Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Vietnam's Average Monthly Wages
Vietnam's average monthly wages is still creeping up but is below China's!
Vietnam's GDP
This is Vietnam's GDP growth as compared to the World's average..
as provided in the Economist
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Internet Affair?
| I read this from AsiaOne Digital about the telltale signs of having Internet Affair. Food for thought. Are you having an Internet affair? | ||
 | ||
| If your answer is "yes" to these questions, you are having an Internet affair. 1. In the past week, have you spent more than three hours talking to an online friend? 2. Do you look forward to your next communication? 3. Do you feel that your online friend understands you more than your partner? 4. Do you exit the screen if someone walks into the room while you are chatting? 5. Do you tell your online friend more about your thoughts, feelings, achievements and disappointments than your own partner? 6. Do you think about sending your online friend photos, talking on the phone or meeting for coffee? |
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Todayonline Letter - New Media
This is my letter about relooking the curriculm to incorporate new media as a subject.
http://www.todayonline.com/articles/249240.asp
http://www.todayonline.com/articles/249240.asp
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Singapore Media Masterplan - My response
Please refer to the article " New media masterplan will focus on talent" by Chua Hian Hou.
I will also like to suggest that the Ministry of Education also jump into the bandwagon and have a re-look into their school curriculum and offer a short course on "Understanding New Media" for all students.
This will help the next generation of students understand the rapid development of this exciting industry and consider making it their future job. Coincidentally, students will also understand about the full "ins-and-outs" of this industry and make more rational decisions not to be addicted to its seemingly less savoury aspect like pornography and violence. Presently, the typical Singapore student is more adept towards being a targetted consumer of this industry.
I will also like to suggest that the Ministry of Education also jump into the bandwagon and have a re-look into their school curriculum and offer a short course on "Understanding New Media" for all students.
This will help the next generation of students understand the rapid development of this exciting industry and consider making it their future job. Coincidentally, students will also understand about the full "ins-and-outs" of this industry and make more rational decisions not to be addicted to its seemingly less savoury aspect like pornography and violence. Presently, the typical Singapore student is more adept towards being a targetted consumer of this industry.
Evelyn Beck's article
This is an article by Evelyn Beck ...
My Most Memorable Advisee: A Model of Persistence
With rocks glued to her clothing, fake blood smeared on her face, and an incongruous kerchief tied around her short red hair, Teresa attended our last class together as the protagonist in Shirley Jackson's macabre short story “The Lottery.” Poor Tessie Hutchinson, doomed to be stoned to death by the people of her town in a cold-blooded annual ritual just as she had ganged up on the unlucky lottery “winners” who preceded her. Teresa's choice for our final assignment—to dress as a favorite character—was, like the most bewitching of Halloween costumes, deliciously ironic; she'd picked someone totally devoid of her own best qualities. Unlike the similarly named Tessie, a keen intellect, maternal warmth, and unwavering integrity emanate from Teresa like the cloud of dust surrounding the Peanuts character Pigpen.
In my own getup—blue bathrobe and slippers, a pillow stuffed underneath to emulate the pregnancy of the depressed daughter in J. M. Coetzee's novel Disgrace—I snapped everyone's photo to post on our class Web site. I felt that familiar mix of sadness and relief at semester's end. I'd have been particularly melancholy if I wouldn't be seeing more of Teresa, whose passion for learning had reignited my enthusiasm for teaching. Luckily, I was also her adviser.
In that role, I spent many hours with Teresa in my office over two years, helping her to mull career options, plot the course work needed for transfer, and research financial aid. She'd pop in between classes, elated at an “A” on a biology test, shaking her head at the liberal leanings of her history professor, giggling until her face flushed at a racy joke told by a classmate who'd become her best friend. In her early forties, Teresa was only a little younger than I, and we both had a mule-headed twenty-something daughter and a smart teenage son weighing college options. But we were political opposites, and I was deep into the professional teaching career that she was still debating.
What Teresa most lacked was confidence. At the root of her unsureness was a history of being molested as a young girl. She never relayed details, only hinting at the buried pain. But it had caused her to pack on pounds, a classic method of disguising her sexuality, and the weight had in turn increased her insecurity. No matter that Teresa had a perfect 4.0 average and was selected twice as a recipient of our college's most prestigious scholarships. No matter that I wasn't the only teacher who marveled at her abilities or that my efforts to pump her up were absolutely genuine.
