It's a Man's World Costing $80 Billion a Year: William Pesek

By William Pesek

April 27 (Bloomberg) -- We live in a world of daunting economic challenges: debt imbalances, out-of-whack currencies, Chinese overheating, wobbly housing markets, erratic energy prices, terrorism, geopolitical risks, you name it.

Let's add another one to the list: women.

Gender discrimination is often seen as a social issue. Increasingly, though, it's becoming an economic one, even worthy for the Group of Seven nations to discuss it. If you're not convinced, would the annual loss of almost $80 billion of Asian output change your mind?

That estimate comes from the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, and it could be a conservative one. The group says the Asia-Pacific region is losing as much as $47 billion of output per year from a lack of female participation in labor markets. And as much as $30 billion is lost because of gender gaps in education systems.

This is the wrong time for Asia to be squandering twice the annual output of Luxemburg because of a problem that's so easily solved.

Growth in India, for example, would increase by 1.08 percentage points if its female-labor participation rate were put on par with the U.S., the UN group said in an April 18 report. Doing so would give India extra gross domestic product equivalent to Uruguay's as it struggles to raise millions out of poverty.

Economic Costs

``Gender discrimination has always been considered a soft issue, a human-rights issue,'' said Shamika Sirimanne, a senior UN development economist in Bangkok. ``But we are seeing it carries a huge economic cost.''

Admittedly, gender inequality doesn't factor easily into a nation's credit ratings, bond yields or stock valuations. It's not something to which investment-bank economists pay much attention. Yet over time, empowering women would make Asia a far more vibrant place.

Aside from India, the UN report also pointed to Malaysia and Indonesia as economies that would benefit from greater labor participation among women. It noted that female involvement in China is ``already considerably higher'' than much of Asia. Perhaps it's no coincidence that China remains the region's star economic performer.

Progress Needed

Yes, things are improving for women globally, and Asia is no exception. Yet there's ample evidence that things are improving much slower in the 2000s than many feminists had hoped.

Politicians need to realize that underutilizing female workforces leads to slower growth and less-skilled labor markets. The same is true of conservative business cultures that limit women's ability to move up into the executive suite.

Take MasterCard Worldwide's latest women's advancement index for Asia. It showed that even as women make strides in labor- force participation and education, they are less confident than a year ago of getting more of the managerial positions that now go to men. The index fell to 72.09 in 2007 from 76.11 in 2006.

The cost of undereducating women is growing as ideas and information become more valuable than manufacturing. It's an idea Lawrence Summers helped put on the U.S. government's radar screen a decade ago while working for U.S. President Bill Clinton.

Then Summers was pressured to resign the presidency of Harvard University last year amid charges of making sexist statements. The dustup occurred at a conference in Cambridge in 2005 when the former U.S. Treasury secretary questioned women's aptitude for science.

Outcry

The outcry was misplaced because women have few more enthusiastic cheerleaders among economists than Summers. In the late 1990s and in 2000, I traveled with him through sub-Saharan Africa, India and other poverty-plagued economies such as Indonesia and the Philippines. In each place, Summers counseled leaders to invest more in educating girls.

The reason: Returns on educating women typically exceed those on men. The odds are that the more educated a nation's women are, the more emphasis they will put on investing in the education and health of their children. That results in an economic ripple effect from one generation to the next.

Gender issues aren't just holding back developing economies, a point persuasively made in an April 3 Goldman Sachs Group Inc. report. London-based economist Kevin Daly argued that reduced inequality will help rich nations address the twin problems of population aging and shoring up public pension programs.

Closing the Gap

``Closing the gap between male and female employment would have huge implications for the global economy, boosting U.S. GDP by as much as 9 percent, euro-zone GDP by 13 percent and Japanese GDP by 16 percent,'' Daly said. What's more, he said, rising female labor participation would have ``important implications'' for global equity markets.

The good news is that gender balance can be achieved with a minimum amount of effort and cost. All that's needed is political will. The bad news is it's not clear governments realize that.

``Given how fast Asia is growing and how important it is in becoming an engine of growth in the global economy, we need to make more progress on the gender issue,'' Sirimanne said. ``It's a big and growing one.''

(William Pesek is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.)

Something for guys to think about - Looking at Shooters and Killers and Finding Men: Ann Woolner

By Ann Woolner

April 24 (Bloomberg) -- Of the 41 people who have taken guns to U.S. schools and opened fire since 1996, 40 of them share one trait.

They were born with the Y chromosome.

Maleness is the only characteristic that is common to this group, with race -- Caucasian -- coming in second. They are of different educational levels and regions. They are low achievers and high achievers. Their motives and mental states run the gamut. The youngest was 6. Another was 53.

Together, those 40 men and boys killed 94 people on campuses, plus four more in the hours preceding their school shooting episodes. They have wounded scores more and traumatized thousands of others.

I'm not saying boys are born killers. Only a miniscule fraction of them grow up to open fire at school or anywhere else. And chemistry isn't necessarily destiny.

And yet, whether sparked by jealousy, retribution, psychosis, insecurity or hatred toward women, U.S. school shootings happen with regularity -- 36 in 11 years -- and all but one were committed by men or by boys.

Maleness matters in all kinds of killings. Eighty-eight percent of U.S. homicides from 1976 to 2004 were committed by men, according to the most recent Justice Department statistics. For serial killers, the percentage rises to 93 percent.

Whatever you have heard about the so-called feminization of the American male or about increasingly aggressive women, the lopsided nature of which sex kills the most remains.

Widening Gap

``When it comes to the most serious form of aggression, murder, the gender gap is actually wider now than it was a few years ago,'' says James Fox, a Northeastern University criminal justice professor in Boston who has written about killers.

I know. Most men channel aggression into perfectly acceptable activities. They build companies, enforce laws, repair roads, play sports, advocate causes.

But women manage to do those things, too. Yet when violence erupts, chances are overwhelming the aggressor is a man.

``It's true about murder,'' Fox says. ``It's true about crime in general.''

So what is it about men, anyway?

A leading testosterone researcher, the late Georgia State University Professor James M. Dabbs, found that the higher the testosterone level, the more violent the person is likely to be.

Probable Troublemakers

Testing more than 4,000 veterans, for example, he found that the 10 percent with the most testosterone were the most probable troublemakers. These were the guys likely to have misbehaved as schoolchildren, break the law as adults, use drugs and alcohol, go AWOL from the Army and have 10 or more sex partners in a year, Dabbs found.

He tested male and female inmates in separate research projects and found that in both populations the most violent had the highest T-levels.

Child psychiatrist David Shaffer of Columbia University says it's not clear from testosterone research whether the hormone itself sparks aggression. It could be that, because those with more of it are larger and more muscular, they find more success at physical aggression and therefore engage in it more.

He says there are other biological reasons for the gender gap. Men are more likely than women to lack metabolized serotonin, which is the neurotransmitter that acts as a calming influence, says Shaffer, chief of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center in New York.

Teen Suicides

Incarcerated marines showed a dearth of the stuff in one study, he says. That was also what Shaffer found in his groundbreaking research into teen suicides, which are five to seven times more likely to be committed by males.

Boys have another natural factor that makes them more likely to turn to aggression, he says. They are slower to learn verbal skills and tend to grab what they want.

Beyond body chemistry, can't we assign some blame to American culture and peer pressure?

Boys learn from other boys that being a man means being in control, says Dick Bathrick, who founded Men Stopping Violence in 1982 in Atlanta.

``You've got to be in control at work. You've got to be in control at home. You've got to be in control of your feelings,'' he says, according to this popular but ``very distorted concept of masculinity.''

When losing a job, or being rebuffed romantically, or having a spouse refuse to do what one says, men are more likely than women to become violent to regain control, Bathrick says.

Drive to Dominate

The drive to overpower women showed up in several school shootings. Last September in Bailey, Colorado, 53-year-old Duane Roger Morrison entered a high school, took six girls hostage and sexually assaulted them. When police showed up, he shot a 16- year-old girl dead before killing himself.

The following month, Carl Charles Roberts IV, 32, lined up girls at the West Nickel Mines Amish School and shot 10 of them, ages 6 to 13, before killing himself. Five of the girls died.

Seung Hui Cho's anger, like the shots he fired last week at Virginia Tech, seems to have been indiscriminate. His rantings target women but also accuse the rich and the world in general. It may mean much or nothing that he previously stalked two female students, became suicidal when rebuffed and launched his deadly spree last week by first shooting a young woman in her dorm. Cho killed 32 students and teachers in all before killing himself.

Groups such as Bathrick's have sprung up around the country to try to stop men from hurting the women in their lives. The organization also works to encourage non-violent men to challenge the misogyny and violence in others, Bathrick says.

In Washington, Men of Strength clubs in high schools steer teenagers toward healthy ideas of what manhood means, says Patrick Lemmon, executive director of Men Can Stop Rape, which sponsors the clubs. Not to mention the work of scout troops and boys' clubs.

No one claims an intervention of that sort could have stopped Cho, who may well have been psychotic.

