22 July 2016

How to Destroy a Country 101



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To shout negativity everywhere with conclusions that even authorities themselves have not yet reached is an utter irresponsible act by a citizen. It destroys the country, just like what the Economic Hitmen wanted.


HITMEN of the modern world works at a pervasive level. They sought to destroy countries. The 4 main methods used by economic hitmen to topple countries that do not entertain their wishes are:

Step 1: Destroy the country's economic livelihood via various tools such as currency attack, commodity price attack, international monetary aid that has unreasonable terms that breach the sovereignty of the country, masterminding excessive development funded by excessive debts and economic sanctions. The final objective is to get a regime change that installs a leadership team that is friendly to the hitmen's needs.

If Step 1 does not cripple the country or not easy to be implemented due to the country's strong leadership, then they will go for Step 2.

Step 2: Capitalise on local issue to create havoc and chaos with the main objective of breaking down the political landscape and an eventual change of regime to one of their choice. This is often targeted on key political figures and the subject matters used are often those very sensitive to the citizens of the country. Accusations are the fuel for character assassination. The accusations can be from various angles such as corruption, racial sentiments, religion, Government policies, sex scandals and many more. The more naive and angry the citizens are, the more effective is this method. It has the "zombie" effect to the citizens.

If Step 2 does not cripple the country or not easy to be implemented due to the country's strong leadership and/or the citizens' maturity, then they will go for Step 3.

Step 3: Engage in military action on that country either by single foreign country attack, or joint forces by multiple foreign countries, or via international pack such as NATO, or, most commonly used, gain access to the country's internal military force to takeover from inside. This is often done sugar coatedly behind ideologies such as to restore democracy or to stop dictatorship or to fight for humanity and many more as long as it has the effect of the Step 2 on the citizens. Of course the final objective is still to get a regime change to that of their choice.

If Step 3 does not cripple the country or not easy to be implemented due to the country's strong leadership, local military force and/or citizen's maturity, then they will go for Step 4.

Step 4: Hire an assassin to take out the unwanted person of interest, often the top leader of the country.

All Steps 1 to 4 is done concurrent with Step X. Step X is to nurture, finance and create an easy pathway for political progression of a potential leader of their choice that will eventually be that replacement for the unfavourable existing leader.

Many of these steps have taken place in many countries around the world. Some successful and some not. To name a few, whether successful or not, and not in any particular order: Step 1 was used on Panama, Venezuela, Argentina, Indonesia and Thailand. Steps 2 and 3 was used on Palestine, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Libya, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Vietnam. Step 4 was used in Libya.

As the World unite to prevent wars and military activities, Steps 1 and 2 will become more and more effective now. Step 4 is a last resort, hence not many attempts. Libya had Gadafi sacrificed as he was putting in place a gold Dinar mechanism as potential pervasive currency. Saudi Arabia was mentioned earlier and many may be wondering why? Well, Saudi had its current rulers, the Saud family, put in place by the English after capitalising on a religious strategy that they, the English, had nurtured. The strategy was Wahabism. They even made a movie out of it called Lawrence of Arabia. Finally, under Step 1, we saw many countries gone bankrupt.

This is not a new phenomenon. It has been going on since before World War 1. In fact, World Wars 1 and 2 may have been ignited by the same people who wishes to control the world. We have heard of many conspiracy theories such as the dropping of the unwarranted Atomic Bomb, CIA operations to overthrow governments, the New World Order under Freemasons/Illuminati/Zionism and the like. There is no direct evidence to conclude but what we see happening to many countries does fit in nicely into the puzzle. Henry Ford, the car maker, once tried to expose all these. He lost his wealth doing so.

So what can we do? The first step, as a citizen of this beloved country, is to have a robust mind to consider all facts by all parties and to have a conscious mind to assess whether you can comfortably accept those facts. Accepting does not mean to conclude straight away. Accepting means to tag a status on it as either facts of the case, accusations, evidence, suspicions and/or propaganda.

To shout negativity everywhere with conclusions that even authorities themselves have not yet reached is an utter irresponsible act by a citizen. It destroys the country, just like what the Economic Hitmen wanted. The best way to react is to accumulate knowledge and digest and only let go its implications when you are axing the box for the General Elections. For the time being, let the authorities do their jobs. God help us all.



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18 July 2016

Malaysia is Good for Global Digital Content Hub




www.kopihangtuah.blogspot.com





We can one more time be the international hub of the World - as we did it once as the World Spice hub in Melaka back in the 1400's.

