Go for Gold?

K.G.F. Kolar Gold Fields, Chapter 1 (Kannada, 2018)

It is touted as the highest-grossing Kannada film, the fourth highest-earning Hindi-dubbed film after the Bahuubali movies and 2.0, an international success and was feted at the National Film Awards. It was dubbed to Hindi, Telegu, Tamil and Malayalam almost immediately after its Kannada release with much success. And Chapter 2 is in the making. Am I missing something here that everyone else seems to enjoy? And, to say that this is one of the films that give people a reason to watch movies coming from the South, as quoted in a blog and recommended to me, is just too much.

Just how many times have we seen a child wronged at childhood to grow up with vengeance against the rich and the powerful as mighty as Sri Rama himself to be a Robin Hood to the poor? How many times have we seen unknowns infiltrating into gangs just to disintegrate the whole setup from within? Think Nayagan, Thalapathi and the umpteen Bollywood and Kollywood productions. Even the hero's nickname in the film is not original. I remember Sanjay Dutt calling himself as 'Rocky', a scrambler wielding kid-wonder who was able to achieve the unimaginable in an 80's crowd-pleasing matinee.

The film narrates how a cartel enslaved people in a gold mine to extract the precious metal in secrecy in cahoots with the politicians. Even though it is made to appear that gold is smuggled from overseas, it was mined locally in a clandestine manner. Everybody wants to have a stronghold in its control, even gangsters from abroad. To get this message across, viewers have to endure senseless violence, ruthless decapitation, gravity-defying stunts and larger-than-life pyrotechnic display. Again and again, there are repeated scenes of the macho hero walking away, leaving behind a trail of a destructive cloud of explosions and cadaver.

What spurred my interest while watching the movie was the fascination of man to gold. History of gold is as old as the modern history of mankind. It had been a fascination with Man for ages. The destruction of Aztec, as well as many of the advanced civilisations in the Americas, were solely because of gold. Rappage of India by Muslim invaders and 'traders' from the West was also due to this precious metal.

It is said the temples of India in ancient times were so rich with gold that they could finance many of its international naval expeditions as well as create a conducive environment for research on science, mathematics and Nature. Its wealth became its very downfall as it also drew many barbaric tribes. The gold stock had to be locked away in underground vaults only which were only to be lost in the annals of history. 

The Indian diaspora has always looked at gold as their fixed deposits. In times of needs, jewellery is still there for the rescue. No need laborious credit application and credit ratings. The friendly pawnshop owners are always willing to take your piece at low-interest rates. Gold will go a long way.

In one of the numerous Youtube presentations that I received recently, an economist was suggesting that perhaps with the amount of gold lying around in India, it could be used as leverage to secure loans for small businesses. Now that there is talk some countries are trying to put gold back as the golden standard as the value of currency instead of the Greenback, this could be a good option. With the colossal amount of gold lying around in India, this could be an exciting thing for the even big players to look into. But then, nobody is going to be so open to display their hidden treasures in public. It may attract the attention of the wrong kind. of thieves and legal pilferers from the internal revenue service. These significant changes require political will but the powers that be are quite content with the status quo. Many third-world leaders have parked their assets in foreign lands. Do they really care what becomes of the country they lead?

Dhanteras – Dhan meaning wealth and teras meaning the 13th day –
 precedes Diwali and is dedicated to summoning longevity,
wealth and prosperity. ©Jayanto Banerjee.

According to one story, the young son of King Hima was fated to die of snakebite on the fourth day after his wedding. His wife would have none of it. She sealed the entrances to the royal chamber with all her gold ornaments and, to dispel the darkness and snakes, she surrounded the place with lamps. All night long, she told her husband stories to keep him awake. The snake that came to kill him rested on the roof of the chamber, listening to the stories, and slithered away at dawn. It was the god of death, Yama, himself, and the princess had fended him off. The day is now Dhanteras when women light lamps, worship Lord Yama and seek protection for their loved ones. Lord Dhanvantri, who expounded the principles of Ayurveda, and is a Vishnu avatar, is believed to have emerged on this day and it is customary to pray to him for good health. Kuber, the lord of wealth, and Lakshmi are also central figures in the pujas. (Hindustan Times)

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Debt is money; Money is debt!

