Bouncing back

Taiwan | May 2010

For the "old China hands" news in recent weeks from Taiwan has provided us with a refreshing blast from the past. After all the doom and gloom or recent months there was an air of familiarity about the recent newspaper headlines such as we have not seen for a long time.

True with the Republic of China due to celebrate its centennial later this year, announcement that the slogan for the occasion would be "100 Years of Excellence" seemed to be more appropriate to a venerated department store than a country that has become an Asian wűnderkinder, but then, perhaps after all that is what Taiwan is all about. Democracy, liberty and personal freedom are all very well but it is the ring of the cash registers and (these days) the swiping of the credit card that give people here the warm fuzzies. And after all, talking about democracy and freedom under Ma Ying-jeou are tantamount to treason and best left off the agenda lest someone across the water gets offended.

So for a change, it is good news month! Firstly there is news that Taiwan's economy appears to be well and truly out of the recessionary tailspin of recent times and is once more gaining altitude. All major economic indicators have rebounded, the economy is in expansionary mode and activity has returned to pre-crisis levels. Importantly, consumer confidence is also increasing despite a doggedly high unemployment rate. Unemployment is coming down but only slowly and is proving to be the laggard in the recovery process. Nevertheless unemployment has fallen to a 14-month low but is predicted to remain above five percent for the rest of the year.

Most economic think tanks have again revised their economic growth targets for this year. The Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) is now forecasting GDP expansion of 5.11 percent year-on-year for 2010, while the other government think tank, the Chung Hua Institute of Economic Research is punting on 4.99 percent. The IMF set heads turning with its announcement in the latest World Economic Outlook report that it expected Taiwan to achieve a 6.5 percentage point growth. Amongst these heady announcements, the government is being a little more circumspect; the Council for Economic Planning and Development is saying that it expected the economy to grow "by at least five percent."

When Taiwan comes out of recession it does not mess around, it is bouncing back with a vengeance.

Exports are now expected to grow by 26.83 percent over the course of the year to US$258.3 billion, according to the TIER. This exceeds the previous estimate of a 10.51 percent increase to US$225.1 billion, by a wide margin.

This optimistic forecast comes on the strength or a rapid rebound in export sales during the first quarter. In March alone exports rose US$7.8 billion, or by 50.1 percent, year-on-year to $23.4 billion; while imports were up US$9.74 billion, or 80.3 percent to $21.9 billion. These were the highest levels recorded since the onset of the global financial crisis. The trade surplus reached US$1.5 billion in March according to the official figures.

Looking at the first quarter as a whole, exports rose by US$21.28 billion, or 52.5 percent from a year ago, to US$61.8 billion. This was the second-highest figure for that period in Taiwan's history. With export activity strengthening, local manufacturers are taking the opportunity to retool and reinvest in plant and equipment. This in turn is driving imports, which were up US$25.1 billion, or 78.4 percent, year-on-year for the quarter. Now admittedly, with the economy mired in recession this time last year, these numbers are influenced by the low base effect but it does mean that Taiwan's export driven economy is back on track—and in the fast lane.

Exports to China, including Hong Kong, rose to a record US$10.26 billion in March, accounting for 43.9 percent of total exports, followed by ASEAN at 14.4 percent and Europe at 10.5 percent.

Export orders in contrast to shipments are a means of looking ahead at the position in coming months. Again the figures are pleasing. Taiwan's export orders in March grew by 43.66 percent from a year earlier to US$34.39 billion. Reportedly this was the highest total in the Taiwan's history and came on the back of strong demand from Asia-Pacific markets for Taiwan's sophisticated electronic products. For the first quarter of the year, total orders amounted to US$92.2 billion—up by almost 50 percent from the same period last year and 28 percent higher than in the final quarter of 2008.

For the first quarter, total orders amounted to US$92.17 billion, up 49.31 percent from the same period last year and 28.03 percent higher than the previous quarter.

Foreign exchange reserves reached a record high of $355 billion topped only by China, Japan and Russia and higher that Korea, Hong Kong and India.

Now these are the numbers that Taiwanese like to hear.

