DPM Teo & Pre-U Student

My 2-cents worth of opinion- Normally when we ask questions, we expect a direct answer. A coach or mentor will not give the solution but throw leading questions that will allow the questioner to seek his own answer. In this case, the setting may not have been appropriate.

We don't know exactly how DPM Teo asked the question, but the students expected a direct answer. That is partially a fault of our education system, where we are so used to being spoon fed all the answers. The other problem is that the audience might laugh if the answers to the questions are wrong, and this may also put off the questioner.

Whatever the situation, the student has no right to throw vulgarities at an elder.

National Achievers Congress (NAC) 2012

Some valuable takeaways from the congress:

FOCUS - Focus on One Course Until Successful

Millionaires delegate every thing

Either schedule your success or plan your failure

Build great relationships

How to build a great business? Create value first and expect nothing in return! WOW!

"It just takes one idea to live like a king for the rest of your life" - Ross Perot

By-election at Hougang

There's been a lot of debate going on as to whether the by-election at Hougang should be called ASAP, or it should be left hanging indefinitely. My opinion is that, it may work in WP's favour the longer it is delayed. It is said that time heals all wounds. Over time, those people who felt angry, their anger will subside. It may even turn to sympathy.

When people reflect on the actions of WP leadership, even though they had taken a long time to come to a decision, people will make comparisons. WP does not have the machinery to carry out investigations against the allegations. People will compare to the government, needing months, to implicate the heads of SCDF and CNP in misconduct; and that they took about one month to make public. So, why we expect WP to make hasty announcements?

So, my feeling is that WP may win by bigger margin the longer the by-election is delayed.

Good luck!

Quotes from Socrates

Many of his best-known utterances still speak to us today:

* Employ your time in improving yourself by other men's writings, so that you shall gain easily what others have labored hard for.

* Prefer knowledge to wealth, for the one is transitory, the other perpetual.

* Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.

* Beware the barrenness of a busy life. Leisure is the most valuable of possessions.

* We cannot live better than in seeking to become better.

* The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.

*Let him who would move the world first move himself.

Gold, or Silver?

You hear a lot these days about gold. It's no wonder. Even Bernanke says that people hold gold as "a protection against... really, really bad outcomes."

Yet few people talk about silver. Even though the potential for silver to appreciate could be many times that of gold right now.

Amazingly, silver prices remain well below the all-time high of $50.35...

And that was reached in 1980, more than 30 years ago.

In addition, the supply of silver is on a downtrend of historic proportions.

Did you know that unlike gold, silver is 98% consumable? Most silver, such as the metal used in electronics, is not recoverable. There's no viable way to recycle it.

In 1970 it is said there were 140 months of available above-ground silver. By 1990 that shrank to 50 months. By 2010 it shriveled to perhaps as little as 11 months.

Even more telling...

1. The amount of silver coming out of the ground is going down every year...
2. Few, if any new discoveries have been announced in the past 10 years...
3. Most silver comes out of the last stages of existing mines...
4. The quality of silver mined is the lowest it's ever been... And
5. Like most metals, silver isn't mined in veins any more. It takes many tons of earth and rock to process even an ounce...

So what has been keeping the price of silver so low? And why is it on the verge of a breakout that could be the biggest in several generations?

Eldercare centres & resident consultation

There are 2 issues here.
1. Big hoo-haa with regards to the siting of eldercare centres. Its such a shame that people have come to this - total disregard & disrespect for the elderly. Have these people forgotten that they will grow old one day?
Good that the govt is goign ahead with the planned centre.

2. It seems that the govt has to consult residents for everything - people are asking for too much. When you vote in a govt, you give them the mandate to do what they seem best for the country & the residents. If everything have to consult, there will be no progress at all!!

Pay & Corruption

Myth: Pay high and you get a clean government

Fact: Pay and corruption has no correlation. Highly paid officials can also be corrupt, and a rank-and-file worker can lead an honest, corrupt-free life. The most important factor is the person's moral values and character. Of course the higher you are in the power hierarchy, the higher the temptations. How much a person can resist these temptations will depend on his will power. Another factor that can help is his circle of confidantes.
Recent spate of high level, mid-level and low level officers in the civil service linked to corruption and cheating has debunked the long held mantra by the government that we need to pay top money to get top talents. Maybe now we have to look at how to give these top talents some soul as well.

NUS graduate scavenges through rubbish to support family

'NUS graduate scavenges through rubbish to support family'. When I read this article, the first thing that came to my mind was - hey! he's a graduate and should have been earning quite well. How come he came to this state?

After thinking through, I realised that I could be in similar state. School didn't teach financial management. It was through reading that I gained knowledge on financial education, financial independence. School didn't teach me these.

