hmm, so the last job was great, because it seemed to match with me: interesting, fun, working with people, using my skills, something i was good at.
finding something else that does all that too might not be so easy. it might require learning chinese first or not. it might require trying to do something on my own, if i can think of what exactly, if i can be brave enough...
it will probably involve me doing a combination of things that get work experience, get money, get chinese ability up, are fun, allows me to explore some other options on the side.
For the short-term it would be nice to take advantage of the 'China experience'. It makes sense to try to get something tangible from being here... to look at what opportunities there are, and then to leave and take the learnings and experience elsewhere.
Friday, July 14, 2006
No more AIESEC
its 2 weeks after the rest of my team finished their term in AIESEC and I have almost finished mine. Actually the last real activity was Tuesday night -when a British AIESECer (Lucy) came here for a few weeks to help me and some Chinese students. Since then I went to the AIESEC conference for a couple of days to say hi and bye to people, and now am trying to sort out the future.
There had been a few other activities before that, which had kept me busy over the weekends and evenings. Tuesday's though was a bit different: our chinese members played a really big role and did a really great job -and we might now have found our role in engaging with external organisations. Good luck to the guys who have to do this and everything else next year.
For a few other random bits and pieces...
-the new MC office is great because of the cheap chocolate '99' ice creams downstairs, the freshly squuezed ice mango shakes down the road and the great free-delivery lunch place at the other end of the phone.
-the 957 bus, previously my favourite in all of Beijing (due to speed, air conditioning, convenience) has become a training ground for China's next Forumla 1 Racing drivers. It's happened twice so far. Each time 2 957s come along at once. Then they race each other to the next bus stop, but make sure they leave the bus stop at the same time in order to make it a fair race to the next one. Beijing's traffic is scary normally, now its just hold-tight-and-pray...
-the new AIESEC appartment is great because there are 8-10 people living in 5 bedrooms with a couple of living rooms and 2 bathrooms. Now that's real progress from our place of 6 people in 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom!
-I turned my feet into 2 big blisters playing football in unsuitable shoes during FuLP (Fun Leaving Party) -ouch, and damaged my knee cycling back from the conference (110 km in 4 hours 15 minutes, including 20 kms downhill -beating the outward journey by 15 minutes even with the injury!) -seems all better now!
-air conditioning uses up lots of electricity. It used up all of ours 2 days before we had to leave our last appartment, and i had to pack in the dark (when i tried adding electricity to the card, using an atm, i managed to withdraw 400 rmb and add 0 rmb to the card. I think my atm card doesn't give me the option to add electricity, since i tried every feasible option on the chinese langauge atm!)
There had been a few other activities before that, which had kept me busy over the weekends and evenings. Tuesday's though was a bit different: our chinese members played a really big role and did a really great job -and we might now have found our role in engaging with external organisations. Good luck to the guys who have to do this and everything else next year.
For a few other random bits and pieces...
-the new MC office is great because of the cheap chocolate '99' ice creams downstairs, the freshly squuezed ice mango shakes down the road and the great free-delivery lunch place at the other end of the phone.
-the 957 bus, previously my favourite in all of Beijing (due to speed, air conditioning, convenience) has become a training ground for China's next Forumla 1 Racing drivers. It's happened twice so far. Each time 2 957s come along at once. Then they race each other to the next bus stop, but make sure they leave the bus stop at the same time in order to make it a fair race to the next one. Beijing's traffic is scary normally, now its just hold-tight-and-pray...
-the new AIESEC appartment is great because there are 8-10 people living in 5 bedrooms with a couple of living rooms and 2 bathrooms. Now that's real progress from our place of 6 people in 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom!
-I turned my feet into 2 big blisters playing football in unsuitable shoes during FuLP (Fun Leaving Party) -ouch, and damaged my knee cycling back from the conference (110 km in 4 hours 15 minutes, including 20 kms downhill -beating the outward journey by 15 minutes even with the injury!) -seems all better now!
-air conditioning uses up lots of electricity. It used up all of ours 2 days before we had to leave our last appartment, and i had to pack in the dark (when i tried adding electricity to the card, using an atm, i managed to withdraw 400 rmb and add 0 rmb to the card. I think my atm card doesn't give me the option to add electricity, since i tried every feasible option on the chinese langauge atm!)
Thursday, June 29, 2006
Transition
Juan finally arrived a week ago (though 3 weeks late) -due to problems buying tickets to get here (damn World Cup). He is teaching me lots about Costa Rica (only 3 million people -about the same as our appartment building!) and we are sharing lots of ideas about the future of learning networks in China and how all our students (and others) can learn about Corporate Responsibility and then follow their passion in specific issues further.
Before he got here I was taking it easy for a few days then realised how much I had not done and had to rush to finish some things-which are still not done yet, so I'm staying on a week or so more to finish up. So far we have spent 4 days having between 4-6 meetings a day, which keeps us busy running around town in taxis, getting wet (yay!), and praying that Juan and the other new guys don't get too lost trying to meet us oldies! A couple of British AIESECers are here too for a month helping me out on some projects (our Impact Report and the presentation/training/facilitation event to a bunch of other NGOs). Thankfully some of the local students are finishing their exams, and can start pitching in for this and other projects.
Exam season is not the best -Reminds me of the nightmares of 3 years ago... but it was 3 years ago, and not I can just forget all about it. Though I am shocked to hear that there are a couple of suicides each year in EACH University in China. yikes. I hope that is just at the top Universities. There is also free counselling for students -which I suppose is a good thing. How many would there be without it? Just shows how much pressure students are under (and I belive it is much more intense before University -once you are in the top universities, you are one of the lucky few!)
Returning to work me Juan has been asking me all kinds of questions, and I thought you readers might be interested in some general answers:
-What is the biggest issue and problem in China?
*um, they are all big: water, energy, poverty, education, governance, health, population, migration, urbanisation...
-So which ones should we focus on creating opportunities for the aiesec students to learn more about?
*what are the criteria?
-Internal demand of the students, exernal demand of the market and possible partners
*There are possible partners for absolutely everything: think tanks, universities, businesses, international organisations, NGOs... from all over the world there is someone doing something in China. They have to -as the saying goes: "There can not be a sustainable World without a sustainable China"
Students in China are keen to learn about everything, but (like all students around the World) don't know that they are keen! -But once you open their eyes to something, they are quick to realise its relevance and interest
The market doesn't seem to care right now! But lets try to change that!
