Life's SOS

New rules of engagement

2009-10-12T18:09:00.003+08:00

With George W, Osama bin Laden and Lehman Brothers messing up the world, the future is getting more and more uncertain.

We need to add new rules to our existing life strategy, to cope with the changes, threats and challenges of future shock.

The first thing we do is to ensure we have long-range and mid-range goals. The future is unpredictable, but if you don’t know your mid-range and ultimate goals, your own future will become even more unpredictable!

Why live with uncertainties? Each morning when you wake up and get out of bed, you should know where you are, along your road to success.

Chart the route and identify your milestones. Once you have defined your goals and destination, your next task is to chart the route and decide where to place your intermediate milestones along the road. Success is a long, meandering, bus ride with toilet stops at every station.

Work smarter. In the past when Singapore was a poor country and almost everyone lives in Chinatown cubicles or attap huts, you had to labour hard, and harder than your fellow labourers, just so you could keep your job. Today, you still have to work harder as well as smarter than everyone else, just to stay ahead.

Working smart means to use your intelligence and creativity, not brute force, to accomplish your tasks.

Beware the co-workers and bosses who offered nothing but promises. Don’t stick it out with a boss you can’t rely on. If you haven’t received the raise or promotion your boss promised five years ago, it’s time to find another boss.

Don’t be modest. As soon as you’ve reached one milestone, celebrate. By all means, work hard, but learn also to have a good time. Americans have a term for it: “bragging rights”—the right to proclaim your success and give credit to yourself. This will develop your self-confidence and self-esteem.

Don’t be like a certain politician in old England whom Winston Churchill described as “a modest little man with much to be modest about”!

Maintain your own internal value set. You must have a set of work values that goes into any dealing you have with your co-workers, your bosses, and your company’s partners and customers. These values include integrity and commitment to the quality and performance of the work that you deliver.

Enjoy your work. Look at your working hours as a source of joy and gratitude. Be grateful that you have a job and a regular income, and enjoy your work. A life of graciousness and gratitude every moment of the day is a beautiful life.

Find a niche and fill it. If no one needs your skills, products and services, you will have very little chance to prove your worth. If you want to succeed, find a niche where you can be, and do your best. Your expertise, however, must be made known and accessible to others in the organisation.

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. If you still don’t succeed, move on and try something else. What worked before may not work again.

Have Plan B ready. Being an excellent performer or working with a profitable organisation is no guarantee of long-term employment. Thousands of great performers have lost their jobs, and hundreds of great companies have folded up as new business “rules of engagement” emerge. So start writing up Plan B (your fallback) now.

Innovate or stagnate. There is always a better way to do your work, and find it before someone tells your boss about it. When the playing field is level in terms of quality, speed and cost, your competitive advantage is from new and creative ideas and solutions.

Look beyond the classroom. The old rules of success say you should not stop learning. The new rules say productive, useful education takes place in the real world, not simply in the classroom.

Learn the technology of business and the business of technology. You need to know both: (a) technology and how it helps you do your job faster, better and more productively; and (b) the business and monetary aspect of technology.

Be lucky. Luck comes when you are well-prepared.

Overcome the fear of failure. Many people never succeed because they never try. They never try because they fear they will not succeed; so they stuck themselves in a vicious cycle. Successful men tried and failed and tried again and succeed. They have hooked themselves to a virtuous cycle.

Perception is reality. You think, therefore you are. There is no “real” you or permanent self, only an aggregate of your feelings, thoughts, will power, words and deeds. People treat you based on this perceived aggregate. That’s why successful individuals are careful to create the right perception about themselves (known as personal “branding”).

Make quality your policy. If you want to succeed, do not turn in shabby work. Nobody accepts poor quality any longer. There’s too much competition nowadays (consider your co-workers as competitors in your career advancement). That’s why successful companies and individuals deliberately factor in quality in whatever they offer.

Combine Reason with Intuition. If everything in life is logical, this world will be gray and static indeed. Intuition sparks creativity, innovation and daring, but must be built on practical reason.

Think lattice, not ladders. Career success today is no longer just moving up the ladder. Now, there are more lattices than ladders that allow you to achieve success not by simply moving upwards, but by moving sideways and diagonally, too.

Tap into other people’s brain power. Even Augustus Caesar, the first emperor, depended on his partner Mark Anthony to defeat their enemies and establish the Roman Empire. Successful individuals depend on the expertise and knowledge of a huge number of other people to be successful.

The customer is usually wrong, but make them feel appreciated, anyway. The customer is always right, is an urban legend. But whether your customers are right or wrong, listen to them, understand their needs and problems, and offer solutions that meet these needs. That’s all there is in appreciating the customer.

Watch your back. As you shine, others will envy you. Be alert.

Act responsibly for your own future. Do not abdicate responsibility for your success to your ma or fairy godma. Nobody cares if you succeed; but when you fail, the whole world will gloat.

Be enthusiastic. Work hard, work smart, and work enthusiastically. It’s easier to forgive someone for his mistakes at work when he is known as an enthusiastic worker.

More on life's strategies at

http://lifestyle.www.ns.sg/blog/index.php/flightstick

Proverbs to live by

2009-05-02T23:02:00.006+08:00

George W Bush and his neo-con minions are gone, but it's still a dangerous world. Swine flu, greedy pigs (bankers and financiers) and other dangers continue to threaten our safety and peace of mind.

Here're a cache of wise instructions to provide you with a strategy to survive the dangerous times. They are excerpts from the Old Testament Book of Proverbs. I preferred the magisterial language of the King James Version because it sounds more motivating. As the author of Proverbs reminds us: "A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver." [25:11]

In fact, these instructions are so important that I'm going to memorise and internalise them so that they become the guardian angel of my action, speech and thought:

Good speech & wicked tongue
4:24 Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee.

17:4 A wicked doer giveth heed to false lips; and a liar giveth ear to a naughty tongue.

17:9 He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends.

11:13 A talebearer revealeth secrets: but he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter.

17:10 A reproof entereth more into a wise man than an hundred stripes into a fool.

17:22 A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.

17:27 He that hath knowledge spareth his words: and a man of understanding is of an excellent spirit.

17:28 Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.

19:1 Better is the poor that walketh in his integrity, than he that is perverse in his lips, and is a fool.

23:9 Speak not in the ears of a fool: for he will despise the wisdom of thy words.

Talebearer
20:19 He that goeth about as a talebearer revealeth secrets: therefore meddle not with him that flattereth with his lips.

26:20 Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out: so where there is no talebearer, the strife ceaseth.

26:21 As coals are to burning coals, and wood to fire; so is a contentious man to kindle strife.

26:22 The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly.

Strong drinks
20:1 Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.

23:29, 30 Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.

Wisdowm, knowledge & learning
3:13 Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding.

3:14 For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold.

3:15 She is more precious than rubies: and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her.

3:16 Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour.

3:17 Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.

4:5 Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth.

4:6 Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee.

4:7 Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.

8:5 O ye simple, understand wisdom: and, ye fools, be ye of an understanding heart.

8:6 Hear; for I will speak of excellent things; and the opening of my lips shall be right things.

8:7 For my mouth shall speak truth; and wickedness is an abomination to my lips.

8:8 All the words of my mouth are in righteousness; there is nothing froward or perverse in them.

8:9 They are all plain to him that understandeth, and right to them that find knowledge.

8:10 Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold.

8:11 For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it.

8:12 I wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions.

9:9 Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning.

10:14 Wise men lay up knowledge: but the mouth of the foolish is near destruction.

23:12 Apply thine heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge.

Good works, charity
3:27 Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it.

11:24 There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty.

11:25 The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself.

25:21,22 If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink: For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the LORD shall reward thee.

Blog writing reveals your type

2009-05-02T22:29:00.004+08:00

Business Week reports on a new Web site called Typealyzer that will analyze your blog and tell you what it says about you.

Typealyzer is a research project to find out how language reflects a person’s psychological type and his or her motivations and interests. The site was created by Mattias Östmar of PRfekt, a Swedish media research and development company.

For two years, Östmar has been collecting sample texts from blogs, based on research about personality type and writing style. The site uses a tool to run a statistical analysis of the text to come up with a word frequency algorithm for different personality types.

After the blog is scanned, Typealyzer comes up with personality types derived from the Myers-Briggs model for looking at how people perceive the world and make decisions. However, the Business Week writer says that in some cases what Typealyzer says about the personality as reflected in the blog writing does not match the writer's personality type.

I submitted this blog to the Typealyzer site and it says I am a mechanic (see screenshot):

The above answer is rather far-fetched. The only time I did something mechanical was attending a three-month car-servicing and repair course conducted by the National University of Singapore's Extracurriculum Studies 20 years ago. Under the guidance of the instructor, the course participants were able to change oil and airconditioning fluid, replace brake linings, spark plugs, batteries and other essential components, and carry out most workshop repair and servicing. But a year after that, I could not remember a thing since my Japanese model car was problem-free and hence gave me no opportunity to practise my new skill.

I regard myself more a word mechanic or "wordsmith", someone who, for 30 years, has been cleaning up, simplifying, tightening, rejigging and clarifying other people's shitty writing for newspapers and magazines. In fact, I consider myself the best wordsmith and rewrite man in Singapore, and there is nobody's writing that I cannot improve on.

More on Typealyzer in Business Week

Will anyone give ex-president Bush a job?

2009-01-26T15:28:00.004+08:00

Food for thought amidst the general gloom and doom:

Ex-US President Bush is looking for work in the worst job market in America in a generation. What are his options, asks Slate.com columnist Daniel Gross?

An ex-president's first move is usually a book deal. Clinton got $10 million to $12 million for his memoirs. But with sales down, the industry just isn't that interested in what the Bush inner circle is peddling.

Bush has indicated he would like to earn money as a speaker. "I'll give some speeches, to replenish the ol' coffers," he said in September 2007. Clinton has been a prolific speaker. But speaking agents expressed little interest in Bush – and not, they say, just for political reasons. "I'm in business to make money, and I don't think I'd make money doing it," says Bill Leigh, chairman of the Leigh Bureau speaking agency.

Read more on whether anyone will give Bush a job.

Why Not Start Your Weekend on Wednesday?
The general perception is that we are not spending enough, and governments from London to Tokyo and Washington are giving cash to the publis in the hope that we would spend more. Is the economy so dependent on consumption?

