As a follow up to the previous article on NUTS, here is what my Italian friend said after he read it:
“It is maybe interesting that in Italy the situation is such that the rules are there just to have fun in breaking them. For an average italian it is a real pleasure to U-turn when there is a sign of no-U-turn… maybe we can call it U-Turn And Have Fun Syndrome…”
Recently I received by email the following, rather long, article. While this is a sober and poignant examination of the social culture in Singapore, I believe many other countries can similarly benefit from Mr Sim Wong Hoo’s observations. By the way, Mr Sim also happens to be the Chairman and CEO of Creative Technology, one of the best-known success stories of Singapore, and very much government-unassisted in its early days.
In case you are too busy to read through the entire article, here is a short extract from the Introduction:
Whats is NUTS? NUTS is when you want to do something and you seek approval of a higher authority. When there is no rule saying that you can do such a thing, then the standard answer is NO…
Two days ago, it was April Fools’ Day. It was also the same day that Leslie Cheung took his own life by jumping off from his 24-th level hotel room. Leslie was one of the biggest star in Hong Kong – movies and singer – throughout the 80’s.
The war in Iraq is on the lips of everyone. So far, despite the initial optimism – through the media’s fondness for showing missiles hitting targets and brandishing the fire power in the coalition forces – and unreasonably high expectations, it is perhaps not surprising that it’s Iraq having the upper hand after about 10 or so days. After all, to win this war, US needs to depose Saddam Hussein, whereas all Saddam needs to do to win is to remain standing at the end of all the commotion!
Over the past few months, the words “change is constant” are often heard at my work place. Well, seems to me that whoever is saying that is either shirking the responsibility of providing stability, or admitting defeat – in other words, inability to influence matters favourably.
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