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The best fortress is to be found in the love of the people. — Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince

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Remembering Who You Work For – The Beneficiary?… the Recipient?… the Donor?

Posted by Carlo on June 10, 2018
Posted in: Bangladesh, Development, International Relations, NGO, Non-Profit, Sustainable Developent Goals., Sustainable Development, Travel, W. Africa, West Africa. Tagged: Bangladesh, development, Dhaka, philanthropy, PMI, PMP, project management, USAID. Leave a comment

I was recently asked to speak at PMI – Bangladesh Chapter.  PMI is the Project Management Institute.

From it’s Wikipedia page,  “The PMI provides services including the development of standards, research, education, publication, networking-opportunities in local chapters, hosting conferences and training seminars, and providing accreditation in project management.”

It’s important to not just know what business you’re in but what type of business you want to have or you might have to ask yourself why you’re in it at all.

When I was asked to speak my first desired topic was leadership.  I mean that’s what they taught us in the Marines and if I thought I would leave anything behind it would be a few lessons learned from some of my all too often remembered mistakes from the past (some not so long ago!).

Leadership as a topic was taken.

Ethics and character would most likely be what my Marine Corps community would want me to share and discuss.

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Obligations to the stakeholders, our organization, our STAFF, definitely the vendors but what about our beneficiaries and recipients?  We owe them transparency.  We owe them the ability to stand by the many promises they’ve heard in the past and are sure to hear in the future.  How does one develop a sterling reputation in a world where corruption and moral decay are the currency of the realm?  It’s noteworthy that to be a straight shooter in this world and wait in line without paying the bribe, not short-cutting your way through the process with a kickback or hiring police to do one thing or another.  When you live in the United States it’s one thing but in fragile democracies and emerging autocracies it’s a bit more challenging.

Easy for me to say.  I’m a Westerner, an expat.  I was raised in a society were many of these concepts are sometimes taken for granted but when you’re placed in an environment where you have to make choices for the benefit of your project and organization and to stay on track you might notice where the short-cuts are.  Those short-cuts do nothing less than erode the governing principles that go into rule of law, transparent process and good and valued leadership.

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When you combine this witch’s brew of compromise into your organization you’ve plotted a downward trajectory that breeds low morale, inefficiency, cliques and contempt between colleagues.  It’s bad for your bottom line if you thought your proposed and actual budget would be reconciled cleanly.

This section should honestly call for various chapters within it that subscribe to how ethical behavior can and should influence the decision making within your organization not just for it’s own sake but also because it’s the right thing to do.

It’s Humanity Foundation – Local NGO Support

Posted by Carlo on February 7, 2018
Posted in: Bangladesh, Development, Gender Equality, Inter-Faith, International Relations, NGO, Non-Profit, Sustainable Development, Travel, Uncategorized. Leave a comment

While working in Bangladesh I have found small niche opportunities to support local NGO’s.  A spotlight NGO was the, “It’s Humanity Foundation”.  They work in the urban areas of Dhaka as well as rural areas.  Their aim is to improve educational opportunities for children.

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What’s the point?  Well each child assisted promotes another contributing member to society, enhances their welfare but more importantly because it’s the right thing to do.

I have attempted to find linkages between my personal project of Nino Abstract and Helen Keller International.

A few areas I thought were interesting were their special projects related to climate change/global warming.  The topic is of course interesting but I enjoyed the methodology and approaches they took to examining some of these important issues at an early age.

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I felt that depending upon the cultures we were reared in we carry many of those societal beliefs, expectations and attitudes.  I think that if I were to support those areas where kids were exposed to challenges where they were not only expected to think critically but were required to in order to confront a variety of mainstream beliefs then they would have accessed specific experiences they could later leverage in life should they need to question erroneous beliefs.  We don’t want to lead unexamined lives and I think that any child who is encouraged to ask questions will find the answers they are looking for if they bother to look.

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Some interesting statistics at a glance show nearly 50 children participated in the science fairs.

