One week left in Vietnam

November 21st, 2011

Hanoi! Motor bike ready outfit!

Just over two years ago I landed in Hanoi as a VSO volunteer. It was my first visit to Asia, never mind South East Asia. What an adventure it has proved to be. Having met many volunteers from other organisations I must say compliment VSO on their exceptional preparation and induction programmes which they put their volunteers through. Added to that excellent in country support and I felt myself lucky to be part of this organisation. Well done VSO.

The year in Hanoi had it’s ups and downs. Learning how to deal with the Asian culture takes time and effort and many misunderstandings later but eventually it sinks in. As for the traffic! That is something that I couldn’t come to terms with. I managed to cope eventually but that is as far as it got.

Hau, my favourite artisan at Hope Center.

Relocating to Hue was a great move. The smaller city was more comfortable for me and easier to negotiate. I was fortunate to have a great boss lady and a fabulous center to work at. Such amazing people. Never mind a disability or a tough background as a disadvantaged person the staff and artisans at the Hope Center are just wonderful.

What also helped was the family joining me on this adventure. It gave me huge respect for people who travel and work in outlying areas and countries all on their own. It’s tough. You don’t know the language, you are trying to adapt to foreign cultures and you have no support systems. Very very tough. And very brave of people to manage that. I met a few VSO volunteers who did their own thing in remote areas of Vietnam. Huge respect for them!

What will I take with me? I’m not as brave as I thought. It’s been quite tough in parts. The language defeated me. I love the sound of it but just couldn’t get my tongue to get those special sounds to be anywhere near what they should be. After many months of struggle I gave up. Probably shouldn’t have. But it’s difficult to carry on with something so difficult when you know you are going to leave again.

The language barrier ment that I couldn’t move as freely as I would have liked to. It also made it difficult to make friends with some people such as my boss lady in Hue. What a fabulous woman. Very special. But we also had to work through an interpreter. Regrettably interpreters in Hue don’t know how to interpret. So it ended up being a chat show between the interpreter and the boss leaving me out of the loop. And I saw many instances of this same problem. Somehow they haven’t learnt that it’s not a chatfest amongst each other. In the end I would sit there and day dream about other stuff while they got on with discussing the weather, babies or whatever else they felt like.

Hue. Ancestor shrine.

But on the whole it was a very good time. Interesting cultural differences. Loved the belief in spirits, karma and ancestor worship. It’s given the people a stoic approach to hardship that was kind of refreshing. The developed world people do so bitch and moan when the slightest thing goes wrong. Here it’s a matter of shrugging and getting on with it.

I loved the sharing aspect of this nation. Celebrations are always accompanied by food and drink. And the sharing is open and welcoming. Even just popping in for a visit will mean instant tea served and somebody will rush out to get biscuits or food to ensure visitors are welcomed. During Tet (the oriental new year) people sat in their thick jackets with doors wide open to ensure people felt encouraged to visit. And it’s a veritable tide of motor bikes with red and gold wrapped presents visiting each other to wish happiness, good luck and health.

Once outside of Hanoi the true people emerged. Hanoi can be very cold towards foreigners. Not so the people of the smaller cities such as Hue. Always ready with a smile, a wave, a greeting and ready to make contact. And some truly outrageous things sometimes. My son-in-law was ‘accosted’ by a granny who wanted a lift on the back of his motor bike. Just like that. He took her as far as he could and it ended up in an argument for a while when he wanted to turn left and her way was going right.

On the other hand prejudices are still there and some of the older generation were not that willing to have visitors. My Hanoi interpreter’s parents didn’t want to meet me. They were worried that their town would think badly of them if they had a foreigner step into their house.

In fact prejudices and old-fashioned habits abound. A baby is taken out of the house on the first trip to having vaccination shots with chopsticks wrapped in tissue to keep the bad spirits away. And paper is burnt, flowers stuck in trees, ancestor temples or temples to deities are in arbitrary trees and on pavements. And even though they might appear to belong to nobody in particular there are lit incense sticks, fresh flowers and other offerings on them.

