International Women’s Day

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Why role models trascend.

March 8, 2019.

I am not sure what ignited my interested in world affairs. Back in 1986, when asked by a journalist what I wished for Christmas, my answer was: “I hope that wars in the world come to an end”. That journalist was my grandfather. I was 10 years old.

During my school years, women in leading political positions including Margaret Thatcher and Madeleine Albright inspired me.  One of my fondest memories of my senior high-school years was helping younger students prepare to become MUN (Model of the United Nations) delegates and organizing the first ever MUN at my school. In that MUN’s second edition, I was elected its  “first female” Secretary General. Working in Washington D.C. years later allowed me to briefly meet Secretary of State Condolezza Rice, another highlight. 

It dawns on me now that being a women rising to a prominent political position is like the women I just mentioned above: exceptional. Their legacies in world affairs were distinctive by being: “the first” or “the only”.

Today being International Women’s Day, I reflect upon how these role models transcend by inspiring younger generations to participate, to get organized, become an activist, make a career choice, or being responsible citizens of the world. 

In 2018, one of the key findings in the Gender Gap Report issued by the World Economic Forum was that the largest gender gap disparity is that between men and women at the highest level of political decision-making.  The gap in Political Empowerment narrows down to this: a small representation of women in overall political roles, with even fewer female heads of state in the last 50 years. Under current trends, it would take 107 years to close the gender gap between men and women in political empowerment. It is worth noting that for this edition, the Political Empowerment sub index calculations considered, among other variables, the ratio of seats occupied in parliament by female vs. men representatives as reflected in elections or appointments up until October 1, 2018. 

Yet, history had something in the works for the following month, during the mid-term elections in the United States. In early November, female candidates were at the forefront of the Democratic takeover of the United States House of Representatives.  This brought Nancy Pelosi back as Speaker of the House, together with a diverse fabric of newly elected Representatives. I asked a good friend and former colleague of my days in Washington D.C. how she felt on the aftermath. She answered: “I am so encouraged to see new faces, some that look like you (Latina) and me (African-American), in Congress”.  She was referring to the youngest Latina representative, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, joined by Veronica Escobar and Sylvia Garcia, the first two Latinas elected to Congress from Texas; together with Ayanna Presley, an African American woman from Massachusetts and the first black Democratic woman elected to Congress from Connecticut, Jahana Hayes. The wave also brought two Native American representatives: Sharice Davids and Debra Haaland); together with Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, both Muslim American. Even now, in the land of the free, this was considered an “Election of Firsts”.

Mexico, where I grew up,  also held elections a bit earlier, in the summer of 2018. The Inter-Parliamentary Union highlights that female representatives’ share in the lower chamber gained 5.8 points and also moved upwards by 16.4 points in the upper chamber. According to the World Bank, in 2018, the proportion of seats held by women Mexico’s national legislatures was 48.2%, up from 12% in 1990.

Up north, in Canada, elections are coming soon. But let’s point out that current Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s inaugural cabinet was conformed by 15 male and 15 female Ministers, “because it is 2015”. Since then, cabinet shuffles have taken place, the most recent one followed by stunning resignations of two cabinet members: former Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould and Treasury Board President Jane Philpott.  According to the World Bank, in 2018, 27% of parliament representatives in Canada were women. Canada in fact has had its own first and only female Prime Minister, Kim Campbell. Canada’s current Governor General is Julie Payette, the third female Governor General after Adrienne Clarkson and Michaelle Jean.

In Beijing, where I live, the annual meetings of the National People’s Congress, China’s top legislative body, take place every March. The Thirteenth National People’s Congress, taking place at the Great Hall of the People, will gather 2,975 deputies from 35 delegations to discuss China’s state of affairs. Of these deputies, almost 25% are women, a share that has slowly but surely increased from 21.3% reported by the World Bank for 1990. 

So why is this important? Because role models matter. During my childhood, influential women were “the only” or “the first”. Today, even though there is still plenty of room for improvement, I am excited about the possibilities of a broader participation of women in politics. What matters is not where women come from, but rather where we want to go. And for young girls, being able to project themselves in existing role models is a powerful motivation.

