Le Seigneur t’offre son salut

Et ce moment t’est dévolu

Dieu veut briser toutes tes chaînes,

Dieu veut briser toute ta haine.

Aujourd’hui tu entends sa voix,

Et aujourd’hui, fais le bon choix.

Hier est bien entré dans l’histoire,

Demain serait promu en gloire,

Aujourd’hui Dieu te lance un appel

Il t’appelle à son saint autel,

Viens au royaume de sa grâce,

Vois, son salut est efficace.

Aujourd’hui tu bouges, tu vis,

Et du lendemain tu te ris.

Sais-tu quand le souffle de vie

Dont tu jouis te sera ravie ?

Viens à ton Seigneur maintenant.

Viens à ton Seigneur humblement,

Redonne-lui toute ton âme

Ainsi que ton parcours infâme.

Reçois maintenant son pardon

Ne refuse pas son grand don

Accepte la vie éternelle

Viens à la maison paternelle.

Extrait de Moussa Bongoyok Joyeux malgré la crise (Pasadena,CA: Trinity Press, 2002) p. 42.

(c) Copyright by Moussa Bongoyok, 2002.

Eternel, Dieu Créateur,

A toi seul soit la grandeur.

Ta gloire nous environne.

Magnifique est ta couronne.

Face à ton immensité,

Face à ton éternité,

Je ne suis rien qu’une bille.

Je ne suis qu’une chenille.

Je veux marcher sur la trace

Du Sauveur de toute race,

Jésus-Christ le Roi des rois,

Qui est aussi mort pour moi.

Si le Roi s’est abaissé,

Qui suis-je pour m’élever ?

Tout ce que j’ai n’est que grâce,

Qui suis-je devant ta face ?

Donne-moi l’humilité,

L’amour, la fidélité.

Que, toujours, mon moi décroisse !

Et que le Roi Jésus croisse!

Extrait de Moussa Bongoyok  Joyeux malgré la crise (Pasadena,CA : Trinity Press, 2002) p. 10.

© Copyright , Moussa Bongoyok, 2002

A couple of days ago, Diane Francis of Canada’s National Post wrote a disgusting column in which she advocated the world-wide application of China’s one-child policy. She of course is completely ignorant of the consequences that this policy has had on the psychology of China. One such consequence is as follows:

One of my very best friends is Chinese. A young man studying engineering in a Canadian university, he has informed me that no girl would ever be interested in a poor man. Apparently, this notion is widespread amongst young men in China. Why? There are now many more young men in China than women, because if you are allowed only one child, you will abort a baby girl. This has led to an imbalance in the Chinese population. What this means is that girls can be extremely selective in whom they will marry. So when there is parity in the population, a girl would choose sometimes a poor person, because she would otherwise be left a spinster. But now, if every girl has two or three boys from which to choose, she will naturally pick one who is better off financially. The result is that poor young men have much less chance of finding a suitable partner.

Another reason that one-child favors the rich is that the poor depend on their children in their old age, not upon a retirement portfolio.  Poor people with one child are in great danger of complete abandonment in old age because their one child may die or rebel against them, and they will be left destitute.  But also, upon a single married couple falls the burden of four elderly parents (in 60s), and potentially eight elderly grandparents if they survive into their 80-100s.  This is more than anyone couple can handle, unless they are wealthy.  One child favors the rich.

Bethlehem ! Ville de Judée

Apprête une belle maison

Car très bientôt seront vidées

Les cellules de ta prison.

Noël ! Noël ! Noël !

Vive Emmanuel !

Bethlehem ! As-tu bien compris ?

Ce qu’ont annoncé les prophètes ?

Ton choix par Dieu n’a pas de prix

Ne peux-tu pas être en fête ?

Noël ! Noël ! Noël

Vive Emmanuel !

Le Messie cherche une place

Mais, hélas ! Il n’en trouve point.

Lui qui est d’une noble race,

Lui qui est le Sauveur et l’Oint.

Noël ! Noël ! Noël !

