As a little boy growing up in the 60’s, I considered my uncles to be cool. They had jobs that required them to wear neck ties and leather shoes. And they read English newspapers! I loved the cartoon pages of the papers when I got the chance to read it. But the coolest thing they had was a gramophone. O.K., a turntable. You know, vinyl records. It was to them what an i-pod is to us today. And what records did I listen to? You won’t believe this - John Philip Sousa marches!! Yes, the likes of Star Spangled Banner, Washington Post and Semper Fidelis. And the records even came in cool colours like yellow and red, when most vinyls were boring black. Hmm….now, I wonder how many youngsters today would be thrilled to listen to John Philip Sousa marches. What, not even on i-pod?

Joe

I manage a team of 6 people in a foreign bank. In the past 3 months, 2 of my team members made some bad mistakes in their work, which caused a lot of trouble. Being their leader, I took the rap for their errors. After all, everything - both successes and failures - is a team effort and I am in charge of the team. I don’t think I should absolve myself - not publicly anyway - of all blame and tell the whole world that it was so-and-so in my team that screwed up….not me. I’m sure a lot of bosses in the corporate life take the rap for the team. But I tell you - it hurts! And it hurts bad! It just doesn’t seem fair that all the effort I put into building a good reputation within the company for myself and the team these past few years, seemed to have gone down the drain with these two incidents. Now I have to try and gain people’s trust all over again. Sigh…

Joe

Did you read about the recent incident surrounding whether AP TV News should publish a photo of US Marine Corp Lance Corporal Joshua Bernard dying from ambush gunfire while on duty in Afghanistan? It was interesting to read about the two sides of the argument - the family of Lance Corporal Joshua argued that it was inhumane and insensitive to publish the pictures, while AP TV News argued that they were “duty-bound” to show the bravery of the troops in Afghanistan and bring home the reality of the dangers these soldiers go through every day. It goes to show one can never have a partisan view of anything in this world. Someone will have a contrary view that actually makes sense if you think hard about it.

Joe

I just cannot tahan when a local (as in Singaporean) radio personality pronounces “local” names in “ang-moh” fashion. Even if you don’t speak Malay, surely you’d have lived here long enough to know that the “Tanah” in Tanah Merah is pronounced “Tar-Nah” and not “Tanner”!! Sheesh! What? Is this guy embarrassed to be local?

Joe

I remember a song I heard from the 70’s (I think) that goes like this : “Oh Lord, it’s hard to be humble; when you’re perfect in every way; I can’t wait to look in the mirror; I get better looking each day!”.

Actually, we all have been in this position at some time in our lives. [And some more than others!] When we know a lot about a subject or have had some experience with something, we tend to feel like an expert and often disregard the opinions of others around us. We cannot help it, I guess, cos we are, after all, human. And humans are flawed. So, the next time you feel you are surrounded only by incompetent people, think about sharing your knowledge with them instead of dismissing them as “useless”. One day, YOU may need to learn something new too….that’s a sure bet.

Joe