Tag: Haiti

Sand and Storm

Isaac is sweeping through the Keys in a Northwest arch as seen in previous storms.

Paradise bills come due. This summer we have seen an eerie absence of tornadoes (too dried to happen).

Paradise’s sand box are put on high alert.

The last time, a political convention that got that much press attention before it gets started was Chicago 68.

This time, the National Guards are also mobilized, but for a different reason: to help with eventual and possible evacuation.

Grab your bag. Essentials only: toothbrush, toothpaste (shared), eye glasses, underwear and change of clothes. Well, maybe a paperback, normally for beach reading.

I used to have my class do an exercise in forced ranking: what if you could only bring five things to an isolated island.

It makes for group discussion, collaboration and debate.

What would you bring if you were to live in the Keys this morning?

Tow that camper away with everything in it and sit in traffic?

Remember not to forget the I-phone charger, for storm tracker.

I know I would bring my daughter’s pics, even though they are already in a flash drive.

I heard of DropBox. Maybe I should open an account (a safe?) there in the Cloud.

Valuables and all that remains.

A lifetime of memory and momento.

What is life?

Play time and work time, hurt and healing?

Sand storm and sand box.

Some of us are defined by crisis, others crown.

The higher the climb, the steeper the fall.

Just part of the roller-coaster ride.

In other time, Florida Keys are picture perfect. You can’t get enough of it.

But then, one has to live with these North-ward weather patterns, as if everything “negative” seems to have come from somewhere South, if it fits your prejudice. People who reached a certain maturity have come to accept that trade-off : you can’t have paradise without penalty, sand without storm, at least in this life, at least on this Earth.

Where’s next?

In Tech, we ask “what’s the next big thing?” Cloud computing, virtualization, localization, verticalization (BTW, when you can take the online world with you, the distinction between off-and-on line seems to be blurred).

But we have been warned by Nature: tsunami, Haiti, Chile and Japan.

I am glad shaky videos  by viewer-generated-content keep us informed  (can’t help referencing back to the Indonesian tsunami). The Death of Distance is finally here. I am sure with the same technology (Twitter and Facebook), we can mobilize rescue and relief efforts faster than earlier disasters (already out are the Gaga wristbands etc…).

My heart sank for the victims of those devastated townships.

Being ready for disaster was one thing.

Getting hit by what had always kept you up at night was quite another.

All the automobiles once ready for shipping now floating about like toy cars (courtesy of Japan TV).

All for one, one for all – on Space-Ship-Earth.

I was doing my school project (TV production) on Energy Conservation

(when there were long lines at the gas stations). Then I interned at WNEP-TV in PA when the story broke at Three-Mile-Island nuclear power plant. We camped out there for days, with high anxiety and trepidation

(when you drove in to town, seeing people fleeing after emptying out the ATM’s, it’s not a good sight).

Now, the citizens of Japan are going through similar  catastrophe (perhaps some survivors of WWII are still around to witness an encore ).

Let’s take this as a “teachable moment”. Where’s next?

There was a movie about “the things we lost in the fire”.

Maybe we should upload photos and documents up to the cloud for safekeeping.

Maybe we should smile at our neighbors, and hug our loved ones more often.

The Youngbloods had a line in “Get Together” “Come on people now, ….try to love one another right now.”.

It’s comforting to know no matter what language Nature tries to warn us next

(already French-Haiti, Japanese or Spanish-Chile ), we got each other.

America has been resilient through thick-and-thin. It will hold the torch one more time. Rise, baby, rise (to the occasion). Be that search light for the rescue.

We learned from Katrina of what not to do. Now is the time to go ahead and be that heroic “land of the free”.  Doesn’t matter where next is. We got each other.

Time to change

Change bears a different connotation to different people.

In the 60’s, change threatened the status quo (Hell No, we won’t go).

