Entries from August 2009 ↓

I am so pleased that a NLP Practitioner group is now in place and have started its activity. Last Thursday a group of interested  twenty three persons got together to improve their skills to become better.

Is it a breakthrough in Mauritius to have an NLP practitioner group? As far as I know this is a first unless proved contrarily. I gathered that there have been various NLP training given by NLP trainers: <known to me> namely David Molden from the UK , other trainers from Singapore , and a trainer from France who I had commissioned many years ago. On a short training course, usually 2-3 days, awareness of NLP practices and principles may be achieved, knowledge transfer may occur but I believe that not much skills transfer may be achieved.

For my personal experience, I underwent the first time a total 300 hours of contact training in Bath with John Seymour in a total immersion process to build in some skills. It  lasted a whole month. My skills were further honed by the masters of NLP in Colorado with the oldest and most reputed NLP organisation.

As far as NLP knowledge is concerned is concerned, thanks to the generosity of Robert Dilts anybody can read, study and consult for free the NLP encyclopedia.

In my previous blog I stated the possible benefits of NLP skills.

This is a new journey for me and I am confident it will be a fruitful one. It was fantastic to see the collective learning oozing from the practitioner group. It reinforced my belief and conviction in the power of collective power in learning.

Is there a gene for painting or drawing? Is the gift of Painting or Drawing in born or learnt?

I was talking to my mother in law( Chong Moy Fong) last night and congratulated her for the great success and talents of his son Mario Ng who for years in Mauritius lived off his art and teaching Art. Unfortunately, the market for Art is not locally developed enough for Mario to make a decent living; he has since migrated to Australia.

My mother in law told me the very interesting story of her father who in his days without training had the talent of drawing sketches. He was commissioned by his fellows’ villagers of Mei Shien to draw their pictures and their relatives. He was gifted. My Mother in law contributed this particular gift to have been genetically transmitted to Mario.

Last night going through Frickr of my nephew I saw the wonderful painting of his brother. Whereas Mario had undergone years of training in Montreal and later at Ecole des beaux Arts at the Sorbonne, nephew Steven Lam an architecture student did not receive training in Painting as far as I know.

I believe that the grains of the painting and drawing  are in all of us. The potential is latent and waiting to be developed. Our son Oliver in his graduate year of HSC attempted to Art as a subject. He did not pursue in the field.

Perhaps there is a special gene for Painting & Drawing, I trust most of us have received it, yet most of us have not developed it to excellence.

Are such gifts then in born or acquired by training?

Jn 6,41-51.
Comme Jésus avait dit : « Moi, je suis le pain qui est descendu du ciel »,
les Juifs récriminaient contre lui :
« Cet homme-là n’est-il pas Jésus, fils de Joseph ? Nous connaissons bien
son père et sa mère. Alors comment peut-il dire : ‘Je suis descendu du
ciel’ ? »
Jésus reprit la parole : « Ne récriminez pas entre vous.
Personne ne peut venir à moi, si le Père qui m’a envoyé ne l’attire vers
moi, et moi, je le ressusciterai au dernier jour.
Il est écrit dans les prophètes : Ils seront tous instruits par Dieu
lui-même. Tout homme qui écoute les enseignements du Père vient à moi.
Certes, personne n’a jamais vu le Père, sinon celui qui vient de Dieu :
celui-là seul a vu le Père.
Amen, amen, je vous le dis : celui qui croit en moi a la vie éternelle.
Moi, je suis le pain de la vie.
Au désert, vos pères ont mangé la manne, et ils sont morts ;
mais ce pain-là, qui descend du ciel, celui qui en mange ne mourra pas.
Moi, je suis le pain vivant, qui est descendu du ciel : si quelqu’un mange
de ce pain, il vivra éternellement. Le pain que je donnerai, c’est ma
chair, donnée pour que le monde ait la vie. »
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Dis-moi de quoi tu te nourris ; je te dirai qui tu es ? En lisant ce texte de l’Evangile de dimanche je me suis souvenu de cette parole. Cela me fais penser également de l’odeur corporelle des indiens du Sud que j’avais côtoyé lors de mes voyages en Inde. Leur corps dégageait le épices qui mangeaient jour après jour. Si seulement je pourrai dégager une odeur de sainteté ?

Le pain vivant de Jésus nous gardera vivant dans le Seigneur.

D’autre part, j’aime bien cette illustration, de Saint Cyrille d’Alexandrie au quatrième siècle parlant du pain vivant :

Si tu jettes un petit morceau de pain dans l’huile, de l’eau ou du vin, il va tout de suite s’imprégner de leurs propriétés.

