When the evil Empire persisted on tagging the evil badge on Myanmar and pressurizing Asean to boycott the Myanmese govt, Asean stood firm and insisted to do it its own way. Asean would engage Myanmar and seek changes through dialogue and diplomacy, not sanctions and threats of regime change. Myanmar was accepted into Asean whose economies and political systems were a far cry from the military dictatorship. In the process, Myanmar is creeping slowly towards the Asean way of doing business.
The visit of Hilary Clinton to Myanmar is the sign of success of the Asean way. Through its association with Asean, Myanmar is changing slowly but positively to engage the rest of the world. Without the optimism and willingness to accommodate Myanmar, and if Asean were to be coerced by the US and join the band of international gangsters, Myanmar could have remained isolated and going it alone. There would not be any visit of Hilary to talk about.
The way forward, the Asean way, is through patience and dialogue, not sabre rattling and threats or coercion that the evil Empire is used to. But this small achievement by Asean could quickly be forgotten if the Association blindly allows the US to assume the leadership of Asean and the region, and go on the war path through military alliances and threats of war.
Could the Asean leaders see their success, that the Asean way is the Way and not succumb to US pressure to take on a confrontational and belligerent path in inter state diplomacy in the region? Would the US go the Asean way or Asean go the Empire’s way?
12/12/2011
The End of Progress
While we I was kpkb about the illusion of progress, economist Professor Graeme Maxton wrote a book titled ‘The End of Progress’. His main theme is rather familiar. The obsession for the word progress by modern economists is going to run down this earth. Progress as interpreted by the modern economists, is laced with greed and irresponsibility, is violating the basic principles expounded by the great Adam Smith.
Govts today wave the word progress as if it’s the end all prize for any modern being. You want progress or not? Progress is even used as a threat to frighten the lay people, invokes fear in them that their life style will suffer without progress. So every donkey will shout, yea, yea, we want progress.
Today’s progress, in the macro level, is going to eat up all the resources this world is able to provide, from minerals, energy, vegetation and livestocks. Progress will lead the world’s population to a point of exhaustion, running out of everything, even land to farm and to live. Imagine every country only thinks of increasing its population in order to progress? Quite silly isn’t it?
At the micro level, progress often is an illusion when everything is eaten up by inflation. When money is inflated to give the illusion of wealth while in real terms, nothing change. In many cases, the money value is even smaller than before.
Is it progress to live in smaller and smaller flats? Is it progress when one is deprived of the convenience of car ownership? But we have limitations of land and owning bigger living space and cars are not possible. Oh, I see, we have limited land! How so, how is it that we don’t know? Why is this not taken into consideration when the little space is flooded with people and more people? We need to progress, of course. The bigger population will lead to more progress.
I can’t beat this kind of argument. We shall have more progress then, and progress to living in dog’s kennels and take public transport.
Thank you Prof Maxton, to tell the nitwits what it really is, I mean progress. Still want progress, still want to be threaten with no progress? If the cost of living is lower, the same unit of money will have greater purchasing power and is progress in better quality of life. It is foolish to think progress when every cent earn is eaten away by inflation. It is fiction.
Now, for a start, don’t believe in anyone that says smaller space is good, is progress. And not owning a car is a natural thing and also a price to pay for progress.
Govts today wave the word progress as if it’s the end all prize for any modern being. You want progress or not? Progress is even used as a threat to frighten the lay people, invokes fear in them that their life style will suffer without progress. So every donkey will shout, yea, yea, we want progress.
Today’s progress, in the macro level, is going to eat up all the resources this world is able to provide, from minerals, energy, vegetation and livestocks. Progress will lead the world’s population to a point of exhaustion, running out of everything, even land to farm and to live. Imagine every country only thinks of increasing its population in order to progress? Quite silly isn’t it?
At the micro level, progress often is an illusion when everything is eaten up by inflation. When money is inflated to give the illusion of wealth while in real terms, nothing change. In many cases, the money value is even smaller than before.
Is it progress to live in smaller and smaller flats? Is it progress when one is deprived of the convenience of car ownership? But we have limitations of land and owning bigger living space and cars are not possible. Oh, I see, we have limited land! How so, how is it that we don’t know? Why is this not taken into consideration when the little space is flooded with people and more people? We need to progress, of course. The bigger population will lead to more progress.