Vive Emmanuel !

Frêle, parmi les animaux,

Il fut couché dans une crèche,

Celui qui portera nos maux

Couché sur de la paille sèche.

Noël ! Noël ! Noël !

Vive Emmanuel !

O modèle d’humilité

Toi qui renonças à l’aisance

Daigne voir mon infirmité

Et me guérir par ta Puissance.

Noël ! Noël ! Noël !

Vive Emmanuel !

De tout orgueil délivre-moi

Mon cœur est ton hôtellerie

Emmanuel, Tu es mon Roi

Mon cœur est ta chancellerie.

Noël ! Noël ! Noël !

Vive Emmanuel !

Tiré de Moussa Bongoyok Joyeux malgré la crise (Pasadena, CA: Trinity Press, 2002) p. 26.

La planète terre est mouvement

Et toutes les forêts pleurent leurs arbres.

Nul ne peut consoler le firmament

Qui chante sans cesse des chants macabres.

Mais malgré la gravité de la crise

La joie du chrétien ne sera pas grise

Car le Seigneur revigore sa foi.

Il peut encor dire à la mer : tais-toi !

Le monde en flammes recherche la paix.

Les foyers sont arrosés par les larmes.

La sombre mort ne cesse de frapper.

La vie sur terre a perdu son charme.

Mais la joie du chrétien brise la crise.

Cela n’est nullement une surprise

Car le Seigneur Jésus est Tout Puissant.

Il sait repousser le vent menaçant.

Les accidents d’avion sont nombreux.

Le Sida fait de nombreux malheureux.

Le ciel est déchiré par les missiles

Et la terre par les antimissiles.

Mais le chrétien se réjouit en son âme

Dans cet environnement très infâme.

Jésus lui-même est sa sécurité,

En campagne comme dans la cité.

L’avenir financier est incertain.

Le climat politique est très morose.

La loi favorise le libertin.

Beaucoup de gens souffrent de la névrose.

Mais la joie du chrétien est toujours rose

Parce que son espérance repose

Sur l’Eternel qui peut tout transformer

Et redresser ce qui est déformé.

Extrait de Moussa Bongoyok Joyeux malgré la crise (Pasadena,CA : Trinity Press, 2002) p. 6.

© Copyright 2002 by Moussa Bongoyok.

Père daigne m’apprendre

A bien compter mes jours.

En tout lieu et toujours

Que mon cœur puisse tendre

Vers Toi seul ô mon Père !

Père daigne m’apprendre

A réserver mon cœur,

Qui sait chanter des chœurs

Mais que Satan veut prendre,

Pour toi seul ô mon Père !

Père daigne m’apprendre

La vie de sainteté

Très loin des saletés

Caché dans tes mains tendres

Pour toujours ô mon Père !

Moussa Bongoyok Joyeux malgré la crise (Pasadena, CA : Trinity Press, 2002) p. 25.

© Copyright by Moussa Bongoyok, 2002.

Or: On Outperforming Warren Buffet

Warren Buffet is hailed as the best investor in the world. His net worth as an investor is generally regarded as proof.  I started 100% DIY investing in March 2006 when we transferred our remaining holdings from our full-service investment adviser to our discount brokerage. We are currently standing at 31% over book value. In the same period, BRK-A, Buffet’s holding company has gone from trading at US $90,625 to yesterday’s close at $103,000. That is a 14% gain. Does that make me twice as good an investor as Warren Buffet?

An article in Canada’s Globe and Mail recommends that individuals invest like Buffet. There are many articles of this kind floating around; Buffet is considered a prophet of investing, the Oracle of Omaha. I’ve also shared here some of my tips of investing and there is some overlap between the way the Buffet invests and my style.  Yet in the commentary section of the Globe and Mail article I wrote:

I cannot invest like Warren Buffet. He breathes and the market reacts. It is harder for him to buy shares on the open market too, since if he were to let it be known that he wanted a billion dollars of shares of something, the price would go up uncontrollably. That’s why he often buys preferred shares which aren’t available to guys like me. He can’t invest like me either. Unlike Buffet, whenever I buy something the price seems to go down immediately. I buy very small stakes in companies that I think have promise or which have good yield. But it’s too small for anyone to pay much attention. I like it that way.

