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.

The Problem with Bullies

 

I hate to admit it but I’m starting to understand that I belong to a different era and I’m kind of old. As much as I push myself to keep my physical levels of growth hormone at functional levels, the truth of the matter is that the way people looked at the world is completely different from the time when I was a kid.

In a way, it was a “dangerous” time back then. I lived in Spain, Germany and the UK when the Cold War was going on. Germany was a particularly interesting case because there was West and East Germany and I was constantly reminded that we lived, “Thankfully” in West Germany. This was an era where there two superpowers, namely the USA and USSR. Both these nations offered competing visions for the world and it was clear that those in the USA’s camp were living a decent enough life when compared to anyone living in the camp of the USSR (let’s remember the Berlin Wall was the first wall ever to be built to keep people in).

America was the country that ensured peace and prosperity. Everyone wanted to go to America because, well, everything was simply better. The US constitution, the world’s oldest, states that this was a nation founded on the inalienable right of the individual to pursue happiness by contrast the USSR to an extent the People’s Republic of China, were pretty miserable and poor places. These Chinese even went as far as proving this idea right back in 1989 when they proceeded to gun down a group of peaceful protestors. The bullies back then were the USSR and China whereas the USA was the school prefect who kept everything in order for the betterment of everyone else.

Unfortunately, things seem to be changing, thanks to current occupant in the White House. For anyone who remembers the USA as the power that fought with nice guys against bad guys, it was a shock to the system when the occupant proceeded to start picking fights with Mexico and Canada, a place known for being nice and inoffensive, all within a few days of taking power.

While people like me were wringing their hands about what the USA had turned into, the people in the Chinese communist party have been grinning uncontrollably. The more the USA goes out of its way to try and brown beat its allies, the more China has become a “reasonable” partner who doesn’t try and do awful things.

OK, to be fair to China, a lot of its growth is earned. China has avoided getting into global conflicts and as American comedian Bill Mahar says “We binge watch and they binge build.” While America has been going through a series of internal culture wars, China has been building its infrastructure for the next century. One only needs to look at the comparison in high-speed rail network between China and the USA:

https://www.travelchinaguide.com/china-trains/railway-map.htm

 

 https://www.thetransportpolitic.com/2009/07/27/new-u-s-high-speed-rail-association-presents-network-plan/

 

 Sure, the USA remains the world’s preeminent hyperpower and China still has plenty of problems. If war were to break out, its most likely that America would probably win. However, thanks to the current administration, things may be about to change in China’s favour. This, it seems will happen without China needing to do much by way of economic or human resources.

Not all of it is the fault of the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. China had been building up quietly since the 1970s, whilst avoiding major geopolitical conflicts, which cost treasure. An inward nation under Mao, went out of its way to send students to learn from the world once Mao left the stage. By the time Mr. Trump entered the political stage, China was already the world’s second largest economy.

Where Mr. Trump fails America is to understand the situation is that he’s approaching it like a school bully who thinks his size gives him an automatic advantage in a fight. Listen to the Trump administration talk about world problems and you can paraphrase everything as “You’ve been screwing us, now we screw you.” One only has to think of the swagger displayed by Fox News host, Jessie Watter’s telling people in Chinatown that Donald Trump was “Beating up on China.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlht9VxMR2s

 

 It’s a case of the bully who is so used to thinking his size automatically intimidates everyone and everything into doing his will, that he forgets that the other guys are silently building up for the day they can give him a punch in the nose.

Let’s start with the question of alliances. In the Western world, the USA underpinned NATO and other alliances of Western nations. Thanks to Trump starting trade wars with traditional allies like Canada and Europe, nations that traditionally looked to the USA for leadership are looking for alternatives. Enter China, which is smiling and looking reasonable by contrast. China’s new found besties have advanced technologies that China needs.

Then, there’s the question of what’s the key difference in a fight. The answer, is inevitably, the one that best prepares for it. As former world heavy weight champion Mike Tyson states in his book “Undisputed Truth,” he lost the legendary fight against Buster Douglas in 1991 because he was partying the night before whilst Douglas, a 42-1 underdog was busy training (Douglas would subsequently lose his title to Evander Holyfield for the same reason – he got busy enjoying his title, he forgot to put in the work.)

