OT..........
<"One last thing though, why would a wealthy, connected player "waste" his time hanging out on-line with a bunch of folks like us (speaking for myself <g>)?">
It’s a very interesting question you have posed. There are many reasons when I started the Idea thread it was to be bullish discussions with my own self. I am wasting my time with my own self hence most of my posts in ordinary days are addressed to myself.
I started spending a lot of time on it and I got hooked to it. I also take it as a matter of duty since I never leave anything unfinished. In my opinion, our ideas today define our future tomorrow.
This thread has given me a mirror image to my thinking. It’s a good thing to visit back years into my life and read what did I think then. How wrong I was or how correct I was. It’s a hindsight materialised. It’s a written record of my life like an open book. My ventures into the markets, life, social obligations and political theory, all is written here in a text easy to understand. ]
I have always thought that any kind of radical or extremist thought is dangerous to mankind. I have gone through a lot of upheavals in my life from early college days. I came from a small town where my father used to write letters to me every week explaining me the intricacies of life. I nearly lost all of them and today when I look back at my life and I try to find the greatest contributor who made what I am today, is my father. I wanted to leave something for my kids; Ideas became my best past time. A lot of time with me when such a noble goal has to be tackled for sake of continuous education, since you also know that we have home taught our children this was the best lesson they have for becoming a man and a honest citizen of the world, may be I am little ahead of my times but that is what I stand for family, giving time to children and giving quality time to family that is your best asset, rest everything is just iffy. The events of 11th Sept have even consolidated my thoughts.
Now I also know that my children are keen readers of my thread and they notice every word of it. In the last five years this forum has provided in our house great bonding of knowledge also sharing as my long absence from the house is never felt as the children, even my wife, keep visiting the thread to see what I am thinking about. Also when I am abused, and when eyes don’t contact, knowing me they know how I feel about it.
This said, I can see that a normal family would be surprised to write my life so openly but I think open life is the best life to lead and one does not have too much of contradictions to make, as he has to face what he has written before. This Internet access has also provided my children with a very good forum to educate. They know that no thought is perfect and the fluidity of continuous thinking process. No nation is perfect nor any idea is faultless. It is our desire to search for the unknown in order to find the pre-eminent. In this world we think that we live within geographical boundaries but that is not true, the boundaries have been lost, we live in a world that has open borders. Our pains are common; our threats result from the same sources. The ideological stratification is the biggest threat to mankind today. For me a small contribution would be to condemn all sorts of excesses. One example of this is that the Muslims hate me as an apostate and not very much liked by the other side as well.
In my humble opinion any idea would not garner any kind of attraction if it written with a hidden agenda. One has to rise above national boundaries and colour, creed and race. I look at humanity at large and try to make my little contributions in my little world, which is my thread here. I have noticed that most of the time, my thoughts would have not been recorded on a specific issue if this thread was not around or the thread on investor’s hub. I don't care how many people read it but I write it for my own self and for my children. I want them to know what I represent and what I expect from them. In this world where parents have very little time for their family and children are left on their own to grow, this internet has given me the tool to train my children in a manner that they become future citizens of mankind and not of a nation.
The optimism I have portrayed in seeing the market's future lays in ruin today. I lost heavily in my core but stayed with my hope, I knew US will come out of this slowdown but this was over my top, my thinking was so positive that I thought what a foolish optimist I was, only and only a terrorist attack on US could have done that to this greatest economy of the world, only and only ugliest of the attacks that human being cannot think would have taken the optimism away from majority of US citizens, they were not cowed into recession, they were spending and going out and buying houses, this one dastardly attack hurt optimism and confidence, but we will rise again with greater confidence and higher optimism, this is just a battle lost by forces of darkness at the top otherwise US economy would have never lost this battle. An Economy that I understand very well, a future that is built on hope as Greenspan says based on respect of contract for future. The enemies of the mankind have dealt a huge cowardly attack but they will lose this battle, we will win it and come out better.
I thought the world that has progressed beyond such destructive streaks of individuals. In my mind I had not provided for such a reason for markets to fall, people used to ask me "what will change you, Ike that will make you bearish?" This is exactly the kind of event in quality, content and ugliness that can kill many an optimist. I was an utter fool that I could not imagine it but I am happy not to think about such ugliness and happy about my inability not to be able to model it, that would have made me sick and I would like to live a positive life. Optimist that I am, I have to pay a price for that neglect of building pessimism in my model, but forces of darkness and terrorism would not be able to put a damper on my outlook on the prospects of economic revival of US.
