Wild Wisdom recounts the story of social entrepreneur and philanthropist Christine Amour-Levar and the all-female expeditions she has led across the globe via her two non-profit organisations, Women on a Mission and HER Planet Earth. Over a decade, she has taken hundreds of women, of all nationalities, ages and backgrounds, to off the beaten track locations around the world on challenging, often pioneering, expeditions that really push them outside of their comfort zone.
She has run expeditions to some incredible places, from regions of the Arctic circle to the coldest, windiest and most remote continent on earth, Antarctica. Her teams have crossed the largest caves in the world in Vietnam, sailed across remote islands in Asia, were the first all-female team to bike across the frozen Arctic Circle Trail of Greenland and the Danakil Depression of Ethiopia – the hottest place on earth. And all these expeditions have had as mission to raise awareness and funds for vulnerable women, transforming the lives of thousands of women and girls in the process.
By sharing her personal story and highlighting her life lessons, from growing up on multiple continents to leading teams on expeditions, she sets the stage for a new approach to caring for the human condition and the planet, at a deeper, more intrinsic, heart level. Ultimately, this is a story about roots and values, sisterhood and adventure, pushing limits and the power of our common humanity and compassion to drive change and impact the world for the better.
Archives: Books
ChinaPhobia
ChinaPhobia – A Wasted Opportunity is an informative book, unbiased towards either China or America. It has been written in the form of a conversation between a father-a former journalist and senior diplomat-and his businessman son. Both academics present the facts combined with insights gained from years of observations of China.
Part one describes the factors that have led to ChinaPhobia: pace of China’s economy, gravitational shifts towards Asia, territorial disputes, lack of soft powers, Belt and Road Initiative, resignation as the ‘world’s factory’, Covid-19, and tries to explain China’s cultural and political thinking.
The second part of the book concerns changes within the economic partnership which led to the increasing distrust of the US government and corporations towards China, reflected not only in their trade war, but also in growing US and Western support for China’s red-lines including Taiwan, Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Tibet. It is mirrored in an ongoing behind-the-scenes arms race, which has a paramount impact on the relationship between the two regimes-and on the rest of the world.
Thirdly, China’s increasingly sensitive ambition towards global leadership is explained, and the roles of various think tanks and experts on both sides is analyzed objectively.
Urgent questions are addressed in the final part of the book. Without a timely response, inflating ChinaPhobia could become the biggest threat to global peace, economic growth and stability, poisoning international relations in the coming years. The authors discuss the means of mitigation at home and abroad.
Managing People, Culture and Data in the Modern Organisation
While organisations need stand out products and services to be competitive, to remain competitive, organisations need much more. We believe the much more includes how organisations manage people, culture and data.
The world of work is changing at an unprecedented rate. Other than the COVID-19 pandemic, there are four other disruptive forces including demographic imbalances, geopolitics, technology and economic contraction that are accelerating the future of work.
Written by Jaclyn Lee and Jovina Ang, the book focuses on the three fundamental elements of organisational success. The book is unique because it is a culmination of the authors’ practical experiences and observations of how leaders and managers are managing the modern organisation.
The authors draw upon the best practices from the top employers in Asia and across the world to illustrate the proven strategies for inculcating a digital and a data driven culture for making the right decisions and getting the most out of people. And they also refer to the many insights from leading thought leaders to substantiate their arguments throughout the book.
Movies to Save Our World
Through a close analysis of more than seventy popular documentaries and feature movies from around the world, produced in the twenty-first century, this book explores the theme of poverty, inequality, ecological degradation and revolutionary change, all associated with a contemporary crisis of neoliberal globalization in a world where it has become so pervasive. Profit rules, while poverty and inequality make the political ground fertile for populist manipulation. By returning power to the people, healthier forms of populism can lead the way to progressive revolutionary change that enriches democracy and corrects for social injustice. However, through ideological and political manipulation, populism can also take more debased authoritarian forms, promoting conformism, domination, exploitation, marginalization and degradation of humanity and its habitat.
The book urges progressive moviemakers to take advantage of advancements in digital technologies and to collaborate, in post-pandemic times, with educators to develop public deliberation skills and inspire a new generation of informed and compassionate change-makers.
Malaysian Son
Malaysian Son is the story of Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Setiawangsa. Growing up privileged under the authoritarian regime of Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the imprisonment of Anwar Ibrahim led him to join the Reformasi movement.
As a member of the multiracial People’s Justice Party (KEADILAN), he later became the youngest elected state representative in the 2008 General Elections.
In 2018, as Youth Leader of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition, he participated in the 2018 campaign against Prime Minister Najib Razak, spending time in jail and the courts.
