Ni Hao from Hong Kong!

Wei Ni Hao!

I realize this post is long overdue and I apologize! Does having too much fun count for an excuse?  I’ve now been in Hong Kong for a little over a month and there’s so much to catch you up on. For starters, I need to introduce my (Chinese) self. I am now Ai Ni Qi, thanks to my roommate who gave me the name. Now this isn’t just a nickname, it’s my legitimate Chinese name. The way it works is once someone of Chinese origin gives you a name (which is usually based on the tones of your English name, and also carries a special meaning), it pretty much sticks. Ai Ni Qi is based on the Chinese pronunciation of the beginning of my last name (used first in Chinese culture) and the beginning of my first name. In addition, its meaning resembles the Chinese characters ‘love’ and ‘beauty’ so I absolutely love it! Step one of immersing myself in the local culture- check

Although I’ve made quite a few local (by that I mean Hong Kongese and Chinese) friends, it’s hard to do so initially since the local students are  far more reserved than what I’m used to. So in the beginning, it was only the exchange students sticking together and we ended up missing out on a lot of the local experience. With time (and persistence!) though, that’s definitely changing. I don’t see myself as a tourist here anymore, and considering this is my home for an entire semester , I’m making sure I live like a local. That means cheap (but delicious) street food, using public transport (which is the most convenient thing here) and avoiding MALLS! The last part is exceptionally hard. Hong Kong, much like Singapore and other growing Asian cities is stuck in an Eastern vs. Western culture continuum. So it’s big fancy shopping malls feeding the growing mass consumerism juxtaposed against quaint street markets that usually consist of family-run businesses. In an attempt to avoid these malls, I’ve found myself venturing into some of these local markets that exude vibrancy and are focal points of traditional Chinese culture. Just walking down these market streets is an amazing experience in itself.

Local market in Wan Chai- lots of color and culture!

Some things about Hong Kong that will hit you in the face- Neon lights and the lack of spoken English, both of which are difficult to get used to. And if you care about the environment and cannot speak any Cantonese, you might not get used to it at all. But I guess that’s part of the whole foreign experience! In terms of the language problem, for now I get by with wild gesturing, but I’m trying to pick up a few essential Cantonese phrases. In terms of the environment problem, well, it’s a huge problem. Hong Kong is extremely unsustainable, with a massive ecological footprint. This isn’t too surprising given Hong Kong’s growing consumerism, energy demand, and poor waste management. I’m actually researching the e-waste sector in HK/China with a professor here, which involves a field study as well. Should be interesting!

Speaking of interesting, I don’t know how else best to describe Hong Kong’s topography and landscape. My university is basically perched on a hill, so I have to hike it up to class everyday. It’s a great workout, honestly. And its absolutely beautiful. I’m surrounded by hills and the sea on all four sides. When it rains, you can even see waterfalls up in the nearby hills! Very therapeutic. (I’ll post some pictures of the campus soon)

Hong Kong is divided into 3 regions- New Territories (where I live), Kowloon, Hong Kong Island (where the Central Business District and most of the tourist attractions are located) and outlying islands like Lamma and Lantau. The most fun way to get from NT/Kowloon to the Island is to take a ferry and watch the gorgeous skyline pass you by.

HK skyline as seen from Victoria Harbor

Until I got to Hong Kong, I thought I was a fairly adventurous eater, albeit vegetarian. Little did I know what adventure meant. Now although my vegetarianism is pretty much out the window (I honestly tried to maintain it but it is ridiculously difficult), I can’t bring myself to try the various “delicacies” here- ranging from chicken feet to shark fin. Definitely not for the weak-hearted. But I have made it a point to try every other local dish (that doesn’t involve the above meat) since the best way to learn about a culture is by eating the  food!

Seafood spread at a street market in Yau Ma Tei

Last weekend was Mid-Autumn festival, following Chinese Independence Day. I celebrated the festival with local students and as per tradition, we lit lanterns and ate tons of mooncake. It was an amazing cultural experience  With all the fun I’m having here, it’s hard to remember that this is supposed to be a STUDY Abroad Program. And the local students can be seriously intimidating when it comes to studying. For the first time in my life, I had to wait in queue to get into a library!

