Why Singapore has no talents?

Life is a learning process. People get smarter and wiser after making many mistakes in life and learn from them. They worked on their problems, overcame the problems and gained experience and wisdom. The funny thing in life is that the more challenges one faced in life, the more one learns and the tougher one becomes though not always the case. A person that did not have to face too many difficulties and challenges invariably learns less, not necessarily that he is less clever. So, where can you find experienced and well trained people in Singapore when everything works so well, no problems?

In Singapore, everything works. So the people working in the industries, in the ministries, etc etc would naturally learn less as there are lesser breakdowns and problems for them to overcome and to learn from. Ok, I know you people will be shouting SMRT! Ok, there are exceptions. After the breakdowns are taken care of, our SMRT staff would be very experienced and they can market their skills to the world, for having gone through all the problems and knowing how to deal with them. I think this is the only industry and profession where we can tell the world we have the most experienced and trained people.

The industries like water and sewerage system, power and electrical system, all working so smoothly, sure got no talent. Just like in the business, banking and finance, our banks were rock solid, no problem for so many decades. Where got talent?  They got no opportunity to learn anything, so now we have to start all over again, go overseas to find the talents we need. Maybe when there is a financial crisis and out banks are at the brink of collapse we will have new talents after they survived the crisis.

The moral of the story, when you want people with talents in flood control and drainage, go to countries that are flood prone. They sure have very experienced people who would know everything about flooding and drainage. If you want experienced train operators, go to countries where trains always breakdown and you will find all the seasoned engineers and managers who have gone through all the problems. Very well trained and experience.

And if Singapore wants to go nuclear, better go and recruit the engineers and scientists from Fukushima when they are still alive. Not many would be left around for long. They have the experienced on how to deal with a breakdown. And if you want banking and finance experts, go to countries where there are many banking frauds and problems, you will find all the experienced people to hire.

Did someone say when a system is working fine, with no problems, it means you have very able people running it, proactively planning and preventing problems from happening?  These people would not have the experience of solving all the massive breakdown problems but they are so efficient to prevent problems from happening, seeing to it that everything works at the push of the button. Unfortunately if they have to apply for jobs, they would not have a string of problem solving skills to boot and some may think they have no talent, or no experience at solving problems.

What do you think? Who is the better person to employ? Those that ensure systems work with no or little failures, or those who cannot manage a proper system that runs smoothly and every day fighting fires but with a lot of experience to tell? Do you want people to work diligently until everything works so fine that people may think they are useless, nothing to do, or people who run around everywhere trying to solve problems when problems is the norm, and looking like very hardworking, very involved, because they could not ensure that the system works smoothly?

If no one was there to screw up the housing policy and programmes, Boon Wan would not have the chance to solve the problems and now can put it in his resume as the hero that solved the housing problem. Some may say the problem is still there. That is another opinion.