Monday 30 September 2013
Global stock markets fell and the dollar dropped against major currencies
on Monday as a partial U.S. government shutdown neared reality, with
passage of an 11th hour stop-gap spending bill seen as unlikely.
The Democrat-controlled U.S. Senate killed a proposal by the Republican-led House of Representatives to delay President Barack Obama's health care program for a year in return for temporary funding of the federal government beyond Monday.
The
bill, which would run through November 15, was aimed at averting a
government shutdown. It now goes back to the House, where Republicans
will seek a one-year delay of the "individual mandate" as part of an
emergency spending bill.
A prolonged shutdown could have a major impact on the U.S. economy
and consumer confidence. As many as 1 million federal employees could
face unpaid furloughs. But a shutdown is unlikely to affect the
country's sovereign credit rating.
President Obama,
saying he was not "resigned" to a shutdown, said he planned to talk to
congressional leaders later, as well as on Tuesday and Wednesday, but
held out no new offer of compromise on his signature health-care law.
Investors
are accustomed to political battles in Washington resulting in a
last-minute accord and voiced skepticism any shutdown would last for an
extended period.
The CBOE's
Volatility index .VIX, often called Wall Street's fear gauge, jumped to a
September high of 17.49, before shedding some losses to trade at 16.60.
"I
don't think there is 'panic' per se, although the VIX is near 17, which
is higher than what we've been seeing for some time," said Randy
Frederick, director of trading and derivatives at Charles Schwab & Co. in Austin, Texas.
The dollar last traded 0.07 percent lower against a basket of six major currencies at 80.233 .DXY and was near break-even against the yen, up 0.1 percent at 98.34 yen. The euro rose 0.03 percent at $1.3525.
MSCI's all-country equity stock index .MIWD00000PUS was down 0.78 percent, while the broad FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 of regional shares closed down 0.6 percent at 1,247.14.
The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI closed down 128.57 points, or 0.84 percent, at 15,129.67. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX fell 10.20 points, or 0.60 percent, at 1,681.55. The Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC slipped 10.12 points, or 0.27 percent, at 3,771.48.
Despite
a slide since the Federal Reserve surprised the market on September 18
by not starting to trim its stimulus program, stocks closed the month
and quarter higher.
The Dow
rose 2.2 percent, the S&P gained 3.0 percent and the Nasdaq 5.1
percent for the month. Over the quarter the Dow rose 1.5 percent, the
S&P 4.7 percent and the Nasdaq 10.8 percent.
Shares
of defense companies declined, as a prolonged government shutdown would
most likely diminish the amount of new contracts. Raytheon Co (RTN.N) closed 1.4 percent lower at $77.07 and Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) fell 1.3 percent to $127.55, while Boeing Co (BA.N) slipped 1.1 percent to $117.50.
The PHLX defense sector .DFX slid 0.82 percent.
Wall
Street has weathered similar incidents in the past. During a shutdown
from December 15, 1995, to January 6, 1996, the S&P 500 added 0.1
percent. During the November 13-19, 1995, shutdown, the benchmark index
rose 1.3 percent, according to data by Jason Goepfert, president of
SentimenTrader.com.
That pattern of
gains may not hold this time, given that economic growth continues to
be weak. Wall Street may also be ripe for a sell-off, with the S&P
near an all-time high after having escaped any sustained pullback so far
this year.
In the latest economic
data, the Chicago Purchasing Managers index rose more than expected in
September, climbing to a reading of 55.7 from 53 the previous month.
Analysts were expecting a reading of 54.
Fears
of a U.S. government shutdown supported safe-haven demand for bonds,
sending benchmark yields to their lowest in seven weeks.
U.S.
government debt was on track to post its first monthly gain since April
and to eke out its first quarterly rise since a year ago, according to
Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
"The
best way to say what the market is doing right now is that it's pricing
in a partial government shutdown," said John Herrmann, director of
interest rates strategy at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities in New York.
U.S.
Treasuries prices rose in choppy trade, with the benchmark 10-year U.S.
Treasury bond up 4/32 in price to yield 2.6118 percent.
Brent
crude oil fell, heading for its first monthly decline since May, as the
looming U.S. government shutdown clouded the outlook for demand, while
tensions over Iran continued to ease.
