The Russians have done it in Crimea. Send in the troops and hold a
referendum and you can have a country in your hand. But this recipe
requires military might and a majority of the population consisting of
people from your country or similar to your country. And one must be
prepared to fight with the Americans and the European powers.
There is a simpler and more peaceful way of taking over a country
without resorting to arms and with the leaders happily doing your
bidding, and the people ignorant of what is happening to their country.
Take for example a small island country like Mauritius or the Maldives,
small islands with small populations and an innocent but eager govt to
want to bring economic growth to their people. The leaders will think
that they are progressive and doing everything for the good of the
people. Just feed on their ambition and egos and they will behave like
deaf frogs.
Step One, encourage their leaders to go all out for economic growth.
Help them to sell the idea to their people. If it doesn’t work, use a
bit of threat or reverse psychology on the people. You want growth or
you don’t want growth. This type of statement sure works on their kiasu
people. Once the people and leaders are hooked on this growth drug,
everything will fall into place.
Step Two, send in the money. Offer them economic aid in terms of foreign
investments to create jobs for the people. This is a formula they
cannot refuse. Send in our talents to assist them. And convince them
that they did not have enough talents.
Step Three, sign a free trade agreement with them to allow our talents
and non talents freedom to migrate and work there. The first batch will
be our companies and industries setting shops there. And don’t forget to
set up our own schools too. And give the reason that the local talents
are not suitable then start to export our people to fill up these
companies as foreign talents. If needed to, just employ a few local
clerical staff as show of providing jobs for their locals.
Step Four, cultivate the ‘gong gong’ leadership to use our talents in
their private and public sectors. Better still, make sure our talents
are employed in their stats boards and ministries. Once these people are
in place, start to recruit our people to occupy key positions in these
institutions and eventually filling them with our citizens. Once our
citizens are in control, these institutions, including ministries will
be as good as ours.
Step Five, advise the local govt to offer citizenships to our people. If
no citizenship, PRs also can. The main goal is to fill the country with
our citizens to be their new citizens or PRs. Of course this may lead
to some problems with their citizens. Teach them how to disguise our
presence by classifying PRs as locals and the daft locals would not have
any clue what is going on to their country. For those who have become
citizens, pretend to be good citizens and start to buy up their
properties, estate by estate. With so much money at our disposal, we can
eventually buy up the whole island or at least their prime estates.
Step Six, let time to take care of the rest. With our citizens
controlling their industries and ministries, and continuing to employ
our citizens, it is a matter of time when we will be the real majority
there. And without knowing anything, without doing anything, that island
will be ours in half a generation.
Step Seven, our citizens that have become their citizens can start to
participate in local politics as rightful citizens. Join or form
political parties to contest to be the elected govt. Oh, there is
something I missed. Educate the locals there to believe in meritocracy
so that our more meritocratic talents can rise to top positions without
protest from their people. Because of our high education standard, we
don’t need to use fake certificates and CVs. And if possible, convince
their locals that they are daft and they need foreign talents like ours
to help them and create jobs for them.
Not only will their ‘gong gong’ govt be helping us to take over their
country, they will be very grateful that we are sharing with them our
growth formula and our talents. They will have all the economic growth
they desired. And make sure their local elites also benefited from our
presence and investments. Make them very rich in the process so that
they will support everything we do. For their average citizens, they may
lose out, but never mind, they are too daft and inconsequential to do
anything. There may be a few small protests, but no matter. Once they
become an absolute minority, there is nothing they can do to overturn
our takeover.
And in conclusion, we could own a few islands like the Mauritius and the Maldives to expand our territories and influence.
Not a bad recipe right? We have a growing population and we need to
expand. We cannot do that to our big neighbours, but to smaller
countries with goondu leaders, there are great opportunities to make
such friendly and benign takeovers a success.
Kopi Level - Yellow
3/18/2014
Olam – Is it a bail out using public fund?
The acquisition of Olam by Temasek is raising eyebrows and frowns from
many quarters. Kenneth Jeyaratnam has commented negatively on it. Below
is Christopher Balding’s article on the buy out of Olam. Temasek seems
to be very bullish in this commodity trading company. It came out in
full support when it was shorted down by Muddy Waters a year ago. Now it
is making an offer with the possibility to buying over the company at a
high price of $2.23 when it could have had the company for a song when
it was under attack. Why? Why buy at such a huge premium and not when it
was about 90c? Another case of buying high? OPM?
