MamunAhmed.com » Politics

Time for Self Service Postal Machines for Royal Mail?

Mamun Ahmed — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 07:17:27 +0000

I wonder what people do when they have a Mon-Fri hectic jobs, but need to post something recorded or next day delivery items. Posting something which needs customised pricing is a night mare, if you have hardly anytime in your hand during the week. It leaves only option of Saturday posting. But only specialised post office branches are open on Saturday for few hours.

In the era of technology and Do It Yourself services, Post office do not offer self service posting facilities yet, it sounds a bit odd. You can do banking, shopping , buying train tickets and many other things using self services but you can’t post recorded delivery letters.

According to The National Federation of SubPostmasters, services designed to boost incomes are failing to deliver. They also called on the Government to introduce “tangible new work” for post offices.

There are plenty of people out there those who are avoiding to use the Royal Mail services just for it has a time consuming method of working. Just to post a letter using the counter service you need to wait average 15 minutes. People do not have that amount of time in their hands anymore. Well, Royal Mail do have a service where people are able to print off the stamps off the net, but if anyone wants to have a next day delivery or recorded, still you need to queue up on a post office.

I wonder why the Royal Mail not introducing 24/7 self service postal machines? If Royal Mail been compared with other services, it seems it is so old fashioned.

Perhaps Mr Mandelson can request his advisors to think about this idea.

Everyone is Green

Mamun Ahmed — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 17:24:41 +0000

There is a competition going on in UK among all of the companies to prove how green they are. Everyone is trying to relate the message to the public that they are the greenest company in UK. There is a surge of proving everyone that they are environment friendly by making everything green.

They are adding a slogans next to their brand name and sometimes changing the colour of their fonts. But is it enough to prove themselves as a green company?

Tesco introduces zero emission delivery fleet, which says “Blue on the outside, Green on the inside” , According to The Sunday Times 60 Best Green Companies, Tesco came fifteenth. Not bad for a company with a size like this.

i-TV gone green as well. During the commercial breaks they will show a big green button saying “i-TV”. So the viewers will think i-TV is a green company?

All of the energy companies are in a rat race to prove how green they are, as far as I remember it was the BP who initiated this trend. Even conservative party is trying to be green. Don’t you think all of these are nothing but PR activities fuelled by hypocrisy?

The Response of the UK Government and The Regulatory Authorities to the Recession

Mamun Ahmed — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 22:33:41 +0000

Jeremy Paxman philosophically asked a question on 1^st July BBC’s Newsnight -

“nearly a year on from the banking crisis, has the government have any idea about how to stop it happening again?”

That is the question from bonus fueled city traders, bankers, the local corner shop owner as well as the all of the taxpayers in this country.

Although there was an amid speculation from the economists and analysts that the 2008 recession going to hit hard to UK economy and perhaps UK GDP set to fall more than 1990’s recession. But UK government took extra few months to acknowledge the presence of the recession in the country.

However, the UK government and regularity authorities acted swiftly to resuscitate the economy. Government increased spending to revamp the money circulation. On the other hand, the FSA and the Bank of England have been drafting a strategy to tame the wild horse natured super size banks.

After the 1990’s dotcom bust, the city became extremely desirous towards the bonus culture than ever. The treasury was controlling the bankers by using their “eyebrow controlling method” before the FSA era, there was no written rule of how to run a bank. But after the birth of FSA, the eyebrow controlling evaporated and FSA handbook become the control margin. Everyone is happy as long as you follow the banking rule bible produced by the FSA.

Now the 64 million dollar question, are the UK government and the financial regularity authorities doing enough to take us out from these crises?

At the beginning of the recession volatility controlled the trading Market. FSA banned short selling for a short period, hoping the recession would end soon. Many people believed short selling was the main reason for the sharp falls of HBO’s share before Lloyds TSB rescued it.

UK government cut the VAT to make public to spend money instead of saving it, but is it good enough help the SMEs?

Bank of England slashed the interest rates to all time low, asked all of the high street banks to pass it on to the consumers, but still there is no definite sign of recovering from this crisis.

Marvyn King – Bank of England governor- declared that big banks with complex structure should be divided in two divisions. One will be operating by taking risk with little capital, the other would be dealing on the high street in good old fashion- ordinary banking. Banks have to have a healthy capital as a back up to allow the banks to absorb the losses should any arises in the future.

