Don’t Forget the Hippos

The current geopolitical scene today is dominated by two elephants, namely the USA and China. The USA remains the world’s largest economy and the American military remains the only military force on the planet that can fight two wars in the world at any given time. The other elephant is China, which in the last four decades has grown its economy to being able to challenge that of the USA (even American policy makers admit that it’s a question of when China becomes the larger economy) and with growing prosperity, its invested in its military, so much so that American military planners don’t take assume that they’ll automatically win any potential war with China.

Unfortunately for the rest of the world, both elephants have character flaw. China, under President Xi has become especially mean, nasty and secretive. Whatever growing rights that China’s citizens enjoyed under his predecessors have since vanished. In the handling of the Covid-19 outbreak, scientist in China who tried to warn the world ended up vanishing, which was something that didn’t happen during the SARS outbreak of 2003. Mr. Xi has used anti-corruption drives to consolidate power to such a point that he has decided that he’ll do away with the tradition of leaders handing over power after a decade.

While the USA under Trump isn’t nasty, it become something of an incompetent buffoon, which has become particularly noticeable in its handling of Covid-19. America, which used to be a donor nation in any disaster has needed to get mask from elsewhere and the world has been transfixed by images of American doctors begging for basic protective equipment. As this happens, you get daily scenes of the President bragging about the great job he’s doing. Even before the outbreak of Covid-19, the Trump Administration was unashamedly transactional in its foreign policy and its high staff turnover suggested that it could barely get its act together.

So, what can the rest of the world do? How do you choose between a nasty elephant and an unpredictable and stupid one? I’ve previously argued that small nations need to work more closely together, as in the case of the European Union. There’s another solution, which my favourite litigator reminded me of in a recent article that he shared on Linkedin:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/small-world-big-thinking-exporting-your-brand-services-mark-goh/?trackingId=

The answer is to remember that while the elephants are by far and away the most dominant animals in the jungle of geopolitics, there are other large animals who can help small insects. For my favourite litigator, the two animals are the United Kingdom (the dominant global power before the USA) and Japan (the dominant power in Asia, before China). You could say that if the USA and China are elephants, the UK and Japan are hippos.

Hippos may not be as domineering as elephants but they have the potential to offer the world. Britain may not have the firepower of the USA; the British armed forces have been an invaluable ally in America’s conflicts. The British Armed forces are considered to be amongst the world’s most professional and experienced, so much so that I remember one of my favourite Englishmen reminding a group of Singaporeans that American Navy Seals go to the UK for training by the SAS and SBS. British Armed forces have defended British citizens in troubled spots and have shown themselves more than capable of defending their interest.

The economy of the UK isn’t something to be sniffed at either. London remains New York’s only competitor as the world’s main financial centre, even with the loss of unfettered access to Europe through Brexit. The UK remains the sixth largest economy in the world with a nominal Gross Domestic Product (“GDP”) of US$2.83 trillion and a Purchasing Power Parity (“PPP”) of US$10.4 trillion. It’s not the largest economy or largest market but it is still in the top ten places of markets to be.

The United Kingdom has serval key strengths which cannot be rivalled. It is the home of the English language; the language used in global commerce and has strengths in soft power exports like music and sport (90 percent of Manchester United Fans have never been to Old Trafford). The UK has the Oxbridge Universities, which are consistently in the top ten of the world’s best and British Universities have trained many global leaders. The Commonwealth of Nations, which was formed from the empire provides the UK with relationships to a quarter of the known world. Furthermore the “Common Law” Jurisdiction allows British Entrepreneurs to operate in a wide variety of familiar legal jurisdictions, a fact that my favourite liquidator is banking on. Britain is in many ways incredibly flexible and friendly for entrepreneurs.

In Asia, the forgotten player is Japan, which is the world’s third largest economy with a nominal GDP of US$5.1 trillion. While this is dwarfed by the US$14.1 trillion of China, the average Japanese remains wealthier and Japan has advantages in high technology manufacturing. Japan is in many ways a very futuristic society that has embraced technology in ways that no one else has done, as this video from Drew Binsky explains:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzIBbF-8lAU

Japan may lack the sheer mass that China has, it has one crucial advantage, stronger soft power. While Japan has yet to atone for many of its crimes in the Second World War (which is a source of tension with its neighbours), it is perceived as a more benign force that China. Everyone in the ASEAN region worries about China swallowing their territory in the South China seas. There are no corresponding fears about Japan.

Furthermore, the most obvious friendship in Japan’s favour is India, the only country that competes with China for sheer mass. India is what you’d call the proverbial third elephant that never quite lives up to its potential because of its schizoid politics. Like Japan, India has a rivalry with China and as Bloomberg Columnist Andy Mukherjee said many years ago, Japan’s most obvious bet is to build India up. Japan has the money and technology but does not have the size to compete, whereas India has size but remains poorer and more backwards than China. Hence, Japanese-Indian cooperation seems like the most obvious course to follow and the warm relationship between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shinzo Abe can only speed up this process.

Both Japan and the UK are in many ways, “sunset” powers that once occupied top spot and are now forced to find their global relevance by playing second fiddle to the American elephant.

However, the fact remains that both the UK and Japan are countries that play a role on the global stage. The British in particular had to build their global empire by learning how to operate as small units cooperating, have certain skill sets that the rest of us can learn from.

Working with elephants is important, even if one of them is stupid and the other one is nasty. However, they aren’t the only animals in the proverbial jungle and working with other large animals can also be a way of securing ones future.

God’s Virus

Although I’m officially a Buddhist, my intellectual framework is based on Christian Theology. This was a subject that opened my eyes and challenged many of our long-held assumptions about faith. It was a subject that I excelled at and the two teachers I had, had high hopes for me. My last teacher, David Pook, in particular, had high hopes that I’d get an “A” at A-level and go onto read theology at university. Unfortunately, I got put off by the idea of having to learn ancient Greek (can’t even speak to Greeks), Hebrew and Sanskrit, which were all part of the theology courses in British universities. David did take it personally that I didn’t go onto read theology.

It’s been nearly two and a half decades since I’ve looked at a Bible with an analytical mind. However, I still find the way man relates to the higher powers, fascinating. I think that its probably no coincidence that I ended up back in Singapore, which has a shockingly high number of “religious” people and the societies that would provide most of my benefactors would be India and Saudi Arabia.

I would also add that my personal religious beliefs have been shaped by encountering people of many faiths and life is such that I’ve found beauty and horror in all religions. I am a Buddhist who loves the teaching of the Abrahamic God. My guiding principles on faith come from a Malay taxi driver who told me that “Salaam,” the shaking of hands and building of friendship is the first real religion and a Malay bus driver who told me that “Too much emphasis is placed on the word of the book and not enough on the spirit.” Whenever I post anything on religion, it’s always based around these two principles.

Covid-19 has been a particularly interesting time for anyone who observes man’s relationship with God and one of the fault lines in theology has become very clear – namely that its “human” centric. Our beliefs have always been shaped around the principle that God has given us the human race “mastery of all other beast” and we behave as if God only deals with us when it comes to planet earth.

Think of all the things that we pray for. It’s all about us and us alone. We ask God for wealth, good exam results and so on. Praying for the rest of our planet doesn’t even cross our minds. Human nature is such that we’re now fighting over our right to worship in places where we want to worship rather than what we’re worshiping. In the US, the debate is about “Church” being an “essential” service. In places like Indonesia people hold up placards saying “Don’t Fear the Virus, Fear Allah.” People still insist on their right to gather to worship God despite the fact that such gatherings have already struck down enough people with the virus.

