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Money matters:
Graham Macdonald MBMG International Ltd.
Sovereign wealth funds - friend or foe?
| Country Name
|
Assets* $bn
|
Inception year |
| UAE: Abu Dhabi Investment
Authority |
875.0 |
1976 |
| Norway: Government
Pension Fund - Global |
380.0 |
1996 |
| Singapore: GIC
|
330.0 |
1981 |
| Saudi Arabia: Various
|
300.0 |
na |
| Kuwait: Reserve Fund for
Future Generations |
250.0 |
1953 |
| China: China Investment
Corporation* |
200.0 |
2007 |
| Singapore: Temasek
Holdings |
159.2 |
1974 |
| Libya: Oil Reserve Fund
|
50.0 |
2005 |
| Qatar: Qatar Inv. Auth.
|
50.0 |
2005 |
| Algeria: Fund de
Regulation des Recettes |
42.6 |
2000 |
| US: Alaska Permanent Fund
Corporation |
38.0 |
1976 |
| Brunei: Brunei Inv. Auth.
|
30.0 |
1983 |
| Other |
171.4 |
- |
| Total |
2876.3 |
- |
| Of which oil-and
gas-related |
2103.4 |
- |
|
After years as the fall guy for Europe’s trade unions and
some politicians, private equity firms can breathe a little easier now that
their status as the scary face of capitalism has been usurped by state
investment funds. Despite having been around for a long time, these funds have
suddenly achieved major prominence and we’ve been inundated with questions about
them. Here, with the help of Joanne Baynham of Miton Asset Management (the
advisors to MBMG International’s range of private client portfolios) are some
answers.
Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) have existed for at least 50 years, but their
total size worldwide has increased dramatically over the past 10-15 years. In
1990, SWFs probably held, at most, $500 billion; the current total is an
estimated $2-3 trillion. (See table for a breakdown of this amount)
That sounds a lot, but how much really is $3 trillion?
U.S. GDP = $12 trillion
The total value of US$ denominated securities (both debt and equity) = more than
$50 trillion
The total global value of all traded securities = $165 trillion.
In that context, $3 trillion is significant but not huge. However…
The total value of securities markets in Africa, the Middle East, and emerging
Europe combined = $4 trillion. That’s also roughly the size of the markets in
all of Latin America.
Simon Johnson, the IMF’s chief economist, thinks SWFs will be worth $10 trillion
by 2012, based on the likely growth rates of current accounts. Stephen Jen of
Morgan Stanley has pencilled in $12 trillion for 2015 (just to remind you,
that’s the size of the US economy today).
In today’s terms, SWFs might be small relative to global traded securities, but
they still have a lot of firepower: they are larger than many private equity and
hedge funds.
Given this as a backdrop, it’s not surprising that investors wish to woo them
and politicians fear them at the same time. There can be no mistaking that their
money has been sorely needed of late, with rich-world financial-services groups
having been administered nearly $69 billion-worth of infusions from the savings
of the developing world in the past ten months to January - according to Morgan
Stanley.
However, the relatively friendly welcome SWFs have found, may turn out to be
temporary. Before the credit crunch American politicians objected to Arabs
owning ports and Chinese owning oil firms. In January Hillary Clinton said: “We
need to have a lot more control over what they [SWFs] do and how they do it.”
Once the emergency has passed, foreign money is often less welcome.
Politicians are concerned that the managers of these funds have little
accountability to regulators, shareholders or voters, and thus are felt to be a
potential breeding ground for rogue traders. So far there is no evidence of such
“mischievous” behaviour (as the German government calls it) and weighing the
risk of such eventualities against the rewards of hard cash, on the table, right
now, makes it clearly daft to raise too much of a stink.
Kevin Hassett of the American Enterprise Institute highlights
the fears that governments have with the following examples. Suppose the Chinese
Fund were to buy Citigroup. What if America sought to take sides in a conflict
with Taiwan? Would China then threaten to shut the bank down? Alternatively,
from a more commercial point of view, suppose that Venezuela bought Alcoa and
set about closing its aluminium smelters in the United States in order to move
production to Latin America, as part of a strategy for development. And what if
a country’s investment fund ran an active trading operation and - George Soros
style, when he brought down the Pound - decided to launch a large-scale
speculative attack on another nation’s currency?
