Ayesha: Moving from the pandemic to another huge mountain altogether which is the energy transition. Do you think countries are getting in a frame of mind where they will collaborate now? What are some of the advice that you are giving governments around the world on energy transitions?
Tony Blair: We come a long way which is the first thing. When I was first in government, I was part of the Kyoto negotiations and large number of countries didn’t sign up for it. The American Senate rejected it unanimously. Now there is an acceptance of the challenge of climate change but here’s the thing. You can’t deal with it other than through technology. That’s the only way you get countries to grow sustainably.
So, if you take the work we do say in Africa, you could say the same about Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam and you get China and India. The Western world can’t say to these countries don’t develop. If I were to say this to the African leaders I work with, while I am afraid in the interest of climate, you can’t build this airport, that road or power station, you get chased out of town quickly.
So, they are going to grow and develop. So, the challenge for the world is, as the developed world’s images started to shrink. You can see this on the graph, the developed world’s emission start to shrink, the developing world start to grow. So that’s why the actual primary carbon energy production has barely shifted. You have masses of growth in the meantime so in one sense that’s good for the climate.
As I always say, the climate is different whether the emissions come from developing countries or not. The only solution is technology. There is a great example here which is around solar and renewable energy where you know in my day when I was in government, it a very open question as to whether it can be made commercially viable. But today, it is commercially viable. Now, that was only done because of incentives, because of the way there was the investment made in the technology and so on. And we got to do the same across the carbon capture storage, green hydrogen new off grid solutions. Probably new phones and nuclear even.
But the question for the world is how do you incentive development for that technology? That’s where unless you have mechanism to push the market in a particular direction, it won’t happen. In Indonesia, for example, they obviously got a lot of their energy from coal, they got an ambition of retiring 6.5 gigawatts of coal fire power and 10 to 15 years early. But they can’t do that without help. And this is where the developed world got to create the mechanism.
And here the biggest problem and I see this in the work I do around the world is creating the right financing framework for renewable projects. Because there is no shortage of liquidity in the world today. There’s lots of money. But you need to create the right financing mechanism so that it becomes in the interest of the country to build the right renewable project using gases in transition in certain circumstances rather than building a traditional coal fire, diesel power generation. So, the key to it is to get the right collaboration between the governments so that you create the market incentive for the energy developments of the future. Without that there is no solution to climate change.
Deputy Group Manager: Ah I see… Good luck in your new endeavour. Look forward to learn from your posts 💪😁
Lee Linah :Wow. Thanks for this encouragement. You seem like a high flyer and work with Ministers. Glad that you are so down to earth!
Deputy Group Manager: I won’t see myself as high flyer, but rather someone who grow steadily along the years. I worked in MNC, SME and now with semi government agency, so I have seen different environment.
Lee Linah: Wow. Glad to see that you can learn from a polar opposite from you as we come from entire different backgrounds in education and career. Good to know that you are into learning from diverse experiences and knowledge then!
Deputy Group Manager: I am the same avid learner as you. 😀 Jiayou
Lee Linah: Yeah. I used to be into Arts and Social Sciences and did a lot of philosophy writings, sociology and psychology. However, recently I do sense that I need to move pragmatically into the job market as demand for skills are still in the STEM area. I felt that I have to restructure my brain to pick up the logical side of things. Even in my Events and Production classes, it is taught by trainers who are come from electrical engineering background. A very steep learning curve at first.
Deputy Group Manager: I see. Unfortunately that’s the reality of SG where STEM has more job opportunities. But the complexity in studying social sciences topics should enable you to pick STEM topics as well should you have the interest. Yes the learning curve would be steep but it is really not that difficult once you could pick up the core ideas of the topics.
Lee Linah: Thank you for your well meaning advice. I kind of know that I can’t just write niche topics on Philosophy for a living. I will have to pick up data analytics as I heard that there is a great surge in demand due to massive digitalization
And people here do encourage me to pick it up if I can learn it
Deputy Group Manager: Yes indeed. I think there are also common roots of philosophy and data analytics which is the thirst for knowledge and insights. What you could pick up in data analytics courses are essential technical skills like coding and computer & data literacy, but what the top data analysts would always need the soft skills part: which is the framing of problem statement, examining the context and business value, eventual storytelling. I would assume you would have the upper hands compared to just people with just normal STEM background 😁
Deputy Group Manager: Not only the thirst for knowledge and insights, but also the skills in asking relevant questions. That’s what philopshers excel at right? Asking a question that is so hard to answer, and keep finding answers for it
Lee Linah : Yes, indeed. Philosophers question everything from the nature of reality to whether we can know things. I think it perplexes people by coming up with moral issues like in data science there is prescriptive analytics where we need to use data to guide decisions. This is where Machine learning or Artificial intelligence cannot learn morality. We have to understand Applied Ethics and Moral Philosophy by asking questions like is this morally right or wrong or is it ethical.
