Random thoughts on empowerment & bass guitar

One of the best concepts I have learnt from APLP is the term "empowerment". This is something I have never thought of before my stay in Hawaii. 

The concept of empowerment can be pretty vague, but everyone picks up the idea pretty quickly. Here is one little definition copied from Wikipedia:

 “Empowerment refers to measures designed to increase the degree of autonomy and self-determination in people and in communities in order to enable them to represent their interests in a responsible and self-determined way, acting on their own authority. Empowerment refers both to the process of self-empowerment and to professional support of people, which enables them to overcome their sense of powerlessness and lack of influence, and to recognise and eventually to use their resources and chances.”

While reading the definition, I can't help thinking that Hong Kong Millennial generation is basically the perfect anti-example of empowerment.

To be fair, my generation in Hong Kong is living with pretty high standard of live, especially when you compare us with the same generations living in developing countries. In a relatively war / terrorism-free city, we enjoy 15-year education, above-par healthcare system and parents who generally benefited from the economic boom in 70’s until early 90’s. Nevertheless, none of the aforementioned is making people feel empowered.

The cost of survival is so high that we are forced to spend most of our life to earn a living. I spent most of my youth striving for good grades, prestigious schools without even reflecting what is the good in it. After returning to Hong Kong for my first job, i have been too busy at work to think my life over.

Working in banking sector is not bad as a career path. At least I could make my living (which is important). But what is making me even more contended is that I am picking up my interest in playing music again by learning bass guitar.  Playing a groove, pursuing higher level of musical technique, learning from masters ---- these are adding tons of color to my life. In addition, playing music enabled me to expressing myself in form music, and to inspire others to join playing.

Empowerment could be a vague and lofty goal, especially when we are talking about empowering the society. Yet it is definite and do-able at the same time, when you start it by empowering yourself to get to do something. At least, playing music is now empowering me to  Hopefully by investing in this little hobby, I would have a chance to inspire my community in the future.

feet on ground while eye on stars (last blog by Sam)

First allow me to explain my recent update on second semester of APLP. Yes I am no longer in Bangladesh. Starting from February Bangladesh has been facing an unprecedented violent uprising sparked by the tribunal of war criminals in 1971. In consideration of my safety and my family’s anxiety, I returned to Hong Kong in early March.

Throughout this period, I finished an internship with Grameen Bank. That I have already explained in my previous posts. What I failed to start is an internship with Yunus Center, an organization that focuses on the development of Social Business. After returning to Hong Kong, I have thought of starting another internship in some other places, but something happened to force me rethink about my appropriate future.

I have received a rejection letter from the Government. Failing to pass the written test of Joint Recruitment Exam of Hong Kong Government, this has concluded my hamlet saga of getting into the Civil Service. That means I will have to wait until the end of this year before I get another chance of getting into the Government. And by the time I do that it would be my third time attempting to get into Public Service. At a moment like this, a more realistic option for me would definitely be to find another job instead. March is a big month for job application, and that’s why I chose to stay in Hong Kong.

APLP taught us planning for success, but it didn’t spend much of its syllabus to teach us the equally important technique: plan B after failure. Much of my P4S was written to depict my ambitions: to understand Public Service from practicing it, to enter Politics with my extensive knowledge on Public Service, to serve as a leader by enrolling into politics……..but in most of the times in Hawaii I didn’t answer the question: what if my so-called plan fails at the embryo stage – if I cannot even pass the written test?

That is why I have decided to take the other route. It is time for me to concentrate on the issue of job applications. Not internships. Not part-time. Permanent jobs. And I am already working on it. Gradually I found it particularly difficult for a fresh-graduate like me to transit from a leader-to-be to a humble job-seeker.

When I was in Hawaii my fellows treated me well, a bit too well that I was actually a little spoiled in the positive atmosphere we created. The feeling was further manifested when I arrived at Dhaka, when people at there were amazed by my global knowledge (freshly obtained from APLP) and my aggressiveness to learn and improve. (Attitudes learnt from APLP fellows) When I receive the praise from the readers who read my articles about Bangladesh, I thought my career was going to be bright. I thought I was ready to make impacts to the society. I thought I was ready to become a leader-to-be.  

And all of a sudden my return to Hong Kong dethroned my craze. I learnt that I am jobless. Unfortunately, jobs and opportunities are not coming to me out of a few articles I have written. The most inconvenient truth, to me, is that there are no casual relation between my amazing journeys and job hunting. This is especially true when it comes to job hunting of fresh graduates. When I started to realize this fact on the first few days in Hong Kong, I could not say I was not disappointed.

