World Happiness Report 2017 - a very transient and subjective method of measuring the 'good life'

My niece Hannah, with Aunt Terrie and Mum Rebekah 

Recently in the last 5 years, the United Nations sacntioned a think tank, called Sustainable Development  Solutions Network to find out, in measurable terms, the factors which cause people to be happy. So, after 5 years, the World Happiness Report 2017 is out and there are 5 main criteria which cause people living in that country to be 'happy'. Inevitably there will be a ranking of the countries worldwide, and Singapore came in a respectable 26th, but 4 rungs lower than 2016.  It however, is a Western influenced think-tank using few abstract values (only 2) and the remainder being what they (the think tank) think would make people in that country 'happy'.

Terrie and Grandma  

    The criteria are as listed below : 

1. Per capita gross domestic product (per capita GDP)

2. Healthy Life expectancy

3. Freedom

4. Generosity

5. Social Support

6. Absence of Corruption in Government or Business

Lets look at each criteria one by one :

1. Per capita GDP ; - I think this criteria is totally off the mark

 This is just the ratio of the gross domestic production of a country in total real numbers divided by the resident population ; the correlation is that the  higher  the GDP the 'richer' the country. But does a 'richer' country which has rapidly ageing population make it a more 'happy' one ? 

The USA has one of the highest per capita GDP in the world, the inner cities are teeming with crime and stories of heartbreak, homelessness and substance use, gangs and family breakdowns. How can this be a 'happy' country.

Same goes for the Nordic countries, the lack of sunlight for close to half a year causes severe depression and high suicide rates in the population especially amongst the elderly. Again, how can this be a factor to be considered seriously ? 

Singapore is also a high per capita GDP country. But the reality is that it is also stressful, given that we have no natural resources and have to rely on our brainpower and initiative to eke out a sustainable and profitable enterprise for the long run. The high cost of living here also does not make Singapore a 'chill out' and 'hang loose' place like, for example, Bali in Indonesia. 

If we have saved and invested wisely, we would presumably lead happy and comfortable lives with our retirement savings (ie. CPF), but then again, this is always the plan. And plans do go awry. 

2. Healthy Life Expectancy 

    This I agree is crucial, to have many healthy years  to a person's life is a vital component to  a person being happy. If a person can have a healthy life, that is one big worry off his mind and he would be 'happier' than those who have contracted life threatening diseases.

    For developed countries including Singapore, healthcare services are worldclass, but again, the proper mindset from young to eat healthy, exercise regularly and go for regular medical checkups are so important.  

3.  Freedom

    This I disagree. Again many people I have met in supposedly not free countries are happier than totally free countries. The peoples of Myanmar are far more happy than the lot I have seen in European states or the developed countries. Freedom is a very personal concept. Many people are happy just being told what to do, at the expense of freedom of movement, and expression and just exist or adapt without those freedoms which the Western democracies speak so highly about.

    The 2nd Amendment of the US Constitution states 'the freedom to bear arms'. Again, this has more downsides than upsides. While personal freedoms allow (by law) this, where then is the freedom of the ordinary people to be able to walk the street or parks day or night without the fear of being robbed, shot or raped at gunpoint ??

    There should be limits on freedom especially for the greater good of society, so individual

freedoms need to be moderated and checked, and legislated. 

4. Generosity 

    This I agree. A sharing society is a caring society. Inclusiveness makes everyone share the load of the bad and enjoying the fruits of the good. If a country is rich, it should enact many programs to help the poor,  including their neighbours, because, if both neighbours are about there in terms of wealth generation and savings, it would benefit both countries.  

5. Social Support

    I agree here too. There are many who fall through the cracks or safety nets of society and if there is no social support in the forms of Government Welfare services, Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs), religious organizations and Social enterprises, then there will always be unhappy people in their midst.

    Russia and some of the former Soviet states comes to mind, where there is the severe absence of these groups (I may be wrong though). 

6. Absence of Corruption in Government 

   I disagree again here. Clean government while it is good, does not a happy and healthy population make. 

   In my next few posts, I will humbly submit what I think are the requisite parameters (at both personal level and country level) to be happy.

   The pursuit of happiness while it is a basic human right, may not be suitable to everyone.

