A Case for Some Optimism

I’m writing a blog entry to end a year where my feelings have been mixed. In many ways, this has been something of an optimistic year. As a Singaporean, I applaud my Malaysian cousins across the Causeway for having the courage to vote out the only ruling coalition they had ever known. It took 60-years but the Malaysians finally got fed up with the corruption of the Ruling Barisan Nasionalis and the constant embarrassment of the army of skeletons marching out of the then Prime Minister, Najib Razak’s closet.

I guess you could say it was a somewhat optimistic year on the global scale too.  Lil Rocket Man (Kim Jong Un) and the Dotard (Donald Trump) decided to meet in Singapore to patch up their differences, after weeks of hurling colourful insults across the ocean. Nobody seriously thinks that the North Koreans will keep their word and it wasn’t comforting that the Dotard was gushing with praise for the Lil Rocket Man after the meeting. The Dotard happily gave away his key advantages like cancelling military exercises with South Korea, while Lil Rocket Man only said he’d work towards disarmament. Still, in all fairness, the North Korea has been quiet.

So, while there are signs of worry, such as the trade conflict between China and the USA, there are signs of optimism that the world might actually be a better place

On the personal front, I’m glad to say that I remain happily married to an amazing, if somewhat stubborn woman. This was a good year for Huong and I to get closer and we remain dedicated to one common goal – making sure our little girl grows into a very special woman.

So, far things have been going ok for the Evil Teen. Her academic results were not good and I am a little disappointed that she’s decided not to continue with school. However, I am proud of her for showing compassion and dedication to family. When I’ve fallen sick, she’s seen to it that I have her concoction of honey and lemon and when I’ve had to work weekends, she makes it a point that I get up on time and have my coffee. As someone said on a Facebook posting, “The Evil Teen acts more like a Mum.”

The other highlight of the year on the family front was the visit of my baby brother, Christopher, who showed up in Singapore for a couple of days. It’s funny hanging out with him because I remember him as a baby and the best nick name, I had for him was “Fat Wat.” Well, there’s karma, because he’s now known in my social circles as “That Good looking guy” or “Your son.” He was like a rock star when I brought him to the Bistrot and he became the first member of my “international family” to meet my Vietnamese family.  Poor guy ended up being traumatized by members of my professional circle but I guess it’s good that your family understand the pool that you’re swimming in.

I had disappointments on the professional front. There was an opening in a venture capital firm run by former clients. I had hopped that I could join a more positive environment but, in the end, they felt that things may not have been a good fit and so the deal fell through.

There was also a chance to work with the successor of Polaris’s service business – Virtusa, which is run out the USA and listed on the NASDAQ. It would have been a brilliant opportunity. Managed to cobble together a decent enough coalition but unfortunately that deal fell through. I work on the premises that I might get lucky with them sooner or later.

Unfortunately, I’m spending less time at the restaurant these days. Day job has taken more time and I spend less time with the colleagues who have touched my heart. Unfortunately, there was some changes in that area. The owners wife, who is a model of professional incompetence or has a good bout of “Bosses Wife Syndrome” has been given more management control. Having said that, I do give her credit for showing surprising moments of kindness and decency to the staff.

I miss Andy Ting, the chef who made the most amazing meals in his spare time and I miss Raffey, the Kuya (Tagalog for Older Brother) who kept the service side running while I got the glory.

By day, I remain in liquidations. I remain grateful to Farooq Mann for keeping me in a job, which has helped me understand the nitty gritty of things like tax filings and keeping accounts. These are not skills I have but skills I understand are necessary to the essential everyday operation of any business.

I am grateful in this job for brining me to Dubai, where I had the opportunity to meet with Her Excellency Shaikha Al Maskari, Chairwoman of the Al Maskari Group. We had spent more than a decade sending each other Eid Greetings and I am honoured that we have moved our friendship beyond the greeting card stage. I look forward to more opportunities to meet with this woman who has done so much both in terms of business and to the benefit of humanity. I pray that in 2019, I will have more opportunities to share ideas with her.

While I have had the trappings of success, I don’t feel successful. It’s time for me to turn talk into action and I pray for the courage to do just that in this coming year.

Did God Ever Make Fun a Sin?

One of the biggest problems with our modern age is that we somehow find that fun and faith tend to be polar opposites. You can either be a “God Fearing” person or you can have “Fun.” Perhaps its something of a misconception but somehow the things in life that are fun are often the things that most people of faith disapprove of. Take, for example, alcohol. While Jesus did turn wine into water, there is no religious text that I know of (and I’ll be happy to stand corrected) that actually blesses having drinks with your mates. Sex, which is another one of nature’s great pleasures, is also governed by this or that tenant.

I take the example of Saudi Arabia, a country that I have a very good relationship with. Saudi Arabia positions itself as the centre of the Islamic World. The only title that Saudi Kings have used is “Custodian of the Two Holy Mosque” and at one stage Saudi Arabia took its role as “Custodian” of Islam’s two holiest sites so seriously that it had a reputation of being the opposite of fun. Saudi Arabia famously banned alcohol, stoned female adulterers and amputated thieves for the simple reason that these were the exact words of the Holy Book. Saudi Arabia was so “un-fun” that other places in the region, in particular, Dubai built their entire economy on providing the Saudi’s with a place where they could have fun.

Things have now changed under Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman or MBS. Despite some of MBS’s less savoury associations such as the war in Yemen and the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, MBS gained something of a following among Saudi Arabia’s growing youth. Why? MBS has started to make Saudi Arabia fun. He’s curtailed the religious police and opened cinemas. While it’s not as dramatic as building cities filled with robots, letting people “chill” in a system where doing the things other people called “fun” was regarded as a mortal sin, is in fact revolutionary. You can’t blame young Saudi’s for giving MBS kudos for making their life more “fun,” whatever else he does.

I bring this example up because Christmas has just passed and our cousins across the causeway have had the usual political dramatics of the “Islamic Right.” You’ve had so called “Islamists” politicians of PAS going out of their way to warn Malaysia’s normally “chilled-out” Muslims that celebrating Christmas was Haram or forbidden. To be fair to the Muslims, my ex-wife was so zealeous about being a Christian that she declared Santa Clause to be an agent of the devil to make us forget Jesus.

Finally, the Sultan of Johor (The Malaysian State nearest Singapore) had enough and it got around that he had said that if people felt so strongly about not celebrating Christmas because it would undermine their faith, they should jolly well go to work and not have a holiday.

That message made me think. I’m guilty about complaining about the mass consumption that Christmas encourages and I feel the need to remind people that Jesus is “God from the Gutter” who preferred the company of hookers and leper to the holy men of his day. But having said all these things, I need to ask – is it wrong to have fun?

OK, I don’t think religion should be “happy-clappy.” One of my exes went to a church that kept beating the drum that following Jesus was easy. I don’t buy that. If faith was that easy, it would be meaningless. Faith and spiritual fulfilment has to be challenging in order for it to be meaningful. God, as I’ve often said is not a real estate agent who hands out parcels of desert at his whims nor is he a mix between your agony aunt and fairy godmother who waves away your problems. As His Holiness the Dalai Lama said, “We’ve been praying for thousands of years. If we meet Buddha or Jesus Christ, they’re bound to say, we didn’t start the problem – you did – so solve it.”

While, I dislike the idea of “McGod” the happy aunt – I believe that its wrong to separate God from Fun. It’s necessary to have a holiday and time out from the miserable grind of daily life. Festivals, are not meant to be an exclusive occasion. They’re meant to bring people together.

