-Caveat Lector- from: http://www.aci.net/kalliste/ <A HREF="http://www.aci.net/kalliste/">The Home Page of J. Orlin Grabbe</A> ----- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Today's Lesson from L'Assommoir (1877) by Emile Zola "Bitch, bitch, bitch!" screamed Gervaise, beside herself and once again shaking all over. She turned round and looked on the floor again, and finding nothing but the small tub of blue, she seized that by its legs and sloshed the stuff right in Virginie's face. "The whore, she's done my dress in!" shrieked Virginie, who had one shoulder soaked and her left hand dyed blue. "You wait, you slut!" She seized a pail in her turn and emptied it over Gervaise. Then a battle royal was joined. They both ran along the rows of tubs, picked up full pails and ran back and threw the contents at each other's heads. Each deluge was accompanied by screams. Now Gervaise was answering back, too. "One for you, you filthy bitch . . . you got that one all right. That'll cool your arse for you!" "You old cow! Here's one for your filth--have a wash for once in your life!" "All right, all right, I'll soak the salt out of you, you lump of dried cod!" "And here's another! Clean your teeth and doll yourself up for tonight's trade on the corner of the rue Bellhomme!" ===== Gold Market Gold Price Jumps as Central Banks Abstain It's now only $100 above the marginal cost of production. LONDON - The price of gold surged more than 6 percent Monday, its biggest jump in 14 years, after European central banks surprised the market by announcing that they would limit their annual bullion sales to try to stabilize the price of the metal. In London trading, gold for immediate delivery jumped $17.35 at one point to reach $286.50 an ounce. It was the largest one-day gain since March 1985 and the highest price for the metal in four and a half months. In the Monday afternoon fixing in London, gold was quoted at $281.10 an ounce. A European Central Bank announcement, released late Sunday at a Washington meeting of the International Monetary Fund, reshaped the troubled outlook for bullion, a store of value for centuries. Gold had seemed destined for more sharp losses after it sank to near 20-year lows when Britain announced the sales of some 58 percent of its reserves in May. But one by one, the official threats to the market - in the form of huge gold sales by the International Monetary Fund, the Swiss National Bank and other central banks - have fallen away amid cries from mining nations that the sales, meant in part to finance debt-relief programs, would hurt them by lowering prices. ''The purpose of this action is to give certainty to the gold market,'' said Wim Duisenberg, president of the European Central Bank. Central banks who hold ''a substantial part'' of their reserves in gold are also concerned about ''keeping the value of that gold where it is,'' he said. Under the agreement, the banks will sell no more than 400 tons a year for the next five years, most of which will come from already announced plans for sales by Britain and Switzerland. Of the 2,000 tons to be sold, about 300 tons will come from banks who have decided to sell but not yet announced their intentions, Mr. Duisenberg said. The annual amount is larger than the 315 tons sold by central banks yearly on average during the past decade, according to Gold Fields Mineral Services Ltd., a consulting firm. Still, the statement removes speculation over the fate of European reserves, analysts said. The price of gold dropped more than one-third between February 1996 and August of this year as a spate of sales by countries including Belgium, the Netherlands, Australia and Argentina heightened concern that central banks worldwide wanted to unload their holdings, which amount to more than a fifth of all above-ground stocks. In July, between 5,000 and 10,000 South African gold miners and their employers, arch-enemies during apartheid, marched together on the British and Swiss embassies in the capital, Pretoria, to protest central bank gold sales. John Slater, an economist at National Westminster Bank Group, said the announcement ''obviously puts a floor now under the price.'' Together, the European Central Bank, the 11 national central banks in the euro zone and the Swedish, Swiss and British central banks control about half of the world's official gold reserves. Their decision effectively removed lingering fears of major official sales. Other key holders of gold reserves do not plan sales. The world's largest holder is the United States, with 8,139 metric tons, which has not proposed selling reserves. It is followed by Germany with some 3,500 metric tons and the IMF with 3,200 metric tons. ''I think we will see $300 gold this year,'' a Chase Manhattan precious-metals analyst, Martin Fraenkel, said. ''It may come slowly, it may come quickly. I think we are in a new environment for gold now.'' Rhona O'Connell of T. Hoare Canaccord, a London-based brokerage specializing in precious metals, said she expected the central banks' strategy to help push gold up to $320 an ounce by the end of the year. The sharp advance in the price of gold lifted shares in mining companies, many of which have struggled to remain profitable while gold has fallen because of the central bank sales. ''Nobody expected something this concrete and this good for the gold price to happen,'' said Frederic Panizzutti, head of strategy at MKS Finance SA, a Swiss refiner and trader. ''The outlook for gold has