my perspective

Francisco's Money Speech -The following is an excerpt from Atlas Shrugged

2010-03-01T17:40:00.000-08:00

"So you think that money is the root of all evil?" said Francisco d'Anconia. "Have you ever asked what is the root of money? Money is a tool of exchange, which can't exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce. Is this what you consider evil?

"When you accept money in payment for your effort, you do so only on the conviction that you will exchange it for the product of the effort of others. It is not the moochers or the looters who give value to money. Not an ocean of tears not all the guns in the world can transform those pieces of paper in your wallet into the bread you will need to survive tomorrow. Those pieces of paper, which should have been gold, are a token of honor--your claim upon the energy of the men who produce. Your wallet is your statement of hope that somewhere in the world around you there are men who will not default on that moral principle which is the root of money, Is this what you consider evil?

"Have you ever looked for the root of production? Take a look at an electric generator and dare tell yourself that it was created by the muscular effort of unthinking brutes. Try to grow a seed of wheat without the knowledge left to you by men who had to discover it for the first time. Try to obtain your food by means of nothing but physical motions--and you'll learn that man's mind is the root of all the goods produced and of all the wealth that has ever existed on earth.

"But you say that money is made by the strong at the expense of the weak? What strength do you mean? It is not the strength of guns or muscles. Wealth is the product of man's capacity to think. Then is money made by the man who invents a motor at the expense of those who did not invent it? Is money made by the intelligent at the expense of the fools? By the able at the expense of the incompetent? By the ambitious at the expense of the lazy? Money is made--before it can be looted or mooched--made by the effort of every honest man, each to the extent of his ability. An honest man is one who knows that he can't consume more than he has produced.'

"To trade by means of money is the code of the men of good will. Money rests on the axiom that every man is the owner of his mind and his effort. Money allows no power to prescribe the value of your effort except the voluntary choice of the man who is willing to trade you his effort in return. Money permits you to obtain for your goods and your labor that which they are worth to the men who buy them, but no more. Money permits no deals except those to mutual benefit by the unforced judgment of the traders. Money demands of you the recognition that men must work for their own benefit, not for their own injury, for their gain, not their loss--the recognition that they are not beasts of burden, born to carry the weight of your misery--that you must offer them values, not wounds--that the common bond among men is not the exchange of suffering, but the exchange of goods. Money demands that you sell, not your weakness to men's stupidity, but your talent to their reason; it demands that you buy, not the shoddiest they offer, but the best that your money can find. And when men live by trade--with reason, not force, as their final arbiter--it is the best product that wins, the best performance, the man of best judgment and highest ability--and the degree of a man's productiveness is the degree of his reward. This is the code of existence whose tool and symbol is money. Is this what you consider evil?

"But money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver. It will give you the means for the satisfaction of your desires, but it will not provide you with desires. Money is the scourge of the men who attempt to reverse the law of causality--the men who seek to replace the mind by seizing the products of the mind.

"Money will not purchase happiness for the man who has no concept of what he wants: money will not give him a code of values, if he's evaded the knowledge of what to value, and it will not provide him with a purpose, if he's evaded the choice of what to seek. Money will not buy intelligence for the fool, or admiration for the coward, or respect for the incompetent. The man who attempts to purchase the brains of his superiors to serve him, with his money replacing his judgment, ends up by becoming the victim of his inferiors. The men of intelligence desert him, but the cheats and the frauds come flocking to him, drawn by a law which he has not discovered: that no man may be smaller than his money. Is this the reason why you call it evil?

"Only the man who does not need it, is fit to inherit wealth--the man who would make his own fortune no matter where he started. If an heir is equal to his money, it serves him; if not, it destroys him. But you look on and you cry that money corrupted him. Did it? Or did he corrupt his money? Do not envy a worthless heir; his wealth is not yours and you would have done no better with it. Do not think that it should have been distributed among you; loading the world with fifty parasites instead of one, would not bring back the dead virtue which was the fortune. Money is a living power that dies without its root. Money will not serve the mind that cannot match it. Is this the reason why you call it evil?

"Money is your means of survival. The verdict you pronounce upon the source of your livelihood is the verdict you pronounce upon your life. If the source is corrupt, you have damned your own existence. Did you get your money by fraud? By pandering to men's vices or men's stupidity? By catering to fools, in the hope of getting more than your ability deserves? By lowering your standards? By doing work you despise for purchasers you scorn? If so, then your money will not give you a moment's or a penny's worth of joy. Then all the things you buy will become, not a tribute to you, but a reproach; not an achievement, but a reminder of shame. Then you'll scream that money is evil. Evil, because it would not pinch-hit for your self-respect? Evil, because it would not let you enjoy your depravity? Is this the root of your hatred of money?

"Money will always remain an effect and refuse to replace you as the cause. Money is the product of virtue, but it will not give you virtue and it will not redeem your vices. Money will not give you the unearned, neither in matter nor in spirit. Is this the root of your hatred of money?

"Or did you say it's the love of money that's the root of all evil? To love a thing is to know and love its nature. To love money is to know and love the fact that money is the creation of the best power within you, and your passkey to trade your effort for the effort of the best among men. It's the person who would sell his soul for a nickel, who is loudest in proclaiming his hatred of money--and he has good reason to hate it. The lovers of money are willing to work for it. They know they are able to deserve it.

"Let me give you a tip on a clue to men's characters: the man who damns money has obtained it dishonorably; the man who respects it has earned it.

"Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper's bell of an approaching looter. So long as men live together on earth and need means to deal with one another--their only substitute, if they abandon money, is the muzzle of a gun.

"But money demands of you the highest virtues, if you wish to make it or to keep it. Men who have no courage, pride or self-esteem, men who have no moral sense of their right to their money and are not willing to defend it as they defend their life, men who apologize for being rich--will not remain rich for long. They are the natural bait for the swarms of looters that stay under rocks for centuries, but come crawling out at the first smell of a man who begs to be forgiven for the guilt of owning wealth. They will hasten to relieve him of the guilt--and of his life, as he deserves.

"Then you will see the rise of the men of the double standard--the men who live by force, yet count on those who live by trade to create the value of their looted money--the men who are the hitchhikers of virtue. In a moral society, these are the criminals, and the statutes are written to protect you against them. But when a society establishes criminals-by-right and looters-by-law--men who use force to seize the wealth of disarmed victims--then money becomes its creators' avenger. Such looters believe it safe to rob defenseless men, once they've passed a law to disarm them. But their loot becomes the magnet for other looters, who get it from them as they got it. Then the race goes, not to the ablest at production, but to those most ruthless at brutality. When force is the standard, the murderer wins over the pickpocket. And then that society vanishes, in a spread of ruins and slaughter.

"Do you wish to know whether that day is coming? Watch money. Money is the barometer of a society's virtue. When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion--when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing--when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors--when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you--when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice--you may know that your society is doomed. Money is so noble a medium that is does not compete with guns and it does not make terms with brutality. It will not permit a country to survive as half-property, half-loot.

"Whenever destroyers appear among men, they start by destroying money, for money is men's protection and the base of a moral existence. Destroyers seize gold and leave to its owners a counterfeit pile of paper. This kills all objective standards and delivers men into the arbitrary power of an arbitrary setter of values. Gold was an objective value, an equivalent of wealth produced. Paper is a mortgage on wealth that does not exist, backed by a gun aimed at those who are expected to produce it. Paper is a check drawn by legal looters upon an account which is not theirs: upon the virtue of the victims. Watch for the day when it bounces, marked, 'Account overdrawn.'

"When you have made evil the means of survival, do not expect men to remain good. Do not expect them to stay moral and lose their lives for the purpose of becoming the fodder of the immoral. Do not expect them to produce, when production is punished and looting rewarded. Do not ask, 'Who is destroying the world? You are.

"You stand in the midst of the greatest achievements of the greatest productive civilization and you wonder why it's crumbling around you, while you're damning its life-blood--money. You look upon money as the savages did before you, and you wonder why the jungle is creeping back to the edge of your cities. Throughout men's history, money was always seized by looters of one brand or another, whose names changed, but whose method remained the same: to seize wealth by force and to keep the producers bound, demeaned, defamed, deprived of honor. That phrase about the evil of money, which you mouth with such righteous recklessness, comes from a time when wealth was produced by the labor of slaves--slaves who repeated the motions once discovered by somebody's mind and left unimproved for centuries. So long as production was ruled by force, and wealth was obtained by conquest, there was little to conquer, Yet through all the centuries of stagnation and starvation, men exalted the looters, as aristocrats of the sword, as aristocrats of birth, as aristocrats of the bureau, and despised the producers, as slaves, as traders, as shopkeepers--as industrialists.