Despite all the good news coming out of the statistical bureau, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was quick to sound a cautionary note claiming that Taiwan's export competitiveness had steadily declined over the past nine years in comparison with its major trade competitors, especially the other Asian tigers. Of course, this was meant to signal the need for Taiwan to sign the economic cooperation framework agreement with China (ECFA) which, so the government claims, will ensure Taiwan will not be marginalized in the wake of the creation of the ASEAN Plus One (China) free trade area.

Others disagree claiming that despite the agreement between China and ASEAN, Taiwan's economy is proving exceptionally resilient—as the latest export figures show. The fear is the hub and spoke effect whereby Taiwan's future exports to ASEAN would be funnelled through China rather than allowing Taiwan to continue to deal directly with its ASEAN neighbours.

The problem with any proposed agreement with China is that the "devil is in the detail" and the government has been rather coy about revealing any of the detail. It hopes that the framework agreement will be ready for signature within the next two months but President Ma has repeatedly ducked questions as to whether it will be put to the legislature for ratification or not. The implication is that it will not.

What is in the proposed agreement is still a matter of conjecture. Since negotiations are still underway and the issue has such sensitivity—very few people are neutral about it; most have either strong views in favour or strong views against—this is understandable. Much has been made of the so-called "early harvest" provisions which, so the government claims, will bring early benefits to Taiwan by reducing tariffs on a number of items—but so far we do not know which. President Ma has stated that the agreement will not allow Chinese agricultural items into Taiwan thereby protecting Taiwan's own farmers; nor will it allow Chinese labour into Taiwan. Probably it does not need to do so because already most Taiwanese factories are located on the Chinese mainland anyhow. If there has been any rational debate in the local press it has been over the investment conditions, and more precisely, the laws that limit China's state-owned corporations investing into Taiwanese companies. Already China is circumventing these conditions by investments through Hong Kong companies to gain greater leverage in Taiwan's commercial and financial sector.

So is the ECFA a Trojan horse, a gun to Taiwan's head or a panacea to solve all problems? You can find it described as all of these and much more. One thing is certain however, President Ma intends to push it through at whatever cost. People can do nothing other than watch and hope that it will not be a replica of the closer economic partnership agreement Chine signed with Hong Kong.

White slavery

Reza comes from the province of Zambales in the Philippines. Her home is a small town just north of the Subic Bay Freeport. She is 29 years old but no longer working. She is seeking to recover from tuberculosis which she contracted during the short period she spend in the United Arab Emirates.

Reza is a beautician by training having graduated from a local college in Olongopo, the nearest major town to her home. Previously, she ran her own beauty shop, employed two other staff and while not exactly making her fortune, she was doing well and supporting her family.

But the grass is always greener elsewhere and Reza was impressed by a local labour recruiting agency that passed through her town one day looking for people who were prepared to spend a year working in the United Arab Emirates. As a trained beautician, her skills would be much in demand they said. There were many Filipinos running successful parlours in the Middle East; why should she not be one of them?

She took the bait and a few weeks later was on her way to Dubai. She had sold her business to raise the funds needed by the agency for her visa and employment processing and this had taken pretty much all she had. "Never mind," she thought, "I can make this back and much more in just a few short months." How wrong, she proved to be. It was only when she was on her way to the Manila International Airport, that she realized that she had been given a one-month visitor visa and not the employment visa she had expected. "Don't worry" she was assured by her escort "this is just to get you there quickly, once you are in the UAE our agency will change the visa for you." This was her first inkling that something might be amiss, but it was too late to do anything now, "better go there and sort it out after arrival," she thought.

Reza stepped off the plane at Dubai airport and was met by another Filipina, a young girl with a round face, slightly plump but friendly enough. The girl took her hand and introduced herself as Diane and who, Reza judged, was of similar age. A good sign, Reza thought, already I have a friend. Diane took the passport and papers from her and told her it was to change her visa. She was then taken to her accommodation, which was a small dingy room in an old decrepit apartment building that she was told she would have to share with five other girls. There were two sets of three-tier bunks in the room but little else. Her unease was starting to return as the reality was proving to be quite different to the picture that had been painted to her before she signed up.

