Out of Africa

The end of my summer internship in the Middle East was actually spent in Africa. The three interns were sent off to Africa to talk to potential investors and partners. Yes, you read that right. Now, if it was me, I would not be sending interns to round up tens and hundreds of millions of dollars to fund the future of my company.

Nevertheless, I think we did a good job, while learning a lot about business in Africa. First -- and this may seem obvious after the fact -- no two countries in Africa can be treated the same.

South Africa is a completely different place to work in than any other country due to its standing as the dominant market in Africa, as well as its apartheid history. For example, Black Economic Empowerment (BEE), a form of affirmative action that goes far beyond simple hiring and firing decisions, mandates minimum levels of black ownership and even ends up dictating who you use for product and service vendors. One investor advised that, "BEE is a form of competitive advantage in the sense that, if you don't have it, it is a competitive disadvantage." The country itself is very beautiful. Although we didn't get a chance to leave Johannesburg, just seeing the lush hills and the pleasant climate were enough to make me want to return.

After a few days of meetings, we had a chance to take a 4-day safari in Tanzania. We visited the NgoroNgoro Crater, the Serengeti, and Lake Manyara. Absolutely AMAZING. Here are a few pictures:

Mount Killimanjaro from the plane:


Wildebeast:


Ostrich:


Elephant (NgoroNgoro Crater):


View of NgoroNgoro Crater from the rim:


Giraffe in the Serengeti:


Lion in the Serengeti:


Leopard in the Serengeti:


Monkeys:


Baby Lion Cubs:


Hungry Hungry Hippo in Lake Manyara:


Crazy Pic of a Baby Elephant:


Water Buffalo on Guard:



Throughout our African trip, I marveled at the tremendous potential that this continent has. People from all walks of life, from the villager to the politician (we spoke to non-corrupt politicians... I think) are all working towards a brighter future. I believe they will soon have it. There is a buzz going on down there and it is inspiring to see.

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This is probably my last, perhaps second-last, blog post with school ready to start. I'm not sure what I'll do with this site. I may leave it up, undisturbed, for future generations to read and enlighten themselves. I may delete it, not wanting to expose myself to those who see some of my rants as being a bit on the offensive side. Or, I may morph this into a blog of another subject. Only time will tell.

Thanks for reading about my adventures and impressions of a road less traveled and, as a friend once said, it's been real.

Impressions of Dubai and another Rant on Gulf Culture

This is a long-overdue post. I really have no excuse except that I didn’t realize I had a few pictures on my camera to share (I like to include pics with my posts since there's not much groundbreaking content here).

Let me start by saying that this 'Dubai Review' morphs into a semi-coherent rant and may be on the wrong side of political correctness (to be debated). My only defense is that it's been a long, but interesting, 2 and a half months and I'm eagerly awaiting my return to Boston.

Prior to my trip, I was really looking forward to a weekend in Dubai. First, any weekend not spent in Bahrain is a reason for joy. Second, our good buddy, Patrick, was stationed in Dubai over the summer working at McKinsey. Patrick, for better or worse, is among the hardcore partiers at Sloan so I knew we were going to have a good weekend. And indeed we did. We went to a club called Neo that had banging music and hot women. We went for the bottle service and had 4 bottles between 4 of us. This was followed by an afterhours eatery where we invited ourselves to sit with some random girls and proceeded to eat their food, tell them to leave, and then ordered more food. The next day and a half was spent combining our MIT Sloan brain power to piece the night together. Good times...

If the story above is reminiscent of a trip to Vegas, well, you're not far off. Dubai is considered to be the Vegas, or perhaps L.A., of the Middle East. Opulence and decadence abound. Not really my sort of thing. I see it more as "fake" and "tacky". It's one of the reasons that I could never live in Vegas or L.A. Yes, they are great places to visit and party in but after 4 days, I'm usually ready to call it quits.

