Current Affairs

Tribute To Dr. Goh Keng Swee

I used to hear some adult talks when I was young that he was the brains behind the Singapore success story. You name it and he has his fingerprints and footprints all over the places - MOE, SAF, Jurong Industrial Park, JTC, GIC, MAS, EDB, NTUC Fairprice, PSA, NOL, The Zoo, Bird Park, SSO, Underwater World, SRU and countless others. All these were started from scratch. He started Defence by reading a book. He was responsible for Singapore's economic miracle. In fact his economic miracle did not just benefited Singapore but also many other countries in Asia today for when Singapore became costlier, the factories relocated under similar concepts. If any one of us were to succeed in just one arena it would have been incredible but what expletives or tributes could you pay to such a great man? 

Yet many lesser men with a small achievement under his belt would be boasting endlessly but here is a man who gave his life for his fellow men. That he is a genius is without doubt but genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. He must have given his life! Mensa's geniuses make up 2% of the population and even when we have more geniuses would each give as selflessly? What we have to take note is not that of his genius but that he gave so much without expecting anything in return. We can't learn to be a genius, you either have it or you don't so all Singaporeans should take a leaf from this great man on how to live for and serve others. I believe he is a God-sent. He is a doer but before anyone can be a doer, he has to be a thinker. I think, therefore, I am.

I have read that at one stage in his life when he was a young officer, he was almost sacked for something he did which was not deemed to have been a good job. Can you imagine if we had lost him because of that? Unthinkable. To all managers and supervisors out there, please do not be too quick to sack people. It is not easy to train and nurture people but it is very convenient to sack. Everyone has gifts in them and are good at certain things and it is up to us to find it in them. Do not find faults in people but discover the beauty in them. 

Thankfully, a certain Mr. Lee Kuan Yew was slapped by a Japanese soldier one day and see what happened? OK, don't go around slapping people to greatness. These men's greatness are immeasurable! The lessons for us here is to learn to serve and live for others. We are in this world not just to live for ourselves. It is through living for and serving others that we could really enrich ourselves. We only pass this way but once. Any kind words you can offer, any help that you can give, do it now! By the way, Dr. Goh besides being a genius was also a golfer. 

Now I'm not saying all golfers are geniuses, many are really duds too. I like what Minister George Yeo said to Temasek Poly graduands when he paid tribute to Dr. Goh Keng Swee: "To learn, we need a humble attitude. If we think we know everything, we will never learn. Always have a sense of gratitude for all those who have helped you. Your grandparents, parents, teachers, friends and anyone who have supported you and inspired you." (This was just part of his speech). The FAS should have gotten Dr. Goh to help it achieve its aim of going to the World Cup.

Mother Tongue

Since time immemorial, many generations have struggled as it is unnatural to learn it in our context. Many families uprooted because of this and are doing well overseas. Those who have not struggled with it as a student and their children have not found difficulties learning it will never understand those who did. If you go to work in China for a few years, I can guarantee that you will learn it and learn well. Some Caucasians enjoy it and have learn it well. 

Why? Because the scenario, the motivation, the learning and teaching methods are different. How will we learn when we already hated it finding great difficulties with it and teachers make you write lines for it as punishment. To learn anything, you will always need interest and passion. We have to change the emphasis, focus and teaching and learning methods. Chinese nationals are speaking English these days so communication is not a problem. Of course, if you could write and speak like them it is a bonus but more importantly, learning the history and culture of the Chinese people is more meaningful than trying just to write or speak perfectly. 

The recent furore is understandable, those who excels in it may feel that they will lose an advantage to score points, others who has spent lots of money on tuition, etc. will feel they have given too much time and money over nothing. More than that, teachers, tuition centres and all will be impacted if less importance were placed. It is just not one subject in Mother Tongue that is traumatic. There are many others. I can understand that Singapore needs to have accelerated learning as we need to be faster than others, etc. but when many of us struggled to do our children's Primary 6 mathematics, something is wrong. At first I thought I was stupid and felt depressed then I found out many friends were the same and I felt happy. 

Happy that I am not stupid or at least there are many stupid people around not just me. The icing on the cake came a few times when even teachers could not even do some of the exam questions as reported in the press. The joy of learning has been torn asunder. Yes, we are acing exams, first in maths, science, etc. blah, blah, blah. We need thinking people, dude. We need time to play, reflect, discover, achievements in different fields. Play is one of the most creative processes. The schools just want to say they have 95% passes and display their banners. Why are we telling our students that they are failures when they are not? We had better address these issues fast because from the top down it is going to take some time to effect the changes. When tuition centres are flourishing and sprouting all over the place, something is not quite right with our education system.

World Cup Subscription

Some friends vow not to while others are still considering. Those who do are probably doing it out of convenience but for a Senior Executive at Singtel who got us into this to say that it is just the price of a cup of coffee per match really rub the cats' fur the wrong way. The next World Cup will be hosted by Brazil in 2014. We know the venue and we know the date, Starhub and Singtel should start negotiating now otherwise we may have to pay the price of Starbucks coffee. Maybe worse, Blue Mountain.

Thailand

There are many lovely countries within Asean. It is not an understatement that many of us love Thailand - Bangkok, Phuket, Chiang Mai, Pattaya, Koh Samui, etc. whether for business, shopping or a holiday and have many friends there. The Thai people are very warm and hospitable. Many years ago, with a few friends we went to Phuket. We drove around in a colourful rented jeep, ate, drank and made merry but we got lost on the way back to the hotel. The map wasn't of much help so at a small road junction, we ask a young lady on a motorbike to show us how to get back by showing her the map. The next instance, she rode away in her bike, turned back and keep beckoning us to follow her in our jeep. 

She led us all the way to the hotel. Out of respect and appreciation, a friend tried to offer her some money but she refused it but we had four large durians with us and another friend insisted that she should accept two durians. She finally did and we were happy. When we got back, we ate the remaining two durians, they were so good we almost wanted to kill that friend who gave the durians away. You get the point, this impression plus many others never left me. We make friends whenever we were there. It remains a favourite destination and I am sure for many others as well. We should pray for peace to return to the country where we have many friends and fond memories.

Casinos @ IRs

I read that two women have since won a Lamborghini each worth $850k but they have opted for cash of $650k instead. Others also won a total of $70 million in these months alone. It is time to stop going as the publicity is meant to encourage more people to go there to win - Lamborghinis and what nots. There will probably be no more winners. Maybe there will be because I read that up to Monday, the Casinos collected a hefty $70 million on entry fees alone from Singaporeans and PRs. Based on $100 per entry there would have been 700,000 entries. Ingenious like the ERP & COE. A COE alone costs more than a car why do we need a plant to manufacture cars? Every evening if one were to navigate through the CTE just watching the long line of vehicles with the lights on and multiply it by $2.50 to go home and you will get the picture. Mmm...maybe I should charge a fee and offer a Ferrari for lucky draw.