STOCK MARKET COMMENTARY

It is now almost two years since the start of credit crisis. The challenging conditions that impacted financial markets for the past have continued and deepened. The financial shock that erupted in August 2007, as the U. S. sub prime mortgage market was derailed, has spread quickly and unpredictably to inflict extensive damage on markets and institutions at the core of the financial system.

The financial market clouds hanging over the global economic horizon have darkened substantially in 2008 and for 2009. The announced losses of banks have reached billion as at the end of November 2008. Even final heavyweights and numerous others large European banks have to be bailed out. The collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008 has had a profound impact on the entire financial and securities industry, from which they are still to recover.

The money markets are still facing severe challenges as governments across the world in a concerted effort have pledged to support the beleaguered financial system and economy from collapsing. Regional banks, too, are facing severe pressures on their stock prices. Recent fall in regional stock markets, particularly United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar markets exemplify the complete loss of confidence of investors in stock markets.

The ongoing stress in the money market activities is leaving a great scar in the investment world. What would be the performance of the stock markets in the future? Is there a chance of recovery?

WOMEN ABUSERS BEWARE!

Read an article in today's daily about a woman who attacked her husband with a stick, forcing him to go to hospital. The husband suffered cuts and bruises. The wife was arrested and when interrogated at the police station, she reported that she went on beating her husband because he did not resist. She further said that she didn't know what she was doing. She was released on bail, but the police authorities said they would pursue the case once the man recovers and decides whether he would like to press charges or not. The man would need thee weeks' treatment and rest before returning to work.

So, women are not the only abused partners after all, ha ha!!!

Meanwhile, a man beat up his wife, hospitalizing her, in another domestic abuse case in the same neighborhood. The police said the women's brothers later assaulted the man to avenge their sister.

When I was on leave, I visited a brother. I saw some bruises and cuts on his head. Of course, the normal reaction was to ask what happened! He said, my sister-in-law gave him a good beating. Why? She got fed up with him because he would always drink away whatever little money he would make on whatever job he would have. Hope he learned his lesson.

ONE LITTLE CANDLE!

It is a line from an old praise song, but it conveys one of the deepest meaning about faith, "It is better to light just one little candle than to stumble in the dark." This means that our faith will serve as our light, which will guide us to the right path. This faith in God is not just a feeling of optimism in the face of life's difficulties, but this faith must be accompanied with action, patience, determination, and more prayers because Jesus said, "ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you."

The lighted candle is one image of the Holy Spirit. Keep it burning brightly and keep the gifts of the Holy Spirit alive in our hearts.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY - TEACHING

"Benevolence alone will not make a teacher,
nor will learning alone do it. The gift of teaching
is a peculiar talent, and implies a need and
a craving in the teacher himself."



John Jay Chapman

TRIVIA - GLITCH

Some odd words enter into the scientific vocabulary. When the rotation period of a neutron star changes suddenly, it is called a "glitch." Why? A Jewish astronomical observer noticed a change in the regularity of the pulse of a star, as though there had been a sudden slip. In referring to this colloquially, he used the Yiddish word for "slip," which is glitch, and the designation stuck.

THE SACRAMENT OF MARRIAGE

In some communities many couples live together without getting married. When a person becomes a Christian he will want to legalize his marriage. In this way, he has a better testimony in the community, he gives protection of the laws of the land to his family, and he honors Christ.

God's Word is very strong against any kind of sexual relation outside of marriage. He strictly prohibits any flirtation or illicit love affair by either marriage partner with another person. One of the great blessings of a Christian home is the fact that husband and wife can trust each other when they know that each is faithful to the other in thought, word, and deed. As they serve the Lord together, it becomes a "little bit of heaven," free from the deception, suspicion, jealousy, and unfaithfulness that wreck so many homes.

HE IS

HE IS

HE is fairer than the lily of the valley,
HE is brighter than the morning sun,
HE is purer than the snow,
Fresher than the breeze,
Lovelier by far than all of these.

But HE calms all the storms,
and conquers the raging seas.
HE is the high and lofty one,
Who inhabits eternity.
Creator of the universe,
and HE's clothed with majesty,
HE is and evermore shall be.

Maranatha

WAKE ME UP, PLEASE!