-Who are the key people I should know about?
*Well I have this spreadsheet...
-There are over 400 people listed on it!
*Uh, yeah
-Well who are the important ones?
*Most of them... you need to be able to access all kinds of resources from all kinds of places to do this job. You also have to travel to all the universities, go to loads of conferences, create or support an average of 1 event each week, manage a team of over 15 people, create at least 5 new projects...
Anyway, a few insights. What is exciting though are some of the ideas we have been having.. of using the money we are receiving from the British Government and from other companies who are sponsoring our CSR programme. Stay tuned for the output, if you are an aiesec member, and if you are not, then just wait and see if i start complaining about Juan not being up to the job!
Actually I am very impressed with his knowledge and how he has jumped in at the deep end. I realise how many networks I have made in almost 2 years, how much I have learned, and how good I have got at certain things.. its hard to transition this to Juan. The hardest thing though.. is having so many ideas, and not being able to do ALL of them. But, by doing some, Juan will be able to really drive things forward and carry on making a difference. Good luck!
Before he got here I was taking it easy for a few days then realised how much I had not done and had to rush to finish some things-which are still not done yet, so I'm staying on a week or so more to finish up. So far we have spent 4 days having between 4-6 meetings a day, which keeps us busy running around town in taxis, getting wet (yay!), and praying that Juan and the other new guys don't get too lost trying to meet us oldies! A couple of British AIESECers are here too for a month helping me out on some projects (our Impact Report and the presentation/training/facilitation event to a bunch of other NGOs). Thankfully some of the local students are finishing their exams, and can start pitching in for this and other projects.
Exam season is not the best -Reminds me of the nightmares of 3 years ago... but it was 3 years ago, and not I can just forget all about it. Though I am shocked to hear that there are a couple of suicides each year in EACH University in China. yikes. I hope that is just at the top Universities. There is also free counselling for students -which I suppose is a good thing. How many would there be without it? Just shows how much pressure students are under (and I belive it is much more intense before University -once you are in the top universities, you are one of the lucky few!)
Returning to work me Juan has been asking me all kinds of questions, and I thought you readers might be interested in some general answers:
-What is the biggest issue and problem in China?
*um, they are all big: water, energy, poverty, education, governance, health, population, migration, urbanisation...
-So which ones should we focus on creating opportunities for the aiesec students to learn more about?
*what are the criteria?
-Internal demand of the students, exernal demand of the market and possible partners
*There are possible partners for absolutely everything: think tanks, universities, businesses, international organisations, NGOs... from all over the world there is someone doing something in China. They have to -as the saying goes: "There can not be a sustainable World without a sustainable China"
Students in China are keen to learn about everything, but (like all students around the World) don't know that they are keen! -But once you open their eyes to something, they are quick to realise its relevance and interest
The market doesn't seem to care right now! But lets try to change that!
-Who are the key people I should know about?
*Well I have this spreadsheet...
-There are over 400 people listed on it!
*Uh, yeah
-Well who are the important ones?
*Most of them... you need to be able to access all kinds of resources from all kinds of places to do this job. You also have to travel to all the universities, go to loads of conferences, create or support an average of 1 event each week, manage a team of over 15 people, create at least 5 new projects...
Anyway, a few insights. What is exciting though are some of the ideas we have been having.. of using the money we are receiving from the British Government and from other companies who are sponsoring our CSR programme. Stay tuned for the output, if you are an aiesec member, and if you are not, then just wait and see if i start complaining about Juan not being up to the job!
Actually I am very impressed with his knowledge and how he has jumped in at the deep end. I realise how many networks I have made in almost 2 years, how much I have learned, and how good I have got at certain things.. its hard to transition this to Juan. The hardest thing though.. is having so many ideas, and not being able to do ALL of them. But, by doing some, Juan will be able to really drive things forward and carry on making a difference. Good luck!
Friday, June 16, 2006
British Bulldog Pub -Engalnd vs Paraguay
The 3 story (theatre-style) British Bulldog Pub in Shanghai with English, British and Chinese flags. Lots of people, very orderly. Not the best of games!
World Cup in China
Back in Beijing, about to start our transition to the new team, and stifling in the heat. Its 3o something apparently and certainly feels it. Though the evenings are great -great for sitting outside and eating or drinking and of course great for watching the World Cup on the big screens that every bar and club have put up. Or if you go one place there are 9 TVs inside and 2 big screens outside.. on the plus side there is way more capacity than demand, so its normally easy to find a place where you can sit, or at least see the screen (all the bars in the same district, conveniently).
The first game I watched in the British Bulldog pub in Shanghai. If the game was actually good the atmosphere might have been fantastic. As the game was not the best, neither was the atmosphere. Yesterday was better. Not many people bother to go out to watch a team unless it is there own, so when we were watching the switzerland -france game it was a great atmosphere of swiss and french. And its the same for every game -it makes every game fun. I heard the brazilians (Especially the women!) were the most fun so we're going to watch their next game!
Suprisingly a lot of Chinese people seem to be watching the World Cup (cumulatively about 10 billion people will watch games apparently) -so they just watch it on TV or for students on the internet (where we also watch ESPN 2's world cup programming through some software) -taxi drivers talk about it and a bunch of girl students too (maybe they just don't want to study, or want to find out what the fuss is all about). Since I am constantly reminded of how bad england are i can remind them that China did not qualify.
When we were in Shanghai a lot of people in the Pduong business district were being given holidays, or told to work an extra weekend instead of some work days. Why? Because the Shanghai government decided to close down the area where most big companies' offices are, due to the SCO meeting. I wonder what economic impact there is from this... It seems a bit drastic, even if it is for security purposes.
The SCO, by the way is the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation; a bunch of countries in the middle east/ex-soviet states talking about co-oepration, terrorism, enerrgy etc. In other words it is an anti-USA club. Especially since Iran is now an official observer in the organisation!
Time to buy yet another ice cream (just so cheap) and get back to work, which is not geared up for transition and wrapping up a few things. Just like last year its the crazy exam time, its the dangerous sun-umbrella period, and it seems like the 'rainy season' has unfortuantely ended already! At least the World Cup keeps life exciting, though does affect sleep patterns with the time difference...and alcohol consumption!
The first game I watched in the British Bulldog pub in Shanghai. If the game was actually good the atmosphere might have been fantastic. As the game was not the best, neither was the atmosphere. Yesterday was better. Not many people bother to go out to watch a team unless it is there own, so when we were watching the switzerland -france game it was a great atmosphere of swiss and french. And its the same for every game -it makes every game fun. I heard the brazilians (Especially the women!) were the most fun so we're going to watch their next game!
