Fear of Failure is Obstacle to Growth

Last updated on: September 17, 2008 at 6:52 pm By Rev. Dr. Todd Littleton

The big secret about successful human beings is that they've eliminated the fear of failure. To imitate these people we have to get rid first, of fear of criticism. We have to learn techniques that help us to overcome our passive inertia by doing something. It is as simple and as easy as that! The technique of the master has always been dynamic action. For instance a successful martial artist like Bruce Lee tried different approaches to train not only his body, but also his mind. He dared to be different and he succeeded. His traditional Chinese masters didn't agree with his teaching methods, neither that he taught non Orientals. He didn't mind being rejected by people he knew that from above he got a green light. He broke with tradition. Famous chefs, actors like James Dean were always bold. So, as you can see it is by doing not by just thinking big that is the highway to live a successful life. Our actions won't satisfy everybody. Allow me, please to use my personal experience. In 1976 here in Mexico it became obligatory to take a course about the development of our human resources. Over thirty people were enrolled in this first course. Must of these people were company owners, some of them had high positions only three of us were supervisors. The lecturer was a famous motivator. The first day I decided to change my previous passive behavior regarding participating in everything! I stared introducing myself to these very important people my handshakes were done with strength and very confident I made eye contact with everybody. Whenever the opportunity rose about volunteering in games dealing with tam work I was the first person to raise his hand. From the second day one I became the instructor aid. Read more

AIG is NATIONALISED – the Soviets have won!

Last updated on: September 17, 2008 at 5:22 am By Desh Kapoor

Ok, just a little news-flash: American Capitalism quietly passes into history. Federal Reserve is bailing out AIG - and American International Group ... well is now true to its name! It is owned by the Government of US and has subsidiaries worldwide. The Fed will extend a 24-month bridge loan of $85.0 billion to the insurer, in return for an unprecedented acquisition of a 79.9% stake in the firm by the central bank. Now, this acquisition of a private company by the US Government brings about interesting questions - what about the Joint Ventures that AIG has with companies in other countries in a sensitive and socially important area like insurance? For example, TATA-AIG. How does Government of India feel when one of the largest insurance company is substantially owned by the US Government? Read more

AIG close to the cliff; and a financial run down becomes a likelihood

Last updated on: September 16, 2008 at 8:48 pm By Desh Kapoor

This post is from the email sent by my friend, Bobby. His warnings and analyses have been PAT on. Now, AIG is on the verge of collapse.. it could happen any time! AIG INSURANCE TO FAIL The AIG Insurance is going to file for bankruptcy, so I would suggest that you review car insurance, home insurance, life insurance, and switch to new carriers - REVIEW ALL YOUR INSURANCE AND ANNUTIES. Most states will allow you to get back unused premiums. Most of us pay these premiums by credit cards, if you get after your credit card, you may be entitled to a refund on car insurance, home insurance, or life insurance. The politicans (McCain) are in favor of AIG failing, and it will likely be a scam on the elderly as they will lose pensions and life insurnace annuities (not sure if there is any federal protection of annuities). As a side note, I've been saying for years that it's not a good idea to purchase insurnace or protection if you can afford the risk, as when time comes to pay up -- these guys turn into fly-by-night operations. Sit on your money and keep it with you! If you have a cash balance plan and can cash out, it probably will make solid sense to get a check today (otherwise the whole thing may be worthless tomorrow). Why is AIG important? Well, many banks are INSURED by AIG itself! This insurance from AIG provides these banks the risk cover and helps keep their ratings in place! If AIG goes down.. it is a tail-spin of sorts! AIG is saying here that it has insured $307bn of corporate loans and prime residential mortgages that are on the balance sheets of banks, mostly European banks. The banks have bought this insurance to protect themselves against the risk that these loans would go bad, that borrowers would default. Their motive for doing so was to reassure their respective regulators - such as the FSA for UK banks - that these loans are of minimal risk. This guy puts it in the best way possible so let me put it in bold: If AIG went down, a number of banks' balance sheets would be mullered - there would a dangerous risk to the stability of the global financial system. Or to put it another way, AIG is so pivotal in the global financial system, it can't be consigned to the dustbin of history in a precipitous way. FDIC is potentially UNDERCAPITALIZED / Run on Retail Banking Nouriel Roubini, NYU's Stern School's professor has warned that we are seeing a run on the retail banks! As this article notes, FDIC, which ensures and pays up for the failed banks is ITSELF severely undercapitalized now! We are now looking at major bank and financial instiutions failures - and since FDIC has about 5% of the capital to take care of the Government insurance, there is a serious and a real danger to the liquidity of the market and safety of your money! Read more

