Blowin' In The Wind

Hillary and Obama

I loved the Guardian report on the Elton John concert for Hillary Clinton in New York, especially the intro:

Elton John is well qualified in surviving against the odds, and last night he took to the stage and sang his heart out for someone else who refuses to quit: Hillary Clinton.

They may be battling for a lost cause, but that's the thing about us baby boomers: we are hopelessly romantic.

Okay, romantic may not be the right word to use about the Clintons, but how about dogged and true?

Even their critics will concede the Clintons are dogged and true to their own ambitions at least -- and I think, with all her spunk, Hillary is a hell of a lady.

Yes, age is beginning to show on her, she is not as youthful as Obama, she may not have his gift for words, she has even been known to fib at times, but she is passionate and true to her convictions. Yes, she has changed her stand on Nafta and the Iraq war, but that may be because she now sees they are making people suffer. Why should that be seen as opportunism and not concern for the people? If she didn't care for the people, she wouldn't have been fighting for universal health care.

Elton John in his passionate support for Hillary accused Americans of misogyny. He said:

"I'm amazed by the misogynistic attitudes of some of the people in this country. And I say to hell with them ... I love you Hillary, I'll be there for you."

I don't think misogyny is the only culprit here.

The fact is Barack Obama is eloquent, charismatic, seen as a visionary, and possesses a shrewd intelligence. He may be just what America needs -- an astute politician whose own interest tallies with national interest. Both he and America gain, for example, by overcoming racial differences. He appeals to both liberals and independents and is now trying to win over the anti-gun control lobby as well. A leader who appeals to such diverse groups is likely to unite the nation.

But the fact is, the Democrats have not seen such a divisive nomination battle for a long time.

Hillary remarkably continues to win in the big states despite being outspent by Obama and bombarded with constant media criticism.

Her appeal was vividly summed up in a Salon headline: Hillary's bridge back to the 20th century. The report said:

With recession looming, Clinton banks on '90s nostalgia, reminding Pennsylvania voters of the good old days of her husband's administration.

"Clinton's version of the '90s is a little airbrushed," Salon added.

But there is no doubt that the American economy was stronger and American influence greater during the Clinton administration.

Hillary is offering neither visions nor illusions in harking back to that era. She is recalling the honest truth.

Technorati Tags: hillary clinton,obama

China violating national sovereignty?

Chinese nationalism goes global and it's treading on other nations' sovereignty. I am not talking of Tibet but Britain, France and America.

This picture from the San Francisco Chronicle shows how heated the confrontation was as San Francisco witnessed a Chinese show of strength. The Chronicle reported:

For all the talk of protests leading up to the Olympic torch relay, we didn't hear much from the supporters of China.

We learned why early on Wednesday morning. They planned to take over the event.

By 10 a.m. at AT&T Park, where the torch run was supposed to begin, it was obvious that the fix was in.

Thousands of supporters were already there, unloaded from dozens of buses parked across from the ball park. (One torch relay insider told me some in the crowd had been bused from as far away as Los Angeles.) During the day Chronicle reporters were told by some supporters that they had been bused into San Francisco from the South Bay, the East Bay and Sacramento by the Chinese Consulate and Chinese American groups.

They were waving thousands of huge, red Chinese flags or holding up identical, professional-looking placards that read "Beijing, 2008, torch relay."

If they are such ardent patriots why are they in America and not in China, I was about to ask but then I realised, ah, they no doubt see themselves as the advance guard. Is there any need to spell out of what?

But why are the Chinese police being allowed to accompany the Olympic torch?

If the Olympic torch relay is really about the Olympic Games, the Chinese police have no business guarding it in foreign cities.

It's not like the Secret Service accompanying the US President. He is protected by Secret Service agents because he is the American leader.

Is the Olympic torch a Chinese possession or part of the Chinese leadership that it has to be protected by the Chinese police?

In fact, the Chinese police are violating national sovereignty by scuffling with protesters in London, Paris, San Francisco.

It is one thing to defend the national embassy, which is recognised as belonging to the nation it represents.

But the Chinese police have been confronting protesters on the streets of London, Paris, San Francisco. Since when did those streets become part of China?

