March 28th, 2012 by rjbuzon under Uncategorized. No Comments.
Today, 3/18/12, marked our first day of being in Uruguay as a team. The last of us arrived on Sunday shortly before noon and after settling in we all decided to immerse ourselves in the culture of the capital city, Montevideo. The Inter-American Development Bank is currently hosting a convention in the city which meant that many of the hotel rooms were booked throughout Montevideo. Fortunately, Tiffany was able to find a couple of nice and cozy houses within walking distance to the beach and central to our Uruguayan counterparts Andres, Raul, and most importantly Zonamerica, the company our Global Consulting Project is involved with.
Being so close it was natural that our first destination would be the beach. After a ten minute walk we found ourselves right along the rio de la plata. As you can see from the picture one cannot complain being able to live in the main city and have access to a nice beach.
Soon after we returned back to our house and met with Andres, one of the two MBA candidates from Universidad ORT Uruguay. He introduced us to mate (pronounced Mah-tay) which is a South American infused tea that is drunk out of a gourd. You will see many people throughout the streets of Montevideo carrying their thermos of hot water and their own gourds with Mate leaves inside. Andres advised that if someone offers their gourd to you it is a sign of respect and must not be taken lightly. Even if you do not like the taste it is important that you at least drink the tea to show respect in return.
Next Andres took us to a Candombe showcase in which rhythms are produced by drum ensembles, known as ascuerdas, which include dozens of drummers and feature three drum sizes. Candombe has played a significant role in Uruguayan culture for over 200 years and originates from the Rio de la plata and Brazil, where African slaves brought their dances and percussion music as they sought freedom in slavery abolished Uruguay.
Afterwards Andres introduced us to Agostin, 1 of the only 3 Smith School Alumni originally from Uruguay. Agostin had many kind words to say about the MBA program that he completed in 2009, which was coincidentally the same year that Adrian and I started. It was also revealed that our main point of contact at Zonamerica, Mercedes Steneri, is also on of the other Smith school alum as she also completed her undergrad studies at College Park. It’s a Smith world after all.
After saying our farewell to Agosto, our final destination for the evening was a restaurant that served Chivitos, or as Andres put it, “Uruguay’s version of McDonalds”. This tasty hamburger like concoction was prepared in front of us and flaunted a cornucopia of flavors and is definitely much more complex than a Big Mac, as you can see from the picture. We all put up a fight like it was a Man vs. Food episode and (almost) all of us claimed victory (nice try Tiffany!).
All in all it was a wonderful day of cultural experiences and laid a solid foundation for the start of our true purpose of coming to this wonderful country. Stay tuned for the business side of our journey as we go to Zonamerica tomorrow and begin our CIBER project!
March 23rd, 2012 by emoran under Uncategorized. No Comments.
Something about living in one of the most beautiful places on earth makes you spoiled. When spring break was just over the horizon, my friends here in the south of France felt compelled – no, obligated – to get out of there, and on to somewhere new and exciting for our week off. As if the view from our balcony of the Riviera weren’t pleasure enough, we would indeed end up traveling for spring break.
Italy was the destination of choice. First to Rome, and then to Florence by train. For anyone considering visiting Italy while abroad, Rome is the best and cheapest place to fly into. Trains from Rome’s main airport, Fiumicino, will then take you almost anywhere.
I can tell you about Rome’s beautiful architecture, and the majesty of the Sistine chapel, but those are the sort of things that you have to experience for yourself. I’d spent some time googling various attractions in Rome while planning my trip (an exercise I recommend to all travelers trying to squeeze a city into a weekend), and yes, the photos of ruins and cathedrals gave me an idea of what to expect, but…it’s inexplicably different to be there in person. To walk into a cathedral – or Duomo, as they’re called – among hundreds of visitors, many clearly enthralled in moments of spirituality, is overwhelming. When you realize that hundreds of years ago, men in robes paced the very floors you now stand on, leaned against the giant marble columns that you now lean on…well, this is the part when the feeling becomes inexplicable. But trust me, it’s an incredible experience.
