Top 8 – Jack Neo, Tiger Woods and John Terry: Personal accol
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In light of the Jack Neo scandal, the Sports editorial team decided to veer slightly away from sports and come up with a chart of top 8 personal accolades which probably should not have been awarded in the first place.
Granted, no one has the power of foresight and time is the best judge of character. However, that will not stop the editorial team from coming up with this list, with hindsight on our side, just for a bit of laughs and knowledge sharing.
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100% Opinion – The ranking is based on how grand the award is and how ludicrous it looks to award that award in retrospect.
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8 ) Jack Neo (PBM or Public Service Medal, 2004) Granted, Jack Neo was awarded for his contributions to the local film industry and his personal life should have little to do with this. However, in light of things, should this prestigious local award go to someone who is clearly adulterous? At time of press, the Jack Neo saga is still unravelling and we could be only seeing the tip of the iceberg – hence the relatively low ranking on this chart.
7) Steven Gerrard (Member of the British Empire, 2007) Current Liverpool club captain Steven Gerrard was awarded with the MBE in 2007 for his services to football in the UK. It is a prestigious award, considering that he was only 27 when he won it. One of the reasons for him winning the award was that he was deemed a perfect role model both on and off the pitch. The latter certainly wasn’t true as he was involved in a court case in 2008 for allegedly assaulting a DJ at a local bar. He was eventually cleared by a jury, but CCTV footage clearly showed Gerrard landing a punch on the poor DJ.
6) John Terry (Dad of the year, 2009) Just last year, the UK public found it appropriate to vote Terry as the Dad of the Year days before Fathers’ Day. This now looks shameful, considering that millions of fathers who worked various shifts to send their kids through college had been overlooked, while a multi-millionaire footballer was selected instead. The aftermath is almost inevitable, as his affair with a certain ex-teammate’s ex-girlfriend is now out in the public.5) Tiger Woods (California Hall of Fame, 2007) To be very fair, the Tiger Woods we know before his scandal came to light and after was a very different one. Before December 2009, he was a clear role model for all, a successful story of how one can overcome racism in sports. Afterwards, he is just another millionaire (billionaire?) playboy. He is only still just 34 and has years of golf-playing years left in him, so perhaps he can turn his legacy around with further sporting achievements. However, his “exploits” will never be forgotten by the media.
4) Victor Tan (Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year, 2004) The name Victor Tan may have faded out of news in Singapore, but no one should forget what he has done. Tan was the ex-CEO and Managing Director of Accord Customer Care Solutions (ACCS), an ex-listed company in Singapore. Earlier last decade, Tan was the darling of local media and a classic rags-to-riches story. Having graduated without a degree, he worked for years before starting ACCS and eventually getting it listed in the local exchange. However, he turned out to be a fraud, as he was convicted for his lead role in an elaborate scam to manipulate financial statements at ACCS in 2006. Extremely ironic, given that audit firm Ernst and Young was the one to award him with his award back in 2004.
3) Fred Goodwin (Knighthood, 2004) Ex-RBS Fred Goodwin was knighted by the Queen in 2004 for his outstanding services to the financial industry. In retrospect, it is fair to say that as the CEO of RBS, he had almost single-handedly shifted history of the industry, but perhaps not in a way the Queen would have agreed to. His ever-aggressive and high risk appetite had caused the near-collapse of RBS, which is now in the hands of the UK government. Goodwin’s pension plan have ensured that he can see out the rest of his life in relative comfort as shareholders of the bank took the full brunt of his reckless policies between 2000 and 2008.2) Yasser Arafat (Nobel Peace Prize, 1994) To many critics, it is difficult for them to understand how Arafat could ever win the “Peace” Prize, given that he was a founder of one of the most active terrorist organisations over the last century. Middle East politics is a delicate subject which the editorial team does not wish to discuss here, but will like to conclude Arafat’s second place ranking by saying that … peace in Middle is still ever elusive 16 years after Arafat’s Nobel Peace Prize.
1) Myron Scholes/Robert Merton (Nobel Laureates for Economics, 1997) Scholes and Merton won the Nobel in 1997 for coming up with the Black-Scholes model (every finance student will know this), a mathematical model to calculate the value of derivative in the fuzzy world of financial. The pair became famous almost overnight and were also the co-founders of the hedge fund Long Term Capital Management (LTCM). Their meteoric rise to the top is almost as spectacular as their collapse as LTCM racked up losses of US$4.6 billions in four months in 1998 after the Russian Financial Crisis. The hedge fund was entirely liquidated in 2000. This clearly goes to show that the financial markets are unpredictable and even the smartest people on the planet cannot beat it.
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The editorial team will like to seek the opinion from all readers on what you think. Do you agree with the Top 8? Is there anyone that you feel is more worthy to be on the list? Leave a comment!
If there is something that you will like us to feature as part of this top 8 series please leave a comment and our team will try to accomodate!
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