Petanque - Throwing the Boule

Ok, after being introduced to the game of petanque, the first thing on your mind is: Ok, so how do I throw this rather heavy metal ball?

You don't. Surprised?

If you want to progress well into the game of petanque, know this now. You do not throw the boule any more than you would throw a tennis ball.

I know, we all use the word "throw". Let me explain.

As you progress further into the game of petanque, you'll realize that just "throwing" the boule is not going to get you anywhere. It's like marrying that first boyfriend and think he is a keeper for life!

You need to make a list if you are to get that right!!!

It's the same with petanque.

Note that you actually roll the ball off your hand and fingertips.

ROLL THE BOULE OFF YOUR HAND AND FINGERTIPS!

QUESTION: In golf, do you whack the ball to get it where you want it to go? No. You master the swing in order to hit the ball. It's the same in petanque.

You have to master the swing.

Swinging the boule in your arm is easy...Any monkey can do it.

The next thing to learn is: Release.

When do you release the boule in your hand? (I can ask the same question in ten-pin bowling.) 

To answer this question, you have to wonder about your grip.

So the three factors to a boule throw are these: SWING, GRIP, and RELEASE

SWING:

- The traditional wisdom is the slow swing take back. How high? The higher, the further your boule will go? Yes and no. Speed of follow-through matters also.

The faster the follow through, the lower your swing back.

DOES SPEED OF THE SWING BACK MATTER?

- Yes and no. You can do a slow swing back. Or a fast one. Answer: It depends on your own comfort. BUT, a general slow swing back allows you to size up your throw. Folks with a quick swing back already know their throw well. No need to hesitate or size up.

- The slow swing back is also useful when your grip pressure is more than usual resulting in an early release. Watch Henri Lacroix, Philippe Quinstais, Romain Fournie and Philippe.Suchard. Those players - esp the Thais - who adopt the Crane School grip, will swing back slow. A slow swing back is when you need to release the ball earlier. Trust me, in this instance, a slow swing back will give you better accuracy. 

- A fast swing back is good for those who have already an established, fixed swing. These players usually have one kind of throw. They will only manage the release to get the boule where it wants to. Folks Like Damien Hureau, Tyson Molinas, etc. Actually these two chaps have the loveliest throws in petanque. BUT, so far Molinas is the more consistent of the two. IT MATTERS ESPECIALLY DURING TETE A TETE COMPETITIONS WHEN YOU NEED TO MANAGE YOUR SHOOTING TO HIT AT ALL DISTANCES AND WAYS. 

Philippe Suchard is probably most noticeable in this during competitions. He will call on a carreau in critical situations. As does Christian Fazzino. But both do it quite differently. You can too if you know how.

A SHORT SWING BACK

- A short swing back is possible, but it has to be matched with a comparable follow-thru speed. That in turns demand an appropriate proper release.

SO, WHICH IS WHICH?

- You can have a gentle swing like Damien Hureau, who has said "Trust your swing". But I find he is not a varied swinger and shooter.

- You can have an outlandish swing like Dylan Rocher, which is not so outlandish once you analyse it closely. You can copy him easily and name yourself after a chocolate (joke).

- You can have a short, sweet swing like Marco Foyot, or Quintais, or Fazzino. Or a high front lift and fast swing like one top player in France.

Answer: Find the movement that best suits your comfort level, body type, temperament, etc. Doing a no-nonsense fast swing back can help you avoid "weak arm syndrome" when pressure builds. It is never good to feel weak in the arm during a competition. It happens when doubt seeps in. Work on your grip pressure and release instead (tip for advanced players!).

PREP BEFORE A THROW

- Watch how Henri Lacroix and Philippe Quintais set themselves up before a throw. It it more than just pulling up your pants like what Fazzino does.

These folks are usually very accurate. This is the reason why they are often captain of their teams and relied upon to rescue their comrades in a crunch, especially when they have to shoot in the last and needs a "hero" shot. Folks like them are the best "milleurs" or middle players who can both shoot and point. I would advise advanced players to aspire to be like them.

Mannerisms:

- Some players hook their grip before a throw - like what Romain Fournie is doing these days. He didn't used to do that when he was younger.

- Pointing your fingers (with thumb at side of boule) down at the beginning of a throw does help achieve a good line.

