the gyaff

Steve Jobs

2011-10-06T01:28:00.003+01:00

Steve Jobs, 1955 - 2011

Steve Jobs had been ailing for a long time. Seemed fitting that Apple would get out its iPhone upgrade announcement before he left. The famously hands-on and assertive Jobs would not have had it any other way.

People who knew him are going to have a lot to say. My two cents are my one and only sighting of him, at the launch of the original iPhone at the Yerba Buena convention centre in San Francisco in 2007, which I covered for a number of BBC radio outlets.

I don't think anyone did Powerpoint-like (Apple's is Keynote) presentations better. Milling round the stage afterwards surrounded by Apple press and handlers, it was impossible to get close to him.

This is what I wrote at the time.

As a public speaker, he is absolutely brilliant. What he does very well is present complex ideas in simple terms, aided by stunning pictures, the great graphics that are Apple’s hallmark, and a showman’s sense of good timing. Looking leaner than you'd expect, he was dressed in trademark style--- Levis jeans, Asics running shoes and black half crew-neck sweatshirt by Issey Miyake. It's casual, but not thrown together. Jobs is way too image conscious for that.

It's controlled, calculated informality but his love for the technology seemed real. In his presentation he used the word "cool", a lot. His programmes are apps not applications, so his speech was peppered with references to "cool apps". The mac faithful loved it, oohing and aahing and applauding him as if it was his rock star friend Bono on the stage, and not Jobs himself.

He poked fun at rival Microsoft, and the staggered pricing for their new operating system Vista. For Apple’s Leopard which hits the stores in October, the basic version, he said, will cost $129. The next version with a few more trimmings will cost--- and he brought the house down with this--- 129 dollars. By the time he got to the punchline that the ultimate version will cost (yes you guessed it) 129 dollars, he was completely drowned out by cheering and whooping....

How a humble blogger biffed mighty Google

2011-10-06T01:09:00.002+01:00

Michael DeGusta, writer of a virtually unknown blog and having a twitter army of only 300, observed in a well-written post that senior executives at Google hardly or never used Google+. In Silicon Valley it's called dogfooding--- eating your own produce--- the surest signal that you back its quality.

The story exploded like Afghan ordnance online. CNET took it up. Mashable did the same. Influential nethead Jack Schofield tweeted about it. Those who had signed up, the charge went, did so apparently only for show. They hardly used it. Chief exec Eric Schmidt was not signed up at all. I know that to be true because I searched him on G+ after his McTaggart lecture, with a view to following him. He's not there.

Then something happened. Long silent G+ account holders at Google started posting. Some hadn't done so in 6 months. Nikesh Arora, a Google senior VP, explained here that a lot of posting takes place to +X's circles rather than publicly.

True, Nikesh, but only up to a point. It's not in the spirit of the +. The big differentiator from Facebook before subscribers, was bringing a twitter like following profile to a FB like social network. Public posting is the point. If you have people following you, the least you can do is throw them some morsels now and again. I think it more likely that they were not posting at all. Google senior execs were bigging up their product and not using it themselves.

DeGusta rumbled them. Google, which has done much to democratise the internet, got biffed by a little guy.

Baseball and cricket

2011-09-25T13:02:00.000+01:00

Great quote from conservative political commentator and baseball nut George Will. “Baseball, it is said, is only a game. True. And the Grand Canyon is only a hole in Arizona. Not all holes, or games, are created equal.”

He'd be saying the exactly the same about cricket if he'd been born into it. This is not a cricket v baseball comparison--- it's just the way people who are passionate about those sports view it.

Have you ever tried explaining cricket to an American, Iranian or Brazilian?

Tough job.

The most cited reason for resisting understanding and building a barrier to it is the length of the game. Even 50 over cricket. But it's great when they get it--- and like it.

I got to thinking about all this, because one of our expert commentators (analysts) is Ed Smith, who has written books not just on cricket, but on sport in general, and has a deep knowledge of the history and traditions of baseball, as well as its relationship with cricket. That's a conversation I look forward to having.

I've embraced baseball as much as I can living on this side of the pond. The family home these days is in New York, and they're passionate Yankees. I decided to go my own way on this and chose the Mets. I did so for no good reason other than to be oppositionist, and because the first baseball stadium I saw was Shea--- from the window of a plane taking off from La Guardia.

That's how you pick a side, folks.

Test Match very Special

2011-09-24T12:49:00.000+01:00

Enjoyed that. My first turn on Test Match Special.

TMS is an institution, a special part of radio with its own style, quirks and personalities--- Aggers, Blowers, CMJ, and other fine broadcasters no longer on the programme such as the late Brian Johnston, and scorer Bill Frindall, the bearded wonder, who died two years ago. It's got a global following that includes even people who don't normally follow or understand cricket.

Any broadcaster who does sport would seize the opportunity to call the play on TMS, but I probably shouldn't big it up too much. It was T20, not test cricket. And Russell Fuller, Ali Bruce-Ball and I all recognise that we were the reserves. Aggers and the other frontline TMS broadcasters would do the bigger, longer matches.

How was it?

Different from the longer forms of the game on which I'd done commentary many many moons ago as young broadcaster in Guyana. A much faster moving game under lights leaves little time for extras and no margin for error. In Angus Fraser and Mark Ramprakash (whose father is Guyanese and whom I'd interviewed on his "homecoming" on an England tour in the 90s) we had affable experts who were easy to work with.

Whether long form or short form, TMS calls cricket the way I like it as a listener. It's an informed, extended conversation commentator, listener and expert. Never lose sight of the battle out there, don't miss a single ball or run, but always engage beyond the boundary. Cricket, especially to West Indians, has always been far more than what's happening on the field of play. At the same time it is precisely about what's happening out in the middle. You've got the get the balance right. A few times I got busy with the action as you do in T20, but Mark and Gus would unfailingly pick up the thread that had been dropped as the bowler delivered.

Back Sunday for the final T20 match with Russ, Ali, Ed Smith and Mark Butcher. As Charles Kuralt of the CBS Sunday morning show used to say, see you on the radio.

The newer new Facebook

2011-09-22T22:15:00.002+01:00

CNET has a good walk through of the changes just announced by Zuckerberg at f8 in San Fran here.