   

Raising your Game

Altitude Gym at Bukit Timah Rifle Range Road ; the air O2 level is set at 3000 m 

       Altitude training has been proven to be very effective for athletes of all disciplines worldwide, and Singapore is the latest in the Asian region to invest into this technology. My company is fortunate to be associated with ATS from Australia, and the concept of this technology is quite simple ; air in our atmosphere is made up of O2 (20%) and N2 (80%) with trace elements of CO2, and other noxious gases. If you ascend vertically (either by climbing up a mountain, flying a jet aircarft or just sitting inside the basket of a hot air balloon), the composition of air changes with O2 thinning the higher up you go. 

      Studies have shown than at 5000 m (about two thirds of Mount Everest), the O2 in the air is around 11% and the N2 content is much more. Hence the word 'thinning' of the air is referring to the depleted oxygen in the near stratosphere. As experienced mountaineers will tell you, the air at those levels make it VERY DIFFICULT TO BREATHE let alone exercise.

This is why, the good sports scientists around the world have found out that our human body is very adaptable and the blood vessels with our blood capillaries (little platelets) which carry oxygen from our lungs to the various parts of the body are able to ADAPT in the presence of depleted oxygen and work that much harder to do the same amount of work ie. walking or running.

3000 m translates to O2 of  14.3  %

      In actual fact, to run at the same speed at 5000 m, a normal person would have to expend easily 30% - 40% MORE effort ie. energy just to keep at the same running / walking speed. The body then COMPENSATES by doing more with less ; it becomes more biomechanically efficient in transporting the O2 either transporting the O2 30% FASTER  to achieve the same output of work done.   

    So, an athlete who has had the benefit of altitude training (say 2 weeks running up in the mountains of 3000 m) will upon returning to sea-level, find that his blood transporting efficiency will have INCREASED up to 30% and hence (in theory) he can run up to 30 -40% faster than his best timing when he last trained at sea-level.

Fully Equipped with Hypoxic Function ; the friendly staff at ATS are always welcoming

      

       There are plenty of articles of Hypoxic effects on raising the games of athletes. My focus this and the coming years will be on providing the relevant equipment (gyms and /or chambers) and working with great principals such as ATS for the betterment of athletes to 

                                                 Raise Their Games

     Needless to say, there are numerous athletes who are using the Gym's facilities and their improvements is reflected in achieving their Personal Bests (PB) or medals at International Meets such as the Asian Games or even the Olympics.  

       

Preparing and Proftting from the Unknown - Unknowns

Noel 

        I am rereading this fascinating book called The Art of Thinking Clearly by Ralf Dobelli. In it are 99 short ideas which help people like myself develop independent thought.  This short story is called the Black Swan episode, and the jist of the story is this. People learn by attending both school which is a cumulative compilation of people's past experiences and lessons conjugated into basic building blocks of alphabets, logic, math, science, humanities, history and literature. The other is the huge and no holds barred life experiences. Every person is shaped primarily by genes, values transmitted by our parents, caregivers, teachers, relatives, friends, schoolmates and when you start working, colleagues.

       Our responses will be in line with what we have been taught either in a logical, musical, spiritual and religious sense as we take references to firstly our earliest and secondly our most cognizant responses to what we see and experience. Every one's interpretation of an event is moulded and each person's account will be tainted by what he or she is most familiar with.

       The term Black Swan is an event which up to the current time has never occurred in the concious realm of the ordinary. Things like the the explosion of Mount Pompeii in Italy, the Ice Age taking place, the creation of fire, the invention of the Atomic Bomb, Nuclear bomb, the findings of Copernicus which postulated that the Earth is not the Centre of the Universe, the creation of the Internet, handphones and the like.

     In 2004, the then Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said, that there are the Known Knowns (those are facts), there are the Known Unknowns (we know what we dont know

but we know that it exists) and the Unknown Unknowns (we do not even know that it ever is possible to exist).  

    So what happens when the Unthinkable happens ?  Ralf Dobelli suggests the following in the meantime, get out of debt, save conservatively, invest moderately - this is to stay afloat during a negative Black Swan event ; The election of the populist Donald Trump, could possibly be the negative Black Swan event. 

     In the positive Black Swan event, Dr. Dobelli suggests in the meantime that we should   work at either being an artist, an inventor or an entrepreneur with a scalable product.

     Bring it On !!  

Goodbye Mr. Berry ; thank you for the music !

I read with sadness that one of the pioneers of Rock and Roll, Chuck Berry died today at 90 years of age. He was one of the true founders of the music genre Rock and Roll. There are many pioneers, but Chuck Berry was truly one of the guitar greats. His life was rocked by that of many rock musicians, and scandal. He was incarcerated and never won a Grammy outright. 