The Trump administration is working hard to party. America is pulling out of treaties and becoming more isolationist. It’s pulled out of the Paris Climate accords and regulations that put a hold on regulations of fossil fuel use (which in turned spurred research into green technologies) in the name of allowing the party to continue for old industries.

By contrast, China is “training hard” to get ready for the next century. China has moved from being the world’s largest polluter and emitter of greenhouse gases into a world leader in new technologies like solar panels and electronic vehicles. Whilst American pile on more debt with credit card use, China is experimenting and leading the world with digital payments. America under Trump looks set to become what can only be called “Silly.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DH4v6FnbvM

This is not to say that China is utopia. America still sets the standards in much of what gets done. However, if you look at many of the assumptions that America is making about its automatic superiority and its attempts to browbeat allies, you’ll find that its developing the mindset that ironically China had back in 1500 when it assumed it was the centre of the world and stopped moving forward. By contrast, China is showing that it has learnt the lessons of history and that its humiliation was a result of self-isolating from the rest of the world due to a sense of misplaced superiority.    

Desert Fasting

 

How does a non-Muslim deal with the Ramadan Fast?

https://www.asocenter.org/node/526

 

 

A while back the doctors informed me that my blood sugars were heading the wrong way and unless I made some drastic lifestyle changes, old age would probably involve amputations and a heart attack would come without the need to pop little blue pills.

I went from slug to weird exercise freak. Started out with walking and then I started watching YouTube videos, which got me into weird things like sprinting and Tyson-push-ups. The more people told me to do gentler things, the more I decided that I needed to push harder.

Whilst the exercise part is fun, it does require discipline and you have to fight hard to remember to do things, especially when modern lifestyles offer “temptations,” particularly in the food and booze department. My job title of “Business Development Director,” implies that I do have to spend time entertaining, which inevitably means I do have days when drinking alcohol is necessary (I admittedly like good wine) and good food (I am a partner in a foodie site). So, it is a challenge to do things your actually doesn’t want you to do.

Then, there’s the sad truth that body actually doesn’t really burn much. If my walking pedometer is to be believed, a 10km walk, which takes about an hour burns about 500 calories. A single Mars bar blows that away. Calories run on the converse of money where its inevitably easier to pile on calories than it is to burn them (as opposed to it being easier to spend than earn money).

I try to be more controlled about food, which is a challenge since I live in Asia, where rice, specifically the white variety is a staple in just about every cuisine (white rice being high on the glycemic index) and I also love having a beer or sweets (though in this case, the most lethal place for me being the UK, where toffees made of condensed milk are heavenly). I try to load on up fibers like okra and protein (eggs, chicken and pork), when I do eat out.

Then, I met a few people who told me to try intermittent fasting. Wasn’t sure if I had the discipline to do it. Just about everyone on YouTube said it would be good for anyone with blood sugar issues and so, finally when Ramadan 2024 arrived, I thought I would give it a shot.

https://www.kelsey-seybold.com/your-health-resources/blog/the-pros-and-cons-of-intermittent-fasting

 

Since I’m not Muslim, I don’t have a religious obligation to fast and at that stage, I avoided food but for the most part stuck to water. It was surprisingly easy. Once in a while I had food in the morning and then didn’t eat until I got back. Would at exercise and then eat.

I actually felt pretty good. Days went by without too much of a problem. I focused on the hours I went without food as every expert on the topic points out, its about the hours. So, doing a 24-hour fast wasn’t an issue. I simply avoided food but drank plenty of fluid.

This year, I’ve tried something different. I’ve been less intense on the exercise part since October of last year and, unfortunately, the tummy seemed to shrink a little is starting to make a reappearance.

So, when I started trying to follow the fast, which I started on Monday (3 March 2025 or the third day of Ramadan), I tried to challenge myself to do it without water. Apparently, Ramadan’s Dry Fast is like a turbo-charged version of intermittent fasting:

 https://www.ikca.org.uk/news/physical-health-benefits-fasting/

 

As a caveat, I don’t have a religious obligation to fast. So, I don’t follow the supposed timing strictly. In the last few days, I’ve broken the non-drinking water part before the non-eating part. Refraining from food is relatively easy when you’ve got water in the system.

