more on the situation in Lebanon

Everyday, someone from our class write a little about what happened during the program that day. Today, Mohamad wrote a bit about some of his experiences. One thing I really admire about him is that although he has his own opinion on the issue, he has always said: "it's not about politics, let's talk about how we can help the people there, let's make this humanitarian."

"Cheers" said my friend. "To peace and love!” I replied… As I put my drink on the table, a sudden distant flash in the sky made me jerk my head round. A couple of seconds later, I realised how stupid I had been… I was in Lausanne, the safest place on earth – and the flash had been fireworks in the night sky! My friends chuckled and asked why I had reacted that way. I explained that a flash in the sky in my hometown meant that a bomb was exploding somewhere and that the flash above us had caused my involuntary reaction.

The 1st of August marks the union of Switzerland. The Swiss celebrate this anniversary by shooting amazingly artistic fireworks in the sky. The sounds and sights mesmerized me but the entertaining sounds at this side of the world took me back to the menacing ones back home. I longed more for home... It would have been much easier to stay in Lebanon – yes, under siege and roaring bombs, but also with my family and my people. I had to leave my family going through one of the most emotionally charged decisions of my life. I felt somehow overpowered by my mom’s tears and my father’s persuasion and logic. It was quite painful for me to hear: "It is better for us if you just leave and be safe".

Before taking this decision, I had worked for a couple of weeks with the mayor of my city Saida, the capital of South Lebanon. I was assisting the city’s administration in handling international media and NGOs.

I will never forget my last interview with a British reporter just nearby the Municipality building, where the refugees gathered before being distributed among the many shelters improvised in the city. While I was being interviewed, in English, a refugee kept on interrupting and asking me in Arabic whether I was saying something against the resistance. I could not stop my interview, but I tapped him on the shoulder indicating "No". I also had to point at a signboard trying by sign language to indicate that this was my father’s office hoping that my father’s name might help him understand who my family was and confirm what I was trying to tell him.

When the interview was over, I satisfied their anxiety by translating to them some of what I had said. As much as I witnessed misery and pain, I also witnessed courage and an unprecedented faith in the refugees. It was quite frustrating and emotional for me to deal with all of that. The person who was interrupting had apparently lost a brother and a nephew - but his faith overshadowed any sign of mourning... He made me feel so humble.

I went back to the office to check the latest developments and to bid the mayor and the team farewell. A meeting was going on, where the other angle of the humanitarian crisis at Saida was being discussed. Besides the doubling population, minimum resources and the siege, the alarming subject on the table was the social impact of the crisis on the Saidonians. Around 30% of Saida’s population live under the poverty line and unemployed is a huge problem. Many of the employed survive on the basis of minimum weekly or daily wages, which had basically stopped ever since was broke out. I had to leave the meeting with many questions in my head: For how long can Saida survive? How would we deal with a state of panic? How would people take the loss of their family members after they realize that they actually lost them? Where can the million refugees settle while their homes are rebuilt? Will school activities ever start again for the million Lebanese children whose schools are currently being used as shelter for the thousands of displaced? What will be the impact after the war? What about the ecological damage due to bombing the seven tanks at the shore? What about the thousands of fishermen?

Many questions that are left unanswered... until further notice

Mohamad

The Rothschilds

In the stakeholder module today, Prof. Jeannet told a story and asked as to think about how the world changes, and how the star of tomorrow can quickly become the orphan of next year.

The Rothschild, the prominant European banking family 200 years ago, had six sons and realized that Frankfurt was no longer big enough for his sons to develope. The family decided to send the six sons to six locations that they saw as the most promising business oppertunities in the world: London, Naples, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, and Frankfurt. So, what was the hit rate on successfully predicting how the world was going to shape? 2 out of 6 cities became the commercial center of the world. Not too bad. Or?

Pro. Jeannet then asked us to pick 3 cities where we would put our children. Answers ranged from Sao Paolo, Dubai, Sydney, Singapore, London, San Francisco, New York, Lima, Shanghai, Dares Salam to Bangalore. (I chose Sao Paolo, Paris, and San Francisco.) Where would you put yours? And how good would the choices seem 10, 20, 30 years from now?

preparing for job interviews

We have these "company presentation" days when companies that are interested in hiring IMD MBAs come and give an hour presentation followed by an hour of cocktails (they pay for it :)

At the end of the day in one of these days, a female classmate pulled me aside: "Sia, you are pretty slim, your suits are a little too big. Invest in a couple nice suits, you will need them in the future anyway."

Well, she is right. I confirmed with a few trusted advisors. The truth of it is that I bought those Polo suits during my senior year in college at the Polo outlet since my first job required me to wear a suit to work everyday. That was almost 10 years ago. I still fit in them (tightly), but they were a little big then, and still big today.

So I embarked on a suit buying spree this summer. (I also gave up the whole buying suit at outlet deal since a store manager at Brooks Brothers told me that the suits in their outlet is not made of the same quality as the ones at their stores)

First in Argentina, I bought a CD suit. Trust me when I say it wasn't expensive. The suit wasn't any cheaper than regular suits in the U.S., but it was CD. Nice design, and it fit me well.
Then came Vienna. They were having these crazy sales. Benetton had this nice casual summer suit. I didn't really need it, but for $160, why not. I need something casual for the summer anyway. After Benetton, I went across the street to finally fulfilled my dream of owning a Boss suit. They ARE nice, especially at 40% off. The only problem was that I couldn't get it taylored in Vienna since we were leaving the next day. So I will be heading to the Boss store in Geneva on Friday.

Do techies really need suit anyway? I hope it will be another ten years before I buy suits again.
(ok, i will really go study accounting now)

school starts again

well, school started again Monday. It has been a grind. It was a struggle sitting through 8 hours of lecture in the last two days. I am not used to it any more.

The topics have been interesting. The next three weeks are what they called: stakeholder module. We started with a crisis management exercise, and continued with training on how to handle the media. This afternoon, we started with negotiations training.

Mohamad is back. I have the accounting retake on Friday. Not really in a mood to study, but I better get to it.