Ed Murrow’s Prophecy

“We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men — not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes that were, for the moment, unpopular.”
-Ed Murrow

I’ve been looking forward to my second screening of George Clooney’s Good Night, And Good Luck. I give credit to Dr Bob Armstrong for screening the story of Edward R Murrow and U.S Senator Joseph McCarthy during Mass Media Theory class. The one thing that stuck on my mind that made me revisit GN, &GL is its central message of media responsibility and its role as the Fourth Estate. That and subsequent views of George explaining the movie on Newseum’s Reel Journalism feature that was hosted by veteran journalist Nick Clooney.

Why the interest on the media as the Fourth Estate? That’s an easy one to answer for me: Because traditional media may never play such a role here in Singapore.  Ed Murrow’s words echo the fundamental truth about the need for media to provide the truth and key issues to its people.  For me, this resonates  loud and clear in the Singapore context.

Here in Singapore, media is always under careful regulation and monitoring by the de-facto ruling party, the PAP. Here in Singapore, the media functions more of a broadcast-and-disseminate tool, as opposed to a check-and-balance function of American media. Yet this doesn’t stop many Singaporeans from hoping for more press freedom.

If you asked Ziqi Koey, circa high school and Army days, he might have told you about a career interest in journalism and media,  for my interest in those fields stem from a desire to learn and master the power of words to convey true messages. I have witnessed how the careful and precise use of this art can cause monumental shifts. Mr Murrow and many journalists of his generation have demonstrated this.

Journalism as a career choice in Singapore has an entirely different meaning though. My enthusiasm of finding a job with the biggest media companies in Singapore (SPH and Mediacorp) was doused, for the fact that media in Singapore never always represent the true hard facts in an objective way. Here in Singapore, the media functions more of a broadcast-and-disseminate tool, as opposed to a check-and-balance function of American media. Quality of television programming in Singapore has degenerated to that of mere profit making, the lack of any real substance and depth.

That is why Good Night And Good Luck struck a chord within me. It was the spirit of journalism that I looked up to.

The opening and ending of Good Night, And Good Luck highlights Ed Murrow’s  speech  to the Radio and Television News Directors Association (RTNDA) convention.  Highly prophetic  and relevant, Ed Murrow’s words stirred up thoughts within me about:

• The state of mass media in Singapore today (TV, Radio, Newspapers)

• Social Media: Its ability to teach, inspire, or become merely part of “wires and lights in a box”

• Intelligence, maturity, and perceived apathy of the Singaporean with regards to hard issues

****

Excerpt from Ed Murrow’s  speech to the Radio and Television News Directors Association (RTNDA) convention in Chicago 15^th October 1958 ( Article Total Read Time: 12 minutes, Text in Bold, 8 minutes)

This just might do nobody any good. At the end of this discourse a few people may accuse this reporter of fouling his own comfortable nest, and your organization may be accused of having given hospitality to heretical and even dangerous thoughts. But the elaborate structure of networks, advertising agencies and sponsors will not be shaken or altered. It is my desire, if not my duty, to try to talk to you journeymen with some candor about what is happening to radio and television.

….

Our history will be what we make it. And if there are any historians about fifty or a hundred years from now, and there should be preserved the kinescopes for one week of all three networks, they will there find recorded in black and white, or color, evidence of decadence, escapism and insulation from the realities of the world in which we live. I invite your attention to the television schedules of all networks between the hours of 8 and 11 p.m., Eastern Time. Here you will find only fleeting and spasmodic reference to the fact that this nation is in mortal danger. There are, it is true, occasional informative programs presented in that intellectual ghetto on Sunday afternoons. But during the daily peak viewing periods, television in the main insulates us from the realities of the world in which we live. If this state of affairs continues, we may alter an advertising slogan to read: LOOK NOW, PAY LATER.

…

For surely we shall pay for using this most powerful instrument of communication to insulate the citizenry from the hard and demanding realities which must be faced if we are to survive. I mean the word survive literally. If there were to be a competition in indifference, or perhaps in insulation from reality, then Nero and his fiddle, Chamberlain and his umbrella, could not find a place on an early afternoon sustaining show. If Hollywood were to run out of Indians, the program schedules would be mangled beyond all recognition. Then some courageous soul with a small budget might be able to do a documentary telling what, in fact, we have done–and are still doing–to the Indians in this country. But that would be unpleasant. And we must at all costs shield the sensitive citizens from anything that is unpleasant.

I am entirely persuaded that the American public is more reasonable, restrained and more mature than most of our industry’s program planners believe. Their fear of controversy is not warranted by the evidence. I have reason to know, as do many of you, that when the evidence on a controversial subject is fairly and calmly presented, the public recognizes it for what it is–an effort to illuminate rather than to agitate.

…

One of the basic troubles with radio and television news is that both instruments have grown up as an incompatible combination of show business, advertising and news. Each of the three is a rather bizarre and demanding profession. And when you get all three under one roof, the dust never settles. The top management of the networks with a few notable exceptions, has been trained in advertising, research, sales or show business. But by the nature of the coporate structure, they also make the final and crucial decisions having to do with news and public affairs. Frequently they have neither the time nor the competence to do this.

We are currently wealthy, fat, comfortable and complacent. We have currently a built-in allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information. Our mass media reflect this. But unless we get up off our fat surpluses and recognize that television in the main is being used to distract, delude, amuse and insulate us, then television and those who finance it, those who look at it and those who work at it, may see a totally different picture too late.

