What Others Say, and Think About It

The death of an influential businessman in Macao-HK-China, Stanley Ho, could potentially destabilize the empire built in last century, amid the deteriorating business in casino, hospitality and tourism sectors due to current pandemic. Nonetheless, Stanley Ho , who died at 98, is still a legendary nonagenarian in the region. Another nonagenarian is the property tycoon in Hong Kong, Li Ka-shing who achieves 91 years old now. Once known as the Warren Buffet in Asia, he was the richest person in Hong Kong for 21 years, until he stepped down from his conglomerate. Looking at the west, Queen Elizabeth II from the UK remains as the symbolic figure for the country. As a queen whose reign has outlasted all other British monarchs and most other world leaders, her monarch could be one of the most pivotal in world history. Having the same age as the Queen, the two-time Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tun Mahathir does not seem to lose his passion in politic, even at the age of 94. His fighti...

After the stay-at-home order, while the president is working hard to re-open economy in the US, the death of an African-American which has been widespread over social media, has ignited anger within protesters in the country, and results in violence on the street. Source:  https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52872401 The image from BBC news reminded me of the protest happened in Hong Kong by the pro-democracy, as shown below, which is also portraying the fight between the protesters and the police. Source:  https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-52829176?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.com/news/topics/c95yz8vxvy8t/hong-kong-anti-government-protests&link_location=live-reporting-story One is due to race discrimination, another is fight against democracy and freedom. Both protests taken in different countries share many images in common -- the protesters' stubbornness, defense or action from the riot police, which are controversial depend on your poin...

We should be grateful that Covid-19 happens in 2020 but not 1920, in spite of keeping social distance physically, we still manage to connect to one another virtually. However, according to statistic below, this is not applicable to worldwide population. Source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/617136/digital-population-worldwide/ An article by Asia Sentinel, titled " After Covid: A Connectivity Pandemic ", points out that 41% of the world population are actually unconnected. Five priorities have been summarised to ensure connectivity: 1.  Promoting network resilience 2.  Ensuring access to affordable digital services 3.  Social distancing and connectivity 4.  Leveraging e-health and big data 5.  Ensuring institutional frameworks are fit for purpose Nonetheless, our earth is getting divided into two major influences -- the West side is suppressing the East side to limit the room for development, especially in ...

The headline from Asia Sentinel dated May 26, 2020 -- Nobody to Drain the Swamp, Ambition takes precedence over governance as leaders squabble. Summary of a coterie of geriatric leaders who are wrecking the stability while the world is fighting with the pandemic, according to this article. a) 94-year-old: Resigned as the 7th PM in February, then tried to reclaim the job. Seen as traitor by the Malay middle class -- no credibility left. b) 72-year-old: Sitting as the leader of the opposition in May 18 parliament. Showing his immaturity and naked ambition, trying to rebuild the on-again-off-again PH coalition. c) 73-year-old: Elected by Agong as the 8th PM in March, after leaving PH coalition to join with so-called PN coalition. Has been going all out to add to his razor-thin 114-109 majority in May 18 parliament. d) 66-year-old: Lost 2018 election and stepped down as the 6th PM. Allegedly was responsible for the biggest financial scandal in the country's history ...

While our neighbours are competing to seize opportunities from the plan to relocate US factories out of China... such headline from The Economist might scare off our potential investors... https://www.asiasentinel.com/p/indonesia-dreams-of-an-investment https://www.economist.com/asia/2020/05/23/malaysias-shaky-government-dodges-a-no-confidence-motion

As of April 28, around 4.2 billion people ( 54% of the global population ), representing almost 60% of global GDP, were subject to complete or partial lockdowns all over the world. (source:  https://www.iea.org/reports/global-energy-review-2020/context-a-world-in-lockdown ) While countries like UK (at earlier phase), Sweden and Brazil are responding with more relaxed measures by placing economic activities as their priority over public health, majority of the press media are condemning such crisis management which seems to aim towards herd immunity . Indeed, it is controversial to trade-off between Economy and Public Health . In the eyes of business people, GDP performance and financial figure are what they are judging at. From social economy perspective, we tend to monetise each human's life and well-being. However, there are some parts of the world where the people would rather die of virus than die of famine, for example in India. People said this virus does not discri...