The Web of Debt

(The Shocking Truth About Our Money System And We Can Break Free)

Ellen Hodgson Brown, JD.

I grew up confused. On one hand, I was told to live within my means, to balance my income to my expenditure and to ensure that there is always something for savings. Being in debt was frowned upon. On the other hand, on the other side of my family, living on credit was a way of life. Nothing wrong to borrow, they would say. Even nations take huge loans.

In the modern world, it seems that one is deemed to be rich by his assets but the properties are leveraged by debts. In other words, he is only as rich as much as he can pay the interest on his debt. Money begets money and the poor get poorer. The divide between the haves and the have nots becomes more apparent as the days go by. One small hiccup in this set-up and the house of cards comes down crumbling.

 Nations that have secured high amounts of loans apparently have a higher credit rating on their credibility. Even our former premier was gung-ho in announcing that credit rating was so good that we can go on borrowing and borrowing; he did not talk about paying back!

That is what the world has come to. It is deeply intertwined in a web of debt. Money was initially utilised in change for goods, services and creativity when barter exchange proved problematic. It was working fine until international trade and imperialism came to the picture. Paper money used to be redeemable for gold, hence its value was the value placed by the people on the amount of gold it was backed with. 

The British Colonial masters decided on the value of money as the King printed it, deciding on its inherent value. The American colonies started printing their own money, which irked the British and that eventually led to the American Revolution. The Boston Tea Party and American Independence were all about money and taxes.

Over the years, there have been numerous attempts to control the value of money. In ancient times, tally sticks were used as a way to record money borrowed. Later, gold and silver were used to fix its value. Banks in past actually cheated by circulating more paper money than the gold they had to back them. Basically, the political game was who gets to control this issuance of money. Problems started creeping in when bankers started owning gold. They fixed the value of gold. Speculators who trade gold encourage transborder movements of this precious metal which then devalues the currency of a country. Its buying power then declines.

By the end of the 19th century, there was a call to take charge of the supply of money in the country. Bankers were usurping all the nation's wealth and were keeping the hard working general public in poverty. There were calls to clip the wings of these giant conglomerates. Unfortunately, things only got worse in 1913 with the establishment of the Federal Reserve Act.  The issuance of currency became the responsibility of a select group of bankers whose sole purpose of existence is not national interest but the profit of its shareholders. These bankers, with their tentacles of bankers across the Atlantic, were profiteers who had no qualms in profiting from both sides of the warring factions. In fact, war is essential for their existence as it generates income. 

The Federal Reserve is not quite 'federal' in its role. It is owned by an exclusive club whose activity is anybody's guess. Neither do they have any 'reserves' to save the nation from catastrophes. Its President decides the direction of the monetary system of the nation.

Over generations, the unholy unions of unscrupulous businesses and corrupt politicians have been balanced by the nationalistic spirit and the desire to do the right thing. Traditionally, printing of money has been viewed as dangerous which could lead to inflation. In practice, however, many US Presidents have shown that judicious issuance of Greenback has saved the nation from collapse. Lincoln did it to pay debt and win the Civil War. 

As it stands now, the world lives on credit. The Federal Reserve prints fiat money with nothing backing its value. They do not need to do it as the US dollar is backed no longer by gold or silver but by a piece of paper printed by them. Fractional banking, venture (vulture) capitalism, currency attack, off-shore banking, derivatives trading have brought populations to its knees. Nations' currencies are devalued and interests need to be paid in US Dollars. If they default, more loans are given. Citizens are taxed to pay for this.  People are enslaved through compound interests. They have to resort to double incomes and find means to tighten their belt further.