Timeline is timely. Not only does FB look stale next to G+-- they seem to be thrashing about in trying to come up with a response. From the CNET review, timeline looks a handsome upgrade. Is it as fiddly and too-busy as some recent GB tweaks? We'll know when it's rolled out in a couple of weeks.

Much had been made of the subscriptions feature that takes a leaf out of the books of both Twitter and Google+ followings, which unlike friending doesn't have to be reciprocal. But CNET makes what's for me a for me is a significant point about the timeline-led changes today-- they place a big emphasis on photos.

The seamless integration of G+ with Picasa Web Albums (which reports say is to be replaced with Google Photo as they unify all their brands) makes photos pop and burst with colour and definition, makes profile and activity pages look classy and lovely, and is a much more pleasant presentation experience.

Here's a screenshot from my Google+ page.

And one from Google founder Sergey Brin.

And another from G+ early adopter Kevin Rose.

As you can see when you compare the CNET sample account with these screen grabs, the new Facebook isn't a response to Google+ relatively clean and uncluttered look. In fact each new revamp seems to create more of a mess and cheese more people off. To their credit they seem to have scrapped the ugly scroll break on the right, on which some content disappeared as you scrolled downwards.

We're not able to try timeline yet to know whether we like it, but in terms of presentation it looks much better than the car crash FB served up earlier this week.

The Nawab, 1941-2011

2011-09-22T19:02:00.001+01:00

One of the most iconic photographs in the history of cricket. The Nawab of Pataudi jumping down the wicket. Cricketing royalty, real royalty, cricket pioneer, strokeplayer, demi-god long before Sachin and Mahendra Singh, Oxonian.

R.I.P.

The Maroons are back

2011-09-21T21:15:00.001+01:00

Desmond Haynes, opening batsman par excellence, is singing How Much Is That Doggie in the Window? Word perfectly. I know, because I’ve known the song, Patti Page, word perfectly since I was 10.

Haynes, partner in crime with Gordon Greenidge in the most productive opening partnership in WI history, is in chilled mode just before practice at the Oval, ahead of the two England-WI T20s this weekend. He’s followed the championship run in, and is happy that his old club Middlesex won promotion to the First Division. Not so happy for Hampshire, where he also played.

Later it’s all endless throwdowns from him in the nets, as he and the other assistant coach Henderson Springer, teaam manager Richie Richardson and the head coach Ottis Gibson multitask as practice. Haynes and the bowlers in the nets, Gibson, Springer and Richardson fielding and run out practice, slip catching, skier catching and more, outside the nets.

It’s been said for previous West Indies coaching setups that the practice lacked intensity. That’s not an accusation anyone can make of a session in which Gibson head coach.

Gibson worked under the Flower regime as bowling coach. the gyaff understands that he puts fitness first in his interaction with West Indies players, and Ramneresh Sarwan, for one, has had the heat turned up under him. Gibson would rather pick a fit player than one who was more talented but indisciplined with conditioning. Gibson and Flower remain good friends and are in touch constantly. As professionals who want to win they’re going to cool it over the next week, but there appears to be a genuine regard and friendship, despite becoming adversaries as coaches.

West Indies are a young squad, mostly of players new to international cricket. Some like Johnson Charles of St Lucia, look hungry, ambitious and eager to make an impression. At net practice, Charles blasted about 6 balls into the Vauxhall road. He didn’t care for a gentle net. He was there to make a point.

England are T20 world champions, but as Ottis Gibson pointed out to a small hack pack, WI beat them in a rain-interrupted match in Guyana. But this Caribbean team, severely weakened by about half a dozen key absences, will find the task of besting England in their own conditions a difficult one. No matter how sanguine Dessie Haynes is about the task.

Headhunting Flower

2011-09-21T19:09:00.002+01:00

If I ran Cricket Australia I'd headhunt the most successful coach in international cricket, Andy Flower, and offer him Wall Street executive pay to switch jobs from England.

Australia are looking for a new coach, under a review and rebuild process that The Guardian's Mike Selvey describes here.

Operating on the basis that everyone has his price, Oz should be prepared to pay big wages and big compensation to the ECB, if Flower is to be bought out of his contract. A big IF admittedly, but there was a time when England football hiring Sven Goran Eriksson seemed very unlikely.

Interesting view from Selvey about playing ability giving Flower authority as a coach. Are you a good coach through your methods and managerial ability (like Alex Ferguson), irrespective of what you achieved in the game as a player?

Flower played for Zim, and a good bit of county cricket. Did that shape players perceptions of him and help his effectiveness as coach? Would he have succeed anyway? Are there any standout cricket coaches who were not top level cricketers?

Discuss.

Gibson's greens

2011-09-21T19:09:00.001+01:00

My thoughts are turning this week to my debut on Test Match Special this Friday. Along with Russell Fuller and Alistair Bruce Ball, I'll be doing commentary on the two T20 matches. Can't wait. Got a taste of the action in the last round of England county championship matches, reporting from the Oval as Surrey pushed successfully for promotion from the second division.

Inexperienced West Indies side. No Gayle, Chanderpaul, Sarwan, Bravo, Bravo*, Pollard or Rampaul. All except Chanderpaul (being saved for test cricket) are involved in the T20 Champions League. Gayle, playing for Shilpa Shetty's Royal Challengers, would not have been picked anyway because of an unresolved dispute with the West Indies Cricket Board.

Big week coming up for the fringe players like Miles Bascombe being given their chance. Important week for Ottis Gibson, but not defining. With such an inexperienced team, it's a can't lose proposition for him. Lose to the world T20 champions and everyone will say it was expected. Win with this team, and he boosts his position significantly. Discover a player who really wants it-- job done.

In becoming WI coach Gibson took on a big challenge-- he admitted to me today that it was harder than he expected. He gave up the job of bowling coach in the most successful and best organised coaching setup in cricket. He's watched former colleague Andy Flower take England to No. 1 and establish himself as the best coach in the game. As well as tackling the coaching, Gibson has had to deal with the fierce politics of West Indies cricket--- something he'd probably admit he hasn't navigated that effectively.
*Not a typo. Cricket fans would know that I'm talking about brothers Darren and Dwayne.

Social missteps

2011-09-20T18:33:00.001+01:00

On Facebook's new subscribers feature, Rory Cellan-Jones nails it for me. With FB, twitter and now G+ we have to manage multiple connections, feeds, high volume of info, friending, accepting, adding to circles, notified about those who added you, following, being followed and acknowledging, vetting the spammers, dealing with multiple tweaks from FB-- we are now being invited to spend time managing subscribers. Whether they know us or not.

