Report: BofA cuts South American staff

charlotte.bizjournals.com

According to Dow Jones News service, BofA will eliminate 150 jobs in Brazil and 25 in Argentina. Another 15 to 20 Latin America-related positions in Charlotte and New York will also be cut.

BofA follows other U.S. banks, such as J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc. and FleetBoston Financial Corp., that have recently cut exposure to increasingly volatile Latin American markets.

According to Dow Jones News, BofA will halt investment-banking operations in Brazil, but maintain its asset-management unit there. The bank's Brazilian operations will keep 40 employees, and 25 will remain in Argentina. BofA will continue to run offices in those countries, Mexico, Chile and Venezuela.

BofA officials were unavailable for comment.

www.upi.com By Gregory Tejeda United Press International From the National Desk Published 1/28/2003 1:07 PM

When I saw the headline, "Hispanics outnumber blacks for first time," about the Census Bureau report showing people who identify in some way with the Spanish heritage, my initial reaction was, "Yeah, so?"

On an intellectual level, I appreciate the meaning of growing numbers.

At 37 million people -- one of every eight people in the United States -- Hispanics are becoming a presence that business must cater to and politicians ignore at their own peril.

But while my brother, Chris, jokes about pulling out a giant foam finger and running around the streets shouting, "We're numero uno," the notion Hispanics have overtaken blacks in numbers sounds like a phony accomplishment -- like we've suddenly won the Grand Prize Game!

Is the growth of Hispanics intended to mean that somehow, our situation is now more significant than that of African-Americans?

Some people might claim the problems of black America now belong on the social backburner or might use the population shift to try to stir up dissension.

But a slight shift -- especially one that has been foreseen for years -- does not suddenly alleviate the discrimination faced by U.S. blacks.

Besides, what exactly is a Hispanic?

The once-great Spanish Empire set up its colonies throughout the Americas, including in what is now New Mexico, California and Florida. Spaniards imposed their language, customs and Catholicism on all the indigenous peoples they encountered and also brought African slaves to do the actual heavy work of building new colonies.

Hispanic applies to the descendants of all these people, though those who use the term Latino are trying to emphasize the efforts and cultures of native peoples.

Because of the variety of people covered, not all Hispanics are alike. They include people from countries whose history and issues of concern are varied -- similar to the differences among those from France, Italy and Germany, all Europeans who might be surprised at being lumped together.

I am of Mexican descent. I'm aware some Mexican citizens perceive me as just another Yankee brat whose grandparents "sold out." I don't always feel a social or political kinship with people whose ethnic backgrounds trace back to Puerto Rico or Cuba.

Even though some of our customs -- but not our Spanish accents -- are similar, people who trace their roots to Argentina, Venezuela or the "motherland" of Spain might as well be from another world. So it's hard to take seriously an increase in an ethnic definition that, by its very nature, is artificial.

The issue is more complex for extremely dark-skinned people of Hispanic background. Due to the vagaries of the Census Bureau classifications for race, such people can be counted as Hispanic, African-American or both, depending on their preference.

In fact, it's only when you subtract Hispanics of African background from the African-American category and then add them to the number of Hispanics do Hispanics outnumber blacks. However, Hispanic population growth is expected to continue at high enough rates in the future to remove the discrepancy.

Federal officials said last week 196.2 million people in the United States are white. But the 2000 Census previously showed 48 percent of Hispanics identified themselves racially as white -- compared to 8 percent American Indian, 2 percent African-American and 42 percent, myself included, who picked "other" because they thought the racial categories were flawed.

It's not wrong for some Hispanic people to think of themselves as white. The genetics of European Spaniards run strong in many Hispanic families. They're not Anglo-Saxon white, but then again, neither are people of Polish, Italian or Russian descent.

But people of those ethnic descents get lumped into the vast "white" barrel by the Census Bureau, while Hispanic whites get counted separately.

That makes the population shift "documented" by the study even more meaningless.

