Has Transactional Lifestyle in Singapore Crossed the Family Line?

The housing and immigration issues faced by Singapore have unexpectedly led to discussions about broader social values including that of family, which is a fundamental unit of society.  Through conversations with friends and colleagues alike, many shared that they found life in Singapore to be very transactional. In other words, most activities appear not to be very far from calculations of opportunity cost and expected benefits from participation.

As I was having dinner yesterday, I noticed something very interesting from the table across ours. It was occupied by a typical family who seemed to be enjoying their food and each other’s company. A short while later, one member called the food stall owner over but instead of asking him for the total bill, she actually asked him to calculate the bill only for her portion. Each member (barring the children of course) then continued the process. Although this is a single observation and may not be representative of the entire society, I cannot help but question whether transactional lifestyle is so entrenched in the way of life here that it is even practiced among family members.

There’s no doubt that life in Singapore is getting tougher economically and each member probably has difficulty paying for other family members. But surely, there is at least one way to do so less explicitly. What about one member paying for all first and the rest to pay him/her back just before they part?

One Man's Meat is Another Man's Poison: Perspectives from Spain

News from Europe were mostly negative lately. So, an article titled “Spain’s Chinese thrive during rough time” caught my attention as I browsed through the New York Times. As I read through the article, I can’t agree more with the old saying that one man’s meat is another man’s poison (or rather its opposite).

With high unemployment rate and austerity measures at full swing, life in Spain is clearly not as rosy as the good old time. However, the Chinese immigrants appear to have adapted well to the situation. Many have started small businesses to cater to the needs of the masses even in times of crisis such as food and daily necessities including haircut services. Many have also imported goods from China that are priced much more competitively than say Made-in-Europe goods. While such goods may not have attracted the interest of consumers when times were good, it is doing just that now as Spaniards try to control their expenditure.

And as if to further illustrate the old saying, the strategies adopted by the Chinese immigrants seem to have made the Spaniards who have businesses worse off. As they venture into other industries with cutthroat prices, they are forcing more businesses to contemplate closing down.

What Does The Process of Averting Fiscal Cliff Tell Us About American Politics?

The media may have hailed the aversion of America’s fiscal cliff for the time being. However, a deeper look at the process leading to it tells us of how bad partisan politics has become in Washington and could very well foretell what to expect for Obama’s second term.

While the automatic tax increases and spending cuts were supposed to kick in on 1^st January, lawmakers on both sides dragged the process of passing the legislation until the dawn of 2^nd January because in theory, anything on paper could not be acted upon until people came back to work. While making a formal notice to Congress that the Government would hit its borrowing limit on 31^st December, Geithner mentioned that the Treasury Department could avoid action for additional two months through creative accounting.

Although such behaviours indicate the perseverance of lawmakers in trying to exploit any loopholes to ensure that they get the best deals for the people that they are representing, it also points to significant differences between two sides to a level that neither is willing to compromise till the very last moment or rather, till there are no more tricks up their sleeve. When one looks at this, one wonders how America will tackle more difficult issues, especially those requiring bipartisan cooperation and compromise.

South China Sea: Learning from Cold War Episodes

South China Sea was one of the more prominent flashpoints in 2012 and is likely to remain one as we start 2013. As I pored over news reports of new military exercises, deployment of troops and military hardwares (all of which are driven in one way or another by the US) to countries in the region, I can’t help but to compare this episode to those that happened during the Cold War era.

When Castro took control of Cuba and purchased crude oils from Soviet Union for processing, the reluctance of US oil companies based in Cuba to process the oils had the unintended effect of pushing Castro more towards Soviet Union and the eventual Cuban missile crisis. Similarly, Johnson’s operation rolling thunder and policies towards the peasants in then South Vietnam pushed them further towards the embrace of Communist North instead of convincing them of the ideals of freedom and democracy.

In both episodes, US’ hawkish stances had the unexpected effect of pushing these countries closer towards their rival instead of bringing them to the negotiation tables, where the probability of outcomes more favorable to the US would have been conceived. In our current South China Sea issue, China appears to have adopted similar hawkish attitude as the US did for the above episodes. I am not entirely sure if China realizes that if this behaviour is to continue, history may repeat itself; in other words, China will end up pushing their neighbours closer to the US and concurrently, give more boosts for Obama’s pivot to Asia.