Why is Temasek supporting a foreign owned company to want to commit $2b on it when it could buy it for less than half the present price? Another long term strategy stuff?
‘Just had to write about this interesting little tidbit I saw today about Temasek and Olam. According to news reports, Temasek through a subsidiary is going to buy Olam at a 12% premium to the current share price. This is an interesting development and to me raises a couple of questions. First, I am intrigued that Temasek is paying a 12% premium after the stock has already increased 30% since the first of the year.
This means that Temasek is either paying nearly a 45% premium to what it could have paid just two months ago and is really slow to spot a value in its own portfolio or insiders were buying the stock in advance of a buy out offer they knew was coming. This 30% increase is even more abnormal considering the Straits Times (Index) is essentially flat for the year. Neither scenario is particularly attractive.
Second, this seems like a very oddly timed buy out. Prior to the first of the year, Olam had traded primarily in the $1.50-1.75 SGD range and this follows on the announcement that profit declined 13%. If Temasek felt this strongly about Olam and its long term business prospects, it would seem to be a better proposition to buy at the bottom of the market because you know the business well and believe the market is undervaluing the business. Not wait until there is a 30% increase in two months and then offer a 12% premium. The general philosophy of long term investors is buy low and sell high. I am just a professor though, so what do I know.’
Christopher Balding
Why is Temasek supporting a foreign owned company to want to commit $2b on it when it could buy it for less than half the present price? Another long term strategy stuff?
‘Just had to write about this interesting little tidbit I saw today about Temasek and Olam. According to news reports, Temasek through a subsidiary is going to buy Olam at a 12% premium to the current share price. This is an interesting development and to me raises a couple of questions. First, I am intrigued that Temasek is paying a 12% premium after the stock has already increased 30% since the first of the year.
This means that Temasek is either paying nearly a 45% premium to what it could have paid just two months ago and is really slow to spot a value in its own portfolio or insiders were buying the stock in advance of a buy out offer they knew was coming. This 30% increase is even more abnormal considering the Straits Times (Index) is essentially flat for the year. Neither scenario is particularly attractive.
Second, this seems like a very oddly timed buy out. Prior to the first of the year, Olam had traded primarily in the $1.50-1.75 SGD range and this follows on the announcement that profit declined 13%. If Temasek felt this strongly about Olam and its long term business prospects, it would seem to be a better proposition to buy at the bottom of the market because you know the business well and believe the market is undervaluing the business. Not wait until there is a 30% increase in two months and then offer a 12% premium. The general philosophy of long term investors is buy low and sell high. I am just a professor though, so what do I know.’
Christopher Balding
MH370 – Another theory on where it could be
Many of you reading the media and its explanations on primary and
secondary radars would get the impression that once the transponder is
switched off, the radar would no longer see the aircraft. This is not
true. The aircraft will still be on the radar screen as a blip minus the
squawks. A transponder, when it is switched on is like the aircraft
wearing a name tag to say this is who I am. Without the transponder/name
tag on, it will appear as a blip just like any other aircraft on the
radar screen. And if the emergency switch is on, four squawks will
appear behind the blip to indicate an aircraft having an emergency
situation.
The reason why the transponder was switched off has a purpose if one is knowledgeable about how the radar works. A Keith Ledgerwood wrote about a theory of radar evasion only those who are in the business would know. Let me explain this theory. All commercial aircraft are expected to switch on their transponders to identify themselves when they are airborne. On the radar screen you will see a blip followed by a couple of squawks or a numeral identifying the aircraft.
When two aircraft fly very close together, in formation, the radar may only see one blip for the two or more aircraft in close formation, giving the impression there is only one aircraft. Another way is to fly above or below the other and the radar, being two dimensional, will only show one blip instead of two. Get the picture? So, if MH370 were to switch off its transponder and fly beneath another aircraft, the radar will pick up one aircraft and one transponder signal. And MH370 could fly under the shadow of another aircraft without being detected.
