Entries from August 2008 ↓

True Michael Phelps is a great athlete, he has established a world record in gaining 8 gold medals at the same event. For me perhaps more than being an outstanding sportsman, he shows us the determination to target a goal and diligently and relentlessly work towards it. You will all recall than before the events he had declared his goal publicly and he made it. Bravo!

On good morning America yesterday:

Question to Phelps:
“What do you think separates the people who are merely gifted from those like you who in this instance, won?”

Phelps’ answer:
“For me when I watch other sports, when I watch Tiger Woods, when I watch [tennis player] Roger Federer, when I watch [tennis player] Rafael Nadal, the best athletes can compete under any circumstances. No matter what it is, no matter what the pressure, you can always overcome whatever is put in your way.”

Notice that he didn’t say “Superior conditioning”, or “I worked harder than everyone else”. In fact, here’s what Bob Bowman, Michael’s coach said on a completely different interview:

“It’s Michael’s ability to handle anything that comes up and turn it into something good.”

Bill Bartman wrote:
I bring up these quotes now because they’re just as applicable for a small business owner in Idaho as for an Olympic swimmer in Beijing. They’re universal truths of the hyper-successful in sports, business–and in life.

I almost forgot about my Good Morning America taping session as I sat there thinking about what Michael Phelps said. It resonated with my own experience of being a paralyzed 17-year old alcoholic. The same person who defied the medical establishment and not only later walked, but straightened his life out to the tune of becoming a self-made billionaire.

The difference between where you are right this moment, and achieving your wildest dreams may only be a matter of a handful of key shifts in your thinking. I know it’s true with me. I didn’t become literally 1,000 times more successful than millionaires by working 1,000 times as hard. I worked differently.

‘The difference that makes the difference’ is the nlp phrase that comes to my mind.

His physique notwithstanding, endurance may be Michael’s single greatest asset. He’s able to hold his stroke under pressure and when fatigue begins to creep in. From a mind over matter standpoint, Michael is also off the charts. His ability to relax, focus and block out the pain all at once is unique in his sport. He never seems nervous before a race, yet his intensity on the starting block is unmatched.

I am amazed with the number of gambling addiction cases I know of and the damages that such behaviours can bring to the lives of people. In the recent past I was very closely involved with a case which was about to turn to a dramatic situation. The guy later told me that he was so depressed that he spent the night on his own on the cliff of Gris Gris thinking of committing a suicide.

I was very pleased today, to have spoken to the person mentioned above and to learn that he has quited gambling, done his term of community service as ordered by the courts and is now slowing rebuilding his career and life.

I have heard of yet another case this last fortnight, perhaps not as devastating as the one mentioned but still as painful for the family of the addict. This affliction seems to be very frequent in the Chinese community, I have to admit that I have a cousin who has been an over gambling experience. The son of yet anotherdistant cousin had to be expatriated to another country to save him from bad habits. How does one prevent addiction to occur? How does detect the addiction n early enough? I went through the internet to look for possible answers.

Understanding gambling addiction and problem gambling

Gambling addiction, also known as compulsive gambling, is a type of impulse-control disorder. Compulsive gamblers can’t control the impulse to gamble, even when they know their gambling is hurting themselves or their loved ones. Gambling is all they can think about and all they want to do, no matter the consequences. Compulsive gamblers keep gambling whether they’re up or down, broke or flush, happy or depressed. Even when they know the odds are against them, even when they can’t afford to lose, people with a gambling addiction can’t “stay off the bet.”

Gamblers can have a problem, however, without being totally out of control. Long before an addiction has fully developed, gambling can have a negative impact. Problem gambling is any gambling behavior that disrupts your life. If you’re preoccupied with gambling, spending more and more time and money on it, chasing losses, or gambling despite serious consequences, you have a gambling problem.

There are two types of compulsive or problem gamblers. While their behaviors are similar, they gamble for very different reasons:

• Action gamblers are addicted to the thrill of risk-taking. Gambling itself is their “drug.” They usually gamble with others, since part of the rush is beating the house or other gamblers. Action gamblers usually prefer games of skill, such as card games, craps, and sports betting. They may also play the stock market.
• Escape gamblers gamble to escape emotional pain, worries, and loneliness. Rather than gambling to feel a rush, they gamble to feel numb. Escape gamblers prefer more isolated activities such as slot machines, bingo, and online poker. They also prefer games that don’t require much thought, so they can “zone out.”

Signs and symptoms of problem gambling

Gambling addiction is sometimes referred to as the “hidden illness” because there are no obvious physical signs or symptoms like there are in drug or alcohol addiction. Problem gamblers typically deny or minimize the problem. They also go to great lengths to hide their gambling. For example, problem gamblers often withdraw from their loved ones, sneak around, and lie about where they’ve been and what they’ve been up to.

Do I have a gambling problem?

You may have a gambling problem if you:

• Neglect work or family to gamble
• Gamble in secret
• Lie about how much you gamble
• Feel compelled to keep upping your bets
• Feel remorse after gambling
• Gamble until you’ve spent your last dollar
• Gamble with money you need to pay bills
• Steal, borrow, or sell things to get money for gambling
• Dream of the “big win” and what it will buy
• Gamble to escape worries
• Gamble in order to solve financial problems or win back losses
• Celebrate by gambling

While the warning signs of problem gambling can be subtle­, there are some red flags that should put you on alert:

• Secrecy over money and finances
• New desire to control household finances
• Overdue or unpaid bills
• Unexplained loans or cash advances
• Lack of money, despite the same income and expenses
• Unusual increase in credit card activity
• Asking friends and family for money
• Missing jewelry, cash, or valuables
• Dwindling savings or assets
• Missing bank or credit card statements
• Calls or letters from bill collectors
• Unexplained cash, especially when there are unpaid bills

The “four phases” of problem gambling and gambling addiction

People with gambling problems typically go through four phases, progressing from recreational gambling to problem gambling and finally to gambling addiction. Each phase can last from months to years.

