Living on the edge

Hong Kong, with its towering skyscrapers, bustling streets and scenic islands is more than just a special administrative region of China; it’s a melting pot of cultures, traditions and beliefs. In some ways Lo Ting, Hong Kong’s distinctive mythical creature, which supposedly still resides in family groups on and around the island of Lantau, is an apt emblem for the region. Being half-man, half-fish, a Lo Ting is able to straddle and survive in two environments, much like Hong Kong itself has thrived as a crossing point between the East and the West. But there is more to Lo Ting than its ability to cope in challenging conditions. I think it has much to tell us about DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) and the way we treat and accept others.

Jimmy Keung’s Lo Ting sculpture that was commissioned by Oscar Ho
for the 1997 exhibition at the HKAC – Photo by Ilaria

Lo Ting’s are first mentioned by a civil servant in the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE). He was compiling a census of the region and gives descriptions of an amphibious species living near Lantau. By the Qing Dynasty there is an explanation as to how the Lo Ting evolved. It is claimed that initially they were warriors who fought for General Lu Xun (still a popular character in martial art films and manga), to try and overthrow the Jin Dynasty. Lu Xun led an unsuccessful rebellion in 410CE. His army was forced to flee from revenging imperial authorities – this resulted in their hiding and living “little better than beasts”, partially on land and partially at sea around the southern islands. Gradually these people became viewed as being amphibian and hence the legend of the Lo Ting began. Lo Tings lived secluded lives at the margins of society. Supposedly, in addition to relying on fishing, they became salt producers on Lantau; until, in 1197CE, the Song Emperor decided to nationalise salt production, resulting in a massacre of salt manufacturers during which most Lo Ting and significant numbers of the Tanka boat people were killed.

Linking the Lo Ting to the Tanka is significant. The Tanka still exist, a declining community, some of whom continue to live in their fishing boats on the shores of Hong Kong and neighbouring regions. For centuries they have been persecuted by those in power and the wider public. Colloquially referred to a “sea gypsies”, in the 18th century they were banned from marrying outside their community or from living onshore; the land-dwelling farmers fought them to prevent them from getting land; and more recently their fishing-based lifestyle has been impacted by stringent environmental laws and government policy.

People tend to overlook or reject those whom they see as different from themselves and whom they believe could potentially be a threat or awkward to interact with. All too often, we make assumptions. The colour of a person’s skin tells you nothing about their religious beliefs. The fact that someone is sixty does not indicate that they are ready to retire or wish to slow down. A fatter than average person is not de facto lazy. Youth does not prevent someone from being an excellent manager. Being female doesn’t make you a bad driver. Being male doesn’t make you a bad nurse. It is very easy to stereotype. We form opinions thanks to our own upbringings and experiences, but by excluding people or groups we diminish our own and our organisations’ ability to innovate and progress. So often the best ideas can come from an unexpected sources – frequently the new joiner to a company questions why things are done in a certain way and proposes a new and better approach – listen to them; an individual joining from a different industry can make suggestions that will enhance a product or way of communicating (virtual reality, initially developed for gaming, is now being used for training in medicine and industry and AI is transforming Finance and smart analysis of data is enhancing education and the outcomes for children). Rather than marginalising those who stand out as being different, we should welcome them and celebrate what they have to offer (ideas, experiences, aspirations) for the benefit of us all.

Despite their mistreatment, Hong Kong is indebted to the Tanka. Many people don’t know it, but Hong Kong gets its name from them – when the British first arrived in the 19th century they asked a group of indigenous people on fishing boats what the place was called. “Hong Kong” was the reply – Hong Kong are the Tanka words for “fragrant harbour.” Their language is now almost obsolete, their culture dwindling, but the name Hong Kong lives on.

Coal Dust and Women’s Work

Day 39 (Friday 8th January 2016)

39 percent of UK transport users would consider using a driverless car,
this number rose to 62% amongst young urban professionals, according to research conducted by
Transport Systems Catapult on behalf of the Department for Transport, the Department for Business
Innovation and Skills and Innovate UK.
Photo of Toyota Prius self-driving car Photo: EPA/GOOGLE

Today's blog is by Rachael Burnham, an excellent Learning and Development expert based in Manchester, with a particular interest in informal and blended learning. She has worked as a specialist consultant for over 14 years and is highly rated by her clients. She started her career working for a voluntary organisation preparing young people for leaving home and this gave her the opportunity to deliver training for the first time. She was good at it and enjoyed helping people grow, hence she started working in a more conventional staff development and training capacity. Rachael is active on social media, her Twitter handle is @BurnhamLandD and she writes a great blog: L&D Matters. Outside work she values spending time with her family and is a keen jazz fan, as well as having a passion for gardening.

