Warren Buffett Interview

What can I possibly do with billions and billions of dollars? I don’t see the fuss in having 6 houses with greenskeepers; I don’t see the fuss in having 20 cars in the garage. If you think about it you are living better than John D. Rockefeller. If you want to watch the Super Bowl you just turn on the TV and watch it. If he wanted to see the World Series it would take him a long time to get there, and he would not have air conditioning and that type of thing. The problem is not getting rich, but finding a game you enjoy and living a normal life. The most important thing is finding the right spouse. If you make the wrong decision on that you will regret it, there is a lot of pain involved, but if you have the right spouse it is just wonderful. What qualities do you look for in a spouse? Humour, looks, character, brains, or just someone with low expectations. The most important decision that you will make is that. If you make that one decision right I will guarantee you a good result in life.

Question: What is happiness? Are you happy?

I am so blessed. I get to do what I like to do with people that I love. That is happiness. I am happy day after day after day. How could I be any happier? Someone once said success is getting what you want and happiness is wanting what you get. And that’s what I see in people as I look around. The only thing I have to do in life that I don’t like doing is fire people occasionally – very seldom. I would pay a lot of money if I didn’t have to do that. But wverything else I like. I’m doing what I like doing. I could be playing shuffleboard, I could be in Vegas, but I’m doing what I like doing. There is a woman here in Omaha who is a Polish Jew. She was in Auschwitz, her family was in Auschwitz. One would be in one line, another in another line. One of them didn’t come out. She said this to me “Warren, I am very slow to make friends, because the bottom line when I look at somebody is would they hide me?” Now I know people my age that have dozens and dozens of people who would hide them, Tom Murphy for example from Berkshire. I can tell you about a whole bunch of others who are worth billions and billions of dollars, who have schools named after them, who nobody would hide them. Their own kids wouldn’t even hide them “He is in the attic, he is in the attic”. That hiding is just a metaphor for love. If you have people that you want to love you, that do love you. If you leave out illness I have never found anyone who has dozens of people who love them, or would hide them using my metaphor, who is an unhappy person. I have seen all kinds of people that they are miserable. They have what the rest of the world may think is important, but they don’t have anybody who gives a damn about them. Being given unconditional love is the greatest benefit you can ever get. The incredible thing about love is that you can’t get rid of it. If you try to give it away you end up with twice as much, but if you try to hold onto it, it disappears. It is an extraordinary situation, where the people who just absolutely push it out, get it back tenfold. My friend Tom Murphy that I mentioned before, if he does 20 things for me he doesn’t expect even one back.

Foreign law firms good for S'pore

ST Aug 27, 2008
Young lawyers get to practise with global firms and gain exposure
By Selina Lum

CHANGES to the Legal Profession Act passed in Parliament yesterday will now open up the hitherto protected legal sector to allow foreign firms more leeway to operate here.

The presence of strong local and foreign law firms will strengthen Singapore’s reputation as the region’s legal services centre, said Law Minister K. Shanmugam.

Young and talented Singaporean lawyers too stand to gain as they will now have more opportunities to practise in big international firms and gain international exposure, he said.

The amendments to the Act follow recommendations made last September by a committee, headed by Justice V. K. Rajah, tasked with developing the legal sector.

They come nine years after the Government first sent signals that the sector should be liberalised.

Three key changes will result from yesterday’s legislative amendment:

Come October, five foreign law firms will be allowed to hire Singapore-qualified lawyers to practise Singapore law in certain areas, namely high-end work in corporate and banking sectors.

Second, an existing scheme in which a local firm ties up with a foreign one has been enhanced, among other things, allowing the foreign part of the venture to share up to 49 per cent of the local constituent’s profits.

Third, the scope of work that foreign firms can carry out in international commercial arbitration involving Singapore law has been widened.

Four of the five parliamentarians who spoke on the issue yesterday were practising lawyers. To a man, the latter expressed concern about the impact of the liberalisation on local law firms. They also had reservations about whether the moves would really benefit Singapore as envisioned.

Mr Shanmugam said he understood their concerns about competition but pointed out that a number of areas would continue to be ‘ring-fenced’ beyond the reach of foreign firms.

