A Japanese friend of mine graduated from a prestigious Japanese university and was hired by Japan Railways (JR). Like in Singapore, graduates of top universities in Japan can expect permanent employment for life in a major Japanese company with an elite career guiding them to upper management. Yet for his first training rotation, my friend was assigned to learn to drive a bullet train (‘shinkansen’). He probably never operated a train by himself, but for a few months he was apprenticed to a licensed train operator, living and learning the job. This kind of training is grounded on the belief that a good business decisions can only be made by upper management if you understand all aspects of your business. Only a CEO who has experienced the job of a train driver will understand how his decision to increase train frequency may affect the drivers.
Current Justice Minister Keiko Chiba made this point last week. While Japan has the death penalty, it has not executed anyone for years. Previous Justice Ministers who were staunch Budhists have hesitated to sign the execution orders, leaving many waiting in jail on death row. Hopes were high when Keiko Chiba, a staunch abolitionist of the death penalty, was appointed in September 2010. Yet she did the unthinkable when she signed for the execution of 2 people this past week, defying all expectations. What was more surprising, was that she attended and witnessed the executions in person. Ms Chiba reiterated that she had not changed her mind about the death penalty, and that since the execution was being carried out by her orders, she thus believed that it was her responsibility to see it with her own eyes. "Witnessing [them] with my own eyes made me think deeply about the death penalty, and I once again strongly felt that there is a need for a fundamental discussion.”
I was impressed with the humility of Ms Chiba when I first read the news. Despite the fact that she seems to have made up her mind against the death penalty, she performed her duty as the law states, and witnessed the act herself to fully understand the impact of her decision. It may take only one second to sign her name on the execution order, but by being there herself, Ms Chiba launched herself into the debate. Perhaps she will change her mind after witnessing the depravity of the criminals, or perhaps she will come out of it more determined to abolish the death penalty. Whatever her decision, we know that Ms Chiba will have thought deeply about the issue, not from the comfort of her office chair, but from the discomfort of seeing someone die in front of her.
Ms Chiba also announced the formation of a study group to relook the necessity of the death penalty in Japanese society. Even though polls show majority of the public are in favor of the death penalty, Ms Chiba is also opening the gallows to viewing by journalists, in the hopes that this will prompt a meaningful public discussion about the topic. If Ms Chiba’s intentions are successful, Japan will take a huge step towards a mature democracy. It is easy to be in favor of the death penalty when one is not faced with the sight of the gallows, the face of the criminal and the family of the convict. Similarly, It is also not a balanced debate until one hears from the family of the victims. While the story of the victim is often portrayed in the media, the side of the convict is rarely represented.
Now I take the topic back to Singapore’s debate of the death penalty. We should make it the job of the Law Minister to witness the hanging of a convict. We should also open the gallows for National Education field trips. On top of going to SAFTI to learn about total defense, we should also make it mandatory for our students to tour our jails and our gallows. This not only serves as a possible deterrant to would-be criminals, but it will reignite the debate of capital punishment. We may even get more interesting GP essays that go beyond toeing the party line. A true democracy is a state where the citizens decide, not based on fear or indoctrination, the laws of the land. While she may fail on other issues, our Law Minister has much to learn from Ms Chiba in the case of the death penalty.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Monday, April 26, 2010
I am a name snob
I have lived in the USA for 10 years, and during this time I have seen Chinese friends modify their names from Jie to Jay, or Xiang to Shang for the Caucasian majority they live within. Japanese names are easier but are often shortened from Takahiro to Tak, or from Kazuhiko to Kaz. I have always insisted that people use my full Chinese name (I don’t have a Western name), even if they mangle the pronounciation. In my mind, a bad-sounding version of my real name is better than a perfect pronounciation of a Western moniker.
I love my name, and I love that my parents took great pains to select it for me. I love the aspirations that my parents had for me, all bound lovingly into two characters. Even if my mail comes with my name misspelt, or my new friend trips over the syllabi when they try to call me, I will insist on using the name my parents gave me. Even if it sounds foreign, my American friends think it sounds beautiful. Even if they don’t know what it means, they are envious when I explain it to them.
Lee Wei Ling caused a little bit of a stir when she wrote in a column that choosing unique Westernized names was a reflection of narcissism. While I don’t think she should interfere with other people’s choices of names for themselves or their children, I am secretly in agreement with her. It irks me a little when I look down the class roster of my young cousin. Her classmates run the gamut of Reuben, Aloysius, Atticus and Keisha to Byron, Floyd and Scott. I often wonder, do Singaporeans know the origins of these names? What kind of a person do they imagine when they think of a Reuben? No offense to the reubens out there, but I see a reuben sandwich being eaten by a cherubic white boy. Racist? Probably. But I can’t help what I think.
