Good Friday 2026

On Thursday, I had a late call with some colleagues from Europe and US and since it was the last working day of the week before the Paschal Triduum weekend break, I had the meeting with a glass of red wine. 

Once in a while, I get rather peckish late at night. It happened to me on around midnight and I headed to the kitchen and made myself peanut butter kaya sandwiches. I couldn't sleep well because my Synovitis (Runners' Toe) condition has recurred... after consecutive (and happy) days of 2hr long walking with D followed by a full day of wearing pointy leather shoes at the office. My body is clearly signalling something to me and it reads, "handle with care". 

So there you have it: bread and wine and feet that has been through much. I have not merely celebrated Maundy Thursday but made the themes a lived experience. And with pain in my foot and bread and wine in my belly, I attended the Good Friday service with Dawn. 

The service was preceded by Stations of the Cross where we parishioners recall 14 significant stations from the point He was sentenced by Pilate to the moment He was laid in the tomb. At each station, the priest would describe the circumstance, we would all then consider our involvement in the moment with a short pause for a personal silent reflection.

Three stations were most significant for me:

Station 1: Jesus is condemned. How many times have I (whether out of convenience, fear or self interest) ignored the evil wrought by others. 

Station 8: the women of Jerusalem weep for Jesus. Caught up in my own cycles of ups and downs, how have I picked myself up, and yet be interested in the condition of others and of the future

Station 12: Jesus dies. There is no crown without thorns, no healing without wounds and no resurrection without death. Its a profound truth of life that ups and downs are inevitable and in fact, the rock bottom in one's life would become he place to launch us firmly back up. 

As we prepare for a jubilant Easter Sunday, I wanted to share the thoughts above. 

About men and megalomania

“The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must” 

Thucydides

In the Chinese language the number 4 phonetically sounds like death. It has been now 4 weeks since Israel & US waged war against Iran and 4 years since Russian invaded Ukraine. Seems like a good time to comment on the selfish nature of man and his base instinct to wage wars.

So often in this media wrapped world we live in, someone somewhere has an interpretation that resonates with us, so even if we lack original thought, there is a good chance we will find our voice.

In my case, I had called out the similarities of the megalomaniacs today especially the one in US to the one who from Austria who terrorised Europe nearly a century ago. I said it without fear at a business leadership meeting, much to the discomfort of colleagues there but bad events are not mea see nt to be easy. 

As it happened, on my way to Hanoi, the capital of a country that has risen well from the ashes of war half a century ago, I watched Nuremberg Trails. In this case, I didn’t need the movie to think for me. I would just channel the words of the brave men who lived through the horrors of World War 2.

In particular, we must all pay heed to the views of Justice Jackson at Nuremberg trails and of Dr Douglas Kelley, the psychiatrist assigned to assess the mental health of the 22 prisoners there facing trial and judgment. 

"The real complaining party at your bar is Civilization. It asks whether law is so laggard as to be utterly helpless to deal with crimes of this magnitude—committed by men who possessed great power and used it deliberately to destroy peace, to enslave peoples, and to exterminate millions.

We must never forget that the record on which we judge these defendants is the record on which history will judge us. To pass these defendants a poisoned chalice is to put it to our own lips as well.

If these crimes are not punished, they will be repeated. If they are not condemned, then the law itself will be brought into contempt.

This trial is part of the great effort to make the law—not war—the governing force among nations.

And so, the question before this Tribunal is not merely the guilt of these men. It is whether the rule of law can prevail over the rule of force."

Justice Robert Jackson

Photo from IMDB

"I had in my charge the purest known Nazi “virus cultures”—twenty-two men. These men were not insane. They were not psychotic. They were, for the most part, within the normal range of intelligence. Nor were they, in any simple sense, abnormal personalities. They were not radically different from the average individual. Insanity is no explanation for their behavior.

The fact is that these men were able to commit their crimes not because they were mad, but because they were human.

Their acts were the product of a situation in which moral controls were weakened, authority was absolute, and responsibility was diffused. Under such conditions, many men can be led to commit acts which, in other circumstances, they would regard as unthinkable.

The danger is not that such men exist, but that they are ordinary. What happened in Germany could happen elsewhere, if similar conditions were to arise."

Dr Douglas Kelley

All these unnecessary deaths could be prevented. We need good humans to speak up and stop the evil ones.

