They can steal by printing more money for themselves and yet that is not enough. They want even commissions for doing the printing...
Bribe probe hits former Malay PM
Nick McKenzie and Richard Baker
July 5, 2011
The Reserve Bank of Australia's banknote firms are suspected of attempting to bribe former Malaysian prime minister Abdullah Badawi in order to get his help to win a $31 million currency contract.
Mr Abdullah is one of a several highly influential Malaysian political figures whom anti-corruption authorities believe Securency and Note Printing Australia— firms respectively half and fully owned and overseen by Australia's reserve bank— allegedly sought to bribe using part of $4.2 million in commission payments made to two Malaysian middlemen.
Malaysian sources confirmed to The Age that the Australian Federal Police have gathered information about attempts to bribe Mr Abdullah by Securency and Note Printing Australia, which are respectively half and fully owned and overseen by the RBA
The Age sought comment from Mr Abdullah last night.
Asked about the approach to Mr Abdullah yesterday, an AFP spokesman said: "Given that matters relating to investigations into Securency International and Note Printing Australia are currently before the court, the AFP is unable to make any further comment."
It is understood the attempt to bribe Mr Abdullah related to contract negotiations that occurred around 2003, the year he became prime minister and finance minister. He served as prime minister until 2009.
Before becoming prime minister, Mr Abdullah was deputy to long-serving Malaysian leader Mahathir Mohamad.
The alleged attempt to bribe of Mr Badawi, who remains a serving MP, adds to the list of high-profile Asian politicians and central bank officials targeted by the RBA firms.
The AFP last week alleged Securency bribed Vietnam's former central bank governor by paying his son's English university tuition fees. Authorities in Malaysia last Friday arrested a former Malaysian central bank assistant governor accused of receiving two bribes from NPA.
The revelations about the attempt to bribe Mr Abdullah come as the fallout from Australia's plastic note bribery scandal continues to spread, with The Age reporting yesterday about the intimate involvement of senior officials from the Australian government trade agency Austrade in Securency's allegedly corrupt Vietnam dealings.
An AFP-led international corruption taskforce continues to work towards further arrests, having already charged seven former senior Securency and NPA executives with foreign bribery offences.
Mr Abdullah is believed to have been involved in approving the contract won by the RBA firms to supply Malaysia with its polymer five Ringgit note, which began circulating in 2004.
Securency and NPA's agents for the 2004 were former state MP and senior figure in the country's ruling party, UMNO, Dato Abdullah Hasnan Kamaruddin and arms trader Abdul Kayum, who was arrested and charged on friday with two counts of bribery.
Mr Kayum, who pled not guilty to the charges, worked as NPA and Securency's main middleman in Malaysia and allegedly promised the firms that he was able to convince senior Malaysian officials to buy the plastic bank note technology.
Several senior Securency and NPA former executives are believed to have been aware that payments to Mr Kayum may have been used to pay bribes. He acted as their agent between 2000 and 2007, before being sacked after an internal audit raised probity fears.
His hiring and subsequent receipt of several million dollars from the RBA firms raises further questions about the adequacy of supervision provided by the RBA-appointed directors of Securency and NPA.
Mr Kayum also represented one of the Pakistan Government's main weapons making facilities, the Air Weapons Complex, which is believed to play a central role in the nation's nuclear weapons program.
The Australian Securities and Investment Commission yesterday refused to confirm or deny whether it was investigating the performance of the Securency and NPA boards after Greens leader Bob Brown and federal Labor backbencher Kelvin Thomson suggested last Friday that it should.
Former RBA deputy governor Graeme Thompson, who is also a former chief of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, chaired Securency and NPA during the 1999-2005 period the alleged bribes in Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia took place.
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/national/bribe-probe-hits-former-malay-pm-20110704-1gz6c.html#ixzz1TMkmDa25
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Friday, July 15, 2011
Who the Hack is Running the Country?
According to reports, these fellas had eavesdropped on thousands of people's voice mails and messages over at least a decade, and the British police had closed an eye to the whole thing until recently when these fellas were on the verge of buying BskyB (below you will see why the British politicans are now sufficiently alarmed to raise the alarm).
Apparently, those fellas control so much of the country's news organsations that for the last few decades anyone that The Sun (owned by the same fellas) supported ended up winning the country's elections.
Quote: 'If you do not read newspapers you are uninformed, if you do you are misinformed' - Mark Twain
As a result, all their politicians from all parties had 'coddled up' to these fellas and employed their employees as their 'press czars'.
For those that cannot get it, here's the reason: by doing that they hope to get the 'support' of those fellas' newspapers, TV stations etc and thus 'win' elections.
[side note: Anyone familiar with US financial regulatory history would know that this is akind to the US government appointing employees of large banks (like Goldman Sachs) as their financial czars]
They reportedly even 'tapped' Gordon Brown's (the previous PM) phone for years from when he as finance minister to prime minister and that bugger apparently did not even know about it until now!
That and the fact that those fellas had 'eavesdropped' on an 'industrial scale' on thousands of people for so many years tells us a few things.
That country's political leaders and government were either not aware of the whole thing, or they were aware but too 'afraid' to antagonise those devils and have them turn their 'news' against them. In both cases, one wonders who are the ones really running that country.
For the benefit of children in my mail list, one does not have to have direct control of a country to be in control of it. It is the same reason why a lead British financier (Lord Rothschild) from 100 plus years ago once claimed that 'I care not who sits on the throne of the British empire. The one who controls its finances controls the empire, and I control its finances'.
The recent behaviour of those fellas in response to the 'recent revelations' are also telling (and these are just the ones I am aware of).
- the father refused to attend the British parliament inquiry on the matter and instead now says that he will setup his own 'independent' committee to investigate all charges (yah, a thief tells the whole country to bugger off and says he will pick his own judge),
- he also says that it is just a 'minor mistake' (stealing from thousands of people is a minor mistake to him)
- when asked what is the most important thing to him now that the case is 'blown up' he pointed to his CEO and said 'to save her' (that woman was the head of his british operations at the time of those 'hackings' and many people were calling for her to be charged). You see what is important to those people. It is not justice but his fellow tribeswoman by name of Rebekah
- his son tells the same parliamentary committee that he will appear at a date of his own choosing!
For those that do not know - all those devilish characters above are from one single race. Coincidence? Not really. They are people that many fools say are 'god's chosen people'.
So now you can see why those fellas talk and behave as if they are 'kings'? That is why I say chinamen that go round telling others that Jews are 'god's chosen people' are complete idiots (for those idiots will be dying to suck up to those people).
Some notes on 'phone hacking':
A few days ago a local Singapore newspaper ran an article written by some local 'electronic games developer' that talked about how easy it is for people to 'hack' into other people's phone mails and messages. According to that 'expert', the method is to 'imitate' the phone's owner and try to log into the owner's voice and message box, and it is quite easy as most people do not bother to change the default passwords assigned by telcos.
Yah, only simpletons believe that people that do it on 'industrial scales' take that route. There are easier ways like gaining control of the telcos' computers or just simply having access to them (i.e. be on the inside).
Despite the impression that 'phone hacking' is something different, it is actually computer hacking and there is no difference between the two. At the core of the entire 'modern phone system' is nothing but many computers acting as switches and as storage so that phone users can sign in later to retrieve. So with so many computers all over the network, it would not be surprising that copies of those mails and messages are siting on multiple computers which makes it all the easier get to from the inside.
Thus, those fellas above did not have to hack into people's phones and unlikely even to have to pretend to be the rightful owners. It is more likely that they were accessing those computers from the inside and did not even have to hack into those computers. Remember: the ones that control those computers can access anything they want and that is the easiest and most efficient way of getting people's mails if you are operating on an 'industrial scale'.
So and unless you think the ones managing those telco networks are total idiots that did not really know what was happening, you imagine what sort of 'power' is needed for that to happen?
People with that sort of reach don't do things the way the average joe or joker does, or the way they think things are done...
Rupert Murdoch attacks Gordon Brown in first interview since NoW closed
Speaking to Wall St Journal, media tycoon defends News Corp's handling of scandal and says MPs' comments are 'total lies'
David Batty
guardian.co.uk, Friday 15 July 2011
Rupert Murdoch has attacked Gordon Brown in a fierce defence of News Corporation's handling of the phone hacking scandal. Murdoch accused British MPs of lying about allegations of corrupt practices at his newspapers
In his first interview about the crisis that has engulfed his media empire, Murdoch said some MPs' comments on the scandal were "total lies" and singled out Brown for criticism over the former prime minister's accusation that News International was guilty of "law-breaking on an industrial scale".
The media baron said Brown "got it entirely wrong" when he alleged that Murdoch's British papers had used "known criminals" to get access to his personal information when Labour was in power.
"The Browns were always friends of ours" until the Sun withdrew its support for Labour before the last general election, he told the Wall Street Journal, his flagship US paper.
On Twitter, Murdoch's biographer Michael Wolff said he "seemed genuinely distressed about Gordon Brown not liking him anymore."
Murdoch said he had agreed to appear before the Commons culture, media and sport select committee after being told he would be summoned to a hearing on the hacking scandal next Tuesday. He said he wanted to address "some of the things that have been said in parliament, some of which are total lies."
The summons was issued after Murdoch said he would not give evidence to the committee until after having appeared before the public inquiry chaired by Lord Justice Leveson.
Murdoch, who will join his younger son James and News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks at the hearing, added: "We think it's important to absolutely establish our integrity in the eyes of the public."
The chairman and chief executive of News Corp also defended the company's handling of the crisis, claiming it had made only "minor mistakes".
The damage to the company was "nothing that will not be recovered," he said, adding that the company had a great reputation in the US.
He admitted "getting annoyed" about the negative media coverage of the scandal but said: I'll get over it."
Amid growing calls from News Corp shareholders for James Murdoch to step down as the chairman of BSkyB, his father also attempted to quash speculation that the scandal had dashed the chances of his younger taking over his media empire.
Rejecting criticism that James Murdoch had reacted too slowly to the scandal, he said: "I think he acted as fast as he could, the moment he could."
He also claimed that his own his reponse to the situation had been prompt and appropriate.
"When I hear something going wrong, I insist on it being put right," he said.
He also denied there were plans to sell News International, or separate it from the rest of News Corp, describing such reports as "pure rubbish".
"Give it the strongest possible denial you can give," he added.
But Murdoch said it would set up an independent committee to "investigate every charge of improper conduct" made against News International.
The committee would be headed by a "distinguished non-employee" and also establish a "protocol for behaviour" for new reporters across the company.
Apparently, those fellas control so much of the country's news organsations that for the last few decades anyone that The Sun (owned by the same fellas) supported ended up winning the country's elections.
Quote: 'If you do not read newspapers you are uninformed, if you do you are misinformed' - Mark Twain
As a result, all their politicians from all parties had 'coddled up' to these fellas and employed their employees as their 'press czars'.
For those that cannot get it, here's the reason: by doing that they hope to get the 'support' of those fellas' newspapers, TV stations etc and thus 'win' elections.
[side note: Anyone familiar with US financial regulatory history would know that this is akind to the US government appointing employees of large banks (like Goldman Sachs) as their financial czars]
They reportedly even 'tapped' Gordon Brown's (the previous PM) phone for years from when he as finance minister to prime minister and that bugger apparently did not even know about it until now!
That and the fact that those fellas had 'eavesdropped' on an 'industrial scale' on thousands of people for so many years tells us a few things.
That country's political leaders and government were either not aware of the whole thing, or they were aware but too 'afraid' to antagonise those devils and have them turn their 'news' against them. In both cases, one wonders who are the ones really running that country.
For the benefit of children in my mail list, one does not have to have direct control of a country to be in control of it. It is the same reason why a lead British financier (Lord Rothschild) from 100 plus years ago once claimed that 'I care not who sits on the throne of the British empire. The one who controls its finances controls the empire, and I control its finances'.
The recent behaviour of those fellas in response to the 'recent revelations' are also telling (and these are just the ones I am aware of).
- the father refused to attend the British parliament inquiry on the matter and instead now says that he will setup his own 'independent' committee to investigate all charges (yah, a thief tells the whole country to bugger off and says he will pick his own judge),
- he also says that it is just a 'minor mistake' (stealing from thousands of people is a minor mistake to him)
- when asked what is the most important thing to him now that the case is 'blown up' he pointed to his CEO and said 'to save her' (that woman was the head of his british operations at the time of those 'hackings' and many people were calling for her to be charged). You see what is important to those people. It is not justice but his fellow tribeswoman by name of Rebekah
- his son tells the same parliamentary committee that he will appear at a date of his own choosing!
For those that do not know - all those devilish characters above are from one single race. Coincidence? Not really. They are people that many fools say are 'god's chosen people'.
So now you can see why those fellas talk and behave as if they are 'kings'? That is why I say chinamen that go round telling others that Jews are 'god's chosen people' are complete idiots (for those idiots will be dying to suck up to those people).
Some notes on 'phone hacking':
A few days ago a local Singapore newspaper ran an article written by some local 'electronic games developer' that talked about how easy it is for people to 'hack' into other people's phone mails and messages. According to that 'expert', the method is to 'imitate' the phone's owner and try to log into the owner's voice and message box, and it is quite easy as most people do not bother to change the default passwords assigned by telcos.
Yah, only simpletons believe that people that do it on 'industrial scales' take that route. There are easier ways like gaining control of the telcos' computers or just simply having access to them (i.e. be on the inside).
Despite the impression that 'phone hacking' is something different, it is actually computer hacking and there is no difference between the two. At the core of the entire 'modern phone system' is nothing but many computers acting as switches and as storage so that phone users can sign in later to retrieve. So with so many computers all over the network, it would not be surprising that copies of those mails and messages are siting on multiple computers which makes it all the easier get to from the inside.
Thus, those fellas above did not have to hack into people's phones and unlikely even to have to pretend to be the rightful owners. It is more likely that they were accessing those computers from the inside and did not even have to hack into those computers. Remember: the ones that control those computers can access anything they want and that is the easiest and most efficient way of getting people's mails if you are operating on an 'industrial scale'.
So and unless you think the ones managing those telco networks are total idiots that did not really know what was happening, you imagine what sort of 'power' is needed for that to happen?
People with that sort of reach don't do things the way the average joe or joker does, or the way they think things are done...
Rupert Murdoch attacks Gordon Brown in first interview since NoW closed
Speaking to Wall St Journal, media tycoon defends News Corp's handling of scandal and says MPs' comments are 'total lies'
David Batty
guardian.co.uk, Friday 15 July 2011
Rupert Murdoch has attacked Gordon Brown in a fierce defence of News Corporation's handling of the phone hacking scandal. Murdoch accused British MPs of lying about allegations of corrupt practices at his newspapers
In his first interview about the crisis that has engulfed his media empire, Murdoch said some MPs' comments on the scandal were "total lies" and singled out Brown for criticism over the former prime minister's accusation that News International was guilty of "law-breaking on an industrial scale".
The media baron said Brown "got it entirely wrong" when he alleged that Murdoch's British papers had used "known criminals" to get access to his personal information when Labour was in power.
"The Browns were always friends of ours" until the Sun withdrew its support for Labour before the last general election, he told the Wall Street Journal, his flagship US paper.
On Twitter, Murdoch's biographer Michael Wolff said he "seemed genuinely distressed about Gordon Brown not liking him anymore."
Murdoch said he had agreed to appear before the Commons culture, media and sport select committee after being told he would be summoned to a hearing on the hacking scandal next Tuesday. He said he wanted to address "some of the things that have been said in parliament, some of which are total lies."
The summons was issued after Murdoch said he would not give evidence to the committee until after having appeared before the public inquiry chaired by Lord Justice Leveson.
Murdoch, who will join his younger son James and News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks at the hearing, added: "We think it's important to absolutely establish our integrity in the eyes of the public."
The chairman and chief executive of News Corp also defended the company's handling of the crisis, claiming it had made only "minor mistakes".
The damage to the company was "nothing that will not be recovered," he said, adding that the company had a great reputation in the US.
He admitted "getting annoyed" about the negative media coverage of the scandal but said: I'll get over it."
Amid growing calls from News Corp shareholders for James Murdoch to step down as the chairman of BSkyB, his father also attempted to quash speculation that the scandal had dashed the chances of his younger taking over his media empire.
Rejecting criticism that James Murdoch had reacted too slowly to the scandal, he said: "I think he acted as fast as he could, the moment he could."
He also claimed that his own his reponse to the situation had been prompt and appropriate.
"When I hear something going wrong, I insist on it being put right," he said.
He also denied there were plans to sell News International, or separate it from the rest of News Corp, describing such reports as "pure rubbish".
"Give it the strongest possible denial you can give," he added.
But Murdoch said it would set up an independent committee to "investigate every charge of improper conduct" made against News International.
The committee would be headed by a "distinguished non-employee" and also establish a "protocol for behaviour" for new reporters across the company.
Wednesday, July 06, 2011
Scrxwing the Europeans 1 by 1
See the Anglo-Saxon trick? No change to Gringo and Poodle's ratings while Iceland, Ireland, Greece, now Portugal all 'queue' in almost perfect timing. Even the gods cannot get the timing of those rating downgrades as well as those fellas...
Breaking News
Moody's downgrades Portugal into junk territory
Ratings agency Moody's has cut Portugal's main credit rating by four notches to Ba2. The group cited what it saw as a great risk that the eurozone nation would need more official financing.
Breaking News
Moody's downgrades Portugal into junk territory
Ratings agency Moody's has cut Portugal's main credit rating by four notches to Ba2. The group cited what it saw as a great risk that the eurozone nation would need more official financing.
Free Lunches (Trading using CFDs)
Only for people that want to invest in stocks ('stock playing' not encouraged). Esp those that have been using or wish to use CFD for some leverage.
Those that wish to open account with Saxo can let me know and we can have a few free lunches on the referral fee I collect.
FYI for those interested, foreign brokers like Saxo have following differences over local ('1st world brokers for 3rd world investors'?) ones:
- their 'long' CFD financing premiums are around 1.5% above interbank offered rates (for the respective currencies), and are much lower than that charged by local (con) brokers. E.g. SGD is 3+% vs 5.5% for local brokers
- they pay 'interest' for short CFD positions, local con ones charge for short too
- they do not rollover positions every month or so, local ones do that and charge 2x (sell & buy back)commissions again on each rollover. Some have 'promotions' where they 'give' waivers for some period (so nice).
In addition, the 'forced' regular rollover causes financing principal (and therefore their charge) to rise as share price goes up.
E.g. you bot your share initially at the cheap/low of $10 and price has since doubled. The local con brokers rollover your position to the new price of $20 and you end up paying interest on $20. Since foreign brokers do not rollover your position, their financing charge is based on your original purchase price $10 for as long as you hold that position.
