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Universal Basic Income Now or Never

The real cost of the pandemic may change the world

Like many others in 2020, I lost my job due to the economic upheaval caused by a global pandemic unleashed by an irresponsible hegemonic superpower which as early as 2013 experimented with bat viruses in its biochemical warfare labels.

I was a witness to some of these invents and at the end of it the ostracism of Taiwan which warned first about the Chinese experiments but was ignored by the WHO.

Thankfully, COVID-19 has a low mortality rate, although it is not the flu and the long-term health effect effects on the respiratory system, nervous system, heart and even musculature may take decades to become apparent.

The real costs of the virus, however, will be economic. Already, the hospitality industry, hotel and travel business around the globe are suffering. Even in countries with low infection rates, businesses are closing down due to lack of vIsitors.

Already pummeled by technological changes, many industries are automating no longer need the armies of workers that made the middle class rich in the second half of the 20th century. The skills needed today can increasingly be complemented or replaced by computers. Unemployment is not rising because we are creating low-pay jobs and those catering to the rich, not meaningful careers that guarantee a livelihood.

A pandemic ruins the travel industry but also the arts. Those dependent on live performances, real spectators rather than the written word or remote endeavors, are going extinct. In most countries museums and theaters are now entirely financed by states, something that cannot last forever. Medication is either unobtainable or prohibitively expensive an countries that have produced generics for e.g. cancer and HIV cannot be visited atm and are even shutting down medical tourism to keep their own citizens alive.

In this situation, the calls for a Universal Basic Income are becoming louder and its implementation inevitable. We can no longer rely on an arbitrary, complicated system of social benefits dependent on antiquated rules. We need to reform tax systems that have impoverished the middle class, diminished the chances of the poor, and is universally exploited by the rich.

A universal basic income is now more necessary than ever because millions will never get back on their feet. Especially for those over 50, finding a job has become near impossible. And if they do, it is a low paid meaningless work far removed from the skills they acquired over the course of a lifetime.

In order to save a generation, we must improve everyone’s life, not just those of the rich. Global decrease in poverty as measured by the UN or WEF is meaningless if millions of middle class citizens fall back into relative poverty. Poverty is measured by a certain amount of dollars per day someone needs to survive. That is nonsense. For worker in a low level income country, driving for Uber Eats may be a godsend; for a flight attendant who lost their job due to COVID, it is a brutal step down – in incoming, quality of life, and self esteem.

Let’s not forget the ailing population. Not ailing from any particular sickness, but ailing from that most trying of old conditions: old age, frailty, and simply the loss of ability to do what a 20-year old could do. Their skills and knowledge no longer have the same value as before. For every person retiring in security and safety, these is another one who lost everything, usually between 50 and 60, to unscrupulous banks, investment advice, loss of income opportunities, or the financial burden of taking care of one’s parents.

We can continue to muddle on, or we can make permanent changes to the way society is organized. Winner takes all capitalism is not the way forward.

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Purple Carrots

The SARS-Cov virus with all its mutations is wreaking havoc on planet Earth. The economic impact for some countries and industries is enormous. Italy spends billions of Euros a month on help for all industries, other countries are helping airlines and hotels. The travel industry is of course most affected with all the lockdowns. Some smaller nations might never fully recover.

I lost my job twice in 2020 and most teaching engagements were cancelled. The I had major surgery from which I won’t fully recover for another 6-8 months. I spend a lost of time in bed resting and writing.

I am writing a book about the effects of colonialism on Asian languages and one on marketing in the food industry which allows me to do a lot of research not just into products but also recipes, traditions and the history of food.

You can find the results for now on Instagram. http://www.Instagram.com/worldfoodunique.

I try to answer questions such as why are carrots orange (The Dutch!), who really invented Pan de Jamón, where do doughnuts come from, but also how industrial processes and products have changed the way we cook (cue Heinz ketchup).

You are welcome to follow me on my journey on all my channels.

Why Europe loves China

Liberals, Americans in general, people informed about the dismal human rights situation in China, historians – many groups and thinkers keep being amazed at how generously Europe treats China. Merkel and her ilk are called “lefties”, French politicians accused for selling out to the “fellow communists” in Beijing, and Italian politicians of ruining centuries of craftsmanship and tradition in the pursuit of profits.

Many of these accusations are true. The propaganda arm of the Chinese government, in the guise of the Confucius Institutes, is indeed operating freely and without much scrutiny on the continent. Compared to America, European China-policy is much more accommodating, and a socialist tradition in many European countries doesn’t make it look any better. But the real reason is much more pragmatic.

I used to be a diplomat for a EU country. A not very important country in the scheme of things. But even so, my movements and public statements always had to take into consideration what Beijing would say, how the CCP would react. Not because my government loves China, but because Europe is an aging continent, with many fewer young people spending, and many middle-aged technical experts invested in small and medium sized enterprises relying entirely on exports.

From 2000 to 2020, China quickly became the most important export market for these firms. European companies were not self-reliant. Their profits, from cars to machinery, came from China business. So when European politicians criticize China, they are imperiling their businesses, their constituents, and their own political futures. This is true especially for those countries where “export economy” is the dominant thinking, like in Germany.

The EU-China agreement to be ratified these days offers a lot more perks to Chinese companies than to Europeans, for a reason. An estimated 30% of profits of European industry is depending directly on China, another 15% indirectly. This doesn’t measure services and the financial sector.

For example, the agreement allows Chinese staff to work in the EU for three years while EU governments will not be allowed to impose quotas, other limits on the number of specialised workers that come into their country.

So if Europe seems spineless compared to a much younger, much more self-reliant America, that is true, not because of ideological reasons, but practical ones. It is because of Europe’s misguided policies that China could thrive and steal technology for decades. It is Europe’s conservative attitude to immigration that forces it to do business with states that ignore human rights.

As Europeans, we keep being “outraged” about what is happening in Hong Kong, and “concerned” about human rights in China. But we do not have the internal demand, the economic policies, and the political luxury to do otherwise. Europe has painted itself into a corner from which it will be hard to emerge.

The Loneliness of the Virus

One of the biggest problems created by the pandemic and lockdowns is hardly ever discussed at this stage.

We know about the economic impact: finding a job has become near impossible, going for a job interview even legally prohibited in some countries. The long-term medical effects of the disease are as yet unknown and even short-time treatment changes with every mutation we encounter.

Whole professions are under threat, from the beauty industry to hospitality and travel, from sex workers to even unexpected sectors like dentistry. The industry of much cheaper dentists for example that has sprung up across the border where I live, has come to a standstill. A former football player turned gay prostitute with whom I went to school is now working as a builder. Temporarily, for once the current project is finished, there is no new one on the horizon.

I myself am looking for a job. I quit mine just before the epidemic began to relocate to take care of my aging parents, now it turns out I cannot get a new one in the current climate. Unless I knew a programming language – a job easily done from home it turns out. Most of the jobs in my region and industry require onsite teamwork and all the job offers are from last year and currently on hold.

What we don’t discuss is the human toll of loneliness. My parents led a pretty isolated life in retirement but it turns out it was filled with lots of interactions that have since become impossible or even dangerous, from their card games at the seniors’ club to doctors visits, the friendly chat with the neighbors to weekend outings with the church. The three of us are now stuck – and have been for months – in a small apartment, and although not in financial difficulty yet, our days have become filled with isolation and frustration.

