Month: April 2011

Moral Will Be Hip One Day


Fabrice Tourre was the trader at Goldman at the centre of the SEC prosecution. Only 28 at the time he was flogging the stuff (“ab cdos” etc) off to “widows and orphans”, he is the type of glorified salesman whose methods to fame and fortune will one day be frowned upon. I

I believe there will come a day when it will become noble and fashionable for someone to do what is right. Public perception of what is success and how to best reward it, will change. It has to.

 The days when young professionals are paid grotesque amounts for boosting sales of high margin products which benefit no one but the seller, will end because sooner or later, truth will prevail. Good must win.

Already these bankers and traders are viewed with disdain and they are probably considered greedier and more disliked than even lawyers.

A few weeks ago I read “3 Cups of Tea” by Greg Mortenson and admired how a passionate person could be totally uninterested in money. Money was just a means to an end – an end which has nothing to do with his personal benefits other than his satisfaction of having helped someone else.

 Unfortunately for Goldman and its many employees like Fabrice Tourre, a warped sense of what capitalism is has made money as an end in itself. It is easy to think and behave that way.

Unless you belong to a religious or not for profit organisation, money is the raison d’être of your daily work. Money is everything, and more. One is measured not just by how much money one makes either for himself or his employer, that measurement is also a relative one. I may be making $200K per annum for myself and $20million for my employer but if a colleague makes $250K and $25million respectively he becomes more valuable. That trend goes on. It is also not about a company making a profit of $50million or a return on equity of 15% or a market share of 10%, it is about whether the next company (especially if that company is a competitor) makes $60million, a return of 18% and a market share of 12%. The latter company will be seen as the more successful and the chief executive officer will be rewarded accordingly, making him more valuable than the CEO of the first company.

And so the chase goes on and on. The CEO drives his sales and distribution team up, drives his operations and support teams down and gets more into the face of his customers.

More is done to draw attention away from the competitor and unto itself. The “look at me” mantra takes an even bigger footing. The marketing guys dream up more and more ideas to make consumers look at their clients. These ideas increasingly become more outlandish so as to better attract even greater attention.

Gradually the importance of drawing attention unto oneself becomes of paramount importance. Attention itself becomes the end. If you draw plenty of attention to the point of becoming an icon of sorts, you are more valuable.

Hence we have complete flakes like Paris Hilton and the Kadashians who have achieved absolutely nothing in life and whose sole value therefore is the ability to draw attention unto itself. These nincompoop nymphs in turn earn hefty income and thus become valuable in the eyes of the likes of Fabrice Tourre and others of this ilk. They have both advanced the cause of humanity absolutely no further and have in fact eroded the value of neutral media.

Fundamental moral considerations will have to be the basic popular culture one day.

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This is a repeat entry – just picked it up again somehow and thought it worth repeating

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A Niggly Weekend


After submitting an essay on Thursday night, I felt like a sudden depletion of energy ebbing away inside me. The next day I worked on a couple of relatively light files, then went home looking forward to a night with Tress, Kiddo and some friends in a little Singapore café in Boronia. Bert’s café on 146A Boronia Road serves Singaporean street food and the owner chef used to work at the Meridien in Singapore. About half a dozen families were there and we took up the entire café. The food was very good and the service was very friendly and quick, with normal reasonably low prices ranging from $5 appetizers to $9 main noodle dishes. I’d go back in a hurry if it wasn’t so far away from our home.

Sat after our usual coffee and brekky at our local (The Coffee Club at the Forest Hill Chase) we did some  quick grocery shopping before returning to do some overdue house cleaning. Tress cleaned up the garden and front yard, I vacuumed the house and cleared parts of the gutter as well as bit and pieces of other chores. Kiddo had a bit of a mishap on Mahoney Street… kua kua kua…

We decided to stay home that night and I cooked – we haven’t stayed in for home cooked food on a Sat night for a while now. The wonbuk tofu soup was very good for a cool night.

After the disastrous semi final game, I slept in and missed the fun in church early that morning when a team was putting the furniture back in after a carpet steam clean. A few of us – pastor and family, Jason and family – had lunch in Shangri La after church and we had a good time just catching up on a number of things. That afternoon was a bit lazy for me and I basically just vegged out doing next to nothing other than take the little Black Jedi out to the park for a walk – it was a gorgeous sunny afternoon so it felt perfect, except not the pressure builds up again for my next piece of work. Something on sola scriptura and prophesy… help me Lord.

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United loses semis


When Scholesy made that statement in the press about City, I could just see this coming. united appears to be on the way out and Scholesy sees red. Sigh…

1994 was a Great Year


Last night we went to a local hotel for some pub food. It was kiddo’s birthday and I think we have stuck to keeping things simple and pub food is still a night out after recent battles the family has had to mount to cope with my cooking.

We went to the Mitcham Hotel and kiddo and Tress ordered from the board – roast for kiddo and a fish for Tress. I asked for a steak from the regular menu.

