Category Archives: Musing

If I were Stranded on a Deserted Island…

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The other day I was reading and there was a post on the top things you would have with you if you were stranded. Most people had very innovative and practical items to have on hand, but this actually got me thinking – do we actually think we will be stranded when we travel and have the x number of items on our person? So anyway this got me thinking and if I were ever stranded, especially on a deseted and desolate island where communication is an issue and I am the only person there (aka Robinson Crusoe), this is what I hope I have on myself – otherwise I guess I am doomed!

  1. A solar powered iPhone: This is so that I can try to communicate with the world in a bid to be saved. This should also help in passing the time should I be bored and will also take the place of my books because my phone is always pre-loaded with books. I can also listen to music on my phone so this one phone will actually be the equivalent of 3 items….
  2. A Swiss Army Knife: This is a no-brainer! This will check so many boxes for survival that it should probably be number 1.
  3. Pen and Notebooks: Since I will be free of all distractions, this enforced period of boredom should help me flesh out the book that has been inside me for aeons.
  4. A giant pack of matches: To help me light fires. I’ve never been a Guide or Scout, so no idea on how to light fires using flints or stones!
  5. A solar powered flashlight: This would help me see in the dark and also hopefully frighten away any animals at night.
  6. Sunscreen: Skin cancer anyone? Not me!
  7. Lipstick: Because I am vain like that…
  8. Hammock: Deserted islands have plenty of trees and reading while lying on a hammock is absolute bliss. And of course, this eliminates the need to sleep on a hard floor with god alone knows what bugs and insects.
  9. Toothbrush and Toothpaste: I hate a furry mouth, though I’d need to find a freshwater source before I can actually use it. I’ve brushed in salt/brackish water once and it was an experience I do not ever wish to repeat!
  10. Canned food items: Since I am a vegetarian, I can’t depend on ocean’s bounty to feed me so some canned food for me to survive. I will use my Swiss knife to open the cans and my matches to cook anything I need to cook!

What about you? What would you bring with you if you were ever stranded on a deserted and desolate island?

What if I Won the Lottery?

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Earlier this week one of my colleagues sent around an email asking if we were interested in pitching money to play the lottery. This is one of the biggest draws of the year and most people in Singapore, even if they don’t gamble at all, try to put some money for the Chinese New Year draw. After all, who would not like to win big with a small investment! This year’s Hong Bao draw () prize has now snowballed to S$13.9 million and the draw is later today…

I’ve been imagining on and off what I would do if I ever won the lottery. I am not so greedy, so I never dream of winning really big (think billions or even a few millions), but I’d really love to win a million (or even a few hundred thousand!)

So with the assumption that I’ve won a few million, here are my top things to do if I won a lottery….

  1. We don’t have a lot of debts with housing and car loans the biggest ones. So one of the first things I’d do would be to pay off my housing loan and if there’s anything left over, use that to make the down payment for a new flat which I will use as passive income stream. If the win is serious money (talking about 10 million and more), I’ll probably use it to purchase multiple properties (housing and commercial) as investments.
  2. I would also love to buy a bigger house, my dream home, one with a minimum of 6 bedrooms, one each for us, BB, GG, my parents, my in-laws and guests, each with its own ensuite bathroom, a large kitchen and living room and rooms for our domestic helpers. Since it’s a dream home, I’d want the house to have two granny flats – one for my parents and one for S’ mum and aunt, both featuring a small mini kitchenette and a living room so both sets of parents live with us, but are independent at the same time.
  3. Spend some money in doing up the houses in what would be my version of a dream home – including having a dedicated space for the loads of books I will own!
    Set up education funds for BB & GG so that they are able to study what they want and where they want without feeling that we cannot afford it. I’d also invest in getting good coaching for them now while they are still in school so that they are able to make the points in achieving their dream careers.
  4. Invest a good chunk of the lottery money. I don’t have great knowledge on this, so I’d probably hire someone to go this for this. This would secure not only our present, but also our future and retirement.
  5. Leave my job and become a SAHM as we can now afford it! Take time to really spend quality time with my family.
  6. Splurge on nice holidays for my family (including parents and in-laws) and see the world. I have extended family literally across the globe and have made so many plans to visit them, but the fact that for a family of 4 adults, any holiday (even to a nearby destination) becomes expensive and travelling across the globe is something we need to budget for, so a fairly large travel budget will be really god sent! I’d also love to splurge some money on first class travel for my family, parents and in-laws.
  7. Invest in a private trainer for my family so that we become the healthiest we can become. This will also include investing money in hiring a great cook, who can whip up tasty and healthy food for us.
  8. Spend some money on splurges for my family (including the extended ones) so that they can all buy some things which they’ve always wanted, but probably can’t.
    Buy S a new car, hopefully his dream car, but if not that, maybe one that he loves more than our current one.
  9. Lastly, I’d want to give back something to society. At this point, I don’t know what and how, but I do know I’d love to give back to the lesser fortunate, especially children. Since I’d not need to work for a living, I want to volunteer my time as well as money.

