‘ I can’t imagine doing any other kind of work. Your work should be an act of love, not a marriage of covenience’
The Kideny-shaped Stone, Murakami Haruki
Murakami on work
‘ I can’t imagine doing any other kind of work. Your work should be an act of love, not a marriage of covenience’
The Kideny-shaped Stone, Murakami Haruki
Just published – Transition management
Here is the introduction and link to an article Arnaldo just wrote with Eddie Borup on management and change in Vietnam.
Available at Projects and Profits
Transition Management: The Key towards Achieving Results
Nothing in this world is as certain as change. At the same time, the search for a definition of `change’ has been taking place for a long time and is still unresolved. The Greek philosopher Aristotle, has said, “change is the actuality of the potential qua such.” This can be translated in a more modern language, as noted by Jonathan Barnes, “something is in the process of change whenever it possesses a capacity of change and it is exercising that capacity of change.”
Barnes argues that Aristotle struggled to provide a clearer definition. However, Aristotle’s attempt to come to terms with the idea of change also demonstrates the relevance of the concept for human activities. This difficulty has always been present during the 2,300 years, which separate us from Aristotle and even though the definition provided by Barnes seems more intelligible to us, change remains an elusive concept.
In this article, we look at `change’ in the area of transition management. We present the experience of introducing a Western management approach at the Vietnam Academy of Social Science (VASS). This is being done through a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) funded project: “Support for Effective Policy Making Through the Development of Scientific Evidence-Based Research” (EBPM). In doing so, our aim is to reflect on the process of cultural exchange as well as on the challenges that this exchange poses.
Development assistance has gone through considerable changes during the last 50 years. During the 1950s, the theories associated to John Maynard Keynes asserted the central role to the government in devising policies to promote demand and fight unemployment. These led to the design of centralized modernization strategies, aimed at achieving higher rates of economic growth. In the early 1960s, Hans Singer produced evidence that development did not achieve poverty reduction and pointed at individuals’ capacity to increase capital as a key element of economic development. His ideas led to the concept of `human capital’, which describes the crucial contribution of knowledge and schooling to economic growth. In the late 1980s, the return to a neo-liberal emphasis brought the market back on the development agenda, but by the 1990s, the `third way’ political discourse advocated a new role for the state, in designing institutions that are conducive to accelerated growth and socioeconomic development.
Just published in New Zealand
Arnaldo just published a short article on the role of Buddhist pagodas in dealing with poverty in Cambodia in the development magazine Just Change published in New Zealand.
Buddhist aid: Pagodas reducing poverty in Cambodia
This article tells the story of the Pagoda Association of Botum, a pagoda that has survived a devastating totalitarian regime to become a source of real poverty reduction in the community.
Available in .pdf here (2.3Mb)
Just published.
Here is the introduction and link to an article I just wrote with Eddie Borup on Management and change in Vietnam.
Available at Projects and Profits
Transition Management: The Key towards Achieving Results
Nothing in this world is as certain as change. At the same time, the search for a definition of `change’ has been taking place for a long time and is still unresolved. The Greek philosopher Aristotle, has said, “change is the actuality of the potential qua such.” This can be translated in a more modern language, as noted by Jonathan Barnes, “something is in the process of change whenever it possesses a capacity of change and it is exercising that capacity of change.”
Barnes argues that Aristotle struggled to provide a clearer definition. However, Aristotle’s attempt to come to terms with the idea of change also demonstrates the relevance of the concept for human activities. This difficulty has always been present during the 2,300 years, which separate us from Aristotle and even though the definition provided by Barnes seems more intelligible to us, change remains an elusive concept.
In this article, we look at `change’ in the area of transition management. We present the experience of introducing a Western management approach at the Vietnam Academy of Social Science (VASS). This is being done through a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) funded project: “Support for Effective Policy Making Through the Development of Scientific Evidence-Based Research” (EBPM). In doing so, our aim is to reflect on the process of cultural exchange as well as on the challenges that this exchange poses.
Development assistance has gone through considerable changes during the last 50 years. During the 1950s, the theories associated to John Maynard Keynes asserted the central role to the government in devising policies to promote demand and fight unemployment. These led to the design of centralized modernization strategies, aimed at achieving higher rates of economic growth. In the early 1960s, Hans Singer produced evidence that development did not achieve poverty reduction and pointed at individuals’ capacity to increase capital as a key element of economic development. His ideas led to the concept of `human capital’, which describes the crucial contribution of knowledge and schooling to economic growth. In the late 1980s, the return to a neo-liberal emphasis brought the market back on the development agenda, but by the 1990s, the `third way’ political discourse advocated a new role for the state, in designing institutions that are conducive to accelerated growth and socioeconomic development.
