Does Courtesy Campaign Work?

I was queueing in the bank to do some transactions when a mother came in with a couple of young children. The children later went outside to play while the mother stood in the queue. After a while, I smelt some food coming from the back of the queue. When I turned around, the mother was eating and munching her bread. I was not sure what the filling was. But, the smell was simply not too pleasant in an air-conditioned environment. She simply took everyone as transparent!!! She did not even bother when those in the queue stared at her from all directions.

There are some social ettiquettes and mannerism that are disappearing and missing today!!! Sometimes, we just can't blame the children totally. If the mother does not even bother about such social manners, let alone the children.

Later on, this woman's mother came in and stood beside her in the queue and asked her something in Malay and her response to her mother was pretty cold, rude and indifferent. I could understand the conversation. I am not sure if this woman had got up from the wrong side of the bed. I do find many people with similar behaviours from all walks of life not just among the blue collars but the white as well.

How much and how far has the courtesy campaign really helped? I am not sure. All I know is, courtesy begins at home and it has to be part of us, our second nature; it has to come from within.

Something We Have ABSOLUTELY No Control Over...

I was at a hawker centre in Hougang last week queueing up to buy noodles when suddenly, most of the customers queueing at all the stalls there start sneezing non-stop. It was actually due to the pungent smell diffusing from one of the stalls, apparently from the frying the chilli powder. But, surprisingly, there were a couple of them who were not affected by such pungent smell at all. I am not sure if they have lost their sense of smell?!

There is something interesting that can be learned from this incident. Air is something all of us need every second and every minute and yet we have absolutely no control over the quality of the air that we breathe into our lungs. It is unlike food or water. Should the food or water be contaminated or polluted, we can choose not to eat or drink. But, not for air. As such, the quality of air that we breathe in is very important. There are devices and products in the market that could help clean up the air indoor. Some of these products while performing their intended functions do bring with them some side effects. Hence, we need to be careful in our selection of the product or device. I have done some research in those areas. Should you need any free advice, please email me at jonaooi@pacific.net.sg

The Importance of Drinking Alkaline Water

Many of us are not aware how important pH balance is for the body. In fact, the body should be more alkaline than acidic. Proper health starts with the correct acid-alkaline balance in our body. The pH value (acid-alkaline measurement) of our internal fluids affects every cell in our bodies. Excessive acid imbalances of any kind can overwhelm our body, and lead to health challenges.

Just as the body regulates its temperature at 36.9 degrees Celcius, so will it manage to preserve the pH value - especially in the blood. The body will constantly strive to maintain a balance of the blood pH at 7.365. In so doing, it will even create stress on other tissues, body systems, and organs. Chronic acidity interrupts all cellular activities and functions - it interferes with life itself. When the pH of the body gets out of balance (too acidic), we may experience low energy, fatigue, excess weight, poor digestion, aches and pains, sick and tired, and even more serious disorders.

The cycle of acidity begins primarily as a result of three things:

1. Ingesting acids. Eating too many acidifying foods like processed sugar, meats, dairy, coffee, alcohol, etc. Create an acid ash in the body. These acids can overload the body’s ability to neutralise them.

2. Creation of acids. Pathogens and microforms create acidifying toxins in the body. As the body becomes more and more acidic, bad bacteria, yeasts and other microforms proliferate in the body. Since these organisms are living, they eat as well as create resulting toxins. These toxins are often very acidifying.

3. Improper elimination of acids. Not all acids are the same; some are weak and some are strong. Weak acids like citric acid are much easier to neutralise than strong acids like uric acid. The body uses many systems in order to buffer acids including breath, mineral reserves, and fat. When the body’s buffering systems become compromised, excess acids build up.

The process of reestablishing acid-alkaline balance begins with proper diet and nutrition. This includes eating alkalising foods (vegetables, low sugar fruits, etc.), super hydration (drinking plenty of alkaline water that is ionic and structured), and proper supplementation.

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Things That Will Happen In The Last Days...

The following passage was taken from The Bible, 2 Timothy 3:1-5 (New Life Version)

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1You must understand that in the last days there will come times of much trouble. 2People will love themselves and money. They will have pride and tell of all the things they have done. They will speak against God. Children and young people will not obey their parents. People will not be thankful and they will not be holy. 3They will not love each other. No one can get along with them. They will tell lies about others. They will not be able to keep from doing things they know they should not do. They will be wild and want to beat and hurt those who are good. 4They will not stay true to their friends. They will act without thinking. They will think too much of themselves. They will love fun instead of loving God. 5They will do things to make it look as if they are Christians. But they will not receive the power that is for a Christian. Keep away from such people.