Time reports:

The men in blue-and-white track suits are travelling the world to protect the Olympic torch, but, in the flame's tumultuous tour so far, they have become a symbol of Beijing's heavy-handedness.

The tracksuit-clad Sacred Torch Guard Team was drawn from China's paramilitary People's Armed Police, which is used for internal security. The group formed last August and trained by running six miles daily.

While their chief mission is to protect the flame, they've also cracked down on protesters.

Sebastian Coe, a two-time medalist and chairman of the London Games in 2012, called them "thugs" and said they tried to push him.

A torchbearer in Paris, environmental journalist Yolaine De La Bigne, told the Associated Press that the team snatched away the Tibetan flag headband she was wearing.

AFP reports from New Delhi: India bristles at Chinese security for Olympic flame.

Pulitzer for Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan wins a Pulitzer. He gets a special citation "for his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power".

Washington Post is the biggest winner with a haul of six Pulitzers, the second-most any newspaper has won in a single year. The New York Times won seven in 2002.

The New York Times reports:

The Post won the prestigious public service award for revealing the neglect of wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The Pulitzer citation named two Post reporters, Dana Priest and Anne Hull, and a photographer, Michel du Cille.

Pulitzers also went to The Post’s Jo Becker and Barton Gellman, who won the national reporting award for documenting the power and secrecy wielded by Vice President Dick Cheney, and to Steve Fainaru, who won the international reporting prize for his examination of private security contractors in Iraq.

A Post economics columnist, Steven Pearlstein, won the prize for commentary, Gene Weingarten won the feature writing award for a long article in The Post’s Sunday magazine on a world-famous violinist playing incognito for subway riders, and the paper’s staff won in the breaking news category for its coverage of the mass killing at Virginia Tech.

The New York Times took two awards, including one for Amy Harmon, who won the explanatory journalism for her reporting on the mixed blessings offered by new world of genetic testing.

Hillary speaks up on Tibet, Darfur

Hillary Clinton shows courage in calling on Bush to boycott the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics on August 8 to protest against China's human rights record. It can't be easy for an American presidential contender to take such a stand considering the damage China can do to the US economy. But women are taking the lead in denouncing Beijing. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has announced she will boycott the opening ceremony and the Democrat Nancy Pelosi has also called for similar action. Their outspoken criticism contrasts with the behaviour of Gordon Brown who has been bending over backwards to woo Chinese investors.

Hillary (photo Guardian) says:

The violent clashes in Tibet and the failure of the Chinese government to use its full leverage with Sudan to stop the genocide in Darfur are opportunities for Presidential leadership. These events underscore why I believe the Bush administration has been wrong to downplay human rights in its policy towards China. At this time, and in light of recent events, I believe President Bush should not plan on attending the opening ceremonies in Beijing, absent major changes by the Chinese government.

I encourage the Chinese to take advantage of this moment as an opportunity to live up to universal human aspirations of respect for human rights and unity, ideals that the Olympic games have come to represent.

Americans will stand strong in support of freedom of religious and political expression and human rights. Americans will also stand strong and root for the success of American athletes who have worked hard and earned the right to compete in the Olympic Games of 2008.

The Olympics should not be politicised, it's said. But the Games have already been politicised.

Technorati Tags: hillary clinton,china,beijing,olympics

Playwright with a punch

What a man.

Wilson wrote standing up, at a high, cluttered accounting desk. For years, an Everlast punching bag was suspended from the ceiling about two steps behind. When Wilson was in full flow and the dialogue was popping, he'd stop, pivot, throw a barrage of punches, then turn back to work. Pinned on a bulletin board were two quotations, as bold as street signs: Take It to the Moon (Frank Gehry) and Don't Be Afraid. Just Play the Music (Charlie Parker).

That's the Pulitzer-winning black American playwright August Wilson (1945-2007) described by the New Yorker's John Lahr in the Guardian. "Write, stop, pivot, punch" is the arresting headline over a face shot of him looking authorial with his cap and goatee. (Photo: Guardian)

I have never read his plays but he must have been a remarkable man, a self-taught genius. He had never read Chekhov, Ibsen, Arthur Miller, Eugene O'Neill, Tennessee Williams, or so he claimed.

There are shades of Obama:

Wilson's white father abandoned him and his black mother when he was five years old.