- Sougir from Youtube (he's a popular figure in petanque instruction) has a "claw" prep-method that serves him well.  

NO STRAIN THROW

- Whatever it is, your boule "throw" should not be a strain to your hand and arm. If it is, then you are definitely doing something very wrong. Remember: Just as in golf, having a good swing matters in petanque too!

RELEASE AND ROLE OF FINGERS
- Release is the most brainless act in your "throw". Yet, it affects accuracy the most. Why? The position of your thumb matters. In some grips, especially the Crane School, the position of the thumb has to be adjusted for distance.

If you have been a racquet player all your life, do check the alignment of your fingers. They (and the wrist) could be skewed one side from holding a racquet in the ready position all the time.

- Does keeping your fingers close matter? No really. It helps when you want to ground-roll your ball. When do you ground roll your ball? When you want to knock-on a boule usually. Or carry the jack some ways.

- You could "claw" cradle your boule, swing back and still shoot well. It's all a matter of keeping your grip consistent. Remember: In any mechanical set up, consistent action bring consistent actions, hence results. The more you practice, the better your muscle memory.

Next:  Shooting the Boule

Before: Game Play

Petanque - Game Play

You see, Petanque as a game is not difficult to play nor understand. Throw a bigger ball to a smaller one and see who is the closest. The one with the closest ball wins the point. With three balls, you can thus win all three points during an "end". After many ends, whoever reaches 13 points wins. "Ends' are a bit like cricket. You move from one end of the court to the next. Why? Because your boules are on the other side of the court, dummy!

Now, I am assuming you are familiar with the basic rules of the game.

- To start, stand in a 50cm diameter circle and throw a jack (small wooden ball) no more than 6-10 m. Then start throwing your boules near to it. After two boules have been thrown, the losing player will have to continue until he betters his opponent's boule. This repeats until all boules are thrown. 

- The players then start from the other end, why each game (not match) of petanque is known as an "end". You play ends until 13 points are reached. Makes sense, no?

Now, for rules and what not, there are plenty of sites out there. I will instead focus on how the game play progresses as you go from beginner to advanced player.

1. Roll and Hope to Win

- Now, this is how all of us would begin. Throw forward a boule and hope it is better than the boule out there. Then we start playing on different surfaces and realize "Hey, I need to master the surface type as well!" Yup, there's sand, soil and gravel, and all kinds of constructs in-between. You could end up playing on a demonstration court in a shopping mall too!

2. I Can Point, Now I Want To Shoot

- Okay, so you have come to a point where you can point but others are shooting your boules away. It is frustrating not to be able to do teh same to them yourself. You will likely "roll hit" first, finding that it works only well on flat, even surfaces but is quite terrible on uneven gravel. Well, you do get some good results but staying a "roll and hit" player means you will forever be treated as a "beginner". You need to be able to drive a manual shift to be considered a proper driver!

3. I Can Shoot, But Only Hit Sometimes

- You launch your ball at the target and sometimes it hits, most times it doesn't. What's wrong? Well, the key factors to shooting well, is Line, Release and Effect. Line and Release being fundamental. Effect is when you want to hit your target boule in a certain manner. Do I want to "carreau"? Do I want to "back spin"? Do I want to "knock on"?

Yes, when you can shoot well, it will be a bit like snooker. Applying techniques to the cue ball so it will behave in a certain manner after being launched.

4. I Want to Shoot Well

- Look up the other blog section on this. But remember, if you can get both Line and Release right, you can shoot.

GAME PLAY PROGRESS

I chose the photo above (from the Web, thanks) because it illustrates well what seasoned petanque players often do. Examine the "lay of play" and decide the next course of action.

It is also what teams do whenever they walk in threes back up towards the jack. Why in threes? In a threesome match, all the team members have to discuss and decide what to do next. They can also take the opportunity to observe the ground. Even out any patch afterwards.

In a competitive match, a three-person team (a triplet) take on roles such as Shooter, Middle and Pointer. Each has two balls equaling six per team. So depending on the balls left and with whom, the team has to decide the best course of action. "Oh, the Shooter has used up all his boules. How now?" Or "Should we point or shoot?"

