CO-OPERATIVES AND RELIGION IN EUROPE

THE MOST critical issue facing Co-operatives in Europe may probably be the long-term relationship between the continent’s natives and its burgeoning Muslim minority which does not seem to have an active role in the Co-operative Movement in Europe.

There are but three outcomes overall for europe based on present state of things —Islamic takeover, Muslim expulsion or harmonious integration—and the end result has profound implications not only for Europe but for humanity as a whole.

EUROPE apparently NEEDS immigrants (the fertility rate is about 1.4 children per woman, just two-thirds the replacement rate of 2.1) to avoid severe population decline, with all the woes that implies—particularly an absence of workers to fund generous pension plans—and Muslims tend to make up that imported third of the population. In part, this is because Muslims are close by; it’s only 13 kilometers from Morocco to Spain. After moving to Europe, Muslims relieve European childlessness with a high fertility rate.

Although the Muslim fertility rate is falling, it remains three times that of indigenous Europeans. In Brussels, “Muhammad” has for some years been the most popular name given to boys. Amsterdam and Rotterdam are on track to have majority Muslim populations by about 2015.

Immigrant Muslims widely disdain Western civilization, especially the open sexuality shown through pornography, divorce and homosexuality. Yet they stay. Here is one colorful example: In March 2004, the mother of the notorious Khadr brood (known as Canada’s first terrorism family) publicly insisted that Al-Qaeda-sponsored training camps were the best place for her children.

“Would you like me to raise my child in Canada to be, by the time he’s 12 or 13 years old, to be on drugs or having some homosexual relationship? Is it better?” But one month later, in April 2004, she returned from Afghanistan and Pakistan with one of her sons.

At the same time, what some see as Europe’s political correctness reflects a deeper phenomenon, namely, the alienation of many Europeans from their civilization—a sense that their culture is not worth fighting for or even saving. It’s striking to note differences within Europe in this regard. Perhaps the country least prone to this alienation is France, where traditional nationalism still holds sway and the French take pride in their identity. Britain is most disconnected, as symbolized by the plaintive government program “ICONS—A Portrait of England.” “ICONS” lamely hopes to rekindle patriotism by connecting Britons to their “national treasures”, such as Winnie the Pooh and miniskirts.

Nonetheless, extreme secularism pervades Europe, especially among its elites, to the point that believing Christians are seen as mentally unbalanced and unfit for public office. In 2005, Italy denied Catholic politician Rocco Buttiliglione the European Union commissionership—because of his views on issues like homosexuality. Entrenched secularism also means empty churches: London is home to seven times more born-Christians than born-Muslims, but more people attend mosques on Friday than churches on Sunday.

As Christianity fades, Islam beckons; Prince Charles exemplifies many Europeans’ fascination with Islam. The continent could see many conversions, for as the saying ascribed to G. K. Chesterton contends, “When men stop believing in God they don’t believe in nothing; they believe in anything.” The late Oriana Fallaci observed that, with the passage of time, “Europe becomes more and more a province of Islam, a colony of Islam.” The historian Bat Ye’or has dubbed this colony “Eurabia.” Walter Laqueur predicts in his forthcoming Last Days of Europe that Europe as we know it is bound to change.

Mark Steyn, in America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It, argues that much of the Western world “will not survive the twenty-first century, and much of it will effectively disappear within our lifetimes, including many if not most European countries.”

This diffidence has had direct and adverse implications for Muslim immigrants, as Aatish Taseer explained in Prospect magazine: Britishness is the most nominal aspect of identity to many young British Pakistanis. . . . If you denigrate your own culture you face the risk of your newer arrivals looking for one elsewhere. So far afield in this case, that for many second-generation British Pakistanis, the desert culture of the Arabs held more appeal than either British or subcontinental culture.

Three times removed from a durable sense of identity, the energised extra-national worldview of radical Islam became one available identity for second-generation Pakistanis.

The Muslim faith, with its attendant jihadi sensibility and Islamic supremacism, could not differ more from European Christians’ beliefs. Seeing this contrast, many Muslims think Europe ripe for conversion and domination.

Outrageous claims result, as from Omar Bakri Mohammed: “I want Britain to become an Islamic state. I want to see the flag of Islam raised in 10 Downing Street.” Or from a Belgium-based imam: “Soon we will take power in this country. Those who criticize us now, will regret it. They will have to serve us. Prepare, for the hour is near.”

AMERICAN COLUMNIST Ralph Peters dismisses the first scenario: “Far from enjoying the prospect of taking over Europe by having babies, Europe’s Muslims are living on borrowed time. . . . predictions of a Muslim takeover of Europe . . . ignore history and Europe’s ineradicable viciousness.”

