vecchi tram a Torino - Old Tram in Turin 2
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Atardecer con gaviotas
Esta foto la hice en Chipiona (Cdiz) el pasado mes de Mayo...
Qu ganas tengo de volver por all...!!
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Sunset at Mindil Beach, Darwin
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Eastbourne Corporation / aec Regent V East Lancs / 69 / KHC 369
Seen at the Castle Point Museum Open Day 2010.
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In this historical photo, Chinese workers handle citrus fruit in the F.B. Devine packing house. (Riverside Municipal Museum / June 26, 2011)
A fenced lot overgrown with weeds near the heart of downtown Riverside is believed to contain the largest undisturbed early settlement of Chinese farmworkers in Southern California. But now a local developer wants to put up a medical building there.
The proposal has touched off a legal battle with activists who want the lot and its buried artifacts to become a memorial park. They say it should honor early Chinese pioneers and stand testament to the prejudice that led to the birth and demise of this Inland Empire Chinatown.
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Landmark Houses: Ennis house
Photos: Los Angeles Chinatown then and now
Though it was smaller than the urban Chinatowns of San Francisco and Los Angeles, activists say the Riverside Chinatown played an integral — and largely forgotten — role in creating Southern California's flourishing citrus belt.
Riverside developer Doug Jacobs wants to buy the property to build a medical facility. Activists sued to block the sale temporarily, and Jacobs' side has appealed. In response to activists' concerns, Jacobs said he would set aside room for a Chinese garden and a display area to showcase artifacts.
"This site has been nothing but a weed and trash dumping ground," Jacobs said. "I am building a medical facility because it's needed."
Supporters of a memorial park say the remains are best left undisturbed, perhaps to be fully excavated someday. "When you destroy archaeological resources and do token recognition, it simply trivializes the significance of the site," said Eugene Moy, incoming president of the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California.
Most of the old Chinatown, including the remains of a temple, is entombed underground. A partial excavation of the site in 1984 yielded three tons of artifacts that were put in museum storage, including delicate ceramic vases and opium pipes.
During its heyday from the 1880s to the 1920s, the settlement's Chinese residents supplied groves with needed skills, said Margie Akin, a retired archaeologist and a member of Save Our Chinatown, the committee trying to preserve the site.
Many of the Chinese migrants who came to California to work on the railroads — and later in agriculture — were farmers who brought with them specialized knowledge of oranges, a fruit that originated in China. They were able to efficiently pick and pack oranges for mass consumption in the U.S., Akin said. "It was the Chinese laborers who carried the horticultural knowledge of citrus that was responsible for making Riverside the center of the citrus industry," she said.
Riverside's Chinatown had only about 400 full-time residents, but the number approached 4,000 during harvests. The settlement served as a commercial hub for Chinese laborers for miles around, according to Sue Fawn Chung, a history professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Their labor helped make Riverside a citrus powerhouse by the 1890s, said Judy Lee, vice chairwoman of the preservation committee and a UC Riverside librarian. But fire, prejudice and a lack of women doomed the settlement.
In 1885, racist laws evicted Chinese-owned businesses from a site at the center of town, so Chinese residents moved to the outskirts of town. After a mysterious 1893 fire destroyed most of the new Chinatown, other buildings were erected on top of the debris.
"The Caucasian businesses didn't like the Chinese businesses there, so they booted them out," Lee said. "Now they want to develop over the remains of this second site. It's almost like booting them out again."
The Chinese community finally disappeared, in part because of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. The act forbade Chinese laborers from immigrating to the U.S. and prevented those here from marrying white women or owning property. Most of Chinatown's residents remained bachelors. The last of them, a man named George Wong, died in the 1970s, leaving no children, Lee said.
The state of California apologized in 2009 for persecution of Chinese immigrants. Rep. Judy Chu (D-El Monte) and other members of Congress have introduced a resolution calling on the federal government to make a similar apology. Saving Riverside's Chinatown, activists say, could help raise awareness persuade newer Chinese immigrants to support this cause.
"We have such a big Asian population in the San Gabriel Valley now," the historical society's Moy said. "But most of us have no idea of the very dominant Asian population here more than a century ago."
chingching.ni@latimes.com
opium pipes, partial excavation, doug jacobs, ceramic vases, riverside municipal museum, token recognition, museum storage, historical society of southern california, citrus belt, chinese historical society, photos los angeles, chinatowns, inland empire, archaeological resources, chinese workers, chinese garden, medical building, incoming president, dumping ground, farmworkers
Le Melodie del Mare
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Cabo Frio, rio de janeiro, Brazil.