Ashton Kutcher clearly does't know all 7.6 million of his followers, but Facebook isn't twitter. A good thing too-- they're completely different social platforms. Twitter is more like broadcasting. Masscasting, to coin a word. Facebook is more about your circles.

From Zuckerber's viewpoint, it makes sense to look closely at twitter's successes and G+'s innovation, and to see what good ideas Facebook can adopt. The reciprocal arrangement of friending limits broad outreach, and I can see the logic of subscriptions. The twitter-like follow feature of Google+ shifts the paradigm, and Zuckerberg is right to respond. But we can't handle all of it. Someone's going to fail.
The big social beasts seemed spooked by each other's unique successes, and seem determined that we be served an all-you-can-eat social smorgasbord. A kind of twitbook.

Google+ has a lovely interface, and the integration with Picaca photo albums is very well thought out. But Google, who promised they'd "do no evil", did something dickish in my book. The seemingly straightforward process of allowing your circles to see your photo albums, randomly generates emails to your individual contacts, unless you unchecked an easy to miss checkbox. If as I did you enable your old classmates to see about a dozen albums, that's a lot of emails you didn't know you sent.

That's a sneaky way of getting numbers for Google+. As the New Zealand barman said about the previously unknown sport of dwarf-throwing-- that's just not cool.

How many rows have we had with Facebook about features they seemed to sneak in that made us raise questions about privacy?

Social networking is great on many levels. But in the race for dominance, the big guys seem to care less about throwing a few elbows.

The obvious rebuttal is that it's all by choice. We don't have to do it. Correct. I shut down FB before and didn't miss it. I'm probably going to have to axe one of them, as i simply don't have the time for both.

Rihanna and TT carnival spirit

2011-09-17T10:54:00.000+01:00

Juliana, friend, Brazilian and Carioca, knows her music and rhythm. She wrote this on her Facebook page yesterday.

They'll have to crack my skull open to take out Rihana's rrrrom-ppo-ppo-ppom-rrrom-po-po-pom Man Down

I understand where Juju’s coming from with Rihanna. Benjai's Trini lived in my head for three months after rocking the Trinidad carnival. When I was there Raymond Edwards, a radio broadcaster who used to play in a band, 3Canal, explained the song's in-your-head appeal-- it’s got two maddeningly addictive chords

Ting ih ling ih ling

Ting ting

And the refrain

And we make good company, yeah

I’m actively planning my return, and Benjai’s responsible. I might even wear a costume if Operation Six Pack goes well.

When I was there earlier this year, I was returning after 10 years. Unlike Trinis who were born into this and who go home every year, I’d forgotten how hair-raisingly powerful carnival can be. On my first night I watched, heard, felt, the Laventille Rhythm Section. Guys, stripped at the waist, torsos glistening with sweat, giving a set of drums the most energetic beating you’ll ever see. It was like standing near to Kaieteur Falls and feeling its power. It was breathtaking and made you think, ”Yes man, I’m here. This is it”.

Carnival wouldn’t be carnival if there wasn’t the old and the new--- the traditional, such as Dimanche Gras, and the sheer newfangledness of the Mardi Gras costume parade. The Laventille Rhythm Section represents the old. The setting, The Lime* Fete at the Hyatt Regency, the smart new high class hotel, represented the new.

Nevertheless carnival as a Canadian friend used to say, does “have issues”. Tony's beef is the lyrical banality of most of the songs. Machel Montano is a wholehearted performer, brought the most energy to the whole celebration, and on the road he beat the competition like they were caught "teefin’ mango". But sorry But sorry Machel, I’ll forget Advantage in two years. Max. That may say more about me than it says you, but I’ll take that.

Rhythmically Sparrow’s Don’t Back Back from the 80s sounds dated besides the new stuff, but how about this…

The place was jam packed with no more space
So on she bam bam I had to brace?

... and he goes on to tell a story rather than give aerobics instructions as most modern soca tunes seem to do. Not even Wotless**, a song that hinted at similarly sly lyricism, came close. The challenge that contemporary songwriters seem to be failing to meet is to make a rhythmic blockbuster funny, danceable, and tell a story. Just saying it suggests that it’s hard to impossible to do, but I’d still like to see a more equal marriage of percussion and poetry. Trini is not a lyrical masterpiece but somehow it nails it for me. Laro’s Irie Tempo is reggae, and I’ll probably upset a few Trinis by dragging it into this conversation, but I dare you to come up with a better description

When you hear de tempo
The land vibrate with tempo

The island like one big disco
Jamming soca, jamming, jamming calypso
Heard dem bass line groovin
See all dem waistlines movin

Costumes of worth
Riddim like dirt
It’s the greatest show on the earth

There’s more there.

Another issue is that a few bands visibly delineate the society’s social and sometimes ethnic hierarchies. That may be unavoidable, and it may be something you’d find everywhere, but it’s all too clear.

But as always with carnival, there was far more to like or be dazzled by.

1. The elderly woman from Beauties of the Sea making slow and stately progress across the Savannah stage with a walking stick, while still keeping time to Trini. Beautiful.

2. Pan on Fire one of the giant floats at Dimanche Gras.

3. Desperadoes, the biggest and best known steelband in Trinidad (and by extension the world) taking an age to erect an overly elaborate set at Panorama, and getting a spanking from the stony faced judges. Seventh.

4. Hanging out in lively St James in Port of Spain with Raymond and his wife Desiree, and watching 3Canal band ignite a party in the street. Some energetic and creative wining***. A stunning woman in what looked like an Arabian Nights outfit, bent forward at the waist as if to touch her toes, her torso horizontal, while keeping time with the rhythm. A guy came up behind her and moved with her, as they went lower and lower, faster and faster. He then licked his forefinger as if preparing to test the breeze, and ever so lightly touched her back. The contact made him recoil as if electrocuted. It was tremendous theatre and everyone roared with laughter.

5. My first Jóuvert…you know, the mud fetish early morning jump up? It reminded me of carnival in Haiti, a traditional, low-frills affair which is beautiful and, if you've got African ancestry, soul stirring.

