The Persistent Itch

Amazon I N C E P T I O N

2011-05-02T06:31:00.003-04:00

Although this is a local issue, it demonstrates some universal issues in economic development. Amazon.com had started building a distribution center in Lexington County, South Carolina with the understanding that they would be exempt from collecting SC state sales tax (international readers, see sales tax primer at end), but a recent vote in the South Carolina House of Representatives quashed that implied promise, and now Amazon.com says it is pulling out of South Carolina...leaving behind a massive, half-built warehouse and an unfulfilled promise of 1200 jobs. I've given this a lot of thought and therefore am somewhat conflicted about the issue on a number Inception-like levels:

LEVEL 1

Since you are reading this on the Internet, you—like I—probably order stuff from online merchants on a regular basis. As such, we probably appreciate that nearly everything we order comes from another state, and therefore is free of sales tax. (Yes, I know I'm supposed to pay “use tax” on out-of-state purchases, but—really—who does that?) So, if Amazon.com came to South Carolina without this concession, everything I buy from Amazon (regardless of which distribution center it came from) would cost an additional 6%. Of course, I would not like that.

LEVEL 2

South Carolina, like every state (and nearly every government in the world) is suffering from budget shortfalls due in part to the recent economic upheaval. As a resident and tax payer, I would like to see more money joining my contribution to the states coffers so we can have “nice things” like other industrious states and countries have such as high-quality schools & universities, roads & other infrastructure, law enforcement, parks, etc. Therefore, at this level, I cringe that we were ready to forfeit this much needed revenue stream. (Granted, Amazon is never going collect or pay sales tax for any state.)

LEVEL 3

This distribution center would employ some 1,250 people in my area, undoubtedly there would also be multiplier effects as allied firms and other online retailers would consider this site, which—admittedly—is a great place for this type of business: minutes away from 3 interstate highways, regional postal, UPS, and FedEx hubs (who would probably also need to beef up their staff) within 5 miles, and plenty land for such expansion. Additionally, real estate values would go up in the area and new housing would probably be built. This would certainly benefit the economy of Columbia and of Lexington County. So, like many of my friends on Facebook and Twitter, I've got to be for that! However, I am not naive enough to think that 1,250 people will remain unemployed now; that's not the way a market economy works—there is no “lump of labor” that you just break a piece off. Lexington County already has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the state and is even lower than the national average.

LEVEL 4

Finally, there is the issue of fairness. Why should Amazon.com be exempt from collecting sales tax from South Carolina customers when all other retail businesses located in the state must do so? This is the argument of the business lobby that defeated this bill, and it is quite understandable. By not collecting SC sales tax, Amazon.com has an unfair competitive advantage.

While small business struggle to get established, nearly all states fight each other to land big businesses that promise to employ hundreds or thousands of its residents with generous concessions. They happily promise to forgo years of tax income, make commitments to upgrade infrastructure, create job training programs, and even loan or grant money and real estate to some firms. This is a legitimate economic development strategy that can create a successful technology cluster such as the one built around the BMW plant in Greenville, South Carolina. However, there is no guarantee of success, as seen by the now abandoned Mac Truck plant in Winnsboro, SC. So the question is, who should evaluate these opportunities? It seems to me that too often the big business draws up its own demands, and the local politicians immediately become cheerleaders regardless of how appropriate the project is for the long-term development of the region.

More importantly, I am interested in why underdeveloped states, regions, countries, or whatever need to prostitute themselves in front of industry in the first place. What disadvantages are otherwise turning away these industries, and what are the root causes of these negative aspects? I don't think that San Mateo and Santa Clara counties in California need to offer any special incentives to get technology firms to locate in Silicon Valley, nor does New York City have to do anything to keep the financial industry from leaving. Regardless of how sweet the incentives, the bulk of professionals in these industries would never move to some stiflingly boring Midwestern or southern state. I have written more about this previously in Promoting Innovation.

So, as I've said, I am conflicted about this; I wish states would collectively agree not to undercut each other, but I know this will never happen, so I guess I've got to pull for the home team and hope that some day in the future we will grow to the point where we don't need to introduce these market distortions.

Sales tax primer: In the United States, each state (and occasionally local governments as well) determines and collects a sales tax from 0% to 10% on all retail purchases (with some exceptions.) Unlike a value-added tax (VAT), this applies only to the final, end-user sale; manufactures don't pay this for raw material, and wholesalers don't collect it for sales to retailers. Also, this tax is only due from residents of the state in which the seller is located. While it is difficult to claim this exemption for small purchases you make when traveling to another state, mail order and e-commerce businesses simply don't charge it when shipping goods to an address outside of their state. (Oh, and to the consternation of foreign visitors, sales tax is almost never included in the posted price.)

Inception primer: The brilliant 2010 film Inception has spawned an Internet meme similar to “mind=blown” or “[insert strange twist], by M. Night Shyamalan” in which—to express how mind-blowing a concept is—you take almost any word that ends in “-ion”, put spaces between the letters, and make it bold. (e.g. Sales tax C O L L E C T I O N )

The film itself only makes sense when you realize [and this is not a spoiler] that the team has successive dreams within dreams, in which time exponentially slows down for each level, and if someone gets killed in a dream this person’s [un]consciousness goes to limbo, where time stretches out even more, such that DiCaprio’s character and wife spend a lifetime there one night many years ago. Also, since his wife has been dead for years, her appearance is merely a figment of his imagination, and thus her sabotage must be his self-flagellation.

UPDATE 5/21/2011: The South Carolina legislature relented and gave Amazon.com their sales tax exemption. Construction of their enormous warehouse (above) is moving along at a brisk pace. I'm happy that this major industry has located here, and I hope this area will become a distribution/logistics cluster. However I'm still uncomfortable that certain companies are allowed to ignore the obligation to collect sales tax from retail sales.

This American Life just had a brilliant show with the Planet Money team titled “How to Create a Job”; the main premise is that despite the big talk from politician and the economic development industry, they almost never create a job, they just shuffle them around from state to state. If you have a free hour, it's certainly worth the listen: (click here)

Freedom

2010-09-22T17:11:00.005-04:00

I find the word “freedom” is thrown around a lot lately by people who apparently do not understand its actual meaning at best, or possibly use it in an intellectually dishonest manner. Ironically, it is usually coming from traditionalists, who—by definition—are not interested in dissent (which is, of course, what freedom protects.)

If we step back for a moment and examine the issue, it is obvious that the protection of freedom (be it freedom of speech, religion, assembly, association, or whatever) really matters most for dissenters. Even the most repressive regimes in the world do not attempt to silence anyone who says “our nation (or country or government) is the greatest in the world” or “the government and business leaders of our country have our best interests at heart” or “we seek to restore the traditional social order of our nation.” In all countries, those in the majority—especially the rich and powerful—rarely run into problems expressing their opinions. A wealthy businessman in Singapore, Hong Kong, or even mainland China is likely to be satisfied with the freedoms he has in these countries, which are normally considered repressive. It is the minority (ethnic, political, religious, intellectuals, etc.) who really value true freedom.

Before I go on, let me be clear that I am certainly no fan of Islam. It is indeed a dangerous and sometimes violent religion (but waning in power, as I have previously discussed.) However, I am shocked to see the reaction of Americans who are willing to give up cherished freedoms that are enshrined the US Constitution to address real, and—in many cases—imagined, threats to our country. Growing up in the US, we are taught that the earliest settlers were Puritans and Pilgrims who were not allowed to worship God as they saw fit in England, and thus came to New England for religious freedom. Thus it more than ironic that conservative elements of American society (who see themselves as spiritual heirs of these first religious dissenters) are the most willing to become the new oppressors.

Cordoba House
The right-wing demagoguery of the planned Islamic center to be built in lower Manhattan is the clearest and most chilling demonstration of the willingness of a significant portion of American population to roll back our much-cherished religious freedoms. (And the extent of our commitment to religious freedom in America is indeed unique, as evident in the fact that we allow such obvious cults as Scientology to exist—something that otherwise more progressive European countries such as Germany do not.) It is clear that certain conservative, “Christian,” patriotic activists care less for the actual freedom of religion enshrined in their supposedly beloved Constitution, than they care for fanning the flames intolerance. The evidence, in this case, is their deliberate misrepresentations and falsifications. First of all, the site is not at “Ground Zero”; it is an 8-block walk from the Liberty Street observation point, meaning practically no one visiting Ground Zero will ever see it! Second, it is not really a mosque; it is a multi-purpose building that will include a mosque in the same way that many public and private building may include a Christian chapel. Certainly there will no minaret blaring a call to pray five times a day. Even the name Cordoba has been subject to demagoguery, forcing supporters to rename it simply Park51. Despite what Newt Ginrich says, any student of history knows that the story of 8th to 11th century Cordoba, Spain is about a vibrant, multi-cultural center of trade and learning in an otherwise dark, medieval period, and not just about Muslim conquest. (And, of course, Catholic Spain eventually did re-conquer this territory, and the centerpiece mosque once again became a cathedral.) Furthermore, the leader of this project, Iman Rauf, is hardly some extremist Shiite or even Sunni Muslim. He is of the touchy-feely, mystical branch of Islam: Sufism (of whirling dervish fame.)

But all this doesn’t even matter, because—again—we have this pesky first amendment in our beloved Constitution that guarantees the freedom to practice even unpopular religions (within the limits of criminal law, building and safety regulations, etc.) If indeed the Muslim extremists hate us for our freedoms, as former president Bush said, then are we not playing right into their hands?

Koran Burning
The only thing that can be said about this pastor in Florida (who, as an attention whore, shall remain nameless) is that he is quite stupid: by burning a books, you are taking them out of circulation, and thus increasing their demand. Then, of course, there is the company you find yourself in (historically) as a book-burner (Hitler, et al.) Thankfully cooler heads were able to talk him out of this stunt, which would have certainly resulted in a number of directly attributable deaths around the world.

The real issue here is the media’s reaction. At most, this story was only worthy of a mention in the local media outlets of Gainesville, Florida; after all, his congregation numbered only 35 to 50. Responsibility for the spectacle that followed instead lays squarely on the shoulders of national and international media outlets that brought this to the attention of the world (and real Muslim extremists who might actually kill people over this issue.) The media often has to balance the public’s right to know with the potential harm a story may cause, and this was a clear case for staying quiet: no civic benefit, but definite harm to international relations, and a real potential for deaths.

Immigration
Although not related to religion, this issue again shows the true colors of supposedly Constitution-loving conservatives. In 1868, the fourteenth amendment was added to the Constitution, forever solidifying the concept of Jus soli, which we had inherited from English Common Law; it made it clear that any child born within the borders of the United States automatically becomes a US citizen (except children of diplomats.) But now, certain right-wing groups actually want to roll back this right because a number of Latin American immigrants (especially undocumented ones) are—horror of horrors—having children here! Despite the fact we are a country of immigrants, they insist on painting our most recent immigrants as criminals (this is nothing new, throughout our short history newcomers have often been labeled as trouble, be they Italian, Irish, Jewish, Asian, or Eastern European.) Today calling undocumented immigrants “illegal aliens” is apparently not strong enough; some people actually want to use the term “criminal immigrant” for people whose only crime is “not having their paperwork in order.” To which I always counter with “he who is without sin, cast the first stone,” and ask if their paperwork such as tax filings are entirely complete and accurate.

Constitution
In all these cases, what I am trying to point out is the incredible hypocrisy found in so much right-wing ideology. When I hear conservatives talk about the Constitution, it seems they regard it as an infallible document, somehow handed down from God on an American Mount Sinai to our founding fathers (who were Deists, by the way.) According to them, President Obama and liberals in general are trying to weaken or re-write this “holy” Constitution, stealing their rights. But what in fact has happened in the last several years is that the Republican, George Bush, rode roughshod over the Constitution, habeas corpus, and privacy rights. Now right-wing leaders want to further erode the constitutional freedoms of religion, association, and due process …all because they misunderstand what freedom is all about: namely guaranteeing rights for the weak, downtrodden and oppressed.

Europe
Before any of European readers start feeling too smug in this regard, let me remind them of a few recent items in the news: the French ban on head coverings, the Swiss referendum banning of minarets, the deportation of Romanian and Bulgarian (EU Citizen) Gypsies from France in direct contradiction to the founding EU concept of freedom of movement for goods, capital, services, and people; and recent election of far-right, anti-immigrant candidates in Sweden and the Netherlands.

Promoting Innovation

2010-08-01T09:21:00.003-04:00

So, in the previous post, I proposed that the only entrepreneurial enterprises worth pursuing are in innovation; more specifically my advice was to not pursue market-share (large, efficient business will beat you at that game every time) and actually do not pursue a market-enlarging strategy either...because you shouldn't have any noteworthy competitors. If you want to start a successful business, you've got to create a market from scratch (or at least revolutionize an existing one.)

Consider for a moment what Apple did in the last decade: although they were already a fairly large computer maker, they turned the nascent marketplace of MP3 players on its head when they created the iPod (and all the subsequent variations.) As early as the mid-1990s, companies like Rio had introduced similar devices that allow cutting-edge young people who already were storing their music collection on their computers to take at least a part of this collection with them without burning a CD. Granted, the Apple brand and marketing machine had a lot to do with its success, but the iPod really was a revolutionary device with its intuitive and even alluring interface, and an equally slick synchronization application, iTunes. This software, in turn, created the first viable, legitimate digital music sales channel. Today it seems that every young person has (or at least covets) an iPod-like device; 10 years ago, hardly anyone would have imagined they need something like this—Apple created a worldwide market out of thin air!

Nearly everyone agrees this is the type of business (and the type of jobs that go with it—high tech and knowledge-oriented) is what we want for our community, our state, and our country. So, the question is: how do we encourage this as governments and business communities? This is an important questions by virtue of the fact that nearly every state is trying to create at least one “innovation center” to do just that.

The traditional answer to facilitate job and economic growth has always been to lower taxes and reduce regulations. I recently received a campaign letter from Jim Harrison, who is running for a seat in the South Carolina state house; in this letter he follows the standard Republican line: “The only way our state can recover from the recession is to show the world that we are open for business. To do that, we must create a business-friendly tax environment with smaller, less intrusive state government that allows businesses new and old to flourish.” However, it seems that the most innovative industries have located in the least business-friendly, and in fact the most left-leaning communities in the country such as the San Francisco Bay Area, the Pacific Northwest, New York, Boston, etc. Why the incongruity? Simple: the most innovative organizations are small start-ups who—quite frankly—don’t care about these big business issues; they aren't yet making any real money for authorities to tax, and they generally aren't affected by many regulations. Innovators flock to these decidedly blue innovation centers because that's where the talent (both technical and creative) is, that's where capital sources (VC and angel investors) are, that’s where the infrastructure is, and—just as importantly—these locations are just cool places to live: abundant recreation opportunities, vibrant nightlife, etc.

But this all sounds tautological: innovators come to these innovation centers where all the cool people are to innovate. So the real question is: what is the underlying reason that these natural innovation centers exist? I think that what you will find at the heart of each is one or more world-class university. Not the kind with a undefeated football team, but the kind that draws the best and brightest young people from all over the country and even all over the world (note the numerous the foreign names in any list of high-tech startup founders.)

A tale of two states
Let me tell you a tale of two states; California and South Dakota. As you probably know, California is on the brink of bankruptcy due to overspending (in large part on education.) South Dakota, on the other hand, has written in their constitution that the state government simply is not allowed to go into deficit spending. In a traditional view, South Dakota is the good, responsible government, and California is completely irresponsible. However, I ask you: what has South Dakota done recently (and I am not picking on SD, you can ask this of most midwestern and southern states.) Can you name one scientific breakthrough or one high-tech startup that has become a household name from there?

In this regard, California has too numerous examples to list; nearly every major computer hardware, software, and accessories company is based in or started in “Silicon Valley.” Then think of the entertainment industry: despite the fact that many movies and TV shows are now filmed elsewhere, Hollywood is still the undisputed global nexus of the motion picture industry. For all the half-serious kidding from southerners and midwesterners about how we'd be better off it an earthquake would just set California adrift in the Pacific Ocean, the United States of America would be a pale shadow of itself without California; just in strictly monetary terms, if it were an independent country, California would be the 8th largest economy in the world!

So, in an incongruous, “parable of the talents” manner, I say we should actually underwrite the supposedly irresponsible spending of these liberal states (who actually fuel these powerhouses of innovation) at the expense of the “good son” states that have their financial affairs in order, but due to their conservative policies, do not foster innovation! At the federal level, we actually do the opposite: southern and midwestern states generally receive more federal funding than the federal tax revenues collected from the state’s citizens and companies.

Again, I am not denigrating southerns or midwesterns; I truly believe there are just as many creative and intelligent people (per capita) born in each state, but as they grow to be adults they feel unfulfilled/unchallenged and chafe under the traditional strictures of these states, and move (often for university studies) to a more inviting locales. So, much like the brain drain experienced by under-developed countries, many states and localities are actually shooting themselves in the foot by being financially responsible!

Now, I am not saying that, to become a center of innovation, state and local governments just have to loosen the purse-strings. In fact I don't have the answer to the question how does one foster the creation of innovative companies. Many communities have built business incubators, technology centers, etc. and may have even filled those offices with mediocre startups, but failed to see standout successes that actually leave those "incubators." Again, a large part of attracting creative and intelligent people is being "a cool place to live." As such, no matter what you do, you're never going to attract the best and brightest to Souix Falls, SD or Cleveland, Ohio, or any number of ordinary cities across this land. Part of the appeal is geographic, and unless you can build mountains and seas, your community is out of luck. (I suppose things like parks, nature reserves, multi-use trails would help somewhat.) The other major contributor is a harder to define characteristic and again somewhat tautological: a community where the "cool kids" already live. This means things like a vibrant music scene and a range of international restaurants (staffed by actual immigrants, of course.) These are the type of things that can't be created in a top-down fashion, but certainly can be quashed by ill-conceived planning policies and various incentives & disincentives.

There is no easy Money

2010-07-18T17:55:00.003-04:00

It's the universal American dream: to strike out on your own, become your own boss, and—of course—become fabulously wealthy. It is a dream shared by men and women at all levels of society from janitors to executives. I'm convinced it is the reason why many middle income and even lower-middle income people are diehard political conservatives; they truly believe that they are a few steps away from becoming a business owners who, by definition, would be adversely affected by high taxes and burdensome health/safety/labor/environmental regulations.

Certainly there are possibilities for the meteoric rises from “rags to riches” that we all celebrate, such as the orphaned, high-school dropout Dave Thomas, who went on to create a world-wide restaurant chain: Wendy's. However, we must remember these are exceptions; we can't base policy decisions on a few outliers. Without outside influence, people generally stay in the socio-economic class that they were born in, which—at best—is a little better than their parents. These non-contiguous jumps in success that we all dream of, whether in business, sports, or entertainment, are actually extremely rare. When it comes to small business, we must acknowledge the fact that the vast majority of them fail within the first few years, and not only dwell on a few success stories.

This is why I've become convinced that—just as it is foolhardy (and cruel) to pump up poor, inner-city youths with dreams of becoming basketball or rap stars—it is cruel to even tacitly encourage a friend who, with little more than contempt for his employer, wants to strike out on his own. A friend should be the voice of reason in these circumstances, and test the budding entrepreneur’s commitment, knowledge, discipline, and capabilities in this area. Someone who is really intelligent and capable enough to succeed in this respect will have no problem answering the tough questions, starting with how he (or she) is going to support himself, and what evidence there is that this will actually attract customers and make money.

Although there are thousands of self-described independent business people and even more business licenses & incorporation filings, most are not successful—even if they do show some kind of profit. To be a successful entrepreneur, first of all you have to make enough from your salary and/or profit to at least equal your previous job. Too often I hear self-employed friends talk about how much they made in that one good week or month, but are silent about their yearly income. Later, when they run out of money, I often hear they went back to their old job…apparently their business wasn’t as successful as they made it out to be.

The next measure of success is return on investment (ROI) or return on assets; if you already have (or inherited) buildings/facilities/real estate, vehicles, and equipment, you must consider the value of these in any calculation. There is an opportunity cost for these items; could these items could be sold or leased if you were not utilizing them? If so, then this must be determined and subtracted from your profit statement.

There are many other ways of measuring financial success, but my final question would be: how much would someone buy your business for? Obviously part of the equation is the value of cash, inventory, and assets (minus depreciation, of course), but a successful business is really measured by how much money it makes (and is expected to make in the future), and this is where it often becomes sticky for sole proprietors who do not recognize all their cash income and mix business and personal expenses. If I want to buy your business, and you say, “Well, I receive a lot more income than I report on my taxes” then I must trust your word on how much you actually make, since you certainly wouldn’t risk keeping separate books reflecting this additional income (because that would guarantee a conviction in a tax evasion case.)

Too often entrepreneurs end up buying themselves a low-paying job (especially considering the long hours involved) for tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars and only seem to be successful because they own or control significant assets, while their spouse is actually earning the family’s income from a conventional job.

Corporate rip-off
I will come back to possibly successful entrepreneurial business ideas, but first I want to address why you can’t beat the big guys in the consumer retail sector by defending supposedly evil corporate bad guys against incessant criticism from consumers and small businessmen. I am blown away when I hear local would-be entrepreneurs declare how they could bring goods and service to customers at a lower price than large corporations…who, then by definition, are ripping us off. Their unsophisticated analysis show they do not understand the efficiencies, especially in supply chains, that large corporations have, and ignore the overhead costs in delivering goods & services (I’ve even heard redneck business owners claim to have “low overhead” without realizing that they actually have higher overhead per unit!)

Likewise nearly everyone complains about how cable TV, satellite, and mobile phone companies are ripping them off. The assumptions is that, as an intangible good, data must have a marginal cost near zero, so why should they be getting dinged tens of additional dollars every months for overages and arcane fees for using these services? What is forgotten is the capital tied up in infrastructure and ongoing expenses in maintenance of these massive networks. This reality is divorced from what the advertising/marketing department must do to increase market share: namely get customers to sign contracts for $x9.95/month with—of course—an asterisk at the end! Recently I’ve watched a nearby AT&T tower go up (easily a 7-figure project) and watched dozens to hundreds of UTMS cabinets being assembled for installation around the state as AT&T upgrades their network for 3G. Now I understand why they need $70 a month for the unlimited iPhone data plan.

On the left/green front, some assert that the local & organic food movement stands to gain efficiencies (and reduce carbon footprint) by not transporting food hundreds (or even thousands) of miles across the country or world as the incumbent, industrial food/agriculture industry does. Their childish logic implies that these giants are transporting goods over long distance for no good reason. In fact, large concerns such as Wal-Mart are very careful to minimize the carbon footprint of each product; they just don’t call it that, but use a perfect proxy: money! The less money they spend on diesel fuel, the more profit they make; this is why they pack their 18-wheelers to the roof and use all kinds of logistics experts and computer software to minimize transportation cost (and therefore carbon footprint as well.) Although your local organic farmer doesn’t move his produce as far, it is likely that, on a per pound or kilogram basis, it could actually have a bigger carbon footprint!

Finally, corporations exist in a marketplace of competitors and potential competitors, which—in the long term—make any advantage temporary. Regardless of how much or little they pay their executives, large corporations—across the board—generally make single-digit (percentage) profits. In industries/niches where profits are higher, more players naturally enter the market and dilute any above-average profits.

Send $199.95 for my unique system for making easy money
I don’t necessary disbelieve the get-rich-quick crowd’s claims of how much money they have made; however, what each one fails to disclose is that they now have a new money-making scheme: selling get-rich-quick books, recordings, and training. They may have very well discovered a lucrative arbitrage opportunity some years ago, but it has since dried up or been diluted by new entrants. Now they are essentially selling nothing more than their life’s story to suckers whom they have convinced can repeat their success. Now, this view is only the most charitable possibility; actually I do believe that most of these charlatans go way beyond exaggeration and embellishment to outright deceit.

Innovative niche entrepreneurship
So, in what field is it prudent to become an entrepreneur? First of all, it has to be a niche that is not adequately served now. Even in the mature economies of the west, there are products and services that a small businessperson can provide other businesses (generally never to consumers) that provide such a great value, they practically sell themselves. With the application and integration of modern technology, it is possible to revolutionize tedious business processes that organizations would like to outsource anyhow. A startup based on the founder(s) competencies/expertise in a given field, and the development of innovative software and/or other systems for several client businesses is a great start. However, notice it must be in your field of expertise. If you haven’t already been working in a particular business or sector for many years, you are simply not qualified to start a business in that area. You can’t just dive in the deep end and expect to learn as you go. If, for example you a machinist who is tired of getting oil under your fingernails, and decide you’re going to change directions and teach yourself computer programming in order to start a business, then you are certainly doomed to fail. (Incidentally, it should go without saying that unless you’ve been a general manager of a restaurant for several years, you should never consider opening a restaurant—even if you have this experience, the odd are against you as an independent restaurant, bar, cafe, etc.) If you really want to make a big change in your professional life, you’re better off going back to school to learn a new profession, work in this new profession for a few years and only then think about starting a business in that area. [UPDATE 7-29-2010] Two researchers from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, Pino Audia and Chris Rider published a paper debunking the "myth of the garage", that is, the humble & isolated beginnings of many tech startups. It turns out that most successful startups leaned heavily on information, skills, and networks established while working with their previous employers. (FastCompany article)

I am sorry for sounding so negative, especially now that I am considering starting my own business, but I’ve written this in part to sharpen my own view on the issue. I’m just tired of conversations about entrepreneurship focusing only on the best-case scenarios, while ignoring the significant costs involved that often are never recouped. Whenever someone whispers, “you know, there’s good money in x” I reply, “yes, there is good money in everything.” Every potential investment or business idea requires a comparable mix of capital, risk, and plain old hard work to produce a comparable income. For example, being a landlord is an excellent way of building wealth, since your tenants are paying the mortgage—building your equity in the property. However, it also means you’ve got to deal with collecting rent, fixing broken plumbing, etc. If you decide to hire a management company so that you don’t have to worry about these things, you will find (with the management fee deducted) your investment now returns about the same as if you just bought stock in a REIT (real estate investment trust.) This is how a capitalist system works; the market determines the value of all inputs through their reward. If an opportunity temporarily returns better than expected returns, then more people will flock to it and dilute the returns.

Authentic Tourism

2009-08-26T04:56:00.003-04:00

Two weeks ago, Mirena and I spent a few days soaking up Aegean sun, sand, and surf on the Kassandra Peninsula in northern Greece. Our first night was in Fourka Beach, and while looking for an authentic Greek dinner we were disappointed to find only gyros (fast food) and pizza—in fact, most restaurants were “Italian.” We discovered the reason for this incongruity lies in the demographics of the vacationers (holiday-makers): except for a smattering of Serbian, Bulgarian, and Romanian tourists, this was an overwhelmingly domestic vacation destination (although it will probably become more and more multinational with easier border crossings—see my previous post.) This means these people eat Greek food everyday! When on vacation, they want something different—in this case: Italian.

Three years ago, during my project in Bulgaria, I was tangentially involved in thinking about “authentic” tourism. Specifically, the projects were intended to promote rural and cultural tourism instead of the already over-developed beach and ski destinations. I was skeptical at the time; outside of a tiny, scholarly minority, who really wants to go to a village to experience authentic Bulgarian (or Romanian, or any other) culture? This was skepticism was reinforced when, wherever I went in the region, I found myself a minority in a crowd of domestic tourists. I came to the conclusion that instead of tourism being the path to development, it was actually a sign of the progress these countries had already made internally.

Furthermore, I found that these domestic tourists (who, in a developing/transitioning economies we assume to be poor) want luxury accommodations and attractions as well; for the most part they are not interested in staying in a farmhouse, sharing a bathroom down the hall, no matter how idyllic the setting. Sometimes these local tourist do need some help, and this is why I am in favor of price discrimination. (See my contribution to this discussion in Bulgaria's expat newspaper, Sofia Echoes.)

Tourism promoters of any given country often earnestly speak of the majestic mountains, untouched forests and natural areas, beautiful beaches, and rich cultural history of their country as potential destinations for foreign tourists without realizing that nearly every country has magnificent mountains, verdant forests, some kind of sun/sand/water combination, and a proud history. Unless your beaches are better than the sun-drenched, perfect white sand and clear-water beaches of the South Pacific, Mediterranean, or Caribbean, then it is unlikely you will capture the interest of the proverbial rich, international tourist. (The same goes for mountains—compared to the Alps; history/art/culture—compared to France, Italy, or Greece.)

Despite hand-wringing by environmentalist and cultural preservationists in response to the sometimes ugly developments found at the sea coasts, ski resorts, and other such mass-audience tourist destination—with their tacky gift shops selling the same souvenirs, made in China—just stamped with a different name, and associated troika, this is apparently what the masses want wherever they go: Myrtle Beach, Cancun, Barcelona, or Tahiti. They actually prefer to collect a t-shirt from the “local” Hard Rock Cafe instead of authentic, local goods; and who am I to tell them they must not do this?