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Blue Tit - Cyanistes Caeruleus
All of the photographs on my gallery are protected by copyright and not to be used for anything without strict written permission from me, the photographer, Lauren Tucker.
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BEIJING—As the Vancouver Winter Olympics draw to a close, China's sports machine is quietly putting on a clinic in how to climb the medals standings.
China has poured increasing resources in the Winter Games after snagging the most gold medals in the Beijing Summer Olympics two years ago. As of Wednesday, with four days left of Olympics play, it had won eight medals, tied for ninth with Switzerland and Sweden. Four years ago, at the Winter Olympics in Turin, it won 11.
China's Olympic Push
View Slideshow
![[SB10001424052748703427704575052283506039688]](http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-HQ754_0224cg_D_20100224041046.jpg)
AFP/Getty Images
China's Beixing Wang competes in speed skating.
But four of China's medals so far are gold, double the haul from Turin and its highest total in the Winter Games, and it looks set to continue its effort. By contrast, Canada is considering cutting a similar program after the nation hasn't come close to leading in the overall medal count.
So far, the gold has come mostly in areas where China had been expected to do well: speed skating and freestyle skiing. But it also won gold in figure skating even though the duo of Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo was unranked.
Thursday, the Chinese women's curling team, which was seen as a favorite for gold, lost in the semifinals, though coach Daniel Rafael said the performance was amazing considering that the players were in their 20s, when most teams fielded curlers in their 40s.
"I think they did good for a bunch of 20-year-olds at the Olympics," Mr. Rafael said. "Experience counts."
China's Winter Olympics gains come even as officials say it has just 30 standard-sized skating rinks nationwide and virtually no public participation in other winter sports.
"The Olympics are about changing China's image," says Donnie Pei, a historian of Chinese sports at the Capital Institute of Sports, a college. "We used to be called the 'sick man of Asia,' and now we want to show that we're not as weak as you think."
The government is committed to expanding mass participation. Last year it spent $60 million, raised through a lottery, on public sports, up from $40 million in 2007. An additional $15 million went to pilot projects in rural China, where facilities are especially scarce.
Officials say the spending has more to do with grandeur than ordinary people's physical fitness. Liu Peng, head of the General Administration of Sports in China, said in a recent state-media interview that China has to move from being "a big sporting country" to a "powerful sporting country."
These goals are on display at the Chinese Winter Sports Administrative Center in Beijing. The offices are spartan, but the ambitions huge: to make a country with almost no winter-sporting tradition the rival of the Germanys, Norways and Austrias of the world.
China made its Winter Olympics debut in 1980 at the Lake Placid Games in the U.S., with its best result an 18th-place finish in the women's slalom. The country began to aim at sports where China's strengths could come into play, said the director of the winter-sports center, Zhao Yinggang. That meant spending money on sports like freestyle skiing, snowboarding and speed skating.
"These sports are easier for Chinese athletes to get results in a short time," Mr. Zhao said. "Some of them are similar to summer sports where Chinese athletes are more competitive."
More From WSJ.com
China Real Time: Skaters Break Mold
China's Medal Winners
Continuing Coverage From Vancouver
For example, one of China's top medal prospects is Han Xiaopeng, who won gold at the Turin Games in freestyle-skiing aerials and is due to compete in Vancouver this week. Mr. Han hails from temperate Jiangsu province, which has only one skating rink for its 75 million people. But Mr. Han was an expert tumbler and attended a famous acrobatic-gymnastics sports school in Peixian. At age 13, Mr. Han was recruited into the freestyle-ski team. "He already had skills that could be used," Mr. Zhao said. Chinese athletes are recruited young and given systematic training, he said.
This result-oriented focus helped China win its first winter medals, two silvers in speed skating, at the 1992 games. The real breakthrough took place a decade later, when speed skater Yang Yang won the women's 500- and 1,000-meter events. In Turin, China won two gold, four silver and five bronze medals to finish in ninth place.
As in the Summer Games, China is weaker in team sports, which require a higher number of elite athletes for just one gold medal and are considered relatively inefficient investments. But earlier this week, China won its first women's ice-hockey match in 12 years and finished the tournament in seventh place. This year, China's best shot for team gold might come Friday in an unlikely sport, curling, where the women's team has won the world championship and spent part of the year training in Canada.
