HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]:

Family Money

Snap Shot

Modern Medicine

Heart to Heart with Hillary

A Slice of Thai History

Bits ‘n’ Bobs

Personal Directions

Social Commentary by Khai Khem

Women’s World

Family Money: Growing a Hedge?

By Leslie Wright,
Managing director of Westminster Portfolio Services (Thailand) Ltd.

At times of uncertainty and volatility, hedge funds have one big advantage. They float. The Hennessee Hedge Fund Index has shown a slightly positive return for 2002 to date - which is considerably better than just about every long-only equity index.

Flat performance in absolute terms is nothing wonderful - but is obviously attractive in a time of broadly downward volatility. How should portfolio managers and investors react to this news? Should we switch money into hedge funds, and if so, which hedge funds?

Assuming you want wider diversification than a mattress and a deposit account, the answer to the first question could easily be yes. But the second question is more difficult. There are hedge funds run by individual managers, investing in single strategies, and there are multi-manager funds, or funds of funds, where the manager’s skill is investing in hedge funds run by other managers. Deciding between the two is not easy.

Single fund managers are an attractive option, although they appeal primarily to institutions. Such managers will tend to be experienced individuals who stay in business by achieving good performance; entrepreneurial-minded youngsters whose talents give them the self-confidence to strike out on their own; or career managers who are mining a hedge fund strategy for a large investment house with lots of analysts and other back-up.

The best of them, however, may not be willing to accept your investment. A very talented manager, who makes money consistently over a long period, may not need new investors. Such funds will not have US$25,000 minimums and month-end redemptions: they’ll have high investment thresholds, annual lock-ins, and maybe even a penalty to get out. The best funds may even have waiting lists.

But this is partly a capacity constraint. A single manager fund with, say, $10m invested in pursuit of a single strategy might have difficulty taking in another $5m without compromising performance. The new money can hardly be left in the bank - but investing because there’s money to invest is very much less of a certain prospect than (re) investing because an opportunity presents itself.

By contrast, a multi-manager fund, which has, say, $10m invested in each of ten chosen strategies, will be able to invest an additional $5m (or more) without difficulty.

Multi-manager funds are, by definition, large, and by virtue of their size they will have the financial muscle to invest in individual hedge funds not open to smaller investors. Some will be relatively long-established, and will thus have established relationships with otherwise inaccessible funds.

Many have been launched recently, to take advantage of the hedge fund boom. This latter group will be more likely to have a retail orientation, and to be structured to cater for investors who are less experienced and/or sophisticated in the context of hedge funds.

Guaranteed
Protection

Deciding between the two is complicated by the availability of guaranteed hedge funds, where downside protection affects the risk/return calculation. Guarantees, by definition, tend to attract investors to a product that they would not consider otherwise.

A single fund manager, and particularly a start-up, will face performance-critical logistical difficulties that a multi-manager fund will tend to have addressed before it becomes investable. Much more with hedge funds than with long-only funds, performance is as much a function of being able to trade quickly, as of judging the market correctly.

Single manager funds are the preserve of asset allocators, who want to make their own decisions about exposure. They offer specific risk, and possibly greater volatility. Multi-manager funds offer diversification, just as effectively as a guarantee offers downside protection, and lower correlation to equity and bond markets.

This is a key point. A single manager fund, pursuing a single strategy in a single market or asset class, will be more likely to offer some form of correlation to its underlying market than a multi-manager fund, which has multiple market relationships.

But there is a case for buying multi-manager funds that are managed within a hedge fund environment rather than those offered by predominantly long-only houses. A newcomer for instance would be better off entering the hedge funds arena via a well-diversified multi-manager fund.

But what about performance? One leading hedge-fund manager says: "The case for single manager funds is absolute return. They have potentially higher volatility, potentially higher draw downs, potentially bigger winning months and losing months. Therefore, they offer a potentially higher absolute return." Get the right single manager fund, and your return will beat any multi-manager alternative.

But investors who like to sleep at night will not necessarily sacrifice return if they stick to multi-manager funds. For example, one large multi-manager global hedge fund, GAM Diversity, has $1.25bn under management, and over the past five years has returned 93.8%, against the MSCI World Index’s 5.34%.