Instead, depicting Europe as the place “that perfected genocide and ethnic cleansing”, he predicts its Muslims “will be lucky just to be deported” and not killed. Claire Berlinski, in Menace in Europe: Why the Continent’s Crisis Is America’s, Too, implicitly agrees, pointing to the “ancient conflicts and patterns . . . now shambling out of the mists of European history.”

This scenario has indigenous Europeans—who still constitute 95 percent of the population—waking up one day and asserting themselves. “Basta!” they will say and reclaim their historic order. This is not so remote; some Europeans, while scarce in the elite, loudly protest the changes already underway. Examples include the anti-hijab legislation in France, irritation over restrictions on national flags and Christian symbols and the insistence on serving wine at state dinners. In early 2006, several French cities saw a spontaneous movement to serve pork soup to the poor, thus excluding Muslims.

These are minor issues, to be sure, but insurgent anti-immigrant parties have emerged in many countries. They are beginning to demand not just border control but the expulsion of illegal immigrants—a whole European nativist movement has gone largely unnoticed. However meager its record so far, it has huge potential. These parties generally have neo-fascist backgrounds but are growing more respectable over time, shedding their anti-Semitic origins and dubious economic theories to focus on questions of faith, demography and identity. The British National Party and Belgium’s Vlaams Belang offer two examples of such a move, and one day they could achieve electability. The 2002 French presidential race came down to Jacques Chirac and the neo-fascist Jean-Marie Le Pen.

Other parties have already tasted power. Jörg Haider and the Freiheitspartei Österreich were briefly in officein Austria. In Italy, the Lega Nord was part of the ruling coalition for years. They will probably grow stronger, because their anti-Islamist and often anti-Islamic messages resonate.

Mainstream parties will partially adopt their messages. (Denmark’s Conservative Party offers a model; after 72 years in the wilderness, it returned to power in 2001 due basically to anger concerning immigration.) The inevitable immigration surge—perhaps including a mass exodus from Africa—will also likely benefit these parties.

Once in power, nationalist parties will reject multiculturalism and try to re-establish traditional values and mores. One can only speculate about their means and about the Muslim reaction. Peters dwells on the fascistic and violent aspects of some groups and expects an anti-Muslim backlash to take ominous forms.

He even sketches a scenario in which “U.S. Navy ships are at anchor and U.S. Marines have gone ashore at Brest, Bremerhaven or Bari to guarantee the safe evacuation of Europe’s Muslims.”

For years, Muslims have worried about such incarceration and brutalization, followed by expulsion or even massacres. Already in the late 1980s, the late Kalim Siddiqui, director of London’s Muslim Institute, raised the specter of “Hitler-style gas chambers for Muslims.” Shabbir Akhtar warned in his 1989 book, Be Careful With Muhammad!, that “the next time there are gas chambers in Europe, there is no doubt concerning who’ll be inside them.”

A character in Hanif Kureishi’s 1990 novel, The Buddha of Suburbia, prepares for the guerilla war he expects after “the whites finally turned on the blacks and Asians and tried to force us into gas chambers.”

But it is more likely that European efforts will be peaceable and legal, with Muslims—in keeping with recent patterns—initiating violence. Multiple polls confirm that about 5 percent of British Muslims endorse the 7/7 bombings. But however it happens, we cannot assume a European reassertion will take place cooperatively.

IN THE happiest scenario, Europeans and Muslim immigrants live together harmoniously. Perhaps the classic statement of this was a 1991 study, La France, une chance pour l’Islam (“France, an Opportunity for Islam”) by Jeanne-Hélène and Pierre-Patrick Kaltenbach. “For the first time in history”, they wrote, “Islam is offered the chance to waken in a democratic, rich, laic, and peaceable country.” That hopefulness lives on. An Economist leader from mid-2006 asserts that “for the moment at least, the prospect of Eurabia looks like scaremongering.” Also at that time, Jocelyne Cesari, associate professor of Islamic studies at the Harvard Divinity School, claimed a balance exists: Just as “Islam is changing Europe”, she said, “Europe is changing Islam.”

She finds that “Muslims in Europe do not want to change the nature of European states” and expects them to adapt themselves into the European context.Such optimism has little foundation, but not so much because Europeans will rediscover faith, have more babies, cherish their heritage, encourage non-Muslim immigration and acculturate the Muslims among them. Such changes are not now underway, nor are their prospects good. Instead, harmony is unlikely because Muslims cultivate grievances against, and hold ambitions at odds with, their indigenous neighbors.

Worryingly, each generation appears more alienated than the last. Canadian novelist Hugh MacLennan dubbed his country’s English-French split the “Two Solitudes”; one sees something similar, but far more pronounced, developing in Europe. Polls of British Muslims, for example, find that a majority perceive a conflict between their British and Muslim identities and want Islamic law. University of Göttingen professor Bassam Tibi, who has often warned that “Either Islam gets Europeanized, or Europe gets Islamized”, has given up. AS AMERICAN columnist Dennis Prager writes, “It is difficult to imagine any other future scenario for Western Europe than its becoming Islamicized or having a civil war.” Indeed, these two deeply unattractive paths appear to define Europe’s choices, with powerful forces pulling in both directions.