But given the gross overrepresentation of men among those who kill, rape, molest and beat, you have to hope that more men become more outraged by the damage others of their gender inflict.

(Ann Woolner is a Bloomberg news columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.)

Learning Goes Global as India Writes U.S. Texts: Andy Mukherjee

By Andy Mukherjee

April 24 (Bloomberg) -- A 200-year-old American publisher is
completing the circle of knowledge.

Peter Booth Wiley, chairman of the Hoboken, New Jersey-based
John Wiley & Sons Inc., has academics in India developing a new
series of customized, electronic books that may one day become
remedial text in U.S. universities.

Outsourcing isn't new to the global publishing industry.

In 1976, long before Bangalore became the world's
outsourcing capital, Harold Macmillan, the former British prime
minister, used the southern Indian city to offer Macmillan
Publishers Ltd.'s typesetting services to others.

However, it's only now that the content -- especially in
culturally neutral fields like science and technology -- is going
global, reflecting the new economic reality.

It isn't that U.S. or U.K. professors' royalties are under
threat. As long as demographics in India and China remain
favorable and quick economic growth keeps boosting returns on
higher education in these two nations, the textbook market in
Asia will continue to expand rapidly, driving global growth.

Books used in postgraduate research and teaching will be
dominated by content created in the developed world, thanks to
its entrenched leadership position in technological innovation.

At the undergraduate level, however, hard distinctions
between producing and consuming economies will disappear.

In India's case, because the medium for scientific education
is English, a chunk of what's being produced for the home market
is also readily exportable.

This wasn't always so.

From Importer to Exporter

Back in the 1950s and the 1960s, the flow of scientific
knowledge between the West and India was strictly unidirectional.

Popular American books such as ``College Chemistry'' by
Nobel laureate Linus Pauling were republished in India -- at one-
fifth of their original price -- under a U.S. aid program called
PL 480.

British titles came to India under the English Language Book
Society program. The ELBS books, which cost a third of the
original, had ``Low-Priced Edition'' emblazoned across the cover.

Prentice Hall's incredibly cheap Eastern Economy Edition in
those days was nothing more than black-and-white photographic
reproduction of American titles.

Of course, at the height of the Cold War, the Soviet Union,
too, was a big force in the cheap textbook game as it sought out
friends in the Third World. And apart from everything else,
Soviet books were printed on amazingly good-quality paper.

Building Blocks

The efficacy of foreign aid to developing countries is a
debatable subject today. But there isn't a doubt that cheap
Western textbooks -- not to mention the first IBM computer that
arrived in an Indian university in a bullock cart -- triggered a
transformation of the economy.

``When a generation of engineers was educated in India, it
was educated on our books,'' Wiley said in an interview in
Singapore. ``And you see now what that generation has done.''

India's prowess in computer-software services and generic
drug discovery is well-documented. Earlier this month, the
journal Nature Biotechnology reported that India will also be a
large player in research and manufacturing of biotech medicines.

None of this would have been possible without investments in
higher education.

Knowledge Gaps Narrow

The narrowing of India's education deficit -- to a point
where knowledge can begin to flow both in and out -- can be seen
from the sales pattern of academic publishers.

India today represents Wiley's fastest-growing market,
expanding at an annual 25 percent pace. That compares with a two-
year average growth rate of 4 percent in Wiley's U.S. sales,
according to my Bloomberg. India is also emerging as a key center
for developing educational content.

``It's no longer just the West educating the rest,'' Wiley
said. ``It's all of us educating each of us together. The
knowledge revolution is fascinating to me because it is
multicentric and global.''

Oxford University Press, which has been publishing textbooks
in India since 1912, is already playing a role in taking Indian-
based academic authors overseas.

Homegrown Indian companies, such as New Delhi-based Narosa
Publishing House, are also working with professors at the Indian
Institutes of Technology and other top local universities to
create scientific content for a global audience.

Two-Way Flow

Wiley's new series of textbooks will be delivered
electronically -- as PDF files. They will be tested initially at
second-rung engineering universities in India before being taken
to China. If the experiment succeeds, the U.S. market may be the
next destination, Wiley said.

Each of these books, tailored to meet very specific learning
requirements, could potentially replace bulky standard textbooks.
The final cost to the student would be less than $10.

Textbooks and supplies cost as much as $900, or 26 percent
of the tuition and fees at a four-year public institution in the
U.S., according to data reported in a July 2005 study by the U.S.
Government Accountability Office.

If low-income students in the U.S. are one day able to
benefit from Indian-created books, just as generations of Indians
have from American content, it will be a victory for
globalization. The circle of knowledge will be complete.

(Andy Mukherjee is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions
expressed are his own.)

Dansk Dan Danmark

Vinny from the UK dropped by Hamburg and decided that it would be fun if we drove to Scandinavia for a few days.

Anyway, here I am in Copenhagen, bashing out a quick blog entry to talk about ....not very much. Denmark, unlike Germany and much of Western Europe is dark and snowy. The temperatures have been hovering about 1 and zero - coldder than the fridge Prices of things also seem to be quite expensive too.

In spite of all of that, the  Danes, like the rest of the Scandinavians are incredibly warm and friendly people. Not sure how they manage to be warm but they are great people. The hotel we are staying in is party-central, though, instead of partying, I'm out bashing this entry and trying to make some sense of things

Anyway, tomorrow could be a very interesting day. We're planning to drive into Sweeden, that is assuming the weather holds. If not, Kobenhaven as the Danes call their capital city is a pretty city and one worth getting to know.

Fat Choy Auf Deutsch

It's the eve of Chinese New Year and I'm in Germany at my mother's place celebrating with her, stepfather number 2, Tara and Christopher. It's the first time that we have celebrated Chinese New Year in nearly 2 decades. Ever since I've moved back to Singapore, it's always been about celebrating Christmas in the West and CNY in the East but somehow, this year has proved to be quite a different kettle of fish.

Anyway, I#m comming down with a cold - runny nose and teary eyes but am other than that quite content to sleep in my room in the cellar of the house and glad to catch up with Tara and Christopher. It's quite rare when all of us are gathered together and so we we're doing what we can to enjoy each other's company. Christopher has grown-up especially fast, from a small baby hug toy, he's now grown into a Japanese Manga comic character with long blonde streaky hair and quite a character too.

Weather in germany is surprisingly mild. It's a mere 4 degrees centigrade - no need for heavy coats and no snow.

Anyway, the Year of teh Doggy is about to come to a close and soon we shall be in the Year of the Piggy. The Doggy Year was a pretty darn good year for me. On the financial front, things went pretty well and I made some progress in doing decent PR projects for decent brands and I did get to bash out a few articles on some serious topics, which I hope will stand me in good stead for the years to come.

So hopefully the Piggy Year will offer plenty of the same. God Willing, there will be plenty of opportunities to grow professionally and more importantly personally. It's been a good year and it's been that way because of teh good friends that I have made in the past few years. Hopefully, the Piggy Year will be one where I get to have good meals with old friends and solidifying the bonds of friendship. Hopefully this will be a Year where I get to work towards meeting new friends and bringing the wealth of new friendships into a life that has been thus far blessed with plenty of right things.

So to all readers-Gong Hai Fat Choy-Gong Xi fa Cai - have a Happy and Prosperous New Year

Valentines Day or the Day Card Makers went on the Rampage

It's Valentines Day today, a day when card makers and floorist feel that wonderful feeling of love, romance and sexual chemistry in the air. It's my favourite day of the year but also my least favourite. so,

I love the fact that its ok to look at a girl on Valentines Day and tell her that you actually like her. My problem is that I usually like just about every woman I've been associated. You could call it the part of me that is romantic, sensual and all other things that I like. Somehow, flattery seems to come off the tip of my tounge like butter dripping from hot toast. OK, I've not gone as far as to try it on the Flesh Ball but by and large my female aquaintainces are easy enough on the eye and so the sour everythings that I speak are easy.

Incidentally, my female readers should know that when I speak such words to them, I have this bad habbit of actually meaning what I say. I'm not saying and doing what I say because I want something. I actually do find the lot of you very attractive and quite beautiful.

On the other hand Valentines Day can be a chore. There are only so many floorist that you can support. There are only so many card makers, including those online whom you can give a smidgen of business to. Women, as I've discovered seem to either hide in self-indignation and take you too seroiusly and start clobbering you over the head with - "We're just friends, ya" speech if you actually tell them you like them. Or worse they actually want you to become an exclusive agent of pure flattery - which becomes a job you pay them for you to do unto them.

So, perhaps there's a way out of this dilema and I should take the path of saying this to every woman who's reading this Blog.

" I think your beautiful. Your happiness is paramount to my happiness. In every moment that I spend with you, you are the only one that matters. If I had the power to, I would do everything to make each and every day of your life one of a bliss that you'll ever experience. For me, you are a part of my heart"

Have a Happy Valentines Day  

I want to say something. I don't know how to say it.

I have a terrible confession to make. I want to say something, I want to shout it out loud and let the whole world know that I need to say something very badly but I can't. It's a terrible thing because I'm in the business of communicating, saying something is my supposed to be my natural talent.

