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A call to charitable accountants, web-designers and aspiring do-gooders

I admit that I failed miserably at maintaining my blog in 2012, but a new year has arrived and I am determined to do better this time…

Instead of making my first post of 2013 an angry rant about the cold weather and intolerable smog that have plagued Beijing for the past month (if you do want to hear about the smog, see Liat’s excellent article here  or click here for some cool but depressing pictures of just how bad it is), I want to start the year on a positive note and tell you about an amazing cause I recently committed to support and see if any of you can also help or contribute in any way.

For several years, my friend Alexa has been supporting a small orphanage in Myanmar (Burma) called the Life Garden Home.  Myanmar is experiencing some incredible growth and development at the moment, but as a side-effect of this, the Life Garden Home is finding it more and more difficult to cover its rent each month.  So, this year, alongside planning her wedding, which will take place in two different countries, neither of which she or her fiancé lives in (she is an over-achiever), Alexa and her fiancé, Prashant, have resolved to raise enough money to buy a plot of land and build the orphans a home of their own.

To fulfill my New Year’s resolution of being a generally better person and in support of a really good cause, I have volunteered to help them.  So, in my first act of self-sacrifice, I am turning to you to ask if you can help me help them help the orphans… please!?

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HOW CAN YOU HELP?

Helping doesn’t necessarily mean money.  At this stage, your skills, time, ideas and guanxi (to make use a Chinese term) are just as important for getting things up and running.

If you answer yes to any of the below and would like to get involved (or know someone else who might), please get in touch…

Can you design and donate a great website?

First things first, to get the word out and ensure supporters are kept up to date on how their money is being spent, they’re looking for a talented web-designer to create a website for the cause.  In addition to the warm glow that will surround you following your good deed, you will of course be given full credit for your efforts and can add a great website to your portfolio.

Are you a charitable accountant or finance expert?

All the donations and fundraising need to be managed transparently to minimise any costs and make sure all laws are being abided by, so it’s really important to find someone knowledgeable who can help oversee the finance side of the project.  Do you think you could be that person?

Do you have any fundraising ideas or want to organise an event?

There are already some great ideas for events we’d like to host in Beijing, many of which should be easily exportable to other locations.  If you’d be interested in organising one and want to hear more, or if you have your own ideas on how to raise funds, please let us know.

Do you have advice from your own fundraising experience?

This is all totally new to me, but I know some of you have experience managing big fundraising projects like this.  Any pearls of wisdom you’d be willing to share on what works/doesn’t work would be much appreciated

Would you (or your company) like to make a donation or sponsor an event?

Money isn’t the first thing on the agenda, but it’s ultimately what’s needed.  If you think you or your company can help by making a donation, either directly or by sponsoring an event, get in touch.

I know I haven’t seen many of you in a while, but if you’re reading this and are interested in supporting in one way or another, or just want to share your opinion on what we’re trying to do, please don’t be shy in getting in touch.

Thanks for taking the time to read and I really hope some of you will want to get involved!

Suzy

P.S. Below are some pictures of LGH orphanage to show you some of the great work that’s already happening there

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Suzy’s Fact of the Day #4

China is home to half of the world’s pig population — that’s about 450 million pigs. In the last few years, the government has been building up a Strategic Pork Reserve (SPR) to avoid the potential catastrophe of a disruption to pork supply.

(Sources: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/04/25/how_food_explains_the_world
http://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-agriculture/meat.html)

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Suzy’s Fact of the Day

I know it’s been a while since I last posted anything – and I promise I’ll write something a bit more substantial soon – but to encourage myself to update this a bit more regularly, I’ve decided to introduce a new feature to my blog… “Suzy’s fact of the day.”

I don’t promise that I’ll do it every day, but every time I come across a funny or interesting fact, I’ll share it with you.

So here’s my very first (Asia themed) fact of the day:

In the Philippines, the Frank Sinatra song “My Way” has had to be removed from many karaoke songbooks because sub-standard renditions provoked a string of killings. 

You couldn’t make it up.

(Source:The Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/9508353/Chinese-toddlers-karaoke-tantrum-ends-in-bloodbath.html – thanks Alexa :))

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Beijing 2012

As most of you probably know, sports, and exercise in general, aren’t really my thing.  In fact, I go to great lengths to avoid them.  But last week, the Olympics started in London and for some reason I felt enormously disappointed not to be there.  I’ve never had any interest in the Olympics before, other than marvelling at the gymnasts if they happened to be on TV while I was flicking between channels. But this time it’s different.  Maybe it’s just because it’s in London and I’m a little homesick.  Or maybe the fact that I recently succeeded in standing up on water-skis after dozens of failed attempts (and consuming unhealthy quantities of sea water) has given me a new found love for all things sport.  Whatever the reason, I decided to find out a bit more about the legacy the 2008 Olympics left for the people of Beijing.