No water for a prolonged period is a challenge. In the first two days, I’d sneak out to the toilet to rinse my mouth just to get the slimy feeling out of the mouth. It was especially challenging on day two since I was active physically and it was a relatively hot day. Once I got home (about 18:40), I grabbed the water because the need to drink had reached a stage where rinsing wouldn’t help. Went for a sprint session and I had to interrupt dinner to focus on drinking. That night the salvation was coconut water:

 

It also helped that the boss, who is Muslim, decided to pass me some porridge prepared by the mosque. So, it was like a reward for the end of the day.

https://www.tiktok.com/@tang.li0/video/7478119384846781704?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7274292816955999746

 

 

Days three and four have been relatively easy. Helped that I haven’t done much intensive work. A colleague asked if I felt any pangs watching him eat and drink during lunch. I felt fine.

Its early days, so I can’t tell you that I’m a fan of the fast. Can’t tell you if I’m going to be a believer. I keep telling myself that if I made it through yesterday, I can make it through to today. If the Bangladeshi workers who do back breaking work in the sun can go without food or water during the day, why can’t I? Not sure how long I’ll last with this but I’m glad I am trying to get a taste of what my many Muslim friends are focused on every month.

What’s the Plus?

 

Say what you like about Donald Trump, but he has shown that he has a strange ability to come up with quirky ideas. In last couple of days, the leader of the MAGA Church announced that the USA would be launching a “Gold Card” scheme for anyone willing to put five million dollars into the USA. In return they would get “Green Card Plus,” privileges.

You could say that anyone who voted for Mr. Trump because he would apply his business genius to running the country was getting precisely that. Mr. Trump, the so called savvy real estate man was doing to governing the superpower what he had done with his properties – keeping the “riff-raff” out and going all out to win the high rollers. More of the story ca be found at:

https://www.ft.com/content/d93a408e-b598-4e37-aad7-21f07d353c34

 

 In fairness to Mr. Trump, he’s been echoing what every country does with its immigration policy. If you look at just about every country on the planet, you’ll find that they’re all about trying to keep poor people out and getting rich people in. The only difference between Mr. Trump and the rest of the world is that he’s merely more vocal about it.

However, whilst I guess I get Mr. Trump is coming from, what is harder to get is the detail. What exactly is the “plus” when we talk about “Green Card” plus and what exactly is it that Mr. Trump is offering that would make the type of people who can chose the country rush over to America and why does America need to attract wealth?

Let’s face it, America remains the world’s leading wealth creating engine. Even the rise of China and India as strategic competitors, America’s role as the world’s wealth creator is secure. Rich Chinese and Indians keep a good portion of their fortunes in the USA as a “just in case” things go wrong.

America remains the home of the world’s largest corporations (particularly in the industries that matter) and has the world’s largest number of billionaires. According to the Forbes List of World’s Wealthiest, America has dominated the top ten since the 1990s. So, given the large number of super wealthy people in America, one has to ask, will attracting more super wealthy from elsewhere actually benefit America?

The American passport remains one of the world’s more attractive ones. Taxes are comparatively lower than in say the European Union at large (though Europeans would point out that there are more benefits that in Europe). There is a semblance of law and order in the parts of America that matter and as one American citizen pointed out, the US government will extract you out of difficult situations in various parts of the world.

Yes, America has plenty of great opportunities for professional middle class people. I think of the Indian IT industry, which developed because America was the best home for Indian IT people to do things.

However, what the “Gold Card” scheme is aimed at is not a working professional from a less developed nation hopping for a higher salary. It’s aimed that the people who don’t really need a day job.

I guess there is the element of security. As mentioned, a billionaire in a place like China would undoubtedly want to have a certain amount of money in the USA just in case the Communist Government in China turns nasty (which has happened). However, beyond that, its hard to think of what else the USA offers for potential investors from outside.

