Entymology trumps baseball in the Palmetto State

Back in Cape Town seeing clients. The Santa rally in  risk assets in December has continued into January. It is starting to dawn on investors (and me) that the Eurozone might, after all, commit to providing the funding to firewall the peripheral countries. Primary is the huge $600bn plus of term funding offered to banks by the European Central Bank. And there is more of this to come. But there are other factors, not least that governments like the Italian technocrats under Mario Monti are not sitting on their hands. By being proactive they are also building credit with the sceptical north and this is enabling more financial leeway to help them through the crunch. Anyhoo, on Sunday a steady nor' wester sprung up - unusual for January when the south-easter can blow for days on end. I spent a long time in the water, catching waves at the back. Found myself drifting across the bay and at one point was way beyond the pavilion which I usually use as a boundary. Had to pull myself back from left to right. That's pretty much what happened in South Carolina, where Newt beat Mitt, going away. He started 20 points adrift and in the space of few days had chalked up a resounding win from apparently nowhere. The QSL is from WBSC, Bennettsville, SC heard on AM with 5kW from Cape Town in 1971. It seems the signal was beamed into my backyard. One of those nice, friendly letter QSLs from way back when.

Vuvuzela for the Kuomintang

The vuvuzela was around long before the noisy World Cup 2010 in South Africa. Inspired originally by the kudu horn, aluminium versions were made in the 1960s and supporters of top SA football teams like Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates have used it for years. Now it has turned up in the far east in the Taiwanese elections. It has also shown up in Hong Kong at social rallies. Taiwan appears to have come of age in this election with a non-violent campaign and good outturn. The Kuomintang, which set up on the island six decades back, won again but with a reduced majority. Incumbent Ma Ying-jeou has pursued rappochement with the mainland which is completely at odds with the original party's raison d'etre. It is ironic that a vibrant 2-party state delivers a victor intent on rebuilding relations with the mainland, which itself is a country that does not allow elections. Chinese media coverage of the Taiwan elections was muted for the very reason that it does not want its people to track the process of democracy too closely. So instead of the mainland reclaiming the island one day as it hopes, maybe the island will reclaim the mainland - not with force but through fibre optics. The QSL is for a utility test transmission of the Chinese Government Radio Administration (Taiwan was still the Chinese representative at the United Nations until 1971), heard on 9975kHz USB in Cape Town way back in 1967. It was typed on beautiful onion skin paper.

McDonalds fires up in Hampstead

Walking through Hampstead the other evening we saw two ambulances and two police cars with sirens blaring, bullying their way through the traffic. The place was humming as people enjoyed the balmy weather, for this time of the year. Do sirens really need to be so loud? They should have two settings, one loud and one softer, the latter for moving through dense traffic and pedestrians. The ambulances and police cars were one thing but to cap it all a large fire engine bludgeoned its way through Hampstead's main intersection, forcing cars on to the pavement, and pulled up outside McDonalds. This was followed by two more fire trucks over the next 5-6 minutes from different sides of town. So now three fire engines were blocking the main thoroughfare. I love fire engines but in truth none of them were needed. A couple of firemen walked into the back of McDonalds to see what the problem was while the others hung around outside on the pavement. Probably the fat briefly caught fire. Looking through the window we saw that customers in the restaurant seemed unfazed. Hasn't the fire department heard of radio? Once the first one got there the others could have been warned off. I guess it wasn't a busy afternoon in the fire world and the boys needed an outing. McDonalds started life in San Bernardino, near Los Angeles, CA in 1940. The QSL is from the US Coast Guard station at Monterey, CA, heard on 5696 kHz USB in Johannesburg in 1987 in contact with Coast Guard cutter Cape Romain, one of my best utility QSLs.

Could candidates pall against Paul?

The US presidential primaries always make good copy and this time is no exception. A merry-go-round is under way as Republicans jostle to settle on a candidate. There's a guy who seems to be named after baseball equipment (Mitt Romney), another with two first names (Ron Paul), yet another who should probably be institutionalised (Rick San(a)tor(i)um) for his extreme views on private rights, and one who sounds like a small, aquatic animal (Newt Gingrich). US politics are increasingly polarised just when compromise between the parties has become critically important. 2011 saw unseemly stand-offs on the debt ceiling and the extension of unemployment benefits and payroll tax reduction. Last-gasp compromises did materialise but to the outside observer the system is dysfunctional, with the political class apparently incapable of addressing long-term issues. The great American democracy doesn't work anymore. Sure, the economy is now coming out of its dip last year at quite a robust pace but the fiscal situation remains dire. At some point this must be confronted. On many issues Ron Paul is an attractive candidate to an economist like me. He is for small government and against US military intervention abroad. He has an Austrian school approach to the Federal Reserve i.e. dump it. The question of course is that, with the US society so layered with distorting incentives and vested interests, how likely is it that Paul could ever take Congress with him? Ironically, the Tea Party doesn't really like him precisely because of some his liberal views e.g. on the military and religion. This week's primary is in New Hampshire. The business card attached is from Frank Fontaine at WSMN, Nashua, NH on AM 1590 with 5kW, heard in Sheigra, Scotland in 1996. Frank was on the air at the time and sent a nice letter.

London explodes against its own silhouette

2012 marches in at a rate of knots. In London, New Year really arrived with a bang, ushered in by a fireworks display that took the breath away. This was a hi-tech explosion the likes of which we've not seen before. The intensity and synchronisation were stunning. At times it looked like a hundred huge white palm trees exploding in unison above the Thames. The London Eye was used to brilliant effect with rockets cascading out in spirals as well as streaking inwards. How did they manage to load so many crackers on to that steel grid? Big Ben also played a key role with multi-coloured tracers shearing out in pods from the top of the tower while the cameras would periodically zoom in on its looming shape against the dark silhouette of London behind. To get to the front of the barriers for the best view, people started queuing at 1pm but they sure got what they waited for. It took us back to Millenium night when we stood on the roof garden of the Liffe building where I used to work and had a magnificent view of the iconic display that ushered in the next 1000 years. But this latest one was on another level. The QSL is from LBC, London, heard in Johannesburg on AM 1152 in 1986, long before we ever thought we'd be living here.