Suprisingly a lot of Chinese people seem to be watching the World Cup (cumulatively about 10 billion people will watch games apparently) -so they just watch it on TV or for students on the internet (where we also watch ESPN 2's world cup programming through some software) -taxi drivers talk about it and a bunch of girl students too (maybe they just don't want to study, or want to find out what the fuss is all about). Since I am constantly reminded of how bad england are i can remind them that China did not qualify.
When we were in Shanghai a lot of people in the Pduong business district were being given holidays, or told to work an extra weekend instead of some work days. Why? Because the Shanghai government decided to close down the area where most big companies' offices are, due to the SCO meeting. I wonder what economic impact there is from this... It seems a bit drastic, even if it is for security purposes.
The SCO, by the way is the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation; a bunch of countries in the middle east/ex-soviet states talking about co-oepration, terrorism, enerrgy etc. In other words it is an anti-USA club. Especially since Iran is now an official observer in the organisation!
Time to buy yet another ice cream (just so cheap) and get back to work, which is not geared up for transition and wrapping up a few things. Just like last year its the crazy exam time, its the dangerous sun-umbrella period, and it seems like the 'rainy season' has unfortuantely ended already! At least the World Cup keeps life exciting, though does affect sleep patterns with the time difference...and alcohol consumption!
Thursday, June 01, 2006
outdoors and aftertastes
The best of Beijing's summer is to head outside and join the thousands who sit outside restaurants eating and drinking in the warmth. Restaurants become empty on the inside, cold beer sales rocket, streets become noisier and the litter collecting street sweepers get busier. Often in Beijing you will get 3-5 restaurants next to each other (and then none for ages), so its chaotic -but great.
Last weekend we went 1 step further. We trusted our lives to Leon (maybe we were drunk when we agreed to this, since he originally 'bought' his license, then learned how to drive afterwards) who hired a car and drove us (and some others who were in another van) north for some BBQ (chinese style, ie. meet/fish/vegetable kebabs on BBQs that are 2m long and only 4 inches wide) and fishing. I skipped the fishing to explore the local beach and lake (ie. sleep, listen to ipod and get a sandle-tan). The others caught tons of fish.. but since they were fishing in a fish pond it wasn't too tough!
Tonight i was a the 5th anniversary party of a Chinese newspaper that is under the Ministry of Civil Affairs (so focuses on social welfare stuff which is related to harmonius and sustainable development -my work). It was part official chinese (with rounds of toasting, and awful maotai/moutai which actually taskes like vodka but then 2 days later another taste appears) but mostly not very chinese. People weren't throwing name-cards around, the speeches were short, and the food wasn't as wasteful as usual. The night was actually a caberet-style. 100 of the 250 ppl were the newspaper employees and each department had to do a skit/song..some had practised for weeks.
Before their 'karaoke on a stage', there were some serious performed... boy bands, actresses and child orchestras. all very nice. not overly fancy -but enjoyable. topped off with the free gift of strange herbal teas that might have vitamins in but are made by a biological chemical company. Anyway, the chinese love their gifts (and their big, horrible, creamy birthday cakes!)
Its the end of 2 weeks of just normal work, and now its crazy mode again.. but its also the beginning of the week when I will find out what I will do in my next 6 months. ooh, exciting. happy children's day and happy-30-degrees-at-night-so-lets-use-the-air-conditioning-for-the-1st-time-day too!
Last weekend we went 1 step further. We trusted our lives to Leon (maybe we were drunk when we agreed to this, since he originally 'bought' his license, then learned how to drive afterwards) who hired a car and drove us (and some others who were in another van) north for some BBQ (chinese style, ie. meet/fish/vegetable kebabs on BBQs that are 2m long and only 4 inches wide) and fishing. I skipped the fishing to explore the local beach and lake (ie. sleep, listen to ipod and get a sandle-tan). The others caught tons of fish.. but since they were fishing in a fish pond it wasn't too tough!
Tonight i was a the 5th anniversary party of a Chinese newspaper that is under the Ministry of Civil Affairs (so focuses on social welfare stuff which is related to harmonius and sustainable development -my work). It was part official chinese (with rounds of toasting, and awful maotai/moutai which actually taskes like vodka but then 2 days later another taste appears) but mostly not very chinese. People weren't throwing name-cards around, the speeches were short, and the food wasn't as wasteful as usual. The night was actually a caberet-style. 100 of the 250 ppl were the newspaper employees and each department had to do a skit/song..some had practised for weeks.
Before their 'karaoke on a stage', there were some serious performed... boy bands, actresses and child orchestras. all very nice. not overly fancy -but enjoyable. topped off with the free gift of strange herbal teas that might have vitamins in but are made by a biological chemical company. Anyway, the chinese love their gifts (and their big, horrible, creamy birthday cakes!)
Its the end of 2 weeks of just normal work, and now its crazy mode again.. but its also the beginning of the week when I will find out what I will do in my next 6 months. ooh, exciting. happy children's day and happy-30-degrees-at-night-so-lets-use-the-air-conditioning-for-the-1st-time-day too!
Friday, May 26, 2006
a moment to relax
The conference went well and now i am half way through a 2 week lull in activity. So I can do the things I want to do -rather than always doing the things I have to do!
Actually we have finally had some rain.. I almost celebrated by running into the streets to get wet. Its only rained properly 2 or 3 times, but it has rained for several hours -and enough to clock all the drains in Beijing and leave puddles everywhere. Well, if it rains so rarely, there is not much of a need to invest in good drains i suppose!
Susan (one of the chinese girls who is on the new head office team) got her hair done recently for 25 USD... Chinese girls care a lot about their hair -they often pay lots of money to get it changed -straightened, curled, short, frizzed or whatever. During the graduate interviews last semester we noticed lots of girls getting their hair done -apparently to make themselves look older, more professional and I suppose to just generally stop looking like cute 14 year olds!
There does not seem to be that much happening in China, by normal standards. I'm thinking back to what has been in the news.. in Beijing there was a rock festival, and the great wall marathon (crazy people), the recent crack down on illegal additions to bars etc (like roof-top seating and the installation of automatic subway gates and machines on buses (I've not taken the subway recently so I can't say what it is like not having to buy tickets from one person and ask another person to take the ticket from you -but I presume its like Shanghai where you top up your card occasionally and just use it to get through the gates 'Oyster-card style in London').
