the pap mentality

The PAP mentality No, I say again, no, I am not referring to the political party of the same initials. And I am not trying to discuss about the political party or pap smear. I am referring to a Singaporean mentality that everything can be solved by paying. Tan Choon Ming wrote an article about how plastic bags, the indiscriminate disposal of them, is harming our environment. And the Singapore style solution is, yes, make them pay for the use of plastic carrier bags. Singaporeans are paying for rubbish disposals. Now we have to pay for the containers that will eventually be used for the disposal of rubbish. Fine, it will surely work, the Singapore way. Oops, what did I say? Did I say something right? Oh yes, fine, fine them like littering. But didn't we already have littering fines? Obviously this fine isn't working. So for the use of a plastic bag, Singaporeans will have to pay for it, which is a commercial decision, pay for their disposals, or fine for not disposing them properly. Fine, let's get it going. Singaporeans only understand the meaning of pay and pay. We pay for everything, from the paying of top dollars to solve elitist problems to the irresponsible who litter everywhere and to pay taxes to help the poor.

myth 102

'Elites are not proud' I was reading Adrian Tan's thought about the uncaring elitist debate. After acknowledging that elites are found in all societies and that it is self deception to pretend that there is no elite, and admitting that he too is an elite, he came to the conclusion that the solution is a little pretence. I agree with him that the elites deserved to be where they are and to be proud of their achievements. And naturally whatever they do may be a little cocky or perceived to be cocky. And that blatant abuses of the plebians are a no no. Pardon my punt. There are many ways to make elites more acceptable and friendly and lovable. Give them more publicity, and even if they are punks or hoodlums like some of those excellent footballers or other celebrities, they will still be adored. Make their antics admirable and cool, like some were heard to have splashed their faeces on the ceiling of hotel suites etc. But if all else failed, as Adrian suggested, a little pretending to be humble, will go a long way. Anyway this world is full of pretences and hypocrisies. Just pretend to be nice, act nice, say some nice things and people will forget who they really are. It is so simple and easy for the elites to be nice. Not too much to try to be nice, or pretend to be nice.

There is no reasons for PRs to complain

The last few days have been quite trying for the PR community in Singapore given the announcement that PRs will now pay more for medical and school fees. Actually all these are unnecessary and can be avoided. There are many ways to skinning a cat. Oops, maybe I should use a more diplomatic phrase. There are many kinds of subsidies and discounts. What I thought would be a more pleasant and positive thing to do is to announce that all citizens and PRs will pay the same rate of medical fees and school fees. Now am I back tracking? No, not really. The second announcement is that all citizens will get a discount or subsidy for medical fees and the edusave for school children will be increased to pay for school fees. I know it is LPPL. Oh, the difference is that one option means more money to the govt's coffer while the other means money out from the govt's coffer. But the difference can be overcome by announcing that medical and school fees will be increased followed by another announcement for subsidies for citizens. There must be better ways to make things more pleasant. Maybe they should engage a PR agency for this. What is a couple of millions for better acceptability huh? Marina was well spent.

why fame arts school chooses singapore?

Why did renowned New York arts school, Tisch, chose Singapore against Japan, Korea and India? Simple, we have our comparative advantage. 1. Strong Govt vision to make Singapore a global school house 2. Impressive infrstructure and advanced technology 3. Multi ethnic makeup of the people 4. Strategic location 5. Extensive use of English And we have many other advantages other than these. And I can easily add in another 20 or 30 advantageous. There is no need to go down on our knees. We have values and these can be converted to price.

differentiation for average foreign talents

Myth 101 'The fallacy that we must compete for lowest wage or cost' I have posted this myth yesterday and explained that there is no need to bring everything to rock bottom especially in our competition with other countries. There is also no need to pit our workforce with the cheap labour of India and China. There is no need to go down on our knees to beg for foreign talents to come to our shores to compete with our local talents. Here we need our supertalents to find a solution to justify their worth and their exceptional remuneration. There are such things as niche market, market differentiation and product differentiation. This can best be seen in the prices of upmarket properties. While others are coming down, property prices in prime locations are shooting to the stars. And our medical fees can be priced higher than the regional hospitals, why? Then the taboo topic that I avoided to talk about. While the pay of most public and private sectors are going down, the pay of top govt officials are also shooting to the sky, like top end properties. The elite may complain that this is politics of envy. I am conscious of how the elite feel on this. But this point is raised from the angle of product differentiation or market differentiation. At the top end, like top class foreign talents, the market is different. The air in stratosphere is also different. Then there is the element of no competition. Back to the foreign talent market. At the middle, the bulge of the bell curve, there are millions of them available. They are not a talent that is so special or exclusive that we cannot do without. At this average level of talents, there is no difference whether the talent has a third class, second class or general degree, or whether he comes from a third grade or second grade university. The job he is going to do or doing does not require any exceptional talent that our locals did not have. At this level, they should be competing on a level playing field. Or, the locals shall have a slight advantage in the competition. That's is what privilege of citizenship is all about. Any foreign talent that thinks he is competing unfairly and does not like our terms, thank you, find a better place to go. There will be more hungrier foreign talents who will come happily to take up what is available. Yes. lets cut out the bullshit. There is no shortage of talent at the average talent level.