( the following piece is taken from another blogger by the name of erik. http://www.xanga.com/erikhagen . ALL GUYS should read it and i mean ALL GUYS)
When you're overly controlling, it gives off the impression that you don't trust her. If she really wants to go to a club, she'll go, but she'll just lie to you about it reaffirming your lack of trust, and it's kind of a cycle. The more you don't trust her and feel the need to control her, the more she has to lie to do the things she wants causing you to mistrust her even more when you find out. And it's so dumb to think that holding her back from going to a few parties is going to help her not cheat on you. If the girl really wants to cheat, she isn't dumb, she would find a way.
Also, when you're over protective, it really makes you look insecure and pathetic. Deep inside, you know that girls like confident guys, and that being a pussy will make her like you less. And that might be part of the reason why you feel like you need to be controlling, is that because girls cheat on pussies with confident manly men, and you don't want that to happen to you. Why don't you just be a better boyfriend; If you were a manly man, they wouldn't cheat on you with a pussy, you'd be everything they are looking for.
It seems like the only good thing that comes from being a controlling boyfriend is that you show you really care about her, or at least about not loosing her. Unfortunately, there are much better ways to show her that you care. And everyone including her knows this. Instead of showing her you care by getting mad at her when other guys smile at her, why not buy her flowers or take her on a picnic.
I'm not saying to act like you don't care if she's obviously taking the first steps to cheat on you. I'm just saying that if you know she loves you, then be confident in that and trust her more instead of being a pussy ass bitch.
Monday, October 24, 2005
Monday, October 17, 2005
What is your saddest moment?
Today i was at the hospital, helping my dad to do the discharged procedure for his discharge. As i walked passed the rows of bed, i heard this buddhist hymn. Yes, that song u heard when u visit a buddhist columbarium or at a wake. That hymn where it just repeat itself. So i turned and looked, i saw this frail old man, lying there, with an oxtgen mask strapped over his face. That look on his face, i know his lungs is failing him. His time on Earth is getting shorter and shorter. That same face, remind me of my grandfather.
When i was young, i often thought the saddest moment of my life is when i get caned for something i do wrongly. It was painful and most importantly, scars were left on my thigh and hands and i would worried that how could i face those sneering laugher when i get to school.
When i reached secondary school and when the mind began to be even more concious of the environment, the saddest part of my life is when i couldn't get into triple science class or double science. Its kind of stupid, now that i think back as to why teachers discourage students of going into the arts classes when they set up the class? But it spur me to work even harder, although i couldn't qualified for a science class.
When i failed my A level, thats it, the end of the world. My future was left hanging, suspended in the air. That is the first time i actually shed tears over results and the first time my mum never scold me for my results.
Just as i thought that getting trashy results was my saddest part, my grandpa passed away on 2001, near christmas time. The first time i witnessed a life, slowing ebbing away on the hospital bed, and when he acknowledge me as i greet him, he was in a semi-coma stage. At 7.30pm, he went. I remembered i cry buckets of tears during his wake and especially so when the coffin was being pushed into the furnace.
The saddest part of my life, is not about trashy results, is not about failing to go into a relationship with a girl i like for a very very long time, is not about arguing with your lecturers or getting frustrated with somebody else. The saddest part for me, is that your love ones departed, never to be returned, alive in your memories only.
For me, it has such an impact, the witnessing of my grandad demise, prove to be such a source of energy for me. For once, i truly understand the saying:" life is short".
Life is so short that you can't have time for small matters.
Life is short that you want the person you liked to be happy and not be bothered by you and thats why you stop wooing her.
Life is so short that you mustn't let your loved one down, especially your parents, that you must stop living a frivolous life but start to plan for your well-being and theirs.
And at the end of the day, you won't know whether you can say to yourself" i am alive!" tomorrow.
The saddest part of it all, is not to treasure and make full use of life.
When i was young, i often thought the saddest moment of my life is when i get caned for something i do wrongly. It was painful and most importantly, scars were left on my thigh and hands and i would worried that how could i face those sneering laugher when i get to school.
When i reached secondary school and when the mind began to be even more concious of the environment, the saddest part of my life is when i couldn't get into triple science class or double science. Its kind of stupid, now that i think back as to why teachers discourage students of going into the arts classes when they set up the class? But it spur me to work even harder, although i couldn't qualified for a science class.
When i failed my A level, thats it, the end of the world. My future was left hanging, suspended in the air. That is the first time i actually shed tears over results and the first time my mum never scold me for my results.
Just as i thought that getting trashy results was my saddest part, my grandpa passed away on 2001, near christmas time. The first time i witnessed a life, slowing ebbing away on the hospital bed, and when he acknowledge me as i greet him, he was in a semi-coma stage. At 7.30pm, he went. I remembered i cry buckets of tears during his wake and especially so when the coffin was being pushed into the furnace.
The saddest part of my life, is not about trashy results, is not about failing to go into a relationship with a girl i like for a very very long time, is not about arguing with your lecturers or getting frustrated with somebody else. The saddest part for me, is that your love ones departed, never to be returned, alive in your memories only.
For me, it has such an impact, the witnessing of my grandad demise, prove to be such a source of energy for me. For once, i truly understand the saying:" life is short".
Life is so short that you can't have time for small matters.
Life is short that you want the person you liked to be happy and not be bothered by you and thats why you stop wooing her.
Life is so short that you mustn't let your loved one down, especially your parents, that you must stop living a frivolous life but start to plan for your well-being and theirs.
And at the end of the day, you won't know whether you can say to yourself" i am alive!" tomorrow.
The saddest part of it all, is not to treasure and make full use of life.
Saturday, October 08, 2005
Misplaced sympathy?
Today (08/10/05) if u have read the straits time forum section, you would noticed an entry by a mdm named assoc prof lee weiling. To those ignorant of who she is, she is the daughter of MM lee and some big shot in neuroscience. Neuroscience i think is those docs who specialised in the brains. The entry seems to see that the public donations to the siamese twins, huang na, the yishun siblings and some other unfortunate kids are being "unwisely" donated.
Why is this so? Well take for instance the nepal siamese twins case. Although their body is separated, yet they seems to be worse off as one is in a semi vegetable state and the other is sort of have a less than average IQ. For the yishun twins, they went all the way to taiwan for the separation which they could be done in singapore at a lesser cost. But it seems the yishun twins ability to walk with clutches are only temporary and now they are mostly bedridden. As for huang na, the money donated to her is of no use as she is dead.
After reading this entry, it set me thinking. Its true that singaporean love to donate to whatever cause. However, our kindness, has it really been misplaced? I don't know really.
For instance, the nepalese twins. To the public, seeing such cases, which are rare in singapore, bring about astonishment and sadness. Perhaps because in singapore there is practically no siamese twins, thats why people are anxious when they arrived here. And seeing them in that state, we donate money hoping them to be separated as a perfectly human has only 2 sets of limbs, 1 head and a torso. I don't think the public is aware or think about the implication of how are they going to survive when they are separated. I don't think the public know that they will become like that after separated.
The public donate out of goodwill. Although singaporean love to complain, but we donate out of goodwill really. So i don't think its misplaced sympathy or whatever. Perhaps the only people to blame for the predicement is the doctors. They are know their stuff, yet they performed the operation. I don't think its for the money but rather for the limelight for themselves and the hospital.
No matter what, public donation are a form of empathy for the less fortunate in this country. They musn't be discouraged.
Why is this so? Well take for instance the nepal siamese twins case. Although their body is separated, yet they seems to be worse off as one is in a semi vegetable state and the other is sort of have a less than average IQ. For the yishun twins, they went all the way to taiwan for the separation which they could be done in singapore at a lesser cost. But it seems the yishun twins ability to walk with clutches are only temporary and now they are mostly bedridden. As for huang na, the money donated to her is of no use as she is dead.
After reading this entry, it set me thinking. Its true that singaporean love to donate to whatever cause. However, our kindness, has it really been misplaced? I don't know really.
For instance, the nepalese twins. To the public, seeing such cases, which are rare in singapore, bring about astonishment and sadness. Perhaps because in singapore there is practically no siamese twins, thats why people are anxious when they arrived here. And seeing them in that state, we donate money hoping them to be separated as a perfectly human has only 2 sets of limbs, 1 head and a torso. I don't think the public is aware or think about the implication of how are they going to survive when they are separated. I don't think the public know that they will become like that after separated.
The public donate out of goodwill. Although singaporean love to complain, but we donate out of goodwill really. So i don't think its misplaced sympathy or whatever. Perhaps the only people to blame for the predicement is the doctors. They are know their stuff, yet they performed the operation. I don't think its for the money but rather for the limelight for themselves and the hospital.
No matter what, public donation are a form of empathy for the less fortunate in this country. They musn't be discouraged.
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
scrutinised
Its been long since i blog. Sometimes i think, why do i blog? There aren't people who come visit my blog anyway except maybe myself and 1 or 2 occassional passerby who press the " next blog" button. There aren't any nice skins, dry topic, no scandalous juicy gossips or rumours, only boring personaly thoughts and political- themed posts. No pictures of myself or women either. But thats not the goal, the aim of why i blog. I think i blog as i want to preserve these thoughts, i want to capture a still of what is happening now. And when i am old, if i still manage to remember this address, i can view this blog, reflect on myself, laugh at my thinking when i am young. And if i have some serious concussion or suffering from senile dementia, i could perhaps, see this blog but have no attactment to it.
The difference between blogs and personal diary are only a thin line separating them. Blogs are sort of a more advanced ways to record a person's daily happenings, his feeling and his thoughts to be exact. However the catch is, the blog isn't private anymore. A blogger is exposing himself to the world, everything.
Yet, as the intent of the bloggers and the view of people are still, blogs are a reflection of the blogger's feeling and should be allowed. But as a blog is exposed, so should bloggers practise self censorship?
On a blogger view, i am opposed to self censorship. If the intention of blog is for the ease of writing a diary, then a blog should be seen as a private thing. And things being private, if someone pry about it, he or she could not accused the blogger of the content in his blog since the one who pry commit a sin, a mistake already by intruding other people privacy. This goes to people who view others blog and people who hold bloggers responsible for the bloggers view. It is just like the pot calling the kettle black. You are the one willingly to come and see my blog and yet you are accusing me of posting my inner most feeling which in the first place, you come to see my blog because you want to see my inner most feeling. Irony isn't it?
People may argue that since you want to keep the blog, you must be responsible for anything that you wrote. I think the act of publishing each entry is an act of responsibility and that the blogger is already being responsible.
However if we want to see the society as a whole. This thing call blog is seen as the modern day propaganda and revolutionary tool. Ancient people pass messenges to overthrow the Yuan dynasty by stuffing strips of paper in the mooncake, while modern people can rally people using blog.
Racist remarks, insults hurl at teachers. These bloggers are taken to court or disciplinary deal with. But, the action of doing that, aren't painting the picture abit too rosy, sweeping the dirt under the carpet? Racism will always present in the modern day society, students will always be frustrated with the teachers.
Perhaps the idea behind is not racism or hurling insult itself, the idea behind is that for racism,it is inflammatory. That will depend on the tone of the blogger and whether it is just purely a personal thoughts or is there any inflammatory hint inside his post.
But nevertheless, the recent episode of blog-induced trouble certainly make the blogging scene in singapore shaky. Bloggers now do not know what to blog or what not to blog. Since that is the case, has it been steer off the original road, which is preserving of an individual thoughts by keeping it using a more advanced diary?
The difference between blogs and personal diary are only a thin line separating them. Blogs are sort of a more advanced ways to record a person's daily happenings, his feeling and his thoughts to be exact. However the catch is, the blog isn't private anymore. A blogger is exposing himself to the world, everything.
Yet, as the intent of the bloggers and the view of people are still, blogs are a reflection of the blogger's feeling and should be allowed. But as a blog is exposed, so should bloggers practise self censorship?
On a blogger view, i am opposed to self censorship. If the intention of blog is for the ease of writing a diary, then a blog should be seen as a private thing. And things being private, if someone pry about it, he or she could not accused the blogger of the content in his blog since the one who pry commit a sin, a mistake already by intruding other people privacy. This goes to people who view others blog and people who hold bloggers responsible for the bloggers view. It is just like the pot calling the kettle black. You are the one willingly to come and see my blog and yet you are accusing me of posting my inner most feeling which in the first place, you come to see my blog because you want to see my inner most feeling. Irony isn't it?
People may argue that since you want to keep the blog, you must be responsible for anything that you wrote. I think the act of publishing each entry is an act of responsibility and that the blogger is already being responsible.
However if we want to see the society as a whole. This thing call blog is seen as the modern day propaganda and revolutionary tool. Ancient people pass messenges to overthrow the Yuan dynasty by stuffing strips of paper in the mooncake, while modern people can rally people using blog.
Racist remarks, insults hurl at teachers. These bloggers are taken to court or disciplinary deal with. But, the action of doing that, aren't painting the picture abit too rosy, sweeping the dirt under the carpet? Racism will always present in the modern day society, students will always be frustrated with the teachers.
Perhaps the idea behind is not racism or hurling insult itself, the idea behind is that for racism,it is inflammatory. That will depend on the tone of the blogger and whether it is just purely a personal thoughts or is there any inflammatory hint inside his post.
But nevertheless, the recent episode of blog-induced trouble certainly make the blogging scene in singapore shaky. Bloggers now do not know what to blog or what not to blog. Since that is the case, has it been steer off the original road, which is preserving of an individual thoughts by keeping it using a more advanced diary?
Saturday, September 03, 2005
tan weilian: Abled or Disabled?
Project superstar had just ended. It was one of the nicest shows i ever watched, given that i only watch two shows. The first is tian long ba bu and the second is of course project superstar.
Perhaps why i watch superstar in the first place is because my mom told me there is a blind busker who went for the audition. And from that onward, i followed practically every episodes. Although it was the blind busker, weilian who induced me to watch the show, but gradually, it were the pretty contestant that followed be through the whole show.
While i am watching this age old question surfaced again in front of me. Should we treat those who are disabled as disabled or abled body. And, are the disabled themseleves want us to treat them as abled or as disabled.
The meaning of disabled i think, is one who can't perform what an abled bodied person can do. The definition of an abled bodied is a wide subject. An impotent man may be classified as disabled by his wife but if he still can walk around unaided by a walking stick, then he is abled.
I keep on thinking that if i bump into a disabled guy, should i see him as being abled. I think sometimes, the disabled hope people to view them as abled bodies but yet, they would want to reserved those special rights that a disabled bodied usually have.
Take for instance the MRT lift. My rationale to the lift is that, how many disabled people actually use the lift in such a way that it would fully maximise the lift potential passengers carrying capabilities. I believe the lift is almost underutilised if we only allow people who are disabled to use it.
However, you could see in the forum of the papers, that disabled people complained that abled body are vying with them, are fighting with them for the lift. So, if they want people, in practical to view them as abled bodied, why go put a tag on themselves by themselves that they are in theory, disabled? I find this totally absurd.
Another piece of article that caught my eye is this disabled guy who said abled bodied guy are hogging the disabled toilet cubicle. I mean, where is the level playing field?
As an abled bodied, i need to wait for my turn to pee, so why can't you?
Back to the person in limelight, tan weilian. The critics says people vote due to sympathy. So do they and can you blame them? It is this tag of disabled that will always remain disabled enable the disabled to truly have the benefits of their own cubicle and their own elevators.
p/s: i may sound crude. but isn't it true? I only want to pass across a message that if you want people to treat you of what you want people to treat you as, then you must treat yourself of what you want people to treat you as first. No more, no less.
Perhaps why i watch superstar in the first place is because my mom told me there is a blind busker who went for the audition. And from that onward, i followed practically every episodes. Although it was the blind busker, weilian who induced me to watch the show, but gradually, it were the pretty contestant that followed be through the whole show.
While i am watching this age old question surfaced again in front of me. Should we treat those who are disabled as disabled or abled body. And, are the disabled themseleves want us to treat them as abled or as disabled.
The meaning of disabled i think, is one who can't perform what an abled bodied person can do. The definition of an abled bodied is a wide subject. An impotent man may be classified as disabled by his wife but if he still can walk around unaided by a walking stick, then he is abled.
I keep on thinking that if i bump into a disabled guy, should i see him as being abled. I think sometimes, the disabled hope people to view them as abled bodies but yet, they would want to reserved those special rights that a disabled bodied usually have.
