How Should Christians Approach Amendment One?

It is troubling that fellow Christians are contemplating a change to our state constitution that would limit civil rights.

Please consider Christ's living and loving example when you decide on May 8. Jesus gave us the greatest Commandment, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.Ekahau timelocationsystem is the only Wi-Fi based real time location system solution that operates on any brand or generation of Wi-Fi network." This is the first and greatest Commandment. And the second is like it: "Love your neighbor as yourself." All the law and the prophets hang on these two Commandments.

Jesus reinterpreted the Old Testament, giving us a fuller and deeper understanding, an understanding that can only come through the perspective of love. He challenged those with a too-literal interpretation. The Ten Commandments were not given us to shield God's eyes from wrong behavior and protect us from divine wrath; they were given out of love so that people could live happier, more fulfilling lives.

God loves us. In the parable of the prodigal son,Where to buy or purchase plasticmoulds for precast and wetcast concrete? the father did not wait for an apology or inflict punishment. He ran to his returning son, embraced him and celebrated.

When the older brother became angry at what he perceived to be a lack of justice, the father told him the importance of his joy at being reunited with the lost brother.

If the father in this parable represents a loving God, to whom punishment is unimportant, we should follow that example and embrace and accept our fellow men and women for what they are, not what we might prefer them to be.

When Jesus was confronted by the scribes and Pharisees with a woman caught in the act of adultery, they reiterated Mosaic Law and its proscription that she be stoned.

Jesus dispersed the crowd by saying, "He that is without sin among you,Our porcelaintiles are perfect for entryways or bigger spaces and can also be used outside, let him first cast a stone at her." Then he said to her, "Neither do I condemn thee: Go, and sin no more."

Being a Christian is not about punishment; it is about doing the right thing and leading by example.

We may fall victim to our human vices again and again. What is important is that we do not give up, that we keep trying to follow the light as it has been given to us.

Jesus did not have to die to save us from the wrath of God. Why would God want to inflict pain and death upon the one he loved most?

How would that satisfy an almost unquenchable anger with the people he created,Where to buy or purchase plasticmoulds for precast and wetcast concrete? knowing that they had imperfections capable of generating the sort of behavior he later could not abide?

Jesus' Gospel of love revolutionizes our understanding of the Old Testament. Before Jesus, fear was necessary to keep people in line, and God's wrath to explain why his chosen people could suffer defeat and exile.

Jesus' death proves that God's love for us transcends even the human desire for life. It is a demonstration that life is fleeting, but the soul isn't and how we live our life is what allows us to become one with God, or can estrange us from him, which is the real punishment.

Science has amply demonstrated that homosexuality is primarily not a choice, but a natural condition some of us are born with. Some brains are wired differently. It is not a sin to be as God created us.

We have to understand the ancient culture and the reasons why society repressed homosexuality. Whatever our beliefs,Our porcelaintiles are perfect for entryways or bigger spaces and can also be used outside, times have changed. Knowledge and understanding have advanced. We must let others do what we may not choose to do ourselves, especially when not forced upon anyone.

Our own morality and minds should be strong enough that we can live and let live without being diminished in the slightest or demoralized in any way.

I understand feelings that our culture has in some ways degenerated and that a healthy dose of individual morality would be beneficial.

The better answer is not repression but dialogue across cultural lines, and agreement upon practical and effective ways to provide a pathway for those who wish to lift themselves up.

Let us not be hypocrites like the scribes and Pharisees, imposing the letter of an archaic law above the spirit of love that originally inspired it.

If God can create and love those among us who are different, we should not misuse state power to oppress and impinge upon the liberty of those who are living the life they were created to live and becoming the fullest divine creation they can be.

That includes the right to marry another adult, if one is blessed to find loving commitment with another, regardless of gender.

'Looking beyond risk management as a cost'

With risk management in prime global focus after the fall of Lehman Brothers, there is a concerted effort to ensure banks are ring fenced to ward off risks associated with their operations, more so to ensure they provide the much needed stability to the economies.

Mr Alok Tiwari, Chief Executive Officer, Aptivaa Consulting Solutions, a global risk management firm, outlines what the proposed Basel III norms aims to achieve and the safeguards that it intends to put in to ensure compliance.

Almost all public sector banks in India are looking for recapitalization. This is so, despite them paying huge dividends to the government on a regular basis. Would not retention of earnings serve the purpose?

This issue will be well addressed in the proposed Basel III norms. In Basel III they have introduced two concepts — one is the counter cyclical buffer and the other, capital conservation buffer. Based on ratio of capital, central banks will specify a policy of dividend payout. At the moment there is a direct conflict of the roles as the Government is both the owner and the manager of the banks (as management is chosen and appointed by the government). The roles are conflicting, as, finally, the management has to act independently.

What is the opportunity cost of the two buffers? Will there be a resistance to the setting for these buffers?

That may not be the right view. The right way is to look at it as a bank's stability to generate ROE (return on equity). What kind of return can the bank generate on capital? This is the big question in the Western markets as post Basel III the ROE is expected to be down 3-4 per cent. One is on account of higher capital requirement and another is that Western markets are ring fencing the banks under the Dodd Frank Act in US and Vickers rule in UK. They say that banks cannot do certain types of activities. They are trying to ring fence the casino and utility banks.

If I am a utility bank, my returns are limited, as I am restricted to deposit and pure lending. If you see the last 6-8 years in global banking, returns have come from investment banking.