It’s inevitable that we need to adapt (from jukebox to boombox, from paper-back book to e-book).  A few years from now, we would rather be dead than getting caught carrying  a hard-back book (today’s equivalence of carrying a brick phone w/pull-out antenna).

In fact, leadership is all about change management: take R or L at the fork in the road (yahoo)

take both (Cisco), or take the one less traveled (Robert Frost).

Change has been equated with letting go. But it’s not. It’s being adaptive and relevant.

Downgrading, downshifting, downsizing and retrenching.

The exact reversal of the 80’s “trading up”.

In the Hummer and the Mini, the author tries to point out the paradox in taste and style. At the present time, we might have to do away with Hummers altogether

(have you noticed gas prices lately).

And there is forced change e.g. aging, empty nesting or season change whose cold front disrupts our holiday travel. Here in Florida, they use helicopters to bring down warmer temperature to protect crops (same technology was used during the Vietnam War to spray Agent Orange to destroy crops).

The positive side of aging is maturity. Having been there and done that, one detects a familiar pattern (deja vu) and can easily connect the dots (for instance, Haiti and Vietnam both had some French influence. This makes easy for the Vietel engineers to connect with locals while trying to rebuild Haitian telecom infrastructure.)

Unfortunately, the path of least resistance is often the path most taken. It saves time when everything is in place, the same place (efficiency model). Have you noticed that as creatures of habits, we always congregate around the fire-place (or TV, its modern-day replacement) and water cooler at work (or the conference-room speaker phone). But that’s our pre-Google false sense of comfort.

Now that the transformation to digital is almost complete, we must embrace minimalist life style (watch out Good Will and Salvation Army, you will have to expand your warehouses).  Digital natives will not give a second thought (since they are not attached to things non-digital) before junking that jukebox or that Polaroid.

We are change managers. And managers must decide what’s important and what’s urgent, what stays and what goes. Most importantly, from future vantage point looking back, will today’s decision hold? Are we being self-disruptive enough or face forced change?

The more we want to stay the same, the more we will have to change. Or just sit there and get run over by the train.

And that time is now.

Our dichotomy

Abundance or shortage? Keynes or Milton Friedman? The quants rule? Human beings are selfish or empathic? what is the optimal point for happiness?

Louisiana, one of the poorest states in the Union, yet ranked the Happiest. New York City crime rates are at the lowest in decades.

South Korea, always at war, yet always connected.

And forget what you think you know about China i.e. traditional, passive-aggressive (all these may still be true with interior China). At least, their nouveaux riche haven’t behaved as counterparts in the US (Vegas limo and strip club): they bought Lenovo and Hummers.

Since the New Year, we heard that celebrities have been arrested almost every other week (Denver, West Virginia).

Fear of success.

And then, the real 17+% unemployed in the US, fear of failure? Sedated and in need of Shock treatments.

The age of adjusted expectations. Self-correcting amidst progress and plenty.

Fast toaster (Subway). Bullet train. Slow bureaucracy.

One advertising slogan “I hate to wait” came to mind.

Cultures and companies proceed at different speeds.

Search and rescue teams are now leaving Haiti. Their time and mission has come to an end.

Mid-term relief organizations now take ober. Then long-term sustained development NGOs will stay the course

piling on top of the 10,000 counterparts who had already been there before the quake.

News organizations such as CNN and CBS have stepped up to the plate, proving themselves worthy of our attention.

But then, where were they during the Iranian post-election showdown? Twitter ruled back then and there.

So we go back to our dichotomy of Command/control vs consumer/citizenry movement, Keynesian vs Milton, and

whether human nature are empathic or dog-eat-dog ? The Net is neutral. It blinks and waits for our clicks.

No wonder teens are into Vampires, a state of not living, yet not vanishing. Perfect commentary about our current state of ambivalence.

Poor surviving but wounded Haitians! I could not finish the evening news yesterday. Maybe we are empathic creatures after all.

 

Have you ever seen the Rain (bow)

Despite a lot of sunshine, in California, when it rains it pours.

