Skip to main content

Beijing in a Rush for 2008



From the calm of Japan to the frenzy paced in Beijing is certainly a contrast. Beijing is preparing for the 2008 Olympic, a very important image building event for all who come to the capital of China. As of now, the air pollution is all too obvious for all to see, as you gazed into the sky. It is yellow in the day and you can hardly see any stars in the night. This is the price of economic progress.

I was in this building, Prosper Centre, just across Kerry Shangri-La hotel. This building has to be completed before the end of this year. The government has given the order that all construction will stop by then. This will allow some time, perhaps for the air pollution to clear partially. I was here because this is one of the rare LEED certified building in China. What is LEED? The acronymn stands for "Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design" which is a sort of green building rating. Environmental protection has taken centre stage, now that global warming is really "hot" news.

This building is still like a shell in April 20, when I was there, and in a month or two, the owner wants to move into it. Are you able to imagine the frenzied pace to get it done? This is a 24 x 7 operation, with no stop for lunch nor toilet break. This is certainly no "calm" place to be.

Like in life, there are always the dichotomy of events - calmness on the one hand, and excitement on the other. How does one find the balance to ensure sanity? This is one of the reasons, why my friend, Oda-san in Japan built the lodge to bring serenity to the minds of the troubled executives. They can look up the sky, appreciate the stars; rub the shoulders, feel the breeze; sip the sake, grateful that life is still worth living.

One does not have to win the Olympic to be a champion. The cheering is temporal. That joy experienced will soon be gone. Just remember to come back to the calmness of loving those who are precious to you. There is no rush needed, nor a fixed time. It is like a stream that flows 24 x 7; but with a very different meaning to life. Get it?
Posted by Picasa
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

More is Certain

I had been working on an acquisition over the last three weeks and it was the most tiresome experience ever. The target being a public listed company means that any news leakage will drive up the share price. The purchase price of a public listed company will carry a premium on the share price. In Asia, I noted that the premium given is about 10~15% but in the USA, it is between 20~40%! Just imagine, if you spotted a target and you buy into it, and you hit the bull's eye! You could make quite a bundle. Of course, your guess could be wrong, and if so, expect that share price to go down, when the news is announced. For those working on such a deal, expect tons of information to be provided to you, and most of this could be outdated. However the bank (usually) engaged to do the job wants to impress you with documents. After all, more means "we are doing something" compared to "less but quality stuff". So, I have to keep sieving lousy information, to get out what is...
Post a Comment
Read more

Tranquility (www.taoteching.org) Ch. 37 - a commentary

The Way takes no action, but leaves nothing undone. When you accept this The world will flourish, In harmony with nature. Nature does not possess desire; Without desire, the heart becomes quiet; In this manner the whole world is made tranquil. ---------------------------------------------------------- Is this a contradiction? Takes no action, yet leaves nothing undone? I think over this for sometime. I still have my doubt on my interpretation. But why be "right" when I can do what I want to do. In the corporate world, I notice a lot of "make work". The concept of being busy means that one is working to impress the boss remains a culture; albeit a self-deceiving one at best. I interpret this chapter as not doing unimportant or non-impactful things as the principle of work. The Way takes no action on many wasteful tasks. Instead, the Way concentrates on tasks that affect the environmental sustainability and ensure that nature will continue to provide for many generati...
Post a Comment
Read more

Music from the Mind of a Chinese Maestro, Choo Hoey

I took advantage of the Keppel Nights tickets subsidy of 50% and took the family to attend the "Folklore and Legends" on February 20, at the Singapore Chinese Orchestra (SCO)Concert Hall. It was conducted by Mr Choo Hoey (see photo) with a guest appearance of a young violinist, Mr Jin Li (see photo). I have never been inside the Singapore Conference Hall before, despite having lived in Singapore for the past thirteen years! It is located on Shenton Way, the financial street of Singapore, with a nice view onto the Marina Bay, which is seeing a lot of construction with new high rise office buildings springing up. Ah, this is Singapore, a land of little land but plenty of high rise buildings. This is my first foray into a Chinese orchestra, with Chinese musical instruments. These names are strange to my ears - gaohu, erhu, banhu, zhonghu, yangqin, liuqin, zhongruan, sanxian, daruan, konghou, qudi, bangdi and xindi. Some of these instruments are not known to me, because I do not ...
Post a Comment
Read more