<photo: Trees lighted up for Christmas at Kew Gardens, London>
it takes time to build and nurture talent. in a recent report by Swiss business school IMD, Singapore has fallen five places to 15th place in a global ranking of an economy's ability to nurture and attract business talent.
Does this mean that Singapore doesn't have smart students? Not true - in the 2015 Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) test, Singapore students aged 15 years old were ranked No. 1 in maths, science and reading. We have the smartest kids in the world.
and yet more contradiction - people in Singapore work among the longest hours in the world, but they are described as ''not hungry'' and lacking ''fire in the belly''.
what's right and what's really wrong?
"If your plan is for 1 year, plant rice. If your plan is for 10 years, plant trees. If your plan is for 100 years, educate children." Confucius