AUSTRALIA

If there is a choice, I will select neither a war theme movie nor a horror movie. But I watched “Australia” with my friend on last Sunday on 28 December 2008. This is a 3 hours long movie with setting in the far outback of Australia, Northern Territory, during World War II in year 1939. Certainly there are footages of Japanese air raid in Darwin but this does not stop me from watching this movie. I watched the film because of my affection for Australia, a feeling of liking that I have during my 2 years stay in Melbourne.

The movie is impressive with scenes of breathtaking beauty especially the adventurous scene which Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman driving 1500 head of cattle across the outback in Northern Territory. I always wonder what it is like to be there, the scotching sun, the mountains aflame in red, starry night, barren landscape with cracks, kangaroos, the sound of wind swirling in the great valley, the kisses of rain, etc. The movie is real, beautiful, romantic and a truly magnificent epic to Australia. The music is exhilarating and touching.

Certainly, Nicole is gorgeous and elegant while Hugh is sexy and butch. But what attracts me more is this little aboriginal child called “Nullah”, who learns the native magic songs from his grand farther King George, which can make him “invinsible”. It is inspiring while he sings to fish, to people, to rocks, to animals. In the movie, Hugh mentioned that the ancestors of aborigine had created different songs for different elements in the great nature. It is simply amazing to see Nullah single-handedly stopping a huge herd of running amok cattle by this spiritual hymn. As the song goes, we are led into the wondrous world of wonder. It is revealing for me because many of us has been blinded by the materialistic and sensual pleasure that we have forgotten the simplest bliss from the great nature.

“… … … to return to where you come from… … …” I was stunned when King George said this line in the movie when he came to fetch Nullah for his walkabout. For me, it sounds like a warm reminder to me to remember the feeling before I was born. We are fully embraced by peace and serenity while we were being carried by our mother. But our mind is corrupted by myriad of things while we are growing up and lead us into various up and down in life.

One great thing of this movie is the portrayal of the profound beauty of Australian aboriginal art and cultures. It is beautiful and hence it taught us the importance to respect others’ cultures and civilizations but not suppression or assimilation to exterminate them. It is very important to retain every culture and it is awesome to see thousand different flower blossoms in the garden rather than just one type of flower.

p/s: please visit http://oneyearplan.net/Andrew

UNITED WE FALL

The collapse of Lehman Brother and Bear Stearns has altered the landscape of the global economy. Since then series of dramas have been staged in US encompasses the nationalization of the two mortgage giants, the bailout of the notorious Wall Street financial institutions, the recent rescue measures for the Detroit big 3 auto makers and the arrest of the former Nasdaq chairman Bernard Madoff, etc. I wonder if anyone out there actually enquiring how possibly a country like US, with double deficits, is capable of throwing out so much money to revamp its deeply battered economy. Of course they can, at least they can get the Fed to print more money and the Treasury to raise further debts from countries like China to subsidize the whole scheme.

Much attention has been focused on whether China, with its huge amount of foreign exchanges reserves, could come to rescue. Some said yes, with other no. Those who favor the idea would inevitably say it is necessary so that the world can be saved from slipping into recession. Those who are against it will probably question the benefits of such Samaritan act.

Many would argue that China’s gigantic domestic demand can cushion the slowing down of the western consumptions and look forward the “Product made in China” by the world factory to be absorbed / phased out domestically. But what we noticed in the past few months is the shutting down of many factories by stealth in the southern part of China. Had China filled the consumption vacuum created by US, I believe that the shutting down and bankruptcy cases would be reduced. In addition, there are many lay-offs in China, with substantial number of fresh graduates from university with grim hope of getting job. I have an online friend in Shanghai who has just resigned on October and found a job in November but until now he still has not started his job yet. Why? The new company has simply responded to him that the job offer letter is not yet ready; the same excuse was given for about two months. Indirectly it means he has not got the job. So he has to go around and hunt for another job.

It is a daunting task to push the Chinese spending off their RENMIBI while the unemployment rate keeps rising. People just want to hold a firm grip of whatever fortune they have now, this is more so after the 60% drop in China stock markets which has subsequently impacted on many Chinese’s saving. Chinese is simply a very different kind of people raised under a totally different systems and culture; hence it would be silly to ask Chinese to spend the way how American used to spend.

So if one keens to see China as a White Knight with “huge” (or elusive in fact) domestic demand and expect more investment activities, forget it!!!