But like all great musicians, 'he could play a guitar like ringing a bell". The genius of a master is to make the inanely difficult seem to easy to do. 

Chuck, give them the music wherever you are ! 


As a footnote, the piano player reminds me of Animal of Sesame Street ! Hahahaha ! 

The rolling back of Dodd Frank bill will spell danger for the conflict mines.

     I read an article in the National Geographic whereby the tin, gold and tantalum, mines based in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) were being pressured by the then US sanction under Dodd Frank ruling to exercise 'due dilligence' as it was ruining many young Congolese, many as young as 8 or 9 years old. The mines are located in the eastern DRC which are normally run by organizations who employ young Congolese at rock bottom salaries and no health insurance. Since the eastern DRC is ruled mainly by warlords who and the mines are located far away from the capital of Kinshasa, most of the commodities end up being sold to middle-men companies and are then re-sold to other companies before ending up in the smelter (high temperature furnace) of some newly developing country which makes semiconductors, or elecronic circuit cards. 

   You see, the tin, gold and tantalum form the key rare earth materials for the semiconductor industry. The gold is used as wires bonded within the die of the IC chip. Tin and tantalum form the base material for the underfill of PCB printed circuit boards and tin also forms the contact points as solder ball material between the IC chip and the chip card or motherboard.

    The Eastern part of Congo is ruled by warlords and only Kinshasa is under Federal control. Hence the mines setup by multinational corporations providing vertical integration to the supply chain of the semiconductor industry such as the raw tantalum and gold were forced to reduce the exploitation of child labour as per the Dodd Frank ruling which embargoed or made more stricter regualtions trading with the US. The warlords sold the raw materials to the middle-men companies in exchange for funds and weaponry to continue their dominace.  

    Now with the Trump White House doing a roll back on many trade deals such as the TPP and the NAFTA, the failing President has made another boo-boo. With the revoking of the Dodd Frank ruling regarding conflict mines, many of these so called industry giants will be back to their old ways, of employing child labour and causing untold and unimaginable suffering to the emerging African subcontinent.

   A tragedy is unfolding within our lifetimes.  

Battle of Hertgen Forest - Good War Movie ; worth 90 minutes of your time.

2nd Visit to Germany 1991

This is my 2nd visit to Germany as the then sales representative of Heraeus Voetsch in 1991. My mentor and principal, Frank Rigley is also shown in this video reversing the car at a high speed and looking young and dashing. He was around 50 at that time.

Also in the pictute is Root Lin of Taiwan, K.K. Chan of Hong Kong and Mr. Embe of Egypt (if I recall correctly).

26 years old video. Stuff of Legends !   

Pokemon Go !

Taken at Whisk Tanjung Pagar last year

     People of the older generation (yes we are getting 'old' !) cannot fathom the appeal of phone apps like the Pokemon Go ! I think it is frankly a game to get people out of the house and turn them into 'zombies' !  I have seen numerous instances at East Coast Park and many common areas in housing estates where the catchers congregate and catch the monsters. Gotta Catch Them All is the buzz word but frankly, its insanity all the same to me.

Give me a nice long run in the morning or evening anyday.

My good friend Chong Ki Keong with Pikachu

My lawyer freind from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Chong KK is an avid fan of the PG game. 

All I can say is if it is good for the hand-eye coordination, I guess it is does no harm.

There are obviously cases of people injuring themselves when they dash across the road or jump over bushes and fall in the pursuit of the monsters. However, as with any new novelty, the effect has worn out here in Singapore. 

My 2 young are not addicts to it, so it is still another game I have not tried or missed.

Believe - Act - Result - Belief

Antoni Gaudi Believed he could fuse Nature with his Work

hence the La Pedrera

         This is the marketing concept by Philip Kotler in his Principles of Marketing. It simply states the state of mind is formed by 3 processes, firstly the Belief, then the Action (not just words) and then the Result will then recalibrate the Belief and on it goes, either in a virtuous or vicious cycle forever in a circle or cycle.

       There was a  young man who was down on his luck, so he was at the park bench just looking downcast and wondering how he was going to pay off all of his gambling, company debts and house mortgage which was also pulling him down, as his company was sinking in the red. He thought of ending it all and saving the agony of facing all the lawyers, debt collectors and banks, and trade creditors. He was really tired, and was down, really down. 