Take for instance the MRT lift. My rationale to the lift is that, how many disabled people actually use the lift in such a way that it would fully maximise the lift potential passengers carrying capabilities. I believe the lift is almost underutilised if we only allow people who are disabled to use it.
However, you could see in the forum of the papers, that disabled people complained that abled body are vying with them, are fighting with them for the lift. So, if they want people, in practical to view them as abled bodied, why go put a tag on themselves by themselves that they are in theory, disabled? I find this totally absurd.
Another piece of article that caught my eye is this disabled guy who said abled bodied guy are hogging the disabled toilet cubicle. I mean, where is the level playing field?
As an abled bodied, i need to wait for my turn to pee, so why can't you?
Back to the person in limelight, tan weilian. The critics says people vote due to sympathy. So do they and can you blame them? It is this tag of disabled that will always remain disabled enable the disabled to truly have the benefits of their own cubicle and their own elevators.
p/s: i may sound crude. but isn't it true? I only want to pass across a message that if you want people to treat you of what you want people to treat you as, then you must treat yourself of what you want people to treat you as first. No more, no less.
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Education is just like investing
To me, education is a long term investment where you cant see the gains in short term.
Study is like how you manage your portfolio. Both need time and discipline.
Good grades is like when the company you invest in, pay out dividend. The feeling is great.
Why settle for something less instead of more?
Study is like how you manage your portfolio. Both need time and discipline.
Good grades is like when the company you invest in, pay out dividend. The feeling is great.
Why settle for something less instead of more?
Friday, May 27, 2005
Is it His money?
Yesterday while waiting, supposedly waiting for a client( who fly kite without even informing), i witness an act of kindness.
I was sitting down at the Mac donald, opposite, adjacent, beside bedok interchange where this shabbily looking guy, holding some charity ticket approached me. He did not know i have the hate-charity-for-their-ever-thirsty-thirst-for-money-syndrome.
So i signalled with my hand, i waved to him that buzz off. So he stand there still, looking pathetically at me while i still, wave my hand.
So he have no choice but to approach other people. The next person is a malay woman with her kid, she too can't be bothered as she was on the handphone.
So the man approach this cute girl. Initially this girl shake her head. But the man use the same old trick of standing there for a few more second, looking with that meek eyes of his.
Then horrors! The girl craved in for that trick and took out a $2 note for the ticket. She must be one who is soft hearted, easily succumb( means easy to jio? hahaha, nah i didn't okay!)
But instead of taking the ticket, she don't want the ticket!
Hm...yeah its a charitable act of kindness but i saw the man, put the $2 note in his pocket. So...what does that means?
I was sitting down at the Mac donald, opposite, adjacent, beside bedok interchange where this shabbily looking guy, holding some charity ticket approached me. He did not know i have the hate-charity-for-their-ever-thirsty-thirst-for-money-syndrome.
So i signalled with my hand, i waved to him that buzz off. So he stand there still, looking pathetically at me while i still, wave my hand.
So he have no choice but to approach other people. The next person is a malay woman with her kid, she too can't be bothered as she was on the handphone.
So the man approach this cute girl. Initially this girl shake her head. But the man use the same old trick of standing there for a few more second, looking with that meek eyes of his.
Then horrors! The girl craved in for that trick and took out a $2 note for the ticket. She must be one who is soft hearted, easily succumb( means easy to jio? hahaha, nah i didn't okay!)
But instead of taking the ticket, she don't want the ticket!
Hm...yeah its a charitable act of kindness but i saw the man, put the $2 note in his pocket. So...what does that means?
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Mirror mirror on the wall
I was reading a blog entry by one of my sec sch friend. Rarely contact now. Cracks appear between us since jc for no apparent reason. I heard from one of my sec sch buddy that he find me lame and love to talk cock very much. After i heard i paused and ponder for a moment. Hey, aren't i always like that?! So why suddenly he dislike me?!
So back to this entry. We were having chalet couple of weeks back. One of my friend birthday. So i think he stay back or whatever while i go home because meeting client the following day. He seems unhappy by some remarks made by one of the friends.
The first unhappiness is about the chivas he brought. He is unhappy that he absorbed most of the cost. I feel that you didn't ask people to pay, of course people take it for granted. Ask and you shall receive isn't it? Thats sad being unhappy over the slightest thing.
Oh well, i am too lazy to type.
Can friends ever be truthful to one another? Telling them how you feel, speak out instead of bottling up and pretend here pretend there. Another vicious cycle as people like to hear good things and not the bad one, even suggestions.
Then what is the word friendship means?
Does going out everyday, talking lame jokes, orgling at girls, talk about good things, everything on the surface means you got good friends? Or friends who dare to give you advice, dare to tell you whats wrong, dare to be your mirror consider good friends?
In the past i used to ask my friends for a real survey on myself. Of course the truth hurts. My flaws i think are lame, too happy go lucky that i am seems to offer no security to people especially girls. Sometimes cocky and always surprise people, stupid surprises that will make people paiseh, too pragmatic, selfish sometimes.
Leopard never change its spot but i am glad i am mindful of my flaws now.
Hm...think i should ask my friends to evalute me again.
So back to this entry. We were having chalet couple of weeks back. One of my friend birthday. So i think he stay back or whatever while i go home because meeting client the following day. He seems unhappy by some remarks made by one of the friends.
The first unhappiness is about the chivas he brought. He is unhappy that he absorbed most of the cost. I feel that you didn't ask people to pay, of course people take it for granted. Ask and you shall receive isn't it? Thats sad being unhappy over the slightest thing.
Oh well, i am too lazy to type.
Can friends ever be truthful to one another? Telling them how you feel, speak out instead of bottling up and pretend here pretend there. Another vicious cycle as people like to hear good things and not the bad one, even suggestions.
Then what is the word friendship means?
Does going out everyday, talking lame jokes, orgling at girls, talk about good things, everything on the surface means you got good friends? Or friends who dare to give you advice, dare to tell you whats wrong, dare to be your mirror consider good friends?
In the past i used to ask my friends for a real survey on myself. Of course the truth hurts. My flaws i think are lame, too happy go lucky that i am seems to offer no security to people especially girls. Sometimes cocky and always surprise people, stupid surprises that will make people paiseh, too pragmatic, selfish sometimes.
Leopard never change its spot but i am glad i am mindful of my flaws now.
Hm...think i should ask my friends to evalute me again.
How Attitude Affects Us
HOW ATTITUDE AFFECTS US
Our attitude at the beginning of a job will affect the outcome of the job more than anything else.
Our attitude toward life determine their attitude towards us.
Our attitude towards others will determine their attitudes towards us.
Before we can achieve the kind of life we want, we must think, act, walk, talk, and conduct ourselves in ways characteristics of who we ultimately wish to become.
The higher we go in any organization of value, the better the attitude we’ll find.
Holding successful, positive thoughts in our minds will make all the difference in the world.
If we always make a person feel needed, important, and appreciated, he or she will return this attitude to us.
Part of good attitude is to look for the best in new ideas. So look for good ideas everywhere. We will find them in the most wonderful places:
On the bumpers of cars, on restaurant menus, in books, in travel, out of the innocent mouths of children.
Don’t broadcast personal problems.
It probably won’t help you, and it cannot help others.
Radiate the attitude of well-being
Don’t be embarrassed to share visions, desires, and goals.
Treat everyone with whom you come in contact as a fellow member of the human race-with all the rights, duties, and privileges thereof.
The Golden Rule still applies:
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
-TED W. ENGSTROM FROM ‘MOTIVATION TO LAST A LIFETIME’
Get this from Denise Keller's moblog. They have those kind of shit for Eye for a Guy. I think she read alot. Her english is definitely better than average Singaporean.
Yepp..don't broadcast personal problems. Thats what i feel is critical and that is why i never mentioned or show my problems, emotional frequently. Because nobody can solve for you, even if u said or shown. But on the other hand, you will make others feel sad.
So peeps, i may be a joker but like all flesh and blood human, i got my problems, desire, ambition,etc.
I only choose not to show the sad, moody, angst part always but doesn't mean i don't have all that.
Our attitude at the beginning of a job will affect the outcome of the job more than anything else.
Our attitude toward life determine their attitude towards us.
Our attitude towards others will determine their attitudes towards us.
Before we can achieve the kind of life we want, we must think, act, walk, talk, and conduct ourselves in ways characteristics of who we ultimately wish to become.
The higher we go in any organization of value, the better the attitude we’ll find.
Holding successful, positive thoughts in our minds will make all the difference in the world.
If we always make a person feel needed, important, and appreciated, he or she will return this attitude to us.
Part of good attitude is to look for the best in new ideas. So look for good ideas everywhere. We will find them in the most wonderful places:
On the bumpers of cars, on restaurant menus, in books, in travel, out of the innocent mouths of children.
Don’t broadcast personal problems.
It probably won’t help you, and it cannot help others.
Radiate the attitude of well-being
Don’t be embarrassed to share visions, desires, and goals.
Treat everyone with whom you come in contact as a fellow member of the human race-with all the rights, duties, and privileges thereof.
The Golden Rule still applies:
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
-TED W. ENGSTROM FROM ‘MOTIVATION TO LAST A LIFETIME’
Get this from Denise Keller's moblog. They have those kind of shit for Eye for a Guy. I think she read alot. Her english is definitely better than average Singaporean.
Yepp..don't broadcast personal problems. Thats what i feel is critical and that is why i never mentioned or show my problems, emotional frequently. Because nobody can solve for you, even if u said or shown. But on the other hand, you will make others feel sad.
So peeps, i may be a joker but like all flesh and blood human, i got my problems, desire, ambition,etc.
I only choose not to show the sad, moody, angst part always but doesn't mean i don't have all that.
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
The original recipe for success. Its finger lickin good.
"And it all began with a 65-year-old gentleman who used his $105 Social Security check to start a business"
That 65 yr old grandfather is colonel Sanders. The founder of KFC or Kentucky Fried Chicken. He started it when he is at the age of 65. Senior citizen age. How many grandfathers actually do work when they are aged 65? Not many. Even if they work, its for the sake of killing time or perhaps as the birth rates take a nose dive, no many grandchildren for them to carry and that is why they went to work.
But who really at the age of 65 go out to create his own business? Many i can count them in a hand.
Compared to the west, perhaps in asia countries, grandfathers, the patriach of the family, are expected to rest, play with the caged birds, occassionally playing chess in the coffeeshops. Sometimes change diapers or cradle the grandchildren. Not many are like Colonel Sanders, Meredith and Gretchen of Amazing Race 7, who dare to make their dreams become reality.
Singapore need to reshaped itself. Our economy is expierencing a structural change. I think our mindset need that too. Start from young.
Is it a good thing or a bad thing that the government is full of nannies? We are so used to be taken care of. We are so used in this sheltered environment that we forgot, we will forgot how to fend for ourselves if we are freed into the wild. Like a captive rabbit, once we are out, we will get bitten and left to die, something we won't even give a thought when we are in the cage, safe and sound.
Talk to alot of youngsters nowadays and you would realised, many complain and yet can't seem to find solutions. Talk to the old and sentences like " i have faith in the government", " the government can take care of it" came out.
In order to be more entrepreneurial, we need to really be more focus and especially, don't think time and money is a big issue.
I realised what hold us back is money. Dreams failed because the bank account is not fat. I think its kind of sad. I believe we should be like the businessman who Ngiam Tong Dow mentioned. said:" get the business first, how to build, decide later".
A drug addict has no money. Yet when the craving came in, money will strangely came. I think if we have the desire, money is just another typical objection. And like all other objections, there is a way to answer them.
Another thing that singaporean obsessed with is time. I think real entreprenuers, in order to follow their passion, in order to build up their business, spend endless time. They are willing to spend, or some said " waste time".
"You want to do that" What for, don't waste time lah" Yes we all love to say that. We said that to ourselves, we tell others that.
Pathetic.
Of course negative obsession with time and money are not enough. Other ingredient include not daring to be different, not daring to take risk.
I admire that friend of mine who in the end quit nus. He dare to follow his dream, he dare to take risk. Salute.
Taking risk with money, taking risk with life, taking risk for the rest of your life do not gurantee you success. But without taking risk, don't even mention success or returns.
Anyway, what thing is gurantee in this world? Your wife isn't your wife until the day she die. Yes, you can't even gurantee your wife won't run away one day.
http://www.kfc.com/about/colonel.htm
p/s: the "wise proverb" "Your wife isn't your wife until the day she die" is said by lau hong lian, a slack SP lecturer who although slack, is good in his work and jokes, political and dirty jokes. Sorry, can't mentioned here.
That 65 yr old grandfather is colonel Sanders. The founder of KFC or Kentucky Fried Chicken. He started it when he is at the age of 65. Senior citizen age. How many grandfathers actually do work when they are aged 65? Not many. Even if they work, its for the sake of killing time or perhaps as the birth rates take a nose dive, no many grandchildren for them to carry and that is why they went to work.
But who really at the age of 65 go out to create his own business? Many i can count them in a hand.
Compared to the west, perhaps in asia countries, grandfathers, the patriach of the family, are expected to rest, play with the caged birds, occassionally playing chess in the coffeeshops. Sometimes change diapers or cradle the grandchildren. Not many are like Colonel Sanders, Meredith and Gretchen of Amazing Race 7, who dare to make their dreams become reality.
Singapore need to reshaped itself. Our economy is expierencing a structural change. I think our mindset need that too. Start from young.
Is it a good thing or a bad thing that the government is full of nannies? We are so used to be taken care of. We are so used in this sheltered environment that we forgot, we will forgot how to fend for ourselves if we are freed into the wild. Like a captive rabbit, once we are out, we will get bitten and left to die, something we won't even give a thought when we are in the cage, safe and sound.
Talk to alot of youngsters nowadays and you would realised, many complain and yet can't seem to find solutions. Talk to the old and sentences like " i have faith in the government", " the government can take care of it" came out.
In order to be more entrepreneurial, we need to really be more focus and especially, don't think time and money is a big issue.
I realised what hold us back is money. Dreams failed because the bank account is not fat. I think its kind of sad. I believe we should be like the businessman who Ngiam Tong Dow mentioned. said:" get the business first, how to build, decide later".
A drug addict has no money. Yet when the craving came in, money will strangely came. I think if we have the desire, money is just another typical objection. And like all other objections, there is a way to answer them.
Another thing that singaporean obsessed with is time. I think real entreprenuers, in order to follow their passion, in order to build up their business, spend endless time. They are willing to spend, or some said " waste time".
"You want to do that" What for, don't waste time lah" Yes we all love to say that. We said that to ourselves, we tell others that.
Pathetic.
Of course negative obsession with time and money are not enough. Other ingredient include not daring to be different, not daring to take risk.
I admire that friend of mine who in the end quit nus. He dare to follow his dream, he dare to take risk. Salute.
Taking risk with money, taking risk with life, taking risk for the rest of your life do not gurantee you success. But without taking risk, don't even mention success or returns.
Anyway, what thing is gurantee in this world? Your wife isn't your wife until the day she die. Yes, you can't even gurantee your wife won't run away one day.
http://www.kfc.com/about/colonel.htm
p/s: the "wise proverb" "Your wife isn't your wife until the day she die" is said by lau hong lian, a slack SP lecturer who although slack, is good in his work and jokes, political and dirty jokes. Sorry, can't mentioned here.
Thursday, May 19, 2005
Myself
Primary school teachers always like to ask us to write about ourseleves. A typical composition essay title. And we as students would gleefully write about myself. Then stand in front of the class, say it with pride what is our ambitions, our family and basically, ourselves.
Moving on to secondary school, the cross junction of breaking free from the old shell, the topic of myself was often scorned by students. The title was seems to be the old cultural backwater topic and no one should write about it. Cultural revolution at play. Teachers too would rather students to focus on more challenging topics instead. They too don't want to be seen as a primary school teacher inside.
But i feel its ironical that as we grow older, when more things, more temptations influence us, we seems to lost ourselves to the distant space. Gone are the firm answers when quizzed by teachers about ourselves during primary school.
And as we grow older we are often detached of what we actually want to do. Some says because when we are young, we do not really know much of the world and that the choices we make are childish.
