Baw chicky wah wah?

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I love Paris in the Springtime....

10543 air miles, five kids, two rings, 1 matriarch and a lovely couple happily married.

Perfect ingredients for a beautiful week in Paris!

Some highlights of the sojourn;

- the techno rave party outside the Hotel De Ville
- Em dropping the rings on the altar
- the enormous red plastic rhino at the Pompidou
- the sunshine on the trees on the Ile de st Luis
- braving the traffic bicycling through Bastille
- sexy french boys
- white wine on the sidewalk of La Perle
- the public doctor available on call for house visits
- peeking in windows on the Rue de St Honore
- morning pastry in the Marais
- the miu miu suit, Prada dress and the fancy hair salon complete with stuffed emu
- squashing sardine style with brothers and sisters splayed about in 1 bedroom apartment
- the beautiful French in laws and the Armenian feast shared
- Jules showing of her moves in the Paris clubs

And most of all, glorious family times.

Congratulations to Emma and Antoine!!

Wise words...

Browsing the web today, seeking National Entrepreneurship Partners, I have come across some impressive organisations and some even more impressive individuals who are driving these.

One such individual is Tim Pethick, who began as a Chartered Accountant and has made a career out of working with start up businesses. He is well known as 'Tall Tim' of Nudie fame.

I particularly liked this sound-bite:
"...as a general rule I do think we get caught up in small things which seem big. The benefit of a good night's sleep to consider something the following morning rather than react in the moment is a very underrated approach to life. It seems to me that people in our society generally get caught up on money. I think money is the least important commodity in life. I've got mouths to feed, a mortgage to pay, kids to put through school, and all that. But wars are often about money, people's anguish is about money, people fight about money, people steal money. People focus on getting money and I think that's a really unhealthy focus, because money is not important. It's the life and death things in life that are important."

I like what Tim is hitting on about the importance of perspective. 'Work-life balance' is an elusive concept, but I certainly agree with the value of a good night's sleep and listening in to the deeper human concerns echoing through our workplaces and in society. Although I certainly have a hankering for more disposable income :)

Love Lucy

Why my job is the coolest...

- Because we stand for Peace and the fullfillment of Human kinds potential.
- Because we are the voice of youth on the United Nations Global Compact.
- Because everyone in my office is under 24.
- Because we have 23,000 members and our leadership recycles at all organisational levels every year.
- Because we have a quorum of 103 countries at Legislative Meetings.
- Because I got to cover 20 country meetings in ten days at our International Congress
- Because we actively partner with DHL, ABN Amro, Ashoka, The World Bank and The European Union.
- Because we just approved an expansion to Iran.
- Because we are driving transnational projects to create leaders in Entrepreneurship, Finance, Corporate Responsibility and HIV-AIDS.
- Because our strongest entities are not in political and economic world powers but in Colombia, Morocco, Belgium and Cameroon.
- Because next year I could be working in Rwanda, Bangkok, Sao Paolo, Singapore, Rotterdam, Bogota...

Hence, why I am working on the APEC holiday :)

Gimme! Gimme!

Internships with Ashoka in Pakistan...

TN-Yo-PK-KA-2007-1011: This internship will be based in Karachi and will be for preferably 3 months (November 2007 to January 2008). It is based on Water Management in developing countries and finding strategic solutions for issues of Irrigation and perhaps even drinking water. Details of the job tasks are in the TN form only. It is preferred that the internee have a background in development studies or sociology. The intern must also speak English.

TN-Yo-PK-KA-2007-1012: This internship may be based in Karachi or Lahore and will also be for preferably 3 months (Feb 2008 to Apr 2008). It can be extended to four months also. It is based on Rural community development in and the focus is on convincing corporates to fund development project. This will mean engaging the corporate community with the development community and securing funds for corporate philanthropy. Details of the job tasks are in the TN form only. It is preferred that the internee have a background in corporate-community engagement and development. The intern must also speak English.