I do not advocate that we turn television into a 27-inch wailing wall, where longhairs constantly moan about the state of our culture and our defense. But I would just like to see it reflect occasionally the hard, unyielding realities of the world in which we live. I would like to see it done inside the existing framework, and I would like to see the doing of it redound to the credit of those who finance and program it. Measure the results by Nielsen, Trendex or Silex-it doesn’t matter. The main thing is to try. The responsibility can be easily placed, in spite of all the mouthings about giving the public what it wants. It rests on big business, and on big television, and it rests at the top. Responsibility is not something that can be assigned or delegated. And it promises its own reward: good business and good television.

…

To those who say people wouldn’t look; they wouldn’t be interested; they’re too complacent, indifferent and insulated, I can only reply: There is, in one reporter’s opinion, considerable evidence against that contention. But even if they are right, what have they got to lose? Because if they are right, and this instrument is good for nothing but to entertain, amuse and insulate, then the tube is flickering now and we will soon see that the whole struggle is lost.

This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is merely wires and lights in a box. There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance and indifference. This weapon of television could be useful.

***

Additional Reading:

Article 19’s report on Freedom of Expression in Singapore

National Geographic: The Singapore Solution

How To Find Meaningful Travel: Volunteering In Asia

ESL teaching in Hanoi: Language learning can be all fun and games

The practice of soulful travel is to discover the overlapping point between history and everyday life, the way to find the essence of every place, every day: in the markets, small chapels, out-of-the-way parks, craft shops. Curiosity about the extraordinary in the ordinary moves the heart of the traveler intent on seeing behind the veil of tourism.

-Phil Cousineu, The Art Of Pilgrimage

Why volunteer in Asia?

At the recent BarCamp Singapore 4, I held a discussion and talked about how I benefited as a volunteer in Vietnam. Some have asked about the resources I have used to identify opportunities for meaningful travel. After all, the most obvious “volunteer” opportunities here in Singapore offered through schools and organizations pack 30+ people in a bus, bring them to workcamp sites, and two weeks later, they’re back home. Not that I have anything against large groups of volunteers working for two-weeks, but I believe a personal volunteering journey has the potential be much more meaningful.

As Asians coming from a developed country, having the ability to speak at least two different languages fluently, our potential to contribute to others is limitless. We don’t realize this because we’re living in a country where talent and skill seems saturated. My time overseas made me so much more thankful of the education (even with its flaws) I received in Singapore.

Moreover, volunteering in Asia helps us strengthen that Asian connection. We revisit the Southeast Asia that Singapore seems to have moved on in favor of development and modernization. When you walk on the lanes and streets of Hanoi or Luang Prabang, sitting on a streetside wooden bench having a warm bowl of Pho Ga, it simply feels familiar, even though such experiences no longer exist in Singapore. When I saw men of all ages playing dominoes and Chinese chess in Lenin Park, I wasn’t there to wonder why or what they were doing, but to just feel that sense of familiarity. We often read blogs and articles of our European or American friends experiencing an entirely different culture while they’re in Southeast Asia. I think as Singaporeans, we need to revisit these lost cultures and experiences too, for they must certainly feel foreign to us too.

Please take note that I have not tried every organization mentioned below, some were recommended  to me while others have received very positive reviews from users. As always, do your due diligence:
- Reading reviews and comments about the organization
- Do a web search for the institution/organization you are interested to work with
- Email and call up organizations to speak to someone
- Check if these institutions are registered with the local government

Firstly, it would help to know what you’re good at, and what you’re interested in so that you won’t get lost in all that information available. If you have a skills to contribute to organizations overseas, thats great! But if you don’t, worry not! Your interests will probably point you in the right direction.

Here are some of the resources I used for my volunteering overseas. Hopefully these will save you lots of time and effort.

www.volunteerhq.org
By far one of the most trusted volunteer portals available, this website is clean and simple, and is a good starting point to look at what options are available to you as an aspiring world-volunteer.
International Volunteers’ HQ is based in New Zealand, and provides excellent support (phone and email) for volunteers and the local organizations. It is one of the most affordable too. This was where I picked Vietnam out of the many choices available.

www.idealist.org
If you’re looking for even more options, meaningful work, internships, and the occasional free volunteering experience, you can check out the available opportunities here. Most of the free or paid stints are for long term volunteers though, so be prepared to work for half a year to one year in environments vastly different from what you might be comfortable with. However, these are usually the most rewarding and satisfying experiences available.

www.ashoka.org/volunteer
Similar to www.idealist.org, but most opportunities will be located in India.

Location Specific Opportunities:

Nepal:
www.vcdnepal.org
Very affordable volunteer opportunities in a country of visually stunning landscapes.

Vietnam:
www.vpv.vn
The organization that I went with, and that started it all for me. VPV has volunteer locations throughout Vietnam, while based in Hanoi. Opportunities include teaching English, working with NGOs, and working at orphanages.

www.sjvietnam.org/
I’m biased towards lovely Vietnam, so here’s another organization for volunteering in Vietnam.

Thailand:

www.insearchofsanuk.com/volunteer
In Search Of Sanuk was started by Dwight Turner, who coined the term “Funlanthropy”. Who says you can’t have fun while contributing to a good cause? It’s easy to see why Dwight and In Search Of Sanuk has been so successful so far. As a person, Dwight’s energy and enthusiasm is infectious. Talk to him about volunteering and partying to understand why.

Other helpful volunteer-related info:

www.wisebread.com/travel-resources
Saving money and budgeting during your travels.

Some volunteer Inspiration:
harpermcconnell.wordpress.com/

Harper’s work as a volunteer in Congo sets the tone for what volunteers should aspire to contribute and receive out of a volunteering experience. Her work is truly inspiring.

www.vagablogging.net/

Award winning travel author Rolf Potts maintains a blog about the how-tos, and philosophies of world travel. Very relevant to aspiring travel volunteers.

