Study What We Want You to Study

When I was still at school and ended up in discussions on civilisations, I always felt that I needed to make the point to my English friends that the Chinese were living in cities when Europeans were still living in caves.

I think of this era of my life, because I’ve come to appreciate that Chinese history is very instructive to the current geopolitical situation. Whilst the Chinese were living in cities when the Europeans were living in caves, the Chinese also pioneered two of the worst sins of modern geopolitics – namely protectionism and intellectual arrogance. Sure, we started living in cities but 1500AD, protectionism and intellectual arrogance made China so stagnant that the people who were dwelling in caves when the Chinese lived cities, ended up pointing guns at them and the Chinese could only offer spears and wooden shields.

I blame two people for this. One is Confucius, the original bureaucrat who was obsessed with going back to a “golden age” that never existed. Thanks to him, the entire Chinese system was based on going back to a mythical golden age and nobody thought of shaping the future. The other person who is responsible is the first emperor, Qin Shi Huang who built the “Great Wall,” which cost dearly in lives and treasure. The Great Wall is a tourist attraction and we love to go on and on about how its only thing you can see from the moon. The truth is the “Great Wall” was a failure. The “Barbarians” inevitably found a way in.

The Qin emperor didn’t just build a physical wall. He built walls in generations of Chinese. As far as he was concerned, people would only know what he wanted them to know and he proceeded to burn books that he didn’t approve of on a regular basis. So, whilst China and Chinese history is filled with intellectual treasures, its also filled with so much more that could have been.

I start with this monologue, because if you look at what’s going on in the world, you’ll notice that these things from Chinese history are taking place in front of us. Ironically, its not so much the Chinese exhibiting these traits but the nation that was the anti-thesis of these values – America.

Many people have described the current president as trying to be like a “King” of 18^th century Europe. However, he seems more like a Chinese Emperor. Look at what he was bragging about in his first term – building a wall. As an ethnic Chinese, this sounds strangely familiar.

Now, in his second term, he’s on a mission to continue being like a Chinese Emperor. He wants to build walls of the mind. America, which has spent centuries being a free market of ideas, now has school boards talking about banning certain books.

This on its own wouldn’t be so bad if he wasn’t on a mission to make it worse by going on a war against America’s Universities, insisting that they teach an approved “non-woke” agenda. At the time of writing, Mr. Trump has frozen all federal funding to Harvard University, one of America’s most prominent universities, for refusing to comply with his orders:

 https://www.ft.com/content/5c8bca38-8e6d-4df1-bbb1-d84e0b2a5962

 

Given that Harvard has an exceedingly large endowment fund, one might argue that there’s no reason for them to receive federal funding. However, the issue is not so much the funding but the “interference” from the government and the government’s insistence that it has control over what universities teach. Mr. Trump is essentially arguing that the government needs to step in to stop the universities from teaching a “woke” agenda but whose to say what exactly is “woke” and who is to say that this won’t be used to interfere with the teaching of what the government doesn’t want to be taught, which is, given Mr. Trump’s reaction to medical advice dispensed during Covid, a real possibility.

If you look at what makes America such a dominant player in so many fields, you’ll find that America has inevitably done it through an ability to nurture the best brains into innovative and entrepreneurial ones. America has done this primarily through its universities. It is no coincidence that Silicon Valley, the place that has minted billionaires is centred around Stanford University.

If you look at the top ten universities in the world, you’ll find that only Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial College London are not American. What does this mean? It simply means that America has the best places to nurture the best minds. America doesn’t just nurture its own. It encourages people from the rest of the world to attend American Universities and then work and even become entrepreneurs, creating jobs and other forms of wealth in America:

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/latest/world-ranking

 

 Mr. Trump campaigned on the premise of “Making America Great Again.” He talks about bringing back the manufacturing jobs and undoing years of environmental protections.

Yet, while he’s talking about making America Great Again, he’s going after the very things that make America great. Like it or not, hot beds of innovation and creativity don’t toe the line of dictation from the government.

Sure, China is a communist dictatorship and a highly effective police state. However, it’s a place that has understood that “Greatness” comes from an ability to innovate and create. It’s also learnt the lesson from history that it needs the global community to stay reasonably prosperous. So, when Mr. Trump was rounding up people he didn’t like, the Chinese were opening up to people with the ability to do work.

How it is possible for America to win with Mr. Trump at the helm. He’s trying to compete in the low-end stuff, where China has a clear advantage. Yet at the same time, he’s going out of his way to harm the pillars that make America a world leader in high tech and high value stuff. Instead of making friends, he’s alienating the ones he has. By contrast, the Chinese are keeping their edge in the low value stuff, investing in the high edge stuff and going out of their way to befriend the people Mr. Trump is screwing over.

China got lucky in that it was an ancient civilization and it didn’t feel the negative effects of its arrogance and isolationism for centuries. The world was simply not connected back then. So, the receipts of arrogance took a while to come in.

This is not the case for modern America under Trump. Our technologies have reduced the time it took to do things in the past by many folds. Any loss suffered will be a result of allowing the same arrogance and isolationism that brought down and ancient civilisation.

 

 

More of the Same

 

When will the day come?

I’ve generally stayed out of commenting on this year’s election in Singapore. Although Singapore is my home and as often said, the only country on the planet I actually have a legal and moral obligation to die for, I just didn’t feel fired up enough to talk about the election.

