Slum tourism: Visitors see the 'real' Jakarta - July 30, 2009 -- Updated 0302 GMT (1102 HKT)
By Arwa Damon -
JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- Hidden in the alleyways behind Jakarta's fancy malls and in between the high-rise apartment buildings is what Ronny Poluan, a former film maker, calls the "real Jakarta."
It is not far from the glitz and glam that dominates the capital's skyline, yet it is a side of the city that few foreigners ever see.
"I want them to (have an) authentic view," Poluan, who runs "Jakarta Hidden Tours," said as he took a group of Australians through the winding maze of a central Jakarta slum.
"I'm running out of rice," an old lady mumbles in the doorway of her tiny dark home as the group passes by.
Further along, little girls push their faces into wire fencing, while another group of children draw 36-year-old Daniel Knott into a game of cards. Knott, a volunteer for various NGOs, and his wife, who works for AUSAID, live in Jakarta and have been to the slums before. But it is the first time their friends, Kerri Bell and her husband Phil Paschke, have been to Indonesia.
Knott said he felt it was important to bring the visiting couple here.
"I think Jakarta is a city of contrasts," he said. "There's a lot of shopping malls and kitschy stuff, but it's also a lot of normal people. And, it's fun to come and hang out with the locals, actually."
"It's fantastic," Kerri Bell said. "I've been in Asia once before and we didn't want to just gloss over the surface and see all the things you can see in a western country. It feels to me much more like the real Jakarta, to see what drives it. To see that is so much more valuable than coming and lying on the beach."
The tour first took them into a couple of cramped and sweltering soy bean cake and tofu factories --- both staples in the Indonesian diet.
The group remarked that there were few other cities where foreigners can wander around the slums, and not just feel safe but welcomed -- and that is what Poluan said these tours were all about.
"I want to see people meet people," he said. "The other culture meet the other culture."
"It's a pretty big eye opener," Paschke said. "It's the first time I have left Australia, so yes, it's completely different."
Poluan ushered the group into a covered market where you can find just about anything. For the group, it was a bombardment of the senses.
"I love seeing them," fish seller Rokayah said, laughing. "They are handsome and they are rich. It is rare for me to see foreigners here at the traditional market, and I like talking to them, but I don't understand English."
The tour costs around $34 per person. Poluan keeps about half of the money for himself and his NGO, INTERKULTUR. The other half goes to the community.
Critics, however, said that this type of direct cash aid was counter-productive. They said the tours were demeaning, exploited the poor, and taught them to be dependent on the handouts of others.
"These poor people, we have to educate them," said Wardah Hafidz, coordinator of the Urban Poor Consortium. "We have to tell them that it's not God's will that they are poor, that they also have to fight for themselves. They can't depend on other people forever."
This type of criticism angers and frustrates Poluan, who said his tours were about raising awareness on both sides. In the last month, he has also started a microfinance scheme.
More importantly though, he said, were the initiatives that he hoped his tours would jumpstart.
"They (the foreigners) usually think about how to help, to educate," he said. "They come back again, bring books. I try to make a pushcart library for the children."
He said his tours were also about educating foreigners on real issues facing the country.
The group weaved its way to the city's train tracks, only barely visible amid the garbage and squalor.
It is the site of a constant battle between the track dwellers and the government, which says that living there is illegal and dangerous. Government evictions and the destruction of the feeble structures, usually just bits of plastic tarp and wood, are fairly commonplace.
"I am used to it," shrugged 80-year-old Indarjo.
He has lived like this for five decades, making his living as a scavenger. He said he has been forced to move over 200 times.
He invited the group into his home, and explained that when it rains, he just pulls the flap over.
"I feel that I am equal to them. I treat them as my guests," he said. "I believe that they would do the same for me."
The visitors were dumbstruck, the impact of what they were seeing, they say, was hard to put into words.
It was a sobering but educational look at Indonesia, where some 40 million people live below the poverty line.
"It's pretty confronting," Paschke said. "The things you complain about at home don't seem too significant."
"It's hard to see something like this and just go home to normal life," his wife, Bell, added as the couple stood in the middle of the tracks. "It makes me motivated to look at the local community and things that we can help out with at home."
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Goldman Sachs Story - An Excerpt
Tenacious G
Inside Goldman Sachs, America’s most successful, cynical, envied, despised, and (in its view, anyway) misunderstood engine of capitalism. - By Joe Hagan – ( Published Jul 26, 2009)
Thirty floors up in the black-tinted box that is Goldman Sachs headquarters on 85 Broad Street, there is a whiff of panic in the air. The Goldman of legend—pillar of the free market, breeder of super-citizens, object of envy and awe—has vanished. Ever since the bank crossed paths with U.S. taxpayers, getting saved with at least $10 billion in government aid last year and then parlaying that into $5.1 billion in profits in 2009 (so far), the firm has been seen as the ugly essence of capitalism at its most cynical—by Washington, by the public, by the financial press, even by some of its clients. Stalwart voices of Wall Street like the Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal have criticized the firm’s undue influence on government and its ruthless pursuit of risky profits. Venom is flowing from more unlikely quarters as well: A recent Rolling Stone article called Goldman “a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity” and accused it of rigging every major market bubble since the Great Depression.
This is not the kind of attention Wall Street’s most vaunted financial institution is used to. Which is why I am now sitting in its wood-paneled and gold-trimmed executive suite: The famously press-averse firm has consented to a rare audience.
The man Goldman has selected to come to its defense is John Rogers, the firm’s chief of staff. Rogers is typical of the Goldman elite—doubling as a Washington power broker and confidant to James Baker, Jon Corzine, and Hank Paulson. The atmosphere is airless as Rogers sits down, his steady eyes barely blinking: a silver-haired sphinx in a sky-blue shirt. “We don’t live in a vacuum, and we’re very aware of what the general public is thinking,” says Rogers calmly. “We work in a fiercely competitive global industry, but we can’t afford to be oblivious to public opinion.”
Especially not as Goldman ramps up astronomical profits and prepares to pay its executives $11.4 billion and counting in this of all years. If the amount seems obscene to an outsider, it is justified on the inside by an article of faith: that Goldman employees are the absolute best of the breed, meant to wield the levers of power—and reap its rewards. As John Whitehead, the godfather of Goldman’s modern culture, wrote in a set of guidelines for executives: “Important people like to deal with other important people. Are you one?”
Of course, that’s not the message Goldman Sachs wants to send out at this particular moment. The goal here is to demystify the company, present it not as a nefarious organization set on world domination but as an American institution, a producer of public servants, its business synonymous with the capitalist system, its health reflective of the health of the economy as a whole.
“I think this company is essential in terms of the American capital markets,” says Rogers.
His tone is placid, soothing—until, that is, the subject of American International Group comes up. At this, his eyes widen, his face grows angry, his hands gesture in the air.
“If you didn’t like the policy,” he says of the decision to bail out AIG and pay off its debts to Goldman, “one avenue for pursuing your own interests was to attack Goldman Sachs.”
It’s a sore spot for good reason. The AIG rescue is the incident from which all other Goldman conspiracy theories spring—the original sin, in a sense, of Goldman’s current public tarring. It’s the act that first made the average man on the street sit up and say, “Hey, wait a minute. The secretary of the Treasury, who used to be the Goldman CEO, just spent $85 billion to buy a failing insurance giant that happened to owe his former firm a lot of money. Does that smell right to you?” It also seems to have the legs of a potential scandal, with Neil Barofsky, the inspector general overseeing the Troubled Asset Relief Program, conducting an audit of the buyout.
Then again, if you’ve just posted $3.44 billion in second-quarter profits in an environment where, say, Morgan Stanley just reported a $1.26 billion loss, what does it matter what people say? The answer lies in another of Whitehead’s principles: Reputation must be closely guarded, because it is “the most difficult to regain.”
The decision that put Goldman’s reputation in play is now almost a year old. On the weekend of September 12, 2008, as the financial system shuddered and appeared to be on the verge of lurching to a halt, two Goldman Sachs men, former CEO Hank Paulson and current CEO Lloyd Blankfein, huddled with other banking heads at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to consider how to stave off disaster. Bear Stearns was dead. Merrill Lynch, run by another former Goldman man, John Thain, was in desperate need of a savior. And now Lehman Brothers was on the brink. As secretary of the Treasury, Paulson asked the banks to come up with a private-funding solution for Lehman before it imploded from lack of cash. But all the banks had been scrambling for cash reserves or strategic mergers to buffer against a rapid freeze in lending. No one was able, or willing, to help. And Paulson, a free-market purist, had made one thing clear up front: The government would not bail out the firm. Lehman Brothers, a longtime Goldman rival, prepared to declare bankruptcy, ending its 158-year run on Wall Street.
The Problem with Sachs and AIG
By Sunday night, Paulson realized he had an even bigger problem: the insurance giant AIG. AIG had sold billions in credit-default swaps to several major banks, what amounted to unregulated insurance on risky subprime-mortgage investments, the very ones that were bringing down the economy. As the real-estate market cratered, Standard & Poor’s was preparing to slash AIG’s credit rating, meaning AIG would be swamped with collateral calls it couldn’t pay.
As it happened, Goldman Sachs was AIG’s biggest banking client, having bought $20 billion in credit-default swaps from the insurer back in 2005. The swaps were meant to offset some real-estate investments Goldman had made, specifically a bunch of mortgage bonds it had on its books. The idea was simple: If the value of the mortgage bonds went down, the value of Goldman’s AIG swaps went up, assuring Goldman was safe from all-out losses on what it feared was an upcoming collapse in real estate. In reality, this was nothing like insurance and much more like an old-fashioned hedge.
By that weekend in September, Goldman Sachs had collected $7.5 billion from its AIG credit-default swaps but had an additional $13 billion at risk—money AIG could no longer pay. In an age in which we’ve become numb to such astronomical figures, it’s easy to forget that $13 billion was a loss that could have destroyed Goldman at that moment.
Hank Paulson and then–New York Fed chief Tim Geithner called an emergency meeting for the following Monday morning at the Federal Reserve Bank, ostensibly to discuss whether a private banking syndicate could be established to save AIG—one in which Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase, two of the ailing insurance giant’s clients, would play prominent roles. “It was in their interest to be part of the solution,” says Robert Willumstad, the CEO of AIG at the time, who was also part of the meetings. “Geithner called on those two banks specifically to be helpful. You get the sense that both of those guys had been close to Geithner and giving him advice.”
At the meeting, it was hard to discern where concerns over AIG’s collapse ended and concern for Goldman Sachs began: Among the 40 or so people in attendance, Goldman Sachs was on every side of the large conference table, with “triple” the number of representatives as other banks, says another person who was there. The entourage was led by the bank’s top brass: CEO Blankfein, co-chief operating officer Jon Winkelried, investment-banking head David Solomon, and its top merchant-banking executive Richard Friedman—all of whom had worked closely with Hank Paulson two years prior. By contrast, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon did not attend. (Goldman Sachs has said that Blankfein left after twenty minutes, realizing he was the only chief executive present. But the person who was there says Blankfein was directly engaged in at least one full AIG meeting that Monday, appearing “ashen-faced” and “jumpy.”)
On the government side, Goldman was also well represented: Geithner himself had never worked for Goldman, but he was an acolyte of former Goldman co-chairman and Clinton Treasury secretary Robert Rubin. Former Goldman vice-president Dan Jester served as Paulson’s representative from the Treasury. And though Paulson himself wasn’t present, he didn’t need to be: He was intimately aware of Goldman’s historical relationship with AIG, since the original AIG swaps were acquired on his watch at Goldman.
The Goldman domination of the meetings might not have raised eyebrows if a private solution had been forthcoming. But on Tuesday, Paulson reversed course and announced that the government would step in and save AIG, spending $85 billion in government money to buy a majority stake. The argument was that AIG was not only too big to fail but too interconnected: The loss of the billions it owed to the banks and other counterparties could collapse the global financial system. The plan was to sell off the insurer for parts and pay the banks their cash collateral.
Of the $52 billion paid to AIG’s counterparties, Goldman Sachs was the biggest recipient: $13 billion, the entire balance of its claim. The amount was surprising: Banks like Merrill Lynch that had bought credit-default swaps from failed insurers other than AIG were paid 13 cents on the dollar in deals moderated by New York’s insurance regulator. Eric Dinallo, the former New York State insurance commissioner, who was at the AIG meetings, characterizes the decision this way: AIG’s counterparties, Goldman being the most prominent, “got to collect on an insurance policy without having the loss.”
Over time, it would appear to many that Goldman Sachs had received a backdoor bailout from a Treasury Department run by the firm’s former CEO. Why did Paulson bail out the banks that did business with AIG, critics have demanded ever since, and not Lehman Brothers? Certainly executives at Lehman want to know. (As one former Lehman managing director there puts it, “The consensus is that we were deliberately fucked.”)
The history of “Government Sachs.”
So does former AIG CEO Hank Greenberg, the man who made the insurer into a corporate giant. Greenberg had wanted Paulson to give AIG’s clients a government-backed guarantee on the money owed rather than paying them cash and essentially liquidating AIG. Last November, while in China at a business conference, Greenberg confronted Blankfein about Goldman’s role in the demise of his company. “I couldn’t understand what went on that AIG was forced into ownership by the government at terms that were outrageous and Goldman was present at that meeting,” he says. “It’s outrageous. This whole thing is disgraceful.”
Somehow not recognizing (or perhaps not caring about) the brewing backlash, Paulson continued to appoint Goldman Sachs alumni to positions of power after the AIG decision—he named Edward C. Forst, a former head of Goldman’s investment-management division, to help draft the $700 billion Toxic Asset Relief Program (of which $10 billion went to Goldman Sachs), and then Neel Kashkari, a former Goldman V.P., as the TARP manager. And of course Edward Liddy, former Goldman board member, was already serving as the new CEO of AIG. Suddenly, everywhere you looked, men who had passed through the Goldman gauntlet of loyalty and rewards were now in key positions overseeing the rescue of the financial system.
The appearance of a government of Goldman enablers didn’t improve when Stephen Friedman, serving as both a board member at Goldman Sachs and chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, bought 52,600 shares of Goldman stock while he was supposed to be responsible for the firm’s oversight. Friedman had a temporary waiver saying he could still act as a Goldman board member, but it was hard to shake the impression that Friedman had sidestepped the rules, particularly since the subsequent rise in Goldman’s share price made him $3 million richer. (In May, he resigned from the Fed over the alleged conflict of interest.)