Some parts of this society are still a little behind. Hygiene in hospitals is unheard of with staff unaware of such niceties as washing hands before touching anybody. Dentists have their doors wide open to traffic and dust. And food refuse is thrown on the floor while eating.

Phoenix School. Still keeping in touch with Vietnam.

But it’s a great community of people living close together and looking after each other. And I will stay in contact with this beautiful country. For the next six months I will still work as a consultant for this school and I hope to be able to help with fundraising.

Of course it’s not an idyllic world either. Washing up dishes in the backyard while squatting down isn’t my idea of fun. And my boss from the school where I am doing some work in fundraising has his staff chopping food on the floor. And you should see his fantastic kitchen that has every modern convenience you can think of. Yet his housekeepers are cleaning veg on the floor outside next to the tap which is right next to a magnificent swimming pool. Hollywood folks would be jealous of it.

But perhaps that’s what’s so charming about this country. The opposites. Five star hotels next to houses where people are still cleaning food in their courtyards. And it is that. People live mixed up with a shack next to a fancy new house. And they all seem to get along somehow. And I suppose sometimes not. But it works. And that’s what I’m going to miss the most about Vietnam. It’s the people’s ability to make things work regardless of the setbacks they encounter. Whether it’s strapping a dozen live chicken to the motor bike or hanging your washing on the neighbour’s fence because that’s where it will get some sun during a break in the rainy season. You gotta love ‘em!



Three Amazing Wooden Houses

November 16th, 2011

There is a variety of material used in the building of beautiful houses. One material that has been used to special effect in homes is wood. Some architects and designers have used this material to construct some incredible structures.

Tree house by Architect Oshatz

Tree house with a difference

One such structures is a house designed by architect Robert Harvey Oshatz for his client Wilkinson. This building, made of wood, takes the concept of a tree house to a new level. Blending into a steep slope this structure blends into the tree canopy which surrounds it.

The client wanted the house to evoke nature as well as the flow of music leading to an intricate design that is almost impossible to capture by a camera lens. It takes a courageous client and an imaginative architect to produce such a different construction of a home.

Fireplace in Norway

Fireplace House to tell stories in
Haugen and Zohar, architects, designed an outdoor fireplace protected by an intricate design of left-over construction site pieces. Its purpose is to enable a gathering where storytelling and laughing is made possible in front of an open fire.

Its design was inspired by traditional Norwegian turf huts and old log constructions. The wooden wall forms a shape that is similar to a chimney and allows for different special effects cast by the open fire. There is only one opening that can be closed with a sliding door.

Simon Dale's Eco friendly home

A Woodland Home
Simon Dale built a home for his family in Wales that could have been cast as a Hobbit home. It’s aim was to create something that would have minimum impact on the environment and provide the family living in it with the opportunity of living close to nature.

Some of the construction features are that for maximum shelter the dwelling was dug into the hillside. The stone and mud excavated was reused in the building of the retaining walls and foundation. Simon Dale used the spare wood from the surround woodland for frames. He used straw bales in the floor, wall and roof construction which enhanced the super-insulation. For more information on how this ingenious house was built check his site.

And remember that if you’re selling your house why not use My Online Estate Agent. My Online Estate Agent is a rightmove estate agent and advertises on many other UK property portals.



Blog Action Day 2011

October 16th, 2011

I missed this one last year. But this time I’ve had a few invitations one of which came from VSO. So I had to remember this time around. The theme for this year is food and Vietnam, where VSO sent me as a volunteer, has still a fair amount of food shortage.

That’s actually not accurate. There is no actual food shortage as the country is one of the top rice exporters. There is definitely no access to food though for a fair number of people. In fact outside of the cities the poverty levels can easily reach 17%. And poverty brings with it a lack of food because there is not enough money in the household. Even child malnutrition is still high and the VN government looks to nursery schools to fill those little tummies.

But one would expect there to be these sorts of stats in a developing country such as Vietnam. It’s not so great to see people not getting enough food in countries such as the USA which one considers to be a developed world power. Surely the USA can make sure its citizens get sufficient food?