In the short run, yes. Economists worry about a sharp fall in consumer spending, because when demand for goods falls, so does demand for labour. Our desire to spend less is quickly revealed as a desire to spend less hiring each other to make things. Result: economic collapse, unemployment, misery.

In the long run, the picture is completely different. We earn roughly twice what our parents did when they were our age. When today's teenagers are in their 40s, there is no reason why they shouldn't decide to enjoy their increased prosperity by working less instead of earning more. Rather than being twice as rich as their parents, they could be no richer but start their weekends on Wednesday afternoon.

If this were a gradual process, mass unemployment would not result. People would simply earn less, spend less, wear a few more secondhand clothes, and spend more time reading or going for walks. This would be perfectly possible. We are rich enough already.

Here's the big question of the season, then: Why don't we focus less on money and more on leisure (or spiritual concerns, if you must)? Why haven't we all decided to work less, spend less, and consume less?

Help! I'm overeducated for my job

You've got a BA or even an MBA, but because of the current bad times, you could only find work selling groceries in a provision shop. How do you explain that to your friends, your former professors, and, heaven forbids, your future mother-in-law?

Click the headline to read the sensible advice from an expert on life and manners.

What my father drilled into me on coping with hard times

2009-01-25T22:48:00.006+08:00

Many of us, out of bitter experience from the unexpected loss of our jobs and savings, and from mounting debts, feel that our hopes and dreams of a future paradise, a happy time for our children and a comfortable old age for us, are just dreams.

But to be sucked into the gloom and doom of your neighbours, friends and society at large, is even worse.

Somehow, you must continue to motivate yourself to remain confident, enthusiastic and focused.

I can’t offer you quick and easy answers, and it’s no point recommending motivational books or attending workshops on “secrets of success”. Such authors and speakers are financial success stories themselves, not because they are productive members of society, but because we are gullible enough to pay them good money to hear nothing more than a bunch of motherhood statements.

Motherhood statements, as anyone knows, are statements about the obvious, expressed in a clever, memorable way. Don’t you get tired hearing, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going” or “Success is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration”?

These statements are of little help when the going gets really tough and you are bewildered, discouraged and fearful.

Without money, everything is hypothetical

My father used to remind me, back in the 1960s when we were out in the streets selling yong-tau-foo food for a pittance, that without money, everything is hypothetical.

At that time, I was most unwilling to continue being a street hawker; my dream was either to write a bestselling novel (and win the $1 million Nobel Prize for Literature) or discover a drug to cure all incurable cancers. Oh yes, I also wanted to become Billy Graham II, preaching to a boundless sea of people before me, and backed up by a troupe of beautiful choir girls singing so sweetly that donations for my preaching pour in like the cataracts of the Nile.

Guess what? My father was right. The lack of money is the root of all evil. Poverty is life-threatening because you don’t have enough money for nourishing meals, for proper healthcare, and for a safe and comfortable home to bring up your family.

If you want to achieve your dream and secure your future, you start by earning and saving money.

Ironclad rules of success

My father, a shrewd, practical man, also laid down several other ironclad – but not obvious – rules for me, if I were to become successful in my career and in money matters. The first and most important rule is: Honesty is always the best practice. Note that he didn’t say “the best policy”, because he knew policies are just good intentions, of little use until you put them into practice.

Practise honesty towards others, whether they are aware of it or not. While making a purchase, if you realise the cashier has unknowingly given you extra change, tell her immediately and return the money. When you cheat someone, you never know when that person will discover the truth and take vengeance. Worse, you’ve also created an enemy for life. So why bring unnecessary trouble for yourself by cheating?

My father also pointed out that a mindfully honest person cannot be cheated. What he meant was that if you deliberately cultivate honest practice in the way you earn your living and spend your money, you will not fall prey to Nuskin, Lehman Brothers and other scams.

Why is this so? Because an honest person refuses to take part in any scheme that promises too much for something, or something for nothing. Buy into this murky investment fund and you earn 20 percent in a year while everyone else is earning only a half-percent in their bank deposits. Even better, buy this carton of overpriced facial cream tubes, and sell them for twice the amount and you become a millionaire in five months.

Many years ago, when I had accumulated a considerable amount of savings, a production foreman in my old workplace suggested quietly that I give him $10,000 to pass on to a loan shark. At the end of every 12 months, I would get $2,000 in interest, but I must not ask how my money was used.

It was very tempting but I didn’t want to have any part in what loan sharks do.

Of Course there’s nothing wrong in a legitimate business, said my father who used to manage a provision shop in pre-independent Indonesia. You buy a gunny sack of dry spices at $100, add $2 for transport, $1 for shop overheads, and $5 for your labour, and selling it eventually at $108 retail. The $5 mark-up is what keeps you in business. Without it, you might as well be doing charity, and in the meantime, who’s going to feed and clothe you and your family?

So, my father’s second rule is an honest person should be clearheaded enough to separate charity from his money-earning activity. By the way, if you don’t earn enough, how can you help the poor? he used to ask.

The third rule in honest living is not to cheat in your employment. My father stressed that it is dumb to “steal laziness” in your work, the Chinese expression for working less than what you’ve been paid for. Say, you’re paid $2,000 a month, but because you spent nearly a quarter of your work hours playing computer games or writing on your Facebook, you’re in effect contributing only $1,500 value to your employer. Why is this approach dumb? Because you will be noticed by your boss, and you will be sacked at the next earliest opportunity.

The smart strategy, then, is to do more work than you’re paid for. You get into a kind of virtuous race where your pay is constantly trying to catch up with your work. If you put in $2,500 worth of work and you’re paid only $2,000, the universe (your employer, the general economy) becomes unbalanced! By-and-by, it has to right itself by giving you that additional $500! This is the law of karma or “you reap what you sow”.

In my experience, having worked for more than three decades, I’ve found that this law of equal payback always applied to any job I was in, without exception. I’ve consciously and consistently put in at least 20 percent more value in my work, and sure enough my salary has also gone up by an equivalent amount. So, here’s this little-known fact: the universe simply refuses to owe anyone a favour – if you give more than you get, it insists on paying you back so that things are in equilibrium again.

Making yourself retrenchment-proof

In any situation you always have a choice. You can choose to work hard and contribute more than what you’ve been paid, and so make yourself “retrenchment-proof”, and – heaven forbids – should you be retrenched, you can choose to work even harder looking for a new job.

Finally, my father said to be successful, you must be proactive, not reactive.

The word “proactive” has not been coined then, but he was already pumping my impressionable young mind with war cries like “show initiatives”, “take responsibility” and “accomplish more”. If you don’t have initiative, he reminded me, others will overtake you, and you will get nothing but leftovers.

My father is long gone, but the difficult economic conditions he went through in the 1960s, seem to have returned with a bang. And the best way to cope with the hard times ahead is to apply his old rules of honest, intelligent and proactive work.

Perry is wild in love and in songs

2009-01-08T16:41:00.004+08:00

What a way to start 2009, with wine, women and songs, but mostly songs. So on an overcast New Year Day afternoon, my wife and I found ourselves seated on the first row in Victoria Theatre watching an unlikely love story in the raucous nightclub scenes of the 1960s.

Perry Chiu (焦媛) from Hong Kong, puts in a typhoon performance as the main singer in Wild Wild Rose the Musical (野玫瑰之戀), belting out song after song set in the twilight, smokey world where love and relationship flow as smoothly and as uncertain as alcohol, dance hostesses and back scene hoods.

In contrast, Thomas Ong (王沺裁), one-time Singapore small screen actor, is somewhat wooden as the stage pianist and Perry’s lover. In an unexpected quiet moment, he inserts his voice into the play, singing, “People tell me, you’re prettier than the peach blossom…”

I first heard this tuneful peach blossom ditty more than 30 years ago, and it has been one of a half-dozen sentimental songs playing on-and-off in my head since! I’ve always thought that underneath the lyrics is a longing to meet the lover to bed her.

But Thomas’s singing seems flat and unmotivated. He wants to make love, but there is simply no force of desire in his voice or gesture.

Listening to Perry singing the many popular songs from the movie such as 卡門 (Carmen), 蝴蝶夫人 (Madame Butterfly), and 說不出的快活 (Shuo bu chu de kuai huo), reminds me of those days strolling in the Shaw Amusement Parks with my father holding my tiny hand. It must be in the mid-1950s, and inside each park there would be a cabaret, where ladies in glittering cheongsam clustered at the neon-lit entrance.

Even as a child, I knew there was something not-so-nice but very alluring about the cabaret.

The musical performance is based on an actual 1960 black-and-white movie of the same name, starring the sweet singer, Ge Lan or Grace Chang (葛兰). Ge Lan gives a mesmerising performance as the singer who seduces and destroys both herself and the man she loves. She is complemented by Zhang Yang (张扬) as the inexperienced piano player who falls for her.

Life is to be lived, with energy, music and passionate love-making, Wild Wild Rose tells us. Reach out and grab it when you can, before your eyes dim and your voice croaks in old age.

Wild Wild Rose reminds me of the poem by Ernest Dowson:

Vitae Summa Brevis Spem Nos Vetat Incobare Longam
They are not long, the weeping and the laughter
Love and desire and hate
I think they have no portion in us after
We pass the gate.

They are not long, the days of wine and roses
Out of a misty dream
Our path emerges for a while, then closes
Within a dream.

The title simply means in Latin: "The brief sum of life forbids us the hope of enduring long."

When the lights go out in the city, forever

2008-12-06T22:33:00.013+08:00

FINALLY here comes a movie packed with nail-biting adventure, mystery and an absorbing storyline, yet without kungfu kicks, guns, car chase, special effects, Inca tombs, flying demons or cartoony humour.

City of Ember is the last underground refuge for the human race. Lights shine in the city, powered by a massive generator. But outside the built-up area, the light ends, and darkness takes over.

It’s now more than 200 years later, and the great lamps that light the city are beginning to flicker. The frequent blackouts are terrifying and when they happen, people come to a halt in the middle of the street or stand stock still in their houses, afraid to move in the utter darkness. It is a reminder of something they preferred not to think about: that some day the lights of the city might go out and never come back on.

The pipes carrying water to the city are leaking and corroding, but there are no new parts. The supply of food – mostly canned and packaged stuff from long ago, and a small amount of vegetables grown in greenhouses – is also running out.