• Winning phase – The winning phase often starts with a big win, leading to excitement and a positive view of gambling. Problem gamblers believe they have a special talent for gambling and that the winning will continue. They begin spending greater amounts of time and money on gambling.
• Losing phase – Problem gamblers become more and more preoccupied with gambling. They start to gamble alone, borrow money, skip work, lie to family and friends, and default on debts. They also begin to “chase” their losses: gambling in order to win back money that was lost.
• Desperation phase – Problem gamblers lose all control over their gambling. They feel ashamed and guilty after gambling, but they can’t stop. They may cheat or steal to finance their addiction. The consequences of compulsive gambling catch up with them: they may lose their jobs, get divorced, or get arrested.
• Hopeless phase – In the hopeless phase, problem gamblers hit “rock bottom.” They don’t believe that anyone cares or that help is possible. They don’t even care if they live or die. They may abuse drugs and alcohol to numb the pain. Many problem gamblers also consider or attempt suicide.

Treatment for problem gambling

Attitudes that get in the way of treatment for problem gambling:

• “I know I should quit, but I love gambling.”
• “Lack of money is the real problem, not my gambling.”
• “I can learn how to manage my gambling without stopping entirely.”
• “I’m only in treatment to appease my family or employer.”
• “I can’t imagine life without gambling.”
• “Quitting gambling is impossible.”

In order to overcome a gambling addiction, you must first admit that you have a problem. For many problem gamblers, this is the hardest part. But recovery won’t happen if you’re minimizing the addiction, making excuses, or blaming others.

Once you’re ready to own up to your gambling problem, the work of recovery can begin. Start by seeking professional help from an addiction specialist. This is also the time to come clean to your loved ones and ask for their support. Overcoming a gambling addiction or problem is never easy. But recovery is possible if you stick with treatment and seek support.

Treatment options for gambling addiction and problem gambling

• Cognitive-behavioral therapy for problem gambling focuses on changing unhealthy gambling behaviors and thoughts, including rationalizations and false beliefs. It also teaches problem gamblers how to fight gambling urges, deal with uncomfortable emotions rather than escape through gambling, and solve financial, work, and relationship problems caused by the addiction.
• Gamblers Anonymous is a twelve-step recovery program patterned after Alcoholics Anonymous. It is widely viewed as the most effective treatment for compulsive gambling. Gamblers Anonymous provides a supportive, non-judgmental atmosphere where you can share what you’re going through and get feedback and advice from fellow gamblers who understand your problem. To find a Gamblers Anonymous meeting in your area, click here.
• Medication won’t cure a gambling problem, but it may be helpful if depression, bipolar disorder, ADHD, or another mental health problem is fueling the compulsive gambling. Medications used in the treatment of problem gambling include antidepressants and mood stabilizers. Naltrexone, a medication that reduces drug and alcohol cravings, may also reduce gambling cravings in action gamblers. Naltrexone must be carefully monitored because of serious potential side effects.

The Four Steps program: A gambling treatment that can “rewire” your brain

Jeffrey Schwartz has created a variation of a cognitive-behavioral therapy called The Four Steps Program. It has been successful in treating a wide range of conditions, including compulsive gambling. The Four Steps program takes advantage of neuroplasticity, the remarkable ability of our brains to change throughout our lives. The goal of treatment is to “rewire” the addicted brain by thinking about gambling in a new way. You can literally change your brain — developing new neural pathways and restoring brain chemical balance—by practicing the following four steps:

• Step 1: Relabel. Recognize that the urge to gamble is nothing more than a symptom of your gambling addiction, which is a treatable medical condition. It is not a valid feeling that deserves your attention.
• Step 2: Reattribute. Stop blaming yourself and try to understand that the urge to gamble has a physical cause in your brain. You are separate from the disease of addiction, but not a passive bystander. With practice, you can learn to control your unwanted thoughts about gambling.
• Step 3: Refocus. When the urge to gamble strikes, don’t wait for it to go away. Instead, shift your attention to something more positive or constructive. Do something else, even if the compulsion to gamble is still bothering you.
• Step 4: Revalue. Over time, as you practice the first three steps, you’ll gradually learn to revalue your flawed thoughts about gambling. Instead of taking them at face value, you’ll realize that they have no inherent value or power. They’re just “toxic waste” from your brain.

Self-help for problem gambling and gambling addiction

Tackling a gambling problem is possible if you avoid tempting environments, give up control of your finances (at least at first), find exciting or enjoyable activities to replace gambling, and surround yourself with people to whom you’re accountable. It’s also important to keep stress in check, since stress can trigger compulsive gambling or make it worse.