Yet, when I think of things that are on my heart at the moment, I feel that there's a need to empty it and let my thoughts flow through my fingers. It's as if time stands still and the seconds I have to do what I need to do have become moments that I'm rushing to capture and hold onto as they rush past me.

It's like you've had one of those moments when you are in reach of something that you've wanted for a long time. You just sit there, you look at it and then you let it go because its the right thing to do and before you know it, you wish you had more time than you had.

There's a desire to shout out loud and tell the world that you've had a moment of something but the words you use will never get it right. Somehow, you'll say it in a way that goes over the top but if it were understatted, you would be left with the feeling that you should have said more.

So here it is. I'm left with a feeling of needing to say something but I can't and it's going to sit with me for a day or two.

So Much to Do, So Little Time to Do it In

It's now a mere matter of days before I get onto a plane and fly off to Germany where I will be spending the Chinese New Year season in Germany and so the last few days have been all about trying to chat up my coalition partners and finding out what useful things I can do for them before I fly off and remain blissfuly away from phone call reach.

There's quite alot to be said about mobile phones in the sense that they help you stay in touch with people. But then again there's also alot to be said about not being reachable all the time. I love technology but there are times when I think our lives have become so dependent on technology that we forget how to live without it and become less ingenious in the way we approach things. I remember walking round London with a Singaporean friend of mine who pointed out that he enjoyed looking at all the elaborate carvings on the old buildings because he often wondered how people managed to get to the top of the building and do those carvings without the tools that we have today.

And he's right. How did people back then do all the things they did without half the tools that we have today? If there is a downside to the technology revolution, its the fact that we are unable to do things with our brains. I always look to the Indian IT revolution as an example of how not having things makes people work smarter. Indian programmers have grown-up using primative equipment and yet, somehow they've managed to solve some of the more complex IT problems that we face today. Cuba is another example. Somehow, this island, which has faced riddiculous US Sanctions for forty over years and is dennied the most basic forms of equipment and yet, the island exports medical expertise.

I am not advocating the abolition of technology. I make my living due to technology. Thanks to the Internet, I've spent the better half of a year and a half reporting on events in the region and beyond from the comfort of my bedroom. I'm not the only writer who does that. Bloomberg Columnist Andy Mukherjee once told a group of NTU Journalism students that the secret to his columns was called "Google" and "Curiosity." Alot of things that used to be time consuming in this business are no longer so.

However, we should not forget how to live without technology. We may not always have its benefits. This has been particularly true when it comes to fighting wars. The USA and Israel, two of the most technologically advanced armies in the world have been stuck in Iraq and Lebanon against a bunch of lightly armed but very dedicated people. But we need not get too far to talk about the limits of technology. Just look at the Balineese woodcarvers with their hands. To date, I've yet to meet a Singaporeans with that type of skill. It's not that Singaporeans are less intelligent. I think its because our society has reached a stage where using your hands has become somewhat less valueable and as such people with those skills don't let them shine.

It's a pitty! Society needs all kinds of people. Whatever skill we train people in these days, we really should do it in such a way where they learn how to do it with the technology and without the technology - it would provide workers of the future with a fuller appreciation of the skill that they have.

WB Endorses Bahrain’s Economic Reforms

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=6&section=0&article=91987&d=10&m=2&y=2007&pix=business.jpg&category=Business

Saturday, 10, February, 2007 (22, Muharram, 1428)

Tang Li, Arab News

SINGAPORE, 10 February 2007 — Bahrain’s efforts to develop a more diversified economy with greater transparency and a stronger private sector received a ringing endorsement from Juan José Daboub, managing director of the World Bank. Daboub provided his assessment on Bahrain’s reform efforts at the end of a two-day visit where he met with Crown Prince Salman ibn Hamad Al-Khalifa, and Mohamed ibn Mubarak Al-Khalifa, deputy prime minister. Daboub, who was leading a delegation that included World Bank executive director for the several Middle Eastern countries, Merza Hasan, and World Bank vice president of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region, Daniela Gressani, praised Bahrain’s efforts to diversify its economy, improve transparency and stimulate greater investment in the private sector as well as to create greater employment opportunities. Bahrain, like many GCC nations faces the challenge of providing employment opportunities for a growing population of young nationals and government efforts have focused on increasing productivity as well as the demand for employment of nationals through various incentives such as insurance and social protection schemes. “As a global institution, this is an opportunity to learn from Bahrain’s experience and share what we have learnt through our work in other parts of the world,” Daboub said. “It is also an opportunity for the Kingdom to consider participating in IDA and support the development efforts in developing countries that could benefit from its experiences.” During his meetings with the Minister of Finance Ahmed ibn Mohammed Al-Khalifa and Minister of Social Affairs Fatima Al-Balooshi, Daboub highlighted the importance of deepening structural reforms, fiscal sustainability and capacity building. The World Bank is currently supporting Bahrain’s program for economic and social development through a Technical Cooperation Program. For the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, Bahrain represents an important partner in the region. Recently, the IFC invested $200 million in the Ahli United Bank of Bahrain to support their regional expansion plan “We have learned through our experience in other countries that participation, transparency and effective communication are key to the success of reform,” said Gressani. “We look forward to supporting the efforts of our partners as they move ahead with reform.”

Trying to Yank Up Production

It's been quite a productive few days. I've finally managed to get my ticket to Hamburg paid for and will be off to Germany on the 16th of February where I will be hibernating and hopefully be able to get article churned out and published at a rate that will allow me to get my branding and financial health back to an acceptable level.

Anyway, its been a fairly ok week. Got the cheque from Polaris for the final bits of work for Arup Gupta's visit and had enough money to pay most of the remaining debt on the house water filter system and give myself enough breathing room to get by until the next cheque comes in - by which then, God Willing, I'll be able to clear the phone bill and the next hotel club membership. It's been a month that's heavy on the commitment front and low on incomming cash - but hey. I've lived and somehow working at a rate where things should start to look up - somewhere out there.

Recieved a Chinese New Year card from His Excellency, Dr Kurdi. It was pretty touching to recieve his card. Nice, made my day to know that at least one of my clients thinks enough of me on this little festival.

Dr Julian Theng launched his book - "A Long-Sighted Look at Presbyopia." He's be donating half the proceeds to charity and so I did my bit and bought a copy. Should hopefully do its intended purpose and get people knowing more about presbyopia and other eye conditions.

Have been trawling the sites of the IMF, World Bank, WTO, Asian Development Bank to get news stories. Need ways of getting published by more papers so that - guess what, the dosh factor goes up.

OK, that's it for now, better bugger off into something more lucrative

when T T Durai lost the plot - by PN Balji

http://www.todayonline.com/articles/170031.asp

Hot News // Monday, February 5, 2007

P N Balji
Editorial Director
balji@mediacorp.com.sg

 

HERE is a question about Mr T T Durai's National Kidney Foundation (NKF) every one of us, its employees, donors, directors, well wishers and the Government must ask: Who created this bulldozer of an organisation?

More importantly, a related question: What could we have done to put a brake on it?

No straightforward answers here because Mr Durai operated with the shrewdness of a politician, the zeal of an evangelist, the sophistication of a businessman, the smoothness of a marketeer and the killer punch of a lawyer.

As a student activist in the National University of Singapore in the early 1970s, his single-minded obsession was to make a name for himself in the establishment. The young man worked as a grassroots leader under two former Ministers, Mr S Rajaratnam and Encik Othman Wok. He did not make much progress.

Failure was not a word in his dictionary.

That's when he chanced upon the NKF. It was all altruistic. He gave his spare time, while practising as a lawyer, to the charity.

But as he spent more time there, he must have seen it as an alternative route to recognising his ambition of becoming somebody.

I got a measure of the man at one of his regular Saturday sessions with the staff in 2004. Close your eyes and you would think he was a doctor, talking about the debilitating effect of kidney failure and the treatment processes. "I am competitive and combative,'' he said, all sound and fury, at one of those Saturday sermons.

He told me after that meeting: "I am a great admirer of Mr Lee Kuan Yew. I watch tapes of his speeches regularly.''

His use of movie clips to show his people how to sell NKF as a product is legendary. His master stroke was to understand a core part of the Government's philosophy that welfarism, especially medical welfarism, is a no-go in Singapore.

Mr Durai exploited that to the fullest by taking on the role of caring for kidney patients, thus taking a big burden off Government hospitals.

He understood the Singapore psyche so well that he used the opt-out strategy to get more people to will their kidneys.

And when the Government wanted to extend this drive to other organs like heart and liver, no prizes for guessing who was very supportive of that PR campaign.

But there was one tenet of the Government's ideology that he somehow missed: Succession planning.

I remember asking him once: What is your hierarchy?

His Duraiesque answer: What hierarchy?

It was this part of his style that became his Achilles heel. Operating in a lonely bubble in his spacious 12th-floor office, listening to his own voice and that of his believers and using the threat of Singapore's libel laws to silence his critics, the man thought he was untouchable.

He thought it was success that mattered in Singapore and he wanted to be remembered for that.