Although the risk that the funds may abuse companies and markets is theoretical,
the danger of financial protectionism is all too real. The idea that secretive
foreign governments are up to no good exerts a powerful hold on the collective
imagination. Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, and Angela Merkel, the
German chancellor, have both issued warnings. A former American official,
speaking on condition of anonymity, says that Washington is even now in a state
of “high alert”. Yet, for all these imagined fears, it is hard to find examples
of SWFs abusing their power.
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Mohamed Al-Jasser, vice-governor of Saudi
Arabian Monetary Agency, complained that SWFs were being treated as “guilty
until proven innocent” by politicians suspicious of possible ulterior motives.
Yet more SWF managers proclaimed that their intentions were pure; they were
investing for the long-term, and had a total hands-off approach to the
management of the companies they buy.
“Our fund started in 1953,” said Bader Al Sa’ad, the managing director of the
Kuwait Investment Authority. “Kuwait has been a Daimler shareholder since 1969…
BP shareholder since 1996, we are one of the most stable shareholders of these
companies.”
Stephen Schwarzmann, chief executive of private equity giant Blackstone,
described the funds as “model investors”, and “smart, highly professional,
simply looking for the best possible return for their money” and derided the
notion that these funds were a threat:
“It’s almost amusing to see pools of capital that we’ve always dealt with now
have a new name, SWFs, and are seen as an inherent threat. When the Chinese
investment fund took a 9.5% stake in our company there were questions in the
press: ‘why do they do this, what are their motives?’” Schwarzmann clarified the
situation, “Well, it’s a non-voting investment, that was important for them ...
they said they don’t want to vote.”
In politics, fear usually sells better than reason, but it would be rather
hypocritical to erect barriers to foreign investment while demanding open access
to developing markets. Most countries, for example, limit who can own banks,
because governments often guarantee deposits and because confidence in banks
underpins the financial system. Similarly, most countries curb ownership of
defence technology and utilities. You do not need a handbook of new
restrictions. And you do not need to make SWFs a special case: instead, you
should have clear, predictable rules that apply to everyone.
One concern is that generally governments can’t ascertain what a SWF’s
objectives are, precisely how much money it manages and where it invests. SWFs
tend to cover their tracks further by using a full range of investment
structures, such as hedge funds and private equity.
Criticism of SWFs’ investments has by no means all come from recipient
countries. China’s CIC seemed to have scored when it paid $3 billion for a stake
in Blackstone, a private-equity group that listed its shares. Today its holding
is worth closer to $2 billion and CIC has been severely criticised in Beijing.
The motives of the funds vary, and they don’t always make sense. Consider Abu
Dhabi and Kuwait, which wanted to save their oil endowment for future
generations, an admirable goal. But today they don’t look as clever as
freewheeling Dubai, which has much less oil. Because the rulers of Abu Dhabi and
Kuwait centralized their nations’ wealth in the hands of the state, their state
sectors stifled their economies. Abu Dhabi’s fund may be impressive but the
entrepreneurial spirit of Dubai has done a far better job of putting sustainable
wealth in the hands of his citizens - even before discussions about whether it
makes sense to buy Liverpool FC!
In truth, such funds are nothing for Western politicians or voters to fear. If
anyone should worry about them, it’s the citizens whose governments are amassing
them - governments tend to be terrible at managing money that it is best left in
the hands of private citizens.
Maybe that’s why SWFs are popular with semi-authoritarian regimes and
dictatorships, which aren’t answerable for the consequences when they make poor
economic decisions.
At the end of the day, whether SWF are to be feared or loved really depends on
your point of view. Western Economies find themselves in a ‘beggars can’t be
choosers’ situation at the present time and it is unlikely that this is going to
change any time soon.