Perhaps the obvious might be tax. As mentioned, the USA has a relatively lower tax rate than most developed countries. Trump and his Republican predecessors have continuously cut taxes. Yet, despite this, America has an industry of experts telling wealthy people how to get second passports for less taxes.

If anything, the problem with getting the wealthy into America is not so much the tax bill but why you get charged tax. The USA remains one of the very few places that charges you for your citizenship rather than your residence. Under American law, US Citizens and Permanent residents are considered “US Persons,” and therefore have to file taxes even if they happen to be outside the USA. I still remember my internship in Citibank Singapore, where we simply could not sell financial products to “US Persons,” (of which I happened to be one as I was still a US Green Card holder at the time).

So, if you think about it, there is no reason for the super wealthy earning fortunes derived from elsewhere should invest to get “US Persons” tax status when they can invest in the USA through other means but gain residency in other more tax friendly places.

If Mr. Trump is serious about wanting to attract more wealthy residents to the USA, perhaps he should look at changing the tax system beyond cutting taxes.

“There wouldn’t be a Single Round Eye in an American University if the System was truly about merit” – An Old Rogue.

 

Thanks to the return of Donald Trump to the White House, getting news pegs for things you rant about has become easier. Donald Trump did not disappoint in that department when over the weekend, Mr. Trump fired the Chairman of the Joint Chief’s of Staff, General CQ Brown, along with other senior military officers, including the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Lisa Franchetti and vice-chief for the air force, General Jim Slife.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyr2xvn4dpo

 

 The moves caught people by surprise but were predictable. The Secretary of Defence, Pete Hegseth had stated that one of his first moves would have been to fire General Brown because he was considered “woke” for having spoken up about the George Floyd murder four years ago.

As mentioned, the Trump administration is on the war path against the “management fad” known as “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” or “DEI.” Federal Government agencies and corporations who were once trying to have lots of DEI programs and now rushing to scale back.

https://www.pgsf.org/diversity-equity-inclusion-dei/

 

 According to the Mr. Hegseth, the firing of the likes of General Brown, the second African-American to be Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and Admiral Franchetti, the first woman to be Chief of Naval Operations, ends the era of “DEI Nonsense” and returns the military to “merit based” promotions and focus on “war fighting.”

On the surface, the end of “woke” and things like “DEI” seems to sound like a common-sense return to old fashioned focus on getting things done. To an extent, this sounds like a relief after years of “cultural wars” over things like trans-rights, pronouns and so on.

However, whilst this may sound like a return to what many of us might consider normal, the truth is that the whole point of DEI is misunderstood and the war against the DEI is likely to do exactly the opposite of what its propagators claim they want to do – restore merit to the system.

Let’s face it, meritocracy is a wonderful ideal. In an ideal world, only the best and brightest would get ahead regardless of ethnicity, religion, gender or sexual orientation. Being “colour-blind” when it comes to doing things is the way things “should be.”

However, the reality is that we don’t live in an ideal world and more often than not, things are not as they should be. If you look at any given society, the people with power like having power and their children tend to grow up thinking that their privilege of starting life in a certain place is a natural right.

Look at it this way, nearly everyone of us grew up understanding that the way to get ahead in life is to go to school, get good grades and then get a good job. However, the truth is that a good portion of us start out in “disadvantaged” circumstances. An ethnically white son of a real estate tycoon in Manhattan who went to University of Pennsylvania starts out from a very different place from a black kid from the Bronx who would be lucky to end up in a school where a metal detector at the door is a necessity. It goes without saying that the first kid is bound to do way better in life than the second, who, in many cases would be considered lucky if he didn’t end up doing a bit of time before his 30^th birthday.

Now, you could say this is not the fault of the first kid for being born into a well to do family (speaking as a kid who grew up well to do). However, you can’t really call it true merit if people only compete with people like themselves. Here in Singapore, we officially have a meritocracy. However, if you glance at the boards of the companies on the SGX, you’ll notice that the same names keep popping up. Why is that so? Are these people simply better than the rest of us? The answer could be yes if you look at the way merit is defined (best education performance etc). However, you need to look closer and you’ll notice that they inevitably came from the same schools, hung out in the right social circles and so on.