I remember the “Haji” (Muslim who had completed his Haj) telling me, “The first religion is not Islam but Salaam – when we shake hands and become friends.” The Jesus story may not be the most prominent one at Christmas but if it creates an opportunity for people of different social and cultural backgrounds to get together and chill out and reminds people that they are more similar than they are different – then I say that you can’t get any more Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, Taoist or Parsi than that.

I hope everyone celebrated Christmas for all that it was worth and I really hope everyone reading this makes it a point to celebrate every religious festival for all that their worth. There is nothing closer to God than chilling out and remembering the decency in the human race.

Hot Air from the World’s Greatest Scientific Nation.

This morning I had the strange privilege of reading two unusual headlines. The first was a feed on my social media about how Michael Bloomberg, New York’s former mayor, had spoken about climate change and condemned the occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for denying the science. As with all social media posts, the most amusing (or frightening things) about social media feeds was to be found in the comments section. Mr. Bloomberg was condemned left, right and centre for “turning pseudo-science” into his political agenda.

The other article that I was intrigued by was found in Arab News, Saudi Arabia’s leading English daily (and a paper I used to string for) which ran a story with the headline, “Saudi Arabia joins nations in Katowice as talks adopt ‘Rulebook’ to curb climate change.” An edition of the story can be found at:

http://www.arabnews.com/node/1421906/saudi-arabia

What struck me about these contrasting stories was the fact that the story about Mr. Bloomberg was the fact that it came from America, the country that has been the home to the greatest scientist in this half of the twentieth and twenty-fist centuries. American universities stand out of their world-leading research into just about every aspect of science and America has produced more Nobel Prize winners than just about anyone else. America stands out as the place that attracts the world’s best minds.

By contrast, the other story was coming out of Saudi Arabia, a country whose entire economy depends on the production of hydrocarbons. I remember a senior vice-president from the Saudi National Oil Company (Saudi ARAMCO) saying, “ARAMCO is only part of the kingdom – we only produce 70 percent of the Kingdom’s GDP.” You would imagine that it would be in the interest of Saudi Arabia and the other oil producing nations to fight off any attempt to do anything that would limit the use of fossil fuels. Furthermore, Saudi Arabia doesn’t have a reputation for being “open to new ideas,” and yet here is the world’s leading hydro-carbon producer announcing that it was joining a global conference on curbing the use of fossil fuels and carbon production.

So, how did we reach a stage where this contradiction would take place? Well, for a start, I guess you could say that Saudi Arabia isn’t as inward looking as its international reputation would suggests. When I was working for the Saudi Embassy in 2006, one of the directors of the Prince Sultan City for Humanity, made the point that Saudi Arabia is in the position to buy the world’s best technology and the Middle East, as they say is more tech-savvy than the wider world imagines. Furthermore, the readers of Arab News tend to be quite international in their outlook.

However, the question at stake here is not so much whether Saudi Arabia is more technologically advanced and outward looking than it is given credit for. The more important question here is whether America is as advanced as it lets on.

America has always been home to the unusual. The less charitable would say that this was the land where religious nut jobs went to when they were being persecuted elsewhere. While America may have more than its fair share of scientific genius’s coming out of her universities, America also has her share of people who believe in unusual things based on nothing more than a few blind prejudices.

However, its only in recent years where the “unusual thinkers” have found themselves with an ally in a position of power – I am of course, talking about Donald Trump, who managed to ride into power by promising people displaced by shifts in technology and economics that he would care for them.

One of Donald Trump’s biggest achievements was to paint a picture of how America had lost out in the world because a group of “Leftist Granola Munching Greedy Corporatist” had sold them out to the Chinese, Muslims and anyone else who wasn’t sufficiently pink and blotchy. The Donald famously made fun of the disabled and labeled an ethnic group that does the work in America as “rapist.” 

However, the most disturbing part about The Donald was his ability to turn science into a political issue. One of his signature themes was to attack climate change as a “Chinese Hoax.” Apparently, China, a third-world country (admittedly a very big one) had the means to invented the concept of climate change to rob America of its basic industries like coal mining and oil production.

Mr. Trump has been so successful at creating this image of global warming, that anytime anyone of any prominence in America tries to talk about it, they are inevitably labeled as being part of the “corrupt, leftist, corporatist, greedy elite” bent of screwing the common man.

The Trump has given a new impetus to “climate change denial.” When his own government produced a thick document detailing the damage that climate change would do to America, his response was simple – he told the world, “I don’t believe it.” An account of his story can be found at:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46351940

Why is Mr. Trump taking this stance? One could say that Mr. Trump’s base is from the likes of coal miners and oil patch workers who got displaced. His “pro-fossil-fuel” agenda is supposedly to keep his base happy and to be fair, an outwork 40 plus year-old coal miner isn’t going to worry about global warming when the only thing he knows how to do was shut down because of a corporate restructuring.

However, I don’t think economics is the only reason for climate change denial or not really worrying about the environment. I come from Singapore. There was a time when we took the view that concern for the environment was a luxury of the developed world. We, in developing Asia, were more concerned with feeding our people and getting rich, so the adage went.

Then, something very fundamental changed – our entire region became smog infested on a year-on-year basis. Whilst Singapore did everything in its power to stay clean and green, smog season aka “the haze” meant that at certain times of the year our air was downright dangerous to breath. The reason was simple, in neighboring Indonesia, forest were burnt to make way for plantations and the result was that the entire Southeast Asian region got covered in “The Haze.”

Environmental issues hit home. ASEAN, which prides itself in “non-interference” between member states, suddenly questioned the Indonesians about stopping the seasonal haze.

Caring about the environment isn’t a “lefty” conspiracy when you have to breath smog. It becomes a very real and pressing issue that you need to stop so that you can breathe properly. In terms of economics, we still use current energy sources like oil (While Singapore is not an oil producing nation, we have the seventh largest oil refinery in the world.). However, we continue to invest in other sources of energy and in looking after the environment.

You could also ask the Maldives, an island nation in the Indian Ocean, on what they think of the reality of climate change. Nobody in the Maldives is worried about that “Chinese Hoax.” Instead, they’re worried that they will drown as sea levels rise.

As for the Chinese, they’ve suddenly discovered their “green” touch. While Trump and his supporters are busy producing hot air over the politics of climate change, the Chinese are rising their investment in alternative and cleaner fuels. While, China’s energy sources remain in fossil fuels, the share of renewable sources is rising. China currently produces 63% of the world's solar photovoltaic and the world’s third largest producer of ethanol, bio-mass fuels after Brazil and the USA.

The sudden rush for the Chinese to invest in renewable technologies was founded on a simple premise – air in China was becoming lethal and Chinese citizens were not going to stand for it (even communist governments have to have pulse on the popular mood). The results of environmental degradation had hit home in China and people learnt that increased material prosperity is pointless if you live in a place where the environment kills you.

The science of climate change is not as absolute as its supporters might want to believe. However, there must be something there as the majority of scientist believe that this is a pressing issue. You know something is happening when those with the biggest stake in preserving the dominance of fossil-fuels look at invest in a green future.

I was in Dubai recently and I managed to pay a visit to a prominent Emirati businesswoman, whose “heritage “business in oil and gas. On her website, she makes this point:

“Changing weatherpatterns and record heat waves only amplify the requirements to conserve thefinite resources of Earth. As a historical Oil & Gas family, we feel aspecial responsibility to support solutions and technologies that deliver onthe promise of sustainability for future generations.”

Shell Oil (a Company not known for is environmental stewardship)has an entire web page with information on how Shell Oil is trying to build a “greeninfrastructure.”

