Case against minimum wage

This seems to be a hot issue in Parliament yesterday. And it is obvious that there will be one camp against one man. After hearing the reasons given, I am on the side of the camp. One dangerous principle of minimum wage is that an organization may be forced to pay some donkeys sitting there and not wanting to work. The examples brought up were short of hilarious. Workers did not want to work in kitchen because it is too hot. I have heard of cleaners complaining that their jobs were too tough, people find midnight shift intolerable. Basically complaints of all kinds about jobs. May I then offer to aircon the kitchens, make all the jobs soft and cosy, no midnight shifts, or provide restaurant meals and gym membership to the workers to make working a pleasant past time? Look at the other extremes, the politicians. Ask them to wake up at 5am to flag off a marathon, they will say yes. Ask them to go walkabout to shake every stranger’s hand, they will say yes. And they have full time job from 8 to 5. And in the evening they are everywhere, attending wakes and wedding dinners, community events, MPS, board meetings etc etc. By the time they got home they would have put in a 25 hour day work. And they are not complaining. Some work so hard that they did not even have time to attend Parliament or have to force themselves to stay awake if they did attend. And their hairs are prematurely turning white. Poor buggers! They are the best examples of exemplary work attitude. Never say no, never complain. Just work and work. Workers with such good attitude would not need to ask for minimum wage. The organizations will automatically pay them more.

Signs of rising intolerance

A Maureen Foo wrote a letter to Today paper yesterday complaining about noise in the HDB void decks. And her complaints included children cycling and rollerblading in the walkways. These are signs that the intolerance level of overcrowding is beginning to get to the nerves of the people. When space is aplenty and one needs not bang into another so frequently, community living is a joy, or at least bearable. When one starts to bump into one another in every corner, the nerves are likely to flare. When have people become so irritated with the aunties and uncles spending their time at the void decks or children playing in the HDB estates? Such problems will keep on increasing as the population grows. Those crazy people who want a 10m population here need to be sent to the firing squad. Oh, I just say this figuratively hor. Even husband and wife will get onto one another’s nerves when the novelty of marriage life starts to wear. The little irritating habits when repeated or accumulated and prolonged can be unbearable. This paradise will soon be turned into an inhabitable place when neighbours will start to give hostile stares at one another, commuters punch ups in public transports or people fighting in hawker centres or on the streets. The white mice effect is about to erupt if we are still complacent and think it is ok.

I disagree with Temasek Review

I disagree with Temasek Review, or more specifically with an article titled, Buoyant property prices a sign of rising debt as opposed to rising wealth? by a Singaporean. This is what I disagree with and I quote the first paragraph, With property prices escalating into no man’s land, we see paper wealth rise with the proportion of debt. This is brought about by loose housing policies coupled with the loose granting of Permanent Residence to foreigners, this diabolic formula creates a surge in demand, and inflates prices way beyond their actual value and affordability. Ok, I disagree only with the last phrase which I have highlighted in bold. Who says our property prices are way beyond their actual value? Our property prices are exactly what they are, determined by the market of course. And no one can fight or manipulate the market. It is real market price. And secondly, who says they are beyond Singaporeans’ affordah..bility? I read everywhere in the media and in official speeches that Singapore property prices are affordable. And the govt is ensuring that they are affordable. So they must be affordable. Period. Ok, I must agree that high property prices mean high debt. High debt means high risk and can be turned into a nightmare for the debtors. I pray they don’t have to jump off their market value and affordah…ble properties when a crash comes along.

What is bucket shop?

Those trading in stocks and shares or in financial products are quite familiar with the term bucket shop. The term is often not look at kindly and smell of distrust and a con job. They are supposed to trade in commodities like coffee bean, sugar, oil, wheat, pork belly etc etc. The general impression is that new investors often were attracted by the good returns and also tended to make money in the first few trades. Subsequently they will lose their pants, lock, stock and barrel. They have a similar modus operandi. They make sales talks of good returns to their potential customers. And whatever trades they ‘executed’ in the early part of the game often ended in big winnings. Then they will advise the investors to put in more money for bigger wins. Most investors obliged thinking that it was so easy to make money. And they will pump in more money and will receive monthly statements of winnings that will make them smile. The catch is that they cannot withdraw whatever money they put in. Their brokers will try all means to prevent them from withdrawing their money. These could be sweet words of good returns or more schemes to keep their money in. And if they fail to persuade the investors from withdrawing, the investors will be hit with their first shock, losses. All their trades will now be reported as losses and big losses. And any withdrawal will be less than they put in or even nothing left. In worst cases, they even owe money to the bucket shops from big losses. The trick of bucket shops is to keep asking their clients to put in more money and more money and to generate glowing reports of profits in their monthly statements. And the clients will be very happy just looking at the reports. What they did not know or did not ask is whether there is really any money left. Often actually not a single cent is there. The money is all gone except on paper, printed in the monthly reports sent to the clients, to make clients happy and to encourage clients to put in money into a bottomless pit. In short, this is what bucket shop is all about. Put in money and don’t expect to see it anymore.

