Globosocial Adventures in The Philippines

I decided to go to the Philippines purely by chance. It wasn’t on my list of places to go simply because I’d never really thought about it. However, I was trying to find a place to take a break and my extended brother in law Jensen suggested I crash at his beach shack in Cebu. Over-thinking is not my way of life; if opportunity knocks, it’s best you take it. It sounded good and was hassle free, so I went with it. Bought my ticket and flew into Cebu for a few weeks of rest and relaxation.

My trips are usually very intense because I’m constantly dealing with new everything. From place to food to people to context. Each challenge I help address has to be faced in a bespoke way if the advice or support is ever going to be practically useful. It’s non-stop focus and I tend to burn out every three months or so.  My ability to process information and articulate things takes a palpable dive. I can literally feel it. Like Robocop losing his charge. If I don’t wind down properly and recharge, the next leg becomes that much harder. The original plan was 6 weeks out after every major region, but actually I got about 3 weeks of rest this time. Ah well. They were a great three weeks though :)

I arrived on three hour hop from Singapore, followed by a short cab ride to the Kawayan Marine resort where Jensen rents his shack, and began a few weeks of doing nothing more than sleep, eat, swim, scuba dive and watch old Kung-Fu films. No frills or luxuries. Just all the basic comforts you could want – like one of those genius rackets for defeating mossies.

 

  

Mactan transport is all about pimped out Jeepneys, and motorbikes with modified sidecars that fit four or five people. I usually took the Jeepneys which I rode from the resort to the main town every day for meals in or near the local malls.

The closest mall was the Marina Mall, but for bigger and fancier ones you have to get closer to Cebu City which is about half an hour away from Mactan. Gaisanos is on the way, but in the City you have the much fancier SM and Ayala malls with all the glass and bright lights we’ve come to know and love/hate in the West.

Filipino food is an interesting one. Everyone (all westerners) I met before I left assured me that Filipino food is terrible, and I found quite the opposite. I loved it. From the street barbeques to big legs of chicken to junk food at ChowKing, Julies and Mang Inasal. I tucked into Barbeque chicken with rice dipped in calamansi, chillies and soy; Chicharon; Pochero; Kinilaw; and the famous Lechon.

While at the Resort I helped Connie figure out how to increase the profitability of the place, which was struggling; largely due the fact that it was trying to be everything to everyone and losing any clear identity in the process.

Here’s the website we put together to help get them going. Hopefully it’s helping!

In return Connie very kindly took me to visit her other resort in a town called Malabuyoc about 4 hours away on the west coast. It is amazing. Check the pics here. It’s so peaceful and the water is clear and warm like you can’t believe. We went scuba diving and dolphin watching and drank Tuba on the walkway under the stars. Buy a ticket and go visit. Now!!!

On returning to Mactan I made a little trip across the water to an island called Olango which has a bird sanctuary. Didn’t see too many birds but the place was unbelievably peaceful. No one there at all. Apparently you can camp out there overnight. Something I’d like to do some day.

From the peaceful to the social. I went out a couple of nights with Jensen and friends into Cebu City and checked out the local clubs. Not the fancy ones that look like any club anywhere, but where the locals and students go like Pump Julies and KTV places. The Filipinos love love LOVE Karaoke, and you can’t help but get into the swing of it yourself. 

 

Jensen and I also got invited to a party at his uncle’s place. Apparently it is standard practice to have a full roast pig at Filipino events, but I was still pretty impressed. Serious food.

Everywhere you go kids and young guys are playing Basketball. Even at night. On broken courts, with no lights. Basketball here is like football everywhere else. A relic I guess of the American presence during World War II.

Bigger than everything else though is Cock Fighting. This is what it’s all about. Even Manny Pacquiao is a regular, betting millions of Pesos on a single bout. The cock fight itself is often over in minutes; the long blade strapped to their legs makes it deadly and quick. There can be 60 or 70 fights in a night, in an arena shaped exactly like a boxing ring. On my way back through Manila my hosts were heading to a fight so I went with the flow. Watching animals kill each other is not my idea of fun, but the human interaction around it was fascinating to witness.

It is the only time I’ve ever seen large scale betting without an organised middle man. It’s all one to one, trust based betting. Odds are called and while the birds warm up, the crowd goes into a frenzy. People shouting for others to place bets with; all going silent when the bell rings. And when the fight is over a couple of minutes later, all you see is small bundles of folded up cash being thrown across the arena from losers to winners. On scouts honour. It is chaotic and impressive and it all works. I guess if you got caught doing the dirty, there’s an arena full of activated testosterone to ensure you don’t do it again.

 

Talking of sports, Jensen is a Capoeira teacher so I attended the grading ceremony held at the fancy Ayala mall as an event in the main courtyard. Capoeira is a Brazilian martial art that is practised to the beat of drums and rhythm vocals. It is acrobatic and fluid and fantastic to watch.

Towards the end of my stay in Cebu, as always, I got involved with social development. This time through the Rotary Club of Cebu, who fund and support a number of non-profits in the area.