This has to be a very clear signal of the way the world is heading and should head. There may be a few holes in climate change science but these are very small holes on the scale of things. People do not wish to live in lousy environments and even the oil companies and the oil producing nations see that they have to preserve natural resources to have wealth for the future

Donald Trump and his supporters are lucky that the effects of environmental degradation have yet to hit home. What a pity it would be if “climate change denial” or “scientific denial” became a luxury of the developing world.

When Disagreeing Leads to Unity

I tried to organize a social gathering for the contributories of my blog last night, when I was challenged by one of them as to my purpose and intended “end goals” in trying to organize a social get together. One of my other contributors asked me why I would befriend someone like him and more importantly why would I do so when the person in question and I are at different ends of the political spectrum (he’s pro-gun and pro-Trump – readers of my blog know that I’m not.”

This incident, interestingly enough, came after I was watching the eulogy to former US President George HW Bush, which was delivered by his son, former President George W Bush, the night before. What struck me was the fact that George W (once again, my readers will know that I was never a fan of George W), was that he described how his father developed a very warm friendship with Bill Clinton, the man who ousted him from the Presidency.

An account of their friendship can be found at:

http://time.com/5470205/george-hw-bush-clinton-presidents-club/

I’m old enough to remember the 1992 Election Campaign. It was brutal. Bush the Elder did not hesitate to fight dirty and was quick to attack the then Governor of Arkansas for his philandering, draft-dodging ways. The then Governor of Arkansas was equally quick to show that he was capable of digging up dirt, when he brought up Bush the Elder’s past dealings with Saddam Hussain. The campaign was clear – it was the Patrician, East Coast Brahmin, who had a decent enough marriage and family and a record of a genuine war hero versus the pot smoking Hill Billy who couldn’t keep his prick in his pocket. This was a contest between class and generation and yes, the victory of Bush the Younger over Clinton’s Vice-President, Al Gore, seemed like – revenge for Bush the Elder.

Then, somehow, during the Presidency of Bush the Younger, Bill Clinton and George HW Bush developed a genuine friendship and as is often said, the man who grew up without a father (Clinton being his stepfather’s name) found one.

I’m reminded of this because it underlines one of the most pressing things about the world we live in today – tribalism – where, in the words of Bush the Younger, “You are either with us or against us.” Ironically, the biggest examples of tribalism is in America, the nation that gave us the first modern day democratic constitution that starts with, “We, the PEOPLE.” Even before the advent of Donald Trump, America a nation divided into many small tribes. I remember inadvertently a gay man being shocked that I would walk into a gay bar – “You’re straight, and you walk into a bar like this?” I had to explain to him that all I wanted was a beer and this happened to be the nearest bar. The fact that I was more interested in what the bar served than in the sexuality of the patrons was an alien concept to him.

To be fair to the USA, there were parts of Britain that had an incurable amount of tribalism. This was mostly seen in the form of football matches, where ones tribe was defined by ones football affiliations. Biggest example was in Liverpool where those who supported Liverpool were inevitably Catholic and those who supported Everton were inevitably Protestant. Unfortunately, I’m old enough to remember when tribalism in the United Kingdom wasn’t limited to football. I am, of course, talking about Northern Ireland, which was in the midst of a civil war of sorts between the Catholics of Sinn Fein (political arm of the IRA) and the Orange Men of Ulster (who had their own group of terrorists called the UDF). Divisions in Belfast was so bad that the standard joke in Northern Ireland went like this – “Why did the chicken cross the road? Because he was stupid.” (A Protestant would never cross the road into a Catholic area and visa-versa.)

The highlight of my university years in London, was of course, the Good Friday accords, where all the parties in Northern Ireland understood that they weren’t getting anywhere and it was time to lay down their arms. While the peace was not perfect (Bill Clinton got into trouble for describing the various parties as two drunk men), they seem to have reached that spot where everyone understands that their tribe gains more from working and living together with the other tribe than killing the other tribe.

I return to America and to the funeral of George HW Bush, a man who was very close to his own tribe but managed to become close to a man from a completely different one. While, I was never a great fan of George HW Bush, he understood the system that made America great. America wasn’t a great homogeneous block but a noisy collection of tribes that found that they had more to gain through co-existence than they did through killing each other. America is great because it rewards excellence no matter who you are. How is it such that in a country that is predominantly white revere its sporting heroes who are black (Mohammad Ali, Michael Jordan just to name a few).

In Asia, there is the example of India, which, although remains a nasty tribal place in so many ways, is also a very successful one. I did work for Polaris which was set up by a Jain from Delhi but based out of Chennai and filled with Tamilians. At one stage, India was a country where 80 percent of the electorate was Hindu but it had a Muslim President and a Sikh Prime Minister.

I’m not free of bring tribal myself. I’ve outlined all the “tribal” things that I do in my entry “Sticking with your Own Kind.”

May be its’ because I’ve inevitably been blessed by people who were not my own kind, that I came to realise that being part of the same tribe as someone (my favourite Pudding once complained that I need to experience my own kind more) doesn’t make them my friend. It made me realise that really great societies are the ones where people can disagree passionately but come together and focus on the things that matter. As messy as America may be, it’s a great place because out that mess, people come together to make great things.

The Art of Gift Giving in Global Business

By William Nobrega

Managing Partner at DTN Venture Partners 

While the tradition of giving gifts to valued partners, investors and team members may have lost its charm in the United States where etiquette and style do not seem to hold much cache it is alive in well in Asia and Europe where business is as much about form as it is about function. Defining the appropriate gift is typically something that requires significant thought as the return it generates both in good will and actual business opportunities can dwarf the value of the gift itself.

When we were evaluating gift ideas for our new directors/investors we tried to create a balance between exclusivity, personalisation, brand and vanity appeal. The idea was that the gift would be incredibly unique and that it would reflect the importance we held for the relationship itself. In the end we decided to work with one of England’s oldest gun makers “Purdey” to create customised shotguns for our honoured partners.

The guns will have the DTN logo embossed in gold on the breastplate and all will have the initials of the owners themselves. The recipients will spend three days in London being fitted, instructed in firearm use and finally participating on a hunt on a private estate. I will personally present certificates signed by a member of the Purdey family to each recipient after which we will arrange for the London trip. This is not a gift it is an experience and one that I believe will reinforce and promote our brand.

Which part of your body goes into Innovation ?

By KV Rao 

Innovation has been integral to human evolution since the cart-wheel was invented by man some 3500 years ago, and it so much a part of our daily life that often, we are oblivious as to how it impacts us. Innovation, simply put is 'improving’ in whatever you do, and that is constantly happening around our lives, as we speak.

I started by asking, which part of their body did the teams use the most to “innovate” on the projects – after a few hesitant moments, the hands went up … answers ranged from - head ! hands ! thumbs !! ears !! eyes ! brain !! and even feet!!!!! … Then a girl uttered “Heart”.. aha... joy.

There is so much written about innovation, and theorised that it is hard to find what it really is, unless you yourself have walked the route, experienced it and reflected on it.

Yes, what lies in between the ears, the head or brain is of course most important. The brain in itself has two hemispheres, the logical left and the creative right. Its not just using the right brain that causes innovation but the ability to fire up both hemispheres, perhaps alternating. Much has already been said about it. But, that’s not enough - no innovation has ever happened by the sheer power of the brainpower alone… there is this emotional element, and a strong one at that, which is called passion. This passion is a piece of the heart, it carries patience, commitment and total dedication together with it... all are features of a strong heart. "Whats in it if you don't have your heart in it, anyway ??  That completes the first 2 parts. Now there is this important 3rd piece of the jig, a vital part – and it is the Gut (belly!).

