Business Trip to Thailand (Third Time)

I am now at a departure gate in the Narita International Airport. I am going to visit Bangkok today, and this is the third time to land on Thailand.

Thailand is currently suffering from severe flood threat. The flood is causing damages in the northern part of Thailand, but it has not reached the central part of Bangkok.

I will arrive at Bangkok this afternoon, and will leave Bangkok at the midnight tomorrow.

According to news obtained so far, I am not sure whether the flood threat will reach Bangkok. If the central part of Bangkok is attacked by the flood, then, I will not be able to undertake my business mission in Bangkok, and in the worst case, I will not be able to leave Bangkok if the international airport in Bangkok halts its functions due to the flood threat.

This is similar to the situation which I experienced in Japan on March 11, 2011. Large earthquakes and subsequent massive tsunami as well as the successive meltdowns of the nuclear power plants in Fukushima completely halted functions of Tokyo. Trains were delaying and even not moving, and electricity was stopped in some areas.

Urban areas are fragile to natural disasters.

--until here, written on October 20---

--from here, written on October 22---

I am writing this post in a train back to Tokyo.

I came back to Tokyo, and I am safe and well. I was not trapped in the flood thread in Bangkok, but I felt the situation was not solved and still facing future crisis. I am not sure whether Bangkok will be safe.

This crisis tells me that a megacity is fragile to natural disasters. Once a natural disaster occurs in a metropolitan, then, at first, vast of information starts distributing. We face massive of information. In addition, this kind of information spreads all over the world in a short period.

Next, many of managers are assigned from different authorities to the disaster. For example, in the Japanese case of the nuclear crisis, the prime minister of Japan, the minister of Economic Trade and Industry, and President of Tokyo Electric Power Company were conducting operations to minimize damages of the nuclear crisis. Although each of the representatives seemed to try to do their best, communication among each other was reported not to be enough.

In the past, I have read a book, but I forget the title of the book. The title was probably “sustainability future” or stuff like that. According to the book, 50 to 75 % of human beings will live in mega cities in the future. Given the ongoing flood crisis damage social and economic activities in Thailand, people will face a similar hard situation in the future as well.

Business Trip to Thailand (Second visit)

I have been and will be staying in Bangkok from September 5 to September 9, 2011 for my business purpose.

For socio-economic survey, I visited an open-air market in Bangkok yesterday. It was a very huge market. There were fish, meat, vegetable, and other foods as many varieties as I can imagine. An atmosphere prevailing in the market was totally different from other places where I visited during my stay in Thailand. Smells, sounds, faces of people and dogs floating or walking in the market impressed me very much. It was rather a chaotic atmosphere, which was similar to the one which I had during my stay in Mumbai in May, 2010.

Thailand has many faces.

Business Trip to Thailand

I am now in Bangkok, Thailand. I am here for my business purpose. One of the missions of this trip is related to waste management in Thailand.

Thailand is a good place to stay. Food is good even though it is a little bit hot and oily. Air pollution here in Bangkok is not severer than in Hanoi or Mumbai. Waste is not scattered on streets. Stray dogs are here and there, but they do not come close to me.

What impressed me here was that poor people was poor, and rich was rich. I feel that there are a huge discrepancy between people who have and people who do not have. Taxi drivers or clerks at restaurant or shopping markets seems really poor, on the other hand, business people working at offices seems smart and intelligent.

I will visit Thailand probably 3 to 4 times within the next half year to accomplish my business mission.

Business Trip to Vietnam

I am currently in Hai Phong, Vietnam on a business trip.  I arrived in Hanoi last Sunday, I had meetings yesterday, and my business partners and I came to Hai Phong by car today.

Vietnam is close to Japan, it took only 6-7 hours to fly from Tokyo to Hanoi. The food in Vietnam is good, it is fresh and less oil than Chinese one and Thailand's one. There are not many beggers in the street in Hanoi and Hai Phong. However, the air pollution is severe here. There are many particulate matters in the capital, Hanoi.

Visiting foreign countries is interesting for me. However, the schedule during this business trip is so packed that I have little time to set aside time for sightseeing. I would like to visit Vietnam again in the future not on business, but for the purpose of leisure.

Business Travel to Chile (Part 2)

(1) At an airport in Santiago

I am currently at an international airport in Santiago, Chile, waiting for the departure time of a flight to Japan. This time, I will be in transit through an airport in Atlanta on my way from Santiago to Narita, Japan. The flight takes about 10 hours from here to Atlanta, and I have to wait for about 5 hours for in Atlanta, and finally I can get back to Japan after taking about a 14 hour flight from Atlanta. My current physical condition is good, but I do not know how I will be when I get to Narita. I hope that I will also be fine even at the arrival time in Narita.

