Luxembourg American Cultural Society

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The LACS' Partner Organization in Luxembourg, the Roots and Leaves Society, recently release a YouTube video featuring the new Roots and Leaves March dedicated to the Luxembourg American Cultural Society.

The March was composed in 2012 by musician Daniel Heuschen and is performed on the video by the Harmonie Municipale Echternach with Heuschen conducting. The Roots and Leaves March video was produced by Georges Calteux and Solange Cousement.

The March celebrates the mission of the LACS which is to preserve the "roots" of Luxembourg heritage/culture throughout the United States and to nurture the "leaves" of continued relationships of family, friendship, cultural exchange, tourism and commerce between Luxembourg and the United States.

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Cargolux-Qatar Airways: an investigation report

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Cargolux-Qatar Airways: rapport sur le deal

paperJam has news: the long awaited audit on that memorable transaction with QR needed to be audited independently, according to a Parliamenry decision dated December 19, 2012. On Monday, Mr. Frieden, central figure to the deal will receive the results of that audit he had commissioned from PwC.

Honni soit qui mal y pense.

A verdade em Português !

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As seen in the Brazilian "Economia". 

Luxemburgo pretende acabar com sigilo de paraísos fiscais

After years of resistance, Luxembourg to end secrecy on tax havens

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES
What a well researched article!
After years of resistance, Luxembourg to end secrecy on tax havens

Cargolux: Can't you see the agreement there on the table?

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Cargolux:  Can't you see the agreement there on the table?

No doubt, Cargolux has been bleeding money over most of the past years. We know that most of those losses were the result of corporate blunders, such as the price-fixing scandal and the QR fox in the chicken coop. But through all this, Cargolux has also been pretty resilient in those adverse conditions. Which bodes well for the prosperity of the new after-scandal Cargolux.

As for an agreement with the unions, a reality check shows that the deal IS actually on the table. Really, to an outside observer the ongoing drama about disagreement is more of a kabuki theater. Maybe ego related, as it happens normally in a negotiation. So take a deep breath: Fact is that there has been mismanagement in the past, none of the employees' fault. Which leaves less money on the table. And for sure the company can only distribute the wealth it creates. So by now, the government/owner has in fact promised to do a better job in appointing a new Chairman. The unions on their side show a new flexibility in leaving their former line of refusal, and creatively thinking through a proposal where they share the cost of cleaning up the mess. Effectively giving up long held positions. I believe, that's the deal!

The devil is in the detail maybe, but the details here are based on management's projections. Last year's projections of a $60 million loss were 50% wrong. A discussion about what needs to happen in 2013 and 2014 is equally hypothetical and should not go beyond considering a handful of scenarios. Among them the pessimistic one put forward by management, requiring savings of $12.5 million on the salary mass. 

I would boldly also consider the best case scenario: where the new management does a good job, where employees get incentivized by a smooth and fair agreement, and maybe some creative reward programs for innovation proposals. That will add a tiger in the tank. The fleet is one of the newest in the world. Markets should improve as the US seems to overcome 4 years of weakness and the EU discovers that austerity is indeed very austere. There can be bright years ahead.

On that background the detail is actually to be negotiated between the two as a reciprocity: you win, we win, or you lose, we lose. It is all about setting up criteria. What happens then in the real scenario is what settles the issue. It needs to be a scenario that has its rewards, not only risks. And when it comes to risk taking in that case, it is mostly on the employees' side. Indeed management could mess up again. Old hands are still around.  Therefore the solution could even include a pool of CV shares controlled by the employees and based on the concessions to be made, as a guarantee, and everyone has skin in the game. Not to forget obvious avenues such as revisiting the Azerbaijani offer for deeply discounted fuel, that could not be accepted in the past, because Luxembourg fuel is so much better. Just an example of a million here, a million there.

A smooth exit out of the present crisis will make a new investor comfortable enough to get in. I'm actually aware of some good prospects right under our nose. As they are not in the airline cargo business, no cannibalism needs to be feared. And, that would be icing on the cake.

Memorial Day 2013

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Memorial Day 2013

“Boys don’t cry,” my aunt Naomi would say. So when I had to, I used some concealing strategies. That was a long time ago. But I knew Naomi would pop up, the moment I said:”Dear Day.” I had arrived in Wilkes-Barre the day before Memorial Day 1992, to honor the memory of Sgt Day G. Turner, who fell during WW II in Luxembourg. At my hotel I had rehearsed my speech for the following morning, and I had choked up every time, exactly there, when I addressed him with his first name “Dear Day.” I took a deep breath…..

