"That had to Be"

 

Visited Sentosa yesterday. The scaffolding was up around the Merlion, preparation for it to be torn down. I took a picture of it because it really seemed to be crying out in anguish. With its mouth opened it seemed to be terrified, sad, desperate and confused. Once a neon lighted icon beaming colourful lasers across the evening skyline, it now seemed to admonish the neglect of its former glory. 

I am philosophising again. If you think about it, which eldery person does not think about what the inevitable death means. The thought of "that's it folks" and "you will no longer be part of this historical world" can bring about a sense of loss, at least it is for me sometimes. The thought of complete absence from this evolving world and nothingless (ceasing to 'be') can be frightening.

That is why there is religion. Be it the promise of reunion with the supreme God or the ultimate merging with the Spiritual universe, it is comforting because there is still continuity. Under the "Terror Management Theory" (TMT) anthropologist Ernest Becker suggests that human goes through all means to ignore the inevitability of death.

Research has shown that  the less self-exalting individuals are the ones who have less fear of the end of existence. In fact affiliation to a community or group can be considered a form of TMT as it provides some comfort of continuity.

Research also tells us that older people who are able to live in the present moment are more calm and less anxious of death. Describing the last phase of life as 'ego integrity vs despair' , Erik Erickson (developmental psychologist) describes 'ego integrity" as "the acceptance of one's one-and-only life cycle as something that had to be".

Sometimes when meditating or when those rare beautiful moments occur when you feel part of the flow, you know what Erickson means when he further describes 'ego integrity' in the last phase of life as "a sense of coherence and wholeness"

 

Watch out for Industry disruptors

 

An article "What you need to know about Jack Ma's Ant Group as IPO looms" reinforces my belief that investing in equities on your own is no longer easy. The article gives you a glimpse of the rapid changes to how the commercial world functions. If we do not keep ourselves abreast of the companies we invest in, they may ride to the sunset before we know it.

We all know that the Alipay app, an offshoot of Alibaba, is the key payment app in China, but we may not know about other financial units under its umbrella. I am amazed at these other business units and how they impact the mass consumers.

Alipay has 711 million active users who use it to pay for consumer items including even property. That aside the Ant Group has 2 units that facilitate small unsecured loans for consumers. Interestingly named as Huabei (花呗 or Just Spend lah) and Jiebie (借呗 or Just Lend lah), they offer loans to around half a billion people. The bulk of the loan is financed by banks although Ant Group also uses its capital, ie. it is more like a platform for small consumer loans and credit card for the masses.

Another exciting unit is Yu'ebao (余额宝The Great Stash). With assets up to US$170 billion, it is one of the world's largest money market fund which allows people to park money as little as one Yuan with the app and earn interests. What I find most interesting is Ant Group's credit scoring unit Zhima Credit (  芝麻信用 )which checks the credit worthiness of individual consumers based on its vast data on consumers' spending and lending pattern. Consumers can opt in for the credit rating and if assigned a good credit rating maybe exempt from paying deposits on certain transactions. 

In short the Ant Group is like an fintech ecosystem offering users' access to fintech solutions that cover payment, money transfer, loan, investments and even low premium insurance. 

What rattles me is the way we used to invest, focusing on banks and blue chip companies. Gone are the days when you buy and hold a blue chip stock, receive the yearly dividend and don't even attend the AGM or read its annual report. We must now find out whether the bank stocks we hold have adopted digital banking fast enough so as not to be phased out by other fintech providers. The same applies to any company. We need to constantly watch whether it has adapted fast enough to a rapid changing world. We must find out whether its management is agile enough to evolve and shift with ever changing market demands. Think industry disruptors like Airbnb, Grab, Netflix and Spotify. Those of us who have held onto SPH shares would have regretted not being abreast of the rapid falling readership of newsprint and declining revenue from print advertisement. The same goes with departmental stores and postal services, the like of Metro and Singpost. 

Certainly managing your own stock portfolio takes a lot more time and energy than years ago. However, if investing money is a hobby it can still be worthwhile . The added incentive other than the monetary return is to delay the onset of dementia. Well,if playing mahjong is recognised as a cognitive demanding activity to slow dementia, looking after your stock portfolio should certainly be more effective. 

You would have to be on a constant look out for disruption to the companies you invest in. 

One often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it

 

Recently Singaporeans found a favourite targeted 'villain' to hate. A high court judge has acquitted an Indonesian maid who appealed against her conviction of stealing $34,000 worth of items from the household of Liew Mun Leong , chairman of the Changi Airport Group. As LML is a very influential and wealthy person in the country, the case is likened to a David vs Goliath victory of truth over mean persecution. As the High court judge viewed the conviction as some misapplication of legal principles and found shortcomings on the part of the prosecution and police in handling the case, netizens who have a grudge against the elite and social inequality jumped at the opportunity to bark at the system.

