Old School

Today's visit to H&M. Paying the bill, I notice that the cute boy collecting my money is wearing a BEATLES T-shirt. I ask him: wow, are you a fan of the Beatles? He replies: very much so, they are really OLD SCHOOL. They really are, I tell him, they are from my younger years :-) He smiles with a bright smile, and opens his shirt for the picture, so that the group he's so proud of is more clearly visible.
So old school is back! Get ready for more antiquities!

Cebu becomes first province in the Philippines to pass anti-discrimination law

by News Editor

The Cebu City Council on Wednesday passed a landmark anti-discrimination ordinance on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, disability, age, health status, ethnicity and religion.

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The landmark ordinance will prohibit excluding, refusing or dismissing any person from public programs and services and educational institutions on the basis of disability, age, health status, sexual orientation, gender identity, ethnicity and religion, according to a report in the Sun Star.

The law will also prohibit discriminating against any organisation or group. It also makes it unlawful to deny medical and other health services, transportation and other facilities based on those biases.First-time offenders will be fined P1,000 or imprisoned for one day to 30 days. Second-time offenders will face a fine of P3,000 or suffer imprisonment of one day to 30 days or both at the discretion of the court. For successive offenses, violators will be fined P5,000 or be imprisoned for one day to 30 days or face both at the discretion of the court.

see more on  http://www.fridae.asia/newsfeatures/2012/10/19/12005.cebu-becomes-first-province-in-the-philippines-to-pass-anti-discrimination-law?n=sec

for more info, see:  https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Cebu-City-Anti-Discrimination-Ordinance/262913083822365

Family stronger then Art

Remember I told you about Kan, almost a year ago? He's a Vietnamese guy, working in Bangkok as an artist. I promised him to publish some of his work in a book, and I kept my promise (of course), the book is selling on blurb, on this link. It sells well.

Now what is interesting about Kan's situation? His family in VietNam is quite well off. His family needs someone to take care of the family business.

Now Kan has to decide. He must choose between following his artistic desires (and he's quite a promising artist!) and following the needs of his family.

For the moment, he choose to close down his artistic being in Bangkok, and to return to VietNam to join his family and be at their service. Which means he'll have to forgo every fiber in his body that makes him an artist. I deeply respect his choice. I also think that his artistic genetics will pop up again, sooner or later :-)

Come and see next week (or month, or year, or decade)!

I need new furniture!

The living room in the renovated house needs new furniture. I asked my brother Rafael to make it, a couple of months ago. He promised to work on it, but it might take him a year or so to finish :-)
The final result should be something like the picture above, but then over a whole wall of 6 m width. No doubt it will be amazing, if it ever gets ready!

the Pink Pants Pool

As you know, we love swimming. When on holiday, we swim at least twice a day. And when we are home, we really enjoy a morning swim!

So it was with great pleasure that we learned that a new pool opened in our city Gent: zwembad Rozebroeken (translated: the pink pants pool, although it has nothing to do with pink pants hehehe). You see the picture on top. Their site is http://www.sr-rozebroeken.be/BENL/site/index.aspx .

It's a HUGE state-of-the-art pool, with all the newest thrills and technical gimmicks! We love that pool. Only problem is that it's a bit too far to cycle there in the early morning, so we have to drive by car.

We swim from 8:30 to 9:10 a.m. At 8:30, the pool is almost deserted, very quiet. Around 9 a.m., the schools start to roll in, and it's really a pleasure to see all the youngsters learning to swim, or if they can already swim, perfecting their swimming skills.

So, if you want to visit us in the early morning hours, you know where to find us!

The Guestroom

as you know, we have a guest-room in the newly renovated house next door. Very nice although not extremely big. But it's cozy enough.
Our guest come from all over the world, we love to have them. The first one came from Mainland China, the second and third from Indonesia. I wonder where no. 4 will come from!

We ask our guests also feedback: what can we do to improve the room (apart of making it bigger, which is impossible). We learned that guests like to have a private place to work: a small desk, for papers or computers or tablet. So this week we went to Ikea, and bought a new desk, not too big so that it doesn't take up too much space, an standing open closet to put clothes and other travel stuff in, and a hanging rack to store papers and work.

