The Cocoon Man 天蚕人

Life is but many layers of cocoon. Great wonders await outside the thin layer of cocoon within you, break it apart to experience a whole new world! 破茧而出,犹如泰斗!

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Satire: Saga of the Little Red Dot Continues...

It all started in Aug 1998, at the onslaught of the Asian Economic Crisis ...

“Look at that map. All the green (area) is Indonesia. And that red dot is Singapore. Look at that....jialak so small, even smaller than my fingertip. Sorry I can only point, if my finger touch the dot on the map, it'll be hidden leh.”
(Habibie, then President of Indonesia)

3 weeks later...

"Come on lah...I'll be very frank with you. Comparing Singapore with the United States, Japan and Australia, we are not in the same class, even though we claim to be world class. After all we are only three million people. Just a little red dot on the map. Where is the capacity to help 211 million starving people in your green area? We are not a charity you know, everything must pay one leh...”
(Goh Chok Tong, then Prime Minister, Singapore)

After that Habibie stepped down, and the next Indonesia president, Gus Dur, had problem locating Singapore. So it seemed all would be forgotten....

"Siao liao lah, seems my eyesight really not that good anymore. Singapore also cannot find on the map....Never mind lah, forget about it, not worth my trouble. Easier for me to scratch my itchy back. My eyes can rest also. Wa...sibei shiok!"


Somehow the Little Red Dot thing was almost hidden in oblivion till 2004 when the then DPM Lee act smart and reminded everyone again...
"Proper reporting of bird flu cases why so difficult in big countries leh..... Alamak there are things which happened in a country like this where they investigate for months and are still not quite sure what took place. That’s the reality.... You know my face can't lie.... So that’s the way Southeast Asia is and we are in Southeast Asia and it’s our job to be the little red dot which everybody knows that we are sibei special."

(By the way, it's worth mentioning that in Aug 2006 current PM Lee HL cut his first song album entitled "Mee Siam Mai Hum" to set an example for all his PAP followers, to show them how to be more hip-hop and in tuned with the Post65 generation. Good move from our creative leader! For details about this rap song including the correct way of singing, please refer to the Mr.Brown Show, which volunteered the publicity work for this national project. For MTV version, please click here.)

This month, Sep 2006, his father, MM Lee KY made remarks at a forum on the sidelines of the World Bank-International Monetary Fund meeting which the Republic hosted last week....
"We, the Chinese-dominated Singapore people, better stand up against our bigger, Muslim-majority neighbours, Malaysia and Indonesia.... No need to be scared of them, ok? These Malays have never outwitted me before, don't worry man, never will they in future also... Our neighbours both have problems with their Chinese. They are sibei successful and hardworking and therefore they kena systematically marginalised,” he said.

The next few days witnessed a barrage of rebuke from Malaysia's political figures.

"The problem is he's too honest with us. Our Asian culture should be indirect and sensitive. Of course everyone knows that Malaysia Boleh is actually Bumiputra Boleh what! Tapi Singapore also got problem with race. Lagi not everything there is 100 per cent perfect lah. Why, tell me why, Singapore Malays cannot carry arms? You mean they not clever enough to know which hole the bullet is coming out from the gun?”
(Abdullah Badawi, Malaysia PM)

"Don't be like that, Harry, you made me want to cry again. You just look after your rice bowl, you eat your chicken rice and I eat my nasi lemak. You don't act clever and ask our Chinese to eat my nasi lemak. Your country is tiny, don't be too proud ok? I quarrel with Abdullah but I can also quarrel with you at the same time and make life difficult for everyone."
(Former Malaysian Premier Mahathir Mohamad)

Sunday, September 24, 2006

PD: Leadership Culture

(PD: Personal Development)

This is an interesting and thought-provoking article written by a very special friend of mine whom I respect greatly, the one-and-only Mr Jimmy Teo. My intention is to share with people all over the world, not only with fellow Singaporeans.

Do you aspire to be a leader? Great! But don't just be a leader, aspire to be the BEST leader! Hope you learn something precious here.........

--------------------------
LEADERSHIP CULTURE


KIND BUT NOT WEAK
BOLD BUT NOT A BULLY
HUMBLE BUT NOT TIMID
STRONG BUT NOT RUDE


WILLING
TO
:
LISTEN
OVERLOOK MISTAKES
CHANGE FOR THE BETTER
ADMIT MISTAKES
SAY SORRY
GIVE WAY TO BETTER PEOPLE
WORK HARDER THAN ANYONE ELSE

MASTER
OF
:
DETAILS
EMOTIONS
FORGIVENESS
DELEGATION OF DUTIES
SELF EDUCATION
NEATNESS
PRAISE

USE MORE ‘WE’ RATHER THAN ‘I’
‘PLEASE’ FOR EVERY REQUEST
‘THANK YOU’ FOR EVERY FAVOR
‘CONGRATULATIONS’ FOR EVERY JOB WELL DONE.

