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Necessary Numbers

In my Straits Times feed this morning, the article “10m population not really a ridiculous number for S’pore to plan for: Liu Thai Ker” caught my eye. While I am not one to favour crowds, I am also keenly aware of the need for a basic population mass in order that any nation state be […]

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Has the free market run its course?

This is an edited transcript. 11 January 2022 this is Elijah’s Expressions. Today I want to talk about a topic called “Has the free market run its course?” About last year I was having a conversation with a couple. They were involved in economics. I think they were lecturers in economics at one of the […]

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Culture. Flip side of the coin of religion.

Sometimes you can’t help but eavesdrop when you’re in the same confined space with others and the topic happens to be a trigger one like culture. Enjoy! Edited Transcript 29 December 2021 Elijah’s Expressions. Today I happened to eavesdrop on a conversation. I can’t help but eavesdrop because of the limited space that is available […]

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Slavery. Insolvency?

Why would anyone want to have slaves? Does owning slaves make you richer? I don’t think so. Came across this video from the Hoover History Working Group and that’s my main takeaway. Do watch the video in its entirety, and look for Thomas Sowell’s “Black Rednecks and White Liberals”, especially Chapter III, for his perspectives. […]

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Misunderstood Misrepresented Maligned Monarch

This was what came to me as I watched the video called “The Last King of America” by Andrew Roberts. The introduction was done by Victor Davis Hanson, and Peter Robinson was in the audience and got to ask a question also (Extra!). Andrew Roberts says that King George III was a much misunderstood king. […]

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Prosperity. Intellectual Property.

A recording of what came to me as I watched “Battlegrounds with H.R. McMaster | Australia: Peace & Prosperity Across the Indo-Pacific and Beyond”, which is embedded here also. What is prosperity? Is it just money, or is it people? More specifically, is it Human Capital? How about Intellectual Property? Would Intellectual Property matter so […]

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Want Power? Just DAM It!

A short video I did in response to a CNA Insider’s video on “China’s Mega Dams: The Threat to Asia’s River Communities.” Do we have a right to water? What if our water sources start dwindling or even dry up? How do we diversify? Do watch the CNA video in its entirety, CNA makes great […]

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Lawlessness. More than Defund the Police!

I am putting the video I did on 01 Dec 2021 here, together with the Goodfellows video which sparked this off. Do take the time for both. They are worth your time, and if you want more discussions on like topics, come on board as a subscriber! Go to my membership page, read and email […]

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Dr Jay Bhattacharya makes a lot of sense to me.

No, I’m not an anti-vaxxer. I simply call out the way most governments worldwide have reacted and flip-flopped where the current craze, and, perhaps, jaded weariness, with SARS-Cov-2 (COVID 19) is concerned. I recall my own nation’s full-throttle rush to invite investors in with low to no taxes and an eager, industrious, low-cost labour force. […]

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ER. Eliminate Risk? Emergency Room!

The above quote has been attributed to Helen Keller and is a good reminder to us all that there is no such thing as a safe world, at least, the world as we know it in this life. We cannot legislate safety, just as we cannot legislate high morality. What we CAN legislate is merely […]

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Propaganda? Have a Proper Gander at it!

When the word “propaganda” comes your way, what comes to your mind? Do you instantly think of repressive authoritarian regimes brainwashing their people so as to gain more control over them? No need to look too far, just look at your own government in action, not as espoused. Propaganda is all around us, left and […]

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Moral Capitalism? Greed is Good?

This has been on my mind for a long time. I of course take the stand that greed is never good, and have said so many times before. I learned from Thomas Sowell that just because one is greedy does not mean that one will be rich. Also, economics, to me, is simply the study […]

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The importance of remembering Treebeard

In Book III, Chapter Four of the second volume of “The Lord of the Rings” titled “The Two Towers”, Merry and Pippin meet Fangorn or Treebeard in the course of their adventures and the Ents, as Treebeard and his kind are called, decide to put an end to Saruman’s ongoing ravaging of the trees in […]

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Protection! Isn’t that Unfair?