Si tu mets du fer au contact du feu, il sera bientôt rempli de
son énergie, et, bien qu’il ne soit par nature que du fer, il deviendra
semblable au feu.

Ainsi donc, le Verbe vivifiant de Dieu, en s’unissant à la chair qu’il s’est appropriée, l’a rendue vivifiante. Il a dit en effet : « Celui qui croit en moi a la vie éternelle. Je suis le pain de la vie ». Et encore : « Je suis le pain vivant, qui est descendu du
ciel ; si quelqu’un mange de ce pain, il vivra éternellement ; et le pain
que je donnerai, c’est ma chair. En vérité, si vous ne mangez pas la chair
du Fils de l’homme et si vous ne buvez pas son sang, vous n’aurez pas la
vie en vous ». Ainsi donc, en mangeant la chair du Christ, notre Sauveur à
tous, et en buvant son sang, nous avons la vie en nous, nous devenons comme
un avec lui, nous demeurons en lui et lui demeure en nous.

Donne-moi Seigneur de me nourrir de ta chair dans l’eucharistie et de ton esprit dans Tes paroles. Je veux être imprégné de Tes propriétés maintenant et à jamais et malgré ma nature si différente de Toi, je souhaite devenir le plus possible, semblable à Toi, Seigneur Dieu doux et humble de cœur.

Six months over, since  President Obama took over as the head of the state, is his tenure going to have the same effect that his predecessors Carter of Clinton?

The real danger may be that Obama and the Democrats, particularly in the Senate, will get weak-kneed in the face of the Republican-business coalition and settle—either for health care legislation that increases subsidies, but doesn’t rein in the insurance companies (which is what Clinton and the Democrats did after 1994), or for financial regulation that ostensibly imposes new rules, but doesn’t strengthen the public’s ability to enforce them.

Let us hope that Obama and his team will learned from the past. The conditions are always different as one never sees the same water going through the river.

John Judis  from the National Public Radio attempts to analyze the point.

I was invited yesterday, as an industry guest speaker to the 8^th Project Leadership Certification seminar held at the newly opened InterContinental Hotel at balaclava. For the whole week, executives were gathered to hone their leadership skills with Tan Chee Peng an experienced trainer and business consultant. The training is runned under the aegis of the University of Technology.

As it was the closing day of the seminar I had the chance of hearing the feedback of the 30 participants giving a short presentation of their transformation. It was very uplifting to witness the spirit of team developed by the group and the learning they benefited during the week.

Who is Tan Chee Peng?

I have known Tan Chee Peng for years. I was first introduced to Tan Chee Peng in the days he used to be stationed in Mauritius working for a consultant firm. Since he now based in Singapore & Malaysia covers an extensive geographic region stretching from Africa, Asia to the South Pacific island.

Mr. Tan is the founder and CEO of Team SYNthesis and Business Technovise International (BTI), a strategic services

firm specializing in Business / IT Strategy, Programme & Project Management (PPM) large systems and business

process integration projects.

Prior to BTI, Mr. Tan was the managing partner, Andersen Worldwide managing the consulting practice in Mauritius,

Madagascar, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania and Uganda. Mr. Tan, an ASEAN scholar and a First Class Degree holder

from Imperial College, UK, has more than 24 years of consulting experience in financial services industry, helping

MNC clients in Business IT Strategy Formulation and Implementation, Business Process Reengineering, Programme

and Change Management, Performance Management and, e-Commerce strategy and Implementation. He was previously the

Vice President, Technology of Citibank N.A, Singapore.

Mr. Tan was conferred the (CITPM, Senior), the Singapore National IT Project Management Certification on 26 November 1998.

Based on his professional work in Singapore, Mauritius and Africa, he was independently nominated and admitted to the

International Who’s Who of Professionals for 1999. Mr. Tan also sits on the Board of Assessor for the Singapore National IT Skills

Certification Programme – IT Project Management since its inception.

He is also a Senior Member of the Singapore Computer Society and has been listed on the “SCS Roll of honour” in recognition and appreciation of his valuable support and contribution to the Society. Mr. Tan has given Project/Programme Management

Conferences, workshops and training sessions to more than 1,800 PMs worldwide and has successfully completed assignments in

more than 30 countries. Mr. Tan is also a Mauritius SAPES recipient.

I understand that a second seminar will be held in November 09.

I took much pleasure in reading the second edition of the Caritas Newsletter August 2009.

What most interested me was to learn of the Caritas partnership with the government with Life Skills management and the Second chance programme.

