Asking the Correct Question

I refer to Dr Teo Ho Pin's STForum letter dated November 28th, 2008 .

http://www.straitstimes.com/ST%2BForum/Story/STIStory_307666.html

The town councils' maintenance of sinking funds is clearly necessary as Dr. Teo spelled out in his letter. Sinking funds help finance major restorative works in the estates among other uses. And I wholly agree that any surpluses in the funds clearly should be invested in appropriate instruments to maximize their use. That the funds suffered losses is unfortunate but I am confident that the town councils did their best to make sure the money is well invested.

However, why sinking funds are needed or how the funds are invested, are not the right questions. The correct question that should be directed to the Town Council is, why do the town councils need to draw more conservancy charges from the residents, when there is enough excess that it could even be used for investment purposes? Or perhaps could the charges be reduced when clearly they are actually producing surpluses?

I am confident that Singaporeans are generally mature and cognizant of the need to maintain reserves, and that these investment losses are unfortunate. However, the level of the reserves is the real question.

The Poor in Singapore

This is really a great video.
Sobering.

In our pursuit for that elusive GDP growth figure, who have we left behind?

i hate myself

i hate myself.

my closest friends, i confess to you, i hate myself.

i hate myself for my lack of courage. i hate myself for living life according to the standards set by the capitalist society. i hate myself for the inability to see past material goods and wants, and follow my heart.

its insane.

its driving me to new lows. whenever i hear of news that someone is getting this high pay, or this excellent job, it drives me mad, the sense of regret that i paid such a huge sum to get out, only to experience the rubbish here.

and i am not sure now if i dare to pursue academia given this, i wonder if mentally i can take it.

this is bad, really bad. i know this is probably nothing compared to the problems of you guys, so i do apologise if its inappropriate.

Barack Obama's Acceptance Speech

good speech.

Barack Obama

This part from Obama's acceptance speech at the Democratic Convention, moved me to tears.

"We measure the strength of our economy not by the number of billionaires we have or the profits of the Fortune 500," he said, "but by whether someone with a good idea can take a risk and start a business, or whether the waitress who lives on tips can take a day off to look after a sick kid without losing her job — an economy that honors the dignity of work."

How true! Obama for President!

中国国歌

Its really quite inspirational the Chinese national anthem. You can listen to it here.



I have also copied the lyrics here with an English translation too.

起来！ 不愿做奴隶的人们！
把我们的血肉，筑成我们新的长城！
中华民族到了最危险的时候
毎个人被迫着发出最后的吼声

起来！ 起来！ 起来！

我们万众一心，
冒着敌人的炮火，前进！
冒着敌人的炮火，前进！

前进！ 前进！ 进！

Arise, ye who refuse to be slaves!
With our flesh and blood, let us build our new Great Wall!
The Chinese nation faces its greatest danger.
From each one the urgent call for action comes forth.
Arise! Arise! Arise!
Millions with but one heart,
Braving the enemy's fire.
March on!
Braving the enemy's fire.
March on! March on! March on!

Foreign Immigrants

i know this topic has been beaten to death in recent days by the local press but let me wade in a little.

specifically lets talk about Singapore's table tennis team. And the local reaction to their silver medal winning effort.

make no mistake, Singapore IS a country of immigrants. But of course. So is China actually, for the Chinese are migrants from Ethiopia too. Some 325,000 years ago of course. Obviously I recognize that immigration has been a trend, and most nations are formed by that. foreign talents help supplement the existing population and enhances its capabilities. thats fine.

But i think there is a huge difference between supplementing talent, and whole sale import of players! The ENTIRE team in Singapore is made up of Chinese talents specifically picked to only play table tennis. That is bordering on ridicule.

I also recognize too that many other countries are also embracing foreign talents in sports. there is a difference though, between specifically INCENTIVIZING foreign talents to join a country using monetary rewards, versus the athlete CHOOSING to defect or migrate a nation on his / her free will without any incentives. THAT, is a big big difference.

What I find objectionable to Singapore's intentions, is that the authorities deliberately went out to get Chinese players by paying them extra money / incentives etc. I embrace Ronald Susilo as although he is foreign born, he did not come here due to badminton but our system helped him reach his potential. Ditto for Tao Li.

But these Chinese table tennis players? Its not about their identity card colours, its about their intentions.

twisted fate

i thought i was on the cusp of something special in my life, but yet again, i guess fate has twisted itself. maybe things aren't meant to be. it was a pleasant surprise to me recently when i heard some good news, and just as i was about to really go for it and do what i wanted to do for a really long time, things changed.

and i think the way things are now, it just isn't meant to be. sigh. never mind, life goes on. maybe its a sign that it just isn't meant to be. i know this sounds really cryptic and probably nobody can make sense of it, its ok. i just venting my emotions through this faceless medium.

