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Your News Companion
April 8 2016 4:41 PM
The Latest From the Panama Papers: Details From the Largest Leak in History
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
More than 100 news outlets from around the world worked on the
largest journalistic leak in history, dubbed the Panama Papers, which is
exposing the secrets of how the global elite often find workarounds to
hide their wealth. As news organizations dig through the documents and
citizens react to the revelations we’ll be updating this post with the
most important new developments as they occur.
French, Panama finance ministers to meet. French
President Francois Hollande spoke on the phone with his Panamanian
counterpart Juan Carlos Varela and the two agreed the finance ministers of the two countries should meet to discuss ways in which they could cooperate.
Hollande urged his counterpart to make sure his country answers requests for information regarding the offshore companies that are set up in the country. The French Finance Ministry said Panama was still not releasing relevant information about companies and accounts.
In the conversation, Varela emphasized the country's "commitment to
continue cooperating with the international community in the fight
against the improper use of financial and corporate services," the Panamanian government said.
OECD calls tax meeting. The Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development has called for a meeting of senior
tax officials on April 13 in Paris to discuss the Panama Papers. Members
of the Joint International Tax Shelter Information and Collaboration
(JITSIC) will take part in the meeting that "presents tax
administrations with a first opportunity to act on the considerable body
of information revealed by the 'Panama Papers' release," according to
an OECD statement.
Separately, Panama has vowed to increase talks with OECD on sharing tax data, the country’s vice president told AFP.
"We are going to establish technical-level dialogue between Panama and
the OECD specifically on exchanging information," said Isabel De Saint
Malo, who is also Panama’s foreign minister. Earlier in the week, Angel
Gurria, the head of the OECD had described Panama as "the last major
holdout" that continued to allow people to hide assets out of sight from
authorities.
“A bad image to our country.” One set of people who
have not had the best week are the offshore lawyers in Panama. Even
those who don’t work at Mossack Fonseca were feeling the effects of the
leak as they suddenly saw business dry up. "I was about to sign a
contract on Monday with some Italian clients but they postponed it," one lawyer told Reuters.
The lawyers who work in the offshore industry say that the image of
Panama as a paradise for money launderers was unfair. "We're worried
because its giving a bad image to our country... it doesn't reflect
reality," another lawyer said.
The Financial Times also talks to sector executives in
Panama who insist the Mossack Fonseca leak ignores all the progress that
the country has made in terms of transparency in recent years.
“The steps [towards greater transparency] are not quantum leaps, but
they are not baby steps either. They are respectable steps in the right
direction,” one executive said.
EU calls for common list of tax havens. The European
Union should come up with a list of tax havens over the next six months
to impose sanctions on those who help people and companies hide revenue
that could be taxed within the European Union. "We need now a true
European list of non-cooperative jurisdictions," EU tax and economics
commissioner Pierre Moscovici told reporters in Brussels.
Poroshenko vows to get tough (now). Ukrainian
President Petro Poroshenko is speaking up against tax havens. Now that
his has been found. “I am planning to present a significant reform that
will make using offshore accounts in Ukraine impossible,” Poroshenko said this week
after the Panama Papers revealed he had an offshore firm. Poroshenko
had vowed to sell his candy empire when he ran for office, but instead
he moved it offshore. He insisted the firm was a way to separate his
business and political lives and not to minimize tax, claiming he
couldn’t sell it before taking office because of the ongoing conflict
with Russia.
Moscow may not like talking about its own starring role in the Panama
Papers but it thinks Poroshenko’s appearance in the Mossack Fonseca
documents could affect the European Union’s policy toward Ukraine. "I
think that the European Union is gradually adjusting its policy toward
Ukraine," Russia’s Ambassador to the EU Vladimir Chizhov said.
The Panama Papers came at a horrible time for Poroshenko, who is
dealing with a deepening government crisis and increasing anger at his
administration. “Things are coming to a head, experts say, largely
because Ukraine has failed to deliver on promised reforms under
Poroshenko's two-year-old presidency,” notes the Christian Science Monitor.
Nigeria’s Senate president vows to hang tight.
Bukola Saraki, the president of the Nigerian Senate, said he has no
intention of stepping down after the Panama Papers revealed he did not
declare at least four offshore assets listed under his wife’s name.
Saraki, who is Nigeria’s third most powerful official, said the assets
belonged to his wife’s family. Nigerian newspaper Premium Times, however, said the assets under his wife’s name “are actually held in trust for Mr. Saraki.”
A bad plugin? Cybersecurity experts continue trying
to track down how someone was able to get so many files from Mossack
Fonseca. The Panamanian law firm says it was hacked. One company that
does security for Wordpress, a popular open-source website creation and
content management tool, said that Mossack Fonseca was running a version
of a plugin that has known vulnerabilities. The vulnerability “would
have been trivially easy to exploit,” notes Wordfence.
“It is hard to confirm with full confidence what exactly happened but
this report makes sense. WordPress and other CMSs are under constant
attacks,” Jérôme Segura of Malwarebytes told Gizmodo. “The more extensions and third-party software a site uses, the more difficult it is going to be to protect it.”
Update at 10:40 a.m.: Cameron faces calls to resign. British Prime Minister David Cameron is facing increasing calls to resign
after he finally acknowledged on Thursday that he profited from his
father’s offshore trust. The hashtag #ResignCameron became the top
trending topic on Twitter on Friday morning as members of parliament,
celebrities, and just random citizens called on Cameron to step down.
There is also a protest planned for Saturday.
“What's happened over this recent period is there's significant
erosion of trust in the Prime Minister because he wasn't straight and he
didn't answer straight away and responses, as others have said, had to
be dragged out of him,” John Mann, a lawmaker from the opposition Labour
Party, said. Mann has also called for a parliamentary investigation into the matter.
Many of Cameron’s critics hit out at what they called hypocrisy
for his previous statements on the issue. “He said that sunlight is the
best disinfectant and wasn’t entirely straight with the British people
about what his own financial arrangements were,” Tom Watson, deputy
Labour leader said. “That wouldn’t be so bad if he hadn’t also been
lecturing very prominent people about their own tax arrangements, some
he called morally wrong for being invested in similar schemes.”
Singer Lily Allen also joined the chorus of critics on Twitter: “Our Prime Minister has been stealing from us. It's very important that he resigns.”
Why did it take so long for Cameron to come clean? It was all out of
respect for his late father, his defenders say. "I think he thought 'I
know that I have complied fully with all of the tax laws' and I don't
like feeding this mill of preying on his father's memory, and his father
cannot defend himself," government minister Nick Boles said. “He’s
prime minister yes, but he’s also a human being and he’s a son,” he added. “A son who lost his father.”
U.K. banks must disclose. Big British banks must
disclose any ties with the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca. The U.K.
Financial Conduct Authority has called on 20 banks and financial firms
to disclose any ties with Mossack Fonseca by April 15.
Argentine president fights back. Mauricio Macri, one of the 12 heads of state named directly in the Panama Papers, continues to insist he has nothing to hide
after a prosecutor called for an investigation into the Argentine
president’s offshore holdings. Since the papers were leaked, Macri has
said he didn’t need to declare that he was a director at Bahamas-based
Fleg Trading because he did not own a stake in the firm.
Macri has vowed to go to court on Friday to certify that what he has
been saying about the firm is true. Earlier, a prosecutor called on a
judge to greenlight an investigation into whether Macri “maliciously”
failed to detail his role in the offshore company in his annual tax
statements. Around 500 protesters gathered outside the presidential palace after Macri spoke.
Panama’s attorney general and a ‘half-hearted’ probe. Four days after the Panama Papers broke, Panama’s Attorney General Kenia Porcell confirmed yesterday that there will be an investigation into the Panama Papers.