Hence, while celebrating and cheering for the women and girls in your lives, I invite you to share with them not only the incredible stories of the “firsts”, but also those of the many women actively contributing in public office. Their example may just be the spark of a true calling.

References:

Inter-Parliamentary Union. 2019. Accessed on March 8, 2019 at https://www.ipu.org/news/press-releases/2019-03/new-ipu-report-shows-well-designed-quotas-lead-significantly-more-women-mps

World Bank. Accessed on March 8, 2019 at https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SG.GEN.PARL.ZS

World Economic Forum. 2018. The Global Gender Gap Report. Accessed on March 8, 2019 at https://www.weforum.org/reports/the-global-gender-gap-report-2018


Anthropocene “on hold”

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Innovations begin with ideas of how the world should or should not be.

Anthropocene: The Human Epoch (2018), a provoking documentary by Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky and filmmakers Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier, leaves us with stunning images of the world as it should not be.

I first discovered this documentary during the long-haul flight from Beijing to Vancouver during our winter trip. With two younger daughters traveling with me, I somehow got distracted. Thus, as appealing as it was, Anthropocene got put on hold.

On the flight back to Beijing, there was the word Anthropocene again: featured widely in the National Post column by Terence Corcoran.[1]. He reflects whether Anthropocene has enough scientific weight to be accepted, or whether it follows more of a political agenda.  Corcoran also digs into the motivations of the documentary and the origins of the Anthropocene Working Group (AWC), and reviews what scientists, not fans of Antrhopocene, contend.

The premise of advocates working for and supporting the Anthropocene Working Group (AWC) is that the human race has permanently transformed the planet with negative impact. The human impact is so profound, that it calls for a new geological “cene” or epoch: the Anthropocene. Just as a timeline reference, we currently live in the Holocene epoch, which has brought about 12 thousand years of “stable climate” since the last ice age.

As I finally watched through the different episodes in the film (listed, for readers who have not seen it): Excavation, Terraforming,  Techno fossils, Anthroturbation , Boundary Limit, Climate Change and Extinction), I found myself uncomfortably sinking deeper and deeper both literally – into my plane seat – and figuratively – into a sense of indisputable truth. Had I not read Corcoran’s column before watching the film – I would have concluded that in fact we are doomed; that the main subject in the film, planet Earth, will perish and that our finale is coming at an accelerated pace. 

Stratigraphy experts, however, refute the AWC’s arguments to jumpstart The Anthropocene Epoch. They explain that a new strata is only defined by signals that occur globally and are found into deposits of geological records, and which take thousands and thousands of years. Even if Anthropocene has begun (in 1950 according to its proponents), it is still a sliver in the age of a four billion year-old planet.

Still, the scarring burning scenes from Kenya forced me to close my eyes to think about the positives in the film. An early moment of hope, is a reference to human creativity taking form in Michael Angelo’s flawless David, sculpted by the master using Carrara Marble, which is shown in the “Extraction” vignette of the film. There is also the technician working in a lithium mine in Chile, proud to contribute in the production of a material with high potential to reduce carbon footprint. And there is the commitment of the Kenyan woman vowing to not let one more precious elephant tusk go into illegal markets (let alone let another precious elephant to be poached for its tusks). 

At Davos, Sir David Attenborough brought up the word again. The latest Global Risks Report of the World Economic Forum[2]identifies the Top Five risks worldwide for the last years. Top three global risks in terms of likelihood and four out of five in terms of impact, are related to the environment and climate change. An electrifying call was clearly articulated by sixteen year-old environmentalist Greta Thunberg: “I want you to act like our house is on fire, because it is”.

A new epoch or not, there is no way to simplify this story: our planet is at peril.  How can I explain this to my two girls? How can I move on as usual without thinking about my human impact? 

I might start by not denying the challenges, nor should corporations or governments. 

What if I summarize the story as it is understood now by environmentalists, scientists, and experts? If uncontrollable industrialization and exploitation of our resources keeps its pace, more species will be extinct, food supply will be a challenge, we will continue to see extreme climate change in action: floods, hurricanes, more pollution. The planet and us will undeniably suffer because climate change and the force of nature do not discriminate. My children won’t like the ending, and they will be mad, rightfully so. But then, what if we imagine another ending to this story, and build it together?

