UNITED KINGDOM: Busker tries to cheer up gloomy mood at London's Canary Wharf where banks have gone bust or are ailing

Record ID: 562469

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: Busker tries to cheer up gloomy mood at London's Canary Wharf where banks have gone bust or are ailing
  • Date: 19th September 2008
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) DANIEL BEAULAURIER, BUSKER, SAYING: "People seemed OK, they were enjoying the music, so that's a good sign. I look for hope where hope might be hard to see." NEWSPAPER SELLER WITH BILLBOARD READING "MORE BANKING GIANTS ON THE RACK"
  • Embargoed: 4th October 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: United Kingdom
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Economic News,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVAEHOMJLGBS7XQJ22WV63QY1D5X
  • Story Text: It's been a bleak week for workers in London's banking industry, so much so that one busker decided to head to Canary Wharf to cheer up gloomy business people on Thursday (September 18).
    Strumming his guitar, Daniel Beaulaurier sang "Rainbow Connection", famously sung by the Muppet Show's Kermit the Frog.

    "Some day we'll find it, that rainbow connection, the lovers, the dreamers and me," the gentle-voiced Beaulaurier sang out to the harried financial workers.
    He said he hoped to give people inspiration: "People seemed OK, they were enjoying the music, so that's a good sign. I look for hope where hope might be hard to see."
    On Monday Lehman Brothers went bust and the several thousand workers based in the US investment bank's Canary Wharf branch were sent home to face an uncertain future.
    On Thursday Lehman Brothers worker Nilson Barreto was back in work, but still doesn't know what is going to happen to him.

    "Monday was so strange, we had to leave about twelve and everything was so black. I think today is a little bit better, it's not great of course, but it's a little bit better, at least we know we are now going to get paid at the end of the month, at least I hope. I don't know what is going to happen now to be honest. It's really weird, a really weird situation for everyone," he said.
    His friend, Fabiana Saenz who works for a company that supplies software to banks, said the ripple effects are being felt across Canary Wharf.

    "I think everyone is quite worried now, because there is something to worry about," she said.
    The Llyods takeover deal to rescue HBOS from the same fate as Lehman Brothers buoyed the markets, but thousands will face job losses as a result.
    Newspaper headlines warned of further banking woes.
    Chartered psychologist Julie Hendry, said it's all having a depressing effect on the general public.

    "I think the everyday person will be disturbed by what they see around them, both on television or walking in the street, perhaps a billboard....for example today's says 'More banking giants on the rack'. I think people will be tuned in to what they see on television and read about and feel some kind of impending doom," she said.
    Investment banker Shak, who didn't want to give his last name, said he's taking a pragmatic approach to the financial crisis: "People are talking about it, but I myself am realistic, I think it's bad but I don't think it's quite as bad, at least not yet, as people are making it out to be.
    Whereas a lot of people are in full panic mode, and fair enough if they are, I am just sort of taking it as it comes," he said.
    A line of taxi cabs still waits outside Lehman Brothers building in Canary Wharf and driver John Goode said his passengers have faced a tough week: "Initially in the first couple of days it was sort of all doom and gloom, but to be honest it's not as bad as I thought it was going to be."
    Enjoying a pint in the September sunshine, Ashley Smith, who works for Barclays bank, said he's just taking the economic woes on the chin: "The one thing about Canary Wharf is it is always changing, especially with business and the economy going the way it is at the moment, so you just sort of roll with it and the department I work in you kind of just expect it so you just keep on going and keep on rolling with the punches basically."
    Whether depressed, pragmatic or philosophical about the economic downturn the one thing Canary Wharf workers all agreed on was that this is only the beginning and that things are only going to get worse.
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