1) A horizontal top navigation bar

2) An Inspiration and Resume tab which covers a selected book list and possibly other types of lists ( which will be growing over time) and my most recent resume

3) A brief “About Me” section on the top RHS and an updated About section.

Enjoy and also please feel free to suggest great books to me! I’m an avid reader and am always on the hunt for more!

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

- Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

The video competition was a huge success and what I thought to be a really creative way of engaging youth to think about issues about Canada-relations. The issues that came out of the contest, harness the collective capability and genius that would spur growth and research direction of the foundation. Some of the themes that emerged included: People as a resource, representation in the media, self-identity and green technology exchanges.

“Capabilities to develop new kinds of relationships, sense important developments, add value and turn nascent networked knowledge into compelling value are becoming the bread and butter of wealth creation and success.”

- Wikinomics, Don Tapscott

On a another level, it was a great learning opportunity for me to step into an area and network of which I was not really connected to, all because I stepped out of my network circle. It reminded me a great TED video by Ethan Zuckerman on Listening to Global Voices. He spoke about how even though the web connects the whole world, we really end up being stuck in our own web bubble rather than listening to what the world has to share.

So in the spirit of collaboration, here are my favourite sites on listening to global voices:

1) OpenIDEO: An online platform where people collaborate to design better for social good. It’s a wonderful dynamic resource on tackling global resources and I’m going to submit a solution to one of their problems soon!

2) World Pulse: A global network that broadcasts and unites women’s voices from all over to create a powerful voice for change. What I love about this is not only is it a print and web magazine but it’s also an interactive community newswire, PulseWire, where women can collaborate and connect to solve global problems.

3) Global Voices: An international community of bloggers who report on different global issues with topics ranging from arts to politics. It’s an amazing resource and my fav feature is the different languages that you can read the website in. (I occasionally flip the switch over to Indonesian, just cause! And it’s so interesting to read the same article both in English and in another language!)

4) paper.li: This is a little different than the above three platforms as it really is more a snapshot of the things/links that you tweet about, but I love the creative format and I find it super interesting the way it picks up on the different things I’m browse through online. Below is a snapshot of what it looks like and I thought I’ll share this one just for fun!

So..what global voices have you been listening to?

The truth of experience always contains an orientation towards new experience. That is why a person who is called ‘experienced’ has become such not only through experiences, but is also open to new experiences. The perfection of his experience, the perfect form of what we call ‘experienced’, does not consist in the fact that someone already knows everything and knows better than anyone else. Rather, the experienced person proves to be, on the contrary, someone who is radically undogmatic; who, because of the many experiences he has had and the knowledge he has drawn from them is particularly well equipped to have new experiences and to learn from them.

The dialectic of experience has its own fulfillment not in definitive knowledge, but in that openness to experience that is encouraged by experience itself. But then this gives the concept of experience that we are concerned with here a qualitatively new element. It refers not only to experience in the sense of the information that this or that thing gives us. It is that experience which must constantly be acquired and from which none can be exempt. Experience here is something that is part of the historical nature of man. Although in bringing up children, for example, parents may try to spare them certain experiences, experience as a whole is not a thing that anyone can be spared. Rather, experience in this sense involves inevitably many disappointments of one’s expectations and only thus is experience acquired. That experience refers chiefly to painful and disagreeable experiences does not mean that we are being especially pessimistic, but can be seen directly from its nature. Only through negative instances do we acquire new experiences, as Bacon saw.

Every experience worthy of the name runs counter to our expectation. Thus the historical nature of man contains as an essential element a fundamental negativity that emerges in the relation between experience and insight. Insight is more than the knowledge of this or that situation. It always involves an escape from something that had deceived us and held us captive. Thus insight always involves an element of self-knowledge and constitutes a necessary side of what we call experience in the proper sense. Insight is something to which we come. It too is ultimately part of the nature of a man, ie to be discerning and insightful.

- Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method (Chapter: Analysis of effective-historical consciousness, ‘The Concept of Experience and the Essence of Hermeneutical Experience’)

Complex. Intriguing. Radically undogmatic. Experience with purpose.

Here’s to — not the end — but the continuation of something purposeful.

1) There is always, always two sides of a story and

2) We need to use resources around us — beyond what we have at hand in order to learn

This event was in UBC as part of the International Week celebrations:

To provide some background: (Taken from event description)

Mr. Paul Rusesabagina was the manager of the Sabena Hôtel des Mille Collines, and sheltered hundreds of Tutsis and moderate Hutus people for a hundred days using all available resources to him.  His courageous efforts thwarted bands of genocidal militia while Rwanda descended into outright genocide and civil war, and was celebrated in the Hollywood movie production, “Hotel Rwanda”.

