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Today I learnt the meaning of this phrase.

In 2003, as part of a project to highlight the effect of corrosion on the coastline, a well known photographer put out an aerial photo of Barbara Streisand’s Malibu beach home in a website. It was one of 12,000 other pictures on the web page. When it was initially put up, only a handful of people viewed the the picture. Apparently only 4 did. Barbara Streisand then went to court to seek the removal of the photo and claimed $50m in damages. Her case failed.

But her bringing the case generated publicity. When people found out about her attempt to take down the picture, they became curious and all went in to see what the picture and the fuss was all about. In the end, as a result of the publicity, a few hundred thousand people went onto the site to view the photo.

So the phrase was coined in 2005 to refer to the unintended publicity which can be generated by an original intention to either suppress, hide or censor information.

So I guess the lesson here is to know when to not push the button to shut down or censor information. Sometimes it is best to let sleeping dogs lie.

Last night I watched a documentary about Robert Fortune and Chinese tea.

Robert Fortune was a Scottish naturalist. He had a great interest in plants, flowers and horticulture in general.

In the 1700s and 1800s, China had a monopoly on tea. The best tea came from China. Tea plants, tea cultivation and methods of harvesting and roasting were well kept secrets.

The British loved tea. A lot. And they were prepared to pay a lot of silver for it. But it could only be obtained from China then. And so they decided that it will make most sense if they could cultivate it themselves without having to pay China for it. It could not be cultivated in UK. But it could in India, which they controlled.

So the East India Company, which had obtained a charter from the UK Government to have a sole monopoly on trade with the Far East, approached Robert Fortune to see how it can be obtained from China and then grown in India.

Robert Fortune travelled to China. At that time it was forbidden for foreigners to go to inland China. He arrived at Hangzhou and then disguised himself in Chinese clothes, shaved his hair and wore false braids. He travelled on a boat through the waterways to inland China to the best tea growing regions of Wuxi and the Yellow Mountains.

Between 1843 and 1848, he travelled many times to China and identified the best green tea and black tea growing areas. He obtained the seeds and plants. He observed the method of growing, harvesting and roasting of the tea leaves. He spoke to those who were doing these to understand the way to get the best out of these tea plants.

He then smuggled the seeds and plants out of China, together with the know how and cultivated them in India and later Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). The rest is history.

This is how the British broke the Chinese monopoly on tea. By theft and industrial espionage.

Of course Robert Fortune did not just steal tea seeds and plants from China. He is singlehandedly credited for introducing more than 200 variety of plants and flowers to the UK, of which more than 100 were from China.

The things the British have done to China. Steal their tea and their know how, force China to take in opium exports at gunpoint, which the East India Company grew in India, to fuel the raging addiction in China. Force China, again at gunpoint, to open up their ports and markets to them and cede HK to them.

Of course they were no angels in India as well.

What the British had and have in wealth was what they took by force from the rest of the world.

I can understand the antagonism and anger the Chinese and Indians have towards the British even today.

Today I completed my 1000th Wordle. This game was developed by a Welsh web developer and bought over by NYT in Jan 2022.

I was introduced to this by a good friend sometime during Covid. We were having lunch and she was playing Wordle. So I learnt the details of this game from her that day.

Initialy I wasn’t too excited about this game and I wasn’t consistent in doing the puzzle daily. Later it grew on me and it became something I would do first thing every morning.

Trying to guess the five letter word with 6 guesses can be challenging especially with some really difficult words like OZONE or MOTTO. Double letters and words having letters using Z,X,Q can make guessing the word challenging. I have a 98% success and am hoping to play till I hit a 99% rate.

Actually I sometimes wonder because there must be a limit to the number of 5 letter words there are. I know it’s not infinite. What will happen when they run out of 5 letter words? Will they recycle the words?

Today is Wordle no. 1491. I have done 1000 so it had been on for about slightly more than a year before I got on board. I will see where this ends…

Last night Liverpool won the Premier League Championship by beating Tottenham 5-1 at Anfield. Finally. It was the new Manager’s debut season and they won it. Good for them.

I have supported this team since forever. I remember even when I was in Primary school, supporting them. I was crazy about football then and would play it at every opportunity, whether at the badminton court at our flat in Margaret Close or at the semi grassy field at my grandparents” kampong in Sembawang.

Of course then there were no live matches on tv and you only saw prerecorded games on tv on the weekends or read the scores in the newspapers. The other source of football information was the UK football magazines. There were 2 in particular, Shoot and Goal. Shoot had more pictures.

Also I cannot recall why I picked Liverpool to support. Well I did and I have over the years.

I must confess I am not a fervent supporter like some others I know. I don’t get depressed or upset when they lose games and I don’t get euphoric when they win either.

I have been to Anfield once in 2016 but have not seen any games there.

Anyway they won this year. Good!

Yesterday I did a demo of this product. Its been out for a year but this was the first time I handled this product and tried it out.

It was a 30 minutes demo. I have to say I was impressed with what I saw. It can be used for work, gaming and watching videos and viewing photos in 3D format.

The immersive experience is good. All the movies, videos, NBA and football games in this format which I saw were mind boggling. The games in 3D are also impressive.