Journal Community
Some question whether geography will hold China back. Most of the country is relatively warm, with little snowfall. Like most of the people in China's winter-sports program, Mr. Zhao, the center's director, hails from the northeast, or Manchuria, the only heavily populated part of the country with winter-like conditions. Although it includes just three of China's 30 provinces and territories, the northeast is still home to 108 million people, more than the combined populations of winter-sporting powers Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Norway.
"We need more of a foundation, but that will come," Mr. Zhao said. "Each year we will keep improving bit by bit."
—Adam Thompson contributed to this article.
Write to Ian Johnson at ian.johnson@wsj.com
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Krka National Park, Croatia
Krka is a river in Croatia's Dalmatia region, with length circa 73 km; it is famous for its numerous waterfalls.
The river has its source near the border of Croatia with Bosnia and Herzegovina, at the foot of the Dinara mountain. It flows past Knin in Inner Dalmatia towards the south and enters the Prokljansko jezero near Skradin.
Before its outflow the river forms beautiful and well known waterfalls called Skradinski buk, part of Krka National Park. This area is also the location of the first hydroelectric power station using alternate current in Croatia, the Jaruga Hydroelectric Power Plant. This plant started supplying power to the nearby city of ibenik in 1895. It was constructed by the famous electrical engineer Nicola Tesla.
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The Fisherman
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South Steyne Surf
South Steyne Beach, Manly, NSW, Australia
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Bode Miller Wins Olympic Gold
Olympic Chat: U.S. Hockey Team's Winning Breakfast
Inuit Signpost Becomes Olympics Mascot
Olympics: Hockey Rivalry Heats Up at Winter Games
But now, after years of dominance on the World Cup circuit, he has the only prize that really eluded him. He can deny it, but the rebel finally found his cause. We're sure Hollywood's already at work on a Bode Miller screenplay, and Vince Vaughn is moving to Big Bear to train.
Truthfully, the whole Bode-the-insurgent idea was starting to feel overcooked. Age and fatherhood—not to mention a summer spent away from training—appeared to soften the 32-year-old, who grew up in Franconia, N.H. Back on better terms with the U.S. team, he'd already won a silver and bronze in these Games, and seemed to have happily fallen into the role of the wily, creaky veteran: Ed Asner with goggles. At times he could be found chatting amiably with reporters about his 2-year-old daughter's birthday or how inspired he was by Lindsey Vonn's performance. He wasn't about to turn into Ryan Seacrest, but that infamous Bode Smirk had been replaced by a smile.
Thirty years after the upset in Lake Placid, Mr. Miller provided a Miracle of Nice.
But after a rocky start, these Games are being saved by sweetness. The athletes who have been beguiling Vancouver and the world are soft, sweet, and—to steal one of Vince Lombardi's favorite terms—snuggletastic.
Take that yawning medal-hoarder, Apolo Ohno, who captivated our Saturday evening. If you ignore that pilose caterpillar he inexplicably adheres to his chin, he's cuter than a basket full of stray koalas. Or how about Ms. Vonn, America's newest ski heroine? She may have vamped it up for Sports Illustrated's swimsuit issue, but she radiates more Aniston than Angelina.
Even our millionaire hockey players are likeable—and rolling, as they did in a stunning 5-3 victory Sunday over Canada, behind 42 saves from another Miller, goalie Ryan.
And the U.S. isn't providing the only endearing idols at these Games. There's the mop-haired gold-winning Dutch speed skater Mark Tuitert, who, as The Journal's Adam Thompson pointed out, could easily win a Robert Pattinson lookalike contest at a strip mall. There's the bespectacled, lanky Swiss Simon Ammann—a double-gold medalist in ski jumping—who's been nicknamed Harry Potter since he won two golds at Salt Lake City.
Cuteness also is sugar-coating the TV coverage of these Games, though you've probably picked that up from the 23,000 or so commercials NBC has run for the animated movie "How to Train Your Dragon."
On Sunday night, the Peacock marooned the U.S.-Canada hockey game—a stirring affair, as it turned out—on MSNBC in favor of showing ice dancing, a sport that remains illegal to show in a Canadian bar.
But the universe isn't run by hockey fans, especially not in 2010. The universe these days is run by 14-year-old girls—free-spending, trend-setting, social media-izing girls—and 14-year-old girls would rather see Mr. Pattinson's head shaved bald than watch two-plus hours of preliminary hockey.
