How would you want to be in the generations to come? On a national level, what programs is your government creating to make sure that survival and competitiveness is ensured for the nation as a whole?
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Corazon Aquino, after a long battle with cancer, dies.
Philippine leaders, including Gloria Arroyo, pays respect.
Read that story here.
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Image via Wikipedia
When your earthly tenure has ended, and you are departed from the land of the living, what can be said of you, by those who know you, by those whom you love, by those who dislike you, and by those who esteem you with high regard?
Singapore govt describes late Corazon Aquino as remarkable woman
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At first I thought that what I saw was a news comment from the US… I was wrong. The treasurer who spoke was speaking for Australia. And rightly so, because the other day (if not this morning), I saw a paper indicating that half, or more than half, of US establishments, have declared that sales have bottomed out. That is something to be reckoned with: an already staggering economy, reeling from the past blows, is once again dealt with a blow, perhaps a heavier one.
As for the Australian treasurer's declaration, read it here. Perhaps migration destination may change… to Australia. But something to watch out for there is the racial discrimination. But in which country is discrimination not happening?
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Even with the growing unrest in the countries surronding North Korea, the country still goes on with its missile testing…
Catch the latest news here.
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Japan's manufacturers plan to limit production increases this month and in July, signalling that the economy may be slow to recover from its worst post-war slump.
Gains in output will slow to 3.1 per cent in June from May and 0.9 per cent next month, a Trade Ministry survey released yesterday showed.
Production climbed 5.9 per cent in April and May, the fastest pace in 56 years, the report said.
Industrial production is showing signs of "upward movement", said the ministry. Strong gains among companies making transport equipment, electronic parts and steel products contributed to the improvement in output.
However, the Nikkei 225 Stock Average fell 1 per cent yesterday, due to concerns that demand for Japanese cars and electronics would be too weak to sustain a recovery amid swelling unemployment at home and abroad. Even after boosting output to rebuild depleted inventories, Japanese manufacturers are making 30 per cent fewer goods than they were one year ago.
"The slowdown in the outlook numbers definitely casts doubt on just how sustainable this recovery is," said Mr Tetsuro Sugiura, chief economist at Mizuho Securities Research Institute.
"Companies have been rebuilding stock based on the idea that demand would recover, but however you look at it, it's hard to see that happening." BLOOMBERG
From TODAY, Business – Tuesday, 30-Jun-2009
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Posted: 28 June 2009 1808 hrs
Residential property (top-R) on Victoria Peak overlooks the skyline of Hong Kong
HONG KONG: Hong Kong has still to emerge from the effects of the global economic slowdown despite early signs of returning stability, the city's chief executive Donald Tsang has said.
Tsang said that big challenges remained for the city, whose key industries of finance and exports have been hit hard by the crisis.
"There is no doubt we have yet to emerge from the impact of the financial tsunami," he said on local broadcaster RTHK's weekly Letter to Hong Kong.
"While recent statistics have shown some signs of economic stability returning, there are still many uncertainties in the global market."
He said reforms put in place after the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997 meant Hong Kong had not suffered a breakdown in its financial system.
He said that the latest crisis presented similar opportunities to improve the city's economic fundamentals.
The government has pointed out six sectors the city should focus on -- including education and environmental industries.
Tsang countered accusations that such directives went against Hong Kong's free market economic principles.
"Hong Kong has thrived as a free and open market. This must and will continue," he said.
"At the same time, increasing globalisation and regional competition have resulted in a need for a strong government role in facilitating economic development.
"So, we are not picking winners. Rather, we are providing a more favourable environment for industries to become even bigger winners than they are now."
Hong Kong fell into recession in the third quarter of 2008 and in May the government slashed its growth forecast for this year, saying the economy would contract 5.5-6.5 percent in 2009, from a previous forecast of 2.0-3.0 percent.
- AFP/ir
From ChannelNewsAsia.com; see the source article here.
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06/23/2009 | 08:56 AM
MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang welcomed Tuesday the prospect of a Senate investigation into the expenses incurred in President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's foreign trips.
At the same time, Press Secretary Cerge Remonde chided former President Fidel Ramos for questioning the "efficiency" of Mrs. Arroyo's trips because of the several side trips she had made.
"We respect the views of the former president but I think he himself recognizes the importance of these trips he has also made during his time. Regarding efficiency, we can assure the former president [na] walang inefficiency dito sa mga trip na ito and we can report to the nation kung ano ang mga cost benefit ng trip ng pangulo," Remonde said.
[We can assure the former president there is no inefficiency in these trips and we can report to the nation the cost benefits of these trips]," he said.
As for the impending Senate probe, Remonde said they are prepared to make an accounting of the expenses incurred in Mrs. Arroyo's foreign travels.