But it doesn’t seem to be the case. More Americans are unable to feed themselves than one can imagine. In 2010 48.8 million Americans lived in food insecure households of which 16.2 million were children. (Stats: Feeding America).

That’s a frightening statistic. This is the country whose budget for the Department of Defense was $680 billion for the 2010 fiscal year.

Even just a small portion of this budget moved towards feeding the starving people of the USA could make a difference.

There is an unwillingness world wide by governments to look after their people. Which is truly bizarre considering that that is exactly what they are voted in for by the very same people. Elected governments are supposed to look after their citizens. That is the only reason why they are in government. Yet they don’t. Not even close. In fact they almost seem to do the opposite. Cameron for instance, the Brit Prime Minister seems to be actively working against his folk.

Or you have Obama bailing out the banks and insurance companies, the motor industry and anybody else with their hand out while ignoring 48.8 million people who do not have enough food.

At the end of the day the world makes enough food to feed its people. It’s just that food gets priced so high that more and more people cannot afford to pay for it. Money making schemes for a few wealthy farmers and GM seed makers. Water that gets diverted to serve greedy industrial cities, land that gets taken away for big factories so that small holding farmers are left with nothing to farm. And the list goes on. The little guys, the Davids of this world, are constantly squashed by Goliath. And nobody is protecting them. Least of all their governments.

So the call for food, the fight to ensure every person has enough to eat, those kind of boil down to governments that do not govern for their people. That govern to help a handful of wealthy folk become even wealthier.

Have you noticed the number of non-governmental organisations that have mushroomed in the past years? NGOs only have a function, a task to fulfill, because our governments are letting us down, us the people. Why should there be a Feeding America NGO? Why is the government not feeding its own people. Surely that is what government is all about.

That’s the bottom line isn’t it.



Opening Pandora’s box in Libya

September 16th, 2011

Remember the story of Pandora and the box. Part of Greek mythology is talks about a large jar which contained all the evils of the world. When Pandora opened the jar all the contents except for one item were released into the world. The last one remaining was Hope.

In today’s world the expression to open Pandora’s box means to create evil that cannot be undone. Pandora herself was the Eve of Greek mythology. The first woman on earth.

So what does that bit of history have anything to do with Libya? A lot perhaps. If one forcibly removes a dictator as in the case of Gaddafi then the void established by that move can open the box to something one might not want to have happen.

In the case of Libya it has left the door open to Islamism. The most powerful voice in Libya belongs to an Islamic scholar and populist orator. And the first speech in Tripoli in front of thousands by Jalil the leader of the National Transitional Council promised the re-introduction of Islamic law – sharia law.

Is that necessarily bad? Well, Islamism is not of itself an evil religion. There are not that many evil religions around especially those that believe in a benign higher power. And Islam in its less extreme interpretation certainly is that.

However, give a religious organisation based on a fairly ancient belief system the upper hand, add a few extremists and old fashioned laws are again implemented. People are stoned to death, honour killings abound and in general the rights of some members of society are curtailed.

For me the most shocking of this situation is the plight of the women. So much has been done by women and men to improve the world for women. Now we are back to stoning women, killing them because they left the house without a male family member or in the case of the shocking story of the girl’s school that burnt down with girls inside because they couldn’t cover their heads in time.

Of course this could be a pessimistic interpretation of what is happening in Libya as well as in the rest of the Arab world where the population has stood up against oil greedy dictators such as Gaddafi. And yes some reports state that Islamists are more organised and therefore seem more powerful than they are in reality.

But that’s it isn’t it. When there is a power vacuum the group that is the most organised gets in before others, perhaps more moderate, have had a chance to regroup. Let’s hope that moderation wins the day.



Too much going out and not enough coming in

September 7th, 2011

Here is a great example of what’s going wrong with the economy world wide. This one is about the US Postal Services that’s on the skids. Well, dead actually. Hoping to get a hefty bailout from the government to try and survive a few more months.

The US Postal Service is government regulated. It has one particular nasty law that states:

The law prevents the post office from raising postage fees faster than inflation.