Slide1

These took place in December of 2017 and January of 2018.  They did a fantastic job.  I was unable to attend personally but I saw a lot of good media and the right attention and focus was on the kids.  They were beaming with pride and told “It’s Humanity Foundation” they didn’t think the “city people” would accept them or like them.  It’s disheartening to hear that children arrive with preconceived notions about their place in a society.

Nevertheless the children carried on and participated.  There was a wonderful little drama, art show they did at the end where they participated.  It was an inventive method of storytelling.  Making the children a part of the story being told rather than telling the story directly to them.  As a child this would better inform me of what challenges lay in this area but also because of what role I played in the show I would also see some of the linkages.  I applaud the group for considering this method of relaying important messaging to a child rather than a boring class or lecture.

Slide2

6 Exercises For Mastering Cultural Agility

Posted by Carlo on June 13, 2018
Posted in: Uncategorized. Leave a comment

While working in Bangladesh I have worked mostly in the operations role and field.  That means procurements, finances, HR responsibilities, staying abreast of all IT related issues, SECURITY, it goes on and on. I’m not on the program side of things.

What is not missing if daily interaction in Bangladesh.  Some days are more successful than others and sometimes when I’m saying hello or good morning to my staff it can appear gratuitous.

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Developing cultural agility takes time and time+errors builds experience and lessons learned.  I found it valuable to keep a journal but also mouth shut and eyes and ears open.  What does the country have to say to you, what to the people have to say to you, how is it said and what’s your orientation?

Lately I have been exploring more and more of Participatory Rural Appraisals or PRA.  They are an alternative to using survey’s and questionnaires putting the local population in charge of it’s own affairs and listening and learning how to proceed vs asserting an outside influence on how to get things done.

Bartlett-Ranking_BGD(2004)

PRA ranking exercise being carried out by members of a Farmer Field School in Bangladesh, 2004

I set about asking how does one go about developing basic skills for cultural agility and guess what?  I found the following and they are extremely helpful.

Six key skills that will help you master cultural agility from Michelle Randall:

  1. Self-awareness. Being aware of your own cultural biases, behaviors, and worldviews.
  2. Being attuned to your environment, and to cultural nuances. Adjusting your behavior to harmonize the relationship–without mimicking.
  3. Adapting to cultural differences and ambiguities. Being flexible to the situation.
  4. Being authentic. (It’s not about putting on somebody else’s culture, but about being able to interact in a way that’s relevant and important to them.)
  5. Acquiring knowledge about other cultures. Immersing yourself in the foreign culture and seeking out new experiences.
  6. Continually assessing how you’re developing in each of these areas, and looking for opportunities to grow.

Every person will find what works for them.  My father gave me a copy of, “The Ugly American”.  A book written 1958, a political novel by Eugene Burdick and William Lederer which influenced the way the American overseas behaved and impacted policy, helping to form the Peace Corps.

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The Ugly American is a 1958 political novel by Eugene Burdick and William Lederer which depicts the failures of the U.S. diplomatic corps in Southeast Asia.

The authors were disillusioned with the style and substance of U.S. diplomatic efforts in Southeast Asia. They sought to demonstrate through their writings their belief that American officials and civilians could make a substantial difference in Southeast Asian politics if they were willing to learn local languages, follow local customs and employ regional military tactics.

PMI Discussion Brief

Posted by Carlo on June 11, 2018
Posted in: Uncategorized. Leave a comment

Hi all.

I have been asked for the notes on my brief and I’m including them here.

Thanks for all who attended.

Remembering Who You Work For – The Beneficiary?… the Recipient?… the Donor?

Ethics, Project Management and You

Posted by Carlo on May 27, 2018
Posted in: Uncategorized. Leave a comment

Thoughts on ethics in project management.

PMI delivery

I was recently asked to talk on any professionally relevant topic of my choice before a large PMP credentialed audience in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

IMG_4144  IMG_4145

Heralding from the Marine Corps my first answer was leadership. Sadly, that option had been taken by some other lucky fella. Were I back in the Marines their next choice would undoubtedly be on the topic of ethics and character within the workspace. How do the concepts of ethics and morality play against each other in the work environment where we are asked so frequently to compromise ourselves so we can keep our jobs or just “go with the flow”.

