Father Sez

Our first goat shed 

I have not updated all of you on the progress of our goat farm. 

Upon completion of the sheds and other ancillary buildings, we were scheduled to have our “kenduri” in early April. My mother’s untimely demise put paid to this plan and now a new date has been scheduled for the 22 June 08. 

Development Progress 

The first goat shed has been completed and is ready to receive the first goats. We have built a small open shed where the Napier grass would be shred before being fed to the goats.  

We are also growing other fodder trees, namely, Petai Belalang and Geti all around the farm. These trees have just been planted after being incubated in our house in poly bags for the last month. It’ll be about another 6 months or so before they’ll be reasonably well grown. 

The construction of the farm house to accommodate the workers is underway now. This house should be completed by the end of the next two weeks.  A chicken coop for about 100 free range hens is also under construction. This should also be completed at about the same time as the farm house. 

Electricity supply is in.  

Water supply will be from 2 wells. This week the water pump will be fitted and the water reticulation checked out for pressure and leakages. These two wells will be the source for the goats’ drinking water, cleaning of the sheds (another 3 sheds will be built over the next 6 months), watering the garden and for the workers sanitary needs.  

Identifying the Workers  

This has also been completed. The two young men are now back in their hometown in Indonesia and sorting out their travel papers. My wife is coordinating with the Malaysian Immigration Department for the necessary work permit papers. This may be a little convoluted process, but I think this should be sorted out before the end of this month.

Then there is the Indonesian side to sort out.  Hopefully the boys will be in by early July.  

Buying the first batch of goats 

The first batch will be 40 goats, 2 male and the rest female. These goats will be bought locally and only after the workers are in. In the meantime, Zai (my wife’s cousin and our partner in this project is identifying local sources. 

So far the plan seems to be on track. 

The critical path is the arrival of the workers at the farm. There are still a number of   things that have to be sorted out.  The biggest of which would be the waste disposal method. 250 goats can produce almost 10 tonnes of waste and we intend to dry the waste, powder them and then pack them for sale as organic fertiliser.  

I am going to enjoy this!    

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These thoughts have been running through my mind a lot lately. The goat farm is about to start and the Indonesian project also seems set to take up quite a bit of my time. Should I give up my blog? 

Luckily (for me), good sense prevailed and I reminded myself to revisit the motivation behind the blog. 

Starting this blog has been the single best thing that I have ever done towards self improvement. In fact, I strongly recommend that anyone who seeks to turbo charge their self development in any area of their life to start their own blog.   

The blog has also now become a channel of communication between my elder girls and me. Through the blog, I have been able to update and inform my girls on the mistakes I have made in life and what they should do so as not to repeat them.  

The younger children have also started being more responsible now that their activities and (antics) are put up on the blog. 

So am I going to stop? No way!  Perhaps there may be a number of 16 – 18 hour days, maybe some missed posting days, but I am just going to plod on.    

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Last week I took a few days off from work to just laze around at home. To sort of come to terms with the new equation in our family. 

My partners in the telecommunication contracting company asked me to come along for a trip to Jakarta. I gladly accepted, as it would be a good break. And what a trip it turned out to be! 

As I wrote in my guest post in Free Money Finance, an opportunity with great potential (the building and leasing of telecom towers) was badly dashed when the Indonesian Government issuing a decree placing the business in their negative list for foreigners. 

It appears that whilst I was in India for my mother’s funeral, my partners had been having some tentative talks with another Indonesian company who had also been eyeing the same opportunity, but for another part of the country. 

The night we arrived in Jakarta, we had a dinner together. There were 6 people from their team and the three of us. The vibes were great. Both our Chairmen got along well and the rest of us got along like a ball of fire.

We agreed to meet the next morning to go over some specifics. To cut a long story short, on Thursday, we signed an agreement for mutual cooperation in the business.  Now, the business is back to “GO”, and in a form much larger than what we had in the first place.  

 We have agreed on the broad organization structure and the only Malaysian would be the CEO of this operating joint venture company, the rest of the staff would be Indonesians.  

The tax department of a Big 4 is reviewing the proposed corporate structure and should give their final views in the coming week. 

