America on Sale

There is this security guard at our building who goes beyond his call of duty. He is one person whom I would describe as someone who truly loves his job, is proud of it, and knows what "customer" relationship is all about. We should try to hire him!

I have suspected, and recently confirmed that the stack of local dailies on the high table near the entrance of the building, was his doing. If you were among the early few to reach work, the stack of papers would be sitting there everyday. You could simply pick them up and enjoy a condensed, dramatized and colloquial version of the day's news. These papers are distributed free of charge at train stations and bust (oops, I meant BUS) terminals. And as the papers appear only when he is on the morning shift, it is clear that the papers are his gift to the patrons whom he greets with such gusto and sincerity each morning.

Due to his diligence, I managed to read yesterday's headlines, "America for Sale". Astonishment overtook me, followed by cynicism. The United States Treasury would never allow that to happen. As I had 15 min before my first meeting for the day started, I scanned through the headlines and flipped the pages until I realised that it was simply an ingenuous piece of advertising by zuji.com.

"America on Sale" was the name of their campaign for cheap airfares to the states. As I did not have the time to look at the details, I left it on my desk and disappeared for my day packed with meetings. When I remembered that unique headline today and searched for my paper to investigate the deals that were being offered by zuji, I encountered another mystery. My papers had disappeared.

I have (mental) designated spots on my desk which I use to categorise my stuff, seeing as I hate filing and have no patience or time for them. Which is why I think e-archiving is the greatest advancement made possible by Windows. Bottoms up to Bill Gates on that. If he were to ever look me up when he's in Singapore, I would treat him to a nice dinner. Anyway, the spot where I had put yesterday's paper - labeled "Leisure, Urgent" - was empty. Reminding myself that papers are dead, inanimate objects that were actually incapable of flying or becoming invisible, I was baffled by the case of the missing news. It wasn't until my colleague - the same one who commented that I look 18 years old - was chatting to me from his cubicle that I saw it on his in-tray...

I wasn't offended as the few of us in that corner area of the office were an informal group. We joked around a lot and bantered about the stupidity of situations or policies aloud to each other. Our group feels more like a band of cohorts on the same ship than colleagues. Wait - maybe they're the same thing... But it was amusing to me to see the effect that can happen as the result of a creative ad-line.

Apparently, today the world is now on sale... Check it out.