Librahitech Blog

UAE workers among world's lowest paid, report says | ConstructionWeekOnline.com

2012-01-23T22:35:00.000-08:00

UAE workers among world's lowest paid, report says | ConstructionWeekOnline.com

Workers in the UAE’s manufacturing industry are amongst the lowest paid in the world, according to a report released by the IMD World Competitive Centre’s Labour Market Index.

According to data released by the Centre, the UAE was ranked 10th in terms of lowest manufacturing workers’ wages in the year 2009.

An average total hourly compensation for manufacturing workers (wages + supplementary benefits) in the UAE was $3.38 or AED12.4, the report said.

6 High-Value Skills That Will Supplement Your Career - Investopedia.com

2012-01-18T23:40:00.000-08:00

6 High-Value Skills That Will Supplement Your Career - Investopedia.com

If you're lucky enough to be a specialist in your field, you're ahead of the curve. Whether you're a marketer, accountant, writer, artist or engineer, you're more competitive with a refined skill-base. Beyond knowing the language and general trends of your trade, you need to be able to produce something of high value and economic necessity. Give yourself a competitive advantage by augmenting your talents with a new skill.(For more, check out 6 Free Ways To Learn New Job Skills.)

Read more: http://financialedge.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0112/6-High-Value-Skills-That-Will-Supplement-Your-Career.aspx?partner=ntu12#ixzz1jt4IFRMh

Booz and Company

2012-01-17T04:43:00.000-08:00

Booz & Company Sees New “Age of Uncertainty” as Industries Look Ahead to 2012.

The consulting firm’s annual “Industry Perspectives”, covering different sectors, predict that industries in 2012 will face challenges ranging from price wars to the evaporation of profit pools to technology-driven disruption.

New York, NY, December 8, 2011

For business next year, the only sure thing is uncertainty, Booz & Company advised its clients today. The consulting firm’s annual “Industry Perspectives” predict that industries in 2012 will face challenges ranging from price wars to the evaporation of profit pools to technology-driven disruption. For executives, the best advice is to focus sharply on the capabilities they must have to win in this shaky environment.

The Industry Perspectives cover 12 different sectors and include robust insights and trends for the year ahead, including:

1. The aerospace and defense industry will be transformed by the entry of new competitors while defense cuts back and commercial aviation soars.

2. The chemical industry will adjust to giant supplies of new raw materials from shale oil and gas in North America.

3. Retail banks will feel pain as traditional sources of profitability disappear.

4. Wealth management firms will use the Internet to build trust with investors whose patience has worn thin.

5. Companies in the healthcare industry will find ways to deal with regulatory uncertainty — by cutting costs their own way.

6. Pharmaceutical companies will struggle to get through the post–blockbuster drug era.

7. As the Age of Uncertainty continues in 2012, industrial companies must revisit their conservative investment stance, because “sitting on the sidelines” is hurting their growth prospects.

8. The disruption caused by mass digitization will set up the winning global technology and telecommunications companies as gateways into the cloud.

9. A new wave of innovation-based competition will propel the automotive industry into another year of growth.

10. The leading retailers will use social media as their favored way of reaching new customers.

11. Consumer packaged goods companies will continue to split and realign, with the most coherent companies doing best.

“Across all industries, no matter what opportunities and challenges lie ahead, there is one piece of advice that always holds true. The key to success is to know what you’re really good at - and matters in the market - and build your strategy from there,” says Cesare Mainardi, Chief Operating Officer of Booz & Company and Managing Director of the firm’s North American business.

“This means figuring out how best to create value for your customers, identifying the unique combination of things your company does better than anyone else, and then assessing which activities should stay and which should go. The companies that coherently balance these three things will earn the ‘right to win’ in 2012.”

To see all the Industry Perspectives, visit: http://www.booz.com/industry-perspectives-2012

"Om Jai Shiv Omkara" - Lord Shiva Aarti

2012-01-15T22:53:00.000-08:00

Luxury's New Cult - Asia

2012-01-14T02:07:00.000-08:00

http://chinadailyapac.com/article/luxurys-new-cult

Global Economy may be in a tailspin but Asia's Love Affair with Luxury Goods continue to BLOOM.......

In the 18 months to June 2011, the fastest growth in wealth was registered in Latin America, Africa and Asia. While the US, despite its economic problems, was still the world’s largest wealth generator in the period, adding $4.6 trillion to global wealth, China came second, followed by Japan, Brazil, Australia and India.

“Over the next five years, the wealth of emerging economies is expected to leapfrog the developed world, due to their more promising growth prospects,” the report says.

“Wealth in China and Africa is projected to rise by over 90 percent to $39 trillion and $5.8 trillion in 2016 respectively, while wealth in India and Brazil are forecast to more than double (to) $8.9 trillion and $9.2 trillion (respectively).”

The projected increase in wealth in the fastest growing emerging economies in the next five years, when compared with the growth of wealth in the US over the course of the 20th century, forecasts a dramatic leapfrogging of emerging economies.

Total wealth in China is currently $20 trillion, equivalent to that of the US in 1968, according to the report. In the next five years, it is projected to reach $39 trillion, a level the US achieved in 22 years between 1968 and 1990.

At $4.1 trillion, India’s total wealth in 2011 is comparable to the US in 1916. However, it is projected to reach $8.9 trillion in the next five years, equivalent to what the US achieved in 30 years between 1916 and 1946.

Similarly, Brazil’s total wealth is expected to grow from $4.5 trillion in 2011 to $9.2 trillion by 2016, equivalent to the level of wealth gained in the US over 23 years from 1925 to 1948.

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Comments from Prathap G - As far as India is concerned, with the projected $8.9 trillion in the next five years, the bloody Indians (as my nephew calls them), will be like in 5 years what the USA was in 1946. Wake up the rack-rented politicians and the lousy bureaucracy in India, and take a leaf from China. In fact, I am comptemplating a change in my Indian citizenship to that of China, and that too, pretty soon.

Yet another interesting news in today's Khaleej Times, Dubai, is that, US President Barack Obama asked Congress for another $1.2 trillion in government borrowing. Borrowed money that is, but as USA and China compete, India will remain the playground of lousy politicians, and poverty. Kameenas galore in India Mahan.

5 Tips For Starting A Business

2012-01-11T20:50:00.000-08:00

5 Tips For Starting A Business - Investopedia.com

Do you have a business idea? Think it's never going to work out? Think again. Starting a business can be tricky, but with the right information and resources, it doesn't have to be. Here are five key points that people need to master as entrepreneurs in order to have success. (To learn more, check out Starting A Small Business In Tough Economic Times.)

30-story building built in 15 days Construction time lapse *View ...

2012-01-09T02:54:00.000-08:00

Sales Managers for Saudi Arabia

2012-01-03T21:33:00.000-08:00

CONMIX LTD

CONMIX LTD., Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, is seeking to appoint two Sales Managers for their Pre Mix Plaster and Construction Chemicals Divisions in Saudi Arabia. The candidates shall have the following attributes:

1. Minimum 5 years sales / marketing experience in Building Construction industry in Saudi Arabia.

2. Graduate Civil Engineer / MBA Marketing.

3. Fluent in both English and Arabic.

4. Age: 30 to 40 years.

Attractive package to the right candidate. Please apply with CV and latest photograph, to the below mentioned address:

CONMIX LTD.,
P O BOX 5936,
SHARJAH,
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES,
TEL: 009716 5314155 - FAX: 009716 5314332
Email: conmix@conmix.com - Web: www.conmix.com

CONMIX LTD - Ready Mix Concrete, Pre Mix Plaster, Construction Chemicals, Piling,Industrial Water Treatment & Oil Field Additives. CONMIX products form an integral part of innumerable buildings and civil engineering works in UAE and elsewhere. Many of the company's products are currently being exported to some 40 Countries spread over Asia & Africa.

Mullaperiyar Row

2012-01-02T22:27:00.000-08:00

Mullaperiyar row: Expert panel submits report to Empowered Committee today

NDTV Correspondent, Updated: January 02, 2012 13:05 IST

New Delhi: As the controversy over the Mullaperiyar dam rages on, the two-member expert panel constituted by the Supreme Court-appointed Empowered Committee today submitted its report on the safety of the disputed structure. Kerala, however, claimed that the panel's report was biased and opposed its consideration by the five-member committee.

Kerala contended that a new dam should be built as the existing structure was vulnerable to earthquakes and consequently posed a major threat to the lives of people staying in the area. It also pressed its demand to reduce the water level in the dam to 120 feet from the existing 136 feet to ensure that safety was not compromised.

The two-member expert panel comprising C D Thatte and D K Mehta had visited the dam site last month after Kerala yet again expressed fears in the wake of recent tremors in the area.

Kerala, however, complained to the Empowered Committee headed by former Chief Justice of India Justice A S Anand that the expert panel was unfair and had openly supported Tamil Nadu during its inspection of the dam site. It claimed that the panel was acting against Kerala's interests.

Kerala government officials had stayed away from the December 23 visit alleging that the experts did not hear the state's views on the dam's safety aspects. According to official sources, the state government had received legal advice for lodging its displeasure at the way the two members had conducted their proceedings.

The dam is located in Kerala but Tamil Nadu controls it under a decades-old agreement and uses its waters to irrigate five of its southern districts. Tamil Nadu fears that Kerala's demand for a new structure is a ploy to wrest control over the dam. The state maintains that the structure is safe with reinforcements being carried out periodically and has accused its neighbour of fear-mongering.

MDMK leader Vaiko, who led protests against Kerala last month, today reiterated that Tamil Nadu had legal rights over the dam and accused Kerala of disregarding directions to raise the water level. Agriculture would suffer if the water level was decreased, as Kerala has been suggesting, he pointed out.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalitha and Kerala Chief Minister Oomen Chandy had earlier approached Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to intervene and settle the dispute.

Read more at: http://www.ndtv.com/article/kerala/mullaperiyar-row-expert-panel-submits-report-to-empowered-committee-today-162669&cp

Dubai's New Year's party

2012-01-02T03:13:00.000-08:00

Libra Horoscope

2011-12-30T10:16:00.000-08:00

Libra (Sept 23 - Oct 22)

The outlook this week can hardly be more promising, as Venus uplifts your spirit and enhances your chances of success. In the past, you’ve looked around for someone else to take the initiative, but just this once, you’ll recognise that you’re the expert and that there’s no one better around. Once you take the first step, the rest will seem easy.

It won’t be long before people see you as the talented and steadfast individual that you’ve always been. Once you get going, there’ll be no stopping you and before you know it, you’ll have ‘arrived’ in more ways than one!

That's a great one, and inspiring as well - Prathap G. - 30 December 2011

Conflict Resolution

2011-12-28T05:29:00.000-08:00

Conflict Resolution Tactics to Avoid.

The first don't in conflict resolution is avoiding confrontation altogether.

Best Conflict Resolution Tactics to Avoid

Often times conflict can feel very scary and so we procrastinate or we avoid or we don't start the conversation. But the only way to resolve conflict is to start getting the conversation going, because that's the only way you can get to solutions.

Other Conflict Resolutions Tactics to Avoid

The second don't is being defensive. Now we all like to be right and we all like to feel like we're really understood. But when we're constantly attached to our position and being right and acting defensive and not really hearing anything the other person is going to say, then we just keep adding layers to the conflict. So if you want to be effective in your conflict resolution, stop being defensive.

More Conflict Resolution Tactics to Avoid

The third don't is overgeneralizing. Now when we're in a heated conversation, it's really tempting to use words like you always do this and you never do that. And those are huge trigger words for the other person. Try to avoid that as much as you can and just stick to specific examples.

The next don't is making assumptions. A lot of times we go into any conflict thinking we know everything the other person is thinking and everything they're going to say. It's like we're having the whole conversation in our head without the other person even being there. So avoid making any assumptions at all. Go in there only with the information you truly know, and gather the rest of the information by asking questions.

And finally don't be too attached to winning the argument. When two people go into a conflict and both just really want to win the argument, sometimes they avoid seeing a solution. Consider that the solution that could resolve the conflict isn't something that you even thought of. And if you can let go of needing to be right and needing to win, you may come up with a creative solution that both of you are happier with.

What is Cloud Computing?

2011-12-27T22:47:00.001-08:00

What is Cloud Computing?

Imagine your PC and all of your mobile devices being in sync - all the time. Imagine being able to access all of your personal data at any given moment. Imagine having the ability to organize and mine data from any online source. Imagine being able to share that data-photos, movies, contacts, e-mail, documents, etc. - with your friends, family, and coworkers in an instant. This is what personal cloud computing promises to deliver.

Whether you realize it or not, you're probably already using cloud-based services. Pretty much everyone with a computer has been. Gmail and Google Docs are two prime examples; we just don't think of those services in those terms.

In essence, personal cloud computing means having every piece of data you need for every aspect of your life at your fingertips and ready for use. Data must be mobile, transferable, and instantly accessible. The key to enabling the portable and interactive you is the ability to synch up your data among your devices, as well as access to shared data. Shared data is the data we access online in any number of places, such as social networks, banks, blogs, newsrooms, paid communities, etc.

Ultimately, your personal cloud, which includes everything from your address book and music collection to your reports and documents for work, will connect to the public cloud and other personal clouds. Everything connects. That means every place on the Internet you interact with, as well as every person you interact with can be connected. This includes your social networks, bank, university, workplace, family, friends - you name it.

Of course, you will determine what you show the public and what you keep private. Clusters of personal clouds will form new social networks that will likely have a lot more privacy settings than Facebook, especially if these clusters are family or business oriented. (Privacy will be a huge issue as personal clouds hit critical mass.)

Eventually, like the smart house in the TV series Eureka, your devices will learn about you and eventually intuit what you are doing, where you are going, and what you intend to do when you get there. Think of all this as helpful… not creepy.

This might all sound a bit like science fiction, but this is exactly where we're headed with cloud computing. We're not quite there yet, though. We're all still creating our personal clouds.

So, what is involved in creating a personal cloud and what can you do with it right now? We'll explain the basics here and, in our subsequent pieces, we'll delve in to the specifics. We'll take a look at the features within Windows 7 and Windows Live that will take you to the cloud—often without you even knowing it. So, check back for stories about Photo Fuse, Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Mesh, SkyDrive, and more.

Microsoft Windows 7 and Your Personal Cloud

Technology insiders like to talk about the "consumerization of IT" and how such things as social networking are changing the business landscape. With its latest cloud-enabled product lineup, Microsoft seeks to flip this equation, banking heavily on the fact that a technology previously confined to corporations can be packaged to appeal to consumers.

Featured prominently alongside all of Microsoft's lineup of products (Windows 7, Office 365, Windows Live, etc.) is its personal cloud.

"The personal cloud is a way to link several experiences together for end users," said Steven Guggenheimer, corporate vice president of Microsoft's OEM Division. "Technology is converging, with devices using similar operating systems, networks and radio stacks, but as technology converges, devices tend to diverge. The next challenge, then, is to figure out how to get content to behave consistently across a range of very different devices."

Today's cloud is very good at synching content across a single vendor's devices. A recent Microsoft demo by corporate vice president Brad Brooks shows how Windows 7, Bing, Windows Phone 7, Windows Live, and other services interact to create a connected personal cloud.

In the demo, Brooks uses Bing as his search engine and pulls up one of his favorite bands, ZZ Top. When an entertainment button on the top of the Bing UI is clicked, the search returns relevant media items, including song snippets, upcoming concert dates, and one-click buying links to various music services, including Zune Marketplace, Apple iTunes, and Amazon MP3.

When Brooks downloads Sharp Dressed Man, the song is not just queued up in his PC-based Zune player, it's automatically synched across his personal cloud, meaning that it's synched up and ready to play, with no intervention from him, on his Windows Phone 7 device. He then shows photographs that he took with his phone and explains how they were immediately loaded in a Web-optimized format on SkyDrive, a Microsoft cloud storage service. (We'll be detailing SkyDrive later in this Personal Cloud series.) Later on, once the phone is cradled in his home network, the photographs will be available throughout his home network, accessible on devices that range (eventually) from his PC to the TV to digital picture frames.

