jobs in china

hey people

today i realised that i almost never write about the weather...maybei am losing my britishness! Anyway this is because it rarelychanges; around -3 average. today it was -5 though, grrr. neverrains (maybe twice in 4 months) although if it did rain now, itwould be snow, but it has only snowed for a few days whilst i was onholiday and a few hours a few weeks ago.

we met a lady at the intercontinental hotel today. she explainedanother side to the labout conundrum in china. Yes, there is alabour conundrum, because there is a labour shortage in China.Normally I read about this being a problem in the south, where wagesare so low (pushed down by MNEs), not enough migrants are moving into take the jobs; where there is still some restrictions onmigration, where there is not enough skilled labour and many otherreasons.

the lady today explained another situation: there are lots ofgraduates in China, but they all want gradaute level jobs with thesalary, title etc. None of them want to be bar staff or waiters,even though actually in her hotel you can earn practically as muchdoing that. The other problem is that Chinese people seem to have areputation for not working very hard. For sure a few do, but thislady for example has over 90 positions available and cannot findgood enough people to do them. I will endaevour to discover more,but it seems most students all go abroad for masters, expecting tobe able to return and get a hihgly paid job for little work -thereseemes to be lots of over qualified people without jobs. Anyway theyare under pressure from their family to earn lots and get a good job(not a waiter!); oh well, even a waiter nowadays is called amanagement trainee!

finally it brings me to another point i have muted before, thatthere is probably a lot more capaity in china's big cities to managemore people. although there are lots of cities with over 3 millionpeople in them, non have more than 15 million...you would presumethat the world's biggest populated country would have the world'smost populated city, but it doesn't. for the moment its a goodthing; in that there are no slums etc like there are in the world'sbiggest cities; but i think that once the restrictions on movementsand registrations relax, which they will have to be to enable aflexible labour market, then the populations will grow, and chinacan (i thiink) absorb more people in its cities -well in beijing andShanghai anyway....if only people would take the 'crappy' jobs.

i have been out way too much recently, spending way too much money(although it was fun) and even went ice skating and stuff on afrozen outdoor lake -awesome fun). Found an appartment todya toshare with a chinese lady whilst i study; with dvd, tv, internetetc; its great :))

there was some other stuff i was going to write about, but i forgot,so until next time....

Adam

phewwww

so the conference is over. it was pretty successful despite mynerves ensuring my speeches were relatively crap!

i am not sure i have ever been so moved as to when first everyonethanked me, during the open questions, then again at the end(standing ovation!!) and then the MC all came up to hug me and saythanks. now i totally feel like it has all been worth it and amdetermined to make sure that things progress in the next few months.

we had great feedback from everyone so should be able to build onthat for the future.

Anyway just got back from some drinking courtesy of Austtralia Day(lots of friends here are aussies), and now ready to launch some newstrategues, meetings and so one...very exciting. even meeting theministry oflabour tomorrow! Prob shouldnt tell them about theillegal contract i signed yesterday i guess!

i hope you are all well....this weekend we are going to do KTVhopefully, party some more and, well who knows much. This week irealised how much fun i have been having the last few months and howlucky i am to work with such great people, have such great friendsin UK, China and elsewhere.

live rocks!

Adam

pretty boring this time...

firstly, I'll state that now I have been for a run for 2 weekendsout of 3 (I couldnt this weekend because of the conference), I canalmost claim to be a regular runner! We'll see if I can keep it up.Currently the idea is to do a different route each time, to see moreof the local area...however as most of it is ringroads or other mainroads, there isnt too many options!

I went to the other conference, had a lunch in the Summer Palace -the old summer home for the emperor, by a beautiful lake (think ofit as a bit like windsor castle, except that there is no emperoranymore!, so more like what windsor castle might be without amonarchy...) and shook hands with the Ambassador and his wife as wedrank in their house (nice, but not too fancy; wife was verycurteous)

The conference just gone was fun...there were elections for the newhead office. In typical AIESEC Chinese style, the speeches were verypersonal about the person and why they are running (rather than manyideas, or talking about what they have achieved already). However asthe entire election process is in english, i imagine that kind ofspeech is easier. I cant imagine having to do what I did last year(and the year before) in a foreign language so i was very impressed.

