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Nation

Say SG!

The National Day Parade on 9 August 1965 was a grand celebration. Red and white dominated the whole Padang and the sense of pride was palpable.  While no one used the word, it was very much an occasion to Honour Singapore and take pride in what had been achieved over 50 years:  we have an armed forces that is respected for its capability and professionalism racial and religious harmony in a society that Pew Research just a few months back had found to be the most religiously diverse country in the world an economy based on a well-tested tripartism of workers, employers…
Honour Singapore
August 16, 2015
Nation

Happy National Day… Honour Singapore!

SG50! We celebrate 50 years of independence today…it is our Golden Jubilee! Congratulations, People of Singapore, for 50 years of national freedom, independence, and sovereignty! 50 years in which Singapore has moved decisively, in GDP terms, from Third World to First World.  50 years in which we have experienced peace and security, while reading every day about flare-ups, terrorist attacks, and wars in many places of the world. 50 years in which we have enjoyed freedom from natural calamities such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis. These have been 50 years of being the master of our own destiny.  We had…
Honour Singapore
August 9, 2015
Uncategorized

Youth is a mindset, not a time of life!

Today, our youth in Singapore got a break from school and celebrated “Youth Day”. While we honour the youth in our nation on this day, let us also remind ourselves of Samuel Ullman’s poem “Youth”, in which he writes that: “Youth is not a time of life – it is a state of mind”. So often in our society, we hear people use their age as an excuse for not pursuing their potential: “I’m too old to do this”, “I’m already an Uncle/ Aunty”, etc. But it is almost always not the truth; it is a perception that limits one’s potential and reduces…
Honour Singapore
July 27, 2015
Leadership

Honour in Leadership

The film "Exodus" is based on the story of a leader, Moses, leading his people, the Israelites, out of slavery in Egypt, an event more than 1,000 years BCE. There were a number of memorable, inspiring quotations of which two are shared here.   COMMITMENT BETWEEN HUSBAND AND WIFE The first is an exchange between Moses and his wife Zipporah on their wedding night: Zipporah: Who makes you happy? Moses: You do. Zipporah: What's the most important thing in your life? Moses: You are. Zipporah: Where would you rather be? Moses: With you. Zipporah: When will you leave me? Moses:…
Honour Singapore
May 5, 2015
Uncategorized

HOW NEW LEADERS CAN SUSTAIN SINGAPORE’S SUCCESS

GIC group president and former civil service head Lim Siong Guan spoke on honour, wealth, leadership and Mr Lee Kuan Yew's legacy at a Business Times conference last Tuesday. Here are edited excerpts of his speech that were published in The Straits Times on 6 April 2015.  OFTEN when visitors come to Singapore, they are briefed on the Housing Board, the Central Provident Fund, the Urban Redevelopment Authority, the education system, the health system and so on. While these are critical factors, I believe there is a deeper cultural reason to explain Singapore's success since independence. The explanation lies in…
Honour Singapore
April 6, 2015
Uncategorized

HONOURING MR LEE KUAN YEW (1923-2015)

Honour (Singapore) joins Singaporeans in honouring our founding Prime Minister, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, who passed away early this morning.  If we look at an atlas of the world, Singapore, the country, fits quite nicely into the letter “o” in its name.  Indeed, in most atlases, they have to make a point of enlarging the dot so that Singapore may be pointed out. That is how small Singapore is. When Singapore became, rather unexpectedly, independent in August 1965, it had to find its own way into the future: the dream of a common market in Malaysia was broken, and Indonesia was…
Honour Singapore
March 23, 2015
Uncategorized

How do Expensive Cities Survive?

I had the opportunity to speak at the stars Symposium for Leaders of the Next Generation at Stein am Rhein, a little medieval city in Switzerland, on challenges and choices for future leaders. Before getting to Stein am Rhein, I had the opportunity to walk through "old Zurich" - the older, historic part of the city of Zurich, where there are many narrow, cobblestoned passageways lined with small, exclusive, specialized shops that sell items that are not cheap - certainly not cheap by Singapore standards. How could these shops possibly succeed and survive? The answer is not hard to find.…
Honour Singapore
September 19, 2014
Uncategorized

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO HONOUR?

Some people have commented that the word “honour” appears somewhat abstract and could therefore mean different things to different people. So they asked why we do not use a simpler word like “trust” or “respect”, which will be easier to understand and has less ambiguity. While we agree this would have been simpler, it would have lost a very important point about “honour”. Let us explain it this way. “Honour” is something we offer someone, whereas “trust” or “respect” is our reaction to someone.  Thus if someone behaves in a way which makes us believe in him or her, we respond with…
Honour Singapore
August 22, 2014
Uncategorized

WHAT THE HELL IS WATER?

 The late author David Foster Wallace began his commencement address to the graduates of Kenyon College in 2005 with:There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, “What the hell is water?”As Wallace explained, the point of the fish story is merely that the most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are hardest…
Honour Singapore
August 15, 2014
Uncategorized

HONOUR GETS THE TURNIP OUT

Honour (Singapore), a non-profit enterprise that seeks the well-being of Singapore by promoting a culture of honour and honouring, was launched by Minister for Education Heng Swee Keat last Tuesday, 5 August 2014.  It seems a fitting lead-in to National Day, which we will celebrate tomorrow, by reminding everyone to honour Singapore. Honour carries the dual message of being a people who honour our word being a people who honour each other despite possibly having widely different views on issues Perhaps a good way to appreciate the message can be found in the well-known Russian folk tale about The Great…
Honour Singapore
August 8, 2014
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