Daily Lessons from Life 30 June 2013 - End of 1st Half 2013: Review, Reflect and Re-Plan

Today marks the end of the 1st half of 2013! 6 months have past us by just like that. If we were mindful, we, hopefully have accomplished some of our 2013 resolutions, or at least, worked on some, if not all of them! It is a day to take stock, review, reflect, re-plan if necessary, and implement new actions to make the next 6 months as productive as possible. Of course, we can choose to do nothing and let it be. Very soon, we will be saying one of the saddest words: I should have! Time and tide wait for no man. Beware. Be aware of our situation, take stock, review, reflect, re-plan if necessary, and DO IT! Turn: 'I know' to 'I do' to 'I did it!!' "The Sunday Times piece by Han Fook Kwang, 'Managing Editor'(?) of the Straits Times today wrote about the hard question of: 'are Singaporean workers deserving of their wages?'or The answers seem to be: 'Not really.' or 'NO!!' by foreign employers, one who had become a Singaporean since, and some local employers. The 'first world country' Singaporean workers were compared with similarly 'advanced' economies like Switzerland and Germany. And came up SHORT! Big time!! For me I have always being questioning the assertions of the government that we have the 'world best educational system where countries around the world come to learn and emulate', that we have the 'world best workers (at least more than 10 years ago, albeit not in the last few years)' title, etc as: IF these are TRUE, why do the Employers hired so many Foreigners (Real and Fake Talent) for PME jobs that Singaporeans SHOULD be able to do and do well with decent and commensurate wages that NO EMPLOYERS will quibble about? The solutions are: 1. recognise that we HAVE this problem. Our workers are NOT world class. We MUST change the educational system to one focused on academic learning and NOT the critical thinking and innovative skills the employers are looking for. The MOE has started the reform journey. Hopefully it will NOT be derailed and become 'flavour of the year' exercise!! It is about CHANGE OF VALUES. It must be done consistently with everyone involved coming on board and on the same page and sharing the same commitment and conviction to execute the plan and realise the vision. I am hopeful. Hopefully others are too. 2. if we ONLY focus on supplying qualified workers and PMETs to the businesses, then the MOE educational system can be even MORE aggressive to look at vocational and technical skills of the students. At the same time, the soft life skills of effective communication, problems solving, the life long values of humility/smart and hard work/justice for all/do more good for a majority of people/etc must be instilled in the parents and at schools. Soft skills, like any other skills can be taught and learned by the people IF they want to. If they work hard at them. Mindset and values MUST be seen in the behaviours of the elders, the parents, the teachers, the national leaders, etc. Otherwise, only the truly strong and visionary ones can make it. We need to BRING ORDINARY Singaporeans along so we need to pay in GREATER EFFORTS to do more 'in-your-face' actions to encourage people to demonstrate behaviors grounded on Great Values consistently, repeatedly and in a sustainable manner. Start with the national leaders. The PARENTS are most critical role model. Help to parents to behave as a ROLE MODEL instead of a 'kiasu, kiasi, cannot do' negative minded 'pressured by the environment' model. Teachers MUST be ROLE MODEL too. Pay them 'enough' so that they will focus on teaching instead of worrying about making ends meet and not having enough respect and recognition in society vs. the bankers/accountants/doctors/lawyers/etc. Government leaders MUST recognized that 'pay for talent' is need to be tempered with 'public spiritedness and services' mindset. Students must recognize that 'pay for talent' needs to be tempered with 'public spiritedness and services' mindsets as well. And Parents too. When all these 3 aligned their understanding, there is a chance to break this 'sacred rule'. I look forward to the 2nd half of 2013 with great anticipation and excitement. I will work harder and smarter on the 2013 resolutions for sure. Vision without actions changes nothing. Vision with actions changes the world! :-)