You have always heard about that “fire in the belly” expression, it the seat of a certain vital energy. When you are really angry you almost feel that heat or pain in the stomach…. It seats a great deal of energy - both positive and negative, and on a more subtle level, we have heard of Intuition – a message that strikes you, in a cryptic language or image of its own, but never leaving you in doubt. A kind of revelation, that instantly tells you something rather strongly and powerfully. It is the “gut” that says it all. Isn’t it a common expression you have heard and used, surely in your life “I feel in my gut!”?… That’s perhaps the Eureka moment. The gut is equally the seat of courage and risk taking. Hence, here you go bingo. Mind, Heart and Gut …the 3 elements of Innovation.

However - Gut, alone might lead you to disaster, and Mind alone might leave you with heavy head and confused, and with a Heart alone sadly - great feelings may lead to supreme disappointments.

The key is to be a conscious and holistic innovator, it helps being perceptive and sensitive to these three inner drivers within one self, that can make you so much more effective in trying to be successful. Now tickle yourself to wake up all the 3 resident parts of your body, and go and innovate… its an exciting journey anyway, whether you succeed or you have dared to try…..its worth it, my young friends.

A tale of Two Families

Last night, I got a WhatsApp message from a friend in Abu Dhabi, to inform me that they were celebrating in the United Arab Emirates (“UAE”) passport had just overtaken Singapore’s as the world’s most powerful. The UAE passport lets you into 167 different countries visa-free versus 166 for Singapore. As a good Singaporean, I offered my congratulations and we ended up chatting about the history of Singapore and the comparison with Dubai.

On paper, Dubai and Singapore are very similar. Both are small trading ports that have prospered with very little by way of natural resources (OK, Dubai had some oil, and Singapore has a fabulous port). Both have thrived as havens of stability in regions which aren’t known for it (a more accurate description is that Dubai is a haven of “fun” in a region that is the living opposite of “fun”). When my stepdad moved there in the early 1990s, his only remark was that Dubai models itself on Singapore. Having visited in 2017 and most recently, two weeks ago, my description of Dubai is that it is “Singapore on Steroids.”

 Like Singapore, Dubai builds a lot of big tall buildings on very little. Like Singapore, life in Dubai seems to centre around the “Shopping Mall.” It’s just that everything in Dubai seems to be that much more extravagant than in most places – Singapore included.

The description of Dubai as Singapore on steroids has spilled into an interesting rivalry in a few areas. The most recent one was the battle for British shipping Company, P&O Maritime Services, which became the subsidiary of Dubai Ports after a takeover with ……Port Authority of Singapore (PSA). That’s not all. Singapore’s national airline, SIA constantly competes with Emirates of Dubai to see who produces the best fist class experience.

However, while Dubai and Singapore are similar in many ways, their paths and approach to prosperity were and are very different and you have to look at their different paths to prosperity in terms of their relationship with their immediate neighbor. For Dubai, it’s the anchor Emirate of Abu Dhabi and for Singapore it’s Malaysia. Both Singapore and Dubai share, what one Indian business executive called a “constructive” rivalry where each tries to out do each other in constructive things – ie you build a port, I build a bigger one – you have an F1 race, I’ll have a better F1 race.

Yet, there are subtle differences in how the relationship with the “bigger brother” has shaped the culture of both cities.

As a Singaporean, I’ve grown up with the message that Singapore has succeeded in spite of everything. Lee Kuan Yew our founding father, went as far as to describe the concept of an “Independent Singapore” as a “ridiculous notion.” We are constantly reminded that Singapore has no natural resources, particularly water and we are told that we need to “fight” in the world for what little we have.

While, I do think from time-to-time, that the threat from Malaysia and Indonesia is overblown, there was a time when it was not or at least, it wasn’t worth the risk trying to find out. My two and a half years in the SAF were all about ensuring that Singapore could hold its own in the world should the neighbourhood bullies think we were a soft touch.  

And Malaysia, has coincidentally done its part to ensure that we can keep our culture and policies of paranoia. While native born Singaporeans and Malaysians almost speak the same language, the politicians in KL have uncanny ability to frighten us into something. Back when I was doing PR for PUB, I always argued that the man who made Singapore’s “Newater” available was the once and current Prime Minister of Malaysia, Dr. Mohammad Mahathir, who had made threatening noises about cutting off Singapore’s water supply. At that moment, our then Prime Minister, Mr. Goh Chok Tong, promptly revealed that we had found a way of getting healthy recycled water and we, the public drank it as a celebratory “up yours” to our cousins in the north.

While Singapore and Malaysia may seem like churlish siblings to the rest of the world, there was a time when things were downright ugly thanks to one of the worst of the “isms” – racism. Singapore remains majority Chinese. Malaysia remains predominantly Malay. As an ethnic Chinese, I say this with no malice intended but the Chinese are, as a group, more aggressive and commercially successful. This minor fact allowed unscrupulous politicians to play up resentments and there is a generation of people who have experienced being on the wrong side of brutal race riots.

One of the ironies of history is that Lee Kuan Yew, who was by all accounts, a man in a hurry and a man with great ambition, wanted Singapore to be part of Malaysia. He had a vision where a well-run Malaysia, with all its natural resources, could be exceptionally prosperous. Being part of Malaysia would have made Singapore secure in terms of its food, water and energy resources. However, Mr. Lee, while exceptionally brilliant, failed to read the mood in Malaysia and the feelings of the ethnic Malays. His brash, let’s finish it in half the time, style didn’t gel with Malaysia’s founding Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman. An excerpt of an interview with the “Tunku” can be found below:

https://www.esquire.my/lifestyle/culture/tunku-abdul-rahman-malaysia-singapore-split-1965

As was said around Lee Kuan Yew’s death, his greatest success, namely independent Singapore came as a result of his greatest failure – the Federation of Malaysia. Everything that Singapore has gotten right comes from the sense of vulnerability of being thrown out unceremoniously from the Malaysian Federation. As far as Malaysia was concerned, Mr. Lee was a brash upstart who did not know his place and you can’t help but feel that Singaporeans treat their Malaysian cousins as the bumpkins who didn’t understand the future.

Dubai and Abu Dhabi have a different sort of relationship. If Singapore is Malaysia’s younger, pushier cousin with a chip on his shoulder, Dubai behaves like the extrovert brother who understands big brother still loves him but he’s big brother for a good reason.

The UAE was something that both sides wanted to happen. Both Sheikh Rashid Bin Saeed Al Maktum (father of the current ruler of Dubai) and Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan (father of the current ruler of Abu Dhabi) got along well enough to see the value of being in a federation together. The formation of the UAE is famously recorded as being part of handshake deal between two tribal leaders below:

https://www.thenational.ae/uae/heritage/sheikh-mohammed-bin-rashid-remembers-the-day-the-dream-of-the-uae-was-born-1.705568

While the relationship between Abu Dhabi and Dubai (particularly between the ruling families), hasn’t always been smooth sailing, both sides managed to come to an agreement on how to work together for each other’s mutual benefit.

Dubai has marketed itself brilliantly, so much so that it tends to annoy people from everywhere else in the region. I still remember working for the Saudis and having to deal with upset Saudis who were asked “which part of Dubai” are you from (Saudi Arabia being most of the Arabian Peninsula and Dubai being a speck by comparison)?

While Dubai has positioned itself as the place to be in the Arabian Gulf, Abu Dhabi the “real” power in the Emirate. Dubai was impressive and had lots of activity (booze and spas included), it was very clear upon entering Abu Dhabi that this was where the real money was. I always remember being blown away by the Arabi women coming out of the Shangri La dressed in Abaya.

How does this work? I guess you could say that Dubai gets away with it because Abu Dhabi is by no means the poorer relation in the way that Kuala Lumpur is to Singapore. Big Brother is secure in his position.

