Being White

Try and think of a poor country that is a majority white country.... Please can you do it for a few minutes, can you come up with one?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)_per_capita

Have a look at this list and do you notice a trend? "Well Derrrr...." I hear you say, "tell me something I don't know!!!" Well being here in Dubai is making that list mean a lot more to me in a real sense. On Thursday I walked home after work, something that I think I am the only white person in town is doing, and it was like walking into a different world. About 500m from my work, which is on Sheik Zayed Road, the major road with Emirates Towers ect, I come to where the taxi drivers and shop keepers live, and it was like being in India or Nepal.... It was dusty roads, small little shops filled with all sorts of weird products, people sitting on the ground under a tree in the heat and dirt, clothes lines in the streets, on roofs etc and this isnt even close to what the labour camps must be like... rest assured when i get a licence i am driving out there... And then I get into my "Villa", air conditioned, with private pool and large rooms....ha.. a whole room to myself with a queen size bed....

I walked up and down that list.... and I did it again today. I was directed to the "Ex-Pat" supermarket... and gyms.... hahaha... I knew better.. today I found a gym for a quarter of the price of the expat places and the supermarket was half the price... But that is not all....

People earn like 500-1000Dhs a month here, I earn over 20 times that and I am on a low wage for expats... And they live in atleast 4 people per room. My taxi driver last night, from Pakistan, sleeps TEN people per room... and me, I am being driven home by this guy after spending his months disposable income on beer..... I felt ill thinking about it afterwards... And expats do this as a matter of course...everyday..no sweat...that's life.... I earn heaps, they don't too bad....

Hmmm... Well it's all good and well, provided your white..... well what if you werent... and you were born in a country further down that list??? Can life really be that much chance? Surely these Expats are super smart people.... that's why they earn the big bucks??? Hmmmm No... I think it is chance...

I guess the key... I mean besides the injustice of it all... is that money and material things really dont matter.. as if they did then well... how could there be a God? More likely most money over subsistence levels is a status thing... and well people love status... Ha.... Status! Bloody bank here is trying to push a "status account" on me... Like I give a shite about status and my bank... All I want it a place to put my money... and a way to get it when I need it.... They want me to pay for status... but people pay for image all the time... And well I guess they are only fooling themselves... Maybe the status and image thing is why they are so shallow and uncomfortable with who they are that the only way for them to have fun and socialise is to get drunk... which is such a typical thing with Expats here....

But I am being negative.... hmmm... but I guess it is something to be negative about... white people in the expat form are like their imperialist forefathers.... travelling around the world, making money in poor countries... basically ignoring (or trying very hard to) the plight of the natives, or other "slave" classes (which they are...slaves....) around them... buying land when they get a chance and then moving on to the next non-white country to take advantage of.... Well it just pisses me off. I would like to see expats wanting to help the places they live in... not "Only here for the money", which is what many people I spoke to last night had to say for their reasons in being here.... Why are people so selfish? Dont they realise that the money that they get is only covering up the fact that they are not satisfied with who they are, hence they fall into the status game to make up for the hollow person they are... Wouldnt helping out lead to them being happy with who they are and hence they wouldnt need the money in the first place... Afterall if a Philipino girl can be happy on 1,000dhs a month, why do we white people need so much more..... Answer, we hate ourselves, we are soft, we are selfish and we are used to being the ruling class... having it any other way would just not be British.....

Photos

Just a few pics... only with my mobile phone as my computer died with all my real photos... Do'h. Well I will be here a year so I can get some photos in that period of time me thinks...

http://lucas.intercate.net/gallery/album20?page=1

Bags are packed... again

And here I am once again; Bags packed and ready to move to a new place to live. It’s odd when I think that I lived in the same house for 20 years, the same town in which I was born, went to the same school for ten years. After a life that was built on such constancy, where change was something foreign to me I now find that moving and changing is as familiar to me as waking up each morning. In the past five years I have lived in twenty different houses (lived here is a vague term, I mean is being in the same place for a few weeks living? Hmmmm; I guess I define ‘living’ in a place as being there long enough to un pack you bags, putting things in drawers, as opposed to spreading things across the ground near my bed [you know you loved it Nick!]). I have been to over twenty countries and now…. Off to Villa 88, Street 6B, Al Bada’a, Dubai, UAE, somewhere where I plan to live for the next three months at least.

I often think back to why I have made change such an important part of my life. I mean I remember when I lived at 58 Fairloch Ave, Farmborough Hts, NSW, 2526, Australia, ph: 42 71 5242… I never really wanted to leave that sanctuary. It really was a perfect place for me. A largish house, with a bus route on the street, access to nature and places for adventure and excitement, railway tracks, parks, shops, waterfalls, football fields, and my mates, all within walking distance. And now? Wow, my closest friend is somewhere in Poland, my love in Canada, a few mates in the UK, Europe and my closest friends and family thousands of miles away in Australia. It is amazing how things can change once you decide to move on….

