只不过“Mooncake Festival”让人感觉把中秋变成了个大吃会似的。站在一个文化的立场上去看另一个文化真的很难感受到其中真实的意义。

这段时间是穆斯林的斋戒月期间。本来我以为在斋戒月晚上穆斯林都是躲在家里清心寡欲，在念经。但这段时间新加坡晚上却见到很多pasar malams（马来语：夜市），都是热热闹闹的。

下面的图片就是一个新加坡网友在新加坡东部Changi Road, Geylang Road & Sims Ave晚上拍到的夜市情景。

跟中国的夜市一样，也是人山人海的。

卖很多衣服，这些都是马来传统服装。

这个叫songkok，男人戴的帽子。如果有个男人带的songkok是白色的，就说明他曾经去过麦加朝圣。

烤鸡翅，小吃。

椰子水，热带特点。

新加坡地方热，但本地人总喜欢吃煎、烤的东东。

otah，我现在也喜欢吃了。有点上瘾。

逛夜市就是图热闹，图便宜，图个新奇。居然还有卖汽车的。新币7块一天（35元人民币）就可以买辆车，够便宜。不过没说明要多少天，耍了个滑头。

新加坡夜市有时候也可以讲价，但价钱没有中国的开得那么虚，可以讲的不多。

这是在曼谷的日本美女31o5亲作的秘笈。


许多人认为此秘笈是符合生活经验，不可多得的。


It works for Chinese girls too.


中国愤愤除外。

via Google China Blog

The chart above is some search traffic stats of Google China on May 19. 

Look at the timing of the lowest point. 

China held 3 minutes of silence for the victims of SiChuan earthquake at 14:28, May 19. 

Most of the Chinese netizen have given their regards to the victims over the net voluntarily.

China’s netizen have never been more unified.

跟上篇博文写的是同一个演讲，把题目改了。

市场调查中很重要的一步就是研究消费者对所试产品的喜欢程度。Malcolm Gladwell在这个演讲里主要讨论了对消费者喜好揣测所遇到的问题。

Malcolm的演讲是由Areon Chairs的故事展开。

Areon Chairs是一种办公椅。就是下面那样的家伙。

Via SketchUpModels

著名设计师 Bill Stumpf 绞尽脑汁，挖空心思设计出这张革命性的办公椅。Bill 觉得很满意了，就把样品去给人试坐，去做市场调查。调查得到的回复是，椅子的舒适度得分很高，但外观得分却很低。

设计组拿回去做了一点外观的改进，再去做调查。结果还是很多人认为它很丑。

这样的结果意味着Areon Chairs很难卖得出去。

设计组还是把这个产品推出市场–Areon Chairs在4年内成为历史上销售最好的办公椅，并且获奖无数。

这时候，设计组再把这张椅子拿去给以前同一组试用者打分，那些试用者这次对Areon Chairs都打了很高分。

这下麻烦大了。那么多公司屡试不爽的看家本领怎么在这一次就失效了呢？

这个样子长得象青年爱恩斯坦的Malcolm对此研究出三个要点，

1. 人类的喜好极其不易确定

人们总以为一个人的喜好总是长期保持一致的，其实不然。

Malcolm 以可口可乐和百事可乐间营销之战的几个经典案例来说明这一点。

最后，Malcolm提到了一个叫三角测试（triangle test）的心理试验。

首先，分别倒一杯可口可乐和百事可乐，这时候让试验人分辨哪杯是可口可乐。大部分人都能回答正确。

然后，再加一杯可口可乐。这样，一共两杯可口可乐，一杯百事可乐，让试验人选出其中哪一杯跟其它两杯不同。这时候，回答的正确率变成只有三分之一，也就是随机正确率：答对的也是蒙的。

（这个试验很简单，我对试验结果有点怀疑，有机会自己试试。）

这个试验说明，人的喜好有时候会因为很小的一点外在原因而变得难以琢磨。

2. 人们会编造故事来解释自己不清楚的事情，常常会下意识的自圆其说。

Malcolm在这里举一个心理试验为例。

这个试验让试验人尝试去解决一个难题，比如，利用工具把吊在空中，相隔较远的两根绳子绑起来。当试验人解决不了问题的时候，主持人会以一种非常微妙，不起眼的方式来提示试验人。这种情况下，每当试验结束后，试验人被问到如何想到解决的办法时，他们总能说出各种不同的看似相关的理由–有意无意地在撒谎。