TN-Yo-PK-KA-2007-1013: This internship will be based in Islamabad and will also be preferably for 3 months from Nov 2007 to January 2008. It is based on the issue of Women in Islam and for that reason it is preferred that the intern is a female. The internship will focus on documentation of problems faced by Ashoka fellows while working with women and extensive research on issues and solutions for those problems. Details of the job tasks\are in the TN form only. It is preferred that the internee have a\background in political science or journalism. The intern must also speak English.

Feeling Flighty!

30th June: Sydney to Melbourne

16th of July: Melbourne to Sydney

22ish of July: Sydney to Melbourne

28ish of July: Melbourne to Sydney

14th August: Sydney to Singapore

14th of August: Singapore to Istanbul

2nd of September: Istanbul to Singapore

3rd of September: Singapore to Sydney

14th of September: Sydney to Paris

24th of September: Paris to Sydney

Resolve to conquer fear of flying :)

Love Lucy

You’ve worked for an NGO if….

- you’ve eaten the same thing for dinner four days in a row
- your home-cook meals end in the title ‘surprise’
- you think living with nine people in a 3 bedroom house is character building
- you’ve considered eating chicken that’s been out of the fridge for a day
- you go to the soup kitchen to volunteer and bring food back for your team
- you pinch toilet paper from the office
- your welfare supervisor tries to convince you the dole is a better idea
- you know when the supermarket marks down their bread
- you drink cask wine and suffer the two-day hangover
- you stay late in the office because its cold in the house
- you have a weekly quota for purchased coffee.

☺

A day in the life..

8:26: throw lovely warm doona off, throw on power-suit and make-up,

8:45 seeing the time on Sunrise, race out door to trek to the office.

9:00 sitting on exercise ball in board room with 9 other National Team Members. Review past July Conference and dream up the biggest and best Conference Australia has ever seen! Theme brainstormed, conference flow designed, one 220 delegate youth leadership conference well on it’s way!

11:45 Email frantically in fifteen minute break: register for soup kitchen duty, Communicate a possible partnership with AIESEC in Thailand around environmental sustainability, and field questions about imminent International Congress in Turkey.

12:00 Prepare strategies for presentation to the Board of Advice. Perve on other people’s social lives on Facebook.

12:45 head to the Forum to buy healthy salad. Come back with cheeseburger and sausage roll. Resolve to eat vegies tomorrow.

1:30 Buy train ticket

1:50 Discover have lost train ticket.

1:55 attempt to charm City Rail staff, twirling hair. Exit Town Hall gates with a warning.

2:30 Argue feminism and the glass ceiling with Ralphy walking towards Pyrmont offices of National Partner.

3:00 National Board of Advice meeting begins

5:30 Scoff gourmet sandwiches kindly provided by National Partner, subtly pack remaining sandwiches up for lunch tomorrow.

7:30 BoA meeting ends

8:30 back at home, down Gin and Tonic, Pop computer lid and prepare for strategy session tomorrow.

12:00 Crash in lovely warm doona, listening to Daz and Sharan laughing themselves to sleep.

It's that time of year again...

Showers are edging beyond the four minute mark.
Thongs are going into hibernation.
Kids names are written on foggy train windows.
Peoples noses are pink.

Another Sydney winter is coming...

The getting of wisdom...

Just over a month ago, I dropped from the skies into Mascot, marching straight out to smell the beautiful Sydney air, gorging myself on bacon and banana smoothie and started settling back into life ‘in the hood’. Now having caught up with old friends, handed in assignments and joined Facebook (ugh ugh!) , I am generally enjoying a period of general ‘floating’, with lots of time to reflect back on my life in the big city...

Expecting it to be easy, I set off in November with romantic dreams of changing the world; with time left over to knit, cook like Nigella, read Anna Karenina, exercise and take artistic polaroid photos.

Realistically, as I soon found out, I was thoroughly unprepared for thwack of culture shock.
Confronted by an environment of people with radically different value sets, unique concepts of the world and a different language which I certainly did not speak (despite my efforts ;), I fell to comforting myself with banana pancakes and the company of fellow foreigners.