But today he is not remembered for helping kidney patients, for trying to make NKF a world-brand charity run like a business, but as a corporate case study of a failed company chieftain.

What a pity!

Now to try and answer the two questions raised in the initial paragraphs of this article.

On hindsight, knowing Mr Durai's habit of using the might of the law, people like key staff of the IT department who had evidence, however small, could have submitted them to the Ministry of Health for some kind of behind-the-scenes action.

The whispers against Mr Durai's NKF were many. But there was really no one, especially after he had silenced two of his critics over his first-class travel, who dared to blow the whistle.

And what about the Government?

Once the issue blew up, the Government acted fast to limit the damage. Mr Durai announced his and his top management team's resignations at a press conference with Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan present.

Mr Khaw also acted quickly to appoint a replacement to try and contain the donor backlash.

But, could this public blood-letting have been avoided in the first place?

That opportunity could have presented itself between 1999 and 2001 when the Ministry tried to appoint a representative to NKF's executive committee.

Court documents tell of how her appointment was resisted for two years and, when she was finally appointed, she was given a hard time, even being treated like a spy.

That could have been a trigger for action which, hopefully, would have led to a smoother leadership transition at NKF.

P N Balji spent six months, four of them in a part-time capacity, in NKF's corporate communications department in the first half of 2004.

 

Lamy Tours African States to Revive Doha Round

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=6&section=0&article=91693&d=3&m=2&y=2007

Saturday, 3, February, 2007 (15, Muharram, 1428)

Tang Li, Arab News

SINGAPORE, 3 February 2007 — As part of the efforts to drive the Doha Round of the World Trade Organization, the WTO’s Director-General Pascal Lamy is on a tour of East Africa that began on Thursday and continued through Feb. 6. During his tour, Lamy will meet the presidents of Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya as well as government representatives, parliamentarians, civil society and business leaders in these countries. The Doha Development Agenda, which was launched in 2001 in the Qatari capital, is meant to balance the global trading system in favor of developing countries all around the world. However, the trade negotiations have not only been met with criticism by NGO’s and civil society groups but also been held up through disagreements between the industrialized and developing worlds. The East African nations of Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya are amongst the world’s poorest. However, in recent years, these nations, particularly Uganda, have been working with global institutions such as the World Bank and IMF to implement economic reform programs in order to improve their economies. According to the latest World Bank figures, the three East African Nations saw more than 10 percent rise in the export of goods and services and combined net inflow of foreign direct investment of $788 million. However, per capita income in Uganda, for example, has declined to around 2 percent per year since 1999 compared to a peak of 3.2 percent in the early 90’s, showing a slowdown in growth even as these neo-liberal trade policies have gone into effect in post-conflict Uganda. Nevertheless, 2 percent growth is considered relatively high for a region rife with poverty, conflict and unemployment. The WTO’s chief will see him making the case for closer economic integration into the world trading system. On Feb. 5 in Kenya, Lamy will speak at the joint WTO-UNEP (UN Environment Program) round table on environment and trade. In a statement released by the WTO, it was noted that, “Environment is an integral part of the WTO agenda as well as an important feature of the Doha Round negotiations. Trade can play an important role in protecting the environment through the elimination of environmentally harmful subsidies, or by improving market access conditions for goods and services that are beneficial for the environment. “ Lamy declared “East African countries are fully engaged in the on-going WTO trade talks under the Doha Development Agenda. I am here to discuss how we can all work together to bring this round to a successful conclusion that will secure the developmental benefits to Africa in particular”.

Anniversary

Today marks the end of the first month of the New Year and its rather interesting in as much as today happens to be Gina's birthday and it would also have been my wedding anniversary. Had I stayed on the slippery path of marriage, I would be marking my 5th year of having the knot tied around my neck and I'd probably be a bit more insane than I already am, but at least I would be living the "Singapore Ideal."

It's funny how events and relationships play such an important part in shapping who we are. When asked about the people who had the greatest impact on their lives, most would say it was their parents. - "Dad is such a man's man and Mum is such a lovely lady etc etc" are the usual statements that people will make. Sometimes, especially for children of divorced parents, you'll find that they end up loathing one parent and hating the other.

For me and my siblings, we've been spared alot of bitterness that our mother might have felt towards our respective fathers. I for one have never been overtly cuddly with my Dad but that does not mean that I have a loathing for him the way some kids do. I guess, at my great age, I've come to respect the fact that my Dad just ain't the cuddly sort who needs to do things with his kids, but that doesn't mean he's unloving towards us. I'm an educated man and its thanks to him that I have to tools to get along in life. My mother, on the other hand, is more active in the life of her kids and so her presence in our lives has always seemed so much greater. Once again, I think I've come to accept my mother is the person that she is and so, today, my relationship with my parents (stepfathers and stepmother included) is at the stage that its in. Like Tara often says, "I love the patchwork nature of our family, and I wouldn't change it for anything in the world." Say what you like of my parents, but I think they've done a decent enough job with myself, Tara, Max and Christopher.

A relationship with ones parents is important but I think, as my mother always says, the relationship with ones parents is a relationship with ones past. My mother once said that although most good Chinese boys would side with their mother in a conflict between mother and wife (after all you only have one wife) - she said, "I hope you will side with your wife if you're ever in a mother versus wife situation. I'm your past, your wife is the person for your future and I hope you side with your future." It may be an ironic remark comming from my mother (she who needs to be obeyed - she does point out that she's an Iron Ox like Adolf Hitler) but one that I think is very true.

I am probably the man who I am because of the various influences in my life, which I attribute to my parents. However, if I were to look at the relationship that had the biggest affect on my life in the past six years, its my relationship with Gina, who, for all her many negatives, was my constant companion for four of those six years.

When I look back at those four years, its easy to think of the negatives. Gina was my first relationship (I only had months with the rest of them, with her, I had years), I was her first sexual partner, she was the first person to hit and scream abuse at me and I was the first person to take her to court. Like the Iraq War, our relationship was based on a false premise. I enjoyed the attention she lavished on me and the regular sex. She saw me as someone she could domesticate into being a constant companion. We were perhaps so busy playing a game of being something we were not in order to get what we wanted out of each other and when we found the reality, it was a bitter dissapointment.

Marriage for me, was a lonely experience. It was a case of my only friend being my wife. She had very few friends of her own and those that I met, I had very little in common with. She loathed my "Wierd" friends and family - they were either eccentric, belonging to a dissaproved class or race and so on. Female associates were especially dispicable in her eyes. Everyone I know tells me that the years that I was with her were years that were lost. My family believe that she was the reason why I could never hold a steady job (her demands for attention were so overwhelming that they clashed with the attention I could have given to work) - while her family blamed my inability to hold a steady job to her frustrations. My friends and family saw her as being worse than a stumbling block - to quote my mother - "If you have children with her, they'll be more backwards than your grandparents."

But the negatives of the relationship should not obscure the fact that for what it was worth, I did have feelings of affection for Gina. She did blackmail me into the marrige - a case of "I'll abort the baby if you ROM." But I was in actual fact quite willing to walk into the blackmail. At the time, I actually felt - "Well, if it works, it works, if it does not so be it," and I actually felt that there was something worth going for in the relationship - perhaps you could call it confusing love with lust but I was actually frightened of walking out on her and not having her in life. It took two very intensive and very draining years for me to realise that it was no point holding onto something that was going less than nowhere. Perhaps I was never really in-love with Gina the way I was with Carra, but I still have alot of affection for her and as I've said of my current relationship with Han Li, there are things about Gina that I am genuinely attracted to.

I also had genuine affection for my out-laws. My mother-in-law was simple, uneducated but treated me well. When I came to stay, she ensured that I had good food and I was a welcome fixture at family events. My father-in-law, as I've mentioned before, is a man that I grew to have respect for. The man may only have had a Secondary Two education but he managed to put two children through to school by selling a low-margin comodity like eggs. I often try to look back and find out what he did in his egg business that I could apply to my own. As the marriage wore on, I had the secret hope that I could maintain a decent relationship with them even after Gina was no longer a part of my life - I admit I often had this dream that Gina would get so insane that she'd end up in a asylum long and I'd have to raise the kids on my own and bring them over to her folks from time to time (Call this a Wuthering Heights fixation, but I always saw myself as a young widower trying to raise the kids without a mother figure)

The marriage also helped me to look at issues in an interesting light. On a personal front, I appreciate the fact that some have the need for stability. Some have the need for variety. My need for variety and independence and challenge overcomes the need I have for stability. I'm not saying that I don't need stability. Living at home provides me with a stability to do things I could otherwise not do. However, I've come to appreciate that my strengths are best appreciated when I work as a rogue rather than as part of an agency. Somehow, whenever I have become part of an agency, the worst in me comes out.

 BANG PR was a good learning experience and steady income was appreciated in 2005. But I could never fit into the corporate culture. I could never understand the need to take on more work than I was assigned to (hell, they were not increasing my money!) And I never appreciated the value of savings and ended up drinking away too many nights at CU (hey, if you run out of money, you just got to wait for the next pay day.) Last year, I cut down on the drinks and made a point of trying to have a  cash pile.