From a theological perspective, I’m starting to think that the virus was sent by God to set us straight. The human race is now being forced to look at the world beyond itself and God, for want of a better word, is now getting us to think of the rest of the planet.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the virus started in Wuhan, China, the world’s worst polluter. While China has achieved something amazing from an economic perspective (Third world shit hole to second largest economy in a generation), it has done so at huge environmental costs. While the average Chinese has more money than his or her parents could have dreamed of, they live in a world where breathing is dangerous.

I also don’t think it’s a coincidence that the world leader in number of cases and deaths is the USA, which under the Trump administration, has become the world’s most arrogant nation that tries to use its clout to get its way. Trump Administration had plenty of warning and time to act and continues to live in a state of denial. To add to this point, its no coincidence that Brazil under Bolsonaro, which has allowed vast destruction of the Amazon, is now in second place in terms of number of people infected and killed.

I think of the virus as God’s way of reminding us that there is something greater than our own materialistic pursuits and that we have to look out for the rest of the planet. The human race is being forced to understand that the divine gift of “mastery” over the other beast, also means looking after the eco-system as well as taking from it.

As the human race is forced to halt “usual” activities, nature has had the chance to heal. In Singapore otters have been seen wondering our streets. The air, which was unbreathable in places like Delhi, Shanghai, Mumbai and Beijing is suddenly clear.

I actually had the privilege helping a client get the point across in a public forum that the human race cannot continue as before and that economic development has to work hand in hand with looking after the environment. The client in question is organizing a business accelerator program with a focus on businesses that help preserve the environment. The article can be found at:

https://www.todayonline.com/voices/why-cant-cleaner-air-last-beyond-circuit-breaker

For the better part of a millennium, the human race assumed that God gave it an exclusive to do as it pleased. I hope that people look at Covid-19 as God’s way of reminding us that we got to look after the state of the world. Rather than asking for God’s protection, perhaps its time to see this as God’s way of getting us to be more reflective and less selfish as a species.

  

Your Rich – We Have to Give You More

I’ve been spending a little less time on the blog and focusing more of my time on writing for the mainstream media in recent days. A part of shifting focus has been work-related. The other has been the fact that there are issues that need to be raised in a place where there’s going to be wide discussion.

The most prominent issue that has caught my attention and the attention of many in Singapore is the issue of foreign worker dormitories. The reason for this is simple, these are the places where the explosion in Covid-19 cases have been found and the government has decided to throw a lifeline to the dormitory operators by offering to foot the bill for the increased operational costs that the dormitory operators will have to face. More details on that story can be found at:

https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/government-to-absorb-additional-operational-costs-for-dormitory-operators-during-circuit

While the stay-at-home orders and lockdowns on the dormitories has undoubtedly raised operational costs for the dormitory owners, one has to ask why the government has decided to step in as their proverbial sugar daddy. This is especially in a situation where the dormitory owners are in no danger of going bankrupt.

As matter of principle, I’m against subsidies from the government, whether its to individuals or corporations. Having grown up in the West, I saw how noble intentions ruined. Welfare, which was meant to help the poor ended up destroying the incentive to work. “Free” healthcare was often abused (think of the 18 months it takes to get an appointment with an orthodontist in the NHS) and then, there’s the well subsidized business of farming, which became very lucrative for farmers who realized that farming was not about crops or livestock but filling out forms.

I get why some subsidies exists. On a personal level, there are people who are basket cases that you can’t leave to rot (think of the problems they’ll cause as they rot). I think of Flesh Ball and her various men as an example. When it comes to businesses, there are times when a subsidy is necessary, especially when it involves bringing something to market that will have eventual social benefits. Renewable energies for example, were highly subsidized because they were expensive. However, those subsidies have paid off in that the cost of producing renewables are now competitive and it has provided the world with energy sources that don’t damage the environment.

Then there are exceptional circumstances where subsidies to businesses help provide social collapse. Subsidies to businesses in the current shut down of the global economy have helped keep people who might otherwise be unemployed in a job. The alternative is mass long-term unemployment, which in turn would mean social unrest.

So, the question is, does the dormitory operations industry justify giving a subsidy? I believe that the obvious answer is no.

Firstly, there is no benefit to the tax payer in doing so. Unlike renewable energy companies, they are producing anything that would add value to either people or the planet in the long run. They are merely putting people into a certain space and charging a fee for it.

Secondly, the dormitory operators are not in any danger of going bankrupt and throwing people out of work. While a breakdown of their number of employees is not available, a look at Centurion Corporation’s website would indicate that they are still hiring.

https://www.centurioncorp.com.sg/career-opportunities/

As mentioned in two letters to the Straits Times (including one by me), the dormitory owners are exceptionally profitable. Details can be found at:

https://www.straitstimes.com/forum/why-foot-the-bill-for-dorm-operators-that-have-profited-for-years; and

https://www.straitstimes.com/forum/forum-let-dormitory-operators-face-the-music-themselves

Numbers quoted in both letters were taken from Centurion Corporation’s financial website at (Being a listed company, Centurion Corporation has to publish its financial results):

https://centurion.listedcompany.com/financials.html

The letter by Mr. Cheng Shoong Tat got the board of the Centurion Corporation to scramble and they had to issue a “clarification” as to what their $103.78 million profit on revenue of $133.353 million meant. They’ve made a point that of that $103,78 million profit that they made includes a “one-time” net fair valuation gain of $66.3 million on investment properties and assets held for sale. The clarification also makes the point the worker dormitory business is just 65percent of their total. More details can be found at:

https://centurion.listedcompany.com/newsroom/20200518_205520_OU8_AKSMHTJUI645S6UQ.1.pdf

What does this mean in layman terms? Is the company saying that the $66 million in “fair-valuation” gains merely an accounting treatment rather than actual cash?

Even if you take the “clarification” at face value, Centurion’s profits are exceedingly healthy by any standards. If you take out the “one-time” net fair-valuation gain, the profits before tax would be $44.735 million (Gross Profit less expenses), which would mean profit margins of 33 percent (still very healthy by any standard) and if you less income tax, there’s still $37.522 million, which means a margin of 28 percent. Furthermore, the “one-time” net valuation gain is also in the financial results for 2018, which would suggest that the one-time gains are fairly consistent.

All these factors should not distract from the fact that Centurion Corporation is sitting on a cash pile of some $48 million (cash at bank).

Nobody is saying that Centurion Corporation and its brethren are not allowed to make profits. What is questioned is why the tax payer has to subsidise them when there is a situation where they are likely to make less. The point about going into business is that you take the risk and rewards accordingly. When times are good, you are entitled to your profits but when times are harsh, you take the losses. Other businesses have also taken hits. SIA, for example has had to lay off staff because the global airline industry has been badly hit. However, SIA provides jobs for many Singaporeans and actively promotes Singapore, something which the dormitory owners do not.

The most crucial point to the case against footing the bill is that many of the costs that are now being imposed on the dormitory owners are now being forced to take on, were costs that should have been factored in when the Foreign Employers Dormitories Act (“FEDA”) came into force in January 2016. This act essentially sets certain standards in the industry of providing accommodation for foreign workers and the fact that the government introduced this act would indicate that the government realized that it needed to have some oversight on the industry. More can be found at:

https://sso.agc.gov.sg/Act/FEDA2015

This leads to the fact that half of all dormitory owner’s flout licensing requirements on a yearly basis as the Minister of Manpower admitted to parliament:

https://www.straitstimes.com/politics/majority-of-dorm-operators-flout-licensing-conditions-each-year-says-josephine-teo

So, the question remains, why should the tax payer bail out a highly profitable and cash rich industry from failing to fulfill its legal obligations? What hold does this industry have over the tax payer that it can demand a right to be subsidized to correct its own failings. When was it my obligation as a tax payer to fund an industry’s right to make healthy profits.