Well, it’s all wishful thinking at this point, but it was nice writing this post dreaming of all that I’d get and do should I win a few millions in the lottery!

What are your top wishes if you won big?

The Greatest Single Bane of Today’s Society – Corruption

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CorrSingapore has been named the 8th least corrupt country in the world and tops the Asian rankings. It received a score of 85 out of 100 in the Corruption Perception Index which is issued by Transparency International which measures perceived levels of public sector corruption worldwide.

CPI2015_global_ENWorldwide two-thirds of the 168 countries which were tracked actually scored below 50 on a scale from 0 (perceived to be very corrupt) to 100 (perceived to be very clean)
The top spot went to Denmark for the second time in a row with a score of 91. The top ten countries are in the order of rank – Denmark, Finland, Sweden, New Zealand, Netherlands, Norway (joint 5th with Netherlands), Switzerland, Singapore, Canada and Germany

So what made Denmark score so well? According to Transperancy International, top performers share key characteristics: high levels of press freedom; access to budget information so the public knows where money comes from and how it is spent; high levels of integrity among people in power; and judiciaries that don’t differentiate between rich and poor, and that are truly independent from other parts of government.

Somalia and North Korea ended the list at the bottom with a score of only 8. The other countries in the bottom ten were Afghanistan, Sudan, South Sudan, Angola, Libya, Iraq, Venezuela and Guinea-Bissau. Conflict and war, poor governance, weak public institutions like police and the judiciary, and a lack of independence in the media characterise the lowest ranked countries.

CPI_2015_AsiaPacific_ENSo how do countries closer to home stack up? Hong Kong which is seen as a competitor to Singapore in many aspects was at 18 as was Japan. Singapore’s nearest neighbor and the closest ASEAN country is at 54 with the other ASEAN countries much below Malaysia. Thailand is next at 76, followed by Indonesia at 88, Philippines at 95, Vietnam at 112, Laos at 139, Myanmar at 147 and Cambodia bringing up the rear at 150.

India’s score of 38 made it at number 176 along with Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bukina Faso, Thailand, Tunisia and Zambia. India’s closest neighbours fare as follows: Sri Lanka and China at 83, Pakistan at 117, Nepal at 130 and Bangladesh at 139.

The results are not that surprising given Singapore’s strong stance on corruption. The country publically names and shames those, especially civil servants and those in high office who are accused of corruption. They also employ legal proceedings against them and sentence them. Hence the high score, which, given how corruption is dealt in the country, could also be higher!

Now, in the other countries in South and Southeast Asia, corruption is a way of life. Corrupt economies do not function as well as non-corrupt ones as the very fact of corruption prevents the natural law of economy from functioning well and freely.
Many people just automatically add the cost of corruption to whatever they need to pay for, especially when dealing with government officials. It is due to this that most people do not have any faith in their public servants, elected or otherwise. Implementation of public services suffers as those need to be paid for, even if they are the basic essentials which every citizen is entitled to. Another casualty is justice as more often than not, justice is either delayed or denied as some of the judiciary may be in the pay of the offenders and let them go scot-free.

Corruption also leads to a loss of growth in that country’s economy as many investors would be reluctant, rightly so, to invest in the country, leading to unemployment or underemployment, lack of infrastructure and development of regions which need them the most. This in turn leads to regression of female empowerment, gender imbalance and female infanticide.

Reading the last two paragraphs make me realise all these are hallmarks of countries which have low Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which is the most commonly referenced figure which covers the national economy of any country and which is used to determined to estimate how wealthy or poor a country and it’s people. Click here and here to understand GDP and GDP with Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) which explains the concepts so much better than I can hope to…

CPI2015_map and country results

CPI2015_map
So where does your country stack up?

