Alchemy, Fiat Money and the Zealous Watchdogs

Oh Lord! Sorry! I should have been studying Your Secrets instead!

8. Philosopher’s Stone II

Deceived and tricked,

They rest their hopes

In transmutation,

Drowning in complexities,

Drifting into conjecture.

Not knowing that

Alchemy is the quest

For gold

But without the ‘L’.

Prophets have said it. Saints have said it. Evangelicals, mystics and decent people have all said it. It is written in the holy scriptures and in the lessons of spirituality through the ages. Why look for gold when there is God to look for? Why be satisfied with the kingdom when you can have the King Himself? But we mortals are like that. We make mistakes, we err than we go, "Err... ooops. Sorry, God."

Sexy, sexy gold and silver bars. 

There used to be a time when people go mad for gold. They would steal for it, beg for it and marry for it. The possession of gold ruled their moods, and often ruining their lives. But then, sometime during the 20th century, fiat money was created. Fiat essentially means that this money is 'by right'. And it is devolved from a country's legislation on the central bank and the monetary laws. Right now there is no other type of money in circulation in the world. But lets not waste time on economics, for the truth is...

7. Fiat Money

... is Monopoly™ Money.

Fiat money is essentially make-believe because... err, how do I put it frankly, because IT IS. It is essentially an I-owe-you issued by the central bank or a you-owe-me issued by the commercial and investment banks. There used to be a time long ago when you can actually exchange paper money for gold. Now that those days are long gone. Fiat money is also known as paper money...

188. Paper Promises

Paper money make poor substitute

For gold and silver,

A mode of transaction

On human promises.

And oh, how well

We know of man

And his paper promises!

In the offices of the European Central Bank there live gremlins. And their entire job
is to make gremlin promises.

People nowadays are worried about the value of money. And there are a small but noisy group asking for the return to gold and silver. But their crusade is difficult. For it is in the interests of the powers-that-be to keep the system in place, even as we see the ruination of economy and capitalism by the 2008 credit crisis and the current Euro-mess in Greece, Ireland, Spain and Portugal. This is not capitalism or free market, for there is no competition to banks. They set the rules, they break their own rules and often they change the rules to suit their profit margins. And they would fight all comers to keep the system in place... And keep YOU in your place in the ponzi-pyramid scheme that we are presently living in...

At which level of the pyramid are you?

14. The Pyramid 2

There is no get-rich-quick schemes,

No multi-level marketing pyramids

More heinous and globally prevalent

Than the interest-banking

And fiat currency systems of the world.

And lo! Its illusion is guarded by watchdogs

Zealous in their affairs.

The Federal Reserve. One of the most fiercest watchdogs around...
I am informed that they never sleep.

In the mean time, the people are blackmailed and threatened. Without fail, every minute and every day, the mainstream media is awash with news as to how bad things are going to be if the banks collapse. If the fiat currency collapses. If the pyramid crashes into society. So people are scared even to voice their concerns...

18. The Pyramid 

The fiat currency system

Is a weapon used by all governments

To blackmail its restless population;

‘Dismiss us? Do so and see the savings

That you keep in our currency take wing,

I am sure your children who will go hungry

Shall understand your crusade against us!’

The Greeks are up in arms but to no avail. People say that they were
bad money managers. But I think they got fooled by their own politicians and bankers.

The system is corrupt and biased against free market competition and capitalism. I think that many people who are protesting the banking corruption in USA and Europe are not against capitalism or free market. They are simply asking for honesty in government and transparency in the relationship between the elected representatives and the big banks. And they are asking why the few are so often advantaged to the detriment of the many.

But ultimately for many of us, we are merely reiterating the words of the wise before us. After all, did Jesus not chase out the money-lenders? He had a point, and I wish to marry that point to the concept of tawhid in Islam which speaks of the utter Uniqueness of God and His Attributes...

132. Mortal Usury

Oh My enterprising servants!

I have vested upon this earth

Wealth of certain certainty

For people of certainty,

Dabble not in the arts of usury,

And attempt not to copy My Unique Ability

To make something from nothing.

We mortals cannot make something out of nothing. Whether it is fiat money or interests on loans, people are essentially trying to do just that. I do not know if or when the fiat money and usury banking system will ever end. But I think we have seen enough examples through out the world and notice how such a system is easily corrupted by banks and insurance lobbyists and the politicians who are their paid minions. There used to be a time when paper money is at least backed by gold and banks actually do their job, which is to provide financial services to industries of manufacturing and trade. A time when regulators were actually given the laws and resources to supervise the industry. Now we know that those laws have been changed, and each budget we find the regulators scrimping to understand, much less regulate the financial alchemy engineered by rocket scientists under the hire of Wall Street and the City (London).

God made man and he did not leave mankind to our own devices. Ought we not to trust Him? Even the USA Dollar says so...

Have a fiscally prudent day, sunshine.

wa min Allah at-taufiq.

Hate has no place in Islam

Love will show the Way

THE IMMORTALS and MARGIN CALL - The movie reviews.

THE IMMORTALS. As promised, the sinner dragged himself to the nearest cineplex to watch The Immortals. In a previous posting, the sinner audaciously pre-review reviewed the movie (Click Here) and predicted that actual review would find The Immortals garnering a pitiful 3 out of 10. I am afraid that even that prediction turned out to be optimistic.

Oh, there is something about a super-Bow in the movie, but by that time I was bored.

So this is the important bit about the story - a King (Hyperion, played by Mickey Rourke) sees wife and children dying of a disease. They never actually spell out what disease, but because of that, Hyperion decides to start an all-out assault on the Greeks and their holy Mount Tartarus where he is knowledgeably informed that the Titans are imprisoned - The Titans are essentially the other gods who got clobbered by Zeus and family. So if the Titans are out, they would start another war in heaven and hopefully (thinks Hyperion), Zeus and family would all be killed. Theseus (who happens to be Zeus's bastard son, I think) gets caught up in all this, along with Phaedra the Virgin Oracle (played by Freida Pinto, from Slumdog Millionare).

This is about as naked as naked men are gonna get in this movie.
So if you are expecting another meat-feast, prepare to get disappointed.

The Virgin Oracle about to lose her qualification to be one.

Things happen so fast, there is very little time for character development, and really, I just ended up not caring at all about what happens to Theseus, Hyperion, Phaedra, Zeus or the Titans come to think of it. The script is really just barely this side of bearable, and surprisingly the set and CGI, to be absolutely honest- ain't so good as the scenes in 300. And really, Hyperion is just another pissed off guy, except that he is just really obsessed about getting his vengeance. Other than that, I think that Mickey Rourke (who was brilliant in The Wrestler) is just doing this movie for the money. Heche, who agreed to sit as co-reviewer had 2 important observations - 1. If you are looking for a large number of almost-naked men in loincloth doing manly things... well you would be disappointed. There is barely any sight of abdominal muscles or 'a cute butt'. Only Theseus was on hand to show off his ripped body. Yes, just one eye-candy for our discerning female audience. Not good enough. 2. Her second observation is the most interesting - if the Greeks were so concerned about the Oracles being virgin, why do they pick such hot-looking babes as their Oracles. Really, just choose the ugliest maidens in the village and surely, the chances of them losing their virginity would be smaller. All in all, The Immortals turns out to be an even greater disappointment than anticipated -  2 out of 10.

MARGIN CALL. From a movie lemon to a movie corvette. Where do I begin with a movie about Wall Street greed that is so full of talent and amazing acting of the highest calibre. You just gotta look at the cast - Kevin Spacey as Sam Rogers, Paul Bettany as Will Emerson, Jeremy Irons as John Tuld, Zachary Quinto as Peter Sullivan, Penn Badgley as Seth Bregman, Simon Baker as Jared Cohen, Mary McDonnell as Mary Rogers, Stanley Tucci as Eric Dale and Demi Moore as Sarah Robertson - for you to realise that this is a powerhouse acting resource for the director to pull in. So did the director, JC Chandor manage to bring out the best from his actors? He did. Awesomely.

There is a Greek phrase for this scenario -
The shiteus is gonna hit the faneus.

Margin Call is a story set over a 24 hours period in an anonymous Wall Street Investment firm. Over that 24 hours, people are sacked, huge previously unnoticed liabilities in derivatives and CDOs are going to bankrupt the firm (to know more watch Inside Job, the Cannes Festival winning feature documentary which brings to light the many sins of Wall Street), and the firm's decision to dispose of ALL their toxic assets into the market by lunch time next day - which would trigger (as the movie implies) one of the worst credit crunch default in the history of civilization. People are going to lose their jobs. Other firms, banks and mutual funds are going to sink, but at least this particular firm will managed to sneak out FIRST. In one of the final scene, Sam the crusty Risk Management departmental boss confronted John Tuld, the Boss of bosses in the firm about the appalling effect on Wall Street and the economy that would be triggered by their decision to dump their foul-smelling bonds into the market. And this was John's reply - "It's just money. Made up. Pieces of paper with pictures on it so we don't have to kill each other to get something to eat..."

An intelligent and entertaining movie. A must-watch for anyone who's at least a little bit concerned about the condition of this world and where consumerism and cheap (read false) credit will ultimately take mankind to. An amazing 8 out of 10 movie.

Have a beautiful day, sunshine. God bless.

Pax Taufiqa

Hate has no place in Islam.

Love will show the way.

The Movie 300, History and the Freaky Nature of Time - Prose of Ramadhan Part 12

In '300' there is a lot of screaming half-naked men. It makes up for the nauseating 'message' of the movie.

24. For freedom or for the King?

Historians are prone

To garnish history

With the trends

Of today.

Imputing alien ideas

And foreign motivation

To those who cannot,

Alas, respond.

We too,

Could be labeled the same,

Save that the subjects

Of our constant study,

Do react,

Most passionately.

Hahaha!

Our predecessors are reacting now.

And they are telling us,

"We studied you

Before you studied us."

RATIONALISM AND FREEDOM? REALLY? The prose above was recorded soon after watching the movie '300' some years back. My pet peeve about the movie is essentially the gross misrepresentation of history. In those feudal days, really, let's be sensible, nobody fought wars for 'rationalism' or 'freedom'. They fought because they had to. They fought because if they didn't, their kings, barons and warlords would probably decapitate them in a show of royal displeasure. They fought as part of an ancient contract between the ruler and the ruled based essentially on loyalty and servitude from the peasants, in payment for some protection and benefits from their masters.

A POTTER? HAHAHA! In one famous scene, the Spartans met a bunch of Arcadians who came to join them in trying to defend Greece from the Persian King Xerxes. Oh, how they mocked their fellow Greeks who admitted that they were essentially part-time warriors drafted for the butchery. All the Arcadians had proper day jobs like a porter or a farmer, which I thought was an admirable notion. Yet for the Spartan King Leonidas, it was something to look down upon, because in Sparta, the only honourable job (it seems) was to be a soldier. What the good King forgot to mention was that this was only possible because Sparta used to raid its neighbours for slaves to farm their land and perform all those sort of menial chores unbecoming of a true Spartan. Oh God... what a bunch egoistical wombats.

No, he ain't Spartan. He's Australian. I like him because
unlike Spartan Kings, he doesn't go about screaming at people.

And of course the opening scene where the Spartans dumped the less than perfect babies into a ravine did not actually ingratiate me to them. So through out the entire movie, I was willing Leonidas to lose, and really the whole of Sparta to be consumed in a Persian conquest. Of course, it wasn't so. But that is what happens when you disconnect facts from history.

TIME IS NOT LINEAR. I do not think that time is linear. I do not think that the moment that just passed merely went kaput and stop existing, having no further effect on the present and future. I think that the entire TimeScape is like the cartoon centrespread of a Sunday newspaper. I do believe that the past continues to exist even as time moves inexorably forward. And I do believe that the ancient (well, perhaps not all, but the more thoughtful ones) have already read about us, their descendants, long before we ever made our first appearance in the delivery room of the hospital. I can imagine it now... one of my ancestors reading about me, some thousand years ago...

Oh boy... Why do I always get the hopeless cases?

Have a wonderful day, sunshine. This day has been prepared for you an eternity ago. So enjoy it while it lasts!

Pax Taufiqa.