Plinius and (half-read) books
I remember collecting sign books for some years. One day I got hold of one of the Italian publishing house Adelphi. Pink color, with just one sentence on it by, Gayus Plinius Secundus also known as Plinius the “Old”, born in 24 B.C. in Como. The rough English translation of Plinius sentence could be: ‘there is not such thing as a bad book where you cannot learn at least one thing’. After that i bought good books as well as bad books. Books I could not stop reading and others where I felt it was like walking in a mires. I used not to give up on bad books, looking for the good thing Plinius mentioned centuries ago. Giving up was bad.
In recent years things have changed. I hardly finish a book anymore. Good or bad does not matter, I just rarely manage to get to the end of them. As I am typing this two exceptions come to my mind: The Magus which I could not stop reading and which was my book of 2008 and more recently The Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwel. These are exception and no longer the rule. I just seem to jump from one book to another. Two weeks ago I was in Tanzania, bought Unbowed by Nobel Peace price winner, Wangari Maathai. It is the story of her life and how she established the Green Belt Movement in Kenya. I really like reading it while in Africa. He memories of childhood living in villages in the mountainous region of the country. her description of the changes that occurred with independence and the arrival of settlers and missionaries. I reached, I think, page 85 and then put it away as soon as I arrived home when my eyes caught The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. I ma at page 69, determined not to let go. But that is maybe a wrong resolution. It is in fact OK not to finish a book. Plinius lesson holds still valid as it does not matter how much of a book you read, you can still get things out of it. One sentence which is worth underlining, a quote, a thought, a description of a landscape which gives you the wish to travel, a feeling. It is probably true that the sum of all these elements give the overall meaning of a book, but it may be ok just to have glimpses of it. Some books also need to be red in certain place and at a certain time. Wangari book was for the two weeks I spent in Tanzania (which were not sufficient to finish it). The Millenium trilogy by Stieg Larsson I had to finish while still living in the Swedish Camp in Ha Noi and really slep very little in the two three last days there to read what would happen to Lizbeth. The Black Swan is here next to me. Wanted to read it tonight and then started to type this blog.
Taleb writes that the people who visit Umberto Eco house are really impressed by his 30.000 books. The visitors can be divided in two groups: the majority are the ones who ask how many books Eco has managed to red, and a minority who understand that the books are research tools and that maybe the most valuable ones are those that have not been red yet. This may justify fact that it is ok not to finish a book. However I still feel a sense of guilt when I give up on a book. As if I missed the chance to discover all it has to say to me.
So what do you think? Should books be read form page 1 to the end or is it ok to capture bits and pieces here and there?
Plinius and (half red) books
I remember collecting sign books for some years. One day I got hold of one of the Italian publishing house Adelphi. Pink color, with just one sentence on it by, Gayus Plinius Secundus also known as Plinius the “Old”, born in 24 B.C. in Como. The rough English translation of Plinius sentence could be: ‘there is not such thing as a bad book where you cannot learn at least one thing’. After that i bought good books as well as bad books. Books I could not stop reading and others where I felt it was like walking in a mires. I used not to give up on bad books, looking for the good thing Plinius mentioned centuries ago. Giving up was bad.
In recent years things have changed. I hardly finish a book anymore. Good or bad does not matter, I just rarely manage to get to the end of them. As I am typing this two exceptions come to my mind: The Magus which I could not stop reading and which was my book of 2008 and more recently The Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwel. These are exception and no longer the rule. I just seem to jump from one book to another. Two weeks ago I was in Tanzania, bought Unbowed by Nobel Peace price winner, Wangari Maathai. It is the story of her life and how she established the Green Belt Movement in Kenya. I really like reading it while in Africa. He memories of childhood living in villages in the mountainous region of the country. her description of the changes that occurred with independence and the arrival of settlers and missionaries. I reached, I think, page 85 and then put it away as soon as I arrived home when my eyes caught The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. I ma at page 69, determined not to let go. But that is maybe a wrong resolution. It is in fact OK not to finish a book. Plinius lesson holds still valid as it does not matter how much of a book you read, you can still get things out of it. One sentence which is worth underlining, a quote, a thought, a description of a landscape which gives you the wish to travel, a feeling. It is probably true that the sum of all these elements give the overall meaning of a book, but it may be ok just to have glimpses of it. Some books also need to be red in certain place and at a certain time. Wangari book was for the two weeks I spent in Tanzania (which were not sufficient to finish it). The Millenium trilogy by Stieg Larsson I had to finish while still living in the Swedish Camp in Ha Noi and really slep very little in the two three last days there to read what would happen to Lizbeth. The Black Swan is here next to me. Wanted to read it tonight and then started to type this blog.
Taleb writes that the people who visit Umberto Eco house are really impressed by his 30.000 books. The visitors can be divided in two groups: the majority are the ones who ask how many books Eco has managed to red, and a minority who understand that the books are research tools and that maybe the most valuable ones are those that have not been red yet. This may justify fact that it is ok not to finish a book. However I still feel a sense of guilt when I give up on a book. As if I missed the chance to discover all it has to say to me.
So what do you think? Should books be read form page 1 to the end or is it ok to capture bits and pieces here and there?
