Sunday, June 24, 2012
Friday, June 22, 2012
Why does Israel need Egypt?
The 33 year old "peace" between Egypt and Israel since the treaty was signed in 1979 is not what it seems and here are the nugget sized facts to tell you why:
1) Under the controversial 2005 deal, Egypt exports 43 percent of gas supplies to Israel, which depends on the Egyptian gas to generate 40 percent of its electricity (below market price if I may emphasize).
2) Mubarak refused to open Rafah border causing Gazans to live under Siege.
3) The most significant impact of U.S. aid to the Mubarak regime was that it bent Egyptian policy in the direction of supporting Israeli goals. With Mubarak’s border cooperation, for example, Israel could continue its blockade of Gaza Palestinians and Hamas.
4) The Egyptian government even began building a deep barrier at the Egypt-Gaza crossing to block the tunnels through which Egyptian and Palestinian merchants evaded the Israeli blockade.
5) Such cooperation has been lauded by Israeli officials as necessary for the moribund “peace process” with the Palestinian Authority. But in reality, this relationship with an Egyptian dictator may simply have given successive Israeli governments the freedom to continue building settlements on what is left of Palestinian land in the West Bank.
So there you go, a non-exhaustive list of the relationship between Egypt and Israel. Terra.
1) Under the controversial 2005 deal, Egypt exports 43 percent of gas supplies to Israel, which depends on the Egyptian gas to generate 40 percent of its electricity (below market price if I may emphasize).
2) Mubarak refused to open Rafah border causing Gazans to live under Siege.
3) The most significant impact of U.S. aid to the Mubarak regime was that it bent Egyptian policy in the direction of supporting Israeli goals. With Mubarak’s border cooperation, for example, Israel could continue its blockade of Gaza Palestinians and Hamas.
4) The Egyptian government even began building a deep barrier at the Egypt-Gaza crossing to block the tunnels through which Egyptian and Palestinian merchants evaded the Israeli blockade.
5) Such cooperation has been lauded by Israeli officials as necessary for the moribund “peace process” with the Palestinian Authority. But in reality, this relationship with an Egyptian dictator may simply have given successive Israeli governments the freedom to continue building settlements on what is left of Palestinian land in the West Bank.
So there you go, a non-exhaustive list of the relationship between Egypt and Israel. Terra.
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
of t(r)olls
Yesterday, I went to work at 7 hoping that I could escape the traffic. To be fair, the traffic on a normal day isn't always that bad. Cars are slow-moving at certain bottle-necks but all in all, we've never been stagnant for too long.
There is one main problem with highways and that is the toll part. I personally think that they should banish all tolls but even if they want to continue leeching off our hard-earned moolah, I suggest that they do something about the toll system.
Despite having a number of smart tag and touch n go lanes, the ridiculously heavy traffic at the toll seems too relentless to go away. As surprising as it is, many KLites remain loyal to cash instead of the somewhat more hassle-free system (arguable, given all that hassle we've gone through). Ofcourse there are also people like me, who just keeps on forgetting to top up her touch n go or worse, misplacing it altogether. Regardless of that masochistic human behaviour, something bigger than that is amiss.
So why not improve the system? we're not only paying ridiculously high toll fees, we're also still suffering from traffic.
The e-tag system is Australia for instance is superb. You just have to slow your car down to 30km/h when you pass by the e-tag toll booth. Alternatively you can even pay by credit card. The secret lies behind the technology of the sensor and the device itself which without a doubt we can adopt and upgrade. Unfortunately, we are one nation rather slow at keeping up. (come onnn, consumers themselves can't even keep up with a more sophisticated payment system).
Things can be done to improve our daily lives! Someone should write a letter to Teras Teknologi Sdn Bhd. But being a typical Malaysia, that someone should not be me.....
There is one main problem with highways and that is the toll part. I personally think that they should banish all tolls but even if they want to continue leeching off our hard-earned moolah, I suggest that they do something about the toll system.
Despite having a number of smart tag and touch n go lanes, the ridiculously heavy traffic at the toll seems too relentless to go away. As surprising as it is, many KLites remain loyal to cash instead of the somewhat more hassle-free system (arguable, given all that hassle we've gone through). Ofcourse there are also people like me, who just keeps on forgetting to top up her touch n go or worse, misplacing it altogether. Regardless of that masochistic human behaviour, something bigger than that is amiss.
So why not improve the system? we're not only paying ridiculously high toll fees, we're also still suffering from traffic.