A friend asked if coffee really helps to keep you awake. He has been transferred to the night shift and cannot help falling asleep while on duty.

What I know is that one of the stimulants common to most of our lives is caffeine found in coffee, tea, and some cola drinks. Stronger, more dangerous stimulants included in this category are the amphetamines, the family of drugs sometimes called "uppers" or "speed." Drugs of this type stimulate the central nervous system. They increase arousal and attention so that the user remains alert and wakeful, even though long hours without sleep. Powerful stimulants initially promote feelings of paranoid fears, and auditory hallucinations. As with other hand drugs, users develop a tolerance for amphetamines and they must be taken in larger and larger doses to achieve the euphoria that is sought. Not much is known about how these drugs work in the body.

Aha! sleeping at work, ha!

SOME FUNNY LINES ABOUT MARRIAGE

"My wife dresses to kill.
She also cooks the same way."

"A good wife always forgives
her husband when she's wrong."

"I was married by a judge.
I should have asked for a jury."

"I bought my wife a new car.
She called me said,
"There was water in the carburator."
I asked her, "where's the car?".
She replied, "in the lake."

"Never go to bed mad.
Stay up and fight."

"The secret of a happy
marriage remains a secret."

"When a man steals your wife,
there is no better revenge than
to let him keep her."

"A man said his credit card was stolen,
but he decided not to report it since
the thief was spending much less
than his wife did."

"Getting married is very much like
going to a restaurant with friends. You order
what you want, then when you see what
the other fellow has, you wish
you had ordered that."

"Man is complete until he is married.
Then he is finished."

THE CREAM ROSE

Cream Rose

the symbol
of richness
and perfection
rare, charm, grace
thoughtfulness
elegance
and the best qualities

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY - MATRIMONY

"What counts in making a happy marriage
is not so much how compatible you are, but how
you deal with incompatibility."



Leo Tolstoy

WITH THIS RING!

Marry in May and you'll live to rue the day!

May has been considered an unlucky month to marry in, and this wedding superstition really happened to a couple, who are now trying to forget their most hellish wedding ceremony.

Weddings can go swimmingly well or they can be stressful. But rarely does so much go so wrong as it did during the nuptials of a young couple that took place here last May. Let's start with the food, which was beyond bad but actually so noticeably spoiled that the entire crowd refused to consume the catering. Then a group of guests got stuck in the elevator on their way to the banquet hall, and while guests were trying to figure out how to pry open the doors, somebody else got locked in the bathroom. Eventually, the people in the lift were freed and the bathroom door was pried off the hinges to release that wedding detainee. And just as the wedding was getting back on track, the groom and bride took a tumble when the wedding throne collapsed under their weight. The manager of the hotel's wedding hall offered the newlyweds a free one-week stay. No thanks, they said, and departed from the wedding.

DO AS I SAY, NOT AS I DO!

Here's some advice: If your group is going to travel around to speak out against domestic abuse, make sure nobody in your group is a domestic abuser.

A woman was sent to hospital by her husband after he beat her senseless, inflicting head and body injuries. The woman was ordered to remain in hospital for a number of days to heal. The perpetrator of this criminal act was a man who was preparing to preach against the evil of domestic abuse. Apparently this man adheres to the maxim of "do as I say, not as I do."

Is it right to ask why women stay in an abusive relationship? There are number of reasons why they can't stay and why they can't leave. Only those who have been abused can understand why they stayed.

DO THE FREDDIE!

Onchong enjoying his

first school dance participation!

Hear the happy feet
dancing to the beat of the
Freddie (Freddie!)!

Put a guy in front
make a line in back then
you're ready!

Kick your feet up
swing your arms up to,
move your head both ways
like you see me do!

Then jump three feet
to the swinging beat
do the Freddie, do the Freddie!

MY BABY'S NAME!

What's in a name?
We shall name him after my father!
No, no, no! he will be named after my father!
But your father's name doesn't sound nice!
I want my son's name to be unique
and different!

For one set of parents it means enough to separate 48 hours after their first baby was born because they couldn't agree on what to name him. The father wanted to name the boy after the baby's late grandfather, while the mother had promised to name her firstborn after her father. The parents wouldn't budge and the disagreement grew. The families tried in vain to intervene by offering suggestions for alternative names. The dispute got so bad the mother went back to her family with the child while the father sent a divorce letter to the father-in-law. This couple is acting immature.