How about throwing billions and billions on public infrastructures projects? Have to man!!! Otherwise it will be just difficult to achieve the 8% GDP growth.

But Chinese government has encountered a lot of pressures internationally including not depreciating its RENMIBI to help Chinese manufacturers sell their cheap China products competitively.

Other issue includes whether to keep buying more Treasury bill from the States since China is one of the largest holders of US Treasury bills. Capital flee is common in countries severely hit by financial crisis. That is the case in the 1998 Asian financial crisis. Korea is one of the victims of the current crisis where investors crawled back its capital and parked under much safer assets such as US Treasury bills, bonds, etc. I just wonder if this is the safe heaven because US is the epicenter of the whole financial meltdown. But where else can these investors go? I think US is the only place. No wonder the US currency keeps going up and on the other hand I believe it reduces the energy price. That is something positive. Otherwise we certainly will have another monster to combat.

If China reduces its current holdings or refuses to buy new Treasury bills issued by the States, the credit rating of such bills will drop and China will probably feel its aftereffect by having huge losses. And I also wonder if the reduction of such holding would result in the plummet of US currency. I believe no one will like to see the drop in US currency because that will imply a potential increase in energy price which many countries trying very much to get around.

Many people have predicted that the worst is over and hope that China can come to rescue. But recently China has slowly released some dismal data about its own economy. I think the full dire effect of Chinese economy will only emerge next year. Hence, the worst probably has yet to come.

China, a developing super power with its own problems to solve, now has staggering duties to discharge, to save the world. Sound like a “Hero”, but can they really SAVE the world?

p/s: visit http://oneyearplan.net/Andrew

Privatise or not?

Our government has announced recently that the privatization proposal of National Heart Institute from Sime Darby will be deferred and further study will be undertaken on this issue. This is great news for numerous heart patients nationwide. However, I really wonder what is there to “study” and why it needs to be “deferred”. Why our government can’t simply reject the proposal straight away? Why let the private sector deprives these medical benefits from the poor. Since we are a developing country and based on the 80/20 rule, 80% of the patients may not have access to good medical service once privatized, isn’t it clear that our government should continue to discharge their social responsibilities even though they claim that abovementioned privatization is to reduce the government costs.

I think not everything can be evaluated or judged from commercial perspectives. It is different from the open and liberalization of the long regulated Singapore and Malaysia sky route, which will ultimately benefit many consumers. Business is operated on a different objectives which is profit oriented. It is likely for a privatised hospital to put serving the top 20% of the rich on high agenda because it certainly brings in more revenue. It is a matter of time for the poor to be left stranded or unattended. On the other hand, government functions on a different basis that requires its social responsibilities to be discharged.

It is no point to argue that the privatization can improve the efficiency. If that is true, it implies that the government is not doing a good job.

Taking care of the health of your people is important, if the government needs them to defend, to fight and to build the country. If our country can not take care of us, who else?

Some decisions need to be processed through our mind / brain. But there are many answers we can get just by asking our HEART.

p/s: visit http://oneyearplan.net/Andrew

Deloitte here I come

ok, just accept the offer from Deloitte last friday so now I am part of Deloitte. The office is so damn far from my house that I need to move to PJ area. Hopefully, by getting into this firm, it grand big 4 name can catapult me to international job market.

Greed

Imagine a bank (we will name it “A” subsequently), has total asset value amounting to USD25 million in their balance sheet, and operate at “high leverage” level to gain huge profit for it’s shareholders. With leverage of 30 times it gives you a leveraged amount of USD750 million. It means A is pledging its USD25 million to borrow USD750 million from investors for its investment purposes. With expected rate of return of 5%, the profit will be USD37.5 million, a return on asset (ROA) of 150% which is extremely high!!!

What A intends to do next is lending out this sum of USD750 million to certain borrowers for mortgage loan purpose.

In order to get around the default risk, A approaches B to insure against these sum of loans. A agrees to pay USD3 million in the next 5 years to B for such insurance, it amounts to USD15 million in total. For A, it is good cause it has B to insure against its loans and after paying USD15 million, A still has a profit of USD22.5 million (USD37.5 million – USD15 million) while B is profitable as he makes another business which will get them USD3 million annually provided that the actuarial calculation indicated that the risk is within an acceptable range. This is the so called Credit Default Swaps (the notorious CDS).

