AIESEC in NUS Blog

Zafirah Mohamed was MCP of Singapore in the term 2005-2006 and she is a graduate of NUS. Here, she shares her experience of living in Pakistan as an AIESEC trainee five months on.

Hey everyone!

Hope you're all doing well. Here in Pakistan it's business as usual. I "visited" Singapore last week for a wedding, and have now returned to Karachi. It's a long email here, recapping thoughts and sharing experiences. So read on only if you have time!

It's been eventful in the past 5 months, and having it peaceful like now, it's quite strange I must say. In Karachi we've had the floods in July/August, the first Benazir assasination attempt, the Karachi Express train derailed, the state of emergency imposed by Musharraf, the assasination of Benazir, post Benazir fiasco, and now upcoming elections. Quite exciting times indeed!

Truth be told, I can now understand why most Pakistani's have become numb to political developments in the country. I still remember when the state of emergency was declared. Us interns were so worried, yet the Pakistani AIESECers shrugged it off as no big deal. Today, we read the newspapers and nothing surprises us anymore. The worst seems to have already happened, one of Pakistan's most influential political leader was killed and no particular group has been identified as being responsible for her death.

And now with elections around the corner, everyone is looking forward for it to be OVER. It doesn't matter who wins, as long as there is somebody! Because then there is certainty and with certainty, whether good or bad will bring stability because people know what to expect and how to deal with the circumstances.

Anyway, politics aside...

I was once asked about how women are treated here in Pakistan. And I am being totally frank here, (albeit with a bit of humour) the women are loved, respected, but sometimes overprotected. Being a woman I am entitled to priviledges that men never enjoy. For example:

1) in bargaining for the rickshaw, all I need is a tilt of the head and pleading eyes and the drivers just sigh..... and give in to my asking price! :)

2) If I were driving, I would always get my way on the roads. ALWAYS, no questions asked!

3) If in the elevator, men would squeeze themselves like sardines into the corners to allow me to get on, and even then still give me lots of breathing room!

Generally, living alone in Pakistan as a woman is really quite safe. However in career development, it is still evolving. Mindsets are being challenged within less educated families as it is not accepted for a daughter to be working, what more developing a career? Making an independent, individualistic choice by the daughter is virtually unheard of. From my interactions with young ladies here who have finished their education, from both better-off families and poor families, these ladies have limited options. This is because what they want to do in their own future is determined by their family's approval. e.g. getting married, starting a family.

Of course there are ladies who are given the opportunity to develop their own talents, pursue their chosen careers, and not protected from making their own mistakes and learning from them. However these cases are rare, from what I observe, looking at the number of women entrusted with top management positions.

As a trainee, we can observe, question and hopefully inspire positive change in this environment we are in. Through daily interactions, conversations, and leading by example. Which brings me to my point! (Yes, this long email has a purpose, especially for those that might be considering but haven't decided on exchange yet!)

Through the AIESEC experience, we hope to develop change agents with entrepreneurial, socially responsible, active learner, etc.. characteristics. Which seems like a lot of fluff for me when I was a new member! And I never really understood how effective it really is, until NOW! Exchange is and should remain the most integral part, because it just makes everything fall into place.

Being here in Pakistan has challenged me, changed me, made me realise even more what I am capable of, what I need to do, what my life purposes are, and how I can get there.

For those that are applying for exchange I wish you all the best and may you realise your potential even more!

For those that are still thinking about going for exchange.... I'd say just go for it! Don't let the opportunity pass because there may not be a next time later on...

For those undecided where to go for exchange.... Come to Pakistan! What you see on TV is just a tiny fraction of life events here, and if I can survive for this long, so can you. I believe we have a few development traineeships and management traineeships available. If you're interested, drop me a mail :)


All the best!

Zafirah Mohamed

Labels: MC Leadership, MCP, Sharing, Sharing is Caring

Hi all,

Proudly presenting the finalized Member Committee 2008/2009 of AIESEC Singapore -

Director of Programme – Incoming Exchange : Ashwin Subramaniam
Director of Programme – Outgoing Exchange : Yuan Tian
MCVP Business Development : Lucia Deng Lu
MCVP Projects : Grace Chen
MCVP Talent Management : Shubhangi Faujdar
MCVP Communications : Cheryl Chen
MCVP Information Management : Li Jun
MCVP Finance : Esviyola Debrila
MC Honorary General Secretary : Cathy Chan
MC President : Mayas Singh

It is also my great pleasure to announce that for the first time in many many years, we have a full team, where all the portfolios in the MC are represented.