For an investor with a strong market view, single manager funds with attached guarantees might be the way to go, because you take out the risk of their not being diversified. Multi-manager funds with guarantees are a level of protection too far, while single-manager funds without guarantees attached are probably best left to professionals like multi-manager fund managers.

But unless you have a strong urge to get into a particular sector, buy into single manager funds by putting money into the multi-manager funds that hold them.

All sound a bit too complicated for you? That’s why hedge funds are generally the domain of sophisticated high-net-worth investors. If you’re not a high-flyer, but want a slice of the action, invest only after seeking professional advice from an experienced portfolio manager.

Snap Shot: Nidak or Kokon? Is this the ultimate?

by Harry Flashman

Imagine an electronic camera with more megabytes of RAM than your home computer, plus other programmes of electro-trickery that can be upgraded from the world wide web plus optics by one of the world’s best lens makers and you have this week’s camera.

Called the Kodak Professional DCS Pro 14n Digital SLR Camera it boasts a picture resolution of 13.89 megapixels, which just about doubles the previous industry standards.

This camera was released last month in Germany and is primarily designed for professional portrait, wedding, event and commercial photographers, but will likely be popular with advanced amateurs as well. Built on a Nikon lens mount, and, according to Kodak, it adds speed, as well as quality, to the photographers’ workflow through FireWire connectivity at a 12 MB per second transfer rate, nearly four times faster than previous Kodak Professional cameras.

The camera is equipped with a 4536 x 3024 pixel (effective), 12-bit CMOS imager, covering the full 24mm by 36mm image area of 35mm film, allowing photographers to regain the benefits of true wide-angle lenses and use their Nikon SLR lenses as they have used them with 35mm film. You are also free to select the image size (full 14MP, 6MP, and 3MP).

Shooting speed is also much quicker than the average digital camera at two frames per second for up to eight seconds. Images can be saved as DCR raw files or Kodak Professional Extended Range Imaging (ERI) JPEG files. Images are stored in a CompactFlash memory card and a MMC memory card interface.

The Kodak Professional DCS Pro 14n Digital Camera is centred around a Nikon lens mount and has a magnesium body. The camera has a sensor to detect the camera’s orientation to provide automatic rotation of the image as it moves to a computer for manipulation. No longer do you need to "Rotate Image" 90 degrees clockwise!

The camera operates in two user modes: Basic and Advanced. The camera defaults to the basic setting and offers a very intuitive, simple interface. In the advanced mode, the user can adjust many more capture, resolution and storage settings, among others.

Because the features of the DCS Pro 14n are based on Kodak Professional firmware and not hard-wired within the camera, the camera can be enhanced and easily upgraded with free firmware downloads from Kodak Professional. Free firmware upgrades essentially give photographers a "new" camera whereas other manufacturers require the purchase of an entirely new camera system to receive the latest enhancements. Another first is that it can be taken to Kodak Service Qualified Sites to enable a deeper burst depth (from 8 frames to 18) by doubling the camera’s built in RAM buffer from 256MB to 512MB image memory.

Again, according to Kodak’s blurb, photographers can expect near perfect flash exposures with the DCS Pro 14n, as it has full Through The Lens (TTL) flash power monitoring. Another small, but important feature for the non-English speaking photographer is the fact that it is the first professional camera interface localized in eight languages (though I bet it doesn’t have Thai). It includes the latest versions of Kodak Professional DCS Photo Desk and Camera Manager software, and supports DCR FFM and Kodak Professional ERI-JPEG format and is compatible with Kodak ProShots Studio Software Suite, an online image management and display tool that links the photographer to both client and lab in an effective digital workflow for film-based and digital camera images.

The camera includes a single rechargeable Li-Ion battery pack, or by an accessory AC adapter. Photographers may select NTSC or PAL video formats for image review. In NTSC mode, the colour LCD and the video output are enabled simultaneously, a feature particularly useful for portrait photographers preparing set-ups. Using a video monitor, photographers can "play back" images captured during a shoot as a preview and potential sales opportunity with customers, says Kodak.

Don’t rush down to your local Kodak store yet as they will not be available till December at only authorized dealers of Kodak Professional digital photography equipment. And the price? Around US$4,000 - in the US!

