Benny & Adeline’s blog

Anime: Clannad

It’s been a while since I wrote a full blog entry about particular movies. I did write silly blog entries and threw in a lot of jokes on movies in the past and I guess this time is I decided to make it a more serious one about a particular anime called “Clannad”, an Irish word that which means “clan” or “family”.

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I have watched several anime over few stages in my life from Doraemon to City Hunter to Naruto and in my humble opinion, Clannad would be the best; the most beautiful anime ever created… and it’s easily my favorite anime of all time.

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This anime is divided into 2 segments: Clannad and Clannad: after story. The first segment is mostly about all things in high school life while the second segment is about more about to grow up after school life and about ups and downs in life. Unlike the first season where there were puppy love and red/blushes in a teenager’s face who falls in love, the second season is about ugly truths about the characters, their crappy relationships with the people very close to them (even with their parents), and even there are death scenes in it that I honestly say that it touched and made me cried like a baby. I don’t really know why but maybe because I can relate this show very much to my own life.

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A mix of comedy, drama, romance and fantasy; this anime is divided to smaller arcs but eventually focuses on the 2 main characters; Tomoya Okazaki, Nagisa Furukawa and their family.

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The smaller arcs also contribute to the theme of the anime which is about how crucial a family is.

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- Fuko Ibuki: about her plot in obtaining happiness for her sister

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- Kotomi Ichinose: about her plot in dealing with trauma of loss of parents

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- Kyou Fujibayashi (On the right in the above pic): about sisterly love and her plot in matchmaking Tomoya with her sister.

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- Tomoyo Sakagami: about her plot in struggles in saving cherry trees because of her emotional connection of them with her brother

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- Youhei Sunohara: about his plot in becoming a good brother to his sister

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- Akio and Sanae Furukawa: about their daily lives as parents, knowing what’s best for their daughter, Nagisa Furukawa

- …and many others. Even a cat in this anime also has its own and yet, meaningful arc.

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Don’t worry about censorship and don’t think dirty. Despite many female characters as you saw in the few pictures above, this anime is not an ecchi or a hentai anime. Overall I would say the drawings and CG were clean (and really, nothing needs to be subjected to censorships) and the plots & story lines were realistic. Watching this Clannad would be my first time that I had ever rejoiced and shed tears over an anime. Ignore some comic reliefs and fighting moves, and you’ll found that the characters are real and normal as per our daily lives. The music, too was wonderfully composed to connect your emotion deeply into different parts of scenes.

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Plot: The beginning

The main character, Tomoya Okazaki, is a high school student, bums around, lives passively and awaits good things to happen to him. Then he met Nagisa where the two starts to have the courage to break the past and live. Like some of us when we were younger, Tomoya is just a person that knows that he must do something in life but he just doesn’t think seriously to change or do something about it until he meets someone important in his life. As in any relationship in this world, a woman may changes a man and saves his life; but may also be said that a man saves his ownself for his woman.

Then along the way, Tomoya makes new friends, meets influential friends, gets along with other family outside his own which slowly builds up his maturity towards his own life and those around him.

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Clannad is a romance/drama, but not a crappy one.

In Clannad, its main characters have so much personality differences and things look stagnant. But in later episodes, romances and new love interests appears one by one and some of them have interests and aspirations in common with Tomoya. Some of them even really get along very well with him, but like in our life there are too many unforeseen circumstances in this anime to decide which girl to be with Tomoya. Eventually one would be in joy and the others would be in tears.

One thing keeps me watching is that despite being delinquent and surrounded by women who admires him, Tomoya shows his devotions to someone he loves… and that’s why I like this anime as a romance/drama anime after all. No crappy two timings in this anime, no exchange partners as like other TV dramas nowadays. Tomoya is a lead male character that’s transforming from a boy with integrity to a man.

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Clannad is about never giving up, when you have to!

One of the scene in this anime, Tomoya has to face a very important challenge in a baseball game with his long term injured shoulder. Despite the injury, he could still win the baseball game as long as he has the determination… and swallows up the words and encouragements from his families who had been kind and supporting him all the time.

