Panda Diplomacy

Today I came across a book titled "The Way of The Panda: The Curious History of China's Political Animal". It had a cute cover and intriguing title, which prompted me to learn more about the "Panda Diplomacy" (I didn't buy the book though).

Here's what I found out online:

• China is the only native home of pandas.
• China has been using giant pandas as diplomatic gifts to other countries since the Tang Dynasty, when Empress Wu Zetian sent a pair of pandas to the Japanese emperor.
• The face of panda diplomacy has changed over the years.
• 1950s: The communist party saw the opportunity to give pandas as a gift to build strategic friendships. Russia and North Korea were recipients of the gifts.
• 1972-1984: Pandas used as gifts to the west, starting with the US, followed by Japan, France, UK, Germany and Mexico.
• 1984-1998: Pandas were available for a ten-year loan period. The cost of renting a panda is $1 million a year, to be payable to China's Wildlife Conservation Association. In addition, any cubs born to loaned-out pandas are to be returned to China.
• 2008-Present: Panda loans are based on mutual need where nations supply China with valuable resources and technology. The pandas do not form the deal; rather, they represent the "seal" of approval and intent for a long and prosperous working relationship.

2008 Sichuan Earthquake

The devastating earthquake severely damaged a considerable proportion of panda habitat and the conservation & breeding centres. Repairs to the nature reserve were expected to take at least 4 years - in the meantime these "refugee" pandas needed a place to stay.

China's response? To offer panda gift-loans to a new group of nations with which China was negotiating important trade agreements, i.e. Japan, Scotland, Canada, France, Singapore and Malaysia (arriving in 2014).

The Panda "Signal"
One can also read the signals from the panda gifts to decipher China's direction or agenda.

• Scotland received the panda-loan for its supply of salmon meat, Land Rovers, and petrochemical and renewable technology. You may think, so what? For the past 2 decades, Norway has been China's salmon supplier until relations between both countries became strained following the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to jailed China dissident Liu Xiaobo. Woahhhh...I bet if Norway had pandas, China will ask for them back immediately.
• The panda loans to Canada and France coincide with their long-term contracts to supply China with uranium oxide. Uranium oxide is a major component in nuclear power...
• China presented a pair of pandas, Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan, as a "gift" to Taiwan. The fact that the pandas is a "gift" implies that China considers Taiwan a province, since the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species specifies China can only give pandas to domestic zoos (Foreign zoos can only receive the pandas as loans). In addition, the names of the pandas, coined by a mass vote in China, means "reunion". Needless to say, supporters of Taiwan's independence and the opposition party Democratic Progressive Party will not be visiting the pandas any time soon.

The "Elite Club"
The costs of keeping pandas are substantial. You will need to build and maintain the panda facilities, source for an adequate supply of bamboo, and there is this expectation to breed the pandas. Not to mention, the loan contracts contain fines of $500,000 if a panda dies and human error is involved.

Yet, countries desire to join the elite club of panda-renting nations. China must be doing something right here...

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Sources:

LA Times - http://articles.latimes.com/2006/mar/21/world/fg-pandas21

Business Insider - http://www.businessinsider.com/chinas-panda-diplomacy-is-more-significant-than-ever-2013-11

Time - http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1736273,00.html; http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1868376,00.html

Global Post - http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/the-rice-bowl/china-panda-diplomacy
Academia.edu - http://www.academia.edu/4289360/ENVIRONMENTAL_REVIEWS_AND_CASE_STUDIES_Diplomats_and_Refugees_Panda_Diplomacy_Soft_Cuddly_Power_and_the_New_Trajectory_in_Panda_Conservation

Lamb shoulder chops with my Rangemate Microwave Cooker

Step 1: Coat the base of the pan with 2 tablespoons of oil.

Step 2: Place lamb shoulder chops flat on pan. 

Step 3: Dress lightly with salt, rosemary & pepper. 

Step 4: Cover, and place cooker in microwave. 

Step 5: Set microwave on high for 2 minutes. 

Step 6: Take out pan & flip the chops. 

Step 7: Cover, and put in microwave on high for another 2 minutes.

Step 8: Remove from microwave. 

Step 9: Remove chops from pan to serve. 

P/s: The sunny side ups were also cooked using the Rangemate cooker (2mins on High). 

Cameras, photos & album-ing

During those days when we had to use films in our camera, there is always this conscious effort to ration the film for fear that you run out of film at a location you would like to take a photo of. Also, as there was no way to check your photos, a number of them would turn out bad which would leave you with no photos (since you only took 1 or 2 at each spot). 

