Month: February 2008

Is it much more than the bottom line?

Posted on by Rayan

Recently I read an article about ethical investing titled Investing with a conscience‘ and was put to some serious introspection. Where would I draw the line? Will I be only concerned with the bottom line or will I give credit for corporate social responsibility. The author raises issues about investing in companies like Tim Hortons and McDonalds, hinting that they are to some extent responsible for obesity in North America. But I have a clear conscience when it comes to investing in such companies and I would gladly invest if I have the money. In my opinion they are excellent companies innovative in being productive and also giving products that we find refreshing. Investment Guru Peter Lynch used to say, “If you like a company’s products, chances are you will love the companies (as investors) too” If someone loves their products so much that they go into excess eating them and become obese it is not the companies’ fault.

With regard to companies that pollute the environment (Nuclear Power Generation), or those involved in deforestation (paper mills, bio-fuels) I believe society at large is responsible for their existence. It is unfair or unwise to put in bad light an otherwise productive entity that provides much needed necessities of life by withholding our investments. As our needs change or technology evolves such industries die a natural death. Until such time through legislation and incentives we can limit the damage and clear our conscience as investors. So for me these companies are a go.

Next in rank come companies that do businesses in countries with oppressive regimes where human rights abuse is rampant or companies knowingly exploit child labor to show an impressive bottom line. To be frank with you I grudgingly permit myself to be an investor in companies doing business in countries with oppressive regimes for the simple reason, it will improve awareness in the public even under such dictatorship. Because of our moral/ethical standards if we shun them, it would only help isolate them further and their plight would be even more miserable. Sherrit Canada doing business in Cuba is a case in point, whose shares have appreciated in recent times soon after Fidel Castro stepped down paving way for a supposedly more liberal leadership.

Nike accused of child labor in developing countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh is in some measure contributing to the development of the local community in those countries. Some argue what happens to the innocent children whose future/ innocence is lost in the factories? For them my counter question is can you send a child to school on an empty stomach? While it may or may not be true that parents willingly send their children to toil in factories, but do the opponents of child labor have any alternatives? To me a child laborer is any day better than a child soldier which he may tend to become if no alternatives are provided.

That reminds me about investing in companies in the armaments production, particularly those that produce land mines and chemical and biological weapons. The author makes us think that they are the only things that kill or maim innocent public and suggest we may shy away from investing in them. What about aircraft carrying out carpet bombing or ballistic missiles armed with nuclear weapons? Are they benign? To me these are necessary evils that we have to live with and my excuse for investing such in companies is that these weapons can be used as effective deterrents.

So finally what kinds of companies do I avoid investing in? It is the companies whose products are a definite health hazard like those in the tobacco industry or companies investing in casinos that willingly make the public morally and literally bankrupt. No matter what be their justification, I find them to be lacking at best and loathing at its worst.

I haven’t covered some emerging industries like those doing pioneering research in stem cells and theirpromises to cure human ailments. Due to changed social awareness assume a private company in stem cell research invents a breakthrough process for human cloning. If it goes public, will I invest in that? I don’t know. Ask my clone, ‘may be definitely’ he has the answer.

Made for each other

Posted on by Rayan

I am not talking about marriage here. Nor am I talking about the movies made by that title. It is just that I love the Apache + MySQL + PHP + WordPress combo so much that I would consider them made for each other. I am a novice to Web programming. I mean creating pages with dynamic content was alien to me. I was pretty scared when it came to creating a data base driven website. I was just content with creating static web pages using plain HTML. I observed with envy, those who create pages that modify and present themselves in an instant, to any given criteria. I wondered whether I had even lost the race, and qualified only to browse as a spectator.

But that was until I read a book titled, “Building a database driven website using PHP and MySQL” by my guru Kevin Yank. In a few pages he does a commendable job explaining what constitute a database, how to build one and finally how to access one using a web page to add/delete/modify its contents. Normally whenever I read a good book, it lingers in my mind for a few days and then I forget about it to make way for another book. But this time it was different. Could it really be as simple as he makes it out to be? Somehow this book impelled me to take action.

But there are several hurdles I need to pass. First of all I don’t know Apache; I don’t know MySQL and PHP. But only a smattering of WordPress. I haven’t installed any program of my own in years. Imagine me installing all four under Windows to make them work together flawlessly. Luckily there was this wonderful site that came along that taught me how to install Apache + MySQL + PHP as a package and led me every step of the way successfully. Now that it is installed, I am ready to follow the example program given by Kevin. And I did. The result, I could see Kevin’s database of Jokes on my site.

But the idea is to create my own database of notebooks currently available in the market and present it to my readers according to their chosen criteria. And I wanted to make use of the beautiful themes available under WordPress. So I became a bit bolder and installed WordPress too and tried the same example codes under WordPress. WordPress neither executed the code nor showed an error message. What am I going to do?

Again I turned to the omniscient Google, requesting me to show the way. Sure enough it led me to this site that provided me the plug-in for WordPress. With that plug-in properly installed I was able to run my own database driven website. The result is there for you all to see.

My dear readers, I must confess that there are some aspects of my life that I am not currently satisfied. But I rejoice that I live in an era, where friends like you(unknown to me) provide expert advice and the resources almost instantaneously. What’s more, you provide them free of cost. I am really, really thankful. Long live open source movement!