TOC to be gazetted as a political association

Just read this from the TOC site. They have received an email saying that the PM will be gazetting it as a political association. By this it means that it cannot receive financial and other support from foreigners. My crystal ball says that in the next election TOC may go all out to be a political party and contest the election with its own slate of candidates. And my feeling is that their candidates could be as worthy as any candidates to be field by the rest of the parties. This is an interesting development in the politics of Singapore. Go for it TOC.

More caring MPs

Several hot issues were raised in Parliament yesterday. High COE price was expected to be in discussion. Though the outcome was that measures have already been taken to prevent speculation, the most crucial part that contributed to the high COE price was left untouched. The present system is flawed in the sense that a bidder can bid any astronomical price without having to pay for it and only pays at the lowest successful bid price. If nobody can see that this is a big flaw and should be removed, nothing else needs to be said except to live with this brilliant system. The MOE scholar’s involvement in child pornography was another hot issue. Lee Bee Wah suggested that schools should divulge more information on scholarship applicants for the ministries to make more comprehensive assessments before granting scholarships. This is definitely a good suggestion. I have a better one. Parents must also declare the misdeeds of their wards applying for scholarship. You just don’t know what they did at home or out of school. See, all areas covered. Sure no more errant scholars. Another interesting issue was on parental responsibility in raising children. Parents who are unable to take good care of their children will have their children taken away. Let’s welcome 1984 with open arms. Now we can have another kind of police squad calling on the homes to take away children. And the state should take over the responsibility of raising these children. Sylvia Lim and Halimah Yaacob were against such an idea as it may break up families. And rightly, as they said, who is better to provide parental care other than the parents. Another MP suggested educating the parents on how to bring up children. I got a better idea. No one can get married unless they attended and passed a course in parenthood. A Parenthood Certificate will be the pre requisite to register a marriage. Without proper education, once married and children are born, it will be too late. Rice is cooked. Let’s prepare the rice first before they are cooked. Wow, I am coming up with so many brilliant suggestions for free.

China could win the war with the US without fighting

The stealth fighters, the carrier killer missiles, the anti satellite missiles, have changed the picture of American dominance in the military theatre. They were once untouchable. They were once the only one who could attack any country without being attacked. That was how powerful and formidable the empire was. Now the balance of power is changing. No doubt the Americans are still Number One. But it is so cheap to send 20 carrier killer missiles to sink an aircraft carrier and 7000 crews and a few hundred aircraft plus munition for desserts. How could China win a war with the Americans without fighting? Just read the panic in the American Defence Dept on China’s revelation of a stealth fighter and you will know what I mean. Yes, the Chinese is very far behind in military technology. But there is fear in the Americans that the Chinese are getting closer. And they need to run faster, much faster. They, I mean the Americans. Their military doctrine is all about unmatchable superiority in fire power and technology. They want to keep at a far distance from the rest of the world. What does this mean? They need to spend more to be much further ahead of China or their nearest competitor. And all China needs to do is to keep on the chase. For every dollar the Chinese spent, the Americans will be spending ten thousand times more. At this rate, the American economy will simply break down. They don’t have the dough and cannot afford it. Keeping up will mean bankrupting the Treasury faster. The Americans will revolt when they become the new pauper of the 21st Century. They will not believe that they cannot afford to buy cheap Chinese made toys for Christmas. When that day comes, which is very soon, they will break up into several independent states. China should just keep pushing the Americans to bankrupt themselves. That’s the way to do it.

