Salam Aidil Adha

TO ALL MY MUSLIM BRETHREN AND ALL PILGRIMS TO THE HOLY LAND MAY YOU RETURN SAFELY TO YOUR HOMELAND.

The Camel And The Eye Of The Needle

Hantu Laut

As expected Zaid would scarper from PKR.

Given the choice he is in and Anwar's affirmation that there is not a scintilla of truth in what he says, Zaid's stay in PKR has become embarrassingly untenable.

Bluntly put, he is saying Zaid is a liar, a sore loser and the much dreaded Trojan horse that he mentioned much earlier well before the party elections. Now, we all know who is the Trojan horse that Anwar meant.

Zaid should have realised the day he joined PKR he was accepted not because Anwar like him or feel comfortable with him or need his support, it was more out to spite UMNO.The day he walked into PKR he became a scorching challenge to Anwar's leadership and Anwar knew it would be a matter of time before he throws down the gauntlet at him.

Anwar, who is on downward mobility, because PKR members are beginning to see his true colour and are quite prepared to ditch him for someone who has more credibility realised the danger he is in if Zaid is allowed to stay in PKR.

“I am quitting because I want to dissociate myself from liars and cheats. I do not want to be part of a group that propagates lies and does not have any qualms about cheating for as long as the end justifies the means,’’ he told The Star.

As a newcomer he should not expect majority of PKR members to have sympathy for him, they would rather stay with the devils they know.Being that close to taking Putrajaya, Anwar and Azmin will annihilate anyone who become a threat to their ambitions to take Putrajaya

Obviously, Zaid hasn't got much choice.Make an exit or stay in PKR and be ridiculed mercilessly by Anwar and Azmin's people.UMNO has declared him persona non grata and there is no other party that can take him in.

He will be in political limbo unless he forms his own party.

As Jesus said "It is harder for a rich man to enter Heaven than it is for a camel to go through the eye of a needle"

Sex,Lies,Sultanates

A Prince of Brunei Takes On 2 Former Advisers

For sheer titillation, what can beat a trial involving a feud between two British lawyers and a prince of Brunei, a harem, X-rated statues and a $500 million yacht whose name we can’t mention?

The case of Casa de Meadows Inc. v. Zaman begins on Monday in New York State Supreme Court, pitting Prince Jefri Bolkiah of Brunei against his former legal advisers, Thomas Derbyshire and Faith Zaman.

Prince Jefri, a brother of the sultan of Brunei, was for years the country’s financial chief — until an external audit alleged that the prince had embezzled billions of dollars. To avoid criminal prosecution, Prince Jefri agreed to turn over his holdings, including his majority stake in the British jeweler Asprey and the yacht.

Now Prince Jefri is accusing his former advisers of having cheated him out of money. Mr. Derbyshire and Ms. Zaman, who are husband and wife, are accused of skimming cash from real estate deals like the $11 million sale of the prince’s Long Island home. But the alleged embezzlement was also more prosaic, including 35 meals at McDonald’s, according to New York magazine.

Prince Jefri has considerably more expensive tastes. Beyond amassing the $400 million stake in Asprey and the New York Palace Hotel, he is also accused of hosting a 40-woman harem, the subject of a tell-all book by a former New York University student. And then there are the four pornographic statues of the prince and a female friend that he is seeking to bar from the courtroom.

Sex,Lies,Sultanates

New York Times

The tabloid-ready trial of the year opens November 8 in New York State Supreme Court:Casa de Meadows, Inc. v. Zaman, pitting a member of Brunei’s royal family against legal advisers who, he says, bilked him out of millions while managing various assets on his behalf. Herewith, some background.

The Prince
Prince Jefri Bolkiah of Brunei, age 55 or so (his birth date is hard to confirm); brother of the Sultan of Brunei. Prince Jefri was Brunei’s Finance minister—the royal family’s money manager—until his brother got fed up with his … lifestyle choices. In 2000, after he was accused of misappropriating billions in funds over fifteen years, a settlement was reached that required him to return most of his assets, including a controlling stake in Asprey—the British jeweler—which cost him nearly $400 million to acquire, and his$500 million yacht called Tits.

His Brother, the Sultan
The prince and his brother are no longer fighting, London’s Daily Mail reported last year, perhaps because “the prince … was planning to reveal embarrassing information about his brother.” The sultan’s legendary collection of more than 7,000 cars, according to the Daily Mirror, includes604 Rolls-Royces,574 Mercedes-Benzes, 452 Ferraris, 382 Bentleys, 179 Jaguars, and21 Lamborghinis.

