My commentary on the upcoming NEM Foundation Elections. (this is purely my own opinion which does not represent the Foundation or its employee as a whole)
Over the past few days we all witnessed an influx of mismatched expectations and mud-slinging amongst the community. Passionate claims and accusations of mismanagement rife amongst everyone.
Allow me some perspective as an employee of the NEM Foundation. Allegations that the foundation and its staff being in NEM for self- enrichment is a very narrow viewpoint. Through many organised activities, the NEM has been able to convince many projects that you see live today to adopt our blockchain. Grassroot activities are crucial in any endeavour as without awareness, there will be no adoption considering we’re virtually unknown globally, particularly in Europe. I was just reminded by a European startup accelerator that even NEO has inroads into the EU Parliament in Brussels, Belgium because of their constant roadshows and grassroots activities. To think people will flock to NEM without promotion and education is folly considering even the largest of brands spend millions to constantly promote themselves at the grassroots level to attract and retain their audience.
Many of our staff are also married people. Just by bringing up the topic of travelling for a week to my spouse for work brings up unnecessary tensions especially when I have a demanding and asthmatic 2 year old who’s going to miss her father for another period of time. We take away the precious little time we have with our families for the sake of furthering NEM’s growth in the regions we operate in. I’m currently in Pakistan writing this piece and I bet no one else would even think of visiting this place on behalf of NEM. You can imagine my spouse’s reaction when I said I was coming to Karachi. More on my visit in my next post (the place is awesome by the way).
But why do we do it? I’m reminded by Jasmine’s interview (https://medium.com/women-on-the-block/women-on-the-block-asia-2018-pre-conference-interview-speaker-jasmine-ng-7a52b35e1cbb) that she’s in it because of the impact it can create. I recall a conversation I had with Stephen when many felt disillusioned by all the negativity, that we should imagine all the good and change we can make if things are done right. We feel in our efforts, we’re truly are making a difference. Here in Pakistan, the economic situation is quite dire and we’re in a position of strength to lend a hand in rebuilding a country.
We’re breaking down stereotypes where only men can excel in this field. In NEM South East Asia, almost half of our workforce is female. Last month, Laura of NEM Bangkok led a team of all female team members to manage CEBIT, the computing conference from Germany’s first foray into the Asian region. Through this conference, we were able to garner no less than 20 leads who are interested to build on NEM. Of that 20 leads, any amounts of implementations would be beneficial to our global community to be able to shout out to the rest of the blockchain world. Enterprises yearn for viable use cases which we are able to connect with through these conferences. It was through last year’s Singapore Fintech Festival we were able to convince the Bevtech company OMNIAZ to build on NEM, thanks to William, Wilma and Abbey in Singapore. It was through Silvia’s insistence to co-organise a cocktail party at the NEM Blockchain Centre for the Islamic Finance Conference in Kuala Lumpur that impressed a high ranking official to offer Dona’s team in Dubai a space in the Dubai International Financial Centre Authority to house NEM in the coming future, which was useful in convincing the Ministry of Community Development in signing the MOU with NEM stating their intention to explore blockchain with us.
It is through Leroy’s persistence that we have a NEM Korea and all it’s “Kimchi Premium” prices for XEMs and that we’ve been offered spaces throughout Seoul for any NEM projects needing an office space. It was through Jasmine’s efforts we’re able to connect to many banks and government officials in Malaysia. It was through Andy’s work we were able to penetrate the public sectors in Malaysia. Chieway and Jesyka’s work in the northern regions of Malaysia too is starting to bear fruits with several listed manufacturing and tech companies have expressed interest to build with our blockchain. It was through Kimble’s efforts that we have a foothold in Vietnam and a blockchain hub to boot.
Yafi, Mutia, and Anton’s efforts in Indonesia too are recognised with their awareness programs with Microsoft and some soon to be announced big global names. Emerson’s work in Philippines too have turned heads with deals in the government with the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority, various banks and university tie ups, and most notably managing Loyalcoin, arguably NEM’s largest use case to date. Ricardo’s insistence to remain in Hong Kong despite not being able to speak the local language too yet is able to pull off some great meetups and connections is testament that our troops have it in for the long haul. Nigel Hughes of NEM Thailand’s constant criticism of the competition and promotion of NEM’s ease of use brought us NOIZ Chain and Loyalcoin. Our content manager Nigel Yap constantly hounding everyone for details of their work to be updated into Medium to keep everyone updated.
The Global Finance team led by Priscillia Agatha, supported by Jane, Bee See, Erica, whom are also housed at the Kuala Lumpur Blockchain Centre tirelessly works to ensure the Foundation’s and regional offices compliance to financial standards and is audited in a timely manner. Our HR and Centre management teams Sharmila, Yizhou, Sobana, Tasha and Mimie working overtime and weekends keeping the lights on for our tenants and organising and hosting events at the event halls.
The Tech team led by Shin Tatt and supported by Ivy and Anthony who’s overloaded with training, development and preparing course syllabuses for the various universities and colleges asking for materials to be added into their diploma and degree programs. With the proper mandate, we could have and would have contributed to the Catapult roadmap too.
I was having a chat with Stephen’s wife a few months back, she joked that I see him more than she does. And that speaks volumes of his commitment to NEM considering I only see him once every 2 weeks.
The list of activities the SEA team achieved is by no means exhaustive as there are many other unseen activities that happen in the daily grind. Every one of our employees are breadwinners for their families and to discredit their work is a great disservice.
Which brings me to the point of this article. We recognise that many people are unsatisfied with the Foundation. But if no one else sees the good they’ve achieved, I’m taking this opportunity to publicly acknowledge how much effort has been made into doing all the work that’s been done. I’m humanising the people of NEM South East Asia because it is unfair to label everyone working for the Foundation in the light as portrayed by some in the community. The current state is not the NEM we signed up for, nor is this the NEM we want for the future. It is unfortunate that NEM is currently rudderless without a clear vision or a strong leader able to steer the ship in one single direction.
NEM SEA was recently shortlisted to be a recipient of the DSA (Digital Storage Asia) Awards, which would be useful for us to shout out our credence and to move out of obscurity. But with all that has been happening in the community lately, this news takes the back seat. It is with great hope that the future leadership can take NEM to where it should be: above Bitcoin in Coinmarketcap.
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