Modern Medicine: Alpha-1-antitrypsin (Never leave home without it!)

by Dr Iain Corness, Consultant

Hands up everyone who knows their alpha-1-antitrypsin levels. Just as I thought, nobody! Hands up everyone who knows what their alpha-1-antitrypsin is involved with? Just as I thought, the same old no-show of hands!

Well, this chemical is a protective enzyme that stops lung destruction from many causes. The common presentation of lung destruction is a respiratory condition called Emphysema, and again this is one of those conditions you do not want, as it tends to be chronic, predisposes you to all sorts of bronchitic ailments and makes the last few years of your life a right proper bind. The rest of you may be doing fine physically, but you can’t do anything because you are so short of breath.

In fact, that shortness of breath is one of the symptoms that points your doctor towards alpha-1- antitrypsin, especially if there is no other good reason for it. OK, if you worked in the asbestos mines for 25 years and smoke two packs of cigarettes a day, then we expect you to be short of breath and coughing a fair bit too. In fact, we would probably think it remarkable that you are alive at all!

However, there is a group of people who have never smoked, never went down the mines and yet get shortness of breath as they pass the age of 40. These people can present as a real diagnostic conundrum, but very often it is found to be a deficiency in this enzyme that is the problem.

Alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency is generally a hereditary condition, and if both parents have it, then you certainly do. There is a situation where you can develop the deficiency - and this is produced by smoking as some of the ingredients in cigarette smoking oxidise the alpha-1-antitrypsin molecules and inactivate the enzyme. Good old smoking again!

True deficiency is reported as 1 in every 2,500 live births, but the numbers of presenting cases is smaller than that as some other enzymes can assist in preventing the lung damage that leads to Emphysema.

Unfortunately there is no readily available treatment for the deficiency, though some work is being done on alpha-1-antitrypsin replacement therapy, but the jury’s still out at this stage. The main thrust is to attempt to minimize the damaging effects on the lung. This means first off, stop smoking! The next advice is to avoid the polluted environments (though nobody should be exposed to dangerous levels of pollutants, the "danger level" for people with alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency is very much lower than otherwise).

Other advice is to seek early treatment of any respiratory problems or symptoms, which would mean aggressive antibiotic therapy when there is an infective element. Immunization for influenza and pneumococcus is also high on the list. Broncho-dilators are generally not too successful with Emphysema, or the steroid inhalers.

For chronic Emphysema it is sometimes a case of carting oxygen bottles everywhere or lining up for a lung transplant. As I wrote at the beginning of this week’s article, this is not a fun condition, so all you smokers should think long and hard about this. For those of you who have the deficiency, you have my sympathies, but you get my exhortation to never smoke even more strongly.

Heart to Heart with Hillary

Dear Hillary,

I from Italy and I have some dress expensive. Where can I find a "good" laundry? No problem with t-shirt, stockings, drawers. Some dress is expensive and I want them like before wash. I’m sorry for my bad Enghlis (sic), I’ll try to do better next time. Tank you very much.

Maria

Dear Maria,

The dress cleaners I can help you with - the English is a little beyond me, you are going to need professional help! Do not have your good dresses washed by the laundry - either do them yourself or have them dry-cleaned. There is a dry cleaner in the old Bavaria House arcade, opposite Mikes Shopping Centre. They have managed to return all my threads in good condition. Mind you, most of my dresses come from the roadside markets, so it probably doesn’t really matter.

Dear Hillary,

Every week in your newspaper there is an article about local people in Pattaya, and most of them I have never heard of. Everyone round here has heard of Hillary. When are they going to do an article on you, "Petal"? You are so wise that you must have been around for a while. As your loyal fans and readers we would like to know more about you. How about it?

Ryan

Dear Ryan,

You are a lovely young fellow, aren’t you, Petal. How do I know your age? Anyone with a name like Ryan has to be young! And as for your "How about it?", how about what? Things seem to have changed a bit since Hillary was young and footloose. "How about it?" had a very sexy meaning way back then, but, heaven forbid, I am sure you were not propositioning Hillary through the column. But then, at my age I am allowed to dream. No, sorry Ryan, Hillary is far too shy and retiring a person to allow an article to be written about her. I am happy just helping those people with problems, and putting people like you back on the straight and narrow. Growing up is a long and painful process. You have my sympathies.

