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doomandgloomfromthetomb · 7 years

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Feist Interview, 2005

Another Sunday interview! This was kinda pre-fame Leslie Feist -- as you’ll see, I think I mainly knew her from guest spots ... of course, pretty soon, she was much bigger than all of her collaborators.

Canadian singer/songwriter Leslie Feist, fresh off guest appearances on records by such disparate artists as Peaches, Kings of Convenience, and Broken Social Scene, finally steps into the limelight with her solo album Let It Die. Actually, the album is fairly old by now -- it's already gone gold in France! But it's just now getting a stateside release courtesy of Cherry Tree and Interscope Records.

It's about time. The album, recorded in collaboration with the artist known only as Gonzales, is a close-to-perfect collection that highlights the seductive beauty of Feist's vocals, as well as her burgeoning songwriting talent. While on a tour stop in Atlanta, she answered some of Junkmedia's questions.

I was able to see you opening for the Kings of Convenience about a month ago in Boulder, Colorado. I wanted to ask you about that show since before you came on Erlend Oye came on and told the crowd that you were barely able to stand up, but you were going to play anyway. What was going on?

Wow, that was actually a great night. It was the strangest thing - about an hour before I was supposed to go on, I started feeling awful. I could barely move and felt like I might vomit. Everyone backstage was saying you need to lie down, don't go on. But I said if I lie down I'm going to feel worse! So I crawled onstage and attempted to play. But the audience was super quiet and I could sing at about a quarter of my usual volume -- thereby discovering a whole new way of performing! I said afterwards "Why can't it be like this every night?" Not getting sick, of course, but that kind of performing. I was just tip-toeing a little more delicately and was freed from the more normal stuff I'd been doing. It was great.

How did you hook up with the Kings of Convenience in the first place?

I met Erlend at a festival when I was touring in Europe with Gonzales. It was Erlend doing this DJ set that was way different from what he does with the Kings. So it was 4 in the morning and he and I started kind of shouting at each other over this really loud abrasive DJ set. He said, "Oh I have this other band where we play this quiet guitar music" and I said "Oh yeah, I play this quiet kind of music too." I'm not sure what he thought at first -- with Gonzales we were doing this prankster/vaudeville act. I don't know if he believed me or if he thought I was just Gonzales' weird sidekick.

But I gave him a tape with some of my four-track demos on it. At the time, I had never even heard of the Kings of Convenience. But a little while later I started getting e-mails from a bunch of people who had heard the tape. And it turned out that Erlend and Eirik had started burning CDs of the demos for people all over the place -- all of their friends basically. Which was great, I really appreciated it. And then finally, I went out and bought Quiet is the New Loudand I was just amazed -- I realized that these guys were really masters. So it all came out of this sort of mutual admiration thing.

How did you end up singing on their last album [Riot On an Empty Street]?

A few years later, we were playing a gig in the back of this Chinese restaurant, and when we were done we asked if anybody had anything to play. And of course, Erlend jumps onstage with Eirik and they play "Cayman Islands", and I couldn't fucking believe it. This was before that song was on any record. So then afterwards, over our noodles, we were staring at the floor and kicking the carpet and then finally someone said, "Maybe one day we should do some recording together."

What were the sessions for that album like? How do you approach the collaborative process?

It was a different experience. I'm kind of a solitary writer. When I'm writing, I'm in a room with the door locked. I mean that as an analogy, not an actual thing. But it sort of happens when it happens. There'll be one idea and I'll throw it together with another idea and three weeks later I'll remember the whole thing. But with collaborating -- it's sort of like kissing someone for the first time. If you put a lot of pressure on it, if you think too much about it, it'll be a terrible experience. If you just let it happen, you know, it'll be a really nice kiss. On the Kings record, they invited me over to the studio and played me something like nine tracks that they had already recorded and just asked if there was anything I thought I could add. And a lot of the stuff I just said, this is fine the way it is. A lot the process was us buying a bag of oranges and sitting around eating them and trying things out on the songs.

I don't mean to just talk about your contributions to other people's records - since obviously you've got your own album out. Of course it took a while for Let It Die to be released in the States. How old is this record for you now?

It's been almost two years since those recording sessions. Some of the songs have maintained their altitude, while others, I'm wondering why I ever recorded them. But that's sort of the whole point of recording -- it's a snapshot of a certain time. And that's what makes playing live so great - you can recreate the songs in a live setting and change the things you might not like anymore.

Did you have an overall vision for the record when you were making it?

The truth is that we didn't know we were making a record, at the time. We'd been on tour and Gonzo started lifting some of the melodies from my four track recordings and putting them onto the piano. Playing the melodies on piano makes them naked - they become stripped down and they don't speak of any genre. So him doing that opened the door to some other ideas and we just started to re-record some of the demos. We just went song by song. Actually we started by recording some of the covers -- it was like the lab door had been opened, so let's see what we can do. My own songs were 99 percent done, but they just weren't quite finished. "Gatekeeper" was already written and everything -- I had the melody and most of the lyrics -- but I couldn't quite figure out how to put the chords around it. But Gonzo put it onto the piano and that led us back to the guitar and we were able to go from there.

You cover a pretty wide range of styles on the record. Were you trying to make a really diverse album?

