In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's mind there are few.
“The lesson is that you never know in life whether something is going to work out to your advantage, even if it seems to be a terrible impediment.”
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Legal Times, Justice Ginsburg Remembers Her First Steps in the Law, November 13, 2007
“No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.”
– Stanislaw Jerzy Lec, More Unkempt Thoughts (1964)
I will accept the rules that you feel necessary to your freedom. I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.
~ Robert A Heinlein, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress (1966)
A “Black Operation” or “Black Op” is a covert operation typically involving activities that are highly secret due to questionable ethics and legality. The term itself is often used in political, military, intelligence and business circles. Agents or persons who specialise or are involved in a black operation are typically referred to as a “Black Operator” or “Black Operative.”
Black Ops missions often fall into the deniability category, where no government will claim responsibility for the action, or where responsibility is shifted to another actor in the case of a “false flag” operation.
False flag operations are covert operations conducted by governments, corporations, or other organizations, which are designed to appear as though they are being carried out by other entities. The name is derived from the military concept of flying false colors; that is, flying the flag of a country other than one’s own.
What can I possibly do with billions and billions of dollars? I don’t see the fuss in having 6 houses with greenskeepers; I don’t see the fuss in having 20 cars in the garage. If you think about it you are living better than John D. Rockefeller. If you want to watch the Super Bowl you just turn on the TV and watch it. If he wanted to see the World Series it would take him a long time to get there, and he would not have air conditioning and that type of thing. The problem is not getting rich, but finding a game you enjoy and living a normal life. The most important thing is finding the right spouse. If you make the wrong decision on that you will regret it, there is a lot of pain involved, but if you have the right spouse it is just wonderful. What qualities do you look for in a spouse? Humour, looks, character, brains, or just someone with low expectations. The most important decision that you will make is that. If you make that one decision right I will guarantee you a good result in life.
Question: What is happiness? Are you happy?
I am so blessed. I get to do what I like to do with people that I love. That is happiness. I am happy day after day after day. How could I be any happier? Someone once said success is getting what you want and happiness is wanting what you get. And that’s what I see in people as I look around. The only thing I have to do in life that I don’t like doing is fire people occasionally – very seldom. I would pay a lot of money if I didn’t have to do that. But wverything else I like. I’m doing what I like doing. I could be playing shuffleboard, I could be in Vegas, but I’m doing what I like doing. There is a woman here in Omaha who is a Polish Jew. She was in Auschwitz, her family was in Auschwitz. One would be in one line, another in another line. One of them didn’t come out. She said this to me “Warren, I am very slow to make friends, because the bottom line when I look at somebody is would they hide me?” Now I know people my age that have dozens and dozens of people who would hide them, Tom Murphy for example from Berkshire. I can tell you about a whole bunch of others who are worth billions and billions of dollars, who have schools named after them, who nobody would hide them. Their own kids wouldn’t even hide them “He is in the attic, he is in the attic”. That hiding is just a metaphor for love. If you have people that you want to love you, that do love you. If you leave out illness I have never found anyone who has dozens of people who love them, or would hide them using my metaphor, who is an unhappy person. I have seen all kinds of people that they are miserable. They have what the rest of the world may think is important, but they don’t have anybody who gives a damn about them. Being given unconditional love is the greatest benefit you can ever get. The incredible thing about love is that you can’t get rid of it. If you try to give it away you end up with twice as much, but if you try to hold onto it, it disappears. It is an extraordinary situation, where the people who just absolutely push it out, get it back tenfold. My friend Tom Murphy that I mentioned before, if he does 20 things for me he doesn’t expect even one back.
ST Aug 27, 2008
Young lawyers get to practise with global firms and gain exposure
By Selina Lum
CHANGES to the Legal Profession Act passed in Parliament yesterday will now open up the hitherto protected legal sector to allow foreign firms more leeway to operate here.
The presence of strong local and foreign law firms will strengthen Singapore’s reputation as the region’s legal services centre, said Law Minister K. Shanmugam.
Young and talented Singaporean lawyers too stand to gain as they will now have more opportunities to practise in big international firms and gain international exposure, he said.
