A person's a person, no matter how small

We had plans to go for a comic martial arts concert, but couldn't get good seats. Meanwhile, I stumbled upon this The Which Dr. Seuss Book Are You Test:

Your Score: Horton Hears a Who
23% Grinchification 53% Hoponpoppiness/Cathatitude 76% Loraxity

Horton Hears a Who! is a story about an elephant with a good heart and an activist ethic. Like Horton, you're a very nice person, and you're very observant about the world around you. You are more likely to get involved with political or activist causes. You also tend to be more whimsical and creative than down to earth.

The lower your Grinchification score, the nicer you are.
The higher your Cathatitude/Hoponpoppiness score, the more whimsical and creative you are.
The higher your Loraxity score, the more concerned you are with the world around you, politics and activism.

Other Categories
Marvin K. Mooney, Will You Please Go Now! The Lorax The Cat in The Hat Green Eggs and Ham Oh, The Places You'll Go Hop on Pop If I Ran the Zoo How The Grinch Stole Christmas! The Butter Battle Book Yertle The Turtle Fox in Socks

Balancing star power with politics and fun

To me, good entertainment stretches the imagination and even tactfully raises socially relevant issues. As for actors, the ones that stand out not only excel as entertainers, but are self-aware and committed to both their families and craft.

No surprise then that I'm a huge supporter of movies such as Hotel Rwanda and The Constant Gardener ... apart from our sci-fi and action collections, of course ;). "Stars" like The Dixie Chicks, Bono and Angelina Jolie are also some of my favourite celebrities because of their willingness to lend their support for great causes.

That said, being in the spotlight isn't enough. It takes subtlety, humility, skill and effort to pull this off right. A recent American Chronicles article discusses how "a star's political views, or how they go about expressing those views, can quickly distinguish the light that allows a star to shine on worthy causes," constrasting the successes of Hotel Rwanda and Blood Diamond with that of Syriana and Babel.

The author also wrote a fun premise on the next action hero which sci-fi fans, esp. those who watch Stargate and Farscape, would appreciate. Read some excerpts here.

How not to use Powerpoint

Since I've spent most of last week preparing multiple big presentations at work, I'm taking inordinate pleasure in this "How not to use Powerpoint" video, which includes gems like:
1) Keep it simple, stupid!
2) Spell check
3) "Effectively" use bullets, colours, animation and data
4) The font you use tells who you are as a person. Me? I like Book Antiqua, if it's not the company default...
5) The more the slides, the less effective the presentation!

How do you measure your worth?

A few months back, the Singapore government released a civil service pay revision that pegged ministerial salaries to the top earners in 6 private sector professions, resulting in salary rises of between 14-33%.

My father-in-law recently forwarded a link to NMP Thio Li-Ann's (an NUS Law Prof) cogent argument "whether the wrong message is being sent to ... the post 1965 generation in conceptualizing reward and structuring incentive in primarily monetary terms." If you've time and interest, do read her full speech linked here.

In conveying an overwhelming market-oriented ethos, are we not discounting intangible values which are essential for nation-building? The underlying ideology of profit maximization which can breed a fixation on self-interest stands at odds with attributes of selflessness and dedication to the common good.

.... We are not merely atomistic, profit-maximising individuals, evaluating opportunity costs and benefits; the call to service is a noble one.... There is more to life than seeing things through the dominant lens of money and human resource management. Virtues like loyalty, sacrifice, perseverance, sustain hope that a nation will endure and become great. It is a privilege to be able to build something of enduring worth in our lifetime. Greatness is not measured in purely monetary terms; otherwise, we would celebrate mercenaries, not patriots.

The market is a marvelous motivator, but it can lead to insularity, selfishness and the "I come first" mentality. My concern is that if we conceptualise the worth of our government leaders in predominantly material or monetary terms, an over-emphasis on Market values may send the wrong message to my generation. After all, the worth of a person does not turn on how much he earns.

One's sense of duty must perhaps co-exist with other motives; but where does prudence end and avarice begin? When does the impulse to reward someone for a job well-done cross the line and descend into the realm of greed? I appreciate the need to pay ministers well, but in devising an appropriate formula, there is a need to be vigilant, in the light of public unhappiness, to strike a median between austerity and excessive prosperity.

We must take care and be conscious of the message being sent to Singaporeans through this revision exercise, as the underlying assumptions speak of how we value things. Do we value people instrumentally, primarily through what can be quantified? Or do we appreciate the intrinsic worth of things, which is essential to any society which cherishes the principle of human dignity and authentic community.

Anniversary dinners and pillow talk

Hubby and I celebrated our 2nd year anniversary a few days back. Being married virgins (hmmm, that didn't come across quite right), I always wonder what couples talk about over the big anniversary dinner. Maybe something like this... or NOT!

M = man, W = woman:
M: Interesting restaurant you've chosen.
W: Nice with a change, don't you think?
M: Of course. (After awkward smile) How long has it been?
W: 38 years.
M: Time flies.
W: Honey, what would you do if I passed away? Would you remarry?
M: No. Definitely not.
W: Why not? Don't you like being married?
M: Sure, of course.
W: So why wouldn't you remarry?
M: OK, so I guess I would get married again.
W: You would? Would you live with her in our house? Would you replace pictures of me with hers? Would you sleep with her in our bed?

It can only go downhill from there. Check out the full scene here:

Think about the other 99.9%

We've read Gloria Steinem's Smith address. A few weeks later, Bill Clinton spoke at Harvard on: "Human beings with their three billion genomes are 99.9 percent identical genetically.... We can violate elemental standards of learning and knowledge and reason and even the humanity of our fellow human beings because our differences matter more. That’s what makes you worship power over purpose... [Let's] realize that what we have in common is more important than what divides us."

What a shame Clinton's political career presidential term ended in disgrace as he remains such a terrific global citizen and thought leader today.

On the state of our world:

It’s a frustrating time, because for all the opportunity, there’s a lot of inequality. There’s a lot of insecurity and there’s a lot of instability and unsustainability.... But I believe the most important problem is the way people think about it and each other, and themselves. The world is awash today in political, religious, almost psychological conflicts, which require us to divide up and demonize people who aren’t us. And every one of them in one way or the other is premised on a very simple idea. That our differences are more important than our common humanity. I would argue that Mother Teresa was asked here, Bono was asked here, and Martin Luther King was asked here because this class believed that they were people who thought our common humanity was more important than our differences.

On our responsibilities and possibilities:

So with this Harvard degree and your incredible minds and your spirits that I’ve gotten a little sense of today, this gives you virtually limitless possibilities. But you have to decide how to think about all this and what to do with your own life in terms of what you really think. I hope that you will share Martin Luther King’s dream, embrace Mandela’s spirit of reconciliation, support Bono’s concern for the poor and follow Mother Teresa’s life into some active service. Ordinary people have more power to do public good than ever before because of the rise of non-governmental organizations, because of the global media culture, because of the Internet, which gives people of modest means the power, if they all agree, to change the world.... Citizen service is a tradition in our country about as old as Harvard, and certainly older than the government.... Spend as much of your time and your heart and your spirit as you possibly can thinking about the 99.9 percent. See everyone and realize that everyone needs new beginnings. Enjoy your good fortune. Enjoy your differences, but realize that our common humanity matters much, much more.

Happy Birthday, P!

You blog stalker you....