Solo volunteering trips in Asia are deeply meaningful. I prefer to help out in areas that truly require assistance, and volunteering in Asia seems to me an obvious choice. You learn independence and initiative, while still have the opportunity to work in a team with volunteers from all over the world. The problem I see with workcamps or groups of volunteers (>5) going together, is the “herd mentality” creeping in, and the tendency to only communicate within the group. Venturing out yourself forces you to learn to communicate and work with different cultures. This is a very important life skill to learn and have.

Only by going alone in silence, without baggage, can one truly get into the heart of the wilderness. All other travel is mere dust and hotels and baggage and chatter.

-John Muir, 1888 letter to his wife

Solo volunteering trips in Asia is deeply meaningful. I prefer to help out in areas that truly require assistance, and Asia seems to me an obvious choice. You learn independence and initiative, while still have the opportunity to work in a team with volunteers from all over the world. The problem I see with workcamps or groups of volunteers (>5) going together, is the “herd mentality” creeping in, and the tendency to only communicate within the group. Venturing out yourself forces you to learn to communicate and work with different cultures. This is a very important life skill to learn and have.

Minimalism

I find myself increasingly attempting to live minimally- reducing what I use and purchase.

Everything I am curious to learn about or am learning reinforces the beauty of minimalism. Minimalism sounds easy but is hard to put into action. At the very start, attempts to live a minimal lifestyle requires  attention to every aspect of life.

Write Well

Keen to work on my writing skills, I finished On Writing Well, penned by the passionate, writer-extraordinaire  William Zinsser. Simplicity is the second basic tenet of writing he mentions in the book. Simplicity, the way Zinsser explains it, keeps writing compact and clean. Writing that is simplified to its core elements are a pleasure to read.

I found it helpful that Zinsser declares “clutter” as the enemy of writing.  He identifies corporate jargon and political correctness is the posterboy of cluttered writing.

Clutter is the official language used by corporations to hide their mistakes

-William Zinsser

Get Real

What Zinsser preaches for writing , I found in the mantra of good business and computing. Getting Real! is  Chicago based software company 37Signals’s manifesto for simplicity and minimalism in computing. In a world where the word “simplicity” is loved by all, not all businesses practice what they preach. Especially when all around you, competitors are striving to one-up each other in functions and capability. How could you not do one better, or at least follow suit?

The 37Signals team preaches simple, straightforward functionality over things that seem to represent actual work done. Delivering a project with just one awesome function will always beat a product with unfocused and cluttered objectives.

Don’t use seven words when four will do.

-Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt) in Ocean’s 11

Kids, Try This At Home!

The most immediate application of elimination/ simplification was with my closet at home. Of all the clothing I owned or bought for the past 5 years, I could tell that I wore 20% of it for 80% of the time. That leaves a bunch of stuff that I hardly touch, or probably worn once. (like really bright colored stuff, oversized jeans after I lost weight etc) After all, we’ve only got 24 hours in a day, 7 days a  week. There’s only so much clothing you can wear at any one time.

I ended up cleaning out that 80% that didn’t matter, handed it all to the Salvation Army.

Congratulations to the lucky guy/girl that gets my 2006 Eric Clapton Singapore Tour T-shirt. Well its a good thing, now I have to be creative with whats left in my closet by doing smart color combinations and layering.

Far From Zen

I haven’t have much success simplifying and minimizing other aspects of my living space though. Cleaning out work and living spaces is a nightmare. The last time I did it, it took me all of daylight, leaving me physically and mentally drained. And since I did it a few months ago, clutter has been building up around me ever since.

I’m looking towards one successful writer that managed to achieve 19 impressive breakthrough goals by focusing on simplifying one habit at a time.

Leo Babauta of Zen Habits sums up his success formila for achievement in two steps:

1. Identify the essential

2. Eliminate the Rest

What makes Leo’s mantra so compelling? Its simple, straightforward, and actionable. No complicated set of systems to buy into, no messy flowchart of what to do next.

Perfection is now then there is no more to add, but no more to take away

-Antoine De Saint Exupery (author of The Little Prince)

Vagabonding

Perhaps the biggest actionable lesson I got in “living the simple life” I got during my “vagabonding” trip in Vietnam. As mentioned in earlier posts, Vietnam was a huge learning experience. I was amazed at how much I managed to fit my life into a backpack. I lived out adventures and new friendships out of it. While the living conditions at dormitories and hostels couldn’t compare to the comforts of home, they weren’t uncomfortable at all. For the price of what a Singaporean college student would pay for a Starbucks drink, she could pay for a night’s stay at a backpacker’s hostel in Hanoi. For the price of a restaurant meal in Singapore, she could buy herself three days’ worth of sumptuous street food in Bangkok or Penang.

In retrospective, Vietnam made me conscious of my spending habits within a consumer, spending-oriented society.

As with, say, giving up coffee, simplifying your life will require a somewhat difficult consumer withdrawal period. Fortunately, your impending travel experience will give you a very tangible and rewarding long-term goal that helps ease the discomfort. Over time, as you reap the sublime rewards of simplicity, you’ll begin to wonder how you ever put up with such a cluttered life in the first place.

-Rolf Potts, Vagabonding

It might seem like counter-intuitive thinking at first, but the big lessons come down to:

1. Reducing material burdens actually gives us more options in life.

2. A simplified creation process gives us a beautiful and useful end product.

How You Can Find The Best Place To Stay in Melaka or Anywhere… On A Shoestring

picture by spooneater

Eight Jalan Tukang Emas might easily be overlooked by passer-bys and tourists visiting Chinatown in Melaka. The one attraction why people come here is for the food. Old Melaka is a food haven. Chicken rice balls: Rice spheres which are a variation of the famous Hainanese dish, and the local take on the ever-popular curry noodle dish: Laksa. As such, most of the traditional shophouses in the Chinatown area have in some way or another profited from the throngs of visitors who want a taste of Melaka’s culinary delights. The antique stores that stock junk from the town’s colonial past, Chinese temples, and budget hostels, all share the same architecture as 8 Jalan Tukang Emas.