The Ugly Baby - For A Laugh!!!

A woman boarded a bus holding a baby in her arms. The bus captain looked at her and said: "That's the ugliest baby I've ever seen." In a huff, the woman slammed her fare into the fare box and took an aisle seat near the rear of the bus. The man seated next to her sensed that she was worked up and asked her what went wrong. "The bus captain insulted me." she fumed. The man empathised and said: "Why? He's a bus captain and shouldn't say things to insult his passengers." "You're right," she said. "I think I'll go back up there and give him a piece of my mind." "That's a good idea," the man said. "Here, let me hold your monkey."

Learn To Treasure What We Have ...

The Parable of the Lost Son ... taken from the Holy Bible, Luke 15:11-32 (New International Version)
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11Jesus continued: "There was a man who had two sons. 12The younger one said to his father, 'Father, give me my share of the estate.' So he divided his property between them. 13"Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. 17"When he came to his senses, he said, 'How many of my father's hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.' 20So he got up and went to his father. "But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. 21"The son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' 22"But the father said to his servants, 'Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. 24For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' So they began to celebrate. 25"Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27'Your brother has come,' he replied, 'and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.' 28"The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29But he answered his father, 'Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!' 31" 'My son,' the father said, 'you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' "

What Just Happened ... For A Laugh...

A military cargo plane, flying over a populated area, suddenly loses power and starts to nose down. The pilot tries to pull up, but with all their cargo, the plane is too heavy. So he yells to the soldiers at the back to throw things out to make the plane lighter. They throw out a pistol. "Throw out more!" shouts the pilot. So they throw out a rifle. "More!" he cries again. They heave out a missile, and the pilot regains control. He pulls out of the dive and lands safely at an airport. They get into a jeep and drive off. Pretty soon they meet a boy on the side of the road who's crying. They ask him why he's crying and he says "A pistol hit me on the head!" They drive more and meet another boy who's crying even harder. Again they ask why and the boy says, "A rifle hit me on the head!" They apologise and keep driving. They meet a boy on the sidewalk who's laughing hysterically. They ask him, "Kid, what's so funny?" The boy replies, "I sneezed and a house blew up!"

The Difference Between KNOWING it and DOING it...

A girl currently studying in a junior college after browsing my book, "15 Forgotten Secrets That Will Make You A Better Student" arrogantly said, "I don't think I have time to read this book. I have attended a lot of time management courses already in my school." The mother wanted to buy the book for her but she repeatedly rejected her mother's good intention. I told that girl, "You have attended so many courses to learn how to manage your time and yet you don't even have time to read this book with 96 pages, something must be wrong somewhere." The trouble in this world is that many learn how to talk the talk, but fail to walk the talk.

As far as I am concerned, this girl just does not know what she is talking. Obviously, she is one of those who study and attend plenty of courses but have NEVER learned. That is the difference between STUDYING and LEARNING; that is the difference between KNOWING and DOING. Well, don't be surprised! According to the 20/80 Rule, 80% of the people behave this way!!! We have a choice, a choice to be in the 20%, or the 80% category.

UNDESIRED OUTCOMES of Education!!!

I was invited to conduct a motivational talk in a secondary school today for about 70 students from Secondary One Normal and Technical streams. These are students whose Primary School Leaving Examinations results did not qualify them for the express course.

First of all, the one-hour session of my talk took almost 20 minutes to get started because of some miscommunications and student "unrest". So, I was left with only 40 minutes. Worse, throughout the entire session, I have to pause on many occassions to send "black sheep" to the back of the lecture theatre where the talk was held. This is the first time in my eight years of conducting motivational talks that I have to resort to putting on my hat as a "disciplinarian". Quite a number of students were utter nuisance to the whole group. They affected and implicated the whole group which consists of many other good and polite students.

Those "black sheep" were totally disrespectful to their teachers. They made fun of their teachers. Frankly, the teachers were helpless. I am not sure what the school was doing about this? If I were running the school, I would probably expel one of the students first. Such undesirable and deliberate act of disrespect begins with the very low self-esteem of these students. They do everything possible to seek attention. Tracking all the way back, the root cause might be the streaming exercise in Primary 4 and Secondary one and the lack of capital punishment in schools.

