“If you don’t study hard you will be cutting grass like this man here!!”

This is an interesting post I am reproducing here with the permission of Ms Aya Imura...

The original story appears in here.

To be honest, this is the biggest culture shock I got in Singapore: I once saw a mother pointing at the hardworking landscaper, as if he is invisible, delivering her public lecture to this poor kid. It was along the lines of “If you don’t study hard, you will be cutting grass like this man here”.

It has been four years since I moved to Singapore. Every now and then I am still asked “What is your greatest culture shock since living in Singapore?” my replies are usually politically correct, such as food and lingo. But to be very honest this is the one: the lack of respect and bigotry towards a certain group of occupation. And unfortunately this is also the biggest shock shared among a lot of the Japanese here in Singapore. 

 

In Japan, first thing we teach children is “Every job is respectful and precious”. We cannot go putting our values on other people’s work.” In Singapore however, many adults would tell their children to study hard so they would not end up a cleaner or bus driver in the future. Worse still, they make it an effort to condescend those profession to make sure they got their point across.

We have a tradition to value every craftsmanship and professionalism in Japan. As long as we take our job seriously and keep improving, people will admire us and support us.

In Japan, professionals with great craftsmanship and skills are considered our national treasure. In fact we have a “Living national treasure” system and there are 166 living craftsmen (like cloth weaver, bamboo craftsman, potter etc) registered as “Living natural treasures” and the state supports them in passing of their skill to the next generation.

We also have a tradition of respecting every individual, regardless of the amount of education they accumulate.

Take for example: the ex-prime minister Mr Kakuei Tanaka. The man left school at the age of fifteen and worked as a construction worker, yet he was never discriminated and rose to be the head of a proud nation.

Mr Konosuke Matsushita aka “The God of management”, the founder of Panasonic, dropped out from the school at the age of nine. With determination and hard work, Panasonic is arguably the largest consumer electronics company in Japan. Upholding the true spirit of knowledge and education, he founded The Matsushita Institute of Government and Management in 1979 keeping a “No prior education requirement” for their new students till today, where 43% of their graduates making key politicians and policy makers.

If we want to work at the headquarter of big companies like Toyota immediately after we graduate, yes going to a good university does help a lot. But if we leave school at fifteen years of age and decide to become a craftsman, people will equally respect us as a professional.

I remember reading the results of an interesting survey. A survey was commissioned to understand children’s ambitions from 9 countries in Asia. The question posed was: “What do you want to be in the future?”

In many countries like Korea, Thailand, Hong Kong, Vietnam, becoming a medical doctor was the most popular answer.

In Japan, the most popular answer was to be a Patisserie (Pastry chef).

Guess what was the top Singaporean kids answer?

Interestingly, it is: “Manager”.

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My Note:

In Asian movies, it is common to find the hero as the Princeling or rich man. 

However, in Eastern European and Russian movies, the hero tends to be a playright, poet, artist or political prisoner.

Some food for thought.

Jeff Ma's talk at the Singapore Expo

Buddhists abhor gambling, as for one to win, many have to lose. All other religions I know of forbid gambling. Personally, I don't gamble, as they cause unnecessary anxiety and awakes the greed in me.

It is therefore surprising that in a seminar that I attended recently stretching two days with about six prominent speakers, I ended up learning most from the gambler among them, Mr Jeff Ma. Jeff is a well-known card counter and it is said that many casinos ban him from playing blackjack in their premises.

He said that people are generally averse to losses, they are not averse too winnings, which leads them to 'bias omission' or 'inactivity', ie. the decision not to make a decision. This must never be an option. That he learned when his mother had a stroke and the doctor that normally wouldn't do a brain surgery to old people. At that point, he knew that an 'inactive' decision (not to do anything) would normally mean that his mother will not live pass another sixty days. Against normal practice, they decided to get her to the operating table and the result is that his mum is still living and well today.

His method is data-driven and not based on gut-feeling.

