that gray area between meritocracy at its best and ruthless battlefield?
I Wanted To Change The World
By Unknown Monk, 1100 A.D.
When I was a young man, I wanted to change the world.
I found it was difficult to change the world, so I tried to change my nation.
When I found I couldn’t change the nation, I began to focus on my town. I couldn’t change the town and as an older man, I tried to change my family.
Now, as an old man, I realize the only thing I can change is myself, and suddenly I realize that if long ago I had changed myself, I could have made an impact on my family. My family and I could have made an impact on our town. Their impact could have changed the nation and I could indeed have changed the world.
everyone says that journalists are a dying breed in the age of wordpress, google (and now bing — still need to check it out), twitter, facebook and the like. quite the contrary, i actually think there’s argument to be made that the propensity of these mediums only make the need for journalists far greater.
today, we have millions of pages and bytes of data at our fingertips and combing through them can be a rather time-consuming task. journalists have, and SHOULD, seek out that objective truth and perspectives that should depict a situation.
i think what needs to happen is that we should take a hard look at journalism schools again. true, we are in the age of new media and interactive media has become the overnight sensation of the journalism world. however, what cannot, and should not be forgotten are the core values that define journalism: TRUTH, ethics, and seeking that balance between perspective, fact, opinion, and emotion. more than ever, journalists today need to embrace new technology as a means of understanding how to use all these new mediums to support and uphold these core values.
in the end, i don’t think it will be new media that will kill journalism — it will be journalists themselves if they cannot learn to adapt quickly in the age of 140-characters-based communication.
i should caveat this by saying that since i’m not in journalism school and hear very little about what actually goes on, these are things that may already be taking place. if so, i think it should be communicated moreso than it currently is. can anyone else shed light on this?
wanted to take a quick sec to blog about one of my favorite organizations — wokai. wokai is a microfinancing non-profit that connects individuals with farmers and small businesses in rural china, giving them the funds needed to empower their work.
This blog post is part of Zemanta’s Blogging For a Cause campaign to raise awareness and funds for worthy causes that bloggers care about.
i’ll blog about this later as well but if you have any questions please feel free to let me know 
i’d be more than happy to share with you ^_^
it’s 4 a.m. and again, it’s a long night between phone calls and jotting down words on a blank white sheet.
managed to go to the charity:water event tonight at the apple store which was a really inspirational story of someone — scott harrison — who managed to apply innovative solutions to an age-old problem: accessibility to clean water.
while i could go on about the great work his npo is doing, i thought it’d be better to share with you some of the key takeaways i think any organization can learn from (i do encourage you to check out charity:water’s website and mission though )
1. Design is important. I think that a lot of times design is often neglected in an organization’s plans. Yet at the same time, websites are often the key, 20-second-intro any organization gets to an audience. Make it catchy, powerful, lasting.
One of the things I never understood about organizations like the red cross was how they could be one of the largest non-profits in the world, yet have a website that lagged in innovation. Web 1.5 when the world was onto Web 3.0.
Scott talked about how the organization’s second hire was the designer, right after hiring someone who knew how to design effective water systems.
2. Connect with the user. I know … this is a pretty blanket piece of advice that is used virtually everywhere but I loved how Charity:Water used Google Earth and GPS devices to show exactly where wells to clean water were being built.
Which leads to point number 3 (for non-profits and social enterprises)
3. Empower the end-user. Technology is such an amazing tool and one of the quickest ways I think we can really empower people is to share this with others. Charity:Water gave GPS devices to the villagers to use themselves. based on the same principle, all wells were dug by local villagers.
4. Be an effective communicator. One thing that struck me mid-way through Scott’s presentation was “wow, he’s a great speaker.” and then i realized that virtually every talk I’ve gone to with some grassroots organization had a “great speaker.” the ability to really convey your message and create that strong personal relationship is so key … after looking more into charity:water’s website, i saw that each member of the staff had received communications coaching from a firm specializing in giving this training. a worthwhile investment for any organization, unless you’re one of the few blessed with the natural ability to speak and captivate audiences
anyway, i think those are the main points i remember off the top of my head — good night!
as you may have noticed via le blog, my life has recently become a lot more sinocentric.
for some of you, this may be interesting as you’re looking to learn more about china really make sense of this complex conundrum that is la chine. and for those of you who have heard enough about china from me, i promise i’ll post about something else soon too
anyway, the main point of this post was to expand on my earlier entry about recruitment in china. @aimeenbarnes is a great writer who has written some really interesting posts about china and her experiences and insights. her most recent post on Falling in Love with China … and your career really touches on many key points that hold true not only for the china market, but in interpersonal relationships and careers everywhere.
In short, if you have your eyes set on china, learn chinese (i know aimee says this isn’t really an absolute must but in my opinion, if you really want to learn about a country, knowing its language and the nuances that are involved are key), read, visit, and talk to people.
i realized that my best working hours are between 12 a.m. to 3 a.m.
this probably isn’t the best schedule to follow but i thought i would share this great TED lecture with you from a great writer — elizabeth gilbert. TED is one of the main reasons why i love the internet and an ever evolving web — it stands for technology, entertainment, design and draws together some of the world’s most brilliant minds across multiple disciplines.
so twitter-verse was abuzz this friday over news that current utah governor, jon huntsman jr., was likely to be making the move to beijing as the united states’ top diplomat. while i haven’t really read that much into huntsman’s policies, he certainly seems well-qualified for this critical post. a fluent mandarin speaker, huntsman had spent time in taiwan as part of his missions trip with the church of latter day saints. with a background in business (his family runs the huntsman corporation, one of the world’s largest chemical distributors), philanthropy, and politics, huntsman may just be what the US needs to tread the waves that are the increasing importance of us-china relations.
furthermore, this gesture by the obama administration reflects the new president’s political savvy as well — upholding his promises of maintaining a bi-partisan state while making it difficult for a very strong potential republican 2012 presidential contender to make any concrete criticism of the obama administration over the next four years.
for the governor’s nine-year old daughter — grace mei huntsman — the appointment will also mean a move back home. grace was adopted by the huntsmans from china, who have also adopted another daughter from india.
of course, time will be the final decider of jon huntsman jr.’s story but for now, am looking forward to the developments this new appointment will bring.
can you believe it’s been a year since may 12 and that fateful sichuan earthquake? heart definitely goes out to those affected that day. reposting the following youtube clip that captures some of those moments:
someone recently asked me whether or not they should start a blog, citing fear that no one would read it as a main hesitation.
but when we blog, how much of it do we really blog for others versus for ourselves? sure, we (i) blog sometimes because we think there is something worth sharing. a lot of times, it may also be something that we want to remember.
whatever your intention was, something caused you to take the time to think about it, and to think about it enough to write it down.
at the end of the day, at least we ourselves can look at past entries and chronicle events, thoughts, and progression.
i guess that’s something we should carry with us throughout our daily lives as well; we write to share our thoughts, we write to improve our writing, and we do to improve ourselves.
rather than wondering what everyone else would think, and fearing rejection, there is something to be said about writing (and doing) for oneself.
