Tragic Talents

It's been one of those weeks where I had to take a flight every day, sometimes two! This week I started in Jakarta, then KL, then Hanoi, then KL again before returning to Singapore. Once a month I have to travel like this. Thankfully most weeks, I will start in KL, head to one other ASEAN city then back to Singapore. Is there any upside to this? 

Well, I get lots of thinking time to myself. That's helpful as I have been strategizing the next strategic act for the business. More meaningfully, a friendly priest told me it's a good time to pray. He's absolutely right of course and I occasionally do say the rosary as I settle on board. All this flying takes a toll, especially when some are at odd hours but I do get a chance to catch 40 winks (typically right upon boarding) and then I'd wake up mid way through the flight. Then I'd while the time away watching whatever is showing on board.

This week I caught an Amy Winehouse documentary. What a talent, and what a wasted life. She had this strange affection, even addiction to men who treated her badly. Her dad, who abandoned her at nine which started her spiral downwards. Her boyfriend Blake who was not only living off her, but also multi-timing her not to mention being her drug fiend.

Photo credit: dailymail.co.uk

She died expectedly at the mysterious age of 27 (as did Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain) from an overdose.

I found it very hard watching the film but yet was totally gripped by her music and lyrics that I couldn't tear away. So much so, it kept playing in my mind that I couldn't fall asleep as I landed in KL. So, I pulled out the laptop and watched a movie, this one starring one of my favourite actor, Al Pacino. He produced, directed and acted in a documentary about a play, written by that wonderful wit Oscar Wilde about the biblical character Salome.

Oscar Wilde remains one of the best playwright/novelist the world has produced. This Irishman was also incredibly clever esp. when commenting (sarcastically) about the human condition. The play Salome combines all of these talents of his and brought well to life by Pacino as Wilde/Herod and Jessica Chastain as Salome. Prophetically, this play preceded his own doomed relationship, having fallen in love with another man, and was incarcerated for this crime against nature. He died shortly after being released from jail, never recovering from the fact that his children were taken away from him and that his Bosie had fallen out of love with him.

Photocredit: Elysium.com

Still in their brief lives, they have illuminated the arts and left behind moments for us to continue to enjoy today. What they could have produced had they lived longer, we'll never know. 

Just last night, the family (minus J who was mugging for his A's) (re)watched Dead Poets Society starring that incomparable Robin Williams. There are just so many lines there that inspire one to greatness, to make one's life extraordinary. I picked this one because many of us are at the point where we are in a position or about to get into a position to write our story.

Photo credit: all-the-news.com

There he was, standing at a different spot so as to see the world a little differently, urging his boys on, as I urge my own brood on: carpe diem. Seize the day!

Watching time

There is only one useful indicator of a man's self-image: his wristwatch. Once that jacket sleeve creeps up, the sole piece of acceptable jewelry beyond a wedding ring reveals the wearer's sense of taste and occasion.

Watch sellers employ a logical Italian dictum: a well-dressed man owns at least three timepieces. The day watch is most important: it is the watch that suits your occupation. If you're in finance, sobriety is all your watch must offer beyond the time. If you work in the media or the arts, you can be more eccentric. If your occupation involves specific tasks—from ambulance driver, to insurance broker, to 747 pilot—then, just as with iPhone apps, "there are watches for that."

For watch No. 2, you have more scope. This is your dress-down timepiece, worn everywhere from the beach to the ski slopes or for pottering around in the garden. Whether a sub-£50 Swatch, or a close-to-unbreakable Rolex, it will mean you don't have to worry about a quick dive in the pool or a round of golf. This is your casual watch.

Last is the dress watch. If you find yourself wearing black tie more than once a year, or if film premieres, opera visits or smart restaurant bookings keep appearing in your diary, your day watch may lack occasion. For this final part of the trilogy, you may go one of two ways: a classical, slim, time-only gold dress watch—or blatant bling. The presence of diamonds on your watch will accomplish this for you.

Where to start? One's first watch is often a gift—anything from a Timex on up—received at graduation, confirmation, first job or Bar Mitzvah. It will never be exactly what you want, but you will wear and cherish it from your teens until your first pay check. Then you will be seduced by TAG Heuer, Omega or Rolex, depending on your budget. It will be your first "real" watch.

Buying well is the key, and it's not as tricky as you might think. As master watchmaker Peter Roberts observed: "There really are no bad watches out there, because they all have to perform the same basic function and perform it well: tell the time. Manufacturing standards are impossibly high. So you should buy according to your budget and your taste."

Ken Kessler wrote the above in the Wall Street Journal back in March 2010 when J was just about experiencing teenhood. Now 5 years later, with many years of the trusty Casio digital watch (the defacto official watch of all schoolboys), he has asked for his first watch. A Luminox watch that tells the time, date and day. It's a military style watch and one eminently suited for a boy finishing college and entering military service. With it's guaranteed luminosity for half a century, I expect it will light his path for a long time to come. 

