Caution over rising market
The recent stock market rises may just be small ripples of a mighty ocean in what is certainly a turbulent storm.
Investors and traders should be cautious about jumping into the stock markets in the belief that they have hit the bottom . They should remember that only two weeks ago:
The World Bank, in a shocking report, warns that the global economy will shrink for the first time since the World War II;
The Asian Bank reports that more than US$50tril in invested wealth vanished into thin air last year.
Both reports are not encouraging at a time when we need some positive news about the world economy.
But it is not all doom and gloom for some entreprenuers who use their brain power to perform spectacularly to boost profits.
According to reports I received from the US, Netflix, an online movie rental company, announces its revenue in the quarter ending last December jumped 19% and earnings rose 58%.
As a result, its EBITA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes and Amortisation) hit a six-year high with an increase of 18%.
Netflix predicts its customer base will rise from 10 million subscribers to about 11.3 million by the end of this year.
Well, the company must be doing something right to get such an impressive result in an economy that is overwhelmingly falling into a deep hole.
CAN YOU BELIEVE WHAT YOU SEE?
Understanding the mistakes our brains make in processing visual information could provide important clues to help people learn and retain information, a public lecture at the Australian National University was told last week.
“The traditional approach to teaching and learning is what the ‘sage on the stage’ delivers the information and the learner learns it,” said Prof Eric Muzar, a physicist from Harvard University, who is in Australia on a visit.
“But studies in neurobiology show that isn’t true. We interpret what we see and hear and then attach our meaning, which can be dramatically opposed to what is being said.”
Prof Mazur says that mistakes in understanding come about because of the way the brain processes and holds information.
“The brain doesn’t store facts, it stores models. For example, if you slap someone in the face, you’re likely to get slapped back – that’s a model.
“If you have an incorrect model in your head though, and you see something that doesn’t correspond to it, you don’t have time to adjust your model and, instead, you’ll adjust your memory to fit the faulty model.”
Using this theory, Prof Mazur has changed the way he lectures and achieves significant improvements in students’ learning outcomes.
An interesting thought, isn’t it? What do you think? Post your comments for others to share.
ANGER OVER SHOOTING OF LIONESS
In a split-second decision Sally Padey, owner of Mozo Zoo on the south coast of New South Wales, order her marksmen to shoot her loved lioness as a group of 35 elderly tourists approached it.
The nine-year-old 190kg lioness named Jamelia, which Sally had hand-raised, bottle-fed, played with it and even tickled its under belly, was loose in her enclosure which had accidentally been left open at that time.
Her choice, obviously, was either the lioness or the potential risk to the lives of the tourists.
Instead of being praised, she was flooded with angry emails asking her why the lioness had not been tranquillised instead of being shot dead.
Sally, 51, who started the zoo 20 years ago, thought she had done the right thing.
Did she? Post your views for others to share.
POLICE TAKE TOUGH ACTION IN PERTH VIOLENT NIGHTLIFE
No-one disputes that the job of a policeman is tough and hazardous in this age of freely available excessive alcohol and drunkenness.
But, lately, several police officers have been brutally attacked as they tried to stop brawls at nightclubs and public bars where anti-social behaviour is only too common.
For an example, in a recent case at a Joondalup tavern, Constable Matt Bucher was head-butted from behind and knocked down to the ground.
Married only a year ago, Butcher was in hospital and subsequently suffered partial paralysis that deprived him of his love for sport.
The three men – a father and his two sons – who assaulted him were acquitted by a District Court jury to the aghast and outrage of the community.
They claimed that it was self-defence to stop the police from using excessive force on the father who has a heart condition.
Now the police will take tough action at venues where such brawls occur once too often.
The police have warned nightclubs and pubs in Perth’s entertainment precinct of Northbridge that unruly and crowded venues would be forced to close down if they don’t take more responsibility in serving alcohol.
One nightclub, The Rock, has been labelled by police as “the most dangerous and violent venue in Western Australia" – an accusation its owner denies. However, it will no longer rock the night if the police move to cancel its licence is successful.
And the police are now compiling a list of the most troublesome spots.
Northbridge is the hub of nightlife in Perth. It is usually crowed with young people on weekends until 3am. For most of them the night really begins at around 11pm.
'Óne door closes another opens'
So the saying goes. And I believe in this simple axiom. To me this is a philosophy -- a philosophy of positiveness and determination; a philosophy that proves nothing is impossible if you have the will to overcome any adversity.
Not that the closure of my weekly column Insight Down Under in the Sunday Star is an adversity to me. I had expected this eventuality and had believed that it could happen in the wake of the worst-ever global recession impacting various countries, including Malaysia and Australia.
Let me make it clear that I do not blame anyone for what happened. It has become an unfortunate victim in the worst recession ever experienced by the world since the Great Depression of 1929. In fact, I take the view that it has given me the opportunity to focus what I really wanted to do and to revive my passion which has taken the back seat until now.
In opening this new door, it has given my followers of my newspaper column not only the continuation of the link to be informed of what is happening in Australia, but also a chance to explore in a more determined way my aspiration on other fields that I have been keenly interested over the years.
I have never been a person without an insight into many ventures however difficult they may seem. With sincere humility, I am a person of integrity and honesty, a survivor, or to put it more bluntly, a fighter in any untoward occurence.
My strength in character, which has been developed during my teenage years into a father-figure of my family with responsibility to provide for them, has been the central point of my life.
I don’t look back with doom and gloom on anything that some would consider as a disaster in their lives. I don’t mourn and groan and look back to the past on what I should have done or shouldn’t have done in my life.
Like many people in the pre-babyboomer days, especially in the early 1940s, I have had my fair share of hard life, leaving school in my early age to find whatever work I could get in difficult conditions and earning a small wage to help support my mother and younger brothers and sisters. Of course, my brothers and sisters have also helped in any way they could before going to school each morning.
What I am today is through hard work and perseverance and sweat and tears of having to go through my life without a father to advice, guide and encourage me to lead a successful life like he had. He died over complications of stone-in-the-kidney operation, which today seems quite a simple operation. I was only 12 then.
Frankly, I don’t regret what I have gone through. In fact, I think it made me a better person and now drives me to overcome all obstacles to lead a successful life on my own -- with a beautiful and caring wife and two grown-up intelligent sons who have done well for themselves in Australia. I am what many would agree a self-made man.
And I belive that my experiences in life should be a stepping stone for the young people of today. I have always encouraged young people to think of their future and what they want to become as they grow up.
That is my small contribution to society and that, in short, is the story of my life.
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