YOUTH OLYMPIC GAMES

It is a proud moment in history that Singapore is hosting the 1^st Youth Olympic Games. The long wait and the detailed preparations resulted in the YOG become a reality.

The fireworks, the journey of the Olympic fire, the opening ceremony and now the start of the Olympic is something that would be imbedded in our memory.   

In years to come, the YOG would become part of the main Olympic Games. The Youth Olympic is platform for youth to excel in their sporting fitness and ambitions.

Fly The Flag

Year after year, on every National Day, the helicopter carrying the huge state flag with the accompanying helicopters steal the show. The fighter planes in aerial flight, in V-formation, signals the start of the parade on the ground. This year the parade is back to the Padang, the venue of the first National Day Parade in 1966.

This year, the public has the chance to see the mobile columns of tanks and other huge fighting machines. Each combat unit is proud to be represented at the Parade, either by weapon system or the unit flag. Years ago, I felt proud to hear the strain of music: “This country is my home ...” School pupils have to assemble to sing the school song and the national anthem.

The annual parade is part of the National Day activities. Then there is flag flying on all buildings and also on vehicles in the national month of August. The flag is our national symbol, our symbol of being independent. After the end of Japanese Occupation, the British came back to Singapore. On 1.4.1946, the Straits Settlements was dissolved and Singapore became a separate Crown Colony. In 1953, Sir George Rendall headed a British Commission to grant increased self-governance for Singapore. It was partial self-government from 1955 to 1959. The PAP swept into power in 1959 and it was full self-government from 1959 onwards. On 9^th August 1965, Singapore gained independence after leaving the short-termed federation with Malaysia (1963-1965).

The main priority of the government after Independence was housing, international trade, improving the port & airport, industrialisation, education and improvising the standard of living for the nation. Since the early days of 1965, we have never looked back but continued marching onward and forward. This has been possible with the excellent leadership of three Prime Ministers: PM Lee Kuan Yew, PM Goh Chok Tong, and now PM Lee Hsien Loong.     

It is important to know the history of our nation. Over the decades, the government has solved many problems and the industriousness and confidence of the people was an added positive factor towards nation building. Today we have reached the era of Information Technology and fast paced innovations.

The flag is the insignia of our Republic and it also flies at the United Nations. On this day of independence, I mean 45 years of nationhood, we have the opportunity to reflect upon ourselves how far we have moved on in life and how Singapore has improved over the years. I read the Straits Times, the New Paper and also Today and there are many reflections by the people how they feel so positive about this land and they are grateful to this nation. Our lives are closely knitted with the peace and harmony of Singapore.

As the flypast and the parade mark the start of our celebration, let’s salute with pride to Singapore for giving us so much. We love Singapore and we fly the flag with great pride and happiness.

Happy National Day!

Om Nath Panday

9 AUG 2010

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Pursue Your Dreams

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There is nothing wrong if you live in your dreams. I remember what my mother used to tell me about the story of James Watt. He seemed to be uninterested in his studies and would be seen idling at home. He would look at the kettle that his mother used to boil the water.

One day James took a small item and put it on the kettle lid. After some time, he found that the lid was able to lift up. He then increased the weight with more heavy items. Each time the lid was being lifted up. James then realised that it was the power of water steam and it has the ability to move it.

Young James then said to himself that if the steam moves an object, then why not I enclose the steam within a compartment and surely it would be able to move the whole box. Wow! What a box it would be: a moving one.  His imaginative mind then went on exploring further. Thought James Watt, “If I can move the box, why can’t I move the other boxes?” Surely this is possible according to James Watt.

What he thought was to align a few boxes in a line and link them. Thus it was the advent of the steam engine (the first compartment) and the coaches (the many compartments aligned with the first one). The coaches were linked to the steam engine with metal hook. The fire within the steam engine represented a moving power. To create steam, coals were used.

How to give movement? James further came up with the ideas of wheels i.e. the compartments and the steam engine would be fitted with wheels.  A wheel can move but then there must be a destination. So this idea led to the building of rail-road. Hence places were linked with railroad and in no time, the first trains rolled out in England.

What James Watt did was to move the world with his marvellous inventions. In History, we can see many examples of inventions or innovations. Isaac Newton postulated the three laws of gravitation. If Newton would have simply ate the apples, then perhaps today we would not see space shuttle in flight or mission to other planets.  Einstein came with his super formula E = mc2. Hence we are rich with the heritage of scientific inventions and knowledge.

We must not say that this current era lacks the scope for further inventions or innovation. In fact a critical and innovative mind would discover that there is a world of new opportunities waiting to be discovered and the discipline of knowledge is ever increasing. The idea of laying bricks and how to do it faster led to the birth of Management. Today management is used in many applications: the military, in astronomy, the economy, the board room, the office, the factory and etc.

