"We want to put things right. But we know it's not enough just to apologise. We have to try to make sure that things like that don't happen again.
In part that comes down to culture.
It's a very personal thing, but throughout my career - from my time as a teacher, to my time as a banker - I have seen just how important culture is to successful organisations.
Culture is difficult to define, I think it's even more difficult to mandate - but for me the evidence of culture is how people behave when no-one is watching.
Our culture must be one where the interests of customers and clients are at the very heart of every decision we make; where we all act with trust and integrity."
(The above is an extract from a business lecture by Bob Diamond, the president of Barclays Bank in Nov 2011 making references to the aftermath of the 2008 Financial Crisis).
How pathetic the above speech is in the light of recent news about Barclays Bank being fined GBP 453m for manipulating the LIBOR (interbank borrowing rate). U.S. and British officials are considering criminal charges against individuals and British investigators are probing other major banks including Citigroup,UBS, HSBC and Royal Bank of Scotland. Investigations have revealed exchanges of emails amongst dealers promising each other treats and rewards when the interest rate fixing is assisted and one email from a more ethical dealer informing the big boys it is done though much against his will.
I underscore the particular phrase in the above speech that really disturbs me, "evidence of culture is how people behave when no one is watching". Gosh he is like a thief preaching about trust. Look what they have done precisely when no one is watching. Strangely enough the local Singapore scene also has episodes of corruption and fraud lately. Looks like news topics have trends too. Mind you these unethical stuff being discovered or made known is probably just the tip of an iceberg.
Perhaps true integrity is the way one behaves with no one watching except one's own Self watching.
Shakespeare wrote:
"To thine own self be true,
and it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man"
Unfortunately, very often this own Self is either absent , denied, missing or forced to hide.
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Mango Ego
Just forked out another $900 to attend Level 3 of Sandplay Therapy and Symbol Work. Got to pay another $900+ this December to go through Level 4 before obtaining a certificate from the Expressive Therapies Institute of Australia. To complete this course we, the Singaporean participants may have to travel to KL as the lecturer may not conduct Level 4 in Singapore if there are insufficient participants here. This institute conducts courses only in KL, Singapore and HK. In the class which I just attended there were only 11 participants out of which 3 are caucasians (counsellors from International schools here) and one participant from Bangkok. Incidentally the registration for Level 4 in KL (without including us) stands at 26 already! It seems that this course is not very popular with Singaporeans and the lecturer jokingly ascribes it to Singaporean's adversion to the word "Play" in the name of the course.
After going through 3 days of theories as well as practice on each other, many of us concluded that if not for anything just gaining insight into our inner psyche and the inner work/healing is well worth the $900. Treat it as money paid to a therapist and is most well spent. The most awesome experience for me was learning how with the help of symbols to understand our dream so much of my shadow is revealed. Integration between the unconscious and conscious is also brought about to some extent. To give a glimpse into what actually happened, we were asked to remember a dream or a scene of it and then select symbols (figures and miniatures) to recreate it in the sandtray. We then use active imagination to see how the dream will progress. We were also asked to imagine and assume being the symbols and role played with them (ie. let the symbols talk and express feelings). In my dream I was fighting with several people under my employ over some mangoes. I was terribly upset and furious that none of them could even spare me a single mango though they have several. I berated them for being ungrateful and fired all of them. Then I felt guilty (for firing them over a mango), upset and frustrated and in my dream I ended with a hollow laugh and remarked to myself "Mango Ego". In class, my partner and I laughed over such a frivolous dream and I doubted anything serious could arise from the exercise. Low and behold when I entered into the mango (can you believe being a MANGO!), loads of feelings and thoughts flowed. The mango craved for being popular, craved for love and enjoyed being fought over for. To cut the story short, resolution comes in the form of realising such craving is not really necessary.
Well this is just one exercise. Another very revealing insight is gathered when in another exercise we had to pick a symbol each representing the persona, the shadow as well as the 'thinking', 'feeling', 'sensation' and 'intuitive' aspects of ourselves arranging them in the sandtray.
I truly enjoyed this course. Speaking to one foreigner who is the school counsellor in an international school in Singapore, she described how she used sandplay therapy intensively in her school and finds it so powerful. My own experience using it in school has also been heartening but there is too much restrictions in our school environment (like time and space constraint, focus on prompt behavioural change etc). I feel hampered. Maybe after I have obtained a full certificate I can seek out other places where people appreciate emotional and inner healing as the first step towards regenerating positive energies and "restoring the psyche to its natural functioning".
