Thursday, September 3, 2015

Laos from a diplomatic perspective.

Philip Malone, the outgoing British Ambassador gave a wonderful insight into life here from a diplomatic perspective. He was the first British Ambassador after the Embassy closed many decades previously and this gave him a unique perspective into diplomatic life here.

These are his notes from the evening.



HMA PRESENTATION TO RSA MEETING, 21 MAY 2015: LAOS FROM A DIPLOMATIC PERSPECTIVE

Good evening everyone. A pleasure to be here. My thanks to the RSA Fellows in Laos for giving me this opportunity.
Would like to give some personal reflections both on my time here as Ambassador and on Laos as a country. I see this as an “in conversation” style event so please bear in mind I am not making public statements of policy just a view based on my experiences.
Like all stories, I’ll have a beginning, a middle bit and an end and will weave some themes through each of these as I go along. Happy of course to continue the conversation at the end.

Beginnings:
My arrival, personal story (Helsinki to Vientiane in four months), Foreign Secretary’s speech on UK in Asia in April 2012 and announcement of the re-opening of the British Embassy in Vientiane.
Where things were then.
UK priorities, Asia Europe Meeting, Foreign Secretary visit.
Embassy estate, history of relations.
Practical set-up, developing our engagement, areas of focus.
Challenges, pleasant surprises, public diplomacy.

Middles:
Laos internal politics: Party Congress, shifting of leadership, transition, 1995 compared to now.
Economy: impressive growth but challenges of sustainability, lack of diversification, non-inclusive growth, fiscal issues, capacity/skills.
Low score in global rankings.
Pillars of economic growth: hydro-power, organic agriculture, services especially tourism.
Infrastructure/connectivity, economic corridors, land-locked to land-linked.
IMF: high growth concerns: pressure on balance of payments and reserves, slowdown in mining and govt spending, energy prospects good – Hongsa on stream and hydro, concerns over longer-term impact of fiscal shortages and non-concessionary debt, credit growth concerns and non-performing loans but getting better, more flexibility needed in exchange rate (though cross-border informal trading has a stabilising effect)
WTO/AEC readiness.
International: Laos in the region, ASEAN, China influence: $5m investment in 2005, $5 billion now.
Engagement by others.
UK co-operation, British business interests, business environment, policy dialogue, education, Chevening/universities, people/people, co-operation in anti-money laundering, climate change, ASEAN , child protection, human rights, UXO clearance, Lao Embassy London, bilateral visits.
Ends:
Laos in future (prosperity, security/regional dynamics, English, development).
Leadership, young people (demographic dividend).
Prospects for change.
ASEAN 2016
LDC graduation (GDP per capita almost met, but Human Asset Index and Economic Vulnerability Index not met due to off-track MDGs in health and education, high proportion of agriculture in GDP, narrow and vulnerable export base, remoteness/connectivity, UXO).
5 year planning
Middle Income Country status and vision 2030
UK/Lao relations and UK in Asia.

It was delightful to have this opportunity to hear Philip speak and we all wish him well as he moves onwards to his new role.
 

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Whither philosophy? Brain & behaviour & the 21st century.

Whither philosophy?
Brain &
behaviour & the
21st century.


On 19 February, 2015, we had our third meeting and the second of our evenings of conversation around a theme. Once again, it was a fascinating evening with a wonderful group of people, centered around a presentation, this time helping us with our understanding of brain and behaviour.

We were delighted to spend the evening with Dr Paul Brown, who is the RSA’s Connector for Vietnam and Laos.



Paul has worked as a clinical and organisational psychologist for fifty years with an international practice based in London that has taken him throughout Europe, the USA, Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, China, Vietnam and Lao PDR. He has sat on the Management Boards of two great English country Houses; on the Boards of two private property companies; on the private banking board of a Merchant bank; and for twenty years has taught annually at the Royal College of Defence Studies. Paul was Visiting Professor in Organisational Neuroscience at London South Bank University and in Individual and Organisational Psychology at the Nottingham Law School: and is now Faculty Professor - Organizational Neuroscience, Monarch Business School Switzerland. He works substantially in Vietnam with the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation concerned with the legacy effects of war; is Expert Advisor to the International Energy Research Centre at the Tyndall Institute, Ireland; and teaches regularly in England, Ireland and Singapore. Last week Palgrave / Macmillan published his co-authored book ‘Neuroscience for Leadership: harnessing the brain gain advantage’. In July 2015 he publishes ‘The Fear-Free Organization’.