At heart I felt that as an idealist I belong to the social services world of helping the sick or the poor. However, from end 2021 to early 2022 I felt a fascination with all things new. Still, the emphasis on technology had not been anything new for me.
It could be that I had a sincere and heartfelt German professor who taught me all about Philosophy of Technology in my impressionable years before I started dealing with real people.
I thought it is clearly a good goal for the past decade to meet the real needs of people and impact real lives. However, I’d still be left feeling that I have not considered my real interest and delve into the luxury of wants even if it is perceived as impractical or not as useful. I still like professors, theories and ideas.
March 2022 I am glad that going back to school to study had been a win win situation where it is not all technical or all about working with machines.I am still put in the arena of social services where the real needs of some unfortunate classmates stirred up a meaningful side of the glamorous field of studying events and production.
Three months into the course, I am glad I could find meaning in all things #technology and even enjoy making lumen videos on the 10 emerging technologies. I am glad taking a break from #school helped me reposition myself to look forward to the future.
June 2022 Attending Asia Tech X conference for three days was very exciting as it forced me out of a comfortable domestic setting. A casual and predictable setting to one that was professional with high end tech like Quantum Computing that blew my mind away.
It is good to get out of my comfort zone of familiar classmates and meet unknown faces and ultimately come face to face with a king none other than ex Prime Minister of UK Tony Blair.
To continue from the inaugural comic series here are part 4 to 12. Enjoy the comic!
Life as a Hybrid Being Part 4Life as a Hybrid Being Part 5Life as a Hybrid Being Part 6Life as a Hybrid Being Part 6Life as a Hybrid Being Part 7Life as a Hybrid Being Part 8Life as a Hybrid Being Part 9Life as a Hybrid Being Part 9Life as a Hybrid Being Part 10Life as a Hybrid Being Part 11Life as a Hybrid Being Part 11Life as a Hybrid Being Part 12Life as a Hybrid Being Part 12
Life as a Hybrid Being: Introducing my first ever comic series What life is like behind the scenes of my SG United Virtual Events and Production class as a trainee.
What I I learnt during training: (1) It’s not the theory in the 148 page learners guide but relating to your fellow trainees. (2) The best way to defuse the tension when you are not sure if your trainer can pass the trainees.
The real life lesson to takeaway from this course is having a head knowledge of number 1 and practising number 2 by defusing the tension when your trainer comes into your zoom room.
Skills I mastered: How to defend your fellow trainees if your trainer knows that you love Harvard Training School and was mistakenly believed to be from Harvard University by a veteran commander. The best is to get your Trainer to come down to the trenches and know that if he can’t beat them into shape just join them.
Life as a Hybrid Being Part 1
Second part to my Life as a Hybrid Being comic after releasing the first part of my inaugural comic series last night.
Life as a Hybrid Being Part 2
Part 3 of Life as a Hybrid Being.
Artwork done by my fictional Lifestylelina Entertainment Pte Ltd company after launching my inaugural comic series. This is based on real life experience at my Hybrid events and production training programme bringing you some live entertainment.
As an INFP, I derive good dose of artistic fulfillment making comics out of everyday mundane training situations. A good way to destress during this tough mentally challenging season of life.
Cliche as the saying goes “to teach is to touch a life” I would concur with this view even though I don’t put on my teaching hat when it comes to being on LinkedIn. Most of the time, I often admired Linkedin top voices and hang around their livestreaming and LinkedIn stories thinking they would have more of an influence than my small circle of LinkedIn friends. Despite feeling that I can’t make an influence as I do not have a giant following, I still managed to use the cliche term “touch a life” or influence someone here and would like to recount my personal experience.
I was pleasantly surprise when a LinkedIn contact whom I started conversing with last year came back recently to ask for my opinion regarding making serious academic choices on which door will open or close. I am awed by how the young person was full of clarity and certainly regarding the choices he had to make and even entrusted me with an electronic letter of offer from an academic institution knowing it will stay in my hard disk.
Not working in Academia, I was still glad to be able to help the person to sort out his train of thoughts over whether to accept the academic offer knowing the terms and conditions clearly. I let him sort out his thought processes by discussing whether to wait for another offer and what are the next steps to take as it involves moving overseas or staying in the country in this current volatile climate.
