Angkor Wat, one of the famous sites of the ancient Angkor empire (8th to 13th c.)
home of poor ppl, trying to sell you too silly stuff for too much money
Dienstag, 11. Dezember 2007
Siem Reap ("Siam defeated"): touristy vs poverty
Siem Reap, the city next to Angkor, a huge complex with dozens of temples, ruins and impressive memorabilias, but also hords of tourists and local (aggressive) sellers.
As soon as you get into the city (coming from the scam-border of Poi Pet/Thailand), you're struck by finally a good road (compare this to the dirt-path with crater-big loopholes before), eletric lighting at the main road (and almost only there; althought there are also lighting posts on the street to Angkor Wat, they aren't used) and nice-looking buildings.
Seemingly almost everybody tries to rip you off, you the Westerner from whom one can easily extract money.
This starts as soon as you get dropped off from the bus, 6km away from the border (still in Thailand); so you need to get a tuk-tuk, which drives you to the border (80Baht per Person/tuktuk); and of course, this tuk-tuk conveniently drops you off there, where the scammers want to make you believe that you cannot get a VISA (20US$) for Cambodia "on arrival" anymore but since they are the "friendly volunteers" they want to sell you a Visa for 1200 ThaiBaht (40US$) from a Cambodian consulate in Thailand (which easily takes 3 days).
So, I left them and headed to the border, checked swiftly the Thai-border, walked to the Cambodian side, where noone tells you where to get this fucking visa from which booth. A guy points at a house, in which a police official first asks for your passport (not to clear it and help; but to check from where you are in order to estimate how rich you may be and how much you could be overcharged or extorted!!! He wanted also 1200Thai Baht; no US dollar, probably because of the recent $ depreciation). After a row, I left for the right VISA booth, told again my story that the official Cambodian immigration police says a visa is 20US$, but the bureaucrats and policemen on site demand 1000 Baht (= 33 US$) or 20US$ and 200B, and the latter I had to pay, otherwise would get granted accessin Cambodia.
Then, next red tape station was the stamping and entry-/exit cards; while you get photographed by a super-mdern webcam (same for Angkor entrance [!] and Suvarnabhumi in Thailand). At least this was for free, as well as the quick 1.5km journey to the state-run tourist room (not office…), where you can book a bus or taxi onwards). I took a cab with two germans (splitting the fixed 60$ cost into 3 times 20$); a bus ticket would be 12$, it was said, eventhough there are also private companies and tickets for 5$ acc. to Lonely Planet…
On the cab (>12 year old Toyota Camry), just 20minutes driving and one tire was gone… took 20min to repair for the driver. It gives you a hint how fucking dusty and rocky the roads are.
Despite being promised to be dropped off at the booked hostels, the driver and his tuk-tuk connection tell us that taxis are not allowed to enter the city center (such a silly lie did noone believe anyway..), but tired from the journey, we embarked the tuks (for free, at least); only to see that they are free in order to skim us and convince us to hire them as driver for out upcoming Angkor experience.
The Cambodian challenge went on in the bathroom of my otherwise relatively ok hostel: I wanted to wash my hands, tap water on and peng, the pipe (a gummy pipe) broke off, causing some disorder (at least seured briefly thereafter).
If you stroll to the Psar Chaa, the olöd market, it's all trendy-Western styled tourist restaurants, very pricy (ok, roughly a bit below Western prices, but some are even more expensive; incredible for Cambodia, one of the poorest sates in the world). Funny way at least, that ppl here seem constantly smiling and making fun of foreigners. But by smiling back, I got to know a smart Khmer, who did explain me some basic things about Cambodia.
Tenets:
- Locals overcharge foreigners whenever they can
- Tuk-tuk drivers, hostel managers, taxi companies frequently cooperate to upsell
- State concrete elements of a deal and set the price fixed in advance, otherwise you become a target to get cheated
- SR is a kind of a 2-class society (west vs. locals)
Next time more about Siem Reap
ADI
As soon as you get into the city (coming from the scam-border of Poi Pet/Thailand), you're struck by finally a good road (compare this to the dirt-path with crater-big loopholes before), eletric lighting at the main road (and almost only there; althought there are also lighting posts on the street to Angkor Wat, they aren't used) and nice-looking buildings.
Seemingly almost everybody tries to rip you off, you the Westerner from whom one can easily extract money.
This starts as soon as you get dropped off from the bus, 6km away from the border (still in Thailand); so you need to get a tuk-tuk, which drives you to the border (80Baht per Person/tuktuk); and of course, this tuk-tuk conveniently drops you off there, where the scammers want to make you believe that you cannot get a VISA (20US$) for Cambodia "on arrival" anymore but since they are the "friendly volunteers" they want to sell you a Visa for 1200 ThaiBaht (40US$) from a Cambodian consulate in Thailand (which easily takes 3 days).
So, I left them and headed to the border, checked swiftly the Thai-border, walked to the Cambodian side, where noone tells you where to get this fucking visa from which booth. A guy points at a house, in which a police official first asks for your passport (not to clear it and help; but to check from where you are in order to estimate how rich you may be and how much you could be overcharged or extorted!!! He wanted also 1200Thai Baht; no US dollar, probably because of the recent $ depreciation). After a row, I left for the right VISA booth, told again my story that the official Cambodian immigration police says a visa is 20US$, but the bureaucrats and policemen on site demand 1000 Baht (= 33 US$) or 20US$ and 200B, and the latter I had to pay, otherwise would get granted accessin Cambodia.
Then, next red tape station was the stamping and entry-/exit cards; while you get photographed by a super-mdern webcam (same for Angkor entrance [!] and Suvarnabhumi in Thailand). At least this was for free, as well as the quick 1.5km journey to the state-run tourist room (not office…), where you can book a bus or taxi onwards). I took a cab with two germans (splitting the fixed 60$ cost into 3 times 20$); a bus ticket would be 12$, it was said, eventhough there are also private companies and tickets for 5$ acc. to Lonely Planet…
On the cab (>12 year old Toyota Camry), just 20minutes driving and one tire was gone… took 20min to repair for the driver. It gives you a hint how fucking dusty and rocky the roads are.
Despite being promised to be dropped off at the booked hostels, the driver and his tuk-tuk connection tell us that taxis are not allowed to enter the city center (such a silly lie did noone believe anyway..), but tired from the journey, we embarked the tuks (for free, at least); only to see that they are free in order to skim us and convince us to hire them as driver for out upcoming Angkor experience.
The Cambodian challenge went on in the bathroom of my otherwise relatively ok hostel: I wanted to wash my hands, tap water on and peng, the pipe (a gummy pipe) broke off, causing some disorder (at least seured briefly thereafter).
If you stroll to the Psar Chaa, the olöd market, it's all trendy-Western styled tourist restaurants, very pricy (ok, roughly a bit below Western prices, but some are even more expensive; incredible for Cambodia, one of the poorest sates in the world). Funny way at least, that ppl here seem constantly smiling and making fun of foreigners. But by smiling back, I got to know a smart Khmer, who did explain me some basic things about Cambodia.
Tenets:
- Locals overcharge foreigners whenever they can
- Tuk-tuk drivers, hostel managers, taxi companies frequently cooperate to upsell
- State concrete elements of a deal and set the price fixed in advance, otherwise you become a target to get cheated
- SR is a kind of a 2-class society (west vs. locals)
Next time more about Siem Reap
ADI
Montag, 19. November 2007
Bisy - Tài máng - 太忙
R U busy as well? ... 4 exams, 2 papers, apply for jobs/grad school, plan your Dec vacation and try to find happyness? exactly
but, while researching for the Monetary Policy assignment, have a look at this:
http://www.worldbank.org/wbi/governance/pdf/Governance_Indicators_eng.pdf
The World bank's Governance charts.
As a Swiss, you're looking at the all deep-green colours which basically say your gov is ok (granted, there is always improvement potential, Kai Zen, e.g. for the Regulatory Quality, which is only at 93 (of 100)). No wonder I encounter frequently ppl abroad who keep telling me that, as a Swiss ("wow"), you live in paradise....
Since I live in Singapore, I was curious... and, aha, they are not bad either, when it comes to gov effectiveness etc.; BUT: in category "Voice&Accountability" the fellas score only 44 (of 100), which gives them a red pitch... ouuuuhhh.
Well, Singapore is undoubtedly an economic success story in the last 40 years. But who pushed this? The people? The individual? oh man, the gov of course. They seem to rely heavily on a top-down 100%-management of all political affairs which makes the de facto-one-party-polity almost a benevolent dictator (with emphasis on the first). However, as history - unfortunately - shows, there is no longterm good track record of any benevolent authoritarian polity.
I just hope, the Singaporeans will not be trapped and locked in - the challenges lay ahead and might demand more self-responsibility, ownership and bottom-up initiative than other stuff.
Btw: the folks who wanna construct a "harmonious society" perform much poorer (cf. China). Their accountability is just 7 of 100; the highest score is 60 for any indicator - let's just hope they won't get flushed down into a bloody civil war which might cost millions of lives, when ppl start to demand more equality, more say, more honesty and transparency....
but, while researching for the Monetary Policy assignment, have a look at this:
http://www.worldbank.org/wbi/governance/pdf/Governance_Indicators_eng.pdf
The World bank's Governance charts.
As a Swiss, you're looking at the all deep-green colours which basically say your gov is ok (granted, there is always improvement potential, Kai Zen, e.g. for the Regulatory Quality, which is only at 93 (of 100)). No wonder I encounter frequently ppl abroad who keep telling me that, as a Swiss ("wow"), you live in paradise....
Since I live in Singapore, I was curious... and, aha, they are not bad either, when it comes to gov effectiveness etc.; BUT: in category "Voice&Accountability" the fellas score only 44 (of 100), which gives them a red pitch... ouuuuhhh.
Well, Singapore is undoubtedly an economic success story in the last 40 years. But who pushed this? The people? The individual? oh man, the gov of course. They seem to rely heavily on a top-down 100%-management of all political affairs which makes the de facto-one-party-polity almost a benevolent dictator (with emphasis on the first). However, as history - unfortunately - shows, there is no longterm good track record of any benevolent authoritarian polity.
I just hope, the Singaporeans will not be trapped and locked in - the challenges lay ahead and might demand more self-responsibility, ownership and bottom-up initiative than other stuff.
Btw: the folks who wanna construct a "harmonious society" perform much poorer (cf. China). Their accountability is just 7 of 100; the highest score is 60 for any indicator - let's just hope they won't get flushed down into a bloody civil war which might cost millions of lives, when ppl start to demand more equality, more say, more honesty and transparency....
Mittwoch, 7. November 2007
PRC - I will conquer ya!
155 bucks for this sticker! I think I should start a business and grab a own market share….
Did you know: When you go to a supermarket in Singapore, there is no small conveyor belt at the cashier desk, but a lady who packs your groceries into numerous plastic bags (hey, isn't the oil price rising?). So you easily walk home with five or six such bags, and don't even have to pay for it.
We use big brown bags in Switzerland (recycled paper/cardboard, enduring), and you gotta pay 30 Rp. for one à makes ppl more aware of environmental issues and cost-effective living.
in statu scribere pro altera (!),with no reward
Ceci n'est pas un xīn jiā pō rén
What makes a Singaporean?
huh, I dunno, but I guess most Singaporeans do not know it either. Maybe it's time to look for movies about this....
"12 Storeys" (check out: http://www.zhaowei.com/12.htm)
We watched the film in a Pol. Science class. Pretty interesting study about the daily-life and anguish of 08/15-Singaporeans, narrated by somebody who just committed suicide from the 12th floor of a typical HDB flat (hey man, I also live on the 12th floor). The taxi driver meant, the higher level one jumpes, the higher his soul bounces back to heaven...
Anyway, his spirit/ghost wanders around and reveals some soul-shaking realities.
- A robust woman who has to take care of her (step-?)mother who constantly denigrates her and openly states her predilection for the second (step-)daughter, Rachel, who later drives by in a BMW 7-series car.
- Khor, the mid-20 brother who has to take care of his two adolescent siblings, both unwilling to learn, but eager to party. It's like the old generation (go for education, for a bigger flat/condo) tries to teach the younger (go for fun, sex, alc), but fails.
- Ah Gu, aged 45 or so, owner of a food stall, achieved to seduce a beauty in the PRC to Singapore, but her arrogance , affairs and vanity drives him crazy. It's like a petty pride of running one's own business mixed with the cliché to bring in a cute lady, eager to marry (a would-like to be) rich.
Lot's of half-veiled jokes about Singapore's mentality. The fear to lose out, kiasu, is here, as well as the reproach on ppl who (ab)use elevators as pissoirs (guess what: in my flat we have a plate in the lift that says "urinating is forbidden", funnily they forgot to mention the fine you'll face). However, ppl still do this (as I can smell sometimes in the morning…) there or on the corridor (btw: go once to St. Petersburg in Russia, pick one of the free English "St. Petersburg" and there you'll get as well complaints about ppl shitting in staircases…).
So, what's the success of gov campaigns if ppl do not share does values intrinsically? It's possibly more about bottom-up value building and ownership, rather then top-down inculcating…
All in all, it's depressing, but still worthwile to watch.
huh, I dunno, but I guess most Singaporeans do not know it either. Maybe it's time to look for movies about this....
"12 Storeys" (check out: http://www.zhaowei.com/12.htm)
We watched the film in a Pol. Science class. Pretty interesting study about the daily-life and anguish of 08/15-Singaporeans, narrated by somebody who just committed suicide from the 12th floor of a typical HDB flat (hey man, I also live on the 12th floor). The taxi driver meant, the higher level one jumpes, the higher his soul bounces back to heaven...
