Recycling and Lateral Thinking - Why Not Redevelop Landed Property First?

I almost choked on my morning mug of tea, to read this:

ST Forum

Nov 27, 2010

60% of Singaporeans recycle now

WE THANK Mr Allan Harkness ('Going green in the heartland: Still stuck with an 'F'') and Mr Lim Beo Loon ('Other problems are cost...') for their letters on Nov 19.

Based on feedback from public waste collectors, the average household participation rate in our national recycling programme has increased from 14 per cent in 2001 to 63 per cent last year. Our surveys also indicate that more than 60 per cent of Singaporeans recycle now.

The National Environment Agency (NEA) organises community events, such as Recycling Week, Clean & Green Singapore, and NEA Community Day, to educate the public on waste minimisation and recycling.

The public can help by segregating waste into recyclable and non-recyclable, using reusable shopping bags and rechargeable batteries, while industries should work towards using less packaging materials.

As the value of recyclables depends on the market, all forms of recycling entails a cost that must be borne by the Government, consumer or waste collector.

NEA will consider requiring public waste collectors to provide more recycling bins and look into the frequency of collection when their contracts are up for renewal, if the benefits outweigh the costs.

Ong Seng Eng
Director
Resource Conservation Department
National Environment Agency

I instantly thought about Mark Twain and the saying he often used:

Mark Twain, the 100th anniversary of whose death was in April this year, was never known to be soft-spoken about his opinions. He popularized the phrase, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics,” caustically opining the view that numbers can be used to dissemble truth.

Not for a moment am I calling the NEA a bunch of liars, but I do question the sources and methodology used for the collection of the statistics fed to them. (LATER: see note below)

From what I have seen during these six months that I have been here, I wonder how the waste collection companies know how many households recycle their waste? 

Each household is given a number of plastic recycling bags - I live in an apartment block and they are placed in our mailbox. If I need more, I ask the management for more.

I don't know how many bags are delivered to homes on landed property, be it a terrace house, semi-detached or single family home.

Twice a month, on Tuesdays, we put out our recycling bag(s) and they are taken downstairs to await collection. On such a basis, how would anyone know how many units in this development (and others like it) recycle?

It would be nice to think that 60% of Singapore households recycle; and I would hope that more than 60% of individual citizens recycle.

The SCMP ran this cartoon which I think apt for the claimed 'green' credentials in Hong Kong and I daresay, Singapore too:

It has been our wont to spend part of each year in Hong Kong and north Florida and the impression I have formed from using my own eyes is that the people in both those places recycle far more than people in Singapore.

Hong Kongers, despite letters to the SCMP and cartoons like this, are far more environmentally conscious and their green groups much more active.

In northeast Florida, I find that some communities are more active than others; they put out their bright blue recycling bins on recycling day. 

In our community of some 500+ homes we have to take our recycling to a recycling corner where there are receptacles for bottles, plastics, plastic bags and paper. I could not tell you how many homes actually drive their recycleables to the recycling corner but the bins do fill up regularly.

Singapore is a different experience. Some years ago the management of our condominium estate installed recycling bins in the basement; it was not a success because household waste (think pampers for example) was thrown willy-nilly into the recycling bins. They were soon removed.

More recently we were issued the recycling bags provided by the public waste collection companies. I have no idea if and how they are being used by the householders.

But of I had not taught our helper (who arrived from the Philippines in June) what recycling means and showed her what to put in the bags, she would have either not used them or put all manner of things in them.

I had her put all the items she though might be recyclable into a spare bin and before recycling day we would go through the bin to sort out what to dispose down our chute (neatly bundled and secured) and what to place in the bags for recycling morning.

At that time I scoured the NEA's website for pamphlets to illustrate how to separate the different items but every poster I found did not play well with my A4 size printer format. I wrote in to NEA - on Oct 26th.

This morning (Nov 29th), I went back to their website and see little improvement. Visit these pages (which take some looking for): http://app2.nea.gov.sg/data/cmsresource/20100120281853527479.pdf

http://app2.nea.gov.sg/data/cmsresource/20090511531613540247.pdf

Print them out and decide how useful they are if you had a domestic helper who reads a smidgin of English. I would say that larger, more graphic illustrations that can be reproduced on a home printer are needed.

For another, the number of people living in Singapore has mushroomed in recent years. Many of our new residents and new workers come from countries where recycling takes a different form or is not a regular practice.

Now they are here, they all should get to know about recycling.