At the same time the Post Office has labour contracts that have long guaranteed no layoffs to the vast majority of its workers. And management agreed to a new no layoff-clause in a major contract last May.

In a nutshell. Can’t cut cost and can’t raise prices. The end is nigh.

It’s the very same problem facing governments of countries. Of course most of them like the UK are in a major cutting mode. Mostly services that make life easier will be shut down by Govt who hopes that the people will take the slack. Help themselves so to speak.

But where’s the increase in revenue? Taxes for the wealthy or for companies. Higher luxury goods taxes for instance such as alcohol, 5 star hotels, first class travel, luxury motor vehicles. There is more than one way to get the filthy loot out of the wealthy 1% of the population who own about 40% of all wealth, globally. Or more shockingly in the USA the top 20% own 92% of all wealth.

Using the same tax system across the board, as happens in most cases of a tax systems , the middle class is the group of folk who carry the bulk of the tax burden. Remember that taxes were first introduced to get money out of the ordinary folk to pay for excessive spending by monarchs or the church. Not much has changed since then.

It’s shown again and again by the determined manner in which the Inland Revenue folk hunt down ordinary folk to make sure they pay their last cent in taxes. Yet the wealthy are able to hide their income by paying their cars through companies, taking their holidays as business trips, newspaper subscriptions through the business, clothes expenses hidden as uniform purchases, that case of expensive scotch as Xmas gifts to customers and the list goes on. I’ve done it as accountant for a company. Easy.

That tax system needs to change to make sure that revenue is collected from the wealthy. High taxes on luxury cruises, ski trips, high end clothing etc will be more appropriate than trying to tax their ‘salaries’. They don’t earn anything.

There has to be an entire mind change in terms of taxation. And of course all of this can be implemented. The VAT system in the UK for instance is incredibly sophisticated with exemptions, scales and variations that could make anybody’s hair stand on edge. What’s stopping the UK from introducing a 50% VAT rate on first class train travel, expensive entertainment centres, art work etc. And yes there is already a high import tax paid on many of these items. But there’s no reason why not let that 20% population that owns 90% of all wealth pay a bit more.

Well, you might ask yourself, why should they. It’s capitalism. It’s reward for risk takers, hard work, innovation, the American dream and a lot more reasons why the wealthy should be entitled to their spoils.

Sure. But when it involves stealing from the general population it’s a bit different. The CEO’s paying themselves 17% more this past financial year while retrenching the workers at a rapid rate are doing just that. If Apple’s past CEO could pay himself $1 per year because he considered his wealth to be sufficient then surely the rest of the greedy big shots can do the same.

Regardless of the little man as that’s not really the point here. The point is that if Governments want to be able to balance their budgets they have to do two things. Bring in more revenue and cut costs. Only cutting costs means that the poorer folk in the system are harmed again and the wealthy folk sit pretty.

Not a good system. The Arab world’s uprising will not be the only one. There are already demonstrations in several non Arab countries. Spain has had some and more recently Israel has had it’s streets full of people asking why their cost of living is so high and their standard of living is falling. And yet they are working as hard as ever.

These demonstrations have nothing to do with lazy, unmotivated, scum of the earth type of folk. This is all about ordinary citizens seeing the world go to the wealthy and their lot getting worse. The Greeks in particular have seen a Govt system where the ordinary folk pay taxes and the upper echelon swims in money. No wonder they are angry.

There will be more and more angry people out there. A French Revolution in the brewing. It’s just a pity that as history tells us one money grabbing regime is always replaced by another money grabbing one. It just gets a different name with a new bunch of people who have spotted the opportunity of being able to the top of the money tree by riding the wave of the ordinary people.

Same ol’ Same ol’. Pity us ordinary folk are always so willing to abdicate our power to somebody who stands up and says they will do it for us. We almost deserve to get nailed by the ruthless top order. Almost.



What are you really selling?

August 31st, 2011

It’s always an interesting question that needs asking and answering when in business. What are you really selling? Because at the end of the day every business sells something. Getting that right is probably the key to your success.

