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Luisa Tam

Blessed plastic carries the Buddhist chant of approval
The notion of having a credit card  blessed by Buddhist monks is definitely an alien concept to most earthlings.
We hear the Guangdong branch of China Construction Bank has been assertively promoting its latest  credit card. 
The bank says the plastic, divinely named 'Six Ancestors Blessing Card' (undoubtedly the first of its kind in the world), has the approval of  senior monks from a monastery in the province.
Lai See wonders if   the actions performed on  these cards are similar to their  traditional rites and rituals where they chant  verses in unison, splash water and the whole nine yards. 
The bank, ranked as the nation's second largest, boasts that the card is the inventive result of combining sacred Buddhist teachings with modern  electronic payment services. 
It has further emphasised that each card has been individually purified by high monks before being issued to customers. 
With such personal attention to detail, we guess cardholders will not be too annoyed by the fact that they have to make yearly donations to the monastery. 
Apart from this curious levy, the card provides the same services as any ordinary credit card. 
Lai See recalls one Buddhist teaching  that life is dissatisfactory because of cravings for material things. 
The fundamental goal of Buddhism is to attain inner peace. It also recognises a basic truth, which is the law of cause and effect; the belief that for every action (spending) there is always an equal and opposite reaction (debt accumulation). 
Hmm,  sound advice indeed!
 We wonder if the bank has this in small print on the card statement. And maybe the monastery should have a spiritual centre for  debt counselling.
Acronyms for the city
An old-timer in the music industry has complained to Lai See that Hong Kong is critically under-appreciated. 
He says the city has so much that needs to be 'unearthed' but is also lacking  so much. 
He laments: 'Every day there's some new building unveiled but yet, this must be the only 'global city' without a music festival.'
He says Hong Kong has many brilliant designers and creative people doing great things, but none of their efforts are being supported by government funding.
The veteran has a compilation of acronyms which can best describe Hong Kong's predicament.
'In this DIY [do it yourself] world, some financial help can go a long way... If one has to DIY and also FIY [fund it yourself] - it becomes a FTJ - [full-time job] with no LTRs  [long-term results].'
We agree  it's the people who make a city great and Hong Kong needs to find itself through its people again. His final words: 'Hong Kong's future is preserving its past.'
Indexing the rich
Lo and behold! The Hang Seng Index is tipped to hit the resistance level  of 22,000 points this week. Market watchers are hopeful the index will be spurred by resources and mainland bank stocks. 
Fund managers say investors are expecting a slower-than-expected economic recovery in the United States in the second quarter, and thus are shifting their focus to Asian stock markets including those of Hong Kong and the mainland.
We rejoice to hear that the index is bouncing back because the city's state of wealth is in  direct proportion to the HSI. 
Market experts believe if the index can reach the 23,000-point level, we will see more millionaires in Hong Kong. However, it needs to cross that defiant  22,000-point barrier first. 
According to  Citibank's annual wealth review records, the number of Hong Kong millionaires rebounded to 394,000 last year - a 13 per cent rise from the year before. And if we hit 23,000 points, we could return to 2007's record level of  414,000 millionaires.
StanChart's vision
Standard Chartered Bank partnered with its brokers globally on World Health Day yesterday to help tackle avoidable blindness through the 'Seeing is Believing' campaign. Brokers for the bank's financial markets business donated a day's fees to the  initiative.
It expects to raise more than  US$200,000 from these  donations and for each dollar raised the bank will make a matching contribution.
We hear that although the campaign was first launched on World Health Day 2009 amid  the global financial crisis, it still managed to raise more than  US$400,000 - four times its target.
More than  50 brokers who operate within the bank's global footprint, from the market opening in Tokyo until New York's close, took part in the one-day event, making it a truly worldwide initiative.



Lai See