The reclusive Bobby Fischer is now ...

March 25, 2005

BY MILES EDELSTEN
ASSOCIATED PRESS

Chess whiz Bobby Fischer, 62, now a citizen of Iceland, arrived in the island nation Thursday after nine months of detention in Japan.

The former world champ had much to say:

• He was "kidnapped" in Japan, and President George W. Bush and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi were in cahoots to deprive him of freedom and return him to the United States, where he is wanted on criminal charges.

• "Bush does not respect law. It's like in the comics, like Billy Batson used to say 'Shazaaam!' and he becomes Captain Marvel." Bush "just says 'Enemy Combatant! Now you have no legal rights.' It's a farce."

• "The United States is an illegitimate country ... just like the bandit state of Israel. The Jews have no right to be there. It belongs to the Palestinians....

"That country, the United States, belongs to the red man, the American Indian. ... It's actually a shame to be a so-called American because everybody living there is ... an invader."

Fischer, whose mother was Jewish, is wanted in the United States for violating sanctions imposed on the former Yugoslavia by playing an exhibition match there in 1992.

He was detained by Japanese officials last July for arriving on an allegedly invalid U.S. passport. Fischer claims the travel document was revoked illegally, and sued to block a deportation order to the United States.

Iceland's Parliament stepped in this week to break the standoff by giving Fischer citizenship. But Fischer is by no means in the clear, as Iceland, like Japan, has an extradition treaty with the United States.

Fischer won the world title in a match in Iceland in 1972 against the Soviet Union's Boris Spassky.

Asked whether he thought he might find U.S. authorities more tolerant of him if he toned down his rhetoric, Fischer said he was too old to change.

"I grew up with the concept of freedom of speech. I'm too old.

"It's too late for me to adjust to the new world, the new world order," he said with a chuckle.

Attack of the rotweiller ...

A young 9-year old Malay boy, while on his way to Friday prayer in Taman Putra Perdana, Puchong, was viciously attacked by 3 rotweillers. His head injuries required 172 stitches. When the authorities confronted the owner of the dogs, they were told 2 of his rotweillers have been sold while retaining one which was later confiscated and impounded by the Veterinary Dept. It was also discovered that the owner had no license for the rotweiller dogs which was kept by him under other dogs license.

This is not the first time that vicious dogs have attacked people. Its about time the authorities take a tough stand on this matter - which is to treat such dogs as dangerous animals not to be kept even in cage or on leash. Owners of dangerous dogs run the risk of being prosecuted or incarceration in jail. This is the only deterrent against people harbouring of such breeds of dog as the rotweiller, alsatian, etc or others of similar ferocity.

If there is no such law on the keeping of dangerous animals, then a law pertaining to this must be quickly enacted and implemented. If there is, then the police should take action on the owners and their dogs by treating them as criminals to be brought to justice. No amount of plea should be accepted because these owners should be considered as though they were rearing tigers and wild boars in their backyards.

Bank Negara - International Forex Reseves (IFR)

International Reserves of BNM as at 15 March 2005

The international reserves of Bank Negara Malaysia strengthened further to RM278.3 billion (US$73.2 billion) as at 15 March 2005. The increase of RM5.4 billion (US$1.4 billion) during the first half of March was due mainly to higher repatriation of export earnings, inflows of foreign direct investment and portfolio investment as well as drawdown of external loans. Outflows reflected mainly larger payments for imports of goods and services and repatriation of dividends. The reserves position is adequate to finance 8.7 months of retained imports and is 6.2 times the short-term external debt.

Its still a long wait before BNM's IFR attained USD 100.0 billion. Lets hope that the rate of increase every 1/2 month is not less than RM 3.00 billion

US govt. should be like Boeing Inc ....

If the US govt has strict rules of conduct for their executives, then Paul Wolfowitz should not be even considered as nominee for the CEO of World Bank. The 61-year old Wolfowitz has be screwing around with 51-year old Tunisian (now British) Shaha Ali Riza, an executive in World Bank. Didn't Bush know about Hatchet Harry's forced resignation after Boeing came to know of the CEO's illicit affair with a Boeing executive. The Boeing Board didn't give a chance to Harry Stonecipher to appeal. He went out in ignominy. Now this stupid Bush (for stupid he really is) is nominating his deputy Defense Secretary to take up the World Bank top post.

Poor Malaysia, and I thought .....

Today I read that India's International Forex Reserve has hit a new peak of USD 140.43 billion from just a week before which was USD 140.0 billion and the rupees exchange rate has risen. And I thought that Malaysia was accumulating its IFR at a rapid rate, what with oil price has been on the upward trend above USD 50 per barrel in the last few months. Malaysia's IFR is just above USD 70 billion.

China's IFR at end of 2004 is USD 609.9 billion compared to its USD 403. 3 billion a year ago. China is now second to Japan's IFR of USD 900 billion (to be updated) . The other big holders of IFR are Taiwan, Korea, Singapore in descending order.

My rough estimates (to be updated later) of IFR per person are as follows:-

Country Population IFR (billion) IFR per person

Japan 120,000,000 900 7,500.00
China 11,200,000,000 609.9 508.25
Taiwan 10 ,000,000 400 40,000.00
Korea 80,000,000 240 3,000.00
Singapore 4,000,000 140 35,000.00
India 1,000,000,000 140.43 140.43
MALAYSIA 22,500,000 71 3,155.56

The above suggests that Taiwan and Singapore are the 2 richest nations among Asian countries.

Farm subsidies among rich countries ..

Rich countries like US, Europe, and Japan are making a mockery of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules when it comes to helping their farmers. While they are vocal in condemning poor countries for their govts.' aid in their small, and fledgeling farms, these big giants give large aid packages to their mature farm industries in order to distort world market price of their farm products. Thailand would have difficulty in exporting to, say,Japan because market price of Japanese rice in Japan is about the same as Thai rice in Japan. We all know that Japan's rice farmers are heavily subsidised by the goverment. US even complained to Japan at one time.

The farm subsidies of the OECD countries are about USD 230 billion per year while OECD's agricultural aid to developing countries aid is about 3 % of this. If there is no subsidy, developing countries need not receive the aid because the market price of their products is more than enough to sustain their farm industries.

The rich countries are apparently intent to keep the prices of commodities as low as possible. Just imagine, in the 20 years from 1980 to 2000, the prices of major commodities eg sugar, cocoa, coffee, cotton, coconut, fell 40 % when they should go up in tandem with inflation.The biggest culprits in the subsidising business are US (cotton), European Nation (wheat) and Japan (rice) while the biggest developing countries hit by the subsidies are Brazil, India, China, Egypt and many others.

The developed countries expect us developing countries to buy their manufactured products at their own prices while they condemn our cheaper exports to their own countries as dumping into their markets. Are cars from rich countries cheaper now than in 1980 ? Instead of maintaining the price, its about 10 times the 1980 price.