tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-93212102024-02-23T00:08:50.775+08:00My WorldThis site is all about what I think about this world, this life, and about history.Atlashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09030569281906416163noreply@blogger.comBlogger189125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9321210.post-74907223912727533732019-06-22T21:08:00.000+08:002019-06-22T21:08:05.947+08:00THE TOP STONE AND THE FOOT STONE<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">I made up
this story and told this to my daughter and my nephew and niece the other day. The
story goes like this: One day, the Pharaoh decided to build a pyramid and not
just an ordinary pyramid. The Pharaoh wanted to build the biggest, the tallest
and the most beautiful pyramid ever and with that, the Pharaoh called in the
Master Mason and ordered him to build him the biggest, the tallest and the most
beautiful pyramid ever and to finish it as soon as humanly possible. And so,
the Master Mason wasted no time and started to design and build the pyramid. During
the building of the pyramid, the Master Mason set out and discovered a huge
sturdy boulder and he brought it to his workshop beside the rising pyramid and
he broke the giant boulder into two halves and left it there for the night. The
two halves of the boulder “speak” to each other that night. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">The first
half asked the second half: “Hey brother, you know what they’re going to do to
us?” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">The second
one replied: “I heard that they are going to make a pyramid and fashion one of
us into the TOP STONE while the remaining one will be the FOOT STONE.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">“I see,
what you want to be, brother?” asked the first one. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">“The Top
Stone of course! What else should I be?” replied the first. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">“But why?” came
the quick question. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">“Why,
without the Top Stone, there will be no pyramid!” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">“How come?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">“How come?!
When people look up at the pyramid and shouted to others, look! It’s the pyramid.
They all be pointing their fingers at the top of the pyramid where the Top
Stone lay, nobody would be pointing at the base of the pyramid and say, there’s
the pyramid!” “The Top Stone is the crowning glory of the pyramid and without the
triangular top, there will be no pyramid at all!” “Besides, there can only be one
Top Stone and hence, that stone would be unique of all the stones that made up
the pyramid and that is why, I wanted to be the Top Stone.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">The first
went silent for a while and said: “Well, I just wanted to be something useful
and to do great things, Top Stone or not. It doesn’t matter.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">“Really? It
doesn’t matter?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">“Well,
yeah, though the Top Stone is important and glamorous, without the Foot Stone
to support it at the top. The Top Stone will fall. Though there are many of us
Foot Stones that made up the pyramid, miss one Foot Stone and the whole pyramid
would collapse.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">“Yeah sure,
to each their dream.” Said the second stone.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">The next
day, the Master Mason came and fashion the second half of the boulder into the
Top Stone that it desired to be while made a Foot Stone out of the first.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Both stones
lay at the work site for many years waiting for their appointed time to become part
of what is shaping up to be a grand edifice. Then suddenly, the Pharaoh
abandoned the project all together and both stone lay in the dessert almost
forgotten. Then one day, a new Pharaoh came to the throne and decided to build
a bridge over a raging river and called the by now aging Master Mason to do the
task. The Master Mason went to his old workshop and found both the Top Stone
and the Foot Stone on the ground. The Master Mason found that the Top Stone not
suitable for the project at hand because of its triangular shape and picked the
Foot Stone instead and placed the latter as the foundation stone at the bottom
of the river holding up the bridge and for countless years thereafter, the Foot
Stone silently toiled, holding up the bridge and allowing many to cross the
river safely. The Foot Stone realizes his dream of being something useful and
do great things but nobody knew nor cared whereas the Top Stone was lost
somewhere in the dessert buried in sand….<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">I told the
kids that someday when they grow up, they should decide whether they would wanted
to be the Top Stone or the Foot Stone and it is their choice to make… Be a Top
Stone, lavished with praise with all the glamor that being on top but they had
succeed in their endeavor against all odds and fierce competition lest they
will be forgotten (the unfinished pyramid) or be the Foot Stone, doing
important things but largely unknown, unsung, unheard of.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">But guess
what? They don’t understand what I’m saying. Not yet.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Atlashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09030569281906416163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9321210.post-16759621717714699412019-03-11T21:01:00.002+08:002019-03-11T21:01:41.452+08:0050 Books Challenge: Book #7: Psychology of Revolution by Gustave Le Bon<br />
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">I’m already 3 months
behind!<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">The book is quite unique and
interesting in that it employs psychoanalysis in the study of a particular
historical event specifically, the author uses crowd psychology in analyzing Revolutions
in general and The French Revolution in particular. To date, there is no other
history book that utilizes such methodology in its investigation of an event in
the past. The book was published in 1896 and during that time, both the Russian
Revolution and the Chinese Revolution are becoming to take its course, which is
probably one of the impetus for the author to write on such a subject matter. To
the modern reader, the book and by extension, the author sounded condescending,
patronizing, elitist, a royalist sympathizer, an ardent Napoleonic admirer/
apologist, a sham humanitarian, and a bigot. However, this is no fault of the
author but rather this is a reflection of his era or generation and the book do
represent the ideas prevalent of his generation. Nevertheless, these “attributes”
should not detract from the rather excellent observations of author regarding
the French Revolution for such observations are universally true and applicable
to any Revolution generations before and those of yet to happen. However, care
should be taken to discern between the authors observations and those of his
rather seemingly logical deduction which tends to be biased and speculative and
is not borne out of empirical observation. A careful reading of the book would
also expose some strands of thought akin to Sigmund Freud’s logic as expounded
in his seminal work, “Civilization and it’s Discontent” which beautifully link the
human psyche and the forces that creates the mosaic that we all know as “history”.
The last two chapters of the book is rather an oddity in the sense that there
seems to be no connection with the subject matter at hand but rather it looks
more like the author’s political rants and opinion of the political issues of
his days which is surprisingly or rather strangely sounded pretty much like the
present political discourse.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Atlashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09030569281906416163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9321210.post-17323892240208878952019-01-08T19:59:00.000+08:002019-01-08T19:59:16.005+08:0050 Books Challenge: Book #6: The Myth of the Strong Leader, Political Leadership in the Modern Age by Archie Brown<br />
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">The
50 books Challenge is an internet challenge whereby I should read 50 books in a
year or roughly 1 book per week and right now I’m on my 11<sup>th</sup> week
but I just finished my 6<sup>th</sup> book! I’m way behind…..<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">I bought this book when both presidents,
Duterte and Trump were both elected to office. The title of the book piqued my
curiosity but somehow I’m not convinced by the author’s conclusion. Anyway,
first of all, the book is epic! Aside from the fact that it is voluminous, some
400 pages, the book is well researched with something like 20 or more political
leaders examined or discussed. The author poured through biographies of late 20<sup>th</sup>
century political leaders such as Margaret Thatcher, Winston Churchill, Clement
Atlee, Tony Blair, Ronald Reagan, Mikhail Gorvachev to name a few. Where biographies
are absent, the author relies on historical narrative to examine the leadership
styles of political leaders in the likes of Deng Xiao Ping, Mao Ze Dong, Josef
Stalin. Furthermore, the author didn’t limit his studies to western leaders but
also include those from the rest of the world like Nelson Madela (however,
there is a preponderance of western leaders in his examination). The author
also studies leaders both in democracies and in authoritarian/ totalitarian
regimes. The sheer magnitude of his examination is truly epic. The author
writing style is easy to read, no mumble jumble hard to understand jargon. These
however are the positive things that can be said of the book. Personally, I felt
that the author tend to muddle through with his examination, with a lot of
digressing. He seemed to be more interested in telling a story than analyzing
(hence my term examination instead of analysis). It is not boring to read per
se but it is difficult to grasp what the author is trying to imply much less
convey (to be fair though, with the first chapter, the author stays true to his
purpose). In the latter end of the book, the book became a sort of political
tirade of Tony Blair which further muddle the intent of the author in writing
the book in the first place not unless the author really meant to diss Tony Blair!
Furthermore, the author seemed to have a penchant of giving sweeping
conclusions. For example, the author concluded that revolutions invariably give
way to authoritarian regimes giving the examples of the Russian Revolution, the
Chinese Revolutions, etc. But while the observations are true, it is equally
true that not all revolutions end up being authoritarian, the foremost example
being the American Revolution (to the author, peaceful revolutions like the
ones sweeping the Eastern Block during the twilight of the Cold War and decline
of the Soviet Union are not revolutions per se). Aside from that, I felt the
author is looking at things through a tainted spectacle, i.e., the author’s
view are ideologically skewed. I suspect that his political sympathy belong to
that of the left wing of the British Labor Party (hence his disapproval of Tony
Blair) or more aptly, the author is a Liberal Social Democrat in political
persuasion. His conclusions are skewed towards his persuasion and hardly
objective in assessment although he tried to present objectivity in his
writings. Also, I have serious question as to the author’s definition of a “strong
leader”. To the author, a “strong leader” is a leader who dominates over his
colleagues in government and tend to concentrate power in his own hands. This definition
tends to equate “strong leader” with “strongman”, which is pretty much a
stretch. Furthermore, the author seemed to equate influence with power which
are two totally different things. It could be that the author is defining the “strong
leader” from the standpoint of political science but for the “masses” whether
they get or able to vote or not in an election if there is one to begin with, a
“strong leader” is someone who get things done, who stood up for his belief,
and defend the dignity of the state he or she represents to put it mildly. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Another point to make is that every leader whether
strong or weak, democratically elected or in an authoritarian/ totalitarian
regime tend to maneuver themselves to a position of dominance in order to “push”
their agendas. Hence, to use the accrual of power or gaining dominance over
rivals and colleagues in government as a yardstick in defining a “strong leader”
is inaccurate. Lastly, the author in conclusion favors a collegial decision
making with consensual leadership being the best as against “strong leaders”. Yet,
the author in his examination of “transformative leadership” and “redefining
leadership” didn’t specifically emphasize the consensual nature of leadership
but is quite adamant in later chapters in relationship to democratic,
authoritarian, totalitarian leaders pointing to the failures of specific “strong
leaders” due to them “going alone” or surrounded by “yes man”. There is a flaw
here in his argument for one, no man is an island and that includes leaders
too. A leader however strong cannot literally go it alone. The leader is just
one man and as the author succinctly pointed out, his reach is only arms – length.
No matter how autocratic a leader is, some form of a policy debate occur and
some form of consensus is reached even if the word consensus barely applies to such
an agreement. Surrounding a leader with yes man maybe true but so as the
reality of myopia wherein the ruling clique is populated with people having the
same ideological persuasion or same cultural view. Aside from that, navigating
a fractious group with varied interests and agendas and trying to get a
consensus to a final decision can cause deadlock and paralysis and is hardly a
ringing endorsement of collegial decision making. Just look at Brexit. As a
conclusion, if the author’s criteria were to be used in evaluating both Trump
and Duterte, one can easily conclude that both are “redefining leaders”. To agree
or not in the assessment is another issue.</span></div>
Atlashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09030569281906416163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9321210.post-78132445405347000442018-12-11T19:40:00.002+08:002018-12-11T19:40:23.731+08:0050 Books Challenge: Book #5: Management Stripped Bare by Jo Owen<br />
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">The
50 Books Challenge is an internet challenge. The challenge simply put is to
finish reading 50 books in a year or roughly 1 book per week and so far, I’m
lagging behind….<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">The book should have been called
“Management, the Reality Show” for it’s candid depiction of real life
management. In fact, it’s not even written or read like a book but more like an
advice column. It has that undeniable British witticism written into it and the
tone is also unmistakably cynical especially towards management theories and top
management. The book definitely belongs to the Behavioral School of Management
(see Mintzberg 10 schools of management) and eschew towards office /organizational
politics. Nevertheless, the author does offer valuable insights into management
and on occasion provided some pretty interesting theories and frameworks (such
as Chaos Pricing Theory). All of this make this book a must read for management
practitioner. Highly recommended. One downside of the book if one can call it a
downside is that the book is structured like a dictionary with each topic
arranged in alphabetical order with the longest topic span like 3 pages and 5
or 6 paragraphs while the shortest topic has only something like 10 words maybe
less. The problem with this kind of structure is that the topics changed
abruptly and there is an absence of a smooth flow of thinking precisely because
of the sudden changes. However, the upside of this structure is that one can
easily look up the topic just like an encyclopedia or a dictionary.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Atlashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09030569281906416163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9321210.post-85918583786993426752018-12-03T19:06:00.000+08:002018-12-03T19:06:13.991+08:0050 Books Challenge: Book # 4: Practical Production Control, a Survival Guide for Planners and Schedulers by Kenneth Mckay and Vincent Wiers
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</div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">The 50 books challenge is an internet
challenge that I adopted which is simply finish reading 50 books in a year or
roughly 1 book per week. However, I’m lagging behind….</span></i></div>
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</div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">The
operative word here is Practical and indeed the book is a candid structured
lecture or more like a pep talk of do’s and don’ts of Production Control. For
the clueless, Production Control is akin to Sales in it’s relationship to
Marketing, i.e., Sales being the tactical, executive arm of the policy making
Marketing. Production Control’s relationship to Operations Management is
similar but don’t mistake Production Control to be the totality of Operations
Management though. The book is absent on analytical Frameworks save for one in
the second to the last chapter. Also, it hardly mentioned any production
control techniques, i.e., no formulas, no models, the stuffs. Instead, the book
is replete with common sense experiences of the authors, something you pay good
money to listen in talks/ in consultancy but nothing deep though. As for the
writing style of the author, it’s straight forward, with a generous serving of
humor which is something rare in a technical book. Technical at times with its
jargons but not that difficult to understand. Overall, I felt disappointed with
the book in that you’ll not get something useful out of it save of course if
you’re into implementing APS (Advance Production Scheduling) and MRP, in which
case, you’ll might get some noteworthy tips (practically more than half of the
book is devoted to that aspect). If you’re aim is to learn to control
production from this book, better be disappointed.</span></div>
Atlashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09030569281906416163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9321210.post-30634759325057570762018-11-18T22:34:00.002+08:002018-11-18T22:34:35.794+08:0050 Books Challenge: Book#3: Tomorrow’s World, A Look at the Demographic and Socio – economic Structure of the World in 2032 by Dr. Clint Laurent
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">I
bought this book in 2014 but came to read it 2 weeks ago (and finish just now).