According to Keith Ledgerwood, there was a flight SQ68 flying from Singapore, passing Penang and onwards over India, Pakistan to Europe. MH370 could intercept SQ68 and fly beneath it to conceal its presence to the radar controllers and break away somewhere in Pakistan or Afghanistan towards central Asia and no one will know anything amissed.
And the westerly path taken by MH370 to Penang then starboard on a northwesterly direction fits this theory. And MH370 could be in central Asia.
The unexplained and questionable part of this theory was the path of MH370 towards Penang evident to radar and its subsequent flight under SQ68 would also be seen by radar. This defeats its intent to hide its presence and radar controller could see what it was doing. If it could avoid the Butterworth radar altogether by flying 280, it might be able to sneak under SQ68 undetected, then it makes sense.
So, this theory requires expertise knowledge of radar operations and radar coverage in the area. The flaw is that MH370 flew into radar cover and was seen and tracked, which made a fool of what it was doing. If its intent was to hide, why showed its face to everyone? Why conduct a stealth manoeuvre for all to see?
The reason why the transponder was switched off has a purpose if one is knowledgeable about how the radar works. A Keith Ledgerwood wrote about a theory of radar evasion only those who are in the business would know. Let me explain this theory. All commercial aircraft are expected to switch on their transponders to identify themselves when they are airborne. On the radar screen you will see a blip followed by a couple of squawks or a numeral identifying the aircraft.
When two aircraft fly very close together, in formation, the radar may only see one blip for the two or more aircraft in close formation, giving the impression there is only one aircraft. Another way is to fly above or below the other and the radar, being two dimensional, will only show one blip instead of two. Get the picture? So, if MH370 were to switch off its transponder and fly beneath another aircraft, the radar will pick up one aircraft and one transponder signal. And MH370 could fly under the shadow of another aircraft without being detected.
According to Keith Ledgerwood, there was a flight SQ68 flying from Singapore, passing Penang and onwards over India, Pakistan to Europe. MH370 could intercept SQ68 and fly beneath it to conceal its presence to the radar controllers and break away somewhere in Pakistan or Afghanistan towards central Asia and no one will know anything amissed.
And the westerly path taken by MH370 to Penang then starboard on a northwesterly direction fits this theory. And MH370 could be in central Asia.
The unexplained and questionable part of this theory was the path of MH370 towards Penang evident to radar and its subsequent flight under SQ68 would also be seen by radar. This defeats its intent to hide its presence and radar controller could see what it was doing. If it could avoid the Butterworth radar altogether by flying 280, it might be able to sneak under SQ68 undetected, then it makes sense.
So, this theory requires expertise knowledge of radar operations and radar coverage in the area. The flaw is that MH370 flew into radar cover and was seen and tracked, which made a fool of what it was doing. If its intent was to hide, why showed its face to everyone? Why conduct a stealth manoeuvre for all to see?
Fixing the Govt
I am sure everyone reading this will have their eyes popped out and
couldn’t believe what they are seeing. I don’t think anyone can fix the
govt intentionally as they would likely to be fixed instead if they dare
to try. I don’t think any opposition party could do this either. We all
know how the game is being played, the odds and what would be the
consequences. And definitely not for me to fix the govt.
But the govt is being fixed and appears to be ignorant of it. Perhaps they could not see it in this light. Who then could be doing the fixing? We have all been kpkbing about the job market and how Sinkies have been fixed real bad by the foreigners and foreign owned recruitment agencies. But the real culprits include the CEOs of local and foreign companies who are condoning this practice of not hiring Sinkies and replacing Sinkies with foreigners and their own kind. They deliberately, either with one eye closed, or just turn and look the other way, or worse, even promoting it, to discriminate Sinkies in employment.
So the end result, many Sinkie professionals lost their jobs. When the number was small, they blamed themselves, thinking that they were really no good and the foreigners were really better. Today, when the truth is out, many are feeling very sore. And who would they blame? No need to give you this simple answer. Their unhappiness and anger, their feeling of being cheated and short changed, would be directed at the govt for sure. You can read it in the social media. And this will cost the govt dearly and the political price to be paid will be very high. Yes, the govt is being fixed when the people are being fixed. And the fixers are those employers who discriminate against Sinkies in employment.