But the probe so far only relates to Mossack Fonseca’s loss of
confidential information, and won't look into whether its business
practices were illegal. Porcell has come under intense criticism within
Panama for her office’s failure to launch an investigation on the
Panamanian law firm that has made headlines around the world.
Mossack Fonseca co-founder quits government council. Lawyer Jurgen Mossack, a co-founder of the Mossack Fonseca law firm, resigned from his seat in a council
that advised Panama’s government on foreign policy. The post on the
National Council of Foreign Relations was an unpaid post but illustrates
how the executives at the law firm at the center of the Panama Papers
scandal have clout with the Panamanian government. Until February, Ramon
Fonseca, the firm’s other founding partner, was a member of President
Juan Carlos Varela’s Cabinet.
Senators call on Treasury to investigate. Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Sherrod Brown are calling on the Treasury Department to look into the documents released as part of the Panama Papers. In a letter to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew
the senators who are frequent critics of the banking sector said the
government must investigate whether there are any companies, banks, or
individuals in the U.S. with ties to Panamanian law firm Mossack
Fonseca.
Although the Justice Department has already said it is reviewing the
issue, the senators said that isn’t enough. “As the primary agency
charged with protecting the integrity of the U.S. financial system and
enforcing our laws against money laundering and terrorist financing, we
strongly urge the Treasury Department to conduct its own inquiry into
Mossack Fonseca's activities and its clients,” reads the letter.
Update on April 7 at 5:45 p.m.: Putin says Panama Papers are U.S. plot to weaken Russia. Russian
President Vladimir Putin staunchly denied there was “any element of
corruption” in the massive leak of documents from the Panamanian law
firm Mossack Fonseca. "They've found a few of my acquaintances and
friends... and scraped up something from there and stuck it together."
And what would be the purpose of such an exercise? "They are trying to
destabilize us from within in order to make us more compliant," he said.
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and several media outlets said that Russian cellist Sergei Roldugin was a front man for a network of Putin loyalists who moved some $2 billion through offshore networks. Putin said that Roldugin, a personal friend, had done nothing wrong.
This is all part of what any close observer of Moscow would expect Putin to say. The New York Times explains:
The Russian president rolled out the standard Kremlin excuse for any bad news regarding Russia from abroad. Russia, he said, deprives the West of its monopoly on economic and military power, which irritates the leading nations.
So the West dreams up plots to undermine the “unity and cohesion” of Russia, which is “an exercise in futility,” he said.
Putin specifically cited WikiLeaks to assert his claims that this was
all part of a U.S. plot. But WikiLeaks has published a few
contradictory tweets on the issue. First:
“US govt funded #PanamaPapers attack story on Putin via USAID. Some
good journalists but no model for integrity.” But then seemed to roll
that back a bit a few hours later:
“Claims that #PanamaPapers themselves are a 'plot' against Russia are
nonsense. However hoarding, DC organization & USAID money tilt
coverage.”
David Cameron admits benefit. After days of
non-denials denials that raised more questions than answers, British
Prime Minister David Cameron finally came clean in saying he benefitted from his late father’s offshore trust.
Mossack Fonseca keeps Americans at arm’s length. Many (including Slatest) have raised the question about why there aren’t more Americans in the Panama Papers. Ramon Fonseca talked to the Associated Press
and gave a straightforward explanation: the firm would rather not have
them as clients. The firm has long focused its business on Europe and
Latin America rather than the United States. “The few American clients
the firm has taken are mostly to handle visas and other requests from
Panama's burgeoning expatriate retirement community,” notes the AP.
Banking execs quit. A member of the supervisory
board at Dutch bank ABN Amro said he is stepping down after his name
showed up in the Panama Papers. “I want to prevent the bank experiencing
adverse effects,” Bert Meerstadt said in a statement.
He becomes the second European banking executive to resign after the chief executive of Austrian lender Hypo Landesbank Vorarlberg stepped down from his post.
Michael Grahammer “surprisingly declared his resignation last night,”
the bank said last night. Austrian broadcaster ORF said the bank was
connected to offshore firms, a claim that is now being investigated by
the country’s markets regulator. "I remain 100 percent convinced that
the bank at no point violated laws or sanctions," Grahammer said in a
statement issued by the bank.
Update at 10:34 a.m.: Some Panama Papers to stay out of limelight. The
German paper that was the first to receive the leaked documents from
Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca said that it won’t make all the 11.5
million files available to the public. The documents also won’t be made available to law enforcement agencies, Sueddeutsche Zeitung said. “That's because the SZ isn't the extended arm of prosecutors or the tax investigators,” the Munich-based paper added.
Panama vows review. Panama wants the world to know
it isn’t sitting still. President Juan Carlos Varela vowed that the
country’s foreign ministry would set up an “independent commission of
domestic and international experts” to examine the country’s financial
practices and propose ways to boost transparency. “We are a serious
country, respectful of international law and cooperative with the
efforts of the international community to seek solutions to this global
problem,” he said in a television address.
Rather than criticize the publication of the documents, Varela said the country welcomed the reporting, saying it can help it improve.
“We welcome any publication or any investigation which protects the
Panamanian and global financial systems so that it cannot be used at any
time for any illicit act,” Varela said. Still, he was sure to note that
it would be mistaken to say the issue is only Panama’s problem and,
like others in the country, he hates that it is being called the Panama
Papers.
“Panama wants to make it very clear that this situation that has been
mistakenly called ‘the Panama Papers’ is not our country’s problem, but
rather that of many countries in the world, which has legal and
financial structures that are still vulnerable to be used with ends that
do not represent the common good,” Varela said.
A senior government adviser said that the commission is likely to issue its first report within six months. And, in an interview with Reuters,
he rejected suggestions that Varela's friendship with one of the
founders of Mossack Fonseca, Ramon Fonseca, would make a difference in
the investigation. "I don't think it's really that difficult," he said.
China boosts censorship. It was already difficult
for people in China to read news about the Panama Papers. But after the
International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, and associated
media outlets, published an extensive look at the offshore holdings of
some of China’s most powerful politicians, the censorship has only increased.
The latest censorship directive calls on websites to make sure their
entire site, including community forums and comments, make no mention of
the Panama Papers.
When the Guardian published stories on the Chinese
leadership on Thursday afternoon, the paper’s website became partially
blocked in China. The government has also continued to refuse to say
anything about the global story. “My colleague has already taken this
question. We have no comment on this.” So far, the only official response to the documents was a spokesman calling the report “groundless.”
For China’s elite, the stakes are high
because the Panama Papers come on the heels of a three-year
anti-corruption campaign. Still, President Xi Jinping is expected to easily survive
the revelations in the Panama Papers. Some, however, say it could
fundamentally alter the anti-corruption drive. “The campaign may become
more intense, or it may halt it, and everyone might protect each other,
saying: 'You don't touch me, I won't touch you,” said Wu Qiang, an independent political commentator and former lecturer at Tsinghua University.
Update on April 6 at 5:02 p.m.: The many secrets of China’s top leaders. At
least three of the seven members of the Politburo Standing Committee,
China’s Communist Party’s most powerful committee, have relatives who
head up offshore companies, according to the Panama Papers.
When former members of the committee are also included in the list the
number rises to eight. By far the biggest name on the list is President
Xi Jinping, whose brother-in-law has owned companies in tax havens.
The starring role of what is known as the “red nobility”
in the Panama Papers is merely the top of the pyramid for what has
become a huge market for offshore firms. Nearly one-third of Mossack
Fonseca’s businesses came from Hong Kong and China, “making China the
firm's biggest market and Hong Kong the company's busiest office,” notes the BBC.