Let’s start with the obvious, you know the results before the vote is even counted. The ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) has won every election since independence and they’re known to use every trick in the book to ensure that they go into the election with every possible advantage. This was clearly seen in the drawing of electoral boundaries prior to the election. So, it should be no surprise that the ruling party cruised home with a comfortable victory, taking 87 out a possible 97 seats.

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/singapore-votes-test-ruling-partys-monopoly-2025-05-03/

 

 The continued dominance of the ruling party “p****es” off plenty of opposition politicians for the simple reason that despite the complaints about life in Singapore, the ruling party keeps coming back in. One of the most famous grouses about Singapore’s elections came in 2015 when the Secretary General of the Reform Party, Mr. Kenneth Jeyaratnam who told the electorate to stop complaining:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETnYp0CIDxI

 

 As with our elections in 2020, 2015 and 2011, the excitement was generated by the opposition rather than the ruling party. Managed to eavesdrop on a conversation in the coffee shop near the office, and the point was made very clearly was the fact that the opposition party politicians seemed to have “passion,” whilst the candidates from the ruling party seemed to be reading from a script with as much passion as watching grass grow. There was even the contest of prettiest politicians where Ms. Alexis Dang of the Worker’s Party went up against Ms. Sun Xueling of the ruling party:

 https://theindependent.sg/the-battle-for-punggol-alexis-dang-vs-sun-xueling/

 

 While the opposition parties, specifically the Worker’s Party, have been attracting very talented and capable people, the truth remains that “Elections are not won by opposition but lost by governments.”

At the end of the day, the ruling party had not done enough to lose the election. Leaving aside the fact that the ruling party has the levers of power at its control, the fact remains that complaints about the ruling party like rising prices are pretty much the same complaint that everyone else in the world has. When I talk about how expensive things are becoming, my siblings in the UK and USA mention exactly the same thing and the American family points out that populist politics hasn’t exactly made life better.

So, the fact remains that Singaporeans do want the ruling party there but what we want is for the government to be reminded that they work for us and not the other way round. So, for years, we kept two opposition members there (Chiam See Tong and Low Thia Kiang) despite the obvious “incentives” to kick them out. Then in 2011 and 2020, when we felt the government wasn’t listening hard enough, we gave two Group Representative Constituencies (GRC – a case where you vote for a team of MPs rather than a single MPs) to the opposition Worker’s Party. If you look at the guys in light blue shirts (Colour of the Worker’s Party, which differs from the White of the ruling party), you’ll find that their policies aren’t that far off from what’s already there, a fact that other opposition parties often complain about.

You could say that voting for the opposition is more about reminding the ruling party to be less condescending in their public appearances than actual disagreements.

So, how long can this status quo last? It depends on two things, which will need to coincide. The first is decay in the ruling party. The ruling party has yet to elect a leader as corrupt and incompetent as Mr. Najib Razak in neighboring Malaysia.  However, the infamous “Ownself-Check-Ownself” that the ruling party often uses whenever the question of accountability arises, the possibility of producing a leader that corrupt cannot be ruled out.

The second thing that needs to happen is when the opposition produces a team that shows its capable of running things. Thus far only the Worker’s Party has a record of running things. The frustration among the ruling party’s members it that once a constituency “goes blue” there’s literally no going back. The reason was explained as the fact that the guys in blue manage to keep cost and quality the same whereas cost tend to rise in the constituencies run by the guys in white.

As things stand, the Worker’s Party is aware that it isn’t in the position to take over the government. However, its building with what it has. The Worker’s Party is focused on maintaining seats in parliament and then acquiring seats rather than getting media attention. As such, it remains the only possible party to offer an alternative.

Its probably an eventuality when Singapore’s elections become more “normal.” Dominant parties like the Kuomintang in Taiwan, UMNO in Malaysia and the PRI in Mexico have tasted defeat at the ballot box, so there’s no reason why the PAP in Singapore won’t one of these days. However, that day remains yet to come as long as the PAP uses its mandate to work for the people.

“The MayLays aren’t Going to Help You – They Don’t Have Any Money” – Bill O’Reily

 

So, Why Do We Borrow Money from Peasants?

Back when I was at school in England, there was a common joke that the Americans didn’t get sarcasm or irony. The example that we liked to use was the case of walking into a random bar and complimenting someone on their shirt. In America, the guy would be happy. In England you’d get beaten up because the guy would think you’re “taking the p***.” In America, the guy would assume you genuinely meant it.

This stereotype, like all stereotypes isn’t completely accurate. American media content does have some wonderful bouts of sarcasm. The Simpsons comes to mind. However, thanks to the current “trade war” between the USA and China has shown that there’s a major element in the truth that Americans don’t get sarcasm or irony.

It started from the top. American Vice-President, JD Vance explained the “virtuous economic” cycle, which had China lending America money, which America then spent on goods made in China. Mr. Vance, however, explained in a more “insulting” manner when he talked about “borrowing money” from “Chinese peasants,” and buying goods made by those “Chinese peasants.”

This created a storm in the Chinese part of cyberspace, with China’s keyboard warriors mocking the Trump Administration with a series of memes.