We all like to feel good or to feel we are doing some good; so why not divert some of the vast amount we spend on lighting up Singapore on a well conceived and well executed campaign to educate all and sundry about recycling and really provide the means for all to recycle?

I was at our country club the other day and while the intention is good, the execution is poor - we have rather ugly recycling bins prominently displayed at the main entrances to the swimming clubhouse. There must be some way to make them more part of the scenery.

As far as I can recall we don't have recycling bins in many other other locations, and certainly not tasteful looking ones (as befitting a grand clubhouse). I have not been into the kitchens and pantry areas and wonder if they recycle as that is where most of the waste would be handled.

Opportunities for Mr and Ms Public to recycle are not many. The bins along Orchard Road are often full, so perhaps more recycling bins could be deployed, especially close to fast food outlets.

The emptying of trash and recycling bins throughout Singapore, even at the brand new Khoo Teck Puat Hospital which I visited today, needs to happen with greater frequency. Certainly when these bins are along high traffic routes or outside food or convenience outlets.

But being ecologically responsible means more than sorting and recycling our trash; it's also using and re-using bags for groceries and shopping. 

I went to a fair over the weekend and every stall-holder offered me a plastic bag with my purchase.

At the wet market and even in supermarkets my purchases are bundled into plastic bags, which the hypocrite that I am, I accept. I then try to assuage my conscience by using them to contain our household rubbish prior to putting the rubbish down the chute.

In Hong Kong I am charged each time I need a plastic bag at the neighbourhood supermarket. In Florida I am offered a choice of paper or plastic.

NOTE: in rummaging through the NEA website today I came upon some tables and lists, none of them particularly helpful in arriving at precisely how much of our domestic waste is being recycled.

I am not of a scientific or mathematical bent so excuse me if I misunderstand things. Looking at total waste generated and total waste recycled (57%) it is easy to see that almost 60% of the population with access to waste collection services have their waste recycled.

Surely 

if ALL HDB estates have recycling programmes AND if 80-90 percent of people live in HDB estates why do only 60% of the population recycle?

Mind you, 

NEA has a 

List of Condominiums/Private Apartments with Recycling Programme (Updated as of Dec 07) 

which contains ONLY 353 names. 

So maybe the non-greenies are in private housing? But that doesn't sound right either.

As for what is recycled it is disappointing that glass (eminently recycleable) has a recycling rate of only 21%. Only 48% of cardboard/paper is recycled, 38% of horticultural waste (all that mulch and compost gone to waste?), a paltry 12% of textiles/leather is recycled and 9% of plastics.

But what do I know of the technicalities of recycling? Zip, zero I admit.

One would have to be blind not to notice that we light up Orchard Road like a Christmas tree, Marina Bay for tourists to admire our spectacular skyline at night, and the Formula 1 GP circuit for Bernie's tv coverage for the world. 


None of these are particularly eco-friendly.


Neither is enabling greedy developers to evict us from homes that are a mere ten or twenty years old in order to to demolish and build new buildings. Ten or twenty years is not old for buildings - or for people. So why the need to tear down and build when we should be minding our carbon footprint?


Considering that this demolish and build activity mainly affects non-landed property (low-,  medium- or high-rise) this displaces more happy families at any one go than tearing down a large bungalow (one family) to replace it with a 28-storey block of flats.


Hmmm, from a humanitarian point of view, it makes me wonder why we didn't start this redevelopment of Singapore with landed property?

The HSBC saga continues and a cat finds its tongue

The HSBC saga continues.


The credit card processing department in the person of one Sangeeta called to ask if I am employed. Then she announced that I had not included the latest Income Tax return - as you can imagine I was not best pleased as I had handed over my NRIC (Singapore identity card) and 2009 and 2010 tax returns to young Jonathan at the Claymore branch last Friday, November 19th and he had made the copies, not I.


She then pronounced the copy to be 'unclear' without going into ay details as to why it was not clear to her.


I suggested she take it up with Jonathan, to which she intimated that she could not get in touch with him. I read it as she was not allowed to in case they were colluding to defraud the bank (compliance, I suppose).


The best she could offer (it was pouring cats and dogs that afternoon) was to mail me a Business Reply Envelope into which I could submit a copy of the tax return. I railed about the delay as that would increase the processing time  (normally two weeks) but it cut no ice.


I also told her how much trouble I had trying to get Jonathan on the phone on Saturday and what I thought of a bank that would not give out branch telephone numbers to anyone.


It didn't help that I could imagine the Cheshire Cat grin on her face as she delivered the bad news and refused to help in any way!