One of the founding fathers of the USA, John Adams, said that there are two ways to conquer a nation. One is through the sword and the other is through debt. This second option seems to be the modus operandi of the Cabal these days. The unholy union of political leaders and bankers spells danger to the country but resistance is just futile. A socialist minded, people-centric troublemaker leader would just be replaced easily. There is enough wealth to satisfy the needs of the people but not its greed. There is always another person anytime ready to sell his soul to the hydra-headed monster.

Traditional economics suggest that the market forces will balance up the supply and demand conundrum. Modern economists, however, posit that the state needs to meddle to put things straight. In the post 1929-depression period, timely intervention by Roosevelt through infrastructure development and de-pegging of the dollar.

Conventional teaching tells us, from the experiences of Japanese Banana Notes, the post-WW1 Weimar Republic and Sokarno's Indonesia, that printing of money can bring about hyperinflation. There are instances too of countries who temporarily solved their monetary woes through this manner. It makes perfect sense for the state to print money for services. Instead of raising prices, it would increase productivity especially when employment opportunities are available.

The web of debt is made up of petrol, bonds, bankers and corrupt politicians. They create enticing Ponzi schemes to lure promising leaders of the rich nations to loans and investment plans. They would also rush to open up their currency markets to enable speculated manipulations. These countries, in time to come, would be strapped of cash. These same vultures will send their own agents via IMF and World Bank to further impoverish them with one-sided recovery packages to get the debtors to sink further into the quicksand of helplessness.

The author, through the 500 over pages of the book, highlights how the monetary mafia creates havoc in many countries around the world. She also discusses how many nations, including Dr Mahathir of Malaysia, have come up with ways to reduce the dependence on using US Dollars in international trade. One of the suggestions includes fixing currencies to particular 'basket of commodities'.

Word of appreciation to Prof Dr Ahamed Kameel Mydin Meera





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More than a pretty face!

Bombshell: The Story of Hedy Lamarr (2017, Documentary)

“Any girl can be glamorous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid.” Hedy Lamarr. 

I bet you did not know that the image of Snow White that we have in our minds, thanks to Disney's classic cartoons, is based on the features of the then dubbed as the most beautiful woman of the world, Hedy Lamarr. Even Catwoman's representation is of hers. There was a time when every actress wanted to spot her similar hairstyle, centre-parted dark hair. Beneath the beauty that she possessed, there remained an inventive scientific mind waiting to create something new.

This Viennese daughter of a Jewish banker, Hedy Kiesler, was a free-spirited lass when at the spur of the moment acted in a dirty German film, 'Ektase' which bewildered her the rest of her adult and professional life. She married an arms merchant (to the Nazis and Mousillini) soon after her fame at Austrian movie set later. Things took a turn after Hitler and his Jewish-hating propaganda took centre stage. Her father, her idol, succumbed to a heart ailment. She staged an escape plan for herself. Swapping clothes with her maid and stitching her money and jewellery in her tunic, she made a dash out of Vienna on a bicycle.

Hedy Lamaar ©Pinterest

She landed in London where Louis B Meyer (of MGM) was scouting for talents. Contracted, she made her debut in a 1938 Hollywood film, Algiers. Struggling through the stereotype that the cinema world gave her as an exotic seductress and the ghost of Ektase, she had her ups and downs. Despite her gruelling schedule in Hollywood, in the nights, she worked in her small lab at home.

It was at this juncture that her full potential as an inventor came to fore. She is said to have given Howard Hughes, the eccentric billionaire inventor, the idea for a brand new design for the wings of his planes. During the heights of WW2, when most Hollywood actresses were content with making special appearances to entertain the US Army and to sell War Bonds, she and a composer-pianist, George Antheil, were busy inventing. When the Navy was paralysed by the German U-boats which could jam the Naval torpedoes, they came up with the idea of a 'frequency hopping' system which could bypass the German interference. They patented this invention, but the Navy was not keen to use this design for a non-military layperson.

