Sapiens the Lecture - Prof Yuval Noah Harari

Why The Elderly are Venerated and Respected

It finally dawned upon me. I have met brilliant scientists, socio-economic specialists, gerontologist lecturers and people who have asked the brightest brains from Harvard to conduct a 70 year (yes 70 year) study of thousands of individuals and try to get a pattern as to why some people lived longer than others. The results were startling. I will try to put it down to a few key pointers.

1. People who lived happier, lived longer.

2. People who achieved happiness in old age actually generally were not top earners or   most powerful or most successful in their careers.

3. People who were generally happier had the best quality relationships with their spouses, their siblings,relatives and had a close circle of friends.

4. An acquaintence of mine from the School of Engineering at the National University of Singapore also spent some time in India trying to find out why some people lived till past their 100th birthday. He concluded after seeing a 104 year old headmaster of an orphanage who when he entered the orphanage had all the kiddies running up to him and hugging him giving him love and warmth 
  
5. People need a purpose for the greater good of their circle of influence. To be of use all the way to their dying day. 

In many Eastern societies the elderly are venerated and almost treated like Holy people.I always wondered why. Today I realise the reason why is because it is the opposite. Elderly people have their complete heuristic life experiences and wisdom well beyond comprehension of the younger people and they want to tell their stories and experiences in the hope that the young may learn and gain from their experiences.
  
They may not be mobile, or sometimes even confined to a wheelchair.

Celebrating my Uncle Vaithinathan's 100th birthday in 2015. 

He was first a schooltescher, then school principal, at 55 he became a barrister

at 75 he took to learning new languages and became an accomplised 

translator. He spoke and wrote 5 languages including Russian. 

Certainly a model for me. 

But they want to give their all. For in giving, they find a definite sense of purpose to stay on. Just a little while longer.  To help that one more person. If there is hesitation, we the younger ones should coax and cajole it out of them. To regale in their finest hours.

Love and Respect our Elderly. Understand that their physical and sometimes emotional 
attributes have faded and they may appear cranky, need to use the loo often 
(incontinence) and possibly even lose their trend of thought.

The Ravages of Time on a person's body can be merciless. However, they will want to share their  innermost feelings and experiences in the hope that they can still be of relevance to the people around them. Let them have their golden hours. For they will never ever walk this way again.  Soon, one day we will become the elderly and face the same circumstances as our fathers, mothers, uncles, aunts and all those who had gone before us did.

Carpe Diem. 

The image to last a lifetime

Circa 1987 just after my Graduation 

This is one picture which is priceless to me. My family photo taken at my graduation somwhere around September 1987. The photographer was the then famous Joe Wong (My Mum's friend) who was based in Tiong Bahru. 

I had just graduated in June that year, with a Bachelor of Engineering Degree from the National University of Singaopore. My brother John was probably in his 2nd year of Med school. My father Geoffrey was dressed in his legal robes when he would attend court and my Mum Anna wore her favourite green dress. My guess she would be 57 that year and my father would have been 68 years of age.

I had that rather cheeky smirk of a young upstart who thought he knew it all. The trouble with time is that it flies in a blink of an eye and since that day when I was the smirky young engineering graduate till now, a young old man all of 57, the days and years have gone by. We have raised 2 fine young men, who are still in University, both my parents have passed on and I am still trying to make it as a manageable business person or entrepreneur.  

This photo is 32 years old which makes both John and myself ancient !!!  

Seize the Day. 

Illogical things parents say to their kids

                          With my father, Geoffrey at the Parthenon, Greece in June 1974

As a parent myself, I have always pondered and wondered why when I was young, my Mum Anna or my Por Por would spoon lots of food on our plates and then say, 'finish it up Mark, remember there are many starving children in Africa... (or China) ". That was in the late '60s and early '70s when China was poor. . 

As a young dumb kid, of course I took and ate my fill, and became a plump pre-teen. That was before I started the swimming program.