Anyway, his spirit/ghost wanders around and reveals some soul-shaking realities.
- A robust woman who has to take care of her (step-?)mother who constantly denigrates her and openly states her predilection for the second (step-)daughter, Rachel, who later drives by in a BMW 7-series car.
- Khor, the mid-20 brother who has to take care of his two adolescent siblings, both unwilling to learn, but eager to party. It's like the old generation (go for education, for a bigger flat/condo) tries to teach the younger (go for fun, sex, alc), but fails.
- Ah Gu, aged 45 or so, owner of a food stall, achieved to seduce a beauty in the PRC to Singapore, but her arrogance , affairs and vanity drives him crazy. It's like a petty pride of running one's own business mixed with the cliché to bring in a cute lady, eager to marry (a would-like to be) rich.
Lot's of half-veiled jokes about Singapore's mentality. The fear to lose out, kiasu, is here, as well as the reproach on ppl who (ab)use elevators as pissoirs (guess what: in my flat we have a plate in the lift that says "urinating is forbidden", funnily they forgot to mention the fine you'll face). However, ppl still do this (as I can smell sometimes in the morning…) there or on the corridor (btw: go once to St. Petersburg in Russia, pick one of the free English "St. Petersburg" and there you'll get as well complaints about ppl shitting in staircases…).
So, what's the success of gov campaigns if ppl do not share does values intrinsically? It's possibly more about bottom-up value building and ownership, rather then top-down inculcating…
All in all, it's depressing, but still worthwile to watch.
Donnerstag, 1. November 2007
dies cacatus - not even Roti Prata works
Such a nuisance. You wanna start a day early with reading, but are not concentrated, so you go to the library, but fall asleep. The only thing you get done is filling out a survey, which is the second part for gaining 1% of MPW's grade.
In AMP class, you're the only one who has not an appointment with the Prof for the paper (since you haven't done anything since 6 weeks on your topic).
After class, you go on with reading, but don't get far, too tired. With some books grabbed for reading at home you get to Dhoby Ghaut's MRT station, and miss two trains, because other ppl are more street-smart (kiasu - fear to lose out, so Singaporeans use their ellbows to get into the subway coach) than you.
Finally, at home, you try to cook Roti Prata, since this is one of your favorite dishes and always made you happy - except this time, when the fucking stuff is stuck in the frying pan - even though you poured in more than 1dl olive oil (the fucking pan seems to suck up the oil). So, after the first pancake, the pan was ruined (cf. picture), and the following dough bags, soaked up in oil, but not able to get fryed.
How can you end such a day happily?
.. by writing on the pol science paper?
nov 1, 2007
Dienstag, 30. Oktober 2007
Wǒ bù nûlì, wǒ shi nán guò
After my Bachelor thesis, I thought I would have grasped how you write a decent paper in some sort of a scientific sense (this is not to say that the thesis indeed met this standard, prob rather not), but here at SMU, things seem subtly different.
You give a presentation about a topic and try to structure it in a sense which reveals your reflections as well as it is factually rooted. But the ppl considered it as too dense/complicated. How come?
Somehow, the dysfunctional team managed to finish the slides of the presentation 30min after it should have started, instead of starting at 12am, the class watched a movie (beause the prof was late from another meeting) about an ancient Thai princess (Suryothai or so) which enabled us to put together the last slides. We then started to present at 12.47, but things still have been screwed up in almost any sense.
An now, a week later, we didn't manage to come up with the follo-up summary of our presentation as scheduled (funny is that here you can be late with delivering things, just say you would not be able to meet the deadline and you are granted some excess days; at the University of St. Gallen, we're kind of much more strict on this...). somebody and I of 5 in my group did deliver on time. However, 2/3 of my part (which was clearly defined until 2 days before the presentation, where I had to change due to others wishes; we had huge overlaps in our topic assignments) have been cut away. Now the paper is even more superficial than ever, with less sources, less differentiated discussion of our question. But it "looks" nicer, with fewer paragraphs (but a simplified cartoonization of the topic) and probably finds a better reception.
Are we at university or in kindergarten (with some fairy tales)?
Another nuisance:
Never apply for a PRC visa from Singapore, if you're US citizen. They rip you off with the highest fees (155 Sing-$)! But I have no other choice...
You give a presentation about a topic and try to structure it in a sense which reveals your reflections as well as it is factually rooted. But the ppl considered it as too dense/complicated. How come?
Somehow, the dysfunctional team managed to finish the slides of the presentation 30min after it should have started, instead of starting at 12am, the class watched a movie (beause the prof was late from another meeting) about an ancient Thai princess (Suryothai or so) which enabled us to put together the last slides. We then started to present at 12.47, but things still have been screwed up in almost any sense.
An now, a week later, we didn't manage to come up with the follo-up summary of our presentation as scheduled (funny is that here you can be late with delivering things, just say you would not be able to meet the deadline and you are granted some excess days; at the University of St. Gallen, we're kind of much more strict on this...). somebody and I of 5 in my group did deliver on time. However, 2/3 of my part (which was clearly defined until 2 days before the presentation, where I had to change due to others wishes; we had huge overlaps in our topic assignments) have been cut away. Now the paper is even more superficial than ever, with less sources, less differentiated discussion of our question. But it "looks" nicer, with fewer paragraphs (but a simplified cartoonization of the topic) and probably finds a better reception.
Are we at university or in kindergarten (with some fairy tales)?
Another nuisance:
Never apply for a PRC visa from Singapore, if you're US citizen. They rip you off with the highest fees (155 Sing-$)! But I have no other choice...
Mittwoch, 24. Oktober 2007
Politics: Swiss elections and Singaporean Gugus
Tja, hard to admit, but true: the liberals have lost in the recent Swiss Federal Elections to the Parliament. Even though I contributed my ballot from Singapore, they lost 5 seats in the National Council, buhuhu..
Apparently, the political debate throughout the campaigning season wasn't that sophisticated. Ok, you might think that is usual, but the Swiss standards are somewhat higher for this, I dare to say (at least compared to US, Germany and so on...). But this year, the parties didn't succeed in bringing up the hottest topics which need mending (e.g. pension funds, welfare system, decreasing competitiveness, education, trade openness, and: INTERGENERATIONAL EQUITY), no ... but they succeeded in delivering a "zoo" of issues:
One party came up with a goat as mascot, using sheeps to campaign...
and this caused an international uproar, interpreting racism and all kinds of other displeasing things. Sadly enough, even the serious foreign newspapers (BBC, and some others, ahem...) seem to be unable to put things in an appropriate context and interprete things in a more differentiated fashion (admittedly, this is not allto differentiated here, but hopefully funny; if you're interested in a serious debate about any topic- which I welcome - email me: adrian.i@gmx.ch).
This here is not about defending the stupid SVP campaign (I am member to the FDP, their competitor:-), but reigning in exaggerating reports about Switzerland. We're neither racist, nor more concerned about migration and other cross-national issues than other societies in Europe, but there are maybe more channels to discuss (and abuse) such issues in my country than in others (and so it happens that countries withouth many security valves get disrupted either through a detrimental referendum once in a decade à la française or through the dangerous "live apart and soon against"-approach in some UK-suburbs).
however, it's time for those elected now to act and push through urgently needed reforms.
Singapore does this, but maybe in a somewhat strange fashion (yeah, one big party, so why need discussions?). Look at the recent talk about (keeping) the ban on gay sex. Apparently, the Singaporean society is for once moving faster than it's political class and thus the conservative stance (hyporcritical enough, cf. below) taken by the parliament came under blogging-fire:-)
Is this a credible, feasible stance - to say, ok, actually it is forbidden to be gay here, but we won't enforce the law -? This looks just ridiculous to me, as a liberal, in several ways:
- Legal security/rule of law: How can you be sure that the government in the end does not crack you down? They are entitled to by law, but promise they wouldn't do. So in the end, you're left with an arbitray gov. that can do what and when they want it. This is generally speaking a very encouraging symbol to live here...:-(
- Signal to the public: Does this foster honesty and liberty, "ownership" and self-responsibility? At best, the rule fosters people to act hidden and secretly. I cannot see how such a thing could foster a society's development. With this rule, the gov. obviously is ok with allowing the society to break the rules unless it deems its extent as inappropriate.
- The fear that gays would start to dominate/influence the mainstream and disrupt values: Maybe Kasper-Li erred in reading his notes. What kind of funny argument is this? Does he fear that society is unable (or unwilling) to tolerate diversity? Why then does Singapore take so much pride in promoting it's cultural and ethnical diversity? Or does he belief he knows it better than the public and has to educate them (the old top-down story)?
(but these are maybe only some hastily keyed down points of a stupid white man)
Apparently, the political debate throughout the campaigning season wasn't that sophisticated. Ok, you might think that is usual, but the Swiss standards are somewhat higher for this, I dare to say (at least compared to US, Germany and so on...). But this year, the parties didn't succeed in bringing up the hottest topics which need mending (e.g. pension funds, welfare system, decreasing competitiveness, education, trade openness, and: INTERGENERATIONAL EQUITY), no ... but they succeeded in delivering a "zoo" of issues:
One party came up with a goat as mascot, using sheeps to campaign...
and this caused an international uproar, interpreting racism and all kinds of other displeasing things. Sadly enough, even the serious foreign newspapers (BBC, and some others, ahem...) seem to be unable to put things in an appropriate context and interprete things in a more differentiated fashion (admittedly, this is not allto differentiated here, but hopefully funny; if you're interested in a serious debate about any topic- which I welcome - email me: adrian.i@gmx.ch).
This here is not about defending the stupid SVP campaign (I am member to the FDP, their competitor:-), but reigning in exaggerating reports about Switzerland. We're neither racist, nor more concerned about migration and other cross-national issues than other societies in Europe, but there are maybe more channels to discuss (and abuse) such issues in my country than in others (and so it happens that countries withouth many security valves get disrupted either through a detrimental referendum once in a decade à la française or through the dangerous "live apart and soon against"-approach in some UK-suburbs).
however, it's time for those elected now to act and push through urgently needed reforms.
Singapore does this, but maybe in a somewhat strange fashion (yeah, one big party, so why need discussions?). Look at the recent talk about (keeping) the ban on gay sex. Apparently, the Singaporean society is for once moving faster than it's political class and thus the conservative stance (hyporcritical enough, cf. below) taken by the parliament came under blogging-fire:-)
Is this a credible, feasible stance - to say, ok, actually it is forbidden to be gay here, but we won't enforce the law -? This looks just ridiculous to me, as a liberal, in several ways:
- Legal security/rule of law: How can you be sure that the government in the end does not crack you down? They are entitled to by law, but promise they wouldn't do. So in the end, you're left with an arbitray gov. that can do what and when they want it. This is generally speaking a very encouraging symbol to live here...:-(
- Signal to the public: Does this foster honesty and liberty, "ownership" and self-responsibility? At best, the rule fosters people to act hidden and secretly. I cannot see how such a thing could foster a society's development. With this rule, the gov. obviously is ok with allowing the society to break the rules unless it deems its extent as inappropriate.
- The fear that gays would start to dominate/influence the mainstream and disrupt values: Maybe Kasper-Li erred in reading his notes. What kind of funny argument is this? Does he fear that society is unable (or unwilling) to tolerate diversity? Why then does Singapore take so much pride in promoting it's cultural and ethnical diversity? Or does he belief he knows it better than the public and has to educate them (the old top-down story)?
(but these are maybe only some hastily keyed down points of a stupid white man)
Mittwoch, 17. Oktober 2007
The Name is Lee - Kasperli:-)
You know my name...
The Prime Minister is called Lee, Lee Hsieng Loong to be precise; his father is also Lee (maybe the Schmutz-li?), Lee Kuan Yew.
(for all non-Swiss who read this: Kasperli is famous comic and audio figure for children, we pronounce that like Casper-Lee; Schmutzli is the type of guys who accompany the Santa Clause and usually are there to punish the bad kids; known at least in the German-speaking area).
What happened? Well, if something happens, it is not the happening that grab media attention, but it's Lee, or his response, comment etc. on the happening (cf. news about the Fed's 0.5%-interest rate cut some weeks ago, the biggest story was not the Fed's deed, but what Lee thinks the impact on S'pore will be).
Could it be a coincidence? Sure, life is full of surprise. The most widely used name in Mandarin is Li (or anglizised Lee). But isn't there something?
Lee Kuan Yew, Prime Minister Singapore (1959-1990; actually only chief minister till 1965, since Singapore was before not sovereign).
- His son, Lee Hsien Loong PM since 2003;
- his daughter-in law (PM's wife), Ho Ching, CEO of Temasek, the government-run Investment fund (117bn$ assets; one of those sovereign wealth funds the Europeans are scared about right now, due to heavy boost of investments from the Arabs).
- his son Le Hsien Yang, former CEO of Singtel (partly gov-owned telecom firm) is CEO of F&N (big player in dairy/food market) and gets a nice job at DBS, a big bank here.
Coincidentally the Lee-clan seems to own also the biggest fire-insurance company which has exclusive contracts with all HDB-flats.
Coincidentally, Lee Kuan Yew seems to be still chairman of GIC, the other gov-run Investment fund (200bn$-assets).
Or is all this just gossip? (Maybe we shall ask the folks in Beijing who just gather for their Congress?)
Hey man, life is full of fun, right? Everything is so nice and proper here, except below the surface, and unfortunately the facade is not covering 100% of the reality:-(((
Nepo... nepotism?
At least the Financial Times Asia thought so in its article on Sept 29. Now, they surrendered and officially apologized for an article which could be understood in certain ways ... (FT Asia, Oct 17, page 10) .
