Prima Taberna Mori Meum in Oriente

It’s been a screwed-up week for the Singapore Artillery. Around four days back, a gun technician who was tasked to repair a gun howitzer, ended up getting crushed by the gun howitzer. He was taken to hospital and after four days, he died. All this happened in Waiaru, New Zealand, the place where we lost Ronnie and Yin Tit in that tragic accident all those years ago. The only thing I can say to all of this is “Oh God, not again.”

The emotion is very simple – why? After 22-years, we learnt to accept that what happened to Ronnie and Yin Tit was a horrible cosmic joke, it had to happen to someone else.  

I guess you could say, I’ve made my peace with the incident and the emotions that went with it. I’m sad that I lost a friend, who was the nicest of people. Ronnie, was a sticker for the rules and he was a kind and gentle soul who gave more than he got. He did everything he was supposed to do and his reward was to get cut down just when he was about to bloom. The sadness of his demise has dimmed with the years and because he was such a good person, I do my part in trying to make sure that nobody else gets cut down the way he did in the only way that I know how – the pieces I write about the incident. It’s like throwing stones in a river to save people from drowning – you know your efforts might be futile but you do so because hopefully someone out there might read what I write and also do something to ensure people don’t die the way poor Ronnie and Yin-Tit had to die.

Sadness eventually dims as life moves on. However, the one emotion that often returns is ‘rage.’ I remember only being able to cry properly for a friend who deserved better two months after the fact because I was too angry with the system. As far as I was concern, I didn’t want to give the organization the “face” it was so desperately trying to save in front of the Kiwis. When the Committee of Inspection released its findings and I saw the results of the organization and everyone at large, I got more pissed off. I have a horrible allergy to paper pushers from this incident – these are always the fuckers who sit behind a desk and find a way to push responsibility to the poor shits out in the field.

I’m generally pretty cool about things in general. When I read about these incidents that take place in the SAF, I’m often able to compose my thoughts pretty well. This one is different. I guess it’s because it has hit close to home – artillery and New Zealand – it’s déjà vu again.

To be fair to the powers that be, they’re acting faster than they did 22-years ago. I guess one can be cynical here in as much as they can’t hide because the late gun technician is a local celebrity. However, one needs to look at things objectively.

I credit the Chief of Defense Force for calling a press conference. While none of the speakers were great speakers, they came out and gave the facts from the findings they had conducted. You have to give credit to them for also talking about what they were going to do from there. While the Generals got pilloried online, I have to give them credit for coming out and facing public scrutiny and inevitable public anger. The SAF has done much better than the Ministry of Home Affairs when the man with the limp strolled of prison.

You can see the press conference called by the military at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qqjpL47ttQ

From a logical, rational standpoint, we should wait till facts have been revealed. A part of me says, let the facts come out before we judge.

I’ve also made the point that we need to accept that being a soldier is inherently a dangerous job. You are expected to put your life in harm’s way to get the job done. I take my batch as an example. We can get it if our friend died in a combat situation. We can get it that accidents happen and “shit happens.”

I don’t think I would be the only person from my batch to say that what we cannot accept is being killed by our own side. In the aftermath of “Swift Lion,” it was found that something close to 1 in 40 fuzes that we, the guys on the front line were expected to use was faulty. In medical terminology, this was an unacceptable risk to put us through.

What made it made it worse was a Committee of Inquiry telling us that this was because the fuze was made somewhere else. As I have said on social media, the message is received as “We got conned by devious American capitalist using crappy Chinese manufacturing.” – Erm – what happened to checks by our defense procurement guys? Can the people making money from weapon sales actually do the job they’re paid to do so that the guys using the said weapons don’t end up getting killed by their own weapons? Nope, it never occurred to anyone did it? As a “soldier on the field,” how do you accept that fact – oppss, sorry, your guy died but at least the local defence industry gets to make more money from taxes you pay. I don’t get that.