I did read up a bit on the case. My takeaway is that most of us in Singapore can learn a lesson or 2 from the events which took place which led to the wrongful conviction. Although we can point fingers we ourselves are not free of the shortcomings.

Firstly, it is the prejudice and bias, a bit like that of the US police against black people. Can we dare say we will not fall into the trap of thinking that it is irrational for a family of such immense wealth to accuse the maid of theft. Will we also not think that the defence lawyer comes out with a lame defence about the victim family's motive which seems unimportant? This prejudice will affect the way one carries out the investigation falling into weaknesses of confirmation bias and lack of objectiveness. How many times do we quicken our steps when walking home at night when a migrant worker is  behind us? 

I also believe the district trial judge was under pressure when presiding a case where the victims are influential people applauded by politicians. Even if she had doubts she would prefer to err in their favour. This is a lesson on fearlessness in upholding justice and moral ethics. If not it would come back to haunt us.

Talking about that reminds me of cause and effect. When one's intention is not good, the consequences of actions out of such bad intentions will soon hurt oneself. The High court judge believed that the family had tried to frame the maid of theft after firing her and forcing her to return to Indonesia within a few hours. The maid in her anger had said she will report the family for making her work in more than one household which is against the labour law. To prevent her from coming back to Singapore the family reported to the police that she stole items from the house and piled them into carton boxes which were supposed to be shipped by the family to the maid's home. Perhaps the family thought she would never be able to enter the country with an employment pass due to the police report. What they perhaps never imagined was her return on a social visit and was arrested immediately at the airport, leading to more knots that the family had to untie and probably a situation out of their control. As Kung Fu Panda says "One often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it".

The last lesson we can learn from this saga is never to be overly confident when one is in an advantageous situation. The way LML's son answered questions put to him by the defence lawyer and judge appears to be very flippant and thoughtless. He sounded like one so certain the maid would not be taken seriously such that he could pluck answers out-of-thin-air. He never thought these untrue and careless answers would one day bounce back against him. 

Of more important is the lesson never to abuse one's privilege and power.

Has it not changed all these years- The Singaporean worker

 

There is currently a lot of discussion about the mismatch between employers' requirement and Singaporean's job skills. 

A survey conducted by the American Chamber of Commerce found that the 3 skills most lacking in Singaporean professionals are willingness to take risk, creativity or critical thinking and leadership. 

According to Singapore International Chamber of Commerce chief executive, the feedback from employers is that the quality of Singapore workers is 'poor". "They have a sub-par attitude, they can not communicate clearly and concisely, they do not know how to ask questions, they do not exhibit the ability to work in cross border teams." 

I thought to myself, "Doesn't that describes me twenty years ago?" I remember having a British and an American boss during the era when Temasek linked companies were busy towing the trend of importing foreign talent to expand overseas. In exasperation, my British boss at one meeting told us "Speak to me, don't speak to one another with your body languages". The American boss also resorted to insults to get people to speak up or at least protest. 

About not knowing how to ask questions, I remember wondering during seminars why those foreigners are so spontaneous in asking questions. I would weigh the correct way to phrase a question so as not to sound stupid. By the time I got it someone has raised it already...sigh

With respect to working with cross border teams, I remember only being angry when my bosses exercise double standards with respect to the working hours between say the Aussie team and the Singapore home team. Also we expected headquarter company policies to be strictly followed ie.  lack of flexibility and as correctly put, unwillingness to take risk.

What I am truly surprised is that things have not changed much after 2 decades. I would have imagined our education system would have shaped our children differently. There is now much debate about the lack of emphasis on soft skill and over focus on grades and passing exams.

Is it all attributed to the education system or is it a cultural inclination as well? However we have brought up our children to express their views and opinion at home which is already quite a deviation from the seen-but-not-heard approach used by our own parents. 

The cultural habit and attribute which may still remain is the fear of losing face further reinforced by the "kiasu" (fear of losing and missing out) culture which seemed to have intensified during our time and hence passed on to the next generation. Perhaps the Singaporean baby boomers are to be blamed. We probably have imparted the play safe approach in life and the best way to accomplish that is to follow the charted paths of having good exam results, good degree, well paying and secure job along with the trappings of private housing and other luxuries which mark the definition of success. 

Certainly, this model has served well for both the government and the citizens for a long time. It needs to be seen how long this model will last and what needs urgently to be changed.