This was, however, very minor to what came next. When President Xi Jin Peng went on a tour of Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Cambodia and Malaysia), to shore up trade deals, conservative commentator, Bill O’ Reily, decided to launch a tirade about how these nations were not going to be able to help China in the trade war because they had “no money,” unlike America. His line of “The May Lays aren’t going to help you – they don’t have any money,” earned him a rebuke from Malaysia’s Prime Minister, Datuk, Sri Anwar Ibrahim, who said that his remarks stemmed from an “Outdated Colonialist Mindset.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLQj6TXYXa4

 

 

Mr. O’ Reily has since doubled down and talked about how Malaysia’s GDP per capita is only US$5,000 A YEAR and then made some remarks about how people were “barely eating,” in Malaysia.

Anyone, who has been to Malaysia will realise that food is readily available. Malaysia is a “foodie paradise,” and given that I am Singaporean, that’s saying a lot. So, its clear that Mr. O’ Reily is demonstrating a knowledge of the world equivalent to that of the average White American who has never left his home town or the average Singaporean who never left their Junior College common room.

Mr. O’Reily is being picked apart for his inability to do basic couch surfing in the Malaysian part of cyberspace, so I’ll leave my Malaysian friends to continue doing the necessary.

I will, however, talk about irony and sarcasm, which the “conservative” element of the American media seems to have missed altogether. In their efforts to show how America is brow beating the rest of the world into understanding the greatness of America or to punish the rest of the world for “taking advantage,” of America, they’ve revealed a mindset that is woefully unprepared for the world as it is.

If you look at the comments made by both Mr. Vance and Mr. O’Reily, the question is, why does America need to borrow money from peasants? Mr. O’ Reily in particular is trying to show that the USA has the money to support Chinese exports when compared to places like Malaysia but forgets that his Vice-President has admitted that the USA is borrowing money from peasants in China.

Why would someone or some nation that claims to have so much power and money need to borrow from “peasants?” In the Singapore context, its saying that I have more money than your average HDB dweller but I borrow money from Bangladeshi construction workers.”

This attitude towards knowing the outside world isn’t good in as much it’s a case of underestimating the “enemy.” Who is to say that China can’t and won’t lend money to other places to buy their goods? Sure, hearing Mr. O’Reily’s dazzling knowledge of the world may make one feel good about one’s situation but does it make one ready to take on the rest of the world and prosper?

Talking about the peasants in China or the “May Lays” with no money might work like Viagra on ones failing manhood but will it actually solve the underlying issues that made ones manhood fail in the first place?  

They Don’t Make Men of God like they Used To.

 

I had a very particular spiritual upbringing. When I was around five, mum moved me in with Lee, my first stepfather. The highlight that Lee, who is now 92, remembers, was the fact that I cried when looking at an icon of Jesus that he had in his house and then found peace and slept soundly in his “Budha Room.” Mahayana Buddhism under my American stepfather was what you’d call the “family faith” and I ended up being brought into the faith under the “Tibetan name” of “Karma Kunzang Tashi” (hence, my sister and I used to play adventures of Humphry and Tashi).

Whilst I am officially Buddhist, I tend to frame things in a Christian context. The reason is simple. I went to school in England and the subject I was good at was Christian theology. Whilst the subject is inevitably academic, one cannot escape thinking spiritually. There is no way you can look at the gospels and not be spiritually affected by what is clearly a divine message.

Then, as I went out to earn my own keep, I ended up being blessed by Jains (the company that sustained my freelance career being what was then Polaris Software Labs, now Intellect Design Area, which is owned and run by a Mr. Jain) and Muslims (my biggest achievement being working for the Saudi Embassy back in 2006). In this part of my life, I found that the two wisest comments on humanity’s relationship with the Almighty came from Muslims (a Haji Taxi driver and one of the drivers at the Saudi event).

Being blessed by people of so many faiths has made me realise several things. The most of these comes from the fact that a faith is lived by the people who practice it and the fact that faith is very personal, where one chooses a faith based on certain truths that one gets from that particular faith.

I’ve also realized that when it comes to faith, too many of us are obsessed by the appearance of it. You get people who become obsessed with doing all the rituals and reading up on every letter in the sacred text. They will fight tooth and nail to ensure the rest of us are bound by their following of the text. Yet, when it comes to the practice of the teaching, they fail miserably.

In Singapore, the best example that comes to mind is the family Thio, lead by Mama Professor Thio Su Mien and her daughter Professor Thio Li-ann. Both mother and daughter have devoted their very powerful intellect to fighting every piece of legislation that appears to be “Gay friendly.” Thanks to them, Singapore took far longer to lift colonial era legislation against consensual homosexual sex than far more conservative and Asian societies like India and Taiwan. Yet, when it came to the downtrodden like the Indian and Bangladeshi workers living in what is effectively “slave” wages or the increasingly number of visible old folks pushing around cardboard to earn enough for a cup of coffee whilst sleeping outdoors, the mother and daughter team have been noticeably silent. Let’s face it, Christ had a lot more to say on the downtrodden than he did about homosexuals.

 Humans have a way of interpreting the message even in ways that go against the very essence of faith. Think of how the Christian Zionist lobby in America have ensured that every politician understands that not doing as Israel says is a sure-fire way to lose votes or how Buddhist in Myanmar have backed the slaughter of Rohingya Muslims. These are just some examples of everyday abuses of faith, used to divide humanity in the most ungodlike manner.

So, this is the tragedy of the passing of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, better known as Pope Francis on 21 April 2025. The Pope as with all his predecessors, was a figure of global prominence (Being the only religious leader recognized as a Head of State under international law) and he used that position to speak out for the very people Christ spoke for.

