Kampus Sejahtera @ USM

Goodbye ...

2011-10-15T11:38:00.000+08:00

3 November 2011 at the foyer of Canselori.

On the day when Dzulkifli Abdul Razak said goodbye as Vice-Chancellor of USM after eleven years at the helm.

Wheel Clamp Zone extended

2011-08-24T09:50:00.000+08:00

Be warned, whether you are staff, student or visitor, if you park outside the designated parking bays, you are liable to be clamped. I wish I could tell you the "exceptions", but they probably don't apply to you.
The penalty is RM20 to get the clamps off.

Devine Intervention

2011-05-18T19:54:00.001+08:00

7:38 pm, just after light dinner of duck rice at SuperTanker food court at Lip Sin Garden.
Waiting for my 8:30 meeting. It's too long a ride to go home and come again.
Earlier in the afternoon, a colleague phoned me : "Are you going? I thought our work already done, taken care of by the various DVCs? If you're not going, I'm also not going". I said my intention is to go ... for reasons best not revealed here.

But after dinner I took a walk around the two lakes on campus. Over the weekend, it gain notoriety in the local press. Everyone pointed their fingers at the USM retention pond for causing the floods along Sg. Dua. There was a huge downpour and the ponds overflowed.

A few chaps were quite happy because along with the flood water came the tilapia and jelawat fishes struggling in the shallow water along the road outside USM. They got their nets and got free fish for dinner. Ah, but some biologist told me once the fish in the lake is really not fit for consumption.

One apartment just outside of the campus also got flooded. Pictures in the press showed a car submerged up to its roof. Poor guy. Usually, the guards at the condo would alert the residents to remove their cars to higher ground after one hour of rain.

Residents there too blamed USM for not taking care of the problem. They said they complained before.

Some elected member of parliament or state assemblyman immediately jumped in and said USM should dig another hole. And the DID chief seemed to think its USM's problem too, saying that the university should deepen the ponds.

And what did USM say? The public relations guy said the only thing that would not get a good public lashing. "We will work with the relevant departments to solve the problem".

Looks like another bigger headache on top of the alga bloom.

Speaking of which, the green alga is all gone! The water in the two lakes are now earthen brown.

Wow, all it took was a few hours of heavy rain to get rid of the problem.

But don't be too happy. Just wait awhile. The alga bloom will come back. We still have not resolved the problem. Low water flow on most days. Rubbish and pollutants flowing in from outside. And wrong design - one pond has inlet but no outlet. And of course, one problem is that it is shallow and silting up.

But I think the biggest loser are the people who pumped in more than a hundred thousand to experiment with use of bio-enzymes to solve the problem. The experiment is all screwed up now. They will have to wait for the next alga bloom to come back and start the experiment all over again.

Or will they just claim victory.

Now I know one reason why the mouth of the river at Tanjung Bungah could miraculously become spotlessly clean.

Who are we?

2011-04-26T17:41:00.000+08:00

I was at the Red House having my usual vegetarian lunch. But now I have increased from 3 to 4 vegetables. So instead of the usual RM2 it's now about RM2.60 or so. Still damn cheap. with barley at 70 sens, it's still less than RM3.50 for lunch. That's a little over one US dollar. But there's a billion people who don't even have a dollar a day.

While I was in the room eating, a man in USM uniform and a lady came in to inspect the rattan table and chairs. The man was giving instructions to the lady (probably a contractor or sorts) to repair the chairs and tables. 20 chairs and 3 tables to be sent for repair. I said to myself, "well done, the message is getting through". Reuse, reduce, repair, refuse ... in whatever order you like.

Oh my the way, or BTW, if you like, the lady selling chap fun (economy rice) warned me not to go and eat there on Monday. I said, "monday is a holiday". Well, not just monday. "Don't come for the next three months". Huh, why? "They are renovating Red House, don't you know?". Oh. So, that repair of the tables and chairs must be related to the renovation.

After the quick lunch (I eat toooo fast), I came out and saw the above scene. My car is the tiny one on the right behind the big red car. B**$$????? It's an official USM car. So, I hung around, waiting. And a group of students also came to the other car. And we looked around.

And then the earlier guy in uniform and the lady came around. The man said "sorry ah". I didn't smile. I just looked at him. If you can't read the words on the door of the car, it says that it belongs to the safety unit.

Now, if people in authority don't obey the rules, who should?

Also today on campus. I had actually noticed this mouse trap in HBP yesterday and also saw the pestcontrol contractor's staff with a bunch of traps at the car park. So, they trap the rats (can you see them) and then exterminate them in the hot sun. I am not making judgment. In my old house, I used to trap the rats too. They have nest in the roof. And the crawl out at night to make a mess. Yes, I also put them in the sun to kill them. But then I felt it was really inhumane. Long slow death by baking in the sun. I did let some of them escape in the big drain but they will come back. So, I tried hot water but it just don't feel right.

So, who are we? We make a distinction between pests and other animals we don't harm.

I think the solution is to make sure that your environment is clean. Don't create opportunities for the rats to fester. Can we do that on campus?

Stretchhhhh

2011-04-08T09:31:00.003+08:00

This was captured yesterday afternoon at Pusat Sejahtera, our Wellness Centre. One hour of very intensive exercise including some serious pilates stretching. The guru, Dr George Teoh, an academic, yes, lecturer, said that session burnt 200 calories. I think burning calories is over-rated. Haha, sorry, just being funny. But I think for me it was the stretching which old people like me have to take care of. Yesterday on my walk near the beach, I saw a lady do an incredible stunt. She was walking and imagine this. Now if you put your palms together and put it where your heart is, like you are praying. Got it? Now, imagine walking behind this lady. And you see the palms in prayer - behind her back. In the middle on the back! I was absolutely impressed.

George says a 30-minute brisk walk will take off 150 calories or so.

So, "burning" is not my problem these days. Over the last weeks, I have been doing walks in the mornings before going to campus, almost every day. Sometimes I do a slow soft jog for 30 or 40 minutes. Yesterday I stood on the scale next to my bed. Guess what? I lost about 2 kilos in the last weeks.

Hhhm, I am thinking tonight would be fried fish, fried belacan chicken, vegetables of course, and soup! And brown rice. I know, I know, fried food is not very healthy but I deserve a little treat for all the hard work, right?

Stay active guys. Stay healthy.

"Good Health" is not "Wellness"

2011-03-25T14:50:00.000+08:00

In January, more than 2 months ago, I wrote "Are U Well?". At that time, I had no idea what "wellness" really meant. Yah, we all know that the USM Clinic used to be called Pusat Kesihatan (or literally, the Health Centre, or just Clinic). Now it has been renamed the Pusat Sejahtera (in English, it's supposed to be Wellness Centre), which got some people confused with Kampus Sejahtera. So they bracketed it with "(Pusat Kesihatan dan Pergigian)" - which kinda defeats the point of the name change because you now sort of tell people that it's still the same thing.

What would you expect when you walk into a Wellness Centre? Gym? Spa? Reflexologists and masseuse lined to crack your bones and relax your muscles? Doctors and nurses? emmmhh ....

I remember the first time I heard about the proposed name change was when VC mentioned it in passing (quite long ago), saying that "apparently there's a difference between health and wellness" (or something like that) ... but he didn't elaborate.

I did some googling recently and started reading. And I am still trying to get it into my bloodstream, so this is really tentative but hopefully instructive.

Firstly, even if you have a debilitating disease, it does not mean you cannot attain a certain state of wellness.

And I hear you go "huh, sick but still well? what kind of concept is this?".

So, imagine a patient who has to go for dialysis a few times a week. It's probably painful (I don't know, really, I'm assuming). It takes hours off your day. And of course, it probably also means you can't be very active the rest of the week. Within these limitations, wellness can still be achieved. Yes, it means that you accept the limitations imposed by your illness but you choose to live you life to the fullest possible.

So, the first idea or concept or principle, is that there are various levels or thresholds to wellness. It varies with your state of health. It varies with age, from childhood to old age. Various developmental stages are identified throughout your life. Within each stage, you should develop certain wellness tasks. For example, during infancy, one minimal wellness task relates to psychomotor skills. As you become aged (like me?) you need to learn to how to deal with your mortality (death), loss of income upon retirement and of course your physical abilities and strengths.

Some people are just lucky. They don't have to do anything and still don't get sick. That essentially means he/she is healthy. That's how we see "health" - the absence of illness. To understand wellness, imagine a sliding horizontal bar. On the left end is "illness" and on the right end is "wellness". Now, if you are ill, you get medical treatment, you work towards recovery and maybe rehabilitation and you will then arrive at somewhere in the middle where you will be considered "healthy", again.

Wellness requires that you continue moving to the right, learning about what it takes to stay healthy (education), then making lifestyle changes with the intention to maximise life satisfaction. Then, you will attain "wellness".

Wellness is a very personal and individual effort (with community and professional support, if necessary). You cannot have a KPI or standard measurement of wellness which applies to everyone. Wellness is not a static point or position. Wellness is a process. You have to keep working on it, to achieve personal growth. And that does not mean just getting rich. Wellness requires effort. You need to work at it.

Obviously, personal ambitions and goals plays a dominant role in determining your wellness. If you are constantly stressed and aggressively pursuing your first million or next big promotion you will neglect your family and friends, make enemies along the way and generally forget to take care of your health. All will not end well.

If you have access, try this article "The Wellness Process" (1977) ... yes, they have been talking about it for more than 30 years! I wonder if the ideas have evolved or change much since.

Quote of the week by Muhammad Salleh, Poet Laurete at the CGSS Dailogue at DPU, USM yesterday : "When I am not having nightmares about KPIs, I am a poet". See a connection to wellness?

Stay Healthy - and yee will be wealthy and wise

2011-03-22T13:28:00.001+08:00

See something you like? Mark your calendar.

I think I will go for "Exercise for a glamourous you". I wonder if "glamourous" is only for ladies? Does "glamour" equate with "expensive" and "extravagant" lifestyle? Or is it just the looks? Perhaps its the "inside" which is important?

persuasive posters

2011-03-19T14:56:00.000+08:00

I just happened to have my compact digital camera in hand. I was early for my lecture. So I walked around the Lecture Halls corridor (I think they call it the DK foyer, I call it Upper Penang Road, USM).

There are softboards along both sides of the wall. I was just wasting time, and started clicking on the flyers and posters.

The one on the left says its looking for "potential girls who is proud of their origins and is able to parade Malaysia's culture and tradition in style". Want to participate? Send in 2 photos, one a head shot and the other full body shot. Wait. You must be in a white T-shirt and jeans.

Hmmm, since when has white T-shirt and jeans been part of Malaysian culture and tradition? Ooops, sorry, am I living in the Dark Ages? I guess the organisers just want to "size up" the candidates.

The poster on the right? Something about a competition to promote domestic tourism using mobile technology. As graphic design goes, I would say the one on the left wins hands down.

This one is obviously done by professionals. What jumps at you? The brand of course. And then? The ladies in silhouette as the four fingers. But I done get it - what does the hand say? Now, it stops you, make you read and you find out its a campaign to get students to recycle their deodorant plastic bottles.

Now pause a second. I get this idea that it's targetted at ladies. And suddenly, I a sense that female students in our local universities must be using lots and lots and lots of deodorant. Correct?

Well, at least they have the decency (or magnimity) to say any brand of deodorant is accepted. You stick a label with your name and stand to win a prize. I'm suspicious. I think it's a "scam" to collect data about brand preferences amongst students in the universities. Sorry, I seem to be in sceptic-mode. I guess it's my bipolar character.

This one is a photo competition. Now if you look at it from far, what would be your first reaction about the theme? One of those catwalk or models show on reality TV, right? No, no, no. The theme is "Life in Penang". One thing I can say, good photographers do not a good graphic artist make.

Like this? A far as posters goes, right on the dot. Good use of white space. Unclattered. And the most important message jumps at you. "EXHIBITION". and then "Final Year Project". You can even continue walking without having to stop and still get the message. In terms of artistic design though - so so.

I would say this a reasonably good effort. You read the big letters and if you are interested, walk nearer to read the fine print. Doesn't cost a bomb to do or reproduce.

Put two posters next to each other and you double the attention-grabbing ability. One look and you can guess its related to something Chinese. Of course! But wait, I can't read Mandarin.

The poster above and the one below are from the same campaign but obviously done by two very different designer. There isn't a "united front" here. I chatted with two of the organisers and essentially gave them a hard time but wanted to support their Charity Walk, if they could change some of the way they were going about it. Like giving a free t-shirt to every participant and I think water in plastic bottles, and so on. They promised to come back to talk to me. They didn't. I am guessing their advisor said "tell him to mind his own business". Na, I think it was too late for them to make changes. So, anyway, good luck.

This one is done by a designer who doesn't understand the concept of poster and graphic design. OK, ok, maybe it's just old school.

People who don't care where they put their banners or posters or flyers. Preferably "in your face". Irritates you like hell, don't they?

But there is hope ...

"Am I being cold storaged?"

2011-03-13T19:47:00.004+08:00

Firstly, don't worry about ME. I know I have been cold storaged. That's old news. This is not about me.

I debated whether this post should be on my personal blog or on this semi-official blog. I decided that whoever reads it may learn a thing or two. BTW, in case you haven't noticed, the counter is approaching 100,000 page views - after almost fours years of sweat. Bring out the champagne! I wonder how I can convert page views into impact factor?

Let me first point you to my post on March 4 - yes, it's related.

It started with an email, time stamped at 20:08 on friday last (11th March). It said RSVP. I ignored it.

And then the SMSs started coming about 9 pm until passed 10 pm. One. Two. Three. Four. I "ignored" them - meaning I didn't press "reply" but I said to me wife, "OK, I will tell them yes, I will come with my girl friend". And we went to sleep.

Next morning (yesterday), Saturday, we went to the market. About 9 something, my phone buzzed, my wife happened to be near the phone, picked it up and gave it to me. The conversation was something like this "hey, you didn't reply to the invitation .... blah, blah, blah". I said, "ok, ok, I will respond now" and shot off an SMS.

As usual, I leave my phone in the room and let it be. Later yesterday evening, I checked and ooops, 3 or 4 missed calls. I guessed where it was coming from (phone no. not on my list) but ignored them - didn't call back lah, already at night. Then this morning, I saw another SMS, saying, amongst others, "... awaiting yr presence 2mrw ..." - timestamped 11:15 pm, last nite.

So, what's all the excitement (some may call it "fuss") all about? Am I really that important? Nahhh, I'm just a minor player in all this. They are all just good friends and comrades in urban conservation.

Maimunah on the left is an old friend, with my girlfriend next to her. Alex Koenig on the right - he attended our wedding dinner ages ago (oops did I say wedding?). He was one of the key players who had a frustrating time in the 1980s trying to get the conservation agenda on the policy-makers' plate.

Ah, here are the important people. Right in front of the picture is the Press Table. The VVIPs are at the other end of the room. This is the ground floor of the George Town World Heritage Inc. (GTWHI) office at Acheh Street.

Now here's the VVIP, the Honorable Chief Minister of Penang with Maimunah, the outgoing General Manager of GTWHI and soon-to-be President of the Municipal Council of Seberang Perai. All those crushing forward are members of the Press - they seems very interested in this news, for obvious reasons (?)

Don't worry, what I'm telling you is not official secret because the Chief Minister himself talked about it in front of the Press and the guests. Yes, the CM was full of praise for Maimunah. He identified three qualities in Maimunah. She has the knowledge and skills in her area of expertise. She is able to communicate (hey, students, are you getting this?). And most important, she has the passion for what she does.

Ah, but then the CM told a little secret. He said that when he picked Maimunah for the job of GM at GTWHI, she asked him "am I being cold storaged?". (You gotta give Maimunah due credit for asking the boss that. Spunky lady, don't you think?)

What? Really? Yes, Maimunah confirmed the story. Remember this was the year 2009. At that time Maimunah was the Director of Town Planning at the Municipal Council of Penang Island. From managing 300 staff, she started out with 3 staff to create a brand new company called GTWHI.

But why did she ask that of the Chief Minister? Those of you familiar with the infant years of George Town World Heritage Listing would know that we almost had the carpet pulled from under our feet. The four controversial hotels in the heritage area was approved with heights exceeding the 18 metres stated in the dossier submitted to UNESCO. And guess who was the director of planning then?

And those of you who followed the blogosphere may remember a guy named Jeff Ooi, who was then the Chief of Staff of the CM writing in his blog, blaming and naming the two ladies (Maimunah and Patahiyah) for the debacle. (I tried to google the article but have not been successful yet. As a personal note, I am not suggesting either ladies were responsible. Knowing how the politics worked back then, I am sure there is more than meets the eye.)

Guess what, both ladies are now heading the two local councils in Penang. What did they say about politics? "The art of the impossible." "There are no permanent enemies"

Well, for the record, CM denied he was cold storing Maimunah. In fact, CM told her that he could see her potential and capability (he said that this morning). Of course, which idiot would appoint a person to an important job and hopes that he or she fails? Hey, we are talking World Heritage here.

I will full-stop this post here ... and leave you to ponder your own paths in life.

In the meantime, here are more pictures.

Some of the guests. On the left is the current Chairman of MIP Northern Branch and the first lady, who is also the Branch Secretary (Michael Ong and Hui Lin)

Tourists all like to take this shot.

The lady in cheongsam is Lim Chooi Ping who takes over from Maimunah. There's also Amelia Neoh on the left, a town planner with the State. And lady who introduced herself as Teh, an engineer, who likes sweet things.

This was after the GTWHI Committee meeting last thursday, 10 March 2011. The reason we are all holding the pieces of paper is because we were all "excited" about getting our letters of appointment to the Committee - one year and three months after we started serving! Talk about volunteerism and perserverance. Yes, none of us get paid for being on the Committee. Well, some do get projects related to GTWHI. Oooo, my pro-bono work on the Integrated Heritage Database merited a mention by the outgoing GM in her appreciation speech this morning.

All passionate about protecting George Town.

From the left (each head in sequenc): myself, Hijas, Gaik Siang, Yoke Mui, Tengku Idaura, Gywnn, Maimunah, Koay (web developer), Neil (Thinkcity), Bok Kim, Khoo Salma, Yeow Wai

(A few of the photos in this post are courtesy of Hijas)

Walk with me

2011-03-12T16:28:00.005+08:00

Yesterday, Friday 11 March 2011 was a momentous day for the people of Japan as they reeled from a 8.9 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Sendai, generating 10-metre (or was it 20?) tsunami with ripple effect all the way to the California coast.

Yesterday morning, I had a meeting at the Wellness Centre (Pusat Sejahtera) to pursue a "State of Health" project. The meeting was at 11 am, but I left my office about 15 minutes earlier, taking a slow walk, digital Nikon in hand. Do you ever observe what goes on around you? This is what I saw. Some I like. Some I don't.

The Lecture Halls ABC, just right in front of my window. Freshly painted, again. I recall it painted maybe a year ago. It just got painted again a few weeks ago. This was the first lecture hall built in the 1970s. I hope someone understands and appreciates its significance.

I took a left turn and saw this banner proclaiming the MyBrian15 project. It's one of the critical projects by the Ministry of Higher Education to produce more brians, of course. I think this was a workshop to teach the students how not to screw up their applications to the Ministry (I believe its for scholarhip to pursue masters and PhD).

This corridor is iconic and distinctive because of its slanting roof.

See? No polystyrene!

The future of the country rest with these young prospects.

I went down the stairs from the lecture hall and was greeted by this scene. These are old barracks from the British Military days, also freshly painted. It's a pity they threw away all the clay tiles and replaced it with metal roofing. See the beautiful red?

And then I bummed into this .... and I turned around ....

And saw four cars all with wheels "clamped". All without stickers. Presumably all students. What happens if it is a visitor?

As I walked, I turned again to look at the Flame of Forest. Even the ugly building behind it is softened by the beauty of nature.

This is intended to slow down the traffic but doubles as a pedestrian crossing. Most motorists don't give way to walkers. Do you?

To tackle the proliferation of banners everywhere, we have banner farms at strategic corners.

People who insist on banners swear that it's effective.

The new extension to the Hamzah Sendut Library. CGSS is on the roof - that's supposed to be my new office. Architecturally quite up-to-date. But really out-of-place in the area. No sympathy with the current library to which it is attached.

"I need to breathe, please", say the roots.

Who cares about banner farms. This is right in your face as you walk.

Sigh ....

The first cut is the deepest. Yes, there is a proper way to trim branches. In this case it's neatly done. Except the tree is now unbalanced.

See the heap of brown leaves on the right? Where do you think it goes? The landfill. Where do you think it should go? Compost heap. Or mulch.

See those plants in the foreground? Parasites (epiphytes) which grows on the rain tree in the background. They look lovely in the tree but will eventually choke the host. So, they have to be removed periodically. Lot's of hard work, taking care of trees.

Cahaya no more. They have added railings to this heritage building. I am guessing they want to screen off the air-con blowers. What is the right way to protect and conserve heritage buildings?

The new student centre in the background. I just don't like the design.

This is Pusat Sejahtera. Many years ago, I was invited to the site with a bunch of people from the Development Office and the architect. One of the things we talked about was how to avoid building too near the majestic rain trees. And yes, they complied.

We are not all law-breakers, afterall. Even though parking is limited, and even though the cars you see on the left are "illegally parked", no one "dared" to use the handicap parking space, on the front right.

Inside the Wellness Centre ... indoor plants can't survive the air-conditioned environment. See the stumb? That's not art.

About one and half hours later, I walked by the Lecture Hall ABC again.

Some one got it right. Spit (or spick) and span. Well done!

Is there any point in the Earth Hour?

2011-03-07T15:47:00.002+08:00

Berita Kampus asked me a whole series of questions about Earth Hour but I chose to answer just one : "From your opinion, is there really any point to Earth Hour?"

This is what I said in reply :

My response is that Earth Hour by itself, in the long run, is not going to get us to resolve the issues of climate change.

What it has done effectively is to capture the imagination of the people across the world to pay some attention to the issue of climate change. But I am sure many who participate do it just to be part of the "gang"; they are probably not focussed on intentions of the campaign.

I have never, personally, taken part in Earth Hour. For some reason, I was out burning carbon, somewhere else on Earth. It is not that I don't support the effort to get people to symbolically turn of the lights for one hour (a year!). I do, I do. But, to put it sarcastically, or perhaps rudely, Earth Hour is "kids stuff". I know, 2009 more than 4,000 cities in 88 countries switched off their lights. In 2010, 128 countries joined the band wagon. That's amazing persuasive advertising.

Millions of people took part, but the Earth is still in deep shit! If we don't cut the carbon emissions by 80%, we're going to get fried (well sort of, 'cos the Earth will get hotter but the end result is Ice Age!). We need to see results within the next 3 or 4 years, or else is too late ... we would have tipped over to the point of no return.

Do you think anybody is feeling anxious about it? Some people do, like at the top of this post ...

Who's she? A famous Aussie with a secret (Google her yourself)
What I do like is the list of things she says we should do everyday ...she "recommends" them, she didn't say whether she practices them (I don't mean to insult her) ....

Buy local produce from markets thereby reducing food miles
Walking or riding the bike wherever possible as opposed to driving
Ensure the car tyres are always inflated to the correct level as they use less fuel
Use fuel with Ethanol
Turn off the lights and use organic or beeswax candles a lot of the time
Unplug appliances when they are not in use
Use heating and cooling when absolutely necessary
Wash in mostly cold water
Use chemical-free dish washing, washing powder and cleaning products
Recycle, recycle, recycle
Buy products with the highest recyclability
Purchase clothes that are ethically made, not mass produced
Dress in Organic clothing
Install water-saving nozzles on all taps including showers
Compost scraps whenever possible
Prepare food plans so as to avoid food wastage
Grow herbs and spices
Have timed showers to use less water
Water the plants of an evening
Bury food scraps in the garden bed to feed the earth worms or compost
Collecting grey water from bath and use it to water plants
Using Certified Organic personal care products (avoid using chemicals)
Wash the car on the grass with environmentally friendly car wash
Buy Certified Organic or Farmers markets produce. I understand that certified organics can be expensive, but local farmers markets for the most part are usually reasonable. On my blog (www.koraorganics.com/blog) I include a list of Farmers Markets from around the world so that people will have ready access to the same.

Quite doable, right?

Hhmmm, I would say that I am in "compliance" with maybe 75% of those items. At least in spirit if not the letter.

