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My take is that i stand on both sides which mean i both agree and disagree on this issue. Certainity, self-study, if well supervised or supported by parent will ensure that the child to develop interesting tools of creativity and focus. But there is one big and very ambiguous con. Depending on the environment child live in and the nature of character the child develop, if it is not properly take care of, the child will be much more withdrawn and quiet person with the years to come for the child growth. It spell that the child will have difficulty to make friends. I have enough and yet considerable amount of experience of 3 years self-study and this kind of effect didn't appear on me. Like what I say, with consideration of environment, child development and ceteris paribus, this con will not happen.
I totally disagree that 10-12 years -depending on the education path you took- of primary and secondary schools is wasted. NO WAY. At primary and secondary school days, you had fun with chatting and playing with your classmates. You get to learn interesting things regardless of tangible or intangible benefits of schooling. Actually, it is not a sin to play!Not to study is not a sin as well!
Like what i said in previous blog entry, MOE must toughen the education path of primary and secondary schools by encourage childrens to learn abit more complex and yet interesting to learn. One suggestion is to use central year-end examination for each primary and secondary school. I am trying to imply that MOe appoint one independent and well-qualified examiner to set exam questions for all levels of primary and secondary schools except the final term of primary school and secondary school(Primary 6:PSLE,Secondary 4 Express and 5 Normal Academic: O Level, Secondary 4 Normal Academic and Normal Tech: N Level). Letting teachers who work in schools to set the exam is good as if giving tips. To make things tough, not letting your teacher to set the paper is the way to do it. It effectively make teachers difficult to give tips to students and no chance to set 'give-away' questions. However teachers should be allowed to set CA test. This way, in my belief, it will set the standard high.
I know some parents love to complain why MOE should make things difficult for their children. I think it is totally bollock! With careful consideration of children's learning curve based on well done observation studies, it is feasible to develop tough and yet suitable course for them to study. Long time ago, childrens who never had a chance to go school and most of them spend time to work and work. I call it ridiculously tough which mean they do not have comfort at all as they are trying to make ends meet. Prime and true real life example: Oliver Lum, owner of Hyflux(public listed company) had no parents,no home, no food and no money. All she had is her grandmother. They migrate from Perak to Singapore when she was 16 years old. In my opinion, to move from Perak to Singapore is madness when you do not have money to get by. But she did and learned all the way until she with few years experience started her own business in chemistry industry. Another madness. This industry is not so big globally. Despite of daunting prospect, she made it. She has my respect.
If she can do, why not those childrens... No offence, I think getting children into tough course will shape their consciences and behaviour towards doing things.
Next topic:Sunshine Empire
There is hoo-haa about this company doing multi-level marketing. I looked at various people comments. Somewhat, one of their comments sound familiar. I realised that Jun Bin earned money from putting his money in this Sunshine Empire because he once told me about the company dealing wireless internet stuff in Taiwan. Now this story fit nicely. Sadly to say, i will give interesting piece of talk. In my present condition, such marketing talk don't easily sway me and i can easily demand for better explaination to justify why I should do it.
Let look at their operations. Taiwan operation about building wireless internet...Most of the comments are something you can think of. I have acquire considerable amount of knowledge learning 4 subjects in my degree course. Right now I am going to apply them on this qualitatively.
For this taiwan wireless internet, i am going to point that thing that nobody talk about. I don't need to talk the obvious ones that everybody know. Considering that the risk and return, based on the comment that if you invest $10k and you get back maybe few ten thousands. the percentage of return is pretty high. If it is so, the project must be very profitable. Virtually calculating by using NPV, IRR and payback period tools, it should very extremely profitable. If it is true, a big corporation will borrow money from the bank with good faith standard by meas AAA credit and by then, it will push subsidiary company of Sunshine Empire out if this kind of project is known publicity. It will happen as long as the corporation will use the muscles if their financial manager or CIO think highly of the project by using the tool i mention.
Another interesting point i want to talk about.
Apparantly the rumour say that Sunshine Empire bought the whole floor which is 7th floor in HDB building at Toa Payoh and government can't tear the building should it happen. I think it is ridiculous. You buy HDB flat and it is under your name. However it has the number of years being lease attached. Say 99 years lease, after that government can take it back. Likewise for buying house. To be effectively own 100% without having government interference, you gotta buy land/plot. Once the land is under your deed, nobody can touch your land/plot ever!It is just rough explaination. TOO BAD i am not lawyer even though i did studied business law. Frankly speaking, i think someone who love law or work as lawyer is better qualified to explain it clearer.