I am not the only one of course, and many are worse off. My mate in Zurich lives alone too and is getting worried about his job at the airport; my lover and friend in Malaysia, still a student in his final PhD year cannot find an internship due to corona.

There are, as of this writing, few places left where things are better, and it looks like much worse is likely to come. Life is screeching to a halt. Loneliness is encroaching. The realization is setting in that a pandemic kills not only medically, physically, but also psychologically, emotionally.

Gay men and young people in generally have relied on dating apps to meet up. That has become impossible. Chatting is nice but it’s no substitute for human contact.

It is also hard on the old and particularly hard on children, who, kept from attending school, are losing contact to their mates and the social circles that help form their personalities. Already threatened by social media and technical isolation, they are now physically isolated too. Not an easy lot to bear.

The crisis will take years to resolve itself, medically, economically, and personally. The actual scars may last much longer.

China continues to suck at PR

The new year started out as a victory for the PR, except it was a total disaster.

Three separate incidents occurred to show how bad the communists in Beijing still are at public relations.

Number one, a tweet surfaced by the Chinese embassy to the United States equating the genocide of the Uighurs and forced sterilization of Uighur women as progress and “emancipation”.

Second, the storming of the Capitol was celebrated in Chinese media and equated with the Legco unrest in Hong Kong. The former was a domestic insurrection against a democratically elected government. The latter was a protest against a tyrannical dictatorship.

Finally, China called out the United States for sending the UN ambassador for a visit to Taiwan, arguably a questionable move but one that makes Beijing once again like truculent fools who keep repeating the same protests over and over again as if they had some kind of diplomatic weight.

No doubt these were not all the blunders commuted. Calling the immuring and isolation of 11 million people around Shijiazhuang a necessary control of the epidemic when it is just the same callous disregard for human life as last year is in poor taste.

On Jan 9 China on issued a new order to prohibit firms from complying with foreign laws banning transactions with Chinese companies and individuals, effective immediately. Although within its rights to do so it is another misguided and petulant move.

The reason is China’s distorted self-image. The CCP genuinely believes the no sense it spouts. After so many decades of party control, generation after generation of apparatchiks has been indoctrinated to the level that the party can do no wrong and everything it says must be right. With a brutal dictator like Xi in power, this image has been amplified. Whatever he says is the final word and must not be questioned.

We can expect more for China, but one thing we cannot expect: meaningful change.

Hong Kong 21-1

Impressive flow chart from #hkpoliceforce briefing today involves both time travel from July to April and an infinite loop. It is a direct assault on democracy. Distracted by the events in Washington, the #CCP is moving in Hong Kong with shocking speed.

Chart also misses step of CE dissolving LegCo after first veto (BL 50). After that, CE can pass her own budget (BL51) or invoke Emergency Regulations Ord. Also, candidates in the 2nd LegCo election (if not delayed by ERO) could be DQ’d by Returning Officers.

Finally, if 2nd LegCo vetoes another budget, forcing CE to resign under BL52(3) and new CE election, then that’s how the Basic Law was supposed to work. It’s a feature, not a bug, unlike the flow chart’s infinite loop.

Sources HKPF and others
Full text: https://www.basiclaw.gov.hk/en/basiclawtext/chapter_4.html #democracy #hongkong

Hong Kong 21

The year started on a shocking note. Distracted by Corona and US Senate elections, the world stood idly by as China continued her assault on democracy in Hong Kong.

The current political crackdown is not only limited to the winners of the 2020 Pro-Democracy Primary Elections, nor to the Resistance Camp formed after the Primaries. This is a large-scale liquidation involving 52 democrats across different political spectrums

This crackdown unmasked the regime’s intention to uproot the democracy of Hong Kong once and for all, restricting their rights to enter or leave Hong Kong, as well as their potential expression of opinions in the future.

According to Police, they believed the Primary Elections is to paralyse the LegCo. This further hints that every citizen who has organised, participated, and 600K citizens voted in the primary elections can be accused of “subverting state power”.

Every LegCo member enjoys the right to veto the budget as it is a right conferred by law, it is definitely not “subversive” by nature. The CCP is asserting that any future actions in the LegCo showing resistance and not complete compliance will be regarded as subversion of gov.

The CCP hopes to stifle all traces of democracy in the city. Hong Kong would only be left with “dissidents” who are loyal to the CCP.

There is no doubt that today’s crackdown is equivalent to the Formosa Incident. 2021 is the start of a decade, and this decade would only bring further crackdown from the CCP. Free World should support us and stop the CCP from encroaching our rights and liberal values.

At the end of the day (January 6) the police announced that there would be hundreds more arrests. Hong Kong has changed beyond recognition.

List of the #Hongkong lawmakers arrested and released today on bail

Make money with fraud! From Taiwan!

Fraud is part of life. Individuals, syndicates, companies … everyone tries to defraud you.

Nigerian princes and deceptive insurance schemes are one thing. You pay in a sum for the promise of earning more.

Such schemes are obvious and whoever falls for them … well. But there is a more innocuous type of fraud out there and the leading perpetrator are Taiwanese companies. These are mini games available as apps in the Google Play and Apple App Store.

They are ostensibly honest. You get to play a game and watch some ads. The company makes money from displaying the ads and offers you a small sum in return. Looks like a fair deal.

Except you never get the money. All these apps do is make ad money for themselves and collect your email address which they sell in databases.

The games fall into one of three groups. Those that let you win easily, but never pay; those with decreasing returns as you near payout limits; those that add other conditions as you approach payout limits.

Here is the surprising fact: 90% of these fraudulent apps are made by a handful of Taiwanese companies. They can be identified by ads displayed (for Taipei apartments for example) and actors used in ads (speaking Taiwanese accents). Apple has recently removed fraudulent Chinese apps but left the thousands of Taiwanese rip-offs available. This tarnished the image of Taiwan worldwide.

It is a shame not only that Google and Apple allow these apps but that after scam after scam by criminal gangs these “game developers” tarnish the global image of an otherwise promising Asian democracy.

Versatility in Creme

The French brought the millefeuille dough to Eastern Europe and from there is took on a life of its own.

It became the basis of countless variations in every European country, usually with a vanilla creme or pudding filling.

It is known by many names, most of which have stemmed from the German cremeschnitte, and literally translate to either cream slice or, in some cases, cream pie. According to Historical Sociolinguistics, it is believed that the origins of the cremeschnitte date back to the blend of two cuisines in the Austro-Hungarian empire.


However, its Polish name Napoleonka indicates that this dessert might have possibly originated from the French mille-feuille, which is also known as the Napoleon – another pastry whose exact origin is unknown, even though its modern form was said to be influenced by improvements of Marie-Antoine Carême, the famous French chef-extraordinaire.
Still, while the Napoleon is made up of three layers of puff pastry alternating with two layers of pastry cream, the typical cremeschnitte is made with only two layers of puff pastry held together by a hefty amount of vanilla-flavored pastry cream, which is sometimes topped with a thin layer of whipped cream.


Cremeschnitte is most often simply sprinkled with icing sugar, but it can also be topped with a glossy and smooth glacé icing, and nicely decorated with a traditional chevron design. Two of the most popular cremeschnitte varieties include the aforesaid Polish Napoleonka or kremówka.