So, do remember Earth every day. Switch off the lights when you don't need them.

Five Minds are better than Two

2011-03-05T16:30:00.001+08:00

I bought this book about 2 years ago at Changi Airport.

I read it, of course, but found it hard to read. You get the ideas but you (I) don't feel moved.

Then I searched the web this morning and found a paper by the same author with the same title, but edited from a talk he gave in 2008. You don't need to buy or read the book, just read the 18-page paper ... 'cause it makes much more sense and is easier to read.

What are the five minds for the future?

The Disciplined Mind
The Synthesising Mind
The Creative Mind
The Respectful Mind, and
The Ethical Mind

I would tell to just go read the paper, 'cause Howard Gardner does a better job at it then I would. I just want to touch on the last one. BTW, Howard is the famous guy who told the World that intelligence is not merely about being able to score in the exams (sort of). I think even he has lost count, but there's 8 or 9 types of intelligences around.

Have you been following what's going on around the World?

The German defence minister had to resign - because, 10 years or so after the fact, they discovered that a quarter of his PhD thesis was plagiarised.
Beyonce, Mariah Carey and other celebrities now think money from the Gaddafi regime is dirty and want to give back the millions they got paid for performing in Libya. (Actually, it was not in Libya, and they didn't know it was finance by Gaddafi's family)
And the famous London School of Economics has now become infamous because they also took money from Gaddafi's family - and the University and the professor involved now say they are ashamed of their poor judgment
Closer to home, on facebook no less, a candidate for the recent campus elections has apologised for unethnical use of facebook pages/groups for campaigning. The pages were created for charitable purposes and public service. He has also offered to step down from the charitable cause which he founded.

Several weeks ago, I was at a university workshop and we were discussing giving browny points to lectuers who can draw in funding to the university for things like CSR work. I asked whether there should be a policy on which company or individual we should or should not take money from. Specifically, I said perhaps there should a policy to ban funding from tobacco companies. But one professor declared he has no problems if the tobacco companies wanted to give him funding.

A few years back, I was asked by a lecturer from engineering whether they should accept funding from the Malaysian Plastic Manufacturers - they wanted to give a huge sum (like RM30,000) to fund rcycling activities. Oh, and the money was to go to the school teaching polymer. At that time, I was all gung-ho about "say no to plastic bags" and getting rid of polystyrene on campus. I remember saying if the money is to educate people about recycling, I had no problems. (So, perhaps in the same vein, I should have no problems if the Malayan Tobacco Company wanted to give, say Green Lung, money to tell people that "smoking kills"! What a dilemma. Imagine MTC giving money to help the Cancer Society?)

What about, say, lecturers who are paid to carry out a project, on or outside campus, which at the end of the project, shows that a certain method, technology, or product, has been successful in solving a problem. For instance, lecturers being paid to carry out field tests of new drugs. Or paying respondents to become the subjects of a research study.

If you are appointed as a consultant, and being paid for it, there usually is no ethical dilemma. You are paid for your expert view.

But if you are paid for research, then the alarm bells starts going off. In fact, that's also where independent reviewers zero in on. Out of all the research which supports or "proves" a claim, how many of that is truly independent - i.e. done outside the organisation, paid for by agenices or organisations which have no vested interest in the outcomes?

Should the development of the ethical mind be in our curriculum now?

p.s. Gardner, in discussing the ethical mind also talked about the ability and readiness to forgive.

p.s.2. I found this very interesting, and I feel quite balanced, paper about the "myths and science of mudballs" which you should read.

HBP must have got somethings right ...

2011-03-04T13:33:00.001+08:00

Did you read this news item "Women Rule Councils in Penang?" Kinda insulting, right? Perhaps a little condescending?

Ah, but nevermind about that. What this post is about is that the heads of the two local authorities are graduates of the School of HBP, USM. Well, each of them got at least one degree from USM.

On the right is Patahiyah, the current President (Mayor) of the Municipal Council of Penang Island. She got her first degree from HBP and then went overseas to get her professional architecture degree (HBP didn't offer this during her time - yes, long ago). This photo was taken during a break at the judging of the Rifle Range Design Ideas Competition in Oct 2010.

And the two gentlemen in the picture? Both are directors in MPPP. Both are also graduates of HBP, of course. One is a town planner (Roslan), the other an architect (Yew).

In the centre, standing is Maimunah, the soon-to-be President of the Municipal Council of Seberang Perai. She did her first degree abroad but the JPA said that the degree didn't qualify her to be a town planner so she crashed through the Masters in Planning course at HBP (with baby in tow) mid-way through her career in 1995.

Sitting, facing the camera is Alex Koenig, a German who thinks he's entitled to considered a Penangite by virtue of his frequent flier miles. He used to be a lecturer at HBP ... and if not mistaken, was also a student.

But the more interesting figures are the two gentlemen with back of heads to camera in the front. Both State Assemblymen. On the left is the EXCO member for local government. On the right is reputedly the strategist for the party in power. Both watching .... evaluating ... sizing up ... who should the next President? Picture taken 4th Mac 2010 at SERI.

So, HBP must have found a secret formula for "women to rule" the World? What made these two ladies stand out and made the State Government take notice? Is it their people's skills (soft skills, lor)?

Or was it their technocrat background?

Was it a long career with proven track record of achievements? And initiatives?

Do they have politicals skills, to be able to bend with the winds (of change)?

Or did they impress the new masters with their professional integrity?

Did we teach them all those in the university? Or did they learn it on the job?

KPI is killing us

2011-02-25T12:39:00.001+08:00

Apart from the fact that the KPIs may be driving everybody up the wall, it's probably going to kill the Earth too. We should have a green KPI on the people in charge of KPIs. If your duty or job causes a lot of paper to be generated, you should get demerit points!

But I think the problem is that we count too much - too many things to count, and to show proof that you are entitled to count them. Otherwise you don't get the funding you so need ... or want.

The other day, one of the CGSS "bosses" (yes, many bosses) hailed me and asked "is any of your KPI reported anywhere?". I said "no, I don't report my KPIs". Why did you think he asked? lolz, to claim my KPI of course. The funny thing is, I didn't provide any data or proof.

KPIs as a concept is fine. It's the way we go about it which is crazy. The Schools get audited every year to check on their performance. And their performance determines how much funding they get. Some schools are super achievers (publication, publication, what else) and get lots of bonus. As a matter of principle, I guess that's seems logical. But it is also well known that some disciplines or schools by the nature of their field will suffer. Shouldn't we measure the schools or disciplines based on their strengths? Some are good in research. Some maybe good in teaching (the sceptics say there are none). Some may do very well in "corporate and social engagement".

Should we be more focus on critical measurements? Could there be some "must have" which everyone is expected to achieve. And more importantly is not audited. Just audit really critical stuff ... like the quality of teaching and learning ... which is not in the RU KPI. And do the audit say only every 3 years, on rotation? Or audit the those who didn't perform the previous years. When they perform up to mark, leave them alone for 3 years. Or audit only those areas which they under-perform.

The winds of change is blowing, though. This afternoon, there's a presentation about our HCMS our new online human resource management system which will kick in soon. Theoretically, you fill up your data (publications, etc, etc) every year as part of your annual performance review. So, this will hopefully save all the fuss and multiple requests to lecturers for copies of papers etc every few months. Then when you achieve a certain threshold, the system will trigger the process to take you one step higher - review for promotion. Sounds nice, right? I hope it actually will save paper.

The White Coffin is old news

2011-02-23T14:27:00.000+08:00

I get requests to talk about The White Coffin a lot. Often it is a student doing an assignment who wants to interview me. I get tired of the same old question so I point to the document on the website. And I ask them to tell me what questions they have. Usually, I will tell them I am bored with the same old questions but if they have some questions or issue which is stimulating, I will meet to chat with them.

Occassionally, I will get a request from the reporters of Berita Kampus, the campus newspaper, for an interview. Invariably, this will come when an intrepid reporter is trying to follow up on a story about some culprit breaking the embargo on use of polystyrene containers in a university event. The most recent one was an activity that was (allegedly) organised by the School of Art at the Permatang Pelajar outside the Dewan Budaya. I was also told by students that this university policy was breached at the School of Pharmacy recently. Typically, the issue raised is the (in)effectiveness of enforcement on campus.

In the last year or so, I would just ignore even such a request from Berita Kampus. In the first instance, I'm not the right person to give an official response. It should come from the Sustainability Officer at the Centre for Global Sustainability Studies (CGSS). But last week, I had an agenda. I wanted to see if I could move the Berita Kampus into bigger things. So, I agreed to see them and I ended up spending more than one and a half hours chatting with two of them.

The first thing I ask is, if you go to any of the canteens in campus, will you see polystyrene containers? They will all shake their heads. Come to the USM main campus anytime you choose, I can guarantee you (99.9%) that you will not see polystyrene used by any of the operators. I cannot vouch for the other three campuses because I have not been there for a long time.

The question is, when do you find polystyrene on campus? This happens, often, when students and staff buy food outside and bring them into campus in polystyrene containers. So, the follow-up question I ask is "do you want to see the security guard at the gate checking every bag that comes in to campus?". Almost without exception, the answer is no.

What about the breach by the schools and departments organising "makan-makan" events? It is unacceptable. But again, do we want to set up a "policing" squad to ensure compliance? Right now, some bosses turn a blind eye. It is not a top priority. Their focus is on KPI. Sustainability indices is still not in the KPI. When it is, the bosses will pay attention. Of course, one of the agenda for CGSS is to make clear policies and then audit the schools and departments to see if they are working "sustainably".

But I am not totally convinced that having a set of KPI followed by audit will lead us to sustainability. The big question we should ask is "what are we supposed to measure?" and following that, are we using the correct or right instrument to measure. Perhaps, more fundamentally, do we have to measure? When will we know we have reached sustainability? In fact, is sustainability measurable? Which instigated one of the reporters to ask whether sustainability is a myth? I replied no - but you have to come see me if you want the long story.

I threw a challenge to Berita Kampus to take their sustainability reporting to a higher, intellectual, level. To talk about ideas. Big ideas. Understand the philosophy behind The White Coffin. The White Coffin is not about getting rid of polystyrene containers per se - that is old news. We should work to create new news. The White Coffin is our flagship project for environmental activism. Understand that, and we can move forward.

I suggested various things. One of it is, could we have like a regular, perhaps monthly or semester, reports by student groups evaluating how "green" the schools are? And these become a regular feature in the BK. At the end of the year, we have a students' assessment of the greenest of the schools and departments.

Manicure for trees

2011-02-21T14:03:00.000+08:00

While coming out of the Wellness Centre this morning, I saw this crew giving the tree some TLC ... tender loving care.

It was not so long ago that when they prune trees, they will mutilate it by cutting way too much. I spent more than 5 minutes observing them. They look for branches which seems rotten or dried, and use a chain saw to trim them. Sometimes they use their hands to pull at the branches to see if it comes off easily (an easy way to test whether the branches are dead).

It is a slow and deliberate process. And it cost a lot of money to prune just one tree.

Nice job, Jabatan Pembangunan.

Moving mountains

2011-02-18T14:54:00.000+08:00

You know the saying : "if the mountain can't come to the prophet, the prophet will come to the mountain"?

The "mountain" I refer to is the several thousand students on campus. But no, I'm not the "prophet", merely a minor disciple (with no higher aspirations).

My agenda is to move the "mountain". To lead to a transformation. In the way we learn. In what we learn. And in how we eventually use that learning.

I just went through the list of students activities on campus. There are some 15 Associations, 20 Clubs, 8 Hostel Student Councils and a host of other groups which organise probably several hundred activities a year. Some groups are extremely active, other happily exist only in name. Each of course will have their pet projects. Some have new projects every year, trying to find a niche. Often the short lifecycle of the office bearers determines what they do each year. I have over the last year or so told the students to think and plan for long-term sustainability, with impact which may only be seen several years down the road. This is very difficult for the students because they want to see the fruits of their labour during their term of office.

I think most student leaders don't or won't take kindly to meddling by outsiders (like me, for example). I do know that their advisors (lecturers) have veto power (often for the students own good?). Sometimes I almost turn the projects upside down, the students will say "I can see your point and it's good, we'll go back and see if we can incorporate your views" ... most of the time its too late to do anything; their project is already running.

Having sat in this chair for the last 3 years or so, I get a lot of solicitations from students (not the kind you're thinking of). Sometimes, they just want to chat about ideas. Often, it's to get some funding. So, invariably, I have to scrutinise their proposals or ideas. Yes, you can see much thought has gone into the proposal and the paper. However, I find that it is usually very narrow, focussed on carrying out of the project. There is usually very little discussion linking knowledge and its application in the project. I see a need to provide the student groups with toolkits or skills in project planning which better integrates the application of knowledge to achieving specific project goals. If the goals helps USM APEX U agenda, than perfect.

Over the next 2 years (until my term ends!) I will engage and mobilise students for the APEX University agenda. I only have a general idea of where I want to go, and want to be. But it's really all up in the air. I don't want to plan too much. I don't believe a masterplan or a detailed roadmap will get me to where the University wants to be, as far as mobilising the students are concerned. I agree, the students should be in the driver's seat. Experience however tells me that we need to provide some scaffoldings. And we made a start last wednesday 16th Feb 2011.

We hope to hold monthly chit-chats. Are you we with us? Drop me (likmeng@gmail.com) a line if you have ideas, or what to come join chat.

Working Weekend at Kuan Na Kap

2011-02-13T11:56:00.002+08:00

... that's what the Chinese call Gurney Drive. There is the old Kuan Na Kap (Esplanade) and Gurney Drive is the new one. Looking east out my big window from the 22nd floor of the hotel, I see the sweeping coast line that is getting more and more congested with super tall condos and the E&O development on reclaimed land. Down below, Gurney Drive is still inviting but less appealing visually. I wish this was a superwide promenade where people can walk and enjoy the breeze. But the mud is taking over even though there's a sign that says an EM bioremediation project was carried out here. The mangrove trees are taking hold in some parts and given time, there will be no seaview.

Super highrise supercondos costing millions along Kuan Na Kap.

Yesterday, my wife and I walked almost the entire length of GD 3 times. On the way, I brag to one of my USM colleague who was going in the other direction. He turned around and said that was his 7th time walking on GD that day. Impressive. I met 3 two other colleagues taking walks on GD too. So I am extremely pleased. And I am pleased to tell you that I had a most encouraging first meeting with the medical professionals at our Pusat Sejahtera (Wellness Centre) and the state of health report is on a fasttrack now with the commitment of the very top people.

Only parts of Gurney Drive is tree-lined. I wish there is a tree canopy for the entire length and I wished the sidewalk was at least double in width.

USM is famous for many weekend meetings at hotels. We don't seem to have enough time to do what we have to do on campus. I get "invited" to some of these. Well, this time they got lucky. Usually, I ignore calls from numbers not on my list in the handphone, especially when I am busy. They asked whether I could come. I demanded to know why. I wanted to know who asked them to call me. Who "approved" my name. Why me? .... Just playing hard to get. In the end I said yes. Often, they just surprise you with a letter which says "come" - often I find an excuse to say "sorry". But here I am, since Friday morning. And our job is done (sort of) so I can relax and blog a little.

The modus operandi is to gather a few very energetic people, put them in a room, give them a problem and let them deal with it. There's a lot of talking. And retalking (we go back to the same things again ... and again). Generally, we joke a lot. We are friendly. We enjoy our company. Most of us know each other quite well. We make an effort to listen. We tried to accommodate each others divergent views or concerns. But sometimes, you meet one who is hardheaded .. thinks he knows everything, has all the answers ... nothing else matters.

Sometimes we have a crowd-pleaser. He brings in his horns and strings and entertains us. I actually fell asleep yesterday after lunch while he was playing his melodic strings and woke up refreshed and full of questions.

See USM at work below:

Service to the University is still severely capped. Yet there is no willingness to review it. Yet, we want lecturers to contribute to the university. And ironically, we give marks for service outside (in very large quantum). But I agree, we need to evoke the spirit of giving. Unfortunately, we don't treat all the parts with the same philosophy.

Why were we here? Some of you might have heard the Minister announce that there would be a third track for promotions of academics. There was research and teaching tracks (well, sort of). Now there will be "community engagement". We had to come up with the criteria for promotions. Actually, they have been doing this since about March last year and again in November. So we are really going through the work to fine tune it. This will be applied nation wide to all universities (I think). So, all eyes are on USM. We are always in the lead.

Am I happy with the outcome? In many ways, yes. In some ways, no. I am happy that, reading the paper, the conceptual and philosophical grounds for promotions on the community engagement track has been well-documented, withl concerns based on the substantial effort already going on in the US for the last 20 years (arising from Boyer's work in 1990).

But along the way, we always have to find some way to quantify it. We have to convert something which is qualitative into something which is countable. So that we can compare and say that yes, you have pass the "line" and is now eligible to be considered for promotion.

The problem is that other that the publications in journals which is accessible to the reviewers/assessors, the quality of work in teaching, and in the future, community engagement, is not available to the assessors; or is difficult to present to the assessors.

So while the working paper for promotions makes a good case in differentiating the scholarship of discovery, the scholarship of integration and the scholarship of application, the form for promotion is a sterile document. We must put more emphasis on the candidate demonstrating his "prowess" through more qualitative assessment, either by peers or by self. This is the currently the major shortfall.

But I take heart that USM now recognises the deficiencies in teaching ... and as a top management last night said .." we must do something about it". So, watch out all you academics, not just in USM, teaching assessment will become standard practice in the near future. And this will not just be for those choosing the "teaching track" ... all lecturers will have to demonstrate competency and effectiveness in teaching. And student review of teaching will be ramped up.

Will life as an academic be more stressful? Most likely. But with proper training, we can manage it.
Who will benefit? Students and employers. And academics too.

p.s. we had dimsum at the Bali Hai restaurant twice. Very popular place on weekends. And very cheap too. The hawker food we had the first night was slightly disappointing. And so was Kopitan along Beach Street.

If you are not with me, you are not against me

2011-01-27T13:44:00.002+08:00

Read the title again. Did you get it?

I'm trying to strategise. I'm thinking out loud. What do I want to do under Kampus Sejahtera for the next two years. (Yah, I guess I will just do it and stop whining about not wanting to be reappointed.)

One thing is clear. Whatever I do or instigate others to do, must (not should, must) contribute to USM's APEX University agenda. Nothing else matters.

Now, don't get the wrong ideas. I can't take on everything. I will be focussed. I will pick my "fight". Anything which does not fit into that focus, I will say NO. For instance, I want to see results from now on. I want to see impact from actions. Kampus Sejahtera is about action. Not research. Data gathering and analysis is essential but only if it assists in taking the right actions.

So, if you come to me and propose an awareness campaign, even if it is health related, I will not say no.I will not say yes either. I will tell you I want to see it lead to some results. Awareness does not automaticaly lead to transformation. In fact, it seldom does. Who does not know cigarettes gives you cancer (ok, increases your chances of getting lung cancer)? Everybody knows. Yet, they smoke.

Next, I want to see long term plans. We start a lot of things. They get a lot of buzz. And then we lose interest. On the casualty list are immensely successful efforts like The White Coffin. Who's baby is it now? I work a lot with student groups. The problem is their life-cycle is very short. Those in command (office bearers) stick around for one year and then a new batch wants to do new things. There's little continuity. They have to focus. What should each group or society be known for? Identify it and stick with it. Make it work. Make long-term commitments. That's going to be tough. We won't get the same level of energy each year. So, what are the priority areas? Pick a few. Work on it. Stop generating new projects every year. Wait a few years. Let the priority projects take root.

So, what's the priority areas? It should be decided by consensus. We should throw them on a table, discuss, take it apart, and select. It should be doable. But it should be high impact. It must lead to change. If there is no transformation, it does not contribute to the APEX U agenda.

Kampus Sejahtera is a USM brand. As conceptualised more than 10 years ago by the current Vice-Chancellor, it's about insourcing. Essentially, urging the campus community to offer their expertise to make the university a better place for all. Yes, the term volunteerism is key (in the sense that you don't expect the university to pay you extra honorarium). A central idea is that actions are based on sufficient understanding of the issues or problem through data analysis and documentation.

I have suggested that the sustainability agenda under the APEX programme be branded under Kampus Sejahtera. In fact this was what I suggested in 2007. But I'm not the sustainability officer, so don't expect me to do that job. I will promote the idea of sustainability, yes. I will pick projects which will help achieve sustainability, of course. But we don't want to be myopic and not see anything else. I don't have a final answer yet and this will probably always be work in progress. Certainly I'm not working to present a Report which says that we have achieved sustainability. That would be the job of future generations, perhaps 20 or 50 years from now.

But in the meantime, if you want to do it your own way, that's fine with me too. That does not mean I won't bug you about coming on board. Are you with me? Or against me? (smile, it's a joke)

What's L.O.V.E. gotta do with it?

2011-01-26T14:24:00.002+08:00

Recall this, "Calling all Volunteers" February 2010 which was followed by this "Student-Community Convention 2010" in April. The intention was to bring various student groups involved in community work to come together, to share, to spur the effort. The attendance was poor, about 20 students attended the one day event. It was organised by 4 student groups at my instigation. My analysis was that there was no ownership by any particular group. Of course, number is not the only yardstick to measure success. Many groups are tight knead small groups but effective. One conclusion we could make was students are no interested in volunteering or community service. Students just want to be left alone to study.

But less than one year later, the landscape seems to have changed. I believe it was brilliant packaging, excellent organisational skills, a sense of OWNERSHIP, and savvy marketing which carried the day. It was reported that 500 people signed up to volunteer during the one day L.O.V.E. Festival yesterday. See them on Facebook and on the web. I am sure that it was a team effort but it also needs exemplary or extraordinary leadership to carry through any project or event. Essentially, you need the right people for the right job.

So, Well Done to the AIESEC team under Wilson Beh (I hope I didn't screw this up and get protest emails).Of course we should recognise that the Right Livelihood College in USM played a pivotal role too. RLC had earlier proposed something called USMCares as a programme to train volunteers but as usual, where's the money?

So, what's love gotta do with volunteering? Everything, no matter which angle or perspective you wish to scrutinise it.

I was asked how I see "volunteerism" at the Lollipop talk show about 2 weeks ago. I said firstly, "you must want to do it". Secondly, "you must do it for the good of others". You must not be compelled or coerced in anyway. And whatever you do must benefit some one else who needs it. It's not about what you will get out of it personally, or as an institution.

If I could expand it a little, it is not charity. Giving money or donations does not make you a volunteer. You gotta to put in the time and energy.

And usually, this is where the obstacles are. Finding the time, on a consistent and continuous basis is essential. This is where it then translate into a true spirit of volunteerism. You do it not because you hope to get an award for best project. You do it not because of a certificate or merit points for hostel eligibility. You do because you know it is the right thing to do to help someone(s) less fortunate than you.

So, ultimately, and I have said several times before openly and at meetings, the measure of our (the university's) success in community service and volunteering must be measured by the positive effect or impact that we have made on the target community. How many poor people have we help to get out of poverty through education or self-help? How many deaths have we prevented with the new drugs we invented? What percent of our staff are from unprivileged backgrounds or with disabilities?

We should be selective. We need to be selective. Where could we make the most impact?

OK, I hear you. Surely, there must be some benefit to the student or staff who is volunteering? Should we not also measure that? A valid point. We should "measure" how we have created the spirit of volunteerism amongst students and staff. It's actually already there among the staff and students. They are already doing it. We just have not recognised them - we have not acknowledged them. We should seek out groups and individuals in the campus who have persistently and quietly worked for the benefit of others and garner their spirit.

Certainly, I do know there are many models or conceptualisation of volunteerism. The PeaceCorp is a world famous volunteer group where U.S. citizens work overseas for long periods of 2 years or so. I remember one Peace Corp volunteer from my school days, a Mr Martin who taught us maths. Obviously you can't expect them not to get any allowance - how would they live? Same goes to organisations like Doctors Without Borders - volunteers get airfare, accommodation and allowance (which is "small"). Then there is the Tzu Chi group where their volunteers pay for their own airfare when they go for disaster relief work.

I believe L.O.V.E. has the potential to be immensely successful. But I still cannot see where it wants to be. Getting lots of people to sign up as volunteers is only a small step. Will they be happy with this measurement?