But life goes on for most people; they appear worried but feel that as individuals, there is little they can do. There is a corrupt mayor who, with the help of the storekeeper, is secretly hoarding food in a hideaway bunker. He goes to the bunker to gorge himself on the food, knowing that if the city collapsed, he can still survive for a long while with his hoard.

Only two teenagers, Lina and Doon, are determined to find a solution to save the inhabitants. When Lina finds a metal box with part of an ancient message, she is sure it holds a secret that will show a way out of the city. She and Doon must decipher the message before the lights go out on Ember permanently, and everyone is trapped in the darkness.

Things fall apart when technology is forgotten

The underground city is presented in all its shabby, realistic details. It glows with a sepia tint, the look of a gently decaying town, with narrow streets, flimsy walls and windows that have not been wiped for years. You are drawn into the general apathy of a people who do not know even the basic skills of plumbing and electricity. Everything is slowly falling apart.

They exist only as consumers of the leftovers that their forefathers have installed and provided, without understanding that society must constantly repair, renew and innovate, if it is to avoid total collapse. Even their clothes are dusty and threadbare.

Lina works as a messenger, running and zipping her way through the streets and alleys to deliver messages via word of mouth. Doon works with the pipes, patching leaks with rags. The two are full of energy, in contrast with the rest of the people around them. They stumble upon the bunker room where the mayor is sound asleep after a heavy meal. Realising the awful truth, Lina goes to inform the other officials, but is instead arrested. She escapes, and together with Doon, they manage to keep one step ahead of their pursuers, while desperately trying to piece together the missing parts of the message in order to obtain the complete instructions on how to leave the city.
The movie pulls you into the lives of these two young people. You find yourself feeling as anxious as they are. Each time they solve a difficulty – opening the door to the generator room, or finding the boats that will carry them along the underground river – there is a frustrating set of new problems to confront.

The two kids finally come to the last exit – they climb a series of steps out of the cavern to the surface of the Earth. You want to shout and rejoice with them but you cannot, because up there, you see only darkness everywhere. You are as disappointed as Lina and Doon.

The story is just about to end, but really, it is not over, yet…

Background

The movie is based on a young adult novel by Jeanne DuPrau. The cast comprises Bill Murray as the mayor, Saoirse Ronan as Lina, and Harry Treadaway as Doon. Filming was finished in October 2007 and the film was released on October 10, 2008. Jeanne DuPrau wrote three other books – two sequels and a prequel.

I watched the movie because I thought it would be another mindless entertainment stuff like Indiana Jones, Harry Potter or Tomb Raider. Instead, what I got was a thinking adult’s movie in the guise of a children’s story.

The narrative is well-paced and tightly-woven, and the teenagers’ acting is very good. Most important, there is no cheating, like in James Bond or Harry Potter where no matter how difficult the situation, the hero has a bag of tricks and always manages to out-run, outgun or out-magic his opponents. Now I'm going to order the book at Amazon.

By the way, check out the movie Web site, and play its enjoyable connect-the-pipes game.

Saoirse Ronan as the quick-witted and fleet-footed Lina

Don't go berserk over Tibet

2008-11-27T12:35:00.006+08:00

When the Society for Neuroscience invited the Dalai Lama to give the inaugural lecture at its 2005 annual meeting in Washington, DC, more than 500 researchers signed a petition objecting. They claimed it was inappropriate for a religious leader to address a scientific meeting, and that the study of empathy and compassion and how meditation affects brain activity, on which the Dalai Lama had been invited to speak, was too flaky to be taken seriously.

It is unclear if the petitioners' motives were also political — many of the signatories were of Chinese origin. Read more here.

My father and most of my old relatives grew up in China during the reign of the last emperor, but they emigrated because they didn’t like the Red Army who took over the country in 1949.

If they were alive today, my old relatives would be shocked to learn that a large number of mindless oversea Chinese are going berserk whenever someone questions the Red Army’s occupation of Tibet and its massacre of monks, women and children. These berserkers have forgotten that not too long ago, teenage students were being killed in Tiananmen Square, as well as during the Cultural Revolution. [The Red Army calls itself the “People’s Liberation Army”, although they do anything but “liberate” people.]

We should be thankful there are folks in the West who are concerned with human rights and who are willing to speak out against abuses by tyrannical governments. Sure, the human rights groups have all kinds of “agenda”, like spreading democratic values and ideas, and protecting wild life and the environment.

Who would you rather hang out with – people whose only weapons are ideas, or goons in China and Burma armed with main battle tanks, sub-machine guns and missiles to mow down monks, women and students in Tiananmen Square, Lhasa and Rangoon?

As individuals, we can do little, in the physical sense, to fight those who possess military hardware. But at least we remain mindful of the murderous nature of these regimes, and not be overtaken by rabid nationalistic sentiments. One can be proud of being a Chinese while condemning the brutality that the Beijing government and its Red Army inflicted on helpless people in China, Tibet, Sinkiang and other occupied zones.

NS Portal treasure hunt across Singapore

2008-11-19T19:01:00.003+08:00

NS Portal – the online platform for Singapore’s NSmen – organised one of the most exciting events this year, combining mobile phone technology with good ol’ fashion running across the island.

MobiHunt 2008 began on a bright Saturday morning at the SAFRA Mt Faber Club. After a safety briefing and consulting their maps, the 45 teams fanned out across Singapore in an orienteering hunt through eight rendezvous points. The winners were a husband-and-wife team Linus Goh Siak Wee and Joye Lim Chiew Ling, who took only 93 minutes to complete the island-wide treasure hunt.

Their secret weapon in zipping through Holland Avenue, Orchard Road, Shenton Way and other heavy traffic areas was their motorbike. “We took part in mobiHunt last year but didn’t do well,” says Linus. “So, this year we are more prepared. It was easy to cut through traffic and when we reached a checkpoint, there was no need to park as Joye simply got down to answer the questions, and then we were on our way to the next station!”

The NS Portal mobiHunt 2008 uses location-based solutions via MeSH (Mobile eServices Hub), a one-stop mobile service platform developed by NCS Group, to guide all 45 teams from the start to the end point.

From the flag-off, the mobile treasure hunt took the 123 participants to eight popular rendezvous points, that include Holland Village, the Kaplan Campus at Starhub building, Tangs, Velocity at Novena Square, NTUC HQ in Shenton Way, Marina Square, Raffles Town Club and VivoCity.

Not only did the teams have to race against time, they had to answer questions that were received via MeSH that were sent to their mobile phones as they approached each check point.

Most of the teams took more than two hours to complete the eight checkpoints, using cars, taxis, buses and just plain foot power. A prize-presentation was held in the late afternoon at the SAFRA club.

General Manager Ng See Sing of NCS Portal City, says: “By using MeSH - -currently the one-stop mobile service platform available to NSmen via the NS Portal (www.ns.sg) -- as the platform for mobiHunt 2008, I hope consumers are convinced of the power of mobile communication technology in enhancing our daily lives.”

Watch the video of mobiHunt:

Biggest white elephant in the world

2008-11-17T18:56:00.009+08:00

Where in the world is the biggest church? It’s the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace, in Yamoussoukro (above).

I bet it’s the first time most people outside Yamoussoukro has heard of Yamoussoukro, the supposed capital of Ivory Coast in west Africa.

The Basilica of Our Lady of Peace is a close copy of St Peter’s Basilica in Rome, but it is a little taller. It is also one of the world’s biggest white elephants.

In fact, most of the buildings in Yamoussoukro are white elephants, monuments built in the dirt-poor, violence-wracked country where UN peacekeepers maintain a fragile peace.

It wasn’t always like that. For more than three decades after independence, under its first president, Felix Houphouet-Boigny, Ivory Coast was known for religious and ethnic harmony and its well-developed economy. All this ended when Robert Guei led a coup which toppled Felix Houphouet-Boigny's successor, Henri Bedie, in 1999.

Bedie fled, but not before planting the seeds of ethnic discord by trying to stir up xenophobia against Muslim northerners. Laurent Gbagbo replaced Robert Guei after he was deposed in a popular uprising in 2000.

In September 2002 a troop mutiny escalated into a full-scale rebellion, voicing the discontent of northern Muslims who felt they were being discriminated against in Ivorian politics. Thousands were killed in the conflict. The fighting has stopped but the country is tense and divided. French and UN peacekeepers patrol the buffer zone which separates the north, held by rebels known as the New Forces, and the government-controlled south.

Fortunately, the white elephants in Yamoussoukro attract curious tourists, who buy snacks and souvenirs from street hawkers like Blanchard. She sells peanuts and coconuts to the visitors.

“Having the basilica here is really good. Thanks to the basilica, we eat often,” Blanchard says. “I’ve got my school diploma but I don’t have a job. Instead of sitting at home doing nothing, I can look after this coconut stand for my sister.”

Pictures, information from the BBC

Is retirement too risky?

2008-11-15T19:41:00.006+08:00

Economic prospects over the next few years don’t look good. If you’re in your late-50s or older, should you retire and take life easy, while you’re in relatively good health?

The thought of quitting work while still mentally and physically active in mind and body can make anyone nervous. But the older you get, the more your days seem limited and precious, and you want to spend them not inside a windowless cubicle at the beck and call of other people.

When I was growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, most folks I knew were poor and worked until physical infirmities or ill-health stopped them. Few people had the luxury of a high level of saving to think of retiring, say at 60 or 62.

Today, retiring when you reach 60, seems to be the expectation, whether you’re working in an office or driving a bus. To minimise the risk, there are some lifestyle trends to take into consideration when you plan your retirement:

• You will tend to live longer
• You are more self-indulgent.
• Accordingly, you need more money than you thought, for a comfortable retirement.

Why do you want to retire, and what do you plan to do with your free time, are also important questions that you must answer clearly and in detail. Simply ceasing to work will not lead to a fulfilling retirement lifestyle. Be sure you have something to do that occupies your time and interests and takes advantage of your skills and past experience.

The typical post-working years can be divided into three phases:

1. The active years immediately on retirement. This phase is typified by active behaviour, when you travel, take up water colouring, read the classics, and spent time on activities that you were constrained by a full-time job from doing.

2. The legacy years, when you are less self-indulgent and more concerned with what you can contribute to society. Retirement counsellors say in this second phase, plans are made, and assets allocated for the third and final stage.