6. The babes. Bucketloads. Didn’t know which one to keep looking at, in case you miss a sexier one. One thing that struck me coming back after a decade? Chest surgeons have been busy. Not that it taken anything away from the bigger picture. So to speak.

Speaking of which--- the bigger picture that is--- watch Rihanna do her thing at Cropover, the Barbados carnival here.

________________________________________________________________________________

*Lime is Caribbean slang for hanging out. The Lime Fete stipulated that you wear white and green, a play on words for the colour, the fruit and the event.

**Wotless, or worthless, simply means naughty. In Guyana, disgusting means naughty and impish, and usually describes children’s behavior.

***Man and woman moving together, grinding hips, to the music. Looks suggestive to the uninitiated, and often it is. But at carnival time there’s a code of engagement that’s anything but. No time to go into it here. Another post, another time.

Bas, Mas and Brian Lara

2011-09-16T19:31:00.003+01:00

Chatting to a relaxed Badseo Panday at Brian Lara’s annual Carnival party, I decided to tease him a little. He was telling me how much he was enjoying retirement, learning an instrument.

“I have to ask the question--- are you any good?”

Quick as a flash and with the Panday sharp wit he regularly deployed in my interviews with him, the former prime minister deadpanned.

“No.”

We laughed. Panday looked as if he didn’t miss a minute of being out of office. He stood among the crowd of mostly well to do Trinis, and no one pestered him. He may have been the head of government but the big man in Trinidad was the man whose well appointed front lawn we stood on. Brian Lara.

Now Brian himself approaches us. A flash of recognition and a hi as he smiles and nods in acknowledgement at me. He’s with his girlfriend, a good few inches taller than he. By pure coincidence I’d sat next to her on the flight in, but at the fete I utterly failed to recognise her. On the plane we'd started chatting about a book she was reading by Zambian economist Dambisa Moyo. She herself was Zambian, she said, and her name was Susan.

Why was she travelling to Trinidad, I’d asked? “My boyfriend is Trinidadian”, she’d said with what turned out later to be understated economy. Now, at the Lara fete, she comes over to say hello. I hesitate, vaguely recognising her, but unable to place her. "Hello Orin", she says, "it's Susan, remember?". I say "yes, yes" too quickly, and she and Brian are gone before it registered.

I’d thrust a few mikes in Brian’s face when he was West Indies captain and he never looked for one minute as if he enjoyed the attention. But he has mellowed with time out of the game. Lately, here on his sprawling estate and before that at a number of Trinidad and Tobago functions in London, the great man never failed to say hello. I even got a discreet high five in London. More like a mid-five.

It is a ticket event, the Lara fete, and has become a fixture of the Trinidad carnival. There are more than a dozen tents with food of every description, including Trini and Caribbean food done very, very well. The drinks list was similarly long, and pleasingly, they were generous with the champagne.

As a gift from the government of Trinidad, Brian got a prime piece of hilltop land overlooking the Savannah, the capital’s huge green. You know Lara’s is a big estate when there are minibuses on hand to shuttle you from the gate to the main house.

Post-sabbatical

2011-09-16T11:37:00.001+01:00

the Gyaff had taken a sabbatical. I was busy completing an MBA in 2009 and much of 2010. I'll be posting regularly, again.

JAMAICA Dudus

2010-12-22T10:23:00.027Z

Within weeks, mid-January 2011, a legal inquiry team in Jamaica will begin hearings into how the authorities handled the armed resistance to the arrest and extradition of alleged drug lord Christopher Coke known as Dudus. Pitched battles between police and Coke loyalists left 76 people dead.

The incident is part of Jamaica's violent political culture, in which Coke ran his patch of Kingston like a godfather. My analysis on this clip at 2'28", after Matthew Price's report.

Jamaica analysis from O Gordon on Vimeo

In the 2007 Jamaica election, I had the chance to ride in the campaign SUV of the man who would go on to win and become prime minister, Bruce Golding.

Pics O. Gordon (Nikon D300)

It was in a "garrison community" similar to his own--- the one allegedly controlled by Dudus Coke. The gunmen who fight for turf in West Kingston laid low during campaigning, but that didn't prevent a security scare for the Golding motorcade. As it was making its way down the road, the PM candidate waving to supporters through the SUV's sunroof, the security detail heard distant gunfire. They decided he'd gone far enough, and turned the convoy around.

The incident illustrated the volatile nature of Kingston's inner city constituencies. Golding's presence there demonstrated the areas' importance to Jamaica's parliamentary makeup. He would carve out a 32-28 majority, after a couple of disputed seats had been settled. Three years later, he's taking political heat for Coke's delayed extradition and bloody armed resistance.

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From Our Own Correspondent

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BBC News Online

OXFORD Revisited

2009-02-25T22:54:00.003Z

I’d visited Oxford several times before. The first visit, about 12 years earlier, was part of a BBC course to orientate World Service newcomers about Great Britain and the BBC. We visited famous colleges like Christ Church and St John’s--- all of the touristy, pretty parts of the town. But to their credit, the tour organizers made sure we saw the deprived parts such as Blackbird Leys, so that we did not go away with a one-dimensional, prettified view of Oxford.

There is real poverty, particularly in northern pockets of the town. So while on Friday nights the streets are awash with late-teen children of the great and good of Great Britain learning to get drunk on cheap lager, there are other, life-toughened children from poorer families who already know how to.

It’s a striking contrast. Henry will leave Balliol College with the self-confidence that the well bred and well educated have, and take path to sure success, probably in the City or at the Bar. Henry from Blackbird will tread his own, predetermined path. There are exceptions, of course, but it’s a terrible indictment on the British schooling system that there aren’t enough.

Anyway enough of this downbeat stuff. Oxford is a very beautiful, historic town. As Andrey and I walked back to Saïd after registering at St Anne’s College, Andrey, a Muscovite, kept shaking his head and laughing. “It’s like out of a fairy tale”, he said. Up to a point, yes. Oxford can do grungy and filthy with the best of them. But the green, open spaces of some of the college grounds are magnificent.

EMBA 6 has really taken to Oxford. Colleges are a unique part of life in old university towns like this one and Cambridge. Scarves with the college crests were bought. Barbara rather ostentatiously flaunted her distinct green and white Jesus College scarf. She allowed me to wear it for a while. We quickly sussed out the watering holes— special mention must go to the indefatigable Warren. The catalyst for much of the social activity after class, and sharp, focused, properly read and prepared next morning.

