Junior Pyramid Club

SingaporeMacross SG

The talked about it in Today.

It's like one of those secret societies in America. Our very own version of Skull and Bones?

laurence82 SG

Many young ones joined?

SingaporeMacross SG

The age limit is 40.

Then they have a Pyramid Club. A seniors version I believe..

robertteh SG

It was suspected for quite sometime that the internal civil service and statutory board promotions are fixed by the secret grouping or tossed among members of this exclusive secret club.

So in Singapore as stated by one of the professors in NUS before his resignation or termination that it is not what you know but who you know that counts in our so-called meritocratic society. Meritocracy has a new meaning in our land as it apparently does not rest on practical or proven abilities but connections after all. The elected president was supposed to check on nepotism in public appointments but he is obviously a member of pyramid so how to be objective.

It was well-kept secret over many years but it finally came out. Why a secret in the first place if it was legitimate.

PM Lee probably will explain the seeming contradiction of dividing citizens into pyramid and non-pyramid elites and non-elites when he has pledged to work for a non-discriminative or all-inclusive society as solemnly stated in his inaugural speech.

iamgoondu SG

it maybe just like those white horses, set up to ensure that none of the elite sons are granted special rights, privileges or accelerated promotions. what diff between pyramid clubs members and white horses? one is lesser known another is commonly known?

robertteh SG

(as posted at www.findsingapore.net/forum on 2.8.2005)

Reply to a forumer:-

I thinkg th good prof is way out of step with reality with this one. The one thing which I find entertaining about "book smarts" academics is that they are always "unhappy" about the way the world IS and are always offering self-important ideas about how the world OUGHT TO BE.

ALL human activity is about human life, and inter-human realtionships are fundamental to this. Hence, it is not WHAT you know but WHO you know, and your relationship with them.

We do not produce everything ourselves. In fact, most of what we use is produced by other people. without this division of labour, we cannot enjoy the level of existence we have today - we'd be still at the subsistence level hunting and gathering.

I don't take these sour-grape academics too seriously. We need to KNOW others and to have trusted realtionships with them, or we will never be able to live the way we do.

We all specialise in something and trade our skills and the products of our skill with each other. This interdependence is what makes a society what it is - you don't need to know everything, but you do need to know WHO can do what you need.

Every towkay (street-wise achiever) knows that quan xi plays a big part in the success of ones life.

That my friend is precisely what all the academic book worms have been doing perhaps to prove their learned theories, assumptions, special intelligence, leadership, talent and entrepreneurship.

They apply social engineering projects on the family size limiting to two in some years and bringing it back to more when they saw alarming decline of populations due to their limitations experimentation. Graduate mothers are incentivised to produce more children but what happened when people who are non-graduates simply boycotted child births leading to decline of needful population to sustain growth. They then tried to put together some institute to justify confucianism to support their state-above-citizens pet theory. Then they lied low seeing the wind of Asian Financial crisis was against leadership and talents but as soon as the world economy turned to their favor they are setting up the confucian institute to prove their leadership or statecraft theory again when clearly democracy has given them all the headway all the way for 40 years.

I can see no change to their experimentations and assumptions that their special leadership and talents have worked. They are too blinded and obsessed to see that actually their experimentations have brought the reverse unhappniness, high costs of living to ordinary citizens and discriminations against non-elites. Human relahios one to one never stop them from over-whelming measures to force up prices and costs of living and these are where the citizens who wanted to carry on the best they can are taken for the ride on the experimentation journey to nowhere.

Talents and elites are now out in full force with all sorts of pyramid clubs trying to network themselves to get better promotions and business opportunities above actual dues and performance.

One of their pet throeies is the foreigners have advanced technologies, and therefore should be invited to set up businesses with privileges which are never given to local companies more skilled in particular ways unknown to our elites. Elites are playing god. I asked in one feedback to the FU whether the Minister of Manpower has set certain conditions or checks against the declared skills and talents in the S-pass application forms and allowed the Poly graduates to get a first bite of the cherries, but had not seen any response to such feedback.

So our technology Polys grads spend months searching for jobs in technology companies when foreigners with S passes duly certified by their own kinds in our various MNCs are simply riding rough-shod over our local skilled Poly boys.

Quan Xi also serves a normative moral function: It keeps people focused on their "face". No one likes to loose face - especially if one is a high flyer and connected to the company of other high flyers. Quan Xi ensures that the person who is immoral will probably suffer social ostracization or worse... Those who still choose to deal with the immoral person will never fully trust him. In the end, it is the immoral person who loses - none of his relationships will be GENUINE.

Of course, this is all too "common" for the ivory-tower academic who looks down at the common man with scorn and derision - oh no, he, the academic is way too intellectually elite to mingle with us commeners of average IQ and ability.

Prof Book Smart, but a total moron when it comes to real-life simple common sense.

]The elected president was supposed to check on nepotism in public appointments but he is obviously a member of pyramid so how to be objective.

Our elites not only took us on experimentation social engineering projects to prove their egos and leaderships but have decided to tinker with entrepreneurs putting citizens hard-earned monies into investments in their other pet overseas projects to see how they could be better entrepreneurs. That is where they got their finers burnt on micropolis and souzhou. Their leadeship and foresight theoriies got wacked with the real world talking about Quanxi not found in the textbooks.

After the micropolies and souzhou they learned the real lessons about quanxi and then began to play quanxi of their own starting with old-boy associations, alumnis, pyramid clubs. Now PM Lee really has to take back his words about creating an inclusive society when he is excluding more and more ordinary people from the elite quanxi clubs.

My conclusion is : More experimentations will be taking place. Although Human-to-human relationship is a major driving force in the world and government should leave well alone to let businesses thrive on their own vibrancy and creativity, the experimental elites might not want to forego their network of quanxi as this network is now giving them greater opportunities to self-advancements and progress than all the real hard works and excellence stuff.

There is nothing morally wrong with secrets - you have things about you and about your life you CHOOSE to share with others. You are not obliged to share that information unless you want to. This is called privacy.

But is the claim that the Pyramid Club is "secret" TRUE?

No. Some people know about it - I do, as do many of the people I know. In the past I've occasionally been a guest there . I've never had to swear an oath of secrecy. So the claim that it is "secret" is fallacious. (but it sounds good coming from aNUS professor)

Back to our moronic professor: the prof is using his "image" to portray a fact, and because he is a professor no one DARES to challenge him.

Let those who are intimidated by status and achievement suffer the consequences of their choice. I prefer to remain objective and to challenge the verity of ANYONE'S opinion so that I arrive at the truth on my own.

Again, intimidation by status. Those who hang on every word the Holy Father or His Holy Son or the Sycophant Courtesans says are welcome to the consequences of surrending the one and only mind they have.

No one has a moral duty to "correct" these people. In fact it would be immoral and presumptuos to tell them that they are "wrong" (Wrong by whose standards?). So the only correct thing is to leave the people alone. Their "blind obedience" is their own, uncoerced voilitional choice. Wink

Many people stay in their limiting social strata because they view other social strata with CONTEMPT. Their mistake, i.e. error in reasoning? Thinking in terms of sociall strata insted of one-on-one relationships with a fellow individual.

And then these folks complain that "it is not what you know but who you know".

Let them eat cake! Laughing

I can see your argument about futility of better run government, but the real world of the experimental elites is now hooked on to quanxi. With quanxi, wealth will flow to the elites as long as they are connected to the network of clubs of elites to gain perpetual recognition, job and business prospect. Whether or not ordinary people understand this insidious trend in our elitist society is another thing.
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