Time in Syria

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Labels: Syria

Massar

Labels: Massar

Does anyone actually keep a sponge in their sponge bag?

"Change can only come about through persuasion, and not through violence of any sort"

A quote from Tony Blair, co-sponsor of the war in Iraq - something which presumably did not count as "violence".

Labels: Viewpoint

I'm clearing the apartment at the moment, and going through heaps of old papers and magazines accumulated over five years of flights to Damascus. One of these, an Economist from 2005, contained a review of a book by Juliet Barker about the Battle of Agincourt, and in particular the role of the English long-bow in deciding the outcome. Given the centrality of this weapon to the story, and the Economist's reputation for precision, it was sad to find in the review two glaring errors in terminology and understanding. One sentence read: "Their weapons were not Tommy-guns but longbows, each six feet long and weighing 150 pounds, strung with gut and equipped with arrows so finely barbed that they could pierce armour-plate." Now, even muscular English archers would have struggled to hold up a ten-stone weight on a fully-extended arm, let alone take good aim; it's a case of misunderstanding terminology. A bow's "weight" is the the force ("pull") required to draw the bow fully. This was usually tested by simply hanging weights on the string until the bow was at full draw, hence "weight". Even so, 150 pounds is a fearsome pull. When I shot competitively in the 1980s my bow's weight was 40 pounds, and that was tough to hold and aim. It was still accurate at 100 yards though, so the longbows at Agincourt must have been devastating. No wonder Henry VIII put such a premium on compulsory archery practice for his subjects.

The other error was referring to "firing" arrows at up to twenty a minute. You "shoot" or "loose" arrows. "Fire", not surprisingly, referred originally to setting off cannon or muskets by applying a lighted taper. Sadly the film Lord of the Rings made the same irksome mistake.

I just hope the book didn't get these things wrong too.

Labels: Viewpoint

The single most impressive business person I have ever met has been Ron Dennis. I had lunch with him in early 2004, when he was then still heading the McLaren Mercedes Racing Team, with enormous success. I was still (just) at the Science Museum at the time, and we were meeting to discuss some possible joint ventures, as well as for me to sound him out about some further financial support for the museum.

What impressed me about Ron Dennis was what I can only describe as "controlled intensity". He was immaculate as always, courteous, a charming and easy conversationalist. He was also, it was clear, a completely driven perfectionist, from big picture down to smallest detail. His business had extended into non-motor racing areas such as catering and hi-fi largely because he had never found a third party supplier capable of matching the uncompromising standards he set for these things. It was easy to see how he had built Mclaren into the force it was in Formula One, and easy too to understand how he could rub some of the other strong personalities in the sport the wrong way. I didn't get the sense of a rampant ego with Ron Dennis, just a complete clarity of purpose, intense self-discipline and an immense will to succeed.

We spoke a lot about his concern to give young people opportunities, particularly in education, and the (unsung) work he was doing in that area. I liked him a lot, and throughout the "cheating" debacle that dogged McLaren a couple of years later I still felt that Ron Dennis was an intrinsically honourable man. His will to succeeed may have led others to do unscrupulous things, but I don't believe Dennis himself would ever have wanted it that way for a moment.

Oh, and he paid for lunch!

Labels: Viewpoint

I had a very enjoyable breakfast today with three of the team which came together to create the Discovery Centre - Anne-Marie, Jan and Tom - which was a chance to revisit some old and pleasurable memories. It's good to have people say what a unique project this has been, and how special the experience of working together has been, and it's flattering to have some of that attributed to my leadership. Something else which was good to hear was that "lobster" has entered the working vocabulary. Lobster has a particular meaning in the context of the design of the discovery centre. Quite early on, when I was describing the experience that I felt visitors should get, I said that it should include something completely unexpected and quirky that made them do a double-take in disbelief, and question what they'd just seen. Something, I said, like a lobster walking upside down on a ceiling. And after that, whenever I felt the thinking was getting too conventional, I would put in a demand for the "lobster factor". And so now it's become a sort of generic shorthand, with the exhibition designers as well. It's a small legacy, but...

Labels: Massar

Labels: Massar

Two common strands run through the canon of work on the subject of citizenship. First, the term citizenship is frequently conflated with direct engagement in a prevailing political process. A common citizenship “challenge”, for example in the US or UK, is seen as making politics relevant to young people and encouraging them to participate in the democratic process of electing representatives. A ”citizen” is deemed primarily to be one who properly carries out their part of the contract between a state and its people. Second, in a world of shifting populations, citizenship is increasingly intertwined with notions of nationality and legitimacy of residence in a country. This concept of citizenship touches on circumstance of birth, ethnicity, passport, and often a capacity to fit with (or indeed pass an examination in) some official doctrine of national identity.