Well my friends, I’m no diviner of final objective truths but what I can offer are a variety of good reasons why it’s best practice and policy to approach your projects with humility, an attitude for learning and a bit of self-worth and dignity that we may never feel we much compromise ourselves.

Personal Brand

A person’s integrity and their character will inform others of your brand. Are you reliable? Dependable? We’re talking about making the right choices for their own sake but are there not practical benefits for simply doing right by your staff, your clients, vendors or indeed the recipients of your goods and services? Your brand and reputation will precede you. If you have a storied history of cutting corners, looking the other way or indeed not taking positive action when you see something wrong and thus become part of that problem in your complicity you are not doing yourself or the work culture around you any favors.

Good Business

Staying in business is of course just one part of why you are in business for whatever it is you do. There are all kinds of climates out there on the range from toxic to ideal. We have a lot to say about best practices and lessons learned if we really want to actualize a business environment conducive to honesty, transparency and a name for doing right by others. Others here are defined as your stakeholders as well as your vendors and indeed… your very staff. None of these relationships can exist silo’d off and away from each other. Understanding what your business code of ethics is helps you blend those elements with the quality of work you do and in turn promotes your brand and encourages business growth.

Replicable Events

You don’t want to just have one good business deal, you want repeat business. How does choking a customer or client on a one-time high fee only to lose their business afterward. What about that proposal you submitted? How much quality is behind that? Will you stand on it? Put your signature to it? You might win that proposal but how much of that was luck? You want to be competitive and you want to win more proposals (ideally) and you get better each time. You want to capitalize on that success with future endeavors and you do that by incorporating and blending best practices in terms of having a consistent reputation of being transparent, cost effective, reliable on time and budget, bankable. Holding yourself and your organization to a higher standard becomes mutually profitable.

fencing

The upshot of all this is of course we want to do the right thing but it becomes a little harder to do in a lot of gray areas in life and the workplace. Allow yourselves to be human. Understanding time and place, flexibility, creative options means you are aware of the decisions that are in front of you and you are being an active participant in the choices that follow. Working for an INGO like Helen Keller International means I have to hold myself as well as my colleagues to a higher standard. I’m often kept on my toes and I thank my team for that. Remember my friends, the light at the end of the tunnel might be you.

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Angkor Wat

Posted by Carlo on February 8, 2018
Posted in: Angkor Wat, Archaeology, art, Cambodia, Development, International Relations, NGO, Ruins, Travel, Uncategorized. 2 Comments

Reap    27540912_10156210449201564_8033432928370228524_nI don’t normally use this blog.  First of all I don’t know what to write about and secondly, I don’t have much of a following.  So whatever I post will be for me.

For 10+ years I’ve wanted to visit Angkor Wat.  For me Cambodia was never really on the way to anywhere else.  That sounds awful because it sounds as if I would have no other reason to go to Cambodia.

What more if left to say?  It’s going to be an amazing experience.  I would offer to the new traveler that when going to Angkor Wat to familiarize oneself ahead of time of the “must-see’s”.  If you say you want to see the main temple you may only get the main temple and not Ta Prahn or Bayon.  These are within the area but you’ll need an all-day pass which cost about $32 for 1 day.  You can get the 3 day pass which I recommend if you want to see these places in depth.

Frequently I imagine a lot of Edgar Rice Burroughs, H. Rider Haggard or Robert E. Howard.  I suppose it depends on what your early influences are.  Could be Kipling for others.  I read a lot of V.S. Naipaul and Paul Theroux so I am often taken to romantic ideas of places that travel writers tell us about.

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It is a lovely experience to try to imagine the people, names, the stories of those who came here.  The area was built in the 12th and 13th centuries.  To be sure it was originally built as a funerary so it faces west.  It was originally built as a Hindu temple and later changed to a Buddhist temple in the 13th cent.

