Music & Me

It has provided a soundtrack to my life so far. I used it, Can't Buy Me Love by the Beatles to be precise, to start my TED talk three years ago. Depeche Mode's Somebody was "our" song. I was featured on BFM and to make that segment personal was asked to pick a few of my favourite songs. Amongst others, I chose Those Magic Changes ... because we need to start at the beginning, when all the boys wanted to be Dany Zuko, what more a boy hitting puberty.

Recently, an old pal from JC, Y, tagged me for a week of 80s music challenge. I chose the following:

Feels Like Heaven by Fiction Factory. It's apt to name a Scottish band who contributed to the decade known as the British Invasion. They had just one hit and what a song. Like other 'one hit wonders', they demonstrate how tough the music industry is. Still, it's better to have had impact once than none at all

Sometimes It Snows In April by Prince. Along with David Bowie and Glenn Frey, Prince died this year. We mourn these artists not because we know them but because they help us know ourselves.

Under Pressure by Queen and David Bowie. This one features two artistes, sadly no longer with us, who provided plenty of anthems to grow up with. Both Mercury and Bowie were theatrical, both felt immense pressure and lamented, in this number, "this is our last dance!". Fortunately for many of us, we continued to dance on.

In The Sentimental Past by Leslie Cheung. More than a decade since Bruce Lee introduced the Asian hero on the global silver screen, John Woo brought us 'A Better Tomorrow'. This was also the height of the Cantopop Craze, a music movement across East Asia not unlike the British Invasion. This tragic theme is by Leslie Cheung (why do I keep picking songs of dead people? 😢) is so moving, achingly so, that one wishes for a world with more heroes (but hopefully without the violence).

Running To Stand Still by U2. We can't relive the 80's without U2. Uber cool then and still so now. Political activists to boot! And then their poetry...

"You got to cry without weeping

Talk without speaking

Scream without raising your voice"

Sabai Sabai by Thongjai McIntyre is from our neighbourhood; an infectiously happy song about feeling good from a country of fun loving folks. It's been updated for the 21st century and it's still as happy sounding as ever.

Key Largo by Bertie Higgins. This one is special only because we (P, K, B and I) were not. We tried to perform it at a JC talent competition. Well, at least one of us went on the cut a couple of albums.

Shake It Off by Taylor Swift. This is technically not 80s music, though it's from the album titled 1989 and performed by the artist that is defining our kids' teenage years angst, Taylor Swift

"Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play

And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate

Baby, I'm just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake

I shake it off, I shake it off

Heart-breakers gonna break, break, break, break, break

And the fakers gonna fake, fake, fake, fake, fake

Baby, I'm just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake

I shake it off, I shake it of"

Although I bent the rules with Taylor Swift's number, there were just too many good songs I couldn't include. I left out Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet and Wham!. I also had to leave out greats songs from the 60s and 70s. Not exactly from my teenage years but I certainly grew up listening to them. 

These included:

- Yesterday because if not for Beatles then, we will not have the music of today

-  Summertime by Janis Joplin because she leaned in first and broke all barriers incl one of those gone too soon at 27

- Hotel California because the Eagles remind us that we have all checked in to this world and can't leave (not yet anyways)

- The Soft Parade by the Doors, helmed by the iconic Jim Morrison

And more recently songs by divas such as:

- Angel because Sarah McLachan has the voice of an angels and in today's world, we all need guardian angels more

- Rehab by Amy Winehouse whose life imitated her art and vice versa

Truth be told, there is one idol from the 80s that I still listen to every time I have the chance. He has since disappeared and so in my mind he is still looking like this. Like an idol should. 

Photo from Mesosyn.com

Thinking broadly on business trips

In my last entry, I mentioned a few places I've recently been to. Whenever, wherever I travel, for business or for leisure, I pick up impressions, and these then mix with earlier memories. They serve to embellish and enrich my understanding of the place and more meaningfully of its people.

Here are a few scenes and attendant thoughts, captured on the road, for posterity.

Johanesburg, South Africa. 

The legacy of Mandela still looms large. The country is in real trouble, economically and socially, after years of inept management and rampant corruption. A month after my trip here, the ANC did poorly, as expected, in local polls indicating the people are fed up and want better. Indeed, this beautiful lands deserve better. I suggested to the minister's advisors that they should capitalise on this outcome to lead an internal reformation, one committed to delivery on the ground. It's an uphill battle but at least the leaders and the people have an iconic hero they can think of and hopefully get inspired and motivated to do better. 

London, United Kingdom. 