Anyway, the book is about the demographic and economic projection of the world
in 2032 based on 2012 data (it was published in 2013). Although the book is
entitled “Tomorrow’s World” but the coverage of the “World” is just 74
countries which excludes mostly small countries like Pacific Islands, Nepal,
Bhutan, the Vatican, etc. and mostly African countries whose demographic and
economic data is unreliable according to the author. The book is surprisingly
easy to read and not loaded with technical jargon that would alienate a non –
mathematically inclined reader. It is also not loaded with numbers and
mathematically formulations save for a quick explanation on the derivation of
the processed information, which is surprising for a statistics book. The writing
style of the author is pretty clear and straight forward and “cold” in that he
treats human beings (birth and deaths and all) as numbers (you would be
forgiven if you think that the author is a Vulcan)! The way the author structures
the chapters show a deductive step by step logical thinking process. It is as
if the chapters serve as an introduction to the next chapter and yet each
chapter can stand alone as in it could be read as a separate article altogether.
The insights offered by the author are both unique and useful. His analysis
incisive. The first half of the book is mostly demographics and it is irreputable
since the 20 – year time frame that the book analyzes, the projected future adult
population are already alive as of this writing, i.e. one could determine the
size of the workforce in the future as well as the number of newborns based on
the present population of young people. The second half of the book is about
economics or about the market size of each population segment and regions/
country and this is where it is contentious (like all other economic
projections). I personally find the authors projections conservative particularly
in relation to China, India, and Developing Asia and rather optimistic for
Western Europe and North America (and come to think that the author’s day job
is in Hong Kong and a China expert so to speak!). The basis for his economic
projection is the size of the future labor force based on demographics, the
trending employment rate, and the projected labor productivity based on the educational
level of the workforce (the higher the educational attainment, the more
productive is the labor force because of its capacity to utilize technology to
improve productivity). In short, the author is basing on the full potential of
an economy to do its projection which is the way to go but his assumptions of
employment rates particularly in relation to Europe, and North America seemed optimistic
while his assumption on the productivity of China in particular seemed
conservative. Another thing that I find questionable is the numbers on the
propensity to save and to spend. Note that the data is based on 2012 and it’s
just some 4 years after the Great Recession back then. People got burned in
that economic episode and therefore their propensity to save or to spend is anomalous
to the norm if the author’s data is based on that year of survey (to be fair,
the author didn’t mention the time frame of the data on propensity to save and
to spend used in the book, it is just inferred). Lastly, the elephant in the
room or shall I say in the book is China and India by virtue of their huge
population of more than a billion. Though the projections are conservative but I
find the authors insights pretty much stand out, unique. I mean you won’t hear such
informative and unique insights from other statisticians or marketers. It’s just
unique.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">Since
the publication of the book, a lot of things have changed. China abandoned the
one child policy, its now a two – child policy and there are rumors of totally
abandoning that as well although the author imply that such change in policy
wouldn’t have any meaningful impact to the future demographics of China but it
remains to be seen since there are anecdotes of willful violations of the one
child policy during its heyday. Furthermore, there is an avalanche or tsunamis
of immigrants into Europe due to the Syrian Civil War and into the US due to “Dreamers”
and the consequent backlash against immigration. This immigration wave and its
curtailment would radically alter the age profile of the population and would
drastically affect future demographics with huge implications on the purchasing
power of the households in Western Europe and North America. Then there is also
technological advances with the rise of AI and robotics which could drastically
change the nature of jobs in the future, making some skills obsolete while a
precious few skills precious. Again, this would impact future labor
productivity, employment rate, and thence, purchasing power (to be fair, the
author did mention such possibility in the last chapter of his book but for
just a brief mention in relation to India). Lastly, the booming stock market in
the US, the ongoing Trade War, and the rise of Inflation after a decade of
slumber would hugely impact future economic growth potentials of regions which
again affects future income and buying power.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px 0px 10.66px; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0px;">This
book is written for marketers in mind and it is useful indeed. I highly
recommend it however, use with caution as some projections may no longer be
valid.</span></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Atlashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09030569281906416163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9321210.post-67541286485836848342018-11-04T14:55:00.002+08:002018-11-04T14:55:50.116+08:0050 Books Challenge: Book # 2: Civilization and it’s Discontent by Sigmund Freud<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I had this book for quite some time,
7 or 8 years perhaps. Never got to read it until last week. I bought this book
because of my interest in history and I wanted to find out how civilization per
se and the history that it wrought is influenced by the “mind”. Well, I should
say that I got my answer but I still have question at the back of my head that I
can’t discern for the moment and I have a lot to digest. Anyway, here is what I
think about the book. First of all, Freud is a German Jew and doesn’t write or
speak English and so this book is a translation only and something might be
lost in translation. By how much, I don’t really know. Second, the words chosen
in the writing though not strictly technical nor flowery but is of such
formality, depth, and smoothness that one would “get lost” from reading and end
up not understanding a single word. Reading a second time would definitely
help. Furthermore, the sentences, the paragraphs are so intertwined, so
connected to each other that one cannot leave the reading in the middle and
pick it up later on because one would get lost in the chain of thought as
expounded in the writings. You can only take a pause literally on every chapter
which is like 10 – 20 pages per chapter. Thirdly, most authors would embark
writing a book especially a work of fiction with a skeletal outline in mind
along with an ending. They “stuffed the meat” while writing along the way. Reading
Freud’s work, one get sense that he is making things up as he goes as in
literally, you are “riding along” in his thought process which is why putting
down the book in mid – sentence poses such peril in understanding the genius’
work. One could discern this by the several hanging analysis, thought dead ends
littered throughout in his book. It’s like reading a psychoanalytical monologue
of Freud by Freud. Fourthly, I find Freud overtly concern about sexuality and
eroticism to be questionable. Freud’s obsession is expected given his advocacy
that sexual tension is the undercurrent of the individual’s psychosis. However,
I do have doubts about it. I mean Oedipus Complex, Anal Eroticism, Obsession of
the Breast all those stuff though could explain the functioning of civilization
itself but is there more to it? I can’t tell after all I’m not a psychiatrist. Lastly,
Freud is a Jew and yet he is overtly critical about Christianity (Abrahamic
religion) in particular, and religion in general. However, I find in his
writings, a whiff of influence of Christianity. His theoretical development of
the Super – ego or in layman’s term, the guilty conscience as one of the fundamental
structure in human psychosis smacked of a Christian influence. In other belief
systems, the idea of “judgement” doesn’t exist. If Freud were not born into a “western”
value oriented society, would he develop the idea of the Super – ego?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Freud’s work is remarkable in the
sense that he is trying to connect individual psychosis with that of
civilization’s behavior. His work is akin to the Grand Unified Theory in
Physics, which is still elusive as of now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In physics, there is a set of laws that could best describe that of the
Quantum universe or the universe of the Atom and another set to understand the
Cosmos or the visible universe of the planets, stars, wormholes, black holes,
and dark matter and the these two sets of laws are not interchangeable, i.e.,
one cannot apply the Quantum theory to the Cosmos and vice versa. Hence,
Physicists are trying to come up with a theoretical framework, the Grand
Unified Theory that could reconcile the two and for the moment, it is still
elusive. Freud’s book on the other hand, manages to connect psychology (for the
individual) and sociology (for society or civilization). In Freud’s theory, Man
is happiest when his freedom is at its maximum when he encounters no
opposition, no challenge, no limitation, i.e., when he is alone however, no man
can live alone because Man is susceptible to the vicissitudes of Nature, to the
frailties and gradual decay of his flesh, and for his need to love and be love.
Henceforth, Man has to cohabitate with other Man in order to increase his
safety and answer is longing to be with someone and in the process, this
cohabitation creates Civilization. However, rules and compromises have to be made
in order for cohabitation to work and in the end, Man has to voluntarily give
up some of his freedom and restrict his liberty. However, subsuming Man’s
freedom undermines his happiness and as a result, individuals with psychosis are
born and thence, civilization’s discontents. But the story doesn’t stop there,
civilization reinforces this “order” and imposes ideas like rules, tradition,
culture, and religion and the individual integrates this ideas in his
development creating the “conscience” that would be its unseen master for the
rest of his existence which in turn makes individuals unhappy and produces more
“psychotics” and discontents. This reminded me a passage of Jacques Rosseau (or
was it Voltaire, can’t recall) in one of his writings, “Man is born free but is
everywhere in chains.” How true, how true.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Atlashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09030569281906416163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9321210.post-5795407935512432042018-08-26T08:46:00.002+08:002018-08-26T08:46:25.111+08:00THUCYDIDES TRAP PART II<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">As a history enthusiast, to say
that I’m not intrigued by the very idea of Thucydides trap is an incredible understatement.