They aren't totally wrong. But we can't let these Cute Olympics get too cute. We're OK with a friendly Bode Miller, and we have a feeling that Mr. Miller will be OK with his gold medal. But we're a little concerned about these 14-year-olds and their Facebook petition to replace Bob Costas with Justin Bieber, and Al Michaels with a really cute guinea pig named Snickers.
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Squirrel Cove
Beautiful stone beach at Squirrel Cove on cortes island, British Columbia, Canada.
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Citigroup Inc. plans to issue replacement credit cards to tens of thousands of customers affected by an incident of unauthorized access to customer information.
A Citigroup spokesman on Thursday didn't rule out the possibility of fraudulent charges on the accounts, which Citi said represent about 1% of its North American bank card customers. The spokesman added that fraud protection covering unauthorized use should apply in such cases. Citi has 21 million credit-card accounts.
The information subject to the unauthorized access included holders' names, account numbers and email addresses, Citi said. But the breach didn't compromise additional personal information such as Social Security numbers, date of birth, and card security codes or expirations. A spokesman said Citi's debit cards weren't affected.
Citigroup said hackers have viewed some of its credit-card customers' account information in North America. Alison Tudor has details.
"During routine monitoring, we recently discovered unauthorized access to Citi's Account Online," the New York-based bank said in a statement. "For the security of these customers, we are not disclosing further details."
The bank said that it is contacting customers whose information was affected and that it has implemented enhanced procedures to prevent a recurrence of this type of event.
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Deal Journal: How to Protect Yourself
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Historic Tacoma building
Historic building on South Tacoma Way (Highway 99) for sale &/or lease
5050 South Tacoma Way
Tacoma, WA 98409
Information: 11,140 SqFt
2007 Renovated 3 story retail/office building. Upgrades include electrical, plumbing, sprinklers, earthquake retrofitting, and cosmetics. Retail on street level, and offices on 2nd and 3rd floors.Also, there is a 1 bedroom apartment on the 3 floor. Billboard on roof provides an additional income stream. For Leasing Info. - Contact
Steve Cook
Cornerstone Commercial Investment Properties
(206) 898-1933
steve@nwcornerstone.com
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Beautiful day to be feeling sick. Great opportunity to soak up some winter sun
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opec faces mounting questions about its credibility and relevance after Wednesday's group meeting broke up in disarray with no decision on raising production—despite widespread fears that higher crude prices were endangering the world economy.
OPEC faces mounting questions about its credibility and relevance reaching no decision this week on raising production despite widespread fears that higher crude prices were endangering the world economy. Guy Chazan has details.
The meeting, the first since the start of the Middle East pro-democracy movements known as the Arab Spring, exposed deep divisions between members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries that some say can't now be healed.
All eyes are on Saudi Arabia, which has said it would move unilaterally to increase output. That statement—from the only OPEC member able to add significant barrels of production—only underscored doubts about the cartel's relevance.
Perhaps the only thing that could force the 12 cartel members to overcome their differences and act would be a new big oil-price shock. "Maybe we need to see oil at either $50 or $150 a barrel for them to figure out that they've got to get to grips with the situation," said Adam Sieminski, chief energy economist at Deutsche Bank. "There's a saying about OPEC, that it's like a tea bag—it only works in hot water."
The conclave in Vienna, described by Saudi Arabian oil minister Ali Naimi as "one of the worst meetings we've ever had," was the first since war in Libya knocked out most of that country's oil production. Largely as a result of the Libyan shortfall, OPEC basket prices have averaged $106 a barrel this year, $29 more than the 2010 average, and consumer concerns about high gasoline prices are growing.
Many were hoping OPEC would seek to calm markets by replacing the lost Libyan output. But Gulf states led by Saudi Arabia, which had been pushing a 1.5 million barrels-a-day production increase, were blocked by Iran, Venezuela and others who feared that would lead to a collapse in oil prices.
With the next meeting of the group scheduled for December, some analysts fear there is now nothing to prevent a run-up in prices similar to the surge that took crude to $147 a barrel in the summer of 2008—especially, they say, as oil demand is expected to rise sharply in the second half of this year.
"There ain't no sheriff in this town, or at least there will not be for at least another six months," said Barclays Capital analyst Paul Horsnell. "OPEC has for the moment been removed as a force for moderating prices on the upside."
OPEC has traditionally sought to stabilize markets by adding barrels of production when prices are too high and subtracting them when prices fall. Some analysts said Wednesday's meeting showed the group was failing in this task, undermining its claim to be a guarantor of market stability.