The problem we get is that concept of merit gets defined by the people on top. This allows them to choose the concept of merit to keep things within the circle. This allows us to develop “inbreeding.” One only has to glance at portraits of medieval monarchs to understand how damaging inbreeding can be.

So, given that the concept of merit becomes corrupted over time, it actually becomes necessary to have something to ensure that the pool of competing people remains relatively open. Call the concept of DEI a necessary step protecting the system from inbreeding.

This leads to the other point that states that DEI and things like affirmative action are about promoting incompetent minorities at the expense of competent majorities. What affirmative action says is that if all things are equal, the one who happens to have something “disadvantaged” in their background, gets the job. Let’s also remember that affirmative action was about keeping the number of Asians down in American university as much it’s been about promoting blacks and Latinos in the work place. The Old Rogue, when he was alive pointed out that “There wouldn’t be a single round eye in American universities if they were based on merit.”

Now, despite the “noble intentions” of DEI, there are faults in the system. However, one of the great ironies is that the one institution that has truly been “colour blind” in America is the military. This being the one place where the number of black people ordering white people around is sizeable.

As anyone who has been into the military realizes, you end up in situations where you care less about whether the person is black, white or purple as long as they can help you out.

Let’s put it this way, General Brown is only the second “black” man to get the top job in the military. This is a job that’s been around since 1942. Admiral Franchetti is the only woman to run the navy, a job that’s been around since 1909. Nobody has stated that either were put there by anything other than merit (for the record, General Brown got his job as the top man in the air force because Donald Trump put him there). As Nelson DeMille in his book the “General’s Daughter” points out “Blacks and Women in the military have to work harder.”

Let’s look at the fact that General Brown’s presumptive replacement is retired Lieutenant-General Dan Caine, who has a record of being a great fighter pilot but has never held a four-star appointment. Is this a case of a qualified black man being replaced by a less qualified white man?  

Yes, the possibility of DEI getting silly is there. However, as the removal of General Brown and Admiral Franchetti is not about returning the military to merit based promotions and focusing on “war-fighting.”

Little Tribes

 

It’s Valentines Day today and I thought it was time to bash out a piece on a topic that many of us don’t think about – our need for a tribe. Ironically, my “love-life” has been what you could call an opener into the topic of tribes.

Let’s face it, the word “tribe” has “primitive” connotations. Mention the word and you automatically think of “less sophisticated” societies like “native Americans” or places in the outback of Sub-Saharan Africa. However, the truth is that modern societies, like Singapore’s a in fact very tribal.

As much as we talk about diversity and the need for “unity in diversity,” the truth is, we as a species,” gravitate towards people who are “like” us regardless of whether the “like” is based on ethnicity, religion, sexuality and so on. I experienced this first hand, when I was a student. I lived in Dean Street, Soho, which was the centre of the “Gay Tribe” of Europe (I used to hang out in a Spanish bar where all the Spanish gay people who could not be gay in Spain ended up.) At the same time, I was also a stone’s throw away from Chinatown, which provided the comfort being able to speak Cantonese (or anything other English), and I got to eat familiar foods like “Dim Sum,” (Chinese restaurants in that part of London were great – the only exception being “Mr. Wu’s” which was a Pseudo-Chinese buffet and I can proudly say I never entered the place in three years of living there.)

In a way, this makes sense, particularly if you’re a migrant, arriving in a place where you don’t speak the language and you don’t know anyone. The most natural place where you gravitate towards is to the place where there are people like you and who can understand you and hopefully get you settled and started in the new place. It was your fellow clansmen who helped you get work and if you started up a business, they were the ones who would be your initial customers. The workings of how “migrant tribes,” whether you call them “Tongs” in the context of a Chinatown in the West or a “Kongsi” in Southeast Asia are best illustrated in the Netflix Series, “Warrior” which shows how Chinese communities in 18^th century San Franciso settled and tried to build a life.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5743796/

 

