Re: Its Normal Watsa Pdf Download
Joao Charlesbois
Dr. Mahinder Watsa is no more. The tributes are pouring in on social media, and rightly so. His responses to questions about sex in his column in the Mumbai Mirror acquired cult status. He was greatly loved for his witty rejoinders to the ignorant, the bigoted and the prudes of this country. Sayantan Ghosh put it nicely in a tribute on Twitter:
\u201CDr Mahinder Watsa not only made talking about sex a non-issue in a country still lacking adequate sex education, but also was one of those satirists who always responded with empathy, to even the most inane inquirers, reminding us that humour can and must coexist with compassion.\u201D
\u201CMy family is demanding that I get married. How can I ascertain if the girl is a virgin?
I suggest you don\u2019t get married. Unless you appoint detectives, there is no way to find out. Spare any poor girl of your suspicious mind.\u201D
\u201COnce he was asked by a \u201C32-year old happily married man from Karjat\u201D if it was OK to cheat on his wife with his goat named Ramila. \u201COver the past two months, I have been thinking about how it would feel to make love to her. Is this normal? Will I contract a goat-related STD? Please help!\u201D he wrote
Aside from mentioning that bestiality was considered abnormal and illegal in India, this is what Dr. Watsa had to say. Do ask Ramila whether she would like it\u201D
As the author of this piece, Meenal Bhagel would put it \u201CConsent, Consent, Consent\u201D would be the single most important advice that Dr. Watsa had to offer.
In this spirit of openness and compassion that the good doctor embodied, then, let me share this poem by the 12th Century Vachana poet Akka Mahadevi (a version by Jane Hirshfield).
First, why support biodiversity? Diverse wildlife that fills different ecological niches, occupies links in a food chain, and fulfills seed-dispersal tasks are critical for healthy ecosystems. In turn, these ecosystems provide services to us efficiently, and at a cost our most advanced engineering and science can rarely compete with. These ecosystem services include fundamental needs, such as fresh water, clean air, plant pollination, and food; but also soil stability and such complex and valuable products as medicines and cosmetics.
When we lose wildlife biodiversity, not only are these ecosystem services lost, but humans and wildlife are more heavily impacted by severe weather. We are also more at risk for economic instability, as resources like clean water disappear or become costly, and the indigenous cultures and identities that are bonded with these parts of nature can become damaged. In these scenarios, people and wildlife often come into close contact with each other, increasing the risks of sharing new diseases that each are unprepared to fight. So, while you might be okay if there are 5 species of birds in your neighborhood compared to the 10 there used to be, the drop in biodiversity is a signal the ecosystem is not as healthy as it once was; certain ecological services those missing birds might have once filled, like spreading the seeds of your favorite tree and providing clean air, are now gone.
Our first ISL hub, the Wildlife Conservation Laboratory, is nestled in the southeastern Peruvian Amazon. Here, at the foothills of the Andes mountains is the 22-year-old Estacin Bilogica Ro Los Amigos (or Los Amigos Biological Station), one of many Peruvian stations operated by Conservacin Amaznica. Mrinalini Erkenswick Watsa, Ph.D., a conservation scientist with San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, has been studying emperor tamarins Saguinus imperator and saddleback tamarins Leontocebus weddelli at this site for over 12 years. In that time, she and her team have expanded their very successful mark-recapture program to include other nonhuman primate species, birds, bats, reptiles, amphibians, and small and medium-sized mammals. All of these individuals get health screenings, and minimally invasive samples are collected from them annually. Dr. Watsa cultivated a vision to increase the capacity of this biological station as a new type of field molecular laboratory, a vision that originated with Conservacin Amazonica, and together, a plan to fund the ISL hub was hatched.
We can also look for certain pathogens, from bacteria to viruses to protozoa (such as malaria), that wildlife might carry, to start to understand what is normal for these neotropical species, and which pathogens might suggest they are sick. Taking this a step further, we can sequence whole individual or pathogen genomes to understand how individual pathogens are related between various host species in the same environment.