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2025-04/pope-francis-death-peace-legacy-appeals.html

 

 Sure, Pope Francis had his faults. One of the criticisms against him was that he was good at starting things but not good at finishing them. Call it a case of “trusting God,” when things called for man to push them through.

However, if you look at things on the balance, Pope Francis, was undoubtedly what you’d call a necessary force of good. This is especially true when you consider the crop of global leaders in the world compensating by going to war against the very people that Christ spoke for – namely “the least, the last and the lost.”

This was a Pope who was not just a leader of the Catholic Church. He was the model of what global figures should do. Whilst his predecessor, Benedict XVI made his name with some controversial remarks about Islam, Francis made it a point to reach out to other faiths. You could say it was a realization that it wasn’t the name or practice of the faith but how one related to the Almighty that mattered.

Pope Francis was also a gem of a religious leader in that he didn’t preach “mumbo-jumbo.” He actually accepted science as being part of God’s work. During Covid, he did what any sensible octogenarian would do in the middle of a pandemic – he actually listened to the science, wore a mask in public and didn’t push for mass sermons when social distancing was being advised by the medical community. Pope Francis didn’t go on Twitter wars with Greta Thunburg and actually gave support to her message. Here was a man of God who understood that God gave one brains and expected them to be used for the betterment of mankind.

So much more should be said of the Pope’s passing. So much more needs to be done in seeing that we have more spiritual leaders like this Pope. In light of the host of charlatans getting into power around the world, humanity needs to learn to recognize real men of God if we really are to have a future.   

 

“President Trump and the Americans tell the world that if I slap you in in the face, don't slap me back.” – Victor Gao, Vice President of Center for China and Globalization

 

It’s pretty hard to escape the news on the current “trade war” between the USA and China these days. Turning to a news channel inevitably means listening to some little bitch whine about how its wrong to “retaliate” and I end up becoming more and more convinced these days that the problem with life in general is that we’ve brought up our kids to be “anti-violent.”

It's not that I am a proponent of violence and its important to teach our kids the importance of solving things through other means. However, I do believe its important to let our kids, especially our little boys get into a fist fight or two and being able to throw a punch should be on the curriculum for every little boy on the planet.

My reason for saying all of that is simple. As anyone who has been a fight knows, everyone gets hurt. Violence may sometimes be necessary. However, as anyone who has been in a fist fight will testify, everyone gets hurt. This is true, even when you’re physically more imposing (says someone who wants had to contend with a violent ex who was significantly smaller). If you throw a punch, you got to expect the other guy to throw one back. If he or she doesn’t, you’ll need to watch your back because the other fellow will undoubtedly have people willing to deliver payback.

So, every time you listen to a Trump Administration whine about how this and that country is retaliating, you can’t help but get the idea that this is an administration run by whiney b***** who never threw a real punch before and are totally stunned when other people hit back. This point was brought home by Victor Gao, Vice President of the Centre for China and Globalization, when he said that it was not logical to slap people and then expect them not to slap back:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DId5uZ-OUsz/

 

While the USA is the proverbial African Bull Elephant in the proverbial jungle and most likely to win (based on size being a decider in fights), its very clear that vast segments of the American population will get hurt and the American economy will not go unscathed. China, the other elephant, may be smaller but it has certain strengths and it has not been afraid to use them.

One can only pray that this trade war doesn’t blow into another kind of war. One also has to lament the fact that “trade war” was and continues to be a celebration of stupidity and incompetence of the highest order. America has, ever since the end of the Second World War, been the global leader because it’s been a creator of greater prosperity and fairness in the world. That’s now gone. Thanks to the talk about forcefully taking over Canada and Greenland (part of Denmark, which is an EU State), traditional allies like Canada and the EU have found a very reasonable alternative in the shape of China, which in most circumstances, doesn’t have a reputation of playing fair in trade. Its now no longer a case of the USA against China, but the USA against every major economy.

Then, there’s the fact that tariffs are a tool that was once used in the 1930s. As that great voice of Lefty Ideals, Ronald Regan, pointed out – tariffs are one of the best ways to screw yourself:

https://bsky.app/profile/brettolmsted.bsky.social/post/3llwdt2xwm224

 

 

Mr. Regan, who, after his death became a “icon” of the “Liberal Left” through his free-market policies and shrinking of government, explained that the problem with keeping foreign competition out of the market was that is enabled local monopolies to screw consumers with overpriced and inferior goods:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEtSN-dV6q0

 

 So, even if the USA emerges “victorious” in the current trade war, it will end up screwing itself royally as local monopolies rise up and screw over the American consumer.

All of this could have been avoided if Mr. Trump really understood what makes America great, namely its openness to the world and its amazing capability to develop brain power. Think about it this way, seven out of ten of the world’s top universities are American. Whatever America doesn’t make, it makes up for in what it educates, designs and innovates. Sure, China sells more goods to America but can American universities are filled with students from China, dying for prestige of having an American degree. American students are not rushing to spend their student days in China, unless you’re talking about those of exchange courses to learn Mandarin.

American power and prosperity has grown in conjunction with the growth of “rivals.” The America of today is richer than in the 1940s, an era where Germany and Japan barely made a dent in anything.

This is something Mr. Trump and his gang of whiney b****** don’t understand. They have managed to toss out years of goodwill and ironically, they have handed it over to China. Whatever they win out of this trade war will be cheap compared to what they could have had if only they focused on what made America so great – creating the future, something which China seems to have understood.