As for daily business, I found the city quite comfortable. The hostile I stayed in was clean and secure, which I can’t say for all the hostiles I’ve encountered. For anyone looking to travel cheaply, hostiles are great but it’s so worthwhile to use a service like hostileworld.com to find a reputable one. Ah, and the food! Being a very picky eater and on a tight budget, I found that Italy’s happy hour tradition called aperitivo to be just perfect. For something like 8 euros, you get a drink and help yourself to a spread of appetizers in a bar type environment. I’m surprised something like this doesn’t exist in the US, or even France for that matter, because it’s so simple and convenient.
Rome being largely a tourist city, I met many more travelers than native Italians while I was there. The breakfast room at the hostile was a great place to start conversations, as were the cafes and pubs around the center of the city. Fighting just a bit of homesickness, I decided to check out one of several pubs known as hotspots for American visitors and students. While I admit that it was comforting to hear familiar American accents, I couldn’t believe that some students went to this same place with the same group of exchange students every weekend. There was so much culture to experience outside, didn’t they know what they were missing? As far as I’m concerned, hiding out in an touristy establishment with a bunch of other Americans should be kept to a minimum while abroad.
So, in addition to having a lot of fun, I learned a lot on this trip. The best advice I could give? Don’t be afraid to take some solo time. I went off on my own almost every day in Italy, and then met up with my friends for dinner and nightlife. Being alone lets you set your own pace, stop at every shop window that intrigues you, and the quiet opens up your senses to really take in all that’s going on around you. Just remember to take a map and get back before dark!
The second half of our trip, to Florence, next time…
January 23rd, 2012 by dscott14 under Uncategorized. No Comments.
I left for Brazil on January 5th, 2012, arriving there the following day on a Friday morning. My anticipation and expectations had reached peak levels while I was waiting in the airport for my flight number to be called for boarding. For me this was a once in a lifetime experience, and also my first time traveling outside the United States. I will take you through the entire trip through my eyes from start to finish, and I will fully immerse you in what I believe it means to be a Brazilian and the important things I learned during my trip to Brazil.
The weeks before the trip I had several meetings with the group of students that I would be traveling with to Brazil and our professors asked us to develop a list of expectations for our trip and for the country of Brazil. I came up with numerous simple things like I expect communication to be difficult since the dominant language there is Portuguese, and I expect to see a lot of farms and developing places in terms of industrial and technological prowess. As my departure date approached however I began to think hard about this same question, and realized that I didn’t have any expectations for the trip. I didn’t know what to expect when it came to the people, culture, or daily life. I didn’t know how Brazilian interacted with one another, and I surely wasn’t aware of how they viewed foreigners to their homeland. I wasn’t prepared mentally for what I would see and endure for the next two weeks, part of this lack of preparation could be contributed to the fact that I was really nervous to go on my first flight ever making me feel really stressed out.
American Airlines was terrific and on January 6th, 2012 I landed in Sao Paulo ready to take on this “new world of Brazil.” Of course it was silly to think that I would learn enough about this country and its people in such a short time period to accurately characterize the nation as a whole since I was only visiting two cities. Truthfully I was more excited for the attractions that the locations offered, especially the beaches! However over the next two weeks this amazing country would teach me more about myself than I could have ever imagined.
Brazilian people are very passionate individuals and appear to always be in control of any situation. The people I met were some of the most relaxed and stress-free people that I have ever met. My first night I was looking for something quick to eat and wanted to try some authentic Brazilian food so I went to…McDonalds. Yes, it’s the American in me. The service at this McDonalds was great, and unlike any that I have been to in the USA. I was fortunate enough to be serviced by a cashier who knew how to speak English fairly well. He was very anxious to practice his English and really enjoyed talking to me, which was a surprise to me because I thought everyone would shy away from me. I immediately noticed that many people were staring and looking at me though because I was speaking English, but the looks were not hostile. Everyone was intrigued and some of them even approached me after I received my food just to say hi and practice a little English with me. One young lady even complimented me on my appearance saying that I was beautiful, of course this made me like Brazil that much more.
Our time in Sao Paulo was spent in groups developing and completing a project that involved the introduction of innovation to a specific Brazilian market. We were very lucky to have a wonderful tour guide, Josafat, who offered each group valuable information and advice about the Brazilian culture and people. Josafat is from the Amazon region in Brazil, and moved to Sao Paulo because of its rise as a city of business. With his guidance, each team was able to take fully understand how to market to the Brazilian people and also the government. My team developed a project that would increase the access of technology to more people in the city of Sao Paulo because not many people outside of the upper class have personal computers or smartphones. We came up with the idea to place big screen televisions in certain locations around the city so that a community of people can enjoy watching their country compete in the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics. I credit the invention of this idea to my teammate as we walked along the main street in Sao Paulo one night. We noticed the large numbers of people that were outside talking, playing, and relaxing in large groups. In the end I believe that our idea and project was a success, and actually had some very great and positive realistic implications.