As I look back on my posts from 11th September, world has become a different place. I am still optimistic but the damage to hope has been incalculable. Some events cannot be predicted, how a human can become so evil is beyond my comprehension and beyond me! That is one lesson I have learnt that sometime evil is real and in our life we have to give some room for such an occurrence. I made a serious error of analysis, which is a lesson I would have not gotten had the IDEA thread not been in existence. But look at how resilience this economy was; what did it take to break 9800? An act of extreme terror, nothing short of it would have given this economy or market a break below 9800 or even 10,000.
It is a way of life for me, I have hooked up to it and it is my best friend. When things became a little difficult here, I immediately and quietly started another thread, which none knew and I kept talking to myself. My whole purpose remained that I should chronologically write my feelings for markets or for any global event and record it for posterity. Independent minds like us do not get respect or coverage, since we don't tow any particular line; everyone seems to be upset with us. That is one sign of intellectual honesty because there is no absolute truth. When you try to be fair, to analyse a certain event you have to condemn ideologies that have produced such demagogues. This turns Islamists against me whereas when I talk about human rights of oppressed people, and then the oppressors get upset with me. It's a strange phenomenon, in one time some people will be my greatest friends at other times the very same people will be on the opposite side of the aisle. The deductions that I have made have led me to believe that anyone who is perpetually able to satisfy everyone is a person with no philosophy.
The driving factor that leads me to write is that it's in my blood. My father who was a doctor in 1917 from King Edward College, Lahore and went on to serve in Burma and China and serve with distinction in British land forces as a medical doctor during the Second World War, had contributed a lot in my intellectual development. This was in 1950, at the age of sixty, after his first wife had passed on, he decided to marry my mother who was only 26, I have known my father only as an old man, he used to take my finger and walk me to the municipal library of the town and at a very young age would introduce me to knowledge. He would insist that we should go with him to the library every evening between 6.00pm and 7.00pm in a very small town, those memories stuck to my mind. I don't think that I have much to add nor have I contributed much to mankind's treasures but as an ordinary fellow I understand my size very well.
I know that writing makes one to read his own life with a benefit of hindsight and that is the greatest benefit any parent can provide for his offspring. On this thread I have memories of good times and very bad times but my children have the ability to test me on what I write and what people write about me, on that count I cannot be an enigma or contradiction in my house. I will be looked into my eyes and told, "this is not what you stand for and this is not what you portray", this kind of self-discipline avoids contradiction in my life and makes me a better person. I become more tolerant and able to reach out, recently things were not very helpful on the Idea of the Day thread and my kids were reading all the confrontations. However our mutual ability to come out of this intact has increased a great deal of mutual respect for Peter, Jtech, Freddie, JDin, OJ and myself. These were characters that were in cyberspace but the arguments were real. The drama was played out in front of an anxious audience who were all disturbed to see what's happening. Our ability to come out of it intact is a lesson I bestowed to my children. Which school can teach them that kind of lesson?
This proved that their father and the need to be flexible in life. Nobody's perfect and we all make mistakes, saying sorry for making a mistake or hurting someone is a human blessing, not a curse. Moreover it is also for my children to understand that whatever you grow up to be and where you are, they should realise that life is a continuous process of learning and application, keep applying yourself and be positive. That is the lesson this thread helps to instil in three young men that I have an interest in. If it helps other people, good enough, I wish and I sincerely believe that I am qualified enough to help other people. In no way do I think that I am perfect in any way of thinking, we analyse and try to go back, testing our analyses with the benefit of hindsight. That is the core purpose; in the process you always learn and keep improving yourself. My father used to write letters every week, as explained in the earlier part of the post, and I lost nearly all of them. Today I regret it and wish that those precious remnants that defined the pattern of my thinking would have survived my irresponsible handling. It was not to be!
I'm sure 20 years from now my children and their children will read these posts and enjoy them. Reading the follies and lighter side of life, that is the best treasure I'll bestow, my involvement and job in Kuwait is not going to leave anything tangible to them. For posterity my thinking good or bad, nonetheless since I'm a global humanist and think of mankind as one huge embodiment, I'm sure that in the following decades when the world will become one country they will think that our father had something to say, or he did contribute in his own little way that will be my reward. I am playing for the long haul and a long innings, Condor..just hope that I finish it like Babe Ruth.ggg |