3. 当人们不清楚自己做出选择的理由时，要求解释选择的理由会影响人们做出选择。

比如在一个心理试验里，试验人被要求从一副印象派的画和另一幅画着厨房的画中选出一副自己喜欢的画。如果试验人没有被要求解释选择的理由时，大部分人都会选择印象派的画。而当试验人被预先要求解释选择的理由时，大部分人都会选择厨房画。

Malcolm的解释是，很明显，大部分人都是喜欢那印象派的画，只是他们不知道怎么去解释。于是，当他们被要求解释时，他们就选择一个容易解释的画–厨房画，而不是他们喜欢的画。

要知道消费者喜不喜欢一个产品，通常市场调查公司会设计出一系列的问题去询问试用者。人们对某些产品很清楚是好还是坏，美还是丑，这个时候，市场调查就能得出正确的结果。但对有的产品，人们并不清楚自己的喜好，或是解释不清楚自己的喜好，这时候，市场调查就不容易得出正确的结果了。

Areon Chairs就属于后者。

Malcolm对此总结出两条经验，

1. 对试用者所说的“不”要持怀疑地态度，不要轻易下结论。

2. 虽然我们对人类本身的生理学，心理学乃至于对整个世界都做出了很多研究，但对于人的感情（Heart）方面还是知之甚少。在我们对此不断摸索、研究地过程中，我们应该保持一颗谦卑的心。也许，有些东西是永远没有答案的。

正所谓人心难测！

如果哪位想进一步了解Malcolm 这个演讲所说的内容，可以买他的新书Blink来看看。

Malcolm的这个演讲让我学到了很多心理学和社会学的知识，也让我感受到了当前大公司营销的威力–它们每推出一个新产品几乎都可以是十拿九稳的。

现在的大公司们以它们雄厚的人力、物力资源，在研发、生产、营销及售后服务上占尽先机，是不是小公司未来的日子会越来越难过呢？

《长尾》的作者Chris Anderson在Pop!Tech上的演讲让我看到了小公司的一线希望。

Malcolm Gladwell, PopTech, Pop!Tech, market research,Blink

托马斯·弗里德曼（Thomas Friedman）在这个演讲里讲述了他对当前能源危机的看法，并且给出了他心目中“绿色”的定义。

他认为，当前的能源危机和以往的不同，原因主要是，

1. 地缘政治发展跟以前不同了。

2. 世界是平的。当中国，俄罗斯等发展中国家起飞的同时，世界正以前所未有的速度消耗能源。

3. 中国将要变绿。能源的限制将迫使中国大规模地采用节能技术，因此，中国将变绿，中国将不得不变绿。中国一旦掌握了绿色技术就会对美国的领导地位发起更直接的挑战。

绿色中国比红色中国对美国更有威胁！

4. 根据石油政治学的第一定律（First law of petrolpolitic），石油政治会腐蚀正常的地缘政治。老弗认为，中国阻止联合国出兵处理苏丹的种族清洗就是一个典型的正常政治受到石油政治腐蚀的例子。

顺便提一下，石油政治学的第一定律是老弗首创的一个观点。

这个定律的基本观点是：自由的发展速度与石油价格成反比。

比如，伊朗发生宗教革命了，中东变得漆黑一片了，自由无望了，石油价格最高；当柏林墙倒了，苏联解体了，大家伙满街自由跳舞了，嘿，原油价格16美刀一桶。（便宜得可以买几桶回家用来洗澡，还不用担心有蓝藻。）

这个定律应该是老弗在这个演讲里的一个重点了。

5. 环球经济的网络化。

最后，老弗把“绿色”定义为，Geo-political, geo-strategic, and capitalistic。注意，都是褒义词。

Green is the new red, white and blue.