Wall Street Dealers – thugs who can have the cake and eat it too

Last updated on: September 16, 2008 at 6:15 am By Desh Kapoor

This is a news item that many missed. Lehman Brothers went down today. What many don't know is that on Sunday afternoon, in a session only for the Wall Street dealers - these vultures who had already profited from the mess in the market, were allowed to reduce their exposure to Lehman brothers. The excuse? U.S. regulators and bankers were making last-ditch efforts on Sunday to prevent toxic assets from ailing Lehman Brothers spilling into global markets and rupturing investor faith in the international financial system. YEAH right! Basically in a unprecendented, surprising and unethical move - ONLY one class of investors were allowed to close their exposure to a bad investment - while millions of individual investors looked on counting their losses. The session was initiated by the Federal Reserve. Read more

How the Central Government and UP State Government HELPED terrorists bomb A'bad, Jaipur, and Delhi!

Last updated on: September 15, 2008 at 5:54 pm By Desh Kapoor

Given what is clearly and easily available to a guy sitting 10,000 miles away from India, I am amazed that there is NO discussion or outrage of substance going on in India - EVEN amongst the educated! If this is how we are going to accept our "fate" and rejoice our ignorance - then we might as well start writing obituaries for our kids as well! Any one wants to volunteer?I had talked of the pusillanimity of the Indian government authorities in dealing with terrorism. Now, there is proof that indeed Indian state governments are ACTUALLY helping the terrorists and helping them remain active due to a consistent appeasement policy! There is now evidence that the UP authorities had clearly obstructed the arrests of three SIMI terrorists who are now emerging as the central players in the serial bombing in Delhi. These three had ALREADY been identified by two other top terrorists leaders held in UP earlier this month. (Remember, that Modi had given specific intelligence to the PM and his Home Minister/National Security Adviser duo on Delhi to be the next target in Operation BAD). These three men had been identified by Shahbaz Hussain and Abul Bashar Qasmi (the same guy, who is being now touted as an "innocent" by the pseudo-secular brigade)! In fact, NDTV actually had a news article "Not enough evidence against SIMI?" - where it gave quotes from people who thought that Qasmi was even innocent! This kind of masochism just sickens one who can clearly see a motive to hit India from inside and through its own "intellectuals"! Both Qasmi and Husain told their interrogators that the three Azamgarh men had met with Abdul Subhan Qureshi, a top Mumbai-based SIMI operative, who is thought to have taught dozens of Indian Mujahideen operatives their bomb-making skills and authored the organisation’s e-mail manifestos. Qureshi, they said, had visited Azamgarh at least twice in August, soon after the Ahmedabad bombings, to discuss future attacks. New Delhi was chosen as a target during these meetings. This is how specific the intelligence input had gotten to!! And in the two weeks or so of having this kind of intelligence, the Government kept sitting and doing nothing! Why? because of the ABSOLUTE appeasement policy and complete pussies we have in our government machinery! Here is the reason why? Evidence on the central role of SIMI’s Uttar Pradesh networks in the Indian Mujahideen’s operations began to emerge in the course of the investigation into the December 2007 synchronised bombing of trial court buildings at Lucknow, Faizabad and Varanasi. Police learned that Jaunpur-based Mohammad Khalid Mujahid and Tariq Kazmi, using explosives provided by Jammu and Kashmir Harkat ul-Jihad-e-Islami commander Bashir Mir, had coordinated the trial court bombings. Read more

Financial Meltdown: Bloody Monday!

Last updated on: September 15, 2008 at 5:31 pm By Desh Kapoor

Lehman Brothers, the 4th largest investment bank in the world has folded. Close on the heels of the virtual metldown of Fannie and Freddie, the mortgage giants; this is another blow to the Financial markets. The losses for Lehman Brothers was in billions of dollars. Also, Merrill Lynch has "agreed" to be taken over by Bank of America for $50 bn. Over the last year it has written down more than $40 bn assets. Meanwhile AIG is in doldrums as well! Its shares have plummeted 42% and its losses are now to the tune of $18.5 bn over the last 3 quarters. Until recently, AIG was the world's largest Insurance company, and it is on the verge of folding as well. Meanwhile, Washington Mutual is already on probation. Its CEO was thrown out as well. Read more

Modi had warned.. was the PM Singh waiting for a call from terrorists??!