Just past Trinity College on the other side of the road is The Turf, the famous pub. It’s like a labyrinth— a maze of cozy little rooms. Quaint. Old. Very English. Some good lagers and bitters there, and sign boasting that this was the pub where Bill Clinton famously did not inhale.

My favourite bitter is Village Idiot.

OXFORD EMBA's profits

2009-01-14T09:25:00.020Z

Finance lecturer Alan Morrison was teaching a class on Finance, Rationality and the Profit Motive, and made reference to the AOL/Time Warner merger. Then he asked in a by-the-way sort of way, “anyone here familiar with this merger?” 

A cool California drawl came from the back of the class. “I worked with AOL/Time Warner”. Bob, an LA man with close ties to film and music industries and one of the quiet men of class, spoke knowledgably about the effects of the merger in back and forth with Alan for a few minutes.

Later the subject of Vodafone-Mannesmann came up. Again, the question. “Anyone here from Vodafone?” Ahmed put his hand up. “I work for Vodafone”. Ahmed was from Egypt, had worked in Italy, and his frequent trips negotiating partner deals for Vodafone took him virtually everywhere east of Beirut. Again, a knowledgeable dissection of the merger. From the class.

I’d made the right decision— to go into Executive MBA programme and not the MBA. There are solid arguments for going MBA. 

• One year instead of nearly two

• Singular focus on an academic year out of work, instead of mixing work and study 

• The small difference of £15K or so   

The advantages of the EMBA were

• Not having to give up the job completely

• A more manageable programme for people who’d not performed at an academic gig for a long time

• Experienced classmates who’d done a lot professionally--- who could credibly talk the talk

There are robust and incisive contributions. Adrian from Romania is regarded as our resident capitalist. A former hedge fund manager, his views of financing or capital-raising cases are unsentimental, clear and it must be said pretty ruthless. Listening to Bob and Ahmed in class just confirmed what was already clear— there was some serious mental and professional firepower in the room, and not all of it was Alan’s. When he or Clive (Cuban IT consultant) put their hand up and tell the lecturer, “I don’t agree”, the teacher knows that his position is going to undergo some serious examination. Those interactions are priceless--- except when they delay the coffee or pee break.

Alvar, Estonian/American and easily one of the sharpest guys I’ve ever met anywhere, is another clear-eyed dissector of financial dilemmas. Matt, a Houston lawyer, probably knows more about copyright law than some lecturers. He too rarely talks in class. But invited by the instructor to explain a Microsoft antitrust case, he’ll do so with authority and great clarity. As will Barbara, South African/Greek/Polish corporate lawyer.

I know that the management culture at the BBC varies enormously across its many parts, but I think that the generally consensual, people-centered culture seems rather soft by comparison, and miles away from the approach of the hard-nosed business types. Or it could be that business, which got us into this mess, could lose some of its certainty and listen to other views.

Whatever your views, I'd say that having these questions answered by peers rather than professors, is worth the Executive premium.

OXFORD Numbers game

2009-01-14T09:25:00.012Z

I took the GMAT in November. There was blood on the exam room floor. Mine. It's not like conventional tests--- the computer adjusts itself to your answers, and gives you questions according to how well you're doing. A machine sizes up in no time how much you don't know. How chastening is that?

My score was actually decent considering the fact that I was in an above average percentile, hadn’t used algebraic concepts in more than two decades, and had had only 3 days preparation. No matter. Afterwards I felt like I'd gone 10 rounds with a sprightly lightweight.

I hit ball out of the park for the verbal stuff. But I got mugged by Maths. Decision Science, Module 2 at Oxford, should be interesting.

I did study Mining Engineering as an undergrad many moons ago but I'd always felt I made a mistake not choosing to major in History. Don't ask. Let's just say I found my way back to something I liked and to which I felt well-matched: journalism.

A world-class management degree makes sense at this stage. It'll hopefully help make the next managerial step a significant one. Besides, it's not like I haven't been on speaking terms with the quantitative stuff all these years. I'd had budget responsibility as a manager, particularly at the BBC, so I knew basic accounting and balance sheets.

The relationship has deepened since I decided to launch myself as an independent media and training consultant, actually won contracts, and had to learn quickly the rudiments of running your own business.

Besides getting my pads on for the academic game feels great. There are some seriously bright people here. The brain wattage in the room could light up Manhattan for a week. The quality of the classroom teaching is high too. Think I'll enjoy this.

OXFORD First Impressions

2009-01-14T09:24:00.007Z

I first set foot in Saïd Business School in November for my admissions interview. Stephan Chambers, Executive MBA Director, was my sole interrogator. It was a tough interview: he was sharp and had prepared well. I’d had an easier time with interview panels of three. He gave me a hard time about the BBC's funding model--- something I would come across again from professors who had clear ideas about income generation, profit and loss. Not a lot of sympathy for the public, license fee funding model, nor the fact that the BBC did not have to fight for ad dollars in a recession.

Stephan eventually homed in two things I myself had reservations about: my frequent travel for work— how would I successfully navigate the demands of the programme? Most of my recent work related travel had been to the US to cover the primaries and general election, and now that that was over, I said, I’d be doing far more studio presentation. The second was how I’d cope with the demanding quantitative component, seeing that my barely used engineering background was a long time in the past. I allowed that I was preparing for GMAT and getting a good sense of where I stood on algebraic matters.

I came back to Saïd Business School later that month, to cover the Silicon Valley Comes to Oxford event. I’m a techie, and had done technology pieces for and presented the World Service’s technology programme. Talking with the guys like Biz Stone, the founder of Twitter and Reid Hoffman, chairman of LinkedIn, was like giving a greedy kid the keys to the chocolate shop.

I liked what I saw at Saïd. The quality of the lecture theatres was first-rate. I’d looked at some other schools in London and at Columbia in New York, and Saïd’s teaching facilities were as good as any I’d seen. I like the aesthetics of the building— brick, pale wood and glass modernism and high ceilings along the lecture theatre corridor. The stone courtyard and the amphitheatre above look inviting. I had the feeling that as the days grew longer and, especially in the spring and summer, I’d really enjoy being at there.