Some melodies will come to you and it already has the lyrics, the story or the mood in them. They'll just sound dark or happy or sad and then it'll lead you to the right genre leanings. Some melodies just go in one direction. So you have to try to wrap the instruments around the song and try to give it life.

How did you select the cover versions that appear on the record?

I had just gotten over my phobia of singing other people's songs. So Gonzo and I figured -- why not? It wasn't a big deal. There's just something about leaning on a piano in a Paris studio that makes you want to sing other people's songs. And when it came time to put together the album, we had 20 songs to choose from and by then it didn't matter which ones I had written and which ones I hadn't. It wasn't an issue anymore - we put on the songs that seemed to belong together. I don't think I'll do any covers on my next album though. Though I may do something that's sort of traditionally based like "When I Was A Young Girl." I like doing those songs, because otherwise they don't survive. Those songs occupied the same place that people's CD players occupy today. So it's nice to keep them alive.

Do you have plans to head back into the studio for a follow up anytime soon?

It's all written -- or at least I have 20 embryos of songs waiting to be recorded. They aren't completely finished. They've been tucked in a box in my head for the last two years. So I'm going to start recording this fall hopefully.

#feist #sunday interview #kings of convenience

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newstfionline · 4 years

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Tuesday, November 3, 2020

The ISS hits 20 years (AP) Today the International Space Station hit 20 years of continual service, having hosted 241 visitors from 19 countries over two decades. It’s also expanded significantly, growing from a cramped and humid three room space station to a cramped and humid 12-room, six-sleeping compartment, three-toilet station. The first crew took off from Kazakhstan on October 31, 2000 and moved into the new digs two days later, doing tasks that sound suspiciously like what anyone does when they move into a new apartment in, like, Queens: trying to get all the stuff to work, messing with the heating system which is sweltering for no reason, fixing things the landlord—who constantly alternates between Russian, English, and what sounds vaguely European but you can’t really place it—forgot to mention were busted.

Stuck Seafarers (BBC) A survey of 926 seafarers by the International Transport Worker’s Federation finds that conditions for the workers in the shipping industry have grown incredibly dire, with 59 percent of respondents saying they had to extend their contracts with their current ships because they were unable to manage a crew change at the appointed time. In general, workers sign contracts to work on a ship for a certain period of time and then at the end of their contract they disembark and are sent home. The pandemic has gummed up those works, with large ports forbidding workers from entering their nations because they seek to contain the spread. This has meant disgraceful working conditions in an industry that already has a reputation for being rough on workers, as 26 percent of respondents have been on board longer than the 11-month legal maximum, with some stuck on a ship for 18 months.

As Election Day approaches, many Americans abroad are grateful for the distance (Washington Post) The past four years have not always been an easy time to be an American overseas, and the run up to the 2020 presidential election is no exception. International approval of the United States, according to a Pew survey of 13 countries, has spiraled to the lowest levels since the organization began tracking it. The trend has been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic, the U.S. response to which has alarmed experts around the world and ground much international travel to a standstill, disrupting the lives of those split between countries. The chaotic election season has stoked perceptions of decline. A half-dozen Americans based outside the United States told The Washington Post that a defining aspect of life abroad in recent times has been watching attitudes toward America shift. Yet they expressed a degree of happiness to be overseas for the election, watching from afar as fraught politics destroy friendships and strain families. Emily Newberg, 32, is disturbed by what she sees back home, watching from her house in Popayán, Colombia. When Trump won in 2016, she was volunteering for earthquake relief efforts in Ecuador and has remained in Latin America ever since. “Every day, every week, every month, every time you look at the news, there’s some new scandal, some new frustrating thing,” which makes the United States “more embarrassing,” she said. She said she was baffled by the number of Colombians who still want to immigrate to the United States. “It’s not all that it’s cracked up to be,” she said she tells them. Even from thousands of miles away, even across an ocean, it can be hard to disconnect from the U.S. news cycle—even if you’re not American. “It’s weird that I’m all the way over here and I’m still like freaked out,” said Sharen Lena Treutel, 59, who lives on the Greek island of Santorini. “The level of respect has really gone down,” she said.

Families, day cares feel strain of new COVID-19 health rules (AP) Joelle Wheatley hit her pandemic-parenting rock bottom after her son was sent home from day care for a second time, with the sniffles, due to stricter health guidelines in a symptom-sensitive COVID-19 world. It was supposed to be Jacob’s first day back after a stressful 10-day home quarantine for another mild symptom that turned out to be harmless. Frustrated, desperate—there were no other care options, and she needed to focus on work—and certain that the 2-year-old’s runny nose and cough were also benign, the Seattle mom defied the day care’s orders and brought him back the next day anyway. As more families make the jump back to group day care this fall in an attempt to restart lives and careers, many parents, pediatricians and care operators are finding that new, pandemic-driven rules offer a much-needed layer of safety but also seem incompatible with the germy reality of childhood. They stem largely from coronavirus guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lowering the fever threshold, disqualifying even a single bout of diarrhea or vomiting and making sniffles suspect in group settings. But the guidelines don’t take into account that young children are prone to catching the common viral infections that help build up their immune systems, or that seasonal allergies, crying, even teething and normal playground exertion can prompt a COVID-19-like symptom. And the price parents and kids pay for such symptoms—which could easily signal either a happy, healthy toddler, or a lurking case of the disease that has now killed more than 230,000 people in the U.S.—is now a dayslong disruption. That’s a reality Wheatley knows all too well: Jacob was turned away again on Day 2 and she then had to scramble to get him a coronavirus test and an appointment with a doctor who wrote a note confirming the boy was virus-free. It took two days to get Jacob back to preschool.