In the months following though, and thanks to the team I was lucky enough to learn alongside, I gradually aqquired a deep respect for the complexity and possibility of 'the land of Smiles'; agreeing with Paul Keating that leadership is more of a conversation than a determined course of action...

My crazy enthusiasm was tempered steadily, as I learnt at the coalface about the complexities of positive social impact. Chatting with aspirational students, Speaking to Ashoka representatives about the Thai entreprenuer, taking a 'sustainable boat tour' with school children up the Chao Praya soon humbled my arrogance to 'solve' and brought home to me how much more I have yet to learn...

And of course it wasn't all big life lessons and profundity :) I dearly miss dancing up a storm at Route 66, gin soaked conversations about settling into BKK, learning Thai produce with Weaw's Mum, the free wireless at Bug and Bee, THAT foamy night at Pattaya, belting out Tata Young on the way to Krue-pruek-sah, our house filled with Thai Tunisian/German, Kenyan, Dutch and half Swiss peeps... even those feral dogs! Khoop khun maak kha; Rina, Pui, Rob, Weaw, Tetu, Diana, Daniel, Rob, Xavier, Jesse, Miw, Golf, Knot and Alex.

I have an inkling I might be back soon, dee gua ;)

Love Lucy

homesickness...

Despite my love for BKK, I suddenly want:

- to drink straight from the tap
- to wear next to nothing in the sunshine and feel just fine.
- to smell that wonderful harbour smell wafting up from the Quay
- to jump on the train at Wynyard at sunset and watch the houses of Dover Heights turn gold
- to eat tuna dip and baguette on Balmoral and feel the cold settle in as the sun goes down
- to dance to bad 80's pop music at the Fiddler in Rouse Hill
- to go Vinnies shopping in Penno and be served by the lovely volunteer nana's
- to eat eggs benedict in Potts Point and perve on all the strange fashion types
- to catch an old train with sticky seats and eat Kiymali pide in Auburn
- to jump on a trampoline and look over into other people's yards

I am sorry to any Internationals who have drifted past this ramble. Its even more full of colloquialisms and esoteric references than my usual posts :)

See you soon Sydney!

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways....

Bangkok's full name, translated from Thai, is "The city of angels, the great city, the eternal jewel city, the impregnable city of God Indra, the grand capital of the world endowed with nine precious gems, the happy city, abounding in an enormous Royal Palace that resembles the heavenly abode where reigns the reincarnated god, a city given by Indra and built by Vishnukam".

Despite this grand title, Bangkok is more often impolitely referred to by backpackers as a polluted, over populated concrete jungle :(

I protest wholeheartedly! In my stay here there are some things about this city that I have simply fallen in love with.....

- Food; it is an assumed fact that no-one could ever starve to death in Bangkok. Food on the street is fabulous and with a bit of bravery you can easily eat a full meal for less than a dollar. Having poured all my 'Youth Allowance' into feeding myself in Sydney and eating a few too many tins of baked beans, BKK is like heaven. My favorites: roti/banana pancakes, fresh spring rolls, watermelon and lime ice shake, pomelo, tod man plaa (fish cakes), crispy pork and green vegies, anything made by Weaw's mum........

- Thai street lifestyle; One of my favorite places to be in the whole of Bangkok is our Soi (our street). Everything happens on the street; houses open up literally onto the thoroughfare and the private and public spill beautifully into one another. Our neighbourhood holds a furniture factory, a laundry, a guesthouse, a sowing business, a massage joint, a bar, a hundred family run food busineses, a steel shop, a packaging facility and more. Although life is busy, the street is dense with residents and there is hardwork to be done always, people live slowly and with a smile. In Geography, I study town planning and the attempts to manufacture 'community' in housing developments. I think the Soi some good lessons to teach...

- motorcycle taxi's; for a fundamentally impunctual person such as myself, BKK's moto's are a godsend. Perched precariously on the seat of a bike, edging up the shoulder past rows of stagnant traffic is one of the most liberating experiences this locked down city has to offer.

