La Rue des Artistes

Speaking at the McGill University International Development Studies: An Experience Worth Sharing

The workshop was an amazing experience for me. It was able to present what I am doing in the Philippines to the undergraduate students of International Development Studies in McGill and to some guests/professors of same field. I shared to them how I was inspired, what are my motivation in trekking the route to community development and other development projects. We were 6 speakers in the panel (http://www.mcgill.ca/isid/undergraduate/intd/march9event/).

The good thing also, is that one among the audience is the internal director of End Poverty Now, named Alicia Bruce, and she liked my presentation. She is inviting to another speaking engagement on March 30. It will be taking place at Vanier Cegep. It will be hosted by End Poverty Now and Education Beyond Borders.

I hope that my talk inspired the students to make a difference in their world, to be able recognize a need and to be able to think about the most basic approach to solving the problem sustainably, rather that simply a “band-aid” solution.

CIVICUS 2010

Acting Together For A Just World

 The city of Montreal has always, to my understanding had a strong process of assimilating new ideas into an existing cognitive structure taking into consideration its citizens and ensures the involvement of its people in civil society. The fact that the Venue for the CIVICUS world Assembly was right here in Montreal did not come as much of a surprise when the opportunity to participate in the same were extended to us.

At the CIVICUS I witnessed how few people who come together with an organized thought and an extended vision could transform the lives of millions of others across the world. A sense of hope is what we saw to say the least. Discussions and presentations were made on the challenges and the solution to meet economic justice the discussions took each group to various perspectives on how civil society could be a part of contributing to the Millennium Development Goals and to the welfare of standing up for the fight against Poverty and climate injustice.

The uniqueness of the conference was that the forum was always open and there was enough and more opportunity to extend the understand from the Plenary session to the workshops where questions often not weighed or even thought of were discussed. An issue that is often talked and worried about was finally on the table to be dissected by us the representative of the Civil Society to comprehend and assimilate perspectives.

The catastrophic effect the earthquake left on the survivors in Haiti, the effectiveness of development and the different perspectives on social development with that of participants from across the world was but a pleasant reminder of how much in common we shared through the unity of thought on goodness. For us Sauvé scholars who came from different parts of the world, it was more than an opportunity to dwell on issues close to our heart and hope with like-minded individual leaders through a community that addressed social, economical and Human rights issues impartially and uniquely.

In a certain workshop where we broke down for consideration of constituent parts on working together to eradicating poverty and surprised ourselves when the result showed surprising trends. Factors were pinned on to a board and saw that we had one or more incisions reaching to the mid rib of an issue so large. Sustainable community development is a topic close to my heart and the workshop on tapping into uncommon wisdom for participatory and inclusive governance was in Joanna Ashworths’s words “Arts serve as vehicles for public learning and engagement” It was more or less a re affirmation of my thoughts on using theatre as a tool to educate and empower the underprivileged and the ones who have no access to a decent education. Meeting people who have dedicated their lives to a certain cause leads future leaders of change like us Sauvé scholars learn through their years of experience and wisdom.

What was even more interesting was the choice of topics for discussion. The economic role of Women and Men and the questions on how to link practical needs to strategic interests, I felt was relevant in the context of any culture or country, In fact that frames the very economy of a country. There reached a point where I felt that this one conference gave a socially responsible citizen a certain level of understanding in the phenomena that evolves from a previous phenomenon. The energy was unstoppable and the learning continues. Acting together towards a just world now seems just a percent of what than CIVICUS world assembly initiated and wished to achieve. With it was born many believers.Believers in togetherness, believers in Global Citizenship, Believers in accountability for life of others across the world..Count me in, if you didn’t already!

Anu George Canjanathoppil

Visit to Cirque du Soleil

Note: The conversational quotes used in this post are based on my recollection and might not be an exact reproduction of words uttered by the people involved.

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There is only one word that can attempt to describe the feeling that all of us experienced last Tuesday, March 1st – Wow! Here’s a short attempt to give you a glimpse of the magic that we experienced during our visit to the renowned Cirque du Soleil headquarters – a visit made possible thanks to Sauvé Scholar Carlos Rueda.

“There are three words that I want you to think about while you are here” said Welby Altidor, the Creative Director of Cirque du Soleil as we sat with him after a truly awe-inspiring journey to different divisions inside their company. “The first is creativity. In my view, creativity is the lack of rigidity – no rigid mindset, no rigid rules constraining our ideas, no rigid protocols controlling our behaviour within the organization – that is how I look at creativity” he proposed, waiting for us to disagree with him. Though we took some time to warm up to the idea of arguing fervently with the director of one of the most successful performing arts company in the world, ideas started bouncing out of our minds pretty soon.