With the personal cloud in the background, consumers can have music hubs, photo hubs, productivity hubs, and more, from which they can access content consistently on whatever device they have, wherever they happen to be.

By Rivka Tadjer - November 18, 2010 - http://www.pcmag.com

Six Things You Should Never Leave in Your Car

2011-12-27T05:40:00.000-08:00

If you think locking your car would keep your belongings on the inside safe, you are wrong. A thief who wants to break into your car can break the window or punch out the key hold on the door to gain entry to your vehicle and everything inside.

As a Bakersfield, California news site points out, car thieves aren't just interested in taking your stereo anymore. They're looking for something more valuable – your identity. That's why it's becoming more important that you think twice about what you leave in your car, locked or unlocked.

Credit cards and debit cards

Most people realize a thief can steal a credit card and rack up credit card charges. Fortunately, you won't be responsible for any of these charges if you report the stolen credit card before any fraudulent charges are made. The most you'll ever be liable for is $50.

Your checkbook

Thieves can steal your checks and use them to make purchases or siphon money from your bank account. They can even use your bank account information, which is printed at the bottom of the check, to create fake checks in their own names.

Your mail

A few unopened envelopes might seem harmless, but stolen mail could lead to more serious problems. For example, some credit card issuers print the full credit card number on your billing statement. Your bank statement could include copies of cancelled checks, which could be used in checking account fraud.

Bills you intend to mail

Your unmailed bills probably contain checks. Thieves can use chemicals to wash the ink from your fill-in checks and write whatever they want in the blanks. Or, they can just use your checking account and routing number to create an unlimited number of checks in their own name.

Your Social Security number or ID Card

Your Social Security number, or ID Card, is a goldmine to identity thieves. With your Social Security number, a thief can open a slew of new credit cards and loans in your name and even pretend to be you. It could take years (or even longer) to get rid of the consequences of a stolen Social Security number. Don't leave your Social Security card or anything with your SSN on it in your car.

Your laptop, phone, and other gadgets

Your electronic devices hold more of your personal information than you realize. You might have usernames and passwords stored or "remembered" on your laptop. A thief could use your cell phone to contact your family or friends to get your personal information. It's wise to protect your devices with a PIN or password, but a determined hacker can get around these walls and get to the information they need.

Preventing and responding to ID theft

When it comes to identity theft, prevention is the best option. You can best protect your identity by keeping all your personal information safe and secure. If your car is broken into, consider placing a fraud alert or security freeze on your credit report, even if you don't immediately notice anything is missing.

Posted April 13th, 2010 by LaToya Irby.

12 Little-Known Credit Facts

2011-12-27T05:37:00.000-08:00

It's true, the world of credit can be a little dry sometimes. So I compiled these 12 little-known credit facts to spice things up a bit. Who knows? They may come in handy during your next round of Trivial Pursuit.

1. People have been "buying now and paying later" for thousands of years. For instance, in the Sumerian period (around 3000 B.C.), you would be charged 33% in annual interest for borrowing barley and 20% for borrowing silver.

2. Frank McNamara is said to be the inventor of the modern day credit card. After not having the cash on hand to pay for dinner one night in 1949, McNamara thought it would be a great idea to have a form of payment (other than cash) that could be accepted at multiple locations. He created the Diners Club Card in 1950 which could be used at 14 different restaurants in New York City. The concept was, of course, wildly successful.

3. MasterCard and Visa are actually card associations (cooperatives comprised of thousands of issuing banks). They are not standalone financial institutions.

4. Before American Express was a credit card company, it was the FedEx of its day. In the mid-1800s, American Express earned a name for itself by delivering parcels, gold, stock certificates, and currency (usually for banks) all over the country. Then came the money order business, and then traveler's checks, and then currency exchange. The first AMEX credit card wasn't released until 1958.

5. Three different bankruptcy laws were passed in America in the 1800s and all three were repealed. Bankruptcy cases today are governed by a piece of legislation called the Bankruptcy Reform Act (which wasn't passed until 1978).

6. The 2007 American Express television ad called "Animals" won an Emmy for Outstanding Commercial. It was a comical black-and-white two-minute spot starring Ellen DeGeneres. Other American Express commercials have featured more than fifteen different celebrities, including Jerry Seinfeld and Beyonce.

7. You don't legally have to supply your driver's license when you use a credit card. According to vendor agreements with MasterCard, Visa, AMEX, and Discover, your driver's license is unnecessary to complete a transaction. Keeping your license private is a good safeguard against identity theft, too.

8. When you signed your credit card contract, you most likely waived your right to sue the creditor. Rather, any disputes must be settled through arbitration. Arbitration firms have recently come under fire from state attorney generals and Congress, and two major firms have left the credit card dispute business altogether. This leaves little opportunity for new credit card disputes to get resolved or find justice.

9. Credit card dimensions adhere to the size constraints laid out in the ISO/IEC 7810 standard. Identification cards like drivers licenses must also follow these international guidelines.

10. When you use your card, you agree to the terms of the account (no formal signature is required). Likewise, when the creditor updates the terms, you "agree" to them with the next swipe of your card. A phrase like "You agree to these terms by using your account" is most likely buried in the fine print of your credit card agreement somewhere.

11. Discover was originally launched by Sears in 1985. The first Discover cards featured the Sears Tower (Sears' headquarters at the time). The Discover card became popular because it had no annual fee attached to it, which was uncommon in the 1980s. Plus, it offered 2% cash back.

12. Merchant agreements with MasterCard, Visa, and Discover prohibit merchants from charging a surcharge to consumers for using credit cards. But the agreements say nothing about prohibiting discounts for using cash, which has become a common practice.

Posted August 12th, 2009 by Carrie Davis.

Mullaperiyar - Kerala

2011-12-12T23:39:00.000-08:00

Tuesday, December 13, 2011 7:58 hrs IST

Chandy hopes Mullaperiyar issue will be amicably resolved.

Pathanamthitta: With an amicable solution to the Kerala-Tamil Nadu tangle over the 115-year-old leaking Mullaperiyar Dam not yet in sight, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has said "vested interests" are trying to make it an issue between the two states.

"The dam issue has become a safety concern of Keralites and we are fully committed that the water sharing agreement from the dam will not be altered. Tamil Nadu should be aware that the present dam poses a serious threat to the lives of Keralites. We are all hopeful that the issue will be amicably resolved," said Chandy, addressing a public meeting before launching his People Contact Programme here.

Kerala and Tamil Nadu have been at loggerheads over the dam, built under an 1886 accord between then Maharaja of Travancore and the erstwhile British Raj. It is located in Kerala and its waters also serve Tamil Nadu.

Tamil Nadu wants the dam's storage capacity to be increased by raising the dam height from 136 feet (41.5 metres) to 142 feet (43 metres) as the state's irrigation needs have shot up.

Kerala is worried that a strong earthquake might damage the dam and cause widespread destruction. It is seeking a new dam and has offered to fund and build it, but Tamil Nadu does not agree.

Experts say if a quake strikes and the dam is damaged, over four million people and their property in districts of Idukki, Kottayam, Alappuzha, Ernakulam and parts of Thrissur would be washed away.

Meanwhile, for the fourth day in succession, the border of the two states at Kumali near the Thekkady wild life resort continued to be tense with a huge police force from the two states guarding the border to prevent any untoward incident as people on both sides have turned emotional over the issue.

State Finance Minister and party chairman of Kerala Congress (Mani) K.M. Mani told reporters in Palakkad Monday that if the dam issue is not resolved in the next 10 days, the people would have no other go but to intensify their stir.

Comments from Prathap G., Sharjah.....

The Mullaperiyar issue must be resolved, at the earliest, to the entire satisfaction of the people of Kerala, and none other.

20 December 2011

The CM of Kerala, Oommen Chandy, rightly stated that Kerala is committed to provide Tamil Nadu the same amount of water it was getting now if a new a dam is constructed at Mullapperiyar. That stand was also conveyed to the Supreme Court, its Empowered Committee, Government of Tamil Nadu, and Government of India.

With that, there need not be any apprehension about the Kerala's commitment, and the bottom line ought to be that whether Tamil Nadu likes it or not, Kerala must construct the new dam at Mullapperiyar to ensure the safety of the people of Kerala - Prathap G. Sharjah.

India suffering from "Too Much Democracy"

2011-12-09T00:12:00.000-08:00

No work, no pay

Neeta Lal (India)

9 December 2011, 7:32 PM

As the Indian Parliament witnessed one gridlock after another over Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in retail during its Winter Session, a chant of “no-work-no-pay”—targeted at the legislators — is resonating the air. Indeed if all that the Members of Parliament (MPs) are going to do, say the advocates of the radical measure, is bawl on the floor of the House and create mayhem with their obstructionist ways, then why should they draw salaries? And why should the tax payer — who they are supposed to be representing in Parliament – share this burden?

The bedlam during this Winter Session cost the national exchequer a daily loss of over Rs 2 crore. Last winter was no better. The Congress-helmed ruling UPA government has some 200 critical bills pending since it was reelected in 2009. In this fraught political environment, MPs have still been rewarding themselves with three or four-fold hikes in salary. The government recently sanctioned Rs 50,000 for each member of Parliament to buy an iPad — an initiative to save paper.

Apparently, Indian MPs now pocket 68 times the national average salary. But the conditions of their service have not changed. In the US, for example, Congress members cannot earn more than 15 per cent from outside of their Congressional salary. In India, the average assets of 304 MPs — who contested in 2004 and then re-contested in 2009 – ratcheted up 300 per cent!

This unconscionable acquisition of wealth has triggered widespread resentment. “MPs have zero work to show on their report card and yet have no hesitation in demanding increase in official status! Earn your increment Mr MP,” tweeted an official of a TV news channel.

Young politicians like Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, the BJP’s Varun Gandhi and tycoons like Vijay Mallya are advocating the “no work, no pay” doctrine. The idea is to freeze the salaries and allowances of the legislators if they fail to conduct parliamentary business for a minimum number of hours. The primary purpose of parliamentary democracy is to provide a platform for reasoned debate. But parliamentary dysfunction and the resulting policy paralysis is crimping growth. The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry forecasts that India’s GDP growth will now be around seven per cent as against the eight-plus being forecast earlier. Unlike legislators in many other countries, Indian MPs are freed to fix their own salaries and perks. In France and Japan, for instance, salaries of MPs are calibrated in relation to the salaries of the top bureaucrats.

In Switzerland, parliamentarians do not get any salary or allowance! Indian MPs or MLAs are remarkably unencumbered by such mundane principles. They fix their own salaries, reward themselves with frequent raises, and do not have to answer to any authority for any conflict of interest. Many – who have ancillary businesses – openly tweak state policy to suit their narrow ends. Some 150 MPs elected last year have criminal cases against them, with 73 very serious cases ranging from rape to murder.

An independent body – perhaps like a pay commission — to rule on the issue of MPs’ remuneration needs to be constituted. Former Malaysian Prime Minister, Mahathir Bin Mohamad, recently in Delhi, said that India could be China in terms of development only if it was “less democratic”. “Too much democracy, without understanding the responsibilities, can obstruct decision-making,” he said.

Politics, it is said, is the art of the possible. But with their abominable behaviour, and an overdose of democracy, the MPs have reduced politics to an impossibility!

Neeta Lal is a New Delhi-based journalist.

Comments from Prathap G., Sharjah.............

The CEOs and his minions who suck up to him do fix their own salaries, reward themselves with frequent raises, and do not to answer to any authority for any conflict of interest. Where at the dump-bound Board of Directors of these business entities?

Brightsizing

2011-12-05T20:25:00.000-08:00

The Latest Management Trend - Brightsizing

Why it is Dangerous to Your Organization

By F. John Reh, About.com Guide

Management trends come and go. They are good or bad depending on many variables: industry; company culture; education level of workers; existing contracts and laws; etc. Mostly, however, they are good or bad depending on how well they are applied.

You know the names of the most recent batch. We have all been impacted, in one way or another, by downsizing, re-engineering, restructuring, delayering and so on.

Re-engineering is a solid business management tool, but applied incorrectly it can cause more harm than good. Downsizing, when done improperly, is appropriately called dumbsizing.

The latest management buzzword isn't really a trend. It is more a reaction to the last few trends. The new buzzword is brightsizing. While it provides more opportunity for comic relief, courtesy of Dilbert, it is no laughing matter.

Brightsizing is downright dangerous and you need to protect your organization from it.

Brightsizing is defined, by Paul McFedries' Word Spy, as "corporate downsizing in which the brightest workers are let go. This happens when a company lays off those workers with the least seniority, but its those young workers who are often the best trained and educated."

Sometimes brightsizing is blamed on union contracts, which enforce seniority-based hiring/firing practices. It is, unfortunately, just as common in non-union companies.

Many companies have policy statements in their employee handbooks that state that in layoff decisions "among equally qualified candidates preference will be given to the employee with the greatest seniority."

When faced with decisions that will result in a reduction in staff, make sure you first evaluate the value of the employee to the organization and THEN look at other mitigating factors, such as length of time with the company.

A leader's happiness

2011-12-03T09:30:00.000-08:00

A leader's happiness is associated with his people's happiness, we want our people to live like us, this is what we are actually aspiring for - Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai.

40th National Day of United Arab Emirates

2011-12-02T00:15:00.000-08:00

On the occasion of the 40th National Day of the United Arab Emirates

Congratulations to

His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE, His Highness Shaikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Makthoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, and Their Highnesses, Members of the Supreme Council, Rulers of the Emirates, and the people of the United Arab Emirates.

The President of the UAE, His Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan

His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai

His Highness Shaikh Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah

His Highness Shaikh Humaid bin Rashid Al Nuaimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Ajman

His Highness Shaikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Ras Al Khaimah

His Highness Shaikh Hamad bin Mohammed Al Sharqi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Fujairah

His Highness Shaikh Saud bin Rashid Al Mu’alla, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Umm Al Quwain

The Crown Princes & Deputy Rulers.

May God Bless You All…….

From

Prathapan Gopalan (Prathap G & family); residents in Sharjah since 1976, and still going strong, thanks to the benevolence of Your Highnesses, and we love it.

A sound sleep is essential for good health

2011-11-27T21:24:00.000-08:00

A sound sleep is essential for good health......

A mentally weak person who works less and thinks more suffers from sleeplessness. This is a very painful problem and a prolonged condition could even lead to lunacy. Those who work hard should sleep at least for seven to eight hours.

Our body is made up of small cells. They break up while doing work, walking, thinking, etc., and the body and mind become tired. This tiredness can be overcome with good sleep. Sleep is an important activity for the body. It is the food for the body and a tonic for the mind. It helps in the building up of new cells and throwing out various body disorders. Disorders or diseases occur when the body is not maintained properly. Lack of sleep makes the body tired, irritable, and stressed.

Our body performs various actions during sleep. The person changes sides in sleep but the blood circulation remained unchanged. The heartbeat reduces but the digestion process is in its usual state. Liver and kidneys function properly. The body temperature also reduces by one degree during sleep.

Causes for Sleeplessness:

There are three main reasons for this problem – increased blood supply in the brain, anxiety and combination of these two leading to worry.

Natural Remedies for Sleeplessness:

The patient of insomnia wakes up late in the morning. To avoid this wake one hour before sunrise. Finish the morning chores and do Jalneti followed by morning walks.

Dip the feet in hot water for 20 minutes before going to bed. Take bath with cold water and scrub the body nicely while taking bath.

Sleep in a well-ventilated and airy room. Feel the respiration for ten minutes after lying on the bed. This will make the mind calm and give sound sleep.

Oil massage and sunbath during winters is very beneficial. Massage should include patting, friction, vibration, etc. A hot-cold fomentation on the back is very relieving. In the end, keep a cold bandage on the spine for 15 minutes.

Hot-cold fomentation on the stomach towards the liver is recommended. Place a cold bandage on the stomach at least thrice a week.

Take a spoonful of Triphala churna with hot milk or water at bedtime to overcome constipation. This is very beneficial in order to enjoy sound sleep.

Wipe the body with a thick towel at the time of taking bath. During winters, take bath with hot water followed by cold water. Take rest for 15 minutes after bath.

