Pelatih PLKN Lahirkan Bayi Dalam Tandas Kem

Seorang pelatih yang sedang menjalani Program Latihan Khidmat Negara (PLKN) di Kem Sri Ledang, Jementah, Segamat melahirkan seorang bayi lelaki dalam tandas kem tersebut semalam.

Pengurusan kem tersebut yang menyedari remaja berkenaan melahirkan bayi dalam tandas pada kira-kira pukul 3 pagi segera mengejarkan ibu berusia 18 tahun itu bersama bayi seberat 2.7 kilogram ke Hospital Pakar Sultanah Fatimah di Muar.

Bagaimanapun, bayi lelaki tersebut meninggal dunia tidak lama selepas itu, manakala keadaan ibu muda terbabit dalam yang sedang dirawat tidak membimbangkan.

Pengarah hospital Dr Selahudeen Abdul Aziz ketika dihubungi mengesahkan ada menerima seorang pesakit remaja bersama bayi lelaki.

"Kita akan menjalankan bedah siasat ke atas bayi itu esok untuk mengenalpasti punca kematiannya," katanya.

Sementara itu, Ketua Polis Daerah Ledang, Supt Harun Idris ketika dihubungi mengesahkan ada menerima laporan berhubung kejadian tersebut.

- Bernama

Sejarah Perlu Ditulis Semula - Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad

KUALA LUMPUR - Buku-buku sejarah Malaysia perlu ditulis semula agar mengandungi masalah yang dihadapi negara pada masa lampau dan langkah diambil kerajaan bagi menyelesaikan isu seumpama itu, supaya sejarah negara lebih difahami generasi muda. 

Bekas perdana menteri Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad berkata langkah ini akan juga membantu Malaysia membentuk masyarakat yang lebih terdidik, dan 'dengan itu melahirkan lebih ramai pemimpin yang lantang'.

Ia akan juga membantu menyatukan rakyat Malaysia, menyediakan pendidikan yang lengkap untuk golongan muda, katanya dalam ucaptama bertajuk "Masa depan yang lebih baik bagi Politik Malaysia, Pasca Pilihan Raya Umum ke-13" di Forum CEO Yayasan Kepimpinan Perdana di sini hari ini.

"Kita perlu melakukan banyak perkara. Kita juga perlu belajar dari sejarah negara lain seperti mengapa berlaku Arab Spring (Kebangkitan Rakyat Arab).

Kemudian, kita perlu bertanya diri, apakah kita mahu ini berlaku di negara kita?

"Ada orang berkata mereka mahu melihat Arab Spring di Malaysia. Mereka lebih rela tidak menghiraukan kestabilan, keamanan dan menggulingkan pemimpin.

"Jadi kita perlu duduk dan memahami apa itu demokrasi dan beritahu mereka supaya mempercayai kerajaan," tambah beliau. 

Menyentuh isu pelajaran, Dr Mahathir berkata kewujudan sebuah sekolah kebangsaan di bawah satu bumbung bagi semua kaum, dapat menjamin Malaysia yang aman, bersatu dan akan menjamin masa depan lebih baik untuk warganya.

"Masalah yang kita hadapi hari ini ialah kita tidak berkumpul bersama, dan jarang bercakap atau menggunakan bahasa kebangsaan. Kita patut menggunakannya lebih kerap. Kita harus kurangkan keadaan berpuak-puak di sekolah misalnya, dan wajibkan penggunaan dan pembelajaran bahasa kebangsaan," kata beliau.

Mengenai pembelajaran bahasa kebangsaan, Dr Mahathir kagum melihat sesetengah diplomat asing yang bertugas di negara lain seperti Indonesia boleh menguasai bahasa negara itu, tetapi tidak di Malaysia.

Beliau berkata ini kerana rakyat Malaysia berkomunikasi dalam bahasa Inggeris dan bukan bahasa kebangsaan mereka, dengan itu lupa bahawa bahasa adalah satu daripada faktor yang menyatukan masyarakat. - Bernama

Pintu 2 (Bertentangan Dengan Jakel) #UiTM Shah Alam Ditutup Sementara Waktu

Adalah dimaklumkan bahawa Pintu 2 UiTM Shah Alam akan ditutup sementara waktu untuk kerja-kerja pembaikan sebagaimana maklumat dibawah :-

PERHATIAN KEPADA SEMUA WARGA KAMPUS

BERMULA 22 JUN 2013 (SABTU) JAM 1730 PETANG SEHINGGA 23 JUN 2013 (AHAD) JAM 0930 PAGI PINTU 2 (BERHAMPIRAN JAKEL) AKAN DITUTUP UNTUK KERJA PEMBAIKAN.

SEHUBUNGAN DENGAN ITU, SEMUA WARGA KAMPUS BOLEH MENGGUNAKAN LALUAN PINTU 4 (BERHAMPIRAN SUSUR KE LEBUHRAYA PERSEKUTUAN) SEPANJANG TEMPOH TERSEBUT.

KESULITAN AMAT DIKESALI

SEKIAN TERIMA KASIH.

Mahkamah Arah Pemaju Pulang Wang Penyelenggaraan RM1.8 Juta

KUALA LUMPUR: Mahkamah Tinggi di sini pada Isnin memerintahkan sebuah syarikat pemaju memulangkan yuran pengurusan dan penyelenggaraan berjumlah RM1.8 juta kepada perbadanan pengurusan sembilan blok pangsapuri di Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan.

Hakim Datuk V.T.Singham juga mengarahkan Pengkalen Holiday Resort Sdn Bhd (PHR), selaku defendan, membayar kos RM50,000 kepada dua plaintif iaitu perbadanan pengurusan Paradise Lagoon Apartment (North) dan Paradise Lagoon Apartment (South).

Dalam penghakiman setebal 32 halaman itu, Singham berkata mahkamah tidak dapat membezakan apa-apa prinsip undang-undang yang membenarkan pemaju untuk menyimpan, memindah atau menukar jumlah RM1,803,972.63 yang telah dibayar ke akaun Pangsapuri PHR untuk manfaat dan kegunaan sendiri.

"Mengikut hukum alam, tiada siapa boleh memperkayakan dirinya secara tidak adil...dalam kes ini, pemaju mengambil kesempatan ke atas pemilik," katanya.

Beliau juga berpendapat bahawa keadilan menuntut pemaju dikehendaki memulangkan jumlah dana lebihan yang dikutip dari pemilik blok pangsapuri untuk khidmat penyelenggaraan seperti termaktub di bawah Akta Hakmilik Strata 1985.

Singham berkata hakikat bahawa ia mungkin menjadi amalan biasa bagi pemaju untuk menyimpan semua caj pengurusan dan penyelenggaraan yang dikutip dari pemilik unit kondominium dalam tempoh pra penubuhan perbadanan pengurusan dan penubuhan majlis di bawah Akta Hakmilik Strata tetapi ia tidak semestinya bermakna wang dalam akaun Pangsapuri PHR menjadi milik pemaju.

Beliau berkataan ciptaan jangkaan atau amalan semata-mata tidak mencukupi dalam undang-undang melainkan jika ia adalah jangkaan hak undang-undang dan dalam kes ini, ia tidak ada hak undang-undang.

"Mahkamah ini mendapati bahawa ia akan menjadi tak saksama melampau dan tidak adil untuk membenarkan pemaju memindahkan aset unit pemilik ke dalam akaun peribadi," katanya.

Singham menegaskan bahawa ia juga tidak adil secara nyata untuk membenarkan pemaju menyimpan atau memindahkan lebihan wang ke dalam akaunnya selepas menghentikan khidmat mengurus pangsapuri itu.

Pada 2012, perbadanan pengurusan melibatkan pemilik Blok A, B dan C Paradise Lagoon Apartment (North) dan enam blok di Paradise Lagoon Apartment (South) telah memfailkan saman terhadap pemaju itu dengan menuntut caj penyelenggaraan yang dikutip antara September 1994 dan Mei 2006 adalah milik mereka dan pemaju perlu memulangkan jumlah tersebut kepada mereka. - BERNAMA

Obama and Putin Continue to Disagree on Syria

Rebels clash with Syrian government forces

AFP file

U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday agreed that they disagree about the situation in Syria.

At the same time, reported the AFPnews agency, the two leaders pledged to at least try to keep alive a frail and much-delayed effort to hold a Geneva peace conference.

The U.S. and Russian presidents faced off on the sidelines of the G8 summit in Northern Ireland, days after the White House signaled it would begin arming rebels battling Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad.