No Expectations….No Disappointments

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Expectation

Expectations: The act or state of looking forward or anticipating

Every day in our lives, we live in expectation of something or the other – the expectation that our needs will be met, the expectation we will get a promotion, our kids will do well in school and so it goes on and on!

The reality is that most of our expectations do not get met, which sets us up for major disappointments in life. What we do not realise that our expectations in life set the stage for a lot of unhappiness in our lives.

Last year when BB & GG were in their PSLE year, I went through many cycles of expectations – that they will be successful in their DSAs and get into their dream schools, that they do spectacularly well in the exams and get into the schools through the posting route, that I land a great job and so on and so forth. Each time when my expectations didn’t yield the results I wanted, I used to be very disappointed and in some cases, even went under mild bouts of depression. I was very disappointed, irritable and grouchy and then when things didn’t happen as I expected them to, even disillusioned with life and GoD! This took a toll on my relationships with everyone – S, BB & GG and even my helper. I think I was at my worst when the PSLE results came out and both didn’t do as well as we expected them to (see that expectation again!)

Sometime during the year-end holidays, something metamorphosed internally and I decided I will not have any expectations at all, if things happen, then that’s wonderful, but I will be happy with any outcome. It’s been a month now and I have found these benefits of not having any or having very low expectations:

Low Stress Levels: When I started to let go and had no expectations, I found that I was not as much stressed as before. I was not too hung up on the possible outcomes and any of the outcomes which would arise were all equal to me, hence it did not matter what the outcome was and so much lower stress levels. As an example, when the children had to choose their Co-Curricular Activity (CCA), BB had put the Flying Club as his first choice. This CCA was one of the main reasons that BB had chosen his secondary school and if he didn’t get it, it would negate the whole reason for putting the school as his first choice. Later after the choices were exercised, I heard that for every available place, there were 2-3 applicants and that the club was being very selective this year. Previously, I would have prayed hard for this outcome and bartered with God as well as have high expectations on BB being selected. This time, I told myself, it does not matter what CCA BB gets, it will be ok. With such low expectations, I was very pleasantly surprised when BB did get the Flying Club as his CCA!

Better Relationships: I can’t stress enough on this benefit. When I was high strung with the load of expectations, my relationship with everyone was based on the expectation I had from them. When I removed expectations from the equation, things became much smoother. When we remove expectations from our loved ones, we open ourselves to them and have a much better relationship with them.

Peace of Mind: One blessed by-product of letting go of expectations has been a better quality of sleep for me. I don’t have a million things swirling around my head all the time and especially at night, which used to impact both quality and quantity of sleep. These days I sleep almost as soon as my head touches the pillow. I have a lot of inner peace also as I am no longer caught up with the whys and whats of life. I no longer over analyse my life which has resulted in a lot of inner calm!

Become more Aware: As I start to let go of expectations, I realise I am becoming more aware of myself, my internal self, the one that no one really knows about. When I start to have expectations, I internalize it and try to let it go, this way raising internal awareness. I am also able to focus more on the present and not on a vague future based on my expectations which leads to peace of mind.

So let go of potential outcomes and learn to live in the now. You will also find that life suddenly becomes so much easier and happier!

If I had a Superpower…..

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superpower

The other day I was dilly-dallying around bedtime, trying to sleep, but not succeeding. I was trying to watch a Youtube video on SAB TV which is an Indian television channel. The show was about a family of aliens who come to earth to look for their missing son who had been lost to them. Since the family is of an alien race, they do have powers which seem like super-powers to us humans and in that half drowsy frame of mind, I started thinking about super-powers. If I could get any super power what would that be and why?

I actually want multiple powers like this. The first would be the power to freeze time and turn it backwards. This is something I’ve thought about multiple times in my life. Imagine you take a decision and this then bites you back. If you had the power to turn time back, you could do that and in the process take the right decision. But then the question that begs you is what the right decision is? Will this new decision be actually the right one? Will turning time do you good than harm?

Another superpower I’ve been hoping to get, especially the days when the traffic is horrendous and the crowds in the train seem to push me inside without any effort from my side is the ability to teleport. I wish I could just imagine it and get to wherever I could go to. Just imagine the speed at which we could travel – we could travel to distant countries as weekend jaunts and traffic or jet lag would be a thing of the past!

Another one (gosh I am on a roll!!) is the ability to instantly learn anything. With this, I will know anything and everything I am interested in (and I want to know lots of things!) and good grades will be a cinch….

maxresdefaultSo what’s your superpower wish and why? I’d love to hear from you all….