Along these lines, studies have shown that employers in the US subconsciously reject more resumes from Keishas, Demarcus and the likes. These names are associated with African-Americans names. The moral of the story is, that while we are all free to choose our names and our children’s names, we cannot control what others think about the name. My first impressions of Reuben Tan will be someone hailing from a nouveau-riche family. Florabelles will conjure up images of uneducated parents. I am a name snob, but I’m glad you couldn’t tell that from looking at my name.
I love my name, and I love that my parents took great pains to select it for me. I love the aspirations that my parents had for me, all bound lovingly into two characters. Even if my mail comes with my name misspelt, or my new friend trips over the syllabi when they try to call me, I will insist on using the name my parents gave me. Even if it sounds foreign, my American friends think it sounds beautiful. Even if they don’t know what it means, they are envious when I explain it to them.
Lee Wei Ling caused a little bit of a stir when she wrote in a column that choosing unique Westernized names was a reflection of narcissism. While I don’t think she should interfere with other people’s choices of names for themselves or their children, I am secretly in agreement with her. It irks me a little when I look down the class roster of my young cousin. Her classmates run the gamut of Reuben, Aloysius, Atticus and Keisha to Byron, Floyd and Scott. I often wonder, do Singaporeans know the origins of these names? What kind of a person do they imagine when they think of a Reuben? No offense to the reubens out there, but I see a reuben sandwich being eaten by a cherubic white boy. Racist? Probably. But I can’t help what I think.
Along these lines, studies have shown that employers in the US subconsciously reject more resumes from Keishas, Demarcus and the likes. These names are associated with African-Americans names. The moral of the story is, that while we are all free to choose our names and our children’s names, we cannot control what others think about the name. My first impressions of Reuben Tan will be someone hailing from a nouveau-riche family. Florabelles will conjure up images of uneducated parents. I am a name snob, but I’m glad you couldn’t tell that from looking at my name.
Where do the brightest go?
In the days of feudal Japan, your fate was determined by the family you were born into. If your father was a farmer, you would not imagine a different occupation for yourself. Toyotomi Hideyoshi, himself the protagonist a rags-to-riches story, rose from a farmer to the regent of Japan. And yet, he wrote a law forbidding farmers from becoming samurai, ultimately rigidifying the class boundaries. Despite all its failings, this system did ensure that there were enough farmers who provided food, skilled craftsmen who produced goods, merchants who facilitated trade and samurai who kept peace.
Let’s fast forward now to our modern day. Rigid class boundaries have mostly fallen and we are only bounded by the rules of meritocracy. One can dream of being a poet, an engineer, a teacher or even an astronaut. In an ideal world, we would expect the population to spread itself evenly out over an array of occupations. This means that within the smartest group of people, we should be able to find a variety of dream jobs. Yet in the era of hyper-inflated bonuses on Wall Street, we find the best and brightest flocking to finance. Is it possible that all these people truly love finance? Is finance really superior to all the other fields?
As a libertarian, I believe that what careers others pick should be up to them. However, from the standpoint of a citizen, what others pick does concern me. I want the best civil engineers to build the bridges I use every day to get to work. I want the best researchers to search for the cures to old-age diseases that will hurt me in 30 years. I want the best teachers to educate the young so my country has a better future. That is simply not possible if our best and brightest are all flocking into finance. I see it all around me. Physicists with PhDs sucked up by Wall Street to build ever more complex financial models. Engineers, economists, English majors, you name it. A few years ago, I even knew a Dance major who joined one of the investment banks. The rationale is that as long as you were smart, you could be trained to do the job. Maybe the Dance major found out in college she wasn’t cut out to be a dancer. Perhaps she is indeed happier as a investment banker. Whatever her reasons are, I fear she is merely the tip of the iceberg.
The same situation exists in Singapore, perhaps to a greater extent. The brightest who so happen to be rich, are able to fund their own overseas education. Those who do return tend to end up in finance. The brightest who aren’t as rich find themselves serving out a stint in the civil service to pay off their overseas scholarships. The skew in the job choices of the brightest is institutional, which makes it all the more laughable when Singapore talks about creating the next Bill Gates or Nobel laureate. Things became slightly better when Singapore decided a large push towards pharmaceutical and biomedical gadgets was essential to replace the flagging semiconductor industry. Science became ever slightly ‘cooler’.