3. The final years when life’s endgame is played out. If you retire at 60, you would probably have anywhere from 25-30 years left. So, in your retirement planning, you must also consider not just how long you might live, but how you are going to live out the final years. There is a strong possibility of ill health requiring hospitalisation and long-term nursing care.

It is difficult, but necessary to understand the fact that as you age and your health declines, you will have to spend money to take care of medical and healthcare expenses.

Do you really know how much you will need? Before you can answer that, you need to answer these money questions first:

Can a bad economy destroy the value of a retirement nest egg?

Don’t be lulled into a false sense of security by projections of average returns on your investment. An “average” return doesn’t take into account that there will be several years of below-average returns that could force you to dip into your principal amount. And when there are too many below-average years, your principal amount may dwindle greatly.

Will inflation cut down your purchasing power?

Watch out for the ravages of inflation. Your investment may earn decent returns, but if the cost of living increases at a faster pace, your retirement comforts can be jeopardised. So you will need assets that will grow over time and provide a hedge against inflation.

How reliable is your income?

Weigh this carefully. As the current financial meltdown has shown, retirement savings can disappear overnight. Not only do you need assets that will increase in value (your property, for instance), you also need assets that won’t shrink. Currently, no one knows what investments can generate returns.

What if you retire and then, can’t make ends meet? How do you un-retire?

One strategy is to maintain contact with the working world by lining up part-time employment during retirement.

A second strategy is to acquire knowledge and skill in a profession or industry where age is not unwelcomed, such as in teaching, consultancy, accounting, research, writing, nursing, or managing a charity programme.

I am tired of struggling: Take a look at the poster below, displayed on a MRT train in Atlanta. It is a testimonial from grandmother Toni Nelson, who enrolled in a nursing course, so she could become a neonatal intensive care nurse, and earn money to take care of herself. See the bottom closeup picture, to read what she says. – I shot the photo in February 2004, while riding the train to visit Margaret Mitchell's house. (Mitchell is the author of Gone With the Wind.)

Voodoo doll gives Sarkozy pain in the neck

2008-10-25T00:49:00.008+08:00

DO Voodoo dolls work? If you make a doll to represent, say, your enemy, and you start poking it with a pin, will that person feel pain?

Currently, one of the latest hot selling toys in France is a voodoo doll of French President Nicolas Sarkozy. The stuffed doll, which features the president's likeness, comes with a set of pins and an instruction manual on how to inflict curses on him.

Sarkozy is not amused, and is suing the producer of the doll, which he says is an affront to his reputation and a misuse of his personal image.

According to a BBC news report, 20,000 dolls were produced by publishers K&B, to let folks vent their frustration on what they didn't like about Mr Sarkozy's policies, said a company official.

When you stick the pins into the puppet doll, it will scream out his most famous quotes, such as, “Get lost you pathetic asshole!”; his words to a bystander who refused to shake his hand at a farm show last year.

Mr Sarkozy may be relieved to know that genuine voodoo worshippers do not stick pins in dolls representing their enemies to curse them from afar. This practice was started by Hollywood! Still the hot selling soft toy is proving a pain in the neck. His lawyer Thierry Herzog wrote to publishers K&B stating that "Nicolas Sarkozy has instructed me to remind you that, whatever his status and fame, he has exclusive and absolute rights over his own image."

Western media, however, operate on the understanding that once you run for public office and put yourself in the limelight, your image doesn't belong to you any more. It becomes fair game for cartoonists, reporters and just about anyone who wants to insult you. (Think of US presidential candidate Obama being constantly insulted by his rival McCain's team.)

Of course, in well-behaved places like Singapore, political leaders have to be treated politely, or else... No one would dream of even drawing and publishing a caricature, much less make a voodoo doll of them!

Voodoo originated in West Africa, and means "spirit" in the local language. It probably evolved there from ancient traditions of animism, or the belief that the spirits of ancestors can inhabit the body of living humans and animals (read more in Things Fall Apart, a 1959 novel by Chinua Achebe).

Anyone can become possessed by the spirits, who offer help to the living in the form of good harvest, luck and protection from evil. The religion followed the African slaves who were captured and sent to the Americas in the 17th and 18th Century. Today, it thrived in Haiti, and elsewhere in the Caribbean.

In this aspect, the core beliefs of voodoo and other traditional West African tribal religions are somewhat similar to Chinese ancestor worship. We also have mediums who could be possessed by the spirits or even by minor deities, who then communicate to the living, such as giving advice and even hints of winning lottery numbers.

All's not gold that glitters, Two and Two make Four

2008-10-15T14:51:00.010+08:00

Housewives, retirees and ordinary folks who don’t know “lei-mun” from Ah Seng, are now screaming in pain because their entire life savings have disappeared (see picture above of Hong Kong protestors). They have put their money into investment schemes that their banks have promoted as offering higher interest than those of the traditional fixed deposits and savings accounts.

What they were not aware was that these schemes were somehow tied to a US bank called Lehman Brothers, and when Lehman went belly up, their money disappeared. And the sums are not a few thousand dollars, but from $50,000 to $500,000 per individual. Overall, the Singapore Monetary Authority estimated just under half-a-billion dollars were put into these funds.

And lately, newspaper columns are filled with stern sermons on the sins of the marketplace; some even made references to Rudyard Kipling’s much quoted poem, The Gods of the Copybook Headings.

In the 1940s and earlier, children in British-type schools (including those in Singapore and Malaya) practised their handwriting on exercise books. These books have pre-printed words of proverbs on top of each page for the child to copy, in order to practise their handwriting. Hopefully, the wisdom or at least some sense from these headings would unconsicously seep into the impressionable brains of the kids, so that when they grew up, they would lead sensible, productive and thrifty lives.

Kipling who had a sharp eye on world trends and history, wrote this poem after the economic collapse of the US in the late-1920s, leading to a worldwide recession. He warned of the danger in speculating in shares and related investments. From the Great Depression of the 1930s until today, the stock market has been swinging between prosperity to disaster. For the individual, however, it is better to be conservative, to work hard, spend prudently, save as much as one can, and put the money in savings or fixed deposit accounts. In other words, to follow the wisdom of the headings in the copybooks, and not the siren songs of the marketplace.

The poem is written as a ballad and meant to be memorised and read aloud. Here’s the full text:

The Gods of the Copybook Headings
Rudyard Kipling

As I pass through my incarnations in every age and race,
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.

We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn
That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,
So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.

We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place,
But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come
That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.

With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch,
They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch;
They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings;
So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.

When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "Stick to the Devil you know."

On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)
Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "The Wages of Sin is Death."

In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "If you don't work you die."

Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true
That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;

And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!

The Gods of the Copybook Headings have long disappeared in the schools. It was therefore a surprise for me to discover them in my little red pocket diarybook (see picture below).

At the end of each year, my insurance agent would give me this free diary which is convenient to jot down appointments and Internet passwords. The little red book also has a line of proverb or sensible quote printed on the right side of each double page spread. I didn’t pay much attention to the headings until I re-read Kipling’s poem, and realise the gods are alive and well, and I ignore them at my financial peril.

Date with Wild Wild Rose

2008-10-14T15:23:00.002+08:00

I can remember vividly walking inside the Great World Amusement Park with my father holding my tiny hand. It must be in the mid-1950s, and for a five-year-old boy, the changing neon lights, the music from loudspeakers and the jostling crowd, all made my heart pound with excitement. Most mystifying to me was the cabaret or nightclub, with ladies in glittering cheongsam waiting at the front.

Even at that tender age, I knew there was something not-so-nice but attractive about the cabaret. A popular song then was

Make way, oh, make way for my Eastern Rose
Men crowd in dozens everywhere she goes
In her rickshaw on the street or in a cabaret
"Please make way for Rose" you can hear them say.

I’ve not seen a real rickshaw in my life, but my father told me the ladies of the night used to sit in their rickshaws outside the various cabarets. Men would pass by and if they liked what they saw, they would hop in with the girl, and the rickshaw coolie would then pull them to the hotel for an evening of unmitigated pleasure.

To a poor kid growing up in those years when Singapore was the fleshpot of the East, my only enjoyment was in watching movies and humming the songs about the night life entertainment scene, such as Wild Wild Rose, starring the beautiful Grace Chang (葛兰).

I’m now in my mid-50s, and to warm the cockles of my heart, a musical adaptation of the movie will be staged this January at the Victoria Theatre.

According to the press release sent to me by Jennifer Yeo at Channel 12, MediaCorp, Wild Wild Rose the Musical is adapted from the classic black and white movie, Wild Wild Rose(野玫瑰之恋), produced in 1960. The movie, directed by Wang Tian Ling (王天林), is a tale of seduction, love and betrayal. Grace Chang or Ge Lan, gives her most mesmerising performance as the singer who seduces and destroys both herself and the man she loves. She is nicely complemented by Zhang Yang (张扬) as the inexperienced piano player who falls for her.

Staying true to the original plot and featuring widely popular songs from the movie such as 卡門 (Carmen), 蝴蝶夫人 (Madame Butterfly), and 說不出的快活 , this Chinese musical is a colourful extravaganza capturing both the on-stage glamour and catching glimpses of the sorrow behind the nightclub entertainment scene.

What is the worst job in the world?

2008-10-07T01:50:00.006+08:00

Follow-up to the Worst Job You Ever Had

I did a search on the Web and came across the BBC’s Talking Point program where readers’ contribute their own experiences on the worst jobs they ever had. On reading them, I begin to realise my job as a factory labourer (see previous posting) wasn’t that bad after all. And these awful jobs were in England and other rich Western countries!

While all the jobs suck, some were hilarious, too. Here’s a selection I picked from the BBC site:

Nothing can be worse than working in a financial call centre. After wearing a headset for eight hours a day for six months, I eventually started hearing voices in my head after my shift had finished. – Neill Traill, UK

As a summer job during one college break I worked for the sewer department in the village where I lived in Long Island New York. Every Friday, I would have to descend 3 levels underground where the sewer lines of the entire North side of the village converged (after being chopped by huge grinders) into a 6 meter cubed size cement room. The grinders would be stopped, and the room pumped out. It was then my job to don boots, gloves, and slicker then, armed with a small fire hose, climb down into the room on a small iron ladder and proceed to wash the entire room down with the hose, hopefully without slipping.

That job gave me the inspiration to complete school and find a cushy desk job, and a new found appreciation every time I flush the toilet! – Kevin McGoldrick, USA

During my gap year between school and university I worked on a kibbutz in Israel. It was a really exciting job. I worked on a machine which pumped out little black plastic sticks. They fell into a really big box and I had to pick up a handful of these sticks and then put them in a smaller box, in line.