I was in a thoroughly bad mood, so when someone else from the bank called a little later and announced she is with the bank's quality service something or other, I gave her short shrift and said, "ha, that's funny. What service?"


Anyway Rose persevered and even left me with her phone number. I hope she will not be reprimanded for divulging that secret information!


So we talked about the situation and she asked if I was stopping my application as I had mentioned it in my letter to their GM. I said I'd check but I didn't think I mentioned such a thing and was only just wrangling with Sangeeta about the paperwork.


She said she'd follow up and we left it at that.


In the meantime I had emailed Jonathan, the only way I could get hold of him and he called me. He'd spoken to Sangeeta (all this despite her categorically telling me that she could not communicate with him) and that he'd found out that the top of the tax return had been left out when the page was copied.


He kindly volunteered to walk over to our security post if I could bring the document down. Lin was very sweet and volunteered himself (despite the rain); I think he wanted to prevent bloodshed!


So the paperwork was completed and sent off once again.


But that is not the last of it; Rose called on Friday when I was at the golf course and said my card would be delivered that evening. I did say I would not be home but that my husband would be home. We left it that the courier would either deliver it to our flat or leave it in the mailbox.


I am not sure exactly what happened but there was no envelope from HSBC; not at home nor in our mailbox.


Watch this space for the next chapter, unless you are as tired of this as I am!


By the way, I started of with a chip-in birdie and then a par on the NEW course at SICC, enough for one of my playing companions to ask if I had been secretly practising at home since no one has seen me on the golf course in Singapore!


Suffice to say, the old, well-remembered bad habits returned and I barely broke 100 for the eighteen holes (what, you thought for the nine?).


CAT FINDS IT'S TONGUE


There's a resident cat at our magnificent Botanic Gardens; it's white with ginger markings.


When it's admirers went walking on Thursday morning they spotted a cage with a crudely written sign saying (if there was a cat in the cage) not to let the cat out of the cage and to call a certain number.


This incensed the cat lovers so much that they went to the Nparks office to take it up with them. And then they drafted emails to NParks to register their objection to the cat being trapped and removed.


This is how my friend summed it up:

Dear Sirs
I am writing with great dismay to find a nasty looking trap set for the above mentioned cat who has been a resident and a favorite mascot of regular visitors to Botanic Gardens.

I wish to enquire why there is a need to remove this cat which is harmless and adds to the character of the Gardens. We understand that there has been a complaint that feeding this cat will attract other strays and that plastic bags of food left by well-meaning people is unsightly. Regarding the former, this cat has been here for many years and we have yet to see any other strays coming in to that particular area - the services entrance of the Orchid Pavilion - because of the food. Besides the cat appears to have been neutered. As for litter from leftover food, that can be taken care of in your routine maintenance, as with all other human litter.

Surely this Garden does not merely exist for a few animal-phobic human beings whom I am sure are a minority.

I urge you to call off your pest control people and get them to remove the trap. I also hope you won't resort to poisoning either.

NParks responded the very next day and said:

Thank you for your kind feedback. 

The management has been informed of the situation and we have since remove the trap.   

Once again, thank you and we hope to see you soon.  We wish you a good week ahead. 

So now the Botanic Gardens mascot has gained a reprieve and did not have to use up one of it's nine lives!

Weathering the "perfect storm of multiple failures"

Passengers and crew of the Qantas A380 which recently made an emergency landing at Singapore Changi airport must bear charmed lives. In the ECONOMIST it was reported that:


Confidential preliminary reports seen by Fairfax Media reveal that high-velocity parts spat from the engine tore through a fuel line and wiring looms, punctured structural spars in the wing, struck the fuselage between the two decks of windows, hit the fuselage belly and tore through wing panels.

Patrick Smith, a pilot who writes for Salon.com, refers to a "perfect storm of multiple failures". He reckons the biggest problem the pilots faced was the need to land an overweight plane, since the system that allows them to jettison fuel was not working.

Had the plane gone off the runway and caught fire, or burst into flames because fuel was ignited by the overheated brakes, it is still entirely possible that everybody could have survived (see Air France in Toronto, et al.). However, Qantas Airways' proud record of zero fatalities, intact since the 1950s, would have been in very serious jeopardy.

The massive BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was another example of a calamity resulting from the failure of multiple lesser factors.


In Hong Kong the SARS epidemic of some years ago was not simply due to SARS hitting the territory, but multiple failures in responding to the first signs and patients.


Here, in Singapore the escape of Mas Selamat, hitherto Singapore's most infamous detainee was also the culmination of multiple factors that favoured his escape.


