The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens

No doubt, this book is a worldly famous self-help book. The author, Sean Covey , was influenced by his father Stephen Covey, the author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, and made it simpler especially for teens. Personally I am highly positively influenced by it. If I hold it to read again, I am not sure if I can stop. Just a little exaggeration, though! And this is why you see this review.

Knowing what is right is difficult. However, urging or forcing ourselves to do the right thing is ways more difficult. Part I of this book is about knowing what is right. So what is right then? To develop yourself, although you sometimes deny it, you know that you are the driver, the main driver, of your life. Thus, be responsible for your life. If you disagree to this, you can stop reading this review and burn the book down (except you bought its e-book version). 

This is book is divided into 4 main parts. Because the flow of his book is superb, I will have to just review it accordingly.

Then, part II is about forming the habits. Again, it begins with perceptions. He calls it paradigms. You have to form a habit of thinking that you can do. Define your goals and its possibility.   Prioritize what is more important and do it in that order. 

Part I and II are about yourself. Make them habits for yourself, the habits that after repetitions no longer burdens but what you like doing. Part III is about dealing with other people. There is only one truth. Christianity refers this as the Golden Rule. Other people have good intentions like us as well. They find it difficult to raise themselves up as well. They misunderstand, sometimes do bad deeds intentionally like us as well. Thus, to grow is to grow together. That is how we should think and do. 

Part IV is about doing it as a habit. Repetitive, is it not?  You keep thinking positively, do it till it becomes a habit, do it with others, do it together, and then your life would be effective. 

Do you see what the most special point of this book is? There is a high chance that you got it. There are too numerous books on self-help. Another one you might hear about or read is Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. I read this one as well but I must admit that it does not influence me much or at all. I am sorry to its fan, and I know there are a lot! Of course the latter offers enormous number of good theories. The reason for its low rating being that it does not show me HOW to make those good theories applicable or how to force oneself to apply the theories. As I previously said above, people can know what the right thing to do is easily, but it is hard for them to do the right thing. For instance, people tend to know that reading is good for them, but they just do not read. Because the 7 Habits could do this, I give it the crown, which effectively means my rating for it is 5/5.

Author: Sean Covey
Publisher: Touchstone, newest edition (May 27, 2014)

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Cambodia promotes motorcycle helmets to halt rise of traffic deaths

In the end of 1990s to 2000s, the largest social ill in Cambodia was the spread of HIV/AID. Recently this is no longer the issue. Most people now understand about the disease and how to prevent it. However, currently the largest social ill is death toll from traffic accidents. Statistics aside, I can see traffic accident one every day in average on my way of commutation from and to workplace. The article is right in that people do not respect laws, including traffic law in Cambodia. 

Why they do not respect laws? Take me as an example in traffic law. At a traffic law, I was not sure if the red light there meant I could not turn right. I did turn right and was stopped by a policeman right a way. He stopped me according to the law but I could pay my way out. That demeans the meaning of law! This is a prime example of laws in Cambodia. Therefore, people do not have the sense of respecting laws or see the need of it. 

What is the main problem here? Requiring drivers to wear a helmet may reduce death tolls but I will not in any way reduce traffic accidents. I find it close to useless. The only solution is requiring a license, meaning people have to know how to drive on the street. From my experience, 99.99 % of Cambodians do not know how to drive on the street. They do not give signals before they turn; When they have to turn, they do not know that those who are going straight in front of them have the priority. 

When they do not even know what the right thing to do, how could they try to protect themselves? 

See the PBS News...

Cambodia promotes motorcycle helmets to halt rise of traffic deaths

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Ream Beach and Investment

The beach is beautiful, the water is crystal clear and shallow and is surrounded by trees and mountains nearby. The area is not much inhabited. It is on the left hand side on the way from Koh Kong to Sihanoukville near the airport. One defect is that it lies against sun light. It would be too glittering if the sun shines and you want to bathe (not sunbathe) there.

It waits for rich investors to find out the location, its beauty and other potential. Currently, only dozens of local sellers make their on quite traditional commerce: selling food for tourists. Along with the fact that the new airport is being built close by, local and international investors may start to consider their business here in a short time to come.


Unlike in Siem Reap, however, market size of the Western part of Cambodia is small. In Siem Reap, you can see tourists from various countries in the world. In Western Cambodia, mostly Americans or Europeans. In Sihanoukville, in addition, business gains profits only during peak seasons of tourism.