Then came the shocking news from Diane that to change her status from that of a visitor visa to an employment visa, the agency would charge her an additional AED17,000 (around US$4,600). Her shock at this news was instantaneous and devastating. She was told by Diane that instead of her intended employment, she would be put to work in a bar so she could earn a better income and she could easily pay this money back. Once she had paid this amount she would be free to keep her earnings for herself but until this time, any money she made would have to be paid to Diane, who was in effect her mamasan. Only then, did the cold blast of reality hit her with full force and Reza froze with the realization of what she had got herself into.

That night she was picked up with the other girls and taken to one of the hotel bars that abound in Dubai. It is only in the hotels that alcohol is allowed to be served and expatriates as well as wealthy Arabs congregate in these places in droves each evening; some to the extent of having the best tables permanently reserved for their use. One of the girls with her, Jenalyn, realizing her state of agitation sought to take her under her wing. On arriving at the bar, Jenalyn looked around for some familiar faces and found a couple she knew slightly, a British expatriate businessman who was there with his Filipina wife. She introduced Reza to the couple explaining that she was new in town. The couple offered Reza to join them and brought her a drink. Very quickly, they learned the story which did not surprise them, they had heard it all before although the price demanded by Diane for return of Reza's papers surprised them somewhat. They left the bar with Reza shortly after paying her bar fine and explained that she could stay at their place for the evening, promising to make some phone calls the following morning to see if they could assist her in finding legitimate work.

They had not been in their car for more than a few minutes when Reza's phone rang. It was Diane demanding to know how much the couple were paying her. The phone was taken from her by the couple and Diane was told in no uncertain terms that where she was going, what she was doing and what she would be paid was no business of hers.

That night Reza was well looked after. She had a good meal and she was given some money by the couple the following morning and told to say as little as possible to her mamasan but to keep in touch, and they would try and see what they could do using their connections.

Things did not progress quickly and Reza had no choice but to work the bar as a prostitute. Diane was never out of sight and Reza had to turn over all her income. Unbeknown to Diane, Jenalyn continued to slip her sufficient cash to buy a cell phone load so that she could stay in contact with the outside world – small though it was.

This situation continued for three months. Reza's agency obtained two one month extensions for her to her original visa but at the end of the third month she had to leave the UAE for a while and took the least costly option used by expats on limited budgets—a trip to Kish Island off the coast of Iran.

Kish Island is a duty free port and resort area. Politically, it is part of the Hermozgān Province of Iran. An island of only 21,000 residents, it nevertheless attracts five million visitors a year chiefly because no visa is needed to visit the island and travel permits can be issued after arrival. This explains its attraction for those expatriates needing to undertake visa runs.

The island boasts of many fine resorts and coral reefs for those wishing to explore them but Reza's visit was under much more basic conditions. She was advised to go and wait on the island while her new visa was processed. It would then be sent to her by fax enabling her to return to Dubai and her original visa papers would be waiting there at the airport on her return. This process would take only a few days to complete but, of course, required additional cash which Reza had to borrow from her friends and pay to Diane before she left.

Arriving on Kish and with only very little money in her pocket she was forced to stay in the cheapest accommodation possible. Her budget for food and accommodation was only AED50 (US$13.50) per day. Or to put this in purchasing power terms, this represented about the cost of one Big Mac meal. In her circumstances, she had no choice but to opt for the cheapest room she could find and which she shared with nine others. The place was squalid and without running water or proper sanitation but she reasoned she could endure it for two or three nights.

Again she found her plight to be worse than she imagined. She arrived on Kish Island on 14 December 2008 and did not manage to return to Dubai until 30 January. After waiting on the island for a week without hearing from Diane she quickly realized that she had been double-crossed and that Diane had taken her money without any intention of processing a new visa application. She was to be left stranded. She used the last of her cash to phone her British friends and beg assistance anew which they readily gave. Through their efforts she was eventually given a visa and the money needed to return to Dubai and was met by Jenalyn at the airport upon her return.

Jenalyn explains: "I was shocked at her condition and at first did not recognise her. She had lost around 10 kilograms in weight and looked terribly gaunt and agitated. She appeared to have aged 10 years in the space of just six weeks and could barely bring herself to recount her ordeal. It took us several days to tease it all out of her. It was a shocking story."