Getting back to the fun in Sao Paulo, we were all fortunate to have the privilege to visit some extraordinary companies with branches in Sao Paulo. We first visited the Brazilian engineering company, Promon and listened to their proposals about how they would handle the influx of cash and demands from the increase of tourism because of the upcoming World Cup. We then visited Goldman Sachs. First off being an accounting major, I was amazed at the fact I was standing in an actual Goldman Sachs conference room with the President of the South America region and other high ranking executives in the same room as I. They all left us with very valuable information about how to conduct business and emphasized the importance of asking the right questions to get the best and most information out of a client. The last company office meeting we had was with a senior consultant representative of Accenture named Rocky. Rocky was a former professor, and is a really great public speaker. Instead of talking about the operations of Accenture, Rocky connected with us, his audience, and explained that we must hold to our ambitions and dreams and never let obstacles shadow our successes. Listening to him speak gave me hope about my future. I won’t stop working hard until I have succeeded in life based on my standards. The next day we visited the production facilities of Johnson & Johnson and Panasonic where we explored how each company produces its trademark products, and we also discussed ways for process improvement within each facility. Company visits concluded with our project presentation visits in front of an all-star cast from KPMG which benefited each team greatly because they gave us tons of information about government regulations and cost benefit analyses. Our schedule in Rio gave us more free time to explore the city. We visited Libra Terminal to get a grasp on their daily operations with importing and exporting products worldwide. Rio was the reward for all of the hard work we performed in Sao Paulo.
The entire experience for me was nothing less than majestic. We ate at marvelous restaurants, local and high profile, where the food was magnificent. This was the real Brazilian experience. Someone once told me that there is no better way to understand and get to know another culture than by eating the native food and dishes that the culture is built around. Being from Baltimore, I love crab cakes, but Brazilian style crab cakes may be the greatest thing that I have ever tasted. The seasoning and sauce along with the actual crab cake were perfectly prepared. I was stuffed with food every day and night, trying out many different types of foods from Mahi Mahi sushi to a delicate Brazilian rice and bean dish served with filet mignon on risotto. I went to the top of Sugarloaf Mountain and took in the view of Rio de Janeiro from above. I have a whole album of pictures of the Christ the Redeemer Statue that towers over the city. It’s still unreal to me that I was up that high to be able to touch the statue with my hands. I mentioned the beaches earlier; well quite frankly the view from the beaches is beautiful. You take in the ocean breeze and can see islands off in the distance which adds to the marvelous view. Throughout the trip I learned the basics of Portuguese and was able to hold small conversations with some natives. The people here really embraced me and involved me in their culture. There is this one café in downtown Rio named Municipal Café that offers the best natural fruit drinks in the region. I went there each day I was in Rio just to order the drinks.
I was really grateful and fortunate to go on this trip with such an amazing group of people. I take from this trip much advice about how to succeed in life and how to maintain a happy lifestyle. I learned how to interact with people who are very different from me in terms of background and upbringing. I realized that the differences of each individual are what make us special. Patience and wisdom are key, but what I think is most important is loyalty. Developing relationships increases satisfaction in every aspect of anyone’s life. Positive relationships are what keep people like me striving and working hard to reach my goals. I made new friends that I will hang out with in College Park when the new semester starts. I connected on a deeper level with my professors as they offered me some great words of wisdom and advice, which will help guide some of the decisions in my life. The one major thing I learned about Brazil that I think I could definitely bring to the USA is that I cannot be afraid to express myself. Brazilians are very passionate. They talk, laugh, argue, hug, and kiss in public. They embrace each other and embrace their culture. They are proud of who they are and are humble about their successes. They continue to progress and work hard to make each other better. There were many philanthropic projects, constructions, and events that were in place when I visited different areas in both cities. I will use this understanding and embrace my dreams and take off from here.
October 17th, 2011 by kryota under Uncategorized. No Comments.
