“We are serious people...the only ambiguous thing has been the photoshopped picture. There wasn’t any malicious aim behind it.”
Indeed they are. And I am reading in the papers today what a Singapore-registered Bellagraph Nova Group (BN) did with former president Obama’s image. But first, a little backdrop.
BN is owned by Singapore businessmen Terence Loh, 42, and Nelson Loh, 41. They are cousins, closer than brothers in fact.
That part about being “serious people” was what BN Group’s appointed spokesman Antonio said in defence of the integrity of the company.
And if you must know, this is what serious people do.
First, they admitted to having “manipulated the images in the materials used to publicise the group.”
If you see the first photo top (the left side), you will see the original photo on its right. In that original photo, Obama is in the middle, and there is no BN logo on the glass screen. The man to Obama’s left is a different person from the picture on your left.
On the left photo, you will notice the doctored ”logo” on the screen inserted. To Obama’s left is a doctored ”Terence Loh” inserted. Both the logo and Loh had been photoshopped to spruce up the company’s social and corporate image.
Second, if you look at the second photo (on the right), you will see how Obama is photoshopped in the top picture with the three company founders, the Loh cousins and one Ms Evangeline Shen, a Chinese jewellery merchant and former Morgan Stanley banker.
FYI, that Obama effigy was earlier taken in a charity event on 14 Dec.
So, they are indeed serious about the image they aim to convey to their potential and existing investors, competitors and the public at large. And it is a manipulated image, with the aim to milk whatever social prestige they can squeeze out with America’s 44th President.
Yes, there is no malicious intent, because it was not intended to cause harm. When confronted, Antonio, BN’s spokesman, said, and I repeat: “We are serious people...the only ambiguous thing has been the photoshopped picture. There wasn’t any malicious aim behind it.”
Of course there isn’t. Antonio was right. It is just a harmless aim to mislead, and alas, what is the price of honesty or truth for the rich and influential like them anyway?
When asked to comment about the Lohs, a former business partner said: “They are very social people, and come across as very well-bred and went to good university”.
Well, they do come across as “very well-bred” and have gone to good university, but then, however ingenuous you seek to present yourself as such to others, you can’t hide the character inside you.
While you don’t judge a book by its cover, you don’t stop there right? You still have to read its content, page by page, check out its sources, and then ask, what kind of fruit is it bearing over time?
Mind you, the cover may be doctored to make the book look good, when in truth it is far from it. The image and the content can therefore be worlds apart.
Now, let me be clear that I am merely making a general statement here, because I do not know the founders of BN. They run charity, how bad can they be right?
This post is however not so much about them, but about what their spokesman had said, which seems to me to be part-denial, and part-deflection. It even appears to me to be part-self-conceited (I felt a sorry would have been more earnest and effective, as a matter of social responsibility).
Let me just put it out there that whatever the rich does is really none of our business. Whether they are “well-bred” or came from good university, well, I can only presume they worked hard for it, and thus deservingly earned it.
But, when you have admitted to manipulation of something that is meant to lead the public at large towards a certain direction (or impression), which turns out to be not true, and then try to trivialise it by saying (or implying) that it is only a “harmless ambiguous thing” with no intention to be malicious, I feel that you have made a mockery of the public good sense and the prevailing virtues the society is trying its darnest to uphold.
And if the boy who cried wolf need only to cry twice before the villagers disbelieve him to his detriment, then the two photoshopped images to give a false impression are not the only “harmless and ambiguous thing” they have done.
(Mind you, this ain’t like a harmless stunt to just taking an impromptu photo with EM Goh or PM Lee in front of your chicken rice stall when they walk by during their visits and then permanently paste it on your stall’s glass screen to give the impression that such public Illuminaries are regular patrons to your stall).
So, going back to BN, the wolf cries went beyond the doctored photos. As reported, these are some impressions they have or had conveyed: -
1) In BN’s Instagram, they once said: “with our world record number of private jets for a single entity, our over 10,000 private jets are ready to take you anywhere you wish to go with an unprecedented experience on board.”
FYI, the “Instagram post was later edited to remove the mention of the number of private jets at its disposal.”
Another FYI, “Singapore Airlines, in comparison, has 138 aircrafts in its fleet, while American Airlines, the largest commercial airline in the world, has 874 registered aircraft.”
2) Antonio “reportedly told The Telegraph that the group planned to sign Cristiano Ronaldo and said it was “in direct contact” with the Juventus superstar. (However) a source close to the player told The Sunday Times that he had not heard of such contact.””
3) Here’s more. “Financial technology firm Hydra X is listed as one of BN Group’s more than 30 entities, and it is supposed to be implementing a trading system for the Singapore Exchange, according to a marketing brief the group sent to the media earlier. Reuters (however) reported that Hydra X and the exchange denied this.” Where is the truth then?
Well, that’s not all. At this point, I expect the villagers to have grown jaded of the boy’s cries?
4) “In a media statement last week, the BN Group said it had enlisted the help of former England captain Alan Shearer and former Michael Chopra to support its takeover bid. British paper The Telegraph reported that “sources close to the Newcastle and Premier League legend (Shearer)...denied any involvement with BNG.””
And...
5) BN “states on its website that its new headquarters is at the renowned No. 10 Place Vendome in Paris, France. This is where the Ritz Hotel and high-end boutiques are located. Reuters reported yesterday that there is no company called Bellagraph Nova Group registered in France.”
Now, BN does have a registered address though at “a more humble Novena Gardens in Singapore’s Thomas Road. The four-storey unit with opaque glass doors and a dark blue facade.”
Finally, it also reports that BNG is a holding company, and on its website, it described itself as “the only group in the world to boast an international presence in all major commercial sectors” ranging from healthcare to financial services, technology and media.””
Well, I have no comment on that website’s claim, but nevertheless I am reminded of what the late Carl Sagan once said: “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”
And at the very least, I’d like to say that it seems BN’s manipulation of Obama in their photo shows quite an “extraordinary attempt” to underestimate the intelligence of the discerning public and the media as a whole.
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