Add to that, you have 16 cases of mostly European history to review from. I’m
very intrigue! Call it boredom but in fact, I could add a few cases to the
study of Thucydides’ trap. Anyway, here are the 16 case studies enumerated by
Graham Allison:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;">
<tbody>
<tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;">
<td style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 21.8pt;" valign="top" width="30">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 71.2pt;" valign="top" width="95">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Period<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 53.6pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Ruling Power<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 53.6pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Rising Power<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 38.95pt;" valign="top" width="53">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Result<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 73.75pt;" valign="top" width="103">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">War<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 55.35pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Winner<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 99.25pt;" valign="top" width="132">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Aftermath<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 1;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 21.8pt;" valign="top" width="30">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">1<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 71.2pt;" valign="top" width="95">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">1<sup>st</sup> half of the 16<sup>th</sup>
century<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 53.6pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">France<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 53.6pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Hapsburg Empire<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 38.95pt;" valign="top" width="53">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">War<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 73.75pt;" valign="top" width="103">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Italian Wars<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 55.35pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Hapsburg<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 99.25pt;" valign="top" width="132">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">France degenerated into chaos and
civil war while the Spanish Empire was born. Italy where the wars are mostly
fought laid devastated<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 2;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 21.8pt;" valign="top" width="30">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">2<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 71.2pt;" valign="top" width="95">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">16<sup>th</sup> – 17<sup>th</sup>
century<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 53.6pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Hapsburg Germany (Holy Roman
Empire)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 53.6pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Ottoman Empire<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 38.95pt;" valign="top" width="53">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">War<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 73.75pt;" valign="top" width="103">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Hapsburg - <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ottoman Wars<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 55.35pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Ottoman Empire<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 99.25pt;" valign="top" width="132">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Tripartite division of Hungary
into Royal Hungary, Transylvania, and Ottoman occupied Hungary (from which
the legend of Dracula is born). It would take another century before Hungary
regains its freedom.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 3;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 21.8pt;" valign="top" width="30">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">3<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 71.2pt;" valign="top" width="95">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">17<sup>th</sup> century<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 53.6pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Hapsburg Germany<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 53.6pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Sweden<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 38.95pt;" valign="top" width="53">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">War<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 73.75pt;" valign="top" width="103">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">30 Years War<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 55.35pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Sweden<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 99.25pt;" valign="top" width="132">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Part of the Reformation, one of
most destructive wars, Germany was utterly devastated by the war.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 4;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 21.8pt;" valign="top" width="30">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">4<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 71.2pt;" valign="top" width="95">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">17<sup>th</sup> century<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 53.6pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Dutch Republic<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 53.6pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">England<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 38.95pt;" valign="top" width="53">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">War<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 73.75pt;" valign="top" width="103">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">1<sup>st</sup>, 2<sup>nd</sup>, 3<sup>rd</sup>,
4<sup>th</sup> Anglo – Dutch Wars<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 55.35pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">England<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 99.25pt;" valign="top" width="132">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">The war is about control of the
maritime trade and colonies. The leader of the Dutch Republic eventually
became the rulers of UK (William III and Mary) through the Glorious
Revolution but the Dutch economy declined afterwards and soon became a second
rate power<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 5;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 21.8pt;" valign="top" width="30">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">5<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 71.2pt;" valign="top" width="95">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Late 17<sup>th</sup> century –
early 18<sup>th</sup> century<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 53.6pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">France<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 53.6pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Great Britain<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 38.95pt;" valign="top" width="53">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">War<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 73.75pt;" valign="top" width="103">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">War of Spanish Succession, War of
Augsburg, War of Devolution, War of Reunion, American Revolution<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 55.35pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">France<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 99.25pt;" valign="top" width="132">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">France’s Bourbon dynasty became
the new ruling house of Spain but the wars overstretch France leading in a
generation later to the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror. Also,
America became independent of UK.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 6;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 21.8pt;" valign="top" width="30">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">6<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 71.2pt;" valign="top" width="95">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Late 18<sup>th</sup> and early 19<sup>th</sup>
century<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 53.6pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">UK<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 53.6pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">France<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 38.95pt;" valign="top" width="53">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">War<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 73.75pt;" valign="top" width="103">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Revolutionary Wars, Napoleonic
Wars<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 55.35pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">UK<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 99.25pt;" valign="top" width="132">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">The first of the modern day Total
War. France’s manpower was severely depleted by the wars and would take a
generation to recover. Furthermore, civil strife was common leading
eventually to the establishment of the 2<sup>nd</sup> (or was it the 3<sup>rd</sup>)
French Republic.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 7;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 21.8pt;" valign="top" width="30">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">7<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 71.2pt;" valign="top" width="95">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Mid 19<sup>th</sup> century<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 53.6pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">UK France<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 53.6pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Russia<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 38.95pt;" valign="top" width="53">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">War<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 73.75pt;" valign="top" width="103">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Russo – Turkish War or the
Crimean War<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 55.35pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">UK France<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 99.25pt;" valign="top" width="132">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Russian expansion was checked but
Ottoman Turkey was devastated by this war. Florence Nightingale was a
participant in this war.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 8;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 21.8pt;" valign="top" width="30">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">8<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 71.2pt;" valign="top" width="95">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">19<sup>th</sup> century<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 53.6pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">France<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 53.6pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Germany<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 38.95pt;" valign="top" width="53">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">War<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 73.75pt;" valign="top" width="103">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Franco – Prussian War<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 55.35pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Germany<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 99.25pt;" valign="top" width="132">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">The second French Empire is
dissolved, Germany is unified under the Hohenzollern due to the machination
of Otto Von Bismarck to establish the German Empire.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 9;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 21.8pt;" valign="top" width="30">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">9<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 71.2pt;" valign="top" width="95">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Late 19<sup>th</sup> – early 20<sup>th</sup>
century<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 53.6pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Russia China<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 53.6pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Japan<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 38.95pt;" valign="top" width="53">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">War<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 73.75pt;" valign="top" width="103">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">1<sup>st</sup> Sino – Japanese
War, Russo – Japanese War <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 55.35pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Japan<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 99.25pt;" valign="top" width="132">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Japan became the premier power in
East Asia, Korea becomes a colony of Japan, years later, both the Qing Empire
and the Russian Empire fell to Revolutions and ensued a bloody civil war.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 10;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 21.8pt;" valign="top" width="30">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">10<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 71.2pt;" valign="top" width="95">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Early 20<sup>th</sup> century<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 53.6pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">UK<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 53.6pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">US<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 38.95pt;" valign="top" width="53">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">NO WAR<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 73.75pt;" valign="top" width="103">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 55.35pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">US<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 99.25pt;" valign="top" width="132">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">The Great Depression<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 11;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 21.8pt;" valign="top" width="30">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">11<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 71.2pt;" valign="top" width="95">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Early 20<sup>th</sup> century<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 53.6pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">UK France Russia<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 53.6pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Germany<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 38.95pt;" valign="top" width="53">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">War<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 73.75pt;" valign="top" width="103">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">World War I<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 55.35pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">UK France<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 99.25pt;" valign="top" width="132">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Utter devastation in terms of
lives and property for both the winners and losers. This war saw the
dissolution of the 4 empires, The Russian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the
German Empire, and the Austro – Hungarian Empire. Civil wars in Turkey and
Russia resulted from this world war. The resulting economic hardship formed
one of the causes of the Great Depression. Furthermore, the war brought about
the world’s first pandemic, the Spanish Flu.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 12;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 21.8pt;" valign="top" width="30">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">12<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 71.2pt;" valign="top" width="95">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Mid 20<sup>th</sup> century<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 53.6pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Russia, UK, France<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 53.6pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Germany<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 38.95pt;" valign="top" width="53">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">War<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 73.75pt;" valign="top" width="103">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">World War II<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 55.35pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Russia, UK, France<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 99.25pt;" valign="top" width="132">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">The most devastating war ever
with millions killed both civilians and combatants. In the end, Germany is
divided.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 13;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 21.8pt;" valign="top" width="30">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">13<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 71.2pt;" valign="top" width="95">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Mid 20<sup>th</sup> century<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 53.6pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">US<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 53.6pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Japan<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 38.95pt;" valign="top" width="53">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">War<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 73.75pt;" valign="top" width="103">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">World War II<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 55.35pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">US<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 99.25pt;" valign="top" width="132">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Atomic bomb was dropped over
Hiroshima Japan.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 14;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 21.8pt;" valign="top" width="30">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">14<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 71.2pt;" valign="top" width="95">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">1970s – 1980s<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 53.6pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Soviet Union<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 53.6pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Japan<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 38.95pt;" valign="top" width="53">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">NO WAR<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 73.75pt;" valign="top" width="103">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 55.35pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Japan<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 99.25pt;" valign="top" width="132">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Asian Economic Miracle<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 15;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 21.8pt;" valign="top" width="30">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">15<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 71.2pt;" valign="top" width="95">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">1940s – 1980s<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 53.6pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">US<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 53.6pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">USSR<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 38.95pt;" valign="top" width="53">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">NO WAR<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 73.75pt;" valign="top" width="103">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 55.35pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">US<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 99.25pt;" valign="top" width="132">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Cold War, USSR collapse after
America outspend the Soviets in the arms race dragging the USSR to
bankruptcy. In between however, several proxy wars erupted such as the Korean
War, the Vietnam War, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 16; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 21.8pt;" valign="top" width="30">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">16<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 71.2pt;" valign="top" width="95">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">1990s - present<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 53.6pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">UK France<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 53.6pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Germany<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 38.95pt;" valign="top" width="53">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">NO WAR<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 73.75pt;" valign="top" width="103">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 55.35pt;" valign="top" width="74">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Germany<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 99.25pt;" valign="top" width="132">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">Germany became the most
wealthiest and most influential country in the EU<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">The first 4 or 5 columns were taken
from Graham Allison, the last 3 columns were my additions. Personally, I don’t
agree with the some of the identities of the rising/ruling power nor is the
definition of rising and ruling power. For instance, case #1, calling France a
ruling power is iffy. If my memory serves me right, France at that time, has
just emerged from the Hundred Years War with England and has just successfully
centralized under the Valois kings. France fit the bill of a rising power more
than say a ruling one. The Hapsburg in this case study is under the rule of
Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire (as Carlos I, king of the united Spain). Spain
has just finished with its Reconquista and is just unified as a single kingdom
while the Holy Roman Empire is being forcefully centralized after centuries of
fragmentation. Therefore, the Hapsburg Empire could also be considered as a
rising power also. So the point is instead of saying that one is the rising
power and the other ruling power, it is more appropriate to say that both
France and Hapsburg are contending rising power of that era. So where is the
Thucydides trap there? Anyway, going by Graham Allison’s definition, it is
interesting to note that of the 16 cases being reviewed, there are 9 instances
wherein the rising power won including the peaceful ones (where war didn’t
happen). Further analysis would show that Case #1 (Catholic – Hugenot religious
tension and conflict), #2 (Protestant Reformation), #3 (Protestant Reformation),
and #8 (Political strife under Napoleon III, Republicanism is on the rise), the
ruling power is facing a very serious socio – political upheaval at home while
in case #4, 9, 10, 14 and 16, the ruling power were in various stages of
decline which is why the rising power won. The rising powers in these cases
also faces challenges but compared to their counterpart, the ruling powers,
they can be considered to be in the pink of their health. Of the remaining 7
cases wherein the ruling power won, case #12 is unique (WWII) because the
ruling powers won due to outside intervention of another rising power. Cases 5,
6, 7, 11, 15, the ruling powers simply outlasted the rising powers. Case 13 is
also unique because the ruling power is decidedly more powerful than the rising
challenger. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">To be continued…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Atlashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09030569281906416163noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9321210.post-90952403724862468662018-08-14T20:47:00.000+08:002018-08-14T20:47:08.914+08:00Thucydides' Trap<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: justify;">Most people have a misconception
about historians in general. They think that historians are people who remember
the names of people who are dead for decades if not centuries as if they are
their best friends, or about dates in the past as if it’s their birthday or
talk about events long gone and buried in sand as if they were there to
personally witness it. Can’t blame them because that is what most people came
to know about history. Dates, events, names of great personality, the very
things that they tried in vain to memorize and remember in their high school
history exam. History however is more than just names, events, and dates.