For the common men and women, there is ample scope to discover or uncover new ideas. Do you know that the advent of drinking straw came about due to the question of hygiene when using glasses? The Styrofoam boxes are used as lunch packets. The plastic that hold your favourite Milo, coffee or tea is I think our local invention. The style of teh tarik @ mamak shop is Singapore style. The invention of bean curd or tahu is also local one. I think that we have underestimated our true potential.

No wonder I love to hear the slogan “Boleh” i.e. things are possible. The spirit of can be is important and essential for our progress. Many of the new ideas actually sprout from new way of doing the current things. You see that as one way of doing thing leads to another way and another way and in time you realise the first way were rather slow, rather cumbersome, more tedious and inefficient. Thus the chain of inventions or improvements makes our lives much better. A good comparison is the use of hand fan, then motorised fan and finally the in-built air-conditioning system. So you can see how ventilation has progressed over the years.

If you have any ideas, please don’t suppress it in your heart. Spill it out, talk to your close ones, write it down, improve it, draw it or chart it. As your efforts increased, an innovation is waiting to spread its wing and fly all over the world.

Allow your ideas to fly, to take shape and improve the lives of humanity. Therefore live in your dreams, allow it to take shape and make this nation a wonderful place to live in.

Om Nath Panday

9 AUG 2010          

Wishing

All Singaporeans A Happy

National Day

Pursue Your Dreams

&

Fly the Nation’s Flag

LIVE OUR DREAMS    

FLY OUR FLAG

Can we live to our dreams and not forget our roots? There are many trials and tribulations in life but one must not forget his links with the family, society and the nation. Read on to find what Om Nath has to say ...

Imagine that you make a wish upon a shooting star and within a few days it becomes true. You would consider yourself very lucky because of the coincidence of your wish and shooting star coming together and your wish being fulfilled. In bright city lights, you can see the stars except for the moon and one or two very bright stars.

In the kampongs of South East Asia where electric supplies, water and sanitation is still not available, the night sky glitters with the millions of stars and you can easily spot a shooting star provided if you are looking at the Heavens. It is said in folklore and religious teachings that paradise lies above and Hell is much below us.

However, if we choose not to be active and productive, then our living condition can worsen to a bad state that which is akin to Hell. To convert a place into Heaven requires a lot of ingredients, I mean the ingredients to achieve success.

It is from the dream that our vision emerges. To achieve success, the vision must remain constant and bright in our mind’s eye. The vision is our base, our platform from which we work out the details (calling it the work plan). The next step is the active engagement or carrying out the plan to achieve what we want.

It could be anything: buying/building a new house, climbing up the career ladder, going into own business or building a strong and loving family. Whatever we do to improve means our immediate present and near future would become better and better. When neglect set in, it is like the rust that steal away the shine and lustre of an object.

Never let your resolve waver or your vision become dull or blurred. If you are the head of the family, then the burden is great to steer the whole family to become successful. Being a social being, we cannot live in isolation. We have always someone in our lives to be concern about and take care while not forgetting our own life. It is the link between family members, the link between relations, the link between friends, the link between our fellow Singaporeans and the link with the nation that is most important. I say this because if we allow any of the many links that binds us in life to weaken, then we see that success is beginning to elude us and as the situation worsens, success and achievements become a far cry.

So do you wish to regress in life towards misery or progress with confidence for a bright future?  Thus we must focus on our vision, make the plan and put in the effort to progress while not forgetting our links with humanity. I have read on many occasions about theme like the call to strengthen the family bond, nurture the spirit of the young and help the underprivileged. Just consider what does all this mean? If we remain in isolation – thinking only of our individual selves, then the bonds that bind us with the world would weaken and the end result is we would be in misery – in mind, body and spirit. One cannot be a hermit and at the same enjoy everything while neglecting our family members and fellow people around us to suffer. If our own world becomes gloomy, it means we are in regression towards negativity.   

You may feel being lucky and successful but if it is at the expense of love and affection with the family, spending little or no time with them, then I wonder what kind of success is this. The basic foundation stone is the family because it is the family, the first institution from which we evolved. Happy are the parents in whose home a new born child graces. The priest is invited, friends and relatives come and there is joyful celebration. So our first link is the parents, then it is with the brothers and sisters and then progresses to our many relatives.

Next is the school – the teachers and pupils. Over the years, friendships strike and sad to say, it is broken up again after the PSLE result is released. We lose almost all of our friends and then make new friends at the new school (in Secondary One). The process is repeated at the Junior College, Polytechnic or the University. The same thing happens at the workplace and we find in advancing age that we have no real buddy. While some of the breakup is due to structural changes but then there are many which is self-imposed.

