One Step Down
It was a real eye opener, being back in the USA. AdventureMan had an interesting observation, something he learned a long time ago in a sociology class. It has to do with dining in restaurants. When a guy eats his lunch out every day, he goes to one kind of place, and then when he takes his family out for a meal on Sunday, he goes one step up, takes them to a better restaurant than he would go to every day.
As we travelled in different parts of the United States, what we saw was just the opposite – one step down. People we know still have jobs, still make their house payments, still have the same income. The PERCEPTIONS however, are very different. People are nervous, maybe even a little worried about their jobs. They are not FEELING as prosperous as they felt last year, or the year before. They are spending less. They are going to eat out, but will eat out at that one-step-down restaurant, and not the higher priced restaurant.
As we Christmas shopped, we saw HUGE differences. The Macy’s and the Dillard’s and the big delightfully fancy stores are like ghost towns, and for good reason. They have drastically cut back on their inventory. Where you had to fight your way through the crowded racks a couple years ago, there is a lot of space this year. I didn’t see anything very exciting in terms of fashions or shoes. The Targets and the Fred Meyers (a Pacific Northwest chain) were packed with shoppers, prices were cut, and products were flying off the shelves.
A newspaper article said that what people are buying are . . . appliances. Things people really use – toasters, mixers, etc. The big difference is, they are insisting on appliances in COLOR – carmine reds, blueberrys, greens – chartreuse seems to be big this year, for Christmas, for clothing, and for decorations. Even for Christmas cookies. Chartreuse and pink are this year’s Christmasy red and green. Total hoot. But when people start drawing back from spending, they buy practical things – in fanciful colors. I remember reading once that when times get tough, lipstick sales soar. Women will spend on something small to make themselves feel good, and lipstick does the trick.
The trip was a real eye opener. AdventureMan has sticker shock. I just laugh. I think Kuwait is expensive! AdventureMan doesn’t buy groceries. I remember one time we were together at the Co-op and he couldn’t believe what we were spending on milk – but what are you going to do? Not buy milk? I have always used powdered milk for baking, but with the Chinese thing, I even worry about powdered milk.
Are you going through sticker shock? Are your spending habits changing? Do you eat in restaurants, or are you eating more at home?
Books Behind the Counter
“Hey Mom, take a look” said Law and Order Man as we were about to walk out of the local Barnes and Noble. He was pointing to the selection of books by Chuck Palahniuk, all on shelves behind the counter.
I had noticed he has a collection of Chuck Palahniuk books, and I have read reviews by Kuwait bloggers, so I had asked him about the books, would he recommend them.
“You wouldn’t like them” he said. He knows me pretty well, and often recommends authors I might like. I do the same with him. If he says not to bother, I won’t bother.
“I asked the clerk why all the Chuck Palahniuk books were behind the counter, if people steal them,” my son went on, “and she wouldn’t exactly say that people walk off without paying for them, but she said that they are VERY popular books, so I assume that’s what she meant.”
Merchants Struggle for Survival
This is from today’s New York Times. You can read the rest of the article by clicking HERE.
By STEPHANIE ROSENBLOOM
Published: November 27, 2008
Black Friday, long the Super Bowl of shopping, is at hand, but it may have become nearly irrelevant. Check out the deals that were already on offer earlier this week:
Diamond earrings at Macy’s were chopped to $249 from $700. A Marc Jacobs bag at Saks, originally $995, fell to $248.45. And for men, a Ted Baker suit at Lord & Taylor was selling not for the usual $895, but for $399.99.
Such crazy prices are a sign of the times, and analysts expect many more such deals during one of the toughest holiday seasons in decades.
Laden with excess inventory, hungry for sales and worried because of five fewer shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, the nation’s retailers went into a price-cutting frenzy long before the day after Thanksgiving, the traditional start of the holiday shopping season. For weeks, they have been trying to outdo one another to capture the attention of consumers who have become numb to run-of-the-mill discounts. As the latest T. J. Maxx slogan goes: “Every day is Black Friday.”
In fact, retailers have had so many early “doorbusters” — jaw-dropping deals usually reserved for Black Friday — that “it’s almost not necessary to get up at 5 in the morning,” said Bill Dreher, a senior retailing analyst with Deutsche Bank Securities.
But the retailers are just getting warmed up.
The Toys “R” Us chain is planning the deepest discounts in its history on Friday, with 50 percent more doorbusters than last year. Other retailers are promising that their deals will be even more striking than the sales they have already unveiled — with Wal-Mart, for instance, promising large flat-panel televisions for less than $400.