• Maria Josefa Recio Mental Health Therapeutic Centre
  Mental health is not recognised in the Philippines, which means there is no state funding or medical care dedicated to mental illness. There are no clinical psychologists either and hence a major shortage of skills to care for patients. The foundation used to receive money from the Church in Italy, but due to global recession this funding had been arbitrarily cut. We discussed fundraising for patient care, before recognising that in reality what was first needed was funding to build a movement raising awareness and national recognition of mental illness. We looked at designing movements and building platforms for raising money in the future. Unfortunately the big bosses in Italy weren’t having it and so the Foundation struggles to survive.
  
• Soil and Water Conservation Foundation
  I spent some time with Bill Granert and his wife and team who have been trying to save watersheds and have been involved in a wide range of ecological development in the Philippines over the past 20 years. As ever the primary challenge lay in raising funds to support their fieldwork and future projects. In actuality we established that the best value that SWCF could add at this stage of organisational maturity was to capture and disseminate the knowledge and techniques developed over so many years. Evolving into an advisory rather than delivery entity would not only reduce the size of funds that need to be raised, but also massively increase the scale of impact they could have.  
  
  
  
• Project Mercy School
  In low income environments in developing countries, teenagers drop out of school for a wide range of complex reasons, but educational systems are typically unable to deal with individuals that fall outside normalised conditions. Addressing the needs of young people in these circumstances requires holistic solutions, that cover 8 key elements
  
  1. Emotional resilience and adaptiveness
  2. Family engagement and support
  3. Life-oriented learning and curriculums
  4. Work and life preparation
  5. Nutrition – at least one square meal
  6. Basic healthcare
  7. Extra-curricular activities
  8. Alumni programmes & After-care
  
  The school was set up and is run by Bayon Suico who used to be a teacher in the top private school in Cebu, and she was an absolute inspiration. We looked at systematising the model they use with some improvements for long term care, addressed the challenge of scale, and laid out a development roadmap that will one day ensure that the model she is proving will become part of the state system.
  
  

Finally, just before I left I was asked to give a talk at a Rotary Club annual function, which was pretty fun. It’s really a bunch of old boys enjoying, but they donate money to good causes and support some key programmes so its definitely worthwhile.

On the way out I got caught out at immigration. The visa on arrival is usually 30 days so I didn’t bother to check; too many trips to too many places. In the Philippines however it is 21 days. Turned up just in time to make the month deadline, only to find that I’d overstayed my welcome by a week. Mild panic ensued, and the guy eventually waved me off to the immigration payment counter to pay for the additional visa. I thought he was being magnanimous but found that the queue was massive. Clearly standard procedure here. Any worries that I would never be allowed to return vanished with the general disinterest offered once I’d paid up. Still, I’m now a lot more careful with checking dates!

Adventures in Singapore

From India I headed to Singapore to attend my brother’s wedding and catch up with my family in a much needed break. Of course the break never panned out because weddings are so hectic, but it was beautiful nonetheless.

For many visitors, Singapore is a boring, clinical city, but I love it. There’s lots of culture, cool bars and awesome food. The only drawback is how expensive beer is. Ranged from 16SGD to 25SGD for a pint, which is just ridiculous. I felt like I was drinking money. The food however is the opposite. Cheap and good. And I mean REALLY good. The government set up proper hawker centres for all the street sellers, so they now have ‘street’ food in clean environments, making it probably the only place in the world you can eat all sorts of tasty stuff without worrying about falling ill.

 

Singapore has stunning temples, and eye catching skylines that are both well worth experiencing

 

On the food front, pretty much nothing beats Chilli Crab. It’s so good that I actually dream of it when I’m away from Singapore. I’ve tried it in other places, but it just doesn’t compare. And of course when Singaporeans eat, they eat properly!


 

Fruits are abundant in Singapore, especially Durian, which is referred to as the King of Fruit. It actually tastes acceptable but the smell kills you long before it goes near your mouth. That, and the fact that the taste is so strong that it stays with you for hours. You really have to like the stuff to tolerate it. Between the overpowering smell and the mushy texture, I have to admit, it’s not really the fruit for me.

 

Singapore is mostly Chinese, and Chinese food is everywhere. My favourite new food that I hadn’t eaten before is probably Bak Kut Teh, which is simple but tasty. Basically meaty chunks of pork rib in soup. And then of course there’s a huge South Indian population, so awesome Indian food too. Check out the Masala Dosa with all the trappings!

I stayed in a HDB with in old friend of mine’s spare room. HDBs are Singapore’s answer to public housing. Efficient, spacious and decent. I also caught up with a bunch of friends in Singapore.

Singapore was really meant to be a break. I’m usually pretty burnt out after about three months on the road, because my interaction with projects is pretty intense. But as usual, although I did mostly stick to taking it easy and enjoying life with friends and family, there was still a bit of thinking involved.
I randomly helped out with some commercial and brand strategy for the hotel industry, which was actually quite fascinating…



…before catching up with the Lien Centre for Social Innovation, where we discussed impact measurement, and mechanisms for developing social innovation. The trouble with most organisations facilitating these things, is that they are primarily staffed with people who have little real life experience of addressing human issues, or of running organisations that deal with these problems. The result is a combination of copying what everyone else is doing and applying generalisms from the commercial sector. Even when you are able to suggest more effective options, the next limitation is usually inertia. They are already committed to their way of doing things.