Was Decency Enough?

 

Yesterday, Malaysia lost its first Prime Minister in the post-Mahathir era, Mr. Abdullah Ahmad Badawi who was affectionately known as “Pak Lah.” Mr. Badawai was 85 and been suffering from ill health when he passed. The tributes are now pouring in, and just about everyone is remembering Mr. Badawai is a decent man, something which Malaysia’s recent crop of politicians are not known for.

Mr. Badwai was what you’d call, as different as you could get from his predecessor, Dr. Mohammad Mahathir. Like his contemporary in Singapore, Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, Dr. Mahathir was a strong personality, who seemed to make every achievement of the nation about him and his efforts. While Dr. Mahathir did preside over an era of prosperity, he did get a little too fond of being in the hot seat. This was visibly seen by his abrupt jailing of this then mentee, Mr. Anwar Ibrahim (now Malaysia’s Prime Minister), which started what was probably the most interesting political drama in the region.

Mr. Badawi was very different. He made it clear that he was going to run things on a more consensual basis:

https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2025/04/14/work-with-me-not-for-me-how-pak-lahs-humble-approach-shaped-malaysias-economic-and-human-capital-landscape/173079

 

 He was as good as his word. He restored parliament’s ability to hold the executive to account and became known as the “Human Capital Development” Prime Minister. The aim was simple, growing Malaysia’s human capital to be a source of wealth.

He became, for the time that he was in office, a man respected for his decency. As the English, Malaysia-based fraud examiner, Mr. Nigel Morris-Cotterill describes the Badawi era as “What Malaysia could and should become.”

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7317733313794707456/

 

 Datuk Vinod Shekar, the CEO of Malaysia’s Petra Group states that Mr. Badawi put “country above himself” and explained that Mr. Badawi made decisions that could have shortened him political career but made them anyway:

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7317744981450854401/

 

 Even when he left power, Mr. Badawai remained accessible. As former Bernama correspondent, Tengku Noor Shamsiah TengkuAbdullah recalls, he remained dedicated to national development:

https://www.weekly-echo.com/he-listened-he-led-he-inspired-tun-abdullahs-enduring-legacy/

 

 So, everyone seems to agree that Mr. Badawai was a very decent and dignified leader. He was the perfect foil to his predecessor and his decency and honesty stood out when compared to his successor, who took raiding the coffers to a new level.

While everyone is remembering Mr. Badawi’s legacy, there’s one uncomfortable truth. Mr. Badwai’s time in office was remarkably short. He was in office for a mere six-years, which pales in comparison to the 22-years plus of Dr. Mahathir’s first stint and the nine years of his successor, Najib Razak.

Why would a nation give such a decent man less time in office when it gave his predecessor and successor more?

The sad truth is that decency and power usually don’t mix well. People in positions of power must resort to “compromise” and at times do things that are the opposite of “decent.” In Mr. Badawi’s case, his decency as a person worked against him.

Let’s start with the obvious, “doing the right thing,” upsets the status quo, which inevitably means hurting the interest of people who are inevitably supposed to be on your side. Then, there’s the fact that in parliamentary democracies, political parties have a way of removing leaders that might look like they’ll cost them an election. Think of how the UK’s Conservative party dumped Margaret Thatcher in the 1990s, even though she led them to three election victories.

Given that Malaysia at the time had no credible opposition to speak of, most of Badawi’s issues were internal. Trying to lead Malaysia away from its corruption issues meant that he upset forces in his own party. So, when he lost seats, those forces led a coup against him and he was replaced by his deputy, who promptly led an administration so corrupt that a once disorganized opposition united and kicked the ruling Barisan Nasional (National Front) coalition out of power for the first time since independence.

In a way, Mr. Badawi was like another character – Manmohan Singh, India’s last non-BJP Prime Minister, who was a decent man who didn’t know how to deal with unscrupulous people on “his side.” Like Mr. Singh in India, Mr. Badawi took responsibility for the failures of his administration, though unlike Mr. Singh, Mr. Badawi had the good fortune of being succeeded by someone corrupt, which made him look saintly by comparison.

If you read Nicolo Machiavelli, you’ll notice that the main thread is that power is a “dirty game.” One must be prepared to use it ruthlessly. However, one also needs leaders of good character. As the Dalai Lama argued, it’s more important to have a national leader of good character than a hermit. Finding that balance in a national leader is something no political system has perfected but its something all nations need to keep working at.

Health or Wealth – Exclusive or Part and Parcel?

 

I’m a late convert to the idea of staying fit. Prior to ex-wife number two nagging me about being fat and the doctors telling me that my blood sugar was at a rate where I could expect to pop a variety of pills for the rest of my life, I never really thought of getting fit. If anything, I saw gyms as a place where the wets hung out and while working out in the park looked good in a “Rocky IV” way, the idea of getting out there and doing it, was never as appealing as watching someone else do it.

However, whatever my early reservations towards exercise were, I had to get started and as I have been on this path of adding physical activity in my later years, I’ve noticed that adding physical activity in your daily life is not just about the physical. Its kind of a mental and spiritual exercise too.

As you exercise daily, you’ll notice things too. With the exception of the usual “gym bros,” you’ll start noticing that everyone else around you, particularly in the professional middle class setting, tends to look rather pasty.