And really, the guest-room looks much nicer now!

a view on the Phils

View on the Phils

        

New York Times story on Philippines.....28 Aug 2012

MANILA — In the upscale business district of Manila, a midweek crowd spills out into the street. The New York-themed Borough restaurant is pulsating to the beat of a Bon Jovi  song, while young, hip Filipinos take shots of tequila from a passing tray and sing in  unison. "Whoa-oh, we're halfway there!" the crowd sings. "Whoaoh, livin' on a prayer!"
The revelers have reason to celebrate. Times are pretty good in the Philippines if you are
young, skilled and live in the city.
Young urban workers are helping to give the country its brightest prospects in decades, economists say.
With $70 billion in reserves and lower interest payments on its debt after recent credit rating upgrades, the Philippines pledged $1 billion to the International Monetary Fund to help shore up the struggling economies of Europe.
"This is the same rescue fund that saved the Philippines when our country was in deep financial trouble in the early '80s," said Representative Mel Senen Samiento, a  congressman from Western Samar.
The Philippines has certainly had a steady flow of positive economic news recently. On July 4, Standard & Poor's raised the country's debt rating to just below investment grade, the highest rating for the country since 2003 and equivalent to that of Indonesia.
The Philippines is the 44thlargest economy in the world today, according to HSBC  estimates.
But if current trends hold, it can leap to the No. 16 spot by 2050. The Philippine stock market, one of the best performers in the region, closed at a record high after the recent S.& P. rating upgrade, and the country's currency, the peso, reached a fouryear
high against the dollar at about the same time.
The gross domestic product of the Philippines grew 6.4 percent in the first quarter,  according to the country's central bank, outperforming all other growth rates in the region except China's.
Economists expect similarly strong growth in the second quarter.
"We have made a very bold forecast for the Philippines, but I think justifiably so," said Frederic Neumann, a senior economist at HSBC in Hong Kong.
A high population growth rate, long considered a hindrance to prosperity, is now often  seen as a driving force for economic growth. About 61 percent of the population in the Philippines is of working age, between 15 and 64.
That figure is expected to continue increasing, which is not the case for many of its Asian neighbors, whose populations are aging.
"There are a number of countries in Asia that will see their working-age populations  decline in the coming years," Mr. Neumann said. "The Philippines stands out as the  youngest population. As other countries see their labor costs go up, the Philippines will remain competitive due to the sheer abundance of workers joining the labor force."
Many of those workers are feeding the country's robust outsourcing industry. The Philippines, where English is widely spoken, surpassed India last year as the world's leading provider of customer service call centers.
According to the country's Board of Investments, offshore call centers employed 683,000
Filipinos in 2011 and generated about $11 billion in revenue, a 24 percent increase from the previous year. The government is seeking to expand the industry and has said it  hopes it will generate $25 billion in revenue by 2016.
The Philippines' growing prosperity has also been driven by the 9.5 million Filipinos — almost 10 percent of the population — who work outside the country and who sent home about $20 billion in 2011. That is up from $7.5 billion in 2003.
Trinh D. Nguyen, an economist with HSBC in Hong Kong, said the Philippines had  benefited from an increase in government efficiency and revenue collection, as well as aggressive actions to address corruption, like the impeachment of the chief justice of
the Supreme Court and the arrest of former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on suspicion of accepting kickbacks and of misusing government lottery money.
"It is not only short-term growth that draws investors to the Philippines," Ms. Nguyen
said. "The fundamentals are there."
But there are also real weaknesses in the country. Recent flooding, which by some estimates submerged 50 percent of Manila, illustrates a shortage of modern infrastructure that makes the Philippines highly vulnerable to disasters.
"The Philippines is hit with several deadly and devastating natural disasters every year,"
Ms. Nguyen said.  But government officials have said that the recent flooding might  actually help economic growth, because reconstruction will require an increase in public
spending and the country will have to put into place programs to make it more resistant to the effects of natural disasters.
Another hurdle is the fact that the Philippines has traditionally underexploited its natural resources.
The government estimates that there are 21.5 billiontons of metal deposits in the country, including large deposits of nickel, iron, copper and gold.
But they have never been a significant driver of economic growth because extraction has
been mismanaged, Mr. Neumann said.
In the shorter term, there are concerns that the country's newfound prosperity has not sufficiently eradicated poverty.
Other countries in the region, most notably China and Japan, but also Thailand and Vietnam, have successfully developed export-driven manufacturing, bringing millions of people out of poverty and increasing the size of their middle classes. Manufacturing
typically draws workers away from agriculture, which pays less. But many of the large
foreign companies that financed such transitions to manufacturing in Asia have avoided the Philippines because of periods of political instability.
The service sector — including the young call center workers who were recently reveling in Manila — are helping drive an economic boom in the cities.
But that type of outsourcing still provides only about 1 percent of jobs in the country,  according to data from the Asian Development Bank. And the strong sector does not  create jobs accessible to farmers or to millions of other Filipinos in rural areas who seek
a way out of poverty.
"While the Philippines' business process outsourcing industry has grown impressively, it
still employs a very small portion of the country's work force," noted Rajat M. Nag, a managing director of the Asian Development Bank. "It needs to aggressively develop its manufacturing sector to create more jobs."
On Emerald Avenue in the Ortigas business district of Manila, where hundreds of call center workers pour out of skyscrapers to gossip and smoke, Mika Santos, 18, does not have much to say about the national economy.
But she is very happy with her own situation.
After completing a two-year information technology course and passing an exam in  English proficiency, she started handling customer service calls for a United States mobile phone company.
She earns a comparatively high salary for an entry-level job, and her employer offers incentive bonuses, free meals and shuttle service.
Had she been born a generation earlier, she would most likely have worked as a low-income farmer or gone overseas to find work. "My parents didn't have any opportunity like this," she said.