Such bargains are likely to set the tone for the shopping season to come.
“There’s no reason to suspect this will end,” said Dan de Grandpre, editor in chief of Dealnews.com, which has been tracking Black Friday deals for about a decade. “This kind of heavy discounting will continue until we see some retailers start to fail, until they start to go out of business.”
Indeed, the intense competition could erode profits at many chains. Some retailing analysts even fear it could condition consumers to shop only when merchandise is deeply discounted.
Still, stores plan to pull out all the stops on Friday and through the weekend. After all, November and December sales make up 25 to 40 percent of many retailers’ annual sales, according to the National Retail Federation, an industry group. (The day after Thanksgiving is called Black Friday because it was, historically, the day that many retailers moved into the black, or became profitable for the year.)
The deals were laid out in circulars tucked into newspapers on Thanksgiving Day, on retailers’ Web sites and on sites dedicated to sales and shopping strategies, like bfads.net and gottadeal.com. Many stores planned to open just after midnight Friday morning, and others — including Wal-Mart, Sears, Macy’s, Best Buy, Circuit City, Toys “R” Us and Old Navy — set their openings for 5 a.m. Target will open at 6 a.m. and BJ’s Wholesale Club at 7 a.m.
Read the entire article HERE.
Somalia: Pirates – and Dumping
This is a report from BBC News. I published a piece previously on Somalia on March 11, and blogger Shafi said the following:
“When wealthier nations align their fleet of vessels at Somali coast to fish illegally (estimated at around $6 million as the article says) and dump toxic waste in some parts of the water, aren’t they doing a greater evil and a major harm to the shell-shattared country and her people than the pirates for whom piracy is itself a survival method?”
The statement caught me totally by surprise. I went looking to see if it was true, and it was.
Shafi has a fascinating blog, and if you have some time, go take a look. Meanwhile, I am happy to see glimpses of a fuller picture coming forth in the news:
Ex-Somali Army Colonel Mohamed Nureh Abdulle lives in Harardhere – the town closest to where the hijacked Saudi oil tanker, Sirius Star is moored. He tells the BBC, via phone from his home, that the town’s residents are more concerned about the apparent dumping of toxic waste than piracy.
The Harardhere-born military man advises the town’s elders on security matters and is in his fifties.
Somalia has been wracked by conflict since 1991 – when its last national government was forced from power.
The super-tanker is close to our coast. It is a very, very long ship. Some time ago we had our own problems of piracy in our town but that has not happened lately.
The people who have been hijacking these ships in our seas are not from our region. We do not know any of the guys on the super-tanker and they haven’t made any contact with us.
You know, our problem is not piracy. It is illegal dumping.
These problems have been going for sometime and the world knows about it. The Americans have been here in the region for a long time now – they know about the pollution.
Instead, no, the world is only talking about the pirates and the money involved.
Mysterious illnesses
Meanwhile, there has been something else going on and it has been going on for years. There are many dumpings made in our sea, so much rubbish.
It is dumped in our seas and it washes up on our coastline and spreads into our area.
A few nights ago, some tanks came out from the high sea and they cracked it seems and now they are leaking into the water and into the air.
The first people fell ill yesterday afternoon. People are reporting mysterious illnesses; they are talking about it as though it were chicken pox – but it is not exactly like that either. Their skin is bad. They are sneezing, coughing and vomiting.
This is the first time it has been like this; that people have such very, very bad sickness.
The people who have these symptoms are the ones who wake early, before it is light, and herd their livestock to the shore to graze. The animals are sick from drinking the water and the people who washed in the water are now suffering.
TimesOnline ran an article on Somalia after the tsunami, and the contaminants that had been washed ashore:
“The current situation along the Somali coastline poses a very serious environmental hazard not only in Somalia but also in the eastern Africa sub-region,” the report says. Toxic waste was first dumped in Somalia in the late 1980s, but accelerated sharply during the civil war which followed the 1991 overthrow of the late dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
Local warlords, many of them former ministers in Siad Barre’s last government, received large payments from Swiss and Italian firms for access to their respective fiefdoms.
Most of the waste was simply dumped on remote beaches in containers and leaking disposable barrels.
Somali sources close to the trade say that the dumped materials included radioactive uranium, lead, cadmium, mercury and industrial, hospital, chemical and various other toxic wastes. In 1992, Unep said that European firms were involved in the trade, but because of the high level of insecurity in the country there were never any accurate assessments of the extent of the problem.