COMPETITIVE  MATCH GAME PLAY

Now, if your interest in petanque is strong, you will probably have watched competitive matches on Youtube. You will realize that the top players in France (or elsewhere) simplify the petanque game play into two actions: Point or Shoot.

I know, it gets boring after a while.

You watch Marco Foyot's training videos and see him do all kinds of actions with the boule: roll pointing, drop pointing, lob pointing; roll shooting; drop shooting, knock ons, direct hits (carreau), double-knock-ons, etc and you wonder how come the top players do not display any of these skills.

It is increasing looking like you need to just point and shoot.

Ok, let's forget that for a moment and progress from the basics.

GAME PLAY SEMANTICS

Basic: Always land your ball before the jack. Best is to land your boule touching the jack. When the latter happens, we call it a "championship ball" or "hugging your mother" (in a filial piety way, lol. Not Oedipal, haha). You don't always see top players follow this rule, which is disappointing. The player to still do this is Philippe Suchard. Kudos to him. Other fellas are Philippe Quintais and Romain Fournie. Though I must admit, given that most players can shoot these days, it matters less where you point your boule. But practice does matter. A team recently lost five points straight and the match because the last player could not point well. His ball ended far away from the jack. It did not "protect" the jack at the front.

Now, usually after two balls are in the court, the decision of how to play the game starts. You have now have two balls and can clearly see who is the winner and who's the loser. The next thrower will have to decide what to do. To shoot or point again.

Beginner Player decision: Point again

Advanced Player decision: Shoot or Point. Why?

Shoot if the opponent boule is too near. Point if the boule is FAR and BEHIND the jack. Why?

Because if the opponent boule is behind the jack, you can point and use that boule to stop-brake your own boule. If you knock your opponent's boule, his boule will roll away typically. THIS IS WHY YOU MUST ALWAYS POINT-LAND YOUR BOULE BEFORE THE JACK!

KNOCK-ON

- You can always try to "knock-on" your boule to get it closer to the jack. This is usually done when your first throw is not that ideal. Knocking on your boule to get it closer is a technique. It is a way "to save a boule" to help score another point. Know that IT IS a technique, hence you have to find a way to learn it well.

Note: For knock-on to happen, you need to land your boule soft but just inches before. A boule lands soft if it has both HEIGHT and SPIN. It can either have the ROLL ON quality or not. But knowing how to ROLL ON the boule helps. (The opposite of the boule "rolling on" the ground is the boule "bouncing away".  A boule with no spin (and late release) will bounce away. 

KNOCK-ON OPPONENT BALL 

- You can always knock on an opponent's boule to help slow your own boule down. Of course, it has the advantage of knocking your opponent's boule away sideways too (away from the jack). This is especially useful when your opponent's boule is in front of the jack and you need to avoid knocking on your own boule to end up further up front.

GROUPING

- This concept is seldom talking about, but as a beginner, you should learn to do this well. Having a consistent throw on a particular ground means your boules will all end up in the same spot. It's like how a sniper tries to achieve all shots near one another on a target sheet (or metal plate).

Why is grouping important?

Well, in petanque, we are all trying to get the boule to the jack. If you can do this all the time, hats off to you!!!

In competition, this is hard to achieve. Why? For 1) The pressure to do well will get to you; 2) The position of an opponent's boule upsets your muscle memory (it happens even to top players). This is analogous to someone telling you "not to think of a pink elephant". You invariably do. Same with a boule you are trying to better or avoid. 3) The ground may be different from what you are used to. 4) Fatigue. You could be tired from a long day of competition.

Note to advanced players: You can achieve consistent pointing under a pressure situation. What you need to do is find a "blind man's throw" - a throw which you can achieve even when blindfolded. You know, a throw where you can rely on to achieve a consistent result (distance) even without having to ever think too much about it.

I know some folks will find this difficult to accept. Why? Because they are so used to their style of play. I find that if you use a comfortable, smaller boule you can achieve a BLIND MAN' THROW better. Basically, you need to be very comfortable with your boules to the point of being "tricksy". Work on it. It will cut down on miscues/poor throws during pressure situations in a match.

For example, you can also find a way to point a ball straight in situations when you have to squeeze a boule past a pack of opponent boules to the jack. What in mahjong we call managing a "ka long".