Whatever the past was, sooner or later the nomenklatura on the island will see that collusion, intransparency, nepotism and all those nice words hamper development. Funny that all students know the term "meritocracy" (hey, it's from Latin and Greek!) and follow that, but noone seems to care about politics.
Again, ask the folks sitting currently in the Great Hall of the People: In the short-run and in the past it could have made sense to catch-up, but you're doomed if you don't acquire some more proper, transparent and truly competitive habits. Otherwise, "City of Possibilities" will be drowned....
The Prime Minister is called Lee, Lee Hsieng Loong to be precise; his father is also Lee (maybe the Schmutz-li?), Lee Kuan Yew.
(for all non-Swiss who read this: Kasperli is famous comic and audio figure for children, we pronounce that like Casper-Lee; Schmutzli is the type of guys who accompany the Santa Clause and usually are there to punish the bad kids; known at least in the German-speaking area).
What happened? Well, if something happens, it is not the happening that grab media attention, but it's Lee, or his response, comment etc. on the happening (cf. news about the Fed's 0.5%-interest rate cut some weeks ago, the biggest story was not the Fed's deed, but what Lee thinks the impact on S'pore will be).
Could it be a coincidence? Sure, life is full of surprise. The most widely used name in Mandarin is Li (or anglizised Lee). But isn't there something?
Lee Kuan Yew, Prime Minister Singapore (1959-1990; actually only chief minister till 1965, since Singapore was before not sovereign).
- His son, Lee Hsien Loong PM since 2003;
- his daughter-in law (PM's wife), Ho Ching, CEO of Temasek, the government-run Investment fund (117bn$ assets; one of those sovereign wealth funds the Europeans are scared about right now, due to heavy boost of investments from the Arabs).
- his son Le Hsien Yang, former CEO of Singtel (partly gov-owned telecom firm) is CEO of F&N (big player in dairy/food market) and gets a nice job at DBS, a big bank here.
Coincidentally the Lee-clan seems to own also the biggest fire-insurance company which has exclusive contracts with all HDB-flats.
Coincidentally, Lee Kuan Yew seems to be still chairman of GIC, the other gov-run Investment fund (200bn$-assets).
Or is all this just gossip? (Maybe we shall ask the folks in Beijing who just gather for their Congress?)
Hey man, life is full of fun, right? Everything is so nice and proper here, except below the surface, and unfortunately the facade is not covering 100% of the reality:-(((
Nepo... nepotism?
At least the Financial Times Asia thought so in its article on Sept 29. Now, they surrendered and officially apologized for an article which could be understood in certain ways ... (FT Asia, Oct 17, page 10) .
Whatever the past was, sooner or later the nomenklatura on the island will see that collusion, intransparency, nepotism and all those nice words hamper development. Funny that all students know the term "meritocracy" (hey, it's from Latin and Greek!) and follow that, but noone seems to care about politics.
Again, ask the folks sitting currently in the Great Hall of the People: In the short-run and in the past it could have made sense to catch-up, but you're doomed if you don't acquire some more proper, transparent and truly competitive habits. Otherwise, "City of Possibilities" will be drowned....
Dienstag, 16. Oktober 2007
Nanyang (NTU) Asian Business Case Competition (ABCC) 2007, Oct 8-13
Already the title sounds impressive, isn't it?
Indeed, it was a huge pleasure to attend the ABCC and represent my Alma Mater, The University of St. Gallen with three other Swiss (two of them on exchange at the very NTU itself and one flew in solely for this purpose from Switzerland).
Sad only that the NTU campus is "so far" (25km or so from the Woodlands?) away at the Western edge of S'pore (and it takes ages (i.e. 80min.) to get there.
Cool was the accommodation, the Executive Center, a fairly well equipped Hotel usually used for Manager Seminars or so.
Monday, Oct 8:
I just arrived back from KL at 9.30am in the Woodlands, took a shower, caught my suitcase and was off for NTU.
In the evening we had our welcome dinner with a lot of fun, small games etc. where every university (12, among them Rotterdam, St. Gallen, State Unis of Washington, Minnesota, Florida, South Carolina, UBS Vancouver, Otago, Thammasat Thailand, NTU, HK UST, another NZ school) presented itself briefly.
After the "formal" part we gathered at the pub nearby for a drink and already there you could see how competitive all the others saw their task. Most of them had already a competition at home as selection criteria and have already forged strong team ties. Some have studied business cases intensively. There have been people who were quite laid-back, others might have been over-ambitious...
In comparison, we Swiss just met for the first on Monday for lunch, discussing how life is in Singapore. For all of us, this was the first case competition ever. And for me, as a non-business student it was funny to see how our business-folks would perform.
Funny was that every team got an "ambassador" (= a nanny, in our case a cute one, who took care of the team, gave infos about logistics and so on)
Tuesday, Oct 9:
We gathered in suits for the opening ceremony and a key note speech plus lunch talks at banquet tables. Nanyang business school dean Prof Singh welcomed us - a strange Indian who came in from Wharton School, UPenn, and was on the advisory committee for establishing SMU (one NTU student told me, Singh did not like it there so he changed to NTU --> everybody seem to be extremely keen on his/her own school, often denigrating the others. It this - looking down on others - what you call being competitive????).
The Econ Prof was even more strange. His speech on the Asian Financial Crisis 1997, its underlyings and the future outlook (will there be another one?) was to some extent inflammatory, defending capital controls, blaming the IMF and using bizarre rationales for this. Only after some critical questions came up he started to become more differentiated and serious in choosing his words. But still, I found his way of addressing things completely off the track, influencing poor, unknowledgeable business students about Monetary and Macroeconomics in the wrong way.
During the lunch talk I did not really get along with our Malaysian expert (whose name I still do not know...) and the facilitator who wasn't. He said good things, but didn't understand what I was trying to say (ok, my communicative skills are worst, I know). But why criticize me in structuring the dialogue (when the facilitator was silent and noone had a clue what the topic was all about) and starting with Macro Econ (when the prof's speech was abt this) and then saying exactly the same stuff 15min later?
Tuesday afternoon we went out for exploring Singapore by bus, boat and feet organized by the NTU; this was cool. Some of the pic's are on flickr. The day ended after supper in Chinatown in Harry's pub on the Singapore river bay.
Wednesday - Thursday, Oct 10/11:
On wednesday we got the case and separated ourselves. Our HSG team met, read the stuff and set itself to work. We took the matter quite serious, but it took a while to coordinate us and structure out thoughts. Nobody had an idea at first about the case's Keppel Offshore&Marine firm.
But still, we got some sleep as well (4-7 hours roughly per day? depends on who you ask in our team:-). Other teams put in more time and slept apparently just 2 hours per day during the solution-prep time.
We had constantly hunger, although I ate as much as never before (although the food was not that good, rice and noodles all the time).
Friday, Oct 12:
I handed in the USB stick (flash drive for Americans) with our ppt-presentation at 1.53am, then went to bed. Others have finished at 6.55am, minutes before the deadline at 7am... Asians tend to use every minute to work on the problem, I was told.
We had our presentation at 10.30, but rehearsed too few times and have been prepared not that good. Our team felt quite bad after the presentation in front of 3 judges, since a lot of details went wrong.
The 12 teams have been structured in 4 groups, the best presenting team of each group would go to the finals on Friday afternoon. We competed in our group against Rotterdam (seemingly a holiday-hobby crew more interested in drinking/alc without any Dutch, but Italian, German and 2 Poles) and HK UST.
Apparently, we didn't reach the finals, so we enjoyed them watching 4 quite different presentations.
- Rotterdam: bit unprepared, rushed throught the slides, somewhat bad layout, but a lot of business-style charts
- NTU: professional, but many slides (more to impress?), focus on risk mgmt and due to my drowsyness I didn't really hear any concrete solution.
- Florida: simple, using SWOT and Vision first (as we did...), straightforward recommendations, stripped down-version (it seemed they didn't know that much abt the case/industry), but superbly presented and very consistent/cohesive.
- South Carolina: good ideas, but screw-up with financials (never mention this if you lack some figures and have problems in calculating!!), forgot to treat the oil rigs...
--> Florida won, probably because they have been the most consistend and clear-cut.
In the evening we gathered at the Asian Civilization Museum for a Gala Dinner. In the end, everybody got a nice pen.
Saturday, Oct 13:
I had to leave "early" at 9.30 to get back to the Woodlands and work on papers
Indeed, it was a huge pleasure to attend the ABCC and represent my Alma Mater, The University of St. Gallen with three other Swiss (two of them on exchange at the very NTU itself and one flew in solely for this purpose from Switzerland).
Sad only that the NTU campus is "so far" (25km or so from the Woodlands?) away at the Western edge of S'pore (and it takes ages (i.e. 80min.) to get there.
Cool was the accommodation, the Executive Center, a fairly well equipped Hotel usually used for Manager Seminars or so.
Monday, Oct 8:
I just arrived back from KL at 9.30am in the Woodlands, took a shower, caught my suitcase and was off for NTU.
In the evening we had our welcome dinner with a lot of fun, small games etc. where every university (12, among them Rotterdam, St. Gallen, State Unis of Washington, Minnesota, Florida, South Carolina, UBS Vancouver, Otago, Thammasat Thailand, NTU, HK UST, another NZ school) presented itself briefly.
After the "formal" part we gathered at the pub nearby for a drink and already there you could see how competitive all the others saw their task. Most of them had already a competition at home as selection criteria and have already forged strong team ties. Some have studied business cases intensively. There have been people who were quite laid-back, others might have been over-ambitious...
In comparison, we Swiss just met for the first on Monday for lunch, discussing how life is in Singapore. For all of us, this was the first case competition ever. And for me, as a non-business student it was funny to see how our business-folks would perform.
Funny was that every team got an "ambassador" (= a nanny, in our case a cute one, who took care of the team, gave infos about logistics and so on)
Tuesday, Oct 9:
We gathered in suits for the opening ceremony and a key note speech plus lunch talks at banquet tables. Nanyang business school dean Prof Singh welcomed us - a strange Indian who came in from Wharton School, UPenn, and was on the advisory committee for establishing SMU (one NTU student told me, Singh did not like it there so he changed to NTU --> everybody seem to be extremely keen on his/her own school, often denigrating the others. It this - looking down on others - what you call being competitive????).
The Econ Prof was even more strange. His speech on the Asian Financial Crisis 1997, its underlyings and the future outlook (will there be another one?) was to some extent inflammatory, defending capital controls, blaming the IMF and using bizarre rationales for this. Only after some critical questions came up he started to become more differentiated and serious in choosing his words. But still, I found his way of addressing things completely off the track, influencing poor, unknowledgeable business students about Monetary and Macroeconomics in the wrong way.
During the lunch talk I did not really get along with our Malaysian expert (whose name I still do not know...) and the facilitator who wasn't. He said good things, but didn't understand what I was trying to say (ok, my communicative skills are worst, I know). But why criticize me in structuring the dialogue (when the facilitator was silent and noone had a clue what the topic was all about) and starting with Macro Econ (when the prof's speech was abt this) and then saying exactly the same stuff 15min later?
Tuesday afternoon we went out for exploring Singapore by bus, boat and feet organized by the NTU; this was cool. Some of the pic's are on flickr. The day ended after supper in Chinatown in Harry's pub on the Singapore river bay.
Wednesday - Thursday, Oct 10/11:
On wednesday we got the case and separated ourselves. Our HSG team met, read the stuff and set itself to work. We took the matter quite serious, but it took a while to coordinate us and structure out thoughts. Nobody had an idea at first about the case's Keppel Offshore&Marine firm.
But still, we got some sleep as well (4-7 hours roughly per day? depends on who you ask in our team:-). Other teams put in more time and slept apparently just 2 hours per day during the solution-prep time.
We had constantly hunger, although I ate as much as never before (although the food was not that good, rice and noodles all the time).
Friday, Oct 12:
I handed in the USB stick (flash drive for Americans) with our ppt-presentation at 1.53am, then went to bed. Others have finished at 6.55am, minutes before the deadline at 7am... Asians tend to use every minute to work on the problem, I was told.
We had our presentation at 10.30, but rehearsed too few times and have been prepared not that good. Our team felt quite bad after the presentation in front of 3 judges, since a lot of details went wrong.
The 12 teams have been structured in 4 groups, the best presenting team of each group would go to the finals on Friday afternoon. We competed in our group against Rotterdam (seemingly a holiday-hobby crew more interested in drinking/alc without any Dutch, but Italian, German and 2 Poles) and HK UST.
Apparently, we didn't reach the finals, so we enjoyed them watching 4 quite different presentations.
- Rotterdam: bit unprepared, rushed throught the slides, somewhat bad layout, but a lot of business-style charts
- NTU: professional, but many slides (more to impress?), focus on risk mgmt and due to my drowsyness I didn't really hear any concrete solution.
- Florida: simple, using SWOT and Vision first (as we did...), straightforward recommendations, stripped down-version (it seemed they didn't know that much abt the case/industry), but superbly presented and very consistent/cohesive.
- South Carolina: good ideas, but screw-up with financials (never mention this if you lack some figures and have problems in calculating!!), forgot to treat the oil rigs...
--> Florida won, probably because they have been the most consistend and clear-cut.
In the evening we gathered at the Asian Civilization Museum for a Gala Dinner. In the end, everybody got a nice pen.
Saturday, Oct 13:
I had to leave "early" at 9.30 to get back to the Woodlands and work on papers
Samstag, 13. Oktober 2007
KL - glamour next to filth, Oct 5-8
KL - I clearly remember those days when the Petronas Tower have been finished and celebrated as the World's tallest (office) buildings (now the take pride in repeting "the worlds tallest Twin Towers", in case you're around for a visit...:-). It must have been 1996 or so.
