After several years of reading pprune, it never ceases to amaze me how people like "LEE" and "the gypsy" can make sweeping judgements on character and even employment details, based on a few lines in a post. Maybe they should look for a job in police profiling, because that kind of jumping to conclusion and misplaced sarcasm has no place on the flight deck.
As for the subject of "old farts" you have to ask yourself how did they get to be old farts, and the answer is by keeping a clean sheet over several years of safe flying. There is no substitute for experience whatever the "young guns" may think.
A couple of questions for "thermal image".
1. Are you seriously suggesting that the Singapore cabinet make decisions on redundancy and day to day discipline in SIA? I suggest that these decisions will be made much lower down the food chain.
2. With your intimate knowledge of the airline, why do you list your location as Beijing