These include constitutional and administrative law, conveyancing, criminal law, family law, succession law, trust law for individuals and litigation.

Local firms also stood to benefit if the economy as a whole prospered. ‘We must remember that the decision to liberalise was taken because we believe that it is in the overall economic interest of Singapore. It should also benefit the legal services sector as a whole,’ he said.

Explaining a key driver behind the moves, Mr Shanmugam noted that financial-sector representatives had asked ‘very strongly’ for the legal market to be liberalised.

‘We survive as an economic entity by reason of being open, by reason of being economically competitive. The financial services sector is one of the key pillars of our economy and we have to listen to the feedback from that sector,’ he said.

He later addressed a point made by Mr Sin Boon Ann (Tampines GRC), who was concerned that top local firms could become ‘footnotes in our history books’.

Mr Shanmugam, a partner in Allen & Gledhill until he became Law Minister earlier this year, said he would be the last person to disagree with the point that the major law firms contribute significantly to the legal heritage and legal culture in Singapore.

But when dealing with policy issues, one had to look at things in terms of the benefit to the public, he said.

Singapore’s interest was best served by allowing competition, enabling more choices for young lawyers and creating a more vibrant economic legal market.

‘When that calculation comes through, it cannot be dominated by emotion,’ he said.

To Nominated MP and accountant Gautam Banerjee, who asked for even more liberalisation, he said: ‘We start at five (foreign firms). I think it’s better for us to proceed cautiously and make sure we get it right.’

Tracy Phillips: Mixing Work with Passion

by Chris Emmanuel
As far as the entertainment industry goes, Tracy Phillips is one whose shoes are certainly hard to fill. The humble and trendy pace setter very kindly took time out her busy schedule to sit down and have a chat with CHOICES.

She is young, beautiful and successful. She is undoubtedly a household name among the partygoers at Zouk. Though not always seen, Tracy is often heard through her ideas and concepts that have indeed been a part of the success Zouk experiences.

Born in Singapore, the Marketing Manager of Zouk grew up in Australia. She returned to Singapore when she was 12 and got her secondary school education at St. Joseph’s Convent. After her O’ Levels, Tracy enrolled in a Diploma programme at Nanyang Polytechnic. Upon graduation, she landed her first job at the Waterfilms Production House.

A fan of Zouk ever since her first clubbing days, she used to frequent the nightspot very often. During these visits, she loved sharing her creative ideas on the clubbing scene and it was through such encounters that she found herself being offered a job by Zouk’s management. Sounds like a dream come true for the rest of us.

She kicked off her career with Zouk in September 1998. “I had no prior intentions of actually working in a club, but had always had a great passion for music & club culture and in particular for Zouk. It’s been an amazing journey and I am extremely grateful to Lincoln and all the wonderful people I work with daily for providing me with the opportunity,” says Tracy.

The gorgeous 29-year-old relates that when she first started out in the industry, it was hard to be taken seriously. “I was very young back then, with crazy hairstyles & quirky outfits and working with industry peers….

Mong Kok inferno kills 4, injures 55

Don’t live above a nightclub.


Mong Kok inferno kills 4, injures 55
Firemen die fighting major apartment blaze
Austin Chiu, Ng Kang-chung and Agnes Lam
SCMP Aug 11, 2008
Two firefighters, an elderly woman and a person believed to be a nightclub employee were killed yesterday morning in one of Hong Kong’s worst commercial and residential building blazes in a decade.

At least 55 people aged five to 77, including three firemen, were injured in the alarm No 5 fire at Cornwall Court, Nathan Road, Mong Kok and were admitted to four hospitals.

A 26-year-old man, at one point critical, was last night in serious condition along with two other men and a woman, while 18 people were in stable or satisfactory condition. The rest were treated and discharged.

The six-hour blaze broke out at about 9.20am and was extinguished at 3.13pm. It began in a nightclub on the first floor of the building, Fire Services Department director Gregory Lo Chun-hung said.