I beg to differ. I think kids are alot smarter. They are innocent so they see things clearly. When a kid says he want to be a president, inside him, he know that a president weld a substantial amount of power. He is the head of state. When a kid says he want to be a teacher, to him, teaching is holy and he aspires to be a great teacher.
Perhaps as we grow older, true enough, everything we tend to measure by monetary, i myself included. That is why you see scholars breaking their bonds in order as what they put in, to seek more opportunity. Why they don't just admit because they can earn more money?
But happy to say, there are some people who gave up on high paying job to pursue their childhood dreams or to work as a much more well paid job, psychologically.
To me, i also belong to the vast number of people who are not in sync with their childhood dreams anymore.
I also lost myself to the society.
Not a single one is Neo Anderson.
Moving on to secondary school, the cross junction of breaking free from the old shell, the topic of myself was often scorned by students. The title was seems to be the old cultural backwater topic and no one should write about it. Cultural revolution at play. Teachers too would rather students to focus on more challenging topics instead. They too don't want to be seen as a primary school teacher inside.
But i feel its ironical that as we grow older, when more things, more temptations influence us, we seems to lost ourselves to the distant space. Gone are the firm answers when quizzed by teachers about ourselves during primary school.
And as we grow older we are often detached of what we actually want to do. Some says because when we are young, we do not really know much of the world and that the choices we make are childish.
I beg to differ. I think kids are alot smarter. They are innocent so they see things clearly. When a kid says he want to be a president, inside him, he know that a president weld a substantial amount of power. He is the head of state. When a kid says he want to be a teacher, to him, teaching is holy and he aspires to be a great teacher.
Perhaps as we grow older, true enough, everything we tend to measure by monetary, i myself included. That is why you see scholars breaking their bonds in order as what they put in, to seek more opportunity. Why they don't just admit because they can earn more money?
But happy to say, there are some people who gave up on high paying job to pursue their childhood dreams or to work as a much more well paid job, psychologically.
To me, i also belong to the vast number of people who are not in sync with their childhood dreams anymore.
I also lost myself to the society.
Not a single one is Neo Anderson.
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
Goodbye Mr Wee Kim Wee
I remembered him as this old man who stand in front of the padang every national day parade. And when i was small, my parents used to praise him for being a nice president, who cares for the people. To me, i sort of couldn't understand why his surname is also his last name and vice versa, thinking both Wee meant the same thing in chinese. Only when i grew older, then i know it better.
Due to prostrate Cancer, he passed away on 1st may 2005. But i think having lived for nearly a century, he is contented already. Afterall, he was a simple man. A man whom only a few could reach out to, enable so many to pay tribute and condolences is no small feat. It clearly shown he has shine and really reach out to those he reached. He touched the bottom of their heart.
I think looking at so many presidents of yester years, including S R Nathan now, i have came to a conclusion. While the government are the people's parents, the presidents are the nannies, always on the lookout, and always care for their grand children.
Reading the news and seeing him on TV reminded myself of my maternal grandfather who passed away on 2001, 20th of dec. It was him that once, memories flooded.
And it was my grandfather wake and funeral, and seeing the coffin being pushed into the cremation pit that jolted me out of my aimless life. Life is short. No matter whether you live to a hundred or fifty, compared to the vastness and the age old universe, you are just insignificant.
There is so much to accomplish but so little time. So many hands to reach out for, but ultimately, only a few are reached.
But nevertheless, i believed, touch the heart whom you have reached, just like our late president.
Goodbye Mr Wee.
Due to prostrate Cancer, he passed away on 1st may 2005. But i think having lived for nearly a century, he is contented already. Afterall, he was a simple man. A man whom only a few could reach out to, enable so many to pay tribute and condolences is no small feat. It clearly shown he has shine and really reach out to those he reached. He touched the bottom of their heart.
I think looking at so many presidents of yester years, including S R Nathan now, i have came to a conclusion. While the government are the people's parents, the presidents are the nannies, always on the lookout, and always care for their grand children.
Reading the news and seeing him on TV reminded myself of my maternal grandfather who passed away on 2001, 20th of dec. It was him that once, memories flooded.
And it was my grandfather wake and funeral, and seeing the coffin being pushed into the cremation pit that jolted me out of my aimless life. Life is short. No matter whether you live to a hundred or fifty, compared to the vastness and the age old universe, you are just insignificant.
There is so much to accomplish but so little time. So many hands to reach out for, but ultimately, only a few are reached.
But nevertheless, i believed, touch the heart whom you have reached, just like our late president.
Goodbye Mr Wee.
Saturday, April 30, 2005
Happy birthday Mattew
I was so touched that Mattew, remembered me and invite me to his 21th birthday party. To think i don't even save his hp number. Sorry.
I was quite on close term with the drivers. Yes alot are uneducated or lowly educated. However, i find them to be endearing too. They have that kind of humility, the determination never to say die that i think will do them good.
People might say, one should make friends with those who are on par with you or higher. Then you will soar also. True, i believe in that. In terms of value, those friends certainly has much more value. You can learn more from them. And making more of these friends are beneficial.
However, if you are always too occupied with those friends, you will feel sooner or later, you will detact youself with other level of the society and think full of yourself as a high and mighty king.
So while you make friends of high value, making friends of those lower, perhaps in education, will tie you to your roots that one can fail just as easy as one can succeed.
Thats why you see those entreprenuer, they may not have a title, professor, next to their name, but they can still make their mark. Similarly, i believe those uneducated people or lowly educated, as long as you still have that one mouthful of breath, you will also make it.
I am happy for another friend, stephen. I mentioned about him earlier. NUS has grant himself an interview for industrial design. This is a highly sought after course. If stephen has been granted an interview, it means half of the battle is won. And mind you, he is not even a design student as the course name suggest. He is just a poly grad who make good. If a normal engineering student can be granted an interview, it shows that nothing is impossible. You may be good in something, but often, this world always surprises you for in this world, it is the world, the people other than you that dictate you and not vice versa.
Ordinary people can also succeed.
I was quite on close term with the drivers. Yes alot are uneducated or lowly educated. However, i find them to be endearing too. They have that kind of humility, the determination never to say die that i think will do them good.
People might say, one should make friends with those who are on par with you or higher. Then you will soar also. True, i believe in that. In terms of value, those friends certainly has much more value. You can learn more from them. And making more of these friends are beneficial.
However, if you are always too occupied with those friends, you will feel sooner or later, you will detact youself with other level of the society and think full of yourself as a high and mighty king.
So while you make friends of high value, making friends of those lower, perhaps in education, will tie you to your roots that one can fail just as easy as one can succeed.
Thats why you see those entreprenuer, they may not have a title, professor, next to their name, but they can still make their mark. Similarly, i believe those uneducated people or lowly educated, as long as you still have that one mouthful of breath, you will also make it.
I am happy for another friend, stephen. I mentioned about him earlier. NUS has grant himself an interview for industrial design. This is a highly sought after course. If stephen has been granted an interview, it means half of the battle is won. And mind you, he is not even a design student as the course name suggest. He is just a poly grad who make good. If a normal engineering student can be granted an interview, it shows that nothing is impossible. You may be good in something, but often, this world always surprises you for in this world, it is the world, the people other than you that dictate you and not vice versa.
Ordinary people can also succeed.
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
Type of people
Barely 6 mth into my job, i have come into contact with alot of people. Different clients different days. Like our thumbprints, not a single person is alike in terms of thinking, acting and doing things. But i have come to the conclusion that if a person want to avoid you, he can gives all sorts of arguement and excuses which will force a dog to jump over the wall and the pigs will fly. No forgetting, sun will rise from the west.
However i do much love this challenges. Every job has its challenge. When i was a mechanics, my challenge was how to troubleshoot the vehicles, the machines to make it work. Ocassionally still have to beat the time in order to get things done. But dealing with people is yet another story. When you thought you have troubleshoot his worries and queries, he will come up with more questions to worry you! Sometimes these questions are asked to satisfy their inner curosity. But most of the time, the questions are asked in oder to make you stumble and lost your tongue which will they then, say "i am sorry you are not competent". But then, how to answer a questions which you yourself can't even answer?
Sometimes in the line, i wonder, do i really have to con or confuse in order to get the deal? I am not a story teller. Whatever i present is based on 3rd parties facts. Newspapers clippings, report from major independent financial firms, whatever whatever. I have display them as my arsenal. They do pack a potent punch but people still, denied them. Look like Straits Times is not all that convincing in its news reporting! Ha!
Back to the people. Like i say, alot of people i met. I am going to list them below and you all can have a good read.
Overly polite type
Once, at pasir ris while doing a road show, i met this overly polite guy.
"Hi sir"
"thank you thank you"
"would u like.."
"thank you than you"
?? " but i haven't do anything to help you"
"thank you thank you"
"but.."
"thank you thank you"
and he just walked faster and faster with each thank you thank you.
Lie in front of you type
I saw this macik and i approach her.
"sorry lah, busyyy"
And after saying busyyy, she walk slowly to the atm machine, withdraw her cash, and walk past me, very slowly.
Sue you type
I approach this man smoking near a dustbin. He don't look like that kind who could afford the lawyer's fee based on his dressing.
"Hi sir could i do a survey with you"
" go away"
Since you are rude, then lets play
"why sir, i haven't done anything"
"look i am not interested"
"of course you aren't, because i haven't show you anything"
"if you bother me, i am going to sue you"
hm..i should hand my friend name card to him to let him engage him to sue me.
Conspiracy type
Once i was talking to this bus driver at bedok. It was him that i verbal diarrhoea and get a somehow sarcastic talk by my friend boss. Apparently, he is my friend's client. We are talking about unit trust and i was telling him nothing is bound to go up. It will go down. And he actually know why it go down!
"You know why go down?!!"
" i know"
"why?"
" because hor, those stockholders hor, they eat the company money ah!"
i peng.
Merry go round type
This type is what you damn pissed with especially you know your plans are in fact, much superior. When you say A, he will say B. But his B will contridict his A. So you mention about the contridiction in B. He will say back A!
"see, prudential plan is much better"
"but then a difference of 10k is no difference, you know. I can easily earn back" ( This is A)
Here, he sound rather generous with his money. But wait,
"so your worries is about the premium? but then $20 dollar difference is no higher" ( my premium is higher than $20)
"No. $20 is alot of difference" (This is B. He contridict his A)
"but what you put in is what you get. And if 10k is no difference, then what does $20 make any difference. You put in how much, you will get how much" (I show his contridiction)
"10 k is really no difference" ( he go back to A. So here, we have a merry go round)
Alot of other cases also but i am too lazy to type. Ha ha. But i think doing sales, you really need to know the psychological mindset of people. I think this job will prepare me for other jobs in the outside world, for everyday, i am receiving the baptism of fire.
However i do much love this challenges. Every job has its challenge. When i was a mechanics, my challenge was how to troubleshoot the vehicles, the machines to make it work. Ocassionally still have to beat the time in order to get things done. But dealing with people is yet another story. When you thought you have troubleshoot his worries and queries, he will come up with more questions to worry you! Sometimes these questions are asked to satisfy their inner curosity. But most of the time, the questions are asked in oder to make you stumble and lost your tongue which will they then, say "i am sorry you are not competent". But then, how to answer a questions which you yourself can't even answer?
Sometimes in the line, i wonder, do i really have to con or confuse in order to get the deal? I am not a story teller. Whatever i present is based on 3rd parties facts. Newspapers clippings, report from major independent financial firms, whatever whatever. I have display them as my arsenal. They do pack a potent punch but people still, denied them. Look like Straits Times is not all that convincing in its news reporting! Ha!
Back to the people. Like i say, alot of people i met. I am going to list them below and you all can have a good read.
Overly polite type
Once, at pasir ris while doing a road show, i met this overly polite guy.
"Hi sir"
"thank you thank you"
"would u like.."
"thank you than you"
?? " but i haven't do anything to help you"
"thank you thank you"
"but.."
"thank you thank you"
and he just walked faster and faster with each thank you thank you.
Lie in front of you type
I saw this macik and i approach her.
"sorry lah, busyyy"
And after saying busyyy, she walk slowly to the atm machine, withdraw her cash, and walk past me, very slowly.
Sue you type
I approach this man smoking near a dustbin. He don't look like that kind who could afford the lawyer's fee based on his dressing.
"Hi sir could i do a survey with you"
" go away"
Since you are rude, then lets play
"why sir, i haven't done anything"
"look i am not interested"
"of course you aren't, because i haven't show you anything"
"if you bother me, i am going to sue you"
hm..i should hand my friend name card to him to let him engage him to sue me.
Conspiracy type
Once i was talking to this bus driver at bedok. It was him that i verbal diarrhoea and get a somehow sarcastic talk by my friend boss. Apparently, he is my friend's client. We are talking about unit trust and i was telling him nothing is bound to go up. It will go down. And he actually know why it go down!
"You know why go down?!!"
" i know"
"why?"
" because hor, those stockholders hor, they eat the company money ah!"
i peng.
Merry go round type
This type is what you damn pissed with especially you know your plans are in fact, much superior. When you say A, he will say B. But his B will contridict his A. So you mention about the contridiction in B. He will say back A!
"see, prudential plan is much better"
"but then a difference of 10k is no difference, you know. I can easily earn back" ( This is A)
Here, he sound rather generous with his money. But wait,
"so your worries is about the premium? but then $20 dollar difference is no higher" ( my premium is higher than $20)
"No. $20 is alot of difference" (This is B. He contridict his A)
"but what you put in is what you get. And if 10k is no difference, then what does $20 make any difference. You put in how much, you will get how much" (I show his contridiction)
"10 k is really no difference" ( he go back to A. So here, we have a merry go round)
Alot of other cases also but i am too lazy to type. Ha ha. But i think doing sales, you really need to know the psychological mindset of people. I think this job will prepare me for other jobs in the outside world, for everyday, i am receiving the baptism of fire.
Sunday, April 24, 2005
Investment Linked and the financial advisory Industry
Recently there have been some controversies and debates surrounded investment linked products and insurance as a whole. Propositions and oppositions have been fighting like no one else business and mainly the propositions are people who are in the financial advisory industry while as usual, the oppositions are the people who need financial planning and often, the vanguards of this battle are they one whose financial planning go haywire due to the incompetency of their financial advisors.
What is Investment linked policy? Simply put, it is a financial plan where one could have both insurance coverage and also investment at the same time. Invest what? Invest in unit trusts. Here is where lies the problem as the allocation of the investment funds, or premium become murky as investors and perhaps even the advisor do not know how much is being allocated to which and hence it spark off a wide range of issues regarding the financial advisory industry.
For an ILP, usually the first few years, returns can't be seen. As with most investments, you will need a have a period in order to get your capital beef up and earn returns or incur loses. However it doesn't boil down too well with the average Singaporean who do not have the slightest hint of what investment should be. TV program showing fast bucks do not help the situation either.
I have met with several clients who ask me whether can they put in less but generate alot, in a short span of time. They saw investment as the Singapore Mint which can produce notes at an astronomical speed.
But who can blame them as Schools, parents do not teach them the way to safeguard and let their money grow?
ILP work in a way that once premium is received, they are allocated immediately. It mean, they will be converted to units( and hence the name unit trust). The cost and the insurance coverage will be also converted to units after which the premium unit will deduct the cost unit and the remaining unit will be put to work.
The quotation of each plan shows 5 and 9% returns generated. However this is not guranteed. There is no short cut or magic involved. Even if you deposit in a bank, there is no guranteed that the interest rate will stays at the prevailing rate and not rise nor fall.
Some may argue that the fault lies with advisors who failed to mention or show the clients how do this work, how do the cost is being deducted, so on and so forth.
To this question, there are two side of the story. True some advisors are incompetent. They do not bother to keep abreast with the current affairs, especially with the financial news. They do not highlight the cost or do not even know how to calculate it even after being taught how to, to the clients. Worse, they spun fairylike tales to clients like telling them those 5 and 9% returns are guranteed. Yes, we should weed out these advisors.
However being said, i also discovered that it is just a vicious cycle. I tried once to explain to a bus driver, my friend's client actually, on what is a unit trust, how do it work, how is the cost calculated, only to have the bus driver confused and the deal just fall off. Me? I became a thousand year guilty guy who get a bit of sarcasm from my friend's boss.
You see, explaining to a group of people who don't even have the slightest idea of what is financial planning can be a big hurdle. For a start, they are already risk adverse psychologically. They treat all investments are losing money vehicle, especially in higher risk instruments such as stocks. So even before you start to spread your gospel of how the things work, they already have this mindset that it won't work for them and money is sure to be lost.