After going through 3 days of theories as well as practice on each other, many of us concluded that if not for anything just gaining insight into our inner psyche and the inner work/healing is well worth the $900. Treat it as money paid to a therapist and is most well spent. The most awesome experience for me was learning how with the help of symbols to understand our dream so much of my shadow is revealed. Integration between the unconscious and conscious is also brought about to some extent. To give a glimpse into what actually happened, we were asked to remember a dream or a scene of it and then select symbols (figures and miniatures) to recreate it in the sandtray. We then use active imagination to see how the dream will progress. We were also asked to imagine and assume being the symbols and role played with them (ie. let the symbols talk and express feelings). In my dream I was fighting with several people under my employ over some mangoes. I was terribly upset and furious that none of them could even spare me a single mango though they have several. I berated them for being ungrateful and fired all of them. Then I felt guilty (for firing them over a mango), upset and frustrated and in my dream I ended with a hollow laugh and remarked to myself "Mango Ego". In class, my partner and I laughed over such a frivolous dream and I doubted anything serious could arise from the exercise. Low and behold when I entered into the mango (can you believe being a MANGO!), loads of feelings and thoughts flowed. The mango craved for being popular, craved for love and enjoyed being fought over for. To cut the story short, resolution comes in the form of realising such craving is not really necessary.
Well this is just one exercise. Another very revealing insight is gathered when in another exercise we had to pick a symbol each representing the persona, the shadow as well as the 'thinking', 'feeling', 'sensation' and 'intuitive' aspects of ourselves arranging them in the sandtray.
I truly enjoyed this course. Speaking to one foreigner who is the school counsellor in an international school in Singapore, she described how she used sandplay therapy intensively in her school and finds it so powerful. My own experience using it in school has also been heartening but there is too much restrictions in our school environment (like time and space constraint, focus on prompt behavioural change etc). I feel hampered. Maybe after I have obtained a full certificate I can seek out other places where people appreciate emotional and inner healing as the first step towards regenerating positive energies and "restoring the psyche to its natural functioning".
Friday, June 15, 2012
风水轮流转
A few things left deep impression. The most spectacular for me was when the cruise ship sailed through the ship locks at the dam (the biggest dam and power station in the world). A ship lock allows a vessel to be raised or lowered when travelling through a change in river level across an obstacle (which is the dam in this case). It is like climbing steps to reach the top or to reach the bottom depending on whether you are sailing upstream or downstream. Each step is fringed by giant steel gates which when locked allows water either to be pumped in or drained out to raise or lower the water level. The ship had to pass through 5 locks like climbing 5 steps. The passengers were informed in advance of the time when the ship will pass through the locks. So we watched from the ship deck as the ship moved into a lock, the huge steel gates closed behind it and then felt the ship being raised as water was pumped in. What an engineering feat!
Another awesome experience was watching a musical at the open air theatre at Jiangjiejia. The open air theatre is at a valley and has the mountains as its backdrop. Limestone cliffs with hanging huts serve as props for a village. The story line is simple, a folklore about a vixen and a woodcutter; but the choreography, the visual effects, the lighting, the use of high tech props together with a cast of 500 people rendered it the most spectacular show I have ever seen. At times looking up at the dark sky studded with stars one could not tell whether they were supposed to be part of the props. At the climax of the show a 60-meter bridge forms across the sky at a height of 40-m which provides a dramatic setting for the lovers to meet. Some reviews I read rate this show above Zhang Yimou's Lijiang show.
At Chongqing the last stop where we took our flight home, I couldn't help but thought about the vast difference between what is happenings in China versus that in Europe which I visited last December. Where construction and modernisation is taking place in China, Europe (or at least Italy and UK where I was) seem to be sliding downhill judging from the infrastructure and construction activity as well as the retail scene. The van drove us to Chongqing airport and we were stumped when we saw how large Chongqing's Domestic Airport is. We were surprised when the van drove past the modern Domestic Airport and dropped us at a small oldish terminal which is Chongqing's International Airport. Yes China is like a continent with many countries and it can spin its own economy from its own domestic demand whilst Europe a continent of many countries struggles to bail each other. 风水轮流转 feng shui lun liu zhuang. It happens to countries too.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
