Because I’m Dork

Last night was the first meeting the the Grameen Foundation-Shanghai group – minus one incredibly bitchy woman, it was an awesome group of people who all really shared an interest in microfinance and developing it in China. Although microfinance is something that really wasn’t even legal here up until a few years ago, it’s something that the Chinese Gov’t is looking at as a viable possibility… they’re also pretty skeptical too 1) it’s worried that this is just a way to funnel money to more democratic causes; 2) it’s a way to defraud organizations , and 3) this is still “a social welfare state” so bringing in outside resources and organizations like the GF is sucking it up and taking a small loss of face. Notice how I didn’t mention the fact that in practice GF really supports small (cough:: capitalistic::cough) entrepreneurs – supporting democracy and money laundering or the gov’t’s bigger concerns at the moment.

This group has some great potential and hopefully will get off the ground. Wihth people from so many different backgound (finance, IT, advertising, teaching, etc.) we’ll be able to make a difference. Check out the Grameen Foundation China site.

So Many Reasons…

It’s often easy to trash talk China. It could be all the fake/poison/terrible exports it’s been send out to the world recently. (I’d like to point out to all those living outside of Mao’s last stand… when the US turns those goods away, where do you think they go? Oh yeah, right back here!) Although it’s easy to get stuck on things like that though, please consider this recent post on one of my favorite blogs.

 

 

Chongqing’s doggie-style public sinks

Hand it to Chongqing — at least the city’s public toilets aren’t boring. Last year, we told you about their streetside urinals that didn’t leave enough to the imagination. Now come the outdoor sinks that are a dream come true for anyone who has ever fantasized about washing their hands while entering a woman from behind (you know who you are).

The original story doesn’t really say exactly where in the city you would find these sinks, but based on the photo it does appear to be a kid-friendly place (except, we guess, for the porn sinks)

The More Important Things in Life

One of my favorite questions I’ve gotten from friends coming to China is “How’s your Chinese?” Although I might now be able to order a bit better in Chinatown (actually, in NYC the majority of what people think of as Chinatown in NYC – the fake bage area – are Cantonese speakers) I hope I can share some of the more important words/terms I’ve learned with people: (there’s pin yin and characters)

Absolut 瑞典伏特加 ruì diǎn fú tè jiā

Bacardi 白家得 bái jiā dé

Champagne 香槟酒 xiāng bīn jiǔ

LI Iced Tea 长岛冰茶 cháng dǎo bīng chá

Red wine 红 酒 hóng jiǔ

Rum & Coke 朗姆酒加可乐 lǎng mǔ jiā kě lè

Screwdriver 螺丝刀 sī dāo

An Ode to 399

Here’s a new article I posted (new ones should go up about once a week) recently on one of my favorite places in SH – the fabric market. Few things say fabulously (cheap) luxury than custom made clothes. Working all seven days this week prohibited my weekly pilgrimage this past weekend, but I will not be thwarted.

Here’s the article.

Another Vagablond Post

Here’s one I did recently on a sweet place here called La Bella. It’s turned into a Friday night place of a bunch of us. Hilary was kind enough to come to a kind of “graduation” party for the people in Todd’s MA program.

Here’s the article/post

A Bit of Writing

I’ve been writing for a (random) online travel site about Shanghai… In case you’re interested, here’s a first post:

Ice Bar

New Job

So… for all those who think I’m staying here to do corporate training for another year, think again. Although I’ve had some fun clients – think Prada, HP and Walmart – there’s only so much you can handle. When I can start telling you what Chapter 6 is in the Effective Negotiating book and write a two hour lesson plan in 20 minutes, that’s when you get the feeling it’s time to move on. Lucky for me my company was (kind of) bought out (long story) so I’m now part of an internet start up in SH, OnDemand Training. I still have one class I need to teach per week (and the F— company, will go unnamed) since they refused to change teachers. Oh well. More money… tear. The major things I’m working on now is a joint project with Nokia last week. It’s innovative podcasting to bring business and Business English onto people’s phones. It’ll be available on 28 million phones in China by the end of this years. Pretty fun stuff. Check out some stuff on the web about it:

Nokia

Technorati

WSJ

Millionaire Fair

Don’t you wish you were there? Yes, there is actually an annual trade show in SH called the Millionaire Fair; it was last weekend. Check out the post here.

Hello world!

I’m trying blogging again… English language and all grammar enthusiasts watch out. I’m going to try and upload by old blog, but if I can’t and you get nostalgic, you can find it here.