Kremna rezina is a specialty of the Slovenian Lake Bled area. It is a luscious cream cake with a golden, crispy, buttery pastry acting as its base. The base is topped with flavorful vanilla custard, whipped cream, and a layer of thin, buttery dough.
The whole cake is traditionally dusted with icing sugar and served sliced in cubes. The story of kremna rezina (or Bled cream cake) began with the arrival of chef Ištvan Lukačević to Bled’s Park Hotel, where he modified the Hungarian cream cake by adding the right proportions of whipped cream into it, and in 1953, the hotel presented Lukačević’s invention to the public.
The new dessert was a huge success.

Tompouce is a traditional Dutch pastry consisting of a thin puff pastry that is filled with cream and topped with a layer of smooth, pink icing.

It’s almost identical to the Hungarian #cremeschnitte #kremes

The dessert is usually prepared in a rectangular shape. Around King’s Day in Amsterdam, the icing is traditionally colored bright orange in order to represent true Dutch colors.
It is believed that the dessert is named after a performing dwarf with the stage name of Tom Pouce. Tompouce is often served with afternoon tea or coffee, especially at festive events such as birthdays

christmas #desserts #holidays #recipe #rezepte #weihnachten ⁣#bakingfromscratch #bakingisfun #instabaking #baking #backvergnügen #ilovebaking #bakinglove #bakingfun #cakes #holidaybaking #homemade #bakinglife #homebaking #bakery #bakken #kerstmas #natale #navidad #noel #jul #dutchcake

Deceiving names

In the culinary arts very many dishes incorporate place names. Those names ase frequently random inventions (cf French Fries) or an attempt to differentiate a foodstuff from local traditions. (A Vienna sausage doesn’t come from Vienna). Rarely do they indicate a place where the dish is actually from and has a clear connection to a locale.

One of those is the inimitable a Salzburger nockerl, invented there and representing the mountains around the city.

Salzburger nockerl are light and delicate vanilla-flavored dumplings which are, due to the method of preparation, often labeled as a soufflé. As the name implies, the dish was invented in Salzburg in the 17th century, and as an ode to its place of origin, when preparing these sweet treats, the airy mass is arranged on a baking tray in three mounds, representing the three hills that surround the city.

The dish is always served warm, either as a dessert or a main dish, and it is traditionally dusted with powdered sugar and paired with various fruit sauces.

Heat the milk with the cut-open vanilla pod and lemon juice. Remove from the stove and leave to sit. Remove the pod. Smear an oval-shaped, ovenproof form with butter and pour in enough vanilla milk to cover the bottom.

With a hand mixer, mix the cooled egg whites with a pinch of salt and a third of the sugar until very stiff. Slowly add the rest of the sugar and continue to beat until the mixture is thick and creamy.

Preheat the oven to 220°C / 428°F. Add the egg yolks, lemon rind, vanilla sugar, flour, and cornstarch to the egg white mixture and fold three or four times with a whisk (the mass mustn’t become homogenous). Make 4 pyramid-shaped nockerl, placing them next to each other in the baking tray. Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden brown..

Dust with icing sugar and serve quickly so that the Nockerl don’t collapse.

christmas #desserts #holidays #sweets #nachspeise #postre #pudding #süssspeise #süßes #rezeptideen #rezepte #noel #weihnachtsbäckerei

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Why Human Translators Have a Future

Around fifteen years ago I sold my last batch of share in my translation company. I sincerely believed that machine translation was around the corner and my company had limited earnings potential.

While I was right on some ways I was wrong in others. The standard documents, business correspondence, and software manuals dried up for sure. But other things came along. Prices for translation actua lly went up in some areas.

Literary translation was always the exception. It requires years; of skills and writing talent, familiarity with the author and his genre, not to mention the ability to tread a fine line to make a book commercially viable. It also pays very little.

Other areas that will never be replaced are scientific or medical documents and most certainly political content. As a translator for some very important figures in politics I was sometimes old that “ the minister doesn’t like that word “. A machine will never catch those nuances.

But it is in my food blog I started http://instagram.com/worldfooduniquethat I found a much more mundane reason not to rely on Google translate and other systems.

Take pepper for example. In German or French, Pfeffer; or poivre are always black pepper corns, which are Scotch bonnet in the Caribbean, where peppers and chilis, like in English (the plural) and bell peppers are dried paprika in German or Hungarian, and so on.

Some meat products have entirely different names in different regions. A tortilla in Mexico is a different food than in Spain. How would an artificial intelligence ever know what you mean, given the fact that most people are not aware of denominations outside their local traditions?

We have a long way to go before machines will replace humans in most areas. Some are obvious, others less so.

How To Name The World

I am writing a blog about global food marketing http://www.instagram.com/worldfoodunique and find myself troubled how to refer to regions of the world. Almost any terminology is biased, racist, egocentric and just plain wrong.

We speak of a first world but Europe was hardly the first. What’s first then? The economy? Research? Technology? Hardly.

We talk about East Asia but when you are in “The East” everything important is westwards. Towards east is but a huge ocean and a few forlorn islands.

Asians in the UK are Indians. Asians in California are people from East Asia. Inhabitants of “East Asia” hardly think of Indians when they use the term “Asian”. In Latin America, we have a similar situation with “Asiaticos”.

Ah, Latin America. What’s Latin about it? Because their official languages are related to Latin? So are English, German, and many others. Aztec and Mayan are definitely. What’s a “Latino” then?

When the inhabitants of the southern American continent say “America” they mean everything from Tierra del Fuego to Alaska. When Americans say “America” they mean the home of the free, the United States.

We think of “Chinese” as one cultural and racial entity. It is most certainly not. The Han Chinese are the most populous but China has more than 100 other tribes, languages, races and ancestries, from Mongol, Yi, to Manchuria and Viet.

So yes, I have difficulties describing regions in my blogs, not to mention races. If find this problem more pressng than gender issues like He/She/They Cis/Trans etc. Those arejust personal issues. The country and race terminology affects journalism world-wide, disenfranchises minorities, perpetuates stereotype and Euro-American centrism.

I believe we need a new terminology and I a^m trying to come up with one that is less harmful than what we are using now. It’ll be along way.

How a world-class airline missed the bus

Amidst the Coronavirus crisis, when huge airlines like Lufthansa are struggling and others are already close to bankruptcy. Airline and airport rankings are reshuffling.

The local competition for Eva Air are weak; Cathay Pacific whose survival is also in question is struggling. At least with Hong Kong’s identity destroyed by the Chinese Communists, it has lost its former shine.

China Airlines suffers from association with Taiwan’s neighbor and is often confused with Air China. Thai and Singapore Airlines operate from expensive and touristy hubs.

As of the time of this writing, the only hub carriers active are Turkish and Emirates, both Islamic and with ridiculous transit times in Dubai and Istanbul.

Eva Air had an excellent safety record, first class onboard cuisine — see my food blog Instagram.com/worldfoodunique — and locked in cheap oil prices. New planes offer great flexibility short and long haul and it has a neutral name not associated with any country or religion.

And yet, the airline as axing flights and seemingly retreating from profitable routes as well as loss making ones.

Eva Air would be a fantastic hub carrier for East Asia with great connections to US, Europe and Australia. It serves all major cities in Southeast Asia, Japan and China. Due to the time zone, connecting times are short. Cross Pacific routes are profitable due to the big Taiwanese diaspora in cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York.