Getting Control of Problem Gambling

One way to stop yourself from problem gambling is to analyze what is needed for gambling to occur, work on removing these elements from your life and replace them with healthier choices. The four elements needed for problem gambling to continue are:

• Decision: Before gambling occurs, the decision to gamble has been made. If you have an urge to gamble: stop what you are doing and call someone, think about the consequences to your actions, tell yourself to stop thinking about gambling, and find something else to do immediately.
• Money: Gambling cannot occur without money. Get rid of your credit cards, let someone else be in charge of your money, have the bank make automatic payments for you, and keep a limited amount of cash on you at all times.
• Time: Gambling cannot occur if you don’t have the time. Schedule enjoyable recreational time for yourself that has nothing to do with gambling, find time for relaxation, and plan outings with your family.
• A Game: Without a game or activity to bet on there is no opportunity to gamble. Don’t put yourself in tempting environments or locations. Tell the gambling establishments you frequent that you have a gambling problem and ask them to restrict you from betting at their casinos and establishments.

Helping a family member with a gambling problem

If your family member has a gambling problem, you can help by encouraging him or her to get treatment and by offering your support. This doesn’t mean bailing the gambler out of trouble or covering up the problem. It’s important to hold problem gamblers responsible for their actions—including the consequences. It’s also important to take care of yourself. You have a right to protect yourself emotionally and financially. Don’t blame yourself for the gambler’s problems. You don’t control your family member’s behavior; the choice to stop gambling is theirs alone.

Tips for family members of problem gamblers:

• Take over the family finances
• Review bank and credit card statements
• Request credit reports from the three main credit bureaus
• Monitor Internet use to see if the person is gambling online
• Be honest about how the gambler’s behavior makes you feel
• Get counseling or join a support group such as Gam-Anon
• Encourage the person to go to Gambler’s Anonymous

True for our enterprises, true also for the country, retaining Top Talents is essential. Our future is dependent on nurturing and retaining them.  The counter forces playing against us in Mauritius are the combined mobility and employability of the top talents and the attraction of opportunities abroad.

For a number of decades already, the smart Singapore governments has stated that the future wealth of Singapore depended on the brains that the country possesses. The pragmatic Singaporean do not only states their thinking but put it to action immediately. I recall over 15 years ago, a Mauritian student of the University of Nottingham was surprised the day after he won the top award for all UK Universities competition, to get the visit of a Singapore official offering him a job in Singapore. I believe the Singapore officials scout the world’s universities for talents.

During the week, I had the chance of meeting a young entrepreneur of 30 who successfully started a service company in IT in Mauritius 3 years ago. He has decided to migrate to Australia. He left today for Melbourne. How many more of our Talents are leaving Mauritius?

B. Lynn Ware discusses on the subject in relation to a company in the extract below. We may use her thoughts to extrapolate to our country.

Today the challenge of sustaining a competitive advantage preoccupies the minds of many leaders. Customers have many providers to choose from, and they often perceive your product as a commodity. How do you distinguish yourself? Today, leaders depend on their top performers to innovate and provide superior products and services that differentiate the company and get results for shareholders.

We addressed the attrition dilemma by conducting research with 30 companies. Here are five key findings:

1. The costs of attrition can be staggering, but often hidden. Do you know what it costs when you lose a top performers? Some costs factors are obvious, such as the productivity losses. However, there are often unseen costs. One company estimates it loses $150,000 when an employee leaves. Another company calculates that attrition costs them annual productivity losses of 65 to 75 percent in the position the employee departs. Another estimates $1 million of potentially lost sales when one salesperson leaves. Multiply these costs by the number of employees who leave in a year, and you see the impact is dramatic.

2. The reasons employees stay are not the same as why they leave. Most managers don’t know the real reasons why employees stay, or why they depart. They may try to capture the causes of attrition through exit interviews, but these fail to differentiate between factors that make the new job attractive, versus the reasons why employees consider leaving. When asked to diagnose the reasons for an employee’s departure, most managers fail to take any responsibility. They may report “better compensation” as the reason for leaving, even when the person left for other reasons—like the absence of career development. This is also true when an employee is actively recruited by the competition. When managers misdiagnose the situation and fail to surface the most critical factors that contribute to attrition, their solutions fall short of the mark.

3. Misguided thinking: “Attrition is inevitable.” Some attrition is unavoidable, even desirable to compensate for hiring mistakes. However, HR and senior line managers often question whether they can increase their retention ratios. They can. In one organization, the attrition rate in one division, before our intervention, was 18.5 percent, with 25 percent attrition in one mission-critical group. After implementing proper retention strategies and making retention a priority for every manager, the attrition rate dropped to 11.7 percent overall, and 15 percent in the critical group, although there were reductions in employee compensation during this time.

4. The manager’s role in attrition is paramount but underplayed. Most managers lament the loss of talented contributors and point to various external factors as the causes of attrition, failing to take any personal responsibility. They rarely acknowledge any factors within their control. For example, managers often attribute attrition problems to compensation or to corporate policies that dilute employee autonomy. However, most factors contributing to attrition are within the manager’s circle of influence. For example, how frequently is the employee appreciated for their contributions? Do employees have a chance for input on how to improve results, and do they feel that their opinion counts? Are they making progress in their career aspirations? Do they respect and value other members on the team? As the managers’ span of control has widens, each contact must influence employee commitment to prevent defection.

5. Prevention is the best medicine. Since the loss of key employees can be devastating, ask yourself how highly you rank retention as a priority. Most managers only think about retention when they receive a resignation. The solution lies in thinking about retention as integral to sustainable success. Treating retention as a priority enables you to focus on proactive measures to nourish long-term employee commitment rather than on reactive attempts to reverse surprise resignations.

To outsiders dancing with the corpse of a dead loved one, years after their demise, might seem ghoulish. But as Jonny Hogg reports, to the people of Madagascar, it is a ritual of respect for their departed ancestors.

The band, a cacophonous near harmony of tattered trumpets and elderly clarinets, has been has been playing for hours now.