Europe: an extension of North Africa, or at war with its own minority? The decisive events have yet to take place, so one cannot make the call. They are fast approaching, however. Within the next decade or so, today’s flux will end, the Europe-Islam equation will harden and the continent’s course should become apparent.

Both paths are historically unprecedented. Never has a population collapse caused a massive civilization shift, and never has a people risen on so grand a scale to reclaim its patrimony. Europe’s predicaments are difficult to understand, tempting to overlook and nearly impossible to predict. Europe marches us all into terra incognita. This is a background under which Co-operatives would have to find a niche and use the Movement as an instrument to unite all religious forces not only in Europe but the whole cosmos. Can that hope come through ???

IRELAND - LOW INCOME EARNERS TO GET 60% REBATE ON NEWLY BUILT HOUSES

SOCIAL WELFARE recipients and low earners seeking to buy new houses could be given up to 60 per cent of the value of the property by the exchequer, under the new Housing Bill published yesterday by Minister for the Environment John Gormley.

The Bill introduces a range of measures designed to encourage more people to buy houses and to improve the management of social housing by local authorities. However, the long-awaited legislation to allow tenants to purchase their local authority flats has not been included in the Bill. The new incremental purchase scheme will allow people who qualify for social housing and cannot afford to buy under the affordable housing scheme to get on the property ladder.

Qualifying applicants will take out a mortgage for a percentage of the purchase price (likely to be about 40 per cent, although the terms have yet to be finalised) to buy a house from a local authority or voluntary housing body. The remaining stake in the house is gradually released to the buyer over the period of their mortgage.

Unlike the existing shared ownership scheme, which was also aimed at buyers who could not afford affordable housing, buyers pay no rent or any other charge to the council and are entitled to full ownership of the house on purchase of their share of the equity.

The scheme will only apply to newly built houses offered through local authorities or voluntary and co-operative bodies.

It will also provide more money for social housing to be built, as people who would ordinarily be renting for extended periods will be providing funds to local authorities through their mortgages. However, because it applies to new houses only, the scheme will not be available to the thousands of local authority flat tenants, who, according to Dublin City Council, want to buy their homes.

A tenant-purchase scheme for flats was introduced by Dublin Corporation, now Dublin City Council, in 1988, but collapsed because of a lack of legislation to deal with issues such as ownership and maintenance of common areas, such as stairwells and gardens, and the protection of residents who chose not to buy and remain tenants.

The council made several detailed proposals to the department for a sale-of-flats scheme, and in January of last year the department said the legislation was being drafted. Last October the then housing minister, Batt O'Keeffe, said the legislation had been delayed because of legal issues raised by the Attorney General.

Until recent weeks, city councillors had expected the scheme would be included in the Housing Bill. Mr Gormley said he regretted the sale of flats was not in the Bill, but said legal issues such as building management and transfer of title could not be resolved in time for publication.

The Bill offers some relief for owners of affordable housing who need to change mortgage terms. Previously, any mortgage change, such as refinancing, triggered a "clawback" requiring the owner to repay the discount received on their purchase. This anomaly has been removed; however, families who have outgrown their affordable home still cannot upsize without triggering the clawback.

The Bill would give local authorities more powers to deal with issues such as anti-social behaviour, which was making people's lives "unbearable", Mr Gormley said.

"I've been accused in the last few weeks of taking powers away from local authorities. What we're doing here is empowering councillors to draw up their own charter and decide how they proceed."

Local authorities will be required to devise housing plans that comply with ministerial regulations and guidelines and national policies, rather than using individual systems developed on an ad-hoc basis, Mr Gormley said.

U.K. - CO-OPERATIVE PARTY LAUNCHES "PEOPLE'S RAIL" CAMPAIGN

The Co-operative Party has launched a ‘People’s Rail’ campaign aimed at improving rail travel for passengers throughout the country. - 19th July 2008

A study published by the Party calculates that if Network Rail was as efficient as the European average, the money saved could buy 1,000 rail coaches every year; reveals that many instances of rail disruption are unnecessary; and demonstrates how the governance of Network Rail is failing passengers and the industry.

Said the report: “In effect, the Board appoints Network Rail’s members. While an independent panel selects the members, this is effectively appointed and remunerated by the Board as well. This puts Network Rail’s Board in the unparalleled position of being able to choose those to whom it is accountable.”

The Party is calling for all people to be allowed to become members of Network Rail; the members should be able to elect representatives to a Member’s Council, which would replace the role currently fulfilled by the existing membership. Industry members could continue to be nominated by their respective interest groups.