I was here just as Theresa May got sworn in as the new Prime Minister, following a Brexit-induced departure of David Cameron. It's been 500 years since the British Empire, and a bit more than 50 years since it gave its colonies independence. For a country with such history, choosing to go it alone may seem surprising even surreal. But then again, isn't this is just another sign of the cycle of rise and fall of great powers. A reminder to us all that history will repeat itself until the lesson is learned! Yet for all these signs of turning inwards, Britain's half a millennium of global hegemony doesn't dissipate easily. First of all it has chosen to exit a difficult European Union construct, and not the global economy. London is still one of the major capitals of the world and will remain a magnet for talents, and that in turn will keep it strong. Indeed, it's one of the major advantages we seek to secure for this city as we report on what the new government needs to do.

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. 

Going back further in time, Arabia was once the greatest civilisation on earth. It's a harsh land and like all hard places, tough people emerge. People who impose their will on inclement environments and change the world. They invented astronomy, particularly crucial to navigating the formless lands using the stars I the skies. They invented mathematics. They thrived as a hub on the Silk Road. Then they discovered oil. And in the century or so since, in an ill-conceived effort to share the wealth with the population, their people quickly degenerated. They have become used to getting something for nothing. Critically, the hunger and work ethic have been lost. Just look at how slow the queues at immigration counters clear, despite the impressive hardware all around them. The leaders, especially an ambitious young deputy Crown Prince, has now formulated a new vision for the country. We are helping him bring about the most ambitious transformation: that of the mindset and psyche of his people.

Berlin, Germany. 

Transformation is enormously difficultly. Unless of course the entire population have such discipline as the Germans do. They are tough people who get things done and are extremely detail-oriented in the process, so the learnings are captured and passed on systematically. Yet, they are compliant. Only in such a society can one enact large scale, and I mean nationwide scale change quickly. It is really felt here in Berlin where the Stasi (Ministry of State Security, of the now defunct East Germany) psychologically tried to rid its population of capitalist tendencies. And no more pronounced than preserved in this Stasi prison, now museum. [Note: I am intrigued by a remark from a colleague, T, whose parents managed to get out of East Germany before the wall came up, that all communist era buildings have the same smell. He's spot-on! I've been to a few places, here in Berlin, in Moscow and in Hanoi, and he is right. It's a strange mix of antiseptic odour that is trying to contain the salty tears, sweat and blood beneath.] It would be remiss of me not to add while they brought upon change (bad change, I should say), it didn't endure. The wall came down 25 years ago and Germany has progressed significantly as a European and global power.

There are many more walls to bring down to advance human progress. In ancient times, these walls were that of Mother Nature's: the climate, unpassable mountains and oceans, formidable predators. Now, it's made of extremist ideologies and insular nationalism. I am thankful my teams and I can play a small but important part in this: that of dealing with all disagreeable elements resisting change, making the right case for it and then helping in ensuring it happens.

Business trips

I have always loved travel. Alone. Or with the family. Roughing it out on a shoestring. And of course in luxury. And then there's business travel. That unique journey undertaken with a purpose beyond leisure. When I first heard about it, it fired up all my senses: business class flights, first star hotels, airport limousines...

Be careful what you wish for, they always warned. In my case my travel (and thank god for SQ that makes the experience more bearable), it meant a flight every other day, nearly 180 flights a year. This year, the number of flights has thankfully reduced on account of my new role but the distances travelled very much extended. Since taking on this role, I've been in Melbourne, Hong Kong, Johannesburg, London, Riyadh, Munich and Berlin (apart from my usual pan-SEA trips).

Even D got back on the road. As one of her first purposeful project, she flew to Jakarta and back and promptly gave the transport infrastructure of the city a failed grade. So, she doesn't quite like it either. That said, if we do the jobs we do, we can't avoid it.

I am presently in Berlin Tegel airport. Waiting to board my flight to Munich and then back home to Singapore. I will be arriving shortly after J, who is on his own business trips. Except business isn't quite the word to describe the nature of the trip. More like a service vocation. And as for accommodation, it's way more basic. Think muddy ground. Think hazy, humid weather. dirty clothes. And then there's the 2-day ration to last nine days in the jungle. He will do more such trips.

But like all business trips, there is an aim. In my case, it's managing the team, the work and serving clients. In his case, it's learning Warcraft. A nobler purpose especially if he learns never to go into one.

In time, M will also enter the workforce and have to do her objective-driven trips. We are all travellers. And as the wise Confucius once said, "wherever you are going, go with all your heart".

In my case, the next two flights are the best. It takes me home. Where my hearts are. 

Divine discontent and counting blessings

"What I would like to have is that we be blessed with a divine discontent. Always not quite satisfied with what we have, always driven to do better," Lee Hsien Loong said at his National Day Rally speech earlier last week.

