A New Tempo Is Coming

Soon, July will be arriving, and with it, a new tempo of sorts will happen in SIN city. By then, many of the school-going aged children would have their first dose of the vaccination done, many of those in my age group would also have their first dose started already, and the non-citizens who aren't in the high-priority list would be starting to register for their vaccination.

I mean, with a public announcement of a target like this, it is a clear indication that the tempo is being shifted. Of course, there have been duds like the ``Goal 2010'' pronouncement, various declarations of being the region's ``X Hub'' for various values of X, though for the latter it is better to say that we have varied results instead of outright duds.

Aspirations are good to have, but they really need to be backed by sufficient heft in terms of socio-economical support, and political will. No sense trying to push for some level of excellence but then hamstringing the effort by not committing enough resources, appropriate manpower, and more importantly, a sufficiently long-term sustainable plan. That last part, the ``long-term sustainable plan'' used to be the hallmark of the excellence of SIN city, but has recently lost much of its lustre due to gaffes, missteps, and most likely, a lack of usable ``best practices'' because SIN city is heading out into an unknown territory where SIN city is a trailblazer, a position that is hard to excel in traditionally due to the more staid and plodding modus operandi that eschews risky innovation for safer incremental improvements.

Anyway, tempo change. It is not necessarily one that has a clear forward route for the reasons that I had articulated earlier, but it does have some somewhat manageable in-between milestones that can be what the local Chinese media like to call a 强心针, or morale booster, to prevent a total rout, not that the denizens of SIN city are actually capable of such an action. I am rather concerned that the usual gang that pushes the ``new industry ${some-decimal-number-larger-than-4}'' and/or RIE2025 have been quite silent throughout this---I want to say that the pandemic has thrown a large enough spanner to slow things down, but a part of me thinks that they are brewing something that can make good use of this tempo change to push certain agenda forward.

We do live in interesting times indeed.

Another thing to look out for perhaps is the current summer escapade fever of the Western nations---it is sort of similar to the situation this time last year, except that effective vaccines exist now. How that plays out in terms of global pandemic control is something to be observed, and this includes looking out for newer more transmissive versions of the underlying SARS-CoV-2 virus and their mutations. To be fair, it isn't just the Western nations---any country that tears down their lockdown-esque regulations both internally and externally need to be observed carefully as well. How all these affect globalisation in the long run is still quite unknown, with predictions of it pivoting towards a glocalised set up (i.e. highly localised workforce working at global scale through leveraging upon digital technologies) being the mainstay.

But it's just media prediction. Cynically, it could be a way of pandering to the current workers' thoughts that would ultimately have its narrative altered when large enough vested interests decide to go more strongly on the offensive to change the mindset back to something that benefits them more.

Personally, I still think that the office is still an important place to work, not because I side with the employers' notion of control vis-à-vis ``out of sight, out of mind'', but because I think that having a place to do official work (i.e. an office) is an important factor for social mobility. Working from home as an option should be provided, but should not be mandated, because sometimes the workers who have the good abilities may not live in conditions that is conducive for working from home. Working at an office discriminates the economically less capable from those who are more capable (assuming the same role), since it provides the same working environment for all who work at the same role. It doesn't matter if a worker lives in a shared apartment with other people, or if he/she lives in a studio on his/her own---everyone is given the same working environment. That's a benefit for the worker, despite the inconveniences of commuting.

Another benefit for the worker is the clear demarcation of what is work, and what is not work, since it requires the employer to provide the tools and other resources that is necessary to get the work done. I raise this as a being a benefit for the worker because in situations where work from home is mandated, employers may choose to under-compensate the employee by claiming that since they are not travelling to the office and that they have more flexibility, then they ought to be paid less, despite having to absorb more of the capital and operational expenses themselves. To me, that isn't right.

So, given the situation in SIN city, how will it all play out? Who knows...

Till the next update.