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When the theme for this year’s Advent Blog was announced of ‘Comets and Coal Dust’, I was immediately drawn to that second part – Coal Dust – and transported back to my earliest childhood memories.

We lived in a terraced house in that part of Blackburn known as Wilpshire.  Our house was part of a little row along an un-made up road, which you went down to under a bridge.  Our house was somewhere in the middle of the row and behind the houses, at the end of the small gardens, was a path that ran along the back of the houses.   And the other side of that path was a stream, which I loved.  

Across the stream was a field in which cows were kept.  In those days, it was quite typical to leave a baby or small child out in a pram in the garden unattended and I remember looking at those cows with deep fascination and that they seemed to look right back at me!

Our house had coal fires. Just the phrase ‘coal dust’ brought to mind the sights, sounds and smells of those fires.  

My mother on her hands and knees bent down sweeping out the hearth, 

the grey, pinkish ash, 

the distinctive sounds of the coal tongs and poker knocking against the grate and slightly acrid smell of the coal.
  

To be honest I don’t really remember the sight of the fire lit with the flames – what I remember is the big brass fire guard which dominated the fire place – a sort of metallic cage 

and in front of this on the mat, in the warmth, I remember building wooden brick towers 

and playing with a pull-along elephant.  

I still have the elephant – he is made of chestnut coloured wood and is the most delicious rounded shape, with a very cheerful face – having survived two generations of Burnham’s play!

As a teenager, I remarked one time to my mother about how nice it would be to have a real fire again and was firmly brought back to reality by being reminded of how much work they involve.  Filling the coal bucket, sweeping out the hearth each morning, laying the fire, getting it to light and all that bending and being on your knees, 

in addition to having three children under four (by the time we moved to Blackpool) and all the other work that that involved.  ‘That’s why there is that phrase ‘A woman’s work is never done!’ ‘my mother would say.

When I became a parent myself and sometimes struggled with the care of my one child, I would think about how much easier I had things compared to my mother.  If I had been doing #3goodthings in those early years I would have frequently  tweeted 1) central heating 2) automatic washing machine 3) disposable nappies   ( ‘warm baby to snuggle, baby giggles and at sleep at last!’ would also have been popular choices).

About the time that this Advent Blog series was launched, we reached that point in the calender, 9 November, at which in Britain women are effectively working for free compared to men due to the gender pay gap.  This currently stands at a difference of 14.2%.  At the current rate of change it is estimated that it will take another 54 years for us to reach parity of pay – even over 40 years after the Equal Pay Act was introduced!

At the same time, Maternity Action were running a campaign drawing attention to the astounding fact that the number of women in the UK losing their job as a result of pregnancy discrimination had risen in the past decade from 30,000 in 2005 to a deeply shocking 54,000 in 2015.

Much of the workplace is still effectively sex segregated, with so many jobs primarily done by women or by men. Women are desperately under-represented in science, engineering and maths- related roles and over-dominate in education, health care and social care.  We miss out on women in science and in men in education and caring roles.  And there is the vertical sex segregation too – too few women in senior decision-making roles in organisations and in politics.

Then there is the continuing taboo around the menopause and work – it would be good to start talking about this.  And whilst access to work across the board for over 5Os is hard, there also seems to be an element of extra discrimination at play for women over 50.

I know that there is lots to tackle on other fronts too – disability discrimination, greater acknowledgement and acceptance of mental health issues in the workplace, a disturbing trend of increased race discrimination in the workplace and more.  But it does particularly feel like a ‘feminist’s work is never done’ at the moment.

The need for change doesn’t go away – it may seem to disappear from public view – but like a comet returns and galvanises us to action afresh.

A Story - Day 29

Day 29

29ers are mountain bikes that are built to use 700c or 622 mm ISO 

(inside rim diameter) wheels, commonly called 29" wheels 
(most mountain bikes use 26" wheels). 
The 29ers traverse obstacles more easily, provide better 

traction & lose less speed on uneven terrain than smaller wheels.

Today is the first day back to work for many of us. I hope you had a good break.

The below piece is a powerful, heartfelt post by Tony Jackson. Tony is an Executive Coach and runs his own business, Chelsham Consulting Limited. I first met Tony through Twitter, his handle is @jacksont0ny, and I have subsequently discovered that we are neighbours in South London (as well as sharing a penchant for exotic holidays). Tony is an accomplished writer, you can read his blog here or sample his words below. The following piece is brave, honest and, as well as being a true story, holds a strong message for all who read it.