There’s a reason for that and its cultural. We’re essentially trained to look for “comfort” in all that we do. Hence, modern PMET jobs involving sitting at a desk on a daily basis looking at screen. The more you sit at your desk, the better. Whatever I may have said about sitting, the reality is that if there’s a choice between sitting in a nice air conditioned or centrally heated office and being in the hot sun of icy cold, only the insane would chose the latter. Then, there’s what happens after a day in the office. Who wants to “sweet” in a gym when you can meet your mates for a pint or two at the pub.

We, in the professional middle-class, are literally programed to think of “comfort” as our life’s ambition. A good deal of middle-class professionals has separated the concept of “wealth” and “exercise.” I think of my godson, who is a good-looking young man, whose ambition is to get a “pot belly,” or to look “prosperous.” I’m reminded of a Teddy Bear who worked in the office for a spell. Upon the urging of his then girlfriend, now wife, I told him to lose weight and that it was uncool for the rest of us to worry he’d go into cardiac arrest every time he walked more than five meters. His reply was that he was going to focus on building his career and his wealth before worrying about his health.  

One only has to look at a conversation between Bobby Saputra, Asia’s favourite internet character, and his dad to see how wealth and health are considered very separate things, that are almost mutually exclusive:

https://www.tiktok.com/@supercoolben10/video/7441176214657568022

 

 This mentality doesn’t get better with age. By the time people reach “my” age (50), there’s a prevailing attitude that intense exercise is what you leave to the young folk and Tai Chi is what you do in the park and so “middle age” doesn’t do any exercise.

I disagree with this outlook. From what I’ve been reading and binge watching, staying healthy and relatively fit is what you call the best insurance for old age. A middle-aged man who maintains muscle mass becomes and old man who does not need nursing care. Let’s face it, health insurance premiums go up as you age as do hospital cost. So, the best way to ensure you don’t go broke in old age thanks to medical costs.

I guess since I’m not exactly a well to do Middle Aged man, I have a hard time making this case. The common gripe people will have is that since I can’t afford a car or hot house, I got to talk about fitness.

Thankfully, I met someone who is from a very well rich family and we managed to find common ground in the fact that we believe in fitness, particularly as you get older.

Meeting her enforced an observation that there is a correlation between physical and professional fitness. Just look at the richest people in the world. There isn’t a fat slob amongst them. Even Donald Trump, the most prominent fat slob in the world, was fairly trim.

There’s a reason for that, which is the qualities needed to succeed professionally are more often than not, the same qualities need to get fit. At the most basic level, both activities require the ability to delay gratification and the discipline to keep going month after month without seeing any results. Fit people tend to have better abilities to withstand the stress, which comes with the high powered and paying jobs. Even on the most superficial level, fit people tend to look like people you have confidence in dealing with.

As this Instagram post points out – the very successful treat their physical fitness part of their daily routine rather than as a luxury.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DH8siL6AYPz/?hl=en

 

  Again, let’s go back to the topic of hospital cost. Yes, rich people can afford better health care than poor people. However, rich people also know that even if they can afford the best treatment, being sick will costs them business opportunities. So, they work at avoiding going to hospital. Hence, you have a situation where the rich eat better food and work out, whereas the poor eat junk. One only has to think of Christiano Ronaldo who drinks water and the 1,000 ilbs sisters who drink 12 cans of soda a day:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIAFe7zaCRU

 

 

 The point is simple. People who want to succeed professionally are also people who look after their well-being, physically and mentally. Being healthy is not exclusive to being rich. If anything its an essential part of getting to the top.

What Choice is There?

 

On my 48^th birthday, I found myself in a very unusual position. The Neurotic Angel told me that I was “Not bad looking for 48.” I had reached the age where one simply does not expect compliments on ones looks and having being reminded that certain words are simply not used with men over 40, I accepted that silently.

This was a different state of affairs nearly a decade ago. We had been on a family holiday and my youngest brother ended up having to ware ear plugs because my snoring was bad and my own mother had described me as “Gross Looking” and pleaded with me to lose weight, saying that she had no intention of burying me.

So, how did I go from my own mother calling me “Gross Looking” to someone telling me that I looked decent enough for my age? The answer was pretty simple, Covid happened, the then wife decided it was time that exercise became a part of family life and before you new it, I became a little less bloated. It “helped” that the doctors informed me that my blood sugars were high and so regular exercise became non-negotiable.

You could say that having exercise and moments in my life was not something I volunteered for. I had fantasies of being a “fighter” in my late teens and early twenties. However, once I entered my thirties, life was about trying to make deals here and there to earn an income. Late night drinking and eating became part and parcel of life until I hit the road block of Covid and medical warnings.

I became interested in getting fit. I’m well aware that “looking jacked” is probably out of my reach but based on what I can gather from YouTube I still need to accumulate more skeletal muscle if I ever intend to enter my sixties in some shape or form.

Since I don’t have access to a gym, I try to use what the government has provided – namely parks with bars of sorts. I take the average boxer rather than bodybuilder as the goal to work towards (no point looking big if you can’t utilize it in self-defense). So my regular work outs involve a session or two of sprinting (four 30 second sprints) and a session of what I call the “Mini-Mike” routine, which involves trying 10 percent of what Mike Tyson used to do (500 push-ups, 500 bench dips, 2,500 sit ups and 2,000 squats – he did that every day, six days a week and that’s excluding neck bridges, sparing and running – I struggle with this once a week, - especially the sit up portion, hence I am officially very weak). I also try to make sure that I walk at least 10,000 steps a day.