The e-tag system is Australia for instance is superb. You just have to slow your car down to 30km/h when you pass by the e-tag toll booth. Alternatively you can even pay by credit card. The secret lies behind the technology of the sensor and the device itself which without a doubt we can adopt and upgrade. Unfortunately, we are one nation rather slow at keeping up. (come onnn, consumers themselves can't even keep up with a more sophisticated payment system).
Things can be done to improve our daily lives! Someone should write a letter to Teras Teknologi Sdn Bhd. But being a typical Malaysia, that someone should not be me.....
Monday, June 18, 2012
Sophie's world
Kinda hard to imagine that this was the kind of thing I used to do when I was free. Read deeply and spend time writing notes, highlighting sentences for my understanding and internalisation.
These days I barely read a book. Not so much because of the lack of time, but even when I have nothing to do, I just prefer doing nothing.
Reality itself has the tendency of sucking the life out of you. My job is not to figure out how it does it. I'll leave it to you people who have time at their disposal (who does, really?)
But since I've wasted enough time writing that pointless bit up there, I might as well contribute to society a little.
“A philosopher knows that in reality he knows very little. That is why he constantly strives to achieve true insight. Socrates was one of these rare people. He knew that he knew nothing about life and about the world. And now comes the important part: it troubled him that he knew so little.” Sophie's World.
switching from conspiracy theories to philosophy not only shows the socially unexplainable human behaviour(...) but also the vast range of things to learn. If we are courageous enough to admit we are better than others due to our intelligence, than indeed we are not courageous but just plain stupid.
Malas lah nak fikir.
It's going to take a lot of effort, but mom said never forget the good things people have done for you although I must admit that it's much more than just appreciating good deeds.
a friend once said, making something work requires effort.
a friend once said, making something work requires effort.
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Ramadhan is coming!
So Ramadhan is approaching and it reminds me of the time I was in Sydney. A friend of mine, at that time, did not fast, despite being a muslim. It is a big deal, as it is one of the five pillars of faith, but that's not the issue here.
He believes in the goodness of fasting but he questions the necessity of doing it for 30 days in a specific month. He said (and believing that his reason was based on a legit philosophical ground), the reason behind fasting is to discipline ourselves, but if we can discipline ourselves in other ways, then fasting would be obsolete,
Ofcourse I didn't believe nor agree, not for a second. A German diplomat who observed Ramadhan once wrote:
" it would not matter when the fast exactly starts and terminatets if the purpose of the exercise was merely to lose weight, put the body through a cleansing cure, show solidarity with the hungry in Africa, or steel one's discipline through mental fitness training. All these effects are merely spin-offs, windfall gains. Primarily, a muslim abides by the rules of Ramadhan because they have been laid down for him, the slave, by his Lord"
I have nothing against my friend to be honest. What we believe and adhere to are choices we make for ourselves. There's no point making a judgment on someone else's actions. I just wish I had the mental agility to give a respond to him, as accurate as how this German guy did.
He believes in the goodness of fasting but he questions the necessity of doing it for 30 days in a specific month. He said (and believing that his reason was based on a legit philosophical ground), the reason behind fasting is to discipline ourselves, but if we can discipline ourselves in other ways, then fasting would be obsolete,
Ofcourse I didn't believe nor agree, not for a second. A German diplomat who observed Ramadhan once wrote:
" it would not matter when the fast exactly starts and terminatets if the purpose of the exercise was merely to lose weight, put the body through a cleansing cure, show solidarity with the hungry in Africa, or steel one's discipline through mental fitness training. All these effects are merely spin-offs, windfall gains. Primarily, a muslim abides by the rules of Ramadhan because they have been laid down for him, the slave, by his Lord"
I have nothing against my friend to be honest. What we believe and adhere to are choices we make for ourselves. There's no point making a judgment on someone else's actions. I just wish I had the mental agility to give a respond to him, as accurate as how this German guy did.
Monday, June 11, 2012
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Friday, June 8, 2012
John's economics and morality
Dear Mr. Nash,
We know that Nash equilbrium is when, assuming you know the other person's strategy, changing yours won't make you better off.
The gist of your idea is that we can't predict the choices of multiple people by analysing those decisions in isolation. We must instead ask what would each person do, taking into account the decision-making of the others. Well who can argue with your brilliance Mr. Nash.
However Mr. Nash, this works incredibly well with logic. Reality often neglects irrationality. Irrationality doesn't just involve the lack of thought, or ability to think but often springs from our emotions e.g. sadness, envy, anger..
