Lessons my Mother 'taught' me

Anna Abisheganaden

My mother, Anna Abisheganaden, is one of the greatest female influences of my life, the other of course being my wife.
She was born Anna Wen, 80 years ago and came to Singapore in the late 1950s with my late por por (maternal grandmother) and her siblings 3 sisters and 1 brother to eke out a living. Times were hard in the 1950s and armed with a HSC certtificate, she started work in the Ministry of Health and rose to become the personal assistant to the then Permanent Secretary of Health Ministry, the late Mr. Eddie Ho.

She was very active in sports during her yonger days taking up swimming, badminton, martial arts (kong chian) and even the occasional tennis game at the Singapore Swimming Club at Fort Road. Ever encouraging and challenging, her enthusiasm has rubbed off on me so much that I still am very active in sports today. My father is more of the intellectual type and rarely indulged in the competitve physical activity like racquet games, but he was very much into taking daily walks and practising yoga.

Her forte which I hope has rubbed off on me is making friends and hobnobbing with both the rich and the hoi polloi (everyday people), this is one of her greatest assets. She is able to establish good if not great friends who are like her extended family of sorts. A very giving person, she has helped many people of all ages some through linking them to the best and most seasoned doctors and sometimes even paying for some person's education - all without demanding a return favour. Her generosity in 'making things happen' and quietly doing things behind the scenes is quite amazing to say the least.

She has also a very good, perhaps evan an excellent flair, for investing in property, equity (shares) and has been able to generate good profits from practically most of her long term investments.Always frugal to herself and with little wants. A trait I am still learning and still struggling to acquire. She has been a hard money lender to me too, instituting in me that money is very difficult to earn,so I had better treasure the earnings I have made and not squander it.

Mum, this post is dedicated to you, may you have many more good and joyful years.

Boys and Drains, Canals

Creative Statue near the mouth of Singapore River

This bronze statue is a very creative one where a group of young boys, are pushing each other into the river. This reminds me of my young days when I lived near a kampung in Adis Road. My family lived in a bungalow house on Adis Road, and surrounding it were 2 schools, the Methodist Girls School (MGS) and the Nan Hwa Girls School. We had 3 pariah (mixed breed) dogs named Jippy, Mickey and Scamper (named after the dog in Secret Seven I think). The private estate was a mixture of all races with the Malays living in the kampung, the Chinese and some Indians living in the terrace houses. At the end of the street was a bungalow occupying perhaps 200,000 square ft, which belonged to a very wealthy Chinese businessman, called Eu Tong Sen. His bungalow,was not occupied and was locked and there were murmurs that it was haunted.

During the times when it rained heavily, the drains would overflow, and the boys (of all races I must add) would run and jump into them and letting the muddy water flow over their bodies and pretend that the were 'shooting the rapids'. We had no idea of hygiene, cleanliness and safety except as young boys we were always on the lookout for 'fun' things to do. The screams and shouts of joy are what I remember the most. Such were the carefree days of past Singapore life.

We can never go back there again.

Why is Raffles Honoured and not Sang Nila Utama ?

Stamford Raffles Statue outside Victoria Concert Hall

Outside the Victoria Concert Hall, stands a bronze large than life statue of Sir Stamford Raffles, who was the 'founder of modern day Singapore' as according to the plaque beneath it. I question this word 'founder'. Stamford Raffles came as the British representative of the British East India Company in 1819, and there already were people already inhabiting this small island called Temasek. In fact, the story goes that Sang Nila Utama, the Indonesian prince, first came to Singapore in the 15th century and saw a lion, whereby he called this island Singa (Lion) pura (City).

Furthermore, the Dutch East India Company was already set up in the north, Malacca and this fishing village already had trading and entrepot trade for several hundred years. No doubt, Raffles wrangled the treaty away from the Dutch and developed it further using the deep water harbour as a base for ocean going ships and promoting it as the gateway for trade between the East (China, Vietnam, Indonesia) and West (UK, Spain, Portugal). Raffles' contribution was important, but Sang Nila Utama first 'founded' the island state Singapore.

Perhaps the statue was built in the early 1900s when the British empire was at its peak and needed to build statues glorifying its civil servants like Raffles, but lets have some accuracy in this fact. No Western man 'founded' Singapore.

We must shake off this mindset that West is best. West perhaps WAS BEST. East IS BETTER, NOW.

Seize the Day Movie

Life, seize every opportunity for meaningful friendship and make each day count

Friends from all over the world

Recently, I heard the news that a friend from Taiwan was sick from liver disease, and another acquaintence had his marriage broken down. Sad facts of our lives which are moving at breakneck speed in this Internet related globalised world where everybody is chasing their dreams of making more money and forgetting about things that really do matter.

I started this blog in May 2008 as a way of expressing my thoughts and feelings of my own life, however mundane it may be. I have been told by 2 friends, a long time friend of over 30 years and another friend who has known me for 10, that I have a very blessed and fortunate life and should treasure it. I thank God for this life and ever since my realisation of my mortality 4 over years ago, I have made many many attempts to seize each and every day to treasure its experiences.