The company was earning its nickname: “Government Sachs.” Dating back to Sidney Weinberg, the firm’s legendary chairman who served on the War Production Board in the forties, the natural course of power for a Goldmanite has been to make money at the firm and then make a name for himself in government. The underlying rationale for the appointments has been that Wall Street people understand the economy intimately and Goldman Sachs people are the best of Wall Street. In the past, the firm’s influence was implicit rather than explicit, a quiet effort to deregulate markets. “The interest of the Street, dominated by Goldman Sachs, has been to have markets that are opaque, inefficient, and unregulated,” says Peter Solomon, chairman and founder of the investment bank Peter J. Solomon Company. “And that’s been the policy for twenty years. That’s what the world is reacting to.” In the aftermath of AIG, the firm’s government connections have come to look like a conspiracy of outrageous self-interest—the ultimate hedge protecting their investments. As one Wall Street executive at a competing bank puts it, “ ‘What about Goldman?’—that’s their natural default position.”
John Rogers, whom Paulson offered a job in the Treasury three years ago, tries to dismiss the influence of Goldman’s many ex-employees in Washington. “In reality, it ends up hurting us,” he argues. “People from here who serve in government bend over backwards to avoid even the suggestion that their behavior might be thought of as inappropriate, and we are certainly constrained in our ability to talk with them.”
Both Rogers and Paulson (who’s publishing a book this fall that will presumably attempt to justify his decisions and save his damaged legacy) have argued that the AIG decision was about saving the system as a whole, not Goldman in particular. Specifically, they say that buffering the foreign banks was more important because their dissolution threatened the economies of entire countries. “There was an immediate misunderstanding of what was involved in it,” says Rogers.
They also argue, in a bit of circular logic, that the government couldn’t have saved Goldman Sachs because Goldman Sachs didn’t actually need saving. Goldman only accepted the Treasury’s $10 billion TARP loan—which came with certain strings attached, like requiring the firm to convert to a more garden-variety bank-holding company and promise taxpayers a return on their investment—because Paulson essentially forced it to take the money in his effort to gird the entire market. Goldman, after all, had a reputation for consistently outmaneuvering and outperforming its competitors. While everyone went left, Goldman Sachs tacked right, covering its bases, hedging its bets, outplaying the board. Goldman Sachs was on the winning side of trading positions that ended up blowing a $10 billion hole in Morgan Stanley. Similarly, they say, when it came to AIG, the firm was “prudent” in hedging its bets, buying credit-default swaps from Bank of America, JPMorgan, Société Générale and other banks in case AIG failed to pay the money it owed Goldman—in effect, hedging its hedge against the mortgage market. Goldman Sachs had no “material exposure” to AIG, they argue. One senior executive goes so far as to suggest the firm might even have benefited from AIG’s demise. “We might have done very well,” he says, “but I wouldn’t be so presumptuous as to say that. Who knows?”
Panic inside the firm after the AIG bailout.
Not a single Wall Street executive I spoke with, including several Goldman Sachs alumni, believe those hedges would have survived an overall collapse of the financial system. A large loss would have been inevitable as lending evaporated, and Goldman Sachs would have struggled to shrink the company to a fraction of its size overnight. But the most glaring argument against Goldman is Goldman’s own: If AIG’s biggest and most important bank customer was hedged against losses in AIG, as it claims, why did the government need to pay Goldman Sachs the full $13 billion?
Lost in the haze of Goldman’s recent record profits is the fact that the firm nearly went under even after the AIG bailout last fall. As the market continued to plunge and Goldman’s stock price nose-dived, people inside the firm “were freaking out,” says a former Goldman executive who maintains close ties to the company.
Many of the partners had borrowed against their Goldman stock in order to afford Park Avenue apartments, Hamptons vacation homes, and other accoutrements of the Goldman lifestyle. Margin calls were hitting staffers up and down the offices. The panic was so intense that when the stock dipped to $47 in intraday trading, Blankfein and Gary Cohn, the chief operating officer, came out of the executive suite to hover over traders on the floor, shocking people who’d rarely seen them there. They didn’t want staffers cashing out of their stock holdings and further destroying the share price. (Even so, many did, with $700 million in employee stock liquidated in the first nine months of the crisis.)
Meanwhile, there were huge losses for Goldman’s clients in souring investments, many of which Goldman executives and their network of alumni were also vested in. Its premier hedge fund, Global Alpha, which had already been crushed in 2007, was getting pummeled again. Its Whitehall real-estate funds suffered $2.4 billion in losses, hammering not only clients but also employees, including COO Jon Winkelried. In a panic, Winkelried put his $55 million estate in Nantucket up for sale and likely would have had to liquidate his stock to raise funds. To avoid that outcome, Goldman agreed to buy Winkelried out of his investment, paying him $19.7 million. Another of the higher-ups, the firm’s general counsel Greg Palm, was covered for $38.3 million. (Winkelried has since resigned. His Nantucket estate is still on the market, at a reduced asking price.)
As more employees were hit, the company started a loan program to bail out more than a thousand staffers. Rogers says very few ended up taking loans from the company. “Only a handful of people had difficulties,” he says. “I wouldn’t describe it as a crisis … It was a stressful time for everyone, and some people might have questioned whether they had made the right career choice.”
The stress was compounded by the fact that the company had laid off 10 percent of its employees, about 3,000 people. A person with close ties to the firm says employees were escorted to the elevators with their belongings by security guards. The company also purged its partnership—the elite circle of about 443 senior executives who share in a special bonus pool. So-called de-partnering is considered a humiliating event at Goldman Sachs. “They were quite harsh,” says a person familiar with Goldman Sachs’s personnel activities. “This was one of the most traumatic by far.” Regardless, Blankfein announced that top executives would receive no bonuses anyway, only their $600,000 base salaries, because the firm had performed poorly. Soon Goldman would report its first quarterly loss as a public company. With the market crash threatening the stock price and compensation, several Goldman alumni discussed with top management the possibility of taking the company private to escape further distress to the firm.
Salvation came on November 25, a few days after Goldman’s stock price plunged to $52 a share, down from the year’s high of $200 and the lowest price the company had seen since it went public. Again, the white knight was the government. It turned out that Goldman’s conversion to a garden-variety bank-holding company offered an amazing advantage: Goldman now had access to incredibly cheap money. Exploiting its new status, Goldman became the first financial institution to sell $5 billion in government-backed bonds through the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which allowed Goldman to start doing deals when the markets were at a near standstill. “Goldman was desperate for it,” says a prominent Goldman alumnus. “Everybody knows it. Those FDIC notes they got were lifesaving because they couldn’t issue any debt. If it had gone on another week or two, Goldman would have failed, they would have gone the way of Lehman, and you’d be talking about Lloyd the way you talk about [Lehman CEO] Dick Fuld.”
Why their recent successes don't sit right with some.
The FDIC had intended to stimulate lending to consumers with the bonds, but Goldman had no street-level banking, nor did it intend to fundamentally alter its business model. But it could certainly have used the bonds to create leverage and maximize its trading profits. (A Goldman spokesman insists the company had “ample reserves” without the bonds.)
Before the market crashed, Goldman Sachs was betting 28 times its underlying capital. After the events of the fall, it bet half that: $14 for every dollar it had on hand. But that was still more than its nearest competitor, Morgan Stanley, was willing to gamble. And it appeared to be more than enough to spawn a massive turnaround. Even before its first-quarter results, the firm announced it was prepared to pay down its TARP loan and throw off the regulatory cap on the compensation it could pay its employees.
There is no evidence that Goldman was directly gambling with taxpayer money. But it seems clear that none of this would have been possible without government intervention—without the AIG bailout, the TARP money, the FDIC bonds, the fact that without Lehman Brothers it had one less competitor in the field.
This doesn’t sit right with some. “Much of their recent profits seemed to be derived from ‘trading,’ which typically means gambling—not lending,” says Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel Prize–winning economist who teaches at Columbia University. “It is lending which is required if our economy is to be revived; it was gambling that got our financial system into trouble.”
Even Goldman alumni were struck by the company’s shameless posture in ramping up the leverage again so soon after the government bailouts. “It’s a statement of arrogance,” says one former executive. “What they’re saying by keeping leverage high is, ‘We’re smarter than anybody else.’ ”
On a recent tour of the company’s 50th-floor trading office in One New York Plaza, the place has the feel of being back to business as usual. A sea of twenty- and thirtysomethings in pink and blue button-down shirts huddle around screens, discussing strategies for trading stocks and bonds. As I pass through the acre of computer terminals accompanied by a nervous PR handler, the overheard dialogue is narrow: “Tom made a lot of money,” says one young trader to another. “The bar is super-high,” says a man on a cell phone who still has a store tag stapled to the back of his pants. “Not a little bit high—super-high.” In a small back office, a bald trader with sleeves rolled to his elbows hovers over a table of men at computers, repeatedly slapping his hand with a wooden cricket bat. They don’t seem superhuman exactly, just singularly focused.
There’s been a lot of head-scratching of late about how it is that Goldman does what it does, namely make more money than anyone else.
“People say, ‘What’s the secret sauce?’ ” says Rogers. “Well, one of the most important ingredients in the sauce is the culture.”
The firm’s culture has been compared to, variously, the Army, the KGB, the Mafia, Skull and Bones, a cult. It’s not just about attracting the best and brightest but transforming them into a giant, perfectly synchronized trading machine. Staffers tend to socialize together, reside in the same apartment buildings in Manhattan, have summer homes around the same ponds in the Hamptons, send their kids to the same private schools. Fitting in is of the utmost importance. Subtle social tics—a bow tie, a mustache, a colorful personality—can eliminate you from the club.
“The cult of the individual, which I think has been a disadvantage to so many of the firm’s competitors, really doesn’t exist here,” says Lucas van Praag, the British-born communications director. “The more you have acceptance, the easier it is to be effective.”
As another Wall Street veteran familiar with the firm’s mores puts it: “The god is Goldman. You subjugate yourself to that god, and in return we will make you a gazillionaire.”
But the groupthink is only a social manifestation of the giant hive mind that really makes Goldman tick. Because it transacts deals both as a trading house for huge institutional investors and as a fee-based adviser to the companies being traded, the firm has become a huge repository for information, with a view into what everyone is doing. So if a big investor wants to buy into, say, the energy market, Goldman Sachs, by virtue of its knowledge of what other big investors are trading and what its corporate energy clients are doing (on Goldman’s own advice), can offer a highly accurate view of what’s likely to happen with the energy market. It can also do damned well on its own energy trades—in fact, before the market crashed, the firm made vast profits on “proprietary trading,” bets made on its own balance sheets.
The two interpretations of this business model.
On Wall Street, there are two interpretations of this business model: Either the firm is so brilliant at making near-riskless bets that it continually attracts more clients, who don’t mind being used for the golden database if it means more profits for them—or it’s a giant casino in which the house has gamed the system by knowing every hand at the table and using that information to enrich itself at the expense of others.
“If you’re able to use information and share it, you have a huge advantage over anybody but the energy companies themselves in their own trading businesses,” observes Frank Suozzo, a Wall Street analyst who spent ten years covering Goldman Sachs for AllianceBernstein. “That is Goldman’s advantage. Basically, it is legal card-counting, which most clients accept as a necessary evil to deal with the company with the most information.”
Goldman claims that there is a Chinese Wall between the advisory business and the trading business. “There are rules and laws regarding information sharing, and we scrupulously follow them,” says a company spokesman.
But two former clients told me they had observed firsthand how Goldman traded against their interests to improve its own bottom line—one who didn’t like it, the other accepting it with a shrug and saying, admiringly, that Goldman’s ability to convince the world that it is a “client-oriented” business was its most masterful PR coup.
Goldman’s profiting from this ethical gray area was exemplified by the real-estate market and the subprime-mortgage collapse: Goldman Sachs sold subprime-mortgage investments to its clients for years, but then in 2006 began trading against subprime on its own balance sheet without informing its clients, a hedge that ultimately let it profit when the real-estate market cratered. For some, this was a prescient call; for others, a glaring conflict of interest and inherently dishonest, since the firm let its clients take the fall.
Goldman’s penchant for playing all sides has been business as usual for years, but no one really paid much attention—partly because the economy was booming and there seemed to be plenty of profit to go around. But what once seemed like ruthless laissez-faire capitalism now looks like a rigged market in which Goldman Sachs has far too much control. Earlier this month, Goldman had an ex-employee arrested for allegedly stealing computer codes that could be used, as the prosecutor noted, “to manipulate markets in unfair ways.” Some hedge-fund traders and financial bloggers have speculated that Goldman itself could have been using the codes for the same purpose.
“The god is Goldman. You subjugate yourself to that god, and in return we will make you a gazillionaire.”
Now attention is turning to Goldman’s dominance of trading on the New York Stock Exchange—as the exchange’s biggest high-speed program trader as well as a provider of liquidity to other traders—and whether that ubiquity has afforded the firm undue advantage. If Goldman’s database knows nearly every trade that is about to be made, sophisticated computer codes could, theoretically, instantly execute fail-safe trades on Goldman’s behalf milliseconds beforehand. This, some are insisting, is where the company is manipulating the markets and making hundreds of millions of dollars a day.
Goldman executives characterize such theories as “distortions” by paranoid people who see “black helicopters” hovering over the company’s every move, those who subscribe to the “witches’ brew of conspiracy,” as van Praag puts it. The company’s sensitivity to its negative press is extraordinarily high: When an investor in Florida named Mike Morgan built a tiny website called goldmansachs666.com, a clearinghouse for negative Goldman Sachs news, the company threatened to sue him for trademark infringement. (Morgan has since sued Goldman Sachs.) And when Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone called the company the root of all evil, Goldman executives actually seemed hurt. “We are painfully conscious,” van Praag told the New York Post, “of the importance in being a force for good.”
It’s possible that the jig is up for Goldman Sachs. The increased scrutiny, the damaged reputation, the populist outrage—the events of the past year could put a crimp in how the firm does business.
Historically, Goldman has been able to translate its reputation into financial leverage. “It’s the difference between charging 3 percent on a deal and 4 percent on a deal,” says a person who has dealt with the firm. Over time, that difference has added up to the edge Goldman has over its rivals. It also helped the firm attract the best talent—the “chosen ones,” as one former staffer put it, who thought of Goldman as a higher calling and had an eye toward a future Treasury post.
Now that the firm is viewed as a virtual rogue state with interests contrary to the greater good, Goldman might attract a different breed of recruit—less Robert Rubin, more Gordon Gekko. Or fewer recruits in general: A human-resources executive at Goldman Sachs, Edith Cooper, says she counted about 20 percent fewer people at recent on-campus recruitment seminars. A Wharton graduate who interned at Goldman Sachs says many fellow finance majors are looking elsewhere. “Before, it had this aura: finance, Goldman,” he says. “[Now] it seems to be a little less the case.”
What Goldman executives fear most.