Coincidentally, a few days after starting to write this post, I watched My Life in Ruins (in which Nia Vardalos sort of reprieves her role from My Big Fat Greek Wedding as the sometimes beautiful Greek-American woman looking for love.) Her character bemoans the simple-minded tourist she is guiding around Athens, who only seem interested in buying souvenirs and ice cream, but eventually learns to loosen up and just have fun—which, I suppose is my conclusion as well: don't beat your self up about not fully immersing yourself in the “rich cultural heritage” of the county you are visiting, and certainly don't be so pretentious call those that enjoy the crasser side of tourism as boors.

United States of Europe

2009-08-20T14:15:00.001-04:00

Recently, Mirena and I took a road trip from Sofia, Bulgaria to Thessaloniki, Greece to visit the IKEA store there, and then spend a few days enjoying the sun and sea a little bit further south. We had made nearly the same trip in 2006—before Bulgaria entered the EU—and were pleasantly surprised at how quick and easy the border crossing procedures had become. Three years ago, a line of cars and trucks stretched back at least one kilometer from the border, and the whole experience added over an hour to the trip. Each country still has an exit control as well as immigration/customs, but the whole thing—including waiting in a short line—took less than 15 minutes.

Although they are the newest EU members, Bulgaria and Romania will eventually join Schengen, meaning these border controls will be totally eliminated, as they already have been throughout most of the rest of Europe. Then a trip to a neighboring country will be little more than us driving to another state for some shopping and/or a weekend getaway (eventually this will also include exotic Istanbul if & when Turkey joins the EU.) Now, I realize that language and cultural differences make this a bigger deal both in practice and psychologically, and nationalism runs deep in the Balkans—so a significant percentage of people will be more than happy to stay in their own country regardless of the benefits of this easier international travel. Never the less, this openness: namely the free flow of goods, people, and money—the very pillars of the European Union—is inexorably binding EU member nations together into something that is starting to look more and more like a super-nation. While this causes concern for some, I see it as a hopeful future—especially for the Balkans, which has been beset with petty infighting, fragmented markets, and most troubling—systemic corruption. In this new, friction-free super-nation countries will be forced to compete on a more or less level playing field: for investments, for shoppers, for weekend tourist, and even permanent residents.

Racism, Tribalism, Nationalism, Patriotism

2009-07-19T16:08:00.002-04:00

The United States of America has often been characterized as a virulently racist country. In many cases this characterization exists because of our own depiction in our own popular media (which much of the world watches) of our shameful past and sometimes even exaggeration of present-day racial attitudes (especially of the south.) Certainly some of this hand-wringing is justified, but I posit that, at least for youngest generation—Generation Y, we have really moved past this and, while electing a black president doesn't heal all wrongs, I think most of the rest of the world does recognize that we have truly turned a corner in race relations.

With this said, I think it is fair to examine the issue of racism in other countries, more specifically the problem of nationalism. Granted, Americans are very patriotic, to the point that many Americans naively consider all other countries vastly inferior in most regards, but it is not the same kind of nationalism or even tribalism seen elsewhere in the world. For one thing, we are not really a nation! We are a country made up of various nationalities and ethnicities to the point that we consider the word “nationally” synonymous with “citizenship.” I have been surprised to learn that in many countries, ethnic minorities are never considered “(country)-ians” regardless of how long their forefathers have shared the same territory with the “true” citizens of said country. By definition, anyone born inside to borders of the United States is automatically granted citizenship and—certainly by the second generation—no one would not consider their children as full-fledged Americans.

Nearly every ethic/national group in the world says something to the effect of: “we are the proud (blank) people, the ancient and noble race that once ruled over this entire area (insert greatest extent of borders) in a large, prosperous, and peaceful kingdom/empire, but then at another time were brutally oppressed by our evil neighbors, yet managed maintain our special cultural practices and identity.” Then they go on to list all kinds discoveries and inventions regardless of how tangential their countrymen’s contributions were. I trust that I don't have to try to explain how ridiculous this concept is, since you have to agree there is no people group in the world that is not proud of its progenitors and therefore does not say something like this!

This “us vs. them” rivalry is seen between similarly sized and advanced people groups—each of them claiming a certain measure of superiority. It is often rooted in language; the endonym of many nations and their language are derived from a word meaning “the true/real people.” This is not only the case of small tribes in remote jungles, but even the word “German”—for example—suggests that the old Germans (soft G) considered themselves as descendants of the true seed or germ of humanity. Likewise, exonyms are often derogatory; for example, in most Slavic languages the German language and people are referred to as some variant of “Nemski,” suggestive of someone who is mute (unable to speak or use words) as opposed to “Slavo” meaning “word” (please note, this happened many centuries ago, I am not saying modern nationals believe or even know this.) My point is that these cultural mythologies are so deeply ingrained that all but the most cosmopolitan consider them as fact.

Vicious Cycle
The more harmful nationalism/racism is that which oppresses already downtrodden minorities. In the USA this generally means blacks (who, actually, often have a longer history in this country) and Hispanic; in Western Europe it is immigrants (especially non-European); and in Eastern Europe it is the Roma (Gypsy) population that has lived among their countrymen for centuries without assimilating. I was surprised to discover that—even in as homogeneous place such as Japan—there is a minority group called the Burakumin, members of which are still discriminated against to this day based solely on their family names (and the lowly occupations their ancestors held.)

For most of my life, I have been against affirmative action, or any other policies that favors any group over another. Growing up, I naively thought that since I was presented with the same opportunities in school that many of my black classmates (and in many cases, their parents as well) seemingly purposefully rejected, that—collectively as the majority—I was no longer responsible for the well-being of this population. Even today, I am surrounded be people who believe we should immediately end (or, at least, drastically cut) all welfare and affirmative action programs. While this attitude is understandable in the proverbial (Aesop's Fable) “ant and grasshopper” context, I remind people that I have lived in such a country—where minorities are simply ignored—and it is not pretty: Roma villages and ghettos across eastern Europe are third-world communities within developing countries that benefit no one as they spiral downward into ever-worsening conditions.

The problem with this “it’s not my fault” attitude is that without external assistance these communities are never going to pull themselves out of the mire…by virtue of the fact they are already in this desperate situation. Then, due to the inherit hopelessness of this kind of situation, the logic of some follows a most disturbing conclusion: genocide.

What we often forget is the advantages we have from the family and community we grew up in. These advantages came from our parents, who read to us from an early age, imbibed us with a strong work ethic, and insisted we do well in school, the peers who challenged us academically, the older siblings and cousins who showed us the ropes to succeeding in high school and college, the friends with whom we competed for success throughout our educational and professional careers, and—most importantly—an expectation of success from nearly everyone, based solely on our background. Certainly we do see highly successful individuals come out of the most neglected communities, but these are rare exceptions. Just as most of us come from an average, middle class background that led us to become middle to upper-middle class citizens; the average, lower-class minority has little hope of moving up in society—there is simply no expectation of this happening, so it doesn’t happen. While this is sometimes manifest in actual prejudice/discrimination, more often the problem is just lowered expectation, even from within this disenfranchised community.

Certainly the most effective solutions could come from within these communities, members of which know best the intricacies and thinking of their own community and therefore are more influential than an outsider. Unfortunately, this rarely happens; there are just not enough of these people, and they are often not esteemed in their own community—they are frequently seen as having abandoned their culture by virtue of their discipline and success.

Another option to address these inequities is through private and religious-based charities. These are generally very effective, but are so small that they are only able to help a very few people in a few, select communities. Therefore—despite a general dislike of large and wasteful government programs—I must admit that the only solution for under-performing minority populations is the costly government and inter-governmental programs that just “keep their heads above water” with the hope of an eventual assimilation into the middle class.

Win-win
I don’t want sound like the proverbial naïve liberal who thinks we just need to hold hands and sing Kumbaya around the campfire to make everything better. No, I am the cold, calculating MBA that is simply looking for the most beneficial outcome for all parties involved, because if my neighbors (both near and far) are richer and more educated, it benefits me as well (more consumers for my employer’s/industry’s products and less crime due to desperate situations.) Certainly countries, nationalities, and regions have various competitive advantages (meaning some are indeed more educated, some better at manufacturing, some at agriculture…and, of course, these advantages change as a nation develops), and this is exactly what makes global trade so successful (the old zero-sum game thinking has long ago been discredited.) This is why I am in favor of any policy that encourages free trade, free movement of people, intercultural exchange, and effective international development/aid.

I do not purport to have all the answers; I only write this—dear reader—to ask you to consider the following: why do you find pride in the accomplishments of your ancestors and countrymen, and what does it really matter; aren’t others just as proud of their heritage? Are you just a pawn being played by the propaganda of your country or ethnicity? What benefit do you derive from the suffering of other people? Even in this self-examination, don’t get lulled into the trap of thinking “I’m not as bad as those people; they are really prejudiced!” I readily admit that I also pre-judge strangers based solely on outward appearance—this is human nature, so let’s at least be aware of it. Despite my German ethnicity and American citizenship, I will only boast that I am Joel Froese, human being; resident of planet Earth.

Islam's Last Gasp

2009-06-24T13:32:00.007-04:00

As witnessed by my post of June 2008, I have been intending to write about this subject for some time now. The recent events in Iran makes this issue more pressing, but I am under no illusion that this is the start of a Muslim version of the fall of the iron curtain (although that would certainly be welcomed!) I am just reminded of a disappointing time exactly 20 years ago this month that I thought we were seeing the beginning of a revolution in China. Although the Tiananmen Square protests did not result in the toppling of a repressive regime as we hoped then, China has certainly changed in the intervening years, so a gradual liberalization is hopefully possible in the Muslim world as well.

The other preliminary issue that must be addressed is the frenetic Internet activity regarding Iran’s recent elections, which—by too many people—is being used as evidence that the protests in Tehran represent the majority of Iranian public opinion. While “citizen journalism” (blogging, twittering, posting pictures & video) is a valuable supplement to traditional media and intelligence sources, especially when those are restricted, we must remember that we are hearing from a self-selected group. By virtue of the fact that these people speak English, have Internet access, Twitter accounts, camera phones, etc. we must assume that they are richer, better educated, and more western-oriented than the average Iranian. I don’t want to discount the suffering evident from some of the gruesome photos and videos we have recently seen from Tehran, but there seems too much incestuous (think “re-tweeting”) and unverifiable hysteria circulating around the Internet lately, contributing nothing, just decreasing the “signal-to-noise ratio” of any intelligent discussion. And don't get me started on the useless, feel-good actions of changing your avatar to green and setting your time zone to GMT +3.5. Jack Shafer of Slate agrees.

Bogeymen
I must first address America’s perception of the Muslim world. Especially since 2001, we have been led to believe that radical Islam is a cancer spreading over the world much in the same way as the supposed scourge of Soviet-style communism was in the previous century. It seems we must always have a bogeyman—an enemy to unite us. With the fall of the iron curtain in 1989, we—especially as Americans—were somewhat confused regarding our place in the world; we were the proverbial dog who finally caught the automobile he had always been barking at. There was no longer the clear division between countries, leaders, and movements that were pro-communism (our enemies) and those that were anti-communist and therefore our friends (which had, incidentally made us strange bedfellows with some really questionable characters!) Thankfully—and of course I say this tongue in cheek—a new enemy arrived just in time: Islamo-fascism. Ironically our first major enemy, Saddam Hussein, was actually quite secular and we actually climbed in bed with the strictest Muslims around—Saudi Arabia—to fight him. But our worldview was not sufficiently polarized until that fateful day in September 2001. Then we were bombarded from all sides: political leaders, religious leaders, military friends and elderly aunts were all wringing their hands over the danger posed by radical Islam. Terrorist training camps in Afghanistan, refugee unrest in and around Israel, Al-Qaeda in Iraq, the rise of Islamic parties in Egypt and Turkey, and even riots in France and England all seemed to be conclusive proof of the grave threat we were under (besides, of course, the 3000 countrymen we lost on American soil that day.) A population already growing faster through natural means (greater birthrate) now was proselytizing and radicalizing moderate/cultural Muslims from Europe to Africa and even Southeast Asia! And best of all, we now had a man—with a very distinctive visage—to pin our fears and anger on: Osama Bin Laden.

A Power Shift
Despite the fact there are some young men falling under the influence of radical clerics and running off to madrasas and training camps to become terrorists—a few of which then actually will commit acts of terrorism—they represent a minuscule percentage of young Muslims in the world. In fact, I predict that the saber rattling and actual terrorist attacks we have witnessed in the last decade or so, are in fact the death-throes fundamentalist Islam. We generally don’t hear much about the vast majority of young people—and this is important because the median age of most predominately Muslim countries is in the teens to twenties—who actually yearn for, if not devour, western pop culture and all its accoutrements. It seems only natural then that as older religious and political leaders die off, we will see liberalism sweep over—or at least creep into—these young nations. Of course power being what it is, I am not naïve enough to think that anyone is going to willingly give up their control regardless of their age; these leaders still want to groom their young, like-minded lieutenants to eventually take the reigns of power and carry on the status quo. But with the advent of modern communications, health care, and education, combined with family structure intended for a bygone era (i.e. numerous children,) it will continuously become more difficult for them to retain this power. I really do believe that we will see a change in our lifetime…and certainly this not limited to the Muslim world; it has happened and will continue to happen all over the world; young people in even the remotest corners of the world are being exposed to most exciting aspects of what the west has to offer via satellite TV and the Internet (granted, often an unrealistic view.) The grip of their elders and their culture/traditions naturally weakens in this onslaught.

Response
I trust that I have stated my case sufficiently to demonstrate that we don’t need to send troops to instill freedom and democracy in these lands; in fact, it is quite evident from our failures over the last seven years in Iraq and Afghanistan that this cannot work, and is a terrible waste of billions of dollars and thousands of lives. It should be obvious that we needn’t do anything but foster social engagement; if we really want to spend billions to conquer al-Qaeda, the Taliban, et. al, let’s just distribute free satellite dishes, TVs, Internet routers, computers, and license MTV programming for Voice of America and similar propaganda outlets—we can just let Hollywood “degenerate” the young people of the Muslim world to our liking! I say this half-jokingly, but also half-serious; we really need to look at the long-term cost/benefit of any strategy. In the July 19-25, 2008 of The Economist, I found a perceptive article titled “How to win the war within Islam” that summarized the situation thusly: “In the long run, al-Qaeda will be defeated by Muslims, not foreigners.”

References
Below is a chart listing the median age (meaning half of the population is younger than this age) in selected, predominately Muslim countries (by comparison, the US is 36.7 and EU countries are all within a couple of years of 40!)

Country	Median Age
Afghanistan	17.6
Egypt	24.8
Gaza Strip	17.4
Iran	27.0
Iraq	20.4
Jordan	24.3
Libya	23.9
Morocco	25.0
Pakistan	20.8
Saudi Arabia	21.6
Syria	21.7
Turkey	27.7

- CIA factbook accessed 24 June 2009

Further Reading
Interesting books about young Muslims:

Muhajababes 25-year old author Allegra Stratton talks to other her age across Middle East
Heavy Metal Islam by Mark LeVine; youth embracing western music in failed societies
Lipstick Jihad by Azadeh Moaveni; teenagers being teenagers even under the watchful eye of morality police

A Tale of Two Tragedies

2009-06-08T20:05:00.003-04:00

This might just get me in more trouble, but here goes...

A few days ago two young Bulgarki, in effect, chided me for being an insensitive boor in the face of tragedies affecting people I don’t personally know. I will argue that—at least when it comes to discussions of policy—we absolutely need the cold, hard calculation that only a disinterested third party can make.

This past week we witnessed two transportation-related catastrophes: on May 28th an old bus likely suffering from faulty brakes, plowed through a crowd of pedestrians near Yambol, Bulgaria killing 17 and injuring another 20. Then—of course—on the first of June, Air France 447 went down over the South Atlantic Ocean taking all 228 people aboard to a watery grave. While the numbers differ by an order of magnitude, the tragic loss is the same for the surviving friends and family whose lives were lost. Besides the grief they share, there must certainly be some anger and outrage over the fact that their loved ones’ lives were cut short. Everyone realizes that nothing can bring these people back, but I am sure each one of the victims' families would love to see measures taken to prevent another such incidents in the future, so at least their loved one did not die in vain…and certainly we should thoroughly investigate these accidents to determine the cause and possible changes in equipment or procedures that would prevent such an accident in the future. However—and this is where the cold, calculating third party comes in—it is necessary to determine the cost/benefit of any changes. For example, a $100,000 per plane retrofit may actually not be justified for an issue that occurs once in a million flights. This may sound callous, but in the larger scheme of things, it might be justified since this kind of money could be spent elsewhere, potentially save many more lives per dollar/euro or whatever metric you wish to use.

What is really ironic in this past week's accidents is the (probable) response: French and international officials will spend a million plus Euros on an extremely thorough investigation resulting in recommendations that will likely cost even more to implement, for what is likely a very rare confluence of event that caused this airliner to crash into the ocean. (Already they have issues a warning about the possible faulty airspeed indicators.) On the other hand, Bulgarian officials will likely go through the motions of a cursory investigation, whose results will be rubber-stamped and forever filed away in some obscure archive. Just like in the rest of Eastern Europe, auto, tuck, and bus drivers will continue to obtain their drivers licenses through bribes, vehicle inspections will continue to be a joke, and Bulgaria will continue to be one of the EU’s leader in highway deaths.

What really irks me though, is that all this seems acceptable to the general public! While air travel continues to be the safest method of travel (per passenger mile/km)—because we feel in control behind the wheel of our own vehicles—we accept and even insist on onerous restrictions and other measures to ostensibly make air travel safer [seriously, how am I going to make a bomb with a full-sized container of toothpaste or shampoo?!], yet we balk at any invasion of the supposed sanctity of our own vehicles, such as the reasonable expectation that you shouldn't use your mobile phone while driving. Probably the wisest use of any transportation safety budget would be to retrofit all automobiles with 5-point, racing-style seatbelts and issuing (and insisting on the use of) helmets for all auto passengers; just in the US, this would dramatically cut into the 40,000 plus deaths that occur on the roads every year! Of course the public would never accept this, so we spend more money on other issues that—in the end—save fewer lives.

Likewise, our opinion of the importance of any heath or safety issue is directly proportional to how “closed to home” the issue or incident hits. We are much more concerned if someone has been in affected in: our family, among our friends, then friends of friends, and finally the celebrities’ lives we follow. Instead we should look at the broad picture: what are the biggest killers and what are the most cost effective methods our governments can effectively implement to save live regardless familiarity, race, nationality, etc.

Mark Twain's War Prayer

2009-05-24T08:14:00.007-04:00

I think it is appropriate, on this Sunday before Memorial Day, when—in churches all across the United States—living and fallen soldiers are venerated for their actions in "fighting for our freedom," that I republish this often overlooked short story by America's favorite author.

The War Prayer

It was a time of great and exalting excitement. The country was up in arms, the war was on, in every breast burned the holy fire of patriotism; the drums were beating, the bands playing, the toy pistols popping, the bunched firecrackers hissing and spluttering; on every hand and far down the receding and fading spread of roofs and balconies a fluttering wilderness of flags flashed in the sun; daily the young volunteers marched down the wide avenue gay and fine in their new uniforms, the proud fathers and mothers and sisters and sweethearts cheering them with voices choked with happy emotion as they swung by; nightly the packed mass meetings listened, panting, to patriot oratory which stirred the deepest deeps of their hearts, and which they interrupted at briefest intervals with cyclones of applause, the tears running down their cheeks the while; in the churches the pastors preached devotion to flag and country, and invoked the God of Battles beseeching His aid in our good cause in outpourings of fervid eloquence which moved every listener. It was indeed a glad and gracious time, and the half dozen rash spirits that ventured to disapprove of the war and cast a doubt upon its righteousness straightway got such a stern and angry warning that for their personal safety's sake they quickly shrank out of sight and offended no more in that way.

Sunday morning came—next day the battalions would leave for the front; the church was filled; the volunteers were there, their young faces alight with martial dreams—visions of the stern advance, the gathering momentum, the rushing charge, the flashing sabers, the flight of the foe, the tumult, the enveloping smoke, the fierce pursuit, the surrender! Then home from the war, bronzed heroes, welcomed, adored, submerged in golden seas of glory! With the volunteers sat their dear ones, proud, happy, and envied by the neighbors and friends who had no sons and brothers to send forth to the field of honor, there to win for the flag, or, failing, die the noblest of noble deaths. The service proceeded; a war chapter from the Old Testament was read; the first prayer was said; it was followed by an organ burst that shook the building, and with one impulse the house rose, with glowing eyes and beating hearts, and poured out that tremendous invocation: God the all-terrible! Thou who ordainest! Thunder thy clarion and lightning thy sword!

Then came the "long" prayer. None could remember the like of it for passionate pleading and moving and beautiful language. The burden of its supplication was, that an ever-merciful and benignant Father of us all would watch over our noble young soldiers, and aid, comfort, and encourage them in their patriotic work; bless them, shield them in the day of battle and the hour of peril, bear them in His mighty hand, make them strong and confident, invincible in the bloody onset; help them to crush the foe, grant to them and to their flag and country imperishable honor and glory...

An aged stranger entered and moved with slow and noiseless step up the main aisle, his eyes fixed upon the minister, his long body clothed in a robe that reached to his feet, his head bare, his white hair descending in a frothy cataract to his shoulders, his seamy face unnaturally pale, pale even to ghastliness. With all eyes following him and wondering, he made his silent way; without pausing, he ascended to the preacher's side and stood there waiting. With shut lids the preacher, unconscious of his presence, continued with his moving prayer, and at last finished it with the words, uttered in fervent appeal, "Bless our arms, grant us the victory, O Lord our God, Father and Protector of our land and flag!"

The stranger touched his arm, motioned him to step aside—which the startled minister did—and took his place. During some moments he surveyed the spellbound audience with solemn eyes, in which burned an uncanny light; then in a deep voice he said:

"I come from the Throne—bearing a message from Almighty God!" The words smote the house with a shock; if the stranger perceived it he gave no attention. "He has heard the prayer of His servant your shepherd, and will grant it if such shall be your desire after I, His messenger, shall have explained to you its import—that is to say, its full import. For it is like unto many of the prayers of men, in that it asks for more than he who utters it is aware of—except he pause and think.

"God's servant and yours has prayed his prayer. Has he paused and taken thought? Is it one prayer? No, it is two—one uttered, the other not. Both have reached the ear of Him Who heareth all supplications, the spoken and the unspoken. Ponder this—keep it in mind. If you would beseech a blessing upon yourself, beware! lest without intent you invoke a curse upon a neighbor at the same time. If you pray for the blessing of rain upon your crop which needs it, by that act you are possibly praying for a curse upon some neighbor's crop which may not need rain and can be injured by it.

"You have heard your servant's prayer—the uttered part of it. I am commissioned of God to put into words the other part of it—that part which the pastor...and also you in your hearts—fervently prayed silently. And ignorantly and unthinkingly? God grant that it was so! You heard these words: 'Grant us the victory, O Lord our God!' That is sufficient. the whole of the uttered prayer is compact into those pregnant words. Elaborations were not necessary. When you have prayed for victory you have prayed for many unmentioned results which follow victory – must follow it, cannot help but follow it. Upon the listening spirit of God fell also the unspoken part of the prayer. He commandeth me to put it into words. Listen!

"O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle—be Thou near them! With them—in spirit—we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it—for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.

(After a pause.) "Ye have prayed it; if ye still desire it, speak! The messenger of the Most High waits!"

It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic, because there was no sense in what he said.

-Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910)

Incidentally, this pervasive militaristic (and, quite frankly—heretical) patriotism is why I generally avoid church on Memorial Day, 4th of July, and Veteran's Day.

Devil's Advocate

2009-04-11T15:11:00.004-04:00

As our economic woes deepen, everyone is eager to place blame at the feet of whatever nemesis his or her ideology deems fit. On the right, this entire downturn was precipitated by undisciplined and untrustworthy individuals getting sub-prime mortgages to buy homes outrageously out of their price range and then defaulting on said mortgages…triggering an avalanche that eventually lead us into the current credit crunch. Furthermore, many will claim that lenders were forced to do this because of federal “fair housing/lending” and “anti-redlining” regulations.

On the left, there is an agreement that sub-prime mortgages are at the heart of this mess, but blame is placed on the unscrupulous brokers who apparently tricked unsuspecting (and admittedly unsophisticated) homebuyers into taking risky loans just to make a quick commission, and on the “financial geniuses” who devised the now toxic “collateralized debt obligations” as well as other exotic derivatives. From this view, the whole of the rest of the cascade of events that has brought us to this point is entirely the fault of greedy (and by virtue of this unraveling—incompetent) executives, brokers, and associated “money-men.”

My view
I say there is enough blame to go around; we ALL contributed to this mess! Collectively and individually, as corporations, and governments—almost as a rule—we overextended ourselves in respect to debt; and from the most unsophisticated wage earner to the brightest minds working in the most prestigious investment firms, we all assumed that asset values, growth, and incomes would only go up. This crisis is finally the slap in the face that we all needed: we cannot borrow our way into prosperity! As the offspring of depression-era, immigrant parents, financial discipline and thriftiness was ground into me from an early age, so I have been aware of—and avoided at all costs—the trap of living beyond ones means. Never the less, I will not even hold myself blameless; I truly believe that all of us in the materialistic west have some culpability in this mess.

Reaction
No doubt, new government regulations addressing the problems that got us into this mess will be soon be put into effect; unfortunately, as backward-looking legislation, they will generally not address those issue that will eventually precipitate the next economic crisis. In fact, it is almost impossible to predict the future in this respect. The only thing we can hope for is that the laws our governments are creating will make the financial world a little more transparent; the bright light of transparency in the murky world of finance is the only reform that, in the long term, really ever works.

What I find disturbing though, is this “eat the rich” sentiment that lumps all executives and everyone in the financial industry together as greedy, incompetent, and useless. There is a disconcerting air of bolshevism in a lot of the rhetoric I’ve been hearing lately. Yes, a lot of the financial middlemen will rightly lose their jobs, and I admit that I feel a certain schadenfreude in seeing the business school colleagues who went into the finance specialty losing their lucrative positions. However it is naive to think that these functions are unnecessary and that “workers can control the means of production,” as the communist experiment of the last century disproved. We will always have executives and financiers who—by virtue of their extraordinary skills and intelligence—will demand and receive compensation commensurate with their abilities, just as highly skilled entertainers and athletes do without question.

The worst possible outcome would be the introduction of salary caps; they would most certainly be circumvented, further muddying the waters of the business and financial worlds—the opposite of what we want: transparency! Likewise, a ban on derivatives (which given the simplest definition—a bet on an underlying security—sounds like a good idea,) but would contribute more opaqueness, as these instruments would be reinvented in other forms. These exotic vehicles actually have a legitimate use: they hedge and balance other business transactions.

Bailouts
I am generally not in favour of “rescue packages” for private businesses, even large ones like General Motors that will effect dozens or hundreds of partners, thousands of employees, and maybe hundreds of thousands of others not directly employed by the company. I just have an aversion to anything that creates a distortion in the marketplace, be it subsidies, regulations, or taxes that affect one company or industry more severely than another (or, more perversely, prevents a business from entering a certain field/industry or—in the current situation—prevents it from failing/dissolving.)

That being said, I do understand why large financial institutions cannot be allowed to fail, as the resulting banking and credit crisis the would cause the entire economy grind to a screeching halt. Therefore the questions are: “how are bailout funds to be used” and “who decides how the money is used.” Specifically, whom do you trust more to “save” these firms: corporate executives—the rascals that caused (or at least contributed) the failure, or the rascals in Washington (or where ever your lawmakers/bureaucrats reside.) Quite frankly, I’m not sure of the answer myself.

Where does the money go?
On the most basic level, the problem with these troubled institutions is that their balance sheets were out of whack: their assets no longer equaled their liabilities, and therefore the government infused this money—fixing the problem. Now the question is: what happened to this bailout money? There aren’t little cubbyholes in the company’s treasury for general funds, bonus funds, electricity expenses, etc. it just become part of the company’s assets and is used in the same way that all the rest of its assets are used—fulfilling the company’s obligations to its stakeholders: investors, partners, employees, vendors, and yes—executives.

When you or I start a job, we generally negotiate or just accept a certain hourly wage or weekly to monthly salary plus a possibility of a bonus and benefits. At a certain level, these wages/salary become trivial compared to the prospect and promise of bonuses, stock options, golden parachutes, etc. Corporations must make these lucrative offers in order to hire & retain the best and brightest in the field, just as professional sports team have to offer star players multi-million dollar contracts. To those who are outraged at bonuses paid to executives at failing companies such as AIG, I ask: “where do you make the cutoff?” Imagine that you cut all bonuses and stock options for a CEO who earns a salary of $1 per year (actually very common), what is he to do? Furthermore, with this reputation, how do you expect to hire a new CEO in the future? Remember, in 1994, Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream initially insisted that they would only pay their CEO seven times what the lowest paid employee made; despite their progressive credentials, they soon had to abandon this promise in order to find an individual of the caliber needed to guide what had become a large corporation.

Outcome
Regardless of what new regulations are enacted, we are seeing the end of the secretive back-room dealing-making that has characterized so much of the financial industry. Even if governments do nothing, the market will demand more transparency and lower costs (spreads) for financial transactions. The result will be higher returns for investors and less cost to borrowers, which of course means lower earnings for the businesses and individual that broker these transactions…and, of course, less of those high-paying financial-sector jobs.

