Tiger Woods – A lame duck without his dad

The golf prodigy, the young man to break all the records in golf’s history, is today a pathetic self and is as good a piece of old furniture in the golf course. His glory days are over the day his dad left him. He thought he could go on on his own steam without his dad. The momentum was there to let him continue to win a few more tournaments in the couple of years after his dad left him. But without the intelligence and discipline of his dad, he is a lame duck, a spoilt kid looking for help, doing things that his dad would not have approved. And his game crumbled to dust. It’s over Tiger.

During his heydays, at his peak when he is in contention for every title his is playing, he listened to some jokers to change his swing. Without his dad to stop him from listening to bad advice, he went along foolishly to change his winning swing. Can you believe that? He changed a swing that was winning all the trophies for him because his wise coaches told him to? His dad would have told him not to do anything stupid like that, do not change unless it is broken. Without his dad, he could not think properly and was led by the nose by ill advice from people pretending to want him to be good, but actually undermining him and paving the way for his downfall.

Today, a few years after his dad was gone, when all the goodwill and measures had been eroded, he could not do anything good, and is looking like a dud. Instead of being at the top of the leaderboard he is first at the bottom. One wonders how the best golfer in the world could become the worst pro golfer in such a short time?

Tiger Woods is still Tiger Woods himself. What is the difference between then and now? He is still working very hard trying to be the best. The only thing missing is his dad. I think that is the main reason why his game collapsed. There is no dad to guide him and protect him anymore. He is on his own and left to live among the sharks out there and they are all there to kill him without him knowing. And whatever little talent he has got, there is no dad to make good of it while jokers around him are leading him to his demise as a has been golfing great of yesteryear.

It is so pitiful to see Tiger Woods in such a sorry state. Everything is falling apart without him noticing. And everyone is still clapping when he struts around in the course. Where has his greatness gone? Or where did his greatness came from?

Good bye Tiger. The time has come to depart gracefully while you still can. There is no daddy there to prop you up anymore, no daddy to look over your shoulders, no daddy to ward off the sharks hanging around to do you harm. You will be consumed by the wolves in sheep clothing.

PS. I thought he would do better than Jack Nicklaus.

Humility – From immortals to aristocrats

We once have to grudgingly live with the idea that there were immortals floating above the plebeians and plebeians needed to know their proper place in the hierarchy of human beans and immortals. Today we are seeing a different kind of humility, instead of floating in air like immortals, they have come down to earth as aristocrats. We are now in the good company of nobilities and aristocracy as highlighted by the comments of Hsien Loong. I thought we are a Republic.

This is what he said, “You want people to stand up, not scrape and bow. But if you don’t have a certain natural aristocracy in the system, people who are respected because they have earned that and we level everything down to the lowest common denominator, then I think society will lose out.”
The comment was posted in an article in the TRE on Tharman’s view on the innocence of youth and the privilege of the young to speak their mind. The author quoted the Oxford dictionary as saying Aristocracy is “a form of government in which power is held by nobility… a class of society comprising of people of noble birth with hereditary titles”. I think some people may have earned their rights to become aristocrats but many are aristocrats by virtue of their noble births. They are born into a life of luxury and nobility and must be respected and accorded the courtesy for being what they are.  Look at Britain and the infamous nobles making a fool of themselves? Being rude to the nobilities and aristocracy by the peasants is something to be frown upon. The former know their special place in society and the peasants also better know their place too before it is too late.
There must be a class distinction between the two classes of people or there will be disorder. As long as the natural order is in place, there will be peace and harmony on earth. Yes, my lord. The relationship between the nobilities/aristocracy and the peasants is more sustainable and liveable than between the immortals and the human beans. Immortals are called ‘hsien’ in Chinese. And being ‘hsien’ they can ‘hsien’ the people for all they like with their magical powers. But nobilities and aristocracy are still human beans except for their noble birth and good fortune. Technically they can’t ‘hsien’ the people like the immortals.
Let’s get use to this new and natural system of aristocracy in paradise. Forget that we are supposed to be a Republic where the country is owned by the people, where the people are the real master of the land. Remember, there are nobilities and aristocracy with their noble birth rights and rightful place in society. And thank God, no more immortals or ‘hsien tao’ around.

No need for so many universities

We used to have Singapore University and Nantah. Now we have University of Singapore, Nanyang Technology University, Singapore Management University, USIM, SUTD, SIT, Yale Singapore Joint Campus and many others in the private sector joining here and there. What is the purpose of so many universities? Is it not the official view telling students there is no need for a university education when such a thought goes against the need for more and more universities?

There is also readily available graduates from the best in the world and the best from the village universities of 3^rd World coming here for our choosing, the so called cheap and good. And there are millions of fakes and those genuine degrees from quality degree mills to choose from. There is thus no need to provide universities for our young when we can get them free from the whole world.

There is another reason why there is no need for so many expensive universities. Why spend so much money building universities with the best facilities money can buy to be filled with foreign as lecturers and non academic staff, practically the whole university staff are foreigners except for the clerical jobs and cleaners. Maybe the cleaners are also foreigners. Where are the job opportunities for the citizens? Oops, we our policy is to hire the best from the world, regardless of nationalities. I remember.