It likely won’t be easy for Chinese citizens to read about how their
country is featured in the Panama Papers. China has been censoring news about the leak since Monday.
The government has reason to be nervous. After all, Xi, and the
Communist Party as a whole, have vowed to combat corruption following
several high-profile scandals.
European soccer under scrutiny. Swiss authorities have raided the offices of UEFA,
which governs European soccer, after a former secretary general of the
organization, Gianni Infantino, appeared in the Panama Papers. He is
currently the president of FIFA, the world governing body for soccer.
Documents that are part of the Mossack Fonseca leak show how
Infantino signed a contract for television rights with two business
leaders who have since been tied with the FIFA corruption scandal. The
documents show how UEFA sold the Ecuadorian TV rights for some games to
an Argentinian company registered in the tax haven of Niue, an island in the South Pacific, at one price and then the company immediately resold them at a much higher price.
Infantino has strongly denied any wrongdoing and has vowed to
cooperate with investigators. “If my determination to restore football’s
reputation was already very strong, it is now even stronger,” he said.
“I welcome any investigation conducted into this matter.” The Swiss
attorney general said the raid was “motivated by the suspicion of
criminal mismanagement” but “no specific individual is being targeted by
these proceedings.”
FIFA official resigns. A Uruguayan member of FIFA’s independent ethics committee has resigned
following the release of the Panama Papers. Juan Pedro Damiani was one
of the first big-name officials to receive worldwide attention from the
Panama Papers that appeared to show how his law firm was an intermediary
for a FIFA official who has been caught up in the corruption scandal
involving the global soccer authority. Damiani’s firm allegedly helped
Eugenio Figueredo, a fellow Uruguayan and a former FIFA vice-president
who was arrested last year, set up an offshore company.
"We can confirm that Mr. Damiani resigned from his position as member
of the adjudicatory chamber of the independent Ethics Committee of
FIFA," spokesman Marc Tenbuecken told AFP in an email.
British prime minister avoids the past. Prime
Minister David Cameron’s administration appears to be pursuing a new
tactic to deal with the Panama Papers: staying quiet. Cameron and his
aides have given four explanations
about the offshore company set up by the prime minister’s late father
but all of them leave some wiggle room that has only led to more
questions. The latest attempt at a statement came Wednesday morning: "There are no offshore funds or trusts which the prime minister, Mrs Cameron or their children will benefit from in future."
That statement leaves open the possibility that the prime minister or
his family benefited from offshore funds in the past. The opposition
Labour Party continues to demand clarification on the issue.
Update at 11:16 a.m.: Fonseca cries foul.
The Panama Papers are the result of an external hack, according to the
Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, which has now filed a complaint
with state prosecutors. "We rule out an inside job. This is not a leak.
This is a hack," Ramon Fonseca, a founding partner at the firm, told Reuters,
adding that the company has done nothing wrong and hasn't broken any
laws. The emails that have made waves around the world were “taken out
of context,” he said. The journalists poring through the firm’s 11.5
million documents should be focusing on how they were obtained, not what
they say. "The only crime that has been proven is the hack," Fonseca
said. "No one is talking about that. That is the story."
At the end of the day though, Fonseca is optimistic about the future.
"This is a tropical storm, like the ones we have here in Panama where
once it passes the sun will come out," Fonseca said. "I guarantee you
that we will not be found guilty of anything."
Judging old practices by new standards? Many have
described the Panama Papers as simply the tip of the iceberg. Others in
the financial industry are pushing back against that assertion, saying
that in fact the journalists writing stories about the leak are applying
today’s laws to things that were done in the past. "Fifteen years ago,
due diligence didn't exist and they are judging us by other standards," Ramon Fonseca said.
Nigel Green, founder and CEO of international financial advising firm deVere Group said the documents are not representative of the international financial services industry as a whole.
“Many of the documents that have been revealed by the Panama Papers
case date back decades and for the last several years a new and totally
unprecedented era of transparency and disclosure has been ushered in,”
Green said. Now, “the overwhelming majority of the offshore sector only
provides services that are fully compliant and legal and they are used
by law-abiding clients.”
The Americans. One of the things that has most
raised eyebrows in the press regarding the Panama Papers is the sheer
lack of U.S. citizens on the list. Moscow was eager to seize on this as
an illustration of why the leak should be seen as a Western plot. One of
the only U.S. names released at first was Marianna Olszewski, an
investment adviser who wrote the book Live It, Love It, Earn It: A Woman’s Guide to Financial Freedom.
Mossack Fonseca allegedly set up a shell company for Olszewski to help
her retrieve $1.8 million from an offshore investment without revealing
her identity, according to the BBC.
Olszewski isn’t alone. Even though determining the
exact number of Americans in the leaked documents is difficult, at least
200 scanned individual U.S passports are part of the leak. The names
don’t appear to include any politicians or otherwise famous people.
“Some appear to be American retirees purchasing real estate in places
like Costa Rica and Panama,” reports McClatchy.
At least five though seem to be people who have been charged with
financial crimes. When you zoom out a bit, the connections to the U.S.
grow as approximately 3,500 shareholders of offshore companies list a
U.S. address.
Overall, Mossack Fonseca worked with 617 intermediaries operating in the United States, according to ICIJ.
Nevada connection. Mossack Fonseca may be a
Panamanian firm but it has ties to almost 1,100 U.S. companies that were
largely set up in Nevada and Wyoming since 2001. So far though, “the
firm has appeared in only a scattering of court cases and regulatory
filings,” reports USA Today.
Most of the firms Mossack Fonseca helped set up were in Nevada. There
is very little publicly available information about the corporations to
figure out who is behind them.
Americans don’t need to go offshore. The connection
between Mossack Fonseca and Nevada raise another issue about why there
may be so few American names in the Panama Papers: U.S. citizens don’t
need to go far to find their own tax haven. “You don’t really have to go
to Panama or other tax havens. They are not the only ones making it
possible for corrupt officials and other criminals to launder their
money. You can do it in every state in the U.S.,” Shruti Shah,
vice-president of programs and operations at Transparency International,
an anti-corruption organization, tells the Guardian. The Tax Justice Network ranks Panama as 13th in the “2015 Secrecy Ranking.” The U.S. comes in at number three.
The United States has emerged as “an active competitor in the ‘corruption services’ business,” writes Doyle McManus in the Los Angeles Times.
Nevada, Wyoming, and South Dakota have all made it easier to set up
shell companies and harder for authorities to figure out who are the
real owners. “Bankers say that has actually prompted a flow of foreign
assets from traditional tax havens such as Zurich and Bermuda to less
elegant banking centers like Reno and Sioux Falls,” notes McManus.
Update on April 5 at 4:36 p.m.: Banks: nothing to see here.
The Panama Papers revelations that have some sort of connection to
politicians across the world have received most of the attention. But
one of the most fascinating aspects of the Mossack Fonseca leak is how
some of the biggest banks helped their customers set up offshore
companies. The Panama Papers reveal that more than 500 banks
registered almost 15,600 shell companies with Mossack Fonseca. There
are some big names on the list too, including HSBC, UBS, Credit Suisse,
Societe General, and the Royal Bank of Canada.
The biggest offender on the list of big names? HSBC, which, along with subsidiaries, account for more than 2,300 of the companies in the report.
The news comes as a big blow to a bank that has faced scrutiny across
the world for its practices. In February of last year, authorities raided two HSBC offices in Switzerland due to offshore finances.
Regulators across Europe have said they will launch investigations
into the offshore activities of the banks they’re supposed to be
supervising. The banks, however, have staunchly rejected
any suggestion that they use offshore assets to help clients evade
taxes. In a statement provided to the International Consortium of
Investigative Journalists in 2015 though, HSBC acknowledged that “the
compliance culture and standards of due diligence in HSBC's Swiss
private bank, as well as the industry in general, were significantly
lower than they are today.”