Major Hurricane Eta to make ‘catastrophic’ strike in Nicaragua (Washington Post) Hurricane Eta rapidly intensified Sunday night and Monday morning, becoming a major hurricane Monday afternoon as it continues to churn toward Nicaragua. Meteorologists at the National Hurricane Center in Miami forecast Eta to continue intensifying until it makes landfall in Nicaragua on Tuesday morning, potentially as a Category 4 monster. The Hurricane Center is warning of the threat of “catastrophic wind damage” near where the center crosses over the coast, along with a “potentially catastrophic and life-threatening storm surge” as high as 12 to 18 feet above normal tide levels. The forecast landfall location is near Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua, with the worst storm surge flooding taking place to the north of the center. As the storm moves inland over high terrain, it is expected to produce a deluge, with rainfall totals of up to 35 inches and locally higher amounts. Flash and river flooding along with landslides are expected in portions of Central America, particularly in Nicaragua and Honduras as well as Guatemala and Belize. In addition, there is a threat of heavy rainfall extending into Jamaica, southeastern Mexico, El Salvador, southern Haiti and the Cayman Islands.

Britain edges closer to a cashless society (Daily Telegraph) The chief executive of the UK’s largest cash machine network has warned that the organization could be gone in as little as two years as Britain edges closer to a cashless society. The coronavirus crisis has accelerated the shift away from coins and notes, leading to growing concerns that the £5 billion industry behind cash is under threat. Despite efforts to quell fears that the virus can be spread through physical currency, usage has continued to plummet. John Howells, who runs the UK’s cash machine network Link, warned that without action there is now a risk to the “entire cash infrastructure, including the existence of Link. It could unfold in two to three years time.”

Germany starts ‘wave-breaker’ shutdown as Europe locks down (AP) Several European countries are tightening restrictions this week, starting with a partial shutdown Monday in Germany, as authorities across the continent scramble to slow a rapid rise in coronavirus infections that threatens to overwhelm their health care systems. Britain and Austria will follow suit later in the week, closing restaurants, bars and nonessential shops. Italy, Greece and Kosovo also announced new measures. In some places, the new rules—which vary in strictness—are prompting violent protests by people frustrated at once again having to forgo freedoms. Restrictions have been slowly ramping up for weeks in many European countries, but virus cases have continued to rise. There was a sign of hope from hard-hit Belgium, however, where a leading virologist said that “the high-speed train is somewhat easing up.” Overall, Europe has seen more than 270,000 confirmed virus-related deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. In Germany, restaurants, bars, theaters, cinemas, gyms and other leisure facilities closed in a four-week “wave-breaker” shutdown that seeks to force daily new infections back down to manageable levels. Germans have been asked not to travel, and hotels are barred from accommodating tourists.

Slovakia tests millions (Foreign Policy) Roughly half of Slovakia’s population of 5.5 million underwent COVID-19 tests over the weekend, as part of a government drive to test all residents over the age of 10 within two weeks. Similar mass-testing drives took place in the Chinese city of Wuhan in May, but Saturday’s tests mark the first time such a strategy has been employed in Europe. Of those tested in Slovakia, roughly 1 percent, or 25,850 people, tested positive for the coronavirus. Slovakia was an early success story in managing the coronavirus outbreak—thanks to public trust and media messaging—and is seeking to maintain its reputation for sound management of the pandemic as it faces a surge in infections.

Attack on Afghan university leaves 19 dead, 22 wounded (AP) Gunmen stormed Kabul University on Monday as it hosted a book fair attended by the Iranian ambassador to Afghanistan, sparking an hours-long gun battle and leaving at least 19 dead and 22 wounded at the war-torn country’s largest school. The ministry’s spokesman, Tariq Arian, also said there were three attackers involved in the assault, all of whom were killed in the ensuing firefight. As the sun slowly set over the Afghan capital, there were few other details though the Taliban issued a statement denying they took part in the assault.

Rescuers weep with joy as Turkey pulls 2 girls from rubble (AP) In scenes that captured Turkey’s emotional roller-coaster after a deadly earthquake, rescue workers dug two girls out alive Monday from the rubble of collapsed apartment buildings three days after the region was jolted by quake that killed scores of people. Onlookers applauded in joy and wept with relief as ambulances carrying the girls rushed to the hospital immediately after their rescues in the hard-hit city of Izmir. The overall death toll in Friday’s quake reached 87 on Monday after teams found more bodies amid toppled buildings in Izmir, Turkey’s third-largest city. Rescue workers clapped in unison Monday as 14-year-old Idil Sirin was removed from the rubble, after being trapped for 58 hours. Seven hours later, rescuers working on another toppled building extricated 3-year-old Elif Perincek, whose mother and two sisters had been rescued two days earlier. The child spent 65 hours in the wreckage of her apartment. Muammer Celik of the Istanbul fire department’s search-and-rescue team told NTV television that he thought Elif was dead when he reached her inside the wreckage. “There was dust on her face, her face was white,” he said. “When I cleaned the dust from her face, she opened her eyes. I was astonished.” Celik said: “it was a miracle, it was a true miracle.” The girl would not let go of his hand throughout the rescue operation, Celik said, adding: “I am now her big brother.”

