Singapore Grand Prix 2008

Today is the actual race of the Singapore Grand Prix, the first Formula One night race.

I won't say I am a F1 fan, or rather, I used to love watching F1 races on TV back when I was a kid. Back then, F1 races were shown on Saturday afternoons, and it was MacClaren Honda, not Mercedes. Nowadays, I don't even know how Raikonnen or Hamilton looks like. But since it is the big event happening in Singapore, I decided to watch it on TV like every other obedient Singaporean.

So Alonso won the race. And it goes to show just how unpredictable life can be. A fellow teammate's crash became an opportunity to be exploited. By a chain of human errors, the leading man came in at the bottom.

And even though this is not boxing, but just like boxing, things happen fast, decisions need to be made in split-seconds, and a small lapse in concentration can cause you to lose control, get hurt and lose the competition.

The official Singapore Grand Prix site

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe

Today seems to be "back to the good old days" day. Or rather, "let's remember the cartoon from my childhood" day.

So yet another cartoon series, one of those which I really loved, was He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.
The hero is He-Man, and he transforms from Prince Adam into his hero form by calling out "By the power of Grayskull, I have the power". And his cowardly cat Cringer becomes the fearsome Battlecat.
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe on Wikipedia

Silverhawks

Again, some of us may be old enough to remember this cartoon series that ran back in the late 1980s. It is about a group of heroes who are partly human and partly metal with the ability to fly and travel through space.

I guess the good part about living in present times is that with the Internet, one can relive the good old days.
Silverhawks on Wikipedia
Silverhawks episodes free at AOL Video

Visionaries - Knight of the Magical Light

Some of us may be old enough (and yet not too old) to remember this cartoon series that ran on TV in the late 1980s. It was a short series, unlike Transformers, but I did find it very interesting. Especially the rhymes that were recited for the heroes to activate their magical powers. I guess the line got discontinued because of production costs, since each action figure had a hologram on it, and it probably wasn't cheap making holograms in those days.

Visionaries - Knights of the Magical Light on Wikipedia
Visionaries Online
The Visionaries.net

Yet another year older

Yet another year has passed, and yet another year older I am.

Other people born on the same day

KPE - Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway

The KPE is supposed to ease traffic along the CTE... I don't know about the CTE, since I rarely use it, but because of the KPE, what used to be a 25-30min trip back home from work for me, now takes about 50min. So while the KPE may help to lift traffic congestion on one road, it is doing so at the expense of another road... So it is really not a solution to traffic congestion at all, it just transferred the problem from one part of Singapore to another. Overall, the traffic congestion problem is still there during peak hours.

Guess it is back to the drawing board...

Award scholarships later to working adults

This is a letter to Straits Times forum from someone else, who shares the same thought as myself. I wonder why Straits Times published his letter, when they did not publish mine when I sent it to them 3 years ago. Of course, TODAY published my letter.

"CLEARLY, awarding government scholarships goes beyond enabling needy students to obtain a university education. Given that some of the more prestigious awards are for studies at the world's top universities, the aim is more than to attract our ablest students, be they rich or poor, to enter public service. It is about identifying and grooming future leaders and ministers.

But how successful is this scheme today?

We have been awarding scholarships for the past 40-odd years. We should have a pool of a few thousand, including a few hundred 'prestigious' scholars. Yet, leaders perennially lament that not enough good people are coming forward to serve.

Apart from Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and a few other scholars in the Cabinet, where are the rest? The Public Service Commission (PSC) has been silent on the bond-breaking rate. Do many break their bonds? Did the others leave after fulfilling their bond, or were they not up to mark? Indeed, a few have ended on the wrong side of the law.

Perhaps we should examine the selection timeline. Scholarships are given to young teenagers based on school records and A-level results, and on the promise and perception that they will take up, and are suitable for, public service upon graduation.

Clearly, a promise made today is not good enough. So, why not give out undergraduate and post-graduate scholarships at a later stage to working Singaporeans, who by then would be more exposed, experienced and wiser.