Give pats, pressing and vibration on the back, neck and head before going to bed.

Sri Maha Pratyangira Devi

2011-11-27T21:21:00.000-08:00

Sri Maha Pratyangira Devi is a powerful Devi who is said to have destroyed Sarabheswara's arrogance. Sarabheswara is an ugra avatar of Lord Siva. She is also known as Narasimhika [in Kalisahasranama Stotram], "She who is the Ferocious Half Human Half Lion of Courage".

It is said that when Narashimhika shakes her Lion's Mane, she throws the stars into disarray. She is enveloped as bliss in the letter "Ksham". In the Rig Veda khila kAndam a suktam named Pratyangira sUktam occurs.

Official Google Blog: Google Music is open for business

2011-11-24T00:00:00.000-08:00

Official Google Blog: Google Music is open for business:

11/16/2011 02:15:00 PM

Last May at Google I/O, we launched Music Beta by Google with a clear ambition: to help people access their music collections easily from any device. Music Beta enabled you to upload your personal music collection (up to 20,000 songs) for free to the cloud so you could stream it anywhere, any time. Today, the beta service evolves into a broader platform: Google Music. Google Music is about discovering, purchasing, sharing and enjoying digital music in new, innovative and personalized ways.

Official Google Blog: Connect with your community on Google+

2011-11-21T22:59:00.000-08:00

Official Google Blog: Connect with your community on Google+

Ten ways to work your network

2011-11-20T02:55:00.000-08:00

gulfnews : Ten ways to work your network

From Death to Immortality

2011-11-11T11:08:00.000-08:00

From Death to Immortality

What will happen to me after death? In the second chapter of Bhagavad Gita Lord Krishna explains this subject to Arjuna in great detail. Arjuna was faced with a situation where, in order to uphold dharma, he had to fight and kill people who were very dear to him, his own relatives and friends. As one might expect, it caused great disturbance to Arjuna, and when he finally saw the people with whom he was going to fight, he lost all composure and began to cry. Arjuna threw down his bow and told to Lord Krishna, "na yotsya", I shall not fight.

His anxiety and grief was based on his false identification of the body as the self. He thought the self ceases to exist when the body dies. To correct this misconception and to establish Arjuna in full knowledge of the self, Lord Krishna spoke the Bhagavad Gita on the battlefield of Kurukshetra.

He began by first establishing the eternality of the soul:

nayam bhutva bhavita va na bhuyah

ajo nityah sasvato ’yam purano

na hanyate hanyamane sarire

"For the soul there is neither birth nor death at any time. He has not come into being, does not come into being, and will not come into being. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain."

The body is simply an external covering of the soul. Being material, the body is by nature temporary, and must at some point deteriorate and die. The soul on the other hand is spiritual in nature. For it there is no beginning nor end. Matter and spirit are qualitatively opposite. Whereas the matter's natural quality is that it is temporary, full of ignorance and full of suffering, the qualities of the soul are that it is eternal (sat), full of knowledge (cit) and full of bliss (ananda).

Anything that has a beginning in time will also certainly have an end. Thus the body will inevitably come to an end, but the soul, which is beginningless, will continue its existence:

dhruvam janma mrtasya ca

tasmad apariharye ’rthe

na tvam socitum arhasi

"One who has taken his birth is sure to die, and after death one is sure to take birth again. Therefore, in the unavoidable discharge of your duty, you should not lament."

Krishna describes death in the Bhagavad Gita as being nothing more than a change of dress:

vasamsi jirnani yatha vihaya

navani grhnati naro ’parani

tatha sarirani vihaya jirnany

anyani samyati navani dehi

"As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, the soul similarly accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones."

This body is nothing but a vehicle, and the soul is the passenger. When this vehicle is no longer suitable for the soul, due to old age and decay, the soul is given a new vehicle. Thus death is simply the transition from one vehicle to the next.

Price tag on doing your job

2011-11-07T01:15:00.000-08:00

Price tag on doing your job

A well-known airline offers its staff incentives for ensuring that flights operate on schedule. A corporate chairman offers executives bonuses so they will be inspired to achieve their targets. An entrepreneur increases the commission so that his bottom line stays afloat.

Are these acceptable business practices or are they bribes in that people are paid extra to do what they should be doing anyway and for what they are paid salaries for in the first place.

Comments from Prathap G..........

“Cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education...” ~ Mark Twain.

Mark Twain may be right. However, the manner in which some of the corporate honchos behave themselves indicate that the Board of Directors or the owners of these business entities do not know their onions, but are still cabbage personae requiring salt and pepper.

No disrespect to anyone is meant here, but the truth of the matter must be told and emphasized, and that is all your honor.

60-Second Guide to Getting out of Debt

2011-11-01T05:56:00.000-07:00

60-Second Guide to Getting out of Debt

Our World Today.

2011-10-28T02:41:00.000-07:00

Our world today,
by Farouk Araie, Johannesburg, South Africa.

28 October 2011

Regime change has now effectively enveloped North Africa, thanks to NATO and the UN. A world once divided into two armed camps now recognises one sole and pre-eminent power, the United States of America. Many great empires have crumbled in human history because of their power-mongering adventures and sheer arrogance.

In the United States today, the declaration of independence hangs on classroom walls, but foreign policy follows Machiavelli. History tells us that unless the West modifies its policies, it is guaranteed to end tragically. Empires never last. They destroy many cultures as they race towards greater domination, and then they themselves fall. No country or combination of countries can thrive in the long term by exploiting others.

Mankind is pleading for the renunciation of war as an instrument of foreign policy. The twentieth century saw the inauguration of the phenomenon of “World Wars.” In our times, mankind is involved in an entirely different kinds of war, with all the potential for planetary totalitarianism, unprecedented in history.

Since the collapse of Cold War and the emergence of what is called a “multi-polar world,” self interest has been increasingly driving states of the world in an unprecedented way. When the UN was brought into being in 1945, it was primarily designed to prevent war and conflict in the world.

In the decades since this New World Order was conceived and given concrete shape, war has continued to dog mankind and is still being ravenously resorted to by the more powerful members of the international community, thus rubbishing the vision of a peaceful world underlying the UN system and its charter.

A world free of conflict and war must be striven for on the part of all who are members of the UN. This is a reminder that the world needs to conduct its relations on the basis of impartiality, justice and equality if the world political order is to be prevented from descending into greater anarchy and disorder.

Comments from Prathap G - Hi Farouk Araie, you are right!

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10 Countries With The Cheapest Gas At The Pump - Investopedia.com

2011-10-26T22:12:00.000-07:00

10 Countries With The Cheapest Gas At The Pump - Investopedia.com

In recent years, drivers have felt it each time they pull into a gas station: a sudden pang in the heart, and a low whimper sounding from their wallets. One gallon of gas in the United States cost $3.417 on Oct. 10. That's significantly off the $4 or more drivers had to shell out in recent years. (For more on the ever changing gas prices, see The Gas Price Rollercoaster.)

Cheapest at the Pump

It's not that way everywhere. In fact, in some countries gas is given away or downright cheap. The countries where you can find the cheapest gas at the pump, in U.S. dollars per gallon (2010):

1. Venezuela (7.6 cents)
2. Iran (37.9 cents)
3. Saudi Arabia (60.6 cents)
4. Libya (64.4 cents)
5. Qatar (71.9 cents)
6. Bahrain (79.5 cents)
7. Turkmenistan (83.3 cents)
8. Kuwait (87.1 cents)
9. Oman ($1.173)
10. Algeria ($1.211)

You may notice some similarities between these countries. First, none of these countries are considered to have developed economies. Second, none are considered to be full democracies. Third, they are all countries where you might expect to find oil. Reordering the above ranking according to the "CIA Factbook's" oil production and consumption statistics for 2010.

Saudi Arabia (No. 1 production, No. 8 consumption)
Iran (No. 5 production, No. 14 consumption)
Kuwait (No. 11 production, No. 36 consumption)
Venezuela (No. 13 production, No. 24 consumption)
Algeria (No. 16 production, No. 40 consumption)
Libya (No. 18 production, No. 46 consumption)
Qatar (No. 20 production, No. 62 consumption)
Oman (No. 25 production, No. 70 consumption)
Turkmenistan (No. 41 production, No. 72 consumption)
Bahrain (No. 64 production, No. 101 consumption)

Why so Low?

Some countries consume more than they produce (Bahrain), while Turkmenistan (1.7 barrels produced/consumed), Iran (2.3 barrels produced/consumed) and Venezuela (3.18 barrels produced/consumed) almost do. Why would a country that produces so much oil want to keep prices at home so cheap, and thus keep demand high? One reason is that low prices help governments present a picture of being benevolent, especially in countries facing high poverty rates. Another reason is that it sends a message that a country's resources can be used at home as well.

Theft at my house construction site, Omalloor

2011-10-23T04:15:00.000-07:00

I was told that yesterday some petty thieves have stolen two bags of cement from inside my house under construction at Omalloor after cutting the rear side grill. It was discovered this morning. Definitely by someone in the vicinity who knows that construction related work is underway at the house. Perhaps it is not aided and abetted by my western neighbor who has been waging a turf war with me for a broad pathway through my properties. In any case, I am reporting this matter to the Pathanamthitta Police SP. - Prathapan Gopalan, Saturday, 22 October 2011.

My house at its final stages of construction from where the theft took place yesterday night. Two bags of cement were stolen, which would mean that they were some petty thieves who knew that work is in progress at the site.

I am considering deploying this prathapocop to protect my properties and house under construction at Omalloor. I was told that it was not only 2 bags of cement, but the entire workers' tools were stolen by the rascals on the night of 21 Oct 2011 from my house after the break in. Prathapan, Saturday, 22 October 2011.

I think I should forward my Omalloor, Pathanamthitta, house under construction episode, the break in by thiefs and stealing cement and workers' tools, and the scavengers infesting the veranda of the house after their daily drinking orgy at the nearby toddy shop et al, to the Guinness World Records. This is no JOKE, I MEAN IT - Prathapan, Sunday, 23 October 2011

Criminals harboured on land stolen from KSA govt | ConstructionWeekOnline.com

2011-10-22T22:36:00.000-07:00

Criminals harboured on land stolen from KSA govt | ConstructionWeekOnline.com

Thieves galore. Not only in Saudi Arabia, but in Kerala, India, too.

It has been brought to my attention that some petty thieves broken my house under construction at Omalloor, Pathanamthitta Dist., Kerala, India, during the night of Sunday, 21st October 2011, and stolen two cement bags. The thieves cut the iron grill behind the house to commit the theft. These bastards must be caught and imprisoned for two months in jail.

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2011-10-17T05:16:00.000-07:00

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Oommen Chandy in action

2011-10-17T03:40:00.000-07:00

കയ്യാങ്കളി: എംഎല്എമാര്ക്ക് രണ്ടു ദിവസത്തേക്ക് സസ്പെന്ഷന്

by Oommen Chandy on Monday, October 17, 2011 at 1:29pm

വനിതാ വാച്ച് ആന്ഡ് വാര്ഡിനെ കയ്യേറ്റം ചെയ്തെന്ന ആരോപണത്തിനു വിധേയരായ എംഎല്എമാരായ ടി.വി.രാജേഷിനെയും ജെയിംസ് മാത്യുവിനെയും രണ്ടു ദിവസത്തേക്ക് സസ്പെന്ഡ് ചെയ്തു.

രാജേഷും ജെയിംസ് മാത്യുവും തന്റെ ചേംബറിലെത്തി ഖേദം പ്രകടിപ്പിച്ചെന്ന സ്പീക്കറുടെ പ്രസ്താവനയെ തുടര്ന്ന് ഇരുവരും ചാടിയെഴുന്നേറ്റ് തങ്ങള് ഖേദം പ്രകടിപ്പിച്ചിട്ടില്ലെന്നും സംഭവങ്ങളില് വിഷമമുണ്ടെന്ന് അറിയിക്കുക മാത്രമാണു ചെയ്തതെന്നും അവര് വ്യക്തമാക്കി.

തുടര്ന്ന് ഈ സംഭവം തീര്ത്തും നിര്ഭാഗ്യകരമായി പോയെന്നും ഇത്തരത്തില് സഭയില് പെരുമാറുന്നതു ശരിയല്ലെന്നും കടുത്ത നടപടി നേരിടേണ്ടി വരുമെന്നും സ്പീക്കര് വ്യക്തമാക്കി. തുടര്ന്നാണ് ഇരുവരെയും സസ്പെന്ഡ് ചെയ്തു കൊണ്ടുള്ള പ്രമേയം മുഖ്യമന്ത്രി അവതരിപ്പിച്ചത്.

Prathap G Sharjah, comments:

Well done, Chiief Minister. Keep on ensuring that the trouble makers are brought to book, and punished. The law and order situation in Kerala, and across the nation, India, is on a downward spiral. It must be tackled, if necessary, with an iron hand.

Moreover,

Curruption in India, or for that matter, anywhere in the world, must be condemned, and rooted out, at the earliest.

The pain of the aggressive driver

2011-10-15T02:37:00.000-07:00

The pain of the aggressive driver

All aggressive drivers ought to be booked and heavily penalized to ensure road safety; earlier the better. I have been driving in the UAE since 1983, observing all the traffic rules and regulations, which is clearly evident in that I have never ever been met with or caused an accident.

Bright Prathap and Radhakrishnan

2011-10-11T22:33:00.001-07:00

Bright Prathap (my son) and Radhakrishnan (my brother-in-law) at the first floor of our house under construction at Omalloor, Pathanamthitta, Kerala, India.

Aswathy Prathap at her office cubicle in Dubai

2011-10-11T22:33:00.000-07:00

Aswathy Prathap at our home town - Omalloor

2011-10-11T22:32:00.000-07:00

Laughter is medicine

2011-10-11T06:32:00.000-07:00

Laughter is the WEALTH within that will bring you GOOD HEALTH!

Laughter is medicine.

It heals ills and sustains sanity.

Learn to be able to laugh at yourself and your circumstances.

Don't laugh at another's expense.

Fill your home with laughter.

Fill your workplace with joy.

Steer clear of the crude and the rude.

There is so much more to laugh about if you use your imagination.

Timing is crucial when it comes to laughter, but with practice you will master the art.

If you need practice, hire a comedy video and lock yourself in a room where you can let loose with a huge laugh from the depths of your being. You'll notice the difference. For he or she who laughs lasts.

Sharjah drive to remove bills, posters from walls

2011-10-08T01:50:00.000-07:00

Sharjah drive to remove bills, posters from walls
08 October 2011

SHARJAH — The Sharjah Municipality, as part of its plan to maintain the aesthetic view of the emirate, has intensified a campaign to remove bills and posters from walls as well as unauthorised signboards that have been put up without permission from the civic body or the Department of Economy (Sharjah DED).

Municipal officials said that it has been noticed that thousands of paper posters are stuck on the walls of buildings, roadside telephone booths and shopping areas advertising room space, tuition classes, sale of furniture, house shifting services and job vacancies.

Sultan Al Mulla, Director-General of the municipality, said the campaign to remove such ads are continuing in various parts of the emirate.

Such advertisements and billboards are allowed under certain conditions, including the stipulation that the ads should be consistent with the culture and tradition of the UAE society and Islamic teachings. The material in Arabic should be written perfectly, with correct spelling and grammar. The ads should be put up in places that do not affect public view of the city. They must be displayed for a determined period and the owner should remove them after that period. Otherwise, the owners would face fines.

Al Mulla urged the public to ignore such bills and posters for their safety as the police and municipality cannot track down the owners of all these ads. These notices and posters could be used for luring people into some crimes or cheat them.

At the same time, residents seemed to be more concerned about the pamphlets or slips of restaurants, cafeterias, groceries, pesticide companies, AC maintenance servicing units, computer repairing shops and availability of maids dropped under the doors of apartments.

Mohammed Amin, employee of a government department in Sharjah, said those who drop such slips are jobless and staying illegally in the country and trying to make money by any means.

The authority concerned should take action to end such practices and prevent people from sticking bills on the walls at night. “I caught some people sticking bills on the walls of my building in the middle of the night and I notified the authority,” Amin said.