I think, thanks to the marriage, I also learnt that the main point in life is not to ask the question of "How did you end up here," but "What are you going to do about it?" I'm still learning to ask myself that question - I still end up in more than my fair share of lousy situations. It took three years for me to stop looking back at how I ended up in my situation to actually doing something about it and moving on with life. The PPO was the first bout of relief that I had in two years. Writing the series of articles in the media on the topic of husband abuse under the name of Terrence Ang was thereputic in as much as it allowed me to get my side of the story out to as many people as I needed to and getting onto the front page of Today made me feel that I had extracted something out of the marriage.

Those were wasted years but its not how I lived them that counts. It's now a case of what do I do from here that counts. The last year has been good, this year could be better and on this day, Insh Allah, I shall be able to build something for myself on the foundation that was badly damaged.   

A Surprisingly Good One from Arab News

Think of the stereotypes of how Women in the Arab world are treated and you'd be surprised that someone made the following point in the Arab Media - but it was made and lo and behold, its a decent read.

Stay-at-Home Moms: Are They Asset or Liability? Fatin Yousef Bundagji, Fatinbund@yahoo.com

As I flipped through the pages of Ann Crittendon’s recent book, “The Price of Motherhood”, I could not help but think of the truth behind her argument. Not only are women a marginalized entity in the social order, but they are also made to pay the price for performing the most challenging yet rewarding task, one that has been responsible for the continuing of human life on planet Earth. In her book, Ann asserts that the most important job in the world has been the least valued. Despite the controversial acclaim for her book, her central message left me with much food for thought. As a former reporter with The New York Times, who quit her professional career for a life of motherhood, Ann goes on to highlight the economic value of mothers who choose to stay at home to raise a family, because these “stay-at-home moms” are a nation’s “invisible” and “unpaid” laborers, whose work has so far been underestimated and not formally recognized. The long hours and weekend-less months spent in nurturing and developing the citizens of the future ought to be recognized and formally supported by social and governmental institutions because of their critical contribution to the welfare of society as well as the advancement of a nation’s economy. As I pondered some of these statements, I wondered how long it will take for society to actually value the contribution made by selfless stay-at-home moms who engage in their people-building activity. The challenges facing this segment of society are many, but the ones that top the list are illustrated by the overwhelming sense of seclusion and low self-esteem some of these women feel when asked what kind of work they do. The marginalizing effect of the social stigma attached to the idea of “staying at home” has left a tragic mark on mothers and homemakers. I say this out of experience, I still witness it being practiced by many, and I can physically feel the pain and sense of “missing out” on worldly events most of these women experience: Stay-at-home moms are made to believe that their contribution to the collective social and economic order of things is minimal, menial and not worthy of notice. This is truly a tragic misconception. The truth however is enlightening and the future is bright. The social value and economic contribution of staying at home to nurture and develop future generations of leaders, inventors, artists, technocrats, politicians, and in the same vein, criminals, delinquents, and charlatans tops any or all forms of professional duties. It cannot be overlooked or underestimated. If we want to support stay-at-home moms in building a future generation, we must engage as a nation in the campaign to reclaim the scope and honor of this mandate. We must work at shedding the layers of negative stereotypical associations that have for years labeled homemakers as people of simple intellect who are professionally challenged and socially inept — all because the fruits of their hard labor could never be measured by monetary value or immediate social contribution. We all remember the stereotypical remark that Hilary Rodham Clinton made during her husband’s political campaign before his presidency? The fact that she was glad to have a professional career instead of sitting idly at home to “bake cookies” clearly makes my point. Investing time and money in our children’s lives is no less important than investing time and money in our business or professional life. For some reason or other, we have threatened the core existence of the single most stabilizing social institution — that of the family unit: It is the basis upon which a culture of harmony and stability flourishes and it is the enabler that promotes the concept of communal life in which future generations are nurtured and trained. Engaging in a campaign to revive the positive image of homemakers is not in itself sufficient to bring about positive change. Support from governmental institutions by the drafting of policies to support and financially sustain stay-at-home moms as they choose to engage in the process of nation building is the key. Stay-at-home moms need the same empowerment measures that others in various professions get. I ask, what harm would come if these caregivers were given the same rights provided to formal workers? What harm could come if full-time mothers were allowed to collect social security benefits for the years spent working at home? Further, shouldn’t companies be mandated by law to allow longer maternity leaves since, after all, child bearing and rearing is the only guarantee that we have for the creation of a future labor pool and the subsequent growth of our economy?

‘China to Continue on Prosperity Path’

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=6&section=0&article=91564&d=30&m=1&y=2007

Tuesday, 30, January, 2007 (11, Muharram, 1428)

Tang Li, Arab News

SINGAPORE, 30 January 2007 — China is set to continue its rapid economic growth and that will greatly benefit the Asian region and the global economy, said the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) managing director, Rodrigo de Rato, who was on a visit to Beijing. During his visit, de Rato met Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and also had discussions with China’s finance minister, Jin Renquing and governor of the People’s Bank of China, Zhou Xiachuan. De Rato praised the Chinese government for its efforts in creating jobs and reducing poverty. He noted that sustaining China’s continued rapid growth was a challenging task and the IMF, “agreed with the authorities that this requires rebalancing the economy away from its current heavy dependence on investment and exports and towards consumption. It also requires that prosperity be shared more equally across society, including by addressing the rural-urban income discrepancies. Equally important is to ensure that economic development is environmentally sustainable.” The IMF’s managing director praised China for its awareness of the task at hand in addressing the issues of sustaining GDP growth, ensuring greater wealth distribution and providing economic growth at an environmentally sustainable manner. China is currently working on curbing rapid credit and investment growth to prevent overcapacity in certain sectors, and to put growth on a more sustainable footing. Another challenge for the Chinese economy has been to strengthen its financial system in order for China’s large savings pool to be channeled to more efficient uses. De Rato said he welcomed the moves by the Chinese government to develop a stronger financial system and capital markets and noted,” To increase consumption and reduce savings, China’s households need to be reassured of adequate provision of health care, education, and pensions, with a shift in public expenditure to these areas. I strongly support the authorities’ plans to move forward with far-reaching reforms on these fronts.” The topic of China’s exchange rate policy was also discussed. In recent years, the exchange rate between the Renbinbi and other currencies, particularly the US Dollar has been a sore point between Beijing and its major trading partners, particularly the US. De Rato praised the Chinese government for reiterating the objectives of advancing exchange reform and greater flexibility over time for the renminbi. He said, “Faster movement would provide the authorities much needed room to rely more on monetary policy to manage the economy, particularly to contain the rapid credit and investment growth. Greater flexibility in the exchange rate and interest rates is also important for rebalancing the economy. In addition to providing better price signals for investors, the likely higher interest rates and more appreciated exchange rate in the near term would also help to boost household consumption by increasing household income and wealth.” The IMF’s managing director expressed his confidence in China’s ability to continue on its path of rapid economic growth and he said, “China’s continued economic success and stability have become more important for other countries-in the region and worldwide. With the vision of its leadership and their resolve to tackle the challenges that China faces, I am confident that China will continue on its path to achieve greater economic prosperity.”

Bono, Who Preaches Charity, Profits From Buyouts, Tax Breaks - From Bloomberg

By Richard Tomlinson and Fergal O'Brien

Jan. 26 (Bloomberg) -- During the final concert of U2's world tour on Dec. 9, Bono, the Irish rock band's lead singer, launched into ``One,'' a song about a love affair gone sour. ``Did I disappoint you or leave a bad taste in your mouth?'' he sang to 47,000 U2 fans at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu.

At Bono's command, some of the fans held aloft their cell phones and sent text messages of support to ONE, the U.S.-based group that's lobbying the U.S. government to donate an additional 1 percent of the federal budget to ending poverty.

Bono made the same tie-in for the lobbying group during most of the 131 concerts on the Vertigo tour, which began in March 2005 and was seen by 4.6 million fans in Europe, North America and Asia. They sent about 500,000 text messages of support to ONE, according to the group.

While Bono was making his appeal, U2 was racking up $389 million in gross ticket receipts, making Vertigo the second-most lucrative tour of all time, according to Billboard magazine. No. 1 is the Rolling Stones' current tour, which by the end of 2006 had received $425 million.

Revenue from the Vertigo tour is funneled through companies that are mostly registered in Ireland and structured to minimize taxes. ``U2 are arch-capitalists -- arch-capitalists -- but it looks as if they're not,'' says Jim Aiken, a music promoter who helped stage U2 concerts in Ireland during the 1980s and 1990s.

Selling Records

``Bono's campaigns reflect a great amount of concerns that U2's audience also has, such as AIDS and malaria in Africa, and that can't help but have a beneficial effect on record sales,'' says Simon Garfield, author of ``Expensive Habits: The Dark Side of the Music Industry'' (Faber & Faber, 269 pages, 1985), a book about the business of rock.

U2 has sold about 9 million copies of the album linked to the Vertigo tour, ``How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb,'' for which it owns all rights. In addition, U2 sells merchandise at the concerts, such as a $30 T-shirt with a photo of the band on the front.

