Authority, leadership and ethics.

A manager ordered to meet the following productivity level in 3 minutes.

Unit A with 4 workers to cut 60 apples.

Unit B with 15 workers to cut 20 apples.

Unit C with 30 workers to cut 90 apples.

The manager did not reallocate nor provide additional resources for the work to be done. Assuming that nobody in history has ever cut more than 1 apple in 1 minute, what is your thoughts on this manager?

Unfair? 

Ignorant? 

Lazy?

Personal motives? 

Favoritism? 

Now, what if the company needs to produce 2 apples in a minute to breakeven and ensure the sustainability of the 3 units?

Ethics! 

My friend who shared this case study did not think so even after I shared that the manager did not fulfill his duties towards the company and his responsibilities towards his team. After all, it is only money that were lost, he said.

So I changed the scenario a little. Assuming that the manager now supervise 3 teams of firefighters. In a fire rescue, he ordered the following without allocating any tools, machinery or strategize the rescue operation.

Team A with 4 men to save 60 people.

Team B with 15 men to save 20 people.

Team C with 30 men to save 90 people.

If on records, it takes 20 minutes to save a person from a burning building and the building starts to collapse after 45 minutes.

Authority, leadership and ethics.

Your say.

You stinky daddy.

小tz: "Ha ha ha you are so stinky! Love from 小tz"

Me: "Naughty girl. Home leow huh? Daddy still at Hougang. :-( "

小tz: "Home and bathed already, but you are still very stinky."

Me: "Later I come home then you know. :-/ "

The Facebook message pop up while I was on my way home after work. 

I replied immediately knowing that by the time I reach home, my little fellow would be sleeping. This is the life we have to manage with very little contact time for each other.

I treasure my limited time with yt and 小tz. Limited because a big portion of my evenings and weekends were taken away resulting from work commitments. That's part of the work deal and responsibilities that cannot be changed. That's also part of the reason why I hardly accept invitations for gatherings and wedding dinners after office hours.

If you were to ask me what I remembered about Jack Neo's movie "Money not enough", it's the part where his son insisted that the lights be switched off so he can confirm Jack Neo is his father through his silhouette. You may think it's just blown out of proportion for comedy effect but it isn't. Families with father always travelling out the the country faced such issues. Fortunately, this only happens to 小tz and me during the weekdays. I left home before she wakes up and I normally ended up carrying her to bed after I reached home and bathed. If not for the limited weekends I spend with her, we will likely ended up communicating through her mother's sms and FB messages. 

It's not that I don't treasure the friendship from friends that I keep rejecting invitations on their important days. I felt very bad for rejecting those invitations every single time. However, 

I need to ensure that I bring food to the family table and I wanted to be part of my daughter's life, not just a father that provide materialistic satisfaction. Anyway, I am not capable to satisfy every single one of her wants. 

Last night 小tz was up to her usual trick to request to sleep later, citing it is Children's Day School Holiday today so she need not wake up early. We ended up practicing her dance movements for her upcoming examinations. Well... also the crazy dance thereafter, as usual.

Unfortunately, while she was at her peak, my energy was already at its base. We slept at 10pm under the order of her highness, yt. I collapsed before giving her full head massage and back drumming as she will always request.

Sometimes, I think she is just like me. Every time after a day out, she will just hug yt or my arm and slept through the bus journey. It's just so great to watch she slept in the comfort of my hug. I simply love the feeling of her 2 little arms hugging my arm.

Daddy love you, 小tz.

Picture: Her tattoo from Children's Day celebration at school. She told me: "I ate 6 types of food and you eat none. Na nana bu bu~"

The sweet little girl with Down Syndrome.

Bringing my daughter for her dance class and thereafter to the library had became a routine for me every Sunday. yt got her break while I got my chance to go out alone with 小tz. Now that 小tz is older and capable of going toilet on her own, we face less difficulties in getting 小tz to go toilet without yt.

Less doesn't meant no difficulties. I can always guard the entrance of the toilet when 小tz visits the toilet. But... how about me? 

Eat less drink less = Less or no toilet visit lor.

On this faithful and usual Sunday, I was sitting at the back of the library children's section watching 小tz listening attentively to the story told by the librarian. At the side of my eyes, I noticed a little girl looking at my phone held on my hand.

Looking up, I got a shocked. A little girl with Down Syndrome. 