A nightclub employee, who identified herself as Ms Law, told the South China Morning Post she set off an alarm after workers sleeping at the club were awakened by a loud noise shortly before 9.30 am.

“About six or seven of us were sleeping at the nightclub,” she said. “We heard a loud noise and woke up and ran downstairs. We saw lots of smoke and so I broke the fire alarm. But one staff member didn’t leave with us. We still have not heard from that staffer.”

The Fire Services Department said no smoke-prevention door was installed at the nightclub.

The two firemen killed in the blaze were 46-year-old Siu Wing-fong, a 24-year veteran and father of a 12-year-old girl, and Chan Siu-lung, 25, who had joined the department just a year ago. Both were from the Mong Kok fire station.

A 77-year-old woman was found dead on the ninth floor, while another body, as yet unidentified but believed to be female, was found in the nightclub.

Mr Lo said investigators would probe the cause of the fire and the deaths. Rescue operations were hampered by the intense heat, heavy smoke and narrow passages inside the building, he said.

“Our colleagues found the two firefighters [who later died] on the top floor of the building,” Mr Lo said. “When the rescue team found them, they were still dressed in full protective gear, but were already unconscious.”

The two men had entered the building from the ground floor to search for residents.

The division commander for Kowloon Central, Lau Chi-ho, said: “It was very difficult for us to get into the upper part of the building. The intense heat was trapped in the staircase, and the heat could not be released. The temperature was too high and the smoke was very thick.

“When we arrived, the mezzanine was filled with smoke, and the thick smoke … raged through every floor of the building.” The firemen had to use ladders to rescue residents waving for help on the upper floors, as it was so difficult to reach them from inside.

Speaking to reporters at the scene yesterday, Secretary for Security Ambrose Lee Siu-kwong offered his condolences to the families of the dead firefighters. “We are deeply sorry about the deaths of the two very brave firemen,” he said. “I, together with the chief executive and the chief secretary, send our deepest condolences to the families, and we will do everything possible to help them to get over this very difficult period.”

Acting Chief Executive Henry Tang Ying-yen, Director of Home Affairs Pamela Tan Kam Mi-wah and Mr Lee visited victims in hospital.

“We admire the two firemen’s bravery and their professionalism in their work. We visited families of the two firemen and the elderly woman. They are deeply saddened and heart-broken. I am in deep sorrow, too,” Mr Tang said.

Randy Pausch

Randolph Frederick Pausch (October 23, 1960 – July 25, 2008) was an American professor of computer science, human-computer interaction and design at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and a best-selling author who achieved worldwide fame for his “The Last Lecture” speech on September 18, 2007 at Carnegie Mellon. The lecture was conceived after, in summer 2007, Pausch had learned that his previously known pancreatic cancer was terminal.

Pausch delivered his “Last Lecture,” titled “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams,” at CMU on September 18, 2007. This talk was modeled after an ongoing series of lectures where top academics are asked to think deeply about what matters to them, and then give a hypothetical “final talk,” i.e., “what wisdom would you try to impart to the world if you knew it was your last chance?”

Oceanlab – Miracle (Above & Beyond Club Mix)

Don’t they know that there’s something going on
What they’re harming with their indecision
But who will be left standing when I’m gone?
There’ll be nothing left but a vision

It’s too easy to turn a blind eye to the light
It’s too easy to bow your head and pray
There are some times when you should try to find your voice
This is one voice that you must find today

Are you hoping for a miracle
As the ice caps melt away
No use hoping for a miracle
There’s a price we’ll have to pay

Neutrality

“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.”

~ Desmond Mpilo Tutu, Winner of the 1984 Nobel Prize in Peace

Jivamukti Yoga

After waiting for more than 10 years, I finally attended a class at Jivamukti today. Jivamukti appears true to nature and the founders, Deva Das (David Life) and Tripura Sundari (Sharon Gannon), actually teach yoga. The word “Jivamukti” is derived from Sanskrit for “living liberation”. Madonna, Uma Thurman, William Dafoe, Sting, Gwyneth Paltrow, Christy Turlington, Sarah Jessica Parker and Diane Keaton are regulars.