Governments may distrust SWFs, but until the East and West even out the
surpluses and deficits in their economies, SWFs will not go away.
|
The above data and research was compiled from sources
believed to be reliable. However, neither MBMG International Ltd nor its
officers can accept any liability for any errors or omissions in the above
article nor bear any responsibility for any losses achieved as a result of any
actions taken or not taken as a consequence of reading the above article. For
more information please contact Graham Macdonald on
[email protected]@mbmg-international.com.com
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Snap Shots: by Harry Flashman
Tricks that make
photography easier
 A
friend of mine, a true professional photographer, dropped me a line with
a brief Q&A attached. “Q: Definition of a free lance photo journalist.
A: A bloke with three Canons round his neck and a wife that works!”
There is more than a grain of truth in that!
However, have you ever stopped to wonder just what pro shooters have in
their very large camera bags? Well, for starters there will be a choice
of lenses, two or three camera bodies, and a whole host of
non-photographic items that makes photography much easier.
Want to take a photo of Rover? The one item that all dog photographers
should have is a box of matches. One little rattle and Rover pricks his
ears up and looks intelligent. Or as intelligent as Rovers can look.
This even works for children (but take my tip and never be conned into
photographing pets or children!).
So after the box of matches, what else should you have? For my money it
is a torch. Any photographer who takes his camera out at night will need
one. Even if just to see what way up the batteries go in the flash,
which always runs out of volts just when you don’t need it. Setting
shutter speeds in the dark can also be difficult. Or even seeing what
aperture you are selecting on the lens barrel.
Another small, but definitely handy item is a remote release for the
shutter. Any time you are trying to do a time exposure, it becomes very
difficult holding the button down and not making the camera tremble -
especially with long exposures. Cheap, does not take up much space, and
very useful.
While talking about time exposures, another useful “camera bag” item is
a miniature tripod. I have one that was made by Polaroid a few years ago
which folds up small and even fits into the side pocket on the bag. With
something like this you can mount the tripod on the roof of the car and
take five minute moonlight shots if you need it. Often called table-top
tripods. There are some I have seen with “springy” legs but they are not
much good. Get one with solid legs.
Now the next one is not so easy to get here, but you can always get
someone to bring you one in from overseas. With the bright sunlight
here, the magic brain inside your camera that sets the exposure settings
can get confused. The answer for consistently correct exposures is an 18
percent grey card. This you place beside the subject and take a meter
reading from it. You then set the camera to that f stop and shutter
speed and you have the correct exposure for the main shot. If you are
serious about getting the correct exposure, and particularly if you
shoot slides, one of these is invaluable. You can just fold it up and
slip it in the camera bag very easily. However, another trick is to
select an 18 percent grey camera bag, and you just take your reading
directly from there.
Not a ‘pro’ but an enthusiastic amateur photographer is Ernie Kuehnelt
who keeps a plastic shower cap in his camera bag. Great for keeping the
camera dry in the rain. I have one too, after Ernie showed me.
In today’s digital age, your camera bag should also have a fully charged
camera battery and a 1GB memory card. Serious digital photography eats
those items like your kids eat ice cream.
The last item that is really almost mandatory if you are a serious
photographer, and that is a battery charger for the batteries in the
off-camera flash. You will go through heaps of batteries if you are
shooting regularly, even just fill-in flash. This gets expensive. Buy
two sets of the rechargeable batteries and the charger and your
photography expenses will be a lot less.
Modern Medicine:
by Dr. Iain Corness, Consultant
Do you need insurance?
I have just renewed my medical insurance, for myself, my wife
and the children. Whilst I hate giving anything away (my Scottish heritage
comes forth at times when I have to open the wallet), I have to say the
premium was not expensive, and far less than I would pay in the western
world.
However, if you haven’t upgraded your cover recently, then you may be in for
a nasty surprise. Unfortunately, everything, be that petrol, bread, or
baby’s nappies has gone up in price in the past 12 months. If you haven’t
upgraded there could be a shortfall, which you have to find (or fund), not
your insurance company.
I have also been very lucky with my choice of careers. Being a medico does
have advantages. If I couldn’t fix my skin rash or whatever, I could always
ring a classmate who could (or should) be able to. Medications and drugs?
