Author Archives: Elijah Lim

It’s the Machete, not Me, Dum Dum!

Familiarity doesn’t breed contempt. A lack of honouring those in leadership does. This is because we become disrespectful if we don’t honour others, not just those in leadership, and disrespect slides into contempt and all the rest of it. Familiarity needs to be careful to avoid the “Practice Makes Perfect” or “Perfect Practice Makes Perfect” […]

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De-population bomb. My takeaways from the conversation between Peter Robinson and Nicholas Eberstadt

I was introduced to the work of Dr Nicholas Eberstadt in Sep 2022, via Peter Robinson’s “Uncommon Knowledge.” Dr Nicholas Eberstadt is a political economist and holds the Henry Wendt chair in political economy at the American Enterprise Institute. I found the conversation on “Uncommon Knowledge” very insightful and have watched quite a few other […]

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Foreign Direct Investment = Capital Flight?

I must confess that the lorikeet wasn’t the one who told me that. But think abut it. If your economy is doing wonderfully great in its own ownderful way, why do you need to look frantically elsewhere for good projects so that you can reap the fruits of your bountifully astute investments? By the way, […]

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No Manners, please, we’re Pretentious.

The definition of a deepfake can actually be found in the Bible. I quote it below. (Pro 11:22)  As a jewel of gold in a swine’s snout, so is a fair woman which is without discretion. The key word here is “Discretion.” The CharacterFirst! operational definition is quoted below. A deepfake is trying to be […]

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Insist on Rigordemia. Fight Acamortis.

The Cambridge Dictionary definitions of academia and rigor mortis, according to the Internet, are as seen below. The definitions of the strange terms used in the title of this post are, according to yours truly: Rigordemia: Rigorous pursuit of the truth, and the presentation thereof, concerning any given subject, topic or branch of knowledge without […]

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Live Better. Get Moving!

When the ball of continuously-dividing human cells called a blastocyst starts to form our alimentary canal or digestive system, the anus is first formed, then the mouth. We do not know at this time why this is so. I have often heard anecdotally that one of the signs of impending death is when people state […]

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Collective? Or Collectivized?

I have heard Dr Stephen Kotkin say on more than one occasion that Josef Stalin had the luxury of mobilizing his collectivized farmers as and when he felt the need for more cannon fodder, the term “cannon fodder” being an embellishment of my own. Leaders, both civilian and military, have used expressions similar to “I […]

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Attention to detail. Obsession with detail.

I have been blessed with being able to access the works, analyses and so forth of Dr Steven E Koonin, author of  “Unsettled. What climate science tells us, what it doesn’t, and why it matters.” I was introduced to his work on climate science when listening to a conversation he had with the Hon John […]

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Do you like alphabet soup?

News of the “miraculous” evacuation of all passengers and crew of the Japan Airlines aircraft which caught fire on the runway at Haneda Airport in Tokyo on 2 Jan 2024 are everywhere. Tragically, 5 of the 6 crew on board the Coast Guard aircraft perished in the incident. The Coast Guard aircraft was supposed to […]

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Compliant? Obedient? To What? To Whom?

Portions of two commentaries on Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War” come to my mind frequently. When Wu Ch’i fought against Ch’in, there was an officer who before battle was joined was unable to control his ardour. He advanced and took a pair of heads and returned. Wu Ch’i ordered him beheaded. The Army Commissioner […]

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Quick takeaways from “Moneyball Military.”

I’m sharing a quick thought or two on what I have taken away from watching this discussion, which occurred on 26 Sep 2023 and featured Christian Brose, a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution. It was moderated by Stephen Kotkin, director of the Hoover History Lab. I have listened to the discussion a few times […]

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Focus on ME? Miserable Existence!

The hashtag #MEFIRST is an eyesore because it means that people love having such messages popping up in front of them every too often. The media is full of such messages, and don’t blame the media because the media is giving people what people want to read, hear and watch. One such article caught my […]

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Emergency Room. Excessive Reading.

