https://www.scmp.com/rss/322217/feed N. Balakrishnan is an entrepreneur and social commentator based in Hong Kong. He was born in India, grew up in Malaysia and educated in the US. www.coolinvestor.biz en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com What is happening now to Facebook is a metamorphosis, not extinction. Just as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg discarded his signature hoodie and put on a jacket and tie to testify at the US Congress, his company will also outgrow its adolescence to become an even more powerful, if more sedate, company in future.  Doomsayers predict that the supposed “invasion of privacy” that has upset users will spell its doom. But advertisers, the lifeblood of Facebook, don’t seem to have abandoned it yet.... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2141922/facebook-will-emerge-stronger-privacy-scandal?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2141922/facebook-will-emerge-stronger-privacy-scandal?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 16 Apr 2018 09:27:02 +0000 Anyone who has hired a foreign domestic helper in Hong Kong knows that the process involves a lot of paperwork, greedy intermediaries across borders and archaic processes such as declarations and red seals. Neither the employer in Hong Kong nor the domestic helper benefits from these time-consuming processes. The intermediaries, including the governments of the places the helpers come from, benefit financially while providing unnecessary services such as “exit permits” and “training”.  With a... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2130393/hong-kong-should-cut-out-greedy-middlemen-foreign-helper?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2130393/hong-kong-should-cut-out-greedy-middlemen-foreign-helper?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 26 Jan 2018 01:22:02 +0000 It is fashionable to bemoan the lack of reform in Hong Kong, in everything from housing to education, and blame it all on the so-called “lack of political consensus”. One section of the people say political consensus is not possible because there is no “universal franchise”, ignoring the fact that from the UK to the US, there is political gridlock despite universal franchise. Hong Kong has plenty of tools at its disposal that can be used to initiate, speed up or implement drastic reforms. One is... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2112705/how-wealthy-hong-kong-can-tackle-vested-interests-chequebook?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2112705/how-wealthy-hong-kong-can-tackle-vested-interests-chequebook?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 25 Sep 2017 07:45:30 +0000 It won’t be long, I believe, before we see a US president wearing a hoodie to a press conference. Just as we no longer see American leaders wearing top hats, so their silk ties and suits will become rarer as the century progresses. The reason is simple: society follows the dress codes of the successful; today, internet and social media billionaires no longer wear ties, or even formal shirts. Hong Kong’s decision makers still seem stuck in the 1950s. If our decision makers were to loosen their... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2107333/how-hong-kong-officials-can-change-connect-young?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2107333/how-hong-kong-officials-can-change-connect-young?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 20 Aug 2017 05:01:17 +0000 I have seen the mausoleums of Vladimir Lenin, Mao Zedong (毛澤東) and Ho Chi Minh. Thousands still line up in hushed silence, to see them, demonstrating to non-believers that the embalmed bodies still serve a powerful emotional and political purpose. As the debate about whether the family home of Singapore’s founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew should be preserved, I cannot help thinking that in almost every instance, the decision of how to deal with the legacy of a founding father rests with their... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2100108/lenin-and-mao-lee-kuan-yew-legacies-are-determined-living?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2100108/lenin-and-mao-lee-kuan-yew-legacies-are-determined-living?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 27 Jun 2017 06:15:15 +0000 There are some who think Hong Kong might have been better off, economically and politically, had it remained a British colony. Economically and socially, British rule was good, but it was a total failure politically – and the consequences are still with us. As someone who arrived seven years before the handover and lived here through the end of British rule, I feel this political failure would have continued even if the UK had hung on to Hong Kong. [The French promoted] universal education,... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2098258/hong-kong-still-paying-political-price-british-colonial-rule?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2098258/hong-kong-still-paying-political-price-british-colonial-rule?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 14 Jun 2017 05:50:28 +0000 As a newly married man in Singapore many years ago, my hairdresser once asked me when my wife and I were going to have our first child. I replied, like many people do even today, that it was too expensive to have a child and to bring one up. He said that people who were earning a fraction of what we were and living in a one-room flat were still able to have two children and bring them up, and so could we. It is a truism that we put up with hardships to do things we want to do while making a lot... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2094925/baby-dearth-why-rich-societies-hong-kong-are-committing?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2094925/baby-dearth-why-rich-societies-hong-kong-are-committing?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 20 May 2017 03:00:58 +0000 It is no longer acceptable to have 19th-century prejudices such as the belief that the absence of melanin in the skin makes a person superior. However, the equally 19th-century belief that people from Europe or the US cannot be judged by “oriental” laws is still not only acceptable but considered a benchmark of one’s “liberal” thought, especially when it comes to Hong Kong and China. It does not require much stretch of the imagination to see that those who insist on having “foreign” (read “white... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2080831/hong-kongs-rule-law-depends-peoples-values-not-foreign?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2080831/hong-kongs-rule-law-depends-peoples-values-not-foreign?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 22 Mar 2017 04:53:19 +0000 Whenever I hear about expanding urban space below ground, as a study regarding better utilisation of some of our most popular recreational grounds intends to do, I think about a 600-year-old Turkish spa or hamam, located in a basement in one of the oldest city squares of Istanbul. Emerging from the hamam onto a crowded but spotlessly clean square, I wondered how the square could be kept so clean with just a few small garbage cans, tastefully sculpted in an old Turkish style. Underground retail... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2070696/hong-kong-needs-ensure-any-underground-urban-development?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2070696/hong-kong-needs-ensure-any-underground-urban-development?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 14 Feb 2017 07:07:37 +0000 Neither of my parents knew any English. The reason I can write passable English is down to the schools I attended in Penang, Malaysia. Penang Free School, my secondary school, celebrates its 200th anniversary on October 21. It was established three years before modern Singapore was “founded” by Stamford Raffles, and is the oldest English school in Southeast Asia. The school’s storied history reminds me of the Janus-faced nature of British colonialism in this part of the world. One article of... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2038580/how-one-malaysian-school-became-bright-spot-colonialisms?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2038580/how-one-malaysian-school-became-bright-spot-colonialisms?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 20 Oct 2016 04:39:44 +0000 On the last day of the Rio Olympics, when the celebrated Malaysian badminton player Lee Chong Wei was playing in the final against a Chinese, I was attending Malaysia’s Merdeka Day (Independence Day) Ball. The crowd of mostly Chinese Malaysians was rooting for Lee, even though most Chinese Malaysians feel discriminated against in many spheres in their country. It was not always thus. A generation or two ago, not just the Malaysian but even the Singaporean government had been embarrassed by the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2012882/rising-china-good-news-ethnic-chinese-southeast-asia-point?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2012882/rising-china-good-news-ethnic-chinese-southeast-asia-point?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 02 Sep 2016 04:33:09 +0000 Many people already know that Chinese banks are some of the largest in the world. But I was astonished to learn recently that some banks in India have a market capitalisation greater than the mighty Deutsche Bank. One is the HDFC Bank, founded in 1977. Deutsche Bank was founded in 1870. Kotak Mahindra Bank, only formed in 1995, is another booming Indian lender. Set up by a group of friends with US$40,000 sourced from their cotton-trading business, it now has a net worth of some US$7.6... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2007857/why-days-western-banks-asia-are-clearly-numbered?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2007857/why-days-western-banks-asia-are-clearly-numbered?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 23 Aug 2016 08:00:30 +0000 After the Brexit vote, “Little England” is being used as a term of derision. But, to me, it is not size that matters but whether a country is able to provide security and jobs for its citizens. I am sure that, given a choice, people would rather live in Switzerland or England than “large” countries such as Russia or Nigeria. On that score, I think the chances are good that England will, after some hiccups, succeed and prosper after being freed from the suffocating embrace of self-appointed and... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1986074/little-england-made-wise-choice-leave-pompous-crumbling-eu?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1986074/little-england-made-wise-choice-leave-pompous-crumbling-eu?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 06 Jul 2016 05:32:21 +0000 Around this time next year, people in Asia and elsewhere will be wondering how they could have missed the signals about the political and economic tsunami that the US has unleashed on the world. But, the truly blind are those who do not want to see and many pundits in this part of the world are used to condescendingly seeing US elections as a charade staged every four years, after which the “permanent government” of the US goes back to business as usual. According to this philosophy, there is no... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1971501/whoever-wins-us-presidency-expect-dawn-wrenching-new-global?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1971501/whoever-wins-us-presidency-expect-dawn-wrenching-new-global?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 12 Jun 2016 05:02:15 +0000 A long time ago, I was persuaded by a credit card company that somehow the colour of the plastic you carried in your wallet determined your status and so I applied for a “gold” card. As a reward, I was told to go to the newly opened Convention Centre in Wan Chai to pick up a free gift. Crazy for credit cards: Hongkongers aged 18-35 spend over 46 per cent of monthly income on credit purchases When I arrived, there was a long line of people that stretched onto the street. Smugly thinking that... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1962369/hong-kong-banks-need-put-customer-first-not-profits?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1962369/hong-kong-banks-need-put-customer-first-not-profits?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 03 Jun 2016 03:08:02 +0000 Two men surnamed Khan have made the news recently – one in Hong Kong, one in London. Both have a success story to tell, but the difference in what they aspired to speaks volumes about social progress and prejudice in the two cities. Here in Hong Kong, Shehzad Mamood Khan has become the first Pakistani cab driver; in fact, he’s the only non-Chinese taxi driver in the city. In London, Sadiq Khan had loftier ambitions; he has just been elected as the first Muslim mayor of the city; in fact, he’s... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1943077/first-cabbie-next-legislator-south-asian-descent-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1943077/first-cabbie-next-legislator-south-asian-descent-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 11 May 2016 04:06:41 +0000 On a recent trip to Kyoto, Japan, during the cherry blossom season, I was surprised at the hundreds of “geishas” wandering around town, though I had seen only one or two during our last trip there a couple of decades ago. A closer look revealed that most were speaking Putonghua. The ever-innovative Japanese, obsessed with costumes, seem to have found a new way to make money from Chinese tourists – every other shop in Kyoto seemed to be advertising kimono rental to help tourists explore the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1939924/promote-suzie-wong-world-symbol-independent-hard-working?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1939924/promote-suzie-wong-world-symbol-independent-hard-working?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 29 Apr 2016 02:27:41 +0000 There is not a street or road named after Dr Sun Yat-sen in Hong Kong. However, there are streets named after him in Calcutta, India, and in many other places, including even Mauritius. It is true that there is a museum in Hong Kong about Sun’s life and a statue at the University of Hong Kong, among others, but, considering how important Sun himself considered Hong Kong, it seems strange that he is not more prominent in the city. In 1923, while speaking at HKU, Sun said: “I feel as though I have... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1935939/instead-queens-road-central-lets-have-sun-yat-sen-avenue?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1935939/instead-queens-road-central-lets-have-sun-yat-sen-avenue?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 15 Apr 2016 06:01:17 +0000 An island nation that was dependent on free trade, international finance and other services for its wealth was part of a larger federation across the channel. The federation, unlike the island, had its own rigid political and economic imperatives and used legislation and regulation to impede and control market forces. So the island left or rather, was forced out of the federation. Many predicted doom for the island and that the island would “go crawling back” soon. Britain in 2016? No. How about... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1932889/britain-singapore-1965-has-outgrown-need-be-part-federation?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1932889/britain-singapore-1965-has-outgrown-need-be-part-federation?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 03 Apr 2016 03:01:22 +0000 Anyone with even a passing knowledge of India can immediately see that Indians arriving in Hong Kong to seek “political asylum” are engaged in a scam. It is true that large numbers live in poverty but as far as political and personal freedoms go, Indians are not deprived in the fair sense of the word. In fact, many Indians and foreigners argue that India’s poverty is the result of granting civil liberties and freedoms too early in its economic development history, freedoms which have become... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1928802/why-hong-kong-should-send-back-asylum-seekers-india?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1928802/why-hong-kong-should-send-back-asylum-seekers-india?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 23 Mar 2016 08:59:46 +0000 It should be easy to understand the ideology of Donald Trump in Hong Kong – he is just like a Hong Kong “localist” but on an American scale. Of course, everything is bigger in the US than in Hong Kong, including the people and the media hype. Joshua Wong is short and Donald Trump is tall. But “Trumpism” in the US and the “Indigenous” movement in Hong Kong are essentially the same phenomenon. READ MORE: How Donald Trump took a wrecking ball to the Republican Party’s hopes of broadening its appeal... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1924671/both-donald-trump-and-hong-kongs-localist-movement-are?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1924671/both-donald-trump-and-hong-kongs-localist-movement-are?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 15 Mar 2016 09:30:00 +0000 Hong Kong need not fear HSBC choosing to keep its headquarters in London. After all, London is the financial capital of the world, with support services for international finance with more depth than New York, let alone Hong Kong. So a global bank choosing London over a city on the coast of China is understandable. What Hong Kong needs to worry more about is the news that HSBC is rolling out voice recognition and touch security in the UK to replace six-digit passwords that can easily be hacked.... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1916553/register-business-15-minutes-not-hong-kong-thanks-old-ways?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1916553/register-business-15-minutes-not-hong-kong-thanks-old-ways?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 01 Mar 2016 02:54:30 +0000 With tearful pleas to the masses and sycophants around her, Sonia Gandhi has nobly declined the chance to be Indian prime minister. But why did she not do so as soon as the result was known, and before billions were wiped off the Indian stock market? The answer is that such melodramas are necessary to prime the political landscape for the behind-the-scenes manipulation that has been the hallmark of Mrs Gandhi's style since she was 'reluctantly' recruited into party politics a decade... https://www.scmp.com/article/456481/dont-cry-me-india?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/456481/dont-cry-me-india?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 20 May 2004 16:00:00 +0000 THE traditional argument for investing in commodities is as a hedge against inflation, the theory being that the forces that drive commodity prices higher and contribute to inflation will be good for the commodity producing companies. But Mark Latham, institutional group director at Baring International Investment Management and manager of its Global Resources Fund, says his fund is structured to do well even in a 'zero inflation environment'. The fund, launched in December 1994, has about... https://www.scmp.com/article/181985/oil-companies-fuel-baring-commodity-strategy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/181985/oil-companies-fuel-baring-commodity-strategy?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 18 Jan 1997 16:00:00 +0000