This tireless couple are truly and without question the embodiment of the spirit of volunteerism. They persist against all obstacles. Every single cent they collect from their recycling programmes goes to selected charities on rotation. They give talks for free (hey, they are retirees without income so do cover their cost of travel). And they don't take no for an answer ... when it comes to pushing the environmental message.

Long live, Don and Mylene.

(p.s. as a historical note : I received an email requesting a link on the healthy campus website for L.O.V.E. Also got a phone call, presumably from one of the students in the team, asking whether I would be part of the effort. I was little stunned. I said "I'm still evaluating" - see above. But get this. Kampus Sejahtera is a concept. An idea. Everyone is USM should use. Everyone can use it. And the healthy campus website isn't the best place to publicise your event - as proven above)

Lollipop GLee - students just wanna have fun

2011-01-20T21:48:00.001+08:00

First he said they wanted to put me in an Oprah show. Then it was David Letterman. There was also mention of the LikMeng Morning Show.

Essentially, they wanted to put me on the spot for 60 minutes in front of a lecture hall full of students and dig out juicy secrets.

Why? Well, they just wanted to have fun. To do something different. And it would be a saturday morning. Usually, I say no to invitations for weekend activities with student groups. Especially if it's for some opening or closing ceremony.

He promised me FUN. So, why not?

15 Jan 2011 Saturday, DK Y, at the Pharmacy School, USM. In the centre is Rhuyann, former President of Green Lung and on the right is ahhhh (?sorry, not good with names), the so-called hosts. Photo stolen from Saphira Queen's fb.

Always good to get the crowd on your side first! About 80 of them, mostly pharmacy students, all members of Green Lung.

Yes, they asked some intrusive questions : did you ever had head lice? I also gave some life lessons on romance and love too - nothing X-rated.

As usual, Malaysian audience are very shy but two questions from the floor jolted me a little.

It started innocently.

host : how long have you been teaching in USM?
me : about 20 over years. I started in June 1985.
host : oh, we weren't born yet. (there were a lot of smiles in the audience ... and I momentarily felt old)

Then from the audience, "based on your more than 20 years of teaching experience, what changes do you see in the students?". I was a little stumped. Didn't expect the question. Yes, I didn't ask for the questions before hand. It was totally impromptu.

My immediate reaction was that I didn't think students have changed much in the last 20 or 30 years. We are still doing the same things to the students. I get the same "type" of students every year. We are training them in pretty much the same way in the primary and secondary schools. So, when they come into the university, they have the same qualities in terms of study habits and learning styles. I even mentioned the dirty word : "spoon feeding". Certainly they are "afraid" to challenge the lecturers.

I could sense the students were a little "unsettled". I sensed that they expected something positive or uplifting. A compliment perhaps. I said, "give half a minute" to think. I raked my brain. What has changed? What has changed? I certainty couldn't talk about all the other things I wrote in my other blog (Don't blame the old man; Is the doctor giving you the right medicine; or the more light-hearted "Just One more day").

And then I had an aha moment. I said "students have become more brilliant". My children are more brilliant then me - "so, it's not genetic". "You are all more brilliant then students of the past". I watched the body language. There was some shifting in their seats. I saw some little shy smiles.

I asked them what they are good at. Which part of the brain they have been trained to use? They know. The left brain. Logical thinking. Reasoning. Analytical ability. Memorisation. So, I broached the subject of multiple intelligences. So, yes, we, as an education community, have become excellent in developing the left-brain. We have trained our children to get better results in exams. What we need is to develop the whole brain, I said. (good recovery, don't your think?)

Coincidentally, they invited a masters student in pure mathematics who is like No. 6 in the World as a master of memorisation. He taught them a method to remember a long list of items. After the training, three students demonstrated they ability to remember in sequence 20 items suggested by the audience. They only had about 5 minutes to memorise the list and all three did it perfectly (and got a Tupperware tumbler courtesy of yours truly). I wonder if it is really the method or they are already experts in memory work from more than 13 years in the schools. Perhaps both. But I also pointed out that an even more important message from the previous speaker was to learn how to think differently (another day perhaps).

The other question which impressed me was what I thought of destiny. This followed my telling them how I ended up in academia. I was "destined" to go into the private sector and earn big bucks but a phone call from the then Dean of HBP changed my life. This gave me the opportunity to talk about scenario planning. Well, yes I believe there is a destiny. But you can change your destiny. Kinda of an oxymoron, isn't it?

I enjoyed myself. I think activities like these are valuable lessons outside the classroom. I am sure there are many such activities. I hope to bump into them more often in the future. I also see that are students who are beyond brilliant - thinking up programmes to provide fellow students with somethings the traditional classrooms cannot or refuse to provide. Taking charge of their lives, there is hope yet for the future generations.

A day long programme. It started with about 80 students. From facebook photos, it seems by VVIP, there was less than half. Abit too taxing?

It was totally my fault. I used to tell people not to give me any souvenirs. I don't need an extra mug. I can't eat the lollipop. And I certainly can do without the plastic flowers. But thanks anyway, Khang Siean, current president of Green Lung.

Well done!

The View from the Top

2011-01-20T10:43:00.001+08:00

Tuesday 18 January 2011, morning, on top of the World.

It was a directive. Kampus Sejahtera to come under CGSS, the Centre for Global Sustainability Studies. RCE Penang also to come under CGSS. The Corporate and Sustainable Development Division will no longer have anything to do with sustainability. Corporate will now focus on monitoring and making sure the whole university is on track to achieve the APEX U agenda.

Caught "everybody" by surprise. Certainly, the management of CGSS was surprised. So, no surprise that they don't have an office for Kampus Sejahtera head (me lah!). Oh, yes, there is an empty office without any window to the outside world. I won't be caught dead (literally) in that office. It's inhuman to put anyone in such an office. Ah, but yes, there's an empty office but its labelled "Visiting Professor". The management wants to explore keeping the office at the old clinic (where the internal audit office is) and put me there, together with a bunch of other people as it expands. Wild horses can't drag me there.

So, I said, "I'm going to sit at my current office at Korporat. Until they decide to chase me out". In which case I will just float. Who really needs an office?

Anyway, the view from the top isn't that great. And the view from the office windows are horrifying. You see a high wall which goes up to your chest and huge air condensers. And big pipes.

This is the office on top of the world. It's quite confusing. You see a door on the left but the entrance is really along the corridor on the right. You see a huge expanse of concrete roof with poor quality construction full of cracks. Expect lots of heat. There's talk about making a roof garden but it will be costly. The curved roof was supposedly for solar panels but the promised funding evaporated in the heat.

We have a strange arrangement. Zakri on the right is the Director but his national duties as science advisor and also chair of the professors council means he's in KL most of the time. So, an acting director, Norizan (left), runs the show.

I have avoided having anything to do with CGSS all this while. But I guess "there must be some reason why they want to put Kampus Sejahtera under CGSS" (that's what I said during the meeting). I actually asked the big boss "why" in BCN. His response was "to work with the students". What about HEP? hhmm ...

Looking at Desa Gemilang (picture above and below). We are still very green from the top.

These are remnants from the British Military barrack. The Social Science enclave. It's a pity they replaced the tiles with metal roofing. Doesn't look so nice, does it?

That's Pusat Sejahtera (the Wellness Centre) a.k.a. the clinic. As the name implies, it's all about being healthy, not about curing illness, when its often too late.

The new PUMA. I learned the term yesterday from Mike. That's the student centre or Pusat Mahasiswa. I remember attending one meeting at the Development Office when the architect presented his drawings. From this vantage point, my view is that building is ugly. And most uninspired and uninspiring.

That's the famous USM Library in the foreground. Now called the Hamzah Sendut Library in honour of USM's first VC. CGSS is on the rooftop of the extension to the library. Notice the numerous highrise sprouting all over?

In the foreground is the physics school. Hilton is dead centre behind the physics building. For the uninitiated, Hilton is the hostel block where I spent my first year eons ago. On the right behind physics is the "international hostel" (for international students lah). The other highrise buildings in the background are condos outside of USM.

Plastics are forever

2011-01-17T12:59:00.003+08:00

I agree with statement that the public should not blindly follow the state government's call to cut down on the usage of plastic bags (see theStar online). Who in his right mind would disagree with such an advice? The question for you is, do you agree with his argument? Put it another way, is HIS eyes open?

The basic premise of the politician (an engineer to boot) who made that call to open our eyes is that : (a) plastic lasts forever; (b) we need to reclaim land so that we can build houses for the people; and (c) there's no better way than to use our thrash for reclamation. Put the three together and the logic is that we should use and throw away more plastic bags so that we can create more land to build more houses for the people.

The first premise is true, to a large extent. Nobody knows how long plastic will last. Perhaps hundreds, perhaps thousands of years. Nobody knows. Certainly WE will never know, because none of us will live that long.

But it is also a false premise because even though the plastics will not biodegrade (perhaps in a thousand years, some microorganism will evolve to eat plastic polymers), it will breakdown into microscopic particles which the human eye cannot see (see the irony?). And researchers have found that these microscopic plastic particles have ended up in the blood stream of marine animals (see Alan Weisman, "The World Without Us"). The question in the context of land reclamation is of course, if the plastic bags and other plastic containers break down, how will it affect the stability of the the land? Yes, I know about the 100 year old newspaper dug up from a landfill in the UK often cited as evidence that stuff don't degrade in landfills because there is no air and no light. And of course, you can argue that the apartments or houses built on the reclaimed land probably won't last that long anyway. So, no problem you say, even if the plastic bags breakdown. Ah, and don't forget, you don't construct buildings without a solid foundation of piles. Yah, OK, stability is not a major issue here.

Now, the second premise that we need more land, and the land should come from reclamation is much harder to comprehend. Particularly in Penang. Do we not have enough houses yet? Just look around. Seems to me we should examine the housing stock first before we jump to that conclusion. Yes, I agree, we are building too many super-condos priced at a million or more that the ordinary folks cannot afford. But why do we need to build affordable housing on reclaimed land? Because it is cheaper?

Don't forget that landfills are also hazardous because of the gases, especially methane, generated from decomposition of organic matter. It's dangerous (could explode) and a health hazard.

Now imagine this. Imagine Kuala Lumpur, in the middle of nowhere. Alright, far away from the sea then. See the logic of that argument starting to fall apart. "Hey, people in KL. Use more plastic bags so that we can reclaim land off the coast of Port Klang or Port Dickson to build house for the people of KL." Try that on Ipoh. Or some other inland area.

A more fundamental question is, if plastic bags can be recycled, why throw them into a landfill?

The fact is that you can only recycle plastic a certain number of times. After that it becomes costly and difficult. Everytime you recycle plastic, you actually have to add new plastic to the batch. So, it is not an endless loop. That means you do not maintain a steady level of use of resources. Put it another way, we have to continuously add new resources into the recycling process.

What does that tell us? Throwing plastic bags goes against the grain of sustainable development.

What we want is less thrash so that we reduce our consumption of Earth's precious resources. And with less thrash, we don't need to spend so much money on landfills and thrash collection, and residents won't find landfills in their backyard.

Our goal should be less thrash for a sustainable future.

Are U Well?

2011-01-13T14:42:00.000+08:00

The Malays ask "apa khabar?" - literally, what's the news?
The Chinese ask "ciak pah bueh?" - literally, have you eaten?
The Kuai Lor (Mat Salleh; Caucasian) ask "how are you?"

It's courtesy. It's cultural. It shows concern. It's a way to say "hello".

It's often "automatic". Sometimes, the person asking isn't really interested in the response. Often, I think it is misplaced like when you are introduced to someone of the first time and he asks politely "how are you?".

I just looked at a monograph published by 2 USM medical doctors (Sharifah Meriam and Normala) in 2003 about the state of health amongst the campus community. Based on a sample of 280 USM staff, it was found that 62% don't do any form of exercise (not even brisk walking), about 41% claimed that they were stressed, 55% had cholesterol levels higher than normal, 17% were obese while 30% were overweight0. Between 12 and 17% had problems with blood pressure.

Among the first year students (3700 students for 2002/2003), about 31% had some form of illness or health problems including urinary and eye sight problems. Some 19% were initially thought to have blood pressure problems but further check up showed otherwise. As far as BMI was concerned, 5% of the students were too skinny while 3% were too fat.

That's more than 7 years ago. Last year, I assigned a staff to liase with the Wellness Centre (Pusat Sejahtera, out on campus clinic) to write a report on the state of health of USM. I am not interested in a sample survey. I wanted data to be extracted from the database maintained by PPKT (the IT Centre) to get a more complete and comprehensive view about what's plaguing USM staff.

Everyone that goes to the Clinic gets his/her blood pressure checked by the medical technicians (nurses) and these are recorded in the database. What does blood pressure tell us? Many things I'm sure. Your blood pressure shoots up when you are under stress, right? I'm no medical expert. I would have to depend on the medics for the interpretation. The point is, the data is there. What are we doing with it to help become more humanistic in managing the University. And there's also the drugs we prescribe. They tell us the prevalent illnesses. They could also tell us whether we are preventive in approach or focussed on curing patients after they are sick. Then there's the flu and coughs ... is there a season? Is there any connection between the illnesses and diet and work environments/

So even before the VC made his humaniversity speech on the 5th January 2011, I was trying to get a Report which tells us how we are doing in terms of wellness. As we drive our academics to publish and perish (yes, you read it right) with the KPI and high impact factor, what is the impact on the physical and mental health of our lecturers? Young moms are torn between career and nurture (of their babies). Post-graduate students too are being badgered with the need to go for high impact factor publication - but get turned down for fellowship. They see the financial support given to foreigners instead of locals. So they become disillusioned. The stress and the hurt and anguish must surely affect them emotionally and psychologically. Are the people in-charge even aware? Is it their responsibility to handle it?

VC made the point that (high) income is not the only measure, or should not be the only measure, of progress in a country. And he points to the Report on Human Development which emphasised that you can still have development even when the income is low. Conversely, in some high income nations, human development is very low.

So, the question is, what should we include in a human development report for USM. The "state of health", I am sure must be one (I refrain from using 'indicators' just yet). Surely we must be baby-friendly. And mommy and daddy-friendly too. Gender is another thing we should monitor. For some reason, we seem to have dragged our feet on the issue or policy on sexual harassment. The gap between the rich and poor in campus is huge. Professors earn upwards of RM14,000 a month (and this is not a secret; it's public knowledge). Why do we pursue an agenda to create a super-rich professor who can be paid as much as RM50,000 a month? Wouldn't that be contrary to this idea called sustainability?

I agree that we need to think more about this. And if we really want to humanise the University, we need to address a whole range of issues. But one thing I am quite sure about : There's nothing specifically mentioned about this in the Sustainability Index created by CGSS. Am I correct?

High Impact Factor but where's the impact?

2011-01-12T12:18:00.001+08:00

Everything is being reduced to an index. Or a set of numbers. Counting beans, we call it.

Last year, all the little napoleons (this should get me into trouble I hope) were asked to submit their KPIs. I declined. I cannot be measured. I don't want to be measured. More importantly, I don't know how I should be measured.

I didn't want to end up saying for instance "the number of students involved in voluntary activities with Kampus Sejahtera has increased by 100%"; or "we carried out a hundred activities related to sustainability"; or "we recycled a 100 tons of paper every month" but yet spend tons of money printing glossy reports.

I agree, we have to know where we are and where we are going. And to know where we are, we need some numbers. And to know where we ended up, we also need some numbers. The problem is, we always seem to be measuring the wrong things.

While the VC in his annual address, again, seemed to be telling the campus community, and the world, that those numbers that we currently use (collectively called the Key Performance Indicators or Index, KPI) don't really show impact, we have other high-ranking officers (such as the Deputy Vice-Chancellors) pushing the researchers to achieve high impact factors.

What's the difference between "impact" and "impact factor"? If I "read" the VC's speeches and writings correctly, what he alludes to is that our actions and products (research, teaching, etc) must bring benefit to the people at large. In particular, universities must be working to alleviate the sufferings of the downtrodden and the disadvantaged across the globe.

Impact factor is a creation of the geniuses in journal publication. Nobody reads journal publications. The people who actually read journal publications cannot be classified as "nobody". They are somebody who is doing research in that area. And how many is that? As many as 20. OK, I exaggerate. Some journals have very small reader-base because they are very specialised that's a fact.

How do you get high impact factors? Citation! When your article gets cited, you go "wohoo". Somebody is reading it and, perhaps, think it is important enough to mention in their article. All well and good. But there's a scam going on and this is backed up be research. Journal publishers select articles which have lots of citation from their own journals, which pushes up the impact factor. Authors make sure that they cite lots of other papers, especially from the journal they hope to publish in. And reviewers? You can guess how they vet papers too.

So, high impact factor means what again? Citation, citation, citation. Even if the article has not benefitted humanity one bit.

So what's going on? The head says let's go this way. But the neck down says that (other) way.

Well, I can rationalise that. USM is a research university. And the KPI (there you go again) says many things we have to achieve to stay an RU. And one of them is publication in high impact journals. It's either we achieve the required high impact in publication, or we lose the RU status.

We want to go the other way, but we have to change the rules. That's what we are trying to do with the APEX U programme.

But look, USM has withdrawn from the world university ranking - because we (who's "we", you asked?) disagree with how its done. USM has opted to join a bunch of universities working on an alternative way to measure universities - based on sustainable development and ESD. Didn't you hear that in the VC's speech?

So, yes, in the meantime, we are going to have to suffer the pressures of the KPI. Be angry if you have to. But let's think how we should and can do things differently. Do you go with the sure thing? i.e. work the KPI and get your promotion? Or think about your impact on the community?

Can we have the cake and eat it too? i.e. high impact plus high impact factor?

The whole-listic student

2011-01-10T13:32:00.003+08:00

We don't want students to be bookworms. We want them to have soft-skills, to be able to have emotions, to be able to relate and interact with other people, to be able to communicate and express themselves.

We don't want students to merely study for exams. We want them to contribute to the community to uplift the lives of the poor and the unfortunate. We want them to have high moral values and ethics. We don't want them to be mere followers. We want them to lead and innovate and think of new ways and new ideas to improve the world we live in.

We want them to do so many things other than study in the classroom or their bedrooms.

That we know. Learning within and beyond the classroom. Learning not merely to be an expert in technical know-how or a storehouse of knowledge but learning to be wholesome people.

How many students believe in that? Probably just a few. Not many.

But the critical question is, how are we going about doing it?

We encourage them to do projects. Every course (OK, not every course, most) have projects. Every society must have at least 8 projects every year. The hostels have projects. Co-corriculum have projects. Sports have projects. There are thousands of projects every year. Yes, I'm sure they learn many things.

How do you get the numbers? i.e. how do you make, compel, cajole, pester, induce or more generally persuade students to take part? You give them what USM calls MyCSD points (other universities call them merit points). Get points, get to stay in the hostel. No point, get out, even if there are vacancies (I know this for a fact).

It's a disease. Participate or perish. What has it created? A monster. They do it not for the love of doing it. They want minimum output. 2 or 3 hours tops. Get the 2 or 3 points fast. Then go back to the books. Or games. Or facebook. I have encountered students who just want to collect certificates of participation. The first thing or second thing, they ask, "will you give me a certificate if I do this for you?". Sure, why not.

This is not to say that there aren't any student or projects or society who are making the right moves. The point is that the overwhelming majority are just being mechanical (or robotic) about it - do it just to get the points. Or perhaps for an accolade some time in the future. It just does not produce the wholesome people we hope for.

Can we do things without getting merit or brownie points?

Kampus Sejahtera is not an office

2011-01-10T11:30:00.000+08:00

Had an almost 2 hour chit chat with Norizan, the Acting Director of the Centre for Global Sustainability Studies (CGSS) this morning.

The decision was made at the top. I know of course some people want anything and everything to do with sustainability to be move out to CGSS ... as in move out of the Corporate and Sustainable Development Division. I personally have no problems moving to CGSS (actually, I wanted not to be reappointed to head Kampus Sejahtera). Nobody has ever bothered me when I was at Korporat. I did whatever I wanted. When I decided to drive sustainability issues on campus ... I just took it by the horns and did it. No one gave me a letter which said "here, do sustainability".

But I was also troubled because Kampus Sejahtera did not really have a mandate for sustainability. I pushed for the Sustainability Office. It was received with little warmth, mainly because they didn't want another bureaucracy. But then someone else (bigger) suggested something similar, and it got the go ahead.

Now, what should Kampus Sejahtera do then? For a fact, I said that I would not be pursuing sustainability on campus anymore. Not my job. Not my responsibility anymore. Someone else's got that job now.

So, beginning of last year (2010), I said I would try going back to one of the core values of Kampus Sejahtera. That's volunteerism. I will "speak" more about this another time. So I got some student volunteers and suggested we have a sort of convention to get students together. I think less than 20 showed up. So, that died, not still born but in infancy. Now AIESEC is starting a project to gather volunteers. Again I will talk about students and volunteerism another time.

Back to this morning. We had a good chat. I'm not very good with bosses. I hate being directed to do things. But I think Norizan and I understand each other better, maybe a little more.

I asked him how he saw CGSS. He outlined three major areas : Sustainability (through the SO); research; and teaching (learning).

I told him that working under Kampus Sejahtera, I am not interested in the research agenda. I see that I fit in probably more under SO. However, Kampus Sejahtera is probably wider in it's reach and context than the SO agenda. Perhaps not. Perhaps Kampus Sejahtera is the brandname for USM when it comes to sustainable campus ... this was where I started some years back when I tried to do an initial campus sustainability assessment (Kampus Sejahtera Kampus Lestari, 2007). So, are we going back full circle?

I also have a little interest in the learning agenda. Supposedly, by the next intake, every student will have to take a university-level course on sustainability. We talked about transformative learning and how most of the university-level courses like SHE (ethnic relations) and entrepreneurship have not been very successful (apparently some form of assessment has been made).

So that's sort of our initial agreement. But how do we place Kampus Sejahtera? Is it a unit within CGSS? I thought not. I said that I don't see Kampus Sejahtera as an "office". I see it as a concept or a philosophy (and I have said many times before). Yes, if you want to see someone about Kampus Sejahtera, you can go to CGSS but don't expect to see Kampus Sejahtera as unit in the organisation chart. Kampus Sejahtera should permeate the entire campus - in it's thinking, it how it operates.

Is the new CGSS office big enough for me? We have to see. I said that if there's no space in the new office, I can still sit at my "old" office at Korporat. Unless of course they want to reclaim the office space. In which case I will just float around. We should walk the talk right?

Humaniversity

2011-01-05T13:39:00.000+08:00

That's the main theme of USM VC's annual address to the campus community this morning ... about one and half hours of it. The first hour was mainly a recap of what has happened the previous year.

The university is not a business. It is not a factory.

We need to return the university back to it's roots. To become once again a "community of scholars" with ultruistic ideals. Knowledge for the benefit of mankind ... for humanity.

The university has been hijacked by the corporate mindset. Where education is to get a good job, paying top dollar, so that all your materialistics needs and wants can be satisfied.

In the next few weeks and perhaps even months, I will reflect and engage in a dialogue, mostly with myself, but also with collaborators, on what Kampus Sejahtera should now mean.

I am supposed to work under the umbrella of the Centre for Global Sustainability Studies (CGSS). What would be my role?

This could take a while. I took more than half a year sitting and reading and pondering when I first started in this office. Time to think again.

No Plastic, Everyday

2010-12-31T10:17:00.000+08:00

Tomorrow, 1st January 2011 (1111), the Penang State Government will launch the "no plastic everyday" policy.

The model which the experts have promoted for environmental education is first, we create awareness. With awareness (i.e. knowledge) then a person will change his/her behaviour. Usually, that means you tell the people what is good and what is bad. And tell them we want them to be good.

Well, research has shown that knowledge and awareness often (most of the time) do not lead to any transformation. Life goes on as before.

The new thinking is "transformational learning" - learning which actually leads to a transformation in behaviour. What's the key? You just have to create the opportunities to reach that conclusion on their own steam. It has to be personal. There has to be ownership.

So, will laws and government policies have any effect? Yes, to a very large extent. If the World community did not come to an agreement and imposed restrictions on CFC emissions, we would have large hole in the Ozone layer above the Antartica. Now, the hole is healing and closing up. But we are still at loggerheads about CO2 emissions.

Yes, public policy must take the lead. Even if it is unpopular. Even if the opposing parties tease and challenge the policy. Governments must act for the good of the community at large.

Happy New Year. Stay healthy.

