Globalisation 3.0

Professor Dani Rodrik, a professor from Harvard University presented at LSE last year about Globalisation 3.0.

What is Globalisation 3.0? Well, let me first establish how we've come from 1.0 to 3.0.

In Globalization 1.0, which began around 1492, the world went from size large to size medium. In Globalization 2.0, the era that introduced us to multinational companies, it went from size medium to size small. And then around 2000 came Globalization 3.0, in which the world went from being small to tiny. Today the world as we know it, is borderless.

For example, there's a huge difference between making long distance phone calls on the Internet today and sending letters twenty years ago, which were the most affordable means of communication at their times.

I have a Globalisation 3.0 story to share. It happened this morning.

A Canadian colleague burst out a familiar tune and sang, "...and the weekly top fortieeeeeeeeee..."

I looked over and said excitedly, "That's Rick Dees isn't it?"

Another Canadian colleague joined in, "O yes! How did you know that?! Did you hear that from the UK? Do we have it here? I miss that."

I told them I heard that from Malaysia and that we already have Rick Dees since the late 90s when a new radio channel was launched . This is globalisation 3.0, I suppose.

Bak Kua

I've always liked bak kua. Bak kua is basically a type of meat jerky usually eaten during the Chinese New Year.

It is very expensive for Malaysians or Singaporeans. For the price it is sold, it's presumably expensive by London's standard as well. That is why bak kua is a "presentable and posh" gift in house visits during CNY. It's not so much about people giving you meat, it's the price of the gift!

A kilogramme of bak kua is £14.50. But that's what we pay in KL. In London, that's sold at £50/kg. That's approximately 12 slices of bak kua, 13 if I could chat up the cashier. That's like paying more than £4 for a slice of ham! That's why I think it's still expensive by London's standard.

And it's not worth "smuggling" bak kua into the country as foreign meat products are banned from entering.

I'll be celebrating CNY in London this year. But CNY without bak kua is like Christmas without mince pies. So enough is enough. I decided to make my own bak kua this weekend.

With the wonders of the internet, I found plenty of bak kua recipes. One was Lily's recipe. The recipe was simple and ingredients easily available. With so many recipes available on the internet, it's just a matter of time someone perfected one to give Bee Cheng Hiang or Kiew Brothers' a run for their money. After all, bak kua as I realised, was neither too difficult nor expensive to make on our own. At the end of this article, you'd realise how much it cost me to make bak kua here.

Fiona came to help. We took 2 days to prepare and cook. One day to marinate and the other to bake and grill.

Marinated pork mince

Engineers work around constraints. In the absence of a rolling pin, we used a glass.

Meat over a baking tray to 3mm thickness

Baked meat cut in squares for grilling

The finished product

The result was surprisingly good - in appearance and taste. It was better than we expected, considering it was our first time. In fact, the appearance was so convincing when we served it to Amy, who came to visit, she couldn't believe we made them from scratch.

We got 9 slices of bak kua with 500g of pork mince. Total cost: £4.

Now I'm quite confident of an affordable supply of bak kua well into CNY. Orders, anyone?

Time Value of Money

Today the UK's Office for National Statistics announced that the annual inflation rate is at 2.9%. Our office has frozen pay for two consecutive terms now. Based on the time value of money and the inflation rate, we're effectively taking a pay cut of 2.9% now.

If we started earning £100 a year ago, this is equivalent to earning £97.10 today. But if a product was bought at £100 a year ago, the same product would cost £102.90 today. Simple maths. What does this mean? That we have to pay more for less, or having less to buy. Either way, this is not good for the economy.

What is anyway? In this time of recession, I guess we can only count our blessings that we are still gainfully employed. The time value of money is meaningless without an income.

Meeting the Deputy PM - Part 2

In the afternoon I received several emails from friends saying that they saw me on TV. They informed me of the news channels that I appeared on with the Deputy PM. Also in the video was Noris and Eskandar.

The following are extracts of three news footage from TV3 and NTV7 channels dated today.

Buletin Utama, TV3

Mandarin 7, NTV7

Meeting the Deputy PM

With the Deputy Prime Minister

Today after work I went to the Malaysian High Commission to meet the Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin. Noris and Eskandar were also there with me. The meeting was attended by over a hundred Malaysian professionals and students in and around London. Some came from as far as Plymouth and Oxford.

Before the meeting, I knew very little of our DPM because he was the new man who's taken up the portfolio only recently, some time in April 2009. I was not particularly interested in politics at the time because of petty political bickering that were happening in the country.

Tan Sri took on the questions thrown at him by the floor with tact. The questions touched on race-based politics, national key result areas like the state of our public transportation, education and tackling of crime; and the general state of our economy.

Speech by Tan Sri

He acknowledged that we still have lots to improve and there are challenges ahead. He was very honest about it. One particular subject which particularly drew my attention was on brain drain. He dismissed that as a serious problem at the moment. "We haven't reached a critical level yet," he said. He pointed out that we were still fortunate to have "brains to export" at the moment. However, he quickly added that the government was also working hard on a "brain gain" programme.

When I shook the hands of Tan Sri, he asked where I was studying. I said, "Cambridge but I've graduated." Then he asked, "Ah Cambridge...dah habis pulak. Bila nak balik ni? " (Ah Cambridge....so you've finished. When are you planning to return?). Feeling a little odd with the question, I quipped, "Soon Tan Sri. But let's take a photo of us in London before I go back to Malaysia." He smiled and obliged for the shot.

Also at the meeting was Datuk Saifuddin, Deputy Minister of Higher Education and Dr Rosman, Director of the Malaysian Student Department for UK and EIRE.

Datuk Saifuddin (3rd from left) and Dr Rosman (4th from left)

All in all, it was a good evening and meet up with other Malaysians.