a modern silk route 4

Here we are, D and I, on board QR3086 from Doha to Amman. We are travelling in style unlike the silk road travellers of yore. 

Well, those travellers never passed through Qatar (so I guess we don't need to go through the same hardship for this leg). Though the people here in the Arab peninsula share the same life as the nomadic pastoralists of the Central Asian steppes and in northern Sahara, there just weren't enough resources here to make this place of any interest in the middle ages. Besides the gulf that separated it from mainland Asia meant it was not on the way of the travellers.

They went from Xi An in China, past Dun Huang then Tur Fan and Kahs Gar and through Sary Tash, the Fergana Valley and then to Penjakent and of course Samarkand and Bukhara. Like the Gulf or Arabia, the Caspian Sea would have proven a challenge for the camels and like the ancient travellers, we too concluded our first journey on the Silk Road 3 years ago. 

D & I resumed the next leg of the Silk Road earlier this year on the western side of the Caspian Sea (lake actually). The flaming land of Azerbaijan (on account of abundance of near surface gas) is where Asia begins to merge with Europe. It borders Turkey, Iran, Greece and Italy which is the other main terminus of this 10 thousand mile road. 

The Silk Road actually branches into many paths as is approaches the Middle East and Mediterranean Europe. And it is not the main trunk highway to Venice and Rome we are on this time, but to the Middle East. 

So from a little desert peninsula jutting into the gulf on the southeastern tip of the Arabic peninsula, we are now flying west of northwest, past the most ancient civilisations of Sumeria (now modern day Iraq) and Persia (yup, no road to Damsacus for us) to the more verdant lands of Jordan (Gilead in the biblical past). There is almost no place more central in the world (past or present). It is at the strategic crossroads (via land) to the continents of Asia to the east and Europe in the northwest and Africa in the southwest.

I've been to the middle east multiple times the last twenty years but always for business and therefore always to the oil&gas-rich and capital cities of Doha, Abu Dhabi Dubai and Riyadh where we have business. I never took time off the see the rest of the region especially places of old civilisations. After all, this place is the cradle of human civilisation, the crossroad of the world.

So with a weekend in between visits to Doha and Riyadh, I got D to join me and see perhaps one of the most important places here: the Heshamite Kingdom of Jordan with sites like Petra and the Dead Sea and not to mention the river where Jesus was baptised. 

We land first in Amman, the capital of Jordan and are met by Weesam. An "Indiana Jones" adventure awaits us tomorrow but today we will tour the city of Amman (Ammon in the past) and literally traipse through its many millenia of history.

A modern silk route 3

The history of Qatar spans from its first duration of human occupation to its formation as a modern state. Human occupation of Qatar dates back to 50,000 years ago, and Stone Age encampments and tools have been unearthed in the peninsula.

The peninsula fell under the domain of several different empires during its early years of settlement, from 300BC to 600AD, including the Seleucid, the Parthians and the Sasanians, until Muhammad sent an envoy to a Persian ruler in Eastern Arabia named Munzir ibn Sawa Al Tamimi in 628 and requested that he and his people accept Islam. Munzir obliged his request and most Arab tribes in Qatar converted to Islam. Over the proceeding centuries, Qatar was a site of contention between the Wahhabi of Najd and the Al Khalifa. 

Bahrain and mainland Qatar had been seized by the Portuguese in 1521. After the Portuguese claimed control, they constructed a series of fortresses along the Arabian Coast. The Portuguese focused on creating a commercial empire in Eastern Arabia, and exported gold, silver, silks, cloves, amber, horses and pearls. The population submitted voluntarily to the rule of the Ottomans in 1550, preferring them to the Portuguese.

The Ottomans expanded their empire into Eastern Arabia in 1871, withdrawing from the area in 1915 after the beginning of WWI.

In 1916, Qatar became a British protectorate and Abdullah Al-Thani signed a treaty stipulating that he could only cede territory to the British in return for protection from all aggression by sea and support in case of a land attack. A 1934 treaty granted more extensive protection. In 1935, a 75-year oil concession was granted to Qatar Energy and high-quality oil was discovered in 1940 in Dukhan. During the 1950s and 1960s, increasing oil revenues brought prosperity, rapid immigration, substantial social progress and the beginnings of the country's modern history.

Qatar declared its independence on 1 September 1971 and became an independent state on 3 September.

Fast forward 51 years, here I am in Qatar discussing with the Prime Minister and his cabinet their National Development Strategy what the state would be like in 2030 (their 60th year of independence) and none of the elements are trivial. 

