Lisa Ho shuts up shop

Sydney designer famous for dressing stars such as Delta Goodrem and Jennifer Lopez suffers financial collapse

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Models show off a Lisa Ho collection. Photograph: AAP

She’s a 31-year veteran of the Australian fashion industry, with a coveted regular spot on the runway at Australian fashion week, and an impressive celebrity following, but that was not enough to save designer Lisa Ho from financial collapse.
Sydney-based Ho, who started her career selling her wares at Paddington market, announced on Tuesday via her long-time publicist, Adam Worling, that the business, which includes standalone boutiques in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, an online store, exclusive distribution throughout David Jones and a dedicated bridal collection, would close its doors forever on 30 June.
The Lisa Ho Group reported a $2.4m loss last financial year and was put into administration last month. Administrators Barry Taylor and Todd Gamme of HLB Mann Judd, reportedly attempted to secure a private equity deal in a last-ditch effort to save the business but, despite “considerable interest” according to Worling, no sale resulted.
“It’s a very sad old day for her and a very busy one for me,” said Worling, head of AWPR, who shares a Surry Hills office building with Ho.
Ho was reportedly too upset to comment. She is known for her use of vivid prints, sharp tailoring and glamorous evening gowns and has created red-carpet designs for the likes of Jennifer Lopez, Sarah Wynter and Delta Goodrem. She famously made the pink beaded dress Goodrem wore to the Arias in 2003 while undergoing cancer treatment.
Faced with burgeoning competition in the retail market – notably the arrival of international high street stores Zara and Top Shop, the online threat and the emergence of a new breed of Australian designers such as sass & bide and Josh Goot revered on the world stage – the Lisa Ho brand has been plagued by rumours of financial crisis for several years.
The first cracks started to show in 2009 when Smoucha Fabrics, owned by Ho’s then husband, Philip Smoucha, was placed into administration reportedly owing $26m to the St George bank. Quick to distance herself, Ho issued a statement saying her company operated as an “entirely separate” business. The couple however were forced to sell their Bellevue Hill home for considerably less than initial expectations of over $20m as well as their farm in the Southern Highlands. And in August 2011, it was noticed that Ho’s personal collection of antiques, vintage fashion and art – five containers’ worth, including a wall-mounted stag deer, a gilt Chanel chain bag and a rare Fendi bag – went under the hammer.
“Lisa Ho is an icon in the Australian market and it’s a real shame to see a brand with only a few stores, well-placed ones at that, not being able to generate the sales. I suspect it’s been coming for a while and you could argue is a combination of younger people migrating online and the state of the market,” said retail strategist Stephen Kulmar of Retail Oasis. He said that “no traditional retailer is travelling well right now” and added: “I suspect this is only the start of the casualties.”
Questioned as to whether Ho would re-emerge in some capacity, Worling’s response was that “he couldn’t say”.
Fans of the label seeking to snap up collectable pieces can now buy the current season, evening and bridal range at slashed prices in store and online until the final day of trading.

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Richard Nieuwenhuizen: Dutch football and the death of a linesman

A memorial to Richard Nieuwenhuizen in the clubhouse at SC Buitenboys. All photographs: Tom Jenkins for the Guardian