I consider myself blessed to have had much opportunity to read as much as I liked. I would often sit at the crook of the staircase at home, taking two hours to finish my lunch while reading some book or other that I had borrowed from the National Library. I did go out to play […]

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Want small government? Grow LARGE People!

We see lots of news articles, debates and conversations about having small government. We also see more and more cries for more government interventions, taking care of the poor and downtrodden, “redistributing” wealth and income, making sure the planet doesn’t fry us and so forth. Now, let’s be clear. Small government, meaning government that does […]

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Operation Whorehouse

I read a curious book several years ago as a young child. It was called “Devil’s Guard” and was supposed to be a sort of verbal history of a battalion of the French Foreign Legion operating in Vietnam during the time when the French were fighting the Viet Minh – forerunner of the Vietcong. The […]

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Strategic Investments?

I’ve never made or managed any “Investments” worthy of the term, as people in the investment world would view them. I’ve dabbled in trying to sell retail investments but never really liked it. The world of investments, finance, stocks, futures, money, crypto and so forth doesn’t interest me very much. It ranks alongside entertainment, drugs, […]

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Avariciously Ingenuous

What emerged out of the Singapore Conference On AI, or SCAI, aparently held from 4 to 6 Dec 2023, were 12 concerns that AI poses for mankind. I’m not going to list them here, do look them up on your own, whether on the Straits Times or elsewhere if that takes your fancy. I just […]

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Integrating Immigrants. Recurring Refugees.

Dr Condoleezza Rice, the current Tad and Dianne Taube Director of the Hoover Institution, says quite frequently that “It doesn’t matter where you came from, it matters where you’re going”. Immigration is one of the expressions of a truly free market economy. Refugees are a pernicious political problem. This is true at all levels, nationally […]

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Singing? Would you like an orchestra?

I was chatting with someone working for a global company and here for work, meetings and so forth. She was in charge of marketing, surprise, surprise, had had a full day of meetings but was still cheery. I asked her what she loved most about her job and she instantly enthused “I have a really […]

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Well Connected? How United?

Henry Kissinger has died at age 100. Many will remember him as the most well-connected person on the face of the earth. George Friedman of Geopolitical Futures and Niall Ferguson, author of “The Square and the Tower” seem to think so. Henry Kissinger’s attractiveness was his ability to get you access to power and influence […]

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Conserving Conversing.

Stopped at a traffic light, I observed a couple with their pet dog waiting to cross. The dog had caught my eye because it looked like a cross between a Greyhound, a Whippet and maybe something else, but also that most of its fur was like a small attempt at looking like the fur of […]

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Patton’s Patterns

I refer of course to the Second World War American General George S Patton. I’m grateful to the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Dr Victor Davis Hanson for providing such illuminating insights into the life and times, worldviews and humanity of Lieutenant-General George S Patton. I have never paid much […]

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AR. Absconding Responsibility?

Most of you reading this will have come across AR, for “Augmented Reality”. This is where AI is used to help you to “see” and perhaps later “hear”, “taste” and “feel” what you might be able to perceive should your environment be altered. For example, a furniture store might include AR to help you visualize […]

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Excuse me, are you an autodidact?

“How would you know unless you have been taught?” echoed hollowly in my memory as I recalled what some supposedly senior person had intoned from a supposedly high place. Yes, of course. I would also ask a question such as “How old are you?” and if you gave me an answer, say, “Sixty-five”, I would […]

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A few posters you could make better and use

Here are five posters. Feel free to improve on them and use them as you like. Make some of your own, too! You’re welcome! Subscribe with your email address at top right if you like this, and get your colleagues to subscribe as well. Subscription to posts is free. It’s the membership, tutorials and discussions […]

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You Make Me Feel Brand New. Theme for 2065?

I grew up in the 60s and 70s, when it seemed that the Stylistics were “falsetto-ing” their way through suburban streets and shopping centres almost every day. I like the title of this song, and I embed it here from YouTube. It’s like singing about someone being a breath of fresh air. Recently, I’ve been […]

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The Role of Rote Learning. Role Play is Artificial.