I thought I would have given more sound advice on whether to pursue a course of action over another if I knew more about NUS Masters programme or the overseas university. However, I decided to give my opinion as a fellow peer knowing that I play a role in influencing his decision of study and subsequently career path ahead during this VUCA times.
I hope this encourages those who are in the position to influence someone to know that it takes courage to influence and speak into the life of others. Hopefully, neither being a Linkedin top voice nor having a PHD will not diminish our confidence in making a difference to the lives of others .
I attended orientation with NTUC Learning Hub and will be excited to know my course modules for Virtual Events and Production. I am happy to start my first four days learning all about community management from 8 March as I just received my courseware to start my online virtual learning.
Dual Monitors
Dual Monitors
During orientation for the Virtual Events and Production Course, I found out that we will need to have dual monitors to keep up with training. After dusting off an old PC monitor, I managed to set up dual monitors and it works well with the laptop connecting the PC monitor together.
Hopefully, I will be able to follow through lesson with Zoom on the laptop and referring to lesson notes and software on the other other monitor. So glad to set it up in one day as technology works like magic to me !
Since my youth I have a dream of being a teacher and had been in this industry for a decade or so. I weaved in an out of jobs suited for my idealistic self post university and been in positions to effect real changes to the community from serving the poorest to being there for the medically ill. Still, I felt that my calling is to be a teacher for a long period of time and thought that is the best job out there.
In the midst of the pandemic, I felt that I have been staying in my comfort zone for a long season where I felt no growth and have existential questions like do I see myself being a teacher for another few decades or so. I often question if I should even think of changing careers when I had the most packed schedule with good rates due to quality clients coming in 2021.
Nevertheless, I felt that precisely because I was doing well on my own as a freelancer I should prepare for the inevitable switch in season instead of waiting for a downturn. 2021 had been the year I thought I would act on finding dedicated and passionate career counselors during this never before pandemic in a tough labour climate. Never before had I felt that lost about what I want to do if I don’t build my identity on being a teacher.
It is a dark hole where I sink further and further into fearing that I will make wrong choices as I had a past of committing to wrong course of study and work. Amidst the roller coaster ride, I felt that I have been blessed with three career counselors from the Workforce Singapore who dared to take on a very challenging counselee to which I am glad to actively participate in a peer support programme in December to ride out the rollercoaster emotions of finding clarity about what I want to pursue.
I was fortunate to meet one who reciprocated my interest by going through a very professional platform like understanding personality fit to giving us the hard task of figuring out what are the in demand skills of the industry. I believe that I even have to put in more work in helping myself gain clarity by going for the tough homework. This where I diligently followed up with a comprehensive industry analysis by predicting what job roles are available for the next three to five years. This is by far the most difficult homework as I have to pore through data after data from Ministry of Manpower to Workforce Singapore’s skills mapping section.
Alongside going for career counselling, I felt that I wanted to go back to school and signed up for 6 courses with NTUC Learning Hub in the last quarter of last year. November 2021 was the month that I felt had been different from the past two years. I dared to dream of doing something else and had zero salary as I was focused on career redirection.
I am glad to end the season with strong affirmation from encouraging course mates and trainer. With that I thought I closed a chapter of training as I used up all my skillsfuture credit. I was glad November 2021 is different as I thoroughly enjoyed myself and wanted the training sessions to actually continue (given more skills future credit)
For three months thereafter, NTUC had been giving course previews for more training programmes. I had been attending a few course previews where they have comprehensive briefing for the 6 months of structured training and subsistence allowance given for all trainees. I did not dare to hastily apply for any programmes as I thought it might be too good to be true. This is because you get “paid” to study and I wanted to be very certain that the course is cut out for me.
Attending a webinar
Still, I continued to sign up for course previews after previews and have a better understanding of the nature of the programmes and scrutinize all the terms and conditions every time they have the session. Through it all, I felt that the training school is putting workers welfare at heart precisely because of the pandemic. Furthermore, with the labour climate being volatile I could see that they are giving all the financial and skills support they can to workers who want to “help” themselves upskill for 6 months.
I felt that I should make the decision to pursue something that will really get me excited and want to wake with passion again everyday instead of settling for the most pragmatic course. With that, I had to turn down a course in digital health and safety as that did not get me excited. I wanted to wait to choose something that I could pursue due to interest and person fit.