I put something about this on Facebook and an old school friend asked me, “Is there anything to suggest that it wasn’t an accident”

Thus far, the answer would seem to be no. However, in some ways, this incident is worse than the one that took place 22-years ago. While my knowledge of howitzer operations is rusty and it’s a howitzer that I only reviewed from a writer’s perspective rather an operator’s perspective, there are two key things that bother me:

Firstly, this was not an operational exercise but a maintenance accident. Much has been said online about the “lack of safety culture,” in the SAF and how safety gets cut because we’re constantly rushing to make timing – just remember this is not a couple of guys sprinting – its heavy machinery being plonked in uneven terrain in as little time as possible.

However, this wasn’t an operation out in the field where there are pressures to get things done quickly. This was a maintenance exercise where the pressure to “meet timing” wasn’t there. The objective was to diagnose a technical problem and the people involved had time to think clearly.

The there’s the issue of the gun itself. Primus has been in operation for 16-years without a hitch. While a friend of mine did point out that the Primus gunners are in a confined space unlike the towed artillery gunners, it would technically be impossible for the barrel to have swung at such a pace that he could get crushed.  The hydraulics of the barrel movement are such that the operator lowering the barrel would have enough control to prevent anything nasty happening. That is unless there was such a major fault that there was a total loss of control in the operation or worse.

Something doesn’t feel quite right here and I am just baffled how this incident could happen if everything was followed correctly or if the machinery was in reasonable condition. I pray that this is a freak accident and nothing more than that.

Building an International Career in Turbulent Times

By Mr. KV Rao

(Synopsis of Talk @ Indian Institute of Foreign Trade Delhi, on 26th Nov 2018)

Many of you will be graduating soon, and start your careers – with a degree in international business. 

You are entering the world of international business in greatly troubled times. A fractured and divided world, a shift from openness to insularity, from internationalism to protectionism, a world order that is still hanging on to a frail hook – with the re-emergence, of nationalism, bilateralism in place of multilateralism, and clawing back some ways to the distant past. The diminishing role of world institutions such as WTO, and self-assertion of large states, seem the new order. 

On the other hand, you are inheriting, a difficult real world from our generation. Despite all the development – 70% of a 7.3 Billion people are still poor, and still worse 40% of the world live on less than $ 2 a day, and diametrically opposite about 200+ individuals own more than 40% of the world’s wealth. It is leaving in your young hands, a fragile, unequal world, that is angry, and the root cause of political upheavals. 

On the positive side, you are also inheriting unprecedented breakthroughs. Technologies, and discoveries have made tremendous strides - improved life spans, discoveries in biology, agronomy, life sciences, and digitalization have the potential to make this world a better place, and offer a better quality of life. The young today the world over, have in them the potential and grain to make the change the world needs. The young are still open minded, and willing to take risks, and experiment and create a brave new world. 

International Careers 

In our times, going abroad to visit was in itself a great opportunity, for we lived in a world where there were no easy windows and doors to the world like internet. Foreign travel was a luxury, and a standard question asked to astrologers was, if one would ever go abroad once, let alone live and work !. Today, out of the global population of 7.3 billion people, over a 1 Billion people live, work and have naturalized themselves in countries other than their own birth. Migration has happened big time, and will continue. It also causes a social disorder, while every 1 in 7 individuals is a naturalized citizen on an average, in some concentrated regions like US West Coast, Hong Kong, or Singapore and London financial districts the ratio could well be reversed, where the foreigner naturalized persons present in a concentric area outnumber the locals, trigger another inequity of sorts and problems. 

For my young friends in India, it is important particularly as students of international trade / business to develop an international outlook. The politics in India, just as in many other countries are turning more insular – more nationalistic. Nothing wrong with patriotism, but nationalism in the economic sense also spells insularity. We must have the ability to learn from the best practices, no matter where they come from. I see the lack of an appreciative enquiry. Take the case of China – which has made tremendous technological, economic and developmental strides. They have their dark spots and soft underbelly, but rather than being dismissive and being fed on insular press, one needs to develop a greater openness and learn from the best. We don’t have to live with a negative mindset. An objective mindset is not necessarily a dismissive or negative one. Therefore, the first need is to have an open mindset – an international mindset, that is willing to learn from the best in the world no matter where it comes from. 

