Wŏ kĕyĭ zuò shénme rŭguó wŏ de (nǔ?) péngyou bù xĭhuān wŏ hé rŭguó wŏ méi you chénggōng?
bäää, I don't even know how to write...
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
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