Sunday, June 11, 2017

“Enough is Enough” rightly said

The latest from the London attacks is as predicted by many that IS has claimed responsibility for the attacks as the three attackers are dead and there is no way of knowing if the claims are true. The identities of the three attackers have been revealed now and the mastermind is a Pakistani born British citizen who was once involved in a British documentary about Jihadists. Anyway, the title of this blog is a quote from the Prime Minister (PM) of Great Britain who is now saying that she will crack down hard on extremists and who is not happy that Britain has given too much space to the extremists’ elements. Although this would not bring back the dead citizens in the recent attacks but at least maybe it will prevent new ones. And the PM is right that there has been too much tolerance in Britain for extremists’ elements. One of the most intriguing and absurd part of the claim by the Jihadist is the open preaching of the enforcement of Sharia law in Britain. I don’t understand this since there is no country where Sharia law is enforced especially in Muslim countries. So how can you preach enforcing it in Britain which is more than 90 percent non Muslim (maybe even more). It is the openness of the British society to allow these people to call for enforcement of Sharia because if it is in their home countries, they would have been in jailed, tortured and even killed. If Britain is to prevent future attacks, it will have to go after extremists in anyway which it can. There is no other way to deal with this.

I don’t understand the surprises-2

The President said, he will make illegal immigration a top priority and his strict new rules are doing just that-check. Although he has said before that NATO is obsolete but he has backed out of that but still he has rattled the nerves of Europeans by demanding them to increase their defense spending- a slight check in there too. He also said that he will bomb the hell out of ISIS and he is just doing that only on a slower scale-check He has working on abolishing the net neutrality and also the some of the financial regulations that were enacted in the wake of the financial crisis. He also said that China is manipulating its currency to increase its export, although here he has backed out that stance because he needs their help in containing North Korea Nuclear program but he would have gone after theme too. So the major campaign pledges and promises that he said he would do once he becomes President, he has followed through or is following through so why the surprise on people faces, nobody forced them to vote for him and all his policies had been repeated throughout his campaign not once but recurring. So the voters knew whom to vote for, so the surprises are kind of a surprise to me. And it has not being even six months since the new President. So we, the people will have to endure the next four years facing what was already known by everybody but they choose to ignore thinking once the realities of the Presidency dawns on the new President, he will moderate his stand on certain issues. Good luck with that.

I don’t understand the surprises

Every time some policies are created or rolled back by the new President of the United States, people become very surprised. Even some of this supporter who have voted for him have been surprised by how much his new rules have or are going to affect them and the people who are not yet effected by them will be able to see it themselves later on. But one thing is consistent, most of what he had promised during his election campaign that he would do once he is in office, he is doing it more or less so I am not surprised at all. The surprise is that he is one of the rare politicians who is following through with his campaign pledges and promises and not backing out of it. So let’s start checking why I don’t understand the surprises people show when they say that the President would not or should not done it even if they voted for the policies. He initiated the now marginalized Muslim Ban-Check, he said he would pull out of the Paris Climate deal-check, he said he would tear up the Obama health care, which is going there-check, he said he will move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem which he is now extended a six month waiver but still-check, he said he will tear up the Iran Nuclear deal, he is still working on it but again, check. He said that he will negotiate the North American free trade agreement and he has informed congress about his intentions- check. He said he will build a wall across the U.S.-Mexican wall and he has started to work on it-check.

The banking industry sucks

I have written extensively (I think so) about the banking industry and over the years it has gotten worse than before which is my own opinion. In the aftermath of the financial crisis that started in 2008, it has been a tough time to be in the banking business with loads of regulations which are being enacted and the amount of work that goes into to make sure everything the bank does is in compliance with those regulations in order to avoid vast amount of fines that can come in the wake of their violations. When I was working full time in bank almost half and even more than that was spent making sure everything was in compliance before we even began to start our work. Everybody including the lowly clerk to the top management is responsible to make sure nothing is in contravention of any rules and regulations that multiple government agencies have enacted. In fact the fastest growth rate in any job category is now in Compliance where the job openings are the highest and the banks are ramping up their compliance department in some places giving the full floors to work to make sure they do not get fined. Still the pressure and the lure of making money is so much that despite having multiple layers of compliance and audits throughout the year, you will still see many banks again getting fined when things start to turn rough for the economy as a whole.