Now, the Twin Towers look still pretty impressive (and are well preserved), but the image I have of KL is a different one. Gone are the days where Mahathir could brag how cool Malaysia is. The facade does not hold (and I am doubtful if it ever has...).
I arrived at the Sentral KL train station (built in 2001), which has somehow not really a functional design - a huge hall, but the space is not used efficiently; there are too few seating possibilities, which makes it hard for you to get on Intercity trains, because all ppl are sitting on the floor with their many bags... and the stairs down to the train tracks are locked - like a bottle neck - for ticket controls.
I walked to the city center (actually, there is none, but at least some spread attractions) and you see it all: Nice buildings (cf. the twin tower Hotels Hilton and Meridien right at the Train station), stupid design (cf. there is no clear sidewalk from the train station, you have to cross multi-lane-highways several times; bad to non-existent directions/arrows), peculiarities (cf. the Tourist Information Center, which is a ruin now, the new one (as I experienced only later) is much more in the Northeast), gigantism (National Mosque), the uglyness of concrete (cf. the Post office building, unfortunately closed Saturday and Sunday, so I couldn't send out any postcards).
But there is also diversity (various ethnicities, diverse architecture)in this bustling, chaotic, but colorful street life (much more than in overly orderly Singapore).
It is pretty hard to assess KL. It has it all and none at the same time. You can see homeless ppl sleeping on thresholds early in the morning (and still it is not so bad that you would need to fear robbery or so). You can see the Jalang Bintang with its touristic design, many boutiques, Western shops (and you ask yourself: is this authentically Asian? It seems to be a superficial facade to attract foreigners, but has no spirit and charme).
You can buy an adidas or Nike bag for 2-7 Swis Francs (they all look the same, only the logo differ - so poor are this imitations... but I guess there are also better ones) at street stalls.
Or you can go to Mydin, a mix between department store and supermarket (and buy maybe leather shoes for 30 Ringgit, 10 Swiss Francs...). Funny is in the Mydin that, as soon as you enter it with a backpack, the zippers get locked, so you won't steal things and put it into it. They do not seem to have an electronic burglary protection (like those gates you usually see at the entrances), so they employ security staff (cheaper solution?). In the Mydin, you do not have cashiers in a row (with desks for your purchases). Rather, they are spread all over the space and this causes not only a huge chaos, but also that you have to carry all your purchases, since you cannot put them on any desk or so.
Somehow, KL is similar to Singapore: You have modern skyscrapers, a Chinatown, some Museums (albeit here centrally located on a hill, which seemed to be a ghost town - nobody here...), a shopping area (artificial Bintang walk), public transports such as buses (ouhh, some are very oldtimers, some are the newest mercedes...) and Monorail/LRT etc., but it looks still a bit strange here.
I spent my time with walking around, visiting the National History Museum (and the Merdeka/Independence Square, which is actually a football field with a 100m high flagpole), the Rahman Independence Memorial on the museum hill and a tour through Chinatown.
I met two Malays and had some talks with 'em. The latter one at dinner in an Indian food stall East of Bintang area (mmhh, Roti Prata with Banana and curry sauce). He was talkative, but somewhat angry on Singapore (due to land reclamation in the channel next to Malaysia/Johore Bahru) and on his own government (due to corruption, bad economic management and unemployment). He did not mention that the gov here is playing with the populist hand. They push (apparently) Islamic values and this threatens to distabilize the "silent" agreements made after the 1969 riots.
It seems not enough that the Malays (majority, 50-60% or the ppl) are positively discriminated and get preferential access to civil service, education etc. The gov wants to go further (according to a newspaper report). tststs, hopefully, they don't err....
On Sunday, I walked to the Twin Towers, but you only can get to the Skybridge (41st floor), for free. U need to queue for tickets EARLY (I was there at 9.44am and got a ticket for 1.30pm, such a nuisance). In the meantime I talked to a Swiss (Sandro), who does his sabbatical, came from HK and Vietnam. We went together to the Menara KL Tower (TV tower, 450m high, much better view than from the Petronas towers).
After this I got to the Sikh temple in Chinatown and then the Islamic Art Museum (but only from 4 to 5pm, sadly). The Islamic Art temple is a very good place to visit - recommended for everybody. I just had to few time for this.
Then I walked back to the Train Station, drinking "100Plus" (a Singaporean electrolytic energy drink; cheaper here than in S'pore:-) and had some Malayan cookies, while reading NZZ (yes, a Swiss newspaper, my parents brought in some copies last week:-).
The train back at 10.15pm had a delay, and again was stubbornly undercooled! Half sick I got off at the Woodlands Immigration Centre on Monday Morning, Oct 8 to rush back to my flat, change clothes, take a shower and head for the Nanyang (Technological University's) Asian Business Case Competition ABCC 2007 (cf. www.abcc2007.org).
More on this later; cf. pic's at flickr
Now, the Twin Towers look still pretty impressive (and are well preserved), but the image I have of KL is a different one. Gone are the days where Mahathir could brag how cool Malaysia is. The facade does not hold (and I am doubtful if it ever has...).
I arrived at the Sentral KL train station (built in 2001), which has somehow not really a functional design - a huge hall, but the space is not used efficiently; there are too few seating possibilities, which makes it hard for you to get on Intercity trains, because all ppl are sitting on the floor with their many bags... and the stairs down to the train tracks are locked - like a bottle neck - for ticket controls.
I walked to the city center (actually, there is none, but at least some spread attractions) and you see it all: Nice buildings (cf. the twin tower Hotels Hilton and Meridien right at the Train station), stupid design (cf. there is no clear sidewalk from the train station, you have to cross multi-lane-highways several times; bad to non-existent directions/arrows), peculiarities (cf. the Tourist Information Center, which is a ruin now, the new one (as I experienced only later) is much more in the Northeast), gigantism (National Mosque), the uglyness of concrete (cf. the Post office building, unfortunately closed Saturday and Sunday, so I couldn't send out any postcards).
But there is also diversity (various ethnicities, diverse architecture)in this bustling, chaotic, but colorful street life (much more than in overly orderly Singapore).
It is pretty hard to assess KL. It has it all and none at the same time. You can see homeless ppl sleeping on thresholds early in the morning (and still it is not so bad that you would need to fear robbery or so). You can see the Jalang Bintang with its touristic design, many boutiques, Western shops (and you ask yourself: is this authentically Asian? It seems to be a superficial facade to attract foreigners, but has no spirit and charme).
You can buy an adidas or Nike bag for 2-7 Swis Francs (they all look the same, only the logo differ - so poor are this imitations... but I guess there are also better ones) at street stalls.
Or you can go to Mydin, a mix between department store and supermarket (and buy maybe leather shoes for 30 Ringgit, 10 Swiss Francs...). Funny is in the Mydin that, as soon as you enter it with a backpack, the zippers get locked, so you won't steal things and put it into it. They do not seem to have an electronic burglary protection (like those gates you usually see at the entrances), so they employ security staff (cheaper solution?). In the Mydin, you do not have cashiers in a row (with desks for your purchases). Rather, they are spread all over the space and this causes not only a huge chaos, but also that you have to carry all your purchases, since you cannot put them on any desk or so.
Somehow, KL is similar to Singapore: You have modern skyscrapers, a Chinatown, some Museums (albeit here centrally located on a hill, which seemed to be a ghost town - nobody here...), a shopping area (artificial Bintang walk), public transports such as buses (ouhh, some are very oldtimers, some are the newest mercedes...) and Monorail/LRT etc., but it looks still a bit strange here.
I spent my time with walking around, visiting the National History Museum (and the Merdeka/Independence Square, which is actually a football field with a 100m high flagpole), the Rahman Independence Memorial on the museum hill and a tour through Chinatown.
I met two Malays and had some talks with 'em. The latter one at dinner in an Indian food stall East of Bintang area (mmhh, Roti Prata with Banana and curry sauce). He was talkative, but somewhat angry on Singapore (due to land reclamation in the channel next to Malaysia/Johore Bahru) and on his own government (due to corruption, bad economic management and unemployment). He did not mention that the gov here is playing with the populist hand. They push (apparently) Islamic values and this threatens to distabilize the "silent" agreements made after the 1969 riots.
It seems not enough that the Malays (majority, 50-60% or the ppl) are positively discriminated and get preferential access to civil service, education etc. The gov wants to go further (according to a newspaper report). tststs, hopefully, they don't err....
On Sunday, I walked to the Twin Towers, but you only can get to the Skybridge (41st floor), for free. U need to queue for tickets EARLY (I was there at 9.44am and got a ticket for 1.30pm, such a nuisance). In the meantime I talked to a Swiss (Sandro), who does his sabbatical, came from HK and Vietnam. We went together to the Menara KL Tower (TV tower, 450m high, much better view than from the Petronas towers).
After this I got to the Sikh temple in Chinatown and then the Islamic Art Museum (but only from 4 to 5pm, sadly). The Islamic Art temple is a very good place to visit - recommended for everybody. I just had to few time for this.
Then I walked back to the Train Station, drinking "100Plus" (a Singaporean electrolytic energy drink; cheaper here than in S'pore:-) and had some Malayan cookies, while reading NZZ (yes, a Swiss newspaper, my parents brought in some copies last week:-).
The train back at 10.15pm had a delay, and again was stubbornly undercooled! Half sick I got off at the Woodlands Immigration Centre on Monday Morning, Oct 8 to rush back to my flat, change clothes, take a shower and head for the Nanyang (Technological University's) Asian Business Case Competition ABCC 2007 (cf. www.abcc2007.org).
More on this later; cf. pic's at flickr
Dienstag, 9. Oktober 2007
Oct 5: HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Hei
Incredible, usually just some 5 or soe people would congrats me to my birthday (and usually it is the day where I have a lot of bad luck..). But being abroad, I get tons of congratulatory messages from all over the world, cf.:
from Singaporeans from Singapore,
from a Chinese from Singapore,
from Taiwanese from Hawaii,
from Taiwanese fromTaiwan,
from a Belgian from Belgium,
from a Philippinian from Germany,
from an Austrian from Austria,
from Swiss from Singapore,
from Swiss from Switzerland,
from an Indian from Singapore,
from a Philippinian from Singapore,
from a German from Germany
from Canadians from Canada,
from a Vietnamese American from the US
from a French from France,
from an American from the US.
from Dutch from the Netherlands.
from an American Swede from Sweden,
from a Finnish from Finland,
from a Canadian from the UK
and some others whom I unfortunately forgot to cite here (sorry, I am busy at a Business Competition at Nanyang right now...)
after my Mandarin lesson at SMU I tried go gove some feedback to a German prof here at SMU who teaches a pol. science course, then prepared some stuff for a seminar, heading back to my flat in the Woodlands, preparing my suitcase for the ABCC (the business competition at NTU, see below), taking a shower, catch the MRT to Outram (Southeast Downtownd Singapore), to embark the Train for KL (Kuala Lumpur) at 10.15pm.
This Malaysian Train station looks quite run down here in Singapore and I was one of the few white men using the train amidst a lot of Asians.
It is nice to use the overnight train to KL, you can save hostel costs, but it takes u 9 hours for a distance of about 500km or so. Insane (I guess I would be faster by bike..:-))
The real problem is, I wore (as usual here) shorts and a T-Shirt, but it is incredibly cold in the coach, so I was almost frozen, caught a cough and felt sick upon arrival in KL at 7.25am on Saturday.
Now, wednesday morning, Oct 10, 1.33am, I actually should do something for the Business Competition we're in at NTU (cf. www.abcc2007.org), but I also must do some other stuff.
I'll write about KL and the ABCC later.
ganbei
Incredible, usually just some 5 or soe people would congrats me to my birthday (and usually it is the day where I have a lot of bad luck..). But being abroad, I get tons of congratulatory messages from all over the world, cf.:
from Singaporeans from Singapore,
from a Chinese from Singapore,
from Taiwanese from Hawaii,
from Taiwanese fromTaiwan,
from a Belgian from Belgium,
from a Philippinian from Germany,
from an Austrian from Austria,
from Swiss from Singapore,
from Swiss from Switzerland,
from an Indian from Singapore,
from a Philippinian from Singapore,
from a German from Germany
from Canadians from Canada,
from a Vietnamese American from the US
from a French from France,
from an American from the US.
from Dutch from the Netherlands.
from an American Swede from Sweden,
from a Finnish from Finland,
from a Canadian from the UK
and some others whom I unfortunately forgot to cite here (sorry, I am busy at a Business Competition at Nanyang right now...)
after my Mandarin lesson at SMU I tried go gove some feedback to a German prof here at SMU who teaches a pol. science course, then prepared some stuff for a seminar, heading back to my flat in the Woodlands, preparing my suitcase for the ABCC (the business competition at NTU, see below), taking a shower, catch the MRT to Outram (Southeast Downtownd Singapore), to embark the Train for KL (Kuala Lumpur) at 10.15pm.
This Malaysian Train station looks quite run down here in Singapore and I was one of the few white men using the train amidst a lot of Asians.
It is nice to use the overnight train to KL, you can save hostel costs, but it takes u 9 hours for a distance of about 500km or so. Insane (I guess I would be faster by bike..:-))
The real problem is, I wore (as usual here) shorts and a T-Shirt, but it is incredibly cold in the coach, so I was almost frozen, caught a cough and felt sick upon arrival in KL at 7.25am on Saturday.
Now, wednesday morning, Oct 10, 1.33am, I actually should do something for the Business Competition we're in at NTU (cf. www.abcc2007.org), but I also must do some other stuff.
I'll write about KL and the ABCC later.
ganbei
Sonntag, 30. September 2007
Last Week in September
What a week: busy, but not achieved anyting...
Monday, Sept. 24:
Due to an error or misinterpretation in the course Negotiation Skills for Business I loose the negotiation (but indeed I had the best chances to win it).