Last week they removed all the scaffolding by a building nearby. They started almost exactly as we moved in 10 or 11 months ago, and now the outside is done and they're working on the insides... this seems to take a long time going by the experiences of other big buildings; but it was nice to see a little bit less of the oft-seen green curtains of scaffolding everywhere. Actually really looking at Beijing there are a lot of fancy buildings already up and a lot more going up. Supposedly most buildings need to be finished by next summer (1 year before the olympics), so everyone is in a hurry. I can imagine there will be big business opportunities to move the thousands of cranes off to the 2nd and 3rd tier cities where construction is taking off. China will really be a country full of cities soon.
Currently 40% of China's population is in the cities but in the next 25 years, it will become 60% meaning another 300 million people will move to the cities from the countryside in China (and India will experience the same, moving from 29-40% urbanised). That is equal to the ENTIRE population of the USA. Although interestingly, the USA is also expected to increase its total population from 300m (now) to 380m in the next 25 years. Some other interesting statistics: the USA is currently 80% Urban where as the UK is currently 90% urban (and in 25 yrs our population will only increase by 4 million).
Other interesting statistics.... In 1950 average life expectancy in China was 40, in 2005 -70! (the UK has gone from 70 to 78). In 1950 the World population was 2.5 billion (30% urban), by 2020 it will be 9 billion (60% urban)! more here (http://esa.un.org/unpp/index.asp?panel=1).
-In 1970, 30% of the World's poor people were in South Asia, 56% in East Asia and 11% in Africa. In 2000, 28% were in South Asia, 32% in East Asia and 35% in Africa. By 2015 it is expected it will be 13% South Asia, 14% East Asia and 68% in Africa!!
-The richest 20% of people in the World own 74% of the Wealth and the poorest 20% have only 2% of the wealth! In 1970, 1.4 billion people were extremely poor -38% of the World's population. In 1990, the number was still 1.4 billion (but this is now only 26% of the world's population). In 2000 it went down to 1.2 billion (19% of the World's population). By 2015 it might go down to only 0.7 billion (10% of the world's population) (http://www.gapminder.org/)
Actually we have finally had some rain.. I almost celebrated by running into the streets to get wet. Its only rained properly 2 or 3 times, but it has rained for several hours -and enough to clock all the drains in Beijing and leave puddles everywhere. Well, if it rains so rarely, there is not much of a need to invest in good drains i suppose!
Susan (one of the chinese girls who is on the new head office team) got her hair done recently for 25 USD... Chinese girls care a lot about their hair -they often pay lots of money to get it changed -straightened, curled, short, frizzed or whatever. During the graduate interviews last semester we noticed lots of girls getting their hair done -apparently to make themselves look older, more professional and I suppose to just generally stop looking like cute 14 year olds!
There does not seem to be that much happening in China, by normal standards. I'm thinking back to what has been in the news.. in Beijing there was a rock festival, and the great wall marathon (crazy people), the recent crack down on illegal additions to bars etc (like roof-top seating and the installation of automatic subway gates and machines on buses (I've not taken the subway recently so I can't say what it is like not having to buy tickets from one person and ask another person to take the ticket from you -but I presume its like Shanghai where you top up your card occasionally and just use it to get through the gates 'Oyster-card style in London').
Last week they removed all the scaffolding by a building nearby. They started almost exactly as we moved in 10 or 11 months ago, and now the outside is done and they're working on the insides... this seems to take a long time going by the experiences of other big buildings; but it was nice to see a little bit less of the oft-seen green curtains of scaffolding everywhere. Actually really looking at Beijing there are a lot of fancy buildings already up and a lot more going up. Supposedly most buildings need to be finished by next summer (1 year before the olympics), so everyone is in a hurry. I can imagine there will be big business opportunities to move the thousands of cranes off to the 2nd and 3rd tier cities where construction is taking off. China will really be a country full of cities soon.
Currently 40% of China's population is in the cities but in the next 25 years, it will become 60% meaning another 300 million people will move to the cities from the countryside in China (and India will experience the same, moving from 29-40% urbanised). That is equal to the ENTIRE population of the USA. Although interestingly, the USA is also expected to increase its total population from 300m (now) to 380m in the next 25 years. Some other interesting statistics: the USA is currently 80% Urban where as the UK is currently 90% urban (and in 25 yrs our population will only increase by 4 million).
Other interesting statistics.... In 1950 average life expectancy in China was 40, in 2005 -70! (the UK has gone from 70 to 78). In 1950 the World population was 2.5 billion (30% urban), by 2020 it will be 9 billion (60% urban)! more here (http://esa.un.org/unpp/index.asp?panel=1).
-In 1970, 30% of the World's poor people were in South Asia, 56% in East Asia and 11% in Africa. In 2000, 28% were in South Asia, 32% in East Asia and 35% in Africa. By 2015 it is expected it will be 13% South Asia, 14% East Asia and 68% in Africa!!
-The richest 20% of people in the World own 74% of the Wealth and the poorest 20% have only 2% of the wealth! In 1970, 1.4 billion people were extremely poor -38% of the World's population. In 1990, the number was still 1.4 billion (but this is now only 26% of the world's population). In 2000 it went down to 1.2 billion (19% of the World's population). By 2015 it might go down to only 0.7 billion (10% of the world's population) (http://www.gapminder.org/)
Thursday, May 11, 2006
its 2am...
its 2am, i have only 2 more critical emails to send, there are only 3 more gaps in the agenda for the CSR conference on 21st may (hopefully will be filled, thanks to my excellent helpers!), and i am waking up at 5.30am....
i just need to take a few minutes to explain my situation, to save retelling it every 5 minutes to people asking me where i am, what i am doing etc! well i left beijing on sunday night on a soft sleeper train (nothing else available) and enjoyed the free dinner/breakfast and the power socket in the hallway allowing me to watch all 4+hrs of Lawrence of Arabia (great film).
I arrived in shanghai met 2 fudan students and we went to nanjing to be a delegate/volunteer at the yangtze river economic forum in a 4 star hotel for 3 days, where i tried to network, listen to sessions and work hard-core all at the same time. Then i got back to shangahi about 11pm, worked till 2am, fell asleep, woke up, worked more, got lunch, went to a meeting to start at 2.
