Sunday, October 01, 2006

FORGIVING KIASU LEE

"Tis the season of forgiveness and friendship, Lee. Seek and ye shall find." - Kalimullah Hassan, today's Sunday Times (Sunday Column: Growing Legion of the Unfooled).

He seems anxious to forgive Lee! But you have to have the stamina to reach para 26 (yes, 26!) of this piece by the former Singapore Straits Times journalist before you come to the first reference to LKY.

In contrast, guest writer Paddy Bowie, in her 26-para piece ("Sorry Minister Mentor, but you got it wrong"), took on "kiasu" Lee from start to finish.

Kalimullah seems more concerned with convincing the reader that what Pak Lah did, vis-a-vis what the previous admin used to do, was the write thing:

"Only, this time, Malaysia reacted in proper and civil fashion — seeking an explanation from Lee on what certainly was an ill-thought, inconsiderate and provocative statement. Had Malaysia reacted in any other way, it would have only lent credence to Lee’s assertions of a "bullying big brother". "

P.S. Didn't Kalimullah say he was going to stop writing The Sunday Column (soon after the "errors" in his June 11 piece was exposed)? This week's piece is the third in a row so it does look like we've been had, again!

And, by the way, he has not apologised
for the June 11 column. Well,
"tis the season of forgiveness, Kali. Seek and ye shall find".

39 comments:

  1. Anonymous3:06 pm

    Malays not marginalised in Singapore

    SINGAPORE , 27 Sept 2006 (Cock News Network) – MALAYS are not marginalised in Singapore, contrary to claims from across the causeway.

    "This is conclusively proven by the fact that a second Malay has won the Singapore Idol," said Gahmen spokesman Ban Vanity shortly after Hady Mirza emerged as the winner.

    Ms Vanity pointed out that Hady is the second Malay to have clinched the coveted title, after Taufik Batisah, who also beat another Chinese, in the previous year.

    "The Malays trounced the Chinese for two consecutive years in Singapore Idol. How can Dr M say Malays are marginalized in Singapore? What utter rubbish!" said a fuming Ms Vanity at the packed press conference yesterday.

    She was referring to Dr M's remarks that Malays are marginalized in predominantly Chinese Singapore.

    "We could ask about the status of the Malays in Singapore, why they are not allowed to bear arms in the military or train to handle weapons," Dr M ranted earlier this week.

    "Why is it that the Malays in Malaysia are so capable in the military field but the Malays in Singapore cannot hold high posts?"

    The Malaysian figure had said it as an angry reaction to Singapore's MM Lee's comment that the Chinese are systematically marginalized in Malaysia.

    But MM Lee was not completely right about the Chinese in Malaysia, according to analysts who track the Idol phenomenon worldwide.

    "A Chinese beat a Malay in last year's Malaysian Idol what!" said Sing Song Woon, referring to Daniel Lee who defeated Norhanita Hamzah for the crown in 2005.

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  2. Anonymous3:45 pm

    Sdr Rocky,

    I think you should stop honoring Kali. He is not even worth homoring. Period.

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  3. Bro,
    All this talk of marginalising of Malays in Singapore, Indians in China or Chinese in India is really getting us nowhere.We shouldnt be bothered with what some half-baked Singaporean or Indonesian said !
    When are we going to talk about a Singular Malaysian identity ?
    Its because the politicians keep harping on racial issues that nothing will ever be a reality, because we keep getting 'clanish' when we are face with a situation that involves race. When we start to think 'Malaysian' then what anyone says will be the least of our problems.Look at the s*** we are in as price of everything is shooting through the roof of our very own households !
    PM cannot even control prices, or his SIL ,how do you expect him to save 2 PAS boys in Guatonomo.He'd rather let them rot there !
    So calling of names in a daily thing in Parliament. Relax Bro, and selamat berbuka Puasa everyone.

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  4. Anonymous6:17 pm

    Er Rocky, just to let you know that Datuk Paddy Bowie (formerly Schubert) is a lady. She is the mother of Samantha Schubert.

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  5. Ah, thanks anon. My apologies to the lady and all. Selamat berbuka puasa.

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  6. Anonymous7:10 pm

    Bru,

    Is it true that Brendan is finally being shown the door? Is Pak Lah "I am the Prime Minister in charge" relenting? Or is this anotherb ruse so that Brendan can stay on?

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  7. Anonymous7:12 pm

    I don't read the Sunday Times. Sorry!

