Triangular communication

Today I went to the mosque for Friday prayer at other city close to Siena with a Palestinian classmate.

On the way back we met with another inhabitant of Siena that originated from Marocco. His native language is Arabic and French, he also speak good Italian.

So it is a triangular communication between us. I talked to my classmate in English, he talked to the Moroccan in Arabic and the Moroccan talked to me in Italian.

Hmm, imagining how it is at UN with hundreds of language and countries

Next Stop, Dubai!

I have been reading about the Singapore of Middle East that goes even further and faster than Singapore on opening economy and closing politics.

It’s an economic miracle with growth rate close to 10 percent in the last decade while only exist as desert in 40 years ago. It’s easy to point to oil as the prop of the country, but many countries has more oil and attracted much less investment. Economically, they must be doing something right there.

So out of curiosity a couple of months ago I submitted abstract for paper for International Conference of Middle East Economics Association to be organized in Dubai next year and yesterday I received their confirmation of acceptance.

I am writing on a topic dear to me. I have been working on it for a long time that I would not pursue as main PhD thesis, you can call it a trip down a memory line since I will only get partial reimbursement from university (hey, even economist has heart and feeling).

So, let see how those islands measure up in reality.

Am I a Superman?

Stumble upon this website while looking at a friend's blog.
It say I am. It would be great to posses his morality and consistency though.


Your results:
You are Superman

Superman 90% Green Lantern 70% Supergirl 67% Robin 59% The Flash 55% Spider-Man 50% Iron Man 50% Hulk 45% Batman 45% Wonder Woman 37% Catwoman 30%

You are mild-mannered, good, strong and you love to help others.

Click here to take the "Which Superhero are you?" quiz...

Credit Card and Internet Security

I dont do credit card. Being a grad student in economics and studying behavioural economics bring me the real picture of its perils.

Having the ability to purchase anything (up to credit limit) with a swap of card is too much for most people. People overestimate their ability to self control and limit their purchase. According to American Consumer Credit Counseling, the total U.S. credit card debt in the first quarter of 2002 was approximately $60 billion with average interest rate around 18.9%. For more information click here

But living in abroad brings the need for credit card for things such as budget airline, VOIP and bus ticket. Ryanair don’t do cash transaction, even when you are standing in front of their counter.

My usual solution is to use credit card of friend and pay him/her in cash. But I was told that a bank in Siena (surprise, Italian bank!) offer card that work like pre-paid phone service without the need to have an account at that bank. If the card was lost and copy then you just get a new one (of course the amount inside gone astray)

So you pay initial 12 euro for the card and can put money in the card (up to 10 k euro). You also need to pay 2 euro for each top up regardless of the amount. The card can be used to withdraw money from its ATM and to pay in the shops and of course to do internet purchase. Voila you have a credit card!

Imagine my dismay when I was tempted by low price of Yahoo Voice and decided to give it a try. After (yes, after) paying with my card online they say that they sent small amount of money to my account and ask me to verify the amount. Only then I can use the credit.

Even though I know Yahoo’s concern for credit card fraud (I am a first time buyer there and they limit the purchase to USD 10), I am not sure that with this kind of card I can get transaction details. But even for people have credit card, I doubt many will bother to do such things for VOIP service since many othe services (Skype, VoipDiscount etc) available.

I am wondering whether I can get the USD 10 back if I can’t get the transaction details.