Dear Hillary,

I don’t know whether I should send this letter to you or to Miss Terry Dinner (sic)? I want to have a very intimate evening with my lady (I would like to propose to her) so I want a place that has good ambience and doesn’t have waiters standing at my table listening to every word, as I do want to do this all very discreetly. Where would you suggest, Hillary?

Joel

Dear Joel,

Hillary is so pleased to see there are some gentlemen of discretion left in this country, but I am a little worried about what it is that you wish to propose to the young lady. If it is marriage, then you need a place that has flowers and romance, but if it is "How about it?" like our friend Ryan this week, then a restaurant in a hotel might be more appropriate so you could strike while the iron is hot and before she changes her mind. Try Bruno’s or Pascal’s to try slipping on the ring, or the Grill Room at the Royal Cliff and ask for a suite for slipping on something else later. You young chaps are a worry! By the way, it is Miss Terry Diner, not "Dinner"!

Dear Hillary,

Every week I see all these old men tourists with young girls in Walking Street. Bold as brass, down the street they come, arm in arm or holding hands with girls one quarter of their age. From the leers on their faces you know what they are thinking. Surely they must know they are a joke? These girls are after one thing only and these old codgers are too stupid to see it. They certainly don’t have any sex appeal left. Don’t you think something should be done about it, or at least tell the old duffers to stop making fools of themselves?

Ginger

Dear Ginger,

You are all spiced up, aren’t you, Petal. The problem here is just who is "making fools of themselves"? The old dears I see on the streets seem to be enjoying themselves no end. Well, most of them seem to have smiles from ear to ear. Is there a law against enjoyment in this resort city that was passed by the city fathers and I missed it? I do not believe that the "old codgers" as you call them, think that they have managed to find their dream girl out the front of Girlies A-Go-Go. What they have found is someone who is prepared to look after them on their holiday, don’t complain and make no judgements of their behaviour. So what if the girls are "after one thing only" - if the visiting tourist is happy to look after his side of the bargain and the locals are happy to supply what the visitor wants, then why are we (sorry, you) pointing the finger of scorn? Lighten up, Ginger. Live and let live needs to be your motto. Or did this letter stem from just a teensy-weensy bit of jealousy?

A Slice of Thai History: The birth of the Thai nation-state

by Duncan Stearn

The Khmer Empire, which occupied a great swathe of territory through what is now known as mainland South-East Asia, first began to expand from its base in modern-day Cambodia around 600, reached its peak from 850 onwards and finally declined around 1300.

From its capital at Angkor, the empire was to face no genuinely serious external challenges for almost 500 years and the influence of the Khmer can still be witnessed across much of modern-day Thailand.

For example, from Sukhothai and Lopburi in the central plains through to the Khorat plateau in the north-east lie the ruins of what were major religious edifices constructed under the aegis of the Khmer. The restored temples of Phimai and Kao Phanom Rung are prime examples and mute sentinels of a once great age.

Their importance to the central authority in Angkor cannot be underestimated. Phimai, for example, was linked to the Khmer capital by a 225-kilometre long roadway that had way-stations constructed a day’s march apart.

The great monarchs of the Khmer Empire were men like Jayavarman II and Indravarman I while Suryavarman I, who reigned from about 1002 until 1050 was responsible for the creation of Lopburi (known as Louvo) as an important provincial capital.

King Suryavarman II (1113-1150) pushed the Khmer Empire to its limits, campaigning against the Mon who were then the dominant inhabitants of the lower Chao Phraya River valley region.

At its zenith, around 850, some historians believe the Khmer Empire stretched from what is now southern Vietnam and the Mekong Delta through most of modern-day Cambodia and south-eastern Laos and across all of eastern and central Thailand and as far as the borders of Burma. There are some claims to the effect that the Khmer Empire even held sway over parts of southern Burma.

That said, it was hardly a cohesive conglomeration given the extent of the territory concerned, the lack of basic infrastructure and external pressures from the Chinese as well as the Indonesian island states of Java and Sumatra.

Suryavarman II was the man responsible for the great construction of temples at Angkor Wat as well as the temple of Kao Phanom Rung. In the bas-reliefs of Angkor Wat are depicted parades of troops and among them are Thai mercenaries known as ‘Syam Kuk’, from which the word ‘Siam’ has its origins.

It was the arrival of a Mongoloid people related to the Chinese from what was known as the Nanchao region of southern China that was to sound the death knell of this great empire. The descendants of the people of Nanchao make up the modern day Shan, Lao and Thai.