DIGITAL ECONOMY is Malaysia's focus for the past couple of decades. The question is, how attractive is Malaysia for foreign content tech companies to come and set up HQ? Well, here is my list of the top 10 reasons:

1. Malaysia has, on average, 2 mobile devices per person totalling 60 million for a population of 30 million. This shows the potential high propensity to consume in the digital content world.

2. Malaysia has, on average, 5 debit/credit cards per household. More than 50% of the usage of these cards are for internet transactions particularly e-commerce. This psychological readiness amongst its consumers presents a good market segment for digital content. In 2014, the Malaysian music industry saw a shift for its highest revenue contributor from physical CDs to on-line downloads/streaming.

3. Malaysia will soon have full digital broadcasting landscape that can address the shortage of air wave spectrums. We can have as high as 50 to 60 TV channels. Currently, MyTV has rolled out approximately 60% to 70% of the Digital Terrestrial TV (DTT) infrastructure.

4. Cyberjaya, a cyber-city in Malaysia, has numerous international data centres that service a whole lot of internet applications worldwide. It has potential to be the next Silicon Valley.

5. Malaysia is ranked No. 1 in the world for social media usage as gauged by it being Facebook's top 10 countries for average friends per person. Such enthusiastic community is a good market place.

6. Many international companies have opened their regional HQ/Office in Malaysia. In fact, Facebook has opened an office in Malaysia after realising that they need to service their No. 1 customers better, i.e. Malaysians. The game developer, Streamline, who is developing Street Fighter V and Final Fantasy XV has also moved its HQ from Amsterdam to Bangsar South. We had Rhythm & Hues earlier but its demise has got nothing to do with Malaysia.

7. Malaysia has a very strong regional presence for telecommunications (via Axiata) in Asean, one of the World's highest economic growth region. This is a ready platform for content to be distributed. In addition, its proximity to China and India, the 2 largest and fastest growing economies, can facilitate economic growth inter-regions further.

8. Malaysian Government policies are friendly for ICT, Entrepreneurship and Digital Economy as evident by its active entrepreneurship movements under the Ministry of Finance's Malaysia Global Innovative and Creative Centre (MaGIC) and Malaysia Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) under Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDeC).

9. Malaysia has the general conducive environment for prosperity such as strong economic growth at 5% even during recession, English speaking country, melting pot of cultures and good portion of Government budgetary allocation for infrastructure development as well as human capital development. It is an open democratic society with no adverse extremism ideologically or religiously. Despite some political turmoil, the political landscape is relatively stable compared to many countries where frequent regime change disrupts economic progression.

10. Malaysia is geographically save as it is on the Sunda Platform - which means, not exposed to volcanic risks. It has no extreme weather and its tropical climate attracts many tourists from across the World. Malaysia has some issues with traffic jams and floods but nothing as worrying as what you see in Indonesia, Thailand, Burma, Bangladesh, and the list continues.

Sometimes we (Malaysians) forget how pleasant our country is. It takes a foreigner to open our eyes. Mind you, the above points did not just come from my awareness alone. It was also significantly communicated to me by various foreigners such as Australians, Americans, Japanese, French and many more whom I have had the privilege to have technical economic discussions with. We have the country. It is up to us to nurture it. We can one more time be the international hub of the World - as we did it once as the World Spice hub in Melaka back in the 1400's.



* kopihangtuah





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14 July 2016

Understanding the Current Global Retail Market


www.kopihangtuah.blogspot.com





GLOBAL is the new buzz word for Malaysian businesses nowadays due to the internet of things. This is because internet goes beyond boundaries of geographical jurisdictions. When looking at Global retail market, in a nutshell, the following must be considered:

1. To understand the future of global retail, look at China.

2. Price is still king (even for high income earners).

3. Even though product research is mainly done online, consumers desire physical interaction with products.

4. In Malaysia, 53% respondents prefer purchasing products in-store while 37% prefer purchasing online for clothing and footwear.

5. The Malaysian attitude differs for books, music, movies and video games where 57% prefer online purchases as oppose to 30% in-store.

6. Retail talent gives positive impact towards sales.

7. The dimension of customer service is more sophisticated as personalised advice, special after sales services and deep knowledge on products are expected by consumers. Employee training is therefore crucial.