I should take that as a sign/warning…

But I’ll post more later (I promise to be somewhat regular from now on )

Zai Jian!

Bangladesh: Hello from above and beyond!

That title could very well have been true since Dhaka has been gracing me with far too many NDEs. Road accidents have been a part and parcel of my life here and everyday is a new adventure. I was taking a cycle-rickshaw (the most vulnerable and impractical vehicle to use in a megacity, but also the cheapest for short distances) to the Grameen Headquarters the other day when I got hit from the back by a car. Now this happens almost everyday, except this time I flew out of my seat and would have smacked my head on the road if it hadn’t been for the driver (rider?). I grabbed on to him instinctively, and he grabbed on to me, pushing me back onto the seat. The whole thing was a little inappropriate and embarrassing but it saved my life so I’m not complaining. Now I didn’t have any spiritual epiphanies, but it was a near-death experience alright.

So amidst all the chaos of me trying to stay alive and Michael Jackson dying (I’m still not over it!), I have conveniently neglected my blog. But there’s so much to tell you! I have been spending time researching with Grameen Shakti, a Grameen sister company dedicated to providing renewable energy to the rural poor. Currently, they provide solar home systems and biogas plants to rural households, both being very decentralized (not connected to any main grid). For Bangladesh, renewable energy has been a “necessity-is-the-mother-of-invention” type of development. With over 60% of Bangladesh’s population off the government electricity grid, much of Bangladesh’s growth has been hindered.

What’s interesting to note is that both the rich and the poor (to speak in general terms) are affected by this, unlike other developing countries like India, for example. Rich (relatively) cities in Bangladesh face the same problem poor villages do when it comes to electricity. There’s just not enough. It is most definitely a productivity killer for businesses too; I was in the supermarket the other day buying bottled water (yes, I have been terribly un-eco friendly this trip ) and walked up to the register to pay for it only to find out their computers were off because of the power shortage and so they couldn’t process my payment. They lost a bunch of customers that day and I bet they regretted going automated. Some places have generators to keep the basic appliances running during a power shortage, but even then, it doesn’t solve the root problem. The government of Bangladesh recently switched to daylight savings in an attempt to conserve energy and while it’s made a slight difference, there’s still a long way to go. To quantify the problem, Bangladesh currently generates about 3800 MW a day, while the demand is about 5000 MW. Being a delta with several rivers cutting across it, it’s very difficult to bring the whole nation under one electric grid.

In light of all of this, investment in renewable energy is both necessary and revolutionary. Currently, Grameen Shakti imports its solar panels and components from Japan, China and Singapore making the end product fairly expensive, even for the middle-class. As always, Grameen has been one step ahead and have a payment plan in place where a poor rural household can buy a solar home system on “credit” and pay it back over 3 years. It has worked brilliantly, especially given the fact that a lot of their customers are Grameen Bank borrowers too. Holistic development . But it might be more cost-effective if the solar panels were “home made”, since labor is cheap (there might have to be extra investment in Quality Control though). So what I’ve been trying to study with them is how to make the whole process more efficient. Another intern who’s an engineering major has been working to see if he can put together a solar panel himself, to basically prove to Grameen Shakti that it was possible. They called him crazy . I (probably a little nuts myself) loved the idea and have been trying to see how we could put the whole supply chain into function and estimate costs to gauge efficiency. It’s been interesting!

After its success in rural villages, Grameen Shakti is trying to move in to urban areas. This would help take a lot of stress off the national grid and become back-up energy in times of power failures. Like I said earlier, solar home systems are still very decentralized which can be a disadvantage. Some countries, like London I believe, have the panels connected to a grid from which they can either feed off of or give back to. In case of the latter, it can actually generate income, making it a strong incentive for potential customers. I visited a village to check out the solar home systems and biogas plants in action. It was interesting but some of the interns and I had a few ideas on how to make it more efficient. I’ll save that for my report though

Here’s a few pictures to catch you up!

The cute street kid that asks me for "aiss kleem" (the only 2 english words she knows) every time she sees me

Urban Squalor

On a different note, since I used the word revolutionary up there a couple of times, I must say Bangladesh is full of revolutionary people and organizations; a lesson or two for other countries. More on that in my next post!

Allah Hafiz!