Other costs include electricity, water and security. These are main constraints in Cambodia, not limited to Western part. Some hotels need to supply their own water and electricity. In terms of rule of law, it is quite weak there. (see for example http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/polonsky-bugbear-arrested-sihanoukville)

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New Ideas from Dead Economists

I fully concur with Einstein that smart people can make difficult topic easy to understand for laymen. In this sense, Todd Buchholz is a smart economist. His being a smart and insightful economist is clearly manifested in this book.

Who can and should read this book.

This is book is for those who have finished Introduction to Economics or just know or heard about the demand and supply theory. Laymen can also capture his ideas but not without contemplation. It is not more difficult than economic topics you have read in various newspaper or magazine. 

Students nowadays may take the theory of free trade for granted. Decades ago, it was a highly debatable subject. Hundreds of years ago, most people were against it. Lets not look too far away. During World War I and II, why superpowers spent tremendous amount of money and lives to invade other countries for natural resources and markets, the things that can be accessed easily today through free trades? This is a prime example of the new idea left behind by many dead economists who were philosophically alone in their time.

The encouragement of multi-corporation, international trades, WTO, World Bank, IMF, ADB you name it, are no more accomplishments than those of economists. Stimulus package, Quantitative Easing especially in the United States, Three-Arrow Policies of Shinzo Abe, Japanese Prime Minister, and one currency in EU are those of economists, although those ideas are against each other. Perhaps these differences in policies interest students of economics more if you try to know which school of thought you are in.

If you happen to have curiosities or questions similar to these, this book would be best for you.

A bit of the book

It explains theories, findings, imperfections etc. of the economists in the past as well as today. Ideas are very powerful, more powerful than ones can perceive. As Keynes put it at the end of his most famous book The General Theory:

“The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed, the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually slaves of some defunct economist.”

The Conundrum 

This book presents you many theories in economics. Nevertheless, theories conflict in every disciplines. There are opposing schools of thoughts. Nobel Prize in Economics committee, for instance, tend to give the Prize to opposing recipients in the topic they deal with. In this book, the author does not or cannot opine what school of thought is right or explains the world more correctly. For those who need an answer to biggest debate in economics, Keynesianism vs. Non-Keynesianism, this book is not sufficient. ( I would suggest The Clash of the Century).

The book will make you more curious about economics, although my rating is only 4/5. Why not give it a try...

Author: Todd G. Buchholz, with foreword by Martin Feldstein.
Publisher: Plume, newest edition (April 6, 2007)

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Cha Ret Khmer (Khmer Characteristics)

Summary

It is a rather well-known book by a nationalistic politician name Bun Chan Mol (ប៊ុណ្ណ ចន្ទម៉ុល) who spent his life serving Cambodia under many regimes and at the same time observed the atrocity of committed by Cambodians, the Khmer race, under those many regimes. He witnessed cruel tortures, lawless killings, social ills, and observed many incorrigible deeds that leaders and the led made during his life. Thus, in his conclusion, he said the Khmer race are brutal and violent. The future of Cambodia is doomed and his hope for a better Cambodia is dim. 

Analysis

Social scientists would immediately disagree with the author. There is no such as thing as racial characteristics. No American were born to love freedom. America would not be born without the ideas of how to build a country disseminated from Britain, and Britain from earlier uncountable heroes/heroines and countries from Roman Empire, Greece and the Enlightenment. You name it.

In this sense, my rating for it is 3/5.

Those who read this book should not feel pessimistic about the Khmer race and/or the future of Cambodia even if they see its dooming situation today, but should instead continue reading other books such as Why Nations Fail, From Dictatorship to Democracy and Free to Choose, to begin with.

The Conundrum

Did I say there is no such thing as racial characteristics? What you eat determine your behaviors and genes as well. Some food, for example, can make you particularly sluggish. So would Sushi makes Japanese race particularly something? Would this change the pyramid of Maslow's human needs?

Final Say

Putting his accomplishment, sacrifice and knowledge aside, he deserved our respect as a Cambodian patriot. One should be reminded as well that being a patriot is not enough, instead far from enough. The knowledge, how to build the country, how to administer a government, how to infiltrate the concept of citizenship among our people etc. are more important.

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