The tech industry employs thousands of Taiwanese and Taiwanese companies like TSMC or Foxconn are setting up new production sites.

Eva has a profitable cargo network in high demand, integrated maritime connection and a new and partly refurbished airport at its disposal.

So, why is it not expanding like mad and dominating the market like the Middle East carriers do?

The reasons are not entirely obvious but they have to do with Taiwanese risk-avoidance, a conservative management style, lack of government guarantees and most of all a certain lack of confidence in cones own abilities — a core element of Taiwanese business culture and not surprising in a country that has lived under the shadow of its huge neighbor and internal political strive for decades.

Tacos everywhere

Seldom has a food item conquered the world like #tacos. Most food makes it around the world due to the efforts of marketers, emigrants, multinationals, specific products, and more than often it is altered gravely.

The meatballs in Azerbaijan are different from Swedish ones which taste differently than American meatballs or Chinese lion heads.

Sushi have been adopted to local tastes. In California you find avocados in them, in Central Asia lamb and yoghurt, and in Europe sausages.

The taco however remained largely unchanged and apart form a choice of meat or fish and the preferred sauce exists in its country of origin exactly the same as in the rest of the world.

Every effort to industrialize it had failed. Taco sauce from the supermarket is disgusting, taco shells and tortillas easy to make at home, guacamole is fun to make and so most of the associated products and their marketing remain American.

For more visit Instagram.com/worldfoodunique

Changing Habits

Our eating habits are all different. From country to country, region to region, city to city, but also person to person and from decade to decade it seems.

Much of the advice and recipes given on the internet are unsuitable for a large portion of readers. Many ingredients are only available in certain places. Young people can eat much spicer than older folks. Caucasians moving to Asia often have trouble digesting the round corn rice, and Asians moving to Europe tend to miss it. Bread in Germany is dark and hard; in Asia its soft and sweet, and so on.

Then there is age. My habits certainly have changed. I used to wake up hungry and have massive breakfasts. Now at 50+ I need a few hours before I feel well enough to eat. Simple breakfasts or just coffee will do.

Oddly enough my selection of foods changed too. I used to travel the world and enjoy local cuisine, as you can see on http://www.instagram.com/worldfoodunique

Now I tend to take much greater care in selecting ingredients, I have gone vegetarian almost and tend to make the same dishes all over again.

How have your habits changed over time?

Simple Pleasures

In the times of a pandemic I am daily discovering the simple pleasures of life. Many come from my garden.

Ever since I studied in England, I’ve developed a taste for the simplest sandwiches 🥪 in the world. When returning to Austria 🇦🇹 I showed my mom and she was amazed. Although we grow red #radishes #radieschen #onions 🧅 and #cucumber 🥒 in the garden and use them in various recipes, my family never thought of putting them on toast. So here is how I make them.

A) Radish sandwich

Use toast or rye bread #ryebread #pumpernickelbread #vollkornbrot and smother it in #ricottacheese #frischkäse

Salt one side of the radish slices and lay them. Garnish with any herb 🌿 you like.

B) Cucumber sandwich

I use soft toast here in handy strips and put #mango 🥭 #chutney followed by cucumber thinly sliced.

C) Onion Sandwich

This one is the loveliest

Try to find an onion 🧅 the size of the glass will use to #stencil the #toastbread. Cut out a round shape and smother in home-made mayo.

Slice the onion, salt lightly, and top with a second round toast also brushed generously with #mayonnaise. Cover the sides like a cake with mayo and roll in herbs 🌿- or cayenne pepper 🌶: paprika powder or beetroot powder for visual effect

#sandwiches #easyrecipes #homemade #healthyfood #healthyeating #vegetarian

How experience trumps brand

The illusion of brand value in hospitality

In the old days, when travelling to foreign lands, with languages one did not speak and food one could not eat, transportation systems one could not navigate and people one could not trust, it was generally safer to stay at a hotel chain property. A name one knew and a brand one could trust.

Unsurprisingly, it was the Americans who invented the concept. Their salespeople and executives now could go anywhere in the vast United States, even the world, and trust the hotel they stayed in would offer the same facilities and quality they already knew.

How times have changed.

Staying at a hotel is no longer about minimum standards and basic expectations, but about one word: experience.

The Internet in particular has changed what is possible. We now have hundreds of pictures and opinions available to guide us. In a world of increasingly differentiated hotel concepts and the tyranny of customer reviews, we can safely select a different property and take the risk of being disappointed. Because we now have a voice: one review on Tripadvisor and the property may be tarnished, even ruined.

Why I Never Use TripAdvisor – Or: The Curse of Reviews

It was the cursed millennials who have created these new rules, booking.com and ubiquitous smartphones which enabled them, Instagram and Tripadvisor which enforced them

Influencers are now more important than brand value. A good brand must be able to influence, inspire, innovate, and tell a story; it should be charismatic and absolutely unique.

Hotel chains began to snap up iconic properties and integrate them into their offering while fully preserving their unique character. All which, as a designer of luxury hotels and designation F&B suits us just fine.

The erosion of brand value also means a redefinition of what a brand is. A motley collection of luxury properties can now be a “brand”. A bar, a restaurant, a spa can now be the reason why someone chooses a particular property.

That is why unique luxurious interiors are now more important than ever. Customers crave novelty, and overall, uniqueness, and only good architecture and design can offer that.

Read more: My Journey Into Interior Design

The author is director of global business development for luxury interior design house AB Concept in Hong Kong, Milan and Taipei. Follow the author on LinkedIn

 

Silent Earthquakes in Hospitality

This is a guest blog written by Richard Adam, Chief Executive OPTIMIST, NED Board Member, Strategist, Developer, High-End Experience Incubator and Digital Advocate. You can connect with him on LinkedIn here.

Since I can remember, there exist these “The future of …..” type of thing conferences, publications and panel discussions. What is the future of hospitality? I don´t know. I am sure there is one, although the commercial forms may be very different. Predictions are generally difficult, especially the ones concerning the future :). I am certain, however, the landscape of hospitality as a business will be different and we will see this happening in big blows. I am bold enough to say, the changes in the next 10 years will be more radical as they were in the last 30 years. This is in regards to the fragmented forms and offerings, we will see on the horizon, and this is regarding the players in the market, some of them sticking to their habits and business as usual for far too long already.

In the history of business and economics, as we know, nothing is for granted and nothing works forever the same way, not even the simple idea of providing shelter for people away from home. Imagine, you were given potatoes to eat all your life and your parents told you, there is not much alternative.

Grown-up, out of the house, when living in the privileged parts of the world, you suddenly discover the markets full of food, you have never seen or tasted. Will you still go for potatoes? That´s what we have in the world of travel and hospitality: more and more people are not happy with just potatoes anymore. We call them mature travelers. Research, reviews, comparisons and options at their fingertips, eyes wide open, an explorer by heart, even questioning where the profits of their purchase might go to or which booking decision rewards the lower carbon footprint.

Read also: My Journey Into Interior Design

Over recent years we have seen a big appetite of some global hotel system providers (HSPs – originally known as hotel chains) dumping their real estate and their own hotel operations for the sake of growth of their brands and services to hotel owners and operators, also swallowing similar competitors to clean the market, the Starwood takeover by Marriott being one of the bigger transactions, but Hilton, IHC, Accor and others also have significant appetite for growth. It is astonishing to see these companies persuading real estate owners, their services are the best that could happen to a hotel property while they have sold most of their own. Today the hotel system providers´ stock price depends on growth rates. Increasing individual expectations and fragmented markets have led to more segmented hotel brands with specific brand promises, run by the same big hotel system giants who see their business model in providing labels called brands, booking technology, loyalty programs and management services.