绿色是新的红色，白色和蓝色。

张亮听了老弗的演讲后觉得他比较象骗子。也许那是商业演讲的一个通病吧。

从老弗的专栏，演讲来看，他的观点很独到，而且，他还能经常创造出各种简单，时髦而又容易理解的词句来。

至少是一个极有创意的人。

PopTech, Thomas Friedman, Energy Crisis, Pop!Tech, Green

www.dreamfordarfur.org/

是她达尔富尔诉求的主网站。

聚会上Yuhui介绍了Web标准；Chu Yeow介绍了Firefox的一些小秘技；Lucian介绍了微格式（Microformats）。

聚会在中央图书馆的一个会议室进行。也许是那个会议室的设施太好了，刚开始的时候，整个气氛有点象一个IT的研讨会议，比较僵硬，以致于有个朋友迟到了，在门口张望，不敢进去。我也迟到了，不过脸皮厚一点，径直走到前边，坐到了Lucian的旁边。

Chu Yeow没有做什么准备就开始演示了，这种随意反而让会场去掉了拘谨，变成一次真正的交流聚会。

Ivan的博客上对这个聚会有一篇详细的记录。

这次聚会也遇到了一些新加坡其它的网上活跃分子，如老是在录像的Kevin Lim，老是提问题的Coleman，老是在帮人的Preetam，老是讲笑话的Zac，和象她做的网页一般可爱的Veron等等。

这次聚会正是Wikinomics在现实生活中一个小小的体现。

最近的一期HBR Ideacast对Wikinomics一书的作者Don Tapscott的做了一次采访。正好在参加这次聚会的来回途上把这期播客听了两遍。

Tapscott认为，当前的技术让人们很容易就能上网，而现在新的熟悉互联网的一代已经成长起来，成为社会主流。这两个因素共同催生出了一次叫Wikinomics的社会变革。

Tapscott的主要观点是，“互联网已经变成了一个大社区－－从各地来的，不同背景的人有可以利用集体智慧共同解决问题，并完成任务。”

这个观点对于熟悉互联网现状的人来说有点象老生常谈了，对关注世界变化的人来说应该也不会陌生。今年时代周刊评选“你”作为年度风云人物似乎是最没有争议的一次。每个人，包括在读、在写这个博客的人，都是风云人物，皆大欢喜。

不过HBR的这个采访还是让我印象深刻，令我把这期播客听完又听。

让我感到新鲜的不是Tapscott把整个社会变革用一个简单形象的词Wikinomics来概括，更不是他把整个变革做了学术化的总结。

完全不是，我对学术化的东东向来不感冒。

让我兴奋得晚上睡不了觉的是，Tapscott提出了，这场变革不单单只影响互联网的生活，还会对社会上各行各业产生深远影响，如果谁不顺应这场变革，谁就会被这场“完美风暴”（Perfect Storm）所摧毁。

真所谓“识时务者为俊杰”。

Tapscott提议，每个公司的CEO或是高级管理人员都应该自己去开一个博客，到论坛发贴子，参加网上去投票，去亲身感受一下这个互联网大社区，从而找出应对这场变革的方法，带领公司顺应潮流。在具体管理上，也更应该注重利用每个员工的潜能。

Tapscott在采访里举了一个例子。他有个邻居是银行家。这个银行家买了一个金矿，可是这个金矿的采矿工程师没法找出金子在哪里。这个银行家使尽法宝，还是不行。他一生气就把矿给封了。

还好，这个银行家是个识时务的。他灵机一动，“我的人搞不懂金子在哪，也许这世界上有其他人懂。”

于是，他把这个金矿最机密的地理资料放到了网上，搞个竞赛，看谁有最好的解决方案。

这个竞赛一出，反响热烈，很多人给出了五花八门的方案。最后，他从全球七十七个方案中选出了三个优胜者，送出了五十万美刀。他应用了这些方案，找到了金子，这个金矿的市值从几千万美刀升到了过十亿美刀。

听起来象现代天方夜谭。

不过Youtube，MySpace的故事才发生不久，Wikinomics是正在进行时。

这已经不是要不要应对这场变革的问题了，而是我们应该如何的去应对它。

Buckle up!

“I am Peng, Jacky Peng, from Hibiscus.”