Last updated on: September 14, 2008 at 4:13 pm By Desh Kapoor

.. to their credit.. at least the terrorists sent an email.. oh.. well they got late by a few hours maybe.. But they gave the clues all over! Soon after the Ahmedabad blasts, a call was made allegedly from Sabarmati jail in Gujarat to Pakistan. The conversation was intercepted by the IB. The person who made the call (not named as it may hamper probe) told a person in Pakistan, Operation BAD had been successful. Based on this intercept, the IB and the Gujarat police decoded the message and came to the conclusion that BAD stood for Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Delhi. Gujarat Narendra Modi claimed that during his meeting with the Prime Minister, Home Minister and the National Security advisor he had warned them that investigations had revealed that Delhi would be the next target. And then, Modi did do his part to tell the PM, his Home Minister and the NSA about it. "About 10 days ago, Modi told Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Home Minister Shivraj Patil and National Security Adviser (NSA) M.K. Narayanan in Delhi that interrogation of the accused involved in the July 26 Ahmedabad blasts had revealed similar serial blasts were planned to take place in the national capital," Says, LK Advani! So, even if the terrorists phoned Dr. Manmohan Singh and his bunch of jokers - the Home Minister and National Security Advisor... they still would not have done anything! If at all, Dr. Singh has demonstrated that he is adept at rattling against the BJP - without much provocation at times - and has NO plan whatsoever on India's internal security! Heck, even the terrorists know this and have been MOCKING .. really, downright MOCKING the Government by sending out emails before and after the blasts about how they would do it! Such is the ignominy of Indian state currently! We have become such poor caretakers of our house. Read more

Hurricane Ike update from Houston (Katy)

Last updated on: September 14, 2008 at 4:51 am By Desh Kapoor

Last night Hurricane Ike hit Houston and its surrounding areas. This was my first experience of a hurricane. We had decided to ride it through. My analysis was very simple - First, I went to all the sites which gave the speeds that would hit our area and the number of models which were predicting that. Majority suggested Katy - the west most suburb - will be hit with winds of upto 65 mph. I believed that we could be hit anywhere between 40-75 mph winds depending on the direction of the hurricane. If the hurricane was just a little west, then the speeds could approach over 70 mph. Second, I looked for examples of such winds and damage that such winds could cause? My search revealed that such winds could break trees and throw lots of projectiles and in rare cases it could take the roofs off the houses. At >100 mph the roofs flying off became a more of a reality. I emptied the backyard, first of all. We did not board our windows... which a lot of people did (and not so smartly, I must say). The hurricane was moving in anti-clockwise motion and Katy being on the west side, would surely have been hit from the North or North East.. in some areas maybe from North West as well (at least a sheer of wind). So, quite obviously the direction of South was safe. But I saw most people who boarded their houses did so on the South and South West more than the North, which was kind of counter-intuitive! Read more

Serial Blasts in Delhi and fanatic pusillanimity of Indian Central Government!

Last updated on: September 14, 2008 at 3:10 am By Desh Kapoor

Five blasts have rocked New Delhi, killing 20 and injuring 90. The Indian Mujahideen - a new version of SIMI - has taken the responsibility for the blasts. The blasts took place in Ghaffar Market (Karol Bagh), Connaught Place (near Gopaldas Bhavan), and GK-I (M block market).. in quick succession. The scourge of Islamic terror is hitting India more and more. And the worst part - for the Government of India - is that these twisted minds from the India Mujhaideen group are sending emails with threats in a brazen manner. It is as if that they are ABSOLUTELY confident that they will not be caught. This was part of Operation "B-A-D" of these terrorists - Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Delhi. In over a dozen such attacks in the last 5 years since the Congress Government came to power NONE have been solved .. EXCEPT once.. and that was Narender Modi's efforts.. and had very little to do with Central Government's efforts! So, obviously the question is why should we Indians even look for people who cannot even handle the terror unleashed on the country and the situation gets SO out of hand that the terrorists can send threats to everyone brazenly and openly! One of the reason is that they know that nothing will really happen to them. And this is what is what puts the citizens of the country at a complete disadvantage and utter weakness! If the Central Government cannot guarantee the safety for its citizens why should it even be entrusted with the lives of the countrymen and strings of the power??!! Read more

HYPOCRITE MF Hussain had pulled his Meenaxi out due to Muslim protests

Last updated on: September 14, 2008 at 1:52 am By Desh Kapoor

I had said in my previous article about MF Hussain as to what a voyeur and HYPOCRITE he is. Remember he made that movie - Meenaxi? You know it was pulled out of the theaters? Do you know why??? There was a song that was penned by him with the words noor-un-ala-noor' (which stand for 'light of the superior kind' in Arabic) describe Prophet Mohammed. "The phrase has been lifted from the text of the Holy Quran. In the film, it describes the heroine's beauty. So the All Indian Muslim Council simpley protests in Mumbai.. and the movie was pulled out of all the theaters! Asked why? He says the following: Criticised by some Muslim organisations in the city for a song in the film, 'noor-un-ala-noor' , the maverick painter said, "I have spoken to Yash Raj Films, who are distributors of the movie. We will pull out the film from theatres nationwide." Refusing to explain why he was giving in to pressure from religious groups, he said, "It is my film. I have written, directed and produced it. So, it is my right to do anything I please with it. I have decided to stop its screening and I will do just that." Read more