Blog

Transitions

2012-01-22T00:02:00.001-05:00

I will start posting business, sports, music, local and social stuff here. Stay tuned

Building a society together

2011-10-07T11:49:00.002-04:00

Do we build a happier society together, by making us all happy together, or to really exploit everything that makes us unhappy, and even more puzzled in our minds?

Let's appreciate the finer things in life, and to live simply as life goes.

I think nothing is more beautiful than kinship, followed by friendship. If we have lots of friends by our side, then it would be happy for all of us in the world.

Happy Teachers' Day - Thoughts

2011-09-01T10:00:00.000-04:00

It's 1 September 2011.

Tomorrow's Teachers' Day for Singapore, while World Teachers' Day falls on 5 September. Nevertheless...

I should say, now I understand the significance of Teachers' Day better.

I used to be a teacher myself, as a volunteer adjunct teacher in a special education school in Singapore. I enjoyed the teaching, I enjoyed interacting with students, and I try to work to improve both my students' abilities (while recognizing their limitations) and also mine.

In addition, from my limited experience, I recognize that no matter how well trained teachers are, teachers will never be 'super-people'. There is always this feeling of failure and rejection amongst teachers. This is especially so for the era of standardized tests, greater income disparities and most important of all, globalization through the spread of information and communication technologies. They increase the cost of failure, and add to the stresses of work as a teacher.

Standardized tests, through tests like the SAT/ACT/A Levels, have the power to force most teachers, stuck in the rut of hiring systems based on 'results-based accountability', to just focus on high school scores and test results - and nothing else. This includes the intangible 'life skills' such as character development - particularly care and concern for fellow classmates, confidence to face challenges, and happiness. To maximize results, teachers often follow just one standard effective way to teach all students effectively. This reduces the diversity in the styles of teaching teachers use, making teachers feeling redundant and not valued in work.

Greater income disparities around the world also contribute to the dejection of teachers. Most wealthy people who value education often hire the best teachers for their kids, with their money and motivation to keep up their social statuses. They also invest heavily in their children outside-school activities, that enable their learning experiences. So their students often benefit, from the most effective tools and methods of teaching, that result in students gaining the most know-how in any profession they wish.

But for many poorer individuals. the situation is more dire. They have no means to choose their teachers, as they will most likely face any other teacher in schools. Since they have no means to keep their children actively involved and engaged in activities outside school, where there is a lack of public funding for public schools relatively to schools enrolling students of a higher income, then it results in an ensuing achievement gap, which manifests itself to even greater income gap. I would imagine the teachers in the poorer schools having a hard time to stay motivated to even catch up with the standardized tests, let alone ever giving the indication to students that education could be their ladder of opportunities.

Last of all, there is this power of information, spread through computers and mobile devices. The barriers of information aren't as high as before. They could easily spread their opinions and facts (but highly probably, not know-how) throughout the world. So regarding facts and opinions, now students could know as much, if not more, than teachers. So who really transmits information, anyway? It breaks the long-time hierarchy of information transmission and also interpersonal relationship - teachers used to inspire the whole class with his unique insights, now they can only work with fellow students to do practices together, and get the highest possible marks in exams and tests.

So why do we still have teachers? Why is there all the deal for smaller class sizes (if the governmental budget allows) and why do we still see teachers as socially valuable? And why are there still teachers?

For these questions, may I just say, I don't really know.

Maybe because certain teachers still have the ability to stay enthusiastic, passionate and inspiring, in the courses and their matters? And the experience the teacher demonstrates to his students will eventually resonate with their students?

For these, I really feel that teachers are potential life models for students to follow. Whatever they do will always be influences to students and their lives, even after their retirements or them moving on to another area of work/ It could bring out the inspiration in students, to do whatever they choose to do next.

Indeed, as the Irish poet William Butler Yeats remarked, 'Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire'.

Happy Teachers' Day!

Power

2011-08-02T08:15:00.000-04:00

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power. - Winston Churchill

Power is the ability of one's ability to control its environment, including its behaviour to control the other entitles, as defined in Wikipedia (actually, Greiner & Schein)

Indeed, everyone who understands the necessity of hardships, and have the ability to overcome them, can indeed overcome everything that stands in place in him. But some people just aren't able to internally process power.