Comment from Prathap G Sharjah : India must do the same.

Some of my latest sweet tweets

2011-10-04T22:19:00.000-07:00

5 October 2011 - 09.25 am

librahitech Prathap G Sharjah
I do agree with you Saar, when you shouted today "this fukking company has many so-called Managers who are inept at their job" - Amen
12 hours ago Favorite Reply Delete

librahitech Prathap G Sharjah
Farming, back home, could have been a much better option.
15 hours ago Favorite Reply Delete

librahitech Prathap G Sharjah
None of the bastards at the helm of affairs found my performance “excellent” during my 37 years of services. Perish the thought.
15 hours ago Favorite Reply Delete

timesofindia Times of India
by librahitech
Will vote Congress out if Lokpal bill is delayed: Anna http://toi.in/vMbuna
22 hours ago Favorite Undo Retweet Reply

librahitech Prathap G Sharjah
Thousands of people around the world, except me, are now facebooking or twittering while at work.
22 hours ago Favorite Reply Delete

librahitech Prathap G Sharjah
Labour laws differ in govt and private sector in United Arab Emirates - http://shar.es/b0u3Y
23 hours ago Favorite Reply Delete

librahitech Prathap G Sharjah
Good Morning to everyone.
3 Oct Favorite Reply Delete

librahitech Prathap G Sharjah
Become wiser reading the 2nd quarter 2011 Annual Report from Warren Buffett - http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/qtrly/2ndqtr11.pdf
1 Oct Favorite Reply Delete

librahitech Prathap G Sharjah
I am an admirer of Warren Buffett for his matter of fact views about business and life, Long live the Oracle of Omaha.
1 Oct Favorite Reply Delete

Retweet
by librahitech
Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs - Henry Ford
30 Sep Favorite Undo Retweet Reply

librahitech Prathap G Sharjah
The invisible hand of time: How attention scarcity creates innovation opportunity - Ivey Business Journal: http://bit.ly/ngNAWn via @AddThis
1 Oct Favorite Reply Delete

Prathap G Sharjah on Twitter @librahitech

The only guy who works

2011-09-30T01:05:00.000-07:00

The only guy who works

New welfare plans  for expats mulled in UAE

2011-09-28T21:31:00.000-07:00

New welfare plans for expats mulled - 28 September 2011 - PARIS

Minister of Labour Saqar bin Ghobash Saeed Ghobash said on Monday that the UAE is considering various schemes for the social protection of expatriates working in the country, including the creation of a migrant savings account and a contributory system, as recommended by a study.

He, however, added that his ministry’s immediate focus remains on enforcing the current end-of-service scheme and protecting the worker against non-compliance or default by the employer.

Addressing Session 2 of the G20 Labour and Employment Ministerial Meeting currently under way in Paris, Ghobash argued that the UAE’s present efforts to strengthen social protection are not strictly aimed at shielding the national workforce from shocks associated with cyclical economic downturns. “They rather aim at aligning employment conditions across sectors so as to encourage employment in our private sector,” said the minister.

Speaking on ‘Improving social protection for all: different situations but common human challenges’, Ghobash said: “Earlier during our first session, I explained why the challenges the UAE faced with respect to promoting the employment of its nationals were not strictly a fallout of a down-cycle in economic growth; rather, they were rooted in longstanding barriers to the employment of our nationals in the private sector that could only be dealt with through short and medium-term active labour market programmes and interventions on one hand, and policies aimed at shifting job creation to targeted sectors in conjunction with reform of our civil service, on the other.”

The day of the wounded dove

2011-09-21T21:51:00.000-07:00

The day of the wounded dove - Bikram Vohra - 21 September 2011.

PM Neville Chamberlain came back from Berlin, stood on the steps of the plane and shouted, “Peace in our times.”

That legendary announcement would culminate in WWII and the highest number of deaths in human history crossing the 40 million mark and estimated to be as high as 70 million by some historians.

And why bring this up now? Because peace to us is as elusive as the Scarlet Pimpernel. We seek it here, we seek there, we seek it everywhere but it never comes within our grasp.

Do you know that today is World Peace day? And the 30th anniversary of this noble endeavour that just did not catch the fancy of the media or the masses. Perhaps, no one truly believes that dedicating a day to the cause of peace will have any impact on conflict because the stench of cordite fills the air the other three-sixty-four.

Indeed, this sliver of information about Peace having its own 24 hours probably comes as a surprise. Very likely you are nonplussed. It is a sobering thought that seven out of 10 people would have no clue that the UN sponsors this day in a feeble if sincere effort to silence the guns of war. It is an ironic celebration in itself since there have been only 15 days of total peace on earth in the past 100 years. According to statistics, even those have been fragmented into smaller bits.

To give you an idea of what it is all about and how sad it is that the day usually passes us by like a renegade car on the wrong side of the road, here is the official version planted in Wikipedia.

“The International Day of Peace is dedicated to peace (pretty much stating the obvious) and specifically the absence of war, such as might be occasioned by a temporary ceasefire in a combat zone. It is observed by many nations, political groups, military groups and peoples. The first year this holiday was celebrated was 1981.

To inaugurate the day, the “Peace Bell” is rung at UN Headquarters (in New York City, United States). The bell is cast from coins donated by children from all continents. It was given as a gift by the United Nations Association of Japan, and is referred to as “a reminder of the human cost of war.” The inscription on its side reads: “Long live absolute world peace.”

It is a largely misplaced hope if we go by evidence but hope springs eternal.

“Individuals can also wear White Peace Doves to commemorate the International Day of Peace, which are badges in the shape of a dove produced by a non-profit organisation in Canada.”

Regrettably, World Peace is in the ICU and the dove is sorely wounded. Can we, at least, begin to recognise the fact that we are very close to the doomsday clock’s final seconds and if we do not pull back from the brink the abyss won’t be the one staring at us, it will be the other way around.

Even as we mark the day there are currently wars and conflicts occurring across the globe. Hotspots include Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Libya, Syria, Balochistan, the Niger, South Thailand, the Thai-Cambodian attrition, Somalia, insurgency in the Caucuses. Add to that the 12 acknowledged conflicts, which are ongoing and go back to 1964 with the Colombian armed warring and the Maoist insurgencies in India being the oldest.

The third dimension is the ongoing list which numbers 21 current battles for either statehood, repositioning of territorial rights or independence and autonomy and include Palestine, Kashmir and Turkey.

These are not just lists. They are actually soaked in blood with a minimum of 1,000 casualties per year per conflict. That is not a small number. The Somalian conflict took a toll of nearly 400,000 lives. Afghanistan is as high as two million.

So, if you do have a thought to spare or some time to express a certain solidarity with that rather abused label of ‘peace’ perhaps you can voice your concerns through the media, join the officially sponsored meets today in various earmarked places in your country and give it a chance before it dies on us completely.

To think this is the legacy we are handing to our children…we might know if it is Beyonce’s birthday but we have no idea about a day dedicated to global peace.

I endorse the views expressed above by Mr Bikram Vohra - Prathap G. Sharjah

Narendra Modi, the next PM of India

2011-09-17T01:40:00.000-07:00

LK Advani's Blog

This week’s papers have been full of reports about Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi picked up from the U.S. Congressional Research Service.

The 94-page CRS report titled India: Domestic Issues, Strategic Dynamics, and U.S. Relations has observed, “Perhaps India’s best example of effective governance and impressive development is found in Gujarat, where controversial Chief Minister Narendra Modi has streamlined economic processes, removing red tape and curtailing corruption in ways that have made the state a key driver of national economic growth”.

narendra-modiModi has overseen heavy investment in modern roads and power infra-structure, and annual growth of more than 11 per cent in recent years, the CRS report noted Gujarat, the U.S. Congress Report added, has attracted major international investors such as General Motors and Mitsubishi.

LK Advani's Blog

2011-09-17T01:31:00.000-07:00

LK Advani's Blog

In August 2005, the Rashtrapati set up the second Administrative Reforms Commission headed by Shri Veerappa Moily “to prepare a detailed blueprint for revamping the public administration system.”

The Fourth Report of the Commission is titled “Ethics in Governance”. The Preface of this report carries this quotation of Mahatma Gandhi at the top:

As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world - that is the myth of the atomic age – as in being able to remake ourselves.

ASWINI is the name of our new house at Omalloor

2011-09-14T06:51:00.000-07:00

India and UAE sign MoU on manpower

2011-09-13T23:21:00.000-07:00

14 September 2011 - New Delhi

India and the UAE on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding on manpower, revising existing mechanisms to protect the interests of Indian workers in the emirate, including measures to ensure that their employment contracts are followed in letter and spirit.

The MoU was signed by Indian Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi and UAE Labour Minister Saqr Gobash Saeed Gobash here. The agreement provides a boost to the initiative of implementing a programme of web-based attestation for employment contracts among other things.

Ravi said that over the last five years there has been a considerable improvement in the condition of Indian workers in the UAE.

The MoU, which is basically a revision and upgradation of a 2006 MoU, aims to set tight procedures for workers and lay down clear responsibilities on both the employers and the employees to make sure the interests of the workers are not compromised.

It also entails provisions for sharing information and data between the two ministries to further strengthen authentication and protection. “While the last five years have seen steady improvement in treatment of workers, some concerns like the role of intermediary agents remain,” Ravi said.

“Through the web-based attestation programme that we are trying to initiate, we want to ensure that no changes or substitutions can be made in the terms of contracts by the employers unless with the consent of the worker,” he said. The UAE minister is on a three-day visit to India during which he will also travel to Hyderabad and Trivandrum to meet top government officials of the two states and Andhra Pradesh and Kerala Chief Ministers Kiran Kumar Reddy and Oomen Chandy respectively.

The officials of the two ministries are discussing modalities of the web-based attestation programme, Ravi said. The system will help ensure that same documents and job contracts are submitted to authorities on both the sides.

“Through our initiatives, we want to make sure that terms of contracts between an employer and employee are determined before the worker leaves India, and the relevant Indian authorities get to scrutinise them,” said Gobash.

The meeting held on Tuesday also set in motion a process of establishing joint working groups to implement its provisions.

Who Will Be The Next Warren Buffett? - Investopedia.com

2011-09-07T00:18:00.000-07:00

Who Will Be The Next Warren Buffett? - Investopedia.com

The backyard of Prathap's House at Omalloor

2011-09-06T07:56:00.000-07:00

Mera Bharat Mahan

2011-09-03T04:47:00.001-07:00

Prathap G. said...

India will not bribe again and if it has to then MERA BHARAT is NoT MAHAN instead is a shelter of PALTU Kuttas of MANTRIES n OFFICERS
September 3, 2011 4:45 AM

Dummy Receptionists

2011-07-26T06:18:00.000-07:00

A front desk receptionist serves as the face of her employer. She is the first and sometimes the only person whom the guests of the business meet. Although this is an entry-level role, the receptionist needs a great deal of skill to perform the many tasks. A successful receptionist must be both an excellent communicator and a strong administrator. She also must comfortably interact with individuals of all professional levels in the organization.

The primary duty of a front desk receptionist is to greet the business’ visitors. When guests arrive, she warmly welcomes them. She may also answer basic questions regarding the business, such as hours of operation, as well as provide customers with a brief explanation of the products and services the firm offers.

In addition to in-person greetings, a front desk receptionist is responsible for answering all incoming calls. Depending on the size of her employer, she may use a sophisticated telephone system to accomplish this task. Screening calls as requested, she routes them to their proper recipient, taking and relaying messages as needed.

However, that does not appear to be the case any more with some receptionists I know, let alone the wooden faces they sport; the lack of greetings to visitors and office bearers; routing the calls to the improper recipient like an arrow shot from the dark; not to mention the woefully missing good morning, afternoon, and evening wishes from their repertoire.

These receptionists are not any Santa Claus personas, just as Slim Carlos of Mexico is not, but slim, and the rest is like water under the bridge. And to them, the light at the end of the tunnel has been switched off permanently - Prathap G. Sharjah - 26 July 2011.

Joseph Addison

2011-07-19T04:14:00.000-07:00

Joseph Addison on good and bad writing......

When I read an author of genius who writes without method, I fancy myself in a wood that abounds with a great many noble objects, rising among one another in the greatest confusion and disorder.

When I read a methodical discourse, I am in a regular plantation, and can place myself in its several centres, so as to take a view of all the lines and walks that are struck from them.

You may ramble in the one a whole day together, and every moment discover something or other that is new to you; but when you have done, you will have but a confused, imperfect notion of the place: in the other your eye commands the whole prospect, and gives you such an idea of it as is not easily worn out of the memory - Joseph Addison

Modern age spiritualism

2011-07-10T23:34:00.000-07:00

Modern age spiritualism
Manu Joseph (DEBATE)- 9 July 2011 - Khaleej Times, Dubai

A peculiar characteristic of Indian leaders who claim to represent the average man is that they dress very differently from him.

The majority of Indian men today wear shirts and trousers, including a tribal king who lives on top of a hill in the South Indian state of Kerala. But political and philosophical figures in India continue to wear costumes from another time. Among them is a middle-aged man in white silk robes.

- My response to the above write-up, which appeared in Khaleej Times, Dubai

Modern spiritualism - 10 July 2011 - Khaleej Times

This is with reference to the Opinion article ‘Modern age spiritualism’ (KT, July 9). Whereas, the writer is free to be critical about spiritualism and the so-called leaders such as Ravi Shankar in India, painting India in such a colorless manner, especially the “truth” part of it, is deplorable.

Indian spirituality is deep-rooted in the minds of “true” Indians.

If that doesn’t satisfy the writer, he should spread his wings and fly all  the way to the West to find materialism, than staying put with the mythological and spiritual dispositions of India - Prathap G, Sharjah

- Another response to the said write-up, which appeared in Khaleej Times.

Modern spiritualism - 12 July 2011 - Khaleej Times

This is in response to the Opinion article, ‘Modern age spiritualism’ (KT, July 9). It’s a blatant attack on Sri Shankar, the founder of Art of Living, and a renowned Yoga guru having huge following across the globe.

As if this was not enough, the writer goes on to the extent of criticising Rabindranath Tagore, a Nobel Laureate and a highly respected Indian personality. It is difficult to understand what prompted him to write this derogatory piece, which is simply uncalled for.

Perhaps, the writer didn’t like the way Sri Shankar conducted an interview some nine years ago in Mumbai. In writer’s words, during the interview session, Sri Shankar was sitting on a large, embellished, throne-like chair while about 50 of Mumbai’s rich and famous sat on the floor. This is pointless - Manoj Joshi, Abu Dhabi

My letter to Gandhi Bhavan

2011-06-29T08:58:00.000-07:00

SHARJAH, U.A.E
29TH JUNE 2011
(Letter already sent by courier, to Gandhi Bhavan today).

GANDHI BHAVAN,
Kundayam P O.,
Pathanapuram,
PIN: 689695,
Kollam dist.,
Kerala,
INDIA

F.A.O. MR. PUNALUR SOMARAJAN

Dear Shri Somarajan
(and may it please your good offices at Gandhi Bhavan),

Please be informed at the outset that the intention of the writer of this letter, Prathapan Gopalan, husband of Prameela, is to put the records straight concerning the question of Smt. Rajamma of Murinjakal, who is currently on board at Gandhi Bhavan.

On Monday, 27th June 2011, a TV crew emerged in the morning at Gurukripa household (formerly Thirumangalathu House), Murinjakal, along with Dr Viswanathan, Advocate Lethika (Aysha), and someone from Gandhi Bhavan, apparently at the behest of Smt. Rajamma. This information was passed on to us in Sharjah immediately by the people in the neighborhood of the said house.

The plan of the above mentioned team, it appeared, was to photograph the house, record the conversation between themselves concerning the status of the property and house, whereby they debated the “issue” that these properties were forcefully or illegally acquired by my wife, Prameela, as Smt Rajamma, through Advocate Lethika, made the TV crew and the Gandhi Bhavan operators to believe. As well as to air that episode via TV channels for the world to see, amounting to defamation of Prameela!