Now C is getting jealous with the abovementioned deal and want to become part of this game so that he can benefited from this scheme as well. So C approached B and asks B to sell 1000 CDS contract to C for USD10 million. B can happily do so because it takes 5 years for B to earn the USD15 million but now B can bag in USD10 million immediately if B agrees to sell 1000 CDS to C.

And then C repackaged the CDS and securitizes it and sell to D in the market, so on and so on and so on until it reaches trillion of dollars in the market.

Now, with some spices the story goes like this. Assuming that the borrowers that A provided loans to are of sub-prime credit rating and the loose regulations enable A to lend to these group of borrowers with lower credibility. The property market is booming and the increasing price of the houses represents just the good collaterals for these loans. So people borrow money to buy house with the intention to resell later on.

However, the price can never go up forever, it will drop when the bubble burst. What happen after the burst of the property bubble the borrowers may not be able to sell the house to repay the loans, hence default begins. A loses hence turn to CDS for its insurance claims.

Holders of the CDS contract suffer since they are liable to pay out the insurance sums at the point of time when the borrowers default. It is a huge amount; hence the CDS holders collapse and declare bankruptcy.

This is properly one of the problems with AIG, financial risk is very different from the normal insurance risk that they encounter. One’s car was crashed in an accident does not mean your neighbor car’s is about to be crashed too. But financial risk is different, it is contagious, insurmountable and unstoppable, when the market crashes many parties will take the brunt of it.

As a result, if the holders of CDS can not take out the insurance money, they only left with the choice to declare bankrupt or ask uncle SAM to bail them out.

What am I talking about here? I think you know.

p/s: greed is good, take action now in here.

somemore..............

Something to add on to the landsliding tragedy, what about those pylon built on hillslope and near residential area, are all these pylons safe? What if the hillslope where the pylon was built has erosion which lead to the toppling of the pylon? Woow, better dun think further.

p/s: picture googled from the Internet, this is clearly not pylon in here. Dun know where it is so ask me no more. Hehe.

p/s: visit http://oneyearplan.net/Andrew

Again and again it happens

What is hot in past one week? It is the landslides that struck Bukit Antarabangsa one week ago that we are talking about, this tragedy has taken it’s toll of 4 persons and one is still missing now.

This incident sounds so familiar; it happens quite a couple of times. One can not help asking why serious actions from Government were only taken now. Is it due to the mounting public outcry over last week tragedy? Or they are trying to make amends to something wrong they have done?

Our Government has, at the very least, frozen a few projects currently under construction at certain landslide-prone area to deter likely landslide or land erosion tragedy and evaluations / proper studies is now undertaken on these temporary frozen projects. On the other hand, our Government also plans to adopt certain Hill Slope Property building policies and guidelines effectively executed and duely implemented in Hong Kong so that we can get around further casualty in future.

But why all these only come now, that it is so “Just in Time”? Isn’t mandatory for the Government and the developers to carry out proper study before any construction works was kicked off? If this situation continues, we really need to enquire the possibility of achieving the “Wawasan 2020”. How can we get there if the people running the system lack that level of quality to ensure that things are on track? If our country can not assure its people of their shelter, we really wonder on what earth we are going to ask our people to achieve the much ambitious “Wawasan 2020”. It is same as the water issue, many know that the quality of the water here is horrendous and one knows the importance of water to one’s health. If the water is not clean, how do you expect our people to stay healthy to be competitive?

I think I have to repeat what American Presidents like to say but with slight changes : God Bless Malaysia.


p/s: the picture was googled out somewhere from the Internet. Not taken by me.

Old friends

I was rushing back hometown two days ago in order to take my original academic transcripts and other relevant documents for my up coming interview next week.

These documents have long been buried down in my closet ages ago since I last applied jobs. All my academic transcripts and testimonials were cluttered up together with my other stuffs I brought back from Australia. Not working and free, I decided to clean up the clutter and keep things in good order. Flipping through these almost out of the ark documents (included documents since primary school) I came across one stake of birthday cards given by my friends of campus team bible study group while I attended the Waverley Christian Fellowship (“WCF”) back in year 2000, together with some pictures we took eight years ago. My gaze was on these cards and pictures for quite a while, gracious and sweet memories were slowly evoked from my heart.