Yet, photographer did not fail to snap a picture of a rainbow

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Calif-Storms/ss/events/us/101409califstorms#photoViewer=/100120/480/448ac9a2ced64a438dd5ecb4c958e984

Payback for all the dry months, the fire, and the smog.

The State got enough on its plate: budget concern, gay marriage repeal, and now this.

Best of wishes to the newly appointed LA City Business Czar, whose job is to create jobs.

We need common sense, courage and commitment to get ourselves over the hurdles.

Collectively, we have let ourselves go unchecked. Now, it’s payback time before we can see Rainbow.

Some contractors even owed $5 Billion in US  back taxes.

That’s a lot of schooling for little ones.

I stand corrected in earlier blog. Former President Clinton was here (Palm Beach) last night at a fund-raising dinner.

So he wasn’t around this morning to experience first hand the Haiti aftershock. Supplies are now slowly but surely delivered to those who needed them most. Mr Clinton even praised Coca Cola for bringing in water bottles.  Good corporate citizenry. I got a Coke and a sandwich when first landed in Subic Bay.

Last month, Warren Buffett even held up a bottle while sitting next to Bill Gates at Columbia Business School. One needs to believe in one’s product, its usefulness and lasting impact.

Pepsi is not giving up just yet. It wants to develop genuine healthy and nutritious products to beat Coke on this front. Bring it on. After giving NGOs some head start, for-profit companies slowly return to Haiti.

I felt privileged today when shopping for a nail clipper. I was able to get it at a store. Wonder if it’s that easy in Haiti.

But then, Rainbow is free for all, from the Malibu stars to the Santa Monica homeless. All I want to do, is have some fun, until the sun comes up, from Santa Monica boulevard.

 

Soft and sizzled

Mind you, this is not a new Panda Express dish.

Just China exercises its soft power, by sending S&R responders to Haiti (Western Hemisphere, many time zones away from the Great Kingdom).

Why China?

China has explored Space, Chips, and automobiles (not to mention its recent Bullet train, which should keep the Japanese on their toes).  It hosted the Beijing Olympics and Shanghai Index has outperformed the London Exchange.

While haggling with Google, it needs to act like a Super Power that it will become by sending relief S&R team. After all, it got its own quake last year. Those who have suffered can empathize.

Unlike opportunists who would spit out ill-thought-out remarks (like Quick text messages already stored on cell phones) when the first opportunity presents itself (Pat Robertson).

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2010/01/14/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry6096806.shtml

We happened to live near earthquake zone (San Fernando Valley). Did this mean we made a pact with the Devil?

(He probably said “yes”, because San Fernando Valley is home to Porn Capital).

Anyhow, back to China.

The speed and ease of Mobile Giving help galvanize relief efforts more quickly.

China landed in Haiti before France, its former Colonial Boss.

Venezuela and USA both pledged help.

Are we inter-connected or what!

BTW,  ARPANET’s original conception was for communication emergency should there were a nuclear disaster. So it’s only fitting that Twitter and Facebook come out ahead in mobilizing the international community for Haiti. After all, images speak louder than words. Rifkin in his latest “the Empathic Civilization” speaks of technology which enables greater empathy, yet at the same time, consumes so much energy that there is a tension between entropy and empathy (technology vs compassion fatigue?)

As you read these lines, the earth beneath you could be shaking, anytime.

That’s how vulnerable and fragile our lives are. (It happened to me when I lived in Orange County).

So China, along with other nations, should exercise their soft powers: winning hearts and minds before seeking political and economic dominance. Mind shares before market shares.

Corporations got this. They have been present at every Bowl game, every disaster zone and county fair, building goodwill, practicing brand advocacy, which ultimately strengthen brand equity.

China has won some points today by sending men and materials to Haiti, Chinese deserved a medal for showing up.

Soft Power Express! A quick dish and good chow. Soft and sizzled.