Eight Jalan Tukang Emas looks just like yet another shophouse along this street, apart from its periwinkle blue painted shutters. Its fame and recognition amongst budget travelers as one of the best hostels in Melaka should remain visually obscured by every other shophouse in Chinatown is indeed a curiosity. For fame and success amongst these little businesses in Chinatown seems to always have to do with spectacular neon lighted displays, ridiculously long queues that somehow signify shop popularity, and painstakingly restored multicolor Peranakan decor.

As it happens, I spent two days and a night at 8 Jalan Tukang Emas, better known as the “Jalan Jalan” guesthouse.  I seemed to have spent more time enjoying its home-away-from home comforts, rather than exploring the streets of Melaka’s old quarter. I am fascinated by its tranquil inner garden courtyard, and the rows of bicycles lined up in front of its front shutters, ready for rent at RM 6 per day…

The hostel was rather relaxing. It took me a long time to remove myself from the feeling of being at home, and on the most basic level, I never have, and never will. There is no homely hostel like one that is a home, no garden like a garden an inner garden that entices you with the sound of trickling water that seemed to bring a hot day down to a cool one. I have never experienced any  hostel atmosphere as welcoming, that will always be facilitated by its hostel-keeper Sam.

What are some of the resources I used to find this home away from home?

If buying a copy of Lonely Planet for a weekend shoestring budget getaway makes no sense for you, there are plenty of resources online.

http://www.tripadvisor.com

Trip advisor is possibly the most user-friendly travel resource search engine available, and that’s how many fellow travelers in Melaka found Jalan Jalan.

http://www.hostelworld.com/

Hostelworld gives annual awards to the best hostels around the world, and have been visited by its staff that does personal reviews of the places. Jalan Jalan has won awards for “best staff” and “best cleanliness”.

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree

If you’ve got questions about a destination, chances are someone might have already asked, and gotten answers about it on Lonely Planet’s Thorn Tree forum. Great for checking out transport options, and potential scams in specific locations too.

http://delicious.com/

Crowdsourcing at its best. The most popular social-bookmarking site can give you the best options for cheap and popular lodgings. See what others have favored in the cities you wish to visit.

http://www.couchsurfing.org/

Apart from surfing on other’s couches, CSers can provide good information about the best hostels in their area. Sign up and ask around!

A combination of the results from the websites above should give you some of the best hostels available in a city. Do you have any other resources to recommend?

What I Learned About The Long Tail And How I Saw It In Singapore

photo by You Need Style

I’m very late into reading Chris Anderson’s The Long Tail: Why The Future Of Business Is Selling Less Of More, and I it’s one of the best (if not the best) I’ve read this year. All through the books were “aha” moments that make so much sense when you look at media and commerce on the Internet, and the physical world.
For those who’ve been preached to death about the Long Tail, please bear with me while I paraphrase Chris’ explanation of The Long Tail. The way I understood it, economies are shifting from domination by hit-based, one size fits all, to the emergence and success of niche goods that make up the true majority of any given market.
Three forces make this possible:

• Democratized production

• Democratized distribution

• Supply and Demand connected

The Long Tail Of Temple Worshipers

As a result of reading the book, I attempted to see long tail effects around me, and voila, saw a mini-long tail story in the local Straits Times yesterday.
For the most part, Buddhists in Singapore head to well-established temples in Singapore, the same way Muslims go to mosques, Christians to their churches, and Indians to the Indian temples.

With Buddhist temples however, Yen Feng and Feng Zengkun realized that many micro-temples are appearing in numbers throughout Singapore’s famous red-light district, Geylang. These have appeared for a number of reasons:

• Strict zoning laws for institutions registered as temples per se. (Scarcity of physical space) Micro-temples apply for more flexible zoning as associations instead

• Micro temples cater to the seniors who are unable to climb high temple steps that are a feature of the larger temples. (There is no one-size fits all solution)

• Having a large body of micro-temples in one area serves the varying needs of the community. (The same way CDBaby and ITunes does this for music fans online)

This shouldn’t be a surprise in the late 2000s, when people are exploring their own unique interests, rejecting the majority / mass media solution of “one-size-fits-all”. Micro-temples are a lot easier to set up as compared to the humongous temples we’ve seen around Singapore. We are seeing transportation getting efficient day-by-day, with the upcoming Circle Line and electronic bus-reporting times at bus stops. Having micro-services in one area adds too convenience too.
Chris Anderson simplifies the rules to creating thriving Long Tail businesses as:

• Make everything available
• Help me find it

Which can be expanded into:

Lowering your costs

• Move inventory way in… or way out
• Let customers do the work

Thinking niche

• One distribution doesn’t fit all
• One product doesn’t fit all
• One price doesn’t fit all

Losing control

• Share information
• Think “and” not “or”
• Trust the market to do your job
• Understand the power of free

Will this happen for the other religious groups in Singapore? Micro-churches, mosques and Indian temples?  The use of Facebook, Twitter, Meetup.com, and other social media? We’ve already seen the emergence of churchgoers attending services online, so it might become an emergent trend, probably by word of mouth.

I do think Geylang is Singapore’s most colorful quarter. For friends traveling in Singapore, stop by if you’ve only got one day here.

