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Heya!
Before I go out with my cameras to several temples in the city to witness Vesak Day, I would like to direct your attention to my column at The Malaysian Insider. I will be there every Monday to advance libertarianism in Malaysia!
The crux of that particular article which goes by the title Food? Fuel? Dilemma? is that free prices will help determine production with regard to the concern revolving around food and biofuel. By free, it is freedom, not free, a giveaway.
I watched the Eredivisie play-off match for the second spot in the UEFA Champions League over the internet just now and it ended terribly for Ajax. Behind 1-2 on aggregate, Ajax just needed a goal to win on away goal rule but Boskher was impregnable. It ended scoreless and as a result, Ajax will play in the UEFA Cup competition instead next season.
Twente must be a curse for Ajax. Ajax, we, did not get the points we needed to win the Eredivisie because of a loss to Twente in the league. And now, Ajax did not get the win that we needed to enter the Champions League because of Twente.
Being an Ajax fan is a painful experience for several years now. The last time Ajax won the Eredivisie was in 2004 while the performance of Ajax in the European arena so far has been embarrassing for the longest time. I always feel like crying each time Ajax play outside of the Dutch setup. Sometimes, I have the urge to take up a knife and stick it to my heart.
Many a time, playing inside the setup is heart-breaking too and today is one of those moments. On the live stream right now, I can see Ajax fans crying while Twente fans are celebrating their victory. A father, possibly, is consoling his son whom is wearing Ajax colors with Huntelaar’s name on the back. I totally feel for the kid.
Amid the crowd, a banner, Heitinga de dankt — thanks Heitinga — is visible. The match with Twente is his last and he will be moving to Spain to play with Atletico Madrid next season. He presence at the back will be missed as much as Chivu’s so long ago. I wish him the best of luck in Spain. What a great send off it would have been if Ajax had won.
The departure of Sneijder earlier was bad enough. I think he belongs to an era of Rafael van der Vaart, Andy van de Meyde, Johnny Heitinga, Christian Chivu, Nigel De Jong, Ronald Koeman as the manager, et al — the great team that almost made it. With him and Heitinga gone, a chapter of Ajax has come to a close.
Edgar Davids is out again, possibly heading to Newcastle. Farewell to him too.
The good news is that Huntelaar has been stellar. Again, he is the top scorer for the whole league. Thank the heaven above that he will stay for the next season. And Suarez whom joined earlier this season is probably one of the best purchases Ajax have recently done. If I may say so, he may turn out as good as Ibrahimovic. On top of that, Perez returning to Ajax is a welcoming news. Perez is just one of those loyal players. He is just part of the family.
One player to watch out next season is DarÃo Cvitanich. He has just joined Ajax from Banfield of Argentina and scouts’ reports have been glittering.
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A video on Cvitanich, spotted at Ajacied in America.
And like all Ajax players, he is young and Ajax has the gut to invest in young players, unlike some big clubs out there.
Macro van Basten will take over the helm next season and I hope, he will turn the fortune of the club around. Being second best and playing in the UEFA Cup instead of the Champions League is just not good enough. Nevertheless, Adrie Koster the temporary manager has done a good job, honestly. He did a much better job than what Heck ten Cate had managed. With Koster at the helm and a little bit of luck, this season has been close; only three points separate the two teams and Ajax has better goal difference margin than PSV.
Close but not good enough.
Heh, now I know why whenever I play Ajax over the Championship Manager, my relationships with the Board and the fans are always strained. The game is simulating impossible individuals like me. Like what System Of A Down wrote, “…always want to play, but you never want to lose.”
Oh, did I hear you guy asking where is Feyenoord? I do not know. Probably down there somewhere. Yes, Feyenoord has it worse than Ajax. Much worse. But they get to play the UEFA Cup anyway. Barely.
If an alcoholic is addicted to alcohol, a chocoholic is addicted to chocolate and a workaholic is a work addict, would a catholic be addicted to cats?
As I was doing some research, I stumbled upon an amusing article about biofuel, incentives given to it and the unintended consequence. It is old but the lesson is for all of us to learn for all times.
Fast-rising worries over global warming have created a biofuel boondoggle.
Called “splash and dash,” “touch and go,” or an unfair trade practice, it features biofuels traders who exploit a US tax credit, European drivers who get cheaper diesel fuel, and American taxpayers, who are footing the bill.
It also illustrates a cautionary tale of how government incentives, no matter how well-intentioned, can sometimes be subverted into windfalls for the few.
“You have US taxpayers providing a very nice tax incentive, and they’re not receiving any energy-security benefit or added fuel to the marketplace or benefits to US development in return,” says Joe Jobe, chief executive officer of the National Biodiesel Board, which represents US biodiesel producers.
[…]
Created under the 2004 American Jobs Act, the “blenders tax credit” was supposed to boost US production of biodiesel by encouraging US diesel marketers to blend regular petroleum diesel with fuel made from soybeans or other agricultural products. It succeeded, perhaps too well.
Attracted by the $1-per-gallon subsidy, US diesel-fuel marketers mixed away, setting off a nationwide boom in biodiesel refinery building. But no one anticipated splash-and-dash.
The maneuver begins with a shipload of biodiesel from, say, Malaysia, which pulls into a US port like Houston, says John Baize, an industry consultant in Falls Church, Va. Unlike domestic diesel-biodiesel blends, which typically contain from 1 to 10 percent of biodiesel, the Malaysian fuel starts off as 100 percent biodiesel, typically made from palm oil.
[…]
The US importer of the load applies to the Internal Revenue Service for the credit — a dollar for each of the 9 million biodiesel gallons, Mr. Baize calculates. The next day the tanker can set sail — dash — for Europe. There, the US importer resells the biodiesel, taking advantage of European fuel-tax credits that, in effect, keep biodiesel prices above US prices.
[…]
European officials are also unhappy about the practice. Such “touch and go” maneuvers could quickly become a much larger problem, warned Raffaello Garofalo, secretary general of the European Biodiesel Board, in a March 19 letter to the European Trade Commissioner.
European manufacturers are worried about all US biodiesel imports — not just the splash-and-dash variety — because the subsidized fuel is flooding their markets, cutting into their domestic biodiesel business and lowering prices.
[…]
So rich is the US subsidy, however, and awash in biodiesel is the European market at present, that a third form of imported biodiesel is now reportedly hitting European shores — at US taxpayer expense. European biodiesel producers themselves are shipping fuel to US ports to get the US blenders credit and then bringing it back to Europe for sale, according to British press accounts.
But US biodiesel manufacturers and Congress may not be in a hurry to close the loophole, some insiders say. That’s because the blenders credit not only benefits splash-and-dash traders, it gives US producers of soybean-based biodiesel a distinct export advantage, industry insiders say.
[…]
Ultimately, this rise of US exports points to a larger American problem: a serious imbalance between domestic biodiesel production capacity and demand, some experts say. [Biofuel boondoggle: US subsidy aids Europe’s drivers. Mark Clayton. Christian Science Monitor. June 8 2007]
I ambushed a cat on a lazy Saturday afternoon. Peekaboo!
I am unsure what to make of her expression. The stare seems blank, but it is a stare nonetheless.
It is probably annoyance. All she wanted was a nap but there I was, snapping and clicking.