I was shocked not because of the little girl's look. Rather than shocked, I should have said I was pleasantly surprised to notice the little girl with Down Syndrome. Unless I intentionally make a trip to the special school, I hardly see little girls or boys with Down Syndrome for a very very long time.

You see... people, especially children with Down Syndrome are sweet, kind, friendly, warm and cute. Just like the little girl I saw. Once I made eye contact with her, she quickly came close to me, almost leaning on me and watching me while I read my Facebook status updates on my phone. 

The next time you see a person with Down Syndrome, if you are not comfortable to wave or say hello, the least you can do is not to run away from them or give them that weird look.

No, I did not gave her any special attention. It's my usual reaction I gave to little kids who are sweet and well behaved. Saying hello, telling her what I am doing and giving her a high 5.

Having said all the good things about people with Down Syndrome, there are also challenges in raising a child with Down Syndrome. In addition to developmental disability, people with Down Syndrome have intestinal and heart problems. They also face the possibility of developing dementia before the age of 45. With the advancement in medical science to detect Down Syndrome before birth and the proven safe procedure for abortion, it is not surprise to see less kids with Down Syndrome in public. What's more, some parents are worried that their kid may be hurt, or others may be affected by their kids that they chose to keep them at home.

So now you know why I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the little girl. I am equally happy that she have a good and responsible father that decided to bring her out, let her be exposed and learned from the public. It's a difficult decision to make in bringing the little girl to this world. It's a even tougher decision to make to bring her out in public.

The little girl's father deserve my respect. 

I must be a natural magnet to sweet and well behaved kids cause the little girl came to me thrice in less than 15 minutes. Or is it my phone that she likes? Hmm.... Anyway, despite me telling her father it's ok, her father still decided to carry her away when she came to me the third time.

Nope, I did not tell her father about my work. Not only that it was nothing to brag about, I also wanted to show her father that I am ok with her daughter. I wanted very much to contribute towards giving him the confidence to bring her daughter out more often.

Join me...

Aiyo, not for food la. Although it's my favorite.

Join me to treat every person with or without disability as equal citizen of our country.

Thank you.

Come, join us!

Sometimes last week in a bus on my way home, I saw a young gentleman with intellectual disability goes up the bus with his caregiver. 

2 bus stops later, the young gentleman started to knock on the metal railing. Noticed the helpless plead from the caregiver's eyes for help, I gave the young gentleman a firm look and shaked my head to signal that his behaviour is not acceptable. 

He stopped.

Only for 2 bus stops distance and then, he started banging on the window of the bus this time. While doing this, he was staring at me as if telling me he is determined to continue knocking. He banged it so hard that the bus captain shouted to ask him to stop.

Oh no... did the smart Alex, aka Ling Chong Beng made things worst?! After all, I am not familiar with the young gentleman and might have trigger another sets of behaviour with what I had done.

Just when I was wondering if I should try something else, a young lady with Down Syndrome sitting at the back of the bus came and sat across the young gentleman. She moved her hands over to her chest, gave it a few tap, looked at me with the assuring smile as if to tell me not to worry and she will help me.

"Please do not bang the window. You be good ok. I gave you something. Wait har."

She started talking to the young gentleman then digged into her bag. She got a packet of sweets out and passed it to the gentleman. 

"Cannot bang the window, ok. Be good, you can have this sweet."

The young gentleman did and stopped banging on the window. I smile at the young lady before aligning the bus and continue my journey home.

This may not be the best or correct approach to intervene the behaviour. Nevertheless, it helped the young gentleman and his caregiver from being scolded and even chased out of the bus.

I am touched by the action of this young lady who went all the way out to help a fellow member of our community. She was earlier seen to be tearing and upset. However, she stopped crying, wiped her tears and jumped into action when she saw another person within our community needed help.

Yes. The community that include the young gentleman, the young lady and me. The community form by person with intellectual disability, their caregivers, families, friends, staff, agencies and others who believe in them. The community that advocates for the rights of person with intellectual disability, support them with the dreams of integrating them into the mainstream society and having equal rights like every other human beings.

It's those little things in life that gave us the energy and confidence to live life and continue with our passion.

Are you living your life?

Don't waste it cause there are many out there who wished they are you, who are much fortunate than any of them.

Consider joining our community? 

By the way, my name is not Alex.