Middle East Banks: Building an asset in IT
Published February 22, 2012 | 
The continued push to deliver new products and services is helping banks to build new business, but it is taxing their already- stretched IT resources, according to a recent study by Booz & Company.
Throughout the evolution of the financial-services industry, banks have harnessed new technologies to offer current and prospective customers increasingly sophisticated products and services.
In the Middle East, banks attempt to meet evolving consumer needs while encouraging the use of low-cost electronic channels. However, as the pace of this technological evolution intensifies, bank Chief Information Officers (CIOs) are finding that their IT functions are overburdened by demands from business and the challenge of maintaining an ever- growing portfolio of technology solutions. As a result, they are significantly hindering the bank’s ability to go to market quickly with new products and services, the study warned. ”This challenge has been further compounded regionally by shortages in some local labour markets, such as shortages of technically-trained graduates and difficulties in hiring foreign labour due to protracted visa application processes,” said Ramez Shehadi, a partner with Booz & Company.
Resourcing models
There are a number of resourcing models for banks to consider to manage effectively their growing IT development demands, the study said. Each comes with its own set of merits – and limitation.
In-house Staff
Pros: Allows banks to maintain control of the IT operation and keep proprietary knowledge in the bank.Cons: This model is restricted by the available local talent.
Contracting
Pros: A simplified hiring and termination process, and the bank keeps control of the IT function as it remains on-site. Cons: More costly than hiring an in-house team directly, because vendors add a premium for their service.
Outsourcing
Pros: Access to new labour and talent pools and may generate labour cost savings if the vendor has established economies of scale. Cons: Reduced control over people and processes, potential loss of intellectual capital, possible cultural differences and high turnover rates typically seen among IT vendors.
Cloud Computing
Pros: This is slowly becoming a more popular option as vendors’ experience and success in this arena continues to grow. Cons: Becoming fully dependent on a vendor can be a disadvantage due to the loss of technology ownership, which makes it difficult to undo such a partnership. There is also the potential for integration issues, as well as regulations that may prevent the exportation of customer data outside of the bank’s home country.
Are ODCS the answer?
The study said the Offshore Development Centre (ODC) option is the most effective model for the Middle East for a number of reasons. They grant access to new labour markets and remotely established IT service providers while enabling the company to maintain partial ownership (in the case of a JV) or full ownership (in a BOT or captive model).
This makes an ODC less risky than other sourcing options, while the added control of an ODC facilitates its potential repatriation once the required IT skill set is available locally. This option is increasingly critical to governments (particularly in the GCC) as they seek to develop the capabilities of their nationals. Due to these advantages, ODCs have emerged worldwide as an increasingly attractive option; in fact, global spending on offshore IT services grew at a compounded annual growth rate of 24 per cent between 2004 and 2009.
The study pointed out that banks of the Middle East have one advantage over their Western counterparts, in that they have a relatively low- wage professional talent pool within easy reach. Egypt, Jordan and the UAE boast healthy numbers of IT graduates, and India’s tech-savvy labour pool and established IT service providers are close at hand.
Devil in the detail
A successful transition to an ODC model requires highly effective execution, the study said. Setting up an ODC takes a large up-front investment, which can quickly turn into a loss if governance and integration issues are not thoroughly planned out. ”Beyond deciding which ODC model is the best fit for its business, a bank must develop a clear picture of what it requires from its IT function.
In particular, it should decide which resources will go to the ODC and which should stay in-house,” commented Lutfi Zakhour, a Principal with Booz & Company.
“CIOs should evaluate the roles of IT function plays within the company; those that have a direct impact on the bank’s ability to go to market and maintain its current IT capability should be retained in-house. Operational activities such as development and testing are stronger candidates for offshoring.”
The CIO should then endeavour to understand the linkages between individual IT functions and the various technology solutions, taking into consideration the degree to which the technologies are strategic, are customised or standard in the marketplace, and are controlled by regulations governing issues such as cross-border transmission of data.
