Best Illusion Ever?

This was sent to me under the heading "Best Illusion Ever". I am not sure it is the best illusion ever, but it is very, very, very good.

It seemingly comes from America's Got Talent. The illusionist is a man named Kevin James. There is a stack of stuff on YouTube with him in it. I have not really bothered to investigate whether he was a competitor on AGT or whether he was the guest act or something.

If this video has not gone viral yet, then it probably should. If it has, then my apologies. I am only getting it now.

Enjoy!

Arab Investors and the Jakarta Monorail Project

The activity at the House of Representatives (DPR) over the past week or so in passing legislation may actually pay off in both the figurative and literal senses. The DPR managed to pass a bill on Syariah-based Bonds which sets out the basic regulatory framework for the issue of Syariah Bonds or as they are more commonly known, Sukuk. This it seems has caught the eye of Muslim investors (Dubai and United Arab Emirates) who are keen to make halal investments and this provides an opportunity for that.

The Jakarta Monorail project has been a fiasco from the start. It is scheduled for completion in 2010 but that just is not going to happen! But it might just get finished if investors can be found. However, it is worth noting, as Dilli has done on his blog (picture also stolen / borrowed from Dilli's Blog), that if investors are going to come on board then they need to do so fast as some of the pylons that are supposed to support the monorail have started to mysteriously disappear.

I have to say I am not sure how you make a huge pylon disappear but it is probably a good David Copperfield or David Blaine or Cris Angel illusion!

The monorail was part of the comprehensive Jakarta traffic management plan. But the fact that the monorail has been plagued with problems from the outset brings into question the seriousness of the government and the comprehensiveness of their plan.

Anyone who has tried to travel around town using public transport soon comes to understand why people prefer private cars! If you add into this mix a little bit of rain then it just becomes traffic chaos. Will the monorail alleviate some of this chaos, who knows, but it is up in the air (literally and figuratively) so perhaps it cannot do any more harm!

Yet, the reality is, even with potential Arab investors wanting to come on board, it remains unclear as to whether the Central or Jakartan Governments want to back the monorail financially as the difficulties so far would be indicative of some serious risk management concerns.