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This anime teaches that it’s definitely not an option to give up and to disappoint people who watches and supports behind you. There are few other inspiring situations in this anime that encourages Tomoya to push himself to his highest limit to reach what he wants to be and to win. Sounds cliché, but oh well… in my opinion it’s still refreshing to watch…

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Clannad is a slice of life

This anime is like a modern day fairytale where everything ends well (here comes the good news for you who might hate movies with bad endings). I could even link this anime to Christianity because I see some connections between prayers… have faith… and had wishes granted. Although some parts in the anime may seem too idealist however it’s a truth that “hopes” are always lying everywhere for you. I don’t know… I think the director of this anime is telling the audiences that God will always give what you wish for and all you have to do is to ask and continuously have faith in Him. Of course, since it’s a Japanese anime, the director’s description of god may varies as he’s from Japan.

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Clannad is about family and parenting

The parents of Nagisa (one of the main character), gave up their promising dreams just to be close to their sick daughter after having a near-death experience. Sometimes many of us were really absorbed in our own worlds to reach positions that we had always wanted and thus we couldn’t spend much time with our loved ones. We may overlook at how important they are to us… until we almost lost them for good and only to regret later. Well, this anime will remind and remind you not to let that happens.

It’s true that most people can handle both chasing their dreams and at the same time raising their children. But hey, not every family are equally lucky. Some families have a family member born with poor health and some with mental issues. Those who had not been with healthy family would need to be more patient, have more faith in God and spend more time together as a family. Along the way there will be changes and unforeseen circumstances but a family is a family. When you’re down, still your family cares you the most and if you don’t care about your own family when he needs you, no one else will care.

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There are these scenes from the anime that’s quite inspiring, at least for myself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlzVU3sDwPw&feature=player_embedded 

“We didn’t give up on our dreams! We changed our dreams into your dream! That’s what parents do! That’s what family does!” Akio Furukawa

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… and this comes from a baby who are taught that the only places she can cry would only be at… the bathroom and at daddy’s arms.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4teK953Xrc&list=UU-IDJGNGssNPJuPzRQPikqg&index=142&feature=plcp

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This one is a funny clip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7GPcqJ4u6E&feature=related

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Overall, I would have given a solid rating of 10/10 for this anime.

Anyway if you’re okay with Japanese anime, please buy, borrow, rent or download (whatever the means) Clannad anime! It’s worth your time to watch these 2 seasons (about 50 episodes) of life lessons. Many people also do upload into youtube.com and you can also watch from there but I wouldn’t encourage to watch from there as there are too many spoilers at the commentary sections.

my childhood..teenage years

I guess my earlier life stage from childhood up to secondary high school was considered normal. Only that I was obsessed with hardcore metal music at a later stage when I had a great depression where there were dramas between my parents which later I glad they were separated for good.

Well.. to think about it, secondary school is fun. One can do anything impossible that you will never do once you were studying in college or working.

Having own football team was fun. Got winnings and defeats from playing against other teams you had not even met before. Well I had more defeats than winnings with my team but still the spirit we had was unbelievable. Not afraid of losing.. never gave up and we really had great time. Me n my other friends are mostly AC Milan, Juventus, Inter Milan and Manchester United fans. So we came up with AC VenTer United (yup.. it’s totally lame. We threw everything inside). After been laughed by some other friends we shorten our club name from AC Venter United to just Venter.

Then there were times I had a band. We played mostly songs from pop and alternative rock bands mainly Oasis. At first we have no singer so everybody got a turn to sing. Me n a friend eventually sacked 2 non productive band members of 2 yrs and brought in new cool guys before school prom, aiming for a perfect performance. Yeah I know that was pretty bad thing to do. But oh well, that was so long ago and we were more selfish.

Then there were times that my friends always look for me… not that I was being totally nice to them or that I was a cigarette supplier.. but because I often brought mangas to school.. for readings during boring lessons. Hmm.. got caught once or twice but somehow my manga were safe from being confiscated

Then looking at my school location unfortunately our school was sandwiched between few government schools and since I took public transport home… I got to taste some racist bullying n daylight robbery by idiots from those schools… about once every 3 mths or once every 5 mths if I was lucky. I had lost my bag.. my shoes.. my watches even almost one of my finger. I got stabbed with a knife. But hey.. not bad, for probably about 5 yrs I brushed up my running speed n so called life survival skill called “open your senses at any surroundings. Crimes and wars are unpredictable” over the times. Until now i guess i still could have been too cautious at everywhere i would go. What a lesson in hard ways.

