Just finished watching the Asian Cup final between Iraq and Saudi Arabia. I only started watching from the Japan vs Saudi Arabia semi finals. I am really impressed by the level of football in this tournament. The level of technique was pretty high among the top teams and the pace of play was fast and aggressive. Nice =)
Was rather happy that Iraq won too. Seems to be their destiny, after all that the country had gone through. Hopefully this victory would bring a teeny weeny happiness to the people of Iraq despite all their suffering. They were deserved winners in the final for Saudi lost their heads and were not able to penetrate the sea of white shirts at all. I can't remember the Iraqi goalie having too much to do. But Iraq winning also prompted a question of what if for Singapore. Singapore beat Iraq in the first game of the qualifiers, but in the end the Lions failed to qualify and Iraq gone on to win the whole thing.
Singapore really has a long way to go judging at the high level displayed by Japan, Korea, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and even Australia in this tournament. Raddy has turned us into a disciplined and fit bunch but to step onto the next level, ie Asian Cup qualification on a consistent basis and eventually World Cup qualification, we need some seriously technically gifted players. Players like SHunsuke Nakamura, Lee Chun Soo, Younis Mahmoud, Al Qhatani and Malek, Maxim Shatskih. These are the players who can help us win games against top class Asian opposition. How are we going to train these players? I really have no idea, but it is still my hope that one day Singapore can go on to win the Asian Cup and qualify for the World Cup. And you can bet your last dollar I will be dare screaming referee kayu when that happens =))))
Anyway I came across a very interesting thread in a forum recently...
http://www.mycarforum.com/forum/Others_C20/Lite_%26_EZ_F15/Does_religion_matter_alot_in_a_relationship_P1979957
Some very interesting views posted by forumners there. Some are of the opinion that love can conquer all and a compromise can be made. Some firmly believe that marriage is already very complicated, there is no need to introduce another time bomb into the relationship.
Which side are you on?
To be honest, I really can't understand why religion should stand in the way if 2 people really love each other. But that's just me. I wouldn't settle for somebody I like less just because she happen to be same/no religion as me. Similarly I wouldn't give up on someone I really like due to religion. The world does not need to be so divisive... But I guess of course it's easy theorising here behind the computer screen when I do not need to do anything drastic yet.
But the reason I posted this is because, it does mean something pretty impt for me.... and this thread had to be there at this time. Maybe there really is someone up there after all......
Monday, July 30, 2007
Thursday, July 26, 2007
The art of acting busy...
This letter is really accurate, the art of acting busy and acting blur is still essential to survival in the work place. Check out the comments on the letter in The Straits Times online, they are very accurate comments too.
I admit I am guilty of acting busy also. But it is only because people only choose to see when you are slacking. They do not see you staying back in camp to prepare for ATEC while the rest of the battalion are enjoying themselves in Sentosa. They do not see us coming back during offdays to do security checks coz MSD is coming etc. They will only choose to see us play games in the office and make their conclusions straightaway.
From The Straits Times
Bosses need a mindset change
IT IS good that the Civil Service is taking the lead to help employees achieve work-life balance ('Top brass to champion work-life balance'; ST, July 25).
However, middle managers and heads of department need to be educated on the merits of such a policy.
Many a time I have heard comments like 'Going off early will show to others that our department has nothing to do, hence it is better for you not to go off early' and 'We need to show the CEO that our department is very busy, therefore I cannot allow you to leave early.'
Comments like these will only serve to demoralise the workforce and render the policy ineffective.
I admit I am guilty of acting busy also. But it is only because people only choose to see when you are slacking. They do not see you staying back in camp to prepare for ATEC while the rest of the battalion are enjoying themselves in Sentosa. They do not see us coming back during offdays to do security checks coz MSD is coming etc. They will only choose to see us play games in the office and make their conclusions straightaway.
From The Straits Times
Bosses need a mindset change
IT IS good that the Civil Service is taking the lead to help employees achieve work-life balance ('Top brass to champion work-life balance'; ST, July 25).
However, middle managers and heads of department need to be educated on the merits of such a policy.
Many a time I have heard comments like 'Going off early will show to others that our department has nothing to do, hence it is better for you not to go off early' and 'We need to show the CEO that our department is very busy, therefore I cannot allow you to leave early.'
Comments like these will only serve to demoralise the workforce and render the policy ineffective.
Statistics...
Once again this is proof that statistics can be bent in anyway you like. Wouldn't it be more accurate to find the mean or median salary of engineering grads? If that is impossible then don't publish this article at all! After years of emphasising other professions, now you find not enough engine grads. This is one of the major perils of micro managing. Normal demand and supply economics will dictate the number of people going into each profession! If there is anything that this article proof, it is that you must go into mgt if you want high pay, no matter what degree you hold.
From The Straits Times
Lucrative engineering degrees
Many highly paid chiefs of listed firms have degrees in engineering
By Michelle Quah
FINANCE, banking, law and accountancy are often tipped to be the university courses which students hoping for a lucrative career should take.
Too often have we heard parents and peers alike extolling the fiscal benefits of earning one's livelihood in the financial and legal sectors.
But now, a recent bit of research by The Business Times might suggest otherwise.
Our examination of the most highly paid chiefs of listed companies here shows that it is the engineering and hard-science degrees that have stood these professionals in good stead. A BT check of annual reports and corporate websites found that senior executives with engineering degrees form the bulk of top earners from companies in the Straits Times Index (STI).
This list of the 55 best-paid executives of STI companies gained fame when it was distributed by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in Parliament in April - to illustrate the earning power of the private sector during the debate over the increase in ministerial pay.
An updated version by BT shows how much these executives - mostly CEOs, executive chairmen and managing directors - earn. Their annual pay packets range from above $250,000 to more than $9 million.
RELATED LINKS
Singapore's best paid executives
And engineers feature prominently among the big earners. Seventeen of the 55 executives - that is, 30 per cent, the most of any profession - graduated with engineering degrees.
Science degree holders were the next best achievers, with 12 of them making the top 55 list. It is possible that some of these also specialised in engineering - with most engineering degrees being bachelor of science - but further information was not available.
As a group, accounting, business administration, economics and commerce graduates made up 11 of the top 55. Others, like UOB chief Wee Cho Yaw and DBS Group Holdings chief operating officer Frank Wong, have not said what first degrees they hold but are well-known bankers.
Arts graduates took two positions on the list. Dr Lim Cheok Peng, managing director of Parkway Holdings, is the sole doctor - he is a cardiologist. City Developments executive chairman Kwek Leng Beng is the sole law graduate. And Total Access Communication CEO Sigve Brekke is the sole holder of a degree in public administration.
The others have not stated, either in their companies' annual reports or websites, what first degrees they hold.
