Dewdrop, Xiaxue, Limpeh & Dodo birds

Newsflash! Mr Chan responds to me: http://chanjoonyee.com/2012/08/23/xiaxue-limpeh/ Quite frankly, I don't have much to add to what I have already said in my previous blog post on the issue - but I would like to do a quick reply to some of Mr Chan's questions. Allow me to quote the segment I am going to respond to:

"There are many people out there who have real skills, knowledge and talent far beyond Xiaxue’s (I’m not talking about bloggers who can’t make it). These folks were top students at their universities and they had their heydays, flying between Singapore and the US on business class on a weekly basis. They have shaken hands with some big names and sealed multi-million dollar deals.

Something happened when they hit their 40s and 50s. They lost their jobs, got replaced by FTs and ended up selling insurance, driving taxis or even offering funeral services. Can you dismiss these once successful professionals as lacking in business acumen or street wisdom? Can you accuse them of not progressing with Singapore?"

Are Singapore taxi drivers overqualified former businessmen?

I could quote more but if you're interested in what Mr Chan wrote, then please follow the link to his blog. Since he has asked me a point blank question about the issue of older Singaporeans who find themselves retrenched in their 40s and 50s - allow me to address just that issue for now. Before, I do so I couldn't help but read a bit more about Mr Chan and found this on his blog. "The ultimate aim of Dewdrop Notes is to be a medium where talented, misunderstood and ignored people get featured."

Hmmm - sounds like a man on a mission and this reminds me of the work of Indian philosopher Gayatri C Spivak (especially her piece of giving the subaltern a voice).  There are no shortages of lofty, even noble ideals of course - but the problem is how you apply those ideals into the harsh realities of the business world. In Mr Chan's biography, he only talks about his writing rather than what he does for a day job. I don't know if he is making a living entirely from his writing or if he has a day job to pay the bills? Either way, I would like to express some empathy - I do have an artistic creative side as well and I did take a hiatus from finance to work full time in the creative media industry for a while. However, I decided to return to finance (whilst still dabbling in the arts) because I wanted to build up a decent nest egg for me to retire comfortably on. Such as the choices one has to make in life. 

From the days I was working in Bratislava in creative media - that's me in the middle.

As for those retrenched later in their working careers, I believe you cannot treat them as a cohesive entity, as if all of them got fired for the very same reason. It is necessary to treat each person on a case by case basis as everyone's situation would be different. May I refer you to the story of Nicola - the Hungarian FT in my company who crashed and burned spectacularly. Again, this is a specific case, a specific instance concerning one specific individual. However, I just wanted to make the point that older employees of a company are not just fightless dodo birds who are incapable of reacting when under threat. 

Different jobs have very different kinds of environment - as you can see from my story of Nicola's experience, the world of finance is not for the timid. My parents worked all their lives as primary school teachers in Singapore - it is a very different kind of working environment. My parents felt so much more in control, especially since they spent most of their time interacting with very young students rather than adults. Compared to what I do, when I have to deal with financial product specialists and it can be quite intimidating working with people like that. Nonetheless, we have to pick a career which not only we can perform well at - but also choose one with an environment we can thrive in. Given that my parents didn't have the kind of characters to deal with the kind of nasty politics I have to deal with on a day by day basis, they made a very good choice in opting for a career in teaching. 

I looked the other way and let Nicola crash and burn.

It's all so easy when things are going well - if the company is experiencing growth, profits are growing and the boss is happy, it is only when times are hard when things get rough. We're in the middle of a recession now and things are very rough indeed - if you have the mentality of a dodo, then you will end up like the dodo. There is so much one can do to face up to cheaper foreign competition - I've compiled a list of eight things that one can do instead of taking a dodo stance in the face of competition. 

I look back at my peers from my VJC cohort and you have the full spectrum from millionaire CEOs who are crazy rich today to those who are unemployed (and everything in between). Why is there such a huge gap in their achievements, given that we were once all VJC students, of the same cohort? May I suggest there to be an element of street wisdom and business acumen - but it's a lot more than that. It could be so many little things that make a small difference here, a small difference there and it all adds up to a world of difference. But the fact remains that not all Singaporeans who have had a good education will end up having a successful career - there are so many things that can make a difference. Some of us are fast learners and can adapt to the challenges we encounter whilst others... well, they can't. Who do you blame then? 

Some of my former classmates are more successful than others.

As for Xiaxue's rather strange phrase "progressing with Singapore" - I find that bizarre to say the least. After all, any kind of initiative I make to progress my career (training, learning new skills, new languages, seeking work experience etc) it's all for me, me, me. I am doing all those things to further my career, to help myself - rather than my country per se. Maybe Xiaxue wasn't making herself clear, perhaps she had a point to make but didn't choose the right words. As I work in marketing, the onus is always on me to catch up with the latest products that my company is making. I need to progress with my company, otherwise I will not be in a position to effectively market those products to our clients. I would be dismissed instantly by my boss if I showed him that I wasn't able to adapt to the new products we are developing - after all, such is the nature of financial services, you have to come up with something new, something different, something smarter to prove that you're better than the competition out there. 