History is about the past, or more apt, the logic of what happened and why it
happened in the past. Believe it or not, the more you study history, the more
you’ll discover that history follows a pattern, a recurring pattern. The old
adage that “history repeats itself” is quite true. And nothing rings truer than
the concept of a “Thucydides’ Trap”, a term coined by Graham Allison of the
Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs of the Harvard Kennedy
School in 2015. Thucydides from which the trap was named was an Athenian
general and a noted historian during the Peloponnesian War (some 2,400 years
ago) and after the defeat of Athens, he wrote a book, “History on the
Peloponnesian War”. At the conclusion of his seminal work, Thucydides concludes
“It was the rise of Athens, and the fear that this inspired Sparta, that made
this war inevitable.” It is from this conclusion that Graham Allison formulated
his Thucydides trap, “when a rising power challenges a ruling power, war
inevitably ensued and would end badly for both”. He further reinforces his
thesis by analyzing events of the past 500 years mostly in Europe with one
Asian case, that of the 16 cases of Thucydides trap, 12 resulted in war. In 4
cases, war was avoided. Graham Allison developed this thesis not out of some
academic boredom but to analyze the present relationship of China (the rising
power) and the US (the ruling power). To him, the Sino – US conundrum fits the
bill of a Thucydides trap and to quote Graham, “when a rising power’s growing
clout resulted into growing entitlement, sense of it’s importance, and demand
for greater say and sway which in turn, engenders the ruling power’s fear,
insecurity, and determination to defend the status quo”, a fact that is in full
display right now. And to Graham, the current path of the Sino – US friction
would more likely to lead to conflict, war and bloodshed but this is not inescapable
provided that “cooler heads” prevail and that people heeds the lessons of
history.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">To read more about Graham Allison’s
work try this page, https://www.belfercenter.org/publication/thucydides-trap-are-us-and-china-headed-war<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
Atlashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09030569281906416163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9321210.post-33986086626380148382012-02-09T20:44:00.000+08:002012-02-09T20:44:20.240+08:00HAPPILY EVER AFTER…………….<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It’s been like more than two years since I last blogged and as I mentioned, I’ve met a girl, decided to pursue her and thinking of settling down with her…… That was back then. Now, I’ve settled down with her and we’re expecting our first child. Anyway, a long time ago I thought I could go back to blogging right after settling down but as I happily learned that is not the case. Somehow in between family and work and books (and the occasional computer games and internet surfing), blogging don’t seemed to “squeeze in” and for a while, I did quit blogging until today when I opened my mail and found out that somebody read my old posts and actually liked it. It is quite encouraging that somebody actually liked what I wrote and it made me realized that I missed blogging. When I started out blogging, I intend to share my thoughts however absurd it maybe with the whole wide world. Overtime, blogging has become my refuge of sort from the solitude of life. I write not just to share but also to connect somehow. Anyway, that somehow is no longer the case right now. However, I do have a great many thing to share and amusingly, the things I originally set out to share when I first wrote my blog, most notably about history; I haven’t really shared about it. So without further ado, I’m back! Except that maybe I won’t be able to write as frequently as before but definitely, I will be writing something from time to time.</span></div>Atlashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09030569281906416163noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9321210.post-65353435213752699392010-12-16T18:59:00.002+08:002010-12-16T18:59:45.283+08:00PENS<div style="text-align: justify;">Most people know that I’m an avid book collector but only a handful of them knew that I’m also a pen collector. Well, expensive pens that is. To date, I already owned 4 pens. I got the idea of collecting pens when I’m graduating from business school. Back then, I was thinking of how to “reward” myself for milestones and achievements that I’m going to rack up for the rest of my life. For most people, this would be a very easy task. I mean if you are working for somebody, reward would come in the form of increase pay, promotions, and added perks such as corner office. Or if you happen to own a business, probably a vacation trip, a new car, a new house. And this is my dilemma, I’m not working for another organization and therefore, I don’t receive higher pay, or even get promoted at all. As for the vacations, new auto, or house, well, I don’t need to achieve “something” to get those. I needed something “special” and “unique” as a reward. One day, I was watching this movie of Russell Crowe’s entitled, “A Beautiful Mind” and there is this scene that deeply impressed me, a group of brilliant men and women laying down their pens (all Parker pens) on the table in deference to their distinguished colleague that is being honored with a Nobel Prize. I was so enamored with the scene that I said to myself, “Why not pens?” and with that, I bought myself my very first pen, a metallic chrome body with gold clip Parker brand fountain pen to commemorate my graduation from MBA. The pen cost me nearly Php2,000 and I sort of a “regretted” buying the pen because although the pen wrote wonderfully smooth (I use the pens to write and sign checks). The ink easily dried up and it clogs. The latter entails wasting half a cartridge of the expensive ink just to remove the clog. Well, what can I say? First time blues. Since then, I decided not to buy anymore fountain pens. Anyway, my second pen is a gift from my sister, a Mont Blanc sign pen worth something like 14k Philippine currency. Apparently, my sister thinks that I have this expensive hobby of collecting pens (even if by then I only own one pen and my real intention is to just simply “reward” myself) and she wanted to “contribute” to my collection. And so on my 32nd birthday, she gave me that Mont Blanc sign pen. And this pen is by far, my favorite pen. Not only would I sign “important” documents and checks with “The Pen”, I also carry “The Pen” around as someone else would carry around say a Rolex watch except that most people would seem to notice the Rolex watch rather than “The Pen”. The only problem with “The Pen” is that not only the ink is expensive (cost somewhere around P395), it is also hard to buy because there is only one Mont Blanc store in Manila and you have to place an advance order for it and have to wait for “sometime” just to get your supply of ink. With that, I no longer use “The Pen” to sign just any “trivial” documents and checks save for the most important ones. My third pen is also a gift and is also a Mont Blanc pen. My aunt gave me that on my 34th birthday and it is a Mont Blanc ball point pen. Truth to tell, this “Ballpen” and I, doesn’t have much relationship history together. Partly, it is a ball point pen and partly because my 34th birthday isn’t exactly worth remembering. Now, my 4th pen, which I recently bought and gifted myself, a metallic chrome plated Cross sign pen with gold clip. I decided on buying the Cross pen after learning that President Obama used a Cross pen to sign the historic Health Care bill into law. Anyway, I have two reasons as to why I should “reward” myself with this pen. First of all, I closed a “big deal” this year. In the 3 months that this deal is running, it contributed something like 10% of my total annual sales for this year alone and if things went smoothly, it’s going to contribute 50% to my revenue for next year. That reason alone definitely “worth” a pen. My second reason and the most important one is that I also gifted my lady love with the same pen complete with her name engraved on it just like mine. And we both agreed to use those pens of ours to sign our marriage contract/license come May of 2011. Although the document isn’t as historic or even as controversial as the Obama Health Care bill but still the document still calls for a “worthy” pen(s) to sign on it.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">P.S. I surely looking forward for my next “pen in the cap” to add to my collections. “ )</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div>Atlashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09030569281906416163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9321210.post-23480907664938525652010-07-26T16:40:00.000+08:002010-07-26T16:40:10.899+08:00A Year Ago TodayA year ago today, I met this incredible woman at a speed dating party. To be honest, it wasn't love at first sight (that happened later) for she was just one of the many that I'd met that day. However, for over the course of a year, I get to know her and I get to fall in love with her. What a year! Finally, I felt that I've found what I'm looking for. And today, exactly a year after, I'm celebrating my 36th birthday. Hopefully, this is the last time that I'm going to be celebrating it alone.Atlashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09030569281906416163noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9321210.post-2982930085039932292010-03-22T20:21:00.001+08:002010-03-22T20:27:28.223+08:00HAITUSThis is what happened in the 6 - 7 months of my absence from blogging.......... Met a girl, fallen in love, went after her, courted her, she said yes and now, we're a couple.Atlashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09030569281906416163noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9321210.post-20334013394020953622009-09-23T22:43:00.000+08:002009-09-23T22:45:34.087+08:00HONG KONG – MACAU ADVENTURE<div align="justify">Just came home last night from a 5 day vacation at Hong Kong, taking advantage of the holiday – extended weekend. At any rate, it was quite a nice vacation and the trip was kind of memorable to me. Hong Kong is not actually new to me. I’d been there like a dozen times before. In fact, I’d sojourned there for like a month sometime in the early 90s (that is because I had two aunts who lived there). Despite that, I never really “traveled” Hong Kong. I mean despite my numerous visits, I’d never go to places in and around Hong Kong save for a few shopping destinations that my aunts took me to and I soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo hate shopping!!! Anyway, when the extended weekend showed up in the calendar and my travel bug – bitten shobe of mine was itching to go “anywhere”, I decided to take advantage of it and travel as well. After all, I do need a vacation myself. However, when the choice of Hong Kong cropped up, the one question that perturbed me and my shobe was “where to go in Hong Kong?” I mean going to Hong Kong, there are only 5 reasons to visit that city aside from seeing old relatives and they are: Hong Kong Disneyland, Ocean Park, and Shopping, and more Shopping, and even more Shopping (and I sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo hate shopping). Ocean Park, I’d been there like once or twice already. Disneyland, not my forte, I’m no longer a kid anyway and as for shopping, never mind. As such, it’s really quite a problem then but through diligent research using Wikitravel (about the favorite travel guide site of mine). I was able to come up quite an interesting and in fact, an adventuresome itinerary, which my shobe and I were able to roughly follow during the course of our trip. The trip, which I dubbed as an adventure can be categorized roughly into 6 activities. First, there is the Biblio – excursion, which is basically a bookstore tour as well as a visit to the Hong Kong Central Library (which is like my favorite place in Hong Kong). There is also the Culture Exploration, which is about visiting museums and places with cultural significance. The Sightseeing tour is about visiting some of the famous landmarks in Hong Kong and Macau. The Gastronomic Escapade is about satisfying that epicurean curiosity by trying out the food in restaurants around Hong Kong and Macau. Then, there is the Hiking Expedition, a trip to the wilderness in Lantau Island in Hong Kong. Lastly, a Hong Kong adventure wouldn’t be complete without a Shopping Quest (but that doesn’t mean that I anywhere “liked” shopping at all). Anyway, travelling to Hong Kong at this time of the year is SWELTERING HOT!!! Manila by contrast is a lot cooler. During our stay in Hong Kong and Macau, the temperature is like in the vicinity of 33 – 34 oC. And the only time it rained was like very late Monday afternoon for like 30 minutes or even less. To use a metaphor to describe the hot clime at Hong Kong, I would say that I’m not “melting” under the scorching heat of the Hong Kong summer rather I’m “evaporating” underneath its sun. It was that hot! It is not that I’m not used to the hot weather, having living in a country near the equator. Rather, it is because in Manila, I live in a bubble, an air conditioned bubble. I mean, I slept in an air conditioned room. I worked in an air conditioned office. If I had to go out, I drive in my Honda Accord, which is also air conditioned. I visit my clients in their air conditioned office. I dined in a restaurant and leisurely stroll in a mall, both of which are also air conditioned. If by any chance I had to stay out under the sun in Manila, it would be like 2 – 3 hours tops. As a tourist in Hong Kong on the other hand, I walked a lot (which is natural considering the fact that I’m sightseeing) and stayed under the sun for like almost the whole day, which is why I looked “drenched” and “dripping wet” after the day’s trip not by the rain of course but by my own sweat! It’s really that hot in Hong Kong! Despite the hot weather, what makes my latest Hong Kong trip standout from my previous trips to Hong Kong? Well, I had to say, memorable places, great food, and 2 new books that I bought in a Hong Kong bookstore (Commercial Press in Causeway Bay).</div>Atlashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09030569281906416163noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9321210.post-34606738182892322582009-07-31T18:39:00.002+08:002009-07-31T18:44:41.610+08:00BOOK REVIEWS I<div align="justify"><em>Spoiler Alert: The following reviews may inadvertently reveal some details of the books. If you don’t want to be spoiled, refrain from reading this review. </em></div><div align="justify"><em><br /> </div></em><div align="justify"><strong>The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding: How to Build a Product or Service into a World Class Brand by Al Ries and Laura Ries ISBN 0887309372 Rating: 3Stars/4<br /></div></strong><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify">Truth to tell, there isn’t really 22 laws but just 2 laws. The first law is to maintain uniqueness, remain focus with your message by being consistent, and don’t muddle your message by trying to become “everything” to everyone. The second law is that a 100% domination of the market is impossible because not everybody has the same need and thus wouldn’t equally appeal to your brand message and purchase your product. If you get 50% + 1 market share, be happy and move on and create another brand. The remaining 20 laws are just rewording of the 2 basic laws. If you have too much time to kill, be my guess and read the book. It ain’t a boring read anyway just repetitive.