Forest Reflections

The little red dot has been engulfed in haze for the past two weeks. The PSI has been yo-yo-ing between moderate and unhealthy levels, hitting 150 at some point. If it is so bad for us, I wonder what it is like for the Indonesian people living near the hot spots.


Is the land covered with ashes and dust? Are the kids choking on the acrid air? Are they straining their eyes to see the fish in the river? Is the fish choking too, as the pollutants contaminate the water?

Dragonfly

The HP spying scandal rages on, with Dunn and others being charged with felonies. Meanwhile, Fiorina publishes her new book, which reportedly paints a picture of male establishment ganging up against women executives.

As a woman, it is always interesting to see how others have climbed or helicoptered above the old boys club and done well for themselves -- or sometimes, fallen spectacularly. Some years back, I read about a magazine trying to survey and measure the power of women in the corporate world. Apparently, when the reporter interviewed a certain large Asian company on women representation on its senior management team, the representative of the company laughed in the reporter's face.

I am far from the stage of corporate life where I could tell for sure if there were a glass ceiling for women. I suppose it differs from job to job. Some women I know have also opted to run their own businesses, rather than go through with the ladder-climbing process. Of course, I think there is a whole lot of other great reasons to run your own business.

Locally, the best-known female entrepreneur is probably Olivia Lum. In a strange way, I always associate her with the dragonfly. I guess it is because of the Hyflux product by the same name.

Dragonflies are supposedly the fastest insects in the world, going up to 97 km/h. They can also approach a target speedily, while appearing to be stationery from the victim's angle. This technique is called motion camouflage, a form of optical illusion.

Does the dragonfly look like it is stationery, or moving?

The Persistence of Time

To Dali, time probably looks like melting Camembert cheese. In The Persistence of Memory, time melts, flies, decays, drapes and weighs on what some thought was Dali's self-portrait.

Sometimes I think time is like jellyfish. Drifting along, leisurely feeding on plankton. Not a worry or frown, just drifting along slowly, even as sharks devour each other or a tsunami wreaks havoc ashore.

The jellyfish is so hard to catch, yet so unforgiving once it decides to latch onto you. But who could avoid the jellyfish of time.