Thursday, July 21, 2011

Aladdin

(Aladdin in the Magic Garden, an illustration by Max Liebert from Ludwig Fulda's Aladin und die Wunderlampe)

I didn't know until today that Aladdin was Chinese. I always thought that, well, Aladdin was Arab since you know, it's from an Arabian folktale, 1001 nights.


Monday, July 18, 2011

The World's coming second recession

The recent weak performance of equities and lack-lustre IPOs (other than crony companies that we all know of) have made me think twice about investing in the local bourse/equities. Consequently, i have put all my extra cash into boring old fixed deposits. What the hell, I figure that money in the bank/cash at hand is safer even though i would be suffering depreciation from negative real interest in light of the prevailing real inflation rate (the official inflation rate is a joke). The world economy looks very very shaky now and i fear that the shit will hit the fan not long now. China is slowing down, USA is going nowhere, Europe looks ripe for a big old shit-hits-the-fan scenario with the Euro's very existence under threat. I mean look, we never really got out of the Great Recession of 2008, we just printed money and drove up the prices of commodities and when growth didn't come, they (meaning the USA) printed more money. China continued chugging along, but by itself China won't hold up the rest of the world. It doesn't look pretty. So all i'm doing right now is watch as a by-stander and not invest in anything.

Friday, July 15, 2011

Tolerating Failure



Excerpt taken off chapter 7 of the best-selling management book: "in Search of Excellence Lessons from America's Best-Run Companies" by Tom Peters and Robert H. Waterman Jr.

A special attribute of the success-oriented, positive, and innovating environment is a substantial tolerance for failure. James Burke, Johnson & Johnson's CEO, says one of J & J's tenets is that "you've got to be willing to fail". He adds that General Johnson, J & J's founder, said to him, "If I wasn't making mistakes, I wasn't making decisions." Emerson's Charles Knight argues: "You need the ability to fail. You cannot innovate unless you are willing to accept mistakes." Tolerance for failure is a very specific part of the excellent company culture - and that lesson comes directly from the top. Champions have to make lots of tries and consequently suffer some failures or the organization won't learn.

One vital observation about failure: it's a lot less punishing with regular dialogue. The big failures, the ones that really leave scars, are usually the ones in which a project was allowed to go on for years without serious guidance. Such eventualities rarely occur in the no-holds-barred communication environment at the excellent companies. The exchange is frank and honest. You can't hide the really bad news, and you don't want or need to.

So the champion's supports are many. The specific devices unearthed number in the hundreds; the evidence presented barely scratches the surface of our data bank. None is a panacea. Each is merely illustrative. The skein of interlocked - and everchanging - supports per se is the message.

Specifically, champions don't automatically emerge. They emerge because history and numerous supports encourage them to, nurture them through trying times, celebrate their successes, and nurse them through occasional failures. But given the supports, the would-be champion population turns out to be enormous, certainly not limited to a handful of creative marvels.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Ye Olde Bicycles

While moving stuff out of my grandma's old house which we sold recently, my dad's two old Ah Pek bicycles came into focus. They were a pair of man's and lady's bicycles, the man bike having a horizontal bar across from the seat to the handlebars while the lady's one was slightly smaller without the horizontal bar (hence, lady. geddit?) They had been rusting away for years, tyres flattened and my dad insisted to have them restored back to working order so yours truly grumpily did the honours. I took them first to the local bike smith, a man whose name i didn't know but whose face i knew since when i was a wee teeny bopper riding a chopper bike. Both the olde bikes were locked and we had lost the keys so the bike smith said he'd have to break or dismantle the locks. After seeking a second opinion and being told by a nearby young locksmith that there was nothing that he could do to open the locks, i brought the bikes back to the bike smith for him to do his job.
That's the green man bike. Anyway, the bike smith was all smiles and he proceeded to work on the female bike first. While i walked off to attend to another business, he took out the wheels and refitted new inner tubes and tyres.

The lady bike also had a basket upfront which would be useful when dad decided to go out hunting for free mangoes around our neighbourhood. I remember riding these "Ah Pek" bikes when i was teeny bopper and younger, they were some funny times.
Once i rode them without brakes and almost collided into a bunch of school kids after school was over. I went like: "Hoooyyyyyyyyy!!!!"


