NEW YORK, NEW WORLD

CHAFF/MASSEY UNIVERSITY VALEDICTORY FEATURE (2009):

Photo used with kind permission By Daniel Schwen - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=459412

NEW YORK, NEW WORLD

Dedicated to the essence of New York City, with its lessons of humanity and individuality, and the Irish immigrant culture that contributed;

Dedicated to friends, foe, and loved ones in New Zealand who, due to my global horizons, regard me as mad.. To paraphrase Waitakere Mayor Sir Bob Harvey, I am crazy, but sane;

Dedicated to my former boss, Daniel Pitchforth, for winning the Ray Kroc Award for outstanding management. I will continue to choose my employers carefully.

Special thanks to the Bloomberg Group, Jeff Thompson from the New York Police Department (NYPD), Amitav Ghosh, Sir Robert Jones, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Lou Reed, and Jennie Yeung.

Introduction - Global Financial Meltdown - John Lennon, LA;Lou Reed, NY- The NYPD: Jeff Thompson and the three C's- Subcontinental Drift to New York: Amitav Ghosh's The Hungry Tide - Jennie Yeung.

Video links provided: John Lennon, Lou Reed, NYPD Cricket.

“Things are getting back to normal in New York. The other day, a driver yelled 'Get a life' and gave me the finger.”

John Dennie, Commuter from Staten Island, Time magazine, December 31, 2001.

Like the term “market”, New York is more than a defined place or area. It is the avenue where exchanges take place. For example, we connect Wall Street with finance; Broadway with theater; Madison Avenue with advertising; Fifth Avenue with shopping . New York City is also the most ethnically varied city in the USA.

At the end of WWII, New York replaced London as the world's financial capital. In the aftermath of 9/11, New York is emerging as the world's intellectual capital, as changing perceptions of the way we see the world are considered.

New York has started the new century- and the new Millennium- transcending its physical boundaries, as a concept of individuality; and a metaphor of humanity.

GLOBAL FINANCIAL MELTDOWN

The ongoing global recession was apparently sparked by the collapse of New York investment bank, Lehman Brothers. Lehman, despite being a financial giant, was allowed to declare itself bankrupt, meaning that creditors lost what they were owed,and stockholders lost their investments. Mortgage-backed securities were too hard to sell in a deteriorating real-estate market.

One of these backers was the oldest US money market fund, the $US 62.5 billion Reserve Primary Fund, which lent Lehman $US785 million. That couldn't be repaid.

When 60% of the Reserve Primary Fund's money was withdrawn, other funds experienced withdrawals too, and world stock markets lost $US2.85 trillion in three days. Other giants, such as Morgan Stanley and Citigroup, became vulnerable- large scale building projects ground to a halt. Forty three thousand investors in Hong Kong bought $US 1.8 billion worth of "guaranteed" Lehman mini bonds, and for some, that meant losing their life savings.

Another complication was the $US 592 trillion market- 41 times the size of the US economy- in derivative contracts. These are contracts whose value is derived from loans, stocks, bonds, currencies, and linked to events such as changes in interest rates. The huge derivative market made up for half of the trading revenue of some trading banks, and was not prepared for the bankruptcy of a major Wall Street firm.

When a group of business leaders was convened to address the Lehman issue, one investment company head noticed that only bankers were asked to come up with solutions. It was suggested that economic strength may be rebuilt with input from corporate treasurers, labor representatives, consumer advocates, academics and various community leaders, who are called upon in future, and called upon frequently. I've spent a lot of time exploring how music, art and literature can draw together people from all walks, to solve problems or to have fun. Could Lou Reed's Transformer rekindle Wall Street? Well, Reed's friend David Bowie was, after all, behind the “Bowie Bonds”- a specific , $55 million issue of 10-year asset-backed bonds issued by Bowie and bought by Prudential Insurance Company.

JOHN LENNON, LA; LOU REED, NY

The California-based singer Mamek Khadem links music and cultural history: “Memories are inseparable from melodies that touch the soul ." A friend from New Orleans and I stayed in West Hollywood, after a few days at the iconic Highland Gardens Hotel, near Mann's Chinese Theater.

As business was attended to in Malibu; as we drove through Santa Monica, as we walked along Sunset Blvd from our apartment near Whiskey A Go Go, songs from John Lennon's 1974 album Walls and Bridges constantly played in my head.