The definition of active citizenship for Massar has centred on a different concept: that of fostering a sense of individual responsibility for achieving common good. Massar’s definition is more aligned with the current notion of “global citizens” – people who are aware that our communal global state (irrespective of national borders) results from an interconnected multitude of tiny individual choices and actions, and who are motivated to take action as individuals to make that communal state better. For Massar the outcome of citizenship is a healthy society (whether local, national or global) rather than nationhood.

Labels: Massar

Massar dates back to late 2002, and the wish by Syria’s First Lady, Her Excellency Asma Al Assad, to create a children’s museum in the country. However, during the process of defining in greater detail the purpose of such a museum in late 2004, it became clear that a much deeper and more powerful agenda for young people in Syria lay behind the First Lady’s proposal. This agenda reflected a central role for young people in building Syria’s future as a nation, the need in the country for a strong civil society as an essential complement to government and the private sector, and a strong commitment to create opportunities for young people from all walks of life.

Syria was a country in transition, and was looking to make change sustainable by building from within, respecting and retaining its distinctive cultural strengths, while investing in its long-term assets – its future generations and their whole approach to life’s new opportunities and challenges. Syria’s young people represented enormous untapped potential, not just as an economic resource but as standard-bearers for a new expression of self-directed, thoughtful and participative citizenship that could inspire and empower individuals and communities across the country.

Building active citizenship as a prevailing state of mind, in which young people would feel innately predisposed and able to seek out ways to contribute positively to their community and the wider world, while at the same time developing and fulfilling their own potential as individuals, thus became an early broad statement of purpose for Massar. Still with a children’s museum in its plan, the project’s vision and scope expanded significantly to embrace this wider social purpose.

In late 2004 there was no directly comparable project model elsewhere in the world from which Massar could draw at least basic empirical information for the design of its programmes. The emerging Massar strategy outlined a wide-ranging, national but non-governmental initiative, offering non-formal learning opportunities to young people between the ages of 5 and 21 (initially the upper age was 15, later extended). From these opportunities they could explore and develop their own potential, for their own individual fulfilment and success, and for the good of others. As a non-governmental organisation, Massar had no remit to intervene in the formal education system or any other aspect of government provision; its programmes would be independent but complementary. A long-term view would be taken of outcomes; some results might be seen immediately, but the embedding of changed attitudes and behaviour was expected to take years if not generations. In a Massar project initiation document from February 2005 its broad aim was captured as follows: ’At the heart of this project is the concept of building “active citizenship”, in which children’s growing understanding and appreciation of themselves and the world around them leads to greater direct individual responsibility and involvement. This responsibility and involvement might manifest itself in environmental or social activity, volunteering and pro bono public work, the forming of interest groups and knowledge communities, wider public debate on important issues, or in a broad range of creative outcomes. As a whole, it should stimulate new generations to be aware of issues, challenges and opportunities, to be concerned to tackle them, and to look for actions they can take by themselves or with others.’ A number of specific characteristics were included in the original design of Massar’s programmes, as follows:

• Massar would explicitly aim to reach and engage with all 8 million young people in its target age range across the whole of Syria, from all walks of life. This led to an early emphasis on building activities that would take Massar to communities in all parts of the country – the national touring programme launched in 2005, the first regional resource centre in 2007, online activities in 2007, the web portal in 2009 – and only later the creation of its main discovery centre in Damascus, due in 2012. This is the reverse of the approach of most children’s museum projects, where the immediate priority is to create a museum building for audiences to visit, to be followed only later by (often half-hearted) outreach programmes within a limited catchment area. This site/destination approach works well for already motivated, mobile, middle-class children and families; it tends to disenfranchise those at a distance and those who may feel socially intimidated by the prospect of visiting. If Massar were to succeed in changing attitudes its programmes and effect should not be limited to those already predisposed towards change, but should be as universal in spread as possible. In the event, by concentrating from the start on activities that reached nationally, Massar was also able to gain an understanding of the variety of different cultural norms in areas of the country, and to design other programmes with these in mind.

