The Voice Box

The Credit Crunch For the last weeks, even the most uninformed has been confronted with the state of the world's finance. The collapse of respected financial institution seemed to have triggered enough fear all around, to convince money world that things will never be the same. But the big game is on in the USA, where President Bush has managed to railroad Congress into passing a four billion dollar package which he claims is needed to save the local economy, and to restore confidence in the international money market. It started off as a $700 billion package, but after much debate and hostility by politicians across the board, the final amount had to be reduced and sweetened, to make it much more acceptable to the political spectrum. So far, the passing of the bill by both Houses in the United States, has done very little to calm the money market. The European Community leaders recently met to decide their course of action. Most expected more grand plans to support banks and other

Visiting Trinidad Just returned from what can be termed as a short family visit to Trinidad. This time, the target was my dear mother, who is well past her eightieth birthday, and could do with a little cheering up. I travelled to the island via New York, deciding to take a couple days to look around that great city before heading to my final destination. It did not go all smoothly, American Airline cancelling the second leg of my journey at the last minute, all part of their routine checking of the functionality of their aircraft. Luckily, I was able to get on to a later flight which got me to Piarco International Airport by half past ten that evening. Since I was born on the island, these visits allows me a comparative look at life and people, and especially those who belong to my extended family. After arrival, I was promptly collected my younger sister and we headed for home in Tacarigua which was a short distance from the airport. In less than half an hour we were there. This make

Dallas Texas After years of passing through Dallas Fort Worth, on my way to various parts of the United States, I decided to spend a few nights in the area. Soon afterwards, I was able to make sense of the DFW, and realise that Dallas and Fort Worth were separate entities, miles away from each other. I never made it to Fort Worth, but I did visit Dallas, and managed to get a a feel for the area. Outside the airport where I stayed at a Ramada Hotel, I was surprised by the arid and sparse vegetation in an unusually flat terrain. Even in downtown Dallas, this arid feel continued. Yet there was no mistaking the skyscrapers effect downtown, even though there was an empty feel as I walked through the town, and seeing few crowded areas. Most people appear to live in the suburbs. It was difficult in a short time to make sense of it all. One thing was very noticeable; there was a lot of room in the city. Maybe people are somewhat accurate when they say everything is bigger and better in Texas.

London Heathrow Terminal 5 The opening of Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport yesterday reminds us how easily grand schemes can go wrong. The boast, since it was formerly opened by The Queen about a month ago, that this was to be the most advanced terminal in the world seemed quite hollow. And the opening chaos which followed, probably caught most of the general public by surprise. The truth is, whatever the pretensions of T5, it will probably suffer the well documented failures, just like any other Terminal. They are probably banking on the the grand food hall's elegant design, the highbrow restaurants, and the shopping arcades, to keep the travellers occupied even when things go wrong. Even if these elements do offer better service than at the other terminals, no one should seriously believe that this will make any difference to the airline's reputation. Remember this is a very unique situation where an airline, British Airways, has a terminal all for itself. Yet, when it gets it