In your movie "A Beautiful Mind", you explained to your friends that if they all went for the prettiest girl, they would all end up getting rejected. Instead of competing for the prettiest girl, strategising to approach someone different would promise everyone a companion at the end of the night. It's kinda hillarious seeing how a bunch of smart people agreed to that as you know, being scientists, their rationality supercedes their very much under developed emotions (or is this a discriminatory perception of smart people, haha). Therefore, your theory was agreeable, regardless of the fact that you ended up with the prettiest girl.
Let's steer this topic closer to the conclusion I am trying to make. There is a pervasive sentiment in almost every culture I know and one that is absolutely destructive is jealousy or to put it precisely "hasad dengki".
Sometimes the right decision will give someone else the best pay off but should that matter? Somehow some still prefer to make an irrationally bad decision just so that the other person won't gain at all. If only everyone on earth read economics (hah!), then everyone would understand why "hasad" or jealousy is stupid. right?
Sincerely,
A fan.
We know that Nash equilbrium is when, assuming you know the other person's strategy, changing yours won't make you better off.
The gist of your idea is that we can't predict the choices of multiple people by analysing those decisions in isolation. We must instead ask what would each person do, taking into account the decision-making of the others. Well who can argue with your brilliance Mr. Nash.
However Mr. Nash, this works incredibly well with logic. Reality often neglects irrationality. Irrationality doesn't just involve the lack of thought, or ability to think but often springs from our emotions e.g. sadness, envy, anger..
In your movie "A Beautiful Mind", you explained to your friends that if they all went for the prettiest girl, they would all end up getting rejected. Instead of competing for the prettiest girl, strategising to approach someone different would promise everyone a companion at the end of the night. It's kinda hillarious seeing how a bunch of smart people agreed to that as you know, being scientists, their rationality supercedes their very much under developed emotions (or is this a discriminatory perception of smart people, haha). Therefore, your theory was agreeable, regardless of the fact that you ended up with the prettiest girl.
Let's steer this topic closer to the conclusion I am trying to make. There is a pervasive sentiment in almost every culture I know and one that is absolutely destructive is jealousy or to put it precisely "hasad dengki".
Sometimes the right decision will give someone else the best pay off but should that matter? Somehow some still prefer to make an irrationally bad decision just so that the other person won't gain at all. If only everyone on earth read economics (hah!), then everyone would understand why "hasad" or jealousy is stupid. right?
Sincerely,
A fan.
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
What Holocaust?
So I've always had this obsession with the Holocaust and it's far from being over. I do believe that a genocide did in fact happen but there is more to it than what we have been told. The truth behind the Holocaust is still very much obscure.
The great controversy following Ahmadinejad's denial of the Holocaust should ring a bell. His denial was not unwarranted for, neither was the criticisms he received for making such a statement. So why doubt the reality of holocaust? 6 million jews did die after all. Well let me firstly map it out for you.
Tried my best not to get caught up with all the conspiracies which reverted me to the sources of history and not just GOOGLE "WAS HOLOCAUST A CONSPIRACY?". So rest assured that this is not just for argument's sake...or maybe it is.
The Rothschilds were the most powerful family in the world I dare say since the 18th Century up to early 20th century. Of German-Jewish origin and believed to have single-handedly financed the British war effort (battle of waterloo) where they also played both sides of the warring parties ( how evil..)
They became the pre-eminent holder of bullion after profiting from the battle(if you have the time, do read on how they did this), subsequently becoming the bullion broker of Britian (amongst other parts of the world) making them the controller of money. Nathan Rothschild himself said that he cares not what puppet is placed upon the throne of England as the man who controls the money supply, controls the empire.
At the time of the "Holocaust", Germany was in a deficit. The popular opinion was that, America financed Germany's great genocide, and the American company IBM intensified the discrimination against Jews by supplying punch cards that facilitated identification and segregation of Jews.
but that doesn't mean they planned the war? they just took advantage of the event to reap ridiculously large profits. to what extent the phrase, "it's nothing personal, it's just business" can be applied pun tak tau la kan.
In reality, during the 19th century, the banks were the main financiers of governments around the world, and the most powerful and influential banks were owned by the Rothschilds. So did they really fund the nations to make war against their very own race just to profit from it? Only to also be the largest most significant financier of the illegal state of Israel not many years from then? Well something's not right here. Did they finance Hitler? Of course there is no hard evidence to support that. But being the controller of the vast wealth of the world, could they have done anything about the genocide ? I would like to think so. Instead, they leveraged on that unfortunate event to justify their occupation of Palestine and gain sympathy.