(2) At an airport in Atlanta

I arrived at an airport in Atlanta, and am waiting for the flight to Narita. The flight from Santiago to here took about 10 hours, but it was not so bad. I could have a sleep, and finish reading the novel “Animal Farm” by George Orwell. The novel was good. People say that Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four are the two best novels by George Orwell, and I have no doubt about this evaluation.

Both books illustrate a society governed by dictatorship. Animal Farm depicts how the dictatorship is developed, and Nineteen Eighty-Four illustrates how the dictatorship maintains its power. Logics of the development and maintenance of the dictatorship prevailing in the two books are clear. The two books imply that our society (at a community level, at a business operating unit level, or at a national level) always have possibilities to go to socialism or dictatorship.

(3) The business performance in Chile

I was working in Chile for about one week, and I realized that my consulting skill is not at a satisfactory level. I could have contributed more to my business mission in Chile.

Chile has many mining sites, and my mission in Chile was to evaluate whether or not one of the mining activities in Chile causes environmental impacts. I visited a mining site, and conducted several interviews with relevant people to the mining activity. However, I am not satisfied with my performance. I could have obtained more precise information if I had prepared what items I should have asked about in interviews, if I had known what points needed to be clarified during the mining site visit, or if I had had better verbal communication skills in English. Knowing my weak points is a good opportunity to improve myself, but I need energy to shine the light on my weak points. No-one wants to see one’s faults, honestly speaking.

(4) Impression of Chile

I visited Santiago, the capital of Chile. Although some garbage was scattered on streets and beggars could be seen here and there, Santiago was an ordered and developed city. I visited Mumbai, the financial center of India, last spring, and I can say that there is more chaos in Mumbai than in Santiago.

Chilean people wear western type clothes, equivalent to American people. As far as I have seen, few people wear traditional clothing. On the other hand, many people in Mumbai wore saris. Clothing makes a visual difference.

(5) On the train from Narita to Tokyo

Although the departure time at the airport in Atlanta was delayed for 5 hours, I finally arrived at the airport. The15 hour flight from Atlanta to Narita was tiring, and I spent most of time sleeping and watching movies. I am now a little tired, but not too bad. I have finally completed my long journey. From tomorrow, I will restart my Japanese life with my family, friends, and colleagues.

Business Travel to Chile (Part 1)

I am now at a large size airport in Atlanta in transit from Tokyo to Santiago, Chile. Tokyo is far away from here. The journey from Tokyo took about 12 hours. My seat was a middle chair (in between an aisle seat and a window seat) in economy class, so there was little physical freedom when I was on the airplane.

In addition, I am suffering from jet lag. My departure time at Narita-airport was about 3p.m. local time, and my arrival time at this airport in Atlanta was about 3p.m. local time. My physiological function does are working well. For example, I am now feeling hungry, even though I ate my breakfast (or lunch, I do not care whichever the name is) a couple of hours ago. I am writing this document, while falling in an unconscious state and finding myself asleep several times.

The long flight was hard for my health, but there are a few good things. The most enjoyable experience was that I could see the movie “The Social Network” during the flight. The movie illustrates the humanity of Mark Zuckerberg. He is the co-founder of “Facebook.”, and is better known as a man who broke the record of the youngest billionaire in the world.

I am not deeply involved in social network services. I have not had any necessities/opportunities to do it so far, so I cannot grasp the essential points of why social networking services have become so popular. However, the movie provided me with sufficient suggestions.

The key point is “exclusivity.” Mark went to Harvard University, and there were several prestigious social clubs at the university. In order to become members of such clubs, you have to complete many selection processes. If you can finally gain the membership, you are exclusively allowed to socialize with the other members, and your prohibited friends are envious of you solely because you are the member of the club.

Mark was fortunate in that he could realize the eternal theory that people were seeking exclusive social networks. In addition, he has exceptional professional IT skills, so that he could implement his idea in the IT language.

In this sense, the success of Facebook is different from Google or Windows. The purpose of Google is to enable people to collect information efficiently and effectively on the Internet. Along the same lines, the purpose of Windows is to provide people with a technological foundation for IT systems. The success of Google and Windows is not rooted from sensitive human emotions such as the desire for socialization or envy of socialized people, but from a simple engineering slogan of “more efficient, and more effective.” The success of Facebook suggests one of future business blueprints.

My departure time in Atlanta will be 8p.m. local time, and the flight to Santiago will take about 9 hours. I have reserve an economy seat of the next flight as well. If I am asked from my business partners what the air travel is like in Santiago, I will try to answer, not that it was long, but I enjoyed the movies.