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  8. Anonymous8:57 pm

    Brendan Pereira will 'quit' before November. Semua sudah plan. This will help cool the temperature at the UMNO Assembly. Kalimullah too may be eased away - dont know if into the toilet or not.

    My Chinese neighbors just bought their second Mercedes. I think Mercedes are a good measure of wealth and in this country Chinese are the largest owners of Mercedes. Power to my Chinese neighbours. I drive a 'not Mercedes' and a National car. I am bent on working hard to buy my own Mercedes too. There is really no other way to go about it.

    Paddie Bowie made some really good points today - matter of fact presentation.

    Chinese are marginalised in Singapore. The Government runs all the important businesses in town. The MNCs run the rest.

    To all our Chinese brothers - help us cut down the BN this time round. Proportionately the Chinese are the biggest BN supporters. Malays are divided between BN, PAS, Keadilan, DAP etc. The bulk of Chinese vote BN.

    If you want change the Chinese have to mobilise. But the Chinese dont want to rock the boat. They fear (some justification) they may lose the Merc.

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  9. Anonymous9:13 pm

    paddie bowie wrote a good piece, but she is too sentimental. she didn't address the issue of the marginalisation of the chinese. you need to write from a wider perspective to get the real picture. saying that chinese own so much and being given the liberty to have chinese language schools is just part of the smaller picture. you are just writing on the surface. there are underlying issues which haven't be addressed, and probably won't be addressed. paddie, my advice to you is very simple = you are writing from an outsider's point of view. pse don't make a fool of youself. if you have nothing to say, shut up.

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  10. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  11. Anonymous9:22 pm

    Third in a row? Sudah tiga Kali? :)

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  12. Anonymous9:37 pm

    A little bird told me Brendan has been unhappy for some time and wanted to leave some months ago. But his godfather managed to persuade him to stay..

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  13. Anonymous9:45 pm

    nstman,
    check your facts first. Paddy has been in the country longer than probably you and is more Malaysian than many of us..at least, she is proud about being in Malaysia and has no bones about declaring this to all and sundry.

    As for your unsolicited advice, keep it in your pocket.

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  14. Anonymous9:52 pm

    nstman,

    that is not fair. Ms Bowie has lived in Malaysia for a very long time. She is more Malaysian than probably you. i hardly think she is an outsider.
    and she did write a good and fair piece.and with credibility.
    sure, you can criticise. but you were not criticising. what a stupid advice. you were simply whacking.

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  15. Anonymous9:54 pm

    nstman,
    what crock! I hardly think paddy bowie was making a fool of herself. you wouldnt be able to write half as good.

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  16. Anonymous9:57 pm

    the more I read kalimullah's sunday column, the more i am convinced he should stop writing.
    and the more i think he is a singapore stooge.
    and i am convinced he has no integrity.

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  17. Anonymous10:08 pm

    i think kalimulah is the last person to to talk about love and compassion, and humility and all that.

    what a pathetic piece.

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  18. While Paddy Bowie wrote from her heart, Kali would be incapable of such a feat.

    Coz he doesn't have one.

    I'd rather listen my dad's 'old folk' stories than read KH's ramblings which inevitably would depress anybody.

    And he has the cheek to write about forgiveness.

    He's the fool who's trying to fool anyone foolish enough to be fooled. Only a fool would use 'unfooled' in an opinion column and expect readers to consider it as queen's english. But then again, we, the 'unfooled'(sic) knows who was the bigger fool who put this foolish fool in that seat.

    *Ok, I know it's bad english to utilise one word too many times in one para but I just hadda do it*

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  19. Anonymous12:39 am

    mawarmerah,

    I agree with you wholeheartedly. Abt Kali, that is.

    hani

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  20. Guys!

    Trust me Kalimullah is not capable of compassion! He does not like Melayus or bumiputras whom he describes as lazy and pathetic and does not deserve a country! KJ trust me he will abandon you like trash if you are of no use to him!

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  21. Anonymous6:02 am

    I hope Bodowi (to borrow from Soldier of Fortune) don't be so bodoh as to turn Bolehland into Bodoland against Kiasupore. Harry Lee does not owe apology to us and the Indons, he owes the world an explanation. Remember everyone, he made those remarks to the world, at a world platform. It was reported and televised throughout the world. If he says sorry to Bodowi in a letter, well and good for Bodowi. But Kiasuli still must find a way to clarify to a world audience and tell them he was talking cock at the WTO

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  22. Anonymous6:13 am

    Rocky,

    It's an insult for you to compare Datuk Paddy Bowie with Kalimullah Hassan.