Writing a blog, to me, comes naturally. I have established a small following and am thankful for all of you page views and comments, positive and negative. I do not wish to be a 'media whore' whose mundane life is glamourised because some people in the Internet world have nothing else better to do than to surf for smutty images and see which talentless celebrity has been jailed for not paying their speeding fines or doing something stupid. I do not wish to advertise, 'Hey Look at Me', I am _______, have done _________ to anybody with half a brain. I do not need to advertise whether I own a Mercedes Benz, or have _______ houses worth ____________ millions. The Internet sadly has cultivated in the current young generation with the hedonistic, fast profits and 'look at me first' attitude which is so prevalent. I am not one for glorifying myself, not in this way, no.

The blog posts is to remind myself, that life is indeed very short, and as a small diary to myself that I have done these things which bring hope, joy and happiness to myself and my loved ones.

Going back to my friend from Taiwan, Jacky. I hope you get better, I will want to visit you to establish some good ties with you and possibly move things forward. For the acquaintence, whose marriage broke down, its sad things had to work out that way, you would probably question and ask God " Why me? Why this time ?".

I don't have the answers. There are always 2 sides to a story. Whatever doesn't break you will only make you stronger.
You have to be strong for your loved ones. They count on you everyday.

Globalisation and what we need to do now

Another week another country

The impact of reduced tariffs and Free Trade Areas (FTAs) has led to companies going Global for about 10 plus years now. AFTA (American Free Trade Area, between US, Canada and Mexico), EU, ASEAN, Commonwealth etc. have led to increased imports and goods, from components, semi assembled to move from country to country in the attempt to find the cheapest low cost manufactured products within Asia and the rest of the world.

The result of this is that increasingly, we are seeing many factories moving out of our SE ASia archipelago and going to China, India, Vietnam and South America. With the migration to the lower cost countries, the jobs also move out also. This 'hollowing out' of manufacturing in Singapore has happened over the last 15 years, and with Seagate Technology, once the largest private sector employer in Singapore with 30,000 (in mid 80s) personnel closing its manufacturing plant by end 2010, the end of an era of Singapore being the Winchester city (Winchester being the name of the then 8M 5 1/4" disk drive which was the then standard for all the hard disk drives worldwide. Now, Singapore has no more disk drive manufacturing, only R & D. This is not surprising given the strong S$ and higher costs of labour and land rentals.

The nett result is that many jobs, particularly in Engineering, will be found overseas and while the select few managers can survive by working as senior managers and technical directors in overseas plants for a few years, inevitably, they themselves will be priced out by local cheaper and more hungry personnel from the host country like China or India.

Thats why I am travelling so much, to attend to the business which is primarily overseas driven now. Is there anything, I can do about the situation ? Given that the products which my company represents sell mainly to automotive and electronics manufacturers, the answer is to go into a cheaper producing country and provide equipment distribution and services from there.

Or perhaps move into a sunrise industry like sports and ageing lifestyle services and ride the boom from there. We all need to be globalised citizens, like it or not.

Germany 2010 - thanks for some wonderful soccer

This June 2010 World Cup is a first for many reasons, this the first time that the World Cup is held in African soil. It is also the first time that the cotroversial Jabulani ball is being used in a major FIFA sanctioned tournament. Additionally by tomorrow, the world will see a newly first- time crowned World Champion which is not one of the previous multiple past winners like Brazil, Germany, Argentina, Italy . The winner will either from the hard and attack-minded Netherlands or the sublime, silky pass masters Spain.
As a neutral wtaching my 9th World Cup, I am most captivated by the free -flowing attacking sides of Germany and Argentina. Germany in particular played extremely well and they have a multi-talented team comprising young up and coming stars from the Bundeliesia. To name a few, Mesut Ozil, Bastian Schweistiger,Lucas Podolski, Miroslav Klose, Mueller, Boateng and Sammy Kadeira stood out.

In the past World Cups, Germany was known for its defensive play and Teutonic (blonde, fair skinned) like players. Nowadays that stereotype is no more. Good for them. The coach/manager Joachim Loew should also be credited for fielding a young side brimming with talent and attacking flair. Even leading 3 -0 against Argentina, they went on the offensive to score 1 more. They are the highest per game scoring team in this World Cup which makes their team so exciting to watch.

Also very interesting, is that like France 12 years before, they have a muti-ethnic team made up of players whose parents birthplace were from Turkey (Ozil), Yugoslavia (Podolski), Ghana (Boateng), Morocco (Madeira). 3 Cheers to this team who have shown me that a country which about 70 years ago was lead by a racist dictator and performed ethinc cleansing on the Jewish people have progressed to one which is multicultural, accepting of all races and religions in their cities and towns and forward looking.

Well done Germany ! Many neutrals will root for you in the future.You have a great team for the future.