But he had a much harder time. Lahr tells an inspirational story:

The African-American community in Pittsburgh embraced him, nurtured him, educated him and contained his rage at his father's abandonment. Wilson learned of a cigar store and pool hall in his neighbourhood called Pat's Place, where community elders congregated. Pat's Place became his Oxford, and its garrulous denizens -- "walking history books", Wilson called them -- his professors.

In April 1964, Wilson walked to downtown Pittsburgh, put $20 on the counter of a pawnshop, and came away with a heavy black Royal Standard typewriter. He had decided to reinvent himself in the heroic mould of the poet. "What I discovered is that writing was the only thing society would allow me to do," he told me. "I couldn't have a job or be a lawyer because I didn't do all the things necessary. What I was allowed to do was write. If they saw me over in the corner scribbling on a piece of paper, they would say, 'That is just a nigger over in the corner scribbling on a piece of paper.' Nobody said, 'Hey, you can't do that.' So I felt free."

This is a story worth saving.

Beijing wild at "vile behaviour"

Only Beijing can come up with English with so colourful as this. Outraged by the London demonstrators disrupting the Olympic torch relay, an official said:

"We strongly condemn this vile behaviour."

Vile? I can't recall when I last heard any official use the word, "vile".

But Beijing has always been colourful in its condemnations.

I recall the old days of Chairman Mao when Radio Beijing used to thunder against "paper tigers" and "running dogs".

Relations with the outside world have clearly improved since then.

The protesters were not berated with animal metaphors but dispatched with an adjective, "vile".

The word immediately reminded me of Shakespeare, though of course it has its modern users too. Randall Terry is quoted as saying: "I believe that Clinton is the most wicked and vile president this nation has ever had." (See here.)

But the most memorable quote involves two of Britain's most famous prime ministers.

Once at a social gathering, Gladstone said to Disraeli, "I predict, Sir, that you will die either by hanging or of some vile disease". Disraeli replied, "That all depends, sir, upon whether I embrace your principles or your mistress." (See here.)

By the way this is how the Chinese Communist Party newspaper China Daily is reporting the demonstrations.

Bloggers beware

Bloggers beware. In web world of 24/7 stress, writers blog till they drop, says the New York Times headline. Death by blogging is the linking headline on Drudge Report. Professional technobloggers are most likely to be the victims of overwork, reports the New York Times, which quotes Michael Arrington of TechCrunch as saying he will have a nervous breakdown one day. Om Malik survived a heart attack in December. My prayers go out to the bloggers at ReadWriteWeb, Digital Inspiration, ProBlogger, Blog Herald and all other great sites. Maybe Lifehacker has already found a workaround to ease the pressure.

Honey Ryder, Pussy Galore, Goldfinger

Ursula Andress as Honey Ryder in Dr No was perhaps the most famous of the early Bond girls. But did Ian Fleming name Honey Ryder after the beautiful blonde Muriel Wright, who was nicknamed Honeytop?

Ben McIntyre, author of a new Fleming biography, does not say so in his article in The Times but says the wealthy aristocrat, who made a lot of money modelling swimsuits on the beach at Monte Carlo, loved Fleming. But Fleming called her "Mu", not "Honeytop".

McIntyre says Fleming named many of his characters after friends and acquaintances, some of whom did not like that, though. The architect Auric Goldfinger threatened to halt publication of the thriller, Goldfinger, when he discovered the villain was named after him. McIntyre writes:

Fleming is said to have disapproved of Goldfinger’s love of concrete and the destruction of Victorian houses to make way for tower blocks, and so used his name for one of his most memorable evil-doers.

The villains Hugo Drax in Goldfinger, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the evil head of SPECTRE, and Francisco "Pistols" Scaramanga, who appears in The Man with the Golden Gun, were apparently named after Old Etonians who had been in school with Fleming.

But where did Pussy Galore get her name? Remember the Bond girl from Goldfinger played by Honor Blackman?