The death of 6 million people was not nothing. It was one of the saddest events in the history of mankind. But what's even sadder is the exploitation of the deaths by what could possibly be the perpetrators themselves.
Yes I sound like another conspiracy theory, that's difficult to avoid, but I hope I made you ponder a little.
The great controversy following Ahmadinejad's denial of the Holocaust should ring a bell. His denial was not unwarranted for, neither was the criticisms he received for making such a statement. So why doubt the reality of holocaust? 6 million jews did die after all. Well let me firstly map it out for you.
Tried my best not to get caught up with all the conspiracies which reverted me to the sources of history and not just GOOGLE "WAS HOLOCAUST A CONSPIRACY?". So rest assured that this is not just for argument's sake...or maybe it is.
The Rothschilds were the most powerful family in the world I dare say since the 18th Century up to early 20th century. Of German-Jewish origin and believed to have single-handedly financed the British war effort (battle of waterloo) where they also played both sides of the warring parties ( how evil..)
They became the pre-eminent holder of bullion after profiting from the battle(if you have the time, do read on how they did this), subsequently becoming the bullion broker of Britian (amongst other parts of the world) making them the controller of money. Nathan Rothschild himself said that he cares not what puppet is placed upon the throne of England as the man who controls the money supply, controls the empire.
At the time of the "Holocaust", Germany was in a deficit. The popular opinion was that, America financed Germany's great genocide, and the American company IBM intensified the discrimination against Jews by supplying punch cards that facilitated identification and segregation of Jews.
but that doesn't mean they planned the war? they just took advantage of the event to reap ridiculously large profits. to what extent the phrase, "it's nothing personal, it's just business" can be applied pun tak tau la kan.
In reality, during the 19th century, the banks were the main financiers of governments around the world, and the most powerful and influential banks were owned by the Rothschilds. So did they really fund the nations to make war against their very own race just to profit from it? Only to also be the largest most significant financier of the illegal state of Israel not many years from then? Well something's not right here. Did they finance Hitler? Of course there is no hard evidence to support that. But being the controller of the vast wealth of the world, could they have done anything about the genocide ? I would like to think so. Instead, they leveraged on that unfortunate event to justify their occupation of Palestine and gain sympathy.
The death of 6 million people was not nothing. It was one of the saddest events in the history of mankind. But what's even sadder is the exploitation of the deaths by what could possibly be the perpetrators themselves.
Yes I sound like another conspiracy theory, that's difficult to avoid, but I hope I made you ponder a little.
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Alice and The Black Swan
Regret doesn't just stem from mistakes. Sometimes you regret all the right choices you've made in life which probably means, somewhere along the way, you have forgotten a part of yourself.
To me, the black swan is an economic phenomenon, when really it's an economic theory derived from the natural phenomenon of rarity. I'm equipped to think all economic theories are natural like that. The metaphor itself is used to describe an (almost) impossible event. People used to think all swans were white until they explored the land downunder and found what was deemed to be non existent- black swans. This theory was used to explain how an unexpected turn of events caused the global financial crisis. Also applied in finance currently, to develop a robust model to..sorta.. Plan the unforeseen. Sounds fairly ridiculous, but we do live in a ridiculous world. alice did say there's no use in trying, one can't believe in impossible things, but the queen replied, "I dare say you havent had much practice."
So how does black swan relate to regrets and Alice in wonderland? Let me add another little useful quote I love. "If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there" A black swan was not unforseeable. It was constructed ignorance. so is regret in a way.
To me, the black swan is an economic phenomenon, when really it's an economic theory derived from the natural phenomenon of rarity. I'm equipped to think all economic theories are natural like that. The metaphor itself is used to describe an (almost) impossible event. People used to think all swans were white until they explored the land downunder and found what was deemed to be non existent- black swans. This theory was used to explain how an unexpected turn of events caused the global financial crisis. Also applied in finance currently, to develop a robust model to..sorta.. Plan the unforeseen. Sounds fairly ridiculous, but we do live in a ridiculous world. alice did say there's no use in trying, one can't believe in impossible things, but the queen replied, "I dare say you havent had much practice."
So how does black swan relate to regrets and Alice in wonderland? Let me add another little useful quote I love. "If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there" A black swan was not unforseeable. It was constructed ignorance. so is regret in a way.
Saturday, June 2, 2012
of Truth
“but it is not only the difficulty and labour which men take in finding out of truth, nor again that when it is found it imposeth upon men’s thoughts , that doth bring lies in favour; but a natural though corrupt love of the lie itself."
Francis Bacon.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
