Chewing Rules

"Hey Harley, if you ever come back Malaysia from Singapore for whichever reasons, remember to eat chewing gum before you go back". Quoted by Toh Harnniann, a friend of mine who thinks David Blaine is an amateur if he were to compare with our Malaysia Government.

Yes, it's still illegal until today, that to "bring chewing gum or cause to be brought into Singapore by land, water or air from any place which is outside Singapore ..." is strictly prohibited. However, many still unclear the reason of such enforcement. So I after for a good reason, as a big fan of Wikepedia, it said serious maintenance problem is one of the major drive of such enforcement, large amount of money to be spent for cleaning up the 'mess' like train doors, flats & etc. Even several revisions has been made, it still remains.

What about the penalty? If you think the consequences only earns you a fine X amount of dollar, think again. In Singapore, the penalty is a "no play play" thingy, for example, if you are caught of fighting in public places can easily earn you a few years’ jail plus 'rotan' (canning) for at least 10+. You may spend yourself behind bars for years for such vandalism. To those visitors who coming to the island republic, you can still buy categorized medicinal chewing gum provided with the endorsement & registration from the pharmacy shop, just make sure to throw them at the right place.

Last but not least, some even claimed it was previously being reproduced from a used condom that exported from Thailand. Make sense to me as both are having few similarities: rubber, different colors etc. So do you have a chewing gum in your pocket right now?

What a mistake!

Today is 24th Mar-09, Tuesday. According to Singapore Press Holdings (SPH), today is 14th Mar 09. Let me tell you why. I received a complimentary calendar from them early this year, yet I didn’t notice until today, while I suppose to pen down my working schedule for the week. From the picture shown, it clearly shows that the date was misprint as 14 in stead of 24. I believe the error was not detected during pre publication proofreading. I don’t know whether SPH notices about this, as negligence in calendar mistake. What about the news accuracy? May be I should get a copy of calendar issued by The Star in Malaysia..

Serendah Retreat

Last Wednesday, my ex-colleague, Fatah came to Singapore for business. We met for dinner, we chatted (or gossip) about our job. Somehow he recommended a good place for retreat, which located at a tropical rainforest called Serendah. It’s an hour drive north of KL exit at Rawang. Interesting part is, there are couple of very transparent and open sheds, which are the glass, mud & timber. May be I should make a trip there if I travel back to KL, anyone?

Serendah accomodation with glass shed


queen-sized beds with mosquito nets

Bottomline

To stay upbeat, many stimulus packages were planned for the world economy, in order to motivate people to spend. Similarly, some companies use a different type of so-called reward package to stimulate their revenue, at the same time keeping their motivated employees.


Recently, my current employer is exercising a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) plan for us to get motivated & work harder. The idea was anyone who achieved KPI as per requirement; a fraction of bonus will be rewarded. Bonus and the requirement are measured quarterly. Example: If you manage to create at least an X amount of sales opportunities a month, you will be given $X – in cash.


I interviewed several peers of mine; majority said monetary still the best way to motivate. A year ago, my former employer kicked start a sales motivation drive called “The hurricane award”, those who achieve the quarterly sales target will be given a free dinner. The first feedback I got from one of my colleague:” Dinner is certainly not enough, if I were only given a meal by working over the desired result, I rather buy you a meal in stead?”


Every small business wants motivated employees. They work more efficiently and produce better results. Using monetary and other rewards to improve motivation is a simple idea; unfortunately that’s the most realistic way. The kind of rewards that work best are consistent over a period of time, do not need to be expensive and often lead to an ultimate reward.


Money has never been a great motivator for staff? What do you think?

Randomly Blacklisted

I received a text message from a friend of mine; I'm not going to blog about him, but rather to the content of the sms he sent. He was blocked from travelling overseas due to unsettled PTPTN loan back in Uni days. He is the frequent visitors to Thailand for a short break (often he went alone), because of this unwanted obstacles, he has no choice but have to stay put in Malaysia.

If I can remember correctly, PTPTN loan defaulters may be banned from travelling abroad. I read this from local news couple of years ago where those blacklisted names will be given to the immigration officers at the country's borders. However, they can only stop you from leaving the country, not hold against your passport or whatsoever.

In my opinion, those blacklisted should be the one who NEVER pay back at all. If you have been making regular repayment, you should be spared. But thanks to our government for exercising a random selection in order to make up the numbers. To him, I can only sympathize that it was not his day.

Lucky or not, after all, we should pay it back.

Stanley@Singapore

After coming back from Penang, life has been busy but I am considering a new series of blog entries. This week, I have a very special guest all the way from Taiwan. Stanley, arrived last weekend in Singapore, having a series of great time here. We will be hanging out again tomorrow at Orchard for another shopping spree. As “A picture paints a thousand words”. I’ll leave you with these beautiful snaps.

Merlion Park

Drinking Haywards 5000 at Little India

Red Ruby Ice

At Arab Street

At Sultan Mosque

Clubbing at Clark Quay

Inside MRT

Nellie, Me & Stanley

At the seafood restaurant

Seafood fresh from the sea

Cook at your own risk

What would you do if you have RM100, 000 (or SGD42, 000) during recession like this? FD? Keep the money under your pillow? Buy a property? Blue chips? Or something else? If you have no clue, one great Singapore civil servant proposed an interesting idea how to spend that money. Please read following:

http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_328106.html

This so-called breaking news created many discussions and criticisms that struck against the civil servant of being "sensitivity and ill-judged."

Somehow, I must agree that way of spending money belongs to "his/her own business". However, when someone is trying harder to mitigate the downturn, personally don't think this article should come into public, It's just like when you are purposely tell your peers who got retrenched that you have just quit your job during recession.

Besides paying a high price to learn how to cook a French cuisine, he should know the how much price he should be paying when writing this article. Spend the time meaningfully? Go join a charity.