The True Value Of Work (II): Of Insane Career Risks

photo by mikep

I previously wrote about my views towards working and how people view work in general here

“Are you telling me you hate your job?” I asked.

“Yes I hate it! I’ve hated it for the past twenty years of my life!” he slammed his fist onto the glass surface covering the rosewood oriental table.

Like a calm Hindu cow, I poured my uncle another glass of water, listening intently. He was proud to have been able to pay for the upkeep of his family, he said. Property ain’t cheap in Singapore, but he bought his family a house with a nice, small front yard no more than six months ago. Together with that nice car of his, I’m sure he wasn’t having any fun paying these things off.

The Singaporean dilemma: Working in jobs you don’t like, buying things you don’t need, simply because that seems like the path everyone is taking towards happiness and success in life. How exactly did he define success?

One of my favorite posts by Brett McKay of the The Art Of Manliness is ” 7 Lessons in Manliness From The Greatest Generation”. While my dad and uncles are Baby Boomers instead of the Greatest Generation, I could see so many of the values they might picked up from their dad, my grandfather. (Granddad passed away before I was born, so I wouldn’t know) Values that I began to appreciate; like how they embraced challenges in life, being humble, and being frugal. Its the kind of stuff that keeps a man’s feet on the ground, and gives  sports successes like Rafael Nadals, and the Warren Buffets around us with the motivation to go through their day-in-day-outs, and win.

The twist lies in its career advice. Brett says of the men who fought in World War II:

In war, these men had learned to focus on the objective at hand and not give up until that objective and the mission as a whole was accomplished. When they got home, they carried that focus over to the world of work. They didn’t fall into the fallacy that Mike Rowe has been busy denouncing, that you have to find “your passion” to be happy. They could find happiness in any job they did, because they weren’t just working for personal, self-fulfillment; they labored for a bigger purpose: to give their families the financial security they hadn’t enjoyed growing up.

The issue I have with advice like this is how willing  it was to sum up the varying experiences and attitudes of a generation, and the connection between not giving up on one’s mission or work with not having to “find your passion” weak. In fact I would argue that people who do find work that they love doing tend to focus and persist much more than those who don’t.

Last Thursday night, my values were challenged directly for the first time with my uncle. I was questioned about my experimenting with jobs, and not focusing on one job for good. This wasn’t the first time I was hearing the “Gen Y, grow the fuck up and stop dreaming” tirade. If anything, it made me realize the amount of unhappiness some men have to endure, wanting and expecting everyone else that comes after them to go through the same hell they seem to buy themselves into.

We live in a modern world where it no longer seems financially smart nor career-savvy to dedicate ten to twenty years of your life to a company that might cease to exist in five years time. Frequency of boom-bust cycles are shortening. Where once people saw long-term loyalty to a company as the perfect career-safety net, having multiple sources of income and building a strong and varied personal skill set would be a lot more logical.

Tamara J. Erickson, a McKinsey award-winning author wrote on the Harvard Business review that many Gen Ys view their twenties as a time for “exploration and experimentation — a time to try out multiple jobs, learn as much as possible, live in new locations for awhile — laying the groundwork for making some more focused choices in their thirties.”

“I hate your generation. I know your generation. You’re all the same. Selfish. Pampered. Not willing to make sacrifices.”

Guess my uncle wasn’t in a really good mood…

The Singapore that Lee Kuan Yew helped to shape is beginning to grow beyond what her people had to do to survive the fifties, sixties, and seventies.  I wondered if my uncle’s words showed an unease towards change: changing economies, jobs, technologies, societies, a changing Singapore.

“If you don’t start settling down into a job now, it will be too late for you by the time you’re in your late twenties.”

This one I find even harder to believe. Again, this is based on the assumption that one has to work in a company for the long term to gain financial and career safety, and that jobs are far and few between during these times. To that, Tamara J Erickson says:

Gen Y’s stand to benefit from many fortuitous trends — not the least of which is an extraordinarily long life expectancy. This year may feel like a blow but keep it in perspective — you will have lots of time once the economy picks up. Keep a positive perspective and use this time to your benefit.

Many well meaning friends and relatives question decisions to experiment  and taking time off to travel. They suggest plenty of opportunities to do it when one has established a career and is financially stable. What are the chances we’ll be doing that when we’re older, earning big salaries, laden with responsibilities, but unhappy with our lives? I am forewarned by the brightest minds in academia and entrepreneurship:

And then there is the most dangerous risk of all -  the risk of spending your life not doing what you want on the bet you can buy yourself the freedom to do it later.”

- Randy Komisar

Your early twenties are exactly the time to take insane career risks

-Paul Graham

7 Lessons in Manliness From the Greatest Generation

My Icons

Shamelessly stealing the idea from Colin Marshall, I’ve  decided to select nine people whose thoughts and actions have in some way influenced my outlook on life. I’ve come to realize the importance of having heroes in one’s life: never underestimate how they can help you to shape your values and achievements.

***

“The best advice I got from my aunt, the great singer Rosemary Clooney, and from my dad, who was a game show host and news anchor, was: don’t wake up at seventy years old sighing over what you should have tried. Just do it, be willing to fail, and at least you gave it a shot. That’s echoed for me all through the last few years.”

-George Clooney

***

“Choose someone whose way of life as well as words, and whose face very mirroring the character that lies behind it, have won your approval. Be always pointing him out to yourself either as your guardian, or as your model. There is a need, in my view, for someone as a standard against which our characters can measure themselves. Without a ruler to do it against, you won’t make the crooked straight.”

-Lucius Annaeus Seneca

***

“Too many people are afraid to look deep down and look at where you made mistakes. That’s not always easy to do, to be honest with yourself. That’s something my father always instilled in me and even to this day, sometimes it’s difficult, but you have to take an honest look and have an honest evaluation of your performance.”

