Attitude

During a casual lunch time discussion, AC - a little friend of mine - mentioned that she was slightly disappointed with the attitude of (some of) our new house officers.

"Since it was the first call day of theirs, I bought them some drinks as a friendly gesture," the budding nephrologist began.

"That sounds a good idea," we all agreed.

"But, you know what, when I took all the bottles to their call room and knocked on the door, the one who answered the door didn't even thank me - he only said if he knew it earlier, he would save the trouble of buying a drink for himself!"

I laughed, but made little comment - I have to declare conflict of interest related to both sides of the story.

Savings

Vivian appeared incredulous to my suggestion.

“My dear, if one does not control his desire and spends as much as he earns, it is a mathematical certainty that he will find he leaves for himself no asset or savings by the time he has to retire,” I explained, “That’s why a senior government official got mixed up with a billionnaire family, or a previous CEO of some prestigious bank has to become the chairman of a listed company with a suspicious balance book, or a retired professor of medicine could only afford a small apartment in Tin Shui Wai!”

“Oh, that’s horrible…” my wife gasped – I knew she was referring to the last example that I mentioned.

“But true,” I went on, “As Sima Guang (司馬光) said: It is easy to adapt from poverty to affluence, but difficult to other way round 《由儉入奢易，由奢入儉難》."

Stay

During a casual discussion on some sensational literature, Vivian asked, “Why does T stay on the post? He is not getting along very well with our new CE, and it must not be easy to accept his previous subordinate – and not a very capable one – becoming his immediate senior!”

“Em… I suppose our new CE could not find a better person within his own camp?” I said.

“That may be true,” my wife insisted on her point, “But that’s hardly the answer to my question: Why does T agree to stay? Given his heart problem and all these, he should retire.”


“Alas, he should, but I suspect he could not,” I smiled, “He may not have anything to live on.”

My wife was certainly surprised, “How could that be? His salary is as good as any!”

“Yes, but that doesn’t always mean he has a lot of savings. It really depends on how one spends his money.”

Prince

My little story between Christopher Columbus and the Queen of Spain was, of course, a fancy hallucination.

Nonetheless, the problem faced by Isabella and Fernando is real and all too common. When a leader has to rule a place that is physically separate from the home country – or simply when the country is so big that the tail is far away from the head – he would have to worry the new colony may go out of his grip. It happened in the Roman Empire (with its Constantinople), Victorian London (with its Bombay), Jack Welch's General Electric, and Stegosaurus.

According to Niccolo Machiavelli, there are two reasonable policies:

1.       The ruler should go and live in his new territories.

2.       Send colonies (rather than a standing army) to settle in the new territories.

Maybe, after all, our modern Queen Isabella has a point.

Go read The Prince.

Retire

(Cont'd)

Queen: Christopher, I don't quite see your point. We do not have enough work force in our home land. How could we boost up the unemployment?

Columbus: Your majesty, you do not have to cut down the number your staff as such. All you have to do is to make their job unpalatable - little prospect, idle for their own duty but filled with paper work and bureaucracy.

King: That sounds horrible.

Columbus: My lord, you can do more. How about having the salary of your staff paid by the West India Company? When your men see nothing but dead water in the Iberian peninsula and their bread and butter come from the new-found-land, they would be eager to go and start a new life.

King: But, wouldn't that desert our own country?

Columbus (with a wicked smile): My lord, I suppose you would not be the Queen of Spain forever? How about becoming the Duke of Peru after stepping down? There are a whole lot of silver mines in Lima...

Colony

(The discussion at the Royal Palace continued.)

Queen: Christopher, what kind of people do you think we should send to this new piece of land?

Columbus: Your majesty, we need a lot of work to explore and build up the place. I think we should send a good troop of young and middle-age people to run this colony.

King: Do you mean only the elderly and kids are left for our home country? In that case, who is going to run our own Iberian Peninsula?

Queen: Let's turn a blind eye to that problem at the moment. But, first, let's solve the problem that I know also faced by King Henry - how are we going to make our people move to the new colony?

Columbus: Your majesty, that could be simple - as soon as your people lose their job.

Both Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand jumped up from their seat. They could not believe their ears.

New

(Royal Palace, Barcelona, Spain, 1493.)

Christopher Columbus (bowing): Your majesty, I return from my voyage. As promised, I find a new piece of land - a gigantic piece indeed, and, essentially not yet occupied by human being.

Queen Isabella: Brilliant! That would be a gorgeous way to expand our empire! Let's send our people there.

King Ferdinand: My dear, we do not have enough people for our own country...

Queen: That's not a problem. We just began a new policy to encourage more babies.

King: Em... Isa, they won't grow up overnight.

Queen: But we cannot miss this chance of expanding! Henry VII is beginning to send his people to India.

King (murmuring): That's why many of his people do not agree to go...