Matthieu Ricard on the habits of happiness | Video on TED.com

Thank you Devendra for sharing this!  Can’t wait to see and hear him speak Nov 20/21 in Singapore!

more about “Matthieu Ricard on the habits of happ…“, posted with vodpod

Happiness and Its Causes 20/21 November

N & I were so happy when Tara mentioned to us that this conference was actually happening in Singapore. Several of our friends will be speaking and I invite you to click on the picture below for full details of the event. We are all seeking Happiness aren’t we all?

Inspirational: Singaporeans Death Valley Run!

I spotted this Straits Times article on the plane 2 days ago on a business trip. I was happy. Happy to see that we do have Singaporeans with spirit, heart, determination and the willingness to dream and push themselves to the limit. I pray for your safe and enjoyable run, Nghee Huat and Yuen Cheng. You are an inspiration to us all.

Two of our local ultra-marathon runners, Lim Nghee Huat (Chairman of Mountbatten CCC and MediaCorp Senior Producer) and Yong Yuen Cheng (Vice-Chairman of Mountbatten CSC and National Junior College Teacher) are currently on their 217km ultamarathon race across the Death Valley which started 2 days ago on 15 July. They are expected to complete the 217km run Badwater Basin to the portals of Mount Whitney, through extreme temperatures of up to 55 degrees C and an amazing cumulative vertical elevation of 4000m some time today 17 July 2007.

Things I would really love to do in this lifetime…

Friends have often asked me what I would really love to do in this life and I would say that I would love to climb Mount Everest or do exactly what Greg is doing at the moment! Push myself to the limit in some far out endurance sports activity while raising monies to help others. Imagine the exhileration – from the physical exertion and also from the high of helping others. Painfully beautiful.

Greg is really hardcore. Just last month he set a new world record by pedalling 173.76km in 24hours in his human powered boat! Truly pollution free transportation – human power is the way to go!

Check out the Adventures of Greg.

Greg is now training for his next major effort in 2008 – it sounds like so much fun! I’ll just have to convince my other half that such efforts are not really as dangerous as it seems.

“In December of 2008, Greg is going to pedal his human powered boat ‘WiTHiN’ 3000 miles across the Atlantic ocean in less than 40 days setting a new crossing record while raising money to fund his school speaking program “KidPower.”

13 Reasons To Be Vegetarian

I recently returned from a business trip to Shanghai and Beijing and had the opportunity to deal with several colleagues on different occassions.  They were all rather intridged that I have been vegetarian since the beginning of this year and the dinner conversation surrounded my being vegetarian and the motivation for doing so. 

The ultimate reason for me is a compassion for the animals who are living beings.  My social circle outside of work made me increasingly aware of the suffering of these animals and the cruelty in the slaughtering of animals for food.  One friend visited a bovine slaughter house and said that he could actually hear them crying…

Anyway, here are 13 reasons for you to consider.  You don’t have to turn vegetarian – just start by eating a little less meat:)

Inspirational: Ironman without legs…

The power of the mind. The power of determination. Scott Rigsby is a true inspiration, a fighter.  It doesn’t matter that he has no legs.  He’s a true sportsman. 

Click below for Straits Times piece…

Dalai Lama Teaching Tour

Dear friends, several of you have asked for information on this – apologies for the delay but here it is! Join N & I at Dharamsala 3-7 September for his teachings! Click here for details. When Monday, Sep 3, 2007 – Wednesday, Sep 5, 2007

Where McLeod Ganj, Dharamsala, India (Click here for Pictures)

Anger vs Peace

“For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Alternative perspective on competition

“There is competition, but it is used in a good way. It is positive to want to go first, provided the intention is to pave the way for others, make their path more easy, help them, or show the way. Competition is negative when we wish to defeat others, to bring them down in order to lift ourselves up.”

~ His Holiness The Dalai Lama

p.s. Thanks for this Tara.

The True Meaning Of Life

The True Meaning Of Life

“We are visitors on this planet
We are here for ninety or one hundred years at the very most.
During that period, we must try to do something good, something useful, with our lives.
If you contribute to other people’s happiness, you will find the true goal, the true meaning of life”

H.H. The 14th Dalai Lama

This post is dedicated to our new friend Paul Garden who gave me the t-shirt he was wearing! The phase above was from the t-shirt he offered me.