What the govt forgot to upgrade

More upgrading projects in the GRCs! And each upgrading is in the tune of a few hundred millions. All in all, the number could come up to several billions. And the residents rose in approvals. They loved it. I am not sure if they asked for it. How many of these upgrading projects would really affect the residents? The beautifying of the infrastructure is just like women cosmetics, costume jewelry and pretty dresses. Fine, all looks fine. It is belly good to have all the upgradings, like it or not, coming from the govt. No need to bother about who is paying for them. Can the govt allow or ask the people what do they want? Why give things that many may not be interested in? Shouldn’t the upgrading or Christmas present be given according to the needs of the people rather than what the govt thinks the people want? There is one area that really needs an upgrading. Given the spiraling cost of living and the emptying of the people’s savings, what is really needed is an upgrade in the people’s bank accounts. The billions that are going into all the cosmetics and costume jewelry would be better received if they go direct to the people’s pockets. Hey, the people’s pocket is all that counts. Didn’t someone say that hitting the people’s pocket is the most effective means of getting the people to respond to any govt initiatives? Maybe taking is easy, giving and putting back into the people’s pocket is difficult. After all these are monies taken from the people and rightfully should go back to the people. And to be meaningful and really appreciated, it is better to stuff them into the people's pockets.

Conquering the world

China’s Vice Premier Li KeQiang is in Europe on a 4 day tour ‘to bring coal in a snowy winter’. China has been on an offensive of a different kind, bringing loads of cash to help cash strapped European countries to manage their financial debt. It kinds of steam rolled Spain by promising to buy up all its debt to boost confidence in Spain and its financial market. It signed trade deals worth billions to increase trades with Europe when it needed most. In the meantime where is America? America is steely bent on conquering the world in another way, to build an empire. While China does not have a single soldier involved in any war, the Americans are everywhere fighting wars and starting wars. War is the only profitable business that is driving the American economy and without wars, the American economy will run aground. It is reported by the Washington Post that the American defence budget is US$550b, equivalent to what the next 19 nations in the world spent, or ‘nearly half of the entire world’s defence spending’. It is a misnomer to call it a defence budget. It should rightly be called a War Budget! It is a budget to conduct offensive wars. And America is accusing China of spending too much on its defence budget and that China is an aggressive nation. And its allies also chimed in to brand China as irresponsible. Who is the more responsible power? Who is helping the world and who is starting and fighting wars are all there for those who want to see. Those who want to remain blind and swear under American propaganda can continue to do so. The Americans wanted to conquer and dominate the world by sheer military might. China is ‘conquering’ the world by economic ties, trades and developments. Who is the irresponsible nation? Who is helping Europe when it needed help most? Who almost brought down the world’s financial system and who stepped in to save the system?

Defying folk lores and traditions

Human beans have survived several thousand years and have progressed in many fields. Advancement in science and technology, knowledge and information, have led the human beans to discard many age old beliefs and superstitions for the better. The next lunar new year is the year of the Rabbit. It is a more agreeable animal and hopefully a less traumatic but amiable year. Wedding bells will be abundant looking at the bookings in the posh hotels. There is also the dragon baby to look forward to. The young of today are not only adventurous and financially comfortable, that is before they are robbed of a few hundred thousands to buy that property and the car, and would want to splurge for the best on that special day in their lives. Among other things, they want it to be memorable, and different. Yes, that day must be different from anyone else. The wedding is a very important event in the life of any human bean across all cultures. The Chinese is very particular about this event and have developed a long list of do’s and don’ts to abide by. A wedding is like a red letter day, a red occasion, a joyous occasion, and everything must be red as humanly possible. Red dress, red packets, red pigs, red beddings, red candles …. One taboo colour is black. Black symbolises everything that is contrary to red, darkness, sadness, evil, mourning etc etc. I have seen several weddings in black! At the wedding dinner, the groom wore black, black table cloth, black eating utensils, all for wanting to be different. A friend of mine had a black wedding dinner for his son. Of course he could not object as the young have their own ideas. His business went down hill after that eventful day and everything he touched he lost money. Coincidence, maybe. Those in touch with the gossip circles must have heard of more dreadful stories that followed after a black wedding. My advice is never defy traditions for the sake of being different. And having a red wedding or any colour except black is not going to cost anything more. The young should not be too adventurous on their wedding day. You would not know what is installed in darkness, or who will come along to attend a black wedding. And a little more, everything must be in pairs. Numbers must be even and not odd. Odd numbers but in even quantity eg four ones or threes are acceptable. Just be careful, huh.

Where is Jack?