A recipient of numerous international awards, including the Wallenberg Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Mr. Rusesabagina is a powerful speaker with a story of heroism and humanity in inhumane conditions.  In addition to his experiences during and after the Rwandan genocide, Mr. Rusesabagina will share his insights into the nature of the conflict, the failure of the West to stop it, and the challenges of reconciliation.

The event started out with a quick introduction by Brian Sullivan and quickly proceeded to Paul Rusesabagina’s speech itself. I won’t go into details of the speech, which was an account of his experiences of the Rwandan genocide and what went down in Hotel Rwanda. It was incredible hearing his accounts first hand, but the real experience cam during the Q&A period. Prof. Michael Byers was the moderator for the session.

Three things occured during the Q&A that took me completely by surprise:

1) There was a substantial amount of people that are Rwandan genocide refugees that were present. I had no idea that event of this event managed to reach past the UBC community, which was impressive.

2) The questions regarding comparisons of South Africa and Rwanda’s economy was very much unexpected, considering the different political, cultural and economic conditions of both countries.

3) The response towards Paul Rusesabagina’s speech was centered around his accountability and actions of Hotel Rwanda.

Needless to say, due to time constraints, only 3–4 questions were answered and the session ended. However, several Rwandan community representatives spoke up on their version of Paul Rusesabagina’s actions, questioning his motives, financial accountability as well as alliances during the genocide. They had the Chan Centre riveted with accounts of their personal stories of their survival and encounters with the military.

I have been to numerous events at the Chan but this was the first one that I have ever experienced such a strong outcome and discussion after. Students were gathering outside the Chan around these Rwandan genocide survivors who were engaging in more personal conversation about their experiences and there was buzz in the atmosphere about newfound knowledge.

My Main Takeaway: Paul Rusesabagina has been potrayed by Hollywood as a hero and revered for his courageous efforts during the genocide. However, the discussion at the Chan center which questioned his alliances, financial accountability, and actual self-preservation efforts. This  has made me realise that there are always two sides to a story, no matter how well know one side is. It is our responsibility to always be aware of the other side.

I leave you with a phenomenal TED talk by Chimamanda Adiechi telling the danger of a single story. Because our lives and cultures are composed of many overlapping stories, if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.

You are educated. Your certification is in your degree. You may think of it as the ticket to the good life. Let me ask you to think of an alternative.

Think of it as your ticket to change the world. — Tom Browkaw

However, it took a course to change my entire perspective, approach and the way I viewed MNCs as well as the longest paper I have written in my undergrad life — 2,500 words. But before I divulge into my findings, I must say that taking poli sci courses on top of my commerce courses has been one of my best academic decisions in UBC. Poli sci courses have given me a phenomenal balance of theory and the practicalism of economics courses and I only wish I could take more!

So, in light of finishing my marathon paper, I thought it would only be fit to share a summarized version of my research and thoughts around this area (Source — Myself, 2010):

The first realization I had on MNCs, was the fact that their presence (aside from production, resource allocation and economic impacts) has re-defined what it means to have a firm-government relationship. The conventional “obsolescing” bargaining model for depicting MNC-State relations is now obsolete (Ramanurti, 2001). Instead, market and non-market strategizing is an iterative process of resource allocation that responds dynamically to changing conditions, jurisdiction and level of government intervention (Windor, 2007). Reality is, the success of many MNCs depends on the market performance that is tied inherently to relationships with local and host governments. MNCs and governments are constantly in this symbiotic relationship in which the future seems to be dominated with a push and pull of policies and compromise. (Model of coopetition — cooperation and competition)

The second realization that I had was one surrounding the definition of sovereignty. It wasn’t till a year ago that I learnt of the 1648 treaty of Westphalia ( yes, I know I was a little slow to catch on..) which marked the birth of the modern state and the end of universal medievalism. Since, the modern state has become geographical constructs of which political authority is defined and based upon geographical perimeters (Anderson, 1986).

What really fascinated me was the fact that it never crossed my mind until now that MNCs could be (perhaps?) the dawn of a new definition of sovereignty. This is because MNCs by the very nature of their operations have placed a new spin on the concept of sovereignty with their transfer of resources, capability, knowledge and power within and amongst different firms as the primary concerns. The issue here is that although an MNC is incorporated under local law of a host country, indicating that it is subject to the same responsibilities as a national firm, its subsidiaries and affiliates in other territories contains elements of a “double personality” (Vernon, 1971). MNCs have a responsibility to the sovereign that sanctions its existence, but as an international unit, each affiliate may have conflicts of interest than of its host country’s.