To get a resounding career start, I have to go through a series of standard procedures: written test, aptitude test, group interview, panel interview….and beat the majority of candidates. There might be differences between me and other candidates, yet those differentials are not enough for me to stand out clearly among others. After all, from a recruitment perspective, it is very difficult for fresh graduates to distinguish themselves from each others simply from their past experiences. Work experiences matter, and that is what I am lacking of while everyone I met in Hawaii possess. That means I have to be more job-application oriented. That means I have to return to the basics.

The only good news is that I am starting to get used to all these cruelty in life. As a lot of people told me, I am still young. For a young fellow like me, time is always not a problem. That is why I am now devoting some time in working on my grammar, speaking, mathematics and logic principles. These things may not be as fruitful as the international exposures that greatly opened up my vault. Yet to get past of the very initial obstacle of my career, I have to do some hard work.

Asia Pacific Leadership Program has given me a lot. I made incredible friends, learnt invaluable knowledge and even have some exclusive experiences that I may never able to do it again in my life. I am more than grateful of that. As a lot of people pointed out, I may have a bright future. The only issue is that I have to take my own initiative to correct my weaknesses, to return to fundamentals and to remain positive in the long application process.

A great politician once said: "Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground." I believe, by keeping this in mind, one day I will be able to catch up you guys in the field of leadership.

the leadership perspective of Dr Muhammad Yunus

When I made my decision to join Grameen Bank as intern, I have never pictured any leadership learning. I just asked to be a silent follower so that I could learn about microcredit. Little did I know that this investigation on Grameen Bank as well as Muhammad Yunus would turn out to be a leadership bonanza that made me no longer a silent follower.

During the first semester of Asia Pacific Leadership Program, we took time investigating the context of leadership. We have come across with a number of concepts regarding to leadership, and I always thought these concepts are nothing but fancy jargons. Therefore, it is indeed to my surprise to see how Dr Yunus’s amazing work in eliminating poor echoes these fancy jargons.

A leader is in no lack of vision. I still recall the future scenario methodology we learnt from classes. The core spirit of this methodology is to make the leader envision future. And Prof Muhammad Yunus clearly have a vision, that is, to put poverty into museums. Dr Yunus envisions a world which poverty is only found in the museums that reminds future generations the mistakes we have made in the past. This is such a simplistic yet powerful message to others: he encourages people to think about something a lot of people dare not to even dream about it.

He is not just a day-dreamer. As a leader, Dr Yunus initiates changes, and even challenged people to leave their comfort zones. In 1980’s, women in the country were told not to go anywhere beyond their houses. They were told to be absolutely obedient to their husbands, even if their husbands abuse them. They were not even supposed to touch money. But Dr Yunus went against these traditional taboos upheld by Bangladesh culture and told women to go out from their houses, unite together and become the financial minister of the family. And now Bangladesh became the most women-right-conscious countries among Islamic countries.

And a leader should have the most compassion to achieve the vision among he and his followers. Unlike a lot of empty propagandas theorists made, Dr Yunus is definitely a man of his word. He was an economics professor himself, enjoying good salary and above-average life. However, he chose to forgo the easy life as well as elegant economic theories and go deep into the villages. He also chose not to stay in neat offices like government officials and cry foul for the desperate poor people. Instead, he went door by door, village to village to help poor people for two years before finding out the root of poverty in Bangladesh.

Having said that,  a leader is not about incinerating his compassion without making things sustainable. Dr Yunus is no philanthropist (although most of the people think he is.) He is not simply handing money or resources to poor people, like what the majority of NGOs do. He did not wait other philanthropists to trickle down their wealth before he can continue his help to poor people. Instead he chose to give out loans and make Grameen Bank self-sustainable. He encouraged self-employment among poor people that freed a lot of them from the exploitation of loan-sharks. He made his passion in eliminating poor into a workable model that everyone now advocates.

More importantly, a leader navigates changes. Dr Yunus is not trying to stay satisfied because of the success of Grameen Bank. Instead, he spotted the insufficiency of microcredit as the only weapon against poverty. The poor people didn’t have good health, good education to place themselves in the same starting line as non-poor. Therefore, Dr Yunus came up with the concept of social business which extends the help to different fields. As of now Grameen families is working with water company, healthcare company, yogurt factory and even garment brands to bring solid changes to poor people’s life.

Let's not forget the fact that leader is charismatic. This requires no lengthy explanation. Just look at Grameen Check, a clothing brand under Grameen Family, which turns Dr Yunus’ personal clothing taste into fashion. Let’s not mention the numerous speeches Dr Yunus made throughout the world as well as the three famous books he wrote.