Again no worries, just a quick raid of the samples cupboard in my surgery
and I had everything I needed. Insurance not needed. (One of my medical
friends used to say that after diagnosing some condition in his family, he
would go to his samples cupboard. If he couldn’t find what he wanted, he
would change the diagnosis to use some medication he did have! True.)
What about hospital in-patient insurance? I passed on that one too. After
all, the only foreseeable problems that could stop me working were massive
trauma following a road accident or suchlike, or a heart attack. In either
case you don’t care where you are as long as there are wall to wall running
doctors and plenty of pain killers. In Australia, the “free” public hospital
system is fine for that.
So I blithely carried on through life insuranceless. I did spend one night
in hospital with a broken leg 30 years ago, so as regards personal medical
costs versus proposed insurance premiums, I was still miles in front.
And then I came to Thailand. Still I blithely carried on, after all, I was
ten foot tall and bullet proof. Then a friend over here had a stroke and
required hospitalisation. Said friend was four years younger than me and I
was forced to review the ten foot bullet proof situation to find I was only
five foot eleven and my anti-kryptonite had expired. Thailand was a
completely new ballgame.
Enquiries as to hospital and medical costs showed that they were
considerably less than the equivalent in Oz, but, and here’s the big but,
there’s no government system or sickness benefits to fall back on. Suddenly
you are walking the tightrope and there’s no safety net to stop you hitting
terra firma.
So I took out medical insurance. Still it was no gold plated cover. But it
was enough to look after me if I needed hospitalisation, and that came
sooner than I imagined. I had always subscribed to the “major trauma”
theory, but two days of the galloping gut-rot had me flat on my back with
the IV tube being my only life-line to the world. We are only mortal - even
us medicos.
Do you have medical insurance? Perhaps it is time to chat to a reputable
insurance agent! Yes, reliable insurance agents and reliable insurance
companies do exist, but you need help through the minefield.
You also need help when it comes to filling out the application forms, in my
opinion. And you also need to be 100 percent truthful. Yes, insurance
companies will check on your records, and if it is found that you have been
sparing with the truth over pre-existing conditions, expect a shock at
settling up time at the cashier’s desk.
Remember too, that just because you have an insurance card does not
automatically signify that ‘everything’ is covered. This is why private
hospitals will ask you for a deposit on admission. If the insurance company
later verifies that you are indeed covered for that ailment or condition,
then you’ll get it back, but you have to prove that you are covered, not the
other way round!
And remember to check out your insurance agent.
 Heart to Heart with Hillary
Hello again Hillary,
After your Kaneedur, I had hoped that I wouldn’t have to write again, but you
and your reader gave me no choice. I often see that you comment on your writer’s
letters grammar and/or spelling. Well now I shall have to comment on your
inferences and assumptions.
You assume I am an antipodean, why? What exactly does this mean? The opposite
side of the globe? So you think I am an American? Not me Guv (sic)! I presume
you mean Australia or NZ?, sorry Hillary, wrong again!
You wrote that I have perfect intonation when I speak Thai and/or Laos. Where
did this statement come from? Who said this? I certainly didn’t. I think I
stated that Thai people comment on my speech as being very clear.
By making your inference public you have also now misled “I can’t be bovvered
either”, although if he had bothered to read my initial missive correctly he
would have spotted your error. I am another Einstein, well thanks, it’s
appreciated of course, I do have an IQ of 130 but that’s surely not enough... Is
it? To be very clear about this, I do think that my Thai and especially my
Thai-Issan is very acceptable as I can communicate with little problem. However,
I do consider the Thais tend to overstate their praise.
When I first started speaking Thai I was often met with a puzzled look and told
that my pronunciation was “mai schut” or not clear. I have not heard this for a
long time now. Recent examples: I was speaking with a teacher from Sisaket. Her
actual words were “How can you speak Laos so well, it sounds like you are a
native from Isaan.” This must be a joke, but that is what she said.
A lawyer (very pretty, I know it’s irrelevant!) ran to get her Mother who hailed
from Udon, just to converse with me. In a restaurant, after I ordered food and
started openly chatting in Thai, the cook ran over with a big smile and asked
why I could speak Thai so well and as clearly.