Jivamukti have basically taken traditional yoga and adopted it to modern times, by using current music and trends. While it is true that we need to stick to tradition, some minor adaptations are useful to improve the teachings. For example, I got a good dose of aromatherapy (peppermint at the start and Ylang Ylang at the end) during the session. And guess what music they played when the vinyasas began? Sounds from Thievery Corporation.

Blackest day yet for air pollution

Blackest day yet for air pollution
Olympic equestrian competitors shrug off concerns over heat and record smog levels
Cheung Chi-fai and Melanie Ho
SCMP Jul 29, 2008

Hong Kong was hit by its worst-ever air pollution amid exceptionally hot weather yesterday, raising fears that similar conditions could affect competitors and spectators at next month’s Olympic equestrian events.

But organisers and competitors said they were confident they and their horses would be able to cope with such conditions.

In the latest extreme in a year that has already seen one of the longest cold snaps on record and the wettest June, the air pollution index hit 202 on the outlying island of Tap Mun – a point higher than the previous record of 201 set at Tung Chung in 2004.

The Observatory recorded a maximum temperature at its Tsim Sha Tsui headquarters of 34.6 degrees Celsius, although higher levels were found elsewhere including 36.6 degrees at the equestrian host town of Sha Tin, where the air pollution index was an unprecedented 173. The roadside readings in urban areas were much lower, however, hovering around 100.

The Environmental Protection Department blamed the fringe effects of Typhoon Fung-wong for the hot conditions and still air that trapped pollutants, and an active photochemical process in the air that generated ozone, the main pollutant.

University of Science and Technology atmospheric scientist Alexis Lau Kai-hon said the weather would normally become hot and air quality turn bad whenever there was a typhoon near Taiwan. He said that while yesterday’s westerly wind had brought hot air and pollutants from the mainland, the city had also made its own contribution to the dirty air.

“The pollutants travelled to the city and mixed with locally generated ones under the strong sunshine, giving rise to high concentrations of ozone in the air. But the question of why the reading was so high remains unanswered,” he said.

Ground-level ozone is a secondary pollutant produced by a chemical reaction of nitrogen oxide and volatile organic compounds under sunshine. A high concentration can lead to eye irritations, coughing and even chromosome changes

Lobo Louie Hung-tak, an associate professor in Baptist University’s department of physical education, said he was surprised to learn that the pollution reading in Sha Tin was so high.

He said the equestrian event organisers should consider postponing competition in such conditions.

“Even if the well-trained riders and horses can cope with the pollution and heat, the spectators, who are not allowed to use any umbrellas, might still be exposed to the health risks of hot weather and poor air quality,” he said.

But three equestrian teams already in Hong Kong downplayed the impact of pollution and hot weather and said they believed conditions would be acceptable.

“We have no concerns at all. These are the horses that we flew over from Florida, where it’s been 37 and 38 degrees for the last few weeks,” said Canadian team leader Michael Gallagher. “We’ve noticed the haze, but it’s not black like it is in Beijing.”

Hans Melzer, of the German team, which had its first training session yesterday morning, said: “The horses were quite sweaty but nobody was too tired.” Australian Brett Mace said the hot weather was not unique to Hong Kong.

Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen said during a visit to the equestrian venues that he found the weather no problem at all: “The city of Athens might be hotter than us. All players have to prepare for a fair competition, be it in a cold or hot place.”

The Equestrian Events Company refused to say if it would postpone events under similar conditions and said it had received no complaints about air pollution from the teams.

Temasek selling Merrill Lynch?

Temasek Selling Merrill Lynch
Half or total of 87m shares have been sold off at a loss, according to US recorded filings.
Seah Chiang Nee
Jul 24, 2008

Temasek Holdings has sold off half its ill-timed investment in Merrill Lynch – or about 87m shares, according to a mutual funds report on institutional trades on US stocks. The online report, MFFAIRS (Mutual Fund Facts About Individual Stocks), reported it sold off 86,949,594 shares (50%), leaving a current holdings of 86,949,594 shares (50%), according to the filings made public.