The findings should assuage the fears of those who worry that engineering may be less lucrative than other professions.
Such concerns arose when the Government published the benchmark to which civil service pay will be pegged. The median salaries of the top eight earners for six professions used to compute the salary benchmark indicated that the earnings of engineers were a far cry from those of other professions.
Member of Parliament Lee Bee Wah addressed those concerns in Parliament, pointing out that some engineers have gone on to do very well as CEOs of top companies. Other than those in the top 55 list, she also said 'that more than 40 per cent of our current ministers and many more top civil servants are engineers by training too'. And 'this shows the flexibility of someone with an engineering background'.
PM Lee picked up on Ms Lee's remarks, saying: 'Lee Bee Wah did us a favour explaining that engineers have done very well and lots of bright students ought to go and study engineering.'
Of the engineers, the most highly paid is Keppel Corp's executive chairman Lim Chee Onn, who took home between $7.25 million and $7.5 million in the financial year just ended. Mr Lim is a science degree holder with a doctorate in engineering.
The trio from Venture Corp - all engineers - also featured prominently. Chairman and CEO Wong Ngit Liong took home between $4.25 million and $4.5 million for the year ended Dec 31, 2006. He holds a first class honours degree in electrical engineering from the University of Malaya.
He was followed by fellow executive directors Soo Eng Hiong and Tan Choon Huat, who were paid between $1 million and $1.25 million in 2006. Mr Soo has a degree in electronics from the University of Southampton in the UK, and Mr Tan has a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Liverpool in the UK.
SembCorp Marine group president and CEO Tan Kwi Kin and ST Engineering CEO Tan Pheng Hock - both engineering graduates - also received impressive pay packages last year.
But it is not just engineers working in engineering-related fields who are among the top earners. Many others have made good in other industries.
Property giant CapitaLand's president and CEO Liew Mun Leong graduated from the University of Singapore with a civil engineering degree and is a registered professional civil engineer. He was the fifth-best-paid executive on the list, with a pay packet of $5.14 million in 2006.
Fraser & Neave chairman Michael Fam and Singapore Airlines CEO Chew Choon Seng each took home between $2.75 million and $3 million in FY06. Dr Fam has a first class honours degree in engineering from the University of Western Australia, Perth. Mr Chew has a first class honours degree in engineering from the University of Singapore.
Genting International's executive chairman Lim Kok Thay holds a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering from the University of London; Keppel Land's managing director Kevin Wong holds a first class honours degree in civil engineering from Imperial College, London; and Singapore Press Holdings' CEO Alan Chan holds a diplome d'ingenieur from the Ecole Nationale de l'Aviation Civile in France, which is equivalent to an engineering degree.
From The Straits Times
Lucrative engineering degrees
Many highly paid chiefs of listed firms have degrees in engineering
By Michelle Quah
FINANCE, banking, law and accountancy are often tipped to be the university courses which students hoping for a lucrative career should take.
Too often have we heard parents and peers alike extolling the fiscal benefits of earning one's livelihood in the financial and legal sectors.
But now, a recent bit of research by The Business Times might suggest otherwise.
Our examination of the most highly paid chiefs of listed companies here shows that it is the engineering and hard-science degrees that have stood these professionals in good stead. A BT check of annual reports and corporate websites found that senior executives with engineering degrees form the bulk of top earners from companies in the Straits Times Index (STI).
This list of the 55 best-paid executives of STI companies gained fame when it was distributed by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in Parliament in April - to illustrate the earning power of the private sector during the debate over the increase in ministerial pay.
An updated version by BT shows how much these executives - mostly CEOs, executive chairmen and managing directors - earn. Their annual pay packets range from above $250,000 to more than $9 million.
RELATED LINKS
Singapore's best paid executives
And engineers feature prominently among the big earners. Seventeen of the 55 executives - that is, 30 per cent, the most of any profession - graduated with engineering degrees.
Science degree holders were the next best achievers, with 12 of them making the top 55 list. It is possible that some of these also specialised in engineering - with most engineering degrees being bachelor of science - but further information was not available.
As a group, accounting, business administration, economics and commerce graduates made up 11 of the top 55. Others, like UOB chief Wee Cho Yaw and DBS Group Holdings chief operating officer Frank Wong, have not said what first degrees they hold but are well-known bankers.
Arts graduates took two positions on the list. Dr Lim Cheok Peng, managing director of Parkway Holdings, is the sole doctor - he is a cardiologist. City Developments executive chairman Kwek Leng Beng is the sole law graduate. And Total Access Communication CEO Sigve Brekke is the sole holder of a degree in public administration.
The others have not stated, either in their companies' annual reports or websites, what first degrees they hold.
The findings should assuage the fears of those who worry that engineering may be less lucrative than other professions.
Such concerns arose when the Government published the benchmark to which civil service pay will be pegged. The median salaries of the top eight earners for six professions used to compute the salary benchmark indicated that the earnings of engineers were a far cry from those of other professions.
Member of Parliament Lee Bee Wah addressed those concerns in Parliament, pointing out that some engineers have gone on to do very well as CEOs of top companies. Other than those in the top 55 list, she also said 'that more than 40 per cent of our current ministers and many more top civil servants are engineers by training too'. And 'this shows the flexibility of someone with an engineering background'.
PM Lee picked up on Ms Lee's remarks, saying: 'Lee Bee Wah did us a favour explaining that engineers have done very well and lots of bright students ought to go and study engineering.'
Of the engineers, the most highly paid is Keppel Corp's executive chairman Lim Chee Onn, who took home between $7.25 million and $7.5 million in the financial year just ended. Mr Lim is a science degree holder with a doctorate in engineering.
The trio from Venture Corp - all engineers - also featured prominently. Chairman and CEO Wong Ngit Liong took home between $4.25 million and $4.5 million for the year ended Dec 31, 2006. He holds a first class honours degree in electrical engineering from the University of Malaya.
He was followed by fellow executive directors Soo Eng Hiong and Tan Choon Huat, who were paid between $1 million and $1.25 million in 2006. Mr Soo has a degree in electronics from the University of Southampton in the UK, and Mr Tan has a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Liverpool in the UK.
SembCorp Marine group president and CEO Tan Kwi Kin and ST Engineering CEO Tan Pheng Hock - both engineering graduates - also received impressive pay packages last year.
But it is not just engineers working in engineering-related fields who are among the top earners. Many others have made good in other industries.
Property giant CapitaLand's president and CEO Liew Mun Leong graduated from the University of Singapore with a civil engineering degree and is a registered professional civil engineer. He was the fifth-best-paid executive on the list, with a pay packet of $5.14 million in 2006.