So perhaps comparing myself to Warren Buffet is a bit of bravado on my part, a testosterone-filled pissing match. It’s not comparable at all because Buffet is investing billions and I’m like an ant crawling around the big toe of an elephant. And to be fair, there have been times when Buffet’s done much better. I’ve been lucky during this recession, I’ll admit it.

But there is a fundamental difference between Buffet style and mine. He is buying America whereas I’m shorting the US dollar and buying Canada–a strategy that may back fire according to Roubini; but I don’t think it will because all the trends in the US government until the 2010 election are inflationary. Ken Boessenkool in the Globe and Mail writes about Canada’s dollar, the loonie:

… perceptions of future investment returns on a country-to-country basis are often affected by large shifts in fiscal policy. Bad fiscal policy – in the form of unsustainable deficits and debts – will cause investors to expect increases in future taxes and lower rates of return. In that case, the relative attractiveness of that country as a place to work and invest will fall, driving down economic growth. In response to poor fiscal policy, a falling currency can provide the automatic stabilizer to lower growth rates resulting from rising deficits and unsustainable debts.

And this is exactly the picture we are seeing south of the border. Barack Obama has put the United States on a debt and deficit path that is far worse than Canada experienced in the early 1990s, when The Wall Street Journal called Canada an “honorary member of the Third World” and our dollar was flirting with historic lows.

Moveover, our world-view is informed by biblical conservatism. The Bible is a good guide to investing; it affirms risk taking, generosity, unselfishness and not allowing money take hold of you (I am of the opinion that selfish people make bad investors).  It also warns about indebtedness. In my view, the US government’s profligate debt-based spending is a path towards poverty that is immoral and self-destructive. This kind of behavior is not affirmed in the Bible at all.

Warren Buffet knows it is bad in the US. But perhaps he is in denial about the single worst investment decision that he ever made:  his ill-informed endorsement of Barack Obama for President. Ill-informed because had he paid attention to Obama, he would have known that he was a radical leftist–perhaps it is not too far to say that BHO is a Marxist given his background. He would have known also that BHO knows nothing about economics and has never been an executive of a company or any other entity which would have qualified him for becoming the CEO of the United States. The man who is famous for researching companies before risking billions failed to do his research into BHO and it is literally costing Berkshire Hathaway billions in market capitalization.

Si l’on pouvait te donner

L’or et l’argent de ce monde ;

Si l’on pouvait te donner

Tous les biens que couvre l’onde ;

Quand te frappera la mort,

Où irait tout ton trésor ?

Si l’on pouvait te donner

Les terrains de la planète ;

Si l’on pouvait te donner

Les châteaux et maisonnettes ;

Tu n’aurais qu’un seul cercueil

Un bout de sol pour accueil.

Si l’on pouvait te donner

Les armes perfectionnées ;

Si l’on pouvait te donner

Des troupes bien entraînées ;

Quand la mort viendra frapper,

Elle le ferait en paix.

Si l’on pouvait te donner

Tous les honneurs de la terre ;

Si l’on pouvait te donner

La majesté du tonnerre ;

Quand ton corps sera poussière,

Tout irait à la rivière.

Si l’on pouvait te donner

Tous les avocats du globe ;

Si l’on pouvait leur donner

Du verbe et de belles robes ;

Quand viendra le jugement,

Ils fuiraient tous sagement.

Aujourd’hui Jésus te donne

La richesse de sa grâce ;

Prends la vie et abandonne

Tous les péchés qui t’enlacent ;

Donne ton cœur au Sauveur.

Qu’il en soit le seul Seigneur !

(c) copyright by Moussa Bongoyok Joyeux malgre la crise (Pasadena, CA: Trinity Press, 2002) p. 38.