And these babies weigh a tonne too. Ah the good old days when primary commodities were still cheap and plentiful! The bike smith seemed to relish restoring these old babies and he even asked me if i wanted to sell them, especially the green man's bike. I told him no, cos my dad, over 70s he may be, but he wants to ride them. So the uncle worked steadily on them without as much as breaking into a sweat. He worked seamlessly and with great experience, feeling the little nuts and screws with his nimble fingers, oiling the gears and pedals, checking the brakes and using ordinary items like just an ordinary piece of wood to bend and fit things back into shape. When he heard a cranky noise, he'd bang and bend until the noise was no more.
Now, i have known this uncle for over 25 years, and if he was a mature man back then, surely he must be into his 60s now, at least. I was pretty impressed with uncle. To him, it was more a labour of love and less for profit as this was something that he enjoyed doing.
Almost before i knew it, within 40 mins he had put the lady's bike back to working order. I will come back again tomorrow to collect the green man bike but for today at least, dad gets to ride the old grey lady.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Day trip to the Indonesian Embassy, Kuala Lumpur to renew maid's passport

I took a day off work today to drive my Indonesian maid up to Kuala Lumpur to renew her passport at the Indonesian Embassy along Jalan Tun Razak. Her passport validity period had less than a year left to her work permit, so we had to renew it before local immigration authorities will renew her work permit in Malaysia. We arrived at around 9.15am and the sheer number of peoples already there was staggering. Thousands had arrived and long queues had already formed for application forms, taking a number (ours was number 2123) and the photo session. It had been around 3 years since my last visit to the Indonesian Embassy and the procedure this time was different. They didn't allow outside photos anymore - you had to get your maid to queue up to have her photo taken by the Embassy which will be used for her passport application. It was pretty hectic and after some querying fellow-queuers i managed to find out what was to be done. Apart from photocopies of the employer's IC, maid passport and her work permit, they also wanted insurance coverage for your maid and a contract of employment. The insurance you could easily purchase for cash just outside the Embassy gates from one of the many agents and touts selling their services at RM85-00 only for a 26-month policy from Great Eastern insurance company. They would immediately issue you with the insurance proposal form and an official receipt - you have to photocopy the proposal form for the passport application and keep the original copy yourself. The contract of employment is a standard document prepared by the Embassy which is given to you along with your maid's passport application forms. (By the way, i tried calling the Embassy before my trip but no one picked up the telephone for my matter). The contract of employment you fill up, sign (as employer) and date it the same day that you are at the embassy to renew your maid's passport. The rest is just waiting waiting and waiting for your number to be called inside the embassy's air-conditioned office which was filled to the brim with people, people and more people. The passport costs only RM18, which came as a pleasant surprise. During previous years they had charged RM150, then a few years ago it came down to RM50 and now it's just RM18. And photocopying charges inside the embassy is free-of-charge though you have to queue up for it. The staff were courteous and helpful, so apart from the waiting time which i spent alternatively between reading newspapers and staring at the numbers on the electronic counter in front, all in it was a pleasant transaction. At the end of day, around 5.30pm, we finally got our passport in the waiting area (non air-conditioned) outside. They had issued my maid a 5-year passport (i verbally requested for 5 years specifically) with 24 pages. Previously they only issued 3-year passports. Well, there's progress. Now, if only the Indonesians could also do something about the haze...