Brent fell 26 cents to settle at $108.37 a barrel. U.S. crude settled down 54 cents at $102.33 a barrel.
Gold
prices posted their best quarter in a year, gaining almost 8 percent,
but fell during the session on the impasse in Washington.
Spot gold was down 0.5 percent at $1,328.74 an ounce, while U.S. Comex gold futures for December delivery settled down $12.20 at $1,327 an ounce.
reuters
The U.S. government began a partial shutdown on Tuesday for the first
time in 17 years, potentially putting up to 1 million workers on unpaid
leave, closing national parks and stalling medical research projects.
Federal
agencies were directed to cut back services after lawmakers could not
break a political stalemate that sparked new questions about the ability
of a deeply divided Congress to perform its most basic functions.
After House Republicans floated a late offer to break the
logjam, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid rejected the idea, saying
Democrats would not enter into formal negotiations on spending "with a
gun to our head" in the form of government shutdowns.
The political dysfunction at the Capitol also raised fresh concerns about whether Congress can meet a crucial mid-October deadline to raise the government's $16.7 trillion debt ceiling.
With
an eye on the 2014 congressional elections, both parties tried to
deflect responsibility for the shutdown. President Barack Obama accused
Republicans of being too beholden to Tea Party conservatives in the
House of Representatives and said the shutdown could threaten the
economic recovery.
The political stakes are particularly high for
Republicans, who are trying to regain control of the Senate next year.
Polls show they are more likely to be blamed for the shutdown, as they
were during the last shutdown in 1996.
"Somebody is going to win
and somebody is going to lose," said pollster Peter Brown of the
Quinnipiac University poll. "Going in, Obama and the Democrats have a
little edge."
The dollar held steady on Tuesday even though much
of the U.S. government was due to start shutting down. S&P stock
futures inched up 0.2 percent, unchanged from earlier price action after
the cash index fell 0.6 percent on Monday, while U.S. Treasury futures
slipped 5 ticks.
Most Asian markets were trading higher on Tuesday.
Political polarization
The
shutdown, the culmination of three years of divided government and
growing political polarization, was spearheaded by Tea Party
conservatives united in their opposition to Obama, their distaste for
Obama's healthcare law and their campaign pledges to rein in government
spending.
Obama refused to negotiate over the Republican demands
and warned a shutdown could "throw a wrench into the gears of our
economy."
Some government offices and national parks will be shuttered, but
spending for essential functions related to national security and public
safety will continue, including pay for U.S. military troops.
"It's
not shocking there is a shutdown, the shock is that it hasn't happened
before this," said Republican strategist John Feehery, a former Capitol
Hill aide. "We have a divided government with such diametrically opposed
views, we need a crisis to get any kind of results."
In the hours leading up to the deadline, the
Democratic-controlled Senate repeatedly stripped measures passed by the
House that tied temporary funding for government operations to delaying
or scaling back the healthcare overhaul known as Obamacare. The Senate
instead insisted on funding the government through November 15 without
special conditions.
Whether the shutdown represents another bump in the road for a Congress
increasingly plagued by dysfunction or is a sign of a more alarming
breakdown in the political process could be determined by the reaction
among voters and on Wall Street.
"The key to this is not what
happens in Washington. The key is what happens out in the real world,"
said Democratic strategist Chris Kofinis. "When Joe Public starts
rebelling, and the financial markets start melting down, then we'll see
what these guys do."
A Reuters/Ipsos poll showed about one-quarter
of Americans would blame Republicans for a shutdown, 14 percent would
blame Obama and 5 percent would blame Democrats in Congress, while 44 percent said everyone would be to blame.
An
anticipated revolt by moderate House Republicans fizzled earlier on
Monday after House Speaker John Boehner made personal appeals to many of
them to back him on a key procedural vote, said Republican
Representative Peter King of New York.
After Boehner made his
appeal, House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer called on him to permit a vote
on a simple extension of federal funding of the government without any
Obamacare add-on. "I dare you to do that," Hoyer roared.
The fallout
The
potential fallout has some Republican Party leaders worried ahead of
the 2014 mid-term elections and the 2016 presidential race, particularly
given the Republican divisions over the shutdown.
Republican
Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, who commandeered the Senate floor for 21
hours last week to stoke the confrontation and urge House colleagues to
join him, sparked a feud with fellow Republicans who disagreed with the
shutdown and accused the potential 2016 presidential candidate of
grandstanding.