The Rail Regulator has commissioned KPMG to advise on whether the corporate governance is fit for purpose and advise on possible changes.

Sarah McCarthy-Fry, Chair of the Co-operative group of MPs, said: “Many people wonder whether the governance of Network Rail is as strong as it should be.

At a time when we may have expected the management to be under serious pressure after their failure over the New Year, the Board’s response has been to reward them with massive bonuses.

Through making organisations accountable to their users and other stakeholders, it has been demonstrated that we can not only strengthen citizenship, but also build services based on the needs of the people they serve.”

The new Chair of the Commons Transport Select Committee, Labour/Co-op MP Louise Ellman, said the pamphlet is “a valuable contribution to the debate about the future of rail”.

She added: “While Network Rail is a great improvement on the disastrous Railtrack, major questions about its accountability remain. The Movement has a great deal of experience in identifying accountable structures and this is highly relevant to the current debate.”

SHAKE UP OF CO-OPERATIVES LAWS ON THE WAY IN UK

U.K. - Minister reveals plans to modernise sector

Kitty Ussher revealing plans to Congress delegates at the Hilton Hotel in Blackpool - July 18 2008

The Government has announced wide-ranging plans to modernise legislation affecting co-operatives — and also credit unions — following a year-long consultation process with the Movement.

The Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Kitty Ussher MP, told the recent Congress 2008 in Blackpool that steps to update many aspects of co-operative legislation will begin shortly. This will include:

Allowing mutuals to grow . . .

• Raising the £20,000 limit on withdrawable share capital • Provision for societies to apply for a higher transferable share capital limit on a case by case basis • Expanding the role of non-user investor members

Cutting red tape by . . .

• Permitting electronic communications between societies, members and authorities • Allowing societies to choose their own year end • Abolishing the requirement to have interim accounts audited

Creating a level playing field with companies to . . .

• Allow directors to give a service rather than personal address • Align duties of co-operative officers with those of company directors • Align the application of company rescue and administration regimes • Align other guidance on service contracts and loans • Align the minimum age for being a co-operative officer with that of company directors at 16 years • Abolish the minimum age for being a member of a mutual society • Improve processes for the dissolution of dormant societies

“The majority of this work will be completed within a year,” said Co-op Party chairman Gareth Thomas. “The Treasury will shortly bring forward measures that will include a range of statutory instruments and legislative reform orders that will update as much legislation as possible as soon as possible.

“The remaining items that require primary legislation will be separately drafted now, ready to be taken forward when Parliamentary time permits.”

Added Mr Thomas: “This is the latest stage of a comprehensive legislative reform programme that Co-op Party MPs have worked closely with the Labour Government on for the past few years and could only have been achieved through our partnership with Labour.”

CO-OP HOUSING MAY HELP OUT ARCHITECTS IN THE UK

The fall in house prices in the United Kingdom has prompted a dramatic downturn in commissions, with some architects facing redundancy.

Hundreds of architects’ jobs could go in the months ahead as the economic downturn grips developers and housebuilders. Like the liquidity in world markets, new housing commissions are simply drying up. But how contagious is the crisis, and how many architects working in the sector will be affected?

“You are a very close knit group, so redundancy is not an easy process". “Having to make people redundant is a tremendous wrench,” says Ben Derbyshire, managing director at HTA, a large practice specialising in residential projects. Last month, Derbyshire had to lose 12 of his 100-strong staff, including qualified architects, landscape architects and support staff, after new work began to fall off.

“You run a practice like mine and you come to know people very well. You work together, eat together, and are a very close knit group. So this is not an easy process,” he says. HTA is not alone. Dozens of firms, many of which wish to remain anonymous, have been shedding employees as projects have been shelved or abandoned. Headline projects that have been halted include Ian Simpson’s Lumiere tower in Leeds, and Liverpool’s 1,000-unit International Garden Festival scheme by Carey Jones.

Design for Homes, the lobbying group for architects in housing, estimates that smaller firms in provincial areas and those dealing almost exclusively in private housing are the worst affected. “There is a real risk of people losing 20% of their staff or more,” says its chief executive, David Birkbeck.

Bitter lessons

Firms that survived the last recession in the early 1990s learnt the bitter lessons of relying too heavily on any one sector. During the intervening years, many have branched out by pursuing overseas projects or public sector work. Others have reduced their reliance on housing developers by balancing private work with social housing schemes.

With the onset of the credit crunch last year, Cartwright Pickard, a specialist in prefabricated housing design, sought to rebalance its portfolio of work away from a reliance on private residential commissions. “Last year we did about 75% residential, but now it’s 50%,” says director Peter Cartwright. “We pursued other work because there were fewer enquiries coming through.” The change has so far paid off. While the firm has put an effective freeze on employment, Cartwright insists it has been able to stave off the need to make staff redundant.