Her beauty was also her gilded cage. Perhaps, the feminist she was and the intelligence that she possessed proved too overwhelming to many of her partners in her many (six) failed marriages. She is best remembered as Delilah in 1945 'Samson and Delilah'. Her mega production, The Loves of Three Queens, could not be distributed as no distributors wanted to take it.
Her later life was a sad one riddled with court cases, depression, drugs, plastic surgeries and more surgeries. She spent her last few years as a recluse.

Her 'frequency hopping system' is the basis of GPS, Blue Tooth, Wi-Fi and military satellite technologies. In the later years, she was given due recognition for her discovery.

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That elusive pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!

My father used to buy the lottery tickets and 4D numbers religiously without fail in the hope that one day the Goddess of Prosperity, sitting on a golden lotus would one day shower her petals of wealth in abundance on him. As far as I know, he had never won anything big or small in these gambles! Being as secretive as he is, maybe, he did but he never told anyone of us!

Just the other day, there was a feature article on Mamak restaurants in the Sunday papers. It narrated how the Mamaks have literally landscaped how, when and what Malaysians eat. They kowtow to all the whims and fancies of their customers, poor or rich, as long as you have money no matter how small your purchase is. All they want is your money (don’t everybody?) and the cheap immigrant workers are there to dance to the tune of the customers all day long (and night as some are 24-hour restaurants) to receive abuses from customers whilst the fat bosses buy more gold for their wives and prosper them. In their zest to meet their customer demand and competition from the newly emerging kopi tiam concept lifestyle shops, the mamaks (mamak restaurants) have been hurled accusations of encouraging unhealthy eating habits, sedentary lifestyle and cultivating lepak (hanging around aimlessly) culture. An example of this is sprouting of wide LCD screen TVs at their premises which can be pre-dated from the time of commencement of 2006 FIFA World Cup games. They now screen European nocturnal (by our time) soccer games in the wee hours of the morning to the delight of insomniac night birds. But wait! People who want to lepak will lepak anywhere. Is it not healthier to gulp non-alcoholic beverages a the mamaks than ye good ol' ale down at Finnegan's?

Since they were at it, they also nailed the mamaks for the reason for societal obesity!

The kopi tiam shops are no different than their competitors. They thrive on their patrons' yearn for the comfort of nostalgia and plucking their childhood memories by serving old traditional Malayan and peranakan food, served by foreign workers who probably do not know that Malaysia has 14 states and they will charge you 4 times more than the mamaks!

Talking about gold earlier, I remember listening to a radio interview recently of a childhood friend of mine, Meer Sadik, and his multi-million company dealing with gold and diamond. Meer Sadik bin Habib Mohamad started Standard 1 in 1970 in Hutchings Primary School in Penang with me. We played and worked together in Hutchings and went to Penang Free School. In 1981/82, he pursued the study of gemology in Indiana, USA presumably to continue his father's business. His father had a small jewellery shop (Habib Jewels) in Ah Quee Street in Penang. Over the years, with Meer's ingenuity, hard work, enterprising skills and business acumen, he managed to bring this small retail business to such dizzying heights that the name Habib Jewels has become synonymous with diamonds in this country.

Going through the interview, we realize that our forefathers have always given a lot of respect to the strength of gold in times of need. When in dire straits, there is always your mother's jewels and the friendly Kedai Pajak Gadai manned by the shrewd Chinaman with thick-rimmed glasses, Pagoda singlet and black shorts to dish out money for you at a reasonable interest rate, instead of having to lose your pride and honour by asking from friends or relatives. Of course, you do not want to be seen hanging (lepakking) around the Pajak Gadai shop just in case you are spotted by your friends! 6 months later, you either redeem or re-pawn your gold, no questions asked as long as you fork out the appropriate money. I know, because it was our local bank before HSBC came around and even afterwards!

The final take-home message is this... The proverbial pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is anything but an illusion. It is at the end point of our undying dedication and hard work in the kaleidoscopic ride in the journey of life parched with trials and tribulations. So, strive on... Another gem on Vesak Day! Lord Buddha's day of enlightenment!