Can’t be that difficult surely? Actually it’s not that straight forward. I was reminded of that fact again reading about Apple which has hit the news quite a bit with Steve Jobs resigning due to ill health. Or that is what we imagine is the reason.

What is Apple selling? You can list the cool gadgets, the fabulous computers the amazing Air laptop and presume that Apple is selling technology. However, in an interesting article in the New York Times it seems more likely that Apple is in fact selling content. Media. And the gadgets that go with the media are just incidental.

Sure Apple is making money on the iPad, iPhone, iPod and the laptop range. But when all is said and done check out iTunes and the App Store and never mind the software that Apple sells for its gadgets and one realises that in fact Apple could be considered a publisher/seller of content rather than a technology company.

So Apple sells entertainment and educational content. Music, films, videos, podcasts, books! And TV? Watch this space as Apple makes itself felt in this area as well. And of course people need the gadgets to enjoy all of this.

And another thing, I use my iPhone more for watching TV series on than to phone with. Phoning? I use Skype.

So what are you selling? You might think you are selling a plumbing or a landscape service. But in both cases it’s something else. The plumber sells a clean and smell free house, the landscape designer sells aesthetics and value added to a property. Pampers is all about convenience. And fashion is about feeling good about yourself and not too much about actual clothes.

But going back to Apple. Amazing how the landscape has changed. Spotting the fact that people want access to the content they want to enjoy wherever they are, that’s the genius of Steve Jobs. Of course making cool toys to go with that is super genius.



Royal wedding in Germany

August 28th, 2011

Huh? In an effort for a ‘me-too’ moment or so it seems the Germans managed to have a Royal wedding recently (Der Spiegel article in German). Did anybody else know that the Germans still have a Prince of something? They certainly do. Georg Friedrich Prinz von Preussen to be more precise.

This Prince without a kingdom is the great great grandson of the last German Emperor and King of Prussia. So what? Or that’s what one might consider the relevant answer to that statement.

Much to my surprise the royal family and peripheral houses of all sorts of titles seem to be rather active and well in Germany. It seems the Prince managed to snare a bride with similar ‘von und zu’ titles that entitled her to marry someone of such exalted stature as the heir to the Prussian thrown. Wherever that might be now.

So his wife’s name is Princess Sophie. She’s probably lucky that her family dropped some of the lengthy title of olden days otherwise she would have had this name to contend with: Sophie Johanna Maria von Isenburg und Büdingen zu Birstein.

No matter what these names and titles might mean in modern day Germany it was an eye opener to read the Wikipedia page. It’s difficult to imagine how these Dukes and Countesses, Princes and Princesses still imagine themselves to have a relevance.

Of course looking at some of the other Kingdoms still around such as the Royal Family in the UK, the one still perched in Denmark and the Scandinavian countries and more it is conceivable that the German royals might think there is still a future for them.

As for the wedding. It must have been a disappointment that only local TV broadcast the event in comparison to the Will and Kate Reality TV show and that the Landauer horse drawn carriage had a mishap during the procession due to the stumble and fall of one of the poor nags.

Apparently, we are reassured, neither horses nor humans were injured. But imagine being such a lousy coach driver that a horse falls? The Brits certainly got that right. Maybe the German royals need to visit the UK for a tip or two on how to do ‘grand posturing’ without mishap.

Amazing stuff.



Ever wondered whether sex sells?

August 27th, 2011

If you are still doubting whether sex sells or not then you only need to have followed the story of the Strauss-Kahn sex assault case to have this fact explained again in lurid colours. If ever there is an example of sex being a leading topic this is one.

A few months ago Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the then president of the International Monetary Fund, was heading home from a conference or whatever in New York. He was settled into his seat on Air France. First class of course.

The police authorities stormed the plane to arrest him on sexual assault charges. They somehow managed to immediately tip off the press because the frenzy was simultaneous. Think of this image. A tank full of sharks and a bucket of fresh meat gets tipped into the water. That kind of feeding frenzy.