Bangladesh: To the villages and back

Assalamalaikum!

I’m back from a four day village trip to a few villages in the Rajshahi district. The purpose of this visit was to oversee some of the Grameen operations. We attended center meetings where all the groups assembled on a weekly basis to discuss their progress, repay their installments or submit new loan proposals. Each group consists of 5-10 women of similar age and background (they can’t be blood relatives however). This idea of group borrowing where the onus of repayment lies with the group and not only the individual has proven to increase social capital, allowing Grameen to maintain repayment rates of almost 98%. As interns, we asked the borrowers several questions to gauge the true performance of micro-credit and provide recommendations, if any. The whole process led to some interesting findings and ideas.

We left for Rajshahi early Sunday morning by van, and took about 6 hours to get there. Here’s what we figured out on the ride; South Asians get some kind of thrill out of cutting corners, and Bangladeshis more so. You see them cutting corners at the grocery store, giving you a little less than what you paid for, at restaurants, at home and even on the road. Our driver (who was either an exceptionally good driver or a really really terrible one, depending on how you look at it) got us almost killed at least five times every half hour. The gods must love us. We were driving on what should have been a one-way that the Bangladeshis had conveniently converted to a four lane street, with vehicles moving in both directions. I think we were going at least 90 km/hr. On the highways, our driver would wriggle his way between two heavy duty trucks, still at 90. “Driver sahab, tomhar gaadi rickshaw naa!” (“Driver sir, you’re van isn’t a rickshaw!”), we tried gently reminding him in our very broken Bangla. We had big buses coming right at us every five minutes, and our driver would swerve when the bus was only inches away. Anyway, in retrospect, the whole thing was a fun (minus our many whiplashes) rollercoaster ride that Disney would charge a lot for.

The village was extremely hot, with temperatures hitting almost 40 degree Celsius (104 Fahrenheit). We were living with the branch manager of Bagha and his family (he had 3 young daughters, two of the younger ones were 9 yr old twins.  When we weren’t working, I spent time with them playing Ludo and Snakes & Ladders. Fun!) The village had more frequent power cuts than Dhaka, which is saying a lot. We didn’t have electricity for almost 8-9 hours a day and even when we did, the fans just circulated hot air. The minute the lights went out, even more insects and other animals came out, in addition to some of the bolder ones that just lived among us in broad daylight. Now I’ve promised myself that I wouldn’t dedicate a significant part of this post to relatively insignificant issues, but think lizards, giant roaches (a major upgrade from the Dhaka ones), frogs, wasps, fireflies (which were really cool, actually!), mosquitoes and other bugs I could not identify.

Anyway, we had bigger fish to fry. Our mornings began at 7 am. We attended a few center meetings and spent time with the borrowers asking them about their Grameen experience and life in general. The thing to remember is that there are economic classes even within a village. So there were some borrowers who were “struggling members” (as Grameen defines it), who are basically beggars in the village and don’t have much of a house. There are other borrowers who live in sturdy houses made of mud and clay with a tin roof that can withstand floods, and other borrowers that live in weaker houses made of straw and bamboo.

I’ve listed some of the questions below that we asked the borrowers, with their relevance where necessary, followed by the answers we received.

1) What kind of business do you have?- Many of them had a variety of businesses to spread their risks. Grameen borrowers have to adopt 16 decisions in order to become a member. One of these decisions dictates that every borrower should grow their own vegetables to eat, and to sell the surplus. This is an important decision leading to self-sufficiency. Many borrowers have pumpkin patches around their house, or grow other kinds of vegetables on their roof. They (most of them) grow seasonal vegetables and fruits all year round and only buy rice or spices from the local market. Besides this, there were a range of other businesses ranging from handicrafts to poultry farming.

2) What kind of loan have you taken from Grameen for this? (Grameen has several kinds of loans ranging from basic loans to pay for daily activities to micro-enterprise loans for bigger business ideas.). Some of the borrowers take loans of behalf of their husbands (since only women can be Grameen members) and work with them jointly. This has increased their status within their family too.

3) Who is your main customer?- We asked this because many of them had similar businesses, like mango growing for example. Living so close to each other this competition would eventually ruin one of their businesses. However, we found out that for mangoes and other fruits for example, their buyers were wholesalers located in the nearest town.