Let’s tap into the creativity and ingenuity, into the human inclination of creating beauty and aim for justice, which according to environmentalist Paul Hawken[3], are powerful forces present in all levels of society. 

Can we individually start with little changes (be conscious of resources we waste, which are scarce and can pollute) that could make a meaningful difference? Spark some ways to solve challenges at a bigger scale? Recently, I saw a recycling company recollecting diverse materials and offering credits for it that can be exchanged for compost bins, plant seeds, led light bulbs. An effort in the right direction, where I currently live (Beijing).

Anthropocene might not be a household word yet, as its proponents expect. However, the environmental imperatives that it urgently conveys and the innovations and actions to reverse our impact on the planet cannot be put on hold.

[1]CORCORAN, Terence. (January 4, 2019). Is Edward Burtynsky’s Anthropocene proof of ecological disaster – or power politics?National Post. Accessed online at https://nationalpost.com/opinion/terence-corcoran-edward-burtynskys-anthropocene-brings-a-heated-scientific-debate-into-the-mainstreamon January 22, 2019.

[2]World Economic Forum. The Global Risks Report 2019.Consulted online at https://www.weforum.org/reports/the-global-risks-report-2019on January 24, 2019.

[3]HAWKEN, Paul. (2013) The Ecology of Commerce Revised Edition: A Declaration of Sustainability. Harper Business.

We are leaving the spaceship.

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March 12, 2021.

March 2021 marks, for many, the anniversary of when the world as we knew it changed. The Canadian Ides of March could be traced to March 12, 2020 when the outbreak of COVID19 demanded leaders to ask their citizens, employers to request their staff, and schools to require parents and children to stay home. This was Canada’s first wave, Toronto’s first lockdown.

Having left Beijing in evacuation mode since January 26, 2020, our family had been waiting silently, for this stark moment to reach Canada. We were fortunately together, living in an apartment a pebble away from the CN Tower in Toronto, preparing for “our” imminent second wave.

As the reality that lockdown restrictions would last longer than Spring Break (and certainly COVID19 would not be gone by Easter) dawned upon citizens in Europe, the United States and Canada, some metaphors and stories related to life in space and how astronauts faced life in a small capsule and dealt with isolation and quarantines became somehow popular.

So, with some basics in the pantry like of Campbell’s mushroom soup, pasta, canned tuna (basic ingredients for a great comfort food like mac and cheese) and one 12 roll package of toilet paper, four of us were now in our own capsule. Our spaceship.

Back in 2006, recently married, my husband and I moved to Washington D.C. settling in a small apartment, walking distance from the National Air and Space Museum. When we finally visited this museum, I was giddy, like a little kid, when we were able to see the lunar module that have brought the crew of Apollo 11 back from the moon. “How can two or three men fit on this module to make their way back to Earth?”, I wondered. Equally puzzled, but definitely not equally elated, I wondered how we were  going to thrive through remote work, figuring out how to close our home in China , while online schooling two girls (third grade and kindergarten).

One of our finest and lightest moments was inspired by Space X Falcon 9 carrying two astronauts to space on what promises a new potential model for space exploration. This event, being one of the only positive developments in the media at the time, motivated us to craft an international space station with recyclable materials (a milk carton, bubble wrap and some rolls from – you guessed it – toilet paper). Our space station was christened  “ The Pink Milkshake”, and it carried valuable lessons about recycling, creativity, and science， empowering a 5 year old to think that she was the first girl to set foot on the Moon. I digress…

I had used the metaphor of the spaceship with the children before, during a summer break when I travelled from Beijing to Canada and stayed in a minuscule Air BnB – close enough to walk to a local pool for a swimming camp. I told the girls we were a team, in a spaceship, where everyone had responsibilities and a chance to have fun, but that we had to always keep our spaceship clean, in order, functioning.