• Massar should be visibly distinct from the formal establishment, especially in the area of education. Without such a distinction the risk could exist that Massar would be regarded by young people as representing the same sorts of conformity and applying the same kinds of methodology and judgement. In practice this has meant that, although schools represent one of the most effective channels to reach young people, Massar has to date run no classroom-based programmes, and has developed all its platforms itself. Furthermore, given that Massar was about encouraging self-directed attitudes and ambitions in young people, it needed to be distinct from conventional mechanisms of provision. Massar should be understood by young people as being a part of their own journey of discovery, rather than doing things for them. For example, Massar does not use formal Arabic but a more vernacular voice in talking with young people. Massar does collaborate effectively with government agencies – for example its own language cannot be at odds with that used in the classroom, otherwise children cannot apply their development in class to their non-formal learning and vice versa – but maintains a distinctly separate public face.

• Massar would aim to ingrain pro-social behaviour – what has been described as “the habits of citizenship” – through providing young people with the encouragement, tools and opportunities to practise it. Where possible, programmes would also develop empathy by having end results which would benefit needy third parties. So, for example, in 2009 a fun-run organised by Massar volunteers in Lattakia had a clear charitable purpose – to raise money for additional kidney dialysis machines for local hospitals – a pressing need. Also in 2009, a young journalists competition staged by Massar in Homs gave competing teams the task of creating video reports on the subject of local special needs groups. The result in both cases was not just an increase in the confidence and capability of the young people involved, but a new awareness of the situation of others, and their own capacity to make a positive difference.

• While its programmes would be as widespread and inclusive as possible across its 8 million national target, Massar would look to nurture catalysts, a limited number of young people who demonstrated the personality and capacity to set strong positive (“humanistic-flexible”, likely to help or intervene) examples among their peers, and so break the plurality of ignorance cycle. These young catalysts, by being likely to make an appropriate response to situations or needs, would help to redefine the shared consensus of their group.

• To do this, Massar’s programmes, places and experiences would be designed to provide young people with “permission” (within a clear framework of “safety” that would reassure both the children themselves and their parents or teachers). In many cases this requires little more than the explicit removal of the inhibitory rules that govern the formal education experience – an emphasis on avoiding failure, which discourages experimentation and innovation; the application of a single learning style; a rigid curriculum. Massar would offer young the opportunity to explore and develop at their own pace. Programmes would reward participation and endeavour, not the “right” result. Often permission would be in the form of space (real or virtual) that young people can feel is their own and within which they are given shared responsibility to form and uphold the rules. Massar’s web portal, for example, will be policed primarily by its own users, as well as by a cadre of volunteer portal champions.

• Massar would address inhibitory “rules” – wider contextual cultural constraints, expectations and norms – through the parallel involvement of parents and teachers. On one level, unless parents could feel at ease with Massar’s approach and standards, then their children would not be allowed to participate. It would be important for parents to be introduced to Massar as a concept and feel confident that it was not in any way risky or extreme. At another level, non-formal learning is best viewed as a continuous social experience, in which the learning of the child is complemented by the involvement and perspective of many others. Given the relatively limited capacity of Massar to engage with young people compared to their time in school or at home, the more teachers and parents can understand and support the Massar process the stronger it can be. In particular this involves an appreciation that children explore and learn through play, and that one of the best signs of a learning child is curiosity. An often-quoted story from the UK is of a parent who called up London Zoo to complain that “the education programme you ran yesterday was no good. My boy did nothing but ask me questions all the way home.” Massar would encourage such curiosity and enquiry, and the participation of parents and teachers would be a powerful element in their development. Both groups would be encouraged to attend and take part in activities.

• Massar would re-work the five steps to encourage intervention proposed by Latané and Darley into sequential learning stages to encourage participation. These steps would be integrated into all of Massar’s activities and especially into the way it addressed topics in exhibitions and publications:

1. Understanding – Massar’s programmes would be strongly subject-based, encouraging young people to develop the skills for accessing and filtering information, analysis, critical enquiry, and building perspective from a base of relevant factual knowledge. Particular subjects and topics would be at the core of most Massar programmes and environments, and a variety of learning styles would be catered for in their presentation. This would place an emphasis on reading skills, media literacy, and field or on-line research.
2. Choices and implications – Massar’s programmes would encourage young people to go beyond factual knowledge to seek out underlying issues and causes, to appreciate the implications of human action (or inaction), and to examine the choices that situations offer. With a small number of non-contentious exceptions, Massar would not promote any social agenda; the aim would be to encourage young people to reach their own conclusions.
3. Responsibility – all Massar’s content and programmes would also aim create a direct connection between the appreciation of a situation and the recognition by participants of their personal connection with it and responsibility towards it.
4. Engagement – Massar would work with young people to stimulate in them some form of direct response or action. Massar would not prefer any particular type of response; it might be creative, expressed in art or photography, or a collaborative group project, in the virtual or real world. Young people might help others or develop themselves, perhaps by choosing to study a subject further. What would matter was that young people had chosen to take some action.
5. Empathy – at the highest level Massar would seek to build into its activities and experiences an awareness of and feeling for the situation of others, in Syria and the rest of the world.
   