CIOs who turn to an ODC as an offshoring solution should know going in that they require sufficient setup time and additional manpower to initiate and manage the relationship. That means there will likely be pockets of downtime, either during the launch process or later during handover periods, when the bank has more IT employees than the current workflow demands. These temporary inefficiencies are more than offset by the IT function’s heightened abilities to support new products and respond to the day-to- day needs of the business over the longer term. nBME
Offshore development Centre explained…
There are three forms of ODCs:
1) Build-operate-transfer (BOT): The centre is started and operated by a partner for a fee until it is transferred fully back to the bank2) Captive: The centre is entirely set up and operated by the bank 3) Joint ventures (JVs): Ownership is shared with a partner
Conheça o aluguel mais caro de Nova York: uma casa de US$ 100.000 por mês
Published February 22, 2012 | Por JOSH BARBANEL
Cruze a porta envelhecida da entrada de um edifício do século 19 na Rua Lafayette, no SoHo, em Nova York, e você ficará diante de um espelho d’água azulado – é a vista de uma piscina de 11 metros de diâmetro.
É uma entrada inusitadamente ousada — criada por um cineasta que é um mestre dos filmes de terror — e pertence a que atualmente é a casa com o aluguel mais caro de Nova York.
A casa de múltiplos andares, com seus espaços abertos no estilo loft e 1.200 metros quadrados, foi posta recentemente para alugar mobiliada por US$ 100.000 ao mês, US$ 50.000 por semana ou US$ 20.000 a diária.
Rob Bennett for The Wall Street Journal
A fachada do edifício no elegante bairro do Soho.
A casa, que já foi uma subestação elétrica no século 19, foi transformada num palacete no centro de Nova York, pelo diretor Marcus Nispel e sua mulher, Dyan. Na reforma, eles decidiram deixar algumas arestas mais rudimentares no imóvel, comprado em 1996.
Entre os longas dirigidos por Nispel estão refilmagens de filmes de horror famosos como “Sexta-feira 13″ e “Massacre da Serra Elétrica” e “Frankenstein”. Sua obra mais recente é a nova versão de “Conan, o Bárbaro”, lançada no meio do ano.
Os Nispel vivem atualmente mais na costa oeste dos Estados Unidos e têm usado o espaço mais como um cantinho em Nova York, alugando-o para festas e filmagens.
Rob Bennett for The Wall Street Journal
Uma sala no quarto andar com acesso a um pátio.
O vídeo da música de 2008 “Halo”, da cantora Beyoncé, foi produzido na sala da casa com pé direito de oito metros, bem como na piscina, onde Beyoncé foi filmada flutuando embaixo d’água num vestido branco. O vídeo já foi visto 112 milhões de vezes no YouTube.
Os Nispel pagaram US$ 1,75 milhão pelo lugar em 1996. Ele estava listado no arquivo da cidade como um armazém, mas era usado na época como uma galeria de arte. O casal finalmente conseguiu no fim de 2010 um alvará de habitação para a casa reformada e agora decidiram colocá-la para alugar.
“Demorou muito para colocar tudo no padrão”, disse Steve Halpern, corretor da Citi Habitats que está apresentando o imóvel para os interessados. Halpern disse que só está autorizado a dizer que a casa foi “a residência nova-iorquina de um diretor de cinema e sua família”.
Rob Bennett for The Wall Street Journal
Uma janela no primeiro andar dá vista para o fundo da piscina que foi usada em um vídeo da cantora Beyoncé.
Mas o nome de Nispel está na escritura pública do imóvel, bem como o da mulher. Um corredor no porão é forrado com pôsteres de seus filmes. Ele não retornou um pedido de entrevista.
O aluguel cobrado é o mais caro de todos os imóveis residenciais de Nova York, segundo anúncios compilados pela Streeteasy.com. Essa contagem não incluiu várias suítes combinadas com serviços hoteleiros no Waldorf Astoria na Park Avenue ou na Rua East 50th. Uma unidade de 550 metros quadrados nesses lugares sai por US$ 150.000 por mês.
Vários corretores disseram que o aluguel cobrado parece um pouco alto, mas uma casa grande e com estilo único no SoHo, de dono famoso, pode render um aluguel maior que as casas tradicionais no mercado do Upper East Side, que sempre foi o bairro mais caro da cidade.
Existem cerca de duas dezenas de outras casas para alugar na cidade com aluguel de US$ 50.000 ou mais. A casa mais cara no Upper East Side custa US$ 85.000 por mês, na Rua East 71st, seguida de outra cujo aluguel foi reduzido de US$ 90.000 para US$ 78.000, na Rua East 63rd.
A escassez de imóveis do tipo para alugar significa que há poucas opções como essas em cada vizinhança, o que cria oportunidades para proprietários e corretores.
A casa tem várias modificações inusitadas.