    The former is a consumate communicator and a true Malaysian. The later is a pontificator, whose love for Malaysian is questionable.

    Obviously while you know this Kali fellow well, being your generation, you are unaware of Datuk Paddy's great contribution to enhancing Malaysia's image as a PR person.

    It does no harm for you to know a little bit about history.

    Thank You.

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  23. Anonymous8:09 am

    i agree wholeheartedly with Shar101, pasquale, nt-sin, hani and old media hack.

    brother, i am surprised you compared Ms Bowie with Kalimullah. That is a sin. Don't insult Ms Bowie. She is respected in her field -- communications, PR. And in the industry by her peers and journalists (with whom she has had a lot of contact with, professionally and personally.
    Now, Kalimulah -- well, he doesnt even come close. He is despised. He lacks integrity, credibility ...

    To Ms Bowie --- SYABBASS! And to the NST -- thank you for publishing her commentary.

    Noor Ayn.

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  24. Kali, NST ... you guys mentioned so many times, makes me wanna buy the newspaper just to get the real picture!

    Woooh! I am almost tempted. Luckily I have some self control, you guys unwittingly falled into Kali's trap to increase the NST readership.

    He's just not worth your time of day.

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  25. Anonymous9:28 am

    Say what !

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  26. Anonymous9:58 am

    Nowadays the price to pay for being nationalistic can be quite high. In the old days, nationalism was needed in order to defend the land from invaders. But who invades our lands today? Ideas and investors. When locals can't even do glocal well enough, it would be wiser to attract ideas and investors in order to play the same game as the globalisers. Otherwise we will be left behind and being left behind is the root cause of all the main issues that generate comments in blogs such as this.

    Kiasu Lee played to the gallery of investors using the idea/message of SEAsian chinese being marginalised. He might have used the wrong word. 'Discriminated' would be closer to the truth but one allows neo-octogenarians some leeway with choice pf words.

    Kiasu Lee is not a good man, he is not a humanist. But when he was the PM of Singapore, he was as much an astute global statesman as he was a state administrator. He governed the island with an iron hand, instilled will, focus and discipline, and surrounded himself with professionals to form an action team that made that red dot the switzerland of Asia. It was no small feat to be ranked number one for a good number of years in the world competitiveness index. That reflects their ability to broker the natural resources and business potential around them from their neighbours. Given so, if he says something, then what he says should be listened beyond the actual words used.

    Let me ask:

    is the stigma of the messenger as important as the message itself?

    In this idea-investor world that we seem not to be able to coexist efficiently with because our governing party pursues policies that erect the barrier of race and religion, wouldn't it behove everyone to stand still, close the mouth, open the mind and think about the message with responding negatively to the messenger?

    I would think it is a wiser man who will quietly listen and weigh criticisms than react negatively to them without taking trouble to analyse them carefully first, without the lens of nationalism in a globalizing world.

    So, are the Chinese of SEAsia marginalised? Some will say even economically, they are in this country because policies like the NEP have quietly moved market share in so many sectors like banking and mining to one party racial towards one community. Others will add that politically the Chinese in SEAsia, let alone this land, don't have no political leverage. How else can you explain why thousands of Chinese women were killed in Jakarta 98 and Chinese school education in this land will receive no additional allocation under the 9MP while Chinese students from national schools who had scored the peaks are denied entry to their course of choice in the local university they have selected, year after year, and then rejected for their scholarship applications overseas while malays with better household incomes get to go to ivyleagues in the US and UK?

    The contending argument that kiasu lee's own backyard shows marginalized malays requires singapore malays to answer. Somehow one suspects, looking from the thousands who pour from JB across the causeway every morning (with little traffic from the other side at the same time), shows something is not that right over here. In fact JB malays work in Singapore, and live on their dual-sized incomes in JB. So if malays are marginalised in Singapore, should their complaints and grouses be magnified twice?

    The message, not the messenger. If something is a fact, who says it doesn't change that fact.

    I had expected paddy bower to add a part like this to balance her nationalistic fervour but sadly she didn't.

    It's good to defend one's own country from time to time. But when so much is wrong, we'll be sending the wrong encouragement to the very people who've been causing the rift, drift and dives. They should be told in no uncertain terms that 'failure is not an option' (so said by one fil who presumably gave his sil a tight slap for being caught in a compromising position in a foreign land).

    The wrong message should not also go to investors.

    And this is the crunch.