We had earlier received several promising leads for financing from Malaysian Banks with operations in Indonesia. We’ll be revisiting these Banks with the revised corporate formula which should strengthen our standing.  

Our local partners, too, had made their own approaches to their bankers. So now we have a larger pool of banks to talk to. Things look pretty good at the moment.

God willing, by end of April, the JV Company will have set up its own office and the business will start.    

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It was with a vastly different feeling that I left for India last week.  

The trip was at very short notice, but my planning mechanism served me well. A quick scan of my weekly calendar showed only 2 “must do” things. These did not take long to settle.  

I informed my family, office, the agent who is handling the sale of my house and my partners in the Indonesian project. A little time was spent with my youngest daughter whose birthday fell on the 26^th March, in case I did not make it back in time. Ain takes her birthdays a little more seriously than her elder brother and sisters and she had been dropping hints ever since her brother’s birthday on the 4^th January. 

I talked to my second girl, Azah, with whom I was due to have discussions on her career choices. I gave her the research sources I had and asked her to go through them.  

With my wife’s consent, the opening of the farm which had been planned for the 5^th April was postponed to a date to be set later.  

And I was all set to go. 

Now that I am back, the fire seems a little lower. Life seems to be a drag and I think it will be a little while before my life gets back into its normal routine.  

We went out for a small family dinner on Saturday to a Japanese restaurant. The place was the birthday girl, Ain’s choice.  Azah has gone through the resources I left her and now seems to have a good idea of the career options available to her. 

My eldest brother held a small prayer in his house on Sunday night in memory of my late mother. This was well attended by the many relatives we have in Malaysia.  

I went back to the office on Monday. I have yet to get back to the daily routine and am still feeling very listless. I am taking a few more days off to sort myself out.  

On blogging, I am trying to clear the reader that seems to be overflowing. Writing any sensible post seems too much of a task. I am just going to go with the flow and see where the rest of the week takes me. 

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I have just received news that my mother is gravely ill. 

She lives in India with 2 of my brothers and sister. Late last year, my other brothers who are with me in Malaysia visited her. I have not seen by mother since January 2006, when I left India after my working stint there.

The doctors have now told my brothers that the outlook is not very good.

Malaysians need a visa to visit India. I am getting one first thing in the morning and take the next flight out. Luckily its a short 3.5 hour flight followed by a 6 hour or so bus ride. God Willing, I hope to be with her by early Thursday morning, Indian time.

I doubt I’ll be able to do much in the way of this blog for the next week or so.

I hope you will bear with me.

Thank you 

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Oh, boy, looks like my carefully nurtured bluff has just been called.  

Ms. SVB got tagged in a book meme, where she had to pick up the nearest book, open page 123, find the 5^th sentence and then post the next three. And as per tagging tradition, she had to pick another 5 people for this meme. And she included me as one of the 5 great minds as she calls them.   

I have serious doubts that anyone who knows me would classify me as a great mind. Well, except for my youngest daughter, perhaps.  

I remember, many years ago, when the so called critics listed the best movies of the year, I had seen none of them. They also listed the worst movies of the year and I had seen the movie right at the bottom of the list. And twice! And I had thoroughly enjoyed the movie both times.  

So I am grateful that Ms. SVB has seen some good in me, and included me amongst illustrious company. Thank you, Ma’am.   

Coming back to the book meme, the nearest book is Robin Sieger’s “You can change your life any time you want.” This book is being used by my 4^th daughter, Nana to improve her English. I have previously written a little about the system we use.  

Page 123 is the beginning of Chapter 8, titled Honesty. (At least, I was honest upfront.) 

Sentences 6 – 8 read:- 

We should not be blind to aspects of ourselves that we are not comfortable with, or imagine things to other than they truly are. In all aspects of our goals, our beliefs, our attitudes and our expectations, we should be completely honest with ourselves.         

NO LEGACY IS SO RICH AS HONESTY                                                           

                                                             William Shakespeare 

This is so apt. For years I have been spending less than wisely. I was completely blind to the fact that I was living basically beyond my means. Though I did not dig myself into a bottomless pit, I really “messed up big time” opportunities to have built up a sizeable nest egg.  