Tomorrow we finally sign our contract with a big market researchcompany on a partnership worth in kind £3,500 or so (quite a lot inchina)...it should all be fine, despite the fact that i am signingon behalf of an organisation that has no legal identity, but that'sNGO life in China!

tomorrow is the 'leadship for sustainability' day that I have beenorganising, that will hopefully go well (despite not being able tosee the rooms in the University due to exams), raise some money andhelp launch AIESEC and increase its credibility. Along with this weare doing a world bank course online (did i mention we had avideoconference with WB HQ in Washington DC -very exciting!), andthey will endorse any reccommendations made (not exactly sure whatthat means though), and i am continuing discussions with the FCO repin the British Embassy here about getting our hands on some theBritish tax payers money, fingers crossed.

not too many exciting observations right now, more next time. thereis one piece of information that will appeal to most of you, thatyou can ask about after thursday night.... ;)

Adam

nice lunches, meetings and more on chinese capitalism

no harbin (ice), due to a failure to get a ticket back to beijingagain :( in china you can only buy one-way train tickets, and wecouldnt risk getting there without being able to buy a ticket backwhen we wanted to (although we tried ringing friends there andtravel agents, and they were all sold out). also, you can only buytickets once they go on sale, 5 days in advance, which makes it hardto plan anything, or get tickets, cause they then all go quickly.well should go in a few weeks instead.

recently we have been relaxing, dvd-watching and working somewhat.the snow has turned to ice -black ice. ..From the pollution. I alsowent for a run!!! my 'made-in-china-bought-in-uk-brought-back-to-china-by parents' trainers were great, and 45 minutes of runningalongside ring roads was lots of fun...honest!

was extremely hungover this morning thanks to a goodbye party lastnight, but had lunch with Swiss Re in the Grand Hyatt Hotel, andthat helped! well tomorrow we meet a lady in the FCO who should beable to get us some money (fingers crossed), ant monday/tuesday aconference starts which is a big uk-china technology thingy, withLord Sainsbury coming over to open it; and its all free, includinglunch at the Summer Palace and a reception at the ambassador's home!

I'm well informed of the news via the web here, but have lessknowledge of what the chinese think about things due to my readinglimitations here (in chinese) and that the english version online ofchinese arent very interesting.

did i tell you that china has energy problems, and it solution is tobuild more power stations? makes sense you think, but not in china.this year they are planning to build so many power stations (no onereally controls this of course) that they would have a surplus ofenergy. of course, someone forgot to mention that you need somethingto go in the power stations, and that there isnt enough of that (orif there is, then, there wont be 3 years down the line!). So thegovernment is going to put a stop to it.

this reminds me that SEPA -State Environmental ProtectionAdministration -only has (I think, but I am probably a bit wrong)about 400 employees nationally. This is the main body helping toreduce China's destruction of its environment. It brings me ontosomething i was reading about in China in various reports....

China is very regionalised in many aspects, with many powers done bylocal authorities, despite orders from national bodies. so this iswhy china has a poor record on labour laws, not that the laws arenot good enough -they are pretty good (and drawn up by centralgovernment), but that they are not enforced locally (no buy-in ofcourse). and the laws vary by region to some extent too (such asminimum wage).