More specifically, we will see a convergence of returns. We all know that riskier investments demand higher returns. This relationship is not punitive—it is not just to punish the reckless—it is to cover the inevitable losses that riskier investments entail. In the long-term everybody gets about the same return plus a premium proportionate with the volatility the investor must endure. What everyone has looked for was that elusive, safe investment with a higher than normal return. While there have always been a few of these, I predict that these “secret” investment will all but disappear, to the point at which we can finally say with certainty that the outliers on the risk to return graph are definitely scams (as should have been obvious with Madoff.)

The one bright spot for governments investing (and it is not just the US Federal government that is doing this) in private industry is that they are buying in at a low point; In a few years they will almost certainly have realized a substantial profit—at which time they should divest of these private concerns. It is a mistake to think that these bailouts are a gift from government to private industry; remember that Chrysler was bailed out in 1979, and by 1983 had totally repaid it 1.5 billion dollar loan to the government.

Opportunities
I find that, as individuals, this hand-wringing and finger-pointing is entirely useless; what does it help you or me to assign blame to this or that group, person, or ideology? In a time of turmoil such as now, it is prudent for a bright, young person to look around and ask, “where is this going, and where should I place myself to benefit from the inevitable changes ahead?” I really think now is the time to position oneself for the new business, regulatory, and financial climate that is coming upon us, and I am convinced that it will be characterized by more transparency—and therefore be more information-oriented, and consequently utilizing more information and communication technologies.

We have seen part of this technological revolution in finance on the personal investment front; we no longer call our broker to place a trade (from which he would take a percent or two in commission.) Instead we log on to our discount brokerage website and enter trades ourselves for a fixed $12-$15! Furthermore, on the NASDAQ stock exchange, there isn’t even a trading floor; it all takes place inside of computers. Yes, there are still brokers and market makers, but we’re definitely seeing the disintermediation of actual human beings transacting financial business. Likewise, we see that the computers of Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion (in communications with the computers of nearly all consumer credit providers) automatically determine an objective credit score for nearly every adult in America. Even loan origination (well, shopping at least) is being automated by sites such as LendingTree.com.

The ratings of corporate entities however, have long been suspect. With this crisis, we have confirmation that the stars and letter grades assigned to bonds, equities, and derivatives by the likes of Moody and MorningStar are worthless. So the obvious need is an objective system like that of the FICO (300-850) credit scores assigned individuals. I assume that someone like Dun & Bradstreet is ideally positioned to fill this need. Obviously you can’t as readily assign a single number to represent the fiscal health of a complex organization with all its divisions, subsidiaries, assets, investments, and liabilities, but together with governmental and market pressure for more transparency, I am convinced we will see the creation of one or more objective, independently audited corporate/financial rating service.

With the availability of all this data, the next obvious step is an electronic marketplace where businesses and investors can transact short and long-term lending directly without the packaging and interference of financier or their hefty commissions.

So, dear reader, if you agree with my predictions, how do you think an IT nerd with an MBA like me should position himself to catch this next wave? More specifically, where is this financial information revolution going to start—geographically and with what companies/groups? (Obviously I’m not talking about the existing and useless “financial news” industry that just speculates and rehashes earnings reports, annual reports & 10-Qs, nor the endless speculation of pundits.) I’m serious about this; I would appreciate any advice.

Do what you say

2008-12-19T11:21:00.003-05:00

My parents taught me that it is better to say up front that you are not going to do something than to promise to do it and then not follow through. I use this common anecdote in explaining America's refusal to ratify the Kyoto Treaty to Europeans who brag—all high and mighty—about their commitment to reducing greenhouse gases (and, of course, imply that we—as a country—are the boorish, inconsiderate roommate of this planet.)

I've been following this issue for a while, watching as it has been becoming more and more apparent that the “first world” signatories to this treaty would not be able to live up to their promises. It seems that the EU—led by Germany—have almost totally backed out of their commitment; their “actual reductions might be as trivial as 4%” reports The Wall Street Journal.

So it looks like, collectively, we are the “good son” after all; when ask to step up to an impossible task, we simply said “sorry, we can't do it.”

I suppose the rebuttal would be: “at least Europe tried to make a difference,” to which I would ask did American business, innovators, and local government not try?

Oil Will NEVER Get Cheaper

2008-08-26T11:44:00.006-04:00

The sting of higher fuel prices are probably nowhere more apparent than here in the southeast US where people drive more, earn less, and define themselves by the size of their pickup trucks and SUVs. Naturally, this distress has generated all kinds of strange theories on what’s causing these unprecedented fuel prices (actually, in constant dollar terms, we are only now returning to the elevated fuel costs of the 1970s.) Everyone from the lowly gas station attendant to Saudi oil sheik to the shadowy speculator have been a target of wrath from truck owners who have just spent $100 to fill up their tank. But what really is the cause of this increase?

The answer is simple: an unprecedented increase in global demand. Prior to the last decade, the demand for fuel—and for other resources such as metals—was more or less directly related to the economies of developed, western countries. What has changed now is that the rest of the (developing) world is catching up with us. Countries formerly behind the iron curtain and throughout much of Asia, Africa, Latin America have been held back economically for decades (by corrupt and/or incompetent governments, I would argue.) Now we are seeing economic (even if not political) liberalization across the board—you can nearly count the exceptions on one hand, and even in those countries, like Cuba and North Korea, micro-enterprises are starting to flourish. Why is this happening? Because even neo-communists like Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales recognize, at least to some extent, that freer markets are the key to economic prosperity—which, incidentally is why we shouldn’t worry so much about the leftist resurgence in South America.

The economic, regulatory, and even cultural barriers that had prevented progress over so much of the developing world have been lifting in the last two decades. This freedom, in turn, has resulted in upward mobility in the population of these countries as businesses grow and trade increases. As these people—who are the majority of the 6 billion of us here on this planet—move into a sort of middle-class (by world standards at least) they begin to demand the same kind of goods that we in the west have been used to for generations: richer food, comfortable housing with modern fixtures and appliances, and even motor vehicles. [update: see this article in February 12, 2009 The Economist]

Granted, this global “middle class” cannot be compared to America’s middle class in terms of conspicuous consumption and outright waste. In fact, nobody could reasonably expect any country, industrialized, “transitioning,” or developing, to ever approach the wasteful level of energy use of Americans. However, even if the rest of the world begins to use just one-fourth of the level of resources per capita of Americans, we are looking at an incredible amount of increase in demand for everything that is mined, manufactured, and grown.

Consider Tata Motors of India; its new $2500 “Nano” 4-seater is in the price range of this emerging, third-world middle class. This means that, theoretically, there could soon be a billion (or even billions of) new cars on this planet! Compare this to the millions of cars that are sold in the west, and you will see why I think that high fuel prices are here to stay; demand has exploded, and will continue to grow at an exponential rate—a rate that supply will have a hard time to match. I realize that fuel prices have dipped back down a little in the last few months (and SUV owners are breathing a little easier,) but I am talking long-term trends here. I have yet to see anyone demonstrate how global supply of fuel or any other natural resources—for that matter—can possibly rise as fast as worldwide demand is ramping up.

When you look at the potential (and likely) rise in global consumption of almost any resource now, it is downright scary! Furthermore, this surge has just begun; when it comes to gasoline, California alone still uses more gasoline than any other country beside the US (Wired article.) This year, China is poised to overtake this one state in gasoline usage, but certainly not the entire US. This is both an indictment of our (and especially California’s) car culture (China has 1.1 billion inhabitants compared to California’s 36 million,) and an alarming preview of how much more of this particular resource we will needed in the future.

What is being proposed?

Everyone is looking for a silver bullet to solve this problem. There is a widespread assumption that some breakthrough is on the horizon that will save us from having to face difficult choices, and—on the fringes—there are those that think technologies are being purposely suppressed by incumbent energy companies and even governments. Whether we are talking about ethanol, bio-diesel, hydrogen fuel cells, electric cars, solar panels, or wind power, what is consistently overlooked—or perhaps omitted—are the facts regarding the lead-time for these technologies, the energy debt they require, and the simple physics that prevent some from ever becoming an effective solution.

Regardless of how revolutionary a new energy source or method of using energy more efficiently may be, it is practically impossible for such an invention to ease our energy crunch this year, or next, or even 4 years from now. Assuming you’ve invented a widget that would make all current cars twice as efficient, and it is so simple that it requires no further research and development; it would still take years to manufacture, distribute, and install this device. (Incidentally, I trust that you already know that ALL after-market gas-saving devices out here are total scams, the only way they can work is by placebo effect—you may subconsciously drive more carefully after installing one of these devices.)

Likewise, if solar panels finally crossed that magical tipping point of economic feasibility, we simply couldn’t make them fast enough to supply our energy needs because the very manufacture, transportation, and installation of these “energy saviors” would require several times more energy than they produce in a year—not to mention the all the aluminum, steel, copper, glass, silicon, and various other esoteric (and often toxic) materials used to produce solar panels. The same goes for wind power, despite this article’s assertion that offshore wind farms could produce all of America’s current electric needs, neither the article nor any of the comments below it address the energy and natural resource requirement of such a enormous project. Please don’t misunderstand me, I am not against alternative energy; I think it’s a shame that America lags Europe in this respect—places like Germany and Denmark already produce a significant percentage of their electricity by wind and solar. All that I’m saying is that this can’t happen overnight. [Update 6-Sept-08] Just found this article that show how urban wind turbines are actually bad for the environment!

Hydrogen is being touted as the ultimate in alternative fuels for vehicles, since its only emission is water vapor. However, free hydrogen does not exist on earth; it only occurs in compounds with other elements: namely with oxygen, to form water; and with carbon to form various hydrocarbons. In order to isolate hydrogen from these compounds you have to use more energy than the hydrogen can ever produce, regardless of whether it is used in a combustion engine, fuel cell, or an entirely new, revolutionary technology. These are the laws of physics that simply can’t be broken (see this article.) Therefore, all hydrogen can ever be is a method of energy storage—just like a battery. This, in turn, would require even more clean electrical power generation than mentioned in the previous scenario in order to be a truly environmentally-friendly solution.

What can’t we do?

Obviously we cannot prevent the third world from developing. I use the word “cannot” in every sense of the word; it is nearly impossible to stop the “invisible hand” of the free market from expanding these economies, certainly any coercive action to keep the third world in its previously underdeveloped state would be unthinkably immoral, and even requiring—or just encouraging—policies that would mitigate the impacts that we have experienced in our development over the last century, seem incredibly hypocritical to third world populations that now want to “test out their new wheels!” In other words, I think we have no moral authority to prevent the third world from following the path we have already taken regardless of the economic and environmental outcomes.

What needs to be done?

Depending on your background and political biases, you likely lean towards either conservation or further development of existing supplies. Certainly everyone is for developing alternative energy sources—well except for those that feel their homes or properties will be directly or indirectly effected (interesting nutcases against wind turbines.) However, I think it is obvious that we need to do all of the above. Despite the manifestly evident need for conservation, no politician is going to propose this, since it reeks of weakness (remember Jimmy Carter’s “sweater speech”?) Thankfully, the market will take care of this…which brings me to my next point.

What will happen?

What will happen is that the market self-corrects. Naturally, as the demand for something increases, the price does as well—thereby tempering the demand while, at the same time, encouraging greater production of said resource and its substitutes (alternative energy in our case.) This is why it is so important that our leaders do nothing to distort the market. McCain and Clinton’s proposed gas tax holiday was just such a bone-headed idea: it would have softened the very necessary market signals that tell us, as consumers, to reign in our consumption and producers (including alternative energy upstarts) to ramp up production, exploration, research, and development. Likewise, incentives to produce ethanol from corn, which is horribly inefficient, has proven to be a boondoggle that nobody but Iowa corn growers benefit from.

The other option is to introduce a dizzying array of counter-balancing regulations, taxes, and subsidies: laws and incentives to force individual and industrial consumers to conserve artificially inexpensive resources plus incentives and outright subsidies to producers to increase production and develop new sources despite a price that is too low to make an economic case for such investments. These prohibitions and inducements would, of course, be gamed by all sides despite legions of bureaucrats to administer it all!

I have been planning to write and publish the post for some months now. What has happened in those intervening months seems to counter my thesis that fuel prices will remain high indefinitely. The reason that fuel prices have fallen (slightly) this summer is that demand has slumped—bringing about the concept of a “staycation” for instance, and production has risen—Canadian oil sands are now economically feasible for example. However, as I’ve said before, this is a temporary dip; the pent-up demand for fuel and other resources in the developing world will only continue to rise, negating the effect of all our conservation efforts. Furthermore, the higher cost producers require to maintain new sources such as marginal oil wells or oil sands means that we can never get back to the prices of the previous decades unless worldwide demand commensurately shrinks to that time as well, idling these more expensive resources. (Interesting CNN article about this)

We simply need to get it through our thick skulls that energy will never again be as cheap as it used to be. The recent rise in fuel prices is not an anomaly that will quickly pass; oil (and other natural resources) are indeed scarce enough to demand these prices (not to mention yet unknown cost of environmental impacts of using said resources.) We now need to reorganize our lives and communities to deal with this new reality. Ever the optimist, I actually think that—for the most part—we are learning this. For example, even the gearheads at Motor Trend are admiring compact, fuel efficient European cars.

[Update – March 2009] With gas still under $2/gallon, and no sight of a serious economic recovery in the near future (necessary for demand to rise,) one might think that I would want to retract this post. However, I stand by everything I have written here last year. I am confident that, in the long-term, I will be vindicated in saying this is just a temporary dip in the price of fuel. No one knows how long this recession will last, and even after a recovery there will be a surplus of oil that has been cached all around the world during this period of low demand. Never the less, I challenge anyone to claim the following is bad advice: “Do not allow your local car dealer to convince you that now is a good time to buy a gas-guzzling SUV or truck because gas prices are going to stay low. Within the service life of any new vehicle you buy now (let’s say around 5 years,) gas will rise back up to the $4-$5 per gallon range.”

You can’t sing that, it’s my song!

2008-07-16T21:20:00.007-04:00

I suppose the story is the same between young siblings and/or cousins in families across the world: a mother teaches her son or daughter a song, and the child takes ownership of the song to such an extent that you eventually hear something to the effect of: “You can’t sing that song, it’s my song!” when an older sibling (or cousin, or even uncle) provokes the little one by daring to sing his or her song.

It’s all very cute for small children, but we wouldn’t expect to see this kind of childish behavior among adults, and especially in the NGO world where everything is supposedly for the greater benefit of mankind. So it was with great interest that I read these recent articles about the explosion in commercial microfinance (positive and negative ) in BusinessWeek.

Microlending (a.k.a. micro-loans) have been the bailiwick of non-governmental development organizations (NGOs); I would goes so far as to say they have been the single, most effective use of these organizations’ funds. Their funding, which can come from a number of public and private sources, is given with the explicit or implicit stipulation that they will be used to help needy people of the underdeveloped world. Prior to Muhammad Yunus’s revolutionary idea of making tiny—by our standards—loans to poverty-stricken entrepreneurs in the developing world, development funds were generally either given to the governments of these developing countries, or used by the in-country aid agencies.

Of course, direct payments to a 3^rd world government or its associates does about as much good to the suffering people of in their country as wiring the money directly into their leaders’ personal bank accounts, because that is where most of it ends up anyway. Assuming this is an unfairly harsh characterization, at the very least and by virtue of the underdeveloped state of their economy, the policies put in place by these governments (of course it is always the previous regime’s fault) demonstrate that, collectively, the government is horribly incompetent—therefore, a direct payment is throwing good money after bad.

On the other extreme, you can send in your own people to administer the disbursement of these funds, but regardless of how idealistic they are, if they are intelligent, competent and successful, they will need to be properly compensated and will require a nice home with western amenities, an office with air conditioning, and a Land Rover to negotiate the poor roads. Besides eating away a good portion of the funding—ultimately intended for the suffering population you are trying to help—this also causes a certain amount of resentment from local staff and the population in general.

Regardless of which method you choose, you will only be able to help a small number of individuals or businesses in any particular country. This is the simple reality of the situation: the need is great, but your budget is limited—even if you have the backing of someone like USAID (the US government) or UNDP (the UN.) This, in turn, creates “islands” of development aid. While these “islands” usually have a geographic characteristic (concentrated around the capital and other major cities) it more accurately describes the network of people that are “in” the development community; in other words, those that get the help do so because they know people, know how to fill out a grant application, etc. Those that are outside of this “island” have little chance of getting any help (either monetary or technical), and again this is regardless of the idealistic and egalitarian intent the program may have been set up with—this is just how it work; some get seconds before equally deserving entities get anything.

Returning to the topic of microfinance, this is generally a wonderfully effective use of development funds. The purpose of each loan is to create or expand the business of a desperately under-served entrepreneur/small businessman—giving them something, even if only a subsistence job, where before was absolutely nothing. In effect, each loan is a direct, targeted (albeit very small) aid package to an individual, family, or small business that would otherwise have no access to capital due to a total lack of credit history, collateral, or any other traditional way to demonstrate creditworthiness. Incredibly, micro-loans—as they’ve been administered—have a surprisingly high repayment rate. This means that as loans are paid back (and with interest) this money can be lent out again and again—eventually benefiting many more people than any other development program could do with the same amount of money. Microlending has deservedly become popular throughout the development community; even the smallest NGOs and religious organizations are getting into the game. Since you are already on the Internet, you can even surf on over to kiva.org and make you own micro-loan!

Naturally, financial institutions have woken up to this lucrative market, and entered the mix. Now some in the NGO world, especially Mr. Yunus, are crying “foul!” However, in practice, the high ideals of people who say that we should not make money from the poor in this way are simply limiting the opportunities of a vast population who are simply not “connected” enough to be one of the few, lucky ones who gets a loan from an NGO. Regardless of their intent—in my mind at least—they come out looking like the child who says, “you can’t sing my song” or, worse the hood who says, “hey, that’s my turf!” The whole purpose of micro-finance is to provide capital to previously underserved populations; now that traditional players are doing so, Mr. Yunus and the rest of the NGO community should pat itself on the back for making a real, effective change in the world instead of worrying about their own turf.

Granted, part of their complaint is that these for-profit entities charge too much interest, but as more commercial players enter the market, the interest rate will naturally settle to a level commensurate with the risk of such loans. We know from basic economics that the riskier an investment, the higher interest (or other form return) that will be expected. This risk/reward curve gets a little discontinuous at the extreme where defaults are very common, but let’s remember that even the slimiest payday lender is providing credit to someone who has no other alternatives.

Likewise, I am concerned about the Mexican big-box retailers mentioned in this article that are marketing the western “have it now, pay later” lifestyle that may cause more harm than good to these desperately poor people; but who am I to say that only I and my fellow middle-income earners of the world should be allowed to have these modern conveniences? In this regard, concerns about payday/title loan sharks in the US and questionable lenders in the developing world both result in a very paternalistic view of the “great unwashed masses” of the world—which I am willing to concede is sometimes warranted, but doesn’t have a place in discussions of a free market.

Déjà vu

This issue reminds me of a very similar complaint last year from Nicholas Negroponte of the One Laptop Per Child project. (WSJ article) He was whining that Intel, Microsoft, HP, et al were chipping away at his non-profit’s business after he and his brilliant team from MIT developed the versatile and inexpensive (although never quite reaching the promised $100 price point) XO computer for underprivileged children across the world. Again, he should have simply declared victory—these huge incumbent companies are now making low-cost computers to fill a previously underserved market: the developing world. Instead he questioned their motivations—namely that they were just temporarily lowering their prices to get the developing world hooked on the WinTel platform (instead of his open-source platform.)

Disclaimer: This is in no way an indictment of any organization that I have been associated with, rather it is a general observation of international development efforts that I've seen during my stint in this field and from my continued interest in this area since then.

New material

2008-06-24T22:42:00.008-04:00

I know I’ve said this before, but The Persistent Itch is back! I’ve missed having the recurring surge of creativity and intellectual stimulation required for coming up with a new posts for this blog. The following ideas have been bouncing around in my head for a while, and I am now committed to start writing posts beginning with these subject.

World Resource Allocation

Islam’s Last Gasp

Fair Trade

Local Food

Gift-o-marketing complex

Personal investing strategies

Save by NOT buying at all!

need/require

On the computer front, I have a new laptop—with which I am writing this right now—the diminutive Asus eee series 900. It’s a great little computer that attracts attention wherever I go and does 90% of what I need it to do—all for just a little over $500! Despite its ultra-portable form-factor, I actually don’t drag it around with me most of the time because I have a computer in my pocket that let’s me surf the web, check my email, or jot down a note—the Apple iPhone. Thanks to Ziphone.org I didn’t have to sign up for the pricey AT&T data plan—especially since the EDGE (GPRS) data network is so slow it’s practically unusable.

Red Bank Hydro
After a nearly year-long lull in this project, the motor/generators were finally installed earlier this year, and as of 21 May 2008, we are officially making power! Unfortunately, this coincided with a drought period here in South Carolina, meaning we are only able to generate a fraction of this plants potential, and only during the peak hours of 12:00-22:00. I have been gradually designing and installing progressively more sophisticated controls; the next step is to install a water level transducer and program the PID functionality of the PLC to ride the level of the lake. YouTube video

Twitter
As if blogging is not enough of a chore, I signed up for “Twitter” the micro-blogging (140 character maximum—for SMS) service. I did it only to secure http://twitter.com/froese but who knows, I might occasionally throw some status updates out there, so follow me if you have an account; in any case, I’m adding the feed to the right hand column here.

Hrvatska

2007-08-16T11:34:00.000-04:00

Here it is finally…the promised account of my sailing trip in Croatia with my girlfriend Mirena, Mike (fellow MBA Enterprise Corps alumi), his girlfriend Melinda, and his (and now mine as well) other friends: David, Marta, Ken & Crystal.
Day 1 – Split
Our group convened at the Split airport where we tried to keep our driver from leaving before all eight of us were in the van. During peak vacation time (read: July & August) this little airport is overcrowded with holiday-makers from all over Europe, meaning there is no room to park (hence our driver wanted to leave) and little room on the tarmac for airplanes (which is why our last crew-member was still circling the skies above us.) The rest of the ride to the marina was uneventful until the last 500 meters, which although being a two-way road, was only one lane wide. This meant that at nearly every attempt our driver made, he could never make it to the halfway point or otherwise force the oncoming traffic to back up (incidentally, I had the same experience driving in Sofia the following week.)
This first day we did not even cast off lines; the afternoon was spent provisioning (which entailed pushing grocery carts full of food for over 1 km), briefing, and familiarization for our boat, an Océanis 411 called the Kučarin (pronounced “Koochareen”.) In the evening, we took a water taxi to the old town, which was interesting, but I didn’t want to spend too much time there as I was still trying to catch up the sleep I had recently missed.

Day 2 – Split to Brač Island
It seems none of my crew-members are morning people, so generally we got underway around 10 or 11 every day. After tacking back and forth into the wind most of the afternoon, we decided that Brač Island was far enough, and anchored in a secluded yet crowded cove that featured two primitive, outdoor restaurants (where we would eat that evening.)

The funniest thing to happen this day occurred as we were trying to anchor. On the stern of a neighboring boat there were two completely naked, young women (we assume they were German) frolicking in the water; in fact, one of them got on a pool raft and briefly got in our way as we were laying down the anchor chain. If only I had my camera at hand (and not been busy at the windlass,) I would have photographic proof of this distraction for you now. ;-)

Mirena was happy to be back on solid ground again, so we hiked over the hill to the little, sea-side town of Milna, which was pleasant but unremarkable by Dalmatian standards as we would find out later in the week; every town, village, and burg on these islands is an idyllic, old fishing village.

Day 3 – Sail to Vis
We left our little cove on Brač and sailed most of the day on a single, south-westerly tack in moderate winds to the island of Vis. Here we found Komiža, the town, harbour, and pebbled beach where we anchored, and which would later be the cause of all our problems.
Mirena and Ken watch dolphins from the bow near Vis
Although it was almost evening, some of us swam a little bit before getting ready for dinner, as tonight turned out to be “date night” and each couple found their own restaurant in Komiža. Our group (including David, Marta, Mirena, and myself) returned to the boat first, even after traipsing all over this little town and having dinner. David and I were sitting in the cockpit watching ourselves and other boats being blown around by the strengthening “bora” winds that were coming off the mountains in front of us and wondering if we were getting closer to the anchor buoy of the boat behind us. You have to understand that a boat will move a little in wind and waves even when anchored securely—which is, of course, disconcerting.

We did indeed lose anchorage, and David & I were forced to haul up the anchor (partly manually because the windlass circuit breaker kept tripping.) At the same time, Mike and the rest of our crew attempted to reach us with the dingy (by now we had drifted almost 1 km downwind.) Eventually we got the anchor up and motored back into the harbour where Mike had found a British guy on a similar sailing yacht who helped us out and showed us how to how to rig two anchors in series, which he said should be good for winds up to 100 knots! This being done, I felt secure and went to get some shut-eye, while the rest of the crew stayed up nervously monitoring our movement in the still increasing “bora” winds.

I guess it was an hour later when I was awoken, told to put on a life vest, and assist on deck as our anchorage had either failed or been pulled up by another nearby boat’s failed anchorage. The skies were dark, the winds were howling, and other boats whose anchorage had also failed were motoring about the harbour seemingly not knowing what to do. Mike was at the helm trying to avoid other boats and make it easier for David and Ken to manually crank the anchor chain back up (the tension on the chain prevented us from using the windlass for more than a few second before the breaker would trip—which was Melinda’s job to reset, since the breaker was in her cabin; we later joked that we would call her up unexpectedly at night and tell her “reset the breaker” just so she could relive this exciting time!) We suspected that our anchor had become entangled with another boat’s anchor (specifically the British guy who had helped us earlier,) and that indeed became apparent as we reeled in the final 10m of chain. Imagine the scene: 2 boat, each over 40 feet long, attached bow-to-bow, spinning slowly around each other as if in an lumbering dance, as we both slowly reeled in our anchors. We finally got the first anchor up, and David heroically leaned over the bow railing to untangle our friends anchor chain—we were finally free! Disgusted with our experience in Vis, we intended to sail through the night to our next destination. This turned out to be foolhardy in these less-than-ideal conditions, so we head back and anchored closer to shore. This third anchorage was successful, and the rest of the night (what little was left) was uneventful.

Day 4 – Blue Grotto, Vela Luka
In the morning, we were able to pull into one of the coveted marina slips in Vis to refill our totally empty fresh water tanks (had this been available the previous evening, we would have been well rested, and not had any of the adventures of the previous night.) We had a long day of sailing planned, but decided that we had to see the famous “Blue Grotto” on Biševo Island. This is a sea cave with a fairly large chamber and two openings: one long, narrow opening that can be negotiated by a dingy, and another short one that is underwater, and gives the chamber its namesake blue hue. It took two trips for everyone to see it, but was definitely worth it.
The Kučarin getting water at marina in Vis
The rest of the afternoon was spent sailing almost directly downwind in heavy seas; this was both fun/satisfying (we hit 9 knots) and—for the ladies—a little disconcerting since the boat would pitch and roll in every direction as 2 meter waves would overtake us from the stern.

We originally intended to sail to Korčula Town, but—as the light was waning—decided to pull into Vela Luka on the near side of the same island. Vela Luka was indeed a great harbour as its name suggests, but it is not the renowned fortress town of Korčula we wanted see. Never the less, we had a nice meal and managed to catch a folk dance exhibition in the town square.
Day 5 – Lumbarda, Korčula
The next morning we immediately set sail—well, after Mike got his requisite cappuccino—for Korčula. We arrived in the early afternoon only to find that the marina was full. Continuing on to the next little town, Lumbarda, we found that their slips were also either occupied or reserved. We had promised ourselves that, at this halfway point, we would treat ourselves to a marina, where we could get a real shower, shore power to recharge phones/cameras, and not have to be ferried to/from shore by dingy every time. For this reason, Mike became very persistent—circling our boat in front of the marina’s docks until they agreed to let us “just refill our water tanks.” With this foot-in-the-door, our crew was eventually able to secure us the slip for the night.Clockwise from left: Marta, Crystal, Ken, Mike, and David enjoying drinks near Lumbarda marina
Day 6 – Korčula to Mljet
Unlike previous days, we planned to stay on this island for most of the day. Most of us rented scooters to get to Korčula town and explore the rest of the island. Mirena and I set off eastward on a road that followed the coast and revealed all the little coves and idyllic sea-side towns along the way—one of which we would stop for lunch, and have one of the best meals of the trip. Despite being an underpowered scooter, Mirena insisted I was driving to fast, so I let her drive, and—by the end of the day—she had become quite competent at negotiating a scooter with two people on it over narrow, twisting roads.
The village of Kneže, where we ate our best lunch
The historic town of Korčula
By 19:00 we were all back on board and ready to sail on to Mljet—an island comprised mainly of national park. We had planned this to be the evening that we would eat onboard instead of going to a restaurant, and preparations were going on below deck as we ~~sailed~~…err motored into the evening. As we approached the island, it was totally dark, so we had to rely solely on the GPS; unfortunately, this was located below deck, so I had to call out headings and distances to Mike at the helm—it was actually quite amazing, this would not have been possible on a pleasure craft this size before the GPS era. We expected to find a desolate anchorage, but instead circled magnificent yachts before anchoring with in sight (and earshot) of a small town inside the nation park. As we ate our dinner, we were serenaded by a saxophone player whose music carried over the water on this calm evening.