And finally, a leader steps down. From Hawaii we have seen leaders being torn down because of their toxic leadership. In the case of Dr Yunus he stepped down in 2011 from the managing director of Grameen Bank not because of toxic leadership, but a political disfavor from the current government. It is certainly surprising to see that even with Dr Yunus stepped down, people are still very optimistic about Grameen Bank’s future. This is because, unlike a lot of toxic leaders, Dr Yunus didn’t make Grameen Bank to be dependent of his power. Instead, he inspires his subordinates and the borrowers to continue the work on microcredit. Despite Dr Yunus’s departure, the bank is still flourishing as usual.


And that’s why there is no reason Dr Yunus is not included in any textbooks of leadership. I encourage every leader and leader-to-be to come to Bangladesh and witness the greatness of a giant in our generation.

The tough Grameen Routine

Youngsters living in cities are definitely spoiled. They can afford the luxury of having a messed-up life. They can wake up at 4pm, eat lunch at 10pm and go to disco club for the rest of the night.

And this is exactly why the first few days in village for me are a little bit tough for me. I was told to wake up at 7am, have breakfast at 7:15am and start our village study at 7:45am. Life in village is simple but disciplined. Villagers, who mainly rely on agriculture, have to work all day before the sky turns dark.

There are virtually no night activities as there are not even street lights in villages. And there is not even a single computer in the branch office of Grameen Bank although the Branch office is supposed to be the most “modern” building in that area.

That’s why a color-TV became a luxurious item that draws everyone’s attention. In fact, watching TV is the only thing we could do when the dark came. The branch manager was nice enough to lend us the TV room for our stay. The existence of TV eased up a lot of anxieties of us staying in a village that has absolutely nothing to do.

And there are of course no meals other than Bangladesh cuisine. Our village stay was a constant bombardment of curry. The lucky thing for me was that rice is the basic source of starch for Bangla. For me, everything becomes amazing when it comes with rice. 

Our life is of course relatively easy since we are doing nothing more than observing. The real work of branch manager is much tougher.

In villages, 80 borrowers would be grouped into center. They are asked to carry repayment throughout regular and frequent center meetings. A main job for Branch managers is to travel from center to center to check the repayment status of borrowers. After using up their morning for 3~4 centre meetings, they have to go back to the Branch office and start spending their afternoon for disbursing new loans.This does not include countless home visits branch managers have to carry out everyday. 

All the meaningful Grameen activities happen in villages. When you sum up the work of branch managers you basically got the amazing work done by Grameen Bank. These branch managers themselves are usually master graduates. However, they are earning not more than 20000 taka ($250USD) a month.

And these managers are doing this with opportunity cost. If they choose to get into a commercial bank or State-owned bank, they can earn much prettier profit than 20000 taka. (Bribery is very common in this country) They can also sit in the air-conditioned offices rather than soaking sweats in the hot, dampy villages.

This is why there are a lot of things to be learnt in the village trip. It is not only about backward life. It is about a determined heart to help the poor by going deep into the poor.

Into villages in Bangladesh.....

 Yes I admit it was not a very enjoying thing to stay in Dhaka. Drinking water in a foreign country during Lunar New Year eve was my worst New Year experience. Therefore I couldn’t say the event happened the next day would excite me that much. I was sent to a rural village, 5 hours driving from Dhaka, for a 5-day field trip.

This is supposed to be the highlight of my internship because Grameen Bank stresses field experiences from its employee. They believe that the real work of Grameen Bank only happens on village level --- staying in headquarter just doesn’t fit the literal meaning of the bank: it’s a “village bank”. The higher ranking is the official, the more time he would spend in rural villages.

In that regard, I should be very excited when I know that I am finally getting into the flesh of the institute I admired so much. But that New Year disenchantment just offset all these excitements: I never felt that bad the night before leaving the Hotel. I couldn’t sleep properly, and I got a serious diahorrea.

Amazingly, things got better. Not only did I found that the 5 hour ride was air-conditioned and mosquito-free, our destination, the branch in Pabna district, was a petit surprise.

In sharp contrast to the chaotic, populated area we stayed in Dhaka, the environment here is simple but elegant. It is the lone building in 300-metre area, surrounded by shrubs. There is not much traffic nor pedestrians on the highway.

The interior of the house was also simple: standard rural standard. Facilities were minimal, but everything was clean. At least, they got a clean toilet here. And one more surprise here: there’s not much mosquitoes patrolling around us: the ditches in cities made itself a perfect for mosquito population to flourish.

