The Wahine Disaster

From the window of my flat in Oriental Bay I have a view of Wellington harbour and bay. The late summer weather has been one of exceptional sunshine and the last few weeks provided a respite from the winds that make this the windiest capital city anywhere. Or at least that’s the boast but it certainly sounds true. Two weeks ago, for a couple of days, the water had no chop at all and it must have been as low on the Beaufort scale as possible. Living here has made me more attentive to every change in the wind. Regardless if it’s a northerly or a southerly blow it’s always dramatic with the clouds moving across the sky as if in a fast forwarded film. This is our ten month in New Zealand and we are getting acclimated for the first time to seasons that are turned upside down for us northern hemispherians. My neighbour Michael was right back in November when he said I would love March.

But we are now into the first week of April and the weather has turned dramatically colder and rainy. It could be exactly like this back in New York where winter would still linger awhile and only the budding forsythia gave a hint that the good stuff of spring was to be soon in the offing. But here in the southern latitudes it means the beginning of winter and a return to the weather of the “roaring forties”.

It was forty years ago that New Zealand experienced a mammoth storm that was the worst in recorded history and which caused the sinking of the inter-island ferry, the Wahine. On the morning of April 10, 1968 the Wahine entered the harbour of Wellington after leaving from Lyttelton in the South Island the previous day. During the previous night two storms merged over Wellington and by the morning there were winds with gusts in excess of 150 kilometres per hour. Wellington harbour was a raging sea that threatened to drive the ship onto the rocks of a nearby reef. The captain attempted to reverse course back to the Cook Straits for safety. The ship by this time was almost uncontrollable in the troughs of the massive waves and with her radar damaged and with zero visibility they were unable to steer her out of harms way. The ship was driven fast aground onto the reef. The crew was able to free the ship but it was now taking on water and adrift in the harbour. By late morning the Wahine was seriously listing and with the rough sea making rescue from the shore impossible the Captain gave the orders to abandon ship. The ship’s list made it difficult to ready the life boats and only four were successfully launched. Most passengers were forced into the water and attempted to swim to shore. Many of the 52 who died that day were killed after being hurtled against the rocky beach. Most of the other deaths were from drowning or exposure. It was not the worst loss of life for a New Zealand maritime disaster but that it happened so close to Wellington and that the city residents were unable to come to the direct aid of the stricken passengers has helped make the memory of the Wahine disaster one that Kiwis do not want forgotten.

There’s a maritime museum close to Queens Wharf in Wellington that shows an excellent 20 minute long documentary film about the Wahine disaster. I visited that museum shortly after arriving here last year. Since then there have been days with weather of high winds and rain with a rough chop on the sea but nothing that would make being out on even a small boat an activity of great danger. While looking out on the harbour I try to picture that day forty years ago and I can only imagine how frightening it must have been to see that scene and to be so helpless in the face of nature in her full fury.

Summer's End

I’m writing this at the tail end of an almost perfect weather-wise four day weekend here in New Zealand that began with Good Friday, a public holiday and ended with Easter Monday today, also a public holiday. Good Friday is not a public holiday in the U.S. Most workers in the States who want to take it off would have to use one of their personal days. Most of the financial markets in the U.S., including the New York Exchange are closed on Good Friday and since I worked for a good number of companies on the Street, I was able to frequently enjoy the three day weekend. Christmas is the only religious holiday that is also a U.S. public holiday. Why does Wall St. observe Good Friday? Wall St. lore has is that the last time markets were open that day was in 1907 when there was a severe financial panic which had JP Morgan, in that pre-Federal Reserve Bank era, pledging his own wealth to stave off a complete meltdown of the credit markets. The only problem with this legend is that this panic started in October, long after Easter occurred that year. However I’m unable in my brief research of the subject to find a more plausible explanation. I knew about Boxing Day before I came here, the holiday that is the day after Christmas and celebrated in the U.K., New Zealand and Australia, but was pleasantly surprised to learn that there is an Easter equivalent. I guess it was created to help recover from over indulgence on Easter after consuming all of those chocolate rabbits. We don’t have four day weekends like this in the U.S. because of the Federal Reserve Bank. Their policy is that banks should not be closed for more than three consecutive days.

