Fancy finding a Singaporean with a little talent

This titled was inspired by a report on Banyan Tree Holdings, a Singapore based hotel chain, building an eco friendly hotel in the backyard of the Singapore Zoo. The front page article in thenewpaper on 12 Oct read, ‘Fancy sleeping in luxury ,quoting the CEO elaborating about this novel and creative concept of building a hotel in the jungle for guests to experience what it was like living in the midst of a tropical jungle and about co existence with wildlife and nature.
 
On reflection, I think I will not be far wrong to say that all the CEOs of Singapore’s holiday attractions like the Zoo, the Bird Park, Botanic Garden, Sentosa are all foreigners. Not sure about the artificial garden in the heart of Singapore, could also be a foreigner. This one could be an exception as Singaporeans are very good in anything that is fake. And foreigners are heading most of the banks in Singapore, local banks and foreign banks. And foreigners are CEOs in many other institutions including institutions of higher learnings. Singaporeans first, do good, do together.
 
What do all this said about Singaporean talents? Is Singapore able to produce Singaporean talents for employments? I am very specific here, I am referring to Singaporean talents not locals. And to be more specific, Singaporeans that were born and bred here?
 
Why is it that Singaporean organizations are hiring foreigners as CEOs? Is it that our universities are not producing them, not doing the right stuff? What about our super talented students sent abroad to study in the best universities where these foreigners were educated? If it is due to a failure in our own education institutions, then sending them overseas should do the trick. But no, many of our best students went overseas also came back showing very little employable talent except to be civil servants or generals.
 
So what is the real stuff that makes the difference if it is not education? I think the foreigners are born with talents. Talents are born, and no amount of university educations, from the best universities could make the difference. There is no need to go for that expensive education. When one is born, one is either daft or talented.
 
Now you can understand the title, Fancy finding a Singaporean with a little talent. Singaporeans just don’t have talents and it is right and necessary to hire foreigners that are born talented to run Singaporean corporations and to provide jobs for Singaporeans. Without these talented foreigners, Singaporeans would be clueless about anything, except maybe queuing up to be Grab and Uber drivers. Or is that what they were taught in the universities, to become taxi drivers?
 
Let me be a little bit generous to say that actually Singaporeans still have two skills left. One is the ability to employ foreigners to hire more foreigners to replace Singaporeans. The other skill is to train jobless displaced Singaporeans to work overseas. This last skill is admirable, a heart of gold, thinking and caring for Singaporeans.