Tuesday, Sept. 25:
I read just one paper about Korean Monetary policy, thn tried to learn Mandarin with a Chinese, but I fail on how to distinguish a Pinyin z from a c... (orally)
Then there was an interesting panel discussion about China and India and the question of democracy.
After the panel I got to know a UK-German prof, but couldn't talk, since I had to rush on. LAter on, he wouldn't answer my mails.
Then I attended the reception at the Swiss House in Biopolis (near Buena Vista MRT), good food, good contacts, few time.
Wednesday, Sept. 26:
Slept late, too late. I barely manage to review 1, 2 chapters in Negotiotion (due to mid-term exams next week). Then my MPW group has an interview with Leslie, former Singaporean master swimmer, in his "Elements" massage saloon in Orchard Hotel; we discuss our proposal for a employee satisfaction survey.
In his firm, this doesn't exist. If the cheap labor starts to complain, the management screams, try to keep 'em under control. If too many problem, ppl get fired.
I guess you call this "hard-core hammer method of management - hire, shout-shout, fire"
Thursday, Sept. 27:
I should actually organize a seminar still (but just don't get to it), AMP class is interesting, but cannot follow really. Then meet the AMP prof, but he didn't read my (crappy) paper outline, at least I got some new ideas. About grad school application: to be postponed, he has no time yet to discuss/recommend me sth.
Then I had a good discussion about Chinese organizational behavior/university administrative mechanisms etc.
A prof. in pol. science (Gov and Pol in SEA) comes up with the exam content (4 days prior to the exam). It appears that half of the stuff we didn't cover in class nor do we have appropriate material on it available. --> we prob end up learning from wikipedia for this (why the hell then I am at a university??).
Friday, Sept. 28:
I am too slow in reviewing the materials for next week's mid-term exams (4, 3 of those on Monday!!).
In Mandarin we got back our first exam/results. I have only a B (too weak in oral, listening stuff).
Saturday, Sept. 29:
Get up at 4.40am, take MRT to Changi Airport, arrive there at 7am, to pick up my parents (SIA flight from ZRH tba 7.05am). We take MRT to Aljunied, put the baggage in the Hotel (next to the red-light district...), proceed to SMU, where we talk and have coffee.
I learn while they're experiencing the city.
Dinner we get together at Newton's hawker center (boah, you should have seen how much I've eaten, crazy!). At home too sleepy to learn.
Sunday, Sept. 30:
Learning, but growing anger about those fucking exams. Either they seem to ask redundant "learn-by-heart" stuff, but demand a lot to have read, or they are assembled (apparently) that chaotic, that you do not even know how to learn for them.
I go crazy
Monday, Sept. 24:
Due to an error or misinterpretation in the course Negotiation Skills for Business I loose the negotiation (but indeed I had the best chances to win it).
Tuesday, Sept. 25:
I read just one paper about Korean Monetary policy, thn tried to learn Mandarin with a Chinese, but I fail on how to distinguish a Pinyin z from a c... (orally)
Then there was an interesting panel discussion about China and India and the question of democracy.
After the panel I got to know a UK-German prof, but couldn't talk, since I had to rush on. LAter on, he wouldn't answer my mails.
Then I attended the reception at the Swiss House in Biopolis (near Buena Vista MRT), good food, good contacts, few time.
Wednesday, Sept. 26:
Slept late, too late. I barely manage to review 1, 2 chapters in Negotiotion (due to mid-term exams next week). Then my MPW group has an interview with Leslie, former Singaporean master swimmer, in his "Elements" massage saloon in Orchard Hotel; we discuss our proposal for a employee satisfaction survey.
In his firm, this doesn't exist. If the cheap labor starts to complain, the management screams, try to keep 'em under control. If too many problem, ppl get fired.
I guess you call this "hard-core hammer method of management - hire, shout-shout, fire"
Thursday, Sept. 27:
I should actually organize a seminar still (but just don't get to it), AMP class is interesting, but cannot follow really. Then meet the AMP prof, but he didn't read my (crappy) paper outline, at least I got some new ideas. About grad school application: to be postponed, he has no time yet to discuss/recommend me sth.
Then I had a good discussion about Chinese organizational behavior/university administrative mechanisms etc.
A prof. in pol. science (Gov and Pol in SEA) comes up with the exam content (4 days prior to the exam). It appears that half of the stuff we didn't cover in class nor do we have appropriate material on it available. --> we prob end up learning from wikipedia for this (why the hell then I am at a university??).
Friday, Sept. 28:
I am too slow in reviewing the materials for next week's mid-term exams (4, 3 of those on Monday!!).
In Mandarin we got back our first exam/results. I have only a B (too weak in oral, listening stuff).
Saturday, Sept. 29:
Get up at 4.40am, take MRT to Changi Airport, arrive there at 7am, to pick up my parents (SIA flight from ZRH tba 7.05am). We take MRT to Aljunied, put the baggage in the Hotel (next to the red-light district...), proceed to SMU, where we talk and have coffee.
I learn while they're experiencing the city.
Dinner we get together at Newton's hawker center (boah, you should have seen how much I've eaten, crazy!). At home too sleepy to learn.
Sunday, Sept. 30:
Learning, but growing anger about those fucking exams. Either they seem to ask redundant "learn-by-heart" stuff, but demand a lot to have read, or they are assembled (apparently) that chaotic, that you do not even know how to learn for them.
I go crazy
Dienstag, 25. September 2007
Cast my ballot - als Auslandschweizer:-)
Cool, right? I can even participate in the Swiss federal elections to the National Council (200 seats, Lower House) and select the 15 people for my constutiency (Kanton Aargau). I just got the material by mail last Friday and send my list back today.
And today was also the Mid-Autumn Festival (Sept. 25th, varies each year due to the old Chinese Mooncalendar). Actually, I had to clean the flat (ugly, moldy washroom and my room) learn, then a panel discussion (about democracy in India and China, how nice:-) and straight afterwards rushed to a diplomatic reception at the Swiss House, the business and education networking platform of the Swiss Embassy here in Singapore, with Ambassador Woker as speaker. Incredible how many people here are linked to Switzerland!
Later on I got an SMS of my Chinese friend depicting two rabbits (they are the pet of Shi, who flew to the moon, according to the legend).
Zài jiàn - gotta work
ADI
Samstag, 22. September 2007
007 vs. 881 :-)
The first movie I watched in Hokkien (Chinese dialect from the South, spoken also in Taiwan) I enjoyed with a local (and MPW teammate) who taught me about the (for me hidden) wit of the film.
The movie is simply called 881, but plays in a different field than 007. Instead of a never-ending sequellization of British kiss-kiss-bang-bang (which I like, btw:-) it is a local, Singaporean production, depicting the fate of Getai singers.
During the "festival of the hungry ghosts" ("called zhong yuan jie", right?; in the 7th lunar month of the old Chinese calendar, which ends up in the mooncake-filled mid-autumn-festival:) there are set up ad hoc stages (tai), where part-time singers perform (to sing = chuàng ge).
881 (babayi) stands for the papaya sisters who perform well, gt challenged by a techno-influenced girl-group "Durian"; finally the small papaya girl dies (smoked too much!!!).
It is filled with symbolic meanings, exaggerations, sit-comedy but also tragedy (I almost cried towards the end when small papaya goes down). For a foreigner, it is a good opportunity to learn more about this apparently profound Singaporean subculture (Getai).
Check out youtube for some trailers and clips, e.g.:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubeLcCnqGWo
The movie is simply called 881, but plays in a different field than 007. Instead of a never-ending sequellization of British kiss-kiss-bang-bang (which I like, btw:-) it is a local, Singaporean production, depicting the fate of Getai singers.
During the "festival of the hungry ghosts" ("called zhong yuan jie", right?; in the 7th lunar month of the old Chinese calendar, which ends up in the mooncake-filled mid-autumn-festival:) there are set up ad hoc stages (tai), where part-time singers perform (to sing = chuàng ge).
881 (babayi) stands for the papaya sisters who perform well, gt challenged by a techno-influenced girl-group "Durian"; finally the small papaya girl dies (smoked too much!!!).
It is filled with symbolic meanings, exaggerations, sit-comedy but also tragedy (I almost cried towards the end when small papaya goes down). For a foreigner, it is a good opportunity to learn more about this apparently profound Singaporean subculture (Getai).
Check out youtube for some trailers and clips, e.g.:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubeLcCnqGWo
Montag, 17. September 2007
Swiss Elections (Oct. 21, 2007)
Switzerland faces ordinary general elections on October 21, 2007 to its bicameral federal parliament (National Council with 200, State Council with 46 seats; although the latter is not completely elected on this date).
Btw: In case you're from the Canton of Argovia (German: Aargau, roughly 600'000 inhabitants), pls vote for Stefan Huwyler (JFDP, list 4b) --> www.waehltstefan.ch
Since I have registered myself as official foreign Swiss citizen, I'll get the absentee balloting mat sent from the embassy here in the next days:-); they even sent around already an issues of "Scweizer Revue" discussing the topics around the elections.
If you wanna know more about Swiss politics/elections, check out:
http://www.smartvote.ch/index.php
Nonpartisan survey, incl. all candidates and their political orientation (both on the left-right/liberal-conservative dimension as well as on the smartspider-8-issues web). You even can create your own pol. profile and compare which candiates suits you best.
http://www.swissworld.org/
general infos about Switzerland; gov.-funded promotion site, but very good overview and helpful infos.
http://www.bk.admin.ch/dokumentation/02070/index.html?lang=en
Swiss Confederacy Guide booklet. In English only as PDF, but quite essential to get a grasp on the parliamentary mechanics in politics.
CU
Btw: In case you're from the Canton of Argovia (German: Aargau, roughly 600'000 inhabitants), pls vote for Stefan Huwyler (JFDP, list 4b) --> www.waehltstefan.ch
Since I have registered myself as official foreign Swiss citizen, I'll get the absentee balloting mat sent from the embassy here in the next days:-); they even sent around already an issues of "Scweizer Revue" discussing the topics around the elections.
If you wanna know more about Swiss politics/elections, check out:
http://www.smartvote.ch/index.php
Nonpartisan survey, incl. all candidates and their political orientation (both on the left-right/liberal-conservative dimension as well as on the smartspider-8-issues web). You even can create your own pol. profile and compare which candiates suits you best.
http://www.swissworld.org/
general infos about Switzerland; gov.-funded promotion site, but very good overview and helpful infos.
http://www.bk.admin.ch/dokumentation/02070/index.html?lang=en
Swiss Confederacy Guide booklet. In English only as PDF, but quite essential to get a grasp on the parliamentary mechanics in politics.
CU
Money (I)
Hey, actually Singapore is a trading city-state. The openness ratio (export to GDP ratio) is more than 180% (compare this to the roughly 50% of Switzerland and the mere 11% in the US or Japan). There are numerous banks here.
But, if you wanna open a new bank account, it is somewhat onerous. Here you gotta wait 2 weeks until you get your bank card, and another week for receiving the PIN code and the access to tranfer money to/from the account. Well, may be I am spoiled, but in Switzerland it takes you at max (!) 3 days to have the account fully operational (card, PIN, e-banking etc.)...
Another difference: OCBC bank here seems to be the only one who exempts you the fee for opening/maintaining a bank account (but only for the first 5 years, and only if you open the account as a student). In Switzerland, I don't pay any fees so far for any account (the exemption lasts until you're 30 years old).
Finally, it seems normal for banks to demand a minimum deposit (!), but again here is only one account who exempts you from this. In contrast, I have never faced a minimum deposit requirement for a Swiss bank account.... the standards/customer friendlyness seem worlds apart.
So now, I just wait to get this damn PIN code to draw in new funds from my home country - meanwhile "sitting dry".
Interesting is is money also from a monetary policy perspective over here (in conjuction with the demanding/rigorous ECON325 course on "Asian Monetary Policy").
The MAS (S'pore's central bank) has apparently hybrid regime of a BBC (band, basket, crawl) in order to tighten Exchange rate and pursues also a goal of low inflation (we don't talk about central bank independence here:-).
More on this later
But, if you wanna open a new bank account, it is somewhat onerous. Here you gotta wait 2 weeks until you get your bank card, and another week for receiving the PIN code and the access to tranfer money to/from the account. Well, may be I am spoiled, but in Switzerland it takes you at max (!) 3 days to have the account fully operational (card, PIN, e-banking etc.)...
Another difference: OCBC bank here seems to be the only one who exempts you the fee for opening/maintaining a bank account (but only for the first 5 years, and only if you open the account as a student). In Switzerland, I don't pay any fees so far for any account (the exemption lasts until you're 30 years old).
Finally, it seems normal for banks to demand a minimum deposit (!), but again here is only one account who exempts you from this. In contrast, I have never faced a minimum deposit requirement for a Swiss bank account.... the standards/customer friendlyness seem worlds apart.
So now, I just wait to get this damn PIN code to draw in new funds from my home country - meanwhile "sitting dry".
Interesting is is money also from a monetary policy perspective over here (in conjuction with the demanding/rigorous ECON325 course on "Asian Monetary Policy").
The MAS (S'pore's central bank) has apparently hybrid regime of a BBC (band, basket, crawl) in order to tighten Exchange rate and pursues also a goal of low inflation (we don't talk about central bank independence here:-).
Mid-Autumn Festival / Mooncake
After a tiring week and a quirky Mandarin exam on Friday (on Sept. 14 - the writing part was very easy, but listening and then writing the correct Pinyin was apparently considered by most students as difficult; we all laughed in the exam because we didn't understand anything...), I had a nice experience on Saturday evening (pretty in the dark, i.e. after 7pm) at Clarke Quay (ckeck out the hip place on the rather dire site http://www.clarkequay.com.sg/), where a wonderful Chinese explained me the numerous Lanterns hanged around the River (apparently depicting the 100 most common Chinese surnames out of a total of only 593). Originally, Chinese names seem to be inherited matrionially (or matrilineally?)