The report gave no exact date or price of the sale. Neither has there been any confirmation from Temasek, which had paid US$48 a share last year. http://www.mffais.com/newsarticles/2008-07-22/2473637-211738.html

Last week Merrill Lynch was traded at $31.

At that price Temasek would have suffered a loss of $17 a share – or a total loss of about US$1.48b for the 87mil shares.

Despite massive write-downs and capital injection, Merrill Lynch’s outlook remains uncertain, reports Bloomberg.

The company’s equity capital position is weak relative to competitors, said Brad Hintz, a New York-based analyst at Sanford C Bernstein, reports Ambereen Choudhury.

“With $19.9b in CDOs still frozen on the balance sheet and with counterparty risk rising on the hedges underlying these troubled positions, the potential for additional material write-downs remains a concern,” Hintz said.

The New York-based firm’s credit rating was cut last week by Moody’s Investors Service to A2 from A1.

The third-biggest US securities firm probably will report a loss of $6.57 a share this year, compared with an earlier forecast of $1.07, Hintz said. The revised estimate assumes the company generates no earnings in the second half. Merrill may have to take an additional $10 billion of pre-tax write-downs related to its holdings of mortgage securities, Moody’s estimates.

Huge paper losses

The disposal leaves Temasek Holdings and the Government Investment Corporation (GIC) still holding substantial parts of big troubled Western banks. Its remaining investments in UBS (Switzerland), Citigroup, Barclays and Merrill Lynch – at an original cost of US$21.88b – have declined on by some 47 percent in value. That is a paper loss of US$10.28b. However, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew had said these investments were made as a long-term strategy of 30 years. But as the Merrill Lynch sale shows, Temasek is not inflexible about cutting losses, if things threaten to get worse. The political leadership has defended its investment of these sub-prime banks as “an opportunistic” foray that can happen once in a long while. It believes these companies will survive the crisis and emerge stronger.

Some experts believe that Temasek has made an error of judgment. Investment guru Jim Rogers said in July he believed that US bank stocks could fall further and predicted that Singapore’s state investors would lose money on Citigroup and Merrill Lynch. “I’m shorting investment banks on Wall Street,” the successful investor said. “It grieves me to see what Singapore is doing. They are going to lose money.”

At the Nomura Dialogue recently, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew reported to investment mistakes, but that no one had benefited from it.

Singaporeans who want to see greater transparency in the government’s investments in troubled companies are unhappy with this vague answer to a serious problem.

One writer said, “Should we just move on? I do not think so. The patently huge mistake is not merely the result of recklessness but rather a systemic lack of accountability in making some of our largest investments.

“Let it be clear, the harm is terminally done. The entire reserves system must be re-examined and audited.”

Said slohand, “I saw the interview on TV last night and felt shortchanged.

“He brushed aside the issues with the logic that since the officers who made the decisions were not the beneficiaries in any sense of the word, such lapses are mistakes and are therefore acceptable…” ..The size indicates that it can only come from the very top.”

Law Jokes

ATTORNEY: Are you qualified to give a urine sample?
WITNESS: Huh?

Q. What do you call an attorney with a 60 IQ?
A. Your Honor.

ATTORNEY: Were you present when your picture was taken?
WITNESS: Would you repeat the question?

ATTORNEY: What was the first thing your husband said to you that morning?
WITNESS: He said, “Where am I, Cathy?”
ATTORNEY: And why did that upset you?
WITNESS: My name is Susan.

ATTORNEY: What gear were you in at the moment of the impact?
WITNESS: Gucci sweats and Reeboks.

ATTORNEY: What is your date of birth?
WITNESS: July 18th.
ATTORNEY: What year?
WITNESS: Every year.

ATTORNEY: Are you sexually active?
WITNESS: No, I just lie there.

HK tycoon's mother paid US$77m ransom for him: report

HONG KONG – THE mother of one of Hong Kong’s richest tycoons paid nearly 77 million US dollars (S$103.7 million) for his release after he was kidnapped by a notorious gangster, a report said on Wednesday.

Ms Kwong Siu-hing, the 79-year-old chairman of Sun Hung Kai Properties, met gangster Cheung Tze-keung, known as ‘Big Spender’, days after he kidnapped her eldest son Walter Kwok in September 1997, The Standard reported.