(note: the ranting is about to start, so let me insert a few pics here. I'll add to these when I get more from AofA)



Dubai's population is 85% ex-pats which includes both white collar (typically Westerners) and blue collar (typically South and Southeast Asian) workers. The other 15% of the population are native Emirates (pronounced Emiratees) who control the flow of money. Of course, they wouldn't know what a hard day’s work is if it came rolling in on an oil tanker, but their money is what attracts foreign workers to this hellish part of the planet.

On that point, it is becoming more and more clear to me why someone would move to the Middle East, and specifically the Gulf. Ask anyone, A-N-Y-O-N-E, why they are in Dubai, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, etc., and they will tell you 'money'. Simply put, the almighty dollah bills y'all. Fine, you may also get natives / locals who also claim family ties, but I've asked some Arabs who had lived in the States for a while and the primary reason they came back was still for easy money.

I suppose the one reason Dubai is more tolerable than Bahrain is its ex-pat community. You wind up living in an extremely diverse community so you are bound to find good people who share interests with you. Other than that, however, the only advantages I can see are bigger malls, nicer buildings, and a bigger paycheck.

So there you have it. As you can see, a summer spent in another region of the world has really opened my eyes to how great we have it in the U.S. and Canada. I thought I would gain a greater appreciation for a supposedly misunderstood culture but, quite the opposite, any stereotypes I may have previously had have only been strengthened and added to. I have very few, if any, positive things to say about the region in general although there have been people that have been open, warm, and a pleasure to meet. I've developed a sense of frustration, almost anger, at the way my Indian brothers and sisters are brought over here in the hope for better livings to support their families, and then taken advantage of with low wages and sub-par working & living conditions. I think that, if I were to ever do business in the Middle East, it would be to try to get all the blue and white collar ex-pats to leave and make the Gulf community do the work for themselves. That would be the day...

I hope that I do not come off as an arrogant western traveler. I consider myself to be a fairly worldly, accepting, and insightful person. I think that my assessment of the Middle East is fair. To this point, I have spent the last 2 weeks in Africa (and will post about it soon) and I am amazed at the natural beauty, the kindness of the people, and the promise that this region has with its enterprising community who are starting to become more empowered.

My advice for all those would-be globetrotters in search of money:
Don't chase the easy money in the Middle East. Go to Africa or Asia where the upside could be so much higher, you'll be making a real difference, your life will probably be more fulfilled, and you can still live like a king.

Random Red Sox Post

OK. Let me start by saying that I am NOT a die-hard Red Sox fan. Out of the major sports (including hockey), baseball is number 4 in my heart. I am just a general sports fan who happens to live in the center of the baseball universe. You see, living in Boston has influenced me in several ways that I could not have imagined when I first moved from Toronto:

• seeing a 100 year-old creaking, slanted house with 2-pronged plugs and windows that don't 'work' as charming
  
• getting ready to call it a night around 1:15 so you can avoid the crowd when the club lets out at 2am
  
• using the word 'veer' when giving directions
  
• etc.
  

And finally, my inability to not watch the Red Sox and know almost everything that happens in Red Sox Nation. The Sox are like a virus that infect the entire city. You hear about Red Sox news through the process of osmosis. It's in the air, and it will enter your system (ask any Sloanie that has hopped onto the Red Sox bandwagon since moving to Boston).

So when I heard that Manny Ramirez had just been traded, it was a big deal. Not a shock, but the end of an era. This guy was great. The term, "Manny being Manny," is symbolic of the love affair that Boston sports fans had with Manny. He held a special place in people's hearts. Whether he was hitting the game-winning home run or missing an easy catch in the outfield because he was just chillin', it didn't matter. "Manny being Manny" could always put a smile on your face (especially as a casual fan who didn't get too upset when he f*cked up).

