The Demise of MAGA (?), My 2021 New Year Resolutions – Week 45

And the superpowers of the orange moron has finally been removed. Like a spoilt kid that was given too many liberties by the parents/enablers for the last 4 years, they have finally had enough of the “enfant terrible”.

Twitter, Facebook, Google and the rest of the social media platforms have finally permanently banned him from their platforms as they deemed that he is too dangerous for the public, even though he has less than 12 days left in the office. Talks of the 25th amendment to remove an existing president or a new impeachment run rampant online now. It is too little too late.

Talking about double standards… The US (via Pompeo) had protested on the recent arrest of HK protestors just before their Capitol house was stormed this week. The irony is so rich I really don’t know where to start. The hypocrisy and the “Do as I say, not as I do” attitude is so vomit-inducing. Social media platforms like Facebook had already done the same around the world – in Myanmar, India and the Philippines to kill and destroy opposition dissent via lies and falsehood for years. And yet they did nothing in the name of free speech. Now the rooster has come home to shit on the capital of western democracy.

US democracy had almost died this week and like a pendulum, it is likely to swing from the right to the left now. It is a sad day to see all his enablers now crying wolf and saying enough is enough, I told you so… Political means to an end overrode common sense and human decency for too long and should not go unpunished. He has already thrown all the protestors under the bus within 24 hours, after having incited and encouraged them to violence for weeks, right up to the morning itself into the rally to fire up the troops to march to the Capitol. Even the National Guards were prevented from supporting the Washington DC police leading up to 06 Jan by the orange one.

With the mass arrests that will happen soon, will the supporters eventually wake up to the biggest hoax they have been lied to? Fox tries to blame everything on suspected Antifa troops hiding in the crowds. Really? You have all of the protestors that are easily identifiable as they refused to wear masks in a pandemic. It is now up to the police to follow the trail, identify and arrest them. It reminded me of the S’pore Serangoon riots a few years ago where video evidence was used against the rioters, to eventually charges them with the full weight of the law. Let’s hope America develops a spine and grow a pair of balls now.

And now to my 2021 New Year Resolutions which I have been thinking about for the last week since I reviewed and rated my 2020 ones 7 days ago. It is more of the same but with some fine-tuning as I wanted more focus on certain areas rather than have some generic motherhood statements. Here goes:

(1) To read 15 books

It is the same as last year though. I only managed to read 11.5 in 2020 and I envy a friend that had read 40. With free, popular and current ebooks easily available to borrow from the National Library, I should not have much excuse to not want to set aside at least an hour every night to do some reading, rather than to watch more TikTok videos. There are also a few much thicker books that are greater than 500 pages which I want to attack, so maybe 15 is a reasonable number, for now.

(2) Get a new consulting project

This was achieved last year by luck as the S’pore consultancy firm gave me a project to complete in 3 months. I hope to get more from them this year and am also currently working on another new Myanmar role which could hopefully crystalize by end of Q1. My retail business venture that was heavily planned in Q4 is now put on hold for the moment. So I should have more time in 2021 to do more MOOC online learning or sign up for Skillsfuture courses.

(3) Upgrade my video editing skills

I have cheated on this for the last 20 years by using the Muvee AutoProducer software to edit my family videos. With just a click of a few buttons, I could easily create MTVs of events. Perhaps it is time for me to upskill and learn what is new out there to make better videos. If I managed to make my drone capture some good aerial videos, I would need a better way to make more professional stuff like what I normally see from astounding youtube videos nowadays. If they can do it, I should be able too.

(4) Learn a new programming language

Back to my junior college computer science roots again, I would like to bring myself up to speed on what is available in the market. I have not decided on what this will be yet. It could be Python, SQL, Linux or something relevant. I also need to know what the common infrastructure tools available are like, for example, GitHub and off the shelf software products.

(5) Learn to create an online store

With the retail business idea, we had wanted to pivot to an online store first, instead of having a physical one. Now that the business is on hold, that should not stop me from learning how to develop one. Drop Shipping is the buzz word for creating an online store without inventory while automating most of the processes to close transactions between buyers and sellers seamlessly. The Canadian company Shopify is the most successful platform for hosting online dropshipping stores. I want to learn how to do this.

(6) Continue to stay happy and healthy

After a year like 2020, this becomes even more relevant and crucial to remain sane and weather through 2021. My mental wellbeing is tied to my health. I managed to loss 3 kg of weight and maintain my lighter self into the end of the year. My health app says that my ideal weight should be 64kg. So can I reduce it further? No harm trying by exercising more and eating healthily. Always being focused on this makes life more bearable and easy to follow.

The first week of 2021 has started with a bang, only 51 more weeks to go. It should look brighter than last year and with fewer uncertainties. With all humans putting their minds to common goals, we will be able to overcome. Just don’t hold your breath though…

Businesses, what are your 2021 New Year resolutions?, Opinion - THE  BUSINESS TIMES


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