Accompanied by one of her younger sons and Mr Kwok’s wife, Ms Kwong offered Cheung 600 million dollars to get her eldest son back.

The ransom in 1,000 dollar notes was packed inside 20 large carrier bags and driven in two Mercedes saloon cars to a quiet lane in Central district, the report said, quoting a source close to the family.

Cheung and his accomplice drove the two cars away with the cash.

The report said the family did a global search of previous ransoms paid and decided to make the offer to Cheung by tripling the amount of the biggest ransom ever paid after the gangster kept changing his demands.

Mr Kwok was later found alive by his family in a wooden container box in a village house, according to the report.

For years rumours had circulated that Walter’s two younger brothers, Thomas and Raymond, were reluctant to pay the ransom.

The report on details of the kidnapping emerged during an ongoing family row over control of Sun Hung Kai Properties, the city’s largest property firm.

Walter Kwok was ousted from the chairmanship in May and his mother, the widow of the company’s former chairman Kwok Tak-seng, has since taken over the reins.

The ouster came the day after Mr Kwok, who had been on leave from the company since February, failed in a last-ditch legal bid to try and prevent a board meeting where the company’s directors were to vote on removing him.

Mr Kwok has accused his brothers, both vice-chairmen and managing directors of the firm, of falsely asserting that he had a mental disorder, court documents showed.

The rift was reportedly caused by Walter’s involvement with a female friend whom it was alleged had become increasingly influential on the married tycoon and his firm.

Gangster Cheung was tried and executed in mainland China in 1998. — AFP

The Nagasaki Spirit

On the calm clear night of 19 Sep 1992, the 100,000 ton crude carrier Nagasaki Spirit collided with the 27,000 ton container vessel Ocean Blessing. The collision occurred just before midnight at the northern entrance to the Malacca Straits. It was a classic T-Bone collision in which the Ocean Blessing is believed to have been making 21 knots based on the engine room log repeater found in the aftermath, and the V-shaped ripping in the side of the Nagasaki Spirit. A massive fire ensued and at least 12,000 tonnes of crude oil spilled out into the Straits. 44 sailors did not survive to tell the tale of what happened before the collision. The final message of the captain of the Nagasaki Spirit however leaves little doubt…

Have been fired upon and now have fire in Nos 5 and 6 and central tanks. Abandoning vessel immediately and into two 16 man life rafts and will activate EPIRB in lat 04.33N, long 98.43E at 1623 GMT Sep 19. No time to report further as abandoning vessel.

No lifeboats were ever found, onboard the Ocean Blessing investigators found only small piles of ashes — the remnants of human remains, and no remains were found on board the Nagasaki Spirit.

Speculation has it that the Nagasaki Spirit was taken by pirates, and the Ocean Blessing had also been pirated, or was trying to avoid the same, as she was observed by another ship “to move in an erratic manner — changing speeds from 10 to 20 knots, from side to side, as though the deck watch officer was trying to employ evasive maneuevers to avoid being boarded by pirates”.

Ben Graham

“There are two requirements for success in Wall Street. One, you have to think correctly; and secondly, you have to think independently.”

~ Ben Graham

Optimism bias

Optimism bias is the demonstrated systematic tendency for people to be over-optimistic about the outcome of planned actions. People tend to see the future through “rose-colored glasses,” as the saying goes. Optimism bias applies to professionals and laypeople alike. Optimism bias arises in relation to estimates of costs and benefits and duration of tasks. It must be accounted for explicitly in appraisals, if these are to be realistic. Optimism bias typically results in cost overruns, benefit shortfalls, and delays, when plans are implemented.

In a study in search of the brain regions responsible for optimism, researchers noted that “humans expect positive events in the future even when there is no evidence to support such expectations. For example, people expect to live longer and be healthier than average, they underestimate their likelihood of getting a divorce, and overestimate their prospects for success on the job market.”