I can’t beat this kind of argument. We shall have more progress then, and progress to living in dog’s kennels and take public transport.
Thank you Prof Maxton, to tell the nitwits what it really is, I mean progress. Still want progress, still want to be threaten with no progress? If the cost of living is lower, the same unit of money will have greater purchasing power and is progress in better quality of life. It is foolish to think progress when every cent earn is eaten away by inflation. It is fiction.
Now, for a start, don’t believe in anyone that says smaller space is good, is progress. And not owning a car is a natural thing and also a price to pay for progress.
How to trade in a market controlled by big funds
I am not going to reinvent trading methodologies to make money in the stock market. Many will still advise clients to buy low sell high, to follow charts, to follow all kinds of formula to make big profits in the stock market. People who still believe in these methodologies are still living in the dark ages.
The stock markets today are no longer the stock markets of yester years. Stock markets today are infested by big funds with super computers to monitor every trade, to play against every investor, and take the best computed positions against them, to come out the winner. Someone says it is like playing against Robocop. How many can beat the Robocop? Why are they allowed to do it is a different story, a story of ethics and morality.
Many are still following faithfully and religiously on their sure win methodology and game plan and still losing. When they think it is time to enter the market, when they think the price is low, they were wrong. Confirm, double confirm. The price would go lower. Sometimes they may make a bid or two and think their methodology is right. They did not know that at those moments, the computer was biting on other bigger gains and they happened to be on the side of the computer.
They are still some syndicate plays that are making good money. These are the real winners with the right methodology, which they would not disclose to anyone. Trade secrets or whatever, there are small pockets of winners in this new game. Other than them and Robocops, the rest are condemned to be losers.
Anyone still day dreaming of beating the Robocop and his super computers with his grand plans and grand strategies? Please, remove your blinkers. The only method to be on the winning side is to know what the computers are doing and be on the side of the computers.
An equivalent example of the game so far is the 4D run by the Tote Board. By sheer odds, the operator is likely to make a certain profit. What if the operator uses the data available in his computer on who bets on what and how much will be the payout of each number? And with the super computer, the operator decides which number to open for maximum profit instead of the current method of pure chance. The Tote Board even go to the extent of ensuring that there is no cheating, that pure chance is truly pure chance, no one allowed to use his computer to his advantage.
See the difference?
The stock markets today are no longer the stock markets of yester years. Stock markets today are infested by big funds with super computers to monitor every trade, to play against every investor, and take the best computed positions against them, to come out the winner. Someone says it is like playing against Robocop. How many can beat the Robocop? Why are they allowed to do it is a different story, a story of ethics and morality.
Many are still following faithfully and religiously on their sure win methodology and game plan and still losing. When they think it is time to enter the market, when they think the price is low, they were wrong. Confirm, double confirm. The price would go lower. Sometimes they may make a bid or two and think their methodology is right. They did not know that at those moments, the computer was biting on other bigger gains and they happened to be on the side of the computer.
They are still some syndicate plays that are making good money. These are the real winners with the right methodology, which they would not disclose to anyone. Trade secrets or whatever, there are small pockets of winners in this new game. Other than them and Robocops, the rest are condemned to be losers.
Anyone still day dreaming of beating the Robocop and his super computers with his grand plans and grand strategies? Please, remove your blinkers. The only method to be on the winning side is to know what the computers are doing and be on the side of the computers.
An equivalent example of the game so far is the 4D run by the Tote Board. By sheer odds, the operator is likely to make a certain profit. What if the operator uses the data available in his computer on who bets on what and how much will be the payout of each number? And with the super computer, the operator decides which number to open for maximum profit instead of the current method of pure chance. The Tote Board even go to the extent of ensuring that there is no cheating, that pure chance is truly pure chance, no one allowed to use his computer to his advantage.
See the difference?