That difference of course works the other way too i.e. as price drops, local brokers charge less financing. But then that situation should not apply as much to more savvy investors since they would more likely buy when prices are cheap and less likely to go down as much as up (if lose more often than gain, then don't invest. sure jialat).
If price drops appreciably, one can always do voluntary rollovers (self-directed sell & buyback) to take advantage of lower price (principal) and financing cost. Or simply rollover to cash position using dividends earned. That's what I (loser) do when prices drop by more than 20%...
From: Helen Yudan Zha (HZH)
To: CCK
Sent: Wed, July 6, 2011 11:12:38 AM
Subject: Saxo: Refer a friend to Saxo and receive SGD 200
Dear CCK
Good morning and thank you very much for trading in Saxo!
Do you know of someone who may benefit from our award winning SaxoTrader platform? Refer your contact to us and you may be eligible for our referral fee of SGD 200 per client !
A quick view for some terms and conditions:
Referrer (You)
- You must have a SaxoTrader account with Saxo Capital Markets Singapore
- You must have executed at least one trade
- You must Not be married to the referee
- There must be no executed or pending request for account closure
Referee (The person you refer)
- He/she must open a Saxo Trader account (min SGD 10,000 initial deposit) with Saxo Singapore
- He/she must have executed at least one trade
- He/she must not be married to you
- He/she must not have been previously registered with Saxo
- He/she must not have been previously referred to Saxo
- There must be no executed or pending request for account closure or funds withdrawal
To refer clients to Saxo
Please reply to me with your referee’s name, mobile number and email address if available. We will then follow up with your referee. Please feel free to forward my contacts to your friend. Let me know if you have any questions here.
Once you and your referee have met the conditions, your trading account will be credited with SGD 200 !
Thank you very much and have a nice day!
Yours Sincerely
Helen Yudan Zha
Manager – Private Account Management
Mailto: HZH@saxomarkets.com.sg
Phone: +6563037706
Those that wish to open account with Saxo can let me know and we can have a few free lunches on the referral fee I collect.
FYI for those interested, foreign brokers like Saxo have following differences over local ('1st world brokers for 3rd world investors'?) ones:
- their 'long' CFD financing premiums are around 1.5% above interbank offered rates (for the respective currencies), and are much lower than that charged by local (con) brokers. E.g. SGD is 3+% vs 5.5% for local brokers
- they pay 'interest' for short CFD positions, local con ones charge for short too
- they do not rollover positions every month or so, local ones do that and charge 2x (sell & buy back)commissions again on each rollover. Some have 'promotions' where they 'give' waivers for some period (so nice).
In addition, the 'forced' regular rollover causes financing principal (and therefore their charge) to rise as share price goes up.
E.g. you bot your share initially at the cheap/low of $10 and price has since doubled. The local con brokers rollover your position to the new price of $20 and you end up paying interest on $20. Since foreign brokers do not rollover your position, their financing charge is based on your original purchase price $10 for as long as you hold that position.
That difference of course works the other way too i.e. as price drops, local brokers charge less financing. But then that situation should not apply as much to more savvy investors since they would more likely buy when prices are cheap and less likely to go down as much as up (if lose more often than gain, then don't invest. sure jialat).
If price drops appreciably, one can always do voluntary rollovers (self-directed sell & buyback) to take advantage of lower price (principal) and financing cost. Or simply rollover to cash position using dividends earned. That's what I (loser) do when prices drop by more than 20%...
From: Helen Yudan Zha (HZH)
To: CCK
Sent: Wed, July 6, 2011 11:12:38 AM
Subject: Saxo: Refer a friend to Saxo and receive SGD 200
Dear CCK
Good morning and thank you very much for trading in Saxo!
Do you know of someone who may benefit from our award winning SaxoTrader platform? Refer your contact to us and you may be eligible for our referral fee of SGD 200 per client !
A quick view for some terms and conditions:
Referrer (You)
- You must have a SaxoTrader account with Saxo Capital Markets Singapore
- You must have executed at least one trade
- You must Not be married to the referee
- There must be no executed or pending request for account closure
Referee (The person you refer)
- He/she must open a Saxo Trader account (min SGD 10,000 initial deposit) with Saxo Singapore
- He/she must have executed at least one trade
- He/she must not be married to you
- He/she must not have been previously registered with Saxo
- He/she must not have been previously referred to Saxo
- There must be no executed or pending request for account closure or funds withdrawal
To refer clients to Saxo
Please reply to me with your referee’s name, mobile number and email address if available. We will then follow up with your referee. Please feel free to forward my contacts to your friend. Let me know if you have any questions here.
Once you and your referee have met the conditions, your trading account will be credited with SGD 200 !
Thank you very much and have a nice day!
Yours Sincerely
Helen Yudan Zha
Manager – Private Account Management
Mailto: HZH@saxomarkets.com.sg
Phone: +6563037706
Monday, July 04, 2011
Real Use of Temples
Aptly dedicated to the Hindu deity Vishnu (the Preserver) - the other key ones being Brahma (the Creator) and Siva (the Destroyer) - this temple managed to preserve a lot of 'kurunge' (money in Tamil).
Smart deity. Don't trust paper money and convert those things into real stuffs for storage. And that is just what the deity preserved (left behind). One wonders how much the deity have 'used' to-date.
I wonder which of the Hindu deities is the re-incarnation of 'AGNI' the Auditor General N Inspector.
Everywhere such 'holy' institutions are filled with money hoarders. Coincidence?
According to the report, the 'secret chamber' where the valuables were held had not been tempered for 140 years. You believe that?
If that is true, that means the people who hid those valuables did not want others to know about it. Why?
If those few (if not few how to keep secret?) people are the only ones that know about it, do you think they would not help themselves to some of it?
The more likely scenario is that there had been some falling out between the different people managing the 'secret chamber' and the ones who lost out (and therefore could not use those valuable anymore) threatened to spill the beans. So the others had no choice but to 'reveal' the existence of those valuables.
Note: Throughout history temples are good places to hide or store valuables because only a few 'top religious leaders' (i.e. insiders) are allowed into the temples' inner sanctums (where valuables are stored) supposedly because those places are 'super sacred'. In addition, temples enjoy fanatical protection from worshippers who would protect the temples with their lives when called to do so by those 'holy leaders' - those dumb suckers think they are protecting their gods. A good example is the Greek Parthenon which the Delian League used as their 'treasury'.
Indian temple yields priceless treasure
Russia News.Net
Saturday 2nd July, 2011
Gold and silver jewellery, coins and precious stones have been discovered in an Indian temple.
The treasure, thought to be worth billions of dollars, had been hidden in secret compartments in the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in southern India.
Indian officials have hinted that the valuable find might be worth over ten billion dollars.
While one more secret chamber is yet to be opened, thousands of necklaces, coins and precious stones have already been brought out of the underground vaults.
The secret chambers had not been tampered with for over 140 years.
The Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple is dedicated to Hindu lord Vishnu.
It was built hundreds of years ago with devotees continuing to contribute to its upkeep.
Smart deity. Don't trust paper money and convert those things into real stuffs for storage. And that is just what the deity preserved (left behind). One wonders how much the deity have 'used' to-date.
I wonder which of the Hindu deities is the re-incarnation of 'AGNI' the Auditor General N Inspector.
Everywhere such 'holy' institutions are filled with money hoarders. Coincidence?
According to the report, the 'secret chamber' where the valuables were held had not been tempered for 140 years. You believe that?
If that is true, that means the people who hid those valuables did not want others to know about it. Why?
If those few (if not few how to keep secret?) people are the only ones that know about it, do you think they would not help themselves to some of it?
The more likely scenario is that there had been some falling out between the different people managing the 'secret chamber' and the ones who lost out (and therefore could not use those valuable anymore) threatened to spill the beans. So the others had no choice but to 'reveal' the existence of those valuables.
Note: Throughout history temples are good places to hide or store valuables because only a few 'top religious leaders' (i.e. insiders) are allowed into the temples' inner sanctums (where valuables are stored) supposedly because those places are 'super sacred'. In addition, temples enjoy fanatical protection from worshippers who would protect the temples with their lives when called to do so by those 'holy leaders' - those dumb suckers think they are protecting their gods. A good example is the Greek Parthenon which the Delian League used as their 'treasury'.
Indian temple yields priceless treasure
Russia News.Net
Saturday 2nd July, 2011
Gold and silver jewellery, coins and precious stones have been discovered in an Indian temple.
The treasure, thought to be worth billions of dollars, had been hidden in secret compartments in the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in southern India.
Indian officials have hinted that the valuable find might be worth over ten billion dollars.
While one more secret chamber is yet to be opened, thousands of necklaces, coins and precious stones have already been brought out of the underground vaults.
The secret chambers had not been tampered with for over 140 years.
The Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple is dedicated to Hindu lord Vishnu.
It was built hundreds of years ago with devotees continuing to contribute to its upkeep.
Why Leaking State Secrets Can Be Dangerous
Before Gringo, Poodle and all attacked Iraq, their own weapons experts (like Scott Ritter and the man in below story) were coming out with the truth which is there were no weapons of mass destruction and that excuse for attacking Iraq was just a big lie.
There are simpletons I know that ape the main stream media in those states and their 'allies', and tell others that disclosing such state secrets is 'not good'. To them WikiLeaks is also a bad thing.
One can see why leaking state secrets can be dangerous - the ones leaking the secrets may die much sooner than the ones perpetuating the lies (Bush Jr and poodle are still kicking around...no ICC 'crimes against humanity' charges for them).
May be simpletons like elephants to be simple like them... one simple blindman telling them what an elephant looks like is sufficient. To them, other blindmen's stories especially those that deal with elephants more often (i.e. insiders) are either unimportant or 'dangerous'.
Only such simpletons would believe that men willing to risk their careers and lives to speak out for truth in the hope of saving hundreds of thousands of other people's lives would be so weak as to take their own lives just because they are 'exposed' as the source of leaks.
To such men, even the thought of some devils taking someone else's lives is below them and should be fought against (unlike cowards). You think they'd put those good lives of theirs to such simple waste?
http://worldpress.org/Europe/1405.cfm#down
Suicide and Suspicions over War with Iraq
Barry Shelby and Sarah Coleman
Aug. 13, 2003
The July 18 suicide of British Ministry of Defense (MoD) weapons expert David Kelly has intensified the ongoing British row over the reasons Britain went to war, the quality of Western military intelligence, and news media bias. British commentators from across the political spectrum agree that it also represents the most serious challenge Tony Blair’s government has yet faced.
Kelly, 59, committed suicide after being named by the government as the source for a press leak. In a conversation with British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reporter Andrew Gilligan in February, Kelly was an unnamed source who debunked Downing Street’s claim that weapons of mass destruction could be launched from Iraq within 45 minutes. That information was part of a dossier of evidence against the Iraqi regime, published by the British government last September and thought to be enormously influential in giving a moral justification for removing Saddam Hussein. Asked who had been responsible for “sexing up” the dossier, Gilligan’s source named Blair’s top press secretary Alistair Campbell.
Kelly later denied that he had been the main source for Gilligan’s story, telling a parliamentary committee on July 15 that “from the conversation I had I don't see how [Gilligan] could make the statements he was making.” By that time, Gilligan’s story was dominating the news and the pressure on Kelly was apparently intolerable. Four days after he gave his evidence, he was dead.
In the aftermath of the suicide, British commentators were divided as to whether the lion’s share of blame for Kelly’s suicide rested with the government or the BBC. Some blamed the news agency for refusing to release Kelly’s name sooner; other fingers pointed at the MoD for violating its normal rules of secrecy by telling reporters that it would confirm the mole’s name if they submitted it to the ministry. For its part, the government accused the BBC of having an antiwar bias that had led to sensationalist reporting.
“Make no mistake, this is serious,” wrote David Cracknell in the conservative Sunday Times (July 20). “Early in the Iraq dossier row, one MP said this was New Labor’s Watergate. That looked like hyperbole then. It does not now.” Kelly’s death “is not merely a political event, it is a moral event, and it has made people feel not only sad, but ashamed,” William Rees-Mogg wrote in The Times the next day (July 21).
Britain’s conservative tabloids were eager to point fingers at the BBC. “Are the BBC to blame?” asked the conservative, mass-circulation News of the World (July 20). “Maybe….It is the reputation of the BBC that will be covered in Kelly’s blood.” The Sun (July 21) was even more damning in its rhetorical questions: “The BBC is in the gutter…How can we ever trust them again?”
But others argued that it wasn’t clear exactly what the BBC could have done to save Kelly. Writing in the liberal Guardian on July 21, Jackie Ashley offered an explanation for the conservative attacks on the corporation. “The attacks on the BBC have been led by two groups—Rupert Murdoch’s newspapers and New Labor spin-doctors—which have been closely intertwined in recent years. The covert Murdoch message is clear enough: Tony, we are your real, reliable supporters, not the dodgy lefties of the BBC.”
Others cautioned against making too much of the battle between the BBC and press secretary Alistair Campbell, saying that they were simply actors in a larger drama. “Blair went to war arguing that Iraq posed an imminent threat,” said an editorial in London’s liberal Independent on Sunday (July 20). “It is not scientific advisors, or Campbell, or the BBC...who should be in the dock but the prime minister….We need [an inquiry] into the real reasons why this country was taken into a war that has claimed not only too many lives as its victims but the nation’s trust in its leaders as well.”
Blair, who was on a tour of Asia when Kelly’s death was announced, appeared visibly shaken in press conferences and immediately announced that an inquiry—led by Irish judge Lord Hutton—would be launched into the scientist’s death. He averred that he would appear before the inquiry’s commission himself. Hutton subsequently announced that he would also be calling Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon and Campbell to the witness stand.
But for some editorialists, the Hutton inquiry was doomed before its first hearing. “Limits have been imposed on Lord Hutton…His investigation, however rigorous, is likely to produce only half the story,” wrote Glasgow’s centrist Herald (July 22). “He is being asked to consider Kelly’s death as if it occurred in isolation from other events. In truth, however, it was but one part of a
larger narrative.”
British headlines after the inquiry’s first days focused on internal BBC memos indicating that Gilligan’s “loose use of language and lack of judgment” in his choice of words had been a millstone around the corporation’s neck. “BBC admits Iraq scoop was flawed,” The Times trumpeted in its top headline on Aug. 13. “Gilligan report ‘flawed,’ “ The Scotsman announced. The Guardian, which had declared itself to be “gunning for the BBC” in a July 22 editorial, conceded an “Inquiry blow for the BBC” in its lead headline on Aug. 13. Of the most prestigious British papers, only The Independent devoted its top headline to the other important revelation from the previous day’s proceedings: that Kelly had also told Susan Watts, science editor of BBC2’s Newsnight, that Campbell had insisted that the controversial “45-minute claim” be inserted into the September dossier.
In the days before the inquiry opened, the controversy had taken a new turn. On Aug. 3, Tom Kelly, the prime minister’s spokesman, referred to the Nobel Prize-nominated David Kelly as a “Walter Mitty” character. Newspaper columnists and editorialists were quick to seize on the comment as an example of the government’s desperation and increasing reliance on spin.
“The sheer incompetence and self-destructiveness of this administration’s handling of the Kelly crisis has become epic,” wrote Iain MacWhirter in Glasgow’s Herald (Aug. 6). “The government propaganda machine seems to have taken on a life of its own; has turned on its masters, and is now destroying them. Terminator meets All the President’s Men.”
“Even before Lord Hutton begins his inquiry into the death of David Kelly, the
government manages to keep itself on the front pages as if it is determined to alienate public opinion in advance of the formal proceedings,” wrote Steve Richards in The Independent. “The once-sharp antennae of the publicity-conscious New Laborites have been blunted by power, and the prospect of power for years to come.”
The reference to Mitty, the protaganist of a 1939 short story for the New Yorker whose name has become a byword for a person who dreams about a life much more exciting than his own, caused one columnist to do some literary sleuthing and to conclude that the comment was more of a compliment than a slur.
“The whole point of Thurber’s story…is that Mitty fantasizes wildly about becoming someone else, but never actually changes,” Andrew Buncombe wrote in The Independent (Aug. 7). “Mitty is a hero for every one of us who has played the lottery….So, it’s perfectly possible that, from time to time, the Nobel Prize nominee Kelly was a Walter Mitty character; but then, so, hopefully, is his namesake who tried to undermine the scientist’s reputation with such a cheap
shot.”
On Aug. 5, the day before David Kelly’s funeral, Tom Kelly apologized for the comment. Nevertheless, the centrist Financial Times felt that “Tom Kelly should be suspended,” while the conservative Daily Express described him as a “the fall guy.” There was much speculation about whether his comment had been a case of individual tactlessness, or part of a calculated strategy by the administration to smear the eminent weapons expert.
"[Tom] Kelly’s briefing was not part of a carefully planned operation,” wrote Steve Richards in The Independent (Aug. 6). “Such a development would be a clear sign the collective forces in Downing Street had gone insane. Imagine the conversation: ‘Why don’t we get it into the newspapers that we regard David Kelly as a fantasist just before his funeral?’”
“If the government is found to be engaging in the character assassination of a dead man then the implications could prove devastating. The wider public will find the whole business distasteful in the extreme,” read an Aug. 6 editorial in the Irish News. However, the paper concluded, there were larger issues at stake. “The tragic death of David Kelly looks set to dominate Tony Blair’s political life for months.”
There are simpletons I know that ape the main stream media in those states and their 'allies', and tell others that disclosing such state secrets is 'not good'. To them WikiLeaks is also a bad thing.
One can see why leaking state secrets can be dangerous - the ones leaking the secrets may die much sooner than the ones perpetuating the lies (Bush Jr and poodle are still kicking around...no ICC 'crimes against humanity' charges for them).
May be simpletons like elephants to be simple like them... one simple blindman telling them what an elephant looks like is sufficient. To them, other blindmen's stories especially those that deal with elephants more often (i.e. insiders) are either unimportant or 'dangerous'.
Only such simpletons would believe that men willing to risk their careers and lives to speak out for truth in the hope of saving hundreds of thousands of other people's lives would be so weak as to take their own lives just because they are 'exposed' as the source of leaks.
To such men, even the thought of some devils taking someone else's lives is below them and should be fought against (unlike cowards). You think they'd put those good lives of theirs to such simple waste?
http://worldpress.org/Europe/1405.cfm#down
Suicide and Suspicions over War with Iraq
Barry Shelby and Sarah Coleman
Aug. 13, 2003
The July 18 suicide of British Ministry of Defense (MoD) weapons expert David Kelly has intensified the ongoing British row over the reasons Britain went to war, the quality of Western military intelligence, and news media bias. British commentators from across the political spectrum agree that it also represents the most serious challenge Tony Blair’s government has yet faced.