 

 

 

Despite all my efforts, I cannot call myself muscular and the belly remains painfully prominent. However, I can report that my blood pressure (something which frightened an army medical office into helping end my military career) has ben fairly stable.

 

I often post about my struggle with physical fitness because it’s a case of something I only learnt to value late in life. With the exception of full-time national service, my twenties and thirties and even early forties were spent with booze and food at weird hours.

I guess you could say that things were imbalanced. When I started out, I was happy to work 24-7 because it was all about doing whatever you needed to do to earn as much as you can. This gets balanced out with “stress relief” which comes in the shape of booze and food. I remember a neighbour of mine in London who could spend the nights boozing away (since he was Swedish, parties involved lots of Vodka), but somehow looked fresh enough for work the next day.

Unfortunately, one’s ability to abuse the body can only go so far. I think of some members of the Plus 50 Party Girl tribe who are hopping to show their attractive enough to attract members of the Pretty Party Boy tribe by drinking regularly, sleeping late and minimizing exercise. This lifestyle doesn’t affect the Party Boy Tribe, they’re in their twenties and the body is still relatively functional. Unfortunately, the Plus 50 Party Girl Tribe is over 50 and this lifestyle makes them look obviously over 50.

So, why don’t people pivot their lifestyle? Part of it is the way modern life is structured. Stick with the “machismo” of sitting at your desk all day and don’t sleep if you can and you get rich or have enough to survive. The boss actually reminded me that I had to work in the office and not devote my time to fitness, after he told me that lots of people had fed back to him that I was getting fitter.

The other part is that we live in a culture where instant solutions are the way to go. Think of the very huge business called “fat-burner” pills, where people take pills in the hope of getting fit and healthy. Big Pharma thrives on telling people that there’s a solution to all their problems.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that. Being fit is multifaceted. You need to start with a mindset that easy is not good. The body is programed to look for what’s comfortable, which inevitably means doing what Mike Tyson used to say “Doing something you hate like you love it.” Who wants to drink plain water (which is tasteless) when you can drink Coke, which is sweet? Who wants to exercise till your limbs feel like falling off when you can lie in bed all day? Who wants to sleep early when you can watch Netflix?

Sad to say, overcoming one’s desire for comfort is what one needs to do if one wants to stay relatively useful in age. I think of the people who tell you “If I die – I die.” Well, the problem is that one tends not to die instantly as a result of an unhealthy lifestyle. I had an uncle who drank heavily until he aged 20 plus years (he was in his 60s when he died but the doctors mentioned his body was in its 80s). He was to all intents and purposes, a burden when he could have had a good life.

So, what’s the choice – continue indulging and face the risk of a painful old age or face discomfort, reduce that risk and continue doing things you take for granted in your twilight years?

The Priceless Emerald

 

I grew up in England, which ensured that I’d have a soft spot for the Irish. The image of the Irish as presented in an English Bording school in the 90s was twofold. The Northern Irish, or at least the Catholic Ones, were presented as “terrorist bastards,” and when I once spoke too fast and slurred the word “Irish Hit Squad,” the teacher in charge called it an “appropriate description.” Then, there was the more benign image, which was that of lovable buffoons who are rather fond of their drink.

This image of the Irish that I was presented at school, reflected a view of the Anglo-Irish relationship as one between siblings. The English saw themselves as the smarter, more successful sibling. Even after decades of independence, the Irish migrated to London to find work.

What many English (a fault which the people with the power) people tend to forget is that the many Irish people see history a little differently. The Irish who moved to America carried stories of resentment against “British Imperialism” and ended up funding the IRA. Closer to home, the Irish in Ireland tended to be more tempered, especially since Ireland became the “Celtic Tiger” and the British shot themselves in the foot by voting Brexit. However, if you’ve ever watched a rugby match between England and Ireland at Lansdowne Road, its very clear that the importance of beating England goes beyond the rugby pitch.

Like all good younger siblings, the Irish have a special dislike for the older siblings most prominent moment. If the British talk about their empire on which the sun never set, the Irish are proud opponents of colonialism.

Thanks to the conflict in Gaza, Ireland has managed to make its mark as a nation in the West that something the rest of the Western world clearly does not have – moral courage. Whilst much of Western Europe has seen a rise in far-right extremist, the Irish have stood out. This once devout catholic nation elected an openly gay man of Indian descent as Prime Minister whilst the rest of the Western world gets its knickers in a twist over whether we should allow repressed homosexuals to decide how many genders there are.

The Irish, along with the Spanish and Norwegians stand out for recognizing the independence of the Palestinian people whilst the rest of the Western world talks about freedom of the Israelis to commit murder. The refusal to speak Israels propaganda line at the UN has resulted in the closure of the Israeli embassy in Ireland. One only has to look at the following remark from Irish President, Mr. Michael D. Higgins to see how Ireland stands out:

 

 I notice that whenever I mention Israel-Gaza, most of the Westerners I know will try to fob me off with the lines “Oh it’s complicated.” I remember mentioning my support for the Irish position on Palestine to Irishmen and his reply was “How can you not be when you see what’s happening to those kids.” This view isn’t limited to an individual. Irish MP’s have raised the issue in ways that no one else in the Western World has:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H21edCN3Q7c

 

 You got to respect this small island for sticking up for what’s right. When the Israelis wanted to move into Lebanon, the Irish peacekeepers refused to move to allow the Israelis the freedom to bombard Lebanon. Irish history, it seems, is all about fighting for the underdog:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/lebanon-un-peacekeepers-irish-unifil-hezbollah-israel-b2629971.html

 

 If the Western world wants to show the rest of us that its worthy of global leadership, they should look no further than the Irish. The Irish have shown that the qualities of being admired have nothing to do with military or economic might but courage and the willingness to do what’s right. The value of that Emerald Isle it seems is priceless.

