Critical?

What makes good and capable leaders different from 'wanna-be-as-good' leaders?

My opinion, ability to accept positive or negative critics and feedbacks. Lead with open mind and always believe that critics and feedbacks will help the person in the leading position aware of the shortcomings that may not be expressed by people who are working around. As some may know, there are some creatures with a nice English noun that reads 'hypocrite(s)' lingering around an organisation. These people are the worst creatures that ever exist in the working culture in the organisation. Having them are, believe me, the worst experience ever felt by leaders, especially when expectations towards them are high where opinions are crucial - more often than not, they are blinded by the "Yes, sir - No problem, sir - Everything's right, sir" assurance. Bless the hypocrites. How could things be right when they are so wrong!

No point in becoming leaders of leaders when you can't open to critics. Everyone's thinking of the best for the organisation. I would like to be full of praises for an organisation who've done so much for me and other young people around but again, I couldn't stand from keeping my mouth shut if things are not going well. At least not as far as I could see. Prove me wrong and assure the concerned people around that things are really going on an upward trend.

However, I really appreciate a fast reply from the MCs in showing interest to provide further explanations on the role and direction in ensuring growth in the national chapters. Thumbs up for the members in the team but for other leaders in the team who could not take the critics as opinions expressed out of concern, too bad to say, you're not ready to lead yet. Being upset and disappointed of feedbacks are just a sign of an immature leader.

God bless.

Lovely Saturday the 21st

I found out that I really have good food for the past few days since Saturday. But the best was still the Saturday's one where we had ALL YOU CAN EAT at the Bangsar Seafood Village in Bangsar One. 22 fresh and delicious dishes by 8 people for only RM360++. To sum up the statement, unbelievably cheap but tasty. We were there to celebrate a double birthday bash - Jasmine's and Jiann's.

No doubt, I really enjoyed the lunch to the max. As the 8 people would know, I flung crab while I was tearing it apart and landed some sauce on Jiann's head. That shows how exciting and fantastic the food is :P . Below are some of the pictures taken by my camera but to know more, check out Jasmine, the Devil Queen's blog with all the captions on the respective photos posted. Wonderful. As I'm as lazy as Jill to write captions for each photos. Lol.

Like Jasmine, the Devil Queen, the lunch is only round number one of the lovely Saturday...







Round two....

Later in the evening, Christine and I joined the Scouts group to the Confucian Private School in KL for an annual campfire event. Not a bad event afterall and it has been about two years since I last stepped into a campfire event and co-incidentally in the same school.

Below are some of the shots taken at the campfire.

It was indeed a lovely Saturday of food and Scouts. :D

God bless.

Hopeful

AIESEC can be so addictive. Just when I thought I'm almost out of it, I went back in, initiated a project (with the help from an AIESEC alumnus) and in less than a week time, will be facilitating a Local Committee based conference, the AIESEC in TBS LLDS 2007.

Great honour though. Given the responsibility to head the facilitators team. I believe I've a good team and with participation from the "evil" alumni =P (Welcome to the LLDS 2007, Jamie, Jill and Jiann!), it'll definitely be a blast. For the first year of the LC as a full-status one, it requires concrete fundamentals for the LC members and therefore, the facis should be at their very best in producing impactful sessions and we're trying our very best in working our way there. Hopefully we'll make ends meet.

AIESEC indeed is great platform for the young people to discover and develop their potential, especially in the country. For now, I hope to see more improvement of AIESEC in Malaysia overall. Under the new leadership, I hope they see what're the clear challenges that lie ahead and they are clear where they are driving the organisation to. Enough with previous initiatives which merely stand out and I've seen the overall performance of the chapters in the country fall unbelievably. The national team has to first clarify its own role as claimed. Assist the LCs and not blaming the LCs that these chapters are relying heavily on them and they need to stand alone. As true as it sounds, however, what do we need MCs for if the LCs are left to suffer from lack of exchange numbers and development?

Secondly, on the question on role of MCs, what rights do they have in raising the amount of affiliation fee in order to make ends meet for the expenses incurred (i.e. office rental) by the national entity. This relates to the previous raised issue where they are neglecting the underperform LCs and left alone to sort their ways out from the difficult situation. These LCs are in turn, will be asked to pay for the costs incurred by the national team. Less help, but pay more. What does it mean? Might be better off without the MCs, seriously.

I'm not trying to mention anything against the MCs but they would have to prove their role and existence among the LCs in Malaysia. No point having an MC team when they become burden for the LCs. Solve the current problems occuring in the chapters in Malaysia and not trying to escape from the reality that is bothering these troubled LCs, assuming that they could find their way out from the situation. And before they could solve the growing problems, they are out there setting up new LCs. Imagine digging new holes to cover up the old holes. There would still be holes left uncovered.

A platform like AIESEC needs great nuture from the party that have big influence in providing the necessary assistance in the Malaysian chapters. I really, really wish that the current MC team sees the 'not really new', existing problems which have been around since a couple of terms before, with high degree of importance. Solve them and be the big thinkers for the organisation in the country. Look further, wider and deeper, not only on couple of good initiatives that may be sufficient to make the country looked good internationally. Look into increasing the level of performance of the LCs in Malaysia. Share their problems and don't ignore. Till they learn how to motivate the LCs in the country to be more competent with the chapters in around the world, the MCs will continue to perform under par and they will find themselves in more conflicts with the Malaysian chapters.