A Typhoon Spared the Philippine Capital. Will Manila Be So Lucky Next Time? (NYT) The Philippines was braced for the worst. When Typhoon Goni made landfall in the disaster-plagued nation on Sunday morning, with sustained winds of 135 miles per hour, it ranked as the most powerful storm to hit the Southeast Asian nation in years. Manila, the low-lying, crowded capital, looked to be squarely in the typhoon’s path. Roughly 1.5 million families in the city live near railroad tracks, garbage dumps and fetid waterways, their flimsy shacks and shantytowns defenseless against every wind gust and storm surge. But by day’s end, Goni, known locally as Rolly, appeared to have largely bypassed the capital, with no fatalities reported there. At least 16 people were confirmed to have died from the typhoon in the Bicol region southeast of the capital. “Thanks be to God we were largely spared,” said Francisco Domagoso, Manila’s mayor. “But we are one with the people of the Bicol region, who bore the brunt of the storm.” The Philippines may have been lucky with Goni, the 18th typhoon to strike the country this year. But it remains starkly exposed to a multitude of natural disasters. The country is situated on the so-called Ring of Fire, a seismically active swath encircling the Pacific Ocean that is roiled by earthquakes and volcanoes. Typhoons regularly batter the Philippine archipelago, packed with more than 100 million people. Deadly floods and landslides are common. The Asian Development Bank says that more than 23,000 people in the Philippines died from natural hazards from 1997 to 2016 as the warming planet brought more powerful storms.

Journalist Robert Fisk dies at 74 (The Independent) Robert Fisk, a veteran Middle East correspondent for The Independent and the most celebrated journalist of his era, has died after an illness. He was 74. Fisk was renowned for his courage in questioning official narratives from governments and publishing what he uncovered in frequently brilliant prose. He joined The Independent in 1989 from The Times and rapidly became its most recognisable writer and searched-for byline. He continued to write for The Independent until his death in Dublin. For decades he was based in the Lebanese city of Beirut, and occupied an apartment located on its famed corniche. He lived and worked there as the nation was torn apart in a civil war, and a number of journalists fell victim to kidnappers. Fisk, who was the recipient of numerous awards, including from Amnesty International and the British Press Awards, wrote several books, most notably Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War and The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East. He interviewed Osama bin Laden three times.

Saudi crown prince girds for legal battle in a changing Washington over human rights allegations (Washington Post) Attorneys defending Saudi Arabia from lawsuits by 9/11 families will represent Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman against allegations in Washington that he targeted a former top Saudi intelligence official for assassination to prevent the spilling of secrets about his climb to power. The separate cases accuse bin Salman of ordering the death and dismemberment of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi in October 2018 and of plotting to order a similar assassination of a former official and U.S. intelligence ally, Saad Aljabri. The cases allege flagrant human rights violations, torture and murder by America’s oldest ally in the Middle East, and were brought by David Pressman for Aljabri and by Keith M. Harper for Khashoggi’s fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, and a human rights group he founded. Both attorneys are former Obama administration ambassadors to the United Nations. Analysts say the cases come at a sensitive time for U.S.-Saudi relations, threatening ongoing scrutiny of bin Salman’s authoritarian rule as many Democrats and some Republican lawmakers have condemned the humanitarian catastrophe created by a Saudi-backed civil war in Yemen. With the possibility that President Trump may not win reelection, the Saudis are belatedly realizing, “they’re going to be facing a much more hostile Washington than has been the case for the last four years, and maybe a more hostile Washington than they’ve ever faced before,” said Bruce Riedel, a former CIA official now at the Brookings Institution.

Malnutrition spikes in Yemen (Foreign Policy) Severe child malnutrition has reached record levels in parts of southern Yemen, and 100,000 children are at risk of dying, according to recent analysis by U.N. agencies. After two years of progress in fighting the worst famine in a generation, acute malnutrition among children has risen by 10 percent in the country’s south since January. “If the war doesn’t end now, we are nearing an irreversible situation and risk losing an entire generation of Yemen’s young children,” said Lisa Grande, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Yemen.

Attacks in Congo (Foreign Policy) More than 20 people were killed in an attack on a church in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s restive North Kivu province last Wednesday. Authorities believe Islamist militants from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an armed group operating in the region since the late 1990s, were responsible for the attack. Two days later, 17 people were killed in a raid on a village in the Buliki area of the province, which local officials attributed to the ADF. Attacks by the ADF have surged over the past year in response to a Congolese military operation that has driven the group out of bases near Congo’s border with Uganda. Militants have splintered into smaller mobile groups that have retaliated with indiscriminate attacks against civilians. The United Nations estimates that 1,000 people have been killed by the group since the start of 2019. Last month, the group allegedly carried out an assault on a prison in the city of Beni, freeing 1,300 prisoners including militant fighters.