And it is funny you know. As it was my sister, Jess who urged me to move out of home in 2002. Well urged is probably the wrong term, more like insisted that I move out, she claimed that ‘independence’ was a very important thing… And all I wanted to think about at the time is if I would be financially worse off for the move out of home… Well after a few reviews of the social security legislation in Australia at the time and some consultation with my parents I managed to organise the situation so that I would be no financially worse off for moving and I would be closer to the beach and uni and yes… Independence would be that much closer to being a reality in my life.

So it was a year out of home in Wollongong to start defining my independence and the beginning of finding out how I wanted to live my life. … and the movement kept increasing from there….

So as I look over to the bags all packed once again I smile and feel that I have achieved at least some of what I set out to do. I mean everything material in my world in a few bags; and to tell you the truth even what I have there is a bit excessive. I no longer define my security by what I own, what I can see, touch and cover myself with. Now it is more about a perception, an understanding in my mind. An understanding that is beginning to see how the world works, a perception that is beginning to help me not need things to make my life progress rather just myself and how I approach situations as they face me. I guess I have learnt that it is about your mind, your soul and even more importantly those you love that help your life progress. Knowing that I have a true love I can contact and whom I will soon be with, a family I can call at anytime, even four in their am, and talk about anything, and friends about the globe I can talk with anytime, thanks to the net, that gift of modern technology that has allowed me to travel without feeling so far from those I love. This network of relationships is what keeps me safe a secure, no longer four walls and a roof in suburbia….

Bags packed, off I go. But it is no longer a road I walk unknowing nor alone. I maybe far from my loved ones but they are close to my heart and their wisdom rides with me on this next journey, I can only hope that soon they will be near me in the flesh also.....

Getting to Dubai

Finally gotten around to making the time to write a quick little story about Dubai, how I got here and what I think...

Well firstly it took much longer to get here than I orginally expected.... As some of you may have been aware, the British Airports Authority must have heard I was planning a mega on plane hand luggage hual from London to Dubai, so they decided to ban all hand luggage and in the process cause such a delay in flight departures I was stuck in Oslo for two days.... Do'h, well there goes one day of my life with only CNN or the music channel to choose from, as all other channels were pay to view at a cost of $20 per channel... something I don't think work would pay for.... Oh and forgot to mention night one in Oslo airport...which was slept on the ground, thankfully work offered to pay for night two, which was nice, but as mentioned above lacked multimedia appeal, fortunately there was a gym and buffet brekky...

So Wed arvo - Friday arvo was transit from Bo, Norway to London, England. Then I got into London.. ate some nice Thai food with wine and spent most of night on msn with Farah.... Then it was pack bag time.... oh yeah..... packing bags..... something I think I could right a Phd on now ..

So I get to the airport and what awaits me? Sitting in the carpark for a few hours waiting to hear if my flight has been cancelled.... Well thankfully it wasnt, it was called and for some reason.... I get away with 57kg of checked luggage... Ha! No hand luggage stuffing me up? Never! So then my flight still gets delayed... but now it's goodbye carpark and hello BA Business Lounge... And man.... wow!!! I could hardly believe it.... self service to everything.... including spirits!!! Internet, fine wines, expresso machines, soup and cheeses etc etc ETC!!!! Now I know how the other half lives!!! I mean, granted they are soft as ten day old camal cheese left in the Dubai sun at 1pm in August.... but hey I wasn't going to leave the place in protest at the extravigant life there tools live.... nup.... it was three glasses of chilean white, mixed with olives, cheese and crackers... then after I realised I could put my bar skills to my own devices it was white russians, bloody marys and gin and tonics.... Oh YEAH! And then I get on the plane and get a three course meal, with choices!!!! And like 25 channels to choose from and a seat that goes to 100% flat!!!! ARGH!!!! Maybe I will be damaged forever as riding a chicken bus in Guatemala will never be quite the same again.////

Anyways after 4 days of transit I arrive in Dubai and it's 45C, nice!!! And really it isn't as bad as you would think.... Actually I am doing very well... Esp. given I am the sweat king!

The place I am staying in is nice as and there is breakfast included, which is great as this is obviously my favourite meal of the day. And on top of this they clean my room for me everyday, including the washing up, which I found out on day two after I got lazy the night before.....

The city itself is nuts.... people extremely rich and people extremely poor... all living pretty damn close to each other...Work is great, office is awesome... even a pool table! Everything here is cheap, except rent, which hard to believe is more expensive than London! But I have found a place to live, with an Irish Guy, NZ Guy and an Ozzie girl, move in there on thurs....

Besides that um.... just getting used to being out here alone... esp. without Farah/// which is pretty tough but given we talk every night on the phone, it is barable at this stage...

Well will write more soon and put photos up soon too... but gotta run as tomorrow is a public holiday, something to do with Mohommad going to Jerusalem to talk to God and Jesus about how many prayers a day you have to do... strated at 5,000, but God buckled under the pressure and gave into 5... sweet!!!