Friday, July 8, 2011

Hypocrisy Ad Nauseam



Unelected Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has been reported in the Guardian newspaper, UK as having thrown his endorsement behind silat groups to fight against Bersih while the police rehearsed using banners that threaten to shoot at demonstrators unless they disperse. For an UNELECTED PM, this shows great gall and monumental hypocrisy. This is especially so in the light of the Najib administration's parading before the world that Malaysia is a model of "moderation" and self-hailing our country as an example worthy of emulation by developing democratic nations. But nothing could be further from the truth. Behind his facade of pretended moderation, Najib's administration has quietly presided over the inexplicable deaths of 2 men whilst in MACC custody, the yet-to-be-resolved Altantuya Shariibu murder case which has implicated Najib personally despite the administration's vigorous and bare denials, the sordid sex video drama alleging the Opposition Leader's involvement which brought local politics literally to an even more below-the-belt level and the recent arrest since June 22nd of over 230 people including women and minors amidst threats to use the archaic colonial era's Internal Security Act against Bersih 2.0 supporters under ridiculous charges of "communism" and waging war against the Constitutional Monarchy. All of which smacks of blatant wrongs un-righted and gross abuses of power hiding beneath a tissue-thin veneer of "moderation" and "reform". Najib's administration is slowly but surely losing its tenuous claim to legitimacy and choses NOT moderation and reform, as it publicly proclaims, but feudal repression and a myopic style of administration. It can at least spare us and other nations its wholly unmerited claim to the former.

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Freedom from the 'F' word

by Anil Netto (reproduced from Sunday Observer column
published in the Herald, July 3, 2011)

One of the recurring themes of the New Testament is Jesus' proclamation, right at the outset of his ministry, that the kingdom of God is at hand.
What exactly is the nature of this mysterious kingdom? We don't have to look far to find it in the guiding principles in the Beatitudes: Blessed are the poor, the meek, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peace-makers, those who mourn.
Then a more radical edge: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Reflecting how important the cause of righteousness (justice) is, Jesus promises that those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake will be the major players or, to use corporate jargon, "stakeholders" of the kingdom - "for theirs is the kingdom of heaven".
The words 'justice' and 'righteousness' are almost similar. We know God is a god of justice and righteousness. So concerned was he for justice that he guided an oppressed people out of slavery. In fact, the words "just" or "justice"; "righteous" or "righteousness", occurs several hundred times in the scriptures.
The quest for justice is closely linked to God's concern for the poor and the oppressed. Indeed, there is a strong bias towards the poor (and by extension the means of redressing the situation i.e. distributive justice) in the scriptures. No wonder, the first Beatitude is "Blessed are the poor". And at the start of Jesus' ministry, he proclaimed the Spirit of the Lord is with him, because God has anointed him to preach the good news to the poor. "He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed."(Luke 4:18)
In the Beatitudes, Jesus, however, warns that those who hunger for righteousness or justice (including, by logical extension, those who proclaim or work for justice) may be persecuted. Indeed, the first disciples of Jesus - and others who followed them down the ages - who proclaimed the Good News were persecuted, tortured and even put to death.
It is not easy to be brave and courageous in the face of adversity or oppression. The disciples of Jesus had much to be afraid of. Their leader had been given an unfair trial,  and then crucified in the most barbaric fashion. Who could blame the disciples for cowering in fear from such brutal depravity?
Such fear is a debilitating, paralysing force that eats the soul, drains us of energy and disempowers us. How to proclaim Jesus is Lord and work for his kingdom of justice, love, peace and truth when the consequences could be dire?
Those who proclaim the truth of the Good News, therefore, need much courage and fearlessness. And this fearlessness will come from the Spirit. I like what Dr Xavier Pereira wrote about empowerment. When people are empowered, they will realise that they can make a difference not only within the church but in the world outside, joining hands with people of goodwill around them to promote the values of the kingdom - i.e. justice, peace and compassion - in the world around us.
The same Spirit that empowers us will help us deal with our fears. Jesus recognised that the kingdom would not be realised if his disciples are paralysed with fear. No wonder, he repeatedly urged his disciples when he appeared to them after his death, "Do not be afraid. I am with you always." Throughout the bible, the phrase appears in one way or another "be not afraid, "do not fear" ... In fact, one of the most well known verses of Scripture sums it up: "The Lord is my shepherd, who shall I fear?"(Psalm 23:1).
Burma's Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, herself a victim of persecution in the cause of justice and truth, recognises the importance of dealing with fear: "The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear." Yes, only when we get rid of the 'F' word - FEAR - will we be able to realise the vision of the kingdom.
We need to hold on fast to the conviction that the Spirit who dispels our Fears will lead us to truth, justice, love, compassion and to the other F-word, real Freedom.