No Parking, Sir!

2010-09-15T11:27:00.015+08:00

The hottest news of the month - Wheel-clamp zone in USM!!

Starting 1st of September, wheel-clamp action will be taken for those vehicles which contravence the traffic rules in USM. The regulation is applied to all USM staff, students and visitors. (Quite fair right?)

The red-line areas are the clamping zones in USM. There are a few sign boards with words “clamping zone” putting up along the roadside.

Ops! No more wording on the sign boards now. I’m wondering why they remove it...

~~The wheel clamping thingy doesn’t look like this though.~~

It look like this! Red plate with Jabatan Keselamatan contact numbers 04-653 4333/4334 on it.

If your car is clamped *touch wood*, these are the steps that you need to do:

1. Pay the fine RM 20.00 at Jabatan Bendahari (office hour: 845am-430pm) or Jabatan Keselamatan (non office hour).

2. Call Jabatan Keselamatan to unclamp your vehicle.

+++++++++

I was in a meeting with some USM authorities months ago about the traffic and parking lot issue in USM. There are two student representatives in the meeting as well, they was sitting beside me (i think because i look like a student :D). The authorities suggested (to avoid misunderstanding: is suggested, not decided) student should park their vehicles at Car Park in front of Dewan Utama Pelajar and take USM shuttle bus or walk to lecture halls, so that there are enough parking lots for the staff.

Yes, it is good to have vehicle-free campus IF the shuttle bus system is efficient. IF the shuttle bus system is efficient, why not everyone in USM (not only students) enjoying the shuttle bus services and create a vehicle-free campus together as warga USM?

Some suggested to limit the number of vehicle's sticker application for students and student societies, for example: maximum 3 stickers for a student society.

Then how about staff?

Unlimited stickers can be applied, but we charge them at higher price.

Why not limit the number of sticker per staff?

Cannot la, they sure will bising-bising. Because sometimes they drive car A, sometimes car B.

Sometimes the spouse comes, sometimes the children come.

So how much do you think is the appropriate charges that able to discourage staff from applying more-than-they-need amount of stickers?

One sticker of staff is RM2, however, for the second and third stickers, we charge RM10! For the fourth sticker and so on, RM50!

Well, it was just a discussion. Don't worry too much as it is not implemented (yet?).

Back to the topic - wheel-clamping!

After the implementation, we can see no more illegal parking at the roadside now. So, where are the cars?

Gotcha!! Roadside along non-clamping zone.

Relay For Life 2010

2010-06-23T15:42:00.008+08:00

Kampus Sejahtera,

Relay for life, symbol of our heart in supporting our loved one who suffered from cancer. It has been organized annually by National Cancer Society to raise fund for the patient and increase publics' awareness towards cancer.

The 7^th Relay for Life, was successfully held on 5^th to 6^th June at Penang Youth Garden. With 3000 volunteers and supporter, the light of hope is never slake.

No other word to describe it, except awesome! A gathering of cancer survivor, cancer fighter, volunteers, youth and elderly had shown a concrete determination to fight cancer.

Luminal ceremony has been described as the climax of the carnival. The light from the lantern warmed everyone heart here. Light, the symbol of hope, has been a tradition of Relay for Life.

The survivors stepped on the stage, holding microphone with shaking hand, sweating palms to share

their story in fighting cancer. A spark comes in my mind: I’m lucky that

I still healthy, I shouldn’t blame so much, because I have everything. We all should appreciate what we have.

Koay Khang Siean

Green Lung USM's Volunteers

The daughter light up a handmade lantern to his dad

volunteers!

Welcome, USM Smokers

2010-05-24T15:32:00.007+08:00

Dear USM smokers,

I am sure that all of us know how bad is smoking. Cancer, tar, carbon monoxide, nicotine...Now, smokers, let tell us what is(are) the benefit(s)?

Because it is cool (Chinese said it as 'yeng')?

Because of stress?

Because wanted to slim down?

Because my friend is smoking?

Because of curiosity, and now addicted?

I met up a smoker last week, she tell me that addicted to smoking is just nonsense. "I never smoke in front of my family for a week during school holidays, and i didn't feel like smoking too." Of course, some heavy smoker may have withdrawal symptom. She added, is a person really decided to quit smoking, it hardy fail then.

USM started a Quit Smoking Clinic in year 2002 in Pusat Sejahtera (2nd floor). Due to lack of man power, the clinic (which is just a room) is operating only on Thursday 3-5pm. Smokers walked in voluntarily with different reasons for example, a lecturer wanted to quit smoking because his spouse is pregnant, a gang of contract worker wanted to quit because smoking is expensive, a retired staff wanted to quit because of his health problem......

You can have the weekly lung capacity check (where usually smoker's lung age will be 10 years more older than their actual age) to keep track on the Caobon Monoxide level in your lung. Besides, free nicotine gum, patches and pills are also provided to prevent withdrawal symptoms.

Dr Norlela (in charge person of the clinic) said that they spend nearly RM 1000 on each participant who wanted to quit smoking.

the Quit Smoking Clinic

nicotine gums, patches and pills to help smokers from withdrawal symptom

With all the tools that USM provide for you, so what is your reason not to quit smoking?

You can make a difference.

Love,

Kampus Sejahtera

2010-04-17T23:49:00.001+08:00

I bought a bottle of 1L dishwashing liquid last Friday. It claimed to be "natural" because it is degradable and do not affect aquatic life.

It is green and smell a little bit 'pandan'. I (we?) used to have a myth that natural washing liquid produce far more little bubbles than the normal commercial one, and less bubbles mean "not so clean". Apparently, it is just a myth~

36 of us visiting the home-business natural soap manufacturer at Lahat, Perak. The factory situated at the end of a long and narrow lorong in a chinese village. The owner Mr Tan, learn about natural soap during his visit to Minamata, Japan. He is also an environmental activist for the ARE incident more than 16 years back.

We have a brief introduction from Mr Tan outside his factory. For your information, natural soap is made from edible oil (coconut oil and palm oil), which turn acidic to alkaline and degraded in a very short time. It means, we can use the dishwashing liquid to wash vegetables and the leftover to water your plants.

There are total 4 products: shampoo, dishwashing liquid, bar soap and clothes washing powder. They are all made from coconut oil + palm oil + lye (NaOH) + water. We glad to have Mr Tan's daughter-in-law to explain on the manufacturing process after a light meal.

The mixture of coconut oil, palm oil and lye (is only in powder and bar soap) is cooked at about 70C in this machine.

This is the mixture of dishwashing liquid/shampoo after cooked. Waiting to be colded and filtered.

This is the mixture of bar soap. Waiting to be dried and molded.

It is almost same for the washing powder. After dried, put it in "meat chopper" machine to make it smaller pieces before blended it into powder. Of course the humidity must be well controlled so that it doesn't too dry to fly anywhere neither too humid to wet the packaging because they do not use plastic bag to pack the powder.

To be really care about the environmental, they fully utilized the plastic bottle before it goes to recycle. Besides, no nice packaging too. The products are highly supported by the local community. However, it is not certified by SIRIM because there is no such soap making formula in their database. It is only get certified by Japanese Industrial Standards (JIP).

We ended our visit with group photo session. Each of us is giving a lemon grass flavor bar soap as souvenir.

This is Mr Tan. A passionate environmentalist.

The group photo (Mr Tan & Mrs Tan)

There is a story behind....shhhhhhh~

Student-Community Convention 2010

2010-04-02T11:32:00.020+08:00

It is over...

There are only around 20 students attended SCC 2010. From the committees feedbacks, we know that people heard about this convention, talk about it and noticed the 'creative' painting banners around DK Foyer (perhaps free coffee and movie vouchers?). Some claim that 2 days convention is too long especially at this timing where people rushing assignments and tests. Some saying that "Student-Community Convention" look boring (students are hard to please nowadays). So we might need to figure it out maybe next time we put it "Volunteerism Party" or move the convention to Langkawi beach resort. :p

We are glad to have 5 speakers to talk about volunteerism.

Dr Prema (top left) and Miss Poh Lerk Shih (bottom left) from WCC (Women Centre for Change), En. Ridzuan (top right) from Consumer Association of Penang, Mr Kevin Kong(middle)a very experienced person in community services and Bernard Hor (bottom right) from Summer Sands Group.

And 4 facilitators for the workshop. Wan Teng (top left) from USM Kanita, Jeannie (top right) from PUCS (they have a new name now: XXT), Yoke Pin from ARTS-ED and Khang Siean from Green Lung.

Community service is always start with an inspection on target community: community background and community profile.The inspection helps us to understand what the community really needs. Community service is not merely services you give to the community but empowerment. "Community empowerment is making the community independance and able to generate income themselves after you leave the community", said Kevin when he talk about his interesting story when staying in Orang Asli village during his 19 years-old.

Of course the first steps to organize a volunteering services/activities, we need volunteers. Fun and unique activities is the key to attract people to join. "If volunteerism is FUN, you might not need to shout so loud" said Bernard Hor.

I am still figuring out how to convert the video file so that i can upload and share the awesome presentations. Kampus Sejahtera is planning for the coming program. Stay tunned...

On cover of Sustainability Journal : Priceless?

2010-03-11T22:05:00.001+08:00

This is for real, not some fancy photoshopping - Sustainability : The Journal of Record, February 2010

the AIESEC way

2010-03-04T15:23:00.001+08:00

[Errata: I am hopeless with names. It's Evelyn, not Michelle. Thanks Gene.]

What is AIESEC? What does it stand for? Their website implores you to use it as is, forget the acronym. It's got a little more than 60 years under its belt. Briefly, it is a student-run organisation based in institutions of higher learning with networks in more than 100 countries.

What does it do? Empower young people. It provides a platform for young people to nurture their leadership to bring positive impacts on society. They have a set of values which includes leadership, integrity, diversity, participation, excellence and acting sustainably.

Of course USM has it's own chapter of AIESEC and its president gave a presentation about sustaining projects, the AIESEC way, during lunch. It was a pleasure listening to Michelle. I asked her later whether she was a natural born-speaker or did AIESEC bring that out in her. She said that before AIESEC, she was rather shy or scared of speaking in public.

Their membership is small, around 60. This is by choice because they have a targetted membership drive, aimed to recruit people with certain skills or attributes to undertake certain projects. One of their key project relates to HIV/AIDS where they work with young people (in secondary schools and elsewhere) using various techniques and methods (including World Cafe) to educate them. There's also a lot of cross-cultural and international exposure. Interns from other countries come to work on their projects and they go to other countries too. A local bank is also their partner in the HIV/AIDS project.

So, yes, there are clear benefits from being involved in volunteer work.

Michelle in her element

The tiny crowd of about 20 students.

This talk by student volunteers is the 4th and final one before the Student Volunteerism Convention to be held on 20th and 21st March 2010 (Sat and Sun) at Dewan Kuliah A (DKA), USM Main Campus in Penang. If you have an interested, send email to kampussejahtera@gmail.com. All are welcomed.

Meatless lunch - for zero waste

2010-02-23T13:53:00.000+08:00

I brought my own plate and spoon. Next to me is Kiru who is the brains behind this 7-year effort. She's a staff in USM and has been cooking vegetarian lunch at her home for distribution to students and staff based on donations. Not a single sen from USM.

I want to support their effort for many reasons. One is the spirit of volunteerism amongst the group of students who help with the cooking, distribution of food and washing. Another reason is health. Less meat is good for your health. 3rd reason is sustainability - no waste and less use of resources (as in raising animals for meet). And 4th, it is truly multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-racial, multi-religion.

We talked about making a petition to the University to adopt a no meat day per week. We talked about encouraging the "diners" to bring their own reusable containers so as not to generate rubbish. But it needs to be come from them.

Most of all, we must start recognising and taking notice of the wonderful things being done by students and staff for the good of the community.

I was told that many students are very poor and this wholesome home-cooked meal is a welcomed relief for them.

I am guessing it is not entirely their fault that they didn't bring any reusable containers. Many just happen to bum into the free lunch corner after lecture. Perhaps we need to give more warning, or set definite dates and publicise it so that people can bring their own containers. We also talked of possibility of buying some Tupperware to be given out on loan to regular "customers". Those who were aware brought their own containers (below).

I saw this banner (I still don't like plastic banners) along the way. Yes, "zero waste". Connecting it with religion is also a power tool.

Happy Chinese New Year - and stop the waste

2010-02-19T16:14:00.001+08:00

The reporter from Guang Ming Daily was very persistent. The first request, I said, "sorry, very busy, I'll get back to you". After about 1 month or so, she emailed again. I said "sorry, am on my way to Bucharest". That was early Dec 2009. I thought that was the end of it. End of the year, she emailed again, reminding me of my promise. So how many times can you "Say NO"? So, I said "OK come over for a chat - no interview". She said OK, just chat. Guess what? She came with a photographer.

And finally, the article is out today. I have no idea what the article says. My daughter and wife read and translated parts to me. Essentially, stop generating the waste. It seems that Penangites generate an additional 70 tonnes of rubbish during the CNY period. Not sure if that is per day. But the key point is ADDITIONAL rubbish.

So, Happy Chinese New Year to all of you. When you go to the big party at the heritage enclave in George Town tomorrow, remember : avoid the disposal containers. Insist on your right as a consumer.

Watch for the next issue of Sustainability : The journal of record (February 2010 issue) : what would you like to see?.

BTW, I am told that my secret blog is too secret - nobody seems able to find it. So here it is nosurplus.blogspot.com - still in gestation.

Calling all volunteers

2010-02-04T22:29:00.000+08:00

As I said before in my earlier post more than one month ago, I am changing directions (sort of) and focus. The Kampus Sejahtera blog does not belong to me. It belongs to the Universiti. And as you can see, someone else, with the monekar of Santos has started posting. She works with me and has the glamorous title of Coordinator for Volunteerism.

That's one of the new directions and focus. We are shifting our attention to volunteerism. That actually is a sort of pillar of Kampus Sejahtera. To get students and staff to come forward to contribute to the well-being of everybody. Not just to resolve problems. But to work towards a vision.

For three weeks now, the students have been giving lunch time talks (without the lunch). The first two saw only a handful of people attending. So, we rammed it up a little, even offering free ice-creams (popsicles). Today there was about 30 students or so.

What we are trying to do is to gather all the students who have done one form of voluntary work or another. Let's see if they can synergise. We are not trying to bring everybody under one roof. We just want to create opportunities for them to get to know what others are doing, perhaps learn from one another, hopefully find areas to help each other, and eventually work with one another. We don't even know how big an impact USM students are making in the community. From what I gather, many of the students are doing exemplary work, unnoticed.

We also hope to gather the students at a convention, tentatively scheduled for 19-21 March 2010. Students talking to each other. Is there something the students would like to do to help USM achieve the APEX University status? If you are interested to help or know more contact kampussejahtera@gmail.com.

psst, I have started a secret blog. And I start burning carbon tomorrow. Find me ...

PUCS

2010-02-01T16:41:00.011+08:00

Penang Undergraduate Community Service (PUCS), founded on year 1997 with the vision and mission as below:

1. To elevate the consciousness and the standard of education among the community
2. To elevate the mindset and learning ability of the community and our members.
3. To instill and elevate volunteerism and community consciousness, thus contribute to the community.

PUCS members have their own internal training before get into the community. Every year, PUCS liase with the local community to do educational type of volunteering work in their village. PUCS usually stay in the villagers' house by 'Adoption Program'.

They have variety activities such as recycling, gotong-royong, paper DIY, making garbage enzyme, sign language class, health awareness talk and so on...

They do not get sponsorship. Thus, every member have to pay themselves to volunteer.
PUCS members pay from their own pocket to volunteer, how about you?

And now the end is near ...

2009-12-31T16:55:00.001+08:00

Yes, 2009 is coming to a close. Only less than eight hours to 2010.

Despite making a nuisance of myself and behaving idiotically, I still have the "job" - for three more years.

I have made this blog almost too personal, even though it is linked to my job. But I am sure you must have wondered many a times - WHY? If you still don't get it, I am actually happy. If you do get it, even if only once in a while, I am delighted. If you are now wondering what the hell (pardon the exuberance) I am going on about, that makes me grin.

I have considered divorcing my personal ramblings from the official "reports" and "comments" so that I can get really really really personal. So, if you miss all the idiosyncracies of my journeys around the world or my noodles and porridge and fondue ... and stuff ... it will most probably be hiding somewhere in the cyberworld.

I will not badger all the miscreants who violate the "no polystyrene" ruling on campus. I won't bother those who continue to pollute and use disposal bottles and containers; and print useless reports of abstracts and proceedings. Not on this forum. Someone else has that job now.

I will redirect my energy elsewhere. I will "conquer" new frontiers ... so to speak. Are you with me?

Those are my resolutions for 2010.

Almost first class

2009-12-16T07:19:00.002+08:00

7:34 am, 15 Dec 2009, on the upper deck of the train from Geneve to Zurich Frughafen, the airport. There is wifi available but you gotta pay. It’s already been about an hour on the train. Another two hour and 20 minutes to go. All trains go to the airport.

Swiss is famous for its precision timepieces (watches, if you please). And the public transport are also precision time pieces. Trains arrive and leave on the dot, according to schedule. Well, almost. Yesterday on the return trip from Gruyeres, the train was late by more than 5 minutes. This morning, I looked at the clock at the station. It was only 5:35 am when the train started moving. It was three minutes early.

I look around, many are reading, others dozing while sitting up. A girl is stretched out on the circular couch. Yes, it’s very cozy up here in the train. It’s pitch dark outside even though it’s 7:41 am. OMG, I just realised it’s 7:41 am and I have been on the train for 2 hours! I slept for 2 hours and thought I just doze off for awhile. So, another hour or so left of the train ride. My god, I could have slept all the way to St Gallen (that’s where the train is headed after the Zurich airport).

Just bought a coffee from the passing vendor. Freshly made with a portable machine. Not your stale coffee from a termos. Now I can have my breakfast with Knackebrot, some kind of cracker I hijacked from the hotel near the Zurich airport on the way to Bucharest.

Public transport is a “right”, in Geneve. If you have to take a very very early morning flight from Geneve airport, there is a taxi service which you can call and you pay only 15 Francs (which I assume is dirt cheap). The city will pick up the balance of the bill. Why? Because the city does not provide public transport for you to the airport at those ungodly hours. You can get around practically everywhere with the trains, trams and buses. Coming in to Geneve at the airport, remember to pick up a free public transport ticket, valid for 80 minutes. A ticket costs 3 Francs, valid for 60 minutes. You can get a day ticket from 9 am onwards for 7 francs. A whole day ticket is 10 francs. Pretty expensive but locals get concessions by buying a yearly subscription which entitles them to half-price on all tickets; all tickets anywhere. It’s all based on the honour system. I have nevered been checked for tickets while on the trams. Only on the long distance trains do the conductors come around. And they are so nice. Bon jour. Merci. Everyone’s friendly. Even when we were doing a two hour walk in the countryside of Gruyeres. Everyone passing by greets each other with a smile and bon jour (it reminds me so much of “Beauty and the Beast”; you know the singing at the town fountain?). That’s why they have the second longest lifespan in the world, after Japan.

8:07 am, and still dark outside. It’s winter. It’s been freezingly cold the last 2 days. My niece, Janice, says the weather has been “unacceptable”. Yesterday, the temperature dipped to -3 degree C when we were out in the countryside. We visited the Medieval walled city of Gruyeres, perched on a hilltop. A one-street town which is totally dependent on the tourist dollar. You get not just a sense of history but lovely panoramas and vistas. And the air is so fresh, except near one farm house where we smelled manure – cow dung for sure. This area is milk country and famous for it’s cheese. You can see cheese being made and the audio and video guide is quite fun. It comes with a small sample of cheese, aged 3 months, 6 months and 9 months (I think). It’s true. Milk can taste weird if the cows eat rubbish. Here, the cows get a variety of nice smelling grass and wild flowers. I love the exhibit where you can smell the wild flowers and plants which the cows eat with the grass.

For lunch we had fondue and resti. Fondue is a pot of boiling cheese (they add other stuff in it too). You take pieces of bread or tiny potatoes and dip in. Not bad but I wouldn’t have it as the only dish for lunch. Resti is also very traditional. Shredded potatoes underneath (baked), ham and a fried egg (sunny side) on top. And beer of course. And then we missed the 1 pm bus to the ski area. Next bus 4 pm. They reduced the frequency of the buses because there’s no tourist around - makes sense for them and good for (less) global warming. The snow is about a month late. So, we went for a long walk, recommendations of the lady at the tourist information. Met many walkers, old and young. And I wondered where they came from. Locals? Or tourists? It does show that the people are health conscious. Quality of life is not just the appliances you can buy for your homes.

8:29 am, now at the Zurich HB station. Then to Zurich airport. People get on and get off along the route. I guess they are travelling between cities to get to their offices. They all seem very relaxed, calm. There’s no mad rush. That’s because of the Swiss precision time pieces. You know you will never be late (at least not too late) when you travel by public transport. Going to stop for now and get ready to disembark at the airport stop. I shall be back.

10:49 am, on the ground in plane, flight SQ345 to Singapore. I am glad I chose a window seat this time. Zurich is saying goodbye to me with pretty snowflakes outside my window. It had snowed a few times in Geneve. When I was outside the “Broken Chair” sculpture outside the UN building heading for the Red Cross Museum, it snowed. I haven’t seen snow for a long time so I wasn’t sure if it was snow or rain.

1 minute to flight time. 10:54 am. Time to close my notebook for take-off.

3:35 am, Singapore time, somewhere 11,200 metres above the Andaman Islands; travelling at almost 900 kph; distance travelled almost 9,000 km. Another 2 hours or so to touch down at Changi. Despite the delay of almost half an hour at Zurich to de-ice the wings, we will arrive a little ahead of schedule. Celine Dion on the headphones, inspiring with the Titanic theme song. The lights have been switched on throughout the cabin. It’s time to feed the passengers again. The food is so-so but the Singapore Girls are gracious and obliging. Just ask and ye shall have. The entertainment sucks. Well at the least the movies are uninspiring whether English, Arabic or Hindi. I gave many of them 5 or 10 minutes and gave up. Watched only one full movie; “Beyond Reasonable Double” starring Michael Douglas. Poor acting. Poor story. Probably the most memorable part of the movie was at the very end of the movie as the very pissed off heroine was about to leave the house (with the police siren and lights flashing just outside the door) and she turned and stood at the door way and said : “One last thing”. A short pause. “Fuck you”. I thought that was an appropriate label for the movie and the acting (including dear Mike).

My gracious hostess just asked me to choose my breakfast. I asked “which is better?”. She preferred the fried rice, “but its up to you”. I went with the fried rice. “Did you manage to get some sleep?”, she enquired. “Yes I did. It’s almost like first class here”. She smiled and waved at the comfortable nest I have made with the three adjoining seats I had commandeered. Time to see if she was right about the fried rice. Oh, the planes now come with plug-in points to juice up your notebooks. Next thing they should have is free wifi. Let’s see which Airline figures out that first.

4:16 am. The fried rice was a good choice, but more so for the two or three siau pai chai (green leavy vegetables). I did have Chinese noodles on the last night in Geneve and it was quite good and according to my niece the price at 17 francs is cheap. We also had Vietnamese Pho the previous night. Of course I always give first preference to local food at the beginning of my trips. And then I crave for Chinese food.

Geneve has been fun though it was quite a lightning visit. Didn’t walk as much because of the extreme cold. I did three museums on the first day while Janice had to attend a Sunday strategy session at MSF (Medicins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders). The Red Cross Museum cost 10 francs but it was worth it. I renewed my connection with the Red Cross or in our case, the Red Crescent. I was a member a long time ago in high school. In fact, I was the Chairman of my school’s Red Crescent Society. But I don’t think we did justice to the humanity and humanitarian ideals of the original founders. All we did was to be on duty during sports day in case somebody had cramps or collapse or was hurt. Yes, we knew all about Henry Dunant and the Battle of Solferino but seeing the exhibits puts things in context. The message of humanity and humanitarianism came through loud and strong. Henry was so moved by what he saw in the battlefield that he wrote a book on Solferino. And then sent the book with letters to key people to urge the convening of an international conference to set up a body to help the victims of war. He was the founder and mover. But as the effort progressed, he was ostracised for the failure of a bank of which he was a director. He was literally chased away but he did not give up. He continued to organised his own efforts to help victims of war. Many years later, a journalist tracked him to a hospital. He was then “rehabilitated” and honoured for his pioneering work in setting up the Red Cross. He became the first recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.