Putin and Obama did not try to disguise the fact they are estranged on Syria and cannot agree on Assad's fate -- but appeared keen to keep flagrant differences on the vicious civil war from sinking wider U.S.-Russia relations.

They announced Obama would go to Moscow on September 3-4 for a full-scale summit, expanding a previously announced trip that includes the G20 summit in St. Petersburg, according to AFP.

They spoke of cooperation on terrorism and economics, with Russia now in the World Trade Organization, and agreed to revive a frozen agreement which secures loose nuclear and radioactive materials in the former Soviet Union.

On Syria, however, the differences remain deep.

"Of course our opinions do not converge, but all of us have the intention to stop the violence in Syria and stop the growth in the number of victims," said Putin, who has scoffed at U.S. plans to begin arming selected rebels.

He said he and Obama agreed that the vicious civil war that has killed at least 90,000 people must end "peacefully" and through talks.

"We agreed to push the parties to the negotiating table," he said, according to AFP.

Obama acknowledged that they had "different perspectives" on Syria.

Washington and Moscow have agreed in principle to host a conference in Geneva on ending the violence in Syria, but the timetable for the meeting has continually slipped over disagreements on who should attend.

Still, Obama said he and Putin would instruct their teams to keep at it.

"We share an interest in reducing the violence, securing chemical weapons and ensuring that they are neither used nor are they subject to proliferation," Obama said, according to AFP.

"We want to try to resolve the issue through political means if possible, so we will instruct our teams to continue to work on the potential of a Geneva follow-up."

The U.S. government announced last week that the Syrian army used chemical weapons against rebel forces on multiple occasions, adding that America will increase the “scope and scale” of its assistance to rebels in Syria in response.

An aide to Putin said on Friday that Russia is not convinced by the evidence which the U.S. provided alleging that the Assad government used chemical weapons against rebel forces.

Putin himself on Sunday said that the Syrian rebels are “cannibals” and should not be given arms, referring to video footage posted on the Internet last month of a rebel fighter eating the heart of a government soldier.

Both leaders said they hoped Iran's election would unfreeze the currently stalled talks between Tehran and world powers over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.

Obama said he and Putin had expressed "cautious optimism" that the election of the next Iranian president Hassan Rowhani, who is seen as a comparative moderate, could change the dynamics of the effort.

Putin said he hoped that the vote would reveal "new opportunities to solve the Iranian nuclear problem."

Explosions Shake Damascus Military Airport

blast in the central Damascus - AFP file

Two bombs struck a large military airport outside the Syrian capital of Damascus on Sunday night, the main rebel army said, according to CNN.

The first of a series of explosions was near a checkpoint near the main door of the al-Mazzeh airport, and the second was near an exterior wall, said Louay Mikdad, a spokesman for the Free Syrian Army.

It wasn't immediately clear who was behind the blasts.

It was not known how many people were hurt, but Mikdad said witnesses told of "many ambulances" taking away the wounded, CNN reported.

After the explosions, mortar bombs were fired from inside the airport into surrounding neighborhoods, Mikdad said. The targets weren't known.

In addition to being the site of the military airport, the al-Mazzeh area is home to embassies, security buildings and the homes of some members of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's inner circle, according to opposition activists.

Kereta terbabas: Tiga mahasiswa maut, seorang cedera

Oleh HELMI MOHD. FOAD pengarang@utusan.com.my

 

KERETA Perodua Viva yang dinaiki oleh empat mahasiswa terbabas di Kilometer 14.5, Lebuh Raya Persekutuan di Shah Alam, Selangor, semalam. - UTUSAN/ Saharuddin Abdullah 

 

SHAH ALAM 16 Jun - Tiga daripada empat pelajar universiti maut selepas sebuah kereta Perodua Viva yang dinaiki mereka hilang kawalan sebelum terbabas dan merempuh pembahagi jalan di Kilometer 14.5, Lebuh Raya Persekutuan di sini awal pagi ini. 

Dalam kemalangan pada pukul 5.15 pagi itu, pemandu, Adam Ab. Rahman bersama Ameer Asyraf Sulaiman dan Nurul Maizura Maidan yang duduk di bahagian penumpang belakang mati di tempat kejadian.

Seorang lagi mangsa, Nurfarina Mokhtar yang duduk di sebelah pemandu bernasib baik apabila hanya mengalami cedera ringan.

Kesemua mangsa berusia 18 tahun dan mereka baharu mendaftar masuk ke universiti dua minggu lalu.

Adam merupakan pelajar Diploma Pengajian Sukan di Kampus Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) Jengka, Pahang; Ameer (pelajar asasi jurusan perakaunan di UiTM Shah Alam), Nurul Maizura (pelajar asasi Sains Pertanian, Universiti Putra Malaysia) dan Nurfarina (pelajar asasi Pengajaran Bahasa Inggeris Sebagai Bahasa Kedua, UiTM Shah Alam)

Pemangku Ketua Polis Daerah Shah Alam, Deputi Superintendnn Ruslan Abdullah berkata, ketika kejadian, empat sahabat tersebut dalam perjalanan menuju ke Kuala Lumpur dari Shah Alam dipercayai selepas mengunjungi taman tema i-City di sini.

Menurutnya, setiba di lokasi, kereta berwarna kuning itu dipercayai hilang kawalan sebelum terbabas dan merempuh pembahagi jalan.

"Akibat daripada rempuhan kuat, bonet kereta yang terperosok di bawah pembahagi jalan rosak teruk dan dinding kereta sebelah kanan terkopak menyebabkan pemandu dan seorang penumpang wanita yang duduk di belakang tercampak keluar.

"Dua mangsa lagi ditemui dalam kenderaan tersebut namun seorang daripada mereka telah meninggal dunia kerana cedera parah," katanya kepada pemberita di sini hari ini. 

Ruslan memberitahu, kesemua mangsa yang maut akibat cedera parah di kepala dan anggota badan manakala mangsa yang cedera ringan hanya luka serta lebam di muka.

Katanya, tiga pelajar yang maut kemudian dibawa ke Hospital Tengku Ampuan Rahimah (HTAR), Klang untuk bedah siasat manakala seorang lagi yang cedera dirawat di hospital sama.

"Setakat ini, pihak kami sedang berusaha mengenal pasti punca sebenar kemalangan tersebut sama ada kereta itu dipandu laju atau pemandunya mengantuk atau cuba mengelak sesuatu objek di lokasi kejadian," katanya. 

Difahamkan, kira-kira sehari sebelum kejadian, Adam dari kampus UiTM, Jengka Pahang datang ke Selangor menaiki kereta terbabit untuk berjumpa dengan rakan-rakannya itu yang berjaya melanjutkan pengajian di universiti. 

Empat sahabat tersebut kemudian dikatakan bersiar-siar di sekitar Shah Alam dan selepas mengunjungi i-City di sini, mereka dipercayai mahu ke ibu kota untuk membeli barang keperluan namun tidak kesampaian apabila terlibat dalam kemalangan.

Adam berasal dari Muar, Johor; Ameer (Jasin, Melaka), Nurul Maizura (Wilayah Persekutuan Labuan) dan Nurfarina (Tanah Merah, Kelantan).

Artikel Penuh: http://www.utusan.com.my/utusan/Dalam_Negeri/20130617/dn_05/Kereta-terbabas-Tiga-mahasiswa-maut-seorang-cedera#ixzz2WSlp3taN
© Utusan Melayu (M) Bhd

“DOOMSDAY SEED VAULT” IN THE ARCTIC

By F. William Engdahl 

Bill Gates, Rockefeller and the GMO giants know something we don’t

One thing Microsoft founder Bill Gates can’t be accused of is sloth. He was already programming at 14, founded Microsoft at age 20 while still a student at Harvard. By 1995 he had been listed by Forbes as the world’s richest man from being the largest shareholder in his Microsoft, a company which his relentless drive built into a de facto monopoly in software systems for personal computers.

In 2006 when most people in such a situation might think of retiring to a quiet Pacific island, Bill Gates decided to devote his energies to his Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the world’s largest ‘transparent’ private foundation as it says, with a whopping $34.6 billion endowment and a legal necessity to spend $1.5 billion a year on charitable projects around the world to maintain its tax free charitable status. A gift from friend and business associate, mega-investor Warren Buffett in 2006, of some $30 billion worth of shares in Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway put the Gates’ foundation into the league where it spends almost the amount of the entire annual budget of the United Nations’ World Health Organization.

So when Bill Gates decides through the Gates Foundation to invest some $30 million of their hard earned money in a project, it is worth looking at.