If I return to my analogy of Dubai being Singapore on steroids, its because Dubai comes from a very different perspective. In Singapore, we’re told that you run or die. We can only do so much because everything is limited and there are millions trying to have our lunch. You can’t have steroids because, well there are no steroids.

While Dubai itself has no hydrocarbon wealth, it has an insurance policy of a big brother with plenty of hydrocarbon wealth. While Dubai does contribute to the federal budget of the UAE, Abu Dhabi remains by far and away the place with the real money and as most famously shown in the 2008 crisis, investors looked to Abu Dhabi to come to the rescue and Burj Al Arab became Burj Khalifa in honour of the ruler of Abu Dhabi who stepped in to save the day.

As someone who was self-employed for many years, I realized that I often ended up doing jobs because something was better than nothing even if the job would end up costing more than it was worth. I needed money and didn’t know when the next cheque was coming. People who don’t need the money can afford to say no and eventually get their jobs and their price.

If you use that analogy, Dubai is the self-employed person who can afford to say no because they know they have a back-up in the form of Big Brother’s support. Dubai can build bigger and better than anyone else because the damage of failure won’t be what it is compared to what it is in a place like Singapore.

What does Abu Dhabi get out of being Dubai’s back up? The answer is probably the fact that first movers don’t always win. Abu Dhabi is well aware that it cannot live off hydrocarbons forever and its got to find other sources of revenue – but which way should they go.

The answer lies in Dubai. While Dubai does this and that, Abu Dhabi can sit back and observe what works and what does not work.

When I went to meet my friend in Abu Dhabi, it coincided with the preparations of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. I remarked that Abu Dhabi was quieter than Dubai and she said, “Yes, we are more conservative than Dubai but we are now competing with Dubai to bring the world to us.” Tourism worked for Dubai and so, Abu Dhabi is working to develop tourism. Abu Dhabi has also seen what type of tourist they want (a different sort from Dubai). As far as the Abu Dhabi -Dubai relationship is concerned, big brother is watching little brother tread the stones in the river and following a more careful path.

Singapore and Dubai’s path to success are different. Neither is better or worse, but suits their context. Historical conditions got Singapore on the path that it did and the same is true for Dubai.

For entrepreneurs, there’s probably a lesson from both cities. One should probably be like Singapore in the early stages of development – work in Andy Grove’s maxim of “Only the paranoid survives.” Always have the mentality that you can be squashed at any moment – it will help you conserve resources and you learn to play off bigger boys against each other.

But you should also be like Dubai in the way it is cultivated a symbiotic relationship with a “patron,” someone who will help keep you safe from the nasty stuff the world has to offer.

Meet the Phoenix of Simon Fraser

By Lisa Von Tang

Creative Director of Lisa Von Tang

First Published By High Networth at http://www.hnworth.com/article/2018/11/16/stories-of-resilience-lisa-von-tang/?fbclid=IwAR3WFKIvKiovskW-ulYiofsu2_kuztCYAJ5RVEARLo2OZVaUsU9pbazErM8

Writing on resilience is an exercise of reviewing my entire life. By its nature, resilience is about enduring over a long period of time. Year after year, recovery after recovery, it becomes (or is revealed) as a core part of your character—and you no longer need to be resilient; you simply are.

Resilience also has a bouncy, shiny quality to it. Like springing back from a guttural punch with a glowing complexion and yelping a joyful ‘whoopee!’ whereas “Perseverance” has a heavier, adult, tone. I imagine a marathon runner in his last stretch, eyes steely with determination, mind over matter, resolving to keep going no matter what. Or a chronically disappointed wife—“I shall persevere!”

Strength has no context built-in, which makes it less interesting. It’s a rather flat adjective.

I like the term Resilience because it indicates a blossoming following a struggle. Anyone can build a wall after a tragedy (in fact, it’s the most instinctive thing to do). Most people, however, find it hard to melt, learn, and shine on. Resilience not only means getting up after a fall, but rising from the ashes, and transforming into the mythical Phoenix, with more purity, power, and beauty than before. Resilience is not just sheer willpower, it is transformation. Its spiritual alchemy. Its magic.

Image Credit: Warwick Saint

My first introduction to my own resilience was as a child. I grew up in an incredibly abusive household. My dad once burnt my hand with a boiling fork because I didn’t remember a bible scripture properly. And that’s just a PG-rated example of the abuse we endured on a daily basis.

I managed to remain as an openhearted and kind little person until the abuse peaked: My parents then separated, and a bleak period followed. At this point, my youthful resilience was swapped for adult fortitude. I didn’t have enough heart left to do more than just protect myself and survive.

I was twelve, and I had no relationship with either of my parents. I’d been stalked by a paedophile, who would follow me home (as I biked alone) from ballet class. He broke into my house one night (I was safe in my room, but he was never caught by the police). I hung out with some unsavoury types and put myself in some compromising situations. I was considered a “rebellious teen” which is a term that has always cracked me up. As if teens become rebellious randomly, with no cause at all. “Yea, an alien ship came down at recess, and I went onboard and said Hi, and now I hate my parents.” Right.

I grew up, otherwise quite fortunate, in Canada with a mom who was a gifted Chinese immigrant and dedicated to providing for us and making us into successful humans—particularly from an academic point of view. I’ve always been grateful for that Chinese immigrant focus on material success—I feel it saved me in some respect, because it kept doors open. Also, Chinese home cooking deserves a shout-out here! My favourite memories during my formative years are food-related.

At 15, I would ace my exams in high school, then go raving all night. Floating above my misery like a black balloon. Once I started college, I got the opportunity to travel the world and model. I would either take courses by distance if the professor would allow it, or I’d come home to be on campus in between modelling contracts. I did this for a few years, then quit modelling once I graduated and got my first dream job with one of the world’s largest advertising companies.

I met my ex-husband when I was modelling. He was from New York but living in Singapore. It was an arrow through the heart for us both—tragic, young, foolish, Romeo and Juliet sort of love. I let him melt my last glaciers away. I tattooed the date we met on my wrist. We wrote each other epic prose that would make you want to vomit. We had sex in the most inappropriate places, which still makes my eyes widen with disbelief. He proposed within three months of me moving in.

My first big love looked hot in a suit and would walk to work listening to a mix of Snoop Dogg and Dvořák. He was intellectually brilliant, amusingly strange, and preferred Tolstoy and a glass of cognac to human company. He was also an alcoholic. It was fun in the beginning until it wasn’t.

People never understood why I left him—particularly the women he dated after me. But it crushed my soul how he’d drink to the point of injury, blackout, broken glass, screaming, or hospitalisation—on the regular. Our finest moments involved me throwing a vase just degrees from his head, and him punching the wall next to my head (and breaking his fist). We never actually hurt each other physically, but we did a big number on each other’s hearts. Eventually, you learn not to touch a hot stove.

So I moved out, and got my own place. It was an HDB flat in Lavender. It was not glamorous. But I was free. I was about half a year into my first start-up business, a multi-label retailer for independent designers. I had spent a year at Ogilvy & Mather as a brand strategist, but then realised that the bureaucratic nature of corporates (even awesome ones like O&M,) wasn’t for me. I was prepared to work harder, feel the results, and trial and error my way to success.

Work was killing me, because I was using it to hide from my disappointment over my divorce. I worked myself into the ER many times, that I wondered if hospitals had punch cards for VIPs. I was pulling 16 hour days. I hadn’t learned how to “be supported by others” in my life yet, and was awful at finding the right people for my team. While I hired some great individuals at my first company, no one I hired was the right fit. When you don’t have the right people to achieve your goal, it’s not a neutral situation either—it goes backwards fast, and unfortunately, you’re still paying for it.