"They've showed they are only interested in defending the downside," said David Wech, head of research at JBC Energy in Vienna.
Part of OPEC's credibility problem is the fault-line that has opened up between Iran and Saudi Arabia. OPEC historians say the recovery in the group's effectiveness in managing markets in the aftermath of the oil price crash of the late 1990s was largely due to a rapprochement between Riyadh and Tehran.
That relationship has now been damaged by the Arab Spring. Gulf countries have accused Iran of stirring unrest in Bahrain and other countries in the region. Iran was in turn angered when Bahrain's Sunni rulers invited a Saudi-led force to support the suppression of protests by the Gulf state's Shiite population.
The political upheavals in the Middle East over the past few months were reflected in the makeup of Wednesday's meeting, where the delegation heads of Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar and Libya were attending their very first OPEC conclave. The new ministers, some under pressure from their political paymasters back home, lacked the experience and negotiating skill of veterans like Mr. Naimi.
Yet some analysts underplayed the geopolitical splits within OPEC, saying the dispute between the two camps was less about how to handle the oil market than about the appropriate time to increase production. One analyst said Iran had a point that market statistics didn't necessarily support the need for an immediate output boost.
"Even on fundamentals, the case for an increase was not a slam dunk," said Mike Wittner, head of commodities research at Société Générale. He noted the buildup in oil inventories in the U.S., Europe and Japan in April and the collapse in oil demand in the U.S., which suggested the world may not actually need more crude right now.
OPEC watchers said it was misguided to suggest the organization was about to break up. "This isn't a divorce—it's a trial separation," said David Kirsch, an oil-market analyst at consultancy PFC Energy. "And in the end, everyone will come to their senses and realize their differences are reconcilable."
Write to Guy Chazan at guy.chazan@wsj.com
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MEXICO CITY—For several years, Mexico's tourism industry has weathered the storm of violence in the country, persuading vacationers to visit its beaches and ancient ruins on promises that drug-related crime wouldn't affect their travels.
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Police confront a gang in Acapulco, a resort town marred by violence.
This year, those assurances might not be enough. Many American travelers are turning their backs on Mexico, put off by some gruesome headlines.
Owners of leading tour operators, including American Express Co., have seen sharp declines in American visitors since the first of the year. Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. recently told analysts the drug wars had "decimated leisure travel" at its Mexican resorts. Three top cruise lines say they've canceled service to Mazatlán, a resort hub that's also become the site of a drug cartel turf war.
"It's very hard for me to think that I'm going to convince someone who lives in Des Moines to take their first international trip to Mexico now," says Trip Barrett, Starwood's vice president of brand management in Latin America. He says violence in Mexico and better deals elsewhere are driving down visitors this year.
American Express's tour operator Travel Impressions says it sent 100,000 passengers to Mexico last year but has seen about a 15% decline in bookings this year for independent travelers, meaning those who aren't part of a group.
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Musicians stroll along a deserted beach in Acapulco, Mexico, looking for clients willing to pay for a song.
"Literally, it's just been a continual barrage of stories of finding beheaded bodies and unearthed graves," said John Hanratty, the company's chief marketing officer.
Tourism is a $12 billion-a-year industry for Mexico. Some 22.4 million tourists visited in 2010, up about 4.4% from the year before. But 2009 was affected more by the economic crisis and the "swine flu" outbreak than the drug violence, even though the violence has claimed nearly 40,000 lives since 2006.
Data compiled by Smith Travel Research, a firm that monitors hotel occupancies among large chains, show occupancy in Mexico so far this year either flat or declining across many mid-range hotel chains, though there were some modest gains on the higher end.
A spokesman from Internet booking company Orbitz Worldwide Inc.wouldn't provide specific figures, but said travel to Mexico is lagging significantly behind previous years. Orbitz cites safety fears and last year's bankruptcy of Mexican airline Cia. Mexicana de Aviación, which led to higher airfares among remaining players.
Mexico's tourism officials acknowledge the challenge but say business remains vibrant and most of the violence is not in tourist districts. "There are still travelers coming to Mexico," says Mexico's Tourism Secretary Gloria Guevara.
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Mexican President Felipe Calderón recently met with 22 tourist-industry CEOs during a Las Vegas convention to calm jitters. "I saw thousands of spring breakers in Mexico having fun. My understanding is the only shots they received were tequila shots," he quipped before an audience during the visit.