      An old man walked by, he stopped by the young man and said, "Young Man, whats troubling you ? " The young man looking up and just wanting a listening ear told him of all o his troubles in life, his struggling business which was affecting his mood and hence his arguments with his wife, leading him to try his luck at the casinos and hence end up losing a bundle, which was supposed to be the college eduction fund for his 2 kids, and the list went on and on... 

    After listening, the old Man said, "Son, I will do you a favour, I am Warren Buffett. Take this cheque and meet me here, again at this park 1 year from now ". With that, the old man whipped out a cheque book and wrote a staggering amount of $500,000 and signed off "Warren Buffet". 

    The young man was astounded and could not believe his eyes. "Thank you sir ! I will make good this cheque and repay it back to you with interest ! Thank you for believing in me !" With that he hugged Mr. Buffett and took the cheque and walked quickly back to his office.

     Once back in the office, the Young Man reflected on his luck. He put the cheque right in front of his desk beside his family photos. "Well, someone believes in me ! I will use this cheque as a motivation. In fact I am so fired up, I will relook at my company's finacial position, renogiate the loan with the banks, relook at how to restructure my core business, hive off department A and merge B and C plus we need to expand to territory D'. He started facing all of his creditors with a new and willing heart and taking a never say die attitude with Warren Buffett's cheque as motivation he worked long hours. His staff saw his change and new found belief, quickly things started moving, orders started to flow in from new territories, people were moved and the unlucky ones given notices of release. It was painful but he worked with a new found passion and vision.

     The one year flew by. The man lived up to his promise. One year later, he waited at the park at exactly the same time and the Old Man was sitting there. The Young Man proudly presented back the $500,000 cheque to Mr Buffett and also the cheque for the interest. 

Just then a nurse from the nearby mental institution ran over... "Hey, thats our Mr. Sanford. Mr. Sanford, why do you keep running off just before your bath time ? " " Hey.. Young Man, I hope Mr Sanford has not been bugging you and pretending to be Warren Buffett has he ? Its a mess you know... he writes bogus cheques to people who he just met... and he has no money ! "

      The Young Man was dumbfounded.

      Reflect on this.

      Seize the Day 

Pressing on with all my Might - Who I Am

50 metres to go can seem like a mile when you are near the end of the race 

      Today, the 12th of March I would like to pause and reflect on things as they are now. To take stock every few years is so important for me. I am grateful for the many blessings my parents have showered upon me since I was born, and it is only after decades later you become apparent that the guidance, vision, values and care given to you during the early years, can manifestly lead you to where you are in your life. Ever so often, during my younger days took things for granted and said well, it was due to my a) effort, b) luck c) abilities d) timing and lots of other things. The reality is that you are being prepared for the day when you are on your own, running your own life - through the efforts of many people, most importantly your parents, grandparents, your teachers, friends and religious / social organizations. Fittingly,  a great part of who you are is bestowed by your parents through genes, nutrition, education, and the impartation of values from young which will put you in good stead to face the challenges and vissicitudes of life. I list some of the most important ones : 

a) Honesty

b) Giving your all

c) Perserverance

d) Fillial Peity - respect for elders

e) Respect for authority

f) Generosity (when necessary)

g) Thrift (when necessary)

i) Save more than you earn

j) Trust (first in yourself then others)

k) Positive Attitude 

     Another big influencer in shaping my life is : The school of life. The School of Life is imparted differently to every individual. Each one has a different view of the world based on what he has experienced. Of course some will emerge bitter, some will feel shortchanged, some will be satisfied. Joy and happiness are emotions which will come and go, inebriatedness by alcohol is not really true happiness (my drinking bros will vehemently disagree !), so each of us needs to find that sweet spot, that perfect balance of Who You Are. Not trying to be Who my friends, family or Significant Other wants me to be. 

       Life with its Ups and Downs, will mould us, some for the better, some for the worse. Our lot, or Fate well that again is not for us to judge, if there is one.

    Do what you think is right, impart a legacy to your next of kin. Leave an indelible mark on the next generation. If you can widen your influence to bigger circles, great. if not, just do what is within your means. Of course, if you are struggling with issues of the day, that is always a conflict of the mind to set aside the daily troubles and getting to finishing the Big Picture (be it in a religious context or not - many of us want to do God's work).

    There was this story I am always reminded. This man, lets call him Jack, was walking by the seashore. It was lowtide and all along the beach, there were hundreds, no maybe, thousands of starfish stranded in the fast receding tide. There was a boy, who was furiously picking up one starfish and throwing it far into the sea. Jack walked over, and said to the boy. "Hey son, what are you doing". He replied " I'm saving them.. they will die in no time before long".