DPD: Dollars per Day

Posted on by Rayan

Recently I read a sensible article Gasoline’s New Math: Miles per Dollar.

Miles per Dollar (MPD) = Miles per Gallon x Gallons per Dollar

Simple equation but profound implications.

We are lulled into thinking about the above normal MPG or KPL (Kilometers per Liter for those following the metric system) that we get from our SUVs and even our sedans and forgetting about the all important hard earned dollars that go to pay for it. So we go about merrily swiping our credit card / debit card filling up our tanks either accumulating debts or diluting our savings in the process.

Thinking about MPD (Miles per Dollar) helps us to think if the casual trip to the shopping mall is really necessary. Not only are we burning up our dollars for every so many miles that we mindlessly drive, we may end up buying more stuff (probably with credit cards) that we hardly ever are going to use. Not only can we save on gasoline and related expenses but also the avoidable wear and tear on our vehicles and even prevent the possibility of an accident! We will even start questioning if the so called ‘investments’ in SUVs is really needed for my (our family) needs.

MPD is simple enough to understand for our commuting needs to bring in some financial discipline in that aspect of our lives. What about our other spending habits or even necessities of life? Is there a simple enough measure that we can use?

In my opinion, yes there is. How often do we see TV commercials for charitable donations to destitute children in Africa / Bangladesh and such other poor countries? No matter how small our contribution may be they are welcome. They detail how even a small amount say 39 cents / day can keep a child properly fed and clothed and how say 25 cents /day can provide clean drinking water.

These efforts are commendable but my point is to borrow this concept ‘cents per day’ or better still ‘dollars per day’ (DPD) in our daily lives to make way for productive spending. Instead of thinking, “Switching my service provider I save so many dollars with my Voice/ Data plan and I got a new phone for free”, we should start thinking, “My Voice/Data plan costs me so many Dollars per Day by way of subscription fees”

To give ourselves a start here I have a list just for illustration:

  • Rent (or Mortgage including interest) – $ 40.00 per day ($ 1200/month divided by 30 days)
  • Credit card Interest – $ 5 per day (Assuming $ 10000/ outstanding at 18% interest)
  • Utilities – $6 per day ($ 180/month divided by 30 days)
  • Cable TV – $ 2 per day ($ 60/month divided by 30 days)
  • High Speed Internet Connection – $ 2 per day ($ 60/month divided by 30 days)
  • Cell phone charges – $ 2 per day ($ 60/month divided by 30 days)
  • Coffee on way to work and in between – $ 4 per day

And so on.

On the surface of it, this may appear to be meager and so justifiable or at least tolerable. But they add up.
The point is, at the end of the day we definitely have to cough up so many dollars for our needs and wants whether we fully utilized our spending or not. DPD brings into perspective how productive is our spending.

You may ask, “Can you put a dollar figure on the memorable trip I made to Niagara Falls. And it was thrilling to blow away a few dollars at one of the casinos at Niagara Falls. Incidentally I took my girlfriend with me in my SUV”.

While it is debatable whether everything can be reduced to dollars per day, I want you to be wary of credit card companies touting such trips as ‘priceless’.

For me, peace of mind is priceless.

Fact or Fiction

Posted on by Rayan

Tell me frankly what came to your mind when you read the story title Jennifer Lopez names her twins?

Tch, tch, tch. You guys are bad. But I am not like you. I guessed it right and I wish her well.

Once in a while it helps to laugh. They told me to laugh. Be happy.

For me it is a prescription medicine. If I don’t take it, my readers will notice that there is something missing in my writing. Like salt is less or altogether absent in the soup.

It was one of those weeks, when bills to be paid are fast approaching and there are no payments due to me on the horizon. Being cheerful was a tall order. But suddenly we get this unexpected order from a customer. The margin was very low but at least it would help with the cash flow. So I went to pick up the check. I was told it would be ready with the secretary to pick up. The secretary was a lady in her mid fifties. Seeing me tired and worn out, she said to me, “Big check you got their man. Cheer up. But don’t go to the strip joint tonight. I will get to know, ‘cos I work there part-time!”
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That surely made me laugh. But the news story Gandhi ‘is myth’, Churchill ‘made up’ didn’t make me laugh, but it started me thinking. How is it that a nation like Great Britain with a long history, (on whose empire once the Sun never set), allowed its citizens to neglect history and believe Churchill never existed and that his story was ‘made up’. A nation that believes Sherlock Holmes really lived on Baker Street may as well believe the following:

Captain Jack Sparrow really ruled the Caribbean seas and Johnny Depp would ‘rightly’ be identified as Captain Jack Sparrow and Sean Connery would pass off as King Richard, the Lion Heart in their history quiz. Or they will name Tom Cruise as the Japanese Samurai known to them. In the same breath their greatest hero Horatio Nelson will either go unnoticed or denied existence.

Given the fact that TV entertainment has such a hold on their daily lives, the only way to make UK citizens to discern fact from fiction is through game shows like ‘who wants to be a millionaire’. Even if the participant may not know the answer, at least his(her) buddy will get a chance to Google and verify the existence of such great leaders.

Who wants to read the history books when there is a chance to become a millionaire!