I still "hearts" (luv) usm

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

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

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.