Fraser & Neave chairman Michael Fam and Singapore Airlines CEO Chew Choon Seng each took home between $2.75 million and $3 million in FY06. Dr Fam has a first class honours degree in engineering from the University of Western Australia, Perth. Mr Chew has a first class honours degree in engineering from the University of Singapore.
Genting International's executive chairman Lim Kok Thay holds a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering from the University of London; Keppel Land's managing director Kevin Wong holds a first class honours degree in civil engineering from Imperial College, London; and Singapore Press Holdings' CEO Alan Chan holds a diplome d'ingenieur from the Ecole Nationale de l'Aviation Civile in France, which is equivalent to an engineering degree.
Sunday, July 22, 2007
THE SEED - Very good story
A successful business man was growing old and knew it was time to choose
a successor to take over the business. Instead of choosing one of his
directors or his children, he decided to do something different.
He called all the young executives in his company together.
"It is time for me to step down and choose the next CEO," he said. "I
have decided to choose one of you."
The young executives were shocked, but the boss continued. "I am going
to give each one of you a seed today - a very special seed. I want you
to plant the seed, water it, and come back here one year from today with
what you have grown from the seed I have given you. I will then judge
the plants that you bring, and the one I choose will be the next CEO."
One man, named Jim, was there that day and he, like the others, received
a seed.
He went home and excitedly, told his wife the story. She helped him get
a pot, soil and compost and he planted the seed.
Every day, he would water it and watch to see if it had grown. After
about three weeks, some of the other executives began to talk about
their seeds and the plants that were beginning to grow. Jim kept
checking his seed, but nothing ever grew.
Three weeks, four weeks, five weeks went by, still nothing. By now,
others were talking about their plants, but Jim didn't have a plant and
he felt like a failure.
Six months went by - still nothing in Jim's pot. He just knew he had
killed his seed. Everyone else had trees and tall plants, but he had
nothing. Jim didn't say anything to his colleagues, however. He just
kept watering and fertilizing the soil - he so wanted the seed to grow.
A year finally went by and all the young executives of the company
brought their plants to the CEO for inspection. Jim told his wife that
he wasn't going to take an empty pot. But she asked him to be honest
about what happened.
Jim felt sick at his stomach. It was going to be the most embarrassing
moment of his life, but he knew his wife was right.
He took his empty pot to the board room. When Jim arrived, he was amazed
at the variety of plants grown by the other executives. They were
beautiful--in all shapes and sizes. Jim put his empty pot on the floor
and many of his colleagues laughed. A few felt sorry for him!
When the CEO arrived, he surveyed the room and greeted his young
executives.
Jim just tried to hide in the back.
"My, what great plants, trees, and flowers you have grown," said the
CEO.
"Today one of you will be appointed the next CEO!"
All of a sudden, the CEO spotted Jim at the back of the room with his
empty pot. He ordered the financial director to bring him to the front.
Jim was terrified. He thought, "The CEO knows I'm a failure! Maybe he
will have me fired!"
When Jim got to the front, the CEO asked him what had happened to his
seed.
Jim told him the story.
The CEO asked everyone to sit down except Jim. He looked at Jim, and
then announced to the young executives, "Here is your next Chief
Executive! His name is Jim!"
Jim couldn't believe it. Jim couldn't even grow his seed. How could he
be the new CEO the others said?
Then the CEO said, "One year ago today, I gave everyone in this room a
seed.
I told you to take the seed, plant it, water it, and bring it back to me
today. But I gave you all boiled seeds; they were dead - it was not
possible for them to grow.
All of you, except Jim, have brought me trees and plants and flowers.
"When you found that the seed would not grow, you substituted another
seed for the one I gave you. Jim was the only one with the courage and
honesty to bring me a pot with my seed in it. Therefore, he is the one
who will be the new Chief Executive!"
Moral:
If you plant honesty, you will reap trust
If you plant goodness, you will reap friends.
If you plant humility, you will reap greatness.
If you plant perseverance, you will reap contentment
If you plant consideration, you will reap perspective.
If you plant hard work, you will reap success.
If you plant forgiveness, you will reap reconciliation.
So, be careful what you plant now; it will determine what you will reap
later.
a successor to take over the business. Instead of choosing one of his
directors or his children, he decided to do something different.
He called all the young executives in his company together.
"It is time for me to step down and choose the next CEO," he said. "I
have decided to choose one of you."
The young executives were shocked, but the boss continued. "I am going
to give each one of you a seed today - a very special seed. I want you
to plant the seed, water it, and come back here one year from today with
what you have grown from the seed I have given you. I will then judge
the plants that you bring, and the one I choose will be the next CEO."
One man, named Jim, was there that day and he, like the others, received
a seed.
He went home and excitedly, told his wife the story. She helped him get
a pot, soil and compost and he planted the seed.
Every day, he would water it and watch to see if it had grown. After
about three weeks, some of the other executives began to talk about
their seeds and the plants that were beginning to grow. Jim kept
checking his seed, but nothing ever grew.
Three weeks, four weeks, five weeks went by, still nothing. By now,
others were talking about their plants, but Jim didn't have a plant and
he felt like a failure.
Six months went by - still nothing in Jim's pot. He just knew he had
killed his seed. Everyone else had trees and tall plants, but he had
nothing. Jim didn't say anything to his colleagues, however. He just
kept watering and fertilizing the soil - he so wanted the seed to grow.
A year finally went by and all the young executives of the company
brought their plants to the CEO for inspection. Jim told his wife that
he wasn't going to take an empty pot. But she asked him to be honest
about what happened.
Jim felt sick at his stomach. It was going to be the most embarrassing
moment of his life, but he knew his wife was right.
He took his empty pot to the board room. When Jim arrived, he was amazed
at the variety of plants grown by the other executives. They were
beautiful--in all shapes and sizes. Jim put his empty pot on the floor
and many of his colleagues laughed. A few felt sorry for him!
When the CEO arrived, he surveyed the room and greeted his young
executives.
Jim just tried to hide in the back.
"My, what great plants, trees, and flowers you have grown," said the
CEO.
"Today one of you will be appointed the next CEO!"
All of a sudden, the CEO spotted Jim at the back of the room with his
empty pot. He ordered the financial director to bring him to the front.
Jim was terrified. He thought, "The CEO knows I'm a failure! Maybe he
will have me fired!"
When Jim got to the front, the CEO asked him what had happened to his
seed.
Jim told him the story.
The CEO asked everyone to sit down except Jim. He looked at Jim, and
then announced to the young executives, "Here is your next Chief
Executive! His name is Jim!"
Jim couldn't believe it. Jim couldn't even grow his seed. How could he
be the new CEO the others said?
Then the CEO said, "One year ago today, I gave everyone in this room a
seed.