Even after several days resting at their home, Reza continued to feel listless and her condition showed little sign of improvement. It was only then that the couple realized that Reza was in fact ill and they took her to their company doctor for a medical check-up. There they heard the grim news; Reza had contracted tuberculosis as a result of her stay on Kish.

TB is a notifiable disease and Reza was transferred immediately to the isolation ward of al Rashid hospital in Dubai where treatment is free. The downside is that anyone with TB is deported from the Emirates and she was only allowed to stay in hospital and receive treatment for as long as it took to arrange her exit papers and her return to the Philippines as soon as she was well enough to travel.

Her friends visited her at the hospital every day and took her Filipino food in an effort to cheer her up. They were the only visitors she had during her entire confinement. They notified the Philippine Embassy as well as Diane but she had no other visitors.

But that is not the end of this story. Her friends also made contact with another journalist friend of theirs whose newspaper is now investigating the story. With the cooperation of the UAE authorities, this particular agency is under investigation and charges may yet be laid against certain Emirati and Filipino nationals as well as—possibly—others. It may be too late to help Reza in any meaningful way, but publication of her story, might perhaps provide a cautionary warning to others who may be contemplating the prospects of making easy money.

The one day of the year

Many countries set aside one day each year to honour their soldiers, especially those who died in battle, and Australia is no exception.

On 25 April each year, Australians – as well as New Zealanders – celebrate ANZAC DAY. Together with Christmas Day and Easter, this day is regarded as one of the most important in the national calendar. Unlike, Christmas and Easter which are occasions observed throughout the Christian world, ANZAC Day is unique to Australia and the South Pacific.

The word ANZAC is derived from the term "Australia and New Zealand Army Corps". It marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand soldiers during the First World War. When war broke out in 1914, Australia had been united as a Commonwealth for only 13 years; until 1901, it had been a collection of independent states and territories. Originally, ANZAC Day was intended to honour the soldiers who fought at Gallipoli in Turkey. April 25 marks the date of the first landing on the beaches of Turkey in 1915 at the start of what was to become a fierce eight-month long campaign. But now its significance has broadened to commemorate all those who died and served in military operations for their countries.

According to the official history of ANZAC Day posted on the website of the Australian War Memorial:

The Australian and New Zealand forces landed on Gallipoli on 25 April, meeting fierce resistance from the Ottoman Turkish defenders. What had been planned as a bold stroke to knock Turkey out of the war quickly became a stalemate, and the campaign dragged on for eight months. At the end of 1915 the allied forces were evacuated, after both sides had suffered heavy casualties and endured great hardships. Over 8,000 Australian soldiers had been killed. News of the landing on Gallipoli had made a profound impact on Australians at home, and 25 April soon became the day on which Australians remembered the sacrifice of those who had died in the war.

Although the Gallipoli campaign failed in its military objectives, the Australian and New Zealand actions during the campaign left us all a powerful legacy. The creation of what became known as the "ANZAC legend" became an important part of the identity of both nations, shaping the ways they viewed both their past and their future.

The 25^th April was officially named as ANZAC Day in 1916 and quickly developed into a national day of commemoration for the 60,000 Australian troops that died in that war. Commemorative services are held at dawn throughout the country to mark the time of the landing and where usually the "Ode of Remembrance" authored by Laurence Binyon is read aloud prior to a period of silent observance:

They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old.
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

Usually the words Lest we forget are added at the end of the ode and before the period of silent observance. In many observations a bugler also plays The Last Post.

Binyon (1869–1943) was an English poet and art critic who worked at the British Museum before joining the British Army to fight in WW1. Actually the ode is part of a larger poem written in 1914 and known as For the Fallen. It was written just after the Battle of the Marne to honour the British war dead although nowadays the third and fourth stanzas have become a tribute to all casualties of war regardless of nation. The entire poem is reproduced at the end of this piece.

In Australia and New Zealand, the day is observed in two parts. In the early hours and throughout the morning, the emphasis is on solemnity and reflection, mourning those who have died in war and, these days especially, the futility of war. Shops remain closed and people congregate throughout the country to pay respect not only to those who died but also the veterans and those who continue to wear a military uniform in order to defend us.

In the afternoon the mood changes and from a period of solemn reflection, the focus is on friends, family and the enjoyment of life while we have it.