J and M know this feeling well. Not only are they driven, they put themselves on tough roads and make their journeys well.

"At the same time" the PM added, "that we have the wisdom to count our blessings, so that we know how precious Singapore is, and we know how to enjoy it and to protect it."

Last week has been a truly happy week for us. It started with M's getting Academic Excellence award at her Founders Day. She also got citations for her leadership contributions as the vice chair of the school's Peer Support Board and her sporting achievements in softball at the school and national level. 

Then, we had an awesome joint birthday party with her grandpa: FM 75.16, we dubbed it. Her friends showed up in force. They composed a song specially for her. J organised party games, and toasted her. D did everything else. Friends mean a lot to her, and she means a lot to them.

Grandpa F is 75 and hard of hearing nowadays. Still I am so glad he still had enough amplification in his hearing aid to hear his big brother M's touching and funny speech. Later the weekend, I even managed to get him into the pool to do some Aqua-Walking, an activity he continued to do in Malacca, that really gladdened my heart.

Then, of course, J got conferred the President scholarship. He deserves it, and yet he has not become big headed about it. As Mrs Tan wisely said to him, in front of us, "it's just the start."

Photo from President Tony Tan's Facebook 

It's a new journey for him now. Well, beginning right now with a 9-day exercise in the Brunei jungles, on a 2-day ration, and a third of that all alone. It will test him and it will grow him, no doubt.

M will shortly be on a new journey too. She will soon be concluding her penultimate term in secondary school, and just as 2015 was a big finish for her, 2016 will be as well.

Then, as only He can, the reading at Mass last weekend was from the book of Ecclesiastes. A book of wisdom that is so wise it mocks wisdom, human wisdom that is. 

The happy week has been experienced. New journeys has started. And may we continue to be blessed with divine discontent. And every now and then, when contentment happens, we count them. 

Goodbye, GOATs

Though an avid reader, I couldn't say I've read Goethe, the German literary legend. I did watch a biopic on him (on a recent Saudia flight) so can appreciate this great man's poetry. That said, I am not a big fan of poetry. I would however count myself a sports fan. I could watch most sports competitions. I could watch most sports movies and of course enjoy reading sports stories, esp that penned by one of my favourite columnist, Rohit Brijnath at the Straits Times, who started his column with Goethe, as the Rio Olympics got underway earlier this month.

"If Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the great German writer, had arrived in Rio for one last look at Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt, he might have felt moved to write a celebratory poem. Goethe, after all, wrote that "I love those who yearn for the impossible" and in spikes and Speedos, over somewhat similar distances of the 100m and 200m, the long-legged Jamaican and long-armed American have repeatedly and lyrically done just that.

Goethe wrote one of his finest poems in his 70s and as these relatively sporting geriatrics exit the Games they, too, are ambitious even if ancient. Phelps is 31 years, five Olympics and 18 golds old; Bolt is a 29-year-old, four-Games, six-gold relic. Together they have more gold than Brazil has collected in 21 Games. It makes you think that if the German writer's works were often set to music, then these men will probably be set in stone and steel. In fact in Germany, years ago, a statue of Bolt emerged which was impossibly impressive: It was made of iron bolts.

For the Jamaican and American this word, impossible, has long been a familiar friend. Impossible, they first said, it was for a man so tall to run so fast. Impossible, we thought, as Phelps whipped himself on the blocks with his own arms. Impossible, they claimed, that a man could win the 100m by a margin so delightfully vulgar. Impossible, we insisted, that a human could even consider eight golds at a single Games.

Now we have to bid farewell to all this, now is the goodbye Games, now is the final look at Bolt sauntering and grinning and exploding, now is a last glimpse at Phelps pounding the water in triumph. Now is everyone's chance to watch these swan-song swims and these so-long sprints on "live" TV. If Singapore doesn't get to see them it will be impossibly annoying.

But the world is in the mood already. In recent days the New Yorker has offered us a lively piece titled How Fast Would Usain Bolt Run The Mile? and soon we will ask how quickly Phelps could swim to Cuba. There is nothing, after all, we believe they cannot do because they have proved there is nothing they will not do.

It took 13 years for Asafa Powell, Justin Gatlin, Tim Montgomery, Maurice Greene, Donovan Bailey and Leroy Burrell to lower the 100m world record by .11 of a second. Then Bolt did all that in a single race. Phelps' feats flirted equally with the impossible: He broke both the 200m butterfly world record and the 400m individual medley world record eight times each. How great they have been will only be fully understood when they have gone.

