Readers of my old blog, Liberal Legend, might recall that I charted the strengthening of Hu Jintao's political position inside China by moving against the so-called "Shanghai faction" of the Chinese Communist Party. The Shanghai faction is apparently loyal to former President, Zhang Zemin. Ironically, it was members of this faction that tended to hold sway in Jiangxi Province when I worked there.
Chen Lianyi, the former Party Secretary of Shanghai, has apparently been kicked out of the Chinese Communist Party in the past week. An interesting act of retribution that will have put the fear of God amongst Jiang loyalists and probably Jiang Zemin himself. It may just become possible that Hu is going to move against the old man himself or potentially some of the "old Guard" themselves (Li Peng?). Li's family has been alledged, in true Taizi Dang fashion to have been involved in corruption and the use of Li's position to enrich themselves.
So, having hit the currently existing Shanghai faction, how far is Hu prepared to go? Will he also move against Zeng Qinghong who would have been Zhang Zemin's favoured successor?
The 17th Party Congress could prove even more interesting than the last one for seeing how powerful Hu Jintao really is.
Monday, 30 July 2007
Saturday, 28 July 2007
Returning from Kosovo in Triumph!
I'm delighted to report that my Management Development Programme was a great success with 10 very happy punters if the daily evaluation forms were to be believed. Very encouraging and it was fantastic to do what I love doing AND getting paid for it!
It seems that someone was listening to my concerns on Tuesday and I'm pleased to say that the Serbian delegation joined for the remaining two days of the programme. It was good to see the Albanians and Serbs cooperating together and it filled me with some optimism that a shared future of mutual coexistence might just be possible. Working in Kosovo has certainly helped me to put several things into perspective.
The weather was fantastic out there and I'm rather sorry that it is such a wet homecoming to Folkestone. Folkestone in the sunshine is such a great place and I am really hoping that we might get something of a summer here still.
I'm hoping that there will be some more training out there in Kosovo the not too distant future as I had a great time meeting with friends in the international development business and making new friends amongst the Kosovars who work on the project.
Now it's back to building up my West End Training business here in Kent through building up more relationships with local businesses and individuals. I can't wait for Monday!
It seems that someone was listening to my concerns on Tuesday and I'm pleased to say that the Serbian delegation joined for the remaining two days of the programme. It was good to see the Albanians and Serbs cooperating together and it filled me with some optimism that a shared future of mutual coexistence might just be possible. Working in Kosovo has certainly helped me to put several things into perspective.
The weather was fantastic out there and I'm rather sorry that it is such a wet homecoming to Folkestone. Folkestone in the sunshine is such a great place and I am really hoping that we might get something of a summer here still.
I'm hoping that there will be some more training out there in Kosovo the not too distant future as I had a great time meeting with friends in the international development business and making new friends amongst the Kosovars who work on the project.
Now it's back to building up my West End Training business here in Kent through building up more relationships with local businesses and individuals. I can't wait for Monday!
Tuesday, 24 July 2007
The Pity of War and the Joy of Training
Today was a bit of a jolt after several pleasant days spent in Pristina. I travelled this morning over to Mitrovica and I have to say that whereas Pristina has, on the whole, recovered from the 1999 conflict the situation on the road to Mitrovica showed a completely different side to Kosovo. In shades reminiscent of my trip to Bosnia-Hercegovina in October 1998, there were a significant number of bomb damaged, burnt out and bullet holed buildings along the main road between Prishtina and Mitrovica. Very sad to see.
My colleagues and I didn't cross over the river running through Mitrovica into the Serbian part of the city, instead we were training in a hotel on the south bank. Sadly, for reasons of concern for their personal security the would be Serb trainees didn't attend today. This made me personally sad since I have always taken the view that it is important for people to rub along together even if we don't always see eye to eye. Perhaps it is my instictive Liberalism that gives me this view.
The training went well today. Everyone seemed happy (including me) and I had my usual fun time delivering training on people management (which, according to one or two people near Folkestone, I apparently know nothing about) and project management. It's always good fun getting people actively involved in their learning and I also learned a lot about what it is like trying to run a legitimate business in Kosovo (difficult, apparently) - Don Liberali, take note.
I hope to see our Serb colleagues tomorrow and look forward to another day doing what I love doing - developing managers. Businesses in Kent, take note.
My colleagues and I didn't cross over the river running through Mitrovica into the Serbian part of the city, instead we were training in a hotel on the south bank. Sadly, for reasons of concern for their personal security the would be Serb trainees didn't attend today. This made me personally sad since I have always taken the view that it is important for people to rub along together even if we don't always see eye to eye. Perhaps it is my instictive Liberalism that gives me this view.