Yet, I wonder whether any long-standing Ritz-Carlton guest has seen this as a progress in his or her guest experience, whether any Westin guest has seen benefits during the stay since it is under the Marriott umbrella and whether any Waldorf-Astoria or St. Regis is coming close to the original, just to name a few examples. Paste and copy of legendary originals is nothing else than selling an illusion. It is to find out, whether the illusion is meant to be sold to guests, to the hotel owners and investors or to all of them. Now, let´s explore that further.

1. The illusion of brand value

In the old days, when traveling to unknown territory with a less experimental mindset, it seemed to be safer to book a hotel from a known hotel chain. Especially frequent travelers are more concerned about minimum standards than getting the kick out of an overwhelmingly surprising hotel experience. Booking hotel brands are a reasonably safe bet and hotel chains were positioning their respective brands in the relevant segments from 1 to 5 stars and sold these concepts to hotel operators, owners and investors because it was safer for them not to deal with property investment or operational risks and gives more opportunity for growth. This was working well for all stakeholders for many years.

When big heritage brands were first established, they set themselves apart by capitalizing on an area of expertise, like a uniquely refined production method or an unparalleled sense of design. In the global world of multiplying hotel concepts according to standards, these competitive advantages got lost. Social currency is what rules brand choices today. The millennials have created their own rules and preferences. A real brand must be able to influence, inspire, innovate, tell a story, often linked to charismatic and visionary leadership.

I do not know a “sexy” brand with opportunistic streamlined technocratic executives in the lead and most companies hire CVs and “buzz words” instead of personality. A label concept is not an alive brand. A brand is a spirit.

When brands are too stuck in their past heritage, they often lose their influencing role. Tradition also means to keep the fire burning and not protecting the ash. Some iconic hotel legacies became a part of hotel group brands: The Erawan in Bangkok, The Mount Nelson in South Africa, The Carlton in Cannes, The Georges V in Paris, which was already a legend before Four Seasons existed, or The Raffles in Singapore now being part of Accor.

In the automotive sector, the Daimler-Benz corporation merged with Chrysler for a while and Mercedes-Benz cars suddenly had Chrysler parts built-in. The worst decline in sales for Mercedes-Benz cars was the consequence. These traditional legends may hope to have more distribution power in the market, but from a brand perception perspective, it lifts the HSPs brand more than it does for these traditional iconic properties. Some of them, like The Palace in St. Moritz, pulled out again after a few years not materializing the expected benefits. If I would be the owner of these famous properties, I would ask for royalties instead of paying them. Although hotel companies hire from the same source markets everyone else does, there can be some hypothetical benefits for these hotels, in management know-how, yield optimization, and digitalization, etc., but not when it comes to the glory of brands. The market leaders of the future will not necessarily be the bigger brands — they’ll be the ones that have the cultural sensitivity to understand what consumers want at any moment and what they can well do without. They need to center themselves around the customer, provide them with value, and redefine themselves as providers of experiences (not just products).

As I consider my background in strategy and marketing, I am a supporter of brand building. There is a promise, there is value, there are trust and delivery, in a perfect scenario there is even some magic and inspiration to it. It is certainly more than a label and corporate design standards.

Some hotel groups are good brands, they have a soul, a common spirit of doing things and serving their guests. The fame of The Mandarin Hong Kong and The Oriental Bangkok was blended and leveraged well for the Mandarin Oriental Group maintaining credibility. Other companies, mutated to selling trademark labels in the sense of commodity as their core business model with an emphasis on growth, have ceased being a brand in the true sense. Whoever believes money can buy everything also admits to being prepared to do anything for money.

The hotel owners and investors have paid their dues for what we now call the consolidation in hotel system providers, which has led to an inflation of hotel labels with a focus on growth but it seems, these concepts have increasingly overlooked to entertain or positively surprise their end-consumer, named hotel guests. Not surprisingly, Minor Inc. in Thailand has recently launched a court case against Marriott for getting too little in return for their royalties.

I remember when I once checked into a hotel in Orlando, belonging to the brand with the claim “ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen” at that time. It was late, I had been traveling for over 20 hours due to some delays, I was also jetlagged and tired. But the receptionist took some time for his scripted greeting formula, he had to get across according to the procedure standards. It just wasn’t what I needed or wanted to hear at that time. Good intentions, unreasonably applied.

Several years ago, I was booked into an Aloft Hotel in South East Asia, still under the Starwood umbrella at that time. I am not a “high maintenance” hotel guest but I was very disappointed when I could not link my smartphone to the sound system in the room because the room’s connection device was outdated. Considering the brand promise of Aloft is to cater to the digital natives, that was an embarrassing delivery. For fairness sake, I grew up in a hotel and later have worked in hotels many years myself. There is no such thing as the perfect world. But these were experiences I still remember, completely contrary to the brand promise.

As a matter of fact, some hotel properties change their branding so swiftly, regular guests don’t even notice, which is not surprising: apart from labeling there is not much difference anyway. I dare to raise the question of whether brand promise in hospitality has become a big soap bubble and whether this brand inflation will come to the same saturation and decline like McDonald’s.

Why? Their marketing power is able to raise brand promise stronger than actual delivery. But when your customers are no longer hotel guests but hotel operators, owners and investors, consequently, your focus and competencies make a shift. You pamper your cash cows but feed hotel guests with potatoes. In good independent boutique hotels with passionate hoteliers, it is the other way around and people still get this special surprise and individual touch which makes the difference, assuming they are decently operated.

Global uniformed hotel branding systems tend to lose the focus on guest experience, especially when facing growth ambitions or fear of takeover or whatever is relating to the stock exchange rate, while traditional hoteliers have that by heart. Frequent travelers are finding this out increasingly.

What was once called “brand loyalty” may still work with running shoes, cars, and smartphones, seeing the immediate value of stringent product definition. In hospitality it has become a synonym for boredom.

All the loyalty programs and CRM technology are trying to compensate for this. I am a member of some of these programs. Not the big spender, but I do have my frequencies and none of these programs ever got me excited. It also becomes obvious, many hands involved squeeze room rates for little in exchange and fair-trade expectations will also play a role. Therefore, the global asset-light hotel system business model might become a dated dinosaur business model soon. Even when getting more and more segmented in their branding concepts, it is most likely rolled out with little substance for individual expectations and hospitality experience. Marriott currently holds 30 labels they call brands in the portfolio, Accor even 32. Can they really reinvent the wheel of hospitality in 30 different areas and roll it out globally as a profiled experience? The big players seem to have spotted this trend against them and are increasingly trying to offer independent boutique hotels a place under their portfolio of brands, not to mention it is another sort of income in terms of royalties for loyalty programs and distribution platforms etc.

Again, they are missing the point in guest expectations and experience. As Albert Einstein once said: “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it”.

Smaller, innovative, more individual guest-centric and disruptive hospitality concepts are taking over the word of mouth “must-see” awareness. It is always about the destination experience, the special property and hardly ever about a label. Due to social networks and the power of advocacy, no marketing budget or paid (faked) influencer campaign can compensate when the word-of-mouth isn’t working for you.

