HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2001-06-27, Page 5THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 27, 2001. PAGE 5.
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Happy trails o you, old CHUM
/
crave your indulgence today, dear reader. A
near-sacred icon of my life has passed away
and I find myself in need, as the current
cliché goes, of closure.
Chances are this monument from my youth
means little or nothing to you - but then again,
chances are your life, too, was touched as
deeply as mine, for this Giant Presence worked
its way into the warp and weft of many a
Canadian psyche, from the moment of its birth,
nearly half a century ago...right up until last
month.
Who is this precious chum I speak of? Why,
just that - chum. Or rather CHUM.
If you grew up within the force field of
Toronto (which is to say anywhere from
Winnipeg to Cornwall; Sudbury to Windsor) in
the 50s, 60s and 70s, CHUM 1050 was a radio
station as familiar as the smell of frying bacon
in your kitchen. It hit the airwaves just about
the time that Gene Vincent, the Big Bopper and
Little Richard were transforming the moribund
North American pop music scene.
CHUM had the same, sassy, up-yours
energy. It flipped the bird to our stodgy old
teachers and hopelessly square parents.
The very first tune it played was All Shook
Up by a sideburned, swivel-hipped truck
driver from Memphis. CHUM was high
octane, loud and irreverent.
And it was ours.
CHUM gave us a pantheon of deejay heroes
- names that ricochet to this day through. the
graying skulls of aging baby boomers - Duff
Roman. Bob Laine. Jungle Jay Nelson. Al
Boliska.
The station even rewrote the English
language - not necessarily for the better.
There is frequent reference made in the
press about money that is "laundered"
each year but few, indeed, are the people
who know really what this involves. They may
have the idea that it concerns the Mafia or other
illegal organizations but that is about as far as
it goes.
I thought it might be as good a time as any to
clue you in on this operation, not for the
purpose, I assure you, of setting you up in
business for yourself. It is simply for your
general information in case the subject comes
up at the next social event and you would like
to make an informed comment or two on the
matter.
I should, by the way, assure you that I don't
teach the art of laundering money in my class
on international finance, other than assure my
students that it is very big business. It has been
growing as a result of both globalization and
the lifting of capital controls, the latter of
which allows money to be sent within seconds
to banks in all parts of the world.
As to how much such money does flow, it is
safe to say that nobody really knows with any
degree of accuracy. The International Monetary
Fund hedges its bet by stating that it is
somewhere between $500 billion and $1.5
trillion U.S. a year.
This, as you can see, gives anybody lots of
leeway when they come to making their
estimation.
A lot of this is done between private banks
since they are understandably more reticent in
revealing what they do know about their
clients. They don't even like asking their
clients too many questions, for fear that these
clients will take their not-inconsiderable
business elsewhere.
You may have heard about banking facilities
in such places as- Panama or the Cayman
Islands but laundering can take place just about
anywhere, frequently without the recipient
bank knowing about it.
To cite one example, the Bank of New York
unknowingly took in billions of dollars over a
Arthur
Black
Weather reports including the latest reading
from the `Chumometer'; we learned how hot
and sticky the day was going to be from the
'Chumidity Index'.
As the years went by, other radio stations
followed CHUM's lead, but the station had a
pit bull grip on the pantleg of popular music —
and knew it.
In 1987, CHUM supposedly dropped its pop
format in favour of Golden Oldies. In fact,
history had caught up to the station. The music
CHUM had been playing all along, had
suddenly become 'classic'.
CHUM went right on playing Brook Benton
and Brenda Lee, the Everly Brothers and
Dinah Washington, Buddy Holly, the Beatles
and the Stones. — just as it had for the best
part of 30 years.
(Okay, they also played Teresa Brewer,
Fabian and Tiny Tim. I never said CHUM was
perfect.)
I don't know how other people who grew up
with CHUM in their ears visualized the
physical layout of CHUM headquarters, but in
my mind it had to be nothing short of a
cathedral. I could but dimly imagine how
palatial the digs must be whence emanated the
music that I listened to virtually every waking
moment.
Raymond
Canon
The
International
Scene
period of time from some of its correspondent
banks. It turned out that this money originated
in Russia and went through several banks
before entering the U.S. You can understand
the difficulty of keeping track of all these
currency tlows when you realize that many
leading banks have thousands of correspondent
banks.
The two biggest have, in fact, no less than
12,000 and 7,500 respectively.
But let's get back to the Cayman Islands and
the like, They have what are called offshore
banks. These banks number about 4,000 and
are located all over the world with almost halt'
of them being in either the Caribbean or Latin
America.
Many of them may be quite small but, when
you add up their total assets, it comes to almost
$8 trillion.
For small countries, be they an island or on
the mainland, bank licenses result in a nice
steady source of income. Small wonder that the
regulation of such banks is kept at a minimum.
There are about 600 such banks in the
Cayman Islands alone and over 10 per cent of
them are what are called "shell" or "brassplate"
banks. This means that they have no physical
presence anywhere nor are they connected in
any way to recognized banks.
It is, not surprisingly, such banks that are the
Final Thought
The perception of beauty is a moral test.
— Henry David Thoreau
I assumed that Jungle Jay Nelson traveled in
a smoke-windowed stretch limo. I knew in my
heart that Duff Roman wore a toga to work and
drank champagne from crystal goblets, while a
bevy of Playboy centerfolds peeled his grapes
for him.
