Mr. Earl Crawley of Baltimore

I heard of Mr. Crawley’s enviable achievement on "MoneyTrack," a personal finance program on television. His story confirms my humble belief that good guys do not finish last on Wall Street.

Mr. Crawley was born with dyslexia to a poor family. He works as a parking lot attendant in a financial district in the City of Baltimore for years. With less than $20,000 income per year, he has put his three children through private school. He owns his own house with no debts. In addition, by being disciplined, patient, and a good listener, he has accumulated an investment portfolio in excess of a half of a million dollars.

At first, he put his meager savings in government savings bonds. Then he systematically bought mutual funds and blue chip stocks. A firm believer of compound interest, he reinvested his dividends. Mr. Crawley learned the art of investing by asking his parking lot patrons who happened to be professionals in money matters.

And the most enviable thing about Mr. Crawley is that he is sharing his savvy knowledge in investing and saving with others. He is not only gifting shares to his church, he also has formed an investment club in the church. So the other members of the congregation can also enjoy the fruits of being disciplined, patient, and a good listener.

Thank you, Mr. Crawley! - Ayee

Professionalism

Since I was in the neighborhood of a popular noodle house the other day, I decided to get some things special for lunch. I ordered a dish of stewed chicken feet in black bean and garlic sauce and a couple of Chinese donuts. These are the dishes that I would not prepare at home, hence become special ones to me. But when I was ready to enjoy my treats, I was totally disappointed at what I got. It seemed to me my favorite restaurant for extra profits had changed its recipes at the expense of good taste and sound business practice.

Even though there is no obvious connection between Chinese foods and professionalism. My disappointment over my special lunch, despite a trivial one, made me wonder. I wonder if we can still expect the honest and consistent services that we used to get when dealing with commercial and professional establishments.

I think if we are in the business providing goods and services to others, the onus is on us to follow the codes of ethics of our respective trade closely. So the goods we sold meet their intended usage and the quality of the goods sold is the same as advertised. Furthermore, the services we rendered to others are as good as agreed by either a hand shake or binding legal documents.

I guess I will not be getting my special treats from that noodle house any more. - Ayee

The Snow Walker (a book) by Farley Mowat (1975)

The author is a popular storyteller on nature and Canadian Eskimo. In The Snow Walker, he tells the readers how Eskimo lived their primitive life in frigid northern country.

According to the book, Eskimo subsisted on caribous and lived in igloos on the icy tundra. At the mercy of Mother Nature, they survived from generation to generation. Then when the dark winter in the coldest place on earth never ended, and the depleted food stock could not be replenished, the residents of this barren land could do nothing but remain in their cold and dark igloos to face their Snow Walker. Starvation was Eskimo’s worst enemy. In a short time, it wiped out the residents of an entire camp that consisted of many families.

One of the grim tales in the book that moved me the most is about an unbreakable bond between a young hunter and a white fox ("Two Who Were One.")

It is the story of young Angutna brought home a fox pup whom he found while bagging his first caribou. Angutna named the baby fox Kipmik, Little Dog. They grew up together and became inseparable. Kipmik’s animal instinct helped Angutna become a successful hunter. But good times did not last. When the wildlife in the neighborhood was depleted, Angutna was compelled to sell Kipmik’s beautiful fur for foods for his wife and children. With the noose of release, Angutna killed both Kipmik and himself. According to the legend, Angutna was buried by the bank of the River of Seals with Kipmik lied beside him. - Ayee

A Little Green Snake

In our younger days, my sister and I often accompanied an elderly relative, Kon Kon, on his many long walks in the countryside. In this particular sunny morning, we were on a trail along a small creek. It must be a summer day as there was not much water in the narrow stream. On the other side of the path, there was this rocky cliff towered over us and protected us from the morning sun. The soft splashing sound from the running water in the creek was soothing and peaceful. It was another perfect day for a leisure stroll in the woods.

But on our way back, we noticed a little green snake about two to three feet long coiled perfectly on the steep cliff. Its stunning color of bamboo green stood out amid the brownish vegetation on the rock. Because its entire body is in such translucent green I have ever seen, I remember this little creature well. To prevent the snake from hurting us, the kids, Kon Kon killed this pretty snake.

At that time none of us seemed to have a second thought over the killing of a defenseless being, as snakes were always being perceived as pests and were considered dangerous to their human neighbors. We must rid of the snake to prevent it from harming us.

Now resulting from uncontrolled urban sprawl, our cities are getting bigger and bigger. Countless of wildlife got killed and relocated because they were in our "neighborhood." In retrospect, I think it is so wrong to kill that little harmless snake. Moreover, it is cruel to kill any wild animals when they happened to be in the patch that uses to be their homes. - Ayee

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

The Pearl (1947), John Steinbeck

It is a story of what a beautiful pearl did to a poor pearl diver Kino, his wife, Juana, and their baby son, (Coyotito). Like John Steinbeck’s other great works, this story also ended with extremely sad occurrences. I think the renown author uses this book to tell us that we are living in an imperfect world where good fortune brings disastrous things to good people.

It does not look like the author has much respect for doctor and priest. He paints a very unflattering image on these two characters in the book. The town doctor refused to treat Coyotito for a spider sting because he would not receive any payments. The town priest visited the poor family not until he learned of the family’s new fortune. The same doctor made the house calls to treat Coyotito after he heard of Kino’s valuable pearl.

The pearl buyers did not fare well either in the book. They colluded among themselves to rig the prices on the pearls that the poor divers brought to them for sale.

Then there were unknown bandits who attempted to rub Kino of his "Pearl of the World" outright.

In the book, the Nobel Prize winner also tells us the benefits of education. Through the lustrous pearl, Kino saw "My son will read and open the books, and my son will write and will know writing. And my son will make numbers, and these things will make us free because he will know - he will know and through him we will know."

Through Juana’s inner thought on her husband, the author tells us of the unforgiving Mother Nature. Juana knew that ". . . the mountain would stand while the man broke himself; that the sea would surge while the man drowned in it."

I save the best to the last. This is what the author has said of a seaweed poultice Juana made for a scorpion bite on their son’s shoulder:

"Which was as good a remedy as any and probably better than the doctor could have done. But the remedy lacked his authority because it was simple and didn’t cost anything." - Ayee