Daily Lessons from Life 10 - 12 May 2013 - Imported Political Protests and more ...

Have been stretching myself due to indiscipline in managing priority and adequate rest for the most sensitive detection mechanism in the world - my own body - in the last few days resulting in inability to write my daily log. Not a satisfactory affairs and will get corrected starting tonight! A few headlines to comment on and learn: 1. Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement at his peak! A shock decision as he is still physically very fit and his temper is still very fierce and his competitiveness very intense. Whatever the reason, I salute him, reluctantly as I felt that some of the successes the Manchester United teams he led to many successes, most astonishing is the hyper-dramatic came from behind win against Bayern Munich in that unforgettable ChampiLeagueauge Final and clinching the unprecedented Treble in England, were BOUGHT with money! Of course he started the young academy that produced some of their best players of the last 2 decades. The whats-his-name Beckham, etc. He also nurtured highly individually and strong personality like Eric CantonaKean Kearn, to name a few, into very effective leaders and winners. His achievement in the last 5 years is, for me, the real reason I salute him. He did not REALLY have the MOST EXPENSIVE team in the league as some Arab Sheiks were paying out-of-the-world wages to buy success. YET, Sir Alex's team WON the EPL 3 times in the last 5 years! Work ethics, firm handling of prima donna, courage to sell the best players and keen eyes for young gems. Winning with a lesser team is for me the ultimate achievement by him. I will, I never thought I will say this being a supporter of sort of Liverpool and Arsenal, say: "Sir Alex, you ARE the best in England up to now!!" 2. Malaysians in Singapore protesting against the 'Mother of all frauds Malaysia GE on 5 May 2013'. While many educated Malaysians are strong supporters of the Malaysian Opposition parties and WANT them to win the recently concluded GE, and FIRMLY believed that the incumbent party, BN, cheated big time, it is WRONG to be protesting in Singapore especially when the Police formally warned that it is ILLEGAL to do so. The 1st protest on last Wednesday went on and caught the police by surprise. They investigated and issued the warning while asking 9 persons to help in that investigation. Yesterday, Saturday, another 21 Malaysians turned out to protest again. This time around, they were ARRESTED. Most are YOUNG people. I HOPE, they are just given a warning and nothing to do with their PR or work permit or employment pass being potentially revoke. A VERY STERN WRITTEN WARNING spelling out the DEFINITE consequence of they will be deported from Singapore and become 'persons unwelcome' should KNOCK some senses into the "overwhelming emotion of 'their GE' victory being robbed!" When their emotion calm down, maybe rationality has a chance to speak to these YOUNG Malaysians. You have to pick the right fight and the right venue. Protesting in Singapore will put Singapore in a difficult situation as Asean members. Singapore DOES NOT want Singaporeans staging political protests in Malaysia and have to make sure the same treatment is meted out for Malaysians who hold political protests in Singapore. 3. Met up with long time friends from Shanghai who are in the Charitable NGO works The current craze, yes, even in NGO there is trend setters and massive imitators, is: Social Enterprise. Interesting to learn more about how to ensure that PROFITABLE Social Enterprise is really doing good for the beneficiaries as it is supposedly more than just being a PROFITABLE Enterprise and then giving back via the Corp Social Responsibility initiative of the companies. I will be getting involved for sure. At this moment, my definition are: a. engage in businesses that provide products or services or solutions that have social benefits; or b. employing the beneficiaries to run a self-sustaining business using their natural or developed talents; or c. COMBINATION of item a and b above!! The questions are what are fair wages for the beneficiary employees? how to distribute the 'profit'? etc will be points of focus. Watch this space!! I can already see the ETHICS part of my 7e Way of Leaders kicking in eventually!