In one sense, I completely understood Teresa's refusal to believe in herself. I do that, too, as a form of self-protection, telling myself that I won't succeed in order to steel myself for rejection that, given the odds, seems likely. Teresa's anxieties were a funhouse mirror of my own. I'd always felt those distortions reflected the real you that usually remained hidden. In Teresa I saw someone just a little less successful than myself in repressing the inner force that avoids risks out of the fear of failure.
I tried my best to squash Teresa's doubts about whether she was too old for a career in the elementary classroom. She had worked in the school system previously and devoted herself to the impoverished children of Mexican migrant workers. Not only had she taught them English, but she made sure they had lunch to eat each day during summer vacation, and she bought them holiday gifts out of her meager earnings—generosity that shamed me into serving meals weekly at the local soup kitchen and becoming a volunteer patient advocate at the hospital. When we both attended a Christmas party at a local home for children who'd been abandoned by their parents, I watched how instantly she bonded with the kids. She belonged in the classroom, no question. As someone who fell haphazardly into teaching as a way to support myself through graduate school, I admired how natural this environment was for Teresa. Recognizing what she so effortlessly bestowed on young people, I put extra effort into lesson plans that had grown stale.
I nominated Teresa for the All-USA Academic Team, a national competition for two-year college students, and refused to accept her excuses that she didn't have time to complete the application and wouldn't win anyway. I can be an incessant nag, especially when my target responds, as she did, penning a moving essay about her work with migrant children. Not surprisingly, she was chosen as one of our college's two nominees.
But then Teresa fell apart. Her husband told her he loved someone else, and she spent the Christmas vacation crying in seclusion. She didn't complete a different, additional scholarship application she'd promised to do.
Luckily, after a few listless months, Teresa pulled herself together. She didn't drop out of school, something that I'd seen happen to other promising students over the years. In the spring, she attended a ceremony at the State House for the All-USA Academic Team members in South Carolina, and took home the award as the top student in our state. A short time later she called me at home with the exciting news that she'd won nationally, too!
More successes followed. At our college's Awards Day, Teresa was named the top student in the college, receiving the President's Award. At graduation, the president of the university where she planned to transfer presented her with a scholarship.
Teresa transferred to pursue her bachelor's degree in elementary education. Unfortunately, the path hasn't been smooth. Her son lost his own college scholarship, quit school, and got tangled up with drugs. Immersed in rescuing him from a drug house and then guiding him through therapy and the court system, Teresa withdrew from all her classes one semester. But she didn't give up, and I believe she will reach her goal, albeit belatedly.
Teresa doesn't believe me when I say that her strength empowers me. Perhaps no student recognizes the impact she can have on a mentor. But as each of my children suffered a crisis last year, and as my mother-in-law's dementia worsened and the demands of caring for her grew, I thought of Teresa. With her sensitivity and soft-heartedness in mind, I gave myself permission to crumple. Tears were okay. A temporary withdrawal from life didn't signal defeat.
And then, like Teresa, I got on with things.
Teresa and I still keep in touch through periodic phone calls and e-mails, and every once in a while we get together for lunch. The last time we met, in a local restaurant, our waiter was another one of my advisees. When he mentioned how anxiety about the transfer process was interfering with his medical school dreams, I started to respond. But then I stopped to gaze across the table, where Teresa was poised to dispense some of her hard-won insights. So I sat back, sipped my water, and listened.
My Most Memorable Advisee: A Model of Persistence
With rocks glued to her clothing, fake blood smeared on her face, and an incongruous kerchief tied around her short red hair, Teresa attended our last class together as the protagonist in Shirley Jackson's macabre short story “The Lottery.” Poor Tessie Hutchinson, doomed to be stoned to death by the people of her town in a cold-blooded annual ritual just as she had ganged up on the unlucky lottery “winners” who preceded her. Teresa's choice for our final assignment—to dress as a favorite character—was, like the most bewitching of Halloween costumes, deliciously ironic; she'd picked someone totally devoid of her own best qualities. Unlike the similarly named Tessie, a keen intellect, maternal warmth, and unwavering integrity emanate from Teresa like the cloud of dust surrounding the Peanuts character Pigpen.
In my own getup—blue bathrobe and slippers, a pillow stuffed underneath to emulate the pregnancy of the depressed daughter in J. M. Coetzee's novel Disgrace—I snapped everyone's photo to post on our class Web site. I felt that familiar mix of sadness and relief at semester's end. I'd have been particularly melancholy if I wouldn't be seeing more of Teresa, whose passion for learning had reignited my enthusiasm for teaching. Luckily, I was also her adviser.