This ‘news’ snippet was posted everywhere. On a loop on TV news channels, front page of newspapers and presumably on radio. Wherever. And it was not restricted to the USA. Europe jumped in on it. In fact just about the whole world. Hysteria.

The man was thrown into a maximum security prison. He was found guilty by the people. And one should be most thankful that the mob of people who had probably never heard of the man before could not get at him. He would have been lynched.

Even this harmless little blog where I speculated that the press had found him guilty had a comment that wondered how I could even suggest that he wasn’t guilty.

So the man resigns his high-profile job and most probably understands that his candidacy as future President of France is now a thing of the past. Yip. That’s who this person was.

Needless to say on Wednesday 24 August the charges against him were dismissed. Hardly a murmur in the media. Sure it was reported as a once off item in all of the newsletters I subscribe to whether the Independent from the UK or the New York Times. But it’s low key, one off stuff.

Where’s the hype? Where’s the apology from the media?? Nowhere to be seen. This person had his character assassinated and nobody says sorry? He’s been discarded. Now for the next victim.

You see there is no more sex if the charges have been dropped. It’s not sellable anymore. There’s no more story. Does sex sell? You betcha.



Steve Jobs a visionary steps down

August 25th, 2011

Steve Jobs has resigned as chief executive of Apple. As much as this has been anticipated due to Mr Jobs’ ill health it is still a shock to the technology and entertainment industry.

Yet can one truly attribute the success of a huge company such as Apple, profits of $7.3bn on revenues of $28.6bn and now valued higher than Microsoft (who would have ever thought that possible) to one single person?

Just one visionary?

It seems that this is true. One person is able to motivate thousands of workers, make his creative teams produce the most amazing stuff that people didn’t even know they wanted to buy in the millions of unit at a premium priced amount?

And yet it seems. Stories abound, and more will be told as his autobiography gets launched, about how his quest for ‘something awesome’ inspired his workers to deliver and how those who didn’t deliver didn’t stay around for much longer.

And perhaps this was a difficult company to work at. There was always the expectation to do much better than the market’s competitors. The pressure of hunting for the ultimate ‘cool’ idea and translating it into a well functioning reality is truly a heavy burden to carry.

But isn’t that what puts meaning to your life? A work for something that is fun, worthwhile, challenging yet ultimately achievable, applauded by people and admired by many. The ultimate high.

It’s the kind of work that people dream about one should think.

So where are these leaders in politics? Why do we not have a Steve Jobs as President of the United States? A visionary who can pull people together and get them to deliver on new things for people that they did not even know they wanted?

Quite frankly, there will be more folk out there mourning the departure of Steve Job from Apple than when Obama leaves the White House.



They must think we are so stupid

August 23rd, 2011

Six months of Libya revolution appears to be coming to an end. The rebel forces who couldn’t hold onto a couple of positions in outlying areas have suddenly marched into Tipoli claiming victory.

Folks running the powers that be must think us ordinary citizens total idiots.

My eyebrows raised an inch or so at the news. So it was with no great surprise that I read this article in The Independent today describing how the Brits engineered and ran the show from the back room. That’s more like it.

After all if anybody has had a look at the so called rebel troops arriving in short sleeved T-Shirts hanging out of old cars, interspersed with the odd tank with a driver wearing a cap backwards and not too much visible protective gear accompanied by flag waving pedestrians…

You get the picture. You’ve seen them on a loop on TV.

This is the army that has just wiped out Gadaffi’s troops which were aided and abetted by troops of mercenaries, with air force and artillery of note. Yeah right. Sell us another one.

It is incredible that the newscasters have the confidence to sell us this crap. Really. Who actually believes this? Have we dumbed down to such an extent that we believe this?

Of course the question now is: who actually won the war – that is if it has been won. Gaddafi does tend to resurrect himself regularly. That motley army of rebels isn’t going to be able to lead a parade never mind a country.

Maybe Caltex, Shell, BP et al will step in. After all this whole thing has been driven by the quest for oil, or not? Can’t imagine why Britain would consider paying out £250m otherwise to a war that has nothing to do with them. And don’t give me that silly reason that it’s in support of NATO. Harhar.



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