Then there were times that I had friends came to my house just because among my friends, only my mom was not a housewife. So I and my friends studied really hard. NOT!! …..FAR from it. We gathered to watch porn together. My talkative friends n quiet ones… Chinese n Malay… catholics n muslims… the lazy delinquents n top ranked guy. All gather at my house watching porn until about 6pm before my parents came home.

Also, my house was also a gathering place for friends to play video games. Sega megadrive, super nes, panasonic 3DO provided by me n my friends brought the games. It’s interesting to see enemies can become close friends from video games… though friends can become enemies from games as well. Lesson learned? Game cheats MUST be shared especially when internet had not existed.

Hmm I’m sure there were many others that I think I better keep it to myseld but childhood and teenage years were fun and really a once in a lifetime experience.. How’s yours?

Just some of my favorite songs… categorized by genres

Some songs below are just some of my favorites. It could be that these artists are technically good at their musical instruments or unique in arrangements and compositions in their songs.

Pop
- Belinda Carlisle – Heaven is a place on earth http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LwoSxc_J4Y
I like love songs in a totally energetic mode instead of ballad, ballad and ballads again. I really love this.
- The Beatles – Let it be http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcZ8Gz0rDtw
Quite inspiring…
- Bob Carlisle – Butterfly kisses http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmC3rJR7E98
A nice song for weddings.
- Stepphenwolf – born to be wild http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwLmmXGEEps
This song is just legendary!

Blues
- Stevie Ray Vaughn – Voodoo Child http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GSpbuFSr2o
One darn good blues guitarist.
- Eric Clapton – Crossroads http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWNjm_xXO2I
…featuring Phil Collins on drums. This song is Eric Clapton’s at his best.

Alternative Rock
- U2 – With or without you http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmSdTa9kaiQ
I love their beautiful guitar effects, mainly “delay”.
- Oasis – Whatever http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sO7-Mf4fSPQ
Oasis performed in orchestra. Noel ever called this his best song ever.
- Red hot chili peppers – Under the bridge http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLvohMXgcBo
This made me started to like RHCP.
- Smashing pumpkins – Ava adore http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dwXYAqy-HI
Cool bass lines..

Country
- Alan Jackson – Chatachoochie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JW5UEW2kYvc
A fun country song.
- John Denver – Take me home, country roads http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSmh6FO3T74
Simple yet meaningful song about nature.

Movie OST/scores
- Hans Zimmer – The Battle, from Gladiator movie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYKA-xG9KK0
A 10 minutes epic, one of the best creation from Hans Zimmer.
- Klaus Badelt – The Black Pearl, from Pirates of Carribean (Curse of the Black Pearl) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWgWLBUy8Gk
This song from Pirates of Carribean just can’t get out of my head.
- Rawin Djawadi – Driving with the top down, from Iron man movie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9PhfUsFvj0
A very cool symphonic rock instrumental OST.

Hard rock  (Milder than heavy metal, but hard rock emphasizes more on repetitive guitar riffs)
- AC DC – Thunderstruck http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSAHHd7q8BU
One of the best song from AC DC.
- Bon Jovi – Livin on a prayer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDK9QqIzhwk
One of the best song from Bon Jovi
- KISS – Shout it out loud http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sohB922c2uQ
Listen to their song despite their eerie looking make ups. KISS songs are just fun, catchy and entertaining

Comedy/parody
- Weird Al Yankovic – Amish paradise (Parody of Gangsta’s paradise, Coolio) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOfZLb33uCg
This song is quite Funny
- Weird Al Yankovic – Eat it (Parody of Beat it, Michael Jackson) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcJjMnHoIBI
This song is super funny
- Tenacious D – The road http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTG-QmnWQHE.
Other than acting in Hollywood movies like Gulliver’s Travels or voicing for Kungfu Panda movies; Jack Black is seriously a humorist & a cool musician.