With his trademark wraparound sunglasses and cowboy hat, Bono is as famous for exhorting world leaders -- from U.S. President George W. Bush to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern -- to give money to Africa as he is for his music.

He was awarded an honorary knighthood in December by Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, and his name has been mentioned as a contender for the Nobel Peace Prize in the British and U.S. press.

Business and Idealism

Today, Bono joins British Prime Minister Tony Blair and South African President Thabo Mbeki at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, for a panel discussion called ``Delivering on the Promise of Africa.''

The 46-year-old Dublin native, born Paul Hewson, is also focusing on his investments. Bono declined to be interviewed for this article.

``We can move into business, and let's bring our idealism into whatever piece of the world we happen to be standing in,'' Bono told interviewer Michka Assayas in ``Bono on Bono'' (Riverhead, 336 pages, $23.95).

The most recent example is Product(RED), a marketing agreement with a half dozen companies that are selling a special RED line of clothing, cell phones and other merchandise and donating 40 percent of the profit they make from the products to a charity that pays for AIDS drugs for HIV-infected Africans.

Bono's own dealings haven't always followed the altruistic ideals he espouses, says Richard Murphy, a Downham Market, U.K.- based adviser to the Tax Justice Network, an international lobbying group.

Minimizing Taxes

Murphy points to the band's decision to move its music publishing company to the Netherlands from Ireland in June 2006 in order to minimize taxes. The move came six months before Ireland ended an exemption on musicians' royalty income, which is generally untaxed in the Netherlands.

``This is somebody who's exceptionally rich taking the opportunity to shift his tax burden to somebody else, but then asking governments around the world to spend that tax take in the way that he would like,'' Murphy says.

U2's move to the Netherlands is wrong, says Dick Molenaar, senior partner at All Arts Tax Advisers, a Rotterdam-based tax consulting firm for artists and musicians. ``Everybody needs to pay his fair share of taxation to the government, and therefore we have roads and education and everything,'' he says.

During the 1990s, U2 used nonexecutive directors who were resident in an offshore tax haven to limit the amount paid by the four band members -- in addition to Bono, they're lead guitarist The Edge, 45, whose real name is David Evans, bass guitarist Adam Clayton, 46, and drummer Larry Mullen, 45.

Business Empire

``We pay a great deal of tax around the world and in Ireland we don't pay any more taxes than we have to,'' says Paul McGuinness, U2's manager. ``We're like any other business.''

``U2 were never dumb in business,'' Bono says in ``Bono on Bono.'' ``We don't sit around thinking about world peace all day.''

What a business it is. Bono's empire encompasses real estate, private-equity investments, a hotel, a clothing line and a chain of restaurants.

Along with fellow band members, he also owns a stake in 15 companies and trusts, including concert-booking agencies, record production firms and trusts that are mostly registered in Ireland. U2 was one of the first successful bands in the world to have obtained all rights to its own music.

Private Equity

In addition, Bono shares three homes with his wife and four children, including a house near Nice in the south of France, a duplex apartment overlooking New York's Central Park that he bought from Apple Inc.'s Steve Jobs, and a gated estate in Killiney, 10 miles south of Dublin, with a panoramic view of the Irish Sea.

Bono's foray into private equity, via Menlo Park, California-based Elevation Partners LP, has clashed with his ideals at times.

Elevation's first investment was a stake in two computer game companies, Edmonton, Canada-based BioWare Corp. and Los Angeles-based Pandemic Studios LLC. BioWare makes a war game called ``Destroy All Humans 2.'' Pandemic's catalog includes a war game called ``Mercenaries 2: World in Flames,'' depicting a mercenary invasion of Venezuela.

``We don't think this fits with Bono's image, and we're trying to get him to recognize this fact,'' says Chuck Kaufman, a Washington-based spokesman for the international Venezuela Solidarity Network, which supports the government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

``It's hard to understand why anybody was upset about this game, because keep in mind the Venezuelans in this game are actually the good guys,'' says Roger McNamee, a managing director and co-founder at Elevation.

`Havin' It Large'

While Bono promotes charitable causes, he doesn't disclose whether he personally gives any money to them and, if so, how much. These include Amnesty International, the Burma Campaign U.K., DATA, which stands for Debt, AIDS, Trade and Africa, the environmental group Greenpeace and ONE.

``It's actually, I think, more honest to say we're rock stars, we're havin' it large, we're havin' a great time and don't focus on charity too much -- that's private; justice is public,'' he told the Dublin-based Sunday Independent newspaper in June 2005.

Bono's greatest value may be as a spokesman, not a donor. ``Bono is the most extraordinarily talented lobbyist,'' says Jamie Drummond, DATA's executive director, who helps organize the ONE campaign. ``He's got extremely persuasive, charming interpersonal skills that can appeal to the thing in a politician that reminds them of the spark that got them into politics in the first place, and the idea of public service.''

Text Messages

Whether or not Bono gives money himself is immaterial to ONE, whose motto is ``We don't want your money. We want your voice.'' When U2's fans sent text messages to ONE, they were helping pressure U.S. politicians to increase federal aid to developing countries.

DATA is a nonprofit organization co-founded by Bono that does try to raise money. Among the high-profile people who've given large amounts to the Washington-based group are John Doerr, partner at Menlo Park, California-based venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers; Susie Buffett, the daughter of investor Warren Buffett; and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, according to Kathy McKiernan, a spokeswoman for DATA.

Bono has not said how much, if any, of his money he gives to DATA, of which he is a board member.

Oprah Winfrey Show

Bono doesn't invest his own money in RED, the U.S.-based marketing venture he introduced at the Davos meeting in 2006. RED is an alliance between the Geneva-based Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and six international companies: American Express Co., Nike Inc. subsidiary Converse Inc., Gap Inc., Giorgio Armani SpA, Motorola Inc. and Apple.

The companies agree to donate 40 percent of their pretax profits from specially branded RED items to the fund, which gives the money to African governments to buy medicines for women and children who have HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Bono introduced RED in the U.S. last October by appearing on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Bono and Oprah appeared on-air shopping for RED products in Chicago stores, including a Gap, where model Christy Turlington and actress Penelope Cruz modeled various Gap RED items.

Bono's involvement in RED is intermittent, says RED CEO Bobby Shriver, who's a nephew of the late U.S. President John F. Kennedy.

``I'm not trying to toot my own horn, but I was responsible really for the creation of it as a business, to get it to go and make all these things actually happen in the real world,'' says Shriver, 52, who's based in Santa Monica, California.

Public Face

He says that Bono's role was to raise the group's public profile and help persuade corporate partners to participate. ``When he was available, I dragged his sorry little ass along, but he was on tour, so he wasn't always available,'' Shriver says.

Shriver and Bono first met in 1987, when U2 performed on ``A Very Special Christmas,'' an album that raised money for Special Olympics, a U.S.-based charity supported by the Shriver family that organizes athletic events for people with intellectual disabilities.

Shriver says he and Bono developed the idea for RED during several meetings held in the past few years. ``It was over probably several glasses of wine, over one or two nights, that Bono and I talked about this,'' Shriver says. ``And neither of us can remember who had this idea.''

RED iPod

RED products include a red Apple iPod Nano music player. Apple also sells a Special Edition U2 iPod, whose profits are not donated to the charity, says Steve Dowling, Apple's director of corporate public relations. Dowling declined to disclose how many of the iPods -- of either type -- Apple has sold.

Richard Feachem, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis & Malaria, says RED has transformed the charity's prospects of getting money from the private sector.

In 2006, the RED program had raised $11.3 million for the fund, says spokeswoman for the Global Fund Rosie Vanek. About $6.25 million was given to Rwanda's Ministry of Health and $5.05 million to the Swaziland government's National Emergency Response Council on HIV/AIDS.

``I've no doubt that within three or four years we could be at an income of several hundred million dollars a year,'' Feachem says. ``Without Bono, there would be no RED.''

Bono's public charitable activities date to 1985, when the band performed at the Live Aid concert in London to raise money to help African famine victims. In ``U2 by U2'' (HarperCollins, 352 pages, $39.95), a book of interviews, Bono says his life was changed that year by the experience of working for a month as a volunteer along with his wife in an Ethiopian orphanage.

U2's Beginnings

Long before that, Paul Hewson was striving to become a rock star. Bono was born in May 1960 in Dublin to a Protestant mother and a Catholic father, who was a post office supervisor. Bono says in ``U2 by U2'' that their marriage was almost illicit at that time in the predominantly Catholic country. When Bono was 14, his mother, Iris, died from a brain hemorrhage.

In September 1976, Bono answered an advertisement by Mullen, his classmate at Mount Temple high school in Dublin, who wanted to form a rock band.

An audition in Mullen's parents' kitchen narrowed the field to the four original U2 members, plus The Edge's brother, who soon dropped out. All four attended the school, as did Ali Stewart, the future Mrs. Hewson.

It was at this time that Bono chose his stage name -- taken from a hearing aid shop in Dublin called Bono Vox.