A piscina tem 2,4 metros de profundidade e 3,6 metros de largura, com uma janela de um lado e portais do outro. Os portais ligam a piscina a um quarto de hóspedes com escada em espiral projetada para lembrar a de um submarino.
A sala tem uma grande tela de cinema retrátil que é iluminada por janelas de quase quatro metros e duas lanternas náuticas que dizem ter sido retiradas de um ferryboat aposentado do bairro nova-iorquino de Staten Island.
Também há um terraço de 85 metros quadrados e um elevador monta-prato ao lado da cozinha industrial de design aberto. Uma lareira francesa de época foi instalada na sala de estar, enquanto as pias de pedra esculpida e os azulejos do banheiro foram importados de um monastério francês.
China rebukes Iran for oil ban on UK and France
Published February 22, 2012 | Beijing: China rebuked Iran Monday for stopping oil sales to British and French companies at the weekend, calling for renewed efforts at dialogue over an escalating stand-off over Tehran’s controversial nuclear programme.
China has repeatedly called for talks over Tehran’s efforts to enrich its own uranium, which Western countries suspect is aimed at obtaining nuclear weapons. Iran has said the enrichment is for power generation.
"We have consistently upheld dialogue and negotiation as the way to resolve disputes between countries, and do not approve of exerting pressure or using confrontation to resolve issues," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said when asked about Iran’s ban on oil sales to British and French firms.
China "hopes all sides can get back onto the correct path of dialogue as soon as possible," Hong told a daily news briefing.
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The Best of Dickens’s Life and Times
Published February 22, 2012 | By JULIA M. KLEIN
New York
A1987 New Yorker cartoon at the Morgan Library & Museum suggests just how thoroughly Charles Dickens and his works have penetrated American culture. A publisher, perusing a manuscript, presses the author to clarify the famous opening line of “A Tale of Two Cities”: “I wish you would make up your mind, Mr. Dickens. Was it the best of times or was it the worst of times? It could scarcely have been both.”
As the Morgan’s show “Charles Dickens at 200″ notes, Dickens (1812-70) remains one of a handful of authors treasured by both literary scholars and the broader public. The volume of movies, plays and BBC miniseries adapted from his works is so great that it’s possible to know his indelible characters and reformist politics without having read a single novel.
Charles Dickens at 200
The Morgan Library & Museum
Through Feb. 12
The Morgan’s compact exhibition has delights for amateurs and experts alike. Falling short of a definitive biographical or literary survey, it serves the limited goal of showcasing the Morgan’s collection of Dickensiana, the most extensive outside England.
These manuscripts, first editions, letters, illustrations, portraits and ephemera are choice; the labels, exemplary. The show smartly offers visitors a booklet with transcriptions of all letters on view, a low-tech remedy for the perennial illegibility of such exhibits. Dickens’s handwriting was neat but small, and it grew even smaller with age, as though he were struggling to save the cost of paper (unnecessary by that point in his highly remunerative career).
The show is organized around the topics “Manuscripts and Letters,” “Philanthropy,” “America,” “Collaboration,” “Mesmerism,” “Christmas Books” and “Story Weaver.” That last one focuses on the manuscript of Dickens’s final completed novel, “Our Mutual Friend,” and the 1865 train accident from which he rescued it after helping fellow passengers.
The Morgan Library & Museum, New York
‘Portrait of Charles Dickens Surrounded by Eight Characters From His Novels,’ attributed to George Cruikshank.
The thematic approach largely works. But the center section, seemingly described by the “Manuscripts and Letters” text, also displays images and artifacts, while other manuscripts and letters are scattered throughout the show. Declan Kiely, exhibition curator, said the center section is meant to be “introductory in nature—a place to pick up information and clues . . . that help you understand other sections.”
That aim could certainly have been clarified. Turning, for example, from accounts of Dickens’s two trips to America to the opposite wall, one finds a watercolor depicting the factory in which Charles worked for a year as a boy. That traumatic experience famously influenced his depictions of child labor. But the image, in the center section, would have made more sense as part of an explicit biographical prologue, or in a discussion of the links between the author’s life and work.
Anyone expecting illumination of Dickens’s troubled romantic history is likely to be disappointed. There are only brief mentions of his wife, Catherine—with whom he fathered 10 children before abandoning her—and his mistress, Ellen “Nelly” Ternan. (For details, read Claire Tomalin’s new biography, “Charles Dickens: A Life.”)