MOVING THE JACK

- Yes, when you find that moving the jack is to your advantage. You must learn to throw your boule in such a way that it will land and roll and "carry" the jack with it. This is usually desired when all your boules are away from the jack or ended up in a particular space.

HITTING THE JACK

- When all else fails, hit the jack. When the jack jumps out of bounds the "end" is restarted. You usually do this when you are losing or when your boules are in a hopeless scoring position.

Or you do this when the opponent has more boules left than you. BUT NOTE THAT YOU STILL NEED A BOULE IN HAND WHEN THE JACK FLIES OUT. OTHERWISE YOUR OPPONENT'S BOULE(S) IN HAND WILL COUNT AS THE POINTS.

In other words, hitting the jack helps prolong the game and lets you survive to play another end.

THE UNCERTAINTY OF PETANQUE

- Petanque may be a game of skill, etc. But because of an uneven surface and the fact that the jack can be moved - intentionally or not - an amount of uncertainty is introduced. Titles have been won and lost because the jack has moved. When the jack moves, its distance to the boules have changed and hence the scoring. It is good to bear this in mind when pointing or shooting boules very close to the jack. 

I find sometimes top players don't pay attention to this fact. They should train to shoot either side of the target boule and not leave everything to chance.

It is not enough to just hit a boule. Try to eliminate or introduce any uncertainty into the game, often at a critical stage.

YOU CAN GET EXTREME ACCURACY WHEN SHOOTING. Philippe Quintais, Philippe Suchard, Diego Rizzi, Christain Fazino, Dylan Rocher and Claudy Weibel all can do this to a certain extent. But not all precision hitters can do it. Damien Hureau can't, and I think Tyson Molinas can't either although he is young and can still improve.

Having a larger boule helps but I think it is more down to technique.

(Throwing a larger boule - say a 75mm one - is certainly different from throwing a 71mm one. And have you noticed? French top players are moving to smaller boules and there are good reasons for it.)

BACK TO THE PICTURE ABOVE

- Ok, so everybody has their boules on the ground; you have the last boule in hand. What are you going to do? Point or shoot? (See section below)

LAST BOULE DECISION

- The score is 12-11. The opponent has THE point to win. What are you going to do? The usual action is to shoot. 

Note: It is always better to lose by one point in petanque than more. Sometimes - especially when no one in your team can shoot well, it is best to lose a point (especially when the opponent's boule is in a "championship boule" position, i.e.hugging or darn near the jack). Try to catch up in the next end. Kind of like "survive to live another day". - Another end, that is.

NOT FAMILIAR WITH THE RULES OF PETANQUE?

Watch this video for the finer points in playing petanque on a regular basis. For example, how many times can you fill a hole in the ground during an end?

Before: Holding the Boule

Next: Throwing the Boule

Petanque: Holding the Boule

Ok, the first question you probably have after picking up a boule is "How should I hold the boule and throw?"

Well, the picture above shows the most common "grip" a petanque.

You do not need to grip very tightly, just enough to not let the ball drop. Why? This is so you can release the ball easily. The ball should leave via your fingertips. This is very important.

You can view a few videos here to start off.

- Marco Foyot tres excellent training video (in Dutch but very comprehensive!)
- English Petanque Association (EPA) training video (finally a training video in English!)

Tips for Beginners:

Backhand throw. 

1. Why backhand throw? This allows you to be able to "backspin" the boule so as to control how far the distance the ball should roll. If you forward roll - like in bowling - the boule will just run on until out of steam.

2. Forward momentum. Anybody can pick up a boule and throw. But how to NOT drop dead the ball in front of you and gain distance??? Well, crook your wrist back a bit and at the same time, pull your arm back to give it a swing. The more swing there is the more "forward momentum" you are giving your boule. It WILL roll further.

3. Height. How high should I throw my boule? Well, with conventional wisdom, you should release the boule "shoulder height" each time. That's the beginner's "gentle swing and release" way. As you progress and want to control the boule more, this release height will change.

4. Stopping the boule. Two ways. A: Throw it just with sufficient force so it will not over-reach its target spot. B: Use your fingers to give the ball some "tarek" (pull back or back spin). This is why the boule HAS TO leave by your fingertips.