2. The illusion of distribution power

In the year 2000, I learned from a McKinsey study, which stated that in about 15 years on from 2000, the majority of booking or shopping transactions in retail and travel will happen online. At that time, I was at the helm of a tourism development authority for a destination with 45 million registered annual visitors creating 50 billion USD in annual revenue and 8% of GDP. So, this was a statement of great relevance calling for action.

Ever since, I kept embracing digital technology and have my track record of success and failure, endless learning and continuous experience, which has helped me sharpening my senses to distinguish between what is technically doable, what is the “flavor of the months”, and what will generate real sustainable value of future relevance.

Today, in retail we have Amazon, Ebay, Alibaba etc. and in travel, we have Priceline (incl. their subbrands Booking, Agoda), Expedia, Trip Advisor, CTrip and so on. Hotel Groups may have their armadas of sales representatives for B2B and they invest in technology as well, but in terms of volume, they rely on the so-called OTAs (Online Travel Agencies).

Their contracting conditions forcing hoteliers to offer the best price options via OTAs played a big role in their growth. In many countries, this practice or contract terms are no longer allowed, but OTAs have their ways of bypassing that.

Booking.com pays 850 million USD per annum to secure a top ranking in Google searches and within the offers for a particular destination, it is about price or tangible added value, less about brands. Apart from making efforts in improving conversion rates, revenue and channel management, HSPs don’t have many competitive advantages in these systems. That’s why they run massive advertising campaigns to book directly to save commission or create some sticky alliance at the cost of the end consumer. In times of intelligent digital marketing automatization, these brand advertising campaigns are needed to keep glossy travel and general interest magazines alive and to boost executives’ egos, less and less for leveraging business. In OTA search listings, individual independent hotels stand next to hotel group branches, with the advantage of not having to pay additional royalties to the hotel system provider. That increases price flexibility or the opportunity to add value and service. Basically, any hotel can build competencies and set up self-sufficient revenue and channel management. It is not rocket science but requires commitment and the alignment of resources.

For the hoteliers of independent hotels, who are interested in improving their online distribution strategy, take advantage of OTAs without getting fatally dependent, you may check out my SlideShare contribution on that issue.

Read also: Salone, Instagram, and AR – the future of hospitality marketing

When companies of all industries (including their executives) start to think they are the best there is, then they become most vulnerable. If you stop improving, you have stopped being good. History shows, every time companies get too much control and dominate markets, some people think of solutions to outsmart them. OTAs also have become dinosaurs to a certain extent and are feeling the heat. New technologies may make them obsolete again or at least make their business model less aggressively dominant. Blockchain technology concepts on flat fee connection may become a better alternative for the hotelier. Companies working on this, like Winding Tree, are not short of investors.

Read also: How Blockchain Will Save the World

In the “old economy”, companies controlling supply (e. g. oil, steel etc.) were called “Aggregators” and made people like Carnegie or Rockefeller very rich. In the “new economy”, aggregators are called Amazon or Alibaba in retail and Expedia, Priceline, TripAdvisor or CTrip in travel. The difference is, they do not control supply, they control demand. Hotel chains or in particular HSPs may have significant market share, but they do control neither demand nor supply, not even their “own” product delivery when the hotel guest is seen as the customer. As we know, their customers are hotel owners, so the focus may be accordingly. In a business model based on economies of scale, that is not an endlessly stable position. All they have is the promise, their brands and services are worth the royalty fees, in a business environment with relatively small margins for hotel operators, increasingly massive fragmented diversification and saturation of their labels as their excitement factor wears out. It may be applicable, that in certain circumstances, a prestigious hotel brand may increase the real estate value. Fair enough, but the owner has paid for that as well.

3. The illusion of economy of scale

Since Adam Smith intellectually introduced the concept of economy of scale, it has changed the world of production, supply chain and doing business. Needless to mention the series of products, which would not exist or would not be affordable. HSPs also benefit from this thinking and adopted the strategy in focussing on selling standardized labels, concepts, distribution technology, and management service to hotel owners and investors. That has led to tremendous global growth and worked well and comfortable for decades. The limits of a sustainable strategy based on an economy of scale are new developments, alternative offerings or change in customer behavior. In the hospitality industry, the assumption of segmented yet standardized target groups of hotel guests expecting standardized hotel experiences all over the world becomes obsolete.

Read also: How the Internet of Things will change the Supply Chain

From a strategy perspective, except the traditional thinking in either focus on price or value-added, there are two directions: a feasible, “safe” strategy aiming for sustainable growth or a disruptive strategy attacking gaps of common business models and doing things with a new approach. As we know from Uber or WeWork, disruptors shake up the market in creating demand or solutions, nobody has seen or tackled before. But it is risky, and immediate profits or ROI better not be the first thing on the agenda. Then again, disruptive strategies can be a promise for the future. Should the vision of shared driverless cars ever become reality, the digital infrastructure of Uber is the plug-and-play operational backbone globally.

The former President and CEO of Starwood, Frits van Paasschen, wrote the book “The Disruptors’ Feast” after his tenure with Starwood. Whether this was coincidence or foresight, the business model of the HSP might become obsolete or needed a strategic shift, is answered in the book only subliminally. I assume he might agree to some of the thesis laid out here.

4. The illusion of guest experience

There is the old William E. Deming formula.

Quality is when delivery is equal to expectancy.

I guess that is still the philosophy of HSPs policy and procedure standards. But isn’t it the “wow” factor that makes guests share their experience in social networks or back home? Isn’t it the repeat customer or the advocate which every hotel needs to have a sustainable business? When delivery equals expectancy you do not create the “wow” factor. People don’t take pillows or stationary back home from a hotel stay (oh well, some do), they take away an experience and that’s what is left to rate the hotel for advocacy or potential return. Experience has to do with individual profile, character, and uniqueness. This requires intellectual property in design and conception, not copy and paste. It is an economy of scope rather than an economy of scale.

I am not talking about the frequent business traveler, who checks in late and leaves early with the only expectation of smooth-running processes and no negative surprises. For them hospitality is a commodity. I talk about the target groups who select hotels or hospitality for having a pleasant experience, those who are tired of “déjà vu”. Customers who compare and make a choice of preference. In a digital world, comparison has never been as effective.

Read also: How to Make Better Marketing Decisions

In less mature countries in terms of tourism, without the learnings of life cycle pattern history and effects, there is still misperception about the business model of HSPs. For ambitious Saudi Arabia, Accor has just announced to have “11.000 rooms” in the pipeline. One of the few remaining gold rush spots on earth for HSPs.

No doubt, Accor is a provider of valuable hospitality concepts and will help for further establishing the industry in the country to have more capacity of the usual and commonly known standards, but it is interesting to see in the feeds, that people think Accor is investing and taking the financial or operational risk. They are just selling their standardized services to Saudi investors. Investors better critically reflect whether today’s inflated concepts will be past glory in a decade, or even not be around any longer. Maybe, the entrepreneurial Saudi or international community (including the mindset of investors) with an ability, drive and dedication to set up hospitality in the country with a real innovative profile and character as a real driving force to visit, still needs time, education, investment and experience to emerge and to mature by learning instead of falling for copycats..

Global market research clearly indicates, authentic yet contemporary hospitality experience are key drivers to visit a country. People go to the supermarket because they know what to get, not because they wanted this specific experience in their shopping, not because they always wanted to be there. The driving force for selecting a destination among other options is a completely different case. Even young people, more often than not, have already traveled the world.