Heavy metal (heavier than hard rock and heavy metal emphasizes a lot of fast & technical guitar solos)
- Van Halen – Poundcake http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnwIavCuKz8
It’s cool to start a song with an electric drill on a guitar.
- Aerosmith – Walk this way http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71oyAV_m9Vw
Best performance from Aerosmith’s guitarist Joe Perry
- Metallica – Of wolf and man http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bA14Vw033Us
A cool song about werewolves
- Deep Purple – Sometimes I feel like screaming http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7xF51AFkys
The guitar riff is just addicting…
- Led Zeppelin – Whole Lotta love http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQmmM_qwG4k
The song is totally unique and a kind of an aphrodisiac.
- Extreme – He man woman hater http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxrhRitq_zU
Well, Extreme has many technically good songs other than their only famous single called “more than words”.

Hardcore metal
… sometimes I barely can hear the vocals/lyrics. But most of these bands are technically very good.
- Lamb of god – Now you’ve got something to die for http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njGppxBBb7E
- Korn – Thoughtless http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVPvzX-AeSM
- Pantera – Comboys from hell http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i97OkCXwotE

Symphonic Metal
This is a genre where a rock band do recordings with full orchestra (including choir, harp, violin etc). Very complex composition and I think some other songs in this genre is even suitable to be used as part of Hollywood movie soundtracks.
- Nightwish – The Poet and the pendulum http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=481wFkKpzIk
A 10+ minute long epic song. Beautiful orchestra but rather morbid lyrics though…
- Nightwish – Nemo  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hmzR1CKGtA
Cool music video with nice orchestra at the background.
- Kamelot – March of Memphisto http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Qdcl67H1Jw
Kinda gothic.

Progressive rock
- Emerson, Lake and Palmer – Romeo and Juliet http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yT23hNe1VIk
Kate Emerson, a legendary keyboard player showing off his skills
- Pink Floyd – High hopes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jn2U8EcLHXE
One of the most beautiful music arrangement I ever listen. I just never get bored listening to it over and over again.
- Yes – And you and I http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fi-sUOM8io
My favorite song from the grandfather of progressive rock and progressive metal… “Yes”.

Progressive Metal – Instrumental only
- Dream Theater – Instrumedley http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM0Y1Ajqq7g
Unpredictable time signature… not a standard 4/4 or 3/4…
- Liquid Tension Experiment – Acid Rain http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edqH0ofRQrM

Progressive Metal – with vocals
- Dream Theater – Home http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJPitncF35g
- Rush – Tom Sawyer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNZru4JG_Uo
- Transatlantic – All of the above http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJKFn3qeLrE

God’s shield

Below is a testimonial from Joseph Prince, a senior pastor from New Creation Church:

“One day, my wife, Wendy, and our daughter Jessica went to a hawker centre not very far from our house our house. It was about 11pm at night. So we sat down at a table near this pillar, just next to it.

After a while, then there was a man… sitting at another table and next to that pillar and smoked near us. So I just told my wife to just move to the next table. It was a non smoking area by the way. So we just moved to that table and we just ordered our food… and I sat there enjoying my favorite “Teh tarik”.

After a while, then there was this mentally-insane man walked nearby our table… took an empty beer bottle on the table into his hand and he smashed it against the pillar. Bang!! I remembered standing up there, looking at that man and didn’t move at all . Maybe it’s just my normal reaction of self defense… and all the people around us in the hawker centre were silenced and they were looking at me and our table which was nearest to the man and the pillar at that time.

The man then walked away holding the broken beer bottle on his hand. Soon, many people talked to me; asked me if we, my family and I, were alright. They told me that the man was staying around that area and he’s a insane.. crazy man and constantly thinking that he has to fight with someone. To me, he has been possessed by demons.

So we were fine, eventhough that man was quite near to us. None of the shattered glass injured us… and when I looked at the floor. I could see the shattered glasses everywhere near our table… but none was inside the territory of our table. I even took picture of it.

After that the drink seller told me not to drink from my cup, that it could have shattered glass in it. He made me a new cup of ‘Teh tarik’. Not only God protected me with His shield but also gave me another blessing” (followed audiences’ laughter)

This pastor emphasized that there are things in life that are totally beyond our control. We may walk safely on a pavement or we may be driving slowly and safely and suddenly got hit by another car from our back… all these are totally beyond our imagination, beyond our control but if we look at ourselves… we are safe all the time because God has been a shield to us; protecting us in our daily lives… and it’s up to us to praise and thank Him, a good God!