All the best to the new MC team of the term 2007/2008!

God bless.

Relevant Map

Here's the map for reference...If you think the map is too small for you, click on the map for larger view. For further information, feel free to drop me an e-mail.

See you there!

Can't Wait to Watch This...

My Earth

"Global warming could bring hunger, melt Himalayas

By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent

OSLO (Reuters) - Global warming could cause more hunger in Africa and melt most Himalayan glaciers by the 2030s, according to a draft U.N. report due on Friday which also warns that the poorest nations are likely to suffer most.

The U.N. climate panel, giving the most authoritative study on the regional impact of climate change since 2001, also predicts more heatwaves in countries such as the United States, and damage to corals including Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

Tourists enjoy the view of Mt. Everest from a hotel window in Shyangboche, Nepal in this April 1, 2006 file photo. Global warming could cause more hunger in Africa and melt most Himalayan glaciers by the 2030s, according to a draft U.N. report due on Friday which also warns that the poorest nations are likely to suffer most. (REUTERS/Gopal Chitrakar)
"We are talking about a potentially catastrophic set of developments," Achim Steiner, the head of the U.N. Environment Programme, said of the likely impact of rising temperatures, widely blamed on greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels.

"Even a half metre (20 inch) rise in sea levels would have catastrophic effects in Bangladesh and some island states," he told Reuters.

Scientists and officials from more than 100 countries meet in Belgium from Monday to review and approve a 21-page summary for policymakers in the report amid disputes on some findings, including on how far rising temperatures may contribute to spreading disease.

Among the gloomy forecasts, the report predicts that glaciers in the Himalayas, the world's highest mountain range, will melt away, affecting hundreds of millions of people.

"If current warming rates are maintained, Himalayan glaciers could decay at very rapid rates, shrinking from the present 500,000 square kilometres to 100,000 square kilometres by 2030s," according to a draft technical summary.

And disruptions are likely to be felt hardest in poor nations, such as sub-Saharan Africa and Asia where millions more could go hungry because of damage to farming and water supplies.

BENEFITS

Still, some nations will see some benefits, according to the draft by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which draws on work by 2,500 scientists.

Global farm potential might increase with a rise of 3 degrees Celsius (5.4 Fahrenheit) in temperatures, before sinking worldwide, it says. Crops might grow better in nations far from the tropics such as Canada, Russia, New Zealand or Scandinavia.

But warming will hit rich nations in other ways. The Mediterranean region might become arid. In the United States, rising seas and storm surges could "severely affect transportation along the Gulf, Atlantic and Northern coasts", it says.

The United Nations reckons the report, together with one in February that concluded it was more than 90 percent likely that recent warming had a predominantly human cause, will add pressure on governments to do more to head off damaging change.

"We've passed the tipping point," Steiner said, adding that the public, governments and businesses seemed convinced that global warming was a major threat and not some vague theory about which scientists disagreed.

"It's no longer about whether (climate change) is happening but about how we deal with it," he said.

Even so, talks on a global treaty to extend the Kyoto Protocol on restricting greenhouse gases after 2012 are stalled. Of the world's top emitters -- the United States, China, Russia and India -- only Russia is bound by caps under Kyoto.

Talks in Brussels are likely to last long and late, according to James McCarthy, professor of biological oceanography at Harvard University who was co-chair the last time the IPCC made a similar report in 2001.

He predicted disagreements would be overcome. "I think it would be very unlikely that final agreement would not be reached in Brussels," he said. "It would be unprecedented."

Source: Reuters---The Star"

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I believe that the humankind has pushed the nature too far off the line and that it may be a little late to correct what has been done to the mother earth. Instead of spending resources into exploring clean energy, humans have been manipulating the crude oil resource and looking into its lucrative returns. Some nations tried hard to ignore the aspect of the existence of the new source of energy which could overcome the problem of carbon emission in generating energy. That's because some of the "very wealthy" nations in the world today depend highly on national income generated from the sales of crude oil to the world. For instance, if the UN imposes a strict ban from exploring new resource for petroleum or crude oil, what would countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq or even Brunei (they can always opt to join Malaysia with open hands...) eat? I wonder...

However, these are done at the expense of the nature. Now, humans are made to see that it's no longer something that we can close an eye on. It's affecting you and I and it's affecting US. It is real and it is happening now. Climate change, frequent earthquakes and tornadoes are signs that the nature is turning against the humankind. Irresponsibility takes its toll as we're residing on the mother earth, harvesting every growth from the soil and yet we take nature for granted, cutting the sheltering trees down and polluting the earth in every way.

Somehow, if you think the earth may speak, She may most likely sound like this, "I have given my fruits as your labour, trees and hills for your shelter and the river and sea as your source of life but what you've asked too much of me by balding every soil and digging into the very core of mine, asking more than I'm willing to give! How dare humans. I shall return the favour now by showing you what I am capable of doing. I've wiped the entire mighty reptiles off the earth and I've no doubt in doing so on much more tiny creatures!"

As imaginative as it may sound, it brings a fact that we've asked too much from the nature and furthermore, destructing and bringing harm to it. Let's not contemplating and procrastinating on when to protect the Mother Earth and something has to been done now and NOW is the time.

God bless.


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