When Eunuchs Run the Show

One of the things that you can give right wing populist great credit for is the fact that they have the ability to inspire you. If I look at the stuff that I’ve written in the last two-years, I realise a lot of it has been inspired by the current Occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Whenever I needed inspiration to write about something, I merely had to search the news on Donald Trump and I’d inevitably have something to write about. There’s nothing like an incredibly powerful figure saying and doing stupid things to inspire the creative juices.

America’s comedians have never had it so good. The Donald provides them with material that writes itself and, in a way, American comedy has become a valuable source of social commentary. They’re saying the same thing that conventional news is saying but in a way that makes it, well, funny.

You got to admit that we are living in the world of black comedy. You got to admit that there’s something very funny about the way Trump and his supporters are managing Covid-19. There’s something strangely addictive about watching Trump talk about what a great job he’s doing and how China is awful and how states need to open up and relax their social distancing and stay at home orders, while America’s infection and fatality figures shoot up. At the time of writing, America has lost more people to Covid-19 in five months than they did in the 14-years of the Vietnam War. It won’t be long before the fatalities outstrip that of World War I.

Trump isn’t the only clown making a mockery of leadership concepts. There’s an improved second act of stupidity further south – Jair Bolsonaro. If there is anyone who can Trump the Trump, Jair Bolsonaro is it. The USA’s federal system, has in a strange way saved it in as much as Trump’s stupidity is counteracted by semi-intelligent state governors, whom the Trump cannot sack. Bolsonaro has actually sacked his health minister for doing his job and trying to save Brazilian lives.

While Brazil’s figures are still far behind the USA’s, it should come as no surprise that South America’s largest economy and the “B” in the “BRICS” has been surging up the infection rate table. When I first blogged about Bolsonaro on 4 May 2020, Brazil had 102 thousand cases with seven thousand fatalities. Within the space on two weeks, that figure now stands at 241,080 cases and 16 thousand fatalities. More can be found at:

https://www.scmp.com/video/coronavirus/3084817/brazils-covid-19-case-numbers-surpass-italy-and-spain-bolsonaro-plays

Like the Trump, Bolsonaro does not feel that he’s got to pretend to be seen to be taking precautions. A week ago, he was happily attending a barbeque without a mask as was reported by the Guardian:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/10/bolsonaro-attends-floating-barbeque-as-brazils-covid-19-toll-tops-10000

While there’s a morbidly funny quality of watching Trump and his Tropical Counterpart revel in their disregard for something that has killed by the thousands, one has to ask why people still hang onto the belief that these leaders refuse to do the right thing?

What is it about people who don’t want to listen to the facts? The facts are very clear, this is a very infectious virus that spreads incredibly easily. The perfectly healthy person you were chatting to on the bus could be a carrier and capable of infecting you. That person wouldn’t even know it if he or she did it. We’ve seen the fact that keeping people away from crowds has worked. The countries that enacted social distancing measures early on, like New Zealand, Taiwan and Vietnam have been able to “control” the infection rates.

Countries that have shown courage to shut down vital economic lifelines have saved people. Think of Macao, for example, shut down its casinos, which are pretty much the only economic activity in Macao. At the time of writing Macao has had 45 infections. Let’s remember, Macao is part of China, the place where it all started.

Then there’s Saudi Arabia, which under the Crown Prince, Mohammad Bin Salman (“MBS”), does not have a reputation for being well run. Yet, to his credit, the Crown Prince moved to suspend Umrah, the minor pilgrimage as is reported by the Jakarta Post:

https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2020/02/27/saudi-arabia-imposes-temporary-ban-on-umrah-pilgrims-amid-coronavirus-concerns.html

In early April 2020 of this year, the Saudi Government went as far as to ask Muslims to postpone the Haj as is reported by the BBC:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-52118803

The Haj and Umrah pilgrimages are not just economic boons for the Saudi Government (pilgrimages being the largest source of revenue after oil) but a source of political legitimacy. The Saudi King’s claim to legitimacy is based on the title “Custodian of the Two Holy Mosque.” Suspending the pilgrimages is not just economically risky but politically risky for the Saudi Government. Yet, they’ve done it and the Ungodly at of putting two million people around the world at risk has been averted.

Seriously, if MBS is willing to take political and economic risk to keep the world safe, why do the Trump and Bolsonaro refuse to see the obvious and take the responsibility that their respective offices require of them? Come on, it’s time that the American and Brazilian voters did their part and voted real men into power.

Life Lessons from an Eccentric Doctor

My latest guilty pleasure during this circuit breaker is a Japanese TV series on Netflix called “Dr. X – Surgeon Michiko Daimon.” Apart from the obvious charms of Ryoko Yonekura, the actress who plays the titular character, the thing that makes the show so enjoyable is a main issue for anyone living in an Asian Society, particularly if you’re the type of person who doesn’t accept things as they are.

Dr. Michiko Daimon is a freelance surgeon in a university hospital in central Tokyo. The show underlines the fact that she’s a lone wolf surgeon who “Hates Crowds” and “Hates Authority.” These characteristics clash very visibly with the culture of the hospital, which is deferential to authority and there is plenty of group think. She only gets away with her antics because she’s a brilliant surgeon who manages to do the things that no one else does.

The entire story was something relatable, especially after more than a decade as a freelance consultant in Asia, which is a part of the world that doesn’t have a culture that looks too kindly on people who stand out too obviously. Confucius, the founding philosopher of Chinese and by extension Japanese and Korean cultures, believed that everyone had a place in life and there was a great reverence for established authority, which in turn had an obligation to “look after” the people below.

While I do admire people, who can put the community above themselves, there are dangers in this approach.

The most obvious point is that the people who achieve great power aren’t always the most honourable and righteous. Even if a person starts out with the purest of intentions, a long spell in power often have a way of corrupting the best and brightest. As ethnic Chinese, I think of Mao, who lead the liberation of peasants against corrupt warlords and then ended up becoming nastier than the people he replaced. His contemporary in Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh by contrast had good fortune to die before he could go nuts.

The next point with linear or top down systems is that people in them tend to lose focus. The problem in such systems is that the only way of moving in life is either up or down. It goes without saying that if your only way of getting anywhere is based on whether the top man likes you, your focus becomes pleasing the top man. The show illustrates this perfectly. In the hospital where Dr. Daimon works, everyone is terrified of the “Professors,” who are quite often the least able to perform basic surgery. Yet, nobody questions the diagnosis of the professors and they end up doing all sorts of crap to keep on the good side of the professors, including cover up for them when dealing with mistresses. The show inevitably starts with the entire hospital rushing up stairs to greet the director (who takes the lift) to accompany him on his rounds. The most prominent incident comes when a pediatric surgeon refuses to examine a child who is complaining of various pains that occur randomly throughout her body because his boss, the Professor of Pediatrics, performed the surgery and he won’t do anything that makes his boss look bad.

While a certain amount of deference to established authority is warranted, an obsession with looking up and down is unhealthy. The problem that the hospital faces is the doctors are more focused on keeping their professors happy and the professors are only interested in their research papers. The needs of patients are ignored and this is where Dr. Daimon comes in. She’s terrible at fitting in but she acts in the best interest of patients giving them medical advice they need rather than what they want. In one episode she antagonizes a celebrity cook because she refuses to admire her cooking (which is awful). However, she is the one who rescues the celebrity who has cancer and needs surgery. She goes as far as to perform the surgery with a consent form because it is a life and death situation and that is more important than the prospect of being sued.

In hierarchical systems, the reality of becoming too obsessed with climbing the ladder and our boss’s opinion of us that we forget that the people keeping the business running are the customers. I think of my “career” path. Couldn’t make it in PR agency. Either rubbed bosses or colleagues the wrong way. Yet, as a freelancer I actually did jobs that most people would say I had no right to do as a lone individual (think Saudi Embassy, IIM and IIT).