Tips for Advanced Players:

1. High Lob. You have probably admired top players and want to learn how they HIGH LOB so well. High lobbing has the advantage of  taking the "nature of the playing ground" out of the equation. This especially useful when the playing on gravel when tiny stones can affect the roll of your boule. It is also effective against uneven ground.

High lobbing. Palm up and outwards.

How to be good at High Lobbing?

Well, one obvious question is: Do you have ball sense??? Because one method requires it a lot, the other not so much.

Method 1: The FEEL method

The FEEL method plays on your ball sense and how well you are able to control YOUR boule: its weight, dimensions, etc. Folks with good ball sense will be able to HIGH LOB with a boule of any size and shape!

With the FEEL method, the boule rests on the crease line of your palm.

Folks like Christian Fazzino and Mickel Loy do the feel method pretty well. As does Marco Foyot.

Christian Fazzino getting ready to point.

Michel Loy getting ready to high lob.

Method 2: The PALM OUT method

Now, this PALM OUT method, I feel is a technique. A "technique" is something anybody can learn if they just spend time on it. You do not need so much "natural" ball sense although having it help heaps in petanque. But it can also be said that folks with ball sense might end up doing things their own way, neglecting proper technique!!! Remember, techniques help win games under pressure. Natural talent only win games spectacularly (haha).

With the PALM OUT method, you end up with your palm facing the sky or horizon after a throw.

Instead of flicking your wrist, you more or less keep your hand cupped.

You will find that this method is great especially for near distances such as 6-7 m, which many players have difficulty with after playing between 8-9 m often.

With this method, you are basically, allowing the ball to slip out of your hand and do a "high" arc to the ground.

Practice with various distances to get it right. With this method, the usual problem is relaxing and forgetting to give momentum to the boule especially trying to reach further distance. You do not want the boule to end up looking like a dead pigeon at your feet!!!

ABOUT GRIP PRESSURE

As you progress, you will realize that the grip pressure on the boule changes. 

What boule size you use will affect your grip and roll during swing back and follow-thru.
This pix shows a bigger than normal boule. Normal = average = 72mm/690g.

Consider moving to smaller boules as you advance. More tricks with it.

As a beginner, folks will tell you to grip the boule lightly. This is true to a certain extent. As you learn (and want) to control the boule more, this grip pressure will change.

1. If you are a DROP & ROLL beginner player, you are unlikely to alter your grip pressure much.

2. If you play on a gravel surface and is tired of tiny stones affecting your play, you might begin to want to control the spin of you boule more. In this way, your grip pressure will change.

3. When you want to affect the "flight" of your boule, again, your grip pressure will change.

4. If you want to stop the boule better, again your grip pressure will change.

5. If you use the CRANE SCHOOL of gripping a boule, then you grip pressure will be different from another player who uses another style. Folks like Diego Rizzi (Italy) and Sriboonping (Thailand) uses this type of grip.

Maintaining grip hold, controlling grip pressure, spin and flight of the boule will allow you to land and stop the boule anywhere each time.

In high lobbing, maintaining a firm grip hold is very important to effect two things: 1) Gaining height; 2) Avoiding "sticky" ball and landing way short. This begs the question: What is "maintaining firm grip hold" as opposed to grip pressure?

Maintaining firm grip hold is keeping your grip shape but the pressure the same. That is the fingers are stiffened to the grip shape and the boule is still lightly help in the palm....kind of turning your palm into a cup of a catapult like those medieval war machines. In this way, you can use your arm as a catapult and traject the boule anywhere you want. You can even project the boule high without having it "stick" to your hand.

In fact, maintaining a firm grip hold is very important esp in shooting the boule especially when your swing is the quick type (like Marco Foyot's or Claudy Weibel or Christian Fazzino).

Adopting a firm grip hold at crucial times allow you to point your boule all to the same spot repeatedly, unaffected largely by pressure situations (when your arm and hand might soften in response to all that). Just a trick to overcome paralysis when it matters.

Here's a video on drop-rolling.

ROLE OF THE THUMB

Do you know that you can play petanque without your thumb and little finger? Try it! The most important fingers for petanque are the middle three.

So, whether you put your thumb to the side of the boule or pinching the index finger, it is a personal preference AS WELL as technique. Experiment to see what differences that bring to your game.