Regret

This is a really excellent post from Mr Wang in his blog http://mrwangsaysso.blogspot.com

Do read it. Sobering.

http://mrwangsaysso.blogspot.com/2008/07/your-career-and-other-miscellaneous.html

My friend and I were just remarking the other day, that probably what we should have done, was to do badly in our A levels, and end up in Business Admin course in NUS. We would probably be Citibank bankers now, driving Alfa Romeos.

Tennis Training Videos

Here are some videos of me training. Here in this video, I had 2 bad volleys but the last one was quite sweet, a lot of backspin to produce a nice drop volley.



In this one, you can see me hitting some groundstrokes. I did not do a good job for the last 2 forehands. Hit them off my back foot. Was a bit too tired to do good form for the strokes.

Monopoly and Real Life

So yesterday, a couple of close friends played Monopoly. We had previously played once, about 3 months ago. It was a very fun experience, partly because it had been a long while since any of us played, but also because it was extremely competitive. Yesterday's session was just as competitive and very fun.

The reason why it was very fun, was due to the very interesting dynamics at play. There were 5 or 6 of us, depending on how one looked at it. One of the players was constantly absent from the table, and made the rest of the players play his turn. He gave up any property he happened to land on, putting it up for bidding, eventually quitting the game altogether. The other 4 opponents, were actually 2 couples. I was pretty much the lone one out, which made my role important somewhat, as a potential deal breaker. All these combined with our life experiences as working professionals, made the game extremely satisfying.

I thought the outcome of the game gave some very interesting insights and lessons.

1) I realised everyone was fiercely competitive. In the format that we played, we explored very interesting payoff scenarios and deals. For example, we developed complex deal structures, whereby we were willing to give up cuts of profits, in exchange for investment in housing, or free passes, or combinations thereof. There were intricate relationship and under the table wheeling and dealing which made the payoff scenarios very interesting. It must be the RI/RGS/RJC/HCJC competitiveness that has been burnt into us.

2) Steady, interest / dividend bearing instruments, often give the absolute best return when measured over a long period. For a long time, whoever controlled the railway spots tends to enjoy the best income streams, despite not having any spectacular payoffs. This mirrors real life somewhat --> bonds and index-linked funds historically have performed well but time period must be appropriately long.

3) Leverage can kill you. Some of the more daring players among us, went for very dangerous maneuvers, borrowing from other players to build up massive properties. Highly leveraged, they hoped for that one big payoff. However, it was very much hit and miss again, and when the dice did not cooperate, their poor cash positions did them in. Side moral of the story: Buy OCBC stocks.

4) Angel investing in a diversified portfolio works. One of us in the first game, started the concept of angel investing, where although he owned no property, he kept punting others with little bits of cash, allowing them to build up property, but also negotiating for small cuts of the profits. Eventually although he held pretty much nothing, he was reaping in profits everywhere.

5) You can't beat the market. The one friend before he quit the game altogether, although he did absolutely nothing, bought no property, dealt nothing at all, was the richest guy before he quit.

I look forward to the next round of Monopoly. :)

Scholarship Bond 2

There were a lot of interesting emails between my friend and I on this topic.
I think there are a couple of points though, I like to make clear about my views.

I will put it on record here that personally, I do not agree with bonded scholarships. I do recognize that scholarships represent opportunities, and personally i am grateful for my chance to go abroad for my studies. It gave me dreams, which I am still chasing to this very day. Those 4 years spent abroad, while not necessarily the absolute "best" years of my life, they were definitely the most important to me.

For my undergraduate years, I took a government scholarship and in return, I was bonded to work with the body for a number of years. For my Masters, I accepted a bond free fellowship from the university. After my Masters, I came back to Singapore to work for a number of years, before breaking my bond and going on to work for a new venture capital group in Singapore.

The experience of receiving a free education at my Masters institution, left a very deep impression on me. I was frankly very surprised how much the school went out of its way, to help me pay for the tuition and bills. They awarded me a full fellowship, and all these for absolutely no conditions, apart from wishing me the best and wanting me to do well in my research and studies. They could very easily have taken another student in my place who could afford to pay for his/her education, but they told me not to drop my place when I told them I could not afford the school fees. And I am not even American!

This contrasts so starkly against what I received for my undergraduate scholarship, which came preloaded with a whole lot of conditions. I am not necessarily saying that one is better than the other, but I cannot but help getting this impression, that my Masters institution is far more interested in developing me as a talent, than my undergraduate scholarship board, which seems far more interested in just retaining me as a future employee for them. While the intentions of my Masters instituation may not be entirely altruistic (they may really like to just have the best students as it may help improve the instition's standings), its arguably far more altruistic than my scholarship board. There is this implicit trust that they gave me, that is wholly absent in the case with the scholarship board.

It is this stark comparison, that ultimately led to my rejection that there is any semblance of morality being attached to a bonded scholarship. Ultimately, there is only contractual integrity here. The intentions of the scholarship board is devoid of altruism, but geared entirely towards selfish intentions of empowering its own organization. If its not altruistic, then there can be little more I should honour apart from the contractual paper.