I would like to give my heartiest *congratulations* to the MC candidates who bravely went through the elections and the selection interviews and finally made it into the MC!! :)

Best Regards,
Mayas

Labels: AIESEC, AIESECers, MC, MC Leadership, National, Sharing, Sharing is Caring, Singapore

Below is the experience of Carlo Antonio Dottore, the NUS CEEDer from Italy, when he went for the Night Safari trip organized by AIESEC in NTU:

Great organization for the visit to the Night Safari of Singapore by the guys of AIESEC in NTU. A small group of 7 people spent 3 and half hours wondering about the shows offered by night creatures such as Flying Squirrels, Malayan Tigers and Leopards.

Arrived at the NS at 8:30 we started going around in the zoo, shocked and confused by the tribal dancers’ bongos. A quick look at the Bridge of Suspense, to strange kinds of bearded pigs, cute striped deers and huge buffaloes and then straight to the “Creatures of the Night Show”. The Show was really entertaining with the exhibitions of owls flying through the crowd, jumping Pumas and Big Pitons just under the seats, and a very funny girl joking with the crowd, with children and with her assistants.

After the show, back to the trail to enjoy other animals.

We went through a small area where bats could fly just above our heads… Seems that bats are friendly animals as long as you don’t provoke them… Anyhow, nobody expected to see 70 cm big bats. The NS was about to close and we just had the chance to catch the last tram taking us to an area not accessible by foot, where you could see huge Elephants and other creatures.

Thanks to Alvin, LCP of AIESEC in NTU for organizing such an interesting, funny and marvellous trip.

Labels: AIESEC, Bridge of Suspense, CEEDer, Night Safari, NTU, Sharing is Caring

Mr. Muthuraman Addressing the Crowd!!

Mr. Muthuraman elaborated in great detail about Tata Steel and its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) projects in India, particularly in the city of Jamshedpur, where the company is based. With wide ranging projects from sports academies to rural outreach programs to HIV/AIDS initiatives, Tata Steel channels 6 to 7 percent of its yearly profits back to the community. In this material world where profits regularly take centre stage, it is indeed refreshing to hear about the benevolence of a multinational company such as Tata.

But many may be wondering why Tata is contributing so much of their money to CSR programs. Why not use this money to expand and establish the company? An interesting point raised by Mr. Muthuraman was the fact that no individual or organization had the right to corner a substantial part of the economy or wealth for themselves. Wealth, as he so eloquently puts it, comes from nature and not individuals. Therefore, every citizen of the world has the right to a piece of this cake. But what happens when the cake is not evenly distributed? We live in a world where there is a widening social and economic gap; where there are families struggling to feed their young while certain individuals dine and wine in luxurious restaurants. How then do we close this gap? The answer, says Mr. Muthuraman, lies in creating equal opportunities for all irrespective of race, gender or background. Governments, NGOs and MNCs should not only be actively involved in the development of a nation’s economy but also in the development of its citizens. In his own words, CSR is not about charity but about the empowerment of citizens everywhere.

Tata Group of Industries are very closely associated with AIESEC and AIESEC in India, in particular. Mr. Muthuraman also asked organizations like AIESEC to create more awareness among the youth!!

Labels: Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR, Sharing is Caring, Singapore Compact, The Real Purpose of Industrial Organizations

Its been a pretty long hiatus in Turkey.

I left Singapore on the night of the 13th of August, returned on the night of 1st of September. I've missed a lot and school wise, AIESEC wise, sleep wise, I have lots to catch up on.Still, I had a great time in Turkey!

Who was I with?

For the first 5 days: Pam, Sharon, Shubby, Cheryl, Ker Ying, William
Mayas and Alvin joined us at the Asia Pacific Growth Network Premeeting & then Vi, quite a bit later on the 24th.

What did we do?

The first day in Turkey, we explored the public transport, taking a subway then a tram from the airport to a hostel in Sultanahmet, a district in Istanbul. (www.cordialhouse.com if anyone wants to know, they're accessible and the guy in charge is helpful)There, we were persuaded to go to Capadoccia(Kapadokya), which was a good thing. Cos its BE-YOU-TIFUL. We went up mountains & cliffs, hiked in thousands of years old valleys, visited cave houses dug into the cliffs, underground cities, chapels, and even went horse riding :)

Thus if anyone wants to go to Turkey and for 3 days wants to have a great time I would suggest Kapadokya, and definitely go with a group, its a really fun experience. Really felt I got to know the rest(especially Cheryl and William whom I am acquainted with the least amongst the 7 of us) a lot more personally, and see other sides of them apart from the 'AIESEC' side, ha.

When we were in Istanbul for our first day, we basically visited all the touristy spots, which isn't bad at all. The Aya Sofia and the Blue Mosque are really stunning, and we visited the Basilica Cistern which was used to store water back in the day, that was really beautiful as well. You can literally imagine history unfolding before your eyes as you walk up and down Istanbuls cultural heritage area. The whole of Turkey, from what I heard, and saw, in fact, is littered with icons and memories of the past. Very interesting. We took the overnight bus from Istanbul to Kapadokya and you basically know the story from there.