No project is more interesting at the moment than a curious project in one of the world’s most remote spots, Svalbard. Bill Gates is investing millions in a seed bank on the Barents Sea near the Arctic Ocean, some 1,100 kilometers from the North Pole. Svalbard is a barren piece of rock claimed by Norway and ceded in 1925 by international treaty (see map).

On this God-forsaken island Bill Gates is investing tens of his millions along with the Rockefeller Foundation, Monsanto Corporation, Syngenta Foundation and the Government of Norway, among others, in what is called the ‘doomsday seed bank.’ Officially the project is named the Svalbard Global Seed Vault on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen, part of the Svalbard island group.

The seed bank is being built inside a mountain on Spitsbergen Island near the small village of Longyearbyen. It’s almost ready for ‘business’ according to their releases. The bank will have dual blast-proof doors with motion sensors, two airlocks, and walls of steel-reinforced concrete one meter thick. It will contain up to three million different varieties of seeds from the entire world, ‘so that crop diversity can be conserved for the future,’ according to the Norwegian government. Seeds will be specially wrapped to exclude moisture. There will be no full-time staff, but the vault’s relative inaccessibility will facilitate monitoring any possible human activity.

Did we miss something here? Their press release stated, ‘so that crop diversity can be conserved for the future.’ What future do the seed bank’s sponsors foresee, that would threaten the global availability of current seeds, almost all of which are already well protected in designated seed banks around the world?

Anytime Bill Gates, the Rockefeller Foundation, Monsanto and Syngenta get together on a common project, it’s worth digging a bit deeper behind the rocks on Spitsbergen. When we do we find some fascinating things.

The first notable point is who is sponsoring the doomsday seed vault. Here joining the Norwegians are, as noted, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; the US agribusiness giant DuPont/Pioneer Hi-Bred, one of the world’s largest owners of patented genetically-modified (GMO) plant seeds and related agrichemicals; Syngenta, the Swiss-based major GMO seed and agrichemicals company through its Syngenta Foundation; the Rockefeller Foundation, the private group who created the “gene revolution with over $100 million of seed money since the 1970’s; CGIAR, the global network created by the Rockefeller Foundation to promote its ideal of genetic purity through agriculture change.

CGIAR and ‘The Project’

As I detailled in the book, Seeds of Destruction1, in 1960 the Rockefeller Foundation, John D. Rockefeller III’s Agriculture Development Council and the Ford Foundation joined forces to create the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in Los Baños, the Philippines. By 1971, the Rockefeller Foundation’s IRRI, along with their Mexico-based International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center and two other Rockefeller and Ford Foundation-created international research centers, the IITA for tropical agriculture, Nigeria, and IRRI for rice, Philippines, combined to form a global Consultative Group on International Agriculture Research (CGIAR).

CGIAR was shaped at a series of private conferences held at the Rockefeller Foundation’s conference center in Bellagio, Italy. Key participants at the Bellagio talks were the Rockefeller Foundation’s George Harrar, Ford Foundation’s Forrest Hill, Robert McNamara of the World Bank and Maurice Strong, the Rockefeller family’s international environmental organizer, who, as a Rockefeller Foundation Trustee, organized the UN Earth Summit in Stockholm in 1972. It was part of the foundation’s decades long focus to turn science to the service of eugenics, a hideous version of racial purity, what has been called The Project.

To ensure maximum impact, CGIAR drew in the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, the UN Development Program and the World Bank. Thus, through a carefully-planned leverage of its initial funds, the Rockefeller Foundation by the beginning of the 1970’s was in a position to shape global agriculture policy. And shape it did.

Financed by generous Rockefeller and Ford Foundation study grants, CGIAR saw to it that leading Third World agriculture scientists and agronomists were brought to the US to ‘master’ the concepts of modern agribusiness production, in order to carry it back to their homeland. In the process they created an invaluable network of influence for US agribusiness promotion in those countries, most especially promotion of the GMO ‘Gene Revolution’ in developing countries, all in the name of science and efficient, free market agriculture.

Genetically engineering a master race?

Now the Svalbard Seed Bank begins to become interesting. But it gets better. ‘The Project’ I referred to is the project of the Rockefeller Foundation and powerful financial interests since the 1920’s to use eugenics, later renamed genetics, to justify creation of a genetically-engineered Master Race. Hitler and the Nazis called it the Ayran Master Race.

The eugenics of Hitler were financed to a major extent by the same Rockefeller Foundation which today is building a doomsday seed vault to preserve samples of every seed on our planet. Now this is getting really intriguing. The same Rockefeller Foundation created the pseudo-science discipline of molecular biology in their relentless pursuit of reducing human life down to the ‘defining gene sequence’ which, they hoped, could then be modified in order to change human traits at will. Hitler’s eugenics scientists, many of whom were quietly brought to the United States after the War to continue their biological eugenics research, laid much of the groundwork of genetic engineering of various life forms, much of it supported openly until well into the Third Reich by Rockefeller Foundation generous grants.2

The same Rockefeller Foundation created the so-called Green Revolution, out of a trip to Mexico in 1946 by Nelson Rockefeller and former New Deal Secretary of Agriculture and founder of the Pioneer Hi-Bred Seed Company, Henry Wallace.

The Green Revolution purported to solve the world hunger problem to a major degree in Mexico, India and other select countries where Rockefeller worked. Rockefeller Foundation agronomist, Norman Borlaug, won a Nobel Peace Prize for his work, hardly something to boast about with the likes of Henry Kissinger sharing the same.

In reality, as it years later emerged, the Green Revolution was a brilliant Rockefeller family scheme to develop a globalized agribusiness which they then could monopolize just as they had done in the world oil industry beginning a half century before. As Henry Kissinger declared in the 1970’s, ‘If you control the oil you control the country; if you control food, you control the population.’

Agribusiness and the Rockefeller Green Revolution went hand-in-hand. They were part of a grand strategy which included Rockefeller Foundation financing of research for the development of genetic engineering of plants and animals a few years later.

John H. Davis had been Assistant Agriculture Secretary under President Dwight Eisenhower in the early 1950’s. He left Washington in 1955 and went to the Harvard Graduate School of Business, an unusual place for an agriculture expert in those days. He had a clear strategy. In 1956, Davis wrote an article in the Harvard Business Review in which he declared that “the only way to solve the so-called farm problem once and for all, and avoid cumbersome government programs, is to progress from agriculture to agribusiness.” He knew precisely what he had in mind, though few others had a clue back then— a revolution in agriculture production that would concentrate control of the food chain in corporate multinational hands, away from the traditional family farmer. 3

A crucial aspect driving the interest of the Rockefeller Foundation and US agribusiness companies was the fact that the Green Revolution was based on proliferation of new hybrid seeds in developing markets. One vital aspect of hybrid seeds was their lack of reproductive capacity. Hybrids had a built in protection against multiplication. Unlike normal open pollinated species whose seed gave yields similar to its parents, the yield of the seed borne by hybrid plants was significantly lower than that of the first generation.

That declining yield characteristic of hybrids meant farmers must normally buy seed every year in order to obtain high yields. Moreover, the lower yield of the second generation eliminated the trade in seed that was often done by seed producers without the breeder’s authorization. It prevented the redistribution of the commercial crop seed by middlemen. If the large multinational seed.

Companies were able to control the parental seed lines in house, no competitor or farmer would be able to produce the hybrid. The global concentration of hybrid seed patents into a handful of giant seed companies, led by DuPont’s Pioneer Hi-Bred and Monsanto’s Dekalb laid the ground for the later GMO seed revolution. 4

In effect, the introduction of modern American agricultural technology, chemical fertilizers and commercial hybrid seeds all made local farmers in developing countries, particularly the larger more established ones, dependent on foreign, mostly US agribusiness and petro-chemical company inputs. It was a first step in what was to be a decades-long, carefully planned process.

Under the Green Revolution Agribusiness was making major inroads into markets which were previously of limited access to US exporters. The trend was later dubbed “market-oriented agriculture.” In reality it was agribusiness-controlled agriculture.

Through the Green Revolution, the Rockefeller Foundation and later Ford Foundation worked hand-in-hand shaping and supporting the foreign policy goals of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and of the CIA.

One major effect of the Green Revolution was to depopulate the countryside of peasants who were forced to flee into shantytown slums around the cities in desperate search for work. That was no accident; it was part of the plan to create cheap labor pools for forthcoming US multinational manufactures, the ‘globalization’ of recent years.

When the self-promotion around the Green Revolution died down, the results were quite different from what had been promised. Problems had arisen from indiscriminate use of the new chemical pesticides, often with serious health consequences. The mono-culture cultivation of new hybrid seed varieties decreased soil fertility and yields over time. The first results were impressive: double or even triple yields for some crops such as wheat and later corn in Mexico. That soon faded.