July 11, crossing the border from Hong Kong into Shenzhen, firstly, I was surprised at such a luxurious and modern subway station that I didn’t see in China ten years ago, when I visited China lastly. Everything in the facility was kept clean and the service there was so organized that I felt as if I were still in Hong Kong. Only the long line for vending machine to buy ticket reminded me that I was in China. Shenzhen’s subway ticket is made of plastic and contains IC, which allow passengers to use the facility efficiently and ecologically. However, as the long lines shows, some of the people seem not to be familiar with such latest equipments. Fast-paced changes in the previous decade might have brought China great advancement in many areas and allowed people to access the latest technology, but, to some extent, there are people who need more time to catch up with the change.
Getting off the subway and out on the ground, I saw a lot of construction sites of buildings and road repairing here and there. In the shopping malls, there were many familiar western brands and restaurant chains, most of which can be seen in Hong Kong. While the atmosphere of the city is almost that of Hong Kong, I could yet see some people drawing carts, working topless at the construction site, and group of the people playing card on the sideway. Even in the center of the Shenzhen city, such an economical gap was seen everywhere. It just makes sense that the China government currently started to focus more on mitigating the gap between the people than extreme growth of the GDP. According to my Chinese friend, China is now at the age of 30 of the development stage, so that now is a time to start amending the past strategy, as other eastern Asian countries such as Japan and Korea did in their age of 30, in order that they reach the next stage of development and make the society sustainable.
The objective of our project was to research Chinese manufactures in terms of the energy efficiency. During this travel, we met and interviewed more than 40 people who represent various industry and job title such as a consultant, manager of manufacturer, owner of trading factory and manager of global NGO. From the interviews with such a diverse people, we obtained various view points about “energy efficiency” in China. Although, there are several differences in the stand points, it seems that they have such a common sense that the change happened just a couple years ago and it is really primitive. This fact also reminded me that this country was so young that they were facing same experience that most developed countries had faced in the past.
Thus, these days, Chinese people seem to have seen changes in the government; much pressure has been placed on the sustainability issues since 2008 so that the government achieved the target of 11th 5 years plan. According to one of interviewees, actually about 2000 factories were forced to close their business due to failure to achieve the goal. However, while China government has huge power on everywhere, some pointed out the problem of the strong government that it is too big to act efficiently so that necessary measures don’t reach the places that need them at critical time.
I saw Chinese consumer behaviors were also changing. Chinese consumer is in the even earlier stage of consumerism than the manufacturers are so that it takes a little more time for them to acquire such a new mind-set. However, I have seen several eco-friendly activities and many advertisements for green in Shenzhen. For example, some supermarkets in Shenzhen have introduced a charge on plastic shopping bags that previously distributed for free there in order to let people act against infamous “White pollution”. In my opinion, such change should be accelerated since in the next step of development, China government is focusing on expanding domestic demand, which means Chinese people are going to play more important role on development of sustainability.
Finally, even during only six weeks in the great China, I have exposed many thoughts and insights about current China through the interview sessions. It can be called a “life changing experience”. When I was in Japan, the country was a “nation both close geographically and distant emotionally” due to biased view that it is too risky to do business in the country, even though I knew the country showed great growth rate or received the international attention increasingly. Therefore, this trip opened my eyes in that I had chance to see what happening China now in local level and that I obtained insight to see great chances amongst risks of China business.
September 16th, 2011 by kenchen under Uncategorized. No Comments.
In this summer, contracted with an outstanding international supply chain energy efficiency improvement consultant – Efficiency Exchange, I had the honor to travel with three amazing international MBA students (from US, Canada, and Japan) to China to do a 6 weeks field research.
The ultimate goal for our research is to find out innovative ways to increase the sustainability of retailers’ global supply chain, especially in China. And the issue we looked into was the stakeholder relationship for the supplier in China. We want to know who are they interacting with, what are they doing, and how do they influence each other?
We believe there are misunderstandings toward Chinese business environment within international retailer communities that inhibit the establishment of stronger global supply chain partnership for sustainability improvement, and we are convinced the understanding of stakeholder relationship is the biggest missing part.
Thus, when we were in China, we traveled for over 6000 miles (a distant longer than Moscow to New York!) to 8 different cities and did over 30 interviews with all kind of stakeholder including supplier, retailer, government, media, NGO, and consultants. We met huge global enterprise like NIKE, and we also visited the 2-person trading company. Besides that, we also did an international survey across US and China to gather quantitative data and to capture the perceptional difference in how to improve sustainability in China.