While the above recording was taking place, none of the team spoke to Shri Sreedharan, nor listened to what he had to say. It may also be noted that none of the TV crew members or any one from Gandhi Bhavan or the lady lawyer Lethika contacted us to verify the actual state of affairs, before they chose to visit to place, record the TV episode, and subsequently to air it, without our knowledge; only to defame us in public.

Whether the above stated episode had already been aired by any TV channel is not known to us, however, if that was the case, we will eventually know it. If the TV showing has not been done yet, behold, don’t even dare to do it. In other words, withhold the verdict until all the evidences are in.

As for evidence, or to prove that the statement made to yourself by Smt Rajamma or her advocate Lethika to-date are poppycock, unfounded, concocted, ridiculous, and incorrect, I have attached herewith copies of few letters written by Smt Rajamma to Prameela over a over a period of 10 years (from 2000 to 2010). Also attached are copy of letter I wrote to my brother-in-law, Mohanaprathapan at Thiruvananthapuram, in response to Smt Rajamma’s letter to him; letters written by Sivan (brother to Prameela); and copy of a letter written by the lady who was residing with and looking after Smt Rajamma at the erstwhile Thirumangalathu house, and replies thereof by Prameela. These letters give adequate coverage of the goings on at Thirumangalathu House under the patronage of Smt Rajamma.

Also attached is an FD statement from Federal Bank; the contents on both sides of it are self-explanatory.

From the above stated copy letters written by Smt Rajamma, it would become clearly apparent that the property and the house that belonged to Smt Rajamma was written, and registered in the name of her daughter, Prameela, upon the mother’s persistence, will, and in line with the laws of the land, and that there was nothing untoward or illegal about that transaction. Besides, no one raised any question or complaint when the said property was written in Prameela’s name in 2008.

As stated in the copy of several letters written by Smt Rajamma, the idea of writing the said property in Prameela’s name was to rescue the said property and house from an imminent take over by Co-Cp Bank from whom a loan was availed by Sivan against the said properties. We paid of the loan, rescued the property and thus Smt Rajamma could continue to stay at the house, and of course, if Shri Sreedharan from his sojourn returned to Murinjakal, could also live in the house until they two breathed their last (God forbid).

Shri Sreedharan returned to the household in 2010 March, and all the hell got lose once again at the command of the villainous Shaji, aided and abetted by the so-called advocate, Lethika (Aysha), and eventually, for reasons only best known to them, Smt Rajamma left the house and took abode at Gandhi Bhavan. Shaji did cut the electricity connection at the house to forcefully evict Smt Rajamma from the house. We heard about these matters only through telephone calls received from the neighborhood in Murinjakal.

I am at a loss to understand why Smt Rajamma left the house for Gandhi Bhavan at a time when her two sons (Sivan & Shaji) were in the neighborhood, and whose responsibility it was to look after the mother. And that her husband, Shri Sreedharan was also at the house, and if Smt Rajamma took it easy, he should, as husband, would have also looked after her.

I also fail to understand how Gandhi Bhavan housed at their premises a lady (Smt Rajamma) who has everything in the world; her husband, their sons, daughters, properties, houses, bank accounts, FDs; and all these people are much more wealthier than the rack-rented, downtrodden people out there who cannot afford a decent meal?

On seven occasions in the past did Smt Rajamma left Murinjakal House and stayed at different places with her relatives. And due to the persistent trouble making by Shaji, dad Sreedharan also left the house some 7 years ago, and only returned to the household in 2010 March when the house ownership was in the name of Prameela.

As for Smt Rajamma, she has a penchant for filing law cases and complaints against her siblings, daughters, sons, husband, neighbors, and even the stray dog that mistakenly barked at her. The copies attached herewith are testimony to these facts, and not my private joke or inventions, or that of my wife, Prameela. Such legal cases and complaints by Smt Rajamma ensured Shaji’s daily expenses, including his consumption of adult beverages, and kept the money bag of Lawyer Lethika ringing at regular intervals.

Prameela has no intention of writing the property back to Smt Rajamma, and if that is done, the rest would be history. That is, Rajamma will sell it, and the proceeds thereof will be eaten away by Shaji, advocate Lethika, and perhaps a part of that will go to Gandhi Bhavan (for that we believe is the TV show venture). And once the financials of Smt. Rajamma have been exhausted thus, she will land at the roadside (God forbid).

We (myself and Prameela) are more than willing (and that is a promise to you) to look after Smt Rajamma for the rest of her life with financial aid (at Prameela’s house at Murijnakal, now named Gurukripa). The attached print-out on the transfers we made to Smt. Rajamma is evident that we were financially assisting her and that she was well off until she left the house for Gandhi Bhavan as a result of the foolhardy scheme enacted by Shaji and the lawyer Lethika.

Smt Rajamma should leave Gandhi Bhavan after collecting the Rs 50,000 she deposited with them, and return to Murinjakal to stay at our house in peace. But before that, we will need a written undertaking by Smt Rajamma that she will conduct herself as a good mother; live peacefully at our house, and love us all (as much as we love her) until she elects herself to depart from this world. Shri Sreedharan, her husband, is very much at the house, and she should mend her ways and establish a working relationship with him for peaceful purposes.

Needless to say, we are already humiliated in public on account of Smt Rajamma leaving the house and staying at a “shelter house”. And we are no longer prepared for any more of that humiliation.

Therefore, the bottom line is that you do not allow the airing of the said TV episode as stated above, which would only humiliate us and place us in bad light, and if that being the case, we will have no alternative but to initiate legal action against all parties concerned. At that time, all the 45 letters written by Smt Rajamma to Prameela, in her possession, will be presented to the authorities concerned, thus the truth of the matter will emerge, and the culprits penalized. These letters will also be made available to the Press at that time.

I am also wondering whether I have to forward a copy of this letter to the authorities concerned, including the Bar Associations of Pathanamthitta and Adoor, The Consulate General of India Dubai, NORKA, the TV channels, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter et al, so that Gandhi Bhavan shall confine themselves to humanitarian services than indulge in amassing ill-gotten wealth through such clandestine schemes as airing TV shows and defaming people, who have nothing whatsoever to do with these hooligans, but know their onions.

By the way, I am a non-resident Indian in the U.A.E. since 1976, and my wife since 1980, and our reputation and public record speaks for itself. We mind our own businesses and have no time for engaging in petty politics, bickering, and treachery as practiced by those who wish to defame us.

Now the ball is in your court, and that is all, your honor.

Thanks and best regards,

Prathapan Gopalan,
(Written in close co-ordination with my wife,
Prameela - daughter of Smt Rajamma).

(Address withheld for security reasons)

E-mail: librahitech@gmail.com

ENCL. AS ABOVE

An Actual Essay

2011-06-25T23:37:00.001-07:00

This is actually an essay written by a college applicant when applying to
colleges/universities.

The author of this essay, Hugh Gallagher, now attends NYU.

3A. ESSAY IN ORDER FOR THE ADMISSIONS STAFF OF OUR COLLEGE TO GET TO KNOW YOU, THE APPLICANT, BETTER, WE ASK THAT YOU ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTION: ARE THERE ANY SIGNIFICANT EXPERIENCES YOU HAVE HAD, OR ACCOMPLISHMENTS YOU HAVE REALIZED, THAT HAVE HELPED TO DEFINE YOU AS A PERSON?

ANSWER:

I am a dynamic figure, often seen scaling walls and crushing ice. I have been known to remodel train stations on my lunch breaks, making them more efficient in the area of heat retention. I translate ethnic slurs for Cuban refugees, I write award-winning operas, I manage time efficiently.

Occasionally, I tread water for three days in a row.

I woo women with my sensuous and godlike trombone playing, I can pilot bicycles up severe inclines with unflagging speed, and I cook Thirty-Minute Brownies in twenty minutes. I am an expert in stucco, a veteran in love, and an outlaw in Peru.

Using only a hoe and a large glass of water, I once single-handedly defended a small village in the Amazon Basin from a horde of ferocious army ants. I play bluegrass cello, I was scouted by the Mets, I am the subject of numerous documentaries. When I'm bored, I build large suspension bridges in my yard. I enjoy urban hang gliding. On Wednesdays, after school, I repair electrical appliances free of charge.

I am an abstract artist, a concrete analyst, and a ruthless bookie. Critics worldwide swoon over my original line of corduroy evening wear. I don't perspire. I am a private citizen, yet I receive fan mail. I have been caller number nine and have won the weekend passes. Last summer I toured New Jersey with a traveling centrifugal-force demonstration. I bat .400. My deft floral arrangements have earned me fame in international botany circles. Children trust me.

I can hurl tennis rackets at small moving objects with deadly accuracy. I once read Paradise Lost, Moby Dick, and David Copperfield in one day and still had time to refurbish an entire dining room that evening. I know the exact location of every food item in the supermarket. I have performed several covert operations for the CIA. I sleep once a week; when I do sleep, I sleep in a chair. While on vacation in Canada, I successfully negotiated with a group of terrorists who had seized a small bakery. The laws of physics do not apply to me.

I balance, I weave, I dodge, I frolic, and my bills are all paid. On weekends, to let off steam, I participate in full-contact origami. Years ago I discovered the meaning of life but forgot to write it down. I have made extraordinary four course meals using only a mouli and a toaster oven. I breed prizewinning clams. I have won bullfights in San Juan, cliff-diving competitions in Sri Lanka, and spelling bees at the Kremlin. I have played Hamlet, I have performed open-heart surgery, and I have spoken with Elvis.

But I have not yet gone to college.

All about the maid

2011-06-24T01:29:00.000-07:00

All about the maid - by BIKRAM VOHRA - 24 June 2011

A friend of ours fell apart because the maid upped and left. We are going crazy, he moaned over the phone, how could she do this to us? She could.

Credit Card Usage

2011-06-22T00:43:00.000-07:00

How To Use Your Credit Card Wisely.

A credit card gives one the license to make payments, without the hassle of carrying wads of cash at their disposal. It simplifies the burden of carrying physical cash in other words. But, Do you know it can also be a proverbial pain in the @#!

Today's topic dwells on how we can make sure the above statement doesn't come to fruition. Here are a few ways whereby we can minimize, or simply put to use our credit card more wisely.

Get to know all of the responsibilities in owning a credit card. Think very carefully before you decide to get your first card. Is a credit card or borrowing money really necessary, or would another option work just as well?

If you are under 21 and you receive a credit card offer in the mail, do not feel obligated to accept it. Law does not permit companies to market credit cards to people less than 21 years of age unless you have a co-signer or have submitted evidence of your ability to make the payments.

Choose wisely. When selecting a credit card, be aware of all of the interest rate and repayment options. Compare different cards based on your needs and your ability to pay all purchases in full.

Low or no annual fees, which issuers might charge: If the issuer charges an annual fee, ask them to waive it, or do not accept the credit card.

All other charges (late payment fees, transaction fees, over the limit fees, etc.): These can add to the total cost of your charges.

Grace periods: Some credit cards charge interest from the day you make charges on your account. Other cards offer a grace period for you to pay your balance before interest begins to accrue.

Credit limits: In order to maintain reasonable payments, keep your credit limit low (consider a limit of Rs 10,000 or less).

Services and features, such as cash rebates, frequent flyer miles, extended warrantees, convenience checks, etc.: There may be consequences for the true cost of these programs, especially when you consider interest and other charges.

Limit the number of cards you get. Having one credit card will help you manage your spending.

Opt out of interest rate increases. You can “opt out” of any interest rate increase and continue to pay off your balance at the current rate for up to five years. However, you may not charge anything more on that card.

Don't spend more than you can afford to pay on a monthly basis. Responsible use of your credit cards will help you establish a solid credit rating and avoid financial problems.

Keep track of your spending. It is important to monitor more often than once per month when you receive your statement.

- Check your account online frequently
- Save receipts and keep accurate records
- Maintain a ledger

Consider signing up for balance notices and billing statement notifications from your credit card provider.

Opt out of receiving credit offers, ending the number of prescreened offers for credit you receive. Opting out might reduce temptation to apply for credit you don’t need.

Keep an accurate record of the following in case your card is lost or stolen. Keep the information in a secure, safe place at home:

- Account number
- Issuer’s name
- Phone number
- Photo copy of the front and back of the card

Don’t be afraid to negotiate terms. Ask your creditor to change the contract terms and rates. For example, if you receive a notice of a rate increase, contact the credit and ask to negotiate the rate lower.

Close a credit card account correctly. Part of your credit score is based on the length of your credit. If you choose to close your credit card, notify the issuer via registered letter and keep a copy of the letter for yourself. (If you cancel a credit card over the phone, it could reduce your credit score 20-30 points.) By documenting your request, you have proof that you chose to close the account, not the issuer (for example, due to bad credit).

Remember a credit card holder should use his/her card sensibly. You don't want to default on your payments now, do you? That will only leave you with bad credit!

Think Wise, Act Smart!

Chief Financial Officer

2011-06-21T06:30:00.000-07:00

What does a Chief Financial Officer (CFO) do?

If you asked any company's CFO this question, you would probably be in for a three-hour conversation. But the core duties can be summarized in just a few paragraphs. A CFO's job can be broken down into three major components:

1. Controllership duties - These make up the backward looking part of a CFO's job. Controllership duties hold the CFO responsible for presenting and reporting accurate and timely historical financial information of the company he or she works for. Every stakeholder in the company - including shareholders, analysts, creditors, employees and other members of management - relies on the accuracy and timeliness of this information. It is imperative that the information reported by the CFO is accurate, because many decisions are based on it.

2. Treasury duties – The CFO is also responsible for the company's present financial condition, so he or she must decide how to invest the company's money, taking into consideration risk and liquidity. In addition, the CFO oversees the capital structure of the company, determining the best mix of debt, equity and internal financing. Addressing the issues surrounding capital structure is one of the most important duties of a CFO.

3. Economic strategy and forecasting - Not only is a CFO responsible for a company's past and present financial situation, he or she is also an integral part of a company's financial future. A CFO must be able to identify and report what areas of a company are most efficient and how the company can capitalize on this information. For example, the CFO of an auto manufacturer must be able to pinpoint which models are making the most money for the company and how this information can best be used to improve the company in the future. This aspect of a CFO's duties also includes economic forecasting and modeling - in other words, trying to predict (given multiple scenarios) the best way to ensure the company's success in the future.

The CFO's job is a very complex one. We have only scratched the surface of the many things this executive is responsible for. One thing is certain: a great CFO will usually differ from a good CFO by the way that he or she is able to project the long-term financial picture of the company and by how the company thrives based on his or her analyses.

Our House - Front Door Design

2011-06-17T10:54:00.000-07:00

This is the design we have chosen for the front door of our new house at Omalloor, Kerala, India.

Essential commodity prices to be slashed by 25%

2011-06-13T10:16:00.000-07:00

Essential commodity prices to be slashed by 25% in UAE

13 June 2011, 6:07 PM

Prices of essential edible commodities and vegetables across the country would be slashed by up to 25 per cent during the holy month of Ramadan.

In preparation of the holy month of Ramadan, the Ministry of Economy has stressed that prices of essential edible commodities and vegetables across the country would be slashed by up to 25 per cent.

Ramdev Saga

2011-06-07T10:50:00.000-07:00

The facebook repartee on Ramdev Bla

Prathapan Gopalan - If you are referring to the so-called “Guru Ramdev”, let me put it this way that I don't subscribe to the notion that Ramdev is a God-man of sorts, but he's brilliant, and his cause admirable (his call to the Govt of India that the massive ...sums stashed abroad through illegal measures by some people in India be brought back to the nation), which is unpalatable to those corrupt Indians The result of which being that, not only the lousy “uninitiated middle-class”, but the entire nation will continue to be entangled in the dictum “rich are getting richer and the poor poorer”.See more - 23 hours ago • LikeUnlike

Nobel Polath - we are on completely different wave lenghts here. exploiting mass histeria thru religious angle is deplorable. Ramdev tried so and even masqueraded, otherwise why the hell all the right wing xenophobic yobs shared the platform with him. Re corruption, it is a cancer that is deep rooted and must be eradicated.
7 hours ago • LikeUnlike

Prathapan Gopalan - The misunderstanding here is that Ramdev (not my dad or god) went ahead with a mission, that is, bring back the slush funds stashed abroad by some Indians, and that let India have a corruption free atmosphere. Other than that, as I said earlier, I am no fan of people like a Ramdev. However, painting the entire saga with a communal brush is pitiable, as those who went in support with Ramdev consisted of all communities. workers, and those who toil under the daily sun for a pittance, in the INDIA MAHAN.