There are some books I will recommend:
Awakening the Giant Within - by Anthony Robbins
Rich Dad Poor Dad - Robert Kiyosaki
The Richest Man in Babylon - George S Clason (one of the first book I read, on how to manage my finances, and get money to work for you, instead of you working for money)
Master Your Mind Design Your Destiny by Adam Khoo

Good luck!

Knowledge and Education

I read 2 different articles on education trends on the same day. One was published in Singapore's Today newspaper. The other was in The Atlantic.

The Today reported that some enrichment centres now require 'entry tests' to enrol for their courses ('Sorry, your child is not bright enough'). It states that children as young as 6 need to pass a test to enrol into enrichment classes, which in the first place, was meant to help students get better results.

The other article, 'What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland's School Success' explains how Finnish schools emphasise on equality when it comes to education.

It appears that we have lost sight the purpose of education in the first place. I thought that education is to enrich the human mind. To expand our brain. To enhance the quality of life. It now seems that Singapore's education model (and for many other countries as well), the main purpose of education has been to become economically productive. To such an extent, we force our children to study subjects that will lead to high paying careers in law, medicine. We should revert to the original purpose of education - i.e. to enrich the quality of life.

Economic downturn for 2012?

2 notable members of Singapore ruling party have warned us to take this year's expected slowdown in our stride, but still maintain that that Singapore will look at 1-3% growth.
What I expect from the government some pro-active measures to 'take in stride' the expected slowdown. I already seeing a number of companies laying off workers and relocating.
And the 1-3% growth may come from areas that don't employ bulk of Sporeans, e.g. construction and service industries. Why I say construction? We are looking at ramped up BTOs of HDB flats, and tunnels, roads and MRT lines.

Goodbye 2011. Hello 2012

What do I remember about 2011?

The first thing that came to my mind was the SMRT breakdown. It was so significant that it wiped off memories of the whole year. So, of course, 2011 was more than just the SMRT. Let's recap some of the happenings in 2011:

- the Arab Spring. Downfall of Hosni Mubarak. Demise of Muammar Gaddafi. Egypt still in turmoil. Syria still in turmoil. Iraq still unsettled. Afghanistan - ??

- the last KTM Train pulled out of Tg Pagar.

- GE & PE. WP won 6 seats. Loss of GRC to opposition.

- when you have bad news, you forget the good. There were 2 Royal weddings. Britain & Bhutan.

- flooding became more common. From once in 50yrs, now we expect floods everytime there is a downpour.

- On family front - My nephew got a daughter. Now, she is critically ill.

- Niece passed her PSLE. On second try. Good for her.

Well - 2011 was not so bad after all.

What does 2012 bring? Hope and pray for the best. Life is not a bed of roses, but there is always light at the end of the tunnel!

Think positive, and put our trust in GOD.

I for one don't believe in new year resolutions.

Additional Buyer's Stamp Duty

Now, residential property investors (or speculators) need to pay additional buyer's stamp duty, ranging from 3% to 10% (for foreigners and corporations). REDAS chief (Wong) lamented that it will put downward pressure on property prices (I agree) and even the wider economy (question mark).

Inflation
Novermber's inflation rate was 5.7%. It looks bad for the government. It shows that government eefort to rein in inflation is not working. One of the factors affecting inflation is property prices. The govt has to rein in property prices to tame the inflation.

Investment
One comment is that it will drive away investors in the property sector. How does anyone benefit from foreign investors in residential properties? Yes, the developer's benefit. The construction companies benefit. There is business activities, but how does Singapore benefit? The government benefits by collecting stamp duty, and being able to sell land at higher prices. Once property price go up, the foreigners will sell off, making a tidy profit.

HDB
From a macro point of view, we should not forget that the govt has announced that they will ramp up the building of HDB flats. If they don't slow down the private property sector, prices of raw material and labour will escalate with competing demand. HDB prices have to be raised to break even, or make a decent profit.

So, actually, the move is timely.

Charlie bit my finger

Loved watching this video. So natural.

Where is Singapore Economy heading?

Stupid question, with obvious answer. Our finance minister said that the economy is slowing down. Possibly we will be faced with a recession. A double dip recession.
What was the solution? Let Singdollar depreciate. Those who follow the currency, will have noted that at the beginning of September, US$1 was trading for S$1.20. Today, it is US$1 to about US$1.26. By weakening the Singdollar, it is hoped that it will boost exports. But will it?

For exports to grow, there must be increased consumption. We can leave US & Europe out of the equation. Where else? Africa? Middle East? I don't know. I don't think keeping the S$ low will save jobs. On the other hand, weaker S$ will mean imports will become more expensive. This will lead to higher costs. We will be hit by double whammy. Recession; possibly loss of jobs. And higher prices for food and other essentials. Just be prepared.

Other side effects - with the weaker S$, our properties will begin to look attractive to foreigners. I expect a flood of foreign investors (Or rather, speculators) will pluck our properties. I hope China and Indonesia also get hit, then we will get a chance to get private properties at a bargain.