The Mon were subdued by the acceleration of the Thai migration after Nanchao was conquered by Kublai Khan. Pressing into the Irrawaddy River valley in Burma and down the Chao Phraya River valley and across the Mekong River, the Thai established small outposts of civilisation. By the beginning of 1300 these outposts had begun to coalesce into larger political entities.

By about 1350 the city and kingdom of Ayutthaya, the genesis of modern Thailand, was established. From then until the end of the century, Ayutthaya sought to establish its burgeoning power by engaging in wars against the weakening Khmer Empire and its great rival city-state of Chiang Mai.

Bits ‘n’ Bobs

Personal Directions: And the winner is ... The Team!

by Christina Dodd, founder and managing director 
of Incorp Training Asssociates

I have had some interesting discussions with business owners (small and medium) in the past few weeks about training needs and the one area that was common to all was the need to either improve teamwork or, in some cases, start from scratch and help to develop a team culture. It was clear from the various meetings that we had, that a basic fundamental had also often been overlooked or ignored, and that was the fact that a team can comprise as few as two or three people. No matter how small it may be - it is still a team!

Years ago when I first started working I would buy my lunch at a sandwich shop just across from my office. This was a busy part of Sydney and it seemed that everyone in York Street converged on this particular shop - probably because it did have great sandwiches. Anyway, the staff comprised Mum and Dad and two daughters, just the four of them. I’ll never forget the speed in which they filled hundreds of orders - it was astounding. From every possible filling combination to the simplest ham and cheese number - they turned them out perfectly and in a matter of seconds it seemed! The shop was always wall-to-wall with satisfied customers.

Their recipe for success was quite clearly "teamwork". In the busiest part of the day totalling one mad crushing hour when everybody needed to be served quickly, this highly coordinated and by the way "happy" team of four worked like a precision timepiece. All the materials were prepared, each person knew their job, their goals were clear and united - satisfied customers!

Moving on from sandwich enterprises to many other small, medium and large businesses, a well-trained team can mean the difference between making it or losing business to the competition. It can mean the difference between a successful venture or one that fails. And it doesn’t matter what kind of business or industry it is - good teamwork is essential to effectively run a business.

Indeed good teamwork is crucial to the success of any business of any size.

When Henry Ford developed the assembly line in order to build cars, he also knew that he needed workers at his factory to not only put the pieces together in an individual role, but to unite as a team with a shared goal to ensure that the end product was a quality product and one that was the result of group effort. It made a lot of sense then and it makes a lot of sense now. And he couldn’t have achieved what he did without teamwork.

"Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success."

- Henry Ford

So what makes good teamwork? How can it be simply summed up?

Perhaps this explanation will assist:

Good Teamwork is based on:

Clear Goals & Priorities

- which lead to:

Clear Roles & Responsibilities

- which lead to:

Clear Procedures & Processes

- which lead to:

Good Interpersonal Relationships

And once there are good interpersonal relationships at work, then there is no end to the possibilities and the rewards. Having a team that gets along well and works well together is probably one of the key elements to a successful team. For in this camaraderie that exists among the team members lives a "team spirit" which is the essence of the team. It is the light and the magic that empowers it.

Whilst it is all very well to have every member of a team working and co-operating together with unified objectives and so forth, without a team spirit the rewards and benefits of such collaboration will always be limited. A football team can have players who are all wearing the same shirts declaring their club name, they can be the best individual players of their league, but unless there is a team spirit that bonds them, uplifts them and drives them forward together their performance will clearly be measured.

Having "team spirit" can accelerate performance - there is no doubting this. It gets the adrenalin pumping, the mind thinking, builds up confidence and unleashes newfound energy. It helps to put us in over-drive and to go for gold! I am not only referring to sports teams here, but to all teams!

"The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don’t play together, the club won’t be worth a dime."

-Babe Ruth

There are various ways to look at teambuilding and helping teams develop their skills. Programs can range from the more "fun" type of programs for people who don’t know each other to the more serious and "developmental" type of programs that have very specific goals and are more suited to a group of professionals who have worked together and know each other well.