2nd hand clothing flea market, Tanglin Mall

Last Saturday, I accompanied Adeline selling her used clothes in Flea Market at Tanglin Mall, Orchard Road. I would say that was a new experience (good + bad) to us.

What is a flea market? Well most people know it as an event that sells new and 2nd hand clothings for a bargain price. To the point of view of experienced customers/buyers.. flea market is a good place to get good quality clothes.. seriously! To the point of view flea markets sellers, this event is a good occassion to get rid of “rubbish” in their wardrobe and still can earn few dollars out of them.

To get a lot in the flea market at Tanglin Mall, I just need to register at Tanglin Mall’s customer service.. and if you’re lucky, you’re chosen through balloting and given an allocated lot. After been chosen, you won’t be selected again by Tanglin Mall for 3 months period. So you’ll need to ask your spouse, relatives or friends to register for you. A word of warning: the person who registers must be at the flea market on the actual day (they did took attendance) and you’re not allowed to bring in clothing stands, cabinets or tables. You’re selling items on the floor.

“Products and byproducts”
From what I observed, sellers in their 20s definitely sell better stuffs than the older counterparts. The reason is because quite likely that younger sellers sell their own clothes (also it means you can easily see how’s the actual size just by comparing your body to the seller’s body). Older sellers do it to help their children and friends and therefore more difficult to see the correct size.

Younger sellers are probably also one time sellers thus are more easily dealt with. How should I say… unlike older sellers, the younger ones are more likely to “flush away” their pride by selling all at $2 each, just to get rid of their used clothes from their wardrobe.. and if they can’t manage to sell everything, most will have a problem whether to do another flea market sale or just throw/donate away these used clothes for free. For older sellers, some of them are full time housewives, had not much activities to do (children have grown up) and thus may be holding to their prices more steadily for the next flea market occassions.

So, if you intend to buy used clothes because (let say..) you’re attending your company’s one night dinner and dance event, a flea market could be a good choice to avoid overspendings.

Pricing
This is where I mentioned above applies about sellers flushing away their prides. If you are a flea market seller or potential seller, be prepare to sell a $90 for $5 and even worse.

$2 for all
Many sellers (especially the younger ones) have good tastes in clothing. When I was there, I noticed some items are really in good condition (if not brand new/unused by the owner before). I noticed there are brand new Marks & Spencers long sleeve shirts sold for just $2, all in very good conditions. Looking at the seller’s size, I think these shirts were given to him as gifts and turned out to be too small for him and therefore he sold them here for $2.

Timing
If you are first time flea market visitor and you’re not intend to spend much, I would say evening is the best time to get very cheap price as at this time, young flea market sellers started to lose their patience and do everything to get rid of the things. If you go earlier, you will see better quality items but be prepare to pay slightly more. Don’t pay more than $8 for clothings as to the sellers, these are really considered ‘rubbish’ to them. If you don’t believe, you can hang arounf a flea market 1-2 hours before the flea market closes and you’ll hear the same seller will reduce to $2 and other sellers even start to shout “ONE FOR ONE DOOOLLAAARRR”. You’ll even be able to get 3 items for $1 and they’ll still be so happy and relieved that you take their “rubbish”. Remember, a rubbish to them could be a brand new or one-time-used dress from ‘Mango’ or ‘zara’ bought earlier for $60.

Customers
Orchard Road area is well known for many expatriates living there, together with maids they hire. Maids are good customers but they may only can get out for a walk for an hour a day so make sure to make use of their time and draw their attentions. Factory workers, too are your good potential customers. If you’re able to have Sunday flea market, it’s better as Sunday is the weekly day off for most of them.

There are many mature mothers who shop at the flea market as well, buying clothes for themselves, their families or as gifts for their maids, but be prepare to receive bargain offers from them as they are considered as experience flea market customers.

Selling clothings to men definitely is easier than to women. The fact that men are lazy to bargain on prices is widely known.

I noticed there are also customers which were actually fellow flea market sellers selling at another assigned lot on that same day. Of course there’s nothing wrong with buying from others and resell it for higher price, but it’s not easy to do that. I guess they might buy for their own use.