 It’s easy to see why and how such little tribes formed. I mean, where do you expect to go to when you’re in a foreign land, where you are effectively a fish out of water? Its natural to go to the people are understand you. The Kongsi’s in South East Asia, provided a haven for migrants and by and large, helped to build people-to-people ties between the country or origin and the host country of their communities. I think of the Khoo Kongsi in Penang, Malaysia, which I visited in November. Mum’s close friend, Uncle Teng Guan had actually traced a lot of his heritage in Malaysia through the Khoo Kongsi.

https://www.tiktok.com/@tang.li0/video/7441812326333926673?lang=en

 

 

However, whilst the Kong Si’s had their uses, Singapore’s first tribal leader, Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, decided that they were an impediment to build a “united” Singapore. As such, he went to war against anything that resembled a tie to an era he did not shape. Mr. Lee, for all his brilliance, had a blind spot against Chinese dialects, which he regarded as a relic of an ugly past. As far as he was concerned, Singaporean Chinese would speak English and Mandarin. It was good to learn other things to, except Chinese dialects.

In a way, his war against tribalism seemed wise. Racial quotas in housing estates for example, meant that people of different ethnicities and religions would eventually live side by side. No community would dominate any particular neighborhood.

However, just as clamped down on “tribal” affinations of the old sort, people found new tribal associations. One only has to think of how old school networks play a part in certain industries. I think of my era when I had a Commanding Officer from Hwa Jong as well as a div-arty and Chief of Artillery from the same place. In my first case in the insolvency trade, I notice that the partner in the law firm we were working with came from ACS. No surprise where the associate came from.

Sure, with a new batch of immigrants, the old factors like race and language come about. In my 13-years with Huong, a lot of our social life evolved around Vietnamese girls and their boyfriends or husbands who were inevitably Caucasian expats mainly from the oil and gas industry.

However, its not just race and religion. One of my favourite Teddy Bears in a Chubby Boy who plays video games. His tribe is a tribe of Chubby Boys who play video games. When the focus was the neurotic angel, I discovered a tribe of “Over 50’s Party girls,” who were trying to get a tribe of little party boys. Now that I’m spending Valentines Day with the Pillow, I’ve noticed that a lot of her friends are also pillows. I look at myself. I am bald and the guy who has kept me in a job for the last decade is also bald.

Now, there are advantages of the new tribes in that there’s flexibility. You don’t have to be exclusive to any particular tribe. Some of the Over 50s Party Girls are part of the Pillow gang as well. I, for example, happen to mix with people with hair from time to time.

There is a use for tribes. Human beings need their tribes. However, as shown in the Warrior series, there’s the issue of insularity. If you watch Warrior, you’ll notice the way in which the Irish and Chinese have a go at each other because they think killing the other community benefits theirs.

So, whilst people will look for their own tribe, there is also the need for a safe guard against breeding tribalism and insularity. To an extent, its encouraging to see how some tribes do it from the ground up, like a recent cross-chamber party I recently attended, which was jointly organized by the Irish, Canadians, Italian, South Africans and New Zealanders. All these countries are relatively small. Yet, they’ve found that working together on such events does create opportunities for their members. Its something we should all remember, we may be small but when we work together, we can do great things.  

https://irishchambersg.glueup.com/event/cross-chamber-lunar-new-year-networking-celebration-22nd-january-2025-128805/   

Should You Give a S*** about being a S***?

 

It’s often said that one of the signs of being very rich is the fact that you can show the world that you really don’t care about everyone else. Look at the way some of the world’s billionaires dress. A lot of them are spectacularly shabby, because, well the rules about dressing to impress don’t really apply when you don’t need to impress anyone but everyone else needs to impress you.

The other big perk of being exceedingly wealthy is the fact that the very concept of work takes on a different meaning when you’re not doing it to survive. People like Bill Gates, for example, have moved away from the activity that made them spectacularly wealthy and moved to passion projects like saving the world.

So, in a sense, the ultra-wealthy are a boon to the rest of us. Take Bill Gates as an example. Mr. Gates, for the longest of times, on top of the rich list with a wealth comparable with a few nations and then, he gave it up and poured his fortune into making the world a better place. Whilst Mr. Gates wasn’t always the most popular billionaire (He didn’t push us to use the best software around – just his software), most people would say his contribution to humanity has been a net positive. Mr. Gates made being very wealthy easy (Just go work for Microsoft and get your stock options) and he’s throwing money at things like bringing sanitation to the world and finding a cure for HIV/AIDS. These are things which only the insane would say are bad. Likewise, there’s Mr. George Soros, who made his fortune cashing in on the incompetence of finance ministers, who has used his fortune to do things like promote more open societies.