The idea of using "fun" in a corporate teambuilding program is a great way of breaking the ice and enabling people to get comfortable. It also allows for more interaction and bonding with groups who do not know each other and who would otherwise simply clam-up. It is a way for people to relax in a totally positive way.

Teambuilding programs can be held indoors and outdoors dependant upon the objectives that need to be met. Today a lot of companies like to send their teams away - out of the office or factory atmosphere - to be "locked in" totally to two or three days’ activities where they have no distractions whatsoever. It is total emersion into honing their skills and developing relationships! Building team spirit!

Developing creative and inventive teambuilding activities that will encourage employees from different departments to successfully develop co-operative relationships with each other is the primary focus for many companies today. This is what is considered the major weakness in most companies - cooperation between different groups, work stations, departments - is seriously lacking and is a constant challenge for the men at the top.

Teamwork not only refers to businesses and industries. The word "team" covers just about every group effort imaginable. Teams exist in businesses, organizations, government, educational institutions, in every part and level of our society. By our very nature we realize the importance of teams and being team members. It pervades almost every aspect of our lives. We don’t recognize the fact that most of the time our efforts are joint or team efforts. We think we are acting or contributing as an individual whereas we are actually part of a team.

"I love to hear a choir. I love the humanity ... to see the faces of real people devoting themselves to a piece of music. I like the teamwork. It makes me feel optimistic about the human race when I see them cooperating like that."

- Sir Paul McCartney

To find out more as to how you, your company or your group can benefit from teambuilding programs then please feel free to contact me. Christina can be contacted by email at christina.dodd@in corptrain ing.com or directly at Incorp Training Associates in Bangkok. Tel: (0) 2652 1867-8 Fax: (0) 2652 1870. Programs and services can be found at www.incorptraining.com

Social Commentary by Khai Khem

Job-hunting after 50 proves a challenge

A question that often comes up in conversation is what happens to older people in the workplace after they reach a certain age. In the past few months I’ve had a number of invitations to retirement parties; mostly civil servants who are retiring at age 60. Many were delighted to come to the end of their careers; spend more time with family and indulge in long neglected hobbies. But some I spoke with were already making plans to find other jobs and declared they were not yet ready for rocking chairs and gardening.

I’m meeting a lot of people who have already retired at 50. Still strong, healthy and active I was curious as to what these retired people will do with the rest of their lives. So I asked.

Among his numerous professional accomplishments, Piboon is a certified career counselor. He retired from the multi-national company he was working for at 55 and says he cannot find a job. He has a doctorate in human resource development from a foreign university and revealed that he has interviewed for 100 jobs since the company he was working for closed down its operations in 1997.

Piboon told me his last interview was with a large bank. In the middle of the interview the recruiter told him he might as well discontinue the interview because his age is beyond what this company is looking for. Essentially they said they didn’t want anyone as seasoned and brilliant as his resume stated. In other words, he was ‘over-qualified’. In his words, he felt they were "discriminating because of his age".

So what’s he going to do now? He didn’t really know, but was optimistic that something would turn up.

I reflected. Is this bias on the rise? In some countries age discrimination in the workplaces is illegal. I asked some Westerners if they thought that age discrimination is more prevalent than many people think, especially now with the graying of the Baby Boomers. I got a mixed bag of answers.

Some people felt that this was probably true due to the structure of some corporations. However, many people from Europe and English speaking nations thought that in the general workplace, it really depended on the individual, what kind of job they were looking for and how flexible they would be in accepting a career change.

I went to a website and checked out the figures put out by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Their statistics revealed that complaints about age discrimination have risen, up from 14,000 in 1999 to 16,000 in 2000, according to the EEOC. The commission indicated that in the first half of fiscal year 2001, more than 9,000 such claims were filed.

This info was meaningless to me so I asked some Americans to explain just how this worked. One lady came up with an example. (Apparently people can sue the company). Last year a woman from Illinois who was fired by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. filed an age discrimination lawsuit and won a US$55,000 settlement.

I bit my tongue. I know 55,000 US dollars is a lot of money in Thailand, but how long will it last in the USA? I also wondered just how employable the lady was after she won the suit. Did that mean that the next time she interviewed for a job it was automatically hers for fear of another lawsuit? Or was she now a pariah and set off alarm bells in Human Recourses in companies all over the nation?

