Dinning with the Devils

“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players; they have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts...” –William Shakespeare

It is a dark setting in front of two dozen men and women, or less. The lights lit up at centre stage where a round table and four chairs sit. The actor and actress hurry into the scene. The man in front of the woman is holding a plate of rice, in the late fifties perhaps, has a mean demeanour. The woman at the back tails along, looking about the same range of age.

“Shut the f*ck up!”

“No, I...”

“Just admit it, you f*cked up!”

“Wait, but-“

“Just admit you f*cked up b*tch! The facts are there, just f*cking admit it.”

“...”

The audience, numb struck by the fiery opening scene, stood still in their seats, said nothing. All eyes are fixated upon the scene on the stage, anticipating another blow up, awaits for clue of the explosive entrance; yet there was only silence. Another actor enters the scene, with him is presumably the order of the lady. He lays it down in front of her.

The man and woman continue to dine, albeit the man’s body language suggests that he is still unhappy with whatever that happened. The sound of his spoon and fork clunking against each other angrily, as though expressing his displeasure, his stare from the corner of his eye suggest contempt against his wife- who kept her head down the entire time, dejected by the outburst. A hint of tears erupting from the corner of her eye, but it is too far and too faint for the audience to see.

The awkward silence ensued. The audience, who did not know how to react, chose to ignore the outburst, took down mental notes to gossip upon leaving.

As the drape falls upon the stage, the lights lit up, everyone stood and walked away. The scene comes alive in the bewildered audience head as one turn to another, whispering soft enough for one or two words to slip out; judgement is inevitable.

The Power of Incentive:

The Serengeti Equilibrium

In Malaysia, an ATM machine will charge RM 1 from a non bank cardholder should they withdraw; granted that RM1 is a relatively cheap price to pay, we find ourselves scouting for our respective bank’s ATM machine. From a time where we could withdraw from any ATM machine for free, this tiny amount of money seems to have changed behaviour. If everyone, in response to this policy, chooses to do business with the bank which has the most amount of ATM machine in a particular area, the said bank would inevitably gain an upper hand. Convenience became the advantage of a company because of RM 1.

This is the power of incentives. Through its subtle policy changes, it could manipulate behaviour into conformity. Incentives could be the wages that we earn, the tax deductions that we get from the federal government, the cheaper petrol price we pay to fuel our tanks, etc. Incentives could also exist indirectly in the culture of our upbringing, the dictation of what is accepted and what is not, the subtle influence of governmental policies and so on. Incentives, therefore, is the single most powerful driving force that affects our every day decisions.

At a macro scale, the government determines the path of a nation, and then designs a policy package that contains incentives that motivates its people towards goal congruence. What happens if it is not well thought out?

Thoughts on:

The Death of Bin Laden

When the World Trade Centre was struck in the United States back in the year 2001, I was only 13; waking up from my slumber, accidentally catching CNN replays the footage over and over again. I was in shock and disbelief, oblivious from all the other struggles that were happening around the world. At that point of time, I thought the world was well...at peace.

Refreshing my tweets over and over again in hope of something interesting would come up for me to pass time in lecture, little did I expect the news of Osama’s death would pop up. The manhunt has finally ended. As I scanned through the short report on the assault and his subsequent death, more and more tweets came in, reporting US citizens chanting “U.S.A, U.S.A” in front of the white house, celebration taking place on the streets, American flags raised, and people rejoiced, celebrating the victory against the man who caused much grieve over the past decade.

J. Gary Wise, a writer at ESPN, had his say on his blog about the death of Osama bin Laden and it was thought provoking. There is a hint of disdain on his views of the celebrating Americans, citing that his fellow Americans are celebrating more death as we speak; at hindsight, I had to agree with him, but after dwelling on the issue, I now draw different conclusions.