The majority of violence is between drug cartels and isn't directed at foreigners, says Alfonso Sumano of the Mexico Tourism Board, the ministry's arm that works with the private sector. "They are not going after tourists," he says.
Still, last October, a Canadian visiting Acapulco on business was found dead in his charred rental car after disappearing in the beach town. In January, another Canadian was shot in the leg during a firefight that erupted in Mazatlán. He survived but shortly afterward three luxury cruise lines— Walt Disney Co.'s Disney Cruises, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. and Star Cruise Ltd's Norwegian Cruise Line—canceled service to the port.
According to the U.S. State Department, 107 Americans were killed in homicides in Mexico last year, up from 77 the year before and twice the figure before the drug wars began. The agency doesn't break out tourists from the figures.
Rodolfo López-Negrete, chief operating officer of the tourism board, said he hoped visitors would realize the majority of violence takes place near the border, not in tourist districts.
Acapulco, however, presents a troubling case, tourism companies say. The resort town has also become a major theater of the drug war: On a single weekend this year, more than 30 bodies were found, including night-club workers abducted after hours and later found hanging from a bridge.
Acapulco's violence is affecting resorts that are hundreds of miles away, according to Starwood's Mr. Barrett."When the Joneses hear 'Acapulco,' they know it's a resort," and then other resorts suffer by association, he says. He pointed to recent declines over the usually booked Easter holiday in Puerto Vallarta and Los Cabos, where Starwood operates more than 1,200 rooms under its Westin and Sheraton brands. Puerto Vallarta is about 450 miles from Acapulco and Los Cabos, at the southern end of the Baja peninsula, is even further. But vacancies were high enough that Starwood began offering all-inclusive meal packages and fourth-night-free discounts.
Many foreign hotel companies are banking on security improvement in the long-term and are continuing with development projects in Mexico, according to the Mexican government.
Starwood, which says Mexico remains its sixth-largest country, recently opened a St. Regis in Mexico City and will open a Westin in Guadalajara in August. Hilton Worldwide, the closely held chain that owns brands including Hampton Inns, has plans for 12 new hotels, five of them to open this year, although none is along the border or in Acapulco.
"The perceived situation has been challenging at best to manage," says Terry Dale, president of the U.S. Tour Operators Association, a trade group. "But Mexico is part of the business. It's not going anywhere."
Write to Nicholas Casey at nicholas.casey@wsj.com and Alexandra Berzon at alexandra.berzon@wsj.com
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Getty Center
Opened in 1997, the Getty Center offers a stellar art collection and Richard Meier's beautiful architecture in a gorgeous hilltop surroundings. Not your typical stuffy museum! A definite must when visiting L.A.
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Valon Behrami criticises former West Ham United manager Avram Grant
Valon Behrami has delivered a scathing verdict on Avram Grant, the former West Ham United manager, and revealed the strength of feeling in the Upton Park dressing room against the sacking of Gianfranco Zola.
Thoughtful: Valon Behrami offers stinging verdict of Grant's reign Photo: ACTION IMAGES
By Jeremy Wilson
10:30PM BST 03 Jun 2011
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The midfielder is expected to start for Switzerland against England at Wembley on Saturday but, up until January, was also part of the West Ham squad who eventually finished bottom of the Premier League.
He traces the decline back to the decision of co-owners David Sullivan and David Gold to change managers.
“They sacked Zola for no reason I think,” said Behrami, who left Upton Park for Fiorentina in January.
“Everybody was with him. We’d had a difficult season but we secured safety two or three games before the end of the season. We felt that that with him as manager we could improve.
“The players were very, very sad when they sacked him and the first day with the new manager was difficult to accept. Everybody was still with Zola.”
Of Grant, Behrami said: “Maybe sometimes a manager has to take charge of a situation in a stronger way.
“Avram was a good person but he left the situation to drift along too easily.
"It was a time when he had to change something. He had to bring something new. But he didn’t give a thing.
“We tried to do a good job but what the players needed was a reaction.
We needed something new and we didn’t feel that we got it. We felt that the situation was the same, going down.”
Behrami spent almost three seasons at West Ham and believes that the new manager, Sam Allardyce, has the strength of personality to galvanise his former team-mates.
However, he does not think that he would have enjoyed the direct style with which Allardyce has become associated.
“I don’t really like it because I like to play like Zola wants to play — every time with the ball, every time try to be attractive as well,” said Behrami.
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