It all leads to the typical Chinese short-termism capitalism thatexists here. An example: in a drive to create jobs, cities willlower their labour standards in order to remain competitive andattract more investment. so other cities do the same in a downwardspiral.. even chinese people agree that at the moment they put short-term economic gains ahead of long-term environmental protection.Going back to my previous emails...anyone could realise thefollowing:

-great tourist attraction

-attract more tourists, create jobs and wealth

-do so irresponsibly (thus destroying the attraction), and at thesame time ensure most of the local economy becomes dependent ontourism-tourists no longer come cause the attraction is crap

-local area loses its source of income, is left with a decayingtown, and no alternative source of income, so has to go back tosquare 1

its not just china..., but its interesting.

just want to briefly touch on something else too. so Lenovo (Chinesecompany) buys the part of IBM that makes a very small profit,despite a fantastic brand and management, and one that has more andmore competition in it. hmm, then i hear a car company here wants tobuy Rover....hmm, sounds like the same kind of story: Chinesecompany buying a brand that has little future, then you add in thecultural differences of the companies, the language barriers, thegeographical issues (IBM HQ is still in US....) and you wonder whatthe future holds. Here is hoping the chinese can work miracles, ortheir investments get wiser in the future, before they get a badname globally....

anyway, thats enough for me

take care y'all

Adam

whats been happening

Another precious grab at the internet and time for something less deep!!

Today it snowed again, the first time I have seen snow for probably almost a year -as it almost never rains in Beijing in Autumn orWinter it immediately settled and everywhere became white instantly -I then realised that Beijing traffic CAN get worse!


It ispermanently around -5 degrees C, and it tells, going outside withoutgloves for just 2 minutes is not sensible.

This weekend we are going to Harbin (tickets are bought andeverything): the stats:
-8 people going
-hard seat journey costs around 15 Euros single
-Its a 13 hour overnight trip
-Minus 20 degrees is the average temperature there right now.
-World famous Ice festival in a city that is very 'Russian' andsounds fantastic according to the bible (thats the lonely planet ofcourse)
-Capital city of China's most northern province

The string that serves as the flush for the toilet broke again ...every time we retie it, the string is shorter, which doesn't bodewell for little Chris ;)

We have almost finished the left overs of the Korean food that wascooked for us by an AIESEC member a full 2 days ago..mmm, itincluded lots of soups. Combine that with all the tea and hotchocolate we are drinking and you can expect the toilet flush tobreak again soon!! Actually the appartment temperature is ok, andthe shower always has hot water, so no real complaints.

Since I returned (by the way I missed an amazing christmas party,sadly), Chris has laid some more poison for the cockroaches and ithink it has been working. It has also got so cold that now noonehangs their clothes to dry in the enclosed balcony we have; so theoffice looks more respectable now, I think.

We got lots of xmas cards from other aiesec countries; I have hungup my painting that I bought down South and some random wallcalendars have appeared. Combined with the xmas decorations thatFlic put up (and are still here, including her 2 foot highinflatable xmas tree), and the place looks really 'cosy'.

I've started attacking the chocolate that I dragged back to BJ withme, that my parents brought with (along with a 2kg xmas pudding andseveral kg of shortbread!), but I have trainers now, so I can dosome exercise. Well, once its warmer I will (might be a whilethough...)

ok, got a telephone meeting later tonight with a guy from the WorldBank in DC (13 hours behind, what a drag!), but I will leave youwith the exciting news that my meetings tomorrow and friday are bothin the starbucks which is a) close and b) expensive by Chinesestandards (free Mochas, mmmm) and that I am rearranging a lunchmeeting with someone else that is going to be in the best hotel inBJ -I was worried it might not be rescheduled.

You can rest assured I will be well fed and well coffeed to help merecover from the ice festival!take care

Adam

p.s. 5-2 and then almost an away victory against United..what agreat start to the new year!! shame for the blind linesman :(

censorship...

just a brief one, this...on a topic that is frequently discussed inour office.

Some of you may know about a rise in recent discussions aboutchinese intellectuals -anyway there is a very good article about ithere: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/FL15Ad05.html. It alsoraises the issue of censorship's survival in the modern era.

There are 2 recent barriers to successful censorship: 1 being theinternet: despite the government's best efforts, it simply cannotcensor the internet 100% effectively; people get around it, siteschange, blogs are especially hard to tackle and so on. Apparentlythere are 30,000 people monitoring internet sites, email trafficeetc, on behalf of the government. Everyone in China is aware thatsome sites are blocked etc, but also that many sites are slower thanothers for no justifiable reason. The fast ones are those trusted bythe government!