a view on china

here's a copy of a blogger (http://www.richardbatchelor.com/Blog/Blog05162012.htm) which gives quite a good insight in his experiences:

May 16 2012

Change in China - 10 Tips for Success

I recently worked on an engagement in China. The core activity was an analysis of the companies HR and organization to recommend changes. It was an enlightening opportunity for me. I experienced a totally different work ethic and learned so much about the way national identity informs cultural identity.

Here I offer my insight from the experience in the form of a set of recommendations for anyone who may be considering an assignment in China. 

I begin with my favourite topic of communications. Of course one of the communication challenges was the language. I didn't know any Chinese on arrival. I can't say I knew much on leaving. However I was fortunate to be working with someone who did. I did find that the younger Chinese were more capable in English and almost relished the opportunity to speak English with a native speaker. However, when you are taking time to interview a number of employees about the process and their feelings around their workplace you need to be able to use sometimes complex and irregular language.Recommendation 1: make sure you have someone to work with who can translate good business English.

 Reflecting on the content of the communications there are two areas to mention. Chinese folks do no want to say something bad about a colleague or someone in their group. Chinese also like to tell you the story of what happened with scene setting and surrounding information as added extras to the facts. This means that you have to allow for both of these situations. Recommendation 2: allow more time for interviews with employees.

 Talking about poor performance is nigh on impossible. Or should I say having a Chinese manager to address it is almost impossible. You have to consider alternate methods to express lack of achievement. This means you have to say the person “did as expected” or “still has areas to achieve” rather than didn't or failed to do something. I found a strong reluctance to measure performance with KPIs or the like as this would mean indicating failure. Much more was made of the relationship in the group. Recommendation 3: find a way to say failure without being negative in the choice of words.

When you have western expatriates or foreigners in a business they often gravitate towards the English speaking Chinese. Understandable I guess; but they really need to lose the halo effect with the English speakers. Recommendation 4: don't get confused between English language capability and working competence.

Money is often said to make the world go round and it certainly does in China. Challenging any preconceptions you may have China is a thriving market economy fast charging toward capitalist ideals. For the average worker this means they want to have a family, buy a house, a car and live well. To do this they need money. To get the money they work and work and work. Now I will cover a little more on this in the next paragraph but the core need to maximize income means the Chinese will work as many hours as you give them.Recommendation 5: forget work life balance.

Even though the Chinese worker is willing to work all those hours it doesn't mean it's right. However they will strongly push back if you try to cut them because they see that as a cut in income. There are Labour laws in China regarding hours of work. These state that the maximum working hours are 44 per week with up to 36 additional overtime hours in a month. Now if the worker wants to work more and you have them available they will take them. Be aware that they soon start living within the means of the higher wage and won't like any attempt to take it away. Recommendation 6: if you try to reduce working hours have an alternative way of making the money.