So, whilst we may not like certain members of the ultra-elite, there are certain members of that circle who do good by putting their brains and fortunes to make the world a better place.

However, happens when members of that part of society decide that they should use their fortune to make society worse? The prime example is the richest man in history, Mr. Elon Musk, whose taken on a passion project of making the world a nastier place by giving credence to the world’s most shameless opportunist who only get potent when bashing up people significantly weaker than themselves.

Mr. Musk is well known for his backing of Mr. Trump, who recaptured the White House on the premise of ending crime by dark skinned people who do work that no one else will do and freeing violent criminals who actually attacked the national capital.

Once his boy got into power, Mr. Musk proceeded to p*** off the rest of the world by giving what looked suspiciously like a Nazi salute.

Mr. Musk would probably be an American farce if kept his focus within the USA. However, he hasn’t. Take his efforts to prove that he had no love for history’s most infamous political party, Mr. Musk proceeded to rally a political party that runs pretty much on a platform similar to the Nazis in the country that the Nazis mobilized to their awful deeds by telling the German people not to carry the guilt of their past.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iB9SefG5Ow

 

Sure, nobody is saying that Germans shouldn’t be proud of their country. On the balance of things, Germany post 1945 has been good for the world. Modern Germany anchors Europe, which has moved from a continent where nobody could conceive of being at peace to one that nobody can conceive of being at war within a generation. There is also a case to say that Germany does get trapped in its past when it backs whatever Israel does unconditionally.

However, nobody, including a good many Germans (for the record, I have Germans that I call family) believe that Germany should never forget its past. The so called “guilt” has made it such that Germany has acted on the global stage through Europe and brought up the European continent as a whole.

Let’s think of who else Mr. Musk has befriended. In the UK, he’s decided that Nigel Farage of the Reform Party isn’t extreme enough and is looking for someone who makes Mr. Farage looks like one of life’s better specimens.

Again, let’s remember that Mr. Musk isn’t some troll in a basement. His net worth, which at the time of writing, is estimated by the Bloomberg Billionaire index stands at some US$422 billion. To put this in context, Mr. Musk is worth more than the GDP of Finland, a highly advanced economy. So, when Mr. Musk opens his mouth and makes pronouncements on various topics, he does so with a lot of weight behind him. Let’s not forget we live in an age where we worship wealth. We assume Mr. Musk is “smart” because his net worth is what it is.

The issue here is not that Mr. Musk is rich. He did what he did and got rewarded for it. By all accounts he’s a hard worker. However, the issue here is the fact that he’s gone out of his way to help social scum dominate the rest of us.

So, what can we do to limit someone with that much influence of things without banning wealth or freedom of expression? Yes, we do need more funds going into things like research to fund deadly diseases and lifting people out of poverty. We don’t need people funding the type of people that victimize the people who can’t fight back and do work. How do we encourage the very wealthy to give back rather than to throw s*** against the rest of us? These are questions we need to work on.

They Didn’t Think He’d Go for Them

 

Last night I had the privilege of having dinner with one of my favourite members of the legal community. We talked a bit about family history and mentioned that one of his aunt’s had fled German controlled Czechoslovakia for Shanghai during 40s. He’s Jewish and when mentioned that, I told him that my step grandfather had learnt to speak German from Jews in Shanghai, who had fled Germany and German controlled Europe.

What really struck me about my friend’s recalling of family history is the fact that he mentioned that whilst most of his family got out of Europe before the Nazi’s got serious about exterminating Jews, many of their contemporaries thought Hitler didn’t really mean them. It was a case of “he’s only going to go for the religious Jews,” and “not people like us who happen to be Jewish but aren’t strict about it and we’re so integrated into society, we’re actually like everyone else.”

