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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