After all, other than branded luxury items (Louis Vutton, Prada etc), clothings are really worthless and have no value the minute they’re outside clothing shops and the tag has been taken off. If you say you’re buying one and intend to sell again, be prepare to get ultra dissapointed for selling it for less than 10% of its original price, unlike electronic items.

I think it’s good to have a new experience in a flea market as this will wake you up (I would rather to say that it’s a slap to face) to be careful on your fashion spendings especially things that you don’t really need. Or else, you’ll ended up donating them away… Hmm maybe even donating for the needy is still better than to sell a $80 (or more) items for $2 (ouchh!)…

…but if you see it positively at least you make a bit of bucks on unused things in your wardrobe and you can see some smiles on the faces of maids or low income workers who may not be able to afford midrange clothings with original prices of $60 and above… a man’s poison can be another man’s meat..

Veganism

Recently… with all these natural disasters happened… floods, tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanoes… those events somehow may shake human’s religious beliefs.

The term “mother earth” has become more and more popular, assuming that all natural disasters happened because “mother earth” was extremely angry… err maybe… “pissed off” as if saying “wtf! Those humans standing on me..!” This ‘mother earth anger’ are views spoken out by veganism groups, which aim to exclude animals from major aspect of life, including food, clothings and others…

If you’re a vegan yourself, then just to let you know that I’m not writing to oppose your views… but I just want to make points to current Christian believers to stick themselves to basic and fundamental Christianity point of view.

Christianity are taught… and must always remember that since beginning, God has given human the strengths and intteligence to ‘dominate’ other beings. But do remember that dominates does not mean allowing human to use animals for “entertainment” which currently happens ie. Bullfighting, animal testings, animal tortures in circuses etc. I know that those are wrong. But dominate means human have the RIGHT over animal as food.. to sustain lives.If you’re Christian, then you sure would know the story of Jesus eats and divides fish.

Be careful if you’re watching many videos on animal cruelties and animal farmings appear in youtube. Adults would have known that extreme videos used by veganisms to induce people to avoid eating animals were shown to their “most extreme” level of violences. Yesterday I watched this movie in cinema (can be watched for free from www.earthlings.com about all that I mentioned earlier.. tortures in animal processings before turned to food, deskining for leather products etc.. all these are shown with the extreme level in industrial farmings in which in those videos, the workers were extremely emotional (the animal farm workers that I watched were insane, shouting “motherf#$%er” and other vulgarities continuously at animals). The behavior of animal workers in the “earthlings” movie is so disturbing that most female audiences in the cinema walked out. These sort of scenes, in fact may not happen in most traditional farmings with more mechanical workers (they don’t curse or torture animals for pleasure) in doing their work.

As I said, veganisms may take most extreme level of disturbing videos to prove the point that human treats animals badly. I think this is partially true. Adults know how to analyze, and conclude somewhere in the middle at each sciences and documentaries presented to them whether a video is an exagerration, but if a gullible kid, a young teenager bumps into it through email forwardings, then they may assume that ALL animals have EXACTLY same feelings as human… in all aspects, forgetting that animal instincts play more dominantly in animal brains. As a result, a child who grows up in a Christian school/family may turn to vegans overnight… starts to hate fellow humans who eat meats, turn away from Christianity that allows animal consumptions as food and may go further to the extreme to worship and place importance to animals and “mother earth” rather than at Christianity teachings on God’s word on basic human rights to eat animals to continue living. Details can be read further in Genesis, Holy Bible.

If this happens to a young child/teenager, their parents’ years of christianity teachings given could have… by chance,…flushed down to the drain in overnight for a “mother earth” belief. Remember! In Christianity, Jesus Christ is the centre of universe who decides all good or bad things on earth, not earth itself.. as merely one of His creation.

Saying we have to ‘do something good to earth and animals’ is perfectly fine…For start you can adopt dogs in shelters rather than buying from breeders, avoid watching circus to discourage animal tortures for entertainment and avoid buying leather products… but the belief that “mother earth’s anger has been causing continuous disasters” which is currently happening around us is not a Christianity teachings.

Remember: Veganism and Christianity opposes each other…

Inflation

If you deposit your money in Singapore savings account and knowing that you’re getting only a pathetic 0.25% interest.. there’s another good side of a story rather than if you directly conclude that it’s better to maintain savings account in another country with interest rates of e.g. 4%.