I remember when my kids were little, they often wanted the “same” as their friends, now they are grown and matured, they look for “different” things and experience. Similar to the matured traveler, they “grow up” and change preferences, documented in consumer behavioral shifts and consequences regarding millennials. Doing and having “the same” isn´t the explorer´s mindset of desire. In the world’s biggest and extremely competitive industry, HSPs can help to build trust and establish fundamental structures in the early development stage. However, for gaining international competitive edge beyond the mainstream, beyond satisfying common needs in “me too” fashion, beyond being and having “the same”, you have to think and create ahead. In consumer behavior, people go for the cheapest or for the best, little space for the mainstream.

Currently, Marriott is producing continuous press releases about growth and new properties in Japan. At the same time, an investor has initiated to bring the Ryokan concept, the traditional Japanese guest house experience, to other places internationally. Also, Muji, the Japanese retail and design company, is launching hotels. I leave it to the readers, which seems to be more interesting to explore from an experience perspective.

Apart from the revival of personally operated, individual boutique hotel concepts with charming storytelling, we see plenty of new attempts and concepts interpreting hospitality in a new way. My capacity for reading, observing or traveling is too little, to provide a complete listing of the most international initiatives. There are plenty and there are new competitors coming to the market every week. Although not everyone will survive, they are there because the demand for true out of the box hospitality experience is growing and the approach of HSPs is increasingly saturated. The “standard” is dead, no risk no fun.

I do not have the ultimate proof for that, but the rise of AirBnB and the increasingly different forms of products they offer is a strong indicator. The search for an individual alternative experience was a driving force for the rapid growth of AirBnB or emerging similar platforms, maybe not the intended strategy, but look how they are gaining profile by increasingly providing fancy individual, out of the box hospitality experiences. It is simply because there is demand. There are people not looking for potatoes only. A premium potato is still a potato. While HSPs are fighting to roll out, implement and control their standards, AirBnB (with all the critical issues of quality control) has outsourced creativity and provides the platform for disruptors.

Luxury consumer goods specialist and therefore well-tuned in luxury experience provision, the French LVMH Group has moved into the hospitality market as well. After establishing a small number of Maison Cheval Blanc, they have recently acquired Belmond. One of the few remaining true hotelier companies that still own and operate hotels and other upscale services, real rare iconic beauties among them, instead of another mutated vendor of labels. Belmond’s reputation for providing high-end hospitality experience is one of the best in the market. However, their business model encapsulates capital, is cumbersome and their pipeline of new properties in the making is close to empty. It will be interesting to see, whether they move ahead of the crowd in terms of providing superior experience under the LVMH umbrella and therefore become the luxury provider of choice or they move in the same direction of consolidated asset-light copy and paste for the sake of pure growth and become a “mee too” hotel system provider.

Read also: From Darkness to Light – how city planners are shaping neighborhoods

For the younger, budget-minded and activity-oriented community of digital nomads, Selina is pushing into the market with their own promising version of experiencing the Latin American lifestyle or what will be left of it once “standardized” and exported.

For twenty years by now, different professional assignments in development missions bring me to China on a regular base. I have stayed in numerous hotels, most of so-called international standard. Since I found the Eclat Hotel in Beijing, this is the place for me (of course, people have different tastes, that´s why this article exists). No mainstream developer thinking in terms and standards of the established HSPs could have come up with a property like this. The place is so individual that no hotel brand standard would be adequate. It´s an art and design place equipped with beds and excellent service.

There is a big difference in development between city hotels, which is pure property development, or recreational hotels in remote areas, where the surroundings and environment play a more important role and the experience value is based on other criteria. This is more to be addressed as destination development as it is far more complex. Every contemporary hospitality development is “themed” as they say, more or less successfully. A destination development strategy aims to leverage a carefully curated story to generate a sharp and (almost) unique profile with a competitive edge. It is not about assembling branches and copycats. In my professional assignments in destination development in recreational or vacation areas, I am frequently confronted with the thinking in properties only. You come across satellite properties or “development zones”, but when guests want to leave hotels to get an experience of the place in general, they stand in the middle of nowhere in a dull atmosphere, confronted with views and impressions definitely not suitable for making them advocates or repeat visitors.

Even looking out of the guest room’s window needs to be curated. In recreational destinations thinking, planning and operating in ghettos is a brittle and susceptible approach. Visitors will always assess their entire experience of a geographic place and do not differentiate between the property of their stay and a neglected area when they go in front of the house. Both need care, attention and eventually action keeping the “visitor journey” in mind. Scientific research and findings in destination development are established a little more than 50 years looking into destinations with a long tradition, while science, know-how, and experience in building infrastructure and construction goes back much longer. That’s why in destination development, thinking in bricks and mortar is still dominant, creating so-called “white elephants” still today, leaving even attractive properties empty and investors, planners, architects wondering why?

Experience design requires either talented passionate hoteliers (and I like to point out, they can be found at branded hotels just as well, but might not have the opportunity to live up to the full potential). It can be the one lucky moment to have the idea that turns around your business or it can be systematic structured experience design along the visitor journey and its three dimensions: hardware, social and service, digital. For readers interested in more details, please check out this SlideShare.

It is the investor’s or hotel owner’s decision, whether they want to become a provider of a commodity for a good night’s sleep or an experience provider, which depends on various issues (location, business model, potential, market, investment, operational capabilities etc.).

But it will be the individual unique experience that separates the competitive edge from the commodity.

Finally, it all comes down to return on capital investment and EBIDTA. It is about business. However, the ability and desire of creating outstanding customer experience are restricted, when the pressure of shareholder value generation is haunting you. Consequently, so is the leading edge and trendsetter potential. The visionary creative counterpart of the accountant has to be in the strategic lead to successfully surf with the market and to avoid drowning.

Individual High-End Experience requires intellectual property first of all, service quality and other costly ingredients second, but can leverage sharp profile, competitive advantage, positioning and sustainability with an adequate price tag to it. Someone —  hopefully a regular flow of visitors —  has to pay for that in a price-sensitive environment. But talking about experience, as Benjamin Franklin once said,

"The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten."

© Richard Adam

email: contact@trendtransfer.asia

website: www.trendtransfer.asia

Social Media is Killing Us

No this is not an attention-grabbing headline. This is the result of what I have observed over the past 24 months. Social media is killing our social abilities, our social interaction, our human existence itself.

Last week I dined at a fairly normal restaurant in the heart of Hong Kong, a city fighting at the moment for its survival and basic human rights. Never mind the political kerfuffle, I found myself sitting at the bar, ordering a calamari salad, and watching every single table around me occupied by couples or groups, with every single member on their smartphones, chatting, scrolling, reading, watching, but in no case interacting which each other, except for the occasional “look at this” moment.

I went to the National Library of Taiwan — one of the best resources for pre-revolution literature and Chinese scholarship in the world, and saw banks and banks of presumably students glued to their smartphones rather than perusing the ancient tomes in front of them.

I went to my own class, the one I am teaching on international marketing and branding, and found a roomful of students scrolling through posts of I-don’t-know-what in search of I-don’t-care.  Whether it is at work or in school, at home or in church, public and private spaces alike are now filled with smartphone-addicted adults who have lost all interest in their immediate surroundings.