"To the glory of mankind, there was, for the first and only time in history, a country of money--and I have no higher, more reverent tribute to pay to America, for this means: a country of reason, justice, freedom, production, achievement. For the first time, man's mind and money were set free, and there were no fortunes-by-conquest, but only fortunes-by-work, and instead of swordsmen and slaves, there appeared the real maker of wealth, the greatest worker, the highest type of human being--the self-made man--the American industrialist.

"If you ask me to name the proudest distinction of Americans, I would choose--because it contains all the others--the fact that they were the people who created the phrase 'to make money.' No other language or nation had ever used these words before; men had always thought of wealth as a static quantity--to be seized, begged, inherited, shared, looted or obtained as a favor. Americans were the first to understand that wealth has to be created. The words 'to make money' hold the essence of human morality.

"Yet these were the words for which Americans were denounced by the rotted cultures of the looters' continents. Now the looters' credo has brought you to regard your proudest achievements as a hallmark of shame, your prosperity as guilt, your greatest men, the industrialists, as blackguards, and your magnificent factories as the product and property of muscular labor, the labor of whip-driven slaves, like the pyramids of Egypt. The rotter who simpers that he sees no difference between the power of the dollar and the power of the whip, ought to learn the difference on his own hide-- as, I think, he will.

"Until and unless you discover that money is the root of all good, you ask for your own destruction. When money ceases to be the tool by which men deal with one another, then men become the tools of men. Blood, whips and guns--or dollars. Take your choice--there is no other--and your time is running out."

Oh Zeus where art thou

2010-02-05T16:54:00.000-08:00

Word on the street

Greece might be defaulting on their debt- Asking EU for help

If EU (notably Germany, France and Belgium) bails them out... this will send a messasge to the other EU memeber countries that they can be reckless with their money too and when push comes to shove they will be taken care of by EU (other country's tax money). This is not the message EU wants to send out but at the same time if they don't bail out Greece if they need to, another market panic is about to blow effecting both equity and bond market... also taking the value of Euro down the drain.. which wil also cause a panic in the FX market (foreign exchange market) .. So what is EU gonna do.. carefully balance cost and benefit..

This is the third government (almost) defaulting on their bonds since the "Great Recession" (Iceland and Dubai before this)

DOW went down under 1000 today after a long time trading above this level. Los half the money I gained and kept getting stupid margin call from some chick with thick british accent.

Asian Tigers are hungry

2010-01-31T15:47:00.000-08:00

The Asian economies were widely blamed for playing their part in the 2008-09 financial crisis that rocked the economies of the developed countries. The blame in simple language was Asian economies consumed less and saved more and with that savings they bought American Treasury Bills helping uncreditworthy Americans to get cheap credit to consume products "Made in Asia". Lets dig a little deeper and get to the bottom of this. What does it really mean? A country's current account surplus is by definition, equal to its domestic saving minus its domestic investment. So asian economies can reduce their surpluses by saving less (ie consuming mroe) or by investing more. It is surprising to find out that from the outside it looks like Asian economies were consuming less but this fact ignores the other side of the equation. Asian economies were also investing less. GDP (fancy word for a countries total income) comprises of C+I+G+NX (consumption, private investment, gov't spending and next export). Since the Asian crisis in the 90s, Investment (I from the equation above) in the emerging Asian economies (Notably- Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan, Phillipines) has either actually fallen or remaind the same. The reason these countries have large current surpluses is because investment plunged compared to the savings. According to the Economist magazine- Malaysia's investment dropped from 44% of GDP in 1995 to 19% last year. Thailand dropped from 41% to 21% (same time frame). The consumption on the contrary was one of the dominant source for GDP in these countries. Although I suspect the consumption was mostly from the mid to upper class people which is relatively minor in these countries compared to the developed world. These countries actually need to invest more, specially in the infrastructure of the country-lifting the quality of human capital and thereby lifting labor productivity and standard of living. Although its very convinient in the classroom, calculating labor productivity is extremely difficult in real life. But in theory a country should invest until marginal product of capital is maximized (until the benefit of adding addition unit of capital outweigh the cost). By this measure the developing Asian economies has definitely has advantage over already developed world. Since capital is relatively scarce in these countries- the capital stock is much lower than the labor force so the productivity will be higher. What these countries need to do, instead of buying American T bills, invest, invest and invest. China on the other hand can invest and consume both at a large scale. And if you are an investor in the developed world, here is a free advice. Invest in developing world securities (ETF's and Mutual Funds-focusing in these sector)

Asset Bubble - What to look out for

2010-01-15T14:53:00.000-08:00

A combination of low interest rate and loose fiscal policy usually creates an asset bubble. What this means is when interest rate in the economy is low, it stimulates the economy from two different ends. First borrowing is cheap so people tend to borrow more. Secondly investors who already have money to invest look elsewhere besides cash and Treasury bills to park their money as the interest rate is too low to generate a lucrative profit or beat inflation. Another scheme investors pull in this kind of scenario is borrow money at a cheaper rate and invest in projects/products generating higher rate expecting to make a profit on the margin. This is usually one of the major reasons why an asset bubble is formed. This cheap borrowing scheme creates artificial demand pulling the price of assets higher than what they should be. The real estate market is one of the major asset division and good indicator of asset bubble. This sector was the victim of this artificial demand mentioned above in the recent economic downturn which finally fell hard witha noisy bust. Although governments around the world has subdued the negative effects of recession, critics of government internvention argue this very government aid is leading the economy to a second crisis by creating artificial demand from low interest rate and extra loose fiscal policy. Lets focus on real estate. The price of real estate has long been used as an indicator of growth in the economy. Why?..it is "real" asset with physical characteristic what everyone likes... as simple as that. so in the aggregate economy when GDP grows (which is the economist's term for national income) demand for asset like real estate generally grows because people has more income. But not all income is proportional to the GDP demand but either ways, if GDP grows by 3% for example lets say for the sake of understanding this article, real estate will grow by 2%. Higher income creates higher demand. Now the problem is when Real estate prices actually go up by 5%. This could be a reason for concern. As it means that a country only produced real income growth of 3% but aggregate price for real estate went up by 5%. So obviously the additional 2% difference is not "right". Leverage is in the play and there could be concerns about an asset bubble (overpricing). Mark Carney and Ben Bernanke (Boss of Bank of Canada and U.S Federal Reserve-institutions responsible for conducting monetary policy) both decided to keep interest rate low as they argued even though the real estate sector has stabilized there are still weaknesses in the other sectors in the economy (export, manufacturing) which will benefit from the current low rate. Second reason is that the output gap in the economy is still wide. Output gap in brief is the gap between a potential GDP with given amount of resource and the actual GDP. Which is wide in both Canada and United States (Wider in United States). This means with all our economic resources we are producing much less then what we should be producing in an optimal level. Which means our economy still needs support. These two men are really smart and so far they have done a great job in combating the recession but in the near future-specially within next 8 to 12 months they will have to put a leash on the interest rate and other means of loose monetary policy to avoid another bubble.

From Business with Love

2010-01-03T17:49:00.000-08:00

The current issue of the Economist had an excellent article which addresses the issue that business people are too polite and they should stand up for themselves. I cant help but to extend and summarize some points from that superb article.

Business people are often unfairly called greedy. All the treehuggers and advocates of corporate responsibility suggest Businesses have something to apologise for. They have their reasons. The recent credit crunch almost plunged the world into depression and Bankers played their role. CEOs and top executives pay themselves like kings, many Business titans who sparkled the front covers of Business magazines have been taken to prison for fraud.

