So I was reading asiaone online and this article caught my eye.

Singapore scholarship a ‘Stepping Stone’ for China student
As quoted in the article above,

Key personnel from the various JCs make regular trips to China to woo potential scholars, who are selected based on merit. The scholars’ education and lodging are paid for, and they also receive a monthly stipend for daily expenses.

This got me wondering… Does Singapore get their overseas scholars only from China? If not, what other country does these scholars come from? Seems to me like the Singapore government is pro Chinese? Well.. I should expect no less than that, considering that the majority of its citizen and the government are Chinese.

There are many occasions that I’ve encountered before, where by a service provider talked to me in Mandarin. Even though I can understand what they are saying, I would often tell them to repeat it again in English. Some would fumble or give me that stunned look. Surprisingly, quite a lot of them cannot even speak basic English! How did they even get a job, in the service industry in Singapore then, if they do not even know basic English! Have they forgotten that our business language is English?

I’m really disappointed with Singapore sometimes. A question was asked in the news recently if Singapore would be ready to accept a non Chinese prime minister. I honestly think not ready. Not with all the pro Chinese policies we have here. And with the Lee family in power, a non Chinese PM will never happen.

Exactly this day last year, I was in Palo Alto, California. It was the first business trip ever for me and it was a major milestone in my career. I went there not on training, but as a consultant to the project, lending my knowledge on the application’s infrastructure set up. I thoroughly enjoyed myself there. What’s not to like? A nice flight via SIA, 360 bucks a night 5 star hotel, restaurant dinners, chauffeur to and fro the hotel and office, free phone calls back to Singapore anytime I want, room service breakfast and supper topped off with nice dessert… all on company’s expense. I chalked up more than 6k in expense, and another 2.6k on my flight for a grand total of almost 9k for the 3 weeks I was there I was reluctant to go home actually.. hehehe

You work hard, you get rewarded. I managed to put myself in a very very visible position and people took notice of me. I’m really glad my contribution to the project was recognized. I really have to thank my hiring manager Jeff Chang, for taking me into his team, and to Raymond Chong, the project manager, for having take me into his team and giving me all these opportunities to prove what I’m capable of. I’d still be nowhere w/o these 2 people.

The trip to Palo Alto was not without bloopers too. There was this one day, I overslept and did not managed to wake up on time in the morning. By the time I woke up, it was almost 11. My project team started to get worried for me. They called my hotel room but there was no answer (cos i was sleeping too soundly ) They got the hotel to knock on my door and that was how I woke up.. heheh.. but thankfully, not much harm was done. by the time I got to the office, it was lunch time

Overall, it was still a gd trip. lets hope there will be more of such trips to come