The ride home

This photo was taken in the car about a month ago as I was driven back to the hotel after work in Jakarta. From 4 to 7pm, to alleviate traffic congestion, the city authorities require all cars to have at least 3 passengers. In theory, this is to encourage car pooling and hence reduce number of cars on the already choked up streets of the city. It hasn't really worked because those who can afford cars in this high Gini-coefficient city can also afford a driver. So a new industry of car jockeys arose. Unemployed men and women would offer themselves to be picked up as the third person in the car, thereby allowing the car owner to be driven to wherever he needed to be at the peak hour.

In a decade and half of travelling to Jakarta, I have made use of many such jockeys but never one as young as this. Aliyah, as she told me her name, is merely 15 years old, the same age as my daughter. She should be in school or doing her homework but no, she's helping me get back to my hotel. I struck up a conversation with her because I while I understood she was trying to earn a living (for herself and her family), I wanted to encourage her to arm herself with the weapon that truly would get her to a better place: that is to gain an education. 

At the end of the trip, I paid her three times more than the usual jockeying tip and urged her to study. I have always been moved by scenes of kids having to look after me, esp kids who are the same age as my kids, whom I love and care about dearly. Also in Jakarta, some 10 years ago, I remember it was pouring and in order to ensure i remained dry, a young boy (about my son' sage then) offered to shield me in his small umbrella as I walked to the car. I refused because I couldn't bring myself to have a young boy getting drenched on my behalf and tipped him anyway.

Just last weekend, I was again seated at the back of the car as my wife and daughter sat in front. She was being picked up from school after a peer support board event, and heading to her usual cathecism class. For M, the car ride is a time to unwind, connect with the driver (one of her parents, usually the mom) or even catch forty winks before arriving at the destination. 

Truly, a child's trajectory is so much determined by his or her station at birth. 

Bill Gates was quoted to have said something like, "it's not your fault to be born poor, but to die poor is". I do hope Aliyah takes my advice and launch herself on a better trajectory.

Of sneezing and cold...

I... Not of the medical sort, mind you, but the economic sort. It's been said that when the US sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold. That's just how important the American economy is. If it slows, it's buys less, and all the factories in the world start to accumulate inventory. This has been true for as long as I understood these things.

But just last week, something rather profound happen. I was even asked by CNA to comment on it: the fact that the US Federal Reserve Bank decided not to raise interest rates despite decent economic data domestically for fear of tipping the emerging markets (read China) further into slow down. The Chinese economy has been slowing the past few years and it is now markedly in a slower growth mode. And it looks like the maxim has found another powerful patient.

I was in Chengdu earlier this week. This city was one of the epicenters of the Three Kingdom Wars. In fact Liu Bei's masuleoum is right there in the middle of the city at WuHou shrine, along with giant statues commemorating him, his grand strategist, ZhuGeLiang and the warrior general, ZhangFei. It was also one of KuoMingTang's last bastion before they ceded control of the Mainland to the Communist Party. For a city that is arguably in the middle of nowhere (sited as it is in the southwest of China), it sure has an illustrious past.

Its recent past, however, proved more difficult. As the communist party mismanaged the country and the economy, all of China started to deteriorate and while the great "capitalism with chinese characteristics" revival worked, it started first with the coastal cities, first Shenzhen, then the rest of the eastern seaboard esp Shanghai. It took a few decades before the effects reached inland. In many cases, the 'build it and they will come' philosophy to create new 2nd and 3rd tier cities left quite a few of these places as ghost towns. Chengdu threatened to be one of them.

But as I spent half a week here, in meetings and some sightseeing (incl pandas!) I remain astounded by the world class infrastructure (6-lane main thoroughfare, with additional side lanes for buses and bicycles) laid out in an organized grid template dotted by efficient square blocks of commercial and residential buildings. It's far from a ghost town but a thriving modern city that somehow still manages to hang on to its traditions of tea and mahjong.

The idealism of youth

I just finished watching another F1 race. The Singapore Grand Prix one to be precise. Sebastian Vettel won (no suprise there). He was driving a Ferrari (again, no surprise). But three former world champions DNF-ed (did not finish): Alonso, Button and Hamilton. That's quite surprising given these guys know how to look after their cars and to nurse their damaged equipment to the finish line. The really pleasant surprise was a young Max Verstappen in his debut race. He finished in a decent point scoring 8th place from 20 cars and even set one the fastest laps in the race. At 17 years old, he is even younger than J (who is just starting to get his driving license). If this photo from telegraph.co.uk is any evidence, this kid still has spots... And he's already shown that winners mentality.

What a way to start and he drove with all the exuberance of youth. I remember that phrase well. I once started my career with just as much gusto where I would write to my Managing Director - oblivious to any hierarchical constructs - and shared what was right and wrong with the company, which was then and still is one of the world's best airlines. My director had to explain and cover for me and he nicely put it all down to youth. I sometimes still pull these 'puppy' moves. But more often than not, I am now a recipient of such equally earnest and exuberant exhortations from my staff and of course from my children.