The recent credit crunch has been caused by many different factors and bankers shouldnt be the only group blamed. When it comes to fraud, it is unfair to judge the whole kind by the misdeeds of the few. When one plane crashes it doesn't mean the whole airline industry is full of bad planes. In aggregate, Businesses have given more to mankind than it has taken. The defenders of business have two main arguments. First many firms are devoted for good cause. To point out a few- Starbucks promotes fair trade coffee, GAP Red tag promotion to help fight poverty, Glaxosmithklein makes HIV drugs available to millions of Africans at a low cost. The second argument is stronger. Businesses have done more than any other institutions to advance prosperity among human beings- Turning the luxuries of the rich-like cars and computers-into affordable goods for the masses. Walmart help save billions. Business is also a remarkable exercise in co-operation. Shareholders, stakeholders, executives, suppliers, salesman people who never saw each other in real life, work togather towards a common goal. Somebody makes IPOD in China, that same IPOD is sold at Future shop in Toronto, Canada by a salesman with thick Indian accent. Businesses also promotes creativity and invention ---from cell phones that can connect anybody anywhere in this world with live chat view, to affordable medication etc etc. There is also a last huge political reason why businesses are not only good but also a necessity in human society. Anti capitalists argue that companies account for half of the worlds biggest economies. This is not true. According to the economist-Only 202 of the 500 biggest companies in America in 1980 were still in existence 20 years later. Anti capitalist have it upside down- companies actually prevent each other from gaining too much power with competition which additionaly keeps a check to the Government from having too much power. Democratic governments have increased in this world since World war II. Some might say I have outweighed the positives more than the negatives, but from my personal experience people who argue againts businesses (mostly 1st and 2nd year college students) either have miniscule knowledge on how businesses relates to the aggregate marcoeconomy or they have abused statistics and generalize about the whole business kind based on the few outliers. Haters.

Economy update

2009-12-30T07:50:00.000-08:00

The Canadian economy grew out of recession by the third quarter of 2009 and the healthy growth momentum is expected to continue in 2010. Strong fundamentals including improved labor market, strong consumer spending, robust real estate and an optimistic business sentiment all played a postive role in lifting up Canada's economy from recession. However its not all good news and some significant challenges still remain for the economy. The growth experienced in 2009 was largely due to the expansionary fiscal and monetary policy (fiscal stimulus and low interes rate) and concerns still remain about the reaction in the economy when the government support expires. Secondly the slowdown in the American economy along with high loonie value will cause downward pressure in the export sector. TD economics (A think tank) is forecasting a 2.7% growth in 2010 and the growth is expected to continue until 2011.

The biggest contributor to the Canadian economy was the housing market with strong growth in renovation activity (Thanks to gov't tax break incentives) and new homebuilding in the second half of 2009. Much of the rebound in Consumer spending is also linked to the Canadian housing market. The housing market will continue to grow supported by the rock bottom interest rate and improvement in both labor market and consumer spending. As mentioned earlier some risk remains as to when government support will expire.It is projected the interest rate will remain at the current low level until mid 2010 and its not until 2011 the tightening effect in the economy will be felt.

Crouching Yuan

2009-12-25T19:50:00.000-08:00

When president Barack Obama visited Asia last month his fans were disappointed to find out he couldn’t make as much noise as he usually does with his oratory skills and larger than life appearance at home. Keeping in line with his western allies such as Jean Claut Trichet of European central bank and Dominic Strauss Kahn of IMF, Barack Obama pointed out to Chinese president Hu about the importance of a free floating Chinese currency. Mr Hu Jintao politely told all of them to go "Eff yourself". Western world argue that appreciating chinese yuan will help rebalance Americas trade deficit which in turn will help rebalance the worlds trade deficit. Also a stronger Yuan will help Chinese GDP to be less dependant on export and more dependent on consumption as Chinese consumers will find both national goods and foriegn goods less expensive with a stronger Yuan. If appreciating the Yuan is good for China and the world, Why is China restraining the free float of the Yuan? First reason is its not true that Chinese Yuan has not appreciated since the great recession. Since the start of 2008, the yuan has actually risen against every currency except the yen. China is also slowly rebalancing their economy as the consumption has contributed to 12% growth in GDP this year while the export fell by 4% points. China agrees that Yuan needs to be appreciated but over the long term with a slow pace. China argues that if Yuan is appreciated rapidly in the short term, the domestic economy that is still hugely dependant on export, will wipe out many players in the export market causing unemployment in China to go up. Secondly the benefits to Americans from appreciating Chinese Yuan is exaggerated. There is a little overlap between American and Chinese production so American goods could not simply replace Chinese imports. This will cause American consumers to pay more for Chinese imports which would be like imposing a marginal tax to American consumers. Nevertheless it is true that appreciating the Yuan will help the Chinese and the global economy. With massive Chinese population the Yuan appreciation will help reduce the price of foreign export boosting up the domestic Chinese demand. Basically China needs to save less and spend more so China can stop buying huge amount of American treasury bills with their saved money. In the medium term it will happen but not in the short term. Patience Mr President.

Eminem - A true modern poet

2007-04-26T19:32:00.000-07:00

Eminem is a true poet

If you don't belive me read below and judge yourself.

That's why we sing for these kids who don't have a thing
Except for a dream and a fucking rap magazine
Who post pinup pictures on their walls all day long
Idolise their favourite rappers and know all they songs
Or for anyone who's ever been through shit in their lives
So they sit and they cry at night, wishing they die
Till they throw on a rap record, and they sit and they vibe
We're nothing to you, but we're the fuckin' shit in their eyes
That's why we sieze the moment, and try to freeze it and own it
Squeeze it and hold it, 'cos we consider these minutes golden
And maybe they'll admit it when we're gone
Just let our spirits live on, through out lyrics that you hear in our songs

Men and Women choice of sex

2007-03-01T10:16:00.000-08:00

I was asked few days ago by a student reporter (female) at Ryerson University about my opinion on student teacher sexual relationship in Universities. I told her I didn't have any problem with it as long as the student is an adult. The reporter's facial expression and body language indicated not only she was surprised at my reply but also she was very against student teacher sexual relationship. She tried to oppose my views with her biased arguments. One of them was a student could be very emotinally vulnerable at 19 (majority of the students entering first year fall within age group 19-20) and the teacher could unjustifiably play with her vulnerbale emotion. The reporter didn't think it was right because not only she thought the teacher (assuming the teacher was much older than the student) was much emotionally stable at an older age but also the teacher could have advantage over the student in terms of controlling the student's mark. I told her the rational "19 year olds are emotinally vulnerable" would be a very weak rational as we can use that on anything thats happens in our society. I told her I could say its wrong to sell alcohol or credit cards to 19 year olds as they are very emotinally vulnerable and could be easily persuaded. If 19 year olds are emotinally vulnerbale what should be the legal age when you are not considered emotionally vulnerable ? But thats a whole different arguement. The reporter replied by saying "I was very vulnerable when I was 19" although I dont know why she said it. The reporter didn't give up on her effort to prove me wrong. Her next attack question was "How would you like it if your 19 year old child is sleeping with her 50 year old prof ?" I gave her my honest answer which seemed to blow her mind away. My answer was I wouldn't like it if it was my daughter having sex with her 50 year old prof but I wouldn't mind if its my son was having sex with his 50 year old prof. My friend Babak was sitting with me and he tried to rationalize what I said. He said and I agreed with him, that it was mostly because statistically a girl would put more in the line when it comes to having sex. Majority of the time (of course there are exceptions) a girl will not have sex with a guy just because of his good looks. A girl would have to get to know a guy at least a little bit first before she gives him access to her body. Usually a girl would never have sex with a guy if she considered the guy mean, rude and idiot even if the guy was very good looking. On the other hand majority of the time a guy would have sex with any girl anytime as long as he finds her attractive. Guys wouldnt even care if the girl was annoying or stupid as long as he finds her attractive he can have sex with her. Guys dont even have to like the girl they are having sex with so they have less (if nothing at all) emotions in the line. So girls would have more chances of getting emotionally involved in a sexual relationship then guys. Which was why I wouldn't like it if my daughter was having sexual relationship with her 50 year old prof. hmmm.

The reporter didn't understand what we were trying to say but wrote down everything we said and left. But she looked like she hated us. I can't wait for the article to come out and hopefully it will. :D

Banker to the poor

2007-01-20T11:56:00.000-08:00

The recent noble prize designation gave Muhammad Yunus the luxury to mediate his works and ideas through mainstream television. He appeared in number of famous television programs including Oprah, John Stewert, The hour, 60 minutes. Now that he got the noble peace prize everyone likes Muhammad Yunus, everyone is speculating and suggesting what he should do and what he shouldnt do and how this world needs more people like him. Thank god to the "noble peace prize." Can you imagine if he didnt get that "noble peace prize" all his theories and hard work would go invain. Oprah would have never called him the first place. hahahaha
I came across his book at my school's library and gave it a try. It was simply amazing. Its called Banker to the poor. In his book Yunus criticized the existing financial industy which includes bank, insurance companies, investment companies. Yunus suggested that every bank in this world should be called Banks for rich people as traditional banks do not cater or lends to poor people who dont have any money or collateral. To prove that banking could be done to the "very poor" segment in the economy in a very much profitable manner Yunus created Grameen bank in 1977. The bank which started on the basis of "micro credit" aiming to help poor people made handsome profit every year since then. Now Yunus's ideologies are being used everywhere in the world as an effective strategy to fight poverty. Here are some of the amazing paragraphs I came across throughout the breathtaking book "Banker to the poor" while finishing it in two days.