"We welcome that. Bukas ang mga bagay na yan. Those expenses are a public concern, they are subject to COA audit. Pero masasabi ko lang diyan ... napakalaki ng nadudulot na kabutihan sa bansa natin at dahil naintindihan nating lahat [na] hinaharap natin ngayong global economic crisis at ang buong mundo, isang global community already, so hindi pwedeng ang isang leader ay maging insular lamang sa kanyang mga pananaw," Remonde said in an interview on dzXL radio.
[We welcome that and we are open to the investigation. Those expenses are a public concern and are subject to government audit. But I should also say the trips brought much benefits to us. We are part of a global economy facing a global economic crisis and we need our leaders not to be insular in their world view.]
He added that the trips Mrs. Arroyo has made are not vacation trips but are "very hectic, very tiring, even dangerous working trips" to protect and promote the interest of the country.
For his part, Commission on Audit Chairman Reynaldo Villar said he is ready to provide the Senate the proper records on the foreign trips.
"Kung nag-request sino man sa ating mga lingkod-bayan sa gobyerno na gusto masiyasat ang gastusin ang opisina ng pangulo o attached agencies ng OP, pwede sila sumulat sa akin [If anyone wants to request a copy of the records of expenses incurred by the Office of the President, they can write me)," Villar said in a separate radio interview.
But he said the latest audit was in 2008, saying audits are made at the end of the year.
On the other hand, Villar said he has already started implementing a pre-audit policy where officials who fail to liquidate expenses in their past trips cannot get cash advances for the next trip until they account for their past trip expenses.
"Ngayon kung di pa na-liquidate ang unang biyahe unang gastos di siya makakuha sa susunod [If they have not liquidated their cash advances in their past trip, they cannot get cash advances for the next trip]," he said.
On Monday, opposition Senators Panfilo Lacson and Francis Escudero said they would look into if the foreign trips undertaken by President Arroyo were justified in terms of benefits for the country.
Lacson noted that the Office of the President spent roughly P800 million for President Arroyo's foreign travels last year.
"We should really scrutinize the budget of the Office of the President particularly those pertaining to foreign trips vis-à-vis the benefits derived out of [these] foreign trips," Lacson said.
For his part, Escudero said President Arroyo should set an example for people in government to save by cutting on unnecessary expenses such as foreign trips. - GMANews.TV
From GMANews.tv; see the source article here.
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Channel NewsAsia - Friday, June 19
In comparison, only 61 per cent scored career advancement and high salary as more important despite the financial pressures of the economic downturn.
The inaugural survey, commissioned by the Singapore Institute of Management (SIM), shows 86 per cent intended to work beyond the retirement age of 62, although more than half would prefer to work on a part—time basis, doing freelance or consulting work.
When it came to training, seven in 10 managers viewed skills and knowledge upgrading as important. Most, however, preferred to implement on—the—job training through learning of best practices and short—term courses than long—term programs or job rotations within the organisation.
Tracking the general sentiments on the economy, there was more pessimism about the global economy than Singapore economy.
Compared with the 77 per cent who voiced their uncertainty about how the global economy was performing, only 61 per cent of respondents said they were concerned about how Singapore’s economy fared.
This might explain why only slightly more than half the 750 respondents were confident of keeping their jobs.
Executive director, SIM, Ronald Tan, said: "It shows how they realign their priorities, vis-a-vis, the current turbulent times. So they have to very quickly look at what is most critical to them to ride out the storm, given the limited resources that they have. So we see that there is a general and common reaction underpinned by a sense of prudence, pragmatism and being realistic."
Some 750 respondents took part in this survey which will be conducted twice a year. The SIM Management Monitor is a comprehensive management survey that aims to identify key trends in management and better understand the issues, concerns and challenges that Singapore managers uniquely face.
— 938LIVE/CNA/yt
From Yahoo! News; see the source article here.
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John Bittleston, succeed@mediacorp.com.sg
MEASUREMENT is good. Evaluating assets, abilities and behaviour needs clearly defined standards. Good rules require good measurements and clear definitions. Up to a point ...
British Members of Parliament claiming excessive expenses illustrates the dilemma. A 72-page guide tells MPs what they may charge the taxpayer. The language is easily understood, and the document tries to define the rules for everything. A special Parliament office advises MPs whether a claim is valid. There are appeal systems for the dissatisfied.
Such a system must surely be foolproof? Why, then, are so many British MPs and Ministers having to repay money, with several resigning from Parliament, sometimes under threat from their party leaders?
Seventy-two pages were not too few to tell an MP how he was expected to behave - they were too many. Any rule book incites us to find a way around those rules we do not like. We "interpret" rules. Every MP so far accused has said: "I have done no wrong. It was within the rules." And that is the whole point. "Within the letter of the rules" maybe; "within the spirit" - clearly not. A citizen is entitled to expect his legislators to understand trust and example.