The lackadaisical attitude of the govt to fix this problem only adds to the grievance of the victims. They may not see the correlation or did not think the people would turn against the govt. They would think that it is not the govt’s fault! From the way they are happily embracing the foreigners and sleeping with them, and keep welcoming them without hesitation speak for itself. It looks like they are blind or choose to be blind to what is happening and feeling very comfortable and secure with the situation. Yes the proverbial deaf frog, always doing the right thing.
As the anger grows against the foreigners for taking their good paying jobs away while they downgraded to underemployment, with many even forced into retirement, unable to find employment, it is a matter of time when they will be break free from their slumber and hapless state to make those who helped in condemning them to pay for it.
Those who fixed them will have to pay for their crimes. They would not be going after the employers and the recruitment agents. They would not want to know that it was the employers and the recruitment agents’ faults.
Who do you think they will go after or put the blame on? This is a simple case of being fixed by others and thinking they will get away with it. The govt appears to be a willing party to be fixed by the employers.
Kopi Level - Green
But the govt is being fixed and appears to be ignorant of it. Perhaps they could not see it in this light. Who then could be doing the fixing? We have all been kpkbing about the job market and how Sinkies have been fixed real bad by the foreigners and foreign owned recruitment agencies. But the real culprits include the CEOs of local and foreign companies who are condoning this practice of not hiring Sinkies and replacing Sinkies with foreigners and their own kind. They deliberately, either with one eye closed, or just turn and look the other way, or worse, even promoting it, to discriminate Sinkies in employment.
So the end result, many Sinkie professionals lost their jobs. When the number was small, they blamed themselves, thinking that they were really no good and the foreigners were really better. Today, when the truth is out, many are feeling very sore. And who would they blame? No need to give you this simple answer. Their unhappiness and anger, their feeling of being cheated and short changed, would be directed at the govt for sure. You can read it in the social media. And this will cost the govt dearly and the political price to be paid will be very high. Yes, the govt is being fixed when the people are being fixed. And the fixers are those employers who discriminate against Sinkies in employment.
The lackadaisical attitude of the govt to fix this problem only adds to the grievance of the victims. They may not see the correlation or did not think the people would turn against the govt. They would think that it is not the govt’s fault! From the way they are happily embracing the foreigners and sleeping with them, and keep welcoming them without hesitation speak for itself. It looks like they are blind or choose to be blind to what is happening and feeling very comfortable and secure with the situation. Yes the proverbial deaf frog, always doing the right thing.
As the anger grows against the foreigners for taking their good paying jobs away while they downgraded to underemployment, with many even forced into retirement, unable to find employment, it is a matter of time when they will be break free from their slumber and hapless state to make those who helped in condemning them to pay for it.
Those who fixed them will have to pay for their crimes. They would not be going after the employers and the recruitment agents. They would not want to know that it was the employers and the recruitment agents’ faults.
Who do you think they will go after or put the blame on? This is a simple case of being fixed by others and thinking they will get away with it. The govt appears to be a willing party to be fixed by the employers.
Kopi Level - Green
3/17/2014
MH370 – Explaining the bizarre, strange and questionables
The information flowing out from Malaysia over the weekend made many
people saw red and at times shocking to know that Malaysia had the
information but chose not to tell.
MH370 was seen and tracked by military radars. Why did Malaysia take so long to tell the world? And the Chief of Air Force General Daud was reported to have made a trip to Butterworth to find out what they saw on that fateful morning. It was also reported that there was a military radar at Kota Bahru. This fact is not confirmed. At the point where the plane disappeared, Butterworth was unlikely to have it on radar. Even if they were plotting it, they would have erased it off as it was going away, off their radar coverage. Why did the information came out so late?
Let me make a guess. Butterworth or whichever military station was stood down for the weekend or manned by a skeleton crew. And very likely all were ‘kooning’ or on a very relax mood and did not see anything or track anything. How embarrassing to admit that this was the case. So they need to piece together a story, that they saw and were tracking the aircraft from the moment it turned back and disappeared. But they did not know that this was discredited by the aircraft flying at normal height to be tracked all the way to Penang/Butterworth.