Selection criteria can also include actual efforts and contributions made in real - rather than solely on school - life. How many Sim Wong Hoos have we lost all these years with our current system of awarding scholarships?

Together with bond breaking, what is the loss to the country? The word 'merit' would have a more rounded, more comprehensive definition. More importantly, at this stage, one can better rate a scholar's character and integrity, and the important 'heart and desire to serve' factor. Should not the more prestigious ones, like the President and Overseas Merit Scholarships, at least be given out on this basis? After all, we are talking about selecting the best for Singapore's future.

Tan Soon Hock"

Singaporeans are better... not!

Somehow, living in this little red dot, we have been taught to think that we are better than others, that even though we don't have natural resources, we can make up for it using better technology and with better-trained people.

We think that with technology and better training, we will be able to counter problems that others are unable to solve. We think that we are better than them, that we can come up with solutions to problems that others are unable to tackle.

Others learnt their lessons through painful experience. They put 3 persons on the job, not because they are inefficient, not because they are not proficient, not because they are incompetent, and definitely not because they are stupid. They put 3 persons there because that is what works, and that is the number that is required, and with 3 persons, they know that should something unexpected happen, that is the number of people required to deal with the problem.

We Singaporeans think that with technology, better training, and because "we are better than them", we just need to put 1 person on the same job. Yes, a machine may be able to assist to cut down the manpower actually required to perform the job. But when something unexpected happens, the machine is not going to be there to help you come up with a contingency plan. If you need to do something outside the norm to solve the problem, the machine cannot help you if it was not designed to do those functions.

So we have "teach less, learn more". We want to expand our job scopes, yet at the same time downsize the organisation. We think we can do more with less, because our people are better. And we are always successful, because we define the criteria for success. It is hard for me to fail a test, in which the exam questions are set by me, and the test paper is marked by me. Sometimes I wonder if we are just lying to ourselves.

Mid-Autumn Festival

Today is the Mid-Autumn Festival, a traditional festival celebrated by the Chinese. My JC celebrates this event yearly, and it is during the celebrations when we get to see the lion dance and wushu performances. We used to train hard for the performance. So this day brings back fond memories of the good old school days.

Remembering September 11

I still remember this day 7 years ago. I was in Japan and had a late night meeting. Just prior to the meeting, a colleague came in and said that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. We thought nothing more of that as the meeting carried on.

After the meeting, I turned on the television, and saw reports on the crash. And then, images of a smoking Pentagon came in. And next was a scene showing another aircraft crashing into the second tower at the World Trade Center. That's when I thought, "Oh my god!"

I quickly called my American friend (he was staying in Japan at the time) and told him to "turn on the news, it is on every channel".

I guess this day, 7 years ago, taught us that we must be ready for disasters, man-made or natural.

WALL-E

The latest Disney Pixar movie "WALL-E" is now showing in Singapore, and I was able to catch the show today. While it is an animated film, and will definitely catch the attention of kids with the cute robot voices, the background theme to this show sets on thinking about how we want to treat our Earth.

The story is set in the future, and starts by showing a scene of an Earth city, vaguely at first, until upon closer inspection, you see that the whole city is covered with trash. Besides empty skyscrapers, there are also skyscrapers made of junk. It is a scene of what "can be", if we allow it to happen.

Humans have long since left the trash-covered Earth, and now stay onboard spaceliners manned by robots and served their every needs by robots. With such a pampered lifestyle, they have grown fat and reliant on the robots. This is how we can become, if we choose to grow reliant on technology, if we allow technology to run our lives, rather than for technology to be an aid.


The super corporation B&L that runs this whole setup shows the danger of a central government that controls all and paints a picture for all to see, while hiding from the people certain aspects of life. This is a reminder of the wizard of Oz. While the government may provide for the needs of the people, the freedom to choose and act is what sets us apart from animals governed by instincts and needs. The scene in which a lady is jolted from her floating chair/screen shows us that there is a bigger world out there waiting for us to appreciate, if we are willing to look beyond what we are told or used to seeing.

Yes, so this is an animated film, but the themes behind it are definitely suitable for an adult audience, and is therefore a film that will benefit both young and old.