The hilltop is crowded. The entire community has come to this spot, some distance from the village of Vatolaivy.

People talk and smile, many are drunk, most are dancing and a little distance away from the tomb two entrepreneurial women have set up a stall selling cigarettes and frozen yoghurt.

But it is the tomb itself that is the centre of attention.

Indeed it is for the occupants of the low, flat brick structure that these festivities are taking place.

Masons chip away, unsealing the small stone door.

Finally, the sepulchre is open. I am invited to enter with Roger, whose family are buried here.

Inside the air is dry, with a strong, almost spiced, graveyard scent.

On either side of the room are stone beds, and on them lie the bodies of Roger’s parents and his grandparents, wrapped in yellowing cloth.

Turning of the Bones

He stands proudly amongst his ancestors, introducing me to them almost formally, patting each corpse lightly to identify it.

I emerge once more into the harsh sunlight. Behind me, one by one and with great care, the bodies are carried out of the tomb and laid upon the ground, cradled gently by their relatives.

The rest of the village crowd around, spectators to this piece of family theatre.

At last even the band comes to a stumbling halt. A sort of silence descends.

One girl is holding her dead mother in her arms. She makes no noise but tears stream down her face.

This is the Malagasy tradition of famadihana, or the Turning of the Bones.

It is unique to the Indian Ocean island, a ritual carried out for centuries that may have had its roots in the culture and traditions of South East Asia, some 6,000km (3,728 miles) away, from whence Madagascar was first colonised.

For many outsiders the practice, which involves exhuming dead relatives, rewrapping them in fresh grave clothes and dancing with them around the tomb, can seem almost impossibly strange, ghoulish even.

But for the Malagasy, for whom ancestral worship remains important, it is an essential way of maintaining ties with the dead.

Jean Pierre, a family member, told me why famadihana mattered.

“It’s important because it’s our way of respecting the dead,” he told me. “It is also a chance for the whole family, from across the country, to come together.”

‘Act of love’

Anthropologist Professor Maurice Bloch, who has studied the ritual, says this idea of reunion, between the dead and the living and also the family land, is key.

It is an evocation of being together again, a transformation of sorts so that the dead can experience once more the joys of life. But, most importantly he says, at its heart, famadihana is an act of love.

But some oppose the practice. Certain urbanised Malagasy find the idea outdated and strange in the 21st Century.

There have also been clashes with Christianity. Early missionaries to the country tried to stop it and today increasing numbers of evangelical Christians are turning away from famadihana.

Perhaps surprisingly though, the Roman Catholic Church, the largest in the country, no longer opposes it.

For his part Jean Pierre stressed that in any case it is not a religious ceremony, but a tradition.

Tears to laughter

Back outside the tomb the family begins to tenderly rewrap the bodies with fresh cloth, called lambas, bought at great expense.

The mood lightens and the band strikes up once more.

The corpses are lifted onto shoulders, and with much laughing and jostling they are half carried, half danced around the tomb.

Every few steps with a whoop, the bearers lift them even higher.

I notice the girl who had been crying earlier is smiling and joking with the rest.

This is another transformation and another purpose of famadihana. To convert, almost forcibly, by the requirements of the ritual, grief into happiness.

(Courtesy of BBC)

Way back in 1971 when I was stationed in Tananarive, I learned about this tradition and have seen from a distance the procession and chanting associated with the turning of the bones. I then kept myself away from these ceremonies because I had been told that Malagasy people practice voodoo. My sojourn in Madagascar in those days was a formative experience. During this short period spent there in replacement of the resident Manager of Air India, I went through civil commotion , rioting, burning of the main municipal building and day curfew of the city. From the top of my room of the 12 storey Hilton Hotel building I was able to watch the scenes of looting and mop’s fighting. It was a privilege to have been exposed to this situation which surely broadened my horizon.

Later on, my experience in dealing with the Malagasy people and the insights of the culture and their habits became handy in dealing with them. I managed to secure for Rogers & company the representation of Air Madagascar and many years after the knowledge of the Malagasy people helped me in setting up companies in Madagascar.

Dans un discours le 15 aout 2008, notre saint père le pape Benoit XVI a parlé d’un saint missionnaire dont la sépulture se trouve en Chine.

Chers frères et soeurs,

je suis profondément ému de l’accueil aussi chaleureux que j’ai trouvé ici, et je ne peux que vous remercier de tout mon coeur. Et je remercie le Seigneur qui nous a donné ce grand saint, saint Giuseppe Freinademetz, qui nous montre la route de la vie et est également un signe pour l’avenir de l’Eglise. Un saint d’une très grande actualité: nous savons que la Chine devient toujours plus importante dans la vie politique, économique et même dans la vie des idées. Il est important que ce grand pays s’ouvre à l’Evangile. Et saint Giuseppe Freinademetz nous montre que la foi n’est une aliénation pour aucune culture, pour aucun peuple, parce que toutes les cultures attendent le Christ et ne sont pas détruites par le Seigneur: plus encore elles atteignent leur maturité. Saint Giuseppe Freinademetz, comme nous l’avons entendu, voulait non seulement vivre et mourir chinois, mais également rester chinois au ciel: il s’est ainsi idéalement identifié à ce peuple, dans la certitude qu’il se serait ouvert à la foi en Jésus Christ. Prions maintenant afin que ce grand saint soit un encouragement pour nous tous à vivre de nouveau, à notre époque, la vie de la foi, à aller vers le Christ parce que Lui seul, le Christ, peut unir les peuples, peut unir les cultures. Et prions aussi pour qu’il donne à de nombreux jeunes le courage de dédier leur vie totalement au Seigneur et à son Evangile. Toutefois, simplement, je ne peux que dire “merci” au Seigneur qui nous a donné ce saint et “merci” à vous tous pour cet accueil, qui me donne la preuve visible que l’Eglise est vivante aujourd’hui aussi et que la foi est une joie qui nous rassemble et nous conduit sur les routes de la vie.
Merci à vous tous!

