Navtej Kohli lifts some clouds from the world’s darkest mystery, unsolved till date.
The facts about ‘Shroud of Turin’ on Navtej Kohli Blog:
Navtej Kohli, the founder of Granox Ltd. an oil-and-gas exploration and production firm raises his concern over global inflation, which has hit
decade high. Navtej Kohli blog features a piece from the Australia business report.
It comes at a most inconvenient time. The Federal Reserve is sharply cutting US interest rates – the opposite of the usual response to rising inflation – to prevent the housing bust and credit crisis from causing a deep, prolonged recession. That’s making the global response to inflation more complicated.
Consumer prices in the US, Europe and other rich countries are projected to rise 2.6 per cent this year, the highest inflation rate since 1995, the International Monetary Fund says.
In the US, consumer prices in February were 4 per cent above year-ago levels. The 15 countries that share the euro currently see inflation of 3.5 per cent, a decade high and well above the European Central Bank’s preferred range. Even Japan, long plagued by flat or falling prices, is seeing modest inflation.
Rising prices for food, energy and other raw materials account for much of the pick-up in inflation rates. High food and energy costs hit developing countries – where consumers spend a larger share of income on those necessities – particularly hard. In recent weeks, protests over rising costs have shook countries from Vietnam, where prices are up 19.4 per cent from last year, to Egypt.
On Wednesday, the World Bank estimated global food prices had risen 83 per cent over the past three years, threatening recent strides in poverty
reduction. The IMF forecast consumer prices in emerging and developing countries will rise 7.4 per cent this year, the most inflation since 2001 though still well below the double-digit levels of the recent past.
Some of the factors driving inflation vary from country to country: union-negotiated wage hikes in Germany, pork shortages in China, an
electricity squeeze in South Africa, pay rises for civil servants in India.
But the fact that inflation is rising almost everywhere suggests some of its causes are global.
As crops are sold for alternative energy production, food prices have soared: the price of rice, the staple for billions of Asians, is up 147
per cent over the past year. Increasing demand for natural resources among developing economies such as India and China has pushed up prices for raw materials world-wide.
Oil supply constraints have sent crude oil futures surging above $US112 a barrel Wednesday, a new record, resulting in rising fuel and transportation prices.
An increasingly global economy may also be a culprit. Globalisation got some credit for low inflation in recent years: the economic rise of
China, India and the former Soviet Union helped expand the global workforce and increase manufacturing capacity, holding down the prices of many goods.
But the economic boom in emerging markets also means their currencies and prices are steadily rising, boosting the prices rich countries pay for imports from those poorer countries.
“Overall,the effects of globalisation have ceased – probably in the long term – to be spontaneously disinflationary,” Christian Noyer, governor of the Bank of France, said last month.
“It’s hard to reverse inflation expectations once they’ve risen,” says Kenneth Rogoff, a Harvard University professor and former chief IMF economist.
For now, rising food and energy prices are inflation’s prime drivers. Core inflation, a measure that excludes volatile food and energy prices, is not rising as quickly as overall inflation.
But commodity price gains are beginning to work their way through the global economy. Even if commodity prices stay where they are, global inflation could continue rising for months to come as companies react to previous price rises.
Navtej Kohli personally believes that anger is man’s biggest enemy. On this Navtej Kohli blog he shares an old yet inspiring story, you might have
heard from your granny. Read on and know why is it important to control your anger and hatred.
One day, a young and pretty princess was playing with her golden ball. But the ball rolled over and drowned into a pool. He could not see the ball because the pool was quite deep and also she was not able to swim. She was so sad. Then suddenly a frog showed up and jumped in front of her. The frog asked, “Hi, pretty girl, why are you crying? What happens? Can I give help?” Then the princess sadly answered, “My golden ball has drowned into this pool, but I cannot take it back. Can you take it for me? If you can get my ball back, I promise to give whatever you desire because I am a princess, my
father is an emperor.”
The frog was excited because of knowing that she was a princess. Then the frog quickly said, “OK. My wish is very simple. I just want to stay in your palace and you have to treat me well. Do you agree with the deal?” She thought for a moment. She then nodded her head and told the frog, “OK. I agree.” They finally made that agreement. The frog jumped and dived into the pool to find the ball and the princess was waiting for it. After several minutes, the frog emerged on the surface with the ball in its hand. The princess was so cheerful and thanked to the frog.
She then suddenly remembered what she had promised to the frog before. She should bring the frog home. Actually, she did not want the frog stayed in her palace. So she planned to run away immediately. She ran as fast as she can so the frog could not chase her. She thought that she had successfully cheated the frog. But how surprised she was when she saw the frog in front of the gate of the palace. She did not know how the frog could be there so fast. The frog said, “Do not forget your promise!” There was no choice for her except let it stayed in her palace.
The frog was so happy with the new life because it could eat delicious meal and could sleep in a soft and comfortable bed. The frog felt like a prince. But the princess disliked it so much. Her heart was full with hatred to remove the frog from her life. She scolded it many times. When the frog was eating, she angrily dropped the food on the floor. She growled and told the frog, “You did not deserve to eat the food and stayed in this place. Your place is in the pool.” She was so fierce. She did not care about the agreement she promised. She wanted to break it. No days without her anger to the
frog. Until one day, she was at the peak of her anger and hatred. She grabbed the frog and slammed it with full power to the floor.
And suddenly the frog magically turned into thick smoke and a very handsome and gallant prince stood in the middle of the smoke. The princess was
both shocked and happy because he was so handsome. She was fascinated. She was in love at the first sight. The prince told her, “I am sorry because I lie to you. I am a prince of another kingdom. A cruel witch used her magic and turned me into a frog. But the magic has been lost because you threw me into the floor. Thanks a lot. Now I have to go back to my palace. Goodbye and take care.” But the princess said,
“Don’t. Please do not go. I want you to stay here. I feel that I am in love with you now.” Then the prince laughed and said, “No, rincess. When I was a frog, I have known your real behavior. You are so fierce, your heart is full of hatred and anger, you have bad temperament and do
not keep your promise. I do not like it so much. Goodbye.” Then the prince walked out of her palace.
Message for readers:
According to Joe Girard, A person recognizes approximately 250 people. They can be his relatives, family, friends and other people. When you are angry with someone and hate them, you have hated other 250 people. Why? Because, if you hate and angry with one person, he will tell to other 250 people he knows. Think about this dangerous effect by just hating and being angry with one person. What if you do this to 10 persons? It means that you will spread your hatred and anger to about 2500 persons. They will know your bad behavior. They will talk from mouth to mouth and it surely creates snow-ball effect that will be bigger and bigger when it rolls. Otherwise, when a person knows that you are so kind, helpful and have positive yet good behavior, you have spread your good behavior to other 250 persons.
When you are angry, you indirectly create hostility to the person you are angry with. Nelson Mandela said that the hostility is like poison being drunk by someone and hope the death of his enemy because of the poison. Hatred and anger will endanger you and other people if you do not stop them. Do you know that when you smile, you just move about 13 muscles of your face, but when you are angry and frown, you have to move more than 110 muscles of
your face.
Here is helpful tip that can stop or control youranger. When you get yourself in a situation that you cannot stop your anger or if you are about to deliver your anger to someone, immediately tell yourself, “If I am angry, I will make more 250 people angry with me.” or “I will create more hostility with 250 people he knows. I will have bad image that can harm me back.”
You can also smile with people you meet. It will make you happier. You will make more friendship with people around you. What a beautiful world if anger and hatred do not exist.