Then came the digital camera. My family's first digital camera was a Canon Powershot. My father consciously chose to buy a camera which did not come with those rechargeable lithium type batteries. In his words, "those batteries cannot last and will spoil faster than the camera". You must remember that this was more than 10 years ago, and replacement lithium batteries are not as cheap and easy to find as compared to the variety of "replica" models we have today. The camera is still working today - but has become too cumbersome to carry around, especially the spare AA batteries.

With the SD card, we can take more photos at each location and delete the bad ones immediately. Storage capacity has become less of an issue nowadays as you can easily afford a 4/8GB SD card - which allows you to store more than 500 photos taken with a compact camera.

In the 2000s digital cameras became affordable for the mass market. Brands competed with one another to produce the trendiest, slimmest, lightest and smallest digital camera. It was convenient to bring the camera with you to town as you can slip it in your purse or pocket. Shops that used to develop the film negatives have also innovated with kiosks for you to browse and select the photos you wish to print. Most likely you will end up selecting a lot of photos, making album-"ing" them a chore, and you end up leaving them in their original stack, somewhere on the shelf. 

Around 2010, prices for the DSLR dropped significantly, paving the way for mass market consumers. Though their prices still double the compact cameras, photography enthusiasts see the value in owning them. The added features include high-resolution photos, wide lens, great zoom, etc. The community is also growing, making resales and rental of equipment very accessible. 

More recently, when I was on holiday, I noticed the increase in the number of smartphone/tablet-camera users. I can think of some reasons for this: 

1) Convenience. Your phone is likely to be in some place more accessible than the camera 

2) Quick set up time. For iPhone users, you can even take a photo when your phone is locked.

3) Social media. You can upload your photo to Facebook or Instagram at the next Starbucks. Not to mention you can enhance the photos using the apps on your phone. 

4) Cool features like panaroma and the new Samsung one that can add your face in the pic you are taking. 

5) My iPhone 5 takes better nightshots than my Lumix Fx-5. (Or maybe it's just me)

6) Selfies. Unless you have those expensive cameras that come with the big screen at the front, the phone or tablet is the best tool available. 

To build on an earlier point about album-"ing", Facebook becomes a convenient location to house and share your photos. You can upload the photos when you get back to your hotel at night to tell your friends what you have been up to for the day. I have even come across this status update on Facebook: "Will be traveling to XXX for the next few days. I don't think I'll have Internet access so you won't hear from me. Pls don't think I've gone missing. However, please send a search & rescue team if you don't see me back online in 3 days."

So what can we expect from the future? Compact camera manufacturers have already begun to innovate. We can now find wifi-enabled cameras (that lets you upload your photos to Facebook or share with your friends) and compact-DSLRs (for those who find the traditional DSLRs too bulky). The smartphone/tablet camera will still continue to innovate (higher resolution?) and can possibly replace the standard compact cameras that we have today. Only time will tell...

Here's some photos using my iPhone 5. I have more photos in my camera, but it's just too inconvenient to transfer them to the PC especially since I'm blogging from my phone...

Selfie - evidence that I climbed all the way up to the pedestal and had no one to take a photo of me. 

Panaromic shot on board the Chicago Architecture Cruise. 

Night shot of the Empire State Building from Top of the Rock

Photo collage of sightings at the American Museum of Natural History. 

Why do wives/girlfriends ask for opinion but don't take them?

If this happens a lot in your relationship, don't fret. My husband and I have a fair share of such conversations which got me thinking why my response was such. I can think of 1 reason to justify why such scenarios happen - and it is nothing personal. Perhaps this can help to explain why your wife or girlfriend behaves this way as well.

A typical scenario goes something like this:

Husband: Where to for dinner?

Wife: Hmmm no preference, you decide?

Husband: Japanese or Western food?

Wife: Hmmm no preference. You decide?

Husband: Japanese?

Wife: How about Western?

Husband: ok...

So what happened here? At the point when Japanese or Western is proposed, the wife is likely to not have a clear favourite. We can say that the preference for either option is 50/50 or deviating by a very small margin, i.e 49/51. When the husband made the selection to go with Japanese, it occurred to the wife that she won't be eating Western food for dinner, and thus this "loss" is thrown into the evaluation process. When this happens, if the thought of forgoing Western causes more "pain" than the thought of forgoing Japanese, we will see the wife making the decision to go with Western instead.

The decision-making process had shifted from the thought of "how much I want to eat Japanese vs how much I want to eat Western" to "how much I have to forgo if eat Japanese vs how much I have to forgo if I eat Western". This shift is substantive as additional thoughts may come to play, such as, "if I don't eat Western today, the next time we eat it could be 2 months later since it's not always we are in the area".

