Part 1: a mark of a mature society is how..

1. It treats everyone equally in the eyes of the law and not just simply to treat 'everyone equally' (mind you, 'equally' is a Marxist principle that is long dead, that's why most of us travel economy but some of the lucky ones first class but if you are given the same opportunity to work hard and prove yourself, you should have the same opportunity like everyone else to travel first class)
2. It gives everyone access to equal opportunity and not simply to be spoon fed (for instance if you study hard in school and achieve a very good result, you should get the same opportunity like everyone else to qualify for a government scholarship)
3. It uses Subsidy only to assist the extremes of poverty (and not to allow a well to do man build a grand house on government land scheme so much so a much more deserving person is left on the wait list for years)
4. It makes it into law that Conscience is never a crime for as long as we don't incite hatred against any person or race or religion (as Allah Almighty has given us a brain to think)
5. It upholds the very principle that Its ok to agree to disagree
6. It treats The most vulnerable member of the society with dignity and respect (whether you only have one limb, one eye, you must have a place in society)
7. It treats those Who run the red light equally no matter who you are
8. There are more people working in the private sector than in the civil service
9. It has stopped asking for everything for free
10. we park our cars at weddings far away from the newly wed's house and allow those who come late to park nearer

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Where are our universities?

TOP UNIVERSITY ASIA
UNIVERSITY
COUNTRY
WORLD RANK
 SIZE  VISIBILITY RICH FILES SCHOLAR
               
1 University of Tokyo 51 98 56 85 24
2 University of Hong Kong 78 35 130 108 59
3 Kyoto University 83 134 106 158 9
4 Chinese University of Hong Kong 112 99 239 95 19
5 National University of Singapore 124 164 182 96 62
6 National Taiwan University *** 139 140 121 101 734
7 Hebrew University of Jerusalem 152 215 152 91 541
8 King Saud University 164 161 203 171 183
9 King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals 178 149 218 189 164
10 Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology 200 66 452 153 92
11 Keio University 208 434 92 469 419
12 Tel Aviv University 220 304 295 65 453
13 Nagoya University 237 395 236 370 90
14 Technion Israel Institute of Technology 241 367 321 69 506
15 Osaka University 253 510 216 277 214
16 Hong Kong University of Science & Technology 256 278 474 93 188
17 University of Tsukuba 258 458 281 467 44
18 Tohoku University 262 446 262 430 84
19 Peking University 271 511 195 532 130
20 King Abdulaziz University 291 305 355 344 299
21 Seoul National University 298 465 323 356 176
22 National Chiao Tung University *** 309 333 334 186 734
23 Kasetsart University 310 486 254 434 332
24 Tsinghua University China 317 599 301 605 77
25 Weizmann Institute of Science 335 451 237 326 978
26 City University of Hong Kong 336 354 483 329 216
27 National Taiwan Normal University 354 468 288 378 782
28 Hong Kong Polytechnic University 357 261 469 316 545
29 Tokyo Institute of Technology 359 598 316 539 307
30 National Tsing Hua University Taiwan *** 361 245 522 194 734
31 Kobe University 379 408 403 601 228
32 Chulalongkorn University 388 488 424 470 290
33 Prince of Songkla University 392 351 346 684 503
34 Kyushu University 395 634 366 598 289
35 National Cheng Kung University *** 413 400 453 344 734
36 National Chengchi University 430 433 460 555 446
37 National Sun Yat-Sen University *** 437 410 505 355 734
38 United Nations University 447 548 355 762 473
39 Nanyang Technological University 468 543 526 673 318
40 Hiroshima University 469 597 399 647 673
41 Zhejiang University 471 566 728 604 91
42 Ben Gurion University of the Negev 472 531 816 123 803


Source http://www.webometrics.info/top100_continent.asp?cont=asia

Bidding farewell to very good friends

How to avoid car thefts the Economist's way

To anybody about to purchase a new car, take a gander at a new list from The Economist that charts the most stolen cars in America.

According to data compiled by the Highway Data Loss Institute, car thieves have a type, preferring large-sized American made models.  Hardly eco-friendly, especially considering vehicles least likely to be stolen are foreign made, small, and fuel-efficient.

What model tops the list? The (hardly humble) Cadillac Escalade, followed closely thereafter by the Ford F-250 and the Infinity G37. On the other end of the spectrum, the Volvo S80 and the Saturn VUE are some of the least stolen vehicles. (Toyota's ever-popular Prius charts in the top 10.)