MOST MINDFUL TO
COMPLIMENT THAN COMPLAIN

MAKES EVERYONE
BETTER NOT BITTER
TASTE ‘HEAVEN’ NOT ‘HELL’
CONVERTING ‘PRESSURE’ TO ‘PLEASURE’.

-----------------------------------------------

Friday, September 22, 2006

哲学:新加坡之“明哲保身”

前几天,笔者经过Suntec City,发觉那里保安极其森严,气氛不失紧张。我国第一次破天荒举办IMF/世行大会如此大型的国际会议,难免有点不知所措,这是无可厚非的。

负责保安的警察部队,动员了大批人马,在重要据点把关,预防万一。就连原先经IMF/世行批准入境的27位民间组织领导也被拒之门外。后来李总理允许22人入境。此举引起国际舆论的关注。本地媒体的反应基本上抱支持立场。

但是警方盘问这群人的过程据说缺乏人性,有违基本人权。来日新加坡政府或卷入一场国际官司。

新加坡为了“明哲保身”,减少麻烦,是否小题大作, 把流氓和毫无敌意的社会激进分子混为一谈呢?

笔者不惊想起16世纪哲学家王艮[pronounced as gen(4), derived from “八卦” terminology]的“明哲保身”说。他亦称为王阳明 (Wang Yangming),或许更多人知晓,特别是台湾人。


Chinese philosophers are not known for their striking looks, except for the beards, which seem very smooth and soft. You'll never see Socrates or Plato with such refined beards! Think this should be a Wang Yangming look-a-like!

(我们新加坡人基本上哲学课拿零分,不擅辩证思考,国民教育里也没有强调人文科目。别说王艮不知,连较为普遍的孔孟之学也一知半解。没办法,因这些跟赚钱无关。)

现在,人们一般把“明哲保身”理解为保全自己,只顾私利而不坚持原则,也就是人们常说的“各人自扫门前雪,莫管他人瓦上霜”。但是,这种解释和其原意真是南辕北辙,相差甚远。“明哲保身”最早来源于古代的宗教修炼。那时宗教宣扬“轮回”之说,所以它劝告世人要明“佛理”保“人身”。

后来,将这一宗教词汇转为人们处世之态度。可那时的“明哲保身”与现在的逃避哲学大大地不同,王艮在<<在明哲保身>>中写到“明哲者,良知也。明哲保身者,良知良能也……知保身者,则必爱身如宝。能爱身,则不敢不爱人。能爱人,则人必爱我。人爱我,则吾身保矣。……如保身而不知爱人,必至于适己自便,利己害人。人将报我,则吾身不能保矣。吾身不能保,又何以保天下国家。哉?此自私之辈,不知本来一贯者也……”。

(This is archaic Chinese. Don't understand is ok. Just know the gist: To preserve our bodies is to love our bodies, thus we'll surely dare to love others. When you love people, people love you, then you preserve yourself, and thus preserve the nation. Selfish people will not realise this rule.)

从王艮文中,我们不难看出,“明哲保身”原本没自私自利之意,相反人人皆应有良知“爱人”而得以保身。

我国政府的“明哲保身”又是哪一种呢?

Fact: Common myth dispelled......

Do you know that the butterfly doesn't spin a cocoon?

Only moths, their close relatives, spin cocoons, composing silken threads, often using leaves to help surround themselves.

Caterpillars shed their final skin to reveal a pupa. The outer skin of this pupa hardens to form a chrysalis which protects and hides the amazing transformation that is occurring inside.

However the end result is the same for both moths and butterflies - the beginning of a new phase of life!

Virgin Post

Today is the day that I finally got my act together in creating my own blog site! I'm from Singapore, an island of many wonders, both the very good and the very bad.

Recently one of our Ministers has started to blog.... I'm no minister, just a common citizen, a product of Singapore's unique educational system, an engineer-turned-businessman. More on me can be found in profile section. It's time to get onto this bandwagon, cos blogging is the trend of the 21st Century!

Articles here will be succinct and precise, cos Singaporeans don't like to read long-winding passages, including me. Will try to post in a few languages.

Hopefully a small effort today, a great contribution in future.

Cheers,
The Cocoon Man