-In the traditional economic theory "developement" is veiwed simply in terms of increasing a nation's GNP. When the national economy picks up, the situation of the poor is not necessarily improved which is why there is poverty even in countries like United States. Therefore developement should be redifined and should refer to a positive measurable change in the per capita income of the bottom (poorest) 50% of the population.

-In economic Theory credit is seen merely as a means with which to lubricate the wheels of trade,commerce and inudstry. But in reality credit creates economic power, which quickly translates into social power. When credit institutions and banks make rules that favor a distinct section of the population, that section increases both its economic and its social status. In both rich and poor countries alike, credit institutions and banks have favoured the rich and in so doing have pronounced a death sentence on the poor.

(this paragraph below I thought is the best paragraph in the book and portrays Yunus's superb knowledge and background in economics)
- Competition in the democratic market economy should be encouranged but I (Yunus) oppose an economy grounded solely on greed-based enterprises. Society should create social consciousness-driven enterprises to compete with greed based eneterprises. A market driven by social consciousness is far more effective then a market driven just by greed. Globalization shouldnt be used to create more distance between the poor and the rich but should be used for the betterment of human society. Free trade must be encouraged and must mean freedom for the weakest. Globalization must create harmony partnership between the big and small companies rather than become a vehicle for unhindered takeover by rich companies. The rule of "strongest takes it all" must be replaced by a rule that ensures everybody a place and a piece of the action. Most of all I believe in "Equality of Opportunity" for every individual but not every individual should be equal in terms of economic condition.

What I liked most about the book was how Yunus portrayed what he theorized by actually doing it in action by creating and sustaining Grameen bank. Being an activist myself fighting against poverty I came across many different people with their ideas with what people should do and how economy should run. My general observation is that most of these activist have very very little idea and education about the practicality of how societies and economies actually operates. These activists dream of an Utopian society where everyone will be equal and at the same time these activist dont believe in compensating people for their hardwork and also dont believe in competition being an effective drive for the economy. I suggest those "communist" mentality driven activists should read this book. (at this point I should mention I was one of those communist mentality driven activist with a vision of Utopian society not too long ago... hahahahhaaha )

Thanx a lot guys

2006-12-17T09:02:00.000-08:00

My 24th bday was great. I wanted to thanx all my friends who made the effort of coming to fahim's last friday ..it was a blast.. i got it all vdo taped... ppl got wasted and did things they shouldnt have done .. hahah anyway .. special thanx to all of u
-nesar, jennifer fot the beer,
-tamal and mariam for showing up (u guys took a cab .so that u can spend more time with us.. aaahhhh thank u so much)..
-and ofcourse fahim and tasmia for hosting the party.. mamu thanx for dancing with me (at least i can say i wasnt the only wasted one):D.. thanx to tasmia for all the foood.. they were fukn good...tasmia's eyelids were always half closed for some reason ... :).
Shakil bhai .. i couldnt believer u were there .. :D ur pics were the best
and special thanx to my girlfriend for showing up during her exam ... I love u babe
Ill post pics as soon as i get..
I am old :(
Shaq diesel

A nation within Canada ? What does that mean

2006-11-26T12:23:00.000-08:00

Last week Canada's intellectual prime minister (who is loved by President Bush so much that he is called "Steve" by the American president) gave recognition to Quebec province as a nation within Canada. Upon some research I found out the legislation and constitution did not change and Quebec has the same previlige as before except for the recognition as a Nation within Canada. I did not understand. What does that mean.... a nation within Canada but has the same rights and previliges as all the other provinces ? So I guess Alberta is a nation within Canada too... Personally i think Steve didnt do a bad job as we all know what the Liberals under Jean Chrétien leadership has gone through and for which Paul Martin eventually had to pay the price. What I am curious about is what were the Quebec leaders thinking ?
its 2007 not 1208 AD.. Human beings are moving towards the future breaking all the barriers of differences, there you are whinning about just to get recognized as a nation ? Quebec has to be so different ? French is one of the national languages in Canada. all the highway signs from Nova Scotia to Vancouver comes in both English and French. Jean Chrétien gave Quebec more than 10 million dollars of non Quebec tax payers currency to satisfy your thirst and to stop whinning .... just to show that Quebec is considered as a province of Canada. but forget all that .. my question is.. what is the synergy (if there is any) that has been created by the recognition of Quebec as a nation? Quebec does not have any extra previlige then before .. then why ? I cant stop but thinking of Quebec as a little kid who wants nothing but to be called as a "nation". Now that you have got your most important "Nation" status .. just to point out that there are other less important issues in Quebec that Quebec leaders might want to adress in the parliament.. for example - homeless people, bettering education, increase in gun violence... but its ok... they can wait I guess ...

Hell in "Cafe Living well"

2006-11-08T09:53:00.000-08:00

According to a waiter who works at "Living well", the cafe has been on yonge street for the last 25 years. First time when i was there the service and food was exceptional. so i recommended nesar and jennifer to come with me to living well cafe and try their sizzling fajita plate. But it turned out to be a disaster. me and nesar was already intoxicated before we arrived at living well so the experience was even worse for us. surprisingly when we arrived nobody was downstairs so we went upstairs and found out they were having some kind of "performing on stage" night. all the tables were full so we decided to go sit in the bar. the bartender was standing right in front of us although didnt approach us for the first 5 minutes. I thought maybe he was busy. The bartender walked by us, lingered around for another 10 minutes. No approach. By this time we (me, nesar and jennifer)were getting impatient thinking what the fucks going on. It gets better.Shortly after, another couple walked in and sat right beside us making themselves comfortable. Guess what ? the motherfucking waiter goes straight upto them and offered them his service within 30 seconds. At this point we were speechless, hungry and pissed off. Alreardy intoxicated I couldnt believe the act of racism that I was witnessing. We were probably the only non-white people around and the couple who just walked in were both white. I started cursing at the waiter and although I ended the situation by saying some mean things to the waiter , when we walked out I couldnt believe what I just witnessed. Who would have imagined a waiter working at a Cafe on one of the busiest multicultural street in the world would do something like that. WoW :D

halloween party .....V for .....

2006-10-30T08:45:00.000-08:00

Jennifer and Nesar threw a great halloween party although i remember only parts of it i wish i remember all of it. great people, great costume, great food = lots of fun. My V mask was a big hit and surprisingly even nesar had a costume this year. his was a gay english poet although he tried to pass it by saying he is trying to be artful dodger from oliver twist.

i realized halloween is the only day where girls can get away wearing slutty clothes. hahahah
here is a nice pic from the party and if you wana see more pic check out my hi5 account
peace

what a day

2006-10-07T16:25:00.000-07:00

congratulations to fahim and tasmia on their recent step towards moving out in November. Good luck to you guys. i went to see the movie departed last night with my girlfriend and fahim and tasmia. I thought the original version of the movie (infernal affairs) was better. maybe it was because i knew the story i didnt enjoy it as much. Although Jack Nicholson and Leonardo both ripped it throughout the movie with their excellent acting ability. After the movie Fahims car battery died for the second time. poor guy, you should have seen the look on his face when the battery died for the second time the same day. Although he found help later on from Tamal and his dad he found out his battery completely died. i told fahim to relax and smoke up and get drunk in order to forget about his car. :D he listened to me and it worked. Fahim was fine after a while. Tasmia reunited with her friends after a long time and we all go high and drunk afterwards. (We have no life) :D

why did the apple fall down

2006-09-29T10:35:00.000-07:00

so many things going on :D i guess when they say "everyday is a new day or everyday is a day to learn something new" is not totally out of the line. this guy i know at school was blabbing about how important body language is while giving a business presentation and so i thought of enhancing my knowledge on the subject "body language". what i found out was amazing. i know its a common factor that body language gives away a lot about other people but when actually reading the different parts and interprtation it was amzing what i found out.
apparently our unconcious mind dominates our body language. the way we walk, the way we sit down, the way we stand. the way we eat and thousands of other rituals are programmed by our unconcious mind. according to the book i read, if we want to sit down, the concious mind decides that we are going to sit down but the unconcious mind decides how and what position we are going to sit down. since a lot people believe that unconcious mind gives away our true innner self, one can learn a great deal about other peoples personality just by looking at how they are sitting. the book also emphasized a great deal on eye contact. according to the book people who dont make eye contacts are people with low self esteem and people who needs someone or something to get the feeling of acceptability. ok so much for the book report. my girlfriend recently told me this very very interesting story which was also hilarious. once upon a time (maybe few years ago) my girlfriend was walking somewhere for some reason while suddenly somebody from a building next to her threw an apple which directly hit her nose. i dont think the person who threw the apple deliberately aimed at her nose (but was rather aiming at her) but it hit her nose anyway. thats the strangest thing i have ever heard in my life. i have never heard somebody throwing an apple at somebody. you throw balls, papers, unwanted stuff like empty bottles even stones .. but an apple. why would someone throw an apple at someone. did the person who threw the apple thought my girlfriend a reincarnation of newton ? hmm

