Here's Wishing Everyone of you a Healthy, and Satisfying 2017

Happy 2017 to all 

   Its been a trying year for me, and for many in my family, close friends and associates. 2016 was nothing short of calamitous and with a deluge of many unforseen events on the global scale which affected us. On the personal front, I lost 4 Primary School mates, Leonard Tan Peng Yeow, Elijah Goh Ngian Meng, Martin Brett and 1 other. Ex - colleagues, Gan Swee Tuan passed on just yesterday as did a number of acquaintences and friends parents.

    My dear mother's ex-boss Dr Kwa Soon Bee also passed away about a month and a half ago. Time and tide waits for no man, and no man should ever be so careless with his time, as it is as precious a commodity as life itself.

    The Trump tsumani was only the latest in shocks around the world which will not only spell the start of populism in Governments. Brexit in June 2016 was a sign that all is not well in the EU with immigration of foreign people to the shores of European countries weighing on the minds of most if not all Europeans. Closer to home, we are seeing the flexing time and again of China's military, political and economic might with their response to the South China Sea decision by Den Hague Tribunal of the Sea where the response was an outright 

rejection of the Tribunal's decision. China also initiated the detention of the 9 Terrex vehicles belonging to the Singapore Armed Forces showing its unhappiness with the Republic's long standing military training exercises in Taiwan. 

       2016 was a tough year for many businesses, my included, and 2017 is not expected to be any better. The models, the types of businesses will all be reviewed and loss making ones shut, reinvented and moved to more rapidly growing economies. Singapore is facing a paradigm and it will need to restructure many aspects of its economy and recalibrate the expectations of many within. To wait and see would be a 'kamikaze' (self destruct) decision. 

       I pray and hope that 2017 will be a healthy and satisfactory one for everyone. New Trade deals will have to be remade and the next 2 - 3 years will be very challenging ones for all.

       2017 ; bring it on.