Yours Toothfully by Dr Chan Joon Yee

The word CHANGE worked wonders for President Obama. It would only be wise for others to follow, but when the followers have very different ideas about change in mind, the results can be funny.

“CHANGE is in the air for Singapore’s political system,” reports a local a newsPAPer.  ”But change must be tethered to fundamental principles — three, according to Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong.”

First, they must be fair to all contesting parties and “not be biased in favour of one party or the other”, said Mr Goh, ahead of details to be announced this week by the Prime Minister.

Oh, of course. We certainly wouldn’t want any changes resulting in one party controlling all the newsPAPers, the TV and radio stations. I can’t imagine what would happen if our newsPAPers become a mouthpiece for Dr Chee Soon Juan. How come this first fundamental principle sounds funny even without any input from Mr Brown?

Second, they must result in a strong, effective Government. “We do not want a system which ends up with a weak, hung Parliament. And then you have a coalition Parliament that is politically unstable for Singapore.”

Huh? Level the playing field, but we must still win all? Why can’t a coalition government be stable? Because the strong government says so?

And third, these changes must “facilitate representation for diverse views in Parliament, including views of the Opposition parties”.

But such facilitation to previously disadvantaged opposition parties may well result in a “mixed” parliament and a government that is not as “strong” as it wants to be. How should this apparent contradiction be resolved? I’m sure SM Goh and the folks with him have their plans in place. I’m just not so sure if CHANGE has any real meaning when all is said and done. Imagine saying such things to the American people in President Obama’s shoes. Why not copy all the way and promise some change we can believe?

Congratulations, ladies. Congratulations, Singapore. The NATAS Singapore Women’s Everest Team is literally on top of the world after reaching the summit of Mount Everest

Over at Republic Polytechnic where Lee Li Hui and Jane Lee are staff members, their colleagues and students could barely contain their pride and joy.

27-year-old Lee Li Hui, 26-year-old Esther Tan and 25-year-old Jane Lee reached the world’s tallest mountain standing at 8850m early Wednesday morning.

 Let’s see what some of the folks watching the ladies in action from the comfort of their armchair have to say.

David Lim, staff, Republic Polytechnic, said: “It really represents that if women put in the time and effort and they set their objectives right, they can achieve things on par with men.”

Well said, Mr Lim. It certainly represents that if our women put in two years of their time and effort into charging up hills … oops, what was I thinking about?

 

No, I’m not belittling the women’s achievement. Having climbed lesser peaks, I’m well aware that climbing Everest is no easy task. You need a lot of endurance, a lot of time and a lot of money. That’s why it took so long for our women’s team  to raise enough funds for the expedition. They could have done this much earlier if funding was not such a problem.

But in case you haven’t been following the news on the highest mountain in the world, the summit has already been claimed many times over, not just by able-bodied women, but folks with all kinds of disabilities. Blind people have made it to the summit. Amputees with one leg have made it. They were quickly overshadowed by amputees without any legs. And I heard from my friend Sumek that some senior citizen in Nepal is trying to break the record set by 71-year-old Katsusuke Yanagisawa as the oldest man to summit Everest.

What’s more, at about this time last year, Chinese men and women brought some Olympic torches and lit them on the summit of Everest after climbing from the Tibetan side - without the use of supplemental oxygen and in less than ideal weather conditions to boot. The unbelievable strength of the Chinese climbers on the summit has been witnessed by thousands of Olympic fans all over the world on YouTube.

So this begs the question: what’s the point of “conquering” the peak that has been “done to death” in all imaginable styles, variations and approaches since 1959? Apart from excluding men from the limelight of the summit teams, using them only as base camp managers, rope-fixing, guiding and load-bearing Sherpas, there is everything Singaporean and nothing unique about this expedition. Again, I’m not belittling this achievement. It is a good achievement, just not a spectacular one to boast about.

Today newspaper’s Sports editor Leonard Thomas wrote that our women’s Everest team ”deserves a sense of mystery only a little over 4,000 people who have climbed Everest will understand.” Mystery? What mystery? Mr Thomas seems unaware that there are more than a few climbing enthusiasts amongst us who consider the ladies in this expedition a rather privileged lot. Mr Thomas is right to say that mountaineering is not a race. However,  there are recognised ways of judging a climb within the fraternity. Even among the armchair mountaineers and fans, few would disagree on what makes a great climb and what makes a run-of-the-mill expedition.

Mr Thomas is also right to say that climbers today can no longer become household names like Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay. Why? Because reaching the summit won’t make such sensationa news anymore. So how did Reinhold Messner do it? Well, I think Messner became a household name because he outdid Tenzing and Hillary by being the first man to climb Everest without oxygen and Sherpa support.

Messner, Doug Scott,  Ed Viesturs are so famous and their books sell so well because they are such accomplished mountaineers with more fans than our local celebrities. Messner is a household name because he is the first man on earth to climb all the fourteen 8,000m peaks on earth. Our women could well become household names or at least clinch a Phelps-like million-dollar payday if they did something similar.

It’s just a job for him! Record holder, 49-year-old Apa Sherpa brought clients to the summit of Everest 19 times.

Awards are meant to recognise talent and encourage others with talent to step out. We are all too familiar with the Oscars, Booker Prize, Pulitzer Prize, Olympic medals and things like Coach of the Year awards. You know what I’m getting at and if the young and naive in Singapore ever think that awards are based purely on merit and achievements, Coach Liu Guodong experiences would be a good lesson. Getting an  award or not also depends on whether the boss likes you.