I told you to take the seed, plant it, water it, and bring it back to me
today. But I gave you all boiled seeds; they were dead - it was not
possible for them to grow.
All of you, except Jim, have brought me trees and plants and flowers.
"When you found that the seed would not grow, you substituted another
seed for the one I gave you. Jim was the only one with the courage and
honesty to bring me a pot with my seed in it. Therefore, he is the one
who will be the new Chief Executive!"
Moral:
If you plant honesty, you will reap trust
If you plant goodness, you will reap friends.
If you plant humility, you will reap greatness.
If you plant perseverance, you will reap contentment
If you plant consideration, you will reap perspective.
If you plant hard work, you will reap success.
If you plant forgiveness, you will reap reconciliation.
So, be careful what you plant now; it will determine what you will reap
later.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
County Court papers have been served on Manchester United Football Club Limited.
County Court papers have been served on Manchester United Football Club Limited.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - 13 JULY 2007
The implementation of a compulsory automatic cup ticket scheme (ACS) has been widely condemned by thousands of Manchester United supporters as well as the major independent supporters’ groups MUST, IMUSA and the fanzines.
Now MUST is backing legal action being taken by one of its members against Manchester United over what many season ticket holders at Old Trafford see as an unfair move to force them to join the ACS, in addition to paying a 13-14% price rise on their season tickets next season. On top of steep rises for the last two seasons, it means that many season ticket holders will be paying well over £1000 a year to watch games at Old Trafford, more than twice what they were paying 2 years ago.
County Court papers were served on Manchester United Football Club Limited last week and they now have until 19th July to respond (either admitting or defending the claim) before a date is set for the hearing.
Many supporters cannot afford this kind of increase and the anger among United season ticket holders is growing at what they see as an abuse of their loyalty to the club over many years. Being forced to buy up to £500 worth of additional home cup tickets, whether or not they can actually attend the games (e.g. midweek, school nights for kids), has triggered this anger. Up to now the cup scheme has been voluntary. The change has stirred one season ticket holder to take legal action based on what he regards as a clear breach of contract but MUST has a list, already over 100 and growing daily, of others interested in pursuing similar claims..
MUST has engaged a law firm, Underwoods, to help with initial advice on mounting a class action on behalf of aggrieved ST holders. MUST is also talking to another major City of London firm on ways of challenging the compulsory ACS but as such an action is complex and potentially expensive, the quickest and most cost effective route initially is to support an individual member's claim in the County Court.
The purpose of this is to test the legality of the compulsory ACS through an action alleging (i) breach of contract; and (ii) in the event that the contract is not deemed to be breached, that it is invalid and unenforceable to the extent it requires compulsory ACS membership. The individual taking this legal action is MUST member John Mayall, who renewed season tickets for himself and his son in May at a cost of £1444, receiving confirmation shortly after that his purchase had been successful and that the tickets would be delivered in June. About one week later United wrote to him refusing to supply the paid-for tickets unless he joined the ACS, which would commit him to purchase cup tickets for all home matches at unspecified cost likely to amount to hundreds of pounds. Mr Mayall and his son have not joined the ACS and United officials have been unmoved by his efforts to persuade them that he and his son will not be able to go to midweek games due to cost and school commitments.
We have also heard of similar issues from Irish United fans where it is impossible for them to attend mid-week cup games due to the distance and yet United is unwilling to make any exception to the compulsory nature of the cup scheme. United say that fans can sell their tickets if they do not want them, but if it were that easy to sell them United would not be forcing fans to buy tickets they do not want in the first place. Additionally you can only sell the tickets through United's own system Viagogo - on which they make a profit! Viagogo adds on a charge of about 25% so the seller gets less than they paid and the buyer has to pay more than face value too. Furthermore supporters cannot sell their tickets on Viagogo until United have sold all of their own remaining tickets first. Therefore it will not be available for unpopular midweek matches that don't sell out - exactly the matches where most people would wish to sell the unwanted ticket that the club have forced them to buy. So supporters end up paying for tickets they didn't want and cannot sell and the Glazers have the money in the bank.
Many other fans have joined the ACS under protest, while we understand that over 6,000 fans have not renewed their season tickets at all next season. Those renewers who refuse to join the ACS have been threatened with cancellation or invalidation of their season tickets. We believe all of these fans may have grounds to take action similar to Mr Mayall.
Success in this legal action, and others which will inevitably follow, could ensure that the ACS remains voluntary for all season ticket holders, which would be a victory for loyal fans who feel that they are being exploited by the Glazers to help pay the family’s debts. It could also undermine the Glazers’ efforts to refinance their debt by issuing a bond secured on stadium income (including ‘guaranteed’ ticket income from the ACS) as the banks will shy away from any controversy which jeopardises this revenue.
United say that this system is fairer than at some other clubs where you pay for all cup games up front. That is irrelevant - just because some other clubs are exploiting their supporters loyalty to an even greater degree it doesn’t make it any better for Manchester United supporters. Furthermore United have not so far come clean on what the cup tickets will cost, but they expect fans to sign up agreeing to buy them.
MUST member John Mayall says: “United are threatening to stop me and my son from attending premiership games using the season tickets we have already bought unless we also join the automatic cup ticketing scheme. This would add hundreds of pounds each to the £1444 I have already paid for our season tickets. It’s disgraceful."
"I think the ACS (Automatic Cup Scheme) should be renamed the BCS - the blank cheque scheme. They expect fans to enter into a contract obliging them to buy all cup tickets for all three competitions without knowing what they will cost. In my understanding they could charge outrageous prices for these tickets after fans have signed up and there is nothing they could do about it. I think the OFT should look into this".
“If the Glazers think unwanted tickets for evening cup games would be that easy for fans to sell on through Viagogo then I don’t understand why they are trying to force us to by them in the first place. Why don’t they just sell them themselves?”
MUST Chair Nick Towle added: “As a supporters trust, MUST is responding to the anger of match-going members who have asked us to do something about this decision. We don’t recommend legal action against our club lightly, but attempts to change minds about this have been brushed off. This decision clearly comes from the Glazers, against the advice of senior management we understand, so that they can get fans to pay off more of the debts they took out to buy the club. This shows contempt for many thousands of loyal Reds who have held season tickets for years but who cannot now afford them with the cup games on top.”
“We call on United to return to the status quo now and retain the ACS as a voluntary scheme because it is inherently unfair to force fans to buy tickets they do not want or cannot afford. We are supporting this initial legal action and we expect more will be on the way both from individuals and possibly also on a collective basis”.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - 13 JULY 2007
The implementation of a compulsory automatic cup ticket scheme (ACS) has been widely condemned by thousands of Manchester United supporters as well as the major independent supporters’ groups MUST, IMUSA and the fanzines.