The sign of the red cross on a white background (the Swiss flag) is synomynous with peace and neutrality and service to humanity. But of course Switzerland is also a “land of crooks”. What?! Apart from the precision timepieces, the Swiss army knife, and the glorious chocolates, Switzerland is also famous for its legendary secret bank accounts. (Most) people who have secret bank accounts obviously are hiding from the law right? And those who abate them are what the lawyers would call accomplices, right? OK, lighten up. It’s a half joke.

But chatting with my niece about her work with MSF has been enlightening. Running humanitarian efforts is monumental work involving hundreds of millions of dollars. It requires ingenuity and perseverance and political muscles. Take the HIV effort for instance. Because the drugs are patented, it used to cost about USD10,000 to treat a patient a year. MSF then worked with a drug manufacturer in India to produce a combination cocktail of three drugs at a fraction of the cost. What fraction? Less than 5% of the original cost! (i.e. USD350). How’s that possible? Cost of production is lower in India is one thing but MSF also employs Indian lawyers to challenge the drug patents in India. But what happens if the drug companies win the patent registration in India? It seems that the law in India allows the country to force the drug companies to give them a special license to produce the drugs (at lower royalties, I presume). (Kelly Clarkson now in my ears).

MSF is also spearheading an effort to pressure drug companies to put their patents into a pool so that drug manufacturers can produce combination drugs at cheaper costs. Typically a HIV patient needs a cocktail of 3 to 5 drugs from different companies at very high prices. Very powerful people (donors) are behind this effort. Of course there is also strong opposition from donors who are out to protect their Intellectual Property rights (notable ones being those behind the Windows. Get it? Windows?).

Running a world-wide humanitarian effort requires hundreds of millions, perhaps billions. It also requires political clout. And the right people pushing the effort. And lots of imagination too. I learnt that many countries committed to contribute 2 or 3 dollars for every plane ticket that is sold. The money is put into a pool and recipient countries can draw from this pool to buy drugs to treat HIV patients in their respective countries. I wonder if Singapore and Malaysia are one of the donor nations? And I wonder how USM can help the bottom-billion?

5:09 am. About a half hour to landing. Time to stop. Will try to upload at Changi. In the meantime, an early Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all. Thank you to all for reading. And thank you for your comments on the blog. I read them all even though I do not normally response. I accept whatever point of views you have expressed.

A vista from the old castle.

Beautiful sunlight shining down on the castle.

Janice with fondue and resti for lunch at Gruyeres Castle, a one-street medieval town.

Health tourism? Long walks in the freezing cold gives you a spa as well. Your face feels cold and fresh.

uploaded at Changi Airport, 7:04 am 16th Dec 2009

The last chapter

2009-12-12T14:45:00.002+08:00

8:11 am, Sinaia Hotel. My last entry before I leave at 10 am to catch my afternoon flight to Geneve for some R&R.

It did snow, while I was talking at the Plenary so I missed it. It snowed a teeny little bit again after dinner. But the bottomline is, no early white christmas.

Every single one has left, except Campbell, Mihaela and me. So we went to a Romanian restaurant last night. Embarrassingly I did not have any Lei to pay my share. They didn't accept credit cards either so Campbell footed the bill. And then we adjourned to an Irish Pub for beers and "black dog" (guinness stout) - which I paid with credit card, happily. And what did we talk about? Romanian politics. All it needed was a simple trigger. "So you guys have 2 Presidents now after the election?". And that launched Mihaela into a political analysis and commentary. We talked about the just concluded workshop, of course. We did a post-post workshop debriefing.

The workshop was high energy in the final run. The final presentations were excellent (especially my Panel, and I am NOT biased). But one young man stood up during the Q&A and said "don't be too happy with yourselves because you all did nothing extra-ordinary". Another member of the floor responded by saying that it is the process we should be proud of. What we have produced is only the tip (of the iceberg?) and much more work has to be done.

Would I have structured it differently? Yes, definitely. In particularly, I would have preferred that the participants had sufficient time and exposure to understanding scenario planning first. I would have also preferred that the trends and driving forces be addressed collectively before launching into creating the scenarios. But one thing you have to do when involved in a project is to go with the flow. Many things are not within your control. Many factors in the decision-making are not always obvious but nevertheless crucial for making the event a "success".

What was amazing was that we had six facilitators each doing it our way. We did not second guess each other. We didn't try to out do each. We did not intervene or interfere (too much). We kept the faith, so to speak.

After attending the debriefing and giving my inputs, and having a further understanding what the January 2010 session is all about, I have decided that I will most likely skip that event. But I am sure it is not the last chapter of my involvement with the Romanian foresight project. It has been a absolutely wonderful experience, making new friends. And being able to put into practice the constructivist paradigm during the panel workshop, and achieving resounding success, was really worth the trip.

Panel One participants (many missing; it was a last minute spontaneous photo shoot), with facilitators, right after the final plenary. I believe I made all of them very happy. They will be on a natural high for at least the weekend.

The first slide of the WHWU (pronounced "Wow University"). Right up the the last minute, I wasn't sure how the presentation would turn out. They were still nitty picking on choice of words. And there was not idea whether the role-play would materialise. I left them to sort it out. In the end, it was a superb presentation.

Brave young man.

Philine, with mic, one of the international faci's.

Adrian, the chief, responding to the floor at the final plenary.

Mihaela, right, at the debriefing.

Me, Campbell and Riel at the debriefing.

Me and Ozcan, the MU winger, fellow faci. The headphones are for simultaneous translations.

My Romanian lunch yesterday.

Peles Castle, built by the first Emperor of Romania. This formed the catalyst for the town of Sinaia. Took this photo on a walk yesterday afternoon. So far, have not encountered any bloodsucking creatures.

My job is (well) done

2009-12-11T11:26:00.002+08:00

4:37 am, Sinaia. Was invited last night for drinks with a retired couple, the husband a professor and the lady used to work with the World Bank. She was in my Panel and was the futures teacher of Sohail, our USM guru on futures. (correction : Ana Maria and Sohail were colleagues). It was straight to bed by 10:30 and up again by 3 something. I went out to the balcony and looked down at the digital display. Damn thing keeps saying its 3 degree C. I need it to go down to below zero otherwise I won't see snow.

Yesterday afternoon we had a plenary where each of the panels presented their ideas, i.e. scenarios for the futures of higher education in Romania. When I saw the first slide from my panel members, I was stunned. The transformation over lunch was incredible. After the session, as I walked in, the panel members cheered. A few came over and offered their hand. "We have voted you best facilitator", they said. "Thank you, thank you, but you guys were incredible. You must have been using three quarters of your right brains". Yes, it ended well. And after that, they were all pumped up. The group dynamics suddenly shifted. They were now one big team, instead of three separate smaller groups. I think they have also inspired the other groups in many ways, especially in making impact from the presentations.

But it was not all smooth sailing. You will find, quite often, some one, or a few, participants who are vocal, opinionated, loud and don't agree to how things are moving, or what is said, or how it is said. I once attended a two week training course on teaching approaches and I was a constant pain in the a@se. So I understand disruptive behavior. I told my local counterpart that for a constructivist workshop, chaos is necessary. Out the confusion comes a tremendous amount of energy to work. The key is to stay cool. Negotiation is all part of the deal. You can still assert authority without telling people what to do. Very often, vocal opposition comes from individuals who have a long connection with the issues raised. The other key is not to get all stressed out. Apparently one other panel was even more "terror" - the facilitator fainted during the session - from a combination of stress and no sleep (absolutely no sleep the previous night).

This morning they will make the final presentations. Many of them have been working long hours to put up a good show - most of them are the young ones who want to make long lasting impressions for their futures. Then my job will be done. In fact, my job for this session is already done. But this is not the end. The project still has many rounds to go. Will I be back? Well, it's in my contract to come back in January 2010. But it will depend on whether I can work around the teaching and other duties once the semester starts again after Christmas.

Fireworks to mark the start of the Christmas celebration yesterday evening, just outside my window. There was a "turning on the Christmas lights ceremony" and the whole town showed up. The streets were packed with people.

The sun came out at mid-day. On the left at the end of the street is a lovely park.

A creative work from Irina.

My ladies, after the triumphant presentation at the plenary.

All pumped up and ready to steal the show at the final presentation today (pics below)

My window to the world

2009-12-10T13:55:00.000+08:00

7:13 am, Sinaia, Romania. My third day in Sinaia. The travel from Penang was pleasant and uneventful. The overnight stay in Zurich at the Hotel Apart (operated by Hilton) was nice. Three star, nice simple deco, very nice staff. And marvellous croissant for breakfast. Zurich airport was impressive. Whether you travel by business or economy, you check-in at the kiosk. Excellent technology. All done in about 30 seconds or so, including printing your baggage tag. And then you just drop off the bag at the counter. Hhm, perhaps one day, that also will be unnecessary. At the departure gate, I saw a guy putting his handphone on the 3-D barcode scanner. Wow, impressive. He downloaded his boarding pass on his handphone and then used that for boarding. Ah, but the technology did want to talk to each other, so they had to print a hardcopy boarding pass for him.

Coming from Otopeni Airport to Sinaia was in style. They sent a professional driver with a spanking new Mercedes. Young guy, a little too hard on the gas pedal but quite competent.

Looking out my window on the 4th floor of Hotel Sinaia. It's freezing cold outside but as you can see, no snow, yet. Let it snow, let snow, let it snow. Before I go home.

There's about 70 or 80 participants at the workshop here. Some very high level people including 3 or 4 ex-ministers. I anchored a panel on university and human capital. Being the constructivist that I am, and try to be, I offered them choices. Do you want to use this method or that method? Do you want me to present my slides on you want to talk? Well, they wanted me to choose, 'cause they say they don't know anything about the methods. Fine. They wanted to talk, fine. The local participants are very opinionated and protective of their turf. Nothing new. We just deal with it. Throughout yesterday, I heard words like "push the button", "they need to be more creative". So, there's lot of pressure. A lot is at stake. But people can't just suddenly be creative. It needs time. Push the wrong button or push it at the wrong time, everyone just shuts down. So, I looked at the work yesterday and I am pretty happy with the outcome. Talking about outcomes, same problem the world over (?). "Give us a sample", "tell us what it looks like". OK, here's some example. Hopefully, it doesn't kill creativity. So, we continue to learn by copying.

But today, I will push some buttons. Shake them up a little. Will they abandon their hardwork and move into unfamiliar territory? We'll see.

There are four panel facilitators (for four panels) and two roaming facilitators (so far, they sit and listen; but we have been warned they will be coming to interrupt today; let's see where it goes). All the facilitators are not from Romania. Some people questioned why? The answer is so that there is no baggage. We international facilitators don't bother too much whether the participant is who's who in Romania. If they talk too much, we pull them back.

At my panel. Note the translation booth on the left. Most of the time the local participants prefer to discuss in Romanian.

Introducing the facilitators. I am behind the camera lah.

Campbell telling people to dress-down ... and get to work. I am sure they all still be in suit and tie today.

The man, the driving force behind the foresight project in Romania. A very "people person", high on interpersonal intelligence.

Meeting to talk about individual approaches. We were pretty much given the licence to do it our way. In the hope that we come out with outside the box ideas or surprises.

p.s. the uploading of photos to the blog is like "zip", done.

Last flight of the year

2009-12-07T13:11:00.001+08:00

Changi, Terminal 3, 12.55 pm. Changi seems like home already. Free WiFi. Place to sit and charge the notebook.

Got a text message wishing me good journey ... and hoping to see me in one of the offices which I am "passionate about", when I return. I have getting concerned queries about my "future" lately. Yah, I made it explicitly known that some else should be brought in to bring some new energy and ideas. 700 lecturers in USM, and no one to take over? Best man for the job? .... Well, thank you for your concerns and vote of confidence.

While preparing for the Sinaia futures workshop, I went to some sites to test what kind of person I am. Left brain or right brain? Creativity or dock? So here's the results. But don't believe tooooo much. You can fool the testers.

I am more right-brained than left.

On creativity I scored 85 points, average being about 64 points. So damn creative right?

MJ giving me the sceptical look?

BTW, I am looking for a dreamy early white christmas. Apparently, many of my "old" classmates from High School Muar are taking their families and heading for Beijing in the hope of finding snow. Wrong direction, you guys. You want snow, come follow me.

Past, Present, Future

2009-11-28T10:18:00.001+08:00

9.07 am, Changi Airport. A 4-hour layover on the way back from Ahmedabad to Penang.

I am now past-president of APSA. I was asked whether I felt satisfied with what I accomplished during my term as President. I said that, honestly, APSA is a conservative organisation. "We" (as in some entrenched individuals) are happy if we hold a successful Congress once every 2 years. And Ahmedabad was extremely successful, on many fronts. The local media gave prominent coverage. I was interviewed twice by the same reporter after she went back and did some more background. And then I had to go to three locations at the conference venue to get my mugshots taken. I signed more than 700 certificates of participation and attendance and appreciation. As usual, people submit papers but don't show up for various reasons. Many just want to get their papers into the proceedings and then plead all sorts of reasons not to show up. Some even pay the conference fees. This year 15 presenters from China could not get visa to India. Sri Lankans also had problems. Mostly it's the applicants' own doing for submitting the visa application late. Out the 150+ papers accepted (15% of the abstracts were rejected), a substantial 118 were presented during the 3 days of conference. Usually we have only 2 days but we allow the local hosts to have creativity. Some people grumble 3 days is too long. But I thought it was necessary because of the number of keynotes for all three days. And I thought the keynotes added value and brought people together. This year the host wanted to give out the certificates like a graduation parade (it was called a valedictory session). But we comprised and I gave out certificates and tokens to 15 best papers. I thought it was an excellent idea on the part of the organisers because I could see the pride on the faces of the recipients for being recognised in front of their peers.

In terms of total participation, it exceeded 500 with the student turn out from all over India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka being very large in numbers. And mind you, these are from the poor countries. Many students took the train for hours to get to Ahmedabad because this was once in a life time opportunity for them to attend an international meeting. Congrats Utpal. Congrats CEPT.

We were very well taken care off by the organisers, including assigning several cars and students to chaperon us around, even for the ladies to go shopping yesterday afternoon after we concluded all the business meetings. The students were fabulous. One student asked me how long I have been teaching. Sneaky, I know where this line of questioning is leading to. I played along. "More than 20 years", I said. After a short pause, the student said, "then you must be 40 to 45 years old". I laughed. I said, forget about how long I have been teaching. Just look at me and guess my age. The student said, based on the face, early thirties. I laughed even louder. I said, "getting colder, but thank you for the compliment". "Don't tell me you are more than 60", she said. Absolutely not.

I have also given up my seat on the GPEAN. I thought Utpal would be able to bring more colour and vigour to the scene. Will I continued to contribute to the global planning education network? (I was asked by several friends). My response is, "we'll see". But I have promised to helm a book effort on planning education world-wide. A two year effort which hope will be presented at the World Planning Schools Congress in Perth, Australia in July 2011.

Mumbai Airport is a mess. A real messy place. To get between the international and domestic terminals, you have to wait for the free shuttle which comes like once every half hour of so. Yesterday we were all queuing and when the bus came, a whole line of people from behind were guided through to the front into the bus. Naturally, that got me irritated so I protested. The young said, "don't worry, the next bus is 2 minutes behind". I got cheesed off and told him that "you can't be a progressive country if you can't even manage a queue". Yah, that was nasty you gotta to remember that some passengers have tight schedules to catch planes. If you are ever in Mumbai, make sure you have at least 3 hours between flights. The amazing thing is that there are endless number of planes on the tarmac. Mumbai is throbbing with activity. Construction is everywhere at the Airport. And the buses and vehicles seems to criss-cross with the planes. It's amazing accidentals don't happen; or perhaps they do? But the new terminal (what that is completed) is great. The immigration counters are endless (I am exaggerating, of course) and well managed and orderly. But their immigration officers behind the counter could do with softening of their image. Perhaps not?

Back for one week rest and then off again to burn some carbon. Next stop Sinaia, Romania. More stories to tell on the misadventures of the globetrotter. But here's the thriller. I booked my ticket online with Singapore Airlines. I could get reasonably cheap ticket to Zurich, about RM5,000+. Then the organisers told me last week that part two of the programme have been postponed to Feb or Mar next year. So, I tried to change the return flight. As it turns out, I have to change the whole trip, including the departure date. I thought that was really stupid for an airline like SIA. I can't keep my original departure dates. But here's the insane part. The price of the ticket has doubled. So, to come back earlier, I would have pay a 100% more. It just doesn't make sense. I could use that extra RM5,000 for instance to have a one-week holiday in Switzerland and still have pocket money. What's wrong with these business?

Some pics from Ahmedabad for your viewing pleasure.

The APSA Exco 2009-2011. From left Nguyen To Lang (Vietnam), Yukio Nishimura (Japan, Vice-President), Utpal Sharma (President, India), Anthony Yeh (Sec-Gen, Hong Kong), Lee Lik Meng (Past President, Malaysia), Mack Joong Choi (South Korea).

Me giving the valedictory speech.

At the planning education forum

Prof. Doshi, 80+ young, disciple of Le Corbusier.

Nihal and Me having ice-cream at Manekchok, pass midnight.

A stall selling Chinese food.

Keeping a tradition started in Hanoi in 2003 alive - walking the streets of the city in the dead of the night.

Gujarat is a dry state, out of respect for Gandhi (I am told). But the blackmarket for liquor is vibrant. No, we did nothing illegal. A small group of students, facilitated by a security guy (the one on the right) went on a mission to kidnap foreign visitors of GPEAN to get the required tourist liquor license. The students just wouldn't give up. "We are Indians", they said. I like the spirit. So, watch out, the rest of the World. Witness the rise of the next world power.

Mission accomplished.

Licensed to drink

2009-11-25T22:06:00.001+08:00

It's 6.57 pm, my 4th day in Amdarvad. Using the Tata Indicom WiFi at CEPT University to finally get connect back with the World. Have not read my email since arriving here on Sunday. Ah, Tata is everywhere. Tata is also at the Country Inn & Suites where we are staying. At the hotel, you can opt for hourly, 4 hourly, 12 hours, 24 hours or one week rates. The one week rate is 2,700 rupees (almost RM200). Being cheap skate I did not subscribe, 'cos I thought I would be too busy to make full use of it anyway. And I was right. It's being meetings, official dinners, keynotes, opening ceremonies, launching ceremony (I was asked to launch the extension building at CEPT; I had to crack a coconut).

Just finished a roundtable about 15 minutes ago. And then heard that the cultural show had been postponed by one hour to 8 pm. So, thought I would update the blog. Late night there was also a fabulous show put up by the students. Tonight the show would be by professional dancers.

I will just make it a pictorial report.

Me buying a khurta at a stall at the exhibition pavilion for the APSA 2009. "Hand-made by the differently abled" - that's what it says on the label. Three of the ladies in the picture are differently abled.

Me with the khurta at the cultural show and dinner last night.

This was the opening ceremony on the first day. I was up on stage and looking down the crowd was impressive. About 150 papers accepted from around 28 countries. Total attendance estimated at close to 500. Students paid only 1200 rupees, heavily discounted to provide a golden opportunity for Indian students to be part of a global event.

The Chief Minister of Gujarat (bearded), the Chairman of CEPT (right) and Utpal Sharma (on the left) looking at the publications. I first met Utpal in Hanoi. We walked the streets of Hanoi at midnight with Nihal Perera, looking for beer!

Chairing my last APSA EXCO meeting yesterday afternoon. By tomorrow this time, I would become "past president".

The reporters and photographer of Ahmedebad Mirror who interviewed the APSA EXCO. The lady reporter actually googled me before the interview and saw photos and the webpage of my family I put up long ago. She said she wants to do that too. There's a lot coverage of the APSA congress in the local media.

The combined GPEAN committee members. This is their first attendance of the APSA Congress.

I surrendered my greenness this week. I boiled water in the hotel and took it along for the tour on sunday. Everyone, especially the local students, advised me against drinking the water from the tap. It does taste weird (hard water) and there's the worry about contamination. So its bottled water for the whole week.

At the dinner hosted by Nihal Perera.

Attending the final crit of the Industrial Area design workshop. Seated on my right is Nihal who is visiting professor at CEPT.

The students at the crit.

My bed for another 2 nights

My breakfast on my first morning. Glorious vegetarian food. I had masala thosai this morning. Heaven.

At the Mausoleum and mosque of the sultan who built Ahmedabad.

ME!

Oh, licensed to drink? Gujarat is a dry state. There are no pubs and to buy liquor you need a licence. We kidded with the students about getting some beer. But they were serious. So, I had to bring my passport, letter from the hotel to say I was staying there from when to when and then go to licensed liquour shop, pay 100 rupees for a licence (after a lot of queries). And guess how many bottles of beer I was allowed to buy? Ten (10). I had actually told the GPEAN that the first beer in Ahmedabad would be on me. And they were reminding me about my promise. But ten is not enough. So the students had to get another willing participant in this game to quench our thirst.

Bye for now, the cultural show is about to start.

Best Airport in the World. Really.

2009-11-21T17:40:00.003+08:00

As I got off the plane at Changi a while ago, I got the beep on my mobile. The message said :

"Dr. Lik Meng. We missed the person who contributed alot to greening campus in Malaysian universities or can we say the most influential person. Man where are you? Are you huffed with us?".

The sender of the sms knows how he is. Wow, thank you, you made my day. I do feel a little embarrassed with the accolade. Am I huffed with you guys? Man, what's with me these days. I seems to be getting people pissed off with me (including a few of the bosses). Or people think I might be pissed off with them. Not good, man! Anyway, thanks for the text. I shouldn't apologise for blowing my own trumpet here. If I seemed to be huffed with anybody, it must be due to the hormones.

Am on my way to Ahmedabad again for the APSA (Asian Planning Schools Association) Congress and series of meetings with the Global Planning Education Association Network (GPEAN). Will be back next saturday.

It's 5 pm here at Changi. My flight is 7.05 pm to Mumbai and than a long lay over of more than 7 hours before the connecting to Ahmedabad at 5.30 am the next morning. Air travel can be really very taxing. Especially if you have idiots working at the travel agency (let's name them, MIVS in Penang).

Want the long story? First thing I did was tell the HBP clerk to tell the travel agent make sure that there is enough time between connecting flights. The last time I got back from Paris, the bag decided to stay back in KLIA. I had actually asked my other clerk to confirm whether the 1 hour between flight at KLIA was sufficient. Apparently the agent said no problem (that one was Tabung Haji Travel).

Well for this trip, the first thing I noted was the connecting at Changi to Mumbai would be only one and half hours. I asked the clerk to ask the travel agent. The clerk at the travel agent said no problem just tell the check-in staff to check the bag in all the way to Ahmedabad. Sigh, she didn't understand the problem. But never mind. The flight the travel agent gave me was from Penang to KLIA, wait for 3 hours, then hop on another MAS flight to Singapore and then to Mumbai and finally Ahmedabad. Query, query, query. Response : no seat. Not even Penang-Singapore direct? No seat.

This morning at Penang Airport checking in, chatted with the lady. She was surprised why I wanted to stop over in KLIA on the way to Changi. I said the travel agent said no more seat on the direct flight. She checked, still got seats. In fact, there were still 20 empty seats. Good thing I don't blow my top so easy now. The MAS lady took me to the other MAS ticket lady, got me on the direct flight to Singapore. Hey, that's Malaysian Hospitality. MH you know?

So, the day started well. My flight was now 1 pm instead of 12 noon. So the two love birds went for some expensive cappucino (RM27 for 2) and chatted still almost 12 noon.

Changi Airport, I discovered walking around just now, tries really hard to make the air traveller happy. There's free movie (I sat in for about 15 minutes). There's transit hotel. Reflexology. And just outside that is a place with a sign of a lip with a finger indicating no noise please, people sleeping here. Internet is free, except you have to go to the information kiosk to get a username and password, unless you have a Singapore mobile phone. And there are numerous standing Internet kiosk which you can use for free (with time limits). Ooo, there's a butterfly farm. Go Kart. Shopping, Food. And for the kiddies ... funland everywhere (actually, the kids are really noise in this corner). Oh, they give out sweets too. And you must also love the orchid garden.