A loan shark runner was sentenced to 5 years behind bars and 24 strokes of the rotan. Thanks to District Judge Jasbendar Kaur for a deserving punishment. This runner burnt cars, set things on fires outside innocent dwellers in HDB flats, threatening and targeting innocent people when he could not get to his real targets. The damage he caused were more than $100k in cars burnt. He did all this to repay the loan shark called Jack whom he borrowed $3000. Good that he is behind bars and waiting to be caned. But where is Jack?

I have failed…

Yes, I have failed in my mission to bring down medical cost. Over the last four years, instead of bring down medical cost, they have spiralled by very substantial amounts. I am talking about increases of 50% to 90%. I must thank Salma Khalik for her data to confirm, without any doubt, that I have failed very badly. I think I should from now on stop talking cock about medical cost and how to bring it down. And now for the good news about rising medical cost. Salma Khalik has interviewed Boon Wan and these are some of the good news and developments in the medical field that partly contributed to the high medical cost. 1. Don’t worry, despite the big hospital bills, the patients have no difficulties paying them. Isn’t that comforting? 2. And there are the wonderful 3M schemes to pay the bills, some up to 100%. So no need to pay more cash, maybe $3 only. 3. And the bills could be even more if not of the brilliant scheme to move not so sick patients out of hospitals to community hospitals and nursing homes. Big savings there. 4. Day surgery also plays a big role in cutting down the overall bills. 5. The hospitals have also been very customer oriented, to ensure patient satisfaction and allowed them to choose non standard items that are not subsidised. So they cannot complain about higher bills. And definitely they are happy to pay more to be better satisfied. 6. The best part, the bottom line ‘We have good high standard public hospitals that are affordable because of 3Ms. Ok I have failed. On the other hand Boon Wan has done a terrific job and we have a very high standard of medical care at very affordable prices. This reminds me of HDB flats affordability. The only difference is that HDB you got to pay. In medical bills, no need to pay, or pay very little, because 3Ms pay for you.

Buying up Singapore

The Malaysians are getting more aggressive in their forays into foreign business. In economic terms, being aggressive is ok. The Malaysians have a big picture and a new ball game to play in Singapore. With everything on the table for sale, the Malaysians are making hay while the sun shines. First they bought over GK Goh Stockbrokers, now they are buying Kim Eng Securities. In Singapore, the stockbroking business is seen as a sunset industry, dying. So Singapore stockbrokers have been advised to sell off this dying business. In Malaysia they must have been advised otherwise. They must still believe that it is a golden goose that will lay more eggs into the future. Who is right and who is wrong only time will tell. In the Malaysian big plan I think they will not stop at just buying two broking houses. Next could be one of the big banks. DBS should be very attractive when the price is right. How about SIA? This will be the apple of their eyes to replace MAS. And if they can buy over PSA, there is no need to worry about Gelang Patah. They can even promote PSA to the fullest and export all their goods through Singapore. And they would probably need a 3rd and 4th links. There are many more worthy assets to buy over. Keep the momentum going. This is simply brilliant. While Singapore is strategizing on how to integrate into Malaysia, Malaysia has its own idea on how to integrate Singapore into Malaysia.

Changing values and changing morality

Not too long ago there was this brilliant businessman with an equally brilliant idea to profit from his trading business. Oh, they don’t called businessmen brilliant then, but astute. Today they will probably tagged them as super talents if they can come up with devious schemes to max profits, even if it means fleecing their customers. What the businessman did was to simply corner the rice market, a monopoly or a cartel, and then control the demand and supply of rice. He could then determine whatever price he wanted. Nothing spectacular, and no need a Ph D to come up with such a scheme. But making huge indecent profits at the expense of the customers was not an acceptable thing to do, then. The govt immediately swung into action. It needed to protect the interest of the people. That was the morality and value of the day. A govt importing agency was set up to counter this move. The businessman was outsmarted and lost, his scheme was not allowed to become a reality. And the people’s interest was safe guarded. Morality and values have changed. Today, anyone with any idea or scheme to fleece their customers and max profits for the organization will be treated like a hero. They will ascend the ladder to super talent status. Take the staple rice as an example again. This time round, if someone is to come out with an idea on how to profit from this item, I think he would be patted on the back and say ‘Good work’. The idea could be something like this. Ok, first the moral justification. This must be put right first, even if it is rubbish. But must still make it sounds right. Rice is a staple food, and a scarce resource. People should not waste rice. Importing rice is also a drain on our foreign exchange. With such reasons in place, now the brilliant scheme can be enforced. Because rice is so important and cannot be wasted, people must be encouraged to eat less rice and waste less rice. How to do it? Hit the people where it hurts, their pockets. The price of rice shall now be double. Profit immediately doubles. But this is not enough. Each household is rationed at 2 kg of rice per month. Household consuming more than 2 kg shall pay a surtax of 30%. What is this for? How to justify this? Elementary, this is to educate the people on the importance of rice and not to waste rice or eat too much rice. See, more profits coming in. Wow, with such a brilliant idea, I am even thinking betterer than the professors from the best universities in the USA. I think I shall award myself the title of Eminent Professor of Economics. And Wally will say, hehe : ) And Matilah will say don't talk cock, so and so has written this in his book in year 1955.

