25917

some of you should really consider taking some night school classes in comedy because your jokes stink. While you are dawdling in night school, try to see if your head can wrap around the idea of $53.5 billion. Some of you may become dizzy just thinking about this much cash.



Forbes.com
World's Billionaires 2010
Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Introduction by Matthew Miller and Luisa Kroll

Carlos Slim Helu takes No. 1 spot on Forbes World's Billionaires list as a record 164 10-figure titans return to the ranking amid the global economic recovery.

For the third time in three years, the world has a new richest man.

Riding surging prices of his various telecom holdings, including giant mobile outfit America Movil (AMX), Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim Helu has beaten out Americans Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to become the wealthiest person on earth and nab the top spot on the 2010 Forbes list of the World's Billionaires.

Slim's fortune has swelled to an estimated $53.5 billion, up $18.5 billion in 12 months. Shares of America Movil, of which Slim owns a $23 billion stake, were up 35% in a year.

That massive hoard of scratch puts him ahead of Microsoft (MSFT) cofounder Bill Gates, who had held the title of world's richest 14 of the past 15 years.

Gates, now worth $53 billion, is ranked second in the world. He is up $13 billion from a year ago as shares of Microsoft rose 50% in 12 months. Gates' holdings in his personal investment vehicle Cascade (CAE) also soared with the rest of the markets.

Buffett's fortune jumped $10 billion to $47 billion on rising shares of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK). He ranks third.

The Oracle of Omaha shrewdly invested $5 billion in Goldman Sachs (GS) and $3 billion in General Electric (GE) amid the 2008 market collapse. He also recently acquired railroad giant Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNI) for $26 billion.

In his annual shareholder letter Buffett wrote, "We've put a lot of money to work during the chaos of the last two years. When it's raining gold, reach for a bucket, not a thimble."

Many plutocrats did just that. Indeed, last year's wealth wasteland has become a billionaire bonanza. Most of the richest people on the planet have seen their fortunes soar in the past year.

This year the World's Billionaires have an average net worth of $3.5 billion, up $500 million in 12 months. The world has 1,011 10-figure titans, up from 793 a year ago but still shy of the record 1,125 in 2008. Of those billionaires on last year's list, only 12% saw their fortunes decline.

U.S. billionaires still dominate the ranks--but their grip is slipping. Americans account for 40% of the world's billionaires, down from 45% a year ago.

The U.S. commands 38% of the collective $3.6 trillion net worth of the world's richest, down from 44% a year ago.

Of the 97 new members of the list, only 16% are from the U.S. By contrast, Asia made big gains. The region added 104 moguls and now has just 14 fewer than Europe, thanks to several large public offerings and swelling stock markets...

25916

Like that old saying goes,, aliens do indeed exist. They just choose not to land on earth because they can't stand a planet where MMD lives.

25915

25913,

I hope you know that Idi Amin was a military man.

Wearing a uniform in of itself does not entitle you respect. You earn respect. In your case, I am not sure you deserve it because here you are on a public forum begging people to give you respect.

If that's what you learned at the military academy then you are no better than any disgruntled kaponya whose dreams of rising in the mmd ranks have been squashed due to his frequent arrests for drunkardness.

25914

Now ba Stringer has touched a raw nerve on someones nose.he hehe.Ichitinya..how many military and security officers have we see humiliated without raising a finger?

25913

Dear # 25909 Stringer,

Evidently you like Winter Kabimba who has gone astray on insulting Zambian institutions and citizens from foreign soils share no wisdom and depth.It was 2 weeks a go when Kabimba irrationally made stunning insults on Zambians whilst in Cuba seeking asylum that in 1991 Zambians like brainless Citizens could have voted for any dog against KK. Are you chaps sure about that considering in you deliberate insult that is ignoring the courageous leadership Chiluba then gave when every one feared to death the systemic vicious powerful KK and UNIP establishment?

Where was kabimba when FJT was going through the most risky years since late 70s? Do you know what that insult means on Zambians?

Besides insult his own President Sata who has no education or profession, don't you know that insulting a fully trained Military academy officer which Shikapwasha, PF Kanyama MP Jerry Chanda and many Zambians like myself went went through is an insult on the military establishments world over? Would you then blame fate or politics later for such dangerous immaturity of Kabimba at the hands of any security fraternity?

