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20 Rules to Being a Modern Gentleman (Part 1) BY cien.xu / 16 Oct 2014 Share on facebook Share on twitter Share on email Share on print More Sharing Services 306

Times have changed and so have the rules. Being a gentleman today does not mean laying your jacket over a puddle for women to walk over (unless you want to be labelled a nutter) or repressing your emotions in order to be seen as “manly”. So what does it mean to be a gentleman today? We lay it down for you. 1. Hold open the door open for anybody – not just women. Being a stand-up gent means being courteous to any person regardless of gender. This extends to offering to refresh a person’s drink at a party or giving up a seat to those in need of it.

2. Speak your mind. Being a gentleman means having the confidence to own your opinions. However, this does not give you the licence to be tactless or rude. Learn where the line is drawn.

3. Always dress the part. Taking pride in your appearance is essential to making a good impression. It doesn’t mean turning up in a suit 24/7, but knowing how to dress appropriately and smartly for any occasion. Refer to our idiot-proof guide on dress codes for more advice.

4. Don’t equate self-esteem with money. Money gives you security, but should never define you as a person. Regardless of whether you’re in a cushy job that earns you six figures or a fresh graduate about to embark on his career, your words and actions will always speak louder than how many bottles of Dom Perignon you buy at the club.

5. Don’t judge people based on appearances. Even if you’re always perfectly groomed, judging others based on their shape, size and clothing is crass and uncouth. If you’re stuck with a group of people who love nothing more than to pick others apart, refuse to take part and excuse yourself politely.

6. Improve yourself. A modern gentleman rarely keeps idle. Sure, he enjoys his downtime but you would never hear him complain about being bored. He’s always looking for something new to pursue, be it a new hobby or skill.

7. Be able to say “I don’t know”. Being an upstanding man, doesn’t mean being a know-it-all. If you’re caught in a conversation where you don’t know enough about a subject, it is fine to admit your lack of knowledge to the other party. It is MUCH worse to get caught up in a lie and subsequently revealed to be a fraud. Curiosity is an attractive trait.

8. Keep your nails clean. The same goes for the rest of you. Trim your nose hairs, keep your facial hair neat, go for regular haircuts and get your teeth polished. When it comes to appearance, good hygiene is half the battle won.

9. Don’t be a slave to trends. Just because drop-crotch pants are the new thing for the season, doesn’t mean you have to jump on the bandwagon. Know what your style is and stick to it.

10. Be a good friend. A modern gentleman is the guy that his friends can always rely on when they need a listening ear or rescuing from an emergency. And when he extends kindness, he doesn’t expect anything in return. Friendship isn’t about keeping score. 

This post was brought to you by Hugo Boss BOSS Bottled. Look out for Part 2 of this article next week.

20 Rules to Being a Modern Gentleman (Part 2) BY cien.xu / 28 Oct 2014 Share on facebook Share on twitter Share on email Share on print More Sharing Services 161

Being a man today is like your average Facebook relationship status: it’s friggin’ complicated. Women are more emancipated than ever, and this social change has given men the freedom to explore all facets of their lives be it in their careers, relationships and passions. But with this unprecedented liberty, comes greater confusion. To help you along, here’s the second part of our guide to being a modern gentleman. If you missed the first part, check it out here. 11. Practice discretion: Social media offers temptation to share just about every aspect of your life, but learn from Robbie William’s mistakes. Oversharing only makes you look like an attention whore. No one needs to see what your wife looks like when she's in labour. No. One. 12. Laugh at yourself: If people poke fun at you, take it in your stride. You don’t want to be the guy with the stick up his arse who can’t take a joke. And if you can’t think of a witty comeback, don’t bother trying. It follows that when you want to make a joke, it’s better to poke fun at yourself, not others. Self-deprecating humour is the best kind of humour. 13. Be content, not complacent: Appreciate what you have and count your blessings in life. But it doesn’t mean resting on your laurels. Working hard for what you want makes any achievement that much sweeter. 14. Be punctual: Don’t be THAT guy who is perpetually “on the way” or “stuck in traffic”. Having a smartphone doesn’t give you the licence to keep others waiting when you’ve already agreed on a time to meet. It’s bloody annoying and bad manners. Don’t assume other people’s time is more important than your own.