This time though, The Spaceship was neither a fun ride nor a STEM experiment. We were to huddle in the apartment and sit tight, for our safety and for the well-being of our loved ones. For 13 months facing the COVID19 pandemic, we stuck to our immediate bubble. Our ship made space for office, school, and occasionally the bathroom transformed into a hair salon, and a spa. We celebrated birthdays, end of school year, retirements, and other meaningful occasions reaching out to family and friends on Zoom. We were spoiled with specially-made birthday cakes or cupcakes that lifted our spirits like baking powder magic.

But to be clear, there were meltdowns. Every three months in average, the air felt heavy with uncertainty. With no end in sight of the situation that threw us into limbo, there were tears, fear, frustration.

To ease the navigation, I reached out to friends in China and requested “happiness boxes” with personal belongings that gave us immense joy: a knitted baby blanket, books and journals, a plush toy that had been predestined for the donation bin, but found its way instead to The Spaceship. We then got a grasp of a routine, with in-person school through the fall, working from home, zooming and crashing on the weekends out of exhaustion from too much screen time and too little exercise.

Imagine now that you are watching Alfonso Cuaron’s movie “Gravity”. The main character has gained some confidence to navigate and operate with the systems she has available – when a dramatic change takes place – and she is left alone – her partner having been engulfed by the dark immensity of outer space. 

Shortly after my husband was finally allowed to go back to China to recover what did not fit in two suitcases when we left Beijing, I received an email (around Halloween time)  alerting us that we had been exposed to someone who had tested COVID19 positive. It was a frantic and sleepless Friday night – scheduling and later having tests that later confirmed we were safe. False alarm. Reset.

With falling temperatures, the count in COVID19 cases increased, as did the anxiety and anticipation in The Spaceship.  The brain went into survival mode – and I was constantly exercising new routines of positive thinking as if I were training for a marathon. Instead of weight training, yoga and mediation gave me space and grounding.

Boxing Day came along with our best Christmas present: my husband back from China. Being together again, our family quarantined and embraced our third round of lockdown and second round of online schooling. Fatigue was real though, and we felt our Spaceship orbiting around what seemed the same loop over and over.

By mid-January, things took a positive turn. Following our quarantine, with certainty for a path ahead, grateful for being healthy and employed- we found a place with a huge back yard.

386 days is the count of our sojourn in The Spaceship. I will remember it as a place where we huddled for protection and from which we left with resilience (and some happiness boxes).

When I closed the door of our temporary apartment for the last time, I thought of that last scene in Gravity when Sandra Bullock steps out of her modular capsule back on Earth. Like in that scene, our steps into a new beginning after these months facing a pandemic do not come without shock. Her first step back  on Earth comes  after that first deep breath, an uttered “thank you”, her fist holding sand as if she is holding for dear life. I feel we can all relate to that moment, looking  forward to take that first step to something new, clinging to life.

Well, ground control, we too are leaving The Spaceship. I am not sure if we are heading to an International Station for refuelling or on into a post COVID19 new planet. But we are taking our steps into a new beginning. 

“The stars look very different today”.  David Bowie. Space Oddity. 

My Dream of the Red Chamber

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Toronto, January 26, 2021.

I had a dream.

I had a dream where I was celebrating Lunar New Year.

The Lunar New Year Celebrations were being held in a Red Chamber.

The Red Chamber was in fact, the Forbidden City.

The Forbidden City, now known as the Palace Museum, was one of my favourite places to visit when I lived in Beijing. Now that I think about it, I was fortunate to be there with some of my closest family members and friends. I loved walking through the Meridian door, where only an Emperor could go through. If you were a woman, just once in your life could you walk into the Palace through that door… on your wedding day if you were to marry the Emperor. I loved soaking this place full of history, and wondering on the perfection of its making. Being a Dragon, according to my Chinese Zodiac, I endeavoured to find the hidden dragons in the Palace Museum.

The Chinese New Year is the spark that fuels the greatest celebration in the Lunar Calendar in China. The first time we were there as a family, we experienced being part of the largest human migration on the planet, taking the bullet train from Shanghai to Beijing, joining thousands who travelling from mega cities to their hometowns for the Spring Festival. No other festivity in the Lunar Calendar sparks a greater motivation to be with family in the Middle Kingdom.

So it is telling I had this dream of celebrating Chinese New Year, now that I no longer live there.

I had this dream exactly on the anniversary date when I left Beijing in 2020, hoping to escape COVID19. With my two girls and two suitcases, we left our home to join my husband in Canada. We did not know it then, but we would not be back in China in three weeks, as we thought. We did know by that day that a new type of coronavirus originated in Wuhan was spreading like wild fire. While there were very few cases in Beijing, that New Years’ Eve the writing was on the wall. Beijing could be locked down, being the centre of the Middle Kingdom.

I find it even more revealing that in the dream, my memories of China were those of happiness, and togetherness. The New Year celebrations were in full, with red lanterns, and fireworks to scare the Nian monster away. The people in my dream were smiling, another telling sign I was dreaming… I could see the smiles, no one was wearing masks.

When I woke up, I stayed in bed with my eyes closed … trying to hold on to the sensations of this dream: the sense of celebration, togetherness and common humanity – the very elements COVID has taken away from us. 

Then I felt a pang of sadness, realizing that exactly a year from being catapulted away from home, I mainly missed closing our chapter in China with those special places, friends and experiences that came with our years there.

As a new Lunar Year looms around the corner, I close my eyes and remember that in reality, the last time I heard the fireworks in China was a night prior to the Chinese New Year of the Rat which brought a global pandemic from the Middle Kingdom to the rest of the world.

Perhaps is better to go back not to that moment of stark realization that it was not Nian looming on that day, but the ugly monstrous head of a global pandemic.

Perhaps when remembering China, it would be better for me to go back to my dream.

To the dream of celebrating New Year in a Red Chamber.

To the dream celebrating Chinese New Year with friends, family, and fireworks… in the Forbidden City.

The Challenges and Opportunities of Distance Working (Telework)

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People with a growth mindset, when faced with a challenge – and these days we face many – believe that through hard work and passion we can learn and do better.

March  2020.

An experiment of unprecedented scale is taking place in China. As a result of the high degree of contagiousness of Covid19， China implemented stringent quarantine measures that limit mobility in hopes of containing the spread of the nasty new coronavirus which emerged from a wildlife market in Wuhan. These medieval-era measures are now coexisting with a social experiment, first of its kind: the essential adoption of “distance working” or teleworking for millions of employees in China.

While government, tech companies and educational institutions have taken this opportunity to showcase the advancement of diverse platforms like WeChat Work or Alibaba’s Dingtalk to connect teleworkers, teachers, and medical practitioners – there are challenges facing this new normal in China. 

The capability to work remotely (telework) at this moment is a critical component to maintain levels of productivity in sectors that can function with this modality (not all sectors can do this). As the “work from home” became a measure to prevent contagion, flatten the curve of those infected, and keep the economy breathing, some managers were reportedly worried that without supervision, there is no way to guarantee that the employees working from home are being productive or efficient. This is a very carrot and stick (fixed) mindset. 

On the other end of the spectrum, there is the growth mindset,  a term first coined by Dr. Carol Dweck, an American psychologist and pioneer in human motivation. I will use her two mindsets framework to discuss the challenges and opportunities of shifting a management culture from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset. 

How could you possibly adapt to rapid and unexpected events of a crisis if you think that  intelligence levels are carved in stone, and that learning and abilities are static? How different would you adapt or thrive if you believe, instead, that intelligence can be developed, and you are eager and open to learning , even in changing situations?

In the fixed mindset scenario, managers tend to believe that abilities and intelligence are  similar to non-renewable resources, that people are given a specific “stock” and you cannot change these levels. According to Dweck’s research, a fixed mindset leads people to avoid challenges, focus on results (not on effort or process), consider feedback as negative criticism and feel threatened by others’ success. 

Dweck’s research also sheds light on the growth mindset scenario: no matter how much intelligence you have, you can always change it, develop it. You can further develop and improve abilities, learning and intelligence with hard work and passion. People with a growth mindset embrace challenges and the opportunities where they can learn (even if they fail in the process). Managers or leaders with growth mindset persist through setbacks and consider criticism as something valuable. Furthermore, they find inspiration in successful stories from others.