In that role, I spent many hours with Teresa in my office over two years, helping her to mull career options, plot the course work needed for transfer, and research financial aid. She'd pop in between classes, elated at an “A” on a biology test, shaking her head at the liberal leanings of her history professor, giggling until her face flushed at a racy joke told by a classmate who'd become her best friend. In her early forties, Teresa was only a little younger than I, and we both had a mule-headed twenty-something daughter and a smart teenage son weighing college options. But we were political opposites, and I was deep into the professional teaching career that she was still debating.
What Teresa most lacked was confidence. At the root of her unsureness was a history of being molested as a young girl. She never relayed details, only hinting at the buried pain. But it had caused her to pack on pounds, a classic method of disguising her sexuality, and the weight had in turn increased her insecurity. No matter that Teresa had a perfect 4.0 average and was selected twice as a recipient of our college's most prestigious scholarships. No matter that I wasn't the only teacher who marveled at her abilities or that my efforts to pump her up were absolutely genuine.
In one sense, I completely understood Teresa's refusal to believe in herself. I do that, too, as a form of self-protection, telling myself that I won't succeed in order to steel myself for rejection that, given the odds, seems likely. Teresa's anxieties were a funhouse mirror of my own. I'd always felt those distortions reflected the real you that usually remained hidden. In Teresa I saw someone just a little less successful than myself in repressing the inner force that avoids risks out of the fear of failure.
I tried my best to squash Teresa's doubts about whether she was too old for a career in the elementary classroom. She had worked in the school system previously and devoted herself to the impoverished children of Mexican migrant workers. Not only had she taught them English, but she made sure they had lunch to eat each day during summer vacation, and she bought them holiday gifts out of her meager earnings—generosity that shamed me into serving meals weekly at the local soup kitchen and becoming a volunteer patient advocate at the hospital. When we both attended a Christmas party at a local home for children who'd been abandoned by their parents, I watched how instantly she bonded with the kids. She belonged in the classroom, no question. As someone who fell haphazardly into teaching as a way to support myself through graduate school, I admired how natural this environment was for Teresa. Recognizing what she so effortlessly bestowed on young people, I put extra effort into lesson plans that had grown stale.
I nominated Teresa for the All-USA Academic Team, a national competition for two-year college students, and refused to accept her excuses that she didn't have time to complete the application and wouldn't win anyway. I can be an incessant nag, especially when my target responds, as she did, penning a moving essay about her work with migrant children. Not surprisingly, she was chosen as one of our college's two nominees.
But then Teresa fell apart. Her husband told her he loved someone else, and she spent the Christmas vacation crying in seclusion. She didn't complete a different, additional scholarship application she'd promised to do.
Luckily, after a few listless months, Teresa pulled herself together. She didn't drop out of school, something that I'd seen happen to other promising students over the years. In the spring, she attended a ceremony at the State House for the All-USA Academic Team members in South Carolina, and took home the award as the top student in our state. A short time later she called me at home with the exciting news that she'd won nationally, too!
More successes followed. At our college's Awards Day, Teresa was named the top student in the college, receiving the President's Award. At graduation, the president of the university where she planned to transfer presented her with a scholarship.
Teresa transferred to pursue her bachelor's degree in elementary education. Unfortunately, the path hasn't been smooth. Her son lost his own college scholarship, quit school, and got tangled up with drugs. Immersed in rescuing him from a drug house and then guiding him through therapy and the court system, Teresa withdrew from all her classes one semester. But she didn't give up, and I believe she will reach her goal, albeit belatedly.
Teresa doesn't believe me when I say that her strength empowers me. Perhaps no student recognizes the impact she can have on a mentor. But as each of my children suffered a crisis last year, and as my mother-in-law's dementia worsened and the demands of caring for her grew, I thought of Teresa. With her sensitivity and soft-heartedness in mind, I gave myself permission to crumple. Tears were okay. A temporary withdrawal from life didn't signal defeat.
And then, like Teresa, I got on with things.