The Green Revolution was typically accompanied by large irrigation projects which often included World Bank loans to construct huge new dams, and flood previously settled areas and fertile farmland in the process. Also, super-wheat produced greater yields by saturating the soil with huge amounts of fertilizer per acre, the fertilizer being the product of nitrates and petroleum, commodities controlled by the Rockefeller-dominated Seven Sisters major oil companies.

Huge quantities of herbicides and pesticides were also used, creating additional markets for the oil and chemical giants. As one analyst put it, in effect, the Green Revolution was merely a chemical revolution. At no point could developing nations pay for the huge amounts of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. They would get the credit courtesy of the World Bank and special loans by Chase Bank and other large New York banks, backed by US Government guarantees.

Applied in a large number of developing countries, those loans went mostly to the large landowners. For the smaller peasants the situation worked differently. Small peasant farmers could not afford the chemical and other modern inputs and had to borrow money.

Initially various government programs tried to provide some loans to farmers so that they could purchase seeds and fertilizers. Farmers who could not participate in this kind of program had to borrow from the private sector. Because of the exorbitant interest rates for informal loans, many small farmers did not even get the benefits of the initial higher yields. After harvest, they had to sell most if not all of their produce to pay off loans and interest. They became dependent on money-lenders and traders and often lost their land. Even with soft loans from government agencies, growing subsistence crops gave way to the production of cash crops.5

Since decades the same interests including the Rockefeller Foundation which backed the initial Green Revolution, have worked to promote a second ‘Gene Revolution’ as Rockefeller Foundation President Gordon Conway termed it several years ago, the spread of industrial agriculture and commercial inputs including GMO patented seeds.

Gates, Rockefeller and a Green Revolution in Africa

With the true background of the 1950’s Rockefeller Foundation Green Revolution clear in mind, it becomes especially curious that the same Rockefeller Foundation along with the Gates Foundation which are now investing millions of dollars in preserving every seed against a possible “doomsday” scenario are also investing millions in a project called The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa.

AGRA, as it calls itself, is an alliance again with the same Rockefeller Foundation which created the “Gene Revolution.” A look at the AGRA Board of Directors confirms this.

It includes none other than former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan as chairman. In his acceptance speech in a World Economic Forum event in Cape Town South Africa in June 2007, Kofi Annan stated, ‘I accept this challenge with gratitude to the Rockefeller Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and all others who support our African campaign.’

In addition the AGRA board numbers a South African, Strive Masiyiwa who is a Trustee of the Rockefeller Foundation. It includes Sylvia M. Mathews of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Mamphela Ramphele, former Managing Director of the World Bank (2000 – 2006); Rajiv J. Shah of the Gates Foundation; Nadya K. Shmavonian of the Rockefeller Foundation; Roy Steiner of the Gates Foundation. In addition, an Alliance for AGRA includes Gary Toenniessen the Managing Director of the Rockefeller Foundation and Akinwumi Adesina, Associate Director, Rockefeller Foundation.

To fill out the lineup, the Programmes for AGRA includes Peter Matlon, Managing Director, Rockefeller Foundation; Joseph De Vries, Director of the Programme for Africa’s Seed Systems and Associate Director, Rockefeller foundation; Akinwumi Adesina, Associate Director, Rockefeller Foundation. Like the old failed Green Revolution in India and Mexico, the new Africa Green Revolution is clearly a high priority of the Rockefeller Foundation.

While to date they are keeping a low profile, Monsanto and the major GMO agribusiness giants are believed at the heart of using Kofi Annan’s AGRA to spread their patented GMO seeds across Africa under the deceptive label, ‘bio-technology,’ the new euphemism for genetically engineered patented seeds. To date South Africa is the only African country permitting legal planting of GMO crops. In 2003 Burkina Faso authorized GMO trials. In 2005 Kofi Annan’s Ghana drafted bio-safety legislation and key officials expressed their intentions to pursue research into GMO crops.

Africa is the next target in the US-government campaign to spread GMO worldwide. Its rich soils make it an ideal candidate. Not surprisingly many African governments suspect the worst from the GMO sponsors as a multitude of genetic engineering and biosafety projects have been initiated in Africa, with the aim of introducing GMOs into Africa’s agricultural systems. These include sponsorships offered by the US government to train African scientists in genetic engineering in the US, biosafety projects funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the World Bank; GMO research involving African indigenous food crops.

The Rockefeller Foundation has been working for years to promote, largely without success, projects to introduce GMOs into the fields of Africa. They have backed research that supports the applicability of GMO cotton in the Makhathini Flats in South Africa.

Monsanto, who has a strong foothold in South Africa’s seed industry, both GMO and hybrid, has conceived of an ingenious smallholders’ programme known as the ‘Seeds of  Hope’ Campaign, which is introducing a green revolution package to small scale poor farmers, followed, of course, by Monsanto’s patented GMO seeds. 6

Syngenta AG of Switzerland, one of the ‘Four Horsemen of the GMO Apocalypse’ is pouring millions of dollars into a new greenhouse facility in Nairobi, to develop GMO insect resistant maize. Syngenta is a part of CGIAR as well.7

Move on to Svalbard

Now is it simply philosophical sloppiness? What leads the Gates and Rockefeller foundations to at one and the same time to back proliferation of patented and soon-to-be Terminator patented seeds across Africa, a process which, as it has in every other place on earth, destroys the plant seed varieties as monoculture industrialized agribusiness is introduced? At the same time they invest tens of millions of dollars to preserve every seed variety known in a bomb-proof doomsday vault near the remote Arctic Circle ‘so that crop diversity can be conserved for the future’ to restate their official release?

It is no accident that the Rockefeller and Gates foundations are teaming up to push a GMO-style Green Revolution in Africa at the same time they are quietly financing the ‘doomsday seed vault’ on Svalbard. The GMO agribusiness giants are up to their ears in the Svalbard project.

Indeed, the entire Svalbard enterprise and the people involved call up the worst catastrophe images of the Michael Crichton bestseller, Andromeda Strain, a sci-fi thriller where a deadly disease of extraterrestrial origin causes rapid, fatal clotting of the blood threatening the entire human species. In Svalbard, the future world’s most secure seed repository will be guarded by the policemen of the GMO Green Revolution–the Rockefeller and Gates Foundations, Syngenta, DuPont and CGIAR.

The Svalbard project will be run by an organization called the Global Crop Diversity Trust (GCDT). Who are they to hold such an awesome trust over the planet’s entire seed varieties? The GCDT was founded by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and Bioversity International (formerly the International Plant Genetic Research Institute), an offshoot of the CGIAR.

The Global Crop Diversity Trust is based in Rome. Its Board is chaired by Margaret Catley-Carlson a Canadian also on the advisory board of Group Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux, one of the world’s largest private water companies. Catley-Carlson was also president until 1998 of the New York-based Population Council, John D. Rockefeller’s population reduction organization, set up in 1952 to advance the Rockefeller family’s eugenics program under the cover of promoting “family planning,” birth control devices, sterilization and “population control” in developing countries.

Other GCDT board members include former Bank of America executive presently head of the Hollywood DreamWorks Animation, Lewis Coleman. Coleman is also the lead Board Director of Northrup Grumman Corporation, one of America’s largest military industry Pentagon contractors.

Jorio Dauster (Brazil) is also Board Chairman of Brasil Ecodiesel. He is a former Ambassador of Brazil to the European Union, and Chief Negotiator of Brazil’s foreign debt for the Ministry of Finance. Dauster has also served as President of the Brazilian Coffee Institute and as Coordinator of the Project for the Modernization of Brazil’s Patent System, which involves legalizing patents on seeds which are genetically modified, something until recently forbidden by Brazil’s laws.

Cary Fowler is the Trust’s Executive Director. Fowler was Professor and Director of Research in the Department for International Environment & Development Studies at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences. He was also a Senior Advisor to the Director General of Bioversity International. There he represented the Future Harvest Centres of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) in negotiations on the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources. In the 1990s, he headed the International Program on Plant Genetic Resources at the FAO. He drafted and supervised negotiations of FAO’s Global Plan of Action for Plant Genetic Resources, adopted by 150 countries in 1996. He is a past-member of the National Plant Genetic Resources Board of the US and the Board of Trustees of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center in Mexico, another Rockefeller Foundation and CGIAR project.

GCDT board member Dr. Mangala Rai of India is the Secretary of India’s Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE), and Director General of the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR). He is also a Board Member of the Rockefeller Foundation’s International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), which promoted the world’s first major GMO experiment, the much-hyped ‘Golden Rice’ which proved a failure. Rai has served as Board Member for CIMMYT (International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center), and a Member of the Executive Council of the CGIAR.

