Safat: The KuwaitBlogs’ Aggregator

Nawaf Al-Ebraheem, Mishal Bouresly and Saud Al-Saber
MBA Students/Graduates
Case-Study for Entrepreneurship and New Business Ventures (ENBV)
Kuwait Maastricht Business School, Kuwait

Khalid sat in his coach-class seat on the way back from a True Leadership seminar he had just attended outside Kuwait with Tom McCarthy, thinking of Tom's words about defining yourself and creating your own vision. "Be focused, be determined" Tom said. Khalid was sipping on his orange juice when he suddenly had a vision, after an intensive workshop. He envisioned a better Kuwait by developing an entrepreneurial spirit in individuals and motivating them to change their lives; to create their own business and lead their own ways toward success.

Educating Entrepreneurs

When Khalid started his business, his main focus was to teach an essential characteristic of the entrepreneurial spirit, which is leadership. Khalid Thought that through leadership, individuals can be inspired to set a vision and work toward meeting their goals. Also, leadership was thought by Khalid as the main access to freedom and the key that opens the door for entrepreneurs to establish their own businesses. It is the same dose of courage he needed from Tom to set him free and resign from his job at that time to pursue his own venture, Leaders Enterprises.

Khalid had asked Tom to come to Kuwait and introduce the True Leadership seminar to professionals and new business starters that needed a little dose of enthusiasm. "I'm not sure whether there is a potential number of entrepreneurs in Kuwait that would seize this opportunity." Tom said.  At that time, Khalid was confident that entrepreneurs in Kuwait needed the proper education to give them enough push to jump start their motivation engines.  Khalid knew this from experience that many entrepreneurs in Kuwait do not have the proper education that steers them toward the right direction in dealing with their businesses. "Don't worry, Tom, the need here for such motivation is a must." Khalid responded.

Thus, Khalid had planned to start a new revolutionized way of teaching entrepreneurs how to establish their businesses and lead their teams toward growth and success. He started targeting the traits of entrepreneurs and tried to strengthen them through proper education, motivational seminars, and workshops.  His main concentration was on teaching people to deal with risk at acceptable levels and enhancing decision making skills. The main reason why entrepreneurship education had motivated Khalid to pursue this career was not money. It was the need he felt – as the IT assistant manager at his previous job – to educate himself and his staff to become leaders at their jobs and become free and motivated.

Challenges and Motivations

The main challenge of entrepreneurship education as seen by Khalid was how to find those entrepreneurs and persuade them to take the proper education before starting their entrepreneurial activities. Khalid was faced with individuals that belong to a laid-back culture, where people didn't mind working at their secured, but unproductive jobs, and were satisfied with the slow pace at which their career advancement was moving. To overcome this obstacle, Khalid planned a research method in which he would go door-to-door and meet with chief executives and team leaders of major companies in Kuwait to educate them about leadership and the role of entrepreneurship within their organization. Khalid thought if he started from inside-out and top-to-bottom he would eventually reach those individuals who had developed potential entrepreneurial skills within their working environment.

So Khalid started with Tom's True Leadership seminar to motivate top managers to lead their teams and give them enough enthusiasm and freedom to achieve their goals within the organization. He implemented his entrepreneurship education program to affect top levels first and depended on the fact that this knowledge would eventually be transferred to team members and, therefore, would affect the whole organization. Next, Khalid targeted communication skills of those individuals because he noticed that many entrepreneurs in Kuwait did not possess the skills to communicate with their business partners. So, he offered Communication and Presentation Skills and Secrets of Power Negotiation seminars.

What motivated Khalid to pursue this career and initiate his plan to search for entrepreneurs and prepare them properly to enhance their careers was the fact that Kuwait had all the main resources to raise entrepreneurs and support them with their new ventures. Kuwait had a high level of literacy which meant to Khalid that people were willing to be educated about entrepreneurship.

Second, Financial institutes offered a variety of loan options to help entrepreneurs establish their business, and easy payment methods that would guarantee minimal interest rates. Also, government support to raise such entrepreneurs was obvious through initiatives started by the government such as Kuwait Technology Incubator Project. This project was meant to provide the essential resources (i.e. raw materials, laboratories, finance, and training) for inventors and idea creators to start implementing their ideas and encourage them to pursue the investment in their own businesses. Also, venture capitalist such as Kuwait Small Project Development Company started to target those entrepreneurs to motivate them to put their ideas into action plans by offering them enough financial resources.

Advantages of Entrepreneurship Education

Through his experience with the many educational and motivational seminars, Khalid was able to determine that entrepreneurship education had increased his confidence in his own business plan and made it easier to manage. After completing many leadership and communication workshops on yearly basis in Florida, Khalid sat in his office room at home and gathered his thoughts. Before he would set up his entrepreneurship educational program, he had to think about how those individuals would benefit the most it.  He noted down that entrepreneurship education had developed his strategic thinking and made his business mind more focused at his goals to achieve his mission.

Moreover, Khalid found another advantage of entrepreneurship education to be the increase in self-motivation and decrease in risk averseness. After he took those leadership and communication workshops, he was more willing to deal with public and motivate himself to strategically establish his business and meet his goals. Khalid couldn't have done all this without first understanding the risk of dealing in such business and accept considerable amount of it to better manage his business. Thus, Entrepreneurship education had taught Khalid before how to take risk into account when doing his business.

Khalid kept digging deep into his thoughts to find out that entrepreneurship education had shifted his paradigm from a laid-back employee working for others with a sense of "looking busy doing nothing", to a forward-moving, focused, and enthusiastic self-employed genius. All these advantages of entrepreneurship education were the focus of Khalid's brain storming that night. These positive thoughts had lead Khalid to establish a strong business plan with a clear vision that empowers leadership within managers and self-motivated individuals.