Can you believe this is the place where they put comfy chairs for travellers to sleep? Of course, they don't say that is for you to sleep. It's called "Rest Area". Man, I wish Mumbai would have place like that when I reach there this evening.

Nice design huh? It some kind of company doing community service or something.

The Singapore Postal Service fighting for survival in the electronic era

For the record. Terminal 3 is not the Low Cost Carriage Terminal. Low Cost Carriers operate from Terminal 3 but so does other "expensive" airlines. I remember Tony Fernandes (the AirAsia guy) complaining that the Malaysian authorities provide low quality terminal for the low cost carriers at the LCCT, compared to Changi.

And Jet Airways (which I am flying with next) is not a low cost carrier. I was surprised when the USM clerk said that the travel agents wanted to know whether I wanted to order food on the Jet Airway flights. I said of course. And that made me think it is a low cost carriage. But I asked the guy at the check-in at Changi - no, it is not a low cost carriage and food is included. What the ...? Oh, and Jet Airways is Indian owned.

For the record, the wireless here is good, but uploading photos to the blogs takes a bit of time. Still good. And there have lots of places where you can plug in and sit and surf with your notebook. Wait a minute. I think I paid for all these services in the Airport Tax, right? Hey, Charles De Gaulle Airport - are you reading all this? Calling Chicago and LA Airports, please take note.

It's 5:42 pm. Time to go walk around a little. And check out the best airport in the world. Bye.

Ironic

2009-11-20T14:53:00.002+08:00

How many participants do you think will refuse or reject these "I am not a plastic bag" plastic bags this weekend?

And how many will not drink from those mineral water plastic bottles?

The irony? It's a UNESCO Chair Higher Education for Sustainable Development conference.

The sky is falling

2009-11-18T15:04:00.000+08:00

Am in my Corporate office. Outside is a guy with a long pole. At the end is a thin saw. He is up on a very thin tree, sawing away, pruning out the rotten branches. Yes, we need trees maintenance as well. The problem is they don't seem to have any specialist knowledge about how to prune. They saw the branches from the top and then when it gets near the bottom, the weight of the branch pulls it down, leaving ugly scars. The angle of the cut is not right. The distance from the main trunk is also not right. Its all brute force.

This morning I got a call from a colleague who was really upset that workers sawed off the huge branches (and I mean huge, like the size of an adult body) of the Pokok Getah at the Red House. Earlier, one central branch had toppled because wasps had built a nest in the trunk, weakening it. And when it rained, the whole branch toppled, hitting a car, I heard. Fine, chop off the rot. But where do you stop? A substantial portion of the huge branches have been retained. But how much is too much? Where are the experts who should be overseeing this?

Elsewhere, the sky should also be falling. Elections are being held throughout the campus to select the Deans. Well, not elections really. The school can send up to three names each for the positions of Dean and 2 Deputies to the VC who will make the final decision. Will he choose the one with the highest votes? He doesn't have to, otherwise there is no sense submitting three names. Can he choose from outside this "pool"? Why not? Like doing a search for the best person in the world (or region) to fill the post.

From my vantage point as an observer and voter, there are various kinks which needs to be worked out in the future. Some one raised the issue of why only people who have previously been at least the Chair of a Programme are eligible? "Its not democratic", he said. OK, we get it, the Dean should have administrative experience. But the Dean should be annoited because of his leadership and vision not administrative capability. Administrative duties should be taken care of by the professional administrators. Deans should set directions and policies in consultation with the staff and students. Implementation should be carried out by professional administrators or managers.

I think the current process is too focussed on the voting. We should have a process where candidates should declare their interest (they don't have to be nominated by someone else). And then give at least 2 weeks for the candidates engage with his colleagues and students (repeat, students) to talk about his vision and how he intend to propel the School forward. What is his game plan? To get more post-graduate students so that the supervisors can get the incentives and have high scores in the KPI (apparently, getting the incentives from supervising a research student is the fastest way to improve the Schools' KPI). But what about improving the quality of teaching inside and outside the classroom? How about contributing to the community? How will he lead the School to support the University's APEX mission? What are his plans for turning the School GREEN? What is his interpretation of the APEX U vision?

In our school, we chose the third option for voting. That is, write down one name each for the position of Dean and the two Deputies. In a sense it is highly empowering and democratic. But it also splits the votes. In some posts, there 12 names written.

I guess the sky hasn't fallen yet.

There is hope

2009-11-14T12:38:00.000+08:00

This maybe my "last hurrah". A montage of three photos taken at the Conference Hall just before I gave my "last" talk on Kampus Sejahtera and Sustainability ...

My first remark was "you all look so young". They are the future, the new staff who will (if they don't quit) serve the university for the next 20 or 30 years. My talk is same thing I have been talking about for the last 2 years or so. But of course, with upgrades and updates along the way. I like to interact with my audience. Get them to participate. Because verbalising your thoughts is a way of learning. It is also a way for the speaker to know how much the audience already knows so that you don't bore them with the same old things. It also helps the speaker to reinforce (or validate?) what the audience knows, but is perhaps not sure or is vague about it. It takes some time for them to warm up. You need to remember to pause long enough to give them a chance to response. You need to know when to prompt them with tentative "answers" - maybe this, maybe that? You need to be open to answers which are not what you expected to hear - don't say "wrong answer", if you can avoid it. If you do, they won't open their mouths again. You must know when to praise. You must know not to show preference or favouritism. Praise should go to the whole group. But recognise individuals who shine. Make eye contact with those we are quiet - let them know that you notice that they are listening.

So you must have guessed I had a good outing yesterday afternoon. Response was very good, after the initiate hesitation. They also showed concern. They showed that they know the issues. And they have the knowledge. But they are not empowered. I asked them "if you go to a function and they are using polystyrence containers and plates, would you write an email to the VC to complaint?'. Everyone said no. Yes, everyone. Perhaps it is too small a problem to write or complain all the way to the CEO. But I think the main reason is that we have not made it OK to make it our business to mind other people's business. I can almost guarantee that the staff who complains to VC will get called up by Head of Department for insubordination. Will the Whistleblowers provision in our APEX University Constitution do the trick? Having the law is one thing, creating the culture it something else.

But there is hope. In change management lingo, it is not just "buy-in" that we need. We must enable ownership. We must make all the staff make it their personal agenda to go green. To live the lifestyle of less waste, less consumption. So, we must make it OK for everyone, especially from the bottom up, to engage in disruptive behaviour - not business as usual.

I sometimes have a gift to encourage participation. Yesterday I had a Tupperware Sports Bottle and one lady "won" it based on her (repeated) responses. As I was leaving, I approached her with the bottle. And I said out loud "It's OK to reject the gift. You don't have to accept it". She had started to reach out for the bottle. Then hesitated. Then she said she already have a water bottle, she didn't need another one. Sure?, I asked. Yes, she confirmed. So, I turned around asked who didn't have a water bottle and would like to have the bottle (earlier, I found out that half the audience didn't carry a water bottle with them, which is OK, if they choose to drink in the pantry with a glass). I gave it to one of the guys who raised his hand.

As I was leaving, I grinned at the lady and gave her the thumbs up. Yes, there is hope. I got the message through this time.

Spot Check

2009-11-11T15:01:00.002+08:00

A group of ladies from a hostel (Desa, in USM lingo) came to see me, asking for some sponsorship for their 4-country tour (by train, plane). Travelling is good. It enlightens. In fact, a whole bunch of them went to Japan last year. They are really good at fund raising. So, naturally I asked what was the benefit from the Japan trip? Well, they have implemented the ideas at their hostels. They have carried out a lot of programmes. Recycling, composting, campaigns to eat at the canteen or bring own containers, organic farming, energy saving campaign. They want to make their hostel a model sustainable community of sorts. My next question was, have you succeeded in your effort to become sustainable? "Yes". Can I have a 2 page report? "Yes". Can I make a surprise visit to see for myself? "Yes, you are most welcome. After all you are head of Kampus Sejahtera".

So we gathered a group of students to do an "audit". Facebook, mass emailing - not much response. In the end, the personal touch by one of the students brought in about 7 or 8 volunteers.

And we visited the hostel lunch time today. The long story is that you can see they have tried hard. Posters are everywhere (especially on the tables). You can see the store for the recyclable items. The student volunteers thought it was a great idea to have recycling bins in all the pantries. There's lots of greenery in pots and they look lovely.

The farm looks a little sad. The flourescent lights in the canteen were all on. The LCD screen was "talking" to nobody. But the most depressing scene was at the canteen. Despite their best efforts, we saw brown paper and plastic sheets used to tapau food - this was extensive. One store used the polypropelene containers. I chatted with a few students. One girl in the queue was holding a plate with a plastic sheet on it. Are you from this hostel. "Yes". I went to another who had a packed lunch in a PP container with two plastic bags (drinks and some other liquid stuff). Are you from this hostel? "Yes". Don't they have a campaign not to use these containers? "Yes, but sometimes very inconvenient; forgot to bring". I met one girl who had brought along the GoFlex tupperware given to first year students last year. Good. But she was also enjoying sticks of chicken balls from two plastic bags.

If you didn't know, you would think this was just like any other hostel. The short answer - not there yet. Still a long way to go.

BTW, polystyrene comes in various forms. There's the famous polystyrene foam. And there's the hard polystyrene. Picture below was taken at the USM Museum function this morning, attended by the Governor. If you are ever not sure, just look for the chasing arrows with the number 6 on it. Or you should see "PS". Does it make any difference whether you use polystyrene foam or hard polystyrene? They both end up in the landfill.

Please, will you step on my toes

2009-11-04T11:43:00.001+08:00

Yesterday I had a long conversation with a third year student from Industrial Technology, talking about the ten year history of PUCS. Never heard of them? The name is new but they have been around for 10 long years, untapped, unrecognised - because they cannot be registered under current policies which bars "raced-based societies or organisations" on campus. But that's another story. What was illuminating was that she told me straight in the face that "lecturer's life is boring". I had a good laugh. Then she said, "except the researchers". But she quickly observed that all the researchers she has seen at her school are walking around like zombies (my characterisation) with dark patches around their eyes. Not her kind of lifestyle. She's one of those students who look at life beyond books and grades. Every year, for ten years, their group has gone to the new villages, stayed with the villagers for one week, organised motivational camps for the school kids, bridged the generation gap between parents and children, educate them on recycling, collected money for charity and now they are volunteering at a home for special children (handicapped, if you are old school) to tuition them one-on-one. So, I here, today, pay tribute to the selfless USM students who have made a difference in the community - the Penang Undergraduates Community Service (PUCS). These student volunteers come from many different disciplines and schools.

Which brings me to the topic of this entry. Territory. A few days ago I was "dragged" to a meeting (I avoid most meetings these days). Apparently these guys were concerned that what they proposed to do would encroach on my "territory" as head honcho of Kampus Sejahtera. I know all about territory. I encroach into other's territory all the time. But I am not stupid. I know many managers don't look too kindly when you mind their business. My business however is to make it our business to mind their business. So far, I have been called up once by a dean for a slow talk about what I should or should not do. Essentially, not to shout so loud when I see mistakes, misguided actions or violations of policies. (BTW, starting 1st Jan 2010, Deans will be elected by his peers.) And I also know, from second-hand sources, that people talk behind my back. A couple of days ago, I saw a lady and guy chatting at the carpark. "Hi, prof", oops too late. So, I walked towards them. She smiled and said to the guy "This is the angry man, but today he is smiling". I know what she was talking about; I got irritated about some form which was passed down from the VC to a professor who passed it to the staff who passed it to me! Well, never mind about the incessant bugging to fill the form, which I had to re-write, I got irritated about priorities. Anyway, that's history, so I said "nice car". "Thank you", she smiled.

Well, back to the meeting. I told them not to worry 'cause I have "given two months notice". So, don't worry about my small toes. Of course, there would be overlapping work. As long as the right hand knows what the left foot is doing, we should be fine. Afterall, we all serve the common good.

This what I want to recreate in my garden. Informal, exuberant, colourful. Place : Sinaia, a hill resort in Romania. Where I will be in December 2009. I know, more carbon.

Also taken in Sinaia at the street fair. Maybe we should have volunteers walking around the campus with The White Coffin on the apron. Any takers?

HIV Medicines Patent Pool Campaign

2009-10-31T12:57:00.001+08:00

90% of children with HIV-AIDS are from Africa. That's 2,000,000 children who are impoverished and cannot afford the cost of these very expensive drugs. It costs as much as USD5,000 per person per year to pay for these drugs.

Learn more about the global effort to help the bottom billion - watch the video http://www.msfaccess.org/main/access-patents/take-the-patent-pool-plunge/.

Then sign the petition http://www.msfaccess.org/main/access-patents/make-it-happen-campaign/

I have signed the petition. What's keeping you?

Count Down 2010

2009-10-29T15:52:00.001+08:00

One of the pleasures of being an academic is that you can have really long lunches. Just came back from lunch with a group of graduates and students, a few of them having volunteered with Kampus Sejahtera. Best part of it was they paid for the lunch at Queensbay. Happy Birthday Chern Chung (did I spell it right) and thanks to 350.org for the lunch.

Over lunch I sat with a second year computer science student and tried to pick her brains about sustainability. Yes, she and her friends still occasionally tau pau with The White Coffin. Sometimes cannot help it, she said because it is so inconvenient to bring the tapauware. Of course, she is being much more influenced by her boyfriend (that Abe guy) and so she sometimes tries to "preach" green with her friends (she admits she is not as green as the BF), about not using polystyrene for instance. Initially, her friends give her the wield look. Then they will start avoiding her. She is also one of the first year students who last year got a free GoFlex collapsible tupperware container. Has she used it? Yes, once or twice (in one and half years). Her advice is, don't give people free gifts. They don't understand what it is for.

And I think that is true for probably 90% (I am exaggerating of course) of the staff and students. What's this thing, "sustainability"? Why can't we use polystyrene containers?

The unfortunate thing about me is that I am too observant. At about 11 am this morning, I walked over to see my old pal at CenPRIS and while waiting for the previous visitor to leave, I saw one of the staff walked into the pantry with a white plate full of food. My antenna immediately went hyperactive. I could not sit there anymore. I walked through the door (from where the staff had just come in), noticed the crowd downstairs, saw all the people eating happily away and stacks of polystyrene plates on the buffet spread. I walked down, bump into VC's steno. I asked, who's the organiser? "Koperasi USM. There, the Chairman is over there", she pointed. I took one of the plates, confirmed that it was polystyrene and headed for the Chairman. By the time I got close he was already sitting down with a big group of members of the cooperative. Many "big shots" were there, including the Chief Librarian. I didn't bother to do a head count. I did a backtrack and let them enjoy their lunch. Back at the office I asked my clerk whether she was at the lunch. She said yes. Did you eat at the lunch? Yes!

First there was the Raya Open house at Chancellory, then Chemistry, then Mechanical Engineering and then Computer Science. Now it even more blatant. I have detected used polystyrene containers outside the studio at HBP and in the rubbish heap at Education.

So, start the count down! To what, you asked? 2010. Still don't get it?

Climate Change Busters

2009-10-21T12:11:00.000+08:00

Volunteer activists with 350.org in USM are organising a cycling event on 24th October 2009 (Saturday), 10.00 am at USM to raise awareness of climate change. All are welcomed.

The cycling route:
Kayak House / Mosque --> Batu Uban Gate --> Jalan Pekak --> Jalan Sg. Dua --> Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah --> Changkat Minden 1 --> Changkat Minden 7 --> USM Minden Side Gate --> USM Field (take pictures) --> kayak house.

Please bring a small towel, enough water to quench your thirst and a good mood. Feel free to bring along your friends and family. Contact michaelpeterfoo@gmail.com for more information or if you need to borrow a bicycle.

I see STARS

2009-10-17T13:03:00.000+08:00

Are we still talking about university world ranking? Not done yet? I saw two letters written by my USM colleagues in The Star and Sun newspapers. I thought they were rather sarcastic, praising UM, yet being defensive about people who don't want to play the game. Enough of that?

Ah, but we can't get enough of being ranked or rated. Even sustainable campus efforts are getting rated. That's why I am seeing STARS (Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System), an effort in North America to rate all the public universities (they call it endowed universities) according to a set of sustainability criteria. Guess what? Harvard still came up in the Top 10! The big difference in this is that they are totally (?) transparent. All details submitted by the universities in the survey form are published on the website. No, it does not insist on an external audit as yet. The criteria seems quite clear, though there are some who dispute how points are given. For instance, should hybrid vehicles be awarded points under alternative fuel? It is not a ranking system, but a rating system. So, no university can really claim to be in what top position on top of who.

I believe their main intention is to push all public universities to become "sustainable" by publicly showing where each of them stand. Can universities opt out? I believe so. Private universities can opt in, but they have to pay for the cost of the survey (not much, about $700).

The big question of course it whether all those criteria actually measure sustainability. It's essentially still a numbers game. And I am still cracking my head how USM can stand apart. Not that we want to be different. But to make a difference.

The Brotherhood of the Duck 2

2009-10-11T21:17:00.000+08:00

Loh Ark (5-spice Duck), my mom's secret recipe.

Abalone Herbal Double-boiled chicken. Double-boiler inherited from mother-in-law. Secret recipe from any supermarket.

Loh Bak, a Penang favourite. Secret recipe from mother-in-law. Well, we imagined it.

The Rofes and the Locks from Adelaide and Sydney.

Ah, the brotherhood of the duck. To join, you have to share a duck head. Not just any duck head but one cooked by me.

I still "hearts" (luv) usm

2009-10-11T12:41:00.001+08:00

Hey, lighten up. It's all a business. If you want to move up the rankings, there are "people" who can "help" you. You just got to pay. The feeding frenzy is still on in the papers today. The UPM VC said that his university performed better last year but dropped in the rankings anyway and then rationalised the rankings as being "dynamic and subjective". Keyword : SUBJECTIVE.

I'll bet if we send survey forms to the Ozzies students from Adeliade, our rankings will be skyhigh. Don't believe me? See for yourselves ....

Perhaps, and this a serious "perhaps", we should give more weight to what students think of the universities.

Bye, bye Ozzies. They had their final presentation on Friday afternoon and it was the best ever. Seven years! Now we want to talk about MOU and MOA. OK, I know it's inevitable. I can't resist. I will have to contribute to the KPI.

That same morning I was at the g Hotel along Gurney Drive for the heritage conference. I thought I would be enjoying the fabulous buffet spread. Nah, as usual, they rope off an area and gave us the normal food. The turnout was quite incredible, given that the participants have to pay. I was one of the discussants on the role of government and laws and enforcement in heritage conservation. I think I made some people really really unhappy. So what's new? I made the senior admin at INSPEN a little annoyed too the previous day. Just me and my big mouth. On the other hand, some participants told me they quite agree with what I said. I said several things, but one thing I said was that MPPP (the local authority) should be ashamed of itself. I was comparing with Vigan city in Philippines (the mayor presented a casestudy) which only have a budget of only $4.5 million and did some impressive things. Whilst MPPP has an annual budget of what, RM100 million a year? How are we spending all that money, I asked? We spend the money to throw rubbish in Pulau Burung (the landfill) whilst Vigan has some very sustainable practices (e.g. composting). Master plans, laws, management plans? We got all those. We know, we need to do all those things. And we have achieved much. That cannot be denied. Then why is it that during the Hari Raya long break the local authority had to set up a special task force together with the heritage NGOs to be vigilant against illegal demolition of heritage buildings. Yes, there was report from the ground that many building owners were "preparing to start work" just before the long break.

Ask the people of Penang whether George Town should be conserved, the majority say yes. Will they live in George Town? Majority say no. They prefer the modern housing in Bayan Baru or Tanjung Bungah. I asked, what's the problem? Is it politics? Why is there a disconnect between what the government and NGOs want and what the people, especially heritage building owners want?

So are we spending money in the right places? The RM25 million promised for heritage work by the previous Prime Minister? Embargoed (like many Federal fundingsand projects). Politics at play. They still don't get it.

Looks familiar? Yah beautiful hall. Nice air-conditioning, I remarked to a colleague that next time they should have the conference on the streets of George Town, like the hungry ghost festival. This was a State-sponsored event but I guess they still have not got a grasp on zero waste or sustainability. On the long table for speaker and panelist on stage were green glass bottles of Perrier water. I scrutinised the label. Imported all the way from South Australia.

World's Best Airport

2009-10-08T16:21:00.002+08:00

Am sitting here watching the shuttle train going back and forth between the main terminal and the satellite terminal. Painted on the side of the train in huge orange lettering are "world's best airport". And I wonder how they get the title. I look out to my right and I see a few planes parked at gates. It's not so busy. I don't see the huge crowds I saw in LA and Chicago and Paris or Hong Kong. The free WiFi in the general areas of the terminal is mostly bad. So what really makes a good airport? What does it take to be the best? It's all about customer satisfaction of course. I was on the plane from Paris and the caucasian guy who chatted with me at the departure gate happened to sit next to me on the plane (I actually exchanged seats with a French husband and wife couple who got split up by the check in staff; crazy isn't it?). Well the guy next to me was in huff. He's been a faithful MAS Enrich customer for like 11 years flying frequently out of KL. And when you are Enrich member you apparently can pick the seat you want. He chooses an aisle seat in the back rows; in the hope that there will be empty seats which he can convert into a bed. Well he did not get his aisle seat; and there was not empty seats. So, he was pretty upset. "Eleven years of faithful Enrich membership. This is what I get. No more!", he said. . Eventually, they moved him to an aisle seat.

Customer satisfaction. What others think of you. That's also what happens with the World Ranking of universities. They ask an international audience what they think of the universities. So that's why universities are spending tons of money networking and linking with international bodies and universities. I was glancing at the recently released ranking and USM moved only about one inch in the rankings. Of course, UM is hyping about their 230 position and huge movement up; and asking for RM200 million to move further up. Well, joy to them. Publish or perish. Everything else doesn't matter. The VCs are all only interested in rankings. Ban polystyrene on campus? Who cares? (Vivian, my boss says we can assist you if you need to pressure the university to go green).

But the best part of all this ranking is that there is no external or independent audit. Get it?

My flight back to Penang has been delayed; good thing the host of the conference bought me a business class ticket. So, I can enjoy some "free" expresso, have bowl of pseudo-Vietnamese Beefball noodles (my opinion? it's really pseudo) and have wireless broadband.

It was a good outing at the INSPEN campus. I made my final final presentation of the research project they funded. A couple of members of the audience disputed our findings (mainly based on their personal experiences on the ground). That's really good. That's how research should be done. There were 98 students from the property management course at UTM (Johor Baru) in the audience. I must say I was impressed with the turn out. What was more impressive was that as I was leaving my seat and walking to lunch, I was swarmed by about 20 or 30 of the students eager to probe and challenge me with questions. I was a little stunned. But impressed. By their daring to just come up and ask the speaker. And their drive to know.

But I think the best part was meeting an old friend, Abu Bakar from my undergraduate days. Of course I took a while to recognise him, aided by his nametag. Big man now in charge of implementing government housing projects throughout Malaysia. 500 staff under him spread throughout the country. I said I only have one staff and already have a headache. He must be a damn good manager. Also the fact that he showed up for the conference said so too. Ability to delegate. I asked him what's the prospect like at the top? Opportunities are still there; still got quite some time before compulsory retirement. OK, Bakar, see you at the top. Ah, make that, you at the top. Me? I don't know. Heh, heh, I got nowhere to go.

Barbie not Babi

2009-10-06T14:31:00.003+08:00

The Ozzies from Adelaide are here again. Seven years in a roll (heh, make that "row"). What started out as a informal conversation (over beer, I think) with Steve Hamnett in Hanoi is going to become "mainstream", signed sealed, and one point for the KPI. I won't resist the inevitable. What's good for the School and the University, must also be good for the students? And for me? Who knows?

We had a session yesterday and I was leading the discussion, I said that the students will all have to jump in to help with the "barbie" on Friday dinner; our traditional farewell after the final presentation and after two weeks of trials and tribulations. My students went "Huh? What?". I said "barbie" as in "barbeque"; you know the Ozzies passionate term for BBQ? "Oh", said my students.

I didn't think much about it until later. Oh, I get it. I think the USM students thought I was talking about "babi"; you know as in pig? Yah, that's cross-cultural learning for you.

They wanted banana leaf rice, so we went to Brown Garden. We used our hands to eat of course. Matthew beside me and for the first time in Penang, Jon, the head of planning at UniSA.

