This Earh Hour Thing....

For quite a white I see the promo on the TV about Earth Hour. I think it is a good campaign to create awareness in the developed world about the global warming and I support this initiative and general the initiatives that tackle global warming.

I allow myself to be a bit cynical though and also to challenge a bit the earth hour fans.

Firstly, I think the organizers should award Vietnam as a champion of earth hour, as here the electricity company makes sure that there is earth hour event quite frequently. Power shortages are quite common, especially in the dry season when the hydro power plants are not on full capacity. So sometimes I just stay at home in the dark and do my private earth hour.

The challenge for campaigns like the earth hour is that it engages the developed world mostly, and not so much the energy hungry developing world. Those people who have power shortages every once in a while, can’t really be enthusiastic about another earth hour. So how can the developing world be engaged in the discussion of global warming? How can we create awareness? Because most of the increase in energy consumption (and cause for global warming) will come from the developing world in the next couple of years.

Another personal observation is that during these power shortages, the sexual activity increases. I mean it is dark and you happen to be with a girl at home, what can you do? Now if 1 billion people join this earth hour, then there is a pretty high chance of some babies to be borne. How much is the energy saving from the earth hour and how much energy is consumed for rising up these new babies and whatever they will consume during their lifetime???? I am sure that over the years an event like this is increasing energy consumption, even if it is decreasing in short term.

Last year I have been invited to do this earth hour thing with my friends. So here I arrive to the place of my friend where lots of candles were burnt during earth hour. I am sure the energy consumed for making those candles+ the one used for their transportation is much higher then the energy used by an energy efficient light bulb. And after the one hour, they turned on to the maximum all the air conditioners…F#%&k

My point is that it is important to have awareness campaigns and the earth hour seems to be a decent one. But substance also matters and besides switching off the lights, others steps are needed. I rarely use air-conditioning, but sometimes walk naked in the house to coop with the heat. I tried to convince my bosses that we should apply the same measures in the office, but it seems they don’t care about saving the planet because they did not agree to that.

Now that my laptop is out of battery soon (and there is a power interruption in my flat), I have to finish this post, and will publish on the net later on. Signing off from the city of earth hour: Saigon.

On the way to become famous....

On the way to become famous, so far I have been featured in, gave interviews or participated in talk shows for:

• Local TV in my home town in Romania (Szekelykeresztur)
• Local Radio and Newspaper in Viborg, Denmark
• Regional TVs, Radios and Newspapers in Romania where I lived and also where I studied (Mostly in Nagyvarad and Szekelyudvarhely)
• National Public TV Channel in Romania (TVR2)
• National Private TV Channel in Hungary (TV2)

These were mostly due to my activities in different NGOs (except the Hungarian TV interview, which was about working in Singapore, and one newspaper article in the regional paper on the same topic). At a certain point I was more often on TV in Nagyvarad than at the courses at the university (hope my teachers don’t read this, or people blackmail me for this statement when I will become famous :):):) ).

Now I can add one more to the list (probably the biggest in terms of audience), which is the interview I gave yesterday for the Vietnamese National TV (VTV1) in prime time news about the stock market in Vietnam and the opinion of foreign investors in general. Hope that I was “intelligent enough” and sounded like an "expert" :):):) And hope that this did not cause the market drop today, after a short rally in the past days (joking yah?) :):):):)

The thing I hate in this media appearances is that one always needs to worry whether he/she looks stupid or not…. Can be stressful… No hot babe came to me to ask for autograpgh yet. My assumption is that hot babes don't watch news about stock market, rather than me looking stupid on TV.... Otherwise they should have come to me, is it?

Requests for further interviews will be a barometer whether it was a good or a bad thing what I have told, but I am happy to start building up my "brand" and public figure in Vietnam . PR helped me a lot in achieving my previous results where I worked and I hope that here it will make things easier as well.

Friday night's movie

I watched yesterday at the cinema the movie called Revolutionary Road. Actually did not go to the cinema with the intention to watch this particular movie, but just went randomly there and picked this one.

I am not updated at all on what new movies are out there and also what worth watching or not, so it was quite a gamble as I did not know what this movie was about, but it turned out that it was a good one.

I really liked the topic and it gives a lot of things to think about in terms of relationships, hopes & dreams and about all those dilemmas with the “settling down” thing. I really recommend to everyone to watch it…. (not commenting on the acting part though). Also the novel on which this movie is based on worth reading I guess.

The story of the domestic helper

In Vietnam one has to spend quite a lot of time with the day-to-day issues of life. Things are not as simple and straightforward, especially as one does not speak the language. So the free time that one has after work and after the day-today issues of life is very little. I have been struggling to increase this time and cut down on time consuming things. Hence I got a domestic helper. Of course I had couple of challenges at the beginning, like the language, so I had to switch a couple of them.

I almost gave up on the idea of having one, but then I went out one night in a bar with friends where you always have these girls to serve your table and entertain you. In this bar, they don’t do anything dodgy (i.e. offering “special services”), but just make sure that you consume as much as possible. So one of the girls there had some decent English and then we have talked about where she is from and what she is doing and stuff.

She is from the countryside and came to Saigon to study. Of course that she needs to finance herself, because the parents are too poor, and sometimes she needs to send money home as well. So during the day she goes to college and in the evening she goes to work to this bar, six days a week. Of course the pay is shit, her salary is around 55 USD and she gets another 100 - 150 USD from tips. Now with the recession, less and less people are going to the bar so the tip is less and less. She is struggling to maintain expenses and always short on cash (having a cash flow issue, but managing the overall costs well).

So I proposed that she can help me with my day to day issues and become my domestic helper, which she was very happy to accept. Of course I am a bit overpaying by local standards, but I guess it is a good deal for both of us. I have more time and she is financially more stable. I was a bit reluctant with the whole thing, because she has to work even more now, but she seems to be happy with the deal. Maybe I feel a bit of guilt for being an exploiter somehow…

For me she is quite inspiring, how she finances her studies and fighting to advance in life. I guess that is in the genes of the Vietnamese people and this is a very good example of that. Also a good reminder how lucky but spoiled I am now.

I thought that it is an interesting aspect of life here in Vietnam; you tell me your opinion.