Several high-profile executives have left the firm in recent months, including Byron Trott, the Chicago-based banker who had managed one of the firm’s most important relationships, namely Warren Buffett, who invested $5 billion in the company during last year’s tribulations. Trott was a major figure at the firm, and his departure signaled that he might actually do better without the Goldman brand.
What Goldman Sachs executives fear most is that the firm will go from a special institution to just another bank. Two managing directors at the company express regret over how the culture has changed recently. Infighting over business deals—and the financial rewards that go with them—is more prevalent now, say these people. In the past, “it was about we, not I,” complains one unhappy Goldman executive. “It was a place where we all got rewarded on the overall success of firm … It’s gradually becoming like everybody else.”
“They’re never going back to the old days,” says one Goldman alumnus. “They’re going to be under an increased level of scrutiny. People are going to look at their compensation.”
Indeed, Goldman’s return to massive profits has made it a natural target for arguments over new regulatory policies and whether Congress is serious about reforming the rules that govern the firm.
Blankfein has tried to mitigate the potential damage, calling members of Congress the week Goldman’s second-quarter profits were about to be posted to assure them that the firm would be responsible about how it compensated executives at the end of the year. The move echoed a long speech he gave in April arguing for Goldman’s responsible self-governance, acknowledging that executive pay looked “self-serving and greedy in hindsight” but also warning against an overly aggressive regulatory response “that is solely designed to protect us against the 100-year storm.” It was hard to forget, however, that Blankfein had recently rewarded himself with the highest payouts in Wall Street history, $53 million in 2006 and $68 million in 2007.
“There’s so much negative feeling toward what Lloyd got paid,” says a prominent Goldman Sachs alumnus. “Yes, it’s a good firm, but what does it do for society?”
That’s the question facing Congress, where Tim Geithner’s proposed financial reforms are currently facing Representative Barney Frank, of Massachusetts, the leader of the House Financial Services Committee. Frank has positioned himself as a populist ready to bring a firm like Goldman Sachs—“the poster boy for the bill”—to heel. Interestingly, Goldman Sachs has already prepared a prudent hedge against Frank, hiring a former top staffer from Frank’s office, Michael Paese, to run the firm’s government-affairs office. “Yes, I am well aware of that,” says Frank, mentioning that he has not met with Paese in his new role and was surprised that he took the job. “And I will be absolutely careful with my staff, that nobody thinks there’s the slightest bit of advantage to be gained by hiring them.”
Out of political necessity, all of Washington appears to be turning a cold shoulder toward Goldman. A senior Obama-administration official close to Tim Geithner declares that “Goldman has left the building.” Onetime Goldman lobbyist and now Treasury chief of staff Mark Patterson has taken a public beating for his connection to the firm. And John Thornton, a former president at Goldman Sachs, was passed over as ambassador to China because his relationship to the firm “concerned” the Obama administration, says a person familiar with the situation. “It used to be if you were a senior Goldman person and you were considered for a position, you’d have an advantage,” this person says. “Now it’s clearly a disadvantage.”
Of course, it will take a lot more than that to truly dampen Goldman’s influence in Washington. As financial writer Michael Lewis recently said, the Obama administration, led by Geithner and the White House’s National Economic Council director, Larry Summers, continues to operate from an economic worldview shaped by people who “believe that the world can’t function without Goldman Sachs.” Goldman also has a key ally in Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, a former investment banker and onetime adviser to Goldman Sachs who frequently solicited campaign funds from the firm while working with the Clintons. And in mid-July, the week Goldman Sachs announced its massive second-quarter profits, the administration quietly hired Robert Hormats, another Goldman executive, as an economic adviser to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Ultimately, Goldman Sachs probably still has the nod and the wink it needs to continue to rake in profits with impunity. And even if tighter regulations do pinch the firm, it has a long history of figuring out how to prevail in any regulatory environment. “If [you] looked at the history of regulatory changes that have happened,” says Rogers, “they’ve improved the markets by and large, and Goldman Sachs actually benefited historically from all those changes.”
Can the firm do without its prestigious reputation?
The idea that things might just go back to the way they’ve always been on Wall Street is, of course, infuriating to those who had hoped the financial meltdown would be an opportunity for reform. A few days after Goldman reported its second-quarter profits, Eliot Spitzer, a critic of the AIG bailout, tells me: “If all we are getting are newly empowered and capital-rich hedge funds that benefit from market volatility, then we are not only rebuilding the same edifice, but we’re contributing to the underlying rot in our economy.”
In the end, Goldman’s reputation is a luxury they may well be able to do without. Robert Rubin has been privately critical of how the firm has handled the threats to its prestige, and Rogers recently addressed the firm’s reputation in seminars with Goldman staff. But a person who frequently talks to senior executives at Goldman sums up the company’s attitude this way: “If we can push the envelope without D.C. punishing us, we don’t care about our Main Street reputation.” Blankfein in particular is said to be dismissive of the firm’s critics. According to a person close to him, the CEO believes Goldman’s internal problems will disappear once compensation comes back. In other words, money will solve everything.
With enough money, perhaps he can even get the taxpayers off his back. Last week, Blankfein took a stab at assuaging public anger by paying a $1.1 billion return on the government’s $10 billion investment last fall—not a bad profit. It was a shrewd move, a prudent PR investment that prompted a round of stories about the firm’s “generosity to taxpayers.” Feel better?
_______________________________________________________
The Other Big Goldman Story: Insider Tips From a Director?
By PETER COHAN Posted 1:15 PM 04/17/10 Company News, Investing, Goldman Sachs
The media went wild with the story of Goldman Sachs' (GS) fraud lawsuit -- slicing $12.4 billion off of its stock market value. But if the investment bank settles this case for $45 million (three times its $15 million fee) as Time thought it could, that amounts to a mere 0.05% of its net worth and 0.36% of the amount of shareholder value it lost on Friday.
Goldman is a trading firm, and making money from trading is all about information asymmetries -- knowing more than your counter-party. If the Abacus deal is the only one where Wall Street profited from those information asymmetries, I will eat my hat. What's special here is that the Securities and Exchange Commission appears to have evidence of the fraud -- that a Goldman vice-president lied to investors about who was picking the securities for Abacus, the mortgage investment that was designed to fail.
Bigger Story of Insider Trading
However, a much bigger story yesterday slipped under the media's radar -- Goldman director Rajat Gupta is being probed on whether he collaborated with hedge fund Galleon Holdings, whose manager has been indicted on insider trading charges. And Gupta used to be the top executive at the world's most prestigious consulting firm, McKinsey & Co., which has a director who pleaded guilty in the Galleon case. This raises the question of how deeply insider trading is embedded in our financial markets and corporate governance at the highest levels.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Gupta, McKinsey's former worldwide managing director and a Goldman director since 2006, is being probed by federal prosecutors. They're trying to find out whether Gupta shared insider information about Goldman with Raj Rajaratnam, who ran $3.7 billion hedge fund Galleon and has been accused of insider trading in at least 20 stocks, including Goldman's. Prosecutors allege Rajaratnam conspired to obtain nonpublic information about Goldman earnings in June and December, 2008, and Berkshire Hathaway's (BRK.A) September, 2008, investment in Goldman before their public announcement.
Gupta told Goldman he won't stand for reelection to the board after prosecutors told him they were "reviewing recorded telephone calls between him and Rajaratnam," reports the Journal. No doubt, the Goldman director has a pretty clear recollection of what's on those recordings. Gupta told the Journal that "other commitments" is why he's quitting.
Close Ties at the Top
To fully grasp the significance of this, it's important to understand more about Gupta's former employer. McKinsey, as every top MBA student and Ivy League undergraduate knows, is considered the ultimate place for a consultant to start his or her career. It's a secretive place where smart, young people work with top corporate executives and government officials to solve problems like figuring out who to fire in order to meet profit goals or analyzing where to find new revenue sources.
As a result, McKinsey has access to very important confidential information about what public companies are going to do. Of the 21 people charged in the Rajaratnam case, 11 have pleaded guilty to criminal charges. And the 11 include a McKinsey director, Anil Kumar, who pleaded guilty to tipping Rajaratnam about five of his McKinsey clients in exchange for $2 million (and $600,000 in additional investment profits). "Kumar had a close relationship with Gupta," according to Reuters.
Rajaratnam and Gupta were also close, according to the Journal. They were among the co-founders of a hedge fund that was originally called Taj Capital when it started in 2006. It currently manages $1.4 billion and has been renamed New Silk Road. Another co-founder was Mark Schwartz, a former Goldman executive. Rajaratnam has severed his ties with New Silk Road.
Clients Should Watch Out
All this suggests there are some pretty strong reasons to wonder whether McKinsey and Goldman clients ought to be trusting these consulting and banking leaders with their secrets. The interesting twist here is that consultants get paid much less than bankers even though both graduate at the top of their classes in business school.
But the Gupta and Kumar examples suggest that they may have supplemented their paltry multimillion dollar earnings with fees from tipping off a hedge fund -- whose managers get paid more than even the bankers do. The 25 highest-paid hedge fund managers earned a total of more than $25 billion in 2009.
I hope the SEC keeps going in its efforts to uncover evidence of this unscrupulous behavior and that regulation is passed and enforced to make sure it can never happen again. As long as this conduct continues at the highest levels of the economic pyramid, it's hard to see how anyone can put their trust in our securities markets.
Types of Phobias
Types of Phobias - From Ablutophobia To Zoophobia - All Types of Phobias
The Types of Phobias List: A
Types of Phobias
Ablutophobia - Fear of washing or bathing.
Acarophobia - Fear of itching or of the insects that cause itching.
Acerophobia - Fear of sourness.
Achluophobia - Fear of darkness.
Acousticophobia - Fear of noise.
Aeroacrophobia - Fear of open high places.
Aeronausiphobia - Fear of vomiting secondary to airsickness.
Aerophobia - Fear of drafts, air swallowing, or airborne noxious substances.
Agliophobia - Fear of pain.
Agoraphobia - Fear of open spaces or of being in crowded, public places like markets. Fear of leaving a safe place. Fear of crowds.
Agraphobia - Fear of sexual abuse.
Agrizoophobia - Fear of wild animals.
Agyrophobia - Fear of streets or crossing the street.
Aichmophobia - Fear of needles or pointed objects.
Ailurophobia - Fear of cats.
Albuminurophobia - Fear of kidney disease.
Alektorophobia - Fear of chickens.
Algophobia - Fear of pain.
Alliumphobia - Fear of garlic.
Allodoxaphobia - Fear of opinions.
Altophobia - Fear of heights.
Amathophobia - Fear of dust.
Amaxophobia - Fear of riding in a car.
Ambulophobia - Fear of walking.
Amnesiphobia - Fear of amnesia.
Amychophobia - Fear of scratches or being scratched.
Anablephobia - Fear of looking up.
Ancraophobia - Fear of wind.
Androphobia - Fear of men.
Anemophobia - Fear of air drafts or wind.
Anemophobia - Fear of wind.
Anginophobia - Fear of angina, choking of narrowness.
Anglophobia - Fear of England, English culture, ect.
Angrophobia - Fear of becoming angry.
Ankylophobia - Fear of immobility of a joint.
Anthophobia - Fear of flowers.
Anthrophobia - Fear of flowers.
Anthropophobia - Fear of people of society.
Antlophobia - Fear of floods.
Anuptaphobia - Fear of staying single.
Apeirophobia - Fear of infinity.
Aphenphosmphobia - Fear of being touched.
Apiphobia - Fear of bees.
Apotemnophobia - Fear of persons with amputations.
Arachibutyrophobia - Fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth.
Arachnephobiba - Fear of spiders.
Arachnophobia - Fear of spiders.
Arithmophobia - Fear of numbers.
Arrhenophobia - Fear of men.
Arsonphobia - Fear of fire.
Ashenophobia - Fear of fainting or weakness.
Astraphobia - Fear of thunder and lightning.
Astrapophobia - Fear of thunder and lightning.
Astrophobia - Fear of stars and celestial space.
Asymmetriphobia - Fear of asymmetrical things.
Ataxiophobia - Fear of ataxia (muscular incoordination)
Ataxophobia - Fear of disorder or untidiness.
Atelophobia - Fear of imperfection.
Atephobia - Fear of ruin or ruins.
Athazagoraphobia - Fear of being forgotten or ignored or forgetting.
Atomosophobia - Fear of atomic explosions.
Atychiphobia - Fear of failure.
Aulophobia - Fear of flutes.
Aurophobia - Fear of gold.
Auroraphobia - Fear of Northern Lights.
Autodysomophobia - Fear that one has a vile odor.
Automatonophobia - Fear of ventriloquist's dummies, animatronic creatures, wax statues-anything that falsely represents a sentient being.
Automysophobia - Fear of being dirty.
Autophobia - Fear of being alone or of oneself.
Aviatophobia - Fear of flying.
Aviophobia - Fear of flying.
The Types of Phobias List: B
Types of Phobias
Bacillophobia - Fear of microbes
Bacteriophobia - Fear of bacteria.
Balenephobia - Fear of pins and needles.
Ballistophobia - Fear of missles or bullets.
Barophobia - Fear of gravity.
Basiphobia - Inability to stand. Fear of walking or falling.
Basophobia - Inability to stand. Fear of walking or falling.
Bathophobia - Fear of depth.
Batonophobia - Fear of plants.
Batophobia - Fear of heights or being close to high buildings.
Batrachophobia - Fear of amphibians, such as frogs, newts, salamanders, etc.
Bibliophobia - Fear of books.
Blennophobia - Fear of slime.
Bogyphobia - Fear of bogies or the bogeyman.
Bolshephobia - Fear of Bulsheviks.
Bromidrophobia - Fear of body smells.
Bromidrosiphobia - Fear of body smells.
Brontophobia - Fear of thunder and lightning.
Bufonophobia - Fear of toads.
The Types of Phobias List: C
Types of Phobias
Cacophobia - Fear of ugliness.
Cainophobia - Fear of newness, novelty.
Cainotophobia - Fear of newness, novelty.
Caligynephobia - Fear of beautiful women.
Cancerophobia - Fear of cancer.
Carcinophobia - Fear of cancer.
Cardiophobia - Fear of the heart.
Carnophobia - Fear of meat.
Catagelophobia - Fear of being ridiculed.
Catapedaphobia - Fear of jumping from high and low places.
Cathisophobia - Fear of sitting.
Catoptrophobia - Fear of mirrors.
Cenophobia - Fear of new things or ideas.
Centophobia - Fear of new things or ideas.
Ceraunophobia - Fear of thunder.
Chaetophobia - Fear of hair.
Cheimaphobia - Fear of cold.
Cheimatophobia - Fear of cold.
chemophobia - Fear of chemicals or working with chemicals.
Cherophobia - Fear of gaiety.
