Sebastian’s purview

• Papa, wil je ingelast zijn?” “Wat is dat? Dat woord ken ik niet.” “Ik wel.” “Waar heb je dat woord geleerd?” “Op mijn werk. Ga maar liggen, dan pak ik de kerstbal.

  12/04/12

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  The view from the MCNV-Laos office could be worse.

  
  

  08/01/12

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  sadowa:

  AP PHOTO

  
  

  China Reveals Its Hand

  or the first time in its 45-year history, ASEAN’s foreign ministers failed to issue a joint communiqué following their annual consultations last week in Phnom Penh. It is important to understand this high profile failure. What happened? And what does it mean for ASEAN and for the strategies of the United States and other countries with strong interests in the Asia Pacific?

  What Happened?

  The ASEAN foreign ministers spent hours reviewing a substantive agenda that by all accounts represented the growing maturity of ASEAN and its relevance not only to its 10 member countries but to its dialogue partners from around the world. The depth and range of the discussions underlined the conclusion that ASEAN is making progress and maturing to a level where it can address the most pressing issues in the region. Its discussions last week touched on a broad array of concerns-from economic cooperation and integration to political and security alignment to social and cultural cooperation. Even politically sensitive issues such as North Korea, bilateral tensions between ASEAN countries, and the disputes in the South China Sea were fully discussed.

  Problems arose when it was time to draft the joint communiqué. 

  
  

  07/24/12

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  Everywhere in Vietnam people are building. And it’s really just the people who do it with their bare hands. Labour is cheap, but anything with moving parts or electronics is close to the same price you would expect in Europe. The result is that building projects have many men walking around, but little equipment. Why have an elevator for bricks when somebody can haul them up? A cement mill? Just pay a guy with a stick.

  Also fascinating is that all houses start being propped up by simple wooden structures. Here a future office building is being held together with simple sticks.

  
  

  07/11/12

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  Graffiti Vietnam style: all these people are offering services as stone-cutter and driller, leaving their cellphone in hopes of customers. Who to pick?

  
  

  07/09/12

• Be the change you wish to see in the world

  Mahatma Ghandi

  07/17/11

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  How you can destroy a brandname one consumer at a time. ING is one of the Netherlands’ leading banks, and has an iPhone app for which they clearly not care. At time of writing, 1652 consumers expressed their dismay, most in unbelief since competitors’ apps are so much better (ABMAMRO in particular) and some even expressing their intention to cancel their account.

  In this day and age, it’s better NOT to invest in such channels, than to invest only just enough to lose you customers.

  
  

  07/10/11

• The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help them or concluded that you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.

  Colin Powell, Leadership Primer

  07/09/11

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  A picture says more than a thousand words. And can make you cringe just as much. 

  
  

  07/03/11