The assignment I was working on reflected a recent organizational structure change. Effectively a new management layer had been added in because of an expanding workforce. Now this is where Chinese and western ways align. Both like to work in silos and use management structures vertically rather than horizontally. However to get more lateral and horizontal interactions you need to play to the group mentality. Recommendation 7: to get people to work across silos create laterally connected groups e.g. Team leaders and middle managers.

I was working with a foreign company based in China. Their senior management were all expatriates. Now long term plans must surely be to integrate Chinese into the management team but in the meantime there has to be an appreciation that there are a significant number of individuals from outside the culture running the show. This means they are stressed living and working many miles from home and challenged to adapt to an alien way of life (to them of course).Recommendation 8: remember to consider the western workers who need the organization to support them too.

In China relationship and saving face are paramount to the workplace. However there is also a strong element of grade, seniority or superiority complex. By this I mean that only someone who is in a senior position to the person can tell them what to do. This means that any thoughts of empowerment culture or similarly peer working relationships will hit a stumbling block. But if you are able to differentiate roles then you have a chance of getting buy-in for this.Recommendation 9: clearly define roles within the team to express responsibilities and working expectations but be prepared to have push back on taking on any peer responsibilities.

My final comment relates to privacy, confidentiality and restricted communications. It is often necessary for discussions and communications to be kept within a number of people and not shared, or for employee information to be kept private. However, in China there are no secrets, or any attempt to keep things such as wages, management discussions or any work related activity private. This leads me to my final comment. Recommendation 10: until you have established a solid and trusting relationship, never discuss anything with an employee and expect it to stay secret, even if you ask for it to do so.

I perhaps should have another recommendation about working in China, but I think this applies to work in any new and different place. Enjoy it! For many people working in Change, they are more open to differences and are therefore more positive about the new and finding out about what can be done differently. Working abroad in a completely different country to normal is an ideal opportunity to test this and I can only speak from personal experience, but I would confirm that this is most definitely the case for me. So for anyone else out there, I recommend that you take any opportunity to work abroad and in so doing enjoy it for what it is and if it is China that you choose to go to, then I am sure these 10 tips will help you through the experience.

nudity and the purist religion

it is a widespread misconception that religions don't allow nudity. There are many examples of religious art where the naked human body is not only absolutely normal, but necessary for the expression of the religious feeling or thought.

Let me give you some examples.

When travelling in Bali, the Island of the Gods, you'll find many statues of this highly acclaimed god, who is not only totally nude, but who's extremities indicate an enhanced power. Here's a picture I took in an art gallery in Kuala Lumpur (indeed, a majority muslim country):

There's even a huge statue of this god in (if I'm not mistaken) Denpasar, in the middle of a busy crossroad. Lovely.

One might think that this is only possible in Bali, a very relaxed island. One would be mistaken: the religious expression of nudity is to be found everywhere, although not always in the most obvious places. In an Indian temple for example, male nudity was colorfully depicted:

Which brings me to Europe. Yesterday I was browsing through some art sites, and  they brought me back in time to the renaissance period in Europe. I rediscovered some forgotten masterpieces in religious art, depicting the male body in detail. See some examples for yourself: painted by Luca Signorelli:

Many other examples come in mind: the recent naked Christ in the Barcelona cathedral (Gaudi), the art of another famous renaissance artist: Michelangelo, and so on.

Do you know other forms of male nude religious art? Share them please, no matter what religion and no matter what time period. I'm looking forward to seeing more :-)
.

the effect of rice

she worked the whole of her life in the paddy fields. Her body adapted to the form of the rice, bending in the wind. She became one with the field. When will she be harvested?

the good life

a hut above the sea - a net to sleep and rest in - how good life can be?

mysterious

when visiting a country, it remains mysterious to me :-)

the deadly lotus on Valentine!

on this Valentine day, I offer you a flower ... a deadly lotus: the insects that visited it, are trapped in the middle! Don't let Valentine trap you :-)

river fun in Ha Noi, Vietnam (2002)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbNsIfaZ5iI&feature=context&context=G2a1bab5FAAAAAPAAOAA