Chionophobia - Fear of snow.
Chiraptophobia - Fear of being touched.
Cholerophobia - Fear of anger or the fear of cholera.
Chorophobia - Fear of dancing.
Chrematophobia - Fear of money.
Chromatophobia - Fear of colors.
Chrometophobia - Fear of money.
Chromophobia - Fear of colors.
Chronomentrophobia - Fear of clocks.
Chronophobia - Fear of time.
Cibophobia - Fear of food.
Claustrophobia - Fear of confined spaces.
Cleisiophobia - Fear of being locked in an enclosed place.
Cleithrophobia - Fear of being enclosed.,br> Cleithrophobia - Fear of being locked in an enclosed place.,br> Cleptophobia - Fear of stealing.
Climacophobia - Fear of stairs, climbing or of falling downstairs.
Clinophobia - Fear of going to bed.
Clithrophobia - Fear of being enclosed.
Cnidophobia - Fear of strings.
Coimetrophobia - Fear of cemeteries.
Coitophobia - Fear of coitus.
Cometophobia - Fear of comets.
Contreltophobia - Fear of sexual abuse.
Coprastasophobia - Fear of constipation.
Coprophobia - Fear of feces.
Coulrophobia - Fear of clowns.
Counterphobia - The preference by a phobic for fearful situations.
Cremnophobia - Fear of precipices.
Cryophobia - Fear fo extreme cold, ice or frost.
Crystallophobia - Fear of crystals or glass.
Cyberphobia - Fear of computers or working on a computer.
Cyclophobia - Fear of bicycles.
Cymophobia - Fear of waves or wave like motions.
Cynophobia - Fear of dogs or rabies.
Cyprianophobia - Fear of prostitutes or venereal disease.
Cypridophobia - Fear of prostitutes or venereal disease.
Cyprinophobia - Fear of prostitutes or venereal disease.
Cypriphobia - Fear of prostitutes or venereal disease.
The Types of Phobias List: D
Types of Phobias
Daemonophobia - Fear of demons.
Decidophobia - Fear of making decisions.
Defecaloesiphobia - Fear of painful bowels movements.
Deipnophobia - Fear of dining and dinner conversation.
Dematophobia - Fear of skin lesions.
Dementophobia - Fear of insanity.
Demonophobia - Fear of demons.
Demophobia - Fear of crowds.
Dendrophobia - Fear of trees.
Dentophobia - Fear of dentist.
Dermatophathophobia - Fear of skin disease.
Dermatophobia - Fear of skin disease.
Dermatosiophobia - Fear of skin disease.
Dextrophobia - Fear of objects at the right side of the body.
Diabetophobia - Fear of diabetes.
Didaskaleinophobia - Fear of going to school.
Diderodromophobia - Fear of trains, railroads or train travel.
Dikephobia - Fear of justice.
Dinophobia - Fear of dizziness or whirlpools.
Diplophobia - Fear of double vision.
Dipsophobia - Fear drinking.
Dishabiliophobia - Fear of undressing in front of someone.
Domatophobia - Fear of houses or being in a home.
Doraphobia - Fear of fur or skins of animals
. Dromophobia - Fear of crossing streets.
Dutchphobia - Fear of the Dutch.
Dysmorphophobia - Fear of deformity.
Dystychiphobia - Fear of accidents.
The Types of Phobias List: E
Types of Phobias
Ecclesiophobia - Fear of church.
Ecophobia - Fear of home.
Eicophobia - Fear of home surroundings.
Eisoptrophobia - Fear of mirrors or of seeing oneself in a mirror.
Electrophobia - Fear of electricity.
Eleutherophobia - Fear of freedom.
Elurophobia - Fear of cats.
Emetophobia - Fear of vomiting.
Enetophobia - Fear of pins.
Enissophobia - Fear of having committed an unpardonable sin or of criticism.
Enochlophobia - Fear of crowds.
Enosiophobia - Fear of having committed an unpardonable sin or of criticism.
Entomophobia - Fear of insects.
Eosophobia - Fear of dawn or daylight.
Epistaxiophobia - Fear of nosebleeds.
Epistemphobia - Fear of knowledge.
Equinophobia - Fear of hourse.
Eremophobia - Fear of being oneself or of lonliness.
Ereuthophobia - Fear of redlights. Fear of blushing. Fear of red.
Ereuthrophobia - Fear of blushing.
Ergasiophobia - Fear of work or functioning. Surgeon's fear of operating.
Ergophobia - Fear of work.
Erotophobia - Fear of sexual love or sexual questions.
Erythrophobia - Fear of redlights. Fear of blushing. Fear of red.
Erytophobia- Fear of redlights. Fear of blushing. Fear of red.
Euphobia - Fear of hearing good news.
Eurotophobia - Fear of female genitalia.
The Types of Phobias List: F
Types of Phobias
Febriphobia - Fear of fever.
Felinophobia - Fear of cats.
Fibriophobia - Fear of fever.
Fibriphobia - Fear of fever.
Francophobia - Fear of France, French culture.
The Types of Phobias List: G
Types of Phobias
Galeophobia - Fear of cats.
Galiophobia - Fear of France, French culture.
Gallophobia - Fear of France, French culture.
Gamophobia - Fear of marriage.
Gatophobia - Fear of cats.
Geliophobia - Fear of laughter.
Geniophobia - Fear of chins.
Genophobia - Fear of sex.
Genuphobia - Fear of knees.
Gephydrophobia - Fear of crossing bridges.
Gephyrophobia - Fear of crossing bridges.
Gephysrophobia - Fear of crossing bridges.
Gerascophobia - Fear of growing old.
Germanophobia - Fear of Germany, German culture, etc.
Gerontophobia - Fear of old people or of growing old.
Geumaphobia - Fear of taste.
Geumophobia - Fear of taste.
Gnosiophobia - Fear of knowledge.
Graphophobia - Fear of writing or handwritting.
Gymnophobia - Fear of nudity.
Gynephobia - Fear of women.
Gynophobia - Fear of women.
The Types of Phobias List: H
Types of Phobias
Hadephobia - Fear of hell.
Hagiophobia - Fear of saints or holy things.
Hamartophobia - Fear of sinning.
Haphephobia - Fear of being touched.
Haptephobia - Fear of being touched.
Harpaxophobia - Fear of being robbed.
Hedonophobia - Fear of feeling pleasure.
Heliophobia - Fear of the sun.
Hellenologophobia - Fear of Greek terms or complex scientific terminology.
Helminthophobia - Fear of being infested with worms.
Hemaphobia - Fear of blood.
Hematophobia - Fear of blood.
Hemophobia - Fear of blood.
Hereiophobia - Fear of challenges to official doctrine or of radical deviation.
Heresyphobia - Fear of challenges to official doctrine or radical deviation.
Herpetophobia - Fear of reptiles or creepy, crawly things.
Heterophobia - Fear of the opposite sex.
Hierophobia - Fear of priest or sacred things.
Hippophobia - Fear of horses.
Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia - Fear of long words.
Hobophobia - Fear of bums or beggars.
Hodophobia - Fear of road travel.
Homichlophobia - Fear of fog.
Homilophobia - Fear of sermons.
Hominophobia - Fear of men.
Homophobia - Fear of sameness, monotony or of homosexuality or of becoming homosexual.
Hoplophobia * Fear of firearms.
Hormephobia - Fear of shock.
Hydrargyophobia - Fear of mercuial medicines.
Hydrophobia - Fear of water of of rabies.
Hydrophobophobia - Fear or rabies.
Hyelophobia - Fear of glass.
Hygrophobia - Fear of liquids, dampness, or moisture.
Hylephobia - Fear of materialism or the fear of epilepsy.
Hylophobia - Fear of forests.
Hynophobia - Fear of sleep or of being hypnotized.
Hypegiaphobia - Fear of responsibility.
Hypengyophobia - Fear of responsibility.
Hypsiphobia - Fear of height.
The Types of Phobias List: I
Types of Phobias
Iatrophobia - Fear of going to the doctor or doctors.
Ichthyophobia - Fear of fish.
Ideophobia - Fear of ideas.
Illyngophobia - Fear of vertigo or feeling dizzy when looking down.
insectophobia - fear of insects.
Iophobia - Fear of poison.
Isolophobia - Fear of solitude, being alone.
Isopterophobia - Fear of termites, insects that eat wood.
Ithyphallophobia - Fear of seeing, thinking about, or having an erect penis.
The Types of Phobias List: J
Types of Phobias
Japanophobia - Fear of Japanese.
Judeophobia - Fear of Jews.
The Types of Phobias List: K
Types of Phobias
Kainolophobia - Fear of novelty.
Kainophobia - Fear of anything new, novelty.
Kakorrhaphiophobia - Fear of failure or defeat.
Katagelophobia - Fear of ridicule.
Kathisophobia - Fear of sitting down.
Kenophobia - Fear of voids or empty spaces.
Keraunophobia - Fear of thunder and lightning.
Kinesophobia - Fear of movement or motion.
Kinetophobia - Fear of movement or motion.
Kleptophobia - Fear of movement or motion.
Koinoniphobia - Fear of rooms.
Kolpophobia - Fear of genitals, particulary female.
Koniophobia - Fear of dust.
Kopophobia - Fear of fatigue.
Kosmikophobi - Fear of cosmic phenomenon.
Kymophobia - Fear of waves.
Kynophobia - Fear of rabies.
Kyphophobia - Fear of stooping.
The Types of Phobias List: L
Types of Phobias
Lachanophobia - Fear of vegitables.
Laliophobia - Fear of speaking.
Lalophobia - Fear of speaking.
Lepraphobia - Fear of leprosy.
Leprophobia - Fear of leprosy.
Leukophobia - Fear of the color white.
Levophobia - Fear of things to the left side of the body.
Ligyrophobia - Fear of loud noises.
Lilapsophobia - Fear of tornadoes and hurricanes.
Limnophobia - Fear of lakes.
Linonophobia - Fear of string.
Liticaphobia - Fear of lawsuits.
Lockiophobia - Fear fo childbirth.
Logizomechanophobia - Fear of computers.
Logophobia - Fear of words.
Luiphobia - Fear of lues, syphillis.
Lutraphobia - Fear of otters.
Lygophobia - Fear of darkness.
Lysssophobia - Fear of rabies or of becoming mad.
The Types of Phobias List: M
Types of Phobias
Macrophobia - Fear of long waits.
Mageirocophobia *- Fear of cooking.
Maieusiophobia - Fear of childbirth.
Malaxophobia - Fear of love play.
Maniaphobia - Fear of insanity.
Mastigophobia - Fear of punishment.
Mechanophobia - Fear of machines.
Medomalacuphobia - Fear of losing an erection.
Medorthophobia - Fear of an erect penis.
Megalophobia - Fear of large things.
Melanophobia - Fear of the color black.
Melissophobia - Fear of bees.
Melophobia - Fear of hatred or music.
Meningitiophobia - Fear of brain disease.
Merinthophobia - Fear of being bound or tied up.
Mertophobia - Fear or hatred of poetry.
Metallophobia - Fear of metal.
Metathesiophobia - Fear of changes.
Meterorophobia - Fear of Meteors.
Methyphobia - Fear of alcohol.
Microbiophobia - Fear of microbes.
Microphobia - Fear of small things.
Misophobia - Fear of being contaminated with dirt or germs.
Mnemophobia - Fear of memories.
Molysmophobia - Fear of dirt or contamination.
Molysomophobia - Fear of dirt or contamination.
Monopathophobia - Fear of difinite disease.
Monophobia - Fear of solitude or being alone.
Monophobia - Fear of menstruation.
Motorphobia - Fear of automobiles.
Mottophobia - Fear of moths.
Murophobia - Fear of mice.
Musophobia - Fear of mice.
Mycophobia - Fear or aversion to mushrooms.
Mycrophobia - Fear of small things.
Myctophobia - Fear of darkness.
Myrmecophobia - Fear of ants.
Mysophobia - Fear of germs or contamination or dirt.
Mythophobia - Fear of myths or stories or false statements.
Myxophobia - Fear of slime.
The Types of Phobias List: N
Types of Phobias
Namatophobia - Fear of names.
Nebulaphobia - Fear of fog.
Necrophobia - Fear of death or or dead things.
Nelophobia - Fear of glass.
Neopharmaphobia - Fear of new drugs.
neophobia - Fear of anything new.
Nephophobia - Fear of clouds.
Noctiphobia - Fear of the night.
Nosemaphobia - Fear of becoming ill.
Nosocomephobia - Fear of hospitals.
Nosophobia - Fear of becoming ill.
Nostophobia - Fear of returning home.
Novercaphobia - Fear of your step-mother.
Nucleomituphobia - Fear of nuclear weapons.
Nudophobia - Fear of nudity.
Numerophobia - Fear of numbers.
Nyctohlophobia - Fear of dark wooded areas, of forest at night.
Nyctophobia - Fear of the dark or of the night.
The Types of Phobias List: O
Types of Phobias
Obesophobia - Fear of gaining weight.
Ochlophobia - Fear of crowds or mobs.
Ochophobia - Fear of vehicles.
Octophobia - Fear of the figure 8.
Odontophobia - Fear of teeth or dental surgery.
Odynephobia - Fear of pain.
Odynophobia - Fear of pain.
Oenophobia - Fear of wines.
Oikophobia - Fear of home surroundings, house.
Oikophobia - Fear of houses or being in a house.
Oikophobia - Fear of home surroundings.
Olfactophobia - Fear of smells.
Ombrophobia - Fear of rain or being rained on.
Ommatophobia - Fear of eyes.
Ommetaphobia - Fear of eyes.
Oneirogmophobia - Fear of wet dreams.
Oneirophobia - Fear of dreams.
Onomatophobia - Fear of hearing a certain word or names.
Ophidiophobia - Fear of snakes.
Opthalmophobia - Fear of being stared at.
Optophobia - Fear of opening one's eyes.
Ornithophobia - Fear of birds.
Orthophobia - Fear of property.
Osmophobia - Fear of smells or odors.
Osphesiophobia - Fear of smells or odors.
Ostraconophobia - Fear of shellfish.
Ouranophobia - Fear of heaven.
The Types of Phobias List: P
Types of Phobias
Pagophobia - Fear of ice or frost.
Panophobia - Fear of everything.
Panthophobia - Fear of suffering and disease.
Pantophobia - Fear of everything.
Papaphobia - Fear fo the Pope.
Papyrophobia - Fear of paper.
Paralipophobia - Fear of neglecting duty or responsibility.
Paraphobia - Fear of sexual perversion.
Parasitophobia - Fear of parasites.
Paraskavedekatriaphobia - Fear of Friday the 13th.
Parthenophobia - Fear of virgins or young girls.
