Entries by Alex Har

Both users and shareholders of SingTel must certainly pay more attention to the horrible state of the MIO infrastructure. By now, SingTel must acknowledge that this is a systemic failure and must announce publicly what it intends to do to repair this situation.

Read my article on ONE1-LAH... http://one1.lah.cc/2009/11/

With Singapore hosting a number of major events in the near future, it may be worthwhile to pay attention to our skills and attitudes towards successful event management.

I suspect that currently, we are both careless and callous in public event management.

Recently a Forum article in the Straits Times commented on the poor crowd control and ushering at the recent ChingGay Festival. There was also a mess in the bus queues at the tow public days for recent Changi AirShow. All these events generally go unreported by the Press that wildly glorifies the richness of the event.

Last Friday I attended the Braddell Heights community Yuan Xiao Chinese New Year festival. The performance were excellent for a community event but I was exceedingly troubled by various aspects of the organization.

1. The event was held on 22 Feb. Chinese new Year ended on 21st and the right day to celebrate Yuan Xiao is the 21st, and its inappropriate and careless to celebrate this on any other day.

2. The guest of honour, MP Seah arrived late. To make matters worse his arrival was heralded by a noisy lion dance which cut right into the performance by the Braddell Heights Malay Dance Group. The poor performers who must have practised hard for the event saw their audience totally distracted. It was certainly a washout for them. They were given no apologies, no acknowlegements ...just totally overshadowed and cast aside. A significant portion of the Malays in the audience left unnoticed. Hopefully these were the friends and parents of the performers who were leaving to help the dancer pack up and not people in protest.








Continue reading "Laxity in Event Organization"

This is my response to a Straits Times article by its Health Correspondent , Salma Khalik. In her article Salma took issue with a number of persons who apparently proposed harsher criteria at a forum discussion with the Health Minister concerning the Means Testing Scheme for according healthcare subsidies to Singapore citizens

I congratulate you on the article captioned above. In an article I submitted, published in the Weekender last week, I proposed that Singaporeans should be engaged in dialogue to develop a shared vision about subsidized healthcare in Singapore. It is encouraging to see that Minister Khaw has held a forum attended more than 1000 people.

There will always be different views on the amount of subsidies governments should afford, or who should get more or less and how? The press should facilitate and stimulate this discussion and not try to limit it Health care cost is inescapable national burden…. whether we bear it as individuals as it is incurred, share through some systems of tax, subsidies corporate benefits, insurance schemes; or pass it on to future generations.

Continue reading "National HealthCare Vision: Why be meaner than the Minister"

The MEDICARE prophets of doom are out there again, this time in the form of Stanley Jeremiah's Weekend Today News feature, Jan 5-6 2008, titled, “MEDISAVE-MEDISHIELD…MEDI-CRISIS?”.

I am certain the sensational headline was an editor’s creation as the Stanley Jeremiah I know is better known to be understated than sensational.

Whilst it is encouraging to see more prominent people and professionals air their views on this important subject, the current article like many other previously featured in newsprints and blogs fail to cut through the murkiness to provide illuminating insights, nor avoid the unnecessary butting of heads with other swimmers as there is a lack of a shared National Vision
Continue reading "Singapore Healthcare: Importance of a Shared vision"

In his message for the 41st World Communication Day, Pope Benedict addressed the issue of "Children and the Media: A Challenge for Education" and called upon the media industry, communicators including direct marketers, audiences, readers, parents and schools, to help meet the challenge.

Taking a realistic approach the pontiff acknowledged that

Indeed, some claim that the formative influence of the media rivals that of the school, the Church, and maybe even the home. Reality, for many, is what the media recognize as real

He urged the world, media professionals, media, marketing, direct marketing industry, parents, schools, churches and audiences to view this challenge and recognize heir responsibilities from two perspectives:

1. Formation of children by the media, and
2. Formation of children to respond appropriately to the media.

More discussion may be found at ONE1-DM website

On-line media is certainly getting hot in most first world countries and with Singapore entering this category of nations, things will hot up here.

Recently SINGAPORE : Channelnewsasia.com has been named the top website for a television channel in Singapore for the second year running by Hitwise, a company that monitors online visits.

Continue reading "On line Media getting Hot"

There is so much talk about the media revolution..... new media, digital media, personalised media, soclal media with content generated by users or members and not by professional journalists. In Asia, traditional TV networks continue continues to rule the media scene...but for how long?

MNCs that have experienced the power of new media in their home countries will inevitably push for such media deployment. In a borderless world Asian Media owners and Media agencies will risk losing business to those in more developed countries if they do not react quickly to develop the capabilities to adequately serve these MNCs and other progressive Asian businesses that desire to exploit these new media.