Photo credit: Doha News

Today it is one of the wealthiest state in the world, in absolute and relative (GDP/capita) terms, thanks largely to its significant gas reserves. However, in today’s climate-challenged world and more critically, dwindling reserves, they need to diversify their economy amidst increasingly competitive nations in the gulf: all aiming to attract investors and talents to grow their economy.

We had to grapple with trade offs between economic development (growth and diversification targets) vs the social cohesion implications. We had to help define values of the nation: what to preserve vs what must be further developed based on their national identity and history.

While I was deep in debate with the supreme committee, D was on a private city and water tour of the capital. With her insightful mind, she understood the country right away. She noticed that much has been built, very quickly but are largely empty. They are creatively designed but few truly reflected the heritage and natural beauty of the land (except the desert rose inspired national museum of qatar). 

Also, with all these new build, Qatar could have gotten the architects to lead the way with sustainable buildings but instead too many steel (from china) and glass (from US) buildings re erected which is also completely impractical for a place so easily covered in sand. Her summary of "fast and empty" encapsulates the monumental task Qatar has ahead for the coming years to reinvent itself. 

a modern silk route 2

Marsh is not swamp. There is light. Light that help plants grow. Plants that grow on water. Water that flows into the light.

Jakarta is not a swamp. It is home to over 10 million people. There is life there and most certainly, growth. And there is water too! Largely from poor urban planning and lackadaisical infrastructure that causes roads to flood within an hour of a downpour. 

Still, it is not a swamp because of the spirit of the people here. Their streets may be flooded. Their homes may be flooded. Yet, they find ways to make ends meet; even the very cause of their wet homes become a source of income.

I first experienced this 20 years ago. We who live in the tropics know all about the monsoon season and the torrential rains that come along with that. The downpour gets so heavy that even a 10 metre walk without shelter will get you drenched.

Enter the umbrella kids. When the rains come, so do these kids with these portable canopies that shelter the office workers to their cars. Their bedrooms may be filled with water and who knows, maybe their clothes and bags and books too, but here they are keeping grown men and women from getting a little wet. For that, they get 5000 rupiah, or 50 cents. 

And as the roads get flooded, the drivers instinctively know how to navigate their way out of that. No GPS required. Besides, there were no Google maps back then two decades ago. A single muddy lane between squatter homes become a major thoroughfare with traffic going both way with the help of self-appointed wardens, who occasionally get a 1000 rupiah tip and there is apparently a system of who and went to tip. 

Then there are jockeys. The roads in the city centre can get so choked up during rush hour that even without rain, the jam can get really bad. Its simply because there are too many cars for the amount of roads they have. And most of the cars have merely two occupants: a driver and the owner. So, some smart government official had a brainwave. Enforce car pooling. Only cars with three or more people are allowed in the city centre at rush hour. So enter the car jockeys. Some barely older than my 5 year old son then. They get into a car with strangers at one end of the city and get out at the other, all for 10000 rupiah. I wanted to pay more but my driver said I would only get them in trouble if they cannot raise the tips in future.

My kids grew up in Malaysia and Singapore blissfully unaware that kids just a couple of hours of flight away had to scrap for a living this way. 

So you see, dear reader, swamps can be turned into marshes. These memories of Jakarta can never be erased from my mind and i guess along with that the resolve to do something right for the world so yoing kids can grow up well. 

I am here to meet the ambassador and officials of UK and after a successful business trip here discussing programs that will improve this country's (and the region's) infrastructure and cities (esp in the context of adapting to climate change), improves it  health service and education standards and help progress tem economically, it is apt that i begin my modern silk route journey just as D begins here from modern sunny Singapore. We will meet in 8 hours in Doha.

A modern silk route 1

Silkair has now been folded back into the Singapore Airlines group. For a few decades, it grew from a travel agency (a natural adjacent business for the group), operated a few charters under the name Tradewinds and became a full fledged regional Airlines bearing the evocatively romantic name of Silkair.

It's position as neither a premium carrier nor a low cost one made no more sense and so all its planes, its crew and its routes got subsumed under SQ. 

In today's increasingly divided world, business models are similarly polarising to two winning strategies: luxury or mass. Speaking of mass, I am flying on Jetstar, Qantas' low cost carrier. It's an occupational hazard but I can see so many things it could do better (even if it was a low cost). What really floored me was the crew keeping the front toilet for themselves. Reminds me of Vietnam Airlines of 30 years ago and they are miles ahead now. It's like Jetstar are purposely trying to make their bad service worse. 

Be that as it may, I am compelled to take this flight as its the last flight to Jakarta from Singapore tonight. Its a public holiday (Deepavali, the festival of light) and its bad enough that I have to travel on a public holiday in order to meet the British Ambassador to ASEAN first thing tomorrow morning, I was not going to take earlier flights that would have reduced my time with loved ones at home.