(Poem in memory of Martha Murray, June 12, 1918-October 17, 2009)

Flow, tears of sadness, flow.

Go, tears of sadness, go.

Tears of distress,

tears of the stress,

do not be shy; do not get scared by mankind.

Borrow the voice of  Bartimaeus the blind.

Run, jump, fly.

Go, and fly high.

Go and wake up the Mandara Mountains.

Go and stand near all the Mokolo fountains.

Tell my people that one dear wing has gone above our zone.

Tell them that the other wing is left alone.

Tell them that California is shaking.

Tell them that my heart is aching.

Run, jump, fly.

Go, and fly high.

Put my pain and anguish in a bag tied with a strong rope.

Throw them in the ocean of hope,

and everything will be fine.

For our mother Martha Murray is gone to shine

among the brightest and most faithful stars in the sky.

Tell everybody that she will never die.

Flow, tears of joy, flow.

Grow, tears of joy, grow.

Fly, tears of holiness, fly.

Go and glorify the Eternal and Most High.

Composed by Moussa Bongoyok

Pasadena, 10/28/2009 at 6:30 pm

while thinking strongly about Martha Leota Murray.

© Copyright 2009, by Moussa Bongoyok.

India bought 200 tons (32,000 ounces) of gold today from the IMF at a price of $6.7 billion. This should be an ominous sign for the deflationistas.  The price of gold spiked to US $1083 per ounce, a new high.

It has become clear to me too that one reason that the US has avoided inflation in the past is that so many governments and individuals hold their wealth in dollars.  John Mauldin wrote in his newsletter (October 30, 2009), “Catching Argentinian Disease” regarding real estate transactions in Argentina:

Interestingly, the dollar is still the real medium of exchange. I was told by several people that if you want to buy a house for half a million dollars, you bring the physical cash to the closing. One person counts the money and the other checks the paperwork and title. Argentina has the second largest hoard of physical dollars in the world, only exceeded by Russia. Is it any wonder they are concerned with the value of the dollar?

What if the international community suddenly lost confidence in the dollar and began to sell its reserves in favor of other currencies (Euros, Canadian loonie), gold and other commodities?  So far we’ve seen a trickle effect: the US dollar is slowly losing value.  But imagine the little Dutch boy with his finger in the hole of the dam, and if he suddenly removes the finger and the dam could burst; once confidence is lost the world markets could be flooded with US dollars in a day.  This seems to me to be a real risk to America and it is why the current Democrat controlled Congress and Office of the President are so immoral and irresponsible in their deficit spending.  What happens when no one wants to buy US debt?  They will have to raise interest rates.  But the US government can’t raise interest rates because already 40 cents on every tax dollar services the national debt.  If the interest rate was raised by a few cents, the US would be like the sub-prime borrowers who could no longer pay their mortgages when interest rates go up, because imagine if for every tax dollar 60 cents when to paying for debt.  That is untenable.  The problem will spiral out of control.  So the US will, as Mark Faber and others have predicted , monetize the debt (this occurs when the Federal Reserve buys US treasury notes) and hyperinflation will set in.  I expressed my fears about this on January 19, 2009, and in terms not too different the Financial Post’s Jonathan Chevreau (on May 27, 2009):

Over the past year, I’ve occasionally mused mostly in jest that the way the United States has been printing money to combat the financial crisis seems to rival Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe. All this by way of wondering how it is that the result of running the presses has been rampant hyperinflation in Zimbabwe, yet the U.S. so far seems to have dodged the inflation bullet.

The only thing that can save us is for conservatives to take back Congress in 2010 and the White house in 2012.  The security of the USA and of the world depends on it.

Today at Powerline blog, Paul Mirengoff says that to consider Obama a fool is the charitable explanation of some of his foreign policy.  The same is true of current economic policy.  Rush Limbaugh and others believe that he is intentionally trying to destroy the economy so that he can implement a radical agenda, as Rahm Emmanuel has famously said, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.”  Such a sinister intent is consistent with some things that we know about Obama’s background.  But for the moment, I will reserve judgment.