The company was 2 and a half hours late. so the meeting finished super late meaning i could not finish work, so did 10 minutes of emails before eating dinner, doing 1 hour coaching with one of my LCPs and then going to a bar for a few hours. it was relaxing..cannot work too hard (just become ineffective) and had 0 drinks (way too expensive). got back and now trying to arrange more meetings, finalise conferences and other things.
i leave at 5.30 am for the train station to get to hangzhou for a day full of meetings with the aiesecers there (even managed some kind of agenda!) and then a night train to Beijing, then morning meeting for the case study competition final (Beijing version), lunch and then afternoon meeting with my CSR team and further meeting with the student helping me for the conference on 21st.
Then i think i get to check more mails (having missed friday), panic more (likely), unpack, pack and hopefully sleep before flying to guangzhou for afternoon presentations of guangzhou case study competition and hopefully dinner/sleep after. Then another flight to shanghai, meetings in monday afternoon, all day tuesday (including evening) and flying back to shangahi on wednesday, allowing me not enough time to organise the final details for the 15-20 companies coming to deliver workshops at the conference on 21st, attend the alumni gathering etc.
After the conference it seems I'll have to train it back to Shanghai on the 22nd, stay for 3 more days of meetings and presentations, return to Beijing in time to relax and go through the long 'to-do' list that I have to do before june starts. Then june starts with flights to guangzhou, shanghai and trains back to beijing.. including transition with my successor (who hopefully will be feeling better!), meetings, a few more CSR conferences (actually, maybe 4 days worth!)... once in beijing we have so little time to finish transition to the new team, create plans for next year and... (so much more to do, so excited, can't wait, love being busy, love deadlines, love achieving tangible results and dreaming and visioning and planning) and.. and.. well, leave AIESEC on June 30th.
After 6 years.
i just need to take a few minutes to explain my situation, to save retelling it every 5 minutes to people asking me where i am, what i am doing etc! well i left beijing on sunday night on a soft sleeper train (nothing else available) and enjoyed the free dinner/breakfast and the power socket in the hallway allowing me to watch all 4+hrs of Lawrence of Arabia (great film).
I arrived in shanghai met 2 fudan students and we went to nanjing to be a delegate/volunteer at the yangtze river economic forum in a 4 star hotel for 3 days, where i tried to network, listen to sessions and work hard-core all at the same time. Then i got back to shangahi about 11pm, worked till 2am, fell asleep, woke up, worked more, got lunch, went to a meeting to start at 2.
The company was 2 and a half hours late. so the meeting finished super late meaning i could not finish work, so did 10 minutes of emails before eating dinner, doing 1 hour coaching with one of my LCPs and then going to a bar for a few hours. it was relaxing..cannot work too hard (just become ineffective) and had 0 drinks (way too expensive). got back and now trying to arrange more meetings, finalise conferences and other things.
i leave at 5.30 am for the train station to get to hangzhou for a day full of meetings with the aiesecers there (even managed some kind of agenda!) and then a night train to Beijing, then morning meeting for the case study competition final (Beijing version), lunch and then afternoon meeting with my CSR team and further meeting with the student helping me for the conference on 21st.
Then i think i get to check more mails (having missed friday), panic more (likely), unpack, pack and hopefully sleep before flying to guangzhou for afternoon presentations of guangzhou case study competition and hopefully dinner/sleep after. Then another flight to shanghai, meetings in monday afternoon, all day tuesday (including evening) and flying back to shangahi on wednesday, allowing me not enough time to organise the final details for the 15-20 companies coming to deliver workshops at the conference on 21st, attend the alumni gathering etc.
After the conference it seems I'll have to train it back to Shanghai on the 22nd, stay for 3 more days of meetings and presentations, return to Beijing in time to relax and go through the long 'to-do' list that I have to do before june starts. Then june starts with flights to guangzhou, shanghai and trains back to beijing.. including transition with my successor (who hopefully will be feeling better!), meetings, a few more CSR conferences (actually, maybe 4 days worth!)... once in beijing we have so little time to finish transition to the new team, create plans for next year and... (so much more to do, so excited, can't wait, love being busy, love deadlines, love achieving tangible results and dreaming and visioning and planning) and.. and.. well, leave AIESEC on June 30th.
After 6 years.
Thursday, May 04, 2006
dragon escalator
on the left is a dam, on the right is a series of escalators taking us to the top (behind the dam is the gorge proper). the escalators are beautifully hidden under the plastic dragon!
horses (with riders) on the grasslands
this is the greenest picture I could take -you should see the others!
the best bits..
1) The '100 flower cave' which one would expect to be full of beautiful flowers inside a cave... which it was, sort of -except none of the flowers were real (not a single one) and each cave was themed (south china/jungle, western china etc) and included paintings as backdrops to the 'scenes' as well as plastic tigers or little men with axes, or fake snow, bridges etc etc. So although it was laughable (and only took up 10 minutes of our time as we walked through without stopping), it was a bizarre piece of art: for it was, I suppose, art.
Most likely the result of the local governor's daughter's pet project (maybe she liked fake flowers) or the result of a local fake-flower producer bribing the tourist spot's owners to convince them this was something that would really add value to the attraction (maybe it is designed to contrast with the real beauty outside?) or (my last idea) is that they had a number of bids from 'designers' and of course, cause its China, wanted to pick the craziest one that a "highly respected" foreigner suggested. This final idea is based on the countless crazy designs for buildings in cities in china that seem to have resulted from foreigners gleefully being held in high respect and being given a bank cheque!
2) Pierre's 'bandage' which was sometimes a local famer's bandage, sometimes his towel, sometimes a 2 rmb (25 US cents) 'professional' bandage from a pharmacy, and sometimes just him holding his poor hand across his chest. Apparently this was all needed because he crashed into kitty at 'high speed' and fell of the bike causing a sprained wrist and some blood. The alternative theory was that he just liked Kitty rubbing some chinese painkiller on his wrist every day... hmmm
3) The sleeping and massages that seemed to be more frequent than the actual cycling. It was a case of 'if i massage you for 30 seconds, will you massage me for 10 minutes' (NB: it seemed we men always got the better deal!) and the 'i'll just nap whilst waiting for the food to arrive' -every meal time. Although I risk my life every time I step out on my bike, at least i had something to show for it...!
