Gong xi fa cai

It's been a busy week spent catching up with friends from near and far, conducting alumni interviews, attending a wedding and working on my jigsaw puzzle among other things. And now the Chinese New Year is upon us!

Happy New year, everyone. Be well, be safe, eat lots, and have fun!

Sweatshops: A violation of human rights or the way out of poverty?

I saw a thought-provoking article by New York Times columnist, Nicholas D. Kristof that was reproduced in today's Star's business section. His main point:

The central challenge in the poorest countries is not that sweatshops exploit too many people, but that they don’t exploit enough.

I remember coming across this idea back in my class on Developmental Economics. It was shocking then, and after a few years, it's still shocking now. Shocking because it makes so much sense. We have been brainwashed to think that sweatshops are the axis of evil and that we should boycott all goods made in such conditions. But what are the alternatives?

Kristof gives an example of families in Phnom Penh that live on 'a mountain of festering refuse, a half-hour hike across, emitting clouds of smoke from subterranean fires.' These families, including little kids, dig through the rubbish for recycleable products that they sell for pennies. They have to cope with garbage trucks that may run them over, leaving them dead or dismembered, in addition to the hellish conditions on the dump. To them, a sweatshop is paradise - at least they are working under sheltered conditions. And yet we are denying them this "priviledge" by boycotting sweatshop goods?

True, none of us would choose to work in a sweatshop, but then again, we've never experienced worse conditions. If a sweatshop was actually a step up from your current living conditions, woulnd't you want to work there too? But surely there's a middle ground, some kind of compromise. The low wages in poorer countries are always the big draw for these companies, but they could also provide better, more humanitarian working conditions. Something that would appease the human rights activists, and yet still make it worthwhile for the companies to have these "sweatshops" that are actually ladders out of poverty. 

Am I being too romantic? Maybe Nike comissioned Kristof to write that article...

Third world politics in a first world country?

Paul Krugman wrote a blistering article in yesterday's New York Times about the blatant abuse of power that was the Bush administration. Here's the article in full:

Last Sunday President-elect Barack Obama was asked whether he would seek an investigation of possible crimes by the Bush administration. “I don’t believe that anybody is above the law,” he responded, but “we need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards.”

I’m sorry, but if we don’t have an inquest into what happened during the Bush years — and nearly everyone has taken Mr. Obama’s remarks to mean that we won’t — this means that those who hold power are indeed above the law because they don’t face any consequences if they abuse their power.

Let’s be clear what we’re talking about here. It’s not just torture and illegal wiretapping, whose perpetrators claim, however implausibly, that they were patriots acting to defend the nation’s security. The fact is that the Bush administration’s abuses extended from environmental policy to voting rights. And most of the abuses involved using the power of government to reward political friends and punish political enemies.

At the Justice Department, for example, political appointees illegally reserved nonpolitical positions for “right-thinking Americans” — their term, not mine — and there’s strong evidence that officials used their positions both to undermine the protection of minority voting rights and to persecute Democratic politicians.

The hiring process at Justice echoed the hiring process during the occupation of Iraq — an occupation whose success was supposedly essential to national security — in which applicants were judged by their politics, their personal loyalty to President Bush and, according to some reports, by their views on Roe v. Wade, rather than by their ability to do the job.

Speaking of Iraq, let’s also not forget that country’s failed reconstruction: the Bush administration handed billions of dollars in no-bid contracts to politically connected companies, companies that then failed to deliver. And why should they have bothered to do their jobs? Any government official who tried to enforce accountability on, say, Halliburton quickly found his or her career derailed.

There’s much, much more. By my count, at least six important government agencies experienced major scandals over the past eight years — in most cases, scandals that were never properly investigated. And then there was the biggest scandal of all: Does anyone seriously doubt that the Bush administration deliberately misled the nation into invading Iraq?

Why, then, shouldn’t we have an official inquiry into abuses during the Bush years?

One answer you hear is that pursuing the truth would be divisive, that it would exacerbate partisanship. But if partisanship is so terrible, shouldn’t there be some penalty for the Bush administration’s politicization of every aspect of government?

Alternatively, we’re told that we don’t have to dwell on past abuses, because we won’t repeat them. But no important figure in the Bush administration, or among that administration’s political allies, has expressed remorse for breaking the law. What makes anyone think that they or their political heirs won’t do it all over again, given the chance?