In 1997 and 1998, the Italian newspaper Famiglia Cristiana, which jointly investigated the allegations with the Italian branch of Greenpeace, published a series of articles detailing the extent of illegal dumping by a Swiss firm, Achair Partners, and an Italian waste broker, Progresso.
The news is so much more complicated than it appears. How do we stop all these wrongful, hurtful things? Do not we have a responsibility toward the poorest nations? If we – meaning the richest nations – don’t stop this dumping now, is there not every chance in the world that it will come back to haunt us?
Sharing Faith
Several years ago, a woman put a book in my hands and said “I got this for you because I think you will love it.” It was kind of a shock; I didn’t know this woman all that well, but she knew me better. I loved the book, and I ordered a workbook to go with it, and I loved doing it. It was a forty day study called The Purpose Driven Life.
If you think I am trying to convert you, I’m not. Just as this woman wasn’t trying to convert me. The Purpose Driven Life is all about trying to make your walk in faith more meaningful. It starts with the premise that each one of us is uniquely created, and has a unique function to fill. The book has changed how I live my life. Intrigued? Go read the book!
I also subscribe to their daily e-mail, and today it was all about gaining wisdom from reading THE BOOK, learning from our own experiences and those of others:
Write down the major life lessons you’ve learned so you can share them with others. We should be grateful Solomon did this, because it gave us the books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, which are filled with practical lessons on living. Imagine how much needless frustration could be avoided if we learned from each other’s life lessons.
Mature people develop the habit of extracting lessons from everyday experiences. I urge you to make a list of your life lessons. You haven’t really thought about them thoroughly unless you’ve written them down. Below are a few questions to jog your memory and get your started:
So what?
What has God taught me from failure?
What has God taught me from a lack of money?
What has God taught me from pain or sorrow or depression?
What has God taught me through waiting?
What has God taught me through illness?
What has God taught me from disappointment?
What have I learned from my family, my church, my relationships, my small group, and my critics?
It felt like a jolt of electricity going through me when I read those questions. Sometimes, I think I am not very bright; sometimes I don’t even learn from my own experiences and mistakes! As I read these questions, I started thinking how the financial crisis has energized us and changed our plans. We thought we would have a hunk of money to work with when we retire, and suddenly that hunk has shrunk! Meanwhile, we are instigating all kinds of new strategies to make our money go farther. You would think it would be depressing, but the truth is . . . we are having fun! I’d forgotten the thrill of the hunt; getting items for good prices, finding substitutes . . . and the questions above reminded me that at one time we knew a lot about stretching money.
AdventureMan is a great cook, and truly, if we ate fewer meals out, we probably wouldn’t have to worry about our waistlines. I used to bake all our bread, when we lived in Tunis, and only had access to wonderful baguettes. I even baked English muffins, my favorite.
Every one of the questions he asked today reminded me of a lesson I had learned . . . and then kind of let go. I didn’t exactly forget, but now all these life-lessons are fresh again!
You don’t have to be Christian, or Moslem, or a even a believer to think about these questions. Take a look at the questions and see what YOU have learned from life’s circumstances.
Where do YOU find wisdom?
Kuwait Stock Exchange Closing Poll
This is from today’s Al Watan. I think investors all over the world have confused saving with investing. When you know your family is going to need the money, for something like a vacation, a new washing machine, a car – you save. When you have the luxury of a little extra that you can afford to lose, you invest. Smart investors will investigate the investment carefully. If the market goes down, but the company whose shares you bought is still solvent and strong, you hang on – after all, it you didn’t invest anything you can’t afford to lose, right?
Lawmakers alarmed by bourse closure
Attorney lauds court order, says action was necessary
Ghenwah Jabouri
and agencies
KUWAIT: A number of MPs have criticized a Court of First Instance order to halt trading on the Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE), saying that the court”s move is “the most dangerous decision” ever taken in relation to Kuwait”s economy and bourse.
They explained that closing the bourse has cemented a lack of confidence and will drive the index down further once trading resumes, while rhetorically asking who would bear the consequences of such an eventuality.
They also stressed the need to benefit from the experiences of other countries to strengthen the Kuwaiti stock market.
The MPs also called on the government to take measures to limit damages resulting from the closure of the KSE.