Actually, it wasn't that bad. I got very good at pick-up-stick! And to while away the time I would put notes in the boxes (which were, I believe, shipped to Holland) saying things like 'Help Me! I'm trapped in the stick making machine'. Not very funny, perhaps, but it made me giggle. – James, England

At 3AM every single day, I used to head off to the local farm in America where I had to pick sweet corn. This comprised walking through the corn (in all weathers) behind a tractor, ripping the corn from the plants 4 ears at a time and then throwing it into the tractor's baskets. A joy I hear you say. It gets worse. After a hurricane the fields were flattened, meaning that we had to go about our tasks bent double for 4 hours, rooting around for ears of corn, ripping our hands and arms to shreds on the sharp corn plants. It was a really good laugh thinking back on it now, from my boring office.... – Andrew, UK

Some time ago I went to a safari zoo. The way it works is that you are caged-in in a car and drive around from one reserve to the next. Monkeys always climb on top of the car and usually enjoy a free ride for a while. At the exit of the monkey reserve is a zoo worker equipped with a stick. His duty is to prevent monkeys from leaving the reserve on a car. Imagine chasing monkeys in the glowing sun for eight hours. – Marin, Canada

I work in a call centre and I think because people can't see you face to face they think they can speak to you like dirt. You've got to learn not to take it personally or you will go mad.
– Anon, Wales

Source: “What is the worst job in the world?” BBC Talking Point, Feb 11, 2002

What’s the worst job you ever had?

2008-10-05T00:00:00.003+08:00

I saw this question in the Yahoo! Answer site, and couldn't resist contributing my answer:

Since completing my Secondary Four education in 1967, I have been many things -- home tutor, survey assistant, army quartermaster, wage clerk, personnel officer, factory administrator, newspaper reporter, Web editor, and even once as a public relations manager, which turned out to be an unmitigated disaster.

But PR wasn't my worst job. It was being a casual labourer at the Far-East McGraw Hill printing plant in Singapore (it no longer exists). I was 17, just out of school, and desperate for a job -- any job -- to help support my family. In those days the only few jobs usually available were for school teachers or shop assistants.

In the factory, we were just unskilled workers and the only thing we could do was to load and unload cartons of books, sweep the factory floor, clear away rubbish and squat in some hidden corner of the building when we were idle, which we were, most of the time. All of us -- 30-odd young men -- envied the printers, forklift drivers, machinists, electricians and carpenters. They looked self-important, wearing the factory overalls (labourers were not entitled) and busy doing meaningful work, and constantly being spoken to nicely by supervisors and managers.

Being an unskilled worker is degrading, not just socially but mentally, as I'd experienced. You feel your work does not contribute anything worthwhile to society. While people would not be deliberately rude to you, they can be just as cruel by treating you as non-existent.

In the kopitiam in my HDB neighbourhood, there is a young man working as a table cleaner. He is very fair and slim, has deepset, clear eyes (the type from northern China) and an alert face, and is neat and presentable, and if it was not for the rag he holds in his hand, you could take him to be, say, a trainee schoolteacher or a technician. In fact, his build and eyes remind me of those fighter pilot officer cadets I saw during my own cadet days in SAFTI in 1971. But he only cleans tables for the zhi-char stall -- he doesn't even get to serve meals which are reserved for the China girls.

I go to the kopitiam frequently for dinner and I notice that nobody notices the young man. He must feel the way I felt in the printing factory -- someone invisible, ignored and only needed to do those mean tasks that anyone can do but nobody wants to do.

Fortunately, most young Singaporeans today would not likely find themselves cleaning tables or carrying carton of books, after they have completed their secondary education. For the majority who do not make it to JCs and polytechnics, they can always hang around in airconditioned shopping malls and sip latte at Starbuck, until someone finds them a "nice" job selling insurance or cosmetics, or -- heaven forbids -- structured funds.

If you have only an O-level qualification, with no further academic or technical qualification, do as I have done, to get out of the rut: Find a job, no matter how lowly or meaningless, work and earn and save money, and invest your savings in EDUCATION.

EDUCATION LEVELS THE PLAYING FIELD

If I have forgotten everything my father told me, I have not forgotten this remark he drummed into my thick cranium whenever I came home with red marks in my school report card: Please study hard, because only education can level the playing field.

Back in the 1960s and 1970s, the O-level (we called it Senior Cambridge) certificate was a valuable piece of paper. Today, you need at least a Bachelor. So, if you are still an O, go get a diploma and then a Bachelor. No matter how experienced you are in any profession, you will usually lose out to someone who has similar experience PLUS a degree.

The autumn moon in mid-sky

2008-09-15T20:23:00.007+08:00

Yesterday was the 15th Day of the Eighth Month, officially Mid-Autumn when the moon was supposed to be at its roundest and brightest. It was raining in the late afternoon, and there was still an overcast of clouds at nightfall, hiding the moon.

After dinner, armed with my multi-featured Canon Powershot S5 digital camera, I took a walk around my neighbourhood in Serangoon North Avenue 1, hoping to capture pretty shots of children carrying lanterns. All I saw were a few parents with dispirited kids shuffling in the park, most of them twirling sparklers, which irritated the hell out of me.

Walking back home, I passed a pair of temples with brightly-lit frontage. Suddenly I noticed the moon over the temple roofs, unveiled in all its high majesty. Twisting my neck upward, I managed to catch it together with the temple, with my camera.

In the 1950s when I was growing up in Amoy Street in the heart of Singapore’s Chinatown, Mid-Autumn Day was an important evening to celebrate with mooncakes and lanterns. Hundreds of children and not-so-young teenagers would be scrambling along the five-foot-way, showing off intricately-designed lanterns. There would be streetside wayangs and hawkers selling snacks and knick-knacks.

In those days most Singaporeans were very, very poor, and the various festivals (usually on the 15th Day of the lunar months) were the only events that brightened their grinding existence. Besides Mid-Autumn Day and the 15th Day of Chinese New Year, there were the bak-chang festival on the 5th Month, the noisy celebrations during the 7th Month for hungry ghosts, and the joyful ceremonies commemorating Bodhisattva Kuanyin’s Birthday. My grandmother, my father and my uncles would prepare elaborate dishes for prayer and dinner.

Festivals then had a strong spiritual component. Incense and paper were burnt, and blessings from the Gods were sought. My grandmother and most of the elders would also take the opportunity to ask for lucky numbers to buy lottery.

Today, folks are moderately well-off, and with cash, every day can easily be Chinese New Year, as my late mother used to say. There’s no need to wait for special days. Affluence erodes the spiritual edge in our lives because we are not so dependent on divine favours; although I notice the Tua Pek Kong temples (in Amoy Street, in my estate at Serangoon North, and elsewhere) continue to be packed with devotees. For most people, traditional Chinese religious beliefs and practices are becoming less meaningful.

Of course we still need myths to live by, and by default the Angmohs with their Christian-based Hollywood religion have to do it for us. So, we have Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, Stephen King’s aliens and the Harry Potter magical creatures. And not forgetting monsters, demons and heroes from World of Warcraft.

Your strategy, as a mindful, discerning individual, is not to allow Western pop culture, print and entertainment to dominate your leisure and reflection. By all means, enjoy World of Warcraft and other computer-generated fantasies. But take regular time out to read, to reflect and to check if the rain clouds have been swept off, and the moon shines clear in the sky.

Here’s a parting thought from Tu Fu, the Tang Dynasty poet:
The moon is brilliant at mid-sky but who is there to see?

What do you do with a BA in English?

2008-09-08T16:57:00.004+08:00

What do you do with a BA in English,
What is my life going to be?
Four years of college and plenty of knowledge,
Have earned me this useless degree.

I can’t pay the bills yet,
’Cause I have no skills yet,
The world is a big scary place.

But somehow I can’t shake,
The feeling I might make,
A difference,
To the human race.

Morning, Brian.
Hi, Kate Monster.
How’s life?
Disappointing.
What’s the matter?
The catering company laid me off.

The song, from the musical, Avenue Q, is entertaining, but its message is serious.

Yeah, what do you do with a BA in English, which basically certifies that you have been stuffed with literary criticism and appreciation of novels, poetry, short stories and plays? Such knowledge doesn’t seem practical, like repairing boat engines, designing clothes, writing computer code or ~~advising banks to invest in the sub-prime market~~.

I have no idea. I have a BA in English Language and Literature, and all I can say is I am able to discuss The Wasteland as chim as any English professor and I can also write passionately and persuasively to convince you that this poem is crap.

Perhaps the ability to write and argue convincingly on any abstruse topic is the secret weapon that English graduates possess that make them eventually successful in life’s struggle. Go read The Wasteland by TS Eliot and tell me whether there is anything more annoyingly abstruse than this.

Sure, in the professional trades – building an Olympics stadium, coaching ping-pong players to win silver medals, ~~cooking bank books~~, or sending a robot to Mars – you need specific qualifications, and a general BA in English probably would not qualify you. But there are plenty of jobs where it will be useful.

In public relations, marketing communication, newspaper reporting, or writing fiery speeches for Barack Obama or Sarah Palin, a BA in English sure comes handy. You can poach those eloquent speeches in Shakespeare’s Henry V (no they were not by Harry but by Shakespeare) when you need to write stylo-mylo texts for, say, your presentation.

It’s important too that you supplement your BA with a more practical-oriented diploma (in education, marketing, TESOL, corporate training or even Web programming). By the way, TESOL or Teaching English to Speakers of Other Language is a good-to-have skill. I was told there are one billion people in China waiting for you to get your TESOL qualification and decipher for them the Eight Parts of Speech and the difference between dead ringers and ringers who are still alive.

And don’t forget to watch the Avenue Q puppets singing “What do you do with a BA in English” and other songs at the Esplanade Theatre from October 30 to November 16.

How not to ask for money

2008-09-06T02:39:00.006+08:00

I was amused to read in the latest PRWeb newsletter that critics who wrote bad reviews of the latest Star Wars movie, The Clone Wars, are no different from fundraisers who wrote begging letters. They have got it all wrong because their writing is based on flawed assumptions.

The critics found fault with everything in the movie – story, dialogue, characters and the jerky, angular style of animation. But according to fundraising copywriter Karen Zapp, those reviewers are completely missing the point.