I have read many Chinese spy stories when I was small. In the stories, those Chinese secret projects were usually code-named with flower names.The Hibiscus project, 芙蓉计划 in Chinese, sounds like a James Bond’s secret task to me.

Akwe Amosu introduced me this project few months ago. I was excited about it not just because its sexy name. As Daudi Were pointed out in this Delhi meeting,

“…A lot of the info we get about China comes from the West, and a lot of the info they talk about us comes from the West as well,”

There is a huge gap between both sides. Hibiscus is designed to create an on-line community for Chinese and African, facilitating conversations between both sides. That is something I love to participate and something my little bridge is meant to do.

Ethan and Imnakoya have some great summaries about the meeting. Here are some of my notes and thoughts on Hibiscus.

On Africa in Chinese blogsphere, my experience with the Chinese-African blog, in fact, is very much close to John’s summary in the meeting. I have just put them into three groups.

1. Group 1: the governmental news agencies and the big portal sites which closely follow the Chinese government media guideline.

   As part of China’s global strategy, Chinese government has been encouraging Chinese companies to invest in Africa, especially when many Chinese big companies has gained the abilities to go out in the recent years. There are lots of information about Africa on these sites,

   Daqi.com, CRI online, Sina.com, Xinhua New Agency, People.com, Sohu.com

   Some of these sites even have a dedicated Africa section.

   “China helps Africa, Africa likes China; Chinese and African are brothers.” is the major message comes out from these sites.

   They invite some businesspersons or journalists to blog/write about the local life in Africa. From those posts, “Africans are friendly to Chinese; Africa has a lot business opportunities.” is the impression I have.

   Other than that, you can find many interesting things about the animals and tribe people in Africa, which is similar to Jennifer Brea‘s observation of this year’s China-Africa Submit,
   

   “…I was also struck during the conference that all the propaganda posters were all about lions and giraffes and scantily clad women in traditional garb; perpetuating the images that already exist; even though the submit create a lot of excitement; it wasn’t necessarily making people more enlightened about Africa. “

   You can find more about her experience at here and here.

2. Group 2: some small, private Africa-focused aggregators such as,

   Africa Windows, Chinese in Africa, AFTour.com, Africa Club on Sina Blog

   These sites are run by some non-governmental groups or individuals. The authors on these sites usually are Chinese who have traveled, worked, or lived in Africa. Some of the them are posting from Africa. Also many Chinese who want to start a new venture or work in Africa are very active on these sites.

   You can find posts on these sites are more down to the earth, more close to the daily life in Africa. Most of the conversations there are about the daily life and business of Africa, such as Visa application, dealing with local officials and workers, business etiquette in Africa, penetration rate of particular product and so on.

   Some interesting posts: a Disco in Congo, a commercial fair in Togo, a lawsuit in Zambia, a traffic accident in Nigeria, underground banking in Africa, an encounter of looting during Nigeria 2003 election, a Chinese girl’s monthly expense in Africa.

3. Group 3: random posts scattered in different BBSs.

   Though Rebecca has an excellent survey shows that
   

   Blogs are somewhat more useful to foreign correspondents than BBS and chatrooms,

   many Chinese still feel BBSs is safer or easier places to post and comment. The BBSs are more influential than the blogsphere in China at present.

   Tianya.cn, KDNet.net, Baidu Post, club.china.com

   Such sites attract huge traffic every day.

   Once in a while, you can find some Africa-specific posts on these BBSs which generate discussions. And I have seen increasing number of posts about traveling in Africa on these BBSs in the recent years.

Overall, there are still very few active Africa-focused bloggers. I did not see any public discussion about the negative impacts of the China’s presence in Africa. Even when such news is able to reach Chinese public, on the group 1 sites, people usually will just find some statements accusing some evil western media which have secret agenda and try to discredit China. For people interested in group 2 sites, unless things happen in their cities or neighborhoods, such news seems too big or far to concern. More and more Chinese are interested in Africa for various reasons, but to the majority of Chinese, Africa is still a wild, exotic land for travel.