Uganda’s Museveni warns off disruptors as he starts bid for another term (Reuters) Uganda’s veteran president Yoweri Museveni warned that anyone breaking the peace would regret their actions as he formally started his bid for another term in office on Monday. The 76-year-old, who is Africa’s third-longest ruling head of state, is due to face Bobi Wine, a pop star turned opposition politician, in a February vote. Supporters have praised Museveni for bringing in investment and bolstering the economy while opponents have accused him of crushing dissent and presiding over widespread graft—charges that he has repeatedly dismissed. Officially he will be running for his fifth term in office—though he ruled for nine years without facing a vote after coming to power in 1986 following a guerrilla war.

#headlines #news

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islandwideky · 4 years

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Islandwide Distributors is one of the best food supplier companies in the Cayman Islands. We are providing service to the grocery stores, gas stations, restaurants, supermarkets, retail & wholesale businesses. We are a wholesale distributor of quality food products ranging from Indian & Chinese to the Caribbean & more across Cayman.

To get a quote or for details, contact now.

#https://www.islandwide.ky/contact-us

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stevewooy · 1 month

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#Chinese restaurant in cayman islands #Chinese food cayman

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premimtimes · 4 years

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A British Virgin Islands-based firm allegedly paid more than US$390,000 in bribes to land a natural gas processing plant construction contract in 2009, Nigeria’s attorney general said in a statement obtained by OCCRP and its Nigerian member center, the Premium Times.

In 2012, Process and Industrial Developments (P&ID), an engineering and project management company, told a UK arbitration judge they invested $40 million in the plant’s construction but never broke ground because the Nigerian government failed to build promised infrastructure.

Last year, the British court authorized P&ID to seize more than $9.6 billion of Nigeria’s foreign assets — more than the West African country’s annual health and education budgets combined.

The amount, one of the biggest UK arbitration awards ever, was based on the loss of two decades of presumed profits plus $1.2 million per day in interest since the project went bust.

The award was stayed last November after Nigeria appealed, alleging that P&ID was unqualified for the work and won the contract through bribery. P&ID says Nigeria invented the bribery allegations to distract from its own mismanagement.

A Duffel Bag Full of Cash

On January 22, Nigeria’s Attorney General, Abubakar Malami, submitted what he termed a “witness statement” to the Business and Property Courts of England and the Wales Commercial Court, summarizing the case as he sees it.

In the unsworn document, Malami for the first time lays out exactly how Nigeria believes the bribery scheme worked, and how the alleged recipients were paid through shell companies and in large sums of cash.

Malami alleges that P&ID indirectly paid more than $300,000 to a company connected to Taofiq Tijani, the chairman of a government technical committee that reviewed the contract. P&ID also gave Tijani $94,000, much of it in cash, Malami told the court.

Tijani initially pleaded not guilty to charges related to bribery and other crimes, but eventually confessed to the scheme after Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) started probing the large sums he received. He said P&ID executives Michael Quinn and Neil Hitchcock dropped a duffel bag packed with $50,000 into the trunk of his car after the trio dined at a Chinese restaurant in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, in April 2009.

Chopsticks, Abuja [Photo: Premium Times]

The Chopsticks restaurant in Abuja, where P&ID executives allegedly met with Taofiq Tijani. [CREDIT: Premium Times]

In addition to the bag of cash, P&ID “promised that they will further take care of me better at a later date,” Tijani allegedly told investigators.

Tijani also told investigators that Hitchcock gave him another $44,000 to “support” his children’s weddings, with some of the money coming through a company controlled by Michael Quinn’s son.

P&ID made several payments to Lurgi Consults, a Nigerian company controlled by Quinn’s son, Adam, and his associate, James Nolan. Adam Quinn and Nolan also own and manage a Nigerian subsidiary of P&ID.

Lurgi Consults then passed the money on to Conserve Oil, a company that Tijani controlled with his wife.

Nolan and Adam Quinn were charged last October with money laundering and tax evasion in connection with the alleged bribery case.

While he was heading the committee overseeing the gas plant contract, Tijani was also a senior special assistant to Minister of Petroleum Rilwanu Lukman.Tijani told investigators that Lukman, who died in 2014, instructed him to contract with P&ID even though it was a sole-purpose company that had no track record in the oil and gas sector.

Lukman also ordered him to “deliberately overlook” P&ID’s shortcomings and push the deal through, Tijani said in an EFCC affidavit cited by Malami.

Nigeria’s anti-corruption commission determined that Lukman broke the law by signing the P&ID contract. It found that he lacked authority to approve the deal and did no due diligence on the company. The company lacked legally required approvals from the Bureau of Public Procurement and National Petroleum Investment Management Services and didn’t register the deal with the National Office for Technology and Promotion.

Though Lukman was the Minister of Petroleum, Minister of State Odein Ajumogobia was responsible for all gas deals. He confirmed he was not consulted and had no knowledge of the deal.

Grace Taiga, a former Petroleum Ministry lawyer who oversaw a contract review committee, has also been charged with accepting bribes from P&ID-linked companies between 2015 and 2019, to which she pleaded not guilty.