-Tiger Woods

***

“For me the goal is the same: try to improve my tennis and try to continuing have the good results. In the end, is only one number. No. 1 and No. 2 is only one number of difference. You know, I say it 100 times, no? I didn’t go to sleep thinking if I am No. 1 or No. 2, and I didn’t wake up thinking about if I am the No. 1 or No. 2. I think about I have to play well today or I have to practice well today. I have to improve. “

-Rafael Nadal

***

“A lot of people are in business to try to make money. If that’s the primary driver, I think it’s pretty hard to do well in the long term. But if instead you’re doing something that you’re so passionate about doing that you’d be happy doing it for 10 years without making any money, I think that you’re much more likely to be successful, and the optimism will come naturally on its own.”

-Tony Hsieh

***

“It’s hard to find work you love; it must be, if so few do. So don’t underestimate this task. And don’t feel bad if you haven’t succeeded yet. In fact, if you admit to yourself that you’re discontented, you’re a step ahead of most people, who are still in denial. If you’re surrounded by colleagues who claim to enjoy work that you find contemptible, odds are they’re lying to themselves. Not necessarily, but probably.”

-Paul Graham

***

“I’ve always tried not to fall for the lies that say things like ‘you can do anything if you have the will’ or that ‘you’re the only one who can carve out your own life.’ According to the audience member’s beliefs, you could call it the will of God or social systems, or fate; but in the end, what I’m trying to say is the same. And that is, ‘Life doesn’t go your own way.”

-Park Chan Wook

***

“Never say ‘no’ to adventures. Always say ‘yes,’ otherwise you’ll lead a very dull life.”

- Ian Fleming

***

How do I guess at the future? Based on the omens of the present. The secret is here in the present. If you pay attention to the present, you can improve upon it. And, if you improve on the present, what comes later will also be better. Forget about the future, and live each day according to the teachings, confident that God loves his children. Each day, in itself, brings with it an eternity.”

-Paulo Coelho – “The Alchemist“

Separation and Sarkozy: The Story Of A Couchsurfing Ambassador

Photo by Eole

Is it truly possible to live vicariously through someone else?

I did for one Saturday afternoon.

Today was Couchsurfing Orientation Day Singapore. Having joined Couchsurfing in June of this year, I hoped to be able to learn and find leverage on a community of travelers. Couchsurfing day brought back that sense of excitement I had for meeting people of different nationalities, that sense of the unknown, strangeness the morning I had breakfast at the Peace House in Hanoi with volunteers from the UK and Spain.

For the uninitiated, here’s what the New York Times ’s Penelope Green had to say about Couchsurfing:

In an age of cheap airfares and porous borders, where nearly every corner of the earth, from Bulgaria to Bhutan, is open for tourism, the home is the final frontier, the last authentic experience. Instead of being in some sanitized hotel in Hanoi, said Erik Torkells, editor of Budget Travel magazine, “if I couch surf I could be on some cool ex-pat’s or local’s sofa.” He added: “I’ve already leapfrogged barriers.”

The group’s philosophy:… I will offer you my couch free, along with the company of my friends and a tour of my favorite spots in my city. In return, you will give of yourself. In this way, we will be friends, if only for a day or two.

Thanks to Michel, shy Singaporean couchsurfers got a chance to meet up with friends from overseas, as well as locals who are curious about this ever-growing community of vagabonds, and would be world explorers.

Michel is an ambassador for couchsurfing, and Singapore is his current pitstop around Southeast Asia. He travels from location to location, teaching would-be couchsurfers the art of building a good couchsurfing profile. The first impression I got from Michel that he certainly knows how to put a stranger at ease. He is a good storyteller, and uses this to his advantage to tell someone more about himself to establish a connection.

So on a Saturday afternoon, you would have found 12 couchsurfers at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf having conversations, while Michel worked individually on our online profiles. What intrigued me the most, however, was how Michel came to be a Couchsurfing Ambassador. After patiently waiting out everyone to leave (wasn’t that hard, I made good friends and had good conversations!) I could have a Q&A with Mr Nomad.

Michel is on a 5 year retirement, leaving his job as a web designer. Right now money comes from web owners renting virtual space on his servers in California. He is forty-five this year.

What brings you around the world Michel?

“Two reasons. Separation, and Sarkozy”

A native of Villeurbanne (the second largest metropolitan area in France), Michel, for reasons undisclosed, separated from his partner, wondering if they might get back together again if they gave themselves a few years apart. Sadly, things did not turn out well for the couple, so they remained two separate entities. At the same time, Sarkozy won the French presidential elections of 2007. This, for Michel, was the last straw.

Sarkozy, Berlusconi, they’re all the same. Mindless womanizers.

Michel claims that Sarkozy gave unacceptable promises to win the elections, most notably, on the issue of immigration laws. When Sarkozy was Minister of Interior during the mid-2000s, the number of deportations in France doubled. Most of France’s basic wage jobs like window cleaning and waitering was done by immigrants. Jobs that most middle class French shunned. What pisses Michel off is the unfairness in all of this: Even sans-papiers immigrants (illegal immigrants) who contributed vastly to France’s economy, who were paying taxes, were deported from France.

You know there are Chinese and Blacks cleaning the windows of police stations in Paris? This guy is hired by the police commissioner to clean the windows for years. The window cleaner has a family to feed in Paris, he has no citizenship, but he pays taxes. Then there is a change of police commisioner. The new guy discovers that all this time an illegal immigrant has been cleaning the windows of the station. So you know what he does? He deports him. Just because Sarkozy has a minimum set on the number of immigrants to deport every year. This was in the papers all over Paris. Ridiculous.