Still, visitors will likely be entranced by a rare surviving page from Dickens’s manuscript of his first novel, “The Pickwick Papers”; letters describing in detail his plans for a shelter for “fallen” women; photographs of the author at middle age, bewhiskered and balding; and original illustrations by such collaborators as Hablot K. Browne and George Cruikshank. The plates used to make Browne’s illustrations for “David Copperfield” are here, as are Dickens’s traveling inkwell and an ivory seal given to him by his best friend and future biographer, John Forster.
Dickens wrote all of his 15 novels in serial form—installments often with cliffhanger endings. The entire set of “The Pickwick Papers” (1836-37) is displayed, a huge stack of pamphlets. Often Dickens worked on two serials at once, keeping his complex plots in his head, with no chance for organizational revisions.
Over time, his manuscripts reveal both more planning and more editing. “I write with great care and pains (being passionately fond of my art, and thinking it worth any trouble),” he explains in an 1856 letter to Sophie Verena, a German novelist and admirer.
The letters offer a relatively unvarnished portrait of his views. In 1842, to his friend William Charles Macready, he proclaims his disappointment with America, saying: “This is not the Republic of my imagination. I infinitely prefer a liberal Monarchy.” Predicting the success of “A Christmas Carol” in December 1843, he writes: “In March or so, please God, I shall be as rich as (a very moderate) Jew.”
Photographs and illustrations lead us, with startling immediacy, into Dickens’s world. The show’s most archetypal image, a drawing attributed to Cruikshank, is an adaptation of an 1863 photo of Dickens, ringed with some of his most popular characters, including the Micawbers, Little Nell, Fagin and Mr. Pickwick. It gives us a Dickens more mythic than mortal, a dazzlingly energetic writer-hero who conquered Victorian audiences and still stirs our imaginations.
Ms. Klein is a cultural reporter and critic in Philadelphia.
Sold! More Small Businesses Exchanged Hands Last Year
Published February 22, 2012 | By SARAH E. NEEDLEMAN
The small-business-for-sale marketplace picked up again last year, for the second year in a row, thanks in part to better business performance.
Sales of businesses with roughly $360,000 in annual revenue rose 3.3% in 2011, according to BizBuySell.com, a San Francisco-based online marketplace for small-business acquisitions. The median revenue for small businesses sold last year rose by 6.7%, its data show.
![[SBsale]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-RK494_SBsale_D_20120117192130.jpg)
Getty Images
But the median sale price inched up only 3.3% to $155,000, suggesting that it’s still largely a buyer’s market. Sellers are still being “a little bit conservative with their sale price to get things done,” says Curtis Kroeker, a BizBuySell general manager.
Slight improvements in small-business lending conditions could be one factor helping to boost transactions, Mr. Kroeker says. But many sellers are continuing to help finance deals for buyers who are unable to secure sufficient funding otherwise, he adds.
“Everyone’s seeing growth in revenue,” says Tom Gottlieb, managing partner at VR Mergers & Acquisitions LLC, an Austin, Texas brokerage. But he believes that “banks are holding things back from really going well,” adding that “even when the banks are involved, you have to do seller financing in many cases.”
The firm, which mostly handles deals in the $1 million range, closed 15% more transactions in 2011 than it did the year prior, and selling prices were up about 10%, he says.
In healthy economies, seller financing typically accounts for about 20% to 30% of a small-business sale, says Joseph L. Caffrey, president and CEO of Worldwide Business Brokers LLC, a brokerage based in Virginia Beach, Va., with locations throughout the East Coast. But in recent years and still today, sellers are finding that they need to put up as much as 50% to 70%.
“Everybody’s beginning to understand the economy is not going to see a fast turnaround,” Mr. Caffrey says. “This recovery is going be a long slog.”
At Sunbelt of Greater Louisiana, a brokerage serving the Baton Rouge area, sales last year included a few that exceeded $1 million, unlike the year before. The firm managed 33 small-business transactions in 2011, up from 22 in 2010, according to Robert Bourgeois, chief executive officer.
“It’s all a matter of confidence, primarily on the buyer’s part,” he says. “We’re getting brisk activity already.”
BizyBuySell’s Mr. Kroeker believes that the business-for-sale market is poised to grow even further in 2012 as the overall economy recovers. “Barring a global economic shock, we expect a continued steady slow path to improvement,” he says.
In 2010, small-business transactions rose 2.9%, according to BizBuySell, but that small increase had followed the whopping 28% decrease in such transactions during 2009.