Acculturation

The second is about ACCULTURATION. With India being such a vast cultural tapestry of various cultures, it poses a challenge to go beyond the shores to learn about other cultures. It is somewhat unfortunate that not enough of history of the world or a country is taught, which holds the key to learning about how cultures have emerged and why people from a country / region behave in a certain way. A conscious enrichment of historical, and cultural learning is needed. The more you learn about people and their cultures – from Latin Americans, to Mongolians, from Chinese to Sub Saharan Africans – it’s a very colorful, distinct and different world out there. For a student who wishes to pursue an international career, the first tenet in my view is the intellectual curiosity for cultural learning and adaptation. In today’s world of internet, the world in your very palm! … if only you were curious enough to know about other cultures – their food, their music, their politics, their passions, their fashions, their companies and so on. Be a wanderer, in space if you want to be international. 

Connection & Networking

The third is connecting and networking. We all end up having too much of the same. It is good to actively develop friends overseas, and interact with them. In in the good old days we had pen friends who wrote long hand letters to unknown friends overseas and hoped to meet them one day in person in life. Today it is easy with all the social media tools and platforms. Join common interest groups on subjects and get to know other young people all over the world and learn from their insights, beliefs, anxieties, and motivations. 

The fourth is stepping out – travel. Travel makes a man wise, and there is nothing like experiencing cultures and countries. Make every effort to go to less known places and with the spirit of discovery and adventure learn as much as you can. I see a good trend, youngsters back packing and taking off to unknown lands, to simply discover. It also gives you the opportunity to meet new people, and make friends. You can indeed make a global network of friends over time. You just need to remain curious to know about others and willing to share and learn. It is not about money or cost, and more about the wanderlust to be international. 

Pacing It

Don’t Rush ! … We grew up in times where, challenged by middle class backgrounds in India we were in a terrible rush to find jobs earliest, start earning and then grow. Albeit all of which you too would need to do, but do pace it, and do plan it. The greater risk you are willing to take in terms of location and difference in terms of job, the better are the chances of your multi-cultural immersion. We see young people, working in strange underdeveloped places for a year to two on a social project or internship, taking a break from regular employment or giving oneself a gap-year. Many companies today encourage that too. 

Risk Taking

Be willing to take risks, take on work partners in projects who are dissimilar – learn to work with a Taiwanese, a Chinese, a Brazilian and South African and you will turn international sooner than you think. Entrepreneurship, is exciting – and it is also unnerving. So, do go for it if it is your calling not, on a rebound as many entrepreneurship choices are dictated by circumstances. 

Have a mission, have a dream. Careers often are simply a series of unplanned accidents, still do have an aim and a mission. Accidents in terms of opportunities, and failures are bound to happen and shape your course, but if your aim to be international – remain steadfast on that theme, and count the experience and not the $$ and titles. Enjoy the journey as much as the destination you aim for. Last but not the least, have a goal or mission to make this world a better place, in whichever and whatever way you can.

Wishing you all, great careers. Good luck ! 

It Matters if You’re Black or White.

Since the mother-in-law went back to Vietnam, I had a wonderful opportunity to catch up on my latest hobby – watching endless hours of Netflix. The great beauty of Netflix is, of course, the fact that you can watch an entire season of any particular series as if it were a movie.

My recent favourite was “Luke Cage,” who happens to be a “Black Superhero,” who is based in Harlem, New York. What made the season particularly enjoyable was the fact that in Season 2 of Luke Cage you had the story arc of “Jamaican” gangsters trying to kill of local “Black American” gangsters. I give credit to the fact that the producers of the series actually got one of the most fundamental things right – Jamaicans and “African-Americans” were two separates people with two separate cultures, speaking two different languages, despite the fact that both communities had “black skin” and common physical features.

I bring about this topic because we live in a world that is dividing itself into smaller and smaller groups every day. Despite every effort of well-meaning politicians and academics, people are finding ways of distinguishing themselves from each other.  Take a look at America, a nation that was founded on the principle of “unity of races, religions etc etc.” For years, America took pride in its Statue of Liberty that encouraged the world to give over its hungry and poor. America talked about being a great “melting pot” of every culture in the world. Then one day, it elected Trump to its highest office because the Trump had an intrinsic genius in recognizing that people liked being different and they liked not liking other people who were like them. The Trump played up to this particular nasty aspect of human nature and won.