Paul has been generous, not only with his time, but also by providing the slide show of the evening for inclusion on this site.Paul started with a brief explanation of the work and role of the Royal Society of Arts for those unfamiliar with the society.


And what RSA stands for:



The presentation itself then began with the famous quote from Renee Descartes - I think, therefore I am, before moving into a history of neuroscience.




And the early understanding of how the brain looks and how it works.
 



 
 We then saw some early case studies, which began to help with an understanding of the parts of the brain that impact on different behaviour, particularly apparent after serious injury.

This is Phineas Gage, a railway construction foreman, who lived from 1823 - 1860.
Miraculously this injury didn't kill him.
 

But it did result in some extreme behavioural changes, indicating the impact of injury to this particular part of the brain.
This is a reconstruction of the temporary impairment of decision making that Mr. Gage experienced, following this accident in 1848 when he was 25 years old.


There is  the possibility of discovering more along these lines from a more modern, yet similar injury that happened to Eduardo Leite, aged 24. Mr. Leite was a construction worker when this happened.
 

He also survived, but after a steel rod pierced his skull in August 2012. The clinical consequences of this have not yet been published.
 
 
Although such injuries allowed some understanding of the workings of the brain, there was also a great deal of false information and beliefs for many years.
As Paul put it,
'How far have we come in 155 years?  Not far for the first 140.  Amazingly in the last 15.'
 
Phrenology was a 'science' for many many years.
 

And it was believed to be viable science to judge a character by the shape of their head, together with the bumps and lumps thereon.  

 
Moving into modern times, we saw how the brain is made up.

This shows the four main lobes of the brain + the cerebellum, brainstem and two main sulci.
 
There are various ways to study the brain.
 

Including examining the brain of a monk who is particularly adept at meditation.
 
 
 
Paul then went on to give us more information about the brain and how it works.
Surrealist art - Salvador Dali
  
Slave market with the disappearing bust of Voltaire.       
 
 
 

 
 
MRIs that were clinically useful were first created in Scotland in 1990
And have improved since
 .
 
Contro-versial Science of Brain Imaging by Mahir Ozdemir from Scientific American on July 5, 2012.
 
 
 


 
 


And how the brain is made up. Modern imaging techniques allow amazing graphics.
 

 

Spiny neurons

 
http://www.livescience.com/14413-brain-images-portraits-mind.html


 
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/11/magazine/sebastian-seungs-quest-to-map-the-human-brain.html?_r=0

 
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21117-the-rich-club-that-rules-your-brain.html



And being able to break down the elements.








http://www.youtube.com/attribution_link?a=oHkBlAu_jfQ&u=/watch%3Fv%3D5Lc64j-Rsy4%26feature%3Dem-subs_digest



http://www.youtube.com/attribution_link?a=oHkBlAu_jfQ&u=/watch%3Fv%3D5Lc64j-Rsy4%26feature%3Dem-subs_digest




http://www.youtube.com/attribution_link?a=oHkBlAu_jfQ&u=/watch%3Fv%3D5Lc64j-Rsy4%26feature%3Dem-subs_digest



 

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Baroque Blood Vessels
 
 
There are eight basic emotions
 
Think of the basic emotions like the three primary colours.
 
Three primary colours produce the whole of the colour spectrum. Eight primary emotions produce the whole of the feeling system.
 
 
 
Many different brain areas are involved in memory. Temporal lobe : long-term memories permanently lodged in the cortex. 

Putamen : procedural memories, like riding a bike, are stored here.  Hippocampus : involved in laying down and retrieving memories, particularly personal ones and those related to finding your way about.  Amygdala : unconscious (and perhaps traumatic) memories may be stored here.  Caudate nucleus : many instincts – genetically encoded memories – stem from here.

 


Modern Neuroscience:

I feel, therefore I think I am


Connections within the brain
 

Independent

Daily Briefing

03 April 2014

 
 
Xia M, Wang J, He Y (2013) BrainNet Viewer: A Network Visualization Tool for Human Brain Connectomics. PLoS ONE 8(7): e68910. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0068910


 
Left brain/right brain
 
 
 
When we focus on something, it is possible to lose awareness of anything going on around us.
 
 
 







This wonderful presentation finished here but the conversation continued for several hours. A fabulous evening.
 
Thank you very much for a fascinating time, enlightening and stimulating.
 
These meetings take place approximately once every three months. The next one is planned for May 2015.