Who is Warren Buffet?

Warren Edward Buffett (born August 30, 1930) is an American investor, businessman, and philanthropist. He is one of the world's most successful investors and the largest shareholder and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. He was ranked by Forbes magazine as the richest person in the world during the first half of 2008, with an estimated net worth of $62.0 billion.

Warren Buffet's New Year Advice

We begin this New Year with dampened enthusiasm and dented optimism.

Our happiness is diluted and our peace is threatened by the financial illness that has infected our families, organizations and nations.

Everyone is desperate to find a remedy that will cure their financial illness and help them recover their financial health.

They expect the financial experts to provide them with remedies, forgetting the fact that it is these experts who created this financial mess.

Every new year, I adopt a couple of old maxims as my beacons to guide my future.

This self-prescribed therapy has ensured that with each passing year, I grow wiser and not older.

This year, I invite you to tap into the financial wisdom of our elders along with me, and become financially wiser.

Hard work: All hard work brings profit; but mere talk leads only to
poverty.

Laziness: A sleeping lobster is carried away by the water current.

Earnings: Never depend on a single source of income.

Spending: If you buy things you don't need, you'll soon sell things you need.

Savings: Don't save what is left after spending; Spend what is left after saving.

Borrowings: The borrower becomes the lender's slave.

Accounting: It's no use carrying an umbrella, if your shoes are leaking.

Auditing: Beware of little expenses; a small leak can sink a large ship.

Risk-taking: Never test the depth of the river with both feet.

Investment: Don't put all your eggs in one basket.

I'm certain that those who have already been practicing these principles remain financially healthy.

I'm equally confident that those who resolve to start practicing these principles will quickly regain their financial health.

Let us become wiser and lead a happy, healthy, prosperous and peaceful life.

Warren Buffet

I’ve lived in China for more than two years now and I can’t say the traffic has improved.  Each month, traffic seems to get worse.  More cars, more e-bikes and more people fill the streets. 

There seems to be no traffic law whatsoever.  The general rule seems to be, if your car can fit, just go for it.  Wrong way, wrong side of the road, red light, green light, oh, those are just suggestions.  You don’t have to follow them. 

Parking – well, again, if your car can fit, just park there.  Doesn’t matter if the sidewalk, driveway or the middle of road.  There are so many traffic accidents everyday, but people don’t seem to care.  I guess this is China’s way of population control? 

What’s a blind spot? Chinese drivers don’t seem to know what a driver’s blind spot is.  They make turns or blind intersections with no yield whatsoever.  They just keep driving without slowing down.  When I first came here, I was visiting the countryside.  The driver made a quick right turn onto a high speed highway without even stopping! There was a building on the left corner, so you couldn’t see oncoming traffic.  As we pulled onto the highway from the turn, there was a big truck right on our tail.  I thought I was going to die! Whatever happened to yielding on blind corners?

In most countries, sidewalks are for pedestrians.  In China, sidewalks are for pedestrians, bicycles, baby strollers, wheelchairs, e-bikes, cars, trucks, basically whatever fits.  As a pedestrian, no matter where you are outside your home, you must be careful not to get run over by something with wheels.

As many have said, driving in China is relatively new with many inexperienced drivers.  Imagine all the drivers are 16 and just got their license.  It’s scary!

As for traffic law enforcement, well, that’s a joke.  Police rarely give tickets and if they do, as long as you know the right people, you can get your ticket/fine canceled.  In the city where I live, they do have a lot of traffic webcams which take pictures of traffic violations. They are then sent to you traffic tickets via mail. 

From a birds eye view, the country has all the infrastructure for traffic, like painted dividers, double yellow lines, cross-walks, stoplights, etc.  But these are just guidelines.  There’s really no law in actually using these lines or technology.  I think a quote from Pirates of Caribbean describes China’s traffic law enforcement best:

Elizabeth: You're pirates. Hang the code, and hang the rules. They're more like guidelines anyway.

Jack Sparrow: I thought you were supposed to keep to the code.
Mr. Gibbs: We figured they were more actual *guidelines*

Right now, driving is relatively new in China, so it will take some time to adopt, implement and enforce traffic laws.  But with so many accidents and deaths, you would think the improvement would come a little sooner rather than later. 

Here are some excerpts from different articles about Chinese traffic:

Although crash statistics are not very reliable, nearly 100,000 people reportedly died in road traffic accidents in more than 450,000 traffic accidents during 2005 in China, and 26 percent of those deaths involved pedestrians and automobiles.

“Pedestrians jumping tall, metal barriers between sidewalk and street in order to jaywalk”

“Bicycles, motorbikes, and the latest newcomer—electric bikes—sharing sidewalks with pedestrians to provide more room on roadways for cars”

“Haphazard law enforcement”

“Fading crosswalks because the cost of maintaining even this least expensive pedestrian crossing option is too high”

“Dangerous behavior by pedestrians, whose lack of experience with motorized vehicles causes them to misjudge risk”

“there are reports of a growing number of deaths and injuries among children on China’s roads”

Part of the problem is unfamiliarity with motorized traffic and how long it takes a vehicle, such as a bus, to stop for a pedestrian in the road. Parents, too, who are used to jaywalking tend to override instructions given to children at school on when and where it is safe to cross a street

Further complicating pedestrians' safety was a decision by transportation officials to move bicycles, motorbikes, and the newest fad—electric bikes—from roadways to a center lane on sidewalks. Now pedestrians must dodge swarms of bikers as they make their way to bus stops and intersections at the edge of the sidewalks

Pedestrians cross under a little-used sky bridge.

Pedestrians don’t want to walk all the way to a sky bridge to cross the road.

Here’s a video from an Australian reporter about driving in China

Check out these picture slide shows of the best pictures and news stories of 2008.  It has voice and music too, so don’t forget to have your speakers on. 

NEWS

Click on the link below:

The Year in Pictures 2008 - News
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28192685

SPORTS

Click on the link below:

The Year in Pictures 2008 - Sports
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28198070

Amazing photos you must see! Enjoy!

The number eight is lucky in Chinese as it is pronounced like the word "Fa" which is part of the expression meaning "to get wealthy".

Take a look at these strange coincidences.  Are they just coincidences? Hmmm...

China was hit by crippling blizzards at the start of the year, rioting erupted in Tibet which prompted worldwide protests surrounding the Olympic Torch Relay and then the Sichuan earthquake struck.

Those grim milestones for China had an intriguing symmetry.

The snowstorms struck on 25/01. 2+5+1=8.

The Tibet riots erupted on 14/03. 1+4+3=8.

The earthquake struck on 12/05. 1+2+5=8. That was also 88 days before the start of the Olympics.

With the Olympics about start, I hope that nothing will happen.  It makes you wonder.