In fact, we’ve already seen this movie. During the Reagan years, the Iran-contra conspirators violated the Constitution in the name of national security. But the first President Bush pardoned the major malefactors, and when the White House finally changed hands the political and media establishment gave Bill Clinton the same advice it’s giving Mr. Obama: let sleeping scandals lie. Sure enough, the second Bush administration picked up right where the Iran-contra conspirators left off — which isn’t too surprising when you bear in mind that Mr. Bush actually hired some of those conspirators.

Now, it’s true that a serious investigation of Bush-era abuses would make Washington an uncomfortable place, both for those who abused power and those who acted as their enablers or apologists. And these people have a lot of friends. But the price of protecting their comfort would be high: If we whitewash the abuses of the past eight years, we’ll guarantee that they will happen again.

Meanwhile, about Mr. Obama: while it’s probably in his short-term political interests to forgive and forget, next week he’s going to swear to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.” That’s not a conditional oath to be honored only when it’s convenient.

And to protect and defend the Constitution, a president must do more than obey the Constitution himself; he must hold those who violate the Constitution accountable. So Mr. Obama should reconsider his apparent decision to let the previous administration get away with crime. Consequences aside, that’s not a decision he has the right to make.

Sounds like exactly what's going on here in Malaysia, except on a much larger scale, and with much more serious and far-reaching consequences. I was shocked when America reelected the guy, shocked that even some of my closest friends who are much more well educated than the average American could be brainwashed by Bush and the Republicans' political machinery. Of course there are arguments for and against, and Krugman is probably just as guilty of sensationalising some of these stories as the average Republican is guilty of either downplaying these faults or hypeing up the good deeds of this outgoing administration. The truth lies somewhere in between, but if even half of what Krugman accuses Bush's administration of is true, then America isn't as morally upstanding and capable of leading the world as they like to think they are. 

Of course I've long suspected that, but I wonder when the Americans are going to get the point? Don't get me wrong, there are many wonderful things about America and Americans but sometime in the last eight years, methinks they've lost the right to tell everyone else what to do. The question is, what sort of new balance will be achieved when the dust settles?

New Year at Snow

A white Christmas was tantalizingly close last year. The snow was coming down thick and fast on the way back and I was sure that I would wake up to a magically transformed landscape. I bounded out of bed that morning and went straight to the window. Hopes dashed. But I did have that one gorgeously sunny day with clear blue skies instead, so I'm not complaining.

Instead, I got a gorgeous white New Year up at Kars, which means snow in Turkish. It's right on the Turkish border with Armenia and Georgia, and it's also, quite aptly, the setting of Orhan Pamuk's Snow, the 2006 Nobel Prize winning novel. Now I regret not reading it before I went.

Merve's family and I flew up to Kars on New Year's Eve. That night, the hotel we were staying at had planned a massive New Year's Eve party, complete with shiny paper hats and glittery masks.

The staff even put on their local costumes and performed these awesome dances that was sorta like the Turkish version of Irish fire dancing. Lots of fancy and fast footwork, with some spinning and whirling thrown in. At one point, one of the guys was playing with these lighted torches that turned out to be knives, which he then threw at one of his colleagues who was covered with a wooden board. They wanted to repeat the trick with a member of the audience, and guess who they picked? Merve's parents almost had a heart attack.

It was a really cool night though, filled with lots of laughter, dancing, and a massive bonfire. It's weird standing in front of a bonfire in -15C weather. One side feels like it's roasting gently while the other side is freezing.


After that, we spent 3 wonderful days skiing. I managed to pick it up after a morning of lessons. That feeling of freedom and exhiliration when you're flying down the slopes is breathtakingly awesome. Of course, it would have been nice if it were slightly warmer on the mountain. We were facing -15C temperatures, which probably dropped to -25C with wind chill on the last day. I was freezing even with four layers on. But don't worry, I still have all my toes. I counted. And no, I didn't break a leg :P I wish I had pictures of the snow, though. My camera broke just before we flew there. Sigh.

To B or not to B?

I attended an Insead marketing event last night. The goal was to find out more about the school, and since I went in there with pretty much no knowledge except that it was located in France (and I was only half right about that), it was pretty easy to sucessfully achieve that goal. 

Condensed version of what I found out:

1. Two campuses: Fontainebleau, France (about an hour outside of Paris), and Singapore

2. Fees: €50k 

3. Program duration: 1 year

4. Enrollment: Just above 900 per year spread over 2 intakes in January and September.

5. What makes it stand out: Students come from more than 70 different countries, making it arguably the most diverse business school in the top 10. Feels like UWC all over again.