PH achieved a historic victory but, in spite of warnings from Nik who was a backbench MP, failed to achieve a cohesive and stable government. It eventually collapsed in 2020, leading to years of political instability that has yet to abate.
Malaysian Son is a must read for all who want to understand the country’s tumultuous recent history.
Made in Future
Over the last two decades, the disruption brought about by data and technology has created a wide chasm between marketing strategy and what really works in the marketplace.
Made in Future is a groundbreaking new book that seeks to recast marketing from a white sheet, with an incisive view of how vast changes in media, content, influences and people’s expectations have come together to write a new story of marketing.
The book challenges a lot of the accepted wisdom of the past, yet is brutal where the hype is ahead of substance. In the process, it offers an alternative journey that is conceptually whole, makes you think and helps you follow it all up with pragmatic decisions.
My American Sister
What price does a family pay for an unapproved birth?
Li Fu and Mei, farmers from a far-flung province seeking a livelihood in the capital, Beijing, flout the country’s One-Child Policy by giving birth to a second daughter, Ying. Unable to pay the hefty penalty, their baby is forcefully taken by corrupted officials and sold to an orphanage, and is eventually put up for adoption. Stricken by grief, the family falls apart. Li, obsessed with finding his missing daughter, leads a dysfunctional and chaotic life with his eldest daughter Yan after his wife walks out of the family. Seventeen years passed before he eventually locates Ying in San Francisco.
However, his dream of a reunited family is quickly crushed when Ying, now an all-American girl, cannot accept her biological family’s un-American way of life. Intolerant of their behavior and illegal immigrant status, Ying does the unthinkable – calling the immigration department to deport her family back to China.
Overcome with guilt and remorse, Ying decides to go to China to face her father and tell him the truth about their arrest and deportation.
Told from the perspectives of the two sisters, this novel reveals the dark side of cross-cultural adoption and love between father and daughter. The story is inspired by actual accounts of missing children in China, some of whom were abducted by corrupted officials for profiteering.
Migrantik
Tony is one of millions of Filipinos scattered across the globe, working to send money back to his family. But unlike other migrants, he’s no pushover at work and doesn’t live in fear of losing his visa.
Squatting in the office with an Irish co-worker to save money, Tony hustles as a web designer and battles with a ball-busting Scottish boss during the day. At night, he washes away the loneliness and fights the enormous pressure with booze and weed, saving most of what he earns to send back home.
But the money from all the hard work never seems to be enough.
If it’s not a new phone for his teenaged daughter, it’s for a cousin’s birthday or an uncle who needs funding for a business. Everyone ‘s counting on his salary. So Tony plugs away, seeking small comfort in video calls with his family, finding short-lived happiness in skateboarding in empty carparks, and diving deep into the dark side of Sydney – away from the posh lights of the Harbor Bridge and smack dab into the seedy suburbs.
Tony’s life as a migrant begins to unravel as events come to a head, and he’s forced to face the consequences of his actions.
Translated from Filipino by Peter Dominique Mutuc, Migrantik is told through the lens of economic, emotional, and occasionally actual violence.
Chronicles of A Village
Chronicles of a Village is set in an anonymous Vietnamese village based on the author’s personal memories. The surrealistic narrative touches on the country’s pre-modern history, the colonial era and the onslaught of modernity that irreversibly affects the mountains, rivers, soil and memories of a wretched people. Written in vibrant fragments that resemble prose poems, the novel combines the author’s melodious style of oral storytelling with historical micro-narratives and mythological elements. The book takes the reader through poetic and political landscapes teeming with ancient legends, love stories, marvelous nature, war tragedies and modern alienation, which constitute the beauty and ‘the fatal historical disabilities of a land’.
The Art and Science of the Pitch
Serial entrepreneur and The Final Pitch creator and host John Aguilar shares valuable lessons, tips and techniques he picked up from years of producing and hosting the reality pitching show.
In this book, he straddles the East and the West to interview world-renowned investors, venture capitalists, conglomerates, startups, creatives, and legal and financial experts to identify the components of a pitch that makes an impact-whoever you are, wherever you are, and at whatever stage of your idea, start-up, or scale-up. He dives deep into the minds and methods of founders who pitched their way to million-dollar valuations, and tackles lessons that can be learned from those who failed.
Through this book you will be able to:
– Discover your ‘Why’ and find your ‘Who’
– Learn how to read and prepare for your audience
– Distill the essential elements of the pitch and craft your pitch deck
– Hone your pitching style and storytelling technique
– Know how to pitch to anyone, anywhere, virtually or in-person
– Learn the art and science of valuation and prepare for due diligence
– Gain insights on how to pitch on a reality TV show
This is the titular playbook that explores each component of the pitch so that you can understand the art and science behind it as you gear yours for success.