With power, the environment can be modified for the benefit of the wider community. Some contribute to the community, some contribute to a disadvantaged group, while others focus on empowering people around the world.

Unfortunately, some things tend to grind more than help people, some ideas distract more than focus the group's common objective, and some people just do not have the ability to make the best use out of everything they have - including the inter-personal relationship dynamics - that could possibly do both good and harm to the individual.

Power dictates that some people who have excess energies can really find a fulfilling life that best fits their career development. I am thinking, from my encounters with various people, several scenarios of success, that involve the use of interpersonal interaction - and hence, the use of power.

For example:

A person-based professional (a catch-all term for people who are involved in sales/banking), genuinely interested in people, may be able to spare some time and energy to join various clubs and societies to his interests, to his career development, and to his connections with people with connections (e.g. community leaders).

Another would be a person who joins clubs and on-line forums, sometimes even contributing to the ideas in school, pertaining to different forms of media, so that he can gain a better foothold in society. He can also understand the needs of society well, by exposing himself to different exposures around the real and virtual world.

However, there are also failures in the use of power.

There are some people who are less able to become as 'powerful' or be in control, as much as their peers. They may not be able to ride on the wave of opportunities they perceive to have, and use them to control other people, due to their own limitations in their ability to 'grab' them. Then there are people who persevere through obstacles, but took a longer time than others, to get to the same destinations as other people.

Perhaps an explanation would be that they also learn to be better, to really be a better person in the end? Or that they need to be trained in being able to improve on not just themselves, but also, in the process of self-improvement, improving the wider community around?

I feel that indeed, power really tests perseverance, focus and leadership. Without power, anyone could get by by their own selves. But with power, it is a test of everyone being more able to do his own best, then with his skills in commanding respect and authority, also being able to attain an objective, and to do it the best he can.

My 21st

2011-07-12T07:20:00.003-04:00

I had a 21st birthday yesterday.

What did you had as your 21st birthday?

I'm the only one with the hat, and I still have hair :p

At the night before my 21st, I was attending Darren's b'day party - thank you Darren for really having a great party near Town, in your school.

I am really happy, got to meet new and old friends, surprised at the change in some friends.

I didn't know, for example, my old mate in Infocomm Club, Zheng Han took up dancing, and became a backup dancer for a pop star. (He's that guy with the black tank top) I also didn't know that the main star of the Party, Darren (he's just beside me on the photo!), is really serious and motivated, in everything he does!

I am also pleased that some interests do not change.

For example, the guy 'formerly' (and to me, still) known as Jia Fu (in the light-blue polo shirt), who was my favorite classmate and showed up for the party, still joked - while my old classmate Michelle looked as beautiful and confident, as she was 5-8 years ago.

Then a few moments later, it's night, 00:00, and it's my 21st birthday!

Also the first day of ATP stage 3.

It's very intensive, heavy and... cool!

I need not tell you about the data crunching I did, maybe I'll talk about the tedious process one fine day, but it should be alright.

Yesterday, my course-mate Bryan treated me to my favorite Japanese katsu curry rice. Yummy! And Bryan's got heart. Thank you! :)

Oh, not to forget the company with Eugene, Kai Sin and - special guest from Stage 2, Agnes! Wow. We 4 had a long, long chat over lunch. We also dined with Sanjay, Sunil, Hendrik, Komala and our faciliator, Kai Loon. :)

Wow, ATP has friendly people with a great camaraderie. Everyone has the focus to churn out reports, for the use of analyzing a whole industry and/or company, every time. For instance, it's interesting listening to different viewpoints on the same Singapore economy (though I did the Indonesian one, and Kai Sin and Eugene did a presentation on the States). So far, it's worth every cent of the training course. I learnt about the most essential things to note in business, and am humbled by a lot of management and financial principles that I used to take for granted.

Then I ran 4.2km in the gym, on the treadmill over half an hour. I think I feel better and more energetic after the run, I was just a little hungrier. Indeed, the treadmill 'paced' me well.

I only managed to head home at around 8.15pm. I had some dinner before I watched a movie called Vantage Point. It's about different points of views of a political plot to kill a President, which failed. I just feel, wow, that main character Agent Barnes really does his job, and seemed to manage his strong emotions of deaths, betrayal - and do the ultimate task of rescuing the President. Wow. I was impressed.