Conran & Partners has been “deliberately diversifying” its workload this time round, says director Paul Zara. “We do a lot of housing association work, and there is strong government support for that.” Despite the loss to bankruptcy earlier this month of City Lofts, an important developer partner, Zara claims work elsewhere and as far afield as Japan and Kuala Lumpur means the company will not be too badly affected.

But despite attempts at insulation through diversification, the speed with which the slowdown has taken hold is troubling many architects. One small award-winning practice based in London told BD that it has had no new housing work since November, despite being a specialist in the field.

The fear is that the redundancies seen during the late 1980s and early 1990s could return with matter-of-fact regularity. Peter Chlapowski, director at large housing practice PCKO, says: “In the previous recession the general economic situation was worse, with high unemployment and the poor performance of the economy. This crisis… has happened so much more quickly.” “Someone with three years experience is normally a pretty hot property, but companies are not taking them on”

Younger architects look likely to be among the worst affected as salary bands slip and opportunities shrink. While the pool of jobseekers increases and firms freeze recruitment, those that do take on staff are able to cherry-pick candidates.

Roger Dunning, managing director of recruitment agency Hunter Dunning says: “Firms are a lot more selective. Someone with three years experience is normally a pretty hot property, but companies are not really taking them on. People are now very specific according to their need. It’s got to be the spot-on candidate.”

The future will be “pretty tricky” for graduates who, he suggests, might be better placed looking overseas for employment. “Foreign markets are still very buoyant — United Arab Emirates or parts of Australia, Dubai and Abu Dhabi. These markets are booming, so opportunities for work are much better,” he suggests. “UK experience is the most sought-after in the world. There are visa issues but in Australia, for instance, [UK graduates] are in demand.”

HOUSING Co-operatives as an option

But the picture in the UK is not all doom and gloom. A housing market in flux also creates opportunities for reformation, consolidation and rebirth. Architects are increasingly opting to form co-operatives, where they can team up together or work independently depending on the size of the job. Andrew Hanson, RIBA presidential candidate and director of Hanson & Confederates Architects says: “You might go into a large office thinking that it is a single entity, only to find it is several businesses operating together. It enables us to pitch for quite large projects, say £5 million, without the overhead normally associated.”

Del Hossein, managing director of Adrem Recruitment, insists more businesses start up in precarious periods than in healthy times as architects released from their contracts, by choice or circumstance, set up on their own. “It’s a funny one. It is at times like this [in a downturn] that smaller practices start.”

He is advising a handful of mid-sized firms about potential acquisitions of smaller practices. “They are eyeing up smaller practices that will be short of work. You can get good staff… in one fell swoop. You can acquire a mature team. It’s quite opportunistic, but it makes good business sense. And a lot of the little guys are quite happy to be looked at,” he adds.

But as far as Andy Matthews, partner at housing architects Proctor & Matthews, is concerned, the future is “unchartered territory”. The firm’s Pathfinder project in Rochdale has been put on hold, and he has been forced to make two of his staff redundant. “The speed with which [workloads in the sector have] turned downward is quite sharp, although we know the underlying demand for housing is there,” he says.

Matthews insists that while some workloads are suffering, architects should remember that developers still have their eye on the bigger picture. “Developers are looking at long-term projects, masterplanning and outline planning for four years hence. They are taking view that the market can’t stay like this, and that housing demand is still there.”

BANKS PAYING MAINTENANCE CHARGES TO HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATIONS

HOME OWNERS ASSOCIATION TURNS THE TABLE ON TO THE BANKS

Condo Associations in the United States that are in a financial bind from mounting foreclosures are now targeting the Lenders who have taken back units from owners in default but are themselves failing to pay their share of maintenance fees.

As more units end up in the hands of lenders, the banks and mortgage servicing companies are responsible for maintenance payments for those units. But administering the growing pool of real estate has proved challenging for lenders.

The Residences at the Bath Club Condominium Association in Miami Beach is pressing a foreclosure action against Wells Fargo as trustee for an investment pool that owns the mortgage on a unit that isn’t paying its maintenance fees. The lender owes $32,252 in late maintenance fees on the unit it took back more than a year ago. Determining exactly who is on the hook is itself difficult.

The original mortgage was issued by Mortgage Loan Specialists of Irvine, Calif. A spokeswoman for Wells Fargo said it was only the trustee for the bondholders who invested in a securitized mortgage pool. The servicer of the loan is Impac Funding Corp. of Irvine, Calif., which shares the name with the company that issued the mortgage-backed securities and is also named in the foreclosure suit, Impac Secured Assets Corp.

The lender needs to come up with the past due maintenance fees by Friday morning or it could lose the oceanfront condo in a foreclosure auction. The unit sold for $1.45 million during the height of the condo boom, according to Miami-Dade County property records. The highest bidder would get the two-bedroom condo at 5959 Collins Ave. free of a mortgage.

