Save AWARE part 2

It was late Sunday night, I was preparing to go to bed, when L messaged me, "check out the AWARE takeover, its big news in SG". I was intrigued by any kind of takeover... and if its big news it gotta be really good. Having the vaguest idea of AWARE, I typed "aware takeover" in google...

The first link I clicked praised the new exco (executive committee). The blogger thought that the old AWARE was "an organisation made up of the sort of Western educated Singaporean women of a certain social class whom I find particularly irksome." She congratulated the new exco, saying any change is better, and blamed the old guard (the former exco) for being complacent and sore losers.

Fine, I thought. But I still didn't know what AWARE was and what was the big deal. So I clicked the second link...I found out that the takeover was a conspiracy - the website showed lots of emails. I was short on time so I skimmed thru the emails and I saw a lot of these words, " I pray that", "May He in His almighty wisdom...", "God"... I got the creeps...

Then I got the link that finally clearly outlined the issue. The story, in my own simplified terms, is that AWARE, an associated for advocating women's rights, were deemed by a Christian church to be pro-homosexuality. Its not hard to see how it works - the church got its members to join AWARE, take part in the AGM and vote its own members into office, thus hijacking this once stable organisation for its own goals.

While ordinarily I would have said, "suck it up, old guards", the more I read about AWARE, the new exco and what they stand for, and how the takeover happened, the more concerned I got and the greater the injustice I felt.

I don't want to sound like biased but I do believe the truth is out there for people to draw their own conclusions. There are huge issues at stake here - it isn't really about the old guards being sore about losing control of AWARE. The issues, if you would forgive me for generalising, are:

Homosexuality - I saw a video given by a pastor at COOS (church of our saviour), the church which instigated the takeover, give a sermon about homosexuality. He proclaimed, based on the word of God, or the bible, that homosexuality is a sin. Anyone remember Galileo, who was prosecuted by the church for saying the earth rotates around the sun? Or the witch hunts back in the medieval times? The bible is open to interpretation. How can we allow an organisation, built on the promise of fighting for the rights of all women, discriminate against another group?

Ethics and Integrity - the way in which the AGM was hijacked was something you would only imagine in the brutal and evil world of corporate finance. Even I was amazed at how the new exco didn't invite one of their officers, because she was also a part of the original exco.

Religion - AWARE wasn't a christian group. It helped women of all race, religion and sexuality. Now its being run by a pro-christian organisation.

At the press conference, the new exco said they were surprised and upset by death threats that they've received. The curious thing, to me, is that they can't see the reason why! I'm not a woman, not gay, not in Singapore and not feminist, and yet I feel anger and resentment towards these people - is it so surprising that they've angered a lot of people?

The good news, as many people has pointed out, is that this saga has brought all these issues to discussion.

Sign the petition if you are like me, or even better, if you are able to attend the EGM, sign up as an AWARE member and go vote for justice!

Save AWARE

http://www.gopetition.com/online/27163.html

- getting late, I gotta go sleep but just want to highlight this issue. Will blog more about it when I get the time.

gosh there's just so much to write I don't even know where to begin.

Den of thieves

Reading this book called "Den of Thieves" by James B. Stewart, written some time ago about the insider trading scandal back in the 1980s, involving people like Michael Milken, Ivan Boesky and Martin Siegel. Don't blame you if you never heard of them...

Was introduced to this book by an accountant friend. She told me once that we are in evil jobs. I refused to accept that banking, as a profession, is evil. Will skip my arguments now - but at that time I was protesting quite a bit.

And now, reading through just like 20% of the book, I'm really starting to reconsider. Maybe its true... bankers are evil...

Easter Sunday

Went to Margate - a small town east of England at the coast to cycle on Easter Sunday. It was quite a last minute decision... Friday and Monday were bank holidays so it was a pretty long weekend, and all my closest friends had programmes already so I had to find my own. A colleague asked me to join him, so I was like, what the hell, lets do it! We got another 2 more colleagues to join us.

Was quite a relaxing day. We cycled in total for about 5 or 6 hours.. spent some time at a beach lazing in the sun. Some pictures below...

Golf course

Sun shining through the clouds

Boss dropped a bombshell on me...