4) What were you doing before you got the loan?- Most of them didn’t do anything and claimed that the loan truly empowered them. Some of them used to work with their husbands in the fields or help them with their businesses.

5) Are you taking any other kind of loan from Grameen?- As mentioned previously, Grameen offers several different kinds of loans. A lot of them had taken basic loans and micro-enterprise loans. Some of the older centers had borrowers taking housing loans to rebuild their homes. Again, one of the 16 decisions stipulates that members should try and rebuild their houses and not live in dilapidated homes. This is important for a place like Bangladesh that floods easily and experiences heavy monsoons.

6) Have you had trouble paying back your installments?- Most of them said no, since their group encouraged and helped them out, pointing to the social capital I mentioned earlier. But we had some issues with this which I’ll discuss later.

Here’s a few pictures of some of the members and their life.

One of the borrowers showing us her means of livelihood-knitting and sewing of blankets and other textiles.

Simon on what was our means of inter and intra village travel. A tricycle with a wooden plank at the back that carries anything from people to vegetable baskets. Zero carbon!

This woman lost her husband 20 years ago. She has 2 children. With the help of Grameen, she has taken several loans. She now runs 3 successful business by herself (including mangoes and poultry). She has taken an educational loan for her older daughter to see her through college and is able to pay for her son's education with her own savings. She even took a housing loan to rebuild her house. In the words of Gwen Stefani, that probably doesn't amount to much but anyway, she ain't no hollaback girl!

A borrower making her weekly repayment.

We also spoke to a struggling member and heard her heart-wrenching story. She was 75 years old and was a full-time beggar. With a Grameen loan, she bought a few goats and ducks and sold their milk and eggs, no longer as dependent on begging. Her two sons lived a few houses from her but took no care of her. There were days when she would go hungry but her sons refused to help her. There were days when they beat her up and forced her to give up her house, saying they’d help her if she gave them her property. Now there are probably thousands of others in the same plight but just seeing her standing there, crying as she told us this was more than any of us could handle. I hugged her, tearing a little myself, and gave her 50 taka knowing full well that nothing I did would make a dent of a difference to her plight.

On the subject of microfinance and Grameen, we had several issues that need another post altogether (which I will write very soon!). With the rest of the world jumping on the microfinance bandwagon, it’s necessary to maintain some amount of skepticism. However, it’s ironic that in the backdrop of a global credit crisis, credit is a prayer answered for millions in Bangladesh and other poverty-stricken countries. (Simon, if you’re reading this, I’m going to give you full “credit” for that! )

Bangladesh: Din Ek aur Dui

I landed in Dhaka on Wednesday to find a crazier Bombay. I’m here now, in Bangladesh, my earlier passport woes taken care of. The airport was surprisingly not chaotic, unlike Bombay’s Chattrapati Shivaji International airport. After a quick immigration procedure, I made my way to the hotel with another intern I met at the airport (Simon, from England, very nice guy) and someone from the hotel. The drive was long but we got to see some of the less dense parts of Dhaka, with water/sand/marsh everywhere and elevated roads. Our hotel, however, is located bang in the middle of all the chaos of this megacity. When I say chaos I mean the absence of any driving rules whatsoever, hoards of eve-teasers, power cuts at least three times a day, the smell of garbage mixed with food being cooked, and excruciatingly loud honking. For those of you who think this is a lot like India, well, it is. But ten times more chaotic. Plus, I’m a lot more confident in India since I know the language. Anyone who “accidentally” brushes into me on the streets of Bombay will get a firm “Eh! Dikhta nahi, kya?” (Eh! Can’t you see?”), but here I get groped all the time and can’t even make a big scene to ward off other men.

Anyway, before I go on about Dhaka, the main reason I’m here: I will be interning /researching with the Grameen Bank for a month and a half. For the uninitiated, the Grameen Bank, under Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus, is a pioneer of Microfinance. Microfinance, popularized by its division of Microcredit basically consists of giving small, uncollateralized loans to the poor to help them start their own businesses and eventually cross the ‘poverty line’. One of the main features of the Grameen Bank is that they work with rural women only, and hence not only help alleviate rural poverty, but also bring about social change in terms of a woman’s place in society. Since it was founded, the Grameen Bank has helped millions in Bangladesh cross the line of poverty. Grameen has expanded to a conglomerate of sorts and now has 26 “sister” companies, some of which include Grameen Shakti (providing renewable energy for the poor), Grameen Telecom (providing mobile phones at affordable prices for the poor) and Grameen Communications (providing internet access and data processing services for the poor). The entire list of sister companies can be found here.