Another frightening article on market pricing

This article is on the front page of Today paper called ‘Missed opportunity in parking policy’. It was written by a smart professor, a foreign talent of course, called Paul Barker. Actually it does not need a professor to think of market pricing for car parks. I can do better, not bluffing, if my intention is to rob the motorists. The gist of the article is that car parks should be priced according to demand and supply, using market mechanism. I couldn’t help laughing. Applying it will just go the HDB way, the ERP way, the COE way. When supply exceeds demand it will only mean one thing, UP! Imagine what parking fees will be in the CBD if parking is charged according to market mechanism? Bee tang to the operators! Our physical constraints make market mechanism impractical. It is suicidal to go that way. Market mechanism cannot be blindly applied to housing, cars, car parks, medical services, and many other things here!

Stupid Bank

My friend related this incident to me. His rich Malaysian client came to Singapore to open a joint account with his daughter. The client has already an account in this stupid bank. You know what? They made him wait for two hours before attending to him. He got so frustrated that he even closed his existing account and went to another local bank to open his account. And the service was simply swift and efficient. The stupid bank simply lost a big customer and not only that, its bad service will be spread by this client to his friends. And better still, this stupid bank is in the process of doing something unproductive, like checking on old records of clients and if the photocopies of ICs in their record are not to their liking they are asking their clients to make another copy for their records. They think the clerks in the banks have nothing useful to kill time but their high net worth clients will have time to take the trouble to make photocopies of ICs to send to the stupid bank. Instead of doing business or making things easy for its clients, it chose to irritate clients with its stupidity and arrogance. Ridiculous but the stupid bank will claim that it is efficiency and the right thing to do.

The difficult and unspoken truth

In politics, some truths are just too uncomfortable and difficult to be spoken. It is not that they are difficult to understand. It could be the simplest thing, a common knowledge, and like the proverbial elephant in the classroom, no one admits that it is there. Take for example the Gang of Four in China during the Cultural Revolution. Whenever the Chinese mentioned the Gang of Four, they would put up five fingers. The fifth finger stood for the unspoken truth. We have our own version of unspoken truth. In fact we have many unspoken truths. Internet and blogs have allowed some to surface and spoken brazenly as they really are. However, in the old media or in cocktail gossips, many would just look at one another in the eyes, perhaps with a little smile or an obliging nod when the unspoken truth happened to be the topic. Singaporeans are not dumb. They just pretend to be stupid or innocent, or even naïve by not talking about the unspoken truth. Take the issue of the disappearing savings of the Singaporeans, their hard earned savings all these years, who have robbed them of it? Singaporeans could have a lot of money saved, in the CPF or in their bank accounts. Why are Singaporeans feeling so poor, with their savings gone? Some may say the savings are transferred, from cash in the savings accounts to assets. So Singaporeans have some expensive assets like housing and cars and pieces of paper called COEs. Could Singaporeans continue to own their properties and cars and still have a lot of cash in their savings? Possible? If the answer is yes, then someone must have robbed them of their savings? The answer is in the difficult and unspoken truth.