3 minutes ago • LikeUnlike

Prathapan Property Remeasured

2011-05-28T10:02:00.000-07:00

This morning, my properties at Omalloor was remeasured by the authorities concerned, and it was established that there exists no stream, or provisions for a stream, to run through my properties. Therefore, the area bulldozed, as can be seen in this video, will be filled up by my workers immediately.

In case a stream has to run through my properties, then the illegal wall constructed deep into my property by my northern neighbor has to be demolished. Under no circumstances will I permit any further encroachment on my properties by anyone, and that is final. Failing which, I will file a suite against all concerned with the Courts of Law in India.

Right now, as per the authorities who measured my properties this morning, no one can construct any stream through my properties, and hence, the stream development is stopped forthwith.

The aforementioned, however, does not extenuate my northern neighbor's guilt of having illegally constructed the wall over my property, and that too, without my knowledge.

Prathapan Gopalan, Omalloor - Prathap G. Sharjah - Saturday, 28 May 2011.

Bullies Galore

2011-05-25T03:32:00.000-07:00

Building self-confidence and assertiveness to overcome bullies is probably a lot easier than you think.

For anyone seeking to increase their own assertiveness it is helpful to understand the typical personality and motivation of excessively dominant people, who incidentally cause the most worry to non-assertive people.

It's helpful also at this point to explain the difference between leadership with dominance: Good leadership is inclusive, developmental, and a force for what is right. Good leadership does not 'dominate' non-assertive people, it includes them and involves them. Dominance as a management style is not good in any circumstances. It is based on short-term rewards and results, mostly for the benefit of the dominant, and it fails completely to make effective use of team-members' abilities and potential.

The fact is that most excessively dominant people are usually bullies. Bullies are deep-down very insecure people. They dominate because they are too insecure to allow other people to have responsibility and influence, and this behaviour is generally conditioned from childhood for one reason or another. The dominant bullying behaviour is effectively reinforced by the response given by 'secure' and 'non-assertive' people to bullying. The bully gets his or her own way. The bullying dominant behaviour is rewarded, and so it persists.

Dominant, bullying people, usually from a very young age, become positively conditioned to bullying behaviour, because in their own terms it works. Their own terms are generally concerned with satisfying their ego and selfish drives to get their own way, to control, to achieve status (often implanted by insecure ambitious parents), to manipulate, make decisions, build empires, to collect material signs of achievement, monetary wealth, and particularly to establish protective mechanisms, such as 'yes-men' followers ('body-guards'), immunity from challenge and interference, scrutiny, judgement, etc.

Early childhood experiences play an important part in creating bullies. Bullies are victims as well as aggressors. And although it's a tough challenge for anyone on the receiving end of their behaviour they actually deserve sympathy.

N.B. Sympathy is not proposed here to be a sole or significant tactic in countering bullying. Rather, sympathy is advocated as a more constructive, stronger, alternative feeling to being fearful or intimidated.

Building self confidence and assertiveness is easy

Latest pictures of my house under construction

2011-05-20T23:58:00.000-07:00

Prathap G., Sharjah - 21st May 2011

Getting Noticed at Work - Stayiing Visible.

2011-05-05T04:28:00.000-07:00

Getting Noticed at Work

Getting Noticed - Staying "Visible" at Work

Make sure that you're noticed for all of the great work that you do.

Do you sometimes feel that your hard work is "invisible"? Perhaps you do such good work on a regular basis that your manager and your colleagues take it for granted, so you're no longer recognized and rewarded for your efforts in the way that you used to be.

You might be the hardest worker in your organization, and the one everyone wants on their team – but if you're not in your boss's thoughts, then you may be passed up for new projects, additional responsibilities, awards, and promotions. That's why you need to be visible at work!

In this article, we'll discuss strategies to get noticed for all the great work you do. This, in turn, will help you to continue advancing towards your career goals.
Generalist or Specialist?

Do you consider yourself a "generalist" – someone who does many different things in different roles – or a "specialist" – someone who is an expert in one or two specific areas?

New businesses often hire generalists, because they can perform in so many different roles. As organizations grow, however, specialists are often hired to focus on key areas. This may leave the hard-working generalists feeling pushed aside and disempowered.

If you're a generalist, think strategically about what types of skills your organization needs. Work on building these skills to become a specialist. The more knowledgeable and skillful you become in a particular area, the more likely you are to be noticed for your work.

Remember that organizations also tend to look for people with great "soft skills" – non-technical skills such as creative thinking, emotional intelligence, conflict resolution, communication skills, flexibility, and coaching. These are often as important as professional expertise.

If you're thinking about becoming a specialist in a certain area, don't forget to consider these important soft skills. Helping your boss resolve a major conflict within your team will get you noticed just as much as delivering a great presentation or sales report.

http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newCDV_20.htm

Property of Prathapan at Omalloor Pathanamthitta

2011-05-02T22:46:00.000-07:00

Obama announces Osama's end

2011-05-01T22:57:00.000-07:00

Obama announces Osama bin Laden killed by U.S.

By Michael A. Memoli and Michael Muskal

8:35 PM PDT, May 1, 2011

Osama bin Laden, the world's most wanted terrorist, was killed in Pakistan as the result of a U.S. military operation, President Obama announced to the nation Sunday night.

The historic revelation comes about four months before the 10th anniversary of the devastating Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, which were executed by the Al Qaeda network helmed by Bin Laden and prompted the start of a war on terror that has dominated U.S. foreign policy.

Bin Laden, 54, was a member of a wealthy Saudi family and has been on the FBI's Most Wanted Fugitives List since 1999.

Bin Laden broke with Saudi leaders over their beliefs regarding Israel. He was eventually denounced by his family and gave up citizenship.

Al Qaeda has taken responsibility for the bombings of U.S. embassies in 1998 in Tanzania and Kenya. More than 200 people were killed in the attacks.

Al Qaeda has also claimed responsibility for other attacks on other symbols of U.S. power around the globe. It has spawned local organizations in hot spots from Iraq to Afghanistan.

The announcement by Obama from the East Room of the White House came eight years to the day after President Bush announced the end of major combat operations in Iraq, the so-called “Mission Accomplished” speech from the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln.

Members of Congress were briefed on the news by Vice President Joe Biden throughout the weekend, according to a Senate aide.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, related the news to mourners at a memorial service for political consultant Kam Kuwata. Feinstein said Obama was announcing it on TV as she spoke. However, she announced the news well before Obama began to speak.

Peter Nicholas and Kathleen Hennessey contributed to this report.

michael.memoli@latimes.com
Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times

My House Under Construction - Update

2011-04-29T11:14:00.000-07:00

Right now plastering work, in and out, is underway.

Hanuman Chalisa (New) by Udit Narayan

2011-04-29T05:20:00.000-07:00

Sing Like a Professional

2011-04-25T03:57:00.000-07:00

Your Essential Guide to Singing Like a Professional

If you'd like to take your singing voice from ordinary to extraordinary, make a signature song all your own, increase your vocal range, hit every note with professional precision and learn every nitty-gritty detail about auditions, singing in a band, harmonizing and more, then this might be the most important letter you'll ever read.

Here's why:

You won't believe how much you don't know about your singing voice and how easy it is to improve it.

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Buy And Sell Cars For Profit

2011-04-25T03:42:00.000-07:00

The Lazy Way To Buy And Sell Cars For Profit

You can buy and sell cars for profit from anywhere in the free world. You can make big money buying and selling used cars in small towns...and big cities...during roaring economies...and even deep recessions. How is this possible?

The answer is simple because... Even cheap new cars now cost as much as a house used to...and every year the cost of a new cars rises even more.

Its no wonder that more and more buyers either can not afford to buy a new car, or they just refuse to buy something that will lose HALF its value in the first 3 years!

And due to those factors, good ol' common sense says that the demand for used cars will never go away.

Click Here To Get Started

Legit Online Jobs

2011-04-25T00:59:00.000-07:00

Your Complete Work At Home Resource

"What If I Could Show You The Legit System That Puts Over $500 Per Day Into My Bank Account, Working From The Comfort of My Home... Would You Be Interested?"

Click Here To Get Started

Are you sick and tired of all the money-making scams on the web? If you're looking for the real deal when it comes to making money from home, then this may be the most important message you will ever read online!

What if there was a system that you could use in the comfort of your own home and make more money than you ever could in your job using just your computer and the internet?

What if it only took a couple of hours per day and was available worldwide! Sounds too good to be true? It isn't! You can even start working in just a few minutes from now.

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The Muscle Builder

2011-04-25T00:54:00.000-07:00

The Evolution of Natural Muscle Building - The Muscle Maximizer.

What is the Somanabolic Muscle Maximizer? There is nothing like the SMM anywhere.

Click Here To Get Started

The SMM is a truly customized, unique, anabolic approach to nutrition. The SMM is breakthrough nutritional software that when combined with proper weight training, packs-on pure shredded muscle in record time without any fat. It is designed to explode you through any muscle building plateau while staying lean and turning heads 365 days a year!

This should be the easiest decision of your life. You have nothing to lose, and everything to gain. Let's get started.

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Prathap Omalloor Property Pics

2011-04-23T02:54:00.000-07:00

Librahitech Blog: Prathap Omalloor Property Pic 2: " Coconut plants were planted on the property a year later the fencing work was done. However, the third-party had successfully damaged th..."

Vodafone Comedy Stars episode appeared this evening on Asianet Middle East TV features one of my property pictures - http://t.co/kBFyIQf

Mahendra Singh Dhoni

2011-04-23T01:13:00.000-07:00

Mahendra Singh Dhoni

The 2011 TIME 100 - Mahendra Singh Dhoni is one among the 100 most influential people in the world today.

In April, when India won its first Cricket World Cup in 28 years, it felt as if the entire population of 1.21 billion had spilled out into the streets to party. Mahendra Singh Dhoni, 29, the Indian captain, finished the final game by flamboyantly hitting the ball into the stands, cementing his country's dominance of the world's second most popular sport. Dhoni is now universally acknowledged as India's best captain ever. He's also its most likable, exuding both cool confidence and down-to-earth humility.

As astonishing as Dhoni's talent is his background. Indian success stories are usually associated with pedigree, connections and power. Dhoni, from a small-town family of modest means, had none of these, but he's shown India that you can make it with only one thing: excellence. Dhoni doesn't just lead a cricket team; he's also India's captain of hope. And he didn't just win India the World Cup; he also taught India how to win.

"Om Jai Shiv Omkara" - Lord Shiva Aarti

2011-04-21T08:31:00.000-07:00

Aum Namo Bhagvate Vasudevya Mantra Of Lord Krishna For Wellbeing & Devotion

2011-04-21T08:12:00.000-07:00

Business Development

2011-04-20T01:46:00.000-07:00

Companies need to turn one-time customers into regular buyers.

Whatever one's business maybe, getting new clients or buyers is the foremost goal for all. Without doubt the most important goal for every company should be to find customers that one can turn into regular buyers. Having said that, the question that comes to everybody's mind is: 'How am I supposed to begin getting new buyers?' The answer to this question, though not simple, has to be answered first before you start working on your new marketing campaign.

To start with, making one's business visible both on online and offline media can possibly be the best way to bring in a new client. The simple logic that applies here is that 'more the people see you, the more likely it is that they will call you when they want to buy.' But to achieve this, you need to target the right audience. I don't think any business would like to end up showcasing itself to the wrong audience who are unlikely to be the buyers.

Businesses also need to understand that in these uncertain economic times, buyers too are keeping a tight rein on spending. So, unless you have something that is really value-for-money, chances are that you will never be considered a supplier / seller worth exploring. For the very reason, when you start looking for new buyers, try to highlight the points which makes your products stand out amongst others in the market, or simply convey a sense of exclusivity.

Another good move to make your first-time customer buy from you, is by varying your offerings. Since he is a first-time buyer, it will not be possible for you to know the buyer's budget. So make it known that you can cater to buyers of varied budgets. Also try creating an urgency in the customer's mind, which can drive a faster buying decision. This is a classical marketing principle and works almost every time.

The top reason why buyers hesitate to make a purchase is doubt. They wonder if their needs will truly be met once they buy your products. To do away with these doubts, it's imperative for each and every business to answer every query a prospective buyer might have. Failing to do so in a professional manner raises doubts in the mind of the buyer and usually leaves him with no other option than to go to the next seller / supplier.

The current competitive market dynamics demand that a business understands its potential buyer. The mantra to compel customers to buy your products is to show him how your product is capable of meeting his expectations. Are you being able to do so?

CEO's Note - www.tradeindia.com - 20 April 2011

Political Viability Gap Funding

2011-04-20T00:41:00.000-07:00

India's economy is still a cash economy, and Big Graft cash payments fit nicely with this.

ET Bureau, Apr 17, 2011, 10.00am IST

Do the math. For an assembly seat, you can by law spend Rs 16 lakh; for a parliament seat, Rs 40 lakh. These caps are low, as we demonstrated in an ET on Sunday story (The Great Indian Election Bait, April 3 issue). A candidate in an assembly seat needs to spend between Rs 50 lakh and Rs 1 crore.

In Tamil Nadu, with its thriving cash-for-votes culture, you might need to spend as much as Rs 8 crore in an assembly constituency. On an average, a Lok Sabha seat is made up of 7.6 assembly constituencies. So, the math suggests that you'd need anything between Rs 4 crore and Rs 40 crore to fund a Lok Sabha campaign.

Going by these numbers, the Congress and the BJP, which contested 440 and 433 constituencies respectively in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, would have needed to mobilise about Rs 2,000 crore each. The DMK, even though a regional party contesting 22 seats in Tamil Nadu, could have splashed out close to Rs 900 crore in the Lok Sabha polls. Sharad Pawar's well-funded NCP fought 68 seats in 2009, and could have shelled out around Rs 500 crore for the campaign.

Remember, splurging doesn't guarantee a win. And this is just election spending. Parties need a lot of money to run their operations, paying workers, rent, fuel bills and so on. All this is Big Money. Big Business can give it by cheque. In fact, if businesses do not want tax breaks, there's no limit under law for political contributions. So, why isn't there a transparent system of cheque payments that would disincentivise Big Graft?

Two reasons. First, companies want the anonymity that comes with cash payments. This avoids questions on why party A was given more than party B. Second, much of India's economy is still a cash economy, and Big Graft cash payments fit nicely with this.

Seven tricks of highly effective corruption - India

2011-04-19T01:00:00.000-07:00

Seven tricks of highly effective corruption

As Anna Hazare and his ever-growing army of corruption busters get down to the task of developing what they think is the most lethal weapon, an all-new Lok Pal, against bribery, ET on Sunday decided to size up the strength of their enemy: the system that creates and protects corruption.

At the heart of this system is a convenient game of musical chairs played by industry and government. Each blames the other for corrupting it, and yet neither side stops. When a case of graft is exposed, e.g. the 2G scam, its beneficiaries proclaim themselves to be the victim. And then it is back to business as usual. The growth in corruption has kept pace with the record growth in the Indian economy, bigger the size of cake, thicker the slice of graft.

It also has more players because of the rise of regional parties in national affairs. But what has not changed are the tricks of the trade. They have only been revised and improved to fund the amplifying cost of politics and rising levels of greed. We present the seven tricks of highly effective corruption, a real-life example of each and a possible fix.

Trick 1: Keep it to friends

Example: The bidding rules for a government contract to build a convention centre in Mumbai are framed such that only one favoured firm, a Delhi-based realty company, is eligible.