It is this mindset which prevent them from getting comfortable financially. It is also this group which the government are most worried about, seeing that they won't be retiring comfortably in their old age. And this is the group which the insurers and companies are trying to reach out to. And so, a vicious cycle just keep on repeating.
The delimma surfaced. If i become too technical, the client may be confused and everything just flopped. Yet this is my career, the source of my bread and butter. So should i just make things simple, just illustrate the benefits and forgo the cost and potential lost aspect? I badly need this deal you know. Go figure ladies and gentlemen.
Ever since CPF rates are fixed at 2.5%, government has been hinting and hinting that one need to plan for himself. We are not a welfare state, we can't expect the government to give handouts. And since that the government has been talking about personal financial planning, i speculated that the cut on CPF contribution are going to get more and more and the interest rate may be adjust to even lower than 2.5%( 2.5% is a requirement stated in some sort of law that it is the lowest and couldn't go anymore low in order to protect the people. But law can be change don't they?)
The situation could get worse.
Another aspect of things which i think can be improved is the image of financial advisors. You see them at the bus stop stopping you with surveys form. You treat them as if they are begging you. But if they don't do that, will you be the one to look for them instead? Absolutely not! Assuming that you know financial planning is vital. Yet Singaporean favourite excuse is " not enough time" Yes! You do not even have time to visit the toilet, so what make you have time to visit the financial planning companies?
So instead of you come forward, we come to you.
But having said, why do people are so afraid to visit the planners?
To me, i came up with a conclusion. Uneducated.
Schools never teach us. Worse, everybody say keep cash in your pocket or in your bank is the most sensible way.
You could see the obsession of Singaporean with cash. When ERS is announced, people queue up, to cash out their ERS.
$500 only, yet people are in a hurry to cash them out. If you cash them out and spend, i think its stupid. If you cash them out and deposit in bank, thats even more stupid.
You forgo the potential interest rate of 3 to 5% but rather earn a pittance of 0.125 to 0.25% in the bank. Isn't that stupid?
Last year, the ecoomy soar to 8.4%. As ERS interest is pegged to our GDP plus if i am not wrong, 3% more. So last year, the interest rate of ERS is 11.4%. 11.4% is about $50++. But if you put your ERS inside the bank, u earn only 0.25% which is i think, a few cents?
I think, in order to make people plan for their finances early. We should start educating them. Merely publish books like money sense and all that are no use, no one will listen. Start off in schools with the kids, after which they go home, they can teach their parents and so on.
After 5 to 10 years of successful education where everybody will know cash isn't king.
They won't be so scared when advisors approach them. And 15 years later, advisors need not to go into the streets and hawk their wares. Instead, people will come and look for them.
That should be the real and truthful image of financial advisors.
What is Investment linked policy? Simply put, it is a financial plan where one could have both insurance coverage and also investment at the same time. Invest what? Invest in unit trusts. Here is where lies the problem as the allocation of the investment funds, or premium become murky as investors and perhaps even the advisor do not know how much is being allocated to which and hence it spark off a wide range of issues regarding the financial advisory industry.
For an ILP, usually the first few years, returns can't be seen. As with most investments, you will need a have a period in order to get your capital beef up and earn returns or incur loses. However it doesn't boil down too well with the average Singaporean who do not have the slightest hint of what investment should be. TV program showing fast bucks do not help the situation either.
I have met with several clients who ask me whether can they put in less but generate alot, in a short span of time. They saw investment as the Singapore Mint which can produce notes at an astronomical speed.
But who can blame them as Schools, parents do not teach them the way to safeguard and let their money grow?
ILP work in a way that once premium is received, they are allocated immediately. It mean, they will be converted to units( and hence the name unit trust). The cost and the insurance coverage will be also converted to units after which the premium unit will deduct the cost unit and the remaining unit will be put to work.
The quotation of each plan shows 5 and 9% returns generated. However this is not guranteed. There is no short cut or magic involved. Even if you deposit in a bank, there is no guranteed that the interest rate will stays at the prevailing rate and not rise nor fall.
Some may argue that the fault lies with advisors who failed to mention or show the clients how do this work, how do the cost is being deducted, so on and so forth.
To this question, there are two side of the story. True some advisors are incompetent. They do not bother to keep abreast with the current affairs, especially with the financial news. They do not highlight the cost or do not even know how to calculate it even after being taught how to, to the clients. Worse, they spun fairylike tales to clients like telling them those 5 and 9% returns are guranteed. Yes, we should weed out these advisors.
However being said, i also discovered that it is just a vicious cycle. I tried once to explain to a bus driver, my friend's client actually, on what is a unit trust, how do it work, how is the cost calculated, only to have the bus driver confused and the deal just fall off. Me? I became a thousand year guilty guy who get a bit of sarcasm from my friend's boss.
You see, explaining to a group of people who don't even have the slightest idea of what is financial planning can be a big hurdle. For a start, they are already risk adverse psychologically. They treat all investments are losing money vehicle, especially in higher risk instruments such as stocks. So even before you start to spread your gospel of how the things work, they already have this mindset that it won't work for them and money is sure to be lost.
It is this mindset which prevent them from getting comfortable financially. It is also this group which the government are most worried about, seeing that they won't be retiring comfortably in their old age. And this is the group which the insurers and companies are trying to reach out to. And so, a vicious cycle just keep on repeating.
The delimma surfaced. If i become too technical, the client may be confused and everything just flopped. Yet this is my career, the source of my bread and butter. So should i just make things simple, just illustrate the benefits and forgo the cost and potential lost aspect? I badly need this deal you know. Go figure ladies and gentlemen.
Ever since CPF rates are fixed at 2.5%, government has been hinting and hinting that one need to plan for himself. We are not a welfare state, we can't expect the government to give handouts. And since that the government has been talking about personal financial planning, i speculated that the cut on CPF contribution are going to get more and more and the interest rate may be adjust to even lower than 2.5%( 2.5% is a requirement stated in some sort of law that it is the lowest and couldn't go anymore low in order to protect the people. But law can be change don't they?)
The situation could get worse.
Another aspect of things which i think can be improved is the image of financial advisors. You see them at the bus stop stopping you with surveys form. You treat them as if they are begging you. But if they don't do that, will you be the one to look for them instead? Absolutely not! Assuming that you know financial planning is vital. Yet Singaporean favourite excuse is " not enough time" Yes! You do not even have time to visit the toilet, so what make you have time to visit the financial planning companies?
So instead of you come forward, we come to you.
But having said, why do people are so afraid to visit the planners?
To me, i came up with a conclusion. Uneducated.
Schools never teach us. Worse, everybody say keep cash in your pocket or in your bank is the most sensible way.
You could see the obsession of Singaporean with cash. When ERS is announced, people queue up, to cash out their ERS.
$500 only, yet people are in a hurry to cash them out. If you cash them out and spend, i think its stupid. If you cash them out and deposit in bank, thats even more stupid.
You forgo the potential interest rate of 3 to 5% but rather earn a pittance of 0.125 to 0.25% in the bank. Isn't that stupid?
Last year, the ecoomy soar to 8.4%. As ERS interest is pegged to our GDP plus if i am not wrong, 3% more. So last year, the interest rate of ERS is 11.4%. 11.4% is about $50++. But if you put your ERS inside the bank, u earn only 0.25% which is i think, a few cents?
I think, in order to make people plan for their finances early. We should start educating them. Merely publish books like money sense and all that are no use, no one will listen. Start off in schools with the kids, after which they go home, they can teach their parents and so on.
After 5 to 10 years of successful education where everybody will know cash isn't king.
They won't be so scared when advisors approach them. And 15 years later, advisors need not to go into the streets and hawk their wares. Instead, people will come and look for them.
That should be the real and truthful image of financial advisors.
Thursday, April 21, 2005
Know your strength and look ahead
People are the most negatively charged creatures in this world. In my 2 decades of live, i think positively charged people are only a handful. People that can make themselves shine in this world and inspiring other people are so few in the world, they are gems.
I don't understand why actually. People usually feel bad about others, the world, their parents, their friends, siblings and of course themselves. I feel that feeling bad about oneself is really unfortunate. In a world where people snub one another, look down on one another, the last thing is you look down on yourself.
I think in order to succeed in life, one should take note of his own strength, and push forward. Like if you are strong in math, go and do math. If you are strong in arts, pursue it. Perhaps why lots of people feel bad about themselves is they are going on a path which they themselves has no clue, no strength in it. It is just not their forte.
But once said, once you took on the path where you are more well equipped. There are pitfalls, potholes too.
The pitfalls is, one tend to bask in their old glory and never move forward. The earth is continuing turning, everybody grow old day by day. Time and tide wait for no man but you can always see people, still living in their own world, the golden era, the world where they excel and things like that.
I believe to be successful in the future, you must look at the past but not live in the past. Thats my mantra.
I don't understand why actually. People usually feel bad about others, the world, their parents, their friends, siblings and of course themselves. I feel that feeling bad about oneself is really unfortunate. In a world where people snub one another, look down on one another, the last thing is you look down on yourself.
I think in order to succeed in life, one should take note of his own strength, and push forward. Like if you are strong in math, go and do math. If you are strong in arts, pursue it. Perhaps why lots of people feel bad about themselves is they are going on a path which they themselves has no clue, no strength in it. It is just not their forte.
But once said, once you took on the path where you are more well equipped. There are pitfalls, potholes too.
The pitfalls is, one tend to bask in their old glory and never move forward. The earth is continuing turning, everybody grow old day by day. Time and tide wait for no man but you can always see people, still living in their own world, the golden era, the world where they excel and things like that.
I believe to be successful in the future, you must look at the past but not live in the past. Thats my mantra.
Integrated Resort
Applauds Applauds! The cat has been let out of the bag, we are going to build, not one, not one and a half but two integrated resorts. Personally i welcome the move to make Singapore into a Vice city where boozes, sex, gambling rules.
The geylang situation has gone out of hand, so much so that cameras need to be installed at every nook of the streets. But the hookers just fled to the opposite side and continue to do their soliciting, or prospecting. HIV on the rise so much so the government is thinking of testing the pregnant ladies whether they have HIV and of course test the babies as well. And if the babies have, i think they will be aborted and made into "kun-man-tong" ( kun man tong is a thai word for...baby spirit?)
And bars, watering holes open all around singapore. Joo Chiat, a nice peranakan neighbourhood was the copycat of m.sultan road. Teens sex rises, party drugs rules while all are still goody good shoes in their parents eyes.
And now, beside 4D, Score, Toto, Sweepstakes, lottery, underground bookies, cruise boat, batam, we have casino. Indulge in vices Singaporean, do not call NKF anymore but let your money roll!!
Ok serious now. Integrated resorts is build to, like Lim Boon Heng said, 35 000 jobs is at stake and we couldn't say no. However there is a lack of people working in the entertainment and gambling industry. So the question is, are these 35 000 jobs going to be filled by foreigners, again?! I got this feeling that when it is built, Johorean or genting highland people will come here in the doves and filled up all the space available. So i think the best thing is, send a core group of people to be attatched to las vegas or macau or even genting to learn the art of card distributing.
Next, the resorts. Definitely a shopping mall is to be build. But what kind of shops are going to be filled inside? Would it be giordano, bossini, hang ten, bata, bread talk, taka jewellery, SK jewellery, food junction, etc? Or would it be something different, something which the name i never heard of.
I think basically, why Singapore can't attract tourists is because of the usual shops found in Singapore. Go around orchard road and count how many Giordano it has. Aplently. Count how many coffee bean, starbucks it has, alot. So where ever the tourists walk, he is greeted by the same shops over and over again. Its definitely boring.
With plans to make Orchard road a shopping hub, please for whoever sake, don't let those same old shops took up almost 3/4 spaces again!
The geylang situation has gone out of hand, so much so that cameras need to be installed at every nook of the streets. But the hookers just fled to the opposite side and continue to do their soliciting, or prospecting. HIV on the rise so much so the government is thinking of testing the pregnant ladies whether they have HIV and of course test the babies as well. And if the babies have, i think they will be aborted and made into "kun-man-tong" ( kun man tong is a thai word for...baby spirit?)
And bars, watering holes open all around singapore. Joo Chiat, a nice peranakan neighbourhood was the copycat of m.sultan road. Teens sex rises, party drugs rules while all are still goody good shoes in their parents eyes.
And now, beside 4D, Score, Toto, Sweepstakes, lottery, underground bookies, cruise boat, batam, we have casino. Indulge in vices Singaporean, do not call NKF anymore but let your money roll!!
Ok serious now. Integrated resorts is build to, like Lim Boon Heng said, 35 000 jobs is at stake and we couldn't say no. However there is a lack of people working in the entertainment and gambling industry. So the question is, are these 35 000 jobs going to be filled by foreigners, again?! I got this feeling that when it is built, Johorean or genting highland people will come here in the doves and filled up all the space available. So i think the best thing is, send a core group of people to be attatched to las vegas or macau or even genting to learn the art of card distributing.
Next, the resorts. Definitely a shopping mall is to be build. But what kind of shops are going to be filled inside? Would it be giordano, bossini, hang ten, bata, bread talk, taka jewellery, SK jewellery, food junction, etc? Or would it be something different, something which the name i never heard of.
I think basically, why Singapore can't attract tourists is because of the usual shops found in Singapore. Go around orchard road and count how many Giordano it has. Aplently. Count how many coffee bean, starbucks it has, alot. So where ever the tourists walk, he is greeted by the same shops over and over again. Its definitely boring.
With plans to make Orchard road a shopping hub, please for whoever sake, don't let those same old shops took up almost 3/4 spaces again!
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
Can Men and Women Be Friends?
Came across this: "
Once in a while, I run across a blog entry that reignites the perennial When Harry Met Sally debate on whether a guy and a girl can ever be just friends.
To settle it, here's the rule, as I see it:
If there's attraction with hope = can't be friends.
If there's attraction with no hope = can be friends
If there's attraction and a respect for boundaries = can be friends, so long as boundaries exist.
If there's no attraction = can be friends.
PS. Guys always hope. "
I agree with it...
Once in a while, I run across a blog entry that reignites the perennial When Harry Met Sally debate on whether a guy and a girl can ever be just friends.
To settle it, here's the rule, as I see it:
If there's attraction with hope = can't be friends.
If there's attraction with no hope = can be friends
If there's attraction and a respect for boundaries = can be friends, so long as boundaries exist.
If there's no attraction = can be friends.
PS. Guys always hope. "
I agree with it...
Wednesday, April 06, 2005
Want to say, just say it
I really don't understand. When you read those blog and the writer want to express his frustration but can't find any words to use, due to his limited vocabulary, he will often type the F word. But then, he won't type it as it is. Word like fcuk, fish, frup,etc would come out.
I mean, want to type, just type it lah. Whats the big deal? It just like you want to do it, yet scared. Since you have the intention, then just do it. Still pretend to be gracious, civilised for what?! When you type the letter F plus 4 other letters which when pronounced sound like the real mc coy, then type the real thing lah!
Don't act civilised when you aren't one.
I mean, want to type, just type it lah. Whats the big deal? It just like you want to do it, yet scared. Since you have the intention, then just do it. Still pretend to be gracious, civilised for what?! When you type the letter F plus 4 other letters which when pronounced sound like the real mc coy, then type the real thing lah!
Don't act civilised when you aren't one.
Sunday, April 03, 2005
Cuiwen
This name..i believe is the hottest in NUS now. Why? Because she is sort of embarassed by a guy who professed his love for her during one of the maths lectures. And how do i know, because my NUS peeps told me.
Well, i think, if you are reading this cuiwen. Don't feel sad anymore. See, at least you know that there is always people who care about you. Thats important ain't not? Also, you are sort of lucky because there are millions of singles out there like me, who don't even know whether got people like us or not. So don't feel sad anymore ya? And perhaps if you are not talking to him, give him another chance. He use use a wrong method to woo a girl. I don't think he deliberately trying to humiliate you or whatever
Well, i think, if you are reading this cuiwen. Don't feel sad anymore. See, at least you know that there is always people who care about you. Thats important ain't not? Also, you are sort of lucky because there are millions of singles out there like me, who don't even know whether got people like us or not. So don't feel sad anymore ya? And perhaps if you are not talking to him, give him another chance. He use use a wrong method to woo a girl. I don't think he deliberately trying to humiliate you or whatever
Friday, April 01, 2005
Terri schiavo
Exactly 2 weeks as predicted, terri schiavo is with her creator now. If like a true Desperate housewives fashion , what would she say while looking down at mother Earth? This 2 week has been gut wrenching for both Michael Schiavo, terri's family and terri alone. Humans in a persistant vegetarian state may lose their senses but their innate sense of going to die i believe, is not dead. They too can feel that they are going to die, not by the hand of god, but by the hand of human.