Teresa and I still keep in touch through periodic phone calls and e-mails, and every once in a while we get together for lunch. The last time we met, in a local restaurant, our waiter was another one of my advisees. When he mentioned how anxiety about the transfer process was interfering with his medical school dreams, I started to respond. But then I stopped to gaze across the table, where Teresa was poised to dispense some of her hard-won insights. So I sat back, sipped my water, and listened.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Mentoring Case study - Kopitiam
Something that I just found out - that Kopitiam is also using the mentoring system
http://www.oticonsulting.com/4.1.6_june.htm
http://www.oticonsulting.com/4.1.6_june.htm
Future of Jurong Secondary School
This is a pdf for the future school (Jurong Secondary)
http://www.ida.gov.sg/doc/Infocomm%20Adoption/Infocomm_Adoption_Level2/20070522102750/Jurong.pdf
There is a slide that includes the role of mentor.
http://www.ida.gov.sg/doc/Infocomm%20Adoption/Infocomm_Adoption_Level2/20070522102750/Jurong.pdf
There is a slide that includes the role of mentor.
Mentoring article by Dennis Heath
Good mentoring article:
http://www.wayahead.com.sg/content/articles_feb2007_mentor_or_coach.pdf
PS: Will get in contact with Dennis this Friday.
http://www.wayahead.com.sg/content/articles_feb2007_mentor_or_coach.pdf
PS: Will get in contact with Dennis this Friday.
Mentoring Interview - Fishburne
Chanced on this:
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/189/story_18953_1.html
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/189/story_18953_1.html
Prominent Mentoring Pairing
Here are some prominent mentor pairings:
Ophrah Winfrey and Dr. Phil
Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali
Phil Jackson and Michael Jordon
Freddie Laker and Richard Branson
Warren Bennis and Charles Schultz (Starbucks)
Paul Austin and Jack Welch
Margaret Thatcher and John Major
Surprisingly, George Bush was mentored by a Democrat!
Ophrah Winfrey and Dr. Phil
Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali
Phil Jackson and Michael Jordon
Freddie Laker and Richard Branson
Warren Bennis and Charles Schultz (Starbucks)
Paul Austin and Jack Welch
Margaret Thatcher and John Major
Surprisingly, George Bush was mentored by a Democrat!
Structured Mentoring in schools
I want to suggest that schools should have a structured programme about mentoring - the teaching of mentoring as an elective.
This is crucial because if an entrepreneurial spirit is to be cultivated, the student entrepreneur has to understand about choosing the right mentor. Getting an inadept mentor will be disastrous fof the student and may confuse his strategy of his business model.
This is crucial because if an entrepreneurial spirit is to be cultivated, the student entrepreneur has to understand about choosing the right mentor. Getting an inadept mentor will be disastrous fof the student and may confuse his strategy of his business model.
Hawker Food Prices Suggestion
I will like to propose a simple way in which the consumer can make more knowledgeable food choices in a particular hawker centre. This is in the light of the current escalating food-price situation.
Hawker centres can classify their various stalls within different price-range like from $2.50 upwards. These classifications can be prominently placed in a sign at the hawker centre's entrance. This is to help the typical worker who is more price conscious of lunch.
The added bonus is that a hawker stall that offers cheap food will get the much needed exposure that it may currently lack, if it is not featured in the media or located in a low human traffic part of the hawker centre.
Furthermore, as a group, the hawker centre may offer discounted prices (less $1) during off-peak period like 2:30pm - 5pm, which also may encourage more workers to stagger their lunch breaks and in no small way solve the current lunch time crunch.
Hawker centres can classify their various stalls within different price-range like from $2.50 upwards. These classifications can be prominently placed in a sign at the hawker centre's entrance. This is to help the typical worker who is more price conscious of lunch.
The added bonus is that a hawker stall that offers cheap food will get the much needed exposure that it may currently lack, if it is not featured in the media or located in a low human traffic part of the hawker centre.
Furthermore, as a group, the hawker centre may offer discounted prices (less $1) during off-peak period like 2:30pm - 5pm, which also may encourage more workers to stagger their lunch breaks and in no small way solve the current lunch time crunch.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Is Inflation here to stay in Singapore?
I just read this article from AsiaOne about Singapore's inflationary situation:
This is despite the central bank tightening monetary policy last week to fight rising prices. -Reuters
Tue, Apr 15, 2008
Reuters
SINGAPORE - SINGAPORE'S inflation will remain high in the first half of the year at above 6.5 per cent, the country's trade minister said on Tuesday, despite the central bank tightening monetary policy last week to fight rising prices.
'Our projection is that inflation will stay fairly high at this current level, above 6.5 per cent for the first half of the year. And then we expect it to go down in the second half of the year,' Trade Minister Lim Hng Kiang told reporters on the sidelines of a conference.