The Hype, as the band was initially called, won a talent contest in March 1978 in the Irish city of Limerick.

Teenagers' Questions

Jackie Hayden, who worked as the marketing manager in Ireland for CBS Records Inc., was one of the judges. He was intrigued by the potential of the four teenagers.

They became regular visitors to Hayden's Dublin office, where their business acumen was already apparent, he says. ``They'd have little scraps of paper with questions for me about the music business,'' says Hayden, 59, who's now a director at Hot Press, an Irish rock music magazine.

``Just basic things, like `What does copyright mean?' or `How do records get into shops?' or `Who decides what records get played on the radio?' and `What do record contracts mean?'''

Shortly after the band's meeting with Hayden, Bill Graham, an Irish rock music journalist, introduced them to McGuinness, then a 27-year-old university dropout who'd studied psychology and philosophy and who was looking for a rock band to manage. They hired him.

`Conventional Businessman'

In 1979, the band changed its name to U2. Bono says in ``U2 by U2'' that the name was meant to be ambiguous: It was meant partly as a reference to the U.S. spy plane of the same name that was shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960, and partly because it could be heard as ``you, too.''

Hayden says McGuinness, 55, is the force behind U2's commercial success. ``McGuinness was very much a conventional businessman who wore a suit and tie and had short hair and spoke very well,'' Hayden says. ``He could go and talk to conventional business people.''

In an interview at his 19th-century home in London's Notting Hill neighborhood, McGuinness -- who on a December day is just back from the last leg of U2's Vertigo tour in Hawaii -- wears an open-neck shirt and sips espresso to combat jet lag.

``We always thought it would be pathetic to be good at the music and bad at the business,'' he says.

McGuinness says it was difficult getting U2's first record deal because the band members were still learning their instruments at the time. U2 eventually secured a one-record contract with CBS, which released a three-song disc called U23 in September 1979. The record was sold only in Ireland.

Bob Marley's Label

Six months later, U2 signed its first major record deal with Island Records, now called Island Def Jam Music Group, part of Universal Music Group, a unit of Paris-based Vivendi.

At the time, the company was an independent label whose major star was Bob Marley, the Jamaican reggae singer. ``War,'' U2's third album for Island, established the group as a leading international rock band.

Released in 1983, ``War'' reached No. 10 in the U.S. music industry's Billboard charts. The album reinforced U2's reputation as a band that sometimes dealt with political and religious themes. One of the songs, ``Sunday Bloody Sunday,'' referred to the fatal 1972 shooting of 13 Catholic civil rights demonstrators in Northern Ireland by British troops.

The song ends with a plea by Bono for Christian reconciliation: ``The real battle just begun, to claim the victory Jesus won.''

Copyright Ownership

In 1984, as U2's contract with Island was about to expire, the band gained ownership of the copyright of all of its songs as the price for signing a new contract with the label.

``Like most people, our early deals were strongly stacked in favor of the record company and the publishing company,'' McGuinness says. ``We were able to improve those deals over time because we were successful.''

Owning the copyright to the songs, all of which were written by the band, means U2 receives all of the royalty income whenever one of its songs is played.

The deal sets U2 apart from most rock and pop bands, including the Beatles, whose sound recordings are owned by EMI Group Plc. ``U2's copyright deal was what everybody in rock music wanted, and it was unusual for a newish young band to do it so early in their career,'' Garfield says.

Island Records Stake

In 1985, Island Records was in financial trouble and was unable to pay all of U2's royalties from the band's album ``The Unforgettable Fire.'' ``It was a nasty surprise at the time, but it very quickly turned into a clear good opportunity,'' McGuinness says.

In return for waiving the unpaid royalties, U2 was given a 10 percent stake in the record company itself. Four years later, Island Records was acquired by Royal Philips Electronics NV of the Netherlands, and the band received about $30 million for its stake.

Bono says much of this profit was lost on poor investments. ``We put it in the hands of some people whom we liked personally, but weren't as expert as they thought in the areas that they were investing in,'' he says in ``Bono on Bono.'' ``On the positive side it made us take more charge and interest in our business.''

McGuinness says that after 30 years in the music industry, U2 band members have learned a lot. ``They know as much about the business as most record executives and most concert promoters and most recording engineers and even most T-shirt distributors,'' he says.

Private Companies, Trusts

He declines to discuss U2's finances. The band pays an undisclosed fee to Principle Management Ltd., McGuinness's Dublin-based company.

The details of U2's money making are out of public view in a network of private companies and trusts. Most of these holdings are registered in Ireland, according to corporate filings in Ireland's Companies Registration Office.

The companies publish shortened accounts, which do not reveal cash flow details, while the trusts do not publish any accounts.

In 2005 Not Us Ltd., the main holding company, reported a net loss of 2.91 million euros ($3.76 million) after advancing unsecured, interest-free loans to subsidiaries. The companies handle income from ticket and record sales, which Bono shares equally with the other band members.

``The whole point of this structure is to minimize your tax and not show anything,'' says Cliff Dane, a Weston-Super-Mare, U.K.-based accountant who teaches music industry finance and economics at the University of Westminster in London.

Clarence Hotel, Nude Cafe

When he's not touring or lobbying for charities, Bono spends time on his investments. ``He gets more out of a week than most people get out of a month,'' McGuinness says. ``It's hard to keep up with him at times.''

Bono is available one day a week to consult with his colleagues at Elevation, McNamee says.

Bono owns a 25 percent stake in the 50-room Clarence hotel on Dublin's Wellington Quay, whose rates start at $296 a night. The Edge also owns 25 percent, while two Irish investors, Derek Quinlan and Paddy McKillen, own the rest. The Clarence reported a net loss in 2005 of 611,271 euros.

Bono has an undisclosed stake in Nude, a chain of three Dublin cafes founded in 1999 by his elder brother, Norman. Business is brisk at the Nude cafe on downtown Dublin's Suffolk Street on a Friday in December.

Fashion Label

The menu includes Mexican chicken wraps, chickpea salads and Fair Trade coffee, and a poster on the wall advertises the seven wonders of wheat germ. Nude lost 634,890 euros in 2005, despite its popularity with Dublin's student crowd.

With his wife, Bono in 2004 founded Edun, an Irish- registered company that describes itself as a socially conscious fashion label aimed at increasing trade and employment in developing countries.

``We want to do business with Africa, because that's what they want,'' he says in ``Bono on Bono.'' ``I want to facilitate that.''

Edun sells a promotional T-shirt for ONE's ``campaign to make poverty history'' at rock concerts and other stadium events and at selected department stores. The shirt, made in Lesotho, costs 28 pounds ($54), with a quarter of the sales price donated to ONE.

Edun also sells jeans and women's fashion wear, such as a wool cardigan made in Peru that retails at London's Harvey Nichols department store for 145 pounds and a collarless silk jacket made in India that costs 240 pounds.

New Studio

Edun CEO Christian Kemp-Griffin says the company -- which reported a first-year loss of $5.49 million in 2004 -- will be profitable in 2008. Kemp-Griffin says that on average, Bono gets involved in Edun about once every four months.

In the meantime, Bono and his bandmates are working on their main business -- music.

The band's next album, scheduled to begin recording this year, may be the last to be made at its old studio on Hanover Quay, a rundown waterfront on Dublin's Grand Canal, just south of where the canal meets the Liffey, the river that flows through the city.

In 2002, the Dublin Docklands Development Authority forced U2 to sell the building, located near a concrete factory, for an undisclosed price as part of a city program to bring businesses and new housing into the area, which had declined economically since World War II.

In return to U2 for moving out, the authority promised the band it would provide space for a new recording studio on the top two floors of a 32-story tower it plans to build on the adjacent Britain Quay.

Seat on Jury

The authority also gave U2 bass guitarist Clayton a seat on the jury that would decide the winner of an international design competition to build the tower.

In 2003, the jury chose joint winners: Dublin-based architectural firms Burdon Dunne and Craig Henry. Felim Dunne, McGuinness's brother-in-law, is a senior partner at Burdon Dunne.

Felim Dunne says there was no favoritism. ``We submitted our bid anonymously, as did everyone else, sometime in the beginning of 2003, and in August 2003 we heard that we had won,'' Dunne says.

Loretta Lambkin, the authority's marketing director, says the contestants made sealed bids. She declined to disclose the projected cost, because the authority as of January was seeking bids from developers.

U2 Tower

When it's completed, the twisting, corkscrew-shaped structure will rise 120 meters (394 feet) and offer Bono and the other U2 members sweeping views of Dublin from their duplex studio atop it. U2 Tower -- as it's been named with the band's consent -- will be the tallest building in Ireland.

It will be just one more landmark in Bono's burgeoning capitalist empire. ``People want to see an entrepreneurial spirit,'' the U2 singer told Assayas in ``Bono on Bono.''

Aiken, the concert promoter, says Bono's financial dealings -- especially the Netherlands move -- can detract from his ideals. ``U2 are capitalists, but it's sort of shaded,'' he says. ``I believe the ultimate charity donation is to pay your taxes in the country where you live.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Richard Tomlinson in London at rtomlinson@bloomberg.net ; Fergal O'Brien in Dublin at fobrien@bloomberg.net .