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  27. Anonymous10:06 am

    Enough is enough...we should not be the prawns of politicians and feed on the racial sop dished out by firstly the King's man and now LKY, their compatriot. They will benefit when we slug it out with words. Whether we are Malaysians or Singaporeans, we are only marginalised when there is no freedom to choose who should govern us and when we lose our budi bahasa.

    Dear Rocky,

    Your blogs are read by a wide segment of the society. Please don't let the politicians polarised your view and your readers. Only a unified Malaysian can bring about changes.

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  28. Anonymous11:32 am

    It is sad that naturalised Malaysian defends this country with cogent, reasoned arguments while our "flagship" newspaper's head honcho becomes a Singapore apologist.

    Here's loyalty and the lack of it displayed in strange permutations. Bravo Paddy Bowie!!

    As for Kali, less said, better.

    As to the marginalisation of the Chinese, I must say it is quite difficult to do anywhere in the world, since they are an industrious, hardworking race.

    Affirmative action via NEP and the education policy has tried to elevate the Malays to be up to par with the Chinese economically (not the rest of the other race, who need help too).

    But carried forth till today, affirmative action is marginalising not just the Chinese but everyone whose merits and prowess make them competitive, but are denied opportunities, so as to preserve the status quo.Wot to do, the Umnoputras dah naik lemak.

    That is the weakness of our government, let's make no bones about that.

    But whatever that is wrong with my country, it is still mine, and it enrages me that anyone can take a swipe and not only get away with it, but having apologists like Kali playing forgive and forget.

    U Bloody Singaporeans shud look at your own "tepi kain" la..b4 looking at ours.

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  29. Anonymous12:11 pm

    Frankly, I thought Oaddy Bowie's piece was a pathetic apologist piece on behalf of the government. That's what happens when you get consultancies from the government and then try to pretend to be a commentator on issues which are rather indefensible. You guys are right - if she has nothing relevant to say, just shut up.

    A few Chinese schools and a handful of Chinese millionaires do not define the state of the Chinese community. In that sense, Ms Bowie's column was superficial to say the least. It was also rather groveling-at-the-feet-of-the-powers-that-be.

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  30. Anonymous12:25 pm

    If we didn't invent the NEP, race relations in this country would have suffered greatly. There would have been more May 13 incidents, bigger and bloodier. The Malays would eventually get 30% or more of the economy but at the expense of the Chiense and othe races. Instead of blaming the NEP, we should be grateful for it. Without the NEP, the likes of Singapore would have seized control of our economy if not our politics too by now! Wake up Malaysians!

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  31. Anonymous12:44 pm

    IT is entirely sad that after 49 years of independence and countless policies and considerable success for all Malaysians irrespective of race, creed and geographical location, we are still easily provoked to fight among ourselves.

    When we should stand united to condemn the attempt by Lee Kuan Yew, who is a known instigator, provocateur and agent (as in spy), to undermine our unity in order to defend his dictatorship, we fight against each other.

    We have fallen ito the trap set by this last remaining civilian dictator of South East Asia. He is trying to divide and destroy our country as he had succeeded in dividing and building his tiny island under the pretext of meritocracy. It's impossible that Singapore Malays and Indians are so inferior intellectually to Singapore Chinese that so few of them succeed?

    LKY is also a vulture. He thrives on death of others. With each successive crisis in the region, his Singapore banks sucked in the fleeing funds and assets.

    Singapore is not doing well now. It's economy is stagnating and the cost of doing business is rising. To compensate for this shortfall, LKY is trying to create fear and instability in this region so that there's another round of capital flight to Singapore.

    So I plead with my fellow Malaysians, please do not squabble. We can differ, but let us differ in a productive and civilized manner. LKY may be able to bluff our government, but those of us who are old enough and read history should all know who he is. He's a dictator and a rabble-rouser. Plain and simple.

    Thank You.

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  32. Anonymous1:29 pm

    Wake up "I Remember 69" !! I advice you wake up from your wet dream which fantasizes the 69 position with your 59 yo auntie.

    The May 13 incident had profoundly and parasitically rooted in most Malaysian minds (yes, you). Everyone with the clear and conscious mind knows that this is a dirty tactics by Malays imposed onto chinese (even during Singapore was part of independent Malaysia). It succeeded and this was how the NEP was born as a tool to marginalise non-malay-bumiputra.

    Thanks for your praise to NEP, anyway but please wake up, zip up and grow up, "I Remember 69" !!

    PS: Emm.. get a life, stop jerking off in front of the monitor screen, shut up and change your nick.

