Monday, June 29, 2020

Random musing and political opinions.

Today is just some random musings with no theme in particular. 

a) Teaching with a mask on is like playing Diablo in Inferno mode.

I was hard at work over the weekend conducting classes for the batches that attended my webinar during the lockdown period and underestimated how difficult it was to teach when wearing a mask. 

When I wore a loose mask, it kept requiring adjustment while I spoke. After I put on a new and tighter mask, I had difficulty breathing after speaking to the class. Looks like I will be looking for a customised solution that would improve my masked speaking voice before face to face classes resume mid-July. Any suggestions from teachers and lecturers are welcome. 

b) Picked up random bits of information from my students.

A trainer can learn a lot from his students. While we were discussing the hospitality trusts, a student who worked in healthcare shared with me that hotels are trying to survive by providing accommodation to foreign healthcare workers. Apparently, the cost of housing three workers is around $50-$70 a night. 

As I also get my students on a guided crowdsourcing exercise on emigration destinations, we also discovered that Kuala Lumpur may be a cheaper place to live in compared to Bali. Possibly no thanks to the number of "drop-shipping" digital nomads who turned Phuket and Bali into favoured destinations. 

c) Ivangate proves that our political system actually works.

With Ivan Lim bowing out of GE2020, it goes to demonstrate that the system works.

Loyal PAP voters like myself joined Singaporeans of different political persuasions to strike out what we perceive as a bad candidate. This is a evidence that the candidate shortlisting selection works once you account for social media. I would venture further that now PAP can embrace the occasional mistake in future elections. We PAP voters are not sheep. Also, do note that subsequent attempts to assassinate the characters of other PAP candidates fell on deaf ears.

Good chance that a more serious article on investing will arrive from me on the Dr. Wealth blog on Wednesday. 

  




2 comments:

  1. Regarding Ivangate, there was a critical mass. And likely a number of them are highly-paid professionals i.e. the typical PAP supporters. Hard to ignore especially if said supporters are also YPAP & PAP members, grassroots & MTP session volunteers & the like with direct access to the ears of ministers & senior party officials.

    No such critical mass in other char assassination attempts.

    But it also highlights the power of a matured social media. In the old days (even in the nascent internet years of the 1990s or the adolescent years in the 2000s), it is improbable that Ivangate would have succeeded (unless there is a large enough internal rebellion in the PAP ranks).

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  2. Hi Mr Ng,

    You may wish to check out face shields instead of face masks.

    Lecturers in the IHls are using face shields if speaking from a distance away students. If we have to close the distance (e.g to view something on their laptop screens and comment), we will then be required to put on a face mask even if we have a face shield on.

    You can also explore portable mics to project your voice if a mask muffles it.

    Ryan

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