12/11/2011
Asia without America – Angmoh version
If the Americans withdraw from Asia, the region will be dominated by China and Japan and this is worrying. Why should it be? Ok Japan has a history of aggression and invading neighbouring countries, including Korea, China and Southeast Asia. Has China done that? The problem that China is facing today is to reclaim its lost territories which pesky little countries are trying to make claims to. And yes, China has to be assertive to protect its own territorial sovereignty. Other than this, China has not encroached on anyone’s territory, while many of its territories are still occupied by its neighbours. These neighbours are definitely jittery as it is a matter of time before China demands for their return. So ganging up with the Americans is for their own protection, to protect the loot they looted from China.
The angmoh’s presumed fear is that China is a rogue country, expansionist and out to control its neighbouring countries. The facts of current history proved otherwise. China has not been instigating wars among its neighbours, not provoking any country, not drumming up wars or sanctions against any country because they have a different political system, and not threatening regime change. May be the angmoh superpower is doing all these fear mongering conveniently, or insidiously planting these fears in the Asian countries for their own interests.
Now, what is so worrying of a China or Japan without the Americans when at most the Chinese and Japanese would be doing what the Americans are doing? And this may not be the case. On the other hand, to have the Americans here guarantees that the Americans will be doing all these, meddling, provoking, and threatening the weaker nations. To the angmoh mindset, this is their normal and Asians must accept their modus operandi.
The other angmoh viewpoint is that they are here to manage China’s rise as a super power. Is that their responsibility? What’s that got to do with them? What has the rise of any country got to do with them that it is their job to manage other countries’ rise as a super power? Are they the chosen race, God’s messenger and army to guard the human race?
But many Asians also have this cock mindset, thinking exactly in this way. It is a given that the Americans are the master, the empire, to control, to lead, to manage every country’s affair, to provoke, instigate, subverge, sanction and conduct regime changes according to their whims and fancies. This is the right thing, the order of things for Asians. Asians must accept the American over lord as the Emperor of this earth.
The angmoh’s presumed fear is that China is a rogue country, expansionist and out to control its neighbouring countries. The facts of current history proved otherwise. China has not been instigating wars among its neighbours, not provoking any country, not drumming up wars or sanctions against any country because they have a different political system, and not threatening regime change. May be the angmoh superpower is doing all these fear mongering conveniently, or insidiously planting these fears in the Asian countries for their own interests.
Now, what is so worrying of a China or Japan without the Americans when at most the Chinese and Japanese would be doing what the Americans are doing? And this may not be the case. On the other hand, to have the Americans here guarantees that the Americans will be doing all these, meddling, provoking, and threatening the weaker nations. To the angmoh mindset, this is their normal and Asians must accept their modus operandi.
The other angmoh viewpoint is that they are here to manage China’s rise as a super power. Is that their responsibility? What’s that got to do with them? What has the rise of any country got to do with them that it is their job to manage other countries’ rise as a super power? Are they the chosen race, God’s messenger and army to guard the human race?
But many Asians also have this cock mindset, thinking exactly in this way. It is a given that the Americans are the master, the empire, to control, to lead, to manage every country’s affair, to provoke, instigate, subverge, sanction and conduct regime changes according to their whims and fancies. This is the right thing, the order of things for Asians. Asians must accept the American over lord as the Emperor of this earth.
A mother’s crumbled dream
A little bit of nostalgia of forgotten dreams, or old dreams versus new dreams of mothers. My mother’s big dream was for her children to finish the senior Cambridge Examination, the O level equivalent of today, a Grade 3 would be good enough, and become a ‘tua chye hoo’, literary to become a chief clerk. In those days, every govt department or company had a tua chye hoo, the ‘pau kar leow’ administrator for all paper works. Job opportunities for professionals were rare.
An entrepot did not need those talents. The colonial masters were contented that they had their cheap supplies of coolies and clerks to help them run their administration, and the private sectors to run their trading businesses. It did not take the Chinese community long to realise that the colonial masters were only interested in their own glorification and self interests. The immigrants were there to provide the brawns and shuffle a few papers for their convenience. Every female wanted to be a typist or stenographer or a secretary.
They had big charity drives for donations to build secondary schools and the only university in Southeast Asia for their children. They had bigger dreams. They did not have the privilege of raising funds to help the poor, the sick or the aged. The demands were more urgent and more important. They wanted to produce professionals, engineers, doctors, scientists in all professions.
