Daily Lessons from Life 07 - 15 January 2012 - Friends and Others Interesting News ...

Was in PRC from 7 Jan till 14 Jan 2012 and has no access to this blog.

SO, a quick reflections on the past few days ...

1. Meeting long time friends in Beijing - fantastic to meet and catch up with long time friends who took the time and trouble to meet up. This time I got more one-on-one time vs. the usual one-to-many sessions due to time constraints! I am thankful that I am able to do this in the 1st month of 2012!!

2. admiration of the group of learners from a client in Beijing - this group of 6 out of 22 impressed me with their opening remarks when asked to share what will work best for them to learn during the workshop I am delivering and their response is: 'To empty whatever they had in the mind, to fill up the void that they had emptied, and to apply whatever they find agreeable and useful after the workshop!'. There are 2 PhDs in this group and fairly senior people. I was impressed and believe that they had taught me a lesson too - to be able to learn one must be humble enough to leave any previous learning aside first before new learning begins! I am thankful for this group of people for setting the stage of the 3-day workshop (which worked out fairly well!).

3. read about an Acting Minister trying to emphasise that PAP members are not primarily here for the pay. Unfortunately, his analogy used was not appropriate in my opinion. He said something to the effect: "if you go to a restaurent to eat a S$10 fried carrot cake you may be satisfied due to the service, ambience and quality of the food. But if you go to a hawker center for a S$1.50 fried carrot cake, you may not be satisfied if the quality if poor."

This persistent, or even stubburn, linkage of 'money with quality' is perplexing to me as the goal for any progressive company or business is to provide: 'high quality with lower cost' though it is smart marketing to get the customers to pay the HIGHEST price for the quality that it actually produced with low cost!!

It would have been better HAD the Acting Minister said: 'if you go to the hawker center and have a good quality fried carrot cake at S$2.50 or S43, which is the MARKET PRICE, you would be just as HAPPY and satisfied!'

4. Opening of Myanmar or 'normalization' of diplomatic relationship by USA with Myanmar is a significant development. Hopefully, the 'capitalist' practice does not mean a runaway real estate market in Myanmar!!

5. this morning news of an Italian cruise ship running aground and losing 3 confirmed deaths is sad news indeed. Such unfortunate accident is simply mind boggling! How could a full equiped cruise ship ran aground in a calm sea within 3 hours after setting sail? The captain of the vessel has been arrested as he supposedly abandoned ship (1st?) and may be charged for culpable mass homocide! For some of the passengers, the twisted fate certainly applied to them. It is NOT a curse but just something that happened. They have to move on quickly. May the deads rest in peace and may those responsible be brought to justice and may the lessons be learned and NOT repeated (hopefully!)

One more week to the Chinese Lunar New Year of the Dragon!!!