I also did some work with a Social Enterprise called Chatters, which has been set up to address issues related to Singapore’s growing ageing population. We looked at the use of brand to scale their operations, and also to impact social consciousness. Unfortunately this is one time I didn’t take any snapshots, but I was informally offered a job for 2012 to develop some of these things by a board member of the the MCYS. Another option to add to the list :)

Finally I’d promised another project I worked with that I would visit the North Light school, and it randomly worked out that the same people involved with Chatters were also involved with North Light. So I got a full tour. It’s a fantastic example of what can be done when the problem is small and the funding is large. Singapore has about 900 students who have dropped out of school or failed their PSLE twice, and the government has set up a special school for these students to ensure that the city does not end up with a poverty issue that requires welfare in the long run. Very pro-active as usual.

They’ve gone all out to address both social and educational development, and the school costs twice as much as a normal one to run. The facilities are superb and the results equally good.



 

Aside from covering educational, creative, emotional and nutritional needs they have superb vocational training centres for both hotel and tourism, and store retailing.

 

Finally they’ve developed a great game to teach their students how to manage their money. This game is available to all and will hopefully go towards raising greater funding for the work that North Light is doing. Check the game out if you see it in stores.

Adventures in Maharashtra: Rural Enterprise

While Delhi was interesting, it was pretty good to get out of the searing heat and get back to Bombay. I’d also been missing some of the Bombay specialties. Paav Bhaji and Sev Puri. Snacks to die for!!



I paid a last visit to the streets where I grew up and the old house that I spent my childhood in.





I also finally managed to catch up with my father’s old team at the Breach Candy Hospital, and was immediately reminded of the issues that India faces in it’s transition from old culture to better practices...

Adventures in Delhi: Old Friends and New Realities

After a week in Hyderabad working with Gray Matters Capital, I headed to Delhi to meet up with the Ashoka team and an old friend I haven’t seen in nearly two decades. Nitin and his awesome wife put me up for the entire time I was in Delhi, which made a nice change from the hotel I’d been staying in previously. But the best part was catching up and finding that we still got on the same. Very cool.

We drank tea in tiny cups, Indian style, and I learnt all sorts of fascinating stuff about the construction industry.

Delhi is an absolutely Massive city. I was working in South Delhi and staying in East Delhi. The journey averaged out at over an hour, and trying to get rickshaws to cover that distance was pretty much impossible, and frankly in 47 degrees wasn’t really desirable either! Fortunately India has fantastic radio taxi services, that are fully SMS responsive. You have to see it to believe the efficiency.

As a city it’s a little like Rome in that it is littered with ancient buildings, forts, and monuments. Visiting these are dead cheap for locals but hugely expensive for foreigners. There are also plenty of markets in Delhi, from traditional ones like Sarojini market, and the new shopping squares like the Defence Colony market.

 

Adventures in Hyderabad: Handi Biryani & Extreme Sports

Arriving in Hyderabad was a breathe of fresh, errr slightly less polluted, air. An organisation called Gray Matters Capital flew me in but there was some issue with accommodation over the weekend, so Shabnam and her mates very kindly put me up for a couple nights.

I stayed in Banjara Hills, which seems to be the heart of the ‘new’ city with every glass fronted and shimmering American brand you can imagine, and drove through Jubilee Hills where all the ‘Tollywood’ stars live. Turns out there’s a massive Telegu film industry. Who knew?? There’s also a lovely lake in the city and Hyderabad is overall reasonably pretty. Nicer than I expected. Sadly I never made it to the Char Minar, which is in the old city, but I did get to one of the low cost private schools out there, and also to a traditional biryani joint.



Chicken 65 is THE snack for Hyderabadis, but Handi Biryani is the main course to eat. The specialty is chicken rather than meat, probably because chicken is generally cheaper to get hold of. You usually get one large piece of chicken and a humongous portion of rice, some kind of curry, raita, onions and lemon. You can get family packs for 4 or 6 which would feed a small army rather than just a family.

Adventures in Bangalore: Banana Leaves & Lost Friends

I arrived in Bangalore a couple of weeks ago on Sunday 18th April and headed straight into a heavy meeting with the Ashoka team. We were trying to work out the practicalities of creating and mobilising large scale confluences of people who care about the same issue. This is the new premise behind Ashoka’s development in India. I think we got pretty far with it, but it was heavy going out as I’d picked up some viral bug in Bombay and was in pretty bad shape at the time. Took me a whole week to recover. Since then I’ve been rushing to catch up on projects and work. 

Also got to hang out with Vinit, one my oldest school friends, who now manages a large garment business. Come a very long way from causing trouble at the back of the class together to special treatment in his office as General Manager! I got a tour of the superb factory he set up from scratch. I bet like me, you don’t realise quite how much human labour actually goes into producing the clothes we wear. Pretty much everything is done by people using small machines, rather than any form of automated production technology. From the design, to cutting, to stitching, finishing and even the final ironing. It is hugely labour intensive and I will never take clothes for granted again.