"Verily in this is a Message for any that has a heart and understanding or who gives ear and earnestly witnesses (the truth). (The Noble Quran, 50:37)"
"That is because they believed, then they rejected Faith: So a seal was set on their hearts: therefore they understand not. (The Noble Quran, 63:3)"
"Or do those in whose hearts is a disease, think that God will not bring to light all their rancour? (The Noble Quran, 47:29)"
"Of them there are some who (pretend to) listen to thee; but We have thrown veils on their hearts, So they understand it not, and deafness in their ears; if they saw every one of the signs, not they will believe in them; in so much that when they come to thee, they (but) dispute with thee; the Unbelievers say: "These are nothing but tales of the ancients." (The Noble Quran, 6:25)""... God might test what is in your breasts and purge what is in your hearts. For God knoweth well the secrets of your hearts.(The Noble Quran, 3:154)"
"And that which is (locked up) in (human) breasts is made manifest- (The Noble Quran, 100:10)"
The word qalb in Arabic means heart as well as intelligence
In the Arabic language the word ‘heart’ is also used to connote one’s centre of understanding.
In the English language heart means an organ in the body which pumps blood. The same word heart is also used for the centre of thought, love and emotion. Today we know that brain is the centre of thought, love and emotion. Yet while expressing emotions a person is likely to say "I love you from the bottom of my heart". Imagine a scientist telling his wife, "I love you from the bottom of my heart" and the wife replies, "Don’t you even know the basics of science, that the brain is responsible for the emotions and not the heart? In fact you should say I love you from the bottom of my brain."
When brain cells are put in a petri dish, they die. But a heart cell continues to beat, until it goes into fibrillation ie: beats too wildly and dies. But put two heart cells together, beating separately and they soon start to beat in tandem, sending out a message to each other. Kinda explains the intricacies of human emotion, doesn't it?
RM5 billion capital injection into Valuecap viable, says Nor Mohamed
KUALA LUMPUR, WED:The government’s move to inject RM5 billion into Valuecap Sdn Bhd, the government investment agency, to buy undervalued stocks in the local bourse is a viable investment, Second Finance Minister Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop told the Dewan Rakyat today.
He said this was based on Valuecap’s growth and its higher profit between 2003 and now. Valuecap’s portfolio had grown from RM5 billion initially to RM8 billion now. Full story.
"In 2007, the space junkyard grew by more than 100,000 pieces. That’s more than any other year since people started launching satellites into space. The problem of space junk is not going away, and scientists are watching closely."
Read more here about the growing problem of space junk (hopefully the political litter will incinerate upon reentry...)
AS governments around the world are rushing to guarantee deposits with their financial institutions in the wake of a spreading financial crisis, the question is if Malaysia should follow suit — and when.
If Malaysia decides to do so, it won’t be the first time. During the Asian financial crisis of 1997/98, there was a significant shift of money from local to foreign banks, which were perceived to be safer than the local banks.
To stop the situation from worsening and to ensure that local banks had sufficient deposits to provide enough liquidity for their banking activities, the Government gave an assurance that deposits with local banks were safe. Savers were assuaged and the shift dwindled.
Now we are in an ironically happy situation — relatively speaking that is — where many people perceive local banks, because of their lack of exposure to the US subprime mortgage crisis, to be stronger than some of the foreign ones.
It may be just too early for the Government to think of giving another such assurance to depositors right now since the banks here are little exposed to the credit and lending crisis overseas and their critical ratios all still look good.
But there is no harm in giving some deep thought to the issue, especially since it is central to the health of a financial system. If depositors lose confidence in the financial institutions and withdraw their money, liquidity will simply dry up and lead to a total collapse of the system.
Right now, there is a deposit insurance scheme in operation. This is sponsored and supported by the Government under Perbadanan Insurans Deposit Malaysia or PDIM, the deposits insurance body. Under the scheme, each account holder per bank is insured up to RM60,000 in the event of bank failure. This covers the over 90% of depositors who have RM60,000 or less in deposits per bank.
But the amount of deposits covered is a whole lot less than that because the large depositors in the system are government bodies, corporations, partnerships and businesses, each of whose accounts can run into the millions.
Many of them will maintain just a couple of accounts and it would be too much trouble and too little benefit to spread it over 36 banks and gain an insurance coverage of just RM2.16mil (36 times 60,000) under the current deposit insurance scheme.
Under the PDIM scheme, RM191.5bil of deposits were insured as at Dec 31, 2007. But the total deposits as at the same date with commercial banks in Malaysia amounted to RM821bil. That means less than a quarter of total deposits are insured.