The Massar discovery centre being built in Damascus has thus a very different intended character from a conventional children’s museum or science centre. It will take visitors on a hands-on critical thinking journey through six main topic areas called: Beginnings, Life, Our World, Ideas, Achievements, and You Can Do It. Beginnings shows how each individual is an active part of a larger whole, whether family, community, country or world. Life examines the complex connections within the living world, and mankind’s impact on it. Our World deals with the physical and inanimate world, and the risks in taking it for granted. Ideas looks at how we learn and form impressions, how our minds can sometimes be tricked, and how we create ideas, concepts and plans. Achievements looks widely at what constitutes an achievement, at lessons from the past, and at the law of unforeseen consequences. You Can Do It invites visitors to take on some aspect of active citizenship. Both the journey as a whole and the interactive treatment of each topic embody the sequential learning steps, with a resource library at the journey’s end providing the means for visitors immediately to start putting Engagement into practice. Though providing a great deal of subject knowledge as the basis for understanding and empathy, all the centre’s exhibits and activities pose questions, make connections, challenge preconceptions and raise issues, inviting young people and families to think, choose and act, not just in the centre itself but outside in the real world.

Massar’s regional centres – smaller spaces distributed across Syria providing exhibitions, activity programmes and resources, usually focussed on a subject theme – have a similar emphasis on encouraging young people to explore their world critically and develop their own potential. These centres can also play a direct role in the life of the local community, and they offer young people the platform on which they can develop pro-social awareness and habits, and the tools to put helping behaviour into practice. The centres encourage repeat visits, and build strong sense of ownership and responsibility for “their” centre among young users. The first regional centre opened in 2007 in Lattakia, and two more are currently in preparation, in Homs and Aleppo.

Massar’s touring activities have been running nationally since 2005, and though these are relatively brief one-off “permission” encounters, they are very catalytic. For younger age groups, a stage show about learning through our senses is followed by story-telling (stimulating the imagination) and an “archaeological dig” (practising touch, sight and analysis). For teenagers, the sessions are managed as a debate about identity, rights, and issues that the children themselves want to discuss. Working in teams, the teenagers produce a newspaper front page and a video clip about the subjects they choose. These debates have covered topics such as immigration, housing, violence, health and work. For many of the teenagers involved this is the first time they have engaged in a serious discussion and felt their views are being paid attention to. The programme’s animators and facilitators – known as the Green Team – have themselves have become positive role models for the children who attend the touring activities.

The Massar web portal is designed to encourage user-generated content and user moderation of the portal community’s behaviour. It is an on-line platform offering open-source web tools, a wiki-style knowledge base, discussion forums, display space for created work and a blogosphere. It provides “safe” space inasmuch as links to potentially harmful external websites are restricted, but what the portal’s users can do within the site is deliberately left as much as possible up to them. While Massar supervises and moderates to a degree, it is made clear to users that they all share the responsibility for protecting the site from abuse.

Relating both to the on-line and real worlds, E-Volunteers launched in 2007 and its young participants achieved, among other things, the creation of what has now become Syria’s national computer database of blood donors. Volunteer projects have also included organising charity events and teaching IT skills to the blind and the old. Collaborative Learning links Syrian students with counterparts round the world to work together on a topic, which is brought together in the form of a study website. E-Debate is being developed jointly with the Open Society Institute. Here young people are given training in formal debating techniques and brought together with others from around the world to exchange perspectives and argue points of view.

Much has changed since 2004 but as far as I know Massar remains unique as a national, non-governmental citizenship initiative.