Some experts contend the fallout from the Panama Papers could end up
being good news for banks tired of working on the margins of legality.
“It might give banks a hand,” Brian Kindle, executive director of the
Miami-based Association of Certified Financial Crime Specialists, told the Globe and Mail.
“Banks don’t have the proper framework, in terms of regulation and
information sources, provided to them to do the due diligence they need
to do. There needs to be reform around how companies are incorporated
and what information they are required to give and who is responsible
for updating that when the information changes.”
Obama speaks. President Obama talked to reporters
about the Panama Papers on Tuesday, saying that it demonstrates the need
for international reform. “There is no doubt that the problem of global
tax avoidance generally is a huge problem,” Obama said.
“The problem is that a lot of this stuff is legal, not illegal.”
Although there are no U.S. politicians in the leak (so far at least)
Obama said he’s under no illusion that Americans are not participating
in offshore schemes to evade taxes. “Frankly, folks in America are
taking advantage of the same stuff," he said as he touted new rules to
prevent what is known as corporate inversions, which is when companies
move overseas to avoid taxes.
Don’t call it the Panama Papers in Panama. There is
one country that is not so fond of the name that has been given to the
largest leak in journalistic history. You guessed it, it’s Panama. While
around the world the search for “Panama Papers” is trending, in Panama
it's a (misspelled) “MossakFonsecaPapers,” reports the BBC.
Some Twitter users from Panama are even trying to launch a campaign to
get the country name out of the equation and have everyone just focus on
the law firm Mossack Fonseca. Considering even those trying to advocate
the name change spelled it wrong, there doesn’t seem to be much chance
of that happening.
Update at 1:05 p.m.: Cameron tries to clarify (and ends up raising more questions).
British Prime Minister David Cameron has been one of the world leaders
who has come under fire from the Panama Papers, which listed his late
father Ian Cameron as a client of Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.
After a spokeswoman described it all as a private matter, Cameron sought to address the lingering questions on Tuesday.
In the end though, Cameron raised more questions than he answered
during an interview. “I have no shares, no offshore trusts, no offshore
funds, nothing like that. And, so that, I think, is a very clear
description,” Cameron said.
Except it wasn’t. Cameron was answering to a question that referred to
past and future profits and to him and his family. Instead, the prime
minister only talked about himself and in the present tense.
Shortly thereafter, a spokesperson for the prime minister sought to
broaden the answer: “To be clear, the prime minister, his wife and their
children do not benefit from any offshore funds.” Problem is, as the Guardian quickly pointed out, the answer was written in the present tense, so no word about whether it was different in the past.
Opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is calling for an independent
investigation on the issue. "There cannot be one set of tax rules for
the wealthy elite and another for the rest of us," Corbyn said. “The
unfairness and abuse must stop.” Corbyn said he would publish his tax
returns and called on the prime minister to follow suit.
Argentina’s president also digs in heels. Argentine
President Mauricio Macri was one of the 12 global leaders directly named
in the Panama Papers. He had already denied any wrongdoing yesterday.
But turns out local journalists, working with a separate database that
is not the Panama Papers, linked Macri with a second offshore company.
So his Cabinet chief talked to the press today to once again deny any
wrongdoing: “The president doesn’t have accounts nor undeclared assets
anywhere in the world, including Panama.”
First politician falls. Icelandic Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson has the dubious honor of being the first politician to be forced out since the publication of the Panama Papers.
Really, really, really large piggy banks. Still having trouble understanding the basics of the Panama Papers and offshore companies? Reddit user DanGliesack came up with a way of simply explaining the basics with a story that is friendly enough for a five-year-old to understand. The Guardian added a few illustrations to the story to make it even easier to read.
China: nothing to see here. China doesn’t really
wants its citizens to know much about the largest leak in journalistic
history. At first, it seemed the Chinese government didn’t mind if the
public knew about the Panama Papers as long as talk of potential ties
between the country’s Communist Party leaders and offshore companies stayed outside its borders.
So Chinese reports on the issue were very elliptical and made
absolutely no reference to the way the relatives of several top
officials, including President Xi Jinping, had offshore assets.
By Monday afternoon, Chinese officials were already having second
thoughts and reportedly told news agencies to take down the articles on
the Panama Papers. “By Tuesday, it was as if they’d never existed,”
notes the Los Angeles Times.
China Digital Times has published a memo sent by a provincial
propaganda department to media outlets: “Find and delete reprinted
reports on the Panama Papers. Do not follow up on related content, no
exceptions.” The censorship of the articles was accompanied by blocks on
several searches, including “Panama + offshore,” in Sina Weibo, which
is often referred to as China’s Twitter.
So what did the Panama Papers reveal about China? Family members of
at least eight current or former members of China’s Politburo Standing
Committee, the party’s top decision-making body, have set up offshore assets through Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.
One exception to the broad censorship of news about the Panama Papers was in the English-language Global Times, a state-run tabloid. The paper seemed to take a page out of Moscow’s playbook and characterized the Panama Papers as an ideological attack by Western media outlets:
The Western media has taken control of the interpretation each time there has been such a document dump, and Washington has demonstrated particular influence in it. Information that is negative to the US can always be minimized, while exposure of non-Western leaders, such as Putin, can get extra spin.
In the Internet era, disinformation poses no major risks to Western influential elites or the West. In the long-run, it will become a new means for the ideology-allied Western nations to strike a blow to non-Western political elites and key organizations.
Update on April 4 at 7:15 p.m.: Department of Justice takes a look. The
Department of Justice said it will be looking at the revelations from
the Panama Papers to try to figure out whether the documents can help
prove corrupt practices or other violations of the law. “We are aware of
the reports and are reviewing them,” Justice Department spokesman Peter Carr said.
“While we cannot comment on the specifics of these alleged documents,
the U.S. Department of Justice takes very seriously all credible
allegations of high-level, foreign corruption that might have a link to
the United States or the U.S. financial system.”
The IRS could also wind up getting involved. A former IRS official
said it was almost inevitable that it would start taking a look at the
names revealed in the documents. "Once the IRS becomes aware of the
identities of these people, I almost can guarantee you that they will do
some kind of triaging of the data to see if there are U.S. people in
there and based on the results of that, they may elect to go after
people," Daniel Reeves, who helped create the IRS offshore compliance
unit, told McClatchy.
The group that is coordinating the reporting isn’t planning on making
it any easier for authorities. The Justice Department “can read it like
any other person in what we publish,” the head of the organization
said.
France also opens investigation. The U.S. government
is hardly alone in wanting to figure out just how much there there is
in 2.6 terabytes of data. French prosecutors also opened an investigation
to try to figure out whether French nationals or companies used
companies in Panama as a way to evade taxes. “The goal of the
investigation is to characterize infractions that may have been
committed in France, by people whom the probe will identify,” the
spokesman said.
Update at 6:15 p.m.: Messi and the world of soccer. Soccer superstar Lionel Messi is under (yet another) investigation by Spanish tax authorities
after his name appeared in the Panama Papers. He is one of 20
high-profile soccer players listed in the report. But the issue is
particularly sensitive for Messi, who, along with his father, is
scheduled to go on trial next month for alleged tax evasion.
The documents show that Messi and his father are the only beneficiaries
of a company in Panama named Mega Star Enterprises. Amazingly, the
first reference to the company came one day after Spanish prosecutors
charged Messi and his father for tax evasion.
The Messi family has staunchly denied any wrongdoing
saying that the offshore firm “never had any funds or accounts” and
that it was created by financial advisers who are no longer working for
the family. In a statement, the family said it was analyzing the possibility of taking legal action against media outlets that published the news.