Legal ‘experts’ say judges and juries are particularly sympathetic in these cases, but many older workers are hesitant to take legal action for fear that it may count against them with prospective employers. Gee, I wonder why.

A German man offered another view. Manfreid is based with a firm in Berlin that specializes in helping older people find employment. He explained that the firm worked inside a program funded by the government that provides employment training for people in transition, particularly those over 50 years of age.

He mentioned that unemployment figures in East Germany are reaching nearly 17% and many of their clients had worked in jobs that are no longer viable in today’s marketplace. The federally funded scheme aims to place workers in accordance with their ability based on experience. The philosophy centers around the theme that older workers are literate, willing to learn, flexible, are great role models and already have good work ethics.

I had to agree with him. Mature workers have a lot factors in their favor. Workers older than 50 bring another positive to the table - life and work experience that most young people have yet to achieve.

A Bangkok friend told me his transportation company has over 800 employees that range from 18 years to the eldest at 72. The 72 year old is his father, and although he could very well retire in comfort the family business profits from his wisdom, experience and his many contacts in the industry. Pichet said, "In a delicate situation, or a crisis, I do not send in rookies. I need my veterans. They know how to continuously reinvent themselves and can think on their feet."

Women’s World:A mother’s worst nightmare part 3

by Lesley Warmer

The hospital supplied a family room and that is where we stayed morning and night for a week. Taking turns to sit by Emma’s bedside and talk to her. Have you ever even imagined what it’s like to talk to your unconscious child and wonder if she can hear? You watch these hospital movies so often on the TV portraying the distress and nightmare that families go through in these situations. Believe me it’s far more difficult to know what to say to an unconscious loved one than the movies make out. But you know you have to talk, it might be the only thing that will make her want to wake up.

On the 5th day she eventually started to come round in a delirious state but it only lasted for a few hours. She was struggling to pull the tubes from her mouth that prevented her from speaking and were making her gag. The readings on the many pieces of equipment went from bad to worse and she was soon unconscious again and deteriorated through the night. The next day the doctor came into the room and said, "I’m sorry Emma cannot survive the next 24 hours the way things are. We have to take her down for a CAT scan to try and discover what’s causing this decline in her condition. Moving her is in itself is a considerable risk." At this moment I felt this was not real; it’s ridiculous this is my daughter he’s talking about, he must be mistaken, but he wasn’t, it was very real.

They did a dummy run first with a nurse and all the life support equipment, then it was for real and they took her. We waited what seemed an eternity not knowing if she would come back dead or alive. The doctor came out and spoke to us again, with another "I’m so sorry we can’t find a cause for her decline. I’m afraid it’s up to her, there’s no more we can do." I can understand why people pass out, I felt near to the breaking point and for the first time my solid front crumpled, but all we could do was wait.

Several more interminable hours passed and then the doctor came out smiling. He said, "We’re not out of the woods yet, but don’t ask me why, we don’t understand it, she is the 1 out of 10 that has turned and she’s fighting back."

For the next 5 days hospital staff fought to keep her stable and Emma fought to live. It was the longest 5 days of my life. They decided to perform a tracheotomy so that the added distress of having a tube in her mouth would not upset her. Then one morning she started slowly to come round. It took 2 days before we could talk to her (she couldn’t talk to us because of the tracheotomy). She’s says now that she doesn’t remember those times. The morphine and assortment of drugs and painkillers kept her in a dream state for quite a while.

As I washed the blood out of her hair and held her poor crushed hand while it was bandaged, I was so grateful that she was alive.

I had commitments in Thailand and needed to return; it was the hardest thing in the world to leave her, but by this time I knew she was off the critical list. She doesn’t remember the first days of consciousness so didn’t know I was there in person. But she tells me all the times I said to her, "I’m so proud of you, you are such a strong girl and can fight this, please come back." She says, "I thought that I was dreaming it." So it is true the words that you say in frustration to someone that’s unconscious can have a great impact on their survival.

Now 6 weeks after the accident it is time for me to return to England to help Emma through the surgery that she is due to have during the next 2 weeks. She has the added complication of the infection MRSA, which we are obviously concerned about, but she has proved herself a courageous girl with a strong will for survival.

At some point in the future I will continue the story of Emma’s recovery. Emma has said she will talk to me about her side of it and what it’s like to lose two and a half weeks of your life and know that your life will never be the same again.