So what's the takeaway? Buying small (and keeping green) may not be the sexiest pick, but it's good for the planet and even better for your peace of mind. (via The Economist)

Too big to fail

In Brunei, every once and awhile we do get to hear shops or restaurants shutting down due to the lack of business. Although I do feel sorry for the owners who probably have mountain of debts to settle and a number of employees retrenched, who by most account would be made up of foreign workers, I do not think however it is a matter of public concern as we do know for every shop or restaurant that shuts down, there will always be another one or two that will open their doors for business. The truth of the matter is that its pure economics of demand and supply. If there is more supply than demand in a market then competition to attract customers especially in a country with a very small population will become very stiff. Obviously the stiffer the competition, the more cut throat the market becomes and it will be something of a survival of the fittest. The fittest in this case would be the ones whose owners have good business acumen, good strategies and good financial cashflow and those who understand the market and the business they are in. As in any business, risks of failures will always be there.

If however such restaurant venture failed, should the govervment get involved and used the public funds to, for use of the common term, provide a bailout package? The answer that we would say would probably be a no since it does not make any sense on why should public funds be used to save a private venture turned bad. But what if the business entity is one that employed thousands of our own people and by its going bust would affect almost the entire population of the country? The term "too big to fail" is now a common term used for huge conglomerates in the USA which during the financial crisis faced the prospect of going bust but if they did would have affected millions of people. Jobs and millions of dollars worth of pensions, insurance plans and savings funds were simply wiped out because these companies somehow did not anticipate some investments they made took a very hard beating.

Now let me come back to the ealier example of the restaurant. Say it undertook the grandest expansion plan and every one of us put our money into it as an investment because the manager of the restaurant was a MBA graduate out of the Ivy League who was able to sweet talk us to part with our savings. And imagine if that same MBA graduate was one whose pay package and bonusses were pegged with the number of restaurants and revenues he could open and generate in a given year. He knew he was only an employee and not the owner of the restaurant so he bore no risk apart from the possibility that he might get fired if his maverick venture turned out to be a bad decision. But what if this clever chap also borrowed money from banks on behalf of the company and knew that since most of our money were tied in the restaurant, any moment the company went into financial trouble, it would have affected the most of us. What also if this clever chap prepared himself early, that should he be fired he had himself covered with a generous severance package? The Government would have a recipe of a financial conundrum of having to rescue one company to save a nation from facing a huge financial and possibly a social and political problem and left no choice but come to the rescue by using public funds. That was not just it but here is the thing. there is, again for use of another term that we hear often these days, "a moral hazard", a situation where Governments would have no choice but bail out big companies that took huge financial risks because the CEOs or the COOs "smart" enough to understand that these companies would never be let go bust under the hammer because they were just "too big to fail". The "moral hazard" in this case would be that the MBA chaps of all these companies will go on and continue to take extreme investment risks knowing full well that the government would bail the companies out should something bad to happen as they are just "too big to fail".

Thankfully we didnt face this situation partly I think because our financial system is not as complex as those in Wall Street and our people have not been exposed to complex investment instruments that nobody could understand except those MBA smart alexes. But this is not to say this could not happen here. Of late, we have had encounters with dubious pyramid schemes where hundreds of people were duped into investment schemes offering huge financial returns that were too good to be true. Of course with pyramid schemes, if you were the earlier punters, you would probably be getting huge "returns" from your so called "investment". But lets not forget, these "returns" were actually principal monies from the later members who opted into the scheme. Such scheme would appear to work well for as long as new members kept coming in but like any deck of cards forming a pyramid there will always be a limit on how high this pyramid can grow itself without crumbling down. The very moment new members became hard to come by, the scheme would start to crumble especially when the existing members started to demand their so called "investment" back and if you happened to be at the bottom of the pyramid, you can be sure to kiss your money goodbye.

I am happy to learn that our Government is taking serious actions against these schemes which are very clearly unsustainable business model which are actually illegal in most countries. During His Majesty's recent Birthday celebration, he made the announcement of the formation of the Monetary Authority of Brunei which will come into effect next year. If my hunch is correct, this new outfit will closely follow the set up of the Monetary Authority of Singapore. If this is so, it will be our de facto central bank and a financial regulatory authority at the same time.

Ps I'm starting my 2 1/2 weeks leave as of today. I hope I will be able to post some nice pics of the places that we will visit in the coming days. Ciao :-)

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you are mine :)

FW: My princesses

-original message-
Subject: My princesses

Date: 21/07/2010 19:38

We are now at the Swedish Pizza & Bakery, one of our favorite hangout for a pizza meal.