I then took kiddo to the bar and ordered a white wine for her – yeah, it is that sort of joint, where no maitre d came around with a wine list. I asked for a sweet Riesling (a Lindeman’s I think) and I had a house red myself. At 17, she was allowed alcohol when dining with the family and having a full meal. She mentioned the vodka cruisers and I explained to her why those beverages are drinks for losers, sort of (I’m sorry if you like that sort of thing). We also shared a chocolate flourless cake.

She appeared to handle the wine ok. She is 17 now. It didn’t feel like it was 17 years ago when after watching United beat Oldham Athletic (I think it was them) in an FA Cup Semi Final we went to the Subang Medical Centre and waited a number of hours before she finally arrived in the arvo. Everyday for the next few days, I’d stop by the hospital on the way to work and peek through the glass windows of the nursery. She was the most beautiful baby in that nursery, often the only one awake, eyes wide open.

1994 was a great year – Kiddo was born. And United won the double after going on to thrash pre-Roman Chelsea in the final.

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Malaysian Tragedy


The recent statement by Raja Petra on the events leading up to his Statutory Declaration on Rosmah Mansor, and Din Merican’s response to that statement, really showed how things are done in Malaysia. Reliance on a couple of telephone conversations, which appeared really short on details, lead to a statements which the masses were too happy to jump on with conclusions.

Apparently a guy called Nik Nazmi Nik Daud orchestrated the whole thing. He duped Raja Petra into thinking there was an intelligence report by Lt Kol Azmi Zainal Abidin which proved Rosmah Mansor’s presence on the murder site. 

Raja Petra, for all his resourcefulness, relied on just 2 apparently quick phone calls to verify the existence of the report. He did not insist on seeing the report or even talking to the purported author of the report. He spoke to third parties on the strengths of their connections with influential people.

That unfortunately sounds all too familiar. Businesses are transacted, assets are purchased, marriages are instituted, and other major decisions are made far too frequently on the say so of someone rather than on detailed investigation of what is the substance of the matter.

“Is this speaker any good?” Yeah he is – so and so said so. There he is on the pulpit delivering hogwash based on non-existent exegesis and some snake oil theology.

“Is this company share worth buying?” Yeah it is – so and so said so. A couple of million ringgit later the buyer is cursing and swearing for losses made because some fund manager was actually trying to offload his holdings.

This reliance on “so and so said so” is mind boggling. Malaysians are just so scared, so lazy, of doing the hard yards. The investigations, the reading, the comprehension and analysis, are often all missing. The short cut is easy but often riddled with dangers. We deserved better. We had one of the best education systems in the world (had is the operative word now) – so why make ourselves look like lazy, uneducated sloths?

I know 20-20 hindsight is always 100% accurate but unless we learn to put in the hard yards by getting our eyes and hand down for some grinding work, we can only blame ourselves if things go wrong. RPK may have been well liked and trusted but despite his Welsh blood, he is as Malaysian as they come. Din Merican said Anwar said ok and John Pang said Ku Li said ok, and bang, the mother of all SD’s out there to spawn a whole saga all its own. Malaysia boleh? There’s a twist even to that stupid phrase.

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Day Out


A colleague was working on a case which was potentially curly. The team had wanted to set out a consistent approach in terms of treatment of similar cases but sometimes – often in fact – so much depends on the facts of a particular case. A site visit was thought useful to verify certain factual situations and to put documented facts in perspective.

I was asked to come along for the visit. I guess it is part familiarization with site visit procedures but also good control to have more than just the one person on site visits.

So yesterday this colleague and I set out for the property in question. It was located at the start of the Great Ocean Road and it was going to take us about an hour and a half to get there.

We were at the Finance department early on to pick up the car keys and look for the necessary paper work. We then headed down to the basement where the cars were, and I was pleasantly surprised to note that the Office has a fleet of the Toyota Camry Hybrid. My colleague was even more of a novice in these things than yours truly. He pushed the power button on and then the both of us just sat in the car for a while, wondering if he had done all the right thing, as the car was so quiet we thought nothing was happening.

We finally pulled out of the parking space and made our way past the five floors underground to emerge out of the belly of the complex, onto Bourke Street, after going past 3 boom gates. Soon the wet morning pushed on and it was belting down. While waiting for the lights on Flinders Street, we thought the engine had died on us, so quiet was the thing. It felt like it had powered down to a safe mode of sorts but when my colleague engaged the gear back to drive it took off again. Soon I was fiddling around with the radio and after about 5 minutes of talk back radio on 3AW, I switched channel to an FM music channel – I think it was either Classic Rock on 104.3 or Vega on 91.5. My colleague lighted up noticeably – he must have thought me an old man, what was I doing listening to Neil Mitchell on a drive out to the Great Ocean Road.

We were soon out of the city and on the Westgate, heading towards Geelong and beyond. It was still belting down – the rain was tropical. Still, it beats being cooped up in the office so we enjoyed the ride.

At the property my colleague talked to the clients while I took some pictures. It was a basic Canon SLR model. Thanks to my (very) modest self education on these toys, I could handle the thing ok and my colleague and our boss was fairly pleased with the outcome of my photographic efforts and they sort of spoke the thousands of words the report needed to attend to the clients’ file.