The size of the banks and the capital are a vital factor to allow them to fail. Already this “suggestion” been criticised by some analysts. They argued that the problem is not with the banks’ operational structure, it is something else.

However, so far today the UK government and the regularity authorities significantly strengthen regulation supervision and governance to ensure the risk of failure is reduced from future crisis.

Are The Bankers Are Really Wankers?

Mamun Ahmed — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 10:31:25 +0000

Since the much hyped credit crisis begin, everyone started to blame all of the bankers and the whole banking industry fuelled by the media. No one ever dared to blame anything to the golden boys before the crisis. It reminds me a story my dad told me when I was a kid. The story was like-

“Once upon a time a king went to jungle to hunt. After few days of hunting on the way back to his castle he was attacked by a group of monkeys. After few hours battle, eventually the herd of monkeys flee to save their life. Suddenly the king and his troops realise a baby monkey left behind, who was crying for food. The king ordered to feed him and bring it to the castle with them. The king didn’t have any children so he started to treat him as his son.

Time gone by- the baby monkey became an adult. He has been trained to fight, how to ride horse, taught Mathematics, Finance, Accounting, Statistics, Economics many other things. The monkey was very good learner, went to the best university. The king was well pleased with the monkey. He started dreaming that the monkey will be his next successor. Wherever he goes the monkey goes with him. Whatever decision he takes monkey give him advice. The advisor, bodyguards, all of the ministers around the king were eventually replaced by the monkey as the king realise the monkey takes better decision than anyone on his cabinet. The monkey’s strategy was to expand the king’s territory as much as possible. Taking monkey’s advice the king started many battles and beat his opponents. The king’s reign were bigger than ever. The monkey became the most powerful man after the king. The king was extremely happy seeing his country became wealthiest than ever. The king introduced higher tax and started to monitor to every single citizen in his country on monkey’s advice. So there will be no traitor in his country.

The king became deserted from general public and most of the time of the day he spends with the monkey. Monkey brief him, guard him, select his food and even decides what he is going to wear. When the king sleeps, monkey await next to him to save him from his enemies.

In one lazy afternoon while the king were having a siesta, the monkey realise there is a fly lurking around on kings face. The king was trying to get rid of the fly while snoring. But the fly keeps coming and sitting on king’s nose. The monkey got an idea to get rid of the fly. He slowly move towards the king, aimed his sword to the fly, then he vehemently swing his sword aiming to the fly which was sitting on king’s nose.

The End”

Shall we blame the monkey ? Shall we blame the king for spoiling him? Or shall we blame the cabinet of the king for not having enough courage to speak up against the monkey?

How We Got The Credit Crisis

Somali Piracy – Maritime Industry Can Learn from Hollywood

Mamun Ahmed — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 13:23:09 +0000

Somali pirates seize another boat. It is a common news matter for the news channels and newspapers for last couple of years. It is believed to be the Pirates have been active in that region for quite a long time, but until they start attacking large ships, which are most of them are owned by American or European shipping companies, their activities were not highlighted in the media.

There were various attempt to eliminate the pirates, but there were very little success. Perhaps it is something to do with the political situation of Somalia. Somalia doesn’t have an effective government since 1991. In fact the Pirates are treated like heroes [Somali version Robin hood?] in the sea shore areas.

So far the shipping companies handed over about $80 (£54) to the pirates and maybe more on the way. Maybe the Maritime Industry can think about a different approach to tackle this problem. The whole Somali Piracy issue reminds me one of the greatest western films ever made – Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid. Where the rail company had the similar problem with train robbers and loosing money to them. To tackle the robbers they sent an empty train with professional posse.

In the same manner maybe they can send an empty vessel with military equipped with armoured speedboats.

Has Mohamed Al-Fayed Appointed a New PR Agent?

Mamun Ahmed — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 20:43:04 +0000

Mohamed Al-Fayed and negative media coverage in a decent level goes hand to hand since he had a feud with Roland ‘Tiny’ Rowland, the head of Lonrho, over buying House of Fraser in 1985. Since then he has been trying to establish himself into the British elite society, by seeking British Citizenship unsuccessfully, also by donating millions to British charities.

There is no doubt about Mohamed Al-Fayed’s generosity towards charities and organisations. According to his website he is associated with 12 various charities so far.
There are two individual news caught my eye in the last few months.

