“When an American starts a job, they work as hard as they can to try and prove themselves. When a Brit starts a new job, he goes around trying to make as many friends as possible.”
“In New York, you’re judged based on how hard you work. In London, if you’re at the office every night until midnight, we assume you aren’t clever enough to manage your time well.”
“The English seem really low, but they’re actually a pretty content bunch. Whereas Americans seem super happy on the outside, then you get to know them and they aren’t.”
“In the US, everyone loves a rags to riches story that goes something like ‘grew up poor, triumphed over the odds and ended up rich’. In the UK, you can never escape your class and rags to riches is seen as someone in denial of who they are. Take the Beckhams for instance.”
My wife just out-kiasu-ed an old man at the airport and deserves a high five. In an act that spells victory in the minds of many Singaporean men over the age of 60, ‘uncle’ cut a long line of people waiting at immigration with the smoothness of someone trying to shoplift an elephant from a store that only has one in stock. I’m sure he expected this victory to cost him a few rolled eyes. I assure you he did not expect what was coming. C walked to the front of the line and gave him a very public, raised voice, finger pointing, un-ignorable (he tried), un-placate-able, piece of her mind which showed the level of cultural panache that consciously steps on every cultural button necessary in order to get the job done. He offered to let her go first. She sent him to the back of the line. To use her triumphant words, “I made him lose FACE!” And that concluded our trip to Brunei. Which was lovely.
My casino project in Macau is taking a serious toll on my sinuses. And while I don’t want to assign blame, I cast a suspicious eye to it’s rapidly industrialized parent to the North. At which point exactly does an emerging superpower develop the objectivity and foresight to see ahead into the bright future they’ve likely fucked up for themselves? I know. I’m a foreigner and what’s right for us might not be right for them. We had an industrial revolution too. You’re only returning to your rightful place as the centeral and supreme culture on the planet. And as such an evolved nation we couldn’t possibly understand you well enough to criticize. But frankly, the cultural disparity card is far too convenient and cliche a gesture to use every time you run out of things to say for yourself. Clean up your act people.
First off, let me admit a huge bias of mine against Greenpeace since meeting one of these clowns in a bar. Every member I’ve met has been more concerned with being counter culture than solving problems and as a result, I’ve always seen them as the worst kind of NGO: the kind that would be deeply upset if the problems they claim to be in the business of resolving ever went away. That said, this is a pretty good stunt. And most importantly, it worked. They even went for a classy finish on the website with the following:
I just tried to watch the American VMAs on mtv.com and instead of seeing Tailor Swift win an award, Kanye West behave like a child, Beyoncé earn the accent on her é with this classy move, Madonna talk about Michael Jackson (and herself), I got shut out. Maybe it’s MTV telling me to stay in Asia. Maybe it’s a server thing. Maybe it’s a censorship thing. Whatever it is, it happens a lot and it’s about as annoying as it is pointless since with a bit more effort you can find most of the content elsewhere. Take THAT.
I checked in with my flickr account today and guess what? After a year in Singapore, there are hardly any photos of Singapore in it. In London, I spent my Saturday mornings wandering the town snapping photos of interesting characters and curious happenings. In Singapore, I occasionally have to force myself to go out with my camera. In London, my photostream was a real time photodocumentary of the city around me. Moving to Asia has turned it into a photo documentary of the Asia I visit on weekends, the cities I visit on business, but not the Singapore I live in. Strange, right?
The government is currently putting a lot of effort into making Singapore the kind of place that attracts foreign talent but no matter how much infrastructure they build, the same critique ends up in their suggestion box: “Singapore lacks character”. Or put more imaginatively by my friend Bruno:
“Singapore is like a giant airport. They have great shopping, lots of food courts, and you can get to many amazing places in Asia from there.”
Airports don’t make for eventful photostreams (i takethat backactually). Point being, the process of building the infrastructure that turned Singapore from a resource poor island to a first world city didn’t leave room for “interesting characters and curious happenings.” Don’t get me wrong, that level of control has created an amazing place. But it doesn’t allow for quirks and curiosities that people from other places love about where they live, or the new ones they hope to experience when they move somewhere new. After all, interesting characters can’t be molded and curious happenings can’t be planned. It’s an interesting paradox for a government that takes the challenge of keeping Singapore interesting very seriously.
I just returned from a few days in Macau and Hong Kong with my casino project to what looks like the start of a great few months. Friends passing through this weekend, C Ph.D.-ing away happily, a great government project kicking off tomorrow and some interesting bits and pieces of work that just might keep us fed and entertained through to the end of the year along with a long overdue trip home end run on sentence here.
Okay, I’ve been awful on the blogging front. So bad that I doubt anybody is actually reading this. But if you are, let me sing a familiar apology, give you a quick update on what’s been going on, and assure you that things are going to get better on the blogging front (if you still even care).
Since my last blog (July 18th to be exact), I’ve generally been having a good time. I managed to finish off a great project around a new casino in Singapore and get some great travel in before C kicked off her Ph.D. program on Monday. There was diving in the Philippines, trekking in Lombok, time with friends in a gorgeous house in the Gilli Islands and a last minute weekend in Thailand to help a friend develop an interesting little company while sitting on the beach, drinking whiskey and rock climbing (not all at the same time). On the work front, I finished the casino project, kicked off another project for an existing casino in Macau and reveled in the feeling of having made the world a better place. The casino work paired with a retainer and an exciting new government project that includes lots of Asia travel all mean that the next few months are going to be interesting, well-traveled and (most importantly given the economic climate) billable. We’ll see where this all leads.
As for the blog, I think the reason I haven’t been blogging is that this blog became far too much about me and (frankly) I don’t find myself all that interesting. So from here on in, this blog is going to be more about the interesting people, places, patterns and happenings I see around me. With a bit of luck, that will be the kind of thing that keeps all of us entertained enough not to switch this blog off altogether.
And then someone pushed play on a fantastic project. Spent all day last Friday (a week ago) generating ideas on how to bring to life a massive new resort. Rented out a swank restaurant in Bangkok, invited along some great people, and walked away with some of the best work I’ve seen in a while. It reminded me of the good things that happen when you surround yourself with interesting characters, inspire them with new stuff, and let them be themselves. It felt good and it ended well. Here’s to doing more of it.
With the amount of PropellerFish projects on hold, we might end up the world’s busiest little consultancy when the economy picks up. But for now, the next month is looking slow. So slow that I was booking a trip back to the US to see friends and family when someone threatened to hit the play button on life. An exciting project popped up this morning that could take over most of my time over the next month or so (a good thing). But it would push pause on my first trip home in over a year. With a decision expected tomorrow, I’m looking forward to either being very busy on something interesting (and flying home in a month) or very happy catching up with friends and family in a hometown I haven’t seen in a very long time. Win/Win I say.
Things I’ve heard…
Okay, I’ve been awful on the blogging front. So bad that I doubt anybody is actually reading this. But if you are, let me sing a familiar apology, give you a quick update on what’s been going on, and assure you that things are going to get better on the blogging front (if you still even care).