Jean Claude de l’Estrac who was chairing the National Empowerment program re-oriented the program to start building the self esteem of the needy before training them for a job. He assesed that the original program was not yielding the results planned because of the lack of confidence of the poor of the poorest. The society has ignored them for too long, they have lost the sense of being a worthy human.  Let us hope that Caritas and all those working in this field have now found the good thread!

During my last visit to Montreal, Canada, I made it a duty to pay a visit to two of my mother’s cousins who now lived in Canada. It was a very emotional visit both for me and for Jessie who was a  close person to my mother. More than sisters they were confidents to each other in their childhood and youth.

Mum had the misfortune to have been born in a poor family whilst her cousin Jessie was born and bred in an endowed s family. That was their fates. In the early twenties, just past the First World War, Mauritius then started to pick up economically. The steam ships restarted operating to link the various ports of the world. Port Louis was an essential halt port for the steamers serving the Eastern countries, namely China, the British colony of Hong Kong, Dutch colonies of Indonesia, the Malayan states and South Africa. Bold Chinese traders had risked their lives earlier a few decades before saw their lots improving.

Chan Chong Kwan the farther of Jessie was one of them. He moved to Mauritius as a boy of 15 around the turn of the century. He ran a retail small shop in Roches Noires area after having spent his years of apprenticeship with a prosperous Chinese a wholesaler of the capital.  Some years later having saved some money he decided to move from the country side back  to town to raise a family. Young Chong Kwan was a smart entrepreneur; he not only continued to maintain the countryside retail shop, he set up a wholesale shop and at the same time started with a wine factory. He married Germaine, daughter of Olezia Ah Fan and of Joseph Leong Son.

Unlike her cousin,  Francette, my mother  was orphan before she was born, Grand Pa, Emmanuel Ah Lim who was an employee of a Chinese gambling house, died leaving his eldest son Ignace aged 14 to look after the family of seven children. Grand Ma Anna daughter of Josephine Hitie and Mr Ahfan earned painfully a living by sewing shirts from her home to supply shops.

Solidarity amongst the members of the family prevailed. The Chong Kwan, the well to do, supported the rest of the family with clothes and in hard time money for food. On weekends and school holiday periods, the Ah Lim children stay over at the Chong Kwan in their large and spacious villa at Edith Cavell street.

Both cousins, Francette & Jessie were very close. Francette had to undergo the hardship described in one of my pervious blog to marry her love France . Hardly Jessie on the other hand was seduced by the intellectual brilliance of a newly landed scholar to the Chinese School and married Siao in grand regalia. However, few months after the wedding, Siao took the steamer back to China leaving Jessie in pregnancy. Daniel, his only son was born and for over decades, he never knew his father. Fate dictated that one cousin had difficulty in marrying and later had a harmonious family life whilst the other after a wonderful marriage had a broken family life with the absence of her husband. Indeed Siao will reappear few decades after.

Ce que vous apporte la PNL

Une formation de Praticien puis de Maître-Praticien PNL permet l’appropriation de modèles de plus en plus performants

et puissants pour communiquer, apprendre et changer, au service de vos objectifs personnels et professionnels.

La communication. Les excellents communicants savent se fixer des objectifs pertinents, établir des relations de confiance,

définir des indicateurs de progression et de réussite, et faire preuve d’une flexibilité mentale, émotionnelle

et comportementale. En développant votre impact sur vous-même, vous développez votre impact sur les autres et

construisez des relations plus riches.

L’apprentissage. Réaliser nos buts dans un environnement instable nécessite un apprentissage permanent. Nous

avons besoin d’apprendre à apprendre. Apprendre en modélisant et en transférant la structure de notre propre excellence

d’une situation à une autre, ou apprendre en modélisant l’excellence des personnes qui nous entourent.

Le changement. Il permet aux individus ou organisations de trouver en permanence un nouvel équilibre entre les

exigences externes (les contraintes de l’environnement) ou internes (les valeurs, mission et vision). Un équilibre plus

aligné, plus stable et confortable, générateur d’une plus grande énergie et d’une plus grande performance.

À qui s’adresse la PNL ?

À tous ceux qui considèrent la communication et les ressources humaines comme des facteurs clé de leur performance

et de leur réussite personnelle et professionnelle, et à titre d’exemple dans les domaines suivants :

• L’entreprise : managers, commerciaux, contrôle qualité, DRH, formation, recruteurs

• Les métiers du conseil et de l’accompagnement : coachs, consultants, orientation et réinsertion professionnelle

• La pédagogie : enseignants, formateurs, éducateurs

• La santé : médecins, dentistes, infirmières et professions paramédicales

• La relation d’aide : psychologues, psychothérapeutes, assistantes sociales

Le contenu des formations PNL est facilement transposable à tous les domaines d’activité.