Interestingly, the dollar is still the real medium of exchange. I was told by several people
that if you want to buy a house for half a million dollars, you bring the physical cash to the
closing. One person counts the money and the other checks the paperwork and title. Argentina
Catching
Argentinian
Disease
3
10/30/09
has the second largest hoard of physical dollars in the world, only exceeded by Russia. Is it any
wonder they are concerned with the value of the dollar?

My son, I see you’ve finished in part
Your studies of the divine art.
It is called theological,
But don’t see it as magical.

My son, I heard it’s not easy.
Your faith will be queasy.
But it’s the Lord who will lead you,
When it’s Him, you’ll make it through.

My son, disregard the liberals,
Don’t consider them heros.
They will destroy the subject of dogmatics
And deform the science of hermeneutics.

My son, make sure to guard your heart.
Search the Bible from the start,
So that theology of a human bent,
Does not mask the divine scent.

My son, a servant of mighty degree
Doesn’t really have need of a PhD.
You should have a holy walk.
About which all the others talk.

My son, work off your ass,
And pay attention in class.
Your parish will be more demanding,
Its growth won’t be subsiding.

My son, once you’ve graduated,
And your brains have been sated,
Sort out what is now in your head,
And the church will be in good stead.

By Moussa Bongoyok, Translation by P. W. Dunn (November 3, 2009) from CONSEIL D’UN PÈRE À UN FUTUR THEOLOGIEN

Mon fils, te voilà en chemin

Pour apprendre un art divin

Appelé la théologie ;

Mais ce n’est pas de la magie.

Mon fils, j’ai appris que c’est dur.

Ta foi sera au pied du mur.

Mais c’est le Seigneur qui t’y mène

Or, quand il mène, il ramène.

Mon fils, laisse les libéraux.

Ne les prend pas pour des héros.

Ils écrasent la dogmatique

Et déforment l’herméneutique.

Mon fils, garde ton cœur surtout.

Sonde bien ta Bible partout

Que la théologie des hommes

Ne tue pas le divin arôme .

Mon fils, un puissant serviteur

N’est pas forcément un docteur.

Mène une vie respectable,

Une vie sainte et louable.

Mon fils, suis bien ta formation

Suis tous tes cours avec attention.

L’assemblée est plus exigeante

Et sa croissance n’est plus lente.

Mon fils, après avoir appris

Et après avoir tout compris

Trie ce que tu as en tête

Pour que l’Eglise soit en fête.

Tiré de Moussa Bongoyok  Joyeux malgré la crise (Pasadena,CA: Trinity Press, 2002) p.32.

C’est bien beau de se proclamer chrétien,

De vanter la grâce que l’on détient,

Mais qui se veut d’un céleste lignage

Doit aussi veiller sur son témoignage.

Le monde en a assez de bruits

Il veut maintenant voir de bons fruits

A quoi sert une confession verbale

Dans l’injustice et dans la guerre tribale ?

Le monde souffre et il a soif de voir

Non pas ceux qui ne font que décevoir

Mais des chrétiens, nouvelles créatures

Qui ont tourné la page des ratures.

Des chrétiens pratiquant l’honnêteté,

Des chrétiens vivant dans la sainteté,

Sont vraiment recherchés par notre monde.

Qu’on le diffuse par la voix des ondes !

Extrait de Moussa Bongoyok Joyeux malgré la crise (Pasadena, CA : Trinity Press, 2002) p. 21.

© Copyright by Moussa Bongoyok, 2009.

P.S: Vous aimez les proverbes? Veuillez consulter http://contributionsafricaines.tk

Vous y trouverez un nouveau proverbe africain chaque semaine ainsi que leur importance pour la vie spirituelle. A bientot! Moussa.