And that is a strong reflection of the culture that oozes out of everything that you see at Cirque du Soleil. Every person you meet, every sculpture, every painting, every costume and all the things that for a lack of a better name I’ll choose to call ‘crazy things’ that you stand admiring call out in the strongest possible way for you to express yourself in the most creative way you can imagine.

“But creativity alone is mere decoration, just like everything else that you see around you in our company or on stage during our performances” interrupted Welby. “Our eyes get used to decorations very quickly” he paused to see a few puzzled faces around him before he continued “it is the meaning behind these decorations that lingers on in the minds of the audience. That is what converts a creative decoration into a Wow! And that is the second word that I want you to think about – Wow.” We were slowly getting absorbed into a magical world as we listened to Welby explain to us about all the different ways in which they strive to add Wow! into every experience that they create – be it on stage or within their company. Their administrative staff members work sitting beside huge glass walls that separate them from artists who are training adjacent to them. “It helps them remember why they are doing the work they are doing, even when it gets less exciting at times. It connects them to the Wow that we create for our audience and their role in taking that experience from our offices to the hearts of people.”

As Welby explained more about how their internal business processes work, we realized that if intelligently & creatively planned, the abstract, non-quantifiable aspects of a company’s culture can often influence the performance of a company a lot more than rules and protocols that we assume to be necessary for an organization to run efficiently. What impressed me greatly is the way they constantly related the work that they do with the social change that they wish to inspire. “We broadcast no messages through our performances, but we give people a pretext to bring out what is already there in their hearts. That’s our vision – to revoke, to provoke, to invoke. We are in the business of selling inspiration” explained Welby. “And that brings me to the third word that I want you to think about – Social change.” (None of us bothered to mention that there were two words in “Social change” – it turns out that there is not much of a difference between 3 and 4 when you are looking at it through the lens of creativity.)

“I wish that all of you will think about how what you want to do contributes to a positive change in the world around us. And the only thing that can help you in your efforts to change the world is imagination.”

When we walked out of their company at the end of the day, I can speak for everyone when I say there was only one feeling that filled our minds – WOW! We were introduced to a corporate culture that transcends the boundaries of the popular management & leadership theories that get thrown around these days like sea shells on a crowded beach. And I am sure what we learnt at Cirque du Soleil will stay with us for a long time to come.

Hats off Welby & Hats off Cirque du Soleil!

*This post would be incomplete without special thanks to Sauvé Scholar Lisa Rae who lent us the photographs used in the post.

EnglishImmersionFrancaise

In January, I launched a Canadian literary exchange blog with my friend François Vincent.

We’re going to be exchanging a book a month over the course of a year. I’ll be recommending books for François to read in English, and he’ll be recommending books for me to read in French, all by Canadian authors.

We’ll each explain why we’ve made our selection and after we’ve completed the book, we’ll share our opinions, emotions and reactions in our second language on the blog.

So far, we’ve attracted some media attention in both English and French, and have done interviews on À la croisée des chemins, a radio show of Radio-Canada, a TV appearance on Mise à jour de Vox , and we’ll be on CBC’s C’est la Vie (English) in the coming weeks. Check us out at: http://englishimmersionfrancaise.wordpress.com/ or on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/englishimmersionfrancaise

Winter at Canadian Wonderland

The Friday noon started with the Sauve Scholars were getting busy with the dinner preparations to take to Lac Des Iles, a beautiful winter recreation spot, 60 minutes north of Montreal. We left from the lovely Sauve house at 5pm on February 18, 2011. Oh, on the way, we made a new song called “Chicken Curry” which had a long story behind within the Sauve House. We will tell you later. Actually this was the second Sauve Scholars song after “ Anuma”. After one and half hour drive, (all thanks to sweet Lisa, Kyle and Andrew who were the designated Canadian drivers) we arrived to see a beautiful cottage, nestled in the middle of dark and silent forest. It was really calm and was indeed quite an contrast to the city.