As it happened, Lennon had written the songs for that album while renting a duplex very close to where we were.

Although Lennon recorded that album in New York, it had a totally LA feel which I came to truly appreciate in West Hollywood.

I am sure that Lou Reed's Transformer (1972) will have the same effect when I visit New York for the first time. That album was produced by David Bowie in London, yet with its references to night life, Andy Warhol, and the quirks of human nature, it is a consummate New York album. It is timeless, as renditions of the songs have been performed by Bono and Pavarotti, among others.

THE NYPD: JEFF THOMPSON AND THE THREE C's

Through the New York Police Department Community Affairs Bureau , police officer Jeff Thompson created two programs to connect with young men primarily in the Muslim community, as a way to create communication and understanding between the police and the community. These programs were NYPD UNITED Soccer and NYPD Cricket. Thompson's article about the NYPD and the three C's - communication, community and cricket- made the front page of The New York Times.

New York Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly charged Thompson's Bureau with designing a way to reach certain communities in New York, which had little or no relationship with the police. Thompson says that the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) methods in which he is trained come down to communication, understanding, and peace. Communication leads to understanding, and understanding leads to peace.

Commissioner Kelly proposed a soccer competition specifically for Arab, Muslim, and South Asian immigrants, with Officer Thompson creating and co-ordinating NYPD United soccer. Notwithstanding great successes, more needed to be done to reach the South Asian Community.

Fortunately, Jeff Thompson not only knew about the game of cricket, he actually played it throughout his childhood in Queens, and was able to quickly put together a cricket competition. When designing the competition, Thompson and his colleagues liaised with religious centers, community groups, and various cricket teams, generating interest in both the community itself, and community involvement in the process of designing the competition.

Not forgetting the organization involved – nets, field permits, transport, water bottles, uniforms, logos, umpires, referees etc.

Jeff Thomson works by the motto “increase the good, fix the bad”. The Internet savvy 15-19 year-old soccer players/cricketers introduced Thompson to Twitter; games were edited and uploaded on YouTube; an official NYPD website provides logos and information; and blogsites are in use.

As Thompson has written in The New York Times, “The mantra of Communication, Understanding and Peace is not limited to the participants and their communities. Its benefits can and should go beyond the participants to people everywhere.”

Through soccer and cricket, Thompson and the NYPD have also explored “valid learning experiences” in which all police personnel involved have learned so much about the communities they serve.

Jeff Thompson's article concluded: “The best way to serve others is by getting to know them.”

SUBCONTINENTAL DRIFT TO NEW YORK : AMITAV GHOSH'S THE HUNGRY TIDE

New Zealand writer and businessman, Sir Bob Jones, once wrote that the veteran globetrotter only truly becomes an international sophisticate after completely absorbing, in every sense, the real human experience. According to Jones, there are only two places where this is accelerated, in that each is “a world of its own”: New York and India.

As Jeff Thompson has illustrated, it is worthwhile for the world's capital city to know and understand its ethnic communities.

As India emerges on the world stage , who might best provide an in-depth, yet compact, account of the Indian subcontinent? I recommend anything by the Indian novelist Amitav Ghosh, who is occasionally based in Brooklyn.

Considering climate change, the Asian tsunami, and Hurricane Katrina, Ghosh's fact-based The Hungry Tide is a whole package of nature, history, and humanity.

The Tide Country

The Sundarbans ( “beautiful forest”), a group of islands where the Ganges River empties into the Bay of Bengal, are home to crocodiles, the Bengal tiger, sharks, snakes -and dolphins- amidst the largest single block of mangrove jungles in the world. When the tide is high, the tips of the jungles are barely visible.

At the beginning of last century, Sir Daniel Hamilton, a Scottish philanthropist, offered free land to anyone willing to work it, provided they put aside their ethnic and caste differences.

There are two story tellers – Kanai Dutt, owner of successful translation business in Delhi, and Piya Roy, the Seattle-born Indian scientist studying the rare Irrawady dolphin, which lives in the rivers of the Tide Country

Kanai has been summoned to the region by his auntie, on account of inheriting his late uncle's notebooks. The writings contain an account of the massacre of Bangla refugees on one of the islands in the tide country. A crab fisherman, Fokir, becomes Piya's local guide, even though he cannot speak English. When Kanai is hired as Piya's translator, the three embark on a trip into the heart of the Tide Country, where, as legend has it, only the pure of heart survive.

