Savannah, Georgia-- Life imitating art can be more frightful than the most heinous Hollywood plot.
The movie, Sahara, based on the Clive Cussier novel, will be making the home movie rentals sometime this summer.
Cussier is also the author of the book, Flood Tide. Flood Tide is based on a Chinese Fu Manchu-type billionaire who is trying to build his own port in Louisiana, ostensibly only to bring cargo and goods into the U.S.a. as a visionary business entrepreneur.
In the book, the real reason for the Louisiana port is far more nefarious than just taking care of business. There are hidden compartments built into his ships to smuggle in Chinese illegal aliens, among other things.
Cussier's theme is about constructing a huge shipping port in the middle of nowhere.
Exit Cussier and enter the true life stranger than fiction category: The article Capturing Containers (www.bizneworleans.com) dated Nov. 1, 2004 by a.J. Mistretta describes how trade with China is increasing and how the state of Louisiana wants in on some of the volume.
Plans are afoot for a massive endeavour under a so-called Millennium Project. It is called Sea Point, and would involve the purchase of 2,800 acres of an area known as Citrus Lands from the tied to oil-for-food scandal BNP Paribas bank. The ambitious project is massive and essentially involves building a port from scractch.
Just like in the book Flood Tide, not just the new port, but also everything needed to sustain it like roads and rail lines would have to be built.
No Fu Manchu, W. James amoss is a red-blooded real life character and comes from nobody's book.
Formerly with Lykes Brothers Steamship Lines, amoss has a company called Sea Point and amoss has already managed to arrange for two un-named asian carriers to come over.
according to Mistretta, "One area where Sea Point may have an advantage in asia is amoss' connections to China. He spent years working with the Chinese--and with the help of his lawyer, successfully appealed to the U.S. Justice Department to allow the resumption of commercial trade with China in the 1970s."
In on the Sea Point venture is amoss's son Mark, who happens to speak fluent Mandarin.
Louisiana is not the Chinese's first foray into U.S. business. Readers may recall when the Chinese tried to buy the port of Long Beach during the Clinton administration.
Meanwhile the ships that will reach this non-existent port to be built on lands that will have to be purchased from BNP Paribas through the sale of municipal bonds will carry Chinese cargo that comes through the Panama Canal.
The Panama Canal is run by Hutchison Whampoa of Lo Kashing and CITIC fame, a character more fabled than any in booklore.
In the novel Flood Tide, the hero Dirk Pitt staves off the bad guys for a happy ending.
Will there be a hero in Sea Point?
In the state of California, BNP Paribas acts as the sole agent for the state's economic recovery bonds, the largest municipal bond sale in the U.S. active in the municipal bond market for over 10 years, BNP is providing credit enhancement and liquidity support for the state of California's sale of $2.97 billion of variable-rate Economic Recovery Bonds (ERBs).
In `Congofornia', the action hero is in reality one of the bad guys, sort of like in those bete noire French flicks.
Sometimes true life really is stranger than fiction.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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