"Whether or not we're responsible for it, we're
going to get blamed for it," King told reporters on Monday. "They've
locked themselves into a situation, a dead-end that Ted Cruz created."
It was unclear how long the shutdown would last and there was no
clear plan to break the impasse. The Senate on Tuesday planned to recess
until 9:30 a.m. (1330 GMT), at which time Democrats expect to formally
reject the House of Representatives' latest offer for funding the
government.
The shutdown will continue until Congress
resolves its differences, which could be days or months. But the
conflict could spill over into the more crucial dispute over raising the
federal government's borrowing authority.
A failure to raise the $16.7 trillion debt ceiling would force
the country to default on its obligations, dealing a potentially painful
blow to the economy and sending shockwaves around global markets.
Some
analysts said a brief government shutdown - and a resulting backlash
against lawmakers - could cool Republican demands for a showdown over
the debt limit.
"A lot of this is political theater. It's not
about real policy. Part of this is taking a stand for their
constituents," said Julian Zelizer, a historian at Princeton University.
"If
there is fallout from a shutdown and there is a big enough shock, maybe
they will be willing to move on to other issues," he said.
Obama
says negotiating over the demands would only encourage future
confrontations, and Democrats are wary of passing a short-term funding
bill that would push the confrontation too close to the deadline for
raising the debt ceiling.
"The bottom line is very simple - you
negotiate on this, they will up the ante for the debt ceiling,"
Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer said.
Reuters
 |
Sex has found a new home in weird places with 90 per cent of Nairobi women this writer spoke to confessing that sex in cars is not only a normal thing, but that they have experienced it as well.
The men, on the other hand, openly give accounts of their sexual escapades in cars, many having done it multiple times and claiming, rather surprisingly, to have been driven to it by the women.
Take the case of Chris*, who confesses to have had sex in his car countless times. I asked him what pushed him to do it the very first time.
“The girl wanted a wild experience and I obliged,“ he says and jokingly, adding,” What are friends for?” You are good to go as long as the parking is dark and the car windows are tinted.”
Chris says he has done this a couple of times, the anxiety of getting caught notwithstanding.
Joshua*, another lover of car sex says, “Just like sex in the store or on a corridor, sex in the car is fun. The anxiety caused by the unorthodox venue and the risk of getting caught takes the pleasure to crazy heights.”
Joshua, however, warns that sex in the car is a recipe for a bad omen. He says that sooner or later after a car romp, a traffic accident is inevitable. He says it happened to him just days after an escapade and also to three of his ‘boys’ as well, something Chris* disputes as an old wives’ tale.
Not that this car thing is a youth fad. Wachira*, a student at a local private university, narrates what he witnessed at a famous Nairobi shopping mall. His mother and sister had left him resting in their car at the parking lot as they shopped in the mall. Suddenly, a man in his 50s walked out of the mall with a 20-something-year-old petite woman. Joshua saw them put their shopping in the boot and get in the car, which oddly stayed put for 30 minutes before driving off. “Something unusual was happening to that car. I could see it rock — like a bed. Some action was certainly taking place. It was around 7.10pm and there was a streetlight, but the car windows were tinted and their windscreen was facing away from the light,” Wachira* recalls.
Wildest moment
Carole*, the only woman who shared her experience, describes her 3am tryst at a quiet parking as her wildest moment, one she can never forget, and wouldn’t hesitate to try again in the car or a weirder place like the dance floor.
“It is exciting, brings out your wild side, but don’t try it in a borrowed car. Damages are inevitable!” Carole quips. Call girls in an upmarket part of Nairobi have also turned cars into lodgings. Most of their clients are taxi drivers who, at the close of business, pay for the services by dropping the call girls home.
Car romps happen mostly at night on parking lots near pubs and girls’ hostels. But this being Kenya, watchmen and cops are always on the look out to catch the culprits and squeeze money out of them as happened last weekend outside a girls’ hostel in the outskirts of Nairobi.
A couple caught in a compromising situation outside the hostel was trying to settle the matter ‘out of court’ with the watchman who was demanding Sh5,000, with the man offering half of that in order not to get the girl, a resident of the strict hostel, into problems.