changed - it is now bullish.'' But traders cautioned that central banks that are not part of the agreement, such as Russia and Venezuela, could unload gold onto the world market. ''This agreement doesn't stop the smaller holders from selling, and it must be very tempting for them,'' said Tony Warwick-Ching, an analyst at Virtual Metals Consulting Ltd. in London. Although they welcomed the agreement, gold-mining companies said the price recovery would need to last a lot longer before exploration and development plans would be changed. The Financial Times, September 28, 1999 Russian Follies Russian Air Strikes Target Civlian Installations No quagmires. MOSCOW - Russian jets stepped up their assault on Chechnya's meager industrial landscape on Monday, hitting bridges, oil and communications facilities and prompting thousands of panicky refugees to flee the capital, Grozny, and towns and villages throughout the region. Sukhoi-24 and Sukhoi-25 jets made 50 strikes on the mountainous republic, and especially attacked property in the control of Shamil Basayev, the commander who led a rebel assault into neighboring Dagestan and ignited the latest Caucasus fighting, Russian reports said. Thousands of Russian troops have taken up positions around Chechnya. Purportedly, they are trying to block guerrilla infiltration routes. But Russian officials have declined to rule out a ground invasion, and the buildup of tanks and other heavy equipment suggest an incursion may be in the works. The question is whether Russia intends simply to try to punish Chechnya for attacks on surrounding republics, or whether its troops will invade and attempt to restore Kremlin control over the rebellious republic. For the moment, pride as much as security appears to be at stake. The Russians say they are determined to reverse the image of military ineptitude and the perception that Moscow is unable to deal with internal problems. ''We will succeed,'' said Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. ''There will be no 'if.''' Russia's present tactics seem to be modeled on NATO's strategy during the war in Yugoslavia, which was much criticized here. Like NATO, the Russians are preoccupied with limiting their own casualties by running a war from on high. Russian leaders say that, for the moment, they will avoid costly frontal ground assaults they believe cost them the 1994-1996 war against Chechnya, when Russian forces were defeated and the province won de facto independence. Mr. Putin pledged he would not send Russian troops into a quagmire, but rely on bombs to subdue Chechnyna. ''The difference this time is, we will not thoughtlessly send our boys to absorb hostile fire,'' Mr. Putin told the newspaper Vremya. ''We will act with the help of modern forces and means to destroy the terrorists from a distance. We will destroy infrastructure. This will require time and patience.'' Televised images from Chechnya are eerily reminiscent of NATO's attacks on largely civilian installations. Black clouds billowed from oil depots in and around Grozny and columns of smoke rose near roadsides. Russian commanders justified hitting civilian targets, saying they formed the backbone for Chechen military efforts against Dagestan and a terror campaign against Russian cities. ''These tactics are almost fully identical to what NATO did in Yugoslavia,'' said the newspaper Izvestia. At least 50,000 refugees were reported streaming from Chechnya into other Caucasus republics. Most have entered Ingushetia, which flanks Chechnya's western border. Officials there warned of a humanitarian crisis as refugees streamed in. Cars and trucks jammed the border crossings as police meticulously inspected trunks and cargo. Some travelers complained that if their identification cards bore only Chechen nationality, they were turned back. Russian officials acknowledge that civilians are among victims of the air raids, which began five days ago. But the pounding of Chechnya is creating no stir in Russian public opinion. Unlike the revulsion provoked by attacks on Chechen cities three years ago, Russians appear ready to accept that Chechnya must be severely punished. They believe - and the government has insisted - that Chechens are responsible for a series of deadly terror bombings of apartment buildings in Moscow and other cities. The combined death toll reached 300. ''We have been forced to defend the lives of our citizens,'' Mr. Putin said. Target selection included oil refineries which the Russians say funnel money to Mr. Basayev's private army. The jets also hit a shop where workers disguised trucks as army and police vehicles for use in infiltration, said Igor Korotkov, an Interior Ministry spokesman. >From the Russian point of view, the results of the air campaign are encouraging. Chechen leaders have dropped their bellicose pledges of a tit-for-tat response to Russian attacks. On Monday, the Chechen president, Aslan Maskhadov, requested an urgent meeting with Russian president Boris Yeltsin. Mr. Maskhadov said that 300 civilians had been killed in Russian air strikes. ''I need to save my people,'' Mr. Maskhadov said. Mr. Putin quickly dismissed Mr. Maskhadov's appeal. ''We will not hold meetings for the sake of meetings,'' he said. International Herald Tribune, September 28, 1999 ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, Omnia Bona Bonis, All My Relations. Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. 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