<br /></div><div align="justify"><strong>The Art of Kissing by William Kane ISBN0312117442 Rating: 3/4<br /></div></strong><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify">Ever heard of a “butterfly kiss”? Or maybe “Lip – O – Suction”? If you haven’t, read the book. If you’re bored with French Kissing, read the book. However, take my word for it. Reading the book doesn’t make you a good kisser, practice do.<br /></div><div align="justify"><strong>The Laws of Seduction by Robert Greene ISBN 0142001198 Rating: 3/4<br /></div></strong><div align="justify">This book is the author’s attempt to inject science into the art as well as an attempt to “procedurize” the “step by step process” of seduction. To do so, the book put forth a lot of examples based on real life personalities as well as fictional characters to prove its point. The latter (fictional characters especially from the Tales of Genji and Dangerous Liasons) are much more heavily favored over the former (real life people), which somewhat diminishes the convincing aspect of the arguments. Despite that short coming, I still find the points elucidated in the book to be rather practical and common sensical. Nothing extraordinary actually. As for the value of the book, well, let’s face it. The reason that we read the book in the first place is to master the art of seduction and as such, we wonder if the Laws of Seduction is anywhere applicable. Well, let’s put it this way. If we want to learn about physics, we turn to a physicist with a phD from a reputable school. We all know that Robert Greene is a “professor of seduction” but have we ever heard of Robert Greene, the seducer?<br /></div><div align="justify"><strong>The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action by David P. Norton and Robert S. Kaplan ISBN 0875846513 Rating: 4/4<br /></strong></div><div align="justify">One of the biggest problem in management is that Business Strategy is always good on paper but not in the real world. This is because Business Strategy is made in the board room, isolated from the real world that is the front line and once this strategy is handed down from the top, frontline executives are at a lost on how to execute such a strategy. Balanced Scorecard as a framework links this Strategy – Performance gap. Norton and Kaplan’s other book, “Strategy Map” deals with the development of an “executable” strategy while this book provides the framework for monitoring and controlling of the “performance of strategy”. The book is not for everybody though. Definitely, this is not a book that a non – business or for that matter, even an occasional business reader could appreciate. This is a hard core business book that is most appropriate for those who understand the nuances of Strategy making, Implementation, and Performance management.<br /></div><div align="justify"><strong>Bioethics and Moral Decision by Florentino Timbreza ISBN 9711181355 Rating: 4/4<br /></strong></div><div align="justify">This is a basic introduction to the moral philosophy on issues arising from the advancement of biomedical science such as Surrogate motherhood, genetic engineering, etc. The book is especially praiseworthy in the fact that it doesn’t subscribe to only one narrow religious ethico – moral philosophical point of view rather it proffered several ethico – moral philosophical point of views. A recommended reading for people who wanted to get a balanced understanding of the raging bioethical issues.<br /></div><div align="justify"><strong>明代國家權力結構及運行機制 作者 方志遠ISBN 7030221877 Rating: 4/4<br />A Study into the Political Structure and System of the Ming Dynasty by Fang Zhi Yuan ISBN 7030221877<br /></strong></div><div align="justify">在諸多關於明代政治制度的史論中,往往看到“宦官干政”,“宦官亂政”的評論。傳統史書把“宦官干政” 視作恆古未之有的異象而加以彈伐。此書之論點與衆不同,它不僅把“宦官干政” 視作明代政治結構的一部分。而甚至把它視作不可或缺的一部分。此書認爲宦官是明朝皇帝的代表,而“宦官干政”更是至高無上皇權的延伸。我認爲此書的論點比較附和歷史實況。尤其是更附和歷代“内朝—外朝”政治權力斗爭規律。由此,我認爲此書對研究明朝政治歷史是非常重要的。<br />In most history books regarding the political system of Ming China, one would always find a negative criticism on the “political intervention” of the palace eunuch. In fact, traditional historiography would find political intervention of palace eunuch as an aberration, an indirect cause of the downfall of the Ming dynasty. This book however, posited a different point of view, one in which I wholeheartedly agree. The book subscribes to the theory that eunuch participation on the political decision is not only part and parcel of the Ming political system but also an indispensable one. The palace eunuchs as portrayed in the book are the representatives of the Ming emperors and their participation in the political process is clearly an extension of the absolute power of the Ming emperors in the matters of the state. I believe such point of view fits better with the historical reality especially since it conforms to the traditional “inner court – outer court” power struggle pattern of politics in Imperial Chinese. As such, I strongly recommend the book as a must read for anyone who is interested in the study of the political history of the Ming dynasty that is assuming you could read Simplified Chinese.<br /></div><div align="justify"><strong>兩漢縣行政研究 作者 邹水傑ISBN 754385404X Rating: 3/4<br />A Study of the Xian (County) Administration during the Han Dynasty by Bao Sui Jie ISBN 754385404X<br /></strong></div><div align="justify">此書著重描敘兩漢縣行政運作的概況。此書最大的優點在於利用最新的考古發現來創造卓越的見解。再説,由於縣的行政機構是國家最基本的單位,因此它是最直接接觸到社會。也由於此,此書間接地描述著秦,兩漢,三國甚至到晉朝初期的社會演變與情況。我個人認爲讀此書對研究中國古代社會有特別的益處。<br />This book is all about an analysis of the xian or county administration during the Han dynasty period in Chinese history. The book utilizes the latest archaeological findings in developing brilliant insights into the mystery of xian administrative practice during that era. Also, because xian administration is the most basic level of government during the Chinese imperial era, it is the institution that had the most dealings with the societal forces at that time. As such, the book also indirectly touches on the societal development as well as the social reality during the Qin, Han, Three Kingdom, and early Jin dynasty period. Personally, I think this book is a big help for those serious academic study on the societal development in Ancient China. Again, assuming of course, you can read Simplified Chinese.<br /></div><div align="justify"><strong>赫遜河畔談中國歷史 作者 黃仁宇ISBN 9571300462 Rating: 4/4<br />Conversation on Chinese History by the Hudson River, authored by Ray Huang ISBN 9571300462<br /></strong></div><div align="justify">首先我要說,黃仁宇是我最尊重,最喜愛的歷史學家。我總覺得他的大歷史觀是一個卓越的歷史解讀方法。他從上層政治勢力與下層社會力量的各自演變,發展以至後來的沖動,對抗再者往後的容和連接來解釋中國歷史的演變。這就是大歷史觀。在我的看法,黃老師寫這本書的最大目的就是要探討為什麽資本主義社會(Capitalist Society)不能在中國誕生或者落地生根。早在一千多年前,中國社會已經進入了前工業化時代(pre – industrial society)。 然而,在條件俱備,臨門欠一踢的情況下,中國古代卻未能引發工業革命(Industrial Revolution)。也由於此,中國社會政治制度未能徹低的改造。此書從頭到尾,一直牽引讀者去縱橫一千年中國歷史至到元初。目的就是讓讀者親自了解中國滯留原因。黃老師把這本書寫到元世祖時代而只字不提元,明,清往後的歷史是因爲過了元世祖,中國已喪失了工業化的機遇條件至到二十世紀。他在寫這本書的最後結論是在研究理學。雖然他沒有直接指責理學為中國落後的原因。然而很明顯,他是持有這樣的結輪。<br />First of all, I like to say that Dr Ray Huang is one of my favorite historian. To me, his thesis on Macro – history is such a brilliant concept of historical analysis. Using the development and growth, the conflict, and the eventual merging and harmonization between upper echelon political forces and the lower strata societal forces, Dr Huang has masterfully recasts our understanding of Chinese history with his Macro – history analysis. In this seminal book of his, Dr Huang attempts to discover the underlying reason as to why Capitalism as socio – political system didn’t take root in China before the 20th century. According to his theory, a thousand years ago, China is on the verge of an Industrial Revolution (approximately 500 years before the West). It’s society has already exhibit properties of a pre – industrial society. Yet, the Industrial Revolution failed to ignite at that time despite the conducive environment at that period. As a result, Chinese socio – political system failed to transform leading to stagnation which eventually allows the West to overtake it in the 19th century. In this book, Dr Huang manages to take the reader on a roaming journey over a thousand years of Chinese history allowing readers to personally “understand” as to the reason behind China’s eventual stagnation. It’s a lucid read. The book ends in the era of Kublai Khan, the first Mongol Emperor of Yuan China. It didn’t tackle further the latter history of the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties. The reason behind this treatment is that to him, after Kublai Khan, China has already lost its golden opportunity to industrialize. By then, it has lost all it’s pre – requisite advantage to jumpstart an Industrial Revolution. Furthermore, Dr Huang in his concluding chapter wrote about Neo – Confucianism. Although he didn’t directly pin the blame on China’s eventual stagnation to Neo – Confucianism, it is quite clear in his writing that he does harbor such conclusions. By the way, the book is written in Traditional Chinese. And though Dr Huang is fluent in English and has studied in an American University, there is to my knowledge no English version of the book available.<br /></div><div align="justify"><strong>Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk by Peter L. Bernstein Rating: 4/4<br /></strong></div><div align="justify">The book despite it’s “eye catching” title isn’t about religion or faith but rather is a book on the “history” of the development of risk management. It began with the telling of the invention of mathematics, then shifted to the discovery of probabilities and statistics, then to the conceptualization of the idea of risk, and finally to the modern development of risk management. The process by which Peter Bernstein tells the history of risk management is through the introductions of the key concepts in risk management (such as probability theory, normal distribution, variance etc) by way of meeting the personalities behind the “creation” of such concepts. In this sense, the book feels like an amalgam of biographies of “eccentric” but otherwise pretty interesting mathematicians. Though the book is about mathematics, surprisingly, the book seldom talks about numbers. Instead, the book delves almost exclusively on the theoretical concepts. In fact, the discussions on the theoretical concepts usually turned profoundly philosophical in nature. Because of that, I find the book not only interesting to read but enlightening as well.<br /></div><div align="justify"><em>Acknowledgement: I like to thank for my old pal, Jerry for proof reading my reviews in Chinese. Thanks, pare! </em></div>Atlashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09030569281906416163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9321210.post-22009696264819748732009-07-26T08:14:00.000+08:002009-07-26T08:15:38.264+08:00金縷衣 (The Gold Laced Suit)<div align="justify">唐 杜秋娘 (Tang Dynasty Du Qiu Niang) </div><div align="justify"><br />勸君莫惜金縷衣,<br />勸君惜取少年時。<br />花開堪折至須折,<br />莫待無花空折枝。 </div><div align="justify"><br />Abandon thy pursuit<br />Of that Gold Laced Suit,<br />‘Stead cherish that fleeting youth<br />Of dreams and romance.<br />Pick, smell the roses<br />At its fullest blossom,<br />Lest it past and wither<br />Left holding a dried fig. </div>Atlashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09030569281906416163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9321210.post-75915129491791046522009-07-25T13:56:00.000+08:002009-07-25T13:58:02.768+08:00少年行 (A Young Man’s Quest)<div align="justify">唐 令狐楚 (Tang Dynasty, Ling Hu Chu) </div><div align="justify"><br />弓背霞明劍照霜,<br />秋風出馬走咸陽。<br />未收天子河湟地,<br />不拟囘頭望故鄉。 </div><div align="justify"><br />Bow swung<br />On my back,<br />Sword hung<br />On my waist.<br />With shining armour,<br />And glittering banner.<br />I push my steed<br />With all speed<br />I rode out of Xian Yang<br />To the valley of He Huang.<br />Bent on reclaiming,<br />The lost land for my king.<br />Till that day come,<br />I shan’t even look back at my home. </div>Atlashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09030569281906416163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9321210.post-13441908879492585512009-07-24T09:37:00.000+08:002009-07-24T09:38:30.198+08:00劍客 (The Wandering Swordsman)<div align="justify">唐 賈島 (Tang Dynasty, Jia Dao) </div><div align="justify"><br />十年磨一劍,<br />霜刃未曾試。<br />今日把似君,<br />誰為不平事。 </div><div align="justify"><br />Ten years I labored,<br />Long I waited<br />To unsheathe my sword.<br />Point me to the nearest strife, my friend,<br />That justice be served<br />With thy blade.<br />(Another translation)<br />Ten years I trained,<br />Raring to unsheathe my sword.<br />Tell me stranger, where is the nearest battle.<br />For which glory that my blade shall earn.<br /></div>Atlashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09030569281906416163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9321210.post-40718689645973012092009-07-21T22:20:00.000+08:002009-07-21T22:21:22.770+08:00TUANGOU 團購<div align="justify">Read an article on CNN’s website the other day regarding China’s newest consumer buying trend, Tuan Gou 團購 or the literal translation, team buying. The idea as I understood is that using internet as a tool, a group of Chinese netizens would band together to purchase in bulk a product that they commonly like to buy. Because of their “relatively large” number and thus, their huge combined purchasing power, these netizens was able to haggle or more appropriately, coax a better price and terms from sellers. These Tuan Gou netizens have no formal organizational structure and are driven to organize merely by impetus and as such, they would only elect a temporary leader (or more like a purchasing manager or a leading negotiator) to do the haggling for them using their numbers as a negotiating leverage. According to CNN, such purchasing/haggling tactic worked pretty well and had actually succeeded in generating huge savings for buyers (you can check CNN about it). Personally, I think the whole idea is brilliant. Simple yet brilliant. Furthermore, I personally believe that this whole scheme of thing could possibly be transformed into a profitable new business model. Since the inception of the internet, many businesses and entrepreneurs have squeeze their brain juice dry to come up with a “winning” formula for online business success but so far, only a handful did make it. Many tried but failed. The reason is because the business models they come up with only attracted “visitors” and “page views” but hardly translate that “number” into revenues and eventually into profit. The idea of Tuan Gou could be the key since “they” not only have the “numbers” but also the group members are actually buying instead of soaking up freebies offered over the net. Furthermore, in the early days of the internet, the prime movers of the World Wide Web are the content providers. They generate contents interesting enough to attract visitor traffic and from there, they make their sales pitch but with the advent of Napster, Apple online music store, blogging, and social networking, the internet underwent a radical makeover