The next point is that you got to do the work and be prepared to cast your net ass widely as possible to get information. In the first series, Dr. Diamon chats with a patient who worked in the rubber industry. From there, she realizes that the patient has allergy to latex and she quickly orders non latex gloves before the surgery. So, when she has to step in to perform the surgery, she’s able to ensure that everyone else has gloves that won’t cause the patient to have an allergic reaction.

Lesson here is to be open to things and knowledge doesn’t necessarily comes from where you expect it. As my favourite liquidator says when looking for financial shenanigans, don’t just look at financial records – simple emails can also give you plenty of information.

Dr. Diamon is also the only doctor in the hospital to check x-rays and when she questions her superiors, she’s doing so from a point of knowledge rather than taking things in on a wholesale basis. To get knowledge, you have to actually look for it.

Next point is that Dr. Diamon is good at getting people onto her side. In one instance, she concedes defeat and gets another doctor to take charge and look good. This is a doctor who refused to work with her until forced to because he didn’t trust her. It’s only as he’s been operating that he realizes that he’s doing what she wants him to do and gives her respect when she allows him to be the hero. Her main point is that she knew she couldn’t achieve the mission without his help and so is willing to give away credit

This leads to the next point, which is, although Dr. Diamon does not make “friends,” she has them. There is her “agent” Akira, who handles the money. While Dr. Diamon is a brilliant surgeon, she’s terrible with money and her agent ensures that she gets well compensated for her work. Moral of the story – work with people who will cover for your weaknesses.

Many years ago, I remember the Bishop of Lewes, who was our guest at “Speech Day” urged us to become “eccentric.” I remember this because this wasn’t something that you’d expect a guest at a public-school speech day to mention, especially when that guest was a monk.

I never quite appreciated this until I started watching Dr. X. One should not be afraid of being a little unusual. It helps shield one from the dangers of group think and when you’re not afraid to stand out from time to time, you get the chance of focusing on the things that you actually need to focus on rather than on the things that people would like you to be distracted by.

Knowing when to Change Your Role

Aside from Covid-19 news, one of the most interesting bits of news comes from the world of boxing. The former “Baddest Man on the Planet,” Mike Tyson has shown videos of himself training for a “comeback.”

Mike Tyson was the most ferocious boxer of his generation. I’m old enough to remember watching him in his prime. The man was not the biggest guy in the ring but he was the most ferocious. He was raw violence personified. If Mohammad Ali was the boxing hero of my father’s generation, Mike Tyson was the villain of mine. Tyson’s reputation was such that he simply terrified people and most of the guys he killed in the ring had already lost before they entered the ring. I was living in England during his first fight with Frank Bruno, who was physically bigger. The fact that Frank Bruno lasted five rounds was considered a major achievement and in fairness to Frank Bruno he did land one good shot on Tyson, who promptly replied with many good shots.

The end for Mike Tyson’s era of invincibility came when he met James Buster Douglas who refused to be intimidated. As Tyson would later admit, the loss came because he was too busy partying the night before and Douglas was training for the fight of his life. Although he had a few more wins after that, he was never the same. There were his fights with Evander Holyfield (including the infamous disqualification for biting the ear), then he got a proverbial spanking from Lenox Lewis and the finale to his career was losing to Kevin McBride, a white boy (back in the days when top heavy weight boxers were inevitably black) whom was described as a can of tomatoes.

Tyson had what the others of his generation didn’t have – charisma. You can’t help but talk about him. After boxing, Tyson has had some success as an actor, most noticeably in the movie Ip Man 3, where he stared opposite Donny Yuen. His personality seems to have softened too. When I watch him on Youtube, I find myself struggling to understand how the gentle and soft-spoken man was once the 

most famous and intimidating man on the planet.

So, what does one make of his comeback? There have been reports that the 53-year old Mike Tyson is in incredible shape and seems to be as physically impressive as he was when he was in his 20s. 

One of the people who has endorsed him for his physicality is another old man, who made waves when he made a comeback to the sport in his later years – George Forman. Big George has he was known has stated that Mike Tyson could be a top-heavy weight:

https://metro.co.uk/2020/05/07/george-foreman-backs-mike-tyson-top-heavyweight-contender-announcing-boxing-comeback-12669128/

George Foreman was physically impressive and his brute strength was evident in his 40s as it had been in his 20s. What he lacked in speed, he more than made up for in raw power. It’s probably the same case with Tyson.

On one hand its very encouraging to see Mike Tyson at 53 and Evander Holyfield at 57 making comebacks and looking as fit as ever. This is what you call active aging and it would be nice to see both be among the top contenders for the Heavyweight Crown. Success for Tyson or Holyfield in the ring would be a knockout punch for ageism in the workforce – ie if Tyson can hold his own in a boxing ring against younger and fitter men, why can’t I still be a contender for top PR jobs at 45?

Boxing also needs a breath of fresh air and both Tyson and Holyfield could provide it. Since Mike Tyson left the scene, there hasn’t been a heavy weight to have captured the public imagination the way he did (OK, Mayweather and Pacquiao have done it in lower weight divisions but still…)

However, there are certain realities about aging. The human body deteriorates with time – hence when I’m described as “strong” by people 20-years younger, I worry for the people giving me the compliment and I’m not doing anything near the intensity of what boxers’ do. While I wouldn’t want the now gentle version of Mike Tyson to breath in my direction when he’s annoyed, it could be a different story if he has to face a professional boxer who has trained day and day out and grew up in an era where his history is just that – history:

https://www.bbc.com/sport/boxing/52632739?at_custom3=BBC+Sport&at_custom2=facebook_page&at_medium=custom7&at_custom4=43A01A32-9468-11EA-8521-A8DFFCA12A29&at_campaign=64&at_custom1=%5Bpost+type%5D&fbclid=IwAR03fneoHfQ_KZWsmtNfsDHxn34fnBMIoLzoYSNOTnM01rEgN5fOv4Kuz3I

There has to come a time when you have to acknowledge that your body and mind are not geared up for the current game. Mohammad Ali was the prime example. We loved him for being able to take on younger and stronger men. However, success blinded him to the fact that his body was giving up. His fight against the younger and fitter Larry Holms was a tragedy. Even Larry Holms was embarrassed and was sobbing throughout the fight because he couldn’t bear to hurt his hero (Ironically, an older Holms would face a young Tyson, who showed no respect for age – Holms got the message and promptly retired with his millions).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kw1P8V1OMyY

Successful people are often blinded by the fact that the tenacity that made them great can be their undoing as it blinds them to certain realities. This doesn’t mean they shouldn’t leave the game that made them successful. They merely need to know that their role has changed.

There are examples in other sports. In tennis, there was Ivan Lendl who was a very successful world number one for a long time. However, despite trying, he never won Wimbledon. Eventually his body gave in. While his body was no longer able to play top level tennis, he had his wits and knowledge, which he used as coach. As Andy Murry’s coach, he managed to win the won grand slam that eluded him – Wimbledon. Then there’s the example of Franz Beckenbauer who lead Germany to World Cup success as a player in 1974 and as a coach in 1990.

Success can be sustained. You just need to know when your abilities to fulfil certain roles run out and use what you have to in a different role. A body will wear out but the knowledge won’t. How do you capitalize on it?

Boxers making a comeback should look at the example of the most famous fictional boxer, Rocky Balboa, played by Sylvester Stallone. Rocky I to IV were believable. We could understand a relatively youthful Rocky taking punishment. Rocky V and Rocky Balboa were sad – here was an old man struggling to be young. Then the franchise evolved into Creed when Rocky became the trainer for a younger fighter and we could believe that. It gave the character a dignified continuation that was believable.

There should be a lesson there. Your time doing certain things is limited. It doesn’t mean that your out of the game – you just need to play it differently.    