Unlike most of the posts in this series, I have added no colour pictures to this post, all the stunning photos were taken and selected by Tony. I did add the cartoon and the piece of music at the end.

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It’s a story. Not a sob story. Just a part of my story.

Sometimes it seems my path has taken me past vertiginous drops, across sunny uplands and through the occasional war-zone.

My starting point? A growing sense of difference as a teenager. I don’t react in quite the same way as most of the class. Some of them pick up on it. They spot it before I do. Their perception of me adjusts. Later in adult life I find this is a shared experience of people like me. Remember those words – ‘people like me’.

As a student my path leads me to discovering myself – sitting on my bed watching ‘that’ film on my black & white portable TV and afterwards reflecting on and grappling with something. Finally, after all those years of wondering, I accept my authentic self.

Enter the world of work. A professional services firm. No employment law protection of course. The manager who tells me in front of the whole team that, if he finds out that the rumours are true, he will sack me on the spot. This at a time when people like me are truly scared because some of us are dying in London hospitals. And our Government is simultaneously legislating against us. I soon run from that employer. I ask you: would you stay? Your first job post-University. Would you be brave enough to fight? Would you ever have to think along those lines from where you sit?

A few years later – another professional services firm. I notice on the way in that their policies are way ahead of employment law. Enlightened. I can be myself. Maybe. Before I arrive the HRD (yes the HRD) apparently asks my future team members  when the “bent bastard” is arriving. Charming. They are on my side though – not his.  All will be well. My perception of ‘how I can be’ shifts. I can be myself and my performance has never been higher. Still slightly living on my nerves. Having to think about something that the majority never have to consider. That’s sometimes noticed. Performance at the top end of the spectrum but “Are you OK Tony?”

Scroll forward. Picture two professional men walking down a street. The Universe helped us find one another. We’ve bought a house. We’ve worked bloody hard to get where we are. In proof that societal change can and does happen we are now living in a time when we can marry (well nearly). We have the protection of the law in the workplace. And yet – the local youths storm out of a fast-food joint and abuse us. Not sure what they’ve spotted but their perception is that we might be different. Then notice our size & stature and maybe think better of it and skulk away into the evening. But for a few weeks at work I worry about what might happen if he meets them when he’s on his own. Oh yes – you noticed that I’m a bit preoccupied. Thanks.

And now – a further decade later - well I advocate authenticity whilst knowing that when I am really my authentic self, there are still those who will find me “different”, so I shy away from it at times. I’m finally running my own business. Love it. Having had positional authority for years I now live off my personal reputation, networking skills and professional ability. For the first time in years this point features again in my mind (rightly or wrongly). I just occasionally wonder whether that assignment will go to the other person – because, again, it’s easier for the client to choose a person like him/her.  So am I authentic? Is it possible for an executive coach to be anything but fully authentic? A challenge.

So when that person in your team is reacting differently maybe you will ask yourself – why would they not react differently? They bring a whole lifetime of personal experiences to that conversation, that interaction. Why on earth would you expect them to react as you do? That would be the surprising thing wouldn’t it?

And I challenge you: when you imagine someone is excluding themselves (yes people say this – they are excluding themselves) by behaving differently, or being different, well how are you going to adjust your pre-conceptions and work hard, really hard, to make them feel included?

No they aren’t in the group of people like you.  They are an individual and for all you know their life has had challenges that you couldn’t imagine from your place within the in-group. They have walked a different path. They may have a story like mine. Of course they carry some of it around with them. Even if they would rather that they didn’t.

And when you push yourself to get this right, to reflect hard and to adjust your own perceptions of life, so that you help them be at their best, then my friend, right then, you will be a leader.

Mama Cass Elliot - Make Your Own Kind Of Music

Twisted

As I walked to the station, earlier this month, I passed an overgrown garden that has a beautiful, blossoming bindweed, entwined around an old trunk near the fence. I shared a picture of the white trumpet-like blooms, to brighten some friends’ days.

Bindweed

Since then I have suffered an earworm of the Flanders and Swann song, “Misalliance”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYr0eNtpDHs

It describes the story of the love between two different entities – the Honeysuckle, which spirals clockwise, and the Bindweed that grows anti-clockwise - and the doomed nature of their relationship. It can be interpreted as a simple love story or an ode towards the need for tolerance and the acceptance of diversity.  

