East Eats West

What's wrong with Switzerland?

Switzerland stands for neutrality, precision, punctuality, security, cleanliness, banking, mountains, cows and chocolate. Through a high work morale and a common set of personality traits, some mentioned before, the Swiss have developed in a few decades an impressive international profile and commands respect. These traits helped the land-locked and resource-scarce country to become a successful international business partner. Swiss companies like Swatch, UBS, Nestlé, Rolex and Swiss Re are known all-over. Switzerland also has very successfully achieved to develop a broad middle-class that shared the benefits of a hard-working and safe country. Almost everyone got a piece of the cake. But with virtually no economic growth for the last few years the labor market has tensioned and things are about to change.

The society is slowly splitting into a well-educated and wealthy upper-class and a badly educated cash-poor lower class. The competition for jobs has significantly increased and social costs are exploding. The Swiss dream of a broad middle-class is slowly disappearing. Foreigners find it increasingly difficult to integrate into the Swiss society and unemployment among youth is on the increase. So how will the future look like with more and more young people not experiencing a pleasant entry into professional life?

A popular human reaction to change after a period of wealth and comfort is to look for faults among others: Blame the immigrants, accuse the cheap foreign labor or the uncertainities of the world economy. The political party SVP has experienced quite some success in doing exactly that. But trying to protect the status quo and blame others will only do the trick for so long.

With the growing competition from Asia and an ageing population one thing is clear: things will stay how they are or were. The middle-class is thining out and the society splits into the privileged and well-educated few and the disadvantaged and badly educated many. The question therefore is not who the culprit is, but how Switzerland will make its stand in the future in the face of globalization: Where and how will we compete? Will we be able to uphold the cherished Swiss traits like a high work morale and safety? Voting for the SVP does certainly not do the trick! For any insight please write to the Federal Council.

China on the rise

Check out this insightful (German) article about the rise of China from Die Zeit. Europe is discussing or lamenting about its failed constitutional votes and people are obsessed with protecting the status quo but not realizing that globalization will bring cheap labour from Asia to its doorstep, regardless of wishfull thinking and idealizing the past. Wake Europe before you turn into a Museum Europe!

See another excellent article (again in German) about this topic (again from Die Zeit).

Investment Opportunities in Asia-Pacific

If you are interested in the Asia-Pacific region and its potential for investments: here is a good read.

Belief is a good architect II

Martin Luther back in the good old mediavel ages in Germany revolted against the ruthless business activities of the Catholic church. He was appaled by the fact that people were made to believe that they can buy their way out of hell and that the church maintained a marketing and sales organization. The pope happily used all those funds for building some nice cathedrals, momuments and works of art, like the Petersdom in Rome, buying some even nicer clothes and very enthusiastically funding wars. The church cashed in on the fear of people burning eternally in hell (all inclusive). So I could  be a bit more precise: Belief is a good architect and fear is the financier! Was that the case in the Khmer empire who built Angkor?

Belief is a good architect

I recently pondered on this site the question how societies can build massive monuments like Angkor Wat or Pagan. So let me tell you a story. I bought four beautiful crafted Balinese Dancer mask in Mas, near Ubud. When I handed over the millions of Rupias (quite a bag full of money) I suggested to the carver he shall have a beer or two. To my surprise he said no, he will instead go to his  temple and donate some of the money. In doing this he will please the Gods and he will receive even more business in the future. So this is somekind of heavenly marketing I never thought of! This little story made me think and I think this might be an answer to my question above: The believe in a supernatural power motivates people to act for the greater good and make them achieve wonderful things, including monuments. So imagine how strong the Khmer people believe was when they built Angkor! Never thought of God as an artist or business man. Maybe I should?

Cultural differences...

One last thought from Asia: Everytime I eat with Thais and Cambodians the amount of food that gets not eaten startles me. As a Swiss I am trained to eat everything on my plate, but not in Asia. In Asia you tend to cook for at least a few people more; one never knows who else will show up!

Additionally I got from all my friends in Singapore the same reply to my question what they do in their spare time: Sleep, watch tv or go shopping! The few with family spend quality time with their family, the rest works, sleeps or shops. The same in Hong Kong. Hobbies seem to be unheard of!

Do you have any experiences with Asian cultural differences? Let me know and drop a comment!

Finally home but not for long...

Dear friends, fellow travellers and inspired readers

I am back in Switzerland and cannot wait to start travelling the world again. I will start again in the beginning of August with an extensive journey through East, South-East and maybe West Asia. So stay tuned for more insights from rising Asia. Or maybe we will even have the chance to meet for a cup of tea? Just drop me an email, I would be delighted!

I am also contemplating investigating a travel-related subject, but more later.

In the meantime enjoy summer

Alexander

Four Seasons resort at Sayan

Experience quiet, peace and happiness embedded in the sacred river valley of Ayung near Ubud at the Four Seasons at Sayan. Before this becomes a cheesy commercial check out the pictures and be amazed. I am!

Balinese versus Indian Hinduism

Last night I had a chat with Alexander, the resort manager of stunning the Four Seasons at Sayan near Ubud. He is Indonesian and has worked in India for a few years. I joked that being God in Bali is quite boring because you get only worshipped if people want something from you. He then explained to me that Balinese people worship every God during the year whereas Indian people have their own respective God they worship according to caste and rank. If you move up a caste or rank you switch Gods, simple as that. So back then he was asked all the time who “his” God was, what puzzled him.

In the Khmer empire for example religion changed by changes in kings between Hinduism and Buddhism. So there were several iconoclastic reactions when Buddha were destroyed or altered into Hindu Gods. In some temples, including Angkor Wat, you can still see the scratching of Buddha.

The question that is still puzzling nowadays about the Khmer empire, or the Aztec or Egyptian, is how those kingdoms managed to align a whole culture and population to devote their time in building breathtaking monuments. Monuments that still stand after several hundreds years and where built with outmost care. How can you motivate a society and create such a powerful believe system that hundreds of impressive temples with enormous details were built over centuries?

Demons and gargoyles

Bali has a rich cultural background with stone and wood carving, paintings, mask-making, furniture production and much more. I am particularly fond of the stone-carving and especially the scary-looking gargoyles. The are made either from vulcanic stone or limestone. The vulcanic stone is darker and it is the one I like. Check them out: