Rogue trader living in the state thats Palestine

Top of the morning to you my dear ‘brethren’. Had a wee chuckle this Sunday chatting to my moms. So I had a little op last week right, so on Sunday as per usual I go home for the healing magic of Mammas cooking, but I was a wee bit fragile. So I’m done grazing, hop onto the couch moms, on the other side, she looks at me with sad eyes and says “Yaw, eh look at you, get married so someone can take care of you” I say to her moms its not a good enough reason is it? I have coped pretty well on my own through this period, she concedes and then she throws in, “but even though this is not ideal, just you get me a grand child to spoil, I promise you I will help you raise it, they will take care of you and bring you joy blah blah” ☺ just one of those moments…if you know the school my mom comes from, for her to reach this stage where she is not excited about it but willing to consider a child out of wedlock haaa, not that I am going to do it, who woulda thunk…

Anyway on we move…in the last few weeks, 2 things have been weighing on my mind more than all the other stories life throws out there, and really I’d love your thoughts on these.

Sub prime lending, securitisation of toxic debt, reckless lending, you name it its been done, so many people lost their homes. So many big banks collapsed, the central governments of many countries stepped in to bail out the CEO’s of these big banks that went bang, and most of these top CEOs walk away inspite of the pooh they presided over, with a trunk full of gold. But let my brother who I am sure is a British citizen, speculate on the stock market, which I guess is the job of a trader and lose $2,3bn and boom front page news, man gets arrested, life is all but over now and he is only 31. Does anyone know the name of the person who was in charge of the underwriting business unit at Citi Bank, at the time they realized that 60% of their mortgages they bought from over 1600 mortgage companies were toilet? What is the name of the CEOs of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the US government had to raise $182,5bn or so to bail out AIG but who were the guys that caused the fine mess they were in, well not too many of us know their names. But mention the name Kweky Adoboli and the world is like that West African, what was he thinking??? Yet no where near the same sort of head shaking is directed at the architect of this financial crisis that threatens to bring a lot of Europe and the United States to its knees.

So the man did a few trades that went wrong, had it gone right would his name have been plastered all over the papers, chances are not, I doubt that I would hear maverick UBS trader, Kweku Adoboli, earns UBS $2,3bn, hell no it would be UBS had another stellar year in its comeback trail from billions in losses, CEO whoever earns another x hundred million bonus!! Another thing, if you have worked in a bank yeah, there is no way that such a situation should be allowed to happen. When I worked in one yeah, the amounts of hoops you had to jump through and the amount of people that had to cross t’s and dot I’s before a few hundred ZAR could be paid over to anyone was enough to field a rugby team…with reserves. I am no trader, but I am sure that at the close of every day marks to market and reconciliations and closing of positions etc have to be performed and independently audited. People lets be real, I check my bank statement and if R23,57 is incorrectly debited or missing I’d know, so you tell me how does $2,3bn just sommer disappear and no one is none-the-wiser? And these trades spanned a period dating as far back as 2008 or something.

Give me a break will ya…he is not without fault in this, but he is just the fall guy man! I mean after raising money from governments a few years ago how do you now go and say, eish ya boss, our controls, she’s not too big and some bra took us for 2double big ones?

The other thought is this one so Palestine wants to be recognized as its own state. OK I don’t know the history so well. I am not Jewish nor am I Muslim, I am just a guy who has a lot of time on his hands to do a little research, listen to the news and provide some social commentary to which he would like to spark some sort of debate, because I believe that’s the best way for us to SEE each other!! Shana Tova to my Jewish peops too, may it be a prosperous new year!! So for over 50 years or so Palestine has been operating as a properly fractured state almost under Israeli rule. Israel has money, a lot of the western world’s backing and is also under serious threat because parts of the Palestinian and Arab world don’t want to recognize it and want to wipe it off the map…so sad!! What makes it even more sad is if you had to trace back all 3 religions, Christianity, Islam and Judaism, they are all branches of the same tree…So anyway this whole thing with Palestine wanting to have membership of the UN, reminds me even more of what a farce this UN really is in all honesty. All the other member countries are there but I think there are 5 countries whose opinions really matter, China, Russia, UK, US, France. They can veto any Security Council decision so you tell me whats it all for? UN tells the US don’t go into Iraq they still do and there are no consequences. FARCICAL!!

This whole Israeli-Palestinian impasse is clearly a mess, because if it wasn’t it would have been solved by now. Both sides have their claims, which to them and their supporters may seem to make utmost sense. One side can say we and our camels watching tumble weed fly by for decades, you guys go to Europe, things don’t go so well now you wanna skop us out? Hmm something about this doesn’t make sense…Other side will say we’ve been here forever, not all of us left firstly and secondly Judea…remember it, the historical Jewish land it was right heeerrrreee, we’ve been here as long as you cous!

In 1988 the state of Palestine was declared, but Israel rejected this declaration. It was occupying parts of Palestine since the 6 day war in 1967 and as such it could…because it had big guns too. Israel knows full well that for there to be lasting peace and harmony in the region Palestinians need to be able to govern themselves as a fully recognized state. They need to know that they can trade freely with the rest of the world they don’t have be couped up like pigs in a stye. Buuuuut, how do you get it right though when even the Palestinians themselves are divided, on the one hand there is Hamas that governs the Gaza Strip and on the other Fatah governing the West Bank. Fatah denounced violence and terrorism, hence why most talks are seen to be held with Mahmoud Abbas. Even though Fatah lost the elections to Hamas in 2006 or so, they still have all the military arsenal so they rule the roost, I guess kinda like Israel does over Palestine. Hamas on the other hand have openly and repeatedly stated that they want the state of Israel destroyed, poqaed, dead, kaput. They have shown this to be more than just words too. Hamas and Fatah formed a unity government, but there was spate of bombings and violence in 2007 I think I read, that lead Fatah to expel them from the unity government.

So say Palestine does get recognized as a state yeah so what? Well they have their land, their issue is the ‘illegitimate’ Israeli settlements. Now these settlements will not be destroyed I am sure, so what then, well then there will be some land swaps happening, result…the settlements are legitimized…proper waste of time.

To me whether Palestine is recognized as a state or not is neither here nor there, what the powers that be need to do is stop pu ssy footing around the issue and make some tough decisions, because as it is no solution will ever be reached and who suffers…largely the poor people of Palestine! 50 years of fighting with no end in sight you would think that a leader with foresight from either camp would have stepped to the plate by now and tried to find a lasting solution, because I am sure the average Palestinian and Israeli would not mind living next door to the other one provided there is the basic human elements of trust and respect…it is just that simple, but then again I can see my old man accusing me of trying to use logic to solve an emotive situation. Live and let live that’s what I say!

Birthdays
14th Will, Anoka
15th Gooch
16th Maskew
18th Tahir, Thuli, Chetan
19th Aleya, Naasei
20th Feh
21st Riyad, Mickey Moo, Nats
23rd Kbz, Pali, Si Black
24th Vaughano
25th McLenan
28th Kells and Mohi
29th Eve
30th Brett
1st Oct Herman

And that’s all folks, you all have a pleasant weekend now ya hear

Maximum respect to you all…trust and respect man!

Y