Some people hate the building, as I’ll show more fully in a later post. That muted mood lighting in the evening may look great along lecture theatre row but it doesn’t quite work for the library at night. MBAs and undergrads, who spend a longer time at Saïd Business School than we Executives do, find it wholly inadequate. And Saïd is at the ugly end of town. Still, I like the look and feel of the building and facilities. I hope we get an open air class in the amphitheatre in the summer. Never taken classes in sunglasses.

US ELEX Final dispatch

2008-11-20T01:43:00.002Z

This article appeared in the Barbados Nation newspaper on Monday 17th Nov, 2008
Changes of power can be brutal. In our countries there’s no meaningful transition period. You lose the election on Monday and you could be out of the official residence by Wednesday. Your winning opponent is sworn in it seems before you’ve properly cleared out your desk. America’s two-and-a-half month transition is understandable. With all due respect to Thompson and Arthur it’s a much bigger job than running Barbados.

Another difference is term limits. Two was all that Bush could have, so he’s been mentally prepared to go for a long time. Bush’s job is bigger and harder, but the jolt to Arthur will arguably be greater.

The long transition means that Barack Obama like his predecessors will have a chance to build his team, to get detailed, top-secret intelligence briefings on the country’s gravest security threats and to formulate his policies.

From a Caribbean point of view, three things need to happen.

The first is that Caribbean leaders need to get in his face. Obama, half-Kenyan who spent part of his childhood in Indonesia, is an internationalist by reflex, and in theory should be receptive to engagement. I haven’t seen any signs that the Caribbean is part of his thinking.

It could, if as is widely being speculated, he makes Hillary Clinton his secretary of state. The Caribbean’s friends on Capitol Hill, representatives Charles Rangel, Yvette Clarke and Gregory Meeks, were strong Clinton supporters during the Democratic nomination process and not close to Obama.

They would have Hillary’s ear. Clarke has been pushing the argument that the Caribbean islands are an extension of the homeland, and that they should be part of Homeland Security reckoning. America is safer, she argues, if more is done to close the drug shipment corridors, and to bring more stability to Haiti.

An unstable Haiti means more illegal immigration, a greater chance of becoming a narco-facilitating state and makes for a more porous southern frontier.

The second thing that needs to be done is to get the Caribbean on America’s development radar. The problem with the Caribbean is that it’s not poor or underdeveloped enough--- Africa is considered more deserving of American and other international aid; rightly so according to the usual measurements like per-capita income.

I don’t hear too much talk from the Caribbean these days of a “vulnerability index”, as I did back at the Barbados Small Island Developing Countries Summit (SIDS) in 1994. Yes, we’re rich relative to Sub-Saharan Africa, regional policy makers had argued, but that prosperity could be wiped out in an instant by a natural disaster like an Exxon Valdez (oil spill) or a hurricane.

Ivan in Grenada is a prime example. My experience of asking hard questions after hurricanes is that the normal reflex is to underplay the scale of damage to protect the tourism industry. It is a reflex that should be resisted, not just with disasters, but the credit crisis that is biting hard in some countries.

Obama is busy bailing out Wall Street and Detroit and money is tight but again, the argument could be made that a secure Caribbean (financially and otherwise) means a secure America.

Can Caribbean leaders get their face-time? Obama is the most globally popular US incumbent in living memory. Everyone wants a sprinkling of the O-stardust. They’ll have their work cut out.

Third, Obama will have to close the Guantanamo detention centre quickly to avoid early disappointment in his presidency by supporters. A Harvard trained former law professor, he has been a consistent critic of Guantanamo, detention without trial, and approved torture methods like waterboarding.

Those on the right argue that once Obama sees the intelligence, he’ll realise that some of the men being held at Guantanamo are very dangerous terrorists.

Others on left counter that if you know they’re so bad, you shouldn’t have a problem convicting them in civilian courts.

Obama will have to upset one of them. The greater harm to his reputation would be upsetting his supporters who expect him to end a practice they think has damaged America’s legal and diplomatic standing in the world.

Finally a word on George W Bush. His national and international approval rating is low, but in some countries in Africa, Bush is credited with doing a great job in fight against AIDS. I’m one of those (in the minority it seems) who don’t buy the notion that he’s unintelligent.

He’s sharp (I’ve heard at first hand from people who have met him) with an easy charm, if dismissive towards those who don’t share his point of view and grammatically muddled. By many accounts he possesses the utter certainty of the privileged, elite school educated--- a certainty unencumbered by actual facts.

Bush’s presidency is mostly being judged a failure by the commentariat. I’m going to leave his policies for others to assess. I think that Bush, MBA Harvard, failed in management. He has damaged two main Republican claims. Iraq undermined the first that they’re the party of sound management, and the financial crisis and national debt the second--- that they’re the party of fiscal prudence.

US ELEX Election day

2008-11-05T23:53:00.002Z

This article was published by the Barbados Nation newspaper
I'd have had to have a heart of stone not to feel choked by the moment. I'm here to tell you that my ticker is in good working order. As we watched on Tuesday night, the result of the US presidential election was not in doubt once Barack Obama had been declared the winner of Pennsylvania. Clearly, mathematically, there was no way back for John McCain, but once the decisive California result came in at 11pm Eastern Time, the power of the announcement that Obama had crossed the line hit like a punch in stomach.

I reported the endgame from New York. This great city heaved electric anticipation. It'd easy to look back nearly a week later and think Obama's election was inevitable, but it did not feel that way earlier in the day.

Yes the polls showed a comfortable lead, but there was a strong sense here that John McCain could win, regardless of what the pollsters were saying. Caution ruled. There were a lot of people who were, like novelist Terry McMillan would say 'waiting to exhale".

Hundreds of thousands gathered in Harlem, at Rockefeller Plaza and Times Square. African students at Columbia University, Obama's alma mater, gathered around a TV screen. At Nyati Lounge, a Kenyan bar in nearby Jersey City, patrons knocked back beer while watching the returns on TV. It felt like New Year's eve, the millennium and the World Cup finals rolled into one.

Walking down to Times Square afterwards, there was still a crowd there at 1am. People of all colours were wearing Obama buttons, hats, caps and t-shirts and waving US flags.

The results scrolled by on the giant ABC news billboard. A giant image of Obama's beaming face filled the giant screen. People cheered as if they were hearing the results for the first time. They waved flags at passing cars. Drivers honked their horns back.