Now MUST is backing legal action being taken by one of its members against Manchester United over what many season ticket holders at Old Trafford see as an unfair move to force them to join the ACS, in addition to paying a 13-14% price rise on their season tickets next season. On top of steep rises for the last two seasons, it means that many season ticket holders will be paying well over £1000 a year to watch games at Old Trafford, more than twice what they were paying 2 years ago.
County Court papers were served on Manchester United Football Club Limited last week and they now have until 19th July to respond (either admitting or defending the claim) before a date is set for the hearing.
Many supporters cannot afford this kind of increase and the anger among United season ticket holders is growing at what they see as an abuse of their loyalty to the club over many years. Being forced to buy up to £500 worth of additional home cup tickets, whether or not they can actually attend the games (e.g. midweek, school nights for kids), has triggered this anger. Up to now the cup scheme has been voluntary. The change has stirred one season ticket holder to take legal action based on what he regards as a clear breach of contract but MUST has a list, already over 100 and growing daily, of others interested in pursuing similar claims..
MUST has engaged a law firm, Underwoods, to help with initial advice on mounting a class action on behalf of aggrieved ST holders. MUST is also talking to another major City of London firm on ways of challenging the compulsory ACS but as such an action is complex and potentially expensive, the quickest and most cost effective route initially is to support an individual member's claim in the County Court.
The purpose of this is to test the legality of the compulsory ACS through an action alleging (i) breach of contract; and (ii) in the event that the contract is not deemed to be breached, that it is invalid and unenforceable to the extent it requires compulsory ACS membership. The individual taking this legal action is MUST member John Mayall, who renewed season tickets for himself and his son in May at a cost of £1444, receiving confirmation shortly after that his purchase had been successful and that the tickets would be delivered in June. About one week later United wrote to him refusing to supply the paid-for tickets unless he joined the ACS, which would commit him to purchase cup tickets for all home matches at unspecified cost likely to amount to hundreds of pounds. Mr Mayall and his son have not joined the ACS and United officials have been unmoved by his efforts to persuade them that he and his son will not be able to go to midweek games due to cost and school commitments.
We have also heard of similar issues from Irish United fans where it is impossible for them to attend mid-week cup games due to the distance and yet United is unwilling to make any exception to the compulsory nature of the cup scheme. United say that fans can sell their tickets if they do not want them, but if it were that easy to sell them United would not be forcing fans to buy tickets they do not want in the first place. Additionally you can only sell the tickets through United's own system Viagogo - on which they make a profit! Viagogo adds on a charge of about 25% so the seller gets less than they paid and the buyer has to pay more than face value too. Furthermore supporters cannot sell their tickets on Viagogo until United have sold all of their own remaining tickets first. Therefore it will not be available for unpopular midweek matches that don't sell out - exactly the matches where most people would wish to sell the unwanted ticket that the club have forced them to buy. So supporters end up paying for tickets they didn't want and cannot sell and the Glazers have the money in the bank.
Many other fans have joined the ACS under protest, while we understand that over 6,000 fans have not renewed their season tickets at all next season. Those renewers who refuse to join the ACS have been threatened with cancellation or invalidation of their season tickets. We believe all of these fans may have grounds to take action similar to Mr Mayall.
Success in this legal action, and others which will inevitably follow, could ensure that the ACS remains voluntary for all season ticket holders, which would be a victory for loyal fans who feel that they are being exploited by the Glazers to help pay the family’s debts. It could also undermine the Glazers’ efforts to refinance their debt by issuing a bond secured on stadium income (including ‘guaranteed’ ticket income from the ACS) as the banks will shy away from any controversy which jeopardises this revenue.
United say that this system is fairer than at some other clubs where you pay for all cup games up front. That is irrelevant - just because some other clubs are exploiting their supporters loyalty to an even greater degree it doesn’t make it any better for Manchester United supporters. Furthermore United have not so far come clean on what the cup tickets will cost, but they expect fans to sign up agreeing to buy them.
MUST member John Mayall says: “United are threatening to stop me and my son from attending premiership games using the season tickets we have already bought unless we also join the automatic cup ticketing scheme. This would add hundreds of pounds each to the £1444 I have already paid for our season tickets. It’s disgraceful."
"I think the ACS (Automatic Cup Scheme) should be renamed the BCS - the blank cheque scheme. They expect fans to enter into a contract obliging them to buy all cup tickets for all three competitions without knowing what they will cost. In my understanding they could charge outrageous prices for these tickets after fans have signed up and there is nothing they could do about it. I think the OFT should look into this".
“If the Glazers think unwanted tickets for evening cup games would be that easy for fans to sell on through Viagogo then I don’t understand why they are trying to force us to by them in the first place. Why don’t they just sell them themselves?”
MUST Chair Nick Towle added: “As a supporters trust, MUST is responding to the anger of match-going members who have asked us to do something about this decision. We don’t recommend legal action against our club lightly, but attempts to change minds about this have been brushed off. This decision clearly comes from the Glazers, against the advice of senior management we understand, so that they can get fans to pay off more of the debts they took out to buy the club. This shows contempt for many thousands of loyal Reds who have held season tickets for years but who cannot now afford them with the cup games on top.”
“We call on United to return to the status quo now and retain the ACS as a voluntary scheme because it is inherently unfair to force fans to buy tickets they do not want or cannot afford. We are supporting this initial legal action and we expect more will be on the way both from individuals and possibly also on a collective basis”.
that we are still a young species, and we have much to learn...
From The Straits Times
Escape from hell
Born in a North Korean prison camp, Shin Dong Hyok never knew family life and thought torture was a normal way of life until he learnt about the outside world and escaped at age 23
By Choe Sang Hun
SEOUL - ON NOV 29, 1996, 14-year-old Shin Dong Hyok and his father were made to sit in the front row of a crowd assembled to watch executions.
The two had already spent seven months in a North Korean prison camp's torture compound, and the teenager assumed they were among those to be put to death.
Instead, the guards brought out Shin's mother and his 22-
year-old brother. The mother was hanged, the brother was shot by a firing squad.
'Before she was executed, my mother looked at me,' Shin, now 24, said in a recent interview. 'I don't know if she wanted to say something, because she was bound and gagged. But I avoided her eyes.
'My father was weeping, but I didn't cry. I had no love for her. Even today, I hate her for what I had to go through because of her.'
Shin's story provides a rare glimpse into one of the least-known prison camps in North Korea.
He was a political prisoner from birth. He had known no other life from the day he was born in 1982, in Camp No. 14 in Kaechon, until he escaped in 2005. Guards beat up children, tortured grandparents and, in cases like Shin's, executed family members. But Shin said it did not occur to him to hate the authorities. He assumed that everyone lived this way.