A consensus was reached and the unlucky guy forked out Sh2,000 as the girl staggered into the hostel.The watchman sheepishly disclosed to this writer that that was neither his first nor last deal of this kind, and said business is more lucrative for his peers in town.
Tip off
“They spread cartons on the floors for ‘customers’ at a fee at night. But if the man looks loaded, they tip off policemen on the beat who arrest the ‘misbehaving’ couple in their birthday suits and squeeze anything from Sh5,000 to as much as Sh10,000 out of them. The watchman, therefore, earns double — from renting the floor to the couple and from a share of the loot from the policemen,” he says.
Watchmen will also tell you that flushing couples out of pub toilets is commonplace. Just last week, a couple was smoked out of a toilet in a pub in the heart of Nairobi.
The embarrassed couple walked out of the toilet to the grinning faces of fellow revellers who had gathered outside the washroom, their fun cut short by a hawk-eyed bouncer. In another pub, those waiting outside the toilet were bemused when a woman peeped and said, “Just a minute darlings.” A few minutes later, a man in a suit emerged followed by the woman smoothening her skirt.
Walter, a bouncer in a Nairobi club, says throwing out people trying out what he calls “too much in the club” has become part of his job. He says such people hide at dark corners of the pub and in some instances, the culprits are not young. He recalls an incident where he had to throw out an old lady in the company of a middle-aged man who were “behaving like chicken”. Similar incidents in the pubs have been witnessed on the dance floor and couches. Some daring people have even attempted to have sex at the DJ’s cubicle in pubs, mostly in collaboration with the DJ — or even the DJ being that daring rogue.
Alfred* says he has had sex twice on the dance floor. “Everybody on the dance floor minds their own business, it is always congested and a simple sex escapade is easily mistaken for a dance style. It’s easy to get extremely naughty, especially if the girl is wearing tights,” he says.
And still on pubs, there is a crazy live sex show in a famous strip club in Nairobi. The male clients give premium money for the show and the girl chooses a random man to have sex with and decides whether the man should wear protection or not. The other men spectate in anticipation of being chosen by the next girl, or the same girl in round two or three.
Alcohol
Away from pubs, other notorious places for ‘wild sex’ are the endless social and sporting events in towns. Young souls indulge in alcohol and get out of control, mating everywhere in the fields and paths as witnessed in a recent sporting event.
This is not so different from in-house parties hosted by university students, something notorious with universities along Thika Road. A victim of gang rape disguised as consensual group sex had a warning for this writer: “Don‘t go to an in house university students’ party if you don’t want to sleep with half of the men attending. All sort of stuff are served in these parties — from weed cookies to heroine and cocaine. Some of the girls willingly have sex with as many guys as possible in some sort of competition, while others get drugged and dragged into the same.”
courtesy of standard news
Bungoma High Court Judge Francis Gikonyo in his ruling said there was a wide range of malpractices including double registration, vote tallying manipulation, and double voting. "At a meeting in Red Cross hotel, clergy were offered Sh260,000 to vote for CORD leaders in the area," the court heard.
The Monday decision leaves Wetangula with a second chance to seek votes from electorate through a by-election to be announced later.
Moses Wetangula was nominated as a Kanu MP after the 1992 general election, serving until 1997. He has held several other previous public positions which include that of magistrate and the chairman Electricity Regulatory Board.
Wetangula was elected to the National Assembly in the December 2002 parliamentary election. In the Cabinet appointed by President Mwai Kibaki on 8 January 2008, in the midst of a crisis regarding the results of the concurrent presidential election, Wetangula was named Minister for Foreign Affairs.
CORD leaders including former Prime Minister Raila Odinga were present during the ruling.
Sunday 29 September 2013
The Westgate mall, which is owned by Israelis, was a glitzy mecca for rich Kenyans and expats, a symbol of Kenya’s newfound decadence. My wife and I went on dates there all the time, catching a movie in a theater as comfy as any in the United States and then dropping $100 for some sushi. After we had kids, we’d take them to Westgate for shopping and ice cream, and it’s where my son Apollo, born and raised in Kenya, rode his first escalator. Westgate, actually, was where I interviewed my first real live Somali pirate (by phone). He was bobbing on the bridge of a hijacked tanker in the middle of the Indian Ocean. I was sitting at a cafe, drinking a banana smoothie.
Wednesday 25 September 2013