Well, you know as well as I do that life is unfair. I get to sit in cafes all over Singapore and write stuff that you probably don’t want to read but should. You get it for free when you should be paying me for it. You might be running a world-class F&B joint but […]

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Red Tape. Ready to ruin great renovations?

The Golden Mile Food Centre, a.k.a. Army Market, has undergone more than a few upgrades and renovations over the years. I went there looking for some comfortable safari-style togs but couldn’t find any I liked. The washrooms had been upgraded, though, which was cheery to see. Something inside caught my eye, though. Do you see […]

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Dog Driving?

I simply had to take this picture yesterday. We might be forgiven for thinking that the dog was driving, which of course it wasn’t. I have been told that where it is common for dogs to ride in cars, all dogs stick their heads out the window. With typically heavy traffic in Singapore, that might […]

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Good enough for a nest

I’ve been wanting to take a photo of the nest that mynahs keep using at the ground floor of the apartment block I live in. Every now and then, there would be the sounds of young birds cheeping and sights of adult mynahs moving in and out of the nest. The said nest was made […]

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It’s your style? What’s your substance?

I thought the People Development world had finally woken up to the fact that Style is certainly subordinate to Substance. Too bad, I happened to come across more than a few conversations, posts and the like within the last few days, all about trying to entice a discouraged staff member who was wanting to quit […]

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The Green Rebelution

What’s this “Green Revolution” all about? People have been trumpeting about “new” stuff for about as long as there have been humans on this earth. No, there’s nothing new. People have always had a basic understanding of how to care for the environment and what work needs to be done to keep food and water […]

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BBB Workers. Scene One. Now.

We are all born with a will to dominate. None of us are naturally submissive. Those times when we seem to be submissive are really when we’re waiting for the next opportunity we get to be top dog. Some may go through life seemingly “meek” and subservient. (By the way, to me, meekness is actually […]

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Principled Life. Regulated Death.

To me, economics is the study of how to best manage human covetousness so that the least amount of harm is allowed to be perpetrated. Of course, it is the study of the use of scarce resources which have alternative uses and emphasizes the importance of realizing that there are no “solutions” in this world, […]

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My Mekong? Where’s the Water?

Disputes over water sources have been with humans since earliest history. Whether over dams, springs, rivers or lakes, people have sought to secure their own water supply and unfortunately have tended to deprive others of the same while doing so. This article on Channel News Asia caught my eye: ‘Nothing about the Mekong is normal […]

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Forced Distribution Ranking again?

Today, a piece on Channel News Asia caught my eye. It was “Commentary: Why ranking employees using a forced distribution model is a zombie idea.” I had written something on this called “For Whom the Bell Tolls“ in 2012 and I would encourage you to have a read of it. It has been said many […]

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Can Lovingkindness be Surveyed?

I came across this article on my LinkedIn feed called “Loving-Kindness is good for work. Really?” Do have a read. “New” research along these lines is always good for us, even when it’s not really new. We need to have more and more genuine conversations on things like this. Intelligent conversations. Purposeful conversations. Conversations which […]

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Climate Change Chimera

This morning, I was assaulted yet again by alarm bells of “anthropogenic rising global temperatures” leading to our eventual demise, and that of this planet with us. Please read the article on climate change in its entirety, and then tell me what you think. The link to the article is here: https://creation.com/climate-change Look through the […]

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There’s a PILL for that!

I just read that Merck is about to introduce a brown pill that could be the Panadol, Tylenol, Tamiflu and so forth for COVID-19 and similar virus infections. Apparently, this could broaden the way for various sets of pills solving various sets of issues; medical, general health and whatever fanciful comes around. Anything new here? […]

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Is raising corporate taxes ever good?

I read today that the US is pushing for a minimum global corporate tax. When will we ever learn? The facts are that raising corporate taxes has resulted in lower tax revenues because the rich and powerful will always find ways to get around paying those higher tax rates. That is why tax calculations around […]

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What do BREXITs and Free Markets mean?