He had never heard of Pyongyang, the capital city 90km to the south, or even of Kim Jong Il, the North Korean leader.
'I didn't know about America, or China or the fact that the Korean Peninsula was divided and there was a place called South Korea,' he said.
'I thought it was natural that I was in the camp because of my ancestors' crime, though I never even wondered what that crime was. I never thought it was unfair.'
Since 1992, about a dozen former North Korean prison camp inmates have fled to South Korea. But most were held in the 'revolutionising zone' at Camp No. 15 in Yodok in eastern North Korea. The emphasis was on 're-educating' the prisoners. If they survived long enough to complete their sentences, they were released.
Shin is the first North Korean who came south who is known to have escaped from a prison camp. Moreover, he was confined to a 'total-control zone'.
According to a report released last month by the government-run Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul, 'prisoners sent to a total-control zone can never come out. They are put to work in mines or logging camps until they die. Thus the authorities don't even bother to give them ideological education. They only teach them skills necessary for mining and farming'.
The Yodok camp's name has become synonymous with human rights abuses, thanks to the stories of former inmates. But there are at least four other prison camps in North Korea, including Camp No. 14 in Kaechon. These others are far less known because so few have emerged to describe them.
Shin 'is a living example of the most brutal form of human rights abuse', said Mr Yoon Yeo Sang, president of Database Centre for North Korean Human Rights in Seoul, where Shin is taking temporary shelter.
'He comes from a place where people are deprived of their ability to have the most basic human feelings, such as love, hatred and even a sense of being sad or mistreated.'
A North Korean named Kim Yong who came south in 1999 and now lives in the United States said he spent two years in Kaechon, but some refugees have questioned his claim.
Ahn Myeong Cheol, who worked as a driver and guard at four camps before reaching South Korea in 1994, has no doubts that Shin was in a total-control zone. He said that when he met Shin in June, he immediately noticed the telltale signs: the avoidance of eye contact and arms warped by heavy labour from childhood.
'An instruction drilled into every guard's head is: Don't treat them like humans,' the ex-guard said.
According to Shin, the prison authorities matched his father, Shin Kyong Sup, with his mother, Chang Hye Kyong, and made them spend five days together before separating them. This sort of arrangement was known as 'award marriage', a privilege given only to outstanding inmates. An exemplary worker might be allowed to visit the woman chosen as his wife a few times a year.
Shin's brother was born in 1974 and Shin himself in 1982. Young children lived with their mothers, who worked from 5am to midnight. Once they turned 11, children were moved to communal barracks, but they were allowed to visit their mothers if they excelled at their work.
'I got to visit my mother only once or twice a year,' Shin said. 'I never saw my whole family together. I don't think I saw my brother more than a few times.'
There were up to 1,000 children but no textbooks in the school at Valley No. 2, the part of the camp where Shin lived. Pupils were taught to read and write, and to add and subtract, but little more. After school, children worked in the fields or mines. In most of North Korea, villages are decorated with Communist slogans and portraits of Kim Jong Il. Valley No. 2 had only one slogan carved into a wooden plaque: 'Everyone obey the regulations!'
Inmates were fed the same meal three times a day: a bowl of steamed corn and a salty vegetable broth. They scavenged whatever else they could find: cucumbers and potatoes from the fields, frogs, mice, dragonflies and locusts. Shin said he once ate corn kernels he found in cow droppings.
When a teacher found a girl had hidden wheat grains in her pocket, he beat her on the head with a stick. She died the next day.
Shin's life changed in 1996, when his mother and brother were accused of trying to escape. Guards interrogated him in an underground torture cell about a suspected family plot to flee the camp. They stripped and hung him by his arms and legs from the ceiling, and held him over hot charcoal.
During the interrogations he learnt for the first time that his father's family belonged to a 'hostile class' - a category that entailed punishment over three generations - because his uncles had collaborated with the South Korean Army during the Korean War.
Shin owed his unusual escape from the camp to two friends: an older cellmate who helped him recover from his torture wounds, and a man he met in the garment factory where he worked in 2004, who told him about life beyond the camp.
'Everything he told me about the outside world - the food, China - was fascinating,' Shin said. 'I loved his stories. Once I heard about the outside, I thought I would go crazy. I wanted to get out. I couldn't focus on work. Every day was an agony.'
On Jan 2, 2005, when Shin and his co-worker were collecting firewood near the camp's electrified fence and could not see any guards, they ran.
Shin is still struggling to understand what happened next. His friend fell against the high-voltage fence, his body creating an opening.
'I climbed over him, through the hole,' Shin said. 'I ran down the hill like a mad man. I looked back and he wasn't moving.'
In July 2005, Shin reached China. In February last year, a South Korean helped him seek asylum at the South Korean Consulate in Shanghai. He arrived in Seoul last August.
Today, he bears burn scars from the torture and the electrified fence, and walks with a slight limp. He says he has recurring nightmares about being back in Camp No. 14. Awake, he wonders what happened to his father and about the man he left behind at the fence. Did he sacrifice himself to help Shin escape?
Now in Seoul, Shin said he sometimes finds life 'more burdensome than the hardest labour in the prison camp, where I only had to do what I was told'. His limited vocabulary has caused him to twice fail the written driver's licence test. And there is his struggle to reconcile with his dead mother.
'However I try, I can't forgive her,' he said. 'She and my brother severely hurt me and my father by trying to escape. Didn't she think (about) what would happen to us?'
Shin said he sometimes wished he could return to the time before he learnt about the greater world, 'without knowing that we were in a prison camp, without knowing that there was a place called South Korea'.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At times reading these stories really puts things in your perspective. Could anything else be worse than not even knowing about the possibility of love? And not even knowing that there is a free world outside?
I wonder how many of you weeped when Bumble Bee was captured and freezed by Section 7. I did. And the words of Optimus Prime could never be more appropriate after reading this article...
that we are still a young species, and we have much to learn...
Escape from hell
Born in a North Korean prison camp, Shin Dong Hyok never knew family life and thought torture was a normal way of life until he learnt about the outside world and escaped at age 23
By Choe Sang Hun
SEOUL - ON NOV 29, 1996, 14-year-old Shin Dong Hyok and his father were made to sit in the front row of a crowd assembled to watch executions.
The two had already spent seven months in a North Korean prison camp's torture compound, and the teenager assumed they were among those to be put to death.
Instead, the guards brought out Shin's mother and his 22-
year-old brother. The mother was hanged, the brother was shot by a firing squad.
'Before she was executed, my mother looked at me,' Shin, now 24, said in a recent interview. 'I don't know if she wanted to say something, because she was bound and gagged. But I avoided her eyes.