Will Singapore ever produce a Nobel laureate? Probably not in my life time. The US could also lose its science and technological supremacy, but that is less likely to happen as she will always attract some of the brightest in the world to her shores. Similarly, Singapore is trying to attract top talent to her shores, but this can only be a stopgap measure. What we need now, is to build up our own diversified talent pool. The excuse that Singapore is too small to allow diversification is bollocks. Just look at Iceland.
Let’s fast forward now to our modern day. Rigid class boundaries have mostly fallen and we are only bounded by the rules of meritocracy. One can dream of being a poet, an engineer, a teacher or even an astronaut. In an ideal world, we would expect the population to spread itself evenly out over an array of occupations. This means that within the smartest group of people, we should be able to find a variety of dream jobs. Yet in the era of hyper-inflated bonuses on Wall Street, we find the best and brightest flocking to finance. Is it possible that all these people truly love finance? Is finance really superior to all the other fields?
As a libertarian, I believe that what careers others pick should be up to them. However, from the standpoint of a citizen, what others pick does concern me. I want the best civil engineers to build the bridges I use every day to get to work. I want the best researchers to search for the cures to old-age diseases that will hurt me in 30 years. I want the best teachers to educate the young so my country has a better future. That is simply not possible if our best and brightest are all flocking into finance. I see it all around me. Physicists with PhDs sucked up by Wall Street to build ever more complex financial models. Engineers, economists, English majors, you name it. A few years ago, I even knew a Dance major who joined one of the investment banks. The rationale is that as long as you were smart, you could be trained to do the job. Maybe the Dance major found out in college she wasn’t cut out to be a dancer. Perhaps she is indeed happier as a investment banker. Whatever her reasons are, I fear she is merely the tip of the iceberg.
The same situation exists in Singapore, perhaps to a greater extent. The brightest who so happen to be rich, are able to fund their own overseas education. Those who do return tend to end up in finance. The brightest who aren’t as rich find themselves serving out a stint in the civil service to pay off their overseas scholarships. The skew in the job choices of the brightest is institutional, which makes it all the more laughable when Singapore talks about creating the next Bill Gates or Nobel laureate. Things became slightly better when Singapore decided a large push towards pharmaceutical and biomedical gadgets was essential to replace the flagging semiconductor industry. Science became ever slightly ‘cooler’.
Will Singapore ever produce a Nobel laureate? Probably not in my life time. The US could also lose its science and technological supremacy, but that is less likely to happen as she will always attract some of the brightest in the world to her shores. Similarly, Singapore is trying to attract top talent to her shores, but this can only be a stopgap measure. What we need now, is to build up our own diversified talent pool. The excuse that Singapore is too small to allow diversification is bollocks. Just look at Iceland.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Generosity measured
The morning news greets us at the start of the day, with grim news of extreme hardship faced by Haitians devastated by a massive earthquake on Tuesday. I also then read with much bewilderment, that the Singapore government pledged US 50,000 dollars for Haiti relief efforts. Seriously, are you kidding me now? The Government of Singapore, representing our population of 4 million, pledges 1.25 cents per Singaporean? While I know that many Singaporeans are undergoing financial hardship in this bad economy, surely it doesn't take much to figure out that Haitians are many many more times in need right now. Let's take a moment to compare what this 50,000 USD represents:
Cost of a new car in Singapore
5% of what Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie pledged for Haiti relief efforts
1.75% of PM Lee's annual salary
0.69% of our 10M SGD Community Integration Fund
0.000005% of the value of what our sovereign wealth funds are worth
Gosh darn it. 50K USD is not even enough these days to pay for the down payment on a new property.
I feel slightly ashamed of my country right now. For sure, Haiti represents little in the way of economic value to our government. There isn't a significant Haitian population in Singapore. In many ways we are far removed from the impoverished Carribean nation. However, on the grounds of our shared humanity, I think they deserve a little more than 50K USD. I personally will be making a donation to the relief efforts, and it will surely not be 1.75% of my annual salary.
Cost of a new car in Singapore
5% of what Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie pledged for Haiti relief efforts
1.75% of PM Lee's annual salary
0.69% of our 10M SGD Community Integration Fund
0.000005% of the value of what our sovereign wealth funds are worth
Gosh darn it. 50K USD is not even enough these days to pay for the down payment on a new property.
I feel slightly ashamed of my country right now. For sure, Haiti represents little in the way of economic value to our government. There isn't a significant Haitian population in Singapore. In many ways we are far removed from the impoverished Carribean nation. However, on the grounds of our shared humanity, I think they deserve a little more than 50K USD. I personally will be making a donation to the relief efforts, and it will surely not be 1.75% of my annual salary.
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