I found the Q&A session to be particularly interesting, more because it illuminated the type of Malaysian who bothered to attend information sessions like these rather than because I got to find out more about the school. There were the usual questions on minimum GMAT score and such, but the most amusing question of the night was this - Does Malay count as a language?

One of the four major criteria of Insead's selection process is a person's international background - they want to know if you'll be a good fit in such an internationally-focussed school, so if you have a background working/living/studying in different countries, it's a definite plus. Part of that criteria is knowing at least two languages when you enter the program and three when you leave, so the person's question on Bahasa Malaysia's status as a language was, I suppose, a relevant one. 

While reading the furious and frequently verbose but often inane arguments for and against the teaching of Science and Mathematics in English in the papers, I've often wished that the powers that be will just hurry up and decide one way or another. Instead we were told just last week that they are still taking their sweet time to make the decision. In my view, there are so many advantages to teaching the two subjects in English, foremost of which is that it will strengthen Malaysian's grasp of the language, because let's face it, English is the language of the world. 

We have already lost one generation, possibly two, to the government's decision to lower the standard of teaching in the language. Sentences are sometimes so poorly constructed, and the language is so badly mangled that I can't help but wince. Even the English dailies cannot be praised for having flawless English. When I tell foreigners that I'm from Malaysia, they are often surprised at my level of competency in the language. I shudder to think what specimens they have come in contact with to be that shocked by my grasp of the language. 

And for what purpose have we made this sacrifice? Only to ask, at the end of the day, does Malay count as a language?

But I digress. Back to B school. Insead definitely sounds like a good program for me. The international aspect of it appeals to my UWCian soul. Of course to get in is another question entirely. The admit rate isn't published, but I'm sure it will be even more competitive than Princeton was, and that still seems like a fluke to me. Apparently some guy spent a whole year working on his admissions essays. A bit much, don't you think?

The blame game

Somehow, I always expect the world to stop when I'm on holidays. I want to tell people "Hey you. Stop what you're doing now so that I can pick up exactly where I left off when I come back." I think it's to do with feeling disconnected from the world. When the internet, and thus the world, isn't readily at my finger tips, everything better stay the same until I can be well informed again. Do you feel the same?

In a few short weeks, a war has started (although I guess technically it never ended), $50 billion has been lost to a Ponzi scheme, and another $50 billion has been stolen from American taxpayers for the Iraqi reconstruction. As a taxpayer too, I am outraged. Whatever happened to no taxation without representation? Why do I have to pay taxes there when I have no say in who gets to spend my tax dollars? I'd better get a huge refund this year.

But the article that grabbed my attention the most was one linking Chinese savings to the current economic crisis.

The problem, he said, was not that Americans spend too much, but that foreigners save too much.

And who is this "he"? Ben S. Bernanke, no less. The article also goes on to state that

In hindsight, many economists say, the United States should have recognized that borrowing from abroad for consumption and deficit spending at home was not a formula for economic success.

Duh. You think?

The suggested remedy was to push Beijing to revalue their currency, thus cutting the source of this drug of cheap manufactured goods. But of course it is never the average American's fault. The regulators weren't doing their job. It's those greedy people on Wall Street. It's those bloody Chinese who don't have enough confidence to spend and so they invest their savings abroad. It's not my fault even though I faked my income and got a loan I couldn't possibly afford. If the banks were willing to give me the loan, it can't be my fault, can it?

Everyone lost their heads in the enthusiasm of the recent gold rush. Except it's now the next day and we have woken up to find that all the gold has turned to lead. Yes, there are people at fault, but don't kid yourself - the multiple "people" includes ourselves and our own greed.

Istanbul

Happy new year, everyone! I just got back from a two and a half week trip to Turkey, where it was mostly cold, snowy/drizzly and grey, so coming back to Malaysian warmth and sunshine feels great. Despite the weather, I had a fantastic time in Turkey, all thanks to my host and bff, Merve :)

Merve was back in Istanbul for her winter break. She's currently based in New York, where this smart cookie is scoring straight A's in her MFA at Parson's. Throughout our time at Istanbul, we stayed at her family's summer house out in the suburbs. The house is a 15 minute drive on a winding forest road away from the city, but it gets so pastoral out there that sheep and cows graze outside the house sometimes, which I was really excited about.