4) The ride back yesterday where we spent 5 kms overtaking trucks as they queued to be checked by the police, and then 15kms overtaking more trucks as we cycled downhill :-). So this is where all the resources needed for Beijing's huge growth is coming from!
and smaller things like.. the girl peeing on the floor outside the restaurant, the man skinning and emptying the goat, fixing Peter's bike with a padlock (since we lost the nut/bolt), the girls getting on a public minibus with their bikes to skip going up the hill, the delicious Dongbei (NorthEast China) food, Leon's 'white powder' that he mixed with water to make an energy drink, Peter cycling on the motorway despite the toll-collector telling us no-one had passed by (and then peter cycled back past her), the masseuse's comments on my hair (again!) and finally the incredible experience of bunjee jumping 50m.
China is booming and the size of the internal tourist market is testament to that.. all these Chinese tourists paying good money to see plastic flowers, drink coconut milk, get a sleeper bus for a 2 hour bus journey back to Beijing and so on. China's saving rate is something like 40% (The UK is more like 5% or negative saving!) and the government wants to encourage people to spend this money, thus creating jobs in tertiary sectors. Every year the growth and statistics of tourism in China is incredible, especially during the 3 'golden holidays'. China has a lot of people and not that many tourist sites. Although many have started going overseas to spend their cash, this presents a big dilemnas.
Growth in China just seems to bring more and more problems!
Most likely the result of the local governor's daughter's pet project (maybe she liked fake flowers) or the result of a local fake-flower producer bribing the tourist spot's owners to convince them this was something that would really add value to the attraction (maybe it is designed to contrast with the real beauty outside?) or (my last idea) is that they had a number of bids from 'designers' and of course, cause its China, wanted to pick the craziest one that a "highly respected" foreigner suggested. This final idea is based on the countless crazy designs for buildings in cities in china that seem to have resulted from foreigners gleefully being held in high respect and being given a bank cheque!
2) Pierre's 'bandage' which was sometimes a local famer's bandage, sometimes his towel, sometimes a 2 rmb (25 US cents) 'professional' bandage from a pharmacy, and sometimes just him holding his poor hand across his chest. Apparently this was all needed because he crashed into kitty at 'high speed' and fell of the bike causing a sprained wrist and some blood. The alternative theory was that he just liked Kitty rubbing some chinese painkiller on his wrist every day... hmmm
3) The sleeping and massages that seemed to be more frequent than the actual cycling. It was a case of 'if i massage you for 30 seconds, will you massage me for 10 minutes' (NB: it seemed we men always got the better deal!) and the 'i'll just nap whilst waiting for the food to arrive' -every meal time. Although I risk my life every time I step out on my bike, at least i had something to show for it...!
4) The ride back yesterday where we spent 5 kms overtaking trucks as they queued to be checked by the police, and then 15kms overtaking more trucks as we cycled downhill :-). So this is where all the resources needed for Beijing's huge growth is coming from!
and smaller things like.. the girl peeing on the floor outside the restaurant, the man skinning and emptying the goat, fixing Peter's bike with a padlock (since we lost the nut/bolt), the girls getting on a public minibus with their bikes to skip going up the hill, the delicious Dongbei (NorthEast China) food, Leon's 'white powder' that he mixed with water to make an energy drink, Peter cycling on the motorway despite the toll-collector telling us no-one had passed by (and then peter cycled back past her), the masseuse's comments on my hair (again!) and finally the incredible experience of bunjee jumping 50m.
China is booming and the size of the internal tourist market is testament to that.. all these Chinese tourists paying good money to see plastic flowers, drink coconut milk, get a sleeper bus for a 2 hour bus journey back to Beijing and so on. China's saving rate is something like 40% (The UK is more like 5% or negative saving!) and the government wants to encourage people to spend this money, thus creating jobs in tertiary sectors. Every year the growth and statistics of tourism in China is incredible, especially during the 3 'golden holidays'. China has a lot of people and not that many tourist sites. Although many have started going overseas to spend their cash, this presents a big dilemnas.
Growth in China just seems to bring more and more problems!
rain!
tonight it finally rained.. only just, but enough! We got back last night from our trip which totalled 250km in 4 days (though mostly on day 1 and day 4 getting there and back) -it was enough to wear out the other 5; but thanks to my previous cycling experience I was still able to cycle another 30 km in order to pick up the electricity card and save us from darkness all night!
It was a a fun 4 days; we had some tough riding up mountains (and enjoyable ones back down); we stayed in a yurt; had 3 punctures; bunjee jumped and horse-rided and other things besides. The weather was beautiful and so was much of the scenery.
Not surprisingly the grasslands lacked grass (the ones in went to last october in western china are a million times more beatiful) and most of the villages we passed were a dump (though the towns were booming). On the other hand the gorge was almost a model of a tourist attraction -well organised, well laid-out and sustainable. Although it was the busiest day of the year it was still a pleasure to be there. We had fun laughing at some of the inevitable tackiness (like the dragon shaped escalator) and playing 'spot the fat chinese kid' -not as many as we thought there might be!
Afterwards we headed for a full body massage, though i am still not much of a fan (apart from the comedy value of having a tiny 18 yr old girl standing on my back causing me agony! Since i skipped the horse riding i was in better shape than the others (Susan is still walking funny -he he!). Now we are back at work: only 3 weeks or so to go before and then our successors move in for a month working together. I should be travelling a lot in the next 4 weeks -yay; polluted and dry Beijing is so depressing after the 4 days in the (relative) countryside. On our trip we even saw stars in the sky!
Saturday, April 29, 2006
holiday time..
Last week was the last week before the holiday (celebrated because of international labour day, though its the least important of the 3 national holidays in China) and so when I cycled back yesterday night there was even more traffic as usual from everyone working late to finish their work, and then heading out of Beijing. I was getting emails at midnight about the upcoming conference I am organising on May 21st! (granted I was also receiving and replying to emails on a friday night, but we are going out tonight).
Its very enjoyable speeding along overtaking all kinds of traffic -though the faster one goes, the more alert one needs to be to the taxis that cross 3 lanes to stop and pick someone up, or the old lady who'll just get of her bike in the middle of the bike-lane for no reason, or the potholes that seem to be everywhere. I've long held that drivers in China are good drivers: they have to be in order to survive. The thing most drivers are best at is using their mirrors. Since no-one, literally no-one, has any idea what indicators are for, this is totally necessary. For cyclists is tough, because you spend most of your time looking out for signs of crazy drivers changing lanes and pulling over, and without indicators being used, it makes life harder!
