Beer Steak Bullshit

Carlos Slim Helú, a Mexican guy who controls telecommunication industry in Mexico ranks are the world’s richest man for 2010 ousting Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. According to just published Forbes list of billionaires for 2010, net worth of Carlos Slim Helú is $53.5 Billion US, which half a billion more than Bill Gates’ worth who ranked second with the sum of $53 Billion US. Given billions upon billions of his own dollars that Bill Gates gives to charities every year through Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates remains the richest man in the world despite Carlos Slim banking in an additional $500 Million.

Mexico, as we all know is a war zone. One of the most dangerous places in the world, right up there with other super dangerous countries such as The Philippines, riddled with gang wars that try to outdo one another with brutality. There are more murders in Mexico each year, than in Iraq and Afghanistan combined and that’s where the rule of Carlos Slim Helú is set in. Whether he’s the world’s richest man on paper for 2010 or not, Bill Gates remains the real richest man in the world. But take a look at who else is in top ten richest men in the world – mining and energy tycoons from south Asia and South America. The full list of World’s Richest Men for 2010 as published by Forbes is below:

1. Carlos Slim: $53.5 billion, telecommunications
2. Bill Gates: $53 billion, founding software giant Microsoft
3. Warren Buffett: $47 billion, shrewd Berkshire Hathaway
4. Mukesh Ambani: $29 million, petrochemicals in India
5. Lakshmi Mittal: $28.7 million, steel giant ArcelorMittal
6. Lawrence Ellison: $28 billion, founding software firm Oracle
7. Bernard Arnault: $27.5 billion, luxury brands Louis Vuitton and others
8. Eike Batista: $27 billion, mining and oil in Latin America
9. Amancio Ortega: $25 billion, South America fashion firm Inditex
10. Karl Albrecht: $23.5 billion, grocery discount chain Aldi

Photo of 2010 World’s Richest Man Carlos Slim Helú of Mexico by Bloomberg News

Philippines is one of world’s most dangerous countries ranking right up there along with Iraq and Afghanistan. Only suicidal people would choose Philippines as their vacation destination but it looks like the dangers of the Philippines are far more stretched. Mother Nature is about unleash her fury through eruption of Philippines’ most active volcano – Mayon Volcano. Since Philippines are half day ahead of North America, it’s already December 23, 2009 there and Mayon Volcano has been hurling more and more lava for 8 days. More than 50 thousand people living in Legazpi city and surrounding areas in Albay province have been evacuated or fled their homes as Mayon Volcano clouded the sky with ashes and sulphuric fumes.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology warns that major explosion is quite likely still before the end of 2009. Meantime, the alert level for Mayon Volcano has been risen to four. On the one to five scale, three means that major eruption will occur in near future. Five means that an eruption is happening right now. Four basically means that an eruption is more or less imminent.

Mayon Volcano is located 300 miles (about 500 kilometres) southeast of Philippines’ capital Manila and has erupted 48 times since nations started keeping track of the eruptions. The video of Mayon Volcano covering Philippines in thick white smoke on Christmas of 2009 is below:

Photo of Philippines Mayon Volcano belching out lava by Associated Press