Day 7 – Mljet, Lopud, Dubrovnik marina
This final day of sailing was going to be a long one; we needed to cover the remaining distance to Dubrovnik, since we were now a day behind schedule. Still, we made a beer stop, a stop for swimming, and stopped on Lopud for dinner. As we were finishing up our Prošek, a stiff wind blew into town, and we knew that we needed to get back on the boat quickly in order to continue down the coast to Dubrovnik and hopefully outrun the approaching storm—which we did. Although it was night, and there was lightning flashing across the sky behind us, we were reassured to see the lights of Dubrovnik in the distance. Soon enough we were under the Tuđman Bridge, and aside from one final incident, found ourselves safely berthed at ACI Marina for our final night on the Kučarin.
Ken, Crystal (hidden), David, Melinda (at helm), Mike, and Mirena in the cockpit of Kučarin somewhere in the Adriatic Sea
Day 8 – Dubrovnik
We had to leave the boat by 9:00 (which of course dragged out another hour plus,) and our flight back to Vienna left at 15:00. This meant we could only hit the highlights in Dubrovnik—which is an amazing city, and deserves a lot more time. Along with Marta, whose flight was also leaving around the same time, we made our best effort to see as much of the Stari Grad (old town) as possible in one afternoon. Unfortunately, after 813 photos, the battery on my camera ran out, so here is a picture taken with Mirena’s camera phone.
Evaluation: This was my third sailing trip, and probably my favourite. Last year I sailed in Turkey (also with Mike) and the Caribbean with my family. What the Dalmatian Coast lacks in sandy beaches and coral reefs, it more than makes up for in its ports of call. Being the Mediterranean coast, it reminded me a lot of Turkey, but what was missing in Turkey was the living sense of history that is pervasive in Croatia. Both countries have undergone conflicts in recent history, but—although Croatia’s war was just a decade ago—it has been all patched up and its towns have a sense of timelessness more like those in Italy or Spain.

Mirena prefers snorkeling in warm Caribbean waters and missed having a sandy beach, but back on land—aside from the natural beauty (which is sometimes hard to find)—the Caribbean simply lacks the millennia of civilization that is infused throughout the entire perimeter of the Mediterranean Sea. I am convinced that a day poking around the shore anywhere in this, the hub of ancient trade would yield at least a shard of antique pottery. And, as students of western civilization, many of the stories we already know took place in this region; the island of Mljet, for example, is a more probable location of the apostle Paul’s shipwreck than the traditional site of Malta, and Homer’s Odysseus is also rumored to have visited this island.
Notes on pronunciation: Serbo-Croatian, which despite protestations from Mirena and Marta, is indeed is the common language of Serbia, Bosnia, and Croatia—each have their own dialect that they insist is a separate language. On the Dalmatian Coast, and especially farther north in Istria, this language is spoken with a distinctly Italian cadence; without listening to the words, (many of which are recognizable to Bulgarian speakers) I could have sworn they were speaking a Romance language.

What really throws most people off though, is the elimination of the vowel “uh” in writing (both in the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets,) so if you see too many consonants in a row, throw an “uh” in there (especially before an “r”) to make it pronounceable. On this subject, you must read this humorous take that I originally thought Dave Barry wrote, but can't seem to find an attribution: Operation Vowel Drop

Pronounce most of the letter as you would expect with these exceptions: J is soft (“y”) like in German, C is always ‘ts’ as in Cincinnati, Č is ‘ch’, Š is ‘sh’, Ž is usually written ‘zh’ and pronounced like the ‘s’ in “measure”, Đ is our ‘j’; vowels—of course—are European: A=‘ah’, E=‘eh’, I=‘ee’, O=‘oh’, U=‘oo’...oh, and roll your R!

Nachmittag in Wien

2007-08-10T09:45:00.000-04:00

I finally have some time to write about my trip, so I will start with the short time (~10:30 to 07:00 the next day) in Vienna two weeks ago. But first—as Ryan likes to do—let’s talk about the Washington Dulles International Airport. Amazingly, I had a great experience this time. My arriving flight from Columbia and departing flight to Frankfurt were both in the A/B concourse, and I found the (newly discovered—for me) B concourse to be the most pleasant part of the airport to kill a few hours of a layover. The Frankfurt bound Lufthansa flight (or was it United—I can’t remember due the pervasiveness of code-sharing) was initially delayed at the gate because of a problem with the APU (which also meant the A/C wasn’t working.) Eventually the mechanics gave up and we fired up the mains with a promise from the captain that we would make up the delay in the air. As we landed in Frankfurt the next morning, I nervously looked at the time and wondered if I could make the Vienna bound flight to meet Mirena at the airport as planned. Then, as we were taxing to the gate, we stopped for what turned out to be 20-30 minutes because another plane was in our gate (and was not supposed to be there!) As soon as I disembarked, I began sprinting to what seemed like the other end of the airport. Having been seated for 9 hours and missing a night of sleep, this was quite a feat—overcoming a nasty leg cramp & fighting crowds in the terminal. Incredibly, I made it to the departing gate without a minute to spare!

Mirena’s flight from Sofia and my flight from Frankfurt arrived within minutes of each other, and—in fact—our flights were assigned to the same baggage claim belts, where I met her. After a joyful embrace and claiming her bag, we sadly came to the realization that my bag had not made it. Usually, I have found that baggage travels faster through a terminal than passengers, but apparently I had been able to out-run my bag in Frankfurt. Thankfully, the bag did eventually arrive later that day and was delivered to us in the city.

High Speed Sightseeing

By the time we took the train into town, it was nearly noon, so if I was going to show Mirena around town, it was going to have to be quick. We strolled down Kartner Strasse to Stephansdom, had lunch at Austria’s ubiquitous fast-food seafood restaurant, Nordsee, and coffee, Sacher torte, and ice cream in one of the numerous sidewalk cafes found inside the “ring.” Below is Mirena enjoying the liegewiese in Stadtpark, which is still as meticulously maintained as I remembered from 3 years ago.

In the evening, we went to the Prater to see the sights, ride the rides (including, of course, the Riesenrad,) and eat schweinsstelze at Schweizerhaus—which, at 2 kilos, we were sadly not able to finish.

Early the next morning we caught SkyEurope’s bus to Bratislava, passing through rural Niederösterreich where it seems the fasting growing crop is wind farms. I’m really starting to wonder how much power these produce and if they are really economically feasible without special government subsidies—interestingly enough one of my shipmates, Ken, was actually an expert on the subject and we discussed this topic while sailing. So, stay tuned this and other tales from the sailing vessel Kučarin.
Observation: Flying over northern Virginia, it seems all you can see is suburban sprawl (from Washington DC.) Everything is either shopping centers, apartments, tract houses, or mansionettes on 1+ acre lots; all tied together by crisscrossing 4-lane highways. This is in stark contrast to the landscape that unfolds as you fly into Frankfurt. Here compact little villages are surrounded by vast stretches of forest or croplands despite the overall higher population density. I know Micah is going to rag me for this, but thinking about where I would rather live, Germany looks a lot better from the air than the typical American sprawl.

The Itch

2007-07-24T14:33:00.000-04:00

When I created The Persistent Itch (and its predecessor found at joel.froese.com/blog,) I intended it to be a travelogue—for the benefit of friends and family back home (and myself, so that I didn’t have to repeat the same thing to everyone via phone, IM, or separate emails.) Despite promising myself that I would continue to write after I returned home, there just hasn’t been much incentive to do so. I enjoy writing topical posts, but they do require more effort, and—since my primary audience is no longer reading this blog—I see no reason to do so.

The remaining three topics I promised you on March 14th as well as a further theory on economic development and a scathing review of Michael Moore’s Sicko that I’ve been meaning to write have been put on the back burner indefinitely.

I say all this to say that I am returning The Persistent Itch back to its roots; on Thursday I fly to Vienna to meet my girlfriend, and then we will fly on to Split, Croatia where we will meet friends for a week of sailing the Dalmatian Coast down to Dubrovnik. Expect glowing reports and stunning photographs starting next week.

In family news, the Froese family grew by two within the last three weeks as Jordan (left) was born to Micah & Deby on July 6th and Hutch (right) was born to Simon & Sarah on the 19th. All of the babies, parents, grandparents, and uncle are happy and healthy!

The real digital divide

2007-04-27T19:08:00.000-04:00

The “digital divide” is supposedly a socio-economic division that is propelling young, rich and middle class kids into a wonderful, new, technology-based economy, while leaving behind lower classes—especially those growing up in the developing world. Earnest crusaders are bridging this gap by setting up computer labs in schools and community centers for disadvantaged youths, and even building $100 laptops for kids in the 3rd world. This is admirable, and I appreciate anyone giving their time and money to help disadvantaged kids, however I wonder: what is this really helping? Now these kids can create their own MySpace page and copy and paste from Wikipedia for their school projects like their more affluent peers—is this really a step in the right direction? By virtue of the fact you are sitting here reading my ramblings (and I have spent time writing them for this forum) we know that the Internet is more often just a time waster. The cynic in me (and I am probably not alone) looks at the picture below, and braces for an onslaught of even more Nigeria 419-style email spam.

No, the real digital divide is a generational divide; its victims are often otherwise successful and affluent professionals, business leaders, “old-economy” corporations, and even entire sectors that just don’t get it. The most obvious example is the music and film industries; as entertainment is increasingly being distributed and delivered digitally, traditional distributors and retailers of these goods are becoming increasingly irrelevant. Instead of finding sensible ways of delivering this content to consumers (meaning cheaper and more convenient,) they have balked—either by ignoring the reality of how music is being “consumed,” or by proposing ridiculous schemes whereby consumers are locked into a particular technology, yet given no significant discount for buying this crippled product. Let’s face it, it is technologically impossible to create a format that can be played on a variety of players from different manufactures and—at the same time—be hacker-proof.

Therefore, I predict that the traditional distribution channels for music will shrivel up and eventually die, as the industry continues to push for more onerous restrictions (namely Digital Rights Management [DRM] schemes, constraints on the types and number of playback devices an individual can use, and limitations on sharing music among friends,) all of which will drive consumers to “pirating.” What will eventually replace the current “music labels,” will be an E-bay like marketplace where consumers buy music directly from the musicians—cutting out the middle man—at a fraction of the current retail price. Musicians will gladly allow consumers to freely share their music with friends, as this will grow their audience.

Likewise, the sale of movies will have to radically change as the general population will have access to ever increasing bandwidth, meaning high-resolution movies will be able to be delivered via the Internet. Certainly movie theaters/cinema will continue thrive as they have through the advent of TV, VCR, and DVD. But if the movie studios think they can retail movies for the same prices as they do DVDs—which is what they are trying to do now—then they are kidding themselves. A downloaded movie has to priced at least half of what a DVD costs since you are providing your own storage, and no longer have access to a real, physical backup copy of the movie.

I’ve actually gone out on a tangent with this rant on the entertainment industry. What I really wanted to say is that I have had the experience of helping people with their websites both at home and abroad, and I’ve noticed that otherwise successful business people of a certain age want their websites to look like a slick brochure. The result is a lot of websites with text in graphics, 100% Adobe Flash sites, and other obvious self-sabotage. On the Internet, content almost always trumps presentation: just look at the minimalist design of ultra-successful sites like Google and Craig's List.

Furthermore, what is more important nowadays is to be part of the Internet community rather than an “island” website unconnected to the rest of the net. In fact, it turns out that many individuals and small organizations simply don’t need their own website. An individual or artist/band will find that a MySpace profile is more useful and easier to create & maintain. Likewise, a professional will find LinkedIn to be more useful for networking, and even small net-based retailers would find Cafe Press, Yahoo! Store, or even Ebay to be a more efficient way to list and sell their merchandise. Hmm, Joel.Froese.com is up for renewal in May; I wonder if I really want to renew it now.

Petroleum: your all-natural, organic choice in energy

2007-04-03T22:48:00.000-04:00

With trouble in the Middle East and gas prices approaching $3 per gallon, everyone is concerned about fuel prices. However, it seems most Americans have not changed their driving habits or dumped their gas-guzzling SUVs. Instead we are looking for salvation in biofuels (ethanol and bio-diesel) and hydrogen/fuel cell technology. What is conveniently forgotten is the cost of these technologies—both economic and environmental. The process of making biofuels generally consumes more than half of the energy that it produces, and is only feasible because of government subsidies. Worst of all, using agricultural resources for fuel instead of food means our grocery bills will increase—most adversely affecting the poor. Agricultural land, although plentiful, is a finite resource, as are the nutrients in that soil—which ironically, are usually supplemented by petroleum-based fertilizers. One insightful farmer noted “The ethanol craze means that we're going to burn up the Midwest's last six inches of topsoil in our gas-tanks.”

To me, it seems strange that ethanol and bio-diesel are considered a renewable, “green” energy source. I’m not an environmentalist; I just like pointing out the intellectual dishonesty of championing biofuels as a preferable alternative to petroleum. In terms carbon output, the only difference for biofuels is that the cultivation of inputs (corn, sugar, or switchgrass) supposedly offsets the burning of the resulting fuel later; however, in most cases, the land used to cultivate these crops would have some kind of carbon-sequestering plant life on it in any case. Furthermore, ground-level pollution from biofuel use and manufacture shows few advantages over petroleum. The fact of the matter is that biofuels are manufactured in a factory, whereas petroleum is naturally produced by the earth over millions of years from basically the same inputs. Granted, crude oil must be refined before it can be used (as gasoline, diesel, and other petrochemicals) but this processing is minimal compared to the manufacture of biofuels; in other words, switching from petroleum to biofuels requires expanding the capacity and/or number of already unpopular fuel plants (be they refineries or ethanol plants.)

The other alternatives for mobile/portable fuel are batteries, fuel cells, and hydrogen. These zero-emission energy sources sound great until you look at the source of the energy required to charge the system or extract hydrogen from water or other compounds (often petroleum.) Certainly real, renewable energy sources like wind, water, and solar power would be great, but realistically these sources contribute only a small percentage to the total electricity used in the US, and—for practical reasons—this will remain so for a long time; electrical power will likely continue to be produced mainly from the dirtiest source of energy: coal.

Therefore, I propose that the most sensible course of action is to continue to use this perfect, natural source of energy for as long as we still have it. By virtue of the fact that oil is becoming scarcer, the market will automatically reward makers of more efficient vehicles, engines, and other processes that use petroleum. Eventually, even more expensive alternatives energy sources will become economically feasible to develop—and without artificial incentives!

Of course I am all for conservation of all our natural resources; I am particularly irritated by the thoughtless waste that is characteristic of American society. Particularly when it comes to petroleum, this waste is directly responsible for making us dependent on some of the most reprehensible governments in the world, simply because they have the majority of the worlds crude oil reserves. I say let’s tap the ANWR and other verboten reserves within our territory; there is no reason to let this perfectly good resource go to waste. Our current policy regarding these reserves are as if you were to go down to your wine cellar, (assuming you have such a thing) notice that racks are starting to look a little empty, and then swear off your finest, well-aged wines forever in favor of cheap domestic beer.

Cooper River Bridge Run

2007-04-01T16:24:00.000-04:00

On Saturday, the 30th Annual Cooper River Bridge Run—a 10 km foot race—took place in Charleston, South Carolina. I had heard about this event for many years, but never considered it because I am not a runner. This year, my father decided to participate. He instructed his daughter-in-law to register him for the event, but then registered himself on the website as well. This meant that there were two runner’s packets available, and I felt had no choice but to participate despite having not trained at all—outside a few Hash House Harrier runs every other week.

We left Columbia at 5:00am in order to arrive in Charleston with plenty of time to get prepared—which was a good thing, because getting the runner’s packets from the friend who picked them up turned out to be quite challenging. Despite this hitch, we were ready an hour before the start time, and made our way to the start line in Mount Pleasant to join over 40,000 other runners and walkers who were lining up for the event. Understandably, I was anxious knowing that, despite the legitimate option of walking the course, I would get caught up in the spirit and competition of the event and run 6.2 miles with absolutely no training—and suffer the consequences afterwards (which I am, as I write this on Sunday.)

The magnitude of this event is difficult to fully convey; with 40,000+ competitors, there seems to be an endless line of people ahead and behind you. When the official start time came, and the clock began ticking away, I was not able to get over the start line for another three and a half minutes. Throughout most of the event, competitors spanned all 4 lanes of the road—we were racing 20+ wide!

I felt amazingly good for the first 3 miles; I ran 10-minute miles up to this halfway point (which also coincided with the peak of the namesake Cooper River Bridge.) However, on coming down the bridge into Charleston, my knees started hurting, and I was forced to walk. Despite the pain, I couldn’t stand watch hundreds of people go by me, so I would alternately run and walk for the rest of the race.

Some people take this 10K less serious than others; I saw all kinds of whimsical costumes. The following all participated in this event: some girls in hoop skirts, a group of people in banana costumes and in bowling pin costumes. I saw two brides, one of which actually was wearing a short wedding gown and carrying a bouquet; her husband (or fiancé) was running beside her in a tuxedo t-shirt. At least two marines in BDUs, combat boots, and carrying 55 lbs of weight in a backpack. However, my favorite was a group of guys dressed as bulls followed by a group of girls in white (al la “running of the bulls” in Pamplona, Spain—expect they should have been in front of the bulls.)

I crossed the finish line at 1:08:38, making me the 12,540th finisher (out of 28,641.) My father (middle) was 13.5 minutes faster, and placed 14th in his age group. My niece (right) was 25 seconds faster than him with an official time of 54:38.

We had lunch in the beautiful, historic district of Charleston, and then spent the afternoon on Folly Beach. The water was a bit too cold, but the weather felt almost summer-like. All in all, it turned out to be a wonderful day; even the pain is a “good hurt”; I know this makes me stronger!

Insurance is a rip-off

2007-03-19T13:38:00.000-04:00

Before you get the idea that I just figured this out (and because of my business education,) let me assure you that I’ve been of this opinion for quite a long time now. I’ve just recently become aware of otherwise intelligent people around me buying silly insurance policies such as extended warranties and mobile phone insurance—I thought everyone was already aware of what a waste of money these are. As Groening, et al derisively had Homer say when Dr. Nick restored his stupidity in episode BABF22: “Extended warranty? How could I lose?”

Let’s start with the basics: insurance is a financial instrument used by individuals and organizations to protect themselves against a risk (a greater potential financial loss.) You pay a (relatively) small amount of money over time to protect yourself against a possible catastrophic monetary loss. The insurance industry hire actuaries to determine the likely amount and frequency of payouts, adds their (hefty) profit margin, and comes up with the premium to the policyholder. (Granted, this is a simplified view.) Therefore, before we even get into paying middle men (agents/brokers) and for insurance fraud, you will always pay more in the long run with insurance than without, unless you happen to be one of the few exceptions that does indeed experience a catastrophic loss that the carrier actually covers.

HEALTH
This is probably the most sensible—and, in fact, prudent—insurance out there. Since you can quickly incur tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars of expenses due to a serious illness or injury, you need to protect yourself from the financial devastation this would create. Note: despite the perception that insurance is required to be treated in our mostly private health care system, insurance is actually for protecting your assets and credit standing after being treated for a major illness or injury. Even the prestigious Mayo Clinic regularly serves the indigent local population of Rochester, Minnesota knowing they will never be paid for their services. This is the law in the US; hospitals cannot refuse service to anyone in need. Of course, this causes a major problem; hospitals must charge those that can pay more to offset these losses. As a result, conscientious people with health insurance are underwriting the whole system.

Therefore, it is reasonable to propose a reform that would include everyone in the coverage and payment pool. However, I am not naïve enough to think that a single-payer system would necessarily put a dent in our outrageous health care costs (15% of GDP!) I am convinced that trading corporate profiteering for bureaucratic inefficiencies in no way could reduce this cost; limiting (that is rationing) health care is the only way, and Americans will not stand for this—so expect no change here.

By the way, dental insurance is overrated; suppose you visit the dentist every six months for a cleaning and pay $70 each visit. With insurance, you may pay only a $10 co-pay, and the insurance plan may have negotiated a lower price—let’s say $50. So their payout is at least $100 per year; what do you think they will charge you (or your employer) as an annual premium? I don’t think it would be a stretch to assume that it would be more than $140—so where is the savings?

LIABILITY
The second prudent choice in insurance is liability insurance for your home, vehicle, and business. In our litigious society, you could lose everything in a court judgment, even if you are not at fault by any reasonable person’s estimation. The solution to the growing cost of liability insurance (especially professional malpractice insurance) is tort reform—but I don’t see that happening soon, since our legislators are usually lawyers, and the legal community has immense influence in government at all levels.

LIFE
Life insurance was designed to allow a family to live on with the same standard of living after the death of the breadwinner. This still makes sense for a modern, dual-income family, but these policies are being over-sold. The most egregious example of this excess is the marketing of policies for children; I find that downright sick! How can money ever alleviate the anguish of losing a child? Generally, you should only buy term life insurance to cover the loss of family income from yourself and/or spouse until your children are of age; your spouse will be able to support himself/herself after that, right? I see no reason why a family member’s death should be treated like a lottery windfall—in fact I find this attitude to be appalling.

I understand that a funeral can be costly, but it’s not an open-ended expense; you can cap this under $5000—something that could be covered by a “rainy day” fund—money that is accumulated when it is no frittered away in premiums to an insurance company for an occurrence that is very unlikely to happen to a relatively young person.

DISABILITY
There is normally some kind of disability coverage in a life and/or health insurance policies, but what is becoming more popular is short-term disability policies to “help pay the bills” while one is out of work due to an injury/illness. While this sounds to be a prudent policy for working class people, it is just one more drain on their already overstretched budget. From what I can tell, the rise in popularity of this type of policy is due entirely to the massive advertising campaign of one particular company and it’s spokes-duck.

HOME
Since most homeowners have a mortgage on their property, the lender usually requires homeowners (fire) insurance; they know that if your home were destroyed, (or uninhabitable) you would have little incentive to continue making mortgage payments. This is reasonable; most people don’t have an extra $50,000-$100,000 lying around to rebuild a house in this case. However, I see no reason to pay extra to insure the content of you home—you really don’t have to replace all that junk you’ve collect over the years, do you? The same goes for renter’s insurance; if your apartment burns down—taking your nice, new plasma TV with it—you certainly would appreciate having a policy that would let you replace this. However, can you honestly justify paying a monthly premium to protect this and other non-essential belonging against something that is such a rare occurrence?

AUTO
Liability insurance is required by the state (to cover damages/injury you may cause), and a lender will require you to buy collision (your own fault) & comprehensive (acts of nature) insurance. Eventually though, you will own an automobile outright, and I posit that by this time you will be financially secure enough to self-insure repairs to your own car. It will really hurt when you dent your own bumper and have to pay for it out of your own pocket, (especially if it’s a brand new car) but you will certainly save money over the course of your lifetime.

RECCOMENDATIONS
This list could go on and on, so I will just stop here and say that every other type of policy (at least for individuals) is a waste of money! All these other policies and add-ons add up and start to cost real money, and worse—it is a recurring expense that you will pay every month for the rest of your life. You are much better off to set aside this money in a “rainy day” fund for several reasons:

If no major calamity ever transpires, you still have the money.
This “rainy day” fund will eventually become a sizable investment that starts earn money on its own, that then can be used for other purposes (college fund, real estate down payment, retirement, etc.)
You will never have to jump through hoops and fight for a payout.

So, here is my recommendation on what policies to buy:

You need health insurance, but go with the highest deductible you can; you will get less in payouts, but the lower premium costs will offset this.
If—and only if—you have dependents, and you contribute significant finances or labor (child care) to your family, buy term life insurance for yourself and/or spouse, so that your family can live in relative comfort in the unlikely event of your early demise. Once these “dependents” are independent, cancel the policy.
Ensure you have liability insurance to shield you assets from seizure by court judgments; this means home, car, and malpractice if applicable.
Carry insurance that the state and your lender may require for your home and car, but run the numbers on the cost and possible benefit of any additional insurance.
Generally speaking, don’t buy any other kind of insurance; especially don’t insure anything you can live without.
Always shop around.

A lot of insurance companies market themselves as a comprehensive service that “takes care of you” in a time of need (e.g. arranging a rental car after an auto accident); I don’t understand why anyone would want to pay extra for this (oh, you don’t think they incorporate that into their premiums?) I just want a bare bones insurance company that just processes legitimate claims as efficiently as possible. I will talk more about this later, in my “Responsible Insurance Company” post.

DISCLAIMER: This should not be construed to be professional financial advice; it is merely a thought-provoking suggestion for intelligent and financially disciplined individuals.

Oops, I did it again and rambled along for over 1500 words. I promise the next post will be short and sweet, dear reader.

The Persistent Itch is back!

2007-03-14T10:45:00.000-04:00

To my few remaining, faithful readers I apologize for not writing in over a month now. February is my first month-long break in blogging since January 2005; I will try not to let this happen again. To that end, I’ve come up with 5 new topics, which I will flesh out and publish over the next 5 weeks or so.

Insurance is a rip-off. Your premium is always going to be greater than your average expected loss.
Bio-fuels are unnatural. Actually, good old crude is the all-natural (organic) choice in fuels.
New business idea: Responsible Insurance Co. The challenge: come up with objective criteria that could be used to legally select a low-risk pool of policy holders—resulting in substantially lower premiums for these “responsible” individuals.
New business idea: The Global Warming Fund. OK, I get it, global warming is real. Now where can I invest to make money from the inevitable consequences. Seriously, I'd like to see people putting their money where there mouth is—betting for climate change—before I totally buy into this theory.
New business idea: Ante-Diamonds. Because diamonds are a girls best friend…we need a substitutes for “Blood Dimonds”

As far as life in Columbia, South Carolina goes: I feel like it is summer already. Daylight savings time began on Sunday—meaning I bicycle with a group of friends every Tuesday and Thursday night now—and the weather so far this week is cooperating (today it will be 82F – 28C!)

On Capitalism

2007-01-31T23:03:00.000-05:00

Monday night, I watch an interesting documentary on PBS called Power of Choice: The Life and Ideas of Milton Friedman. The late Dr. Friedman was one greatest proponent of laissez-faire capitalism in the 20th century, and—thankfully—had the clout to be heard in Washington and around the world. I am convinced that much of economic boom of the past century is directly attributable to him.

Then, on Tuesday, I read a short article entitled “The Hard Rain That’s Falling on Capitalism” written by Ben Stein in the New York Times. I found this story through Reddit.com—a website which also lets you comment on the featured stories. I had been meaning to formulate my thoughts on capitalism for some time, and in responding to the mostly left-leaning critics, I finally got a start. However, newer stories are constantly making their way to the top on Reddit, and by the time I wrote these comments, most of the debate here had already subsided; therefore I will expand on my theories and observations here.

The criticism usually leveled at capitalism—and the US in particular—by the left and anti-globalists, is generally that this system only makes the rich richer (and by extension the poor get poorer.) Their proof tends to be pointing out specific cases of corporate corruption and other malfeasance, and instances of excessive compensation for top management. What they seem to suggest by this is that there was an idyllic time in the past characterized by more compassion and transparency in commerce.

With the exception of a few true, ideological communists, I think we all agree that the problem is not with capitalism as such, but corruption and the lack of transparency. This is especially egregious when big businesses use their influence extract subsidies from government or to induce the government to create barriers to new entrants (foreign or domestic) in their particular industry. Then there is the internal corruption, where management—usually through creative bookkeeping—steals from the corporation and, by extension, the shareholders and other stakeholders of the company. I admit this is a real problem, but I don’t believe it is an endemic or growing problem. I assume that this has always been going on; it was just not spoken about as much. I dare say the farther you look back in our history, the more corruption and back-room dealing you would discover—meaning the economic climate was less fair and transparent at any time in the past.

This is why, whenever a corporate scandal is uncovered, I gain—not lose—confidence in the business world. I believe the reason we hear more and more about these scandals is not because they are occurring with more frequency, but because the press is becoming more vigilant—uncovering and reporting more cases of malfeasance than ever before. The logical result would be fewer and fewer occurrences of malfeasance over time, since management knows they are being more closely watched. Pessimistically, it also means that future indiscretion will be more esoteric and harder to detect, but like with spam and viruses, it is a cat & mouse game between the good guys and the bad—alternately one-upping each other. If nothing else, this vigilance means the repertoire of deceptive practices available to unethical managers is constantly shrinking.

Let’s take the Enron debacle for example—could this happen again? Well, certainly not in the exact same way. More importantly though, the complicity of auditing firms in such scandals has been forever broken. Arthur Anderson is now defunct. Don’t you think that this has put the “fear of god” in the remaining big-3 accounting firms? This was a beautiful example of the free market at work—no government intervention was necessary; these firms now clearly understand their only really important asset is trust—specifically their reputation. If shareholders don’t trust an auditor, they will not approve them, and they will quickly lose all their clients—ending up bankrupt like Arthur Anderson. Certifying that the books of a client are accurate is no longer just a formality; it’s putting your reputation—and therefore your existence—on the line for these firms.