Kelly, 59, committed suicide after being named by the government as the source for a press leak. In a conversation with British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reporter Andrew Gilligan in February, Kelly was an unnamed source who debunked Downing Street’s claim that weapons of mass destruction could be launched from Iraq within 45 minutes. That information was part of a dossier of evidence against the Iraqi regime, published by the British government last September and thought to be enormously influential in giving a moral justification for removing Saddam Hussein. Asked who had been responsible for “sexing up” the dossier, Gilligan’s source named Blair’s top press secretary Alistair Campbell.
Kelly later denied that he had been the main source for Gilligan’s story, telling a parliamentary committee on July 15 that “from the conversation I had I don't see how [Gilligan] could make the statements he was making.” By that time, Gilligan’s story was dominating the news and the pressure on Kelly was apparently intolerable. Four days after he gave his evidence, he was dead.
In the aftermath of the suicide, British commentators were divided as to whether the lion’s share of blame for Kelly’s suicide rested with the government or the BBC. Some blamed the news agency for refusing to release Kelly’s name sooner; other fingers pointed at the MoD for violating its normal rules of secrecy by telling reporters that it would confirm the mole’s name if they submitted it to the ministry. For its part, the government accused the BBC of having an antiwar bias that had led to sensationalist reporting.
“Make no mistake, this is serious,” wrote David Cracknell in the conservative Sunday Times (July 20). “Early in the Iraq dossier row, one MP said this was New Labor’s Watergate. That looked like hyperbole then. It does not now.” Kelly’s death “is not merely a political event, it is a moral event, and it has made people feel not only sad, but ashamed,” William Rees-Mogg wrote in The Times the next day (July 21).
Britain’s conservative tabloids were eager to point fingers at the BBC. “Are the BBC to blame?” asked the conservative, mass-circulation News of the World (July 20). “Maybe….It is the reputation of the BBC that will be covered in Kelly’s blood.” The Sun (July 21) was even more damning in its rhetorical questions: “The BBC is in the gutter…How can we ever trust them again?”
But others argued that it wasn’t clear exactly what the BBC could have done to save Kelly. Writing in the liberal Guardian on July 21, Jackie Ashley offered an explanation for the conservative attacks on the corporation. “The attacks on the BBC have been led by two groups—Rupert Murdoch’s newspapers and New Labor spin-doctors—which have been closely intertwined in recent years. The covert Murdoch message is clear enough: Tony, we are your real, reliable supporters, not the dodgy lefties of the BBC.”
Others cautioned against making too much of the battle between the BBC and press secretary Alistair Campbell, saying that they were simply actors in a larger drama. “Blair went to war arguing that Iraq posed an imminent threat,” said an editorial in London’s liberal Independent on Sunday (July 20). “It is not scientific advisors, or Campbell, or the BBC...who should be in the dock but the prime minister….We need [an inquiry] into the real reasons why this country was taken into a war that has claimed not only too many lives as its victims but the nation’s trust in its leaders as well.”
Blair, who was on a tour of Asia when Kelly’s death was announced, appeared visibly shaken in press conferences and immediately announced that an inquiry—led by Irish judge Lord Hutton—would be launched into the scientist’s death. He averred that he would appear before the inquiry’s commission himself. Hutton subsequently announced that he would also be calling Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon and Campbell to the witness stand.
But for some editorialists, the Hutton inquiry was doomed before its first hearing. “Limits have been imposed on Lord Hutton…His investigation, however rigorous, is likely to produce only half the story,” wrote Glasgow’s centrist Herald (July 22). “He is being asked to consider Kelly’s death as if it occurred in isolation from other events. In truth, however, it was but one part of a
larger narrative.”
British headlines after the inquiry’s first days focused on internal BBC memos indicating that Gilligan’s “loose use of language and lack of judgment” in his choice of words had been a millstone around the corporation’s neck. “BBC admits Iraq scoop was flawed,” The Times trumpeted in its top headline on Aug. 13. “Gilligan report ‘flawed,’ “ The Scotsman announced. The Guardian, which had declared itself to be “gunning for the BBC” in a July 22 editorial, conceded an “Inquiry blow for the BBC” in its lead headline on Aug. 13. Of the most prestigious British papers, only The Independent devoted its top headline to the other important revelation from the previous day’s proceedings: that Kelly had also told Susan Watts, science editor of BBC2’s Newsnight, that Campbell had insisted that the controversial “45-minute claim” be inserted into the September dossier.
In the days before the inquiry opened, the controversy had taken a new turn. On Aug. 3, Tom Kelly, the prime minister’s spokesman, referred to the Nobel Prize-nominated David Kelly as a “Walter Mitty” character. Newspaper columnists and editorialists were quick to seize on the comment as an example of the government’s desperation and increasing reliance on spin.
“The sheer incompetence and self-destructiveness of this administration’s handling of the Kelly crisis has become epic,” wrote Iain MacWhirter in Glasgow’s Herald (Aug. 6). “The government propaganda machine seems to have taken on a life of its own; has turned on its masters, and is now destroying them. Terminator meets All the President’s Men.”
“Even before Lord Hutton begins his inquiry into the death of David Kelly, the
government manages to keep itself on the front pages as if it is determined to alienate public opinion in advance of the formal proceedings,” wrote Steve Richards in The Independent. “The once-sharp antennae of the publicity-conscious New Laborites have been blunted by power, and the prospect of power for years to come.”
The reference to Mitty, the protaganist of a 1939 short story for the New Yorker whose name has become a byword for a person who dreams about a life much more exciting than his own, caused one columnist to do some literary sleuthing and to conclude that the comment was more of a compliment than a slur.
“The whole point of Thurber’s story…is that Mitty fantasizes wildly about becoming someone else, but never actually changes,” Andrew Buncombe wrote in The Independent (Aug. 7). “Mitty is a hero for every one of us who has played the lottery….So, it’s perfectly possible that, from time to time, the Nobel Prize nominee Kelly was a Walter Mitty character; but then, so, hopefully, is his namesake who tried to undermine the scientist’s reputation with such a cheap
shot.”
On Aug. 5, the day before David Kelly’s funeral, Tom Kelly apologized for the comment. Nevertheless, the centrist Financial Times felt that “Tom Kelly should be suspended,” while the conservative Daily Express described him as a “the fall guy.” There was much speculation about whether his comment had been a case of individual tactlessness, or part of a calculated strategy by the administration to smear the eminent weapons expert.
"[Tom] Kelly’s briefing was not part of a carefully planned operation,” wrote Steve Richards in The Independent (Aug. 6). “Such a development would be a clear sign the collective forces in Downing Street had gone insane. Imagine the conversation: ‘Why don’t we get it into the newspapers that we regard David Kelly as a fantasist just before his funeral?’”
“If the government is found to be engaging in the character assassination of a dead man then the implications could prove devastating. The wider public will find the whole business distasteful in the extreme,” read an Aug. 6 editorial in the Irish News. However, the paper concluded, there were larger issues at stake. “The tragic death of David Kelly looks set to dominate Tony Blair’s political life for months.”
Sunday, July 03, 2011
Poking Beyond Poker
Per 1st article below, poker is one of the 'fairest' gambling games in the sense that the 'house' does not get any advantage (house odds) and therefore collects 'rakes' (commission) as income.
That may be true with the real poker game i.e. the one played with real paper cards where players sit facing each other and can see what everyone else is doing, and therefore can be certain others are not cheating like peeping at others' cards or changing cards etc. Even then, quick con-men can slip 'extra' cards down their sleeves etc to create a winning hand (I only know this from watching movies).
With 'online poker' players cannot see who they are playing against and, worse, cannot see what is happening to the 'cards' in that imaginary world!
In the online world, any Java programmer knows that anything can be done, it is just a matter of programming! The ones in control can always create an extra 'thread' to see other people's 'hands', switch closed cards anyway they want, or issue to their 'own people' the desired cards 'without any one knowing'.
In real poker, the ones with better eyesight can at least catch the cheats trying to do all that but there is no chance of that happening in the 'online' world.
Which is why dumb ignorant gamblers that gamble online are the greatest suckers.
That's also why online games are 'so addictive' - it's because the people behind it can do anything they want to 'hook them' without those idiots knowing it. And those idiots actually think they are 'very great' at playing those things (sounds similar to doll-on-wood fellas?)
As they say, idiots think that 'what he cannot see, cannot be happening' (idiot is by definition one that cannot see even the obvious - like read book that says he is low-class he cannot see and yet go round bragging about his book saying he being 'god-like').
p.s. That's the reason why gringo's latest hype is 'cloud computing' where everything you do and all your data are stored in a central server somewhere (no prize for guessing where) supposedly for lower cost and higher security and availability. Millions of online fools would be rushing into that hype - they don't know how much data people already captured via Facebook, Hotmail etc.
How do you think gringo manage to 'sting' all those stupid Mohamaddans? Those I-am-out-of-Age-of-Ignorance-1500yrs-ago idiots don't even know who the heck was sending them the messages they were 'following'. Just like the other idiots I knock - don't know who wrote those books and yet go round telling others they are 'god's words' and say others that pray to other things are silly - the dumb knocking others...
That's also the reason why 'Blackberry' was so highly hyped by Gringo companies and the Indian, Chinese governments etc. banned their people from using that devil's device. Every message that is sent via one of those things is passed to a server in Canada before being forwarded to the receiver (see power of 'extra thread' above). Some Chinaman working for some gringo bank recently said that 'they can see every message I send via my phone'. I said that's because you are using a Blackberry. With that thing, they even know where that Chinaman go shit everyday!
Which was what people found out Apple was doing secretly with those iPhones - once a while that thing would 'report' those collected location information back 'home' without the owner knowing it. And when some hackers found it out and it was reported in the news, the Apple fellas claimed it was an 'oversight' (that's for fools only).
Read the 2nd and 3rd articles below and see why I knock China ape idiots - there are just so many of them.
There is more meaning to 'idiot-proof technology' than many think...
The Government's Poker Face
By Casey Research
Recently, debate in Congress over the legalization of online poker has been heating up. The clamor is a direct result of April 15, 2011, dubbed "Black Friday" in the poker community.
On this date, the FBI shut down the three largest online poker sites, seized their assets, and charged the founders with felonies. Charges included bank fraud, money laundering, and violations of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) of 2006.
UIGEA was attached at the last second to the non-controversial (and widely perceived as essential) SAFE Port Act after several previous attempts to outlaw online gambling failed to pass. Online gambling has technically been illegal since the passage of UIGEA, but until Black Friday, enforcement had generally been lax.
Poker is the most popular form of Internet gambling by far, so the reverberations throughout its community have been the largest. It is also the only form of gambling that can legitimately be considered more a game of skill than of chance, a key difference being emphasized by advocates of legalization.
We here at Casey Research generally believe that all voluntary interactions between adults should be legal, provided they don't violate another's rights. Gambling certainly falls under this category, but let's give the feds the benefit of the doubt and examine the evidence.
The odds in any form of gambling can be boiled down to the house edge, or the advantage the house has over the player. For example: the house edge in Blackjack, when played with proper strategy, is 0.8%. So for every $100 you "invest" in the game, you'd expect $99.20 back. Poker differs in that it's played against other competitors rather than the house, so the house edge is in the form of a "rake," or cut of the pot, which is typically around 5%.
Obviously, this is a raw deal for the patrons. With the exception of poker players, all gamblers are guaranteed to lose over the long run. Even poker is a zero-sum game, with the vast majority of the crowd losing money. Given these facts, it's conceivable that Congress just wants to prevent us from squandering our wealth.
Of course, the government itself offers gambling in the form of lotteries. If our benevolent Big Brother really wants to protect us from the usurious advantages of online casinos, its own gambling systems should at least offer better odds. Do they?
Not exactly. In fact, it's tough to overstate just how horrible state lottery odds really are. Your odds are 7,500% better playing craps than buying the average state lottery ticket.
We can draw many conclusions from this data, but two stand out the most. First of all, the free market provides overwhelmingly superior and cheaper gambling entertainment than does the government. No surprise there, as this principle applies to every product and service under the sun.
Second, the government's professed intention of saving us from ourselves is clearly a guise. In reality, the feds don't like when their own cut is diminished, so they attempt to eliminate or assimilate competition. As is usually the case, Washington is self-interested and is using force to enhance its own growth.
To drive the point home, the bill currently circulating through Congress would require online gambling sites to impose a 28% withholding tax on all winnings, an additional 2% federal tax would be levied on the gambling sites, and individual states would have the option of imposing another 6% tax. To top it off, the sites would be required to collect each player's personal information, such as address and Social Security Number, and provide it to the government.
And don't try to deduct gambling losses on your tax return. You can only deduct losses up to the amount of your winnings, which is the IRS's roundabout of saying the losses are not deductible.
So for all you online poker aficionados out there, we sympathize. You'll likely get your game back, but not without paying Uncle Sam his protection money your fair share.
Chinese teen offers virginity for white iPhone 4
from Yahoo News
A mainland Chinese teenage girl has been caught on Weibo in the act of selling her virginity — for a white iPhone 4.
The girl has been identified by Hong Kong's branch of NextMedia as only surnamed Wen (pictured right), from Maoming city of south China's Guangdong province. She stated in her post that her "valuable first night" — which literally means 'virginity' in Chinese — was worth the gifting of a white iPhone 4, which retails in China for RMB 4,999 for the 16-gigabyte model.
The girl, Wen, then gave out her QQ number, and encouraged young men to contact her if they were serious about the deal.
Of course, it's possible that this is a publicity stunt by a young woman who's keen to become famous. Come to think of it, that might actually be preferable to someone selling their body in some way in exchange for a soon-to-be-obsolete gadget.
My kidney for any iPad
Sadly, this isn't the sole incident of this nature this month: a few weeks ago a 17-year old Chinese boy went so far as to have a kidney removed so that he could sell it to buy an iPad 2, as reported by my colleague, Rick.
Dumb Dot
by CCK
About 10 years ago I worked for a short time in a local 'technology' company specialising in 'government contracts'. At about the same time, the company hired an Australian as CEO. It was right after the Dotcom bust and the CEO was one of the 'consultants' the local authorities hired to determine which of the many failing local IT companies were worth 'helping'.
About 6 months into his job and in front of the whole monthly management meeting, the CEO asked the IT head if it is legal in Singapore for the chairman to be reading staff mails. The answer: there is no local law against it.
Although not entirely surprised by it, out of curiosity I asked my boss about the background to that question and was told that that whiteman found out that the chairman was reading all his e-mails! (that chinaman chairman was not just reading the CEO's mails but anyone's he chose - he apparently instructed his IT fellas to send copies of 'key' people's mails to him which he reads at home).
After we resigned a few months after that and serving our 'notice periods', that whiteman got quite pally with me and told me he told the chairman's wife (who happened to be his deputy) 'to go buy some good books to read while in bed instead of reading other people's mails'. I laughed.
I also found out that something big happened about the same time when the CEO raised the above question.
The company had just hired some ex-military fella as sales rep to promote some ATM deals in Pakistan. I was initially scratching my head wondering about why that 'new business' since from what I know the company had not done any 'banking' work before - so you guess what those fellas were dealing in (hint: at that time there were some gringo 'sanctions' on military supplies to Pakistan).
Apparently, that sales fella tried to cut his own deal with the Pakistani client (some general, of course) behind the back of 'the company' but that stupid fella used his company e-mail system for that!
Don't laugh, that's a real story....
That may be true with the real poker game i.e. the one played with real paper cards where players sit facing each other and can see what everyone else is doing, and therefore can be certain others are not cheating like peeping at others' cards or changing cards etc. Even then, quick con-men can slip 'extra' cards down their sleeves etc to create a winning hand (I only know this from watching movies).
With 'online poker' players cannot see who they are playing against and, worse, cannot see what is happening to the 'cards' in that imaginary world!
In the online world, any Java programmer knows that anything can be done, it is just a matter of programming! The ones in control can always create an extra 'thread' to see other people's 'hands', switch closed cards anyway they want, or issue to their 'own people' the desired cards 'without any one knowing'.
In real poker, the ones with better eyesight can at least catch the cheats trying to do all that but there is no chance of that happening in the 'online' world.
Which is why dumb ignorant gamblers that gamble online are the greatest suckers.
That's also why online games are 'so addictive' - it's because the people behind it can do anything they want to 'hook them' without those idiots knowing it. And those idiots actually think they are 'very great' at playing those things (sounds similar to doll-on-wood fellas?)
As they say, idiots think that 'what he cannot see, cannot be happening' (idiot is by definition one that cannot see even the obvious - like read book that says he is low-class he cannot see and yet go round bragging about his book saying he being 'god-like').
p.s. That's the reason why gringo's latest hype is 'cloud computing' where everything you do and all your data are stored in a central server somewhere (no prize for guessing where) supposedly for lower cost and higher security and availability. Millions of online fools would be rushing into that hype - they don't know how much data people already captured via Facebook, Hotmail etc.
How do you think gringo manage to 'sting' all those stupid Mohamaddans? Those I-am-out-of-Age-of-Ignorance-1500yrs-ago idiots don't even know who the heck was sending them the messages they were 'following'. Just like the other idiots I knock - don't know who wrote those books and yet go round telling others they are 'god's words' and say others that pray to other things are silly - the dumb knocking others...
That's also the reason why 'Blackberry' was so highly hyped by Gringo companies and the Indian, Chinese governments etc. banned their people from using that devil's device. Every message that is sent via one of those things is passed to a server in Canada before being forwarded to the receiver (see power of 'extra thread' above). Some Chinaman working for some gringo bank recently said that 'they can see every message I send via my phone'. I said that's because you are using a Blackberry. With that thing, they even know where that Chinaman go shit everyday!
Which was what people found out Apple was doing secretly with those iPhones - once a while that thing would 'report' those collected location information back 'home' without the owner knowing it. And when some hackers found it out and it was reported in the news, the Apple fellas claimed it was an 'oversight' (that's for fools only).
Read the 2nd and 3rd articles below and see why I knock China ape idiots - there are just so many of them.
There is more meaning to 'idiot-proof technology' than many think...
The Government's Poker Face
By Casey Research
Recently, debate in Congress over the legalization of online poker has been heating up. The clamor is a direct result of April 15, 2011, dubbed "Black Friday" in the poker community.
On this date, the FBI shut down the three largest online poker sites, seized their assets, and charged the founders with felonies. Charges included bank fraud, money laundering, and violations of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) of 2006.
UIGEA was attached at the last second to the non-controversial (and widely perceived as essential) SAFE Port Act after several previous attempts to outlaw online gambling failed to pass. Online gambling has technically been illegal since the passage of UIGEA, but until Black Friday, enforcement had generally been lax.