The government's official forecast is for full-year inflation at the upper end of a 4.5-5.5 per cent range, after annual inflation climbed to 6.6 per cent in January, the highest since 1982.
The comments came after Singapore's central bank last week tightened monetary policy to fight soaring prices by allowing its currency to rise.
Mr Lim said that monetary policy was one of several levers, such as fiscal policies, to tackle rising prices.
The country's export-dependent economy, whose performance is seen by economists as a barometer of demand for Asian goods, expanded at an annualised, seasonally adjusted rate of 16.9 per cent in the first quarter - far stronger than expected. -- REUTERS
Sunday, April 13, 2008
My Mentoring Book
I now have more time to think about completing my mentoring book...
I must also not forget to create my Economics Mid-years exams.
Should I be sadistic... haha
I must also not forget to create my Economics Mid-years exams.
Should I be sadistic... haha
NTU Thoughts
I have just finished my short lecturing stint (about entrepreneurship) at NTU and am going to miss:
1) Looking for a carpark
2) Entering into the premises and feeling mighty cold
3) Eating food at super cheap prices
4) Walking around NTU and wondering if the person staring at me had just attended my lecture!
5) Wondering where is the bookshop (if any)
6) Hoping that I am able to log in with my guest lecture password
7) Hoping that my students can read my handwriting on the whiteboard
8) Very glad that some students actual talked about their business plan with me
9) Very paranoid if no one attended my tutorials.
thanks NTU for giving this chance and thanks David for helping me whenever I am at my most inadequate and clumsy.
1) Looking for a carpark
2) Entering into the premises and feeling mighty cold
3) Eating food at super cheap prices
4) Walking around NTU and wondering if the person staring at me had just attended my lecture!
5) Wondering where is the bookshop (if any)
6) Hoping that I am able to log in with my guest lecture password
7) Hoping that my students can read my handwriting on the whiteboard
8) Very glad that some students actual talked about their business plan with me
9) Very paranoid if no one attended my tutorials.
thanks NTU for giving this chance and thanks David for helping me whenever I am at my most inadequate and clumsy.
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
My first experimental facebook application
I have just completed my first Facebook Application
Check it out.
http://tinyurl.com/66j9wo
Check it out.
http://tinyurl.com/66j9wo
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Singapore Exchange Rate Movement
I got this from Business Times - it shows the movement of the Sing$
Very apparent that it is moving in a steep inclined.. :)
Very apparent that it is moving in a steep inclined.. :)
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Monday, March 24, 2008
Steve Jobs 1984 Intro of Macintosh
I just found Steve Jobs 1984 video introduction of the Apple Macintosh above.
Check it out.
Has it been 24 years already?
And this is the commercial that follows the concept of 1984.
Enjoy
Check it out.
Has it been 24 years already?
And this is the commercial that follows the concept of 1984.
Enjoy
My Fast Company Blog Disappeared
Yup. That is right. My FC Blog has been taken down! Not sure why ... Still waiting for a reply
Friday, March 21, 2008
Work-group
I am quite surprised that from the present replies of the survey respondents, a big proportion are not aware that the mentoring group was set up to complete mentoring-theme projects. Could this then attribute to the fact that many have joined but yet have not been active?
Why People Join My Mentoring Group
Here are some reasons why people join my mentoring group
A) Learn more about mentoring
B) Looking for a mentor
C) Be a mentor
D) Looking for employment
E) Contribute an article for the mentoring book
F) Be interviewed for the mentoring book
G) Work on the mentoring facebook application
H) Work on the mentoring boardgame
A) Learn more about mentoring
B) Looking for a mentor
C) Be a mentor
D) Looking for employment
E) Contribute an article for the mentoring book
F) Be interviewed for the mentoring book
G) Work on the mentoring facebook application
H) Work on the mentoring boardgame
Debut NTU Lecture
My debut NTU lecture has been quite a success... I have finished discussing most of my PPT slides and I think I got my point across. Hey, the topic is about entrepreneurship and I think I have more stuff to bring out.
Can't wait for the first batch of tutorials to come.
Can't wait for the first batch of tutorials to come.
Mentoring Group (Facebook)
This is the link to my Facebook Mentoring Community - it is about 197 members strong. I am very disappointed that I have to remove Jesse out of the community.
Though I am very happy for the addition to his family, I am quite taken aback that he has not responded to my past messages.
Very unprofessional.
Though I am very happy for the addition to his family, I am quite taken aback that he has not responded to my past messages.
Very unprofessional.
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