Sorry guys/gals

My apologies for not posting anything today. Was at NUH with the missus. Unfortunately the Singtel Wireless reception was poor and can't get my article out. Will post it this evening. Title is New Sandwich.

No he won't shut up

On the tail end of the LKY tour of Malaysia, Mahathir had to let go his pent up feelings. He left it to the last day, a courtesy, or knowing that LKY did not have time for him? He harped on the perpetual issues of Malays losing out, of selling water cheaply to Singapore and how important Singapore has become. He will never die in peace if he cannot get these issues out of his system. It must be very painful to him. Were his fears real or imagination? Every country will strategise their policies with themselves as the centre of the universe. Is that anything new? As for selling untreated water to Singapore at 3 sen, he did not comment that Singapore sold treated water to Johore at a special price in return. Changing one will have to change the other. And the Iskander project, other than the fears of bumiputras being marginalised in their own country, think deeply, is it possible in today's context? This was possible in the pre independence days of colonialism. Today the bumiputras are in control of the country. There are their own masters. And from the economic point of view, if Malaysia cannot remove the blinkers and think that foreign investors will go there, throw their money in and leave everything to the Malaysians, without leaving any traces of their presence, they can give up their dreams of attractive foreign funds. When foreign investors came, they will bring everything, money and their culture and presence. And they want to make profits out of their investments. And Malaysia would naturally want to benefit from their presence. But Malaysia cannot blame the foreign investors for raising the cost of living, fighting for all the space and services, buying up their properties etc etc. These are part and parcel of the bargain. There will be more Singaporean cars and Singaporeans all over Malaysia if they want to promote tourism. And there will be more jams and ugly Singaporeans. If that is something they did not want to see, then it is better to close the door. Malaysia will now have to reassess its position without the fears and threats of a Mahathir mindset. To move forward and embrace the world, or to remain as a kampong?

A 6 hour experience at NUH

This is one of our world class hospitals. This was the first time I had the opportunity to observe it at close quarters, for a solid 6 hours. I was at the A&E dept to admit someone. I must say the facilities were first class. And the front line staff were also first class, very helpful and pleasant to deal with. We are in Yellow state of H1N1 and they were all geared up for it, with new areas being provided for visitors as a result of this flu threat. There were ample seats at the waiting area, free distilled water, and fans to cool the temperature. The latter didn't work much in the current hot spell. Warm air blowing. Two areas which I found wanting is the PA system. The sound was not clear, maybe it was outside and the acoustic wasn't good. What is not too good is the instructions given. Everytime they called out for the visitors to be at the counter or somewhere else, they presumed that the visitors know where that place was. In many cases the visitors, probably first time there, did not have a clue where they should be going to. I was there for 6 hours and tried very hard to figure out the instructions. I felt victim to it too when my turn was called. I went from one point to the next in a blurry way. Go to that counter, over there. Without the H1N1 precautionary measures this may not have happened as everything, every counter, is inside the department. For the moment, the visitors have to stay outside the building and make do with the temporary measures. Oh, in case of patients who have been there for several hours, more feedback to their family members will be welcomed, at least to let them know how many more hours they would have to wait and in the mean time they could go for a snack or do something else. I waited patiently for 6 hours. Only the first hour was I given a short brief.

I work, so I am

Several years ago someone asked me when I was going to retire. It was a normal course of event. People stopped working at 55 and retired. I am still working, more of a necessity than anything else. Over the weekend I heard of this friend who is going to ask for extension of employment. He is in the mid 60s. He is not the Ah Pek that needs a job to pay for the next meal. He is a CEO of a MNC. Why would he want to continue working at that age? His children are on their own. He had not only bought them a car each, but also a landed property each. And his own net worth is easily $20-$30m. Doesn't he want to spend the rest of his life playing golf, sail or travel around the world, doing things that he did not have the chance to do before, playing with his grandchildren, or become a small emperor in Bintan, Batam or JB? He cannot retire, and he must not retire. He does not want to be known as a retiree. It sounded as if he is a worthless man, a retiree! Many of these successful and multi milllionaires may have fallen into this same situation. The fear of retirement and the loss of their big titles. They want to be known as CEO, Director or Chairman of this and that. Money is also good, for some, for doing nothing. And there are all the perks and the names and name cards to throw around. All these people will work until they die. They live to work and work to live. That is their meaning of life. The only reason to justify their existence as a human being, to work and work and work. Perhaps we should glamorise the title multi millionaire or billionaire and people who are so rich should print it on their name cards as a status symbol. And they can add in the phrase, 'I don't need to work.' I like to gripe about people not knowing how to die gracefully. Now there are all these successful people who can afford to retire gracefully to enjoy a life with newfound freedom that money can buy. But retire they not.

The white mice experiment

There was this experiment done in the past on population control. The guinea pigs were the white mice. What the researchers did was to introduce white mice into a cage. The white mice were happy and quickly multiply as there were abundance of space and food. The mice were healthy and vibrant. As the population keeps increasing, the vibrancy increased and it seemed that the mice were also getting happier, working harder and running faster. Then a point was reached when the population grew too large and you could notice the unhappiness and the difficulties to find space and food. And the mice started to look hungrier and angrier and less well fed. They need to fight with each other for every inch of space and every piece of food in the cage. And tension rose. But vibrancy was getting higher and more exciting. This went on undisturbed. Soon rioting and fighting among the mice were a normal and frequent activity. The final part of the experiment saw the mice eating each other for food when food ran out. Today, our 6 million or 8 million population target has not been in the news for a while. So quiet. Will we still be heading in that direction? Will the population end up eating one another? It would not be white mice eating white mice. It could be white mice eating black or grey mice or vice versa. Is that our destiny?