Parturiphobia - Fear of childbirth.
Pathophobia - Fear of disease.
Patroiophobia - Fear of heredity.
Peccatophobia - Fear of sinning. (imaginary crime)
Pediculophobia - Fear of lice.
Pediophobia - Fear of dolls.
Pedophobia - Fear of children.
Peladophobia - Fear of bald people.
Pellagrophobia - Fear of pellagra.
Peniaphobioa - Fear of poverty.
Pentheraphobia - Fear of mother-in-law.
Phagophobia - Fear of swallowing or eating or of being eaten.
Phalacrophobia - Fear of becoming bald.
Phallophobia - Fear of penis, esp erect.
Pharmacophobia - Fear of taking medicine.
Pharmacophobia - Fear of drugs.
Phasmophobia - Fear of ghost.
Phengophobia - Fear of daylight or sunshine.
Philemaphobia - Fear of kissing.
Philematophobia - Fear of kissing.
Philophobia - Fear of falling in love or being in love.
Philosophobia - Fear of philosophy.
Phobophobia - Fear of phobias.
Phonophobia - Fear of noises or voices or one's own voice; of telephones.
Photoaugliaphobia - Fear of glaring lights.
Photophobia - Fear of light.
Phronemophobia - Fear of thinking.
Phthiriophobia - Fear of lice.
Phthisiophobia - Fear of tuberculosis.
Placophobia - Fear of tombstones.
Plutophobia - Fear of wealth.
Pluviophobia - Fear of rain or of being rained on.
Pneumatiphobia - Fear of spirits.
Pnigerophobia - Fear of choking or of being smothered.
Pnigophobia - Fear of choking or of being smothered.
Pocrescophobia - Fear of gaining weight.
Pocresophobia - Fear of gaining weight.
Pogonophobia - Fear of beards.
Poinephobia - Fear of punishment.
Poliosophobia - Fear of contracting poliomyelitis.
Politicophobia - Fear or abnormal dislike of politicians.
Polyphobia - Fear of many things.
Ponophobia - Fear of overworking or of pain.
Porphyrophobia - Fear of the color purple.
Potamophobia - Fear of rivers or running water.
Potophobia - Fear of alcohol.
Proctophobia - Fear or rectum.
Prosophobia - Fear of progress.
Psellismophobia - Fear of stuttering.
Psychophobia - Fear of mind.
Psychrophobia - Fear of cold.
Pteromerhanophobia - Fear of flying.
Pteronophobia - Fear of being tickled by feathers.
Pupaphobia - Fear of puppets.
Pyrexiophobia - Fear of fever.
Pyrophobia - Fear of fire.
The Types of Phobias List: Q
Types of Phobias
The Types of Phobias List: R
Types of Phobias
Radiophobia - Fear of radiation, x-rays.
Ranidaphobia - Fear of frogs.
Rectophobia - Fear of rectum or rectal diseases.
Rhabdophobia - Fear of being severely punished or beaten by a rod, or of being severely criticized. Also fear of magic. (wand)
Rhypophobia - Fear of defecation.
Rhytiphobia - Fear of getting wrinkles.
Rupophobia - Fear of dirt.
Russophobia - Fear of Russians.
The Types of Phobias List: S
Types of Phobias
Samhainophobia - Fear of Halloween.
Sarmassophobia - Fear of love play.
Sarmassophobia - Fear of love play.
Satanophobia - Fear of Satin.
Scabiophobia - Fear of scabies.
Scatophobia - Fear of fecal matter.
Scelerophobia - Fear of bad men, burglars.
Sciaphobia - Fear of shadows.
Sciophobia - Fear of shadows.
Scoionophobia - Fear of school.
Scoleciphobia - Fear of worms.
Scopophobia - Fear of being seen or stared at.
Scoptophobia - Fear of being seen or stared at.
Scotomaphobia - Fear of blindness in visual field.
Scotophobia - Fear of darkness.
Scriptophobia - Fear of writing in public.
Selaphobia - Fear of light flashes.
Selenophobia - Fear of the moon.
Seplophobia - Fear of decaying matter.
Sesquipedalophobia - Fear of long words.
Sexophobia - Fear of the opposit sex.
Sexophobia - Fear of the opposite sex.
Siderophobia - Fear of stars.
Sinistrophobia - Fear of things to the left, left-handed.
Sinophobia - Fear of Chinese, Chinese culture.
Sitiophobia - Fear of food.
Sitiophobia - Fear of food or eating.
Sitophobia - Fear of food or eating.
Sitophobia - Fear of food.
Snakephobia - Fear of snakes.
Soceraphobia - Fear of parents-in-law.
Social Phobia - Fear of being evaluated negatively in social situations.
Sociophobia - Fear of society or people in general.
Somniphobia - Fear of sleep.
Sophophobia - Fear of learning.
Soteriophobia - Fear of dependence on others.
Spacephobia - Fear of outer space.
Spectrophobia - Fear of specters or ghosts.
Spermatophobia - Fear of germs.
Spermophobia - Fear of germs.
Spheksophobia - Fear of wasps.
Stasibasiphobia - Fear fo standing or walking.
Stasiphobia - Fear of standing or walking.
Staurophobia - Fear of crosses or the crucifix.
Stenophobia - Fear of narrow things or places.
Stigiophobia - Fear of hell.
Stygiophobia - Fear of hell.
Suriphobia - Fear of mice.
Symbolophobia - Fear of symbolism.
Symmetrophobia - Fear of symmetry.
Syngenesophobia - Fear of relatives.
Syphilophobia - Fear of syphilis.
The Types of Phobias List: T
Types of Phobias
Tachophobia - Fear of speed.
Taeniophobia - Fear of tapeworms.
Teniophobia - Fear of tapeworms.
Taphephobia - Fear of being buried alive or of cemeteries.
Taphophobia - Fear of being buried alive or of cemeteries.
Tapinophobia - Fear of being contagious.
Taurophobia - Fear of bulls.
Technophobia - Fear of technology.
Teleophobia - Fear fo difinite plans. Fear of Religious ceremony.
Telephonophobia - Fear of telephones.
Teratophobia - Fear of bearing a deformed child or fear of monsters or deformed people.
Testaphobia - Fear of taking test.
Tetanophobia - Fear of lockjaw, tetnus.
Teutophobia - Fear of German or German things.
Textophobia - Fear of certain fabrics.
Thaasophobia - Fear of sitting.
Thalassophobia - Fear of the sea.
Thanatophobia - Fear of death or dying.
Thantophobia - Fear of death or dying.
Theatrophobia - Fear of theaters.
Theophobia - Fear of gods or religion.
Theologicophobia - Fear of theology.
Thermophobia - Fear of heat.
Tocophobia Fear of pregnancy or childbirth.
Tomophobia - Fear of surgical operations.
Tonitrophobia - Fear of thunder.
Topophobia - Fear of certain places or situations, such as stage fright.
Toxiphobia - Fear of poison or of being accidently poisoned.
Toxophobia - Fear of poison or of being accidently poisoned.
Toxicophobia - Fear of poison or of being accidently poisoned.
Traumatophobia - Fear of injury.
Tremophobia - Fear of trembling.
Trichinophobia - Fear of trichinosis.
Trichopathophobia - Fear of hair.
Trichophobia - Fear of hair.
Hypertrichophobia - Fear of hair.
Triskaidekaphobia - Fear of the number 13.
Tropophobia - Fear of moving or making changes.
Trypanophobia - Fear of injections.
Tuberculophobia - Fear of tuberculosis.
Tyrannophobia - Fear of tyrants.
The Types of Phobias List: U
Types of Phobias
Uranophobia - Fear of heaven.
Urophobia - Fear of urine or urinating.
Phobia List V. Every one of these phobias on this phobia list can be treated with Energy Therapies.
Vaccinophobia - Fear of vaccination.
Venustraphobia - Fear of beautiful women.
Verbophobia - Fear of words.
Verminophobia - Fear of germs.
Vestiphobia - Fear of clothing.
Virginitiphobia - Fear of rape.
Vitricophobia - Fear of step-father.
The Types of Phobias List: W
Types of Phobias
Walloonphobia - Fear of Walloons.
Wiccaphobia - Fear of witches and witchcraft.
The Types of Phobias List: X
Types of Phobias
Xanthophobia - Fear of the color yellow or the word yellow.
Xenophobia - Fear of strangers or foreigners.
Xerophobia - Fear of dryness.
Xylophobia - Fear of wooden objects. Forests.
The Types of Phobias List: Y
Types of Phobias
The Types of Phobias List: Z
Types of Phobias
Zelophobia - Fear of jelousy.
Zeusophobia - Fear of God or gods.
Zemmiphobia - Fear of the great mole rat.
Zoophobia - Fear of animals.
The US growing interest in Southeast Asia
The US growing interest in Southeast Asia
Anak Agung Banyu Perwita , Jakarta | Thu, 07/30/2009 9:42 AM | Opinion ( Jakarta Post Excerpt )
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton signed the ASEAN Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC) last week. The formal establishment of this friendship treaty with the United States marks a new chapter in US-ASEAN relations.
Although relations between ASEAN and the US have no doubt been largely positive for both sides, the shift in US foreign policy regarding the region will no doubt impact future relations.
Even though many analysts have argued that Southeast Asia has enjoyed an environment of relative stability, it does not necessarily mean the region has been free from potential conflict. There are still many problems which have the potential to trigger an escalation of the complex pattern of relations among the members and non members of ASEAN. In other words, ASEAN should maintain its strategic opportunities by working well both internally and internationally.
In the wake of Sept. 11, 2001, the US found itself in a paradoxical position with Southeast Asia and, more specifically, with ASEAN. On the one hand, relations with several ASEAN member states have expanded significantly with the US-led global war against terrorism and because of a new appreciation in Washington of China’s rise in the region.
These two factors sparked a modest renaissance in US bilateral relations with ASEAN. Washington found new common cause with Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Manila in initiatives to strengthen anti-terrorism measures which included intelligence sharing, joint surveillance and police training.
However, critics make two arguments that detract from this claim. First, the global war against terrorism has created a backlash, particularly in Muslim areas of Southeast Asia, particularly in Indonesia.
Surveys suggest that the image of the United States in the region’s domestic populations has fallen significantly since the promulgation of the Bush doctrine and the beginning of the Iraq War. The post 9/11 era has diminished the power of state-centered political and military rivalry to dominate international relations.
On the other hand, many non-state actors now have a more significant global influence. There is also a process of reconfiguring power through which international security relationships are channeled.
A second argument holds that China has increased its political, economic, and security presence in Southeast Asia. US counter-terrorism policy has indirectly helped Beijing to deepen its engagement in smaller, poorer Southeast Asian countries where Islamic radicalism is not a major problem such as Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos.
The growing number of external powers seeking closer ties with Southeast Asia – Japan, Australia, India, Russia, the EU, as well as China – has led analysts on both sides of the Pacific to worry that the US presence in the region is diluted by default. A more specific concern is that a regional architecture is emerging which could weaken US power in the region, if not now then at some point in the future.
While there are no major problems that threaten the relations between ASEAN and the US in the near future, the lack of trust will lead to serious problem in the long term. Amid the rise of China as regional power, both ASEAN and the US have to make a greater effort to trust each other. They cannot take their common interests for granted. The common interests of containing communism during the Cold War and now in combating terrorism have no doubt brought the two parties together.
Secretary Clinton stated that a greater engagement with ASEAN is pivotal for the US. Further, US Ambassador to ASEAN Scot Marciel argued that the US also wants ASEAN “to remain strong and independent, enjoy peace, stability, ensure growing prosperity and greater freedom, achieve their goals for integration and [for the US] to work in partnership with ASEAN on bilateral, regional and global issues”.
Long lasting cooperation can only be built upon a more important foundation than simple interests. Trust and shared norms are essential if long lasting relationships are to be maintained. Unfortunately, so far, ASEAN-US relations have not reached a phase where trust and shared norms rule.
The writer is a Professor of International Relations at Parahyangan Catholic University and is Director of the Division of Global Affairs at the Indonesia Institute of Strategic Studies, Jakarta.
Anak Agung Banyu Perwita , Jakarta | Thu, 07/30/2009 9:42 AM | Opinion ( Jakarta Post Excerpt )
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton signed the ASEAN Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC) last week. The formal establishment of this friendship treaty with the United States marks a new chapter in US-ASEAN relations.
Although relations between ASEAN and the US have no doubt been largely positive for both sides, the shift in US foreign policy regarding the region will no doubt impact future relations.
Even though many analysts have argued that Southeast Asia has enjoyed an environment of relative stability, it does not necessarily mean the region has been free from potential conflict. There are still many problems which have the potential to trigger an escalation of the complex pattern of relations among the members and non members of ASEAN. In other words, ASEAN should maintain its strategic opportunities by working well both internally and internationally.
In the wake of Sept. 11, 2001, the US found itself in a paradoxical position with Southeast Asia and, more specifically, with ASEAN. On the one hand, relations with several ASEAN member states have expanded significantly with the US-led global war against terrorism and because of a new appreciation in Washington of China’s rise in the region.
These two factors sparked a modest renaissance in US bilateral relations with ASEAN. Washington found new common cause with Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Manila in initiatives to strengthen anti-terrorism measures which included intelligence sharing, joint surveillance and police training.
However, critics make two arguments that detract from this claim. First, the global war against terrorism has created a backlash, particularly in Muslim areas of Southeast Asia, particularly in Indonesia.
Surveys suggest that the image of the United States in the region’s domestic populations has fallen significantly since the promulgation of the Bush doctrine and the beginning of the Iraq War. The post 9/11 era has diminished the power of state-centered political and military rivalry to dominate international relations.
On the other hand, many non-state actors now have a more significant global influence. There is also a process of reconfiguring power through which international security relationships are channeled.
A second argument holds that China has increased its political, economic, and security presence in Southeast Asia. US counter-terrorism policy has indirectly helped Beijing to deepen its engagement in smaller, poorer Southeast Asian countries where Islamic radicalism is not a major problem such as Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos.
The growing number of external powers seeking closer ties with Southeast Asia – Japan, Australia, India, Russia, the EU, as well as China – has led analysts on both sides of the Pacific to worry that the US presence in the region is diluted by default. A more specific concern is that a regional architecture is emerging which could weaken US power in the region, if not now then at some point in the future.
While there are no major problems that threaten the relations between ASEAN and the US in the near future, the lack of trust will lead to serious problem in the long term. Amid the rise of China as regional power, both ASEAN and the US have to make a greater effort to trust each other. They cannot take their common interests for granted. The common interests of containing communism during the Cold War and now in combating terrorism have no doubt brought the two parties together.
