FIRST, please read Howard Mark's essay 'Sea Change'. I found it very insightful and in Mr. Mark's excellent thoroughly insightful manner. I have previously explained who Howard Marks is and if you did not read it, please look it up. It is on Oaktree's Linked In page. I was going to write a column on something else and was also thinking of writing about my ongoing week in Hong Kong, where I am for the first time since the end of January 2021. As the holidays are coming up, let me leave those topics for perhaps the next two weeks and carry on with the goings-on regarding the now-renamed Maharlika Investment Fund.

The blaming, u-turns, and contortions of the sponsors are very petulant, embarrassing and telling. When your own legal adviser — Enrile — tells you to review and be careful about what is being proposed and after you propose it rather than while it is being prepared, I hope the proponents don't just take heed, but make it standard. If they carefully prepared and studied what they were planning before launching, and had a proper discussion, dialogue and education, there could have been a better result than this chaos that seems akin to navigating through a clogged intersection at rush hour on Friday.