In an exclusive statement to Al Watan Daily, attorney Labid AlـAbdal said the global financial crisis is finding its effects on many strong markets around the globe and that the situation requires Kuwait and other GCC countries to draw up a serious plan to protect its markets.
“Kuwait should choose safe investments and strengthen its reserves of gold at the Central Bank of Kuwait,” he added.
He stressed that most of Kuwait”s active financial and commercial companies are directly and indirectly linked to the international economy and that they will need well supported banking systems to maintain safe credit transactions and protected debt recovery.
“Given the mentioned circumstances, closing the local stock market in Kuwait is a necessity to prevent further losses by registered companies and to protect the citizens from losing any more assets,” he explained.
Kuwait must select very protective measures, especially after the fall of the oil price and the lack of trust in the international financial system,” AlـAbdal concluded.
Last updated on Friday 14/11/2008
What do you think? Do you think closing the Kuwait exchange prevented further losses, or do you think closing the exchange fed the fear that is feeding the rapid decline? Or do you have another opinion totally?
State Blocks Diwaniyas on State Land
I can understand the state not wanting to allow the people to build on public land, land reserved to preserve right of way, land reserved for parks, land to protect the ability to see around a corner. We watched all the illegal diwaniyas come down in our area, carted away on trucks, to be replaced with outdoor diwaniyas, which are lovely – but what to do when the temperatures start going up again?
Many of our friends have diwaniyyas – one – or more (!) built into their homes. An outdoor diwaniya is a luxury if you have the space for it. It looks to me like more homes are being built with a permanent diwayiya designed to match the house.
My real question is – How does this differ from the chalets? Are the chalets not also built on state property? Is there a bureau from which you get a permit? Is there any contractual understanding, like the land is deeded to you for 99 years before you put up an expensive chalet? Or do you build, knowing the government can reclaim that land at any time?
State succeeds in blocking diwaniyas bill
Al Watan staff
KUWAIT: The Parliament rejected a controversial draft law on Wednesday that called for regulating the construction of private diwaniyas on State property.
After a discussion, the proposal was overruled by a vote of 34 against and 26 in favor.
A number of MPs had presented the proposal, which was aimed at allowing the construction of private diwaniyas on State property adjacent to owners” homes provided that a license is obtained from the Ministry of Finance in exchange of an annual fee of no more than 0.250 Kuwaiti dinars per square meter.
Moreover, the Parliament also rejected a proposal to form a committee to investigate violations committed by the team tasked with removing all structures that have been illegally built on State property.
This proposal was voted down by 35 of the 61 legislators who were present at the session.
Earlier, the Parliament”s Finance and Economic Affairs Committee had rejected the draft law regulating the construction of private diwaniyas on State land, saying that it will have a negative impact regardless of the traditions related to these forms of gathering places.
It said the construction of these structures on State property will increase security, administrative and financial burdens on the State.
This issue was first discussed during Tuesday”s Parliament session, but a lack of order in the Abdullah AlـSalem Hall led to an adjournment of the session.
The Kuwaiti government had opposed the bill since the beginning, saying it bears many implementation difficulties and encourages encroachments on State property in a disorganized fashion.
Last updated on Thursday 13/11/2008
Obama Elected President
I awoke this morning to a new world. This isn’t a political blog; I will not often discuss political events other than how they impact on lives. My family was die-hard Republican until my father retired. During Ronald Reagan’s presidency, it all changed – his domestic policies hit retirees hard. My father was a man who, when we tried to give him ideas how he could pay less in taxes, looked at us and said “Why would I want to pay less in taxes? I served our great country, they paid my salary and now they give me retirement and health care. Why would I want to pay less in taxes.” God rest his soul. But he started voting Democrat – and said Republican policies only helped the very rich, and hurt the middle-class.
I never thought I would see the day a black man would be elected President in the United States. John McCain is a decent man, he would have made a fine president, and he gave one of the most graceful speeches acknowledging his election loss I have ever heard. May God richly bless him. Obama’s win is very exciting – a new day in our country.
I called our son and talked with him – barely believing Obama could have carried Florida. I told him how moving it is to me to see a black man elected (no, I am not black, but you know me, I hate prejudice) and he said “Mom, he is SMART, too.” I couldn’t have been prouder of him than at that moment.
And this is today’s Psalm. I have to share it with you – it seems such a brilliant omen:
Psalm 72
Of Solomon.
1Give the king your justice, O God,
and your righteousness to a king’s son.
2May he judge your people with righteousness,
and your poor with justice.