If they represent the best of land, and water, then Lin Dan, Kohei Uchimura and Wu Minxia have for a while been the artists of the air. At 32, the levitating Chinese badminton star is chasing his third Olympic gold; at 27, the Japanese gymnast who returns to land only after powerful aerial ballets is chasing a second all-around gold; at 30, the Chinese diver has won gold every year since 2004, a case of perfect harmony from a synchronised diver.

They won cleanly, coolly and captivatingly, both of them amiable evangelists who brought us closer to perfection and restored respect to the Games even as they provoked argument. Phelps could swim multiple events, Bolt was a sprinter with only two individual events. Who was greater?

"He is not a human being," said Uchimura's coach once and we understand, for such precise elegance is alien to most athletes. The Japanese star will probably stay till the next Games for they are in Tokyo, but as Lin and Wu say ciao in Chinese, entire eras of sporting greatness will come to a close.

Yet for all their appeal this is still the Phelps & Bolt Show. They won cleanly, coolly and captivatingly, both of them amiable evangelists who brought us closer to perfection and restored respect to the Games even as they provoked argument. Phelps could swim multiple events, Bolt was a sprinter with only two individual events. Who was greater? Could six golds on land equal 18 in water? Separating them is still the most impossible of feats.

Phelps kept taking breaks but returned as if he could not adjust to land. Bolt never quit because standing still seemed sinful. They kept going, swimming and running, as if they are terrified they will quit without having completely explored their talent. They kept going because they are swimming and running, they set the limits in their sports, they decided what is possible for them and thus impossible for others.

They are not as fast as they were for neither has broken an individual world record since 2009 and yet they are fast enough when it matters. In short, they know how to race, to summon talent, to gather it, to own a moment.

Phelps' training for the 2012 Olympics was "a joke" and yet he won two individual golds. Bolt's body was disobedient and yet Justin Gatlin could not beat him at the world championships last year. They cannot precisely tell you how they won but only that they just know how to win.

As evening sets on their careers, there will be mourning. Yet there remains something audacious and refreshing about these ageing, beaten-up athletes who did not take the safe way out: They did not go out on top but came back to discover how far that top could be stretched. It is possible, of course, that they might lose in Rio, but it will be impossible to ever say these men have failed."

Photo credit: Getty Images

Phelps concluded his participation this Olympics (his fifth) with yet another gold, his 23rd. Fittingly, it's won with his teammates in the 4x100m medley relay, an Olympic event the US team has never lost in. RIght after that, Bolt open his Rio account with an unprecedented 3rd Gold in the blue ribbon men track event, the 100m sprint. He will probably win a couple more before the track events conclude.

Photo credit: Getty Images

Both will likely bow out after these, and we are lucky to have enjoyed them these past two decades.

Life when lived in pursuit of a higher goal, exceeding oneself, for the betterment of humanity, becomes truly worth living. When that happens the accolade, Greatest Of All Time, are bestowed. I think two athletes have done enough to be called GOATs.

Strange bedfellows: Ibrahimovic, Mourinho and United

I had supported this club before I even turned 10. There were champions before but in the 70s, United was largely a cup side until they found Ferguson who took them on a winning streak that lasted over two decades and over 40 trophies. Within that time, he built three maybe four champion teams. Inevitably he retired, twice in fact. The second time for good, and finding his successor was thought to be an impossible task. It turned out to be so in reality. I had hoped for Guardiola, the only manager that I felt truly bested him not just in match victories but in how they won. But instead they settled for Moyes, who was an adequate manager who coached an average seat to finish in the top ten each year in the Premier League. He did exactly the same to a champion team! United finished a mere 7th. Talk about the manager leading a team to his level. So he left because we set our sights higher. Then came van Gaal, a champion manager. He was never quite liked anywhere he managed despite delivering results. It was the same here in this club. He delivered the FA cup, but was let go, to be replaced by Mourinho a coach I never liked for his style of play of his teams but I do respect his track record of winning. Then he brought in Ibrahimovic whom I have never really seen play but knew he was good but had an ego to match, and that may destroy the team spirit. Then again, we had Cantona who without a doubt Ferguson built his first champion team around. 

So with all these thoughts swirling in my head, I watched the first Mourinho-led United play a premier league match. In the first half, they played like a Mourinho team. Tight, boring and looking to not let in any goals and hopefully win by that one odd goal. They did score that one goal. Mata (not Mourinho's favoured one) ironically did him the favour, out of a lucky rebound from poor defending. 

Then they began to play in the second half. Rooney scored with a difficult header. And Zlatan scorched one from outside the box. Until then, I was already quite impressed with his contribution; he played like a gladiator, no a martial artist, esp in his fearless physicality and attractive back flicks.