It is worth remembering that ANZAC Day does not celebrate a military victory since the allied forces were roundly defeated at Gallipoli. Alan Seymor in his 1960 play about Anzac Day "The One Day of the Year" summed up the national psyche in a single line:

They tried and they was beaten. A man's not too bad who'll stand up in the street and remember when he was licked.

In essence, while many other countries celebrate their victories, Australians and New Zealanders are proud to remember the heroism of their soldiers in defeat.

But perhaps, the most moving lines of all are those written not in Australia, New Zealand or even England but rather by the Commander of the Turkish forces, Mustafa Kemal Atatűrk, who later went on to become the first President of Turkey when it became a republic in 1923 and who wrote a tribute to the fallen ANZACs in the following terms:

Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives... You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side now here in this country of ours... you, the mothers, who sent their sons from faraway countries wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land. They have become our sons as well.

For The Fallen
With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children, 
England mourns for her dead across the sea. 
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit, 
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal 
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres, 
There is music in the midst of desolation 
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young, 
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow. 
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted; 
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: 
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn. 
At the going down of the sun and in the morning 
We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again; 
They sit no more at familiar tables of home; 
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time; 
They sleep beyond England's foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound, 
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight, 
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known 
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust, 
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain; 
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness, 
To the end, to the end, they remain.

Stories from the gate

Every day, runaway workers can be seen milling around the gate at the entrance to the Labour Office of the Philippine Embassy in Abu Dhabi. Despite the risk, they run away because of ill-treatment. Overwork, no pay as well as physical or mental abuse are their common complaints.

Cielo had worked for four years for a local family and during that time had been denied any communication with her family in the Philippines. Upon arrival, her cellular phone had been confiscated and she was not allowed to leave the house, even on her supposed day off. She explained that in the entire four years of working for her employer she had been able to send money home only once and this amounted to AED 2,500 (USD 680 approx.). Once when she attempted to escape, she was caught by the wife of her employer and as punishment she was held down while a hot iron was pressed against her arm and her stomach. In September 2007, she finally managed to escape and make her way to the Philippine Embassy in Abu Dhabi which is now handling her case. Six months later, matters are still not resolved.

Theresa comes originally from Antique, a province in the Central Philippines and has six children at home that she is seeking to support. She came to the UAE to work for an Arab employer and signed a contract for two years with a Manila-based employment agency. Her specified monthly salary is supposedly AED 750 (USD 204) but for the past eight months she has not been paid at all. In desperation, she ran away. She explained that not only did she receive no money for her work but she was often physically abused by her employer and her employer's 10-year old child who had taken to biting her arm as a means of getting attention. She was unable to complain as the excuse of her employer was simply that had she been attending properly to his needs, he would not have had reason to bite her. The fault was therefore her own. Her arm has now become infected. She was constantly being accused of stealing jewellery, money and other valuables and was allowed no privacy at all. She was unable to close the door of her room and her employer would conduct random checks of her personal possessions. She was not allowed a mobile phone nor any means of communication with the outside world. When her arm became infected because of the constancy of the bites inflicted on her she managed to run away. She is now receiving medical attention but her future is unsure and she is destitute.

Rowena trained as Janitress in Manila in preparation for overseas employment and signed a two-year contract to work as a janitress in the UAE at a monthly salary of AED 1,500. Upon arrival, she was told that her original job was no longer available and she would be employed as a domestic servant at a salary of AED 700 per month or less than half of what she had expected. Because she needed the work she had no choice but to take the new contract but found that her life was a miserable one. She had to work seven days a week, was allowed no rest and no privacy. If she took a rest break from her duties she was accused of laziness. She was constantly being verbally abused and accused of stealing— even to the point of food items that went (supposedly) missing from the refrigerator. In the end, she could take no more and exhausted, she fled to the Labour Office of the Philippine Embassy, seeking their help to return to her family.

Angelita worked for Lebanese family and had already completed 17 months of her two-year contract without a break. Recently, she asked her employer for 15 days vacation in order to visit her family in the Philippines and sort out some personal problems but her request was refused and she was hit by her employer when she sought to intercede with him to allow her request. Fearing that she would be penalized for daring to argue with her employer, she escaped from the house and is now seeking the means to return to Manila.