- Thai massage; Massage is affordable, accessible and thoroughly therapeutic. Although I miss the plentiful parks and fresh air of Sydney, being pummelled and stretched every week for an hour certainly compensates!

- Family and relationships philosophy; In Thailand, family comes first. Unlike my world, where family is simply another variable to consider in the equation of individual choice, families are the fulcrum of Thai lives. As I am used to the rebellious student culture of home, I find this awfully challenging when students bow to parents desicions as the final word; "I can't go on exchange because my parents won't let me leave Thailand". And yet, with time, I have realised the flip of this situation is the incredible value and respect these students have for relationships, a simple care often missing in the fast paced world of Australia.

- The general lack of status symbols in suburbia; I have always been a fan of 'casual dressing' where frou frou dress is not required and I have found my kin here. Suburban Bangkokians seem to live simply; without the complicated dress and furniture angst that sees people in Australia shopping neuroticallly at IKEA and Witchery every weekend. Thai's are clean, keeping themsleves and their houses spotless, but here a spade is a spade and doesnt need to be bought from some swanky furniture store to indicate your social standing. Wealth in Thailand is clearly more than a fancy lounge room, a cultivated wardrobe and a redesigned warehouse loft. I find this wonderfully refreshing!

- 'Bangkok Symphony Orchestra' concerts in the park; I am very much missing the festival culture of the Sydney summer although have found some sweet consolation in the beautiful dusk performances of the BSO in the central park. Watching the sunset, listening to the kings jazz music, among the coconut trees with cherries and fairy floss, Thai's and farang alike... Call me a lame old person, but I think this is just awesome.

- Weaw; An alumni of AIESEC in Thailand Weaw is a human guidebook to BKK. With the hundreds of foreigners guests always traipsing through her family's house, Weaw has fed the world and shown us 'dirty farang' the REAL Bangkok . Khoop Khun MAAK, kha, Weaw!

Photos to come soon!

Love Lucy

My Blog moves house

Ok, so I REFUSE to join the cult of facebook, or of My Space, or any other rather silly online community...But I am now an official a member of the nomadlife blog hub.

Please find my blog at http://lucy.nomadlife.org

Cool Bananas!

Love Lucy

Proudly 'Strayan

Brainstorming for the Australia Day party I am hosting today, I have come up with a wealth of stereotypes to play on. We can sit around and listen to 'Men at Work' drinking from stubbies, chowing down on some snags and the token vegemite sandwich, just like Nan used to make.

But what lies beyond these lame-o cliches I whip out when asked to sum up my country? What does it really mean to be an Australian?

Realising that the only cultural product I have brought with me is a badge salvaged from a university protest declaring "proudly Un-Australian", I have no trouble reflecting on all the things that make me NOT proud of being Australian :(

But of course its not all depressing, as Hugh Mckay writes "Like everyone else on the planet, Australians are a mixture of good and bad, noble and shameful, exemplary and slippery".

So why am I a proud Australian?

- Because The Redfern Speech captured the beautiful diversity and responsibility of my Australia

- Because of the dynamic and powerful Aussie's at home and abroad. My favorites; Gemma Sisia, Nada Roude, and Fr. Chris Riley

- Because Brenden Nelson professed at a speech to young leaders in 2006 "we need people who can express dissent". I firmly and deeply disagree with Brendon Nelson's politics, but I am proud of the fact that he welcomes public and private debate as a member of Cabinet.

- Because I have Aussie friends who come from China, Lebanon, Japan, India, Russia, Figi, Indonesia, Spain... and because we are essentially a 'nation' of migrants. No-one aside from Indigenous Australians can cite a history back further than a few generations on Aussie soil.

- Because of the rich indigenous cultural heritage we have to come to terms with. The Aboriginal people of Australia spoke over 500 different languages pre-settlement, had an innately sustainable approach to the land and thrived for over 40,000 years.

- Because www.getup.org.au has 150, 000 members; more than every major political party in the country combined.

- Because Australia can be encapsulated profoundly in Khoa Doa's film "The Finished People", and by The Chaser

What are you proud of?

