People on the road..

Nearing the end of a quite a long road trip business wise…. Left home early last Tuesday and will be home this Thursday evening. Covered some serious ground in the past week and managed to see a fairly different part of the Muslim world. Morocco, a million miles away from Dubai and the Middle East in general, a land that is home to both Jews and Muslims, who funnily enough live in peace… fancy that!?! Very interesting especially given that Casablanca is home to the world’s biggest Mosque outside of Mecca.

I am starting to learn the art of meeting people for brief moments of time, whether it be in a cab, a train, a plane or just waiting in a line behind a family of twenty Muslims about to fly to Saudi Arabia for the first time to fulfil some of their religious obligations… And although these meetings fall a long way short of providing me that close personal interaction that friends and loved ones give, for the moment they are partly filling that gap and also providing an amazing insight into how this mad old world works.

For example I met Ahmad (A J), a interesting man from Mauritania, we managed to chat for a good few hours on my flight from Casa to Dubai. Interestingly enough he was on his way to Perth as he works for Woodside Petroleum (an Aussie Oil company). We talked about religion, politics, how the west owes Africa big time and how Africans laugh when they hear Bush talk of democracy. How the world focuses on Sudan because it’s Islamic and ignores other areas with similar problems. Granted my friend was leaning slightly toward to militant Islam that the west fears so much (as opposed to the militant capitalism, which feeds the $1trillion a year global military budget – 50% from the neo-liberal United States), he made some very interesting points and he was a good person to boot so I had to listen. I also got him to watch the "Inconvenient Truth" on the in flight movie, so I guess I managed to influence him too….
And it is meetings like this that start to shape my view of the world. The picture becomes bigger and bigger and I guess I realise that to try and put it in a frame will only result in missing key parts of the painting….

So I am making mental notes of the people I meet. Sri Lankans, reluctantly travelling to work in the Middle East and leaving their families behind at home, Old Indians having lived tens of years away from their family just to provide for their kids they only see a few times a year, Large English Oil men making a mint out here as they continue to be perplexed at the inequality they have help create in this region, Lebanese men planning on reluctantly moving to the United States as their country’s future is too uncertain for their families, Jordanians seeking love and meaning and a family, Egyptians freaking out when they don’t have servants to care for their every need, Tunisians who go to pray their five times a day and feel a little left out when work colleagues drink, Indian managers who given spiritual inspirational texts to their staff… And the list goes on.

I miss my loved ones oh so much but I know one day they will be close to me so I must also focus on making the best of the here and now. I learn and I try to teach when I get the chance too….. I think I have really worked out what drives me in life…. Learning more and analysing things… Putting the pieces of the painting which is human civilisation together…. It is an impossible task but something I can’t help doing… I love people and I really want things to work out…. And when I see solutions involving killing people, no matter what the reason (e.g. Taliban in Afghanistan – has anyone mentioned the possibility of engaging them in dialogue?), I get sad, so sad I almost want to give up on people, settle down, ignore the world, move to the country or something. But then I meet people one on one and come to realise we are all very much the same.. The only things that divide are ignorance, which is driven by poor media and poor educational institutions. So when I hear of Iran sacking University lecturers for not being religious I get scared. Religion is a form of SELF expression and should never be used to influence others and never should be used as an excuse to hide the truth… Anyways I wont get into a rant…. Just a quick word from Maynard:

"Think for yourself….. Question authority…."

No one has the answers, not even God. As why did he create the world, other than to seek out the meaning of life!?!? Please refer to Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams….

Some Pics: http://lucas.intercate.net/gallery/Casablanca

Another keyboard to navigate...

One of the most noticable things of travel is the different keyboards one finds on the road. Well I am now on a French one and have yet to find the "at" key... Hmmmmm.

So I managed a five day stay here in Morocco, four business, one pleasure... And it is funny but I learnt the most during the business part of my stay. I mean I went down to Marrakesh yesterday and enjoyed it but have to admit I found myself remembering some of the most frustrating things of travel... "hello.... what you looking for???" Oh the world where everything is for sale... I managed to get lost, walk a billion miles, get ripped off and generally relish the pleasure of the more simple things... i.e. a tea and a seat away from the crowds... busy noises of the market place, music, public speaking in foriegn tongues and mess and fuss... That is what I miss the most...

But in business I got to see the inner workings of a different style of economy and a way of doing business in general. Morocco is a combination of French and Arabic and this mix has created what I feel a very odd place indeed.... I think that what I experienced needs to be dealt with in a more formal analysis, but suffice to say that some of the biggest barriers to development became very clear to me during my time here... There really are "better" ways to do things and these things need to be taught.. They don't just magically start to happen. I feel one of the big problem is the lack of process knowledge sharing in the world. Businesses need to share knowledge instead of just coming into a country and making money it needs to share its knowledge and train local staff... Also local Governments need to get serious about education... This really is key. Combine foreign investment (and the provision of their knowledge) with a educated/motivated workforce and developement is much better placed to happen. What I see here is a poorly paid/educated/motivated local workforce, a non-responsible beuarucratic Government and a foreign investment community that is only interested in short term shareholder returns... Surely everyone wins if developing countries learn how to manage themselves, develop sustainably and equitibly, and investors make a few bucks too...

Anyways. Morocco is a lovely place and I have discovered a tea I love. The culture is a great mix of east and west and the people are nice and freindly although quiet tedious at times.. (French influence me thinks....). I have also gained a better vision of where I want to head in my career... Something to do with business education in developing markets...

Take care call... Off to Qatar tomorrow... Another different world to see and it's Ramadan ;-p

Living alone

It is funny when I think about all the times I wanted to live alone so badly. I craved the freedom this brought, an ability to go off, do my own thing and no one there to slow me down or divert my path. Well after years of trying I finally have my wish and five weeks in what do I have to say about it? Hmmm… Maybe "five weeks is more than enough"…
This weekend was the first time I slowed down to reflect on my position and actually the result was a blubbering mess on the phone with Farah. It makes you realise that you can endure anything if you really want, you can suffer loss, loneliness, depression everything….. But when you keep enforcing these things on yourself in some attempt to grow up, become tough or whatever you have to question the sanity of such actions.
I travelled away from home because I didn’t want to. I always thought travel was stupid and a waste of time and money. So when the time was right, prior relationship in tatters, job not giving me what I wanted, I left… and started a campaign of comfort zone destruction that has brought me to where I am. I guess I figured that if I could "survive" outside my comfort zone I would be able to handle anything… I mean I have a strong belief that soon everyone’s comfort zones will disappear in a cloud of CO2 and Sulfuric acid rain so I thought it best to prepare for this.
And you know what…. I can survive pretty much anything out here…. But is that what I want from life, to survive? I am not an animal so much as to fight everyday to survive… I have the blessing to be able to seek out true happiness and love…. Which, thanks to my travel (I wont dwell on this irony here), brought Farah into my life….
So my dilemma is to where from here? I want to stick the year out here (which I know I can) but I don’t want to limit my days with my love. I mean days are a finite resource and soon I will have none, and anyone out there getting older will agree, the next thing you know your forty and the youth of your life is gone… I don’t want to miss these moments with the one I love… just to serve some self exploratory experiment…. Hmmmmm… I don’t know…. I guess I always wanted to be alone because I never found the one I wanted to be with… Now I have her, why the hell am I out here all alone, without her????

From Russia with Love...

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