It had been almost 8 years I did not contact these friends. The last time we saw each other was at the Melbourne International airport in year 2001. These are the people who make me feel very much at home during my stay in Australia. I went to pursue my tertiary degree in Monash alone. The new environment did set me adrift initially, but I rapidly made the acquaintances of a few Malaysian, with some Christian, students within a month. I was brought to WCF by these Christian friends and that seems to be a right place where it’s at for me to mingle with the local people so that I can be better acquainted with their cultures.

I really feel touched every time I went to attend the cell group and it is amazing to “share” many things with my cell members. As a non Christian, my cell group leader understands the awkwardness I may encounter in the church, hence she promises me to be very patient. I was a skeptic then and was quite resistant to Christianity. Though I did not convert myself into a Christian till now, but at the very least I can now accept Christianity completely. The cell group actually offers me their heartiest fellowship and hence much peace and joys abodes in me then. There is one time; my cell group leader washed our feet just as how Jesus Christ did to his disciples. It moved me so much that I feel the grace of the whole thing.

How sweet it is when we held our hands together, singing the songs to rejoice the presence of God and feel the breath and touches of the holy spirits; how joyful it is for all the activities that we participated together encompass Christmas carol in old folks home to many more parties and gatherings that we used to have. I feel that I can be attached to them. Should I baptize myself becoming a brother and sister with them in Christ, I am sure it will be awesome.

Being a free thinker would not come amiss for me in the mean time. Thanks friends, I will try to keep in touch with all of you guys once again for you are the one who teach me how to open up myself, how to share and how to hug one another and celebrate the grace of the God.

p/s: visit http://oneyearplan.net/Andrew

China Trip No.4 - 11 September 2008 (Day 1) - Promenade and Pudong

Crossing the road from the Bund, you will reach the Promenade (second picture) along the Bund. This is one of the best places to take pictures of Pudong skyline (as shown in the first picture). The Promenade is packed with people and photography booths touting the photography services. And you can enjoy the sightseeing here and the breeze is really comfortable. It is great to take a stroll along the Promenade to see those river cruises and ferries passing by. Nice view, it is a place overlooking the façade of Pudong skyline including the Shanghai Oriental Tower, Jing Mao Tower (the world fifth tallest building - third picture) and also the Shanghai World Financial Centre (the world second tallest building - third picture).

As mentioned in my previous blog, I met a lady from Si Chuan Province who came to travel in Shanghai alone at the Promenade. She requested me to take photo for her and she did it for me in return. After exchanging a very brief conversation, we found that we were heading toward the same direction, the Oriental Pearl Tower; therefore we decided to go there together. We took a ferry to cross the river.

It is weird that we have to seat inside the ferry; hence we lose the chance to enjoy the breeze swirling across HuangPu River. After crossing the river, we needed to walk about 15 minutes to reach the Oriental Pearl Tower. We passed by the Jing Mao Tower and the Shanghai World Financial Centre, we paused and took our pictures here. It is nice to meet another couple from Shan Xi province （山西省）. They required us to take pictures for them and it was great to find out that they were heading toward the same destination as us. So we walked together and started our chat till we reached Oriental Pearl Tower.

Pudong means the east side of HuangPu River and the river segregates the Great Shanghai into new and old. Basically, one can barely see any modern building before 1990s in Pudong, it is a vast area covered with numerous villages. But now, Pudong is the area to showcase the prosperity of Shanghai and China, it has the tallest building in China, one of the biggest stock exchanges in Asia, its equivalent to Wall Street LuJiaZui financial district, world class performing art centre, state of the art museums, Pudong International Air Port and many more. This area signifies the future of China that various modern development ideas are being unfolded and materialized.

The entry ticket to Oriental Pearl Tower varies depending which part of the Tower we want to go. The Tower consists of Shanghai Municipal History Museum, 360 degree view of the city (provided is a clear day but the day I went is overcast), a restaurant and the Space Mountain rollercoaster ride. The building is 468 meter tall (1535 ft). We only opted for the Shanghai Municipal History Museum and the 360 degree view of the city, which costs about RMB 100 each person. I think this is the most expensive entry ticket I had ever paid (the gigantic forbidden city in Beijing only costs me RMB 80) in my whole China trip.

We spent around 30 minutes taking pictures and enjoying the city view. Then we went to the basement in order to visit the museum. The Shanghai Municipal Museum takes us through the history of old shanghai with audio-visual exhibits.

When we came out it is already 6 pm and the sky had turned completely dark. So we decided to go for dinner but neither the Si Chuan lady nor I knew where to dine (don’t forget it is still the first day of my trip). Somehow, we decided to go to NanJing Road to look for a decent place to dine. The nearest Subway is Lu Jia Zui station, from there we went to the NanJing East Road station.

