Sight to Insight

January 24, 2009 at 0516 will go down in my memory as "my subprime" - an unforgettable one. I wanted to beat the traffic jam, by asking my family to wake up early at 0430 and packed with breakfast, I started for the Tuas Checkpoint. I checked the traffic on the phone and was informed of a massive traffic jam. So, what should be my decision? I wanted to get back on time for lunch, which I estimated to be about five hours on a leisure drive. It turned out to be an eight hour drive; with three of them crawling from Tuas Avenue 8 till the Singapore immigration. Yes, we reached the immigration officer at about 0800 on just a couple of kilometers. This jam was expected, but what was not so expected was the number of hours! However at the Malaysian immigration, it was a breeze to go through, taking us just less than thirty minutes! Yes, Malaysia "boleh" (meaning Malaysia "can") definitely works! I am proud of this nation, despite its many imperfections and so cal...

The Chinese all over the world will celebrate the lunar new year on January 26, and it will last for fifteen (15) days! As a Chinese educated in English in the then Malaya, I have little clue on the significance of this festival. I remember it as a time when as a young child, I got to wear new clothes and shoes. I got to eat chicken, drink Sinalco, Evergreen and F&N (Fraser & Neave). Today, both these seem so ordinary in a more developed country. Back then in the 60s, these two events were not so ordinary at all. It meant an awful lot to me, as this time was about the only time, I got these privileges. Of course, more important was getting the "ang pow" (red packet) containing money, after I greeted my elders with a "kong hei fatt choy" (in Cantonese), meaning "wish you will prosper". At that time, the normal rate was RM1.10, and I did not know why it needed that additional ten cents. To put into perspective, the cost of a bowl of "wantan...

What are we celebrating? We are celebrating an "ending" of a long corporate career of 26 years of my boss. Friends of Paul (FOP) flew in from Singapore, Japan, Korea and China to give a boost to his morale in an uncertain corporate world. I did not expect this "ending" and hence I was taken aback. It is really a time of reflection on the behavior of the new corporate universe. It has become a landmine where one cannot be sure one can get out unscathed by the spreadsheet management of numbers. There are no human beings involved in this exercise. I have heard of a laid off employee attempting suicide in Australia. There are many untold stories of what corporate excesses have done beside the highly publicised story of the collapse of Enron, a once proud Fortune 500 company. On a personal front, I am glad to participate in a party of friends and human beings who want to encourage and help one another. There is no greater joy than friends taking the time to spend with o...

The family took a short vacation to complete the ushering of the new year in Malaysia. We were in Melaka from December 27 - 29; then to Subang Jaya from December 29, 2008 till January 1, 2009. It was a quiet year for us, save for the kids who went to Sunway Pyramid to watch the countdown with the firework display. My first surprise was the high number of visitors to Melaka, so much so, that the traffic jam started just as we turned off from the highway into Ayer Keroh. As we were early due to the fear of being stuck at the immigration, we decided to visit the zoo, which we had not done so, since we first started visiting Melaka for the last ten years. Unfortunately, as expected, the car park was full, and we decided to move on, and I saw a new shopping mall, the Melaka Mall. We decided to stop to look around and for lunch. As usual, whenever there is something new, and in this case, was a karaoke contest. So, as a family, we just sat down and enjoyed the songs belted out by the people ...