Now I am a lot more honest with myself. My wife and I are a lot more careful with our spending and it looks like I may actually have a fighting chance to “quit the rat race”, just like Ms. SVB has done. 

Well, I have fulfilled most of the terms of my being tagged. I have to beg off on the tagging of another 5 people. I am still new and I do think the few people I know have all been tagged. 

But, please feel free to jump in if you wish.  

Cheers!

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Welcome! Readers of Consumerism Commentary.

You can read and understand a little about me and the reasons behind my blog here.

If this is your first visit here, please feel free to look around and comment to your hearts’ content. I hope you’ll visit often.

And thanks again for dropping by.

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Economic and financial miseries can never be truly understood unless a person actually experiences one. 

I have never ever been retrenched out of a job. Well, technically, I was, but the next day, the holding company took me in. All my life, there always was money every month, there were no pressing unpaid bills, there was food on the table, clothing and transportation were not a problem, etc. 

When the Asian Financial Crisis struck us in 1998/99, I was working in a small company. And thankfully, almost simultaneously we got a substantial contract in Ghana, where we never really felt the financial typhoon that mercilessly lashed Malaysia and most of the region.  

What if a financial typhoon lashes us now? What if what all the doomsayer’s predictions come true? Or even if some of their predictions come true?

What should I do as the leader and provider for my family? 

Let’s look at some of the recent gloom and doom stories. 

a)    These people have come up with 15 predictions about how the near future will play out. I was most concerned to read about Prediction No: 5 and 6.

- The Asian economies are not going to “decouple”, they are going to have their own financial crises and recessions. Yes, this includes China.

- China’s stock market will collapse some time next year. China will go into a recession. There will be huge amounts of violence and the Chinese government will redirect anger towards the US and Japan.

b) JP Morgan has now forecasted that a tsunami of systemic margin calls will sweep the banking industry. The amount they are throwing about is USD325 billion. No small change! Margin calls are particularly vicious, as they come when we are usually least capable of paying. So the collateral held is sold indiscriminately and the loss just lumped upon us.

c) Goldman Sachs is predicting oil price to hit USD200 per barrel, a view shared by the EU’s Energy Commissioner.   These are the same guys, who three years ago, predicted that the oil price would hit USD100 / bbl. So they cannot be simply ignored as being over pessimists.  

There was a time when I would have been completely ignorant of all this kind of talk. Then there was a time, when I would have known, but completely ignored these.  

Now, I have a family, a family that looks upon me for leadership and as a provider.  

I cannot just keep my eyes blinkered. I personally think:- 

-         that there would be no violence in China or Japan or the US and, 

-         The Asian economies may not be so strongly and intricately coupled to the US economy as before. 

However, it is likely that a number of banks will fail. The first to fall would be the smaller US banks, and the public will then try to take their money out of some of the larger ones and this should start to shake their foundations. The banking world is seriously intertwined, so some major ripples will hit our shores. 

In the extreme case, currencies and paper assets of any kind will see drastic declines in values.  

And all it takes is public perception that such a scenario is going to unfold, and it will. This may result in a wave of companies closing and rampant unemployment.

What should I do? I do not have an answer yet. Like I mentioned at the beginning, we have to go through something as cataclysmic as this to understand. And this is something I have never experienced.   

I think the answer would be a little of living as a warrior, a little of living life as Katie and a little of back to the farm kind of living. 

Do you think I am being too alarmist? Have you ever wondered about whether you could survive in a 1929 setting? 

What do you suggest we should do? Or should we just merrily carry on and continue to save in our ETF’s, Index Funds and the like?  

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The 8th of March 08 is set to be a day of historical significance in Malaysia.

Our 12th General Elections were held on this day. Malaysians long used to having only the Government controlled mass media as information sources, have now alternative information pipelines like the Internet, a proliferation of political blogs and sms’es. Coupled with an influx of new young voters, a tsunami of political change resulted.

For the first time in 50 years, 5 states are now in the hands of the opposition.

This is great as we, members of the general public, want more accountability, transparency and governance in our Government . At least the levels of checks and balances should now be better.