Being a 24-year-old, ex-model, boss lady, was not easy either. As a workaholic, I didn’t see many friends outside of the people I worked with. I needed their human company. But as soon as you become friends with an employee, it really messes with the authority structure that’s needed to run a business. It’s easier for men I believe, but women aren’t just handed respect as a given. You need to fight for it, tooth and nail, and prove yourself to be competent, before you can avoid judgement.

I would leave work, exhausted. Try to sleep without a sleeping pill. Have anxiety and give up. Then start all over again. I dated. I travelled. I got into a new relationship. And then finally, at the age of 29, I had an epiphany that would change how I approached life. I realised that I was living in a fortress to protect myself from the bashing I had gotten from the world, but I couldn’t bloom in there. I couldn’t even properly receive love and support from in there. It was grey. I had to trade Fortitude for Resilience.

This epiphany started through a dear friend of mine from San Francisco messaging me, “Lisa, why don’t you focus on Self-Love?” I had been confiding in her with regard to all the pressure and anxiety I was experiencing. “Self-Love? What’s that?” Now it’s a buzzword, but at the time, it was a foreign term to me. I googled it, and realised that it was about leading a life of self-respect that you enjoy. This may sound like common sense to those of you who grew up in healthy environments, but it was a revolution for me. I had grown up supporting people around me, and had carried that habit into my work life. I had also carried that habit into my love life. I was always the Big Spoon. She also introduced me to a spiritual guide, who helped me connect back to the earth, and cultivate joyful living.

Suddenly, I could see with clarity that I never had before, that I had internalised a lack of love from my childhood, and it was dooming me to outcomes that perpetuated a state of misery. I was pretending I was okay with just surviving on crumbs from others (in work, and in love life) when I desperately needed a bigger piece of the pie. This inherent lack of Self-Love had stormed its way through my first company, blocking me from finding the right support, and I couldn’t do the same jam anymore.

I let it all burn to ashes. My first company. All relationships that sucked energy and were not supportive. I took responsibility for all outcomes in my adult life being my fault. And decided to commit myself to a life of joy, even if that meant a complete reconfiguration. I was finally learning what it meant to be resilient. I felt happier than I had in years. I felt shinier. I felt younger. I felt beautiful.

I also left a relationship that I knew wasn’t good for me. I had been campaigning for marriage and kids, and when it finally came time to build the nursery, I realised I was selling myself short. I realised that I’d be happier on my own than with someone who wasn’t able to prioritise me in his life and legacy plans. Self-Love. I’m telling you, ladies. It’s like the sky clearing after the storm. Nothing is foggy anymore.

I have to mention at this juncture of the story, that many of the people who were not right for my company (or bedroom) were still very good people. They just weren’t right for this particular journey. I take responsibility for the collateral damage that grew out of my nasty habit of martyring myself. You can’t explode in growth without an amazing team backing you. I know that now.

2018. 31 years old. The new company is doing well. I’m doing my dream job and have been for a few years now (a conversation for another article). My bonds with my loved ones continue to deepen. I’m happy as a default, and I realise that joy is my guiding light—as it should be yours. I don’t say this as a hippy by the way. Even from a strategic business point of view, I see ‘joy’ as being a clarifying elixir for how I choose people, how I decide on our plans going forward, how I design and create.

I roll like a Phoenix now. No matter what happens, I know I can reach within myself and find even more strength, even more clarity, and even more beauty. I don’t need fortress walls anymore, because I know that I have the ability to bend, rebuild, and always turn my heart back towards the Sun.

A Note from a Busy Oasis

Didn’t plan on it but a few weeks back, the day-job boss got a client based out of Dubai and as things would have it, we were required to head to Dubai and so, I’m here taking advantage of the hotel’s lap top to try and get the writing juices flowing after several days of heavy data entry activities.

Dubai is a special place for me. My stepdad, Lee was sent to Dubai in the late 1990s to set up the agency of what was then known as Lintas. As a result of his posting, Dubai became the first place in the Arabian Gulf that I visited. On my first trip there, Lee went out of his way to ensure that my sister and I got the full “Arabian” experience, which included a camel safari (which was run by a couple from Bognar Regis and their Pakistani workers). On the second visit, he had hired a maid who happily took us to discover the sights and sounds on souks and malls, the two places that the GCC region in known for.

My life in Singapore took an unusual turn around 12-years ago when I got sent to Riyadh as part of the Saudi Embassy’s delegation to prepare for the visit to the late Crown Prince Sultan to Singapore, which was the underlying fact in the turn my life has taken.

For some strange reason, blessings and salvation have always come from those of Indian Origin or Muslims (my current day-job boss being both). This tie with the Indian Subcontinent and the Arabian world is such that the only languages that make me feel that there is an emotional tie are the languages that I don’t speak, namely Arabic and Hindi-Urdu (the languages that I actually can communicate in being English by a long way, German in a distant second and Cantonese and Mandarin if I am pushed to. These are languages that I can use but I don’t feel anything special about them in the same way that I don’t feel anything special about the fingers typing these words).

So, you could say that Dubai could be an emotionally good city for me, in as much as it’s filled with the two groups of people who have blessed me and there is something very comforting with starting every conversation with “As-Salaam-Alaikum ” (Incidentally, the familiarity with using Salaam was easily translated to Shalom Aleichiem when dealing with the Jews).

Dubai like Singapore is a curious match of East and West and Old and New. On one hand the city is built to impress. Dubai, like the rest of the GCC is obsessed with shopping malls. The mall, is the centre of life and Dubai is on a mission to build the biggest this or that. I had my second visit to the Dubai Mall (described by my Evil Teen as –“Boring Sia,”) and seen the Burj Khalifa (so named after the cousin in Abu Dhabi, who bailed them out of the financial crisis). Dubai is filled with outrageous opulence. You can even get “booze” here – I had managed to get my beer in a nearby lounge with Indian and Nepali dancing girls and there is even “naughtier” entertainment in the “spas” that fill four-star hotels. My fellow traveler said Dubai was looking like New York – I beg to differ, New York would love to have Dubai’s buildings and Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills looks like a rats nest next to some of the swankier parts of town.

Yet, I seem to have aged in as much as these are not the things that I aspire to. There are only so many shopping malls that the system can manage, which was a point that my Saudi tour guide didn’t quite get – why do you travel so many thousands of miles to see more of the same.

What I liked about Dubai was found in the Gold Souk, where merchants from all over the world came to haggle over that most glamorous of commodities – Gold. I liked the fact that the Pakistanis and Arabs dressed traditionally and went about their business as they may have had several years ago. I enjoyed watching Nigerian tourist complain that the shops were using the “wrong” currency rate (why use 100 – use 99 – the difference of 1 Naiara being negligible in most other currencies).

If you ask me what Dubai has gotten right, it is the fact that the “trader” is celebrated. Traders are the people who make the world prosper. Traders make goods and services move and they create markets. A sensible government encourages that type of activity. Hustling is a noble activity that feeds people – it was one of the attractions of Hanoi – people were poor but they were not begging – they were trying to hustle you.

It’s something that I never quite understood about Singapore. We are a trading hub and I could never understand why “trader” was considered a “derogatory” word. Lee Kuan Yew famously wrote, “Our people were not entrepreneurs – they were traders.” Erm, it’s quite clear that Old Man Lee didn’t quite understand – entrepreneurs are traders.