Banks don’t give high interest rates to account holders for free just to compete another bank’s rate. The truth is that lower bank interest means lower inflation rate in the country. Economics works that way (sorry can’t remember precisely why…) but knowledge about the relationship of interest rate, inflation rate and foreign exchange movement is so important that you had to be careful not to change your hard earning money in Singapore and then you directly deposit your money in.. for example Indonesia rupiah or even currencies in developed countries like US dollar, just to sadly see it worth much less after you convert them back to Singapore dollar…

Inflation rates will definitely affect many aspects in your life. Many foreigners came, work and earn in Sing dollar beneficially due to stable sing dollar. So whenever you are offered to work in other country, always observe closely the inflation rate + political stability in that country to consider whether it’s better off that country’s currency, US dollar or your home country’s currency. Otherwise, you may ended up struggling and worrying that your contracted salary could not afford to cover raising daily expenses.

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Asian financial crisis 1997-1998

Remember those days that Thai Baht and Indonesian rupiahs plunged down to the floor due to economic crisis? Speculators such as George Soros was behind all that where he had a lot of excess cash to buy foreign currencies and make profit from increase in those currencies. Malaysia under Dr. Mahathir was smart that they pegged themselves against US dollar at that time so that it will adjust according to US dollar movement. If not mistaken, Soros was mentioned as a ‘Devil’.  Soros didn’t buy Singapore dollar because he believed that Singapore has enough reserves to cover the over demand in Singapore dollar. So if he buys tons of Singapore Dollar and Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) release its reserves, the effect cancel each other and will stabilize Singapore Dollar, unlike in countries like Indonesia where there’s not enough reserves to cover the effects. Government intervention is definitely critical.

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Zimbabwe

Currently Zimbabwe has the highest inflation rate in the world. Now another question is why some companies still dare to do business in countries with mad inflation rate I.e. Zimbabwe with more than 10,000,000% (ten million percent!)? Their money is merely like a few stacks of printed big-note paper now. A 1 Billion dollar note maybe can only be used to buy a loaf of bread in the future (or perhaps.. now). So what’s the point of doing business in Zimbabwe? Doing business and gets cash immediately still possible if the agreed price may be adjusted to its mad inflation rate, but it’s even more difficult if you’re doing a medium to long term business in Zimbabwe, let say if your Singapore company won a land tender to build a school there, which needs 2 years to complete.

Well, you would need to negotiate for more front payment (so you can immediately change back to Singapore Dollar on that point of time) but how about the rest of the progressive payments? Don’t forget that you can do business by trading goods over goods. If you’re in Singapore, you still proceed to the school construction projects, in exchange of… let say Zimbabwe’s good quality diamonds or even agriculture products, let say… strawberries…

Other ways to deal with inflations:

- As for companies, if they’re actively export and export to.. let say to US… maintaining a US dollar bank account in US itself to minimize forex translations and hence transacts using that bank account is one simple way to minimize risk..

- If you’re a Singapore company with a customer in Taiwan, you can negotiate to invoice them in Singapore dollar, rather than the commonly used US dollar. But this may drives customer away.

- If multi trade is involved (for example you export cars to a US company and they also export other goods to you), you can always netting off each other invoices.

- Like mentioned above on construction of school in Zimbabwe, if bank loan is involved… it’s definitely much better to get a bank loan in that country with high inflation rather than taking loan from Singapore. Your bank loan/liability value will decrease/increase aligned with the value your construction project.

- Some companies may approach banks for “hedging” to reduce financial risk; at a predetermined forward foreign exchange contract with the bank… This process is quite complex and banks may impose high commission/charges.

- But the last resort, an evil one would be “leading and lagging”, an actual finance term. So you only pay as soon as possible whenever forex market is at your favor and… if not at your favor, you can negotiate to delay payment months until finally at your favor. Do thus only you don’t intend to do business with that company. Leading and lagging actually damage your business relationship.. to your own benefit/control…

The psychology of disclosures

Some of us may not really care with what others think about us. However, this is a totally different situation if we are doing business for a living.