When there’s a story about global corruption, it seems inevitable
that global soccer body FIFA will be involved. And this is no exception.
Now the troubled organization could be steps away from another crisis
as the files demonstrate close ties between the law firm of a FIFA
ethics watchdog and three men who have been accused as part of the
global corruption scandal that has engulfed the group. “The files could
threaten to undermine the credibility of the ethics committee, which is
central to attempts to show FIFA is willing to reform after decades of
corruption allegations,” notes the Guardian. FIFA has vowed to investigate.
The Argentine connection. Two of the three most
powerful Argentines in the world are front and center of the Panama
Papers as both President Mauricio Macri and soccer superstar Lionel
Messi were listed (Pope Francis is nowhere in sight). Macri, a
businessman turned politician, is one of 12 heads of state whose name
appears directly in the leaked documents. Macri, his father and brother
were all part of the board of directors of an offshore company
registered in the Bahamas since 1998. The company was still running in
2009, two years after Macri was elected mayor of the city of Buenos
Aires so should have technically been reported to oversight authorities.
The government denied the president did anything wrong, saying he was
never a shareholder in the company so wasn’t required to disclose it.
Macri defended his actions in an interview
today saying it was all part of “a legal operation,” adding that “there
is nothing strange” about his participation in the firm. He said his
father, business magnate Franco Macri, created the company to carry out
an investment in Brazil that never came to fruition.
Although the opposition hasn’t accused Macri of doing anything
illegal, they say he has to come forward and explain himself,
particularly considering he was elected last year partly with the
promise to combat corruption. "An offshore company is never created with
licit aims," said Hector Recalde, the president of the Victory Front party in the Lower House of Congress. "The President has the responsibility to make things absolutely clear."
Laura Alonso, a member of the ruling party and head of the
anti-corruption office, immediately came under fire for seemingly
defending the president when the story first broke on Sunday. "To create
a company in a tax haven is not a crime in and of itself," Alonso wrote on Twitter.
Other notable Argentines on the list include Daniel Muñoz, the private secretary of late former president Nestor Kirchner, who ruled the country between 2003 and 2007.
Original post at 3:33 p.m.: Politicians, business
leaders, sports stars, and banks around the world are reeling from what
has been dubbed the Panama Papers, the biggest journalistic leak in
history. An anonymous source leaked 11.5 million documents going back 40
years from a Panamanian law firm, Mossack Fonseca. German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung was the first to get the documents and then shared them with the Washington, D.C.-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which launched a global reporting effort involving 107 media organizations in 78 countries.
The leak involved 2.6 terabytes of data. That is huge. For
comparison’s sake the WikiLeaks State Department cables released in 2010
amounted to 1.7 gigabytes of data, which is tiny compared to the
2,600GB of the Panama Papers. With so much information breaking around
the world, it’s hard to know where to start analyzing the scope of such a
huge trove of data. To help in that quest, Slatest will do rolling updates of interesting nuggets of information as they break.
First though, a few basic things to get out of the way. Owning or
participating in an offshore company is not in and of itself illegal.
But, of course, offshore companies are the preferred venue for the
corrupt and the launderers. Plus, more than any one specific revelation
what the documents expose is just how huge and pervasive offshore
structures have become around the world—and how they often involve the
biggest banks.
“Doing legitimate business in secrecy jurisdictions is not illegal,
but the Panama Papers investigation is yet another example of how
individuals and businesses are systematically abusing the secrecy they
provide” explained Global Financial Integrity Policy Counsel Liz Confalone.
For the record, Mossack Fonseca has denied any wrongdoing. “Our firm
has never been accused or charged in connection with criminal
wrongdoing,” the Panama-based law firm said.
So, without further ado, here are the latest developments.
Icelanders take to the streets. Thousands of protesters in Iceland gathered outside the parliament
in Reykjavik to express their anger at the government on Monday after
the leaks revealed Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, and two
other top officials in his government, have ties to anonymous offshore companies.
The protest was launched after a defiant prime minister told parliament he had no intention of resigning
after reports linked him and his wife with a company in the British
Virgin Islands. Gunnlaugsson staunchly denied any wrongdoing, saying he
and his wife paid all their taxes.
Despite his denials, several members of Iceland’s opposition have
called on him to resign. "What would be the most natural and the right
thing to do is that (he) resign as prime minister," Birgitta Jonsdottir,
the head of the Pirate Party, one of the country’s biggest opposition
parties, told Reuters.
Russia yawns. One of the first stories to come out
of the treasure trove of documents had to do with a network of allies to
Russian President Vladimir Putin that moved around $2 billion through
a sophisticated network of offshore companies. The story had lots of
fascinating nuggets that made it journalistically appealing, including
the starring role of a cellist who somehow controlled a business empire
that earned tens of millions of rubles per day.
Russians, however, were not impressed.
In fact, it was likely many had no idea about what was being reported
around the world. State-owned Channel One reported the story after hours
of silence and prominently featured a denial from Putin’s spokesman,
who raised questions about the source of information and characterized
it as a U.S. plot against Moscow.
"It's obvious that there are many journalists there whose main
profession is unlikely to be journalism," Putin's spokesman, Dmitry
Peskov, said. Government-owned RT highlighted how many outlets (Slate included) illustrated their Panama Papers story with a photo of Putin even though he isn’t mentioned in any of the documents.
The reaction is hardly surprising for those who keep a close eye on
Moscow. “Casting Russia as a fortress resisting external onslaughts has
become a key feature of Putin’s domestic political narrative,” writes Natalie Nougayrède in the Guardian.
The lack of reaction from Russia is perhaps best summarized by what
blogger Ilya Varlamov wrote on Twitter: "Seriously, if someone had
posted a photo of Putin watching Peppa Pig it would have caused more of a stir."
This post will be updated with new information as the story
develops. The post has been updated for clarity since it was first
published.
Read more of Slate’s coverage of the Panama Papers.
Following in Betty’s footsteps in Seattle:
or some small talk with Betty
Copyright 2011/2016 by Letizia Mancino
All rights reserved
translated by Mary Holmes
We were going to Canada in the summer. “When we are in Edmonton”, I said to Christoph Cremer, “let’s make a quick trip to Seattle”. And that’s how it happened. At Edmonton Airport we climbed into a plane and two hours later we landed in the city where Betty had lived. I was so happy to be in Seattle at last and to be able to trace Betty’s tracks!
Wolfgang Hampel had told Betty’s friends about our arrival.
They were happy to plan a small marathon through the town and it’s surroundings with us. We only had a few days free. One should not underestimate Wolfgang’s talent in speedily mobilizing Betty’s friends, even though it was holiday time. E-mails flew backwards and forwards between Heidelberg and Seattle, and soon a well prepared itinerary was ready for us. Shortly before my departure Wolfgang handed me several parcels, presents for Betty MacDonald's friends. I rushed to pack the heavy gifts in my luggage but because of the extra weight had to throw out a pair of pajamas!
After we had landed we took a taxi to the Hotel in downtown Seattle. I was so curious to see everything. I turned my head in all directions like one of the hungry hens from Betty’s farm searching for food! Fortunately it was quite a short journey otherwise I would have lost my head like a loose screw!
Our hotel room was on the 22nd floor and looked directly out onto the 16-lane highway. There might have been even more than 16 but it made me too giddy to count! It was like a glimpse of hell! “And is this Seattle?” I asked myself. I was horrified! The cars racing by were enough to drive one mad. The traffic roared by day and night.
We immediately contacted Betty MacDonald's friends and let them know we had arrived and they confirmed the times when we should see them.
