9/7/2005

as i told earlier..today is going to be such a great day!!! we are sitting in the WAL-MART SATURDAY MORNING MEETING!!! this is the platform where the top noch of the organization, sit down together with lower level managers such as regional diredtors, area directors, etc...sounds common, rite..the beautiful thing is, beside these people..they also allow ANYBODY..i mean..ANYBODY...yes, i repeat..ANYBODY to enter the meeting as observers. we can have buyers, blue collar workers, guests, family members, friends, etc to come and sit in the meeting. on top of that, these peoples' presence may also be announced at the end of the meeting and they shall receive round of applause from everybody in the hall. yup, as to accomodate the amount of people(maybe around 300ppl of more), its being held in a hall, arranged in such a way, made it looks like the united nation's hall that we always see on t.v. there are flags of various countries(those countries that wal mart has entered), charts, pictures, and many more informations about the company. opps, not to forget ot mention, as the company runs on retailing, they also decoerate the hall in line with the spirit of their outlets...we can see shelves with clotehes to sell, complete with price boards, as if they are for sale ( aku terkena tipu siot!!) but they are not. everybody wears very informal, as simple as flip-flops, shorts and t-shirts..made me look weird at myself as i was wearing long-sleeve shirt, slacks and shining black leather shoes. the only thing that made me looked not so formal was the liveSTRONG and tsunami relief effort wristband i wore on my right hand, and of course, my charming and energetic attitude(eventhough i fell asleep several times during the presentation). the proof? i manged to give such an energeric and full power looks when i was called to go in front of the crowd to do the sife cheer- yes, i forgot to tell you..another reason why we were here was because SIFE is doing its promotion, where 2 of my friends from drury-frank bannet and another girl are goin to present some of Drury SIFE projects to show to people how SIFE may work to change the world...i found that there was a similarity between Wal - Mart and SIFE cheer..actually they were same, just change the latterings, and the captions...the rhyme, the gesture, and the strength..were all same...shall i accuse SIFE on copycating Wal - Mart? maybe it was just a strategy..as Wal Mart is one of the biggest supporter of SIFE..who knows..its a part of the politics...

the meeting started with the wal mart cheer..this cheer, idealized by sam walton himself,inspired by the working culture of the koreans that i belive the late sam, at some level, admire so much. then, it went to all the reports by various people...again, the beauty of the meeting, those who took responsibilty to present the reports, may not only prone to receive questions from the top directors, but also from anybody on the floor!!!amazing..amazing...we later been brought into one of the meeting room, another weird room, inspired from a corporate culture of a company from the U.K - ASDA..they are..something like wal mart, but operates in the u.k..actually, this company has been taken over by wal mart, since back on several years ago. the room, is a meeting room where everybody shall need to..STAND..yup, no fluffy chairs, no sexy short skirt secretaries, and no exception to anybody not to attend the meeting. if the person is away, there are system to allow the person to still be joining the meeting via phone or any sort of audio conferencing.hahaha...i wish i could have this system back in my SIFE meeting room(eventho we actually have NO meeting room, so anybody that try to avoid comin got the meeting shall have no excuse words anymore.got to admit it,it is such a sad thing to see people simply not to turn on the meeting due to some bombastic reasons they created over a ciggerate-but i am not that mean, i still give chances to those who give concrete reasons, supported with proofs)..then had some tour around the building. we was shown the seats of the people who posses big positions in the company..yup, from the first glance, you might think the company is cool because they don't provide nice and cozy places for these people..but come to think about it again...don't a person that worked damn hard, burn their ass off, deserve a better treatment as an asset to the company's success?at what level, is the level of job satisfactionof their workers? i know that wal mart is famous with some issues relating to the their treatment to their workers(besides the issue where they bought too much from china to reduce cost)...now i see it myself, with my own bare eyes...i dont know, i havent got chance to read any research linked to the job satisfaction or anything related to the working environment in the company.maybe the workers like it that way, maybe not, maybe they are o.k but might want some sort of upgradetion..i dont know..