The Fawning Follower Strikes Again

You have to hand it to the Singapore system for creating its defenders from the most unlikely of places. The system has turned children of dissidents into its spokespeople (think of Janil Puthucheary, son of Dominic) and it has foreigners from the advanced countries lecturing the locals about how good they have it (I think of the number of times I’ve been told by Europeans to be grateful for what I have in Singapore).

Generally speaking, I don’t disagree with those who sing our praises. The facilities in Singapore are pretty darn good and as I’ll never tire of saying, as a father of a young girl, I’m thankful for the safety of this little Red Dot. We are in so many ways what a society should be – rich, clean and green.

Having said all of that, we are by no means a perfect society and as citizens or even residents, we have an obligation to point out the flaws of the society that we live in. Call it a process of giving feedback to the people that we pay to keep the show going. As Singapore’s government is inclined to see its self as a business, the analogy of the unhappy customers being the greatest source of learning is the most apt analogy that should be used when it comes to the government’s critics. It’s bad enough when the government which prides itself in being like a business behaves in an arrogant fashion towards its intelligent critics, it is even worse when you get foreigners justifying what is a fault.

The Fawning Follower who calls himself a Critical Spectator, has struck again. This time, he’s taken issue with Kirsten Han, a freelance journalist, who has had some articles published by the Washington Post, criticizing the government’s handling of Covid-19 outbreaks in the dormitories that house workers. The Fawning Follower has gone as far as to describe “Betrayal” as theme of Ms. Han’s career. The Fawning Follower’s Facebook posting can be found at:

https://www.facebook.com/CriticalSpectator/posts/2826267214147654?__tn__=K-R

As a matter of full disclosure, Ms. Han and I are related. She’s a second cousin once removed. However, this is a distant relationship and I wasn’t aware of it until my mother pointed it out to me. Ms. Han and I have met once and we don’t interact on Facebook or any social media.

Having disclosed that, I believe that the Fawning Follower is barking up the wrong tree when he calls Ms. Han is traitor to her country, ideals and the poor and underprivileged she claims to support. If you read through his post, you’ll find that his main beef with Ms. Han is the fact that her operation “New Naratiff” is based in Malaysia. The Fawning Follower takes issue with the fact that while Ms. Han has published articles that have been critical of Singapore’s handling of migrant labourers but not doing the same with Malaysia.

As he did in his previous post on the “Workers Dormitories being a Sign of Success,” the Fawning Follower fails to get the point. Just because everyone else behaves in a certain manner or in a worse manner, it does not make a certain action right. Then there’s the issue of where the focal point is.

Sure, Malaysia’s treatment of migrant labour may be worse than Singapore. Migrant labourers in the Arabian Gulf are known to be treated badly as was voiced many times in Qatar’s efforts to hosts the World Cup. However, just because Malaysia and Qatar (and the rest of Arabia) may treat their migrant workers worse that we do, it does not justify how we treat ours.

Then there’s the point that the place where covid-19 is blooming is in Singapore and the focus on how migrant workers are treated is thus far on Singapore and as anyone who has dealt with migrant workers, you’d know that they’re not exactly getting the best deal.

Sure, Singapore’s government has been generous in its support for the migrant workers. However, when you consider the amount of money that the government makes in terms of the levy, the government has a moral obligation to ensure the basic well being of the workers.

The Fawning Follower clearly does not understand the basics of how a society functions and by extension he does Singapore, particularly the government no favours. Instead of rushing the bash the “critics” he should consider being a “Critical Spectator” and watching out for the government he claims to admire.

Let’s Use Our Brains

One of the reactions to my post “NO NEED TO SAY SORRY –JUST DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT, was from a friend of mine who asked me what I thought would happen to the Singapore economy if:

1.      What will happen to the Singapore economy if we reduce migrant workers to 10 percent of the current; and

2.      If migrant workers accommodation is regulated to no more than four per room, air conditioned with proper private cooking and sanitary area and the quantum reduced to 50 percent of current. What will be the impact?

The answer to both his questions is painfully obvious, namely the economy would take a hit and Singaporeans who are currently feeling the pinch would be asked to take a lot more pain. At the most basic, the mom and pop section of the retail industry would take a hit with less consumers. As at December 2019, Singapore’s population of foreign workers in the constructionsites numbered at around 293,300 and cutting that number would reduce thepotential consumers for basic retailers considerably.

Secondly, the industries that rely on a steady supply ofcheap manpower would suffer. Construction, which accounts for three-point sevenpercent of GDP would take a hit as would manufacturing, which makes up about 20.9percent of GDP and transportation and storage (six-point seven percent of GDP).If you added the accommodation and food services industry, which would add afurther two-point one percent of GPD to the picture. The industries that dependof cheap labour account for nearly a third of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP)and it goes without saying that cutting down or raising the costs of “cheap”manpower will have an effect on the economy.

As such, one might be inclined to argue that we should not push up the costs of employing foreign labour as it would hurt the economy. As a fawning follower disguised as a “Critical Spectator” pointed out – Singapore has benefited from a supply of “cheap” labour and the economies of India, Bangladesh and the Philippines have benefited from the remittances sent back by domestic workers and construction workers working in Singapore, the Arabian Gulf and other parts of the world.

However, if you look at our recent growth figures, you’d realise that they’re not what they used to be. Even before Covid-19 struck economies around the world, Singapore already experiencing slower economic growth and as someone who worked in the insolvency business for half a decade, most of the industries that have been hurt are the industries that depend on “cheap” labour. 

Singapore’s economy needs to restructure and while nobody denies that tourism, food services and manufacturing are important to an economy, shouldn’t we focus less on industries that require vast numbers of manpower and more on the quality of manpower.

While Singapore has generally done a good job on the economic front, the shine of our so called “stellar” record is starting to wear thin. The strategies that worked so well in the 1960s are not working in the 2020s and unfortunately, the government seems to view moving away from old strategies as a sin against a moral code rather than a matter of practical survival. Heavy industry and construction worked in the 1960s. We merely had to provide the multinationals with secure environment and a compliant workforce and price ourselves just bellow the Westerners and Japanese. This helped create mass employment and helped rise prosperity.

However, Singapore can no longer depend on heavy industry based on price. China, India and  the rest of Asia will always be able to do things more cheaply. If anything, China, which epitomizes heavy manufacturing, was even before the trade war with the US moving away from heavy industries. Today’s Chinese business heroes are people like Jack Ma of Alibaba and Ma Huateng of Tencent who built their fortunes in high end technology – the industries that require a certain level of brains. If a Communist country known for its ability to repress can produce people who build fortunes in brain industries, why can’t Singapore?

We need to look at “brain industries,” as the way of the future. Our advantage lies not in being cheap but in being good. We always talk about how good our universities are, so why can’t we use them to spur high technology industries? We have the legal infrastructure to encourage innovation.A Singaporean has just been chosen to head World Intellectual Property Organization(I am not related to Daren Tang), which should be a testament to the quality of our intellectual property infrastructure.

Our population is educated and the infrastructure is there. Today’s technology means that we don’t need to rely on industries based on large numbers of cheap labour. There is no excuse as to why we cannot have a “brain” economy.

We need to go through the pain and restructure away from 1960s thinking. Let’s understand that our real assets are brains and the ability to attract brains. Singapore needs a brain economy for the 2020s and not a 1960s heavy labour economy.    

Bullshit Jobs – Chances for Misfits

One of the things about the internet and the advent of social media is the creation of what some people would call bullshit jobs. For someone like me, a misfit who screwed up a traditional career, the creation of bullshit jobs was a godsend of sorts. We, the world’s misfits, suddenly had an avenue to express ourselves, build a personal brand and in some cases make a few pennies (the more successful ones have made a lot of money)

I started blogging back in 2006. I started the blog with no particular vision in mind and back when PR work was plentiful, blogging it didn’t occur to me that blogging could be anything more than a place to store my rants or at least the rants that the mainstream would not publish (this being in the days when the mainstream offered stringers a few dollars for their rants.)