The 2nd is that a capitalist society means that businesses cannotalways obey government, as they also have to listen to the market.In this case, the media is under pressure to gain advertisers andreaders; if they can do this better by being the first to reportcontroversial issues, then they will (without waiting for governmentauthorisation). And, as is different to the history of advertisingin the UK (according to my media course at University), hereadvertisers are not going to care about being associated with anewspaper that may not be supported by the government, because thecompeition and advertising market is so fierce, businesses will notthink of these issues over and above the bottom line requirements toadvertise.

anyway, i mention this because in Hong Kong there is no censorship(certainly not of the internet anyway), and thus I imagine this is 1small reason why many NGOs and thinktanks for China are still basedin HK, and have not moved to the Mainland. It was a pleasure to beable to follow links and read the BBC whilst I was there!

Today I was discussing with Chris about the legalisation of the HeadOffice of AIESEC in Mainland China again...the above topic is realbecause I have a fear of AIESEC being too successful, raisingattention to itself and so on. Especially if the CSR publicationgoes ahead as planned (after our CSR conference that has a fantasticlineup, with people even flying up from Hong Kong just to deliverpresentations to it!). Well I'll do my best to make us as well knownas possible, only restricting myself to not inviting or talking toany media, and we'll see what happens!

Tonight we had some members cook more Korean food for us, mmm mmm,fantastic and tomorrow work starts again (today was a nationalholiday); so I have some important meetings to lineup and heavyaction to do before the big day on 25th Jan when the CSR day starts.

enjoy your return to work/school, everybody!

Adam

Yangshuo and reflections on poverty and the internet

As promised, more time so many more comments, to catch up on sincemy last post way back in December (I forgot to mention that thebirthday party was good and I am no a convert to Korean BBQs, mmmm)

When we were in Yangshuo, which is the wonderfull village/town(still fairly big), we cycled off out into the countryside, whereyou feel they rarely see foreigners venture; although we did pass 2.

We rode through some villages; very basic villages. I imagine theyare very typical of China's rural population, in that most werebrick, the paths nearby were just wide enough for walking or cycling(no vehicles) and they were getting their water from a well (thevillage is near a river). The agricultural land surrounding thistiny little hamlet (maybe 20 orso houses) seemed very 'efficiently'farmed -every inch was used for different cropps, their wasirrigation channels, terraces and it was extraordinarily pretty asthe little patches were small, but every patch had different coloursand types of crops growing. This led me to conclude that the peopleare pretty self-sufficient in that they can grow almost all types offood they need, and that every person seemed to help. Any extra theygrew I presume they sold for money. I used '' for efficient becauseby western standards it probably is not. Its slow with small fieldson different levels growing different things and all done by hand.But then western farmers dont grow enough variety to feed themselves.

The point of this is all that to me these people are not starving;they are all pretty happy, from our cycle through their villages,especially once the kids saw us and scremed 'hello'. For me this isthe closes I have come before to such an environment and was buzzingwith interest. Are these people poor?Firstly I can tell you that you can quite easily buy food in Chinafor 3 meals each for $2 US, at the most. If you are a local,probably much less. Secondly these villages (and this might not bttypical) seem very self-sufficient. I am aware that definitions ofpoverty tend to hover around % of people earning less than 1 ormaybe 2 $ per day; but these people probably do not need to earn anymoney at all for their water or food needs (accommodation excluded).I am sure they don't have as much luxury goods as me, or able toenjoy as varied pleasures in life (from bunjee jumping to theinternet -I think there may have been 1 phone line or electricitycable serving the village) but they seemed happy to me.