Fedeliza worked as a housemaid for a family in which there were 13 children to care for plus the parents of her employer. There were only two domestic helpers in the house to care for a large and demanding family. Her companion was a Bangladeshi and both were constantly exhausted from overwork and lack of rest. They could be called upon at any time of the day or night and were expected to respond immediately. Despite having a contract that paid AED 700 a month, her employer had given her only AED 500 a month. She escaped from the household when her male employer started molesting her.

Sandra had been hired as a driver but instead, was forced to work as a domestic helper. She was accused of stealing jewellery, punched and slapped and had been locked in a room for one week. She had not been paid her salary. When she asked if she could leave and go back to the Philippines, her employer had demanded that she pay them USD 2,000 by way of compensation. Scared of her situation and what her employer might do to her, she jumped from a second floor window in order to escape.

Rowena said she came to the Embassy because her employer had been treating her badly. She had been asked not to communicate with her family in the Philippines but, as she explained, she has a young daughter and needs to keep in touch, even if it is only once a week. Out of her salary, she bought for herself a small mobile phone but her employer found the phone. Not only was her phone confiscated, so was all her money so she could not buy another one. She tried several times to get out of the house but the door and gates were kept locked and the security guard employed by the family had been ordered not to allow Rowena out of the house. At one point she had tried to suicide by overdosing on medicine but all that happened was that she became ill. Luckily she found her opportunity to escape at 4 am one morning when the guard was absent from his post. She found the key to the gate and managed to take with her, her most important possessions. She would like to find alternative employment in the Emirates but is scared because the employment agency with which she signed her contract is looking for her and has demanded her family pay them USD 500 as compensation for not completing her contract.

***

 

 

Preface to my new book – Effective writing | Combining creativity with productivity

As you may have seen already, this manual is dedicated to my former English teacher at Marion High School in South Australia, Mrs. Durney (or was it Gurney? – fifty years is a long time) who first encouraged me to write. My top three subjects at school were English, Geography and Physics and those subjects seem to have dogged me throughout my life. I went to Adelaide University, studied Science/Engineering (subjects that in the sixties were deemed more useful than writing and map reading) and when I was awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship to undertake a Ph.D., the engineering side fell away.

For my postgraduate years I moved into a university college (Kathleen Lumley on Finnis Street or "Mum Lum" as we affectionately called her) and enjoyed the student life to the full. Many of my friends came from the Zoology Department and a life transforming experience occured one evening when they returned from the bush with a dead emu in the back of the departmental ute. They had run over it in their vehicle some miles north of Adelaide (that at least was the story). "What to do with a dead emu?" was the question being tossed around and the obvious answer came from one of our number who asked rhetorically "I wonder what it tastes like?" For the next week, the dead emu was strung up in the men's shower block "to cure" much to the consternation of those among us who were not "in" on the background to the story.

One week later, on a balmy Adelaide Sunday evening a group of us gathered in the college courtyard, donned our dinner jackets, fetched our escorts and sat down al fresco to eat the slow-roasted emu. It was a memorable evening for two reasons: firstly it kindled in me a love of cooking—a passion that has stayed with me thoughout my life— and especially well-tempered dinner parties with fine home-cooked food, good companionship and copious amounts of red wine to lubricate the occasion; and secondly because my date that evening was a beautifal young woman, a nurse from the Adelaide Hospital by the name of Roma Carboni. Roma was a striking young woman of Mediteranean extraction; quite tall with beautiful long legs that she displayed to advantage, jet black hair that flowed down to her waist and piercing eyes that made her the look like the younger sister of Nana Mouskouri. At last, she had consented to go out with me. Yes, it was a memorable evening, but the rest I will leave to your imagination for a while.

The point in starting this book with a story is simply to stress that there are such stories in all of us. Many of them will never be written down or passed on. What a great pity. In this age of e-mail, voice-mail and Twitter, the art of writing anything beyond a shorthand message "CU L8er" is slowly passing from many of us. Yet, being able to marshall our thoughts and write something that will be both informative and pleasurable for the intended readership is, like cooking, a skill worth cultivating; especially for those of you studying at (or for) college and called upon to write term papers, academic reports or thesis dissertations; or for that matter, those of you in business where you may be the member of your team tagged to draft the annual report or corporate compliance document. Learning to write is a skill worth cultivating.