On the next morning I planned my first excursion tracing Betty’s tracks. I spread out the map of Seattle. “Oh dear” I realized “the Olympic Peninsula is much too far away for me to get there.”
Betty nodded to me! “Very difficult, Letizia, without a car.”
“But I so much wanted to see your chicken farm”
“My chickens are no longer there and you can admire the mountains from a distance”
But I wanted to go there. I left the hotel and walked to the waterfront where the State Ferry terminal is. Mamma mia, the streets in Seattle are so steep! I couldn’t prevent my feet from running down the hill. Why hadn’t I asked for brakes to be fixed on my shoes? I looked at the drivers. How incredibly good they must be to accelerate away from the red traffic lights. The people were walking uphill towards me as briskly as agile salmon. Good heavens, these Americans! I tried to keep my balance. The force of gravity is relentless. I grasped hold of objects where I could and staggered down.
In Canada a friend had warned me that in Seattle I would see a lot of people with crutches.
Betty laughed. “ It’s not surprising, Letizia, walking salmon don’t fall directly into the soft mouth of a bear!”
“ Betty, stop making these gruesome remarks. We are not in Firlands!”
I went further. Like a small deranged ant at the foot of a palace monster I came to a tunnel. The noise was unbearable. On the motorway, “The Alaskan Way Viaduct”, cars, busses and trucks were driving at the speed of light right over my head. They puffed out their poisonous gas into the open balconies and cultivated terraces of the luxurious sky- scrapers without a thought in the world. America! You are crazy!
“Betty, are all people in Seattle deaf? Or is it perhaps a privilege for wealthy people to be able to enjoy having cars so near to their eyes and noses to save them from boredom?”
“When the fog democratically allows everything to disappear into nothing, it makes a bit of a change, Letizia”
“ Your irony is incorrigible, Betty, but tell me, Seattle is meant to be a beautiful city, But where?”
I had at last reached the State Ferry terminal.
“No Madam, the ferry for Vashon Island doesn’t start from here,” one of the men in the ticket office tells me. ”Take a buss and go to the ferry terminal in West Seattle.”
Betty explained to me “The island lies in Puget Sound and not in Elliott Bay! It is opposite the airport. You must have seen it when you were landing!”
“Betty, when I am landing I shut my eyes and pray!”
It’s time for lunch. The weather is beautiful and warm. Who said to me that it always rains here?
“Sure to be some envious man who wanted to frighten you away from coming to Seattle. The city is really beautiful, you’ll see. Stay by the waterfront, choose the best restaurant with a view of Elliott Bay and enjoy it.”
“Thank you Betty!”
I find a table on the terrace of “Elliott’s Oyster House”. The view of the island is wonderful. It lies quietly in the sun like a green fleecy cushion on the blue water.
Betty plays with my words:
“Vashon Island is a big cushion, even bigger than Bainbridge which you see in front of your eyes, Letizia. The islands look similar. They have well kept houses and beautiful gardens”.
I relax during this introduction, “Bainbridge” you are Vashon Island, and order a mineral water.
“At one time the hotel belonging to the parents of Monica Sone stood on the waterfront.”
“Oh, of your friend Kimi!” Unfortunately I forget to ask Betty exactly where it was.
My mind wanders and I think of my mountain hike back to the hotel! “Why is there no donkey for tourists?” Betty laughs:
“I’m sure you can walk back to the hotel. “Letizia can do everything.””
“Yes, Betty, I am my own donkey!”
But I don’t remember that San Francisco is so steep. It doesn’t matter, I sit and wait. The waiter comes and brings me the menu. I almost fall off my chair!
“ What, you have geoduck on the menu! I have to try it” (I confess I hate the look of geoduck meat. Betty’s recipe with the pieces made me feel quite sick – I must try Betty’s favourite dish!)
“Proof that you love me!” said Betty enthusiastically “ Isn’t the way to the heart through the stomach?”
I order the geoduck. The waiter looks at me. He would have liked to recommend oysters.
“Geoduck no good for you!”
Had he perhaps read my deepest thoughts? Fate! Then no geoduck. “No good for me.”
“Neither geoduck nor tuberculosis in Seattle” whispered Betty in my ear!
“Oh Betty, my best friend, you take such good care of me!”
I order salmon with salad.
“Which salmon? Those that swim in water or those that run through Seattle?”
“Betty, I believe you want me to have a taste of your black humour.”
“Enjoy it then, Letizia.”
During lunch we talked about tuberculosis, and that quite spoilt our appetite.
“Have you read my book “The Plague and I”?”
“Oh Betty, I’ve started to read it twice but both times I felt so sad I had to stop again!”
“But why?” asked Betty “Nearly everybody has tuberculosis! I recovered very quickly and put on 20 pounds! There was no talk of me wasting away! What did you think of my jokes in the book?”
“Those would have been a good reason for choosing another sanitorium. I would have been afraid of becoming a victim of your humour! You would have certainly given me a nickname! You always thought up such amusing names!” Betty laughed.
“You’re right. I would have called you “Roman nose”. I would have said to Urbi and Orbi “ Early this morning “Roman nose” was brought here. She speaks broken English, doesn’t eat geoduck but she does love cats.”
“Oh Betty, I would have felt so ashamed to cough. To cough in your presence, how embarrassing! You would have talked about how I coughed, how many coughs!”
“It depends on that “how”, Letizia!”
“Please, leave Goethe quotations out of it. You have certainly learnt from the Indians how to differentiate between noises. It’s incredible how you can distinguish between so many sorts of cough! At least 10!”
“So few?”
”And also your descriptions of the patients and the nurses were pitiless. An artistic revenge! The smallest pimple on their face didn’t escape your notice! Amazing.”
“ I was also pitiless to myself. Don’t forget my irony against myself!”
Betty was silent. She was thinking about Kimi, the “Princess” from Japan! No, she had only written good things about her best friend, Monica Sone, in her book “The Plague and I”. A deep friendship had started in the hospital. The pearl that developed from the illness.
“Isn’t it wonderful, Betty, that an unknown seed can make its way into a mollusk in the sea and develop into a beautiful jewel?” Betty is paying attention.
“Betty, the friendship between you and Monica reminds me of Goethe’s poem “Gingo-Biloba”. You must know it?” Betty nods and I begin to recite it:
The leaf of this Eastern tree
Which has been entrusted to my garden
Offers a feast of secret significance,
For the edification of the initiate.
Is it one living thing.
That has become divided within itself?
Are these two who have chosen each other,
So that we know them as one?
The friendship with Monica is like the wonderful gingo-biloba leaf, the tree from the east. Betty was touched. There was a deep feeling of trust between us.
“Our friendship never broke up, partly because she was in distress, endangered by the deadly illness. We understood and supplemented each other. We were like one lung with two lobes, one from the east and one from the west!”
“A beautiful picture, Betty. You were like two red gingo-biloba leaves!”
Betty was sad and said ” Monica, although Japanese, before she really knew me felt she was also an American. But she was interned in America, Letizia, during the second world war. Isn’t that terrible?”
“Betty, I never knew her personally. I have only seen her on a video, but what dignity in her face, and she speaks and moves so gracefully!”
“Fate could not change her”
“Yes, Betty, like the gingo-biloba tree in Hiroshima. It was the only tree that blossomed again after the atom bomb!”
The bill came and I paid at once. In America one is urged away from the table when one has finished eating. If one wants to go on chatting one has to order something else.
“That’s why all those people gossiping at the tables are so fat!” Betty remarks. “Haven’t you seen how many massively obese people walk around in the streets of America. Like dustbins that have never been emptied!” With this typically unsentimental remark Betty ended our conversation.
Ciao! I so enjoyed the talk; the humour, the irony and the empathy. I waved to her and now I too felt like moving! I take a lovely walk along the waterfront.