On the other hand, the Chinese public have little idea of the complexities of Africa’s economic development and politics. Few Chinese know what is happening in Africa now, not to mention about the context, background, and history of things like Darfur crisis or “Zimbabwean hostile against Chinese textile dumping.” If China’s net users can get better informed, many of them will love to join such discussions. The intensive dialogue carried on Chippla’s China-Africa Submit post shows us a bit how such discussions look like when they involve China’s net users. However, most Chinese, including me, are not able to join such dialogue in English so freely and confidently as Yang Hui did. If such informed dialogue is exposed to China’s net users in Chinese language, surely it can spark more ideas and discussions from the China side. I believe that this is where Hibiscus can play a role.

Inevitably, this will bring in the problem of translation, imaging the need of multi-way translations at least for English, Chinese, and France. In particular, how to constantly find and engage voluntary translators is the biggest challenge I can see.

Addressing such problems, SJ gave some really valuable advices,

… allocating resources — to the extent it’s worth funding some sort of stability, … constantly engaging translators is a core problem. … finding a constant supply of translators is a problem, but offering them a constant supply is an even bigger one. Making sure there is someone available to respond to each 5-minute input, so people know they are being listened to and their input used, is key to supporting such a community.

… people who want to translate a [new or old] article they come across don’t have somewhere to do it; once you open up that channel, you may find there are thousands of readers who want to help out in that way.

These are some enlightening advices for building an active voluntary translation community. They are helpful and important to the possible Hibiscus translation section.

Hibiscus can also spark discussions on many China’s preexisting issues.

For example, when Rebecca talked about Chinese racism towards Africans, I remembered some Chinese BBSs posts ranted about being scammed by some black guys and accused black people on the whole. However, you can find Chinese treat their own people worse than that.

On the Chinese BBSs, there are full of stereotyping jokes about Cantonese, Shanghainese, Beijingnese and etc. Not long before, a news about “Rooms for rent. No Henanese!” spurred some big arguments across the country.

(Cantonese, Shanghainese, Beijingnese are people from different regions of China. Henanese are people from Henan, a province of the central China. )

Alice Backer said,

… if it’s a permanent or transient community (of expats) — you can have xenophobia if no permanent commmuniyt, without [true] racism.

I would say Chinese views on African are very dynamic. Or just as Blaise pointed out,

Often one thing you do is use appearance to class people as poor, who don’t have a lot.

In general, my experience is that most Chinese treat foreigners as aliens, with curiosity. It’s not uncommon that a foreigner, black or white, can get a free drink/meal/accommodation by saying some Chinese and talking something link to the local culture. If Ndesanjo learns such tricks from Preetam before he goes to China, I am sure he will get more fun.

When the African bloggers around the table talked about the China in African blogsphere, I could see a strong skepticism toward the China’s presence in Africa.

Imnakoya asked,

For such a huge amount of money to come in, what percentage of people employed will be local? How do you transfer some of this to the indigenous people? China will bring everyone in; what will we get out of it?

Many Chinese attribute such skepticism to the evil western media’s propaganda. I do not agree with that. Such skepticism looks familiar to me. These questions actually reminds me those big country-wide debates 20 years back when China was opening up and getting foreign investment in. These were exactly some questions many Chinese asked at that time, with different subject being questioned, of cause. It was in responding those questions that Deng Xiaoping quoted this saying known to every Chinese, “Touching the stones to cross the river.” Nevertheless, similar debates have never ended in China. They came up when China was joining WTO few years ago and turned up again when the profit of the automobile industry, an industry considered using market to exchange technology, has been declining recently.

Oiwan mentioned an interesting story,

… the dam issue in Africa, similar in China – same construction company, using the same model for two things; big dams, displacing millions.

China is a developing country, though it is now investing some big money in Africa. It has lots of problems in its on-going development too. I believe the conversations between China and Africa can not only offer African some Chinese hard-earned experiences in development, but also help Chinese to know more about the diversified world and make a better plan for the future.

Well, I think I have talked too much about the big issues in which I am not an expert. Back to the basic, I believe the most important thing Hibiscus can do is to help both sides to know and understand one another better. And that is the thing I am most interested in. I am always fascinated with such cross-cultural communications.