Sunday, June 4, 2017

Another attack, another ISIS claim

It is nowadays hard to keep up with all the attacks going on around the world. I saw with horror, the Manchester attack on the Ariana Grande concert which is now being claimed by Islamic state (IS), the radical Islamic militant group. I was just analyzing this attack that two more attacks came in Baghdad where a bomb blew up near an ice cream parlor and another in another shop killing more than twenty four people. Of course IS had to claim the responsibility. After a few days there was a huge bomb blast in Kabul, Afghanistan in which 90 people have been killed. Although in this case, the Taliban, the usual suspects in such attacks denied responsibility but again IS comes riding saying that it is their work. While in Philippines, the military is battling IS for the control of a city where scores of people have died. And now while I am writing this, another attack in London has happened where in a van was slammed in a crowd and three militants starting stabbing people, at least eight people have been killed including the three militants and although no claim for responsibility have happened yet, I am sure, the IS will claim this one as well. I don’t know when the world is going to wake up that IS and its hate filled ideology is the main drive behind these attacks and the facilitators should be dealt with accordingly. I will continue to follow these attacks as they happen, so stay tuned. . Check out my new social media website www.blogeum.com. See my blog a new website for details

The airline fiasco

I know I am late to this since I was busy looking for a job but I still had it in my mind to address this issue. Although the issue has been settled but the disturbing video, had it not been posted and gone viral, I would never had imagined that a person who has fully paid for a seat can be dragged out of the seat so that company employees can have a seat to fly at the last moment. If the person who was filming this episode did not film it, the world would not know the truth about how airlines bump their customers. I would have never known that the U.S. Federal law requires that the airline can pay the maximum $1,350.00 for each passenger being voluntary bumped out of their seat in addition to putting them in the next available flight. Now with all this drama, some of the airlines have increased the maximum they will pay is $10,000.00 I mean if you have been allotted a seat and you have paid for it, let the volunteer system takes its course and if nobody wants to give their seat incentivize them. In the above case, the maximum supposedly was offered $400.00 (not sure about it though). I have always read that customer is always right but in this case the might was right and the airline paid for it through its nose with bad publicity and a call by U.S. congress to do something about the victims’ rights (meaning the passenger). In this day and age when social media is all the rage and everybody has a ready camera to record your every move, the corporations will have to tread very carefully what you do with your customers can result in either loss or gain in goodwill.

Still looking and searching-2

Sometimes I feel like that the people interviewing you like the one I had at the Japanese bank act like god that they have power over your livelihood and they are just throwing some crumbs at you and then they analyze you in fifteen minutes or so and think you are not a good candidate based on those fifteen minutes even while offering you a job which pays way less than what you were making before. And the questions that they ask is like man do some new innovative questions and don’t follow the script that you downloaded off the internet or just prepared by reading some books. And even after hiring you, the employers have three months in which they can give you probation and then decide if you are okay with your performance. As I don’t know what is happening in the interview field outside the banking industry but by the looks of what I have been going through in interviews, it is just a sorry state of affairs. Now another trend is to hire as a temp and then if they feel you are a good fit offer you a full time position. Note here that I am not mentioning the word permanent which I have come across a lot too lately. There is no such thing as permanent job as it is slowly being replaced by the word full time job with benefits. But still people are using the permanent word to describe a job with benefits. Anyway as I continue my search for a full time position I will update you with my progress. . Check out my new social media website www.blogeum.com. See my blog a new website for details

Still looking and searching

Since I got laid off at the end of January, I have been constantly looking for a full time job going on interviews mostly with recruiters and some employers. The search is still going on, even when I have reduced my salary demand 20 percent below what I have been earning before but still no luck. I have to tell you this interview that I went to a Japanese bank that was offering 16k less than what I was making before but I still went since I needed the health insurance. One of the persons interviewing me used to work under my father when he was in another bank so I was a little more confident. They went through their typed question which I believe they have taken off the internet. After testing me on some of the technical questions, I was surprised to hear these questions which were from thirty, forty years or maybe longer old. The first question was what are my strengths and weaknesses and why should we hire you. The second was why we should hire you and these two questions are so old that I was shocked to hear it again since it was very odd that the person was literally reading it from the typed questionnaire that he had in front of him. I tried to give him the best answer that I could and later on I was thinking that for the little amount of money they were offering, that was a lot of questions like I am interviewing for a top security job somewhere in the government.

On the lighter side-Movies-SPL 2: A time of consequences (2015-Hong Kong)-Simon Yam

Martial arts extravaganza (also known as Kill Zone 2) as a prison guard tries to get an organ for his daughter while battling an organ transplant smuggling ring. Recommended.