Now I am making a big presumption that most people in China or Asiaat least are lucky enough to live like this; and thus are not inpoverty (although they may be poor in relation to me). People whocannot survive day-to-day, that to me is true poverty, and theTsunami disaster I think shows that it has left in its quake peoplewithout homes, food, or water. For me its an interesting thought.The result, which harks back to something else I read about the MDGs(Millenium Development Goals aiming to reduce the number of peoplein poverty) was that, actually although the gap between rich andpoor may be growing, at the same time the base level of the poor isgrowing; which means the number of people who are not in poverty islower, but the number of people who are poor is still large,because, and this is the 'great' thing, our definition of 'poor' hasbeen raised, so for example the MDGs can aim to ensure every childhas a certain amount of formal education. This for me is wonderful;that mankind has actually managed to support such huge populationincreases in the last 200 years relatively (and it is all relative)well.

Of course, I now think that edcuation is the defining point betweenthe rich from the poor (I still think maybe 10% of the World is 'inpoverty', at the level below 'poor' though). Education is what willallow people to develop democracies, develop their abilities toprovide for themselves, understand others and allow them to supportthose less fortunate. The other thing I realised is how probably 95%of the world have access to a telephone or electricity in some form(fixed and mobile), or if not now, then will do in the next 5-10years, and thus this leads me onto the internet -how the internetcan serve such a wonderful public good by (if it can be madeaccessible to all) providing this education to continue the raiseour definition of 'poor' upwards.

I am not sure what everyone else thinks, but what concerns me isthat if you sat anyone in front of the internet, they would actuallystruggle to find anything of any use -in the sense that it can beused to develop your basic knowledge -i.e. of use to these lessfortunate people who may not know about other cultures, about humanrights, about efficient use of land (not just telling them about newtechnology or whatever). Anyway, I know there are many commendableefforts globally to provide access to the internet but probably notenough efforts are being made to ensure it can be best used foreducationally purposes (especially in multilingual formats).

This for example is why I am so irritated at the limitations beingplaced on the BBC in the UK -apparently some of the things it doescan be done better by commercial organisations. As far as I amconcerned, much of what it does, specifically is for 'public good'.Its website has some of the best educational material around, and itcan use its brand to make a difference, to play a apart in providinga global source of educational materials that be used more widelythan just in the UK.

Some thoughts on poverty (from my limited experiences/knowledge) andthe internet...anyway for those interested the BBC's CSR report isinteresting -not that is a great CSR report (there is very littleself-criticism, probably becacuse of its charter review!) butbecause it explores some of the ways the media in general can make adifference. You can find it at www.bbc.co.uk/info/csr (or if you arein China and thus cannot access it, ask me for an email version)

All the best

Adam

Merry christmas, Happy New Year...

2005 is here :)

wow, just as I became 23, I am already thinking that this year Iwill be 24, well and truly mid-20s. It should be about time to thinkabout a) relationship (girlfriend), b) paid job, c) some kind offixed residence and many other things, that I don't have. Butinstead I am planning a weekend trip soon to an Ice festival inHarbin (average -20 degrees C), 90% sure to pay my tuition fees andstart studying Chinese until the Summer and fighting for our 1internet line in a crowded appartment!

Last year was great; this year will probably be even better. This isnot an email for refelction though, maybe that will be some othertime. For now I will just explain about the recent hoilday down tothe South of China with most of my family (Beth was left at homestudying!).

It was a fantastic trip; Yangshuo was probably the highlight withgreat scenery, wonderful little shops and cafes, nice people, cheapclothes and food, a christmassy spirit and international feel(apparently lots of foreigners backpack there and end up stayingthere setting up shop). The weather was not great (it was not verywarm), but I highly reccommend it. It was, unfortunately, nottypical of Tourism in China; which more typically destroys naturalbeauty and social beauty (as in tacky merchandise).

Hong Kong was also fantastic; much better than my expectations. Itis very diverse, multicultural, modern and a great blend of Chinaand 'home' (english road signs!). It was also a nice hotel with apool on the 31st floor outside.

anyway must go now, but more to come very soon.

have a great 2005!!

Adam