Yesterday we read in the main stream press that the reason why he managed to get to the home of his brother was that he has over 100 relatives and it was impossible to keep all under surveillance. Surely he does not have 100 brothers and sisters - IMMEDIATE family?


All the above examples are in the past, but looking forward I am rather worried about our (mankind's) ability to learn and keep improving our ways to prevent and react to failures, both small and big.


We cannot rely on luck or good fortune to get us out of fixes.



The Department of Health in the UK published a piece on human error:
http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/publications/publicationspolicyandguidance/browsable/DH_4936329


People in government, management, the armed forces and all walks of life would find it useful and interesting reading as what is said in the article has universal relevance.


I would recommend reading the next chapters which include 'Factors influencing learning from failure' and the following list of conclusions:

• Awareness of the nature, causes and incidence of failures is a vital component of prevention - ("You can't know what you don't know");

• Analysis of failures needs to look at root causes, not just proximal events; human errors cannot sensibly be considered in isolation of wider processes and systems.

• Error reduction and error management systems can help to prevent or mitigate the effects of individual failures;

• Certain categories of high-risk, high-technology medicine might be regarded as special cases. In these areas the level of endemic risk is such that serious errors or complications will never be eradicated. The evidence suggests that here a focus on compensating for and recovering from adverse events might be an important part of the approach to improving safety and outcomes;

• Organisational learning is a cyclical process, and all the right components must be in place for effective, active learning to take place. Distilling appropriate lessons from failures is not enough: there is a need to embed this learning in practice, and it is at this stage that the "learning loop" often fails;

• It is possible to identify a number of important barriers to learning which must be overcome if the lessons of adverse incidents are to be translated into changes in practice;

• Culture is a crucial component in learning effectively from failures: cultural considerations are significant in all parts of the learning loop, from initial incident identification and reporting to embedding appropriate changes in practice. Safety cultures can have a positive and quantifiable impact on the performance of organisations;

• Sound safety information systems are a precondition for systematic learning from failures. They need to take account of the fact that low level incidents or "near misses" can provide a useful barometer of more serious risks, and can allow lessons to be learned before a major incident occurs;

• Given appropriate approaches to analysis, it is possible to identify common themes or characteristics in failures which should be of use in helping to predict and prevent future adverse events;
• The NHS is not unique: other sectors have experience of learning from failures which is of relevance to the NHS.

Although written in the context of the NHS and the practice of medicine, the principles apply elsewhere.


But all this presupposes that the governments or organisations are not in denial or caught up in their own collective egos.


It may be an over-simpification but they are made up of people and people are not perfect, infallible creatures.


Or perhaps the 'chosen' people have no or insufficient regard for their populace. 


When the ruling class are hell bent on maintaining their closed circle and are arrogant to a fault, how can their minds be open to learning?


Before the enthusiasm and arrogance of young bureaucrats overwhelm them, they might take heed of this:


Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. (George Santayana, Spanish philosopher)


A saying which is oft times quoted as, "history repeats itself".


Already in Singapore's young life we have witnessed significant flip-flops in government policy. Only history will tell if our leaders were right.


In bigger, older countries and communities substantial changes are somewhat slower and harder to effect as they have to meet with the approval of a broad base of people who might have different languages, cultures and religions. Not to mention that some countries span time zones and climates.


In the meantime we in little places like Hong Kong and Singapore will feel the buffeting of the political and governmental seas more acutely.


So, let's hope and pray that our governments learn well the lessons from the storms that have beset us in the distant and the near past.

To See Or How To See, Spoilt Rotten and Other Cud

In my previous post I mentioned considering lasik; I had done an formal, random survey (via email) starting with seventeen friends and relatives. Since then some of you have weighed in with your comments and opinions and I have visited an optician and an optometrist.

Most of the readers who responded wear prescription spectacles. A surprising number (well, at least to me) use progressives which hitherto I had thought of as the preserve of oldies like me.

Seriously, almost all who wear spectacles on a regular basis have them fitted with with progressive lenses - and wear them for longer periods after becoming accustomed to them. One respondent finds that progressives and she do not get along at all, while another is till groping around.

Consequently I am using my progressives more often in order to try and get used to them. But once I sit down at my laptop or pick up a book or magazine to read, I slip on my reading spectacles as they are still much more comfortable for reading and for computer work.

Over the weekend I asked an optician what choices there were in the way of progressive lenses. Like Rip Van Winkle I discovered a whole new world out there -  maybe because I have depended solely on my optometrist to recommended the type of lenses and options and have not asked what else exists out there.