Ultimately I am not criticizing one entity over another. But on a very personal level, the gratitude I have for my Masters institution far far outweighs that I have for my scholarship board.

Scholarship Bond

My friend and I are having this "row" about whether its right for a scholar to break his/her bond. We have often argued about this, he is always of the view that its wrong to break the bond, because its a promise. My arguement is that a scholarship contract is no different from an employment contract.

My views:
1) the organization did not give the scholarship for charity / reward sake. They did it for selfish reasons, no less selfish than the reasons leading to any scholar choosing to break their bond. They simply want to retain talent!!

2) Treat both sides equally, then one can see that what is there, is just a simple piece of legal paper. There is no servitude to the organization the scholar did not honour, or gratitude that he/she has ignored.

3) A common argument is that by breaking the bond, the person is denying another person who may want the scholarship, the opportunity. However, is this any different in a normal job situation? A person in applying for a job and getting the job, did he also not deny some other people of that job? so does that mean one can never leave the job? Get serious, opportunitiy costs exist in ALL situations.

4) Lets look at the similarities between an employment contract and a scholarship contract.
Employment contract
in the contract, its stated one will serve XXX Corp faithfully etc.
one's pay is xxxx subject to revision
and should one choose to leave, u must serve 1 month's notice or pay 1 month's pay.
words along that line.

Scholarship contract.
one will study at here and there and uphold the scholarship's name etc. after studies one is bonded to work in xxx for xx years.
the stipend is xxxx, scholarship board will pay for tuition
should one choose to leave the scholarship board, liable to pay xxx in damages.

its written in pretty much exactly the same fashion.

its advertised in exactly the same fashion. put an ad in the newspaper, people apply for it, go interview. some get it, some don't.

My friend's views:
He basically recognizes there are similarities but he points to the moral obligations. His main point is that the moral obligation arises because the scholarship body paid for one's education which is a further stepping stone for onein life. companies don't, plain and simple.

My response to this:
Many companies send their employees for training too, which could really be career extending skill like valuation, advance job knowledge etc. Does this mean that these employees can never leave the organization? Or should one fall back again to the contract at hand?

Ultimately morals are relative, but contracts are not. I find it highly offensive when one claims that scholars who choose to break their bonds did not honour their promise. They did. They paid up the liabilities stated clearly on their contracts, and left.

Do not place the scholarship bodies on a higher moral pedestal than the scholars. If they like to claim that higher ground, then there should not even have been a legal contract to begin with.

I like to hear views from my readers. Thanks.

Brill!

this is quite brilliant! Real Media has released its latest Realplayer 11 program for playing back media clips and its brilliant! The best part about it is a built it feature that allows you to download your online videos from youtube and metacafe and youku etc... so now you can create your own library of clips without having to connect to the net.

you can download the player at www.real.com

You can't stop the beat!

this song is incredibly catchy.
what a fitting finale to one of the best musical movies ever.

"Cause you can't stop
The motion of the ocean
Or the rain from above
You can try to stop the paradise
We're dreaming of
But you cannot stop the rhythm
Of two hearts in love to stay
'Cause you can't stop the beat!"

Thats how you know! =)

i love this song
and amy adams is so incredibly sweet here
i love her skipping and dancing. :)
heyyyyy! =)

NA NA NA NA NA!!!

heh my new current video obsession

Wah Lao...

so little money
grrrr

My blog is worth $564.54.
How much is your blog worth?

the link to the site to calculate our blog value is:
http://www.business-opportunities.biz/projects/how-much-is-your-blog-worth/

My Weight

since July 2007, my weight has increased from 61 to 68 kg.
some fats around the waist, yes, i admit.
but mostly muscle mass around my biceps and thighs. :)
thanks Sporting Saturday!

I'm Back

its been a while since I last blogged.

I just had been really caught up with work, and the end of a rather exhausting day, I decided it might be a good time to write again. I thought I could talk about the last few months, take stock of what had gone on, and some of my recent thoughts.

several months had passed, since i left the civil service to join the private sector. probably the most tumultous time of my life. And ultimately i havent been happy. I had entered into this phase, perhaps naively, that so long as I quit the civil service, all would be well. I would be earning a lot more money, I would be challenged in my work, and everything would be fulfilling and good.

how wrong am I.

first of all, i am not happier. in fact if anything I am even more upset. the civil service isnt half as bad as i thought it was; its actually quite a friendly working environment!

secondly and more importantly, I had grossly thought wrong. my unhappiness stemmed from a much deeper source. it had to do with my relationships, my family... and the bond / civil service was just a convenient target for me to beat up. i channeled all my unhappy thoughts into this one convenient target, and eventually drove myself into a corner that i had no choice but to leave the service.

ultimately though, i had learnt much over this past year. and i am determined to change my life and pursue what i am really passionate about. I am somewhat clearer now what I am interested and passionate in.

i am going to make a big career jump this june. wish me luck my friends. a lot of things to resolve but i have made up my mind.