The original creator was Suryavarman II and later continued by Jayavarman II.

Angkor Wat

In the mid-19th century, the temple was visited by the French naturalist and explorer Henri Mouhot, who popularised the site in the West through the publication of travel notes, in which he wrote:

“One of these temples—a rival to that of Solomon, and erected by some ancient Michelangelo—might take an honorable place beside our most beautiful buildings. It is grander than anything left to us by Greece or Rome, and presents a sad contrast to the state of barbarism in which the nation is now plunged.”

A lot of people will be quick to remind you the location in and of itself was never “lost” or undiscovered.  That it was the French and Portuguese who popularized it is true.  It enflamed the imaginations of the West not unlike how Sir Arthur Conan Doyle did with the Lost World genre’s and popularized Mt Roraima in Venezuela.

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I definitely believe this is a 3 day tour.  People will be tempted to visit Pub Street – Siem Reap.  That area is the most developed tourist trap I have ever seen in the world of tourist traps.  It looks like Chili’s and TGIF’s had kids and exploded into several blocks of chili fries.

I did check out the area and was satisfied to see it only once.

Back to Angkor Wat and surrounding areas.

Big-Circuit

This was the route I took although to be honest I used a tuk-tuk open cab.  It was faster and the driver was also a go-fetch kinda guy for minor things I needed or wanted.  Saved me time.  I actually went in a counter-clockwise direction but it was the exact same route depicted above.  I suppose you won’t go wrong.

Bayon was another fascinating place.  I think it’s the location where the final scene for Apocalypse Now as filmed.  In fact I’m 99% sure.  You’d recognize it from the bas relief’s seen there and the final scene where Marlon Brando’s voice can be heard saying, “The horror… the horror.”  Despite Brando’s admonitions there is nothing horrific about beautiful Bayon and it’s temples.

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One is often struck by the sheer beauty of the faces in Bayon.

According to Angkor-scholar Maurice Glaize, the Bayon appears “as but a muddle of stones, a sort of moving chaos assaulting the sky.”

What I enjoyed the most was how they were still carved but upon many stones.  I wish I knew more about how this was all done.  Were the stones hauled there first and then carved or carved somewhere below by master artists and re-assembled later.  What was the order of operations?

I think I spent about 2 hours walking around Bayon.  There is too much to see but it’s very mystical.  I went there in January of 2018 and it was very cool in terms of climate.  It wasn’t muggy or oppressively hot.  I did that in Thailand in 2016 and visited Wat Arun and Ayatthuya and, my gentle readers, was hot.  It was like standing inside of a red brick oven at 150 deg F.

By the way.  For those that don’t know, the temples with the cones and narrow tops are called “stupas”.

The walls are covered with apsaras and devatas.  In mythology these are female spiritual beings (the dancers) and various gods.

Here are some apsaras below.

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If the women are dancing or about to dance they are apsaras.  If they are stationary and standing they are devatas.  Most devatas can be seen above the entry-ways and on every level of the temples as you go up the stone stairs.

Examples of devata below.

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NGO Work in Bangladesh

Posted by Carlo on February 7, 2018
Posted in: Uncategorized. Leave a comment

I have been working in Bangladesh for 2 years now for a non-profit named Helen Keller International.  Principally the organization is dedicated to reducing blindness in children through food security efforts.  That’s all to say they attempt to reduce blindness by assisting implementing partners (local NGO’s) with best practices and models for showing families what vitamin rich foods to eat.  The idea is to reduce wasting, stunting, obesity, blindness and improve general health and well-being.

Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP) is one of the areas we focus on.  This is an over-simplified explanation but essentially babies who are placed into incubation receive higher than normal exposure or dosages to oxygen rich levels.  This causes the retina to become swollen because the blood cells become oxygen rich and causes permanent damage in the form of blindness.

The organization also deals with diabetic retinopathy as well as education for women of reproductive age to enhance their breast-milk with nutrients for children in rural areas.

 

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    • It’s Humanity Foundation – Local NGO Support
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