Season's Greetings

Looking at the lifestyles, habits and behaviours of our young children today, it’s not difficult to predict the kind of social and health issues that would be facing the population in 20 – 30 years’ time. You may ask: who really cares?

You may be right.  

In today’s context of instant gratification, who really cares what would happen in 30 years’ time? 

Everyone just wants to enjoy the moment!

Wishing all my friends and fans

A Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year!

Anger Management

This digital painting is available for sale as print. Contact the artist privately. 

Studies have shown that angry people stop thinking momentarily and act rashly and irrationally. They only realize the collateral damages caused by their actions when they cool down or wake up from their turmoil. Very often, it’s too late to amend or reverse anything. 

The best anger management technique I practice and is effective for me is to have an immediate time-out when I’m furious or feel pissed-off with someone. I would stop everything and head to my secret and quiet ‘reflection corner’ inside my workplace(s) to reflect and think about my next moves.
This method works well for me.

What about you?

What's the definition of Success?

Different people define success differently, depending on who you ask. 

To some, success means to have financial freedom, happy in what they’re doing or just spending time with family without worry about anything. To others, it means to win in everything they do.

There are many books on the art of winning or how to win in almost anything. But I read none of them. I have my own views.

To be a winner, one must have the strong desire to win in life or career. Like winning the heart of your partner, trust of your bosses, co-operations from your co-workers or winning the sales contract. Others may desire to win in competition, race, contest, election, “likes” on your social media posts, and so on. Only with a strong desire and conviction to win can one pushes oneself to do “something” or take some actions to achieve one’s goal(s). 

The best humorous definition to-date! 

Change your habits to reduce climate change

Humans are discarding more wastes than ever before. According to research by World Bank, the world produces 3.5 million tones of solid wastes a day, 10 times the amount a century ago. Landfills and wastes dumps are filling up & the World Economic Forum reports that by 2050 there would be so much plastics floating in the oceans that it would outweigh the fish. Micro-plastics are also getting in our food chain and into our digestive systems.

Global greenhouse gas emissions in 2030 could be between 13 billion and 15 billion tonnes more than the level needed to keep global warming within 2 degrees Celsius this century, a United Nations report estimated on Nov 27, 2018.

Our education system has failed to change habits in our students and our outreach activities are ineffective to change mindsets of our population. When most people are time-strapped and addicted to their mobile devices, who really has the time to stop & think before acting?

Talk is cheap.

So is pledging verbally or via mobile devices to reduce one’s carbon footprint. To really save our planet, mindsets, habits and behaviors have to change.

Everyone should practice 5R (Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Repair). Everyone should consume less and stop buying stuff in single-use plastic. Everyone should avoid ‘tabao’ (package) or order-in catered food. Stop buying those bubble-teas in single-use plastics and straws. These drinks are bad for health and generate lots of plastic wastes.

We cannot always do great things. We can only do small things with great love (for the environment).

Take action today to change your habits!

Life without problems is an illusion

This digital drawing is available for sale. Contact the artist privately to ask for price. 

It’s so easy to poke fun and laugh at other people’s problems. Rarely, we laugh at our own. This is human nature.

As a cartoonist, I’ve to be bold, unreserved and daring. In real life, I’m just the opposite. I’m shy, quiet and one who maintains a low profile. Some say such person type has a dual personality. This is why my ‘horror-scope’ is GEMINI.

Living and coping in an unequal society

Original artwork is available for sale. Contact the artist privately. 

Since the beginning of civilization, social and income inequalities exist in every era and society. People with power and authority make the most money. This is the reason why so many have had tried all ways to get into the elite & upper class. But academic grades don’t guarantee one’s pathway to upper class or success in life. Success really depends on how one’s strength is used to the full potential without exploiting others for gains.

In my opinion, there will always be someone bigger, better, faster and richer than me. This is life. It’s pointless to compare ourselves with others but to live a healthy life within our means and be happy at whatever we choose to do or not do. When you have some spare cash, just treat yourself or your friends to some good nutrition food & enjoy the moment without worry. When your cash-flow is tight in the month, just eat simply till the next cash in-flow comes. We have to learn to be resilient and adapt to our situation in the current harsh living and crowded environment. But such critical skill is not taught in school or at home. Sigh!     

Why my bank account is always empty!

I didn’t get good grades in school but I did passed all my examinations and tests and obtained several qualifications. Yet I still cannot afford to retire here but to keep working for money to live. No matter how hard I work, my bank account is always empty at the end of the month. Sometimes it’s already empty before month-end. So I concluded that a single income stream is not enough for anyone to retire here unless you have huge reserves somewhere. Better if you have a few incoming streams flowing in without any need to perform any real work like those 1% of really smart people. I realized this concept too late in life. Sigh!     

Love for learning without examination. Really?

IMO, removing tests & examinations in our education system is a step backwards. There are other ways to reduce stress and pressures in our students and parents. Just reduce the no. of subjects to be tested and lower the passing marks. Students must learn how to cope with tests and examinations at a young age in order to judge their competency and performance. 

In our context, grades and qualifications do matter a lot when it comes to job hunting. Just read the recruitment requirements and the recent news about “invite-only for top-graded NTU students to career fair”. You see, potential employers want only the best and the elites!

Moving away from grades won’t succeed in changing people’s entrenched mindsets. Let alone, change our public and private sectors’ perceptions to base on other criteria other than qualifications and papers. Sigh!

Assessing performance without tests and grades?

The bold changes made to our education system seem to be a hasty one as they are to be implemented in 3 months’ time. Other urgent policies’ changes are not implemented as fast. 

Anyway, most students are now jumping for joy as there would be no more examinations for some! 

When I was still in school, I tried to convince my parents to look beyond my grades. I told them exam results written in blue ink didn’t really mean good and those printed in red-ink didn’t mean really bad. My parents were not so savvy yet they had never believed what I told them. So I always had that fear when I need to get their signatures on my report book when it was filled with red-marks. The good thing was, my parents had never lectured or asked me to explain my poor performance in school. I never need to attend tuition classes & continued to play more than study.

 

Today’s children are not so fortunate. Many pressure themselves or by their parents to do well in their studies to get good grades. Can today’s savvy parents accept these changes in our education system and look beyond the grades of their child’s progress?

I seriously doubt so!

Cashless Payment: Smart or Smug?

I just don’t understand.

The issue is easily solved with the simplest solution of tap-n-go like credit card payment and toll-payment. There isn’t any need for signature anymore. Why don’t just make these credit-card terminals smarter to accept e-zlink card, cash cards and nets cards? Better still, just use biometric identity like finger-print or iris to e-pay. No need any cards.

Why must we use mobile devices, apps & scan some codes to pay? Why make this process so complicated? 

When one thinks within the box and limited by one’s imagination, solutions look smart but in fact they are not. 

When all problems look like nails, the only tool they know is the hammer. Sigh! 

If I need to pay to use cashless payment or e-wallet, it’s not smart. If smart devices are needed and process takes more than 2 steps to e-pay, it’s not smart either.

The only reason cashless payment is being pushed strongly to all 12,000 hawkers, canteens and food courts is obvious. Every transaction could be tracked electronically & digitally so our ‘Big Brother’ knows your revenues and incomes. Can businesses under-declare their incomes to evade tax? Very difficult isn’t it? 

Now think again, who is smarter?

The rich, the famous and the powerful

Many caricaturists often draw those rich & famous people as their pictures are easily available. I drew them for fun or to poke fun at them when they are in the news.

Many close friends had warned me to restrain myself (手下留情) from publishing those drawings of rich and very powerful people. They are concerned I might be ‘invited for coffee’ in a dark room. I told them: drawing is like an addiction. I just couldn’t stop my imaginations & urge to put them onto paper. Like what American caricaturist Al Hirschfeld once said: “Artists are like children who refuse to put down their crayons.” I think he’s probably right. 

Now I try to omit/censor some sensitive details in my drawings of powerful people but many told me they could still identify the subjects in my drawings!

Oops……..

This Bully is back!

This old man is a big bully.
When he was PM from 1981 to 2003, he bullied us. Fortunately, we had LKY to counter and suppress his dictatorial and confrontational behaviour. Now he is the PM again and LKY had already called it a day, the bullying has re-started again. Our ‘big brothers’ are having tough times to handle him and counter his actions with ‘thick’ law books.  

The only thing this old man did right for me was to abolish their GST. I keep wondering why they could afford to do this and not here……Sigh!
With cost of living rising here rapidly and costs will be worst in 2 years’ time (our GST will increase by 2%), I’ve to jostle regularly with other residents crossing over to the north to buy cheaper basic stuff.

What choice do I have?

My waist belt has no more holes to tighten!

The Problem why I don’t keep my own’s medical records

For years, I have been asking doctors in both public and private medical institutions/providers why they could not give me copies of my medical records and laboratory test reports every time I consulted them. All of them said it’s their providers’ policy and common practice not to give. I told them I’m paying full consultation fee with GST and why not. They still said no except for some providers who could provide copies of my medical records if I pay an admin fee and wait a weeks for the medical records to be sent to me.

What the “****” with such policy and system in this future ‘smart nation”.

In my opinion, the patient should be given the custody and rights to their medical records. This unfair practice by medical providers here is a major roadblock why patients could not keep their own medical records as a backup or to seek second opinion on their conditions.

Now that there is a breach on our national health system’s databank with my personal sensitive data stolen, who is responsible to ensure that my data is not misused, erased or altered? Who has to pay for damages and compensate me when my data has been used without authorization?

Our Cyber Security Chief said my personal data is “only basic demographic data, ….there is no strong commercial value to these types of data”. Theft of my personal data includes my name, IC number, address, gender, race, DOB. These data has no value?

Damn!  

The Hard Truth of our Sports

This is just another example why our local breed of young talents cannot excel in sports or football. More so for male citizens.

Our policies and systems just do not provide the means and conditions to groom and nurture them. You have to pay all taxes and fulfill all your national services before you could chase your ‘rainbow’ and aspirations.

It’s sad to tell the truth, we are not doing what Japan or South Korean is doing to keep qualifying for the world cup. We can never, never catch up with them. Our country’s FIFA-ranking has since dropped from 106 (1998) to 169 (2018). Are we improving or deteriorating? Data and statistics don’t lie. Just accept this fact.   

Despites all these unfavourable conditions, a few male athletes had managed to achieve some glory who have wealthy parents or strong connections to those powerful people in this country.

Since 1998, policy-makers had change immigration policies and rolled out the quick-fix ‘foreign-talent programme’ to convert foreign sportsmen and women into citizens to bring in the medals in individual sports. But can you convert a dozen foreign professional footballers to wear our national jerseys?

Can we afford their fees to attract their attention in the first place?

Fat hope!

Keep dreaming, my friend.

Who says small cannot win big?

All data and statistics show that France would win tonight for the 2^nd-time since 1998.

But Croatia is an underdog, a fighting team with a never-say-die attitude to fight till the very end till the last man standing. It’s now or never for them in their first ever world cup final.

It’s so difficult to pick the winner and is a dilemma for all gamblers worldwide.

I choose the underdogs to win tonight.

Who says small cannot win big?  

Football Management Theory 3

It’s proven that it’s useless if one’s always “on the ball” or “play the ball” and could not achieve any goal. This is why teams like Argentina, Germany, Spain exited early in the tournament. Belgium woke up on time to do something & managed to stay in the game longer than other teams.

In all organizations, there will be some managers & executives who always looked “busy” and seemed to be “on the ball” all the time. They just follow boss’ instructions and they never achieve anything on their own or implement their own ideas to improve something in their work. These workers are mainly followers, not leaders.

Football Management Theory 2

In any organization, when something goes wrong, someone has to take the blame. It’s the same for the worst German squad fielded since 1938 and the coach has to face the ‘music’ back home. 

The team is full of weaknesses and players have little teamwork. For all the 3 matches, many fans here lost money & almost fell off their chairs while watching them play. Many chanted loudly that coach Joachim Loew should change his name to Joachim Leow (leow means finished=完蛋 in local dialect). I let his boss decide.

Football Management Theory

It seems like the last World Cup ended not too long ago where Germany beat Argentina 1-0 in the final to hold the Cup for the 4^th-time. Now the World Cup is here again. How time flies! 

The German team has to go home early after they were eliminated at the group stage after a humiliating defeat 0-2 by the South Korean. The Germans lacked the skills and ideas from the young and inexperienced players to penetrate a well-defended Korean side. This was the worst performance of the German team in last 5 World Cups! 

Football is a team sport.

Everyone has to be skillful, be the best and able to work as a team to win. When the team depends on only one or two players, it’s very tough to win in any competition. This same theory also applies to organizations, big or small with some exceptions, of course:

If the boss knows that you cannot perform, you make him/her likes you so that you continue to ‘play’ and avoid being shown the red-card. If your boss doesn’t know your poor performance, you just keep quiet, do your routine stuff & collect pay every month till you are exposed. Then you join another team & ask for higher pay. Now, you just pray hard that you continue as status quo.      

Friend to All = Friend Pays All?

I had to ‘eat’ my words when I said taxpayers wouldn’t mind paying for the cost to host the historic summit. Twenty millions is a lot of money and it could have been used to help many poor residents here. Many ‘top guns’ said it’s money well-spent but now I think otherwise. We are setting a precedence for other requests for such meeting in future when world leaders need to resolve their conflicts. 

Friend to all = friend pays for coffee and tea, sometimes!

Submit to Summit

When two hot-superpower leaders wanted to use your place for their summit meeting, do you say no? Of course not unless you’re asking for troubles. One would send you rockets as gift and the other would stop his support to you to deal with the east. So you really have no choice but to say yes not only to provide a place, coffee, tea but also to pick up the tabs on the huge resource and security costs that is most likely to come from taxpayers’ money. Most taxpayers, I believe, wouldn’t mind this huge expenses when it’s for a worthy cause towards world peace. 

I’ve been living on this tiny island all my life and have been to almost every corner of this small city state. Yet I could not find any iconic backdrop for this historical photo shoot for the 2 leaders except for this only spot that shows and tells our presence and contribution to this summit.

I bet this is the spot.  

Two heavy weights are coming to town

All politicians like to play games.

Nobody could beat both Donald Trump & Kim Jung Um. The American president always thought he could fool everyone by twisting and turning his words on the coming summit. The fact is, he really has no other choice but to choose Singapore as the summit venue.

It’s isn’t doing any good when the two loggerheads keep playing with fire. When they are here, just let them play with water to cool themselves, especially when the weather here is getting hot!

Also let them try our local food prepared from local sources.

The Old and the Bold

Who say you cannot be bold when you are old?
You can be both.

Most people his age are already frail, senile and have probably lost most of their memories, but not this old man who is still working at 92, who is turning 93 in July.

He had never disclosed his secrets to longevity and some said it’s the effect of taking tongkat-ali in his diet which nobody could verify. 

As expected, they have no money to continue the HSR project as they found their safe empty except for one can food left behind by the previous government. Yet, this old man said they would spend money to develop 2 tiny rocks into an island on waters near Singapore. 

His hostility towards Singapore is back as he helms the top post again for the second time. Maybe, he would also revive the crooked bridge project across the causeway. Tough time ahead for our ‘big thinkers’ here! 

Making right turns right

With a spate of fatal accidents at road junctions in recent weeks, I support the stopping of all discretionary right turns and install turn-right signals at all road junctions. Why?

Due to the over use of mobile devices, some people are always distracted and simply stop thinking totally. Some bad drivers are impatient and cannot judge whether it’s safe to turn or not. Either they are too slow to turn or they turn at the wrong timing. Coupled with some foolish pedestrians and PMD users, cyclists who have a habit of always beating the red-lights, all these elements are perfect match for accidents to happen at road junctions.

These days, our roads are congested and heavily used by many types of users. Many are always rushing for time and do not obey traffic rules. These incalcitrants should be penalized heavily to make them learn the hard way and to inculcate a sense of compliance to traffic rules. No pain no gain.

However, enforcement is weak here due to resource constraints.

We are a smart nation, aren’t we? We can do this using smart technology to penalize offenders, no? It’s not how but when to do it. Let’s Take Actions now! Don’t just NATO.

Cause & Effect (因果)

Just an analogy: Cause & Effect (因果)

You need to eat oranges for their vitamins to maintain your health. But your land is infertile to grow any, so you have to import them for your own consumption. But now trade tariffs have been imposed on all imports of oranges and prices have sore so high that you have to pay exorbitant price for the same orange. With stagnant income in a place with high inflation, you could afford to buy fewer oranges. Unless you can find extra incomes, alternate cheaper supply sources or substitutes for oranges, you have to live with this turmoil with your health suffering due to lack of vitamins in your diet.  