This trend toward greater transparency is self-perpetuating. It improves investor confidence, and investment naturally gravitates to its most efficient and profitable use.
The financial markets in London are a perfect example; previously characterized by widespread back-room dealing, they have recently been cleaned up, and are seeing a boom that is making them the premier international financial marketplace.

Therefore, my main assertion is that we are now seeing an emergence of truer, more open, equitable, and much more transparent capitalism—not just in the US, but also around the world (even China and left-leaning South American governments see the benefit of a free market.) Furthermore, this embrace of true (and global) capitalism is what is responsible for the exponential growth that we have seen in the world economy in the last 10-20 years. This boom is being felt not only in the industrialized world, but also throughout much of the third world—particularly Asia. The result is that infrastructure is being built and the economies of the countries are growing faster than under any other economic regime/philosophy. Even the supposedly “exploited” workers of the third world are earning more and are accumulating more valuable possessions than their forefathers could have imagined. I challenge you to find a more prosperous time in history.

In regards to the growing income gap between the rich and the poor, I can’t believe this is a result of poor getting poorer; the rich are simply getting richer at a faster rate—deservedly or not. And this group of super-rich is larger and more diverse than ever. Back in the day, there was only a handful of super-rich in the US; these families are household names today: Rockefellers, Vanderbilt, Carnegie, Morgan, Getty, et al. Today you have all kinds of innovators and entrepreneurs from unknown families (even from groups that were previously discriminated against) becoming fabulously wealthy.

For comparison, let’s go back to the idyllic “good old days” of yesteryear. A middle class working family lived in a tiny (by today’s standard) 2-bedroom saltbox house, had one car, never traveled by air, had no credit cards, no cable TV, no cell phones, no computers, no Internet access, etc.—all these things we now consider necessities and whose monthly payments now suck dry the wallets of middle class. The working class is not poorer today; they are just stricken with affluenza.

The ultimate argument for capitalism is its results; find me an economic system that not only created the greatest amount of raw, economic power this world has ever seen, but also given nearly all strata of society more purchasing power and therefore a more comfortable life. This last part is very important to remember when we begin discussing real wages of the working class, which have supposedly been flat or even declining in the US since the 1970’s. The homes, cars, appliances, and especially electronics we buy today are many times better (in terms of quality, efficiency, durability, etc.) than anything you could buy in the 70’s, and certainly not as manifoldly expensive. Technological advances can explain only part of this effect; I am convinced that we have—and continue to—see an incredible increase in the value of goods we purchase over the years due to efficiencies realized thanks in large part to more open and transparent global capitalism. This “Wal-Mart effect” in fact makes us richer, and it is not sufficiently reflected in the usual empirical statistics.

Any argument against capitalism, would by definition propose an alternate (or at least modified) economic system. And again by definition, any system besides a pure, laissez-faire capitalism would require some type of government or at least collective controls that would introduce distortions into the marketplace—either placing more or less value on a resource than it would naturally be entitled to. I am not advocating pure capitalism, I only want to make you think: what aspect of the economy is so important that we need to tinker with it (and be more likely to screw up rather than improve), and who (politicians, bureaucrats) can we trust with these decisions? We have seen that concentrated central planning—namely communism—has failed miserably; where would you set the limits? Many people hold up European (and especially Scandinavian) socialism as the perfect balance between capitalism and communism, and in a lot of ways it is hard to argue with: they have the lowest poverty rates, highest wages, and—amazingly enough—export more value per capita than low cost, export-oriented Asian countries. (This is because they produce higher-end products and operate more efficiently largely due to their excellent educational and vocational training systems.) However, I am convinced that this supposedly most advance economic system is not the answer for the developing world. Just as with your personal finances, you can’t spend your way into long-term prosperity.

Here is my 6-step program to economic prosperity for developing countries:

Tackle corruption.
Throw open the floodgates of laissez-faire capitalism to build wealth.
Institute a low, flat tax rate.
Invest tax revenues into infrastructure and education.
Add regulations slowly.
Add social programs as tax revenues allow.

I see doing this in any other order as “putting the horse before the cart.”

Well, that was longer than I expected it to be! Sorry for rambling on; I guess I should organize this a bit better, back it up with research, and write a more coherent article, but that’s not going to happen realistically!

MBAEC reunion in SC

2007-01-27T10:18:00.000-05:00

MBA Enterprise Corps alumni and current South Carolina residents Joel (Bulgaria 2005), Ryan (Bulgaria 2005), and Pete (Kazakhstan 2002) painting the town in Columbia on Friday night.

Flyin’

2007-01-22T11:50:00.000-05:00

Friday was moving day for my brother, Simon, and his wife. Thankfully they didn’t have too much junk (at least by American standards,) and many hands indeed made the work light—in fact we were done in a few hours. So, Micah—my other brother—asked me if I want a ride in his new airplane—a Lancair Legacy. Of course I jumped at the chance; he has been building this high-performance airplane for a couple of years now, so obviously I wanted to experience what it is like to ride in this “sports car in the sky.” As you can see from the battleship gray color, there are still a few cosmetic tasks that need to be completed, but nothing that would affect its air-worthiness (despite the ominous “passenger warning” on the instrument panel.) In fact, he had just modified the oil door on the cowling, which allows us to appreciate the throaty six-cylinder engine (it did sound like a sports cars when he fired it up) in the picture at the top—it certainly doesn’t need any help from a hypothetical MTV “Pimp my plane!”

We taxied to the runway, checked the engine, and then Micah released the brakes. I was immediately impressed; the plane pushed me back in the seat in a way that I’ve only ever experienced in a jet.

Micah’s friend, Eric, was also ready to fly, so he got into his little plane and joined us in the skies within a few minutes. He also built his own plane—a Cassutt, which is a type of aircraft that they race around pylons in Reno, Nevada; needless to say it is fast. Never the less, Micah was able to blow his doors off, as we say in the American vernacular for racing past another vehicle. We flew to the Pelion airport for fuel, and I learned just how expensive this hobby is—avgas is over $3 a gallon!

On the way back, we came across Micah’s neighbor, Tim, who is an aerial photographer. Of course, we had to get some more pictures (I had been taking many from our perspective, but needed some of us.) So, we flew to Lake Murray to snap some air-to-air photos: in the picture above, Eric is on the left in his Cassutt, and Micah’s Legacy is on the right (if you blow it up, you will see Micah in the left seat—looking toward the camera, and I looking forward—starting to get a little queasy from all the steep turns.) Photo credit: Tim French. I made the final picture here: silhouettes of Tim’s plane on the left and Eric on the right captured over the lake at sunset.

On Blogging

2007-01-15T16:27:00.000-05:00

I’ve been blogging nearly continuously for 3 years now. So, naturally, I’ve given some thought to why I do this. I started my first blog when I went to business school in Vienna in 2004. It was intended as a way for my friends & family to keep up with what I am doing without sending out individual emails (or pestering anyone with bulk emails.) As such, it was successful; my audience grew by word of mouth to include all kinds of friend, family, acquaintances, former colleagues, and classmates. Granted, it was not a steady audience (expect my mother, who would ask my father every morning if I had written anything new,) but this is the beauty of a blog: friends who had “not visited [my] blog in a while” could easily catch up, since a month’s worth of post can be easily read in one sitting. However, one important person I found out that I am writing for is myself—specifically my “future self.” It turns out my blog is also my diary; I actually enjoy reliving the heady days of grad school, for example, by reading something I wrote a year or two ago. Of course, I would not actually write a diary (that is something only teenage girls do,) so blogging for an audience is an incentive for writing my personal history. However, this dual usage leads to some conflict, namely self-censorship. Due to the broad audience that could potentially read my blog, I often have to choose my words carefully. It’s not that I lead a particularly scandalous life, I just don’t want to bore my audience most of the time (sometimes, though, I do nerd out for the sake of my brothers.) Never the less, many times I redact large portions of what I write in Microsoft Word before I even post it (which, by the way, is good advice for you students out there: don’t write up to a minimum word count; write past it, then cut out the weak portions, leaving only the good stuff.) The other issue is that some characters that make up this ongoing story of my life like to maintain a lower profile. I have little compunction about sharing my life on the Internet, but I’ve found that some people don’t like the idea of me writing about or posting pictures of them on my site. Therefore, I have become more guarded—practically, I have adopted a first-name only policy. One particular young lady was made it clear that she did not want to appear here, but recently has relented, and even ask “why am I not on your blog?” So—without further ado—here is my girlfriend, Mirena.

Ski Borovets

2007-01-09T16:24:00.000-05:00

Despite dire warnings that there is insufficient snow in Bulgaria for skiing, we went to Borovets on Sunday with two American diplomats. But first, we had to go shopping. After spending most of the day in countless shops, we went back to a little shop and bought a cute snow bunny outfit that Mirena had initially found. (We also bought a business suit the same day.) Mirena insisted I buy something for myself, so I got a cool new ski jacket; the total for everything was a mere 320 leva ($212.)

The actual skiing was decent; the slopes at the top of the mountain were fine for the most part, although there was over a meter of snow missing from last season. I skied nearly nonstop all afternoon, getting my money's worth for the half-day ticket (25 leva.) Meanwhile, Mirena and one of the diplomats were getting beginner ski lessons on the bunny slope. I know this can be frustrating, but she had a reasonably good time.

The past two days have been spent running around town getting "loose ends tied up." For example, this afternoon—just before my flight—we were in the notary's office getting some documents officiated for my business (investment.) Then it was off the the airport, but the new terminal, which is finally in operation. After a tearful goodbye, I was taken by bus to my plane in front of the old terminal—the jetways were standing unused! The Sofia-Brussels flight was remarkable only for the beautiful view of the sunset crisscrossed by contrails of other flights over the skies of Europe. At one point, I looked down I noticed a large river, which I thought probably was the Danube; indeed, just a few seconds later I noticed the unmistakable junction of the Sava and Danube at Belgrade!

Right now I am writing this in a fairly nice hostel in the center of Brussels, having spent my last Euros for the key deposit, I can't even buy a fine Belgium beer! Tomorrow I will get that 10 Euro back, and stretch it between lunch, souvenirs, and train ticket back to the airport. UPDATE: I ended up frittering away the morning, and had to rush to the airport with only minutes to spare—so don't expect any souveniers! :-(

Velingrad

2007-01-03T06:28:00.000-05:00

First, here are some time exposures (all 25 seconds) from New Year’s Eve. The first one—made at 22:00—is a calm view toward Mt. Vitosha (which was only barely visible by the naked eye.) After midnight, fireworks broke out all over the city; people were shooting them rooftops, balconies, and the street—it was like the fourth of July! ;-) In the third picture, you can see the burst of light coming from the official New Years/EU Accession party downtown—which we just watched on TV.

Spa

For the New Year’s holiday (of January 1st and 2nd) we went to spa resort town of Velingrad. We originally made reservations at an old restored hotel (check out the iron work over the door in the picture below!) but we decided on a nicer, newer, and cheaper hotel after tearing all over the city looking for the best value. As in many places in Bulgaria, these spas are fed by naturally hot, slightly minerally water.

The pool was a balmy 31C (88F.) We also hit the Roman (steam) bath, sauna, and had massages. Mirena asked where people go relax in the US; I honestly couldn’t think of an equivalent. I am sure we do have spa resorts somewhere, but I think most people “just go the beach.”

TP

On the way back to Sofia, we came through Belovo, home of Belana Paper Mill—Bulgaria's largest producer of TP and paper towels. Along the road opposite the factory, the street was dotted with vendors selling all the various brands produced there. We stopped and Mirena bought a restaurant-sized roll of paper towels for 3 leva, but she said their prices were actually not that competitive; I suppose they lure Sofians into thinking they can get a good deal on their way home.

Below is one last time exposure I took at twilight as we were heading back to the expressway (notice the streaks of light from cars on the extreme right.)

Oh, and BTW, it is snowing right now! ;-)

Happy New Year!

2006-12-30T10:53:00.000-05:00

“Christmas” shopping

As a formerly communist country, New Years is still a bigger holiday in Bulgaria than Christmas day—nearly everyone is guaranteed a 4-day holiday: December 30, 31, January 1, and 2. Since presents are exchanged on this holiday, the shops and malls were packed Friday and Saturday, so I got to experience two last-minute Christmas shopping rushes this month!

Movies

Yesterday, I watched two movies. With the exception of a few French and Russian flicks, cinemas in Bulgaria show the same Hollywood blockbuster as nearly everywhere in the world, and—many times—premiering on the same weekend as in the US, since all they have to do is add subtitles. The cineplexes in Sofia are all fairly new, with stadium seating like we have back home, but the ticket prices are significantly cheaper: 4 to 6 leva ($2.70-$4.04.)

First, I watch the new (re-make) James Bond film, Casino Royal. I found it to be a clumsy effort, and—as expected with any new actor playing Bond—I didn’t like Daniel Craig in this role; he seems too rough-edged for this role—Bond is supposed to be effortlessly suave. The parkour stunts were cool, but many of the traditional elements were missing, most notably the array of cool gadgets and the nude, female silhouettes in the opening title sequence. Like I’ve always said, the Bond franchise is just not the same since the end of the cold war, a sentiment seconded by Judy Dench’s “M” character in this film–which of course was poignant for me, watching this behind to old iron curtain.

Later that evening, Mirena and I went to see Robert Altman’s final film, A Prairie Home Companion. The star-studded cast (Meryl Streep, Lindsay Lohan, Kevin Kline, Woody Harrelson, and Tommy Lee Jones) brought in at least a half a dozen Bulgarians who were so bored/disappointed, they left before the end—even Mirena fell asleep. This is to be expected, since it was a sentimental film made for PHC fans (like me.) I wonder who thought it would be a good idea to subtitle and distribute it here.

Back in BG

2006-12-27T03:30:00.000-05:00

Well, who’d have thought that I would be back in Bulgaria after only a month back home, but Mirena insisted and since I had nothing better to do—no job yet, and no new year’s eve plans—I ha to come over for two weeks. Plus, Bulgaria will join the EU on January 1, so that should make for a big party!

I left for the airport on Christmas day, just as my mother was preparing her big dinner for the whole family; too bad I missed that, but we were all together on Christmas Eve for the magnificent banquet that Debora, my sister-in-law has made a tradition lately.

I had an 11-hour layover in Brussels, so despite being dead-tired from the overnight flight, I had to get out and explore the city. The weather was less than ideal (cold and cloudy,) but I was impressed—Brussels is a magnificent city. BTW, I have an overnight layover on the way back, so I’ll get to see more of it on January 9/10th.

That’s all for now…

Back home

2006-12-13T14:19:00.000-05:00

Sorry for not posting anything lately. I’m not quite sure what to write about anymore, and I’m afraid I’ve already lost most of my audience. Never the less, I do intend to keep blogging indefinitely regardless of where I am, so do come back every once in while, or—better yet—subscribe to the RSS feed. By the way, make sure you are coming to http://persistentitch.blogspot.com and not joel.froese.com, because I am turning that into a more professional site since I am now looking for a job.

So, for some highlights from the past 3 weeks: After arriving back home from being abroad for 16 months, my homecoming was overshadowed by an announcement from my brother and sister-in-law—they are going to have a baby! Obviously, we are all very happy for them (especially my parents.) But, hey, Joel just returned—you stole my thunder! ;-) Not to be outdone, my other brother and sister-in-law, made an announcement 2 weeks later…that’s right, they are going to have a baby too (in fact they are even farther alone!) So, yes, it is kinda hard being the only single person left in my family, but I’m used to it.

On the day before Thanksgiving, I met with some current IMBA students that I had met in Vienna back in March (they are doing the exact same program I did 2 years ago.) We met at the Carolina Coliseum to see our local, minor-league hockey team get beat by a team from Florida. This was first time I’ve ever been to a hockey game; thankfully Daniel (IMBA 2007) was able to explain the finer points of the game to me and his classmate, Antonio (who is from Puerto Rico, and had also never been to a hockey game.) What an incongruous sight, to see two teams from the Deep South playing a game that would, under natural circumstances, be impossible here.

Thanksgiving was great; I fully enjoyed the traditional feast and seeing family that I had not seen for over a year. Our last guest was my cousin from Germany, who is an au-pair here in South Carolina, unfortunately no one told her that Thanksgiving dinner takes place in the early afternoon; she arrived at 19:00—oh well, I know that feeling (lack of knowledge of local customs.)

The next day, I braved the crowds on the biggest shopping day of the year to browse the newest electronics at Best Buy and Circuit City. That evening I met two of my former classmates that still live in Columbia, one from Bulgaria and one from Romania. It was good to exchange notes on living/visiting each other’s countries.

The next week, I finally put my bike together and went out for a ride again. The weather was unseasonably warm—24C (75F); now I remembered what I liked about South Carolina! However, I have really gotten out of shape, because after my usual 53km (33 mi.) loop, I was exhausted. I promised myself to get back into shape, but the weather has turned colder, and I’ve only been out on one other occasion.

Hydro project

Ever since we moved down from Ohio and my father purchased the house where I grew up most of my life, he has wanted to harness the water that flows out of the small lake that his property is situated on. However, through the years, this childish idea has been forgotten until my youngest brother expressed interest in it 2 years ago. Ever since then they have been gung-ho about it, plowing right into the excavation and building of the power plant (pictured) without researching whether it is even economically and practically feasible. They have had no electrical, mechanical, or any other kind of engineering assistance or even any kind of drawings other than the proverbial “sketch on the back of an envelope.” Despite this lack of professionalism, it looks like they will soon have a turbine spinning in the power plant very soon. A week ago Saturday, we all piled into my brother’s pickup truck and drove to the outskirts of Atlanta to pick up the rebuilt turbine and associated hardware that they had ordered from an equally unprofessional, micro-hydro expert. This was loaded into the pickup and a trailer (pictured), and with a minimum of verbal instruction on how to put it all together we headed back home. My other brother and I—who have been warning them against this foolhardy scheme—are impressed that they have gotten this far, but we’re still doubtful that they will ever produce any substantial revenue from selling power back to the local electrical co-op. We see it as a source of amusement, watching them from the sidelines as they muddle through. Despite collective our electrical and mechanical expertise, we have vowed not to help them in this foolish endevour. Never the less, we do hope they are successful, and now that looks increasingly likely.

Reverse culture shock

For the last 3 calendar years, I have spent a total of 26 months abroad. After each homecoming, I wait for the phenomena called “reverse culture shock.” However, even after not touching American soil for 16 months (expect for the embassy), I still have not experienced it. In fact I am amazed at how natural it feels to be back home; it’s almost as if I haven’t been gone. Granted I am restless, and I am looking forward to the next adventure.

The one characteristic that is unmistakably evident is that everything in America is big! Food and beverage portions are big, hence Americans are big, and therefore they drive big SUV’s (it seems no one drives a regular car anymore.) I am alarmed at how much weight I’ve gained in the past 3 weeks; I now consciously watch out for overly processed, high fat food (that, granted, tastes soooo good!)

Seriously, what I have found downright sickening—especially around the holidays— is this run-away consumer culture. Why do we feel compelled to listen to marketers and buy junk for ourselves and our family & friends that we don't need? Then we rent storage space, buy/build sheds, and finally, get a bigger home just to store all this junk. Granted, Americans aren't alone in this compultion; but since Americans and (mostly young) Europeans are used to financing their lifestyle with credit cards, it is more evident here. I expect this disease to spread to other parts of the world with the expansion of consumer credit. I am thankful that my parents drilled it into us that “if you don't have the money, you don't need it!”

Current Events

2006-11-30T16:59:00.000-05:00

Mmm, Polonium wasabi. Muy caliente! (много лютив)

Seriously, I wonder: does radioactive hot taste caliente, picante, or neither. Related story

Back in the US of A

2006-11-21T18:57:00.000-05:00

After staggered farewells, and a hectic last two days in Bulgaria, I boarded a plane on Monday morning in Sofia and arrive in Columbia, SC the same evening—a total of 24 hours in transit thanks to a 5-hour layover in Dallas-Fort Worth. In the short term, I am looking forward to Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, and in the long term, excited and a little anxious about the next phase of my life—the next adventure, wherever that may take me!

TPS report

2006-11-16T11:15:00.000-05:00

As MBAEC volunteers, we were required to write quarterly reports about our assignments including evaluations of our organizations, quarterly goals, “personal developments,” etc. The final report was expanded to include some final thought, so—since I have spent considerable time on these reports, and only 2 people for sure have ever read them—I will now publish the following experts.

Knowledge gained

Professionally, the most obvious thing I have learned is how international development is done. I had only a vague, academic perspective of this sector before I came to orientation and training in July [2005.] While I still do not understand a lot, I have certainly gained a lot of knowledge in this area over the past 15 months. From little things, like the acronyms that are ubiquitous in this field, to how the grant writing process works (including practical experience in evaluating grant proposals.) I have learned how projects are proposed, designed, and implemented through a hierarchy starting at USAID, through various contractors (individuals, NGOs, and for-profit enterprises,) all the way down to the mix of volunteers, locals, an others who actually implement these programs. Much of this has not been learned by direct experience, but because I am now in contact with people who are involved in this sector such as my own MBAEC colleagues, Peace Corps volunteers, and contractors on other projects.

Living in Bulgaria for over a year, means I have also learned a lot about the Bulgarian language, culture, cuisine, history, etc. Not only Bulgaria, but now I also have a much greater understanding of the Balkans and Eastern Europe; I have read books and Internet articles about this part of the world, visited museums, and talked with locals. One of the most important lessons learned is that ethnicity, rather than citizenship, is more important to national identity here, and therefore political borders are a matter of so much contention. Every country in this region has had an empire that extended well past its current borders at some point in history. To a greater or lesser extent, the people of the nations represented by these countries (I say this rather than “citizen” or “inhabitants,” since they all have sizable ethnic minorities) would like to see these “lost territories” back under their control—obviously impossible as most land is under the claim of multiple nations. Previously I had thought that European integration would solve this thorny issue, but now I understand why that will not be as easy as I had thought due to this deeply ingrained nationalism.

Personal Impact

Being born to immigrant parents and having traveled internationally on numerous occasions since childhood, (including a total of 10 months during business school) I thought I had a very international perspective (at least compared to other Americans.) However, this experience—living alone a foreign country for 16 months, traveling to other countries from there, and making friends and acquaintances from all kinds of backgrounds—has certainly made me more cosmopolitan; I am now more aware of the greater international issues and of diverse viewpoints.

Above all, I have become aware of just how lucky I am to be born in a highly developed (economically) country. I will be eternally grateful for the opportunities granted me by this happenstance. Even among my colleagues in the 2005 Corps, I have recognized how fortunate I am to possess an American passport; I was able to travel easily to wherever I wanted—which was not the case with my Indian friends, for example. Also, I am grateful that my native language is the language of interchange when two parties don’t know each other’s language; I have witnessed individuals trying to converse in bad English both professionally and in my travels. However, this blessing is also a curse in that there is little incentive for native English speakers like me to learn another language,and—in fact—makes it difficult to find others with the patience listen to our mangled attempt to speak their language when their English is almost always much better.

This being said, I am not more proud of America or being American; in fact, I have become less nationalistic as I have made friends with people from all over the world and sometimes lamented with them about the policies and regulations of our governments that artificially divide us; when on a personal level, we have a much closer kinship.

In regards to international development, in some ways I am more sympathetic to our efforts (and those of other countries and organizations,) but I have also become more cynical when I see how resources are often wasted and the outcome of so many projects seem to be ineffectual. Partially due to these insights, I have decided that economic development, as a career, is not for me.

Environmental Factors

In a final, and broader assessment of the business, economic, and cultural environment of Bulgaria, I would say the greatest challenge is the low expectations of Bulgarians for themselves and others. For example, most Bulgarians own their apartments or houses (many young people have inherited the residence of a deceased grandparent); this is great, but since most don’t have a car payment either, and services & food are extremely inexpensive, much of their modest salary can be applied to discretionary spending. This means they are happy with salaries that are nearly one tenth of what similarly educated and experienced workers in the US and western Europe make. Similarly, there is a low expectation of government and civic leaders, so corruption continues to be a problem. I don’t what the solution is, as it requires a conscious change by a majority (or at least, as significant portion) of the population; I just find it frustrating to try to help a bright and capable people who are just held back by their collective fatalism.

Not gonna tell

2006-11-14T03:58:00.000-05:00

I am not going to tell you about last weekends trip to Bansko and Melnik although it was rather pleasant and interesting. Lately, this blog is sounding too much like a “what I did on summer vacation” report. Travel has to be experienced directly; there is no way that words, pictures, or even video can convey the serene yet surreal feeling of standing on a hill top near the Rozhen Monastery on a cold evening and looking out over the sandstone pyramids¹ and—in the distance—the snow-capped peaks of the Pirin range bathed in faint light just after sunset. You would just have to be there; so get out there and travel!

¹ The “sand pyramids” are a natural formation that the Melnik area is famous for.

Potato Man

2006-11-07T03:40:00.000-05:00

This weekend I rented a car again, and on Saturday, we made a day trip out to some small towns east of Plovdiv. We came across a vegetable bazaar, and upon learning that potatoes were only 38 stotinki a kilo, Mirena bought a 20 kg bag—which I am carrying back to the car in this pic.²

After returning to Sofia that evening, we went to the first of three of Barbara’s farewell dinners (the final farewell is tonight.) Barbara is Italian and works for an Italian child-welfare NGO; she was asked to move from the Bulgarian office to Ukraine—we will all miss her, especially Mirena.

The same evening, we went to the Marine Ball, because Ryan had two extra tickets from people that couldn’t come. I found it rather boring, but if I get a nice picture of us all dolled up, I will post it here for you. That’s what I’m reduced to now that I don’t have a working camera—begging others to email me their pictures.

And then there were two

On Friday, I arranged for all current and former MBAEC volunteers living in Sofia to have dinner together before Ryan and I leave this month. Most were able to attend (including Tom, who was a volunteer here in 1993, and never left.) As Americans, we are always craving spicy food here, so we met at Taj Mahal—an Indian restaurant. Sunday afternoon, our smaller group of 2005 and 2006 Corps met at the Radisson for Sunday brunch as a send off for Ryan, who is leaving today.

Life of Joel

Many of you have been wondering what my life is like now that my assignment is over. Well, many times it involves sleeping til a noonish hour, getting up and having a cup of tea or coffee³, checking my email & surfing the WWW, and then thinking about lunch. I usually bum off for the rest of the afternoon—usually reading—until Mirena gets off work. We eat out just about every day, sometimes with friends or at some kind of party or other gathering, and that’s a day!

Notes

¹ Homer Simpson uses the expression “potato man” to gain entrance to the U2 concert in episode 5F09.

² Photo credit: Mirena.

³ After years of experimenting with the gateway drugs of cola (34mg of caffeine) and tea (60mg), and resisting the entireties of family and friends to try the hard stuff—coffee (100+ mg)—I have started to drink Nescafé “3 in 1.” This is an easy to prepare, single serving package of a precision mixture of instant coffee, powdered milk, and sugar that I now use to get my caffeine kick and/or treat headaches, since I don’t have any ibuprofen anymore.

Ridin

2006-11-02T10:46:00.000-05:00

So, after not having driven a car for over a year (with the exception of a short trip in Germany last December) I finally rented a car on Saturday—a Opel Corsa like the one pictured, except it was kinda greenish with no wheel covers, and the antenna was snapped off; but what can you expect for 20 Euro a day.

On Sunday, Mirena and I were in Dolna Banya—a small town about an hour away where a Peace Corps volunteer lives and had organized that weekend’s Hash. We rewarded for the effort by perfect weather, brilliant fall colors, and—afterwards—a delicious, 5-course Bulgarian meal of salad, chicken nettle soup, rice-stuffed peppers, tender pork fillets with mashed potatoes, and—for desert—pumkin banitsa. All very tasty and surprisingly inexpensive. At first, I thought this was a picture from Mirena’s new camera phone, but since you can see her clutching it, it obviously isn’t; and it can’t be Barbara’s either—as you can she is framing up a picture on her camera. Photo credit: Niltay (I think.) I love recursion!

On Monday morning, I drove Mirena to work—to this old, Dickensonian steel mill that has probably never seen better days under state control, and now looks even worse since being bought by an Indian concern that is obviously squeezing the last bit of profit out of it before it will undoubtedly have to be shut down for not even coming close to meeting any European environmental standards. Then I drove up to Svoge to visit another Peace Corps volunteer—Jennifer. We continued up (north, but actually downhill along the Iskar River)—an area with particularly interesting geography. Our goal was the “Seven Thrones Monastery,” which was disappointing—it was just a chapel with 7 rooms—but the scenery along the way made it worthwhile.

The rest of time before turning in the car on Tuesday afternoon, I used it to make preparations for my party that evening. It’s interesting how natural it felt to be back behind the wheel, cruising out to the mall and to big-box retailer at the edge of town (I went to Praktiker—the German answer to Lowes/Home Depot to buy a new fluorescent light for my bathroom.) However, I was glad to return it—traffic around Sofia is terrible most of the day, and—although I became a shameless sidewalk parker—it’s nearly impossible to find parking space anywhere downtown.