EPA Annual Enforcement Results Highlights Commitment to Address Largest Pollution Problems with Greatest Community Impact / Focused effort on high-impact cases leads to increases in pollution reduced and investments in pollution controls
Published February 22, 2012 | Release Date: 12/08/2011Contact Information: Stacy Kika, Kika.stacy@epa.gov, 202-564-0906, 202-564-4355;
Contacto en español: Lina Younes, younes.lina@epa.gov, 202-564-9224, 202-564-4355
WASHINGTON – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its annual enforcement and compliance results. EPA’s enforcement and compliance program enforces environmental laws that protect our nation’s air, land and water by taking action to cut illegal pollution and protect people’s health and communities. In fiscal year Fiscal Year 2011, EPA enforcement actions led to more than 1.8 billion pounds in pollution reduced, an estimated $19 billion in required pollution controls and approximately $168 million in civil penalties.
“Our annual results reflect the fact that a strong and effective enforcement program is good for responsible businesses, public health and communities across the country,” said Cynthia Giles, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. “As we continue our focus on the most serious pollution problems, we expect to see better environmental performance and greater public health benefits.”
In FY 2011, EPA enforcement resulted in commitments to:
- Install pollution controls for a cleaner tomorrow: $19 billion invested to improve environmental performance and compliance efforts, a record year, including $3 billion dollars to clean up hazardous waste in communities
- Protect people’s health from dangerous pollution: 1.8 billion pounds of harmful air, water, and chemical pollution reduced and 3.6 billion pounds of hazardous waste reduced, properly disposed of or treated
- Deter illegal pollution through civil penalties: $168 million in civil penalties assessed ($152 million in federal penalties and $16 million in actions taken jointly by EPA and state and local governments)
- Fight environmental crime: $35 million in fines and restitution, $2 million in court ordered environmental projects and 89.5 years of incarceration to deter future violations and hold violators accountable
- Invest additional resources in affected communities: $25 million committed by companies through enforcement settlements to conduct supplemental environmental projects in communities
Cases under EPA’s national enforcement initiatives, which focus enforcement and compliance resources and expertise on serious pollution problems affecting communities, produced the majority of commitments to install pollution controls and led to settling important cases, including the settlement with the Tennessee Valley Authority, which will lead to up to $27 billion in annual health benefits and provide $350 million for environmental projects to benefit communities.
More information on EPA’s FY 2011 enforcement and compliance results:
http://epa.gov/compliance/resources/reports/endofyear/eoy2011/index.html
More information on EPA’s national enforcement initiatives: http://epa.gov/compliance/data/planning/initiatives/index.htmlReceive our News Releases Automatically by Email
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We should be No 1 in one-day cricket too, Morgan says
Published February 21, 2012 | Dubai: Eoin Morgan wants England to be the world’s No 1 One Day International (ODI) team in time for the 2015 World Cup.
Although England are currently ranked a lowly fifth following their thrashing in India late last year, they have outplayed Pakistan in the current series in the UAE and lead 3-0 ahead of today’s final match.
"Where we want to be is up there at No 1 in the world by the World Cup in 2015. We have to be in a position where we are a strong enough side to say that we want to win this World Cup. That is where we want to be in the long term," Morgan, who scored an unbeaten 24 in England’s nine-wicket win in Dubai on Saturday, said.
"I think we have come a long way. The stint we did in India had pegged us back a long way and so again we had to start from scratch in playing in this part of the world. We have all got off to a fantastic start and it is now coming back to a case of not getting carried away from where we are and where we want to be," Morgan, who has struggled for form in this tour, added.
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Massachusetts Landlords Fined for Failing to Notify Holyoke Area Tenants about Lead Paint (MA)
Published February 21, 2012 | Release Date: 01/09/2012Contact Information: David Deegan, (617) 918-1017
(Boston, Mass. – January 9, 2012) – The owners and manager of 11 housing units at 10 properties in the Holyoke area have agreed to pay a total of $16,000 to resolved claims by the US Environmental Protection Agency that they violated the federal lead paint disclosure law.
According to EPA’s New England office, Atlas Property Management, Inc., 224-224A Washington Street Nominee Realty Trust, and Archgate Townhouses, LLC violated the law between 2007 and 2009 by failing to provide prospective tenants with information concerning the presence of lead paint.