He called us (me and Colleague A) out for a coffee after the market closed. Now, we don't normally go out for coffee together, much less in the evening... I guessed something was up - maybe it was to do with the upcoming job cuts. Asking us out for coffee, the news can't be that bad... otherwise he wouldn't be the one telling us. So, a little apprehensively, but not-too-worriedly, I walked out the door with him.

After a few moments of inane, inconsequential conversation, he dropped the bomb. And it was a fast moving, exploding bomb... I didn't even hear the words carefully. I think I heard,

"... I am leaving the bank... end of May... so will be another two months... will maybe come back next year..."

I was stunned. We were making money this year. He had just closed several deals which not only cut our risk but made some money. And he was a geniunely nice guy who took care of us.

I learned he was planning to quit finance, go back to Greece, and start a family with his soon-to-be wife (in July). A reasonable explanation, one that I could definitely identify with. So I don't blame him, and am actually quite grateful for, thinking back to the past 2 months, he had been giving me more responsibility while being very nice (He would say, "would you like to do this? Only if you want to!").

But the question is, what does this mean for me?

I'll get a new boss, for sure. A few options - another senior colleague becomes my boss (in which case I'll most likely be VERY disillusioned), the head of another team becomes my boss as well (in which case I'll be stressed but I'll adapt and survive), or a head from asia comes over (in which case I'll probably just quit). Option B seems to be most likely - and me surviving.

Good news for me is that the bosses of my current boss knows about me and thinks pretty highly of me. The bad news is the other head (the one most likely to be my boss) doesn't think that.

Life goes on. I'm still collecting my salary. Wont get too stressed over it, don't worry :)

Sun, glorious Sun!

How rare it is for the sun to be shining bright in London. Its out again today! I felt like a typical Angmor... I changed into berms and sandals and walked to the nearest park (Primrose hill - its so pretty!), threw out my gym towel (I was going to wash it after my sunbathing trip) on the grass, took off my shirt, plugged in my ipod, and closed my eyes. Ooooh it felt soooooo gooooood.

There was nobody within 50 meters of me. Clean, green grass and bright sunshine. My words can't do it justice.

But it got a little cold at some point - the wind was pretty strong in an open field... so after about an hour of photosynthesizing, I got up and came back home, all the while still enjoying the warmth of the sunshine on my face.

I never really loved the sun back in Singapore. There was too much of it. And you'll always equate the sun with heat, and with heat comes sweat, smell, and discomfort. But its different here. Six long months of cold, dreary London can really drain your soul... and now Spring is here, and the Sun is back, and I'm like, "Gosh, I really missed you... don't leave me again."

G20 protests

I wore jeans and a scruffy looking Tshirt to the office today. Not hard for me to pull off the non-banker look, given I am pretty young and poor...

I was expecting a lot of people to be dressed down - but still I was surprised by what I saw as I left Liverpool St station. I could count the number of people wearing suits in one hand! Its surreal... usually at 7.30am in the morning its the other way around - its the people not wearing suits that are the minority.

And so it got a bit fun for me. I was checking out what some people were wearing. Some young ones looked like me - some even wore a hooded sweatshirt. Some were obviously trying to fit into their son's skinny jeans. And some people still can't ditch their striped collared shirts...

Thru the day I was watching the news about the protests. Was quite exciting. I actually wished for protesters to show up outside my building so I could experience what its like. Then at about 2pm, apparently a group of protesters smashed the windows of another building and a few of them scrambled in. They threw out some office equipment through the windows - but the police eventually evicted them from the building. Then it started getting a bit violent... then I changed my mind... I don't want them outside my building.

About an hour later an email from management came down, advising us that they received reports that the protesters will gather outside our building at 3.30-4, and advised us to leave if we don't have any urgent business. Ho ho ho... i don't need any prodding to leave early man... so I finished up my stuff and left the office :)

I was home by 4pm. The sun was still shining bright (it was actually 3pm because of the daylight saving) and so I took a leisurely jog to the park and then bathed in the sun for a bit. Heh heh you hardly find sun in London so you better squeeze all that you can get!

A very exciting day indeed for me :)