At dinner tonight with the family, we had a good energetic conversation. Dinners at home for us can sometimes efficient affairs. Pray, eat, chew, leave... All within 10, 20 minutes. Not much love. But not tonight. I was browsing my Facebook page just before dinner and started the meal time conversation describing this photo (from gregasamar's blog) that was posted.

Both M and J truly care about environment and they are especially keen to ensure it and everything on it are sustained. For instance, M has decided her first car is going to be a hybrid or electric one. This topic really got J going and he expressed his views passionately. It gave both D and me to share our perspectives, which are expectedly different from each other's, and from his. It's been said, "where all think alike, no one thinks at all". So, we enjoy these differences of views, no matter how challenging and loudly these are expressed! It's vitally important to have ideas and to stand behind them. Wasn't it Gandhi who famously said,

“Your beliefs become your thoughts, 
Your thoughts become your words, 
Your words become your actions, 
Your actions become your habits, 
Your habits become your values, 
Your values become your destiny.”

I took a moment to share with them what I thought were two recent 21st century ideas that has had truly profound impact. First, the 'gentrification' of social services such that it became more mainstream and that the 'landed gentry' ie the ones with the resources to make a bigger difference, found it not just right but also fashionable to serve. The second was that we should unemploy the label 'unemployed'. If one is not hired by another, one should simply resort to being self-employed. This mindset (like what gentrified social services does to the middle classes) will cause people in the working classes to fundamentally rethink their self worth and hence what they can do even when they are not able to find a job with another. In fact, that's how the founders of AirBnB started. Out of the desperation of unemployment in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, they rented out a room in their own apartment and the rest is history. 

That's the power of a great idea. And very often these ideas and the ideals they purport to originate from our youth. 

Purpose

Today, I concluded the third day of meeting with my colleagues who lead various businesses and functions across Asia Pacific. We discussed many things, including some aspects that were difficult, but in a wide-ranging forum there was indeed a thing or two that I found joyful to engage on. One of these topics was about purpose.

J is at an important juncture of his life. He has to make some big decisions about which university he'd like to attend, and what course he'd like to major in. In short, time to really know his purpose. 

Throughout his life, he's always been driven. The drive comes from having set a goal and then venturing assiduously towards it. As he approaches his exams, he along with all his classmates stood down from their various responsibilities (and J had a few) to concentrate on acing the exams. I knew he would find this vacuum hard to fill. So, I was glad that he managed to fairly quickly figure out his interest, destination and even sponsor. These imbued him with a sense of purpose, and helped him get into the groove of studying for the exams, ostensibly to qualify for sponsorship, get into the school of his choice and read the subject he is keen on.

But given how busy he has been, the mono line act of just studying proved challenging and soon enough he took on another project. To make a treasure chest for a friend of his. He has always been good with his hands but without the right tools and experience, this side-project took him longer than anticipated. It threatened to take away important studying time. I lost my cool, worrying that he has lost his sense of priority (purpose notwithstanding). 

He got it, threw himself back to studying, and over the weekend (as I was sleeping) completed the treasure chest project.

It's really a beautiful thing, complete with a hidden compartment. The recipient is lucky indeed.

As his parent, I feel lucky too. To have a talented son, who is purposeful, determined and as the recent events shown, able to take feedback and yet get everything done. :-) 

Gardens and me

Even before I write this I know it sounds weird. I love gardens. I really do. Back in my younger wanderlust days, backpacking on a shoestring budget, I nonetheless always made it a point to get to the city garden. It didn't matter if I had to spend a bit f my precious little travel cash to hop on a bus to get there and to pay an entrance fee... I just needed to get in, walk the grounds, sit on a park bench, jot my thoughts in my travelogue and generally just soak up the tranquility afforded by the trees, flowers and lawns.

From Tokyo imperial gardens, to the world famous Hyde Park in London and Central Park in New York or the beautiful Kirstenbosch in Capetown or Barcelona's Parc Guell, I've been to them all... More than once, even. 

But the gardens that I've been to most almost on a weekly basis,for the past couple of years, is the Singapore Botanical Gardens. I've made it a point to be the chauffeur for M every Sunday afternoon for her Math class. I drop her and then go to the Gardens next door and spend a better part of the next two hours on some functional core routines and run the paths in SBG. It's not too far fetched to say I know every nook and cranny of this impressive gardens. And as I jogged all over it, I am only too aware of its attractions and history and had hoped the UNESCO would see them too.

Yesterday, the SBG was conferred the status of being a UNESCO world heritage site. This means it will continue to be preserved well for posterity. That's a really nice thought. Too many things of worth and purpose, too many institutions too for that matter, have been destroyed by poor governance. In fact, as Singapore Botanical Gardens (and by extensions their custodian, the NParks run by the Singapore Government) is recognised for having taken good care of this asset, my home country is a washed with a corruption scandal so egregious, it boggles the mind. 

But back to Singapore, well done! And to the photographer of the above photo: Lee Hsien Loong.