What's in a name, anyway!

I feel especially fortunate 'coz I got to choose the names of my grandchildren, and nobody ever dared to disagree with me.

BOOTY OR EVIDENCE!

What do you call a pile of mobile phones, wallets, passports and assorted jewelry? Depending on what you do for a living, it's either "booty" or "evidence."

Eight women and seven men were caught sitting around a pile of booty (or evidence) by investigators. The suspects are being charged with the time-honored craft of pickpocketry. They were reportedly using a more traditional technique, handed down from one generation of petty criminals to the next: taking a sharp blade and slicing open bags while their owners aren't looking. Other items were taken through the more conventional picking of pockets. Investigators witnessed some of the lady suspects engaging in their trade and trailed them to their hideout. They were all arrested while they were dividing up their booty--or evidence, if you will.

WHAT IS YOUR NAME?

The sweetest music to anyone's
ear is the sound of his or her own name!

If your name is Happy and you always look so sad, will you change your name? How about if your name is Pretty yet you look ugly, will you apply for a name change? If your mother named you "Locust" or "Bald" when you were born, you might apply for a name change, too.

Approximately 30 young women have applied for name change at the Social Status Department here because they were unhappy with the names given to them, such as Jaradah (Locust) and Salaa ("Bald").

The ladies said that their parents gave them such names due to tribal traditions of passing on the names of mothers or grandmothers to their grandchildren, which implies that the cycle of embarrassing names may have been going on for time immemorial. But it doesn't have to be. Each individual has the right to have a name of his or her choice.

My buddy's name is Skip. Everytime I tell him that it is the name of our dog, he slams the door in my face ha ha ha!!!

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY - CLEANLINESS

"If humans clear inner pollution, then
they will also cease to create outer pollution."

Eckhart Tolle

WELCOME TO THE GREAT DATES OF SAUDI ARABIA

From region to region, the most popular dates include khlas, khunaizi, bukayyirah, gharr, shaishiruzaiz in the Eastern Province, and nubout sayf, sufri, barhi, sukkari, sullaj and khudhairi in Qasim and the rest of the Central Province. In the west, including Madinah, people mainly favor ‘anbara, ‘ajwah, rothanah, baidh, rabi‘ah, barhi, hilwah, hulayyah, safawi, shalabi and sukkari.

Part of the reason that people in each region consider their own dates the best is because horticultural practices, soil, water and climate favor different dates in different areas. For example, the sukkari dates in al-Hasa are very good, but as a general rule, they are not considered quite as good as the sukkari dates from Qasim or Madinah.

Varieties of dates in the Kingdom

Ref: Saudi Aramco World

LITTER, LITTER EVERYWHERE!

We used to live in a clean neighborhood here in South Al-Khobar. Garbage bins were collected on a regular basis, not much vehicles could be seen on the road, there were lots of vacant spaces where expatriates and locals could play their cricket and soccer games

Street sweepers were very diligent and hard working. They were quick in cleaning their respective assigned areas, so much so that they had enough time to relax and enjoy cups of tea or coffee with friend cleaners. But it's totally a different scene now; the once quiet place now teems with Asian expatriates. The almost empty main thoroughfare is now a very busy road. Cars parked along both sides of the road and alleys. The once clean neighborhood is now so dirty. There are litters everywhere. Smug drivers throw wrappers out of their cars as they drive at high speed. Confident pedestrians often throw their polystyrene coffee cups, stirrers, cigarette butts, teabags, plastic bags, and candy wrappers on the ground, to think there might be a trash bin a few steps ways. It is hardly fair to assume that it is someone else's job to pick up rubbish of insensitive individuals. The worst thing is seeing them spitting anywhere. What a shame!

It is heartening to know that not all residents are inconsiderate. Some even go out of thier way to clean other people's rubbish.

HEIRS OF THE PAST

A colleague met my sons, Christian and Jan. He said, both got my mannerisms and sounded just like me. But, he said, they are more good-looking than me. I threw him out of my flat ha ha!!! That was meant to be a joke!