J’étais heureux de lire ce message,

1 premièrement il s’agit de mon homonyme Guiseppe étant l’italien pour « Joseph »,

2 deuxièmement il s’agit ici de la Chine, mon pays natal, et

3 troisièmement il est question de ‘culture’ et de ‘foi chrétienne : la foi chrétienne n’est une aliénation pour aucune culture parce que toutes les cultures attendent le Christ pour y trouver leur maturité.

Et dire qu’à Maurice trop souvent nous confondons culture et religion.

L’Evangile de ce dimanche nous renvoie t-il pas a l’universalité de la foi Chrétienne ? Sur la grande insistance de la Cananéenne dans le récit Jésus qui mettait la femme a l’épreuve en insinuant qu’il était venu  pour les enfants d’Israel et non pas pour les étrangers. En égard à sa grande foi, Jésus finit par concéder la guérison à sa fille également. Le salut est donc à toute l’humanité, indistinctement de races ou de cultures.

Political Editor Chua Lee Hoong of the Strait times wrote on the 15^th August :

SINGAPORE is small enough to be a suburb in Beijing, but it has something in common with the mammoth People’s Republic. The little red dot and Red China are both countries the West loves to hate.

There are those who wish bad things to happen to the Beijing Olympics. Likewise, there are those who have had it in for the Lion City for years.

What’s eating them? The easy answer is that both China and Singapore are authoritarian states. The freedoms taken for granted in the West – freedom of speech and assembly – come with more caveats in these two places.

But things are not so simple. There are plenty of authoritarian states around, but most do not attract as much attention as Singapore and China.

The real sin: Singapore and China are examples of countries which are taking a different route to development, and look to be succeeding.

Success grates, especially when it cocks a snook at much-cherished liberal values.

As Madam Yeong Yoon Ying, press secretary to Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, said last month: ‘Singapore is an example to other countries of how the free market plus the rule of law, and stable macro-economic policies, can lead to progress and success, but without Western-style ‘liberal’ democracy.’

Don’t believe her words? Read these lines from British journalist John Kampfner, writing in The Guardian last month, lamenting the spread of what he calls the Singapore model.

‘Why is it that a growing number of highly-educated and well-travelled people are willing to hand over several of their freedoms in return for prosperity or security? This question has been exercising me for months as I work on a book about what I call the ‘pact’.

‘The model for this is Singapore, where repression is highly selective. It is confined to those who take a conscious decision openly to challenge the authorities. If you do not, you enjoy freedom to travel, to live more or less as you wish, and – perhaps most important – to make money. Under Lee Kuan Yew, this city-state built on a swamp has flourished economically.

‘I was born in Singapore and have over the years been fascinated by my Chinese Singaporean friends. Doctors, financiers and lawyers, they have studied in London, Oxford, Harvard and Sydney. They have travelled across all continents; they are well-versed in international politics, but are perfectly content with the situation back home. I used to reassure myself with the old certainty that this model was not applicable to larger, more diverse states. I now believe this to be incorrect.

‘Provincial governments in China send their brightest officials to Singapore to learn the secrets of its ‘success’. For Russian politicians it too provides a useful model. These countries, and others in Asia and the Middle East are proving that the free market does not require a free society in which to thrive, and that in any battle between politics and economics, it is the latter that will win out.’

Mr Kampfner seems in a genuine intellectual funk. He cannot quite understand why otherwise normal, intelligent Singaporeans would trade certain freedoms for economic progress, and accept the Singapore political system for what it is.

But perhaps he has got the wrong end of the stick. The problem lies not in the Singaporeans, but in his own assumptions. Namely: If you speak English, if you are well-educated and well-travelled, you must also believe in Western-style democracy. They are a package.

I was on the receiving end of similar assumptions when I was in the United States in 1991-1992. When Americans asked me, ‘Why is your English so good?’, often it was not out of admiration but bewilderment. Their next question revealed all: ‘Why then do you (i.e. your Government) ban chewing gum?’

Another telling indicator of Western assumptions about Singapore comes from a remark by Singapore’s Ambassador to Washington, Professor Chan Heng Chee, who went to the US at the tail end of the Michael Fay saga.

One year into her posting there, in 1997, she arranged for a retrospective of the late choreographer Goh Choo San’s works. Her Washington audience was awed.

‘People suddenly remembered Choo San was a Singaporean. They may have known about Goh Choo San, but to connect him with Singapore was not so obvious for them,’ she said.

Sub-text: World-class choreography does not fit their image of a country with corporal punishment.

So the real difficulty for the West is this: We are so like them, and yet so not like them. We speak, dress, do business and do up our homes very much the same way as them. Yet when it comes to political values, we settle – apparently – for much less.

One observer draws an analogy with Pavlovian behavioural conditioning. So conditioned have Westerners become to associating cosmopolitan progress with certain political parameters, they do not know how to react when they encounter a creature – Singapore – that has one but not the other.

So they chide and berate us, as if we have betrayed a sacred covenant.

Adding to the iniquity is the fact that countries – rich and powerful ones too, like Russia and the Gulf states – are looking to the Singaporean way of doing things to pick up a tip or two.