Labels: Massar

I've got/had various pieces of luggage by Tumi over the years. At present I have a very battered leather overnight bag out here with me, and at home there is a canvas (sorry, ballistic nylon) holdall in a wardrobe which gets brought out from time to time. I once had a very nice Tumi garment bag as well, which lasted a couple of trips to North America and then got stolen from my office in the V&A! I like their stuff, and some of the current range look to have addressed some of the small detail niggles I've had (like padlocks flopping about exposed rather than having somewhere to be tucked away neatly). They also have some really nice looking ranges at the moment, in particular Townhouse and LXT. Tumi seem to me to be a bit like Range Rover - products up for the toughest adventures but stylish with it. Tumi are, or should be, people who take performance seriously, and who aim to appeal to the serious traveller who wants the best kit for the job. Or at least travellers who want to be seen as serious. So I find Tumi's website rather disappointing in its lack of the basic information that serious travellers would be looking for: such as, most seriously, weight. Given that nowadays airlines are putting such a premium on weight, it seems crazy that Tumi don't state how much each suitcase weighs, not even their lightweight range! In fact the whole presentation of Tumi on the website seems curiously flat and uninteresting, as if they were laying out their range for wholesale buyers rather than real customers. There's no sense of emotional attachment, no story, no joy; it's just dry product. Pity to see such a brand opportunity go to waste.

Labels: Branding, Luggage, Travel

I'm lost in the beauty of a piece of music I'm listening to at the moment - Siwan by Jon Balke. This is a suite of (mainly) songs inspired by looking back at the great flowering across cultures, religions, arts and sciences in pre-1500 Andalucia and wondering what such an interplay would sound like today. The result blends Arabic and Spanish in a contemporary but timeless style, with chords that catch at the soul. Simply breathtaking. The final piece, Toda Sciencia Transcendiendo, is so simple, building from verse to verse with gradual elaboration, the title phrase repeating with ever-changing emphasis, and a haunting lift at the end of each verse. Extraordinary, uplifting stuff.

Labels: Viewpoint

Labels: Politics

So, after more than five years I am soon stepping down as CEO of Massar and handing the reins on to others to hold from here onwards. I have very mixed feelings about doing so, but it had to happen sometime, probably should have been done two years earlier, and I haven't been giving my family the time and attention they deserve for far too long. And actually, it's a big weight lifted; the job here has for many reasons become too bureaucratic, too political, too inward-looking - none of these things being my forte. The team is more than able to take on my responsibilities now, and Massar will thrive. I am finishing here at the end of March, spending a couple of weeks with Helen as tourists creating great memories of Syria to take away, and then heading back to the UK for some serious decompression time. My personal investment here is enormous, and I won't go without a lot of emotion. But I will be back in the future, often.

Even handing in my notice wasn't simple. I wrote a letter to Mrs A, only to discover some time later that her office had not passed it on to her for over a week because she was ill.  So by the time we actually met to discuss it all, her opportunity to brief the incoming CEO of the Syria Trust (of which Massar is a part) had been cut short, and we ended up with all three of us sitting in the same slightly awkward meeting, rather than having an informal one-to-one chat. It wasn't the first time I had met Omar, who I think will do just fine as CEO of the Trust. Having the greater responsibility of Massar thrust upon him can't have made his eyes light up; there is plenty of deep surgery he will need to do to get the Trust in any sort of productive shape, including getting rid of some very senior managers. But he's a big boy, with plenty of support to make his responsibilities a little bit easier.

Labels: Massar

A comment on Facebook about Massar from one of our great volunteers in Lattakia, Ahmad Shallouf "Well.. Here's the thing, the first lady said to us once that one hand cannot clap on its own so.. We must thank you all for giving us the opportunity.. Without you we couldn't have done anything either.. It was quite letterally the best experience of my life, Massar.. And its still going.. It still is.."

Labels: Massar

If I have a general observation about airlines it is that they over-pamper their business and first class passengers, and treat their economy passengers too casually. Of course people who fly first and business are paying for the special treatment, but it is dangerous to make economy flyers feel they are viewed and treated by the airline as a sub-class, second rate, a necessary nuisance and not appreciated. Many years ago when I worked for British Telecom I was responsible for public relations for payphones - at that time BT's unloved orphan child. Payphones in the UK at that time were legendary for being out of service, used as urinals, covered with graffiti and robbed of cash. They were disgraceful, and of course PR on its own could do little or nothing to change that. BT was investing slowly in card phones to deal with the security problems, but management really wished they could be shot of the whole embarassing operation, which of course as the national phone company they could not get rid of.

What turned management attitudes completely around was the discovery that their dismal treatment of payphones had a significant impact on how their (commercially very important) corporate customers viewed BT. These business buyers - rightly - saw payphones as exemplifying BT's attitude towards all of its operations; payphones made an important and very public brand statement. And by ignoring their own public face BT was sending out a strong "don't care" message to the people it really wanted to impress and do business with. Once management realised this, payphones started getting some very serious attention and investment, and the situation rapidly improved.