What I find to be odd about this extended Easter holiday is the sense I get, after nine months of living here, that Kiwi’s are no more particularly religious than Americans and lack the equivalent of a Bible Belt region of fervent devotion. It’s true that the 3^rd largest city in New Zealand is Christchurch and was founded by devout Anglicans from Britain in the 19^th century who had their own John Winthrop like shining city on a hill aspiration. So the long holiday probably has a real legacy from a time when no one questioned that New Zealand was a Christian nation and is still being observed because who wants to argue against a nice long weekend? Jackie Mason said he gave up on atheism when he discovered that they have no holidays. Kiwis also have the Queen’s birthday in June as a public holiday; this interestingly enough is not the case in the U.K.

When a radio announcer here said this morning that this was the last big holiday of summer I immediately was taken back to those Labor Days of youth when I accompanied my parents to a traditional end of summer Sunday dinner at my Aunt Florence’s apartment in Queens. Despite her loving hospitality and delicious feast it was always hard for me to shake off that feeling of longing and regret I felt at summer’s end. Today my seasonal clock was still in a northern hemisphere mode when you can begin to entertain fantasies of boogie boarding at the beach and backyard barbecues soon to come. Bryan and I decided to seize the day with what could be our last summer fling so we had a dip in the beach that's just across the street from our apartment here in Oriental Bay. Besides the almost cloudless sky it was also a most un-Wellington windless day and the bay was more like a tropical lagoon in its stillness and clarity. The moderate coldness of the water made it refreshing and we marveled at being able to spot through the clear water some very large starfish. The beginning of autumn was evident in the chilly air despite a strong sun and we didn’t linger on the sand for too long afterwards. Later I barbecued some shish kebabs in the small veranda at the back of our flat and thought about past summers spent by the sea on Long Island, Maine and the Jersey shore.

Happy Easter!

Lust in Action

Why? I have a hard time understanding it even though it’s been happening from time immemorial and recently with more frequency (until now mostly with Republicans). I’m talking about those rich and powerful individuals who truly have it all, wealth, fame with stellar career success but then self destruct in that most tried and true way: pitiful indiscretion. It was my intention on writing about the Eliot Spitzer debacle since he announced his resignation as Governor but David Brooks has written such a succinct and insightful, case closed and no further explanation needed article in today’s NY Times that I almost decided against it. Brooks’ premise is that these men (they are always men – have you ever heard of the Alpha woman?) might have some Asperger like disorder that while not negatively impacting on their drive to become successful or appear charismatic, makes it harder for them to learn the social skills that most people acquire without second thought and which are needed to bond with people in a genuine way and enjoy real intimacy. The resultant loneliness and isolation can result in an irrational and dark end. It sounds plausible to me and it’s a more thorough and thoughtful explanation than anything else I’ve read. But it does nothing to dissipate the cloud of exasperation and anger that so many of us feel. I mean there must be legions of proverbial lonely guys out there who are reading about his meteoric rise to fame while eating their microwaved Kraft macaroni and cheese and looking at the pictures of his most photogenic and lovely trophy wife and children while asking that question in their minds: Why?

My first reaction after the reading the Times expose about the young woman from the Emperor’s Club who commanded such a high fee was pretty much the same one I had when we all first learned about Monica Lewinsky. This is what you’ve jeopardized your personal and professional life for? Yes, she’s an attractive woman but for $10,000 I was expecting Aphrodite, Helen of Troy or maybe Rita Hayworth. Instead we have a young twenty something from the Jersey Shore and a broken home with a somewhat eclectic taste in music (according to her MySpace profile). As a friend of mine said to me during Monicagate, “At least JFK did it with Marilyn Monroe and Marlene Dietrich”.