Everyone was excited about the finding we got and the contribution we can bring to the industry. Beside a round table in D.C. with Deloitte, Gartner, WWF, Retail Industry Leaders Association, and a MIT MBA team when we initiated this project on April, we also got invited to present our project at Peking University on Youth Summit on Energy and Climate when we were in China. And now, we will do another round table in D.C. to announce our finding, and we also received invitation from Harvard that they want us to present our project on their conference.
However, the most valuable thing I got from this project is not the learning or horror. It is the intense living, working, and traveling experience I got with my amazing teammates. The diversity of this team let know more about who I am, and where I want to go.
And above all, this project could never be possible without the generous support from the University of Maryland Robert H. Smith School of Business Center for International Business Education and Research. I am just grateful to everyone who had direct or indirectly helped our project to move forward.
Kaiyu (Ken) Chen
程開佑
MBA Candidate 2012, Smith School of Business
http://www.linkedin.com/in/kaiyuchen
September 7th, 2011 by mterada under Uncategorized. No Comments.
Having been in China for about five weeks now, visiting 8 cities, I only now feel comfortable giving my thoughts on my experience here. The main reason for this is that China is so diverse and large (too many people!) that it would be inappropriate to evaluate it before visiting multiple areas. Each major area that we have been to: Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Beijing, Shanghai, and Mongolia has very different lifestyles and people. Even now, I believe that I still can not do it justice, especially since I have not visited western China which I have heard is quite different from the rest of the country. With that said, I will do my best.
Learning about a country’s culture, people, and business practices in school is very different than experiencing it first hand, and China is no different. Because China has been growing so much recently, many of my classes have mentioned case studies and examples of work being done here. However, I feel as though reading about China can not do it justice.
I have joked with my teammate Ken that I have given up on trying to understand how things work here, because there are many things that I feel do not make logical sense. However, somehow, work does get done and China progresses. The typical answer that I get when something does not make sense to me is, “well, there are too many people.” A couple of examples of the lack of logic that I have found, and the answer being too many people are:
- Using x-ray scanners at the HK/Shenzhen boarder, but not actually requiring people to put their bags through. Additionally, even if they go through, the person who is supposed to be looking at the x-ray image many times is not
- You must stand behind a yellow line when scanning your train token for it to work and let you through the gate. Why???
My research and business experience here has been amazing. Much of it has to do with the great team I have been traveling with, but it can also be attributed to the great interviews we have had. Overall, we interviewed about 30 companies within 5 weeks, and all of them have been valuable. We have been lucky in that during our interviews, most of the people we spoke with were very open and honest, something that I was told not to expect from other colleagues. Although we have collected an enormous amount of research, this topic is so large that we have only scratched the surface of what is available.
One of the lessons we have learned during our time here is that we should have scheduled more time for team meetings and gathering our thoughts. We have been running around doing so many interviews that we are short on time in actually analyzing and creating the final product. We also should have scheduled more time to relax. Although I have had a few days off to sightsee, overall this has been a very intensive work experience.
This has been an amazing experience and one that I will never forget. It has given me a chance to go to a country I have learned about, but never experienced. It has also allowed me to learn a ton about an industry that I have only recently gained an interest in, and by now, I feel as though I am an expert on the subject. After publishing our report, I know that I will stay engaged on the topic of energy sustainability to see where it goes in the coming years. It is an exciting time for the industry, one with a lot of promise, but there are many barriers for it to improve. I hope that our paper can contribute to the progression and expansion of energy efficiency/sustainability, and put it on the right course that it needs to be.
August 24th, 2011 by sloych under Uncategorized. No Comments.
I just arrived in the US after spending my summer in Singapore for my internship. I had a wonderful time getting to know the culture and people of the island and was amazed at the efficiency and cleanliness of the country. Singapore has not always had the prosperity that it currently enjoys. Forty six years ago, on August 9th, the country somewhat unwillingly received its independence from Malaysia. As it had no natural resources, Singapore turned to the manufacturing and shipping industries to bolster its economy. After much hard work, the country began to reap its benefits. Today, Singapore is a dominant player in the global economy and serves as a pattern for much of the developing world.