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  33. Listen up you all! (read morons)

    Rocky is trying to draw an attention of one person who will not come out all the way to condemn LKY for reasons known to this one person only, while Rocky said it takes a naturalised Malaysian to condemn LKY as a true Malaysian because she is better than that other person who is realy a traitor to this country and everyone must wake up to this fact! Rocky wasnt trying to compare one shit head to another great person, so happens both came out in the same paper!

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  34. Aye, aye, nt-sin and victor, it's amazing how ill-informed, blinkered, naive and gullible some Malaysians can be that they allowed LKY to pull the wool over their eyes.

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  35. Anonymous12:29 am

    As some one who was "inspired" by Anwar to join Umno, I had a lot of problem appreciating him in later years.

    But I must admit that he makes sense when he want to.

    His statement about Singapore dictator Lee Kuan Yew published by Malaysiakini.Com today makes a lot of sense. In part, he said:

    "Singapore’s Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew is still trapped in an outdated racial mind-set, said Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) adviser Anwar Ibrahim.

    “His remarks exposed the racial elements that have been in him for a long time,” he said in a statement today.

    “(Lee) could see the problems faced by the Chinese abroad but not the woes of the Malays in Singapore who have complained about being marginalised and left behind,” he added.

    Anwar was responding to Lee’s recent remarks that the Chinese in Malaysia and Indonesia have been systematically marginalised.

    What is regrettable, Anwar said, was that Lee never showed concern for the bumiputera and Indians who are in dire need of help.

    Lee should look for a development plan that is based on the spirit of equality for all races, added the former deputy premier.

    For example, Anwar said he has been calling for the New Economic Policy (NEP) - a race based affirmative action policy in Malaysia - to be replaced with the New Economic Agenda.

    Although Lee is an enviable statesman, the PKR leader said the former’s record is tainted by disallowing freedom of expression and political dissidence."

    I still wonder till this day if he would make a better successor to Tun Dr Mahathir.

    I also wonder if Umno will ever accept him back.

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  36. Anonymous7:31 am

    Letter to PM Badawi from Lee Kuan Yew here.

    http://news.asiaone.com/a1news/20061002_story4_1.html

    Full text of the letter and annex at the end of the page.

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  37. Anonymous9:26 am

    Lee had made his reply. He was not sorry for his comment but for the DISCOMFORT he had caused. He remained steadfast to his statements.

    Now... what can Malaysia do to him? The only thing I see at the moment was the media has started to spin the whole thing to fool itself and mollify its ego.

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  38. Anonymous6:27 pm

    I agree with those who thought what Paddie wrote was nothing but right-wing propaganda. Does she think a few billionaires represent 6.5 million Chinese? Ridiculous!!! And she also makes the mistake of thinking all Chinese want Chinese medium schools and want signs in Chinese and tries to make these things into some sort of big deal. My goodness - she even gives the impression that being able to keep one's name is some sort of incredible privilege that shows the community is not discriminated against! Should she be back in her native Britain, she'd be laughed off the street for comments like that!

    And she says political/economic power is divided by population. Therefore should the Chinese pop increase in the future, should they be given more ministers/share of economy regardless of merit? Will the share go up and down like a yo-yo then? What utter stupidity! Or maybe she is suffering from the guilt of her forefathers (I assume she's British) for colonizing the Malays. Perhaps when her children or grandchildren are denied opportunities due to their skin color or she is subject to some kris waving, maybe she'll sing a different tune.

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  39. Anonymous1:15 am

    "you are unaware of Datuk Paddy's great contribution to enhancing Malaysia's image as a PR person."

    "She is respected in her field -- communications, PR. And in the industry by her peers and journalists"


    OH GROSS!!! - now we are supposed to respect her as a PR professional??? Now that I know that this Paddy is in PR it sent my opinion of her even lower if that's possible!

    Here is a joke about the PR people. And as they say: Many a truth was said in jest!

    A mathematician, an accountant and a public relations officer all applied for the same job with a large company.

    The interviewer called in the mathematician first and asked, "What does two plus two equal?"

    The mathematician replied, "Four."

    Then the interviewer called in the accountant and asked the same question, "What does two plus two equal?"

    The accountant said, "On average, four - give or take 10 per cent; but on average, four."

    Then the interviewer called in the public relations officer and again posed the same question, "What does two plus two equal?"

    The public relations officer got up, locked the door, closed the shade, sat down next to the interviewer and whispered, "Well, what do you want it to equal?"

    ReplyDelete