Dubai is an odd ball in the Middle East. It’s a place that has created a reasonable economy and outrageous sums of money without using oil (not that it had much of it in the first place). When you think about it, that’s an achievement. Dubai has been smart in being open to trade and hustling. It’s something we should go back to in Singapore. We were a nation built by trade and we should be proud of being traders rather than bureaucrats. A trader can survive without a bureaucrat. The bureaucrat cannot survive without the trader. It’s something we need to look at.

The Grand Advantage of the Rich

One of the most interesting things about working in media is getting to see how easy it is to sway the public with the right headlines. I learnt this first hand when I was recruited by PN Balji to work on the Susan Lim case.

For readers outside Singapore, Dr. Susan Lim was one of our most prominent surgeons who had the misfortune of taking on a relative of the Sultan of Brunei as a patient. The relative in question was dying of cancer and had sought Dr. Lim out to help prolong her life. In return for giving exclusive and personalized service, Dr. Lim was reimbursed handsomely. However, the woman eventually died and the Brunei government which had paid the bill happily, decided it was time to ask for a discount, where upon the Singapore Government (which is exceedingly close to the Sultan) decided to raid Dr. Lim’s clinic and promptly accused her of “overcharging” the patient.

From my professional standpoint, it was a challenging case. Dr. Lim had already been “tried” in the court of public opinion and we knew that we were not going to win in the local press. However, we managed to get some of Dr. Lim’s story out and somehow, we managed to get some of her side of the story out.

However, while that was an interesting enough challenge, I noticed that the average reader developed an incredible dose of self-righteous anger against Dr. Lim. I remember the Young Muslim Politician who Guzzles Pork in a Ramadan day telling me, “She’s terrible, she cheated the Sultan of Brunei.”

I’ve said plenty about the case and I’m sure many people will discount my views now that its public knowledge that I was one of the PR people on the case. However, what still intrigues me is the dose of self-righteous anger the public held for Dr. Lim for having the audacity to bill one of the few people in the world who can afford such medical bills. I find it particularly intriguing that many Asians in particular felt that it was wrong because “Even Doctors in the USA or UK don’t ask for such a large amount of money.” I take the statement of my favourite Young Muslim Politician as an example – “She cheated the Sultan of Brunei,” as a starting point.

If you look at the facts of the case, it’s hard to argue that Dr. Lim “cheated” anyone. The scope of the services expected were such that she was required to sacrifice business from elsewhere in order to tend to this single patient. I’ve always felt that Dr. Lim should never have apologized for her bills – it was a case of “My practice has a turn-over of x dollars and if you want y services at the expenses of all others, you need to pay accordingly.”

However, is particularly intriguing here is the question of “how” do you actually cheat a rich and influential person. The bottom line remains, rich and influential people are generally that way because they had some sort of “smarts” that the rest of us did not have. It’s often said that one of the gifts of the “rich” is that they have an idea of the value of things and they have an uncanny knack of avoiding spending more money than they have to on certain things.

PJ O’Rouke, the famous American satirist once made the observation that the really rich (in Bank Speak – HNW individuals) didn’t spend much money on designer brands because they didn’t need to show off. Bill Gates, who has been the richest man in the world for the better part of two decades was famous for flying coach. Why would a man who has billions need to count the pennies? I believe its because Mr. Gates is aware that the value of the extra comfort between coach and first isn’t worth all that money (I, on the other hand dream of flying in Ethihad’s Residences, which costs around $40,000 – my sister then put me down to earth by reminding me that I’d arrive at the destination in the same time as the chaps who flew coach.).

 Another billionaire who made a point of protecting his wealth, was the infamous Jean-Paul Getty, who installed a pay phone in his house because he noticed that his guests were using his phone to make prohibitively expensive calls at his expense – his logic was simple – I may be rich but there’s no reason for you to get a free ride. The late Mr. Getty also made it a point to remind the world that he never married his five wives, they married him or at least they hopped they were marrying his money.

You could argue that not every rich person is smart with money. You could argue that I am only talking about those who had to work for it and got scorched along the way. One only has to read gossip mags to know about the way the young brats spend inherited fortunes. 

However, even then, it’s tough to “cheat” the rich in as much as even if the said rich person is an idiot, he or she will have someone out there willing to protect him or her from the world’s scoundrels. To get access to the well to do is a challenge.

Then, there’s what I call the “Beauty Parade” syndrome. Like it or not, the rich become automatically very attractive, especially to the world’s top most sales people. 

As every “hot chick” will testify to, when every guy drool over you, you get to pick and choose. I remember the former head of SAGIA (Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority) in Asia Pacific telling me that the problem with getting Singaporean investors was the fact that they were used to dealing in countries that were desperate for investment. As he said, “With us, the Americans and Europeans are knocking at our doors.” He’s right, despite the brutality of the Jamal Khashoggi killing, the Saudi Government remains very aware that if the Russians and Chinese are more than happy to fill the gap if the Europeans stop selling them arms. 

If one takes the analogy of Dr. Lim and the Sultan of Brunei as an example, it’s very clear that Dr. Lim wasn’t selected stupidly. When the Brunei Royal Family says they need a doctor, every respectable medical institution in the world will fly over and offer what they believe will swing the deal in your favour – which hospital wouldn’t want to claim that they were chosen by the Sultan of Brunei?

Then there’s the fear factor. Money, as they say, often buys power. Money combined with influence means that people have an urge to be good to you, if anything, its for the fear of being crushed by you. Money can buy very good lawyers. Money can buy muscle of the illegal sort.

I’m not saying that you can’t cheat rich people as the very existence of Bernie Madoff will attest to. Nor, do I subscribe to the philosophy that you should cheat the rich. “Cheating” as they say is one of those things that has a way of biting you back both in the legal and cosmic sense. 

What I will say is that “Warren Buffet” is correct when he says that people like him don’t need protection from the government or extra laws to help them get buy. 

I’d also ad the caveat that working to become rich is a worthwhile exercise in that it will probably train your mind and character in very unique ways. Some of the richest people I’ve known have this incredible way of being above the “hype” that the rest of society likes to inflict. That is a priceless ability and all the other trappings are nice too. 

The Nature of Wealth as Expressed by Vagabond.

I am hardly wealthy. I admit to the fact that I’m often struggling to find my next meal and now that the Evil Teen has become an adult, it’s been a challenge to make the pennies stretch.

However, while I’ve not made money, I’ve had my successes and I attribute my successes to the privilege of being known by successful people (I work on the adage that it’s the people who know me that count rather than the people I know – because I know everybody). I’ve often mentioned that I’ve had the good fortune to be guided by the likes of PN Balji, former CEO and founding Editor of the Today newspaper and I’ve also had the good fortune to work with the likes of former Saudi Ambassador to Singapore, Dr. Amin Kurdi and Girija Pande, former Asia-Pacific CEO of Tata Consultancy Services, who once told me, “Just make it happen, you’re as good as any of us.” (He was referring to a host of Indian Institutes of Management Alumni who happened to have exceedingly successful careers.)

So, while I am by no means wealthy and I do not have a “career” in the conventional success, I can be deemed successful in as much as successful people have been willing to associate with me. Success, as they say is contagious. In every study of wealth and the wealthy, one common feature stands out – successful people inevitably hang out with people who are equally so. Think of today’s great genuine friendship between Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, who come from different generations and very different industries (Buffet famously did not invest in technology companies during the dot com boom of the early 2000s, while Gates built the technology industry making software rather than hardware the focus.) Li-Ka Shing, Hong Kong’s famous “Superman” and for many years, the richest person of Chinese descent, advised the up and coming to spend money on lunch with someone more successful.

A while back, I once tried to list down the wealthiest person I knew of every ethnic group to see if I could gain a greater insight into what makes people of a certain wealth level what they are and whether there were any particular industries that were good for making fortunes.