Taiga was scheduled to retire in September 2010, but she inexplicably remained in her position for another 16 months as the P&ID contract was being finalized, Malami said in his statement.

Federal Ministry of Justice

Nigeria’s Ministry of Justice [CREDIT: Premium Times]

Blame game

Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari, has flatly rejected the British court ruling. In a 2019 speech to the United Nations, he slammed P&ID as a “scam… attempting to cheat Nigeria out of billions of dollars.”

P&ID dismisses bribe allegations as a ploy.

“The Nigerian government knows there was no fraud and the allegations are merely political theater designed to deflect attention from its own shortcomings,” the company told Reuters last September.

The company challenged the assertion that it was unqualified and lacked petroleum industry experience. It notes that before they founded P&ID, Cahill and Quinn had more than 30 years’ experience with engineering projects in Nigeria. Those projects included port infrastructure upgrades in Lagos and Calabar and a large-scale butane project that included construction of a gas pressure vessel manufacturing facility.

Years after the contract was awarded P&ID was acquired by its current owners, Lismore Capital Limited, a private financial management firm incorporated in the Cayman Islands, and VR Advisory Services Limited, a hedge fund with principal offices in the United Kingdom.

Ajumogobia could not be reached for further comment when contacted by the Premium Times and Malami’s spokesperson did not respond by the time of publication.

HED: Nigeria traces $9.6 billion financial hit back to $390,000 in alleged bribes A British Virgin Islands-based firm allegedly paid more than US$390,000 in bribes to land a natural gas processing plant construction contract in 2009, Nigeria’s attorney general said in a statement obtained by OCCRP and its Nigerian member center, the Premium Times.

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unpunny · 5 years

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Ethnic joke...

An Englishman, a Scotsman, an Irishman, a Welshman, a Latvian, a Turk, a German, an Indian, several Americans (including a Hawaiian and an Alaskan), an Argentinean, a Dane, an Australian, a Slovak, an Egyptian, a Japanese, a Moroccan, a Frenchman, a New Zealander, a Spaniard, a Russian, a Guatemalan, a Colombian, a Pakistani, a Malaysian, a Croatian, a Uzbek, a Cypriot, a Pole, a Lithuanian, a Chinese, a Sri Lankan, a Lebanese, a Cayman Islander, a Ugandan, a Vietnamese, a Korean, a Uruguayan, a Czech, an Icelander, a Mexican, a Finn, a Honduran, a Panamanian, an Andorran, an Israeli, a Venezuelan, an Iranian, a Fijian, a Peruvian, an Estonian, a Syrian, a Brazilian, a Portuguese, a Liechtensteiner, a Mongolian, a Hungarian, a Canadian, a Moldovan, a Haitian, a Norfolk Islander, a Macedonian, a Bolivian, a Cook Islander, a Tajikistani, a Samoan, an Armenian, an Aruban, an Albanian, a Greenlander, a Micronesian, a Virgin Islander, a Georgian, a Bahaman, a Belarusian, a Cuban, a Tongan, a Cambodian, a Canadian, a Qatari, an Azerbaijani, a Romanian, a Chilean, a Jamaican, a Filipino, a Ukrainian, a Dutchman, a Ecuadorian, a Costa Rican, a Swede, a Bulgarian, a Serb, a Swiss, a Greek, a Belgian, a Singaporean, an Italian, a Norwegian and 2 Africans... ... walk into a fine restaurant. "I'm sorry," says the maître d', after scrutinizing the group... "You can't come in here without a Thai."

#lol #lmao #funny #haha #joke #jokes

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alanafsmith · 5 years

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Why one barrister quit her job to become a successful restauranteur

Nisha Katona had been practising for 20 years

Nisha Katona

A barrister who gave up the daily grind to launch her own restaurant has revealed why she made the unconventional career move.

Forty-eight-year-old Nisha Katona was a family and child law barrister at Chavasse Court Chambers in Liverpool before she took the plunge to found Mowgli Street Food, a swish Indian restaurant chain in the UK.

Katona trained at the Inns of Court School of Law and had been practising as a barrister for 20 years before she decided to follow her dream of becoming a professional chef and restauranteur. By then in her 40s with two daughters and a mortgage to pay, Katona knew the move would come with risks but the thought of not pursuing her goals had started to give her sleepless nights.

While she was still working full-time in 2014, Katona launched her first eatery specialising in authentic Indian cuisine in Liverpool’s foodie haven, Bold Street. That has since grown into a UK-wide empire of seven restaurants in cities such as Manchester, Birmingham and Oxford (with three more on the way) and sales of £10 million.

Speaking to the BBC, the successful entrepreneur, who has penned three cookbooks including her debut hardback Pimp My Rice with over 100 rice-related recipes, explained the meaning behind the restaurant’s name:

“Mowgli is a pet name I have for my two teenage girls which literally means feral child”, which is not, as some might think, related to the well-known The Jungle Book character. “My daughters chose the logo and the restaurant was named after them.”

Mowgli was the result of Katona’s sheer passion and hard graft. The self-confessed ‘curry evangelist’, gave cookery lessons, shared recipes and cooking demos on her own YouTube channel, and would even stand in the corner of restaurant kitchens at night to see how they operated.