The amendments to the Act follow recommendations made last September by a committee, headed by Justice V. K. Rajah, tasked with developing the legal sector.
They come nine years after the Government first sent signals that the sector should be liberalised.
Three key changes will result from yesterday’s legislative amendment:
Come October, five foreign law firms will be allowed to hire Singapore-qualified lawyers to practise Singapore law in certain areas, namely high-end work in corporate and banking sectors.
Second, an existing scheme in which a local firm ties up with a foreign one has been enhanced, among other things, allowing the foreign part of the venture to share up to 49 per cent of the local constituent’s profits.
Third, the scope of work that foreign firms can carry out in international commercial arbitration involving Singapore law has been widened.
Four of the five parliamentarians who spoke on the issue yesterday were practising lawyers. To a man, the latter expressed concern about the impact of the liberalisation on local law firms. They also had reservations about whether the moves would really benefit Singapore as envisioned.
Mr Shanmugam said he understood their concerns about competition but pointed out that a number of areas would continue to be ‘ring-fenced’ beyond the reach of foreign firms.
These include constitutional and administrative law, conveyancing, criminal law, family law, succession law, trust law for individuals and litigation.
Local firms also stood to benefit if the economy as a whole prospered. ‘We must remember that the decision to liberalise was taken because we believe that it is in the overall economic interest of Singapore. It should also benefit the legal services sector as a whole,’ he said.
Explaining a key driver behind the moves, Mr Shanmugam noted that financial-sector representatives had asked ‘very strongly’ for the legal market to be liberalised.
‘We survive as an economic entity by reason of being open, by reason of being economically competitive. The financial services sector is one of the key pillars of our economy and we have to listen to the feedback from that sector,’ he said.
He later addressed a point made by Mr Sin Boon Ann (Tampines GRC), who was concerned that top local firms could become ‘footnotes in our history books’.
Mr Shanmugam, a partner in Allen & Gledhill until he became Law Minister earlier this year, said he would be the last person to disagree with the point that the major law firms contribute significantly to the legal heritage and legal culture in Singapore.
But when dealing with policy issues, one had to look at things in terms of the benefit to the public, he said.
Singapore’s interest was best served by allowing competition, enabling more choices for young lawyers and creating a more vibrant economic legal market.
‘When that calculation comes through, it cannot be dominated by emotion,’ he said.
To Nominated MP and accountant Gautam Banerjee, who asked for even more liberalisation, he said: ‘We start at five (foreign firms). I think it’s better for us to proceed cautiously and make sure we get it right.’
by Chris Emmanuel
As far as the entertainment industry goes, Tracy Phillips is one whose shoes are certainly hard to fill. The humble and trendy pace setter very kindly took time out her busy schedule to sit down and have a chat with CHOICES.
She is young, beautiful and successful. She is undoubtedly a household name among the partygoers at Zouk. Though not always seen, Tracy is often heard through her ideas and concepts that have indeed been a part of the success Zouk experiences.
Born in Singapore, the Marketing Manager of Zouk grew up in Australia. She returned to Singapore when she was 12 and got her secondary school education at St. Joseph’s Convent. After her O’ Levels, Tracy enrolled in a Diploma programme at Nanyang Polytechnic. Upon graduation, she landed her first job at the Waterfilms Production House.
A fan of Zouk ever since her first clubbing days, she used to frequent the nightspot very often. During these visits, she loved sharing her creative ideas on the clubbing scene and it was through such encounters that she found herself being offered a job by Zouk’s management. Sounds like a dream come true for the rest of us.
She kicked off her career with Zouk in September 1998. “I had no prior intentions of actually working in a club, but had always had a great passion for music & club culture and in particular for Zouk. It’s been an amazing journey and I am extremely grateful to Lincoln and all the wonderful people I work with daily for providing me with the opportunity,” says Tracy.
The gorgeous 29-year-old relates that when she first started out in the industry, it was hard to be taken seriously. “I was very young back then, with crazy hairstyles & quirky outfits and working with industry peers….
