Living without electricity and other news and views for Monday 7 July

7-07-2014 ticino
  • Roughing it beyond the power grid in Ticino – “The Local’s Emily Mawson ventures to the Valle Bavona, a steep-sided valley amid the mountains of the Italian-speaking Swiss canton of Ticino, where residents voted against introducing electricity in the 1950s, and discovers a region lost in time.”
  • Indonesia’s tight, dirty presidential race may be decided in West Java – “The closest and dirtiest presidential race in Indonesia’s young democracy could be decided on Wednesday among the mosques and rice paddies of West Java, the nation’s most populous province.”
  • Banks Face Added Capital Requirements - Basel Committee May Reduce Lenders’ Latitude on Weighing Risk – “Global banking regulators are considering new measures that would make it harder for banks to understate the riskiness of their assets, including potentially ending the long-standing treatment of all government bonds as automatically risk-free, according to people familiar with the discussions.”
  • Rolf Harris art: Should owners feel guilty? – “Following Rolf Harris’s conviction for indecent assaults against four girls, the art world has begun to distance itself from the disgraced entertainer. Galleries that once sold his works have removed Harris’s limited-edition prints and sculptures from sale.”
  • In discounter war, will Aldi’s Coke rush fall flat?
  • Europe’s Debt Wish – “Eurozone leaders continue to debate how best to reinvigorate economic growth, with French and Italian leaders now arguing that the eurozone’s rigid “fiscal compact” should be loosened. Meanwhile, the leaders of the eurozone’s northern member countries continue to push for more serious implementation of structural reform. Ideally, both sides will get their way, but it is difficult to see an endgame that does not involve significant debt restructuring or rescheduling. The inability of Europe’s politicians to contemplate this scenario is placing a huge burden on the European Central Bank.
  • My negativity about these words is summiting - Another torture session on the use (or misuse) of words from Robert Fisk:
2014-07-07_fiskwordsNote: The Owl’s current pet hate is “road map”. What’s yours?

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