Is this showing off? I am simply passing on local Thai sentiments. From my
perspective I actually don’t think my Thai is that good. However, I am not
qualified to comment.
I am sure that you and your readers have understood the real meanings behind
these e-mails and they are nothing to do with how well I can speak a language.
As you implied Hillary, when in a bar, there is no need to even ask the bird’s
name. The purple persuader is usually enough to ensure that they ‘like’ you,
although a different color bill may now be required.
It speaks volumes that the normal everyday Thais are very happy when I speak
their language, it’s only the things in the bars that have a problem with it.
As for whether I am bovvered or not, I let my sign-off speak for itself.
Regards
“I really ain’t (sic) bovvered (sic), I really ain’t” (sic)
Dear I really ain’t bovvered,
I still don’t believe your nom de plume, you seem very hot and bovvered to me,
Petal. Not only do you have an ornithological problem (“birds” Mr. IQ 130) but
are bovvered about the way you come across. May I remind you of your first
letter which had, in part “I reply in Thai-Laos as I can speak this quite
fluently. Using English text as I have no Thai keyboard, “Man U, Koi U poodio,
bor me poosouw.” If they are from elsewhere in Thailand I respond in Thai, as I
can also speak this. Maybe something like “Khrap pom, U kondio khrap, pom
ben-sod.” Maybe my accent or tones are suspect except that I am told by other
Thai people that I speak their language very clearly.” So who inferred you are
the cunning linguist? You, Petal. I might even call in the teacher from Sisaket
and the pretty lawyer’s mother from Udon, or the unnamed cook in a Thai
restaurant to back me up.
You asked what is an antipodean? Common usage has it as people from Down-Under.
I explained that in my first reply where I wrote, “I also get the distinct
impression that you are an antipodean with that quaint way to refer to the bar
girls as birds.” However, you do spell color in the British way (colour) and
denied vehemently that you were American, and also used the phrase ‘Guv’, so I
presume you are a UK chap. So be it. It doesn’t matter, what matters is merely
the fact you don’t seem to be able to find a ‘frock’ in a brothel with a first
full of five hundreds.
Don’t worry, you’ll still be able to discuss your sorrows with the teacher from
Sisaket or the pretty lawyer’s mother from Udon or even the short order cook in
Thai, or Laos, as you did state above “I do think that my Thai and especially my
Thai-Issan is very acceptable as I can communicate with little problem.” I’m
glad. Keep on having fun, even if you ain’t really bovvered!
Learn to Live to Learn: with Andrew Watson
Looking back, looking forward
Funny how time can go; friends say they told me so, but it
doesn’t matter. As I sit, sipping coffee on one of my balconies
overlooking the calm azure of the Gulf of Thailand, I’m taking
the time for a number of things, which I didn’t seem to have
time for yesterday. The 7 o’clock horizon sucks me towards it
where a few cumulus nimbus clouds rising towards the heavens
await me. They are half-visible in the misty blueness, as if
stretching themselves awake, readying themselves or another day
of heat and thunder.
I try to preserve five minutes every day for reflection; it’s an
important time of peace, tranquillity and meditation. Here, now,
with the curvature of the earth convex before me and the sound
of birds and lightly rustling leaves all around me, there’s a
sense of utter timelessness. No need to hurry anywhere. Indeed,
I’ll do my very best not to move more than ten yards in any
direction for the next few hours. The most energy I’m likely to
expend is when I climb into my hammock and explore a variety of
rocking, recumbent postures.
I’d never been to Thailand on holiday before this year.
Previously, it had always been work, business rather than
pleasure, although some might say that the line between the two
in Thailand is inevitably, perhaps necessarily, blurred. It’s
getting to be a long time ago when we first landed at Bangkok,
with light hearts and lighter wallets, escapees from the Al
Asqua intifada. I remember the hitherto unparalleled heat and
humidity, our clothes sticking to our backs and the insufferable
cocktail of exhaustion from our 12 hour flight mixed with the
euphoria of being in the East for the first time. It was, and
remains, the antithesis of our experience in Israel, in every
conceivable regard. Verdant and lush, peaceful, friendly and
safe for God’s sake; safe!