Poker is the most popular form of Internet gambling by far, so the reverberations throughout its community have been the largest. It is also the only form of gambling that can legitimately be considered more a game of skill than of chance, a key difference being emphasized by advocates of legalization.
We here at Casey Research generally believe that all voluntary interactions between adults should be legal, provided they don't violate another's rights. Gambling certainly falls under this category, but let's give the feds the benefit of the doubt and examine the evidence.
The odds in any form of gambling can be boiled down to the house edge, or the advantage the house has over the player. For example: the house edge in Blackjack, when played with proper strategy, is 0.8%. So for every $100 you "invest" in the game, you'd expect $99.20 back. Poker differs in that it's played against other competitors rather than the house, so the house edge is in the form of a "rake," or cut of the pot, which is typically around 5%.
Obviously, this is a raw deal for the patrons. With the exception of poker players, all gamblers are guaranteed to lose over the long run. Even poker is a zero-sum game, with the vast majority of the crowd losing money. Given these facts, it's conceivable that Congress just wants to prevent us from squandering our wealth.
Of course, the government itself offers gambling in the form of lotteries. If our benevolent Big Brother really wants to protect us from the usurious advantages of online casinos, its own gambling systems should at least offer better odds. Do they?
Not exactly. In fact, it's tough to overstate just how horrible state lottery odds really are. Your odds are 7,500% better playing craps than buying the average state lottery ticket.
We can draw many conclusions from this data, but two stand out the most. First of all, the free market provides overwhelmingly superior and cheaper gambling entertainment than does the government. No surprise there, as this principle applies to every product and service under the sun.
Second, the government's professed intention of saving us from ourselves is clearly a guise. In reality, the feds don't like when their own cut is diminished, so they attempt to eliminate or assimilate competition. As is usually the case, Washington is self-interested and is using force to enhance its own growth.
To drive the point home, the bill currently circulating through Congress would require online gambling sites to impose a 28% withholding tax on all winnings, an additional 2% federal tax would be levied on the gambling sites, and individual states would have the option of imposing another 6% tax. To top it off, the sites would be required to collect each player's personal information, such as address and Social Security Number, and provide it to the government.
And don't try to deduct gambling losses on your tax return. You can only deduct losses up to the amount of your winnings, which is the IRS's roundabout of saying the losses are not deductible.
So for all you online poker aficionados out there, we sympathize. You'll likely get your game back, but not without paying Uncle Sam his protection money your fair share.
Chinese teen offers virginity for white iPhone 4
from Yahoo News
A mainland Chinese teenage girl has been caught on Weibo in the act of selling her virginity — for a white iPhone 4.
The girl has been identified by Hong Kong's branch of NextMedia as only surnamed Wen (pictured right), from Maoming city of south China's Guangdong province. She stated in her post that her "valuable first night" — which literally means 'virginity' in Chinese — was worth the gifting of a white iPhone 4, which retails in China for RMB 4,999 for the 16-gigabyte model.
The girl, Wen, then gave out her QQ number, and encouraged young men to contact her if they were serious about the deal.
Of course, it's possible that this is a publicity stunt by a young woman who's keen to become famous. Come to think of it, that might actually be preferable to someone selling their body in some way in exchange for a soon-to-be-obsolete gadget.
My kidney for any iPad
Sadly, this isn't the sole incident of this nature this month: a few weeks ago a 17-year old Chinese boy went so far as to have a kidney removed so that he could sell it to buy an iPad 2, as reported by my colleague, Rick.
Dumb Dot
by CCK
About 10 years ago I worked for a short time in a local 'technology' company specialising in 'government contracts'. At about the same time, the company hired an Australian as CEO. It was right after the Dotcom bust and the CEO was one of the 'consultants' the local authorities hired to determine which of the many failing local IT companies were worth 'helping'.
About 6 months into his job and in front of the whole monthly management meeting, the CEO asked the IT head if it is legal in Singapore for the chairman to be reading staff mails. The answer: there is no local law against it.
Although not entirely surprised by it, out of curiosity I asked my boss about the background to that question and was told that that whiteman found out that the chairman was reading all his e-mails! (that chinaman chairman was not just reading the CEO's mails but anyone's he chose - he apparently instructed his IT fellas to send copies of 'key' people's mails to him which he reads at home).
After we resigned a few months after that and serving our 'notice periods', that whiteman got quite pally with me and told me he told the chairman's wife (who happened to be his deputy) 'to go buy some good books to read while in bed instead of reading other people's mails'. I laughed.
I also found out that something big happened about the same time when the CEO raised the above question.
The company had just hired some ex-military fella as sales rep to promote some ATM deals in Pakistan. I was initially scratching my head wondering about why that 'new business' since from what I know the company had not done any 'banking' work before - so you guess what those fellas were dealing in (hint: at that time there were some gringo 'sanctions' on military supplies to Pakistan).
Apparently, that sales fella tried to cut his own deal with the Pakistani client (some general, of course) behind the back of 'the company' but that stupid fella used his company e-mail system for that!
Don't laugh, that's a real story....
Friday, July 01, 2011
Tweeting New Millenia Apes
A few thousand years ago, they copied some Sumerian idea on putting words on pieces of clay or stones and thought it was a big deal. Thus coming up with a 'great tale' about some Mossy fella with his handful of 'deitical commandments' on a clay tablet.
A couple thousand years later, they learnt to make paper from some 'Jew's bastard Arabs' who picked that trick up a few hundred years earlier from some Tang Chinamen (by then Chinamen had been writing on papers for a thousand years) and they thought it was such a great thing. Thus coming up with their claim that they are 'men of the books'. That's the reason why some Chinaman that do not know all that go round bragging to others about their 'great book of deitical words'. Tacitus ape boys...
Now those holy apes are a bit faster. They copy the idea of putting 'holy news' on the internet a few decades after the thing was invented. Slow asses getting quicker?
But then I wonder why they even have to resort to copying the use of the internet. You see, despite all my knocking at them there are still jokers that continue to tell me to 'lock yourself in a room for 1 hour and talk to (their) deity...' (implying they can do that, wah low-cost god-comms apelec...)
With such god-comms ability, any sharp child would say 'who needs internet?'
Another way of looking at it is this: if they can comms with deity everyday, how come none of them got any holy instruction on how to make paper, internet or some no-need-energy-but-can-comms-with-anything equipment before those infidels?
Then those jokers sitting in places like the Vatican etc. (and their aping Chinamen) would be able to show off something more substantive to people like me.
Some more claim they are very different from apes...
http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Science%2B%2526%2BTech/Story/A1Story20110629-286652.html
Vatican launches new website with pope's first tweet
AFP
Wed, Jun 29, 2011
VATICAN CITY - The Vatican formally unveiled its new Internet information portal news.va on Wednesday, a day after Pope Benedict XVI launched the initiative with his first Twitter message sent from an iPad.
A smiling pope was seen tapping on his iPad with the help of cardinals surrounding him in video footage released by the Vatican. The screen saver on the tablet was a picture of the pope as a young man with his family.
The 84-year-old pontiff, dressed in a white cassock at the head of a long wooden table in the Vatican, can be seen tapping on a link with the word "Publish" which does not appear to work but then scrolls through the website.
The pope used his official name in Latin - the Vatican's official language - to launch the site on Tuesday with a tweet reading: "Praised be our Lord Jesus Christ! With my prayers and blessings, Benedictus XVI."
The website brings together news from Vatican media including the official daily Osservatore Romano, Vatican radio and television and the Catholic Church's missionary news agency which covers the developing world.
News.va will also be updating the faithful on Vatican events and important events concerning Catholics around the world through Twitter, YouTube videos and photos on Flickr. The website was developed by a Spanish web design agency.
The Vatican has embraced social media in recent months in an attempt to reach a wider and more youthful audience, as it struggles against growing secularism in society and deals with a wave of paedophile priest scandals.
A couple thousand years later, they learnt to make paper from some 'Jew's bastard Arabs' who picked that trick up a few hundred years earlier from some Tang Chinamen (by then Chinamen had been writing on papers for a thousand years) and they thought it was such a great thing. Thus coming up with their claim that they are 'men of the books'. That's the reason why some Chinaman that do not know all that go round bragging to others about their 'great book of deitical words'. Tacitus ape boys...
Now those holy apes are a bit faster. They copy the idea of putting 'holy news' on the internet a few decades after the thing was invented. Slow asses getting quicker?
But then I wonder why they even have to resort to copying the use of the internet. You see, despite all my knocking at them there are still jokers that continue to tell me to 'lock yourself in a room for 1 hour and talk to (their) deity...' (implying they can do that, wah low-cost god-comms apelec...)
With such god-comms ability, any sharp child would say 'who needs internet?'
Another way of looking at it is this: if they can comms with deity everyday, how come none of them got any holy instruction on how to make paper, internet or some no-need-energy-but-can-comms-with-anything equipment before those infidels?
Then those jokers sitting in places like the Vatican etc. (and their aping Chinamen) would be able to show off something more substantive to people like me.
Some more claim they are very different from apes...
http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Science%2B%2526%2BTech/Story/A1Story20110629-286652.html
Vatican launches new website with pope's first tweet
AFP
Wed, Jun 29, 2011
VATICAN CITY - The Vatican formally unveiled its new Internet information portal news.va on Wednesday, a day after Pope Benedict XVI launched the initiative with his first Twitter message sent from an iPad.
A smiling pope was seen tapping on his iPad with the help of cardinals surrounding him in video footage released by the Vatican. The screen saver on the tablet was a picture of the pope as a young man with his family.
The 84-year-old pontiff, dressed in a white cassock at the head of a long wooden table in the Vatican, can be seen tapping on a link with the word "Publish" which does not appear to work but then scrolls through the website.
The pope used his official name in Latin - the Vatican's official language - to launch the site on Tuesday with a tweet reading: "Praised be our Lord Jesus Christ! With my prayers and blessings, Benedictus XVI."
The website brings together news from Vatican media including the official daily Osservatore Romano, Vatican radio and television and the Catholic Church's missionary news agency which covers the developing world.
News.va will also be updating the faithful on Vatican events and important events concerning Catholics around the world through Twitter, YouTube videos and photos on Flickr. The website was developed by a Spanish web design agency.
The Vatican has embraced social media in recent months in an attempt to reach a wider and more youthful audience, as it struggles against growing secularism in society and deals with a wave of paedophile priest scandals.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Selling Vaporware in Suckerspace
The same thing will happen to suckers that bought Facebook shares. If so great a company, why Gringo 'approved' that private placement only for sale to non-Americans? Some more placement is 'managed' by the same bunch ('doing god's work' Goldman) that helped, amongst others, Greece to con the Europeans, and who has half a billion 'worth' of Facebook holdings themselves to offload.
Fool's special Jews at work...
Myspace sold to Orange County-based ad network
June 29, 2011 11:43 am
Myspace, once the dominant social networking site on the Internet but now an afterthought to Facebook, will be sold to Specific Media in a deal worth $35 million in cash and stock, a person familiar with the matter said.
The acquisition by the Irvine-based advertising network is expected to be completed Wednesday.
News Corp., which acquired Myspace in 2005 for $580 million as part of a bold digital strategy, plans to retain a small stake in company. The media conglomerate had hoped to fetch as much as $100 million for the site, which has been steadily shedding users and advertising revenue over the last several years.
The sale marks a significant fall from grace for Myspace, which once commanded a billion-dollar valuation and was the premier online hangout for musicians, actors and their fans to interact. But the site peaked in popularity in October of 2008 with 76.3 million users. The number of monthly visitors has since dwindled to 35 million in May, according to ComScore Digital Analytix.
Other potential bidders for the site included Myspace co-founder Chris DeWolfe, and an investor group that was courting a personal investment from Activision Blizzard Inc. Chief Executive Bobby Kotick.
The little-known new owner Specific Media was founded in 1999 by Tim Vanderhook and his brothers, Chris and Russell. The firm helps companies distribute advertising online, on mobile devices and on Internet-connected televisions.
Specific Media wants to return the site to its roots as a place for music fans to discover new bands and songs, according to the person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified because the negotiations are private.
Fool's special Jews at work...
Myspace sold to Orange County-based ad network
June 29, 2011 11:43 am
Myspace, once the dominant social networking site on the Internet but now an afterthought to Facebook, will be sold to Specific Media in a deal worth $35 million in cash and stock, a person familiar with the matter said.
The acquisition by the Irvine-based advertising network is expected to be completed Wednesday.
News Corp., which acquired Myspace in 2005 for $580 million as part of a bold digital strategy, plans to retain a small stake in company. The media conglomerate had hoped to fetch as much as $100 million for the site, which has been steadily shedding users and advertising revenue over the last several years.
The sale marks a significant fall from grace for Myspace, which once commanded a billion-dollar valuation and was the premier online hangout for musicians, actors and their fans to interact. But the site peaked in popularity in October of 2008 with 76.3 million users. The number of monthly visitors has since dwindled to 35 million in May, according to ComScore Digital Analytix.
Other potential bidders for the site included Myspace co-founder Chris DeWolfe, and an investor group that was courting a personal investment from Activision Blizzard Inc. Chief Executive Bobby Kotick.
The little-known new owner Specific Media was founded in 1999 by Tim Vanderhook and his brothers, Chris and Russell. The firm helps companies distribute advertising online, on mobile devices and on Internet-connected televisions.
Specific Media wants to return the site to its roots as a place for music fans to discover new bands and songs, according to the person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified because the negotiations are private.
Monday, January 10, 2011
2 Pieces of Paper for Life
8 Feb 2016 update: (CNY Day 1, day after mom's funeral), at breakfast with all and asked 3 girls to write down on paper 5 principles they learnt from me. Only Tian managed to include both principles here. Also asked her to collate all 3 lists to produce '3 pieces of paper for life'.
During the 2008 Global Financial Crisis when share prices were so beaten down that many of their PE (price/earning) ratios were below 10 and dividend rates were more than 10%, I used up all my cash together with some from my youngest sister buying up shares between Sep-Dec 08. My first purchase was $20k of Lehman Brothers (shares) which went bankrupt! (so lost all that money). After that, prices continued to go down through to Mar 09 when I was sitting on book losses of about 15% on my whole portfolio. However, after that things improved and a year later, my portfolio was up close to 60% (including dividends).
Because of that, I decided to get my kids and nieces/nephew interested in share investing. So during Chinese New Year of 2009 I offered the kids 2 choices of 'ang pows' - one containing $150 and the other with 'share certificates' (issued by me) for 1,000 shares of CapitaREIT China (a real estate investment trust run by Capital Land that invests in mainly shopping malls in China).
After showing the older ones (all below 12) how to check for the price of the share (about 50c) and its past year dividend rate online, they decided to take the 'shares' instead of the cash (the youngest who was about 6 then did not understand anything and just followed the others).
On those 'certificates' I outlined my terms - redemption of the shares from me can only be done after age 17 and dividends must be claimed within a year of dividend declaration by the company involved (although actual collection can be done later). The intent of the latter condition is to start them on where/how to check for dividend announcements and calculating them.
Over the next 2 years I issued other shares to the kids as CNY ang pows and took the opportunity to show them again how to do the online checks and calculate how much dividend they got. When they saw how much they were getting they were very happy.
During one of the training sessions (in Dec 2010), the one who impressed me was my niece TYL from Australia. When I announced that I will be showing her and my younger daughter how to do that, she asked me to wait while she ran upstairs to get her note book so that she could record what I was about to show. Some one had taught her well on the power of paper! (see History of Paper below)
So before I left KL for Singapore, I passed TYL 2 pieces of paper with notes on them and told her that they contain what I consider are important things to remember as she grow up. One was on the old Indian fable 'the elephant and 5 blindmen' and the other about the 3 levels of human development.
The Elephant and 5 Blindmen
This is an old Indian fable I learnt in primary school in Malaysia. I always tell others that if there is one fable they wish to remember or impart to their young, this is the one.
It is the story about 5 blindmen who wanted to find out what an elephant is like. But because they touched different parts of the elephant, each of them had a different perception:
- one touched the ear and said 'elephant is like a fan',
- one touched the body and said 'it is like a wall',
- one touched the leg and said 'it is like a pillar'
- one touched the tail and said 'it is like a rope'
- one touched the nose and said 'it is like branch of a tree'
This fable is trying to convey a few different messages:
- all of us start life like 'blindmen' with little experience and understanding of things
- sometimes we think we know the truth when we only have a partial or incomplete picture
- cooperation, listening to and learning from others can help one form a much more complete picture (so do not be arrogant and not talk/listen to others)
If each of those blindmen was selfish/arrogant and not receptive of what the others say, then each will end up with wrong or incomplete picture of the elephant. However, if they were to share their findings and cooperate to find out why they each had a different perception, then they all have a better chance of forming a better picture than they started with.
The 3 Levels of Human Development
Can't remember how I got this idea but only remember that it was sometime in 2001. I could have read something like it somewhere, probably from a book on Buddhism.
The idea is that different humans operate at different levels depending on their level of development or attainment :
Level 1 - Self and Greed
Level 2 - Awareness
Level 3 - Control and Choice
Level 1 - Self and Greed
Human behaviour tend to be driven by self (self centredness, self preservation, self first etc) and greed. Their first instinct is to take care of themselves or their self interests and satisfy their greed. At this level, it is all about 'what is in it for me?' with little or no consideration for other people or their environment.
Self first is hardwired into all animals because it is essential for survival. But human greed far exceeds that which is needed for survival. Other animals may collect and store enough food to last at most one winter. But there is no limit to some human greed as some will continue to gather wealth even when they already have enough to last many generations! Greed is the source of most conflicts and man-made disasters.
Quote: The world has enough for everyone's needs but not everyone's greed - Mahatma Gandhi
People who operate only at Level 1 are therefore very dangerous and one should be very careful when dealing with them because they will bring harm to others (more likely) and themselves.
People operating at this level also tend to think highly of themselves (egoistical), spiteful and deceitful (as they have to hide their self centredness and greed to avoid being found out). Because of their selfishness, they will not be willing to share things (including knowledge) with others.
To a frog at the bottom of the well, the sky is only as big as the well's opening - Mao Tze Tung
Until established otherwise, in all our dealings we must start with the assumption that the other party (friends, colleagues and family included) is operating based on self and greed, and one therefore should not be too trusting of what they say or do. Always double check and watch what they do!
The people most likely and able to steal from or take advantage of you are the ones closest to you (because you tend to trust them most).
People who get cheated by others tend to be Level 1 type because salesmen and con men etc. know how to make use of this human tendency to be selfish and greedy to entice/entrap them. They are the easiest to fool...