Packing the bags and off.... once again

Once again I am in one of those mornings where I will be going to bed and waking somewhere strange the following day. You would think that by now I would be used to this feeling.... something close to the feeling before an exam combined with the feeling before a ride at an amusement park starts... nervous energy full of fear, excitement and expectation...

Well Norway has been a 10 out of 10 experience for me; enough activites and excitement to keep me interested and occupied plus enough down time to allow me to prepare energy reserves for the next few transition weeks as I make my way into some of the world's hotter and more dangerous places.

Norway is an expensive place, so expensive that I really think if London bothers you for cost your brain would explode when arriving into Oslo and buying some takeout food. If it were not for family I would have spent well over a 1000 pounds a week here. But something about the costs here appeals to me. "What!!??" I here you say, how could a place that a beer costs $au15 and a hamburger costs $au20, $au25 if you want chips, appeal to me? Well I feel that this place is a true cost economy. A place where you actually pay for what you get including the impact purchases have on the environment and your own body. The high costs of drinking and eating out reduce your expenditure in these areas, you tend to eat at home, drink less (still have question mark here, but we drank more here as it was celebration times...), drive less - petrol here is about $au2.50 a litre. This all is good to the environment and your health, hence the appeal. We live in a world that is too cheap and we earn too much.... and instead of using this money for worthy causes we figure it is "ours" hence we spend it on bigger tvs and bigger houses, and in the process selling our future generations short.... well I wont get futher into a rant, rest assured there are policies here that would be useful. The place is not perfect but so much closer than Australia.... People here are just more thoughtful, deliberate in their actions, nothing is done here without considering all possible results. Infact they even put tunnels under mountains so trees ontop of these mountains are not damaged in the road building process, the result is the most expensive roads in the world... but as i said these are true cost roads and you use them with this in mind....

Family defined much of this trip. I have spent the whole time with my aunty Felicity and we have gone from relative to relative, being treated like important guests, fed, made to feel at home and introduced to more and more of life up here in the North. I don't think I ever really got any clear exposure to my extended family as i grew up in my earlier years. To me it was mum, dad, jess and Felicity and that was pretty much it. I wont go into the reasons, or atleast my suspected reasons for this, but I have to say I am very happy to have come here. Things feel clearer to me, questions have been answered and yet so many more have formed in my mind.

I think for the first time I really feel like a man coming here and no longer the child being dragged from place to place, doing things now out of choice, rather than expectation. I came here because I wanted to, not because it was expected of me. I have sat with my family and over come language barriers to learn about them, their ways and hopes and dreams, all out of choice. No longer am I the grizzly child complaining about when I get to leave and do "my own thing". This is my thing.... And I have loved it all and I love them all. My family is very much like me.... It is great to know I am not the only one that is a little crazy.... But hey the more I travel the more I realise when people are being themselves and feel comfortable with their situation they are all generally the same loving, caring, thoughtful and crazy people... the world over... well from what I have seen thus far... I guess that is way I now head east... to continue to fill in the blanks.

So farewell Norway... you have treated me like a brother and I thank you... I have learnt much and I know I will be back again... What a waste would it be not to return with such great family here I say I may be back more than once... as what is a $2000 air fare, when people spend twice as much on flat screen tvs that rot their minds and further degrad the communal fabric of our traditional society... [mmmm rant, love to rant :-)]

See you in Dubai!

Quick Update from the North...

Well I am too tired to go into detail as days have been long here and much has been done.... Today was the most relaxed day and much food, cake and alcohol was consumed....

All I really want to say is that I am a million times glad to have come up here to see my family and my heritage... things are much clearer I think when you know where you come from... I feel a connection to the landscape and to the Viking history... something appeals to me... and no not the myth of Rape, Pillage and Plunder as this is not even true, well according to Norsk historians... Something more.... like the making things work when the world is against you.... much like the dutch and their sea walls the Nordic people have made a life in a very harsh yet beautiful land... Something about the lack of easiness and comfort really brings out the best in people I think.... The laziness epidemic infecting the west has yet to make it this far north... I hope it never makes its way up here...

Well I have climbed a mountain, swam in the Artic Circle, seen and partied through the midnight sun, and really connected with my family especially Asbjørn (my dad's counsin) and my Aunty Felicity, oh and yeah I have eaten whale (sorry!) and horse...... It has been a blast, check photos:

http://lucas.intercate.net/gallery/Norway

And I left Canada and more importantly, I left my babe..... well I wont go into detail as the story will make you weep... or possibly reach for a bucket... but rest assured I am missing my sexy brown North American girl..... see photos:

http://lucas.intercate.net/gallery/torontoandhacks?page=1

I will have to write soon, but I confess to be lacking words to explain what has been going through my mind of late.... I can hardly believe that this time next week I will be starting work in the middle east... yet here I am on top of the world with a family I never really knew I had....amazing....

I have made great progess in many areas of my mind.... lets hope I don't drink too much here that I forget what I have learnt.....