 15. Know when to stop: This rule applies to just about everything from drinking alcohol to getting physical with women, talking about yourself to maxing out your credit. 16. Ditch the airs: No one likes a pretentious schmuck. Sure, you may be a connoisseur of wine, watches or women, but it doesn’t entitle you to be a snob. Comment on other people’s tastes without an invitation, and you will soon find yourself uninvited. 17. Always smell good: They say scents stick in our minds longer than any visual memory. Be the man who isn’t associated with body odour or sweat. Even better, find your signature scent and stick to it. 18. Know the art of the call: Texting may be the normal mode of communication these days, but it is also a minefield of miscommunication. A gentleman knows how to communicate, so don’t be afraid to dial when the occasion calls for it. Furthermore, calling is always much more sincere than any emoticon-laced text apology. *sad face* 19. Dole out compliments and criticism wisely: Compliments are a great way of warming yourself to people, but if you go around a party saying “Nice shoes!” to just about everybody, that’s just cheap flattery. Similarly, if you feel the need to criticise, make sure your feedback is clear and constructive, and given discreetly. Treat your words with weight, and it's more likely that they will be heard.  20. Let things go: A modern gentleman knows not to bear grudges. He may not forget, but knows how to forgive. As poet George Herbert once said, “Living well is the best revenge.”

This post was brought to you by Hugo Boss BOSS Bottled.

Property

Berita BM

If Selangor and Penang can have open tenders, why not Putrajaya?

The Malaysian Insider – Wed, Nov 19, 2014 Share 10 Tweet

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If Selangor and Penang can have open tenders, why not Putrajaya?

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The Pakatan Rakyat-ruled (PR) Selangor and Penang, which have practised an open-tender system for more than five years for public projects, have poured cold water on Putrajaya's excuse that implementing the same system was "very hard" and would "take time".

Current and former officials from both states said an open-tender system was one of the best ways to ensure that public money was properly spent, and that it was "lame" of the Barisan Nasional federal government to say that it could not do the same.

They also quashed suggestions from a federal minister that such a system would take a long time to implement, adding that Pakatan state government had been able to entrench the practice months after they took office in March 2008.

“I cannot buy the excuse that the system is difficult or that it takes time to put in place. That’s a lame excuse,” said Penang Deputy Chief Minister II Prof Ramasamy Palanisamy.

“Unless your real reason is that you want your cronies to benefit (from government procurement).”

By 2009, Ramasamy said, Penang had fully adopted open tender at all levels of the state machinery, from state-level agencies to local councils.

It did this by creating tender committees in all departments which were staffed by qualified senior officers in the state civil service who were tasked with evaluating bids and choosing the best ones.

The committees' decisions and proposals for big projects would then have to be approved by the state executive council, which is chaired by the chief minister.

In Penang's case, the tender committees would require bids for all projects to submit more than one quotation.

“Even for the smallest projects which cost a few thousand ringgit, you must have at least three quotations before the application can be processed," Ramasamy said.

His portfolio covers economic planning, education, human resources, science, technology and innovation.

In Selangor, the open-tender process has helped save money by cutting out the middlemen who over-inflated project costs, said former executive councillor Dr Yaakop Sapari.

He said the system also weeded out the “rentiers” from the real contractors who could deliver on an order or who could complete a project.

“It is the best way to prevent corruption. A closed-tender system results in people who are actually qualified being denied opportunities.”

The debate over the open v closed tender was reignited by revelations in the Auditor-General’s 2013 report that four incinerator projects faced construction delays.

The projects had been awarded through direct negotiations to one company, XCN Technology, which was found to use unproven technology. In December 2013, Serdang MP Ong Kian Ming had said the company had little experience in building and operating incinerator plants.

In fact on November 11, Public Accounts Committee chairman Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed had recommended that the government take action against officials whom he claimed were negligent in approving the projects.

When asked whether the federal government was on its way to fully implementing an open-tender policy, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Paul Low said it was “would be long time”.

Low had said it was "very hard" to enforce an open-tender system for government procurement, which he had announced in January.

He added that it was a "journey" that would take some time.

"We have begun implementing it. But it takes time to change the practice. I don't know when we can fully implement it," the minister responsible for promoting governance and integrity said.

Both Ramasamy and Yaakop disagreed with this assessment.

“What’s so hard about implementing an open tender? All you have to do is set up an tender committees in all departments.

“The people are already there,” said Ramasamy, referring to the civil service staff whom Penang appointed to the tender committees.

Yaakop said the incinerators were not the first time a federal government project was of substandard quality.

“When you have direct negotiations, the guy who gets the project sometimes is not the guy who implements it. He takes a cut and sub-contracts it to someone else.”

As the subcontractor would then have to implement the project at a reduced cost, they cannot afford to produce it according to the quality set in the original specifications, said Yaakop.

Yaakop was exco for Agriculture Modernisation, Natural Resource Management and Entrepreneur Development in the 2008-2013 Selangor PR administration.

At the end of the day, said Ramasamy, whether or not the BN government put in place an open-tender system depended not on the system itself.

“It’s about political will. If you don’t have it, you will come out with all kinds of excuses why you can’t do it.” – November 19, 2014.