End of the Sunshine Empire. That is whati want to talk about these two points. The other points can be discussed easily by many people at their pleasure. You know the excitement of branding a company or someone so badly. It is where i will not participate.
This episode media and public portray it remind me of a Japanese drama. A oompany using MLM as cover is actually cheating people money. Behind the scene, Yakuza is controlling it and earning the money. Another Japanese drama remind me as well. A professional conman..create a company and he/she encourage you to sign the contract and your money is gone..Totally conned. To you, reading this paragraph make sound kid game. But it is not kid game as you perceived from this paragraph. It is truly professional con work where a lot of people thought it is real. Everything seem to be legal to them and sadly, "once the wallpaper are torn", they will realise that they had be CONNED of their money.
Don't jump to any conclusion. I bet that some of you who may happen to invest money in Sunshine Empire will start thinking that this paragraph above is more or less related to Sunshine Empire. Hell no, i am recalling how professional con game work. I have no say on whether Sunshine Empire is true and legal company or the company that is out to con.
To know more about MLM, i figure that you can start reading one of these books written by Robert T. Kiyosaki. Alrhough, online investigation proved that Robert T. Kiyosaki is selling lies on the book. Nevertheless, you can have some ideas about MLM. One thing for sure that will hold forever is "the more people put money, they will get the money as long as there are cash inflows for the company who can use the part of cash inflow to pay out. Once the cash inflow dried(e.g no more people to put money), what will happen? Very easy to figure. You do simple logic thinking.
This kind of work is not within my circle of competence because of my nature and handling. Like Warren Buffet, he tried to sell the stock of the company whom the management never heed his instruction. Door to door, he can't sell. He realised that he is not suit to this kind of work. Therefore, he asked Charlie Munger to help and then the stock of that company is already sold by then. Similarly, I do not have that skill which salesmen have.
I know that Junbin will not put money in stock market because he doesn't know about them. To know a MLM company and how to earn money is very easy to learn unlike to learn about stock market. With absence of the asymmetric information, a risk-averse person like Junbin is not willing to invest money in stock market. Being rish-averse, he prefer sure thing. To him, sure thing is getting his friends to invest in any project Sunshine Empire 'sell'. That is why it is not easy to get such information how to invest stock market well.
Now this last topic is something i want to point at the owner of Sunshine Empire, James Phang. He claims that he is better than Warren Buffet. Looking at his profile that is avaiable to view online, i disagree with him 100%. To you it can be very subjective. Of course, it is because of asymmetric information.
As you know that James Phang sell all kind of things through MLM channel. Does it effectively make him better than Warren Buffett? HELL NO. His nature of business dealing is actually not that risky while Warren Buffett's is. Let me supply you some information that many people don't know. Warren Bufett bought a lot of insurance companies. One of those insurance companies named General Re is selling reinsurance. Woah, now this reinsurance is sudicial one if you get the bad deal which mean you buy insurance from other insurance companies so that the insurance companies can protect itself. This deal is one kind of the lifetime. If something happen to the insurance company(like hurrance swept through out in few of US states), reinsurance company gotta pay more than $1 billion payout for this policies. Imagine that! It is one hell big loss. Now you create a vision imaging that Sunshine Empire is to donate whole wealth to the charity. Same scenario i mentioned in last few paragraphs above. It imply that he can't earn the same amount of money he gave away again but Warren Buffet can! By this battle, you should know who is better.
James Phang need is to collect money from people to grow the business and give payout to people in order to justify the evidence that it is real company(this kind of tactics is very obvious. Even Sony use limited warranty to encourage people to buy Sony products again). For Warren Buffett, he work all the way by investing money on index fund and he got the money from there. People who trusted and put the money in the hands of Buffet were millionaires by then. The big question is "Do you see all of James's 'followers' who 'invest' money in his company become millionaires?"
Pfft, so contradicting.
