Mr B

I had dinner tonight with my old Norwegian friend, Mr B who is in Singapore attending to the docking of his tanker at Keppel Shipyard. It's been about three years or more since he was here, so it was nice to enjoy an evening or two together - we have been meeting each other on quite a few occasions in the past 15 years or so.

Mr B is much more senior than me in age and experience, very old school, very practical and wise. I always enjoyed his stories and astute observations on human nature and relationship.

He is very happy when his ships has to dock in Singapore. Prices are much cheaper than in Europe, services fast and efficient, everything works. Moreover, he get to see me. We always enjoy a drink together. We talk about old days, life is good, we are proud of our family and especially our children who are moving ahead of us.

Botanic Garden

This morning is one rare early morning outing for me when we have our first practical photo session at the Botanic garden - at 8 am, the garden is very well attended by peoples from all walks of life, jogging, qigong, photographers, strollers etc.

The garden has been very beautifully upgraded recently and is really world class. In this commercial city, how nice it is for us to be able to get out in the open air, enjoy the tropical nature so close to the city, so well managed and amazingly, as it should remain, still free of charge to one and all.

Car parking used to be free at the Botanic garden but now chargeable like most places in Singapore. To encourage more people to use the free facilities such as our botanic garden (or the national library), it may be an idea to provide free (or nominal fee) bus services during peak hours from the nearby MRT stations. This will encourage people to use less of their cars.

It may well be noted that certain shopping malls provide free bus services. This idea could be further explored and extended to make Singapore an even better city for all of us who make our home here.

Helping our neighbours

Singapore ‘Let’s learn from it’, columnist Instead of seeking role model from far-away, Malaysian suggests looking at Singapore. NSTAug 25, 2007
We can learn a thing or two from Singapore By Fauziah Ismail
THE Malays have a saying: Kuman di seberang laut nampak, gajah di depan mata tidak nampak — "you can see a germ across the sea but not an elephant in front of you".
This is how we treat our neighbour, Singapore. Politics and our troubled relations in the past continue to cloud our feelings towards the republic and its people.
Because of that, we’d rather venture further abroad looking for best practices, when we can find them easily down south......

I am glad someone in Malaysia suggested that Singapore's success story has something to offer the Malaysian - I hope Singaporeans should see this an opportunity to reach out to our neighbour in a positive way and in the process, make it a win win situation for all.

Today, I happen to be talking to my friend about the maid system in Singapore which we both agree are exploitative. I think our government should do more for the maids who come from the neighbouring countries. As an example, maids who are working in Singapore could well be trained up during their contract in Singapore and those suitably qualified be allowed to work subsequently in Singapore in positions such as nurse assistants, assistant cooks or other suitable jobs which are needed due to lack of enough Singaporeans.

The main idea is how to turn the current undesirable status in the two examples above into a win win situation for all. It is short term and easier to just shirk our shoulder, feel sad or worst, take unfair advantage of our neighbours' problems. A world class leadership would be able to see an opportunity here to make a positive difference, find a suitable way forward and make us all even more proud to be Singaporean.

PKFZ

Last few days I have been following this looming debacle - another sad case for Malaysia. I yahoo and found a posting on ancient mariner regarding the PKFZ.

Malaysia is so resource rich and could have built up to exceed Singapore achievement but for its relatively poor management - so much wastage - much as I love our neighbour for the friendly people and the wide open country space, cheap food, the highways to stretch my car, the nice hotels, beautiful KLCC, Putrajaya etc. I feel sorry whenever I hear of another case of gross mismanagement and how the crooks or bungling officials get away with it, every time.

Whether it is family or our country, if we do not manage our assets and resources well, it will be taken away from us. For this I must be thankful to our gahmen and feel lucky to be Singaporean.

My Malaysian friends deserve a break.

Don't we Singaporean snigger even if this is a naive suggestion, Singapore should offer to help our neighbours enhance their standard of corporate governance and management. However if we help them succeed such as the IDR, Tanjong Pelapas or PKFZ, then will this means greater competition for us? How do we make it a win win situation for all?

We should be able to think beyond our borders, perhaps we can learn from China whose growth has been very peaceful and benefits all the countries in the region. There is no loser as far I know.

Jakarta

This morning I flew to Jakarta, have a meeting or two and fly back the same day. It is a wonder of modern commercial life, people are commuting to work and meeting intercities. I am glad this is about the rare occasion I have to do just jetting around, nothing glamourous, rather normal - in the course of the day's work.