Summer 06 is over

2006-09-01T10:51:00.000-07:00

This summer was really good. I did so many things and didnt do so many things.
Things that I did -
-I travelled a lot went to Montreal and whole West Coast of the North American Continent from LA to Vancouver,
-I watched a whole bunch of great movies..
-got wasted and partyed so much,
-quit my old boring job and got another boring job,
-read a whole bunch of great books
-enjoyed World Cup 2006
-and lost 15 pounds.
Some of the things I didnt do
-Didnt work as much as I thought
-Didnt read as many books as i thought i would
-Didnt take photographs as many as i thought i would

Goodbye 2006 summer
its been a great summer and probably my last summer relaxing as much as i did this summer. hopefully ill graduate from school by next summer and then have to work full time to utilize my education so next summer probably wont be as relaxing as it was this summer.
Looking forward to a great Winter. Already got a whole bunch of plans and hopefully they will work out.

wild wild west

2006-08-05T21:02:00.000-07:00

my 2006 vacation in the west coast of united states has been crazy so far. i got here on wednesday and i relaxed on thursday at my uncles place in seattle and the next day me and my cousin (who is almost my age.. thank god) headed down south . first we flew to sacramento, stayed there for a while and then drove to san francisco this morning... san francisco is crazy.. one of the most beautiful cities in the world i think.. the greek style houses come in different colours .. i have never seen such a diversified house colour combination .. red, blue , black , white , pink .. you name it .. the houses come in all kinda colours one can think of. San francisco is famous for gays and lesbians and although i have witnessed both i prefer the latter one. .. my drive to sanfrancisco was really really crazy.. the roads are through the mountains and while driving through the side of the mountains all i could see was the mountain on one side and pacific ocean on the other side. i was so scared everytime my brother in law ( who was driving ) was taking turns cuz it felt like the car was going to slide and drop staright into the pacific ocean.....we had great food in a restaurant by the ocean .. i took tons of pictures..

in between all these .. meeting my father's side of the family for the first time.. leaving my own family (my mom and my brother)for the first time for such a long time.. learning more about my family tree and family values.. getting all the great hospitality everywhere i go... i feel great and a little nostalgic with all the great love and life all around me ..

subway

2006-07-25T14:42:00.000-07:00

Toronto Subway carries a good reputation for being one of the best in the world. Although I am not too sure how legit this reputation is so far I think they are doing a great job. The subway was ranked one of the best in North America, far way better than New York Subway but also TTC operates in Medivel Age technology when compared with Japan transit. The Toronto Transit Commission allows convenient bus routes and subway routes all over Toronto and although the fare is growing with the population of the city it has to stop somewhere I guess. The funny thing is I have noticed (and have been told) that people who take the TTC think as long as they pay 2.75 fare, their responsibilities are over and they can blame TTC for whatever incident happens that interferes the travelling process. Last Weekend some guy jumped in front of a train and commited suicide at Kennedy Station and while TTC employees were trying their best to clean up the mess the people inside the train that stopped before kennedy station were getting uncomfortable by the delay. Some people started shouting at the TTC train operator demanding their money back for being late. Surprisingly these people who were complaining were middle aged and their outfit indicated they are holder of white collar jobs. Why are people so stupid? I understand these people might be late for work or whatever but shouting at the TTC driver and demanding thir 2.75 dollar back isnt going to help get them to work any faster. If they dont carry these small bird like intelligence inside their human head how the hell do they function in this world. Although the incident didnt bother me I just felt bad for these stupid people and everyone else these stupid people interacts with. Not to mention the nasty littering process transit customers undertake inside and outside the TTC property. People throwing garbage, bottles, food (I have seen as far as fried rice on the subway train floor). TTC started a new garbage campaign to raise awareness inside people to be clean so that the person coming next can sit in peace. I hope the garbage goblins get the message. I guess some people are so stupid that all they can do is complain and think about negativity and always blame others. I guess their life is "soooo hard" that they cannot help themselves but complain and be negative. Good for them and for me also because the days that I feeling bad those negative, boring, "hard lifer's" makes me feel smart.

Space Shit ?!@#* Dirty Astronauts

2006-06-29T08:39:00.000-07:00

A freind of mine from school tried to explain how astronauts use toilets in space. It was so interesting to me that I did a little research on how astronauts use toilets in space. Turned out that it's a very complicated process due to the lack of gravity which makes it hard for astronauts to push the feces out of their stomach. The first astronauts wore a diaper and even sometimes feces used to float around inside the rocket as there were no toilets inside the early space shuttles. The brilliant scientists of NASA worked out a way to better the toilet condition for astronauts. These toilets inside the shuttles work with air and vacuum which sucks out whatever the astronauts pop out from their body. :D
This is how it works - The astronauts have to strap themselves on to the toilet seat (similar to how the violent criminals are strapped on an electric chair) and then start the vacuum suction process before they evacuate any waste. Then the astronauts have to push very hard in order to get the feces out of their body as theres no gravity to help them out (i wonder how their face looks like while doing this).After the astronauts are done the liquid and the solid from the waste are then seperated and the odor is purified. The waste liquid is then evacated out in the space while the waste solid particles are kept. Talk about contaminating the space hahaha. The aliens would have to be ready for floating waste liquids and waste odors as they come near the planet Earth. For the urinal process it is a little different and unhygenic. Everyone (every different men and women) uses one hose to insert their liquid (I dont know how girls do it) which is sucked out to the space. Apparantly everyone in the space shuttle uses the same hose.. I dont even know how they clean, if they clean, the hose after they are done.
On top of all these many astraunats do not take shower throughout the trip (although in some cases sponge baths were mentioned) and also do not brush their teeth as these rituals are very hard to perfom in space shuttles.
Next time whenever you see astronauts smiling and waving at cheering people on their successful return on Earth here are few things to keep on mind. They might stink like shit and all they want to do is to brush their teeth and to take a shower as soon as possible. hahahah

(And I was thinking about masterbating and having sex in space.. yah right)

A good summer with World Cup fever

2006-06-25T15:40:00.000-07:00

World Cup Soccer is here again and so is what is called the "World Cup Fever". This world cup fever is a disease which makes everyone an expert critique and a die hard fan of soccer. :D Nothing wrong with that disease right.. just going with the flow and having fun .. I ran into a few infected people and most of them made me laugh with their intellectual wannabe soccer critique and comment...cest la vie
I am a big fan of Germany and I hope they will win the cup :D
World Cup definately adds more fun in summer

Fast and the Furious 3 Tokyo Drift is out in theaters.. not a good movie to have an intellectual conversation with someone afterwards but there are definately some jaw dropping car stunt actions.. and some nice classic cars.... I wonder why they always realease every Fast and the Furious franchise during the summer.... so if we categorize movies by summer movies and winter movies .... Fast and the furious would be a summer movie.... hmm.....

Toronto's 17th annual bike week

2006-06-01T08:32:00.000-07:00

Toronto's bike week has already started.. i will be joining probably on June 3rd the Saturday with couple of my friends from school.. anybody wants to join contact me.. you dont have to go on June 3rd .. the bike week is from May 29th to June 11th. Help reduce smog and pollution and it will be lot of fun. FREE BREAKFAST will be served toooo..
heres all the information below

You're invited...