You can if you believe…Happy Feet

happy feet002
Originally uploaded by sportinc.

Last Year New Zealander Mark Inglis became the first man to conquer Mount Everest on two artificial limbs. “When people see me, they see a double amputee. But when I see myself, I see a person who who will never get frostbite on my legs again,” he jokes.

Mark lost his legs 24 years old while climbing New Zealand’s Mount Cook. His story is shown weekly on Discover Channel every tuesday Singapore time 10pm starting 22 May.

If this doesn’t inspire you to challenge yourself, I don’t know what will!

**DO SOMETHING GOOD THIS HOLIDAY SEASON** Join us and donate a little to UNIFEM this Christmas

Another year gone by… Another year of memories… 2006 was full of great surprises and exciting changes… of course, what’s life without its many challenges. 2006 was a special year of self discovery – I became particularly “enlightened” about the amount of suffering in the World. And I thank my better half N for being so compassionate to those less fortunate and influencing me for the better.

N & I are now even more committed to doing our part for the less fortunate. N recently came out to the public as a spokesperson for UNIFEM Singapore on violence against women – she had a personal message as she was previously abused by her Exs.

We really like and support what UNIFEM is doing here in Southeast Asia (UNIFEM’s ongoing projects) and we have decided to donate and contribute a little something to the UNIFEM Livelihood Facility Fund (helping women and children in Aceh – I was particularly delighted to know that 80% of my money goes directly into the fund! See below and also click here .

WE HOPE YOU WILL JOIN US IN GIVING AND SHARING A LITTLE FOR THOSE LESS FORTUNATE THIS HOLIDAY SEASON – CLICK HERE TO DONATE THROUGH PAYPAL/CREDIT CARDS OR JUST SEND A CHEQUE DIRECTLY.

Here’s wishing you and your loved ones a Holiday Season filled with lots of joy, love and happiness. And to a Sparkling NEW YEAR!
________________________
UNIFEM Livelihood Facility Fund for Aceh
To date UNIFEM has assisted 450 women by providing seed money for Acehnese women to start their own business in order to create a sustainable source of livelihood for themselves and their children. As an old Chinese saying goes – Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. UNIFEM is currently running these programmes for the women because development aid has been only given to head of households i.e in this context to the men only. However many women were widowed and most are also supporting children of their relatives that lost their lives after the tsunami.

Singapore has strict laws on the percentage of fund to be remitted overseas (the law stands at 20% overseas and 80% have to remain in Singapore). However UNIFEM Singapore has received permission enable to organization to remit 80% of the funds overseas with 20% remaining in Singapore. Of which 5%-10% is usually directed to campaigns to raise public awareness about the issues and the remaining to run the office. UNIFEM Singapore runs a very modest operation with only 2 staff and a small set up.

Please feel free to contact Fazlin Abdullah at +65 62386761 or fazlin@unifemsingapore.org.sg should you have further questions or would like to have a look at the audit carried out by Ernst and Young.

COMING NEXT: Anti human trafficking programme in the greater Mekong region

Year End Retrospection….

Every year in December I look back at the year and reflect on my achievements for the year. And it was rather coincidental that I came across the following passage just the other day. I thought it was simple yet powerful.

……………..
To know what you want to have achieved by the end of this life, do some introspection and ‘retrospection.’

What do you want to have on your mind on your deathbed?

Any last wishes?
Why not fulfil them now?

Any last regrets?
Why not resolve them now?

Time is not on our side.
We are running out of it.
……………..

It’s About Time to Make a Real Change on the Penal Code Amendment on Marital RAPE!

GUYS. HEY GUYS. Watch here – check it out! We are real gentlemen and it’s time to support this cause. Real men treat women right.

I met Leigh at Oxford University about 10 years ago and she was a smart cookie. We were both doing our Masters degrees then and I lost touch with her for quite a number of years until I ran into her again at the Unifem Snow Dinner a few weeks ago. It was good to see what she was up to these days (see recent Straitstimes articles) and the good stuff she’s doing as Director of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs. Well done – keep it up.