I explained to Leon that we have a 'cycling profficiency test' in the UK, where people can get some training on the 'rules of the road' and practise indicating, or an understanding of how to fix their bike. Its optional of course, and i don't remember knowing of anyone else who took it (apart from me), but it helped a lot. In the UK it might not be that important as most people that can cycle (adults anyway.. on the main roads) can drive too -so they understand about roundabouts, indicators etc. In China, people on their bikes can't drive. If they could afford to they would, of course, join the 1,000+ new cars every day on the streets of Beijing. Thus the cyclists cannot understand concepts of going in a straight line, of looking over their shoulder etc.
My little rant over, we are sort of preparing for our upcoming 4 day cycle ride...towards a place called longching gorge with various outdoor sports activities nearby we could do. not sure if we'll get there in a day, but who knows...
Woke up this morning to hear that the EU Constitution is being brought back. Now, I have always been quite pro-EU, IF it could behave responsibly, and since half the member countries are going backwards in today's globalised world, there seems little chance that the EU will go forward, or even agree on any direction to go in! Thus until someone sorts this issue out, lets keep common agreements for another time... Also heard that Scolari rejected the offer of being England coach. great. I am all for having a manager with no experience but lots of passion. Same with players: its always the young ones who are exciting -its only a matter of time before Roony turns into Owen, who is turning into Shearer. All great players, but as they age, they get lazy and less innovtive/exciting. Although it is scary that I am about 4 years OLDER than Rooney. yikes. The big question for May is will Spurs get into the Champions League? Well I am just happy we are getting into Europe through the league for the first-time in my lifetime I think! (even if it ends up as UEFA cup)!.
To end on a more china-note. I use Accuweather to tell me the weather (a little icon is in the bottom of my screen showing me the weather for each of the next 3 days) and it tends to predict 20-25 and varying degrees of sun. But when it comes to the next day, actually Accuweather says 'foggy' and 12 degrees. You can read the next paragraph to discover why:
Despite plans to improve air quality, Beijing had 11 fewer clean air days in the first quarter of 2006 compared to 2005, and has fallen even further behind since the beginning of April, statistics from the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau (BEPB) show. To the end of March 2006, Beijing had only 51 "blue-sky" days, where the air quality does not exceed pollution standards, compared to 62 such days in the first quarter of last year. Despite having unhealthy air quality 45.3% of the time, the city has enjoyed stretches of clean air. During the 10-day National Party Congress at the beginning of May, Beijing enjoyed nine clean air days and only one day that exceeded air quality standards.
Its very enjoyable speeding along overtaking all kinds of traffic -though the faster one goes, the more alert one needs to be to the taxis that cross 3 lanes to stop and pick someone up, or the old lady who'll just get of her bike in the middle of the bike-lane for no reason, or the potholes that seem to be everywhere. I've long held that drivers in China are good drivers: they have to be in order to survive. The thing most drivers are best at is using their mirrors. Since no-one, literally no-one, has any idea what indicators are for, this is totally necessary. For cyclists is tough, because you spend most of your time looking out for signs of crazy drivers changing lanes and pulling over, and without indicators being used, it makes life harder!
I explained to Leon that we have a 'cycling profficiency test' in the UK, where people can get some training on the 'rules of the road' and practise indicating, or an understanding of how to fix their bike. Its optional of course, and i don't remember knowing of anyone else who took it (apart from me), but it helped a lot. In the UK it might not be that important as most people that can cycle (adults anyway.. on the main roads) can drive too -so they understand about roundabouts, indicators etc. In China, people on their bikes can't drive. If they could afford to they would, of course, join the 1,000+ new cars every day on the streets of Beijing. Thus the cyclists cannot understand concepts of going in a straight line, of looking over their shoulder etc.
My little rant over, we are sort of preparing for our upcoming 4 day cycle ride...towards a place called longching gorge with various outdoor sports activities nearby we could do. not sure if we'll get there in a day, but who knows...
Woke up this morning to hear that the EU Constitution is being brought back. Now, I have always been quite pro-EU, IF it could behave responsibly, and since half the member countries are going backwards in today's globalised world, there seems little chance that the EU will go forward, or even agree on any direction to go in! Thus until someone sorts this issue out, lets keep common agreements for another time... Also heard that Scolari rejected the offer of being England coach. great. I am all for having a manager with no experience but lots of passion. Same with players: its always the young ones who are exciting -its only a matter of time before Roony turns into Owen, who is turning into Shearer. All great players, but as they age, they get lazy and less innovtive/exciting. Although it is scary that I am about 4 years OLDER than Rooney. yikes. The big question for May is will Spurs get into the Champions League? Well I am just happy we are getting into Europe through the league for the first-time in my lifetime I think! (even if it ends up as UEFA cup)!.
To end on a more china-note. I use Accuweather to tell me the weather (a little icon is in the bottom of my screen showing me the weather for each of the next 3 days) and it tends to predict 20-25 and varying degrees of sun. But when it comes to the next day, actually Accuweather says 'foggy' and 12 degrees. You can read the next paragraph to discover why:
Despite plans to improve air quality, Beijing had 11 fewer clean air days in the first quarter of 2006 compared to 2005, and has fallen even further behind since the beginning of April, statistics from the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau (BEPB) show. To the end of March 2006, Beijing had only 51 "blue-sky" days, where the air quality does not exceed pollution standards, compared to 62 such days in the first quarter of last year. Despite having unhealthy air quality 45.3% of the time, the city has enjoyed stretches of clean air. During the 10-day National Party Congress at the beginning of May, Beijing enjoyed nine clean air days and only one day that exceeded air quality standards.
Sunday, April 23, 2006
success
...well, of a kind. 2 weeks ago we found out our bid to the UK government's Global opportunities Fund was successful, enabling us to continue the work I started and make it bigger and better. Actually I got back home at about 2am drunk, to check my mail and find out the news. "Lets celebrate" said Peter. "um, I'm already drunk, how about we celebrate another day?" I replied!
It also means I got paid finally, so I rewarded myself with this bike, which cost about 1 fifth of what it would in the UK and reduces my cycling time to long-distance destinations by about 40%. It feels fantastic, and looks great too!
Other things I have been up to included a day hiking with most of CSR team and a trip to Tianjin with 20 others to see some factories, attend a big Investment fair and get an office for the Tianjing branch of AIESEC, thanks to an alumni at the EU Chamber. This weekend was mostly spent cycling and trying out the new bike, whilst enjoying the beautiful weather. This week might be a little slow, but after the may holiday it will be a crazy dash to the finish with lots of travelling and activities; plus June spent in transition to my successor, Juan.