Please join Greenpeace for the 17th Annual Bike Week in Toronto, May 29 - June 11th, 2006.

Bike Week is an annual celebration of Toronto's vibrant bicycle culture and Greenpeace is very proud to be a part of it. We have a number of activities planned and would love for you to join us!

Watch for the Greenpeace Bike Ambassadors at an intersection near you!

Cyclists deserve a big thank you for doing their part in reducing smog and dangerous climate change. Look out for the Greenpeace Bike Ambassadors during Bike Week (May 29 to June 11). They will be thanking cyclists with great giveaways at downtown Toronto intersections.

Take the Greenpeace Bike Week Challenge!

Learn about transportation alternatives, reducing smog, and dangerous climate change. Just fill out the online Bike Week Challenge quiz and enter yourself to win a new bicycle or other fantastic prizes. You will find the challenge on the Greenpeace website at
http://greenpeace.ca/contest/index.php

Good Luck!

Please join Greenpeace staff and volunteers in the 17th Annual Group Commute & Free Pancake Breakfast hosted by the City of Toronto Cycling Committee.

Monday, May 29, 8:30 am at Nathan Phillips Square

People from around the city will be riding to the breakfast together - come join us! For the location of the different departures points and much more please check out
http://www.toronto.ca/cycling/bikeweek/bikeweek_2006.htm

or download a PDF map of starting points at:
http://www.toronto.ca/cycling/bikeweek/pdf/group_commute_map2006.pdf

There will be Greenpeace volunteers a number of different departures points throughout the city. If you would like to find someone from Greenpeace just look out for our green Greenpeace vests.

Thanks and we hope to see you.

Stay committed, get involved. www.greenpeace.ca

Happy incidents

2006-05-24T19:16:00.000-07:00

highly anticipated movie Babel is coming out soon in the theaters near you !!! its already out at the Cannes Movie Festival and I cant wait for it to come to theaters everywhere.
This is suppose to be the end of the trilogy of Amores Perros and 21 Grams. One of Alejandro Gonjalez directs this excellent movie which is about human beings from different parts of the world coming togather and sharing same feeling in spite of all the different languages and other communication gaps. hot Brad Pitt, hot Kate Blanchett and hot Gael Garcia barnel are few of the major casts .. I have read some parts of the script which is beautifully written.. i hope the movie will keep up to my high hopes although the theme of the movie already got my attention and love...

another good news !!!! Canada is extending 40 million dollars to help Darfur ..( i guess all the letters to the prime minister helped in a way)..Last i ve heard the peace full talks are getting positive Hopefully the conflict will come to an end soon...
the weather is also getting better in Toronto :D..i cant wait to go to the beaches with my hot fat body.... and my girlfriend's both parents will be out for the weekend.. so more boom boom for me :D

I want to end the post with a poem by Tupac..
"JADA"
u r the omega of my heart
the foundation of my conception of love
when i think of what a black woman should be
its u that i first think of
u will never fully understand
how deeply my heart feels 4 u
i worry that we'll grow apart
and i'll end up losing u
u bring me 2 climax without sex
and u do it all with regal grace
u r my heart in human form
a friend i could never replace

the ideal day

2006-04-05T19:58:00.001-07:00

woke up at 10 am with no sleep lag.... mom made great breakfast and coffee .. watched a great movie.. went to the gym... then around 3 went outside with camera to take some wonderful pictures of "spring in toronto" with my wonderful girlfriend. went to the Bay street Chapters around 7 and read a great comedy book and ended the night with great sushi dinner with my girl.

now its time for sex....... ah .. why cant everyday be like this... my exams are next week but its so wonderful when i dont think about them.

heres one of the wonderful pictures i took today

problem

2006-03-28T19:34:00.000-08:00

recently i have been facing an interesting problem that i am finding very hard to solve. most of my classes at school include a major assignment due at the end of the semester and this big assignment usually is done in a group. i have three classes with these two guys and fortunately (or unfortunately i dont know) i am in a group with them in all these three classes. now i am close and very friendly with one of them but the other one i am not that friendly with although our relationship is friendlier then just being classmates. now the guy that i am close and very friendly with does lot of work and a good student with good potential and me and him mostly do all the work in all the assignments. the other guy who i am not very friendly with does not participate in group work at all and tend to be very lazy and not studious at all. there were situations where we just put that lazy guy's name on the assignment even though the lazy guy doesnt even know that there is an assignment due. the reason for doing so is the lazy guy is very friendly with the other guy in the group that i work with and secondly these assignments are like 20 to 30% of the whole course and not putting the lazy guy's name on the assignment might be a disaster for that lazy person. we tried talking to him but the efforts went in vain.
the other guy dont want to loose or hurt his friend but this situation is bothering me.

i am working so hard and the lazy guy is doing nothing but we will both get the same mark ? the lazy guy even gets better mark than many of our friends just by copying the scantron although he doesnt carry any knowledge about anything thats going on in class.

i guess its true when they say "life is unfair"

The Inside Man

2006-03-25T20:25:00.000-08:00

Oh man .. what can i say. Spike Lee at his best. This movie was perfect. It seemed like there was not a single flaw in the movie.. from the beginning till the end the whole movie keeps you excited and enterntained. Not only great actors like Danzel, Clive Owen and Christopher Plummer were sparkling through the movie but also the cinematography, camera work and direction made "The Inside Man" a great work of art. Good story.. brilliant acting and brilliant direction = The Inside Man. I really liked the incorporation of the Hindi Song "Chaiya Chaiya" in the movie.. Its been a long time since the last time I heard that song but it sounded better than any other time i heard it...

V for Vendetta

2006-03-19T19:25:00.000-08:00

I just watched the movie and thought it was great. To me the best part of the movie was the dialogues ... a great work of the scriptwritter(s).. screenplay was written by the Wachowski Brothers. The direction of the movie was very visually artistic and good (specially the first half of the movie James McTiegue did a very good job).. and Natalie Portman portrayed a great performance. I loved the idea of the Character V...smart, intellectual, music lover, tortured in the past.. monster outside but a good man inside. V's home kinda reflects how I want my home to be in the future. Full of books, great music station, lot of arts and sculptures of different religion and culture.. the whole thing projects a beauty of intellectuality. :D Another good part of the movie was the rise against injustice. The movie starts with the government suppressing and creating fear inside the general population with force but the fear turns agaisnt the government when V starts taking vengeance of the injustice done to him and the society. I also dont want to spoil the movie for anybody who hasnt seen it.. so if you didnt see the movie yet dont read the next line. I liked the idea of keeping the mask on V even when he died in the end. It kept the suspense and goes along with V's character that V is not a human being but a hope and an idea that lives among all of us.

Overall it was good

2006-03-18T22:50:00.000-08:00

Start pointing out the gay facts in this picture...Nasir .. wats that sticker on your shirt.... looks like we are in a support group for Bangladeshi Gay Community. hahahahahahahahah

Interesting Ideas

2006-03-18T22:24:00.000-08:00

I am amazed by the creativity of Michelle Watters whose details can be found in http://www.flapart.ca/. This is a good way to make people laugh and minimize tense and stress situation. I always knew laughter is the best medicine but now I know how important "laugh" is. People should laugh more....... I know everyone has their sad depressing moments and but "laughs" can definately lighten up your life.

On the account of "laugh" .. here is a joke

Never fart in a subway train - its suicidal....

2006-03-08T08:14:00.000-08:00

Anti-War Rally
Saturday March 18th

Please come and rally with Greenpeace members and supporters at the upcoming Stop the War rally. Just look for the Greenpeace banner outside the US Consulate, 360 University Avenue at 1:00.

Non Violent Direct Action Training
Sunday March 19th

I would like to invite you to our next Non-Violent Direct Action training taking place in downtown Toronto on Sunday March 19th from 10:30 am until 5:00 pm.

The aims of the day include:
a) to give people confidence in handling confrontational situations, many of which can happen when campaigning on the streets and in conversation with the public.
b) to increase your understanding of the dynamic of power, the role of non- violence and why it is one of Greenpeace's core values.
c) to inform people about the ways in which Greenpeace operates and to increase confidence in the organization.
d) to get people involved in taking non-violent direct action of all kinds and at different levels
e) to reassure people about the realities of police procedures, arrest, charges and our system of legal support.