The training went well today. Everyone seemed happy (including me) and I had my usual fun time delivering training on people management (which, according to one or two people near Folkestone, I apparently know nothing about) and project management. It's always good fun getting people actively involved in their learning and I also learned a lot about what it is like trying to run a legitimate business in Kosovo (difficult, apparently) - Don Liberali, take note.
I hope to see our Serb colleagues tomorrow and look forward to another day doing what I love doing - developing managers. Businesses in Kent, take note.
Saturday, 21 July 2007
"Good Morning Prishtina"!
It's been a great time here in Prishtina. I've hardly had a chance to pause for breath as quite a few of my mates in international development are here working either with EU projects or for UNMIK.
Wednesday night reunited me with a Bulgarian friend, Dimitrina Karayotova, who I had the pleasure of training and coaching in her home country back in 2000. She's now working for the Kosovo Trust Agency, a body tasked with privatising many of the state owned enterprises in Kosovo.
Last night my friend Jim Duncan rolled in from Croatia where he's working on an EU project with the Ministry of Trade and Industry helping them to develop their SME policies. Jim and I worked together several years ago in both Chengdu and later Nanchang, China. We met up with Mike Mann who worked with us in Nanchang on the EU-China Enterprise Reform Project.
I got an early morning call to meet Jim and we went off to the Phoenix Bar near the UNMIK buildings to watch New Zealand beat Australia in the Tri-Nations Rugby. Then I met up with another of my China friends, Bill Cox and his wife Julia for lunch. It's all been go since I got here and I had to take an evening off to recover!
I'm also been well looked after by my local colleague Halit, who I will be sharing the pleasure of delivering the management development training next week in Mitrovica. I have to say that so far, working here in Kosovo has been a surprisingly very pleasant and positive experience. Long may it continue!
Wednesday night reunited me with a Bulgarian friend, Dimitrina Karayotova, who I had the pleasure of training and coaching in her home country back in 2000. She's now working for the Kosovo Trust Agency, a body tasked with privatising many of the state owned enterprises in Kosovo.
Last night my friend Jim Duncan rolled in from Croatia where he's working on an EU project with the Ministry of Trade and Industry helping them to develop their SME policies. Jim and I worked together several years ago in both Chengdu and later Nanchang, China. We met up with Mike Mann who worked with us in Nanchang on the EU-China Enterprise Reform Project.
I got an early morning call to meet Jim and we went off to the Phoenix Bar near the UNMIK buildings to watch New Zealand beat Australia in the Tri-Nations Rugby. Then I met up with another of my China friends, Bill Cox and his wife Julia for lunch. It's all been go since I got here and I had to take an evening off to recover!
I'm also been well looked after by my local colleague Halit, who I will be sharing the pleasure of delivering the management development training next week in Mitrovica. I have to say that so far, working here in Kosovo has been a surprisingly very pleasant and positive experience. Long may it continue!
Friday, 20 July 2007
Have the Wheels Come Off Cameron?
By-election junkie that I am I was compelled to stay up and watch Sky News last night (thanks to the ex-pat community here it is widely available in Prishtina) and follow the results of the by-elections. Congratulations to Greg Stone who did a great job with Ruth Milburn and the team up in Sedgefield and congratulations also to Nigel and the team in Ealing Southall. I'm sorry that I was not able to play a more active role.
Despite all the hard spin I think David Cameron will have been feeling rather concerned that the Tories are still not able to hack it in by-elections. He still does not seem to have been able to get it right with regards to candidate selection and the Tory grassroots have to be getting more and more frustrated. He's always wanted to do a Blair but to get more and more detached from the Party is perhaps not a wise strategy. Another failure like last night and he's likely to end up following IDS.
The only slight niggle I have is that the Tory vote did not collapse enough and enable us to take two seats. The Tories are probably not much more than spoilers now and Brown will have to fancy his chances if he calls a May 2008 General Election.
Despite all the hard spin I think David Cameron will have been feeling rather concerned that the Tories are still not able to hack it in by-elections. He still does not seem to have been able to get it right with regards to candidate selection and the Tory grassroots have to be getting more and more frustrated. He's always wanted to do a Blair but to get more and more detached from the Party is perhaps not a wise strategy. Another failure like last night and he's likely to end up following IDS.
