A Honourable Cup of Coffee

How a coffee shop honours its citizens with just a cup of free coffee paid by a fellowman.

So, they all got along famously.

Atrocious Malaysian English

Real sucks

It is indeed sickening to read such letters as these from current undergraduates at Malaysian universities.

This letter was written by a non-Malay in a premier private university where English continue to be a bane.

You can only cry when you read such a letter.

Atrocious!

Where is our future?

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Mrs.XXX, i am October Intake UTAR new degree student , my name is ______ from kampar, i am facing financial problem after i successful register Utar degree course, now i am stay at Kampar and open school already.

As i know UTAR can let student to borrow PTPTN loan to complete Degree. But after i successful register Degree course, UTAR stuff just tell me UTAR are not offer student to apply PTPTN loan on this semester, and i need to pay course fee and register fee first.

Sure i come from poor family, my family income below RM 1600 per month. My family never and not able to pay my fee around RM4000 at my first semester, i need to pay the bill before 23 october, if not i
forced to leaving school, i am very anxious now!

Before I am getting news from Mr.__________, may be i can getting financial aid from Mrs.XXX, so the purpose i send the gmail to Mrs.XXX is i requesting for financial aid to start and continue my degree course program in UTAR, i really want to start my study life and dream at UTAR.

EPF Operations on Bursa KL

Trader or Investor?

I doubt I can give EPF the moniker as saviour of the contributing members.

Why so?

Generally, it is credited with rogue play with its hireling agents punting and pitting against each other.

Purposefully  or inadvertently, it creates volume play on the Bursa KL.

These agents play up certain counters, sell down others and then  support yet others.

You can see them selling blue-chips down the gutter as if they have made a lot of money and it is time to divest.

In the hood-wink business?

Then they go into counters which are controversial which puts EPF contributor funds at risk.

When is enough, enough?

When is it time to sell?

Observe their buying and selling on the Bursa KL the last few months.

Today, they sell Digi, then tomorrow they buy it back.

Then they buy YTL Corp; only to sell it back the next day.

You can see this pattern quite constantly.

What is the EPF up to?

Is this ethical investing?

Flight-Inversion and Belly Descent

Flight Ace?

Is the premise of this celluloid presentation plausible?

Captain Whip Whitaker, the mother of all alcoholics pilots a plane in foul weather, took liquor while in the pilot seat and slept for more than twenty minutes while the second pilot took charge.

Drunken  Captain Whip Whitaker

Then a mishap occurred when the plane nose-dive. Going into manual mode, he inverted the plain in mid-dive, leveled it and flew it and finally landed belly down in a church field.

The charming Kelly Reilly

There were 6 casualty including a flight attendant he was having a tryst with.

Inverted Flight

For public consumption and to send the right message, the drunken captain confessed and was sent to prison for almost all of his natural life.

This is one brooding movie.

Vivacious Nadine Velazquez

Those  are the "bad things".

The good things, he was reunited with his son he never knew while serving prison and he kicked the alcoholic habit.

I would not want to say too much of this Robert Zemeckis movie but there were some tense moments.

Overall, it was watchable especially the pretty faces of Kelly Reilly and Nadine Velazquez.

Bernie: But for a Dark Moment

Lovable Mostly

This is about one of the best Jack black movie ever to come our way. Jack Black is in the "death business" of a mortician but his role in  Carthage, Texas grew beyond the funeral home with his pivotal role in the church as his influence spread throughout the community.

A Dalliance that ended in death

He became likable and lovable and could even make Marjorie Nugent, the most dislikeable of characters in Carthage to soften her hear for Bernie.

 Matthew as the Go-getting Sheriff Buck

However, her possessiveness of Bernie got better of her and in a dark  moment of weakness, Bernie shot her in the back with her armadillo gun. He then kept her copse in the fridge waiting for a good time to give her the perfect funeral which never did come.

Bernie's trial had to be taken out of Carthage as the jury there will certainly return a verdict favourable to Bernie.

Found guilty of murder, Bernie served life and has yet to be released.

Well paced movie and you will definitely enjoy it.

Watch out for Jack Black-he really sings for real  like one charming canary!

By the way, this film is based on a true life story.

LPI-Not Even a Trading Buy These Days

London Pacific Insurance Berhad

This is a great counter or what?

Apart from attractive dividend payouts, there is a  capital gain of close to almost 31 % since the bonus and rights issue in 2010.

At about the peak price of more than RM 15.00, it asked for a cash-call of RM 7.00, a haircut of almost more than 50%.

Today, assuming you had bought one lot of LPI in 2010 at RM 15.00, it would mean that after the ex-bonus and rights, you would have 1,600 units of LPI.

Total outlay would be RM 15,000 ( for the purchase) +RM 700 paid for the rights of 100 units. As such the total investment is  RM 15,700.

At today's price of close to RM 15.00, it would mean you have created value of up to RM 24,000 (1600 units x RM 15.00).

As such, the value, without calculating the payout of yearly dividends of 75% in 2011 and 65% for 2012, the return is RM 8,300. If you add RM 1,400 dividends, that will a grand total of RM 9,700.

Taking a 24 months investment period and annualising it, we would have a gross of RM 4,850 or 31% return to capital.

Today, at a peak of RM 14.70, how much will it go?

There is a dividend of RM 50.00 to be paid soon before January 2013 is out. At today's price, it
should to RM14.20.

But would it?

Let's assume it did.

But how long will it stay at this newly adjusted price?

Remember-it is hardly traded and a technical price rebound is always possible given its tight supply.

Unless it is a continuous bad season of sorts, LPI will likely be left unscathed.

Only weak holders will throw out their stocks only to regret it when it bounced upwards again.

I do not expect any corporate restructuring anytime soon in LPI.

If at all there is, it would be Teh Hong Piow taking it private as LPI does not need to raise any market capital  currently.

So, as a stock caught in a narrow price rut , will it go up?

Your guess is as good as mind

Django Unchained- Licence for Violence

Return to the Spaghetti western era

If it is a Tarantino outing, expect a lot of action and a lot of explosions.

Here, we see Jamie Foxx together with Christoph Waltz, his German bounty hunter partner taking on Leo DiCaprio, a slave owner on the Candieland Plantation and freeing his childhood lover, Kerry Washington.

The lovely Kerry Washington

As usual, with any Quentin Tarantino show, it's all blood and gore.

Senseless killing with a simplistic plot.

If you like the hey-day of the Italian spaghetti westerns, you will like this movie!