With the power of modern word-processing programs, especially Word 2007 which is a writer's dream (I'm a computer program and Word 2007 was my idea) writers and editors now have high quality tools at their disposal to help them in organising, writing and tracking their work. My own experience as an editor suggests that few authors realise the full extent of the tools they now have and use their computer keyboard in much the same way as they did the typewriter of old. Breaks at the end of each line instead of allowing word wrap to do its job and indents using the tab key or space bar are very common and it was traits such as these that first gave me the idea that many writers may need help.

But I have digressed somewhat and must first finish telling my own story. During my final year at college and no doubt because of my culinary skills and ability to quaff Coonawarra Claret (as it was then called) by the bottle, I was elected President of the Adelaide University Postgraduates Association. Aside from getting to carry the ceremonial mace at the annual graduation ceremony, my chief role was to nag at the government in Canberra to give more money to postgraduate scholars. I must have been a pain in the neck because I was deemed good public service material and was invited unexpectedly to apply for a trainee diplomat position with the then Department of Foreign Affairs. Out of 1500 applicants they took forty that year and I was one of the lucky ones. I spent a year being retrained as a political and economic analyst before being shipped off to Vienna to learn German and work with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Subsequently, my diplomatic career took me to Hong Kong to spend three years as a China-watcher. Those were the days when the China Daily (or Xinhua Times as it was then called) carried banner headlines such as "Chairman Hua Guofeng urges cadres to firmly grasp electricity" and the other memorable one that I saved for many years "Chairman Hua Guofeng urges Xiangzhi peasants to go all out to promote rape".

I well recall my first visit to China when I was taken to watch a local Shanghai ballet by my minder
(... I mean "tour guide") and sat three hours in agony through a concert which was titled "Vigilently kill all American imperialists and their capitalist running dogs". If this was not enough, it was performed entirely by a group of precocious 10-year olds carrying rifles and wearing uniforms of the People's Liberation Army. How times change.

No, actually the incident above was the second most excrutiating experience of my diplomatic life. The very experience was in Budapest on a consular visit during my Vienna days where I was kindly given VIP seats to the Budapest Circus by the protocol department of the Hungarian Foreign Ministry. How they took their revenge on the West at that time!! Dear reader, never sit in the front row of a circus especially if you are within touching distance of a herd of performing elephants each one experiencing flatulence from their last meal of fodder as they posed on one leg for the crowd. The occurrence was excrutiating and, in my entire life, I have never held my breath as long as I did during that performance. And all throughout, for the honour of Australia, I kept a smile on my face. If anything was worth an AO I reckon that was but the letter never came.

After Hong Kong, I spent almost four years in Seoul, Korea. For one year I was a language student and for the other three I worked as Counsellor and Deputy Head of Mission at the Australian Embassy. I was the best Korean speaker in the embassy for much of the time and was judged to be an "intermediate speaker" by my language school. The truth finally came rudely home when I was about to leave and at a farewell dinner hosted by some good Korean friends, the wife of the host turned to me and said in perfect English: "Dr Clancy, you try so very hard to speak Korean and we admire you for that. But, I have to tell you, you speak it like a four-year old." At that point I decided I was not a linguist and had better stick to English as my medium of communication for the future.

In 1988 I decided to strike out on my own. I had been smitten by the dynamism of Asia and the transformation that was occuring on Australia's doorstep. It was an exciting place and the region where I wanted to be. Had I stayed in DFAT I reckoned I was overdue for a stint in deepest Africa or worse as the consul in Los Angeles ("The Ambassador to Disneyland" as the post was called).

So I parted ways with the Australian Government and became master of my own destiny. I spent ten years in Taipei, Taiwan—a place I had often overflown but never been able to visit and which I thought was little understood by Australia. With the opening of China I saw Taiwan as crucial to North Asia's future. Alas, I had overlooked the even greater potential of Shanghai. Business went well for a while although as Shanghai boomed many of my clients left town. It is a place I remember with affection but the beginning of the end came for me on 30 June 1997 when a group of us assembled on the roof of the Ritz Landis Hotel on Min Chuan East Road to bid farwell to Hong Kong as we knew her. At that gathering one dear Canadian friend of mine, in introducing me to a newcomer to the town, turned to me and said to the newbie: "... and this is Mike Clancy, he is one of the old hands; he will never leave." Thank you Lee, you gave me another of my life-changing epiphanies. The following day I got up, made coffee and started to plan my exit strategy.