He related to us how he lost $50,000 in one round of black-jack, even though his decision was data-driven. Then he went on to lose another $50,000, in yet another round of black-jack, in yet another data-driven decision. Dejected, he went to his room, slumbered on the floor, stared at the ceiling and contemplated quitting. Then curiously, after long thoughts, he decided not to quit and go back to the tables and subsequently won $100,000, and then later, another $70,000. 

He said that he won his rounds based on data-driven decisions and lost also based on data-driven decisions. In other words, the right decision made based on data, need not always end up with the desired outcomes. That said, we have to continue to make the right decisions although sometimes they don't come up with the desired outcomes. In other words, we must be able to separate right decisions from outcomes, and not be discouraged by the latter if they don't turn out desirable. So we must learn to embrace 'failures' and not be disheartened by them.

I think one of the reasons that I learn more from Jeff than the others is that he was purely sharing his experience and was not trying to sell me anything. In an act as if sarcastic of the other speakers, he did playfully asked the audience to take out their smart phone to go to Amazon to buy his book, "Bringing the House Down".

In group work, he said that there must be trust, transparency and communications. Of which he told us that they use code words to get around other people knowing what they are communicating to each other. For instance, the word 'paycheck' means something. So one of their team members would said out loud to the dealer, "Hey! You are taking away my paycheck!"

Yet another code word is "sweet" for "sixteen". And one of his team member is so happy whenever he utter the word "sweet", that in one time at the end of the game, he was paid some winnings, even though he had lost.

Finally, he related how he was sharing his experience in Silicon Valley among venture capitalists and other financiers, when suddenly, a billionaire VC who didn't seem to be listening and was busy with his Blackberry most of the time, said, "I don't believe you...". 

"What do you not believe?" Jeff asked.

"I don't believe you wanted to quit," he quipped.

Recounting the time he was lying down on his hotel room floor, despondent and starring at the ceiling, he said that, that billionaire was right, he never wanted to quit. And so he didn't quit. Had he quit, he wouldn't have gone back and won some money, had the book written, a movie made and his talking to us at the seminar.

Here are some clips:

TEDxNUS

16th October 2010

It was an enlightening seminar - one that lived up to the expectations of TED.

I was given a tag to fill out my name and what I would like others to talk to me about and I scribbled, "Technology".

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Others I have met have more light hearted suggestions, the best among which is "You!". Yes, talk about you! Isn't this the best way of engaging someone else in a conversation?

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The famous Dale Carnegie's book on "How to Win Friends and Influence People", has put this as one of the main principles

- "Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves."

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For the list of speakers, click here.

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The 3 things that most impressed me and that I have learned from the seminar are:

• That a goal you want to achieve 'someday' is not one worthy of you to take up.
• That singapore's human settlement is at least 700 years old, preceding the arrival of Raffles.
• That nobody knows the future in the stock market.

The seminar doesn't explain:

• Why Americans are said to be diverse in culture yet unable to focus on human relations at work.
• Why male spiders are much smaller than it's female partners.
• What Singapore culture is.
• If Singapore's wildlife is reducing or flourishing on the balance.

There was a speaker (Gino) who spoke about living in the present moment, but funny enough when he explicitly asked everyone else to focus on him (symbolically) as our 'present moment', I lapsed into an overly conscious state and couldn't be in the moment. hehe. Easier to do this naturally. Once too conscious about the present moment, it slips away from me. The present moment is in the moment before thinking. Thinking adds, "I, me, my..." in it and the blissful clarity vanishes.

Overall, it was a great experience to be in TEDx. I wish there was more time to mingle around during the seminar. The lobby hall was a little too small for moving around, but that just slowed things down a bit, but not a show-stopper.

My Unique Day in Singapore

18th October 2010

The morning was a little bit of a hurry, as we were trying to beat the 7.30am Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) toll charge along the East Coast Parkway in Singapore. We started a little late and so we had to hurry. However amid the haste, in between pauses at traffic lights, we could still change the iPhone4 skin. Not bad eh? Every each day, a new skin! Isn't it cool? :)

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Then as we got near the ERP toll gantry, as if to make the plot more exciting, the traffic slowed down and we had only 2 minutes before the toll bells ring! Then as we crawled till just at the bottom of the gantry, the clock clicked 7.30am and we got charged $1.50 instantly, to our cries of "Oh shit!" in perfect synchronisation.

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Later in the day as I travelled in (public) bus number 130 along Balestier Road, an elderly man (about in his late 70s) got up with a folded wheel chair. The driver forbade him to take it up the bus and suggested that he took a taxi. "Taxi is very expensive!" the old man replied, but that didn't soften the driver's stance to block him coming up the bus. Ironically, the driver said that the old man could bring the wheel chair up if he sat on it, which he couldn't as it was damaged and he was bringing it for repair.

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After the old man got off the bus, the driver called up his head office to enquire if he could allow the wheelchair up, and after some discussion, the head office said that he could allow the wheel chair on board. However by then as I ran down the bus to get the old man, he had already taken a taxi.

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I was upset with the driver for being so heartless and myself for not intervening earlier. Singapore sadly has become a state where many people live like robots. I asked the driver how he could possibly turned the old man away and he said that if it was just up to him, he would have allowed, but he was afraid of possible reprimand from the company. Couldn't the driver decide with his heart? What harm or safety risk can a wheelchair do on board? The irony is that he could have allowed the wheelchair up if the old man sat on it. Haiz!

Good reminder that we should trust our heart.

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This is my Uniquely Singapore Day!

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The Hungry Ghost Getai

The Chinese Seventh Month Getai (concert) season this year is coming to a close tomorrow on the 19th September 2009. I had a very entertaining and fascinating evening attending one at Loyang Tua Pek Kong.

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This temple is an epitome of religious harmony in Singapore. Besides being a Taoist temple, it also houses a Hindu Temple and a Malay Kramat (shrine).

The Hindu Temple. Chinese devotees pray here too!

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Here is the Malay Kramat next to the Hindu shrine.

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Besides opening the getai to the public for free, the temple also provide food for everyone. A big thank you to all the volunteers here seen dishing out the bowls of soup.

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This is the Baobei sisters. The stage is very posh for a getai. Artistes enter the stage from beneath, via an elevator platform.

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This is Karen Lim - the Getai Queen. She has 153 getai engagements in 2008. That is more about 5.5 getais to sing at every night! She is a live wire and dances non-stop during her performances. This is a rare sight to see her seated.

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This is a 9 year old Malay kid who did a Michael Jackson dance. Here while bantering with the MCs Liu Lingling from Singapore and Lan Tian from Taiwan, he cheekily put on his mask, just like Michael Jackson used to.

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Mai Ke, an Indian singer from Penang sang in Mandarin, Hokkien and Cantonese. He is also a Michael Jackson impersonator.

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Oh! Now we have three impersonators! In case you can't recognise them, two of them are the MCs.

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This is Hei Mao (Black Cats) from Malaysia. A three girl and two boy sing-and-dance group. Amazing feat stacking themselves and swing themselves around while singing.

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Hong Kong singer - Bai Mei Hui

Taiwanese artiste - Yaya

This is Fang Fang, our Malaysian 'Yau Shu Rong' (a famous female vocalist from Taiwan in the 1960s). At 58 years old, she still look great. She had ever said that she will continue to sing even when hit 60!

Singapore artiste - Xie Sheng Zi

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This is so Singaporean. Dishing out fans with campaign slogans - about getting help for gambling addicts! This is to pre-empt gamblers getting into doldrums when the casinos are opened next year.

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They also issued tissue papers with the same slogans. Luckily they distributed the tissue pads in the middle of the show. If they are distributed in the beginning, they will be used to reserve the seats!! *LOL*

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Indeed seat reservation is a serious problem in some getais, as touts sell reserved seat enbloc and sell them for a few dollars each.

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It was already near midnight, but devotees are still offering prayers at the temple.

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I enjoyed myself thoroughly in an evening of street culture and entertainment. A bit rough on the edges at times, particularly of those double meaning jokes banter between the emcee and the artistes, but such is the spontaneity of street culture.

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Particularly, the Loyang Tua Pek Kong getai is uniquely Singaporean in that there was so much diversity among the artistes from different countries, different religions and races. The temple premises itself houses a Hindu temple and a Muslim shrine.

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I think that is because Singapore is a confluence of two 'rivers' from the East and the West. Incidentally, this also goes for Singapore's ecosystem. For instance, there are about 60 known species of mangroves in the world and Singapore is home to 50 plus of them. Read here. For the coral reefs, the Great Barrier Reef which is about 6,000 times the size of Singapore has about 400 plus species and Singapore has 200 plus. Read here.

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For a small island of 660 square kms, there are just so many races and nationalities in Singapore. Some come as professionals to work and others to study.

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Perhaps this is Singapore's destiny, given its limitation of land size, it has learn to be open, adapt and innovate to prosper.

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Notable artistes from other getais:

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Taiwanese artiste, Hou Hou

He is known for his drags and ability to sing in both male and female pitches.

Taiwanese artiste, Kai Li

Here's a video clip of 17 year old pole dancer Lim Zi Yee. Amazing how she can sing while up at the pole.
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There are more and more younger artistes coming on stage over the last two years. The youngest who is only 5 years old.

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For more video clips, click here

For more pixs, click here.
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In my getai blog post on Vacuum State Travel in 2007, I wrote:

In the near future, they may have to continue to innovate and use newer entertainment technologies. May be there will be fireworks, pyrotechnics, more electronic music, more techno beats, holographic displays, large LCD screens for those in the far end from the stage, or even simulcasts on Youtube.

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Well, at the getai at Loyang Tua Pek Kong, pyrotechnics are already used. There are already many video clips on YouTube, though we haven't have simulcasts yet. Techno beats have already come together with rap and Michael Jackson gigs. Younger artistes have also leveraged on the Internet and have facebook profile pages to communicate with their fans.

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Looking back, getais in Singapore have come a long way. Below is a pix (taken in the year 2004) of what getais used to be.

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Read previous post on getai, click here
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Efficiency

Those of you who have lived in Singapore will understand what I am talking about. Efficiency drives are everywhere. Sometimes it is so efficient, it all happens and end without you noticing. I experience some of these yesterday in the food centre. I was enjoying my bowl of noodles. Then halfway, I got up to go to the wash basin. Just less than 10 seconds and the cleaners took my bowl away.

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Food centres should train their cleaners that efficiency and honesty are not enough. Instead, they should be looking out to serve customers, rather than bent on completing their task.

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I found this funny video on YouTube. Enjoy!

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Kusu Island Reef Walk

I woke up at 4.30am and had slept only 3 hours. It was a Sunday morning (20May07) to boot! It was the morning for the Kusu Island Reef Walk organised by the Blue Water Volunteers.

The Blue Water Volunteers (BWV) is a volunteer-based, marine conservation NGO that seeks to complement research activities and increase awareness of local marine habitats, such as coral reefs. Read more. They have organised this trip for all of us. We got one big boat full of participants of about 50 people.

This 5am at Marina South Pier. We are to set off at 6am.

It was first light when we arrived on this southern island of Singapore which is about 20 minutes away by boat.

Legend has it that a giant tortoise had saved some drowning mariners in a ship wreck and had emerged to form this island. The original island is tiny with just a small hillock with a Malay Kramat (shrine) on top and a Chinese temple.

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Reclamation work has killed a big part of the coral reef, but over the last ten years, new recruits have come to join in the remaining reef and had grown substantially.

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Taoist devotees from Singapore, Malaysia and some say Batam too, come to pray at this temple on the Ninth Full Moon.

. This is the famous little temple of Kusu.

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Since the reclamation, the National Parks has done a good job beautifying the place and also adding a proper ferrypoint to the island. I remember I had to transfer from bumboats to small sampans to get to the shore, and then wade through the waters to set foot on the ground.

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The trees there are Coconut and Casuarina. I learned from the guide that Casuarina are also natural seaside trees, as it is tolerant to salt. It is not from the Pine family.

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Notice that there are 4 concentric lines on the sands. This are tide lines. There are two high and two low tides a day.

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Zoom in on one of the shorelines. Many shells.


Our guide started by asking us to pick up whatever that is around us that we think is a living thing. I had some problems doing that in the beginning as I thought most things look quite dead to me.


These are some of the living things our group picked up. These are simply land plants that has migrated from the land to the waters, probably because there is less competition for food nearer the waters. A plant is a vegetation that has roots, stems and leafs.

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A seaweed is therefore not a plant. Seaweeds don't have roots. They just float around in the water.

. These are some shells. Some of them are snails and some are shells adopted by hermit crabs. They are moving. Why do you think they are found in colonies? We will come back to the answer later...

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These slimy stuff are algae.
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This is one living thing we were prohibited from picking up. The guide stood in front of it to make sure none of us picked it up by accident.

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This is a sea anemone. The little brown patch around the centre is the mouth and the anus. So it is one of these creatures that eat and shit in the same place. It is akin to some bosses having extra-marital affairs in the office with their secretaries! :)

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By the way, don't be fooled by the demure looks of anemones. They can be very vicious when the catch their predator. The latter will be knocked out with their secreted mucus and then consumed at the mouth (or anus).

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This is a fan worm. It anchors to the ground but fans out in full bloom in the waters. When touched, it retracts immediately like the land mimosa plant.
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This looks like and ordinary rock to me, but the guide told us that it is a sanctuary for sea snails.
. See. Sea snails hidden behind a rock crevice.
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This is a Butter worm.

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This hole is borrowed and fortified with rocks by a shrimp. He uses it as his santuary.

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Can you see the goby skipper? It is in the hole in the middle of the picture. It is a lot smaller than the mud skipper.

This is a coral community. It is like a colony of many anemones. Each 'dot' within each honeycomb represents one clone. They multiply by cloning within the community.


This is an anemone.



Usually corals form walls like these.

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Notice that the top of the coral colony is bald. This is because of the tides and exposure to the sun.
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This is a sea slug. It is well camouflage on the rock.

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This coral is very well anchored into the rock crevice. Big colony.


This is a shrimp that lives in the anemone. It is a symbiotic relationship between the shrimp and the anemone. The shrimp protects the anemone and the anemone does not poison the shrimp.

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One of the participants in our group said that he would more accurately use the word "(mutual)exploitation" instead of "symbiotic relationship". By the way, I was lucky to be in a group of people with a biology background or a keen interest in marine biology. I learned lots from their questions. Thanks guys!

Notice that the corals is more colourful once it is under water.

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Does this remind you of the Esplanade? (Theatres by the Bay on the mainland)

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One of the guides told us that we can tell about the environmental conditions of the shore by looking at the different shapes of the coral living there. These ones have trapped air bubbles that keeps it afloat when the tide comes in.




This is the False Clown Fish that lives around the anemone. Its Hollywood name is "Nemo". Same 'symbiotic', (opps!) I mean 'exploitive' relationship between fish and anemone. There are two theories that abound:

1. That the fish emits the same mucus that tells the anemone that he is one of them, so 'don't eat me'.

2. That the fish moves in such a way that the anemone thinks that it is part of itself.

These are not sea grapes, but part of the coral that contains air to help it float nicely upright when the water comes in.

This is how it looks like when submerged. The tide is gradually drawing in. That's the reason for having to wake up at 4.30am this morning to catch the low tide and first light.

This gruesome looking coral colony is called "Dead Men's Fingers". They look like what it is called. The two white lumps on the bottom of the photo are not another coral colony - they are my shoes!!! And definitely not dead men's feet! :)

See what I mean?

Yaks! Good thing I had not have my breakfast then.

Notice these coral colony has its top fully grown, not bald. This is due to different water levels and the amount of sun it is exposed to.

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These look like flotsam or debris from litter bugs, but they are not.

They are sponges. You can't use these as domestic sponges as it has a mucus that won't go well with your skin. They are soft like sponges.

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Notice that the different corals stick to their own space. So even in marine life, "birds of a feather flock together". You only attract what you already are. Law of Attraction! :)

When their territories get very close, there will be a turf war! Competition for resources.





This is a very junior Blenny Eel.
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This is a sea cucumber, but not the type that Chinese people eats. It moves!
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The UV light absorbed by the coral are eventually let out again in the form of bright colours.
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This is a moat. The difference between a moat and a crab is that the inside between the gills are hollow.
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Notice the round 'fruit'. These carry air bubbles to keep these seaweeds afloat.

.The name 'star fish' is a misnomer, since this is not a fish. It looks very cuddly and cute, but it is very vicious when it catches its prey. It will just grab it, crush it and eats it. The centre is its mouth. When cut into pieces, it will clone itself to several star fishes.

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Some kind hearted divers try to help star fish populations by dividing them and helping them to multiply, which is not necesarily a good move as having too many star fish will deplete some of the marine life they feed on. So kindness must always be exercised with wisdom! :)

We inverted a star fish to see how it can twist itself back into position. It is very stressful for the star fish, so after witnessing it for the initial five minutes, we helped it by flipping it over.
.Soon after we flipped it over, it quickly borrow into the sand.This is one of the 6 groups. My group comprises students, biologists and marine live enthusiasts.
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This is the shoreline of the mainland in the distance. The casino (oops!), Integrated Resort will be up in 2008 on Sentosa Island. Visitors to Kusu will certainly go up. Hopefully, the government will not develop this island into a luxury island paradise for the super rich who will have their bungalows with the marina in the backyard. If this happens, the coral community will be decimated. Read more

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We were told to guess the number of species we have on Kusu. One of us said 40, I thought it would be about 20. The guide said that the Australian Great Barrier Reef which is 6,000 times the size of Singapore has about 400 plus species. We have 200 plus species on this small island. We are truly a nation of migrants. Even in marine life! Isn't it amazing! Many people do not know this, including many Singaporeans.

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Even Malaysian coral reefs do not have the same diversity in a small area. Perhaps this is something uniquely Singaporean. A treasure which I think is more valuable than money.

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Yes, have you got the answer to the question as to why those marine lives thrive in communities?

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Answer: That living things live for the only one thing - SEX,...erh...I mean to reproduce itself.

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Some human beings live like these too! :)

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Corals reproduce by spawning eggs and sperm three or four days after the Full Moon in April each year. The eggs and sperm will be carried by the tides to other coral reefs to be fertilised.

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Question from a group member: "Isn't this a risky strategy to reproduce?"

Answer from the guide: "That is why they all spawn at the same time to increase their chances".

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Coral conservation therefore has to to happen regionally. In order to protect Singapore corals, the Malaysian and Indonesian reefs too have to be protected.

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Corals protects our shoreline. They are also a source where new medicines are discovered.

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Blue Water Volunteers are started by a group of marine conservationists after an expedition to protect a coral reef. I applaud them for their efforts. It is hoped that through reef walks like these that more people gets educated on the importance of nature conservation.

The Reef Walk took about two hours. It was a splendid education for me. The Dalai Lama says it is important to spend a day walking in nature every week. This is certainly true.
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While waiting for the ferry, I wandered up the hillock to visit the Malay shrine.

I am surprised Chinese people come here to pray too.
This again, can only happen in Singapore. Another custom that is Uniquely Singapore! :)

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It is heartening to know that there is an increasing awareness of our need to conserve our nature reserves. I have been introduced to this walk by a friend of mine when he met me by chance at Mount Faber during a guided walk by a National Park Volunteer. He conducts tours on his personal accord and free of charge. He informs his mailing list of nature lovers by email only. Usually he gets about 40-50 people.

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As I was in Kusu for this particular Sunday, a University Alumni friend of mine was in Pulau Ubin to be trained as a volunteer guide. This was sponsored by a NGO funded by the Singapore Environmental Council.

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Last, but not least, the guide recommended us to visit this website http://www.wildsingapore.com/ . It lists the wilder the areas of Singapore besides our nightspots. :)