What can we do? I believe gold and silver will continue to climb higher in US$ terms, and S$ weakening against the US$, its double the profits.

Good luck.

A Tribute to my teachers

Today being 31 Aug, and tomorrow being 1 Sept, I started feeling nostalgic. Why? Tomorrow is Teachers' Day. So, I started recollecting my 40+ years of life and the most enjoyable period of my life was ...

My secondary school days (so called the teenage years).

So here goes my heart to my secondary school & all the teachers there! I really miss them.

I studied at Si Ling Sec School from 1981 to 1984. I was in the 2nd batch of the school. So there was no high expectation to live up to, and no baggage of poor performances of earlier batches. I still have fond memories of Si Ling Sec Sch ...

- whole class made to stand outside the classroom for being too noisy (Sec 4A)
- finger kena smash by door closing
- public caning during assembly for keeping moustache
- sweeping most of the book prizes for topping the different subjects & sweeping most of the quizzes
- missed out on getting a medal for athletics in Sec 2 (my only chance - gone)

I still remember a number of my secondary teachers (as if they just taught me yesterday). So here goes - who & why ...

had 2 principals - Mr Lee (very strict; got caning by him) & Mr Bhajan Singh (very magnanimous - but I think discipline in the school slackened in later years). I still think it is good to have caning as a punishment in schools

Ms Lim Li Li - taught us chemistry in Sec 3 & 4. Remember her for her:
a) cheongsam - she almost always wore cheongsam
b) her hour-glass figure
c) she used to repeat & repeat until we could just follow her word for word. But later realised that didn't have to study so hard for Chemistry to get an A1. Thank you Ms Lim.

Mrs Mathews - taught us Biology. Remember her for making a remark that we will never get good results. Spurred me to prove her wrong. Thank you Mrs Mathews for helping me get an A1 for Bio.

Mr Philip - Maths teacher. Never had any problem with Maths. Still love Maths to this day.

Mr Ng - Add Maths teacher. Good teacher. My fault - over confident. Only managed a B3

Cikgu Syed - Malay teacher. He reprimanded the Malay students becos a non-Malay can score A1 but they could not (I think I was lucky as that was the only time I got an A1 in my 4 years). Met him a number of times outside school. Very passionate man who spent a lot of time counselling prison inmates. Met him in 2010 at JB

Mdm Maznah - Malay teacher in Sec 2. Treated me kindly.

Mdm Maimoonah - her favorite personality was Robert Redford.

Mdm Rugaiyah - taught us Geog in Sec 1. Developed a liking for Geog. Took Geog for 'O' levels

Mr Edwards - Arts teacher. I was never good in Art, but he was a good teacher.

Mr Yap - PE teacher. Met him recently in my neighbourhood. Still very fit.

Ms Devi - English teacher & form teacher in Sec 2

Mr Khoo - Physics teacher. & Thanks to him, became a member of Computer Society. My first contact with a computer was Apple & used Basic lang.

Mrs Ngooi - Sec 3 & 4 English teacher. Thanks to her, managed an A1 in English (by a whisker)

Mr Singh - taught History in Sec 1. See him a lot in the neighbourhood. Last I heard, he got a law degree. Still studying at age 60++

I can't remember some of the other teachers, but still can remember their faces. I hope you all are doing well.

Happy Teachers' Day to you all!

The Case about PA and non-partisanism

I find it incredulous that PA claims to be non-partisan and therefore do not allow WP MPs to join the grassroot functions or use their facilities. By the sheer action of not allowing opposition MPs access to their facilities, they are already being 'political' bcos they are discriminating just because of party affiliation.

Reality

I've been reading the Temasek Review & The Online Citizen since GE2011. Basically the TR is quite demoralising. Reading too much of TR gives me a sense of helplessness & like what the heck - .....

Lets face reality. Those who have been in the workforce will surely realise that those who 'make it' are those who are better at networking. How many times have we heard of someone, who is very knowledgeable and hardworking, but poor EQ, is being passed over for someone who is not so capable but able to please his boss?

My frank opinion is that many people think that the government is duty-bound to take care of the citizens. However, we forget history. Those in power will definitely try to help their kins first, before helping strangers. If you ask me, I would do the same too.

For those naive TR readers who expect the govt or others to take care of them, I suggest they read up Robert Kiyosaki's book, Rich Dad Poor Dad. Whatever our opinion of the author, basically what he trying to drive home is that we should be financially literate, and there is no better person to take care of our finances than ourselves.

I will take the example of the 40+ former hedge fund manager who was earning $100K++ and he was on cloud nine. I can imagine him on cloud nine - buying all the luxurious goods and lavishing on himself like there's no tomorrow. Suddenly he finds himself out of job - and he expects the whole world to be sympathetic to him, and offer him a job, paying $7K++? It all boils down to keeping our feet on the ground. We need to face reality. Whoever becomes the next govt will take care of their own interests first.