In a debate in Harvard Business Review, between Daniel Kahneman, Dan Lovallo, and Bent Flyvbjerg, Flyvbjerg (2003) – while acknowledging the existence of optimism bias – pointed out that what appears to be optimism bias may on closer examination be strategic misrepresentation. Planners may deliberately underestimate costs and overestimate benefits in order to get their projects approved, especially when projects are large and when organizational and political pressures are high. Kahneman and Lovallo (2003) maintained that optimism bias is the main problem.

Lakshmi

Lakshmi or Mahalakshmi is the Hindu goddess of wealth and prosperity.

Lakshmi in Sanskrit is derived from its elemental form “lakS” meaning to “perceive”, to “observe”. This is synonymous with “lakSya” meaning “aim” or “objective”. Lakshmi is thus goddess of the means to achieving objectives including prosperity in the life of mankind.

She is the consort of Vishnu and married Rama (in her incarnation as Sita) and Krishna (as Rukmini and Radha).

Lakshmi is the embodiment of Love, from which devotion to God or Bhakti flows from. It is through Love/Bhakti or Lakshmi that the atma or soul is able to reach God or Vishnu. She is also the personification of the Spiritual energy within us and universe called Kundalini. Also, She embodies the Spiritual World or Vaikunta; the abode of Lakshmi-Narayana or Vishnu, or what would be considered Heaven in Hinduism. She is also the Divine qualities of God and the soul. Lakshmi is the embodiment of God’s superior spiritual feminine energy or the Param Prakriti, which purifies, empowers and uplifts the individual. Hence, She is called the Goddess of Fortune.

The experience of a lifetime

Hedonism is the philosophy that pleasure is of ultimate importance, the most important pursuit. The name derives from the Greek word for “delight”

The basic idea behind hedonistic thought is that pleasure is the only thing that is good for a person. This is often used as a justification for evaluating actions in terms of how much pleasure and how little pain (i.e. suffering) they produce. In very simple terms, a hedonist strives to maximise this total pleasure (pleasure minus pain).

John Stuart Mill believed that there can be different levels of pleasure – higher quality pleasure is better than lower quality pleasure. Mill also argues that simpler beings (he often references pigs) have an easier access to the simpler pleasures; since they do not see other aspects of life, they can simply indulge in their pleasures. The more elaborate beings tend to spend more thought on other matters and hence lessen the time for simple pleasure. It is therefore more difficult for them to indulge in such “simple pleasures” in the same manner.

Ayn Rand, one of the biggest modern proponents of Egoism, rejected hedonism in a literal sense as a comprehensive ethical system:

To take “whatever makes one happy” as a guide to action means: to be guided by nothing but one’s emotional whims. Emotions are not tools of cognition. . . . This is the fallacy inherent in hedonism–in any variant of ethical hedonism, personal or social, individual or collective. “Happiness” can properly be the purpose of ethics, but not the standard. The task of ethics is to define man’s proper code of values and thus to give him the means of achieving happiness. To declare, as the ethical hedonists do, that “the proper value is whatever gives you pleasure” is to declare that “the proper value is whatever you happen to value”–which is an act of intellectual and philosophical abdication, an act which merely proclaims the futility of ethics and invites all men to play it deuces wild.

A Leader Should Know How to Manage Failure

Former President of India APJ Abdul Kalam : ‘A Leader Should Know How to Manage Failure’

India Knowledge@Wharton: Could you give an example, from your own experience, of how leaders should manage failure?

Kalam: Let me tell you about my experience. In 1973 I became the project director of India’s satellite launch vehicle program, commonly called the SLV-3. Our goal was to put India’s “Rohini” satellite into orbit by 1980. I was given funds and human resources — but was told clearly that by 1980 we had to launch the satellite into space. Thousands of people worked together in scientific and technical teams towards that goal.

By 1979 — I think the month was August — we thought we were ready. As the project director, I went to the control center for the launch. At four minutes before the satellite launch, the computer began to go through the checklist of items that needed to be checked. One minute later, the computer program put the launch on hold; the display showed that some control components were not in order. My experts — I had four or five of them with me — told me not to worry; they had done their calculations and there was enough reserve fuel. So I bypassed the computer, switched to manual mode, and launched the rocket. In the first stage, everything worked fine. In the second stage, a problem developed. Instead of the satellite going into orbit, the whole rocket system plunged into the Bay of Bengal. It was a big failure.