into a tool for P2P (peer to peer) interaction and Tuan Gou is a genuine PSP interaction. It is precisely because that Tuan Gou is a user generated interaction rather than a proprietary development of a commercial entity, Tuan Gou as a consumer trend is more spontaneous, more “credible” and may perhaps be a longer lasting trend than an occasional hype usually identified with the early internet driven consumer behavior. However, for Tuan Gou to work, a few key ingredients must be present. Foremost among the factors is that the products that are the target of these Tuan Gou participants must be sufficiently generic (though not entirely) to have a single price point and be also readily available with other sellers as to foster competition. If a certain product has multitude of available variants and each has their own price, there will be more choices and therefore, instead of one concentrated buyer – group, several smaller sized buyer – group each with fewer members and hence, lesser bargaining power would exists. In addition to that, less generic product would provide points of differentiation that each seller would strive to emphasize in order to justify charging a higher price and hence, negate the bargaining leverage of the Tuan Gou group. Secondly, a Tuan Gou group should be fairly large in order to create the necessary bargaining leverage. The size shouldn’t be just a dozen not unless the item in question is pricey such as an automobile (which would probably have few purchase in a day) but rather in the vicinity of 30 – 50 people in order to be effective. Otherwise, sellers would quickly dismiss the group since they could easily “replenish” the “lost sales”. More appropriately, the “number” should be large enough as to comprise a significant portion of a sellers’ transaction for the day. As an example, suppose a seller has an average of 1000 transaction per day, a Tuan Gou group of 12 (assuming each member constitute 1 transaction) would be miniscule and even in fact, would be negligible to the bottomline of the seller. Conversely, if a seller has an average transaction of say just 100 a day, a Tuan Gou group of 50 representing 50 possible transactions would be a tempting prize for the seller. A third factor for the success of the Tuan Gou is that the Team Leaders or more importantly, the entire Tuan Gou process should be credible. There should be no suspicion of one member or any member of the group making money off the Tuan Gou group by entering into a backroom deal with the seller. As much as possible, transparency should be maintained during the deal making process. Losing credibility in the process would mean a loss of solidarity among the Tuan Gou group eventually resulting into the disbandment without any deal being made. Lastly and most importantly, the deal or more accurately, the savings that could be generated should be substantial. Anything less than that would put into doubt about the usefulness of the whole Tuan Gou system. This is because the question that each member of the Tuan Gou group would frequently ask is that “can I get the same deal if not better on my own?” If the answer were to be a yes, then what is the point of joining up with a Tuan Gou. It is because the individual doesn’t have enough leverage to get the “best deal” from the seller that the idea of Tuan Gou even existed in the first place. For now, Tuan Gou is still uniquely a Chinese consumer concept albeit one probably growing in popularity as suggested by CNN but I believe that such a concept could well applied outside of China as well and who knows, Tuan Gou would probably become a consumer reality in a next few years instead of just merely a temporary fad.</div>Atlashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09030569281906416163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9321210.post-25982611886182618092009-07-13T20:58:00.000+08:002009-07-13T20:59:46.289+08:00BREAKING THE EAT – ALL – YOU – CAN BUFFET CODE<div align="justify">The most frequently asked question whenever one is in an Eat – all – you – can buffet restaurant is that “how does the restaurant make money?” I mean given the huge selection of food available on the buffet table and the “unlimited” amount of food that a patron can consume, most diners would think that they’re getting “the better end of the deal” and that the restaurant would surely go for broke feeding every patron till their belly ache. Actually, the truth is there is no such thing as a free lunch (both figuratively and literally) and restaurant that offered such fare are actually making quite a profit. To understand how an Eat – all – you – can buffet restaurant are making money, it is important to fully grasp two important issues central to this concept. The first one is the costing of foods being served in restaurants and the second issue being the difference between “unlimited” and “eat – all – you – can”. In a regular ala carte restaurant, food (or entrée) are priced based on servings or serving size. To illustrate, whenever a patron orders ala carte, the food is served on a dish, which represents one unit or serving that is enough to satisfy certain number of people usually 2. In some restaurant, they offer varying serving sizes of the same entrée to satisfy varying number of patrons. So there is a regular size that is good for 1 – 2 persons and a larger size good for 3 – 4 persons and still larger serving size for more persons. Pricing of the dishes in these ala carte restaurants are based on servings or serving size. In an Eat – all – you – can buffet restaurant, there is no serving limitations nor there is serving sizes. Regardless of any type of restaurant, the method of costing food or entrées is the same; that is they are based on weight. Raw foods like meat, seafood and vegetable are purchased based on their weight. In a regular ala carte restaurant, an entrée’s serving size is determined by weight and costing is based on all inputs that go into preparing the entrée in it’s specific serving size including labor, cooking fuel, the raw food including ingredients. In an Eat – all – you – can buffet restaurant, since there is no serving size or serving limitations, the cook could prepare the entrée in “bulk” (in short, in a very large serving size) even though there is a practical limitation to the size of that “bulk” (such as the limiting size of the cooking utensils and the time needed to fully cooked such large size). At any rate, in an Eat – all – you – can buffet restaurant, each entrée at the buffet table has a certain cost based on weight (as in per kilo). In the Philippine setting, the cheapest entrée on the buffet table would be steamed rice. A kilo of local variety uncooked rice costs around Php20 – 30 per kilo while that of imported jasmine rice variety cost somewhere Php50 a kilo. Add labor and electricity plus water, a kilo of steamed jasmine rice could cost anywhere from Php65 – 75. Anyway, not all entrée is as cheap as steamed rice but some entrées would definitely cost more than others. Taking note of that in mind, it’s time to explore the second issue. Though an Eat – all – you – can buffet restaurant may seem to offer an “unlimited” food for the patron to consume, the reality is there is a limitation, a natural limitation, which in this case is the size of human appetite hence the term “Eat – all – you – can”. Now the question is how big is an “average” human appetite? 100 grams or food? 200? Half a kilo? Take note also that human appetite tends to “increase” when there is an abundance of food available or when the atmosphere is “conducive to binge eating” as in the case of Eat – all – you – can buffet. Despite that, assuming that a patron consumes ONLY the most expensive entrée on the buffet table to the exclusion of other entrées, we now have a “maximum cost per patron”. From this “maximum cost” add a certain mark up to cover overhead expenses, we now have our buffet price. The mark up in this case is our “minimum” expected profit. This is because in reality, patrons don’t just consume a single dish all throughout, they actually sample practically everything on the buffet table. As such, the profit can only get “fatter”. However, all of this computation is based on an assumption of an “average” human appetite albeit an increased version of it. What about those patrons who have above average appetites? Well, this is where statistical theory comes in, The Law of Large Numbers. What this theory suggests is that while there are patrons who have above average appetites, there are also patrons who have below average appetites and that in large numbers, the two just simply “even out”. Furthermore, at the end of the day, what really matters is how much profit does the restaurant make? And profits are not computed on an individual patron basis but by bulk. As an example, assuming that there are 1,000 patrons taking their meal at a certain Eat – all – you – can buffet restaurant and assuming also that the average appetite is half a kilo, that would theoretically require the kitchen to prepare around 500 kilos of food just to satisfy the appetites of the patrons but in actuality due to the “relatively good appetite” of some jolly old guests, the kitchen dishes out 550 kilos of food. Supposed that the average cost of the dishes is Php200/kilo and the restaurant charges Php300/person, the restaurant would still make a profit of Php300/person x 1,000 person – 550kilos x Php200/kilo = Php190,000 (exclusive of overhead costs). Although the restaurant made Php10,000 less than “normal” (the profit should be Php200,000 assuming average appetite) but still, it makes money. Having gotten a picture on how an Eat – all – you – can buffet restaurant makes money, it is thus easier to understand the various policies and practices that an Eat – all – you – can buffet restaurant implements. One such policy is No Sharing, which may sound absurd given the fact that the offer is supposedly “unlimited”. Well, the reason is because the pricing of the buffet is based on an individual’s appetite size, sharing with a NON – PAYING sit – in guests would render the “limiting” assumption invalid but sharing with another paying patron is actually favorable to them. The same reasoning applies also to the policy of no leftovers because it exceeded the assumed limits of the appetite size on which pricing is based. The use of shallow but heavy plates in an Eat – all – you – can buffet restaurant has its purpose to deceive the senses. With a shallow plate, a patron could easily “fill up” the plate thus tricking the patron into thinking that he/she has enough. The same goes with heavy plates. In short, what all this analysis on the business model of an Eat – all – you – can buffet restaurant suggests is that “The House Always Wins” regardless how much one eats (except of course if there are too few guests patronizing the establishment such that the restaurant cannot recoup the overhead expenses from the net margins). But then again, do we really need to “Beat the House” when dining in an Eat – all – you – can buffet restaurant? I remember a classmate and a friend of mine in business school who offered her thoughts on Eat – all – you – can buffets. To paraphrase, she said that we pay not to binge eat but rather we pay for the variety of dishes available, which is quite true. When we dine at a regular ala carte restaurant, because of the price, we can only order a limited number of entrées but in an Eat – all – you – can buffet restaurant, with the same “budget” or a little bit more, we actually have more choices to choose from in order to satisfy our craving and that is really the benefit of dining in an Eat – all – you – can buffet restaurant. However, if one is really mischievous enough as to “dare to BREAK the House”, there is actually a way…….. but not by eating more. The formal business classification of a restaurant is food service companies and as such, it is surprising to most people that restaurant doesn’t really “sells” food or dishes or entrées or meals but the services that goes into preparing and serving the food itself. And that services includes among others: buying of raw foods and their ingredients, preparation including chopping, slicing, dicing, marinating….., cooking and preparing the food/dish/entrée, setting up the place creating the conducive ambience of food enjoyment or simply for occasions, the serving of the food/dish/entrée, the cleaning of the table, washing of the utensils, maintaining a sanitary environment, the whole enchilada. It is the service that is basically why we would venture out to dine in a restaurant and willingly part our hard earned cash. We like to eat Chinese dishes or Italian food but we don’t know how to cook Chinese or Italian or perhaps, we’re a lousy cook or better yet, we’re too lazy to cook. The solution, we dine out at a Chinese or an Italian restaurant. We don’t have time to cook because we’re too busy so we dine out. We had a party but we are so overwhelmed with the preparation and so we make a reservation with a restaurant. The kitchen is stockpiled with dirty dishes that reaches to the ceiling and waiting to be cleaned, the solution………………… we dine out at a restaurant. It is by understanding the nature of the restaurant business that would provide us with a strategy “to beat the house” (which in this case is the Eat – all – you – can buffet restaurant). The strategy is actually simple. Rather than filling up the plate with food per trip to the buffet, get only a small portion of the food per plate but “get as many plates” by returning more often to the buffet table. In that way, you practically eat the same amount of food that your stomach can digest but the restaurant waiter has to remove more plates, the dish washer has clean more plates than the usual load, both of which would probably necessitate hiring more hands just to keep up the service quality. Furthermore, because more plates are needed to “circulate”, the restaurant has to make additional investments in buying more utensils. As a result, financial wise, the restaurant in an effort to maintain the service quality would have to absorb an increase in their overhead costs which consequently reduces their profitability while at the same time requiring them also to shell out more money just to satisfy the patrons’ whims. And that is how you make the “House (in this case, the Eat – all – you – can buffet restaurant) run for its money”. On a more serious note however, this concept of Eat – all – you – can or its equivalent is actually a very “clever” business model. By offering unlimited use, the sellers stoke the buyers’ greed and entice the latter to patronize the formers business. The sellers’ offer of unlimited use is actually a ruse because in reality there is a “natural limit” to the use of the service or product that the sellers offer and the sellers priced their offering based on the maximum limit, thus guaranteeing their “minimum” profitability. Pretty shrewd but not bad.