I want to see the pillars of democracy restored. An independent judiciary, executive and civil service. During the long reign (22 years) of our previous Prime Minister who though, credited with putting Malaysia on the world economic map, did a lot of damage to this icon of democracy. He was changing laws whenever it was an impediment to his plans.

(I think we may be holding the world record for the number of times our Federal Constitution has been amended.) 

Malaysians have matured politically, and for the good of my children and God Willing, my grandchildren and their children, I hope the new political leaders will set down iron clad rules for:-

a) Transparency, accountability and good governance in Government,

b) Limiting the terms of major political posts to 2 terms,

c) Separating and creating independence for the three pillars of a democracy, i.e. the judiciary, civil service and the executive.

d) A press that is more free and responsible. A press that will report the good, the bad and the ugly of our country, and let us, the people decide on what we want every 5 years.

The next few days will see this tsunami of political change  analyzed and counter analyzed to death.

However, the Malaysian people have already succeeded in telling our political leaders that they are but our servants and if seen not to perform, they would be sacked!

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The world was quite different before 9/11. 

Travel was a lot easier and I dare say, the world was a lot more trusting place. Now there appears to be a lot more apprehension amongst Muslims when they travel to/in some non Muslim countries. And I believe this feeling could be reciprocated by non Muslims traveling in many a Muslim country. 

In all my travels I have never had any problems as far as my religion was concerned. 

What advice can I give my children as they prepare to leave the family nest and may want to travel? 

My earlier suggestion on “how to deal with people” is relevant. Here I want to address the issue of religion in particular. 

1. Never ever judge anyone by their religion, their religious rites or beliefs 

I have earlier stated my stand that we should never judge anyone by our standards. This is re emphasized. Faith is a tremendously powerful force, sometimes seemingly completely disconnected with logic or science.  Whatever the religious beliefs or rites of the people of the country or locality that we are visiting, we should just respect them.

We do not have to show that we believe or show that we don’t believe.  Just show our respect and show it sincerely!  Exactly as we would want others to respect our beliefs, equally sincerely.  

If we must remove our shoes before entering a particular place, then we must do so. No question. If we have to cover our heads, then we cover our heads, no question. If we feel strongly about removing our shoes or covering our heads, then we just don’t enter the place.  I am sure, our option not to enter the place will be equally respected. 

This is exactly what happened when I visited a particular part of one of the ancient palaces of the Kings of Benin, West Africa. It was their belief that everyone should take off their shoes if they wanted to enter the place. I did not want to, so I did not enter. No problem. 

Many tourists of all nationalities visit our National Mosque in Kuala Lumpur. They respect our rules that we should cover our heads and take off our shoes.  I have visited the Golden Temple in Amritsar, India, the holiest temple for people of the Sikh faith. I was made to feel most welcome.  

2. We do not have to be ashamed that we do not know much or anything of other religions 

This is pretty self explanatory. However learning about and understanding other religions are always very good. During my working stint in India, I have visited a number of Hindu temples with my colleagues when they went to pray. I’ll wait for them and after their prayers we’ll leave together. They’ll do the same for me.  

I have had many talks with my colleagues on their religious beliefs and rites and the talks have always been very educational. And they have not made me less a Muslim in any way. 

3. If we meet someone seeking to debate with us on religion, or to justify our beliefs, just smile, say that we are not experts and change the subject or excuse ourselves. And, of course, we should never do the same.   

This seldom fails.  Just keep on smiling and remember our family’s rule number 2 and 3 on dealing with people. 

I have only very pleasant memories of traveling in non Muslim countries.  In Hanover, Germany a lady taxi driver took me to a mosque and waited for me till I finished my prayers. In Kobe, Japan it was also a taxi driver who took me to a mosque.  Restaurants have also been very accommodating when I ask about “kosher” or “halal” food. 

Again, in Benin, a member of a Christian Missionary group went through a lot of time and trouble to configure my laptop when I had some problems.  

Hence to my children I’ll say, travel as much as you want and as you can afford. The world may be a little less trusting now, but people are still people.  

Treat everyone well, politely and as you want to be treated and you should have no problems. No problems at all.  

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