Some Honeysuckle from my garden

The vegetal lovers’ problems are not due to the plants themselves, but more as an outcome of parental disapproval and the perceptions and the reactions of others.  I like the clever words – like the spiralling tendrils of the plants, the witty twists and double meanings take root in my mind and leave me pondering. You might be interested to know that the proclivity of the twist of either plant to be clockwise or anti-clockwise cannot be forced through the influence of heat, light, wind or humidity. The direction of the spiral is set and is caused by a protein. Much like a human cannot choose to grow up as left or right-handed, although he/she can, through practice using the less favoured or natural feeling limb, develop better ambidextrous skills. There is little doubt that most of us favour one hand over the other, as this simple test demonstrates:

http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/java/rldot.html

I was chatting with my eldest son on Friday, before we went to see “Bring Up the Bodies” – the excellent sequel to “Wolf Hall” that we had enjoyed earlier in the month. Anne Boleyn, a key character in the play, seemingly twisted Henry VIII around her little finger, bewitching the King into leaving the Catholic Church and founding the Church of England, thereby enabling him to marry her, in the hope of producing a son.  Anne was not popular and rumours abounded, claiming that she had a third nipple (probably a mole on her neck) and an extra finger (which was perhaps an extra fingernail), which her critics turned into something more unnatural), – we speculated as to whether this was on her left or right hand. (It was in fact her right.)

Anne Boleyn, copy of a portrait painted c1534

This contemplation led us into a discussion about left and right-handed people and whether there are jobs that favour one type over the other. (The human race is predominantly right-handed as were our ancestors – judging by the scratches on their 500,000+ years old teeth: these prehistoric marks were created while our ancient predecessors prepared animal skins, holding the hides in their mouths to free up both hands to scrape and hold the sharpened stone tools and leather.) Circa one in ten of us is left-handed. I mooted to my son that, in the days of swords and the need to defend castles, the spiral of the staircases was designed to favour those attempting to defend an entrance from above, as a result a left-handed swordsman, who could attack a defended stairway more easily than most, might be able to command a premium as a mercenary. Similarly, left-handed tennis players (such as Rafael Nadal), baseball players (e.g. Babe Ruth) and boxers (like the 1930’s featherweight champion Freddie Miller) are at a slight advantage when pitted against to the majority of others in their sports. (As an aside, left-handed boxers are often considered more elegant to watch than their right-handed rivals and are referred to as “Southpaws”, an only sporadically used phrase outside the sport; certainly it is a more attractive moniker than the usual nicknames used for left-handers). Part of the sports stars’ success is probably due to these people having more experience of right-handed opponents than most of their competitors have had of taking on a left-hander.

Freddie Miller

Over the past millennia, left-handed people often have been considered inferior or frightening, resulting in individuals being described as “sinister” – from the Latin for “left” but often used to imply that something is unfavourable or evil. Another unpleasant phrase used for left-handers is “cack-handed”. Most people think “cack-handed” simply means awkward or clumsy.  The phrase originates from the custom of people using their right hand for eating and the left for cleaning the body after defecating. The word “cack” is Old English for excrement and is derived from the Latin “cacare” meaning to defecate.

My mother and both of her brother’s were born left-handed. They are of a generation where being sinisterly dextrous was considered a disadvantage and shameful. To avoid the boys from being viewed as abnormal, their teachers used to tie their “odd” hands behind their backs to prevent them from using them for writing (being a girl, this was not deemed necessary for my mother), this treatment had a profound and damaging effect upon her brothers – particularly the eldest who was sensitive and artistic as well as intellectual. Despite being restricted when young, both of my uncles matured into exceptional men: one designed the engines for the Royal Navy carrier, Ark Royal, and the other was a pioneering doctor, who established health services in Uganda, Gambia and the Seychelles.  All three siblings, when children, had their knuckles brutally rapped when they “misused” their cutlery. My mother is an amazing and creative woman – I still treasure the illustrations she drew for me as a child and her nature diaries, written and drawn when she was a teenager, are stunning.  People say that there is a link between being left-handed and artistic…

Certainly, there is evidence that a noticeably high proportion of architects, designers, thinkers, actors and artists (from Fine Art, Fashion and Music) have been/are left-handed, including: Leonardo Da Vinci; Paul Klee; Michelangelo Buonaroti; Henri de Toulouse Lautrec, Peter Paul Rubens; David Cameron, Barak Obama (indeed 4 of the past 5 American Presidents were left handed), Sir Kenneth Branagh; Charlie Chaplin; Angelina Jolie; Lewis Carroll; Germaine Greer; Jean-Paul Gaultier; David Bowie; Annie Lennox; Sir Paul McCartney; Jimi Hendrix; Rik Mayal; Winston Churchill and Albert Einstein. The theory that left-handers are smarter and more creative than most of the population, due to left vs. right brain usage, has been disproved, but part of the explanation for a preponderance of creativity may be due to an enhanced connectivity of the left-handed brain – the neurologist Naomi Driesen and the cognitive neuroscientist Naftali Raz have determined that the corpus callosum (the collection of fibres that connects the brain’s hemispheres) is to a small, but significant, degree larger in left-handed as opposed to right-handed people. Another explanation that has been mooted is that left-handers have to constantly improvise and deploy creative thinking simply to operate within a predominantly right-handed world