It is a bitterly cold evening in Almere, a sprawling city about 15 miles to the east of Amsterdam. A biting wind sweeps across the six pitches at SC Buitenboys, where boys and girls from a couple of junior teams, training under the floodlights, tear around with a ball at their feet, seemingly oblivious to the freezing conditions.
For a club run solely by volunteers and which started 27 years ago with a small wooden hut, it is an impressive setup. Almere, where the first house was built in 1976, is one of the fastest-growing cities in Europe, which helps to explain why Buitenboys has become so popular. These days they have 1,175 children and 225 adults playing across 110 teams. Annual membership costs between €200 and €255 and the only person on the payroll is the cleaner. Everyone else, including all four board members, works for free.
Richard Nieuwenhuizen was among those parents who liked to help out at the club. A popular, football-mad father of three, Nieuwenhuizen lived in Almere with his wife, Xandra, and their two youngest sons, Mykel, 15, and Alain, who recently turned 18. Jamie, the eldest son and a former coach at Buitenboys, lived nearby with his girlfriend.
Mykel played for one of Buitenboys' eight under-17 teams and his father enjoyed running the line in those matches, which was what he left home to do on 2 December for a fixture against Nieuw-Sloten, a club from Amsterdam. It was a normal Sunday morning; father and son heading off to football together. By the end of the day Nieuwenhuizen was fighting for his life. The 41-year-old collapsed three hours after he was brutally attacked by a group of Nieuw-Sloten players. The following evening he died.
Alongside 4,000 red roses next to the pitch where Nieuwenhuizen fell to the floor sits a banner with a tribute written by Richard's second son, Alain. It reads: "Dear Daddy, senseless it was, for sure. It will never be better. Once the wounds will heal. But we will never forget you. We will miss you."
"When the one minute's silence was done in the professional stadiums [the weekend after the incident], they showed that banner," Rob Mueller, Buitenboys' secretary, says. "Alain made it and we printed it so that they could take it with them on the silent march in Almere."
Mueller walks across to another artificial pitch, about 200 yards away, to show where Nieuwenhuizen was attacked at the end of the game between Buitenboys B3 and Nieuw-Sloten B1 (the B denotes it was an under-17 game and the number reflects the ranking of the team within that age group). The game finished 2-2, with Nieuw-Sloten coming back from two goals down. Those that were present recall a couple of incidents when Nieuw-Sloten players bickered among themselves during the game but say nothing happened to suggest there could be a flashpoint with Nieuwenhuizen after the final whistle.
Yet moments after the players started shaking hands with the three volunteer officials, Nieuwenhuizen was knocked to the floor, then punched and kicked in the head by several of the Nieuw-Sloten team. Parents immediately ran on to the pitch to try to defuse the situation and get some control. Nieuwenhuizen eventually got back to his feet but he was knocked to the floor for a second time. Witnesses report that one of the Nieuw-Sloten players then took off his shirt, presumably to make it harder for him to be identified, before kicking Nieuwenhuizen while he was on the ground and then running off. Mykel, Nieuwenhuizen's son, saw everything.
Although clearly badly shaken, Nieuwenhuizen was able to stand up. He said he did not wish to involve the police. He decided to go home and returned to Buitenboys later in the afternoon to watch another under-17 game, which kicked off at 2.45pm. Mueller, who was standing on the opposite side of the pitch, watching one of his two sons play, recalls looking across at about 3pm and seeing Nieuwenhuizen get out of the dugout where he had been sitting, stand up and then fall to the floor.
"We immediately called for an ambulance and they drove on the pitch and took him to the hospital in Almere," Mueller says. "I later went to see Richard. I said: 'Hi Rich, how are you doing?' He said: 'Hi Rob.' And he was very emotional. But at that stage, which was around 7pm, he still recognised me. I saw him once again at around 10pm, when he was still recognising me but he was getting worse. It became really bad so he had to be brought to another hospital, with a neurosurgeon specialist.
"In the meantime, we were called by the police to say that Mykel had to make a statement because he was a witness of the incident. So we took him to the police station to make his statement, but we said if we got one call from the hospital we would drive back. At 1am, we got the message from Richard's wife, Xandra, who said: 'It's not going OK, bring Mykel here.' So the police took him with sirens and lights on, I drove behind.
"We stayed there in the waiting room and at around 4am we came to see him once again. He was still in a kind of coma, didn't recognise anything any more, and that was the last time I saw him alive, knowing already that he would die within six, 12 or 18 hours, because they explained clearly what happened – the brain was deprived of oxygen.
"I went home at about 5am and tried to sleep for a couple of hours. By 9am, I had 71 unanswered phone calls and then the rollercoaster nightmare started. Press came here, television and radio, so we had a small discussion with the board, the president did the television and I did the radio, both knowing that Richard would die but we couldn't say it. At 5.30pm, we got the call to say that he had died. Then it was not only news in Holland, it was news all over the world. So a healthy guy, 41 years old, was kicked to death in a few seconds."

