Moving on...

It is indeed a sad day for me this Halloween... an uncle of mine has moved on to the next world, after a long drawn struggle with cancer. Leaving behind him 3 young cousins still schooling...

Life is fragile, and good men die young.

Halloween

Today is Halloween, and though in the past, it was never a real event in Singapore, recently, it has sort of caught up, such that people at least mention it over the radio. I guess it must be a result of globalisation, with Western traditions slowly seeping into our Oriental cities.

A theory on electricity prices

Recently, our electricity suppliers announced that they are going to increase the price of electricity. The reason? Rising oil prices being forecasted. It has raised quite some public feedback, citing that price determination in the electricity market is not transparent.

Why would they say that oil prices are rising, when they have actually fallen over the past few weeks?

I think it is due to the privatisation of our electricity market.

A successful campaign by the government to save electricity has actually resulted in people in Singapore using less electricity. What does this mean? Revenue for the electricity supplier has actually fallen.

But a private firm is governed by profit maximisation, as classic economics theory will tell you. And in an inelastic demand market such as electricity (you can only cut down your use by so much before it doesn't make sense anymore), a rise in price will see a less than proportionate drop in quantity demanded. What this means is that by raising prices, the company actually realises more revenue. And at less cost. Which means higher profits. Which for a private firm is actually not a bad thing at all.

Yet not a good thing at all for the general public. Which is why we need to avoid monopolies. Which is why we need government watchdogs to police our electricity supplier to ensure that it does not work against public interest for its own interest. Let's hope the watchdog actually does its job, rather than sing the same tune. After all, oil prices really are dropping. Just drive out to the petrol kiosk and take a look.

Treat foreigners with respect

This is a letter to Straits Times Forum page, published today, by Mr Thomas Hwang.

I guess Singaporeans need to realise that we were once all foreigners, just that our forefathers happened to come to Singapore earlier than others, and thus we are Singaporeans while others are not. Yet an immigrant nation needs to remember that we are made up of immigrants, and thus we must be willing to remain open to immigrants as they come and go, just as we come and go. At the end of the day, we are all human beings working hard towards fulfilling our own goals and dreams.

Risks of investing

The recent economic downturn has left many people in deep trouble. Such as retirees who invested in products that have since gone bust.

But to me, the real problem could well be the banks and their relations managers. Every bank wants to sell its investment products, but relations managers must not prey on the old. People are greedy by nature, but preying on greed and ignorance is downright wrong. Yes, there are risks to investments, and I am sure that the relations managers did highlight the existence of risks. But are the relations managers trying to help their customers, or trying to help themselves?

A responsible relations manager looks long term, and introduces investment products suitable for the person's taste of risk and current financial status. After all, I am sure banks would rather have returning customers, instead of having people call them asking for their money back. If all relations managers are responsible, we won't have retirees asking for their money back, since they will have understood the risks involved, and are probably able to take that risk.

So maybe this is a chance for people to relook into how they should be investing. It is a lesson with a high price, but maybe it will teach banks that they need to train their relations managers to be responsible, to introduce the right products to the right person, and not just look at churning out the dollars.

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.