I remember fondly the years of my life from birth to sec one. Those were the days when my mom was still a stay-home mom and I got to spend a lot of time with her. I rarely see my father because he was the sole bread-winner and would always come home late. The only quality time I spent with him was when he was standing over me with a cane or lecturing me while I was kneeling down. He, as you can tell, was the disciplinarian.
I soon learnt that if I wanted something, the best person to ask first would be my mom. It would be unlikely that she would say ‘No’ if the amount wasn’t extravagant, so whenever I wanted something I would ask her first and not my dad. That’s how I got the extra toys, books and sweets outside of Christmas and my birthday. And that was something my father did not like.
It wasn’t that my father didn’t love me but more that he was old school - ‘teach him to fish and not give him fish’. So, he would constantly disagree with my mom about how he felt she was raising me spoilt. In any case, I soon learnt to start asking him more and my mom started directing me his way. Of course I got less ‘treats’ but my mom and dad started disagreeing less and my dad got rid of the image where he was just seen as the disciplinarian which I think he didn’t like.
In the end, they came up with a system between themselves on how to deal with me. Of course, it would have been better if my mom had learnt the principles in which my dad would have used to ’spoil’ me so that at least both of them would be the ones dispensing goodwill and not just my dad.
Today, in the money section, was an article about the fines and back fees that iTV, a company owned by Shin Corp has to pay. The fine is up to around 100 billion baht according to the article. That is almost 2/3 the amount of money Temasek spent in getting Shin Corp. I wonder if they will pay the fine. I hope not. I think if they do, they will just have shown a willingness to pay and be whacked for more money further down the road.
Was what Temasek did wrong? I don’t think so. It was probably just not very sensitive and smart to the realities in Thailand. In any case, the issue the Thai government seems to have with iTV stems from what happened before the company got bought over by Temasek; it concerns certain concessions that were given to the company when the ousted Prime Minister was in power.
Anyway, reading the article reminded me of how my parents settled the way they would raise me between themselves and displayed a consistent front to me and my dad didn’t come to punish me just because my mom gave me some sweets.
Post a Comment