Level 2 - Awareness
Humans can progress beyond Level 1 only after they start to use their awareness and thinking ability.
Awareness is the prerequisite for the acquisition of knowledge. Knowledge is power.
One who has a keen sense of awareness may start to observe and analyse what is happening around (the enviroment0 and by so doing begin to understand how and why things work the way they do. That may be understanding how Nature works (e.g. science, maths) or how humans behave (e.g. the principles contained in this article)
If one is not so egoistical (Level 1) as to think that others have nothing to teach them, awareness also allows that person seek to learn from others. People who are not aware that books or the internet exist or are too arrogant to learn from others will not be able to expand their knowledge as quickly as others. Egoism or arrogance is self centredness.
Combination of awareness and good analysis allows one to differentiate real knowledge/truths from false knowledge/untruths or misconceptions.
Quote: To know what you know and know what you don't know is true wisdom - Confucius
With REAL knowledge one can also improve one's ability to judge other people and determine their real character and intent.
To establish the true character of another person:
- be aware of what the other party do or say at different times,
- seek other people's opinion about that person (but dont take as truths)
- observe how that person deal with other people who cannot do anything to or for that person
- analyse all above together!
Essentially, it is to apply the 'elephant and 5 blindmen' principle on judging human character. A person below Level 2 will not be able to apply that principle beause to fully appreciate that fable and its teachings require awareness.
Level 3 - Control and Choice
When one has gained REAL knowledge, then one can progress to the next level. Instead of just operating in Level 2 and gathering knowledge, one can begin to use those knowledge to manage or improve one's future or environment.
Some people operate in Level 2 but do not progress further because they do not know how to utilise the knowledge they have or are too lazy (no desire or will).
Knowledge is worthless if not used nor shared
Compassion without knowledge is ineffective
Knowledge without compassion is inhumane - Victor Weisskopf
Level 3 people are also better able to predict what is going to happen ahead of time and others (see further), prepare for their impact and, if possible, influence their outcome. In other words, they are better able to understand and manage risks.
Knowledgeable people tend to have more choices in life and less fearful when faced with new challenges because their knowledge enable them to think through issues and challenges and come up with alternative responses or action plans.
Only with real knowledge can one be able to make right choices and control outcomes positively which in turn is the source of true freedom and satisfaction (happiness).
But knowledge can also be dangerous if deployed for ill intent. There are knowledgeable people who by choice use what they know to satisfy their greed and self, and use their control of information and knowledge to control others for the same purpose. These are the most dangerous people because they are pros doing it consciously and in controlled fashion (because they are Level 3!). Big time and sophisticated conmen and salesmen fall into this category. Only sharp people with high awareness can spot such people. Similarly, such pros can spot those sharp people and would not go near them nor target them to con (there are lots more easier preys).
People today is more 'free' than people in the past because with new techonologies like telephone, radio, TV and internet, more people have access to knowledge and selfish people are less able to keep knowledge to themselves or control who get access to those knowledge.
Quote: Know oneself and know one's competition, a hundred battles a hundred victories - Sun Ze (Sun Tzu)
Quote: In the land of the blind, the one-eye jack is king
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE 2 CONCEPTS:
A level 1 blindman may think that he already knows all that is to be known about elephants and ignore the other blindmen. His egoism will be the cause of his problems because he would go round thinking that he is right and the others are wrong. Believing a Level 1 blindman's view but not others will bring disaster.
A level 2 blindman who listen to the other blindmen may quickly realise that he may not have complete picture and stop claiming his view is whole truth and be open to consider possibility others may also be right but have incomplete picture like him. But that does not mean he would end up with a better picture of the elephant. It depends on what he chooses to do further with the others' information.
A level 3 blindman that chooses to react to the additional information from the other blindmen (by exercising his choice and control over his own action) in a positive way, will combine all 5 blindmens views and if he manage to get the others to cooperate, overtime end up with much better picture of what an elephant is like!
HISTORY OF PAPER, PRINTING PRESS AND THE SPREAD OF KNOWLEDGE:
People who know history know that paper is a cheap means for disseminating information and knowledge, and together with the invention of the printing press contributed significantly to the great leap in science and technology after Europeans learnt how to make paper and invented printing press.
Paper was invented by the Chinese 2,000 years ago (Han Dynasty). Around 700 AD the Arab armies had taken over the Persian empire (which included today's Afghanistan). That brought them next to the Chinese Tang empire which then included today's Tajikistan (a country north of Afghanistan). As a result, the 2 armies met. In one of the battles, the Tang army was defeated and the Arabs caught many Chinese soldiers and support staff which included army scribes responsible for recording events for reporting back to emperor.
From those Chinese scribes, the Arabs learnt how to make paper and from there that knowledge spread throughout the muslim world which then included places like North Africa, Spain and Portugal.
In the 12th century, Spanish christians defeated the muslims and learnt to make paper from Arabs ruling Spain then. From there, knowledge of paper making spread throughout Europe.
In the 15th century, German Johannes Gutenberg invented the 'movable type printing press' which allowed books to be mass produced much more cheaply and faster than reproduction by hand and other means. That invention substantially enabled the spread of knowledge in Europe.
18th century German philosopher: Johann Gottfried Herder said about paper: Hail to the inventor of paper who did more for literature than all the monarchs on earth.
During the 2008 Global Financial Crisis when share prices were so beaten down that many of their PE (price/earning) ratios were below 10 and dividend rates were more than 10%, I used up all my cash together with some from my youngest sister buying up shares between Sep-Dec 08. My first purchase was $20k of Lehman Brothers (shares) which went bankrupt! (so lost all that money). After that, prices continued to go down through to Mar 09 when I was sitting on book losses of about 15% on my whole portfolio. However, after that things improved and a year later, my portfolio was up close to 60% (including dividends).
Because of that, I decided to get my kids and nieces/nephew interested in share investing. So during Chinese New Year of 2009 I offered the kids 2 choices of 'ang pows' - one containing $150 and the other with 'share certificates' (issued by me) for 1,000 shares of CapitaREIT China (a real estate investment trust run by Capital Land that invests in mainly shopping malls in China).
After showing the older ones (all below 12) how to check for the price of the share (about 50c) and its past year dividend rate online, they decided to take the 'shares' instead of the cash (the youngest who was about 6 then did not understand anything and just followed the others).
On those 'certificates' I outlined my terms - redemption of the shares from me can only be done after age 17 and dividends must be claimed within a year of dividend declaration by the company involved (although actual collection can be done later). The intent of the latter condition is to start them on where/how to check for dividend announcements and calculating them.
Over the next 2 years I issued other shares to the kids as CNY ang pows and took the opportunity to show them again how to do the online checks and calculate how much dividend they got. When they saw how much they were getting they were very happy.
During one of the training sessions (in Dec 2010), the one who impressed me was my niece TYL from Australia. When I announced that I will be showing her and my younger daughter how to do that, she asked me to wait while she ran upstairs to get her note book so that she could record what I was about to show. Some one had taught her well on the power of paper! (see History of Paper below)
So before I left KL for Singapore, I passed TYL 2 pieces of paper with notes on them and told her that they contain what I consider are important things to remember as she grow up. One was on the old Indian fable 'the elephant and 5 blindmen' and the other about the 3 levels of human development.
The Elephant and 5 Blindmen
This is an old Indian fable I learnt in primary school in Malaysia. I always tell others that if there is one fable they wish to remember or impart to their young, this is the one.
It is the story about 5 blindmen who wanted to find out what an elephant is like. But because they touched different parts of the elephant, each of them had a different perception:
- one touched the ear and said 'elephant is like a fan',
- one touched the body and said 'it is like a wall',
- one touched the leg and said 'it is like a pillar'
- one touched the tail and said 'it is like a rope'
- one touched the nose and said 'it is like branch of a tree'
This fable is trying to convey a few different messages:
- all of us start life like 'blindmen' with little experience and understanding of things
- sometimes we think we know the truth when we only have a partial or incomplete picture
- cooperation, listening to and learning from others can help one form a much more complete picture (so do not be arrogant and not talk/listen to others)
If each of those blindmen was selfish/arrogant and not receptive of what the others say, then each will end up with wrong or incomplete picture of the elephant. However, if they were to share their findings and cooperate to find out why they each had a different perception, then they all have a better chance of forming a better picture than they started with.
The 3 Levels of Human Development
Can't remember how I got this idea but only remember that it was sometime in 2001. I could have read something like it somewhere, probably from a book on Buddhism.
The idea is that different humans operate at different levels depending on their level of development or attainment :
Level 1 - Self and Greed
Level 2 - Awareness
Level 3 - Control and Choice
Level 1 - Self and Greed
Human behaviour tend to be driven by self (self centredness, self preservation, self first etc) and greed. Their first instinct is to take care of themselves or their self interests and satisfy their greed. At this level, it is all about 'what is in it for me?' with little or no consideration for other people or their environment.
Self first is hardwired into all animals because it is essential for survival. But human greed far exceeds that which is needed for survival. Other animals may collect and store enough food to last at most one winter. But there is no limit to some human greed as some will continue to gather wealth even when they already have enough to last many generations! Greed is the source of most conflicts and man-made disasters.
Quote: The world has enough for everyone's needs but not everyone's greed - Mahatma Gandhi
People who operate only at Level 1 are therefore very dangerous and one should be very careful when dealing with them because they will bring harm to others (more likely) and themselves.
People operating at this level also tend to think highly of themselves (egoistical), spiteful and deceitful (as they have to hide their self centredness and greed to avoid being found out). Because of their selfishness, they will not be willing to share things (including knowledge) with others.
To a frog at the bottom of the well, the sky is only as big as the well's opening - Mao Tze Tung
Until established otherwise, in all our dealings we must start with the assumption that the other party (friends, colleagues and family included) is operating based on self and greed, and one therefore should not be too trusting of what they say or do. Always double check and watch what they do!
The people most likely and able to steal from or take advantage of you are the ones closest to you (because you tend to trust them most).
People who get cheated by others tend to be Level 1 type because salesmen and con men etc. know how to make use of this human tendency to be selfish and greedy to entice/entrap them. They are the easiest to fool...
Level 2 - Awareness
Humans can progress beyond Level 1 only after they start to use their awareness and thinking ability.
Awareness is the prerequisite for the acquisition of knowledge. Knowledge is power.
One who has a keen sense of awareness may start to observe and analyse what is happening around (the enviroment0 and by so doing begin to understand how and why things work the way they do. That may be understanding how Nature works (e.g. science, maths) or how humans behave (e.g. the principles contained in this article)
If one is not so egoistical (Level 1) as to think that others have nothing to teach them, awareness also allows that person seek to learn from others. People who are not aware that books or the internet exist or are too arrogant to learn from others will not be able to expand their knowledge as quickly as others. Egoism or arrogance is self centredness.
Combination of awareness and good analysis allows one to differentiate real knowledge/truths from false knowledge/untruths or misconceptions.
Quote: To know what you know and know what you don't know is true wisdom - Confucius
With REAL knowledge one can also improve one's ability to judge other people and determine their real character and intent.
To establish the true character of another person:
- be aware of what the other party do or say at different times,
- seek other people's opinion about that person (but dont take as truths)
- observe how that person deal with other people who cannot do anything to or for that person
- analyse all above together!
Essentially, it is to apply the 'elephant and 5 blindmen' principle on judging human character. A person below Level 2 will not be able to apply that principle beause to fully appreciate that fable and its teachings require awareness.
Level 3 - Control and Choice
When one has gained REAL knowledge, then one can progress to the next level. Instead of just operating in Level 2 and gathering knowledge, one can begin to use those knowledge to manage or improve one's future or environment.
Some people operate in Level 2 but do not progress further because they do not know how to utilise the knowledge they have or are too lazy (no desire or will).
Knowledge is worthless if not used nor shared
Compassion without knowledge is ineffective
Knowledge without compassion is inhumane - Victor Weisskopf
Level 3 people are also better able to predict what is going to happen ahead of time and others (see further), prepare for their impact and, if possible, influence their outcome. In other words, they are better able to understand and manage risks.
Knowledgeable people tend to have more choices in life and less fearful when faced with new challenges because their knowledge enable them to think through issues and challenges and come up with alternative responses or action plans.
Only with real knowledge can one be able to make right choices and control outcomes positively which in turn is the source of true freedom and satisfaction (happiness).
But knowledge can also be dangerous if deployed for ill intent. There are knowledgeable people who by choice use what they know to satisfy their greed and self, and use their control of information and knowledge to control others for the same purpose. These are the most dangerous people because they are pros doing it consciously and in controlled fashion (because they are Level 3!). Big time and sophisticated conmen and salesmen fall into this category. Only sharp people with high awareness can spot such people. Similarly, such pros can spot those sharp people and would not go near them nor target them to con (there are lots more easier preys).
People today is more 'free' than people in the past because with new techonologies like telephone, radio, TV and internet, more people have access to knowledge and selfish people are less able to keep knowledge to themselves or control who get access to those knowledge.
Quote: Know oneself and know one's competition, a hundred battles a hundred victories - Sun Ze (Sun Tzu)
Quote: In the land of the blind, the one-eye jack is king
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE 2 CONCEPTS:
A level 1 blindman may think that he already knows all that is to be known about elephants and ignore the other blindmen. His egoism will be the cause of his problems because he would go round thinking that he is right and the others are wrong. Believing a Level 1 blindman's view but not others will bring disaster.
A level 2 blindman who listen to the other blindmen may quickly realise that he may not have complete picture and stop claiming his view is whole truth and be open to consider possibility others may also be right but have incomplete picture like him. But that does not mean he would end up with a better picture of the elephant. It depends on what he chooses to do further with the others' information.
A level 3 blindman that chooses to react to the additional information from the other blindmen (by exercising his choice and control over his own action) in a positive way, will combine all 5 blindmens views and if he manage to get the others to cooperate, overtime end up with much better picture of what an elephant is like!
HISTORY OF PAPER, PRINTING PRESS AND THE SPREAD OF KNOWLEDGE:
People who know history know that paper is a cheap means for disseminating information and knowledge, and together with the invention of the printing press contributed significantly to the great leap in science and technology after Europeans learnt how to make paper and invented printing press.
Paper was invented by the Chinese 2,000 years ago (Han Dynasty). Around 700 AD the Arab armies had taken over the Persian empire (which included today's Afghanistan). That brought them next to the Chinese Tang empire which then included today's Tajikistan (a country north of Afghanistan). As a result, the 2 armies met. In one of the battles, the Tang army was defeated and the Arabs caught many Chinese soldiers and support staff which included army scribes responsible for recording events for reporting back to emperor.
From those Chinese scribes, the Arabs learnt how to make paper and from there that knowledge spread throughout the muslim world which then included places like North Africa, Spain and Portugal.
In the 12th century, Spanish christians defeated the muslims and learnt to make paper from Arabs ruling Spain then. From there, knowledge of paper making spread throughout Europe.
In the 15th century, German Johannes Gutenberg invented the 'movable type printing press' which allowed books to be mass produced much more cheaply and faster than reproduction by hand and other means. That invention substantially enabled the spread of knowledge in Europe.
18th century German philosopher: Johann Gottfried Herder said about paper: Hail to the inventor of paper who did more for literature than all the monarchs on earth.
Friday, January 07, 2011
Value of a Pencil Case
When the whole family went out shopping in Bukit Bintang (popular shopping belt in KL), we split up to do our own shopping. On the appointed gathering time, none of the others were there. So I called my sister and found out that they were still trying to help my niece Le look for a pencil case. Apparently they had gone from one complex to another to no avail. Curious with how buying a pencil case could take so long, I decided to join the 'search'.
In the interest of time, this time only me and my 3rd sister (but not her mom) went with her.
There are a lot of small shops in that area selling all kinds of cheap unbranded products, and that was where we went to search for her pencil case. Very soon I noticed that what we had seen so far in those low end shops were not what she had in mind. We could find cases of the right size but they were still not it.
While trying do describe in more detail, she mentioned that all her other classmates in Aus had one of those things (like all kids, she was longing for what her friends had!). Since I had no knowledge of Aussie kids' latest pencil case fad I asked her if she had seen anything close to it so far. She said 'yes but they are too expensive'. I said 'never mind but show me'
She then brought us back to the Parkson department store (where we started at the beginning of the shopping trip!). The 'real thing' was a pouch made of soft rubber like those shock absorbent computer notebook 'sleeves' (just smaller and with zippers). And the place where the 'right case' was found was none other than the section selling Aussie brands like Billabong etc.! (I should have thought of it earlier). The case she liked was from the brand 'Rip Curl'. I took a look and could tell that not only were the quality different but the designer patterns on the thing looked much nicer.
Knowing by then what she was looking for and how important it was to her, I told her in front of my 3rd sis 'Buy it. No point going to other places anymore. Even if we bring you to the moon and back we will not find what you want anywhere else'.
But the young girl hesitated and said 'but my mom said it is too expensive'. That's when I realised that they had actually found what the girl wanted at the very beginning (we started our shopping there) but was told that she could not have it because it was 'too expensive'!
The Rip Curl case was selling at RM40 after 20% discount while the unbranded ones were RM10 to RM20.
I said to Le 'ignore the price and tell me what you think about the quality of this case compared to the others. Are those RM10-20 ones in the other shops of the same quality as this one?' She said 'No'.
I told her 'just look at the zipper of this Rip Curl case and compare it to the zipper of the (ubranded) money pouch you are carrying. Can you see the difference in quality? This zipper is much smoother and more robust. It will last much longer than the other zipper'
That is why one should not buy things based only on price. Only simpletons who do not know how to determine quality do that. They rely on price and price only because they have no other basis for comparison. But people with sufficient knowledge and awareness do not do that.
A good quality product selling at twice the price but looks much nicer (and makes you fell better) and lasts twice as long as a cheaper one is NOT expensive. It is value for money. We should buy products because they are 'value for money' and not because they are cheap.
In addtion, I told her that she had some dividend money of her own anyway and can decide on what to spend it on herself without worrying about what others think or say. That was why I wanted to teach her and the other kids the importance of share investing. Having one's own source of income is freedom!
The young girl then reached into her own pouch for her money and bought that Rip Curl case with her own money.
When I tried to pull her leg on the next outing by asking her if what she was looking at was too expensive, she smiled and said 'I still have some more of my dividend money!'
That Rip Curl pencil case proved to worth much more than RM40 indeed...
In the interest of time, this time only me and my 3rd sister (but not her mom) went with her.
There are a lot of small shops in that area selling all kinds of cheap unbranded products, and that was where we went to search for her pencil case. Very soon I noticed that what we had seen so far in those low end shops were not what she had in mind. We could find cases of the right size but they were still not it.