In times of crisis and change, enterprises value resilient workforce. People with a growth mindset, when faced with a challenge – and these days we face many – believe that they can learn and do better.

Growth-mindset oriented people assume that is possible to learn and get smarter when they are given the right opportunities and support. Growth-mindset managers will pay attention and reward progress in process. Fixed-minded supervisors, will focus only on expected results (penalizing failure).

If China and other countries wish to sustain and capitalize on the launching pad in connectivity and technology connections now in place both to contain the spread of Covid19 and to reactivate the economy, then  governments and enterprises alike need not only the digital and technological infrastructure – they need a shift in the mentality that only rewards results through a carrot or stick approach.

This will prove challenging, but it is not impossible.  Today more and more Chinese in management positions have had opportunities to study and work abroad. MNC based in China value the experience of Chinese working or studying abroad, paired with the knowledge of the land.  In this new social experiment of teleworking at the scale that the government mandates to win the war on the coronavirus, we see this as an important opportunity for growth, if the Chinese enterprise leaders, managers and supervisors choose to use a growth mindset approach instead of a fixed mindset. The purpose is very clear: win the war on coronavirus and do not let the economy free-fall in peril.

Now, other countries are beginning with the same experiment and same conundrum.

Someone with fixed or traditional mindset will no doubt focus on short-term results, this is tempting particularly when the country needs some wins to keep morale. However, the real sustainable advancement will come from a shift of mindset。 If companies value resilience, they need to build  their capacity to trust that employees working from home have a shared goal to bring their country back on its feet. 

Some may say that whatever advancements happen now, will retrench once the coronavirus crisis is under control. I do not agree with this premise. It would be a waste in admirable initiative and innovation that crisis such as this one will spark.

It would also be a waste of awareness in one of the most positive outcomes of this crisis: the awareness of shared and common humanity. We are ALL in this together. 

Jia You – Add Oil.

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I write this from Toronto, grateful to be back in Canada, where we are originally from. Each morning begins with a simple text that I send a report via WeChat to my youngest daughter’s school back in Beijing to report where we are, whether or not we have had contact with anyone from Wuhan (we have not) and my daughter’s daily temperature. This is the first daily reminder of our situation of home away from home.

Our home is back in Beijing, a place where we have lived the last 5 years. Like many others, Covid19 catapulted us outside of China during the Lunar New Year. I share my personal account of the Eve of Lunar Year of the Rat here.

While in Toronto, we connect with other friends in China who have been in quarantine （voluntary or forced), or with others who have been evacuated. All of us are adjusting to this new normal, all uf us left friends, family, homes, pets, jobs… back in China. We do not know yet when we will be able to go back. Now, as the virus has reached more than 70 countries, others are joining us in the uncertainty.

I will share in a collection of posts, the thoughts and reflections resulting from being catapulted to this unexpected transition. The collection is named AddOil – honouring the Chinese expression of support “jia you” ( 加油).

Following the lock down of Wuhan, capital of the province of Hebei, days before the most important festival in the Chinese Calendar, about 20 million citizens had just been mandated to quarantine in their homes to contain the spread of the virus. A video surfaced showing a compound of dwellings, towers and towers at dusk, no different from the compound that we call home. From the apartments in these towers, one can hear the residents yelling back and forth: “Jia You”. This same call to action – I had heard it, it had pushed me forward before: I heard at least 100 times when I ran 21 k (half-marathon) on the Great Wall of China. Jia You! It literally means : Add oil, as in… keep going, go on. Every Jia You , accompanied by a smile, or a high-five, brought me closer and closer to attain a personal and ambitious goal of completing this race with my husband , particularly on the last 2 or 3 kilometres when my confidence (along with my legs) was frankly shaking.

I want to honour the spirit of community, solidarity, stamina and creativity that we have seen coming out of China as its citizens learn and teach us how to live with Covid19. As the coronavirus spread to other parts of the world, with different systems, liberties, infrastructure and resources, it will be interesting how this unifies us in common humanity to manage this crisis.

Jia You has reached new levels of empowerment. Jia You China. Jia You Wuhan. Do not falter. Keep Going.