Once in a while you come across ‘Once’
Only once in a while, while zapping an endless number of TV cable channels you come across a movie which is a little gem. Just once in a while. That is when time passes, you know that is getting late, that tomorrow morning will be an early wake up, but you do not care. It has happen tonight, here in Ha Noi, coming across ‘Once’ by Glen Carney. Had the same feelings I had when watching Trust of Hall Hartley many years ago. It seems to me that it tells once of those true stories of life when you just touch with your fingertips the soft fabric of a life that could have been. But then, you realise that what you have is what you want. There are videos of the songs of the movie by Glen Hansard here.
Zan – Zi – Bar
There are two Zanzibar. One is the idea of Zanzibar. The second is Zanzibar itself. This is often the case with travelling destinations but it is still interesting, I think, to compare the idea of a place with the place itself. Thus when I was on the ferry on Saturday morning from Dar es Salaam I was thinking about the books and stories I red in the past which told of kind of magical places: Samarkand, Isfahan, Kathmandu, and of course Zanzibar.
These are all places described by early travelers and traders. Reached in often adventurous circumstances. Places where cultures came together and often clashed. Places that have been on the early maps as reference points for sea travelers. Zanzibar, Zan – Zi – Bar. The sound of this name reminds me of that movie, Marrakesh Express or maybe Tourne’ where the two friends travel in this old car and remember the trip they did many years before to Kathmandu in this very same car. At one point, one of the two tells to the other: do you remember the noise that this car used to do? A strange noise that accompanied our journey. A rhythmical noise which we have never been able to fix but which sounded like: kath-man-du, kath-man-du, kath-man-du,…. The same here, although I am not on a car but on the sea: Zan-zi-bar, zan-zi-bar….
Zanzibar today is very different from the one of the books. Probably Zanzibar has never been like the one described in those books. This evening I was sitting on the terrace of the restaurant where I had dinner, looked at the people in the garden near the shore setting up their food stalls, hot pans, pizza table, bamboo juice machines. The first customers. Arab families, African families, tourists strolling at sunset and having dinner out. I looked at them and thought that not so long ago there was similar place in town. A market where people used to stroll around and buy slaves. A market where people were put on display to be sold to other people, who would buy them bring them to work in their homes or in their fields. A slave market of African people. That ended badly with an insurrection which cause thousands of deaths.
That is also Zanzibar or at least one of its many pasts. The old town with its narrow alley, white houses, wooden doors with carvings above them has a strong Arabic characters and resemble to Essaouira, Galle, Tangier. These old town which lie next to the sea and have seen passing through them people from distant places bringing spices in exchange for wood or cotton. Walking in this intricate labyrinth display renovated houses, other which are kept together by simple though insufficient wooden scaffolding. the smell fo garbage left in some corners mixes with sewage which spills out of some gully-holes. At the same time it is possible to detect in the air spices, incense which all mix together in a strangely attracting way.
SO how is it for people to live here? It looks like the weight fo all this history is really testing the solidity of the building in the old town and even though I can have glimpses of homes and courtyards through half open wooden doors I cannot see who these homes and houses are and how people live. I can only guess and I think it is not very good. there is too much do to here. Too much to fix. Too much to renovate and not enough money I guess. Outside the harbor a large sign reminds visitors that the old town of Zanzibar is a UNESCO world heritage site and I wonder how is it to live in a world heritage site which is falling down.
Again the memories of those old stories or reference to this town come to my mind and in a way help to keep distant the voice of the sellers who at every shop try to convince me to buy the same things: a painting, a masai carved figure, a wooden bowl, a CDrom, a pareo with the picture of Barack Obama printed on it. This happen at every shop along the main streets in the old town also called Stone Town. However by turning on the side of these main streets one can only hear the noise sandals, open windows which bring voices, a bicycle which goes too fast and nearly hits me, a radio from a shop selling a bit of everything. At six this evening the loudspeakers with the chanting calling for prayer. Lights into a small mosque. People standing up and kneeling following the rhythm of their prayer.
During the couple of days I spent here I had mixed feelings but also a bit a like a tourist again. I travel a lot for work and also live abroad but that is different. I guess it was the feeling that accompanied the decision to get on the ferry and come here. Find this hotel and just discover this new place with not much information than a simple map. It was a nice feeling and the sellers, the tourists guides, the students who just want to practice their English did not bother me too much. But I must admit that I often thought how would it be to be here with Olga and Venla and show to them these narrow streets where it is only possible to walk, these old houses which needs renovation as they are crumbling down, this mosque, the nearby madrasa. What would they say? Before leaving from Dumageute, Olga told me she wanted to come with me to Africa. She wanted to see the lions, the elephants, the hippos. I told her I would check how to do and where when pen day we will come here together. In the end, I came to Zanzibar where there are not many lions to be seen. But I think that she would have liked to walk this evening on the white sand beach , near the Africa House and watch that group of kids 8 or 10 years old practicing to become acrobats using a an old truck tire as jumping trampoline. So, maybe, next time we will be here all together.