And there’s always Bangladeshi people’s renowned hospitality. They greeted us with warm words as well as endless tasty sugary tea. What else can a tenant ask for?

Let see if the good experiences would keep up.

So called “horizon widened”

Rewinding back to July, 2012, I was thinking whether it is a good decision to come to Hawaii. Fast forward now, I am thinking whether it is a good decision to go back to Hong Kong. I could still remember the last time I stayed an equal 4.5 months in Ottawa, but I never had such a strong sentiment to the domain and strong unwillingness to go back home. Well, anyway, at that time, I didn’t expect anything in Ottawa, so it is hard for me to evaluate my stay there.

But the situation in Hawaii is so much different. Before coming to Hawaii, I was in a serious struggle of not finding a job for myself. I have realized the truth that coming to APLP doesn’t guarantee me a job or a higher education degree at the very beginning ----not bad for a guy who has absolutely no idea of what East West Center is. Both others and I have evaluated the possible gain in coming to Hawaii. I still remember clearly one thing we agreed strongly is that my horizon will be widened. Other than that we could hardly find any “tangible” outcomes. Combining the opportunity cost I paid seeing my colleagues’ moving along the career ladder with solid progress, these elements created my doubt of coming here.

The term “horizon widened” is meaningless without the real thing having experienced. After coming here, the secret of “horizon widened” finally unraveled with my APLP experience. It turned out that my classmates are way better than I have expected. They are not only coming from different countries, (in which makes no difference to an exchange program), but people from very diverse professions and diverse ranks. (and diverse ages) The experiences from these people are so immense, wise and deep such that I am totally overwhelmed in the initial stage. When I started to pick up my pace to keep up with them, I found that some of their best elements have already been injected to my behavior. Now I am more humble, more open-minded, hungrier for knowledge and more willing to accept challenges. (Probably more cunning in bargaining too thanks to some Indian negotiation classes)

But”horizon widened” is far from this stretch. Thanks to some of my new friends in Hawaii, I also got the chance to explore every bit of Oahu. I have been able to recognize the island terrain as a whole (which is 1/3 bigger than HK). Not much people know the amazing terrain and natural environment in Hawaii: other than sun and beaches, Hawaii is also famous for rainfall, volcano, forests or even frost mounts. Oh and let’s not forget about the Polynesian stories which I have never heard of, and never interested at. Polynesian Culture is indeed much deeper than anyone of us could have possibly imagined, deep enough to make some “strong countries” in this planet embarrassed. The spiritual life and connection to environment in Polynesian countries is so strong and important that a lot of Asian countries are not even close to realize.

And that is not the end of my “widened horizon”. I did have a close chance to observe American society as a whole. Ranging from futile daily events like shopping Sam’s Club or eating in McDonald’s to historical events like 2012 US presidential election to Disaster Management on Miss Sandy, I can feel the power of this nation. Expressive, Innovative, boldness…. Correct the nation is going downhill in terms of economic power (a really strong decline if you take 1960’s into account), but they are unconsciously making solid progress to remain themselves as the superpower in terms of soft power. And arguably, American is like to remain as a soft power giant since other countries are not paying much attention on this. My country’s soft power is even declining. To cut it short, American dream is not over.

My horizon is also widened not only from American perspective, but from a Chinese immigrant perspective. The image of Hong Kong suddenly got so multi-dimensional because of my experience connecting with Hong Kong migrants in America. I have seen people who are desperately finding ways to get back to Hong Kong. I have seen people who are born in America and desperately finding ways to cut ties with Hong Kong. I have seen people who came here for a long time, engaging Chinese-migrant society only but being so reluctant to go back to their motherland. These encounters have only made my understanding to Hong Kong deeper.

And I still haven’t mentioned those activities that I thought I would never do in my lifetime: skydiving, raveling, thanksgiving, helicopter ride, dying my hair thrice, going to my first chemi-toi, having Hong Kong examination abroad and having buffet alone…….

And with my horizon expanded, staying in Hong Kong and resuming what I have been pursuing before APLP suddenly sounds very unwise. Worse still, Human are myopic, and I am only even worse. Without real changes in lifestyle, staying in Hong Kong implies one day all these “assets” would degrade into “memories”, and finally “history” and there will be a high chance for me to become the old me. If Hawaii has no more significance to me, so would be the assets I am cherishing at this moment. Therefore, leaving Hawaii is like letting go the seed of change from my body. Will I never be the same guy again? Or will I compromise to the current stifling, suffocating environment in Hong Kong?

It won’t take long for me to work this out.

original link:

http://cychansam.blogspot.hk/2013/01/so-called-widened-horizon.html