Secretary Clinton stated that a greater engagement with ASEAN is pivotal for the US. Further, US Ambassador to ASEAN Scot Marciel argued that the US also wants ASEAN “to remain strong and independent, enjoy peace, stability, ensure growing prosperity and greater freedom, achieve their goals for integration and [for the US] to work in partnership with ASEAN on bilateral, regional and global issues”.
Long lasting cooperation can only be built upon a more important foundation than simple interests. Trust and shared norms are essential if long lasting relationships are to be maintained. Unfortunately, so far, ASEAN-US relations have not reached a phase where trust and shared norms rule.
The writer is a Professor of International Relations at Parahyangan Catholic University and is Director of the Division of Global Affairs at the Indonesia Institute of Strategic Studies, Jakarta.
Highest Paid Politicians in the World
HELLO,
Have you seen this? Nothing new. We all know.?
?????????We are Number One!as the Singaporeans admitted :
As the economic crisis worsens and thousands are being retrenched, the huge salaries of Singapore's political leaders have come under the spotlight not only here - but overseas.
With G20 leaders gathering in London to work out solutions to the global crisis, The Times compiled a list of "the 10 best-paid politicians in the world" - naturally with Singapore 's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong taking the top spot.
The story was picked up by The Australia, which also works out their salaries when ranked against population.
Mr Lee earns S$3.76 million (US$2.47 million) a year, excluding bonuses, allowances, pensions, etc which add on a significant bit.
This is about 54 cents per head of population. In second position was his counterpart from New Zealand at 9 cents. The rest of the world are all down there, below even the lowest-ranking minister in Singapore .
But Singaporean blogger redbean's "My Singapore News" carries a calculation from its reader, Green Peas, expanding on the UK and Australian reports.
It pointed out that the world's 30 best-paid politicians (a definition that will include ministers, elected president, etc) are all from Singapore .
Here's what the blogger says:
The TOP 30 highest paid politicians in the world are all from Singapore :
1. Elected President SR Nathan - S$3.9 million.
2. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong - S$3.8 million.
3. Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew - S$3.5 million.
4. Senior Minister Goh Chok Thong - S$3.5 million.
5. Senior Minister Prof Jayakumar - S$3.2 million.
6. DPM & Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng - S$2.9 million.
7.. DPM & Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean - $2.9 million
8. Foreign Affairs Minister George Yeo - S$2.8 million.
9.. National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan - S$2.7 million.
10. PMO Miniser Lim Boon Heng - S$2.7 million.
11. Trade and Industry Minister Lim Hng Kiang - S$2.7 million.
12. PMO Minister Lim Swee Say - S$2.6 million.
13. Environment Minister & Muslim Affairs Minister Dr Yaccob Ibrahim - S$2.6 million.
14. Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan - S$2.6 million.
15. Finance Minister S Tharman - S$2.6 million.
16. Education Minister & 2nd Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen - S$2.6 million.
17. Community Development Youth and Sports Minister - Dr Vivian Balakrishnan - S$2.5 million.
18. Transport Minister & 2nd Minister for Foreign Affairs Raymond Lim Siang Kiat - S$2.5 million.
19. Law Minister & 2nd Minister for Home Affairs K Shanmugam - S$2.4 million.
20. Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong - S$2.2 million.
21. PMO Minister Lim Hwee Hwa - S$2.2 million.
22. Acting ICA Minister - Lui Tuck Yew - S$2.0 million.
23 to 30 = Senior Ministers of State and Ministers of State - each getting between S$1.8 million to S$1.5 million.
Note: 1. The above pay does not include MP allowances, pensions and other sources of income such as Directorship, Chairmnship, Advisory, Consultancy, etc to Gov-linked and gov-related organisations or foreign MNCs such as Citigroup, etc.
2. Though it is based on an estimate, the data cannot be far off the official salary scales.
The above was posted in redbeanforum by Green Peas.
UNESCO World Heritage List
UNESCO World Heritage List
The World Heritage List includes 890 properties forming part of the cultural and natural heritage which the World Heritage Committee considers as having outstanding universal value.
These include 689 cultural [Cultural site] , 176 natural [Natural site] and 25 mixed [Mixed site] properties in 148 States Parties. As of April 2009, 186 States Parties have ratified the World Heritage Convention.
Afghanistan
* Minaret and Archaeological Remains of Jam
* Cultural Landscape and Archaeological Remains of the Bamiyan Valley
Albania
* Butrint
* Historic Centres of Berat and Gjirokastra
Algeria
* Al Qal'a of Beni Hammad
* Djémila
* M'Zab Valley
* Tassili n'Ajjer #
* Timgad
* Tipasa
* Kasbah of Algiers
Andorra
* Madriu-Perafita-Claror Valley
Argentina
* Los Glaciares #
* Jesuit Missions of the Guaranis: San Ignacio Mini, Santa Ana, Nuestra Señora de Loreto and Santa Maria Mayor (Argentina), Ruins of Sao Miguel das Missoes (Brazil) *
* Iguazu National Park
* Cueva de las Manos, Río Pinturas
* Península Valdés
* Ischigualasto / Talampaya Natural Parks
* Jesuit Block and Estancias of Córdoba
* Quebrada de Humahuaca
Armenia
* Monasteries of Haghpat and Sanahin
* Cathedral and Churches of Echmiatsin and the Archaeological Site of Zvartnots
* Monastery of Geghard and the Upper Azat Valley
Australia
* Great Barrier Reef
* Kakadu National Park
* Willandra Lakes Region
* Lord Howe Island Group
* Tasmanian Wilderness
* Gondwana Rainforests of Australia 1
* Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park 2
* Wet Tropics of Queensland
* Shark Bay, Western Australia
* Fraser Island
* Australian Fossil Mammal Sites (Riversleigh / Naracoorte)
* Heard and McDonald Islands
* Macquarie Island
* Greater Blue Mountains Area
* Purnululu National Park
* Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens
* Sydney Opera House
Austria
* Historic Centre of the City of Salzburg
* Palace and Gardens of Schönbrunn
* Hallstatt-Dachstein / Salzkammergut Cultural Landscape
* Semmering Railway
* City of Graz - Historic Centre
* Wachau Cultural Landscape
* Fertö / Neusiedlersee Cultural Landscape *
* Historic Centre of Vienna
Azerbaijan
* Walled City of Baku with the Shirvanshah's Palace and Maiden Tower
* Gobustan Rock Art Cultural Landscape
Bahrain
* Qal’at al-Bahrain – Ancient Harbour and Capital of Dilmun
Bangladesh
* Historic Mosque City of Bagerhat
* Ruins of the Buddhist Vihara at Paharpur
* The Sundarbans
Belarus
* Belovezhskaya Pushcha / Białowieża Forest *
* Mir Castle Complex
* Architectural, Residential and Cultural Complex of the Radziwill Family at Nesvizh
* Struve Geodetic Arc *
Belgium
* Flemish Béguinages
* La Grand-Place, Brussels
* The Four Lifts on the Canal du Centre and their Environs, La Louvière and Le Roeulx (Hainault)
* Belfries of Belgium and France * 3
* Historic Centre of Brugge
* Major Town Houses of the Architect Victor Horta (Brussels)
* Neolithic Flint Mines at Spiennes (Mons)
* Notre-Dame Cathedral in Tournai
* Plantin-Moretus House-Workshops-Museum Complex
* Stoclet House
Belize
* Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System
Benin
* Royal Palaces of Abomey
Bolivia (Plurinational State of)
* City of Potosí
* Jesuit Missions of the Chiquitos
* Historic City of Sucre
* Fuerte de Samaipata
* Noel Kempff Mercado National Park
* Tiwanaku: Spiritual and Political Centre of the Tiwanaku Culture
Bosnia and Herzegovina
* Old Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar
* Mehmed Paša Sokolović Bridge in Višegrad
Botswana
* Tsodilo
Brazil
* Historic Town of Ouro Preto
* Historic Centre of the Town of Olinda
* Jesuit Missions of the Guaranis: San Ignacio Mini, Santa Ana, Nuestra Señora de Loreto and Santa Maria Mayor (Argentina), Ruins of Sao Miguel das Missoes (Brazil) *
* Historic Centre of Salvador de Bahia
* Sanctuary of Bom Jesus do Congonhas
* Iguaçu National Park
* Brasilia
* Serra da Capivara National Park
* Historic Centre of São Luís
* Atlantic Forest South-East Reserves
* Discovery Coast Atlantic Forest Reserves
* Historic Centre of the Town of Diamantina
* Central Amazon Conservation Complex 4
* Pantanal Conservation Area
* Brazilian Atlantic Islands: Fernando de Noronha and Atol das Rocas Reserves
* Cerrado Protected Areas: Chapada dos Veadeiros and Emas National Parks
* Historic Centre of the Town of Goiás
Bulgaria
* Boyana Church
* Madara Rider
* Rock-Hewn Churches of Ivanovo
* Thracian Tomb of Kazanlak
* Ancient City of Nessebar
* Pirin National Park
* Rila Monastery
* Srebarna Nature Reserve
* Thracian Tomb of Sveshtari
Burkina Faso
* The Ruins of Loropéni
Cambodia
* Angkor
* Temple of Preah Vihear
Cameroon
* Dja Faunal Reserve
Canada
* L’Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site
* Nahanni National Park #
* Dinosaur Provincial Park
* Kluane / Wrangell-St Elias / Glacier Bay / Tatshenshini-Alsek # * 5
* Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump
* SGang Gwaay
* Wood Buffalo National Park
* Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks # 6
* Historic District of Old Québec
* Gros Morne National Park
* Old Town Lunenburg
* Waterton Glacier International Peace Park *
* Miguasha National Park
* Rideau Canal
* Joggins Fossil Cliffs
Cape Verde
* Cidade Velha, Historic Centre of Ribeira Grande
Central African Republic
* Manovo-Gounda St Floris National Park
Chile
* Rapa Nui National Park
* Churches of Chiloé
* Historic Quarter of the Seaport City of Valparaíso
* Humberstone and Santa Laura Saltpeter Works
* Sewell Mining Town
China
* Imperial Palaces of the Ming and Qing Dynasties in Beijing and Shenyang
* Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor
* Mogao Caves
* Mount Taishan
* Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian
* The Great Wall
* Mount Huangshan
* Huanglong Scenic and Historic Interest Area
* Jiuzhaigou Valley Scenic and Historic Interest Area
* Wulingyuan Scenic and Historic Interest Area
* Ancient Building Complex in the Wudang Mountains
* Historic Ensemble of the Potala Palace, Lhasa 7
* Mountain Resort and its Outlying Temples, Chengde
* Temple and Cemetery of Confucius and the Kong Family Mansion in Qufu
* Lushan National Park
* Mount Emei Scenic Area, including Leshan Giant Buddha Scenic Area
* Ancient City of Ping Yao
* Classical Gardens of Suzhou
* Old Town of Lijiang
* Summer Palace, an Imperial Garden in Beijing
* Temple of Heaven: an Imperial Sacrificial Altar in Beijing
* Dazu Rock Carvings
* Mount Wuyi
* Ancient Villages in Southern Anhui – Xidi and Hongcun
* Imperial Tombs of the Ming and Qing Dynasties
* Longmen Grottoes
* Mount Qingcheng and the Dujiangyan Irrigation System
* Yungang Grottoes
* Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan Protected Areas
* Capital Cities and Tombs of the Ancient Koguryo Kingdom
* Historic Centre of Macao
* Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuaries - Wolong, Mt Siguniang and Jiajin Mountains
* Yin Xu
* Kaiping Diaolou and Villages
* South China Karst
* Fujian Tulou
* Mount Sanqingshan National Park
* Mount Wutai
Colombia
* Port, Fortresses and Group of Monuments, Cartagena
* Los Katíos National Park
* Historic Centre of Santa Cruz de Mompox
* National Archeological Park of Tierradentro
* San Agustín Archeological Park
* Malpelo Fauna and Flora Sanctuary
Costa Rica
* Talamanca Range-La Amistad Reserves / La Amistad National Park *
* Cocos Island National Park
* Area de Conservación Guanacaste
Côte d'Ivoire
* Mount Nimba Strict Nature Reserve *
* Taï National Park
* Comoé National Park
Croatia
* Historical Complex of Split with the Palace of Diocletian
* Old City of Dubrovnik
* Plitvice Lakes National Park #
* Episcopal Complex of the Euphrasian Basilica in the Historic Centre of Poreč
* Historic City of Trogir
* The Cathedral of St James in Šibenik
* Stari Grad Plain
Cuba
* Old Havana and its Fortifications
* Trinidad and the Valley de los Ingenios
* San Pedro de la Roca Castle, Santiago de Cuba
* Desembarco del Granma National Park
* Viñales Valley
* Archaeological Landscape of the First Coffee Plantations in the South-East of Cuba
* Alejandro de Humboldt National Park
* Urban Historic Centre of Cienfuegos
* Historic Centre of Camagüey
Cyprus
* Paphos
* Painted Churches in the Troodos Region
* Choirokoitia
Czech Republic
* Historic Centre of Český Krumlov
* Historic Centre of Prague
* Historic Centre of Telč
* Pilgrimage Church of St John of Nepomuk at Zelená Hora
* Kutná Hora: Historical Town Centre with the Church of St Barbara and the Cathedral of Our Lady at Sedlec
* Lednice-Valtice Cultural Landscape
* Gardens and Castle at Kroměříž
* Holašovice Historical Village Reservation
* Litomyšl Castle
* Holy Trinity Column in Olomouc
* Tugendhat Villa in Brno
* Jewish Quarter and St Procopius' Basilica in Třebíč
Democratic Republic of the Congo
* Virunga National Park #
* Kahuzi-Biega National Park
* Garamba National Park
* Salonga National Park
* Okapi Wildlife Reserve
Denmark
* Jelling Mounds, Runic Stones and Church
* Roskilde Cathedral
* Kronborg Castle
* Ilulissat Icefjord
Dominica
* Morne Trois Pitons National Park
Dominican Republic
* Colonial City of Santo Domingo
Ecuador
* Galápagos Islands
* City of Quito