When we got down at the NanJing East Road station, it was raining. But the rain soon stopped. We came out, turned right and we were lucky to come across a very popular local snack foods street called Wu Jiang Road (吴江路). The street is not very long, but still I had no idea what to eat. It was my first meal since I arrived in Shanghai (I didn’t have anything for the whole day). I remembered I walked up and down the whole street twice trying to figure out what to eat. In the end, we entered into a small restaurant serving “Hu Nan Cai” （湖南菜）. Hu Nan Province is where Chairman Mao Ze Dong from.

My Si Chuan friend had given me a shout for my first meal in China. It is a wonderful night. This is how I find out that Chinese people are passionate and friendly, she even gave me a “YumSeng” and volunteered herself to welcome me visiting China on behalf of all Chinese people. Woow, I was stunned then. We exchanged our contact because she was going back to Si Chuan the next day. After the dinner we farewell with each others.

p/s: visit http://oneyearplan.net/Andrew

China Trip No.3 - 11 September 2008 (Day 1) - The Bund

When I arrived at Jing An International Youth hostel at around 10 am in the morning, I did not go out immediately. After checking in into the hostel, unloading my luggage and taking a shower, I decided to take a short nap before going out because I am too excited about this trip that I did not actually sleep on board while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Shanghai.

I woke up at 3 pm, put on my cloths without eating (not hungry then). I started ponder over where I should go since I came to China without detail itinerary. Shanghai Bund was the first thing that came to my mind. Hence, I decided to go to the Bund.

I walked to the Subway station (Jing An station) and enquired the lady at the information counter which line I should take and which station I should get down in order to reach the Bund. The answer is Subway Line 2, Nan Jing East Road (南京东路).

It is worthy to mention that the Subway in China is very friendly to foreigners and travelers. Passengers will be informed about the next destination in both English and Chinese. The next coming destination is also shown on screen in case the train is too noisy that the passengers can not hear the reporting clearly. This will help certain foreigners who can not understand the English reporting with heavy Chinese accent. The train is clean by the way.

When I get down at the Nan Jing East Road station, I am overwhelmingly stunned by the people I saw. Standing at the entrance, I have two options with the popular Nan Jing East Road pedestrian walkway on my left or go to the bund on my right. I was not quite sure where the Bund is at that time but I quickly learned that it is 5 minutes walking distance from the Nan Jing East Road station when I overheard a conversation between two ladies. So I started walking toward there. After walking for 5 minutes, I saw the famous Peace Hotel (和平饭店) and quickly took several pictures of it with my digital camera. Built in 1929 as a luxurious hotel, every luminary visited (of course I am talking about the early 20th century) Shanghai stayed here. Peach hotel is located at the corner of the street and the Bund is just right in front of me.

This strip of land along the HuangPu River has stately magnificent building erected alongside and each is different and distinctive with one another. The buildings are old but still maintain its stately glamorous and original character. Most of the buildings were built during the era of colonial foreign domination in China in the early 20 century. The open and the development of Shanghai was the result of the British signatories to the Treaty of Nanjing in 1842 that ended the First Opium War (separate treaty were signed by US and France in 1844). With many banks and financial institutions lining up the Bund, it looks like Wall Street in the East or Manhattan in New York.

I did not finish walking the Bund and here are a few photos taken of the buildings. It is interesting to see that one bank has two stoned lion guided in front of the bank entrance, with one lion mouth opened and another mouth shut. This signifies that “Money go in, but not go out”, a very prosperous sign indeed.

There is something I miss out which was reminded by my friend subsequently. The interior design and art deco on wall and ceiling inside these old building is magnificent and are worth taking a look. No wonder many of these buildings were turned into beautiful boutique and art exhibition centre such as the Bund 18.

The night scene at the Bund is beautiful where one can see all building are aflame in different rays of light and colour. One can take a night river cruise to enjoy the romantic night scene here. But I did not manage to see it.

I met a lady from Shi Chuan Province who came to travel in Shanghai alone. She requested me to take photo for her and she did it for me in return. After exchanging a very brief conversation, we find that we are heading toward the same direction, the Oriental Pearl Tower; therefore we decided to go there together. We took a ferry to cross the river.

p/s: visit http://oneyearplan.net/Andrew