Global Crop Diversity Trust Donors or financial angels include as well, in the words of the Humphrey Bogart Casablanca classic, ‘all the usual suspects.’ As well as the Rockefeller and Gates Foundations, the Donors include GMO giants DuPont-Pioneer Hi-Bred, Syngenta of Basle Switzerland, CGIAR and the State Department’s energetically pro-GMO agency for development aid, USAID. Indeed it seems we have the GMO and population reduction foxes guarding the hen-house of mankind, the global seed diversity store in Svalbard. 8

Why now Svalbard?

We can legitimately ask why Bill Gates and the Rockefeller Foundation along with the major genetic engineering agribusiness giants such as DuPont and Syngenta, along with CGIAR are building the Doomsday Seed Vault in the Arctic.

Who uses such a seed bank in the first place? Plant breeders and researchers are the major users of gene banks. Today’s largest plant breeders are Monsanto, DuPont, Syngenta and Dow Chemical, the global plant-patenting GMO giants. Since early in 2007 Monsanto holds world patent rights together with the United States Government for plant so-called ‘Terminator’ or Genetic Use Restriction Technology (GURT). Terminator is an ominous technology by which a patented commercial seed commits ‘suicide’ after one harvest. Control by private seed companies is total. Such control and power over the food chain has never before in the history of mankind existed.

This clever genetically engineered terminator trait forces farmers to return every year to Monsanto or other GMO seed suppliers to get new seeds for rice, soybeans, corn, wheat whatever major crops they need to feed their population. If broadly introduced around the world, it could within perhaps a decade or so make the world’s majority of food producers new feudal serfs in bondage to three or four giant seed companies such as Monsanto or DuPont or Dow Chemical.

That, of course, could also open the door to have those private companies, perhaps under orders from their host government, Washington, deny seeds to one or another developing country whose politics happened to go against Washington’s. Those who say ‘It can’t happen here’ should look more closely at current global events. The mere existence of that concentration of power in three or four private US-based agribusiness giants is grounds for legally banning all GMO crops even were their harvest gains real, which they manifestly are not.

These private companies, Monsanto, DuPont, Dow Chemical hardly have an unsullied record in terms of stewardship of human life. They developed and proliferated such innovations as dioxin, PCBs, Agent Orange. They covered up for decades clear evidence of carcinogenic and other severe human health consequences of use of the toxic chemicals. They have buried serious scientific reports that the world’s most widespread herbicide, glyphosate, the essential ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide that is tied to purchase of most Monsanto genetically engineered seeds, is toxic when it seeps into drinking water.9 Denmark banned glyphosate in 2003 when it confirmed it has contaminated the country’s groundwater.10

The diversity stored in seed gene banks is the raw material for plant breeding and for a great deal of basic biological research. Several hundred thousand samples are distributed annually for such purposes. The UN’s FAO lists some 1400 seed banks around the world, the largest being held by the United States Government. Other large banks are held by China, Russia, Japan, India, South Korea, Germany and Canada in descending order of size. In addition, CGIAR operates a chain of seed banks in select centers around the world.

CGIAR, set up in 1972 by the Rockefeller Foundation and Ford Foundation to spread their Green Revolution agribusiness model, controls most of the private seed banks from the Philippines to Syria to Kenya. In all these present seed banks hold more than six and a half million seed varieties, almost two million of which are ‘distinct.’ Svalbard’s Doomsday Vault will have a capacity to house four and a half million different seeds.

GMO as a weapon of biowarfare?

Now we come to the heart of the danger and the potential for misuse inherent in the Svalbard project of Bill Gates and the Rockefeller foundation. Can the development of patented seeds for most of the world’s major sustenance crops such as rice, corn, wheat, and feed grains such as soybeans ultimately be used in a horrible form of biological warfare?

The explicit aim of the eugenics lobby funded by wealthy elite families such as Rockefeller, Carnegie, Harriman and others since the 1920’s, has embodied what they termed ‘negative eugenics,’ the systematic killing off of undesired bloodlines. Margaret Sanger, a rapid eugenicist, the founder of Planned Parenthood International and an intimate of the Rockefeller family, created something called The Negro Project in 1939, based in Harlem, which as she confided in a letter to a friend, was all about the fact that, as she put it, ‘we want to exterminate the Negro population.’ 11

A small California biotech company, Epicyte, in 2001 announced the development of genetically engineered corn which contained a spermicide which made the semen of men who ate it sterile. At the time Epicyte had a joint venture agreement to spread its technology with DuPont and Syngenta, two of the sponsors of the Svalbard Doomsday Seed Vault. Epicyte was since acquired by a North Carolina biotech company. Astonishing to learn was that Epicyte had developed its spermicidal GMO corn with research funds from the US Department of Agriculture, the same USDA which, despite worldwide opposition, continued to finance the development of Terminator technology, now held by Monsanto.

In the 1990’s the UN’s World Health Organization launched a campaign to vaccinate millions of women in Nicaragua, Mexico and the Philippines between the ages of 15 and 45, allegedly against Tentanus, a sickness arising from such things as stepping on a rusty nail. The vaccine was not given to men or boys, despite the fact they are presumably equally liable to step on rusty nails as women.

Because of that curious anomaly, Comite Pro Vida de Mexico, a Roman Catholic lay organization became suspicious and had vaccine samples tested. The tests revealed that the Tetanus vaccine being spread by the WHO only to women of child-bearing age contained human Chorionic Gonadotrophin or hCG, a natural hormone which when combined with a tetanus toxoid carrier stimulated antibodies rendering a woman incapable of maintaining a pregnancy. None of the women vaccinated were told.

It later came out that the Rockefeller Foundation along with the Rockefeller’s Population Council, the World Bank (home to CGIAR), and the United States’ National Institutes of Health had been involved in a 20-year-long project begun in 1972 to develop the concealed abortion vaccine with a tetanus carrier for WHO. In addition, the Government of Norway, the host to the Svalbard Doomsday Seed Vault, donated $41 million to develop the special abortive Tetanus vaccine. 12

Is it a coincidence that these same organizations, from Norway to the Rockefeller Foundation to the World Bank are also involved in the Svalbard seed bank project? According to Prof. Francis Boyle who drafted the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989 enacted by the US Congress, the Pentagon is ‘now gearing up to fight and win biological warfare’ as part of two Bush national strategy directives adopted, he notes, ‘without public knowledge and review’ in 2002. Boyle adds that in 2001-2004 alone the US Federal Government spent $14.5 billion for civilian bio-warfare-related work, a staggering sum.

Rutgers University biologist Richard Ebright estimates that over 300 scientific institutions and some 12,000 individuals in the USA today have access to pathogens suitable for biowarfare. Alone there are 497 US Government NIH grants for research into infectious diseases with biowarfare potential. Of course this is being justified under the rubric of defending against possible terror attack as so much is today.

Many of the US Government dollars spent on biowarfare research involve genetic engineering. MIT biology professor Jonathan King says that the ‘growing bio-terror programs represent a significant emerging danger to our own population.’ King adds, ‘while such programs are always called defensive, with biological weapons, defensive and offensive programs overlap almost completely.’ 13

Time will tell whether, God Forbid, the Svalbard Doomsday Seed Bank of Bill Gates and the Rockefeller Foundation is part of another Final Solution, this involving the extinction of the Late, Great Planet Earth.

Notes

1 F. William Engdahl, Seeds of Destruction, Montreal, (Global Research, 2007).
2 Ibid, pp.72-90.
3 John H. Davis, Harvard Business Review, 1956, cited in Geoffrey Lawrence, Agribusiness, Capitalism and the Countryside, Pluto Press, Sydney, 1987. See also Harvard Business School, The Evolution of an Industry and a Seminar: Agribusiness Seminar,http://www.exed.hbs.edu/programs/agb/seminar.html.
4 Engdahl, op cit., p. 130.
5 Ibid. P. 123-30.
6 Myriam Mayet, The New Green Revolution in Africa: Trojan Horse for GMOs?, May, 2007, African Centre for Biosafety, www.biosafetyafrica.net.
7 ETC Group, Green Revolution 2.0 for Africa?, Communique Issue #94, March/April 2007.
8 Global Crop Diversity Trust website, in http://www.croptrust.org/main/donors.php.
9 Engdahl, op. cit., pp.227-236.
10 Anders Legarth Smith, Denmark Bans Glyphosates, the Active Ingredient in Roundup, Politiken, September 15, 2003, in organic.com.au/news/2003.09.15.
11 Tanya L. Green, The Negro Project: Margaret Sanger’s Genocide Project for Black American’s, inwww.blackgenocide.org/negro.html.
12 Engdahl, op. cit., pp. 273-275; J.A. Miller, Are New Vaccines Laced With Birth-Control Drugs?, HLI Reports, Human Life International, Gaithersburg, Maryland; June/July 1995, Volume 13, Number 8.
13 Sherwood Ross, Bush Developing Illegal Bioterror Weapons for Offensive Use,’ December 20, 2006, in www.truthout.org.

