, so the electorate will have time to forget, and calm down, before the next election. Guess we’ll find out in about a months time…

If you’ve been following the UK news you’ll know that the FCO have closed their embassy in Bangkok today. Although the majority of the mainstream news is superficially doing its best to make the move sound like an extreme reaction to an extreme situation, the current reality is (as the Independent points out) that the embassy is being closed as a temporary measure because of it’s proximity to the ongoing protests in central Bangkok; from some of the news headlines floating around you’d think that the embassy’s closure was almost a breaking off of diplomatic relations between the UK and Thailand, but then I suppose good news never sells as well.

Still, despite the media games the situation over in Thailand is pretty severe at the moment, with tensions between the Govt supporters and the Red Shirts at an all time high. The troubles go back to 2006 when Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was ousted by a military coup only weeks before an election was due. Although an election was later held, in 2007, the country’s constitution had been rewritten by the Junta in the mean time, and charges that the Thailand’s current political system pays only lip service to democracy are at the root of the troubles we’re currently seeing.

As someone from a country with a well established (if quirky in its own right) democracy where a military coup is pretty much unthinkable, it can be all too easy to pre-judge what is a complicated, and very different, culture. Thailand’s govt was an absolute monarchy up until 1932, and, although the exact form of govt has changed several times since, it has retained a constitutional monarchy throughout. Indeed, the Thai monarchs seem to have remained a far more important and respected part of Thai life than our own constitutional monarch.

My point is that, although superficially there may be similarities between the UK and Thailand’s systems of  Govt, we’re talking about a very different culture with very different traditions, and one which is relatively new to the ideal of democracy; as such it could be all too easy to see those who enacted the military coup as the bad guys of the piece, and while I’m not condoning coup d’etat as a method of forming a govt, it must also be noted that some serious charges of corruption and abuse of power were made against Thaksin Shinawatra, and used as the excuse to remove him from power.

So, were the coup-masters patriots serving the best interests of their country, or power hungry generals overthrowing a benevolent, democratically elected PM? Unfortunately the answer seems to depend on who you ask; even four years on Thaksin Shinawatra remains an incredibly divisive figure in Thai politics with large portions of the country’s populace polarised, either supporting their former PM, or the men who overthrew him.

The question is that with the Thai people, and popular opinion, so divided how will it be possible to find a lasting, peaceful solution to the troubles which currently plague not only Bangkok, but many of Thailand’s other provinces? It’s hard to see an answer, even yesterday both journalists and Major General Khattiya Sawasdiphol, a prominent figure amongst the Red Shirts, were shot, alledgedly by Govt forces; developments which are almost certain to fan the flames!

In the end it’s likely to be the ordinary Thai people who suffer most from these troubles, regardless of the side they’ve taken; if nothing else the tourism industry is worth a substantial amount to the Thai economy and it’s hard to see this unrest not dissuading people from visiting the country. Even our own FCO is now advising against all but necessary travel to the country, and although Bangkok doesn’t sound like the ideal holiday destination at this very moment, it appears that the troubles are mainly effecting the central and northern regions of Thailand rather than the southern peninsula which has been unaffected so far, and is a destination of choice for many tourists seeking a relaxing beach holiday.

So, while flights to Thailand continue, one has to wonder how empty they are at the moment; most people will (wisely) take notice of official govt advice, but in these days of over-accountability and media witch-hunts you can see why the FCO would feel obliged to issue a warning for the whole country, rather than risk the bad press which would come if they said the country’s south was pretty safe, only for a UK tourist to later come to some harm.

Wrong sort of red shirts, apparently this type don't need to steal vans, what with living in space and all.

The news piece is actually about Thailand’s United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) movement, who are known as red shirts. It would seem that things are quite tense over there at the moment, with recent clashes between UDD protestors and soldiers at rallies held by the movement.
This obviously begs the question of why UDD members would be hassling reporters, generally, if you’re trying to be a popular movement you’d think it might be wise not to antagonise the media too much.
Actually though, that is exactly the source of some UDD members’ anger, claims that major news stations are being biased in their reporting of the UDD’s activities & heavily favouring the Thai govt’s position.

Anyway things boiled over at a UDD protest on Saturday and the media were asked to leave, but some of the protestors followed the media, and forced at least one crew to abandon their van.
However it seems that no-one was too badly hurt, and calmer heads soon prevailed amongst the UDD, with one of the movement’s leaders asking the media to continue covering UDD events, & urging UDD members to let the media get on with their jobs in peace.

So, sadly, there’s no point running to the Thai version of the Exchange and Mart to look for high tech bargains in the Used Vans section.

So, with the news that one of the UK’s largest van hire firms is set to renew 20,000 vans, a third of its fleet, in the expectation that the economy has/will pick up to an extent where the expense is justified, one has to feel that, assuming the money men at Northgate have done their jobs right, this has to be a good sign for the wider economy. Afterall, 20,000 vans are not going to come cheap and, even if the vehicles which are being replaced are so clapped out that they can’t be rented anymore, the implication has to be that the firm thinks it will need a capacity significantly greater than the 40,000 vans which it would have left.