Theorically, old age death then, is considered dead by natural courses. However, terri's death is not even old age death, it is inflicted by the wills of the judical systems of america, her husband and her family, indirectly. So can we prosecute the parties which put a foot in for contributing her death? This is still a very complex issue.
Isn't it ironical that America, the country which advocate itself as a world of freedom and human rights, killed terri just in broad daylight. Don't tell me terri do not have a right to live and a freedom to stay alive.
Has the great american theory of freedom, human rights, supremacy of uncle sam went too far into its own head that it began to assume the duties of grim ripper and god? Invading sadaam backyard, accusing iran and north korea without any real evidences, getting itself out of the Kyoto treaty while condemning china for emitting too much carbon dioxide and now, killing its own citizen.
Back to terri's case. Michael Schiavo may seems to be the villian in this whole drama that span 15 yrs. But who know the agony of seeing your love one half dead, while still need to care for her. Human are creatures that need appreciation and reciprocation. He has care so much for his vegetarian state wife but the wife didn't even, or can't even give a loving touch to him. Such one way traffic i believe is what has make Michael on the path to pluck out the tube.
This case also point out to the flaws of the judical system of america. How come Michael is the guardian but not her parents? Is it due to that she adopt Michael surname and thats why the lawful guardian is Michael alone?
Also, i thought with Bush intervention, terri feeding tube could be re-inserted into her. Yet, to no avail. So it means the government is no more like a speck of dust? A figure that could start a war with just merely few sentences, are being drawfed by the judical system? Absurd.
If America still stuck up to its american dreams, i think it is on its way to destruction. Not by terrorist forces or china, but self destruct.
Theorically, old age death then, is considered dead by natural courses. However, terri's death is not even old age death, it is inflicted by the wills of the judical systems of america, her husband and her family, indirectly. So can we prosecute the parties which put a foot in for contributing her death? This is still a very complex issue.
Isn't it ironical that America, the country which advocate itself as a world of freedom and human rights, killed terri just in broad daylight. Don't tell me terri do not have a right to live and a freedom to stay alive.
Has the great american theory of freedom, human rights, supremacy of uncle sam went too far into its own head that it began to assume the duties of grim ripper and god? Invading sadaam backyard, accusing iran and north korea without any real evidences, getting itself out of the Kyoto treaty while condemning china for emitting too much carbon dioxide and now, killing its own citizen.
Back to terri's case. Michael Schiavo may seems to be the villian in this whole drama that span 15 yrs. But who know the agony of seeing your love one half dead, while still need to care for her. Human are creatures that need appreciation and reciprocation. He has care so much for his vegetarian state wife but the wife didn't even, or can't even give a loving touch to him. Such one way traffic i believe is what has make Michael on the path to pluck out the tube.
This case also point out to the flaws of the judical system of america. How come Michael is the guardian but not her parents? Is it due to that she adopt Michael surname and thats why the lawful guardian is Michael alone?
Also, i thought with Bush intervention, terri feeding tube could be re-inserted into her. Yet, to no avail. So it means the government is no more like a speck of dust? A figure that could start a war with just merely few sentences, are being drawfed by the judical system? Absurd.
If America still stuck up to its american dreams, i think it is on its way to destruction. Not by terrorist forces or china, but self destruct.
Trading
Long time ago, i have formed a theory in my head. I believe no matter how true and loyal a friendship is, it is based on the basis that either party can get something out of the other party and like a magnet, if they both have the same agenda, then a friendship is formed.
Friendship do not merely form out of nothing. There need to have a corner stone for it. A lot of cases actually do back up my theory. I have came to know this trio of friends whom are close and good friends sometime back. However, as they went on for their individual endearvours, the friendship seems easy to crack. Upon closer look at their friendship, one could notice that the corner stone of it was shopping, gossip and boys.
Therefore, such a weak foundation certainly doesn't build up a solid friendship.
When ever human make friend with another human, it is usually hoping to "fleece" the other party for something. When you are sad, you hope for a shoulder. And if the elements permit, a soul came by and you "fleece" him of his care and concern which he shower onto you.
That is my theory.
Now recently i read my friend post on how in NUS, those top students would form their own clusters and just build an invisible wall around themselves, perhaps even branding themselves as elite. I scoff off the idea that they are really friends. The corner stone i believe is hopping to "fleece" the intelligence. Behind every smile there surely be a knife.
My poor friend, who seems to be belittled by those self elite, find that no one is willing to do a barter trade with him. He, looking for some lifeline to his poor schoolwork. But in a true barter trade sense, one hope to gain from trading. Therefore, no one in Singapore premier school is willing except perhaps for the lecturers.
I do wish i could engage in a trade with him but me too, is on a lower frequency than required.
Friendship do not merely form out of nothing. There need to have a corner stone for it. A lot of cases actually do back up my theory. I have came to know this trio of friends whom are close and good friends sometime back. However, as they went on for their individual endearvours, the friendship seems easy to crack. Upon closer look at their friendship, one could notice that the corner stone of it was shopping, gossip and boys.
Therefore, such a weak foundation certainly doesn't build up a solid friendship.
When ever human make friend with another human, it is usually hoping to "fleece" the other party for something. When you are sad, you hope for a shoulder. And if the elements permit, a soul came by and you "fleece" him of his care and concern which he shower onto you.
That is my theory.
Now recently i read my friend post on how in NUS, those top students would form their own clusters and just build an invisible wall around themselves, perhaps even branding themselves as elite. I scoff off the idea that they are really friends. The corner stone i believe is hopping to "fleece" the intelligence. Behind every smile there surely be a knife.
My poor friend, who seems to be belittled by those self elite, find that no one is willing to do a barter trade with him. He, looking for some lifeline to his poor schoolwork. But in a true barter trade sense, one hope to gain from trading. Therefore, no one in Singapore premier school is willing except perhaps for the lecturers.
I do wish i could engage in a trade with him but me too, is on a lower frequency than required.
See.....
See....if you read newspapers recently, suddenly alot of govt men keep saying how people agree to casino, casino ok if can this can that....even MM say youngsters don't really care whether casino build here or not....i tell you...april 18...the ans will be a yes..like what i have predicted in my early entry.
p/s: if not...then this entry...i delete lo...ahha
p/s: if not...then this entry...i delete lo...ahha
Friday, March 18, 2005
Table 17
On 27th March, i will sit at table 17 with all my army friends, toasting yum seng for steven, another army friend. Its his wedding day and i had just received his wedding invitation card.
The feeling of having an invitation card is quite strange. When you flipped open, the usually childish( boys in army are all like that), boorish, un-goodlooking( the stupid army garb) friend of yours suddenly turned into a sauve young man. When you stare at the eyes of the groom in the wedding picture, you can sense that " ah...he is now a man, responsible young fella" and of course, the happiness in him. You look at the bride, yes, woman indeed look their best in their gown.
I have enter this decade called the young and swinging 20s. In another word, it means a decade of receiving wedding invitations. I think, before my turn of giving out invitation comes, i will countless ang bao already. Suddenly it all felt so strange. When i was young and was about to attend wedding dinners with my parents, they would keep pondering how much to put inside the red packet. Too much you hurt your own pocket but too little you are telling the whole world you are going for a cheap meal at a fancy restaurant.
Now, it become my turn to sratch my head and think what amount is the right amount.
But before i do it, yum seng, steven!
The feeling of having an invitation card is quite strange. When you flipped open, the usually childish( boys in army are all like that), boorish, un-goodlooking( the stupid army garb) friend of yours suddenly turned into a sauve young man. When you stare at the eyes of the groom in the wedding picture, you can sense that " ah...he is now a man, responsible young fella" and of course, the happiness in him. You look at the bride, yes, woman indeed look their best in their gown.
I have enter this decade called the young and swinging 20s. In another word, it means a decade of receiving wedding invitations. I think, before my turn of giving out invitation comes, i will countless ang bao already. Suddenly it all felt so strange. When i was young and was about to attend wedding dinners with my parents, they would keep pondering how much to put inside the red packet. Too much you hurt your own pocket but too little you are telling the whole world you are going for a cheap meal at a fancy restaurant.
Now, it become my turn to sratch my head and think what amount is the right amount.
But before i do it, yum seng, steven!
Sunday, March 13, 2005
We are all dead people
"I see dead people". Yes....the sixth sense. I watched it yesterday. An amazing movie by M night shyamalan. The story revolve around this kid who say he can see dead people and this doctor who cure it. The ulitmate twister is at the end of the show, when the doc himself realise he is dead already for over 1 year.
Anyway, i think this movie is rather philosophical. On the surface, it seems the doc help to cure the kid, but rather, it is the kid who help the doc instead. The doctor told the kid:" hear what those dead people want to say, they need help". Actually, the kid has been doing that, although to only one person and that is the doctor. The doctor need to sort of atone for his sin of mis diagnosing the guy who killed him. And here come the kid who is similiar to that guy whom killed malcom, the doc.
So in another word, the kid help the doc by letting the doc diagnose him.
Another part of which i like is how the kid says:" everybody just want to see what they want to see". Certainly, we are the one who really want to see what we want to see. We are the one to set the rules and regulation. Sometimes truth don't present itself very much as truth. Sad.
Anyway, i think this movie is rather philosophical. On the surface, it seems the doc help to cure the kid, but rather, it is the kid who help the doc instead. The doctor told the kid:" hear what those dead people want to say, they need help". Actually, the kid has been doing that, although to only one person and that is the doctor. The doctor need to sort of atone for his sin of mis diagnosing the guy who killed him. And here come the kid who is similiar to that guy whom killed malcom, the doc.
So in another word, the kid help the doc by letting the doc diagnose him.
Another part of which i like is how the kid says:" everybody just want to see what they want to see". Certainly, we are the one who really want to see what we want to see. We are the one to set the rules and regulation. Sometimes truth don't present itself very much as truth. Sad.
Tuesday, March 08, 2005
Biggest joke in parliment
Today i read the newspapers. NCMP Steve Chia asked a question which i think is damn stupid. He suggest that the allowance of MP to be tied to the number of questions each MP asked. Then one minister, forgot who he is, said if the allowance is to be cut, the first to be cut is the NCMP, which i think...hm...true.
Hai~...how come whenever the opposition ask a question, they always get shot down. It so paiseh. Our opposition still at its infant stage i think. Just too bad....just to bad. Anyway, i believe like i mentioned earlier, elections are coming. Perhaps after national day or the release of 3rd quarter economy forecast. It should be around november. I think so.
Hai~...how come whenever the opposition ask a question, they always get shot down. It so paiseh. Our opposition still at its infant stage i think. Just too bad....just to bad. Anyway, i believe like i mentioned earlier, elections are coming. Perhaps after national day or the release of 3rd quarter economy forecast. It should be around november. I think so.
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
Tuesday, March 01, 2005
A case of paradox
Structural economy changes has swept Singapore. From a traditionally strong manufacturing and perhaps textile industry, we have slowly morph into one which is strong in bio-medical sciences and other higher end technology. However it means some workers has to be displaced in order to fulfill the majority.
"Lactura paucourm serva multos", meaning sacrifice a few for the sake of the others, was clearly adhered here. Education need alot of time and patience. Re-skilling our workers definitely need some time changing. The problem is, does our society allow for this to take place? Time and tide wait for no man, especially in a society in Singapore, a little fish constantly moving around in order to survive, such time can be a bane and a huge cost. However if we don't allocate this time for our workers, workers being the fuel for our economy engine, will instead, hinder the engine. Such is the delimma of changing the economy.
Recently, news makers start to talk about how we can retrain the old folks, raising retirement age or even be more protectionist by reserving some jobs for the old folks. Again, this time paradox came into place. I realise alot of people miss out the larger picture. The small picture is, when you start applying the protectionist idea of reserving jobs for old folks, you are not letting the market function by the invisible hand( read: Adam Smith). Market or economy could just be unstable and it won't show the true side to the demand and supply of workers for that kind of jobs catered, or should i say, protected. Wages too is affected. Health insurance, a huge cost, would also be incurred as the mortality charges of old people are higher. When company do that , they would need to find alternative way to make up for that incurred expenses and consumers durable prices may just increase.
However to me is, do Singapore really can allocate time for retraining, for patiences and for seeing results. Hardware wise, the government is doing a good job, setting up WDA in CDCs to help workers so that they can help themselves to retrain themselves. But as we grow older for which our level of comprehension slows, time taken to really learned is definitely longer than the youg workers.
Similarly in the old folks context, structural economy bring about changes. To retrain and re learn. One need time, the older, the more. But as i mentioned earlier that Singapore is a small fish which time must be grabbed fast, can we just slow down our pace for the changes to take place?
Recently one of my ex- colleague received his O level result. His score is dissapointing, to his own standard. But can he be blamed? Self personal time is making way for company expansion, for hitting deadline. Try telling to your boss that your own personal re-learning is crucial to Singapore' total growth and he will tell you one cow less doesn't make any changes to New Zealand milk production.
Even if this colleague of mine take up the daring path and quit his job in order to concentrate fully on studies for which he will get good result, can the society promised him with a job upon graduation or a pay that is on par to his educational level? I afraid at this present stituation, it is hard to satisfy.
Upgrade has been the word for us after HDB flats. But i would like to mention, this doesn't work if we ourselves are willing but our superiors doesn't believe in that. I rather milk dry this worker rather than him after getting higher education, leave the company or ask for higher pay.
If our workers do not re train to have the skills needed for the new economy, ultimately, our economy is the one which is going to suffer as human is the fuel for the growth. We need a core group make up of Singaporean in order to continue the running of our engines. Do you use lubricant to run your engine totally? No! Foreign talent are just like lubricants, they make it smoother only.
Singapore, beside encouraging its people to train, also need to see whether it really support wholeheartedly, and i mean, by slowing down the pace, giving time. But at that stituation, can we still catch up and survive?
"Lactura paucourm serva multos", meaning sacrifice a few for the sake of the others, was clearly adhered here. Education need alot of time and patience. Re-skilling our workers definitely need some time changing. The problem is, does our society allow for this to take place? Time and tide wait for no man, especially in a society in Singapore, a little fish constantly moving around in order to survive, such time can be a bane and a huge cost. However if we don't allocate this time for our workers, workers being the fuel for our economy engine, will instead, hinder the engine. Such is the delimma of changing the economy.
Recently, news makers start to talk about how we can retrain the old folks, raising retirement age or even be more protectionist by reserving some jobs for the old folks. Again, this time paradox came into place. I realise alot of people miss out the larger picture. The small picture is, when you start applying the protectionist idea of reserving jobs for old folks, you are not letting the market function by the invisible hand( read: Adam Smith). Market or economy could just be unstable and it won't show the true side to the demand and supply of workers for that kind of jobs catered, or should i say, protected. Wages too is affected. Health insurance, a huge cost, would also be incurred as the mortality charges of old people are higher. When company do that , they would need to find alternative way to make up for that incurred expenses and consumers durable prices may just increase.
However to me is, do Singapore really can allocate time for retraining, for patiences and for seeing results. Hardware wise, the government is doing a good job, setting up WDA in CDCs to help workers so that they can help themselves to retrain themselves. But as we grow older for which our level of comprehension slows, time taken to really learned is definitely longer than the youg workers.
Similarly in the old folks context, structural economy bring about changes. To retrain and re learn. One need time, the older, the more. But as i mentioned earlier that Singapore is a small fish which time must be grabbed fast, can we just slow down our pace for the changes to take place?
Recently one of my ex- colleague received his O level result. His score is dissapointing, to his own standard. But can he be blamed? Self personal time is making way for company expansion, for hitting deadline. Try telling to your boss that your own personal re-learning is crucial to Singapore' total growth and he will tell you one cow less doesn't make any changes to New Zealand milk production.