Sources:

Global Research

Image Credit

(Cut and Paste from http://truththeory.com/2013/06/12/doomsday-seed-vault-in-the-arctic/)

Semua pemimpin sektor awam perlu ada Facebook, Twitter - Ketua Setiausaha Negara (KSN)

PUTRAJAYA 14 Jun - Ketua Setiausaha Negara (KSN), Tan Sri Ali Hamsa mahu setiap ketua setiausaha kementerian (KSU), timbalan KSU, ketua pengarah (KP) serta pemimpin jabatan dan bahagian sektor awam memiliki akaun Facebook dan Twitter sendiri mulai esok.

Beliau berkata, saranan tersebut perlu bagi membolehkan pegawai atasan dan ketua jabatan menjawab setiap kritikan dan tuduhan liar yang dilemparkan oleh pihak tertentu melalui dua saluran media sosial yang popular itu.

Katanya, langkah itu merupakan peluang terbaik kepada mereka untuk lebih mendekati dan memahami permasalahan yang dihadapi rakyat di peringkat akar umbi.

"Kita selalu berada di pihak yang menerima kritikan dan tuduhan sedemikian dan saya percaya sudah tiba masa untuk menjawabnya dengan fakta.

"Dalam masa sama, kita juga perlu mempertahankan nama baik penjawat awam pada setiap masa dengan menggunakan dua saluran media sosial terbabit," katanya kepada pemberita selepas Majlis Interaksi Pegawai Tadbir dan Diplomatik (PTD) Bersama KSN, di sini hari ini.

Majlis yang dianjurkan oleh Persatuan PTD itu turut melancarkan Tabung Khas Kebajikan Persatuan PTD.

Sebelum ini, Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak menggesa setiap kementerian dan jabatan kerajaan memiliki akaun Facebook dan Twitter bagi menangani kritikan awam dan mempromosikan program yang dirancang oleh mereka.

Serentak dengan saranan tersebut, Ali berkata, beliau ada mekanisme tertentu untuk memastikan setiap KSU, Timbalan KSU, KP dan pemimpin jabatan dan bahagian mematuhi i saranan tersebut "Salah satunya, mereka perlu jadi 'kawan' Facebook dan pengikut Twitter saya," katanya.

Rakyat Malaysia Sebanyak 89.2 Peratus Daripada Keluaran Dalam Negara Kasar (KDNK).

Timbalan Menteri Kewangan, Datuk Ahmad Maslan baru-baru membuat kenyataan bahawa hutang isi rumah di Malaysia kini mencecah RM800 bilion atau 89.2 peratus daripada Keluaran Dalam Negara Kasar (KDNK). Difahamkan diantara faktor-faktor yang menyebabkan fenomena itu berlaku ialah Pinjaman perumahan, pinjaman kenderaan, penggunaan kad kredit dan galakan peminjaman tunai oleh Institusi Kewangan seperti bank dan koperasi. Golongan yang paling banyak berhutang ialah penjawat awam dan kumpulan rakyat yang berpendapatan di bawah RM3,000. 

Tambah Datuk Ahmad Maslan lagi "Walaupun belum sampai ke tahap kritikal, usaha sedang dilakukan bagi membantu mereka menguruskan kewangan dengan lebih baik melalui kesedaran dan pendidikan Laman Informasi Nasihat dan Khidmat (LINK) yang diusahakan Bank Negara"

"Amalan gaya hidup mewah bukan sahaja berlaku di Malaysia tetapi negara lain, namun kerajaan melakukan pencegahan sebelum bertambah parah kerana ramai berbuat demikian walaupun mengetahui kemampuan kewangan mereka terbatas," katanya.

Beliau berkata demikian kepada pemberita selepas merasmikan Program Kesedaran dan Pendidikan Kewangan, Kaunter Bergerak BNMLINK yang diadakan dengan kerjasama Pejabat Daerah Pontian di Dewan Serbaguna Benut di sini hari ini.

Yang turut hadir, Penolong Gabenor Bank Negara, Abu Hassan Alshari Yahya dan Pegawai Daerah Pontian, Muji Salimon.

Ahmad yang juga Ahli Parlimen Pontian berkata, trend gaya hidup mewah membimbangkan kerana ramai sanggup berhutang bagi mendapatkan sesuatu yang diminati seperti telefon bimbit, beg tangan, pakaian berjenama dan kenderaan mewah.

"Agensi Kaunseling dan Pengurusan Kredit (AKPK) telah memberikan khidmat kaunseling kepada 219,995 individu sejak 2007 dengan 89,450 kes dibawa kepada Program Pengurusan Hutang. Ini menunjukkan mereka boleh mengawal tetapi terperangkap dengan gaya hidup," katanya.

Dalam perkembangan lain, isu harga rumah yang tinggi akan dibangkitkan dalam perbincangan Bajet 2014 pada minggu hadapan melibatkan beberapa perkara seperti kos bahan binaan dan infrastruktur yang ditanggung oleh pemaju sehingga mendakwa tidak mendapat banyak keuntungan.

Three Things I’ve Learned From Warren Buffett - Bill Gate

I’m looking forward to sharing posts from time to time about things I’ve learned in my career atMicrosoft and the Gates Foundation. (I also post frequently on my blog.)

Last month, I went to Omaha for the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting. It’s always a lot of fun, and not just because of the ping-pong matches and the newspaper-throwing contest I have with Warren Buffett. It’s also fun because I get to learn from Warren and gain insight into how he thinks.

Here are three things I’ve learned from Warren over the years:

1. It’s not just about investing.

The first thing people learn from Warren, of course, is how to think about investing. That’s natural, given his amazing track record. Unfortunately, that’s where a lot of people stop, and they miss out on the fact that he has a whole framework for business thinking that is very powerful. For example, he talks about looking for a company’s moat—its competitive advantage—and whether the moat is shrinking or growing. He says a shareholder has to act as if he owns the entire business, looking at the future profit stream and deciding what it’s worth. And you have to be willing to ignore the market rather than follow it, because you want to take advantage of the market’s mistakes—the companies that have been underpriced.

I have to admit, when I first met Warren, the fact that he had this framework was a real surprise to me. I met him at a dinner my mother had put together. On my way there, I thought, “Why would I want to meet this guy who picks stocks?” I thought he just used various market-related things—like volume, or how the price had changed over time—to make his decisions. But when we started talking that day, he didn’t ask me about any of those things. Instead he started asking big questions about the fundamentals of our business. “Why can’t IBM do what Microsoft does? Why has Microsoft been so profitable?” That’s when I realized he thought about business in a much more profound way than I’d given him credit for.

2. Use your platform.

A lot of business leaders write letters to their shareholders, but Warren is justly famous for his. Partly that’s because his natural good humor shines through. Partly it’s because people think it will help them invest better (and they’re right). But it’s also because he’s been willing to speak frankly and criticize things like stock options and financial derivatives. He’s not afraid to take positions, like his stand on raising taxes on the rich, that run counter to his self-interest. Warren inspired me to start writing my own annual letter about the foundation’s work. I still have a ways to go before mine is as good as Warren’s, but it’s been helpful to sit down once a year and explain the results we’re seeing, both good and bad.

3. Know how valuable your time is.

No matter how much money you have, you can’t buy more time. There are only 24 hours in everyone’s day. Warren has a keen sense of this. He doesn’t let his calendar get filled up with useless meetings. On the other hand, he’s very generous with his time for the people he trusts. He gives his close advisers at Berkshire his phone number, and they can just call him up and he’ll answer the phone.

Although Warren makes a point of meeting with dozens of university classes every year, not many people get to ask him for advice on a regular basis. I feel very lucky in that regard: The dialogue has been invaluable to me, and not only at Microsoft. When Melinda and I started our foundation, I turned to him for advice. We talked a lot about the idea that philanthropy could be just as impactful in its own way as software had been. It turns out that Warren’s brilliant way of looking at the world is just as useful in attacking poverty and disease as it is in building a business. He’s one of a kind.