We got back around 1.30pm after stopping in town for coffee and a very good apple and rhubarb cake (it was labeled as a fancy pastry with some French name but it was a cake to me). I told my colleague this morning I think I have an idea for a day trip this coming Easter long weekend. I think he had the same idea.

Regards,Ian

Sent from my iPhinity (and beyond)

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Glory Glory? Not quite there… Yet


An Englishman, a Mexican and a Korean. When you have a common purpose, no differences matter.

United is now in the semi finals of the Champions Leage and FA Cup, and sits atop the domestic league with a 7 point cushion, albeit having played a game more than the team just below them. Not and for a team which isn’t quite the strongest huh?

In 99 we saw the great Dane retiring and the treble sewn up. In 2011 we have a great Dutchman in VDS retiring. Dare we dream another treble in the works? I must start a lookout for tickets to Wembley…

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Kroenke makes it 10 in the English League


Another yank has yanked English ownership out of another English club. With Stan Kroenke‘s takeover of Arsenal, the Premier League now has 10 clubs which are foreign owned. There are 19 teams in the league, so more than half are foreign owned. Of the top 5 clubs in the league as they now stand, only Tottenham remains English owned. Everton is the next highest ranking club (7th) which is English owned but Bill Kenwright and Co has large bank borrowings with guys like Bear Stearns and it would not be a big step for the Americans to gain a foothold through them. The next big club on the ladder, Newcastle United, has been on the market for some time. Mike Ashley lost out to Manchester City in selling to the Sheikhs so the Zebras too, are likely to be sold to foreigners in the not too distant future. Manchester United may want the Glazers out but the Green and Gold campaign has some work to do yet.

The EPL is the biggest earner amongst all domestic leagues. The “E” is in name only as the English-ness is fast disappearing. That is of course no surprise. Yet here we are in Australia, warding off SGX in its propose merger with the ASX, with a loud protestor shouting in the name of national interests. That is so 90’s…  if the most sacred of English working class institutions can become foreign controlled, why do we belly-ache over the proposed merger?

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Through the roof…


We recently had our roof repaired. We bought a renovated house and being novices in home construction matters we didn’t pay much attention to the roof except the timber work near the gutters and the gutters themselves. As long as the gutters seemed ok and there were any shattered or broken roof tiles we didn’t know what else to be looking out for.

The roof was still alright but recent storms and heavy rains have showed up the weak work done on the roof and a couple of damp spots were showing up on the ceiling and we could hear water dripping onto the ceiling.

So about a month and a half ago we got some roof experts to come in and our roof looks much better now. Broken roof tiles were replaced, improperly done work was rectified and old timbers were replaced. The roof tiles were then given a couple of coats of sealants and a couple of coats of paint.

We have a properly maintained roof now and Tress and I worry less whenever there is a storm or heavy rains. The roofing episode sort of brought home to me again, the costly business of home ownership and living in general… everything’s so costly now.

I have taken to listening to talkback radio while cooking dinners and the other day someone said the new electricity smart meters have caused their electricity bills to skyrocket by 70+ percent. I was looking at my car registration and insurance renewal just last Friday and the premium has gone up quite a bit too, and with that the stamp duty. I was shopping to cook for a potluck at Alex and Li Har’s last night and the tomatoes were between $7-8 a kilo. Kiddo was starting to look at some organic stuff and the like and the general idea that such things were more costly suddenly came sharply into focus. Tress was getting some dental work done these past few weeks and the cost of these treatments were as always, a shocker.

So why is it that when the cost of so many things are literally through the roof, have I started a role in the public sector with a painful pay cut… it’s like another double whammy for yours truly…

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Slip Sliding Away


Things appear to be rosier now – or are they? Yes and no. This –  the here-but-not-yet, already but yet to come, bad but good, good but bad, first shall be last and last shall be first – fluctuation, undulation, the to-ing anf fro-ing of events, sentiments, expectations and outcomes, they all seem to be the flavour of the day. The flavour indeed, of life. Seasons come and go and with them our sentiments ebb and flow. Is winter here? Yes but not yet. The cold is here, for now. Soon it will be no more, smoked out by the heat.  But it will come again – it is yet to come, even when it is here already. The circle of life, the cycle of time. None are happy all the time, nor sad. None are melancholic all the time, nor glad.

No I have been smoking funny cigarettes. I am just reflecting on what Tress and I briefly talked about on the train this morning, on the way in to work. Nights of school lectures and events for kiddo, long hours of work for Tress, reasonable hours during the day and attention stretching work at night for yours truly. It is a time where heads are down and quills doodle (or keyboards hacked away) as the nights arrive sooner and stay longer, bringing with them cold winds and gloom to be swept away only by cheery and hopeful hearts and minds in our God. I now wake up to chilly mornings – it was 9 deg this morning – and I can no longer head off to the gym in my shorts and t-shirt. On a good day it still hits 25deg albeit momentarily but as always, it is the dark – the early arrival of farewell to the sun – which gets to me.

Maybe I have been cooped up in my study just a touch too long, but then again I have been thinking I have not spent enough time in there! Or maybe that too is a yes and no example. Life’s too hard some times. Fun, but hard.

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