Now I am back in Heidelberg and when I think about how Betty’s “Princessin” left this world on September 5th and that in August I was speaking about her with Betty in Seattle I feel very sad. The readers who knew her well (we feel that every author and hero of a book is nearer to us than our fleeting neighbours next door) yes we, who thought of her as immortal, cannot believe that even she would die after 92 years. How unforeseen and unexpected that her death should come four days after her birthday on September 1th. On September 5th I was on my way to Turkey, once again in seventh heaven, looking back on the unforgettable days in Seattle. I was flying from west to east towards the rising sun.
When we saw the daffodils pop in our neighborhood, it reminded us that Spring is just about here!
We love this time of year!
Following in Betty’s footsteps in Seattle:
or some small talk with Betty
Copyright 2011/2016 by Letizia Mancino
All rights reserved
translated by Mary Holmes
We were going to Canada in the summer. “When we are in Edmonton”, I said to Christoph Cremer, “let’s make a quick trip to Seattle”. And that’s how it happened. At Edmonton Airport we climbed into a plane and two hours later we landed in the city where Betty had lived. I was so happy to be in Seattle at last and to be able to trace Betty’s tracks!
Wolfgang Hampel had told Betty’s friends about our arrival.
They were happy to plan a small marathon through the town and it’s surroundings with us. We only had a few days free. One should not underestimate Wolfgang’s talent in speedily mobilizing Betty’s friends, even though it was holiday time. E-mails flew backwards and forwards between Heidelberg and Seattle, and soon a well prepared itinerary was ready for us. Shortly before my departure Wolfgang handed me several parcels, presents for Betty MacDonald's friends. I rushed to pack the heavy gifts in my luggage but because of the extra weight had to throw out a pair of pajamas!
After we had landed we took a taxi to the Hotel in downtown Seattle. I was so curious to see everything. I turned my head in all directions like one of the hungry hens from Betty’s farm searching for food! Fortunately it was quite a short journey otherwise I would have lost my head like a loose screw!
Our hotel room was on the 22nd floor and looked directly out onto the 16-lane highway. There might have been even more than 16 but it made me too giddy to count! It was like a glimpse of hell! “And is this Seattle?” I asked myself. I was horrified! The cars racing by were enough to drive one mad. The traffic roared by day and night.
We immediately contacted Betty MacDonald's friends and let them know we had arrived and they confirmed the times when we should see them.
On the next morning I planned my first excursion tracing Betty’s tracks. I spread out the map of Seattle. “Oh dear” I realized “the Olympic Peninsula is much too far away for me to get there.”
Betty nodded to me! “Very difficult, Letizia, without a car.”
“But I so much wanted to see your chicken farm”
“My chickens are no longer there and you can admire the mountains from a distance”
But I wanted to go there. I left the hotel and walked to the waterfront where the State Ferry terminal is. Mamma mia, the streets in Seattle are so steep! I couldn’t prevent my feet from running down the hill. Why hadn’t I asked for brakes to be fixed on my shoes? I looked at the drivers. How incredibly good they must be to accelerate away from the red traffic lights. The people were walking uphill towards me as briskly as agile salmon. Good heavens, these Americans! I tried to keep my balance. The force of gravity is relentless. I grasped hold of objects where I could and staggered down.
In Canada a friend had warned me that in Seattle I would see a lot of people with crutches.
Betty laughed. “ It’s not surprising, Letizia, walking salmon don’t fall directly into the soft mouth of a bear!”
“ Betty, stop making these gruesome remarks. We are not in Firlands!”
I went further. Like a small deranged ant at the foot of a palace monster I came to a tunnel. The noise was unbearable. On the motorway, “The Alaskan Way Viaduct”, cars, busses and trucks were driving at the speed of light right over my head. They puffed out their poisonous gas into the open balconies and cultivated terraces of the luxurious sky- scrapers without a thought in the world. America! You are crazy!
“Betty, are all people in Seattle deaf? Or is it perhaps a privilege for wealthy people to be able to enjoy having cars so near to their eyes and noses to save them from boredom?”
“When the fog democratically allows everything to disappear into nothing, it makes a bit of a change, Letizia”
“ Your irony is incorrigible, Betty, but tell me, Seattle is meant to be a beautiful city, But where?”
I had at last reached the State Ferry terminal.
“No Madam, the ferry for Vashon Island doesn’t start from here,” one of the men in the ticket office tells me. ”Take a buss and go to the ferry terminal in West Seattle.”
Betty explained to me “The island lies in Puget Sound and not in Elliott Bay! It is opposite the airport. You must have seen it when you were landing!”
“Betty, when I am landing I shut my eyes and pray!”
It’s time for lunch. The weather is beautiful and warm. Who said to me that it always rains here?
“Sure to be some envious man who wanted to frighten you away from coming to Seattle. The city is really beautiful, you’ll see. Stay by the waterfront, choose the best restaurant with a view of Elliott Bay and enjoy it.”
“Thank you Betty!”
I find a table on the terrace of “Elliott’s Oyster House”. The view of the island is wonderful. It lies quietly in the sun like a green fleecy cushion on the blue water.
Betty plays with my words:
“Vashon Island is a big cushion, even bigger than Bainbridge which you see in front of your eyes, Letizia. The islands look similar. They have well kept houses and beautiful gardens”.
I relax during this introduction, “Bainbridge” you are Vashon Island, and order a mineral water.
“At one time the hotel belonging to the parents of Monica Sone stood on the waterfront.”
“Oh, of your friend Kimi!” Unfortunately I forget to ask Betty exactly where it was.
My mind wanders and I think of my mountain hike back to the hotel! “Why is there no donkey for tourists?” Betty laughs:
“I’m sure you can walk back to the hotel. “Letizia can do everything.””
“Yes, Betty, I am my own donkey!”
But I don’t remember that San Francisco is so steep. It doesn’t matter, I sit and wait. The waiter comes and brings me the menu. I almost fall off my chair!
“ What, you have geoduck on the menu! I have to try it” (I confess I hate the look of geoduck meat. Betty’s recipe with the pieces made me feel quite sick – I must try Betty’s favourite dish!)
“Proof that you love me!” said Betty enthusiastically “ Isn’t the way to the heart through the stomach?”
I order the geoduck. The waiter looks at me. He would have liked to recommend oysters.
“Geoduck no good for you!”
Had he perhaps read my deepest thoughts? Fate! Then no geoduck. “No good for me.”
“Neither geoduck nor tuberculosis in Seattle” whispered Betty in my ear!
“Oh Betty, my best friend, you take such good care of me!”
I order salmon with salad.
“Which salmon? Those that swim in water or those that run through Seattle?”
“Betty, I believe you want me to have a taste of your black humour.”
“Enjoy it then, Letizia.”
During lunch we talked about tuberculosis, and that quite spoilt our appetite.
“Have you read my book “The Plague and I”?”
“Oh Betty, I’ve started to read it twice but both times I felt so sad I had to stop again!”
“But why?” asked Betty “Nearly everybody has tuberculosis! I recovered very quickly and put on 20 pounds! There was no talk of me wasting away! What did you think of my jokes in the book?”
“Those would have been a good reason for choosing another sanitorium. I would have been afraid of becoming a victim of your humour! You would have certainly given me a nickname! You always thought up such amusing names!” Betty laughed.
“You’re right. I would have called you “Roman nose”. I would have said to Urbi and Orbi “ Early this morning “Roman nose” was brought here. She speaks broken English, doesn’t eat geoduck but she does love cats.”
“Oh Betty, I would have felt so ashamed to cough. To cough in your presence, how embarrassing! You would have talked about how I coughed, how many coughs!”