Balderdash on Saturday Morning

It's Saturday morning, the last Saturday morning of the month of January and here I am once again on the net trying to pour out the contents of my rather futile mind into cyberspace. Ever since I started on this blog, I've taken the sheer pleasure of emptying out the contents of my mind into cyberspace.

Anyway, its been an interesting start to the year. Have enjoyed some pretty good meals. Have had work to do and so have not had to struggle too much looking for work not just to get money but also to keep the mind from turning into something resmbling canned beef. On the cash flow front, things have been pretty bad, not enough money has come in and plenty has gone out but then again at this time of the year what else can one expect. In the mean time, though, I've been fortunate to have a savings pile to live on and now the trick is to replenish it before the next round of drought.

Life, as you can see has been like it usually is. Sometimes delightful, sometimes crap. Not sure if its a good sign that I've accepted my life to be a routine of things. Routines are terribly boring but at the same time they become terrible comfortable and when you become comfortable, its probably a sign that something needs to be done but you're not sure what you have to do in order to progress.

A young lady with an interest in astrology came to read my chart yesterday. Said that I could die of an STD, so I got to practice safe sex - also said that sex was a hobby and that I was attracted to "Princes" type girls. Now why the hell haven't I met a beautful Saudi or Kuwaiti Princes who could keep me in the style that I'm accustomed to? On the other hand she did tell me that I had a powerful imagination and could harness it to do well in work, which is the one thing that I do get satisfaction from.

Work and sex are probably two of the more delightful things that keep me going. Sex is a delightful pleasure and its a shame that not enough people appreciate it for what it is - a private moment of sharing and caring. Sex, I believe is the ultimate expression of feeling. OK, its not the be all and end all to a relationship but its the key to the relationship. I mean who cares if youre nice and sweet if you can't shag. Girls who are interested in looking pretty and get worried about sex ruining their good looks are as useful as "Pork Chops" in a Synagogue or Mosque. Guys who think that sex involves slamming it in also fall under that catagory.

Work is also a wonderfully interesting thing. Some jobs are undoubtedly boring as hell and even parts of doing business can be dull and frustrating. In my current situation, I spend an unholy amount of my time chasing people for money and getting up tight over all sorts of small things. However, work on the whole has certain pleasures. I think work is one of those things we need to do to keep our minds from rotting away.

In the PR line, we do have the satisfaction of persuading other people to do good from time to time. Last year, the team and L'EAP managed to put quite a bit of money towards the Very Special Arts, a charity that gives pride to the disabled by getting them involved in art. It was good for Nestle and Nescafe from a PR standpoint. It was also good for us to know that we had helped this group achieve a good aim. The team at Mun Loong & Associates also managed to get TWC2, a charity devoted to the welfare of migrant workers, funding for a hot line for Singapore's migrant community. The money you get from work is good but the feeling that you were part of something that makes a difference to people is something the money can't buy . It's a good thing when you get paid to help make a difference.

 

Wednesday: Slow Wednesday

Its a Wednesday, a rather slow and sleepy Wednesday, where in stead of being on the task of chasing the almighty dollar, I'm here at a friend's house bashing out this blog entry in front of his computer and enjoying the company of Tommy, his cat. Tommy is the most affectionate cat I've meet. He enjoys cozying up to me and purrs contentedly while I stroke his ears.

Anyway, its been a fairly quiet week. Need to sort out the cheque from Gollin Harris, collect a few payments and settle a few bills. Life as always has been reduced to a set of daily routine items. First you do this, then you do that and before you know it, you are repeating yourself. Formulas are part and parcel of life, I guess. I've just not been terribly good at following them.

Bashed out an article on how they are allowing the banks to let the poor have a $500 credit limit. One of the arguments in favour of doing so is to stop the cash-strapped from going into the clutches of Loan Sharks. In theory, this is a well meaning idea. In practice, I'm inclined to think of my friend Michael G and his cohort of loan sharks. A credit line would be helpful. I think of the times I've been cash-strapped and the idea of having a $500 credit limit looks very appealing. But I manage my finances badly and people like Michael G manage theirs even worse and so here you have it. Easy credit, instead of being a crutch ends up making you even more dependent on it. - Michael G and his ilk don't need credit - they need a new mindset when it comes to financial management.

I put it down to the fact that I'm broke most of the time but money as a topic interest me. Since I usually don't have enough to talk about grand investments. However, I've become even more interested in the relationship that people have with money.

One of the areas of man's relationship with money that intreagues me is the way in which people precieve wealth. Most of us are obsessed with status. In Singapore it's always about whether you live in "Landed" "Condo" or horror of horrors in an "HDB." In the UK, the obession with real estate also exist - "Are you a council house pleb or one of the posh people in Mayfair?" Another universal obsession is the car that you drive or the places in which you hang out.

Don't get me wrong. High living is great fun but does it actually mean that you have money? What is money? To most of us, money is a status symbol. In Singapore, we get very worked up about the type of home people live in because the house is a status symbol. If you live in an HDB you are probably like the rest of the world. If you live in landed property it implies that you have money.

Having lived in the lap of luxury in my Dad's condo in the heart of Singapore and having been made to live in a hotel in the Red Light district, I've come to realise that alot of these things like big houses, cars and fancy cloths don't actually mean that people have real money. It only means that people have a high income and therefore the ability to service the means of making big-ticket item purchases. I suspect that many of the people who live in luxurious homes and drive flash cars are in actual fact mortgaged to their eye balls in debt. The banks are happy to oblige as long as they continue to earn their big incomes. But what happens when they no longer make those big incomes - will the banks call in their loans and if they do - then what?

I think the  person I have to thank for showing me the fact that high income and status symbols are not everything in life is my late grandmother.

My Grandmother was born poor and perhaps, because of this, became frugal by nature. Although the inheritance that she left her children did not ammount to a lottery ticket, it was a tiddy sum for a woman who spent most of her 85-years on the planet as a housewife. It's true that my grandfather made a tiddy sum in his day (he was a senior civil servant.) It's true that he left her some money when he died. However, he died relatively young, without a will and before he was entitled to a state pension. He also died in an era where inheritance taxes were extraordinarily high. - The way my grandmother survived 32 years without having to look for a job should provide the rest of us with a lesson on money management.

I think the key thing to grandma's survival was SAVINGS and understanding that having money does not mean having a luxury appartment and big car. Instead, money is CASH in the bank. Cash is the lifeblood of any economic activity and grandma understood that she needed to have cash in hand to survive her old age. As a housewife, she understood that her income was dependent on her husband providing her with housekeeping money. But what if that source of income died (Which was one of the reasons why she was against having joint accounts - she would always say - what happens of the other party drops dead - you can't touch the money can you?) So she saved her housekeeping money very prudently.

Granny kept accounts like Swiss gnome. Walk into her house and you would find that the tables would have a stack of blue note books where she would record each and every penny she spent with accuracy. This was, she said, a way of knowing how to manage her savings. Somehow this housewife managed to save a not too small sum of $50,000 in cash from the housekeeping money that Grandfather gave to her.

If Grandfather did not leave her a pension, he did leave her with an understanding of the stock market. Grandmother monitored the stock market very carefully. Her cash pile was well guarded and she was never a wild speculator. She did not make the sums that Warren Buffet and George Soros did but she never got burnt through speculation. She played the market carefully and successfully. It was always buy blue chip shares. Wait for the stock to go up and sell at a certain point - if the stock sky rocketed after she sold, she would just write if off the good fortune of the other shareholders. If the stocks went down, she would wait and cut her losses at a certain point. - The jealous relatives might have accused her of being greedy in the way she horded her cash but the truth was, she was not greedy and managed to ensure that good sense was never overcome by greed and that kept her afloat in the financial market.

Same thing with her property investments. She had to sell the house that she and Grandfather built, thanks to high taxes (That house is apparently worth millions today.) She moved into a smaller house (kept a cash pile from the original) and lived in it for over a decade. Then she sold that house (with a huge profit) and moved into a smaller HDB flat. A few years later, she downgraded (Made a profit - as things would have it she downgraded at the end of the property boom of the early 1990s - a few days before Thailand was hit in the 1997 Asian Crisis) and moved into an even smaller flat where she spent the rest of her life.  At no time did she complain she as personally being down graded - she just accepted the fact that she needed cash (before she actually did) and somehow her property investments were profitable.

Grandma was never unashamed to take a bus. Her constant grumble was that we were all too keen to enrichen taxi drivers. When she was sick, she went into class c wards and poly clinics. Sure, she admited moving from a landed property into a 3-room flat was a downgrade but it said nothing about her personality that she couldn't live without and guess what - She had cash in the bank while her more status concious friends and relatives were forced to come to her when they were in fix.

Cash - somehow its a forgotten comodity in our daily view of life. But somehow, somewhere, those who end up ignoring pressures for this and that status symbol usually end up having the last laugh - particularly in the down turn when recision hits us and we become cash-strapped.