Disadvantages of Entrepreneurship Education

Of course that night was not over for Khalid. As he finished noting down the advantages on entrepreneurship education, he started concentrating on the disadvantages. Khalid had learned from communicating with people who felt the need to start their own businesses that some of those people did not posses the basic traits to become entrepreneurs. Moreover, he felt that the main disadvantage of this education was that it would be hard to predict the level of success of individuals within their organizations or their own businesses.

Therefore, he concluded that in order to educate individuals in the field of entrepreneurship, they must initially have developed basic entrepreneurial traits such as willingness to take risk, self-motivation, and ambition. This had slowed Khalid down and made him think about the skills of people that would join his seminars and how to target the segment he intended to concentrate on for his entrepreneurial program. He also concluded from his observations that people in Kuwait were not aware of the importance of entrepreneurship education and the benefits behind it. Therefore, this matter was taken for granted by many people and was seen as an extra load on laid-back workers who sat their vision solely on their retirement plan.

After that long night, Khalid was sure that his plans were set strategically and his target market had been defined. His focus was to bring as many motivational speakers and entrepreneurship educators to target those individuals with potential entrepreneurship spirit and motivate them to lead themselves and other team players to success.

Results and Findings

After every seminar, Khalid sat with the individuals to discuss how these entrepreneurial programs had changed their lives. One sales manager at a real estate company was able to confess to Khalid that her productivity and creativity had increased ever since she attended the True Leadership seminar. It had inspired her to set her vision within her department and focus on the goals of the team. She mentioned to Khalid in a small interview that entrepreneurship education had set her apart from the rest of the laid-back managers and had secured a successful business plan and sales growth through the improvement of business skills. Khalid was able to convince her to join another seminar called Communication and Presentation Skills which concentrated on improving the communication skills of key players such as marketing and sales managers.

This manager was already set for a success story. She joined the Communication and Presentation Skills seminar and had met with Khalid again to ask for more seminars. She proved that entrepreneurship education was the reason she became more motivated and enthusiastic at doing her job. She also recommended her staff to attend the leadership seminar to strengthen their creativity and set their minds free and focused on achieving their goals.

Another person Khalid had met with was a laid-back employee who couldn't find a way to advance within the company he worked for. So he attended most of the seminars offered by Leaders Enterprises and was able to get promoted to assistant manager within 2 years of attending the first seminar.

Conclusion

Khalid knew from the beginning that since he was able to shift his paradigm and create a fortune for himself, that many other individuals in Kuwait were able to become entrepreneurs themselves. A few doses of education, motivation, and leadership were needed to bring about the entrepreneurial skills in those individuals.

Although the culture in Kuwait rejected entrepreneurship and recommended family members to spend their money wisely and save them in secure bank accounts to avoid risk, Khalid saw the opportunity to go against the odds and establish his venture that would only create more entrepreneurs and cause the culture as whole to shift its paradigm from a laid-back, risk averse culture to forward-moving, advanced, and entrepreneurial environment that would guarantee leadership style amongst corporations and individuals.

One night, Khalid laid his head back on the pillow of his king-size bed imagining the story. It was the story of his success as entrepreneur and entrepreneurship educator.  He shared with people how he envisioned a better Kuwaiti culture through the paradigm shift he was planning to influence onto this culture to bring about leadership style in every individual and create an entrepreneurial culture that benefits individuals and organizations in Kuwait. That night Khalid rested his soar mind and slept tight.

Parkour is the other word for extreme running and this is a new Ad released by Nike. A new Ad for their shoes, I don’t know what exactly are the shoes but its one cool ad. No human can do what this robot is doing, but its cool as hell, this ad reminds me of the movie iRobot.

Link: Gizmodo

قناة فوكس الموجهة عبر النايلسات والعربسات (قناة مجانية) ستقوم غدا في تمام الساعة السابعة مساءا ببث فيلم مايكل جاكسون مون وولكور

A while ago I was asked by a friend what it feels like to die and if people suffer. At the time I didn’t know the answer. One month on and I’m still no closer to it. Hopefully this provides some closure for people who have lost friends and loved ones recently…… the heat is a killer ……

By the time your average medical student is in his/her final year they usually know how to dodge every bullet and answer every question you throw at them. The fuckers go through paper faster than termites …..

But there is (and will always be) one question which they can’t answer, not for lack of trying but for lack of research. Most (all) doctors don’t know what it feels like for a patient when s/he dies and can’t tell you if they felt pain during death, as frustrating as that sounds not only has modern science failed us at curing AIDS, cancer and obesity; they’ve also forgotten to do their homework on the last chapter of the book.

Having spent the last month trying to find articles of any merit on the subject I’ve come to this conclusion:

WE KNOW FUCKALL ABOUT DEATH

We do however know alot about near death experiences, cases where somebody was brought back to life by CPR, or (if you prefer) a touch of the divine. Unfortunately because of the how closely death is linked to religion many of these cases have been interpreted from a more theological standpoint making them angel laden, filled with ether,pomp and circumstance and very hard to believe. But there is one study I found very helpful by Limmel and his team and published in the Lancet (Forbes Magazine for medics). The study interviewed 344 patients who were (and I cringe as I use this term) brought back (ugh …. fuckers think they’re gods ….all they did was get daddy pay the school fees on time) and found that a good one in five (well 18%) had experienced one of the following if not more:

• The notice of a very unpleasant sound or noise.
• A sense/awareness of being dead.
• A sense of peace, well-being and painlessness. Positive emotions. A feeling of being removed from the world.
• An out-of-body experience. A perception of one’s body from an outside position. Sometimes observing doctors and nurses performing medical resuscitation efforts.
• A “tunnel experience”. A sense of moving up, or through, a passageway or staircase.