Even if this colleague of mine take up the daring path and quit his job in order to concentrate fully on studies for which he will get good result, can the society promised him with a job upon graduation or a pay that is on par to his educational level? I afraid at this present stituation, it is hard to satisfy.
Upgrade has been the word for us after HDB flats. But i would like to mention, this doesn't work if we ourselves are willing but our superiors doesn't believe in that. I rather milk dry this worker rather than him after getting higher education, leave the company or ask for higher pay.
If our workers do not re train to have the skills needed for the new economy, ultimately, our economy is the one which is going to suffer as human is the fuel for the growth. We need a core group make up of Singaporean in order to continue the running of our engines. Do you use lubricant to run your engine totally? No! Foreign talent are just like lubricants, they make it smoother only.
Singapore, beside encouraging its people to train, also need to see whether it really support wholeheartedly, and i mean, by slowing down the pace, giving time. But at that stituation, can we still catch up and survive?
Finding a balance between pay and low prices
(This article was written by US secretary of labor from 1993 to 1997. He is the author of Reason: Why Liberals will win the battle for America. Copy write: New York Times Syndicate)
By Robert Reich
Bowing to intense pressure from neighborhood and labor groups, a real estate developer has just given up plans to include a Wal-Mart store in a mall in Queens, thereby blocking Wal-Mart's plan to open its first store in New York City. In the eyes of Wal0Mart's detractors, the chain embodies the worst kind of economic exploitation: It pays its 1.2 million American workers an average of only US $9.68 an hour, does not provide most of them with health insurance, keeps out unions and has a checkered history on labor law.
But isn't Wal-Mart really being punished for our sins? After all, it is not as if it created the world's largest retailer by putting a gun to our heads and forcing us to shop there. Instead, Wal- Mart has lured customers with low prices.
Wal-Mart may have perfected this technique, but you can find it almost everywhere these days. Corporations are in fierce competition to get and keep customers, so they pass the bulk of their cost cuts through to consumers as lower prices. Products are made in China at a fraction of the cost of making them here, and American consumers get great deals. Back- office work, along with computer programming and data crunching, is ‘’off shored’’ to India, so our dollars go even further.
Meanwhile, we pressure companies to give us even better bargains.
The fact is, today’s economy offers us a Faustian bargain: it can give consumers deals because it hammers workers and communities.
We can blame big corporations, but we are mostly making this bargain with ourselves. The easier it is for us to get great deals, the stronger the downward pressure on wages and benefits. Last year, the real wages of hourly workers, who make up about 80% of the workforce, dropped for the first time in more than a decade. The easier it is for us to find better professional services, the harder professionals have to hustle to attract and keep client. The more efficiently we can buy products worldwide, the more stress we put on our own communities.
But we are not just consumers. We are also workers and citizens. How do we strike the right balance? To claim that people should not go to Wal-Mart or look for cut-rate airfares or services or shop on the Internet is paternalistic tripe. No one is a better judge of what people want than they themselves.
The problem is, the choices we make in the market do not fully reflect our values as workers or as citizens. I did not want our community bookstore in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to close (as it did) yet I still bought books from Amazon.com. We may not see the larger bargain when our own job is not directly affected. I do not like what is happening to airline workers, but I still try for the cheapest fare I can get.
The only way for the workers or citizens in us to trump the consumers in us is through laws and regulations that make our purchases a social choice as well as a personal one.
A requirement that companies with more than 50 employees offer their workers affordable health insurance, for example, might increase slightly the price of their goods and services. My inner consumer will not like that very much, but the worker in me thinks it a fair price to pay. Same with a rise in the minimum wage or a change in labor laws making it easier for employees to negotiate better terms.
I would not go so far as to re-regulate the airline industry or hobble free trade with China and India, but I would like the government to offer wage insurance to ease the pain of sudden losses of pay. And I would support labor standards that make trade agreements a bit fairer.
These provisions might end up costing me some money, but the citizen in me thinks they are worth the price. You might think differently, but as a nation we are not even having this sort of discussion. Instead, our debates about economic change take place between two warring camps: Those who want the best consumer deals, and those who want to preserve jobs and communities much as they are. Indeed finding ways to soften the blows, compensate the losers or slow the pace of change- so the consumers in us can enjoy lower prices and better products without wreaking too much damage on us in our role as workers- we go to battle.
I do not know if Wal- Mart will ever make it into New York. I do know that New Yorkers, like most other American, want the great deals that can be had in a globalising high-tech economy. Yet the prices on sales tags do not reflect the full prices we have to pay as workers and citizens. A sensible public debate would focus on how to make that total price as low as possible.
Published in Straits Times, march 1st, 2005
By Robert Reich
Bowing to intense pressure from neighborhood and labor groups, a real estate developer has just given up plans to include a Wal-Mart store in a mall in Queens, thereby blocking Wal-Mart's plan to open its first store in New York City. In the eyes of Wal0Mart's detractors, the chain embodies the worst kind of economic exploitation: It pays its 1.2 million American workers an average of only US $9.68 an hour, does not provide most of them with health insurance, keeps out unions and has a checkered history on labor law.
But isn't Wal-Mart really being punished for our sins? After all, it is not as if it created the world's largest retailer by putting a gun to our heads and forcing us to shop there. Instead, Wal- Mart has lured customers with low prices.
Wal-Mart may have perfected this technique, but you can find it almost everywhere these days. Corporations are in fierce competition to get and keep customers, so they pass the bulk of their cost cuts through to consumers as lower prices. Products are made in China at a fraction of the cost of making them here, and American consumers get great deals. Back- office work, along with computer programming and data crunching, is ‘’off shored’’ to India, so our dollars go even further.
Meanwhile, we pressure companies to give us even better bargains.
The fact is, today’s economy offers us a Faustian bargain: it can give consumers deals because it hammers workers and communities.
We can blame big corporations, but we are mostly making this bargain with ourselves. The easier it is for us to get great deals, the stronger the downward pressure on wages and benefits. Last year, the real wages of hourly workers, who make up about 80% of the workforce, dropped for the first time in more than a decade. The easier it is for us to find better professional services, the harder professionals have to hustle to attract and keep client. The more efficiently we can buy products worldwide, the more stress we put on our own communities.
But we are not just consumers. We are also workers and citizens. How do we strike the right balance? To claim that people should not go to Wal-Mart or look for cut-rate airfares or services or shop on the Internet is paternalistic tripe. No one is a better judge of what people want than they themselves.
The problem is, the choices we make in the market do not fully reflect our values as workers or as citizens. I did not want our community bookstore in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to close (as it did) yet I still bought books from Amazon.com. We may not see the larger bargain when our own job is not directly affected. I do not like what is happening to airline workers, but I still try for the cheapest fare I can get.
The only way for the workers or citizens in us to trump the consumers in us is through laws and regulations that make our purchases a social choice as well as a personal one.
A requirement that companies with more than 50 employees offer their workers affordable health insurance, for example, might increase slightly the price of their goods and services. My inner consumer will not like that very much, but the worker in me thinks it a fair price to pay. Same with a rise in the minimum wage or a change in labor laws making it easier for employees to negotiate better terms.
I would not go so far as to re-regulate the airline industry or hobble free trade with China and India, but I would like the government to offer wage insurance to ease the pain of sudden losses of pay. And I would support labor standards that make trade agreements a bit fairer.
These provisions might end up costing me some money, but the citizen in me thinks they are worth the price. You might think differently, but as a nation we are not even having this sort of discussion. Instead, our debates about economic change take place between two warring camps: Those who want the best consumer deals, and those who want to preserve jobs and communities much as they are. Indeed finding ways to soften the blows, compensate the losers or slow the pace of change- so the consumers in us can enjoy lower prices and better products without wreaking too much damage on us in our role as workers- we go to battle.
I do not know if Wal- Mart will ever make it into New York. I do know that New Yorkers, like most other American, want the great deals that can be had in a globalising high-tech economy. Yet the prices on sales tags do not reflect the full prices we have to pay as workers and citizens. A sensible public debate would focus on how to make that total price as low as possible.
Published in Straits Times, march 1st, 2005
Monday, February 28, 2005
I don't believe in Democracy
Ok this is an entry is for me to let of steam. I was so pissed today by one of my group members. Perhaps i need to evaluate my tone of speech also. I sincerely and firmly believe there shouldn't be any democracy in a group project. The leader should dictate all, dish out roles. When you are choosing a leader, you are not choosing a puppet. You are the other half of the hand which respond when the hand wants to clap. You take down order from the leader, and do it efficiently. Deadline is tight, there is definitely no time for you to engage in some parlimentary debate. Autocratic system should be practice here, not democracy.
I discussed with my leader and we come up with jobs that are going to be allocated to the members. Everything is based on the individual's ability. For instance, if your maths is lousy and your economics is good, you would definitely be placed doing some economics related stuff instead of perhaps, doing some calculation for your project. So what do you do when one of your members decides he is better in maths than economics and want to do the maths part which his result doesn't justify it? What would you do?
I really don't know. For the betterment of the group, i feel like forcing the bitter pill inside the throat. You may call my authoritative but i do it with a reason. When i allocate, of course i allocate based on your forte. Why would i jeapordise the group's performance and allocate you some job which i know you are not up to the task? If i do that, i am a fatatous leader!
Like Minster Mentor said once:" a good policy may not be a popular one". I totally agree. You may not agree with what i do but i certainly know its for the good of everybody.
Swallow it.
I discussed with my leader and we come up with jobs that are going to be allocated to the members. Everything is based on the individual's ability. For instance, if your maths is lousy and your economics is good, you would definitely be placed doing some economics related stuff instead of perhaps, doing some calculation for your project. So what do you do when one of your members decides he is better in maths than economics and want to do the maths part which his result doesn't justify it? What would you do?
I really don't know. For the betterment of the group, i feel like forcing the bitter pill inside the throat. You may call my authoritative but i do it with a reason. When i allocate, of course i allocate based on your forte. Why would i jeapordise the group's performance and allocate you some job which i know you are not up to the task? If i do that, i am a fatatous leader!
Like Minster Mentor said once:" a good policy may not be a popular one". I totally agree. You may not agree with what i do but i certainly know its for the good of everybody.
Swallow it.
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
Casino
The debate on Casino has been going on quite a while. It bring back memories when "score", the football betting system was being mooted in the parliment. The same old story goes that a lot of Singaporean are going overseas, internet bet placing site to place their football bet. So why not we ourselves start one? The government heed to this chinese idiom that is literally translated as fertelised water shouldn't let outsiders use. It mean be selfish actually. So instead of letting illegal bookies or whoever to accept bet, the government accept it.
I remembered alot of controversy was stirred in the football betting parlimentary discussion. Some pragmatic or should i called them money minded MP put a tick to the idea. Some moralist or so-called say no to it. Religion bodies throw their weight behind those moralist. The main leads, the punters were less concerned. Question them they would tell you:" oh the garment sure got way", an ideal and typical Singaporean reply. They are sitting on the fence.
Feedback collected, provided yours didn't cross the OB markers. But no matter how many petitions were signed, the idea was still passed. The lame reason i think is that it can revive the S-league with the betting system as the punters need to support their team as they stake their family fortunes on it. But well well, just peer at the stadium in front of your home while reading this article, look at the numbers of people who turned up, watching S league. They could never matched the numbers that supported Singapore during the M cup heyday.
Slowly slowly, Score began to accept bet for overseas match, i believe, because it was more "profitable". What an irony for a system that is set up supposedly to support local footballing scene.
I think history is going to repeats itself again with the casino debate. If it is just a simple debate which was being assured as just only a debate now, can attract so many investors with plans on how to set up a casino here and run them well? It isn't just building sand castle in thin air but building casino in marina bay!
I think casino is here to come, whether you like it or not, looking at the past history. Alot of people actually want it thinking it will reduce taxes and what have you. However looking at Score again, i would like to remind people that the 3% of GST has risen to 5%. So do you think it will lower any taxes?
On the other hand, some want to keep casino out in order to keep out the undesirable socially diseases like vice. But aren't you just building a house without windows because you scared the fly may come in? If Singaporean can't even exercise their own curb, draw their own boundary and remain sheltered and give that "Govt will take good care of it" reply, have we really matured as a society? I don't think so.
While the good side of me want to keep casino out, the other side of me tell me i should support the idea, thinking i haven't pull any trigger of any jackpot machine before.
I remembered alot of controversy was stirred in the football betting parlimentary discussion. Some pragmatic or should i called them money minded MP put a tick to the idea. Some moralist or so-called say no to it. Religion bodies throw their weight behind those moralist. The main leads, the punters were less concerned. Question them they would tell you:" oh the garment sure got way", an ideal and typical Singaporean reply. They are sitting on the fence.
Feedback collected, provided yours didn't cross the OB markers. But no matter how many petitions were signed, the idea was still passed. The lame reason i think is that it can revive the S-league with the betting system as the punters need to support their team as they stake their family fortunes on it. But well well, just peer at the stadium in front of your home while reading this article, look at the numbers of people who turned up, watching S league. They could never matched the numbers that supported Singapore during the M cup heyday.
Slowly slowly, Score began to accept bet for overseas match, i believe, because it was more "profitable". What an irony for a system that is set up supposedly to support local footballing scene.
I think history is going to repeats itself again with the casino debate. If it is just a simple debate which was being assured as just only a debate now, can attract so many investors with plans on how to set up a casino here and run them well? It isn't just building sand castle in thin air but building casino in marina bay!
I think casino is here to come, whether you like it or not, looking at the past history. Alot of people actually want it thinking it will reduce taxes and what have you. However looking at Score again, i would like to remind people that the 3% of GST has risen to 5%. So do you think it will lower any taxes?
On the other hand, some want to keep casino out in order to keep out the undesirable socially diseases like vice. But aren't you just building a house without windows because you scared the fly may come in? If Singaporean can't even exercise their own curb, draw their own boundary and remain sheltered and give that "Govt will take good care of it" reply, have we really matured as a society? I don't think so.
While the good side of me want to keep casino out, the other side of me tell me i should support the idea, thinking i haven't pull any trigger of any jackpot machine before.
sleeping in various places
I love sleeping. I really do. Everyday i slept at 10.30pm, or 2230hrs in army term. However i started to sleep at 10.30pm way before i was enlisted. My mum forced me to sleep early as she was afraid i might be listless during classes on the next day. I guess over the years, it becomes my sleeping habit. If i do not sleep at 10.30, i can feel my brain stop functioning. It become evident when i am doing maths questions( another of my past time). Whenever the clock strike 12, the questions in front of me suddenly become so unfamiliar. Acute and immediate dementia sets in and i would feel like a zombie, restrained by some supernatural forces which prevent me from conquering differentiation.
But of course i am not going to go into details of sleeping. But rather places where i will sleep. I enjoyed sleeping on my bed. Its actually my parent matrimonial bed. But i siphoned to my room. A king size bed for myself. When i was young, i began to sleep on that bed when my parents just place me there and cajole me to sleep. I am a kind of person who need to be in a familiar environment in order to sleep. The bed was my comfort and my hypnotiser. Without it, i can't sleep. But i sort of grow out of it and return the bed to my parents when i was around primary 6. Occassionally, i would still steal a nap on it. Although the bed was quite old, as old as me, but i refuses to let my parent change to a new one. I am not the kind of person to ditch the old for new.
Beside home, the next most comfy place is the MRT seats. I just love sleeping in the MRT. The habit was formed when i was travelling from Tampines to ayer rajah camp. Woke up at 5.30am, so its kind of tired and i would just sleep on the train. I would start sleeping from Red Hill station, after reading the straits times and alighted at Chinese Garden. Yes you guessed it, i overshot my station. But to me it was great to just rest your head on the glass panel, and doze off. Of course not every seats on the MRT is for sleeping. I recommand the seats near the door, with the glass panel. First they are sheltered from the sunlight, next, don't you think the seats at the size are more spacious? The glass panels are good for resting your head. But do make sure the panels are clean. Sometimes you can find nasal mucus on it, be it dried or wet.
I just love sleeping. I do not know why. Perhaps my zodiac sign, Pig, has to do with my indulgence with sleeping.