We won the game 3-1. Mourinho's first Premier League victory for the club. Zlatan opening his EPL account in style. And we begin the 16-17 season at the top of the table. Not a bad start, at all.

Pragmatism, persistence, passion

The following article appeared on Asia One. Understandably, lots of column inches on and offline are being dedicated to Jospeh Schooling and his historic win. I shared one on my Facebook post, "  No one could have scripted this better: a first gold for the nation, in Olympic Record time, besting the legend Phelps who himself was on a quest to be the 1st man ever to win four consecutive Olympic gold in this event and last but not least, doing it in a intensely competitive pool where the second placed couldn't be split apart. Well done!    ". This story below tells of how pragmatic planning, persistence and passion mounded a precocious and precious talent into a world beater. Many parallels to draw from.....

RIO DE JANEIRO - Joseph Schooling was just 13 years old when he first met his idol Michael Phelps, but was already hatching the plans that led to one of the greatest boilovers in Olympic swimming history.

Neither Schooling or Phelps knew it at the time, but that brief encounter helped inspire Schooling to not only win Singapore's first Olympic gold medal but also slay his childhood hero in his final individual race, the 100 metres butterfly, at Rio on Friday.

Schooling was already Singapore's best age-group swimmer with ambitions to represent his country, but his goals suddenly changed in 2008 after he met Phelps, who was in the tiny city-state attending a US training camp before the Beijing Olympics, posing for a photo with him.

Photo credit: Reuters 

By the time Phelps had finished re-writing the records books in China, Schooling's mind was already made up. He too wanted to be an Olympic champion, but to do that, he knew he had to leave home.

His parents contacted Sergio Lopez, who won a bronze medal for Spain in breaststroke at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, but was making a name for himself as a master coach.

Schooling moved to Florida to train and live at the Bolles School, where Lopez had just been appointed head coach, and they got to work straight away.

Lopez adopted a patient approach with Schooling, resisting the temptation to get him in the gym to build more muscle, focussing instead on his technique to allow his body to grow naturally.

By 2011, Schooling was starting to make a name for himself. He won two gold medals at the Southeast Games in Indonesia and qualified for the London Olympics in the 200 metres butterfly, but didn't make it past the preliminaries.

Schooling was faced with a dilemma in 2013 after his finished high school. He had been offered a scholarship at the University of Texas to train under Eddie Reese but had also been enlisted to start two years of National Service, a statutory requirement for all Singaporean men.

The Singapore Sports Institute asked that Schooling be allowed to defer his service for three years in order to prepare for the Rio Olympics and the ministry agreed.

"They listened to what we had to say, that he was a special talent and these people don't grow on trees. They're once in a lifetime, particularly in small nations," Sport Singapore's head of high performance Richard Gordon told AFP.

"One of the unique features of Singapore is National Service and if there's one thing that we're very proud of is to give him the opportunity to keep swimming."

That decision paid off. With Lopez having laid the groundwork, Reese began to apply the polish as Schooling grew and matured, training and racing against the world's best in relative anonymity.

He was already a sporting celebrity in Singapore but by remaining in the US, Schooling was also spared the daily scrutiny most sports stars experience, rather than living life in a fishbowl.

He won a silver medal in the 100m butterfly at the 2014 Commonwealth Games then became the first Singaporean man in 32 years to win a gold medal in swimming at the Asian Games in South Korea.

In 2015, he showed that he was going to be a medal contender for Rio when he finished third at the world championships in Russia, albeit with Phelps absent.

No Singaporean had ever won an Olympic medal in swimming so Schooling's bid captured the imagination of the whole country.

Already an economic powerhouse with one of the world's best education systems, the Singaporean government has begun investing heavily in sports and knows the impact Schooling's win will have on nation.

"Winning isn't everything but it does have a galvanising impact and it inspires and that's important," the President of the Singaporean National Olympic Committee Tan Chuan-Jin told AFP.

"The ecosystem is important because no athlete can succeed without it. And at this high level, it's not just working hard, it's also working smart."

The Singaporean President Tony Tan flew to Rio to sit poolside when Schooling won the gold medal in front of a global audience which had expected to see Phelps win his last race but instead witnessed one of the biggest sporting upsets ever and Singapore"s greatest sporting moment.

"People talk about the Kennedy moment when Kennedy was shot," Gordon said.

"This isn't as tragic as that but this is Singapore's Kennedy moment, where people will remember when Joseph Schooling won gold at the Olympics.

"Now the focus will be on Joseph Schooling and how did Singapore do it."