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Howard Winn

Pitfalls start even before entree for miners' bash
We hear that preparations for the Melbourne Mining Club's (MMC) inaugural dinner in Shanghai caused a few anxious moments for its organisers. 
The event was timed to coincide with a mining industry event organised by Austrade at Australia's Expo pavilion. 
The MMC took a decision two years ago to hold the dinner at the Peninsula Hotel. Since the hotel wasn't built then, there was some relief when it opened its doors earlier this year. 
In the meantime, Tom Albanese, chief executive of Rio Tinto, had been lined up as keynote speaker. That seemed a good choice until things went awry between Rio and the  Beijing officials. 
So, after the Chinalco deal collapsed in June last year, the organisers checked with Albanese (pictured) to see if he was still okay for the event. The response was 'no problem'. Then Stern Hu's arrest caused more concern, but Albanese stuck to his word. 
As the event approached a new problem surfaced. 
Since the MMC is a non-profit organisation it relies heavily on its sponsors, one of which is  Foster's, the wine and drinks company. But the Peninsula pointed out that it had contracts with various suppliers and couldn't allow Foster's beer and wine to be served at the event. 
Intense negotiations took place and a compromise was agreed. The MMC would pay corkage on each bottle consumed - not as much as the ?8 (HK$218)  they were charged by the Nursery Pavilion at Lord's cricket ground for a previous event, but enough to make them pause. But even when this hurdle was surmounted another emerged. 
The Peninsula told the MMC it would serve the Foster's booze but they would have to drink it warm since the hotel's fridges were filled with their own products. 
To its credit, and it has to be said, to the discredit of the Peninsula, the MMC boys pointed out that since a lot of top Chinese businessmen would be coming to the dinner it wouldn't reflect well on the hotel if they served them warm drink. 
After some reflection the hotel relented. 
Strewth!
Fortified for the worst
Mining companies these days, at least outside China, are keen on stressing the safety aspects of their operations. 
While it is commendable to have these explained to workers and visitors at the mine site it is slightly unnerving to have safety procedures explained before a dinner in a hotel or at the start of a press conference. 
The guests at the Melbourne Mining Club dinner were slightly surprised to find themselves listening to a brief explanation about how to leave the building in the event of an emergency. 
How long they retained this information once the wine began to flow is hard to gauge. Some appeared to find it hard enough to find the men's room, let alone the fire exits.
Hand-brain disconnect
Never underestimate the power of human error. This is something, no doubt, BT's chief scientist J.P. Rangaswami  will be reflecting on after his planned demonstration of Ribbit went disastrously wrong. 
The application can re-route  e-mails and calls between devices. The highlight of the demo involved dropping an old BlackBerry into a glass of water. 
The trick had worked perfectly in test runs but when it came to the live demo in front of an invited audience he slipped his hand into the wrong jacket pocket and nonchalantly dropped his personal iPhone into the glass of water. 
His anguished shriek when he realised his mistake added to the amusement of his audience. The demo can be seen on YouTube. 
Superman to the rescue?
The British government has taken the bold step of asking the public for suggestions as to how it should make the ?0 billion in cuts it needs to pay off the debts incurred by the Labour government in bailing out the banks and the various stimulus measures. 
So far, some 45,000 suggestions have appeared on the website set up this week, ranging from the wacky - have prisoners generate electricity by treadmill - to the unthinkable - abolish the monarchy. 
But before the government gets too carried away, maybe it should wait for Li Ka-shing to pull out his chequebook again. He has already bought a power firm and is looking at the Channel tunnel high-speed rail connection. 
A castle or two perhaps, Mr Li?
Don't mention the war
Stephen Schwarzman, chairman and co-founder of private equity firm Blackstone Group, has been forced to make an embarrassing apology after remarks he made last week at an industry lunch. 
'It's a war,' Schwarzman said of the struggle with the US administration over increasing taxes on private-equity firms. 'It's like when Hitler invaded Poland in 1939.' More recently, in a more reflective mood, he said, 'I apologise for what was an inappropriate analogy.' 
You could say he was letting himself off lightly.



Lai See