Photo: Bill Gates

(Reference - http://www.linkedin.com)

Polisi #UiTM tidak langgar etika - Prof Dr Azmi Hassan

Penganalisis politik, Prof Dr Azmi Hassan

SHAH ALAM – Dasar kemasukan hanya Bumiputera di Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) tidak melanggar sebarang etika mahupun Konvensyen Antarabangsa yang berkait dengan diskriminasi perkauman.

Penganalisis politik, Prof Dr Azmi Hassan berkata, tujuan utama UiTM dibina adalah untuk membantu kumpulan minoriti iaitu orang Melayu yang masih ketinggalan dalam arus pendidikan.

“Untuk membantu golongan minoriti yang masih ketinggalan adalah tidak salah dan UiTM mengambil inisiatif membuka tawaran hanya kepada Bumiputera.

“Di Amerika misalnya, mereka melakukan perkara yang sama untuk membantu kumpulan penduduk kulit hitam berpeluang masuk ke universiti. Sebarang resolusi untuk meningkatkan tahap pendidikan golongan tertentu adalah perkara yang perlu disambut baik dan bukan dipertikaikan,” katanya kepada Sinar Harian semalam.

Azmi berkata, tertubuhnya UiTM menunjukkan sistem pendidikan negara memberi hak sama rata dengan kaum lain yang masing-masing mempunyai peluang yang sama seperti mana wujudnya banyak universiti dan kolej swasta lain.

“Peluang untuk mendapat pendidikan tetap ada untuk semua kaum, jadi tidak timbul isu langgar hak asasi manusia mahupun melanggar mana-mana syarat antarabangsa. UiTM adalah untuk membantu anak Bumiputera bersaing secara adil,” katanya.

Sementara itu, Alumni UiTM, Ahmad Badly Badaruddin berkata, UiTM perlu dikekalkan untuk Bumiputera sahaja kerana ia merupakan satu-satunya universiti di negara ini yang mempunyai majoriti Melayu.

"Saya tidak bersetuju sekiranya UiTM ini turut dibuka kepada bukan Bumiputera. Sekiranya UiTM menukar dasarnya, apa lagi yang ada untuk kami anak Melayu? UiTM ini umpama universiti warisan Bumiputera yang perlu dipelihara keunikannya.

"Peluang untuk bukan Bumiputera menerima pendidikan di negara ini juga terbentang luas dan tiada alasan untuk mempertikaikan dasar UiTM," katanya.

(Sumber - http://www.sinarharian.com.my)

Tambang Bas Raya Bakal Naik - Pengerusi Suruhanjaya Pengangkutan Awam Darat (SPAD), Tan Sri Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Syed Jaafar Albar

Syed Hamid Albar

SERI KEMBANGAN - Kerajaan sedang mempertimbangkan kenaikan tambang bas sempena musim perayaan ini seperti diminta syarikat pengusaha bas ekspres di negara ini.

Pengerusi Suruhanjaya Pengangkutan Awam Darat (SPAD), Tan Sri Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Syed Jaafar Albar berkata, kerajaan masih kaji permintaan itu dan belum memutuskan nilai yang akan dinaikkan.


“Setiap tahun pada musim perayaan memang terdapat surcaj 10 peratus yang dikenakan pada tambang kerana perjalanan pada musim perayaan ada bezanya, iaitu bas penuh semasa pergi dan kosong bila balik.

Jadi, ini yang perlu diambil kira,” katanya selepas merasmikan Ekspo Antarabangsa Bas, Trak dan Komponen Malaysia 2013 di Seri Kembangan, semalam.

Beliau berpendapat, syarikat pengusaha bas ekspres tidak sepatutnya buat permintaan begitu dengan sewenang-wenangnya tetapi mengakui kerajaan faham dengan apa yang diperlukan oleh industri pengangkutan awam komersial itu.

“Sebelum buat keputusan, kita perlu melihat kepentingan orang awam agar (keputusan dibuat) lebih seimbang,” katanya.

(sumber - http://www.sinarharian.com.my)

BN dan UMNO Perlu Berubah atau Sebaliknya?

Selepas PRU13 ada cadangan daripada parti komponen Barisan Nasional (BN) mencadangkan supaya BN membuka keahliannya yang dinamakan keahlian terus sebagai parti politik pelbagai bangsa di Malaysia. Idea ini dicadangkan sebagai tindakan pembetulan untuk menarik lebih ramai golongan muda pelbagai bangsa menyertai Barisan Nasional dan meneruskan survival BN dalam Pilihan Raya Umum akan datang.

Menyingkap beberapa lembaran dan kisah perjuangan dan pengalaman UMNO sejak peristiwa menentang Malayan Union sehingga tercapainya kemerdekaan sampai ke zaman pembangunan sekarang - zaman pasca Pilihanraya Umum ke 13 menyaksikan prestasi BN semakin merudum selepas Pilihanraya Umum ke 12 dan BN memerlukan ubat yang berkesan supaya ia boleh sembuh daripada kesakitan yang sedang dialaminya.

BN yang ditunjangi oleh UMNO yang dipimpin oleh Dato' Seri Najib Abdul Razak perlu dan terpaksa berubah mengikut peredaran keadaan,  zaman dan waktu. Hanya dengan keupayaannya untuk melakukan perubahan sesuai dengan keadaan sahajalah UMNO akan dapat menangani apa-apa masalah atau tuntutan baru yang dicetuskan oleh keadaan itu dan dengan demikian baru UMNO dapat mengekalkan citranya sebagai pejuang bangsa Melayu sepanjang zaman. Sesetengah penganalisis politik berkata bahawa untuk mencapai ini maka UMNO perlu mempunyai visi atau wawasan baru. 

Bangsa melayu tidak perlu lagi untuk dibakar saban hari oleh semangat nasionalisme  atau semangat kebangsaan melayu kerana orang melayu telah merdeka, yakni bebas daripada penjajahan British. Yang penting ialah bangsa melayu mesti maju dalam bidang ekonomi, ilmu dan teknologi sebagai asas pembinaan tamadun baru bangsa Melayu. Ini memerlukan pemikiran dan tindakan yang pragmatik, tidak terlalu idealistik. Keadaan dunia hari ini juga dikatakan merupakan cabaran yang besar dan hebat kepada perjuangan bangsa melayu.  Dalam dunia yang dikatakan makin diglobalisasikan  oleh desakan ekonomi dan teknologi maklumat sarwajagat orang percaya bahawa survival atau kelangsungan hidup sesuatu bangsa  atau negara bangsa tentu bergantung pada keupayaannya untuk menyaingi bangsa-bangsa lain yang maju dalam bidang yang sama dan tidak lagi bergantung pada semangat kebangsaan bangsa itu untuk mempertahankan sempadan atau ruang  negara bangsa nya yang kecil daripada desakan dan pengaruh proses globalisasi itu.

Memang benar, kemerdekaan tidak punya erti jikalau bangsa melayu masih lemah dalam bidang ekonomi, ilmu dan teknologi moden. Untuk menjadi bangsa yang maju orang  melayu mesti menguasai alat yang selalu digunakan oleh manusia untuk memperbaiki keadaan hidupnya, membina tamaddun yang tinggi, alat yang selalu digunakan untuk memnguasai dan menjajah bangsa lain, alat ini ialah ilmu pengetahuan. Alat inilah yang membolehkan manusia memajukan ekonomi, menyelesaikan masalah kemiskinan dan kesihtan,dan mencipta teknologi (termasuk teknologi persenjataan). Tidak cukup jika bangsa melayu hanya menumpang kemajuan orang lain, atau masih terus bergantung kepada bangsa-bangsa lain untuk memperbaiki keadaan meterialistiknya.

Tetapi dalam usaha kita untuk memperbaiki keadaan ekonomi dan ilmu pengetahuan bangsa melayu, kita hendaklah memastikan bahawa bangsa melayu itu tidak menjadi mangsa keadaan. Ada bahayanya kalau kita cuba berubah menurut keadaan atau cuba membentuk visi baru mengikut perubahan keadaan. Walaupun dari segi kemajuan materialistiknya keadaan manusia atau dunia hari ini sudah mengalami perubahan yang luar biasa, disebabkan kemajuan ilmu fizikal manusia, sifat semulajadi (asliah) manusia itu sendiri tidak berubah. Manusia bukan hanya makhluk biologis. Manusia dilahirkan dalam ruang sejarah, budaya dan agama tertentu. Maka terdapatlah puak-puak manusia di dunia ini yang berbeza di antara satu sama lain berdasarkan budaya, bahasa, adat resam dan agama. Ciri-ciri inilah yang membentuk kesatuan sosiobudaya manusia yang kita sebut bangsa. Setiap bangsa pula mempunyai ruang atau kesatuan geografi yang kita sebut negara atau negeri. Maka lahirlah konsep negara-bangsa, yang bererti negara yang penduduknya atau warganya terdiri darpada satu atau beberapa bangsa yang dilingkungi atau didaulati oleh satu kesatuan geografi-politik yang sama.