What gets rigged: The final lineup of candidates. The aim is to ensure only one or two favoured firms make it to the final selection round. There are two ways to rig this process. One way is to tweak the eligibility criteria of who is allowed to bid by either defining the norms in suspiciously precise terms, or by being bafflingly vague. The other way is more brazen: an applicant is briefed in advance about the specifications of the tender.
How it gets rigged:

There are many ways to be precise or vague. For example, a government tender inviting bids for a big urban convention centre can have a clause specifying that only bidders with prior and proven experience of building convention centres can apply.

This sounds okay. But as close observers of the government system know, the clause is dodgy because a reputed builder needn't have specific experience in building convention centres to build one for the government, a convention centre is not a nuclear plant, let's put it that way. With a clause like this, it is easy to ensure only a few bidders, or sometimes even one bidder, is eligible.

Or, let's take a government contract for a technical service, for example, related to mobile telephony . There will be a pre-qualification round, that is, a screening process.

The criteria in that round can specify nothing more than general attributes: technical strength, track record, experience. Plus, there may not be any weights specified for these attributes. This is where huge discretion is possible. The meet-the-applicant beforehand method happens mostly with PSU work contracts. PSU management is often 'informed' that the tender should suit the favoured applicant. Railways and oil sector PSUs are the big focus of this kind of transaction.

The Fix: Bidding process must be transparent. The government has appointed a committee to review public procurement norms, to be headed by Vinod Dhall, ex-head of the competition commission.

For the tricks from 2 to 7, please cut and paste the link below, to your Internet browser & read:

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-company/corporate-trends/seven-tricks-of-highly-effective-corruption/articleshow/8001223.cms?curpg=2

UAE LABOUR LAW UPDATE

2011-04-14T01:40:00.000-07:00

THE IMPACT OF THE RECENT MINISTERIAL RESOLUTIONS ON UAE EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS - April 2011 - Issue 239

The employment team hosted a breakfast seminar on Tuesday 22 March 2011, discussing the impact of the Cabinet Resolution (No. 25 of 2010), and its supporting Ministerial Resolutions, on UAE employment relations.

The Cabinet Resolution and one of the Ministerial Resolutions (No. 1187 of 2010) was discussed by Rebecca Ford in the February 2011 Law Update. Since then, a number of additional Ministerial Resolutions have become available which have clarified the Cabinet Resolution. This article is therefore an update on Rebecca’s article, and confirms some of the topics discussed in the breakfast seminar.

As previously reported, the Cabinet Resolution introduced five new internal work permits (comprising: work transfer, temporary work, part-time work, personnel sponsored by family and juvenile) for individuals already based in the UAE. The Cabinet Resolution also suggested that in some instances, the Minister of Labour may approve the waiver of the automatic six-month ban which is ordinarily imposed upon employees leaving an employer.

The supporting Ministerial Resolutions which have been published regarding these issues have provided additional detail on the application of the work permits and the waiver of the six-month ban. It is clear to us that some of the aims of the Ministerial Resolutions are to promote stability in the workforce of the UAE, as well as to allow some flexibility of movement, in order to address the issues which arose from the economic events of the past few years. However, the Ministerial Resolutions do not lose sight of the fact that, as provided for in the UAE Labour Law (UAE Federal Law No. 8 of 1980, as amended), work is a right of UAE nationals, and the Resolutions provide that an expatriate will not be granted an internal work permit, if there is a UAE national available who could fulfil the role.

The Ministerial Resolutions also remind employers that the costs of the work permits may not be recouped from the employee, whether by direct payment or deduction from wages.

Work Permits

We reported in the February article that the temporary work permit will be issued to nationals or non-nationals employed for a period of not more than six months in duration. It is clear from the Ministerial Resolution that one of the aims of the temporary work permit is to enable an individual to work where a labour claim is pending in the Labour Court.

We also reported in the February article that the part time work permit was announced as enabling employees to take up more than one role. However, there has been some concern (reported in the press) that these permits would allow expatriates to take roles away from UAE nationals. Although the part time work permits are open to UAE nationals and expatriates alike, the permits will only be granted at the discretion of the Ministry of Labour and therefore the use of these permits may be carefully controlled. In actual fact, we believe that one of the aims of the part-time permits is to encourage UAE national females into the workplace.

The Cabinet Resolution introduced a work permit for personnel sponsored by their kinship. We speculated in the February article that this would mean that expatriates would be able to act as official work sponsors of their dependents. The applicable Ministerial Resolution (No. 1188 of 2010) has clarified that the kinship permit will be granted to the following categories:

(a) females from the age of 18;

(b) the husband of a UAE national female;

(c) the children of a UAE national female.

Accordingly, the use of this permit will be limited.

One of the new Ministerial Resolutions (No. 1189 of 2010) provides more detail with respect to the juvenile work permits (for UAE nationals and expatriates between the ages of 15 – 18). In particular, this provides that the maximum number of working hours per day is limited to six hours, and the juvenile must have rest breaks of a minimum of one hour in total. The juvenile should be able to take the break(s) so that they do not work consecutively for more than four hours. In addition, the juveniles must not work overtime, stay on the employment premises beyond the hours of work, or be asked to work holidays. Finally, the Ministerial Resolution identifies 31 prohibited work activities.

Labour bans

To date, the Ministry of Labour has imposed an automatic 6-month ban on all individuals leaving their onshore employer. The ban could only be lifted for individuals with more than one year’s service upon provision of a no-objection certificate from the former employer and/or payment of a fee (depending on length of service). The February article identified the factors which the Cabinet Resolution identified that the Minister of Labour should take into account when deciding whether to waive the ban.

The Ministerial Resolution has now clarified that the automatic 6-month ban will not be imposed where:

(1) Employment is terminated by mutual consent; and
(2) The employee has at least two years of service.

However, there are exceptions to this rule, which expand the scope of this waiver still further.

“Mutual consent” may not be required if:

The employer acts in breach of its legal obligations (the example provided by the Ministerial Resolution is where an employer fails to pay salary for a period of 60 days or more); or Where the employee is “not the cause” of the termination. The Ministerial Resolution lists three examples of this, where the employer has shut down and has not been undertaking commercial activity for at least two months, provided that the employee has raised a complaint to the Ministry of Labour during this period; where the employer is ordered by the Labour Court to pay at least two months’ salary, or is found to have arbitrarily dismissed the employee, terminated a fixed term contract early, or failed to pay end of service benefits; or where the employer terminates the contract or fails to renew a fixed term contract of its own accord.

The requirement of two years’ service will not be required where:

• The employee is in a qualifying professional category (which to date have been based on academic achievement, i.e. Level One: Degree level and above, Level Two: Diploma, Level Three: High School qualification) and will receive from the new employer the required minimum salaries for those skill levels, being AED 12,000, AED 7,000 and AED 5,000 respectively; or

• The employer acts in breach of its legal obligations, or is “not the cause” of the termination (as set out above); or

• The employee is transferred to a group company. This latter exception is particularly helpful, in our view, given that many companies have chosen to reorganise their businesses in recent years, which has resulted in employees being moved from one group company to another. Although in the event of an intra-group transfer, the employment with the first company is terminated, nevertheless employment within the group is maintained. We therefore consider that it is sensible that the 6-month ban is no longer imposed in such circumstances.

More Resolutions to follow?

As has been reported in the press recently, the work permit and residence visa for onshore employment has been reduced from a three-year period to two years. However, no applicable Resolution has been made available regarding this to date and concerns have been voiced by business representatives regarding the reduction in the period of the visa (as this may lead to higher fees where staff within an organisation remain in employment for a long period of time).

Further, it has been reported in the press that the Ministry of Labour will no longer require employers to obtain one-year consent for the continued employment of an employee who has reached the age of 60, and instead, consent will now be required once an employee turns 65 years of age. However, no Resolution regarding this is publicly available at present.

by Rebecca Ford - r.ford@tamimi.com / Suzanne Gingles - s.gingles@tamimi.com - Dubai Office

6 Entrepreneurs Who Built Their Fortunes From Nothing - Investopedia.com

2011-04-14T00:54:00.000-07:00

6 Entrepreneurs Who Built Their Fortunes From Nothing - Investopedia.com

Mahendra Singh Dhoni - Cricket

2011-04-09T01:49:00.000-07:00

Ticket collector to a true leader!

9 April 2011, 10:04 PM

INDIA’S Cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni is a true leader. He led from the front in high-stress conditions to help India beat neighbours Sri Lanka and win the Cricket World Cup for the second time, after a long gap of 28 years.

There couldn’t be better endorsement for Dhoni’s outstanding capabilities than from the world’s best batsmen and international icon Sachin Tendulkar and outgoing national team coach Gary Kirsten. While Sachin said that MSD is the best captain he has played under, Kirsten said that the skipper not only leads by example and puts in maximum effort on the field but also feels it the most when the team loses.

“Dhoni is a leader by example. I have never seen a player give as much effort to every game. He leads by example. He is the 100 per cent man. I’ve never seen him lose his temper. He loves taking responsibility and when the team loses, no one feels it more than him,” said Kirsten. “He is a great leader. He is the captain for next few years, no doubt.”

Dhoni started off as an extravagantly flamboyant and destructive batsman, but soon transformed himself into a cool and sharp mind which has helped win his team nearly every major trophy worth winning. India won the 2007 ICC World Twenty20, CB Series of 2007–08, the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in 2008 and 2010 against Australia 2–0. Under his captaincy India acheived numero one ranking in Tests. His Test, ODI record is best among all the Indian captains up to date. He also captained his club team Chennai Super Kings to victory in IPL 2010 and followed it up with the Champions League title in the same year.

He is now captain of India in all three forms of the game and also led the team to their first ever bilateral ODI series wins in Sri Lanka and New Zealand. Under Dhoni’s captaincy India became the first team after a gap of more than 20 years to clean sweep Australia in the Test series. Dhoni also led team India to number one position in ICC rankings in Test cricket for the first time. Dhoni has also been the recipient of many awards including the ICC ODI Player of the Year award in 2008 and 2009 (the first Indian player to achieve this feat), the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award and the Padma Shri, India’s fourth highest civilian honour in 2009.

Born in Ranchi, Bihar (now in Jharkhand) Dhoni was a ticket collector with South-Eastern Railways and a football goalie before venturing into cricket. A fan of Australian cricketer Adam Gilchrist, one of his childhood idols was, ironically, team mate Sachin Tendulkar.

April Fools - Thoughts of the past few days

2011-04-08T11:52:00.000-07:00

Come Bonus time (April), as usual, we laugh all the way to our respective banks - much to the chagrin of the employees down the ladder - GOD 5 minutes ago via web

Whether it is global financial meltdown or 70% less profitability in our business, we, the MD, CEO, CFO and our henchmen, will do what? 16 minutes ago via web

God, however, is rich, as His devotees throw large sums of money into His kitty for the hoodlums to steal it and enjoy. about 13 hours ago via web

Place me in the category of God Almighty, for we both carry on doing the same thankless job and never gets promoted, like a barber. about 13 hours ago via web

Good Morning to all @twitter, and may GOD bless you all. about 13 hours ago via web

@gracieversusdad - A mother is supposed to feed milk to her baby. Oh Lord, why on earth are we here for ? 9:38 PM Apr 7th via web in reply to gracieversusdad

And the same applies to corporate hooligans who amass wealth at the cost of the poor workers. An earthquake or tsunami can wipe them out. 9:33 PM Apr 7th via web

All they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. 9:19 PM Apr 7th via web

@CoachBernardo - Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance, does not work any more. No 9:06 PM Apr 7th via web in reply to CoachBernardo

Public Records - http://libraht.crimecheck.hop.clickbank.net?ss=govres&m=buy-lp1 9:00 PM Apr 7th via web

And that too for decades, fooling the entire workforce who sweat it out there, remain poor or dead, to make those corporate thieves rich. 8:36 PM Apr 7th

@New_federalists - What about the selfish top order executives @ the corporate arena who eat the entire banana & throws the skin to workers? 8:13 PM Apr 7th via web in reply to New_federalists

7.4 earthquake shakes northeastern Japan - http://t.co/bZYgfgY via @khaleejtimes 8:02 PM Apr 7th via Tweet Button

India wins Cricket 2011 World Cup

2011-04-02T11:09:00.000-07:00

What a moment for India, one that will resonate in every country in the world.- India wins Cricket 2011 World Cup - http://t.co/LQfmrn2 37 minutes ago via Tweet Button

Congratulations Team India for winning the Cricket 2011 World Cup today. What a sixer, Dhoni. I love it and am proud of you. Keep it up. 40 minutes ago via web

Cricket: India needs just 16 runs to win the World Cup today. India Jaiho. about 1 hour ago via web

Namaskar. A family friend just sent me a sms which i thought I just had to share with u! "Anhoni ko honi kar de".

Prathap G Sharjah on Twitter - http://twitter.com/librahitech

Simplest pieces of financial advice

2011-03-30T23:57:00.000-07:00

One of the simplest pieces of financial advice is cut out unnecessary expenses. Chances are, you have more of these in your budget than you think. Look into the things you pay for every month and find ways to whittle those costs down. Use the extra money for savings, to pay off debt or just to avoid having to use your credit card.

When it comes to improving your financial situation, little steps make a big difference over time.

Gilani, Manmohan talk peace amid cricket

2011-03-30T21:45:00.000-07:00

Gilani, Manmohan talk peace amid cricket

World urged to use ‘Earth Hour’ to protect planet

2011-03-25T23:33:00.000-07:00

World urged to use ‘Earth Hour’ to protect planet

West Wing Week: 3/25/11 or "OCONUS II - Mamalluca"

2011-03-25T08:54:00.000-07:00

Ask Raghu - What is corruption?

2011-03-25T01:12:00.000-07:00

Tsunami’s lessons for all.

2011-03-21T23:34:00.000-07:00

Tsunami’s lessons

22 March 2011

The malevolent earthquake and tsunami in Japan have jolted our minds back to the 2004 catastrophe in the Indian Ocean, as well as to last year’s tsunamis in Chile and Sumatra.

Gruesome comparisons are inevitable, as is the fatalism that follows such “acts of God.”

What can man do in the face of nature’s wrath? Not everything, of course — and a natural disaster is always a most sobering reminder of our own limitations. But it is clear — and painfully so — that the international community has not done a fraction of what it had hoped to do in the aftermath of the carnage in 2004, when the devastation in Banda Aceh, Phuket, Sri Lanka, and parts of Africa led to a global resolve to be better prepared for the next time.

The three tsunamis in the past 13 months — including the havoc in Japan — have devastated nearby coastlines. In Chile in February 2010, people did evacuate, but mostly of their own accord. A tsunami warning was issued, and then mysteriously lifted, at the same time as the tsunami was climbing up the rugged Chilean coastline. More than 200 died. In Sumatra in October, nature and man worked against the victims; most people didn’t feel the earthquake strongly enough to trigger self-evacuation, and the tremor struck at night. A crawl line appearing on all TV channels in Sumatra asking them to evacuate was not seen by people in the Mentawai Islands off Sumatra’s western coast because most villages there have no electricity. Their first intimation of the incoming wave was its roaring sound just offshore. More than 400 drowned. Sirens did ring in Japan — this is, after all, one of the most civic-minded countries on earth — yet hundreds, if not thousands, died.

What went wrong again? As far as preparedness is concerned, the main reason is that we continue to be focused on past disasters, rather than on building tsunami-resilient communities around the globe. We deploy sensors to warn us of where older tsunamis struck, but we are not doing enough to anticipate future events. While more than 40 tsunamographs — the special instruments in the deep ocean developed by the United States’ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — are now measuring tsunami heights around the Pacific adjacent to the US, people in French Polynesia and other Pacific Islands have to wait and wait, without knowing what is about to hit them. And even in Japan, arguably the most tsunami-ready nation in the world, there are no tsunamographs to provide notification when it is safe for search-and-rescue operations to begin.

This is not an easy matter. Tsunami floods can move at speeds exceeding 15 mph. People who don’t evacuate on time may be fighting for their lives while perched on trees or moving logs, and rescuers have little information on whether it is safe to move in immediately and rescue them or whether the next wave will be even bigger. People who do evacuate may be drawn back to their homes by the lull between wave arrivals, only to be swept away by the next one. As opposed to earthquakes that last, at worst, a few minutes, tsunamis can flood coastlines for several hours, particularly inside closed bays or harbours. Even when people start evacuating immediately, they may not have time to reach high ground if the nearest hill is a few miles away.