“An association foreclosing on a bank?” asked Bill Raphan, who runs the Fort Lauderdale branch of Florida’s Office of the Condominium Ombudsman. “I can’t say I have heard that before. It will create an interesting precedent.

Associations often complain lenders don’t pay their dues.” The number of condos being foreclosed is at a near record level, and that’s putting tremendous pressure on already cash-strapped condo associations. Typically, when a unit is in foreclosure, the owner quits paying association fees.

As foreclosures mount, revenues decrease, pinching condo associations that have to continue to pay landscapers, garbage haulers and fork out for other expenses. During a buoyant real estate market, lenders that took title of foreclosed properties were able to re-sell the units quickly. That kept nonpayments to a minimum.

But in the current housing downturn, and with buyers scarce, lenders are carrying numerous properties for protracted periods — and increasingly putting off paying fees. Wells Fargo, as the trustee, took control of Unit 901 at The Residences at the Bath Club in January 2007 after the former owner, Ciona Rosenwasser, fell behind on her mortgage payments.

In December 2007, the condo board placed a lien for overdue maintenance fees and assessments on the unit. A Miami-Dade Circuit Court judge ruled last month that the owner of the mortgage was in arrears and scheduled a public auction for Friday. Attorney Eric Glazer, who represents the association, said his client gave the lender enough time to pay up.

“Unfortunately, we are being ignored,” said Glazer, with Glazer & Associates in Hallandale Beach. Lender inaction is common in foreclosure cases, he said. “It is absolutely the first time in my 10-year career that we are foreclosing a bank,”

Glazer said. “It shows a very unique moment in history.” Several other attorneys interviewed for this article said they had never heard of an association foreclosing on a bank. Glazer predicts more condo associations — especially those for new condo towers where short-term investors bought hoping to make quick sales — will take on slow-paying lenders.

The 119-unit Bath Club — one of South Florida’s most exclusive condo projects — was completed in 2005. Unit 901 is the only unit in the Bath Club currently owned by a lender, according to public records.

State law mandates that after a lender takes title to a condo through foreclosure, it owes the association the lesser of 1 percent of the mortgage or six months of unpaid common expenses and future monthly and special assessments, Glazer said. But with so many foreclosed properties on their books, many lenders are neglecting their responsibilities, Raphan said.

In a recent statewide community association survey, more than 60 percent of respondents said lenders owning foreclosed units or homes in their communities are not paying dues to the associations. The survey was conducted by the Community Association Leadership Lobby, an advocacy group created by the law firm Becker & Poliakoff. Attorney Ken Direktor, who leads Becker & Poliakoff’s community association practice, said he encourages his lawyers to aggressively go after lenders who fail to pay association fees.

“We have had a few foreclosures with a sale date set. At that point, the bank has paid every time,” Direktor said. “Nothing has gotten past that point ... yet.” If Unit 901 sells on Friday, the association will recover the $32,252, including legal fees. Wells Fargo would keep the rest of the sale’s proceeds.

Attorney Paul Breitner, who represents community associations, said lenders are finding a way around having to pay association dues. They initiate foreclosure procedures but don’t seek a final judgment. That way, they avoid taking title to the property.

“We increasingly see banks reluctant to take control of a unit,” said Breitner, with The Barthet Firm in Miami. “They would rather keep a unit in limbo and wait until the market comes back.”

ALASKA COOPS TRAINING VILLAGES ON HOME ENERGY CONSERVATION

Energy challenges and opportunities within the Yukon River watershed

The Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council (YRITWC) is a coalition of 66 tribes and First Nations in Alaska and Canada united in protecting the Yukon River, the fourth-largest drainage basin in North America. The Yukon River is home to over 11% of all tribes in the U.S. Most of the Alaska Native communities are not on the road system and can only be accessed by plane, boat or snow machine.

The YRITWC formed in 1997 out of concern for clean water and the plants, animals and humans that depend on this 2,200-mile river and its tributaries. In the past several years, as climate change and energy costs have increased, the connection between clean water and clean energy has formalized. The YRITWC's leaders directed the organization's staff to pursue clean energy initiatives such as community energy education, implementing conservation and efficiency measures and developing renewable solar, wind and hydropower resources. After a year of responding to this directive with almost no budget, the YRITWC was awarded a three-year, $660,000 implementation grant from the Administration for Native Americans and a $75,000 one-year energy policy and advocacy grant from the Nathan Cummings Foundation.

The energy context

Most electricity in the remote communities of the watershed is produced by diesel generator with flown- or barged-in fuel; both methods of transportation have inherent spill risks. Prices range from about $0.20 - $1.00/kWh, with most villages paying on the higher end of this spread. For comparison, electricity is purchased for about $0.14/kWh in Anchorage.

