[LINK] "Heavenly havens"

Catherine Moye's article in Saturday's Financial Times, "Heavenly Havens, provided an interesting quick survey of various tax shelter destinations for the rich.

The phrase "tax haven" conjures a twin image of swimming pools and tedious form filling; of meeting to discuss your financial affairs with a Hawaiian-shirted adviser under a coconut palm. But never before has the package of fiscal inducements that exotic islands offer looked so alluring to wealthy people battered by the current financial markets and looking to shore up their assets in idyllic settings.

Whether it be retirees consolidating their pensions, entrepreneurs looking to establish off-shore companies or individuals on the hunt for centres of low taxation, the market is as international as the destinations. The mobile nature of modern-day business has further liberated high-flyers from key commercial capitals.

"Many people who have made money assume that the only thing to do is to move abroad," says Duncan MacIntyre, head of Coutts Private Office, which manages the needs of the ultra-wealthy. "But often their wants are different to their needs. I had one client who called me from his wardrobe in a hurricane saying 'get me the hell out of here'." And MacIntyre, the majority of whose clients are British, also points out that entrepreneurs are getting younger and the practicalities of living overseas, such as educating children, can be a challenge.

Nevertheless, the lure of fat financial carrots combined with blue seas and pristine beaches is fuelling a market that, for example, allows islands such as Anguilla in the Caribbean to offer luxury houses priced at $36m.

Mauritius, Cyprus, Dubai, and Madeira were among the destinations cited. In fact, most of the destinations Moye refers to are islands, in the Indian Ocean or in European waters. Are there any tax havens located on one mainland or another? Taking a look at Wikipedia, New Zealand, Panama, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and the Italian enclave of Campione d'Italia seem to be the only ones fitting that fit that description. I suppose that inslarity makes autonomy that much more easier and that much more necessary.

[BRIEF NOTE] Lesbians can be Lesbians

Reuters provided The Globe and Mail with the news story "'Lesbian' not restricted to Greek island
Reuters", allowing lesbians to be, well, Lesbians too.

A Greek court has dismissed a request by residents of the Aegean island of Lesbos to ban the use of the word lesbian to describe gay women, according to a court ruling made public on Tuesday.

Three residents of Lesbos, the birthplace of the ancient Greek poet Sappho whose love poems inspired the term lesbian, brought a case last month arguing that the use of the term in reference to gay women insulted their identity.

In a July 18 decision, the Athens court said the word did not define the identity of the residents of the island, and so it could be validly used by gay groups in Greece and abroad.

The ruling ordered the plaintiffs to pay court expenses of €230 ($366.50 Canadian).

"This is a good decision for lesbians everywhere," Vassilis Chirdaris, lawyer for the Gay and Lesbian Union of Greece, told Reuters. "A court in Athens could not stop people around the world from using it. It was ridiculous."

He said the plaintiffs were free to appeal the decision in a higher court.

Lesbos, which lies just off the Turkish Coast, has become a gathering spot for gay women from round the world, especially at the village of Eressos, which is regarded as the birthplace of Sappho in the seventh century B.C.

Several residents testified during the trial that the use of the word lesbian had brought recognition to the island and boosted its tourist trade.

Julie Bindel's May 2008 article in The Guardian, "Sun, sea and Sappho", goes into more detail about the two-way process of integration between the native Lesbians and the lesbians who visit--or live on--the island of Lesbos.

Dina Astalaki, owner of the other lesbian bar and restaurant in the village, Aubergine, is known affectionately as Mamma Eressos, because she looks out for the younger lesbian tourists. Astalaki lives with her German partner of 13 years. "Sometimes the women get a bit over the top," she says, "particularly in high season. But it's nothing compared with what groups of men get up to on holiday, I would imagine."

There has been the odd scandal surrounding the lesbian tourists on Lesbos, but not for a while. Eight years ago, the Candy Bar, a lesbian bar in London, organised a group trip to the island. Flyers advertising a "Wet Pussy Party" flooded Eressos, prompting the then mayor of the village to try to stop around 100 British lesbians from disembarking from their cruise ship for a stop off. Behaviour was lewd and loud, and to make matters worse for the islanders, the group was accompanied by a film crew from Channel Five, making a fly-on-the-wall documentary, Lesbians Go Mad on Lesbos.

[. . .]

Wendy Jansen came from Holland to work at Sappho Travel in Eressos five years ago. I ask her about the kerfuffle over the ownership of the word "lesbian". "There are homophobic people in every society," she says. "But in this place, where everyone relies on tourism, we cannot afford to ignore it." If there is negativity towards lesbians, says Jansen, it is from visiting Greeks, not the islanders.

"In this village, people are so used to lesbians that if the returning tourists come on holiday with a different partner, the locals notice. And if a couple [enter into a civil partnership], and come here on their honeymoon, locals often send champagne or flowers to them." One tourist, from London, tells me that when she split up with her girlfriend, whom she had been on holiday to the village with the year before, some of the islanders refused to speak to her when she turned up with a new woman. "They thought I was cheating on my ex," she laughs.

"At the end of the day, this is a Greek village," says Jansen, "not a lesbian one. It has not been 'invaded', or taken over. More than anything, it is cosmopolitan."

[BRIEF NOTE] Coming out through the Olympics

People and governments relating to New York City's failed bid and London's successful bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics all represented the bids as ways to demonstrate their successes, asa catalyst for change. (It worked for Barcelona back in 1992, didn't it?)

Beijing's coming out arguably differs from the bids of First (and Second) world cities in that it's a demonstration of the successes of Bejing, and of China, in becoming world-class. This has been a common theme with other middle-income countries. The South Korean government wanted to position Seoul as a modern world-class city, similarly Mexico with Mexico City through the 1968 Summer Olympics, similarly Yugoslavia with Sarajevo for the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_Winter_Olympics</a>. All this leaves me curious about one thing. Will China follow South Korea's effortless growth trajectory, Mexico's relative stagnation, or the catastrophes of Sarajevo.