Aunt Naomi and my childhood had invaded my mind. There was no television in those days. Neighbors would spend evenings together, under starry skies during summer, at the fireplace in winter. There would be my mother Marie, my father Nicolas, my five sisters Naomi, Cecile-Liliane, Lucie, Irene and Nicole. There would be my  cousins Josephine and Leo. And our neighbor Nicolas, his son Nicolas, his grand-son Nicolas, our other neighbor Nicolas and his neighbor Nicolas. How come my name was not Nicolas? My original birth certificate has a stamp “Deutsches Reich” on it, together with an eagle and a swastika. My name Egide was changed  by court order into its Latin form “Aegidius” to sound more German. My sisters’ names were suspiciously too French to translate and were changed into Erika, Monika and so on. My father was an outspoken anti Nazi. He had defeated a German attempt to enlist our town’s cultural society into the German SA. Then he went into hiding. My oldest sibling, Jean-Pierre, who became Hans Peter, had refused to join the Hitler Youth. At age 17, he was kicked out of high school and was drafted and sent to the Russian front. A cousin who had deserted, was dragged through town and shot. My sister Naomi (then Monika), got her marching order to join a Krupp ammunition factory in Essen as a slave laborer in the RAD, the forced labor department.
On September 10, 1944, while the family was fearing deportation for its anti-German leanings, a light aviation plane with a white star on a blue field on its wings flew over. Of course at an age of 7 months, I didn’t realize that I had chosen miserable times to be in this world. But later, during those long evenings, I heard the stories a hundred times. I was able to finish the adults’ sentences. There were all of a sudden GI’s around, all for sure much taller than 6 feet. They carried rifles, chewing gum, chocolate and a dictionary. They had medications. My mother’s sore throat went away and never came back.
Then all of a sudden the battle of the Bulge broke loose. A whole squad was in and around our house. “We take the boy,” my first baby sitters ever would say, while my mother tried to improve on the few combat rations. I know she also would bake pancakes. There was Kelly, who had written “Kelly loves Nelly” on a pre-war 5 Francs note. There was Fritz who had organized an impromptu patrol, because he had heard suspicious noises. When the patrol came back, they had identified the noises as not really coming from Germans, but from squealing pigs at a neighboring farm. That was such a relief: confusing Germans with pigs in those times was the most hilarious possible thing to happen. Kelly was killed in action two weeks later. Those old stories rushed through my head, but this now was Wilkes Barre, PA, and I was the Consul General of Luxembourg and I had to deliver a speech and choked up.

SSGT Day G. Turner

So I tried to get past the critical “Dear Day.” … The silence seemed endless. I was trapped in an unmanly situation. I couldn’t hide. A TV camera was whirring. In the front row, Sgt Day’s five sisters, were almost silently sobbing, when I said “Dear Day”. There was the Governor, the Mayor, the veterans. I had to say something, fill the silence: “I’m sorry, it is…a little overwhelming” When I got to the facts, that helped. “Dear Day: I know now that in the early December days of 1944, up there in the small Ardennes village of Dahl you commanded your 9-man squad. It turned out to become a critical mission. You were effectively going to defeat a German force so overwhelming in numbers and weaponry that the outcome was a miracle. The enemy was supported by artillery, mortar, and rocket fire. You had to withdraw into a nearby house, but you were determined to defend it to the last man. After hours of fighting, 5 of your men were wounded and 1 was killed. You would not give up, even boldly flinging a can of flaming oil at the first wave of attackers. They dispersed, they got into the house and you fought them room to room in some fierce hand-to-hand encounters. You hurled hand grenade for hand grenade, bayoneted 2 who rushed a doorway and you fought on with the enemy's weapons when your own ammunition was expended. The savage fight raged for 4 hours. Finally, when only 3 of your men were left unwounded, the enemy surrendered. Twenty-five prisoners were taken, 11 enemy dead and a great number of wounded were counted.

Sgt. Turner, Sir:
Your heroic leadership, determination and courage freed me when I was a baby. You earned the Congressional Medal of Honor, but I never even could thank you. I’m frustrated and inconsolable that one month later the enemy took you away from us.

Now, 17 years after honoring you in Wilkes Barre, dear Day, I just want to follow up on that speech. I wanted to tell you that things are fine. Certainly better than the prospects I had the year I was born. But then you came along and made the ultimate sacrifice for us. As you may know, I’m now a grandfather of three little Americans. I’ll tell them about you. And one day, when they are old enough, I’ll take them to the American Military Cemetery in Luxembourg. We’ll walk down the alley from General Patton’s grave, among the sea of 5,000 crosses and David’s Stars. Then we turn left at Plot E, Row 10, Grave 72 that says: Day G. Turner, SSGT 319 INF 80 DIV, Pennsylvania Feb 8 1945, Medal of Honor. You’ll recognize us: Morganne, Emilie and Alexander will carry Forget-Me-Nots.

Europe Pushes to Shed Stigma of a Tax Haven

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ARTICLE

Europe Pushes to Shed Stigma of a Tax Haven 

Luxembourg will join a Europe-wide effort to share records on bank accounts held by foreigners. 

By ANDREW HIGGINS The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune

An excellent excursion into the meanders of tax havens. Unless, as of yesterday, Luxembourg tries a Houdini out of its commitment to embrace automatic information. But that only beats the clock by a bit.