What is alarming is how little has changed around the world in terms of an awareness of the simpler protective steps to take. During the Samoan tsunami in September 2009, people who could easily have climbed to high ground in the hills behind them chose, instead, to evacuate by car. Many drowned in their cars, which were struck in exodus traffic along narrow coastal roads. When the 2010 Chilean tsunami arrived in California, people in Santa Monica Beach were mesmerised by the rapid withdrawal of the shoreline and went out to gawk at stranded marine life. It is a miracle that the tsunami was small and they were able to get away.

Tsunamographs need to be deployed around the world, supplemented by inundation maps. These are maps that show the extent of possible tsunami flooding from hypothetical earthquakes in their vicinity. Even in the US, only California has completed its mapping efforts. Alaska and Hawaii, the most vulnerable US states, do not have modern tsunami flood maps for all their coastal communities. While there are now regional warning centers in the Indian Ocean, there are none in the Mediterranean. A huge plate boundary almost as long as the one off Sumatra lurks in the eastern part of the basin and has produced earthquakes and tsunamis of similar magnitude as Friday’s event off Japan a few times in the past 2,000 years. Yet intercountry politics on setting jurisdictional boundaries, the illusions of national warning centers with futuristic control rooms, tens of millions of dollars in funding, and a very predictable denial of the hazard have resulted in a tsunami of inaction. By serendipity, the same day the Japanese tsunami hit, European nations were gathered in UNESCO’s headquarters in Paris to discuss — for the seventh time since 2005 — the logistics of creating a warning system in the Mediterranean Sea. The European Union could have a world-class warning system tomorrow if it could swallow its pride and pipe dreams and ask the NOAA’s Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre, which now covers the Pacific and Indian oceans and the Caribbean Sea, for coverage. The PTWC is not perfect, but it is the best we’ve got.

However, a world-class warning system is only part of the tsunami story. What the world needs are tsunami-resilient communities that plan ahead not for any particular tsunami but for a medley of coastal hazards, storm floods, sea-level rises, and hurricanes. Evacuation drills and continuous education are keys to long-term survival. Every time we fly, we are reminded to put on our seat belts and of how to use life vests. We need to be reminded, every time we visit any coastline around the world, of the possibility of a tsunami and of the simple steps we ought to follow to save ourselves. And to exemplify the principle, if you are close to the coast and see any unusual shoreline motions, or feel any tremor that lasts more than 30 seconds, evacuate inland or to high ground.

By Coastas Synolakis (Environment) - Synolakis is a professor at the University of Southern California and the director of the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research in Athens.

Thoughts of the Day in tweets

2011-03-20T10:11:00.000-07:00

Warren Buffett, the 3rd richest man in the world, bought his house for $31000 in 1958, and still lives in it. That is modesty & I love it. 8 minutes ago via web

The theme of this car speeding story: One should be wary of the erstwhile Pauper turned King who would wield an umbrella even at midnight 18 minutes ago via web

I have been driving in the UAE since 1983, and with a clean record to-date. My latest car being a 2011 cruise controlled Mitsubishi Galant. 29 minutes ago via web

I mean, over the roads behind the Holiday Inn / EMAX / ARAMAX / Park, residential areas in Sharjah. 44 minutes ago via web

My evening walk 1/2 an hr ago was spoiled by a rascal racing his car Reg No. E-31702 over 80 km in Abu Shagarah, Sharjah, near EMAX / ARAMAX about 1 hour ago via web

Some drivers, youngsters with splashy cars in Sharjah, appear to think the roads are their Dad's race-track. ANJAD please note. about 1 hour ago via web

Last week Sharjah had two pedestrians dead knocked down by speeding cars in Al Buhaira area. about 1 hour ago via web

Libyan ruler defiant as airstrikes by coalition forces enter 2nd day - http://bit.ly/fbRWLe #cnn about 4 hours ago via web

Read Green grass, blue skies, still waters. on Twestival! http://t.co/52WeIkI about 5 hours ago via Tweet Button.

http://twitter.com/librahitech

Kerala needs a Congress led Govt

2011-03-18T01:06:00.002-07:00

V S Achuthanandan is back in the list of CPI-M candidates, and to contest from Malampuzha. However, Kerala badly needs a Congress led government.

Therefore, may I request the people of Kerala to vote for Congress candidates in their respective constituencies.

Prathapan Gopalan
Prathap G)

18 MARCH 2011

Kerala needs a Congress led G

2011-03-18T01:06:00.001-07:00

V S Achuthanandan is back in the list of CPI-M candidates, and to contest from Malampuzha. However, Kerala badly needs a Congress led government. Therefore, may I request the people of Kerala to vote for Congress candidates in their respective constituencies.

Piles of cash to bribe Indian MPs

2011-03-17T04:47:00.000-07:00

Piles of cash to bribe Indian MPs: WikiLeaks
(AFP)

17 March 2011, 12:55 PM

A United States embassy employee witnessed piles of bank notes being prepared to bribe Indian MPs ahead of a crucial 2008 vote of confidence in parliament, WikiLeaks alleged.

The US staffer in New Delhi was shown “two chests containing cash” by an aide to a senior ruling party politician, and was also told $25 million was “lying around” to ensure the Congress-led government would survive the vote.

Diplomatic messages released by Wikileaks to the Hindu newspaper described how Nachiketa Kapur, an aide to prominent Congress figure Satish Sharma, said that $2.5 million had bought the votes of four MPs.

The alleged incident occurred shortly before Manmohan Singh’s government narrowly survived the confidence vote over a controversial deal to allow India to buy US nuclear reactors and fuel.

Singh’s Congress-led coalition was re-elected in 2009, but has recently become mired in a string of corruption scandals ranging from the cut-price sale of telecoms licences to graft surrounding last year’s Commonwealth Games.

Kapur “showed the Embassy employee two chests containing cash and said that around Rupees 50-60 crore (about $25 million) was lying around the house for use as pay-offs,” according to the Wikileaks cable.

Sharma, a close associate of Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi, told television news channels on Thursday he did not have an aide called Nachiketa Kapur.

The July 2008 vote, which came close to toppling Singh, has long been subject to corruption claims. Opposition MPs waved wads of money in parliament which they claimed the government was using to try to bribe them.

Opposition parties held protests in both houses of parliament on Thursday over the Wikileaks revelations, forcing adjournments.

Huge quake, tsunami kill 1,000 in Japan

2011-03-11T11:11:00.000-08:00

Huge quake, tsunami kill 1,000 in Japan; world offers help
(Reuters)

11 March 2011, 9:39 PM

TOKYO - A devastating tsunami triggered by the biggest earthquake on record in Japan killed at least 1,000 people along the northeastern coast on Friday after a wall of water swept away everything in its path.

Cars and containers are swept by a tsunami wave in Miyako port in this still image taken from video. Reuters

Thousands of residents were evacuated from an area around a nuclear plant north of Tokyo after fears of a radiation leak, but officials said problems with the reactor’s cooling system were not at a critical level.

Underscoring grave concerns about the plant, the US air force delivered coolant to the facility, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.

The unfolding disaster in the wake of the 8.9 magnitude earthquake and 10-metre (33-feet) high tsunami prompted offers of help from dozens of countries.

China said rescuers were ready to help with quake relief while President Barack Obama told Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan the United State would assist in any way.

Stunning TV footage showed a muddy torrent of water carrying cars and wrecked homes at high speed across farmland near the coastal city of Sendai, home to one million people and which lies 300 km (180 miles) northeast of Tokyo. Ships had been flung onto a harbour wharf, where they lay helplessly on their side.

Houses and buildings burn following an earthquake in Yamada town, Iwate Prefecture, northeastern Japan. –Reuters

Japanese politicians pushed for an emergency budget to fund relief efforts after Kan asked them to “save the country”, Kyodo news agency reported. Japan is already the most heavily indebted major economy in the world, meaning any funding efforts would be closely scrutinised by financial markets.

Domestic media said the death toll was expected to exceed 1,000, most of whom appeared to have drowned.

The extent of the destruction along a lengthy stretch of coastline suggested the death toll could rise significantly.

Tsunami warnings were issued across the Pacific but were later lifted for some of the most populated countries in the region, including Australia, Taiwan and New Zealand.

Even in a nation accustomed to earthquakes, the devastation was shocking.

Houses swept out to sea burn following a tsunami and earthquake in Natori City in northeastern Japan. –Reuters

“A big area of Sendai city near the coast, is flooded. We are hearing that people who were evacuated are stranded,” said Rie Sugimoto, a reporter for NHK television in Sendai.

“About 140 people, including children, were rushed to an elementary school and are on the rooftop but they are surrounded by water and have nowhere else to go.”

The quake, the most powerful since Japan started keeping records 140 years ago, sparked at least 80 fires in cities and towns along the coast, Kyodo said.

A fire burns at a passenger terminal at Sendai Airport after the airport was swamped by a tsunami in northeastern Japan. –Reuters

Other Japanese nuclear power plants and oil refineries were shut down and one refinery was ablaze. Television footage showed an intense fire in the waterfront area near Sendai. There were also reports that an irrigation dam had broken and swept away houses in Fukushima prefecture.
People sleep in offices in Tokyo

Chief Cabinet Secretary Edano told people to stay in safe places as the cold deepened into the night. “Please help each other and act calmly,” he told a news conference.

In Tokyo, residents who had earlier fled swaying buildings jammed the streets trying to make their way home after much of the city’s public transportation was halted.

Many subways in Tokyo later resumed operation but trains did not run. People who decided not to walk home slept in office buildings.

Cars and airplanes swept by a tsunami are pictured among debris at Sendai Airport, northeastern Japan. -Reuters

“I was unable stay on my feet because of the violent shaking. The aftershocks gave us no reprieve. Then the tsunamis came when we tried to run for cover. It was the strongest quake I experienced,” a woman with a baby on her back told television in northern Japan.

The central bank said it would cut short a two-day policy review scheduled for next week to one day on Monday and promised to do its utmost to ensure financial market stability.

Auto plants, electronics factories and refineries shut, roads buckled and power to millions of homes and businesses was knocked out. Several airports, including Tokyo’s Narita, were closed and rail services halted. All ports were shut.

Houses swept by a tsunami smoulder near Sendai Airport in Japan on March 11, 2011. –Reuters

The disaster occurred as the world’s third-largest economy had been showing signs of reviving from an economic contraction in the final quarter of last year. The disaster raised the prospect of major disruptions for many key businesses and a massive repair bill of billions of dollars.

The tsunami alerts revived memories of the giant waves which struck Asia in 2004. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued alerts for countries to the west and across the Pacific as far away as Colombia and Peru.
Frighting experience

The earthquake was the fifth most powerful to hit the world in the past century.

TV footage showed boats, cars and trucks tossed around like toys in the water after a small tsunami hit the town of Kamaichi in northern Japan. An overpass, location unknown, appeared to have collapsed and cars were turning around and speeding away. “The building shook for what seemed a long time and many people in the newsroom grabbed their helmets and some got under their desks,” Reuters correspondent Linda Sieg said in Tokyo. “It was probably the worst I have felt since I came to Japan more than 20 years ago.”

The quake struck just before the Tokyo stock market closed, pushing the Nikkei down to end at a five-week low. Nikkei futures trading in Osaka tumbled as much as 4.7 percent in reaction to the news.

The quake surpasses the Great Kanto quake of Sept. 1, 1923, which had a magnitude of 7.9 and killed more than 140,000 people in the Tokyo area.

The 1995 Kobe quake caused $100 billion in damage and was the most expensive natural disaster in history. Economic damage from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was estimated at about $10 billion.

Earthquakes are common in Japan, one of the world’s most seismically active areas. The country accounts for about 20 percent of the world’s earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.

May the departed souls rest in peace - in the name of Lord Shiva - Prathap G Sharjah

Earthquake, tsunami hit Japan

2011-03-11T02:14:00.000-08:00

Earthquake, tsunami hit Japan

11 March 2011, 10:33 AM

TOKYO - The biggest earthquake to hit Japan in 140 years struck the northeast coast on Friday, triggering a 10-metre tsunami that swept away everything in its path, including houses, cars and farm buildings on fire, media and witnesses said. At least one person was killed in Fukushima prefecture, north of Tokyo where four million homes were without power. The 8.9 magnitude quake caused many injuries, public broadcaster NHK said, sparked fires and the wall of water, prompting warnings to people to move to higher ground in coastal areas.

Video Courtesy: CNN, Reuters

The Philippines, Taiwan and Indonesia all issued tsunami alerts, reviving memories of the giant tsunami which struck Asia in 2004. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued alerts for countries as far away as Colombia and Peru.

There were several strong aftershocks. In the capital Tokyo, buildings shook violently. An oil refinery near Tokyo was on fire, with dozens of storage tanks under threat.

Intrinsic Value

2011-03-09T04:39:00.000-08:00

How Do We Define Intrinsic Value?
Module by: Melina Laverty, Eleanor Sterling.

Intrinsic value is generally defined as the inherent worth of something, independent of its value to anyone or anything else. One way to think about intrinsic value is to view it as similar to the inalienable right to exist. The Endangered Species Act in the United States protects many species that are not "valuable" to humans in any readily definable way (for instance, the dwarf wedge mussel [Alasmidonta heterodon] or the swamp pink [Helonias bullata]). These species are protected based on the idea that they have a right to exist, just as all humans do. The United Nations Charter for Nation (1982) also notes biodiversity's intrinsic value: "Every form of life is unique, warranting respect regardless of its worth to man."

Intrinsic value is a frequently misused term as some consider values that are not easily defined, such as aesthetic values, to be intrinsic values. However, as discussed earlier, aesthetic values are a kind of extrinsic value, because aesthetic values provide humans with a service of sorts -- our own satisfaction. Others consider a species' value to the structure and function of an ecosystem (such as an invertebrate decomposer's ability to cycle nutrients) as its intrinsic value because it does not have any obvious value to humans. However, this ecosystem values is still utilitarian value except it focuses on one organism's usefulness to another organism, rather than to humans.

The concept of intrinsic value is highly philosophical. Many economists and some ethicists believe that intrinsic value does not exist, arguing that all values are human-centered, that a value cannot exist without an evaluator.

Generally, two contrasting beliefs frame a continuum along which our beliefs fall:

• On one end is the idea that humans are the center of the universe and the nature exists (and is used) for human benefit (a view called anthropocentrism

• At the other end is the notion that life is the center of the universe and humans are a separate but equal part of nature (biocentrism, or ecocentrism

The biocentric view, forwarded by the deep ecology movement (Naess 1989, Devall and Sessions 1985), holds that all species have intrinsic value and that humans are no more important than other species. Thus everything has an equal right to exist simply because it already exists. Having this right will result in also having a "right" to have ones future survival guaranteed to an extent equal to any and all other species. If one accepts the idea that biodiversity has intrinsic value, then species conservation requires less justification.

In other words, if a species is intrinsically valuable, regardless of its use to humans or to other species, it should be conserved, and then the onus is on those who do not want to conserve the species to provide a justification for its removal. Intrinsic value is a central tenet of many religions.

Many religions (Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Jainism, Baha'i, Taoism, Hinduism) consider everything on earth to be inherently sacred, or sacred as a result of being created by a divine being, and thus, intrinsically valuable, and humans are responsible to care for and respect these creations.

Chartalism

2011-03-08T03:48:00.000-08:00

What Does Chartalism Mean?

A non-mainstream theory of money that emphasizes the impact of government policies and activities on the value of money. The early-20th-century German economist Georg Friedrich Knapp first developed the theory of chartalism, which defines money as a unit of account with value that is determined by what the government will accept as payment for tax obligations. In other words, chartalism says that value of money is created by government - money does not have intrinsic value.

Investopedia explains Chartalism

In contrast, the theory of metallism defines money as a commodity with intrinsic value that makes it widely accepted as a medium of exchange (precious metals such as gold). The term "chartalism" comes from the Latin word charta, which means ticket or token – items that may be accepted as payment, but which do not have intrinsic value.

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