She explains: The first six Star Wars movies were directed to teenagers and adults – science fiction devotees. But this latest movie is targeted at cartoon-watching younger children who are a completely different audience. If you look at the Saturday morning cartoons of today, Lucas is right on the mark.

Similarly, fundraising organisations assume everyone they mail to comprises one uniform audience. In reality, donors come from distinctly different groups, such as (1) people who always give; (2) people who have donated in the past, but not recently; (3) folks who give at various levels; (4) people who are interested in different aspects of your mission; and (5) prospects versus donors already in your files.

The problem arises when non-profit organisations try to "clone" the same letter or e-mail to communicate with everyone in their list. You can't assume all donors think alike. Each category of donors have their own separate views and opinions concerning your organisation. So, if you craft specific messages that resonate with each group, you can expect to see better response.

Sending a good message to the wrong target audience is like an adult watching a kid’s movie: an annoying experience that is forgotten as soon as it’s over.

My personal experience

I’ve a good friend responsible for fundraising in a private tertiary institution. Occasionally, she asked me to draft a letter or brochure to mail to all donors and prospective donors – individuals, large corporations, small businesses – begging for money for an event or a new scholarship.

But no matter how eloquently I “crafted” the text, the response was always zero, nil, zilch, to the point that she began to suspect I was losing my marbles.

Now, reading Karen’s explanation, I feel reassured that I can still write effectively. It was just that in fundraising, one size doesn’t fit all. Most organisations in Singapore – the universities, charities and others – are simply too lazy to put in effort to research different donor behaviours, before starting a fundraising mailing campaign.

With digital printing, it is possible to customise newsletters, brochures and marketing collaterals so that different people receive mail with messages that cater to their preferences and mindsets.

Frugal wisdom from grandma

2008-09-03T15:29:00.007+08:00

IT wasn’t so long ago – my Grandmother’s days in the 1950s and 1960s – when every copper cent was counted before any expenditure was made, and consumption meant less was more. A five-cent coin, for instance, could buy a bus ride, a cup of kopi-o or kaya toast (yup, kaya toast was the poor man’s breakfast, then).

Folks then practised the “reduce, reuse, recycle” lifestyle.

Today, the economy of almost every country is heading towards troubled times of hostile climate change, food shortage and sky-high prices of essentials, But there are still mindless people out there sleeping in airconditioned cocoons, driving SUVs that drink like a fish, and buying new cell phones every six months.

You and I, and our family and friends, should realise that our consumer way of living is no longer sustainable. And the quicker we figure out how to live frugally, the better we are prepared to survive when the economy nosedives.

Even consumption-driven Americans are looking back with fondness to their grandparents’ days, as one woman in Virginia writes in her blog: “One of my greatest regrets in life was that I didn’t listen to my grandmother more when she wanted to tell us stories about when she was young, or when she was first married. I wish I’d learned more about making do, rather than always assuming wanting more was the what I should be doing.

“Our parents parents were hardcore frugalites, and I know it’s human nature to rebel away from your parents’ values to some extent but man I wish we’d kept that one. My Grandma knew how to really cook! How to sew! How to make stuff! It boggles my mind when I think about all the household and domestic tasks I don’t know,” says this blogger.

We are in a recession, so what should we do?

Economics pundit Dr Abbas Bakhtiar notes that by now it should be clear to all but the craziest optimists that we are in a recession, at least in the US and Britain. He explains that a recession is defined technically as economic decline in two or more consecutive quarters.

In general during this period the affected countries suffered low economic growth, high inflation and high unemployment. Stagflation (stagnate growth + inflation) can occur because of several factors such as an increase in the price of oil in an oil-importing country, which tends to raise prices while slowing the economy by making production less profitable.

Dr Bakhtiar offers the following advice:

1. Bring your financial situation under control. To start with, get rid of your credit card debts. Credit card companies (including banks that support them) entice you to spend the money that you don’t have and then charge you unbelievable interest rates.

2. Stay healthy. Healthcare costs are scary, even if your insurance or your employer is paying.

3. Get rid of your car. Petrol prices will continue to increase and transport costs will become an important part of your budget.

4. Don’t use the vacuum cleaner, shower heater, clothes dryer and hair dryer, unless absolutely necessary. They consume too much electricity.

5. Keep away from all kinds of multi-level marketing, and other such things. In the end you will lose not only your money but your reputation and friends as well.

6. If you are holding down a job, do it well. In bad times, don’t give your employer an excuse to fire you.

Investment advice

If you have cash and would like to invest, then you have to pick stocks that have a future. Investing in a car company that keeps making gas-guzzling cars is a mistake. On the other hand investing in utility companies, especially those that generate electricity is a good one.

Food-producing companies are also prime candidates for investments. Nestle, for example, is a good and safe investment in the packaged food industry. Water distillation companies or those that have access to fresh water or technologies for purifying water are also good. Drug manufacturers’ stocks have always been called defensive stocks, since they are less likely to be affected by the recession than others. They also present a good investment.

Besides looking at stocks, you should be aware two things: in deflationary period cash is king and in inflationary period asset is king. If you see that inflation is rising, invest your money in properties and stocks. If deflation has taken hold, then save your money, it is worth more tomorrow.

In these turbulent times, people tend to buy gold; if you haven’t, don’t. There is a bubble forming around gold that if people are not careful will burst. If you see that your currency is under pressure along with inflation, invest your money abroad. Don’t just rush to buy gold.

Locked in but free as a butterfly

2008-09-03T01:28:00.010+08:00

I stayed up all night last night to read The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby, former editor-in-chief of French ELLE magazine. The book was so superbly-written, so motivating that my first reaction was to think of friends who must be notified, so that they, too, die-die must read. But then I remember most of them don't really give two hoots about books. They would listen politely as I talk about the delights and inspiration I found in a particular book, period. I hate such people because they only pretend to listen but don't really care what you say.

Out of the blue, I received a mobile phone text message from Lili Koh (working in DHL): "Hi francis, any interesting books to read?" What serendipity! She has to be the next reader of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

The author, Jean-Do (as he was fondly called) was 43 years old in 1995 when he suffered a massive stroke. His mind remained clear, alert and active, but it was completely locked inside his totally paralysed body. The only way he could communicate was by blinking his left eyelid.

Incredibly, by blinking when the correct letter was reached by a person slowly reciting the alphabet over and over again, he managed to write a complete book describing his condition and experience, like a butterfly sealed inside a diving bell.

The book was published in 1997. A few days after publication, Jean-Do died.

For over 10 years I have always wanted to read the book but never got around to it. Last month, I saw the DVD edition of a newly-released movie based on the book. I bought the DVD, watched it (in French, with English subtitles) and decided to get the book from Borders. The movie depicts vividly the experience of a mind locked in the body although portions of it are different from the facts stated in the book.

Reading the book gives me a deeper understanding and appreciation than watching a movie. First, the language is lyrical without being verbose or fanciful. In a few clear, yet poetic sentences, Jean-Do was able to describe his locked-in syndrome:

“A cerebrovascular accident took my brain stem out of action. In the past, it was known as a massive stroke, and you simply died. But improved resuscitation techniques have now prolonged and refined the agony. You survive, but you survive with what is so aptly known as locked-in syndrome. Paralysed from head to toe, the patient, his mind intact, is imprisoned inside his own body, unable to speak or move. In my case, blinking my left eyelid is my only means of communication.”

But his mind remained free:

“My diving bell becomes less oppressive, and my mind takes flight like a butterfly. There is so much to do. You can wander off in space or in time, set out for Tierra del Fuego or for King Midas's court. You can visit the woman you love, slide down beside her and stroke her still-sleeping face. You can build castles in Spain, steal the Golden Fleece, discover Atlantis, realise your childhood dreams and adult ambitions.”

To me, one of the most moving chapters was his description of spending a day with his father in the week just before his own stroke:

“In the morning, after bringing him a cup of milky tea, I decided to rid him of his few days’ growth of beard. The scene has remained engraved in my memory.

“Hunched in the red-upholstered armchair where he sifts through the day’s newspapers, my dad bravely endures the rasp of the razor attacking his loose skin. I wrap a big towel around his shriveled neck, daub thick lather over his face, and do my best not to irritate his skin, dotted here and there with small dilated capillaries. From age and fatigue, his eyes have sunk deep into their sockets, and his nose looks too prominent for his emaciated features. But, still flaunting the plume of hair – now snow white – that has always crowned his tall frame, he has lost none of his splendour.

“All around us, a lifetime’s clutter has accumulated; his room calls to mind one of those old persons' attics whose secrets only they can know – a confusion of old magazines, records no longer played, miscellaneous objects. Photos from all the ages of man have been stuck into the frame of a large mirror. There is Dad, wearing a sailor suit and playing with a hoop before the Great War; my eight-year-old daughter in riding gear; and a black-and-white photo of myself on a miniature-golf course. I was eleven, my ears protruded, and I looked like a somewhat simpleminded schoolboy. Mortifying to realise that at that age I was already a confirmed dunce.

“I complete my barber’s duties by splashing my father with his favourite aftershave lotion. Then we say goodbye; this time, for once, he neglects to mention the letter in his writing desk where his last wishes are set out. We have not seen each other since. I cannot quit my seaside confinement. And he can no longer descend the magnificent staircase of his apartment building on his 92-year-old legs. We are both locked-in cases, each in his own way: myself in my carcass, my father in his fourth-floor apartment. Now I am the one they shave every morning, and I often think of him while a nurse's aide laboriously scrapes my cheeks with a week-old blade...”

I wish I have read the book years ago. Who knows what change it might have wrought in my thinking and my attitude towards life, family and people around me.

The face that charms the world

2008-09-02T00:55:00.002+08:00

This girl’s pictures were accidentally left on the Apple iPhone when factory workers were testing the phone.

Many had feared the cute iPhone worker would be fired after her test photos accidentally made it through, but Apple contractor Foxconn said they were “a beautiful mistake.”

“She is an assembly worker in the mobile phone testing department and she is still working there. But she has requested us not to make her name public and we will respect her decision,” says Liu Kun, Foxconn Technology Group spokesman. He did tell China Daily News that the girl was from Hunan province.

Her photograph appeared on the iPhone screen because of “a small mistake during our working process but the outcome has not been negative”. On the contrary, “her lovely face has become popular on the Internet and we would rather call it a beautiful mistake”, Liu adds.