• A rapid movement toward and/or sudden immersion in a powerful light. Communication with the light.
• An intense feeling of unconditional love.

And as they came back they saw being of light which upon further focusing turned out to be nurses doing all the work while the doctors signed the death certificate.*

Now, most people would regard that as a pretty fair description of going to heaven. You know you’re dying, people are screaming all around you everything goes dark then goes white again and you feel oh so happy for once in your life now that you’re rid of that pesky mutt of a boss and that stupid tea boy who keep putting too much sugar in your coffee ………

But the scientific hypothesis (yet to be proved but far more convincing that angels bathed in light) proposed by many “experts” in the field seems to point to the fact that the process occurs as a result of the progressive shut down of different centers in the brain and for those of you who really want to know the details here they are (taken from a book by Ivan and Melrose 1986):

1. The triggering mechanism is decreased blood oxygen availability. The feeling of peace and tranquillity is an early manifestation of decreased nerve activity (the way tranquillisers work, this is theacceptance of death part).
2. As the chemical changes increase in quantity there is an effect in the limbic system of the brain (the part activated during arousal and motivated behaviour) such that there is a sense of euphoria and body-separation.
3. With the progressive changes, other elements of the brain become involved and when the visual cortex is affected ‘blacking out’ occurs (entering the darkness).
4. Further changes cause hyperactivity of the same nerve cells and visual hallucinations become intensified (seeing the light).
5. In the final stage, just before the part of the brain responsible for consciousness is abolished, a hallucination occurs (entering the light).

This by and large makes sense (well at least it does for me and should to most neuro-physiologists), so in theory at least (coupled with the first hand experience of about 80/344 people) we can all assume that  for the most part the way we die (slit wrists, fall from the roof, car crash, drug over dose, heart attack) doesn’t really affect us in our last moments, so in other words we can all rest assured that we’ll be getting that last moment of bliss ….. that millionaires death …. no better or worse than saying good night to your loved ones, going to bed and not waking up in the morning ……

And for those of you who (like me) have found the evidence a wee bit too shoddy there is light at the end of the tunnel, a group at the University of Southampton of have taken on the task of interviewing over 1500 people and assessing them clinically (brain scans, blood work up, psych evaluation) at the time directly after they’ve been “brought back” and after a 6 month follow-up. They’ll be taking into account everything from the persons religious views to their cholesterol level and are hoping to prove/disprove what we now assume is what that last chapter feels like ……..

* No, I wasn’t being serious …..

First day of Resort buying in Paree, and things are wonderful!

First appointment was at Derek Lam, which was bright, sunny, sporty, and a lot of fun. (see photo above).

He went on a tangent from his usual aesthetic, but remained with the essence of Derek.

We then roamed around and found a fantastic new collection! Every buyers dream, to come across a treasure that you know will be loved by your clients. More on this line in the future.

Our next appointment was Zero + Maria Cornejo, which was earthy and purest in their colors. They played with a lot of wrapping of fabrics, sparkly beaded shoulders, and the ever beloved jumpsuits. (See photo below). It was the first time I did the appointment without Maria there, she was traveling around Turkey to do some jersey sampling for next collection- interesting location. We also happened to be there the same day that their pop-up store was written about in Le Figaro newspaper. (see photo at bottom). I intend to visit it soon and tell you all about it!

We then stopped by a sweet cafe where we sat back and enjoyed our salad lunches with the sun beautifully baking us and the people roaming all around. I actually ran into a friend who was buying scoops of ice cream across the street- random, but nice.

Our next appointment was in the ludicrously crazy world of Balmain. This season hasn’t been photographed yet, so I am unable to share any photos. However, I can describe to you the look of the season so that you can all prepare yourselves for what is to come:

Think of a G.I. Jane, in the middle of combat, badges gleaming on her structured jackets, zippers embellishing her cuffs, silver mesh and black jersey dresses clinging to her toned hips, with rips and tears concealing her skin at several random places, and her strong and powerful.

Yes, yes, I know- nobody wears a dress in combat. But in the world of Balmain, she certainly does soldier sexy.

That was all the appointments to share of the day, other than a few stops at showrooms to look at a few potential clients.

My day tomorrow looks just as promising, and so I can’t wait to fall into a somber sleep and wake up energized for tomorrow! Not before my walk down to a cafe for a tangy lemon sugar crepe and a cafe o’lait to settle me for the night.

Until tomorrow!

Dr. David Madzikanda (PhD)
Entrepreneurship and New Business Ventures (ENBV)
Kuwait Maastricht Business School, Kuwait

In its endeavour to prepare students as effective business leaders and successful entrepreneurs, KMBS periodically invites guest speakers from the business community to share their experiences with students. On such an occasion, Eng. Khalid Al-Zanki, a dynamic and maverick entrepreneur and founder and CEO of ALZANKI ENTERPRISES gave an inspiring speech on how to become a successful entrepreneur.

With only KD12,500 seed money from personal savings, Khalid started his business organising seminars and workshops in leadership skills from scratch, and grew the business value, over 50 times, in less than 4 years. He attributes his success and such remarkable achievement to hard work and passion for the work he does. These are just some of the characteristics of entrepreneurs. When asked about what an entrepreneur needs to do to survive the current economic crisis, Khalid replied that ‘first and foremost an entrepreneur needs to sell his or her products and services and constantly review the business strategies’.

KMBS students were so inspired by his entrepreneurial success that some of them are contemplating starting their own businesses and becoming self-employed.