When Regulators violate their own rules and principles

Below is part of an article I copied from Yahoo. Investing Dying as Computer Trading, ETFs & Dark Pools Proliferate On Tuesday January 4, 2011 There's an old Wall Street adage meant to inspire investors that goes "it's not a stock market, but a market of stocks." Consider that dead. Computer trading, dark pools and exchange-traded funds are dominating market action on a daily basis, statistics show, killing the buy and hold philosophy still attempted by many professional and retail investors alike. Everything moves up or down together at a speed faster than which a normal person can react, traders said. High frequency trading accounts for 70 percent of market volume on a daily basis, according to several traders' estimates. The average holding period for U.S. stocks is now just 2.8 months, according to the Crosscurrents newsletter. In the 1980s, it was two years. "The theory that buy-and-hold was the superior way to ensure gains over the long term, has been ditched completely in favor of technology," said Alan Newman, author of the monthly newsletter. "HFT promises gains are best provided by holding periods measuring as few as microseconds, possibly a few minutes, or at worst, a few hours." The problem is only made worst by the proliferation of exchange-traded funds, traders said. The vehicles, which make trading a group of stocks as easy as buying and selling an individual security, passed the $1 trillion in assets mark at the end of last year, according to BlackRock. This is probably why all ten sectors of the S&P 500 finished in the black for two consecutive years, something that's only happened one other time since 1960, according to Bespoke Investment Group. "The capital raising stock market of the past hundred years has morphed in just the last 10 years into a casino," said Sal Arnuk of Themis Trading and a market infrastructure expert who advised the SEC after last year's so-called Flash Crash. "Who is doing the fundamental work analyzing stocks? In the end, we've greatly increased systemic risk." Another factor jumped into the fray in December: dark pools. Off-exchange trading accounted for more than a third of the trading volume in December, says Raymond James. While these trades are eventually reported to the public markets, they further damage price discovery, an essential element for a fair securities market, investors said. "This was a record high market share for off-exchange trading and we believe the SEC will ultimately be forced to react to support the price discovery process by limiting off-exchange trading for all traces except for large block trades," wrote Raymond James analyst Patrick O'Shaughnessy in a note to clients yesterday. "This destroys capital markets," said Jon Najarian, co-founder of TradeMonster and a 'Fast Money' trader. "Hidden trading venues, where some participants get to peek at the orders as they are entered so long as they agree to 'interact' with a minimum percentage, is not an exchange, it's a license to steal."....

Romancing the gangsters

The front page of Today paper has a full page advert on a HBO movie, ‘Boardwalk Empire’. Words like Dazzling, Rich & Cinematic, Golden Globe Nominations, Best Television Series etc etc. The movie is all about politicians and gangsters with infamous names like Nucky Thompson, Jimmy Darmody, Al Capone, Lucky Luciano etc etc. These were the ‘great men’ of the day, controlling money and all things illegal. Even without looking at the movie, one can easily guess that it will be about the glorification of the gangsters of days gone by. And they will be well dressed, well mannered, even ill mannered will be in a style of its own, and they called the shot. They make the lives of the people around them sweet or painful. And they could do it by wielding power and money, plentiful of money. Today such gangsters are probably still around in China, India, Japan, Taiwan and Korea. Maybe some still exist in Asean countries. In Singapore, if we allow the neighbourhood kids to grow up unhindered, and carrying their parangs around, we will have some golden days to come, especially with the two IRs acting as the backdrop. They will graduate from burning cars, painting doors of O$P$ and slashing kids in shopping malls to greater things. In ten or twenty years’ time, we could also produce great gangster movies of our own. But the names will be different. It is cool to be gangsters. The moral of the story is that crooks can be turned into legends.

Calling all robbers and pirates

Do robbers and pirates have a heart? I mean a sense of compassion and charity? Would robbers and pirates, after robbing everything from their helpless victims, turn around and throw money to charity, to do community services, helping the poor? Historically many have done so in the past. The irony of robbers and pirates turning philanthropists have been written into story books, and some even made into movies. Some, after becoming very rich and successful, took on a clean image of very nice businessmen and socialites in high societies. Modern day robbers and pirates don’t seem to want to do much. They are more concerned with their own well beings than those they have robbed. Their greed is boundless. Or maybe they have not robbed enough. Even then, it is good to give a token back to society. Have a little heart, or pretend to have a little heart. It won’t hurt that much. No need to give the fortune away, just a few crumbs will do. The crumbs could mean a lot to those who have nothing or have little. And definitely the poor recipients will be very grateful for the charity. And I can assure them that it is a damn good feeling to give. But that is only the intangible part. For the believers, the more they give the more they will receive. Give until it hurts. Don’t worry, the return will be in many folds, 10 folds, 50 folds or 100 folds, just give, no need to think. I do want people to think who they are giving to. Don’t ever give to the rich or people who are in the business of profiting from your giving to become richer. Does that ring a bell?