To participate in this training you must meet the following criteria:
* Have a moderate to high level of fitness
* Be a team player
* Be well coordinated
* Have some knowledge of environmental issues
* Be 18 years of age
* Be committed to the use of Non Violence as an agent of change
* Be willing to consider arrest for the right activity
* Have government issued photo identification

Please let me know whether you are able to join us for this training, andI will forward along the details of the location. It is extremely important that if you commit you try to keep this commitment. We have a limited number of spaces so may not be able to accommodate everyone.

Please reply before March 10th to

nikki.westwood@yto.greenpeace.org, stating your full name.

blog time subway

2006-02-26T10:20:00.000-08:00

its been a long time since i have had my last blog posting. actually i didnt know what to write about. writting a blog is not the same thing as writting whatever comes in your mind. because there are lot of things i think about that are not acceptable in any society. i dont think a young horny brown immigrant minority guy in toronto can get away saying or writting about everything that goes on in his mind. anywayz as i said my life is pretty boring right now or at least i am making it boring. most of my time is killed by studying, girlfriend, weed and travelling in the subway. believe it or not living in the east end of the city and travelling downtown everyday back and forth takes a lot of time. i always have keep an hour in my hand before i go anywhere. if i have a class at 4 pm i have to leave at 3 pm (if i am going to class) time well wasted in the subway. sometimes its interesting to see people in the subway. people moving in the same rhythm, some sad some happy, some like me trying to be smart, short moments of chemistry with a pretty girl sitting in front of you. i mean i dont understand a lot of people will deny the short interesting subway or the bus interactions with people. i mean when i am sitting in the subway and there is a pretty girl in front of me there is something going on. i mean it wouldnt be the same if theres a guy in front of me. when you are travellling for a long time with the same girl sitting in front of you, you kinda remember that face. silent acquaintance . silent subway familiar face friend. whatever you wanna call it. it happened to me so many times. i have seen people in the street that i have seen before in the subway. life is full of beautiful silent beauties.

i wana end my blog with an infamous quote from one of my favourite movies

The point is, ladies and gentlemen,
greed is good. Greed works, greed
is right. Greed clarifies, cuts
through, and captures the essence
of the evolutionary spirit. Greed
in all its forms, greed for life,
money, love, knowledge, has marked
the upward surge of mankind -- and
greed, mark my words -- will save
not only Teldar Paper but that
other malfunctioning corporation
called the USA...Thank you.

Gordon Gekko from Wall Street. This guy is one of my favourite evil character. the script of the movie is amazing too.

2006 the year of the movies

2006-01-05T13:59:00.000-08:00

this year many highly anticipated movies are coming out. before i forget i had to write down the list of movies that I just can't wait to see

1. Miami Vice
2. The Brazilian Job (the sequel of Italian Job)
3. Young Hannibal behind the mask. (life of Hannibal Lecter)
4. Babel
5. X Men 3
6. Superman Returns
7. Pirates of the Carribean 2
8. V for the Vendetta
9. The Da Vinci Code (the book was a lame literature but I could see a good movie coming out of it with good direction and acting.)

these are so far what i remember but I'll put more later

Happy New Year

2006-01-05T09:06:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to everyone

December was always my favourite month - my birthday, marks the end of a year, the beginning of a year, the holidays and everyone getting togather and relaxing. 2005 was a good year for me. I transfered from college to university - so academically i am more smarter :D I lost some weight (although initially i planned to loose way more), I joined the MAMUS :D recorded some songs, partied a lot hahahaha(phoenix night club) and my family is in a better position in every way. A lot more positive things happened this year. hopefully next year will be better for everyone.
Happy new year to everyone

surprise birthday

2005-12-15T20:16:00.000-08:00

my girlfriend gave me a surprise on my birthday. she called up all my friends at my crib on my birthday and i didnt know about it. i walked in my dark room and turn on the light and there they were. it was a good surprise. i turned 23. i am old. soon ill be 30 and then 40. life is continuing without any actuall purpose.

love versus meterialistic world

2005-12-06T10:02:00.000-08:00

i was reading this article on what qualities women look for in a man. most common ones were, he has to be responsible, sense of humor, established and some other bullshit i didnt want to read. it got me thinking, to fall in love in this age there are a lot of prerequisits. you have to have adequate amount of money, you have to have what this society considers civil. its not like you can fall in love with someone just because of how the person is. i mean there are a lot of boys and girls who would fall in love after few casual dates or what not but after a while if they want to stay togather for the rest of their life they have to take "other things" into consideration. how can we set our budget. who will scarifice more, whose gona give up what, whos gona compromise what. is it just me or it seems like people are trying too hard to be in a relationship or maybe control things. nobody wants to take things as how it is. people get married and then stay togather for the sake of having children. i know and see unhappy couples dont love each other anymore every second of everyday, they are just togather for their children, they are just togather they want to avoid the hassle. the husband is cheating on his wife with a hooker and the wife regrets not doing things she wanted to do with her life. even if a boy truly loves a girl, he cant stay with the girl because there are too many "other things". the couple will fight, the boy and the girl will both get mad, they will both think its not my fault, the boy would want the girl to say sorry and the girl would want the boy to apolozise and kiss her and recite some gay romantic shit.....and its ok as long as they love each other so much that those other things dont matter anymore. at the end they both know they love each other. they love each other so much that this meterialistic world couldnt break them. they are togather...
its hard to witness that love ... people break up for small, stupid reasons these days. shouldnt love be more important than those small stupid things ?

what am i writting about again ? fuck this i am gona go back to my love of my life... weeeeeeeeed

little things in life

2005-11-28T19:32:00.000-08:00

this was my first year at ryerson university as a third year student. i struggled a lot because i didnt study at all in beginning of the semester but i did good on my last two tests which is giving me hope that i mite be worth it a little bit. but the study stress also aids in adding stress on other little things in life. like your relationship with your girlfriend (not to mention her life is full of study stress too). a friend of mine once told me everyone in this world are made equally smart and it depends on how much time you put in your studies to yield better marks. so the amount of time to study is directly related to the amount of mark one will get?
i dont know. what about people who study their ass off all the time and still yield lower return in their mark. Bullshit. I never have enough time to do all the things that i want to do in my life. Scarcity of time. Big scarcity of time but I am still wasting my time writting this blog. what a fool i am.
correction i am not wasting my time. by writting this blog i am improving my english writting skills and in a way my communication skills. little things can change so much. i have been planning to go to the gym early every morning, this small chore can change a lot in my life but i dont do it. i am lazy.
correction. i am not that lazy. i study. engage in sexual activities hahahah. workout once in a while. give time to my friends, family, and girlfriend. and also i have a part time job working 20 hours a week. and i go to school full time.

halla at my brothers

2005-11-13T15:33:00.000-08:00

right on... the mamus (brand new hip hop act form tdot) debut show at ryerson rocked... ppl cheered.. bitches complained...mamus had fun. good accomplishment made by the mamus. the mamus wanted to do something like this for a long time and even though it was a small show it was a good start by the mamus and definately confidence got charged up. man this shit wouldnt have went down if we (the mamus) didnt stick togather. i am pretty sure we can experience bigger accomplishments in the future. singing the song by canadian butcher sam roberts "montreal here i come" could be our next accomplishment hahahaha... anyways i feel like i have a group of loyal friends and each and every one of them togather gave birth to the mamus. this guy tamal knows how to get prepared for a show in 3 dayz. 3 fukn dayz.. can u imagine ? and its not like this brother freestyled before... he pulled it up... hi 5 (borat)
lot of respect....and this other guy nasir got mad love for us... we destroy his gas money,,, we always get ride his ride .. no matter where we go.. from scarborough to brampton (thats a lot of money on gas) we use his car. this brother gets parking tickets .. he dont care.. the mileage of his car goes up .. he dont care.... he spends money on us (on drinks, food and other non mentionable stuff) he dont care..
with all these beautiful people inside ofcourse mamu is a hit. man i believe if the mamus stick togather they will go far.

