MsYiY - Yasmin Choudhury

Some advice for people who run Linked In Groups - be nice; you never know you might be offending sincere professionals who can add value to your business and brand - if not now well in the future. I attempted to join a Linked In Group to find an admin bod but the Founder & President of The Effective Admin (TEA) and of the Virtual Association for Administrative Professionals (VAAP) declined me as she thinks I am not suitable for one of many reasons.  Goodness me - sign of poor admin in itself here.  Cringe.... (!!) Do not think this founder and 'President" (can you have titles that grand as a solo entity...?) realises that I do work as a ad-hoc Exec assistant. And also occasionally do hire admin for my businesses. Even though she did not read my bio thoroughly, I can forgive her - as long as she goes away and does some admin training! :) Titles mean nothing if you are not good at the job you are meant to be an expert on.  Nor of welcoming people into your 'tri...

Photo to the left shows me with my beloved, late dad.   Today, Sunday September 21, 2014  is World Peace Day.   If my beloved dad were alive today, out would have come his cranky Smith Corona typewriter. The neatly folded creased carbon paper and the emission of furious jabbing of the keys, which would wobble his NHS glasses at the end of his nose.  Off my dad would go, ranting and raging under his breath as he squinted and scowled his way into writing and demanding an end to the war in the Middle East.  This was London.  And it was not a few years back. No. It was the 1980s.   His letter would have been aimed at his arch political nemesis, Mrs Thatcher over the Iran-Iraq war.  Peace eh? What's the odds?   Back to WPD. Not to be confused with WMD (Weapons of mass destruction) or Tony Blair.  

Am rather fed up. In fact am simmering.  Here is why.  On Saturday 5 July, 2014, brave British newspaper The Guardian did an article on Bangladesh as a holiday destination with a title of ' Big Bang. "  A small voice that tried to showcase there might be more to Bangladesh than meets the eye. They were the first to agree to fly out with me - to investigate my theory that Bangladesh is ready to be a new holiday destination.   At time of writing this it has got 50 or so comments .  Some of them quite strong and virulent (which thankfully have already been removed).  Some accusing the writer of being on dope.   It made me sad.  And it reminded me of the long, dusty, thankless walk I am on.   But now it is time to fight back on behalf of Bangladeshi people. Its artisans. Its resort owners.   And why the Bangladesh Tourism Board must address the issues around infrastructure, traffic and negative image. 

You know you are a start up, when.... 1. The entire summer holidays have been spent working every day, in the office.  You have no tan and therefore are mystified when people remark on the sunny English weather for the past few weeks.  You hear about people going on holiday and think, yeah well, if and when I am successful, surely I too can have a holiday but in reality it is unlikely. 2. You are grateful that friends no longer invite you anywhere.  Not only does this mean that you need not bother with an RSVP, it also means you don't have to go to another person's house and ask; "where can I plug in my laptop." 3. Your child is officially embarrassed that you run a company and starts making up fantasy job titles for you because the reality is so awful and non-cool. 4. When you offer your child to come along for a day at the office, you know that s/he will never say yes again.  After their first excited day, of making cups of tea, Google research, checking o...

So how do these three connect? Well firstly, I saw the global reaction and debate surrounding  Syria  oops, Miley Cyrus and thought. Goodness, millions of us will have learnt the word, twerk (to gyrate your lowed body in a sexual manner) and then go google to see what all the fuss is about. Ahh.  I see. I wonder of how much of that is because she was a Disney innocent.  She's not the first singer starlet to gyrate like that? Janet Jackson. Rhi-Rhi, Lady Gaga, Madonna.  Why, the upset at Miley? Is it because she grew up with the world on TV? Well before I could comment, I too went to Google.  And I did just that.  I saw it.  And while I have my own opinion on what I find tasteful and liberating, who am I to judge?!  Miley is old enough, wise enough (perhaps that is up for debate) to make an informed choice. Or is she..? You see that is the point I wanted to make in this blog post.  Whether or not Miley is informed or not. I just ...

"In order for evil to flourish, all that is required is for good men to do nothing." From Edward Burke.  18th century Irish statesman and author.  (1729 - 1797) This is a blog post I wrote on my top 10 suggestions to help Bangladeshi garment workers. Problem is, I, like most of us, truly didn't know the extent of how badly the garment workers were suffering.  I love my skinny jeans. I have oodles of them. At least 15.  And with many of these, would smile at the irony of the 'Made in Bangladesh" label and the connection it made with me, personally.  Little did I know that it would soon be my raison d'etre. 

On May 2, 02:05 PM EST Christiane Amanpour of CNN interviewed Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina via live video conference on the Rana Plaza garment's factory collapse. Check it out here http://amanpour.blogs.cnn.com/2013/05/02/prime-minister-says-bangladesh-is-reforming-its-garment-industry/#comment-53141 I could not help commenting and so here goes.