Kesedaran bangsa bersifat semulajadi (asliah), dibentuk dan tertanam secara kolektif melalui warisan bersama dalam sanubari psikik budaya manusia itu sejak turun temurun. Kesedaran inilah yang tidak dapat dimusnahkan oleh keadaan yang berlaku diluar diri manusia itu. Kesedaran inilah yang cukup kuat mempengaruhi perasaan, fikiran, sikap dan tindakan manusia dalam perhubungan antara bangsa atau negara lain. Sesuatu bangsa itu akan tetap mempertahankan jati diri bangsanya atau kedaulatan sempadan negara-bangsanya daripada cabaran dari luar atau dari dalam yang dianggap boleh memusnahkan jati diri bangsa itu. Dalam keadaan darurat atau krisis yang menyentuh soal bangsa atau sempadan negara-bangsa , manusia akhirnya akan kembali jati diri asliah bangsanya untuk berseru dan mengembleng semangat dan tenaga kebangsaanmya sebagai alat penyelamat bangsa yang terakhir. Kita melihat hal ini berlaku sepanjang sejarah manusia di seluruh dunia.

Masalah akan timbul jika kita didesak atau berasa terpaksa berubah menurut keadaan yang ditentukan oleh orang lain, oleh bangsa-bangsa yang maju dan lebih kuat daripada kita. Hinggakan kita selalu mendengar orang berkata bahawa islam , misalnya, mesti berubah menurut zaman atau keadaan, padahal sepatutnya keadaan atau kemajuan manusialah , khususnya yang beragama Islam, yang perlu berubah mengikut Islam, yakni mengikut nilai dan prinsip agama Islam sebagaimana yang terkandung dalam Al Quran dan Hadist sahih.

Pelbagai krisis moral atau akhlak boleh berlaku di dalam kehidupan manusia bila nilai dan prinsip yang hak, yang benar itu, berubah atau diubah dan disesuaikan menurut keadaan ciptaan manusia dengan segala kesilapan dan keburukannya, disamping tentunya keadaan yang baik untuk dimanfaatkan oleh manusia. Bangsa melayu yang beragama Islam di Malaysia misalnya, patut bertanya, mengapakah dalam zaman pembangunan selepas zaman kemerdekaan, orang melayulah yang paling banyak menghadapi masalah budaya, masalah sosial dan moral.

Kalau di zaman penjajah dahulu orang melayu dikatakan bangsa yang daif dari segi keadaan ekonominya,juga dari segi keadaan taraf pendidikannya, malah dikata orang melayu adalah bangsa yang pemalas, sekarang dalam zaman kemajuan materialistik kita mendengar orang berkata bahawa bangsa Melayu sudah menjadi mangsa keadaan itu: mereka dikatakan bangsa yang kurup, penagih dadah, pembazir, pelagak dan pemain wang. Kita selalu mendabik dada dengan berkata bahawa bangsa Melayu beragama Islam hendaklah menjadi contoh di Malaysia atau budaya Melayu hendaklah menjadi teras kebudayaan kebangsaan, tetapi saya percaya bahawa orang lain tentu mentertawakan visi kita itu setelah melihat contoh-contoh yang tidak baik itu. Dalam menangani masalah bangsa sendiri ini kita kadang-kadang cuba menghiburkan diridengan berkata bahawa bangsa pain juga mempunyai kelemahan yang sama. Sikap apologetik seperti inilah yang, secara kita tidak sedari, kadang-kadang menyebabkan kita mencari alasan untuk menutup kelemahan diri sendiri.

Kesatuan manusia sejagat tidak pernah wujud dalam sejarah manusia, walaupun dalam zaman kerjasama antarabangsa hari ini,yang kononnya cuba dibentuk oleh berbagai-bagai pertubuhan antarabangsa di bawah sistem PBB selepas perang dunia kedua. Manusia tidak berubah. Mereka tetap berperang jika kepentingan bangsa, budaya, agama dan kedaulatan sempadan negaranya terancam atau dicabar oleh bangsa lain biarpun orang percaya bahawa dalam keadaan baru dunia hari ini kesedaran atau sentimen itu akan dihakis oleh proses globalisasi yang dikatakan akan menyebabkan manusia akan melupakan akarnya sendiri dan sanggup (kerana tiada jalan lain) menyerapkan diri ke dalam budaya sejagat atau budaya global yang tidak mengenal sempadan bangsa ataupun negara bangsa lagi. Siapakah yang percaya ramalan ini akan berlaku? secara peribadi, saya tidak percaya.

Bangsa yang tidak berfikir panjang , yang tidak memahami sejarah tamadun dunia sejagat, dia akan menjadi mangsa keadaan yang disebut dunia globalisasi itu. Sayugia diingatkan, penjajahan baru boleh berlaku disebalik proses globalisasi dan order baru dunia. Para pencipta dan penguasa teknologi komunikasi dan maklumat di Barat, termasuk para liberalist pasaran perdagangan bebas di Barat, mungkin ghairah mendesak dunia lain yang tidak menguasai perdagangan dan teknologi maklumat sejagat supaya mengamalkan dasar langit terbuka dan sempadan terdedah. Dan orang lain yang tidak menguasai alat-alat  itu sudah ada yang percaya bahawa keadaan ini sudah tidak dapat dielakan.

Mereka seolah-olah berkata bahawa kita terpaksa berserah mengikut pihak yang berkuasa itu. Pilihan lain tidak ada. Lalu kita pun meniru slogan mereka. Kita menolong propaganda globalisasi mereka. Tetapi percayakah kita bahawa seruan bangsa Barat itu dibuat untuk kepentingan mereka, ekonomi mereka dan perdagangan mereka.? Sebenarnya orang baratlah atau negara majulah yang paling tidak mengamalkan dasar terbuka dalam segala bidang terhadap  bangsa-bangsa lain yang tidak maju.

Jadi, inilah yang perlu disedari oleh UMNO atau bangsa Melayu dalam pengaturkan agenda perjuangan yang masih belum selesai lagi. Bangsa Melayu tidak memerlukan idealisme baru, bagi kebanyakan orang melayu hari ini, soalan yang sering menjadi tana tanya ialah : mestikah orang melayu mengorbankan hak mereka untuk memajukan negara ini? Soal tanah orang melayu, soal bahasa, soal budaya, misalnya menjadi tidak penting bagi UMNO hari ini .

Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia Ada 2 Menteri, 2 Timbalan Menteri dan 2 KSU

Secara keseluruhannya semua jawatan utama dalam Kementerian Pendidikan telah diisi. Timbalan Perdana Menteri merangkap Menteri Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia YAB Tan Sri Dato Utama Haji Muhyiddin bin Haji Mohd Yassin akan dibantu oleh Menteri ll iaitu YB Dato Seri Idris Jusoh dan Timbalan Menteri l YB Datuk Mary Yap Kain Ching dan Timbalan Menteri ll YB P. Kamalanathan a/l P. Panchanathan. 

Pengabungan dua kementerian dibawah satu bumbung ini dijangka akan memberikan kesan terhadap keseluruhan struktur organisasi kementerian sediada dan difahamkankan struktur baru itu akan diselesaikan dalam tempoh terdekat.

Kali pertama berlaku dalam sejarah  sesebuah kementerian, dimana pada kali ini ada dua orang Ketua Setiausaha di Kementerian Pendidikan iaitu KSU l dan KSU ll, KSU l yang baru disandang oleh Datuk Dr. Madinah Mohammad dengan gred Turus ll. Manakala KSU ll disandang oleh  mantan Naib Canselor UTM, iaitu Dato' Seri Zaini Ujang, beliau telah diserap ke Perkhidmatan Tadbir Diplomatik (PTD) dan ditawarkan Turus lll. Seorang insan yang paling muda berusia 48 tahun menjawat Jawatan KSU ll.

Tiada pengkhususan berlaku antara sektor pelajaran dan sektor pengajian tinggi dimana saya difahamkan YB Menteri Pendidikan Malaysia bertindak sebagai Chief Executive Officer (CEO) manakala YB Menteri Pendidikan 11 bertanggungjawab sebagai Chief Operations Officer (COO). Malah mereka boleh merentasi 2 sektor yang diwujudkan iaitu sektor Pelajaran dan sektor pengajian Tinggi.