I can imagine the shudders of Singapore’s Western detractors should they read about a suggestion made by Mr Kenichi Ohmae this week.

In an interview with Business Times, the Japanese management consultant who first became famous as author of The Borderless World, said Singapore should ‘replicate’ itself in other parts of the world.

What he meant was that Singapore should use its IQ, and IT prowess, to help organise effective economies in other regions, as its own had succeeded so well.

To be sure, his reasoning was economic, not political. But for those who hate Singapore, a Pax Singaporeana would be something to work against and head off.

My comments:

It is very true the westerners assume that free market economy and liberal democracy as they defined it, come together.  Singapore is functioning rather successfully in economic terms with a different model. Some limits seem to differ in their political freedom in comparison to the western counterpart. I sincerely believe that it is their right to be different provided that the majority of the population accept the situation.

I shall always remember the words of my uncle, himself a Singapore citizen, after a court battle with the Singapore Government on the compulsory acquisition of his property. I am mad with the state, they acted unfairly but I do respect them as I was treated equally like all those who were in the same boat. He accepts to be rule by a clement and just dictator and to be administered by an incompetent democrat.

Looks that the Singapore Model is gaining ground in some countries!

The Singapore model

Liberal democracy works for the west – but in south-east Asia, we have different views

The end of the cold war seemed to augur a new era of global convergence. In the battle of ideas and political systems, western liberal democracy had triumphed. But the reality is different, especially in Asia.

Across Asia, western-style democracy has rarely delivered stable, legitimate and effective government. Few Asian countries have achieved good government through open multi-party competition or unfettered, rambunctious media. Many lack a long history of shared nationhood. Some are divided along racial or religious lines. Others have weak institutions and no traditions of civilian rule or civic society.

As a former British colony, Singapore started off with a Westminster-style parliamentary system. But we have adapted it to suit our unique position: a small, multi-racial, multi-religious city in the middle of a turbulent south-east Asia. We introduced multi-member Group Representation Constituencies to ensure multi-racial representation. We created non-elected Members of Parliament from independent groups and opposition parties to ensure diversity of views in Parliament. We instituted an elected presidency to safeguard key state appointments and the nation’s financial reserves.

As English laws evolved after Britain joined the European Union, Singapore has not always followed, because our circumstances are different. Thus, unlike the UK, we have not weakened our defamation laws, which are essential to keeping our public discourse responsible and honest.

This system of democracy has worked for Singapore. Singaporeans enjoy one of the highest standards of living in Asia – 90% own their homes. They are well educated, many in top universities abroad, including in the US and Britain. They know they live in one of the most transparent countries in the world, with a competent and non-corrupt government. Those who disagree with or oppose the government are free to speak out, challenge the government, and contest in free and fair elections.

Had our system not consistently benefited the vast majority of citizens, and given them full opportunities to develop their human potential, the ruling party would have been voted out of office long ago.

China and Russia study Singapore as one possible model for their own development. Whether they can adapt it to their own circumstances will depend on their ability to run a clean, honest and meritocratic system, governing for the long-term good of the country with the support of their people. But ultimately these large countries, with their long histories and ancient cultures, will develop in their own ways. They are not likely to morph into western liberal democracies, regardless of what Singapore does.

Every society has to strike its own balance between individual liberties and the common good. Some in the west like John Kampfner feel a calling to go forth and convert the heathen to western liberal democracy. But the true test is what works in the real world, with real societies. To worship a western model as the only way, and dismiss all other solutions as authoritarian or undemocratic, is surely the ultimate anaesthetic for the brain.

C’est avec grande pompe que nous fêtons celle qui a donne naissance à notre Seigneur Jésus Christ, notre sauveur et libérateur, notre Dieu fait homme. Déjà depuis hier soir, la très sainte Vierge Marie habitait ma pensée. Quelle est l’âme bienheureuse choisie pour être la mère de Jésus ? Quelle est cette être adorable qui a su dire ‘oui’ à ce qui lui arrivait et qui a vécu des événements bouleversants de vie tout en restant doux et humble dans l’écoute de son Dieu ? Elle a cru et a une foi inébranlable ! Les récits de l’évangile St Luc, commenté par St. Thomas D’Aquin en dit long.

« En effet, vivre dans la chair, sans obéir aux inspirations de la chair, ce n’est pas la vie de la terre, c’est la vie du ciel. »

Et ce matin le Père Regis Wan faisait mention de l’état active de notre Marie en béatitude. Comme durant sa vie Marie avait eu des apparitions dans sa vie pour être guidée, elle aussi apparaît à des êtres qui sont en symbiose avec elle.

Apparitions de Notre Dame d’Akita
Apparitions de Notre Dame  du Carmel
Apparitions de Notre Dame de Guadalupe
Apparitions de Notre Dame de la Médaille Miraculeuse
Apparitions de Notre Dame de La Salette
Apparitions de Notre Dame de Pontmain
Apparitions de Notre Dame de Pellevoisin
Apparitions de Notre Dame de Fatima
Apparitions deNotre Dame de Lourdes
Apparitions de Notre Dame du Laus (France)
Apparitions de l’Ile Bouchard
Apparitions de Notre Dame de Banneux
Apparitions de Notre Dame de Kibeho (Rwanda – Afrique)

Je m’estime chanceux d’avoir participé dès mon tendre enfance (1954) à une manifestation publique de la Vierge Marie dans les rues de Port Louis pour l’année mariale. J’en suis heureux d’avoir fait mes études secondaire au Collège Saint Mary’s , sous la bienveillance et patronage de Marie.