F.Scott Fitzgerald wrote, “Give me a hero and I’ll write you a tragedy”. I’ve read a few opinion pieces about this story that explores the premise of Spitzer as a tragic figure in a Shakespearian sense but then quickly dismiss the idea as not being even worthy of such a comparison. The Shakespeare connection intrigues me only because I’ve recently moved to a new flat here in Wellington and as I don’t have a television, I’ve exhausted all the available reading I have on hand except for a hardcover Shakespeare collection that belonged to my brother while in college. I’ve been perusing the sonnets and thought that there’s one particular piece, more so than any of the tragic plays, that is more appropriate to this week’s headline news:

The expense of spirit in a waste of shame

Is lust in action; and till action, lust

Is perjured, murderous, bloody, full of blame,

Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust;

Enjoy'd no sooner but despised straight;

Past reason hunted; and no sooner had,

Past reason hated, as a swallowed bait,

On purpose laid to make the taker mad:

Mad in pursuit, and in possession so;

Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme;

A bliss in proof, and proved, a very woe;

Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream.

All this the world well knows; yet none knows well

To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.

Part II - How to succeed in business while failing

I haven't posted recently as we moved two weeks ago and it's only two days ago that I got broadband access in our new flat. We'll it's just in time to write about the hearings that Rep. Henry Waxman of California conducted this past Friday on the exorbitant severance packages of failed Wall Street CEO's Stan O'Neil and Charles Prince.

Dear Representative Waxman:

I want to thank you for chairing the Committee on Oversight and Investigations hearings on the issue of high compensation of failed CEO’s. As a former employee of Merrill Lynch I have been closely following the story since last year, of the huge financial losses of Wall Street firms due to their reliance on collateralized debt obligations. I was almost despairing that there would be so little follow up to Stan O’Neal’s and Charles Prince’s spectacular failure in that regard while receiving exorbitant golden parachutes until I read the news accounts of your committee’s hearings. I am glad that you have helped to keep this outrage in the news and to not let it fade it away. Even though these gentlemen may not have committed any illegal acts we have yet to see the full awful consequences that their irresponsibility and recklessness may cause to our economy. It is a very lame excuse for a professional manager to claim that they didn’t see this debacle coming. Risk is always a concern for financial service firms and properly managing and hedging against it is the most important part of an executive’s fiduciary duties. The disparaging comments by your Republican colleagues, Darrell E. Issa and Tom Davis on why these hearings had to be held has reminded me of why I voted a straight Democratic ticket in 2006 (I’m a registered Democrat in Alpine, NJ but I am currently working in Wellington, New Zealand) and why I was so exultant in November of that year on learning of the Democratic Congressional victories.

In 2003 I was downsized from Merrill Lynch, along with thousands of others by Mr. O’Neal as part of a cost cutting move to increase the value of the firm’s stock. As a six year employee I received the company’s standard severance package: three months compensation with health benefits plus one month for every year above five years on the job. How can it be justified that a man who is responsible for a six billion dollar loss, the largest in Merrill Lynch’s history, then receives a severance package worth 141 million dollars? Thank you for asking this question in a public forum and God bless you.

The virtual primary - Democrats Abroad

The results of the Democrats Abroad primary are in tonight and Obama has beaten Clinton to extend his winning streak to 11 primaries. I thought that I understood when I voted on line last week how the DA process worked but I just read their official press release and now I'm puzzled about the arithmetic. There are a total of 22 delegates that DA will send to the national convention in Denver this August. Obama picked up 2.5 and Clinton received 2. Another 2.5 delegates will be determined at the DA's own global convention in April. Plus they have 4 super delegates. That adds up to 11 and not 22. Here's the actual text from the press release that's supposed to make this clear, "Under the Democrats Abroad Delegate Selection Plan, the results of the worldwide primary are to be applied to the Regional Caucuses once the allocation of delegates to each Caucus is made. Rounding to determine the allocation among the Regions results in 2 delegates to be elected by each of the Americas and Asia-Pacific Regional Caucuses,
and 5 delegates to be elected by the Europe, Middle East and Africa Regional Caucus,
resulting in one delegate each for Obama and Clinton in the Americas and in Asia-
Pacific, and three delegates for Obama and 2 for Clinton in EMEA". To make this even curiouser the 22 delegates that are going to the national convention in Denver will actually have half a vote. I can't help but think of the line attributed to Will Rogers: "I don't belong to any organized political party, I'm a Democrat".

