Member Info for addicknt

At last, some really positive news!

I could add Mather's recent outburst describing the Board as a "s**t show". Not exactly a harmonious situation, is it?

RK, the track record. It's always been a problem, whether the board was full of yes men, through to the recent shenanigans.

I started my career as a graduate trainee at Citibank, as it was called in those days. It was a superb scheme, but unfortunately I hated it.

The one thing which all this nonsense has proved, if proof were needed, this company is totally incapable of developing/constructing and running Cascabel. They can't even run an orderly Board, let alone a multi-billion dollar project.

Fort, I think the residency issue was resolved a while back and he was indeed spending the working week in Quito and weekends in Florida and that tax issues were behind the reason why.

I'd question your suggestion that the CGP boys and Mather were running the show together. You have to bear in mind they loathe each other and there's no love lost between him and Sangha either. As I said in my reply to our Aussie friend, if indeed Mather is behind this, the power pendulum has swung again and I'm just praying they don't completely balls it up.

I think the Sedar thing is fascinating and am looking forward to seeing what emerges from it.

Hopefully, your point about the election will turn out to be correct.

Nal, how lovely to see you survived the cyclone.

I'm sorry to report you are wrong. It was very clear NM had lost his power base and influence had shifted away from him. This is beyond doubt. If he is indeed behind the latest shenanigans -and there are plenty of people who don't think he is -

it provides further support for my argument. Why would he have to do this if he was already exerting influence? Answer; he wouldn't. This isn't a difficult argument to understand, but let me know if you need help. This will come as a terrible shock to you, but companies are dynamic entities and things change.

When have I ever said there aren't other companies in Ecuador? Answer; never.

And yes, it was my opinion SC was doing a reasonable job and was providing the stability the company desperately needed.

Swanley, you could well be right.

NMM, it would be great to know. Was this Mather's doing, or was he as blindsided as well? If he instigated the whole thing, why was he saying what he said whilst in London? Or was his criticism part of the plan to ensure he got his man in the driving seat? As we know, he was telling all and sundry the management were a total s**t show, so was he paving the way to get shareholder support if he needed it?

God how I wish I was invested in a company where the board spent less time stabbing each other in the back and simply got on with the bloody job of delivering shareholder value. If there was an agm now I think I'd be inclined to vote against the whole lot of them.

NMM, it seems pretty obvious that something resembling a turd hit the air conditioning and led to what I can only assume was a panic reaction. This doesn't feel like it was planned in any way at all, and, as I said earlier, as much as I'd love to feel positive I remain dubious about the whole thing.

Fort, I think the one thing I can say with confidence is that we're all on the same side.

All of us are frustrated and just want the Board to deliver some value and frankly, I don't give a toss about who's in the chair or how they do it. However, the management of this company has pretty close to zero credibility, and I just hope they haven't shot themselves in the foot again.

Erm...what has the CFO got to do with the appointment of a chairman? Are you confusing him with someone else? Stackhouse doesn't even sit on the Board.

You're right, Vujcic isn't new and that's exactly my point.

And finally, how do you know the process is delayed? Or is it just a guess? (In my last post I said we may be, but we have no evidence to back-up the suggestion)

Bozi, I can understand that and share your frustration. But the fact is a timetable was agreed with FN, the government and our Board. I suppose the question is, are we behind schedule? As far as I'm aware there's been no indication that we are, but equally we've had no evidence to suggest that we're progressing as planned. In other words, us mere retail shareholders haven't got a scooby.

I suppose the other point is if there was an obvious way to speed things up, why wasn't this discussed and agreed with the government and FN at the outset? Much of the process is dependent upon bureaucracy, has Vujcic got a cunning plan to circumvent the red tape? Do the government agree with him? Or is it just wishful thinking?

Was Vujcic's appointment a reflection of us being behind, or was it simply a case of wanting to speed things up? If it's the latter, I can't see why SC wouldn't have bought into a revised timetable...in fact I'm sure he would.

The problem is we're all in the dark, which is not unusual, and may well never know the answer.

If Vujcic's got some grand new plan and it shows evidence of both being practical and deliverable, I'll be the first in the queue to congratulate him.

Fort, I'm not some kind of Caldwell fanboy, but I do believe the strategy he was pursuing is sensible. It seems very strange to me that Vujcic will not change the strategy, just that he intends to speed it up without telling us how. If he already knows the answer, he's been on the Board for long enough to change things and the RNS should have given full details of his plan.

As far as Stackhouse is concerned, it would be massively disruptive - again - to get rid of him. I was impressed with the way he handled that last interview and it's clear he's on top of matters.

Thank you for your advice to acknowledge just how useless Sc was, but if it's ok with you I'll stick with my opinions.

It seems quite likely that Vujcic will want some cost savings at the top of the company. Who's in the firing line?

Chris Robinson - she's been totally invisible since she joined the company.

Joseland - we don't need another finance guy on the Board.

van Barnveld - not sure what purpose he serves.

Perry Holloway - what evidence do we have that his contribution has been helpful?

Chris Stackhouse - it would be a huge mistake to ditch him.

Sean Tufford - it's very difficult to see what he contributes. (I know he's not an employee, but we're paying him CAD 5k per month.

Any others?

I have no evidence to support this, but in my view Vujcic is unlikely to be someone who will communicate regularly with retail investors. I think he'll limit the flow of information to the minimum necessary.

Last week came as a huge surprise and I'm not sure any of us foresaw Caldwell's removal. We have no idea why this happened or if SC was aware of it or not. We have not been given any detail as to what is going to change and there are many questions which are unanswered, and I expect will remain so.

I think this move is a huge risk for the company and until full details emerge of the plans to accelerate matters, I will remain highly sceptical.

On the plus side, at last we have a chairman who I suspect will be no pushover.

Stackhigh, I suggest you read my post again. In my first sentence I clearly stated socio-economic factors are largely responsible for criminal behaviour. The fact is it's the immigrant communities which are the most deprived, ergo they are responsible for a disproportionate level of criminal behaviour. This is true throughout the world, but it's particularly so in Sweden, and, as I said, the impact on Sweden's once peaceful society has been profound.

Q, of course you're correct about the impact of socio-economic factors and how they are largely responsible for criminal behaviour, but I'm afraid Red is right about the crime stats in Sweden. The fact is the figures show a massive over-representation of non-ethnic Swedes as being responsible for gang related violence, rape and gun related incidents. The murder rate in Sweden is still very low, but again, non-Swedish born citizens commit a disproprtionte number of them. The impact this has had on the country's social cohesion is huge.

Q, no disrespect but being a tourist allows you only the briefest glimpse of a nation. You should read some more about what's been happening there and the ruinous effect immigration has had. Sweden is not the same place as it was when I first visited in 1971. In fact, it's not the same as it was 8 or 9 years ago.

As for the broader issue of immigration, Denmark has been equally affected and now has what I believe to be the most stringent immigration rules of virtually any European nation.

I share your enthusiasm for Sweden, but am under no illusions about what's happened there and the impact it's had on their society.

Q, with regard to Sweden, I'm afraid you're way behind the times.

Q, that wasn't really my point, but no matter.

Q, this is not the forum for debates about history so I won't labour my contribution. But the fact is you're very reductive in your arguments. The French revolution had many more causes other than the works of Rousseau.