We flew SIA - a premier airline all Singaporean are proud of. Even if other airlines offer cheaper fares on the same route, to KL, to Manila, to Bangkok, around the region, most travellers, especially business traveller always prefer Singapore Airlines. The plane we flew is an airbus, very new plane seating 2 3 2 - wide aisle and wide seats with lots of legs room. It is really worth it, value for money and high quality - added with great in flight service standards, there is no need to fly business class at three times the price.

Jakarta - the city are clogged, jammed with traffic - average salary for an admin staff around US$200 to US$300 per month - Indonesia is so resource rich, I hope it can be another China where barely a generation ago, millions of people live in extreme proverty but now enjoying a good standard of living especially for the people living along the coastal more developed region of China.

What we need is good management at the top. I hope same for other countries in the region that miss the economic boom and growth of the last two decades, certainly wasted years, very sad for countries such as Myanmar. The people deserves a break.

Bangkok - another fascinating Monsoon city

Bangkok is home to at least two shipping companies - Thoresen and Precious Shipping - both have been doing well the last few years in their niche market. They are employing quite a number of Myanmar seamen - I wonder why Thailand or Vietnam has not been big crew supplying countries like Philippines or Myanmar. English proficiency is probably a big reason behind this.

Just like Singapore, Manila (BGC) and KL, there are many condos coming up in the city, many tall buildings, each pointing its way up.

Okayama Peaches

It is summer holidays in Japan, it is peach season in Okayama. I was presented with a box of lovely looking peaches compliments from my good friend Watanabe san.

A gift of peaches is very meaningful, I shall enjoy these fruits with my family and share it with my golfing kakis.

Look how nice the packaging. The product are accompanied by relevant information to enhanced your enjoyment. We have much to learn from the Japanese in regards to presentation, style and quality.

Bart, and loyalty

My friend Bart, he visited my office yesterday with a big bag of "7D" dried mango (Pasalubang?).

Bart, he is my counterpart Filipino manning agent for a common, good principal who is like -delivering a capesize bulker end of this month and two more the next two months - I cannot count how many more ships they are launching into 2010.

Bart has got 9 ships - he is completely dedicated to serving only this principal. He is a one principal man - like a one-woman man ( a rare specie of Filipino?) - while I am more working butterfly :-) Monsoon concept serves many principals, therein derived economy of scale. There is safety in numbers.

Whatever you say, Bart and me, we are somewhat old worldly. We are both loyal to our principals to the extent there are occasions, many when we subsidise our principals by paying the difference of wages to our crew in case when these crew have to be so persuaded to join our principal's ship. Its ridiculous really, the poor subsidising the rich?

and our crew, they are staying with us even if our adjusted wages are still much below market level. Again, the poor subsidising the rich?

It is important all of us in this trade especially our good principals to have a good understanding, take care of us agents, our sub agents and our crew. This supply chain is critical to their means of growing further. We all want to grow together, long term.

Loyalty is a two way street. It is a good day today, as any, to think about loyalty.

National Day

For as long as I could remember now, our National days are lavishly celebrated, no expense spared to foster a national identity, to make Singaporean feel proud of our country - fly past of the latest and greatest war planes, display of other weapons, expensive fireworks, exhortations, speeches etc. Sorry to say I did not appreciate the overly display of nationalism, the associated ceremonies and rituals even as I may understand why it is so done.

A little too much artificial and overdone, it invoke a reverse reaction - I like to be left alone to reflect on what Singapore means to me, personally. So, I have never attend a National day rally since the last one I remember like 1967, nor have I encourage my children to do, some of them attended past rehearsals probably as part of their national education.

Anyway, without being negative - I wish we Singaporeans truly love our country as we should, in each our own way, sincerely and enjoy, celebrate our National Day together, alone, whatever, as we wish.

Majullah Singapura.

Networking

To stay in touch with new development in shipping, we have to keep ourselves updated through shipping newspapers, trade magazines etc. We can reach out and exchange ideas through conferences, exhibitions, tradeshows and attend as many formal and informal networking sessions as we felt necessary or enjoy on top of our usual long working hours.

So how fruitful are the time we spent on these activities, how does it benefits us? We may incur much expenses to attend overseas conferences and exhibition but often the results are intangible, not easily quantifiable. I think it is important to make sure such activities are translated into positive tangible business decisions, actions and results.

Locally, the maritime unions organise regular get-together events such as CURE luncheon by SMOU, talks, annual dinners, golf tournaments - some of these are more social events to have a good time together and chitchat.

