When you invite wolves into your home

The last few weeks we have heard the foreign talents calling us silly and shallow, even printed in the main stream media for every Singaporean to read. Now they are even beating up Singaporeans in our own country. If things are not put into proper perspective and the foreigners made to know that they are here as guest workers, by our grace and generosity, tomorrow Singaporeans may fear for their own safety walking in our streets. Just watch these two clips. Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lx0iszVuLKw Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-mRTKC_sz4

Western high and mighty justice and ethics

The Professor Simon Shorvon case is another glaring example of what Western justice and high ethics are all about. They decide their own rights and justice. Small and weak countries have no rights to their justice and ethics. Simon Shorvon's unethical and unprofessional practices in Singapore, ie, 'recruiting patients and altering their medications without their informed consent or the knowledge of their neurologists' were serious ethical and professional breaches. Singapore Medical Council(SMC) sacked him only to find him appointed in the prestigious University of London College and National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, London. Such serious violations of professional and ethical conducts in an important field of medical sciences cannot be allowed in any civilised world. It can only be practised in third world countries on third world patients by first world eminent professors. The third world people, govt and patients have no right to a little decency. That is what the case is all about. And the SMC has a duty and responsibility to see such disgraceful acts be made known to prevent further repeats of the violations. However, the British General Medical Council(GMC) had turned down SMC's request for a public inquiry on technical grounds. And they conveniently ruled that SMC was only an informant and not complainant and thus 'the GMC owed no duty of subservience ot the SMC' to inform the SMC of its decision. The issue here, to the British, is a case of subservience to a small country. For its pride as a big country, it refused to hear a complaint from a small country to be seen as subservient. It brushed aside the more important issues of professional breaches of conduct and ethics. This is the kind of Western justice that the rest of the world had lived with for centuries. But for a declining power, a small power like Britain today, they can no longer rule away their hypocrisy. And should Singapore and the rest of the world send their students to the University of London when such misconduct lives among their eminent academic community? And this also applies to the University of Birmingham.

branding works

We have many heroes. It is only a matter of recognising them and blowing up their achievements, add in a little drama, a little exaggerations and sensations, and we can have the best fairy tales or world shattering stories. Just write on the good and beautiful side and ignore the bad stuff. Look at all the celebrities and ask yourselves how many are just simply punks and outrageous bums that you would not want to be seen around them? But they are idolised as long as the dark side is not exposed. But to be serious, we have great names and marketable names. The Americans have their Roosevelts, Eisenhowers, the Brits have their Chamberlains and Wilsons. And now the more marketable names are the celebrities in arts, entertainments and sports. Tiger Woods, the Levis Strauss, Michael Jordan, etc. Let's cook up some great brands among our greats. Remy Ong, Ang Peng Siong, Mardan Mamat or Dick Lee and churn them into world class brands. SIN is not bad when FCUK is nice. Shall we have brands like the Ongs, the Angs or Siongs, or Mamat or the Lees? The Lees somehow sounds better, more familiar and more universal and recognisable. Lets launch the Lees brand for a start and see how far it goes. Dick will love it. he is so famous. Branding works.

sunday morning again

I like Sundays. On Sundays, I let my mind wanders to uncharted territories, toy with wild ideas and things that are unmentionable. Last Sunday I expressed how envious I was about young professionals making 3/4 of a million or more. Geez, was I envious? I have to harp on that theme after some sad experiences that happened to some earlier batches of high earners. The housing agents, insurance agents, stockbroking agents, the conveyancing agents or they also called them lawyers. They were the high flyers of a short era. It happened so fast and gone just as fast. I happened to meet up with a conveyancing agent, or lawyer, the other day. And he said he was just waiting to close shop. Huh, conveyancing agents or lawyers, closing shop? What happened to the good time? And what happened to the million dollar housing agents, the million dollar insurance agents, the million dollar stockbroking agents? They are all marking time. Some quit, some earning pittance, worst than a clerk. Some waiting to call it a day. The moral of the story is that when one is earning big bucks, shut up. You would not know what is coming next. Things may change so rapidly, by the act of god, that good time will be over in a matter of days. Maybe there is some hope today. Now the perception is different. If one can earn more, I can make sure that I can earn even more. So the bigger is the income of others, the better justification for me to earn more. I deserve to earn more than anyone. And I will find a way to do so. So please go and earn as much as you can. But just don't get carried away.

how wrong ntuc leaders were?

While the NTUC leaders were mulling over the increase in CPF contribution of employers, they are conscious of how any increase will affect our competitiveness and the concerns of employers. John De Payva commented that 'Employers have said the increase in CPF contibution may result in them lowering the annual wage increase...' Its a case of LPPL. You pay here you cut there. So more CPF, less increments. 'On the other hand Lim Swee Say noted that some employers did not want the rate to be raised.' How wrong can the two be. Consult the views of our foreign talents and they will get a surprisingly different picture. This is what Faruq Shadhili(foreign talent) said, 'Foreign companies are eager to raise the CPF contributions for employees.' Or maybe Fauq is referring only to foreign employers while the NTUC leaders were referring to local employers. And foreign employers like Singapore so much that they are willing to pay more to Singaporeans and will not relocate to China or India. The NTUC must engage some of these foreign talents to get a better feel of the real situation on the ground. And they are relatively cheaper to hire. Good value for money.