    Jack then said : "Son, its impossible, look there are literally thousands of starfish ! Why bother ? Its too difficult ! What you are doing will take too long... it will not make a difference ! "

   The Boy, without pausing from his task, " Sir, see this one in my hand ?.... " and then he threw it with all his might said :

 " I made a difference to this One !" 

    

An excellent well thought speech from an NCMP - hits the nail on the head

Anna and Geoffrey Abisheganaden 1991

    This is a very precious video of my parents in 1991 (early June) at the dining table, my mother Anna was 60 turning 61 that year and my father Geoffrey was 71 turning 72 that year.

    I was taping this midway from the staircase and they were having dinner, at the rather late time of 9 : 40 pm. I can only hazard a guess that my mother had come back from the Singapore Swimming Club (she was very regular and went there 6 times a week, practically every weekday). They were making small talk at the dinner table, and the maid Mary had come over to serve my mum some soup.

    The family cat's name was Tommy *(which was funny as it was a female), and she was very 'manja' (warm and requires attention most of the time). She (the cat) passed away when she was about 10 - 11 years old, which was at the typical life span of cats then.

    The dining room was elevated from the living room, and this was the area of many grand parties which my parents and even I handled with aplomb.

    Ah the 80s and 90s !    

    

Video from the Past - The Technology is quite antique.

Inside the room of a singleton, 1991

Here is a sneak peak back 26 years ago into my room, where I took a 360 video of everything inside it at my eye-level. Its quite funny and amazing how technology has changed how we use things or how they have empowered us or made us slaves in this modern era. It is indeed frightening that the pace of chage is relentless and as is apparent in this video that what I took with my person 26 years ago or used to entertain myself has changed so dramatically. Lets highlight a few :

a) Pens - they are replaced most times by electronic signatures and phone payments. 

b) Telephone - its nowhere in sight replaced by cellphones or handphones.

c) Letters and postcards - Heard of them ?

d) Actual photographs - You can still print out the photos of important events in your life

e) Sanyo TV using (gasp) antennae 

f) Air conditioner - OK that has not changed that much

g) Hi-fi set - Using tape recorders ! 

h) Cassette tapes - Wow !

i) Pager - Another dead in the water technology

Just 26 years ago seems like a different age, a different air and a different feel.

Seize the Day. 

Renewed Marketing Strategy

With Mr. Maru in 1990 

1. New Evolved Model ; from Trading to System Integration to Manufacturing

   After 2 really tough years of managing the business and trying to re-invent ourselves, I am satisfied to say that we have finally evolved into a new business model with 4 new pillars to stand upon. The first one is this. Singapore's manufacturing especially in the semiconductor and electronics sector has seen massive changes with companies going from purchases of sizeable CAPEX (capital expenditure) to near zero. Even if they do purchase, they want new committments to warranties such as 4 or 5 years, very fast turnaround times, and finally value for money equipment. Hence the focus on equipment made from the cheapest and highest quality (this is in my opinion, 2 mutually exclusive requirements).

   I have bitten the bullet and decided that, heck, we will go into system integration and ultimately manufacturing of selective equipment, where margins are high enough to sustain us. So its low volume  - high mix strategy.  

2. New Markets  ; from S.E. Asia to International

    Once, where we were content to sell to S.E. Asia, demands have pushed us to the International arena, so we have orders from as far as North Asia, Australsia, S.E. Asia and Middle East.

3. New Supporting Infrastructure ; From Local Server to Cloud ; from fixed to mobile computing ; from sitting down in front of the desk to working on the fly, at different time zones and even workdays. 

    We are doing things in different ways, using cloud server where land line server used to suffice. Moving with the times, let us use technology to empower us 

4. New Industry of Customers ; From Electronics Manufacturing to ......... 

    As this is a public blog, there are many people who will be reading this, not least the competitors in my industry. I can safely say that the future businesses will be sustainable for the visionary people who spot niches early and capitalise on them. Pushing the followers along will be the biggest challenge of my business life and unless we adapt to these 4 pillars quickly and manage the interim issues that naturally come along with it, we will be finished.

  I am quietly confident we will succeed. 

Rolling Stones - Slave

The bad boys of Rock and Roll 

Check out the awesome riffs, sax and keyboard solos on this song. Its in a class of its own. When the rock stars were artistes with actual talent, charisma and not lip synching with back-up dancers distracting to the actual music.

The Courtly Life of the Rich Royals of England