No more excuses: Rudy’s plans to tackle Kuna ‘07…what’s your challenge?

Rudy had both his legs amputated at age 5 but never gave up…and his heart is set on next year’s Hawaii Ironman! Because of his desire and will to compete and improve, Rudy’s been pushing the boundaries of prosthetics technology. Good luck dude!

And everyone else out there – no more excuses! Rudy’s an inspiration for all of us. p.s. How I wish I could make it to Kona one day…. well, I’ll keep on dreaming

"A World Divided By Scarcity of Water"

Water – basic necessity in life.

This was on the cover of the Straits Times last week and it really hit a nerve. And here we are in Singapore striving for the luxuries of life while so many in the world do not even have the basic necessities like water…. I carry 3 bottles of pure distilled water when I go out riding on my bike!

More on Muhammad Yunus – Noble Peace Prize Winner 2006

The more I read about him, the more I realize what amazing things he has done for the poor and the people of Bangladesh. What compassion!

Face value
Macro credit

Oct 19th 2006
From The Economist print edition

Muhammad Yunus has won the Nobel peace prize for his role in promoting financial services for the poor
AFP

FOR many of the supporters of Muhammad Yunus and the institution he created, the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, the announcement that the two will share a Nobel peace prize is long overdue—the only surprise is that it was so long in coming. Grameen’s website lists 60 awards, 27 honorary degrees, and 15 other “special honours” previously received by Mr Yunus directly, and seven received by Grameen. The selection committee said the prize was for developing what “had appeared to be an impossible idea”, namely loans to people who lack collateral.

Mr Yunus has unquestionably helped create an industry that provides financial services to the poor, combining his experience of growing up in a small village with his academic background as an economist to popularise what was once just a fringe area of banking and an obscure idea about alleviating poverty. Grameen has become a sizeable institution, with 6.7m customers, most of them women and all of them poor. Grameen has, by its own reckoning, distributed $6 billion in loans, each on average less than $200. Dressed in a traditional Bangladeshi outfit made by a Grameen affiliate, the charismatic Mr Yunus, with his soft voice and warm smile, can transform the dry, grinding mechanics of banking into a bewitching story about beggars, children and empowered women, all benefiting from credit that should be a human right and could even, he says, end poverty.

Even so, loans to the poor have existed for thousands of years. The formalised system of small borrowing that Mr Yunus pushed in Bangladesh beginning in the mid-1970s was being tried in bits and pieces around the world at the same time, and earlier as well. Even in Bangladesh, where his award was warmly received as an international endorsement, there are two other equally large and innovative microfinance institutions: BRAC, which dates back to the same era as Grameen, and ASA, which came later but improved on the basic model. Yet as remarkable as these three are, to single them out is, in a sense, unfair. There are thousands of financial institutions around the world providing financial services to the very poor. It is a world of extraordinary individuals, and one that has advanced as a result of collective insights. Physics and chemistry, to cite two other Nobel categories, may be built upon the shoulders of a few giants, but microfinance needs—and has—thousands of them.

Mr Yunus and Grameen succeeded by seizing an idea, expanding quickly, proselytising and resisting the temptation to move beyond the poor. His particular approach to microfinance has not, however, been without controversy. By legend, Grameen grew out of a $27 loan Mr Yunus made in 1974 to a woman manufacturing furniture who did have credit, but at an exorbitant price. Grameen emerged soon thereafter, based on several key operational techniques: loans were made to individuals but through small groups who in effect (if not explicitly) had joint liability; the loans were for business, not consumption; and collection was frequent, usually weekly. Interest charges were significant—the money was not aid, and a fundamental tenet of Grameen is that the poor are creditworthy—but the rates were relatively low (currently just above 20%).

