November journal: my new bike; and our entertaining children

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Recently, I have been over-run with plenty of work travels, and so it’s great to have been back in Saigon for the past couple of weeks.  I love working in this part of the city (in the western corner of District 3) for all the local quirkiness of what’s on offer, as well as the daily hilarity of what goes on in our office…

I went downstairs earlier this afternoon for coffee, only to be confronted by a large brown eel writhing around on the reception floor.  It would seem our lunch this week was trying to make a break for it, and had leapt out of the plastic jerry-can it was sharing with its mate by the front door!  Eel hot-pot to look forward to tomorrow then….

Saigon is quickly gearing up for Christmas, and we are excited about being here again during the glitziest time of the year, when it is customary for a high proportion of the public (mainly young chain-smoking men) to dress up – really badly – as Santa Claus, whilst everyone else spray paints their shops in festive colours (we had a white spray-painted Christmas tree last year, photo here, and are hoping to outdo this with something even more kitsch next month.) Continue reading →

And the result is…

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Big day today.

Millions of Australians will end it comatose, as the annual Melbourne Cup tradition of drinking-your-entire-body-weight-in-beer-before-lunch will ensure that particular country’s collective outputs for 24 hours will be, at best, sub-optimal.

As the table-top dancing down under comes to a close, the United States of America will awake to Election Day, with polls still saying the result is “too close to call” – hopefully this is a canny angle to ensure media sales rather than pointing to the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led by Mitt “The Binder” Romney.

In Saigon, very little attention is being given to either of these events by the locals today.  Many international media outlets have tried to express what the US Election outcome will mean to the rest of the world.  For the lady who sold me a coffee on the street outside our office just now, it is implausible to find a connection between her daily grind with that of the politics playing out on the other side of the world.

But this gap is shrinking.  It will continue to take further generational change for some of the positive aspects of global citizenship to really shift the status quo.  But it will happen.  And the role of the private sector in accelerating this is finally being recognised.  Business as usual is changing. Continue reading →

Enlightenment, when you’re least expecting it

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I am currently on day ten of a fairly packed trip.  Eight of the last nine nights have been spent at different hotels or houses (or on a plane) and, in addtion to work commitments, I’ve also been to one friend’s wedding and one family wedding anniversary celebration.

I have spent nearly thirty hours either in the air, or waiting at airports, hopped from the humidity of Bangkok last week to experience the final remnants of late summer sunshine the UK had to offer and then, today, been enveloped by a 40+ degree searing heat here in Dubai.

Whilst certainly not a sustainable routine I’d recommend to anyone, all has (so far) gone to plan, and generally been great fun.

I last visited Dubai in 1998.  On that occasion, I went on a very short “historial tour” which took us up to a viewpoint over the emerging city skyline, in order to visit a concrete hut that I remember our tour guide described as “dating back to the 1950’s”.

It is fair to say that since 1998, the locals have been busy with that skyline…. Continue reading →

Human Wellbeing in the 21st Century

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About 4 years ago I won a memorable hand of poker at Las Vegas’ Bellagio Casino (the one with the musical fountain display out the front, and which George and Brad robbed in Ocean’s Eleven).  Two red aces and $200 better off, and I’ve not since then allowed myself the chance of losing these winnings by making a return visit.

If I was a gambling man, I would put money on the fact that next time round I’d almost certainly come away empty-handed…

The Bellagio Initiative, a much newer institution than the casino, caught my eye last year not just because of the euphoric memories its name stirred within me, but because of the organisations who had established it, and the mission they had set themselves – namely, the collective pursuit of answers to some of the world’s most pressing and current questions. Continue reading →

When in Islamabad…

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The last day of August, and a setting sun has just drawn a very memorable week here in Islamabad to a serene close.

A final cup of tea out in the backyard of the CARE staff house, as our security guard bows his head onto a prayer mat on the front lawn, and Islam, CARE’s resourceful housekeeper, beams at me as he bounds off for a game of cricket.

I have grown fond of Islamabad, and this staff house, since arriving here a week ago, dog-tired as I was at the time from a day’s travel, trying to process the sounds and sights glimpsed in the dark through the window of the car that whisked me from the airport.

Over a final lunch with colleagues earlier today – who insisted on taking me to one of their favourite local BBQ restaurants – the true diversity, turmoil, humanity, and sheer respect for life, that course through the heartbeat of this country, finally sunk in. Continue reading →

Myanmar: whereto next for Asia’s latest emerging market?

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It is Tuesday evening, and I’m on my way back to Saigon, however am currently stuck on the runway at Bangkok airport, grounded, thanks to a horrendous monsoon downpour.

Looking out from my cabin window it is as if the plane is underwater.  In fact, given night time is fast setting in, it is more like being underwater in the dark, save for a few flashing neon lights going off from the terminal opposite.

Not being a great flyer myself, and having read the Thai Airways in-flight magazine only yesterday, it is at times like this when I resort to writing about something, to take my mind off both the delay of getting home, and the inevitable panic of turbulence that is awaiting me once we head off.

Last post, you were subject to a freak moment of poetry which I succumbed to at Kuala Lumpur airport, right now I am going to fill you in on Myanmar, a country in which I have just had the pleasure of spending a swift 24 hours… Continue reading →

Ode to the Kids*

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*in homage to my wife, and with apologies to John Keats…

My beautiful, bouncing baby girls,
How I ache with sorrow when not with you.

Your daydreaming smiles,
Innocent questions about
Every
Living thing, thought and action,
Fill me with pride.

(especially now, as my flight taxis the runway and I head 2,000 miles away)

Such envy I hold watching you find
So much life and interest in the
Humdrum of things.

A lonely, curled up leaf on the pavement.
A fridge magnet.
Your own feet.

Your energetic dancing.
Your breathless monologues.
Your spillages!
I will miss them all.

Instead, in this hushed cabin,
33,000ft above the world,
Uninterrupted iPod listening must I endure.
. Children’s tears nearby belong not to me.

With melancholic ponder I sip my drink.
Dine alone.
My dishes cleared by others.
Counting the hours until am home again.

 But, first, I close my eyes.

My beautiful, bouncing baby girls,
How I ache with sorrow when not with you.

A better Olympic legacy

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In years gone by, the end of July might have marked the beginning of the “silly season” for the UK press.

Predictable trending at this time of year typically includes debates about hosepipe bans, commentaries on celebrity bikini preferences and on sport that is not football (although pictures of Wayne Rooney on the beach still feature) and then standard, tedious long-range snaps of the Prime Minister on holiday.

All of which mundane fodder is there for public consumption in 2012 however, connected increasingly as we are as global citizens, with social media tools in a constant whirl of change and upgrade, there is now much better access to actual “news” items from all corners of the planet.

News in which we can immerse ourselves, constantly, as readers, commentators, critics, campaigners.  Whilst we are now a community of 7 billion people, earth’s human “eco-system,” like never before, has the capabilty to include all voices, and all perspectives… Continue reading →