To be fair, the nasty aspects of human nature existed long before Donald Trump and he wasn’t the first politician to exploit the human need to be different. He merely did it on a larger scale by the clever use of modern technology. If you go back to his campaign, you’ll realise that the Trump was quick of the mark to come up with a story, that although untrue, was certainly believable – “White America is being destroyed by everyone else.”

Just look at his favourite topic – the border wall. His narrative is simple, “The Wall is necessary to protect the hard-working American (the white variety) from criminals and terrorist from Latin America.” While its easy to pick out the flaws from a logical standpoint (walls aren’t good at keeping out people, terrorist don’t come across the Rio Grande [they fly in from countries allied to Trump] etc) his argument has a certain appeal to it. It’s easy to paint the crowd across the Rio Grande as “terrorist,” based on the fact that they speak a different language, look different and dare I say do certain things in life differently (they go to work).

This phenomenon isn’t limited to America. I’m from Singapore, a country that talks about “Regardless of Race, Language or Religion.” Singapore proudly tells the world that unlike Malaysia, which has laws that favour an ethnic group over others, that is blind to things like colour of your skin or the God that you pray to.

Yet, if you get down to the ground, we – the people are doing what we can to separate ourselves into further divisions. The influx of foreigners, particularly those from India and China helped push our local Indian and Chinese populations into trying to find ways to differentiae themselves from the new comers. I think of the “Diwali” or “Deepavali” greetings I send out. They’re the same festival but there’s sensitivity in what the festival is called. What’s in a name? Everything. I remember a local Tamil who had a prominent position complaining that soon the name of the festival in Singapore would be changed to Diwali to accommodate the new comers.

The Chinese community isn’t much better and last week, I actually had a “Mandarin” lesson from the ex-wife of one of Singapore’s most prominentbusinessmen. She explained that people from China are known as “Chung Guo Ren.” This term is used by people outside of China to talk about people from China. The people inside China do not refer to themselves as “Chung Guo Ren,” because they identify themselves by their region – i.e Guangdung Ren, Fujian Reng, Shanghai Ren (Cantonese, Fujianese, Shanghainese.) The ethnic Chinese outside of China are known as “Hua Ren.” The language that we speak is known as “huayi,” but in China or Taiwan it is “Guoyi,” or “National Language. It’s actually the same language – Mandarin Chinese.

What she said, actually helped crystalise my Cultural Studies lessons in university. Hence, I try to identify myself as Chinese (“Hua Ren”) as opposed to the passport I hold (Singapore), whereas my parents talk about being Singaporean of Chinese descent. I do that because, I want to have an identity greater than the passport I hold (although the Singapore passport is consistently ranked in the top 5 and my parents actually speak much better Chinese than I do.). It seems more liberating to have an identity associated with a people rather than a place and again, this isn’t a point of science but a point of personal observation.

As it has been said on so many occasions, we live in an increasingly globalized world and with the internet, one has to get used to dealing beyond national borders. Yet, at the same time, we became more attached to our local or dare I say parochial identity. HSBC got it right when it tried to be “The World’s Local Bank.”

I believe we need to create opportunities for people of different back grounds to share experiences. In Singapore, we have National Service, which helps people of different backgrounds gel together. When you’re digging a fire trench of the umpteenth time, you lose the ability to care whether the guy digging next to you is black, white, blue or purple. People are bound by certain shared experiences – hence I am at my most “Singaporean” when I talk about “National Service.”

Yet, we cannot “White Wash” things into one global system. People will find a way to divide and subdivide themselves. If’s its not race, it’s language, religion or even sports team. Like it or not, it does matter to people if they are black or white.

The key to success – let people have the shared experiences to give them the common experiences of bonding across backgrounds. Encourage people to create babies with partners of different colours or religions. Yet, at the same time, allow people to be proud of being different. It will always matter if you’re black or white and we need to recognize that people will always feel that way.

The SeX of Leadership – 3 Characteristics for Future Ready Leaders of Significance

By Christopher Lo
CEO & Founder of  iAdD Pte Ltd

Got your attention?!

A chance to share about leadership with a cohort of 17-year-old student leaders came up recently. As I pondered how to hook my young audience with leadership lessons that stuck, the dots connected. I would talk about the “SeX” of Leadership.  

the SeX of Leadership: inspiring Service forSignificance, feeling empathy, & delivering eXcellence.