As one of its MBA modules, KMBS teaches Entrepreneurship and New Business Ventures (ENBV), which explains the various paths required to start up and run a business. The course is delivered by Prof Hernan Riquelme and Dr. David D. Madzikanda, and gives students the capabilities and skills required for starting and running their own businesses.

I don’t know if anyone is still interested in Nokia but in case if there is any, just want to let you know that Nokia N97 is available in Kuwait now with Arabic keypad for the price of KD220.

Bloomberg reports that Steve Jobs has returned to work at Apple, resuming his role as company CEO after a six-month medical leave. Welcome back Steve

عودة الى الاغاني القديمة التي لازلت أتذكرها من فترة الى أخرى .. ربما الكثير لايعرفون عن من أتحدث  !! هم ثنائي ألتقوا صدفة في مدينة نيويورك واصدروا البومين فقط ومن ضمن الاغاني الناجحة لهم هي هذه الاغنية التي وصلت الى المركز الاول في بريطانيا والمركز الثالث عشر في امريكا .. وهي من اصدارات عام 1992 وقد تم تصوير هذه الاغنية فقط على طريقة الفيديو كليب

I have been thinking about and spending a lot of time and money on this topic the past few months. We are working to build up our food storage so that we have some when we need it (and we’ve needed it before like when Bo lost his job all those years ago). We’d do it even if we didn’t feel a pressing need to do so as the prophet has been telling us to my entire life. But I feel like it’s an urgent need anyhow and Bo’s even on board with it and you know he doesn’t really do things because Pres. Monson recommends them. I don’t feel like we’re extremest and we aren’t spending all our savings on our food storage or anything but we do budget and spend on it every month and the supply slowly grows. I do have a list of what we’ll need for 9 months of subsistence living and I’m working on my list for three months of normal type things to eat (that’s the daunting one to me). My Mom, Dad, Sister, In-laws they’re all thinking about food storage too so I thought maybe some of you are as well. Here’s the list of my favorite places to read about it, buy it and find motivation to do it.

This website is my favorite for finding tips on storing food, ideas on how to organize and what not.

There’s also tons of good information here and on provident living topics other than storing food. If you go to the family home storage link on the right you can find info. on the current church food storage offerings and a link that let’s you know the current prices. If you are not LDS you can still purchase and can food at the bishops storehouse you just need to find one local to you and phone them for details.

The foods from this site I LOVE especially the TVP for my friends out there that have a desire to eat some sort of meat substitute. It doesn’t store for 30 years but if it’s unopened it does store for several years which is good enough for a 3 month supply or even your long term supply if you can get it together and rotate it. I can’t say enough about the dehydrated beans either. They have saved supper more than once at this house!

This site is fabulous for long term food storage items and they have a great variety some of which I’d want to break open the day they arrived and have for a snack. They have good sales so if you are interested in the items on their site just subscribe to their email newsletter and wait till what you want goes on sale. There are other sites that have bulk long term storage items at a great price but the shipping is out of control so this place is nice because you can afford to buy it in smaller batches.

I haven’t shopped at this place but I intend to order bulk grain from there in the Fall with a group of ladies in town that does that anally. If you have a lot of friends that want to order food items then get together and order and you can get some really good prices. If you don’t then I’d pass as the shipping is really high for single orders and you don’t get the best price unless you place a big bulk order.

For food storage organization I love the products here. I wouldn’t buy my food here unless it was a super sale because the sale prices that I’ve seen are still more than the regular prices at places like honeyville. I have the 72″ harvest in my garage for short term storage items. I don’t have room for racks inside or I’d love to have all my #10 can on them as it’s so much easier to rotate that way. I got my rack on sale so if you have enough patience wait for one of those to roll around before ordering one for yourself. They’re kind of a pain to put together but not difficult and definitely worth the bother.

Ok, that’s probably enough for today. Now my Mom can look here for what she needs instead of getting me to email her links and I hope it can be helpful to others as well. Happy shopping!

CHECK OUT THE LAST 5SECS!!! ;p

عندما تشاهد فيلما مشوقا جدا .. بحيث تندمج معه كليا وعندما يصل الى قبل نهايته يظهر مخرج الفلم ويقول ” كت” ويتضح لك ان كل هذا التشويق كان فيلم داخل فيلم فانك تسخط كثيرا على هذا المخرج وتفضل ان لاترى المخرج اثناء الفيلم او اداوات الاضائه وغيرها .. كي تعايش احداث الفيلم بواقعيه !

اي كأنها واقعه امامك !!

ماذا ؟؟ لكنك تعلم تماما انه فيلم منذ البداية ويوجد مخرج وتوجد ادوات الاضائه وغيرها !

نعم اعلم لكني افضل ان لا اراها في الفيلم وان يكون فيلم خاليا منها

لابأس : هل تفضل في رؤيتها بعد انتهاء الفيلم .. اي ان تعرض لقطات من الميكنج في نهايه الفيلم ؟

لا .. لاني لا احب ان احس انه فيلم ..بل ارغب ان اعيش حلما ورديا

حسنا .. لكن هناك اصدارات الميكنج لمعظم الافلام

نعم لكنها لا تعرض مباشره بعد الفيلم كي لا تقتل الانطباع النفسي الذي تركه الفيلم في النفس .. وتحول الموضوع انه مجرد اداء ممثلين

لكنك تعلم انه فيلم وانهم ممثلين

نعم اعلم لكني احب ان اعتقد انه حقيقه وليس فيلم

حسنا : ما رأيك لو كنت تشاهد فيلما وقبل نهايته يستيقض بطل الفيلم ويتبين لك ان كل احداث الفيلم كانت مجرد حلم

لا  لا احب هذا .. بل احب ان يكون حقيقه وليس حلم

لن يكون حقيقه لأنه لايزال تمثيل وهناك مخرج وممثلين

انت ماذا تريد مني ؟؟؟؟؟؟؟

لاشيء ….. اتسائل فقط

(Click to enlarge pic)

Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.