I learned a lot of small, random lessons that I would share here:
- If you can speak a language, someone here knows what you are saying.
- Soda here is made with real sugar- not corn syrup. Not a big soda drinker, but it does taste better.
- The educational system here is really complicated, but everyone I met seemed smart, so it must be working!
- The country is very safe.
- The government knows how to make money! There is a huge tax on cigarettes and alcohol, and the government controls much of the housing. Purchasing a car can cost around $100,000 due to a Certificate of Entitlement which basically doubles the price of an already expensive car.
- Singaporeans like acronyms, and Singlish is the preferred method of communication which is a really fun version of English. Basically, you say ‘lah’ a lot at the end of sentences, use the phrase “is it?”, and vary the tones of your words. If I could due justice to a replicated version of Singlish, I would!
- Singapore has a number of similar cultural challenges to that of the US. With such a wide variety of cultures living within the country, immigration is a concern on everyone’s mind.
- Everyone loves Chilli crab!
- There really aren’t any slums.
- Library cards are not free for Permanent Residents. However, there are a lot of libraries and they are always a nice place to relax.
- Not a lot of free space around, but the community centers have a lot of options for sports/ activities. Also, the parks get two thumbs up.
- The restaurants are really expensive- it doesn’t matter the cuisine; however, the food courts are quite cheap and diverse.
- There is always a bus or MRT station nearby (just make sure that you are there when they are in service!).
- The government is very supportive of entrepreneurs. Apparently, it is the 2nd best country for someone to start a business.
- None of the restaurants have napkins.
- The people are really friendly and very helpful!! (Two exclamation marks needed to emphasize the point)
August 7th, 2011 by katsuya under Uncategorized. No Comments.
On July 24th (Tuesday), I had speech/presentation about Table for Two (NPO that I am involved with in Washington DC) at JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency). There is private study forum for Japanese who live in Bangkok and I was invited to talk about the activity of Table for Two.
Brief explanation about Table for Two (TFT) http://www.tablefor2.org/tft_usa/. There are 6.7 billion people in this world. One billion are overweight due to overconsumption and one billion are hunger due to shortage of food. TFT tries to solve the unbalance of world food consumption. TFT partners with restaurants and provides healthy, low calorie dishes to people in developed countries. Out of purchasing meal price, 25 cents is donated to TFT. TFT collects those donations and provides foods to people in need, specifically kids in Africa.
Most of school in Africa cannot offer school lunch. Children in those areas do not stay in school afternoon and some children would not come to school. But if they are offered school lunch, they are motivated to come to school and study. The more education they have, the brighter future they can have. Just simple meal can make a huge difference.
TFT operates at Japan, the United States, United Kingdom, South Korea, Switzerland, and Taiwan. Thailand is becoming from developing country to emerging country. Bangkok is one of major cities. There are many Japanese living in this city and many Japanese restaurants available. There is potential for TFT to operate in Bangkok.
I explained the activity of TFT, such as how TFT gained popularity in Japan, how to finance its operation, how beneficial from business perspective, how TFT provides meals to children in Africa. After the presentation, the audiences asked questions.
By and large, I got nice comments from the audience. Also they offered any help if I or TFT needs some help. I hope that this event would lead to a larger impact in Bangkok.
August 1st, 2011 by yshuang under Uncategorized. No Comments.
Time flies! 6 weeks passed already. Hard to use a word or a sentence to describe the totally different experiences I have here at United Nations in Bonn Germany. The office I work with is called UN-SPIDER (United Nations Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response). Together with UNOOSA in Vienna (United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs), UN-SPIDER has its own main mission to ensure that all countries and international and regional organizations have access to and develop the capacity to use all types of space-based information to support the full disaster management cycle. The role I played in my internship is to execute the VALID (Value of Geo-Information for Disaster and Risk Management) project for the permanent mission. Focused on the estimation of how the disasters are going to affect global economics based on the cost-benefit (CBA) and cost-utility analysis (CUA), I coordinated with several experts in the office in order to urge national governments to put more efforts on and to apply the Geographic information system (GIS) to their risk management systems.