I don't deny the fact that 1. there are many people today, young children in war torn societies and even in developed USA who are denied 3 proper meals a day. It is a sad development of laissez fair capitalism that many people have ended up at the bottom of the economic rung and have to stay at shelters or even on the streets when once their future looked rosy and bright. 

2. Things have improved for Singapore economically since the late '60s so much so that we are the 3rd "richest" in Gross development Product worldwide.  

However when I think back about what my Mum said, till today, I still cannot understand the logic that if I finished all the food on my plate, then.... what ? 

Mum and Papa circa 1973 outside Tropicana at Scotts Road

The poor starving children will (unfortunately) still be denied the meals.


My guess is that they were playing on my conscience that wasting food is bad. Of course it is. Any form of wastage is bad. We are now all into recycling and reusing things.   

My parents should in actual fact have given me smaller portions, I would still grow up to an adult, albeit a less plump one. if they were so concerned about the starving children, they should have donated some of the money they earned to the many NGOs and charities who actively DO help the needy children here and overseas, instead of making us eat excessively and growing up to be plump unhealthy teenagers. 

Just another random useless musing. 

To do a task well, go right to the core of the action and understand each step fully.

I have been folding my duvet, or comforter every morning for about 4 months now. This is due to the fact that I sleep on a tatami mat and the duvet and the tatami mat need to be folded every morning after I get out of bed and before I head to work. 

This task has evolved every since I read somewhere that by starting the day with doing small tasks with pride, I accomplish something and that small something is my 'reward' for that day even though the events of that day may be very unfulfilling or comprised of firefighting meetings, and doing things in the name of project completion, paperwork (form submissions and similar stuff like that).

                                                         Niccolo Machiavelli
Today I had difficulty folding the duvet into a nice form - it was lumpy and the duvet did not fold symmetrically. I realised that all along, I had not gotten into the covers of the duvet, and moved the inner down material such that every part inside the duvet is in proportion and equally spread out INSIDE the duvet. 

So I had to take the extra time to get inside, open the duvet through unbuttoning the sides and physically moving the down material inside. Bottom line of this trivial story is this ; 

If you want to do something really well, do not just "go through the motions", get down and dirty and open up and find out every and each thing, fully understand the workings, advantages and disadvantages of the placement of the inner down material, once settled, seal it up and the issue is once and for all, settled.

Then and only then I am able to resolve the problem of lumpiness and then fold the duvet into the nice shape that is is now, sitting in one corner of my bedroom.

Trivia, but message is this ; focus and get into the core of the task, understand each step of your task well, then you can say you have mastered the task.



  

European Nations League Cup 2019 Champions Portugal

Rui Patricio, Reuben Neves,Juao Moutinho, Diogo Jota 

The fanstastic 4 from Wolves team 2018 - 19 who made the final 23 for the Nations League Cup Champions, all deservedly played key roles in ensuring that Portugal emerged champions of this inaugarul Cup.

Let's hope that these 4 form the nexus of the team which manages to break into the top 4 of the British Premier League in 2019 - 20.

I can only hope with great anticipation !!!! 

Jinan China April 2019

Standing in front of the pine trees in an open field 

Last month, in April I visited the industrial city of Jinan, in Shandong Province. I was pleasantly surprised to find it very modern, with many shops and night cafes dotting the main city square. 

The city is right in between the metropolises of Beijing in the north and Shanghai in the south. So the people classify themselves as "Dong Bei" or North Eastern people. Some 300 km to the east, and you will find yourself at Qingdao Island - famous for its Tsingdao beer.


Jinan's seafood is really inexpensive and very fresh. This basket of shellfish, cockles and other stuff costs only RMB 75 or S$ 15 (US$ 11) steamed fresh.

A local legend or urban myth has it that some German and British people went to China to trade in the early 20th century and discovered that the country had no beer at that time, so they decided to set up the first brewery in China in Qingdao using the crystal clear water from the nearby famous mountain and called their beer, what else, Tsingdao Beer.

True or not ?