A lot of Northgate’s business traditionally comes from businesses in construction and manufacturing, as opposed to private customers, so the firm’s commitment to renew their fleet strongly suggests that they have confidence in these sectors to flourish over the next twelve months, and if that’s the case then that would certainly be a good sign for the wider economy; particularly when one considers that the construction industry was one of the areas hit hardest by the recession, and the resulting crash in house prices.

Only time will tell whether or not it’s an astute move which will leave them well placed to profit from any recovery we see this year, but they’re by no means the only company to demonstrate optimism over the economy’s near future, and quite often the economy seems to function as much according to expectations as because of any real monetary factors, so, although my tendancy is to be wary, overall I’m thinking that the signs for recovery are looking hopeful.

It’s actually a bit of a fund raising phenonomen, Marathons in other parts of the world don’t have nearly such a strong philanthropic ethos as the London Marathon, which has had charitable status since before it’s first race was even run, & is now the world’s biggest annual one day charitable fund raising event. Last year’s participants raised £47.2 million, & it’s expected that the 2010 London Marathon’s 36,000 runners will raise at least as much, if not even more!

The London Marathon is a major charitable fund raising event, as well as being a sporting spectacle

Marathons, as a sporting event, are actually a relatively recent invention. When the modern Olympics were established in 1896 the organisers wanted an event which would tie the games with their classical Greek counterpart, &, with those first games being held in Athens, the idea of an event inspired by an important episode in ancient Athenian history obviously seemed the way to go.
The historical derivation comes from the Battle of Marathon, which was fought between the Athenians and the Persians, in 490 BC, during the first Persian invasion of Greece. The Athenians won the battle, and, in the process, also halted the Persian invasion, that much is historical fact.
However there is also a legend that, following the battle, the soldier Pheidippides was ordered to return to Athens, with news of the victory, as quickly as possible. The story tells that he ran all the way back to Athens, without a break, burst into the Athenian Assembly, and managed to gasp out news of the victory, before collapsing and dying.
There’s a fair degree of doubt over whether this part of the story is true. Various Greek writers give differing names for the runner, plus it’s also recorded that the Athenian army forced march back to the city, on the same day as the battle, to guard against the possibility of a naval assault by the Persians. Details which seem to cast doubt on whether there ever was a Pheidippides, or whether such an epic feat would be required to deliver news of the victory to his countrymen.

In any case, the most likely route from Marathon to Athens was calculated as being approximately 26 miles, and this was the distance which was set as the length of the modern Marathon race. During the early years the exact distance of the race was left with the organisers of each individual Olympics. The modern distance of 26 miles 385 yards only became a standard from the 1924 Olympics onwards, although it was first used during the 1908 London Olympics, on which occasion the extra 385 yards were added to the course to ensure that the finishing line was in front of the Royal Box, in the Great White City Stadium.

I first caught news of the Haiti Earthquake late on Tuesday night while catching some headlines on the BBC before going to bed. Even at those early stages it seemed clear that the damage caused by it, and it’s aftershocks, was going to be immense, but over the last couple of days, as more and more news has filtered out of the impoverished Caribbean nation, the true scale of the devastation has started to become clear. It beggars belief.

The quake itself measured 7.0 on the Richter Scale, and as such is classified as a “Major” earthquake, while even the aftershocks measured 5.5. and 5.9 on the scale, making them significant earthquakes in their own right. To put things a little more in perspective, a magnitude 7 earthquake is the equivalent of a 32 megaton nuke, 1000 times more powerful than the Nagasaki atomic bomb. In addition, the quake was relatively shallow occurring only 10km below the surface. Shallow quakes are less likely to trigger tsunamis, but also tend to cause more damage in their immediate area, as we’re seeing in Haiti at the moment.
Even in a developed nation, with well constructed structures, a magnitude 7 earthquake would be a serious event, but in a nation like Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere, the level of destruction is almost unimaginable! That the quake’s epicentre was only 15km from the densely populated capital, Port-au-Prince, has only exacerbated the situation.
Many of the city’s buildings were poorly constructed leaving them especially vulnerable to the quake, and it appears that many of those killed or injured were indoors at the time of the quake, or close to buildings which collapsed. Even so the death toll is staggering. So far it’s reckoned that 50,000 have died although there are fears that this could rise to as much as 500,000. Half a million people, it’s a simply stunning figure!

In many ways though the quake was only the beginning of the disaster, and looking after the survivors is now the main priority. Many Haitians live on less than a dollar a day, & even in normal times the country is heavily reliant on foreign food aid, but providing clean water, food & shelter for the thousands of, now homeless, survivors is going to be a huge task. Also, with so many dead to recover from the rubble, there’s a massive risk of disease.
Offers of aid and support have been flooding in pretty much since the quake struck, but even so, given the Herculean scale of the task, more help is needed. Most major charities have started appeals, for example Oxfam’s Haiti Earthquake donation page.