I had a lovely Sunday reading and watching videos on the Brain and the revolutionary science of neuroplasticity. The subject is of special interest to me as I suffered from brain damage after my two strokes.

For centuries the human brain has been thought of as incapable of fundamental change. People suffering from neurological defects, brain damage or strokes were usually written-off as hopeless cases. But recent and continuing research into the human brain is radically changing how we look at the potential for neurological recovery.

The human brain, as we are now quickly learning, has a remarkable ability to change itself – in fact, even to rewire itself.

Dr. Norman Doidge travels across North America to meet some of the pioneering researchers who made revolutionary discoveries about the plasticity of the human brain. He also visits with the people who have been most affected by this research – the patients whose lives have been forever changed – people once thought of as incurable who are now living normal lives.

My brother gave me the link to the different sites and videos to watch there on. Would that be a chance to better my lot? I am hopeful.

Jn 6,24-35.
La foule s’était aperçue que Jésus n’était pas là, ni ses disciples non
plus. Alors les gens prirent les barques et se dirigèrent vers Capharnaüm à
la recherche de Jésus.
L’ayant trouvé sur l’autre rive, ils lui dirent : « Rabbi, quand es-tu
arrivé ici ? »
Jésus leur répondit : « Amen, amen, je vous le dis : vous me cherchez, non
parce que vous avez vu des signes, mais parce que vous avez mangé du pain
et que vous avez été rassasiés.
Ne travaillez pas pour la nourriture qui se perd, mais pour la nourriture
qui se garde jusque dans la vie éternelle, celle que vous donnera le Fils
de l’homme, lui que Dieu, le Père, a marqué de son empreinte. »
Ils lui dirent alors : « Que faut-il faire pour travailler aux oeuvres de
Dieu ? » Jésus leur répondit :
« L’oeuvre de Dieu, c’est que vous croyiez en celui qu’il a envoyé. »
Ils lui dirent alors : « Quel signe vas-tu accomplir pour que nous
puissions le voir, et te croire ? Quelle oeuvre vas-tu faire ?
Au désert, nos pères ont mangé la manne ; comme dit l’Écriture : Il leur a
donné à manger le pain venu du ciel. »
Jésus leur répondit : « Amen, amen, je vous le dis : ce n’est pas Moïse qui
vous a donné le pain venu du ciel ; c’est mon Père qui vous donne le vrai
pain venu du ciel.
Le pain de Dieu, c’est celui qui descend du ciel et qui donne la vie au
monde. »
Ils lui dirent alors : « Seigneur, donne-nous de ce pain-là, toujours. »
Jésus leur répondit : « Moi, je suis le pain de la vie. Celui qui vient à
moi n’aura plus jamais faim ; celui qui croit en moi n’aura plus jamais
soif.
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Nous, les hommes, sommes de d’êtres physique, mental, social et spirituel. Chaque dimension nommée est à être maintenue, entretenue et développée pour nous garder en état de vie. Je comprends que j’ai un besoin de me nourrir mais quid des autres dimensions ? Que veux dire maintenir mon mental, social et spirituel ?

Si j’arrête d’utiliser mes neurones ma cervelle se rétrécît et je deviens un légume n’est ce pas. Ainsi pour le social, l’interaction et les échanges avec les autres me maintient et me développe.

Tout comme tout homme a besoin de se nourrir physiquement, socialement, mentalement, pour continuer de rester en vie, nous avons également besoin de nous nourrir spirituellement. Que veux dire une nourriture spirituelle ? Un être spirituel est un être qui pense et vit au delà de sa matière d’homme. Dans ce massage de St Jean, ce matin, ‘le pain de vie’ est la nourriture spirituelle proposée par Jésus. Consommer le corps et le sang du Christ c’est ainsi se nourrir de son essence pour être en communion avec Lui, pour être transformé par Lui, pour s’abandonner à Lui, de Lui laisser vivre en nous pour en devenir comme Lui.

Je prends conscience de ce cadeau que Toi, Seigneur Christ mon Sauveur m’a laissé  et aussi à toute l’humanité, ce Jeudi Saint à la Cène. Tu seras avec nous jusqu’à la fin des temps et Tu continues à nous nourrir. Comme un cercle vertueux, plus je crois en Ta présence omniprésente et Ton essence dans l’Hostie que je consomme, plus que ma foi et ma croyance en Toi grandit. N’est ce pas merveilleux ! Tout vient de toi Seigneur Dieu. Tu me demandes une infime petite initiative volontaire de penser à Toi et de croire en Toi et Tout sera fait. Amen