Stakeholders..ie suppliers, customers, employees do really care at what we are saying to them. Like old saying, you may need years to build a reputation but just need a second to destroy it. Don’t believe that? Try say “you suck” to them in language they can understand…

The bigger the company, especially public listed companies, the more they have to watch out what public thinks or says about them. Listed companies sometimes care about their share prices too much to the extent that most of them are using creative manipulations at their investors.

Last time, when information technology was not so advanced (let say..15 years ago), internet was still costly and inconvenient unlike now. During that time people, rely mostly on printed medias like newspapers and magazines. Now? If I want to, I can check, follow closely or even stalk a company that I would like to invest and sell their shares within few minutes later.

“Disclosures” always been a difficult thing to do if news are bad news (I.e. accounting fraud discovered, overpaid top executives etc) but it is better to disclose as soon as possible. The reason? Like mentioned above, there’s no way to hide corporate information nowadays due to freeflow of information over internet..which will give easier means to bring in tons of money to a group of experts called “market analist”. So if an analist opens their mouth or publishes their thoughts.. a company’s shares is bound to shake due to market “rumours” rather than the company’s official announcements…especially if these rumours are given by well established experts like banks.

Like companies, celebrities understand well about needs of disclosures. That’s why now twitter and facebook are highly usable. Fans and journalists always speculate rumours about a celebrity, be it a model, actor/actress or musician etc.

When a married celebrity post a twit entry, saying that he’s “watching New York yankees baseball game and happy that they win”, he may be a totally liar when actually during the game, he’s actually was enjoying a one night stand with a random girl. Photos can lie, even if it is posted on twitter. Simple, he can ask a good friend (who actually watch the game) to MMS the stadium picture to him and he just have to repost it with courtesy of the friend.

The next day, that celebrity may conveniently wakes up in the hotel with the previous night ‘s lady and opens his twitter account just to see love regards from his fans that also at the same time are also New York Yankees fans.

Even if on the night in the hotel… if somebody spotted and take an unclear picture and try to destroy that celebrity’s reputations, his loyal fans will rebut, saying it is false claim because he was clearly “watching baseball game” during that time. The celeb eventually just need to shut up as if he’s unaware about the rumours and at the end of the day just say that they are false rumours. He will be the person to thank twitter the most. Had Tiger Wood use twitter more often, he may get away longer…

Of course, only few celebrities cheat on their wives. Some celeb use twitter to make official announcement faster and easier. Very recently, former drummer of Dream Theater/DT, Mike Portnoy/MP (one of my favorite drummer of all time) announced his leaving from the band he founded after 25 years.

As a very smart guy who understand the industry well, he used twitter to announce his departure… ahead before the rest of the band announce in the official website.. he also did an official interview with Eddy Trunk, which is a good friend of him and quite an established radio host/dj in US.

Having his good friend to interview gives many advantages like:
- Pre-prepare and agreeing on sensitive questions and how to answer them.
- Time and flexibility for editing and manipulation
- At the end of the day, it’s all easy to prove that his decisions to leave the band is the best for him and the band and yet still can maintain his fanbase. Remember! Musician earns a living due to fans’ supports… Fans are like shareholders and cd sales are like shares. Bad news can also squeeze down cd sales down to the floor.

So… great.. all sensitive questions already been asked and answered as planned. Then he posted another twit entry on his twitter account to let the world read the prepared interview, even before major media publishers has the chance to do a separate and spontaneous interview that he may worry might accidently give wrong answers and eventually haters will use it against MP furthermore. When there’s another follow up interview. He can just answer “oh, if you read my earlier interview with Eddy Trunk on that further” which he actually did.

Since the public annoucement, so far every thing has gone fine. I think fans has the same respect and supports toward him though there’re still many unavoidable old and newly born haters. At least with early disclosures he had avoided bigger problems due to rumours by music experts, medias etc that have worldwide impacts. Maintaining twitter (with pics) and blog entries so far also keeps his profile as clean as possible as a happily married father of 2. All thanks to internet as his own direct, personal, easy ways to maintain his fanbase for a long term and his clever understanding on media as a band spokesperson and producer while he was in DT.

Remember guys, twitter and facebook is not only just to say “I’m sleepy” and “good Morning world” nowadays… it works magic sometimes..

Lastly if you are MP-DT fan and stumble to my blog… before shoot me, thanks for visiting but I’m not a hater… I’m also a fan of MP and DT for years.