Finally, I attended a session closer to what I thought was my aligned to my idealistic self. What got me at the edge of my seat was the course called “Virtual events and production”. The course is so cool and cutting edge and it ignited my interest. When the showed the preview of the training studio with augmented reality and virtual reality I just knew that it was “the one”. That course just felt like the exact fit I was searching for. What got me to take action was that it was having it’s last batch of intake and its slated to be running on the 8th of March.
I was contacted by a consultant a few days after I applied and would have to go for an interview before being enrolled in the course. I decided to get back to NTUC learning hub with an interview scheduled last Thursday as this was the first choice and the one and only programme that I will consider for the next six months. I was glad that I had events experience managing community programmes in the past and conveyed that to the interviewers.
It was good news to finally confirm my training place where they put me on waiting list after receiving an email on Friday. Two days of waiting later, they finally confirmed the last spot. It was a Sunday when I heard a confirmation that I was on the programme and need to register immediately. I was excited to be living again as I was looking forward to pivoting to something new. This is unprecedented as I wanted to take a step into the unknown which will shake up my routines that I have been so used to for the last few years.
I felt that they had good mix of learning hybrid event management with new technologies on top of people skills. That will be an all inclusive course to strengthen my interest in helping people through knowledge of technical skills. This is something that I can understand and see the relevance of due to my previous work in the area of events.
Lastly, to bring a closure I would like to recount my Linkedin post on 27 February to which I have unprecedented number of visitors appearing on my posts. Never before did I have such support and encouragement when I have to make the transitions.
I have great news to share. I am removing my Linkedin profile “open to work” because I found a place I love after orientation. I didn’t know that I could like a work environment so much and calling a few people potential colleagues as I felt that my presence was welcomed there. This is after taking a step of faith by texting “I am happy about this arrangement” to a CEO and decided to show up for orientation. Now I am contemplating changing my self-employment freelance status to worker of an education institute.
I am thinking of updating my profile picture only as I would like to keep the company’s name confidential. This is because I am in the midst of sorting out my arrangements with my school as I may not want to put my decision to further my studies on hold. I have been selected to be on the waiting list for the programme to study. I am immensely grateful to those who walked with me on this journey especially the one who connected me with the job opportunity. I am thankful to those who have met me this season who have to put up with my bundle of nerves recounting the difficult decision making processes.
I am also sorry to not select certain outstanding educational institutes who have approached me on my Linkedin. When you have selected me and made an effort to invite me to interviews I really appreciate the effort whether Human resources or Centre directors. I have immense respect for the patience and dedication shown in arranging the interview sessions and I am thoroughly impressed by the meticulous effort made to sieve out my profile.
With 2022 being a tiger year I believe that there are good traits of the tiger I can emulate as I am actually a tiger year kid. However, I don’t yet possess the qualities of the tiger like courage, stealth and agility. More often I am timid and fearful like a mouse and stay in the comfort zone for as long as I can fearful of getting out there. Taking a few courses from adopting the agile mindset to the agile marketing enables me to identify these as weaknesses that I have. I do wish I could possess the agile mindset in the volatile and uncertain terrain I faced in the jungle.
I think being like a tiger takes a lot of deliberate steps to get out of negative thinking where my worries are somehow unfounded or even unreal. With the covid season bringing constant changes to dining in, my most cherished moment after the pandemic was dining in at Changi Airport in tiger wear.
Tiger dress at Changi AirportTiger year wishes
Tiger year wishes
My wish for the new year will be to have the courage to dine in with more people and see real life transformation in my new ventures. For starters my wish is to have the courage to write in to a newspaper with the help of a contact who had assiduously compiled all the list of contacts for the various newspaper who accepted his writing. He had written for The Business Times and a few ASEAN newspapers. It is a dream come true to meet the person in real life to know what it is like in the jungle of writing and how he persevered like a tiger with a laser sharp focus to become an accomplished writer for so many newspapers. I am glad to know the human struggles when one faces failure and yet still has the courage to move forward with boldness and stealth.
Writing is like a mala hotpot
I believe that the art and science of writing is like a mala hotpot where it has to be at the right flavour and spicy in order for it to be interesting. With that, I do receive a few compliments regarding my current blog by LinkedIn contacts. Glad to know that my content is interesting and well written to CEO’s. Another in the field of business found this blog interesting and that it will be a good adventure to embark on. Furthermore, I am glad to receive support from industries like information technology who holds writers in high regard and wish that I would be publishing a book soon.
With that I hope to get the right mix of flavours where I think writing is like eating a good mala hotpot. With that I wish everyone a happy tiger year with new adventures in the jungles of life.
Orangey and I chilling out as a bear is still lovely and cuddly
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