This approach had virtues and limitations. Low rates and lower savings (except as a back-up for repayment) meant that in its early years, Grameen relied on capital from public and private donors—something that less charismatic or connected entrepreneurs than Mr Yunus found hard to replicate. Joint liability for loans became an increasing problem for groups when some members wanted to borrow more than others. And it was unclear whether the money received really did always go to business, rather than daily needs. A deeper question is just how helpful such tiny loans really are. Heart-warming case studies abound, but rigorous analyses are rare. The few studies that have been done suggest that small loans are beneficial, but not dramatically so. A further question is whether an approach emphasising credit really can eradicate poverty: a ridiculously ambitious goal, though one that Mr Yunus’s evangelical view of the virtues of credit has perpetuated. Whether this form of lending has led to peace, the presumptive reasoning behind the award, is just as big an unanswered question.

Credit where credit’s due
The classic Grameen model began to fray in the 1990s and hit a wall in 1998, when a devastating flood pushed up losses and people began missing weekly payment meetings. Mr Yunus was no doubt familiar with microfinance innovations in other countries: BRI in Indonesia had transformed itself from a wreck into a huge success by emphasising savings, not credit, and other institutions had started to abandon group lending. Grameen restructured in 2001, emphasising savings (deposits now exceed loans) and relying less on joint liability for groups.

With Grameen now thriving and the Nobel on the shelf, what will Mr Yunus do next? There are persistent rumours that he might enter politics, given his prestige within Bangladesh. And this could be a good time for him to step away from microfinance, which appears to be at an inflection point. Institutions continue to emerge and grow, many funded by private capital and seeking a real return, an approach Mr Yunus opposes. They often begin by charging higher rates than Mr Yunus considers legitimate, but cut prices when their returns draw competitors—a tough but theoretically more supple model. Microfinance would also benefit from a voluntary regulatory structure to improve its access to capital, and greater use of technology to reduce transaction costs. What it needs, in short, are the boring, quiet innovations that dynamic industries depend upon, but which, alas, do not win prizes. The Nobel, and its recognition of microfinance’s most charismatic cheerleader, may mark the end of an era as a more mature industry starts to emerge.

Poverty Each and everyone of us can help. Let’s s…

Poverty

Each and everyone of us can help. Let’s start with a simple change in mindset.
This is real suffering and we can all do our part to eliminate poverty.

Lance Armstrong Truly Inspiring. True determinatio…

Truly Inspiring. True determination. Amazing.Makes me wanna get back on my bike – I really hope the haze clears up a bit.

Lance Armstrong

"Banker To The Poor" – An inspiration to me (and all bankers!)

The Nobel Peace Prize for 2006 (Press Release)
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2006, divided into two equal parts, to Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank for their efforts to create economic and social development from below. Lasting peace can not be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty. Micro-credit is one such means. Development from below also serves to advance democracy and human rights.

Muhammad Yunus has shown himself to be a leader who has managed to translate visions into practical action for the benefit of millions of people, not only in Bangladesh, but also in many other countries. Loans to poor people without any financial security had appeared to be an impossible idea. From modest beginnings three decades ago, Yunus has, first and foremost through Grameen Bank, developed micro-credit into an ever more important instrument in the struggle against poverty. Grameen Bank has been a source of ideas and models for the many institutions in the field of micro-credit that have sprung up around the world.

Every single individual on earth has both the potential and the right to live a decent life. Across cultures and civilizations, Yunus and Grameen Bank have shown that even the poorest of the poor can work to bring about their own development.

Micro-credit has proved to be an important liberating force in societies where women in particular have to struggle against repressive social and economic conditions. Economic growth and political democracy can not achieve their full potential unless the female half of humanity participates on an equal footing with the male.

Yunus’s long-term vision is to eliminate poverty in the world. That vision can not be realised by means of micro-credit alone. But Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank have shown that, in the continuing efforts to achieve it, micro-credit must play a major part.

Oslo, 13 October 2006

WHAT EXACTLY IS MICROCREDIT?
The word “microcredit” did not exist before the seventies. Now it has become a buzz-word among the development practitioners. In the process, the word has been imputed to mean everything to everybody. No one now gets shocked if somebody uses the term “microcredit” to mean agricultural credit, or rural credit, or cooperative credit, or consumer credit, credit from the savings and loan associations, or from credit unions, or from money lenders. When someone claims microcredit has a thousand year history, or a hundred year history, nobody finds it as an exciting piece of historical information. Click here for full piece