We begin to move away from our parents, treasuring jealously our new found freedom in the years of teen and then returning back temporarily to our parents as the demands of young adulthood increases. The parents are our best friends in time of new born child, shifting to a new house and setting down as a new family unit. They feel so concerned that they do babysitting and the many chores or run errands for the busy couple. As time passes on and things have long settled down, the poor parents are forgotten. The hum and grind of daily living, being busy on the job and solving the family problems make many of them forget their loving parents. I have seen in some families where the children have grown so big and earned so much good names and assets, that they ignored their parents.

When the news of the parent’s death comes, it is just a few days at the wake and then the tussle for the division of the parent’s wealth begins. Sometimes the fracas begins at the wake and concerned friends and relatives intervene in doing their best to calm them down. Once the division of monies and asset is done, the siblings return back to their own homes and lives and never meet with each other again except for another wake. What a sad thing to say.   

Imagine the brimming happiness that the parents felt at the arrival of the new-born child. The years passed on and the many dreams of the parents were fulfilled – the children did well in school, got a good job and started a new family. However, what pains them most is the separation and eventual forgetting them forever. We pray to God to fulfil our aspirations but then the first God is our parents and next in line the teachers who helped us to mould our future for a better one. Forgetting the parents, the gurus, the friends and relations, the society and then even migrating to another land - it is really a sad sequence. 

Having said that the family is the most important and basic institution, I move on to the work-place. Suppose you strike a million dollar in a big sweep, would you still want to work? This is a question sometime asked by friends and colleagues. You may brush aside such question by your curt reply: Do not count your eggs before the chicken hatches them. This reply is most unwelcome because it kills the discussion and the imagination to exercise making a plan if the reality arrives. Thus if the real day ever comes in one life, then many things can happen because the plan has never materialise. Chances are the money goes away in wasteful ways or if the person is not prepared, he may get a shock or even pass away instead of being happy. Extreme emotion is dangerous. 

No personal plan made, as you see, the above example was just an exercise to do a simple plan. The same goes for many other things. Focus on the job and doing it satisfactorily but then the self plan is neglected. I know of one colleague who did not plan retirement and as he was a friendly Father Christmas, all his monies were gone with the friends and relations. Finally he was resorted to begging. There are some people who may even resort to cheating others.

The work is not your total world. There also exists the social world. Some people come forward to do social work or contribute in organisations that help the people. Social work may not carry the glamour of the work-place like “I am Director of ABC Co. I have under me 1,000 staff.” It is the passion and humility that can bring achievement in the social world. Understanding people and solving the problem of the masses is what drives social workers to greater height.

Next we self-reflect our contribution to the nation. We are blessed with an excellent government. There is law and order in this land. Singapore is strategically well-placed on the international trade and business map. Instead of relying on import-export only, the nation has diversified over the years and we have ample research and development work in progress. In line with living up to our dreams, our scientists and professors are engaged in many useful projects. Innovation is one area we should not lag behind. Singapore’s progress is evident in the emergence of many hubs and existence of many opportunities.

There are many form of contribution to the nation like coming up with good ideas, helping in useful national programs, volunteering in disaster rescue mission and etc. However, if one is unable to contribute, I think there are still some things like not to spoil things or facilities provided by the state. Vandalism is a punishable offence. Graffiti is bad for our image. Littering is another area that should be of concern to all of us. Do not spoil our beaches and parks with ugly sore-eye litters.

We have come a long way from the days of many national campaigns like STOP LITTERING OR SPITTING, KEEP SINGAPORE CLEAN AND GREEN and so on. I hope that the salient points and good message has been ingrained in our mind. We have best and cleanest airport in the world. The Changi International Airport is a good testimony of our achievement.

The secret of success is being industrious, having a thinking mind, being thoughtful of others and working and living as a team. Imbibing a pride for the nation is essential from a young age. We must know the history of our nation and how we progressed since 1965.

I hear the tune of the National Anthem and balloons floating in the air in a celebratory mood. I then had a virtual spectacle. I can see the five stars rising upward rapidly in a crescent manner. The trail of red is a great sight to see.  As the crowd of people cheers loudly and say,

“Live our dreams, fly our flag”,

a wave of patriotism surges in the masses. We all fly the national flag in high spirit.    

By Om Nath Panday

AUG 2010

Protecting the Environment

A spiritual guru holds a breathing class in the open for his pupils. It is a countryside setting with nature in its fabulous beauty. The flowers are of stunning colours – yellow, pink, red and white; the breeze is fresh coming from sea about one kilometre away; the beetles and butterflies flies from flower to flower savouring the sweet nectar; the birds singing happily for a bright new day and the crystal clear pool glistening with the daylight.

