Let's all bash singapore

Wow its been along time since I've been here...guess I've been rather busy lately; on top of the regular work in school, I've been involved in some planning and preparation for enrichment and competition programmes. Ok I admit a wee bit of laziness nowadays to blog haha.. I wonder if anyone even comes here anymore... heh a big hello to you who's reading this! I promise I will try to update with somemore interesting stuff..

I've also been rather busy following some investments of mine... so far things have been looking good... actually I was very tempted to post about how I trade and do technical analysis on the charts... just as a record for me to reflect on how I'm doing .. eh since its more for myself... I do wonder if such posts will be appropriate to the audience here... My most recent position has been doing really well, up by abt 25% to date and still has potential for more. If things pan out the way I projected... Whee!!!! But not enough for retirement yet hur hur so need to keep doing my research.

I was inspired to a new goal: I'm going to take on a half year to one year tour in the mediterranean region! like south of france, italy, crete, turkey.. egypt maybe..I hope I can survive the food there tho. Its probably going to be part luxury and leisure (ie nice hotel eat and drink and shop and sight see) part backpacking(a better way to get to know the local scene) and maybe even part working .. haha anyway this is some super stretch goal as in reaaally stretched out! before that its wealth accumulation to make sure everything I need to take care of is taken care of. (need to pay for parents, gf/wife, house, car blah blah)

Anyway about the title of my post...I just read an article that was carried in today's Straits Times, quoted from The Economist, and it set me thinking about the sad hard truth; The way I see it, in this world, there are lots of mediocre people trying to bring down those who are ahead/successful. People jump at the latest chance to tear down celebrities/CEOs/leaders/professors etc etc. Neighbours are upset cos your garden is nicer (did you watch that episode of desperate housewives?) Chinese have a saying "Shu4 da4 zhao1 feng1"...cos people are just not comfortable/not happy .. and mostly JEALOUS if you are different/stick out/better; they want to make you just like themselves, bring you down to their level of mediocrity.

I also find another camp of mediocre people trying to achieve the same (bring you down) by doing the opposite. They go around proclaiming, every1 is special, every1 is unique. every1 has sth valuable. Bleah. Hogwash to me. A celebration of mediocrity I say. There's this feel good element to having the underdog win, and a feeling its so politcally wrong or unpopular to criticize some1 and call a piece of crap a piece of crap. Why? Because deep down, most mediocre people feel like the underdogs. They are jealous of the elite, the high achievers. That's why they cheer when underdogs win. Just look at american idol. People boo when Simon gives a scathing critique of a contestant.. but you know what? I think very often, he's simply calling a piece of crap, a piece of crap. At the end of the day, the idol winners .. are mostly ordinary .. they can't compare in star quality to say.. mariah carey (she's got great vocals and presence k! Just a screwed up psyche..) American Idol was in a sense, a celebration of mediocrity..

Why can't people just accept that our human gene pool is not homogenous, and that some people are just more crappy/more lazy/less talented/less intelligent/less fit? Its the sad hard truth. The good news is, for most of us, although we can;t be good at everything, we can be at least proficient in a thing or two. With the right amount of effort invested and direction from a great coach, its possible to maximise, perhaps even exceed, natural potential.

I'm not saying that mediocre people are any less valuable as human lives.. in that respect I feel all men are equal(morally speaking). And those truly gifted, while celebrated, need to be thankful of what they have, and make a proportional contribution to the world.

So I say celebrate those who are really special, and not feel apologetic about it, or feel a need to do/say something "feel good" for the mediocre. (Oh yes, on a side note, bosses shouldnt hesitate to fire an incompetent employee who's been given a reasonable number of chances to improve, cos if such an employee stays around, the burden of getting a good job done falls on the shoulders of the rest.. some of my friends have suffered this sort of situation; they have to work twice as hard to do a good job cos their team mate is crap. Why? because the boss felt bad to fire the POS)

At the same time, those who are gifted need to be made aware of their enormous potential to really change our world, and not let it go to waste.

Ooops I digress! yes the article in the newspaper, reproduced here, in full, from The Straits Times (who got it from The Economist) for your educational reading pleasure.

Let's all bash Singapore

SINGAPORE won South-east Asia's football championship on Feb 4 in a final against Thailand that was mostly peaceful, despite a bad-tempered first leg in which the Thais stomped off the pitch and sulked for 15 minutes.
The players were doing no more than imitate their military-run government, which has been in a strop with Singapore since Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister met Mr Thaksin Shinawatra, the deposed Thai leader, last month.
In protest, top-level meetings with Singaporean officials were cancelled. General Sonthi Boonyarataglin, the Thai junta's leader, accused Singapore of spying on Thailand, using the telecoms business it bought last year from Mr Thaksin's family. He told his soldiers to stop using their mobiles and go back to walkie-talkies.
Despite 40 years of expressing fraternal warmth at Asean meetings, the region's leaders never miss an opportunity to pick a fight with Singapore.
In recent years, Singaporean firms, many of them state-backed, have bought businesses across the region, giving cause for paranoia. Indonesian parliamentarians claimed this month that their military secrets were also at risk because Singaporeans had bought into a local satellite firm.
Even sand is a matter of national security. On Feb 6, an Indonesian ban on sand exports came into force, following a similar move by Malaysia some years ago. Singapore buys the sand to reclaim land from the sea and increase its puny terrain. Indonesia's official reason for the ban was to stop the environmental damage caused by sand mining. But a senior navy man let slip that it was motivated by various diplomatic spats with Singapore. The Indonesian navy has now sent no fewer than eight warships to its maritime border with Singapore to intercept suspected sand-smugglers. At the same time, the Indonesian sand-shovellers' association, facing unemployment, is threatening to sue the government over the ban.
The Malaysians, always up for a row with their estranged ex-spouse (Singapore and Malaysia were in a brief, unhappy union in the 1960s), are blaming their recent floods on Singapore's land reclamation. Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia's disgruntled former prime minister, has sought to undermine his successor, Datuk Seri Abdullah Badawi, by accusing him of secretly negotiating with the Singaporeans to lift the sand ban. Tun Dr Mahathir also added his voice to the Thai junta's attacks on the Singaporeans. 'You'll get nowhere with them either being nice or being tough, they only think of themselves,' he said on Thai television.
There is always a plausible-sounding reason for the fights that Singapore's neighbours pick with it. The Singaporeans' kiasu (win at all costs) negotiating style does them few favours in a region where saving face is important. But it is hard to avoid the suspicion that the little country's unforgivable offence is being richer and more successful than its neighbours, and not particularly apologetic about it.
-THE ECONOMIST

Tun Mahathir has added his voice to the Thai junta's attacks on the Singaporeans. 'You'll get nowhere with them either being nice or being tough, they only think of themselves,' he said on Thai television.