But of course i am not going to go into details of sleeping. But rather places where i will sleep. I enjoyed sleeping on my bed. Its actually my parent matrimonial bed. But i siphoned to my room. A king size bed for myself. When i was young, i began to sleep on that bed when my parents just place me there and cajole me to sleep. I am a kind of person who need to be in a familiar environment in order to sleep. The bed was my comfort and my hypnotiser. Without it, i can't sleep. But i sort of grow out of it and return the bed to my parents when i was around primary 6. Occassionally, i would still steal a nap on it. Although the bed was quite old, as old as me, but i refuses to let my parent change to a new one. I am not the kind of person to ditch the old for new.
Beside home, the next most comfy place is the MRT seats. I just love sleeping in the MRT. The habit was formed when i was travelling from Tampines to ayer rajah camp. Woke up at 5.30am, so its kind of tired and i would just sleep on the train. I would start sleeping from Red Hill station, after reading the straits times and alighted at Chinese Garden. Yes you guessed it, i overshot my station. But to me it was great to just rest your head on the glass panel, and doze off. Of course not every seats on the MRT is for sleeping. I recommand the seats near the door, with the glass panel. First they are sheltered from the sunlight, next, don't you think the seats at the size are more spacious? The glass panels are good for resting your head. But do make sure the panels are clean. Sometimes you can find nasal mucus on it, be it dried or wet.
I just love sleeping. I do not know why. Perhaps my zodiac sign, Pig, has to do with my indulgence with sleeping.
Sunday, February 13, 2005
Shallow Hal
I have just watched Shallow Hal on tv. Let me give a brief summary on what is the show all about. There is this guy call hal, who always wanted to date pretty hot babe. However, he failed miserably because practically all the women in the world feel that he is so shallow, based on looks and date people. One day in a lift, he met Anthony Robbins, the guru who wrote countless books and charge per person thousand plus for his seminar. This guru then sort of hypnotise him so that Hal, instead of viewing girls and judging them by their looks, he will look at them differently, by looking at their inner beauty. So this Hal guy met Rosemary, a little overweight girl. But in his eyes, she is a georgeous babe( thats y thet ask paltrow to act, bodoh!). The went out and fall in love. But one day, Hal best friend, de-hypnotise Hal and Hal began to wake up. But in the end, he still accept Rosemary as he finally know what true love is all about.
Now i am going to give my 2-cent worth on the story. I think everybody has alittle bit of Hal inside us. When is the time where we do not give a second look to things that are beautiful? I have read a book that says, guys like woman to be buxomy not because of anything, but because it signify the good ability of pro-creation and of course, the badge of that she is a true woman. It is, i can say, a human basic instinct that we always will give good lookers, good looking object more credits than they should have.
If our moms goes to the grocers, they would also choose the orange base on the skin, perhaps, the more orange the orange look like , the sweeter? Try telling your mom that " hey, the worm hole suggest that it is sweet thats why the worm will blah blah blah" and i bet she will tell you to buzz off.
Although there is a bit of Hal in everyone of us, i think we do need to reflect on ourselves is that, is your bit of Hal bigger than my bit? When you see couple, each of them blessed with good looks, can you straight away jump to the conclusion that they each are Hal and when you see a couple, who perhaps, the male is not too good looking but the female is pretty, say that yes, thats not a Hal couple.
I do not really have the answer to that because the person i like is pretty and like i said, i like her. So do that make me a shallow person also?
But what i do know is that like what Robbins said in the movie:" we are all hypnotised by the society, by the world. The movies, magazines, tvs are telling you what is beauty and what is not. But is that a real answer to what beauty is all about?"
A couple of months back, i read in one of the blogs available by this girl. She wrote:" all of you chasing xxx should back off, take a good look in the mirror..." When she wrote about the mirror part, i feel that, she is based on looks and thats all. True perhaps she want the best for her friend and that "take a good look in the mirror" is just a sentence meaning undeserving guys should just back off.
But the ultimate feeling of this girl just based on looks keep creeping on me. I hope her friend is not like her.
Now i am going to give my 2-cent worth on the story. I think everybody has alittle bit of Hal inside us. When is the time where we do not give a second look to things that are beautiful? I have read a book that says, guys like woman to be buxomy not because of anything, but because it signify the good ability of pro-creation and of course, the badge of that she is a true woman. It is, i can say, a human basic instinct that we always will give good lookers, good looking object more credits than they should have.
If our moms goes to the grocers, they would also choose the orange base on the skin, perhaps, the more orange the orange look like , the sweeter? Try telling your mom that " hey, the worm hole suggest that it is sweet thats why the worm will blah blah blah" and i bet she will tell you to buzz off.
Although there is a bit of Hal in everyone of us, i think we do need to reflect on ourselves is that, is your bit of Hal bigger than my bit? When you see couple, each of them blessed with good looks, can you straight away jump to the conclusion that they each are Hal and when you see a couple, who perhaps, the male is not too good looking but the female is pretty, say that yes, thats not a Hal couple.
I do not really have the answer to that because the person i like is pretty and like i said, i like her. So do that make me a shallow person also?
But what i do know is that like what Robbins said in the movie:" we are all hypnotised by the society, by the world. The movies, magazines, tvs are telling you what is beauty and what is not. But is that a real answer to what beauty is all about?"
A couple of months back, i read in one of the blogs available by this girl. She wrote:" all of you chasing xxx should back off, take a good look in the mirror..." When she wrote about the mirror part, i feel that, she is based on looks and thats all. True perhaps she want the best for her friend and that "take a good look in the mirror" is just a sentence meaning undeserving guys should just back off.
But the ultimate feeling of this girl just based on looks keep creeping on me. I hope her friend is not like her.
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
finished another dan brown book
Yup, after da vinci code, angel and demons, i had finished deception point. Unlike the other two, which is mainly base on christianity, the holy grail, the deception point is more of a scientific thriller.
I have always amazed by how dan brown wrote. Hi story or rather his style you can really guess by the time you read another book of his. Its always this main lead who will on the course of investigating, come to know this another second lead who will always be the god-send kind of guy/gal to the main lead. This second lead will also be the life saver of the first lead, saving him/her always from the danger. The the baddy will be someone close to the lead always.
The story will end, with the 2 lead making love( although it isn't a erotic book, but one could guess by his use of words and descriptive sentences)
What intrigue my mind is his research. This author really go and research everything he wrote. So i don't mind reading his book although i know his style.
Dan Brown is my kind of author who treat readers with respect by his research. Way to go!
Oh yah, today is CNY day 1, selamat tahun baru cina to everyone and gong hei fuck choi! haha
I have always amazed by how dan brown wrote. Hi story or rather his style you can really guess by the time you read another book of his. Its always this main lead who will on the course of investigating, come to know this another second lead who will always be the god-send kind of guy/gal to the main lead. This second lead will also be the life saver of the first lead, saving him/her always from the danger. The the baddy will be someone close to the lead always.
The story will end, with the 2 lead making love( although it isn't a erotic book, but one could guess by his use of words and descriptive sentences)
What intrigue my mind is his research. This author really go and research everything he wrote. So i don't mind reading his book although i know his style.
Dan Brown is my kind of author who treat readers with respect by his research. Way to go!
Oh yah, today is CNY day 1, selamat tahun baru cina to everyone and gong hei fuck choi! haha
Tuesday, February 08, 2005
Don't make the same mistake of abolishing Singlish altogether
In the early sisties and seventies, our grandparents and parents grew up to shows helm by Wang Sa and ye Fong, the duo were the hottest comedy stars in Singapore, i can say they can be comparable to Jack Neo and Moses Lim. The reason of why the duo can reached to the masses easily and successfully perhaps is the usage of dialects. Dialects were spoken by many of the Chinese in Singapore. The early immrigants usually herd together like flocks of Sheeps determined by the dialect that they spoken. Clans were set up for each respective dialect group.
However the government decided to abolish dialect shows altogether to suits the Speak Mandarin Campaign. Wang Sa and Ye Fong were forced to retire prematurely. The Speak Mandarin Campaign were quite successful to a certain extent. Now, except for vulgarities, none of the chinese speak Dialect. Throw them some dialect words and they can't dicepher what is the meaning. Communication with their dialect speaking grandparents were thus lost and one way or another, the abolishment of speaking dialect contributed to the generation gap between grandchildren and grandparents.
Recently, the government i believe, decided to revive dialect speaking bit by bit, discreetly. They can't really do it openly as it would mean backtracking. We can see the opening up by speaking of dialect in movies like The best bet, Money no enough and tv sitcom like Don't worry be happy. Majority is Chinese entertainment shows that have dialects.
So in what comparison do it have with Singlish? Plenty.
Speak good english campaign was started in the late 90s when the then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong signalled Phua Chu Kang, the sitcom, as a rather bad influence to the youngsters for its overly use of singlish. Immediately, the producers of Phua chu Kang changed the sitcom to suits the government agenda.
I firmly believe, the abolishment of Singlish is too big a mistake and perhaps costly. What really bind people together is not their skin color, not the way the dress, but their religion and language.
Religion like i said previously, is a powerful tool to mankind. I believe anyone can see that when a fellow muslim see another muslim, he will walk up to him and shake his hand. Such is the binding force of religion to the individuals. Osama has an important tool to dispose of, that is religion. We can see how fast and widely spread the Al Queda speads its tenticles. Around the world not only the Arabs are muslim, but also the Malays, the indonesian, a few handful of chinese decent and caucasian. The fact that a non arab is willing to blow up himself on a plane proves that religion has surpass the skin factor and culture.
Langugage is the most crucial form of communication. Whenever we are of same race, we tend to speak in our mother tongue. Even if we have one or two friends of different races with us, we still tend to speak in our mother tongue as it just come out naturally. It is of such cases that our friends of different races can pick up our mother tongue fast.
Singapore is make up of a very diverse array of people, each with his own religion, culture and language. The chinese alone have embraced christianity, taoism, buddhist and what have you. The malay have Islam as their religion with some embracing other religons. Same goes to Indian.
We can't really force everyone to have a single religion as it will be a breech of human rights and disregard and disrespect to the religions that were not chosen to be the forced religion of Singapore.
What i want to say is that racial harmony is more than having school performance on july 21th every year. It is not just reciting the pledge, affirming racial harmony either. It goes beyond that.
Racial harmony can never exist flawlessly as there are just too many factors to be considered. What we can do is to make it near flawless.
Therefore, imposing the same religion to make the people homogeneous at least, in their faith is out of the question. Same goes to changing the skin color or even each individual culture.
Therefore, Singlish is needed actually to bind us together. If the Anglo Saxon can import french word, latin, spanish or even chinese word and phrases into English, i see why we can't import our Lah Lor Leh into our unique brand of English.
Singlish in this era, doesn't serve the purpose of communicating anymore. It serve a more divine and practical purpose, to bind the races together. It is an language which every Singaporean have with him, inborn. It is an language which set us at ease when we communicate. It is a language which we can converse easily without any miscommunication and most importantly, it is a language which is made in Singapore.
In this country where everything is imported, from ideas to food to cultures, we badly need a unique entity which we can really call it our own. I see no other things except Singlish.
To abolish Singlish is a grave mistake not to be repeated like abolishing dialects. No singlish could mean racial ties are in fact, weaken. English is the language of business, Malay is the offical Language and i think Singlish is the racial harmony language.
However the government decided to abolish dialect shows altogether to suits the Speak Mandarin Campaign. Wang Sa and Ye Fong were forced to retire prematurely. The Speak Mandarin Campaign were quite successful to a certain extent. Now, except for vulgarities, none of the chinese speak Dialect. Throw them some dialect words and they can't dicepher what is the meaning. Communication with their dialect speaking grandparents were thus lost and one way or another, the abolishment of speaking dialect contributed to the generation gap between grandchildren and grandparents.
Recently, the government i believe, decided to revive dialect speaking bit by bit, discreetly. They can't really do it openly as it would mean backtracking. We can see the opening up by speaking of dialect in movies like The best bet, Money no enough and tv sitcom like Don't worry be happy. Majority is Chinese entertainment shows that have dialects.
So in what comparison do it have with Singlish? Plenty.
Speak good english campaign was started in the late 90s when the then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong signalled Phua Chu Kang, the sitcom, as a rather bad influence to the youngsters for its overly use of singlish. Immediately, the producers of Phua chu Kang changed the sitcom to suits the government agenda.
I firmly believe, the abolishment of Singlish is too big a mistake and perhaps costly. What really bind people together is not their skin color, not the way the dress, but their religion and language.
Religion like i said previously, is a powerful tool to mankind. I believe anyone can see that when a fellow muslim see another muslim, he will walk up to him and shake his hand. Such is the binding force of religion to the individuals. Osama has an important tool to dispose of, that is religion. We can see how fast and widely spread the Al Queda speads its tenticles. Around the world not only the Arabs are muslim, but also the Malays, the indonesian, a few handful of chinese decent and caucasian. The fact that a non arab is willing to blow up himself on a plane proves that religion has surpass the skin factor and culture.
Langugage is the most crucial form of communication. Whenever we are of same race, we tend to speak in our mother tongue. Even if we have one or two friends of different races with us, we still tend to speak in our mother tongue as it just come out naturally. It is of such cases that our friends of different races can pick up our mother tongue fast.
Singapore is make up of a very diverse array of people, each with his own religion, culture and language. The chinese alone have embraced christianity, taoism, buddhist and what have you. The malay have Islam as their religion with some embracing other religons. Same goes to Indian.
We can't really force everyone to have a single religion as it will be a breech of human rights and disregard and disrespect to the religions that were not chosen to be the forced religion of Singapore.
What i want to say is that racial harmony is more than having school performance on july 21th every year. It is not just reciting the pledge, affirming racial harmony either. It goes beyond that.
Racial harmony can never exist flawlessly as there are just too many factors to be considered. What we can do is to make it near flawless.
Therefore, imposing the same religion to make the people homogeneous at least, in their faith is out of the question. Same goes to changing the skin color or even each individual culture.
Therefore, Singlish is needed actually to bind us together. If the Anglo Saxon can import french word, latin, spanish or even chinese word and phrases into English, i see why we can't import our Lah Lor Leh into our unique brand of English.
Singlish in this era, doesn't serve the purpose of communicating anymore. It serve a more divine and practical purpose, to bind the races together. It is an language which every Singaporean have with him, inborn. It is an language which set us at ease when we communicate. It is a language which we can converse easily without any miscommunication and most importantly, it is a language which is made in Singapore.
In this country where everything is imported, from ideas to food to cultures, we badly need a unique entity which we can really call it our own. I see no other things except Singlish.
To abolish Singlish is a grave mistake not to be repeated like abolishing dialects. No singlish could mean racial ties are in fact, weaken. English is the language of business, Malay is the offical Language and i think Singlish is the racial harmony language.
Thursday, January 27, 2005
The ali baba bag
What happen to our SAF?!!!!!! Why has pasir ris interchange become another changi airport? Why has all the recruits have a trolley and look exactly like SIA stewardess?! ARGH!!!!
I am PROUD..yes i am PROUD that i belong to the old batch(i think the last) where we get $240 for recruit pay, we long for long weekend because we serve right up to saturday noon, we leave tekong with our green fieldpack, we have the strong boots, whole part make of leather and most importanly, we have that ALI BABA BAG where we just dump all our barang barang and carry it like a coolie, with attitude of course.
Hai~...ALI BABA Bag is a lifestyle representation. It shows you are a true blue soldier. Regrets regrets...recruits nowadays pull their trolley proudly.
I think turkey leg would agree with me, because we STILL have our ALI BABA BAG.
I am PROUD..yes i am PROUD that i belong to the old batch(i think the last) where we get $240 for recruit pay, we long for long weekend because we serve right up to saturday noon, we leave tekong with our green fieldpack, we have the strong boots, whole part make of leather and most importanly, we have that ALI BABA BAG where we just dump all our barang barang and carry it like a coolie, with attitude of course.
Hai~...ALI BABA Bag is a lifestyle representation. It shows you are a true blue soldier. Regrets regrets...recruits nowadays pull their trolley proudly.
I think turkey leg would agree with me, because we STILL have our ALI BABA BAG.
Sunday, January 23, 2005
Eunice Olsen very "sway"
Pretty is still associated with Bimbo. Look at Eunice Olsen, she is being blasted for not attending the swearing in ceremony and people kind of say:" does she know her priority? I bet she doesn't . Pretty don't know how to think the importance of blah blah blah".