I have hesitated on whether I should post a few words following Michael Jackson’s passing.  However, as a dedicated fan and a fashion blogger I realized the need to share on how this gifted artist has inspired millions of us, not only through his music but his persona and fashion.  Whether it was through his ‘Beat It’ red zipper accented leather jacket, his ‘Billie Jean’ slick leather suit, his signature cropped pants, embellished band blazer, or bedazzled glove, Michael was known to be a fashion inspiration in the 80’s and 90’s.  I believe that none of these looks would have been embraced on fashion runways if it weren’t for him.  Now that many high profile designers like Christophe Decarnin for Balmain and Riccardo Tisci for Givenchy are reviving the 80’s inspired trends (which Michael appeared in himself), I think it’s safe to say that the artist will continue to become a vital part of the fashion world.

RIP Michael and you will always be in our hearts …

Source

هذه نكته يقولها كبار السن في جميع المجالات..

لنعطي الشباب فرصه

عندما كنت في العشرينيات من العمر كنت اعتقد ان الشباب الذي يقصدونه هو عمر الثلاثينيات …فإنتظرت …لكن عندما وصلت الى بداية الثلاثينيات قيل لي ان الشباب هم من في العشرينات

لكن ماذا عن كبار السن المسيطرين على المجالات والمعششين فيها ؟

بسيطه : الشباب شباب القلب

اذن هم شباب وعلينا اعطائهم فرصه

واعتقد ان هذا النوع من الشباب هو المقصود به من

إعطاء الشباب فرصة

An MIT professor is lost his wife in a tragic accident and left to raise his son on his own. At his son’s elementary school they dig up a time 50 year old time capsule and his son recieves a letter with chilling predictions. As it plays out these are related to tragic events that will take place, only he is left to unravel the remaining mystery. Its an action packed movie that you really don’t expect from Nicholas Cage, I didn’t expect the movie to turn out this way. I thought it was going to be more a science fiction movie, but it had its scary parts and I was freaked out, which I really did enjoy. A really enjoyable movie that turned out a lot different then I expected, and a lot of people would enjoy it.

Link: IMDB
Rating:

Looks like someone online is selling Kids R Us tshirts (and other random stuff). I think they would have been cooler with maybe Kids R Us written on the back. [Link]
Thanks Adam

I remember asking my Finance Professor a simple question: “What moves the prices of stocks?”

His answer was equally simple: “Supply and Demand.” He smiled and then walked away.

Most of us already know the basics of supply and demand but at the time I found it hard to see such abstract concepts at work in practical life. When I started to follow the stock market a few years ago as a broker I then began to realize what my Professor meant.

Demand and supply are represented in the order book of each stock as illustrated in the above picture. If the buy orders are huge then we say that the quantity demanded for that stock is on the rise. Another thing to consider is the law of demand, if the quantity demanded for the stock is greater than the quantity supplied then the prices would increase until we reach an equilibrium. The same concept also applies for the market as a whole.

In the case of the NBK order book an investor might see the great difference between the quantity supplied and the quantity demanded. This investor might read this as a discrepancy in the demand and supply of NBK and fear might creep into his mind, this fear might have a foundation because the investor knows that such discrepancies mean that the stock is not in equilibrium and prices might change accordingly.

This fear might then be translated into an investment decision. In our case if the investor made up his mind to sell the stock then he would be faced with a dilemma, should he sell at the bid price at 1.280 or should he offer the stock at higher prices in the hope that this discrepancy is only temporary? If he chose to offer the stock then the quantity supplied would obviously increase to make matters worse for others.

Now imagine if there are thousands of such investors who are anxiously looking at NBK. Another investor might look at the change in quantity supplied and could decide that he must sell at the bid rate. Now multiply this cycle by the number of anxious NBK shareholders and you would get the picture.

If more and more investors are selling then the quantity supplied would increase at the rate of offer orders being placed at higher prices and the quantity demanded would decrease at the rate of selling orders being placed at the bid rate AND other buy orders being canceled. Yes, KSE can be a cruel place.

As my experience grew in the stock market I began to realize some other things that might not completely agree with what I said. If stock markets fall then we see even more people sell even if they know that the current prices are very cheap. To explain further, imagine a department store announcing a huge sale on its products. Consumers would see this announcement and rush to the store to buy the discounted products. The famous Villa Moda sales are prime examples of what I mean. If KSE announce such sales in stock prices we see people panicking and do not demand these discounted stocks. Suppliers, on the other hand, see the sale and instead of waiting for the sale to end they decide to join and offer their stocks at even lower prices. But my answer to this is to look up ‘Consumer Expectations’ and see how this factors into the determinants of demand.

Another thing that does not agree with my topic is the accuracy of the quantity demanded and supplied of the stocks. Many fund managers might not want to announce their intent to sell 1 million shares of NBK at 1.300. If they did then this might cause other investors to sell all their shares at 1.280 and ruin it for the fund managers. The concept also applies to fund managers who are willing to buy 1 million shares of NBK. To be honest I agree with this point and cannot argue with it.

With the aforementioned points I now know how valuable my economics classes were to me today. To make sure yourself you easily get a list of determinants of supply and demand and see how most if not all of them apply directly in KSE. No wonder economists can sometimes be very shrewd businessmen. My only regret is that I did not ask my professor what he meant when he answered my simple question and it took me years to fully understand.