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Boys and coaches in one of the changing rooms at SC Buitenboys Boys and coaches in one of the changing rooms at SC Buitenboys Nieuw-Sloten is a relatively new town, which was originally intended to be the site of the Olympic Village for the 1992 games only for Amsterdam to lose out to Barcelona. It has about 15,000 inhabitants and, according to Achmed Baadoud, the chairman of the council of the Amsterdam borough Nieuw-West, it is regarded as "one of the example areas of our district." Although the teenagers that were arrested played for Nieuw-Sloten, some of them lived in other parts of Nieuw-West, an area with a diverse ethnic mix and not without its problems. Baadoud, who was born in Morocco, says that parental responsibility is a big issue there. "We have a group of parents that when they come with their children [to football], you really don't want to have them there. And we have another group of parents, they don't come. They even don't know in which team their children are playing; they deliver them at the door and they drive away. There are people who don't even know the teacher of their son or the team leader of the club. There is a lot of work to be done." He will not, however, accept that the finger of blame can be pointed at one group of people. "It's very easy to scream and to say it's a Moroccan problem. On the other hand, I don't want to say we have no problems. I am very open and clear that we have to discuss. Families really need help and I'm trying to open their eyes. But if you stand outside and you scream it's a problem, it won't be solved and it might create another problem – people will feel: 'We are not welcome.'" One thing that just about everyone in the Netherlands seems agreed on is that the country has a major issue with parental behaviour at children's matches. There is even a television programme, Heibel langs de lijn (Trouble Along the Field), where children can ring up and ask for their parents to be secretly filmed. The footage is then shown back to the parents, who sit alongside their son or daughter and, generally, cringe with embarrassment when they see themselves behaving hysterically and barking at their offspring from the sidelines. Things got so bad in 2007 an organisation called Sire, which is funded by the media industry and tries to raise awareness of social issues in the country, ran adverts on television showing parents behaving badly while watching their child play football. There was a growing feeling in the Netherlands that parents had become preoccupied with seeing their child win, rather than having fun. The campaign slogan was: "Give children their game back." Four years later, realising things had got little better, Sire carried out further research and released two more adverts, this time showing parents having a bad week at work and then taking out their frustration on their children on a Saturday. A spectator was filmed asking the angry parent: "Hey, how bad was your week?" The slogan at the end said: "Leave Monday to Friday at home on Saturday." Buitenboys have had their own issues with parents. "Before the incident with Richard we were already discussing here, around the table, the question of whether we should organise a weekend of games without any parents because some of the parents are crazy," Mueller says. "They don't know how to behave. They shout and they make arguments to the linesman and the referee. I know for sure that if we had games here without parents, 90% of the incidents would disappear. "We have boys and girls playing here, they are five- and six-year-olds, so they just want to kick the ball, they don't even know what winning is, but even there you get the parents shouting. We try to say to the parents: 'That's the wrong behaviour, be enthusiastic, be positive.' They don't listen. And we don't have the time to continue to watch them." Van der Burg, who is speaking in his office at Amsterdam's City Hall, accepts that parents must take a large share of the blame but also believes that those at the top of the game could help to improve standards by being better role models. "It's more than only parents. I think that professional football gives a bad example," he says. "If you see European games, international games, matches in Dutch football and the UK, you see bad examples not only of the players but also of the coaches. And there it starts, because all of those little boys see their heroes misbehave and they think it's normal." He also has another interesting theory for the lack of respect shown to referees and other people in positions of authority in the Netherlands. "The way we talk to our prime minister – I shouldn't think we should have to call him 'your excellency', but in the Netherlands everyone says 'Mark' [even in talk shows]. Yet in France, it's Le President. In the United States, it's Mr President," Van der Burg says. "In the Netherlands we certainly say more to a policeman than in a lot of other countries, so when it comes to authority we don't have the same respect. And I think one of the things we have to get back is respect for authority. It was better at one time and we lost it to policemen, personnel of the ambulance, the fire department – we have had some incidents there as well. That makes it a bigger problem than football. But, on the other hand, when you compare football with other sports, and even when you correct it for the figures because there are many more football players than in other sports, it's much more of a problem in football in terms of the number of incidents.

Boys and coaches in one of the changing rooms at SC Buitenboys

Nieuw-Sloten is a relatively new town, which was originally intended to be the site of the Olympic Village for the 1992 games only for Amsterdam to lose out to Barcelona. It has about 15,000 inhabitants and, according to Achmed Baadoud, the chairman of the council of the Amsterdam borough Nieuw-West, it is regarded as "one of the example areas of our district."
Although the teenagers that were arrested played for Nieuw-Sloten, some of them lived in other parts of Nieuw-West, an area with a diverse ethnic mix and not without its problems. Baadoud, who was born in Morocco, says that parental responsibility is a big issue there. "We have a group of parents that when they come with their children [to football], you really don't want to have them there. And we have another group of parents, they don't come. They even don't know in which team their children are playing; they deliver them at the door and they drive away. There are people who don't even know the teacher of their son or the team leader of the club. There is a lot of work to be done."
He will not, however, accept that the finger of blame can be pointed at one group of people. "It's very easy to scream and to say it's a Moroccan problem. On the other hand, I don't want to say we have no problems. I am very open and clear that we have to discuss. Families really need help and I'm trying to open their eyes. But if you stand outside and you scream it's a problem, it won't be solved and it might create another problem – people will feel: 'We are not welcome.'"
One thing that just about everyone in the Netherlands seems agreed on is that the country has a major issue with parental behaviour at children's matches. There is even a television programme, Heibel langs de lijn (Trouble Along the Field), where children can ring up and ask for their parents to be secretly filmed. The footage is then shown back to the parents, who sit alongside their son or daughter and, generally, cringe with embarrassment when they see themselves behaving hysterically and barking at their offspring from the sidelines.
Things got so bad in 2007 an organisation called Sire, which is funded by the media industry and tries to raise awareness of social issues in the country, ran adverts on television showing parents behaving badly while watching their child play football. There was a growing feeling in the Netherlands that parents had become preoccupied with seeing their child win, rather than having fun. The campaign slogan was: "Give children their game back."
Four years later, realising things had got little better, Sire carried out further research and released two more adverts, this time showing parents having a bad week at work and then taking out their frustration on their children on a Saturday. A spectator was filmed asking the angry parent: "Hey, how bad was your week?" The slogan at the end said: "Leave Monday to Friday at home on Saturday."
Buitenboys have had their own issues with parents. "Before the incident with Richard we were already discussing here, around the table, the question of whether we should organise a weekend of games without any parents because some of the parents are crazy," Mueller says. "They don't know how to behave. They shout and they make arguments to the linesman and the referee. I know for sure that if we had games here without parents, 90% of the incidents would disappear.
"We have boys and girls playing here, they are five- and six-year-olds, so they just want to kick the ball, they don't even know what winning is, but even there you get the parents shouting. We try to say to the parents: 'That's the wrong behaviour, be enthusiastic, be positive.' They don't listen. And we don't have the time to continue to watch them."
Van der Burg, who is speaking in his office at Amsterdam's City Hall, accepts that parents must take a large share of the blame but also believes that those at the top of the game could help to improve standards by being better role models. "It's more than only parents. I think that professional football gives a bad example," he says. "If you see European games, international games, matches in Dutch football and the UK, you see bad examples not only of the players but also of the coaches. And there it starts, because all of those little boys see their heroes misbehave and they think it's normal."
He also has another interesting theory for the lack of respect shown to referees and other people in positions of authority in the Netherlands. "The way we talk to our prime minister – I shouldn't think we should have to call him 'your excellency', but in the Netherlands everyone says 'Mark' [even in talk shows]. Yet in France, it's Le President. In the United States, it's Mr President," Van der Burg says.
"In the Netherlands we certainly say more to a policeman than in a lot of other countries, so when it comes to authority we don't have the same respect. And I think one of the things we have to get back is respect for authority. It was better at one time and we lost it to policemen, personnel of the ambulance, the fire department – we have had some incidents there as well. That makes it a bigger problem than football. But, on the other hand, when you compare football with other sports, and even when you correct it for the figures because there are many more football players than in other sports, it's much more of a problem in football in terms of the number of incidents.

