National Mourning: A tribute to Public Officers

Just saw this. That is the gold standard for us to always try to achieve when working together to organize and get something done. No turf fighting or pushing the buck to others. No concern about scoring points.

MERS: Korean Doc broke quarantine

Front page news today. I was incredulous that it was a doctor who broke quarantine.

The Korean now hospitalized in Guangdong also broke quarantine and brought MERS to China.

I think if they don't die from MERS they should be prosecuted and sent to jail. The doctor should be disqualified.

Time and again the Koreans show how reckless and bull headed they can be. They pay scant regard to HSE needs. Doesn't help that their trust in the government is eroding.

Everywhere in the region people must be asking if MERS is coming to their cities.

George Yeo: China mostly misunderstood

George Yeo is brilliant and often there is more to learn from than disagree with him. However this time, I feel he missed the point.

Only under the right circumstances and journey into the future to the point when China becomes a superpower will she be a benign and constructive force in the world. But if western powers set up road blocks and often try to trip her up except for self interest in mutual business benefit, do not expect China to be nice when she can afford not to. The distrust built up over the years which she quietly tolerate until she doesn't need to would surface at that time.

I don't think the western powers do not understand China. I think they chose not to because trusting China at that level George Yeo suggested works against their historical experience and beliefs. This is visceral, emotional and stronger than reason. Making such speeches ain't going to help but working to help each side understand the other is what truly counts.

The west must avoid indulging themselves to create a self fulfilling prophecy of China, and China must do better to make herself understood.

What we need are peace makers with a long term vision. George Yeo speech was incomplete and missed much. Meanwhile the US just signed with India a ten year security pact. Nobody missed the point that the target is China.

FIFA: Lessons in Corruption

Yesterday Sepp Blatter resigned which surpirsed nobody. This morning I got the above from NYT in my inbox.

Lots of people know FIFA wasn't clean for a long time but they could not do much about it beyond complaining and informing. So as usual what happens is that the corruption grew and grew until it has to be stopped.

The corrupt typically become addicted to their habit of racketeering. We just give them rope to hang themselves. Each society and organisation must decide how much rope is too much rope.

It is the same with Singapore society too. We are not corruption free and recently we got the balance wrong and the PM had to beef up the resources of CPIB. The question is where do we strike the balance. Fighting corruption is expensive especially the unmeasurable costs. Society loves the myth of a place free of corruption. I hope we will eventually realize that this is not possible unless we are willing to pay the heavy price.

Windows Display set to 125%

Tonight I moved from 100% to 125% display. No choice, we all lose visual acuity with age. Visual aids are never nearly as good as a plastic lens with strong and young ciliary muscles. At least I could still remember my Biology from long ago!

I see 150% is also available. I hope I never get to that point but you never know. The fact that Microsoft provided it suggest there are some who want it.

Update: 9:50pm

I just returned my Windows Display to 100% and vaguely recall that I have done this before! Yeah, I did something silly tonight.

Since a big chunk on time on the PC is spent looking at Google Chrome, the right thing to do was to set Chrome display up to 110 or 120% .

Switching to Microsoft OneNote

Last night I switched from Evernote to OneNote by Microsoft. The experience is quite enjoyable thus far. In fact I like OneNote much better than Evernote. Why didn't I move over sooner?

Abigail Sin: A special prodigy

The choices Abigail Sin made were unusual and has proven to be the right ones for her. All young people and their families should do the same even if the right decisions for most who are able would likely fall into GEP, Cambridge and Juilliard which she said no to.

In the beginning, there are the gifted kids and the gifted gifted kids. Now in the system we also have those who gamed the system to get in.

Never crave the limelight or the praise of others. That clouds you from a clear vision of who you are and what is good for you. I am delighted that Abigail is among the few who was not snared by these things and stayed humble.