With all these thoughts rushing through the wife's mind in that short span of a few seconds, it's no wonder that she will jump to the alternate option.

An interesting insight of what people in NYC and SG do when commuting to work

This was an observation I made during my week-long-holiday in NYC recently. This observation was made from my daily peak hour commute on the 1-2-3 subways.

Observation 1: A good number of NYC commuters are "book readers". In Singapore, you can hardly find commuters who still read actual physical books on the MRT. In fact, the number of e-book readers is also quite small. 

Observation 2: NYC commuters are not engrossed with their phone or electronic device. The "engagement" is usually limited to listening to music from the iPod / phone. Singapore commuters spend much more time on their phones or tablets - either browsing Facebook, playing games, and/or watching videos - which bring me to the next point. 

Observation 3: No one watches downloaded videos on their phone in NYC. In Singapore, a large number of commuters have HK, Korean, US dramas loaded on their phone. NYC residents must be fulfilling their TV time at home I guess.

Observation 4: The New York subways are loud because of the old infrastructure it is running on. However the noise helps to eliminate other common noises we hear while commuting in Singapore - such as people's conversations on the phone & each other, as well as the irritating ear phones that unnecessarily project (usually) techno music to everyone else in the carriage. 

Observation 5: There are less "sleepers" in the NYC subways compared to in the Singapore MRT. Perhaps their commute time is shorter? Or perhaps it's in their nature to keep alert for safety reasons?

The Cupcake Trend

In recent years, the cupcake stole the hearts, stomachs and wallets of many, through colourful & pretty icing swirls, yummy flavours like red velvet, chocolate, peanut butter, and lastly, by costing up to $4.50 per piece. The craze in the US hit a high mark in June 2001, when Crumbs Bake Shop Inc, a New York-based chain, debuted on the NASDAQ.

Why is the cupcake so popular?
Some thoughts...
- Relatively low barrier to entry
- "Placements" in TV shows i.e. Sex and the City
- Cupcake as an "affordable indulgence"

Now that the cupcake trend is dying, what will replace it?
[Something to think about...]

The upward trend of marriages arising from "Internet couples"

I came across this chapter called "Internet Marrieds" in the book "Microtrends: The small forces behind tomorrow's big changes" by Mark J Penn. 

The point the author was trying to make: The upward trend of marriages arising from "Internet couples" could potentially lead to the 1990s stigma regarding online dating to be dead, and scouring your "the One" from earth and the Internet to be the norm.

  

Is a call tree still relevant today?

BCMPedia (which I never knew existed before this) defines a call tree as "a structured cascade process (system) that enables a lists of persons, roles, and/or organisations to be contacted as a part of an information or plan invocation procedure".

A call tree is typically used in an organisation BCP/DR-scenario to disseminate information to staff, i.e. the boss calls 3 of his subordinates, each of the subordinates calls another 3 subordinates, and so on. By splitting the load, the task of disseminating information to large groups of people becomes more manageable. The advantages include: Every person only needs to remember the phone numbers of those in their branches; In the event that someone is not reachable, the person can focus on re-dialing instead of having to complete the long list of persons he has to inform; and many others.

Call trees were efficient means to transmit information to large groups of people in the days when the internet or mobile phones were not prevalent.

However, are they still relevant today? Consumer-based tools such as multi-party voice calls, SMS, WhatsApp, and Line allow for convenient mass notification. There are also enterprise-grade tools and services that can send voice and text notifications to your intended recipients repeatedly until they respond.

While each of these tools have their pros and cons, it is interesting to note, or at least from what I infer from Google, that no one seems to be challenging whether the existence of call trees today is for its superiority over the alternatives, or simply just out of nostalgia and habit.

Disclaimer: These are simply my thoughts and I do not guarantee the accuracy of the information provided in my article. I am not an expert in business continuity nor does my day job require any expertise in that area. I am merely a participant in my organisation's call-tree. I welcome you to highlight any inaccuracies in the comment section below. 

Why do waffles smell better than they taste?

The idea of this blog was conceptualised after 2 days of working out of office. It seems that when you are located outside of your comfort zone, i.e. your office cubicle/workspace, your thoughts become less boxed in, and you become more aware of your surroundings. Questions will come; you may not have the answer nor the solution, but it excites you to want to find out more.

The purpose of this blog is to pen down such thoughts & questions for mind-wandering moments like this. I am not anxious to find the answer to my questions, but am looking forward to see where this thought will bring me.

I urge you, my friends, if opportunity permits, to take time off once a while to step out and smell the waffles :)