Big Black Horse and the Cherry Tree

Basic Tenets of Singapore Foreign Policy

2011-10-14T22:30:00.000-07:00

Retired Singaporean Diplomat and Minister noted in one of his interviews, the basic tenets of Singaporean Foreign Policy as:

Make maximum friends and minimum enemies or no enemies. Be of service to as many as you can be of service to....You don't want to go out of your way to offend or upset any country. But from time to time, a situation arises where you have to advance your interest, be consistent and principled.

Pretty good basics to have as one's personal policy, if you ask me.

Games politicians play

2011-10-14T10:32:00.000-07:00

Divide and conquer, discriminate and please.

It's the same was what Indian politicians catering to their narrow votebanks play. And seems like the Malaysian politicians are no better with their Bumiputra politics. Respect to Lee Kuan Yew, who had the courage to say it like it is in this speech of his in Malaysian parliament. An extract:

How does the Malay in the kampong find his way out into this modernised civil society? By becoming servants of the 0.3 per cent who would have the money to hire them to clean their shoe, open their motorcar doors? ... Of course there are Chinese millionaires in big cars and big houses. Is it the answer to make a few Malay millionaires with big cars and big houses? How does telling a Malay bus driver that he should support the party of his Malay director (UMNO) and the Chinese bus conductor to join another party of his Chinese director (MCA) - how does that improve the standards of the Malay bus driver and the Chinese bus conductor who are both workers in the same company?

If we delude people into believing that they are poor because there are no Malay rights or because opposition members oppose Malay rights, where are we going to end up? You let people in the kampongs believe that they are poor because we don't speak Malay, because the government does not write in Malay, so he expects a miracle to take place in 1967 (the year Malay would become the national and sole official language). The moment we all start speaking Malay, he is going to have an uplift in the standard of living, and if doesn't happen, what happens then?

Meanwhile, whenever there is a failure of economic, social and educational policies, you come back and say, oh, these wicked Chinese, Indian and others opposing Malay rights. They don't oppose Malay rights. They, the Malay, have the right as Malaysian citizens to go up to the level of training and education that the more competitive societies, the non-Malay society, has produced. That is what must be done, isn't it? Not to feed them with this obscurantist doctrine that all they have got to do is to get Malay rights for the few special Malays and their problem has been resolved.

Ah what a Man!

2011-01-09T01:06:00.000-08:00

From a NY Times article on Rex Ryan:

His speech centered on respect. Not respect from opponents, or from teammates, both of which he considered fleeting. But self-respect, earned only by potential realized.

Ryan ended with the story of Hernán Cortés, the Spanish conquistador who went to Mexico in 1519 and, despite being outnumbered, ordered his charges to burn the boats they had arrived on. As Ryan reached the climax of the story, his voice boomed.

“They burned their boats!” he shouted. “I’m only asking you to give me seven weeks!”

There is something very powerful about great oratory. I can imagine myself being moved if I was amongst the audience. Amongst the acutal audience many reportedly could not sleep that night, and the Jets went on to score a tremendous win.

But what gives these words their power? Is it merely the play on emotions and words?

All the separate elements of Ryan’s speeches are augmented by what players called his most important speaking quality: authenticity. Pryce described that as the main difference between Ryan and other coaches. After 14 seasons, Pryce said: “All you need is to hear a coach once to know he’s a fraud, to know he’s never been in a fistfight in his life. I heard Rex once, and I knew he would fight for me, that day.”

Words worth their weight in gold. And a true hallmark of a leader.

Messing up things

2009-08-05T23:45:00.003-07:00

The surest way of messing something up that is important to you is to get desperate about it.

A quote from

2009-03-09T09:44:00.000-07:00

"Schumpeter told many that he aspired to be the greatest economist, lover, and horseman in the world — but then would add that he was having trouble with the horses."

What a man! What an amazing man! It is amazing how a single statement can say so much about the man.

Who Schempter was is explained succintly by the following extract from the article:

"... it wasn't so long ago that Keynes was out of favor. Back in 1983, the hundredth anniversary of Keynes's birth, Forbes magazine declared that it was not Keynes who knew the way, but another economist who shared the same birth year as Keynes — Joseph Schumpeter. Instead of the government intervention that Keynesians demand to prop up the economy and failed businesses of all types, Schumpeter believed that capitalism is driven by entrepreneurs whose innovations replace old worn-out business models in a process he called "creative destruction."

Source: Doug French article at http://mises.org/story/3366

What is Greatness?

2008-05-04T07:54:00.000-07:00

This is the one word that is the most vague in the explanation of what I seek in life? While currently I myself lack the words to explain it succicently, I'm confident of being able to concretely spell it out soon enough. In the meanwhile I'm studying what some other men, whom I hold in great regard think about the same.
This is what Bonaparte had to say on it:
Great men are those who can subdue both good luck and fortune.

Somehow the above quote doesn't quite capture the meaning I'm looking for. But this one does,

I used to say of him [Napoleon] that his presence on the field made the difference of forty thousand men.--Duke of Wellington

This is something that is much beyond excellence in whatever pursuit you're engaged in. This has got more to do with what you are inside out. In this situation, it seems much related to the Man that Napolean was. But this is still too vague to be of any use.

some more of Bonaparte

2008-05-04T07:32:00.000-07:00

Great ambition is the passion of a great character. He who is endowed with it, may perform either very great actions, or very bad ones; all depends upon the principles which direct him.

They think I am stern, even hardhearted. So much the better-this makes it unnecessary for me to justify my reputation. My firmness is taken for callousness. I shall not complain, since this notion is responsible for the good order that is prevailing, so that there is nothing that needs to be repressed.

I have recognised the limits of my eyesight and of my legs, but never the limits of my working power.

I have a taste for founding, not for owning.

Even when I am gone, I shall remain in people's minds the star of their rights, my name will be the war cry of their efforts, the motto of their hopes.

I start out by believing the worst.

A man is not dependent upon his fellow creature, when he does not fear death.

The guilt of many men may be traced to over-affection for their wives.

It is a truth that man is difficult to know, and that, if we may not deceive ourselves, we must judge him by his actions of the moment, and for the moment only.

Friendship is but a name.

The extent of your consciousness is limited only by your ability to love and to embrace with your love the space around you, and all it contains.

Remember that a man, a true man, never hates. His rages and his bad moods never last beyond the present moment-like electric shocks.

The strong are good, only the weak are wicked.

Napolean on Power and Politics

2008-05-04T07:04:00.000-07:00

Great men are never cruel without necessity.
A legislator must know how to take advantage of even the defects of those he wants to govern. The art consists in making others work rather than in wearing oneself out.
Men who have changed the world never achieved their success by winning the chief citizens to their side, but always by stirring the masses.
Do not talk to me of goodness, of abstract justice, of nature law. Necessity is the highest law, public welfare is the highest justice.
The heart of a statesman must be in his head.
An order that can be misunderstood, will be misunderstood.
Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.
He who fears being conquered is sure of defeat.
Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go.
Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.
High politic is only common sense applied to great things.
In war, as in politics, no evil - even if it is permissible under the rules - is excusable unless it is absolutely necessary. Everything beyond that is a crime.

Source: http://www.napoleonguide.com

Checking

2008-04-19T18:10:00.000-07:00

test post.