The “black and white” worlds of business and science do not mesh easily with the natural rhythms of the river and its wildlife. Nothing is certain. Tigers, a protected species, kill hundreds of people a year in a place where dwellers risk their lives to flee ethnic divisions. At the mercy of nature, homes and lives can be lost in an instant. Barriers are broken down; only the core of any person remains.

Earlier in The Hungry Tide, Fokir leads Piya to the rare orcaella dolphin, because the place where his crabs flourish is a resting place for the orcaellas at low tide. Piya uses her Global Positioning System (GPS); Fokir uses shark-bone and broken tile: “ ...it had proved possible for two such different people to pursue their own ends simultaneously – people who could not exchange a word with each other and had no idea of what was going on in each other's heads- was far more than surprising; it seemed almost miraculous...the intertwining of purposes and pleasures.” (pg 141)

JENNIE YEUNG (AKA ARTIST JENIFFER YOUNG)

Currently based in Shanghai, Jennie was born in Hong Kong and has lived in Canada, Indonesia, Singapore, United States and China. Her extensive traveling and substantial international experience has made her “a global citizen of the 21st century, reaching out for a better world”.

Jennie started her professional career as an exceptional banker of Citigroup in Hong Kong. In her nine years with Citigroup where she first joined as a management associate, she became one of the youngest and most outstanding international senior corporate bankers from Asia Pacific being selected for the special management development program in New York .

In 1999, Jennie incorporated an international consulting network with offices in Shanghai , Beijing , Hong Kong and Chicago for China ’s entry into the World Trade Organization. The pioneering of its incubation services with the International Business Center model received positive compliments from the World Bank.

Since 2001, Jennie has been active with Community Partners of Harvard Business School Club of New York which provides consultancy to non-profit organizations in New York.

Adam: New York conjures up many images: The Big Apple; the city that never sleeps; the world's capital city. Generally, people are drawn to it, love and and are energized by it. Why does New York particularly appeal to you?

Jennie: I love New York!! It represents a world of culture with very interesting mix of people in a total global sense. Not only do we find the best and most accomplished in many fields, often many are multi-faceted that make them typical New Yorker. And there are also many inspiring energetic people going in and out of the city each day, or those trying very hard to stay and make a living or find a chance to prosper from NY. To me, New York represents sophistication in many aspects, and the spirit behind each person is most often very upbeat and special because they are the ones who drive this world's capital city, therefore the world!

Why is New York, as a city and as a society, so important to humanity, the environment, and international commerce?

New York is a headquarter to many multinational corporations and well respected global non-profit organizations. New York is also a place where many of the best educational institutions and research institutes meet. Each day, the most influential and intellectual folks meet, issues are covered, policies are created, and plans are made and executed to bring forward the world in each step. In the world of humanity, we heavily depend on many of the politicians, intellects, financiers, and even artists to spread the messages in the right ways for the whole world. So is the case for environment and international commerce. Both media and funding are critical to the success of the missions of these.

No matter who we are, or where we are in the world, we will never forget where we were on September 11, 2001. Where were you and what were you doing?

I was right in NY just a couple blocks from the World Trade Center, indeed, I moved into an apartment on Sept 10, 2001 at 10 pm when I arrived NY that week. It was an unforgettable incident!

For many of us, particularly those interested in the promotion of peace and understanding throughout the world, the events of 9/11 changed the world forever.

A friend of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Uri Avnery, winner of the Right Livelihood Award (the Alternative Nobel Prize) for 2001 wrote, "Instead of the destroyed New York edifices, the twin towers of Peace and Justice must be built." How do you propose building the "new twin towers?"

Personally, I would like to see love and peace because with love and peace, solutions can be found in harmony. Justice is good but sometimes the measure of justice creates tension. I think being in America and also a leading global city for the world now, harmony seems to need to come first so that all minds can put into productive actions to revive the global economy and focus on sustainability.

With compliments and best wishes,

-ADAM GREENWELL, SEPTEMBER 18, 2009

This was my final submission to Chaff, newspaper of Massey University- New Zealand's defining university.

 

Video Links:

John Lennon, “Nobody Loves You When You're Down and Out” Walls and Bridges, 1974 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLKY2o8XQGM

Lou Reed “Perfect Day” Originally appeared on Transformer 1972, this version is a promotion for the BBC. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfddYDRIFGY

NYPD Cricket Program http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4hO4c9XbLw