If you want to compare to someone, you must show that you can produce better performance/result than someone in the similar circle of competence. If James were to list his company in the stock exchange, he has to keep the shareholders happy. If he can't cope the pressure, the chance of him to doctor the accounts is very high. It will be like Enron's scenario. Look at Warren Buffett..He turn Berkshire Hathaway from Texile Mill into congolmerate company and the company share price(Class A,Class B,Class C) is worth $128,000 per share. Who can achieve this kind of expensive share? I can't think of anyone other than Warren Buffet. Now you should know who is obviously better.
To say that he is better than Warren Buffett, he is a joke to the public as well as Singapore! If you are not convinced, all you need to drop me email and i will reveal further more information about Warren Buffett. I wanted to draw economics graph to illsutrate but i do not have time to do it. Like what Warren Buffett say, whatever Bill Gates work in, Bill Gates will be the winner no matter what kind of product he sell. To Warren Buffett, Bill Gates is the best entrepreneur he ever met. If it is true, Bill Gates will knock him out easily.
Next blog entry will be about charity. I am quite hopeful that i have tiee to draw the economics graph to illustrate.
Du Saramyida (Someone Behind You)(Korean Movie 2007)
Synopsis:
Ga-in, a smart, pretty girl who is loved by everyone, witnesses the deaths of people around her. She is then singled out as the next in line to die from the curse that has one person in each generation die at the hands of two people close to them. Ga-in searched for the truth about the curse with Suk-min, a boy who always lingers around her, and her boyfriend Heon-joong, but attacks on her life by those dearest to her, like her best friend and her mother, never cease…
Opinions:
It is horror show as per stated by the media. I think it is not so horror thing but it is more like thriller. Filled in the dream, she unknowingly stab and stab and stab....Opps..nothing to say further..
Rating:5/10
Apartment 1303(Japanese Movie 2007)
Synopsis:
Directed by Ataru Oikawa (Tomie, Tokyo Pyscho), Apartment 1303 is adapted from a novel by Oishi Kei, the writer of Ju-On. Like Ju-On, the film revolves around a haunted residence, the titular Apartment 1303, whose tenants pay with their lives. Starring Nakagashi Noriko (Strawberry Shortcakes) and Furuta Arata (Hana), the film thrills and chills in classic J-horror fashion with nightmarish suspense and spectres and a piercing examination of guilt and obsession.
At a housewarming get-together with her friends, the usually cheerful Sayaka suddenly jumps to her death from the balcony. As the blood dyes the winter snow red, the little girl who lives next door walks up to Sayaka's corpse and smiles. Sayaka's sister Mariko (Nakagashi Noriko), refusing to believe her sister would commit suicide, begins to investigate and realizes that the apartment's previous residents also died in the same manner. As she probes further, she discovers the terrifying source of Apartment 1303's string of deaths, a vengeful grudge that dates back 20 years.
Opinions:
Now that is the real horror movie. My defintion of horror show must have a story illustrating ghost,vampires or relevant spirtual stuffs to chill your spine nicely. So far, it is quite decent one. Check it out, Eugene. However, i am not really fan of watching tons of horror movies at all. Don't be surprised with mediocre rating
Rating:6/10
Bonsuses:1) One scene did startle me.
ライアーゲーム (raiaa geemu) Liar Game(Japanese Drama 2007)
Synopsis:
Based on the manga series of the same name, Toda Erika plays an honest college student, Kanzaki Nao, who receives a hundred million yen one day, along with a card saying she has been chosen to take part in the "Liar Game". The aim of the game is to trick the other players out of their hundred million dollars. At the end, the winner gets the hundred million and the loser is a hundred million yen in debt. The next day, she receives notification that her opponent is her former teacher, Fujisawa Kazuo. She goes to him, seeking help, but ends up getting tricked into handing her money over. Desperate, she approaches the police for help, but they are unable to do anything. However, she is told of a mastermind swindler, Akiyama Shinichi, who is to be released from jail the next day. Desperate, she goes to him for help.
Opinions:
I this this female lead actress is gotta be A-list actress. Always appear in a lot of japanese drama. Not too bad, i can think of economics ideas how to use in application of probability.
Rating:7/10
Bonuses:1)LIE LIE LIE LIE LIE LIE 2)strategy to overturn the table
Tony Del Piero wrote and posted at at 1:45 am