What does this have to do with airlines? Well, I believe they are running the risk of viewing economy customers much as BT saw its payphones - something to be put up with grudgingly while the "real" business is elsewhere. Today that is a huge mistake. More and more senior business people are flying economy. The attitudes they find there will either make an airline's brand or ruin it, just as much if not more than the attitude towards "turn left" passengers. There is the same brand crossover and connection being made. Airlines who invest in making economy class passengers feel appreciated (which needn't take lots of investment, just attitude) have everything to gain.

Labels: Airlines, Travel

To launch the new IT/Debate part of the centre we threw a party, and just a few more people came than we were expecting...

Labels: Massar

Labels: Syria

Over the last two years I have flown a lot with bmi between London and Damascus. And really, I've found it, with only one exception, a very enjoyable experience whether in business class or economy. bmi have a great local team at Damascus airport, which really helps, and their agent here, Tawfik Jabassini, is outstandingly helpful. It is altogether infinitely preferable (I'm somewhat sad to say) than flying SyrianAir on the same route. There is plenty of room in bmi's business class, unlike the two rows in SyrianAir's Airbus; the planes are clean(er); the cabin crews are professional, and there aren't clouds of cigarette smoke wafting from the bmi flight deck, as there always are on SyrianAir planes.

The snafu occurred in 2008 when I was booked on a bmi flight from London codeshared with BA. I double-checked the flight time on the BA website, but when I rang bmi just before leaving for Heathrow, I was told that the flight had already left as the schedule had changed. The details are in another post so I won't repeat them here. I wrote to bmi's chairman to complain, and Helen had a flight of hers upgraded to business class as a result which was good.

In general though I've enjoyed travelling with bmi. Their operation at Heathrow is now very slick; check-in staff are smart, helpful and charming. The business lounge is excellent. Even their in-flight magazine is interesting. There are a couple of things I would suggest they improved if anyone consulted me (chiefly their telephone support), but overall it's been a pleasure, so thanks bmi.

Labels: Airlines, Travel

Well, I have finally done it. I've just sent a letter of resignation to Mrs Assad, proposing that I step down at the end of March next year. We had discusssed the possibility that I might move from this role on to a sort of Chairman role, but I now believe I should cut the knot completely. It's never a pleasant thing to do, but for all sorts of reasons I feel it is the best thing for me, the family and for the project, although it may take people some time to see the latter. Anyhow, it's final, and I will have to wait for her response to see how we go forward.

Labels: Massar

Lots of thoughts around on this. My own? Management as about delivering what is, and leadership about seeing what could be. Each applying equally to people and processes.

Labels: Management

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."

Theodore Roosevelt (1858 - 1919), "Man in the Arena" Speech given April 23, 1910

Labels: Viewpoint

Look - explore, be open, find new viewpoints

Think - study beyond the subject, consider the deeper issues, find new meanings

Do - turn up, be on the pitch, take responsibility, see it through

Connect - communicate, tell stories, listen, share, smile

Care - empathise, respect, be passionate, believe, take the first step

Labels: Management

This, from the New York Times, is a fascinating graphic explanation of why Obama has to get to grips with US healthcare.

Labels: Politics

Two pieces on the BBC website caught my eye today, both equally depressing.

"Conservative clerics in Iran have criticised a proposal by re-elected President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to include three women in his new cabinet.

"There are religious doubts over the abilities of women when it comes to management," said hardline lawmaker Mohammad Taghi Rahbar.

He said his views were shared by many MPs from his clerics' faction, which dominates Iran's parliament."

And

"Tens of thousands of people in Mali's capital, Bamako, have been protesting against a new law which gives women equal rights in marriage.

The law, passed earlier this month, also strengthens inheritance rights for women and children born out of wedlock.

The head of a Muslim women's association says only a minority of Malian women - "the intellectuals" as she put it - supports the law.

One of the most contentious issues in the new legislation is that women are no longer required to obey their husbands.

Hadja Sapiato Dembele of the National Union of Muslim Women's Associations said the law goes against Islamic principles.

"We have to stick to the Koran," Ms Dembele told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme. "A man must protect his wife, a wife must obey her husband."

"It's a tiny minority of women here that wants this new law - the intellectuals. The poor and illiterate women of this country - the real Muslims (my italics) - are against it," she added."

Labels: Viewpoint

When people say "it's not about the money"...it's ALWAYS about the money.

Labels: Viewpoint