I suppose this week was the week when China really hit the big time: Its GDP for 1st quarter grew by 10.2% (apparently, even though the government is aiming for 8%) pushing it ahead of the UK officially into 4th place in the World and Hu Jintao went to visit Bush. Despite Hu making lots of concessions beforehand (releasing some political prisoners, being nicer to Taiwan, being nicer to the exiled Dalai Lama etc), the trip was still useless and achieved nothing (predictably) -not helped by the US government's ineptitude (woman shouting out about falun gong at the press conference, announcer calling the national anthemn with the name used by Taiwan -Republic of China- rather than the People's Republic of China, and Bush dragging Hu around)!
I am not sure what is going to happen, but it seems clear that the USA wants to remain the World's dominant power. China might not explicitly want the position of #1 (it has many of its own internal issues to worry about with a GDP per person still putting it at about 100 in the world!) and won't get it for a good 30-50 years more, but its still causing friction.. friction that won't go away. It seems everyone nowadays is competing for resources. Interestingly it seems that both countries inernational actions are more based on their domestic circumstances (either political or economic), and not what is actually best for their international relations. Surely this means that something has to give: domestic or international priorities?
Now it is time to try to find a job. then i might be able to write another 'success' post!
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
2
2 weeks after the last post:
2 conferences later (1 attended in fancy hotel with important people and 1 run for 420 students)
2 leaving parties later (1 for South Africa, 1 for Brazil -both for just a month or two)
2 birthdays later (mum and dad -and of course mother's day too!)
The conference I went to was incredible in terms of the content and the people. Extremely interesting discussions about the role of business in society, about energy and water, or about doing business in dodgy countries. The organisers, WBCSD, continue to impress me with their ability, reach, professionalism and output.
The conference I chaired and ran with my team-mates was exhausting: managing so many people, screaming to keep order, dealing with shitty microphones and saying goodbye .. its my last aiesec conference in any official capacity. But I'm excited: I feel like I'll be leaving in the summer having integrated somewhat issues of corporate responsibility into AIESEC, having left a small mark on some people and ensured that the local university branches buy into and actively are able to organise their own learning activities -and benefit from them. True, I could have achieved a lot more -but that's what the last 3 months are for!
Finally the rest of the team returned; only for us all to split up again for most of the next month as we go around all the universities (me included). Its great to hang out, chat and laugh. I guess we will miss each other. Certainly living for 11 months so close together, you get to be used to people!
Beijing is still so dry. it drives me crazy: electric shocks all the time (even when shaking someone's hand to say hello, sometimes!), dust everywhere, polluted skies frequently and little wind. The only excitement occured when somehow the dust got into the clouds and there was sort of snow (it was white that's for sure) but in the morning all teh cars look like they had been sandblasted. Car washes had a bumper day... and I think its a great business to be in, in beijing anyway!
Since my sister's short film is being shown in a cinema (rented especially) in a week or so, and having been speaking to the whole family about it for weeks, I have been talking to myself (and others) about making movies more and more. With so much travelling in China I started to become a bit of a photo boffin... not good photos, but a desire to try to take good photos! I've also watched many movies in the last 18 months or so. Readers will note that I have a certain affection for China and find it an incredibly interesting country especially in these periods of change. Combining all this together (plus no-one outside of China has a clue about China) creates a compelling case to make some interesting movies. It could be about wealth gaps, migrant workers, construction, hutongs, factory protests or so much else...
Throw in some personality to the characters, make the audience feel for them through their family or friends in film (or add lots of action) and there is a lot of potential for some interesting stuff. It might not be as powerful as 'the constant gardener' (truly fantastic film) or 'city of god' (even more fantastic), but you never know... certainly it would be possible to show how complex everything is.. from the role of the government to the inequalities or the trade issues and the resource problems. Anyway, some thoughts for the future if an occasion arises.
2 conferences later (1 attended in fancy hotel with important people and 1 run for 420 students)
2 leaving parties later (1 for South Africa, 1 for Brazil -both for just a month or two)
2 birthdays later (mum and dad -and of course mother's day too!)
The conference I went to was incredible in terms of the content and the people. Extremely interesting discussions about the role of business in society, about energy and water, or about doing business in dodgy countries. The organisers, WBCSD, continue to impress me with their ability, reach, professionalism and output.
The conference I chaired and ran with my team-mates was exhausting: managing so many people, screaming to keep order, dealing with shitty microphones and saying goodbye .. its my last aiesec conference in any official capacity. But I'm excited: I feel like I'll be leaving in the summer having integrated somewhat issues of corporate responsibility into AIESEC, having left a small mark on some people and ensured that the local university branches buy into and actively are able to organise their own learning activities -and benefit from them. True, I could have achieved a lot more -but that's what the last 3 months are for!
Finally the rest of the team returned; only for us all to split up again for most of the next month as we go around all the universities (me included). Its great to hang out, chat and laugh. I guess we will miss each other. Certainly living for 11 months so close together, you get to be used to people!
Beijing is still so dry. it drives me crazy: electric shocks all the time (even when shaking someone's hand to say hello, sometimes!), dust everywhere, polluted skies frequently and little wind. The only excitement occured when somehow the dust got into the clouds and there was sort of snow (it was white that's for sure) but in the morning all teh cars look like they had been sandblasted. Car washes had a bumper day... and I think its a great business to be in, in beijing anyway!
Since my sister's short film is being shown in a cinema (rented especially) in a week or so, and having been speaking to the whole family about it for weeks, I have been talking to myself (and others) about making movies more and more. With so much travelling in China I started to become a bit of a photo boffin... not good photos, but a desire to try to take good photos! I've also watched many movies in the last 18 months or so. Readers will note that I have a certain affection for China and find it an incredibly interesting country especially in these periods of change. Combining all this together (plus no-one outside of China has a clue about China) creates a compelling case to make some interesting movies. It could be about wealth gaps, migrant workers, construction, hutongs, factory protests or so much else...
Throw in some personality to the characters, make the audience feel for them through their family or friends in film (or add lots of action) and there is a lot of potential for some interesting stuff. It might not be as powerful as 'the constant gardener' (truly fantastic film) or 'city of god' (even more fantastic), but you never know... certainly it would be possible to show how complex everything is.. from the role of the government to the inequalities or the trade issues and the resource problems. Anyway, some thoughts for the future if an occasion arises.
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