foreign talents for company boards

it is a truth that nobody wants to know. or at least nobody who is benefitting from all the fat director fees would want to know. heng swee kiat, the mas managing director said this,' these busy directors find that they do not have time to keep up with the workings of the business and to fully digest the information they are confronted with in their board papers.' is this new or news? has rip van winkle just woken up? now, finally mas wants to do something to correct this anomally that has been common knowledge all these years. it is pure nonsense for someone, no matter how talented, to be in full employment, maybe even wearing several hats, to sit in more than 3 boards of directors. everyone has only 24 hours a day to work. no, minus all the rest and sleep time, travelling time, eating time, quality time with families, how much time is left for real work? 10, 12 hours. it is high time that corporate governance be taken seriously and directorship be taken seriously. the party is over. or is it? is the call for foreign talents to boost up the pool of directors necessary? some companies that need that extra exposure may need some foreign talents. but we are not short of qualified people to be directors. we have plenty of them, now jobless or holding lesser jobs, because of age. many have been prematurely retired for their own good as if after 45 or 50 they should be buried and forgotten. we have a very serious unemployment problem at hand for the above 50s. there is no need to import more fictitious foreign talents. look after our own people. make directorship a new career for the senior and qualified professionals. are we so short of ideas as to discard all our experienced people to be cleaners and taxi drivers? limit directorship to a maximum of 3, preferably 1, for full time employees. the rest of the directorships can be made available for qualified and experienced singaporeans. these are the jobs that we should reserve for our own citizens. not fictitious foreign talents. can we be real? can we create value jobs for our citizens?

stonefish and first aid

the occurrence of people being stung by the stonefish appears to be a regular affair around the main island and surrounding islands. and i was told that our hospitals did not have the antidote for it. this is quite puzzling as my encounter with the stonefish was more than 15 years ago. and they had the antidote then. it was a simple procedure once you have the right antidote. no complication, no expensive medical bills. just like a jab for flu. the stonefish is no small mean fish. it is poisonous and can kill. all our resort islands and sea related sports clubs must have the antidote on standby. i would think that sentosa, the biggest resort island, would have an emergency clinic in the island and with the antidote. the number of daily visitors are in the thousands. if a factory in jurong or in the islands can have an inhouse clinic, there is all the reasons to have one in sentosa. if not, at least an arrangement be made with the clinics in world trade centre to stock up the antidote. they need to use it every now and then. this is first aid, and a public service. i could not believe it when someone emailed me asking where on earth or in singapore can one find the antidote for stonefish. and he has been recommending sentosa to stock up on it but unsuccessful. i only hope that this is not true.

why nguyen must die

or why you must die. it is a bold statement that normally comes from an emperor or a mafia boss. and this appeared on the australian paper The Age. and it was accredited to our high commissioner joseph koh in canberra. our affable commissioner was instantly transformed into some kind of a mob chief of a nigger lynching party. it must be a frightening experience to be tagged with such a comment. all joseph did was trying to separate the facts from the fiction in the drug trafficker's case. he conscientiously gathered all the facts and wrote an article for dissemination to the australian press with the heading 'separate fact from fiction.' but the age chose to have their own heading, giving a totally different picture. this is the power of the media, the power of free press. they have the freedom to choose what they want to know, read what they like, select what they like, write what they like and print what they like. in other words they gathered information to support their agenda. and if their agenda is against you, you had it. but what is the difference between a free press and a controlled press? don't they do the same thing but to satisfy different agenda? the only significant difference is who is calling the shot. free press or controlled press are as good or as malicious as they are, depending on their mission or intent. what is important is a responsible press. but responsible to who? who sets the agenda and whose value and interest should the press be responsible to? the power of the press and the media is tremendous in what it can do to a collection of facts. they can turn facts into fiction, into comics or into a gorified hollywood thriller or horror movie. how true is truth?

bronze statue for australian hero

would the australians build a bronze statue to commemorate their newfound hero in nguyen van tuong? nguyen van tuong has now risen to cult status, uniting a large section of the australian population for a common cause. we will have to wait for his statue to be erected in front of parliament house in canberra as the symbol against capital punishment. may he rest in peace.

is badawi facing a mutiny?

an innocent spark caused by a mobile phone camera is raising a flame. will it continue to burn and overturn the govt of badawi? or would he be able to hold his ground and fire the mutineers? when the humiliation of the chinese national was exposed, badawi immediately sent a minister to china to explain that it was not a govt position. not soon after, a deputy police chief said it was standard police procedure. and yesterday a deputy security minister came out to defend the police force and challenge anyone to bring the issue to parliament. he even went to the extent of asking foreigners to go home if they are not happy with the police mistreatment. after badawi and najib had made their stand, now a junior minister openly stood up in defiance of their position. what does it mean? in malaysian politics, the politicians are very street smart and will not make silly statement or take silly position like this. either someone mighty is behind them or there is a ground shift to challenge badawi. an apparently minor misconduct of a police constable could now turn into a huge fire.