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CCM yazoa viti vingi vya udiwani

 

Nassari 

• Nassari alivamiwa, kupigwa na kujeruhiwa sehemu mbalimbali mwilini na watu wanaodaiwa kuwa viongozi na wafuasi wa CCM.
  

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Chaguzi ndogo za udiwani zilizofanyika sehemu mbalimbali ziligubikwa na vurugu wakati hali ilikuwa mbaya zaidi huko Makuyuni mkoani Arusha ambako Mbunge wa Arumeru Mashariki, Joshua Nassari alipigwa na wafuasia wa CCM na kulazimika kulazwa hospitalini.

Pamoja na vurugu hizo, CCM iliendelea kudhihirisha umwamba wake katika ulingo wa siasa baada ya kujizolea viti vingi vya udiwani wakati wa chaguzi ndogo zilizofanyika sehemu mbalimbali nchini.

Wafuatiliaji wa mambo ya kisiasa walikuwa wanafuatilia kwa kina chaguzi hizo ili kupima joto la kisiasa nchini.

Uchaguzi uliokuwa unasubiriwa kwa hamu ni ule wa Makuyuni wilayani Monduli ambako Mbunge wake ni mwanasiasa maarufu Edward Lowassa.

CCM iliibuka kidedea huko Makuyuni na kufanya maneno ya Rais Jakaya Kikwete kuwa Lowassa ana misuli ya kuifanya CCM ishinde huko Monduli.

Lowassa alikuwa na kibarua cha kukabiliana na Chadema waliokuwa wanataka kujipenyeza Monduli ambako hawajahi kuwa na kata tangu mfumo wa vyama vingi uanzishwe.

Hata hivyo, bado CCM haijapata dawa ya ushindi Pemba kwani kilishindwa vibaya na CUF kwenye uchaguzi wa ubunge wa Chambani.

Chadema kwa upande wake kilitoa changamoto kwa CCM katika chaguzi hizo za kata na hata kujizolea kata mbili za Iyela huko Mbeya na wilayani Hanan’g huko mkoani Manyara.

Nassari apata kichapo Makuyuni

Nassari alivamiwa, kupigwa na kujeruhiwa sehemu mbalimbali mwilini na watu wanaodaiwa kuwa viongozi na wafuasi wa CCM, akiwa katika harakati za uratibu wa shughuli za upigaji kura za udiwani katika Kata ya Makuyuni, wilayani Monduli.

Nassari aliyekuwa wakala mkuu wa Chadema katika kata hiyo alivamiwa na kundi la watu zaidi ya 30 waliomshambulia kwa fimbo na

Tukio hilo lilitokea jana kati ya Saa 3:00 na 4:00 katika kituo cha kupigia kura cha Kwa Zaburi wakati mbunge huyo alipofika kuangalia maendeleo ya zoezi la kura

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