Bon Voyage, Grand Paris

2009-09-30T07:13:00.002+08:00

10:13 am, Aeroparte 1, CDG
(sitting at one of the three workstations marked WiFi at Gate 12B. Except I am not using their WiFi ‘cause its not free. Am using this because I can plug in and sit down too. I know, I know, I am being selfish.)

Finally, my legs gave up yesterday after one week of very long walks. I went back to the “economy room” (cheap hotel lah) at about past 7 pm, thinking I would wake up about 9 or 10 and go for dinner at the restaurant across the street. I woke up about past 11.30 pm, decided it wasn’t worth getting up just for dinner. Woke up about 4 or 5 in the morning. Decided not to have the breakfast at the hotel (didn’t like the not so friendly staff). Left the hotel at Gallieni just before 7.30 am, took three trains to get to terminal 1. Hey, a father and son (I think from the Middle East) even consulted me about which train gets to which terminal. I must look like a seasoned traveller already.

It’s quite confusing, the sign at train station when you arrive at the CDG (Charles de Gaulle) Airport. You have to take another shuttle train to terminal 1. When I finally got to the check-in hall about 10 minutes before 9 am, the counter wasn’t open but a long line was already forming and overflowing into the common corridor. Why can’t MAS just let people queue up in the roped area instead of spilling over and blocking the people traffic?

After check-in, wanted to have light breakfast. Checked-out the bar near the MAS counter but didn’t like the fact they were using disposal cups. So, went through immigration and just right after that was a bar using reusable cups. And pretty cheap too, by Euro dollars. An expresso and a pastry for only 3.60 Euro.

So, here I am, reflecting on the pass one week of travelling. Everything was really good. No unfortunate incidences. A couple of surprises in Paris.

Actually, I went to two Parises in the last week. Did you know that Bucharest is called “Little Paris”? They tried to copy the design, complete with a replica of Champs Elysees. In fact, the guy in power at that time (can’t remember who) wanted to be better than Paris so he had the boulevard just a few metres longer than the one in Paris. The Little Paris, of course can’t compare with the big brother. Romania was very impoverished under communism and economically it is still behind; millions of people have left for places like Spain for work. I was told that a graduate in Bucharest can earn about 700 euro a month but in smaller cities it would be about 400 euro. Little Paris is very polluted; full of dust and smells of petroleum from the crazy number of cars on the road; the cars are parked everywhere including the sidewalks and pedestrian walks of the boulevard. This is despite the very good system of trains and underground metro and buses. Romanians are having a big love affair with cars after decades of pent-up suppression from consumption. But I love Bucharest though. I love the staff at the Opera Hotel. Always friendly, especially at breakfast. I actually shook hands with them on my last morning to say goodbye.

(Am looking out the window at the departure area; the plane is parked there; and the MAS crew are just getting into the plane. Its probably going to be on time. My wife is concerned; she was stuck at Heathrow when the plane didn’t arrive and they put everybody in a hotel, took them back to the airport early in the morning; and then delayed it a few more hours)

Back to Bucharest. I tried the trains (metro and regional) and they are very good. One of the staff gave me a ride to Sinaia (and I took a train back; 132 km), a mountain resort, the day before I left. He even walked me to the famous Peles Castle, reputedly one of the most beautiful in Romania, built by the first emperor of Romania. Pity did not get to see the inside ‘cause it’s a guided tour of about one and half hours. Surely next time. That area is famous for sking and snowboarding. Again pity I didn’t have the time to go up in the cable car. Along the way, I had a chat with Dragos and learned that some people have tried to promote tourism but discovered that the infrastructure is very poor; the huge jams leading out of the city during weekends, not enough hotels, etc, have deterred the business. I thought, hhm, if that was China or even Malaysia, they would just go ahead; and close both ears to the complaints; hoping things will improve.

Ah, but I did get to enjoy my very first classical music performance. Well, probably not the first. I remember going to the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra performance at USM DSTP. That one was horrible. Sound and the “attitude” of some of the musicians (chatting away during the performance; or generally not attentive). The performance at the Athenuam (??) was moving; crystal clear sounds. I was rather distracted by the pianist (a Japanese lady); her body language was too distracting. So I closed my eyes and let the music moved me. The inside of the circular hall was splendid. The audience were however a little idiotic. OK, maybe it’s the management’s fault. They let people walk in and out during a performance! And when we tried to get tickets, they said there was only three tickets left. Yes, you guessed it. There were many empty seats. Can’t imagine people paying 50 lei (that’s about RM60) and not showing up.

Will I go back to Bucharest? Well, they have invited me back (verbally) so if we can agree on what I can contribute, I will definitely go back. I think they have a big challenge and they need some help. But sometimes, we also need to be aware of the politics. I don’t want to seem to be muscling in or disrupting vested interests. So, will see. I will probably learn more too.

Now, Grand Paris. And I am not making up the term. I was at the Eiffel Tower, looked at the tourist map and discovered I was just opposite the Architecture Museum. Why not? I could learn a thing or two. So, I paid 8 or 9 euros and started exploring. Level 1 was a lot of cast of Roman buildings and architectural details of old buildings. Yah, nice but not impressive. Then I bummed into an exposition of the current effort at visualising Paris in the future – the Grand Paris. It’s something like our Structure Plan exhibition back home. Except this was really elaborate with a lot of technology thrown in and very nice graphic designs. There’s even a booth with soft cushions on the floor where you can lie down and watch the presentation. I did that too. Guess what happened. I fell asleep. Damn, I was really worn out. Interestingly, just like plan exhibitions back home, not many “public” was there; mainly students from colleges (part of their studies, I am guessing). Tried to buy a copy of their plan but it was all in French.

So, what is Grand Paris. From my brief and lightning visit, very interesting. Post-Kyoto came out strong in the presentations. How to reduce carbon footprint with compact city design (yes, they use that term); they actually want to shrink the size of Paris. I saw images of taller buildings encircling parks (with existing skyline maintained; some increase one storey). And they imagine the entire roofscape covered with solar panels (I saw the image and I didn’t like it). I am sure if you search the web you will find some stuff on Grand Paris; but probably in French.

Ah, talking about the French and their French. No, the French are not snobbish (except for the ones I encountered at the hotel reception). The waiters are especially tuned in to tourists. Those I met for my meals are very nice and will speak to you in English. Hey, its their bread and butter.

And my surprises? Well, first off, Paris is nice. And I will come back again. I have already promised my wife. Paris should be a World Heritage City, way before George Town or Malacca.

My niece, PJ, had recommended (based on a friend’s recommendation) to me to watch Moulin Rouge, even though it is pricy. Some of you may have watched Moulin Rouge the movie. I did, and I think I probably fell asleep. Well the movie didn’t impress me. Now I know why. The movie about Moulin Rouge is all about the intrigue behind the famous Parisian cabaret. I was walking along Champs Elysee on the first day (all the way from the Louvre; hey that’s a very long walk) and saw the Lido theatre. So, I thought, same thing. I managed to get the cheapest ticket which cost 60 Euro. You sit at the bar and get two free drinks. A dinner included will cost between 120 to 180 euro. Multiply that with you partner, that’s about 1,000 ringgit or more for a night at the theatre.

So, the show started, very impressive costume, a little glitzy. Looked promising. Vocals, not very impressive though; kinda subdued. And then I thought I was seeing things. Hey, some of those dancers are bare breasted! Well, they all have hardly in clothes on in the first place(except the lead actress) but really, topless? Then it dawned on me. This must be the expensive “strip tease”. Well, they don’t do a strip tease. You know what I mean. So, all throughout the more than one and half hours of show, these bare-breasted women (the men don’t count, I think) came on and off, with other “fully clothed” dancers. Now I get it. That’s why Moulin Rouge the movie didn’t get to me. It missed out on the main intrigue. But honestly, the stage sets were very impressive. I wondered how they manage to move them around so effortlessly. And I think this was one of the intrigues in the movie. In between, there was some “acts” by men. No, no, not the acts you must be thinking about. There was a guy with a string and throwing spinning “tops” (not sure what to call it); he was impressive and got more cheers than the dancing girls. A couple of muscular men also did some impressive stunts with their muscles (saw it on TV once). All in, I thought the dances, dancers and vocals were very subdued (read as not exhiliratingly impressive). Expected much more energy. It was sort of like they were conserving energy for the next performance at 11.30 pm.

OK, so that’s the first surprise. The next day, after Eiffel Tower and the Architectural Museum, I took the metro to Pillage. As usual, I just wonder around. Saw a street with lots of tourist souvenir shops and lots of tourist. Looked at the map. Oh, yah, there’s a Cathedral nearby. Looked up at the hill and said, “no more climbing”. There’s a furnicular train, but maybe next time. As I wondered back to the main street, I started seeing whole rows of shops selling erotica stuff. OK, if you must know, “Sex Shops”, to be precise; and peep shows, table dancing, strip tease. No, this is not my first encounter with a “red light” district (hey, I am reasonably cosmopolitan). What really clicked was when I bummed into the real and original Moulin Rouge theatre. Right smack there in Pillage. Now I see. This must be like trade specialisation. And the caberet is the middle- or upper-class kick in the sex trade.

(It’s 11.32 am. The plane is supposed to take off at 12 noon. No way they can do that now. Seems there’s a huge jam at the immigration counter. Going to stop and continue on the plane. Am wide awake after the good night’s sleep and the shot of expresso.)

2.12 pm, on the plane, just finished lunch. Watching “Fast and Furious”, again. Multi-tasking. The movies are all the same, and getting tedious. Lunch was briyani chicken rice. It wasn’t bad but it comes in those sealed plastic micro-waveable type containers. After eating I turned over the container and noted PET; not so bad but still not meant for heating up food. Maybe I should add MAS to the list of “no fly” airline.

I was right. Departure was about half hour late but we will still reach KLIA ahead of schedule.

The other major highlight of my day yesterday was Eiffel Tower. Advised by my niece, I went early. But even before 10 am, there was already some queue. Headed for the entrance with the shortest queue. Guess what? Exactly what I wanted. The entrance for climbers. Paid the 4.50 euro and started climbing, expecting to climb a really long time. Got to Level 1, proceeded to Level 2. No sweat. No even panting. If you think its easy, Level 1 is like climbing 21 storeys and Level 2 is 42 storeys (668 steps). When I got to Level 2, I tried looking for the stairs to the top. Discovered that you can’t climb all the way (makes sense I think, since it becomes very narrow and would have been a safety risk). Debated whether to pay the 5 euro for the lift ride up. Usually, I get disappointed at the towers because you can’t see far because of weather. I decided they need my 5 euro more than I do. They have to paint the tower every seven years (they are doing it right now) and need some 60 tonnes of paint and lots of man-hours. The lifts are super fast. They have been upgraded several times to keep up with the technology. They have really good posters everywhere with interesting tidbits about Eiffel tower and one of them claims “sustainable development”. That attracted my attention. It claims that Gustave Eiffel must have unconsciously thought about sustainable development when he and his team designed the hydraulic lift system. Even though it has now been upgraded with the latest technology, much of the old system has been retained. Well, I don’t know much about lifts and mechanical engineering so I will leave it to the engineers to clarify this one day.

When Eiffel tower was being built there was some protest because that area was used by Parisiens for exercise. Now it has become the pride of France. One think that strikes me is that some of these old projects were conceived way ahead of the technology of their time. In this case, the design team had to overcome various hurdles, including designing a lift system. Reminded me of the architects of Chicago when they started building highrises.

Was it worth it, especially with the long queue for the lift from the level 2 to the top? YES, yes, yes. If you come to Paris, you must go to the top of Eiffel Tower. When you look down, you will appreciate the grand designs – the magnificent boulevards, the street patterns, the consistent roofscape, yet not monotonous; the old with the new. Remember that Le Corbusier was instrumental in pushing for monument skyscrapers; and it was his group of architects who advocated massive highways to embrace automobiles. Lucky for us, he failed to convert Paris to his vision. Paris is still very people and pedestrain friendly. And if you look down many streets, the perspective view is just amazing. The height of buildings are maintained; the façade of buildings are complementary though from different periods.

Finally, a word about the famous Louvre Museum, the one with the famous glass pyramid by I.M. Pei. Me? I am not impressed. The collection of paintings seemed unreal – I think many seemed to have been restored and looked too new to be old paintings. There’s only one reason to visit Louvre. Monna Leesa (ok, Mona Lisa to most of us, and Monna Lisa to the French). Even then, they keep you at a distance, enclosed with “glass” and protected by 6 or 7 secret service agents on site. You can’t get to see all the wrinkles on that grand old lady. Hey, I think they should send it back to the Italians. In case you are wondering, Leonardo da Vinci painted Mona Lisa.

It’s been a long post. Time to stop. Otherwise you’ll start giving me an F grade for long-windedness.

Stopped writing at 2.46 pm, Paris time; 10,000 m above the sea, traveling at 969 km/h, somewhere above Ukraine, another 9 hours to destination. And “Fast and Furious” is getting boring.

[uploaded at KLIA]

Adrenalin rush

2009-09-25T12:33:00.003+08:00

Over lunch, Costel asked me whether I was a little tense, waiting for my presentation at 2 pm. I have done it a "thousand" times (that's is an exaggeration of course) but each time I have to go up on stage (figuratively speaking), I can definitely feel a little "tense". I said, "that is good because it helps to keep you on your toes". The adrenalin keeps you alert and gives you an energy boost to put on a show. Over dinner, Campbell, the Scot was speaking Spanish and I discovered he speaks 4 languages. I said "and you have not made a professional career out of it?". He said yes, he did, a long time ago. He was a professional simultaneous translator. I asked him if he has a "5 second" delay in translating what is being said by the speaker. He said no, it's word for word and instantaneous. Doesn't the sentence get all jumbled up? How do you know what word comes next? Well, it just comes out naturally, said Campbell. It's like a well-horned skill that you do it instinctively. It's the same thing with presentation skills. You horn it as you do more presentations. Generally you get better at it. You want to get better at it. Otherwise it just gets boring. Yes, sometimes despite your best thought-out flow and well-laid out slides, you could bomb out and you finish your speech feeling not quite accomplished.

The UNESCO-CEPES Building where the workshop is being held

Beautiful interior with elaborate wood craving motifs on the ceiling. That's Campbell in the foreground working as rappoteur, not just typing in everything being said. I think he processes, synthesise and interprets as he writes. This is a skill very much in demand from countries where the locals are "not so good with the written English"

Well, yesterday was one of my better (perhaps best?) performance, judging by the reactions from the fellow speakers. They liked the style (they didn't fall asleep). They felt engaged. And most important of all, they like the message (i.e. the content of the speech). You can be a damn good speaker but these are discerning audience. They want to see "your stuff".

What did I come all the way here for? To deliver a speech on "The Futures of Higher Education : USM's preferred pathway as Malaysia's APEX University". I had 45 minutes, which is a long time to hold people's attention. I did it with 5 minutes to spare. The presentation traced our journey from 2000 as we went through various stages of developing and implementing various initiatives leading us to where we are today. The main focus was on scenario planning and how our visioning led us to the transformation plan for the APEX U programme.

I think what they appreciated most was two things. One, the continuity of the various efforts leading to the APEX U transformation plan. And two, that we have created a model or package which is distinctly our own. We did not merely say that we want to become World Class by aiming to be say, top 50 on the World University Ranking. In particular, they were very much attracted to the idea of integrating sustainability into the transformation plan. During the presentation, I looked at the speaker from Germany and said that the APEX U programme was modelled after the German system and that an expert from Germany was one of the evaluators/reviewer of the bids in Malaysia. After my presentation, some one else spoke about Manchester U's strategic plan, which essentially says that they want to eventually become top 40 on the rankings. Of course, with due respect to Man U, the speaker was not involved in the development of the plan but one member of the audience said it lacked imagination (comparing it with USM). Later, the German speaker pointed out to another speaker that "sustainability" was missing from the work being done by that European Union supported research organisation working on issues of higher education and suggested that it should be taken as a new project. That suggestion was accepted. But I think the most glowing tribute to USM's effort was when the same German speaker said that maybe in 5 or 10 years, the Germans will have to visit USM and learn from us. Wow, what an adrenalin rush. So, Dear Vice-Chancellor of USM, I have done the selling, now we got to deliver.

So, why is Romania interested in what USM is doing? The short version is that they are undertaking a foresight programme to help chart they pathway for higher education. They seem very interested in USM's approach and wants to talk some more about how we (I?) can be involved with some of the workshops. So, I am predicting that I may come this way again; maybe. But the Romanians are very ambitious. It's a three year project to revamp the whole higher education of the country.

Here's some pics.

The people behind the scenes - the professionals who coordinates logistics.

Philine, Ariel and Ozcan - new collaborators?

It's a small group meeting - about 20 or so participants. This workshop is mainly to lay the groundwork.

What's a workshop without food and drinks? With Radu, deputy director of the project. That thing is 50% alcohol; way too strong for me. You are supposed to drink in a single shot!

Aging gracefully

2009-09-24T12:02:00.001+08:00

Bucuresti (or to most of us, Bucharest) is a Medieval city with history dating back to the 15th Century when Prince Vlad Tepes established his court here. Who's Tepes? He was reportedly the inspiration for the stories of Count Dracula. I don't think most of the buildings here date back that long. But man, if you want to see old gorgeous buildings, you will get lots of them in Bucharest. Many are still elegant and well maintained, especially the public buildings such as museums (there are 37 museums, 22 theatres and 18 art galleries). I wanted to visit at least 2 or 3 museums yesterday. But in the end I visited none. On the first day after checking in and resting a little (after being "on the road" for 24 hours), I hit the streets walking through a park just down the road from the hotel. Yes, Bucharest is blessed with a series of very lovely parks. On that walk I saw this elderly couple taking life in small strides. The lady uses a walking contraption (what's it called?), one step at a time, very very slowly. And the man patiently waits for her to take each step, pausing to "keep up" with her. Then yesterday at the Herestrau Park, I saw a healthier old couple, walking hand-in-hand. It's a blessing to see old people on the streets in the city. What with half the marriages in U.S. ending in divorce. Everywhere else is catching up. And if they don't get separated prematurely, many don't live to see old age.

But is the city itself aging gracefully? I walked the whole day yesterday, meandering through the streets, letting the unexpected sights draw me in. The city feels very safe. But it is obvious that many buildings have become abandoned. People don't live in them anymore. Some have moved to more modern apartments, others seemed resigned to the decay of their homes. But I also see signs of rehabilitation as living quarters; only just a few. So guess what most of the restored buildings end up as? Beautifully restored as restaurants and cafes! Is there no better used for heritage buildings?

Ah, I got to run. Will continue this conversation later. In the meantime, I thought you would enjoy these photos. They don't reflect what is being down with heritage buildings. They are just reminders that they are many idiots out there.

Will show the really beautiful stuff later. Ciao. Gotta go justify my trip here.

p.s. Of course George Town has got it's share of idiots too. (hhm, can I be sued for violating professional ethics? Calling other professionals "names"?)

Blood-sucking trip

2009-09-23T01:57:00.000+08:00

22 Sept , 7:46 am at Terminal F, Gay Paree

Arrived from KLIA at 6.30 am, 10 minutes ahead of time, even though we were delayed about 10 minutes for take off due to traffic congestion. In KLIA? I got a few hours to kill (departure at 10:24 am). Am word-processing this journal. When are they going to provide free WiFi at all airports. WiFi is like toilets; they are everywhere in this airport. Actually, I like Terminal F. Huge hangar-like structure, no columns. Pity the metal screens on top of the glass roof are not solar panels. Paris airport is huge and old. When arriving, as usual there are the border patrol heavily armed, mascular, intimidating. I gave the guy my passport. He looked at it and passed it immediately to the guy standing next to him. He flipped through every page, meanwhile peeking up at my face. Could figure out what the first guy was suspicious about. Asked the first guy in French. Apparently nothing. So, welcome to gay Paree.

It was my birthday yesterday so my two girls made me a special B-day card; gave it to me at the Penang Airport. They even wrote "Thanks for Everything" and two quotes on the card : “My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person, he believed in me” (Jim Valvano) and “Any man can be a Father but it takes someone special to a Dad” (Anne Geddes). I was really touched. I am proud of you girls too. And Brian? He sent me a text from KL “Hey, Dad, suddenly remembered. Happy Birthday!”.

I remember writing on my website (in the award-winning competition!!) that I did not know my father at all. When I was born, he was already 57 years old. My siblings tells me that he was a good father to them. But I never got to know him. So I resolved to be a “better father” to my kids. Yah, I know, I got angry with them sometimes when they were “out of line”. Wish I could turn back the clock. Still, they all turned out superb. No parent could have asked for more from three children who turned out matured, self-assured, determined to succeed, level-headed, civil, polite, respectful, sincere and super readers.

Ah, Paris. The people are reputed to be snobs, as far as the language goes. Speak to them in Malay, I was advised. Huh? Well, speak to them in English and could be bother with you. Really? Well, not at the airport. Efficient and friendly, up to now. Oooo, the soft morning sun is shining throught the glass walls and bathing the inside of the departure lounge in lovely brillliance.

Where am I going? The Land of the blood-sucking vampires. Bucharest, Romania to be exact. Why? To be what the organisers refer to as an “expert” (that’s what it says in the contract) for a foresight conference on higher education in Romania. I am presenting USM’s experience in scenario planning leading to our APEX University transformation plan. As with the Chicago trip, I did not ask for it, nor planned for it. Chicago came out of the blue because of networking. And when I was in Chicago, I learned that my name had been suggested (with one other) for the Bucharest trip. Honest, I did not say a single thing about wanting to go to Bucharest but my silence was taken to mean that I was interested. I guess some people are just too shy to put up their hand(s)? Not that I am complaining. Not too much.

Its 8.20 am. I love the sun in my face. Going to stop this entry and go buy a coffee and read “Economicology” by Peter M Wege. Yes, the same guy who paid for my trip to Chicago. So far, I like what I read. Except “economicology” is just too much a mouthful.

A moment of weakness. No more coffee in disposal cups on this trip. The trouble is the airport security are pain in the neck when you bring in bottles or tumblers even if empty. In KLIA the security said empty bottle OK. In Paris, it was no-no. Oh, the cappucino cost me 5.20 Euro; that's about 25 Ringgit for that medium size cup.

Lunch tray from Air France. I have already decided to boycott Cathay Pacific for the earlier fiasco. Now, I have to add Air France to the list. Soon, I will have not airline to fly with. Three cheers for carbon neutrality.

Am uploading via free hotel WiFi at Bucharest hotel. More stories to come. Time now only 8.50 pm in Bucurest but almost 2 am in Penang. And my eyes tells me its time to sleep. Apologies to the nice people in Romania for the title of this blog.

Desperate for Love

2009-09-20T19:17:00.001+08:00

Selamat Hari Raya. Or for those from around the World, today is Eid Fitri, a celebration by Mulsims after one month of fasting.

Am in my garden bench, soft evening sun, light breeze, admiring my 6 or 7 hours of trimming, digging, transplanting, moving huge pots around. And enjoying the looong weekend. And waiting to go out for dinner with the in-laws from Penang.

Before you start getting ideas, it's my papaya tree which is desperate for love.

I hope you can see the very long stem sticking all the way out from the trunk with big bunches of flowers at the ends. This is the papaya tree at the back which has been desperately trying to get imprenated. This is a wonder of nature. I decided to chop it down this morning to create for space and less competition for the mango and naka trees next to it. JANTAN!

This one found lots of love. It's right next to my compost bins. You can see the flowers are sprouting just at the trunk.

And this is MJ.

Cute isn't he? He was found abandoned with 3 siblings on one of the super highways in KL. My daughter rescued him to be her pet. Brought him to Butterworth for the week-long special break. He's only 4 months old. When you adopt a pet from the SPCA, they make you pay a RM100 deposit for the castration. According to Vivian, the vet will cut a tiny hole and squeeze the testicles out (oow). The hole is so small they don't even bother to stitch the cut.

We used to have a black dog named Johnny when I was a kid. He died and I remember we dug a hole in the backlane (which wasn't tarred) and buried him there. Then one time, some expatriates in Johor were leaving home (this was in the 1970s) and needed new owners for their cat. Their servant who happened to be our cousin, recommended us to the owners. So the owners bought big bags of cat food and gave us the cat. After a while, the cat ran away. I am not sure. I think it had something to do with the food we gave the cat after the bags of food ran out. Of course the old owners were distressed.