Well, folks, there is a wide choice of manufacturers of progressive lenses, covering a range of price points.

Today I visited my optometrist and asked him to name some top brands of progressive lenses.

He mentioned Essilor (French) and Carl Zeiss (German). As it happens so did the optician I met over the weekend. So it seems like these two brands are  'top of mind'  - at least for these two.

Chatting a little more, I asked my optometrist about Asian manufacturers and he said that the Japanese make excellent lenses for reading. Progressives require distance focus and intermediate focus and also (for my want of better words) putting the whole thing together in each lens. Thus he believes Essilor and Zeiss have the edge.

Until now I have never asked about the lenses he's checked me out for, prescribed and fitted for me.

But he's Mr Meticulous and takes time and trouble to measure and fit the spectacles, so I trust his judgement completely.

And in many cases he edges and fits the lenses himself because he is not happy with the precision of the work done by some of the labs.

The dummy that I am, it's taken me these twenty-something years to understand why the pairs of spectacles I had made at a highly recommended optometrist's in Hong Kong were not as good as they should have been!  I finally found that out when I had my eyes examined and those spectacles checked.

So, despite the technology, modern equipment and specialised training variances can happen when the prescription is sent to the labs and the lenses are fitted there. Especially when the optician or optometrist is tolerant of variances from specifications.

Anyway, since then I have come back to Singapore for my spectacles.

In case anyone is interested, my optometrist has recommended Essilor's latest Varilux PHYSIO for my next pair of progressives. And says he is happy to answer any questions!


MOMMIES' PETS


I avoided the bulkhead row in 'Cattle Class' on my way back to Singapore (usually populated by bassinets). Little did I know that a few mothers with young children had also made the same choice. So the other adults and I had to bear with one particular boy's screaming until he finally fell asleep. Nope, not crying, yes, screaming.

When I had reached my level of tolerance, I asked his mother whether she could make some effort to calm him down.

Her response was that he had been diagnosed with a condition that prevented him from expressing himself in speech and so his only outlet was in sounds and by crying in exasperation.

By this time the woman behind them was ready to take a hatchet to the family!

The mother of the screamer had two children and two maids with her and sounded like an educated Singaporean (no Singlish). Why she did not have the commonsense to give her son something to pacify him for the flight, I don't understand. A hefty slug of Gripe Water or part of an Ativan (maybe even warm milk) might have done the trick.

But then in today's world, well, ever since Dr Spock came and went, the rod is spared and the child spoiled rotten. The little darlings can do as they please and get what they want, no effort or expense spared.

That's fine by me as long as they do not impinge on my right to enjoy a quiet journey.

And the trouble is that these 'brats in the upbringing' also play up in restaurants, clubs and shops.

Sometimes I feel we should have under fives' sound-proof rooms in all public places and any child under the age of five can be seen BUT NOT HEARD! So stow them away in those sound-proof rooms and let them exercise their lungs to their hearts' content while the adults can enjoy each others' company.

I might even go so far as to fit the sound-proof rooms with dispensers for tranquiliser water that they can suck from tubes!


DISPENSABLE ?

There have not been any reported recent accidents involving foreign workers in the backs of pick-ups and trucks.

But every time I am out and about I shudder when I see workers sitting, virtually unprotected, in the load bed of the open vehicles.

Sure thing, they have side railings that confirm to Singapore's standards. Some vehicles even have canopies overhead to add to the illusory safety.

But if any of the vehicles were to be involved in any accident, you can bet your bottom dollar that these same workers will be flung out (they are not strapped in) or crushed (the railings and supports for canopies are puny).

Perhaps they would not have the luxury of such fine transportation in their homes countries, but they did not come here to die on our roads.

Also road conditions (sometimes narrow, often unpaved or potholed and shared with an assortment of other motorised vehicles, bicycles, carts, people, animals) with in their home countries would be a natural speed barrier to vehicles. Here, they are on good Singapore roads and expressways, driven around by a co-worker enabled by a driving licence originally issued in a foreign country.

And you and I know that the standards for issuing driving licences in some Asian countries may not be as strict as ours.

This is one aspect of life in Singapore that I find appalling; our treatment of people, especially the lower-paid foreign workers.

I wonder what is stopping us from providing safer transportation for workers (and for that matter schoolchildren who take school buses to and from school)?

We are in most part an egalitarian society, but the fact of life is that even in an egalitarian society some are more equal than others. Which leads to the other part to our social equation: meritocracy.