3May the mountains yield prosperity for the people,
and the hills, in righteousness.
4May he defend the cause of the poor of the people,
give deliverance to the needy,
and crush the oppressor.
5May he live* while the sun endures,
and as long as the moon, throughout all generations.
6May he be like rain that falls on the mown grass,
like showers that water the earth.
7In his days may righteousness flourish
and peace abound, until the moon is no more.
8May he have dominion from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
9May his foes* bow down before him,
and his enemies lick the dust.
10May the kings of Tarshish and of the isles
render him tribute,
may the kings of Sheba and Seba
bring gifts.
11May all kings fall down before him,
all nations give him service.
12For he delivers the needy when they call,
the poor and those who have no helper.
13He has pity on the weak and the needy,
and saves the lives of the needy.
14From oppression and violence he redeems their life;
and precious is their blood in his sight.
15Long may he live!
May gold of Sheba be given to him.
May prayer be made for him continually,
and blessings invoked for him all day long.
16May there be abundance of grain in the land;
may it wave on the tops of the mountains;
may its fruit be like Lebanon;
and may people blossom in the cities
like the grass of the field.
17May his name endure for ever,
his fame continue as long as the sun.
May all nations be blessed in him;*
may they pronounce him happy.
18Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
who alone does wondrous things.
19Blessed be his glorious name for ever;
may his glory fill the whole earth.Amen and Amen.
20The prayers of David son of Jesse are ended.
Internal Revenue Service Scam
This was in my mailbox this morning:
After the last annual calculations of your fiscal activity
we have determined that you are eligible to receive
a tax refund under section 501(c) (3) of the
Internal Revenue Code. Tax refund value is $189.60.
Please submit the tax refund request and allow us 6-9 days
in order to IWP the data received.
If u don’t receive your refund within 9 business
days from the original IRS mailing date shown,
you can start a refund trace online.
If you distribute funds to other organization, your records must show wether
they are exempt under section 497 (c) (15). In cases where the recipient org.
is not exempt under section 497 (c) (15), you must have evidence the funds will
be used for section 497 (c) (15) purposes.
If you distribute fund to individuals, you should keep case histories showing
the recipient’s name and address; the purpose of the award; the maner of
section; and the realtionship of the recipient to any of your officers, directors,
trustees, members, or major contributors.
To access the form for your tax refund, please click here
This notification has been sent by the Internal Revenue Service,
a bureau of the Department of the Treasury.
Sincerely Yours,
John Stewart
Director, Exempt. Organization
Rulings and Agreements Letter
Internal Revenue Service
The IRS uses “u” for “you?”
An IRS e-mail signed by a real person?
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
Just another scam.
Thinking About Wealth
Today’s reading gives us a lot of food for thought about wealth and how we use it.
At one time, when I was still an Army wife, we had returned to the United States. We didn’t even have furniture – the military had provided it all our years overseas, and were in the process of picking up a few necessary things – like beds! All we had were some beautiful Oriental carpets, which we had picked up, piece by piece, as we were living overseas.
I would wake up at night and worry about thieves breaking in and stealing my carpets. Then I read Matthew 26: 19 – 21 – this verse:
19″Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
I stopped worrying about the carpets. I’ve never worried about them since.
Now, like others, we have watched all the monies we have carefully invested for our retirement dwindle, and it is hard not to despair. And here again, comes a reading to make it clear to us where our real wealth lies. Our “wealth” is only on paper – it doesn’t really exist until we buy or sell. Our real wealth is what we are storing, day by day, towards our next life.
This reading is from Forward Day by Day:
Luke 12:13-31. So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.
How often have you interrupted a preacher during a sermon? Probably never. In today’s story, a man interrupts Jesus while he is still preaching. Perhaps Jesus sniffed greed behind the man’s question as he responded with a parable about the right attitude to riches.
Advertisers try to convince us that good food, comfortable homes fitted with all modern conveniences, a healthy bank balance, and no financial worries are the stuff of which the good life is made. Jesus, who came that we may “have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10), warns that an abundance of possessions cannot secure for us this abundant life.
Yet there is no condemnation of riches. It is not because of riches that the man in the parable is labeled a fool, but because wealth, rather than God, took first place in his life. The rich man’s barns overflowed with perishable grain, but he was spiritually bankrupt, for he had failed to store up imperishable riches in heaven by wise and generous use of his wealth.
God’s concern is not ownership (what we have) but stewardship (what we do with what we have). To be truly rich, be rich towards God.
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