To make measurement work for us - as opposed to us working for it - requires that we know what measures are relevant. Increasingly, it seems we do not.
A frightening example is of an overseas hospital that met its key performance indicators (KPIs) consistently for several years but was found, on investigation, to have allowed a large number of patients to die unnecessarily, in dirty and disgraceful conditions. The hospital's KPIs did not include saving life or making patients tolerably comfortable or clean.
But surely that is the purpose of a hospital? Presumably, managers assumed that hospital administrators and staff knew these objectives and so it was unnecessary to include them as KPIs.
As soon as you draw up rules, everyone looks for what is missing as well as what is there. So the hospital met its "un-crowded wards" KPI by leaving patients to die on trolleys in corridors without attention, water, food or hygiene. Many other administrative conveniences were fully met, too. Hence the excellent KPI record - and the total failure of the hospital.
The existence of rules or KPIs in both these cases worked against the good of those they were supposed to serve. Not all rules are bad; many are essential. The highway would become a battlefield if the rules of the road were not strictly observed. But no amount of highway codes can replace careful driving. No books of rules can substitute for a commonsense view of how we should behave.
The 10 Commandments were infinitely better rules than the more than 900 sins now published as desirably avoided. That is because the 10 Commandments made the individual responsible for a commonsense interpretation of them. Only by such self-control can a society exist and flourish.
That is why trust is so important. How can we police that trust? Without the hand of correction, trust will simply be flouted by some at the expense of those who observe it.
Defining the line too clearly between honoured and broken trust is not the way to go. Let each person find the line for himself or herself, and let the courts decide if someone has stepped over it. Then let the penalty for a Breach of Trust be of such deterrence that we all keep well behind the line.
Standards are not only accepted by individuals, they are set by individuals. We cannot correct overnight the poor standards that have become widely accepted. But we can begin.
John Bittleston mentors people in business, career and their personal lives at http://www.terrificmentors.com/.
From TODAY, Business –Monday, 15-Jun-2009
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WELLINGTON - A New Zealand politician quit Parliament on Friday, nine days after he resigned as a government minister over sex allegations.
Since it was revealed that Mr Richard Worth was being investigated by the police over claims made by a Korean woman living in Auckland, other allegations have emerged that he pursued another woman with sexually explicit text messages and phone calls.
Mr Worth said on Friday that the decision to resign was in the best interests of Prime Minister John Key's National Party.
"It would be easy for me to be bitter about the avalanche of rumour and innuendo that has led me into making this decision, which I regard as being in the best interests of my party," he said in a statement.
He reiterated that he did not commit any crime and was confident he will be cleared of any criminal conduct.
Mr Key described Mr Worth's decision as a "sensible course of action".
The allegations that Mr Worth had sent "vulgar" text messages and made such phone calls were made by a woman in the opposition Labour Party. Mr Worth blamed a political conspiracy for his problems. AFP
From TODAY, World – Weekend, 13/14-Jun-2009
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Updated 10:20 AM Jun 09, 2009
BANGKOK - A 2,300-year-old gold-domed pagoda collapsed just three weeks after the wife of the Myanmar junta's top general had helped reconsecrate it with a diamond orb and a sacred golden umbrella.
There is no country in Asia more superstitious than Myanmar, and the collapse is widely seen as portentous. It comes as the junta has put on trial pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The superstitious generals may be consulting astrologers as they decide how to proceed, which is not unusual.
Currency denominations, traffic rules have been changed, the nation's capital has been moved and the timing of events has been selected with astrological dictates in mind. "Astrology has as significant a role in policies, leadership and decision-making as rational calculations, geopolitics and resource economics," said Zarni, a Burmese exile analyst and researcher.
The Danok pagoda was blessed last month in the presence of the wife of the country's supreme leader, Senior General Than Shwe. The government-controlled press was silent when the temple crashed last Saturday. But the news spread fast.
Many saw it as the latest of a series of bad omens for the junta that included a devastating cyclone last year. Its sacred umbrella tumbled to the ground and its diamond orb was lost in the rubble, according to reports.
"The fact that the umbrella did not stay was a sign that more bad things are to come, according to astrologers," said Ms Ingrid Jordt, a Myanmar specialist and anthropology professor at the University of Wisconsin. "In a sense, the pagoda repudiated Than Shwe's right to remain ruler." THE NEW YORK TIMES
From TODAY, World – Tuesday, 09-Jun-2009
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Now this is hitting the point right at home! Anyway, let me say it here, this is my opinion: Always referring to 'talent' means that our subconscious predilection is inclined towards the 'utilitarian' ethics – the teaching that we only 'accommodate' what is useful, or can be useful, to our existence. It shows all over our life – the way we live, our interaction with the people, the culture. And rightly so! Answer this question: Who brought up Singapore? History from long time ago will tell. Early settlers and the prevailing culture simply rubbed off to the then 'locals of the land'. Then it is passed down from one generation to the next. A spitting image indeed!