While the scheme is good for ensuring that the bulk of depositors is protected in the event of bank failure, it does not insure the bulk of deposits in the system. Thus, the deposit insurance scheme that Malaysia has is one that protects small savers but is of little help when it comes to problems that can affect the entire financial system — more than that is required to stop a systemic failure.
So far, contagion has not resulted in severe disease yet. The financial system is sound. But if the economy slips into recession, and output of goods and services contracts as worldwide demand falls, things can get sour here. And if there is a severe fall in property prices, it will worsen things.
And then there are peculiar problems in guaranteeing bank deposits — there could be a surfeit of deposits from overseas coming in here to take advantage of a government guarantee.
Conversely, if neighbouring Singapore decides to guarantee deposits, there could be an outflow of funds from here to there if we do not follow suit.
Yes, it may still be a bit premature to talk about guaranteeing all deposits in the banking system. But it is clear we must continue to watch the situation very closely and, if it is time to give that assurance, we simply must.
P. Gunasegaram is managing editor at The Star. He does not believe that one solution fits all.
Stating that the country’s economic fundamentals were strong, he added that Malaysia’s international reserves were high at US$119bil with a large current account surplus.
(yeah, mebbe we can use the reserves to give out welfare payments to unemployed Malaysians to feed their families eh?...)
Dr Subramaniam said that many of the Malaysian workers in Singapore were unskilled and employed in the manufacturing sector.
Asked about whether the ministry had a contingency plan for such a situation in Malaysia, he said that Malaysia would have excess job vacancies as work presently being done by foreigners could be offered to locals instead.
According to economic data released by Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Industry, the island republic will be the first Asian economy to fall into a technical recession.
A technical recession is generally defined as two consecutive quarters of contraction in economic output.
Dr Subramaniam, after an hour-long meeting with his Singapore counterpart Gan Kim Yong, said they had discussed various issues.
On instances of Malaysian workers being cheated in Singapore, he said that the Malaysian High Commission had received 1,250 complaints within the first nine months of this year.
Dr Subramaniam added that there was something wrong with the recruitment mechanism and the ministry would have to check on the matter.
Anwar seeks budget review after crisis
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim said he will call for a review of the country’s 2009 budget when parliament reconvenes today, saying it had become “obsolete” in the face of the global financial crisis.
The former finance minister told reporters yesterday the Barisan Nasional government, which announced the budget in August with a higher budget deficit, was in denial about the effects of a near breakdown of the world’s financial system on Malaysia. Anwar’s move to question the government’s financial management may bring him face-to-face with Najib Razak — the current finance minister and successor to the Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi — who now stands in his way to take power.
“One of the first things would be a review of the budget figures, most countries have done that, including Singapore. We need to do that as an urgent matter,” said Anwar.
“Of course, this does not seem to be the direction and policy of the present government, including the finance minister. We cannot work on obsolete figures.”
In August, Abdullah used the budget to cut personal income tax, pay more to pensioners and spend billions of dollars to improve food security and rural infrastructure in a bid to soothe angry voters stung by the rising living costs.
Spending was expected to push the budget deficit to 3.6% of gross domestic product in 2009 and 4.8% this year, way above the government’s earlier targets.
Anwar, who vowed to overthrow the government, promised to revive the South East Asian economy, which lost some of its attractiveness as an investment destination to faster-growing regional rivals.
He insisted that he has won over enough defectors from the government to form a new administration. But an earlier self-imposed deadline of September 16 passed and his calls to recall parliament for a confidence vote were denied.
The 61-year old former deputy premier denied news reports that he planned to seize power just before an important Muslim festival in early December.
“I have not set any dates as yet. All the foundations are in place,” Anwar said. – Reuters
Nur Jazlan (picture), 42, who surprised many in the party by declaring his candidacy, said Umno required young leaders to strengthen the party and help prepare it to face the 13th general election.
"We should accept the fact (that the young do not support Umno) and work towards making changes.
"Unfortunately, over the past six months, I feel that nothing much has been done and we have yet to learn the lesson (of the general election)."
Nur Jazlan said the younger generation felt that Umno was not relevant to them, and this was dangerous.
"The problem is that Umno leaders are not in touch with the younger generation. My intention (of contesting the deputy president's post) is to represent the younger generation and show them that we in the party listen to and appreciate their views."
Nur Jazlan said he felt Umno's deputy president must be someone who was relatively younger than the president.
"That is why I am offering myself as there are some potential candidates who are older than Datuk Seri Najib Razak. I do not think that is right.
More here.