Why was the pilot flying to Penang/Butterworth to be seen on radar when he was trying to avoid it? One possible reason, he thought by switching off the transponder the air traffickers could not see the aircraft and he could fly anywhere and at any level he liked. Unfortunately, the radars used by the air traffickers could also see the blips even when the transponder was switched off, and the radar operated like any primary radar and picking up any aircraft in the air. The second reason, the pilot somehow became stupid that he did not know his flight path could be tracked by military radars. He did not know of the existence of military radars! This could not be as all experienced Malaysian pilots would know the existence of military radars in Malaysia.
Why fly towards Penang/Butterworth to be picked up by radars when his destination was Northwest? I dunno. Maybe he was mad. Maybe he wanted to show his face to the military radar controllers.
And the new theory, he was a political fanatic and decided to hijack the aircraft after attending Anwar’s trial. So he made up his mind to hijack an aircraft full of passengers in a fit of a moment. Did he plan anything, where to go and where to land? You don’t fly an aircraft like driving a car and could park anywhere. And if it was just the pilot who was angry and doing the flying, what about the second pilot and what about the rest of the crew? They could not be sitting there doing nothing. The passengers too would not be sitting idly by and let the pilot do whatever he wanted. They might not know anything. But the fact that none could send out a mobile message or attempted to was an indication that they were restrained or prevented from doing so. How could the pilot restrain 238 passengers alone?
Oh the decompression theory of flying to 45,000 ft. If I am not mistaken the aircraft cabin pressure is designed to maintain at a certain level, normally about 10,000 ft, independent of the height the aircraft was flying. There would be no decompression just by flying at 45,000 ft. When there is a decompression due to malfunction, the aircraft is designed to drop the oxygen masks for the passengers.
Anyone wiser?
MH370 was seen and tracked by military radars. Why did Malaysia take so long to tell the world? And the Chief of Air Force General Daud was reported to have made a trip to Butterworth to find out what they saw on that fateful morning. It was also reported that there was a military radar at Kota Bahru. This fact is not confirmed. At the point where the plane disappeared, Butterworth was unlikely to have it on radar. Even if they were plotting it, they would have erased it off as it was going away, off their radar coverage. Why did the information came out so late?
Let me make a guess. Butterworth or whichever military station was stood down for the weekend or manned by a skeleton crew. And very likely all were ‘kooning’ or on a very relax mood and did not see anything or track anything. How embarrassing to admit that this was the case. So they need to piece together a story, that they saw and were tracking the aircraft from the moment it turned back and disappeared. But they did not know that this was discredited by the aircraft flying at normal height to be tracked all the way to Penang/Butterworth.
Why was the pilot flying to Penang/Butterworth to be seen on radar when he was trying to avoid it? One possible reason, he thought by switching off the transponder the air traffickers could not see the aircraft and he could fly anywhere and at any level he liked. Unfortunately, the radars used by the air traffickers could also see the blips even when the transponder was switched off, and the radar operated like any primary radar and picking up any aircraft in the air. The second reason, the pilot somehow became stupid that he did not know his flight path could be tracked by military radars. He did not know of the existence of military radars! This could not be as all experienced Malaysian pilots would know the existence of military radars in Malaysia.
Why fly towards Penang/Butterworth to be picked up by radars when his destination was Northwest? I dunno. Maybe he was mad. Maybe he wanted to show his face to the military radar controllers.
And the new theory, he was a political fanatic and decided to hijack the aircraft after attending Anwar’s trial. So he made up his mind to hijack an aircraft full of passengers in a fit of a moment. Did he plan anything, where to go and where to land? You don’t fly an aircraft like driving a car and could park anywhere. And if it was just the pilot who was angry and doing the flying, what about the second pilot and what about the rest of the crew? They could not be sitting there doing nothing. The passengers too would not be sitting idly by and let the pilot do whatever he wanted. They might not know anything. But the fact that none could send out a mobile message or attempted to was an indication that they were restrained or prevented from doing so. How could the pilot restrain 238 passengers alone?
Oh the decompression theory of flying to 45,000 ft. If I am not mistaken the aircraft cabin pressure is designed to maintain at a certain level, normally about 10,000 ft, independent of the height the aircraft was flying. There would be no decompression just by flying at 45,000 ft. When there is a decompression due to malfunction, the aircraft is designed to drop the oxygen masks for the passengers.
Anyone wiser?
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