I haven't been in Boston for almost 2 months. I don't know what's been happening in Titletown (yes, we have last year's basketball and baseball world champs, and should have football's) but I know that every radio and TV station will be talking 'Manny' for the rest of the season. Every win will be a win in spite of 'Manny' and every loss will be a reflection on what we lost in 'Manny'. Regardless of whether we win or lose this year, Manny will be missed.

Restless in Bahrain

After seeing some of the most amazing sights in Jordan and landing back on the island, I couldn't help but think about how I was going to spend the next week here:

Work; Gym; Dinner; Work; Gym; Dinner; Movie; Mall; Work; Gym; Mall; ... you get the idea

So we decided to break up the monotony one night with some fun in the sand:


That spectacular show of driving is the infamous J-Turn. When I get back to the States, I'm going to try that on asphalt -- with a rental, not the G.

I also got a chance to DJ at a lounge called Cocoon. It's in a Best Western but, for what it's worth, it is the nicest Best Western I have ever seen. Prior to my set, I was having dinner with the owner and we got into an interesting discussion of the Bahrain nightlife. Cocoon's Thursday night "mainstream house" night is a favorite for Bahrain's discerning clientele and is a fun night, but the owner said that he's had to build this night and 'educate' the crowd to a point where they will actually dance to a whole night of house music (even if it is commercial electro). Cocoon is apparently one of the few places that will play good music without feeling the obligation to inject some 80's crap or 50 Cent to appease the masses. Last night, I played a deep house set which was a blend of soulful house to deep techno. While it wasn't the setting for an all-out dance battle to break out, I saw more than the occasional head bobbing & shoulder shaking. So, who knows, maybe deep house has a future here. Besides, coming from Boston, you get used to a bit of musical ignorance so who am I to complain. It's nice to be among the few...

Hopefully I will get another chance to spin before my summer here is over. A couple of pics from the night:





Next stop is Dubai this weekend. I can't wait to check out their malls... exciting.

Craziness in Jordan

Last weekend, Ananda and I took a trip to Jordan. Before I go any further, let me strongly recommend you go to Jordan. I say this for many reasons. First, the people are amazingly nice and hospitable. Even military guards at check points would smile and say, without fail, "Welcome to Jordan," with one arm waving and the other holding an assault rifle. Another great thing is that it is a complete departure from the inorganic growth and planned development of countries in the GCC (UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain). There is actually culture in Jordan. These sentiments were echoed among several travelers that we met along the way.


----> link to the web album


Well, a lot happened this weekend; too much to detail here. So I'll stick to a few highlights and comedic incidents that made this trip enjoyable.

Upon arriving in Amman, the capital and largest city in Jordan, we rented a car which only had a tape deck, was smaller than a Mini, but probably got 10 miles per gallon. Great deal!!! I burned CD's for no reason. We had a one night stay in Amman before going on our adventure through the country and spent the next two hours trying to find our hotel. I was driving. Ananda was on and off the phone with the hotel manager.

Conversations, from my 3rd-person perspective, were pretty funny:

Manager: "Go to the McDonalds and KFC and stop there."
Ananda: "We passed the KFC a long time ago, but the hotel is nowhere near there."
Manager: "What do you see?"
Ananda: "We see the university."
Manager: "Ok. Take a right before the light."
Ananda: "Before the light? Or at the light. Because there is no right before the light."
Manager: ".. (actually not sure what he said).."
Ananda: "Ok. Maybe you mean at the light, because it starts turning right a little bit before the actual light."

This sort of harmless miscommunication happened throughout the trip.

After that first night, we headed down to Wadi Rum. This is the desert where most of Lawrence of Arabia was filmed, and, of course, where the real Lawrence of Arabia led his attack on the Turks during WWI. For me, Wadi Rum was definitely the highlight of the trip. Imagine being in a vast desert with virtually nothing around for miles other than sand, rock, sun, and the occasional camel. Very cool. At night, we stayed outside under the stars -- probably the most stars I've ever seen before. It was probably because of the complete lack of light & pollution, along with the fact that we were much further south than I have ever been while looking up at night.