With my light complexion, I have often been mistaken for Italian, Greek or even Polish. On explaining my ethnic history, I have been told by some it counts as being "white."

So am I just another white boy? I hope not.

Am I a "vato loco" who, had my father not busted his butt to provide a few advantages with regard to education, could just as easily be dreaming about the day I could work on a garbage truck? (I'm not exaggerating. One of my cousins who didn't get any breaks would love that job.) "Vato loco," not to be confused with "gato loco" or crazy cat, is commonly used to refer to wild, street kids, in some cases gangs.

Or am I just me, a slightly sarcastic writer from Chicago who thinks statistics about "the largest minority" are too easily used negatively to emphasize differences by those who want to keep Hispanics from ever fully assimilating into the United States?

-0-

(Hispanidad is a weekly column about the culture of Hispanics and Latinos in the United States, written by Greg Tejeda, a third-generation Mexican-American. Suggestions for topics can be made to gtejeda@upi.com)

www.washingtonpost.com By Dana Milbank Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, January 28, 2003; Page A19

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer routinely condemns the use of "background" quotes but also speaks on background.

As President Bush flew to St. Louis on Air Force One last week, press secretary Ari Fleischer, giving his usual on-the-record briefing, was asked about popular support for Bush. "If you're interested, I'll be happy to go on background and discuss more data with you," he said.

Huh? Bush aides such as Fleischer routinely condemn the practice of quoting White House officials on a "background," or unnamed, basis. Fleischer has said he tells Bush's top aides they are free to speak to the media as long as they use their names, and he often challenges background attributions in news briefings to discredit reports on sensitive subjects.

But in the use of unnamed sources, the White House is on record for having it both ways -- not unlike previous White Houses. More often than not, the anonymous "senior administration officials" in stories are the same spokesmen and spin doctors -- Fleischer among them -- who normally speak on the record. They routinely speak unnamed, or "on background," with the full knowledge and blessing of the White House.

Sometimes there are genuinely unauthorized "background" quotations, often identifiable by their negative tone. Using broad definitions, there are perhaps 100 "senior administration officials" in the White House and many more throughout the bureaucracy -- a few of whom object to their boss's policies. Generally, though, the unnamed officials are speaking anonymously with the knowledge of their colleagues, to float a trial balloon or to convey an informal message or nuance -- sometimes political dirty work -- that they don't want on the record.

After Fleischer asked to go "on background" on Air Force One last week, the White House sent out two transcripts, one of Fleischer's briefing and one by an unnamed "senior administration official" who went deep into the political nitty-gritty. "I'm happy to talk to you about polls," the official said, "but White House policy is background."

White House policy is not always in favor of "background." In April of last year, when an unnamed official suggested in a report that the administration might support a coup in Venezuela, Fleischer challenged: "What's the name of the official? . . . The person obviously doesn't have enough confidence in what he said to say it on the record." And two months ago, when an unnamed official said Bush would issue an ultimatum to Saudi Arabia, Fleischer dismissed the "anonymous quote from somebody who didn't even put their name behind it."

In a meeting with reporters last week, Bush political adviser Karl Rove said Bush's plan to abolish the dividend tax was evidence that he's "a populist. Give him a choice between Wall Street and Main Street and he'll choose Main Street every time."

As evidence, Rove argued that "45 percent of all of the dividend income goes to people with $50,000-or-less incomes, family incomes. Nearly three-quarters of it goes to families with $100,000 or less family income."

Not exactly. It is true that 43.8 percent of tax returns with dividend income are from households with less than $50,000 in income and 73.8 percent of such returns are from households with less than $100,000. But that doesn't mean the little guy earning less than $50,000 gets "45 percent of all the income" or that the Main Street earners below $100,000 get "three-quarters" of dividend income.