As we monitor biodiversity and pathogen ecology across species, we need to keep in mind local environmental threats to wildlife health. Artisanal or small-scale gold mining is pervasive in the region protected by Conservacin Amazonica. This practice often uses mercury to bind the flecks of gold in Amazon River silt into an amalgam that, when burned, leaves pure gold. It also releases mercury that moves through the air, traveling vast distances before it deposits into the forests, sometimes up to two years later. In thick biodiverse jungles, mercury accumulates in wildlife. As one predator eats another, the amount of mercury increases as you go up the food chain, and soon there is a high risk of wildlife becoming poisoned or having critically impaired reproduction. Testing mercury levels in wildlife side-by-side with pathogen surveillance is critical to get a holistic view of their ability to thrive in their environment, so that as we evaluate the health of Amazonian wildlife, we can take into consideration whether their mercury burden is making them susceptible to infectious disease.
The information presented in this podcast or available on the website is not intended as and shall not be construed as financial advice. This podcast is produced for entertainment value. Investing is inherently risky. And I encourage you to seek financial advice from a professional who is aware of the facts and circumstances of your individual situation.
So going, going through, going through the crisis. And, you know, there was a little bit sleepless, sleepless nights in the sense that I'm trading in North America during the day and then India at night as well.
So, so there was a little bit of that. And then I wrote the most, I like, I usually only communicate with clients because I, for every year, unless I have something to say or something is going on in the market.
The one thing that that was different in that crisis was a health scare on top, but so that was worrisome, especially, you know, when you think of your parents and people that were in the age demographic that could be impacted by it, right.
There's a lot of uncertainty, but it created opportunity for good companies. And again, I throw over my framework of trying to reduce risk of having cash rich companies that are, you know, good free cash flow and and that have managed themselves in a conservative manner.
But if you're a true value investor, a lot of times you're not involved in what's causing the crisis and I go back to the great financial crisis is more of a normal thing where people got in excessive leverage and that kind of thing.
So that doesn't totally apply to the pandemic, but it does apply in the sense that there's these businesses like again, like I mentioned Spin Master, I thought people would still buy toys right and in fact, I thought people would buy more toys if we have to stay at home.
But when I look at the macro, I remember Peter Lynch, I'm going to paraphrase here, I'm not going to get it exactly right, but he said something like if you spend more than 15 minutes a year worrying about the market, you've wasted 13 minutes.
And so that's what I do. And so I don't stay up at night worrying, you know, other things keep me up at night, but not my companies because of because of the way I've structured the portfolio, I'd say.
And so I've tried to do that through investing as well. And, and minimize negative impacts. And, you know, when I look at the S&P 500, one thing that I'm always, that, so maybe this would be a point that might keep me up at night in the sense that,
Still have a nice market share, but maybe advertising revenue also comes down. They've got a second challenger or like, you know, now Apple might say, hey, well, maybe we'll use Bing as our default engine.
So key decisions at the head office, Fairfax head office, meaning investing, right, for the flow, the insurance flow, M&A transactions and dramatically expanding or contracting a major line of business.
And if you look at, and why we always say we'll have an internal candidate because, well, if you look at it first of all, like, yeah, Fairfax, our, our presidents, our CEOs have been with the company over 20 years.
Yeah, Berkshire's also decentralized. I'm curious, do you think that's a concept that can apply across industries? I mean, those are two good examples, but they happen to both be in the insurance industry.
And so, you know, he's, he's let it grow that way. And I think, so I think it can work with, with all sorts of companies, but you need to have a no-ego culture. And that is against the grain for a lot of companies.
And we keep them executives focused on the long term and not on the short term. So, executives at some of these other companies, when they think they're only there for a short period of time, if they're not going to make their quarterly earnings, they could sell a line of business, right?
But that might not be in the best interest of the company long term. Now, that won't happen at Fairfax, right? Because we're there for, for a very long term, but it could happen at these other companies.
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