The next day, we went off to Petra. This is a lost city that the Nabataeans created over 2000 years ago. The entire city is carved out of the rocks. Very magnificent, with two sites which required excruciating hikes up the mountains in the desert heat: one was to the High Place of Sacrifice and the other was to the Monastery.

After the first day of Petra, we decided to try to squeeze in a trip to the Dead Sea. We left early-evening and, by the time we drove across the mountain range and down to sea level, it was already dark. We decided to push forward anyways, and this is where some funny incidents took place. The first was at a check point, where a young military officer approached us:

Officer: "Where are you from"
Me: "I'm from Canada"
Ananda: "And I'm from the United States"
Officer: "OK, give me password."
* Ananda and I just glancing at eachother, realizing the officer was joking around with us *
Us: "Oh yeah. The password."
Me: "Inshallah!" (i.e. the ubiquitous term meaning "God Willing")
Us: "Inshallah!"
Officer: "Password, passport, passport..."

Oh shit. He didn't say password. He was asking for our passports!!! So here we are, laughing and joking around with a military office, armed with a rifle. Behind him, another solider sat on an armored humvee with a 50 caliber machine gun mounted on it. And all I'm saying is "Inshallah!". Yes, we are from MIT Sloan. Leaders of tomorrow. In any case, after the confusion, the soldier bid us farewell, "Welcome to Jordan!"

A little bit further down the road, we reached another check point. This time, we decided not to give any passwords. We approached the check point, and went through a similar explanation that I am Canadian and Ananda is American.

Officer: "Get out of the car."
Me: "Get out?" (Soldier nods)
(I look at Ananda with a bit of concern but it's not like we had any contraband)
Ananda: "Should I get out of the car too?" takes seatbelt off
Officer: "No no no no no! Paper of the car!"

Dammit! Again!?!? We thought he was telling us to get out of the car, but he was just asking for the paper of the car -- the registration papers! (turns out the cars registration was expiring the next day. Thanks Avis, you assholes).

Regardless, the solider let us go and bid us farewell, "Welcome to Jordan!"

We pushed forward yet again. A bit further down and we're starting to get tired. It was dark but we found a good spot to pull over. We figured we'd just park the car, take a really quick dip in the Dead Sea and head back to Petra. Within seconds of pulling over, a jeep pulls up with lights so bright you couldn't make anything out. But then, someone moves forward. Another military officer. He speaks to us in Arabic and we tell him we only know English. So his partner comes up and shakes my hand. He tells us we are in a secure military zone and that we cannot stay. I explain that we're just trying to figure out where we are going. He told us we can stay for a little while, but must go soon. Naturally, we get the hell out of dodge.

You see, Jordan borders Israel, separated for the most part by the Dead Sea. As we're driving up the coast, we can see lights in the distance. That's the enemy. And here we are ready to take a dip in the Sea at 10pm in total darkness. Idiots.

Definitely a great trip, with a requisite amount of shenanigans. Once again, I definitely recommend you go to Jordan at some point. I haven't described all of the sites, but the pictures here speak for themselves I think.

Pharaoh Ketanamen

So, a couple of weeks ago, I went to Cairo for a work-related conference. Before I get long-winded with my trip review, here is a link to the full album with larger pictures.

The first thing I noticed was how friendly Egyptians are. Even on the plane, I started speaking to my neighbors on either side of me as they told me what to print on my all-Arabic landing form. After telling each of them that this was my first time in Egypt, they said "Ahlan wa sahlan" and "Welcome to Egypt".

You know, you sometimes adopt stereotypes or at least have certain expectations of people, only to have them shattered after submerging yourself in their environment. Well, I'm glad to report that people that I've met in Egypt and Jordan (which I will write about shortly) are unbelievably nice and genuinely happy to have you as a guest in their country.

