Oh United ; What a Massive PR Disaster !

Even Joan of Arc could not stop the hordes of angry people on social media ; especially the Asian travellers 

     By now, this world wide event whereby one poor passenger from United Flight UE 4711 from Chicago to Louisville was singled out and literally dragged out from his seat, and out of the plane has made the headlines from Kentucky (USA) to Kilimanjaroo (Tanzania) - thanks to the newest and most powerful media, the social media platform where billions of ordinary people like you and I are potentially brand ambassadors, critics and market movers for so many consumer products, services, food and travel experiences

     The worldwide technology revolution led by the smartphone in the last 20 years and its myriad of features like High Definition Camera, Digitial Camera, Voice Recorder, Internet access to games, cashless payments, movie and restaurants reviews, bookings and takeouts of food, household products, electronic goods have totally remade the way ordinary people eat, shop, and even find a potential life partner. So many paradigm shifts have occured in such a short time, max 1 generation (25 years) it is shocking for the older generation people like me (Baby Boomers - those born from 1946 till 1970), yet it is deemed so normal for the Millenials or people born in the late '90s till now. 

     Last Sunday 9th evening, United Airlines UE 4711, was scheduled to depart from Chicago to Louisville Kentucky, on time. However, as the plane was full (even overbooked), and there were 4 United employees who were  special passengers (crew or employees) needing to go to Louisville. As such, the airline employed firstly, the option of offering people to volunteer up their seats for (UA) cash rebates, the amount was $400 and then bumped up to $800.  After 3 people were "re-accomodated" by offering them free United money points, they were asked to de-plane (thank you Oscar Munoz). The 4th, a doctor from Kentucky (birthplace was Vietnam), Dr David Dao, who objected to leaving the plane. Well first, the flight attendant made very clear that 4 priority United passengers (read employees) needed to get on the plane and "the plane was not going anywhere until we have 4 people off".

     What crass. What gall. What a shambolic display of supposed customer 'service'. It harks back to the day when the economy class was called the 'cattle class' whereby hordes of bodies were transported from Point A to Point B in the cheapest way possible and wham, bam ; get off my plane ! 

     Dr Dao objected to being ejected, and then the United crew called in Chicago Airport Security ; so the situation was spiralling downhill. Unyielding customer who was aware of his rights (or so he thought) ; the airline - in its fine print of sale of tickets, has the right not to fly him to his destination apparently, based on several factors ; then again, conventional wisdom is always based on trial and error. Who (except a minority 2%) reads the fine print on anything ?          

    So after much talk, the situation became quite untenable ; the good doctor unyielding, and the airport security had to do their job ; so one staff manhandled the doctor, (he apparently hit his head on the seatreast), and dragged him out in full view of the rest of the shocked passengers. 

    I must say the bystander effect was indeed shameful ; if you see a gross indignity being inflicted on another human being, don't just stand there, do something, compassion calls for acting  when necessary even at the expense of your personal dignity and safety. It is your human right as citizens of a free country.

   Within the same day, the United CEO came out on twitter and defended his people's actions citing the passenger as being 'angry and belligerent'. He doubled down and stated that the airline did no wrong. The social media clip of the doctor being dragged out like some drunk from a bar, sent people from China or many people of Chinese origin into sending nasty and mostly negative comments on how the US treats Chinese people. 

   So now, the battle lines are being drawn up. Its sad that such a simple act of negotiation to entice a paying passenger to reschedule to another day was messed up BIG TIME by morons acting in the capacity of employees.

   United ; Your Time has Come to Face the Music. 

My 10 Rules on Running ; (first written on 14 June 2008) this blog - a reprint.

Beautiful East Coast Parkway at Early Evening

After almost 25 years of running and 8 as a committed runner taking part in races and marathons, I thought I'd list down my 'Rules' to assist newcomers who want to pick up the sport. These 'rules' or habits have been cultivated after reading running magazines like Runners World,many books on running and just plain trial and error. Here goes :

1. Run against the flow of traffic - If you're running on a road,run against the flow of traffic. This seems logical as you can see the oncoming vehicles and take evasive action by jumping aside into the drain or road shoulder.

2. Wear bright or Reflective Clothing - Another no-brainer.Ideally wear running tank tops which are loose and allow for quick drying. No one likes to run with a soggy sweatshirt especially in our humid
weather.

3. Run Tall - I am guilty of this, but constantly remind myself. The great Emil Zatopek was the epitomy of running with his body erect. Firstly,good posture is beneficial in minimising stress on your backbones and back muscles. Secondly,you can see whats out there in front of you !!

4. Pose Running - Dr. Nicholas Romanov has been touting Pose Running in his much acclaimed book, its very effective and in a nutshell is this. Running well is practising a series of poses just like in martial arts,ballet and yoga and then making the poses dynamic. So, lean forward like you're going to fall and with the back straight, move ahead with the legs hitting the ground on the ball of the feet. More of this in another post.

5. Stretch - This has been argued by many people, but stretching loosens all muscles and preconditions your body for the activity at hand.It also minimises the chances of pulling or cramping your muscles. I stretch BEFORE, DURING and AFTER the run.

6. Tank Up - Drink lots of fluids before and after the run. For me, the ideal is Gatorade Rain or the recovery drink Powerade by PowerGel sold at the Running Lab in Velocity . Both have electrolytes, some calories and other minerals very effective in muscle recovery.

7. Time yourself - Why ? To benchmark your pace and possibly improve on your time for the same distance.

My favourite watch is the Timex Ironman 30 Lap with Chronograph and Split Times.

8. Smile - You're enjoying yourself right ?

9. Warm Down - Stretch, Cool Down.Slow your heartbeat.Walk some more,regulate the bloodflow after the workout.

10. Build up the Distance - Many new runners are not into this; the distance you run especially once you run beyond 1 hour or longer should be respected as it is taxing on any body. Do not push yourself over the limit but have a regulated plan and run slow and short at first before progressing to a longer distance.

Log on your kilometers in a log.

A really cool song from the super talented Ed Sheeran

This song is about his youth and his carefree days running from the law and breaking his leg. Also it sadly reflects how tough life has been for these typical Millenials. 

Enjoy this fast paced 'sad song'. 

The Rolling Stones - Doom and Gloom

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 !!