His tendance to insult President Banda may not be the same as insulting the defense and security. Kabimba is insulting the military and defense security fraternity that come out of high school and selflessly undertake the officers' military officers academy training. He should have asked living General Benjamin Mibenge, Peter Zuze, Brian Chintonfwa,Kingley Chinkuli,Simutowe and Godfrey Miyanda on behalf of other Ft Lt.Generals like Anos Haimbe and Hananiah Lungu all who straight from secondary schools with their Grade 12 certificates were enlisted for some miliatry officers academy.

Little does Kabimba know that military academies are highly enriching institutions with Interdisciplinary Studies. Actually most of Zambia officers until 1993, it was mandatory for an officer to undergo intensive foreign based war academy learning Military sciences, art, history, military Political science, civil Engineering, Fleight, education and Public administration.

But in his myopic head Kabimba thinks an officer who goes through the now regional best Zambian Staff college, or indeed who went through the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS), commonly known as Sandhurst, the Fort Benning, Georgia based group School of Americas Watch at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, in the then Yugoslav and West German Royal Army academies are useless unless one went to USA for an undergraduate law degree.

World over the people who preside over Centers of Security and strategic studies, Defense and regional national states policies in international and peace think tanks are not lawyers but mostly military academy prepared officers.Insulting the military will not do Kabimba any good a fact he may have to learn the hard way. You don't mess around with the military and expect a future.

untill reason crosses your paths, Godspeed to you and your Kabimba!

25912

hey pipoz, who said you can't have a little fun with Jesus, huh? Ok, here goes:

______
A burglar broke into a house one night. He shined his
flashlight around, looking for valuables when a voice in
the dark said,

'Jesus knows you're here.'

He nearly jumped out of his skin, clicked his flashlight
off, and froze.

When he heard nothing more, after a bit, he shook
his head and continued.

Just as he pulled the stereo out so he could disconnect
the wires, clear as a bell he heard

'Jesus is watching you.'

Freaked out, he shined his light around frantically,
looking for the source of the voice.

Finally, in the corner of the room, his flashlight beam
came to rest on a parrot.

'Did you say that?' he hissed at the parrot.

'Yep', the parrot confessed, then squawked, 'I'm just trying to
warn you that he is watching you.'

The burglar relaxed. 'Warn me, huh? Who in the world
are you?'

'Moses,' replied the bird.

'Moses?' the burglar laughed. 'What kind of people would
name a bird Moses?'

'The kind of people that would name a Rottweiler Jesus.'

And that's when the vicious dog named Jesus pounced on the burglar, as Moses in his cage burst into laughter. ha ha ha ha ha!!

25911

Or arguing on who has a bigger nose than the other.

25910

Stringer,

Are you saying that Mr.Kabimba and Mr. Shikapwasha are like two dogs chasing their own tails in an endless circle? What a sorry pair. Two brutes arguing about who has a bigger certificate than the other.

25909

My quote of the day is Winter Kabimba’s comments on General Ronnie Shikapwasha's qualifications (The Post, Wednesday, March 10, 2010)

“BETWEEN ME AND HIM, IT'S HIM THAT IS A LOW-LEVEL FUNCTIONARY BECAUSE THE POSITION THAT HE HOLDS IN THE MMD IS LOWER THAN THE POSITION THAT I HOLD IN PF.

SO HE IS ACTUALLY A LOW-LEVEL FUNCTIONARY HIMSELF,” KABIMBA SAID. “EVEN GOING BY ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS, I AM MORE EDUCATED THAN MR. SHIKAPWASHA. ACCORDING TO THE LIST OF PARLIAMENTARIANS AND THEIR QUALIFICATIONS WHICH WE SAW RECENTLY, MR. SHIKAPWASHA IS A GRADE 12 AND I HOLD A DEGREE IN LAW. MR. SHIKAPWASHA IS A GRADE 12 WITH SOME TRAINING AS A PILOT, WHICH SIMPLY MEANS A DRIVER IN THE AIR.

SO PROFESSIONALLY, HE IS JUST A DRIVER EXCEPT THAT HE WAS TRAINED TO DRIVE IN THE AIR.”

25908

Ba Pimbi,

What about Chile? Predominantly Catholic and hit by a quake recently? Was the Catholic God asleep as well? Maybe Catholics deserve it. After all, protestants dislike Catholics. And as we all know very well, the true God is a Protestant, preferably, Evangelical. Let us look at that bastion of Protestantism in Europe. When a mad dwarf named Hitler decided to turn Germany into his own personal toilet, where was God?

This business of equating natural or man-made disasters and punishment from God can get very silly very fast.