While trying do describe in more detail, she mentioned that all her other classmates in Aus had one of those things (like all kids, she was longing for what her friends had!). Since I had no knowledge of Aussie kids' latest pencil case fad I asked her if she had seen anything close to it so far. She said 'yes but they are too expensive'. I said 'never mind but show me'
She then brought us back to the Parkson department store (where we started at the beginning of the shopping trip!). The 'real thing' was a pouch made of soft rubber like those shock absorbent computer notebook 'sleeves' (just smaller and with zippers). And the place where the 'right case' was found was none other than the section selling Aussie brands like Billabong etc.! (I should have thought of it earlier). The case she liked was from the brand 'Rip Curl'. I took a look and could tell that not only were the quality different but the designer patterns on the thing looked much nicer.
Knowing by then what she was looking for and how important it was to her, I told her in front of my 3rd sis 'Buy it. No point going to other places anymore. Even if we bring you to the moon and back we will not find what you want anywhere else'.
But the young girl hesitated and said 'but my mom said it is too expensive'. That's when I realised that they had actually found what the girl wanted at the very beginning (we started our shopping there) but was told that she could not have it because it was 'too expensive'!
The Rip Curl case was selling at RM40 after 20% discount while the unbranded ones were RM10 to RM20.
I said to Le 'ignore the price and tell me what you think about the quality of this case compared to the others. Are those RM10-20 ones in the other shops of the same quality as this one?' She said 'No'.
I told her 'just look at the zipper of this Rip Curl case and compare it to the zipper of the (ubranded) money pouch you are carrying. Can you see the difference in quality? This zipper is much smoother and more robust. It will last much longer than the other zipper'
That is why one should not buy things based only on price. Only simpletons who do not know how to determine quality do that. They rely on price and price only because they have no other basis for comparison. But people with sufficient knowledge and awareness do not do that.
A good quality product selling at twice the price but looks much nicer (and makes you fell better) and lasts twice as long as a cheaper one is NOT expensive. It is value for money. We should buy products because they are 'value for money' and not because they are cheap.
In addtion, I told her that she had some dividend money of her own anyway and can decide on what to spend it on herself without worrying about what others think or say. That was why I wanted to teach her and the other kids the importance of share investing. Having one's own source of income is freedom!
The young girl then reached into her own pouch for her money and bought that Rip Curl case with her own money.
When I tried to pull her leg on the next outing by asking her if what she was looking at was too expensive, she smiled and said 'I still have some more of my dividend money!'
That Rip Curl pencil case proved to worth much more than RM40 indeed...
Saturday, January 01, 2011
Cutting the Invisible Strings
My sister living in Australia returned to Malaysia with her daughter Le (who was on school holiday) for a visit.
As they did for the last few trips (of slightly more than a month long from Dec to Jan - summer holidays in Aus), they flew to KL and spent a couple of weeks there to catch up with relatives and friends, then they travelled with my parents to Batu Pahat for a few days to visit my second sister and family, and then to Singapore for a few days to visit me and her sister-in-law. After that they returned to KL where they caught their return flight home after a week or so.
I imagine it must have been quite hectic for the 2 of them. So this time I offered to drive them back to KL using youngest sister's car (since I was not working) and spent the next week with them in KL. (That was the last trip I made back to Malaysia before my 3 months temporary Singapore re-entry permit expired. The usual length of the permit is 5-years. But the terms of my 'technical skill resident' PR is such that they would not issue one if I was not employed. I got that 3-month temp permit only on appeal)
Over the few days in Singapore, I noticed that Le who was then 13 was sometimes going out without carrying a bag or pouch of her own (my younger daughter who went out with her always carried a pouch with her handphone etc.)
So one day when I got to speak to her alone, I told her that she should carry a personal bag with essential things like some money, personal identity, important contact numbers etc. every time she goes out so that in case of emergencies like when she loses touch with her mom while out travelling, she can 'survive' on her own for a short time while she make or find her own way home or look for help (her grandma also have umbrella, water and useful ointments in her bag all the time). Otherwise whenever she goes out she would be 'fearful' of losing touch with her parents and others, and would always feel the need to be very close to them and have little freedom to do her own things.
That, I said, is an 'invisible string' that should be cut.
Once she is well prepared to survive alone for a while if need be, then she would have the confidence to do things on her own like leave her parents for a while to look for her own things when out shopping without a sense/fear of helplessness.
I then offered to buy her a pouch but she said that my youngest sister had bought her one while she was in KL.
Also passed her a small compass and said that since she live in a big place Australia where population is sparse and places far away, getting help from others may be difficult and she must be able to operate alone if required. So a compass and map can be very useful. She should familiarise herself with the location and compass direction of key places around her house and school. And always stay on main roads (instead of small ones) where there is better chance to run into help.
As a few months before there were some big bush fires near the town Churchill where they lived, I also told her that a small radio would be useful and to know the wind directions (draw arrows on maps!) there at different times of the year so that in case of such fires again she would know which direction to go or avoid (fires follow direction of prevailing wind so e.g. you have higher chance of running into the fire if you go against the wind).
[Note: different areas on globe have different wind directions and patterns.
In Malaysia and Singapore we have the northeast (Nov to Mar) and southwest (May to Sept) moonsoons when weather is wet and winds blow in from the northeast and southwest respectively. But in coastal areas like Singapore, the sea breeze may override when monsoon winds are weak. During day when land is warmer, wind blows from sea to land. At night, the reverse. So not so straight forward. Wet finger test may be better...]
From that day on, Le carried her pouch with her all the time.
When out shopping in Batu Pahat (on way back to KL) with her cousins Tian and Ze, I purposely told them that I was going off to shop alone and the 3 kids should do the same and meet me back at the same place at the appointed time. They went off and came back happily...
Also told them that if we didn't get to meet at agreed location, do not go elsewhere but stay at the agreed place. At most, retrace the last 2 places we went together but never go off to new places the whole party did not go before that!
I also shared with Le another thing I noticed for years - which was my sister always brought her along wherever she went, even when out meeting her old school friends.
So I asked Le what she did when her mom was catching up with her 50 year old friends. She said nothing and kept quiet when I said it should be very boring for her. I said that is also another form of 'invisible string'.
The good thing about having one's own self-sufficient pouch is that even if she accompanies her mom to meet her friends, the pouch would give her the confidence to leave her mom for a while and explore the places around there and do things on her own instead of just sitting there doing nothing.
[Knowing my sister who is very risk averse and fearful of everything, I suspect that bringing her daughter along with her increases her own sense of security. That's fine when Le was young and could not care for herself. But all that will have to end some day as the young girl will grow up and have to be left and learn to do things on her own sooner or later.]
Life Lesson:
Some one once wrote a book in which he said that life is all about understanding and managing risks. Humans progress over time because we learn more and more about the different risks we encounter and how to deal with those risks better than before.
Everyone is fearful of risks. But different people develop to different level depending on how well they understand and manage the risks they face or take. That is the critical difference.
Here is an analogy: Crossing road has risks but we do not stop ourselves from crossing roads. Instead we learn how to reduce the risk of being knocked down by a car.
Some people are so fearful of facing new risks that they either avoid doing new things or they freeze up when faced with new risks and could not take appropriate risk mitigation or management actions. Such people will never go far in life or achieve anything significant.
But the people who think or plan ahead before they do anything new and try to identify the potential risks they may face, and learn or think through how they can overcome or minimise the impact of those risks will be much less fearful of doing things (taking risk) and more likely to succeed in life.
So life is all about risk management...
As they did for the last few trips (of slightly more than a month long from Dec to Jan - summer holidays in Aus), they flew to KL and spent a couple of weeks there to catch up with relatives and friends, then they travelled with my parents to Batu Pahat for a few days to visit my second sister and family, and then to Singapore for a few days to visit me and her sister-in-law. After that they returned to KL where they caught their return flight home after a week or so.
I imagine it must have been quite hectic for the 2 of them. So this time I offered to drive them back to KL using youngest sister's car (since I was not working) and spent the next week with them in KL. (That was the last trip I made back to Malaysia before my 3 months temporary Singapore re-entry permit expired. The usual length of the permit is 5-years. But the terms of my 'technical skill resident' PR is such that they would not issue one if I was not employed. I got that 3-month temp permit only on appeal)
Over the few days in Singapore, I noticed that Le who was then 13 was sometimes going out without carrying a bag or pouch of her own (my younger daughter who went out with her always carried a pouch with her handphone etc.)
So one day when I got to speak to her alone, I told her that she should carry a personal bag with essential things like some money, personal identity, important contact numbers etc. every time she goes out so that in case of emergencies like when she loses touch with her mom while out travelling, she can 'survive' on her own for a short time while she make or find her own way home or look for help (her grandma also have umbrella, water and useful ointments in her bag all the time). Otherwise whenever she goes out she would be 'fearful' of losing touch with her parents and others, and would always feel the need to be very close to them and have little freedom to do her own things.
That, I said, is an 'invisible string' that should be cut.
Once she is well prepared to survive alone for a while if need be, then she would have the confidence to do things on her own like leave her parents for a while to look for her own things when out shopping without a sense/fear of helplessness.
I then offered to buy her a pouch but she said that my youngest sister had bought her one while she was in KL.
Also passed her a small compass and said that since she live in a big place Australia where population is sparse and places far away, getting help from others may be difficult and she must be able to operate alone if required. So a compass and map can be very useful. She should familiarise herself with the location and compass direction of key places around her house and school. And always stay on main roads (instead of small ones) where there is better chance to run into help.
As a few months before there were some big bush fires near the town Churchill where they lived, I also told her that a small radio would be useful and to know the wind directions (draw arrows on maps!) there at different times of the year so that in case of such fires again she would know which direction to go or avoid (fires follow direction of prevailing wind so e.g. you have higher chance of running into the fire if you go against the wind).
[Note: different areas on globe have different wind directions and patterns.
In Malaysia and Singapore we have the northeast (Nov to Mar) and southwest (May to Sept) moonsoons when weather is wet and winds blow in from the northeast and southwest respectively. But in coastal areas like Singapore, the sea breeze may override when monsoon winds are weak. During day when land is warmer, wind blows from sea to land. At night, the reverse. So not so straight forward. Wet finger test may be better...]
From that day on, Le carried her pouch with her all the time.
When out shopping in Batu Pahat (on way back to KL) with her cousins Tian and Ze, I purposely told them that I was going off to shop alone and the 3 kids should do the same and meet me back at the same place at the appointed time. They went off and came back happily...
Also told them that if we didn't get to meet at agreed location, do not go elsewhere but stay at the agreed place. At most, retrace the last 2 places we went together but never go off to new places the whole party did not go before that!
I also shared with Le another thing I noticed for years - which was my sister always brought her along wherever she went, even when out meeting her old school friends.
So I asked Le what she did when her mom was catching up with her 50 year old friends. She said nothing and kept quiet when I said it should be very boring for her. I said that is also another form of 'invisible string'.
The good thing about having one's own self-sufficient pouch is that even if she accompanies her mom to meet her friends, the pouch would give her the confidence to leave her mom for a while and explore the places around there and do things on her own instead of just sitting there doing nothing.
[Knowing my sister who is very risk averse and fearful of everything, I suspect that bringing her daughter along with her increases her own sense of security. That's fine when Le was young and could not care for herself. But all that will have to end some day as the young girl will grow up and have to be left and learn to do things on her own sooner or later.]
Life Lesson:
Some one once wrote a book in which he said that life is all about understanding and managing risks. Humans progress over time because we learn more and more about the different risks we encounter and how to deal with those risks better than before.
Everyone is fearful of risks. But different people develop to different level depending on how well they understand and manage the risks they face or take. That is the critical difference.
Here is an analogy: Crossing road has risks but we do not stop ourselves from crossing roads. Instead we learn how to reduce the risk of being knocked down by a car.
Some people are so fearful of facing new risks that they either avoid doing new things or they freeze up when faced with new risks and could not take appropriate risk mitigation or management actions. Such people will never go far in life or achieve anything significant.
But the people who think or plan ahead before they do anything new and try to identify the potential risks they may face, and learn or think through how they can overcome or minimise the impact of those risks will be much less fearful of doing things (taking risk) and more likely to succeed in life.
So life is all about risk management...
Friday, January 01, 2010
When I Started to Plant My Own Financial Trees (DRAFT)
I grew up without much 'financial education'. Other than the need to save, I learnt nothing else when young. Living hand to mouth, I guess things like investing etc did not mean much to my parents. So what to teach to us kids?
But growing up poor made me want to know how people 'make money' and get rich.
When I was accepted to study computer science as major in university, I was required to pick one other major and a minor subject. I picked maths as the other major and wanted economics as minor because of that desire to know how the financial world works. But they refused to let me take up economics. The reason being I did not do economics while in A levels. I appealed personally to the vice-dean of the Science faculty and said that my lack of A level econs should not matter if I was serious about it and willing to work to catch up with others who had head start. But they still refused. They were just 'following the book' and in those days their 'book' was very straight forward.
Years later, the local education system got more flexible after the authorities realised that their universities were not producing the kind of people they expected like young people willing to take risks. I guess if the ones doing the teaching were not even willing to take a risk to let a young man learn something close to his heart, then they could not expect better from the ones they were supposed to educate.
Despite that disappointment, things worked to my favour when I started working in Andersen Consulting. They offered me a job at the start of my 3rd year in uni so I went about my final year knowing a job was waiting for me. AC was considered one of the 'high profile' employers for computer science students then. So I was pleasantly surprised that I was one of only 2 that they selected that year because my grades were not great (only 'B' for Comp Sc) and I was sure many other fellow students had better grades than me. After that I was more relieved when I found that many of my fellow students could not get jobs for 1 to 2 years because of the financial crisis of mid 80s.
[Many years later I figured out why I may have been selected. My final interview was with a new American partner by the name of David Bushman. As part of the interview he had asked me about my parents and family background. I think he favoured me partly out of desire to help me out and for a reason I found out a few years later from one of the local partners. Apparently, AC had studied the profile of their partners and found that they tended to come from middle to lower class background. They reasoned that their less well to do upbringing made them more 'hungry' for success and willing to work harder.
One of my first 'major' assignment was on a project for a small dutch bank (NMB Bank) and that got me really excited. Finally, I got a chance to find out how the money world works! After that lucky break, I was considered a part of the 'banking industry team' and as a result all my subsequent assignments were in the banking industry.
In addition to the good working experience that going from one project to another gives (instead of doing the same thing over and over again like in other companies), AC also had very good staff training programs and materials that I benefited from.]
When I was jobless at 44 and told my family that although I had stopped working I could live off my investments, one of my sisters told me something that I had long forgotten. She said 'do you remember that when young you used to say that you want to be able to retire when you are 40?' We laughed as I said 'then I guess I missed it by a few years'
I started to invest in a significant way only in 2001 when the bank I was working in was in the process of merging with 2 others and many staff were retrenched or expecting retrenchment because some positions had 3 incumbents! The other reason was before that I did not have much savings because I was paying for new house and car in Singapore and some other bad investments in Malaysia. But the main push was my pending retrenchment and the desire to make sure I maximise my savings.
But my awareness of the need for passive income started when I was about 30 when a financially savvy AC colleague who had an MBA said that we could not rely on the salaries our company was paying us then and he would be looking for a new job.
[The background to that was this: One day, both of us interviewed a woman candidate for software sales manager role in AC. Soon after the lunch interview, that resourceful colleague Reuben managed to find out how much the company was about to pay that 'sales woman'. Disgruntled he came to me and said 'did you know how much they will be paying her? More than us. And that is for one who will be hee hee hah hahing with clients while we will be responsible for delivery. I am quitting!' I thought he had a point. True to his words, Reuben left AC a few months after that. Soon after, I was approached by a head hunter for a job in a bank and I took it]
In 2001, the first internet fund or unit trust distribution company in Singapore known as 'FinatiQ' started operation.
The good thing about FinatiQ was they had information on historical performance of the various funds online including charting features which I could use to compare performance of similar funds by different managers over different time horizons (I used 2 and 5 years as benchmark). For e.g. I could compare the different funds investing in India over 2 and 5 years. Thanks to the internet, I could do my research and buy the funds I wanted from office.
The other thing that attracted me was since everything was online and their clients were self-helping themselves, FinatiQ's commission rates were half the usual rates (usual rate is 5% but FinatiQ charged 2.5%). Better still, they were promoting their business by offering 1% rebates in the form of Robinson Vouchers.
In 2001, I had about $200K of cash savings. On top of that, I had some CPF money (CPF allow people to use a portion of CPF funds to buy approved shares and unit trusts) and was expecting a package from my pending retrenchment.
By July 2001, I had used all my cash savings, CPF and my retrenchment money to buy unit trusts investing in China, India and Asia Pacific, and holding on to a few thousand dollars worth of Robinson vouchers!
[There was no way I could use up all those Robinson vouchers. So one day I went to Robinson Orchard and approached other shoppers to exchange them for cash at a discount of 5%. That was an eye opening experience. Some people just dare not exchange despite me assuring them that those vouchers were real and I could stay with them until the cashiers accepted them but they still refused. I guess risk free also some people would not take. An Indian woman wanted more discount, so I gave her 10% off.]
The reason why I bought only China, India and Asia Pacific funds were because I found out that one of the causes of the 1997 Financial Crisis was that investment money had gone out of the 'Asian Tigers' and into those 2 countries! In addition, I also had the view that the US Dollar was a 'bluff' and would fall in value over time (thus no US funds).
However, soon after that Sept 11 struck and the value of my funds dropped by 15% or so. That got me worried for a while.
Fortunately, I was proven right a few years later. By the time I sold them out between Jan and Oct 2007 (just before the crash of 2008) the value of those funds had more than doubled.
2 things triggered me to start selling: the prices of most Asian shares were ridiculously high and Alan Greenspan's 'retirement' in end 2006.
In addition, I started shorting some HK shares in the second half of 2007 and learnt another bitter lesson. With the money from sale of my funds, I used some to short some HK shares using CFDs. In October, the market crashed and I had a book gain of about $200k. But instead of taking those profits I shorted some more! A few weeks after that, the market re-bounced above the previous peak and my holdings went into negative. Out of fear, I decided to 'cut loss' and incurred $200k loss (if I had held on a few months longer I would have made profit eventually when the market collapsed over the whole of 2008 but that is the problem with fear. I was scared stiff of further losses and decided to close position).
Lesson learnt: do not be greedy and never do short selling. If do that and price drop in your favour, take profit and do NOT short some more (at lower price)!
But growing up poor made me want to know how people 'make money' and get rich.