The party itself was fairly low-key, which is to be expected for a “school night.” Mike definitely walked away with the best costume prize—he came as a blog; specifically as The Persistent Itch! He stapled favorite posts from this blog to the front of his t-shirt and pages from Ryan’s blog, Blog-aria, to his back. He said that he thought of splattering the paper with fake blood, thus being a “blog stalker,” but decided that would be in poor taste. Photo credit: Mirena

Incidentally, as I write this on Thursday evening, it has begun to snow!

Also, you may notice the list of “friends’ blogs” to the right has become significantly shorter; I've eliminated anyone who hasn't written anything in the latest 2 months—which is being generous; no use sending you there if they haven't written anything new. Hopefully this may goad some them into writing again. ;-)

Budapest revisited

2006-10-27T13:57:00.000-04:00

On September 4th, I booked tickets to Budapest¹ on Wizz airlines because the ticket was so cheap—just taxes and fees (37 Euro.) I picked the dates of October 13-16 randomly; in retrospect, I should have gone the next weekend (20-23) as this was the 50th anniversary of the 1956 uprising. I would have been able to experience all the associated events, demonstrations, and rioting that you have probably seen on TV.

This time I was on my own—no traveling companions—which was nice; I could do and see what I wanted and at my own pace—lots of walking. The weather cooperated beautifully; it was sunny and unseasonably warm all weekend—much more pleasant than December’s visist.²

Day 1 – Friday, October 13th

Thankfully, Wizz had changed their Sofia flight schedules from crack-of-dawn and late night flights to the late afternoon meaning I could leisurely mosey over to the airport—that is, if I had noticed the time and had everything packed up. The flight was uneventful, and due to the time zone difference, I arrived in Budapest at the same time I left Sofia. This time I found the bus that goes between the airport and the metro station, thus avoiding the 4400 Forint ($22) minibus service. Alighting from the metro at Deak Ter. (the central metro station) I made my way up to the street, but didn’t recognize any landmarks (I had no map, no reservations, and only a vague recollection of where the hostel was that we had stayed at last time.) However, after walking just one block, I got my bearings and found the hostel with no problem.

Day 2 – Saturday, October 14th

The goal for this day was to visit the Szechenyi Thermal Baths, which I did. I soaked in hot water of various temperatures for nearly 3 hours. In fact, I think I may have overdone it a little. Ignoring the “recommended time” signs—those are for wimps—I stayed in a steam bath and then sauna for over 20 minutes and then plunged into the icy cool-down pool. I got somewhat woozy, and my heart began racing—and continued to race for the rest of the day; guess I should have taken it easier.

After my soak, I saw Hero’s Square, and a new monument that would be unveiled the next week in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the short-lived uprising against the Soviets in 1956. At some point in the day, I also saw Hungary’s magnificent parliament building, and a remnant of the previous month’s demonstration: a tent city of protesters right in front of the parliament.

Day 3 – Sunday, October 15th

I had noticed in a tourist magazine that the Budapest Hash House Harriers was having a run this morning, so I showed up at the appointed place, and met another group of friendly expats. This particular morning, the Budapest Marathon was also taking place, so we watched some of the top runners pass us along the Danube River at about the 28 km mark before heading out for our own exercise. They aren’t quite as organized as the Sofia Hash; the first couple of minutes were spent determining where we would hash and who would be the hare—something that is determined weeks in advance in Sofia. Anyhow, we had a nice run/walk on a steep hill at the western border of old Buda. Afterward we tried a Hungarian delicacy: Lángos, which is just like “elephant ears” you would find at the state fair, except instead of powered sugar, it is covered with sour cream, cheese, and garlic sauce—it’s actually quite good.

That evening, I finally met this blog’s number one reader, Emese,³ for drinks and some real Hungarian goulash.

Day 4 – Monday, October 16th

On my last morning, I had a breakfast of palachinki again, and then set out for Gellért Hill. This is a park situated on the steep slopes over the banks of the Danube on the Buda side. It is criss-crossed walking trails that visit several important sites, most visibly, the citadel and statue of “Liberty and Freedom” at the top. After that, it was time to head to the airport for my 15:00 flight back to Sofia.

Notes

¹ Despite my expanded linguistic portfolio, I was not able to figure out much Hungarian, as it is a Finno-Ugric (non Indo-European) language. All I know for sure is that an “s” doesn’t make the “s” sound unless it is followed by a “z”; so Budapest is pronounced Budapesht, Emese is pronounced Emeshey, and bus is spelled “busz.”

² Accounts of my previous trips to Budapest can be found here:

³ Emese is this blog’s number one fan based on number of comments submitted, although Simon/Bubba is rising through the ranks.

Not Constantinople

2006-10-03T03:13:00.000-04:00

Since our assignments are all done, several of my MBAEC colleagues and I decided to meet and celebrate in Istanbul (not Constantinople.)¹ Norm left Azerbaijan on Friday, as did Ryan and Mike (from Sofia—via a night train.) As I had a wedding to attend on Saturday, (an American coworker at Serdon) I took a bus on Sunday morning, and Paris—after some complications—met us on Monday, as he was there on business.

Day 1 – Sunday, October 1, 2006

The bus ride was a pleasant enough, but long—10 hours! I opted to travel during the day, so I could see the Bulgarian and Turkish countryside pass by my window (plus I don’t sleep well in a sitting position.) It was reasonably enjoyable; I got to see a lot of Bulgaria that I’d never seen before including a major city, Haskovo, which I had previously never even heard of.

After being spoiled with the privileged of being (with) a diplomat the previous week, the experience at the border was tiresome. Mind you, not the inspection itself, which was cursory, but waiting as the buses and the luggage of passengers on those buses in front of us was thoroughly inspected. Apparently the customs officials scrutinize the cheap bus lines more often used by smugglers (of whatever) than the comparatively ritzy 40 leva “Metro Plus” bus line I was using.²

The scenery changed considerably as soon as we entered Turkey. The arid hills were dotted with a different style of houses, and the skyline was punctuated with the minarets of mosques. However, more importantly—the road went from a pothole strewn 2-lane to a 6-lane expressway.

We rolled into the outskirts of Istanbul³ around dusk and were dropped off in a maze-like, multi-story bus station. I tried to find my way out—to public transportation—but eventually gave up and paid a taxi 20 Euros (the same amount as the bus ticket from Bulgaria) to take me to the hostel in Sultanahmet, where we were staying. I looked for Ryan, Mike, and Norm, but didn’t see them; so headed out for a bite to eat, since I was famished from the bus ride. As it was after sundown during Ramadan, (or Ramazan as they call it in Turkish) there was a festive atmosphere as people were eating their first meal since breakfast.

Eventually I found my friends, and we went out to eat again—which was an adventure in and of itself! The first restaurant we tried didn’t sell beer because it was next to a mosque—which was a deal breaker for Mike—but it also didn’t have everything on the menu because the post-sundown rush of Ramadan had already cleaned them out. We settled on another one where the waiter assured us they had everything on the menu including “lavash” flat bread. When our food arrived there was no lavash, and they had substituted noodles for rice. Mike pointed this out to the waiter and even showed him on the menu that we were supposed to get rice (because the waiter said rice was extra.) After multiple trips back and forth, he admitted that these items were “finished.” Then—and this has now become our catchphrase for the journey—he said: “Yes, my friend, you are correct, but I am correct as well.”—classic!

Day 2 – Monday, October 2, 2006

Monday morning we were up bright and early for our Bosporus cruise. A minibus picked us up in front of our hotel and took us to a consolidation point—on the side of a busy highway—where we waited around and eventually got on another private bus that would take us to the boat, but first a side trip to the spice market (which we could have found on our own.) The boat trip was pricier and a bit nicer than the one Ben and I took 2 years ago⁴, but it was basically the same thing: mainly showing the multi-million dollar houses on the Asian side. We noticed that nearly each hilltop (perhaps representing a neighborhood or wealthy individual) featured a soaring flagpole and an enormous Turkish flag—the size you would only see at an American car dealership.

The explanation was given in English, German, and Spanish; and each a little different because we’d be 5 minutes further along the shore when the language would change. I couldn’t be sure, but the woman who was doing the explanations in Spanish seemed to be talking about totally different things; too bad Bulgarian has pushed out the last remaining Spanish language skillz out of my head.

After the cruise, we got off our bus at Taksim Square in order to explore the modern part of Istanbul rather than being shuttled back to Sultanahmet. As we strolled down the famous pedestrian street, İstiklal Avenue, we stopped for a quick lunch at cheap but tasty Turkish cafeteria. At the end of İstiklal, we went down a street much like the “satellite TV street” that Ben and I walked up 2 years ago, but—as Ryan noted—this was definitely “music street”; there were 100 times more stores selling musical instruments of all kinds plus sound reinforcement equipment than in all of Bulgaria—one would think there is a lot of live music in Istanbul, but we never found any. Halfway down the hill, we stopped to go up the Galata Tower for the panoramic view and the obligatory pictures.

That afternoon a Turkish girl, which Mike had met on a previous trip here, took us to a few leather goods stores because Mike wanted to buy a leather jacket. After visiting a few stores, trying on innumerable jackets, and—of course—haggling, the jacket was bought. As usual, I was bored, but started looking at jackets for myself, and found a really nice one I liked for 400 Lira, unfortunately I did not buy it—as you know, I am not an impulsive shopper. The stores were spacious, modern edifices, but soul-less; I imagine their predecessor was a chaotic, crowded marketplace like the Grand Bazaar or spice market—an unfortunate change.

Day 3 – Tuesday, October 3, 2006

Tuesday, the occupancy of our hostel room decreased by 75% as Mike—the only one of us with a job—had to head out early to catch a flight back to Sofia and get back behind his desk that morning. The rest of us had our breakfast of one hard-boiled egg, one slice of tomato and cucumber, one olive, a piece of white cheese, and some bread. Thus fortified, we set out for another day of touristing. Ryan and Norm went to check out the Topkapı Palace, and I—because I had seen the palace on my previous trip—went to see Hagia Sofia (the vast Byzantine-era church turned mosque, then—in the last century—into a museum.) For comparison, I also checked out the Blue Mosque (Sultan Ahmed Mosque) next door; it is smaller, but notable for being the only mosque in Turkey with 6 minarets. After wandering around the old town for a while, I met up with Norm and Ryan again and had lunch. Then we hit the spice market for souvenirs—especially Turkish delight (of which Norm eventually bought 10 kilos for his friends and coworkers in Azerbaijan—they are a big fan of anything from Turkey.)

That evening we finally met up with Paris, who was staying near Taksim Square. For the second night in a row, we ate a seafood restaurant. Here I saw something I’ve never seen before: a large fish, encrusted in a thick layer of salt, baked in an oven. The waiter brings it to the table, chisels it out of the salt, de-bones it, and then servers everyone at the table (usually four.) It looks good; I’ll have to try that sometime.

Since Paris had a business meeting on the other side of town the next morning, and Ryan & I had to catch the bus back to Sofia at 9:00, we made a short night of it. It was great that we were able to reunite at the end of our assignment; we were five of the eleven 2005 Corps—a pretty good turn out, considering that three had finished early and were already back home.

Notes

¹ Berlin, Irving; Kennedy, Jimmy. “Istanbul (Not Constantinople).” 1929. (most recently covered by They Might Be Giants.)

² From what I experienced, the main benefit of using “Metro Plus” is its modern buses with toilets—which, however are used as storage space—and an iridescent-silver and blue haired “stewardess” who served us tea and snacks.

³ Spelled İstanbul in Turkish—yeah, even a capital “i” has to have a dot over it.

⁴ See http://joel.froese.com/sb04.htm for the account of my previous trip to Istanbul.

All photographs in this post are courtesy of Norm.

Serbia

2006-09-23T03:34:00.000-04:00

Road Trip
September 22 is Independence Day in Bulgaria, so we have a 3-day weekend. Ryan, Kat, Ian, and I decided what better way to celebrate this than a road trip to another country. So, Friday morning we all packed into her car and headed for the border. The road trip itself was rather uneventful as the highways in Serbia are generally nicer than in Bulgaria; at times, we could imagine we were driving on a rural interstate in middle America. On the way back we discussed whether it looked more like western Ohio (my choice), Iowa, or Kentucky—you get the idea. Furthermore, we were 4 Americans riding in an SUV listening to American music from our iPods; the only thing that hinted to our location was the occasional sign listing the towns and villages we were passing in Cyrillic and Latin.

Beograd
We only had a map of downtown Beograd (I can’t figure out why we call it Belgrade,) but amazingly had little problem finding our hotel in the old town. Arriving in the late afternoon, we again had a hard time finding lunch (as Ben & I did 2 years ago; click here and scroll down to day 7), but we eventually satiated our hunger and thirst. Over the next two days we explored area churches and museums centering around Knez Mihailova Street—a beautiful pedestrian area in the heart of the old town, again something sorely missing in Sofia. Saturday afternoon we took a one and a half hour boat tour up and down the Sava River, which was nice except for the industrial areas on the Sava; they should have shown us more of the Danube instead. Sunday, before we left, we head west to the town Zemun, which used to mark the eastern extent of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and retains much of the architectural elements of this civilization. This is one of the nice benefits of having a car; we would not have made the effort by bus or taxi.

Serbo-Croatian
The Serbian, Croatian, and Bosnian languages are actually dialects of each other (but, since each hates each the other’s guts, they insist that they each have a unique language.) Like Bulgarian, Serbo-Croatian is a Slavic language, and aside from Macedonian (which, in reality is a dialect of Bulgarian) is most closely related to Bulgarian—much like German and Dutch, I suppose. As such, we were able to make out most signs and understand a good bit of what people said (OK, not me, but Kat—she studied Bulgarian for 5 months versus our 2 months.) However, none of us felt comfortable trying to speak it for fear of being doubly wrong; at least in Bulgaria people can tell we are trying to speak their language. Serbs could probably understand a Bulgarian, but not necessarily an American’s mangled Bulgarian. One interesting difference is that this language has a direct, official, and unambiguous mapping to a (modified) Latin alphabet (e.g. the “sh” sound made by the Cyrillic ш is represented in Latin as š.) Practically, this means the more universal Latin alphabet is increasingly used in Serbia (and already exclusively in Croatia.) Bulgaria, on the other hand, will never abandon the Cyrillic alphabet, as they take pride in the fact that Cyril and Methodius invented it here.

Diplomatic Immunity!¹
At the border, there was a line of truck on both sides waiting to clear customs at least 2 or 3 miles long; we estimate that many of them would be there for at least 12 hours. Passenger vehicles, on the other hand, could carefully pass trucks along the winding 2-lane road leading to the border. We had even another advantage when we reached the border complex (exit control, disinfection, immigration, customs, and road tax booths); since Kat was a foreign service officer, and her vehicle had diplomatic tags, we were whisked in front of everyone into the corps diplomatique express line. I couldn’t help but chuckle “ha, suckers!” at the mere mortals who had to wait an additional half hour.

Contest
Since three of us are bloggers, there is now an unofficial contest going. I obviously win the “quickest to blog” award since I posted part of this from an Internet café on Saturday. Ryan and Ian are now vying for the most interesting and most humorous awards.

¹Lethal Weapon 2. 1989. [IMDB]

Scavengers

2006-09-11T06:02:00.000-04:00

Friday afternoon was a moving day of sorts at Serdon. Namely, we were moving stuff that had been accumulating over the years from the attic storage room to the new apartment (which will be renovated into new offices) and—more often—to the dumpsters on the street. It was a dusty, dirty, and strenuous affair; the attic is five floors up and there is no elevator in this building. After the first trip down to the street, I wondered how long it would take before ~~gypsies~~…er, Roma would show up to scavenge recyclable metal from the junk we were brining down. Well, I quickly found out, because on the second trip, they were already there picking through the old furniture and office equipment, prying and hacking off any piece of metal for which they could get a few stotinki. Later that afternoon, I took this picture; note, the only thing left is wood and plastic—impressive.

Farewell Julia

On Sunday, we had an (inexplicably German) brunch at Flannagans (Raddison Hotel) for Julia, and then another get-together that evening in advance of her returning to the USA—in fact, tonight she will already be back in her native Chicago, where she will likely be able to continue to practice her Bulgarian with cab drivers. (inside joke: Julia has a lot of colorful taxi stories from Sofia, and Chicago does indeed have a large Bulgarian population.)

Below are the men of the MBA Enterprise Corps, inconsiderate as always, standing in front of the guest of honor, Julia—the only female of the 2005 Corps—on her last day in Sofia. Thanks for putting up with us for 13 months! Left to right: Mike (formerly MBAEC in Romania), Ryan, myself, Julia, Paris, Ian (2006 Corps.) The Bulgarian national parliment is behind us.

Fall is here

2006-08-31T03:55:00.000-04:00

This week has been characterized by a distinct turn toward autumn. Starting with last Saturday’s hike in the mountains near Sliven, I have begun to notice that the leaves in certain trees are already turning colors and even falling. And, for the first time, I had to dig out my sweaters and jackets; the past few days have been particularly nasty: blustery, cool, and rainy. If you click on the weather bug to the right, you’ll see just how chilly it is—and it’s still August! Of course, this is a temporary cold spell, and it will get warmer again, but the trend to cooler weather is unmistakable now as I head into my second Bulgarian winter.

Sliven

2006-08-27T13:25:00.000-04:00

Friday morning Paris picked me up in front of my apartment, and we headed out on our 4-hour road trip to Sliven (Сливен.) This was to be our 3rd and final "Internet Marketing" seminar, and despite the promise of a big crowd by Greg, the Peace Corps volunteer (PCV) who organized it, we were disappointed to find an audience of only 5. Lesson learned: when there is no cost involved, people don't value it (it was a free seminar that had been well-publicized in the business community in and around Sliven.)

On Saturday we set out for a hike in the mountains just north of town. Rather me retelling the entire story, I'll just have you click here for Jamie's (another PCV) account of the weekend's events.

The Islands

2006-08-24T05:47:00.000-04:00

Again, rather than a long narrative, I’m just going to give you some vital statistics and pictures.

Islands visited:

Barbados
St. Vincent & The Grenadines

Bequia
Mustique
Canouan
Mayreau
Tobago Cays
Union Island
Petit Saint Vincent
Palm Island
other small, uninhabited islands

Great Britain

Equipment:

British Airways 737 to London
Virgin Atlantic 747 to Barbados
Grenadines Airlines DHC-6-300 (20-seater) to Canouan
Moorings 4300 catamaran sailing yacht
DHC-6-300 back to Barbados (with a quick stop on Union Island)
Virgin Atlantic 747 back to London
British Airways 737 back to Sofia (arriving 4:30am!)

Currency in my wallet:

Barbados Dollar
East Caribbean Dollar
US Dollar
English Pound
Bulgarian Leva

Our crew (minus Micah & Debby, who were taking the picture): Simon, Sarah, Pop, Mom, Joel, Mirena.

The Froeses chilling on Mayreau Island.

Captain Simon at the helm, Sarah supervising, and yours truly trimming the jib.

Brothers Micah & Joel hauling up the mainsail (as ordered by Capt. Simon) as mother watches.

Argh Pirates

2006-08-14T20:58:00.000-04:00

...of the Caribbean! We are sailing the Grenadines, having a great time. Simon is the captain of our home on the sea—a 43 foot catermaran. Every island, beach, and reef is more beutiful than the one before. Everyone is sunburned, but we can't help but getting more so. We never know what time or day it is—it's Caribbean time, mon! (BTW, the latest installment of Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed here.)

Preparations

2006-08-10T06:34:00.000-04:00

OK, below are pictures to go along with the previous post.

This week has been somewhat hectic since I am getting prepared to got to the Caribbean for the big Froese family sailing trip, but it will all be good once I’m on the plane to London tomorrow morning.

D’oh! Terrorist plot in UK…I guess I had better prepare for interminable delays and additional inspections. And there goes my plan to just throw a couple of shorts and t-shirts into my backpack in order to avoid the hassle of checking luggage. Well, at least it’s now the safest time to travel; Seriously, what terrorist is going to do something now? They are going to wait until later, “when you least expect it.”

[UPDATE] I've been informed that I need to be at the Sofia airport 2 hours ahead of the scheduled 5:15 departure of the first leg to London-Gatwick; this means I have to be in the taxi at 2:30, which means I’ll set my alarm for 2:00. Argh!

Mirena, Megan (new MBAEC volunteer), and Julia thoughtfully consider a Cosmo quiz.

Yours truly on one of the charming pedestrian street of Vratsa.

In Vratsa, they are counting down the days until EU accession; I guess today it says 148. At this point every assumes that 1/1/2007 is a firm date—I agree; short of going to war with someone, the EU will accept Bulgaria and Romania next year regardless of how well (or—more likely—poorly) they do on their required reforms.

Life of Joel

2006-08-09T04:19:00.000-04:00

There is a certain young lady my own age who is apparently living vicariously through my blog when she’s not chasing one of her 3 screaming kids around the house; she recently chided me for not writing more about my exciting life in Sofia, Bulgaria—so here goes.

Saturday morning I awoke to the sound of rain on my windowsill. That obviously scratched my plan to get out on my bike, and threatened to ruin plans to go to the pool at noon as well (one of my friends suggested this, and I had rounded up a group of about 6-7 to go to cool off, as it had been quite hot in Sofia recently.) Well, noon came and went as a thunderstorm pelted rain against my windows as I goofed off in my living room. Finally, at about 2 o’clock the clouds parted to reveal an unusually clear blue sky (sans the perpetual layer of smog hanging over Sofia.) It was refreshingly cooler, so no one was interested in swimming, but by 3 o’clock it was dry enough and perfect for cycling; so after 3 weeks of collecting dust in the corner of my apartment, I took my bike out for a 2+ hour spin in the gritty northwest quadrant beyond the ring road—it didn’t look half bad, thanks to the beautiful weather.

That evening, I met Mirena and the two new MBAEC volunteers at Julia’s place for appetizers before we headed out for dinner. Alas, the most exciting part of the evening was flipping through an old copy of Cosmopolitan after our meal—it was actually interesting get a mixed perspective from one each of a male and female newcomer and veteran American expats, as well as a Bulgarian.

Sunday afternoon I joined Mirena for a trip to Vratsa, an industrial town north of Sofia. She had to inspect some real estate for a British client, and I thought I’d tag along just to see another part of Bulgaria. The two hour bus ride up there was pleasant enough despite the fact that the bus was so old (and apparently underpowered) it slowed to 30 km/h while going up-hill in the mountains at some points. The town itself looked as gritty as I expected, but after walking through the center, I found it had an extensive network of pleasant pedestrian streets set among delightful cafes and shops. This is something Sofia really lacks; even though Vitosha Boulevard is now closed to traffic in the heart of the shopping district, trams still rumble through every 5-10 minutes as well as occasional police cars, garbage trucks, and such—meaning you can’t really stroll leisurely down the center of the street.

Neither here nor there

2006-08-05T06:51:00.000-04:00

I had an especially poignant experience this week. On Wednesday, I received an email from Washington with a travel request form and instructions stating to return it by August 24th. The MBAEC will buy my ticket back home for any day between October 1st and December 30th, but I have to make the decision by the 24th of this month. I can’t believe this adventure is so close to ending!

However, on Friday, it was back to the “Immigration Police” station to renew my Lichna Karta (ID card and, more practically, my visa.) My current one expires on the 18th, so I have to renew it for at least another 6 months (thankfully at no additional cost to me.)

I don’t know whether I am coming or going!

At the same time, two new MBAEC volunteers—Ian and Megan—are now in town, and I am reminded of how I felt when I just arrived last year and the previous group—Rich, Maury, and Karen—were giving us the lowdown on living and working in Bulgaria. Now the roles are reversed: I am the grizzled veteran, and they are the idealistic rookies.

Romanian Epilogue

2006-07-26T12:25:00.000-04:00

I have to say, I really liked Romania. I came with low expectations, because my Bulgarian friends and colleagues tend to bad-mouth their neighbor to the north, but found their warnings to be unwarranted. Transylvania is especially pleasant, but even Bucharest is worth seeing. Its broad streets and boulevards are crowded with cars, but at least you can negotiate the sidewalk—which you can’t always do in Sofia. There are ostentatious projects like Ceausescu’s People’s Palace and beautifully maintained parks, but I mainly enjoyed the hustle and bustle of big city—again, something Sofia is not.

That being said, I didn’t find Romania to be very tourist friendly. It seems like all people want to do is pry lei (or Euros) from foreigners. Taxi cab drivers are always hesitant to tell you what the price of a trip is going to be, but when pressed they give a price 3 times higher than it’s supposed to be, after which you bargain down to half of that (or, if you’re good like Mike, back to the correct price.) Compounding this problem, there are currently two currencies in circulation the old leu (ROL) and new leu (RON); the new leu is worth 10,000 old lei (about $2.84.) Prices are officially listed in new leu, but everyone still refers to old leu prices, so if something is 10 lei, they will say it costs 100,000 or just 100. Adding to the confusion, after a couple of purchases, you will always be paying with mixed currency—you have to remember 10,000=1, 500,000=50, and so on. I am convinced they are trying to keep the old currency around as long as possible in order to confuse people (and rip them off.)

Below are some pictures from my extended weekend in Romania. These are courtesy of Mike’s camera, since none of my cameras work anymore.

This is a time-exposure I took of the fountain on Piaţa Mare in Sibiu. Mike says this piazza was a muddy mess last winter, but—as you can see—they did it up right!

These are Mike’s Romanian friends (you know I’m bad at remembering names), Mike, and myself at Lac Balea. Yes, that is snow in the background!

Check out this winding, switch-backed road set in this beautiful glacial valley—looks like a car commercial, doesn’t it. Good for cycling too; we saw numerous cyclists climbing and descending.

Mike and his landlord, Joseph, with his two East German Trabants. The blue one is a 1979 model and the (newly painted) orange one is a 1990! See any difference? Of course not! Only a capitalist would make changes to a perfectly good car from year to year just to befuddle the poor consumers and make them pick up the additional cost of re-tooling the factory. ;-) Joseph is retired and spends his days tinkering around with these and other projects. He is of Hungarian descent, and speaks a little bit of German.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

2006-07-23T06:58:00.000-04:00

Mike, my MBAEC colleague in Romania—and who I went sailing with last month—is finishing his assignment in Sibiu, Romania, so this weekend was the last possible opportunity for me to visit him—and therefore Romania. So Thursday morning I boarded a plane to Bucharest, and then took at train north to Transylvania (cue the spooky music.) No, actually, Transylvania is one of the cleaner, more bucolic and well-preserved parts of Eastern Europe—I am really impressed. Sibiu, the city that Mike lives in (until Monday,) is undergoing a revitalization that is turning it into a picture-postcard of what you think an old European town should look like. BTW, Sibiu is also called Hermannstadt, because of the large ethic German population that lived in this area until recently—in fact it is still common to hear German spoken here.

Saturday we drove to the mountains for a little relief from the sweltering heat. Mike’s friend/colleague has a car so we drove up to Lac Belea, a pond nestled near the crest of the Carpathian Mountains. Climbing above the tree line, we entered a broad, glacial valley where remnants of last winter’s snow packs were still melting in to rivulets that joined into a mighty stream that threw itself into the valley below in a magnificent waterfall—all quite breathtaking. Despite the rugged surrounding, the road up (with its numerous switchbacks) is in a very good shape, which is one thing I can say for Romania in general—they have invested a lot more in infrastructure than Bulgaria since the end of communism.

Tomorrow, we go to Sighisoara where Mike finishes his last project, before we head to Bucharest. I return to Sofia on Tuesday and Mike leaves Romania on Wednesday. It was good to have an American friend here to show me around, talk about sailing, and to share our gripes about the development industry in general.

As you can tell, I’ve returned to the original purpose of this blog—namely a travelogue—after briefly flirting with being a technology pundit in the previous post. I’ve got to admit, I was feeling pretty heady on Thursday when this article rose to #3 for a while on Reddit.com and hit Digg.com. I conservatively estimate (based on up-votes and comments) that between 1000 and 2000 people read it over the last 72 hours—I think I really hit a chord with Internet users—but now my proverbial “15 minutes of fame” are over.

Email is broken

2006-07-19T09:32:00.000-04:00

I have recently come to the conclusion that the current Internet email infrastructure is broken, and can never be fixed.

Like you, I am beleaguered by junk email (spam) flooding all of my email accounts. My primary email comes through the Mozilla Thunderbird client, which has a powerful Bayesian filter that I’ve trained by marking spam as “junk.” It then compares the words (and other elements) of incoming email with the ones I marked as junk, and the good ones (not marked as “junk”.) Eventually it becomes very good at discriminating against spam, which automatically goes to the junk mail folder. I occasionally check this “junk” folder for false positives (legitimate emails incorrectly determined to be spam—something that rarely happens) and click on the “not junk” button, training it that these are OK.

I recently received the following strange spam email. It wasn’t trying to sell anything, it didn’t even contain a link; it just contained the following excerpts from a story:

sopping wet from head to toe. I locked myself in a stall, got my flask,
faster. He was flying now straight down, at two hundred fourteen miles per
something like a vessel, like a glass jar with blue syrup. We looked at it
The next night from the Flock came Kirk Maynard Gull, wobbling across

I’ve seen a paragraph or two of generic text like this at the bottom of emails selling Viagra, debt refinancing, etc. It’s an attempt to make the email look more “normal” to Bayesian filters, and therefore not get automatically marked as spam. But this one didn’t make any sense; why would anyone send out millions of useless messages like these?