She said she can't "siam" the korea performance as it can't be re-scheduled. Therefore if looking at things in another way, i would prefer her not to re-schedule the performance. It is a promise to those who are going to watch her perform and since she sort of agree to that first, she should attend to that first. Now thats professionalism. It is just a normal ceremony. Beside, i can bet with you $1 million dollars that those who blasted her, don't even bother to switch on the Tvee to watch the parlimentary thingy. Who does anyway, definitely not me! haha.
Singaporean are a funny lot. Nothing can seems to satisfy them. When Mark lee do some crazy antic like some minor stripping, people complain. When he stop someone from stripping another time round, people complain he is over-reactive.
I think we just got something to say whatever is the stituation don't we?
She said she can't "siam" the korea performance as it can't be re-scheduled. Therefore if looking at things in another way, i would prefer her not to re-schedule the performance. It is a promise to those who are going to watch her perform and since she sort of agree to that first, she should attend to that first. Now thats professionalism. It is just a normal ceremony. Beside, i can bet with you $1 million dollars that those who blasted her, don't even bother to switch on the Tvee to watch the parlimentary thingy. Who does anyway, definitely not me! haha.
Singaporean are a funny lot. Nothing can seems to satisfy them. When Mark lee do some crazy antic like some minor stripping, people complain. When he stop someone from stripping another time round, people complain he is over-reactive.
I think we just got something to say whatever is the stituation don't we?
Wednesday, January 19, 2005
Will the real malaysian police please stand up
Hey guess what, i believe the summons collected by the malaysian ROYAL police force account for perhaps 80% of malaysia GDP. Fuck, real business don't want to go and do, but collecting summons the most enthu.
Look at the rape crimes, sodomy, rape young children, the tsunami, robberies, murders, aren't all these important than the summons? That IBM executive murder until now haven't been solved, yet they still can find the time to go arrange for media to go and "paparazzied" this man who owe thousands of summons.
Also, reports says they are going to apply for a court order here, sg court, to hurl those singaporean people who owe summons to them.
Please man, could someone tell the policia of malaysia that they are employed to solve those urgent cases and not be like the parking aunties of Singapore.
Sometimes it doesn't make sense, the summons collected will go into government budget. Then part of the budget definitely will go towards financing the police force and the police force do nothing!
But come to think of it, they are really doing something. They go collect summons which inturn go to the government and then go back to the police force which the police force pay them salary. HEY!! They are literally earning their own money!
Look at the rape crimes, sodomy, rape young children, the tsunami, robberies, murders, aren't all these important than the summons? That IBM executive murder until now haven't been solved, yet they still can find the time to go arrange for media to go and "paparazzied" this man who owe thousands of summons.
Also, reports says they are going to apply for a court order here, sg court, to hurl those singaporean people who owe summons to them.
Please man, could someone tell the policia of malaysia that they are employed to solve those urgent cases and not be like the parking aunties of Singapore.
Sometimes it doesn't make sense, the summons collected will go into government budget. Then part of the budget definitely will go towards financing the police force and the police force do nothing!
But come to think of it, they are really doing something. They go collect summons which inturn go to the government and then go back to the police force which the police force pay them salary. HEY!! They are literally earning their own money!
passion
I read my dear friend blog just now. Who is that friend of mine? Oh it is turkey leg. He said he want to be perhaps an electrical engineer or an aerospace engineer. However when he think again, he feel guilty because he is steering away from his original path of becoming an artist who is capable of visualizing human anatomy, which i believe he is trying to say he can x-ray a woman off her clothes, or a man's. haha.
Ok, here we are talking about passion. I believe my generation and of course the generation before us are always controlled. We do not want to be a doctor simply because a doctor is that evil twin who give us medicine, bitter medicine, so be a doctor is going against ourselves. The other evil twins is perhaps, our parents who forced us to study or work in a course or profession what we do not like, like, medicine.
But what can we do but to follow our parents idea in the end? Therefore alot of us go and be in some profession like doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc. But hey, when we become those, we actually like it, because as we are in great demand, our payroll rises also!
So we toil and sweat for half a century until our initial passion creep onto us. But by now, we couldn't even fulfilled our passions.
What is the thing that separate us from our passion? Is it because that our parents told us not to follow it? Or is it cash hypnotised us until we couldn't follow that original path? Or because we ourselves afraid of losing, afraid of uncertainties, in one word, afraid is the word that forbade us from pursuing our passion?
I believe with much regret, it is the last option. We are afraid of losing that 100k paycheck, the kind of respect, the kind of level and perhaps, the kind of society which we are associate with. True you will say those unsought after profession like artist have a certain degree of respect associate with them, but don't you realise those respect come posthumusly?
To me i am at the crossroad also together with my buddy. What is passion to us except a very distant word?
Ok, here we are talking about passion. I believe my generation and of course the generation before us are always controlled. We do not want to be a doctor simply because a doctor is that evil twin who give us medicine, bitter medicine, so be a doctor is going against ourselves. The other evil twins is perhaps, our parents who forced us to study or work in a course or profession what we do not like, like, medicine.
But what can we do but to follow our parents idea in the end? Therefore alot of us go and be in some profession like doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc. But hey, when we become those, we actually like it, because as we are in great demand, our payroll rises also!
So we toil and sweat for half a century until our initial passion creep onto us. But by now, we couldn't even fulfilled our passions.
What is the thing that separate us from our passion? Is it because that our parents told us not to follow it? Or is it cash hypnotised us until we couldn't follow that original path? Or because we ourselves afraid of losing, afraid of uncertainties, in one word, afraid is the word that forbade us from pursuing our passion?
I believe with much regret, it is the last option. We are afraid of losing that 100k paycheck, the kind of respect, the kind of level and perhaps, the kind of society which we are associate with. True you will say those unsought after profession like artist have a certain degree of respect associate with them, but don't you realise those respect come posthumusly?
To me i am at the crossroad also together with my buddy. What is passion to us except a very distant word?
Friday, January 14, 2005
Are you trying to impose your views onto your friend?
I am peeved two days ago when my friend, whom i introduced to my boss told me something. "He told me not to join your line, because it is like MLM. You won't get anything out of it." I wonder whether he said that to my friend because he is envy or he is jealous that i didn't extend my invitation to him to join the financial advisory line.
To me, whenever i state my own views, i would said in advanced it is my view and you should just listen and take it as a guide because i believe beside you, yourself can only make the decision for yourself and nobody else could make decision for you, including your parents. I may sound unfilial when i said that but isn't it true? Who know better of you than you yourself? Therefore i am very pissed when that guy, whom happens to be my friend also, told that to my army pal.
One would argue that, well it is a small matter. But to me, he has just block the potential of my pal to make money and who know, he may just succeed in this line, but because of the "good" imposing advice, he just screw it up.
The future has many uncertainties, you need to try in order to know what path you are taking. If our forefathers didn't come here to seek fortune because their compatriots told them don't go and they really did, do you think there will be Singapore and us?
You are entitled to your views, thats should i say, basic human rights. However, it doesn't give you the tyranntical behaviour of imposing your myopic views onto your friend. Are you his dad trying to make decision for him?
Back to that friend, Pang, i hope you do not try to influence Eugene. I am sure Eugene, as a soon- can-vote young adult can make his own decision. Beside, do you know anything about the financial advisory line and MLM line? If not, i hope you could do some research on these two entirely different industries before coming up with your own theory.
Beside, whats wrong with being a financial adviser? True there are black sheeps in the industry, but which industry doesn't have? Even police, the supposedly god-send people to help to ensure law and order can be bribed.
Alot of people think one need to set up his own private limited in order to be called an entreprenuer, but i beg to differ. If you do not have the capital to set up your own business, are you deprived of being an entreprenuer? I don't think so.
Being an financial adviser is a good way to be an entreprenuer and yet, do not really clash with your studies unless you do not know what is time management. You are free to work when and where you like, you constantly meet up with people and people are the real challenges compare to blueprints or accounts. Your brain are constantly stimulated with the verbal and communication sparing with your prospects. You get paid for your effort.
I do not try to impose my views on eugene. I do not discourage or encourage him to join a particular line because i respect him as a friend, i believe his making decision function is still alive and kicking. I told him my expierences, my views, presented the pros and cons from my perspect. Although the ultimate decision lies with him, but as a true friend, i think i should provide him with an opportunity, a potential of making changes in his life.
Yes, changes is what keeps us alive. Some changes is irreversible but some do not. However, without changes, we can be sure that we will never move. Opportunity comes and goes. Open up the door for your friend, but whether he wants to enter into the room or not is his own decision. However, you can be sure you are good when you open the door and not drag him in.
One has two legs, he can walk on his own.
To me, whenever i state my own views, i would said in advanced it is my view and you should just listen and take it as a guide because i believe beside you, yourself can only make the decision for yourself and nobody else could make decision for you, including your parents. I may sound unfilial when i said that but isn't it true? Who know better of you than you yourself? Therefore i am very pissed when that guy, whom happens to be my friend also, told that to my army pal.
One would argue that, well it is a small matter. But to me, he has just block the potential of my pal to make money and who know, he may just succeed in this line, but because of the "good" imposing advice, he just screw it up.
The future has many uncertainties, you need to try in order to know what path you are taking. If our forefathers didn't come here to seek fortune because their compatriots told them don't go and they really did, do you think there will be Singapore and us?
You are entitled to your views, thats should i say, basic human rights. However, it doesn't give you the tyranntical behaviour of imposing your myopic views onto your friend. Are you his dad trying to make decision for him?
Back to that friend, Pang, i hope you do not try to influence Eugene. I am sure Eugene, as a soon- can-vote young adult can make his own decision. Beside, do you know anything about the financial advisory line and MLM line? If not, i hope you could do some research on these two entirely different industries before coming up with your own theory.
Beside, whats wrong with being a financial adviser? True there are black sheeps in the industry, but which industry doesn't have? Even police, the supposedly god-send people to help to ensure law and order can be bribed.
Alot of people think one need to set up his own private limited in order to be called an entreprenuer, but i beg to differ. If you do not have the capital to set up your own business, are you deprived of being an entreprenuer? I don't think so.
Being an financial adviser is a good way to be an entreprenuer and yet, do not really clash with your studies unless you do not know what is time management. You are free to work when and where you like, you constantly meet up with people and people are the real challenges compare to blueprints or accounts. Your brain are constantly stimulated with the verbal and communication sparing with your prospects. You get paid for your effort.
I do not try to impose my views on eugene. I do not discourage or encourage him to join a particular line because i respect him as a friend, i believe his making decision function is still alive and kicking. I told him my expierences, my views, presented the pros and cons from my perspect. Although the ultimate decision lies with him, but as a true friend, i think i should provide him with an opportunity, a potential of making changes in his life.
Yes, changes is what keeps us alive. Some changes is irreversible but some do not. However, without changes, we can be sure that we will never move. Opportunity comes and goes. Open up the door for your friend, but whether he wants to enter into the room or not is his own decision. However, you can be sure you are good when you open the door and not drag him in.
One has two legs, he can walk on his own.
Wednesday, January 12, 2005
Why i can't save
When you are 18 to 25 yrs old:
" I really CAN'T SAVE lor. You know why or not? Cos hor...i just started working mah. I have limited income. Then my expenses high cos hor...i go zouk...and i really like that prada bag alot. Young better enjoy first, before i grow old cos if old, how to enjoy! Enjoy finding dentures only can? Then now COE drop, i need to save for a car, then i can cut down on travelling. Yah i agree car is ex lah, but then downpayment i pay little, other month i installment i pay bit by bit lah. When my income higher, then i will start saving lah oki?"
But when you hit 25 to 35:
"That time i tell you i get a car right? Now i got road tax, instalments, maintence, etc. I really CAN'T SAVE lah. I barely can breathe leh. Recently i get married. My children just born yet. I need to spend on those nappies, milk because my wife say no to breast-feeding, she said she rather leave it to the cows. I promise you, wait until i am older when my burden is lesser, then i will start to save."
And the golden age of 35-50:
"Its been 20 years since we first met. My children are all grown up. The elder one going to SMU and the younger one to NUS. They really need my financial support. This is the most crucial. I need to do my best to provide for them. So very sorry, i don't have money to SAVE. In fact i am quite broke nowadays. This is the worst period of my life financially. You know the mercedes ad which says:" when you are in your prime, you get a benz" I always wonder how come i can't get it. "
Twilight zone 50-60:
" I can't save. I know i should have saved when i am young but i can't make it. My age, who, other than mc donald, will hire me? Old and useless lah. CPF? every month they give me a payout of $200. So small, eat also got problem. You know the chicken rice cost $2 that time? Now..its $20!! I know inflation, yet i can't do anything. Save? Cannot lah...can't even eat how to save?"
Soon to hand over ic, above 65:
"Save?! Are you kidding? hohoho. I soon give IC already leh. Save also give Government in the end. Ask my children burn more hell bank notes lah. I try to save below."
" I really CAN'T SAVE lor. You know why or not? Cos hor...i just started working mah. I have limited income. Then my expenses high cos hor...i go zouk...and i really like that prada bag alot. Young better enjoy first, before i grow old cos if old, how to enjoy! Enjoy finding dentures only can? Then now COE drop, i need to save for a car, then i can cut down on travelling. Yah i agree car is ex lah, but then downpayment i pay little, other month i installment i pay bit by bit lah. When my income higher, then i will start saving lah oki?"
But when you hit 25 to 35:
"That time i tell you i get a car right? Now i got road tax, instalments, maintence, etc. I really CAN'T SAVE lah. I barely can breathe leh. Recently i get married. My children just born yet. I need to spend on those nappies, milk because my wife say no to breast-feeding, she said she rather leave it to the cows. I promise you, wait until i am older when my burden is lesser, then i will start to save."
And the golden age of 35-50:
"Its been 20 years since we first met. My children are all grown up. The elder one going to SMU and the younger one to NUS. They really need my financial support. This is the most crucial. I need to do my best to provide for them. So very sorry, i don't have money to SAVE. In fact i am quite broke nowadays. This is the worst period of my life financially. You know the mercedes ad which says:" when you are in your prime, you get a benz" I always wonder how come i can't get it. "
Twilight zone 50-60:
" I can't save. I know i should have saved when i am young but i can't make it. My age, who, other than mc donald, will hire me? Old and useless lah. CPF? every month they give me a payout of $200. So small, eat also got problem. You know the chicken rice cost $2 that time? Now..its $20!! I know inflation, yet i can't do anything. Save? Cannot lah...can't even eat how to save?"
Soon to hand over ic, above 65:
"Save?! Are you kidding? hohoho. I soon give IC already leh. Save also give Government in the end. Ask my children burn more hell bank notes lah. I try to save below."
Wednesday, January 05, 2005
Wet Ending
It was swift and fierce like the Tsunami. The aftermath was potent, hundreds of Megabyte lost with no backup to fall on. No warning system installed either. Hey what are you thinking of ?! I am talking about my pc which has crashed on the following day of boxing day. Although i didn't expierence the onslaught of tsunami, but however, i could feel its impact on a smaller scale, The demise of my pc. I had just upgrade my PC at Sim Lim Square before i entered SP. I thought it will be reliable. But i was proven wrong. Just as i am reaching the climax of the Incredibles , my PC crash. I was devastated. All the data in my hard disk are gone as a result of formatting my PC.
The story is the same. Everybody just take things for granted. Just because Tsunami never occur in the Indian Ocean doesn't mean it won't happen. Similarly, a newly upgraded pc doesn't mean it won't fail you when you least expected it to do so. No warning system installed in my pc doesn't mean i do not need one.
Although this episode has happened to me for the first time due to my usage of pirated stuff, which i believe contributed to the demise of my PC, but i don't think i would ever learn my lesson.
I believe the Tsunami haven't let us learn the lesson of being danger-concious either for natural disasters have and had occured throught the history of time, yet, time after time, it happened still.
The story is the same. Everybody just take things for granted. Just because Tsunami never occur in the Indian Ocean doesn't mean it won't happen. Similarly, a newly upgraded pc doesn't mean it won't fail you when you least expected it to do so. No warning system installed in my pc doesn't mean i do not need one.
Although this episode has happened to me for the first time due to my usage of pirated stuff, which i believe contributed to the demise of my PC, but i don't think i would ever learn my lesson.
I believe the Tsunami haven't let us learn the lesson of being danger-concious either for natural disasters have and had occured throught the history of time, yet, time after time, it happened still.
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