Meritocracy is described as: a system in which the talented are chosen and moved ahead on the basis of their achievement. Or, leadership selected on the basis of intellectual criteria.

I am absolutely in favour of meritocracy - especially when one is adjudged to be of merit! 

Jokes aside, what is wrong with us when members of the meritocracy forget their origins? Or is it that they cannot distance themselves enough from their past - except when on the stump for votes?

HSBC Singapore gets my goat! (Most others are minor irritants).

Nothing gets my goat more than incompetence and lousy customer service and thus far, in my 61 years of life, the most outstanding example has been HSBC (the global local bank) in the past week.


No, I did not want a loan or credit. I just wanted to apply for an HSBC credit card for the SOLE reason that Cathay Pacific has fare promotions - and some require the possession of an HSBC credit card.


Word to CX: the problem with you (and any company requiring a specific credit card issuer) is that by the time the pax obtains the credit card, it is often too late to take advantage of the promotion.


It will be for me - IF and when HSBC Singapore ever issues me a credit card!


CX's Singapore website informed thus:

Don't have a HSBC Visa Platinum credit card yet? Sign up for one today! To apply, SMS to 74722 with PLATCNAME NRIC e.g. PLATC Christine Ng S1234567A

Visit www.hsbc.com.sg for HSBC terms & conditions

I sent an SMS on Nov 13 (11:07a according to my iPhone) - it remains in the ether somewhere, as there has been no call from HSBC's card centre. As a matter of fact I sent another one after that (both were acknowledged). 

Then, I went online to ask someone to contact me; also no response. 

Last resort: I emailed my brother to refer me for a card so that he and I could benefit (hey, I am as frugal as the traditional HSBC banker!).

This evolved into me going to visit an HSBC branch about a Par 3 from our condominium yesterday afternoon (6 days after my first SMS) and completing an application form and providing copies of my Singapore IC and 2 years' tax returns.

Last night I got on the web and sent in a referral form on my bro's behalf. It was acknowledged and I was instructed in an email to complete an online application which I tried to complete.

This morning I attempted to call HSBC's Claymore branch to ask the friendly banker to submit my hard copy application with my bro's referral reference.

That's when the fun and games truly started!

Without going into greater detail (HSBC: 'Betty' assured me the conversation was being recorded and I suggest you listen to my growing frustration) this sums it up:

I finally sent this in a feedback form to HSBC:


I am NOT an HSBC customer and do NOT wish to be after most unsatisfactory recent experiences within 24 hrs. It culminated in dealing with 'Betty' at your call centre (9:20-ish today, Nov 20, 2010) in order to contact Jonathan Shan at your Claymore branch.


I got hold of 'Betty' as none of the other phone options I tried led me to someone I could speak to without a card or account number.


Your branch is a stone's throw from where I live and I can walk in any time - but I cannot get the telephone number or have my call routed there.


So I shall have to get dressed and go look for Jonathan?


Because 'Betty' required my name, the reason for my wanting to contact Jonathan, etc - thanks to Singapore's absent privacy laws I have to reveal my personal details to a call centre person even before I know if she could help me?


No way.


Thanks, HSBC




It is 9:59a as I write this an Jonathan has not called me. So I shall change and visit the branch to find out if anyone from the call centre has passed on my message to him!


LATER: (circa 10:12a) My cellphone rang as I was getting ready to visit HSBC at Claymore Hill. It was the bro's friendly banker - to whom I gave a potted version of what happened.


It transpires that the referall programme is restricted to online applications.


So we agreed he will go ahead and submit the hard copy with the supporting documents today when the bank messenger physically transports it for processing.


And NO, no one from the HSBC call centre has relayed my message to Jonathan.


The way I see this whole episode is that the call centre telemarketers, the branch staff and HSBC's online centre all compete for the same piece of business and ne'er the twain shall meet.


Except when a dummy like me, sitting at my laptop, visits their website with telephones (landline and iPhone) at the ready and within sight of an HSBC branch decides to apply for a credit card that I never wanted before but now need to have in order to buy a discounted air ticket.


If there is blame (oh dear, I'm being un 'PC') then it is the marketing strategists and executors - the overseers of the website (do they act on responses by SMS and email?) and those training the call centre boys and girls.


As my late mother used to say, "it's not the poor boob's fault" when the system got the better of a person. Which in this case is true - the system and manuals got in the way of the people who are supposed to get their audiences to love the bank!


Old timers who read this might recall the saying, "Standard Chartered bankers are gentlemen trying to be bankers, HSBC bankers are bankers trying to be gentlemen". I guess, as in all walks of life, some succeed, some don't.