My NGO hitlist...

In my effort to explore Sustainability and Social Entrepreneurship in Asia I have created a must-visit for my remaining month and a bit in Muan Thai...

Terra- Towards Ecological Recovery and Regional Alliance
409 Soi Rohitsook, Prajarabampen Road, Huay Kwang,
Bangkok 10320, THAILAND.

Ashoka, Thailand
Sinee Chakthranont
Ashoka Representative
65/1, 3rd Floor Sukhumvit 55,
Khlong Tan Nua, Wattana
Email: thailand@ashoka.org

Magic Eyes; Thai Environment and Community Development Association
United Center
16th Floor, No. 323 Silom Road Bangkok 10500
Thailand
magiceyes@magiceyes.or.th

YIY
2 nd Floor Sahakol Engineer Building ,
47/10 Soi Amornphan 4, Viphavadi-Rangsit Road
Ladyao, Jatujak, Bangkok 10900 Thailand
Tel/Fax : 66-29410347
E-Mail : Info@deksiam.com
Website : http:// www.youthinnovation.org

Volunteers for the King
www.volunteerspirit.org

And off I go exploring...shall report back here for shizzle on the findings!

Love Lucy

Thankyou!

What a beautiful network....

AIESEC has offered me so many opportunities over the past 3 and years to take responsibility for my future and my society, to edge out of my comfortable understanding of my capabilities and to do all this with an incredible group of people committed to leadership for positive impact.

In the past week, I have been lucky enough to experience;

- the gut wrenching nervousness of pacing a Thai carpark waiting for the call from Adelaide to announce the National team for 07/08. I cannot describe how splendiferous it is to think I shall be responsible for co-ordinating AIESEC Australia's projects for the coming year, working with Kate, Daz and Anne to build our platform back home and to further
explore the potential for Australia to work with the our community as the formidable social force we know we are. On On, eh, Straya?!
- Logistically organising a 90 person National Conference with AIESEC in Thailand. Designed to empower the next generation of Thai leaders to take responsibility for themselves, AIESEC in their country and the critical issues facing Thai society, this conference was a Herculean effort by an incredible team of people from Thailand, Malaysia, Switzerland, the UK and Australia. Weaw, Pui, Rob, Rina, Alex, Stefan and KJ, I m so proud of what we pulled off, it seemed such an impossible acheivement. You inspire me!
- Brainstorming the possibilities for AIESEC in Vietnam with the incredible delegates from Ho Chi Minh. Having only joined the network a month ago, these students we're ambitious, socially aware and driven by the need to establish AIESEC despite the legalisation obstacles facing them in a Communist country. Meeting these students made me realise again, what an incredible development actor AIESEC is; incubating creative, internationally networked young people to define leadership for their country. Good luck in the upcoming elections guys!
- Finally getting rid of any remaining stress with pizza, a hot bath and a Thai massage. Lovely! (as our Weaw would say :)

Logging into my computer now and back at work I am still riding high on the little things that make up the life of an AIESECer. I can read the enthusiastic emails of my friends back home who coming out of the conference are organising activity for recruitment on our Aussie campuses, I am supremely tempted by a mailer to attend a conference in Austria addressing leadership for sustainbility and my mind keeps drifting to conversation topics for our upcoming meeting with Ashoka.....

I think I shall now HAVE to move to www.nomadlife.org :)

Terrorism in the Land of Smiles...

Jumping into the shower last night, to get ready for NY, Rina comes rolling into the adjoining kitchen saying "There have been explosions in the city, we should stay home".

Wishing for once we had a TV, we checked the news media for reports finding there had been six or so small bombs that went off across the city. Victory Monument, a crowded transport hub had been hit first with other site along the Sukhumvit line also disturbed.

We biked it to the nearest Tesco Lotus to grab a cheeseburger, finding the Mcdonalds and most other stores closed. There had also been an explosion in a supermarket carpark across town, so for once the stores we're closing early.