A debate is waging between the deflationists and inflationists.  It will come as no surprise to those who’ve read my previous posts on the subject that I fall into the latter camp.  I have indicated numerous times that I’ve put my money where my mouth is.  In January, I was so convinced that there would be inflation, that I eventually decided to implement a strategy of holding little cash but rather oil and gas and gold mining stocks.  I’ve also shorted the US dollar.  This strategy is paying off handsomely so far.   Besides the inflationists have many decades of contemporary monetary history to back their point of view, and the knowledge that government deficits generally feed inflation.  The current Obama deficit is profligate and never seen in the US before Obama. In Bloomberg, David Reilly asks whose face should go on the $1,000,000 bill, but never suggests Obama, apparently because he is afraid to be put on the President’s enemy list.

It is true that the credit bubble was popped last Autumn, and this caused deflation.  But this has been reversed.  Consumers don’t see it yet because consumer goods haven’t increased in price yet.  But rising prices is not the definition of inflation.  One mustn’t confuse the symptom with the cause.  Inflation is caused by an expansion of the money supply without a corresponding growth in real wealth (i.e., goods and services).  When the supply of money is inflated, prices will rise to accommodate it.  This is what is already happening to gold, oil, and the stock market.  In Canada, there is an increase in real estate prices.  Next, consumer prices will catch up and everyone will feel the pain when their pay cheque won’t go as far.  Witness that oil is already back above $80 per barrel, gold is above 1050, and the Canadian dollar is almost en par with the dollar.  These are all symptomatic of the re-inflation of the US money supply.  Meanwhile, the Koreans are buying Harvest Energy Trust, a sign that the Asian, creditor nations are abandoning the dollar for hard assets in commodity interests around the world, including Africa.

Irwin Seltzer writes in a his column, “The Dethroning of King Dollar?“:

Which puts the ball right back in the Fed’s court. Unless Bernanke drains liquidity from the financial system, and shrinks the Fed’s balance sheet by winding down $2 trillion in support programs — and does so precisely when the recovery takes hold so as not to cause a relapse by moving too early — the dollar’s decline will accelerate, shattering confidence in its long-term value. One well-respected expert tells me that in two-to-five years the dollar will no longer be considered safe enough to be the currency in which the world does business. Its replacement: separate deals in local currencies — the Chinese paying for Brazil’s oil in renminbi, which the Brazilians use to purchase stuff made in China — and the International Monetary Fund’s drawing rights, bits of paper backed by a basket of currencies, including but not limited to the dollar. That would mark the end of an era that has seen world trade flourish and millions emerge from poverty. Sad.

A-t-on le droit de chanter

quand l’intelligence humaine est esclave de la méchanceté ?

A-t-on le droit de danser

quand le pied du prochain cherche en vain un appui ?

A-t-on le droit de jubiler

quand les chaînes de l’esclavage avalent du sang frais ?

A-t-on le droit de rire

quand la mort est célébrée comme un précieux ami ?

A-t-on le droit de festoyer

quand Gorée se tortille au sommet des langues de feu ?

Ne me parle pas, dragon de l’Ouest,

car mes oreilles sont en divagation au marché de j’aurais été.

Ne me console pas, serpent de l’Est,

car mon cœur est parti à la rivière de si j’avais su.

Ne me fais pas visualiser ton film, foudre du Nord,

car mes yeux sont enfouis dans le champ de j’aurais voulu.

Ne me chatouille pas, diamant du sud,

car mon rire s’est évanoui sur la montagne de si j’avais pu.

Gorée, ô Gorée ! que puis-je dire?

Aucune parole n’est assez forte

pour traduire les sentiments d’un cœur devenu caillou

dans le désert de l’absurdité de la condition humaine.

Mais crois-moi, Gorée,

Un jour les chaînes danseront de joie sur les ailes des étoiles.

Un jour Dieu jettera son regard favorable

et ressuscitera les ossements desséchés des cris silencieux.

 

Composé à Mbour au Sénégal le 16/10/2009, après avoir visité l’île de Gorée la veille, et en route vers le village de mon ami Adama Diouf.

© Copyright by Dr. Moussa Bongoyok, 2009.