Famous left-handed people

I know from my mother how irritating and, at times, hard it can be living in a predominantly right-handed world – she is a keen gardener – most secateurs, like scissors, are for right-handed use; card payment machines have the card swipe on the right-hand side; telephone boxes are designed for right-hand listening – the cable is too short and the area where you can write messages is inconvenient for left-handers; pens on chains in banks are often fixed to the right of the writing area with the chain itself an insufficient length; trousers with a sole back pocket are usually awkward, as the pocket is invariably on the wrong side; ticket barriers on the underground are for right-handed insertion; and cheque book stubs and ring binders can be fiddly when you want to make a quick record. I appreciate that for commercial reasons it makes sense to cater for the majority, but this approach causes inconvenience to and demonstrates a lack of consideration for a large number of people.

Right-handed scissors

Discrimination usually picks on a small sub-group that are different or weaker than the crowd.  When I started working in a dealing room I was one of a very small number of girls – a few of the men would tell me how I should dress – even suggesting shorter skirts when particular clients were coming to meet the team.  I was pretty smart at school – it is easy, when the school insists on calling out the names of top performers at the end of every term and making them stand up in front of their peers, to be viewed as a swot and to be picked on and teased by other pupils.  When I worked in Cairo it was not uncommon for a stranger to suddenly put his arm around me as I walked down the street, simply because I was a Western dressed, fair-skinned and blonde-haired woman. More recently I have sat in meetings and been the only British person, surrounded by others of a different nationality, and they have lapsed into their mother tongue, despite the fact that the official diction of the organisation was English (it’s a good thing I’m fairly proficient at languages and hence could still understand what they were saying). People often discriminate without even realising that they are doing so, all it takes is a lack of consideration and some ill-thought-through comments. In the Flanders & Swann song, the passing bee says:

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again,
consider your offshoots,
if offshoots there be…they’ll never receive any blessing from me.
Poor little sucker how will it learn?
Right, left, what a disgrace…
or it may go straight up
and fall flat on its face”.

The “fall” of an individual is most typically caused by other people’s reactions and interactions, based on what they perceive to be “inferior stock”, and not due to the individual themselves.  Like the horrific force of an American twister destroying a house or town, the impact and repercussions of discrimination can rip a person to shreds.  

A twister - also known as a tornado

In psychology there is a term - Twisted Thinking – that is often used in relation to people who have been suffering from long periods of depression. It refers to the tendency that a person with depression has of looking at everything from a negative stance – such as assuming that people are reacting in an unsympathetic and adverse manner towards them, when there is no evidence to support this; dwelling on downsides and ignoring the positives; not acknowledging accomplishments; automatically assuming that things will turn out badly and resorting to emotional reasoning (“I feel like a fool, so I must be one” or “It always goes wrong, so it will fail again this time”). Other people, usually close friends, family and colleagues, instead of engaging with the person to help them realise that they are using Twisted Thinking, tend to make flippant, dismissive and sarcastic remarks such as “It’s good to see you’re your usual cheery self!” or “Nice one Eeyore, great to see you so positive.” We should all take a lesson from Beatrix Potter’s book, “The Tailor of Gloucester” – now is the time for...

                                          “No more twist”.

"No More Twist" illustration by Beatrix Potter
in The Tailor of Gloucester

In reality the statement in the book refers to a lack of cherry coloured silk thread, needed to finish a garment – but the phrase can act as a reminder to watch your words and thoughts. 

Simpkin's grateful escapees
illustration by Beatrix Potter from The Tailor of Gloucester

Mind you, there are some pleasant twists to “The Tailor of Gloucester” tale. It is rare amongst Beatrix Potter’s books, in that it does not commence with “Once upon a time…” but is set in “the time of swords and periwigs” – a good period for some left-handers.  The book’s illustrations depict actual garments and places, as opposed to being imaginary images.  In addition, the story is based on a real-life incident (although the real tailor’s assistants were people and not mice who had been liberated from under teacups). So not all twists are unpleasant, indeed most of us enjoy a good twist (and not just a twist in a tale). So I am ending with some appropriate music to raise a smile – with thanks to Chubby Checker – here is “The Twist”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=im9XuJJXylw