Thursday, May 31, 2007

Position available - World Bank President

This is an advertisement to invite suitably qualified applicants to apply for the position of President - World Bank.

Beside the usual requirements, the following are additional criteria from my observation.
  • You must have "z" in your surname. [The soon-to-be-last president is Mr Wolfowitz. The current candidate is Mr Zoellick.]
  • You must promise not to promote your girlfriend / boyfriend using your position.
Please submit your application to me. Thank you.

Cycling on footpaths is ILLEGAL


But the MP for Tampines GRC and Minister for National Development Mah Bow Tan said let's do a trial to allow cycling on Tampines pathways for a YEAR.

To me, it is not just a matter of courtesy for a pleasant experience for cyclists and pedestrains. To me, it is just plain safety ignored without proper grounding and education for ALL residents.

Do not expect me to move aside for a cyclist to pass. If he or she touched me with his/her bike, I will sue him for physical assault, emotional disembowelment, loss of income and whatever else my lawyerS can think of.

Mr Mah, with due respect, please focus on clearing the jams off the roads and make them safe for all wheelers to use.

Let us not complicate the issue by bringing the unmotorised two-wheelers with significant kinetic energy onto the pedestrain pathways.

Good riddance to a lousy trial.

P/S - Btw, thank goodness I don't stay in Tampines.

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Twister in Singapore



Pictures courtesy of a friend of a friend of a friend.
For those foreign readers of this blog, the water twister really happened in Singapore recently. This is not an unexplained UFO phenomenon.

Sunday, May 27, 2007

UNSW today and Singapore's tomorrow

looking for you

Prior to the debacle, I do not have much of an impression nor opinion of UNSW. Now the whole Singapore knows and talks about UNSW.

UNSW’s dream may have cost the University’s trustees and even Singapore’s taxpayers a few millions dollars. UNSW’s non-performance may have cost some 150 students and families some inconveniences which I believe will eventually be sorted out. UNSW may have given some jobs to some Singapore contractors. UNSW may have temporarily retarded Singapore’s plan to be the education hub. UNSW has certainly lost a lot of “qualitative” goodwill too.

But coincidentally a few weeks before the fallout, I spoke to a media person about not seeing the expected explosion in foreign student numbers to date. The media person was vehemently in disagreement with me. To me, the current education hub theme is a recycled theme with a few new bits. I was a product of the old theme of bringing foreign students to Singapore from neighbouring countries.

What is important to Singapore is knowing what had contributed to the sad story of UNSW. Did the best academic brains in UNSW fail to do its costing, projections, budgeting, scenario analysis, financial analysis, marketing plan, etc etc etc before committing to the project? Is Professor Hilmer too impatient for the tree to bear fruits? Or does he know something we don't? What is/are/was/were EDB’s role/s in the project?

Why is it important to know?
We have two IRs coming on stream in 2-3 years’ time costing billions (not just millions) of dollars. We certainly cannot afford these two IRs to fail on the basis that “the actual tourists/MICE numbers are way below our projected figures”. Many lives are entangled to the fortune of these projects. Given the size of the 2 IRs, we certainly must have investors with DEEP pockets and knowhow to mitigate the risks.

One thing for sure - "No guarantee in life"

Friday, May 25, 2007

Taste of life

Awkward.

Hi friends,

Just had a plate of chicken rice that costs $5.05 inclusive of GST. Tasteless despite the tender but breasty meat that I had to swallow. In addition to that, I really dislike the practice of conveniently putting dishes (that I did not order) on my table and happily charging me for it.

How could the restaurant owner think they could get away with not delivering value for the price that a customer is paying? Yes running a business is tough but the customers too have their financial burden.

Sorry no more business from Edgar.

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Racial Discrimination - Have you experienced it?

Yes, I have.

In the paper today, it is reported that AmBank, a second Malaysian bank (after MayBank) has scrapped plans to offer privileges to law firms which are at least 50% owned by ethnic Malays.

Even though the policy is officially scrapped, will the management staff, involved in assigning the bank's business to law firms, practise it in reality? My soul says "hope la".

Racial discrimination is a way of life, is part of the government and is deeply entombed in constitution in Malaysia.

Have you ever experience being a minority race in your country? I have.

So when will this "dynasauristic mindset" change? I really hope it will be soon.

Saturday, May 05, 2007

How to increase your company's bottomline?

We can grow the bottomline by tackling the middleline and tweaking things about.

Traditionally, companies will focus their effort on growing their business is. customers and sales turnover. Nowadays, they do this:-
  • print your monthly statement on both sides of a page
  • change to 360-day year in interest calculation
  • sending e-statements
  • collecting monthly subscriptions in advance instead of arrear
  • when they make your money "disappear" temporarily into a "black hole" when you do a fund transfer between accounts electronically
I am not saying all of the above are no good. Some are definitely enviromentally friendly (which i support). But may I appeal to your good heart to share some of that cost savings with the consumers?

Guys, can we try to focus our time and energy on growing the business, really? Please try to be really (and not superficially) productive.

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Our days in Bangkok/Pattaya - as a "farmer"

my caddy, mew.. tremendously fair lady despite the sun..

a farmer working on the tee

another farmer on the fairway

we toiled from sunrise to sunset

the beautiful land
Our first trip after many years of discussion, it finally became a reality. We were at Burapha and Laem Chabang golf courses in Pattaya.

3 nights in Bangkok/Pattaya - As a Tourist

in S'pore budget airport

thaksin-built airport

puppy-trading in chatukchak

a very good tiger show @600 bahts

suicowboy as a "walking street"

suicowboy in its full living spirit

Forgotten to take pics of our dinners. There were plenty of seafood with beers to help with digestion and cholestrol.

3 nights in Bangkok/Pattaya - Hotels






Two hotels in two cities over 3 nights in Bangkok and Pattaya meant we were really living out of our suitcases.
Waking up and rushing out before sunrise and only going to bed way past midnites also meant we hardly had the opportunities to enjoy the hotel hospitalities.