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Letter from Jasmine Hong
05:55 AM Jun 04, 2009
I REFER to "The perils of dual citizenship" (June 3).
While I do agree with Mr M Lukshumayeh on being stringent with the dual citizenship law, I reckon Member of Parliament Cedric Foo's suggestion on this matter is not about luring top foreign talent to Singapore, but also about bringing local talent home.
As a matter of course, may I ask why do we keep emphasising on "talent"? We should lure anyone who feels (or still feels) "Singaporean" and wants to contribute to society here.
I would not say dual citizenship gives people the luxury of choice as Mr Lukshumayeh put it. Rather, dual citizenship gives people more choices and the freedom to choose.
Patriotism, commitment and responsibility to one's motherland goes beyond rules and regulations - these have to come from within one's self. These feelings can be nurtured but never dictated into being.
From TODAYOnline.com; see the source article here.
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The commentator has a point to make. I say, given that you have two choices, you'll pick what you like – it becomes a challenge, therefore, for one country to be the better choice by people of 'dual citizenship' – be it Singapore, or any other country. That is what I can say.
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Letter from M Lukshumayeh
I REFER to the report "It's time to revisit the dual-citizenship issue: MP" (May 30-31).
I refer to MP Cedric Foo's suggestion that the Government should "reconsider offering dual citizenship" to lure top foreign talent to Singapore.
Being a small island-state with a small population, the commitment of Singapore's citizens is vital. Dual citizenship goes against this virtue, as foreigners with dual citizenship have the luxury of choice — and with that, their commitment to their respective countries becomes diluted. Mr Foo's suggestion focuses on the privileges of citizenship only, not on the responsibilities.
Furthermore, dual citizenship would not only apply to foreigners taking on Singapore citizenship as dual citizenships but also allow Singaporeans taking on foreign citizenships too. Surely Singapore should not and must not allow this course of action, for fear of losing even more of our best talent to their adopted nations.
From TODAY, Voices – Wednesday, 03-Jun-2009
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IT HAS been a bone of contention here, but could dual citizenship be the carrot needed to draw talented foreigners to Singapore in this economic upheaval?
Member of Parliament (West Coast GRC) Cedric Foo urged the Government to "reconsider offering dual citizenship or other pull factors" to lure top talent to our shores.
Such a policy could target "a few hundred per year of the very top talent from all fields", and not thousands of foreign talent who would compete with Singaporeans for jobs, he said.
The current economic downturn presents Singapore with an opportunity to draw talent, as foreign companies unable to secure government funding may be scouting for greener pastures to relocate to.
Singapore can also bank on its reputation as a liveable city and the absence of language barriers, said Mr Foo. This select group of top talent would "add dynamism and we would do well to welcome them", he said. Neo Chai Chin
From TODAYOnline.com; see the source article here.
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This is something to post in my Leadership Learning blog… my say? When this evolution comes, old skin has to be moulted out, for the growth to take place properly… that's when there will be some political unrest, civil disobedience, civil wars… name them, and they will come. Up to what magnitude, who knows? It will come, I tell you, it will come…
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Channel NewsAsia - Wednesday, May 20
Analysts agree Singapore's political system will evolve to adapt to changing needs
SINGAPORE: Analysts said Singapore's political system will have to change to adapt with the times. They were responding to President S R Nathan's opening address in Parliament on Monday evening.
Observers said it will also be an increasingly uphill task to find new leaders who can serve the growing demands of Singaporeans.
The recent AWARE incident is just one example of how Singaporeans who feel strongly about an issue can come together and bring about change, according to political analyst, Professor Bilveer Singh.
He cited other examples such as the NKF issue and people responding to the actions of Singapore Table Tennis Association President, Lee Bee Wah, after the table tennis coach incident.
He said that Singaporeans are not politically innocent and can be mobilised to act in a group if there's a strong catalyst in the form of an economic or social issue — for example, a widening income gap or if more companies are hiring foreigners over Singaporeans.
Professor Bilveer said while the government is aware such changes are coming, it would prefer things to take place more gradually.
Analysts also agreed with President S R Nathan that Singapore needs to induct fresh leaders in touch with the new generation. But they also pointed out that the same leaders would also have to meet the needs of older Singaporeans.
Davin Chor, assistant professor, economics, Singapore Management University, said: "There will be a lot of competing needs. These new leaders have to be very cautious in order to serve the country better. There's also the issue of the country having more foreign—born Singaporeans who are becoming naturalised. What are their priorities, what are their interests?"
Economically, analysts said the schemes to help Singaporeans upgrade skills and the Jobs Credit scheme are likely to be around for a while as it will take some time for the economy to recover. — CNA/vm
From Yahoo! News; see the source article here.
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