This means that in regards to internal sovereignty, the emergence of MNCs have placed constrains of autonomy and control on the implementation of internal sovereignty. However, in terms of external sovereignty it has forced governments to reconsider its construct of mutually exclusive borders, territory and geographically based political and economic governance (Kobrin, 1998). Hence the emergence of free trade agreements (NAFTA, ASEAN…) , border agreements, etc.

Now there’s the exciting part, what if the increasing globalization, need for FDI and growth of MNCs are bringing upon society a new definition of what it means to be part of a state and culture on an economic and political level? We’ve already seen the rise of third kid culture kids ( myself included) and the bleeding of world culture and languages into each other. Every 14 days a language dies. By 2100, more than half of the more than 7,000 languages spoken on Earth—many of them not yet recorded—may disappear (National Geographic, 2010).

I really wonder the correlation between MNC growth, globalization and cultures. I guess time will tell. Until then, I leave you with a thought by Susan Strange.

A metamorphosis is occurring with structural change in the world economy with the state becoming, once more as in the past, just one source of authority among several, with limited powers and resources (Strange, 1996).

(from: http://tinyurl.com/yey35nv)

However, I’m not going to get into all of that today, as what it really got me wondering about is: The F-Word.

No, not the four letter one! The other one.

Feminism. Feminist.

It has been a word that has been widely disputed, campaigned for, ideologies have been formed around it, movements have been created, concepts of anti-;black-;post-;pro-; have been formed, and its meanings often contested. It’s a word that we don’t hear very often these days. Often replaced with an increasingly popularized term: women empowerment. I don’t blame this trend. It doesn’t have associations of a strong ( perhaps even negative connotation) past and it has the word “power” in it. Always a good bet But to understand why the increasing dis-popularity in the word, here’s a brief timeline of feminism (starting from where it really began to pick up):

Mid-1800s: Used to refer the “qualities of females”

1892: First International Women’s Conference, Paris: Start regular usage of term for a belief in and advocacy of equal rights for women based on the idea of the equality of the sexes.

Early 20th: Term rooted in the mobilization for women suffrage in Europe and US

1920s: First Wave of feminism: To achieve basic political rights

Late 1960s — Early 1970s: Second Wave of feminism: Fight for greater equality across the board — in education, workplace and home.

Early 1990s: Third Wave Feminism: Arose as response to critiques of the 2nd wave. Emphasized “identity” as a site of gender struggle with a post-structuralist take on gender and sexuality.

Source: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

As history has graciously shown, the concept of feminism itself has evolved from as simple description demonstrating feminine qualities to a full blown movement. The term began to pick up when it tried to capture the commitment to womens’ equal rights. But is it really sufficient enough to capture women’s oppression/position that currently extends into the structure of our societies, culture and perceptions?

I believe that given the controversies of the term, and controversial social movements, the usage of the word has either taken a very taboo or powerful connotation. Taboo in a sense that women organization’s do not call themselves feminist ( often replacing it with empowerment) but powerful, in a sense that when used, the usage is noticed. For example, the Dalai Lama in the recent Vancouver Peace Summit calling himself a feminist.

“I call myself a feminist. Isn’t that what you call someone who fights for women’s rights?” — Dalai Lama

It is tempting to think that in order to avoid the “somewhat” negative associations with the word “feminist”, we try to best articulate our beliefs in women, with other buzz words like “empowerment” to capture the range of meanings feminism brings.

The truth is, feminism has taken on a term to capture views on justice for women, and feminists are committed to bringing about social change to end injustice against women.

So, what does feminism mean to you?

When I was a young man, I wanted to change the world.  I found it was difficult to change the world, so I tried to change my nation.  When I found I couldn’t change the nation, I began to focus on my town.  I couldn’t change the town and as an older man, I tried to change my family.  Now, as an old man, I realize the only thing I can change is myself, and suddenly I realize that if long ago I had changed myself, I could have made an impact on my family.  My family and I could have made an impact on our town.  Their impact could have changed the nation and I could indeed have changed the world.  ~Author Unknown

Goodbye 2009. What a year it has been! Unexpected.

Hello 2010. Here’s to a beautiful year ahead.