Our sedated countdown celebration on the roof of our apartment, allowed us to see glimpses of the fireworks in the CBD, fireworks that we're continuing despite the simultaneous detonation of two more bombs in the 'Central World' shopping complex; the site where we were orginally intending to see in the New Year. Thanks to Weaw, P' Pui and Yee Lui for your company and conversation nonethless!

Today, everything is still uncertain with bombs scares in Khao Sarn and Central Ladprao, and another deactivated in the busy Night Bazaar of Sanam Luang. While the casualties we're thankfully low, the city is obviously been shaken by the co-ordinated attacks.
Hit already by the drama''s of the tsumani and ongoing conflict in the South, I see the Thais as incredibly resilient and I only hope the tourists of BKK can also hold their cool...

Fingers crossed 2007 will be a better year for Thailand than the last...

You know your in Bangkok when...

Christmas Day, 0300 hours, Mo Chit Bus Station, Bangkok.

We arrive bleary eyed and disoriented from our peaceful soujourn up North courtesy of Pui's family. Thai's flood off the bus into the 28 degree Bangkok 'winter'. A taxi driver jumps into the bus and declares "You are beautiful. My name is James. Where you go?".

Informing James of our destination, he departs to ready the taxi and we proceed to continue to gather our bags. The bus decides two minutes is enough time to empty passengers off a tour bus, and promptly starts to drive away back down the freeway. Cue rude shouting from Rina and I as we demand to be let off.

Five-star smiles from the staff as we exit the bus and stand on the side of the highway. With James nowhere in sight, we hail another taxi and before we know it we are hurtling through the early morning traffic, listening to thumping Thai techno pop. Hurtling meaning 130 km an hour. Through suburban laneways.

A pothole throws us slamming into the roof but the driver is undetterred. We finally arrive home, needless to say fully awake. The driver checks his tyre to realise we have been driving widly for the past 20 minutes with a flat.

Gotta love this city :)

farang=foreign

Today I made what I thought was going to be a thoroughly romantic trip to the local food market.

Wandering through the Soi, I perused the spreads of exotic food, fruits and garden gnomes, purchasing the most colourful dishes that looked as though they we're straight out of a David Thompson cook book. Flying home on the motorbike, I felt very much like a local, waving to my friends who man the stalls that run towards our place.

Arriving home I realise I have purchased an incredible beautiful but throughly inedible pork skin curry, which I am convinced is made entirely out of chillies disguised as other foodstuffs. The fresh OJ I purchased, is also a big surprise, tasting a little more like a thick tamarind cooking oil than a juice :(

And so, I have once again been humbled by my moronic 'farang'-ness, and shall be returning to my local tomorrow for Phat Si Ew :)

'Enjoy your waffle, enjoy your life'....

As a student of Naomi Wolf, Noam Chomsky and Arundhati Roy, I have always struggled to equate rampant capitalism with human development.

When the slogan of my local waffle store tries to suggest that I shall enjoy my life to the degree that I enjoy their waffles, I am immediately turned away. Equally, I am confronted by the soaring glass fascades of of Bangkok's mofo shopping malls, by the waves of faux brands that spill over the streets, and by the colourful and kitsch heroes of MTV Asia. I can't seem to help that gut recognition of creeping Mcdonaldisation...

Bangkok is simultaneously the beating heart of staunch tradition and national pride and the up and coming playground of the world's fashion fabulous. This week saw the celebration of Constitution day, in a country with no standing Constitution courtesy of September's military coup. The hundreds of stalls that crowd the thoroughfares of an evening scream of the creative entreprenuerialism of the Thai's, while the university professors I chat to routinely insist the relevance of 'leadership' is a moot point in Asian societies.

It seems to me that Thai young people are caught somewhere confused in this dynamic of global/local/tradition/modernity, with desicions made for them by the older generations. The interim government recently raised the drinking age to 25, while a UNFPA report indicated at least 50% of those under this age has had 1+ sexual partner. Again, the Family unit remains the primary desicion-maker for young adults, keeping children firmly under the thumb until they form their own families.

And then something inside me says, "Who are you to judge, farang?"

And so, I keep exploring....