When I eventually get to meet my Maker, I have a few questions to ask Him. One of them is why we (mortals) only learn our lessons when we grow old(er). It’s more than just about wisdom. What about those raging hormones we have (given and triggered by the Maker, no doubt) that make us do/say stupid things? Why couldn’t He make wisdom kick in a lot earlier in our lives?

As for old people who still make early existential mistakes today…well, maybe you shouldn’t even be allowed to meet the Maker…how about meeting His counterpart across town instead?

Joe

When I read about the American man who swam across the lake to reach the detained Myanmar pro-democracy figure Aung San Suu Kyi, allegedly to warn her of a plot to harm her, and was found out, the hapless Ms Suu Kyi got another 18 months added to her detention period. And now, Myanmar’s Home Affairs Minister has done a similar thing by announcing publicly that Ms Suu Kyi would be released in November this year, even when no official statement had been made by the Myanmar courts. This, I am sure, is bound to hurt Ms Suu Kyi’s chances of an early release, if she gets released at all.

At times, we do something thinking we are helping someone when, in fact, we are doing more harm. I don’t know what the real problem is but a good dose of wisdom is needed when we intend to “help” someone….are we really helping or will we be making things worse for the one you intend to help?

Joe

Here are two more examples of “service” that I encountered.

I ordered a particular mushroom pastry from a prominent coffee place near my office today. The pastry is required to be heated - probably in an oven. When it was served to me, I could tell right away, that the six pastries were burnt. In fact, the bottom of some of them were completely blackened. Nevertheless, I took a bite. Indeed it tasted burnt and asked for a new order. Now, I wondered to myself - surely the chef would have seen that the dish was burnt when he/she took it out of the oven? Good service, for me, demanded that I be told of the mistake and for the server to (proudly) declare that it is not their policy to serve their customers anything they would not eat themselves. This is to explain why I had to wait for a new order to be prepared. But no…that didn’t happen. Instead, I was SERVED the burnt pastries in the hope that I wouldn’t notice or mind it!

Now take this other example. Every morning, there is an old man giving out free copies of the TODAY paper at the entrance to the Punggol MRT station. He shouts “Ma Piu Po” (which is what news vendors of the evening Chinese dailies on weekends used to shout; “ma piu po” is loosely translated as “lottery newspaper” since it carried the 4-D results that evening) to attract people to come take a copy. But to this old man, every kind of newspaper was “ma piu po”. Not only that, he greeted everyone “Good morning, sir”….even to the ladies. He may not get the words right but his attitude is admirable. He does his job with gusto, even if it’s just giving out free newspaper. I feel this old man has all the right ingredients of what embodies “service”. Service people should learn from you. I salute you, old man.

Joe

You know those priority seats on the MRT trains? They are meant for commuters who need a seat more than the able-bodied ones, be these pregnant women, old people or those with some physical disability. I have no doubt all regular MRT users by now know the purpose of these priority seats. So, here are three observations I made since the introduction of these seats.

The first observation is that people AVOID sitting on them altogether. This habit is usually seen at the terminal station. Commuters choose to stand when these priority seats are the only ones vacant.

The second observation is that a majority of able-bodied commuters who do take these priority seats often get away (I suspect intentionally) with giving up the seat by….falling sleeping!! Yes, I could have sworn they do this on purpose (what you don’t know won’t hurt you!).

My third observation centres around the commuters seated beside those on the priority seats. There had been many occasions when say, a pregnant woman enters the train. The commuter on the priority seat is asleep. But the two commuters immediately beside this sleeping commuter also refuse to give up their seats to the pregnant woman. I have come to the plausible conclusion that these commuters might be thinking that if the “rightful person” (that person sleeping in the priority seat) isn’t giving up the seat, why should they?

I hope I am wrong with my third observation but somehow, I think I am right.