For me, I only looked at blogging as a potential source of income much later. It was at a stage when I noticed that I had a follower or two and the numbers started going up. While my adsense account is currently suspended, I did notice that my income could go from a few cents a month if at all to about a dollar or two on monthly basis. I’m not making enough to give up anything else but I figured that getting a few pennies here and there for something I’m going to do anyway is better than not getting anything at all. I’ve also reached the stage where I ask for the odd donation from readers, though I’ve not been terribly successful at this.

Despite not earning enough, blogging has helped get my name about and its always good to have a place where people might find you. One day, I hope blogging might help finance an old age pension when the body is no longer able to wait tables and nobody in corporate wants an old dude.

While I was a gradual convert to blogging and volgging as a job late in life, I’ve been following guys who have been very successful at it. Watching this makes me wonder how things could have turned out if I took the plunge and set my mind earlier on.

 One of the guys that I follow from time to time is a guy called Sam Chui, who reviews first class seats on airplanes. He’s living the life that most can only dream of. I, for example, can only look at internet pictures of first-class cabins and indulge in fantasies. At this stage in life, I wouldn’t fly in Etihad’s residences because even if I had US$20,000 to spare, I’d be thinking of things like paying down debts like the mortgage. However, it’s nice to see one’s dreams in action and I wonder what life would be like if I could actually get paid to live the high life. A sample of Sam’s videos can be found at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN1q2NCNRPg

Another fellow that I’ve grown very fond of is a little Jewish boy called Drew Binsky, who decided early in life that he wanted to travel to every country in the world. He’s managed to do it by making travel videos.

While Sam Chui lives the life of luxury, Drew Binsky does things at the ground level and I like the fact that he likes to portray the optimistic side of the places he’s been to. In a way, he’s doing important work by showing us that we’re probably more similar in our wants and needs than in our differences. One of the videos that I remember is the one on why this American Jewish boy loves Muslim majority nations. Amongst his favourite places are Iran and Syria, not exactly the place where you’d expect an American Jewish boy would be welcomed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxJiBNXtjZI; and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4NfkKCqDQk

Mr. Binsky’s videos are a god send in a world dedicated to stressing the differences between cultures and stressing the need for conflict. Mr. Binsky is doing us a service by showing us people at a ground level:

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

The other things that I give Mr. Binsky is the fact that he tries to get a picture of what the cost of living is like so that his Western audience can understand costs of living elsewhere. One of his main themes is what US$10 can get you in various places. Take a look at the following videos:

Madurai, India - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugwDTDwb6Vc ;

Lagos, Nigeria - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrRLCoKmLLA; and

Karachi, Pakistan - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrRLCoKmLLA

There’s something appealing about people having the ability to do what they love and being able to earn a living from it. The age of so called “Bullshit” jobs has shown us that the standard nine to five or nine to six in an office is not the only way that one has to live.

However, while the idea of getting paid to live your dreams is appealing, it’s also a lot of hard work and quite often you have to find your earnings elsewhere. I remember Alex Au telling me to not think about monetizing my blog for the very reason that I’d be beholden to my paymasters, thus not being able to be truly independent.  However, I’m in the “social commentary” business, which is notoriously unrewarding in the financial sense. There are other spaces where people have made a decent living. It is, however tough work as Mr. Binsky explains:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DS4bXlN2Ovw;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FfDJFAgVI0

The key to success in a “bullshit” job of being a blogger or vlogger is content and traffic. The higher the traffic, the more you can get out of the people who pay. However, this takes time and effort to develop.

The creation of bullshit jobs has helped the world. It has created an avenue for those who didn’t fit into the standard corporate world. It has created happiness, which is something we should all celebrate.

No Need to Say Sorry – Just Do Something About It.

A few days back, Ms. Anthea Ong, a nominated member of parliament asked if the Singapore government would consider issuing an apology to Singapore’s migrant worker population for the awful conditions that they were housed in. The Minister of Manpower, Ms. Josephine Teo, replied that the government saw no reason to do so and made the point that she never met a migrant worker who demanded an apology. More details on the story can be found at:

https://mothership.sg/2020/05/migrant-worker-no-apology-jo-teo/

In fairness to the Minister, the migrant workers have not demanded an apology from the government and some have even come out on social media to express the gratitude to the government for taking care of them.

One might also argue that the government has also been exceedingly generous in its support for the migrant workers who have been affected by covid-19. Some of Singapore’s keyboard warriors have even gone as far as to complain that the government is wasting resources on the workers.

However, the government, while generous in its support for the migrant workers during the outbreak, it does owe them an apology, which will never be provided for in words and one realistically will never expect to be demonstrated in action.

The issue of housing for migrant workers is not new and thanks to the efforts of NGOs like TWC2 and HOME, a problem the government was aware of. While the current outbreak of Covid-19 in workers dormitories is the largest outbreak in terms of scale, it is by no means the first time that a migrant worker has died of disease due to unsatisfactory living conditions:

https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/health/21-year-old-construction-worker-dies-from-diphtheria-in-first-confirmed-case-in?fbclid=IwAR2x77RjI6mcRtTwuFIioixAXaC0bXAuSYwDpFeVU84Mg3g64kMb_VzpSR8

Furthermore, our previous Minister for Manpower, Mr. Tan Chuan Jin, had personally led raids on foreign worker dormitories and found conditions to be unsatisfactory. Our former minister made the point that just because the conditions were better “than what they had back home,” the living conditions were still unsatisfactory. Mr. Tan also made the point that while the workers he spoke to did not complain about their employment conditions, he suspected they did so because they were worried that they might get into trouble with their employers. More on Mr. Tan’s efforts can be found at:

https://ifonlysingaporeans.blogspot.com/2011/11/minister-leads-check-on-workers-dorms.html?m=1&fbclid=IwAR0fR0dsVLTQk2B71DrOMflHX9CfYn9iXjdYUJ_YnofNtzFBcV4kt58MN5k

What was Mr. Tan’s job for taking an active role in safeguarding our manpower resources? He went moved to the Social and Family Development Ministry and then made Speaker of Parliament, which involved a $500,000 pay cut and no more talk about Mr. Tan being a contender to lead the government anytime in the future.

So, not only has the government been aware of the problem, it actually had a minister who was actively trying to do something about it. So, with the benefit of hindsight, one has to ask why Singapore, which is obsessed with meritocracy would remove a minister who was actively trying to do his job from contention for the top job?

I and I suspect many others, would argue that had Mr. Tan been allowed to do his job, it would have resulted in a lot of pain for a lot of businesses, thus damaging economic prospects. As the activist, Alex Au explains below:

http://twc2.org.sg/2020/05/01/the-dorms-are-not-the-problem/?fbclid=IwAR1nhYuPYZ_hYyigLs3VbUrfO4CLtEXz9XuTbB20EOFyKNU6aOInlRGp5GQ

It would be a challenge to restructure a system that so many people have a stake in and keeping foreign workers vulnerable is in the interest of certain people as can be seen through:

 https://www.theonlinecitizen.com/2020/04/11/wife-of-grassroots-leader-in-workers-dorm-business-shows-their-sentosa-weekend-party-home-to-media/?fbclid=IwAR2XVJBIEW3GkrD_D1ajIH0E-Mx20-RzIHafleHQFVz8vge17Faoc95d114 ; and

https://www.theonlinecitizen.com/2019/07/05/workers-dorm-under-mes-group-linked-to-grassroots-charged-2nd-time-in-3-years/?fbclid=IwAR2UZBUram6dS2yvnN-OY-_G2o6h9NPpgQxvH4CqdwvgbUYbTjpuevvItEM

So, can anything be done to change the system? With so many parties interested in keeping the system as it is, it goes without saying that radical change will be fought tooth and nail.