Lets forget who is in govt. Lets look at what we can do for ourselves and our friends. The glass is either half full or half empty. If we see the glass as half empty. we will always be unhappy. On the other hand, if we see the glass as half full, we will be contented. That is not to mean that we don't fight for our rights. But the lesson is that it is so much better that our destiny is in our hands. & not in the hands of the govt. Or charity. Or even our children. I believe that we should nourish our children without having the thought that they will pay us back.

So ... lets think positively - and accept whatever life throws at us as challenges - and we will triumph!

Education is big money

We all know that education is big money. Look at all the private education centres mushrooming in Singapore over the past few years, until Edutrust had to step in to filter out those fakes from the real ones.

The mind boggling question is: When employers can easily employ graduates from all over the world, and so many students are competing for a place in Spore u, why is the govt still offering tuition grants to foreign students to study at local unis? I am sure we will get enough good students from overseas to study in our unis without offering them the subsidies. Yea, in the developing years when NUS & NTU were not up there yet, it was ok. But now, should remove the carrots. Then MOE can make even more money.

But then again, the govt must know something we don't.....

Life and death

Last Thursday, I went round with Mr SK Lim on our normal safety inspection. This Monday (20 June) I received a call from one of the staff informing me that Mr Lim has passed away. He was 42.

It came as a shock to everyone. He was still young, had no medical conditions and was a likeable person. Went to his wake the same day. Spoke to his son (in 1st year poly) and his wife. From them, I learnt that he had complained of pains in his chest and back, but had not time to see a doctor. He had an appointment on Sat, but he passed away before Sat could come.

Time for reflection - time and tide waits for no man. We are so busy with work that we don't even have time for ourselves, family or God. We think we are indispensable. But the moment we are gone, the company will get a replacement. They may miss us for a while, but life goes on.

Spare a thought for yourself. Take a vacation with your loved ones. Time gone will not return.

Singapore vs Singapore Inc.

We love our country, Singapore. Foreigners also love our Singapore for many reasons, including cleanliness, security, corruption-free, orderliness, etc. However, since GE2011, there has been a lot of outpouring of unhappiness in the island paradise. Local Singaporeans feel shortchanged and feel that foreigners are benefitting at the expense of Singapore.

Management Model

In my opinion, the government is running Singapore like a business. Its management style is similar to those of Microsoft, 3M, Apple. How? If we look at these companies, even as they launch a new product, they are already working hard at developing a new product. Take Apple for example. Once they launch the highly successful I-phone, they have been quick to launch newer versions. This is adopted to keep ahead of competition. There have been many copycats, but apple has so far been able to keep ahead of competition.

Coming back to Singapore. In the 60s and 70s, our industry was mainly labour intensive, e.g. textile, wood. In 80s, we moved more into electronics industries. The woodworking and textile industries were in their sunset years. In the 90s, we began to face stiff competiton from other countries, such as China, Indonesia, Vietnam, for a share of the electronics pie. What would have happened if the government did not change course? Imagine ourselves still stuck with textile or woodworking industries. Our economy would be in bad shape.

So, what next? The government has been right to move into the service industry - education, medical hub, financial hub (of course I take exception to the IRs). However, there are areas that I think that can be improved on:
- the govt offered subsidised education to foreigners as we needed huge numbers of graduate engineers & other professionals. The 3-year bond was to ensure that these people return to the community. However, with the name brand of NUS and NTU, I am sure that there are sufficient numbers of students from neighbouring countries willing to study in Spore without tuition grants. Then it makes economic sense to make tertiary education as a profit generating industry.
- there is over weightage to engineering per se, given the changing nature of the industries. The polytechnics and unis should offer more courses relevant to the industry. Mid-career professionals in outdated fields should be given a fresh start in new areas with training & opportunities for re-employment.

Social impact
In the corporate world, those who cannot adapt to change, will normally be redundant and forced to leave on their own accord, or through retrenchment exercises. However, in Singapore's case, we need to change fast to continue to stay relevant, but we cannot retrench or ignore the less capable members of our society. If the poor turn to crime out of dire needs, it does not help the rest of the population. It is therefore necessary to have a system in place to ensure that they can pick themselves up and try to live decent lives. Schemes that I find was very helpful was the Job credit scheme and the SPUR program. Of course, there will always be people who take advantage of loopholes, but these helped.
The other challenge will be for the grassroots to reach out to those in need - most probably those in need would not know where to look for assistance, and some may end up in the clutches of loansharks and vices.

Singapore has progressed economically for the majority, but as humans, we may not have progressed. In pursuit of economic success, we have left behind other qualities such as compassion, graciousness. If we can develop these as well, then Singapore may truly become an island paradise.