Despite her success and becoming the first female Asian barrister in Liverpool, Katona, a second-generation immigrant living in 1970s Britain, admits starting her first restaurant in what is considered to be a male-dominated scene wasn’t easy.

“As I was building Mowgli, at times I was met with disdain from friends and family as I threw myself into the business and had less time to spend with my daughters… It struck me that if I were the husband, or simply the man, I wouldn’t receive this criticism. And unfortunately, in this day and age, I still must fight my corner as a businesswoman.”

Katona isn’t the first lawyer to swap cases for culinary conquests. Speaking to Legal Cheek last year, Helen Tse, a former partner whose CV includes stints at magic circle firm Clifford Chance, big four accountancy giant PwC, and Cayman Islands-based outfit Walkers, launched Sweet Mandarin, a Chinese restaurant she co-owns with her twin sister.

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from All About Law https://www.legalcheek.com/2019/04/why-one-barrister-quit-her-job-to-become-a-successful-restauranteur/

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davidchanus · 5 years

Text

Why one barrister quit her job to become a successful restauranteur

Nisha Katona had been practising for 20 years

Nisha Katona

A barrister who gave up the daily grind to launch her own restaurant has revealed why she made the unconventional career move.

For a weekly round-up of news, plus jobs and latest event info

The post Why one barrister quit her job to become a successful restauranteur appeared first on Legal Cheek.

from Legal News https://www.legalcheek.com/2019/04/why-one-barrister-quit-her-job-to-become-a-successful-restauranteur/

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fayeburnsus · 5 years

Text

Why one barrister quit her job to become a successful restauranteur

Nisha Katona had been practising for 20 years

Nisha Katona

A barrister who gave up the daily grind to launch her own restaurant has revealed why she made the unconventional career move.

For a weekly round-up of news, plus jobs and latest event info

The post Why one barrister quit her job to become a successful restauranteur appeared first on Legal Cheek.

from Legal News And Updates https://www.legalcheek.com/2019/04/why-one-barrister-quit-her-job-to-become-a-successful-restauranteur/

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winrepl0l1l0 · 6 years

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Going for a meal

An Englishman, a Scotsman, an Irishman, a Welshman, a Latvian, a Turk, a German, an Indian, several Americans (including a Hawaiian and an Alaskan), an Argentinean, a Dane, an Australian, a Slovak, an Egyptian, a Japanese, a Moroccan, a Frenchman, a New Zealander, a Spaniard, a Russian, a Guatemalan, a Colombian, a Pakistani, a Malaysian, a Croatian, a Uzbek, a Cypriot, a Pole, a Lithuanian, a Chinese, a Sri Lankan, a Lebanese, a Cayman Islander, a Ugandan, a Vietnamese, a Korean, a Uruguayan, a Czech, an Icelander, a Mexican, a Finn, a Honduran, a Panamanian, an Andorran, an Israeli, a Venezuelan, an Iranian, a Fijian, a Peruvian, an Estonian, a Syrian, a Brazilian, a Portuguese, a Liechtensteiner, a Mongolian, a Hungarian, a Canadian, a Moldovan, a Haitian, a Norfolk Islander, a Macedonian, a Bolivian, a Cook Islander, a Tajikistani, a Samoan, an Armenian, an Aruban, an Albanian, a Greenlander, a Micronesian, a Virgin Islander, a Georgian, a Bahaman, a Belarusian, a Cuban, a Tongan, a Cambodian, a Qatari, an Azerbaijani, a Romanian, a Chilean, a Jamaican, a Filipino, a Ukrainian, a Dutchman, a Ecuadorian, a Costa Rican, a Swede, a Bulgarian, a Serb, a Swiss, a Greek, a Belgian, a Singaporean, an Italian, a Norwegian and 2 Africans...

walk into a very fine restaurant.

"I'm sorry," says the maître d', after scrutinizing the group...

"You can't come in here without a Thai. "

submitted by /u/HellsJuggernaut [visit reddit] [comments]

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lawrencenelms-blog · 7 years

Link

#CantonChineseRestaurantinSevenMileBeach #Restaurants #CaymanIslandsBusiness

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peterkclary-blog · 7 years

Link

P. O. Box 30224, The Strand, West Bay Road Grand Cayman KY1-1201 Cayman Islands

#Restaurants #Cayman Islands Business

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andreaeppolitoevents · 7 years

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The USA July 4th of 2017

Hello my friends! As you can tell from my social media, I have been living on the road for much of the last two months, with no end in sight! I settle in at home today, on the 4th of July, which is fitting. Being in Las Vegas allows me to settle, mentally. I am able to look back on my travels and process everything in a way that I can't while living out of a suitcase. As always, I want to share some of my experiences with you, and how these things will impact our work together.

My hotel booking partner at AEE Travel has expanded and we now represent over 25 cities and more than few countries; including Mexico, Whales, Italy, and England! What a great opportunity for me to travel and see a bit more of the world! As someone who consider's herself nearly a native of Las Vegas, I have to admit that my home base is not so much born of it's own culture. Instead, much like the country at large, we are a melting pot of many places brought forth from the people who have come to make their homes here.