The Context That Shaped My Leadership Experience

I used to believe that leadership and discipline were twins. Since age 13, I had always subjugated myself to discipline. I grew up loving the conformity, structure, and precision of drills serving in a uniform youth organisation. Even as a citizen soldier conscripting in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF), I relished the discipline and the self-imposed deprivation of my “freedoms”. Receiving the West Point experience deepened my desire to lead in the profession of arms. Duty, Honour, Country became my motto. My almost quarter century relationship with the military was thus born.

Yet, serving in Afghanistan 2012 made me realise at age 41, I was not meant to be in the military. The very disciplined structure that I loved, suppressed the nonconforming maverick inside me. I decided to retire from the SAF in 2013, after almost three decades of exercising leadership in uniformed organisations to pursue the path of entrepreneurship.

“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” John C. Maxwell

Future Ready Leadership for the Digitalization Age

The tough part of my transition was learning to unlearn and relearn the operating rules of the unfamiliar business jungle from the accustomed and familiar military jungle. What I found even tougher, was rewiring my mindset and embracing new habits to thrive in my present environment. Five years of hard knocks walking the entrepreneur path shapes you to change, adapt, and learn to see leadership in a new perspective.

I believe leadership remains a human endeavour.

The acceleration of technology adoption is intensifying. In her wake, smart technology is redefining the relationship between human connections. I acknowledge that the operating environment, context and structures between the military and the corporate world are opposites. These differences, in turn, impacts the motivational buttons of human behaviour. Despite the differences in context and physicality, the two environments are similar. They involve people. To be effective, the leader needs to understand how humans behave, think, and get motivated at different levels in the P&L world versus in the military/government. I feel urgency to define what future ready leaders ought to be to stay relevant for the world they shall inherit. 

The SeX of Leadership

Having experienced both contexts, I believe growing future ready leaders to lead well in the digitalization age is about the SeX of Leadership: inspiring Service for Significance, feeling empathy, and delivering eXcellence.

The role of leadership in the present is about delivering results. Empowered by the authority bestowed upon him by his title in an organisation, the leader, foremost, exercises leadership to mobilise his team to deliver eXcellence. This bottom line is a non-negotiable responsibility of the leader in the present. At the corporate level, this refers to the business’s P&L.

eXcellence is Delivering Results in the Present. Significance is Creating Meaning for the Future that Impacts.

Nurturing two teenage daughters, coupled with my decade-long volunteerism convinces me that the millennial generation possesses a strong sense of community on local and global scales. Compared to previous generations, millennials focus on larger societal needs rather than individual needs. Millennials are potentially the most socially conscious generation to date. My touchpoints validate that people in this new millennium gravitate to causes that matter. I am convinced future ready leaders must learn to lead with purpose and clarity as well as to link how leadership acts in Service for Significance. 

Leadership for millennials is not just about knowing or going the way; it is all about showing the way. The millennial leader must demonstrate leadership that provides the glue to show how the outcome contributes to some larger social significance. Creating meaning is the new bottom line that remains a non-negotiable responsibility of the leader for the future. At the corporate level, this refers to the triple bottom line of People, Profits, Planet.  

Empathy – The Missing Leadership Link

I observe that the gap exists to bridge Service for Significance with eXcellence. This link is about drawing out our awareness for empathy, both individually and collectively. Empathy is about being able to feel and relate to someone by feeling their pain just as you would being in their shoes. Empathy is the experience of understanding another person's condition from their perspective.

Advances in smart technology will continually redefine the relationship between human connections. To make social more human in the digital age, constant reminders are necessary to put the human in the centre of our solutioning. We can learn by walking similar pathways to gain the individual’s perspective. Such a method is, however, too slow and painful for most to receive the experience. I believe the better way is to embed the design thinking process for thinking about empathy in our structures, such as our education or learning systems. 

Design Thinking for Empathy

For starters, we could apply the 3P’s for human-centred strategy formulation to frame how to embed the process for thinking about empathy in our education or learning systems.

