With the miracle that is Singapore people would have an opinion on Lee Kuan Yew – good, bad or indifferent? The writer remembers seeing the young Lee personally overseeing the construction of the Singapore Zoo. And today he may be waking up in the heart of Eastern Europe but wouldn’t miss the news about Lee Kuan Yew’s resignation. Would the younger Lee address the issue of transparency more proactively – ‘benevolent rule’ in this day and age is passé? And which is why the West always had issues with Singapore?
The past is to learn from; the present is to live in with the learnings from the past; and the future is to bring the hopes from the learnings of the past and the present? Having been around the block the writer has had a ringside view of the ‘’cycle of life’.
In the Philippines decades ago, one of the first functions in one company he had to attend was a retirement dinner. But it was like run-of-the-mill; so he wanted to reduce its frequency without being insensitive to the honorees. It shocked his assistant until he said: “I cannot, even if you pay me, hear myself saying almost the exact same thing so many times a month”, and she giggled. And everyone then realized that there was a way to ‘reform an old-standing tradition’, making it an even more fitting event. As a rule, people in the company had to publish their calendars in advance; and one time a Japanese colleague requested the writer to stop by Tokyo because Japanese value their service awards – and if he’d do the honors. ‘Indeed, life’s milestones must be celebrated!’
Before traveling to Manila last January, the writer and wife visited two elderly friends in their apartments in Manhattan. No matter how much the tandem of Cuomo and Bloomberg had to cut their budgets, it was delightful that caring for the elderly was still affordable. And the attending nurses explained how the system worked. They had a team that would visit several times a week . . . and the joy in the faces of their patients said it all. With such positive vibrations the writer didn’t even believe they were on their deathbeds. (May they rest in peace!)
In global business MNCs are heavily invested in managing the ‘cycle of life’. Succession planning is a time consuming process yet regarded as very smart investment, pioneered perhaps by General Electric. Jack Welch, a GE ex-CEO, was known to have spent half of his time in succession planning. And the process is as severe if not more so with products and brands and with markets. The unwritten rule: nothing is permanent. [Everything turns to ash?] Being young once afforded the writer the chance to encounter 3 MNC CEOs. And it’s a wonderful feeling that today folks he called ‘young people’ are behind the company . . . while he collects his senior citizen (Metro Rail) ticket at an ATM in Grand Central Station. And it’s honor system: you stick your credit card and punch ‘senior citizen’ and bingo. And it also works in movie houses: while the writer keeps to the notion that he doesn’t look like one they still hand him the discounted ticket. [Research confirms that societies with ‘a low-trust level’ are generally underdeveloped.]
And the cycle of life goes on. Recently, his Eastern European friends showed him the new R&D lab of their latest venture. And said one: ‘This is the kind of investment you expected from us, and we’re proud of it’! From a cottage industry in the middle of nowhere occupying an old dilapidated ex-communist structure – which even the locals would deride – they are now an MNC, in the short period of 8 years. And in the Philippines we’re still debating about the same old issues from decades ago? We really don’t like foreign investors or MNCs? But ex-socialists have themselves become MNCs? We Filipinos ought to look forward to being MNCs ourselves? There is no rule that says ‘no’? Nations develop for the common good – not stay put?
How the writer would wish he’s running from school anticipating the joy when he sees his mother simply being home? Before flying to Eastern Europe, the writer and wife had to house-sit for the daughter and son-in-law who were out of town. Waking up on their first morning and after successfully brewing his first cup of coffee, the writer remembers the first time his parents stayed over in their new house in the Philippines, and the daughter was just nine. Mother was fumbling in the kitchen, after waking up before the maids did. (May she rest in peace!)
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