That day, the chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization, Prof. Satish Dhawan, had called a press conference. The launch was at 7:00 am, and the press conference — where journalists from around the world were present — was at 7:45 am at ISRO’s satellite launch range in Sriharikota [in Andhra Pradesh in southern India]. Prof. Dhawan, the leader of the organization, conducted the press conference himself. He took responsibility for the failure — he said that the team had worked very hard, but that it needed more technological support. He assured the media that in another year, the team would definitely succeed. Now, I was the project director, and it was my failure, but instead, he took responsibility for the failure as chairman of the organization.

The next year, in July 1980, we tried again to launch the satellite — and this time we succeeded. The whole nation was jubilant. Again, there was a press conference. Prof. Dhawan called me aside and told me, “You conduct the press conference today.”

I learned a very important lesson that day. When failure occurred, the leader of the organization owned that failure. When success came, he gave it to his team. The best management lesson I have learned did not come to me from reading a book; it came from that experience.

The rose

And he went back to meet the fox.

“Goodbye,” he said.

“Goodbye,” said the fox. “And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

“What is essential is invisible to the eye,” the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.

“It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.”

“It is the time I have wasted for my rose–” said the little prince, so that he would be sure to remember. “I am responsible for my rose.”

“Men have forgotten this truth,” said the fox. “But you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose…“

OceanLab – Sirens Of The Sea

Take my hand, take my hand yeah take my hand
Follow me, follow me yeah let’s go
To the sand, to the sand, the purest sand
Into the sea, into the sea yeah let’s go

Out beyond the water’s edge
Far out past the coral bench
Underneath the diamond dancing lights
Chase the world from far below
Silence sleeping in the glow
Drifting down into the endless night

Take my hand, take my hand yeah take my hand
Follow me, follow me yeah let’s go
To the sand, to the sand, the purest sand
Into the sea, into the sea yeah let’s go

Leaving reason far behind
Nothing here is cruel or kind
Only your desire to set me free
Let us lie here all alone
Worn away like river stone
Let us be the sirens of the sea

I … can not … resist … your call (x4)

HK hit by severe flooding, 2 feared trapped

SCMP, June 7, 2008


People wade through flood waters during heavy rains in Hong Kong’s Sheung Wan district.
— PHOTO: REUTERS

HONG KONG – STREETS in Hong Kong were flooded by torrential rain on Saturday, leaving two people feared trapped after a wall collapsed due to the downpour, media reports said.

The Hong Kong Observatory said more than 200 millimetres of rain was dumped in the city overnight which experienced winds of up to 70 kilometres.

Two people were rescued after a wall collapsed in the New Territories area of Hong Kong, but firemen were still trying to rescue two others believed trapped, local broadcaster RTHK said.

‘Because of seriously flooded roads and inclement weather conditions, you are advised to take shelter in a safe place and stay there,’ the Observatory said in a statement.

The downpour caused severe flooding across some streets of Hong Kong island.

Water was almost up to the windows of parked cars as people rolled up their trousers and waded through knee-deep floods in flip-flops.

Amid thunder and lightning people tried to continue their journey on foot as water flowed over pavements in the heavily hit western district of Sheung Wan.

‘This is the heaviest rain I have seen in years,’ said Mr Edmund Kwan, an office worker, who was waiting for his girlfriend at the nearby MTR (Mass Transit Railway) station.

Shopkeepers stacked sandbags in an effort to keep their businesses watertight. Streets in the city’s Wan Chai business district were also under heavy water.

The rain caused several delays at Hong Kong’s International Airport on Lantau Island, one of the worst-hit spots in the territory, an Airport Authority spokesman said.

Passengers were advised to contact their airline for more information about their flight. The main road to the airport was closed because of flooding, RTHK said.

The city’s schools and courts were closed, while child care centres and elderly services centres were closed to the public, the government said in a statement.

Hong Kong is regularly hit by severe rain and even typhoons during the summer months