This is the Olympic stadium in Beijing, known as the Bird’s Nest (for fairly obvious reasons).

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Overall Beijing’s Olympics cost more than two and a half what the UK has coughed up for the London games ($44 billion to the UK’s $17 billion), but their stadium was actually a bit of a bargain – apparently they spent half what London did building it.

I was surprised to find out that that it’s hardly used anymore.  After the Olympics in 2008, it was opened as a tourist attraction, costing ¥50 RMB (about £5) to go in and have a look around (not something I’ve done given my previous lack of sporting/Olympics interest).    On the night of the opening ceremony in London It was used to host a smoggy, money spinning friendly between Man City and Arsenal, but before that it hadn’t been used since May.

Whoever you think is the better Olympics host, there’s no denying that China’s athletes are far outshining the Brits (and pretty much everyone else).  They’ve already won 23 medals, including 13 gold, and they’ll probably have a few more even before I post this.

There has been a lot of speculation around the performance of the Chinese competitors and how they got to be so good. Are they taking magic, untraceable drugs?  Are they trained in Olympic torture camps?  Call me an optimist, but I choose to believe that they just have a lot of natural talent and practice a lot, but who knows…

If you are interested in learning a bit more about the training academies in China, I can recommend reading Mao’s Last Dancer.  It’s set during the Cultural Revolution so the conditions are a lot more extreme than how I imagine they are today, but worth a read.

Not quite in the same league, but these male gymnasts are outside my apartment block all the time.  Last Sunday they were practicing for hours and hours in sweltering heat.

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One of the sad things about the Olympics in Beijing is that in an attempt to modernise the city before presenting it to the world, they destroyed many of the Hutongs where people traditionally lived.  I took these pictures in the The No.2 Nanluoguxiang Hutong, near the Drum and Bell Tower, which is protected and is now a major tourist area

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Right, that’s it for this time.  I’m in Bali right now waiting for Sophie to arrive.  Just took a walk on the beach – here’s a sneak peak of what I hope the next 10 days will be like…

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And finally, in case you don’t believe that I actually managed to stand up on water-skis, here I am… Oh, and I’m also now an expert synchronised swimmer.

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Suzy xx

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Things that are blocked in China

So, my brilliant plan to start a blog to keep you all informed about my new life in Beijing was temporarily thwarted by Chinese internet censorship laws.  Nearly two months in and I’m finally writing my first post.  My endeavour to get here got me thinking about other things I have seen “blocked” since my arrival in this intriguing country.  I realise this might not be the best title if I want to avoid future censorship interventions, but I’m feeling inspired by this topic so I’m going with it…

1)      Blocked Roads

The roads in Beijing are absolutely huge and the traffic jams are equally immense.   This is the third ring road at the intersection of Chang An Avenue. It doesn’t really show the traffic in its full glory, but I took it today from my new desk so I thought I’d share it with you.  The view might be a bit smoggy at times, but I’m pretty pleased as I spent the first six weeks with an uninspiring view of the wall.

2)      Blocked drains

Last Saturday, Beijing saw its worst rain storms in sixty years.  There was nearly half a metre of rain in a single day and, sadly, 37 people died in the floods.  A lot of the damage was apparently due to an inadequate drainage system.  Amazingly, the gardens of the Forbidden City, built in the 1400s, were almost completely unflooded because of the excellent drains around them.  Unfortunately, the newer parts of the city didn’t fare so well…

I was in Turkey at the time and arrived back on Sunday afternoon to bright blue skies and not a drop of water in sight, but here are a couple of pictures from the Chinese press:

This is the entrance to the subway.  Incredibly, it was still running!  My first thought was to lament the state of the London Underground, knowing that it probably would have been closed for days if this had happened.  But I’m not actually sure whether it’s a good or bad thing that they kept it going in these conditions..?

3)      Blocked bowl vs. blocked bowels

I saw this sign in the bathroom of a restaurant near my house. In case the understated graphic doesn’t convey the message clearly enough, there’s a helpful hand written note underneath.   It seems in this establishment you have to make a choice between your bowels and the toilet.  It made me laugh.

4)      Blocking the sun

I’ve encountered a major cultural difference between myself and the Chinese:  Chinese people really don’t like to tan. They also have some really shiny umbrellas, but I think I can adapt to that one. This is outside the Forbidden City on a beautiful sunny day a couple of weeks ago.

 5)      My blocked view

This is the view from my apartment

Until next time!

Suzy xxx

The first farewell

The first farewell

Usually, parties aren’t really my thing (ahem), but somehow I’ve ended up with five farewell parties planned for the next two weeks.  Tonight was the first one – tea and cakes at Hotel des Indes. I’m feeling very spoilt – thank you Mais!