Istanbul is the only city in the world that spans two continents. The European side, where I spent most of my time, is separated from the Asian side (a.k.a. Anatolia) by the Bosphorus Strait, which links the Black Sea and the Marmara sea. On a bright sunny day (a rare commodity indeed, on my trip), the Bosphorus is an amazing turquoise colour. Merve and I wanted to take a ferry to the Princess Islands but the weather and the timing never worked in our favour :(


Some impressions of Istanbul:
1. It is a city of minarets. Everywhere you go, there are mosques. Some large and impressive like the Aga Sofia and the Blue Mosque (which we later found out was also known as the Sultan Ahmet mosque), and some tiny neighbourhood ones that are no less charming. There are dozens of mosques on the historical peninsula alone, but you can tell them apart by the number of minarets they have.
2. The traffic is terrible, especially when crossing the Bosphorus. We dropped Merve's friend off at her place on the Asian side of the Bosphorus once and the round trip took us about four and a half hours. Here's a tip: never cross the bridge unless you've emptied your bladder first.

I didn't think to take a picture, but here's one I found of the traffic queuing up to cross one of the Bosphorus bridges.

3. The food is amazing. There is, of course, the kebabs in all their various wonderful forms. And then there are the sweet treats, with baklava as the king. And then there are giant baked potatoes, known as kumpir, that they whip with butter and cheese in the skins before adding a vast variety of toppings, including corn, sausages, olives, walnut paste, pickles etc before topping it all off with ketchup and mayo. Fantastically delicious stuff. I'm surprised I didn't gain 10 pounds there.
4. Merve and her family assure me that the winter is not as cold, grey, drizzling and dreary as it was on my trip, and I really want to believe them. However, everyone still recommends going at any time other than the winter. Believe me, you wouldn't think it, but it DOES snow in Istanbul.

5. The Turks are awesome hosts. From Merve's wonderful family, who treated me like one of their own, to the shop owners at the Grand Bazaar, to the little cheese shop in the mountains that we visited, the Turkish hospitality was warm, genuine, and amazing.


6. Stray dogs and cats are a big problem. Some of them had diseases. One of them had scratched himself raw. Most appeared healthy and well-fed, though. The Turks may not be doing anything to keep them off the streets, but at least they feed them. Interestingly enough, the Turkish muslims don't seem to have a problem with touching dogs. Maybe that's another Malaysian taboo thing?


7. The Grand Bazaar is a must see. It's called "grand" for a reason - it's very possible to get lost in the maze of shop-lined streets there. Think of a huge building that contains 58 streets and 6,000 shops, all on one level. It's a great place for shopping. You can find anything there, from scarves and cushion covers to tea pots and glasses to antiques, and of course, carpets. If you get dehydrated wandering around in here, not to worry, because you can always duck into any shop and you will be offered some tea. Try the apple, it's delicious. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the place because my battery died, but here's a photo I found on istanbulside.net.

Here's a sample of what you can get at the Grand Bazaar - I actually took this picture in one of the shops on Istiklal, the main street in Taksim, but the wares are similar.

8. I liked the Spice Bazaar more, though, simply because of the sheer variety of edible goodies that was for sale. There were all sorts of dried fruits, nuts, teas, cheeses, olives, and of course, spices. They even had stuff like soaps and henna for sale. Size-wise, it can't compare to the Grand Bazaar because it only comprises two covered lanes and one outdoors, but it felt more intimate and friendly to me.

9. The Aga Sofia (or Hagia Sophia) is another must see. Originally a church, the Aga Sofia, meaning Holy Wisdom, was constructed during the Byzantine empire around 1500 years ago. However, in 1453, Istanbul, or Constantinople at the time, was conquered by the Ottoman Turks, who converted the majestic building into a mosque as their ultimate symbol of victory. The building is now a church, and visitors can walk freely in the building, provided they put little plastic booties over their shoes.

This is the "Weeping Hole" in one of the pillars. Legend has it that if you stick your thumb in there and turn it 360 degrees while making a wish, your wish will come true if your thumb comes out wet.

10. The Turks have a love affair with water. It's very important in the Islam religion, with devotees having to wash themselves as a symbol of purification before they pray. Consequently, one can find these huge buildings, often made of marble, dotted throughout the city, usually next to a mosque. The only function of these buildings, as far as I can tell, is to provide water. The concept as a whole is great, but the thing I can't understand is - if you're going to build such a giant edifice, the sole purpose of which is to provide water, why not provide more spigots?

The building in the foreground is one of those giant tap buildings. The only spigot I saw was in the middle archway on the right. The building in the background is the local mosque. Merve's mom said they were traditionally used as meeting points so women would gossip as they lined up for their turn at the tap. It still doesn't make sense to me.