Meditation on joy

I had Sister Wendy's Book of Meditations for years and today I rediscovered the book when I was cleaning up my place.  Sister Wendy Beckett is a South African-born British art expert and Britain's most famous hermit nun, who came to fame in the 1990's when BBC filmed three celebrated series - Sister Wendy's Grand Tour, Odyssey and Story of Painting.  Her tremendous insights into and knowledge of the paintings, coupled with her outspoken and character of steel, gained her instant favour as an art critic among British and also American households.

When my eyes landed on the page which contained the following painting, Baby in Red Chair c.1810-30, I smiled from my heart.  The unknown American artist painted this baby whom he saw in Pennsylvania.  The baby looked completely contented and showed pure joy, basked in the love of her family with absolute confidence. 

Though life offers its many challenges, we should not forget the feelings when we are protected and loved, and more importantly, we should not forget to love ourselves.

The Virtual Choir by Eric Whitacre

It is simply heaven when beautiful music is combined with technology.  As Eric said, people will go at length to connect with each other.

The Virtual Choir Presentation by Eric Whitacre

How did they do it?

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• Music as Unifying Force (momentswetreasure.wordpress.com)

How many shopping baskets do 100 Euros cost around the world?

Every four months, the global team at ING look at the relative prices of a basket of goods all around the globe - their measure of Purchasing Power Parity (PPP).  The shopping basket consists of 25 products or services including food, non-food consumables, energy and services.  Looking at how many shopping baskets 100 Euros can buy will give us a sense of which local currencies are cheap or expensive.

Using this measure, emerging market (EM) currencies such as Mexican Peso, Indian Rupee, Chinese Renminbi and Polish Zloty look cheap while Brazilian Real and Turkish Lira look expensive.  In addition, Chinese Renminbi is subject to appreciation pressure because of its positive current account plus foreign direct investment balance while Turkish Lira looks even more vulnerable with a negative current account and foreign direct investment balance.

ING also calculated that while in early 2004,  the 100 Euros would buy on average 40% more shopping baskets in EM countries than in the U.S.; currently that difference has shrunk to 20%, indicating the strengthening economies and currencies of EM countries versus the depreciating dollar during this time.

Going forward I still like holding a basket of emerging market currencies versus the USD, especially countries with positive current account fundamentals with rising interest rate trend.

Which coupon sites?

Image via CrunchBase

The group buying sites seem to have all sprung up in the last couple of years, and their popularity no doubt has increased as many people are watching their budgets like a hawk as many economies are still fighting back (or just barely surviving) from the global financial crises.  Everyone probably enjoys a good deal or two in general. 

I have enjoyed using Groupon quite a lot due to their different products or services (and the relevancy and usefulness), city and now country coverage.  However, some people do complain that they prepay all these services and products upfront but end up not using them, thus wasting a lot of money.  Recently I came across this Scoutmob site which has a completely different model.  You can email the deal to your PC or phone or if you have a smart phone, download the app and then view the deals on your smartphone.  When you are at the location, then you open the email or the app to view the deal, and then show it to the restaurant so that the deal can be applied to your final tab.  It is that simple - no prepayment or waste of money.  The deal lasts for about 3 to 4 months. This I think is a brilliant model that would attract a lot of new converts, especially when they expand their cities and their types of services beyond food and drinks. 

Companies such as Walmart is combining the Facebook "Like" button idea with group buying. 

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• Review: So many coupon sites, so little time (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

Impressions from Hong Kong trip

After a hiatus from the blog, I am happy to write about my recent 3 1/2 weeks to Hong Kong.  It was a pleasant and fruitful trip - I not only met many family members and old friends, but also caught up with personal friends and old friends from the broker and investment community. 

Hong Kong is as usual full of energy, convenience, variety and opportunities.  No one would disagree that much of its dynamism is because of its close relationship with and dependence on China.  There are many reasons for China-related fund flows into Hong Kong. 

About 2 1/2 million mainland Chinese tourists visit Hong Kong per month (HK has a population of 7 million); and this number is expected to increase about 15%-20% this year.  Hong Kong is the favorite place for the mainlanders to shop for LV bags, watches, apartments and even milk powder.  Mainland Chinese buyers are particularly hot on Hong Kong apartments apparently because many apartments have harbour view (a luxury item in China), the amenities in Hong Kong are better than those of mainland, Hong Kong is still a China city and so is close to home, and many apartments can be found close to the airport (for example West Kowloon).

Are you a Vata, Pitta or Kapha?

I have recently been reading about Ayurveda or "knowledge or science of life" from the spiritual texts of ancient India.  The basic principle of Ayurveda is that vibrant health is attained when all aspects of life: physical, mental, emotional, behavioural, spiritual, familial, social and universal, are balanced, as described in the wonderful Ayurveda guidebook and cookbook called "Eat, Taste, Heal."  The three doshas or biological energies,Vata, Pitta and Kapha determine our individual nature. The doshas ensure optimum health when we are in a balanced state while promote disease during an imbalanced state.  Living and eating in a way that balance your doshas (primary and secondary) will lead to a healthier life. This self-test will help you to determine your constitution and will provide some suggestions how to bring balance back to your doshas.

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• The Ancient World | India (guardian.co.uk)

Eat the City

In today's newsletter from the Care2 Healthy Living and Green, the concept of Food as Art was discussed.  One of the featured artist is Chinese artist Song Dong, who built up this work called "Eating the City" entirely based on cookies and biscuits.  The idea behind this work is to reflect on the rapid development of cities in China, where new infrastructures are eating away the older China housing and buildings, showing transience and short-lived nature of existence.  According to the artist, "the purpose of my work is for the city I build to be destroyed."  Literally the city is to be eaten.  The work was displayed in the famous department store, Selfridges in London in 2007, though the store had to deal with the Public Health Department ruling that the biscuits were not fit to be eaten.  Nevertheless, this is a very sweet display of the artist's concept.