Another solution might be to enforce existing rules. As the current Minister for Manpower, Ms. Josephine Teo admitted to Parliament:

https://www.straitstimes.com/politics/majority-of-dorm-operators-flout-licensing-conditions-each-year-says-josephine-teo?fbclid=IwAR3aCPIih8XGOuylv2Phqvy2dl5AkKfZDcUWJ1n-R3XeW1OacQJ6sGVwrqY

Nobody expects the workers to demand an apology. The balance of power between the workers and the employers is such that no worker will risk the only means of paying off agent fees and feeding families back home. Furthermore, it is unlikely for a government so used to being “right” to even admit that mistakes were made (even if it may gain more public sympathy in doing so).

What we should expect is that the existing rules are applied and enforced. We are supposed to be society that claims to be ruled by laws and so, we should be ruled by laws. We cannot have a system where half of all dormitory operators flout licensing rules. When half of anything does something, it is no longer a case of “a few bad eggs” but an accepted practice, which needs to be changed. Let’s start with ensuring the rules are followed and apply to everybody. Then, let’s move onto restructuring the system into something more sustainable.

If the explosion of Covid-19 cases has shown us anything, it is the fact that ensuring the safety and well being of migrant workers is not a case of human rights and other concepts from NGOs. It is common sense and self-preservation. Looking after their welfare is about looking after ourselves as it is as much about them. A government which has so much control over everything should get this message across No need to say sorry – just do something about it.  

Appeal Notice

It’s important to give a voice to the voiceless. As Covid-19 has shown us, it is in our interest to look after the less fortunate is in our best interest.

However, while important, helping voice concern for the less fortunate is financially challenging and in this regard, I’d be exceedingly grateful for donations to allow me to keep voicing concern for the less fortunate. Any donation, no matter how small is gratefully appreciated.

You may donate through paypal at: https://www.paypal.me/tanligotitdone or by telegraphic transfer or internet banking to:

Name: Tang Li

Bank Account No. 065-1-000768

Bank Name – DBS Bank

Swift BIC Code – DBSSSGSG

Address – 12 Marine Boulevard, DBS Asia Central, Marina Bay Financial Centre Tower 3, Singapore 108982

Awfulness and Stupidity - the Second Mover Advantage

One of the things that used to irk American policy makers was the fact that their Asian bugbear at the time, was Japan, which had a talent of copying everything that the Americans invented and making them cheaper and, in many cases, better. The most noticeable was in the automobile industry, where the likes of Toyota, Honda and Mitsubishi ended up bruising the Detroit Big Three (GM, Ford and Chrysler) in their domestic market.

What the Japanese demonstrated was called “Second Mover” advantage and rather than inventing brand-new things, they found a way of improving on what existed. As is often said in the area of work place efficiency, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel when you can use what you already have.

There are lots of examples of how the second mover has gone onto surpass the original. 

Unfortunately, for many people at risk of getting coronavirus or being suffocated by burning forest, the most prominent second mover is Mr. Jair Bolsonaro, a proud Trump imitator who revels in the name of “Trump of the Tropics,” and has a secondary job of being President of Brazil.

While Mr. Bolsonaro has not made the headlines that the original Trump sitting in the North of the Rio Grande has, he’s had a way of surpassing the original in the things he says and does. It should also be said that while Brazil isn’t the world power that the US is, it is a country that counts. Brazil is the “B” in the “BRICS,” and with an area of 8,515,767 square kilometres, it is the fifth largest country in the world and its population of 210,147,125 it is the sixth most populous nation on the planet. Brazil’s nominal economy is estimated at 1.86 trillion US dollars, making it the ninth largest economy. It is by far and away the country that counts in South America. In the pre-Bolsonaro days, Brazil was regarded as the most benign of the BRICS. Here was a large market with lots of resources. However, unlike China, Brazil is democracy that values human life, unlike South Africa had something other than natural resources and unlike India, it was comparatively free of communal strife.

Mr. Bolsonaro has decided that these things were a crock of shit and that ordinary Brazilians were being screwed for being nice to the rest of the world. It helped that his predecessors had legal issues (euphemism for being corrupt) and Mr. Bolsonaro, like his idol in the North of the Rio Grande was swept into power on the promise to make things right for Brazil’s poor.

His first decision of helping Brazil’s poor was to allow the Amazon Forrest. Mr. Bolsonaro used to line that we’ve grown very used to in Southeast Asia – economic development takes priority over preserving the environment. In other words, we’re going to get rich whether the lefties in the West like it or not. The result has devastated much of South America, covering neighbours in a smog like haze, which many of us in Southeast Asia are familiar with and potential natural resources provided by the forest have been squandered.

When French President, Emanuel Macron called him out on this, Mr. Bolsonaro publicly announced that the French President was merely jealous because his wife was better looking, which had nothing to do with the issue at hand but seemed to satisfy a certain sense of lost masculinity in Bolsonaro voters.

Mr. Bolsonaro, like Mr. Trump had the good fortune to preside over an improving economy and so the masses forgave him. The covid-19 struck and the truth of Mr. Bolsonaro’s tough guy with a heart for the people was revealed.

While the Original in the North tried to downplay the seriousness of the virus and then started looking for scapegoats and then prescribed unproven cures, Mr. Bolsonaro has been remarkably constant in his handling of covid 19. That is, he’s been remarkably consistent about disregarding the reality of the devastation brought about by the virus. Despite losing his health minister and justice minister, Mr. Bolsonaro has decided that it is perfectly acceptable to trash the advice of his own healthcare officials. Mr. Bolsonaro refuses to stay in orders, attends rallies and likes his big crowds. As with his hero in the North, Mr. Bolsonaro’s supporters blame the “left win” media for trying to tarnish their hero.

Where Mr. Bolsonaro outdoes the original Mr. Trump is in his belief that the virus is no big deal. The Trump and his supporters when down playing deaths caused by the virus at least make the effort in giving their nonchalance a little bit of context, such as “more people are killed by the flue” etc.

Mr. Bolsonaro is quite open about the fact that he really doesn’t care about the deaths caused by covid-19 and the potential risk to national health. As Brazil’s death toll reached past 5,000 – his only thoughts were “So What?” More can be found at:

 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/29/so-what-bolsonaro-shrugs-off-brazil-rising-coronavirus-death-toll

Another area in which Mr. Bolsonaro trumps the Trump is in the way in which he encourages the public to undermine stay at home orders. While Mr. Trump tweets his encouragement for protestors against stay home orders, Mr. Bolsonaro, a former army officer, has lead from the front and gone as far as to call for the military to intervene (though, as President, one wonders why he’s calling from the military to intervene, when as President, he could order the military to do so). More can be seen at:

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/04/brazil-bolsonaro-joins-protest-coronavirus-curbs-200420042616860.html

Unlike the US, which was born as a democracy and had 200-years to build its institutions, Brazil has on the scale of things only just achieved things that make society prosperous like a government for the people and rule of law. Mr. Bolsonaro is working to undermine these things, which cannot be good for Brazil, South America or even the wider world.

At the time of writing, Brazil has 102 thousand cases and over seven thousand people have died.  It looks like Mr. Bolsonaro is trying to catch up and perhaps surpass his hero in the North of the Rio Grande. This cannot be good news for Brazil’s poor in the overcrowded favellas.  

Do You Have to be the Smartest Guy in the Room?

One of the key features of the coronavirus for many journalists has been the White House Briefings on the coronavirus. These briefings were supposed to be an opportunity for America’s federal government lead by its president to update the nation on the efforts against the coronavirus.

Unfortunately, the briefings have not been briefings. Instead, they were opportunities for comedians to gather more material. The most recent one was when the president openly suggested that a possible cure for the virus was to inject bleach into the body. That moment can be found at:

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

Every comedian pounced on this moment and the resulting outcry ensured that future briefings were put on hold. What happened?

