Monthly Archives: February 2013

TERRORISM

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WHAT DEFINES TERRORISM

Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, often violent, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no legally binding, criminal law definition.[1][2] Common definitions of terrorism refer only to those violent acts which are intended to create fear (terror); are perpetrated for a religious, political or, ideological goal; and deliberately target or disregard the safety of non-combatants (civilians).[from: WIKIPEDIA]

There are several kinds of terrorism, according to this definition, as we know it. The one kind is the systematic terrorizing and killing of unarmed civilians for the purpose of achieving the goal of either ending a war (see: firebombing of civilians, women and children in Germany during WWII by the Allies), or pressurizing civilian populations into submission (see: Cold War Berlin 1961).

The second kind is terrorism in the name of financial and economic advantage by large organized crime empires. Such as in the United States during the active wars incited by the MAFIA and COSA NOSTRA crime families. The third kind is the terrorizing of civilian populations for the goal of creating large territorial empires. Such as the British empire, controlling , enslaving or eliminating peoples in India, South Africa, North America and anywhere else on this planet. The fourth kind are dictatorships which terrorize within their own countries and nations. This terrorism is directed against civilian populations in countries of which the leader or head of state is a dictator with absolute power.

The last kind is terrorism built on fundamentalist religious beliefs, also known now as suicide terrorism. This could be thought of as the worst kind: “IN THE NAME OF THE LORD – or GOD”. The question remains: Could this last kind be considered as retaliation – against the medieval crusades, or as reaction to infringement of religious rights and freedoms ? Or, simply as fanaticism ? This kind of terrorism affects now the entire world, and cannot be easily stopped or controlled, unless fanatic religious beliefs would be completely eradicated. That is not possible!

Yet, the only kind of terrorism that is understandable, is the retaliation against occupation of a nation’s homeland and against the oppression of its citizens. Independence and freedom is what is needed and the removal of occupation forces for any nation to lay down their arms and start working on rebuilding their homeland.

Then again, terrorism is not easy to define. What one man’s terrorist, is another man’s freedom fighter.

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ON BANKING

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Your Return on Investment. == FOOD FOR THOUGHT ==

Basically there are two ways of loosing money in a Bank: (1) The Bank gets broke and has not enough capital to pay out all of its customers (remember world-wide banking crisis), once the big run for it starts. (2) You buy an investment and receive a little bit of interest. And it adds to your overall income and bumps you up into a higher tax rate.

Usually at the time when you buy – be it bonds, or GIC’s or any other instruments – the promised interest rate is typically higher than the actual rate, once you have deposited your cheque into your Bank.Then of course, the Bank cannot promise any rate of interest to you, because of changing bank rates.

Here in Canada we have another type of instrument – that is the Tax Free Savings Account TFSA. Depending on your Bank, the interest rates paid to you are typically low. If many are taking advantage of this TFSA, then the Government has some money to work with. In fact, it helps the Government more than it helps you because the interest paid is negligible. Other investments are usually more subject to losses, such as Mutual Funds, Trust Funds. Or, be careful, buying any IPO’s – Initial Public Offerings. Wait a little until their value drops.

I did my homework. Had some money in one of those Mutual Funds, a big fund, which in fact is a ‘Fund of Funds’. Dangerous stuff, because one cannot easily find out what type of companies, corporations, financial institutions this fund invests in. I spent one day to get to the bottom of it and found: Several obscure banks – of unknown origin and country – that did not even exist. Now I knew why I lost so much in this FUND OF FUNDS (which by the way had been solicited). One year I decided to sell out a big chunk of my money (in my retirement fund) that was invested in mutual funds.After that I could sleep much better.

Per contrast: How safe would it be to stuff your money – in cash – under your mattress, providing you live in a save neighbourhood, and your housing does not burn down. What are the chances of that ?

And my advice to investment advisors: Try not to sell mutual funds to clients who are into their 70s, because those funds are for the long haul.

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