Time to hibernate

As readers of my blog must have noticed, I have now rarely posted anything on wealth creation activities. To tell you the truth, I have not checked my portfolios for months on end. The reason is obvious, the market has been deserted. Despite, the rolls of stimulus packages all over the globe, it still refuses to be stimulated, like a giant in a drunken stupor, oblivious of its surrounding.

I still check the prices of blue chips every now and then and am waiting for the right time to grab them, and yet when is the right time? As I have moved some of my investments to safer capital-protected instruments and eyeing the money market, I am contented to just monitor the market situation especially from the international perspectives.

The suggestion that we should spend rather than save now makes me cringe though I have been thinking of replacing my nine-year old car but unfortunately I am not that keen on the new model. See, since my student's days in Australia, I only like to drive a certain brand of car and that certainly limits my choices.

With annual inflation, the saving will definitely depreciate and this is made worse by the current low interest rate. This is the time when neither saving nor investing is really fun... time to hibernate and dwell on other issues.

Moral courage

The ability to do something right despite danger, despite the consequences and despite what people say is moral courage. Where physical courage would require bodily strength, even a weak person can display moral courage. It is not often that you see this kind of courage as no one wants to be accused of trying to appear holier-than-thou and end up unpopular or worst still sent to Coventry!

If you discover some unhealthy practices in your organisation, seemingly being supported by your senior managers, would you have the courage to expose it? Would you rather turn the other cheek? We have heard of the Enron story, we have heard of the Bristol Scandal where staff with moral courage have been labelled as whistle-blowers and suffered as a result. But the society became better for their action in terms of improvements and covering of monitoring loopholes.

Moral courage can be executed through an independent boards or committees to lessen the impact on individuals that are supposed to take action to right wrongdoings in an organisation or association. In this instance,true independence is a must and not just apparent.

The scourge of corruption.

Corruption destroys society. In a society where corruption is systematically rampant,there will be injustice, unfairness and hopelessness. Only the rich and the powerful enjoy society's resources and are bound to dictate others. Eventually, hard work and creativity will dry up as they are no longer a virtue. It is not what you know, it is who you know, a common and irritating edict.

The poor will remain poor and the rich will become richer. There will be a sense of hopelessness and social mobility will be restricted. The mediocre will rule and the nation's security will be at risk. Well, if you can pay to get power, what stops a wealthy external power from getting you and make you their puppet? By the way, how is one, on a salary, able to come up with so much money? The answer is staring at our face, more corrupt practices!

It is frightening to witness what is unfolding before us. They talk about following the teaching of the Holy Book but now, do you see the forked tongue?..... God, have mercy on all of us.

The JoY of ReaDinG

I remember when I was in primary school and had just started to read, I stumbled on a couple of story books. The stories of princes, princesses and warriors really fascinated me and when my father saw how engrossed I was in each book borrowed from the small school library, he promised he would buy story books for me if I came first in class. My! That promise motivated me to study hard and sure enough, came top of the class every year since Std VI.

Father would proudly take me to the book store and told me to choose two or three books and I would have read them in no time. So voracious was my appetite for reading that I would be depressed if my father did not buy the daily newspaper in national language. Due to my father's rural posting, I was forced to attend a school in national language. When we first bought the TV, the entertainment programmes were all in English. I used to marvel at the language, telling myself that, one day I would master it.

Being selected to study in one of the premier schools in the country had helped me achieve my childhood ambition of learning English. It was hard at first especially when some students appeared to be already conversant in the language. I kept telling myself, though, that this language would open up a whole world of new reading experiences. True enough, when I began to understand English, I was able to read magazines such as Reader's Digest, Life and Psychology.. all in English. Most magazines in national language then were about movies or the supernatural! Not my cup of tea.

As a teenager among teenagers in a residential school and away from protective parents, I certainly had a sackful of adolescents' problems. Selected articles read in RD and Psychology magazines helped me to deal with such issues as anxiety, jealousy,shyness and self-esteem.

Now I read for promoting and sustaining my technical horizon and for pleasure. I will not leave home without a book. Be it in the car, train,plane or ship and at times while waiting for something to start, my book is my companion. My horizon would be truncated had I only known how to read in my language, imagine waiting for those translations which may never come!. I would have missed enjoying books by Barack Obama ( I am reading "Dreams from my father" now) let alone those technical books and journals that are so essential to my profession. And now with the internet, knowledge acquisition has become almost limitless.