Cette fête a pour objet de célébrer à la fois la bienheureuse Mort, la glorieuse Résurrection et la triomphante Assomption de la très Sainte Vierge au Ciel.

Jésus avait souffert la mort pour racheter le monde; Marie, dans le plan de la Providence, devait suivre son divin Fils et mourir. Mais sa mort ne ressembla en rien à celle du commun des hommes; elle eut pour unique cause l’excès de son amour et de ses désirs; elle ne fut accompagnée d’aucune douleur, ni suivie de la corruption du tombeau. Jésus devait tous ces privilèges à sa sainte Mère.

La tradition rapporte que les Apôtres, dispersés dans l’univers pour prêcher l’Évangile, se trouvèrent miraculeusement réunis autour du lit de mort de celle qui avait présidé à la naissance et aux premiers développements de l’Église. Trois jours après la mort de Marie, visitant le virginal tombeau avant de se séparer, ils furent les heureux témoins d’une grande merveille. On entendit dans les airs d’harmonieux cantiques; un parfum délicieux s’exhalait du tombeau de Marie; et lorsqu’on l’eut ouvert, on n’y trouva que des fleurs fraîches et vermeilles: les Anges avaient transporté dans les Cieux, en corps et en âme, la Mère du Sauveur.

On ne peut que soupçonner ici bas avec admiration l’accueil qui fut fait à Marie par la Très Sainte Trinité, à laquelle elle avait été associée d’une manière si sublime dans le mystère du salut des hommes, par Jésus-Christ son Fils bien-aimé, par les légions des Anges, les Patriarches, les Prophètes, tous les saints de l’Ancien Testament et les élus de la Loi nouvelle. Les plus grands serviteurs de Marie, dans leurs contemplations, se sont plu à dépeindre son triomphe incomparable, son couronnement, sa gloire en ce grand jour.

Mais le triomphe et la gloire de Marie sont éternels. La fête de l’Assomption, outre sa mort toute sainte, sa Résurrection et son couronnement, célèbre sa royauté toute-puissante. Elle est la Reine du Ciel, la Reine des Anges et des Saints, la Reine de l’Église terrestre, la Reine de l’Église du Purgatoire; et c’est elle que David a dépeinte dans ses Psaumes: “La Reine s’est assise à ta droite, couverte d’un manteau d’or, environnée et tout étincelante des richesses les plus variées.” L’Assomption de Marie réclamait une définition de foi : l’Église a proclamé ce dogme le 1er novembre 1950. Gloire à Dieu ! (Abbé L. Jaud)

Bonne Fête à tous.

You will recall on my previous blog where I revealed my EQ profile. In my strengths part of the profile written by Professor Leonard Young, came out: energy and enthusiasm as well as social skills. In a nut shell, my motivator could well be summarised in a single word: PASSIONATE.

The dictionary defines ‘Passionate’ as: having, compelled by, or ruled by intense emotion or strong feeling. Rightly or wrongly, the buzz words have been for a while : Emotional Intelligence is not it? To be moved by our emotions and to harness the intelligence of our emotions are now being taught.

Unlike the generation of boys of my age, when we were told, in my school days that boys or men should not openly show our emotions: on the contrary I grew up instead expressing mine openly. Hind side,  these open and un-braked expressions of emotions helped me during my days in dramatic art  to secure the top awards.

I would like to share with you now  the ‘ 9 PASSION LIBERATORS’ , so well described by author Omar Khan, and  used by world leaders to produce winning results.

Nine Passion Liberators

Here are nine ways to liberate passion:

1. Intimacy. Ask questions to probe, to understand, to articulate, and to listen. You’ll deepen your insight and rapport with others. Equally, let others in, help them to gain meaningful and helpful insights into your own values, emotions, and work style. Authentic relationships liberate passion, productive energy, purposeful debate, and powerful connection.

2. The right bull’s eye. Pick the right target for your business to deliver profits, grow share, and strengthen brand. Ensure your target delivers some larger goal. Finding the place where corporate passion, potential profits, and a company’s core competencies come together helps produce a shared, strategic vision. With everyone aligned, challenged and recognized consistently in synch with it, passion naturally flows!

3. Radical conversations. Identify three radical conversations that could be game-changing. Get to the root of such issues in a candid, empathic manner by looking at the larger shared aim and committing to it together. Such conversations achieve alignment, commitment, and breakthroughs.

4. Protecting possibility. Face the facts while retaining a sense of possibility. Recognizing limits in a positive fashion enables you to transcend those limits, transform them, or evolve beyond them. By framing challenges in broader, more varied ways, you may convert a seeming barrier into a bridge.

5. Provoking the future. Determine which past strategies to keep and which ones to transcend by bypassing limiting assumptions and paradigms. Co-create new options with key allies and stakeholders to formulate and realize a future that generates exceptional value.

6. Claiming accountability. Encourage all to take responsibility for building a desired culture. Discerning, real-time appreciation leads people to do more of a good thing.

7. Living vitality. Find ways to stimulate your senses, exercise your body, learn new things, unleash your creativity, solve problems, love and care for people, listen empathically, and concentrate on the most important tasks at optimal times.

8. Maximizing potential. Create contexts for expression of potential. Commit to the process by which you produce results. Know the talent profiles of teammates and develop their talents.

9. Coaching growth. Productive behavioral change begins with “doing” things in a better and more effective way, seeking synergy between “doing” and “being” for passion and performance.