8. Mobile purchasing as online shopping tool of choice especially for Millennials (aged 18-34).

9. Goldman Sachs predicts that by 2018, almost half of all e-commerce will be accounted by mobile commerce.

10. Simplifying online checkout process motivates online purchases.

11. There is reliance on community in consumers' purchasing attitude.

12. Needless to say, social media remains as the "great influencer".

13. Reading reviews, comments and feedback scores highest to the question how social media influences shopping behaviour followed by receiving promotional offerings.

14. Malaysians are highly influenced by reading reviews, comments and feedback (this comes with no surprise at all).

15. There is room to innovate seamless integrated online shopping experience.

(Source of information is from PricewaterhouseCoopers Total Retail Report 2016).



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13 July 2016

Simple Math to Determine Number of Kids Per Household When Considering Education Insurance


www.kopihangtuah.blogspot.com





EDUCATION is an important element of a child care plan. Savings for the cost of a child's education should start early. One option is to buy insurance. The monthly premium for a child's education insurance (over 24 years) has the following inflationary trend (assuming redemption value of RM100,000):

2005: RM200
2010: RM300
2015: RM400

Every 5 years it goes up by RM100. That is RM200 in 10 years. Hence, averaging at RM20 per year, which is 10% simple average per year on the RM200 base. So if compounding, perhaps around 7% per year.

This should be the benchmark for salary increment. I don't see this happening in the near future. Tough times ahead. Hoping that insurance companies are not taking too much profits. To be fair, the insurance companies are offseting profits from life plans against losses from medical plans.

In any case, we must all put aside money for kids' education regardless of whether in insurance plan format or simply cash savings. So, please start cracking on your excel spreadsheets to work out your budget so that you can condition your lifestyle to be balanced in considering current expenditure versus future commitments.

However, don't be too stressed about it. Just make sure whatever your potential savings are on monthly basis, divide by RM400 and wallah.... that is the maximum number of kids you should have now. Any future addition (of kids) should be fine if incremental income can give incremental savings of RM400 plus RM20 per year from this year onwards.

But then..... is RM100,000 enough for education 24 years from now?



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09 July 2016

Where Has PM Najib Brought Malaysia To?


www.kopihangtuah.blogspot.com






FASCINATED I have been with how people debate in the social media nowadays particularly on the subject matter "Malaysian Politics" involving PM Dato' Sri Najib and his opponents. Today, I came across one really good argument about how Malaysia has fetched (in the eyes of the international observers) vis a vis the premiership of PM Dato' Sri Najib versus his nemesis, Tun Mahathir. I feel compelled to share those valuable arguments to my blog followers so that they can avoid being zombies of fitnah on the social media. For this, credit should be given to Saiful Bahari Baharom, who is the author of the following Facebook status:

*****

A comment from an FB friend:

Wow! Everybody seems to be an expert here (Facebook), and playing God too. No matter what, you can't deny the progressive developments and the international respect Msia was accorded during Tun M's tenure. So what global recognition have we got now? Corruption, scandals and the 1MDB fiasco.

My (Saiful's) response:

You think time Tun M Malaysia was not criticised by global press for corruption and cronyism? Go and learn to google, my friend.

As for PM Najib's time, several international organisations have rated Malaysia highly in their global surveys. The Global Competitiveness Report 2014 to 2015, released by the World Economic Forum, ranked Malaysia 20th out of 144 economies, up from 24th last year.

The report also placed Malaysia 4th for Financial Market Development and 7th for Goods Market Efficiency.

Bloomberg declared Malaysia the world’s 5th most promising emerging market in 2015, and the Asian Corporate Governance Association has ranked Malaysia in the same league as developed markets such as Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore.

It is noteworthy that in this year’s Baseline Profitability Index, a ranking of investment-attractive destinations by America’s Foreign Policy magazine, Malaysia jumped 5 rungs - from 11th in 2014, to 6th this year. This ranking, in a survey which covered 110 countries across six continents.

Last year, Malaysia rose to 18th out of 140 countries in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report.

The World Bank ranked Malaysia as the 18th easiest place to do business out 189 economies in 2015.

And in the IMD’s Yearbook, Malaysia was ranked as the 14th most competitive country out of 61 economies surveyed.

The truth is, as the World Bank regional director for Southeast Asia said last December, and I quote: “The international community continues to have confidence in Malaysia. That's why Malaysia continues to attract interest from businesses - both domestic and foreign."



*****



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