-Three. Take away two and you get... Are you the fastest or the worst? -The fastest. Read this. Off you go. Two plus five minus two minus two is three.
I'm on my way to a board meeting at the INSEAD business school. It was founded in France, but for the past six years... ...there's been a very successful campus in Asia. Until July, I was the chairman. So I'm not just here for the meeting but also to say goodbye. People here regard education as an investment. They have no problems borrowing up to 4 times the salary they hope to earn... ...to give themselves a good education. People here realise that to get on in life... ...and to climb the social ladder, depends largely on education. Singapore can thank its success to its focus on education https://www.casinoslots.co.nz/free-online-pokies. At the invitation of Prime Minister Lee... ...Vice-premier Deng Xiao-Ping arrived in Singapore on 12 November 1978... ...for a social visit. Deng Xiao-Ping also visited a new housing project. High-rise flats comprising 22 storeys. This is Singapore's solution to the housing problem. Two thirds of all buildings have between ten and twenty storeys. Deng Xiao-Ping and Prime Minister Lee talked... ...in the study of the President of Singapore... ...together with the president and his wife. The theological debates that occasionally take place on: Is this democratic or not? Is this freedom of speech or not?... ...are regarded far more pragmatically here. And the net result for the people has been excellent. For more than 20 years, we had a representative here... ...and he told me that he and his sister took turns... ...to sit under just one light bulb to do their homework. And he said: Look around you to see what we've achieved. We've probably paid a price for what you call freedom... ...which you have in Europe, or the opportunities for mental development... ...but we gladly pay it. Can Singapore's model be exported to Europe? I don't like thinking in models. But we could definitely use one aspect of society here. And that's speed of adjustment. The economic crisis will affect us all. It will have less of an impact here due to less problems with banks... ...and because it's less affected by the situation in America and Europe. But it will come here too. But the people here are quicker to realize... ...that they'll have to make adjustments. Whether that means a salary reduction... ...or finding another job, people accept it, and act. The problem in the West is that we're used to, and we're spoilt... ...regarding a certain status quo. So we find it hard to say: Well, the situation has changed, so we'll have to adapt too.
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Singapore, a city state in South East Asia, has in four decades worked itself up to become one of the worlds major economies. Singapore is therefore a role model to many countries in the region. What is the Singapore model and why is it so successful? Backlight went in search of answers to these questions. We accompanied Kees van Lede, former CEO at Akzo Nobel and supervisory board member at Heineken, Philips and JP Morgan Chase.
And also board chair at the prestigious business school INSEAD. So welcome to Singapore. Siep Hiemstra. Cees, welcome to Singapore. You look very relaxed. That's four days vacation for you. -I'm always relaxed. Tell us about Singapore. Well, things are fine here. What you see at the moment is that people are biding their time. But I've seen no signs of stagnation. What about real estate? Every ten years, the skyline changes. Any changes there? The Stock Exchanges have lost money. Some of the big boys are clearly in trouble. Well, there it is. Fifty years ago, it was a swamp. So hats off to them. We can be very critical about this country, but they've certainly achieved something. And it's a region in Asia that for a very long time... has embodied the free trade principle in its ultimate form. And for those working in the free market that's wonderful. And it has also been a place of refuge in Asia. For years and years, it's been politically stable, except for political criticism. Here, you have certainty. And ever since I've been coming here, it's had an excellent service sector. Equal to the service we're used to in the west, either in Europe or the US. The consultant Lee Kuan Yew, the enlightened despot whose tight reign led Singapore to economic prosperity in four decades. Perhaps he can explain the secret of the Singapore model. Guess who we also met in Singapore? Remember Jim Rogers? The investors Indiana Jones. He predicted the mortgage crisis, the credit crunch and the devaluation of the dollar which no one believed in at the time. Now he's placing all his best on Asia. Good morning, everyone. OK, who am I today? Who am I meant to be? The beautiful lady boss. 1 piece of candy costs 1 RMB. You're regular customers, so will it be cheaper? No need, you have pots of money. 1 piece of candy for 2 RMB, OK? No problem. Did you bring money? Give me 5 RMB. How much change will you get? -Three. Right. How much change do you get? Hey guys, welcome back again to Ken Tamplin Vocal Academy, where the proof continues to be in the singing! We get a lot of different requests for a lot of different things. This one actually comes to us from Lily from Michigan.
Lily writes “hey Ken, I like most everything that you do, but I don’t want to sound like anyone else, I want to sound like me!” Well, I don’t want you to sound like anyone else, either, and I want to sound like me, too! But I think it’s important to remember that those that have gone before us that have set a bar or a standard or a level really high, if we can get to that level or to that standard, it doesn’t matter if it’s in sports, it doesn’t matter if it’s in singing… Whatever your discipline is, if we can incorporate that in our toolbox, or our arsenal, in this case for great singing, then it gives us much more diversity and a lot more flexibility with our voice. So, with that said, I decided to take on one of the highest used karaoke tracks of all time, which is none other than Neil Diamond, and the song is called Sweet Caroline. So we’ll do it first, and we'll talk about it after like we always do. Let’s rock! All right! So Neil wasn’t a technically perfect singer, that’s not what he was about. He was about an incredible story, an incredible songwriter. And, you know, actually, he and I share a lot of very similar vocal tambre, so “When it began, I can’t begin to know when. But that I know it’s growin’ strong.” Right? He’s got this nice, low resonance to his sound. That’s actually why, too, guys, when I do all this high singing stuff, it’s hard for me to do that stuff. This is way more in my genre, in fact if you go back and listen to the original of this, see how I did. But anyway, I’m going to post the solo, raw vocal version of this, isolated vocal version of this so you can kind of pick it apart, and just listen to it and A/B it to the original. So thanks for joining me. Ken Tamplin Vocal Academy, where the proof is in the singing. If you like what you heard, please like and subscribe. And stop by at my singers forums. I’ve got now 11,000 people in there, and we just hit the over 40 million mark on my YouTube channel, which is super awesome. Thank you guys, so much for that. Anyway, let’s continue to rock, and check out the solo vocal version now. Peace. Out. |
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