There is a regular informal maritime gathering organised by a retired elder of our industry, Mr Cheng Huang Leng giving anyone interested an opportunity to meet up, exchange ideas and share their experience through informal talk or presentation during the gathering. I was alerted and invited to this gathering last 2nd July - such gatherings being organised for some years now, first monday evening,every odd month. In between gatherings, Mr Cheng actively reaches out to those in his emailing list - someone needing a job, someone having an engineering problem needing a solution, looking for something to buy or to sell...

It take a lots of dedication and efforts to continue organising such gatherings. The July gathering was very well attended by maybe about 40 people, the discussions are very well moderated by Mr Cheng. This gathering is one rare initiative freely organised by a senior member of our industry to encourage all of us in the community to network and help each others.

Some years back, I attended a maritime gathering in KL organised by a shipping company along similiar line. I continue to get invitation to these gatherings.

Such gatherings, like other networking events are good for marketing and making ourselves visible to the other people in the industry. Even as there are generic networking events, formal or informal, there are networking events/group more focus on specific group of the industry, such as for young professionals (SSA YEG), for crew managers (SMOU, SOS & SMEF), for purchasers? for technical managers? etc.

I have so far not come across an active local internet forum for shipping or blog such as Monsoon, perhaps Mr Cheng can consider to have his own blog to supplement the maritime gathering or start an internet forum instead of using the emails?

I will seek his permission to advertise his next gathering (september 3rd) on my blog. Perhaps interesting issues etc arising from his emails or gatherings may be posted on my blog if it help to broaden the potential audience and link up the local networking system.

To promote these networking activities, perhaps the MPA or SMF could co-ordinate, publicise, give encouragement and advice on how such activities, especially the new media (websites, blogs and internet forums) can be further developed into much more useful and tangible element of our IMC.

A paradigm shift?

The next downturn
"Today's bull run can get cut short by a number of things. Just like our recent experience with Sars, or a bomb drops on the wrong person's head. Like anything else, the least expected thing can happen at the wrong time. I got a feeling the next downturn will be very severe. "

Shipping together with the whole economy is so exuberant - so unprecedented, some began to believe it is substainable - it's frightening - then there are the usual doomsayers - Those like me who do not understand, who are bewildered, better to remain prudent.

Seafarers are getting unbelievably wages which increase every few months as more and more newbuildings come along. Wages go up, quality come down as the supply of seafarers are depleted and we are scrapping the bottom of the barrel. Loyalty and discipline seems out of place in this new market place. Good time for the seafarers who never encounter such opportunities. They should get good wages when the shipowners are making tons of money, why not? Crew manning is a long term business by nature, I am trying to understand this paradigm shift.

When we have a downturn, we are going to have a big surplus of seafarers - so is it going to be a pendulum swing from feast to famine, back and forth - a mismatch of supply and demand - we should think how this sort of situation can be avoided for the future.

Accelerations

I enjoy exchanging perspectives with my friends in the industry. One observes

"The premiere IMC, London, has a history of dominance spanning 250 years
The premiere shipping company, Ap Moller, has had 130 years to get it right

Singapore's IMC drive genuinely started in the early 90s- less than 20 years of history
NOL celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2009- it currently has 38 years of history

We are trying to accelerate whatever we do... mindful of not losing control of the fundamentals.
Singapore really has achieved alot, have we not?"

My view? The future is secure and greater achievement will be through nurturing more young and upcoming professionals for Singapore, who ride along this boom, who will not quit when stormy weather comes, who dare to dream of achievement and success we cannot imagine now...

Stuck

Letdown for thousands at ship launch
Stuck on shore: Thousands of people waiting for the launch of the biggest seagoing vessel to be built in Teluk Intan. They went home disappointed yesterday when the excavators used to push the tanker into the water gave up after 90 minutes.
It was also disappointing for E.A. Technique (M) Sdn Bhd, for the MT Nautica Johor Bahru was the biggest seagoing petroleum tanker it had ever built.
The tanker weighs 5,500 deadweight tonnes and is 85m long, 9m high and 17.5m wide.
E.A. Technique managing director Datuk Abdul Hak Mohd Amin said the problem could be due to the soft ground beneath the tanker.
“The land beneath the ship became soggy and the slipway (rubber tube rollers to move ships) sank due to the weight,” he said yesterday.
“The slipway was utilised previously and there was no problem,” he said, adding that the rain for the past few days was the main cause.
He added that they would try again this morning.
The new double-hull tanker was built at a cost of RM39mil and is able to carry 5,200 tonnes of oil.