The case in Singapore is rather unique though, when you look at the bigger picture. Now what you've described - older professionals losing their jobs, reduced to doing manual labour which they are overqualified for - now that has been happening a lot in Greece at the moment. The country is facing economic meltdown and one wonders how far away the light is at the end of the tunnel for Greece. Despite massive bailouts (110 billion Euros in 2010 and a second 130 billion Euros on the way along with a debt writedown of 107 billion Euros), the Greek economy is still shrinking rapidly with a massive increase in unemployment. It's a really dismal situation in Greece right now - but Singapore, well. It's quite a different story. Singapore is booming, the PAP couldn't be happier. 

Singapore's economy is growing from strength to strength and unemployment figures (officially) at at 2.0% - that's amongst the lowest in the world. So it's not like there are no jobs in Singapore (which is the case in Greece), there are jobs but the competition is fierce. If you want to talk about male Singaporeans getting the sack because they keep having to go for reservist duties when the company is especially busy - then fair enough. That sucks and that was part of the reason why I chose not to work in Singapore after my graduation as I would've been liable for reservist activities the moment I returned to Singapore. That's a good example of male Singaporeans being screwed by the system - first we have to serve NS, then we are further disadvantaged in the labour market by reservist obligations. I'm surprised you didn't bring that up despite obviously being a male Singaporean resident in Singapore, liable for reservist activities. 

However, this expectation of having a job for life just because you're a local - I don't buy that. I don't buy all that bullshit about FTs stealing jobs from Singaporeans. Jobs don't belong to anyone - that's not how the labour market works. I don't like the way Singaporeans have this sense of 'entitlement' to a job in their own country just because they were born there - it doesn't work like that. Look, nobody said it would be easy - trust me, I have climbed two different career ladders in my working life and it has been hard work every step of the way. If you cannot find a job in Greece - fair enough. But if you cannot find decent job in a growing, booming economy that is on it's way to becoming the world's richest country... then spare a thought for the poor Greeks. 

If you can't find a decent job in a place like Singapore...

Look, it is not that I support PAP's stance on foreign workers/talent - I have so little faith in the PAP that I have chosen to move abroad. I don't agree with the PAP nor do I support them, let me state categorically that I really hate the PAP. I certainly don't even agree with Xiaxue's statements. However, if there's one thing working abroad in all these different countries has taught me is to forgo that sense of entitlement - here I am, working in someone else's country - I have that "foreign worker" mentality. I feel I have to prove myself to be more capable than the locals, I feel I have to battle against any preconceptions they may have about me as a foreigner. What I do is I take those feelings and I turn it into something positive and constructive by proving myself in the work place.

I understand what those PRCs in Singapore must feel like and it goes way beyond simply working harder for less money - the whole mindset is different and it irks me that many Singaporeans simplify the situation to just a question of working hours and money. Foreign workers are more hungry, more eager to prove themselves - you don't get that with locals in any country. Locals are complacent and have a sense of entitlement - please note that I am not talking about Singapore per se, I'm talking about every country in the world from the UK to Canada to China to Malaysia to Australia. Indeed in China, in a place like Shanghai, the same pattern is being replicated - the bosses can choose between a local Shanghainese or someone who has come from some far flung province in some remote corner of China, desperate to impress and make the most of every opportunity he is given in Shanghai. This is happening all over the world, it's hardly unique to Singapore. 

But there you go. I think there are people out there who hate Xiaxue and there are people out there Singaporeans out there who are really convinced that the PRCs have 'stolen' jobs from Singaporeans. I can't reason with those people and I shall not even attempt to. That is why I have seen some pretty nasty comments directed at me on Dewdrop's blog - but hey, I just wanna finish by clarifying two points. 

1. I am not a fan of Xiaxue - I just wanted to state that I don't think it was a fluke, a stroke of luck that she has gotten where she is today. It was the result of a lot of hard work, foresight, business acumen and tenacity. Someone who becomes an overnight success by appearing on a reality TV programme may be forgotten by the public once their 15 minutes of fame is over - but not Xiaxue. She is here to stay - and I am saying that objectively, based on my understanding of the media industry.

2. Unlike Xiaxue, I do not like the PAP, I do not support the PAP and in case I am not clear enough for you Singaporeans, I fucking hate the fucking PAP so much - you read me loud and clear? I have been vehemently anti-PAP on my blog - nonetheless, I still maintain that if you lose your job because you have the attitude of a fightless extinct dodo when it comes to competition in the labour market, then you shouldn't be blaming the PAP. By all means, talk about how male Singaporeans are terribly disadvantaged and treated as second class citizens in their own country - but I refuse to accept that we're just passive, fightless dodo birds incapable of reacting to any kind of threat or competition, doomed to being hunted to extinction. Come on guys, it's time to fight back!

Et voila, that's my piece for today. Thank you.