Well, I think I’ve figured it out: this is likely a concerted effort by spammers to cause our Bayesian filters system to mark more false positives, which will then make us either abandon it, or spend a lot of time sifting through our junk folder (hopefully pausing on one of their subsequent spam mail.) Therefore, if you receive an email like this, DO NOT mark it as spam, just delete it; otherwise, you will start to get false positives (i.e. emails from acquaintances may get marked as spam.)

BTW, the way these spammers operate is to propagate a virus or Trojan horse that compromises thousands of machines around the world to become unwitting “spam-bots” churning out spam at their command (remotely.) The distributed nature of this system makes it nearly impossible to strike back in any meaningful way. These creeps are then contracted to send out millions of emails by shady business people selling questionable product. These “businesses” purposely create websites in the guise of shell identities with incorrect or missing contact information to avoid the onslaught of negative emails, phone calls, faxes, and personal visits they would otherwise receive from millions of irate email users—point being: don’t waste any time and effort to complain.

My real problem is not so much with these ingenious people, but with the few idiots who actually respond to these offers. Coming from the direct mail sector, I know that you generally have to get a 1% response rate to make a mailing profitable (covering printing, postage, and list rental cost.) However, since emails have $0 printing cost, $0 delivery cost, and a $0-$3 per million list cost; you can still be quite profitable with less than a 1 in 10,000 response rate. Therefore, to the idiots out there who think that male enhancement products really work, or that you can get safe Viagra without going to your doctor please, PLEASE, do us all a favor and don’t respond to these emails, just Google these products and find a less-slimy vendor to do business with!

[UPDATE] I’ve posted this to my favorite social book-marking site, reddit.com, where it has started an interesting discussion. My detractors think that these messages are just dumb mistakes by the spammers; I would agree, but I’ve seen 3 separate instances of this now. Obviously, if these emails sounded more like your standard friendly email, it would be more effective at subverting Bayesian filters (even though these get quite specific—tailored to the way your friends write.) But I suspect each one is unique (to prevent filtering at the ISP level,) and coming up with millions of real email conversations is practically impossible. Therefore, I propose they just take excerpts from literature found online—so as not to sound like ad copy. The other issue is that most spam originates from this part of the world (Eastern Europe & Russia) bereft of native English speakers.

In any case, it looks like the spammers are not satisfied with just reaching a dim-witted audience, they want to make sure that tech-savy Internet users will have to eye-ball their (clients') offerings as well—which makes no sense.

Name Day

2006-07-13T01:52:00.000-04:00

Today is my name day (Имен Ден.) This is the day that your name sake saint was born, and is celebrate like another birthday. Practically, this means I will take chocolates to work this morning (черпия), and—because this may be the only chance I have to celebrate it in a place where people understand the significance—I will have a small party at my place this evening.

Actually, it is not a Bulgarian name day, since Joel is not used in this part of the world; but this practice is known to a lesser extent throughout Europe. I found out about my name day from this site. Check it out, you may have another day to celebrate too!

Jet Crash

2006-07-07T09:40:00.000-04:00

I submit the following for your amusement—another gem of Bulgarian journalism.

Irish Teen Killed in Jet Crash in Bulgaria
Top news: 7 July 2006, Friday.

A 17-year-old Irish boy died in crash between two jets in the sea near Bulgaria's northern resort "Golden Sands".

Varna police reported that the accident took place on Friday around 2 pm some 100-150meters away from the coast. Two Irish brothers aged 15 and 17 rented the jet.

According to preliminary reports after the crash the teenager was smashed by the other jet. The most probable reason for the crash was speeding.

The two boys and their parents were on holiday in Bulgaria.

Sofia News Agency. 7 July 2006.

As you may know, my brother has had his pilot’s license since he was 17, so I flew around with him when we were still teen-agers. Therefore, my first thought was “you can rent jet airplanes in Bulgaria? Cool!” Then l realized they were talking about jet skis or wave runners. My favorite part of the story is “…probable reason for the crash was speeding.” No, I’m pretty sure the cause was that they crossed paths!

Of course, I don’t want to make light of the terrible tragedy that has befallen this family; just the reporting.

Happy 4th!

2006-07-04T07:26:00.000-04:00

I hope you all are enjoying your 4th of July. Here in Bulgaria, we call it Tuesday¹—it’s a normal workday. However tonight, all eyes will be focused on the World Cup semi-final game: Germany vs. Italy. Obviously I will be rooting for Germany, and trying to get my Italian friend, Barbara, to face the TV and watch—she is convinced that she can jinx her own team by watching.

It’s funny how we Americans actually think that the Super Bowl is a big deal, and that we actually put any credence into the claim that there are 3 billion potential viewers of this event. Let’s face it, there are only 300 million Americans from which to draw an audience for this obscure sport most of the world calls “NFL.” Football (or soccer, as we call it), on the other hand, is played by and followed by nearly every male on this planet regardless of nationality, background, or wealth. Even the most dilapitated hovels in the poorest ghettos around world will glow blue tonight as a significant percentage of the world’s population sits on the edge of their seats and cheers for their favorite team (or at least the one they hate the least.)

That being said, you all know I’m not much of a sports fan, and quite frankly find this a bit tedious at times—well, at least it's only 90 minutes long. Now, if the field was half as big, and goals occurred at least every 15-20 minutes I might get more excited.

¹ Stallone, Sylvester. Rocky. 1976. Adrian: “But it's Thanksgiving.” Rocky: “Yeah to you, but to me it's Thursday.”

It’s all Greek to me

2006-06-26T07:26:00.000-04:00

I went to the Greece for the weekend with the Sofia Hash House Harriers. That’s one of the great things about living here; Greece, Turkey, etc. are just a “road trip” away—in fact, I didn’t know I was going until Wednesday! Anyhow, I was great: clear skies, clear water, incredible scenery, and charming villages. At some points, however, it all runs together: Turkey 2 weeks ago, Australia last year, Bahamas the year before…I am spoiled. Which is why I am so glad I invited my Bulgarian friend, Mirena, to come along. She had never been to Greece, and greeted everything with wide-eyed amazement and appreciation.

For a more detailed account of our trip, see Ryan's blog.

As far as the title goes, I don’t know a word of Greek, and the babble between locals sounded almost like Italian to me. However, thanks to learning the Cyrillic alphabet (which is loosely based on the Greek), I now can figure out a lot of Greek signs and sound out words that had been previously undecipherable. A lot of letters are the same (or at least similar): the Cyrillic 'F' Ф is nearly indistinguishable from the Greek Phi Φ in any font, and it is easy to see that the Cyrillic 'D'Д comes from the Greek delta Δ. Others I've picked up over the years from math and such: Θθ (theta), Σσ (sigma) for example; so Thassos is spelled θασος. Most poignant was a sign on the way back, pointing home: ΣοΦία.

Send lawyers, guns and money!

2006-06-23T04:10:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, all American expats in Bulgaria received the following email from the embassy.

Subject: Information Needed for the Embassy's Emergency Preparedness

Dear American Citizen,

As part of Embassy's efforts to be prepared to provide assistance to the private American community in the country in case of an emergency, we need to know what resources within this community we may rely on. This is why we would appreciate it if you would tell us whether you have skills, such as languages other than English and Bulgarian, special expertise (for example, Engineer, medical doctor), as well as handy possessions (radios, helicopters, etc.) If possible, we would be grateful if we would receive your reply by June 27. Best regards,

Anna Radivilova
Vice Consul
U.S. Embassy Sofia

Ok, so I understand they would like to know of any doctors or medical professionals in the community which they could rely on in case of a disaster, but an engineer?! I can see it now: “Quick, we need someone to design a McGyveresque device to help us escape these villainous Bulgarians!”

And “…handy possessions”?! Again, I understand the value of a ham radio operator in case of wide-spread calamity, but a) what American expat has a private helicopter in Bulgaria, and b) would be willing to use it to—in fall-of-Saigon style—pick people off the roof of the embassy?

I’m sorry, but this email is just begging for ridicule, and—we in the expat community—are happy to oblige. Ryan wrote a humorous reply that he ~~will hopefully~~ has posted on his blog: TravelWithRyan.blogspot.com “He is a very shy and gentle man, but perhaps we could persuade him…Shall we ask him?”²

¹ Zevon, Warren. Excitable Boy. “Lawyers, Guns, and Money.” 1978.
² Abrams, Zucker, Zucker. Top Secret. 1984

Doosie pothole

2006-06-19T02:49:00.000-04:00

With few exceptions, the roads in Bulgaria are in a serious state of disrepair. This is just something that everyone here gets used to and even jokes about—this is why the picture here (circulated by email—originator unkown) is so funny to us. Lately, the new mayor of Sofia has made an effort to address this; but most street remain pothole-strewn.

I chuckle when I think of the great lengths we go to barricade and demarkate construction sites in America. Here, there is a greater assumption of responsiblity by the general public—namely, watch out!

Pothole "Swallows" Jeep in Sofia
Politics: 15 June 2006, Thursday.

An entire Land Cruiser jeep fell into an enormous pothole in Sofia's Slatina neighbourhood, media reported. Local Nova TV reported that the accident took place at the "Ivan Shterev" street. Workers dug the whole the previous day, but left no signals for the threat. The driver was taken to Pirogov emergency institute. He suffered a broken arm and some other light injuries.

To read more unintentionally humorous stories like this, check out Sofia News Agency novinite.com I do this every morning for my daily chuckle. This is actually quite representative of Bulgarian journalism; more fluff than hard-hitting, investigative reporting. In fact, many times I find they even forget the basics: who, what, where, when, and how—seriously, I'll often finish reading a story and ask my self, "Wait, when or where did this happen?"

Comments

2006-06-16T05:06:00.000-04:00

Today's Pearls Before Swine is especially poignant. My response is that I've always assumed my readers to commenters ratio must be close to 100:1. However, I refuse to put a counter on my blog (or use Google Analytics) because I feel it’s better not to know this—in the same way you’re not supposed to know what your own IQ is. If knew I had hundreds of readers, I would get a big head; and if it was just a handful, I'd be discouraged. Ignorance is bliss.

Turkey Observations

2006-06-14T05:20:00.000-04:00

Rather than a “what I did over summer vacation” post, I’ll just list some random observations from my trip.

The Turkish people we met are genuinely friendly and helpful; everywhere we went we were greeted by “Yes, please” (well, OK, they were always trying to sell us something.) Mike remarked that in Greece everyone seems to run away when you need to berth your boat, but in Turkey, they run to help you. Not just marina staff either—we had restaurant staff, ice cream vendors, and even a nearby gullet crew help us tie up our boat.
Technology is ubiquitous. Even in seemingly remote areas, we always had cell phone coverage; and in the marinas, I always managed to find WiFi access.
This part of Turkey is full of big, expensive boats; marinas were packed and every little cove seemed to have a boat or two anchored.
Tourists to Turkey’s southern coastal towns & resorts are almost entirely composed of Germans and Brits. American never seem to come here—everyone guessed us to be either British, Australian, or even South African.
Sailing is a wonderful way to spend your vacation—and a good value for a group of 5-10 people. It’s not luxurious, but it’s so much fun, and you get to see places you couldn’t otherwise (even on an organized boat trip.)
Sailing is actually easy; of the myriad of lines, winches, and cleats on a boats deck, you really only use 3 while underway: the main sheet, and the 2 jib sheets. Blinky (that’s what we called the autopilot) will do the steering for you, and navigation is a cinch thanks to GPS chart plotters.
I really don’t like SCUBA. Yes, it’s cool to explore a world under the waves, but I do it just to keep current (ironically, so I can keep diving!)

Pictures

2006-06-09T03:43:00.000-04:00

Just a few more pictures for now—for those back home, be prepared to be overwhelmed by hundreds of pictures and videos that Simon & Sarah are bringing back.

Karacaoren—the bay where we anchored Wednesday night (and had dinner.)
Our boat—the Ali II—is the one on the right (foreground.)Joel at the helm of the Ali II

sailing

2006-06-06T01:12:00.000-04:00

Can’t write now, so I’m just going to post a picture...because we all know a picture is worth a thousand words. I took this from the dingy that we tow behind the boat. (BTW, the boat is registered in Bergen, Norway—hence the flag.) Mike is at the helm (which we all got a turn to do,) Jeff is in front of him (mostly obscured), Simon is getting his toes wet, and Sarah is apparently below deck. We’re all having a great time and learning a lot about sailing too.

Göcek

2006-06-03T06:03:00.000-04:00

Arrived at the port of Göcek this morning, where I met Simon and Sarah. After a bite of breakfast, we headed to pier H to see our yacht; all we could say—sweet! Now we’ve got to stock up on provisions and wait for Mike & Jeff. Just wanted to post this pictures to “make your eyes hurt” (inside joke.)

Limbo

2006-06-02T15:00:00.000-04:00

Today—as the rest of my colleague at Serdon were heading to a company retreat in Bansko—I slept late, then packed my backpack, and took care of a few last minute errands with the help of Mirena before heading to the airport for my late afternoon flight to Istanbul. Right now, I am now writing and posting this from the Attaturk Airport thanks the free (but slow) wireless Internet service. Tomorrow morning at 7:00 it’s on to Dalaman to meet Simon, Sarah, Mike, and his friend Jeff where we take possession of home and transportation for the next 7 days—a 41 foot sail boat. So, for tonight, I’ll just be hanging around the airport, as it doesn’t make sense to try to do anything in the intervening 8 hours. In any case, I look forward to our adventure starting tomorrow!

Blogging blahs

2006-05-29T04:13:00.000-04:00

I was going to write about our nice little mid-week holiday last Wednesday (Cyril & Methodious Day) and about my first bike ride on Saturday, but I just don’t feel like it—sorry. My mind is already drifting to vacation; this time next week I will be sailing off the coast of Turkey with Mike (MBAEC volunteer in Romania,) his friend, and Simon & Sarah. Should be a good time—I’m really looking forward to it, and promise to write all about it afterward.

Seniors Rule!

2006-05-22T10:16:00.000-04:00

There was a giddy sense of excitement throughout Sofia over the weekend. High school kids around Bulgaria graduate on or about this date, and they are not reticent in letting everybody know of this achievement. Beginning on Wednesday night, I heard groups of high school senior yelling, “edno, dve, tree…” (1,2,3…up to 12 in Bulgarian) followed by a big yay, and then—within 30 seconds—starting over again. Then on Friday and Saturday evening, they were driving or being driven around town: car horns honking, hanging out of windows and sunroofs; and, of course, continuously hollering. Apparently, part of the graduation festivities is a formal dance—much like a high school prom in the US, but only for seniors.

Report Card Day

2006-05-16T10:30:00.000-04:00

Today, the long-awaited EU progress report for Bulgaria (and Romania) was released. Speculation has been rampant on whether BG & RO would accede to the European Union on the original date of January 2007 or be “held back” for another year. Well, the news is good, but not certain. The European Commission said, “Romania and Bulgaria were on track to join…but they must speed up reforms in several areas.” Most notably, the EU is—understandably— concerned by inaction on the anti-corruption front. The final decision will not be made until early October; so, like a procrastinating student, Bulgaria has dodged the bullet and gotten another extension. Never the less, this evening we shall raise our glasses of Rakia and toast to EU ascension.

The Post-Mall Era

2006-05-15T08:34:00.000-04:00

Friday marks an important day in the millennia of the history of the Bulgars. Before 12 May 2006, there was no purpose-built edifice dedicated to consumerism that we all know and love as “the mall” (мол in Bulgarian.) I know this sounds bombastic, but it’s actually quite significant* and especially poignant for me, an American. I am no mall rat, but as I wandered through “City Center Sofia” on the first full day of shopping on Saturday, I felt the palpable warmth, familiarity, and comfort of this temple of capitalism, even when looking out of the 4th floor windows on the distinctively Bulgarian scenes on Cherni Vrah Blvd. Later this month, another high-rise, downtown mall is scheduled to open in Sofia—no doubt the beginning of a new era of shopping in Bulgaria. Understand, I am not disparaging nor exulting this—just making an observation. I'm glad they have this new choice, while at the same time lamenting some of the inevitable changes it will bring.

*Well, actually there is a multi-story shopping center with all kinds of high-end boutiques smack in the middle of town called ЦУМ (TzUM.) However, since this is the old (communist) “Central Universal Store”, Bulgarians don’t consider this a real mall. Other Eastern European countries (especially Poland) have taken to malls like fish to water, and the trend extends to all kinds of rising economies around the world according to a Newsweek International article I read a couple of months ago.

Cinco de Mayo

2006-05-08T02:00:00.000-04:00

My Синко дей Майо party was a great success. At one point, there were over 30 people in my little apartment. On numerous occasions, we had to explain why we Americans celebrate a Mexican holiday, as it was about half and half Americans vs. Bulgarians (with a Turkish couple and a Macedonian guy thrown in for good measure.) If you measure a party by its clean-up, this one was even better than my birthday party; I took out over 10 bags of trash, and had mop the floors 3 times to get it clean.

May Day

2006-05-02T10:18:00.000-04:00

Chestit Praznik! (which, I found out from banners flying today, means "happy [any] holiday") This makes the second Monday off in a row—it's going to be hard to get used to 5-day work days again! The first of May has historically been labor day or "worker's day" around the world (except US, Canada, etc. because of the communist flavor of the holiday.) Thankfully someone told me about this on Friday, or I would have showed up to an empty (and locked) office on Monday morning; unfortunately it was not enough time to plan a trip. Anyhow, on Monday I walked around town looking for the May Day festivities, and I found it—sponsored by the Bulgarian Socialist Party— in Borissova Garden: three or four stages (music), food vendors, balloons, mimes, throngs of senior citizens, and even an old hammer and sickle flag or two.

Hanging with Condi

2006-04-28T13:17:00.000-04:00

Thanks to Kat, today we got to meet Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. This involved sending in our passport number earlier this week to be put on the guest list, then getting to the embassy by 9:00 this morning for the reception at 11:00. About 15 minutes before the scheduled start of the event, she arrived, the ambassador made a short introduction, Condi made her short speech, and then she greeted the audience who were mainly embassy staff, Peace Corps volunteers, and we 4 MBAECs. I was able to shake her hand, mumble something about “it’s an honor to meet you,” and then we posed for group picture by the official photographer. By the official 11:00 start time, she had already left the building.

Great Day

2006-04-25T16:21:00.000-04:00

Well, this past weekend was the Easter weekend for everyone east of Croatia and Hungary. In Bulgarian, Easter is called either ~~Празник (Praznik)~~ Вести (Vesti) or Великден—literally “Great Day.” Apparently, the reason the Orthodox celebration is on a different day is that they still follow the Julian calendar instead of the more modern Gregorian calendar. I don’t understand these confusing Ecclesiastical calendars; it seems to me that the most historically accurate date would follow the Jewish calendar—Easter immediately follows Passover. So, yesterday was Easter Monday—a holiday, and I wasted it: did absolutely nothing.

A NATO conference is being held later this week across the street from me in the NDK building, and—since Condi Rice is coming—security is very tight. Today they have already closed all streets around the building and the park directly across from me—probably inconveniencing many people, but I’m loving it; no punks winding out their pimped out Skoda on Frityof Nansen Street. If only the maintenance and emergency vehicles were also quieted.

Seminar

2006-04-20T04:38:00.000-04:00

Today, Paris and I are giving a seminar on Internet marketing to a group of 10 members of the Bulgarian Association of Apparel and Textile Producers and Exporters. Although it feels a lot like the presentations that I've had to give in business school, this is a first for me in at least two respects. For one, this is the first time I've spoken in front of a group for over an hour; thankfully, it was somewhat less daunting than expected since I was interpreted (the second first.) I actually like this arrangement of consecutive interpretation; while the interpreter is speaking, I have the time to collect my thoughts and formulate the next sentence—which is good, since I often tend to get ahead of myself.

I have to say, despite the low turnout, the event was a success; the participants seem to have found it useful and informative, and Paris and I found it fulfilling. BTW, I initially create this post during my presentation just to demonstrate how quick, easy it is to update a blog.

Couples only

2006-04-17T12:50:00.000-04:00

I had a weekend full of activity, but I feel lonelier than ever. I asked a Bulgarian girl I had recently met out for two events: to help Ryan spend a 50 leva gift certificate that was about to expire at an Italian restaurant on Thursday, and then to Kristen’s (American diplomat I went skiing with) going away party on Friday. Unfortunately, by the end of the night she made it clear that she “only wanted to be friends.” On Saturday, I went with Paris and Kamelia (his girlfriend) to Chelopech—a town about an hour outside of Sofia—to celebrate her “name day” with a bunch of her friends in the house she grew up in. It was one of the nicest villages I’ve seen in Bulgaria, and we all had a good time, but it was painfully obvious that I was the 3rd, 5th or 7th wheel—everyone else there was part of a couple. Upon returning home Sunday afternoon, the new girl started an IM conversation with me via Skype to explain herself more clearly...only exacerbating the pain—needless to say I was glad the weekend was over and it was time to go back to work!

On the bright side, trees have burst out leaves over the weekend, creating a canopy of green around town. Right now, I am finishing up my quarterly MBAEC report as strains of some traditional Bulgarian (I guess) songs are wafting through the open window from a hippy girl in the courtyard of the hostel next door.

Delivery Boy

2006-04-09T13:50:00.000-04:00

Today was again a beautiful, sunny day and like two weeks ago, a great day for a little run—meaning many fair weather hashers came out. Moreover, it was the last time Wim and Fenneke would host a hash at their palatial estate near Mladost. Anyhow, after the run—as is the tradition—new comers were welcomed and wrong doers were punished by down downs. Finally, I and two others (including an infant) were christened with our "hash names." I explained what I'm doing in Bulgaria (probably using too much pretentious biz-jargon,) and it was determined the most appropriate name would be "Delivery Boy." I could have done worse; Hashers tend to be quite irreverent and sometimes even downright crude.

Wien

2006-04-01T08:09:00.000-05:00

Thursday afternoon I squeezed 3 days worth of clothes and toiletries into my daypack—you know how I like to travel light—and took a taxi to the Летище (airport.) The flight to the Bratislava Letishko was uneventful. I learned—as you can see (well, if you know your Cyrillic alphabet)—that Slovak is quite similar to Bulgarian; it is also a Slavic language, but written with a Latin script. Incidentally, I noticed some signs on trams in Vienna now have Slovak translations as well.

On the bus ride to Vienna, I was made to feel like a real second class citizen; the Austrian border guard came through the bus glancing at everyone’s passport, but he had to take my passport—as the only non-EU citizen—off the bus to his office or wherever to put a stamp in it. Even the Bulgarians didn’t get a second look, and their not officially part of the EU yet!

I arrived in Vienna and—like a native—navigated the U-bahn without a map. I made my way toward WU-Wien, passing right by the classroom where we spent 6 months of our lives 2 years ago; Bernd and Sylvia live only a few blocks from school. They have a very nice apartment; I suspect if they were living there back then, it would have become party central instead of Jason’s apartment—they have a two-level deck/balcony that could have comfortably accommodated our whole class and then some! That night, we went to Centimeter and I had a plate-size turkey schnitzel & pommes with unlimited ketchup—good stuff.

Friday morning, after my gracious hosts had headed off to work, I rose from my slumber on the air mattress in their living room and went out to re-explore the lovely city of Vienna—it’s pretty much the way I left it. I even went back to Neustiftgasse 72 to see the old apartment; a “familie Hansreich” lives there now. After having a huenerschnitzelsemmel from Huehnerparadies (“Chick-fil-a”,) I went up to Mu-Chyun’s office to say hi. We chatted, and then he instructed me to come back at 13:00 and meet the new IMBA Vienna class (all 9 of them) for lunch—he had reserved a table at Selbstverständlich. It was great to meet these guys and gals, and I have to say I was a little envious of their position (they, on the other hand, are all still a little scared.) My advice to them was to have fun and travel—taking advantage of the central location and cheap transport options.

Saturday was a bright, sunny day; and that morning Bernd and I cycled to his friends house where the three of us went for what turned out to be a strenuous 3 hours of mountain biking im Wienerwald. Afterwards Bernd uncovered his grill and inaugurated his first outdoor “barbie” of the year (remember, he did the exchange in Brisbane last year as well.) Then, to add some authentic culture, we went to a tiny theatre to see a kabarett that evening. It was a funny, two-man show; and I actually understood most of it despite the Austrian accent (at one point I though a character was saying “O.S.”; through context I was able figure out he was saying “alles.”)

The sun peaked out again on Sunday morning as I was exploring the Steiermark fair at the Rathaus—featuring, of course, the products of Styria (a region in Austria which, incidentally, is where Bernd is from.)

In spite of the Vienna’s splendor, and Bernd and Sylvia’s gracious hospitality, I was ready to get back home—to Sofia. I’ve gotten this out of my system now; I realize that—in large part—Vienna is special in my mind due to the friends I made there and the general camaraderie among the 20 people from all around the world who where thrown together for 6 months in a boot camp of business training.
Belarussian girl, moi, Mu-Chyun (new "Gundi"), South Carolina guy, Dr. Robinson (from USC)

Total Eclipse of the Sun

2006-03-29T06:33:00.000-05:00

…well not really, but looking at the crude tracing from my primitive desktop observatory (piece of paper with pinhole taped to my office window) it looks like nearly 80% of the sun was blotted out this afternoon. The sky was nearly cloudless, so it looked particularly eerie—the sky was notably darkened as if you were wearing sunglasses. Out of the now 16 active MBAEC volunteers scattered across this side of the globe, only Manish was able to witness a full eclipse in Kazakhstan; I look forward to reading his account (see blog links to right.)

Weekend Update

2006-03-27T10:52:00.000-05:00

Friday’s planned “drinks after work” with the new guy brought together only 3 people, but we made the best of it—staying out until midnight. In these 6 hours, the new guy, an American, convinced us to check out the Tango exhibition and lessons that take place on Sunday afternoons in the restaurant we were eating at, and to form an English-language theatre group.

I groggily awoke around 10:00 to a phone call from Shelly the diplomat; she asked if I wanted to go skiing—in a half an hour. An hour later, I was standing by the street dressed in my fashionable skiwear and holding my skis and boot, waiting for her to pick me up. After the last person she invited (out of 6) cancelled on her, we were on our way to Borovets. Arriving around 12:30, I bought a lift ticket for only 10 leva from a guy leaving for the day, making this the cheapest ski trip ever—six dollars for a half day of skiing (Shelly wouldn’t accept any gas money—oh, but I bought a Pepsi and 2 candy bars, so adds a couple of leva.^{Forrest Gump reference}) The weather has been warmer of late, and the conditions were not the best (heavy, crusty, grabby snow.) Never the less, it was a worthwhile ski trip. I don’t know what I’m going to do with myself on Saturdays now that ski season is practically over; I guess I’ll have to get back on my bike (actually, I saw two cyclists on the way to Borovets.)

Saturday night was Doriana’s “Spring Party.” She lives in a spacious apartment in one of the ubiquitous old-school high-rises of Sofia—I was envious when I heard what she pays in rent. Doriana fixed quite a spread; unfortunately, I had made myself some dinner after skiing, so I didn’t get to try her pasta or tomato, cucumber, & avocado salads. Everybody showed up except Ryan, who was in Boston attending a friend’s wedding—also making him the loser of our unofficial “who can stay on this side of the big pond the longest” contest.

Sunday I woke robbed of one hour of sleep since Europe begins daylight savings time one week earlier than back home. Since I was running late, I went to the International Baptist Church, where I hadn’t shown my face for a few months now. Interestingly, I met an American guy who is in a PhD program here in Sofia, and whom I had previously met at the MBA fair a week and a half ago—another one of those mutual “why did you come to Bulgaria” conversations, as most of the other Americans here either work at the embassy or are making good money to be here.

Sunday was really a warm, sun-filled day, so I happily met the Hash House Harriers for a run around Lake Pancharevo. Thanks to the great weather, we had a sizable turnout—11 runners, and plenty more walkers. This also brought out tons of Sofians, who were enjoying the lake and surroundings despite the fact this area—as many heavily visited areas in Bulgaria—is strewn with trash. It really bothered me while running; I don’t understand how one can relax in the sun or even picnic when surrounded by garbage. It was better when we headed up the mountain to a higher trail, but this revealed another ugly truth: I am out of shape! Today I am still sore—from a 5 km run.

It's Bulgaria out there

2006-03-23T10:57:00.000-05:00

As strange as it seems for someone living here for 8 months now, I often think to myself “It’s Bulgaria out here!” whenever I leave an expat gathering or my own apartment (where I am enveloped in English language music, TV programming, Internet content, and periodicals.) It is actually easy forget you’re in a foreign country until you step outside and are confronted by a still unfamiliar land filled with a distinctive and relatively homogeneous population that speak this strange language—Bulgarian. Actually, I understand a little more each day; at this point I’m really comfortable reading signs, ordering at restaurants, asking for stuff in stores, and explaining where I want to go to taxi drivers. Never the less, I am resigned to the fact that I will never be able to carry on a real conversation; even Rich, who was the star Bulgarian student from in last year’s Corps, told us his conversational skills were limited to “what’s you favorite color” type of exchanges.