The cottages were extremely beautiful and furnished. But gender discrimination: girls were in one house and boys were in the other. I was sure Rooz- who is a super feminist from Iran didn’t like that. Then we laid the dinner table for our lovely hosts: Nancy (You can call her our mom or our principal), Davis and Tassie, Ann and Arnie. The dinner was off course The famous Sauve house special “Burmese Peruvian Smoked Chicken Curry, Palak Paneer, Rice and Tortillas” After the long drive, the wine, beers, happy faces and nice conversation was just what the doctor prescribed with the Indian meal. Being the first night at the cottage we were on an exploration mode, fooling around with Nancy’s Piano, the Fooz ball game was definitely making more noise than anyone else would have liked it. That was a night of Discovery. Kyle, used to play Piano in the Sunday school, so did Lilit. I got down to teach them a pretty innovative Card game called named “the Hong Kong Show” which I had practiced this all through my Medical years in Myanmar. Even the Indian Genius, Amruth, ended up with a headache at the end of it all! You can imagine how difficult it was.

Just as we stepped out of Nancy’s cottage to go to David and Tassies, it started snowing suddenly. We did not mind it so much because we were all excited about the cross country skiing the following morning. At that night, I slept like a baby as fortunately I did not share the room with Arcie. You will know more about scholars after reading this blog.

Next day, we went to Ann’s house, it was near a big lake. We put on our winter gears and got a quick training on how to ski. We were so excited to ski especially for those of us who have never skied before in our tropical countries. We practiced up and down in the boulevard. Then we started. We fell more than we could stand. I stopped counting after 100 when Dami was Skiing. He fell down from the first activity till the minute he had to get into the car to return to Montreal. It was hilarious and so much fun. We skied the entire morning in the sunny beautiful weather until our stomachs demanded for food. Then when the Stomachs revolted in mutiny, we ran home to Ann’s and we bit into whatever we saw. I can never forget that Canadian soup that was a good awesome combination of broccoli and chicken. After warming by the fire and laughing over each other’s falls we decided to run back to the hill to ski. By this time, we were more familiar with skis and so we skied in the deep hills and took in the breathtaking beauty. I broke one pole while I was falling down from the hill. The day passed by so quickly and we came back to our cozy cottage. We had a bunch of guests from around the lake for dinner. Dinner was yummy Biriyani and salad! Then the scholars started our famous “Anuma” Dance with the drummers Dami, Tope and Carlos. The song and the dance was so catchy that everyone present started dancing we danced till our legs hurt. Somehow, despite having a very long day, none of the scholars seemed to be at any less spirit to dance the ‘Anuma Dance’. The Dance! The Game! It was superb!

Sunday 20 March 2011: Woke up to the sun shining on my face that beautiful morning. We had another lovely Canadian sport - The snow-shoeing. Before that, wrestling game happened between boys. It was fun. Three people, Kyle, Andrew and I had to try to throw Big Dami into the snow. Then we started our snow shoeing trip up the mountain towards the lake. The trail was really pretty with pine and maple trees by our sides. On the way, we learnt from Anne how to get maple syrup and the habits of beaver. We saw the trail of bears, rabbits and turkeys. It was an incredible view from the top of the mountain: the mountains, the forest, the lake and the snow. Then we made a fire to warm up and rest. We were totally relaxed. We made Bannocks and grilled hotdog over the fire. I felt like I was with family. I suppose, I knew that I was with family.

The crazy sauna competition happened when we got back to Ann’s house. We had a deal between scholars as to who could stay longer in the freezing cold lake where we jumped in to take a dip after the Sauna. It was insane. Kyle and Stobo! You guys have to do my garbage duty until the end of the program. Arcie and Dami agreed to make a draw after staying 3 minutes in the icy water with the temperature -10C at that day. It is for one to imagine how cold it was in the water and how crazy we were! That is the Sauve Scholars for you! The carrot cake and the apple crisp was just simply delectable after dinner. Oh, I shouldn’t forget to mention Mafia game! If you were a Sauve scholar, you should not miss playing this one. The rules will be handed over to the future Sauve Scholars as a ritual. The game was so intense that night. Even Ion and Simone, our executive director and communication director, ended watching the game until 1 am in the morning. With Temi and Jessica we could never make a decision but hats off to Lilit, who by far is the best at negotiation and our very intelligent villager Michelle!

The last day dawned so quickly. We said good bye to our lovely hosts at the cottage before heading for dog sledding. It was an experience that I can never ever forget. We had delicious hot chocolate there and we learnt how to lead the dogs sensibly. We got familiar and friendly with the dogs and we put them on to the sled. We never had the chance to see the scenery because we were focusing on steering the dogs to our destination. I fell down twice from the sled but I managed to travel in the old means of transportation after all.

I will be lying if I do not mention that this winter camp experience was the most awesome experience I have ever had in my life, second only to the Sauvé experienceJ