I began the talk with a very unpleasant tone. I told the students what their trouble was. These students have already condemned themselves. They already believe that they are not good, useless, and good-for-nothing. So, they have given up on themselves. Some of them even behaved like gangsters! Come on... I told them that I grew up with gangsters and drug addicts all around me day in day out in my younger days. I have seen street fights and have seen knife being pierced into someone's body. I have seen drug addicts taking drugs right before my eyes. So what? I have never engaged myself in any of those fights. I have never smoked a single stick of cigarettes in my life. It is what you choose to be. One of them in the audience even wished that his parents died. This is a generation with deteriorated values. This student should be identified and sent for counselling. One day, he might just kill his parents!!! This is again the trouble with an education system that had over-emphasised on academic excellence neglecting the importance of social and family values. Though there are some new initiatives lately, but it takes 15 years to see the result of the new implementation.

When the talk was over, a few good students came forward to thank me and expressed their disapproval of the behaviour of those black sheep. I congratulated them for being matured in their thinking and encouraged them to continue doing the right things.

Be GRATEFUL always..............

I delivered a Global Business Seminar in Mandarin this evening. Though I have conducted the same seminar before, it is always very encouraging and reaffirming to have people coming up to you and appreciating you for a job well done. I appreciate those who have always been so encouraging!

Often times, I have received kind remarks from my fellow business partners telling me that they observed that when I speak, I am not bothered by the size of the audience at all. Whether one person or 500, I would still deliver the same message with the same level of enthusiasm. I certainly appreciate their observation and compliments. Frankly, I am not sure how I did it. But, I did.

I have observed and learnt something interesting over the years. Most people when become successful forget their humble beginning and therefore become ungrateful. As a general observation, insurance agents once become managers stop servicing their clients. Speakers once become famous stop talking to small audience. Election candidates once elected into office stop visiting the residents until the next election is around the corner. Disciples once built a name for himself rivals and competes with the master. Children once grown up despise their parents. Examples are simply numerous. The point is: BE GRATEFUL ALWAYS!

What It Means To Be A GODPARENT...

I've been asked by a friend in the Philippines to be a godfather to her child. When I received the SMS, I was kind of wondering what this was all about and what the responsibilities would be. I do have a godmother. But, frankly, I know nothing about what being a godparent means!!! I happened to be chatting online with a friend in Thailand. So, I asked her if she knew anything about being godparent and apparently, she was not sure either.

So, I did some research on the internet, and I realised that it was a great honour, privilege and responsibility to be asked to be a godparent. However, the decision to accept should be thought through seriously. But, what is a godparent? A godparent is a person who is legally entrusted to look after a child in case both his legal parents should die. A male godparent is a godfather and a female godparent is a godmother. A godparent may be related to the child, such as an uncle or an aunt, or may simply be a friend of the family.

Questions to ask yourself before agreeing to be a Godparent

Are your views on religion, spirituality and morality similar to the child's parents? If they are, all well and good. If not, this need not be an obstacle: the parents may have chosen you because your views are different. But make sure the parents know your views and are happy with them before you decide to accept.

Will you be around? Being a Godparent involves developing a relationship with the child and helping the parents in his/her spiritual upbringing. If you are about to emigrate to the other side of the world this will become very difficult. But it need not make it impossible. It is rather exotic to have a Godparent in Timbuktoo - especially to visit in their Gap year - but you will have to work that much harder to make the relationship work.

Do you have an interest in the child's well-being? If you really cannot tolerate children maybe you should say so no rather than agreeing and then disappointing later. But bear in mind that many Godparents find they only really begin to establish a relationship with their Godchild when he/she reaches teenage or beyond.

So, did I accept the invitation? Hmmmmmmmm.. it is for you to guess...

About ANTS ...

Recently, the opposition Singapore People's Party has been going door to door within the Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC, selling white T-shirts featuring a caricature of a red ant with boxing gloves. The assistant secretary-general of the party when interviewed said, "The red ant represents the party's never-say-die spirit. Ants see no obstacles. If you put a stone in front of them, they will make a detour or climb over it. We are like small ants in the political scene here. But when ants come together, they can move mountains."