1.Mohamed Al-Fayed to pay medical bills for Alexandra Burke’s mum [December 2008]
2.Harrods boss gives Jade Goody £3,500 wedding dress [February 2009]

I am not going to argue over if they were good decision or he has done it for the sake of cheap publicity. The thing I realised is, there is a similarity in both cases. They both drew huge media attention and both got sympathy from the public in some level, and Al-Fayed successfully associated himself with both of them. The timings are vital too. After coming back to England from Switzerland in 2005 to live, he has achieved very little attention from media which includes an alleged sexual assault on an underaged girl.

In the mid nineties Al-Fayed was represented publicly by public relations expert Michael Cole, I wonder who is his PR agent now.

The way Al-Fayed is getting media attention, hopefully it will not hit him back in the same manner as Allen Stanford is experiencing.

New ‘Anti-Terrorism’ Law: Photographing Police Not Allowed

Mamun Ahmed — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 12:59:32 +0000

Long time ago I came across to this joke:

Heaven is….

Where the police are British,
The cooks are Italian,
The mechanics are German,
The lovers are French and
It’s all organised by the Swiss.

Hell is …

Where the police are German,
The cooks are British,
The Mechanics are French,
The lovers are Swiss and
It’s all organised by the Italians

I wonder what is the current version of the same joke after seeing Home Office declared that -

The new set of rules, under section 76 of the 2008 (Counter-Terrorism) Act and section 58A of the 2000 Act, will target anyone who ‘elicits or attempts to elicit information about [members of armed forces] … which is of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism’.

A person found guilty of this offence could be liable to imprisonment for up to 10 years, and to a fine.

In the mean time I found a video-

Jeremy Clarkson on Gordon Brown

Mamun Ahmed — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 12:09:19 +0000

Yet another gaffe from Jeremy Clarkson. This time he landed on Gordon brown. According to OZ newspapers, he branded Gordon Brown as a “One-eyed Scottish idiot”. What a silly remark to make. His rattling so called jokes can make anyone uncomfortable. Most of his TV shows full of English, French, American etc etc rants. No, they are not funny at all.

I wonder why BBC paying him millions for ? Top Gear can be better off without him. When I compare James May or the little one’s (give credit to Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson) solo shows to Top gear, I find shows without him are more digestive. I have to admit Clarkson’s young age shows were promising. But what happened to him for last few years ? Is it something to do he is in business for too long ? Ummm….maybe ! How about putting him in BCG matrix table?

Jeremy Clarkson BCG Matrix

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Mumbai Terrorist Attacks: A Wake Up Call For Bangladesh, India and Pakistan

Mamun Ahmed — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 21:35:44 +0000

Just before I was going to bed on 26 November 2008, I turned the BBC news on to know about two British retail giants Woolworth going to administration. Without any shock and horror, I watched the Massacre of Mumbai news. The news itself did not surprise me that much. The only thing that surprised me was: even the little known and sometimes unknown small Islamic militia groups are capable of conducting such attacks with a vast amount of destruction. Undoubtedly they are well trained, did their homework, was well equipped and no fear to die.

I ponder, what was their motivation ? Was religion the only driving force ? Regardless their motivation, it is a wake up call for South Asian region. This coherent and successful -given their motive is acquiring international media attention – attack will encourage the other waiting to be troublemakers in these territories.

However, we can not cancel the possibility of having relationship among all of these groups based in the same part of the world.

The next morning I was watching Keith Vaz’s (Member of British Parliament) interview with BBC. According to him, there is highest level of security in Hotel Taj Mahal. He compared the security level with airport security. But we can see whatever the security level was, it was not adequate enough to tackle those attackers. What can a few security guards can do against a group of militia army with automatic rifles/grenades and maybe with commando training?

How did they collect these weapons ? who supplied them ? It is an open secret in Pakistan that, terrorist groups get direct support from some corrupted and de-moralised ISI agents.

How about if it comes out that some RAW agents also associated with this atrocity ? Hang on, hang on, why would a RAW agent would allow them to carry on this ? Ummmm….. how about having $5 million deposited in a Swiss bank account just opened on your name ?

MamunAhmed.com » Politics

Time for Self Service Postal Machines for Royal Mail?

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