* Sangay National Park #
* Historic Centre of Santa Ana de los Ríos de Cuenca
Egypt
* Abu Mena
* Ancient Thebes with its Necropolis
* Historic Cairo
* Memphis and its Necropolis – the Pyramid Fields from Giza to Dahshur
* Nubian Monuments from Abu Simbel to Philae
* Saint Catherine Area
* Wadi Al-Hitan (Whale Valley)
El Salvador
* Joya de Cerén Archaeological Site
Estonia
* Historic Centre (Old Town) of Tallinn
* Struve Geodetic Arc *
Ethiopia
* Simien National Park
* Rock-Hewn Churches, Lalibela
* Fasil Ghebbi, Gondar Region
* Aksum
* Lower Valley of the Awash
* Lower Valley of the Omo
* Tiya
* Harar Jugol, the Fortified Historic Town
Finland
* Fortress of Suomenlinna
* Old Rauma
* Petäjävesi Old Church
* Verla Groundwood and Board Mill
* Bronze Age Burial Site of Sammallahdenmäki
* High Coast / Kvarken Archipelago *
* Struve Geodetic Arc *
France
* Chartres Cathedral
* Mont-Saint-Michel and its Bay
* Palace and Park of Versailles
* Prehistoric Sites and Decorated Caves of the Vézère Valley
* Vézelay, Church and Hill
* Amiens Cathedral
* Arles, Roman and Romanesque Monuments
* Cistercian Abbey of Fontenay
* Palace and Park of Fontainebleau
* Roman Theatre and its Surroundings and the "Triumphal Arch" of Orange
* From the Great Saltworks of Salins-les-Bains to the Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans, the production of open-pan salt
* Abbey Church of Saint-Savin sur Gartempe
* Gulf of Porto: Calanche of Piana, Gulf of Girolata, Scandola Reserve #
* Place Stanislas, Place de la Carrière and Place d'Alliance in Nancy
* Pont du Gard (Roman Aqueduct)
* Strasbourg – Grande île
* Cathedral of Notre-Dame, Former Abbey of Saint-Remi and Palace of Tau, Reims
* Paris, Banks of the Seine
* Bourges Cathedral
* Historic Centre of Avignon: Papal Palace, Episcopal Ensemble and Avignon Bridge
* Canal du Midi
* Historic Fortified City of Carcassonne
* Pyrénées - Mont Perdu *
* Historic Site of Lyons
* Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France
* Belfries of Belgium and France * 8
* Jurisdiction of Saint-Emilion
* The Loire Valley between Sully-sur-Loire and Chalonnes 9
* Provins, Town of Medieval Fairs
* Le Havre, the City Rebuilt by Auguste Perret
* Bordeaux, Port of the Moon
* Fortifications of Vauban
* Lagoons of New Caledonia: Reef Diversity and Associated Ecosystems
Gabon
* Ecosystem and Relict Cultural Landscape of Lopé-Okanda
Gambia
* James Island and Related Sites
* Stone Circles of Senegambia *
Georgia
* Historical Monuments of Mtskheta
* Bagrati Cathedral and Gelati Monastery
* Upper Svaneti
Germany
* Aachen Cathedral
* Speyer Cathedral
* Würzburg Residence with the Court Gardens and Residence Square
* Pilgrimage Church of Wies
* Castles of Augustusburg and Falkenlust at Brühl
* St Mary's Cathedral and St Michael's Church at Hildesheim
* Roman Monuments, Cathedral of St Peter and Church of Our Lady in Trier
* Frontiers of the Roman Empire * 10
* Hanseatic City of Lübeck
* Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin
* Abbey and Altenmünster of Lorsch
* Mines of Rammelsberg and Historic Town of Goslar
* Maulbronn Monastery Complex
* Town of Bamberg
* Collegiate Church, Castle, and Old Town of Quedlinburg
* Völklingen Ironworks
* Messel Pit Fossil Site
* Bauhaus and its Sites in Weimar and Dessau
* Cologne Cathedral
* Luther Memorials in Eisleben and Wittenberg
* Classical Weimar
* Museumsinsel (Museum Island), Berlin
* Wartburg Castle
* Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wörlitz
* Monastic Island of Reichenau
* Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex in Essen
* Historic Centres of Stralsund and Wismar
* Upper Middle Rhine Valley
* Dresden Elbe Valley Delisted 2009
* Muskauer Park / Park Muzakowski *
* Town Hall and Roland on the Marketplace of Bremen
* Old town of Regensburg with Stadtamhof
* Berlin Modernism Housing Estates
* The Wadden Sea *
Ghana
* Forts and Castles, Volta, Greater Accra, Central and Western Regions
* Asante Traditional Buildings
Greece
* Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae
* Acropolis, Athens
* Archaeological Site of Delphi
* Medieval City of Rhodes
* Meteora
* Mount Athos
* Paleochristian and Byzantine Monuments of Thessalonika
* Sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidaurus
* Archaeological Site of Mystras
* Archaeological Site of Olympia
* Delos
* Monasteries of Daphni, Hosios Loukas and Nea Moni of Chios
* Pythagoreion and Heraion of Samos
* Archaeological Site of Aigai (modern name Vergina)
* Archaeological Sites of Mycenae and Tiryns
* Historic Centre (Chorá) with the Monastery of Saint John "the Theologian" and the Cave of the Apocalypse on the Island of Pátmos
* Old Town of Corfu
Guatemala
* Antigua Guatemala
* Tikal National Park
* Archaeological Park and Ruins of Quirigua
Guinea
* Mount Nimba Strict Nature Reserve *
Haiti
* National History Park – Citadel, Sans Souci, Ramiers
Holy See
* Historic Centre of Rome, the Properties of the Holy See in that City Enjoying Extraterritorial Rights and San Paolo Fuori le Mura * 11
* Vatican City
Honduras
* Maya Site of Copan
* Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve
Hungary
* Budapest, including the Banks of the Danube, the Buda Castle Quarter and Andrássy Avenue
* Old Village of Hollókő and its Surroundings
* Caves of Aggtelek Karst and Slovak Karst *
* Millenary Benedictine Abbey of Pannonhalma and its Natural Environment
* Hortobágy National Park - the Puszta
* Early Christian Necropolis of Pécs (Sopianae)
* Fertö / Neusiedlersee Cultural Landscape *
* Tokaj Wine Region Historic Cultural Landscape
Iceland
* Þingvellir National Park
* Surtsey
India
* Agra Fort
* Ajanta Caves
* Ellora Caves
* Taj Mahal
* Group of Monuments at Mahabalipuram
* Sun Temple, Konârak
* Manas Wildlife Sanctuary
* Kaziranga National Park
* Keoladeo National Park
* Churches and Convents of Goa
* Fatehpur Sikri
* Group of Monuments at Hampi
* Khajuraho Group of Monuments
* Elephanta Caves
* Great Living Chola Temples 12
* Group of Monuments at Pattadakal
* Sundarbans National Park
* Nanda Devi and Valley of Flowers National Parks
* Buddhist Monuments at Sanchi
* Humayun's Tomb, Delhi
* Qutb Minar and its Monuments, Delhi
* Mountain Railways of India
* Mahabodhi Temple Complex at Bodh Gaya
* Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka
* Champaner-Pavagadh Archaeological Park
* Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (formerly Victoria Terminus)
* Red Fort Complex
Indonesia
* Borobudur Temple Compounds
* Komodo National Park
* Prambanan Temple Compounds
* Ujung Kulon National Park
* Sangiran Early Man Site
* Lorentz National Park
* Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra
Iran (Islamic Republic of)
* Meidan Emam, Esfahan
* Persepolis
* Tchogha Zanbil
* Takht-e Soleyman
* Bam and its Cultural Landscape
* Pasargadae
* Soltaniyeh
* Bisotun
* Armenian Monastic Ensembles of Iran
* Shushtar Historical Hydraulic System
Iraq
* Hatra
* Ashur (Qal'at Sherqat)
* Samarra Archaeological City
Ireland
* Archaeological Ensemble of the Bend of the Boyne
* Skellig Michael
Israel
* Masada
* Old City of Acre
* White City of Tel-Aviv -- the Modern Movement
* Biblical Tels - Megiddo, Hazor, Beer Sheba
* Incense Route - Desert Cities in the Negev
* Bahá’i Holy Places in Haifa and the Western Galilee
Italy
* Rock Drawings in Valcamonica
* Church and Dominican Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie with "The Last Supper" by Leonardo da Vinci
* Historic Centre of Rome, the Properties of the Holy See in that City Enjoying Extraterritorial Rights and San Paolo Fuori le Mura * 13
* Historic Centre of Florence
* Piazza del Duomo, Pisa
* Venice and its Lagoon
* Historic Centre of San Gimignano
* The Sassi and the Park of the Rupestrian Churches of Matera
* City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto
* Crespi d'Adda
* Ferrara, City of the Renaissance, and its Po Delta 14
* Historic Centre of Naples
* Historic Centre of Siena
* Castel del Monte
* Early Christian Monuments of Ravenna
* Historic Centre of the City of Pienza
* The Trulli of Alberobello
* 18th-Century Royal Palace at Caserta with the Park, the Aqueduct of Vanvitelli, and the San Leucio Complex
* Archaeological Area of Agrigento
* Archaeological Areas of Pompei, Herculaneum and Torre Annunziata
* Botanical Garden (Orto Botanico), Padua
* Cathedral, Torre Civica and Piazza Grande, Modena
* Costiera Amalfitana
* Portovenere, Cinque Terre, and the Islands (Palmaria, Tino and Tinetto)
* Residences of the Royal House of Savoy
* Su Nuraxi di Barumini
* Villa Romana del Casale
* Archaeological Area and the Patriarchal Basilica of Aquileia
* Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park with the Archeological sites of Paestum and Velia, and the Certosa di Padula
* Historic Centre of Urbino
* Villa Adriana (Tivoli)
* Assisi, the Basilica of San Francesco and Other Franciscan Sites
* City of Verona
* Isole Eolie (Aeolian Islands)
* Villa d'Este, Tivoli
* Late Baroque Towns of the Val di Noto (South-Eastern Sicily)
* Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy
* Etruscan Necropolises of Cerveteri and Tarquinia
* Val d'Orcia
* Syracuse and the Rocky Necropolis of Pantalica
* Genoa: Le Strade Nuove and the system of the Palazzi dei Rolli
* Mantua and Sabbioneta
* Rhaetian Railway in the Albula / Bernina Landscapes *
* The Dolomites
Japan
* Buddhist Monuments in the Horyu-ji Area
* Himeji-jo
* Shirakami-Sanchi
* Yakushima
* Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto (Kyoto, Uji and Otsu Cities)
* Historic Villages of Shirakawa-go and Gokayama
* Hiroshima Peace Memorial (Genbaku Dome)
* Itsukushima Shinto Shrine
* Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara
* Shrines and Temples of Nikko
* Gusuku Sites and Related Properties of the Kingdom of Ryukyu
* Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Routes in the Kii Mountain Range
* Shiretoko
* Iwami Ginzan Silver Mine and its Cultural Landscape
Jerusalem (Site proposed by Jordan)
* Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls
Jordan
* Petra
* Quseir Amra
* Um er-Rasas (Kastrom Mefa'a)
Kazakhstan
* Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi
* Petroglyphs within the Archaeological Landscape of Tamgaly
* Saryarka – Steppe and Lakes of Northern Kazakhstan
Kenya
* Lake Turkana National Parks
* Mount Kenya National Park/Natural Forest
* Lamu Old Town
* Sacred Mijikenda Kaya Forests
Korea, Democratic People's Republic of
* Complex of Koguryo Tombs
Korea, Republic of
* Haeinsa Temple Janggyeong Panjeon, the Depositories for the Tripitaka Koreana Woodblocks
* Jongmyo Shrine
* Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple
* Changdeokgung Palace Complex
* Hwaseong Fortress
* Gochang, Hwasun and Ganghwa Dolmen Sites
* Gyeongju Historic Areas
* Jeju Volcanic Island and Lava Tubes
* Royal Tombs of the Joseon Dynasty
Kyrgyzstan
* Sulaiman-Too Sacred Mountain
Lao People's Democratic Republic
* Town of Luang Prabang
* Vat Phou and Associated Ancient Settlements within the Champasak Cultural Landscape
Latvia
* Historic Centre of Riga
* Struve Geodetic Arc *
Lebanon
* Anjar
* Baalbek
* Byblos
* Tyre
* Ouadi Qadisha (the Holy Valley) and the Forest of the Cedars of God (Horsh Arz el-Rab)
Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
* Archaeological Site of Cyrene
* Archaeological Site of Leptis Magna
* Archaeological Site of Sabratha
* Rock-Art Sites of Tadrart Acacus
* Old Town of Ghadamès
Lithuania
* Vilnius Historic Centre
* Curonian Spit *
* Kernavė Archaeological Site (Cultural Reserve of Kernavė)
* Struve Geodetic Arc *
Luxembourg
* City of Luxembourg: its Old Quarters and Fortifications
Madagascar
* Tsingy de Bemaraha Strict Nature Reserve
* Royal Hill of Ambohimanga
* Rainforests of the Atsinanana
Malawi
* Lake Malawi National Park
* Chongoni Rock-Art Area
Malaysia
* Gunung Mulu National Park
* Kinabalu Park
* Melaka and George Town, Historic Cities of the Straits of Malacca
Mali
* Old Towns of Djenné
* Timbuktu
* Cliff of Bandiagara (Land of the Dogons)
* Tomb of Askia
Malta
* City of Valletta
* Hal Saflieni Hypogeum
* Megalithic Temples of Malta 15
Mauritania
* Banc d'Arguin National Park
* Ancient Ksour of Ouadane, Chinguetti, Tichitt and Oualata
Mauritius
* Aapravasi Ghat
* Le Morne Cultural Landscape
Mexico
* Historic Centre of Mexico City and Xochimilco
* Historic Centre of Oaxaca and Archaeological Site of Monte Albán
* Historic Centre of Puebla
* Pre-Hispanic City and National Park of Palenque
* Pre-Hispanic City of Teotihuacan
* Sian Ka'an
* Historic Town of Guanajuato and Adjacent Mines
* Pre-Hispanic City of Chichen-Itza
* Historic Centre of Morelia
* El Tajin, Pre-Hispanic City
* Historic Centre of Zacatecas
* Rock Paintings of the Sierra de San Francisco
* Whale Sanctuary of El Vizcaino
* Earliest 16th-Century Monasteries on the Slopes of Popocatepetl
* Historic Monuments Zone of Querétaro
* Pre-Hispanic Town of Uxmal
* Hospicio Cabañas, Guadalajara
* Archeological Zone of Paquimé, Casas Grandes
* Historic Monuments Zone of Tlacotalpan
* Archaeological Monuments Zone of Xochicalco
* Historic Fortified Town of Campeche
* Ancient Maya City of Calakmul, Campeche
* Franciscan Missions in the Sierra Gorda of Querétaro
* Luis Barragán House and Studio
* Islands and Protected Areas of the Gulf of California
* Agave Landscape and Ancient Industrial Facilities of Tequila
* Central University City Campus of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)
* Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve
* Protective town of San Miguel and the Sanctuary of Jesús Nazareno de Atotonilco
Moldova, Republic of
* Struve Geodetic Arc *
Mongolia
* Uvs Nuur Basin *
* Orkhon Valley Cultural Landscape
Montenegro
* Natural and Culturo-Historical Region of Kotor
* Durmitor National Park
Morocco
* Medina of Fez
* Medina of Marrakesh
* Ksar of Ait-Ben-Haddou
* Historic City of Meknes
* Archaeological Site of Volubilis
* Medina of Tétouan (formerly known as Titawin)
* Medina of Essaouira (formerly Mogador)
* Portuguese City of Mazagan (El Jadida)
Mozambique
* Island of Mozambique
Namibia
* Twyfelfontein or /Ui-//aes
Nepal
* Kathmandu Valley
* Sagarmatha National Park
* Royal Chitwan National Park
* Lumbini, the Birthplace of the Lord Buddha
Netherlands
* Schokland and Surroundings
* Defence Line of Amsterdam
* Historic Area of Willemstad, Inner City and Harbour, Netherlands Antilles
* Mill Network at Kinderdijk-Elshout
* Ir.D.F. Woudagemaal (D.F. Wouda Steam Pumping Station)
* Droogmakerij de Beemster (Beemster Polder)
* Rietveld Schröderhuis (Rietveld Schröder House)
* The Wadden Sea *
New Zealand
* Te Wahipounamu – South West New Zealand 16
* Tongariro National Park #
* New Zealand Sub-Antarctic Islands
Nicaragua
* Ruins of León Viejo
Niger
* Air and Ténéré Natural Reserves
* W National Park of Niger
Nigeria
* Sukur Cultural Landscape
* Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove
Norway
* Bryggen
* Urnes Stave Church
* Røros Mining Town
* Rock Art of Alta
* Vegaøyan -- The Vega Archipelago
* Struve Geodetic Arc *
* West Norwegian Fjords – Geirangerfjord and Nærøyfjord
Oman
* Bahla Fort
* Archaeological Sites of Bat, Al-Khutm and Al-Ayn
* Arabian Oryx Sanctuary Delisted 2007
* Land of Frankincense
* Aflaj Irrigation Systems of Oman
Pakistan
* Archaeological Ruins at Moenjodaro
* Buddhist Ruins of Takht-i-Bahi and Neighbouring City Remains at Sahr-i-Bahlol
* Taxila
* Fort and Shalamar Gardens in Lahore
* Historical Monuments at Makli, Thatta
* Rohtas Fort
Panama
* Fortifications on the Caribbean Side of Panama: Portobelo-San Lorenzo
* Darien National Park
* Talamanca Range-La Amistad Reserves / La Amistad National Park *
* Archaeological Site of Panamá Viejo and Historic District of Panamá
* Coiba National Park and its Special Zone of Marine Protection
Papua New Guinea
* Kuk Early Agricultural Site
Paraguay
* Jesuit Missions of La Santísima Trinidad de Paraná and Jesús de Tavarangue
Peru
* City of Cuzco
* Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu
* Chavin (Archaeological Site)
* Huascarán National Park #
* Chan Chan Archaeological Zone
* Manú National Park
* Historic Centre of Lima 17
* Río Abiseo National Park
* Lines and Geoglyphs of Nasca and Pampas de Jumana
* Historical Centre of the City of Arequipa
* Sacred City of Caral-Supe
Philippines
* Baroque Churches of the Philippines
* Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park
* Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras
* Historic Town of Vigan
* Puerto-Princesa Subterranean River National Park
Poland
* Cracow's Historic Centre
* Wieliczka Salt Mine
* Auschwitz Birkenau
German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp (1940-1945)
* Belovezhskaya Pushcha / Białowieża Forest *
* Historic Centre of Warsaw
* Old City of Zamość
* Castle of the Teutonic Order in Malbork
* Medieval Town of Toruń
* Kalwaria Zebrzydowska: the Mannerist Architectural and Park Landscape Complex and Pilgrimage Park
* Churches of Peace in Jawor and Swidnica
* Wooden Churches of Southern Little Poland
* Muskauer Park / Park Muzakowski *
* Centennial Hall in Wroclaw
Portugal
* Central Zone of the Town of Angra do Heroismo in the Azores
* Convent of Christ in Tomar
* Monastery of Batalha
* Monastery of the Hieronymites and Tower of Belém in Lisbon
* Historic Centre of Évora
* Monastery of Alcobaça
* Cultural Landscape of Sintra
* Historic Centre of Oporto
* Prehistoric Rock-Art Sites in the Côa Valley
* Laurisilva of Madeira
* Alto Douro Wine Region
* Historic Centre of Guimarães
* Landscape of the Pico Island Vineyard Culture
Romania
* Danube Delta
* Churches of Moldavia
* Monastery of Horezu
* Villages with Fortified Churches in Transylvania 18
* Dacian Fortresses of the Orastie Mountains
* Historic Centre of Sighişoara
* Wooden Churches of Maramureş
Russian Federation
* Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments
* Kizhi Pogost
* Kremlin and Red Square, Moscow
* Cultural and Historic Ensemble of the Solovetsky Islands
* Historic Monuments of Novgorod and Surroundings
* White Monuments of Vladimir and Suzdal
* Architectural Ensemble of the Trinity Sergius Lavra in Sergiev Posad
* Church of the Ascension, Kolomenskoye
* Virgin Komi Forests
* Lake Baikal
* Volcanoes of Kamchatka 19
* Golden Mountains of Altai
* Western Caucasus
* Curonian Spit *
* Ensemble of the Ferrapontov Monastery
* Historic and Architectural Complex of the Kazan Kremlin
* Central Sikhote-Alin
* Citadel, Ancient City and Fortress Buildings of Derbent
* Uvs Nuur Basin *
* Ensemble of the Novodevichy Convent
* Natural System of Wrangel Island Reserve
* Historical Centre of the City of Yaroslavl
* Struve Geodetic Arc *
Saint Kitts and Nevis
* Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park
Saint Lucia
* Pitons Management Area
San Marino
* San Marino Historic Centre and Mount Titano
Saudi Arabia
* Al-Hijr Archaeological Site (Madâin Sâlih)
Senegal
* Island of Gorée
* Niokolo-Koba National Park
* Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary
* Island of Saint-Louis
* Stone Circles of Senegambia *
Serbia
* Stari Ras and Sopoćani
* Studenica Monastery
* Medieval Monuments in Kosovo
* Gamzigrad-Romuliana, Palace of Galerius
Seychelles
* Aldabra Atoll
* Vallée de Mai Nature Reserve
Slovakia
* Historic Town of Banská Štiavnica and the Technical Monuments in its Vicinity
* Levoča, Spišský Hrad and the Associated Cultural Monuments
* Vlkolínec
* Caves of Aggtelek Karst and Slovak Karst *
* Bardejov Town Conservation Reserve
* Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians *
* Wooden Churches of the Slovak part of the Carpathian Mountain Area
Slovenia
* Škocjan Caves #
Solomon Islands
* East Rennell
South Africa
* Fossil Hominid Sites of Sterkfontein, Swartkrans, Kromdraai, and Environs
* iSimangaliso Wetland Park
* Robben Island
* uKhahlamba / Drakensberg Park
* Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape
* Cape Floral Region Protected Areas
* Vredefort Dome
* Richtersveld Cultural and Botanical Landscape
Spain
* Alhambra, Generalife and Albayzín, Granada 20
* Burgos Cathedral
* Historic Centre of Cordoba 21
* Monastery and Site of the Escurial, Madrid
* Works of Antoni Gaudí 22
* Cave of Altamira and Paleolithic Cave Art of Northern Spain
* Monuments of Oviedo and the Kingdom of the Asturias 23
* Old Town of Ávila with its Extra-Muros Churches
* Old Town of Segovia and its Aqueduct
* Santiago de Compostela (Old Town)
* Garajonay National Park
* Historic City of Toledo
* Mudejar Architecture of Aragon 24
* Old Town of Cáceres
* Cathedral, Alcázar and Archivo de Indias in Seville
* Old City of Salamanca
* Poblet Monastery
* Archaeological Ensemble of Mérida
* Route of Santiago de Compostela
* Royal Monastery of Santa María de Guadalupe
* Doñana National Park
* Historic Walled Town of Cuenca
* La Lonja de la Seda de Valencia
* Las Médulas
* Palau de la Música Catalana and Hospital de Sant Pau, Barcelona
* Pyrénées - Mont Perdu *
* San Millán Yuso and Suso Monasteries
* Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula
* University and Historic Precinct of Alcalá de Henares
* Ibiza, Biodiversity and Culture
* San Cristóbal de La Laguna
* Archaeological Ensemble of Tárraco
* Archaeological Site of Atapuerca
* Catalan Romanesque Churches of the Vall de Boí
* Palmeral of Elche
* Roman Walls of Lugo
* Aranjuez Cultural Landscape
* Renaissance Monumental Ensembles of Úbeda and Baeza
* Vizcaya Bridge
* Teide National Park
* Tower of Hercules
Sri Lanka
* Ancient City of Polonnaruwa
* Ancient City of Sigiriya
* Sacred City of Anuradhapura
* Old Town of Galle and its Fortifications
* Sacred City of Kandy
* Sinharaja Forest Reserve
* Golden Temple of Dambulla
Sudan
* Gebel Barkal and the Sites of the Napatan Region
Suriname
* Central Suriname Nature Reserve
* Historic Inner City of Paramaribo
Sweden
* Royal Domain of Drottningholm
* Birka and Hovgården
* Engelsberg Ironworks
* Rock Carvings in Tanum
* Skogskyrkogården
* Hanseatic Town of Visby
* Church Village of Gammelstad, Luleå
* Laponian Area
* Naval Port of Karlskrona
* Agricultural Landscape of Southern Öland
* High Coast / Kvarken Archipelago *
* Mining Area of the Great Copper Mountain in Falun
* Varberg Radio Station
* Struve Geodetic Arc *
Switzerland
* Benedictine Convent of St John at Müstair
* Convent of St Gall
* Old City of Berne
* Three Castles, Defensive Wall and Ramparts of the Market-Town of Bellinzone
* Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch
* Monte San Giorgio
* Lavaux, Vineyard Terraces
* Rhaetian Railway in the Albula / Bernina Landscapes *
* Swiss Tectonic Arena Sardona
* La Chaux-de-Fonds / Le Locle, watchmaking town planning
Syrian Arab Republic
* Ancient City of Damascus
* Ancient City of Bosra
* Site of Palmyra
* Ancient City of Aleppo
* Crac des Chevaliers and Qal’at Salah El-Din
Tanzania, United Republic of
* Ngorongoro Conservation Area #
* Ruins of Kilwa Kisiwani and Ruins of Songo Mnara
* Serengeti National Park
* Selous Game Reserve
* Kilimanjaro National Park
* Stone Town of Zanzibar
* Kondoa Rock-Art Sites
Thailand
* Historic City of Ayutthaya
* Historic Town of Sukhothai and Associated Historic Towns
* Thungyai-Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuaries
* Ban Chiang Archaeological Site
* Dong Phayayen-Khao Yai Forest Complex
the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
* Natural and Cultural Heritage of the Ohrid region 25
Togo
* Koutammakou, the Land of the Batammariba
Tunisia
* Amphitheatre of El Jem
* Medina of Tunis
* Site of Carthage
* Ichkeul National Park
* Punic Town of Kerkuane and its Necropolis
* Kairouan
* Medina of Sousse
* Dougga / Thugga
Turkey
* Göreme National Park and the Rock Sites of Cappadocia
* Great Mosque and Hospital of Divriği
* Historic Areas of Istanbul
* Hattusha: the Hittite Capital
* Nemrut Dağ
* Hierapolis-Pamukkale
* Xanthos-Letoon
* City of Safranbolu
* Archaeological Site of Troy
Turkmenistan
* State Historical and Cultural Park "Ancient Merv"
* Kunya-Urgench
* Parthian Fortresses of Nisa
Uganda
* Bwindi Impenetrable National Park
* Rwenzori Mountains National Park
* Tombs of Buganda Kings at Kasubi
Ukraine
* Kiev: Saint-Sophia Cathedral and Related Monastic Buildings, Kiev-Pechersk Lavra
* L'viv – the Ensemble of the Historic Centre
* Struve Geodetic Arc *
* Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians *
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
* Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd
* Durham Castle and Cathedral
* Giant's Causeway and Causeway Coast
* Ironbridge Gorge
* St Kilda
* Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites
* Studley Royal Park including the Ruins of Fountains Abbey
* Blenheim Palace
* City of Bath
* Frontiers of the Roman Empire * 26
* Westminster Palace, Westminster Abbey and Saint Margaret's Church
* Canterbury Cathedral, St Augustine's Abbey, and St Martin's Church
* Henderson Island
* Tower of London
* Gough and Inaccessible Islands 27
* Old and New Towns of Edinburgh
* Maritime Greenwich
* Heart of Neolithic Orkney
* Blaenavon Industrial Landscape
* Historic Town of St George and Related Fortifications, Bermuda
* Derwent Valley Mills
* Dorset and East Devon Coast
* New Lanark
* Saltaire
* Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
* Liverpool – Maritime Mercantile City
* Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape
* Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal
United States of America
* Mesa Verde National Park
* Yellowstone National Park
* Everglades National Park
* Grand Canyon National Park
* Independence Hall
* Kluane / Wrangell-St Elias / Glacier Bay / Tatshenshini-Alsek # * 28
* Redwood National and State Parks
* Mammoth Cave National Park
* Olympic National Park
* Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site
* La Fortaleza and San Juan National Historic Site in Puerto Rico
* Great Smoky Mountains National Park
* Statue of Liberty
* Yosemite National Park #
* Chaco Culture
* Hawaii Volcanoes National Park #
* Monticello and the University of Virginia in Charlottesville
* Pueblo de Taos
* Carlsbad Caverns National Park
* Waterton Glacier International Peace Park *
Uruguay
* Historic Quarter of the City of Colonia del Sacramento
Uzbekistan
* Itchan Kala
* Historic Centre of Bukhara
* Historic Centre of Shakhrisyabz
* Samarkand – Crossroads of Cultures
Vanuatu
* Chief Roi Mata’s Domain
Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of)
* Coro and its Port
* Canaima National Park
* Ciudad Universitaria de Caracas
Viet Nam
* Complex of Hué Monuments
* Ha Long Bay
* Hoi An Ancient Town
* My Son Sanctuary
* Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park
Yemen
* Old Walled City of Shibam
* Old City of Sana'a
* Historic Town of Zabid
* Socotra Archipelago
Zambia
* Mosi-oa-Tunya / Victoria Falls # *
Zimbabwe
* Mana Pools National Park, Sapi and Chewore Safari Areas
* Great Zimbabwe National Monument
* Khami Ruins National Monument
* Mosi-oa-Tunya / Victoria Falls # *
* Matobo Hills
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