2005-10-29T12:37:00.000-07:00

One of the bravest man in this world. Subcommander Marcos the leader of the Zapatista army. check out my links to learn more about him.

www.nologo.org

2005-10-29T12:19:00.000-07:00

go to www.nologo.org if you want to get more involved

Globalization is now on trial

2005-10-29T11:59:00.000-07:00

negative views against sweatshop products, big companies treating child labours like a piece of shit giving 0.35 cents/hour salary and forcing them work overtime... - these issues are not new. but unfortunately these issues still exist royally and continuing without any kind of barriers. As naomi klein mentioned that "Globalization is now on trial because on the other side of these virtual fences are real people shut out of school, hospitals and their own farm." North American residents can oppose to the issues mentioned above by not supporting them. If the consumption of sweatshop (Nike, Gap, Guess, Sears, Toys r Us... billion others) products go down then, the motherfucking corporations will get a kick on their face. But I am pretty sure the corporate motherfuckers will find other ways to make money so that their children can enjoy clothes sewed by other children. So one way to solve the problem would be to question and change the international labour policy to give equality (at least to all the children of this world). Every children should be given equal opportunity in this world. If I dont work hard and fuck up my life thats my problem. why should my children suffer for it ? my child should be given the same opportunity as Bill Gates's child. Bill Gates worked hard and made himself a billionaire and i give him credit for that. He can enjoy his life. But why should his child be given more opportunity than a poor child in Uganada. The child from Uganada didnt make any mistake to suffer from poverty. Bill Gates's child and a child from a poor family in Uganda is absolutely equal in every way or thats how it should be. I think every children in this world should be given the same opportunity and its upto them if they want to live poor or be rich. Fucking Corporations.

another similar one....

2005-10-13T00:08:00.000-07:00

How do we measure the value of a man?
Is it how he looks or how tall he stands?
Or is it the money from him our society demands?
Or maybe it’s the brand of shirt that he wears?
Don’t be surprised this is our age
We are out of love and full of hate
Some people even believe hell is our fate
As we are destroying humanity and consciousness
This world is ruled by a God name Corporate
We don’t exist we are being used by a bait
Gap, Old Navy, Gucci, Calvin Klein
How can they go wrong when they can heal our pain?
Our pain to look good and pain to consume
Trying to smell good using fake perfume
Fuck this I am a fool and I am not going to act smart
I am living happy looking good in my Nike shirt
Who cares about the poor hungry girl who almost died
Nobody will tell me anything and I’ll just get by
I ain’t no criminal I am ain’t doing the crime
Or does it make me a criminal supporting the crime?

recent poem

2005-10-10T21:33:00.000-07:00

This story of mine can never be dying
It’s repeating over and over cause the truth is on lying
Maybe if I tell the truth they will stop all the crying
That’s been happening in this world without any justifying
We live in a world with all corporate lies
All monetary values, money making fake smile
Did you really forget this life can never define
What’s after life and where you go after you die?
Corporate mother fuckers how do you live with yourself
With all the fake smile fake love that can never be felt
You are making poor work giving them almost nothing
Maybe just a dime when they fully give you everything
But how would you know Mr. Corporation what I mean by everything
Even if you have everything you will still not be satisfying
Cause you fukn want more just more and more
Until you die nobody cries but throws you in a hole
There is still time to make up for your crime
Get out the mentality that says “everything is mine”

human capital

2005-10-05T20:03:00.000-07:00

i was depressed today while i was studying for my personal financial management class. the title of chapter 5 was human capital and apparently the chapter is all about how to measure people in monetary terms. the chapter was horribly horrible. i know when it comes to evaluating money people have to look at everything in realistic way but i can so see this chapter influencing people to inforce money when it comes to valuing other people all the time. the book's author specifically talks about how to evaluate a dead person's financial situation. what kind of job the person had, how much asset did he have, how big was his family and every other small bits and pieces. it felt so wrong. the chapter was basically pointing out that a person with more money has more value in the society (which we already know) but thats not how it shouldnt be. it was just so weired and felt so wrong. i couldnt believe i was studying this shit. i am majoring in finance. i will be an expert on stealing money from poor people and giving it to the rich. my girlfriend already holds a negative impression on people who works on this finance field. she thinks every one in finance thinks everything in monetary terms. to some extent she is right. most of our textbooks supports the idea of measuring everything in monetary terms. this sux.

very small effort to reduce income inequalities and create better opportunities

2005-10-03T17:29:00.000-07:00

living well in Canada made me realize lot of things. One of them was greatefullness towards Canada for giving me this great opportunity to live in a good democratic environment. even though sometimes i feel like the Canadian political bodies have loopholes and corruptions, Canada is much better than many other countries in this world. when I think about how poor people in developing countries starve ...it just makes me feel bad i guess... doing little things like sending money .. sending used books.. would help poor people a little bit... i am asking everyone i know to help me with this situtation and organize any small help that could turn into a big opportunity for starving people .. i am not saying this will solve the problem of poverty.... in my opinion the problem is macro.. but i am pretty sure this will definately help small children and maybe put a little smile on their starving face.. someone once told me .... supporting a crime is the same as doing a crime. .. knowing that people are starving to death and not doing anything about it.. does it make me a criminal.. anyone whose reading this ...tell other ppl who has the same intention as me ..who wants to send something to the poor people living in third world countries.. please contact me.. .. my email is Shaquilen@hotmail.com.

my girl bought me and ipod nano.. she is the best..

2005-09-22T11:24:00.000-07:00

i recently was honoured by my girl shabz .. she bought me a freaking ipod nano.. that shit was so cool that it was like square root of cool square (which would bring it back to cool i think ) anyway .. i love my ipod its giving me inspiration to play guitar again.. its been a long time tho i think i still got some touch.. music is so cool makes me wana dance in the subway .. if only i wasnt shy i probably would have danced inside the subway train.. ..you are always moving or shaking inside the train anyway .. and if theres a nice girl sitting near you it would add more cool touch .... i am just too happy rite now.. i wish i could always keep this state of mind for the rest of my life...

same cycle over and over

2005-08-27T19:49:00.000-07:00

recently a good friend of mine lost his father. i felt bad for a while but then got over the fact soon but still feeling bad for my friend. i have experienced quite a few deaths in my 22 year old life. some ppl i knew very very well, some i just knew. i usually go through a sad phase when someone dies. this phase reminds me of how short my life is. this phase reminds me of how i should fill my life with good deeds and stop wasting my time on unimportant stuff. this morning i was going to work and when i looked at every faces around me for some reason i felt like middle people who go to work everyday from 9 to 5 not enjoying their work are quite similar to colonial ants. the everyday scene in the subway is very ritual. every morning you will see people showered up, pantened combed hair, nicely dressed and perfumed, reading free newspaper, sympathizing about the man killed in the middle east and forcing the fake smile on their face. the after noon or the evening scence is a little different. you will see tired people with messy hair, chewing gum to hide bad breath, failing to hide the irration and stress produced from all day of unwanted work. the cycle runs over and over again. i was already sad because of my friends father and this thought made me more sad. i felt like middle class or poor ppl like me are in this world to work. we work like 80% of our lifetime serving upper class ppl and at the end of the night we (middle class ppl) dont even own anything. we earn money from the upper class ppl (our boss the upper class) and then we spend our money to buy things owned by upper class so that the money goes back to them. money never stays with middle class ppl. like Chris rock said we can get rich but can never get wealthy (example- shaquile o neil is rich but the guy who writes his cheque is wealthy) so we (middle class ppl) are born, we go to school, we graduate get married, work for 40 to 50 years and then die one day ..... and in between we get laid, we do drugs, vacation few times and then one day u think what the fuck am i doing in this world.

2005-08-27T19:43:00.000-07:00

me being lazy at the lazy river

TIPS !!!!!! What the hell is that ?

2005-08-22T20:37:00.000-07:00

i have something against the idea of tipping waiters (and waitresses) at restaurants. They are just doing there job. I dont get paid for the job that I do. A friend of mine who is very supportive about the idea of tipping thinks it requires certain levels of communication skill for all the waiters and waitresses at the restaurants in order to get close and personal with their customers which make tips well deserved for them. I think many other jobs require the same levels of communication skills. For example people working in the retail industry get close and personal with their customers too and a smily face thank you (sometimes not even that) is the closest thing to tip those poor retail workers would ever get. On the other hand the only reason some waiters and waitresses make less than the minimum wage legislation is because of the existance of "tips" in the first place. if the tipping system was out, their wages would go up.

i dont get tips for doing my job so why should they ? they are just doing their job. some people take big pride and indulgance on leaving a big tip behind... i guess whatever makes you sleep at night.
You probably have assumed by now that I work in the retail industry :D

yah my blog

2005-08-22T17:48:00.000-07:00

blog is a inexpensive, efficient way to share your thoughts with the world or maybe i dont have anybody to share my perspectives with so i want to make myself feel a little important with this blog. I like writting and i think this blog will be a good practise and i hope all my fucked up friends will come and reply to this shit... those ppl are lazy ..just like me..:D