Arriving in the wake of the economic crash of 96/97, folksy Ban
Chang and south to Phala Beach, the sleepy amphur where we
settled was punctuated with half-built palatial villas. It was
as if everybody had got up and left in the middle of the night.
Having come from a land where every centimeter is fought over
and exploited, over the subsequent years it was refreshingly
bizarre to be part of a landscape where nature was reasserting
herself so forcefully.
I had never been part of a “transplanted” community before. I
found the assumptions and presumptions of the predominantly
British expatriates disorienting; indeed there seemed to be an
assumption that I would conform to a certain extent, to a
narrow, parched and somewhat parochial view of the world. A
South African friend put it well; “Some people have been here
for too long; it’s time for them to move on…” How right he was,
although it took a few more years before we were able to push
them in the right direction; the right direction for them and
most certainly for the school.
Cleaning out embedded cliques can be a tough business and the
generally high bi-annual turnover of staff meant that prevailing
misconceptions about how to run an organization largely went
unchallenged. If you found that there were mavericks or
individuals within an organization who weren’t “yes” people, you
could just get rid of them. The international schools
phenomenon, a brave new world in Thailand, which had (in more
than a few well-publicised cases) inadvertently welcomed under
or minimally qualified people to work in the Kingdom, was
finding out very quickly, to their own and students’ cost, that
the poison of impostors and charlatans was polluting the
educational landscape. By and large over the last seven years,
to the Thai government’s great credit, more comprehensive and
rigorous regulations have been put in place to prevent further
miscarriages of educational justice. And whilst there remain
isolated pockets of iniquity, there is no doubt at all that for
those hiding in the shadows, the nights are closing in.
Thus, in Thailand, there is every reason to look forward to the
future with great hope and enthusiasm, to a land whose
international schools do not squander parents’ hard earned money
on staff jollies; where lessons will begin and end on time;
where everybody in the organization is held accountable for
their performance; where everybody in the organization is given
support, proper professional development and the opportunity to
take on increasing responsibility.
The International Schools Association of Thailand (ISAT) is a
body with increasing remit for quality assurance, which insists
that all international schools must be accredited by an external
agency (such as CIS or WES) as well as by ISAT. Whilst there is
evidence to suggest that accreditation processes are not always
as rigorous as they should be, at least it’s a leap in the right
direction.
The International Baccalaureate (IB) is an authorization rather
than an accreditation body and one would like to think that IB
authorization is a kite-mark for quality - and in the main it
probably is - although once again there are probably schools
which manage to squeeze into the IB family “under the radar”.
With the IB experiencing enormous growth across the world, there
is a danger of bureaucratic “overstretch” where the balance
between economic growth and quality assurance is under
increasing strain; a feeling of always playing “catch up” as
schools pop up here, there and everywhere seeking authorization
without, perhaps, a full understanding of what is entailed in
becoming an “IB World School”.
Back in Ban Chang and it’s the earliest of mornings down in
sleepy Phala. The environment has shown significant signs of
regeneration over the past year or so. A few brave pioneers have
taken on high class renovation projects by the sea, making the
most of the highest land for 50 kilometres along the coast - and
the views are spectacular. Garden International School, which
has made such impressive progress over the last two years has
another impressive set of IB Diploma results in the bag and is
visible in the bluish distance from my crow’s nest. “What a
perfect location for a school,” I muse as, regular as any clock,
the fisherman starts his 7 o’clock engine.
Next week: A World Apart
Let’s go to the movies:
by Mark Gernpy
Now playing in Pattaya
Death Race: US Action/Thriller – The most twisted
spectator sport on earth as violent criminals vie for freedom by winning
a race driving monster cars outfitted with machine guns, flamethrowers,
and grenade launchers. The previews are the most repulsive imaginable.
The Coffin/Longtorai: Thai Horror – Thai superstar Ananda
Everingham as a claustrophobic architect who participates in obscure
coffin rituals.
