Saturday, October 29, 2005

The best position on AI - AP director!

I am not profiling my post because AI is gonna open application 06-07 in a few weeks. It is not because I don't have people applying as my successor. I really want to tell the world that - my job is great!

I am in the third country - Sri Lanka, after Philippines and Thailand. My first 2 country visits were great - at least I think so, if it counts! ;-) In Thailand, I realized how motivated and excited I was because I am 'on the ground', doing country visits, influencing members as well as countries one by one. It is such a rewarding feeling when people came to talk to me at a conference, when I receive a lot of sugar cubes and when the MCs expressing how grateful they were since I came to them.

Deep down, I am inspired by the members in the countries seeing how they work, how much they want their own AIESEC countries to be successful and relevant to their societies, how much they want to make big changes in their countries in the near future - they are living the true AIESEC spirit and they are my role models.

Man, I love Philippines in all ways. It felt like out of sudden country visits turn to be a lot easier since Thailand was a bit difficult. Philippino @ers are from rich or very high social classes. Yet they are so keen on the social development and become somebody who can influence their society in a positive way. AIESEC in Philippines are working on issues most relevant to the country as well to the young generation. They have so much passion and ambition to be a progressive country. I was totally touched. I chaired their national presidents meeting - it was great fun from working to parties to morning plenaries.

Philippines is also heaven for shopping and other stuff. I went to a very fancy hair salon and got the best stylist which cost me only 7 euro. Clothes, shoes and other daily products are very cheap. When I was doing my pendicare, I was thinking what are the other 4 directors doing now? ;p Both in Thailand and Philippines, I did so much shopping that I have to dump some of my stuff to the MCP and ask them to take to IPM in next Feb.

And here right now I am in Colombo. I am so grateful that I can come back to this sweet country after 20 months. It looks kinda different from how I remember it. Mosquitos and polution are killing me. Otherwise, I still love it heaps.

I met some trainees here seems like they are working on DT projects related to Tsunami. It is interesting that how wasted they are - they have nothing to do over the weekend apart from drinking and clubbing. As white people, they receive a lot of attention and probably privilege as well like how it is in every other Asian countries - you know what I am talking about. ;-) And some of the traineeships are pretty short - 3 months. I can't help wondering are those traineeships a powerful experience?

Saturday, October 15, 2005

In Thailand

I am right now in Thailand. It is 2 days before their NLDS and National Strategy Review Conference. The international facilitators are working hard on NLDS. The MCP fell asleep after answering a phone call. The MC PR person is working on her branding sessions. I am not sure where are the rest of the MCs and what they are doing.

I kept on thinking about what I read about in the ‘Flawless Consulting’ early in June. Consultants should ensure that the responsibility is 50/50 with the organization receiving the service. Right now I am taking more than 50 for sure. Again, the negative me popped out and start to doubt what will happen to this country after I left. How I can ensure things will happen?

I cannot understand how parttime @ers work any more though once I was a parttime @er who can only work late in the nights and weekends. Efficiency is such a big issue here. Or it is culture. I am not sure. I am never culturally sensitive and never bothered to be. I cannot help wondering how people can be so lazy. The maturity of the membership even leadership is seriously a problem.

Giving solutions to AIESEC Thailand’s organization problem, helping out with their conference, I realized how much I’ve experienced last year in Mainland of China. We managed to put lots of systems in place and started XP implementation with common induction. It feels like for me now. And I feel how much more I’ve improved myself in professional sense now.

I haven’t been able to see much Thai stuff here. The MC has zero sense to promote their culture to you and they are all very stressful and busy with the conference preparation though each of them is not taking more than 1 session. Maggie (the country coach), Christina (the international MC) and international faci’s are taking care of most of the sessions. Neither was anyone from Thai MC picked me up from the airport. It was Maggie.

I am not sure if they are scared of me or they realized being late is a very bad habit, they are never late any more. I was late for 5 minutes once which was very embarrassing.

Something about Bangkok the city itself:
1. Skyline: This is one of the most important transportation tools here. The way they constructed the skylines completely covered the majority of the city. So all you can see above your head is highway, not the sky.

2. Ladyboy: I guess I’ve seen one. There was a girl her face looked obviously had some major plastic surgery on her eyes and nose. I was not sure so I asked one of the MC and she told me that the girl has to be a lady boy because her boops are too big! What a funny indicator. I immediately looked around in the subway train, girls in Thailand almost have no boops. Nevertheless, they all dress very feminine. ;-) I guess it is due to the pressure coming from ladyboys. ;p Ever since, I have such a bad habit of checking out all the girls here trying to be able to spot the ladyboys. ;p

3. Chinese influence: I guess there is a big Chinese population here. Product packages, big signs all have Chinese on them. And some of the food is very similar to Chinese food. People for sure don’t look different at all. The Chinese government can take over Thailand if Taiwan is too difficult. ;p

4. @ers are very rich. I reaffirmed this after India and Bangladesh.

5. There are many other interesting things I am not able to list down one by one. You can come to Thailand and experience yourself! ;-)

Monday, October 10, 2005

My Trip to London

There is an old Chinese saying – a good thing starts with many difficulties. (Forgive my bad translation if you know what I mean.) The trip to London wasn’t easy at all though it is 4 hours away by train. It ended with a 10 hours trip since I left my apartment in Rotterdam till I reach the UK MC office.

For some strange reason, Schipol airport claimed that they found a bomb left from 2nd world war thus most of the flights got either cancelled or delayed. The Dutch are just funny people!

I really loved the time I spent in London and here are my feelings of London:

1. London is a true cosmopolitan:
I was born and brought up in Shanghai. I always thought I loved quiet little towns. After 1 year in Beijing and 4 months in Rotterdam, London provoked my ‘cosmopolitan’ DNA. I loved the dynamics of the city – fashion, art, chilling out, sightseeing. I don’t think I’ll be bored at any time. It is so busy, so crowded, so energetic.

2. Girls are not wearing the same:
In Rotterdam, girls all look the same. This season is tight jacket, short skirt, black stocking with a pair of boots and a big cross their body. If AIESEC countries are like Dutch girls, there will never be any misalignment in directions. ;-)

Here in London, fashion is a lot more dynamic. At least I think girls are prettier since they know what fit them better or what they want to wear.

3. Juice is not popular:
I was having a Chinese lunch buffet with the UK MC, celebrating Harmandeep’s birthday. I was quite surprised when I could only choose between lemonade and coke – where is fresh juice, my friend? How come London is so different from the rest of the Western Europe?