As individuals some HSBC people and ex- HSBC people are very pleasant company in clubs and on the golf course (of course there are some exceptions - saved for a later blog), but the company line is made of razor wire.

So, Jonathan, I hope this answers your question as to why we live so close to the branch but I do not bank with HSBC?

Being happy is a serious handicap

By Lucy Kellaway
Published: November 7 2010 20:54 | Last updated: November 7 2010 20:54

There is a teenage boy I know who worries me quite a lot. He was born to a good family with plenty of money. He is extroverted and optimistic; people appear to like him. He’s relatively easy on the eye and reasonably bright. His health is good and he can kick, hit and catch balls of various shapes and sizes. He does not smoke, or take drugs, or do any more binge drinking than the next person.


The problem with this boy is that he has never in his entire life made an effort at anything. He has spent his first 16 years having a jolly nice time on the path of least resistance and even though he has often been told that the path of greater resistance is the one that leads to success and fulfilment, he takes no notice. Why would anyone, he asks, slog their guts out to get an A, when for a tiny fraction of the effort they can get a B, which is surely the next best thing?


This teenager suffers from a syndrome that is increasingly common among boys who have been blessed by fortune. I have named it EHS, or Excess Happiness Syndrome, and its motto is CBA*, a phrase never far from the lips of sufferers, which stands for “can’t be arsed”.


So far this syndrome has been ignored by experts who study performance. Yet it’s so obvious: being truly happy is a serious handicap. If life is thoroughly agreeable as it is, why should anyone lift a finger to change it?


Last week, the Harvard academic Rosabeth Moss Kanter touched on this in a blog post entitled: Mark Zuckerberg and Misery as Motivation. She argued that what gets entrepreneurs going are the painful flaws in their characters and in their circumstances.


Mr Zuckerberg, at least according to the film The Social Network, set up Facebook because he didn’t have any friends. Even though the man himself says this is twaddle, I bet that if he had been the most popular guy at Harvard he would have said CBA to the idea of setting up a website.


Equally, Evan Williams, who has just moved aside as chief executive of Twitter, is supposed to be shy and slow to decide things, which may have drawn him to a business where communication is easy and instant.


There are lots of other examples among entrepreneurs. Alan Sugar would surely not have been boiling beetroot or flogging firewood as a school boy if there had been any money at home. Richard Branson might not have been so keen to prove himself had he not been dyslexic and seen as a dunderhead.


It is not only true of entrepreneurs. The same applies to success in the corporate world, or success at anything at all. I remember interviewing Gerry Robinson, corporate man turned television guru, who told me that he would never have got anywhere had it not been for his gnawing dissatisfaction with himself. What made him unusual among CEOs was not that he felt this way, but that he admitted it.


This theory – that it is our unhappiness that drives us on – holds up splendidly in journalism. If I think of colleagues who are not thriving, the problem is more often a shortage of neuroses than a shortage of talent. All good journalists must ardently cling to that most destabilising of truths: you are only as good as your last story. For columnists, even greater character flaws are required: to be any good you must have an insatiable appetite for approval that can only come from a secret fear that you are no damn good.


So if it is pain and misery that count, we need to rethink the sort of jobs people should do, the sort of people companies should hire. To find the right career we should ignore the standard advice – do what you love – and identify the character flaw or source of misery. Do what scratches the itch, is more like it. Likewise, employers should look for the right weaknesses as much as the right strengths. And candidates, faced with a selection panel should no longer feel that they must hide their chippy insecurity, but should flaunt it instead.


And what about the parents of the teenage boy? They could always bankrupt themselves and inflict real hardship on the family, or start to beat or bully the boy. Failing that, they can simply wait for the next generation. Though research into EHS is not yet advanced, it’s my guess that the children of sufferers are unlikely to have the condition themselves. Growing up in a household without money or success, any offspring of this teenage boy will find that whatever the task, they definitely can be arsed.

*Can't Be Arsed (can't be bothered to make the effort)


I have often wondered what it is with 'young' people in Singapore today. As a senior, this encompasses anyone under 60!


But it seems that this is a universal problem as Lucy Kellaway (Financial Times) bemoans the same thing about the U.K. and friends in the USA grumble about the lack of motivation and backbone since national service ceased.


Hong Kong has its share of the idle rich too.


What a waste of talent (and money).


Kellaway takes a shot at boys, but there are girls out there just as direction-less. EHS doesn't discriminate against gender.