When we became independent, the opportunities opened up for the locals in every sector and needed professionally trained locals to fill those positions. The mother’s dream changed. They wanted their children to get into university. Their vision went beyond tua chye hoo when they knew what were possible with tertiary education. Forget about tua chye hoo. A graduate meant more than just pride of achievement. It meant a better quality of life, with more material comfort through higher income and more secure jobs.
This mother’s dream continues today. Every mother still wants to see their children get into university and become a graduate. The ancient mothers were ignorant when their ambitious dream was a tua chye hoo. Today’s mothers are in a way ignorant of their dreams. A graduate is not going to make their life that much better. Some may end up as taxi drivers, worst than their parents or grand parents who were non graduates and were tua chye hoo, with a much better lifestyle than the graduates of today, with much better incomes.
Many parents still scrimped and emptied their life savings, downgraded their homes, to send their children overseas when they could not find a place in the local universities. Many regretted when their children refused to return. They forgot that on returning, their children would not be good enough to be a tua chye hoo and may end up you know what. Their talents will never be appreciated unless they happened to be foreign talents. The foreign talents, many are not any better, many worst off than our local talents have taken over their jobs. Some say no, these lousy foreign talents are here to help create jobs. I agree, so that locals can rent out their rooms and service them in hawker stalls and foodcourts, and drive them around in their taxis.
The overseas children of our mothers are doing pretty well overseas. Many could find better jobs and enjoying better quality of living that they could not find if they returned. Why should they return to compete with half baked foreign talents and may end up jobless? The ignorant mothers of today must change their thinking and cast their dreams further ashore. There is no place for their graduate children at home. They need to wonder afar to find their pots of gold. It is better that they remain overseas and stay there.
The familiar dreams of having a graduate and all is fine is no longer true in many cases. It is a crumbled dream.
An entrepot did not need those talents. The colonial masters were contented that they had their cheap supplies of coolies and clerks to help them run their administration, and the private sectors to run their trading businesses. It did not take the Chinese community long to realise that the colonial masters were only interested in their own glorification and self interests. The immigrants were there to provide the brawns and shuffle a few papers for their convenience. Every female wanted to be a typist or stenographer or a secretary.
They had big charity drives for donations to build secondary schools and the only university in Southeast Asia for their children. They had bigger dreams. They did not have the privilege of raising funds to help the poor, the sick or the aged. The demands were more urgent and more important. They wanted to produce professionals, engineers, doctors, scientists in all professions.
When we became independent, the opportunities opened up for the locals in every sector and needed professionally trained locals to fill those positions. The mother’s dream changed. They wanted their children to get into university. Their vision went beyond tua chye hoo when they knew what were possible with tertiary education. Forget about tua chye hoo. A graduate meant more than just pride of achievement. It meant a better quality of life, with more material comfort through higher income and more secure jobs.
This mother’s dream continues today. Every mother still wants to see their children get into university and become a graduate. The ancient mothers were ignorant when their ambitious dream was a tua chye hoo. Today’s mothers are in a way ignorant of their dreams. A graduate is not going to make their life that much better. Some may end up as taxi drivers, worst than their parents or grand parents who were non graduates and were tua chye hoo, with a much better lifestyle than the graduates of today, with much better incomes.
Many parents still scrimped and emptied their life savings, downgraded their homes, to send their children overseas when they could not find a place in the local universities. Many regretted when their children refused to return. They forgot that on returning, their children would not be good enough to be a tua chye hoo and may end up you know what. Their talents will never be appreciated unless they happened to be foreign talents. The foreign talents, many are not any better, many worst off than our local talents have taken over their jobs. Some say no, these lousy foreign talents are here to help create jobs. I agree, so that locals can rent out their rooms and service them in hawker stalls and foodcourts, and drive them around in their taxis.
The overseas children of our mothers are doing pretty well overseas. Many could find better jobs and enjoying better quality of living that they could not find if they returned. Why should they return to compete with half baked foreign talents and may end up jobless? The ignorant mothers of today must change their thinking and cast their dreams further ashore. There is no place for their graduate children at home. They need to wonder afar to find their pots of gold. It is better that they remain overseas and stay there.
The familiar dreams of having a graduate and all is fine is no longer true in many cases. It is a crumbled dream.
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