Well in spite of the importance of heredity, no child is a carbon copy of the parents. Brothers and sisters often do not have the same eye or hair color because they may inherit these characteristics from different sides of the family. Many ancestors contribute characteristics in each newborn baby, and these sometimes skip a generation or two before showing up in family resemblances. A tall youngster whose parents are short may be a "throwback" to a grandparent or great-grandparent who was tall.

Rani Marri, Rina Marri,
Cousin Riza Marie, and Ruan

Rani Marri, Riza Marie, and Rina Marri

On a side note, I bonded a long time with my twin grand-daughters, but it didn't help me at all to distinguish who is who between the two. I wonder why? May be, I am not trying hard enough to recognize even the slightest difference between the two. Calling them by their names offered a little help.

TRIVIA - ORANGUTAN

The word Orangutan did not originally refer to an ape; it was the Malay term for the savage people of Sunda Islands and means verbally "man of the woods." European explorers changed the definition of the word so that it now means the animal that was known to the Malays as the mawas.

MEANINGFUL PHRASES - 4

To Gird One's Loins

Throughout the ancient civilized world, men and women alike wore flowing clothing. When this drapery got in the way of the work, it could be raised and bound in a belt or sash, hence the biblical phrase "to gird one's loins." meaning to get ready for work.



Throwing a Sop to Cerberus

Cerberus was a three-headed dog that guarded the entrance of the lower world and growled at newcomers. A few of the mythological heroes like Hercules, Theseus, and Aeneas wanted to visit the lower world. and return from it. They had to get by Cerberus. Aeneas did it by throwing Cerberus a drugged honey cake that put the dog to sleep. Throwing a sop to Cerberus means making a conciliatory offering to someone who may cause trouble.

FUN WITH NUMBERS

It may take many steps, but by adding its reverse to any integer (except perhaps one) a palindromic sum can be attained. That is, the sum is the same from right to left as from left to right. Examples:

38 + 83 = 121

139 + 931 = 1070 + 0701 = 1771

48,017 + 71,084 = 119,101
119,101 + 101,911 = 221,012
210,012 + 210,122 = 431,134

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY - EQUALITY

"From the equality of rights springs identity
of our highest interests; you cannot subvert your
neighbor's rights without striking a dangerous
blow at your own."



Carl Schurz

HOW TO DISCIPLINE FOUR WIVES!

An elderly man, who has four wives, boasted that he has never given his wives an opportunity to complain by ensuring he is never biased to any particular one. He explained that he implemented his theory of fair treatment to all by rebuking and punishing all of them whenever anyone of them did something he did not like. When one wife began quarreling with him he would silence her by punishing all four. He also boasted that he made all his wives live in the same house, unlike other men in polygamous relationships. The man says, he has made all his wives live together because of his strict adherence in the idea of equal treatment to all.

BTW, I know the guy. He is really a big hunk of man,
and capable of watering the treasured plants everyday.
He is a very good provider, though!

How did I know?

Secret!!!

THE MANY NAMES FOR THE FULL MOON

By pure chance I came across a very interesting article about full moon. Did you know that the Algonquian tribes of native Americans used 12 names for the full moon during different month of the year?

January
Wolf Moon
Hungry wolf packs howled at night.



February
Snow Moon
Heaviest snowfalls in the
middle of winter.



March
Worm Moon
Start of spring, as earthworms
and the robins that eat them
began to appear.



April
Pink Moon
An early spring flower called
"moss pink" started to bloom.



May
Flower Moon
Many types of flowers
bloom in May.



June
Strawberry Moon
Strawberries were ready
to be picked and eaten.



July
Buck Moon
New antlers of buck deer
coated with velvety fur, began to for.



August
Sturgeon Moon
Sturgeon, a large fish found
in the Great Lakes, were easily
caught at this time of year.



September
Harvest Moon
Farmers could continue
harvesting until after sunset by
the light of the Harvest Moon.



October
Hunter's Moon
Hunters tracked and killed prey
by moonlight, stockpiling food
for the coming winter.



November
Beaver Moon
Time to set beaver traps
before the swamps froze to make
sure of a supply of warm water furs.



December
Cold Moon
The cold winter sets in.


Ref: The Earth's Moon