And why build universities staffed by foreigners and to be filled by foreign students and paid by tax payers’ money as well in the form of generous scholarship? Is there a need to spend so much public money doing this? Wait a minute, if the foreign students return home, they will have fond memories of Singapore and when and if they are in positions of authority, they will be kinder and look at Singapore more favourably. There are so many whens and ifs to happen to benefit from this huge expense. Just hope they don’t return with a lot of hate for Singapore and Singaporeans.  

If the universities are built as business concerns to generate economic growth, for more revenue for the state, that is a different matter. If the universities are self sufficient financially, making money from the foreign students and providing good jobs for our citizens, that is a good proposition and is most welcomed.

But if the universities are built with tax payers’ money to feed foreigners as lecturers and staff and to finance foreign students to get their education and we pay for it, what is the point? Do we need to spend this type of money, so much money to hope for some good will and kindness?

Are we really doing these kinds of things with our taxpayer’s money? I hope not. If it is, there better be a rethink and use the money more wisely to invest in our very own children. We are not the Santa Clause to the whole world. We are not slaves and servants to the whole world. We don’t owe the world an obligation to provide jobs and university places for them. We are a small little dot with limited resources. We are not a super power with super power ambition and interests.

Anyone got any figures to confirm that this is or not the case? Anyone knows how much we have spent annually on this inexplicable myth?

Singaporean core in banking and finance

Tharman said this at the Association of Banks annual dinner, ‘Our vision is to be a financial centre that is among the leaders globally in workforce skills and expertise, and one with a strong core of Singaporeans at every level.’ This statement prompts a lot of questions as to why the need for such a statement and what happened that resulted in this statement.

Singapore as a financial centre has always been our mission since the 70s and we have been the top financial centre in the league of Tokyo and Hongkong. And for two decades, Singaporeans were in charge, the top financial talents were Singaporeans. What happened after that? What happened to all the Singaporean finance talents that today we are faced with a dearth of Singaporean finance talents that almost every top finance and banking jobs must go to a foreigner? And when a job is vacant there will be a mad rush to look for a foreigner as they could not find a Singapore to fill it? To the people responsible to fill these positions, Singaporeans are misfits in the finance industry.

Some may take this lightly like a non issue, but is a very serious issue. It is mismanagement of our human resource in the finance and banking sector. It is negligence, dunno on whose part, that we have reached such a dire strait. Is there anyone who is supposed to oversee this manpower need? It cannot be that such an important function was left to chance. Under Goh Keng Swee, his fingers were on the pulse of the finance industry and Koh Beng Seng was clearly instructed and given the task to ensure that Singaporeans would be groomed to take over the top jobs in the banking and finance industry.

What happened? No body knows I guess. No body cares? Was this policy abandoned, dropped like a coconut and not to be remembered? Or was there a change in policy to let foreigners to take over the banking and finance industry and Singaporeans were left out of the picture? Would anyone want to take responsibility for this fiasco, a sell out of Singaporeans in a very important industry that is now controlled and dominated by foreigners?

You mean no one knows what is happening? Sure no one knows or else someone’s head will be on the chopping block for such a gross mistake. Are we back to square one, to want Singaporeans to be in charge in the banking industry?

Now that Tharman is talking about the next 10 years to salvage a bad situation by ‘a string of programmes and initiatives, paving the way forward for Singapore with less emphasis on academic qualifications and more focus on the mastery of professional and technical skills,’ I am puzzled, very puzzled. What did he mean by less emphasis on academic qualifications? Did he mean that top banking and finance jobs do not need academic qualifications? Or did he mean that our tertiary institutions are not teaching the mastery of professional and technical skills and only the industry could teach the mastery of professional and technical skills? Then what is the point of going to the universities? O and A levels will do, and let the industry train the top managers needed?

Whatever magic that Tharman is going to pull out from his bag, we have 10 years to watch and see if the damage in the last 20 years can be redeemed. Let’s hope in 10 years time we will not be hunting around the world for finance talents and Singaporeans are still blur like sotong in the mastery of professional and technical skills in the industry. 

Today we are a laughing stock as a financial centre that has no finance talents. It would not be funny if after another 10 years we will still be in the same state of nothingness. By the look of it, by the programmes suggested, it is going to be the same.

There must be a detailed plan of affirmative and positive actions and training to ensure that the Singaporean core exists in the banking and finance industry, and not the type of core from issuing pink ICs to foreigners and called them Singaporean core. Someone must be named to be responsible for this important task and be held accountable if nothing happens again. And tell him he will be hanged if he fails.

A financial centre that has no local finance talents and has no programme to ensure that this is being done for the last 20 years!  What, everyone gone to hibernation? This must be another Uniquely Singapore thing. Or someone finds it more expedient to depend on the instant tree formula, so no need to grow our own timber? Hire the best regardless of nationalities, the parrots are heard squawking. Should someone take a shotgun and shoot the silly parrots?

Did anyone say we are always planning ahead? Did anyone notice the big hole in the banking and finance industry?  What kind of brilliant planning is that? And the best part, it’s over, let’s move on. No one is responsible for it.

GE 2015/16 issues for the voters to consider – Issue 6 – Is CPF your money?

What is happening to your life time savings in the CPF? Is it your money? Are you happy with the shifting goal posts, the minimum sums, the Medishield life and Medisave Life? Do you want to take it back earlier at 55 or 62 or dunno when?

You can decide what you want to do with your CPF savings by your votes in the GE. The GE is the time to change the fate of your life savings, to take it back.