'My father was weeping, but I didn't cry. I had no love for her. Even today, I hate her for what I had to go through because of her.'
Shin's story provides a rare glimpse into one of the least-known prison camps in North Korea.
He was a political prisoner from birth. He had known no other life from the day he was born in 1982, in Camp No. 14 in Kaechon, until he escaped in 2005. Guards beat up children, tortured grandparents and, in cases like Shin's, executed family members. But Shin said it did not occur to him to hate the authorities. He assumed that everyone lived this way.
He had never heard of Pyongyang, the capital city 90km to the south, or even of Kim Jong Il, the North Korean leader.
'I didn't know about America, or China or the fact that the Korean Peninsula was divided and there was a place called South Korea,' he said.
'I thought it was natural that I was in the camp because of my ancestors' crime, though I never even wondered what that crime was. I never thought it was unfair.'
Since 1992, about a dozen former North Korean prison camp inmates have fled to South Korea. But most were held in the 'revolutionising zone' at Camp No. 15 in Yodok in eastern North Korea. The emphasis was on 're-educating' the prisoners. If they survived long enough to complete their sentences, they were released.
Shin is the first North Korean who came south who is known to have escaped from a prison camp. Moreover, he was confined to a 'total-control zone'.
According to a report released last month by the government-run Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul, 'prisoners sent to a total-control zone can never come out. They are put to work in mines or logging camps until they die. Thus the authorities don't even bother to give them ideological education. They only teach them skills necessary for mining and farming'.
The Yodok camp's name has become synonymous with human rights abuses, thanks to the stories of former inmates. But there are at least four other prison camps in North Korea, including Camp No. 14 in Kaechon. These others are far less known because so few have emerged to describe them.
Shin 'is a living example of the most brutal form of human rights abuse', said Mr Yoon Yeo Sang, president of Database Centre for North Korean Human Rights in Seoul, where Shin is taking temporary shelter.
'He comes from a place where people are deprived of their ability to have the most basic human feelings, such as love, hatred and even a sense of being sad or mistreated.'
A North Korean named Kim Yong who came south in 1999 and now lives in the United States said he spent two years in Kaechon, but some refugees have questioned his claim.
Ahn Myeong Cheol, who worked as a driver and guard at four camps before reaching South Korea in 1994, has no doubts that Shin was in a total-control zone. He said that when he met Shin in June, he immediately noticed the telltale signs: the avoidance of eye contact and arms warped by heavy labour from childhood.
'An instruction drilled into every guard's head is: Don't treat them like humans,' the ex-guard said.
According to Shin, the prison authorities matched his father, Shin Kyong Sup, with his mother, Chang Hye Kyong, and made them spend five days together before separating them. This sort of arrangement was known as 'award marriage', a privilege given only to outstanding inmates. An exemplary worker might be allowed to visit the woman chosen as his wife a few times a year.
Shin's brother was born in 1974 and Shin himself in 1982. Young children lived with their mothers, who worked from 5am to midnight. Once they turned 11, children were moved to communal barracks, but they were allowed to visit their mothers if they excelled at their work.
'I got to visit my mother only once or twice a year,' Shin said. 'I never saw my whole family together. I don't think I saw my brother more than a few times.'
There were up to 1,000 children but no textbooks in the school at Valley No. 2, the part of the camp where Shin lived. Pupils were taught to read and write, and to add and subtract, but little more. After school, children worked in the fields or mines. In most of North Korea, villages are decorated with Communist slogans and portraits of Kim Jong Il. Valley No. 2 had only one slogan carved into a wooden plaque: 'Everyone obey the regulations!'
Inmates were fed the same meal three times a day: a bowl of steamed corn and a salty vegetable broth. They scavenged whatever else they could find: cucumbers and potatoes from the fields, frogs, mice, dragonflies and locusts. Shin said he once ate corn kernels he found in cow droppings.
When a teacher found a girl had hidden wheat grains in her pocket, he beat her on the head with a stick. She died the next day.
Shin's life changed in 1996, when his mother and brother were accused of trying to escape. Guards interrogated him in an underground torture cell about a suspected family plot to flee the camp. They stripped and hung him by his arms and legs from the ceiling, and held him over hot charcoal.
During the interrogations he learnt for the first time that his father's family belonged to a 'hostile class' - a category that entailed punishment over three generations - because his uncles had collaborated with the South Korean Army during the Korean War.
Shin owed his unusual escape from the camp to two friends: an older cellmate who helped him recover from his torture wounds, and a man he met in the garment factory where he worked in 2004, who told him about life beyond the camp.
'Everything he told me about the outside world - the food, China - was fascinating,' Shin said. 'I loved his stories. Once I heard about the outside, I thought I would go crazy. I wanted to get out. I couldn't focus on work. Every day was an agony.'
On Jan 2, 2005, when Shin and his co-worker were collecting firewood near the camp's electrified fence and could not see any guards, they ran.
Shin is still struggling to understand what happened next. His friend fell against the high-voltage fence, his body creating an opening.
'I climbed over him, through the hole,' Shin said. 'I ran down the hill like a mad man. I looked back and he wasn't moving.'
In July 2005, Shin reached China. In February last year, a South Korean helped him seek asylum at the South Korean Consulate in Shanghai. He arrived in Seoul last August.
Today, he bears burn scars from the torture and the electrified fence, and walks with a slight limp. He says he has recurring nightmares about being back in Camp No. 14. Awake, he wonders what happened to his father and about the man he left behind at the fence. Did he sacrifice himself to help Shin escape?
Now in Seoul, Shin said he sometimes finds life 'more burdensome than the hardest labour in the prison camp, where I only had to do what I was told'. His limited vocabulary has caused him to twice fail the written driver's licence test. And there is his struggle to reconcile with his dead mother.
'However I try, I can't forgive her,' he said. 'She and my brother severely hurt me and my father by trying to escape. Didn't she think (about) what would happen to us?'
Shin said he sometimes wished he could return to the time before he learnt about the greater world, 'without knowing that we were in a prison camp, without knowing that there was a place called South Korea'.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At times reading these stories really puts things in your perspective. Could anything else be worse than not even knowing about the possibility of love? And not even knowing that there is a free world outside?
I wonder how many of you weeped when Bumble Bee was captured and freezed by Section 7. I did. And the words of Optimus Prime could never be more appropriate after reading this article...
that we are still a young species, and we have much to learn...
Mexican Fisherman Joke
An American businessman was standing at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish.
"How long it took you to catch them?" The American asked.
"Only a little while." The Mexican replied.
"Why don't you stay out longer and catch more fish?" The American then asked.
"I have enough to support my family's immediate needs." The Mexican said.
