Cheap is More Expensive

A good sale saves money – most times this is false.

Photo from Tim Parkinson’s flickr

I shopped at the Mong Kok Street three consecutive nights while I’m in Hong Kong. This street is a long expanse of small retailers selling dropdown imitation products from clothes to cool USBs. Can you imagine buying Lacoste shirts for a quarter of its original price? I’m not a recreational shopper but I couldn’t stop.

I came home with more on my suitcase. I bought “branded” shirts, watches and a pair of shoes for me; another dozen of shirts for my family and bags for my mother and sister (picked randomly and they loved it!). But I regretted buying them all.

I learned something about myself. Heads up mothers, this may give you a heart attack: I don’t like sale items.

I need not any of the items I bought in Hong Kong. I never used the shoes because I realized I hated the dire design. The strap of the watches peeled (turned out they’re made from plastic). After the first few wash, the clothes are indistinguishable from a rag. I depleted my entire budget for that trip because everything’s so cheap it feels like I should take advantage of it.

But cheap price is cheap quality. They don’t last long. They don’t satisfy you with the value you deserve.

After the Mong Kok street experience, I always get myself the topnotch original brands simply because I deserve the best. There may be some delays to my purchases, but that delay adds up to the excitement and happiness of buying the product. I’ve grown to give-up my quest for instant gratification that cheap products give because that gratification will go fast and will become frustration.

Like David Hays says, “Buy it once”. Choose the better quality products with better value. Buy for long term use and lasting gratification.

What cheap product you have to buy twice after the first broke?

More Moments for you:
The Act of Doing
Walk Away from Traffic
No Time for TV

Mention:
Buy It Once: When More Expensive Is Cheaper; Black Star Rising

Historic Sites Under Threat

Can you picture Greece without ownership of the ancient Parthenon?

Photo from stock.xchng

Greece sunk into debt in recent years. We hope to see a vicious Spartan fight against bankruptcy, but German politicians suggested a curt solution: sell the Parthenon, Acropolis and Aegean islands. Should the Greeks continue preserving the reminder of their history, or should they be smart to let go of the ancient sites for the sake of their economy?

Cling to the past or focus on the present? This is a countrywide scale of past-present dilemma.

Unstable economy is a peril to the historical sites of Greece. There are other factors that endanger historical sites.

In just one hour, Mali Islamists has destroyed three Mausolea in Timbuktu. All of it are U.N. World heritage sites and served as religious and historical landmarks. Rebellion seems to be a fast way to eradicate historic sites.

Visiting can harm too. Over a million tourists came to Machu Picchu in 2011. The ancient city that survives centuries of calamities and invasion is now an “endangered architectural site” (TravelVivi); the influx of tourists contributing to its springing demise.

But Ecuador is on track of people coming to Galapagos Island. They are limiting the number of visitors and the length of stays. Fuel consumption and pollution are also regulated to maintain the pristine of the island. Many countries may find it hard to follow Ecuador’s steps since tourism is an industry that feeds economy. Historical sites are competing against money.

Political decisions can also affect the duration of historical sites. U.S. cuts funding for UNESCO, an organization that protects world’s heritage sites.Without the priority, historical sites won’t be secured.

If they do vanish, how long will the memory remain?

Sources:
Mali Islamists destroy tombs in Timbuktu; CNN
Ecuador to limit number of visitors to Galapagos Islands; Travel Weekly
8 Places Almost Destroyed by Tourists; TravelVivi

 

Best Prisons to Live

Some prisons are as good as your holiday vacation.

Prisons are punishment for misconduct. They are built to maintain order in the society, believing in the premise that getting into prison sucks your privilege to live freely so you wouldn’t want to be there.

These five prisons are still prisons in a way that it locks you out of the “real world”, but there are privileges that would make you rethink which would you prefer to be in.

Five star prison in Austria

Photo from grazt.at

What the hell right? People save up for 3 day brief stays in a five star hotel, when these inmates in Justizzentrum Leoben get to stay in a five star facility for years, if not lifetime. The prison is secured, luxurious and modern.

Cebu inmates dance

Photo from knowyourmeme.com

They are the inmates in the viral hit “Thriller“, which has 51.5 million views (so far). Instead of burning time inside the cells, they learn a routine, dance in synchrony, and post it to YouTube. Their latest vid? Gangnam style.

Family unit cells

Photo from gulfnews.com

Somewhere in Spain, the Aranjuez prison is nice enough to build family unit cells where the prisoners could bond with his/her children. The walls are painted with jolly Disney characters. Playground and nursery are accessible.

Community-based the prison

Photo from palmer365.com

San Pedro Prison in Bolivia is close to normal. No guards, no gates, no bars. Instead, you’ll see children playing around with “market stalls, restaurants, hairdressers and even a hotel” (Murano, 2009).  On top of it all, prisoners have to work and buy their own cells. Like the outside world, the more money you have, the more advantaged your situation will be.