As far as I’m concerned, she is the new face of China, artless, cheerful and far more attractive than the little kid who lip-sang at the Beijing Games opening. The iPhone Girl alone has wowed and charmed the entire world, something that the millions of dollars spent in the Olympics could barely accomplish.

Juggling improves learning ability?

2008-08-26T16:24:00.010+08:00

Side show at the Singapore Airforce open house exhibition (Thursday Aug 28)

I’ve just learnt a new fact from Alvin Teo, the marketing director of Kaplan, a private education service provider in Singapore: juggling improves your learning ability.

Five of us were enjoying a hearty lunch at Mezzanine restaurant in Hyatt Hotel – my colleagues sales manager Tammy Hong and marketing manager Frederick Khoo, with Alvin and his colleague Jess, and I.

Alvin says students in his programmes are forming a juggling club and he is importing juggling balls from China. One of his department heads is also a juggler and a strong believer in juggling for academic success.

“Most of us are already jugglers,” Alvin pointed out. “We juggle home and work and other commitments. Working adults who sign up for part-time studies will have one more ball to juggle.”

Not everyone is good at keeping too many commitments up in the air. Tammy said one of our customer service executives, Bee Wah, who signed up for a Bachelor in Business Admin at Kaplan, has to give up her studies halfway. She finds it too strenuous.

A search on the Web provides lots of stories on juggling linked to education:

Teachers link juggling to improved academic skills

Although they admit to a lack of scientific data supporting their observations, several teachers and administrators recently told Education World that they've seen students' schoolwork improve after the kids learned to juggle. Improvements in concentration, eye-hand coordination, fine motor skills, reading, and behavior are just some of the benefits of juggling cited by educators. More…

Kaniskina walks faster than I can run

2008-08-21T19:21:00.001+08:00

Some things seem impossible. Today, I read that a woman has walked faster than I could run, and in pouring rain, too. And a man who recovered from leukemia, swam faster and further than anyone could.

World champion Olga Kaniskina of Russia battled through heavy rain in Beijing to set a new Olympic record of one hour 26 minutes and 31 seconds in the women's 20km race walking event.

Kaniskina led from start to finish. She said the weather had not otherwise affected her performance. "It had no influence on me. It was better than a sunny and hot day. I didn't feel it was very slippery. I was in good condition. I think my regular training is the most important factor contributing to my victory."

And in pouring rain Dutchman Maarten van der Weijden won the inaugural men’s 10km swimming marathon in one hour, 51 minutes and 51.60 seconds.

"I think the leukemia taught me to think step by step," said van der Weijden after the event. "When you're laying in the hospital bed and feeling so much pain and feeling so tired, you don't want to think about next week or next month, you're only thinking about the next hour.

"You just be patient. You lay in your bed and just wait. It's almost the same strategy I've used here, to stay in the pack, to be patient, and stay easy just waiting for your chance."

van der Weijden was diagnosed with leukemia in 2001. He came back in 2003 and began swimming faster than before he had the disease. He now goes around raising awareness for leukemia. "Because of the treatment I got, the stem cell transplants, I had the luck to recover," he said. "The stem cell transplants are because of research worldwide for cancer. So everyone who donates money, donated money in the past, I'm grateful too or otherwise I wouldn't be here."

Improving your old age

2008-08-20T16:38:00.001+08:00

GETTING old and older can be unpleasant. Your hair falls off, your knees ache and your skin dries up and wrinkles. You become forgetful, you cough constantly, and you are unable to sleep properly.

So, like many other old folks in Singapore, you pass the long, lonely evenings sitting and sipping cheap beer in your neighbourhood kopitiam as a young China girl in short skirt keeps topping your glass and encouraging you to drink more. You excuse your drinking because it’s a “harmless” indulgence to fudge your mind from the constant worry of an infirmed future.

Beer, wine, brandy and other spirits are nothing but poison. Drinking only makes a bad situation worse.

Here’s why old age sucks:

Fragile bones, painful joints

Your bones reach their maximum mass and density when you are around 30. As you age, the bones shrink in size and density. As a result, you will tend to slope, and, worse, your bones can break easily. You also start experiencing pain in your knee joints, and in your fingers.

Heart

Your heart is nothing but muscle. No, it will not get heartbroken when you grow older and weaker, but it becomes less efficient, working harder to pump the same amount of blood through your body.

Your blood vessels lose elasticity. Hardened fatty deposits may form on the inner walls of your arteries (atherosclerosis), narrowing the vessels. Loss of elasticity, in combination with atherosclerosis, makes your arteries stiffer. So your heart to work even harder to pump blood through them, leading to high blood pressure (hypertension).

Kidneys and leaky bladder

Your kidneys become less efficient in removing waste from the bloodstream. Drinking alcohol, and chronic conditions such as diabetes or high blood pressure and some medications can damage your kidneys further.

About one in 10 people who are 65 and older has experienced a loss of bladder control (urinary incontinence). Incontinence can be caused by obesity, frequent constipation and chronic cough.

In older men, incontinence is sometimes caused by an enlarged prostate, which can block the urethra. This makes it difficult to empty your bladder and can cause small amounts of urine to leak.

Brain and memory

The number of cells (neurons) in your brain decreases with age. Your memory becomes less efficient, and you tend to forget things.

Sight

With age, your eyes are less able to produce tears, your retinas thin, and your lenses gradually turn yellow and become less clear. In your 40s, focusing on objects that are close up may become difficult. Later, the irises of your eyes stiffen, making your pupils less responsive. This can make it more difficult to adapt to different levels of light. You may not see well in the dark.

Common conditions that affect aging eyes include cataracts, glaucoma and macular degeneration.

Hearing

Hearing loss is one of the most common conditions affecting adults who are middle-aged and older. Loud noises can damage the sensory hair cells of your inner ears over the years.

Some old people find it difficult to follow a conversation in a crowded room. Changes in the inner ear or in the nerves attached to it, earwax buildup and various diseases can all affect your hearing.

Skin and hair

With age, your skin thins and becomes less elastic and more fragile. You'll likely notice that you bruise more easily. Decreased production of natural oils may make your skin drier and more wrinkled. Age spots can occur, and small growths called skin tags are more common.

Your hair may gray and thin. In addition, you perspire less, making it harder to stay cool in high temperatures and putting you at increased risk of heat exhaustion and heat stroke.

How fast your skin ages depends on many factors. The more sunlight your skin has been exposed to, the more damaged it may be. Your risk of skin cancer increases as you age.

Sleep

Sleep needs change little throughout adulthood. If you need six hours of sleep nightly, chances are you'll always need six hours – give or take 30 minutes. However, as you age, you'll likely find that you sleep less soundly, meaning you'll need to spend more time in bed to get the same amount of sleep. By 75, some people wake up several times each night.

Weight

As you age, maintaining a healthy weight – or losing weight if you're overweight – is more difficult. Your body burns fewer calories. Calories that were once used to meet your daily energy needs instead are stored as fat.

Strategies for better aging

It is never too late to adopt a healthy lifestyle. If you quit smoking and drinking alcohol now, your risk of heart disease or stroke will be reduced greatly.

Living a healthy lifestyle can improve how you age. Here're eight commandments to help you fa in old age:

1. Stop smoking.
2. Stop drinking any form of alcohol (particularly beer and wine).
3. Cut back on sweet food and drinks.
4. Eat more fruits, vegetables and whole grains.
5. Do brisk walk, and then running, at least 30 minutes most days of the week.
6. Maintain a healthy weight.
7. Get enough sleep so you wake feeling rested.
8. Follow doctor's advice for checkups and health screenings.

More on healthy living and healthy pursuits here.

Awesome fireworks, adorable singer

2008-08-19T00:11:00.001+08:00

When things are too good to be true, they usually are, said my father many decades ago, in an effort to get me wise up to the ways of the world.

When the Olympics opened in Beijing on August 8, the dazzling display of fireworks was awesome. And an achingly sweet nine-year-old sang Ode to the Motherland perfectly.

Too good to be true? You bet your Mao’s Little Red Book it was.

Lin Miaoke, the pretty little girl (picture), has since been exposed as a fake. The ceremony's music director Chen Qigang said Lin was not singing but lip-synching to a recording by another girl, seven-year-old Yang Peiyi, who has a chubby face and uneven teeth.

And, guess what, those amazing fireworks that spread over from Tiananmen Square to the main Olympic zone during the opening ceremony, were mostly computer-generated.

Music director Chen told Beijing People's Broadcasting Station that when the opening ceremony team began rehearsing in the Bird's Nest Stadium, top government officials came to watch, "especially a leader from the Politburo, who gave us his opinion, this has to change".

As any good Marxist knows, members of the Politburo are the real rulers of the Communist state – everyone else is just a subordinate. So, if a Politburo member (who is too paiseh to reveal his identity) suggests you change the singer because she doesn’t look pretty enough, you do it pronto.

So, after her recording, little Yang was told to stay home. Lin, on the other hand, went on stage where she looked so adorable that the state-owned China Daily described her as a "songbird" who is "already well on her way to becoming a star, thanks to her heart-warming performance".

Chen said the switch was made because "it was the image of our national music, our national culture. And especially since it accompanied the arrival of the national flag in the arena, this was an extremely serious matter". The change resulted in "a perfect voice and perfect image, merged together" which he thought was fair to both girls.

On the fakey firework display, the Beijing Times said a week after the ceremony that it was "mostly an animated three-dimensional video that was made over a year. It was not actually live footage except the final stage at the stadium itself”.

Gao Xiaolong, a worker in the video team for the opening ceremony, said a video company named Crystal Stone composed the film. "Looking at it from today, the video was a bit brighter than the real fireworks," he said. "But most viewers thought it was live, so we succeeded in the effect we had wanted."

After the revelations, the Chinese authorities maintained a stony silence, and clamped down all reports and discussions in the official media and Web sites. Strangely, it was left to a Westerner to defend the deception.

Gilbert Felli, the IOC's Olympic Games executive director, was asked if switching the singers was the right message to be sending to the children of the world – that appearance, not skill, is what matters.

All he could answer was this mumbo jumbo:

"I think that what was explained to you here is that the opening ceremony is a huge organisation and you've got many players who are giving their opinion about what should be done. And then you have to make sure that the performers and songs are at the highest level. I would say it's a casting or a technical decision by the producer to do it so.