Making It Happen

Make passion happen in four ways:

1. Make passion liberators a way of life. They foster joy, better results, richer relationships, and amplified brand.

2. Create a coaching and leadership culture. Create a dashboard for your team and pick the passion liberators you most need to work on together.

3. Hype it as it happens. To liberate passion, make a change, then hype it!

4. Remember that passion is natural. With the right relationships and targets, you’ll challenge and support each other to behave your way to your vision.

For too long, business has been teaching that politics and commerce are two different arenas. I disagree. Political awareness and activism must be incorporated into business. In a global world, there are no value-free or politically disentangled actions. Few motivating forces are more potent than giving your staff an opportunity to exercise and express their idealism to influence change—locally, nationally, and globally.

Campaigning is not only about changing the world, but changing how individuals work together. Giving people a sense of their own power is as much a part of the goal as resolving the issues. It provides a new forum for staff education. They can get into issues and into areas where they might not normally venture. Campaigns are a fabulous way of integrating the behavior of staff at work with the values they hold dear as individual citizens. Business leaders need to realize that this is the way forward in the workplace: the personal becomes the political, which becomes the global.

There are no rules or formulas for success. You just have to live it and do it. Knowing this gives us enormous freedom to experiment toward what we want. Believe me, it’s a crazy, complicated journey. It’s trial and error. It’s opportunism. It’s quite literally, “Let’s try lots of this stuff and see how it works.” I’m proud to look at my company and see that we’re at least on the right track.

The above text comes from Dame Anita Roddick CBE, the successful CEO and founder of BodyShop. Her premature death last year in September left the business world grieved. She left an institution worth studying for her vision, drive, creativity, leadership she put in. She shaped and coined ethical consumerism and practiced socially responsible businesses. For decades she has been campaigning for a sustainable economic development which is environment friendly.

This reminded me of the green store I saw when I have last in Heathrow airport and the article I recalled reading from her where she said that she was associated with 4 letter words. I still have a copy of this article written in 1998.

I have long been associated with certain four-letter words: love, give, care, feel, hope, fair, soul and true—all to be found in work, my all-time favourite four-letter word.

I would recommend you to visit her website.

Here is a lesson from Apple in its foray in mobile phone industry.

Jonathan Kennedy wrote on the 11^th Aug:

With its initial foray into the mobile phone industry, Apple chose to adopt a unique business model. The traditional model for handset vendors is to sell their devices to carriers at a wholesale price, and the carrier would then subsidize the retail price for consumers. This gave the carriers control over end-market pricing, and most important, it allowed the carriers to adjust their customer acquisition costs based on the level of contractual commitment to the carrier. Apple’s model, however, was different. The company chose to replace the traditional subsidy model with a revenue sharing model. This gave Apple more control over end-user pricing, and it also provided the company with a recurring, high-margin revenue stream for each iPhone user.

At first, the new model was greeted with intense enthusiasm. The problem was that many customers (more than Apple expected) simply unlocked their iPhones:

While Apple clearly assumed that some of the purchased phones would never be activated, the actual numbers of these non-activated phones was surprising for management, Wall Street, and the industry. Within a few short months after the iPhone’s release, hackers had produced and distributed software that “unlocked” the iPhone and enabled it to work on non-supported carrier networks. Shortly thereafter, a gray market for unlocked iPhones developed… of the six million 2.5G iPhones Apple sold through June 9, 2008, we believe nearly 50% were unlocked.

With that many phones being unlocked, Apple was losing millions on revenue sharing deals, weakening the non-subsidized model. Additionally, according to Shope, adoption was weakened by high prices and uncooperative international carriers who were reluctant to agree to Apple’s stringent terms.

So Apple had to make a change. With the launch of the 3G iPhone, Apple adopted the traditional subsidized-handset business model. In doing so, Apple simultaneously eliminated the unlocking problem and opened up the iPhone to previously untapped markets. By eliminating exclusive revenue sharing deals with international partners, AAPL expands the number of carriers, and therefore its customer base:

We believe this business model change provides three immediate benefits to Apple’s longterm iPhone prospects. First, with freedom to subsidize the iPhone, carriers can now price the iPhone at or below competitive handset prices and some will even offer the device for free with selected service contracts. In a marketplace that is clearly elastic, we estimate that this will provide a substantial boost to Apple’s installed base growth. We currently forecast units of 13.3 million for calendar 2008, easily surpassing Apple’s original 10 million unit target. For calendar 2009, we forecast units of 26.4 million, representing 99.4% annual growth.

Second, by abandoning revenue sharing, it is now much easier for Apple to build a wide array of carrier partnerships. Only a handful of carriers were willing to abandon the traditional industry model for revenue sharing. With its new model, however, Apple has signed agreements with more than 70 carriers around the world, with many more to come.

And finally, Apple’s move towards a traditional contract-based subsidy model has enabled it to shift the economic burden of unlocked phones to the carriers. In the previous model, an unlocked phone meant that Apple was not going to share in the highly profitable monthly carrier revenues. Now, a carrier may choose to sell a phone without a contract, but Apple still gets the same wholesale price for the phone (with the subsidy baked in). We believe this provides a higher degree of certainty to Apple’s earnings and cash flow stream.

Apple tried to change the business model by introducing revenue sharing with the telephone carriers. Theoretically, it was a smart move. The market and the hackers out smarted the move with a 50%rate of unlocked phone. Let us hope that 3G iPhone will bring better yields to Apple.

(The base of the Apple story is from Clusterstock, a blog from Jonathan Kennedy.)