The only slight niggle I have is that the Tory vote did not collapse enough and enable us to take two seats. The Tories are probably not much more than spoilers now and Brown will have to fancy his chances if he calls a May 2008 General Election.
Thursday, 19 July 2007
Boiling in Pristina
It's got to be said that Pristina is boiling for more than one reason. Firstly, it is about 40C here during the daytime which I don't mind so much and only wish we could enjoy something like that in Folkestone where the temperature struggles to get much above 20C for most of the time at the moment. Where DID that hot summer we were promised go?
The second reason relates to difficulties with the Russians. All the talk amongst the Kosovars is about difficulties with Putin (does that sound familiar?). He's not quite doing a Krushchev by banging his shoe on a table shouting "nyet, nyet, nyet" but he seems to be not far off. The Kosovars are getting rather impatient regarding the final status of Kosova and it has to be said that if they weren't Muslims then Vladimir Putin would probably not be on their Christmas card list.
They also revere Tony Blair (yes, I too share that collective "WHY?" that goes up from Liberal Democrats - hopefully Greg Stone will be Blair's replacement as MP within the next few hours) and more understandably they will soon be erecting a statue to Bill Clinton here in Prishtina.
I've now got to get back to work and burn the midnight oil preparing management training materials for next week. In the meantime Prishtina is buzzing tonight with talk about the future and uncertainty.
The second reason relates to difficulties with the Russians. All the talk amongst the Kosovars is about difficulties with Putin (does that sound familiar?). He's not quite doing a Krushchev by banging his shoe on a table shouting "nyet, nyet, nyet" but he seems to be not far off. The Kosovars are getting rather impatient regarding the final status of Kosova and it has to be said that if they weren't Muslims then Vladimir Putin would probably not be on their Christmas card list.
They also revere Tony Blair (yes, I too share that collective "WHY?" that goes up from Liberal Democrats - hopefully Greg Stone will be Blair's replacement as MP within the next few hours) and more understandably they will soon be erecting a statue to Bill Clinton here in Prishtina.
I've now got to get back to work and burn the midnight oil preparing management training materials for next week. In the meantime Prishtina is buzzing tonight with talk about the future and uncertainty.
Wednesday, 18 July 2007
Hello from Pristina
I've arrived safe and sound in Pristina and I have to say that the place is a lot better than I was expecting. Having worked in Bosnia in 1998 I was expecting some similarities in terms of bullet hole damaged buildings and so on. Although it is obvious that although the place is perhaps not amongst the best places architecturally (lots of 70s and 80s concrete blocks which wouldn't look out of place in back streets in China) it certainly isn't all that bad.
The UNMIK mission is clearly a major presence in the City and there are a significant number of ex-pats about. In fact, I met a friend from Bulgaria tonight who I had trained in 2000 and she now works for the Kosovo Trust Agency which is responsible for privatisation and liquidation of former state owned assets. I've been rather surprised at how small a world it is here in Kosovo having spoken to or heard of the exploits of a number of friends and acquaintances in the international development trade.
My Kosovar driver Bardh spoke fantastic English and was able to brief me on what was going on politically from a Kosovar point of view. Naturally there are at least two sides to every story but it does seem that there is quite a lot of tension in the air at the moment for various reasons.
Anyway, I shall meet my team leader tomorrow morning, the Italians who are running the project (which is working with disadvantaged groups in the Mitrovica area) and my local counterpart expert who I shall be delivering the training with next week.
GOOD LUCK GREG AND NIGEL FOR TOMORROW. I hope that we have great success in the by-elections tomorrow and I'm sorry that I can't be there to help.
The UNMIK mission is clearly a major presence in the City and there are a significant number of ex-pats about. In fact, I met a friend from Bulgaria tonight who I had trained in 2000 and she now works for the Kosovo Trust Agency which is responsible for privatisation and liquidation of former state owned assets. I've been rather surprised at how small a world it is here in Kosovo having spoken to or heard of the exploits of a number of friends and acquaintances in the international development trade.
My Kosovar driver Bardh spoke fantastic English and was able to brief me on what was going on politically from a Kosovar point of view. Naturally there are at least two sides to every story but it does seem that there is quite a lot of tension in the air at the moment for various reasons.
Anyway, I shall meet my team leader tomorrow morning, the Italians who are running the project (which is working with disadvantaged groups in the Mitrovica area) and my local counterpart expert who I shall be delivering the training with next week.
GOOD LUCK GREG AND NIGEL FOR TOMORROW. I hope that we have great success in the by-elections tomorrow and I'm sorry that I can't be there to help.
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