A young white guy draped me in a giant US flag and told me that I could have it. I told him I couldn't possibly take his prized possession.

These dispatches from the campaign trail have tried to be objective, and I hope you think that they've succeeded. Yet I have to report what I see and feel, and in my election night reaction I was not alone.

Juan Williams, an analyst for National Public Radio and Fox News, is not an Obama sympathizer. A prominent Black reporter and a tough and consistent critic, he'd said before that he "gets beat up because I treat Obama as a politician as opposed to the rock star image. People think you should be a fan"

But reacting to the announcement in the heat of the moment, he was choked and fighting it.

"I don't care how you feel about him politically, on some level you have to say this is America at its grandest, the potential, the possibility, and what it says for our children."

Jesse Jackson marched with Martin Luther King. He'd crossed swords with Obama this campaign, once threatening to rip out his manhood. All that was forgotten Tuesday night. The TV pictures him with tears streaming down his face were heartrending. It was hard to watch and keep your composure.

It was a global event, and as I've said here before, if the rest of the world had a vote, Obama would win in a lopsided Communist landslide.

He's riding a wave of unprecedented global goodwill, and that could be a problem. Expectations in America and abroad are high, probably too high. Colin Powell said he had the potential to be "transformational". He already is. His even, unflappable temperament, judicious decision-making and his evident intellect, are signs that he could in time be regarded as a great president.

But we'd all do well to remember the experience of Britain's Tony Blair. His election in 1997 felt like Christmas to Labour supporters.10 years later he'd become one of the most loathed figures on the left because of his support for Bush's war in Iraq. Few of the people who danced at his election were sad to see him hand over to Gordon Brown.

Comparisons are imperfect, and Obama's world view suggests that his chances of selling an unpopular war are low. But the point here is that expectations of him are high.

He's doing the world's hardest job and will inevitably make compromises. He will get things wrong. He WILL disappoint. And those who will feel that disappointment most acutely are some of his most fervent supporters now.

And when that happens, the likes and me and Juan Williams won't be pulling our punches.

HAITI food and floods

2008-09-10T11:50:00.007+01:00

The gyaff is back after taking a holiday in Mallorca (or Majorica as I've seen it spelt). Come back for the posts on that, and more from the US campaign trail.

This one is about Haiti, about as far removed from the wealthy, organised society on the Balearic island.

Haiti took a hit from 3 hurricanes in succession, as you've probably seen on the TV news. Hundreds died, but millions are living a life of utter misery the the nasty flood waters.

The price and availability of food had been a big problem, as I have been reporting on the BBC World Service all this week.
I believe that the big headline going forward will be how the hurricanes have worsened the already bad food crisis. Haiti will be a major story in the months to come.

BEIJING Peking duck

2008-08-31T23:53:00.012+01:00

Spoke in an earlier post of my friend Geraldine taking me for Belgian in Beijing. Read it here or on Off the Bus from the list of posts on the right. She did redeem herself by recommending some good Peking duck restaurants. I got to try one of them, Made in China at the Grand Hyatt in Beijing. More on that shortly.

The night before, I'd done some Szechuan dining with an old London acquaintance Anthony Kuhn, the Beijing correspondent for America's National Public Radio, NPR.

Anthony speaks Chinese fluently--- as any self-respecting Chinese/Jewish American would--- and clearly knows his food. NPR reporters and other staff do food and hotel reviews for a segment on their website called Correspondents Choice, sidebars to their usual political reporting. Anthony had acquired sound knowledge of what Beijing had to offer. It was an easy yes to his dinner invitation.

“Can you handle spicy food?”, he had asked/warned me before we got there.

In Guyana, we eat nearly everything with a bit of hot pepper sauce on the side. I go to Jamaica regularly and never leave without a few bottles of their wickedly hot Scotch Bonnet yellow pepper sauce. In London restaurants the so-called very hot dishes are too mild for my tastes.

“I like it very spicy actually”, I told him.

“Good”.

The restaurant, in one of Beijing's premier shopping malls, was spacious and brightly lit. A mostly local clientele, always a good sign. We order 5 or 6 dishes to share. The portions are bigger than I expect and it turns out that I order too much.
The cold shredded chicken and the pig's foot, the fleshy and tender pork of the lower leg, are what I enjoy the most. No weaknesses, although Anthony says the scallops are not as good as he remembers.

And it isn't spicy at all. I think that's because the things we chose from the menu were not the hot stuff.
Next day I go to Made in China alone. It reminds me of Nobu Berkeley in London--- black suited staff, minimalist, modern décor and expensive. Peking Duck is the specialty of the house.

At first the head waiter told me they had run out. They do 40 ducks a day. Then, good news. Someone had cancelled their order (people call at least an hour ahead of getting there) and I could have the half-duck I wanted.

“It takes 40 to 45 minutes”, she told me. No problem. I'd have ample time to enjoy my book, beer and starter--- steamed spinach with a sharp and delicious mustard/wasabi sauce.

Very good, even if I'm slightly wary of wasabi. The last interesting interpretation of it was in April at Morimoto's, a slick sushi restaurant in Philadelphia. Wasabi ice-cream, no less. I dare you. Cutting edge cuisine perhaps, but I'm sure that it says something about me that I did not know what to make of it.

At Made in China, an hour passed and my half-duck still hadn't appeared. What they had not told me was that they waited for another half-duck order to begin cooking mine. I was to share the bird with the couple at the next table. They got there about half an hour after I did. I let the head waiter know that I wasn't pleased that they didn't tell me I was in for a long wait and why.

Eventually a chef wheeled out the bird and ceremoniously started to carve it for both tables.

It's served with pancakes, spring onions, cucumber and plum sauce, as it would be anywhere else. That's where the similarities end. You're served small plates of cuts of the roast duck, one after the other.

The first cuts are pieces of crispy skin. You dip in white sugar, and eat without the pancakes. The second cuts are tender slices of pure meat. The third cuts are meat with skin on the edge.

That was it. No leg, no wing, no bone encounters. Less of the bird than I expected, but satisfying nonetheless.

How was it? Have to say I've had more delicious duck in London. For me Made In China's tended towards the bland. However the tenderness and quality of the meat of was of the highest standard.

It'd better be. I was about £50 lighter in the pocket.