Then I replied to Facebook birthday wishes (around 130+, I guesstimated), while trying to figure out the newest Google+ (thanks Dexter!). I went to bed at around 12 midnight.

Birthday over. I'm really 21.

That's what's just happened on my big day. I feel contented leading my 1st day of 'adulthood'. I would ask for nothing more. Life's been great to me so far!

Dress for success

2011-06-30T20:36:00.001-04:00

This is something which I read over a forum, over something I wrote:

I got criticism for wearing just T-shirt and shorts, even in hot Singapore.

"Is this the way you are going to dress to meet us?" (referring to meeting a friend)

The reply, in fact the most blunt but sensible one:

--- --- ---

Kids are wearing stuff a lot different from that. They're back to tight jeans for boys & young men (tight is not something I go for), and gothic-printed T-shirts (tighter fitting). I don't mean to sound belligerent, but it sounds like you are judging that there's something wrong with how someone chooses to dress.

I've always hated that term; "Dress for success". The only people I know who wear golf shirts, or wear a suit and tie to work, are attempting to achieve a financial status which I have already achieved (and which I bet they never will, with the attitude I feel them showing)..... In my T-shirt and jeans.

I don't need to impress anyone with my appearance, other than always being freshly showered and clean-shaven. I don't have a PhD, but I certainly am quite well educated, and a member of society in good standing, and pay a heck of a lot of taxes. A good friend of mine; a nuclear physicist, highly successful oil lease investor, and chairman at Cal Tech, wears an old K-Mart sweat suit with stains on it.

Below are photos of me; age 43: Baggy shorts, Skin Industries motocross shirt, heavy gauge earrings, motorcycle chain necklace, and baseball cap.... Bottom photo is another example of how I typically dress. I'm not quite the punk kid that some people might think of in those clothes, I guess. To some, I guess, I wouldn't look like the co-owner and operator of a major southern California avocado ranch.... Own and manage several rental homes and apartments; built and sold another business before age 30, member in good standing of the Mayflower Compact Society, and taxpayer of unreasonable proportions. Also happily married to a highly successful, well-educated businesswoman...... Who is attending a meeting to negotiate an oil lease in Dallas, in a football shirt and jeans with holes. One of my wife's and my favorite ways to "mess with people", is when we call on a real estate ad for a property we might be interested in buying.... We go to meet a broker in a 3-piece suit, who usually shows up in a BMW with a huge wheels (and a likely a huge loan), and we clatter and rattle up in a 1984 Corolla Diesel with lousy paint. It really blows the broker away if, when asked how we intend to finance, we hand them our accountant's card, and tell them it's going to be cash on a 1031 exchange. It's amazing to me, how many wrong impressions can be taken by outward appearance.

If anyone is going to accept and be supportive of a person, they will need to accept individualized style of dress first.

Maybe some food for thought...........

No offense intended; just asking for consideration.

Charles

--- --- ---

Does Charles remind me of somebody I know? Lol

I bet this will never, ever happen in Singapore, unless there is drastic societal change.

US in long, deep debt

2011-06-26T11:53:00.001-04:00

I have the feeling that United States are going through what Japan had gone through in the 1990's, only with much worse international effects...

But what's hopeful is that, the world will definitely not let United States fail! Especially for China, which owns around US$900 billion of bonds - much lesser if not for possible political leverage.

Individual Competitiveness - The Curious Case of LeBron James

2011-06-24T12:53:00.001-04:00

Individual competitiveness

At the back of my mind, I can tell you the most competitive person in NBA history: the guy who lost 2 NBA Finals called LeBron Raymone James.

I knew he is competitive, even without even Tweeting to him or reading his book, because he appears to do the 'right' things that keeps him in position in winning the rest of his world.

I saw a picture of James wearing a Yankee hat. James is born and raised in Ohio, so I thought, out of local pride, he should support a Ohio-based baseball team, like the Cleveland Indians and Cincinnati Reds. No - he supports the New York Yankees with their 27 world titles, and their huge success in the late 1990's, when he first encountered sports. He only desires victories, nothing else. It's also noted in Wikipedia that he supports the Chicago Bulls and Dallas Cowboys - the most successful teams in the same period.

James appeared on Vogue, hosted a Saturday Night Live show, owns part of Liverpool F.C. and most importantly, earned the most money for under-25 year olds (as ranked in a Forbes survey on December 2007) - because money speaks the loudest. Besides, he did confiscate a video of him being dunked on by a college basketball player, Jordan Crawford. He only wants to be the best in almost everything he is in, and he refuses to make himself look bad.

No surprise, given Cleveland's shrinking market base (due to the wider Rust Belt phenomenon, seen in northern Ohio) and the lack of winning, that James would eventually leave the Cleveland Cavaliers, the first NBA team that drafted him. He ended up joining two esteemed NBA stars, Chris Paul and Dwayne Wade, in Miami Heat. And James even reduced his scoring roles to help his team win the title. Alas, James' really so competitive to win that title - that he can do anything just to win - or, in the case of a few Conference Finals against Boston Celtics (2008 and 2010), simply losing when he gets the feeling that his team can't win.

This really makes Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant look bad. They win with their first and only teams, and they do their best to win as much as they can - without any thought that they'll not win convincingly as they liked to. They do not care how much they'd lost - in Jordan's case, he never swept a NBA Finals series but he still won 6 NBA titles. Bryant had fought and nailed his 4th NBA title, by winning a Game 7 against Boston Celtics. (Yay!)

Is LeBron James what we want for our world - people who do their best to control their situations as much as they could, while focusing on the 'big win'?

I admit I used to be a little like James. I think I should learn more like Jordan or Bryant, putting in their best focus on just doing what's best for myself, no questions asked, no ifs, no buts.

Thoughts on reading a book on Wal-Mart

2011-06-22T11:19:00.004-04:00

I think that Wal-Mart was (in the past 30 years), and still is, the greatest retail company on Earth. They are the only hypermarket, or 'supercenter', that defines all-in-one-stop retail.

It stemmed from a visit to Wuhan, China not too long ago, when I met the friendliest 'associates' and the cheapest goods, in a nondescript setting in a central city, even more so than the friendliest in Singapore.

Never mess with Wal-Mart!

They have a strong central management system, they invest a lot in both human capital and investment. They got the Walton International Scholars Program. They also have the IBM 370/135 computer system, leased. The result? They serve to increase the economies of scale Wal-Mart can use to have savings to pass on to consumers - $700 million currently.

For now, Wal-Mart just seemed to have a PR problem in sexual equality, which, in my opinion, seems to be overblown. Wal-Mart was embroiled in a lawsuit against former employees, for charges of sexual discrimination as women. The Supreme Court had ruled the case in favor of Wal-Mart. PayScale surveys show that male and women are paid on equals, and women are employed on a professional basis in Wal-Mart, just as men do. Perhaps this stemmed from the early 1970's, when Wal-Mart had openly followed the corporate values in the Southern United States, which seems to emphasize a lot on the sheer force of the men, in a (mostly) women-engaging retail setting, like Wal-Mart.

But even that had changed, from what is seen in PayScale's survey on Wal-Mart pay and job scopes.

http://blogs.payscale.com/compensation/2011/06/walmart-lawsuit.html

Maybe the only thing I gripe about Wal-Mart is the way the store architecture and interior is - plain, boring, and nothing interesting. But hey, they do make construction and maintenance costs cheap, which can be passed on to the Orange juice I buy, am I right?

Greek crisis

2011-06-20T11:15:00.000-04:00

Very few people see the Greek crisis not as a 'debt crisis', but as a crisis where different brothers of a family fight for the same stuff that feeds them in the great financial famine, like I do.

Do you know that France, Germany and Britain hold together hold 62% of the total Greek external bank loans? And they make up 100 billion dollars.

Is this the debt crisis we are hearing? Greece owing some country large sums of money? But who are the countries that Greece owed to? Greece is owing money to its very own European nations - and not to some foreign countries like China, India or United States. Only then, will the world be really stuck in a systemic crisis.

I do not have material evidence, but I think Portugal, Italy and Spain have similar issues as Greece.

Added with Greece's woes in governance, I do not think the situation in Greece will improve.