“The only clue to what man can do is what he has done” 

Collingwood

About Time

 Imagine if you will, three buckets. One is called Time, the second Health and the last one Wealth. Everyone is born with all three, with the first bucket at its fullest, the second half full and the final one empty. At the start of all our lives we are given the choice how to optimise the filling/emptying of these buckets... the combination thereof would deliver happiness and often also sadness.

There is little one can do with time. It keeps emptying from the moment we are born and will run out sometimes between our 80th and 90th year (based on the national average life expectancy). The other two buckets require deliberate, intentional efforts. At home, first our parents then ourselves take care of our health and our abilities to grow wealth. In school, the balance tilts more to knowledge acquisition for work. At work, careers are structured to help us grow wealth. 

So, there comes a point in all our lives when we need to make a decision how much of each bucket we will continue to grow and which ones we must focus on before it empties out. 

I captioned to a photo in our family album: "There is a season for everything, all with good reason. Because we are looking forward to 2026 being a pivot year for gliding into our next act. J & N got wedded last year. My parents celebrate their 60th anniversary and M & J will wed next year - in a dream location too! "

Indeed, this year marks the optimising point. It's the year D retires from her executive role and I retire from three non-executives boards & committees. Its also going to be my final year in full time employment... as I will take a 2-month sabbatical next year to celebrate a dream wedding and take a dream European trip with my parents. All four parents are in their eighties and clearly every moment spent with them will be worthwhile, especially on a momentous occasion like a granddaughter's wedding!

Truth be told my health bucket is emptying a little faster nowadays... the last being a case of runners' toe or synovitis. Plus I do feel sensation along my re-attached humerus every so often. That said, I was happy to know that the cardiologist and urologist gave me a cleaner bill of health than reports the last few years. 

Yes, we can always have more wealth... in the immortal words of a greedy investment banker immortalised by Hollywood. We have set aside some for the next generation including helping them with properties and cars - the two most priciest assets in Singapore. 

So, I guess the time for optimising is indeed here. About time too. :-) 

On Colonisation

The Venezuelans I am most acquainted with are the Miss Universe winners. I dont know any personally. No, I am not some dirty old man leering at beauty queens. But like it or not, Ms Universe winners make front page news, complete with photos, in colour. Venezuela, I recall have produced more winners of this pageant that most other countries.

So, they have outwardly beautiful people. I have met only one Venezuelan and she struck me as someone with a beautiful soul inside too for she was mostly talking about her family especially her young daughter even though we were trying to crack the case.

Their land is also blessed with resources and I just learned that they have the largest reserves of oil in the world.

Beautiful people, rich resources… must be really attractive to the greedy. It’s a story as old as time. The greedy needs to be sated. But they dress their ugly desire in high faulting themes: Gold, Glory, God! 

The most honest description is Gold. They want more. More valuable things. For this, they wage wars. From ancient days to megalomaniac warriors like Alexander, Caesar and Temujin, the greedy conquered new lands. Then the game became more sophisticated. It is not necessary to spill blood. Just ink. Cunning agreements, often made to flatter the vain, meant lands are exchanged for puppet roles. 

So, with the stroke of a pen, within half a millennia, the greedy evolved from military colonisation to administrative colonisation. Under the guise of merchants, it was companies, not countries who did the deed of colonisation... persuading local ignorant chieftains to sign away their rights in exchange for puppet thrones.

A quarter of a millennia later, another form emerged. So sophisticated, it even had a tinge of good: economic development. Investors from rich and powerful countries would put up cash and in return own valuable assets in resource rich countries and extract them. All legally and all in the name of enriching the locals. This was the era I had grown up in: a time of economic colonisation. 

So for thousands of years, we have been colonising each other… but in ever more peaceful ways, until recently when the President of Venezuela (not a good man himself) was removed by another country who was lusting after Venezuela’s resources. That same country had earlier last year tore up the playbook on economic colonisation and launched trade wars against the rest of the world. This new year, barely a few days old, it has ventured into a more hostile form of colonisation.

I had always wondered about the people who were in power in the world barely a century ago... why didnt they stop a bad hateful man like Hitler. How did his own countrymen found it right to follow him. 

Then I think of the US today. And I think of the over 70million Americans who voted him into office and even more now who (outwardly) not approve of his tactics but (inwardly) dont mind making their country rich again (from resources of another). Indeed, while their previous mistakes, like Vietnam are still recovering and this is one of the better stories.

What a wicked web we weave. History repeats itself and may we learn from it.