He was as “Slow as Christmas” – Evander Holyfield – former Heavy Weight Champion of the World on George Foreman

 

I grew up on Kung Fu movies and it was a dream of mine to be able to a great fighter. I fancied myself as the guy who just walks in from place to place and righting wrongs with my fist before moving on elsewhere. As a Chinese guy growing up in the West, my hero was Bruce Lee. I had fantasies of being a “Shaolin” monk and I believe that had I lived in a different era, I would happily have joined the “Boxer Rebellion,” or the “Vietcong.”

Fate had other plans for me. The school Karate club shut down for the simple fact that we couldn’t get the numbers and that was pretty much where my career in a “combat sport” ended. Having said that, I lived in a very interesting era of boxing and had great childhood heroes in the ring. Mike Tyson was at his destructive best but he wasn’t the only one. Lennox Lewis was the up-and-coming star as I was getting ready to leave school and in the Middle Weight division there was rivalry between Chris Eubank and Nigel Benn. These guys had their own heroes. Mohammad Ali was everyone’s heroes and whilst he had long retired with Parkinsons by the time I was watching boxing, his legend and rivalry with the likes of Joe Frazier were very much alive.

Amongst the “current” fighters of that era, there was a character that, whilst not as ferocious as Mike Tyson, who captured everyone’s interest. That character was George Foreman, who at the age of 42, was considered “old” but still making a comeback. If there was a character who could tame Tyson, we thought it would be George Foreman, who had in his day gone fought with the best. His passing over the weekend reminds me of that era in my life when I’d sneak into the common room at school to watch boxing.

I’ve always admired people who make their living through their first. Between a guy who sits on a presidential throne or a CEO’s chair and a guy who gets into a ring to face another guy who intends to inflict hurt on him, I respect the later more. It takes a very special mindset to train like a maniac day in and day out to prepare to either damage someone and be damaged in the process.

Now that I’ve officially become middle aged, I’m even more enchanted by the mindset of what makes a great fighter, especially now that I’m more active (a case of doctor’s orders). Now that I am no longer at my physical peak (which was pretty lousy), I’m all the more aware of the importance of physicality.

Let’s start with the obvious. Boxers prime their bodies for a purpose. It’s about making sure that you have the ability to avoid, taking and giving pain. As much as I avoid physical confrontations, I firmly believe that a man should be able to throw a punch, at any age. Boxing unlike, say body building isn’t about looking good but being able to function.

One of the things about being physically able is that it takes work. You can’t buy, steal or borrow a functioning physique. Now, I never valued this as a young man. Partied a lot. Drank way more than I should have and spent more time in bed than I should have. Now that I am older, I understand the value of being physically functional and as the body gets ready for decline, I appreciate the importance of staying fit. I could lose my job tomorrow. What resources I have can dry up. But as long as I am fit, I can still get resources.

As anyone who has seen his biopic on Netflix can attest to, he came back to the ring in his late thirties because he needed the money (to build a youth centre). It seemed like a joke. The Foreman of my day was a tubby and jovial character unlike the Foreman who wanted to kill Mohammad Ali in the Rumble in the Jungle.

As with a lot of come backs, many of the guys he fought were “bums,” whom he could dispatch easily. What made George Foreman particularly impressive in his come back was the fact that he wasn’t afraid to face actual champions in their prime. One only has to think of Jake Paul, who is building his career by fighting big names but names who are past their prime as a comparison.

At 42, George Foreman went up against Evander Holyfield, who was 28 and exceedingly fit and skilled. Whilst Holyfield eventually won the fight, Foreman did enough to show that he wasn’t a joke:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/eJ96e9wPqPs

 

 The biggest problem with age is that makes you less willing to try things. You get used to a certain lifestyle and breaking it up and facing risk is not something you want. Or you reach a stage where giving your all doesn’t seem so important. You tell yourself that you have “experience” so you don’t need certain things.

This wasn’t the case for George Foreman in his comeback. In a way, his age made him wiser. He was, as Holyfield mentioned, slow but had great timing and strength. The Foreman at 45 knew how to use what he had in the same way that the Foreman at 25 did not. We just need to look back at the “Rumble in the Jungle” where he was highly favoured to murder Mohammad Ali – gave him a major beating but then tired himself out and allowed Ali to deliver the knockout blow:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I60BKrZZz-M

 

 The Foreman at 45 knew what his strengths and weaknesses were and played them accordingly. If you look at the fight against Michael Moorer, you’ll notice that Michael Moorer was outpointing him all the way until Foreman delivered the knock-out blow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEd-P0VREME

 

 As a guy in his Middle Age, trying to make his mark, George Foreman is an inspiration. His story in his “comeback” is all about having the courage to face punishment, still staying in decent shape and having the courage to do things that are necessary. Its about knowing what you can and cannot do accordingly. A childhood hero is now gone and all that remains is trying to understand and acting out on the inspiration that he provided.