Talking about cross-cultural communication, Rachel Rawlins‘s idea of using photograph to bridge the gap and Ethan‘s idea of making an Africa survival guide for Chinese are something relatively easy to do, but can go a long, long way to build up the trust and engage conversations from both sides.

Look forward to Hibiscus, and hope I can further contribute to this project.

Technorati Tags: Africa, Hibiscus Project, GVDelhi2006, Global Voices

powered by performancing firefox

Angel In White – source Joy Loft

The huge words on this big poster read, “Angels In White, the guards of your health.” It is well-known in China that Angels In White stands for nurse. The girl looks fine on the poster. This is a poster on Shuzhou’s street.

Shuzhou is a city near Shanghai. It is the host city of recent 2nd General Assembly and Conference of the Alliance for Healthy Cities (AFHC), an event supported by the World Health Organization (WHO).

This poster is just part of the propaganda of the event. Such poster is very common in China.

Not many people had noticed this poster until someone discovered who the girl on the poster was and where the photo was from.

If you feel the above picture is a bit boring, the one below should raise your eyebrow.

 Minori Aoi – source Joy Loft

Her name is Minori Aoi, a Japanese AV star. AV is the acronym of Adult Video. This picture is a poster of Ms Aoi’s AV named, you guess, I Love Big Injection.

WHO may agree that AV girls are indeed good for people’s health. 

I find the story behind this is much funnier.

According to the Southern Metropolis Daily, Mr. Mao, a resident of Shuzhou city, has discovered the angel in white is actually an AV star, and two local TV station has broadcast his discovery in their news program one week before the AFHC started. However, the news did not make much noise beyond Shuzhou, and the local government did not take any action in response. 

Things had not changed until, on the closing day of AFHC, someone dug out the original picture and posted it on those big Chinese forums, such as Tianya.cn and Sohu. It immediately became the hottest topic in those forums. The lively discussions across the country finally made the Shuzhou government dismantle the poster on 1st Nov, two days after the AFHC.

It turned out that, when the designer was making this poster,  he published a post on an on-line forum to ask for some nurse’s pictures. One member sent him the cropped version of the above Ms. Aoi’s picture. The designer then put it into the poster, which hereby became a new guide line of WHO.

This story should help many Chinese designers understand the importance of asking for permission before using others’ works.

It is story started from the on-line forums and ended by the on-line forums.

The power of Internet.

跟康康他妈带着康康一起去小印度走了一圈。

（过段时间再放些照片详细介绍）

新加坡的总统府叫 Istana，Istana 在马来文是“宫殿”的意思。新加坡总统府开放日就叫 Istana Open House。

新加坡总统府通常在新加坡国庆节或者其它的一些重要节日期间会开放给公众参观，公众可以通过新加坡总统府的网站上查到具体开放时间。

前天是 Istana Open House，天气不错，于是就跟康康他妈带着康康去 Istana 逛了一圈。

大门 （The gate)

Istana 位于新加坡商业中心乌节路的一头，就在Plaza Singapura的旁边，从外面看来并不很大。

新加坡国徽（Singapore national emblem）

开放日对新加坡本地人免费，对外地人收新元一块。其实并没有人查证件，基本上是自觉交费。

艺术展（Some arts）

艺术展 2（Some arts 2）

新加坡政府提倡艺术，很多地方都可以见到小型的艺术展，总统府也不例外。

草坪（Lawn）

这样的草坪令人心旷神怡。

整个总统府位于闹市中心，占地约100英亩。

City view

又是一个大草坪，在这里还可以看到新加坡的金融中心。

总统府（The Istana）

走过两个大草坪，终于看到总统府 Istana。Istana建于1869年，1995年进行过大的翻新。

来张清楚点的。

总统府里展有新加坡从各个国家收到的礼物，不过我们的康康对总统府外的喷水池更感兴趣，没有进去。

从大门走到总统府里面挺累的，我们在那里见到很多工作人员架着高尔夫车到处跑，康康看见了也想坐。

我看见一辆大一点的开过来，上面有空位，于是就上前拦住，问那工作人员可不可以给我们的康康坐一下。谁知道到他连着说：“Sorry！Sorry！”摇着手，晃着脑袋就开过去了。