So…what is Geographic information system? Geographic information system (GIS) supports disaster and risk management in many ways. The analysis and visualization of static and incident specific dynamic geographic information is the key for the build-up of a common operational picture and the development of shared situational awareness among national governments. Furthermore, the use and exchange of geospatial information in disaster situations is facilitated, on national and international levels, by initiatives and programs on harmonization of geospatial data and building of spatial data infrastructures. Each year different disasters cause thousands of deaths and tremendous damage to property around the world. To improve disaster management in mitigation, preparedness, relief and response, and recovery and reconstruction, national governments, international organizations and research institutions worldwide are now all trying to apply GIS in different ways. In the disaster risk reduction approach, with the help of technologies such as earth observation satellites (EO), satellites-based technology, and geographical information system (GIS), many of the deaths and property losses could be prevented if better policy and information were provided and available on the exposed populations and assets. In the macroeconomics perspective, it is proved that the technologies can definitely benefit the society in certain ways. In this respect, many governments have put the formation of a disaster management committee on their political agenda as an important factor of sustainable economic development.
However, the “monetary value” of applying the GIS or other technologies into disaster management is still uncertain. In terms of macroeconomics perspective, the traditional way of the cost-benefit analysis is never enough to estimate the whole disaster management. Economic benefits – due to impacts on economic or environmental activity as a result of changes in production and consumption, costs and the use of resources – integrated into a disaster risk approach should never be justified as a simple calculation. The VALID project I worked to is trying to bridge the gap of the “missing value of applying GIS” in monetary and macroeconomic ways. I will keep working on the project till the end of this year to see if the entire project can not only create the social-economic benefit for the society but raise the awareness in the political and programmatic environment among national governments and international organizations.
Tags:Bonn, Germany, United Nations.
July 20th, 2011 by skushner under Uncategorized. No Comments.
It hasn’t been all work and no play during my stay. During the weekends I have been able to explore another side Taiwan, a hidden gem. Whether KTV (karaoke) till 6AM or street food at a night market, hiking in the jungle or enjoying a sunrise on the beach, I have found this small island to be a pleasant surprise. Tie this with the warmth of the individuals I have met, and one has a compelling reason to visit Taiwan. Below is a visual tour (related descriptions are numbered) of some things I have been able to experience while here. Enjoy!
1-2) Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall – I can see why the two major political parties of Taiwan are arguing whether to rename this memorial. Kai-shek didn’t do much as a president compared to his son.
3) National Palace Museum – I was surprised to find out that one cannot take pictures without flash in the National Palace Museum. There were a few decent artifacts, but the Shanghai Museum is by far the best repository of Chinese artifacts I have seen thus far.
4) Raohe Night Market – The first night market of Taipei, reeking of stinky tofu
5) Mahjong – I haven’t played this game in over four years. Relearning a few rules, remembering characters, and learning the difference between 13 and 16-tile (played in Taiwan) Mahjong, I hit the game running with my colleagues. It’s a fun game to play, and I can see why people gamble while playing.
6-18) Penghu – An archipelago off of Taiwan. They beautiful islands to explore on a scooter with spectacular waters, sunrises and sunsets. (18) “Two hearts stone weir” – originally used to catch fish between tides. Nowadays, a tourist trap on Chi Mei and the most photographed site on the archipelago
19-25) Lugang – From beautiful temples to child mediums, fun markets to good street food, this was a great town to explore. (25) Mo-lu Lane. “Breast touching” lane. The narrowest alley in Lugang. Supposedly men would brush up “accidentally”
26-30) Sun Moon Lake – Taiwan’s largest fresh body water
31-33) Cixingtan – “Seven Start Lake”. A beautiful stone beach that sounds magical against the waves near Hualien. (33) The coastline drive along Route 9 leading to Hualien is beautiful
34-36) Walami Trail – A trail which cuts across the Taiwanese jungle and mountains, east to west. Built by the Japanese during their occupation up through World War II as a means to transport troops between coastlines. The first leg is a glorious 17-mile round trip day hike through jungle, along mountainsides, past waterfalls, and across suspension bridges
37-39) Taroko Gorge – A beautiful gorge and tourist trap
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Tags:Chi Mei, Chiang Kai-Shek, CIBER, Cixingtan, Hualien, Lugang, Mahjong, Mo-lu Lane, National Palace Museum, Penghu, Raohe Night Market, Robert H. Smith School of Business, Smith School of Business, Sun Moon Lake, Taiwan, Taroko Gorge, Two Hearts Stone Weir, Walami Trail.