A typical breakfast(I say typical cos its the same breakfast regardless you're on the plane, in a hostel or at a university campus) consists of bread, hard boiled egg, cheddar cheese, cottage cheese, cucumber, tomato and olives. Every single day. Other meals get a bit more varied though. Turkish food is really not bad at all, even on the campus, but it has lots, I mean LOTS of yogurt and cream. And there's NO chilli sauce, no sambal, nothing, only chilli flakes which in Singapore you would only find in pizza places and the like. But that's ok, we still enjoyed the Doner Kebaps, Adana Kebaps, Urfa Kebaps, Iskender Kebaps, the Pides and all the various other stuff we didn't know the names of. For desserts there are stuff like the famous baklava, kunefe(I like this), also rice pudding, chocolate pudding, etc.

How was International Congress?

I have to say that probably as a 'veteran', this being my 2nd IC, it didn't have half as much of a 'rah-rah' effect on me as last year's IC in Poland had.At the same time, it was a great event, I went in with quite a number of objectives, which I'm glad to say were mostly fulfilled.

I had to take care of negotiations with the MENA(Middle East & North Africa) region to secure exchange partnerships with the countries, so I basically addressed them(with Sharon) at their pre-meeting, and also had individual country meetings with them(Jordan, Bahrain, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, UAE, Qatar) and basically secured a supply of over 20 EPs (Exchange Participants, or interns, previously known as SNs) to Singapore for our Middle East project.At the same time we(myself, Alvin, Ker Ying, Sharon, William) had meetings with people like ING, ABN Amro, Standard Chartered Bank, Tata Consultancy Group, and interacted with people from other prominent companies and partners of AIESEC, like Electrolux, DHL, UBS, HP and Microsoft.

As 'jaded' as you can get at an IC that's not your first, nonetheless 650 delegates from 100 countries, plus externals, alumni, facilitators and AIESEC International really add to become a really huge and diverse crowd which you cannot ignore.

IC would be basically 13 days of non-stop roll calls, dancing, meeting people, discussing AIESEC, socialising, networking, and partying. Quite an experience.And no IC is the same. Turkey this year was worlds apart from the one in Poland last year, and characteristic of this IC, as someone said at our closing plenary, you are part of IC 2007 if 'your idea of having a good time is partying on a tennis court and making out in the forest after'. Which connected to all of us cos the parties WERE in a tennis court converted to a 'party area' and there were no mixed dorms, strictly single-sex ones and thus when people were feeling touchy they had to go to the forest-y park nearby on the benches and make out.

Never a dull moment.

Its interesting to observe as well, that with 650 people plus, around you all the time, its surprisingly easy to feel very alone as well. I guess that is just part of the great paradox that is life. Also, it does take energy to be able to interact with everyone, all the time. You have to think of things to say, you have to be attentive, you have to decipher the different accents(eg Latin American, African, North American, Western Europe(can be broken down to Italian, French, English), Eastern Europe, south Asian, southeast Asian, east Asian) which is tiring in itself.

I met a number of old friends which made me happy:Koreans(Patrick, John), Indonesians(Aidy, David, Indah), Indians(Vijit, Ankit), Thai(Goff, Nueng, Sine, Pui), Swiss(Gaudi), Australians(Alex), Kiwis(David Benjamin), Malaysians(James, Sandy, Anthony, Anisha Lah, Geralynn, Renee, Fadli) [forgive me if i didn't add you on this list, there are alot of people haha]

And I found that I really wanted to spend more time talking to them and in fact, my team mates even, to really build the relationships that I had, than to spend time getting superficially acquainted with others. Which is not to say I didn't make new friends, cos I did, but I valued the short time that we had to see each other.I also valued this 'break' which my team had to really just fool around(despite having meetings and attending sessions) and bond, before we headed back to Singapore and all Hell breaks loose.


I could go on and on I suppose, but I won't. IC was a good experience, and all good experience comes with good and bad, which IC had. Still, I valued the time I spent with my friends, and those that are important to me. I can only wish that you reading, if you have not had that opportunity, have that chance to experience it as well.

Here's to you guys :)

Labels: Sharing is Caring

Hi AIESEC Singapore!!!

Greetings from Russia!

It has been quite long since I am able to access TraineeSG…
It has been quite long since I am able to post something too:D.
I miss Singapore sooo much:)!

As there are a lot of historical events happening in @ Singapore these weeks (E.g. National Planning), there have been a lot of things happened in my internship too!