In the last 2 months I have traveled coast to coast. In the beginning, I visited the shores of Southern California, spending time at the La Valencia in La Jolla, and moving up the coast to Yountville, California, and beyond.

Most recently, my travels have taken me to New York...my home town! Las Vegas has countless little businesses across the valley that reference the city...New York Pizza! New York Chinese! New York New York!!! The Smith Center brings a bit of Broadway to our little city, but there is nothing like seeing The Phantom of the Opera in it's original home, or grabbing a muddy water hot dog from a street vendor! Visiting gave me a chance to do both, and I was absolutely delighted! Not to mention my kids, who at 8 and 4 are remarkable travelers that take the world in through truly innocent and unjaded eyes!

Of all the things we set out to do, one of my top priorities was to visit Eataly. For those not familiar, Eataly is a food and beverage mecca set up in a large space, composed of many different restaurants, retailers, wine purveyors, and artisans. Looking for hand cut pasta (yes, please)....It's there. A true espresso...That's there, too. Napoli style pizza, cheese, charcuterie, gelato...Yes, yes, yes, and yes. The word on the street is that Las Vegas will be the home of a new Eataly as the Monte Carlo undergoes a rebranding. How will it compare? Let me make a prediction....

My bet is that our Eataly will greatly expand on the Eataly of New York. It will be larger and more commercial, as everything in Las Vegas is. I hope that the food maintains it's artisanal integrity, and I will bet that our service standards will be higher. No one does service like Las Vegas. Our lives are built upon it, and what we may lack in authentic culture we more than make up for in our willingness and ability to deliver quality service.

In continuing my foodies quest, can we talk about the food halls that are springing up around the little island of Manhattan?!?!? If you have yet to experience a food hall, they are amazing! With tables in the middle of the space, the perimeter is lined with various types of foods from a team of different chefs. Think of it as the most over the top, luxe, high school cafeteria you have ever been to! In one sitting we got pizza, burgers, fried chicken, organic salad, sushi, coffee, and vegan cookies! Literally something for everyone! In so many ways it reminded me of a wedding reception with stations...How cool would it be to host a rehearsal dinner or a Sunday brunch set up like a food court!

Having lived and worked in hotels for the entirety of my adult career, I am still surprised when I go to major cities and find that their largest hotels are under 1,000 rooms. In Las Vegas, that's boutique! In the rest of the world, that's massive! In New York, we stayed at a new product hotel called EVEN Hotels. These hotels are small and built around the idea that travel need not disrupt wellness. There are full work out routines on the TV, weights, mats and exercise accessories lining the walls, and healthy, organic fare in the quick serve restaurant below. Only 3 agents served us as the receptionists and concierge staff, but they never missed a beat! Las Vegas does hotels on steroids, and so this particular property would not serve well on The Strip, but how I would love to see it one or two blocks off. I think it would be a phenomenal addition to the Harmon / Koval / Paradise area.

After days in New York we headed out to Washington DC. What a great food scene! I was lucky enough to kidnap my former groom, Marek Bute, for dinner while his husband was away on business. Our meal at Lincoln was perfection. Small plates, innovative presentations, and attentive service made our 3 hour excursion feel like 5 minutes! These tasting menus are great in restaurants...and in weddings! We recently planned a 6 course tasting menu of small plates for Candice and Ben. It was delicious, interactive, and such a great guest experience for everyone involved!

For our stay, we selected the Kimpton Donovan. Having just stayed at a Kimpton in Grand Cayman, and having visited the Sir Francis Drake in San Francisco. I was very interested to see how the East Coast would interpret the brand.

The room had recently been redesigned and was mod; if a bit too modern. We sadly had hit a few speed bumps with room service, but their team more than made up for it in terms of attention and service. Evan at the Front Desk truly embodied hospitality and I would kill for one of him in Las Vegas.

When we were originally booking we wanted to stay at another Kimpton hotel, The Monaco. Sadly, there were no rooms available. But we did venture out to eat at Dirty Habit, their in house restaurant. Just as with LIncoln, we found a much more modern version of American Tapas style dining. Small plates with fresh food, timely service, and beautiful presentations. Not to mention a great wine and spirits list!

But what really resonated with me were the monuments, the architecture, and the government. I stay out of politics online, but regardless of your political affiliation I do believe that every American should see The White House, the capital building, and the monuments that celebrate our collective experience.

My son loved the Lincoln monument, while my daughter was drawn to the water around the Washington Monument. I loved the Capital Building, and found the White House awe-inspiring.

Combined with my trip to New York, I look at these buildings, and reflect on the changes in life that I have personally witnessed in my 40 years. I stood at the top of Freedom Tower and looked down to where the Twin Towers once stood. I don't know anyone who was not affected by the day the towers came down. We as a people created something beautiful where there was so much horror, but I still felt a sense of deep sadness for the people and places we lost. In Washington, I looked at all of the people that have come before us. The challenges they have had, the things that we have endured, and the changes we have made over the years. I look at the progress that has come in so many ways, and I am hopeful about the future we have.

It is hard not to marvel at the fact that in so many ways America is an experiment. The people who came here, and continue to come, do so with the idea that we can create something better.

And that drive to do be better and to do better will always be what America means to me.

Stay Happy and Safe this 4th and always...

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