While, I can’t come up with any ground-breaking theories that haven’t been bandied about before, I think one of the greatest factors is the willingness to try new things and new places and to do things differently. The examples I have are as follows:

Hans Hofer, the founder of Insight Guides. Mr. Hofer left Germany in the 60s and moved to Bali. He fell in love with the island and felt the urge to share the beauty of the island with the world. He convinced the General Manager of the Intercontinental Hotel to back him up in producing a guide book with coloured photos, something which until then didn’t exist. Insight Guides grew into a publishing empire turning over some S$25 million a year and then Mr. Hofer was bought out by Langenscheidt KG.

Mr. Hofer’s story is remarkable in the sense that it combines the concept of being far away from home but also being close to home. The place that gave him the seed for his money was Bali, many miles away from his native Germany. Mr. Hofer’s success was built entirely in Asia.

Yet, at the same time, Mr. Hofer has never forgotten the German community. I got to know this when I asked him who gave him his first break. He made the point that the General Manager of the Intercontinental was a German. You could say, the take away from Mr. Hofer’s story is that you should be willing to travel the world and seek adventure beyond your home shores but never forget your people so to speak.

I also think of Patrick Grove, the CEO of Catha Group. Mr. Grove, who is one year my junior, went to work at Arthur Anderson in their corporate finance division. He’s said that he needed to assure his parents that he would get a proper job for at least two-years. Once that two-year period ended, Mr. Grove went out, searching for bright ideas he could bring to this part of the world and the success of Catha Group is based on the diversity of industries like selling cars, selling entertainment and classified.

The take away from Mr. Grove would be thus – don’t be a prisoner of your professional background or education. Use the skills you learn from those experiences but don’t be afraid to look at other areas and how you can do something in areas that aren’t officially yours.

The other story that’s worth mentioning is that of Arun Jain, the founder of Intellect Design Arena Limited, and former Chairman of Polaris Consulting, a company which he eventually sold to Virtusa Limited. Mr. Jain had the good fortune to get a “US” Green card, where he could have worked as one of the many middle-class Indians who have benefited from the outsourcing bug that many companies caught in the 1990s. Yet, Mr. Jain decided that he could build something out of India and gave up the prized Green Card. One of Mr. Jain’s founding employees told me, “that man could dream and he could get things done.” Instead of talking about trying to pay the mortgage and other middle-class worries, Mr. Jain has the pleasure of focusing on how to bring technology to benefit the masses, all because he was able to break out of the common mold that working in the USA as a programmer would be his path to success, which is what the Indian IT industry has been based on.

Not everyone with the entrepreneurial bug is successful but as the three men I’ve mentioned earlier show, setting your mind free can be a liberating and even financially rewarding experience.

Of Trolls and Vigilanteh

By Marc Bakker

Marketing Director of Right Hook Communications Pte Ltd 

Hawkers have been a hot topic in 2018. The attention is showing no signs of fading with experts coming forward regularly to add their insights, which is healthy and informative when dealing with a complicated topic, especially one which touches on sensitive issues like people’s livelihood, affordable food, nutrition, exploitative contracts, etc.

Unfortunately, as with most heated issues, this is an environment that also attracts trolls and agitators, often anonymous, who muddy the waters either intentionally or by accident. This is much less healthy and with fake news also being a hot topic in 2018, this is a good time to take a closer look at the real damage that these kinds of agents can cause. In particular let’s shine the light on an incident that happened just this week that involved my business partner and exposes a U-turn of breath-taking proportions.

In the Defense of Hawkers

Last week KF Seetoh of Makan Sutra fame, made the headlines by exposing what appear to be exploitative contracts from Social Enterprise Hawker Centres (SEHC) that unfairly penalise hawkers. KF Seetoh is a long-time and vocal defender of hawkers and hawker culture. This is pretty much public knowledge, so his contribution to the debate was no surprise.

What was surprising was a post, now deleted, by the folks at SMRT Feedback by the Vigilanteh accusing KF Seetoh of being a hypocrite since he also runs a hawker centre.

This was out of character for the well-known troll page that over the years built up a reputation for sticking up for the little guy and speaking truth to power. Needless to say, the backlash was swift and brutal, as is often the case on social media. What happened next is very much a perfect example of what not to do when you mess up online.

How not to Internet

The main gist of the backlash was that the group was comparing publicly funded SEHCs with a for profit organisation. My business partner was one of the many critics. Ultimately the group took the post down, replaced it with a half apology then edited that post and yesterday took it down again as if the entire sorry saga never happened. There’s too much to go into in terms of the specifics, but for those who want to know more, this is a pretty good summary of what went down (http://theindependent.sg/smrt-feedback-recoils-backlash-deletes-post-criticising-food-guru-k-f-seetoh-evokes-lky-to-apologise-clears-post-and-throws-previous-admin-under-the-bus/).

In a nutshell, things went off the rails very quickly. Let’s have a quick look at some of the communications/PR sins committed:

1.      Personal attacks: rather than address the criticism head on and defend their position, the first response was to personally attack the critics. For example, in the case of my business partner, they belittled him as a failed business person, which isn’t even true. We’re doing quite well thank you very much. Another critic was lambasted for being the ex-founder of the Middle Ground, an online media outlet that closed its doors this year.

2.      I’m right because I make more money than you: the group then took things a step further and started boasting about their financial backing as if being wealthy is the same thing as being right.

3.      Deleting posts: deleting posts from people who disagree with you is a pretty basic mistake and for a group that, in their own words, has “regular client work in the marcomm field” it’s particularly puzzling.

4.      Banning readers: Full disclosure, I was one of the people banned from their page, which is puzzling because I hadn’t contributed to the discussion beyond liking a few posts. I have no issue with banning abusive profiles, but when you insult someone’s company and then ban them before they have a chance to defend themselves, that’s weak.

5.      Appropriating content: The only post remaining on their Facebook page on this whole saga is basically coming full circle and, like KF Seetoh did, expose a seemingly abusive contract that they “received today”. The problem? The exact same document was already exposed by All Singapore Stuff in 2016. Maybe someone did send it to them that day, but even the most basic google search would immediately tell them that this was old news and hardly a scoop.  

The U-turn

To add insult to injury, soon after the original post was deleted, the group did a complete 180 and put out a post which basically mirrored KF Seetoh’s suggestions. With the sordid history deleted, media outlets like Yahoo News and Coconuts even covered the story as if SMRT Feedback and KF Seetoh had been on the same side all along.

Where it gets Sinister

So how does a legendary troll site end up not only get on the wrong side of the “little guy”, but mess up so badly in handling the predictable backlash to the point where they need to pretend it never happened?

Well, as it turns out the Vigilanteh isn’t the Vigilanteh anymore. The original owner sold the site to a nameless company some time in 2016. So all those feel-good “little guy sticks it to the man” stories? That’s the old guard. These are not the same fellas, they’re usurpers using the good name and reputation of a genuine folk hero for purposes that are not altogether clear.

There is a deeper issue coming out of this minor Internet squabble and that is the question of responsibility and accountability. There’s nothing wrong with being a troll site and we all love our edutainment, our memes, our snarky posts and clap backs. It’s all fun and games until suddenly it isn’t. Sites like SMRT Feedback walk a tight rope between fun and entertainment and getting involved with serious public discourse. Currently these agents are not accountable to anyone. And what happens, like in this case, when the ownership of a site changes hands and the Robin Hood turns out to be in cahoots with the Sheriff of Nottingham?

It’s like Johnny Depp’s Ichabod Crane said in Sleepy Hollow: “Villainy wears many masks, but none so evil as that of virtue”.