First, tweak our policies so that the learning of empathy is a fundamental academic requirement. Next, translate policies into a set of metrics and procedures to teach design thinking into academic curricula. Finally, design and grade projects based on the application of design thinking to promote constant practice of such disciplined thinking, with its upfront emphasis on empathy. The continuous reinforcement of such a rewards and recognition structure into the education process eventually promotes human-centric thinking as a habit over time.

Why should SeX for Leadership Matter?

I believe SeX for Leadership matters because these three critical ingredients could better focus HOW and WHAT we need to do individually and collectively to groom our leaders for tomorrow. It also proposes how the education systems could consider to provide the structure to socially engineer future ready leaders for tomorrow. Just as people remain the constant centre of change, sex remains the constant subject that generates excitement in and amongst people.

So when you think sex the next time, think of the SeX of leadership.

The Misery of Normal

The year has started on a busy note or should I say, the previous year ended on a busy note that carried on right into this one. December was a month of many late nights (up till 3 in the morning and I pulled off four nights of staying up till 6) and burnt weekends galore. If it wasn’t this project or that, it was a case of catching up with everything else.

I should be grateful. Being busy is a key indicator that business is good and could be good enough for the boss to up the money. This was a fact that one of the customers in the Bistrot made to me on a busy night.  Last year was a particularly good year for the liquidations industry or at the least the liquidator that I work for. Ended up with two pay increases and in all fairness, the bonus was decent (as someone pointed out – getting a thirteen-month annual wage supplement or AWS is considered pretty OK these days.)

An objective viewer might ask me what is it that I am not satisfied with because I’m finally starting to look like a successful man. I have been fairly steady in a “professional” white collar job for the last half decade and I mix with people with nice paper qualifications and hang out in nice offices. I get invited to the parties of the firm’s top clients, which something my better qualified but younger contemporary can’t understand. I should, as they say, feel delighted that I am finally making the right moves.

But I don’t feel successful. If anything, I am miserable and everything around me looks better. Whenever the bus goes past a construction site, I look at the construction workers with some envy. While their lodgings in Singapore are undoubtedly less comfortable than mine and I probably earn far more for the hours I work than they do for theirs, I can’t help but feel that they have something very important that I don’t.

I believe the answer lies in the fact that I’ve become a “normal” person, living the life that one is expected to live. It’s like when I think of going back to being semi-self-employed, I’m held back by the fear of how I’ll pay the mortgage and how Kiddo is going to get her pocket money (to be fair to Kiddo, she’s trying to tell me that we should do something in Vietnam). While I had a decade of reasonably successful self-employment, I didn’t have things like a mortgage and so on and so on.

I believe that what I miss most is the challenge of survival. While I never had a “steady income,” in those days, I actually felt more intelligent and more resourceful. When you’re on your own, you have the luxury of being honest about life because, you have various sources of income or should have say, you get many people giving you things rather than being dependent on one particular person or organization or even industry. If I didn’t get money from PR, I had the Bistrot.

Well, things are changing. I’m working less hours at the Bistrot and more in the office. I can hear people telling me that this is the natural order of things. I have, as everyone else around me keeps saying so silently, “I’ve grown up and understood my place in the scheme of things.” I am, apparently, in a secure place – steady, white collar job that benefits my status as an “educated man.”

Yet, I feel angry that the world is trying to push me in dangerous direction. Having only one source of income is stupid. It means you work as the boss dictates because you are dependent on the boss for your entire livelihood. Something is wrong with that type of situation. How can this be normal?

Being a “white collar” employee is supposed to have a certain “cache” but I don’t get it. It’s supposed to be a thing of pride when you talk about being part of the “professions.” Again, I don’t get it. I am far happier being away from the “professions.” When people not wanting to dig ditches or driving cabs in their sixties, I worry that I’ll be at a desk, going through tomes of man-made ledgers and tracking numbers on a screen.

I am happiest with the guys from my blue-collar existence. I am happiest struggling to understand my Viet rellies. I work in eye-candy land of young things in power suites and “respectable” jobs. Yet, I find myself relating better to the “working girls,” in Orchard Towers or Geylang, who have a far superior understanding of the world (they take money from well to do expats to feed poor people in the third world as opposed to young working professionals who would happily take money from people in the third world to give it to well to do expats).

The fear of the unknown is keeping me from changing. I just hope that this is the year that I find the courage to take that leap.