When I was accepted to study computer science as major in university, I was required to pick one other major and a minor subject. I picked maths as the other major and wanted economics as minor because of that desire to know how the financial world works. But they refused to let me take up economics. The reason being I did not do economics while in A levels. I appealed personally to the vice-dean of the Science faculty and said that my lack of A level econs should not matter if I was serious about it and willing to work to catch up with others who had head start. But they still refused. They were just 'following the book' and in those days their 'book' was very straight forward.
Years later, the local education system got more flexible after the authorities realised that their universities were not producing the kind of people they expected like young people willing to take risks. I guess if the ones doing the teaching were not even willing to take a risk to let a young man learn something close to his heart, then they could not expect better from the ones they were supposed to educate.
Despite that disappointment, things worked to my favour when I started working in Andersen Consulting. They offered me a job at the start of my 3rd year in uni so I went about my final year knowing a job was waiting for me. AC was considered one of the 'high profile' employers for computer science students then. So I was pleasantly surprised that I was one of only 2 that they selected that year because my grades were not great (only 'B' for Comp Sc) and I was sure many other fellow students had better grades than me. After that I was more relieved when I found that many of my fellow students could not get jobs for 1 to 2 years because of the financial crisis of mid 80s.
[Many years later I figured out why I may have been selected. My final interview was with a new American partner by the name of David Bushman. As part of the interview he had asked me about my parents and family background. I think he favoured me partly out of desire to help me out and for a reason I found out a few years later from one of the local partners. Apparently, AC had studied the profile of their partners and found that they tended to come from middle to lower class background. They reasoned that their less well to do upbringing made them more 'hungry' for success and willing to work harder.
One of my first 'major' assignment was on a project for a small dutch bank (NMB Bank) and that got me really excited. Finally, I got a chance to find out how the money world works! After that lucky break, I was considered a part of the 'banking industry team' and as a result all my subsequent assignments were in the banking industry.
In addition to the good working experience that going from one project to another gives (instead of doing the same thing over and over again like in other companies), AC also had very good staff training programs and materials that I benefited from.]
When I was jobless at 44 and told my family that although I had stopped working I could live off my investments, one of my sisters told me something that I had long forgotten. She said 'do you remember that when young you used to say that you want to be able to retire when you are 40?' We laughed as I said 'then I guess I missed it by a few years'
I started to invest in a significant way only in 2001 when the bank I was working in was in the process of merging with 2 others and many staff were retrenched or expecting retrenchment because some positions had 3 incumbents! The other reason was before that I did not have much savings because I was paying for new house and car in Singapore and some other bad investments in Malaysia. But the main push was my pending retrenchment and the desire to make sure I maximise my savings.
But my awareness of the need for passive income started when I was about 30 when a financially savvy AC colleague who had an MBA said that we could not rely on the salaries our company was paying us then and he would be looking for a new job.
[The background to that was this: One day, both of us interviewed a woman candidate for software sales manager role in AC. Soon after the lunch interview, that resourceful colleague Reuben managed to find out how much the company was about to pay that 'sales woman'. Disgruntled he came to me and said 'did you know how much they will be paying her? More than us. And that is for one who will be hee hee hah hahing with clients while we will be responsible for delivery. I am quitting!' I thought he had a point. True to his words, Reuben left AC a few months after that. Soon after, I was approached by a head hunter for a job in a bank and I took it]
In 2001, the first internet fund or unit trust distribution company in Singapore known as 'FinatiQ' started operation.
The good thing about FinatiQ was they had information on historical performance of the various funds online including charting features which I could use to compare performance of similar funds by different managers over different time horizons (I used 2 and 5 years as benchmark). For e.g. I could compare the different funds investing in India over 2 and 5 years. Thanks to the internet, I could do my research and buy the funds I wanted from office.
The other thing that attracted me was since everything was online and their clients were self-helping themselves, FinatiQ's commission rates were half the usual rates (usual rate is 5% but FinatiQ charged 2.5%). Better still, they were promoting their business by offering 1% rebates in the form of Robinson Vouchers.
In 2001, I had about $200K of cash savings. On top of that, I had some CPF money (CPF allow people to use a portion of CPF funds to buy approved shares and unit trusts) and was expecting a package from my pending retrenchment.
By July 2001, I had used all my cash savings, CPF and my retrenchment money to buy unit trusts investing in China, India and Asia Pacific, and holding on to a few thousand dollars worth of Robinson vouchers!
[There was no way I could use up all those Robinson vouchers. So one day I went to Robinson Orchard and approached other shoppers to exchange them for cash at a discount of 5%. That was an eye opening experience. Some people just dare not exchange despite me assuring them that those vouchers were real and I could stay with them until the cashiers accepted them but they still refused. I guess risk free also some people would not take. An Indian woman wanted more discount, so I gave her 10% off.]
The reason why I bought only China, India and Asia Pacific funds were because I found out that one of the causes of the 1997 Financial Crisis was that investment money had gone out of the 'Asian Tigers' and into those 2 countries! In addition, I also had the view that the US Dollar was a 'bluff' and would fall in value over time (thus no US funds).
However, soon after that Sept 11 struck and the value of my funds dropped by 15% or so. That got me worried for a while.
Fortunately, I was proven right a few years later. By the time I sold them out between Jan and Oct 2007 (just before the crash of 2008) the value of those funds had more than doubled.
2 things triggered me to start selling: the prices of most Asian shares were ridiculously high and Alan Greenspan's 'retirement' in end 2006.
In addition, I started shorting some HK shares in the second half of 2007 and learnt another bitter lesson. With the money from sale of my funds, I used some to short some HK shares using CFDs. In October, the market crashed and I had a book gain of about $200k. But instead of taking those profits I shorted some more! A few weeks after that, the market re-bounced above the previous peak and my holdings went into negative. Out of fear, I decided to 'cut loss' and incurred $200k loss (if I had held on a few months longer I would have made profit eventually when the market collapsed over the whole of 2008 but that is the problem with fear. I was scared stiff of further losses and decided to close position).
Lesson learnt: do not be greedy and never do short selling. If do that and price drop in your favour, take profit and do NOT short some more (at lower price)!
Sunday, June 21, 2009
A Gift For My Daughters
CCK Note: Bought book with above title written by Jim Rogers some time in 2009 and passed to Li Ling. Jim Rogers is a well known investor who moved his family from the US to Singapore a few years before 2009 because he thought that the 21st century will belong to China and he wanted to be near where the future action will be. One reason he chose Singapore was he wanted his daughters to learn Chinese...
Below is a review of the book:
http://www.bigfatpurse.com/2010/06/a-gift-to-my-children-by-jim-rogers/
Jim Rogers wrote a book for his daughters, teaching them the way of life to achieve success and happiness. Here are the things I learned from the book:
About Life
Passion is key to happiness – “Try as many things as you can, then pursue one (or two, or three) about which you’re passionate. I became successful in investing because this is what I enjoyed most… The quickest way to success is to do what you like and give it your best. For me, my love for investing was linked to my fascination with researching amd learning in detail what was happening in different parts of the world… The least-happy people I know are those stuck in jobs they don’t love; many because they can’t imagine giving up a paycheck… People who follow their passions do not “go to work”. They get up each day and cannot wait to have more fun doing what they love to do… Even if you don’t become wealthy pursuing your passions, you will be rich with satisfaction. Plus, you’ll be happy. You can’t put a price on that.”
Have a dream – “In addition to finding a fulfilling vocation, you must have a dream. In my younger days, I though that making money was fun, but I didn’t really have a plan beyond that. Had I continued down that path, I would have lost interest by now… when you begin something, you may not always have a concrete picture or vision of the future. But if you continue to be passionate and work hard at what you truly love to do, then you will eventually find that dream.”
Do not be ignorant – “Ignorance is born of an outsized sense of self-importance. Never let yourself become arrogant. Study hard. The more you learn, the more you will realize how little you know – and armed with this humility, you will never lose sight of the distance that separates self-confidence and self-importace.”
Puruse your dreams – “I want you to pursue, without pause, whatever it is that stirs your passion. Keep working toward your dream, not someone else’s, and not mine, either. A lot of people try to live for others – their children, their spouses, their parents, their friends – and in doing so twist themselves into knots attempting to meet their often outsized and/or unrealistic expectations. That leaves little space for personal growth and progress, and creates resentment for lost opportunities.”
On Investing
Due Dilligence – “If you just read the annual reports of companies, you will have done more than 98 percent of investors. If you read the notes of the financial statements, you will be ahead of 99.5 percent of investors. Verify those financial statements, as well as future projections announced by the top executives, by doing your own legwork. Talk to customers, suppliers, competitors, and anyone else who might affect the company. Do not invest unless you can say with absolute certainty that you are more knowledgeable about this particular firm than 98 percent of Wall Street analysts. Believe me, it can be done. But only with the extra effort.”
“If one (currency black market) exists, then you know the country has problems. Black market exchange rates exist only when the government is imposing artificial controls. The difference in parity between the official currency rate nad the black market rate indicates the gravity of the problem in that nation.”
The importance of history – “In my course “Bull and Bear” at Columbia University, I instructed students to research major bullish and bearish markets of the past, then figure out which historical events had contributed to their rise and fall. What was going on in the world when prices skyrocketed or plummeted? Why did those events serve as a catalyst? Looking back upon history is an invaluable way to learn how to analyze trends. And better still, it teaches you how to anticipate future changes.”
The rise of China – “When we look back upon history, we know that Spain dominated the sixteenth century, while France was the more prosperous country two hundred years later. The nineteenth century was the century of Great Britain. In the twentieth century, the United States rose to prominence. Well, the twenty-first century belongs to China.”
Careful with shorts – “You need to careful though, that you are not selling short simply because prices are high. Never sell short unless price are astronomically expensive, and you detect negative change coming.”
Do not follow the crowd – “Whe you see so many people being unrealistic, stop and make an objective assessment of the supply-and-demand equation. Bearing in mind this basic principle will bring that closer to success… Anytime that you think you’ve become a financial genius – when, in fact, you simply have had the good luck to turn a profit – it is time to sit back and do nothing for a while. If you stumble upon success in a bull market and decide that you are gifted, stop right there. Investing at that point is dangerous, because you are starting to think like everybody else. Wait until the mob psychology that is influencing you sudsides.”
Debasing currency does not work in the long run – “Throughout history, many countries have tried debasing their currency as a way to revive the economy by making it a bit more competitive. It has never worked over the long run or even immediately. It can work in the short term, but not always.”
Below is a review of the book:
http://www.bigfatpurse.com/2010/06/a-gift-to-my-children-by-jim-rogers/
Jim Rogers wrote a book for his daughters, teaching them the way of life to achieve success and happiness. Here are the things I learned from the book:
About Life
Passion is key to happiness – “Try as many things as you can, then pursue one (or two, or three) about which you’re passionate. I became successful in investing because this is what I enjoyed most… The quickest way to success is to do what you like and give it your best. For me, my love for investing was linked to my fascination with researching amd learning in detail what was happening in different parts of the world… The least-happy people I know are those stuck in jobs they don’t love; many because they can’t imagine giving up a paycheck… People who follow their passions do not “go to work”. They get up each day and cannot wait to have more fun doing what they love to do… Even if you don’t become wealthy pursuing your passions, you will be rich with satisfaction. Plus, you’ll be happy. You can’t put a price on that.”
Have a dream – “In addition to finding a fulfilling vocation, you must have a dream. In my younger days, I though that making money was fun, but I didn’t really have a plan beyond that. Had I continued down that path, I would have lost interest by now… when you begin something, you may not always have a concrete picture or vision of the future. But if you continue to be passionate and work hard at what you truly love to do, then you will eventually find that dream.”
Do not be ignorant – “Ignorance is born of an outsized sense of self-importance. Never let yourself become arrogant. Study hard. The more you learn, the more you will realize how little you know – and armed with this humility, you will never lose sight of the distance that separates self-confidence and self-importace.”
Puruse your dreams – “I want you to pursue, without pause, whatever it is that stirs your passion. Keep working toward your dream, not someone else’s, and not mine, either. A lot of people try to live for others – their children, their spouses, their parents, their friends – and in doing so twist themselves into knots attempting to meet their often outsized and/or unrealistic expectations. That leaves little space for personal growth and progress, and creates resentment for lost opportunities.”
On Investing
Due Dilligence – “If you just read the annual reports of companies, you will have done more than 98 percent of investors. If you read the notes of the financial statements, you will be ahead of 99.5 percent of investors. Verify those financial statements, as well as future projections announced by the top executives, by doing your own legwork. Talk to customers, suppliers, competitors, and anyone else who might affect the company. Do not invest unless you can say with absolute certainty that you are more knowledgeable about this particular firm than 98 percent of Wall Street analysts. Believe me, it can be done. But only with the extra effort.”
“If one (currency black market) exists, then you know the country has problems. Black market exchange rates exist only when the government is imposing artificial controls. The difference in parity between the official currency rate nad the black market rate indicates the gravity of the problem in that nation.”
The importance of history – “In my course “Bull and Bear” at Columbia University, I instructed students to research major bullish and bearish markets of the past, then figure out which historical events had contributed to their rise and fall. What was going on in the world when prices skyrocketed or plummeted? Why did those events serve as a catalyst? Looking back upon history is an invaluable way to learn how to analyze trends. And better still, it teaches you how to anticipate future changes.”
The rise of China – “When we look back upon history, we know that Spain dominated the sixteenth century, while France was the more prosperous country two hundred years later. The nineteenth century was the century of Great Britain. In the twentieth century, the United States rose to prominence. Well, the twenty-first century belongs to China.”
Careful with shorts – “You need to careful though, that you are not selling short simply because prices are high. Never sell short unless price are astronomically expensive, and you detect negative change coming.”
Do not follow the crowd – “Whe you see so many people being unrealistic, stop and make an objective assessment of the supply-and-demand equation. Bearing in mind this basic principle will bring that closer to success… Anytime that you think you’ve become a financial genius – when, in fact, you simply have had the good luck to turn a profit – it is time to sit back and do nothing for a while. If you stumble upon success in a bull market and decide that you are gifted, stop right there. Investing at that point is dangerous, because you are starting to think like everybody else. Wait until the mob psychology that is influencing you sudsides.”
Debasing currency does not work in the long run – “Throughout history, many countries have tried debasing their currency as a way to revive the economy by making it a bit more competitive. It has never worked over the long run or even immediately. It can work in the short term, but not always.”
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Gunning for the Divine
Interesting theory on a son of something...
http://www.latimes.com/news/la-fg-jesus29apr29,0,1333472.story?track=ntothtml
If you believe one bunch, some deity squeezed one of his offsprings into a virus-sized man-body (virus-size is perhaps giving 'em manhood too big a size given the domain the deities supposedly lord over but let's not quibble) just to show some big headed people how much the deity loved them.
If you believe the other bunch, that is all crap and the only thing squeezed into that man-body was just a small postcard (message), and their other postcard carrying fella was bigger.
Depending on who you believe, the character in question is either a son of a deity or just a small time delivery boy of a deity. The 2nd bunch is perfectly reasonable in thinking that if a deity can send 1 messenger the deity can always send another.
In that case, the 2nd bunch should be more correct since their idol should have more up-to-date messages from the deity since he came after the other bunch's idol. (This is based on my 'latest paper has the latest news' theory but that can of course be crap in which case I have another theory for it - 'latest paper has the latest crap')
But then why stop with the 2nd bunch's idol and not send more messengers? The deity gone lazy and decided to leave the task of communicating deitical messages to mullahs and priests? Or impotent? And what cheapo deity would bother to second such an important job as saving his 'children' to priests that fondle boys, hor?
Umh messenger theories sound crappy... So let's try the son of deity theory
If those big headed modern apes are so important to him, that deity can surely have some more sons and sacrifice them one after the other just to show his 'love' time and again can't he? What can't do? Who say no can do?
In fact, a 3rd bunch of fellas that lived 150 years ago in China during the Taiping Revolution said 'yes can do'. Those 'middle of everything' Chinamen who searched like hell for millenia finally found their 'true deity' 1800 years after the first bunch and 1300 years after the 2nd bunch, but only after the Jesuits had gunned their way into the Middle Kingdom.
So late then find and need a legion of Jesuit messengers some more (other people need only 1 or 2 fellas only, depending on which of the 2 other bunch you follow). Losers hor? May be not...
According to this bunch of Chinamen they found out that that deity had 4 sons, 3 of whom was living in China at the same time! Hey, that deity really 'delivered' in China (like true Chinamen)! And since these fellas came after the other 2 messengers they gotta be more up-to-date with deitical news.
Don't laugh okay - no respect for Chinamen seekers?
But alas, kowtowing to 3 yellow skinned sons of a deity and 1 almost white skinned son of the same was not at all palatable to the Biritish who went on to help gun those bunch of 'I-found-the-lord-and-more' Chinamen into thin air.
Which explains why present day Chinamen super-seekers had never heard of that history. Such history is of course conveniently made irrelevant by some of those Chinamen - to save their ego if not anything else..
Which also explains why super-seeker Chinamen of the present day are of the 'I-found-the-lord-of-the-whitemen-and-cant-find-no-more' type. Useless Chinamen hor? 150 years after the Taiping seekers and not just cannot find more but find lesser!?
2nd class losers indeed.
Just my theory but it can all be crap too. After all, what does a no-super-seeker Chinaman know hor?
An Iranian's vision of Jesus' life stirs debate
The new film, based on the Islamic version of Jesus' life, depicts him as a prophet rather than the son of God. Its director says he wants to further understanding.
http://www.latimes.com/news/la-fg-jesus29apr29,0,1333472.story?track=ntothtml
If you believe one bunch, some deity squeezed one of his offsprings into a virus-sized man-body (virus-size is perhaps giving 'em manhood too big a size given the domain the deities supposedly lord over but let's not quibble) just to show some big headed people how much the deity loved them.
If you believe the other bunch, that is all crap and the only thing squeezed into that man-body was just a small postcard (message), and their other postcard carrying fella was bigger.
Depending on who you believe, the character in question is either a son of a deity or just a small time delivery boy of a deity. The 2nd bunch is perfectly reasonable in thinking that if a deity can send 1 messenger the deity can always send another.
In that case, the 2nd bunch should be more correct since their idol should have more up-to-date messages from the deity since he came after the other bunch's idol. (This is based on my 'latest paper has the latest news' theory but that can of course be crap in which case I have another theory for it - 'latest paper has the latest crap')
But then why stop with the 2nd bunch's idol and not send more messengers? The deity gone lazy and decided to leave the task of communicating deitical messages to mullahs and priests? Or impotent? And what cheapo deity would bother to second such an important job as saving his 'children' to priests that fondle boys, hor?