Birth of a Nation

Today, Wednesday February 6^th is Waitangi Day in New Zealand. This is the national holiday of New Zealand that Kiwis use to celebrate their nationhood. I’m thankful for the day off as that permits me the time to write this blog and enjoy another glorious sunny day in a summer that has been abundant in such days and which may turn out to be one for the record books because of an extended drought. This political junkie is also happy to be at home writing this with the TV on and listening to the news reports of the Super Tuesday primary election results. As of 3:45pm New Zealand time it sounds like McCain is as predicted picking up more delegates then his closest rival Mitt Romney and that Clinton is leading Obama. I’m personally taking advantage of an e-voting option via an SSL web session that is being offered to registered Democratic expats by a Democratic Party organization called Democrats Abroad. It’s sort of a state with out borders and 22 delegates are at stake. The voting is being done on the honour system with voters being asked to pledge that they will not also vote as absentee voters in their home states.

But I digress and back to Waitangi Day. This holiday is akin to the Fourth of July or Bastille Day but unlike similar holidays in many nations it is in keeping with the relative peaceful history of New Zealand. That means that it lacks the tumult of insolent colonials priming their muskets in anger with the redcoats or of the sans-culottes offing the heads of reactionary aristocrats. It commemorates the 1840 signing of a treaty by emissaries of the British crown and Maori chiefs. This treaty was not the settlement of a war or conflict between these two parties but rather an agreement where the British recognized the Maori rights to the ownership of their land as the Maori in turn accepted English suzerainty. That year was also the beginning of the serious migration of English and Scottish settlers to New Zealand. Within a few decades the Pakeha (Europeans) would surpass the Maori in number and become the predominant ethnic group. The treaty was not too specific on how disputes over land between the two groups would be adjudicated and it’s only recently that legal remedies became available for Maori litigants. The New Zealand government acknowledged that it was a nation with both a European and a South Pacific nature in 1987 when it declared Maori along with English to be official languages. So that’s today’s history lesson. My attention is now focused on the returns that are just coming in from California.

Hail the conquering hero - Sir Edmund Hillary

“Tall poppy syndrome” is an expression that is unique to Australia and New Zealand. In essence it refers to a successful person who is criticized because they are seen by others as being presumptuous, seeking undeserved attention or status. Both Aussies and Kiwis are culturally inclined to disdain the successful hero who basks too publicly in being in the spotlight. Sir Edmund Hillary, who along with his Sherpa guide Tonzing Norgay was the first human to reach the summit of Mt. Everest in 1953, died this past Friday at the age of 88 and could never have been called a tall poppy despite his amazing achievement. It’s difficult today, with ascents of Everest available to wealthy thrill seekers, as Jon Krakauer described in his book, Into the Wild, to really feel as the world did back then that Sir Ed’s accomplishment was a feat that was on par with Lindbergh’s flying the Atlantic solo. And the two were so similar in their temperament and in the way they accepted their adulation and fame afterwards. They both felt uncomfortable in the public spotlight. One of the many anecdotes about Hillary that were recounted this weekend in the New Zealand Dominion Post is one from an Air New Zealand employee who upon seeing Sir Ed waiting in an airport line offered him the use of a VIP lounge only to be told that he didn’t mind standing like everyone else. Lindbergh and Hillary were more at home in continuing their pursuits of adventure. Just as Lindbergh remained a life long flyer Hillary continued with explorations, such as in 1958 when he became the first man to fully traverse the continent of Antarctica while crossing over the South Pole, in 1960 when he returned to Nepal to search for the mythical yeti and in 1985 when along with Neil Armstrong he landed an airplane at both the South and North Poles.

Edmund Hillary was so acclaimed and idolized in his home country that he was the only living person, besides the Queen of England, to have his portrait on the currency (Five dollar bill). His “aw shucks I’m just a regular guy” attitude was genuine and in being the antithesis of the tall poppy, he was quintessentially Kiwi.