Several nonprofit groups, such as the Asia Pacific Department Military Order of the Purple Heart, the Guam National Olympic Committee and the Guam National Golf Federation, have said cutting funding from gambling would affect their ability to provide service to the community.
Gov. Eddie Calvo's office hasn't yet received the bill for consideration, but his chief of staff yesterday expressed concerns about parts of the bill."The amendment introduced by Sen. (Michael) San Nicolas and adopted by the legislative body would propose to ban all forms of gambling, such as bingo, raffles, cockfighting, and others, ... after the debt from the hospital is paid," Chief of Staff Franklin Arriola said in a statement.
"The administration is concerned that such an amendment -- banning all forms of gambling after all GMH obligations are paid -- was never presented in a public forum to solicit public input on the effects of the amendment."
Mayors Council of Guam Vice President Robert Hoffman said the island's 12 senior citizen centers use bingo games as a means to entertain the manamko' and to subsidize senior citizen center activities.The centers keep 10 percent of every bingo pot.
"The money raised goes to pay for field trips, buy bread, snacks, cleaning supplies -- the things the government doesn't pay for," said Hoffman, the Sinajana mayor."I've spoken with the other mayors and we all share the same concerns. If you outlaw this, then is the government going to pay for this? Or are these senators going to step up to the plate and pay for what we provide?"
Eighteen months ago filmmaker Mark Donne got in touch with me about a film he was making about Britain in the Jubilee year. He said he was taking the temperature of the nation and he wanted to accompany me on my journey, as the Vicar of a parish in one of the host boroughs for the London Olympics. He may also have mentioned at the time some stuff about tax. I cant remember.
Actually the temperatures I had my eye on, when I agreed, were those on those Caribbean Islands and bits of Africa where many of my parishioners come from. And privately I was hoping that this journey would be a bit more glamorous than the 149 bus trip from my church door in Hackney to that patch of ground outside the Bank of England, a couple of miles up the road. In the end it was more stay-cation than vacation. It was a travelogue in one place.
The UK Gold is premiering today (25 June) at the Troxy as an opening event for the East End Film Festival with a score written by Thom Yorke (Radiohead) and Robert del Naja (Massive Attack). The purpose of the film is to bring home the global story of tax avoidance. And it does this by paying close attention to the place which invented the system, which sustains it and benefits from it and would like to keep it all going, thank you very much: the City of London.
I may know less about the financial services industry than I do about experimental rock music, but when I go and stand on the top of my church roof and look out across the housing estates of Hackney to the towers of the City I still find myself asking, What do you lot over there do for us lot over here?
A version of this question also gets asked inside the City itself. I met some money people last year who are similarly concerned that aspects of the financial services lacked transparency, accountability and a consumer-focussed ethos. In fact a few of us got together and, in December, we launched the City Reform Group. Speaking at this launch were representatives from the Consumers Association as well as the Institute of Directors. You dont have to go camping on the steps of St Pauls Cathedral to have noticed that something has gone seriously wrong with our financial system.
But oddly, when it comes to speaking up in public, with very few exceptions, City insiders may as well have taken the omert.This technology allows high volume Testimonials mvpcleaning production at low cost. And it turns out that tax avoidance is the issue in the City where lips are most tightly sealed. Generally, of course, the City is in favour of it. Why wouldnt it be? They will tell you that the cash the tax havens bring into the Citys economy is good for London and good for the country and that, were the havens no longer available as holding bays for capital in transit, businesses would simply exit London. Something like that. But getting an industry expert to make this case for The UK Gold was about as hard as getting an old-school C of E vicar to talk about God.
Why dont they say anything? Well, mainly because they dont need to. The City Corporation, which itself refused an invitation to be interviewed for the film, is a body elected by City firms to promote their interests globally. It has its own permanent office in Parliament, that of the Remembrancer, with a seat beside the Speaker and free range of access across both Houses. It has offices in Brussels, Mumbai, Beijing. And it has what it claims is a private fund, with an estimated capital value of 1.3 billion, to do with as it wishes,You will see Cleaning franchise , competitive price and first-class service. including funding the City UK, a lobbyist for low tax financial centres across the world. There is no secret conspiracy here; its a network of interests hiding in plain sight.
Last week the Chancellor was invited to Mansion House in the City of London to give an account of his plans for the ensuing year. We sometimes refer to the guests at these banquets as the great and the good. In fact, they are not necessarily either. What they are is quite rich and they have the power to hold in place a consensus that keeps the requirements of the financial services at the heart of our political life. I know this because I was a councillor in the City for several years and I watched these wheels turning.
At our own weekly banquet back in the parish I look around at my congregation, gathered here from all corners of the globe. Some claim benefits of one sort or another, others are pensioners, a few have professional trainings, quite a number do office cleaning jobs, one or two in the City itself. What we all have in common, however, is that we recognise our belonging to one another. Our church motto - citizens with the saints - comes from a passage of scripture in which Paul is kicking the Ephesians up the backside for not surrendering to the demands of mutual responsibility: thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labour and work honestly with their own hands, so as to leave something to share with the needy.
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