I had to read her last sentence a couple of times to figure out (duh!) that she did not mean sufferers of EHS but people to don't lead a gilded life.


Trust fund babies and hot housed technocrats may enjoy privileged lives in good times, but if there were to be serious upheaval I wonder if their instincts for survival will be awakened? Or would they be adrift in a sea of complacency and self-satisfaction?


This is why every country needs some pragmatic and hungry people - in case those used to rarified air in a controlled and contrived environment cannot survive deprivation.


The bigger a country and the more difficult it is to impose


Take a dose of kaisu-ism (how I hate the use of -isms in the MSM - another pet peeve of mine), add a hefty measure of tidak apa-ism and the result does not make for comforting contemplation. 


LATER:
Some golf and much eating has interrupted my chewing of the cud in recent weeks, but it has been a lovely break for me in Hong Kong. The weather has been unusually cooperative with only a break of a few days.


Last night, after a stupendous home cooked dinner at a friend's new home in Clearwater Bay I got a ride home from a golfing pal who asked my opinion of Singapore. She has relatives there and visits regularly.


Essentially we both agreed that Singapore tries, sometimes too hard, to be Hong Kong or better than Hong Kong. 


However, Hong Kong has the advantage of years - like a mature, sophisticated person. Singapore is sometimes a difficult baby and sometimes a 'rebellious', strong-headed teenager of a single, ageing parent. 


Some more growing up and exposure to the real world has to be experienced first and hopefully it will mature into a well-rounded adult.


But no one can predict the outcome because the best parents and upbringing have sometimes produced dysfunctional adults whereas some children who were disadvantaged in youth turned out to be successful, wonderful adults.


Que Sera Sera!

Change for the sake of change

In 2007, during the last property frenzy in Singapore, some of us fought a battle to save our homes from a group who wanted to sell out to developers. We won a respite and, hopefully, the machinations of the property market will not be pitting neighbour against neighbour again for some years.


It all sounds very dispassionate when you read about it, but nothing could be further from that if (in Singapore it is more likely when) you find yourself being threatened by the loss of your home. 


If you have ever been burgled then you might understand what I mean when I say I felt violated - as if the burglar had ransacked drawers your family has never opened, seen your underwear and been privy to your little secret quirks.


Emotionally, it's not an experience I would like to relive or to wish on anyone - except the bureaucrats and developers who have made this possible.


When I returned to Hong Kong last week I read an article in the South China Morning Post about a developer misleading the owners of a shop house in order to buy their property and thus complete their "en bloc" purchase of a building.


What piqued my interest in the article is that the age and condition for an "en bloc" in Hong Kong. It is 50 years and the threshold is now 80%, reduced from 90%. There are other terms and conditions which are not as 'business friendly' so that the individual has more protection.


In Singapore you can "en bloc" buildings of 10 (90% of the owners must agree to sell) and 20 years of age (80% owner approval). The government says it is majority rule, but it is easier for speculators to tempt the venal and short sighted than in a more mature societies like in Hong Kong, Europe or some countries in the southern hemisphere.


Imagine what Europe's cities would look like today if their old buildings had been razed willy nilly and replaced by post-WW2 buildings. The only good thing about that is that the uglier early tower blocks would since have been replaced by - possibly - better looking buildings.


Mighty China too has pulled down new buildings and infrastructure to leapfrog into the late 21st century.


Some examples (Why Buildings Die Young in China) : 
http://www.theasiamag.com/patterns/why-buildings-die-young-in-china?utm_source=BenchmarkEmail&utm_campaign=November_3__2010_Email_Alert&utm_medium=email


But they still have a sufficiency of monolithic Communist-inspired edifices and newly renovated and modernised traditional residential buildings that preserve some history for the future.


Singapore has become a thoroughly modern city with 'edgy' architecture and is now on the treadmill of having to stay current. 


Not all who grew up in kampungs and neighbourhoods enclaves are thrilled with living in HDB flats (government subsidized housing which accommodates more than 80% of Singaporeans) - but living in one makes so much economic sense that young couples find themselves priced out of the re-sale market.


As in China, the bounty of education and prosperity has given rise to many extremely wealthy people in a very short time. But upbringing, sensitivity, culture and taste cannot be purchased at the Prada or Apple store.


So we raze and build rather than build and maintain. But even third world labour is going to get more expensive as the world develops.


To start with third world workers are accustomed to lower standards and while Singapore may be a dream home for them, they have brought with them their social and hygiene habits. 


Alas, it seems there are not enough to teach and supervise them; and our reputation for being a clean city suffers as a consequence.