I will probably have to take this back, but it looks like spring has arrived in Sofia! We’ve had a week of relatively balmy days (50+ F), I've discarded my Martenitsa, and city workers have been doing spring cleaning in the park across the street from my apartment (which is a very welcome sight!) I expect the trees will begin to bud any time now.

Spring Home Show
The "Строико" home show I wrote about in the fall has returned to NDK. On my way home from work today, I spent an hour walking through it and came away with one overriding impression—Bulgarian are rich! There was all kinds of high-end building material, furniture, and fixtures displayed; I even saw a shower with a built-in TV. These vendors would be wasting their time and money if people weren't buying this stuff, and I can't believe that only mobsters and crooked politicians are buying; the people wandering the aisles looked to be average Bulgarian couples—they just like to invest in their house, where it's safe I guess.

BTW, next week this time I will be on my way to Vienna! I'm really looking forward to that.

St. Patty in BG

2006-03-19T12:19:00.000-05:00

Well, let’s see what happened this week. Tuesday was my next-to-the-last Bulgarian lesson. Then on Wednesday evening, I met Vesela and Stanimir, a Bulgaria guy who did the EMBA in Vienna, at the first annual MBA fair in Sofia. We were there to help Mu-Chyun (the new “Gundi”) represent WU-Wien. It was a good thing we were there, as about 1,200 prospective student flooded into the exhibition space (there were about 20 business schools represented) at 18:00. For at least the next 2 hours the four of us were talking non-stop with people (Mu-Chyun and I in English, Vesela and Stanimir in Bulgarian) answering questions about the program—mostly the requirements, cost, and scholarships. We quickly ran out of brochures, and were exhausted but satisfied when it ended at 21:00. Afterwards, we had a nice dinner at a traditional Bulgarian restaurant, which Mu-Chyun (a Chinese-born Viennese man) greatly enjoyed.

On Thursday night, Julia had a nice (early) St. Patrick’s Day party—always classy compared to “parties” we bachelors tend to throw. And on Friday—St. Patrick’s Day proper—the festivities continued: Ryan, Kat, and I met some embassy people at Flannagan’s (mildly Irish, I guess) and then on to The Irish Harp. The night ended much too late in Studentskigrad (the 5 Points of Sofia,) and I spent most of Saturday recovering instead of skiing—thanks Bryan and Lincoln! ;-)

Saturday night was probably my last date with the Bulgarian girl that I’ve been seeing, as she leaves for Germany next week to go to university. How do I always manage to pick girls that are moving away? Is it subconscious, or am I driving them away?

Today, I went to Divaka for lunch again. They were totally full, so the waitress seated me at a table with two older men. I quickly explain “ne razbiram bulgarski,” but one of them immediately asked “sprechen sie Deutsch?” Several hours of conversation ensued relating to Bulgaria, the EU, and all the troubles of the world over successive glasses of vodka, until—seriously—his German became incomprehensible. His friend, who only spoke French (and Bulgarian) tried to chime in as well; it’s amazing how much you can understand with just a few common words. Before he ordered another vodka (and started getting too anti-Semitic,) I managed to bid adieu—only after promising to meet them again next week. Actually, it was quite interesting to get the perspective of older Bulgarians—albeit unusually cosmopolitan ones.

BTW, I just discovered the blogs of 3 new MBAEC volunteers: Alexandra, Kirk, Jim, and his wife Grace (see links under “friends' blogs.”) In case you're wondering, SD stands for Sudan (not South Dakota) and AZ stands for Azerbaijan (not Arizona!)

[UPDATE] Thank you Simon for the comment—the first ever from a family member! And, of course, many thanks to the lovely Hungarian who I never actually met, Emese, for her many comments.

Internet DTs

2006-03-13T11:36:00.000-05:00

Six months ago, I prepaid for 6 months of Internet service. Just last week I was thinking, “I wonder when that will run out.” I think I just found out. The thing is, even though I’m going through Internet DTs, I’m in no rush to get reconnected because I know I will be so much more productive now. Since I don’t (hardly) watch TV anymore, without Internet I should have no problem focusing on my Bulgarian homework tonight. We’ll see how it goes.

[UPDATE] Whew, dodged the bullet; it still works! but I do expect them to cut me off anytime now. Also, BG homework will suffer tonight.

To my vast audience, if any of you are using Orkut (Google new personal networking tool,) please send me an invitation (froese at gmail dot com.) I've got enough profiles to maintain on various services, but I want in on this Orkut thing; it's so exclusive—you have to be invited. ;-)

PC Police

2006-03-10T11:01:00.000-05:00

Regardless of what others may say, I believe the US has the best internal race relations in the world. Obviously there are still a lot of crusty old racists around, but you have to admit that in many cases Americans stand arm in arm—descendants of Africans, Asians, Europeans, and Latin Americas—all “proud to be an American, where at least [they] know [they’re] free.” Granted, this quasi-nationalism and superiority complex creates a poor image of America around the world, but it really isn’t really nationalism—America is not one nation, in fact we are almost to the point were no one race (an even broader grouping of people) is the majority anymore. In America, citizenship is more important than nationality—in fact, I suspect some of my audience doesn’t even understand the distinction as they read this. Meanwhile, within 100 miles of me, there are Bulgarians, Romanians, Serbs, Macedonians, Albanians, Greeks, and Turks who probably all believe their nationality is superior, and over the centuries these groups have slaughtered each other over slivers of real estate. Seriously, even today, many point to the maximum extent of their historical borders (which, of course overlap) and say, “actually this belongs to us too.” Even in the more “advanced” west, Chris told me that in Belgium there is still a simmering animosity between the Dutch-speaking Flemish people and the French-speaking Walloons.

On the gender front, American men may not be perfect gentlemen, but they simply aren’t allowed to express a lot of the macho b.s. that is common elsewhere. I understand the anti-harassment and political correctness hysteria in the US goes overboard, but I think that if I were raising a daughter, I would prefer a more supportive environment (then again, girls here learn to stand up for themselves.) I say this after hearing some expats yesterday talking about how they’re glad they don’t live in the US and don’t have to self-censor their speech. I bristle at the label “feminist,” but again, I ask myself how would I feel if I had a daughter.

I certainly welcome any discussion—drop me a comment if you think I’m niave, a complete idiot, or if you agree with me.

I say all that to introduce the picture below. This is a package of cookies I saw at the grocery store yesterday; the name roughly translates to “Little Negro.” Now—come on—could you sell this product anywhere in the US anymore with this name & artwork on the box?

I'll let you know if the "assorted biscuits" were tasty as they look; come on, you knew I had to buy them—they're just so deliciously politically incorrect!

[UPDATE] Wow, I hit on a hot topic; check out the comments I got! To the anonymous Arab commenter: yeah, you're right; much of this brotherly, multi-cultural America stand united...against the Arab & Muslim world. The new kid on the block always has it hard; in WWII it was the Japanese. But is it much different in Europe? Look at France.

Intl Womens Day

2006-03-08T11:50:00.000-05:00

Today is International Women’s Day; I read the Wikipedia entry about it, but didn’t think much more of it; I assumed it was just an old communist holiday honoring female comrades. Actually, it turns out to be bigger than Valentines day here, and—according to my friends elsewhere in Eastern Europe and Central Asia—throughout the former USSR. Friends, relatives, and especially employers present every female acquaintance with a flower. As with other holidays, it is easy find these gifts, as nearly every little, old Baba hawks the holiday’s essential gift from a street corner near you.

So, to vast female readership, ;-) happy International Women’s Day!

The Simpsons

2006-03-07T16:07:00.000-05:00

OK, I don't normally post anything except my original creations, but this is just too cool not to share with everyone I know. These Brits did an incredible job of recreating the Simpsons (Семейство Симпсън, as they are called here) opening. I'm especially impressed with that little kid, who plays Bart; he's got mad skateboarding skillz—a real Tony Hawk!

Snow, Again!

2006-03-06T14:59:00.000-05:00

I haven't talked about the weather lately, so humor me. This morning, walking to work, it was down right balmy; storm clouds were gathering, and I actually expected we would get a thundershower. However, by late afternoon, it had gotten noticeably cooler. While making myself dinner tonight (spaghetti—about the extent of my repertoire,) I heard ice pelting my window—it was sleeting furiously outside. I didn't think much of it afterwards as I was quietly studying for Bulgarian class tomorrow until just now; I looked out the window to see a blizzard in progress. A few inches have already accumulated. (The previous snows had all melted over the last few days due to the relatively warm weather we've had since at least Thursday.) The weather is even more fickle here than back home! BTW, I'm not complaining—I think its pretty cool; I'm still a kid at heart when it comes to the white stuff.

No skiing, snowshoeing, or any trips outside of Sofia over the three day weekend; I just laid low, but I did go out every night.

Chestit Den na Osvobozhdeieto

2006-03-03T08:25:00.000-05:00

Today is a major holiday in Bulgaria. In 1878, the Russians liberated this country from Ottoman rule—the “Turkish Yoke” as they like to say here. And on March 3rd of that year, the Treaty of San Stefano was signed creating “Greater Bulgaria” including Macedonia, and a large part of northern Greece—which was later cut down to size by the great (European) powers of the time.

Since I have the day off, I decided to wander into the center looking for Liberation Day festivities. The only thing I came across was an ATAKA parade. Garnering about nine percent in the latest parliamentary election, ATAKA is a coalition of nationalistic parties with racist, xenophobic, and anti-Semitic tendencies. The marchers themselves seemed to fit into two demographics: the 50+ crowd—disaffected by the recent changes—and a smattering of young, skinhead types. The march ended in front of the famous Alexander Nevski Cathedral; ATAKA wants to make the Bulgarian Orthodox Church the official religion of Bulgarian and have its doctrine taught in public schools. Despite my limited Bulgarian, I could make out some of their signs & placards: lots of “Bulgaria for Bulgarians” and anti-Turkish/anti-Roma (Gypsy) vitriol. Otherwise, official placards and poster feature the stern face of their leader, Volen Siderov, whose rhetoric is troublingly reminiscent of Hitler.

I expected a more celebratory holiday like our 4^th of July; unfortunately, this fringe has apparently taken ownership of “3^ти Март.”

BTW, I now have an ICQ number: 304846964 (for whatever reason, ICQ seems to be the only IM service Bulgarians use.)

[UPDATE] There were other events in the evening, including fireworks, which I missed except for the last few moments.

Chestita Baba Marta!

2006-03-01T04:02:00.000-05:00

In Bulgaria, on the first of March it is customary to exchange small red and white bracelets or talismans called martenitsi (which can be purchased for next to nothing on any street corner) and greet everyone with “Честита Баба Марта!” (literally translated: "Happy Grandmother March!") So far, I've received 3 and given away 5—it’s just like Valentine's Day in elementary school. You are then supposed to wear at least one bracelet until the first day of spring, or until you see the first stork, at which time you then tie the bracelet to a tree branch.

References:

Martenitsa (Wikipedia)
Baba Marta (Wikipedia)
Chestita Baba Marta! (Sofia Echo)

Week(s) in review

2006-02-28T06:13:00.000-05:00

Well, I’ve been chastised for not posting anything for nearly two weeks. All I can say is: blogging can be a chore. If you look at my friends' blogs, you will notice that (with the exception of Ryan) they all post considerably less often than me, so get off my back, gosh! ;-) (BTW, congratulations are in order for two couples on the birth of their third child: Mike & Susanna and Daniel & Edmary—hats off to you!)

So, the previous weekend (Feb. 17) started with a party on Friday for Brian (former Peace Corps volunteer) and Maria (Bulgarian law student), who got married on the following Monday. They have been quite serious since I’ve known them, and to avoid getting his visa renewed every month, he decided to go ahead and tie the knot now. His family came from the US and everything! I assume most of my readers will find it hard to believe that an American would actually get married to stay in Bulgaria, but this is not the first person I know of that has done so. (Don’t read anything into that; I’ll be happy to leave in October!)

Despite the warmer weather, I went to Vitosha that Saturday to continue my streak of skiing 5 weeks in a row. Unfortunately I left disappointed. No lifts were running to the top of the mountain, and the lower parts were melting and icy. Never the less, I got one run in, and with this last weekend’s excursion, I am now at 6 weekends in a row!

Then, on Sunday I met 3 Hash House Harriers for another, more extended snow shoeing expedition. We drove west, nearly to the Serbian border, where we hiked all day up and down a mountain call “Руй” (see picture at Weatherunderground.) This turned out to be a very remote area; any Bulgarian I’ve told about our trips says that they haven’t even been out in that direction. Our guide was an Australian miner whose is looking for “gold in them there hills.” Actually he’s the CEO of a mineral exploration company that employs scores of geologist in an effort to determine the feasibility of mining in this historically gold rich area. The most amazing thing he showed us was the still visible evidence of Thracian gold mining activities from over 2,000 years ago! At the end of the day, we were thoroughly exhausted—I think we bit off a little more than we could chew. In related new, I’ve noticed that I have been losing weight in the last few weeks despite being off the bike for over 7 months now; skiing and snowshoeing can certainly be good aerobic exercise.

Last Friday we (except for Paris—who was in Istanbul) met at the fortress of solitude (American Embassy) for a party at the Marine house. Again, there was a distinct aura of being in a little slice of America. However, I didn’t stay up too late because I knew I had to be up and ready to go at 7:30 the next morning to meet Ryan and Shelly for our trip to Borovets. We skied all day, again to the point of exhaustion. For whatever reason, I didn’t feel as strong or confident on skis as two weeks ago. I guess it is like anything else; sometimes you just have an off week.

Old school

2006-02-15T08:49:00.000-05:00

Every time I go to skiing at Vitosha, I end up meeting a German-speaking person. I’ve now begun to ask “govoria Angliski ili Nemski?” after my ubiquitous “Ne razbiram Bulgarski.” It turns out that quite a few (mainly older) Bulgarians do speak Nemski (informal for Germanski,) and this last weekend I actually met a young person who does. Thanks to his Bulgarian father and German mother, this kid (9th grader) speaks fluent Bulgarian and German, an acceptable English, and now is going to a Spanish high school (plus, he says he is studying Portuguese on the side.) As a dual German/Bulgarian citizen, he plans on going to college in Germany. This is one thing that I’ve noticed about Bulgarians; they are quick to add languages to their portfolio. Of course, nearly all nations are better at this than Americans, but there seems to be more of an urgency about this here; in an environment of flux, adding another language to your portfolio seems to be a prudent investment.

Yesterday there were several USAID contractors in the office; one of them was on the phone (Skype actually) with his colleague and was speaking Spanish. Overhearing him ask “Que pasa?” my brain immediately came up with “dobre!”—oops, wrong language. That’s what happens when you only know a little bit of two languages—they sometimes get mixed up. Actually, there are some similarities between Bulgarian and Spanish; for example the word “and” is “и” in Bulgarian and “y” in Spanish—pronounced exactly the same: “ee”

For the fifth Tuesday now, Ryan and I met right after work to catch a taxi to Sofia University’s Department of Language Learning for our weekly Bulgarian class. Now this place is truly “old school.” The peeling paint and ancient equipment makes it easy to image what this place used to be like 20 years ago when fresh-face Bulgarian college kids would have been studying Russian, and other exotic languages of the Soviet Empire in these very same hallowed halls. From the test result sheets publicly posted in the halls, it looks like 50% of the students are studying English, 30% German, 20% French, 10% Italian, 10% Spanish, and a smattering of Greek & Dutch (I know that’s more than 100%; I suspect that some students take more than one language simultaneously—that’s gotta be tough!)

Traffic jam

2006-02-13T05:52:00.000-05:00

Saturdays are not longer for sleeping in, cleaning/shopping, or goofing off. I actually like my new routine: dress warmly, grab my ski equipment, and head for the slopes. Despite the fact that Vitosha is a shabby resort, I had a great time; the weather was perfect—clear and sunny—and I felt significant improvement in my skill-level. I am now comfortable with narrow, mogul-strewn runs and steep, deep, powder.

Sunday afternoon, I headed back up the same mountain, but this time to go snowshoeing with the Hash House Harriers. The weather was not as nice, but conditions turned out to be ideal for snowshoeing—something I had never done before, but really enjoyed. It was a veritable winter wonderland up there: deep, untouched snow and beautiful scenery. I posted some pictures to WeatherUnderground, one even made “approvers choice.” The picture to the right is of a traffic jam created by one of the youngest hashers, James (probably 5 y/o) and myself. He was having trouble climbing up this particularly steep section, so I grabbed his hand to help him up only to find myself holding a glove. His mum (they are Brits) had to come and put it back on; hence the traffic jam.

Heat Wave

2006-02-10T10:45:00.000-05:00

The snow that fell on Sunday was starting to get brown and slushy around the edges, so I was happy to see yesterday’s flurries cover the unsightly older snow. It looked like powdered sugar sprinkled over dark gingerbread—seriously.

Between the installation of the air conditioners and the new front door, it has been quite cold in the office for the last two days. So, today I came prepared; full thermals and a sweater. However, when I arrived this morning, all the holes were plugged and the air conditioners were actually running in heat-pump mode; the sweater immediately came off. Not only that, but today turned out to be quite balmy; I saw temperatures as high as 2 degrees (36 F.) I’ve learned you can never rely on the forecast around here—highly unreliable. Bulgarians don’t seem to mind this; when you ask somebody what the temps will be tomorrow or how much accumulations are expect, you get a blank stare! Granted, our weather forecasters back home often tend to miss the mark, but at least thet will tell us to expect accumulations of 3.5 inches and highs in the mid-30s. You’ve got to admit that’s reassuring even if it turns our wrong.

Isn't it ironic

2006-02-08T07:35:00.000-05:00

Today is Sofia’s coldest day thus far this winter; it was -23 (-9F) this morning. Today is also the day that the air conditioner installers finally decided to finish installing three little split-unit systems as part of our remont (they had drilled the holes for the freon pipes and electrical cables nearly 4 weeks ago—leaving gaping, 3-inch holes that have been spilling cold air into our office in the intervening time.) I’m sure we will appreciate this come July, but “Isn’t it ironic…don’t you think?”

Ski every mountain

2006-02-07T01:24:00.000-05:00

Last weekend I skied at Borovets, a resort about an hour and half from Sofia that is considerably nicer and somewhat more expensive than Vitosha. This weekend we (Shelly, Kristen, Kat [the diplomats] Ryan, and I [the Corps]) drove to the next biggest resort: Bansko. The town is a lot like any other little town in Bulgaria except the main drag, which is wall-to-wall ski shops and mehanas (traditional Bulgarian restaurants.) The resort though, is as nice as any east coast resort in the US, complete with plenty of high-speed lifts and copious groomed trails. The only downside is that there is only one black diamond-esque run. I eventually tired of the same old runs, so I decided to go off-piste—mainly under the lifts—where I found some more challenging stuff: moguls, narrow trails, and some very steep section.

I had been warned that it would be considerably more expensive to ski here, but it turned out to be only 62 leva ($39) for a 2-day pass with the locals discount (for which you have to present your lichna karta and/or say “Аз съм пастанин клиент.”) Plus, upon returning the amazingly sophisticated RFID lift pass, we received 5 leva back.

Thanks to the fact that I had skied the previous two weekends, I wasn’t hurting after skiing all day Saturday. However, by noon on Sunday, I was getting noticeably winded—at times, I had to stop every 100m to catch my breath. Additionally, the weather had turned from the beautiful sunny day you see above to snow showers—reducing visibility and stinging my face. By the time we met for lunch on Sunday, we all agreed (well, actually we had to twist Shelly’s arm—she want to ski until they shut down the lifts) that it was time to head back home. We knew the trip home would take longer due to the inclement weather, but never imagined how long. At about the half way point, we ran into a line of traffic that did not budge for over three and a half hours! We later found out that there was a truck accident 30km ahead on our 2-lane highway. If there was an alternate route, we assumed the locals would have found it, but everyone just patiently sat there. The highlight of the traffic jam was when the Finlandia girls came out of their van to pass out free shots to their fellow stranded motorists. Below is a good picture I got for Ryan as they were making their way back to their van.

Yes, we have no bananas

2006-02-01T10:28:00.000-05:00

Bulgaria is one of the few places on earth where shaking your head means yes, and nodding means no. Even after being here for over 6 months now, and learning some of the language, this is the hardest thing to get used to. I am convinced this non-verbal communication is hard-wired into our brain at a very early age. Furthermore, I believe our way is more natural—what does a baby do when you bring a spoonful of strained peas to his mouth? That’s right, he shakes his head side to side to get away from that nasty food.

What’s really interesting is that, if I try, I can do the “hey, wassup” nod to tell people handing out flyers on the street to indicate that I don’t want one, and shake (kind of like a bobble head doll) to signal agreement when I’m listening to a Bulgarian. However, whenever I see someone shaking their head, I immediately, subconsciously interpret it as disappointment; I have to rationally remind myself this “disappointment” is actually a good thing.

This weekend I went to a newsstand to buy tram tickets. I asked if the attendant if she had tickets. (“Имате ли билети за трамваи?” for those of you playing along at home.) She shook her head, but due to the fact it was early in the morning (well, 10:00 actually) and she didn’t verbalize a “Да” I naturally assumed she didn’t have any, so I asked here where I could get some (actually just “Къде?” [where?],) to which she answered “тук” [here.] Duh!

A new personal record

2006-01-26T02:00:00.000-05:00

Today marks my 179th contiguous day abroad, breaking my previous record of 178 days in 2004 while I was studying in Austria. I still remember the trepidation I felt 2 years ago as I packed up my most important personal effect into two suitcases with the knowledge I would be gone for 6 months. Then, a little over a year ago, I repeated the process again when I set off to Australia for 4 month; by now it felt like old hat—there was none of the previous angst. However, last summer my departure had a new seriousness to it (with some of the same anxiety.) I was leaving for over a year, and planned to move on afterward, only returning to Columbia to visit (which is still my plan.) So how do I feel now? At this point, I guess I feel somewhere between ambivalent and comfortable; I’m accustomed to living in Sofia, and October feels too far away to worry about what I’m going to do next. What I’ve noticed among several Peace Corps Volunteers (who are here for 2 years) is that they are excited for the first 6 months, hate the next year, and then get nostalgic (and anxious about the next phase of their life—although most seem to start graduate school) in the last 6 months. If I had it to do all over again, would still give up 15 months of my life to work oversees? Umh, yeah; I still think that—personally—the gains outweigh the opportunity cost. Whoa, this is a little bit weird—therapy by blogging.

On a lighter note, I still have my Christmas tree up. I feel justified in doing so because:

I paid 28 leva for it and I will be leaving it behind for the next tenant.
Public Christmas displays are still up around town.
I live by myself; there is nobody to tell I need to pack it up.

Oh, and in case you didn't notice the weather bug up there, IT'S FLIPPIN COLD HERE! Temps have been in the teens or single digit for several days and nights now; this morning I noticed the coldest temperature I have ever remembered experiencing: ZERO—that's Fahrenheit! (-18 C) I'm just glad I'm not in Kazakhstan like Manish, where its -40!

Ghetto Skiing

2006-01-23T07:25:00.000-05:00

On Saturday, Ryan and I finally got a taste of skiing in Bulgaria. Kat drove us out to the Simeonovo-Aleko gondola lift in her SUV, which was nice; if we really wanted to be ghetto, we could have used the city bus service that runs out there for all of 0.40 lev. With our new (used) ski equipment in hand, we stood in a 45-minute-long line, not for the lift itself—they were letting every other gondola go up empty—but just to buy the ticket. [Sarcasm alert] Due to our keen insight and extensive education in business processes, we noted that they could easily double the utilization of this expensive high-speed gondola lift by simply employing a second cashier. The day was filled with similar observation, but as this company is not our client, we made no recommendations.

The gondolas took us over fields and meadows, up and down hills (mostly up, of course), through two mid-stations (which I’ve never seen on a high-speed lift), and eventually to the base of the ski resort on Cherni Vrah. Here we found a jumble of (mostly broken down) lifts. No chair lifts were running; only a few Poma lifts, and T-bars. For the ones that were running, there were lines snaking down 20-30 minutes. I say “down” because the line actually crept uphill to the lift. On the t-bar that takes you up to (nearly) the top of the mountain, we would notice 2 or even 3 positions go by because the actual t-bar was missing. On the remaining “good” ones, the rope that the t-bar is attached to was noticeably frayed; it seems like when the rope breaks on one of these, they just continue with the remaining positions—no maintenance! Again, we determined the problem is they don’t charge enough (14 leva/day.) They can’t charge more because it is a crummy, run-down resort—hence the vicious cycle. Never the less, we got a couple of good runs in, and—despite what I just said—it is a beautiful mountain that towers above the grimy city below (the smog is very noticeable from above.)

What we saw on the slopes was the funniest though. One guy brought his German Shepard with him. This was a big, healthy, strong dog that was obviously enjoying the experience; he would run up behind his owner when he was being pulled up the hill, and the run back down as he skied back down. Waiting in line at the lift, the dog would romp around and root in the snow; I couldn’t believe how fit this dog was! We also saw kids on sleds, people without skis walking around, and even some mountain bikers riding down the slopes!

One refreshing thing to see was a lack of pretentiousness that you find on US slopes where everyone has to have the newest/coolest equipment, clothes, and accessories regardless of their abilities. I have never seen so much outdated ski equipment. If you wonder where all the old skis went when the “shaped ski” revolution took over in the early 90’s, I think I found your answer: Eastern Europe.

Ryan went skiing in Borovets on Sunday (about 40 miles away.) he said it was a much nicer resort; I’ll have to check it out next.

[UPDATE] I take back all the “ghetto” references; my experience was state-of-the-art compared to my fellow Corps member, Lorenz Wild. I just read his blog about his first time skiing in Kyrgyzstan (click here and scroll down to January 23rd; the part about skiing is about a third of the way into the post—Lorenz can be a little long-winded.) It’s amazing how relative our experiences are when compared across the globe! If nothing else, I am learning just how blessed I really am.

Brrrrr

2006-01-14T07:50:00.000-05:00

It’s cold! This week temperatures have been in the teens (-5~-9 C) in the morning for my—thankfully—short commute to work. Never the less, I’ve learned to dress in layers: thermal undershirt, long-sleeve shirt, sweater, and coat. Moreover, I wear my Timberland boots everyday. Even so, I find the icy sidewalks treacherous; I don’t understand how women in fancy shoes negotiate the streets of Sofia without falling. Everyone says I need to get a scarf too, but I’ve never owned one, and wouldn’t know what to do with one. ;-) BTW, you can see the forecast for Sofia by clicking on the current conditions in the upper right hand corner of this page.

For the first time in my life, I own skis. Earlier this week, I bought these Rossis from Ryan for the equivalent of $72 (he bought two pair from his boss as a package deal.) Today I’m going shopping for ski boots and a ski bib, then I’ll be ready to go. I intended to ski a lot (like every weekend); there are slopes on Vitosha that can be reached by city bus service, and nicer resorts farther away.

Sofia is Gotham

2006-01-08T12:05:00.000-05:00

I’ve just figured it out! The mythical metropolis of Gotham from the Batman franchise is our very own Sofia, Bulgaria. I submit the following evidence for your consideration: the button pictured here is found in every tram in the city. As you can see, it clearly says СИГНАЛ БАТМАН (SIGNAL BATMAN.) Apparently, in case of an emergency, (such as a run-away trains or a fare-skipping scofflaw) one simply pushes this button. A brilliant beam of light then emanates from the top of the tram, projecting the familiar Batman logo on a layer of smog over Sofia. Seeing this, Bruce Wayne (Брус Уиейн as he is known here) dons his costume, hops into the Batmobile, and leaves his palatial estate in Boyana. Traffic permitting, the caped crusader is on the scene within minutes to save the day and/or punish wrongdoers.

Remont

2006-01-05T11:03:00.000-05:00

I am convinced that I caught my cough from Tante Eva or Oma in Germany; it had been getting progressively worse throughout the trip, and the second-hand smoke that is ubiquitous to Eastern Europe was not helping. After getting back home Monday morning I slept a solid 9 hours, then in went to bed again at seven in the evening for another 14+ hours! I guess my body was telling me to rest. Thankfully, Julia gave meds she had left over that fixed me right up.

Wednesday morning I woke to the ringing of my landline phone; no one ever calls me on that line except my landlady. When I answered, I was greeted by a cheery “Happy New Year” from Denitsa. She was back home for the holidays. We decided to meet for lunch with Vesela at—you guessed it—Baalbeck, which is what we did today.

Over the last two weeks, I have met a total of 7 former graduate school classmates (Andreas, Meike K., & Sven from QUT; Meike F., Justin, Vesela, and Denitsa from USC)

For the last couple of months, there has been talk of upcoming ремонт (remont) of the office—basically just busting out a wall to give the place a more open feel, and then repainting everything. I assumed this would be done in our absence during the Christmas holiday. However, when I returned to work on Tuesday, I found furniture and equipment piled up in the corners, plastic draped over everything, and the beginnings of demolition (pictured.) My Belgium coworker, Chris, says it looks artistic and calls it an ode to Sarajevo. Problem is, nothing has happened since; everyone continues to work—sharing computers and desk space, creating paths between piled up furniture, etc. I’ve got a sneaking suspicion this is going to take longer than the promised one day—in that Bulgaria is a lot like South Carolina.