McIntyre does not go into that, but his article makes enjoyable reading. It even begins like a story:

One morning in February 1952, in a holiday hideaway on the island of Jamaica, a middle-aged British journalist sat down at his desk and set about inventing a fictional secret agent, a character that would go on to become one of the most successful, enduring and lucrative creations in literature. Ian Fleming had never written a novel before. He had tried his hand at banking, stockbroking and working as a newspaper correspondent. Only during the war, as an officer in naval intelligence, had he found a task – dreaming up schemes to bamboozle the enemy – worthy of his vivid imagination. By 1952, he had settled into a job as a writer and manager on The Sunday Times, a role that involved some enjoyable travel, a little work and a lot of golf, women and lunch. Even his best friends would have snorted at the notion that Ian Fleming was destined for immortality.

Oh well, read on the Times article. YouTube has the famous scene from Dr No. It's pretty amusing. The year was 1962.

And don't miss this love story, also from The Times: Sir Paul McCartney on Linda.

Technorati Tags: ian fleming,james bond

Rushdie wants to write another children's book

Salman Rushdie has the same literary agent as Martin Amis and Philip Roth. Andrew Wylie must be three times lucky to represent such a triumvirate. Or is he? I don't know about Roth, but Rusdhie and Amis are two of the most controversial -- and stylish-- writers around. But Rushdie is better. I would say that, of course. "To Indian people, he's as large as Faulkner or Hemingway," says the Observer interview with Rushdie today. It's a must-read. Rushdie uses the F-word and the Observer prints the full four-letter word. He also disses the Archbishop of Canterbury and praises Margaret Thatcher. He always makes good copy.

Now that Rusdhie's latest novel, The Enchantress of Florence, has appeared to rave reviews, he wants to write a children's book next for his second son, Milan.  Haroun and the Sea of Stories, written for his first son, Zafar, was certainly fantastic. But when did Rushdie ever write a bad book? I don't know about The Satanic Verses, though. It is banned both in India and Singapore.

Here are the Enchantress reviews from the Guardian and the Telegraph.

 

Technorati Tags: salman rushdie

Competition Singapore-style

Competition? What competition can possibly be there between Singapore's biggest telcos?

Both SingTel and MediaCorp are owned by Temasek Holdings, the Singapore sovereign wealth fund headed by the prime minister's wife, Ho Ching.

The only difference is Temasek is the sole owner of MediaCorp and the majority shareholder of SingTel, owning 56 percent of the shares, the rest being held by the public.

In any case, Temasek stands to gain when both MediaCorp and SingTel do well.

But someone has to pay for it.

And it will be the football lovers of Singapore.

From next year they will have to subscribe to both StarHub, the cable TV operator owned by MediaCorp, and SingTel's new pay TV service, mio TV.

SingTel has won the right to telecast Champions League and UEFA Cup matches from 2009 to 2012 while StarHub will continue to show the English Premier League matches.

And who gains?

Temasek, of course.

And what did the watchdog Media Development Authority say when the football lovers complained about the additional costs?

It can't stifle competition.

But both MediaCorp and SingTel have the same owners!

But that's competition Singapore-style where SingTel and MediaCorp compete fiercely in the telephony market.

SingTel is one of Asia's biggest telcos, owning Optus (Australia) and stakes in Bharti Telecom Group (India), APT Satellite (Hong Kong), Advanced Info Service (Thailand), Globe Telecom (Philippines), Pacific Bangladesh Telecom (Bangladesh), PT Telekommunikesi Sellular (Indonesia), Warid Telecom (Pakistan).

But it's a mystery how SingTel's mioTV, with fewer than 30,000 subscribers, managed to outbid StarHub, with 600,000 subscribers, for the rights to telecast the Champions League.

It's a victory for SingTel which finally has a popular programme to expand its subscriber base.

But it may be no great loss for StarHub which still has the English Premier League and a zillion other popular shows.

Football lovers could win too if they drop one service or don't sign up for the other. That should bring subscription charges down.

Not that it is likely to happen.

Football is about the only thing on which Singaporeans express their passions freely. Even newspaper sales and the gaming industry could be affected if Singaporeans don't follow the game. Football betting is part of the business of Singapore Pools, the government-owned lottery operator.

Technorati Tags: temasek holdings,mediacorp,singtel,starhub

Pimp your English, Harvard

“We love the people we admitted, but we also love a very large number of the people who we were not able to admit,” said William R. Fitzsimmons, dean of admissions and financial aid at Harvard College.

Heh-heh, English is not one of the strong points of the dean of admissions at Harvard.