WALL·E: US Animation/ Comedy/ Family/ Romance/ Sci-Fi – The film
is a work of genius from the first frame to the last. Robot love in a
dead world, and the cutest love story in years. There’s virtually no
dialogue for the first 40 minutes; you’ll be enthralled. Reviews:
Universal acclaim.
Where the Miracle Happens: Thai Drama – A powerful plea for
compassion towards neglected segments of Thai society – the uneducated
and exploited people, many hill-tribe, who are not really citizens of
Thai society. It’s a plea for giving everyone living in Thailand at
least the opportunity for education and health care, and freedom from
exploitation.
Produced by Her Royal Highness Princess Ubolratana Rajakanya, this film
is a drama adapted from a story in her book, “Short Stories from My
Thoughts.” Her Royal Highness also stars in the film as a successful
businesswoman who loses her daughter in a car accident. To fulfill the
philanthropic wish of her child, she travels to a remote school in
Chiang Rai and helps rebuild the local school. The drama surfaces when
some of the locals doubt her true intentions.
The message is clear: those who have the means – the riches from
the Thai economy – need to take a paternal interest in the country as a
whole. It’s one’s responsibility, and is simply the decent thing to do
for a country that has been good to you. HRH Princess Ubolratana, who
also had a hand in writing the script, has herself initiated several
projects aimed at the betterment of the Thai people, projects such as
“To Be Number One” and “Miracle of Life.” This film is a part of the
“Miracle of Life” project, which aims to provide education to
underprivileged children in Thailand.
It’s a heart-felt plea, told in basic and simple dramatic terms, with
the standard ingredients of Thai drama and comedy fused into a quite
moving film. Her Royal Highness acquits herself quite beautifully as the
prime actor of the film. The production values are top rate – the
photography is luscious.
If you relax and let yourself be drawn into the story, there’s no way
you won’t be very affected at story’s end – I admit it, I was in tears.
Rogue: Australia/US Thriller – An American journalist on
assignment on a tourist river boat in the Australian outback encounters
a man-eating “rogue” crocodile. A modest and effective thriller, with
some extraordinary shots of the breathtakingly-forbidding Australia
harshness, accompanied by some quite excellent music throughout by
François Tétaz which captured for me the beauty and danger of the
location, and which includes in its mix aboriginal vocals and didgeridoo
droning. The whole is a sort of study of crocodiles and crocodile lore
by the director/writer Greg Mclean, who seems to really love the
subject, and who seems very fond of the Northern Territory landscape.
Rated R in the US for language and some creature violence (some of which
has been clipped by the paternalistic Thai censors). Early reviews:
Mixed or average.
Hanuman: The White Monkey Warrior: Thai Action – Utter trash, and
the biggest argument yet for imposition of censorship, let alone a
rating system. Not only not fit for kids; not fit for adults either.
Detailed beheadings with close-ups of the surprised looks on the faces
of the decapitated heads, loving depictions of skin being slowly ripped
off of humans, and worse. All involved should be heavily fined, and
jailed.
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor: US/Germany/Canada Action
/Fantasy – What a shame! All the talent, all the fantastic attention to
detail, wasted on a mess of a movie that is nothing but one bang after
another, one explosion after another, one bloody fight after another,
all to no purpose. Ignore this one, unless of course you like mindless
action, and the rest. Brendan Fraser and Maria Bello play retired
British aristocrat-adventurers who head East for adventure and meet
their grown son. There the three unearth the mummy of China’s ruthless
Dragon Emperor and his vast terra cotta army. Generally negative
reviews.
Scheduled for Aug 28
Boonchu 9: Thai Comedy – A continuation of this popular Thai
comedy series. The son of the original Boonchu is a happy monk who is
defrocked by his mother and sent to university in Bangkok. There he
meets up with new “friends” – two homeless kids, Kratay and Krateng –
who, as friends will do, drug him and mug him.
Made of Honor: US Comedy – A piece of fluff about, what else,
love problems, starring Patrick Dempsey and Michelle Monaghan.
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