 And according to his ex-boss Lee Bee Wah, Coach Liu was not even nominated for the Coach of the Year Award due to factors such as professionalism, integrity and respect from players. These are strong words which would have easily bankrupted an opposition politician if directed at the wrong targets. But Coach Liu must certainly understand that even though he was responsible for guiding the women’s table tennis team to an Olympic silver at the Beijing Games last year, he is fair game and not a protected species.

I’m sure Coach Liu understands that, but I also understand his indignance. Can someone insult me and get away with it? I could have taken many abusive alamak patients to task if I were Coach Liu. However, most meek and obedient Singaporeans would just forget about the whole thing and move on.  That could be a good thing, but such inaction will only embolden the “bosses”.

Coach Liu returns to Singapore to seek an explanation. He has stated quite categorically that he was not here to pursue the issue of him not being nominated for Coach of the Year, but to seek some clarification for his ex-boss’ disparaging comments. As any proud Olympic coach should, Liu was probably expecting some form of apology when he came to Singapore to meet the folks at STTA.

Instead, he was shown a draft letter which was to be a joint statement from the STTA and Liu, stating that the association “acknowledged the contributions of the former coach in guiding the women’s team to the Olympic silver” (How?). It also said that the STTA had the right to choose who to nominate for the Singapore Sports Awards, and that the association stood by their decision not to nominate Liu. It also said that coach Liu understood their decision (the problem is that nobody really understands).

It went on to say that comments made about coach Liu were not in any way meant to take away his contributions to Singapore table tennis, nor were they meant to suggest any acts of dishonesty on his part. The STTA hoped to move forward and put the issue behind them, as did Liu.

Would it surprise anyone with the smallest EQ that Coach Liu would never sign the document? Or perhaps they were thinking that a pink IC would automatically turn him into an obedient drone? What will he do next? Sue the person who defamed him? I would persoanlly stay out of such fights. In his shoes, my greatest satisfaction would be to see the Indonesian team beat the Singapore team.

Still, I think it’s good that we import more foreign talent like Coach Liu to teach a new generation of Singaporeans to challenge social injustice and draconism.

There was this 5-star hotel that wa paying a certain pest control company a lot of money for their services. Too much, according to their new CFO who quickly issued an ultimatum to the pest control company. Lower your charges or we’ll terminate you.

The stubborn CEO of the pest control company refused to budge. Their services were terminated and one fine evening, during a wedding banquet, a rat decided to drop in on the bride’s table. It was a disaster to say the least. The new pest control company the hotel was using could not answer to their emergency c all nor do anything about the situation. The guys at the hotel had no choice but to call the old pest control company whose smartly uniformed technicians marched swiftly into the premises (like waiters presenting the first dish) and hunted out all the furry rodents in the function room.  According to the CEO of the pest control company, the guests at the banquet applauded his staff as they exited. The dinner was on the house and nobody sued the hotel as everyone left that hotel that evening highly entertained. Why didn’t anything like that happen at my wedding?

The new CFO at the hotel was naturally embarrassed. He signed a contract with the old pest control company at twice the value of the original quotation. Not everyone is capable of feeling the kind of embarrassment that the CFO of that hotel must have felt. Alamak people for instance. 

Way back in Hougang a couple of years ago, I advised this guy to do a bridge. He disappeared, came back with another problem and the bridge that I advised him to do was already done - somewhere else.

Then, a few days back, he called up my clinic at Lucky Plaza and angrily complained to my recep over the phone that the bridge I did for him had fallen off.

Bridge? Wasn’t that the one done somewhere else? I highlighted that fact to him when he turned up with the bridge in his hand. Seeing that his trick had been foiled, he asked me to do something about the failed bridge. Seeing that the stumps were already fractured, I told him that the only way to fix it was to rebuild the stumps and redo the bridge. I gave him a quote and the knee jerk response was “so expensive!”

He requested for a recementation. I warned him that it will not last. He would have to get a new bridge done. He asked for a discount. But why would he deserve a discount for a bridge he didn’t let me do? He declared himself as a loyal patient. How thick can a man’s skin get? And that’s not all.

Sure enough, his recemented bridge came off after a few days. Once again, I urged him to get the new bridge done. He agreed. I recemented his bridge again and took impressions for his new bridge. He then walked off without paying any deposit. I’m quite sure it will fall off again. If it didn’t, there’s no way this loyal patient will come back.

And he’s not the only one. I’ve been seeing many “old and loyal” patients from  Hougang who went to China or India to get complex dental treatment done. When they return to Singapore, these restorations fail and they come to me to get them fixed. But for the majority of them, getting these restorations fixed would require root canal and/or a complete redo of the work. Since they found my charges too high and went to India/China to get their work done in the first place, there is little chance they would be “embarrassed” enough to pay me to redo their work. Let alone accept higher charges than initially quoted.

Recementing these failed restorations has its unpleasant implications. Many of these patients will not understand that it is not my fault if the restoration comes off again. The safest thing for me to do is not to touch the failed restoration at all. In the past, I have been sympathetic and would try my best to help these folks. It really doesn’t pay. One moment they are so thankful to you for helping them and promise to let you do the new bridge. The next moment, when the restoration drops out again, they blame it all on you and not the dentist in China/India.