The current downside is the weight of the product. Because of its weight, it is currently recommended that you use it for about 30 minutes at a time. Probably the battery life has something to do with this recommendation as well. That therefore makes it impractical to watch a movie or play games which will need a longer run time. Also if you are using it for work purposes, 30 minutes is too short.

It is also expensive. It costs $5300 now. That would be beyond the reach of most people.

Also I think there is limited available content out there. Cannot imagine there being so much 3d and immersive videos and movies to justify buying one. There needs to be more widespread use of the product before developers create more content, videos and games.

All in all, the product is a good starting point. Potential is certainly there!

Today I was invited to a fund raising carpet auction for the Esplanade to fund their philanthropic efforts to reach out to the community. The carpets were from Lotto carpets and I was told they had done another charity auction for the Esplanade in 2015.

From the sale of proceeds of the auction, 50% will be given to the Esplanade.

There were altogether 38 pieces for sale. All handwoven in either silk or wool from different places. From Iran, Kashmir, Turkey and Central Asia. Beautiful pieces of different vintages and some signed.

Pity there was no crowd. Only 5 people turned up. I was told 30 people had signed up but didn’t turn up in the end. I felt sorry for the auctioneer. They had brought down all these carpets and had their staff there for so few people. I did feel the Esplanade could have organized this much better.

Anyway I bought a signed Ispahan and I am considering some Herekes from Turkey!

One of my happier achievements in recent times was the setting up of this Chamber.

Sometime during Covid in 2021, a good friend introduced me to the Mexican Ambassador to Singapore, Agustin. The ambassador was promoting trade between Singapore and Mexico and wanted to set up a business body to facilitate this. They had tried doing something for some time without success and now they wanted my help.

I came up with the idea of a chamber and managed to set this up for them in 3 months. We had a very successful launch of the Chamber at the Gardens by the Bay with MOS Alvin Tan officiating. I became the Advisor to the Chamber.

The chamber is now about 3 years and is firmly established with 160 members,which is quite incredible for such a young business chamber set up with a specific country focus.

During the last 4 years of the Biden administration, Mexico has attracted large investments, mostly Chinese. They have set up manufacturing facilities there to avoid existing and potential tariffs by the US. Another reason was to take advantage of the USMCA.

Of course the US has noticed this and there is quite a bit of pushback from them to crack down on this. Mexico is careful now and monitoring this to ensure that the rules of origin requirements are strictly adhered to. They are also careful in not attracting new investments from China at the present time.

Anyway there is a lot of interest in Mexico currently and how the tariffs will play out. Also Singapore is finally opening an embassy there this year, confirming the increasing importance of Mexico to Singapore.

So yesterday we had a breakfast meeting with Gerson (the CEO) and Luis (the President) from the Chamber to discuss what we can do at this time. We have decided to organize a business seminar towards the end of May and a trade mission to Mexico in December to coincide with the opening of the embassy there. We are also planning some activities to take advantage of the World Cup there next year!

Trump has used the term Liberation Day before. In an early spring day in the 1990s, Trump telephoned a consultant to his company and declared to her that it was liberation day that day.

According to the consultant, Maggie Haberman, liberation day to Trump was the first warm spring day when women stopped wearing coats and liberated their upper bodies!

It is amazing how a man who thinks and behaves this way has come to occupy the position he does today.

What does it say about the country and the voters who elected him twice, and the second time with an increased majority? What does it also say about the people who surround him and do his bidding everyday and parrot his message?

It makes you wonder what it now takes to become the leader of any country. Is competency even necessary? Does integrity or the lack of it make any difference anymore? Is a sense of duty and service even important? What is the value of a good education?

Makes me wonder what moves the needle for people nowadays. Do they just want someone who can entertain and make empty promises? Would just plain bald bravado with no substance get you all the way?

Certainly in the US it appears that way.

Today is nomination day for the 2025 General Election.

When I was younger, I remember the PAP would form the government on nomination day itself as the opposition parties did not have enough candidates to fight in every constituency. In face during that era, there were some PAP MPs who have never had a contested election. This started to change after the 1990s when the opposition started winning some seats in Parliament.

Now every seat is contested and some constituencies even see a 3 cornered fight.

The strongest opposition party currently is the WP and they have said that they will be fielding some 36 candidates. Everyone has been talking about the caliber of the new candidates they have introduced this time around. We shall see how well they do…

The first time I attended an election rally was in 1984. I remember getting permission to skip a lecture to attend a lunch time rally at Fullerton Square. The first time I was involved on nomination day itself was in 1997, when I helped out Lim Swee Say at Buona Vista. That was quite an experience to make sure that everything was done correctly!

The last election, I was watching the announcement of the election results with friends. This was after a Japanese dinner followed by durians. That was the year the voting was extended by 2 hours because of some software issues. There were huge queues in some places because of that. So the results came out really late that year. Hopefully this year is smoother..

I drove back from KL this morning. I left KLCC at about 1040am. Left with a 100% charge. Arrived back home at 240pm with 18% battery left. Very smooth traffic coming back and no jam at the Tuas checkpoint on both directions. So it looks like if you time yourself correctly, you can do a 4hr journey in either direction. So if you avoid the weekends and public holidays, it is quite safe driving an EV to KL.