After completing the hour session in the morning, the Guru usually gives a small talk to enrich the mind, body and spirit of his pupils. Today he spoke on the importance of protecting our environment. As he lectured at length, he drove the message that nature has given us a beautiful environment over the ages. It is a blessing from God that we should not destroy it. When the session ended, the pupils placed their empty water bottles in a large rattan basket (which is collected by the caretaker to be subsequently sold to a vendor who in exchange gives fertilisers, plant seeds or garden tools or sometimes other items useful for the ashram) and set off for the ashram.   

The Guru is not only a yoga teacher but an environmentalist. Before setting up the ashram, he used to work as an environmental engineer with the local government in Chiang Mai. He is also a gemmologist and has a shop selling all sorts of stones – precious or semi-precious in the capital Bangkok. His personality is striking with this unique combination of vast knowledge in spiritualism, the environment, and gem stones.

A striking picture frames part of the ashram wall. The message, written in Thai language, speaks for a harmonious ecosystem and protection of the global environment. There is a small stall near the ashram that caters food and books (especially on good values, the environment and yoga practice). Occasionally there are curious people who come to the stall to eat or nurture their questioning minds.

There are many beautiful places on Earth and if we continue to behave irresponsibly towards our environment, then sad to say we would land up living in a world that is getting warmer and warmer and the landscape beauty is destroyed by tons of rubbish and foul smell. The protective mechanism of the Earth to repair itself of dramatic or drastic climate change is gradually wearing thin. Industrial culprits are pumping into the air poisonous fumes of sulphur dioxide and other gases. The appearing holes in the sky are destroying the protective ozone layer.  

When the world was young and science & technology was still rudimentary, the world was not as polluted as it is now. As the pace of discovery and invention picked up, first starting with the fire making, growing rice crop, creating wheels to making of machines and now in the fast paced world of hi-tech & electronics, we notice mounting wastage and ever growing trash as a big threat to healthy living.

An understanding of how waste is created is important because then we can comprehend the process and seek ways to reduce as much waste as possible from the source. In industrial concerns, waste is channelled through pipes or tubes and mainly converted into useful by-products. Humans are special creatures of God because of being endowed with a powerful brain to think and seek solutions to make living condition better and better. The many inventions in history and continuing one in the present and into the near future is a solid testimony of our superb enterprise.

For the common man, they too owe a social responsibility for a clean and healthy nation. A small child scribbled:

                   “Rubbish here, rubbish there.

           Rubbish, rubbish everywhere...”

Before the child could write further, her mother snatched the child’s pencil. The child in anger wept bitterly. The response of the mother could be seen as cruel but then as she was an imaginative person, she could bear to visualise this republic becoming a big dustbin or rubbish centre.  

It is the collective responsible of everyone to make this nation clean, green and happy one. Imagine how people living in dirty gutters suffer. Now imagine how people live in clean and beautiful places. Can you see the difference? It makes a lot of difference to our lives, our health, and our image to the world that we invariably project to others.  

Of late, there have been some dramatic events that highlight the need for a clean environment. The sea accident at the Gulf of Mexico (now already more than a month) whereby the gushing of oil has not been fully contained, the collision of two ships at the Singapore Straits in the south, the lectures to raise global consciousness at the World Environment Day on 5 June 2010 and the World Oceans Day on 8 June 2010 and other news are some examples.   

The slapping of higher fines for littering and accompanying corrective work order may send temporary shivers to habitual litterers and they may restrain temporarily. The lookout for environment officer before allowing litters to slip off the hands is surely wrong behaviour.

Whether there is an enforcement officer or not, please do not litter! Stop littering!

If you don’t litter but have the behaviour to keep this nation clean, you will feel guilty, maintain self-regret, or feel the pain of paying repeated fines or shame of doing the public CWO.

Just ponder that if we allow Singapore to regress into a dirty state, it will make our living uncomfortable. Imagine having to step out carefully avoiding at every turn or corner the pool of urine, cat or dog shit, stepping onto empty discarded cigarette boxes, being hit by a flying sweet wrapper or being hurt by a high-rise litter. You would feel disgusted to smell urine or see wet tissues lying around wet with coughed saliva or nose dribble.

A national campaign is necessary to imbibe into the mind of the populace the need and importance of keeping Singapore clean. Posters, booklets and slogans beamed through the media like the papers and TV is useful.

If you happen to see broken glass pieces of a beer bottle, please remove it or get it removed. Otherwise some could accidently step over it and get hurt. Let our drains and field be litter-free. Please stop the spitting habit (the most disgusting one is that of spitting and rubbing it with the footwear).

Once I saw a man spitting out of the bus window (I mean those days of non-aircon buses). Instead the spit flew back due to the strong breeze and hit a fellow passenger. A quarrel ensued and the man who spitted gave a red dollar note, a packet of tissue and apologised profusely to pacify his victim.

You see how far a spit can bring a person into an unexpected position.

Om Nath Panday

9 JUNE 2010