Apart from the snow-white attire, it could have been, quite literally, two Old Joes getting together for Saturday lunch and a chinwag. Joseph Ratzinger and Jorge Bergoglio made history at the Castel Gandolfo outside Rome last week when, for the first time in at least 600 years, two popes met face to living face. Watching their rather wooden performances before the cameras (neither…
Roman Circus
"He is not the Messiah, he is a very naughty boy". Thus spake Mandy Cohen, mother of Brian, to the ignorant mob besieging her home, rejecting their mindless veneration of her son. Her statement would have been appropriate at many points in history - the world has had no shortage of false messiahs. The human condition…
The 2012/13 Overture
In the '70s and '80s there was a major movement worldwide to gently nudge the Soviet authorities to "Let my people go". Mass rallies, protests and disruption of Russian cultural events were the order of the day from London to New York to Sydney. With the collapse of Communism, the '90s saw the influx to Israel…
Olympic spirit lost
My trip to New York cancelled last week courtesy of Superstorm Sandy, I decided to take advantage of the hour before anyone realized my calendar was empty to clear my desk. Forgetting the utterly ignored disposable cup of coffee nestling under a sheet of foolscap, I watched in helpless horror as it tipped drunkenly on its side and lazily cast forth its…
Blessed are the consumers (part 1)
One of my first memories as a child is of the working forge across the road from our home where rag-and-bone men and other deniers of the 20th century could take their carthorses to be shod. A couple of days ago I was driving with my son through an ultra-orthodox enclave, where the regular upkeep of roads…
Pole position
Several years ago we went on a family trip to Holland. Sitting in the front passenger seat of the taxi taking us south from Schiphol, I tried to keep the driver's attention while the kids re-enacted the Second World War in the rear of the van. Observing that signs on the motorway to Uit appeared over…
French toast
The French are the masters of indignation. Staring at an offender from the top of his Gallic aquiline nose, a Frenchman can turn any opponent to blancmange faster than a speeding escargot. You don't cross the French. Marking Bastille Day last weekend with a cafe-au-lait and croissant in the comfort of my salon, my mind wandered back to…
Rocket tax
At the dawn of my career when I would flit from audit client to audit client, red and green pens at the ready, every accounting department would resonate at least once each day to the gravelly voice of Bonnie Tyler singing "Every now and then I fall apart". Well, last week scientists finally proved (almost) that she was…
Waltz or requiem?
I was in Vienna last week for a European tax conference. Inevitably, the Eurozone crisis loomed enormously large but, in addition to the crop of European experts, there were speakers from China, Africa and the US to remind participants that Europe is not an island. Throughout the two days there was one word that refused…
Tax Break 