Atlas Property Management of Holyoke, which managed all of the properties and handled all of the lease transactions in question, and the Washington Street Trust, which owns 10 of the 11 units in question, together agreed to pay a total penalty of $12,500 to resolve the EPA allegations. Atlas manages residential rental properties with more than 250 units in and around the area and specializes in “problem buildings” requiring high levels of service and property maintenance.
Archgate Townhouses of Swampscott, which owns just one of the units at issue, agreed to pay $3,500 to settle its alleged violations. The violations against Archgate arise out of an October 2009 lease from one of the rental units in a property located at 758 Westfield St. in West Springfield.
All three parties were charged with failing to give tenants required lead hazard information pamphlets, failing to include lead warning statements in a lease, failing to include a disclosure statement regarding lead-based paint or lead-based paint hazards, and failing to provide records or other information pertaining to lead-based paint or lead-based paint hazards.
Both settlements stem from a September 2007 EPA inspection of Atlas Property Management offices in Holyoke. The penalties are based on the severity of the violations and the parties’ financial condition, among other factors. All of the properties cited were built before 1978 and at least one child lived in all but one of the units at the time of the violations.
The federal Disclosure Rule, a part of the Toxic Substances Control Act, is meant to ensure that tenants get adequate information about the risks associated with lead paint before signing a lease. Infants and young children are especially vulnerable to lead paint exposure, which can cause developmental impairment, reading and learning disabilities, impaired hearing, reduced attention span, hyperactivity and behavioral problems. Adults with high lead levels can suffer difficulties during pregnancy, high blood pressure, nerve disorders, memory problems and muscle and joint pain.
Federal law requires that property owners, property managers and real estate agents leasing or selling housing built before 1978 provide certain information to tenants and buyers, including: an EPA-approved lead hazard information pamphlet, called “Protect Your Family from Lead in Your Home;” a lead warning statement; statements disclosing any known lead-based paint and/or lead-based paint hazards; and copies of all available records or reports regarding lead-based paint and/or lead-based paint hazards. This information must be provided to tenants and buyers before they enter into leases or purchase and sales agreements. Property owners, property managers and real estate agents equally share responsibility for providing lead disclosure information and must keep copies of records regarding lead disclosures for three years.
More information:
-Lead-based paint health hazards (epa.gov/ne/eco/ne_lead/index.html)
-Lead-based paint disclosure rule (epa.gov/ne/enforcement/leadpaint/index.html)
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Abu Dhabi to extend paid parking area
Published February 21, 2012 | Abu Dhabi: Starting on February 29, motorists will have to pay to park their cars in any of the 4,644 spaces in the Tourist Club area, a spokesman said on Monday.
The pay-to-park system will be extended to sector E11 located between Zayed the Second Street from the north, Al Falah Street from the south, Al Salam Street from the east and Najda Street from the west.
The service will be enforced from 8am to 10pm, from Saturday to Thursday, at a rate of Dh3 per hour for premium parking (identified by turquoise and white kerbstones) with a maximum stay of four hours per vehicle.
It will be available at a rate of Dh2 per hour or Dh15 per day for standard parking (identified by turquoise and black kerbstones). Parking spaces will be free during official holidays. Fines will be applied to cars that are parked illegally at any time ref.
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Misrata votes for brighter Libyan future
Published February 21, 2012 | The polling stations were segregated. In one school women emerged from behind curtained-off booths to post their ballot papers. Hesitantly, they dipped their fingers into a pot of deep-blue ink.
On Tripoli Street, the central thoroughfare that was once the front line, young men armed with guns and wearing a variety of combat fatigues search cars as they filter through a checkpoint.
Whatever happens in this election, these are the people who really call the shots in Misrata – groups of former rebel fighters whose authority stems not from any democratic mandate, but from their fearsome reputation.
Sitting in a Jeep that had once belonged to Col Gaddafi's forces, Ali Abdurahman said he had cast his vote for education. He had left school at 16, he said, and was thinking about going back into learning.
When it came to the national poll, he said he didn't care whether the winners came from Misrata, Tripoli or Benghazi. He just wanted them to do a good job.
But he had a warning for Libya's new politicians.
"We'll give them a bit of time, because we are starting from zero. If they do something good for the country, then fine. But otherwise we'll remove them just as we removed Gaddafi. It will be another revolution."
This city already runs its own affairs independent of Tripoli. The interim government is widely seen as ineffectual; the National Transitional Council as unaccountable.
People in Misrata feel they can set an example for the rest of Libya. Follow us if you want to, they say, but we are not waiting around.