Umh messenger theories sound crappy... So let's try the son of deity theory
If those big headed modern apes are so important to him, that deity can surely have some more sons and sacrifice them one after the other just to show his 'love' time and again can't he? What can't do? Who say no can do?
In fact, a 3rd bunch of fellas that lived 150 years ago in China during the Taiping Revolution said 'yes can do'. Those 'middle of everything' Chinamen who searched like hell for millenia finally found their 'true deity' 1800 years after the first bunch and 1300 years after the 2nd bunch, but only after the Jesuits had gunned their way into the Middle Kingdom.
So late then find and need a legion of Jesuit messengers some more (other people need only 1 or 2 fellas only, depending on which of the 2 other bunch you follow). Losers hor? May be not...
According to this bunch of Chinamen they found out that that deity had 4 sons, 3 of whom was living in China at the same time! Hey, that deity really 'delivered' in China (like true Chinamen)! And since these fellas came after the other 2 messengers they gotta be more up-to-date with deitical news.
Don't laugh okay - no respect for Chinamen seekers?
But alas, kowtowing to 3 yellow skinned sons of a deity and 1 almost white skinned son of the same was not at all palatable to the Biritish who went on to help gun those bunch of 'I-found-the-lord-and-more' Chinamen into thin air.
Which explains why present day Chinamen super-seekers had never heard of that history. Such history is of course conveniently made irrelevant by some of those Chinamen - to save their ego if not anything else..
Which also explains why super-seeker Chinamen of the present day are of the 'I-found-the-lord-of-the-whitemen-and-cant-find-no-more' type. Useless Chinamen hor? 150 years after the Taiping seekers and not just cannot find more but find lesser!?
2nd class losers indeed.
Just my theory but it can all be crap too. After all, what does a no-super-seeker Chinaman know hor?
An Iranian's vision of Jesus' life stirs debate
The new film, based on the Islamic version of Jesus' life, depicts him as a prophet rather than the son of God. Its director says he wants to further understanding.
Friday, March 21, 2008
Malaysian Hat Tricks
Comments posted in Malaysia Today on reports after the 2008 general elections of Perlis Sultan's insistence that all MPs appearing before him must wear the Songkok (Malay hat), and some DAP reps' refusal to comply.
A storm in a songkok
1st comment:
Much ado about what covers the head when what is needed for the country is to enlighten that which the hats cover.
Throughout history, all cultures (political and religious) in power deemed themselves honoured when their subjects are made to wear their costumes. What got to be put on the heads was apparently especially important to those 'powerful' people of the dark ages whether they were from Europe, Middle East or Asia.
As an example, to the arrogant Manchu rulers of China a century or so ago, their mandatory 'pig tail' hairstyle was the epitome of their overlordship (they had their own NEP system too) and was to be compromised only at the price of the head. The Qing, of course, gained more lasting infamy than respect from that antic of theirs.
The 'songkok' is, of course, something some people copied from the Turks.
History seems to show that it is the arrogant vile that feel most honoured if others ape after them, and feel most exalted by their one-size fits all version of 'only my way or nothing'. The US of George Bush Jr. is just the latest ‘global’ version of such arrogance.
Today we see first hand how our own version of such a 'My Way' attitude by an M character had created the Malaysian Dilemma. Forcing others to wear his stupid notions in their head is far worse than that of forcing outfits on others, but they all have small beginnings.
It may start with a book, a hat, or a megalomaniac's dream.
xxx
Subsequent posts (as web arguments on whether the DAP reps should or should not have submitted to the Songkok-or-nothing rule):
People can choose to have fun with others' costumes but they should not get to choose to have fun with others' liberty.
xxx
One can put whatever one likes on one's own head based on whatever reasons one can find or dredge up. One should however not think that one had it all sorted out and thereforth to insist that all others should ape after him.
It is perhaps better that one knows where to cap it all off.
And do you think that unto such as you;
A maggot-minded, starved, fanatic crew:
God gave the secret—and denied it me?
Well, well, what matters it? Believe that, too.
- Rubaiyat, Omar Khayyam
xxx
A storm in a songkok
1st comment:
Much ado about what covers the head when what is needed for the country is to enlighten that which the hats cover.
Throughout history, all cultures (political and religious) in power deemed themselves honoured when their subjects are made to wear their costumes. What got to be put on the heads was apparently especially important to those 'powerful' people of the dark ages whether they were from Europe, Middle East or Asia.
As an example, to the arrogant Manchu rulers of China a century or so ago, their mandatory 'pig tail' hairstyle was the epitome of their overlordship (they had their own NEP system too) and was to be compromised only at the price of the head. The Qing, of course, gained more lasting infamy than respect from that antic of theirs.
The 'songkok' is, of course, something some people copied from the Turks.
History seems to show that it is the arrogant vile that feel most honoured if others ape after them, and feel most exalted by their one-size fits all version of 'only my way or nothing'. The US of George Bush Jr. is just the latest ‘global’ version of such arrogance.
Today we see first hand how our own version of such a 'My Way' attitude by an M character had created the Malaysian Dilemma. Forcing others to wear his stupid notions in their head is far worse than that of forcing outfits on others, but they all have small beginnings.
It may start with a book, a hat, or a megalomaniac's dream.
xxx
Subsequent posts (as web arguments on whether the DAP reps should or should not have submitted to the Songkok-or-nothing rule):
People can choose to have fun with others' costumes but they should not get to choose to have fun with others' liberty.
xxx
One can put whatever one likes on one's own head based on whatever reasons one can find or dredge up. One should however not think that one had it all sorted out and thereforth to insist that all others should ape after him.
It is perhaps better that one knows where to cap it all off.
And do you think that unto such as you;
A maggot-minded, starved, fanatic crew:
God gave the secret—and denied it me?
Well, well, what matters it? Believe that, too.
- Rubaiyat, Omar Khayyam
xxx
Various Postings on Malaysian Indians
Comments posted in Malaysia Today before the 2008 general elections on 8 March 2008 in which the opposition parties won more than 1/3 the Parliamentary seats and became states government for Kedah, Penang, Perak and Selangor for the 1st time.
Suara rakyat, suara keramat
The Malaysian Indians suffered from a combination of factors.
Culturally they are a people conditioned to accept whatever life has to offer. They call that fate. Which is why their Hindu caste system lasted for a few thousand years and still going.
The Hindu caste system also conditioned them subconsciously to submit blindly to whoever happens to be in position of power. Thus their past faithfulness to Samy Vellu and BN.
In our country, Indians had also been conditioned to submit to the Malaysian caste system where they are further placed below some other people that have 'special positions'.
All these had combined to instill in the least well-to-do segments of Malaysian Indians (which is the majority) an inferiority complex worse than that created by their Hindu caste system.
If Malaysian Indians had failed, it is because our country had failed them and made them feel worse than what their disastrous caste system had done.
If Malaysian Indians had failed, it is because our country had intentionally kept them down by forsaking or letting them forsake their children's education.
It is only through education and, thereof, the opportunity to partake in all the best opportunities the country and the world has to offer (this means equality and meritocracy), that Malaysian Indians can get out of the rut that their own culture and government had created for them.
It should pain all compassionate Malaysians to see those pictures of our Tamil schools operating out of huts and 2-storey shop houses.
It is clear that the Indian community is too poor to start with to have much opportunity to get out of their hole themselves.
For one, they are now lower down in the Malaysian caste system than they had ever been in history, and cannot feed off others by the wave of a straight or crooked knife.
Just as their Hindu caste managed to keep their lowest members perennially subservient by keeping them continuously desperate, with whatever time they have spent on struggling to just survive not to say to figure out who among their leaders (all predators) were lying to them, the Malaysian caste system had done the same and worse with the help of a certain MIC and Samy Vellu.
The Indians may also be spread too thin to be able to run their Tamil schools cost effectively.
And if this country's government cannot or do not wish to uplift the Malaysian Indians who are unlikely to do so on their own, then the good people of the other races should extend a helping hand instead of talking to them condescendingly.
Going to so-called 'national' schools may also not be the solution as is obvious to anyone with some insight, including the discerning Malays who send their children to Chinese schools (even Mahathir talked about it when they were calling for his head).
The Chinese schools, on the other hand, have more critical mass (that is before a certain group of ‘special viles’ chase them out or kill them off with crooked knives), and the right people and value system to do that.
So I suggest that Indian and Chinese educationists consider the option of bringing the Indians into the fold of the Chinese school system/network.
If any group of people is able to do that, it is these 2.
Come on Indians and Chinese Malaysians, you have not much more to lose but all the more to gain by coming together, starting with our children and by imparting to them the knowledge and skills to compete successfully anywhere on earth, whatever dirt-princes notwithstanding.
2 people from 2 of the largest and greatest civilizations in history can surely find the space in our hearts and our schools to keep ourselves and our great cultures (except the Hindu caste system, of course) standing together upright against the odds posed by the vile predators that lord the Malaysian caste system.
xxx
Theva's desperate plea
Malaysia's middle class Indians can be ignored but there is more at stake than just votes
----
It is true that more than just votes is at stake but it is not true that Malaysia's Indian middle class can be ignored just because their numbers are small.
If number is all that matters in the advancement of the human race and in national development, then Malaysia should be lording over Singapore by now and Indonesia over Malaysia.
The truth is only a small number of minds really makes a difference in this world.
The rest are mere followers and hitch-hikers. Some are worse than that, as Malaysia show abundantly.
Although only a few really makes a difference, no one can ever foretell who those few will be and where they will come from.
Thus the need to give every single deserving individual the best opportunity they deserve to grow, and not waste resources on the undeserving. That is meritocracy.
The 7% Malaysians who are Indians may be small in number but we should be mindful that among all the races in Malaysia, that race have produced the largest number of Nobel prize winners. (Globally, there have been 6 ethnic Indian winners, 5 Chinese, and 0 Malays)
Some Malaysian races can claim to be princes of some soil or dirt, but none other than the Indian race in Malaysia can claim the honour of being awarded with the most Nobel prize.
It is perhaps timely to remember Chandrasekhar Subramanyam, the physicist from an Indian middle class family whose work was once publicly insinuated by his white mentor in front of a gathering of the Royal Astronomical Society.
None of the established European physicists of that time came to that young man's rescue.
One reason was that white mentor held the title of ‘father of modern astronomy’ and had arrogantly claimed that he was only 1 of 3 men in the world at that time that understood Einstein's theory of relativity. His name was Arthur Eddington.
The Nobel Prize committee was not impressed with Eddington but gave Chandrasekhar a Nobel prize for his work (on what became known as 'Chandrasekhar Limit') that arrogant Eddington scoffed at.
Chandrasekhar's uncle C.V. Raman was also a Nobel prize winner for his work on the Raman Effect (Physics).
Now, what race, not to say middle class family, can claim the honour of having 2 Nobel prize winners in 2 generations?
So Malaysian Indians,
Some people in Malaysia may look down on you or scoff at you but they will never be able to get anywhere near the achievements of your race.
Your people's achievements is Nature's way of showing you promise. And hope.
So hold your heads up high. Only fools ignore you to their own loss and detriment.
xxx
Malaysian Indian Muslims want to be called Malays
Kuala Lumpur, Mar 3 2008: Members of the Malaysian Indian Muslim Youth Movement (Gepima) want to be known as Malays and not Indians.
----
In the 19th century the western countries led by the British forced the Chinese to allow the sale of opium and made a lot of gold/money selling opium derived from India and Afghanistan (the British called that dominion 'the Jewel of the Crown').
At the same time their religious groups offered food and money (subsidised by that opium money, mainly) to any Chinese willing to convert to Christianity.
To the more humane in the west, the view was Christianity would humanise and civilise the Chinese.
Others like a British poet, Rudyard Kipling, considered the Asiatics and Africans (regions the west were fighting to colonise then) 'A Whitemen's Burden'.
And Kipling's poem of that name called upon the Americans to join the British in colonising these regions filled with 'half-devil and half-child'.
That poem was written when the Americans had whacked and taken possession of all Spanish dominions in the Americas and Pacific, and was occupying the Philippines.
Faced with the generosity of money derived the opium sale (so it was really money from the Chinese themselves) and the ineptitude of their own government, many of the poorest and desperate Chinese then took up the conversion offer to survive.
The other Chinese called the conversions 'shi jiao' or literally 'eating religion'.
The Indians of Gepima may also be just wanting to 'eat race'.
But are the people they want to join that generous, or would they just treat them as half-devil and half-child?
xxx
Suara rakyat, suara keramat
The Malaysian Indians suffered from a combination of factors.
Culturally they are a people conditioned to accept whatever life has to offer. They call that fate. Which is why their Hindu caste system lasted for a few thousand years and still going.
The Hindu caste system also conditioned them subconsciously to submit blindly to whoever happens to be in position of power. Thus their past faithfulness to Samy Vellu and BN.
In our country, Indians had also been conditioned to submit to the Malaysian caste system where they are further placed below some other people that have 'special positions'.
All these had combined to instill in the least well-to-do segments of Malaysian Indians (which is the majority) an inferiority complex worse than that created by their Hindu caste system.
If Malaysian Indians had failed, it is because our country had failed them and made them feel worse than what their disastrous caste system had done.
If Malaysian Indians had failed, it is because our country had intentionally kept them down by forsaking or letting them forsake their children's education.
It is only through education and, thereof, the opportunity to partake in all the best opportunities the country and the world has to offer (this means equality and meritocracy), that Malaysian Indians can get out of the rut that their own culture and government had created for them.
It should pain all compassionate Malaysians to see those pictures of our Tamil schools operating out of huts and 2-storey shop houses.
It is clear that the Indian community is too poor to start with to have much opportunity to get out of their hole themselves.
For one, they are now lower down in the Malaysian caste system than they had ever been in history, and cannot feed off others by the wave of a straight or crooked knife.
Just as their Hindu caste managed to keep their lowest members perennially subservient by keeping them continuously desperate, with whatever time they have spent on struggling to just survive not to say to figure out who among their leaders (all predators) were lying to them, the Malaysian caste system had done the same and worse with the help of a certain MIC and Samy Vellu.
The Indians may also be spread too thin to be able to run their Tamil schools cost effectively.
And if this country's government cannot or do not wish to uplift the Malaysian Indians who are unlikely to do so on their own, then the good people of the other races should extend a helping hand instead of talking to them condescendingly.
Going to so-called 'national' schools may also not be the solution as is obvious to anyone with some insight, including the discerning Malays who send their children to Chinese schools (even Mahathir talked about it when they were calling for his head).
The Chinese schools, on the other hand, have more critical mass (that is before a certain group of ‘special viles’ chase them out or kill them off with crooked knives), and the right people and value system to do that.
So I suggest that Indian and Chinese educationists consider the option of bringing the Indians into the fold of the Chinese school system/network.
If any group of people is able to do that, it is these 2.
Come on Indians and Chinese Malaysians, you have not much more to lose but all the more to gain by coming together, starting with our children and by imparting to them the knowledge and skills to compete successfully anywhere on earth, whatever dirt-princes notwithstanding.
2 people from 2 of the largest and greatest civilizations in history can surely find the space in our hearts and our schools to keep ourselves and our great cultures (except the Hindu caste system, of course) standing together upright against the odds posed by the vile predators that lord the Malaysian caste system.
xxx
Theva's desperate plea
Malaysia's middle class Indians can be ignored but there is more at stake than just votes
----
It is true that more than just votes is at stake but it is not true that Malaysia's Indian middle class can be ignored just because their numbers are small.
If number is all that matters in the advancement of the human race and in national development, then Malaysia should be lording over Singapore by now and Indonesia over Malaysia.
The truth is only a small number of minds really makes a difference in this world.
The rest are mere followers and hitch-hikers. Some are worse than that, as Malaysia show abundantly.
Although only a few really makes a difference, no one can ever foretell who those few will be and where they will come from.
Thus the need to give every single deserving individual the best opportunity they deserve to grow, and not waste resources on the undeserving. That is meritocracy.
The 7% Malaysians who are Indians may be small in number but we should be mindful that among all the races in Malaysia, that race have produced the largest number of Nobel prize winners. (Globally, there have been 6 ethnic Indian winners, 5 Chinese, and 0 Malays)
Some Malaysian races can claim to be princes of some soil or dirt, but none other than the Indian race in Malaysia can claim the honour of being awarded with the most Nobel prize.
It is perhaps timely to remember Chandrasekhar Subramanyam, the physicist from an Indian middle class family whose work was once publicly insinuated by his white mentor in front of a gathering of the Royal Astronomical Society.
None of the established European physicists of that time came to that young man's rescue.
One reason was that white mentor held the title of ‘father of modern astronomy’ and had arrogantly claimed that he was only 1 of 3 men in the world at that time that understood Einstein's theory of relativity. His name was Arthur Eddington.
The Nobel Prize committee was not impressed with Eddington but gave Chandrasekhar a Nobel prize for his work (on what became known as 'Chandrasekhar Limit') that arrogant Eddington scoffed at.
Chandrasekhar's uncle C.V. Raman was also a Nobel prize winner for his work on the Raman Effect (Physics).
Now, what race, not to say middle class family, can claim the honour of having 2 Nobel prize winners in 2 generations?
So Malaysian Indians,
Some people in Malaysia may look down on you or scoff at you but they will never be able to get anywhere near the achievements of your race.
Your people's achievements is Nature's way of showing you promise. And hope.
So hold your heads up high. Only fools ignore you to their own loss and detriment.
xxx
Malaysian Indian Muslims want to be called Malays
Kuala Lumpur, Mar 3 2008: Members of the Malaysian Indian Muslim Youth Movement (Gepima) want to be known as Malays and not Indians.
----
In the 19th century the western countries led by the British forced the Chinese to allow the sale of opium and made a lot of gold/money selling opium derived from India and Afghanistan (the British called that dominion 'the Jewel of the Crown').
At the same time their religious groups offered food and money (subsidised by that opium money, mainly) to any Chinese willing to convert to Christianity.
To the more humane in the west, the view was Christianity would humanise and civilise the Chinese.
Others like a British poet, Rudyard Kipling, considered the Asiatics and Africans (regions the west were fighting to colonise then) 'A Whitemen's Burden'.
And Kipling's poem of that name called upon the Americans to join the British in colonising these regions filled with 'half-devil and half-child'.
That poem was written when the Americans had whacked and taken possession of all Spanish dominions in the Americas and Pacific, and was occupying the Philippines.
Faced with the generosity of money derived the opium sale (so it was really money from the Chinese themselves) and the ineptitude of their own government, many of the poorest and desperate Chinese then took up the conversion offer to survive.
The other Chinese called the conversions 'shi jiao' or literally 'eating religion'.
The Indians of Gepima may also be just wanting to 'eat race'.
But are the people they want to join that generous, or would they just treat them as half-devil and half-child?
xxx
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