Gasoline for local transportation hovers around $6.50/gallon on average, with some communities paying over $9.00 when gasoline is available at all. In some places energy is now being rationed, and Alaska's urban areas are now starting to see "energy refugees" from the villages. Many of the communities are quite small - between 100 and 300 residents - and generally operate their own electric "mini-grid" that is isolated from any other community.

Institutional issues, however, can be quite complex, with a mixture of municipality, tribe, Native village and/or regional corporation, private fuel shipper and co-op or independent utility all potentially involved in meeting the community's energy needs. Add to this the usual overlay of state, federal, non-profit, and regional assistance organizations and one can see the challengers in making sense of, let alone solving, the rural Alaska energy picture.

A search for solutions

Remote communities have begun a wide-ranging search for alternatives to the current system. Some non-renewable technologies being investigated are an experimental nuclear reactor for the community of Galena, coal bed methane, mine-mouth coal plants and expanded oil and gas development in frontier regions. All of these options have significant drawbacks, including community opposition, pollution and climate change impacts, incompatible land uses, very long lead times and possible high costs. Most of these technologies require large-scale implementation to be cost effective yet most of the communities are quite small.

Some renewable alternatives that are now being actively investigated are biomass, in-stream hydrokinetic, wind, solar, geothermal and of course, conservation and efficiency improvements. Many of these technologies have already been installed on a pilot project basis with plans for expansion.

For example, the community of Tanana has installed a large wood-fired heating unit to displace diesel fuel in a community building, while the communities of Arctic Village, Venetie, Fort Yukon and Beaver already have a combined installed capacity of over 10 kW of solar electric (PV) systems. Wind power is now being used near the mouth of the Yukon where it meets the Bering Sea, while geothermal power at Chena Hot Springs provides a model for other communities to replicate where possible.

The YRITWC Energy Department will be collecting data on existing renewable energy production systems within the watershed.

Of course, these alternative technologies face challenges as well, including intermittent availability of renewable resources such as the sun or wind, distance from the resource to the demand centers and costs. However, local interest and support is strong and generally these technologies can be appropriately scaled to fit the size and demand of the community. Renewable resources also have the advantage of no cost increase over time since there is no fuel to purchase regularly, only system maintenance and occasional capital upgrades or replacements.

YRITWC is working with the Interior Regional Housing Authority, Alaska Building Science Network, the Cold Climate Housing Research Center, Alaska Housing Finance Corporation and the UAF Cooperative Extension Service to conduct trainings in villages on home energy conservation and energy awareness.

UK - INDEPENDANT COMMISSION ON HOUSING CO-OPERATIVES

Independent commission to explore role of housing co-operatives

Tuesday 1st July 2008 - 1:25pm

Government confirms New Deal for Communities funding for next two years

An independent commission to explore the role housing co-operatives play in providing democratically accountable housing and communities has been launched at the ‘Co-operatives 2008’ conference in Blackpool.

The Commission on Co-operative and Mutual Housing's aim is to chart potential mutual futures for this diverse housing sector and to recommend ways in which the work of housing co-operatives can be expanded and sustained in line with their prominence and importance in the housing systems of most other European countries.Commission Chair Adrian Coles, Director General of the Building Societies Association, outlined the approach: "A small but flourishing co-operative housing sector has existed in the UK for some time but the Commission aims to move housing co-operatives closer to the centre of national policy debates by gathering evidence to see how best to expand their future role.

"The Commission, which is impartial and will receive evidence across the political spectrum, is to housing co-operatives what the ‘Monks Commission’ was to the wider co-operative sector in 2001; we aim to develop a long-term strategic framework for growth and management."The Commission has engaged the Human City Institute (HCI) and the University of Birmingham’s Centre for Urban and Regional Studies (CURS) to carry out independent research to provide an up-to-date baseline of activity and achievement of UK housing co-operatives, to hear evidence across the country and to make recommendations about future trajectories.

The Blackpool launch included the first of a series of ‘hearings’ to gather evidence.Redditch Co-operative Homes, Birmingham Co-operative Housing Services, the Preston Community Gateway and the Balsall Heath Co-operative all presented their case to the Commission.Chris Handy, Chief Executive of Accord Housing Group and Executive Commissioner who presided over the ‘hearing’, said: "Drawing housing co-operatives and other housing and related sectors into the debate about the future of mutual housing is key to the Commission’s approach."We are determined to provide opportunities for all interested parties to contribute to the Commission’s work and help shape the future of the co-operative housing sector."All political parties welcomed the Commission’s work.