Ryan Bridges, an editor with Geopolitical Futures, wrote a summary of “Tales of BREXITs past and present: Understanding the Choices, Threats and Opportunities in Our Separation from the EU” by Nigel Culkin and Richard Simmons in the “What We’re Reading” section of the Geopolitical Futures website. It’s available to subscribers of Geopolitical Futures only, and […]

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Hard Headed? Or Hard Hearted?

Do you know of people whom you might describe as “numbskulls”, “dum-dum” or other? How about yourself, have people described you as such? I’ve certainly been given quite a few of those epithets! To be sure, some were definitely true, too! Pause for a while. As I asked in the title, “Are we hard headed […]

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Budget 2021. Implied Tasks.

It’s that time of the year, and Singapore’s Budget 2021 was duly delivered yesterday 16 Feb 2021. I’ve been getting myself better acquainted with economics and law recently. Those are two disciplines I’ve never been intimate with, having focused on warfighting for much of my natural life. That’s a big regret for me, but it’s […]

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Golf Course. Of Course.

Land use is a topic that comes up time and again in Singapore. It is a great example of scarce resources which have alternative uses. The debate is about who gets to decide how much land is used for what purpose. The current debate seems to involve inputs from more sources with differing worldviews, something […]

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Returning trays after meals?

Time and again, the press in Singapore laments about people not returning their food trays to the tray collection point after having their meals at hawker centres and food courts. Many schemes have been tried, to no avail, to get diners to return their trays. This is a symptom of a deeper issue, of course, […]

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Kindness? What’s that?

  I was having a conversation with someone working with the Singapore Kindness Movement this morning. Nothing profound or philosophical, just what his typical day was like, how he got started and so forth. He had left his previous job because he felt that the management there didn’t do what they were supposed to be […]

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Rule of Law?

 There have been concerns recently that the workings of the “International Order” ought to be aligned with the “Rule of Law”. That means an agreed-upon system and set of rules governing how all nations ought to conduct themselves in their dealings with each other. That of course begs the question about what this “Rule […]

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The Necessity of Greed and Regulation

This title may come as a surprise to some of you reading this. Then again, I’ve always declared myself, and continue to aspire to, lifelong learning. Core values, universal, non-negotiable principles, don’t change unless there is some life-changing event, but their expressions and manifestations do. What ought to happen is not a replacement or change […]

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Legal! Ethical? Moral?

In many of the leadership classes I’ve conducted, I’ve often asked participants the question “What’s the difference between legal and ethical?” More often than not, I get blank stares or frowns accompanied by stammers, most of which seemed to attempt to assert that the legal aspect of things ought to emerge paramount. So I ask […]

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Keep Calm and Save Manpower?

I saw yet another of these kinds of advertisements on the side of a small van today. One can only wonder at the mindset which encourages them. Save Manpower with tech? What does that mean, reduce headcount? Listen to the language. Headcount. Scalping? Reduce manpower costs by investing in technology, or expand people’s capabilities and […]

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Aspect Great, Circumspect Greater!

A song by Joni Mitchell, “Both Sides Now”, came to my mind as I was mulling over this post. The chorus goes: I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now From up and down and still somehow It’s cloud’s illusions I recall I really don’t know clouds at all The other two choruses are similar […]

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Better Buyers. Better Bias.

We seem to be more concerned with the success of sellers than the success of buyers. Look at the plethora of sales courses, supporting software, apps, tricks and treats, secret sauces and so forth that all claim to make us better sellers. I don’t see the same kind of enthusiastic support for buyers, though. Perhaps […]

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How Does Size Matter?

 This is an edited transcript. Hi, Elijah Lim here. Title of this very random blog – HDSM, How Does Size Matter? I was reading a post on Facebook, I think, about people discussing the fact that Singaporeans do not rise to very high positions in MNCs. Multi-National Companies, international companies and the like, because […]

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