My business at that time was primarily in the area of market research and risk analysis and I had done some work for The Economist drafting specialised EIU reports related to Taiwan. Through that connection I had been approached by the Butterworth Heineman Group out of Singapore to write a "Business Guide to Taiwan", an assignment I accepted with alacrity. It took almost a year to write but was another formative experience—it opened me to the world of publishing.

Writing that first book required a lot of background research as well as data entry and with one of my friends from Sydney days now resident in the Philippines I opened a small office there to process data and key in all the spreadsheet information I needed for my book. That gave me the idea to relocate from Taipei to Manila, a transition that was two years in the making. I actually arrived in Manila in January 2001 on the same day that the Philippine Senate, investigating the shenanigans of then President Estraa voted not to open the Jose Velarde envelopes. It was a short-lived victory for the Estrada camp and one that quickly backfired. Less than a month later he was deemed to have resigned the presidency. So began a rambunctious decade living in Southeast Asia.

I stayed in the Philippines for more than eight years, met and married my second wife and became friends with some of the most generous and wonderful people on the planet. Sadly, however, it is a country bedevilled by politics and can never quite get ahead. It is either a country you love to hate or a country you hate to love and I was one of the latter. Our business prospered there in a quiet sort of way and for the last four years our small company was the local franchisee of Corporate Network, a business-to-business service of Economist Intelligence Unit. I continued to write my monthly newsletter on Taiwan that I had started in 1998 and in 2001 added to it a similar newsletter on the Philippines. Both of these I publish to the present day through NewNations.com an online NGO dedicated to democracy and transparency, especially in the emerging economies. Having been infected with the bug, I now find the discipline of writing to be quite therapeutic.

Our company included a small team of research analysts whose work I supervised and edited. Aside from producing a business guide to the Philippines as well as regular business reports for our members, we also founded the Philippine Business Review, a journal dedicated to showcasing the best of the country. I also began writing and editing under contract and that allowed me to develop my own exit strategy. In 2008 I left the company behind me and struck out on my own once more as an independent writer and editor with contracts from the Asian Development Bank and the International Labour Organization.

My life has come full circle. I now live on the Gold Coast, Australia with my wife of eight years and after a lifetime of learning geography the hard way, I am now making my living as a writer and editor, specialising in scientific and technical subjects along with political and economic analysis. Having worked over the past eighteen months full-time with authors whose first language is not English, and finding some of them quite suspicious of editors (we are not as bad as we are made out to be) I saw a need for a handbook written by editors for authors.

If i learned one thing from living in Asia, it was never to confront a person directly with criticism; rather make your point indirectly. The first handbook on effectrive writing, prepared for the Manila Office of the ILO in 2009 was the result of that approach to dealing with problems. Now back in Australia, I have been encouraged to "Australianise" the original piece and develop it as a course that can be used to train people in the art of writing—or at least give them some ideas to think about. So in the final quarter of 2009 I sat down to start the rewrite. Since the ADB uses US English and Chicago Style while the ILO uses British English and UN style; as a good editor, I used this as an oportunity to reaquaint myself with Australian English and learn about Australian style. I also reengineered the material somewhat so that it could provide the basis for a short course in effective writing.

So it has taken me four pages, about 2,500 words and forty years but that is the story of how I came to write this book. We all have our stories. I hope I can encourage you to tell yours.

Michael Clancy
Mermaid Waters, Queensland 4218

January 2010

PS. Emu meat is quite strong but tastes very good; alas Roma moved on to greener pastures and I did not see her again.

New blog; new post

If you are reading this, then "thank you." This is my new blog just for the effective writing course that I have recently developed. It may take a bit of time to get this going but this is the place set aside for discussion of issues surrounding effective writing - or to use the tagline "combining creativity with productivity."

You will find more on my general website at www.thecreativegenie.com.au and specific course content is to be found at www.workingwithwords.com.au.