In India, there is no plan to ring fence the banks as our markets are not so evolved as the Western markets. So, in their trading books, at the maximum they do government securities, some merchant trading and inter-bank forex. But, the higher capitalization requirements would definitely lead to one to two per cent decline in ROE.

What is your take on the concept of central counter party for OTC (over the counter) products?

In principle, it is very good. As of now , in OTC you have no way of assessing counter-party risks. That is what people discovered post-Lehman.

Also, in general, at the systemic level, I have no view of the way credit risk is distributed within the system as also the counter party risk. The question is, how this will be implemented as OTC products would continue to evolve. Settlement is a concern, as unlike an exchange-traded product where you have settlement prices and liquidity available, here there will be huge issue in terms of valuation and then settlement prices.

Are any checks factored in for off-balance sheet transactions?

Off-balance sheet transactions are being addressed in two ways. One, they are increasing the capital on the structure of the instrument — the arbitrage between on and off-balance sheet. Second is the ring fencing, whether the activity is permitted under regulation. In Basel III they are going to include off and on balance sheet transactions in leverage ratio.

Certain Indian banks have very low NPAs (non-performing assets). What do you think they have done better than their peers?

NPA has three components. One is origination. If I have a strong and prudent origination, half the problem is solved. If I am choosy about what I underwrite, which I believe is supported by the origination. Second is the credit risk management — the frequency of reviews to monitor transitioning credit rating of debtors. The last is transparency of provisioning. There are ways of ever-greening. Sometimes, I have an account which is heading for NPA. I create another advance which can pay off the first. That also goes on. Some creativity is involved. Globally, it is a big issue. Even in the sovereign debt crisis, there is no agreement on how to recognise and deal with it.

At the strategic level, every bank makes its own growth choices. There are a set of banks which prefer growth in assets over asset quality. They only work on the percentage of delinquency. The assumption is that I am going to be in an economic growth cycle. If you are in a prolonged period of economic growth, this holds good as my balance sheet grows ten times and I am containing my delinquency below two per cent. In percentage terms it is fine.

The second type of banks, focus on asset quality. There is a trade off between growth and asset quality. The third would be extremely conservative banks, which focus only on quality.

When you do data analysis on Indian banks, you can slot them in these segments. The problem is, if you are highly quality conscious, the ability to generate returns is limited. If today, if one wants to lend to AAA, every one wants to lend to them. Banks should start looking at risk adjusted return, as on a risk adjusted basis one can generate superior returns, by lower credit risk. I am not saying go to the extreme.

The best example is Wells Fargo Bank of US which is extremely focused on the mid-market. Even during the crisis, it was one bank that stood rock solid and continued to generate returns. That is why you see large global banks focusing on mid market now as it is more diversified. If one picks good mid-market accounts it will offer better returns at relatively less risk.

Indian banks adopt various quantitative models to manage risk. How robust are the models or should each bank develop its own risk model?

There are two major issues. One is data. Indian Banks' Association initiated an important credit risk data consortium in 2008, which is on hold. If you are moving to advanced approaches in credit risk, you need quality industry level data.

Second, the model risk in India is going to be extremely high.

This is based on my experience with banks here as most are not going through proper model validation.

They simply buy third party software and then for the compliance perspective get it validated. Most banks procure an inbuilt software model, built overseas, implement it and sign off. Then someone does a quick validation on it. He does not structurally go into the assumptions or whether the model is back tested. Many times there is no previous data to test it. They are not going through a development lifecycle.

Risk is still seen as a cost or a checklist. The outlook is to meet minimum regulatory requirements. Even globally the perception is the same. There is nothing wrong in profit taking precedence, but at what cost.

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The foolishness of Civil War reenactors

Last month, the Civil War sesquicentennial began with a bang with a "living history" event in Charleston, S.C., that commemorated the firing on Fort Sumter, the momentous act of violence that started the war.

If you’re not familiar with what "living history" means, this is a term that Civil War reenactors use to describe their hobby of dressing up in Union and Confederate uniforms and acting out battles and other significant events that occurred between 1861 and 1865. On April 12, 1861, Confederate forces fired (for real) on Fort Sumter, a military installation manned by federal troops, and continued the bombardment for more than 30 hours, when, outgunned and almost out of supplies, the Union commander, Major Robert Anderson, surrendered the fort and its garrison. It was the fall of Fort Sumter that began the Civil War, and modern reenactors pretended to do it all over again, only this time they did not use live ammunition, did not keep modern Charlestonians from getting their sleep by sustaining the thunder of cannons through the night, and presumably did no damage to the preserved stone walls of the Fort Sumter National Monument, which is located on an island in the middle of Charleston harbor.

In fact, the "living historians" at Charleston fudged the history more than a little by firing their first shot at the fort at 6:45 in the morning rather than at the very famous historical time of 4:30 a.m. Presumably, this enabled the reenactors to sleep a little later than their historical counterparts did 150 years ago. Then, when the mortar shot was finally fired to begin the reenactment, it barely sailed up 40 yards or so into the sky, although the noise it made was, according to the Charleston Post and Courier, "thunderous." But the newspaper also reported that the pyrotechnics left something to be desired: Rather than the "star shell" of a century and  a half ago, the explosion seemed more like a "bottle rocket." The fireworks technician in charge of the mortar shot explained that the burst was "intentionally weak, as a safety precaution to the crowds of people on hand to witness the waterfront ceremony." So much for historical accuracy.