How much do we really know about ants and what else can we learn from them? According to the New International Reader's Version of the Bible, Proverbs 6: 6 says, "You people who don't want to work, think about the ant! Consider its ways and be wise!". The New Life Version says, "Go to the ant, O lazy person. Watch and think about her ways, and be wise." So, it looks like we can gain wisdom by watching how the ants work!!!

If you watch ants for any length of time you will see that they really do communicate with each other and very effectively too. Ants communicate by touching each other with their antennae. Ants also use chemicals called pheromones to leave scent trails for other ants to follow.

Ants can be found almost anywhere on the planet. Ants are social insects, which means they live in large colonies or groups. Some colonies consist of millions of ants. There are three types of ants in each species, the queen, the sterile female workers, and males. The male ants only serve one purpose, to mate with future queen ants and do not live very long. The queen grows to adulthood, mates, and then spends the rest of her life laying eggs. A colony may have only one queen, or there may be many queens depending on the species. Ants go through four stages of development: egg, larva, pupa, and adult.

I.H.A.T.E.™ STUDIES! - Another Proprietary Programme for STUDENTS from Primary 4 to Secondary 5

I have just designed a special programme as a result of constant requests from parents. This programme aims to help the students who hate studies to develop interest in studies, form new habits, improve their attitude and sharpen their thinking skills so as to achieve excellence in their studies, by applying the I.H.A.T.E™ (Interest, Habit, Attitude, Thinking, Excellence) concept.

Parents are always concerned for and stressed by their children’s education. The most common solution to the problem is to get a tutor for them for reasons you know best. Now, the children are the ones being stressed, stressed by school homework and further stressed by additional homework from the tutor. Does that solve the problem? Today, what the children need is not just the HOW, but the WHY!

This is a special student tutoring, coaching and motivation programme aimed at helping students to learn how to learn so that they can achieve the best results with better understanding and self-motivation. This is not a tuition class that most parents are so used to sending their children to and there is no homework that most students are tired of. The course also helps students to become a better person, building on the contents of the trainer’s book “15 Forgotten Secrets That Will Make You A Better Student.

Enquiries are welcome. Send your enquiries to jonaooi@pacific.net.sg or SMS to +65 98504955

My Book Adopted As A Supplementary Reading Material in School

It was indeed heartening and excited for me to learn that a certain secondary school has adopted my book, "15 Forgotten Secrets That Will Make You A Better Student" as a supplementary reading material for the entire Secondary One cohort. As the Head of Department communicated to me, the book contains at least four out of the seven core values that the school has formulated for the students. It will be used by the teachers and students in the class. I am truly grateful to the school that the teachers are able to appreciate the value of the book and the impact it would make to the readers, in particular the students.

I hope more schools would be able to see and appreciate the value of this book that has received praises from many principals, teachers, educators, trainers, speakers, entrepreneurs, lawyer, directors, mothers etc locally as well as abroad. May God continue to bless the readers of this book.

Oh yes... before I forget, I received a call the other day, a mother called me on the phone and asked for the book. Her son has bought the book. He has read it. He found that it is a good book. He wanted to keep the copy and so, he planned to buy another one as a birthday gift for his friend. Hmmmm.. a great gift idea!!!

Do Not Be Anxious About Anything...

I met this elderly man in his home. He is in his seventies. He was half-leaning on a chair resting his legs on the other chair. As I was talking to him about my book, he got up from his chair and walked into his bedroom. After a while, he came up to me very proudly with a Chinese Bible in his hand. I asked him what he was trying to tell me. He said that was the book he read!!! I said, that is very good. I read the Bible, too. I asked him, "What is your point?".

I continued to speak with him as if I was delivering a short sermon. He told me he has no time for other things. Without second thought, I rebutted immediately. I said, "You have time to sit down there watching TV and you claim that you have no time for other things?" He quickly justified but I knew that was a lame excuse! He told me his wife is bedridden as her legs were amputated due to diabetes. He seemed to have many challenges in his life, both financially and psychologically. I continued to encourage him. I referred him to two verses in the Bible and I recited to him in Mandarin. I looked at him in his eyes. He was moved. The two verses are produced below for your reference.

Philippians 4:6-7 (New International Version)
"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

He was appreciative of what I shared with him. He felt encouraged. He apologised repeatedly to me for being so unfriendly towards me earlier. Well, it is not easy for a 73 year old man to apologise. There is much we can learn from him. The three phrases we should use more these days are "please", "thank you" and "sorry". I respect him. I am glad I was able to encourage him.