A closed grip where thumb is placed on index finger 1st knuckle line.
Use of knuckle lines can help regain accuracy in long throws/shootings.
Move thumb to third knuckle line for longer distance shots. 

And in terms of "shooting", the position of the thumb does affect distance and accuracy. Again, this depends on your grip and grip pressure. Pay attention to this. Many player have difficulty hitting 9m and beyond (especially when the jack gets hit and flies further away). And many top players practice with heavier boules in winter to get ready for the many competitions in summer.

Before: Start Page - Tips, Tricks and Vids 

Next: Game Play

National Will Writing Competition

For better viewing, open pix in another browsrr tab.

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Cancer Treatment Case In Singapore

$1,018,469.29
- Healthcare or Nightmare?
- by Fina Leong (FB post, 4th July 2017, 6:46pm)

Ten doctors, 58 days in the ICU, 1 gigantic bill, Mum's life lost.

Never in my life would I have ever imagined I'd see a S$1 million medical bill.
$350,000 in medications… Over a thousand doses of drugs.. Complications one after another..
One thing for sure is this... If I had known that 18 May would be the last day of her life, I would rather spend $350,000 on bringing mum the greatest joyful, loving, happiest and most comforting experiences, rather than have her go through 58 extremely painful suffering days immobile in a cold and sterile hospital room.

Looking back, it is all a lack of the right knowledge that cost my mum's life. The painful unknown is... I will never know whether we did the right thing to send mum in through these doors. There are many health alternatives that can help reverse cancer. However, what is the DOSE and FREQUENCY required to achieve that outcome? Unfortunately it is mostly trial and error, and in mum’s instance, she was unable to consume the dose required to reverse her condition.

Because of this, we were selectively close-minded to recommendations. There were many doctors, alternatives and nutritional supplements that family & friends recommended. We explored some and missed many. However, if we stayed 100% open and explored ALL alternatives, one of them may have been able to save mum. A very costly regret…

We didn't realise how urgent cancer was. For someone with a generally healthy diet with natural foods and active lifestyle, if cancer strikes, find out if “targeted chemotherapy” is available. We learnt that chemotherapy is very helpful and effective for certain types of cancers. For aggressive treatment as chemo, it needs to be administered as soon as possible while the body still has health reserves and is able to bounce back.

We also made the mistake of thinking “all hospitals are the same". We experienced a huge difference in SPEED and EXPERTISE between public healthcare and private specialists. For a woman over 50's and post-menopause, if there is unusual swelling in the abdomen, a detailed scan to check for tumour is required immediately. When mum was first admitted in January, the doctors took 2 long weeks to discover the tumour. Something that the right scan would instantly reveal. I still believe our public healthcare is one of the best in the world, however there are simply too many patients needing the attention of overworked doctors...

Unfortunately, I feel that the healthcare ecosystem is such that specialists and private facilities are gravely expensive, and billing is structured in a way to max-out insurance payout in a cold and professionally institutionalised way. My heart felt cold when I saw that on mum’s $1 million bill, she was referred to as “Customer” and not “Patient”..

It is truly regretful that we were ignorant about mum’s insurance coverage. Had we known that mum's insurance covered private specialist treatments, we could've sought private specialist expertise from Day 1. Even though these final 58 days in a private hospital came up to an insane bill, we appreciated the speed of response and level of professional expertise of the team of specialists. At the end of the day… there are a ton of what-ifs and grey areas. What is right? What is wrong? One thing for sure is this.. Nothing can be done now to reverse the situation. Nothing can turn back time. And our hearts will miss mum forever...

More than ever now, I deeply feel that “If you do not invest time, money and energy in your health, you will spend your fortune on sickness”.
Ignorance is gravely costly. The right knowledge saves lives and protects families.
I hope this post has helped someone out there.
May we live with vigour, and die without suffering.
Rest in peace my beloved mummy...

Read the original post here:
https://www.facebook.com/finaleong/posts/10212397414864769

Fridge Magnet Wisdom

This in response to the parliamentary session on 38 Oxley Road Saga that has just started. Good idea? ;-)

Father's (Sad) Day 2017

A response to a bombshell of a sibling quarrel over the weekend (Sunday being Father's Day). A coup by a brother, if you like, while the other sibling is out of the country. And a complicit sister.