"But," The American then asked, "What do you do with the rest of your time?"
The Mexican fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take a siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos, I have a full and busy life, senor."
The American scoffed, "I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds you buy a bigger boat, and with the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats, eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats."
"Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the consumers, eventually opening your own can factory. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually NYC where you will run your expanding enterprise."
The Mexican fisherman asked, "But senor, how long will this all take?"
To which the American replied, "15-20 years."
"But what then, senor?"
The American laughed and said, "That's the best part. When the time is right you would announce an IPO (Initial Public Offering) and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions."
"Millions, senor? Then what?"
The American said slowly, "Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take a siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos..."
The Mexican replied, "You mean that is what you will need to do in your lifetime to get to where I am today?"
"How long it took you to catch them?" The American asked.
"Only a little while." The Mexican replied.
"Why don't you stay out longer and catch more fish?" The American then asked.
"I have enough to support my family's immediate needs." The Mexican said.
"But," The American then asked, "What do you do with the rest of your time?"
The Mexican fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take a siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos, I have a full and busy life, senor."
The American scoffed, "I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds you buy a bigger boat, and with the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats, eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats."
"Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the consumers, eventually opening your own can factory. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually NYC where you will run your expanding enterprise."
The Mexican fisherman asked, "But senor, how long will this all take?"
To which the American replied, "15-20 years."
"But what then, senor?"
The American laughed and said, "That's the best part. When the time is right you would announce an IPO (Initial Public Offering) and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions."
"Millions, senor? Then what?"
The American said slowly, "Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take a siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos..."
The Mexican replied, "You mean that is what you will need to do in your lifetime to get to where I am today?"
Saturday, July 07, 2007
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
You must be kidding me?
It takes quite a bit to be pissed off at letters in the Straits Times forum these days, given the amount of ridiculous letters that I have read over the last 5 years or so. Such as those letters which actually have the cheek to demand all cyclists (think about the old wobbly uncles and aunties cycling leisurely on their way to the market every morning) stay on the roads andface the might of the bendy buses, concrete mixers, construction lorries etc. I mean seriously? These are the same people who have NEVER cycled on our roads before and think human rights is the best thing since sliced bread. What is needed is a huge dose of common sense and politeness and the problem is solved! Fast, competitive (and by that I also mean the 2 FT workers who 2F2F on Orchard Road and beat the red lights) cyclists go onto the road, uncles and aunties cycling to the market stay on the pavement. Young kids educated on civic responsibility to limit their speed on pavements. Must we really have regulations for everything?
But I digress. Like I said, I wasn't even moved enough by those letters to post them here, until I read the letter below. When I saw the title I was like wow! somebody has guts to point out a customer was wrong in the first place. Until I read that the manager fired his 2 staff in the end ANYWAY coz they are in the service industry.
All together now, WTH???????????? Seriously, this is a world gone politically mad! If the customer is unreasonable beyond doubt, stick to your guns! After all 2 persons' livelihoods are at stake here! I would be extremely pissed if this becomes the United States whereby you can sue your neighbour when you trip over a tile in front of his home because he did not fix it, and you are a bigot and intolerant if you say Merry Xmas instead of a dumb Happy Holidays.
Lighten up world!! I hope the customer is happy he caused 2 persons to lose their jobs.
From Straits Times
Customer who complained of service was unreasonable
I AM writing to clarify Mr Ong Weisheng's letter ('Atrocious manners from Max Brenner staff and supervisor'; ST Online Forum, June 30) pertaining to an incident at my shop on May 30. Following his initial feedback, I conducted an investigation. I also had an eyewitness account from another customer present that the situation was entirely provoked, resulting in the unpleasant exchange between my supervisor and Mr Ong.
I had told Mr Ong he would be updated on the outcome of my probe in an earlier e-mail reply. However, I am not surprised at his lack of patience in allowing due process in the matter as he displayed the same impatience while waiting outside my shop on May 30.
My CCTV recording paints the full picture as follows:
Mr Ong and a friend arrived outside my shop and waited a grand total of 48 seconds before approaching staff who were all busy with a full house inside. Mr Ong and his friend then returned to the queue post and waited a further two minutes before approach the same female employee and that is when the exchange took place with my supervisor joining in to assist the female employee.
Despite Mr Ong's inflated claim of how long he waited and the eyewitness who came forward to vouch for my employee's behaviour, I have asked both staff to resign in view of the fact that we are, after all, in the service industry and that means good service to all - regardless of the situation. Mr Ong has been told of the outcome of my investigation in an e-mail reply.
Kenning Koh
Managing Director
Max Brenner Chocolate Bar
But I digress. Like I said, I wasn't even moved enough by those letters to post them here, until I read the letter below. When I saw the title I was like wow! somebody has guts to point out a customer was wrong in the first place. Until I read that the manager fired his 2 staff in the end ANYWAY coz they are in the service industry.
All together now, WTH???????????? Seriously, this is a world gone politically mad! If the customer is unreasonable beyond doubt, stick to your guns! After all 2 persons' livelihoods are at stake here! I would be extremely pissed if this becomes the United States whereby you can sue your neighbour when you trip over a tile in front of his home because he did not fix it, and you are a bigot and intolerant if you say Merry Xmas instead of a dumb Happy Holidays.
Lighten up world!! I hope the customer is happy he caused 2 persons to lose their jobs.
From Straits Times
Customer who complained of service was unreasonable
I AM writing to clarify Mr Ong Weisheng's letter ('Atrocious manners from Max Brenner staff and supervisor'; ST Online Forum, June 30) pertaining to an incident at my shop on May 30. Following his initial feedback, I conducted an investigation. I also had an eyewitness account from another customer present that the situation was entirely provoked, resulting in the unpleasant exchange between my supervisor and Mr Ong.
I had told Mr Ong he would be updated on the outcome of my probe in an earlier e-mail reply. However, I am not surprised at his lack of patience in allowing due process in the matter as he displayed the same impatience while waiting outside my shop on May 30.
My CCTV recording paints the full picture as follows:
Mr Ong and a friend arrived outside my shop and waited a grand total of 48 seconds before approaching staff who were all busy with a full house inside. Mr Ong and his friend then returned to the queue post and waited a further two minutes before approach the same female employee and that is when the exchange took place with my supervisor joining in to assist the female employee.
Despite Mr Ong's inflated claim of how long he waited and the eyewitness who came forward to vouch for my employee's behaviour, I have asked both staff to resign in view of the fact that we are, after all, in the service industry and that means good service to all - regardless of the situation. Mr Ong has been told of the outcome of my investigation in an e-mail reply.
Kenning Koh
Managing Director
Max Brenner Chocolate Bar
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