July 16th, 2009 at 12:39 pm
Knowing When To Shut Up Is Crucial
I am rather glad that now we have only a bi-monthly assembly now instead of the monthly assembly. Actually, if given a choice, I wouldn’t want an assembly at all. Afterall, you can always do your announcements via memo or send them via e-mails. But most of the people here think, we can foster good bonding and ties if we have such gathering. I could safely bet that some of the top people in the company don’t even know my name after more than 30 times of such “gatherings”.
I quite like some of the speakers they get for our assembly. Some are rather good. They touch on simple facts of life and act as a gentle reminder that, there is a life other than living it entirely in the office. Most of the times, the speakers are plain boring that I think most of us listen.. or rather sleep with our eyes opened. Yesterday’s however, was plain moronic.
Well, as we all know, everyone is very afraid of the H1N1 super flu bug. I was having a conversation with my friend in Australia and he said that, the situation there is overrated. Everyone who is having flu, even due to allergies, with no fever was all directed to the hospital as safety measure. Hence, it’s no surprise that the numbers in that particular country has increased. Another friend who is a pilot, goes to the airport and flies plane on almost daily basis. He’s still fine and said, the situation is indeed overrated.
The speaker yesterday spoke about the H1N1. He was supposed to talk about dengue but due to the request from the Chairperson, he was required to speak about H1N1, even though dengue kills a person every week in our country (according to him lah!). I think he is probably not well prepared to speak on this subject matter and he decided to talk about things that he might know.. or rather not.
It was really jaw dropping when he said that people who travel overseas belong to people with a much better income or is economically sound. I believe most people who travel, not all of them are for pleasure. Some are for business or work related, or perhaps visiting some dying relatives, foreign workers looking for a greener pasture, etc and these could not be avoided. To make such sweeping remarks that only rich people travel, seriously undermine this speaker’s credibility. The funniest part was when he was talking about “only rich man travel”, he actually jest at the board of directors with his eyebrows raised. That was such a Kodak moment which I hope the photographer would have taken that picture!
Then, he mentioned that, those who are rich, and when they are back from their “overseas” trips, when they were instructed to stay at home for 7 days for quarantine, and according to his “research and analysis” rich people cannot stay at home more than 3 hours. So they would be rebellious and wanted to go out. So, they all went out and infect people who don’t have the chance to travel overseas and yet get H1N1. LOL!
He then mentioned our country which is on the equator, hence the hot weather, there is less likely that we would get more infection and compared it with… Korea. Above all countries, he had to choose Korea. Then he asked the board of directors, what season it is now in Korea? Maybe he plans to travel to Korea too, since he just got to know that it’s now summer and less likely for him to get H1N1 infection.
He also said that Korea would have higher number of infection compared to our country, it’s because the country has winter and the water content in the air is higher. I am not too sure about that… I remember when I visited Melbourne end winter and no doubt, the weather is cold, the air was so dry that skins beginning to flake off my nose. Well, he probably forgets that the outbreak started in Mexico.. which is also a tropical country? If whatever he says is true, then I pity the Eskimos.
Since he spoke in his mother tongue, he did mention a few words in English. Instead of saying “chance” of getting the infection is higher, he said “choice”. Nobody wanted H1N1 if given choice. This is why I support that English should be used for Math and Science if given a choice, but it looks like that such chances are highly unlikely. LOL.
It really pays to do your homework before you give a speech. Having said that, I think all officers should be sent back to school to relearn everything particularly geography in this case, perhaps throw in a class called “common sense” – so that they know when to shut the f*ck up if they don’t know what they are talking about.