Sight to Insight

Is the global warming real? Did Al Gore exaggerate the phenomenon in his recent book, "An Inconvenient Truth"? Are all these natural disasters, whether there be bushfires or earthquakes part of the whole "package"? Read more about it at the official link. I know one thing for sure that the wealthy countries are overconsuming, using up what the good earth is yielding. I admit I am guilty of this as well. The economy is built upon consumption, and unfortunately, excessive one! It is not difficult to understand this issue. Take a look at your own room or house. How many pair of shoes do you have? How about set of clothes? How about rings, watches etc? Do we need all of them? I am emphasizing need versus the desire to possess. That "desire to possess" is what the marketeers target. In short, I am learning to consume as needed versus as wanted. In Singapore, I read about this Singapore Freecycle Network. The email is SgFreecycle@yahoogroups.com . One can join a...

As I experiment with blogspot which is part of iGoogle, I am beginning to feel its power to integrate. The article on Natural Cure, is posted directly from Google Docs (Beta) in which the original resides. This is the first time I attempted this action, and it works seamlessly. I can now easily write an article in word document, store it in Google Docs (Beta), and then publish it to my blog. If you go to the Links on the left and click on the "Pictorial Journey" you are immediately taken to Picasa, which is also part of iGoogle. In this photo storage, you are able to see what I have put in as public photos. You can also have private photos which are not shared. I have not tried video, as it takes time to edit for something that is worth sharing. Google has purchased YouTube for a few billion dollars, and this means you can integrate video as well. I am sure it can be linked to e-Bay which you buy and sell your stuffs and many more. I have to keep this experiment going to opti...

NATURAL BLEACHING EFFECT PRODUCTS NOTE: This is an article forwarded to me, probably documented by some Chinese TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) practitioner. It is certainly economical, compared to seeing a doctor. However, please use your discretion, if you intend to try it. If it works, do put some comments into the blog. I take no credit for its recommendation, but I do not know who to credit them either. Good luck. 1 BARLEY & GLUTINOUS RICE FLOUR DIY: Boil green beans and barley with water. Eat 1 - 3 bowls a day enable the skin to be fair, removes scars. Mask: Add water to glutinous rice flour like glue texture, not too thin and not too thick. Apply on face. Wash off when dry. Once every 2 - 3 days. 2 TEA DIY: Pour hot water on tea leaves, remove tea leaves after a while. Pour into bath tub, add more warm water. Wash face and body. Leave for a while. Rinse with water. BITTERGOURD MASK FOR GETTING RID OF WRINKLES, ITCH ON sian ( bruise that turns bad) DIY: mash bitter gourd, ...

Last week, a colleague in his late thirties came by at my desk and asked whether investing in properties can be taken as a mean of diversification of financial planning. My response is "it depends" as decisions on allocation of our money depends on our objective as well as our risk profile. In recent days in Singapore, the big "talk about" is on the returns on CPF (Central Provident Fund); which is a sort of forced savings for employees to manage their retirement. One does not need to know the details; other than whether the returns is good enough as one reaches the draw down age of 62, which will soon be 67. We do not need to dwell in the mechanics other than it is a financial planning tool for a source of income at a certain age. There are many financial planning portals and more than enough articles to keep you educated. What I want to write here is different because I will not concentrate on the mechanics, but rather on the attitude towards living a fruitful and...

My classmate in Malaysia has retired. He is fifty five (55) years old. My company doctor has finally decided to call it a day, and soon, he will be sailing in his boat, enjoying the sun rise and the sound of the sea. I know a friend who is golfing all over the world and goes to New Zealand to help out her relatives in business. She lives in Kuala Lumpur. I also know of many who are still enjoying work in their late fifties. Is there such a term called "retirement"? It sounds so dated and so mechanical, that I decided to coin the term " refirement " to bring about a change in mental attitude. Our paradigm should be managed by ourselves, and not be influenced unduly by all the marketing messages out there, attempting to cause us more anxiety than there really is. Let me start with some of these marketing messages. By the way, I define the term, " marketing " as making us buy something which we do not need, as well as making us feel a bit moronic because some...

The graphics showed the 10 years GDP growth and the stock market index of the countries in Asia Pacific. Here is a GDP definition. Gross Domestic Product is the total market value of all final goods and services produced in a country in a given year, equal to total consumer , investment and government spending, plus the value of exports, minus the value of imports. Few countries will have double digits growth, save for China and some emerging countries. However, Singapore is an exception. The diagram nevertheless showed zig-zaggy change for most countries. By contrast, the stock market indices grew by multiples in all the countries. Is there a correlation between GDP growth and stock market performance? You will have to interpret it, and more likely, you will need additional data to make some sense out of it. The fact is that if you have invested in an index fund that tracks the index, you will be very comfortable with your gain. When I first was made aware of ETF (Exchange Traded Fun...

Fast forward ten years to July 2007, and it looks like "irrational exuberance" is here once again. The prices of properties in Singapore are escalating. Unheard of prices of S$4000 per square feet (psf) have been breached. Prices in prime areas are over S$2000 psf. It means that if you want an appartment of just 1,000 sf, you have to pay S$2 million. This is no small sum, for many. Reverse back ten over years in 1996, property prices peaked then, and then the crashed in 1998. In the good days, buyers were paying people to queue up to buy a unit. Such queuing could be a few days and nights! Many were making a killing by buying and selling almost immediately. Fine dining restaurants were having a great time, pantering to all these new found wealth. Life was so great then. Today, the stock market indices are at their all time high, and again another source of revenue. Money seems so easy to come by. The banks pay you an interest of less than 0.3% per annum. It means that if you ...