The truth, as it, so often is, was somewhat
different. I had occasion to drop . in to the
CHUM radio station headquarters on Yonge
Street a few years back to be interviewed about
a book I'd written. The place was seedy,
scruffy, down at the heels, and seemed to be
run by terminally bored kids.
The radio studios were drab and
claustrophobic. A pop machine in the grubby
lobby wore an 'out of order' sign that was
yellowing with age.
If I'd seen the inside of CHUM HQ when I
was 17, it would have broken my heart, but by
the time I got through the door I was
middle-aged, flat-footed and a little further
down the road in terms of my musical
tastes. The disillusionment wasn't too
overpowering.
But I'll tell you what is hard to take -
CHUM's newest transformation.
Last month the station abandoned its musical
format to become...
An all-sports station.
GA! Just what the nation needed - another
spot on the dial infested with hyperventilating
jocks burbling the play-by-play of a game
between the Ottawa Senators and the
Okefenokee Swamp Lizards.
I just hope someone in CHUM management
had the wit to make sure the last tune aired on
their station was a repeat of the first one played
44 years ago - All Shook Up.
worst offenders in laundering money and, if
any government decides to get tough with
them, they can always move to such places as
Nauru, an island in the Pacific Ocean, or even
Montenegro.
Incidentally, if you are determined to set up
your own private bank. you can do so in the
latter country simply by contacting the
government on the intemet. The cost is about
$15,000.
But greater efforts are being made to rein in
such banks. Last October, 11 of the world's,
largest banks signed an agreement, called the
'Wolfsberg AML Principles, named after the
Swiss town where the meeting was held when
the rules were drawn up. The principles are a
set of basic guidelines to avoid money
laundering in private banking.
There is also a blacklist of countries that
have not been co-operating with anti-money
laundering efforts. Such countries include
Israel and Russia.
All this is only a beginning. It is going. to be
a long, tough battle before such laundering can
be brought under control.
Letter
(continued from page 4)
a huge impact on our beliefs and attitudes
towards injuries of all kinds. Be reporting
motor vehicle crashes or collisions, playground
injuries, unintentional drownings. medical
errors, and carbon monoxide poisoning.
increased awareness coupled with injury
prevention ,strategies will help reduce the
number and severity of injuries that occur.
Please help us to get people to appreciate
that there aren't "accidents" — things just don't
happen. If you have any questions or wish to
get involved in the injury prevention program
in Huron County, please call (519) 482-3416 or
if long distance call 1-877-837-6143.
Sincerely,
Linda Stobo, Chair
Safety First Huron Perth - Huron Chapter.
Bonnie
Gropp
The short of it
That's your opinion
That's your opinion. When it comes to
just about any subject, any theme, any
idea, we all have our own opinion. And
no matter what the topic, it is unlikely./ that
there will ever be 100 per cent agreement.
Differences of opinion can be healthy; they
spark open debate which can be not just
civilized but enlightening. I remember judging
high school debates a few times and finding
that a good argument for a point, presented
with conviction and intelligence can, if not
exactly change your mind, then make you
rethink. A capable debater can place undue
importance on the inconsequential and make
you a believer. I recall one young wordsmith,
a genius at the art, who could articulate so well
that he confused you into submission. By the
end of his argument in the impromptu debate
in favour of eating the red Smarties last I found
I was actually pondering his remarks.
This was all in good fun demonstrating that
a difference in opinion need not be volatile.
Unfortunately, such is not generally the case. •
In day-to-day language, the phrase difference
of opinion can usually be replaced by a single
word — argument.
People tend to believe passionately in their
views on given subjects. It shouldn't be any .
other way; if you don't feel strongly about
your convictions why would anyone else. But,
it is equally important to accept that everyone
may not see it your way and that can be the
hard part. State .your case, attempt to change
their mind, but don't attack.
This is a tendency people in the newspaper
business often encounter. Firstly, news stories
are not about opinion, but about facts. Thus,
being angry for a comment in a story is
essentially like shooting the messenger.
Editorials and columns on the other hand, such
as those on this and the preceding page, are
open to debate. They are the opinion of the
writer and may from time to time spark fiery
dialogue.
However, while hearing from another point
of view is welcome, there are times whet] the
response, rather than fighting for the cause.
takes the first punch at the columnist. It,
becomes less important to explain why you
disagree than to get angry.
By now, you 'may be wondering from
whence this comes. No, I have not ticked
anyone off lately. But the potential loomed
before me.
I received a call recently from someone who
had a concern. A political decision had
annoyed her and she suggested that an
editorial piece be done on the issue. The
problem with this is explained best by the
adage. "Be careful what you ask for, you just
might get it." What if I disagree with her on
the decision? In this case we are attempting to
find out the details and do a news story. It will
be the facts as we learn them, and will provide
the information to let people make their own
decision. •
Obviously, she didn't understand the
difference between opinion and news and thus
I write this to try and clear up the matter for
any others who may be the same way.
Should someone want to argue a subject,
write a letter to the editor. As long as it's
factual and signed it will be considered for
publication anti people can make their own .
decision.
However, asking us to take an editorial stand
for your point of view is impossible. Please
don't ask, because you may find we too have
an opinion.
A little about laundering money