Some associated links on the matter:

1. Mothership.Sg:

http://mothership.sg/tag/38-oxley-road/

2. ST journalist Chua Mooi Hoong:

http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/time-to-reflect-and-seek-the-common-good

3. Channel News Asia (statement by PM 19/June 2017)

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/pm-lee-apologises-to-singaporeans-over-dispute-with-siblings-to-8958868

4. Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPD1EA-APdI

In a gist:

Basically, the late LKY's estate is divided equally amongst his three children. Initially it wasn't so neat a ratio. It was divided into 7 shares, with each sibling getting two with the remaining single share going to the daughter LWL. The rationale is that she is unmarried with no children and thus the extra share is for looking after her old age.

Now, apparently the last will of LKY has reverted back to the equal share idea (6 parts, 2 each) but with the provision that LWL could stay in the Oxley Road home as long as she wanted. Once she decides to move out, the place can be demolished as per LKY's often acknowledged  wish. LKY is more for remembrance on performance than on personality worship.

Now this demolition wish of LKY is not a firm thing. Apparently he has not included this wish in his previous wills except the first. That it found its way into the last will is what this argument is about.

LHL is curious why LHY's wife is involved in the drawing up of the will when the usual drafter is their cousin Kwa Kim Li. LHY denies his wife drafting the will but only acting as advisor and council. Kwa however denies writing the will. It appears she was only appending to the will what she was told by LHY's wife. Now, this issue itself is contentious. It means someone is lying.

LHY and LWL beef is why their brother is not respecting their father's wish to have the place demolished. Instead he has appointed a ministerial committee to look into how the place may be preserved. ("Place" or some kind of manifestation, this is not clear). It is understandable why LHL is doing this. LKY is a widely respected and honored politician in Singapore. Heck, he is THE founding father of modern Singapore... leading a team to turn a swampy port of call into a modern metropolis where everything works. Just ask the expats, ask the residents, ask Singaporeans. You may not love LKY, but you certainly have to respect him. He got things done, and he as a frugal man.

World leaders hold LKY in high esteem for his intellect and views on world affairs. I respect LKY for his love of the grassroots, the common folk. All he wanted was a place where a man could get an education, get married, have a home and a job. A safe place to do all that.

I've done some policy case-writing and learned a few things more than the average man regarding how Singapore is governed. And one thing I respect of LKY is him keeping his word. An example: when he cleared the hawkers off the street (for hygiene purposes) he built them hawker centers where they could sell their food/wares in a managed environment. And guess what, the HCs remained mostly in the same areas where the hawkers plied. Why you oddly see hawker centres in the Central Business District, a prime real estate area. The same applied to housing. Why you see HDB blocks again in the CBD or near-CBD. It is LKY's ability to manage people's expectation and life changes and growing the country at the same time that makes me respect him more. Certainly in a world where greedy leaders grab land, destroy people's homestead to build useless national projects or pocket money intended for economic projects, Singapore seems like heaven. And it is. As I've told folks often. You have a safe and un-intruded space to live, work and play, what else do you want?

Of course, Sg is not a place for political parties to flourish. None had done as good a job as the ruling party. (Truth be told, they weren't given a chance. You were either on the ruling party's manifesto or you are not. Then again, Communism was rife in the early history of Sg. And we know now how communist countries turned out.) So, whether you love LKY or hate LKY, you have to respect him. And perhaps wish there are more of him in the world today.

And for those of you who think Sg is homogeneous, think again. We have four races: Chinese, Malay, Indian and Others (eg. Eurasians). We are all educated in English and speak to one another thus. The Chinese each know their dialect but is tasked to learn Mandarin to speak to one another so no one dialect is deemed superior to the other. Growing up Singaporean is like a British kid going school to study in Russian and then speaking French at home. Who else in the world does that???

So you can understand if there is a lot of pain growing up in Singapore. But the 70s and 80s were economic "miracle times". High employment, good jobs, middle class growing, affordable housing, etc. And a country growing richer (GDP) by the year.

Yup, one thing I learned from the Singapore experience is that when a country is rich, it can do a lot for its people. Housing, good schools, amenities, etc. When you have a leader, make sure he knows his sums. And make sure he is incorruptible. Look at a neighbouring country. Enuf said, is what it is.  

The end.