Forgive me if it does sound so one-sided, black-and-white here. I am doing injustice to Michel, who is such the lively animated storyteller. Strike Two was enough for Michel to decide to pack up and visit friends living around France. Having been around the country, visited all his friends, he returned to his parents home confused, wondering if he can go on living life as a traveller.

Then one day my mom saw in the papers this thing about Couchsurfers being popular all around Europe. She told me “Son, since you want to live like a nomad, why not try this?”I am thinking, why not? So I worked on my profile, then my story of traveling began…

Michel is proud to never have to depend on a unemployment benefit from the French government, which is about 400 Euros per month for those without a job. He feels disgraced if he ever has to “pay taxes to Sarkozy” too. This is a man that is living the vagabond’s life. I got an insight into his money habits as well. Seeking out the cheapest meals wherever he goes (less than 2 euros). At our Couchsurfing Orientation at Coffee Bean, he suggested all 12 of us share a big pot of tea, which was supposed to amount to S$2 for each of us. (I paid S$5). He doesn’t keep much possessions with him. In fact, he gives away the cheap T-shirts (less than one Euro in Penang) he buys in Asia, once he’s done with them.

Michel is a living example of a bootstrapping traveler.

But is all this coming to a close for him? The traveling seems to be taking a toll on Michel, who says he’s starting to feel both physically and mentally bogged. Being a Couchsurfer means sometimes you get hosts who want you out of the house at 7am when they go to work, simply because they don’t trust you. But thats ok with him, he goes look for a public library with wifi. After all, a large part of his time now is dedicated to contributing as a Couchsurfing ambassador online, and offline.

For me I think the most painful thing being on the road long term is that you make no deep personal connections with anyone. One masters the art of building a rapport with strangers very easily, but hesitates to take those necessary additional steps to have and become a good friend or partner. After all, they’re not going to be part of your lives for a long time right?

Ben Casnocha says:

The best way to build intimacy in a relationship is to spend quality in-the-flesh time with each other. If you’re always on the go, or never in the same place for more than a few years, intimacy can be hard to come by.

The idea is familiar to me… the long term volunteers at the Peace House in Hanoi tell me about this all the time.  Because we were all volunteers for different lengths of time, its hard when solid friendships are formed, and the long term volunteer sees all his good friends disappear one by one, and have to take the effort to build new friendships again, when new people arrive every two weeks.

Michel’s stories were truly vicarious, and kept me thinking about the reasons why people travel.

Letters From Shanghai (And Guangzhou)

The Canton Trade Fair. Picture by tarotastic

Shanghai is an amazingly prosperous city. Possibly the most prosperous city in Asia I’ve seen so far in my short but sweet travel experiences. Aston Martin car showrooms, beautiful French-decor houses, middle-and-upper class Shanghaians decked out in their nines on a Friday night along the streets of  Xintiandi. Regal Chinese restaurants that take up four storeys worth of dining space within a large complex, and always filled up with cigarette-smoking businessmen and women seeking to impress their clients.

Yet by no means should Shanghai be an end-all impression of what China truly is. Here are my thoughts:

1. Cosmopolitan Shanghai has its Warhol-ian side

On my first day here in Shanghai, I quickly grew tired of the countless number of polish-perfect shopping malls, and cool people. The second day, however, I got to see another side of Shanghai. While material prosperity may have driven and fueled the Shanghai Machine, its artistic and cultural heartbeat is well and alive. Its history of European concessions after the Opium war is preserved in what is known to the guide books as “The French Concession”. These French-built colonial buildings are well preserved in the southern parts of Yan’an Road, along with a beautifully large garden styled in reference to Versailes Palace’s own. Not too far away, along the old warrens and shikumen (stone-door houses), old shantys have been transformed into Shanghai’s own alternative lifestyle cum arts district. Don’t get the wrong idea, it ain’t hippies and starving artists here. They’re shrewd young Chinese who have a flair for pop art and pop eateries, with entire lanes styled to make you feel you’re not in Shanghai, but along the cobbled streets of an European town. Each with its own distinctive style and goods, no two shops are exactly the same.

2. Shanghai’s Infrastructure Is A Reflection Of The Government’s Willingness To Spend

From Maglev trains to world class tennis facilities, and even the 2008 Beijing Olympics that left many speechless, it does seem like boomtime for the Chinese Government. Having more than a trillion in federal reserve notes, Hu Jintao’s government is willing to do all it takes to show that China (or at least Shanghai) has truly arrived. This is all positive, after all, living standards of all Chinese have risen dramatically.

3. Social Glue Is A Requirement For Doing Business With  Chinese Nationals

Everyone wants to do business in China, yet its such a complicated matter. Take the well known “guanxi” for example. Guanxi both facilitates and frustrates. Guanxi is social glue. Skip paying fines or get better tickets on a train if you’ve got a relative working from the inside. When you’re doing business with mainland Chinese, don’t be surprised if he brings others into the fray. He’ll probably involve his uncle, brother, and distant 5th cousin along as well.

4. Social Attitudes Lag Behind Modern Infrastructure

With Shanghai’s incessant pace to modernize, not everything or everyone catches up. Money can buy you all the steel, tar, microchips you need, but it can’t buy your people new attitudes and cultures in an instant. For all its modern exterior’s worth, the mainland Chinese are in need of social modernization as well. This shouldn’t be surprising for any rapidly developed city: Its people act and think in ways that seem to echo developing world attitudes. Singapore was like that too, not too long ago. Examples: Beautiful Chinese ladies decked out in the best dresses spitting on the streets, lack of a sense of service by staff at shops and restaurants. Oh, you’ll be surprised if you see any queues here too. Its mostly mobs.