I stayed at a beautiful hotel right on the banks of the Nile; and let me tell you, the Nile ain't just a state of disbelief (can you get more cheesy than that?). I first arrived to Cairo at 5am, and after 8 hours of presentations and schmoozing with industry vets, I had no energy to see the sites of Cairo at all. Imagine being half-way around the world and getting room service. Lame, I know.

Luckily, I tacked a few days of vacation to my trip. First step was to move from a 5-star hotel to a lower-rung hotel in central Cairo filled with the sounds of car horns and megaphones blaring the call to prayer five times a day. I'm glad I did. It added a bit of character to my trip and there was a great bar in the hotel where I could sit down with a few beers, a sheesha and the company of the friendly staff. The hotel, called the Windsor Hotel, used to be it a British officer's club during WWII, and has apparently been in several movies including 'Around the World in 80 Days'. Here's a pic of the Barrel Bar in the hotel:


On my first day of touring around, I saw Islamic Cairo which has a lot of mosques and nearby is the Cities of the Dead, which contains thousands of tombs and houses people who cannot afford to live anywhere else.

After that, I went to see the Pyramids at Giza. Turns out that Giza is a suburb of Cairo. I know! I was thinking that they were in some far-off desert 2 or 3 hours away from the city. Anyways, my impressions of the Pyramids don't seem to match those of most people. Don't get me wrong, the sheer size and the history of when and how they were built is amazing. But it's not like they are a work of beauty like other sites that I have seen (wait until my Jordan post). I suppose the fact that there was garbage strewn around the area didn't add to the allure of the pyramids. Check out some of the pics in the slide show below.

The next day, I went to a traditional market in Islamic Cairo, followed by a night on a Nile River boat cruise. I decided to splurge and go for the fanciest cruise since it would have a belly dancer and I wanted to ensure I got to see good talent. Again, check out the pics in the slide show below, and be prepared to be taken back (not in a good way). So these belly dancers are supposed to be mesmerizing... the way they move and seduce the crowd. Call me crazy or call me jaded. I've seen too many hip-hop videos and been to too many bachelor parties in Vegas and Montreal to be mesmerized by this:

On my final day, I went to the National Museum. Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside, although I did manage to sneak one in with my camera phone:

So, all in all, I had a great trip to Egypt. Hopefully, next time, I will be able to stay longer and visit Alexandria, Luxor, and other areas with ancient artifacts. Next time, inshallah (God Willing).

Here is a little slide show with various pics:

Jumping off the Island

Well, I'm heading to the land of Pharaohs, Cleocaptra, and... WiMAX ??? My company is sending me off to a conference in Cairo from Monday to Wednesday. I'm taking the opportunity to spend an all-to-short 3 extra days in Cairo, where I'll check out the National Museum and make a trip out to Giza to see the Pyramids. I wish I could go for longer, but I'll wait until my post-MBA world tour.

This past week was a return to the dusty atmosphere. One of the guys at work gave me an explanation for all the dust in the air that seems reasonable enough. I guess it usually rains in Saudi Arabia an average of 3 days per year, in the winter. The rain helps to pack the sand a little bit. This year, it didn't rain at all which leads to more sand to blow across the sea and into my mouth, hair and clothes. Case in point, a couple of vehicles in from town from Saudi. That is not rust. It's sand. Glorious sand. (click on the pics. i think you get to see a clearer picture):




I finally found a liquor store. At first, I was a bit apprehensive on going in. There was no signage, except for a one sign on the door:



Pretty crazy. Now I have no problem with religious values, but it is just a completely foreign concept to have the state enforce these religious rules for the majority of the population while it caters to the infidels. But I guess foreign concepts abound in a foreign land. At least I have cold beer in my fridge. I'm happy.

Here's a couple more pictures that just seemed interesting to me. One goes to show how McD's customizes its menu to the local community. I tried the McArabia and it tasted exactly like a McChicken. The other, well, it was taken at the mall (where else?).




That's it for now. I've got a flying carpet to Egypt tomorrow evening and will be back in a week.