Sam, the World Famous Koala Bear

Sam’s story was in the news a couple of weeks ago.

We have all heard the recent forest fire in southern Australia. The loss from the merciless fire is humongous. It killed at least 181 people, burned down 1,800 homes, and turned 1,500 square miles of wooded area into charred waste land. I bet in the same time it also engulfed countless family pets and wild creatures.

But amid a devastated backdrop, a koala with scorched paws was a very lucky bear. When it was spotted by the firemen on patrol, somehow it knew to sit on its bum and waited to be helped. After the firefighter, David Tree, offered water to the injured koala, it grabbed its rescuer’s hand while gulping up three bottles of water in one sitting. Hats off to Mr. Tree and his partner, Mark Pardew, Sam, happens to be a girl, is now recuperating nicely with another koala, Bob, at Mountain Ash Wildlife Shelter, east of Melbourne.

Smile! - Ayee

Desperate Measures

Next week US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will announce new laws to shore up US banks. And I would like to see his announcement includes these governance measures to curtail the excess in publicly held companies:

• Cap CEO’s base salary of all companies.
• CEO’s bonus is paid in restricted stock options only. He or she can sell the optioned shares only when he or she is leaving the company.
• The exercise price of the options is the same as the closing market price on the day the executives join the company.
• Executive bonus is based on net profit not gross sales.
• Directors meet the minimum share ownership requirement before joining the board.
• Directors are not allowed to serve more than two boards.
• No CEO or COB should be director of other publicly companies.
• Executives lose their bonus if the company has to lay off employees to survive.
• Company must implement work sharing programs instead of outright layoff. - Ayee