我正嘀咕着：“怎么那么没礼貌？没看见我们这里的小瓜要坐车吗？”

后面又来了一辆更大的车，正招手要拦下来，看见车上有个慈祥的印度老人穿着本地的休闲服，也给我招手：

“怎么这人跟新加坡政府各接待处挂着的纳丹总统那么象？”

车开过去，后面跟着两个仪仗兵，一步一踏脚的跨了过去。

原来真的是纳丹总统！

康康把他的车队给拦了下来。

只可惜没有坐上车。

在这次TED的演讲中，他认为世界上现有的教育系统是19世纪工业化的产物，已经不能适应当今世界的发展。他主张对现有的教育系统来个彻底改革，要把创新能力列为教育的目标之一，与教育文化相提并重。

相信绝大部分人对他的英式幽默都很受用，睿智而发人深省。只是我有点跟不上他重重的英国口音。

另外，对于他讲的笑话要有比较全面的西方文化背景才能完全听懂。比如他讲的有关Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh的笑话，我是问了Tinker, tailor才搞清楚，虽然我自认读过不少圣经故事。

演讲精句：

All kids have tremendous talent, and we squander them.
所有的孩子都有非凡的天赋，只是我们把它们浪费了。

Creativity now is as important in education as literacy; we should treat it with the same status.
创造力在当今的教育中应该与文化并重，我们应当对它们同等重视。

…if you are not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original.
如果你根本没有做错的准备的话，那么你永远不会有独创的东西。

Professors look at their bodies as a form of transport for their heads.
教授们把他们的身体当作运送脑袋的工具。

We don’t grow in to creativity, we grow out of it…we get educated out of it.
我们变得越来越没有创造力了…我们被教得没有创造力了。

Our education system has mined our minds in the way we strip-mined the earth for a particular commodity, and for the future, it won’t service. We have to re-think the fundamental principle on which we are educating our children.
我们（现有）的教育系统就如我们开发地球的矿产一样开发我们的思维，这样的方法是难以应付未来的。我们应当重新考虑现代教育的根本原则。

在这里可以找到相关的播客下载。

Reference link: Presentation Zen

It was a great one.

The Toastmaster District 80 includes 9 divisions in 4 countries and areas.

Singaore: 6 divisions
Hong Kong & Macau: 2 divisions
Thailand: 1 divisions

8 persons participated in the Table Topics Speech Contest. The topic was “Who do you love most in the world?” Although the topic was the same to every contestant, each contestant got to know the topic until s/he went onto the stage. S/he was required to think on their feet and have 2 minutes to deliver the speech.

These were very smart speakers. Within seconds, they could get the idea and start making speech. I was surprised that, though there were 8 responses, none of them was the same.

The results,

Champion: Benjamin Cheng
1st run-up: Ng Seng Chuan
2nd run-up: Laksha Metha

All were from Singapore.

In the International Speech Contest, Ramesh Muthusamy from division U Singapore beat the other 8 contestants and won the champion. His speech topic is Expectation. He cited his personal experiences and advised people to maintain a high expectation in their life.

It was an impressive speech. His speech skills were powerful and nature. People near me all believed he would go into at least top 3.

1st run-up: Donald Yee from Hong Kong
2nd run-up: Pradeep Kumar from Singapore

In fact, it did not need much training to tell who was a better speaker. So the results were not much surprise to the audient.

I heard some comments that a few contestants were over-prepared or overacted. Yes, I agree that the content and sincerity are the most important things to a speech. However, since most of them actually were talking about the same topics, so those exaggerated actions did capture my attention and help me sit through the event.

Interestingly, the most exciting moment to me was not from the contest.

Hong Kong is the host for the District’s 2007 annual convention. There was a marketing pitch for the Hong Kong event at the end of the convention. All Toastmasters from Hong Kong, over 60 people, went on the stage, waving the Bauhinia flag with the Chinese National Anthem reverberating across the hall. It really turned me on. It was the first time I heard this melody in a public place of Singapore.

The connection with homeland is hard to break, even for a cosmopolitan.