The summer camp prison

Photo from CNN.com

Inmates in Bastoy Prison will feel like in a holiday, whole year round. They have horses to ride around the island of pine trees and rocky coasts. Craving a baked salmon? They have chefs to cook for them. They even have the beach to dip in summer; and the ocean’s view will always be there if they want to relax. Aaah, imagine the sound of that. Ironically, they have a more free lifestyle inside the prison distant from what they can afford. No surprise that 20% of prisoners who are released reoffend to come back.

Would you approve of these prisons?

Sources:
10 of the World’s Most Unusual Prisons; Oddee
Welcome to the world’s nicest prison; CNN

Space Tourism: Out of this World

The requirements: good health, ludicrous loads of money and shots of bravery.

Photo from NASA

The adventure that history may think as fictional or delusional is now taking off with us. Space tourism is welcoming wealthy adventurers to go somewhere where not many has been and seen. Like what Virgin Galactic said, “space is a virgin territory”.

After a brief tease of the thrilling tour, people jumped aboard.  From 520 listed customers, £64M ($103M) is already in deposits. The first batch of flight will happen next year.  Among the early birds to space were known personalities – Hollywood’s Paris Hilton, Ashton Kutcher, Tom Hanks, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt; scientists James Lovelock and Stephen Hawking; and royal Princess Beatrice. See Virgin Galactic passenger list.

A spaceplane can accommodate eight people. Two are pilots and six are passengers. Perhaps, among the six passengers was a photographer to keep track of the adventure. Virgin Galactic is excited to bring in the first batch of space tourists photos. With this mission of resolute publicity and marketing, it won’t be for long until they earned back their £162M ($261M) investment for the fleet of spaceplanes. In fact, the space industry has the potential to reach $1.6B in the next decade.

This growing industry also has growing competition. Orbital Technologies, a Russian company, plans to construct a “Hotel in the Heavens”.  No gravity is the gimmick of the hotel. The price to get there was £500,000 ($806,000) and £100,000 ($161,000) to stay for five nights. Space Adventures in Virginia will bring you to the International Space Station for $50M. Other companies offering the adventure are emerging in California and Texas while a European conference was held in London in the talks of space tourism.

How will it go? Everything will seem like a flash. 90 seconds to ascend with a speed of 4,000km/h. After six to seven minutes of gliding to the space engineless and gravityless, they’ll start descending. Tourists will appreciate a view similar to this:

We don’t know where it’s going from here. I guess there will be more men – ridiculously wealthy men – to step on the moon in the near future.

Would you travel in space?

Sources:
Space tourism: to infinity and beyond?; The Guardian
Space Tourism Is Here! Wealthy Adventurers Wanted; The New York Times

Senkaku Islands: “War is the only solution”

The Senkaku Islands are covered in jungle but no rivers – it’s uninhabitable.

Photos from theatlantic.com

This month Japan bought the islands, prompting large-scale protests in China. Japan has been in control since 1972 anyway. But there might be a lot of oil reserves.

The dispute was caused by the territorial claims of Japan and China. The islands are within the boundaries of both countries, because they are close to Chinese coast as well as the Japanese one. Japanese boats have been on patrol to prevent Chinese fishing boats from visiting.

It is strange that China makes a fuss of the islands. They never really seem to have cared about them; Japanese boats have been on patrol long before this dispute. What would China want to do with those islands?  The oil that can be found there might be of some use, but it can’t be as important as China makes it seem. And the financial argument of China can’t possibly be better than the cultural argument of Japan. It became clear that a financial argument was possible in 1971, so why protest against the Japanese claim now? China hasn’t  been able to use those oil (and gas) reserves for 40 years, it can’t be that important if you ignore those reserves for so long.

This doesn’t make Japan good though. They tell the world that China only wants those islands for the money, but isn’t it a strange coincidence that Japan is in control of the Senkaku Islands since 1972, one year after the oil discovery? And why do they want to be the official owner of the islands, when they have been in control for so long? An answer for that is the money they’ll get from the oil reserves.

Is the dispute only about oil? There is also an important military shipping lane and it offers fishing grounds.  But does China need the fishing grounds or the oil? Probably not. They can’t need the strategic shipping lanes either, as if they would fear Japan more if it ‘officially’ owns these islands.

For China it is important to create an enemy. It is better for the harmony among people when they all have the same enemy; Japan. If China encourages protests, everyone in China will become mad at Japan. Normally if people protest in China, people are beaten and sent to jail. In the anti-Japan protests, no one is hurt. China is supporting the protests, if not organising them.

In front of a camera a Chinese civilian said: “They are stealing our land. War is the only solution”. If all civilians would be as easily manipulated as she is, war will be the only way to relieve their anger. What if Japan is not the chosen enemy but Europe or the United States? How easy would it be for China to start a war, to convince their people they’re right?

Is war the solution to this dispute?