Few highlights:

-Seeing SNOW for the first time in my life :D. In the summer season!!!!!
-My solo backpacking trip to the largest, deepest, and oldest freshwater lake in the world (Lake BAIKAL) which is 66-hours away by train from my city Novosibirsk.
-Having a 94 HOURS total of Trans-Siberian train trips
-Flying on a GLIDER! (http://en.wikipedia .org/wiki/ Glider) My dream come true!!!
-Representing my company to do a SPEECH in the convocation dinner of a local university.
-Becoming a JUDGE for a business plan competition. (Conducted in Russian Language)
-Meeting an old friend ANDREY Kokulenko (NLDS 06 Faci) during my trip around 8 Russian cities
-Doing country presentations to local students for MORE than 16 times
-Etc

Those are just few, out of many experiences that I had in the past few weeks.
If I have to continue the list, it will be more than 50 more things :D.

Of course I can share those things above long-windedly, but I would save the time by sharing one thing that is relevant with what's happening in @ Singapore now:

"Conquering Natural Challenges with AIESEC Spirit"

*Natural Challenge #1: geography

Having lived in Indonesia and Singapore, it is not a rocket science to see one of the biggest differences between AIESEC in these two countries: The distance between LCs.

In Indonesia, it takes many many hours to travel between LCs that are located in different islands.
In Singapore, it takes less than 1 hour and 20 minutes to travel between LCs.

But in Russia…. EBs in many LCs need to travel for more than 60 HOURS (one way) to attend the national planning. Not to mention the duration of the planning itself and the return trip!Nevertheless, EB teams from all LCs attended the planning. Complete EB teams.

This fact has made me think a lot about the significant benefit that AIESEC Singapore has: shorter traveling distance and therefore, longer working time.

Then I started to think about myself in the past:
- I always complained about the time that I had to spend in attending national planning
- I always complained about the tiredness of going to AIESEC events in city area or other LCs

Surprisingly, AIESECers here don't perceive 60 hours traveling time as a reason of not going for national planning or to attend conferences in other cities.

AIESECers here conquer the natural challenges with AIESEC spirit.

*Natural challenge #2: weather

Winter in Siberia can be as cold as -43 degree Celcius.
Warm weather, which allows Siberian to live normally like in other places, only happens 3 months in a year. To cut it short, weather here are always shitty.

Moreover, traveling time from members' house to meeting venues can be as far as two hours. And of course, going out in such shitty weather equals to a lot of sufferings!

However, AIESEC members here are very very very eager to attend AIESEC events.
Somehow they don't see bad weather as a reason for not attending @ events such as weekly LC gathering, Insight XP training, or welcome parties.

(FYI, AIESECers here conducted InsightXP training with blackboard and chalk! They don't have the pleasure of using projectors like @ Singapore, therefore they have to spend a lot of time drawing the menus instead of using a "print screen")

Then I started to think again about myself in the past:
- I always complained about how uncomfortable it is to go out and attend @ meetings
- I always complained about how hot it is to go out and attend a company meeting

Despite of the natural challenges here in Siberia, LC NSU (my hosting LC) was crowned as the second top LC in the world in a TN-raising competition, just second after LC Bucharest.
Despite of the natural challenges here, LC NSU is one of the most aggressive LCs in the world.

AIESECers here conquer the natural challenges with AIESEC spirit.

After comparing my situation back then in @ Singapore with what @ers here face, I started to think:
- Was I really that lazy just due to the traveling time? (1 hour and 20 minutes in Singapore is nothing compare to 70 hours in Russia)
- Was I really that weak that I didn't want to go to many events just because of the bad weather? (sunny Singapore is not as bad as -43 degree celcius)
- Or was I just too lazy to realize that the real challenge lies in my head, not in the environment?

Now I have clearly seen that the challenges actually lie in my head.
And that is why I share these things with you. I believe that it is quite inspiring to see an extreme case from an LC in Siberia. A very very good LC from Siberia. And then to be grateful of the advantages & privileges that we have in Singapore.

Firstly I thought that these phenomenons happen due to the different educational culture in the two countries: Russians can skip more tutorials / classes than AIESECers in Singapore.

But, believe me!
Russians have the same pressure as us in Singapore to complete bachelor degrees with perfect grades!
As a growing market, it is impossible for Russian students to get jobs with average marks. They have to spend lots of time studying and hell a lot of time attending classes too.

The real challenges are not in the environment. It's in my head.

That is just one thing that has been circulating in my mind for the past few weeks.

Now I feel much better after sharing this with @ers in Singapore.

--

Having lived in a country where 1.5 litres of beer costs the same as 0.5 litre of coke, it is quite interesting to see many things that don't exist in any part of the world.
However, I would like to save these unique things for my next postings. :).

I'm sorry that I can't post any photos this time.
It is quite impossible for me to upload files, due to the slow internet connection.

Do wait for more updates from Siberia!
Have fun, everyone in Singapore!

All the best for the ongoing national planning!

Best Regards,
-dei-
23/06/07

Labels: Sharing is Caring