My area of research with Grameen will be their Social Businesses, which basically promote a strict adherence to the triple bottom line, with profit being the last “line”. Bangladesh, much like every other developing country faces a plethora of problems ranging from economic to environmental to religious and social problems, each of these being cruelly intertwined. Social Businesses, at least in theory, seem like a utopian solution to all of these. My study will (hopefully) determine the feasibility of these businesses and determine ways to increase their efficiency (and thereby their positive social impact). Ideally, I want my study to be used to further urban development in cities like Bombay.

So, back to my first two days here. I managed to get a phone connection for 900 taka, which is ridiculous in my opinion. I was obviously kidding myself when I assumed Bangladesh would be much cheaper than India. An average meal costs about 200 taka which is pretty similar to India. I did however get some really good naan (bread) and sabzi (cooked vegetables) at a dhaba (basically a very sketchy looking restaurant defying most hygiene standards, with amazingly cheap and delicious food) for 40 taka, i.e., 28 rupees or 58 ccnts. The hotel I’m at is pretty nice except for the fact that I share my room with about a dozen cockroaches. Three of them are nice enough to even share my bed with me. Oh well, all part of the adventure  

More later! Khuda Hafiz!

Please Mr. Postman..

Deliver my passport already!

The last two weeks have been extremely stressful as I tried to square up everything before leaving Austin for 7 months. I applied for my visa to Bangladesh weeks ago and sent my passport to Washington along with the visa application. I leave in THREE days (and it’s the weekend already) and my passport isn’t here yet! The Bangladeshi embassy, much like the Indian one, is not only inefficient but also extremely rude. I’ve hounded them with phone calls all of last week to make the process quicker but it hasn’t worked. They recognize my voice now and conveniently hang up on me. I finally got S to call them and yell at them in Bengali. Hopefully that does the trick.

If all goes well, I’ll be globetrotting (hardly) starting Monday. 2 months in Bangladesh, 1 month in India, 4 months in Hong Kong and other parts of Asia (hopefully), 2 weeks in India and then back to Austin in January. For now, I’m busy packing up my life into cardboard boxes.

Pray!!!

I promise!

I feel obligated to announce to the (two) readers of this blog that this blog is NOT dead. I have just been swamped with mundane activities like studying for exams, paying credit card bills (and hence feeling very broke), and working on projects. But I’m still tres excited about my world travel that is about to begin very soon. I promise to post regularly then.

Stay tuned!

PS: I have been feeling a sense of happiness and peace lately, and I think my blog understands this. Notice the smiley on the top right-hand corner of my blog? How cute is that!?

Becoming Insane

The Infected Mushroom concert I went for last Thursday was INSANE! I’ve loved them since High School and that concert reminded me just why. I stood on table-tops the whole time, bouncing to the music. Eventually, S and I couldn’t contain our high, and ventured all the way to the front, so that I was only inches away from Amit Duvdevani. What a CUTIE! I’ve now promised to go for every Trance/Goa Trance act that I can. I’m tempted to say they’re more fun than Rock concerts, even. Now, I’m not much of a music critic, so I’ll just leave you to the pictures and videos I took.

 

 

I miss Goa and love Israelis!

Hello world! And a few clarifications.

So, in case you were wondering, my blog title has nothing to do with martinis. I am generally stirred, not shaken (in terms of my outlook on life).

Having clarified that, can I tell you how EXCITED I am? Just bought my tickets for this year’s travel. Here’s where I’ll be:

Bangladesh- in the month of June/July, working with the Grameen Bank and carrying out independent research on Microfinance.

Bombay-in the month of July/August, working on an independent project and just being home

Hong Kong-from September to December, studying for a semester and traveling.

Current location: Austin, Texas

This blog will (hopefully) capture all the madness!