Anyway, you’re the one that voted this crazy guy in to run your country and let him make all the decisions?

So who to blame now?

Fighting Fake News

I don’t quite understand why a need to spend public resources for such a committee and hearing. After 50 hours and 65 witnesses (probably they are too shy to ask to be paid for their time), there weren’t any conclusion except for 2 themes: the importance of free speech & the need for added legislation.

Most people ‘think’ they are smart & are able to differentiate between fake news and the truth. Yet, they spread fake news like wild fire. Why? Simply because people are addicted to their mobile devices and their fingers are always on their small screen till they go to sleep. Just look at people around you & on the streets. One of their hand is constantly holding their phone in front of them & looking at it.

To stop fake news, just pass the law and punish those who create, spread, share them. Just ban them like chewing gum. There’s really no 2 ways about it.

When my friends sent me fake news, I just tell them & laughed at them loudly. They just confirmed that they aren’t that smart after all!

Morgan Chua, R.I.P.

I read from local news that this veteran political cartoonist Morgan Chua has died on Thursday. He was 68.

He was hospitalised and in a coma in the intensive care unit of a hospital in Tanjung Pinang, Bintan.

Known for his bold and humurous political cartoons, this Singapore-born cartoonist began drawing for the Sinagpore Herald, a local nespaper in 1970. He was bold enough to draw our first Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew (LKY in short abbreviation known to local residents) and his political caricatures and published them in the Singapore Herald. During that time, our Government (you should know who) didn’t like the political drawings and the newspaper was forced to close in 1971. After many years, he actually received a thank you letter in 2009 from LKY for drawing and depicting him and his wife in his books.

Chua’s publications include Tiananmen: My Singapore; Divercity Singapore: A Cartoon History of Immigration; and In Memory of Madam Kwa Geok Choo 1920-2010. He also illustrated for the late president S.R. Nathan’s 50 Stories From My Life.

In 2014, Epigram published his sketches of LKY: Political Cartoons. Chua was featured in a video posted by Epigram, explaining his reasons for compiling his sketches: ‘I grew up in his era. I think Lee Kuan Yew must have a lighter side (to) his life. That’s why I produced this book for him and the people of Singapore, to know the human side of Lee Kuan Yew.”

Many of his books can still be found in many bookstores in this country today.   

Smart people vs smart nation

Smart people are those who do little or no work yet have created recurring passive incomes to support their quality lifestyles. 

Smart nation means people continue to work very hard for money. They stop thinking to analyse why there is little money left at the end of the day or how someone is able to take their money without them knowing it. They just spend the remaining money and time on stuff that doesn’t correct or improve on themselves but to add to the passive incomes of a few smart people.

I tried very hard to join the smart people group after reading Kiyosaki’s book: Rich Dad Poor Dad many years ago but I discovered this concept too late. Sigh! 

Happy Lunar New Year of the Dog

It’s the year of the dog but frankly speaking, I prefer PIGs (Passive Income GeneratorS). Sadly, I haven’t found any, that’s why I have to keep working for money. I can never afford to retire because in this country, no work = no money for most people like me. Fortunately, I don’t keep dogs as I consider them as an expense and a burden for life.

If you have PIGs, kudos to you. You can now slow down your pace or stop work to enjoy life. You have made it!  Just take care of your health. 

Wishing everyone a healthy and prosperous lunar new year.

心想事成，万事如意

Fake it till you make it!

I remember some years ago, my training coach told me to “fake it till you make it” and taught me techniques to overcome my stage fright when delivering speeches or trainings to a large audience. “Always try to look confident and be calm even if you have butterflies in your stomach”, he said.

These days, anything could be fake!

Most stuff are not real and one should never believe in them and never share them.

Digital world today makes it so damn easy to share anything with a click of a button, especially for those with easy fingers.

Once, an acquaintance sent me fake CPF news on what’d happen to one’s CPF money when one passes on. I told him it was fake news before CPF confirmed it as fake weeks later.

When people send me fake news, I just have one conclusion: these people have their brains migrated onto their fingers and they cannot think anymore. How many brain cells can the fingers hold?  Not much, right?

Right now, are you feeling the itch on your fingers hovering over your save and share-button?