The last time we had pets was when my sis-in-law bought a pair of hamsters for Vivian's birthday. Hamster don't live long. I remember my son shed tears when they died. We gave them a burial in our garden (old house). Vivian has for a long time bugged us about getting a dog. When she aced her form five exams, I said she could have anything. Except a dog. Ah, taking care of pets is a big responsibility. Especially if you have to go outstation.

But Vivian is an adult now, so she can do what she wants. And she's training to be a Vet. So, what better training than taking care of your own pet?

And we are learning the pleasures and benefits of having a pet. Though still holding back a little. No jumping on the table. No sitting on the sofa. No sleeping on the bed. But he's really, really a pleasure. Cats are really very fussy. They don't poo just anywhere. On the car trip back from KL, he didn't poo at all but once in our house, Vivian put him on the litter box and he did his business. Cats are not like dogs. You can't train they to roll over and stuff. Vivian trained him to "sit", when offering treats (made from real duck!). Over the last two days, I trained me to come to me. "Come here MJ", snapping my finger and thumb (OK, I'm not very good at snapping my thumb). He will now come and lie down near me, expecting to be tickled under the chin and some gentle rub on the body. He loves my garden. Smelling the leaves, biting the grass, prancing and pouncing, as though his wild instincts are coming forth. Yesterday he caught a live dragonfly, played with it and ate it.

No, he's not getting leftovers. One reason is that the fur will not be so nice and fluffy. And it would be difficult for Vivian 'cos she doesn't cook when she's at the varsity. Ah, but he got a taste of my double-boiled abalone and herbs chicken. He absolutely loved. My wife gave him some dried fish (like ikan bilis) and he loved it too.

Cat love the high perch. The first night, we gave him a basket with a towel to sleep. The next morning, we found him high up on top of our old (broken) microwave oven (which is on top of the washing machine). So, that has become his sleeping place. He likes window sills. I guess it's the wild cat instinct to to take a high position to watch their "dinners".

Remember your parents might have scolded you and tell you to quickly wash your hands when you touch a cat? Especially a stray one? Well, I learned from Vivian that it is not all myth. Stray cats do carry a lot of diseases because of the places they visit. And pregnant women should avoid handling cat poo. There's some kind of bacteria in the poo which is a health hazard for the expecting mum. (Correction : Vivian says its not bacteria but parasites. You know like worms? I remember a long time ago when parents had to de-worm the kids. And when the kids next go to the toilet, there will be worms in the shit. Worms of course suck your blood; or more precisely, they suck the nutrients in your digestive system and the person turn all green; for lack of nutrients. Ok, I'm exaggerating. To de-worm the cat, you have to give the correct amount of tablet every month, based on the weight of the cat.)

And in case you are not convinced yet to have a pet, Vivian says the evidence shows that pets help to lower blood pressure. Yah, that's why I am soooo calm these few days. MJ, come here!

My best side

2009-09-12T17:27:00.000+08:00

When daughter happened to glanced at my notebook, she said "Obama". Yah, got potential as Obama look-alike. Except I will need a lot of charcoal for make-up.

The organisers of the ACUPCC in Chicago (Second Nature) graciously made available these photos of me at the rostrum. Taken by a professional photographer. I think these are some of the best pictures ever taken of me. Incredible resolution. Sharp. Animated. Pensive. I should get them printed for posterity.

from left : Shih-Cheng, Kiran, Harold, Andrew & Lik Meng on the International Panel

Contested Spaces

2009-08-31T12:04:00.000+08:00

This "new" editor on the blogspot is driving me nuts. It's got some neat features for uploading images but moving the pictures around is really clumsy. So, am not going to try too hard for now.

Am sitting on by garden bench, listening to the birds happily chirping away. My papaya tree is fruiting finally. The other papaya tree outside our compound is sprouting a lot of flowers (for many months already) but doesn't seem to be able to bear fruit. Must be Jantan (male)! My longan-mata kuching plants is a little stressed after I transplanted it a little further away from the papaya tree but I think it will heal itself; otherwise I will slap myself.

And yes, testing out the mobile broadband my wife just acquired for our daughter who is is feeling a lot of pain in UPM with its almost non-existent Internet connection at her hostel. And a lot of that pain is also felt by the students in the hostels in USM too. The upload speed according to the little counter that comes with the package says something like 40 kbps to about 70 kbps. That really is not broadband. Yah, Yah, hopefully, UPM which is smack in the Multimedia SUPER CORRIDOR will enjoy better speeds.

The first picture up there? It's my neighbour who seems very happy celebrating Merdeka. Yes, Merdeka today. I looked along the whole row of my street. Only one house's got the flag up.

Ah, but behind our house is a huge padang (field) with many flags. But not the National flag; or even the State flag. They are flags celebrating the Month of the Hungry Ghosts. The Seventh Lunar month where Chinese believe the spirits of the dearly departure roam freely on Earth. My youngest daughter asked "why do they like our padang so much?". There are actually two other equally big padang less than 100 metres away. The Teo Chew Opera came and went. It wasn't as much fun as before. And the horrible modern dancers and singing was unbearable (earth-shakingly loud). I think the volume and vibrations from the speakers are a health hazard.

Last night they had a big dinner after all the ceremonies including the big bonfire of paper. They cook right there of course. I hope they don't go back running for the toilet. The signing was bearable. And they ended by about 10.30 pm. What do they do at the dinner? One big event is the lelong (auction). Technically speaking, it is to collect money for charity. They mentioned a few people who needed medical attention. They also collected more than RM1,000 for the Chinese Primary School in the area (pittance, me thinks). One interesting auction was to take home the image of the Jade Emperor statuette. It went for about RM4,000 +. Generally, businessmen want to bring IT home for goodluck.

Of course, some of you may have heard about the more unsavoury practices of these auctions. The uncomplimentary remarks it that they are no more than "legalised extortion". And we shall leave it at that.

(the system seems very slow when typing with this boradband connected).

So, what about contested spaces? It's when members of the public claim a public space for another use which is different from that originally planned. For instance, our shophouse five-foot ways are blocked and clogged up with motorbikes or wares to be sold by the shopowners. As for the padang behind our house, some one has set up a sort of "club house" where they drink and play cards and socialise into the middle of the night. There's that small little temple; someone did complain; the authorities came, took pictures, don't know what happened. Us, complain? We decided not; where are they going to go? We only wish that they don't throw rubbish everywhere after an event. Lower the "heart-wrenching" loudness; stick with the opera and get rid of the skimpy girls jumping around who can't really sing.

If you want to read more about contested spaces, try Gywn Jenkins book on George Town; based on her PhD thesis. Also some good stuff by Nihal Perera on Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Warm reception

2009-08-25T15:18:00.002+08:00

Life without Handphones got many people quite stirred up. Since then I have read up a little and talked to a few people, including an expert on environmental health/safety.

This is, in a gist, is what I can conclude:

the evidence so far does not show any links between handphone radiation and cancer
but the epistemological studies will take maybe another 10 years to show any conclusive evidence (either way)
handphone radiation is what is called non-ionizing; in plain language it won't cook your brains, or other parts of your body (i.e. it won't modify your DNA);
but the radiation may actually make your flesh feel hot (it's not just the battery but also the radiation) especially if you keep you handphone in you trouser pocket
the ionizing radiation are x-ray and gamma-rays (I heard from someone that radiographers working in cancer hospitals are sterile because of their work; a myth probably?)
we should, however, walk on the side of caution; reduce our exposure to handphone radiations (don't talk for hours on the handphone; just say "hello ... Ok, yes, ... bye")
you can reduce radiation to your body by using a cordless earpiece or earphone with cord; keeping the antenna further away from your body reduces radiation; but carrying your handphone in a porch around your waist when talking on the handphone does not help
you should not only be concerned about the handset but also the transmitting or base station; in fact, if you are using a handphone behind an obstacle such as abuilding, the station may try to send out a stronger signal; that means the people who are near the transmitting station (residents, office workers) will be the ones getting more radiation
and our transmitting towers are at Chancellory and the Computer Science School full of people underneath; also at the water tower near the tadika

We had a meeting of "powerful enough people" (which includes me, I guess) just about half an hour ago and this was our consensus:

we agreed that shutting down the towers, without any feasible alternative, is not a good solution (tak sejahtera lah)
we need to engage the Multimedia Commission; talk to their experts to get their points of view
we need to walk on the side of caution; we need to create greater awareness amongst handphone users of the potential hazards (don't talk on the handphone for more than 5 minutes at a time for instance); we need to call in some experts for seminars and workshops (not just for the campus community but for everybody)
we need to engage the telcos (all of the them) and discuss a better solution for the campus; one proposal is to shift all the transmitting stations across to the unpopulated hillside of the campus; make sure the hostels are not in the "direct line of fire"; all the telcos to share the cost of one common tower.
we should also engage the telcos on responsible marketing; they try to encourage you to talk more on the handphones (the more you talk the cheaper the rate! yah right)

When we got all the facts together, we will put up a plan and alternative proposal to the University Authorities for a decision.

So, what you think? Any other ideas?

HongKie Town

2009-08-18T13:21:00.002+08:00

OK, I hope the Hong Kong people are not offended by the title. This is my fourth trip into the city. Landed at 6.45 am and got picked up by my "old" friend from HBP days (Chin Hock) at about 8.30 am for a half day tour. Everytime I come to Hong Kong, he plays host. We had dim sum of course and went back to the noodle shop he brought me to in an earlier visit for lunch. Visited some of his projects and chatted about the social transformation taking place in Hong Kong. All the industries are moving to China because development costs are lower and operational cost (like labour) is also much lower. So the lower rung of society in Hong Kong are faced with much fewer jobs options. They really cannot pick and choose anymore. Many industrial zones in the city have been rezoned to "business or other use". Which means many old industrial highrise (yes, multistorey factories) are being torn down to be rebuilt as offices. It's all built and sell here. Yes, you can sell before completion but you get the money only after the Occupational Certificate is obtained, followed by the Compliance Certificate. The last one is from the land office which certifies that the crown lease have been properly registered. Seems a lot easier than the Strata Titles Act back home. But I hear also alot of complaints about bureaucratic bottlenecks in the government approval system. Sounds like home.

The other thing which sort of gets Chin Hock animated is how the activist are pushing their agenda to the detriment of business. For instance, the activists accused the government of benefitting only the rich developers when auctioning land for development. So the process was changed but now the government officers have to watch the backs all the time, including abandoning auctions which seemed to fetch too low a price. So this affects the supply of land for development. We both agreed that for "real democracy" to work, we have to first learn how to listen to one another. Often the public forums on TV are lopsided. The moderator leans to the side which he/she favours and shuts up the other side.

As in any social networks there are weaknesses. For instance if you are really poor and entitled to government aid, you can actually be quite rich. Say you have 4 kids and you are a single parent, and poor, you can get about $3,000-4,000 per kid per month - that's like $10,000 a month in aid. Not bad huh, for being poor.

The flight from Chicago was uneventful. Perhaps an anti-climax. I decided to go early. Took the train from downtown Chicago. Costs only $2.25 compared to about $30 for airport shuttle - and much less carbon. No jam, but very noisy. And Chicago bade farewell with a drizzle (it was dry the whole week). Reached airport about 4 pm, queued and got attended to at 4.30. With fingers crossed I dumped all the documents on the counter. Yah, yah, the lady said the records still don't match but goes ahead punching a lot of keys. "Hey, I'm going to put you on an earlier flight at 5.30 pm; there's been lots of delays today", she said. I was a little surprised but OK (original flight 8.30), if I can make it to the plane. Got my bag checked thru' to Penang and all boarding passes printed. Everythings A, OK. That means more time to kill in LA. And let me tell you LA Airport is one big boring place - for shoppers that is. Hope they keep it that way. I wanted to have one last meal of udon at the airport but saw that they used disposal hard plastic bowls so decided to skip. Ended up with an organic banana.

My last tourist duty in Chicago was the Field Museum. Man, this is one World Class Museum. I would say a class of its own. For USD15 you can roam around all the open exhibits but if you want the specials (like 3-D dinosaurs, pirates, etc) it goes up to about $34. If you only got one or 2 hours just go for the basic. Its an ABSOLUTE MUST SEE. Honestly. I love the evolution exhibits, the wildlife (I think the taxidermist did an incredible job). Some of the exhibits have been there for more than 100 years from the time of the Columbian Exposition. And the dedication of the early explorers is amazing. And there's big bad SUE. Well, they have got the bad rap because of all the Jurassic movies. Sue is actually an almost complete authentic real-life skeleton of a T. Rex. Actually they don't know if it is a boy or girl; Sue is the name of the fossil hunter who discovered it. I wonder how much she got for it. Probably peanuts. But Sue was in a legal dispute and the Field Museum working with McDonalds (yes, that one) put in a bid of USD8.4 million to get the fossils. So, who got rich from nature's work? I think the fact that you can see a real dinosaur makes you believe they existed hundred of millions of years ago. And even without the skins and meat.

Goodbye Windy City. Unfortunately I didn't get the chance to eat the famous thick pizza. Maybe another time.

@HongKong Airport
p.s. Thanks Chin Hock for another lovely visit.

Super-size Me

2009-08-16T20:25:00.007+08:00

Yesterday, I started out at about 9 am and headed for the Institute of Art Chicago but it opens only at 10 so I decided to walk all the way to Chinatown. It’s a very pleasant walk along Michigan Ave, nice walkways with lots of beautiful colour flowers, lots of people walking, skyscrapers on one side. But as I headed further south and then west in the direction of Chinatown, it became more rundown and less people on the streets. I even encountered a guy who I think was openly shooting drugs on the sidewalk. Took me an hour to walk.

Chinese are footloose. You find them everywhere. Chinatown Chicago is busy with lots of people on the commercial streets which is essentially to L-shaped streets. The Chinese hang out on the sidewalks, squatting, sitting, smoking, chatting. It’s their social space. I think it is a habit carried over from China where the tenements in cities are too crowded so people spend a lot of time in the open. The facial features looked very different and the language (dailect) they spoke was very alien to me.

Dim Sum restaurants predominates. I was hunting for a noodle shop, the ones with the BBQ meat hanging on a window display and will have rice or noodles to go with it. The only shop which advertised noodles was a Vietnamese shop. After circling Chinatown (took only about 10 or 15 minutes), I picked one which offerred several kinds of noodles (but no BBQ).

I looked at the menu and chose a noodle with fish and thought I would also try their Chee Cheong Fun. I put the ticks on the order form, the waitress came over. I said (rather than asked), “the noodle is big, right?”. Yes, was all she said. But she did look a little sceptically at me. When the plate of noodle came, I got a huge shock. It was fit for a few kings. I think at least three or four people. I was a little cheesed. The waitress could have warned me! But the noodles was piping hot and the fish tasted good (not fishy).

A lady came over and started chatting so I showed off my Mandarin. She pointed to the dishes and she was wearing an apron, so I jumped to the conclusion she had something to do with the dishes. “You cooked this?”, I said in Mandarin. Yes, she said. They are very good, I complimented. This made her day. She also pointed to the thin wide noodles and the Chee Cheong Fun. “You made them?”, I guessed. Yes, in the basement, she said. Ah, first time a cook in Chinese Restaurant has bothered coming up to get customer feedback. But I said, “this is too much, I can’t finish this”. She said to take it home. But my home is Penang! As she left, she proudly told the waitress that the customer said “hoe seck” (delicious, in Cantonese). The waitress responded “when you are hungry, everything is good”. Typical Chinese retort.

How much did I eat? I finished the Chee Cheong Fun but there was more than half of the noodles left. The noodles was only about USD12.

So, be warned. This is super-sized country. BTW, I passed by McDonalds and saw they are using exactly the same polystyrene form containers for breakfast that they use in Malaysia. But their coffee is in paper cups.

Then I took the Red Line back to the Institute of Art and it took perhaps 15 minutes including some walking. The Institute has got a huge collection including Egyptian, Indian, Japanese, Chinese, and more. What I really appreciated most was the miniature sets of the interiors such as living rooms and kitchens of various periods of houses in America. This was about the only displays which I thought was “local” or shall we say contributed by people of Chicago. The rest are actually “stolen” from other cultures. OK, I am making a point here. I said this to Harold (not in those words) and he said, “Ya, many museums in Europe are now sending back the exhibits to their country of orgin”.

One thing about Americans is that eating out (especially dinner) is almost like a cultural experience. They check out restaurants, book way ahead and when it comes to ordering, the waiter (or person taking orders) have to be very well-informed about the menu. Some do it better than others. Last night Harold and family took me on a train ride for about 30 minutes to the outskirts of Chicago for sushi. The restaurant is only sushi. No noodles, no teriyaki. It was really good. And I learned from D Marie how to eat sashimi with sushi rice in a bowl. And I also learned that sashimi should not be pre-cut. It should be cut and served immediately.

I leave tonight. Hope the airlines don’t give me a hassled. Will still have time for the Field Museum (real dinosaur skeletons there) and perhaps contribute a little to the local economy.

Thank you, Chicago. Thank you Harold, D, Reuben … and Kiran and Shin Cheng. I am sure we will meet again. Not forgetting WEGE Foundation, SecondNature. Barbara, Shirley ..

Oh, I like the “Zip-Out Check-Out” offered by Palmer House. Just call and extension and leave a voice mail to say what time you are checking out. No need to queue up.

I thought this photo capture the Chinese spirit. As I turned the corner from the commercial street into the residential area, I saw vegetable plots. Further down there was a reconstructed apartment, gated, set-back, and instead of vegetables were flowers. So, the older generation probably need the vegetables while the younger are holding jobs in the office. The thing which thought was non-Chinese was the architecture.

As I turned another corner, I saw three or four ladies selling what must be harvests from their vegetable gardens. I thought it very cool. Support local people, local produce, bring life to the streets. Wonder if they have to play cat-and-mouse game with the city enforcement.

Chicago, the favourite city

2009-08-15T21:16:00.002+08:00

Chicago is a lovely city. Easy to walk. Public transport pretty good, except the old heritage train makes one helluva noise - you can't hear yourself talking when it passes by overhead. Went on the Architectural Cruise on the Chicago River. Thought it was too expensive (USD36) but it came with free drinks, coffee and cookies. The commentator seemed very well-informed and the upper-deck was packed. Everywhere we could see queues of people waiting for their boat rides. So that is big business; there's more than one architectural tour company. Which makes me wonder why they haven't got a system to visually or physical identify buildings to help idiots like me focus on the building when the commentary is going on. "the building on the right", "the one on the left" ... I was completely lost most of the time which building he was talking about. Anyway, as I said, I can only take about 15 minutes and then I go blank when it comes to guided tour. To top that, I hadn't slept the whole of previous night. Ah, but learnt about how the used shovels (yes, not monster excavators) to dig through the glaciers so that they could force the Chicago River to reverse its flow. Why you ask? Because the river had become a rubbish and sewer dump. Not surprisingly, the states down river didn't think much about dumping the rubbish in their backyard and sued. But lost. It wouldnt' have happened in this day an age (it happened like maybe a hundred years ago; not sure).

Our presentations by the international panelists from Malaysia (me), Taiwan (Yeh SC), India (Kiran) and Scotland (Andrew) went very well. Each of us had only 7 minutes but I think I cheated. Yeh said I probably spoke for 10. It was very short so it was mainly overview.

Shin Cheng and Andrew

Lik Meng and Harold. Kiran hidden behind me.

The presentation by the President of the US Green Building Council was I thought very good. Presentation skills very good. Slides excellent. But I think the message was more important. He was very pushy. Yes, everyone thinks that its just a scam to make money. When they started more than 10 years ago, people slammed their doors and won't even talk to the greenies from the Council. Now it seems that there are more than 100,000 LEED AP (accredited professionals), people who are certified to help you achieve LEED certification. According to the guy, the amount of money which the Council gets to give you the cert is very small; sometimes even just one cent per sq foot; sometimes as hight as 11 cents. So that's very small. Most of the added cost is the professional consultants to help you through the design, modelling, and documentation for submission to get the certification. One question from the floor was concerning building owners who wanted to meet the criteria for green buildings but didn't want to go for certification. The response was that certification is a third party validation. So you know what the owner claims is true. Apparently (at least according to a few people at the Summit), students (68%) are demanding that their universities go for green buildings; some said that students are also asking whether the universities have green buildings when they apply for admission.

The Green Building at University of Illinois Chicago. On the right is the refurbished green portion, on the left is the original building. Used for lectures.

This, I thought, was neat. Greening the roof with shallow plastic plates planted with what I think are desert-like plants. A student project at Saint Xavier University.

We met a lady who was an exchange student in Taiwan and she now works as a "Carbon Accounting Coordinator". So, that's a new green job. She says she can help teach or guide our students in compute our GHG. I told Yeh that if he invites her to Taiwan, then I will maybe invite her to Penang. Save some carbon, right?

Another green business. Organic and local. But still alot of plastic wraps. The book to put the apple, bag of chips and the turkey sandwich was really unnecessary.

OK, better stop before my one hour Internet credits cuts me off again. (BTW, I was cut off so this is delayed posting again).

A "clean air hybrid bus". We should explore having these on USM campus.

Green buildings

2009-08-14T13:21:00.002+08:00

I went for the tour of three green buildings in 2 campuses in Chicago yesterday. Today, its all about climate change. President Bill Clinton gave a keynote amidst tight security. He was selling climate change. Well, he was telling the audience all about how working to solve global warming can create millions of jobs and told them about various financial instruments available for universities planning on greening their campuses. Perhaps that's the significant factor in America. You really got to justify the costs. Someone said he was incredulous when one participant asked what is the payback period for the whiteboard in the classroom of the green building.

During the green building tour we visited two new residential halls and a retrofit of a lecture/class room complex. From various conversations, I gather that even if you say improve efficiency by 30% it may still not lead to sustainability. Because the reduction is based on a baseline which is really way too high in consumption of energy in the first place. Even geo-thermal is not really "free" because it involves a lot of pumping of the water to carry heat either into the ground or from the ground to the building (depending on summer or winter). Then there was a LEED certified practitioner (she certifies LEED buildings) who did not think that the current way is going to lead to sustainability because it lacks the social-culture elements, e.g. using local or indigenous knowledge or skills or materials. Another thing we talked about is that some of these green buildings are designed as a closed system. E.g. some buildings have floor to ceiling glass windows which cannot be opened. Why? Cause people opening the windows will screw up the smart building operating system.

One question which I put forth to several people is will tackling climate change lead to sustainability. Most agree it is a necessary condition but not sufficient. Climate change is only one part of the sustainability agenda. One lady say maybe 1/12th; one director sustainability at a Michigan university said maybe about half. Me, I don't know, but I think definitely not more than one quarter. So, why the focus on climate change and not the larger sustainability agenda? My take is that going carbon-neutral is much much easier to set targets, implement, measure and attain. So, it is good. We will learn from their success and failures.

Dinner was at the Cultural Centre. We had beef which was from a local source. (BTW, one of the criteria for green buildings is that the construction materials must come from within a 500 miles radius). And the guest speaker was Janine Benyus, author of Biomimicry. I bought the book two weeks ago in KL and is a must read for anyone thinking about doing sustainability. Her talk was really very good with some really lovely pictures (will try to get them). She actually walked passed about 10 or 15 minutes ago (it is pass midnight here) and she said Hi, as though she recognised me from somewhere (am sitting in the lift lobby; haha). I was busy being a keyboard monkey. Will try to go say Hi to her tomorrow if she is still around. I love what she said about the know should be available everyone, not patent. Just patent your products. Unfortunately, I am still in jetlag so though she was really engaging, I nodded off a few times. But I have read her book. Her talk just reinforce my respect for her work.

This seems to be a very historic hotel, with over 1,000 rooms. Clinton said he had his victory celebration. Of course, all hotels try to be green. They have card telling you, please reuse your towel by hanging them on the hook (put them in the bathtub if you want it changed). I having been hanging it up on the hook everyday. But everyday when I come back to the room, there is a new towel on the rack. And the air-condition is terribly cold, especially for us from hot climates. There's also a sign saying the try to be green by, amongst others, not using disposable cups and utensils. Well, disposal paper cups are available for the coffee breaks (along with the reusable porcelain cups). But the most telling thing is that probably about half the participants choose to use the disposable cups. So ... I guess we are a long way off from sustainability.

(p.s. this original post did not go through. This is a delayed posting)