The wait is almost over,  the long awaited Windows 7 is almost ready for release, personally ive been hearing and reading alot of good things about the new Windows, supposedly a big step up from the current flop Windows Vista, the Windows 7 claims to be much faster, reliable, and user friendly than its predecessor and competitors plus it has multi touch support! AFB has been testing the BETA version quite sometime now and hopefully he’ll post a review, but for now if you want to place a pre-order you can go to amazon’s dedicated Windows 7 section so you can be the first to get your hands on the new OS.

Now this is an interesting line up, I remember seeing the Mclaren F1 when I was kid in London in the early 90s in a small dealership with just that one big room for the desk and the car. It was the first Supercar I have ever seen and I have a huge amount of respect for it, and it requires a drivers skill to operate it. I respect it so much more then the Bugatti Veyron, its so pure. I find it interesting that they decide to use Abu Dhabi for the supercar shoot out, I’m not sure what they are doing to accommodate Top Gear but they have done it right.

Link: Autoblog

(Click to enlarge pic)

Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.

People on Facebook, if you want a fancy URL for your profile page, or if more importantly you have pages and need a better looking URL than long one with numbers, visit http://www.facebook.com/username/, verify your self with mobile number sent short code, and register your brand page name. Mobile verification works even in Kuwait, and quite fast!

Related Posts:

• 60 Minutes – Facebook

“شخبار قلبك؟ عسى ما فارق افراحه”
“غلطان.. ادري.. وابي منك تسامحني”
..
هذا ما تهادى الى مسامعي من على بعد وانا اتمشى بلا هدى
اراقب الشمس منتظرا رحيلها
في يوم عادي آخر من رحلة هروبي التي اصبحت شبه شهرية الى نفس المدينة.
وحين اصدرت الشمس قرارها بأنها ساعة الرحيل
وبدأت بصبغ السماء بنفس اللون البرتقالي معلنا قرارها
رغم انعدام العرب من حولي
بدأ يتناهى الى مسامعى اغنية لم اسمعها من قبل
اكملت خطواتي باحثا عن الصوت
** ** **
باب خشبي منزوي بين مجموعة المحال المطلة على الشاطئ
يودي الى ممر طويل
لون جدرانه السوداء يقول انه بلا نهاية
لا تزال الاصوات تتوالى من هناك
..
“تدري عيوني بغيابك ما هي مرتاحه”
“تبكي على فراق طيفك وانت ذابحني”
** ** **
الباب الخشبي المتهالك
والطبول في خلفية اللحن وكأنها طبول حرب جنوبية
مع الضوء الخافت القادم من نهاية الممر
يتشكل المشهد في مخيلتي ببطء
ايحاء الوهلة الاولى بأن الاجواء لن تختلف عن اجواء اخر الليل في هذا المكان
دخان سجائر كثيف تختلط فيه الاجساد المتمايلة مع حركات الاضواء الملونة ورائحة المشروب
يدفعني الفضول لمعرفة الاغنية اكثر من فضولي لما خلف هذا الرواق
** ** **
اتبع الصوت الى الداخل
لتقودني خطاي الى عدة درجات من سلم يصعد للأعلى
في الدور العلوي، رغم الضوء الخافت استطعت تبين ملامحه
ردهة واسعة تتناثر فيها الطاولات
جدران خشبيه لا تختلف عن حالة الباب
رغم حالتها المتهالكه
الا انها تعطي للمكان وقار الشيب في شعر طاعن السن في هذه الساعة
يختلف عنها جدار زجاجي كامل على الجانب الايسر
اتبين من خلفه اشباح بضعة اشخاص يتمايلون ببطء
و على الجانب الايمن تأتي منضدة البار الطويلة.. كالعادة
..
“ياللي ذبحني غلا شكرا على رماحه”
“اللي طعني بها وما يوم ريحني”
** ** **
الدخول الى مكان كهذا وضوء النهاء لا يزال يلوح للأفق
يعطيك احساسا بأن هناك شيء ما خطأ
بأنك توقظه قبل اوانه
اجول بعيني ابحث عن دليل تواجد عربي في المكان
يفسر لي هذه الاغنية في مكان كهذا.
لا شيئ
نادلتان يحاولن الحديث مع بعض بالاشارات في تلك الزاوية
احدهم يجلس وحيدا هناك
وبعض الموظفين يتحلقون حول طاولة في المنتصف
** ** **
خلف الجدار الزجاجي
هناك كانت ضالتي
بلكونة ضخمة تطل على البحر وقرص الشمس يختفي خلفه
صوت الموسيقى اصبح اوضح والاغنية اصبحت تتراكب ببطء
** ** **
اخذت مكان لي في زاويه بعيدة عن البقية
طلبت ما اريد، وجلست ابحلق في الشمس
بلا هدف
وأردد مع الاغنية كلماتها
..
“جيتك من الشوق والاشواق ذباحه
اسال عيونك عسى للحين تذكرني”
..
هذه كانت ضالتي
هنا قضيت ايامي المتبقية
بنفس المكان..
نفس الاغنية
نفس الوقت
كل يوم…
** ** **
تغيب الشمس
وبعدها بلحظات
او ساعات
لا فرق.. فالزمن يتوقف
يبدأ المكان بالإزدحام ببطء
وتبدأ طلبات إعادة الاغنية بالتباعد
احمل معي اخر كلماتها واخرج
مع وعد مع شمس الغد بالغياب سويا..

** ** ** **

قرأت يوما

Im fine..im really fine..
But..what if fine isn’t good enough?
what if I want extraordinary?
..
Hitch

** **

Just two days before he died, Michael Jackson practiced his moves during a rehearsal at Staples Center in L.A. for the London concerts.