Housing Minister Caroline Flint said: "We need to explore how we can mainstream the excellent work of existing housing co-operatives", while Conservative Housing Spokesperson Grant Shapps agreed: "Housing Co-operatives are a valuable means of creating new affordable housing."Representatives of the affordable housing sector also pledged their support for the Commission’s work.National Housing Federation Chief Executive David Orr said: "Housing Co-operatives have the potential to play a key role in creating successful and sustainable places which are informed and conditioned by the views of those who live there."

Chartered Institute of Housing Chief Executive Sarah Webb emphasised the international perspective: "All around the world people are using co-operative principles to create affordable homes in thriving communities and this new Commission will both explore the reasons behind this international success story and find ways of expanding its reach in the UK."

The Commission will sit for 15 months, publish a series of interim reports, findings, and articles, organise a range of events to disseminate findings widely and promote the sector extensively with policy-makers, other sectors, residents and communities. An interim report will be published in Autumn 2008 and a final report in Summer 2009.

The Commission on Co-operative and Mutual Housing has been set in motion by the Confederation of Co-operative Housing, Co-operatives UK, the Co-operative Development Society, social housing providers Accord, Matrix, Hanover and Trident, the Housing Associations Charitable Trust (hact), and is supported by the National Housing Federation and the Chartered Institute of Housing.

WATER SECTOR CORRUPTION - HOUSING CO-OPS MUST TAKE NOTE

GLOBAL: Killer Kickbacks

Corruption in Water Sector Affects Millions

NAIROBI, 26 June 2008 (IRIN)

Corruption is one of the main causes of a global crisis that deprives more than a billion people of access to safe drinking water and more than 2.6 billion of access to sanitation systems, according to a new report by Transparency International.“In perhaps no other area does corruption so profoundly and directly affect the lives and livelihoods of billions of people as in the provision of water,” Transparency chairwoman Huguette Labelle said in the preface to the watchdog’s 2008 annual report, Corruption in the Water Sector.

Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan activist who won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize, writes in the report that the global water crisis is “of our own doing … a crisis of governance: man-made, with ignorance, greed and corruption at its core. But the worst of them is corruption.”“Without increased advocacy to stop corruption in water, there will be high costs to economic and human development, the destruction of vital ecosystems, and the fuelling of social tension or even conflict over this essential resource,” the report warned.

Outlining the consequences of the water crisis, the report noted that in developing countries some 80 percent of health problems are related to inadequate water and sanitation that claim the lives of 1.8 million children annually.

“Corruption in the water sector is widespread and makes water undrinkable, inaccessible and unaffordable. It is evident in the drilling of rural wells in sub-Saharan Africa, the construction of water treatment facilities in Asia’s urban areas, the building of hydroelectric dams in Latin America and the daily abuse and misuse of water resources around the world,” according to the report.

Every region of the world and every aspect of the water sector: management of resources, the provision of drinking water and sanitation services, agricultural irrigation to massive hydropower dam projects, are adversely affected by corruption, the report states.

From paying a meter-reader to reduce a domestic water bill to diverting public funds destined for a rural water project into the pockets of a few politicians, the problem is endemic across every level of the sector.As well as detailing the extent of corruption in the water sector and its humanitarian ramifications, Transparency International explains how governments and policy makers can prevent and stem the scourge through improved monitoring, accountability and regulation.

UK - AFFORDABLE CREDIT BY CREDIT UNIONS

AFFORDABLE CREDIT MADE EASIER IN THE UK

Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Kitty Ussher, has confirmed Government plans to make it easier for families to access the affordable credit options offered by credit unions by removing the red tape restricting the growth of the sector.

Credit unions are mutual organisations run by and for the benefit of their members. Members generally benefit through the provision of savings and loans at improved rates although credit unions are increasingly offering other financial services such as Child Trust Fund accounts.

In a speech at the launch of a new All Party Parliamentary Group on Credit Unions Ussher will state that the Government proposes introducing a Legislative Reform Order to enable cooperatives and credit unions to grow in economic terms, and to help increase their efficiency and ability to compete.

For credit unions proposed measures will include: liberalising membership criteria and radically changing the "common bond", so that credit unions can provide their services to a wider range of people; making it possible for groups, rather than just individuals, to become members; allowing credit unions to pay interest on members' deposits; removing the statutory limit on non-qualifying members and allowing credit unions to charge the market rate for services such as chequebooks and money transfers.

For Cooperatives proposals include: Giving societies the flexibility to choose their own accounting year-ends;

abolishing the requirement to have interim accounts audited;

lowering the minimum age for being an officer of a society to 16;

bringing the fee for a copy of the society's rules up to date and making it easier for members to dissolve a society, subject to safeguards.

A cooperative is defined as an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically-controlled enterprise (International Cooperative Alliance definition).

The Treasury will consult soon on the proposed Legislative Reform Order, with a view to introduction in 2009. Work will continue on preparing for primary legislation, so that further reforms can be introduced when an opportunity arises. 30 June 2008