The answer is simple. The man in charge had a need to show that he was doing something. This was a man who had come into power by telling the world that he had been given a very special brain. The public looked at the image he had presented of himself and agreed. He was then put into office.

Donald Trump is correct. He has a very special talent, which propelled him from being a successful reality TV star into the oval office. Mr. Trump has an instinctive genius for attracting attention and arousing passions. As one American customer at the Bistrot said, “There is no neutrality on the man.”

While he has a talent for drawing attention to himself, he’s not a medical expert and in a situation where medical expertise is of the most important variety, one has to question why he’s even suggesting any form of medication (and the bigger question being why people believe him). One suggestion is that he genuinely believes that he’s the smartest person in the room.

Unfortunately, being smart or the smartest person in the room isn’t the best thing to be. Some of the most successful people in the world, like Robert Kuok, the founder of the Shangri La Hotel chain, have said that one should always look for people smarter than yourself to do the job. Mr. Kuok, who survived the Japanese Occupation of Southeast Asia to build a fortune of US$12.8 billion (nearly four times that of Donald Trump) is clearly correct. Mr. Kuok, who started out as a sugar trader, has built a large and diverse empire beyond his core competence in commodity trading. How did he do it? The answer was allowing people who knew better than himself to do the job.

While the human brain is capable to thinking of many great things, it has certain limits. One of those key limits is that human beings tend to focus on certain things that they like and are good at and the saying “You can’t be good at everything,” rings true. This is especially true in leading large organisations and even nations, where the person at the top has to deal with a wide variety of issues and he or she simply cannot master every one of them. As such, one of the key skills of leadership is to know when you’re not the smartest person in the room and letting that person take the limelight with your encouragement.

This is seen most clearly in military situations. Mrs. Thatcher in the UK, knew she was not a military expert. So, when the Falklands War broke out, she set the objectives for what she wanted and then allowed the military to get on with the job. Likewise, George Bush Senior, did the same when booting Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait. In comparison, the attempts to rescue the hostages in Iran under Jimmy Carter was a total disaster.

The entire professional services industry is based on the principle of getting smart people to do the job. As my favourite liquidator often says, “We’re hired for our knowledge.” Yes, the client or the main businessperson has to make final decisions because only he or she knows the overall business objective, but you as a consultant must provide advice because what you’re selling is the fact that you’re smarter at that particular aspect of the job.

Humility beats intelligence in leadership. Here in Singapore, we are led by highly qualified people (all with excellent credentials). Unfortunately, during this virus, we got so busy celebrating being hailed by the international media as the “Gold Standard” in managing the virus that we forgot about are vast underbelly of migrant workers. Then, there was a scramble when the infections exploded in the dormitories

A wise person does not need to know everything. He or she needs to recognize the fact and then look for the best person to do that aspect of the job. Allowing someone to be the hero is sometimes the most heroic thing to do. Let’s go back to America’s numbers. You have a president who is not a medical doctor prescribing unproven medication from the presidential bully pulpit. According to him, he is doing a fabulous job. At the time of writing, America has 1,160,774 cases, which is more than next six nations combined and in five months the virus has killed roughly ten thousand more than the Vietnam War in 14-years.

How Do You Get the Rich to Pay More?

The most interesting read I had on Labor Day was an article by Warren Buffet for Business Insider. Mr. Buffet who is one of the world’s richest men with an estimated fortune estimated at around USD 73 billion argued that while the billionaire class was not conspiring the screw the world, it was time for taxes to be raised on the very wealthy and that they pay their fair share. The interview with Mr. Buffet can be found at:

 https://www.businessinsider.com.au/warren-buffett-wealth-gap-inequality-solutions-2020-4?fbclid=IwAR33IHdTvozw87jNJ3e7gZMNbUpcI5CTCYanWFUZ0cwriqwoBh_rCSYOnU8

What makes this interview significant is the fact that Mr. Buffet this is the second time that Mr. Buffet is calling for the extremely rich to pay their fair share and he’s challenging the notion that the rich require special protections because they are the ones who create wealth for the rest of us. Back in the Obama Administration (which was an administration that raised taxes), Mr. Buffet wrote a very public letter pointing out that while he paid more in absolute taxes than his secretary, she paid a higher percentage of her income. His made the point that people like him didn’t need the government to give him any special privileges.

What makes Mr. Buffet so unusual is the fact that he’s probably the only known billionaire to call for higher taxes on the rich. If you look at tax systems in advanced economies, you’ll note that most are progressive (the more you earn the higher the percentage) and you’ll note that advanced economies always have loopholes, which the well to do always use. There is the example of Hong Kong where billionaires like Li Ka Shing and Lee Shau Kee paid themselves yearly salaries of US$600 per year because that was taxed. On the other hand, dividends were not taxed and so they received most of their income in the shape of dividends (in the 90s, Lee Shau Kee of Henderson Land apparently earned US$400 million from dividends).

So, the question is what exactly constitutes a “fair” share and how can governments get the rich to pay more. There is a validity to the argument that high taxes scare away the people who get the economy going and punishing the rich policies don’t work and are counterproductive. The UK provided an example. In the 1970s, the Labour Governments raised taxes and the UK had a top income tax rate of 83 percent. The rich fled and the UK economy stagnated. It was only revived in the 1980s when Mrs. Thatcher slashed tax rates down to 60 and latter onto 40 percent.

This example has made governments around the world very weary of “punishing” the rich through higher taxes. In Singapore, our government gets very panicky whenever anyone drops a hint that we should raise direct income tax. The argument that is always used is that this will scare away foreign investors who create jobs and everyone will suffer as a result. One of Singapore’s favourite hobbies is bragging about the number of billionaires who have chosen to settle in Singapore. Think of Dr. BK Modi of Spice Group and Eduardo Saverin, the co-founder of Facebook.

However, the idea that high taxes are detrimental to the economy is also not true. The Nordic Countries are a prominent example. All of them (Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Iceland) have tax rates that are around 50 percent of your income. Yet, despite all of that, the Nordic Countries with their small populations have very high levels of development, very low levels of corruption (According to Transparency International, theNordics rank in the top ten of least corrupt nations) and have strong and diversified economies driven by advanced technologies. A rough guide to the economies of the Nordic Region can be seen at:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_the_Nordic_countries#Economy

While the Nordic Countries do have their flaws, one has to ask how they managed to get rich without low taxes or getting the rich to pay more.

The easiest point to make is that taxes, while high are not punitive and there are sufficient loopholes which allow the rich to offset the tax bill but at the same time to do so in a way that benefits the rest of society (start businesses that create jobs etc)

The more important point is that there is a high level of social cohesion in the Nordic countries and for an aspiring entrepreneur understands what he or she is paying for. Taxes are high, but so is the investment in social infrastructure like healthcare and education. The Nordics rank are amongst the best educated and healthiest people in the world. This in turn has helped them to become exceedingly productive. Taxes become not so much a cost but a social investment. My Nordic friends don’t think of their education as free but as paid for through their taxes. For a businessperson, its easier to stomach the idea of paying so much in tax if you know what you’re getting it back through a healthy and productive workforce that in turn is also a well to do customer base.

Social cohesion is the essential ingredient here. Nobody will pay half their income to a government that enriches its top ministers yet leaves its population sick and ignorant. The rich, particularly the industrious rich, did not get that way through stupidity. Rich people are particularly good at looking for value.

Hence, if you want the rich, particularly the type that benefits the rest of society through things like job creation and so on, you need to reexamine social contracts between the governed and the governing classes. The Nordic model has worked thus far because the people paying the taxes trust that the people receiving the taxes will use them in a way that benefits society at large. Nordic model will not work in a corrupt country where the only faith is that you’ll be enriching the man on top. If you want the rich to pay more – look at the social contracts.