Source: TMZ

I ordered the Norco DS-1500 Sata Storage to incorporate into my Rack Server, planning a very interesting build. I have had it in my Amazon Cart for about 6 months, and I at last decided to buy it as of three weeks ago. Around the 20th of June it came into Kuwait and there was a problem at customs, I knew something was going to happen just wasn’t sure what. The smart people at Aramex listed this Sata Storage device as a sporting goods on the manifest, so how surprised were the customs guys when it looked like a box with a bunch of wires. So automatically they held the box so Aramex contacted me asking for the invoice, I told them the invoice is inside the box and I decided to finish the paperwork myself.

Went to the customs guy and finished all the paper work necessary, they just asked for the MOC clearance for the product. I know that usually they will clear it quickly. The box was opened one day so the next morning I went to the MOC and that took sometime, more then I thought was necessary since I had to find the head of the MOC clearance department and he was taking a longer break then usual, as the secretary said. I didn’t have time to go to the customs so I thought I would go the next day. When I went the next day they couldn’t find the box, I went to Kuwait Airways and they said they returned the box to Global Logisitics for storage. It has been over four days now and I have sent formal letters to both Kuwait Airways and Global Logistics regarding my Sata Storage and nobody seems to be giving me the time of day, I’m bouncing back and forth between the two and they are both denying that any of them had kept it or the other received even though I was with the customs guys when they returned and it has been over a week and I’m asking for financial damages to paid for the item as well as the shipping that I paid for it. Lets see how this all works out and how long it will take, and the customs guys are saying that Kuwait Airways and Global Logistics are responsible for holding the items.

في حديث سريع مع احد الأصدقاء.. سألته من هو المرشح الذي لن يتغير في قائمة اصواتك منذ السنة الماضية، ذكر اسم نائب سابق اشتهر عنه الصمت المطبق في المجلس وشراء الاصوات في انتخابات العام الماضي، وحين سألته السبب، قال انه انهى معاملة اخاه الذي كان على وشك الموت لولا معاملة العلاج بالخارج، والى متى ستستمر بالتصويت له؟ استغرب سؤالي وسارع بالاجابة “لا اعلم..ولكنه جميل علي رده”
انهاء معاملة في الكويت هم ومصيبة لا تنتهي بسهولة حتى لو كانت قانونية ومستحقة ، لكن الحكومة لا تريد انهاء هذه الثقافة، ثقافة الديون، كيف للمواطن ان يحس انه يمتلك حرية القرار في التصويت لمن يراه مناسبا اذا كان هناك مرشحين وأعضاء يعلقونه من رقبته بحبال دين المعاملات والخدمات التي سلمتهم الحكومة مفاتيحها.

في حديث سريع مع احد الأصدقاء.. سألته من هو المرشح الذي لن يتغير في قائمة اصواتك منذ السنة الماضية، ذكر اسم نائب سابق اشتهر عنه الصمت المطبق في المجلس وشراء الاصوات في انتخابات العام الماضي، وحين سألته السبب، قال انه انهى معاملة اخاه الذي كان على وشك الموت لولا معاملة العلاج بالخارج، والى متى ستستمر بالتصويت له؟ استغرب سؤالي وسارع بالاجابة “لا اعلم..ولكنه جميل علي رده”
انهاء معاملة في الكويت هم ومصيبة لا تنتهي بسهولة حتى لو كانت قانونية ومستحقة ، لكن الحكومة لا تريد انهاء هذه الثقافة، ثقافة الديون، كيف للمواطن ان يحس انه يمتلك حرية القرار في التصويت لمن يراه مناسبا اذا كان هناك مرشحين وأعضاء يعلقونه من رقبته بحبال دين المعاملات والخدمات التي سلمتهم الحكومة مفاتيحها.

يوم امس كان موعد آخر الافراح في العرس الديمقراطي القبلي (الفرعيات) بإنتهاء فرعية قبيلة الرشايدة واكتمال نصاب مرشحين القبائل في الدائرتين الرابعة والخامسة، ومن تابع نتائج الفرعيات بشكل عام سيصل الى نتيجة واحدة، انه لا قوانين معروفة لهذه اللعبة الفرعية في انتخابات القبائل الغير شرعية والمجرمة قانونا ، فمن الممكن ان تنقلب قبيلة على نوابها لتأتي بأربعة جدد حتى لو كانوا جيدين في ادائهم السابق حتى ولو بشكل نسبي!، ومن الممكن ايضا ان تبقى قبيلة على نوابها كما هم رغم ادائهم السيء جدا او عرف عنهم شراء الاصوات او تقاضي الرشاوي.
العوامل المؤدية للنجاح في الانتخابات الفرعية لن يفهمها ابدا من يشاهد من الخارج، العملية تتعدى الشعبية بين القبيلة الى حجم الفخذ الذي ينتمي اليه المرشح والعامل الاكبر في النجاح التحالفات وتبادل الاصوات وهي العملية التي غالبا ما تنتهي بخيانة احد الاطراف وفوزه بالتأكيد!
أغلب من يتحدث عن الفرعيات كمعارض يرى ان الحل بالسماح بالفرعيات ولكن بعد تغيير الدوائر الى دائرة واحدة فقط ، العملية لا زالت مبهمة بالنسبة ولي واعتقد انها ستكون قفز في الظلام حالها كحال الدوائر الخمس التي تم التعريف بها بأنها ستكون الحل الأمثل للقضاء على التقسيمة القبلية وشراء الاصوات ولكنها عززت الشعور بالظلم لدى القبائل وزادت معدل شراء الاصوات في الدائرة الاولى والثانية، التغيير مطلوب حتى لو كان قفزا للمجهول، لن نتعلم الا من اخطائنا!