This really struck me because we’re now living in an age where nations in the places that the rest of us look up to are becoming increasingly isolationist and things that were once considered “xenophobic” or “racist” and therefore “unacceptable” are now being seen as “truthful” and therefore “acceptable.”

I think of the Pork Guzzling Young Muslim Politician from Pasir Ris GRC who got the shock of his life when I told him that I got turned off Donald Trump the day he got onto a podium and talked about “Mexican Rapist.” Yes, I agree, all of us say “racist” things and have racist thoughts and I have to admit that I am guilty of it too. However, whilst I may the odd “racist” thought and say the “odd racist” thing, I am aware that it’s the ugly part of me and I like to think that a lot of people are like that too. Then, there’s the point that I’m a nobody and I’ll never get the levers of state power. So, when I’m at my ugly best, I’m just ugly and most right-thinking people avoid me.

However, it’s a different story when you talk about people with pubic platforms and ambitions for public office. Let’s go back to the fact that Adolf Hitler only succeeded at what he did succeed in because the people gave him the levers of the machinery of the state. That gave him ability to do the horrible things that he did. Had Hitler remained an unknown painter, nobody would have cared about what he said or did.

How did Hitler get to where he got to? The answer is simple, he found an easy target and the targeted them as the source of all problems. Whenever he said anything ugly about the Jews, the mases thought he was “telling it as it is.” The people with power thought he would be a “useful idiot” and so many backed him. The people with a few brain cells gave him lots of license because they didn’t treat him seriously and I’m sure plenty of people said he probably didn’t mean what he was saying and so on. Like it or not, Hitler was given the keys to the machinery of state and the rest is well documented.

For the longest of time, targeting any particular ethnic or religious group was unacceptable in any decent society. I think of the late Jean-Marie Le Penn of the National Front in France who ran for the Presidency five times. He hated every immigrant to France and his solution to all of France’s problems was centred around removing every French person of colour. Sure, he picked up votes but by and large the French voters thought of him as a “crazy old man.”

Unfortunately, we seem to be forgetting the lessons of the 30s. When Trump made his comment about Mexicans, you had lots of people rushing to defend these comments as “he didn’t really mean it,” or “may be, he didn’t say it very well.” Brushing Mexicans as rapist was a wonderful dog whistle for the guys who can’t get laid and let’s just put it this way, guys who can’t get laid tend to take it out on the reason why they can’t get laid.

Ironically, things have evolved and become more sophisticated. In France, Marianne Le Penn has successfully rebranded the “National Front,” and instead of ranting and raving, packages things in a simple but attractive way. It’s gone round the world.

Just look at the difference between Trump 2016 and Trump 2024. This time round things are more sophisticated, even if you have to listen to the rants about “eating dogs” from time to time. Trump has managed to get the “tech-titans” who once shunned him over to his side. This time he’s gotten “Latinos” despite all his rhetoric about mass deportations. Ask enough people of migrant stock as to why they’re voting for him and the answer is inevitably “He means Latinos crossing the border and not people like us who are well integrated into the rest of society.”

It cannot be a good sign when one of Mr. Trump’s big backers appears to give Nazi salutes at the inauguration:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2bbb-6Clhs

 

Sure, not all of Mr. Trump’s ideas were bad. As my favourite Young Muslim Politician likes to say “Many Americans I know say he grew the economy.” However, whilst economic growth is important, it cannot come at a certain cost and let’s never forget that Adolf did grow the German economy for a while.

Let’s face it, if economic growth was the be all and end all of how you judge a government, then China’s Communist Party would be the best in human history. To the credit of the CCP, they have brought more people out of absolute poverty in a relatively short time (40 to 50 plus years) and so they must be good, never mind the Tibetans and Uighurs that they’ve gone out of their way to eradicate.

The public targeting of any particular group by anyone seeking office should be a reason why you should NEVER let them have the keys to the machinery of state. When someone, particularly someone seeking power blames every social woe on “Indians/Chinese/Blacks/Muslims/Jews/Christians/Gays etc,” they mean exactly that and not “Indians/Chinese/Blacks/Muslims/Jews/Christians/Gays like us who are part of the mainstream etc. Also remember that if someone target certain groups, they can definitely target yours when they run of excuses.