“It depends on that “how”, Letizia!”
“Please, leave Goethe quotations out of it. You have certainly learnt from the Indians how to differentiate between noises. It’s incredible how you can distinguish between so many sorts of cough! At least 10!”
“So few?”
”And also your descriptions of the patients and the nurses were pitiless. An artistic revenge! The smallest pimple on their face didn’t escape your notice! Amazing.”
“ I was also pitiless to myself. Don’t forget my irony against myself!”
Betty was silent. She was thinking about Kimi, the “Princess” from Japan! No, she had only written good things about her best friend, Monica Sone, in her book “The Plague and I”. A deep friendship had started in the hospital. The pearl that developed from the illness.
“Isn’t it wonderful, Betty, that an unknown seed can make its way into a mollusk in the sea and develop into a beautiful jewel?” Betty is paying attention.
“Betty, the friendship between you and Monica reminds me of Goethe’s poem “Gingo-Biloba”. You must know it?” Betty nods and I begin to recite it:
The leaf of this Eastern tree
Which has been entrusted to my garden
Offers a feast of secret significance,
For the edification of the initiate.
Is it one living thing.
That has become divided within itself?
Are these two who have chosen each other,
So that we know them as one?
The friendship with Monica is like the wonderful gingo-biloba leaf, the tree from the east. Betty was touched. There was a deep feeling of trust between us.
“Our friendship never broke up, partly because she was in distress, endangered by the deadly illness. We understood and supplemented each other. We were like one lung with two lobes, one from the east and one from the west!”
“A beautiful picture, Betty. You were like two red gingo-biloba leaves!”
Betty was sad and said ” Monica, although Japanese, before she really knew me felt she was also an American. But she was interned in America, Letizia, during the second world war. Isn’t that terrible?”
“Betty, I never knew her personally. I have only seen her on a video, but what dignity in her face, and she speaks and moves so gracefully!”
“Fate could not change her”
“Yes, Betty, like the gingo-biloba tree in Hiroshima. It was the only tree that blossomed again after the atom bomb!”
The bill came and I paid at once. In America one is urged away from the table when one has finished eating. If one wants to go on chatting one has to order something else.
“That’s why all those people gossiping at the tables are so fat!” Betty remarks. “Haven’t you seen how many massively obese people walk around in the streets of America. Like dustbins that have never been emptied!” With this typically unsentimental remark Betty ended our conversation.
Ciao! I so enjoyed the talk; the humour, the irony and the empathy. I waved to her and now I too felt like moving! I take a lovely walk along the waterfront.
Now I am back in Heidelberg and when I think about how Betty’s “Princessin” left this world on September 5th and that in August I was speaking about her with Betty in Seattle I feel very sad. The readers who knew her well (we feel that every author and hero of a book is nearer to us than our fleeting neighbours next door) yes we, who thought of her as immortal, cannot believe that even she would die after 92 years. How unforeseen and unexpected that her death should come four days after her birthday on September 1th. On September 5th I was on my way to Turkey, once again in seventh heaven, looking back on the unforgettable days in Seattle. I was flying from west to east towards the rising sun.
In the Garden: A Welcome Sign of Spring
By Charles Kidder
Perhaps
the first plant I could recognize and name as a child was the daffodil,
a welcome sight and fragrance after a long New York winter. And
although native to the Mediterranean, daffodils (Narcissus species) have
been in Virginia since at least the middle of the seventeenth century.
Beginning in the 1890s, Gloucester County became a
center of daffodil production for much of the eastern United States.
Much of this revolved around “wild” or naturalized daffodils that were
cut and shipped north. By the middle of the twentieth century, this
industry was rapidly dying off for a variety of reasons. But Gloucester
County still has one daffodil breeder of note and continues to celebrate
its floral heritage with the Daffodil Festival on the last weekend of
March. More on that later.
The various Narcissus species, hybrids and
cultivars are commonly referred to as either daffodils, jonquils or even
simply narcissus, the latter especially when referring to the paper
whites commonly forced indoors. The term jonquil is commonly used in
certain regions for any daffodil, but technically refers only to one
group that has narrow reed-like foliage. The various daffodils are
divided into 13 divisions—or 12, if you believe some sources—that are
based on flower shape and heritage. For example, Division 1 daffodils
are called Trumpets, since the central portion or trumpet is quite long.
Regardless of division, colors range from yellow to white, perhaps with
some pink or orange in the trumpets. If you seek out specialty
nurseries, hundreds of cultivars are available.
All daffodils have similar cultural requirements.
As for the amount of sun they want, the more the better. Part sun, or
about six hours per day, is sufficient, but less sun than that will lead
to reduced blooming, even though the plants may soldier on for a long
time. And sunlight in a deciduous woodland does not really count as full
sunlight. As for soil, good drainage is important to avoid bulb rot. If
your soil is unusually sodden, either amend it with gravel or put
daffodils in a raised bed.
Daffodil bulbs should be planted at a depth equal
to about three times their diameter, so a two-inch bulb should be six
inches deep. Six inches is also a good distance between bulbs. Farther
apart and they lose visual impact; closer, and they will require
division sooner. Bulbs will look funny planted like soldiers in a
straight line, so if you have ten bulbs, better to either plant them in
two groups of five, or in a staggered double row. If you are planting a
very large number, you can avoid an overly orderly appearance by picking
up a handful and tossing them to the general area in which you wish to
plant.
There are any number of “new, improved,
back-saving!!” bulb planters out there. Use whatever works best for you,
which might just be an ordinary trowel or even a garden shovel. And
remember: nothing says you have to plant one bulb at a time. You can
take a spade and dig up a good-sized hole with one or two punches, and
then throw in three to five bulbs. For even larger areas, a rototiller
might be the quickest option. And do the bulbs have to be pointy-side
up? That’s the ideal, but the shoot will always get turned around and
pointed toward the sky anyway. If you’re in a hurry, ensuring that the
bulbs are at least on their side would be a good compromise.
Amending your soil with compost will definitely
give your daffodils a boost, but there’s no need to fertilize when
planting—which of course is not now, but in mid-to-late fall. In very
early spring, a balanced fertilizer—about 5-5-5 or 10-10-10 is
best—should be sprinkled around the plants just as their foliage
emerges. (You can also do this in the fall, but that assumes you’ll
remember where your daffodils are!) And speaking of feeding your
daffodils, we all know what to do with their foliage, which is there to
provide nutrients for the bulb, right? Doing nothing is perfectly okay.
Or when the foliage turns yellow and lies on the ground, you can throw
some mulch on it if the sight offends you. Do not cut the foliage off
while it’s still green or tie it up in cutesy knots! That prevents
movement of nutrients down to the bulb; plus, it takes a lot of valuable
gardening time.
But back to Gloucester County. The annual Daffodil
Festival takes place on the last weekend of March and includes the usual
attractions: a parade, a queen, entertainers, a race, a car show, and
of course, daffodils. (A full schedule is available on the county’s
website. There’s also a link to the history of daffodil farming in this
corner of Virginia.) On Saturday they will be running frequent buses
over to Brent and Becky’s Bulbs for tours and shopping. Brent and Becky
Heath own a business that has been in the family for several
generations, at one time operating as the Daffodil Mart. Although they
now sell many other types of bulbs, daffodils are still a specialty,
with over 200 varieties available.
Once planted, daffodils tend to naturalize, meaning
they spread slowly, but never seem to become invasive. Part of their
secret to longevity might be their poisonous nature: deer and other
critters don’t bother them, so you can enjoy your host of daffodils for
many years.
1 Comment
When we saw the daffodils pop in our neighborhood, it reminded us that Spring is just about here!
We love this time of year!