"I think you have to put that into the context of the opening ceremony and the complexity. You've got 15,000 performers in the opening ceremony, and maybe some of them were changed during the preparations. Some got in and some didn't. That's a casting issue you have in every performance.

"Maybe on this one, some people will believe it was inappropriate, but all the others would have said ‘that was fantastic because the performance was raised."

An official of China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, which is in charge of the Internet in China, claimed: "We know nothing about this."

Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise, as my secondary school English Lit. teacher Mr Matthew used to say, 40 years ago.

Piaseh is a Chinese Hokkien term meaning bashful, usually describing young girls looking for love, but sometimes also red-faced politicians. Read more of paiseh in love.

IT consultants' mumbo-jumbo

2008-08-15T15:18:00.001+08:00

Peak of inflated expectations
Trough of disllusionment
Slope of Enlightenment

No, you're not reading a Vipassana manual on meditation although the labels sound like the phases that a yogi goes through during a mindfulness retreat. It's a Gartner report on the "Hype Cycle for IT Outsourcing 2008" (July 1, 2008).

Such consultants and purveyors of business wisdom and bullshit like to use cryptic terms to show to clients that much thought and brain power has gone into the report. In my personal experience, when I break through the mumbo-jumbo, platitiudes and fakey charts, I find very few insights that can be used for business planning and outwitting the competitors.

The numbers and graphs are also suspect. Here's an example from the same report:
"a multiyear or annuity contract/ relationship... market penetration: 1% to 5% of target audience..." What the heck is market penetration of 1%-5% of target audience? And where do they get the numbers? And why can't they use a less weird term, instead of "multiyear". And "annuity" is rubbish here, it should be "annual" or single-year".

The solution -- for small and midsized businesses -- is not to waste good money on consultants but to read up on news reports and stories written by trained journalists, especially those from Business Week, The Economist, Time, Newsweek, and the better class of newspapers in the US and England.

My preference is for Businessweek which uses language that is clear, lively and direct, without any consultant-speak.

In Singapore, people who need to keep abreast of technology-related industry buzz, success stories and the products and services offered by local ICT companies, go to the authoritative IDA Web site: http://www.infocommsingapore.sg/

The vision thing is dead

2008-08-14T19:16:00.000+08:00

The vision thing is dead, said Ian Berry. "Nobody believes what you put on the wall. If no one believes in your vision, it's a disaster."

Mr Berry, CEO of Australian firm, Remacue, was speaking at the 12th Infocomm Commerce Conference at Suntec City. The conference and exhibition was organised by the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce & Industry and the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore.

Instead of vision, look for a cause that is beyond profits, said Berry. Every day, there is no reason why anyone should wake up hungry, and yet over 800 million people in the world are hungry, he noted. Businesses should look to causes that help alleviate world hunger and other concerns.

From corporate values to employees’ virtues

It sounds good to have a statement of corporate values. But you should transform values into virtues that employees internalise and practise. An example of a virtuous company would be Starbucks, the chain of cafes across the world. People like to work in Starbucks, because the company engages in fair trade. It takes its coffee beans as much as possible directly from the small farmers, thus maximising their profit margin.

Today's generation of workers want to be associated with organisations that are ethical, that care for the poor. Ethics, causes and virtues are more important than business, said Berry, who observed that "if you do things right, the money will come".

Nobody likes to be appraised

On the day-to-day running of a business, Berry suggested companies stop appraising their employees. "I have never met a person who likes to be appraised," he declared. "So, why are you still doing it?"

Engage your employees, and help manage their performance, instead of measuring and evaluating them. More on Berry's talk, here.

Facebook has no vision

Earlier in the year, I read a Businessweek report (March 9) that Facebook’s 23-year-old founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted he doesn't know how to articulate the company's overall vision.

In the past, he claimed Facebook's mission has been misunderstood. He said: "We have a chance here to build a platform that fundamentally changes the way people communicate. How many times do you get a chance to do that? Zero or one. So we just have to go for it."

In the comments box for the Business Week article, I added my two cents:

It is wonderful to hear the CEO saying he doesn't know what Facebook's vision is. That's the right approach. Most companies put up mission statements on what their vision is, but they don't believe in it anyway, and no one else believes it too.

As long as an organisation is commercial in nature, it's vision and mission and goal is simply to make money in the smartest, shortest (legal) way, period. Because Facebook doesn't really know what it wants except to do good and help people, it keeps stumbling into one success after another.

Keep it that way, please, and not be derailed and distracted by mission, vision and other corporate hypocrisy.

Can’t buy me love, Singapore

2008-08-12T14:34:00.001+08:00

Online survey uncovers difficulties in search for true love

Not many friends, not much confidence and not much free time, are the three most important reasons given by frustrated young Singaporeans as they try to search for true love, according to a recent survey on MyeCitizen portal.

Despite these concerns, Singaporeans still prefer to meet members of the opposite sex through friends, in the workplace or in school.

Conducted over three weeks on MyeCitizen, more than 500 Singaporeans aged 20 and older, responded. Among respondents who felt they have not been successful in love, more than 60 percent of them attributed it to one or more of the three factors.

When it comes to meeting new friends of the opposite sex, more than 80 per cent of the respondents said they prefer meeting people through friends or socialising in their school or workplace. However, almost 20 per cent indicate that they do make new friends online.

It is surprising that despite the cosmopolitan nature of Singapore, many people still hold on to traditional ideas of courtship. More than 70 percent of respondents, for instance, said the man should pick up the tab for dinner on the first date and more than 80 percent of men reported that they paid for dinner on the first date. Slightly more than 40 percent of women prefer going Dutch.

Although nearly 70 percent of the respondents indicate that they are successful in love, a majority remain open towards receiving expert advice and tips from professionals.

In fact, Singaporeans have been heating it up on MyeCitizen’s Talking Point forum and turning to professional love coach Kloudiia Tay for advice on dating, marriage, cohabitation and in-laws.

Kloudiia says: “All of us face love and relationship problems at some point in our lives. It is often easier to talk the problems through with an expert, or pick up a few tips in order to smooth out the kinks in our relationships.”

I was told that Charlene Soh, marketing manager of the My eCitizen Web site, is inviting everyone to talk about romantic love. She even offers attractive prizes, including 30-minute love-coaching sessions with Kloudiia, for five winners. Three winners will each receive Kloudiia's The 69 Love Notes, a popular title worth $22.90.

Starting second career in mid-life

2008-08-02T00:48:00.000+08:00

After more than 20 years, Sally is leaving her first and only job at a major government organisation, for a second career.

“Do people in similar situation make successful career switch?” I asked her as she sipped latte (and me, a long black) in a cafe in Ang Mo Kio Library, and pondered over working life in general. Many people in their mid- and late-40s, who have worked in only one job, do not have skill sets other than what they have been doing, day after day, year after year, in the same department of the same institution.

I suppose when you are younger, switching to a totally different job is much easier because you still have enough enthusiasm and energy (and humility) to start from the ground up in your new job. For instance, fresh after National Service, I worked in the personnel department of a factory, calculating wages, overtime and allowances. After some years, I applied to be a newspaper journalist.

The paper’s managing director, a chap called Lind Holloway, wanted to know if I was sure I could make it as a journalist, a different kettle of fish from working in the factory. The year was 1977 and the Five-Nation Bersatu Padu military exercise had just finished. I told the MD that one of the war games involved a competition in the jungle. The Singapore Armed Forces contingent comprised relatively inexperienced National Servicemen who were not given any chance of winning against veterans of the other armies (from Malaysian, Australia, New Zealand and Britain).

But the NSmen came in first, much to the surprise of the British umpires who concluded that there was nothing that youth could not do and succeed if they set their mind to it. The managing director chuckled and I got the job.

By being young, I’m not talking about chronological years, but about being young in spirit and attitude. A youthful attitude means being willing to do anything that someone else has done, and to succeed in it, whether it be sky diving, selling insurance policies or managing a plant.

Planted mindset

Speaking about plants, I know a former plant manager, Peter, engineering graduate from Strathclyde University, one of the top institutions in Britain. All his life Peter managed plants until he was entrenched in his early 40s. That was 15 years ago. Since then, he concentrated his energy on getting another similar job. That was all he believed he was capable of doing, and nothing else. For a spell, he worked in Karachi, Pakistan, managing a cooking-oil production unit. He came back, looked high and low but couldn’t find another plant opening.

Now Peter’s in his late 50s, still economically active but unemployed. So what’s he gonna do? Nothing, except keep looking for a plant manager’s job, even when Singapore is hollowing out its manufacturing plants.

In contrast to Peter, I know a chap who was with me from recruit to officer-cadet days. Call him Jimmy. In our three years of National Service, he was Best Recruit, Best NCO Trainee and Sword of Honour cadet. After NS, he became an insurance salesman and pretty soon he was earning more than the combined income of the rest of us, his former comrades.

Genetically-coded success

Jimmy belongs to a class of people born with “genetically-coded” success skills. They don’t need prior experience or qualification -- throw them in any job and they cannot help, but succeed, even if a tsunami hits.

For the rest of us, average and below-average folks, we need to acquire some survival and success strategies. I’m not talknig about an MBA (although it would be useful if you can afford it) but an appreciation and understanding of essential skills that are necessary today and tomorrow.

Many of these SOS (secrets of success) can be found in self-help and personal development books, and Web sites such as the NS Portal. Go to the Lifestyle Pursuits Channel and click on Career to discover, for instance, the SOS of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs (few are more successful than these two), and how you can acquire the skills as well.

Financial nest egg creates self-confidence

The first secret of success, if you don't know already, is to build a nest egg. While you are working in a steady job and drawing an adequate salary, you should also at the same time be setting aside a monthly sum from your take-home pay, to build a nest egg.

Sound financial planning dictates that a working adult should have savings that are equal or more than two years of his salary. So, your first SOS is to start saving until you have reached that sum of money in, say, five years.

With this nest egg, you will think and act more confidently. You will be able to treat your co-workers and your bosses with dignity and respect, and not to grovel. The worst thing that can befall you in your workplace is to lose your job, but that is not a major concern because now you have enough cash to tide you over two or more years.

Besides giving you self-confidence, cold cash also generates a warm feeling in the heart.

There are many other self-help techniques and strategies and smart career moves on the NS Portal, but they all begin with the practice and discipline of saving.