In short, smartphones have taken over our world, our minds, and especially the minds of younger citizens. Liking, disliking, clicking, and sharing, have become the currency of human lives. Greta Thunberg in her speech at the Vienna Climate Summit said: climate change is an emergency, you can’t just like that on Facebook. She was wrong. One of the replies to her recent posts read: “I’m going to like that on Facebook!

This is the problem with social media: we have a stake (because we have created an account), we have a voice (because we can post, and we feel somewhat entitled (because other people like or even share our posts.) Social media makes us feel important, no matter how irrelevant our opinions may be.

Meanwhile, the number of real friends people regularly see continues to shrink. I myself feel so connected to a handful of people with whom I chat all the number of our real-life meetings continue to decline.

It’s the fault of app designers

Designers of apps have studied for a long time how to get people hooked on their apps. The auto-play of the next episodes on Netflix, the amplification of certain posts on Facebook by randomly showing them to strangers, the limited reaction options on Twitter and the cruel fight for eyeballs on Instagram all contribute to our addiction.

On many apps, it is now impossible to avoid advertising, and unscrupulous companies are raking in millions selling worthless products whose only virtues are the cool video or images produced to sell them.

Social media amplifies marginal, extremist voices and drowns out rational, measured posts and opinions.  The mobile devices we now carry around are so addictive we forget the task at hand and the people around us.

Back in 2018 the Telegraph’s Tim Stanley pointed that out from a slightly different angle. Many researchers have warned against the overuse of social media. Yet our economy already depends on the use of social media. Even the interior design company I work for relies increasingly on social media to source products and get the new out about our own creations. Read more here.

Read also: Word of the Year: Instagrammable

Social media is also killing creativity. I used to sit in endless meetings at advertising agencies where all we had was a piece of paper, a pencil, and our brains. Now, when I look at writers and creators of anything imaginable, they first look at Facebook and Instagram or any other online resource to “get ideas”. People are creating stuff that’s merely a regurgitation of what is already “out there.” Real creativity is dying.

A painter I am acquainted with has a massive following on Instagram and Facebook but hasn’t sold a single painting online. It’s at offline shows, away from social media, that people really make a purchase.

There is no good solution to this dilemma. I take regular digital detox days and weeks where I don’t even carry my phone around. At the firm I have instituted design meetings where no one is allowed to bring a mobile device or show any existing examples. In my marketing classes at uni I regularly ask students to put away their phones and come up with their own creative ideas for a marketing campaign.

There is no other marketing than digital

But it is hard. Ten years ago, I taught digital marketing as something new you had to learn and study. Now, there is no other marketing. In a way it is empowering smaller firms and individuals, but it equally amplifies the power of big companies. You will never compete with a company or individual that has the wherewithal to gain millions of followers. Attractive young people gain a meaningless following for millions with lesser abs or breasts. They make thousands of dollars thinking that their posts, their online presence, their exposure to the digital world has some kind of meaning beyond the immediate click.

A model in Germany with over 400k followers told me that he built that audience through hard work at the gym and frequent posts, made a lot of money from sponsorship, and then, as he approached a certain age, no longer got any gigs because the sponsors he relied on were looking for younger guys. He is no a barista, his “career” in tatters.

Finally, for those lesser fortunate in the looks department, social media can be a curse. They don’t have the self-esteem to post selfies, and no other marketable skills. Youtube stars come and go as quickly as you press Like. Behind the race for approval, meaning for an entire life is lost, the bonds that anchor us in society are broken, self-worth is hard to find, and we ourselves are filled with rage and anger and many even driven to suicide.

Online shaming and bullying has become such a problem that governments and schools are looking into solutions using machine learning, AI and human monitors. Facebook is increasingly in trouble for hate speech cyberbullying, and the posting for offensive content that can destroy someone’s life.

An increasing number of researchers and experts thing that ultimately, cyber health has to become the responsibility of governments. China, which already monitors and censors most online content, may offer a look into our future. The dream of the free and democratic Internet has already naive, but now lies in its dying throws.

From Darkness to Light

How hotels change neighbourhoods and write history

This article was written with Ed Ng and published on his blog earlier.

Hong Kong Island smoulders in the tropical sun: A beautiful, vibrant place, rich and prosperous — the envy of the world, and the cosmopolitan heart of Asia.

Central, the Peak, the Lan Kwai Fong and Soho districts, the southern coast — sprinkled with the villas of the rich and famous throughout the island.

Right across the beautiful Victoria harbour, where the peninsula of Kowloon connects to the mainland, you’ll find the working-class neighbourhoods of Yau Ma Tei, Tsim Sha Tsai and, further north, Mong Kok, known collectively in Cantonese as Yau Tsim Mong, one of the 18 districts of the territory.

For decades, Hong Kong island was the stage where the spotlight was, and Kowloon just a piece of land from where to regard its shining sister with admiration.

Real estate agents say that ”location” is everything, but thankfully, locations too can change and sometimes evolve very dramatically.

Hong Kong’s waterfront  has arguably the highest concentration of wealth per square meter in the world. The redevelopment of Kowloon has turned the peninsula from a gloomy working-class neighbourhood  into a bright spark of culture and luxury, ready to welcome the world.

The area has been turned by visionary city planners and courageous investors into a new and modern center of art, creativity, business and hospitality. When the Festival de Cannes selected a venue for their first Asia event, they chose Kowloon over Hong Kong. They crossed over to the Dark Side.

For AB Concept principal Ed Ng personally, buildings like the Victoria Dockside with the K11 Atelier and ultra-luxurious Rosewood Hotel inside have a special meaning.

It forms a milestone in the revitalisation of southern Kowloon.

“Seeing this vibrant change the we felt it a natural move for us to join this revitalisation by moving our studio into this vibration location. If facts, Terence and I were both born and grew up on the Kowloon side. My mother used to go to the office right by the Star Ferry pier, while I attended design schools just a stone throw away.”

“We founded our company on the Hong Kong side in Star Street 20 years ago, it was a neighbourhood right on the edge of the prosperous Central district. Star Street was a startup hub, where you could enjoy the lifestyle of the budding entrepreneur. As the company grew, we moved into a proper office building with a more corporate setting.

“Yet over time, we learned that creative talent, quality of life, and a beautiful work environment, are not just a matter of interior design, but also about the outside world and your immediate surroundings.

“That’s when I began to think of location as something more than a physical address. It is also a spiritual place, filled with history and emotions. And this is why in June 2019, we became a part of the Victoria Dockside family .

The changes that came with it were at once dramatic and unexpected.

“Our team became proud of the new office. When I walked in through the doors, all my colleagues were there, smiling, even amongst the chaos of moving and hundreds of boxes still unpacked. There was an energy here, a spirit, a new eagerness to be part of something great.

The third generation of the visionary developer got it right. This is not just about business returns and stock market valuations, but about building a cultural hub, enabling artists and creators, and building a platform for others to prosper.

Victoria Dockside quickly became a magnet, attracting just the right crowd with the right energy.  Its clientele, and the beautiful Rosewood Hotel, elevate not just its visitors to a new level of experiential luxury, they change the entire atmosphere of southern Kowloon. They turn the Dark Side into a shining beacon, ready for the future

The author is director of global business development for luxury interior design house AB Concept in Hong Kong, Milan and Taipei. Follow the author on LinkedIn

 

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