Some other big devices (i.e. lanterns, in specific shapes) empytomized Conficius, the great poet Li Bai (who wrote the story behind the Mooncakes, if I am not wrong) and a big gate (fixed at a bridge at Clarke Quay).
Further down at Chinatown, there was a big procession with lantern-wagons depicting numerous Chinese mythological items.
http://www.visitsingapore.com/publish/stbportal/en/home/apps/event_detail.html?pageName=home&buttom=detail&eid=7413
Some other big devices (i.e. lanterns, in specific shapes) empytomized Conficius, the great poet Li Bai (who wrote the story behind the Mooncakes, if I am not wrong) and a big gate (fixed at a bridge at Clarke Quay).
Further down at Chinatown, there was a big procession with lantern-wagons depicting numerous Chinese mythological items.
http://www.visitsingapore.com/publish/stbportal/en/home/apps/event_detail.html?pageName=home&buttom=detail&eid=7413
Donnerstag, 13. September 2007
Earthquake - Wed/Thu Sept 12/13, 2007
Ouuu - Shaky!
This is the first time I kind of experienced a vague tremble related to a quite strong earthquake roughly 800km away from Singapore (off Sumatra; 8.5 magnitudes on Richter scale).
There have been several trembles, but I only felt one on Wed-evening and one on Thursday morning.
Strange that the Singapore newspaper (the free paper Today for example, cf. http://www.todayonline.com/pdf_main.asp?pubdate=20070914) focuses exclusively on the effects of the shake on Singapore - even thought it is clear that Indonesia is much more affected. The main message here seems to be "everything ok, our buildings are good" (at least for once they couldn't cite the otherwise omnipresent PM Lee for this event:-).
Are the S'poreans a bit too concerned/preoccupied about themselves and how good they are?
You need to google to check that the effects have been detrimental for Indonesia (cf. e.g.
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaking/2007/0912/breaking74.htm).
This is the first time I kind of experienced a vague tremble related to a quite strong earthquake roughly 800km away from Singapore (off Sumatra; 8.5 magnitudes on Richter scale).
There have been several trembles, but I only felt one on Wed-evening and one on Thursday morning.
Strange that the Singapore newspaper (the free paper Today for example, cf. http://www.todayonline.com/pdf_main.asp?pubdate=20070914) focuses exclusively on the effects of the shake on Singapore - even thought it is clear that Indonesia is much more affected. The main message here seems to be "everything ok, our buildings are good" (at least for once they couldn't cite the otherwise omnipresent PM Lee for this event:-).
Are the S'poreans a bit too concerned/preoccupied about themselves and how good they are?
You need to google to check that the effects have been detrimental for Indonesia (cf. e.g.
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaking/2007/0912/breaking74.htm).
Montag, 10. September 2007
Closing Time
qui cherche, trouve:-)
http://studentloansharks.com/Sounds/SoundBoard.html
--> column "Music", title "closingtime.mp3", by semisonic
lib-sound
http://studentloansharks.com/Sounds/SoundBoard.html
--> column "Music", title "closingtime.mp3", by semisonic
lib-sound
MPW/OB/leadership/ "es menschelet" - correct some misperceptions
Ouh man!
Maybe I should correct some misinterpretations. I am delighted to be in a very good MPW course team (called STALKY, after our stupid first name "Oktoberfest" didn't really appeal to the German Professor...). We get along with each other wonderful and we havea lot of fun (not at all comparable what fellow HSG-Students told me about their group:-).
So, our only problem seems to be to increase efficiency. Silly is that you have 3 hours-15min-blocks of classes (e.g. 8.30-11.45 incl 15min break) at SMU, so if your team needs to be complete, e.g. for a video, you gotta wait till all are together; this is first of all seldom and second if you're together it is hard to find focus and concentration to get the things done (and done in a professional, serious and perfect manner)....
As a European, you ask yourself if you should push more and take over leadership (this is the approach a fellow HSG regular exchange female student has chosen and gotten promptly the attribute to seek "Swiss efficiency"; ähem..) or try to be more accomodative.
On the one hand side you gotta want to have things done, so push ahead; I am used to discuss things openly, confront ideas and opinions and argue tough but fair about them. However, if you propose here something, the others might just nodd or "overhear" it, if they do not like it, but rarely you enter a serious debate in order to find the best possible solution.
On the other hand, you deem it probably as not appropriate to push ahead, since you're a guest in a foreign country and you've got to respect the domestic culture, which tends to be - superficially said - more indirect and tentative when it comes to stating opinions. So as a direct-speaking guy, you would offend those folks over here, which means you better keep yourself in the back and do not try to dominate (as some would probably conceive it).
A tricky thing - I do not have found a middle ground now ... still experimenting (in various group settings).
Ouhh, it's soon 2am, so I gotta go soon to bed (I settled this as the latest time to start "listening to the pillow" after some quarrel with my roommate, woho apparently loves to sleep and allegedly cannot fall asleep if I am still at the comp - if you ask me, no wonder, if you sleep so long, you don't feel tired enough to falls asleep).
Strange is just that you apparently have to do presentations @ SMU in formal attire! So when I got up at 5.45am yesterday (Monday, Sept. 10), I had to grab my suit (at least tie, formal pants and formal shirt and leather shoes) and get to the MRT Woodlands. Crazy - this station is only 400m away from the flat, but you feel terribly oversweatened after arriving there (I suspect that the air humidity in the Woodlands is higher thatn in downtown... arghh).
So it is like a boon to dry up again in the MRT (45min ride to Dhoby Ghaut), before I got to the SMU at 8am to tie my tie and prep for the MPW presentation.
btw: if you're staying late in teh library (as I usually do), you get warned about the closing (midnight) at 23.45 with the rocky song "it's closing time":-)
Maybe I should correct some misinterpretations. I am delighted to be in a very good MPW course team (called STALKY, after our stupid first name "Oktoberfest" didn't really appeal to the German Professor...). We get along with each other wonderful and we havea lot of fun (not at all comparable what fellow HSG-Students told me about their group:-).
So, our only problem seems to be to increase efficiency. Silly is that you have 3 hours-15min-blocks of classes (e.g. 8.30-11.45 incl 15min break) at SMU, so if your team needs to be complete, e.g. for a video, you gotta wait till all are together; this is first of all seldom and second if you're together it is hard to find focus and concentration to get the things done (and done in a professional, serious and perfect manner)....
As a European, you ask yourself if you should push more and take over leadership (this is the approach a fellow HSG regular exchange female student has chosen and gotten promptly the attribute to seek "Swiss efficiency"; ähem..) or try to be more accomodative.
On the one hand side you gotta want to have things done, so push ahead; I am used to discuss things openly, confront ideas and opinions and argue tough but fair about them. However, if you propose here something, the others might just nodd or "overhear" it, if they do not like it, but rarely you enter a serious debate in order to find the best possible solution.
On the other hand, you deem it probably as not appropriate to push ahead, since you're a guest in a foreign country and you've got to respect the domestic culture, which tends to be - superficially said - more indirect and tentative when it comes to stating opinions. So as a direct-speaking guy, you would offend those folks over here, which means you better keep yourself in the back and do not try to dominate (as some would probably conceive it).
A tricky thing - I do not have found a middle ground now ... still experimenting (in various group settings).
Ouhh, it's soon 2am, so I gotta go soon to bed (I settled this as the latest time to start "listening to the pillow" after some quarrel with my roommate, woho apparently loves to sleep and allegedly cannot fall asleep if I am still at the comp - if you ask me, no wonder, if you sleep so long, you don't feel tired enough to falls asleep).
Strange is just that you apparently have to do presentations @ SMU in formal attire! So when I got up at 5.45am yesterday (Monday, Sept. 10), I had to grab my suit (at least tie, formal pants and formal shirt and leather shoes) and get to the MRT Woodlands. Crazy - this station is only 400m away from the flat, but you feel terribly oversweatened after arriving there (I suspect that the air humidity in the Woodlands is higher thatn in downtown... arghh).
So it is like a boon to dry up again in the MRT (45min ride to Dhoby Ghaut), before I got to the SMU at 8am to tie my tie and prep for the MPW presentation.
btw: if you're staying late in teh library (as I usually do), you get warned about the closing (midnight) at 23.45 with the rocky song "it's closing time":-)
Mittwoch, 5. September 2007
MPW group meeting, enactment of scenes for movie clips, 5.9.2007
ADI alias Linus Carver as the emotionally imcompetent tar performer in a HBR business case. Picture taken at 3pm during an 8-hour group meeting (12.30-8.30pm...!!!!) for the course Management of People at Work at SMU.
Ppl here seems to have usually long, exhaustive meetings with vry few outcome... completely inefficient and mind-numbing.
Afterwards, I went to the library to hopefully catch-up with my work. After a brief dinner at Kopitiam (this is like the square-root of McDonalds times 10; i.e. a food-store/court with semi-dependent food stalls which just have to pay a share of their revenues to the Kopitiam-infrastructure provider) I went on to read in the library and guess, what kind of ppl came in at 11pm?
the Indians... also keen to study hard. A quick reminder of how strong and competitive India could become within the next 10-30 years?
Sonntag, 2. September 2007
1.9.2007: MacRitchie Reservoir visit
after the strenuous MPW group meeting, it began to rain heavily (typically Singapore: First they say on the forecast that it going to be sunny, then they say it'll rain heavily, then they say it will rain only at noon...) at around 14.30.
In Singapore, you're never sure what the weather is gonna be. Actually, you don't need to listen to forecasts. just make sure you wear light apparel, good shoes and take an umbrella with ya (the army would say: umbrella is "Sackbefehl"). Usually, it is between 23 and 35 degree Celsius hot and very humid. In case you walk a lot around, it doesn't really matter whether you are wet by sweating, or wet because of the rain...
Due to its exposure to the sea - I guess - the weather can change very quickly, sun follows rain follows sun etc.
So, at Saturday afternoon, I took the MRT to Toa Payoh Station, where I arrived at 3.15pm and the sun was already back again. Just fine to go to the MacRitchie Reservoir (lake).
The MacRitchie was built in the 19 Century and subsequently enlarged to serve as a water catchment or fresh water pool for Singapore (the chief engineer's name was MacRitchie). Later on the Brits saw that the need additional water supply which is why they turned to the Sultan of Johor Bahru (Malaysian province next to Singapore) for water (from where S'pore still gets water today - despite some quarrels).
The MacRitchie is quite cool to hike around. There are good trails (one around the lake is 11km), mostly near at the lakeshore. You see some monkeys, turtles and other animals. The nature park is surrounded by two golf courses (at one I briefly encountered a Chinese golf player who spoke German:-).
more infos: http://www.nparks.gov.sg/nature_central_history.asp
Unfortunately, the HSBC (right, in Singapore very much everything is sponsored; e.g. in the Night Safari park you see an old elephant which is "sponsored" by another bank...:-) TreeTopWalk closes at 5pm (hum!!!) and my Chinese collegue and I were not able to get there on time. On 25m altitude above surface, you would walk there 250m around the tree tops.
However, we managed to get on the Jelutong Tower, a roughly 20m high metal device from where you get a great view to the primary (or secondary) forest still in place here.
Unfortunately, I gets dark very early here (sunrise at 7.10am and sunset at 7.10pm...), so we walked in some muddy trails in the darkness. Due to poor trail-arrows/directions, we got on the wrong road and more and more deeper in a second golf course until we reached another lake (Lower Peirce Reservoir, north of the MacRitchie...). Damn!
My fellow took it remarkably easy tough.
check out the latest pic's at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8557504@N04/?xp=1
Back to the Golf Resort Restaurant, we finally reached the bus station. Nr. 167 took us to the Farrer Rd, from where we reached Evans Lodge (at Evans Rd) by foot.
Around midnight, we cooked experimental chinese Hotpot with a more-than-crappy-stove. But we had a lot of fun!
http://www.nparks.gov.sg/nature_central_history.asp
In Singapore, you're never sure what the weather is gonna be. Actually, you don't need to listen to forecasts. just make sure you wear light apparel, good shoes and take an umbrella with ya (the army would say: umbrella is "Sackbefehl"). Usually, it is between 23 and 35 degree Celsius hot and very humid. In case you walk a lot around, it doesn't really matter whether you are wet by sweating, or wet because of the rain...
Due to its exposure to the sea - I guess - the weather can change very quickly, sun follows rain follows sun etc.
So, at Saturday afternoon, I took the MRT to Toa Payoh Station, where I arrived at 3.15pm and the sun was already back again. Just fine to go to the MacRitchie Reservoir (lake).
The MacRitchie was built in the 19 Century and subsequently enlarged to serve as a water catchment or fresh water pool for Singapore (the chief engineer's name was MacRitchie). Later on the Brits saw that the need additional water supply which is why they turned to the Sultan of Johor Bahru (Malaysian province next to Singapore) for water (from where S'pore still gets water today - despite some quarrels).
The MacRitchie is quite cool to hike around. There are good trails (one around the lake is 11km), mostly near at the lakeshore. You see some monkeys, turtles and other animals. The nature park is surrounded by two golf courses (at one I briefly encountered a Chinese golf player who spoke German:-).
more infos: http://www.nparks.gov.sg/nature_central_history.asp
Unfortunately, the HSBC (right, in Singapore very much everything is sponsored; e.g. in the Night Safari park you see an old elephant which is "sponsored" by another bank...:-) TreeTopWalk closes at 5pm (hum!!!) and my Chinese collegue and I were not able to get there on time. On 25m altitude above surface, you would walk there 250m around the tree tops.
However, we managed to get on the Jelutong Tower, a roughly 20m high metal device from where you get a great view to the primary (or secondary) forest still in place here.
Unfortunately, I gets dark very early here (sunrise at 7.10am and sunset at 7.10pm...), so we walked in some muddy trails in the darkness. Due to poor trail-arrows/directions, we got on the wrong road and more and more deeper in a second golf course until we reached another lake (Lower Peirce Reservoir, north of the MacRitchie...). Damn!
My fellow took it remarkably easy tough.
check out the latest pic's at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8557504@N04/?xp=1
Back to the Golf Resort Restaurant, we finally reached the bus station. Nr. 167 took us to the Farrer Rd, from where we reached Evans Lodge (at Evans Rd) by foot.
Around midnight, we cooked experimental chinese Hotpot with a more-than-crappy-stove. But we had a lot of fun!
http://www.nparks.gov.sg/nature_central_history.asp
Samstag, 1. September 2007
Dienstag, 28. August 2007
A Globalized Life
What is it - to lead an international life?
Getting the wake-up call from a Finnish cell phone, while sleeping in a poor bed with a pizza-thin mattress (probably it is not even "Made in China"..) in the heartlands in Singapore (no clue why it is called like this, since it is far remote from Downtown Singapore, but near the border bridge to Malaysia...).
Taking a shower with an old "Elmark"-device (made in the UK), using German (Niveau, right?) shower gel (don't ask me where it was produced).
For breakfast, taking malaysian made margarine and jelly from Australia (but with the description in Arabic, since it was produced for this export market - and finally sold in the Carrefour, which is a French chain, in Singapore) on toast bread from xyz. Well, as European-rooted guy you can't call this bread since they pre-slice the loaf and then pack it in a plastic (!) bag. Except for luxury niche bakeries, you never find a "normal", fresh baked bread loaf on the shelves, but only this gummy stuff (at least they have besides white bread also mixed wheat ones, which are supposed to be more healthy – for me one of the few sources I could brag to live healthy from…).
Ah ja, concerning "health": I just read this morning in the "Today" newspaper (a free daily that is sometimes distributed in our apartment building that the obesity problem in the USA is still increasing. The record hit Mississippi with more than 30% of its population being obese, according to the cited study! (Coincidentally, I just opened a letter from a good friend in the USA).
Incredible, if you think about the economic costs this entails and the future prospects of humankind. The coming generation or our children of now about 5-10 years will be the first who face lower life expectancy due to poor nutrition and a lack of physical exercise. Somehow, it is insane – humans have found ways to fly, hunt and exterminate animals, got to the moon and finally, we voluntarily kill ourselves through being too fat and live unhealthy.
[Admittedly, the author of these lines should keep quiet since he lives unhealthy and imbalanced as well; his "household class" teacher told him once, if he continues to refuse eating vegetables/salad etc he would die in his 30's…]
Compare this to the Asian people in here. Wherever you look, the vast majority of the people are skinny, well trained, pure skin, no acne, look very good and seem to be always happy (at least the come up with a smile pretty fast … and sometimes this does not mean to be happy).
If we Westerners want to remain competitive, innovative and aim for progress, then we need to alter our habits. There is a lot gossip on the streets here, where people find that they will soon be able to outcompete old/aging Europe and fat America!! The West is no longer the one who is being looked up to, but rather who is smiled at…
Actually, I should continue with my main theme, the globalized life…
Yeah, while I type in these words, I take notes concurrently on my Swiss-made scrap-paper book, figuring out what I shall write for a column for a Swiss local newspaper (I will frequently report about my experiences here in Singapore).
Hey – I gotta go, is already 8.30am (usually I would write such things at 2 or 3am, but since my roommate wants to sleep then he forbade me to stay at the computer after 2am, since the clicking/typing annoys him. Interestingly, he sleeps usually till 11am and is not annoyed by my typing in the morning when I get up at 6am…).
btw: I finally got my "Student Pass" yesterday - the official card allowing me to stay here for the semester, issued by the ICA (immigration bureaucrats). I asked for it on Aug 6, they said it'll be ready at Aug 11; when I came on Aug 11, they didn't have it and later on forgot to tell me when they were ready. To my emails I got a very late reply...
So, not everywhere in Singapore this PS21 (public service reform to focus public employees on more costumer oriented values) was successful....:-(((
CU soon
Getting the wake-up call from a Finnish cell phone, while sleeping in a poor bed with a pizza-thin mattress (probably it is not even "Made in China"..) in the heartlands in Singapore (no clue why it is called like this, since it is far remote from Downtown Singapore, but near the border bridge to Malaysia...).
Taking a shower with an old "Elmark"-device (made in the UK), using German (Niveau, right?) shower gel (don't ask me where it was produced).
For breakfast, taking malaysian made margarine and jelly from Australia (but with the description in Arabic, since it was produced for this export market - and finally sold in the Carrefour, which is a French chain, in Singapore) on toast bread from xyz. Well, as European-rooted guy you can't call this bread since they pre-slice the loaf and then pack it in a plastic (!) bag. Except for luxury niche bakeries, you never find a "normal", fresh baked bread loaf on the shelves, but only this gummy stuff (at least they have besides white bread also mixed wheat ones, which are supposed to be more healthy – for me one of the few sources I could brag to live healthy from…).
Ah ja, concerning "health": I just read this morning in the "Today" newspaper (a free daily that is sometimes distributed in our apartment building that the obesity problem in the USA is still increasing. The record hit Mississippi with more than 30% of its population being obese, according to the cited study! (Coincidentally, I just opened a letter from a good friend in the USA).
Incredible, if you think about the economic costs this entails and the future prospects of humankind. The coming generation or our children of now about 5-10 years will be the first who face lower life expectancy due to poor nutrition and a lack of physical exercise. Somehow, it is insane – humans have found ways to fly, hunt and exterminate animals, got to the moon and finally, we voluntarily kill ourselves through being too fat and live unhealthy.
[Admittedly, the author of these lines should keep quiet since he lives unhealthy and imbalanced as well; his "household class" teacher told him once, if he continues to refuse eating vegetables/salad etc he would die in his 30's…]
Compare this to the Asian people in here. Wherever you look, the vast majority of the people are skinny, well trained, pure skin, no acne, look very good and seem to be always happy (at least the come up with a smile pretty fast … and sometimes this does not mean to be happy).
If we Westerners want to remain competitive, innovative and aim for progress, then we need to alter our habits. There is a lot gossip on the streets here, where people find that they will soon be able to outcompete old/aging Europe and fat America!! The West is no longer the one who is being looked up to, but rather who is smiled at…
Actually, I should continue with my main theme, the globalized life…
Yeah, while I type in these words, I take notes concurrently on my Swiss-made scrap-paper book, figuring out what I shall write for a column for a Swiss local newspaper (I will frequently report about my experiences here in Singapore).
Hey – I gotta go, is already 8.30am (usually I would write such things at 2 or 3am, but since my roommate wants to sleep then he forbade me to stay at the computer after 2am, since the clicking/typing annoys him. Interestingly, he sleeps usually till 11am and is not annoyed by my typing in the morning when I get up at 6am…).
btw: I finally got my "Student Pass" yesterday - the official card allowing me to stay here for the semester, issued by the ICA (immigration bureaucrats). I asked for it on Aug 6, they said it'll be ready at Aug 11; when I came on Aug 11, they didn't have it and later on forgot to tell me when they were ready. To my emails I got a very late reply...
So, not everywhere in Singapore this PS21 (public service reform to focus public employees on more costumer oriented values) was successful....:-(((
CU soon
Donnerstag, 23. August 2007
Pulau Ubin - Saturday, August 18, 2007
6.15am - get awake, take a shower, drying and still feeling wet, rush-breakfast
7.05am - running to the MRT Woodlands
8.25am - meeting a bunch of Swiss people and some HSG-affiliated internationals at Tanah Merah MRT station.
WHY all this? --> the rainforest on the original Pulau Ubin awaits me!
Pulau Ubin is a small Singaporean Island just north of Changi village and near Malaysia. There are a lot of swampy quarries (i.e. ponds, sometimes fenced off, so that they can keep their natural state; sometimes seemingly turned into fish-breeding centers). Further, you get to know how Singapore must have looked before Western civilization hit it. There are a bunch of remote cabins and sometimes you wonder whether you're visiting a ghost village amidst a forest.
You get there by boat (2$ per person if the boat is full, i.e. 24 bucks a boat). After having landed there, we had lunch under umbrellas and plastic protection while a heavy rainstorm hit the island. I learnt, that a popular Chinese curse is "tamade" (=shit) and talked about other peculiarities in life.
After a while, we took off by bike. At first, they seemed to be stylish, with full suspension. But, presumably nobody did ever add some lubricants to the chain and gears... not to mention the suspension fork itself which threatened to break apart at the next road bump... but you get a lot more fun with quirky bikes rather than with none - even though your back is brownish due to the muddy road and the splashes.
We experienced the Mangroves at the eastern edge of the island, with perfect sight on changi airport. A modern waterbridge funnels you around the well preserved seaside. A visitor's kiosk provides you with a map of this nature reserve.
Later on, we criss-crossed the island, until we were exhausted. But the famous German Girl shrine could not be found (there is no accurate island-wide map...).
After the journey, probably muddier as even the road.
7.05am - running to the MRT Woodlands
8.25am - meeting a bunch of Swiss people and some HSG-affiliated internationals at Tanah Merah MRT station.
WHY all this? --> the rainforest on the original Pulau Ubin awaits me!
Pulau Ubin is a small Singaporean Island just north of Changi village and near Malaysia. There are a lot of swampy quarries (i.e. ponds, sometimes fenced off, so that they can keep their natural state; sometimes seemingly turned into fish-breeding centers). Further, you get to know how Singapore must have looked before Western civilization hit it. There are a bunch of remote cabins and sometimes you wonder whether you're visiting a ghost village amidst a forest.
You get there by boat (2$ per person if the boat is full, i.e. 24 bucks a boat). After having landed there, we had lunch under umbrellas and plastic protection while a heavy rainstorm hit the island. I learnt, that a popular Chinese curse is "tamade" (=shit) and talked about other peculiarities in life.
After a while, we took off by bike. At first, they seemed to be stylish, with full suspension. But, presumably nobody did ever add some lubricants to the chain and gears... not to mention the suspension fork itself which threatened to break apart at the next road bump... but you get a lot more fun with quirky bikes rather than with none - even though your back is brownish due to the muddy road and the splashes.
We experienced the Mangroves at the eastern edge of the island, with perfect sight on changi airport. A modern waterbridge funnels you around the well preserved seaside. A visitor's kiosk provides you with a map of this nature reserve.
Later on, we criss-crossed the island, until we were exhausted. But the famous German Girl shrine could not be found (there is no accurate island-wide map...).
After the journey, probably muddier as even the road.
Montag, 20. August 2007
PICTURE
if you wanna see some pic's taken in and around Singapore, visit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8557504@N04/sets/72157601307864919/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8557504@N04/sets/72157601307864919/
MY CONTACT ADDRESS In SINGAPORE
In case somebody likes to write me:
Adrian Ineichen
BLK 519 Woodlands Drive 14
# 12-281Singapore 730519
cell phone: 0065 9094375 (don't use this for calls, only for SMS)
finxet: 0065 6891 2249
Adrian Ineichen
BLK 519 Woodlands Drive 14
# 12-281Singapore 730519
cell phone: 0065 9094375 (don't use this for calls, only for SMS)
finxet: 0065 6891 2249
Mittwoch, 15. August 2007
Wednesday, Aug 15
(thte 37m-Merlion and the Merlion Walk)
SENTOSA - an artificial tourist site which used to be a fortress.
Yeah, tempus fugit. On Feb 15, 1942 surrendered the Britons with 88000 soldiers against incoming 33000 Japanese. In 1968, the military island got the name Sentosa (Malay for peaceful and quiet), and the gov started to transform the island into a tourist hot-spot.
Besides some trashy features, you definitely need to check out Sentosa. You get a great overview on the Skytower (110m) as well as the big Merlion (37m), new insights in the Fort Sentosa Museum in the bunke tunnels created by the British. However, you can also do some mind-numbing activities such as the Sentosa-4d-Magix mad-pirate-movie. Anyhow, just sitting on a nice terrace and chill-out with a S$8-Coffee Bean Chocolate-Banana-Drink while reading in Alexis de Tocqueville's "Democracy in America" is quite ok.
Instead of walking back (as I did when I came in and had to make a bit detour, since the front side of the island, towards downtown, is under huge construction works) you take the monorail and glide directly back to shopping at vivocity.
Mo-Wed August 13-15, 2007
turtle/tortoise in the museum (it thought i'd feed him:-)
Hola - I visit the small Singaporean Art Museum (SAM), and then proceed to explore the Arab Quarter (where only one mosque lets me in with shorts..), but I get caught in another Shopping District (Bugis, this time).
Finally, I have a wonderful dinner at Newton Hawker Centre, where I experience Prati (Indian Pancake, with egg), Sati/Satay (Malay "Spiessli", meat on wooden sticks), Hainanese Chicken Rice and some other nice dishes. Pls, don't ask my about how fast my belly is growing (even though I am quite picky...).
Tue, August 14
Finally, I get to the Swiss Embassy (which is on a Road called Swiss Club Link near the Swiss Road:-) in order to become officially an expat (Auslandschweizer) which enables you to vote with absentee ballots (particularly since on Oct. 21 we get federal elections this year).
Then, I walk to the Bukit Timah Natural Reserve, which hosts one of the few originally primary rainforests that still exist in Singapore. It's fine for a visit, but except the insane humidity and some courageous monkeys you won't see any exotic stuff (or I am too ignorant for this?).
Finally, I proceed to the Chinese Gardens that host not only a bunch of Chinese-styled Pagodas, Houses etc. but also a quite bizarre but interesting Turtle Museum (they must have a couple of hundred turtles and tortoises free to visit).
The end of the day I spent at the New Asia Bar on the 71st floor of the Swiss0^tel Stamford with chatting to HSG-exchange and alumni people.
WET!
It is unbelievable. You take a shower in the early morning, hoping for some cooling are; but no, just as you try to dry yourself with your towel, only the sily move called "clothing" makes you sweating. During the day, at best your arms, legs, palms and your face are wet, at worst (e.g. climbing "Mt." Faber) the sweat just pours out of your skin and you feel like a river flows out of your body.
Probably the best you can get as a city-hiker it to take the daily MRT (subway) from the Woodlands to City Hall which takes 45min, enough to make you feel cool and rather dry (the only time in the day:-(
The humidity is usually around 80%, so whenever you enjoy a rest on a bench or so, you're sure that your shorts stick to your ass and legs like glued together.
Even in our flat which we (two exchange students) share with a Chinese family you sweat like hell (there is no Air-con, buhu). To "solve" the problem, they keep every roomdoor in the apartment open all day (and night); this does not only limit my capacity to work in the night (and early/late morning) - since the tipping apparently annoys my fellows - but robs you the last privacy you possibly could have.
Huh, Imiss the feeling of dryness. I just ask myself if I ever get accustomed to this kind of climate here.
Probably the best you can get as a city-hiker it to take the daily MRT (subway) from the Woodlands to City Hall which takes 45min, enough to make you feel cool and rather dry (the only time in the day:-(
The humidity is usually around 80%, so whenever you enjoy a rest on a bench or so, you're sure that your shorts stick to your ass and legs like glued together.
Even in our flat which we (two exchange students) share with a Chinese family you sweat like hell (there is no Air-con, buhu). To "solve" the problem, they keep every roomdoor in the apartment open all day (and night); this does not only limit my capacity to work in the night (and early/late morning) - since the tipping apparently annoys my fellows - but robs you the last privacy you possibly could have.
Huh, Imiss the feeling of dryness. I just ask myself if I ever get accustomed to this kind of climate here.
Homo Faber goes Mount Faber - or: Wet vs. Dry
(another merlion on mt. faber)
Sunday, August 12th
How nice - after talking to a Swiss fellow at the huge Vivocity Shopping Center (those folks over here really seem to know only 2 leisure activities: shopping and eating... but the do not seem to get fat, unlike many Westerners, like me:-() near Harborfront in the South of the City I have the unique opportunity to hike near the equator! Well, the call it Mount Faber (for a Swiss, this wouldn't even go as a hill, since it's just 110m or so high). Anyway, you get a beautiful view to the South (namely, the artificial paradise island of Sentosa) as well as to the North (Downtown).
Even the Danish understood this and built a mission and a church on the Western slope where a Danish preast lectures his 1500 countrymen here (mainly, the DK-Singapore connection is because of Maersk).
Further, I get to "Reflections at Bukit Chandu", where - shit - the Museum just closed, but anyhow, you walk on a skybridge thorugh the foreset and get a great view to the "killing fields" of a battle in early Feb '42 when the approaching Japanese basically exterminated one Malayian defending unit here and slaughtered reportedly 200 doctors and personnel of the nearby GB-army hospital.
After a heavy rainstorm I find shelter in the Kopitiam (this is like an inter-Asian foodcourt just run by one company, operating on a very cheap, but popular basis) and eat Bibimbab (Korean chicken-noodles-vegetables and who-knows-what meal).
Samstag, 11. August 2007
Saturday, August 11th, 2007
I got up early in order to be early at the ICA (Immigration bureaucracy) at 8.10am, but what d'ya see there? A huge queue. Aftr 20min I got into the buildling, got a queue ticket. When I finally reached the counter, the lady let me waiting only to refuse me (I shall pick up the damn students pass at counter 22, not counter 9). well, counter 22 does not have a queueing automaton, so how to queue there if you have no number assigned? After some quarrels I got at counter 25, where I was ultimately able to ask for the Student Pass only to recognize that they don't have it prepared (even though I was confirmed last Monday, when I travelled to ICA the first time) that I shall come and pick it up at Aug 11.
So they told me to wait at a coffee shop nearby and send me an SMS when I could come and pick it up.
After 1oam, I had no nerves and went to the city for sightseeing, fuck this pass-damn thing (and for this card I stood up at 6am... 4 hours for nothing).
It was cool to hang into the Raffles Hotel (prob. the most expensive luyury hotel in the city) with adidas shorts and a cheap, white T-shirt. They have an own "museum" (well, 3 small rooms stuffed with pic's and memorabilia), which was worth the visit, you'll get a better hint how the city evolved (cf. the old map of 1893, where the seashore was directly at the Raffles; nowadays, Singapore consists by 1/6 of reclaimed land...).
The Raffles is a huge complex, emerged in the 1880's, but was nearly gone in the 1970's (rotten).
After that I paid a visit to the Philatelic Museum (who knew that the most expensive stamp was sold for 2.6m Swiss Franc - yes, it was sold in Switzerland albeit it was a Swedish stamp). Further, I learned that I was born in the year of the boar (1983, acc. to the Chinese Calendar) and the 2007 is another boar-year (those ppl would be "intelligent, creative, kind, orderly ...", the plate said:-). Needless to say that the Singaporean Post had some stamps with boars. The first stamp obviously was printed in Singapore in 1854 (after its invention in the UK in 1840).
Highly recommendable is a visit to the Fort Canning Park (or hill). There, you can enter Battle Box, a British bunker, built in the 1930s, but lost in Feb 15, 1942 to the Japs after the Britons surrendered Singapore (which was militarily a shame). The hill as actually home to Stamford Raffles (at the Eastern edge of the hill) 1819 onwards and used as gov.-seat till 1859, when the army began to built a fort, which was demolished (except its gate) in 1926 in favor of the construction of a water reservoir pool.
To chill out, I checked out Merlion Park and the Starbucks at One Fullerton.
I got up early in order to be early at the ICA (Immigration bureaucracy) at 8.10am, but what d'ya see there? A huge queue. Aftr 20min I got into the buildling, got a queue ticket. When I finally reached the counter, the lady let me waiting only to refuse me (I shall pick up the damn students pass at counter 22, not counter 9). well, counter 22 does not have a queueing automaton, so how to queue there if you have no number assigned? After some quarrels I got at counter 25, where I was ultimately able to ask for the Student Pass only to recognize that they don't have it prepared (even though I was confirmed last Monday, when I travelled to ICA the first time) that I shall come and pick it up at Aug 11.
So they told me to wait at a coffee shop nearby and send me an SMS when I could come and pick it up.
After 1oam, I had no nerves and went to the city for sightseeing, fuck this pass-damn thing (and for this card I stood up at 6am... 4 hours for nothing).
It was cool to hang into the Raffles Hotel (prob. the most expensive luyury hotel in the city) with adidas shorts and a cheap, white T-shirt. They have an own "museum" (well, 3 small rooms stuffed with pic's and memorabilia), which was worth the visit, you'll get a better hint how the city evolved (cf. the old map of 1893, where the seashore was directly at the Raffles; nowadays, Singapore consists by 1/6 of reclaimed land...).
The Raffles is a huge complex, emerged in the 1880's, but was nearly gone in the 1970's (rotten).
After that I paid a visit to the Philatelic Museum (who knew that the most expensive stamp was sold for 2.6m Swiss Franc - yes, it was sold in Switzerland albeit it was a Swedish stamp). Further, I learned that I was born in the year of the boar (1983, acc. to the Chinese Calendar) and the 2007 is another boar-year (those ppl would be "intelligent, creative, kind, orderly ...", the plate said:-). Needless to say that the Singaporean Post had some stamps with boars. The first stamp obviously was printed in Singapore in 1854 (after its invention in the UK in 1840).
Highly recommendable is a visit to the Fort Canning Park (or hill). There, you can enter Battle Box, a British bunker, built in the 1930s, but lost in Feb 15, 1942 to the Japs after the Britons surrendered Singapore (which was militarily a shame). The hill as actually home to Stamford Raffles (at the Eastern edge of the hill) 1819 onwards and used as gov.-seat till 1859, when the army began to built a fort, which was demolished (except its gate) in 1926 in favor of the construction of a water reservoir pool.
To chill out, I checked out Merlion Park and the Starbucks at One Fullerton.
Donnerstag, 9. August 2007
Hum, ndp consisted mostly of a big military parade (seen from a video screen on remote Orchard Road); obviously the Singaporeans are quite proud of the conscription army (they have a compulsory 2-year-education for all men and then subsequent courses; comparable to Switzerland, except that our terms are much shorter:-). However, their active duty soldiers just make 70'000 and the reservists 300'000 (at least if I understood the ads correctly on the big screen at noisy Orchard).
They seemed to have invested quite heavily in technology/military equipment (F-16 even with Block 52 standard, F-15, Longbow Apaches) but still drive around with some old stuff (AMX and M-113 "coke bins" due to their light armor). They even have the Swiss Oerlikon 35mm cannon:-)
Unfortunately, I haven't seen the fireworks (which reportedly only lasted for short 10 minutes) as I was having Chinese dinner. Apparently, it seems (at least to me) ridiculous that Singaporeans are denied of buying or owning fireworks (that's probably the reason why everbody wanted to grab a ticket for the official show on the Marina as they have been distributed to an online bidding process).
I finished the evening at the Riverside/Clarke Quay area where a lot of nice pubs/bars etc. wait to be explored by well-equipped wallets.
They seemed to have invested quite heavily in technology/military equipment (F-16 even with Block 52 standard, F-15, Longbow Apaches) but still drive around with some old stuff (AMX and M-113 "coke bins" due to their light armor). They even have the Swiss Oerlikon 35mm cannon:-)
Unfortunately, I haven't seen the fireworks (which reportedly only lasted for short 10 minutes) as I was having Chinese dinner. Apparently, it seems (at least to me) ridiculous that Singaporeans are denied of buying or owning fireworks (that's probably the reason why everbody wanted to grab a ticket for the official show on the Marina as they have been distributed to an online bidding process).
I finished the evening at the Riverside/Clarke Quay area where a lot of nice pubs/bars etc. wait to be explored by well-equipped wallets.
Mittwoch, 8. August 2007
9 Aug 2007 - Singapore National Day
Hei
The folks around here celebrate their nation's 42nd birthday with the NDP (or National Day Parade) at Marina South (with gaining its independence in 1965, this multicultural country is still very "young"; . Solely for this purpose was a huge swimming platform constructed which serves as a stage for the events today (cf. http://www.ndp.org.sg/ for more infos).
Interestingly, they have 2 current national day songs (who knows for which purpose... may be to whip people up to go ahead ... alias "Malujah Singapura", which is on the national coat of arms).
Btw:
If you think that Singapore is too cool (like my Chinese fellow Gu Zhimin, with whom I share a room in a Chinese apartment in the Woodlands here; he's from Shanghai, so they tend to have up to 39 degree celsius in summer), check out some pic's made in Qatar last Saturday.
I had a stopover in Doha (yes, the Doha of the WTO Doha-Negotiation round). Unfortunately they do not even have a Tourist Office or Visitor Center, so you are advised straight from the airport to go to one of the many hotels (although, half of the hotels are under construction at least in the West Bay Area).
Sadly, the Weaponry Museum and the National Museum were closed (which I experienced only after some sweat-provoking walking, uff), so after being forced to take a rest under a palm tree, I checked out some Souq's (=markets, malls) which unfortunately close between noon and 3.30pm... (siesta in Arabic?) and finally ended up in fleeing to the City-Center Mall (western styled), where they have built an ice rink (yeah, what else could you do if you have too much money, too hot a weather and no else ideas of leisure than watching movies and go shopping?).
I think I gotta go now and check out Singapore's City on its National Day. CU later
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8557504@N04/
The folks around here celebrate their nation's 42nd birthday with the NDP (or National Day Parade) at Marina South (with gaining its independence in 1965, this multicultural country is still very "young"; . Solely for this purpose was a huge swimming platform constructed which serves as a stage for the events today (cf. http://www.ndp.org.sg/ for more infos).
Interestingly, they have 2 current national day songs (who knows for which purpose... may be to whip people up to go ahead ... alias "Malujah Singapura", which is on the national coat of arms).
Btw:
If you think that Singapore is too cool (like my Chinese fellow Gu Zhimin, with whom I share a room in a Chinese apartment in the Woodlands here; he's from Shanghai, so they tend to have up to 39 degree celsius in summer), check out some pic's made in Qatar last Saturday.
I had a stopover in Doha (yes, the Doha of the WTO Doha-Negotiation round). Unfortunately they do not even have a Tourist Office or Visitor Center, so you are advised straight from the airport to go to one of the many hotels (although, half of the hotels are under construction at least in the West Bay Area).
Sadly, the Weaponry Museum and the National Museum were closed (which I experienced only after some sweat-provoking walking, uff), so after being forced to take a rest under a palm tree, I checked out some Souq's (=markets, malls) which unfortunately close between noon and 3.30pm... (siesta in Arabic?) and finally ended up in fleeing to the City-Center Mall (western styled), where they have built an ice rink (yeah, what else could you do if you have too much money, too hot a weather and no else ideas of leisure than watching movies and go shopping?).
I think I gotta go now and check out Singapore's City on its National Day. CU later
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8557504@N04/
Dienstag, 31. Juli 2007
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