Another suicide

It appears that another beautiful woman has taken her own life. Lucy Gordon did it a few months ago and now, according to reports, Daul Kim has hung herself. I'm sure she had many friends. However, if a person feels isolated and chooses to stay behind an impenetrable wall, there's very little anyone can do. Up until the last few days, she probably appeared perfectly adjusted and fulfilled.

What corruption?

They say that corruption is hard to quantify and that is probably true. The papers say that Somalia is the most corrupt country in the world. Afghanistan is not far behind. What exactly happens when corruption occurs? For one thing, it engenders more corruption. One rotten apple can turn a whole barrel full of apples rotten, no? But let's say that there is only one corrupt person among many honest ones. That corrupt person takes a bribe for a service not rendered or a product not delivered. It gets in the way of productivity and denies the economic equation its purpose - fair trade. The same can be said of greed. Greed is another form of corruption. But, how does one quantify greed? Ask yourself: do we really need to? How does one quantify hate or love or generosity or sincerity or honesty? Perhaps this topless woman knows.

Culture clash

“RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – A Saudi court on Saturday convicted a female journalist for her involvement in a TV show, in which a Saudi man publicly talked about sex, and sentenced her to 60 lashes. Rozanna al-Yami is believed to be the first Saudi woman journalist to be given such a punishment. In the program, which aired in July on the Lebanese LBC satellite channel, Mazen Abdul-Jawad appears to describe an active sex life. The same court sentenced Abdul-Jawad earlier this month to five years in jail and 1,000 lashes. The case has scandalized this ultraconservative country where such public talk about sex is taboo and the sexes are strictly segregated. The government moved swiftly in the wake of the case, shutting down LBC's two offices in the kingdom and arresting Abdul-Jawad, who works for the national airline.” This case illustrates perfectly the differences between western culture and Middle Eastern values. Actually, the west used to hold these same conservative values back in the 1700s – now, however, this topless woman can legally walk down a New York City sidewalk without fear of arrest. Figure that one out.

Cheating is Fun

From a recent Yahoo! News story: “SAO PAULO – The founder of one of Brazil's biggest evangelical churches siphoned off billions of dollars in donations from his mostly poor followers to buy jewelry, TV stations and other businesses for himself, authorities charged Tuesday. A Brazilian judge accepted charges from prosecutors alleging that Bishop Edir Macedo and nine other people linked to the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God committed fraud against the church itself and against its numerous followers. Sao Paulo state's prosecutor’s office alleged in a statement that Macedo and the others took more than $2 billion in donations from 2003 to 2008 alone, but charged that the alleged scheme went back 10 years. Prosecutors said the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God receives nearly $800 million in donations every year from faithful in 4,500 temples across Brazil. The church claims to have nearly 8 million followers in Brazil and many more around the world. Prosecutors said the church tells its members it needs donations — cash, checks, cars and other goods — to finance new temples and to pay for religious programs on radio and TV. The church allegedly used fake companies to launder the money, moving the assets abroad and then returning them in the form of loans used by Macedo and his accomplices to buy businesses, prosecutors said. Macedo, who founded the church in 1977, owns a large television network, three newspapers and several radio stations. He also owns a tourism agency and an air taxi company.” If one wants to be unjust and corrupt, there is no better place to hide than behind the cloak of the church. Some church ministers are no better than most politicians. Who can stop them? Nobody.

Greed

From a recent news story: “BOSTON (Reuters) - Taking his private equity firm public paid off big for Blackstone Group LP's Stephen Schwarzman, who became the top-paid chief executive in the United States last year. But the surest route to big bucks was running an oil or natural gas company. Their CEOs represented seven of the 10 highest-paid U.S. CEOs in 2008, according to a report by independent research group The Corporate Library.” Schwarzman was paid $702 million last year. That’s close to two million dollars per day. Does this not seem just a bit odd? How much do sugar cane farmers in Cuba make? I bet you Schwarzman thinks he deserves it. He is beguiled. hehehe. Capitalism is ok, but one annoying problem with it is that NOBODY can ever tell you how much is too much.

Politics for kids

I posted something simple called Finance for Kids yesterday. Today, the topic is politics - for kids. One of my favorite things is to simplify every issue as much as possible - sort of like scientists trying to find one formula that will explain the universe. Einstein tried. He got close. They are still trying.

We have heard a lot about the character of political leaders during the last two weeks. Here is my formula for determining the character of any person - give them some cash (as much as you dare) in exchange for their word (just their word) to pay you back. They will either pay you every time, or at some point in time, just disappear and forget all about the debt. That's my best guess. Good luck.