In fact, those earning less than $50,000 get 14.7 percent of dividend income, and those earning less than $100,000 get 32.7 percent, according to a Brookings Institution/Urban Institute analysis. The former would get 6.8 percent of the benefit of Bush's dividend plan, while the latter would get 20.9 percent.

"The United Nations resolution did not put the burden of proof on the United States or the U.N. to prove that Iraq has these weapons," Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said last week. "The U.N. resolution put the burden directly on Iraq to prove that it is disarming and that it does not have these weapons."

In other words, Iraq must prove a negative, and is refusing to do so. Almost a year to the day before Rumsfeld's remark, Fleischer was asked why the administration would not release details about meetings with energy companies such as Enron Corp. to prove that nothing untoward occurred. Fleischer replied: "You're asking us to prove a negative, and that's a road that we're not traveling."

During the Q&A last week, a reporter noted to Rove that "depending on the day your boss may refer to you as 'boy genius' or 'a flower that grows in cow patties.' "

Replied Rove: "More the latter than the former."

From a press pool report describing Bush's appearance last Wednesday at a roundtable meeting in St. Louis: "Bush asked Kathie Zuroweste, who runs a restaurant with her husband, 'What's your biggest problem?' She replied: 'Keeping people. They know they can make more on welfare than from working.' Bush then talked about the need to make the elimination of the death tax permanent."

news.ft.com By Canute James in Kingston Published: January 28 2003 4:00 | Last Updated: January 28 2003 4:00

P&O has ordered four cruise ships not to call at Trinidad and Tobago after reports that a radical Muslim group in the Caribbean state was planning to attack US and British interests with biological weapons if war is launched against Iraq.

The shipping line acted after a warning by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to Britons against travelling to Trinidad and Tobago because of the threat of terrorism and a claim by a former prime minister of links between Trinidad's government and al-Qaeda.

The police in the country, located off Venezuela, said it was not aware of the group that had threatened attacks, which has not been named. Local journalists said they had been blindfolded and taken to a location to be shown the chemicals.

US and UK interests in Trinidad and Tobago include oil and gas installations valued at several billion dollars. Senior army officers said that there were contingency plans to deal with biological attack. The health minister met officials yesterday to discuss responses to attack.

Trinidad and Tobago has a small Muslim community, representing 5.8 per cent of a 1.3m population. In 1980 Jamaat al Muslimeen, a radical Muslim sect, attempted a coup.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said that while most visits to Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago's capital, were trouble-free, "UK nationals worldwide should be aware of the risk of indiscriminate attacks on civilian targets in public places, including tourist sites.

"We believe Trinidad and Tobago to be one of a number of countries where there may be an increased terrorist threat. British nationals should exercise vigilance, particularly in public places frequented by foreigners such as hotels, restaurants and shopping malls."

P&O Princess Cruises said it had kept the four cruises from calling at Trinidad "for security reasons". A spokesman said: "We took the decision after considering advice from a number of sources, including the Foreign Office."

The government said that the travel warning was based on an "exaggeration of local events". However, Basdeo Panday, a former prime minister and leader of the main opposition party, said that local groups were connected to al-Qaeda and that "the government was in association with those elements".

Patrick Manning, the prime minister, rejected Mr Panday's claim, saying it was "one of the worst examples of irresponsibility and irrationality I have seen in my long political career".

www.menewsline.com

WASHINGTON [MENL] -- The United States has relayed a warning to its embassies around the world to prepare for immediate evacuation.

The State Department told U.S. embassies that they should warn Americans living abroad to prepare for immediate evacuation in case of an attack or some other emergency. The department warned Americans abroad to prepare up-to-date documents and medicines so they can quickly leave for home.

The department asked all consulates and embassies worldwide to send a warden's message to local American communities with advice on preparedness for an emergency. The message would warn of such emergencies as political or economic unrest, natural disaster or a terrorist attack.

The department has intervened in helping American citizens escape from several hot spots around the world over the last year. They included Cote D'Ivoire, the Central African Republic, Indonesia, Israel and Venezuela.

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