The Rotaract Club of Beijing in action

In Beijing we only have one Rotary Club, due to Chinese restrictions. Also, we are not allowed to have Chinese passport holders as members of Rotary.
Under the umbrella of the Rotary Club of Beijing, we also have the “young generation”: Interact, up to 18 years old (established in Dulwich College), and Rotaract, the 18 to under 30 group.
Rotaracters are mostly young professionals (trying to make it) and students. An interesting mix of young people from different corners of the world, USA, Peru, Iceland, Germany, Thailand, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Czech Republic, … We also welcome local Chinese volunteers as friends of Rotaract and some have been helping us greatly.
I am the liaison person between Rotary and Rotaract, a role I love because our Rotaracters are so dynamic and full of ideas. Sometimes I wonder how they manage to do all the activities. I have been a member of Rotary in Beijing since many years.
We mostly meet on Monday evening 8 pm in Brussels Restaurant, in Sanlitun.
Last week on 11 March we had the President of our Rotary Club coming over to talk about his colorful life and career, and how he landed in Beijing. David Van Mierendonk is a U.S. citizen, from Brooklyn, as he loves to stress. Our present Rotaract president is, by coincidence, also from the USA: Ian Curtiss.


We all loved David’s talk and many people tuned up.
For more info on Rotaract in Beijing: http://www.rotaractbeijing.org/

Gilbert is professor now, with Beijing Jiaotong University

Yes, you can call me “professor” now (only if you insist).
Today I officially received my certificate of appointment as professor at Beijing Jiaotong University, from the hands of Mr. Li Zhang, Ph.D. and Professor, Associate Dean, School of Economics and Management of the University.
See: http://sem.bjtu.edu.cn/sem_eng/index.asp


Pictured are also Sun Bin (haha, trying to hide) and Ms. Li Zuo, Associate Professor, Director of International Exchange Center.
I also gave them a copy of my book, “Toxic Capitalism”.

Talking to New Hampshire University and fighting PowerPoint

On 12 March again a special China talk, this time to a group of EMBA.

One really has to keep cool. The day started not that auspiciously, for once raining in Beijing, so biking with all my stuff from Gongti to Novotel Peace was a bit more complicated. I was told 19th floor then discovered there was a room booked on the (usual) 2nd floor. So I started setting up everything, long time in advance. Nobody seemed to be coming, so I called my ISP contact – who told me, it is 19 not 2. OK, she came over. After waiting finally the hotel agreed to do it there. I was anxious to get the projector going… a usual source of problems, and so it was. No signal going to the projector, technician checking the pile of cables, clueless. Suddenly, whoops, signal. I don’t like that: what comes like this also goes like that (and I was right).
The group was very active – and patient. I had changed quite a bit my very personal intro on China, giving a view on the impressive changes over the past 30 years, not only in terms of buildings and technology, but also the changes in society, surprising and even shocking at times for people like me. Who would imagine China Daily talking in details about “sex addiction in China”?
All went well and then, once again my MacBook Air refused to cooperate. Nothing of the keyboard worked except the mouse, so I could at least advance the slides. Then the projector got tired and lost the red color; the red cover of my book became dark blue.
But we all took it in stride and it went well.
Back in the office now trying to replicate why the keyboard freezes after some time. Google was no help. Turns out, connecting to a screen is not the problem either. I tried  some recent PPTs: all freezing at some point, even the older ones: they worked without problems in the past. So, should be something being corrupted in the PPT or in the program. Now the challenge is to find it and/or rebuild the PPT in a “clean way”. I use the latest PPT Mac 2011 with MAC OS 10.7.5The same happened with a PPT done in Office 2008 for MAC: never insert a movie. That will be the end of your slideshows (and there is no way around). However, you can do it in Office 2011. But this time, no clue yet. Seems pretty difficult to find.

Watching the sandstorm in Beijing

This year sandstorms seem to be earlier and nastier. After a rather cold winter and the worst air pollution in years, now we will face the sand during spring.
Interesting is that the pollution readings during windy conditions and sand storm are inverted: suddenly the U.S. embassy looks much better.
The only explanation I have is that Beijing still looks at PM10 while the embassy does not (only PM2.5), with the dust and sand brought by the wind, PM2.5 goes down, PM10 goes up.
See the reading and a view of WTC3 from my home: the haze is dust and sand and not so much pollution.


Anyway, hope it will calm down when heading to my KTV in the evening…

China: political statements that deny the real situation

Wu Bangguo, the outgoing chairman of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, said in his last report to the legislative body that it would do everything it could to resist erroneous theories and reject Western political models. He also said, China’s political system “reflects the nature of China as a socialist state and ensures that the people determine their own destiny”.
A typical piece of crappy statement, China has become an authoritarian capitalist country, controlled by the richest club of politicians in the world. With no system of checks and balances, no separation of the 3 powers, disrespect for the rule of law and non-enforcement of its constitution, what model is that? Socialist? “People” determine their destiny? They mean, people = vested interests of the billionaires. We really hope the new team will bring much expected changes. Mr. Xi Jinping, we cross fingers for you.
Meanwhile, the ever more strict censorship of the media demonstrates the lack of confidence in their own system. The more they censor, the more they admit their weakness and incompetence. Little by little the Chinese netizens are getting enough of it. If you have nothing to hide, if you are confident, you are transparent.
I then still like more what Wen Jiabao says, like in his March 13 report.
He frankly acknowledged 11 failures, the most prominent and frequently criticized, being a growing wealth gap, the deteriorating environment, an unbalanced economic structure, unsustainable growth and increasingly rampant corruption among officials.
“Social problems have increased markedly, and many problems in the areas of education, employment, social security, medical care, housing, the environment, food and drug safety, workplace safety and public order affect people’s vital interests. Failing to persuade my children not to do business [in China] is a significant mistake of mine. It’s my biggest regret in life.”
Wen also admitted that other areas of his premiership were unsatisfactory, including dealing with petitioners and immigrant workers and curbing corruption inside China’s medical system, the report said, according to SCMP.
The jury is still out on Wen Jiabao, I am more reserved to make a swift evaluation on whether he was the perfect actor or he was sincere in trying to make China a better country. I always paid attention to his statements – they made at least sense and seemed visionary at times.