In China’s interest, the sensible thing will be to tone down the rhetoric and find a middle ground to solve the issue. China had accumulated lots of neighbourly goodwill in the past and it is certainly not worth it to throw them away over a single episode.

Improving Workers' Condition: From Another Perspective

The plight of factory workers, notably in China has captured the attention of many people across the world. Sights of squalid living quarters, seemingly unending working hours and absence of basic welfare in these factory towns resulted in rightful calls for better treatment for the most important people in the production lines.

In a rush to support this just cause, we appear to have forgotten one thing and unknowingly have committed a mistake, that is, of asking the workers what they really want in their working life but instead enforcing our definition of what’s best on them.

A TED presentation by Leslie T. Chang gave support to this view. In a series of interviews with workers whom she had established relationships with, Chang found out that while workers probably appreciate improvements in issues raised as examples above, they actually gain higher utility (in the words of an economist) from things/activities that may result in potentially better jobs. Some of these include the opportunity to learn computer skills and English.

As we close 2012 and embrace 2013, I thought this is a good reminder to everyone who has the good intentions of helping someone: never assume but in the words of Ernesto Sirolli (another TED presenter), shut up and listen before we come up with ways to help someone.

Happy New Year Eve!

Lessons from Winter

I received a copy of Monocle Alpino this afternoon and had been reading it for the entire evening. I do not intend to promote the publication in this post but just want to share an inspiring essays section in it.

There are ten articles about winter and related topics from so many different perspectives, each teaching me a thing or two about certain subject; on how saw-making needs to consider the “ice factor”, on the existence of a job called ice-meister who is responsible for making sure that the ice surface is perfect for skating and on how the notion of hand-knitted has changed over time.

The world is indeed a very big place and there will always be new things to learn. Merry Christmas everyone and thanks for making 2012 an excellent year. The best is yet to be!

Report Card for the 21st ASEAN Summit

The ASEAN Summit was concluded almost a month ago. I had wanted to provide a report card of the summit but was delayed until now. As I see it, there were about four main takeaways, each capable of generating endless debate as to whether it is a good or bad thing.

First in the list is the signing of the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration. For many people, it is indeed an achievement considering that the organization did not come into being with the idea of pushing for human rights. In fact, some would even argue that many of the founders of ASEAN were hardly democratically elected. Yet, some would say that the declaration fell short of expectations as many “standard” norms appear to have been excluded.

Second is the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). As with other recent summits, ASEAN Leaders pledged their continuous commitment to the establishment of AEC in 2015 but implementation process has been hit with several problems. The decision to delay AEC from 1 Jan 2015 to 31 Dec 2015 further proves this point. Officials can argue that AEC will still come into existence in 2015 but seriously, it is not hard to see that it has effectively been delayed by one year and how that will further affect ASEAN’s credibility remain to be seen.

Third is the announcement of the start of Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) negotiation. On one hand, it gives the impression that ASEAN is serious in pursuing further economic integration with its neighbours but on the other hand, people are questioning whether anything tangible will come out of this considering the proposed timeline of its conclusion, 2015. One, it essentially clashes with AEC and if you cannot even implement one thing with your existing resources, what can you possibly achieve when you need to divide the same resources to handle two things concurrently. Two, there is a potential impact of South China Sea issue on the negotiation process.

This brings us quite nicely to the fourth and last takeaway, which is the South China Sea issue itself. Unlike the above takeaways where something positive can be distilled from them, I frankly do not see anything positive in this issue. It has wrecked ASEAN unity. It has resulted in several incidents that are likely to increase tensions. It has kick-started some military maneuvers and God knows what will come next.

To conclude, this is not a perfect report card but this is not a bad one either. There are certainly troubles brewing but if the relevant stakeholders can just take one step back and look at the bigger picture, I believe ASEAN can right the wrongs and still come out blazing.

P.S: I survive the end of the world.