Joe

Day after day for the past week, I see and read news of the devastation of the Haiti earthquake. We grieve when one of our loved ones pass on from this life; the Haiti quake has claimed 200,000 people. How do we even start to imagine the degree of grief there….of the families, the community, the entire country? Watching how the survivors fight - and kill - each other to get water, that crump of food, medicine….I figure this is the sad, inevitable state of the human race. That when our most basic physiological needs are threatened or deprived, we would not hesitate to kill another human being. In this respect, humans are no different from any species of the animal kingdom. Yet, in other parts of the world, human beings are killing one another because of mere ideological differences. Yet again in another part of the world, human beings are killing other human beings because they swerved their car in front of theirs without signalling. Maybe the gods took a good look at the state of the world and shook their heads, saying this world is beyond saving….let’s just wipe them out and start all over again. So, dear human beings reading this, may I ask you - what are we really fighting about?

Joe

This week, my friend Humphrey alerted me to a Starbucks music video where people from many countries were captured singing the song ‘All You Need is Love’ together but in their separate locations. The symbolism is one of world unity and it’s got a nice and warm feel about it. It made me consider what it’d be like to say, have a concert featuring Palestinian and Israeli performers, doing it FOR the people of both countries; or one featuring India and Pakistan….Iraqis and Americans.

This week, too, I watched the movie ‘The Day the Earth Stood Still’, where an alien force came to Earth to “save it”. You would think the aliens would be WORKING with us to save this planet. Nope. The aliens were here to destroy us - humankind - because we were destroying the planet with our ways. I found the message of this movie rather powerful - that this is not our planet alone….that the survival of the universe too depends on the survival of Earth. It’s a simplistic plot but think about it….do we really have the right to do what we want with this planet and its natural resources?

So, let’s all do our part to treat Earth (it’s NOT our planet) a lot lot better, and think about singing a song in tandem with everyone else in this world. Peace is just a deep breath and a prayer away from everyone.

Joe

Do you know of someone who gives a lot more into a friendship than the other person? I mean, a whole lot more! So much more that you wonder why this person even continues to be a friend to the other person simply because the other person doesn’t seem to be giving as much, if at all. This beckons the question - is the strength of a friendship determined/judged by the reciprocity factor? In other words, is the reason to stay in a friendship dependent on how much each party gives to each other? Business relationships are mostly determined by reciprocity, ie. how much one gets back for what one gives away to the other party. But friendship? What do you call someone who gives more into a friendship and gets a lot less back? Did you say “stupid”? Or did you say “a true friend”? I’d like to think most of you would say it’s the latter - “a true friend”. Of course, when we see someone we care about, giving more than he/she receives from a relationship, we tend to want to tell this person to give up the relationship. Because we hurt to see this person being treated unfairly or being taken for granted. But think again…it really depends on the person whether he/she wants to give more than the other party. That is his/her commitment to the friendship. We have no right to impose our rules on anyone; what makes us think we are right? So, if you’re one of those who had been receiving more than you have been giving, consider how much this friendship means to you and do something about it. If you’re one of those giving more, well, bless you. The world needs more people like you. Just be happy and don’t be hurt.

Joe

Lately, I had been following Korean drama on KBS World (cable TV) because of my wife’s interest. I observed a common trend in most of these dramas and have to assume this is perhaps a Korean tradition or way of life. The trend is that the elders of a Korean family are to be worshipped. Yes, worshipped! They are infallible. Even if they are wrong, no one younger than them can go against them. If that’s indeed true of the Korean way of life, then I pity the Korean family unit. I mean, old age does not necessarily come with wisdom. And respect has to be earned, like most parts of the civilised world, where right is right and wrong is wrong. The sight of an intelligent person doing something wrong even when he/she knows it is wrong, because it’s the way things are, is pathetic and sad. I don’t wish this on anyone. Unless….this only happens in the movies.

Joe

Have u been watching the new season of American Idol? It’s more of the same thing from the other 8 seasons - singers thinking they can sing! Oh, did I say “singers”? Sorry, I meant Americans thinking they can sing. And then the vulgarities start to come out of their non-singing mouths when the Idol judges tell them they can’t sing. I think the problem is not so much with them but with the people who had been telling them they could sing! Plain deception. It’s almost sad.

Joe