Yesterday, I listened in grim dismay to two people who were obviously engaged in the schooling of young persons talking about how a few of their “better-performing” students had written essays where the introductions had definitely been “memorized”. They seemed to have embraced that poisonous idea that rote learning has become “passe”, although they did […]

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Do Doves Cry? Parrots Parley, Perhaps?

Hearing someone trying to defend his views that the best thing which parents can give to their children is a good education and observing him flailing about helplessly trying to answer the question of what, actually, providing a good education means, brought a distant tune and phrase to my mind, “…when doves cry…” Hearing him […]

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Assassins in every shadow?

In Frank Herbert’s Dune series, it was said of Thufir Hawat, the mentat (Basically a human computer) of House Atreides, that he “…sees assassins in every shadow…”, meaning of course that he was perpetually paranoid about the safety, security and continued flourishing of House Atreides. Dr Condoleezza Rice, Director of the Hoover Institution, said in […]

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What’s a lecture for?

The title of this post is of course a pathetic attempt at spoofing a well-known oldie containing the phrase “What’s forever for?” Having become acquainted with several online conversations, mainly from the Hoover Institution and many others, I have often wished that all lectures, sermons and the like be conducted in a similar fashion from […]

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The Free Market has run its course?

After what seems to me to have been a long hiatus, Thomas Sowell returned recently to Uncommon Knowledge where he talks to Peter Robinson about his latest book “Social Justice Fallacies” over two episodes. The videos are embedded below for easy reference. Do watch them. Like most Uncommon Knowledge videos, they are very well worth […]

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Champions Eat Feedback?

There are posters and “quotations” and others of similar ilk declaring to one and all that “Feedback is the breakfast of Champions”. And so all sorts of “surveys”, “feedback forms”, “hotwashes”, “debriefs”, “town hall meetings” and so forth are held every so nauseatingly often. Why? Because “Feedback is the breakfast of Champions”, of course. Ok, […]

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You’ve read it? What did it say?

Someone who hails from somewhere north of the Mediterranean happened to be in Singapore on an internship as part of his “Gap Year”. We had a short and perhaps somewhat desultory conversation on how his work was going to mitigate the effects of climate change and so forth. You know what comes next. I asked […]

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Fudge It!

I don’t like eavesdropping. There is nothing people talk about that I want to eavesdrop on. If eavesdropping were ever necessary, then what the eavesdropper was straining to hear was definitely not worth hearing. I say the same goes for “state secrets” and whatever Heads of Nations or Heads of Governments say in “secret” meetings. […]

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Dashboards. Dots and Dashes.

I casually asked a young man what he was studying in the university, and he replied “Info Systems”. “Dashboards? UX?” I prompted. “Something like that” came the reply, as though trying to answer a six-year-old and having that six-year-old stop asking. It brought two things to my mind. The first was a remark made by […]

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Masculinity isn’t toxic. It’s essential.

Someone sent me a short article and asked me whether population decline in Korea and Japan were due to declining masculinity. I didn’t ask him to define what “masculinity” meant. It doen’t mean having the ability to attract many women to want to mate with you anytime or anyhow you feel like it. It does […]

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Culture vultures?

I had an interesting conversation with someone from Nigeria this morning. He deals in producing clothes which help people with “multiple identities” define themselves. So here he is on a Southeast Asian tour getting the feel of the various cultures in this little corner of the world. That feel, combined with the different feels he […]

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Wheat and Tares. Same Benefits.

This post is meant for Christians and those who think they are. If you are neither, you are also welcome to read. If you are Singaporean, you are welcome to read also. In Matthew Chapter 13 verses 24 to 30, the parable of the wheat and tares was given in order to illustrate what the […]

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Read the text. Mind the context.

The book of 2 Peter Chapter 1 verses 5 to 7 is often taught as there being a “ladder” of “attainment”, perhaps similar to the “Five Levels of Leadership” taught by John Maxwell. The verses are here: 2 Pe 1:5-7 5 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue […]

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