Something I found over the net.
“Age old dilemma: If someone gives you a penny for your thoughts, and you put in your 2 cents, what happens to the other 1 cent? I’m guessing taxes.”
Well, under Bush administration, I am sure you will be getting the other cent back, at the expense of the Big Brother.
For a peek to a car, click here.
Somebody, please, tell me that’s really is a Proton. It’s way too cool.
According to some sources, it’s the new Proton car. It’s Proton Sutera, developed by Lotus of England. As usual, the name isn’t that impressive but this time, the name certainly does not reflect the design of the new car. If this really is a Proton, I guess my favorite car right now is Sutera instead of the new Toyota Celica.
The way I see it, Proton’s design is getting better and better, given enough period of time. It was first established in the mid-80s as a national project by the Malaysian government under the supervision of Dr. Mahathir Mohamad. The first few designs were simply the recreation of Mitsubishi’s Evolution models. Up to date, the most admired copycats are the Proton Perdana and the GTi (I can’t recall whether Perdana is really a copy cat of Evo, but for the sake of this entry, what the heck).
Unfortunately, within a few years time, AFTA, a free trade treaty will come to effect in Malaysia. AFTA, from the free-trade world’s point of view (according to Econ 101), is a good thing for the consumers. However, for Malaysia’s arena, it marks a grave future for the local car industry. Fierce competition will surely force Proton to fall to its knee. There is no way Proton could compete with supergiants such as Toyota, General Motors and Mercedes-Chrysler. These supergiants are far too efficient, plus they can afford to have a high cost production compare to Proton, which by the standard of these supergiants, is a mere ant. To protect the local industry, I guess Malaysia should not have signed any deal about free trade in the past but, of course, we can never change the past.
My opinion is, the government must shield the local car manufacturing industry regardless any free-trade treaty it has signed. The American burnt the ABM Treaty just like that. Why can’t we dump AFTA? (Don’t answer that)
This coming new year will be another year with full of surprises. Once the clock marks midnight, the most enthusiastically awaited event for the European, the E-Day will be launched. It’s the launching of the Euro, the so-called rival to the United States Dollar.
The Euro was actually introduced in 1999 but its usage, up to now, is limited to financial transaction only. After two years of waiting, the Euro will finally emerge in the daily life of 12 European countries’ citizens. The Mirage 2001, Ford and Playstation 2 will be paid in the new Euro, not in Franc, Lire or the Deutsche Mark anymore. The new currency will be the glue that unites the European Union’s members as one and makes them more competitive in the game of globalization. The E.U. leaders smile victoriously as they now have another common ground to talk about Europeanism (if that term ever exist).
While they are embracing for the much-awaited changes, the whole world including the Europeans themselves are cautiously observing the situation and hoping the launch of the Euro won’t hurt the European themselves. The American perhaps hope the new project will be a folly and while the Asian countries hope that they will have an alternative to the Dollar. Such a huge change may help catalyst a lot of events and thus, opening up numerous paths into the future for everybody worldwide. If the usage of the Euro is successful, it may encourage dozens of regional currency. One of such region is Southeast Asia, held together by the ASEAN, an EU counterpart for 10 developing nations.
However, for the European citizens, the pizzeria owner in Italy and the pub owner in Germany will be reluctant to accept this change. The conservatives fear that their country identity will be lost forever. The Franc has been synonym with the Frenchmen since the dawn of the French Empire. Once the Euro takes over, the will be no more Franc that will be related to France. The French will for certain lost a French identity. I see this currency conversion is similar to the lost of the New York World Trade Center in September. As the Twin Towers crumbled down to earth, the American lost part of their soul. Surely, the magnitude of the lost of the Franc to the common Frenchmen is as huge as the lost of the Twin Towers to the Americans. For the Germans, the pharse “eine schnelle Mark machen” (in English, to make a fast D-Mark) are senseless without the Deutsche Mark*. It seems to me that Europeanism is sacking each and every distinct Europeans’ cultures.
While I’ll be celebrating the New Year in Chicago, I will certainly remember that on the eve of first January, the Europeans are betting their head for a better future. It may turn ugly but let us just hope that the Euro will be a good development for us. We don’t need another folly that will affect the whole population of Earth. We don’t need to suffer more than we do.
nb – The words marked by ” * ” is taken from Andreas Purkott’s entry in EUROTRASH.
Visit the official Euro site for the E-Day.