Shari Arison (Photo Israel Sun)We must indeed be living in a New Age when Shari Arison, Israel's richest woman and controlling shareholder of the country's second-largest bank, announces she has visions and receives messages "from above."
Well...isn't that what financial empires always look for--visionaries?
Arison reportedly set off an uproar in Israel after she revealed that information in an interview with Channel Two broadcast late on Saturday. An uproar? It's not like she claimed to see burning bushes in the stock market...did she?
"I get a picture, I can feel it. If it's fire, I feel like I'm burning. If people are dying I feel pain," she confirmed in an interview with Reuters.
Nevermind.
The Israeli-American Arison along with her brother inherited billions of dollars from her late father Ted Arison, who founded Carnival Corp, the world's biggest cruise ship operator. According to Forbes magazine, she's ranks at No. 109 among the world's 1, 225 billionaires in 2008 with a fortune of $5.2 billion. She is the controlling shareholder in Bank Hapoalim and controls Housing and Construction, Israel's biggest construction company.
Arison stressed that her visions do not interfere with the running of Hapoalim, in which she has no active role. (Is that good or bad?)
"The bank is managed very professionally, there's a chairman and a board and everything is done according to law. It's not my visions that run the bank, that's ridiculous ... there's nothing to be worried about," she said.
What's ridiculous? That she would have such visions, that her visions would run the bank, that she would tell the world about them, or that she would expect the public to believe her visions have nothing to do with how she runs her businesses and finances?
Shares of Hapoalim, Israel's second-largest bank, rose 1.6% on Sunday. Well, maybe people are more willing to embrace faith vs science in these uncertain economic times.
"When I talk about a vision in business I am talking about you can have a profit, you should be professional but you can give added value," Arison said.
Say what? I lost you there, my friend.
The central bank declined to comment on Arison's remarks and said she has not been contacted by them since the interview was aired. Yeah, they must loving this one.
She said these visions are meant to help lead the world elsewhere (where?). To this end, she is releasing her first book this week, entitled "Birth - When the Spiritual and the Material Come Together," which details her journey both spiritually and in business.
Oh...this is all about the book. There had to be a reason for her to come out with revelations about revelations.
Arison said the messages do influence her personal decisions regarding her assets. In the book she tells how she was on the verge of selling Housing and Construction when she received a message not to sell "because with this company I could a make a difference with sustainable building," she said.
How is that "message" any different from what a savvy businesswoman would tell herself when evaluating a deal?
Arison said she would not consider at this point selling her stake in Hapoalim or any of her other assets and is looking to invest in ventures in the fields of clean air and clean energy (not unless she gets word "from above" telling her to consider it). She already has set up a company to invest in clean water projects.
She begins the book with her premise that the world is "collapsing" because of broad-based greed. The emphasis of the book is that every individual has to take responsibility for making the world a better place.I wonder how much of her $5.2 billion she uses to make the world a better place, though she's known in Israel for her philanthropy.
"I am aware of fact that in Israel there's a lot of cynicism, a lot of opposition ... I was very much aware that coming out with this book and my visions would create the same thing, cynicism and objection, until people understand."
At least she gets it.
She said two years ago she got a message that there would be an economic crisis and people would go crazy. (Is it crazy that I find that funny?) But after years of seeing catastrophes she now believes the world is moving towards a better future.
"For the past year I've been seeing peace and happiness," she said. "I don't know when that will happen. I know I have a role to tell people ... Everyone has to make it happen."
Well, things are bound to improve at some point...they always do...and then they turn to shit again.
It's the circle of life--right?--and we don't need a burning bush to tell us that.
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