لو سألت اي شخص متابع للوضع السياسي الحالي في الكويت عن توقعاته لنتائج الانتخابات القادمة، اذا كان يحمل بعض التفاؤل فسيكون جوابه “لن يتغير شيء..اذا تغيرت الاسماء ستجدها تحمل نفس العقليات”، الكل يركض خلف التغيير في حياته، جميعنا نبحث عن اوضاع معيشية افضل، طموحات اكبر الا انه حين يصل الأمر لصناديق الاقتراع يصيبنا الخوف ونجبن عن تغيير طريقة الاختيار.
بعضنا يصوت للإسلامي وكأنه يصوت لممثلين الله في الأرض، حتى لو جربهم من قبل ورأى ماقاموا به في المجلس السابق، سيغير الشخص ولكنه سيختار آخر بنفس المواصفات، ومع ذلك يتوقع نتائج مختلفه!
هناك من يصوت للتيار ، للعائلة ، للقبيلة، نفس طريقة الاختيار ، وحين يخذله العضو في المجلس، يعود الناخب للبحث عن مرشح آخر ولكنه سيبحث عنه فقط في داخل الدائرة الصغيرة التي بدأ بها، اما عائليا او قبليا، او حتى داخل فخذ ما داخل القبيلة.

تجلس في ديوانية ما ، ليدخل عليك احدهم ويتصدّر الجلسة ويبدأ في التنظير عن الديمقراطية والدستور ومواده ، بداية جميلة.. يرف له قلبك وتتمنى ان يكون مرشحا لكن ما ان يأتي الحديث عن وضع البلد، والانتخابات الفرعية وإزالة التعديات على أملاك الدولة سواء كانت الديوانيات او مساجد الكيربي ورأيه في استجواب النائب السابق محمد هايف حتى تبدأ المتناقضات في الظهور ويبدأ معها موال المديح للـ”شيخ” محمد هايف وحسنا فعل حين اوقف “هدم بيوت الله” الى آخر الموال ، ليتجه الحديث معها عن الفرعيات وحق القبائل في اقامتها حتى لو كانت كسراً للقانون، هذ التناقض يا سادتي هو بالضبط ما يجول في عقلية 99% من مرشحي القبائل، من اين جاءت هذه النوعية من التناقضات؟ بذرتها الحكومة وسقتها حتى طال عودها، وبدأت الآن مرحلة القطاف ولا اعتقد انها ستزول مالم يزيلها من زرعها!

هذا الشخض هو نموذج من بين النماذج التي تواجهها خلال موسم الانتخابات بالتحديد، وهذا النموذج اصبح هو القاعدة بين المواطنين وخصوصا في الدائرتين الرابعة والخامسة، الشذوذ هو ان تكون شخصا ترى القانون (أي قانون) محرم عليك كسره وان الدولة اكبر من القبيلة.

في حديث سريع مع احد الأصدقاء.. سألته من هو المرشح الذي لن يتغير في قائمة اصواتك منذ السنة الماضية، ذكر اسم نائب سابق اشتهر عنه الصمت المطبق في المجلس وشراء الاصوات في انتخابات العام الماضي، وحين سألته السبب، قال انه انهى معاملة اخاه الذي كان على وشك الموت لولا معاملة العلاج بالخارج، والى متى ستستمر بالتصويت له؟ استغرب سؤالي وسارع بالاجابة “لا اعلم..ولكنه جميل علي رده”
انهاء معاملة في الكويت هم ومصيبة لا تنتهي بسهولة حتى لو كانت قانونية ومستحقة ، لكن الحكومة لا تريد انهاء هذه الثقافة، ثقافة الديون، كيف للمواطن ان يحس انه يمتلك حرية القرار في التصويت لمن يراه مناسبا اذا كان هناك مرشحين وأعضاء يعلقونه من رقبته بحبال دين المعاملات والخدمات التي سلمتهم الحكومة مفاتيحها.

لو سألت اي شخص متابع للوضع السياسي الحالي في الكويت عن توقعاته لنتائج الانتخابات القادمة، اذا كان يحمل بعض التفاؤل فسيكون جوابه “لن يتغير شيء..اذا تغيرت الاسماء ستجدها تحمل نفس العقليات”، الكل يركض خلف التغيير في حياته، جميعنا نبحث عن اوضاع معيشية افضل، طموحات اكبر الا انه حين يصل الأمر لصناديق الاقتراع يصيبنا الخوف ونجبن عن تغيير طريقة الاختيار.
بعضنا يصوت للإسلامي وكأنه يصوت لممثلين الله في الأرض، حتى لو جربهم من قبل ورأى ماقاموا به في المجلس السابق، سيغير الشخص ولكنه سيختار آخر بنفس المواصفات، ومع ذلك يتوقع نتائج مختلفه!
هناك من يصوت للتيار ، للعائلة ، للقبيلة، نفس طريقة الاختيار ، وحين يخذله العضو في المجلس، يعود الناخب للبحث عن مرشح آخر ولكنه سيبحث عنه فقط في داخل الدائرة الصغيرة التي بدأ بها، اما عائليا او قبليا، او حتى داخل فخذ ما داخل القبيلة.

I bought this box of chewing gum a couple of weeks ago for my friends at the chalet, and I can’t get enough of them ever since. I finished the first batch and now I’m half way through the second one

It also brings back so many memories!

At 60 feet tall and weighing in at 50 tons the Japanese will be building another robot. Tetsujin or Gigantor as some may know him will be built by October of this year. I just hope they don’t take down this robot, I hope this trend continues in Japan that all the parks will have a monument of a Giant robot built in it, everyone knew the Japanese would be the first to build robot warriors and this is the first step forward.

Link: Gizmodo