</div>Atlashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09030569281906416163noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9321210.post-23456729887944231662009-06-24T15:44:00.000+08:002009-06-24T15:45:18.648+08:00FOOD CRITIQUE: YAKIMIX, CHINESE – JAPANESE – KOREAN MIX<div align="justify">I finally visited to YAKIMIX last week after my brother strongly recommended it. YAKIMIX is an all you can eat buffet type of restaurant offering Japanese sushi and Korean barbeques with some Chinese dishes. It is located along Macapagal highway, right across HK Plaza and near the World Trade Center. Personally, I think the food there is great. It is not your regular fare eat – all – you – can restaurant where the food are so – so and are simply stomach fillers. This place is a cut above the rest though not in the same league as the hotel buffets. It is also a shade more expensive because of that. Anyway, to start, the look of the restaurant is quite modern though not dazzlingly fancy. It is not strip bare either. The place is rather spacious and also well – lighted. Overall, the place exudes a kind of soothing ambiance. In terms of amenities, the parking space is adequate and the sanitation facilities are ok. Now for the food, I started the lunch by making myself a salad at their salad bar. I find their greens quite fresh and crisp, which you don’t see often in other similar buffet restaurant except probably in hotels. The sushi bar is placed right after the salad bar and their offering though plenty are quite the standard fare. You can see something like 15 sushi types being offered. In terms of the freshness of the sashimi both the tuna and the salmon being offered, it is rather fresh though not exactly Tsugi level fresh but still it is better than the other buffet type restaurant wherein the sushi are kind of frozen and “smelly”. One probable reason as to why the sashimis are rather fresh here at YAKIMIX is because the sashimis are laid over a covered “pillow” of crushed ice instead of a simple plate, which somehow “preserved” the freshness of the sashimi and not freezing it outright. The sashimi slices are quite larger here at YAKIMIX compared to similar buffet restaurants. The same goes with the other sushis. Aside from the salads and sushi, there are also Korean appetizers such as Kimchi, though I really won’t even try to touch it with a pole, not because there is anything wrong with their Kimchi but rather I really don’t Kimchi at all but according to my siobe, their Kimchi is less than authentic, i.e., doesn’t taste that good as those from Korea (my siobe loves Kimchi). After the appetizers, you have two choices of soup, both of them are Japanese. Didn’t try them though but again my siobe says its ok. Next to the soups are the cooked dishes, which are predominantly Chinese though at that time, they also served Crispy Pata (the meat only without the bones), Ebi Tempura, Tonkatsu. In fact, they have plenty of offerings to choose, which is somewhere around a dozen more or less. My favorite among the dishes that they offered is the Salt and Pepper Spareribs, though it is not that spicy the way I wanted it but then again it is rather meaty. The Ebi Tempura they’re offering uses less batter and as such though the shrimp fillings aren’t exactly “humongous” (more like small), one can actually taste more of the shrimp than the flour and egg that wrapped it. As for the Tonkatsu, the breadings are thin and the Tonkatsu is quite meaty. Overall, I find the quality of their cooked food rather excellent. Next to the cooked food are the Korean barbeques, raw meats such as beef, pork, lambs (according to my brother but I never had one because they didn’t offer it that day), and raw cuttlefish or squid (thinly sliced). All these barbeques are offered in two varieties. One marinated with black pepper and the other marinated in garlic and bell pepper. Again, there are about a dozen offerings on the buffet table. The raw barbeques are cooked on a cone type frying pan located at the center of your dining table. The slices are quite thin and are thus easily cooked. The barbeques taste great but seemed “few” because of their thin slices. However, by the time I get to it, I was already more than half full so it doesn’t really matter. The sauces by the way that is available for the patron to use is similar to the shabu – shabu sauces, which includes among other, the Sate paste. After the belly busting, full course meal, the dessert came in next. The desserts being offered consists of fruits (3 or 4 kinds), sweets like custards and cakes (around 5 to 6), and the traditional ice cream. It is surprisingly that they didn’t cut back on their dessert offerings unlike some other buffet restaurants. Plus, the ice cream is not the usual “Big Scoop” ice cream. Instead, its Selecta ice cream. Not only that, they also offer popsicles alongside the “traditional” ice cream scoops. Overall, the food offering is quite plenty and I find their taste and quality to be excellent. To be more precise, on a scale of 1 – 10 with 10 the highest, I would place an 8.5 – 9.0 for their food offering. After the meal, came the bill. The price of YALIMIX’s buffet during lunch time on weekdays is P499 + service charge. The price is already inclusive of bottomless drinks. Prices other than the regular lunch is somewhere around P600+, drinks not included (+ P55 for the bottomless drinks). As I said, the price is a shade expensive considering the fact that the average shell – out while dining at a fancy ala – carte restaurant is around P400 including drinks. The other all – you – can – eat buffet restaurant charged around P350 for the food and roughly P400 with drinks during weekdays and on Sundays and holidays and dinner, the latter charged somewhere around P500 with drinks (definitely less than P600). Despite that, I think value – wise, YAKIMIX is a much better deal over the other buffet type restaurants. This is because you shell out a few extra bucks in return for a much excellent quality food fare.</div>Atlashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09030569281906416163noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9321210.post-70521067973395546882009-06-18T18:26:00.000+08:002009-06-18T18:27:16.776+08:00QUESTIONING RATIONALITY<div align="justify">I’ve been reading this book, “Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk” by Peter Bernstein for like 2 months now. The book despite it’s “eye catching” title isn’t about religion or faith but rather is a book on the “history” of the development of risk management. It began with the telling of the invention of mathematics, then shifted to the discovery of probabilities and statistics, then to the conceptualization of the idea of risk, and finally to the modern development of risk management. The process by which Peter Bernstein tells the history of risk management is through the introductions of the key concepts in risk management (such as probability theory, normal distribution, variance etc) by way of meeting the personalities behind the “creation” of such concepts. In this sense, the book feels like an amalgam of biographies of “eccentric” but otherwise pretty interesting mathematicians. Though the book is about mathematics, surprisingly, the book seldom talks about numbers. Instead, the book delves almost exclusively on the theoretical concepts. In fact, the discussions on the theoretical concepts usually turned profoundly philosophical (an example would be the Theory of the Average Man which Francis Galton, one of the mathematicians being mentioned in the book proposes to be the tantamount to the perfect human being, the Theory of the Average Man is ultimately borrowed from the mathematical concept of Regression to the Mean). One of the recurring philosophical “rumblings” that is mentioned in the book is the assumption of Rationality. All of the mathematical concepts and models being discussed in the book are premised on a “rational” decision maker; that an individual would accept the conclusion of a logical analysis in choosing the appropriate course of action in an uncertain situation. The mathematical concepts and models would provide the framework for such logical analysis however, mathematical models aren’t the sole framework for logical analysis; conceptual frameworks are as effective as well. In real life however, such is not the case. Human beings decide or more appropriately, react despite what the logical analysis dictates. A case in point would be the recent financial crisis. The whole idea of Credit Default Swap is the shifting of the burden of default risk to the entity that could and willingly absorb it in return for a commensurate (which is often times lucrative) premium. Yet, even the most “secure” of the creditors (the ones who buys the CDS) eventually got to absorb the losses arising from default which goes against the very grain of CDS (creditors who bought CDS for protection against default losses done so after careful logical analysis, see “The Global Financial Crisis of 2008, dated”). Or in another case after the collapse of global finance, creditors/investors became extremely risk averse that they dumped even the most creditworthy of securities despite what the numbers generated by their analysis are favorably suggesting. So what this say? Are we human beings irrational? Or that our “models” of rationality is irrational in the first place? And this is the gist of the latter chapters of Peter Bernstein’s book, which is irrational? Us human beings or the conceptual models that we create to tell us which is rational? On one hand, human beings are too emotional to be rational. Our emotions tend to “cloud” our objective assessment of the facts of the matter and which is why we make mistakes in the first place. On the other hand, mathematical and conceptual models of analysis and decision – making are overtly “simplistic”, relying on 1 or 2 variables that poorly approximate the complexity of the human behavior. It is also too “static” to adapt to the ever changing human mind. But then again, aren’t human emotions itself a rationale of human rationality? I mean human emotions are built – in, instinctive, reactive mechanism. We react immediately to a stimulus to “preserve” ourselves, to protect ourselves from the perceived harm even without a thorough analysis of the still vague and unfolding situation. We couldn’t simply say, “wait, I haven’t thoroughly analyzed the situation yet and therefore, couldn’t make a decision as what to do, give me more time to finish….” in the face of imminent danger, can we? Of course not! Our emotions, our instinct does the “rational thinking” for us in a split second in such scenarios. It is for this obvious reason that we could conclude that we human beings are very much “rational” and this in turn led us to concede that our current mathematical and conceptual frameworks for decision making are still far from perfect. Now, if human beings are truly rational, why then the idea of rationality exists? If everybody is human and therefore rational, rationality as a concept shouldn’t be around because the mere notion of the existence of rationality implies that it’s anti – thesis, irrationality also exists, which in this case is true. We often label certain individuals or group of individuals as irrational, illogical, crazy, and even insane. But what is rationality anyway? Or better, what is irrationality? Based on dictionary definition, rationality is the quality or state of being agreeable to reason. Irrationality therefore would mean that being disagree to reason. And reason according to dictionary definition is a basis or cause, as for some belief, action, fact, event, etc. So in this sense, the whole idea of rationality is one of conformity; a conformity to reason or logic and irrationality is non – conformity to reason or logic. But what is the basis for reason or logic? Mathematical frameworks? Conceptual frameworks such as those based on faith, belief, traditions, or logical analysis? As mentioned, frameworks both mathematical and conceptual ones are insufficient basis for rationality. Furthermore, who determines that a framework/model for rationality is generally applicable or for that matter, incontestably correct? An authoritative figure? A synod of authoritative figures? Or simply general consensus of acceptance? Is there even a democratic process to determine the general acceptance of such model/framework for rationality? What about those who reject the model/framework for rationality? Are they being “irrational”? Perhaps the more interesting question is, “is a ‘reason’ based on some framework/model applicable to all?” Perhaps in some cases. Or there are as many “reason” as there are people in this world? So, is there such a thing called “rationality”?</div><div align="justify"><br /><em>P.S. If you ask the same question then welcome to “deconstructionism”.</em></div>Atlashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09030569281906416163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9321210.post-58468739048066667562009-06-02T21:17:00.000+08:002009-06-02T21:18:00.712+08:000.4%!<div align="justify">0.4%! That’s the growth of the GDP for the 1st quarter of 2009 versus the same quarter last year as reported last Thursday. Seasonally adjusted, that translates to a figure of -2.26%. Wow! Nobody as in nobody got the Philippine GDP prediction right. Most of the economist (including those from the WorldBank and IMF) figured that the Philippines would grow somewhere between 1 – 3%, the government in fact was looking at more than 3% GDP rate (see “CRYSTAL BALLING 2009 – THE SLOWING PHILIPPINE ECONOMY – IS IT LUCKY?” dated December 16,2008) The fact that the GDP rate went below most economists expectation is beside the point. The real issue here is the fact that the GDP number figured closely to zero at 0.4%. Notation-ally speaking, a number close to zero means a stagnant economy however if inflation were to be considered, the economy is in reality contracting and because of that, we are in a RECESSION. Of course, some perennial optimists would argue that we aren’t there yet considering that recession is by definition, two consecutive quarters of negative growth and that the figure isn’t “exactly negative”. In short, if you were to listen to the die – hard optimists, the economy is just “teetering on the brinks” of recession and not yet in recession. Well, not to be a pessimist but we’re already over 2/3 of the 2nd quarter and by all indications, it’s no rosier than the 1st and in fact, it seemed to be pretty much worst. If you were around in the country during the second quarter, it seemed that after the Holy Week vacation, Filipinos suddenly became misers and withheld spending altogether. One of primary reasons is the early opening of school season (school opened on June 1 this year) and “normally”, people saved whatever they can to pay for the tuition fees and everything else needed to breeze through schooling. As such, spending on most “non – essentials” including holiday vacation trips are done way. Talk about the “resiliency” of the Philippines against the Global Financial Crisis. It seemed that we aren’t immune after all. Anyway, the debate as to whether or not we are in a recession is irrelevant at this point. What is more of a pressing concern is that “how long would this situation last?” “Theoretically” speaking, the Philippine economy shouldn’t perform this badly given the fact that 2010 is an election year and that incumbents would “move heaven and earth” to have government spend money on infrastructures in order to court the goodwill of the electorates in hopes that they would get reelected come 2010. But with a government constantly in short of money, a “fiscal stimulus” plan (to stimulate the election hopes of the incumbents and secondly, to steer the economy out of the doldrums) may actually fall short of “stimulating” the economy. It is not that the government didn’t pour money into the “system”. They actually did except that the magnitude isn’t “big” enough to cover the shortfall from “other sources of demand”, namely personal consumption expenditures or consumer spending, which grows only 0.8% in the 1st quarter and private investments of businesses, which actually contracted. In layman’s term, the Filipino consumer stopped spending except for necessities while businesses became cautious in their investments on building up inventory for eventual sale, on new ventures, and on new production capacities. Even so, there seemed to be a great chance that the government would still embark in a “spending spree” just to prop up both the economy and the politicians seeking reelection but whether or not that would make a dent on the economy remains to be seen. On the personal consumption front, consumer spending in the last few years is largely driven by the huge remittances from OFWs (Overseas Filipino Workers). Aside from that, the “call center boom” has also contributed to the improving purchasing power of the Filipinos. That all changed last year with the weakening of consumer spending, which is attributed to the sudden change of behavior of Filipino consumers from one of conspicuous spending to that of “saving for the rainy days”. And 2009 is no different. This is in spite of the apparent hefty growth in remittances in the 1st quarter of the year. The primary reason I think for the sudden behavioral change is the perception of consumers on the future well – being of the Philippine economy. A cursory look at the Philippine economy would reveal that the country is highly dependent on the American economy. The United States is our largest export market. It is also our largest call center market as well. America also hosts one of the largest OFWs communities and as such send a huge share of our dollar remittances that is propping the Philippine economy. With America in the red, job losses locally and in the US among OFWs are expected and plainly evident and this in turn contributed to the mentality that hard times are ahead of us and thus altered our spending habit. In my opinion, on the short term, the American economy would seem to start to turn the corner but a full recovery would take some time (see “The World Economy, 2010 - , dated May 6,2009). And because of that, it would take some more time after the full American economic recovery before the effects of the American turn around be felt in the country (in terms of exports, call center service demand, and demand for OFWs). There is a lag phase. On the business investment side of the economic demand, according to UP economists, Philippine businesses actually follow a boom – bust cycle of 6 years, which overtly coincides with the political – electoral cycle. The reasoning behind that is that with a change in regime, there follows a “restructuring” of the business “hierarchy” with some businesses being favored over the other while others are being “prosecuted”. Such restructuring opened up business opportunities, which embolden the favored businesses to invest more thus, jumpstarting the “investment boom” at the beginning of each new administration. As times goes by, with political reality settling in and political environment becoming more stable, the new administration’s policy directions would also get clearer, which encourages further investments even among the most skeptical. This “investment boom” would peak somewhere on the 3rd year of the administration continuing to the 4th or maybe even up to the 5th year. By then up to the 6th year, businesses would turn cautious, withholding investments, and adopting a wait and see attitude in order to avoid potential losses in the event of “policy reversals” of the next regime (hence, the oft complaint of businesses about the government’s lack of continuity, transparency, and sustainability of policies). After which, the whole cycle starts again. One way of viewing the current economic situation in the country is that on one hand, the economy is battered by the current Global Financial Crisis and on the other hand, it is also affected by the upcoming political uncertainty brought about by the coming election. Based on this diagnosis, the short term scenario of the economy looked terribly weak and in my opinion, the earliest that the economy would turnaround would be in early 2010 (due mainly to election spending) if not the 4th quarter of 2009 that is assuming the American economy would be on its way to recovery. A definite recovery in my view would begin in mid 2010 right after the election.</div>Atlashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09030569281906416163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9321210.post-61262896980156312332009-05-28T22:21:00.000+08:002009-05-28T22:22:41.055+08:00ON BEING REMEMBERED<div align="justify">Watched Night of the Museum 2 last week, it was a nice movie. Really enjoyed it. However, there is this one particular phrase in the movie that struck me. It is the one uttered by the “animated wax replica” of General Custer near the end of the movie. To paraphrase what “General Custer” in the movie said, “I am remembered by that one failure that I made”. And that one failure he mentioned refers to his ill – fated “Battle of Little Bighorn” or more famously, “Custer’s Last Stand” (see Wikipedia for the details). The phrase struck me because it reminded me that history is not solely about the record of great deeds, of towering success, of stunning victory. In fact, more often than not, history records failure with more lucidity than success and General Custer doesn’t enjoy the singular distinction of being a great failure. There are many more failures like him that littered the pages of history. The reason for this is because history is the collective memory of a people, of a nation, of a race, of a civilization. It is not just about names , dates, and places of famous people, place or events. It is about past experiences engraved in the collective memory of a people. It is from this collective memory that we seek success by trying to emulate acts of great personalities and at the same time, avoid the costly mistakes of historical failures. There is however, something in common that successful great men in history and those men deemed as historical failures shared and that is they have ambitions and they have the audacity to realize such ambition. Many have ambitions but few possessed the audacity to achieve it and the few who dared to live up their dreams, some end up a success while others failed either due to an act of nature or to their own blunder but in spite of that, we “remembered” all of them equally. It is due to this reasoning that I came to the conclusion that “being audacious has its rewards; you either end up as a monumental success or an epic failure; either way, you’ll be remembered.” But of course, being remembered for as a success is way better than being remembered for as a failure.</div>Atlashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09030569281906416163noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9321210.post-17454922492864608242009-05-23T21:21:00.000+08:002009-05-23T21:22:33.102+08:00THE GREAT BOOK BLOCKADE OF 2009: MY VIEW<div align="justify">There is a huge uproar that is been going on for the last 3 weeks or so if one has been following Philippine based blogs. And recently, that “outrage” has even spread to mainstream media with several high profile columnists/journalists expressing their “indignation” on the matter. The heart of issue is about the taxation of imported books to the country which ultimately led to what Robin Hemley, an expatriate in the Philippines described as “The Great Book Blockade of 2009”. The whole brouhaha started when a book importer ordered a huge shipment of the popular Twilight novels of Stephanie Meyers (ostensibly to satisfy Filipino booklovers craving for vampire romance) and once that shipment arrived to the country, Customs led by a certain Rene Agulan refused to let the cargo out of the port not unless the book importer paid the “proper” custom duties on the shipment to which the importer initially refused citing the Florence Agreement. The Florence Agreement is an international treaty signed in 1952 by 98 countries around the world of which the Philippines is one of the signatories. The treaty’s objective is to promote international understanding by allowing the free circulation of educational, cultural, and scientific books. The means to promote such free circulation is through the removal of custom fees among the signatories of the treaty. It is because of that, no Philippine book importer had paid any custom duties for the last 57 years until that incident. The particular enterprising custom officer, Rene Agulan’s stated reason for his stance is that the Twilight novels were neither educational nor cultural and certainly it ain’t scientific at all hence, that particular importer had to pay custom duties somewhere between 1 – 5%. Because of the mounting storage costs of the withheld cargo, the particular book importer relented and paid the said duties. That act of “kowtowing” to the rapacious appetite of government for money (of which the government is perennially short of it due to ….) has set off a “bad” precedent. Every imported book shipment since then were levied a custom duties of 1 – 5%. This naturally raised a howl of protest from all the book importers, who refused to pay and sought out government explanation on the matter. What transpired was something of a tragic comedy. Sought for explanation, a wisecracked Department of Finance (the supervising government body of the Customs Bureau) undersecretary Espele Sales, who is also probably an expert grammar professor, cited a passage of the enabling law, R.A. 8047 to defend government’s action. According to her, the law provided for “the tax and duty-free importation of books or raw materials to be used in book publishing”. Because of a “missing” or “vanished” comma right after the word books, our creative undersecretary interpreted the passage as to mean only “books used as raw materials in book publishing” are exempt from paying taxes. Every other else is subject to tax. Geez! She must be a pretty darn good grammar expert! I mean for the past 57 years, nobody got the “interpretation” of the law right until she came along (incidentally, if you have to get a good lawyer, get Espele Sales because she could help you to walk free of bloody murder by simply reviewing the incriminating affidavits for grammatical error or typographical errors which thus void its usefulness as an incriminating evidence). Anyway, because of the tiff between the book importers and the Tax agency, it was alleged that for two months, no new books has entered the Philippines (and hence the term, “The Great Book Blockade of 2009). It is no wonder that I felt that there is a dearth of new titles in the shelves the past few months. Anyway, like all issues in this country, this particular issue has also 2 opposite sides/opinions. On one side, there are those who doubted the very existence of a “blockade”. They argued that books never “disappeared” from the shelves at all during the tiff, which is quite true, a dearth of new titles maybe but disappearance? So where is the blockade? Furthermore, these people argued that 1 – 5% tax is “minimal” and that the “ridiculous” book prices are more of the book sellers doing. On the other side, some people are indignant; indignant of the government’s insatiable demand for “blood”, sucking every penny out of people’s pocket just to line theirs. The more statesman – ly of them argued that the government’s action are in contravention of the government’s lofty goal of uplifting the people’s literacy. By restricting the free circulation of books, we defeat the policy of expanding knowledge and literacy. Furthermore, the action amounts to a censorship and is an assault to the people’s freedom. Also, the government’s unilateral action has reneged it’s commitment to the spirit of the Florence Agreement to which it is a signatory. As such, it sends a “wrong” signal to the world that the Philippines government is whimsical when it comes to policy adherence and applications. Well, that’s in a nutshell, what the whole Great Book Blockade of 2009 is all about. So what do I think about the whole enchilada? Well, personally, I’m against the imposition of the duties on imported books (even though I’m not really a fan of vampire fiction) and my reason isn’t those lofty ideals of freedom but something more “grounded”. You see Philippine books are pretty expensive! I should know because I’m a book lover, I like reading books and I also collect books (to date, my Anobii account listed 271 books and I not only buy books from the local stores but also during my foreign trips). A “really good (imported) book” in the Philippines, hard bound, excellent paper quality written by a noted author can command a price of upwards 2000 pesos. The paperback edition of such book with nice paper quality sells at around Php1500 to Php2000. A “good book” (one in which the author is not that popular) with a nice paper quality typically sells around Php1000 – 1500. Between Php800 – Php1000 are the “downsized” version of a typically good book or the so – called mass paperback copies. Below Php500 are books whose printed pages are of newsprint quality. By comparison, in China, a paperback edition book with nice paper quality costs around Php300 – 400 (converted already) tops. As a matter of fact, last December, during my vacation in China, I’ve bought 7 books for 341 RMB or roughly Php2500 total. Imagine 7 books for the price of 2 or maybe even 1 bought in the Philippines (the books I’ve bought in China are scholarly works on Chinese History). Now that is expensive. It is due to this high price of books that book buying and collecting is fast becoming an expensive “hobby” of the “well – to – do”. A “financially struggling” individual can’t “afford” to read and collect books even if he loves books. It is for this reason that an imposition of a few percentage points of custom duties on the cost of books would only make books more expensive and the matter worse. However, it won’t be that bad if we have a “functioning” public library system instead of a pathetic one that we have now. In other countries I’ve been to, the public library system was so well – managed and well – endowed that people actually flock to it and literally crammed it. An example would be the Hong Kong Central Library, right across Victoria Park in Hong Kong, one of my favorite places. The Hong Kong Central Library is huge, 8 floors tall like a shopping mall but instead of merchandise on its shelves, it’s all books. The place is so popular with the locals that every seat in the place is taken and one literally has to sit on the floor in corner with his back against the wall just to be able to enjoy his reading. You can’t find those here in the Philippines. Without an “effective” public library system and with books getting expensive, how do you expect Filipinos who want to read to be able to read? One Anobii member used to say that “a room without books is like a person without his soul”. Perhaps not everybody would agree with his view but I think everybody could agree with me when I say that “you are what you read or didn’t read”. So, ever wonder why our country is like this?</div>Atlashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09030569281906416163noreply@blogger.com0