went for lunch, on roger st. on this road, situated the first ever, the kick-starter, the stepping stone of Wal Mart supercenter that we see today...i guess you are right..its the first sam walton's store, where his wife and him spent 95% of their money, their biggest gamble ever, and it was worth the risk to bare...it expands...and still expanding...

jack schewmaker..this is a guy, i met in the previous SIFE world cup in spain..this guy, is a man with heart..a man that belives that us, SIFE student may acheive things he has acheived in his life...i still remember the time we shake hand, he held my hand tight, and looked right into my eyes. as if he was saying ' i put my trust to change the world to you, young man'..and i took it...i stay with SIFE until today, regardless what it takes..in fact i would want to stay forever..all my life.. we got chance to go to his house...one interesting fact to be shared...HE GOT 200 CARS!!!, including one dodge viper, 2 911 turbo, the whole row of at least 10 mustangs..and...a BUS!!!you know, the bus where people decorate the interor to be home look like...he need 7 barns to keep all these cars, complete with 3 people to take care of them.his house...i have to say, not in the size where you will go 'oh my god, i cant even see the other side'..but the architecture,the interior, and the technology being used to build and suppot the house made it so....adorable. the structure of the house itself..came from 32 different countries, not including USA where jack and his wife travelled 3 years around the world for them.. as it consumes such a lot of energy(namely electric)- i has a nuclear submarine technology to generate power in emergency cases...that can last for 2 days. the home teather..jack admits himself that he went to cinemas very..very..very..frequantly...the system was marvellous, awesome..and most important of all...it was custom made!!! the highlight of the meeting was where jack joined us and shared lots of his experience, opinions, ideas, and advise to us. i was really sad to feel so sleepy, in fact i fall asleep again...and he saw it..haiyoh..malu besar siot..!!!! the moment we was about to go back, i went to see him ..he was in his office..there was 2 reasons for me to see him:..1st..to give him my business card,and 2nd, to apologize...tak sempat apa2..he came out from his office, saw me, with a cap on his hand, and said...'i give this to you, please take it as my appreciation for your visit, i wish i could have more and give them to eveybody'....i was at the top of the world..its not easy to get a cap with 'jac's rench' on it...i was too happy until i only remember to pass him my biz.card and said lots of thanks...when i got to sign the visitors' book..i wrote ' thank you,sir. i shall remember every single words you said, and make them REAL...'...

and that closes our tour in arkansas. we went back the same crowd in the van, just this time i don't have much courage to stay awake and discuss about issues..i decided to SLEEP!!! got back in Drury by around 7pm..what i did later? one of the thing that not many of us can enjoy back in malaysia....it was.....a movie night ..outdoor at founders' park!!! watched 'meet the fokers' , had nice laugh.it was mildred, camme, fea, ai bao, rakin, syahz, and myself..as the program was a collaboration between the some organization( i guess its the city hall) and drury sife, we, as interns in the program was obligated to help in setting up the movie and also to clear things up(like to roll the screen, etc). it was prestty fun, tho. we walked back to drury, but as some of us wantedtoto fo conoco and get something to drink, munch, etc..so we went there. on the wau back..this is the good part..we encountered 2 skateboarders doing their thing in ifn front of the school..2 of them. being ali imran, i guess its not a hard thing for me to go, say hi, and made friend with them. they can skate quite well, man. though i felt some of our skaters were way better than them( i mean, looking at their age and how long has they been skating)..these kids, have their own music band..playing things on punk to melodic thingy. one of them does not go to school, he was taken out from the school by his mom before the school kicked him out after he got involved in a fist fight. oh, i was about to forget to mention their name...the school dropout kid..named david..and the other..dave. rakin and me spent quite a long time chatting with them. we talked about a lot of things, music, police, girl fans(their groupe-as they sai, is a popular ban in the area and they do have their own fan) , schools, and some other stuffs...we go nothing much to do the moment we get back in the apartment, but starving tummy came with a great idea..maggi!!hahaha..yup, we had maggi at 3 am.i just dont know what to do tomorrow, but i know that i am ... yawning to the max...right now see you again beautiful people of the world...


imran