His Ex-Barristers
Thomas Derbyshire and Faith Zaman, British husband and wife. They served as legal advisers to Prince Jefri beginning in 2004, but in 2006, the prince turned on them, claiming they defrauded him in real-estate deals and charged hundreds of thousands of dollars to his corporate credit cards for, among other things, $420 at the Singing Star tattoo parlor in Venice, California, and 35 meals at McDonald’s. “The words ‘faithless servants’ do not do justice to the scope of their perfidy,” says the prince’s complaint. The couple deny the accusations and say they used the credit cards to cover expenses for the prince and two of his sons.

His Old Hangout
The prince and the barristers battled over management of—and expenditures at—the New York Palace Hotel on Madison Avenue, which the prince owned. In 2008, a New York judge ordered Jefri to return control of the hotel to Brunei.

His Alleged Harem
In another lawsuit, the prince was accused of keeping a 40-girl harem at the Dorchester Hotel, not far from his $55 million home in London. (NYU dropout Jillian Lauren wrote a book about her time with Prince Jefri, entitled Some Girls: My Life in a Harem, in which she declared: “I knew I was a hooker, but somehow I felt like Cinderella.”)

… And the Judge
Veteran judge Ira Gammerman, who presided over Woody Allen’s lawsuit against producer Jean Doumanian. Actual dialogue:
JUDGE TO ALLEN: Stop talking.
ALLEN: Stop talking?
JUDGE: I’m the director here.

Also read:Brunei prince spent £37 million attempting to recover £4 million

Is China Becoming A "Show-Off" Nation ?

Hantu Laut

The 16th Asian Games opened with a bang.The pomp and splendour was as astounding as the opening of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, a correlated extravaganza of science,technology and human drama.

Compared to India's poor delivery of the recent Commonwealth Games, this new economic giant put out a magnificient show of verve and vibration.Richer and more advanced countries would not have been able to put up such splendour. They, probably, don't have to, they have shedded their inferior complex long time ago.

Is China becoming a 'Show Off'' nation?

In 2009 China displaced Japan to become the world's second largest economy and is expected to overtake the U.S before 2020.

By the end of 2010, the list of top 10 economic giants would look like this.....USA, China, Japan, India, Germany, Russia ,U.K, France, Brazil, Italy.

By 2020, the whole scenario would have changed and the list would look like this.......China, USA, India, Japan, Russia, Germany, Brazil,U.K,France,Mexico.

The emerging economies, particularly China and India are growing faster than the advanced economies, which is slowing down.

Chinese marvel.

(Six days. That's how long it took to build this level 9 Earthquake-resistant, sound-proofed, thermal-insulated 15-story hotel in Changsha, complete with everything, from the cabling to three-pane windows. The foundations were already built, but it's just impressive.)

In 2009, Japan real GDP shrank 5.2% brought about by long economic stagnation and a greying population.The US economy shrank 2.4% due to the 2008/2009 financial crisis.China, miraculously escaped unscathed.By the year 2020 China would have doubled its GDP to that of USA.

Do not be fooled by all the glittery and pompous shows whenever China hosted major world events and the megalomaniac structures you see in China's big cities that show off its enormous wealth. Some sort of never ending coming out parties wanting to show the world how far they have come.

There is a darker side to China's perceived prosperity.Beyond the high rises and churning factories lie the rural and semi-rural poor, rampant corruption and a government with little interest of wanting to arrest the widening gap between the rich and the poor.There are now, probably more billionaires in China than the rest of the world, other than the United States.

China may have a huge GDP but it is still in the poor man's club as far as the people are concerned.In 2009, its per capita GDP was only $6,600, compared to Japan $32,700, the U.S $46,000, Taiwan $32,000 and South Korea $28,700.

In this respect, in spite of the dazzling economic boom, you would be better off being a Taiwanese than a mainland Chinese.Comparatively speaking, even the average Malaysian is better off than the average Chinese.In 2009, Malaysia's per capita GDP was $14,900.

China's authoritarian politics is spawning a dangerous mix of crony capitalism, rampant corruption and a widening inequality.

Rising faster than China is the hype about China but behind the glowing headlines and publicity there are fundamental weaknesses rooted in the state.Beijing, still have a stranglehold on how politics and the economy should be run.The private sector account for not more than 30% of the GDP.It is still much more a socialist economy.

It's a comforting thought that this Middle Kingdom is now an economic giant but how long more can it keeping showing spectacular Chinese operas to the rest of the world?