I overheard this conversation between two old Chinese friends, one mainland Chinese, the other Singaporean:

A (Singaporean) : Shanghai is  modernizing at an amazing pace isn’t it?

B (Mainland Chinese): Yes it is. Our cities will probably rival the most modern US and European cities in 10 years time. Can’t say the same about people’s attitudes though.

A: Another ten years you think?

B: Probably thirty years.

China the dominant superpower in 2040. Looking at how the world’s developing right now, its probably an inevitability.

5. In Shanghai, Money  Speaks Volumes

Cash is king here in Shanghai. Money buys social status, along with its material rewards. The widely accepted idea is that if you’ve got no money, your words ain’t worth any weight. When your words don’t mean a thing, the world looks down on you.

If people truly relied on purely the material for self-worth, it is probably a reflection of emptiness inside and a lack of self-confidence. That said, the lonely individual who wishes to live a fulfilling life, fighting against being a cog in the machinery is not unique to Shanghai.

With all the Ecstasy of Yuan, I do believe that many entrepreneurs in China look beyond money as motivation. I would like to think that many also see entrepreneurship as a creative outlet, a force for cultural and social change. As Josh Kaufman mentioned, there are two ways to see business: Simply a path to riches, or a path to making change in people’s lives.

6. Social Media in China Is Present, Just Different

Access to the internet is reasonably convenient in Shanghai and Guangzhou. Or ridiculously inaccessible. It depends how you look at it. If you’ve always been on Facebook, Twitter, blogger, wordpress, and the likes of Web 2.0 as we know it, internet in China is going to feel pre-1998 for you. What I’m really driving at is that social media as the western world (and Singapore) knows it, is nonexistent in China. Thats because we’re not looking at social media through Chinese lenses. Xiaonei, RenRen, TaoTao, represent for the biggest “facebooks” and “twitters” in China. The western world, thinking that it was ahead in social media, has realized that Chinese social networks are blooming wildly. Internet usage in China isn’t just boundaried, individual use is carefully monitored as well. It shouldn’t be a surprise that the Great Firewall of China has to employ a really large number of “internet police” to achieve this.

Hu Jintao’s government mitigation strategy towards western social media’s dangers is to completely shut it out from within its borders, until it finds a better way to deal with it.

7. The Challenges Of Doing Business In China (or with Chinese people in general)

Being Chinese myself, I didn’t really understand this, but my short but sweet experience in China has left me feeling that trade is often carried out with a certain level of mistrust and overcaution when dealing with us Chinese, and amongst Chinese. At the Guangzhou trade fair, it is sometimes all smiles between the exhibitor and buyer, sometimes its the good ol’ fashioned, you vs. me, I win/you lose. I ask for name cards, singnalling intent in doing business in the near future, and sometimes I get rejected, the seller citing no-responses even after distributing hundreds of costly-to-print namecards.  My dad has had 20 years of experience doing business with China, and that seems  the case for him: that the process of building trust in China is a long and drawn out experience. As Tim Ferriss mentioned recently, western ideas of business ethics is rare in China. The prevalent thinking is “能骗就骗” (neng pian jiou pian) i.e. “If one can deceive, then by all means do so!” It explains the lack of respect for intellectual property, rampant “piracy” in China, or the rest of Asia.

8. The Challenge For Businesses In The Freeconomy

The “piracy” problem is actually a doubled edged sword. This novel challenge that China and Asia brings to the world: Apart from declaring war on the pirates, how will we adapt to an audience who can easily get hold of your intellectual property for free, or almost free? How will our businesses survive?

If Philippe Starck comes up with a revolutionary new design for a kitchen blender, China can make an exact clone of the product days after the original piece is released to the market. Thats the reality of “Made-In-China”, and the reality of China as the World’s Factory.

We live in exciting times.

***Here’s a comparison with what I’ve learnt from Vietnam***

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/154/380173157_dd6a416379_b.jpg

If You Want A Purple Cow Job…

All throughout my plane ride back from Guangzhou to Singapore, I dug into some Seth Godin wisdom via Small Is The New Big. Very relevant marketing / job seek advice that I might have been too lazy to search through his blog for, but incredibly convenient on paperback.

Jobs For Purple Cows

A friend of mine is a world-class lawyer, with a great background in copyright, deal-making and intellectual property issues. She has a stellar resume and could get a cog-job in about two seconds. Except that she doesn’t want to do that. She wants to work for a fast-growing neat organization with flexible hours. And she’s willing to take a 60% pay cut to do so.

In the current system, there’s no place for her (or for you, for that matter) to let the right person know that they ought to rethink the way they’re allocating their payroll and their services budget and take advantage of this opportunity. This is ridiculous. There’s no other similar expense in a corporation that is totally demand based. Companies don’t say, “We’re thinking of replacing our phone system, please let us know if there’s some new technology that we don’t know about” or “Our charity currently uses a traditional system to do fundraising but we’re auditioning automated online systems, please send a properly formatted brochure…”

Well, if the single-most-important thing a business can do is hire amazing people, why shouldn’t that
process be more flexible and be built around the people, not the slots?

I haven’t yet achieved a “stellar resume” but would love to work with a growth-oriented startup that does flexible hours too. Not plently of those around, but I believe in creating the jobs you want that aren’t yet available. As Seth goes on to say, these types of jobs will become a lot more common in the years to come.

Thanks to Seth Godin for the inspiration

***For those who were wondering why my travel blog was never updated, wordpress and other blogging formats are banned in China, as I discovered too late. I’m glad to say I’ve learnt a lot more about China during my one week stay in Shanghai and Guangzhou, and will be posting up a “what I’ve learnt” in the coming week. ***