For comparison I tried the restaurant at my hotel, the Beijing Friendship. No ceremonial carving. It was presented on a platter, already cut, along with the other dishes. More duck, less quality I felt, though my Chinese friend Yuki declared herself satisfied with it.

BEIJING Wangfujing

2008-08-31T23:52:00.013+01:00

If they pedestrianised Oxford Street in London it would look-- a little-- like Beijing's Wangfujing Street. Stores selling athletic gear, low cost clothes stores, and a delightful tea store mix with the smarter ones in the mall at the end of the street. Here is the more upmarket territory staked out by stores like China Tang selling $300 silk shirts. You can get anything on Wangfujing. At the south end where the pedestrianised bit starts are shops like Haagen Dasz ice cream. Messages piped through loudspeakers on the streets warn us in English to be careful, and not to leave our belongings with strangers.

Just off Wangfujing there's a small street with stalls selling cooked food. From chow mein, to sliced pineapple to fried starfish. I try the shrimps on a stick, and a big chunk of pineapple on a stick. No frills eating. Not even a paper napkin. Fine by me.

The shrimp seller selects one of the wooden skewers of shrimp and fries it. I'm sure the other stuff is delicious but I'm a bit unlucky with my choice. The shrimp is not fresh, or that well cooked. Pineapple? Can't go wrong.

Back on Wangfujing the scam artists the guidebooks warn us about are not that much in evidence, probably due to the famous Olympic cleanup, although one woman did approach me with what sounded like the “learning English” dodge. I told her politely I was in a hurry to meet with friends, but “nice to meet you”. According to Rough Guide, some attractive woman will make conversation with you, pretending it's in the interest of improving her English. Before you know it you're together at some dodgy tea house. You then get presented with a shockingly fat bill, your “friend” feigns horror and disappears, and a big bulky heavy appears to persuade you to settle your debt.

Wangfujing at the end connects at right angles to the 10 lane boulevard that runs west through Tienanmen Square. A truly scary road with a high volume of car traffic, but there's a cycle lane on the inside and it's fun watching people go by on all manner of bicycles. Ten minutes up the road is Tiananmen Square, and the Forbidden Palace. I want there at 7 one evening. Rainy with the light fading, I virtually had the place to myself. It exuded a kind of melancholy beauty. And, even with the big boulevard outside the front gate, it was quiet and peaceful inside.

Next door is the mausoleum of China's "great leader" Mao Tse Tung.

BEIJING Donovan Bailey

2008-08-31T23:51:00.005+01:00

Well past 1am at the Friendship Hotel. I'd had a long day and I grab a cold one at the George Bar. I go to sit outside. There's an unoccupied table with no chairs. There are spare ones at the next table. Donovan Bailey is there with 5 other guys from CBC, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

“Do you mind if I take this chair”, I ask them. Bailey speaks.

“You gonna sit there all by yourself? Why don't you join us?”

“Sure”.

“What's your name?”

“Orin. Orin Gordon”.

“I'm Donovan”, he says. I resist the urge to say I know. Atlanta '96 gold medallist in the 100 metres. Even if your name hadn't come up in recent stories I'd been doing about Jamaica's track successes, I'd have recognised you. He introduces me to the other CBC men as if we were old friends. “Guys, this is Orin”.

I shake hands all round. Introductions are done. I take a seat at their table. Bailey is friendly and charming. No airs at all. He tells me he's there as an analyst for CBC. We chat about the games, particularly Jamaica's successes. He's overjoyed for his homeland.

It's funny that I should meet him because a few days before, I'd done an analysis piece for BBC Brazilians and Spanish Americans on global power in the sprints shifting from the USA to Jamaica. Jamaican journalist Patrick Anderson had made the point that they'd had world class sprinters for 60 years, and other Jamaicans Lynford Christie and Donovan Bailey, had won the 100 metres gold for other countries. Here are the articles, in Portuguese and Spanish.

Donovan Bailey's Canadian twang has long lost traces of Jamaica, but he's still closely connected to the country's athletics establishment. He tells me of chats he's had with Richard Thompson, Trinidad and Tobago's athletics 100 metres silver medallist. Thompson goes to LSU. Bailey is an LSU alumnus.

We talk about athletics injuries--- running with pain. Bailey has a natural empathy with anyone who's ever run competitive track and field, and does not have a bad word for anyone. He admires China's star hurdler who tried to run in his event when he was clearly in pain.

“The guy was suffering, man. Achilles? That the worst injury”.

We chatted some more, finished our beer and said goodnight. I thought that elite athletes were prima donnas. In the space of a few days Yelena Isinbayeva and now Donovan Bailey had shown me that it wasn't necessarily so.

BEIJING Usain

2008-08-21T10:48:00.008+01:00

There's a 1970s blaxploitation movie starring the king of the genre, Fred Williamson. The film is called That Man Bolt.

Bolt kicks ass and shows who's boss.

That man Bolt. I'm still shaking my head at what I've seen in Beijing. The 100 metres was sensational, but the 200 is one of those "I was there" moments in sport.

The two most electrifying races I'd seen prior to that were on TV, Michael Johnson's 19.32 in Atlanta 1996. I'll never grow tired of watching him go berserk when he saw the clock. The other was the thundering fury of Ben Johnson's drug fuelled demolition of Carl Lewis in Seoul eight years earlier.

For Bolt, I saw the real thing twice.

If I get the chance, I like to sit low, trackside near the finish line, the get the full herd of buffalo effect as the world's best and fastest runners power by. It's like standing near a 12 foot stereo speaker and seeing your shirt ruffled by the power of the sound.

I know, without being able to fully process it yet, that Bolt is already the best sprinter the olympic games has seen. He allies power with a giant stride and devastating speed.

He also has this enormous self belief that some see as cockiness. In the mix zone after the 100 metres a Brazilian journalist and I start to ask a question at the same time. We're talking over each other and making no sense. Neither of us wants to give way. Bolt holds up a hand in mock admonition, as if to say "don't be naugthy, guys".

Five years ago I did an interview with Mike Costello, BBC radio's superb athletics correspondent. Mike had just been to Jamaica, and he raved about this 17-year old "man mountain" Usain Bolt. He did not live up to the hype in the years till this one. And how.

I pointed out to Trinidad's 100 metres silver medallist Richard Thompson that Bolt had basically stopped running after 80 metres to celebrate.

"God only knows what Usain can do", Thompson said.