The quote is from this New York Times story, Elite Colleges Reporting Record Lows in Admission:

Harvard College, for example, offered admission to only 7.1 percent of the 27,462 high school seniors who applied — or, put another way, it rejected 93 of every 100 applicants, many with extraordinary achievements, like a perfect score on one of the SAT exams. Yale College accepted 8.3 percent of its 22,813 applicants. Both rates were records.

Columbia College admitted 8.7 percent of its applicants, Brown University and Dartmouth College 13 percent, and Bowdoin College and Georgetown University 18 percent — also records.

Technorati Tags: english,harvard

Singapore: Shades of Ulysses and Lotos-Eaters

Thinking of Singapore always reminds me of two poems by Tennyson:

The Lotos-Eaters, particularly the third and fourth lines:

In the afternoon they came unto a land
In which it seemed always afternoon.

And Ulysses, especially the last line:

To strive, to seek, to find and not to yield.

The placidity of the The Lotos-Eaters is the polar opposite of the restlessness of Ulysses.

But there is a bit of both in Singapore. On the surface, it is quiet and peaceful -- which is what I love about Singapore -- but the leadership is constantly striving like Ulysses, seeking new ideas, finding new ways to make Singapore better and indispensable to the global economy.

And, of course, the leadership never yields. Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew has been in office ever since independence more than 40 years ago. His son, Lee Hsien Loong, is now prime minister after entering politics at the age of 32 in 1984. Other senior figures like Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong have also been around for a long time.

They have been supremely effective: Singapore enjoys one of the highest standards of living in Asia, attracting people from all over the world.

No wonder Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew says Singaporeans must not become complacent.

But if people have become complacent, it is not without reason.

Look at the local media, always trumpeting Singapore is best in this or that.

They are right.

Education, law and order, government, economy, Singapore scores high marks in all these areas in any international ranking.

But what is missing in Singapore becomes evident when one visits the great cities of Europe and America.

I love Singapore. It is a great place to live in. But it is too young, too small, to match the culture and heritage of those great cities.

And, frankly, it is a top-down, trickle-down society where everybody sings from the same hymnbook led by the government leaders.

Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew warned against complacency, that is the big news today, and a million blogs will be bloviating on it like I am doing now.

That is the difference with other great cities.

 

Technorati Tags: lee kuan yew,tennyson,media

Writer says his porn lit outsells his fiction

Bestselling writer Lawrence Block wrote lesbian porn as "Jill Emerson" in the 1960s! So says writer Rupert Smith. He confesses the books he writes in his own name are consistently outsold by the gay porn he writes under the pseudonym, James Lear.

His gay country house murder mystery, The Back Passage, outsold books by the acclaimed thriller writer Alan Hollinghurst and there have even been calls from Hollywood for screen rights, he says.

I first saw his article in The Independent, but The Arts and Letters Daily has linked to it, so it's going to get more traffic. It's quite a revelation. Smith writes:

Pornographic fiction, erotica, "one-handed reading", call it what you will, is a publishing parallel universe. Books sell in large quantities – The Back Passage is now in its fourth reprint – and are gobbled up by extremely diverse audiences. James Lear's most enthusiastic fans are straight women, who love reading about male/male sex. There's an alternative constellation of literary stars in the world of porn...  who enjoy bigger sales than their legit counterparts.

The internet is largely to thank for the rise of erotic literature; it's easier, and less potentially embarrassing, to buy dirty books from Amazon than from your local Waterstone's (who don't stock them anyway). Thanks to networking sites like MySpace, writers can market their work to its target audience – and, if you can't find a publisher, who cares? You can publish it yourself, either in print or online. A lively blogging community reviews and discusses the latest releases with a healthy lack of pigeonholing...

If the readers are diverse, the writers are even more so. It's a field dominated by women, who approach any and every kink with gusto. There are Surrey housewives turning out explicit male homosexual porn. There are specialists in sub-genres like crime porn, horror porn, fetish and historical. In America, there are writers who make a very good living out of nothing but erotic literature.

Smith has two websites -- one in his own name, and a MySpace site as James Lear.

I once came across a whodunit in a Singapore public library where the detective was a lesbian with a steady relationship. I can't recall who the author or the detective was. The sex seemed peripheral to the story: the author merely described the relationship without getting into the actual sex up to the point I read.

Give me Michael Connelly, Elmore Leonard and Ian Rankin any day.

Satisfaction

Honesty, humanity and hooks -- that's what it takes to make a great song, says this New York Times article, which I really enjoyed reading. All the more so because I love the older songs mentioned. And I couldn't believe my luck when I found this video. The Rolling Stones singing (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction way back in 1966! Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, they were so young then. Jagger looks so fresh-faced. And look at Brian Jones.

(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction is their greatest song.

Sympathy for the Devil and Streetfighting Man come close.

Unforgettable too are Jumpin' Jack Flash, Paint It Black, Gimme Shelter, Tumbling Dice, Start Me Up, Get Off My Cloud, Brown Sugar, Under My Thumb,19th Nervous Breakdown, Mother's Little Helper, Yesterday's Papers, She's A Rainbow, Ruby Tuesday, You Can't Always Get What You Want and a string of other Rolling Stones hits. I also love some of their earliest hits such as The Last Time, Not Fade Away, Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow, Come On, Fortune Teller.

Technorati Tags: rolling stones

Singapore's PM Lee too old at 56?

Is Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong past his peak? Looking for young talent to fill the party ranks, he says:

"If you come in at 30, you can spend five, 10 years before you become a minister, and it's okay because you're still in your 40s, still vigorous. If you're coming in at 45 and take 10 years to become a minister, you're 55 already."

The implication is you are no longer as vigorous at that age. He should know. He is 56.

But his father, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, is in fine form, approaching his 85th birthday.

I am sure Prime Minister Lee will have the same energy as he leads Singapore into the next decade. He is looking even further ahead. Thinking about the future and the need to find a successor, he told the Straits Times:

"If I start looking for people now and field them in the next election, two elections after that will be 13 years from now. I'm 56, plus 13, it's 69. That is very late. So there's no time to be lost.

"We must look for people in their 30s or early 40s now, to prepare for that situation 12, 13 years down the road."

Technorati Tags: lee hsien loong

Naipaul, grammar and biography

 

Look at Naipaul. And look at him now. But this is not about youth and age -- but the wrong pronoun. Look at the photo caption:

Naipaul with his long-term lover, Margaret Gooding, who he abandoned for another woman after the death of his wife.

Yes, even Homer nods -- and so does the Telegraph. Both pictures are taken from the Telegraph which has a not so flattering article on Sir Vidia. The headline says it all:

Sir Vidia Naipaul admits his cruelty may have killed his wife.

It's referring to his first wife, Patricia, who died in 1996 after they had been married for 41 years. Naipaul admitted he had been cruel to her. He told his biographer, Patrick French:

It could be said that I killed her.

Two months later, he married his current wife, Nadira, a divorced Pakistani journalist, abandoning his mistress of 24 years, Margaret Gooding.

Read extracts from Patrick French's biography of Naipaul on the Telegraph. You can also listen to French reading from his biography.

French says Naipaul read his manuscript but "requested no changes".

Singapore, Malaysia cheaper than India?

I can't believe this. Small Indian IT companies say it is cheaper to operate in Singapore and Malaysia than in India! The BBC has the full story.

UBS bleeds, woe Singapore?

The Swiss banking giant UBS is bleeding red ink. Will it stain the balance sheets of the Singapore government? The $9.74 billion the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) decided to invest in UBS is just a molehill compared with the bank's mounting losses.

Now UBS says it has lost another $19 billion in US real estate and related business, bringing its losses to $37 billion in the past nine months, the biggest for any bank. Now it is seeking another $15 billion in a rights issue underwritten by a syndicate led by JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, BNP Paribas and Goldman Sachs. That's on the top of the $13 billion capital injection from GIC and a mystery Middle East investor only four months ago, reminds The Times.

So what's next for the other banks in the portfolios of the Singapore sovereign wealth funds? Citigroup lost $21 billion last year and Merrill Lynch $19.4 billion. GIC has a stake in UBS and Citigroup and Temasek Holdings in Merrill Lynch.

These three will be the worst hit in the ongoing banking crisis, warned the analyst Meredith Whitney last month. Her pessimistic report about the future of Citibank led to about  $369 billion being wiped off the US stock market on November 1 last year.