How about this for an idea? Companies - especially those making lots of money - can show greater social responsibility by allowing their employees fully-paid time off (and I mean something like a whole month a year) to work for a charitable cause. To be fair to the company, the time spent by the employee doing the charity has to be clocked . So, it’s like going to work for the employee except the employee goes to the charity - whether it’s teaching poor kids, helping build a shelter or a well, or simply spending time with the old, sick and dying - from morning till evening. You think this idea will materialise here?

Joe

The upset result at this year’s American Idol came with a twist not unlike the recent AWARE saga. Both had an element of “religion” and “gay-ism” conflict. In both cases, a pastor was involved in exhorting its members/followers to support the side of God. I guess when u do it the “democratic way” - ie. give the general public the freedom of choice - this is what u should expect. But what we can take away from these two separate incidents is that religion proved once again to be a very powerful motivator and catalyst for action. We must therefore, use religion in the right way - ie. only for good.

Joe

Spending a weekend taking cabs from one location to another in Singapore is an eye-opener. Here are some of the things I observed just this weekend:

1. Cabbies again!
I boarded a cab from Mikey’s place in Dunman. My destination? St. Anne’s Church at Sengkang. The cabbie, who looked sixty plus in age, told me he didn’t know how to get there and that if I couldn’t direct him there, I would have to leave his cab! Sheesh!

2. That Mercedes driver!
When I boarded this cab at Dunman, there was a Mercedes that was following very closely behind it. When the cab stopped for me (and I had to run a distance ahead becos the cabbie was giving space for the Mercedes driver to overtake him), the Mercedes driver instead stopped his vehicle very closely behind the cab. I think the Mercedes driver was pissed that he had to wait for me to board the cab. As I was getting in, the Mercedes driver started to sound his car horn in an agitated manner. To this Mercedes driver: Sir, you may be rich and own a big car, but you obviously have no patience for those who take public transport. You probably were born into a rich family and do not know what it feels like to work hard for our money. Please spare a thought for those less fortunate than yourself in this world.

3. On the phone while driving?
So, we all know that talking on the phone while driving is an offence. What about these I witnessed drivers doing while driving: (a) picking teeth with a toothpick; (b) drinking from a bottle; (c) talking animately to the passengers in the back seat, constantly turning behind?

Joe

You probably know this and have been reminded of it countless times. But it’s so timeless and valuable that another reminder is never too often. So, here goes…

Our life is transient. We never know when we will die. But when our time does arrive, what would be our greatest regrets? Of cos, we may not even have that chance to think about this. But I’m pretty sure we all will have our regrets if we were lying down somewhere and drawing our final breath.

So….don’t wait for that moment to come only to regret what we could do right here and now. Love somebody? Tell them so. Appreciate someone? Go do something for them. Offended someone? Go apologise to them. At war with someone? Go make peace with them. Clear your life of all regret in the here and now, so that when the time comes for us to leave this world, we know we’ve lived our life to the full and can leave without regret.

Joe

I watched an episode on the diamond trade on the History channel last night. To cut the long story short, there are diamond mines in Sierra Leone and Angola. Different factions of people wanted to take control/ownership of these lucrative natural resources, and they did everything (and I mean everything!) to achieve that. Most ruthless of these were a group called the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), which killed just about anyone who got in their way - men, women, children… Thousands of innocent people were slaughtered or maimed for life. All because they wanted control of those diamonds, which brought about the term “conflict diamonds”. Those of you who watched the movie “Blood Diamonds” starring Leonardo Di Caprio will understand the situation in Angola and Sierra Leone better.
Anyway, halfway through the programme, I was thinking….much like shark fin and ivory from elephant tusks, if the demand for diamonds from consumers like you and me, dropped drastically, there would be fewer reason for the RUF and similar elements of greed to do what they did. Remember this by now famous line - “if the buying stops, the killing will”. To think we humans consider ourselves top of the food chain, we seem to be no better than the animals further down that chain when it comes to greed.
So, let’s be more discerning in what we consume/buy. If it costs human lives or desecrates decent human behaviour, stop buying it.

Joe

We’ve heard it said many times when things are down - look on the bright side. To put it mildly, it’s damn hard to do. But u know what does help? Television. Cable TV, actually. All those programmes about war, crimes, natural disasters, poverty, shocking human behaviour…and conversely, stories of courage, remarkable survival instincts….almost always, my problems no longer seem all that significant. No, I stand corrected…it’s not really cable TV that seems to help me look on the bright side of life - it’s exposure. The more of the world one sees, experiences and understands, the less one is to being adversly affected by issues. So, if you really want to have a leg up in looking on the bright side of life, you have to get out of the well and see the world, so to speak. As seen in Discovery Channel’s video “I love the whole earth” and Adidas’ slogan “Impossible is Nothing”, we too need to look beyond our own issues to appreciate the greater world to look on the bright side of life.
Joe