As it happens, it was really nice to have D to send me off and see J&N take C for a walk. We can never take time together for granted.

Yesterday, D & I went to the hospital to see her paternal grandpa who is warded there for a fall and then subsequently caught COVID (potentially while at the hospital). We are all very worried of course. He is a grand 100 years old and was initially (mis?)diagnosed as having pneumonia and his body didn't react well to the antibiotics they gave him and in fact developed fast AF with a low blood pressure and low oxygen levels. We pray he gets well soon, though at his age, he is vulnerable.

D was holding his hand and I was with her and by his bedside. We hope we will be OK. He was wearing his ventilator mask and we were both masked up too except for a quick photo.

We also hope we are strong enough with our triple vaccinations to not have gotten infected. We were only there for 30mins and by his side for no more than 15mins as they had to do a chest x-Ray and we stopped to speak to the doctors in attendance.

We are supposed to go on an our own evocative romantic trip... to the heart of the middle east. No, not Dubai or Riyadh - the commercial or religious capitals of the region but to Qatar and then Jordan. Wasn't it in the wilderness of Jordan that Jesus's cousin, John preached and baptised his followers on the banks of the river there. 

But all that we will hopefully see later this weekend. Like the Silk Route of old, we need to traverse long distances and endure risky and uncomfortable conditions to get to our destination.

So, embracing that intrepid spirit (with a wild dose of imagination), here I am starting out my journey on a low cost and low service airline, with quite  few people coughing away, starting my journey on a public holiday to the most populous city in Southeast Asian, Jakarta.

I used to come to Jakarta a fair bit when leading the region and you cannot be successful in Southeast Asia if you are not doing business in Indonesia which is the largest country and growing fast.

It's been awhile since I kept a travelogue. I do feel the urge to write a bit more and what better way than to use this trip to do so, beginning with Jakarta and after making our way all the way to Uzbekistan in 2019 and to Azerbaijan, across the Caspian Sea, earlier this year, we know go further west from Central Asia into the Middle East and visit two of its richest lands (in modern times, Qatar and in antiquity, Jordan). 

Watch this space, dear readers, for D and my upcoming silk journeys together. 

All grown up

M has a blog and she titled it Growing!, yup complete with exclamation mark. 

She writes of her growth and growing pains and once in a blue moon marks her growth with some ink.

M & J, my dear kids, have both grown up. 

And everyone around them has grown older in the mean time. Their 81 year old Grandfather "TaTa" has caught COVID and had collapsed at a dinner with Grand Uncle Michael and his family. At that time we thought he suffered a stroke attack as he was also incoherent (expressive dysphasia) and could not walk. Luckily E was there and was the only one strong enough to carry Ta Ta back up to his room.

D then rushed up to Malacca later in the week and she saw them face to face. By then Grandmother "NeiNei" also caught COVID. Before D left, she cooked and froze a week's worth of food for them so they won't need to worry about food while they self quarantined. Tata was so grateful for Mom's cooking "so nice and soft", in his words. Mom is truly a wonderful daughter in law.

However, all of this events shook me and mom & all my siblings (and even my cousin). We had a family meeting to decide on Ta Ta's hospitalisation and care arrangements.

It has reminded us of the mortality that we all face, and in this case we subsequently found out when scanned that Ta Ta had suffer mild heart attacks and strokes before.

This also got us to thinking of how well we care for each other. Right now, both our children are appropriately growing up (I think the millenial phrase for it is adulting, right?) and charting their own course (and also course correcting where necessary).

The course of the adult life is long and winding and I'd add thoroughly enjoyable. The destination though for all of us is the same. At the end of the day, all we want is to have done some good, hopefully made a difference for the world  but most critically for parents like mom and me to have raised good kids who will then be good people

Mom, having been in Malacca, seeing Ta Ta and Nei Nei first hand and the love and care they received. She is quite naturally reflecting on her own situation as a mother esp how she has brought up children who care about their parents and about each other. Ultimately, in life, these are the most important things.

This is a mellow time for her. She is naturally feeling low and pensive and if each of you (individually and together) can do something for her, I know she'd appreciate it.

I think you both know she has given her all (even more than me who focused on my career to bring home the bacon) in raising two of you and everything you say and so affects her so a gesture or two now would I know have a positive effect on her too

Uzbekistan, again

I am on my way to Uzbekistan again. I was here in 2017 and had an epiphany about the potential of the region. It inspired me to plan a family trip in May 2019, and followed that up with a business trip May this year. The leisure trip was with M and D (J had to go back to serve his internship obligations) and what a glorious trip it is across the Fergana Valley and into historical trading posts of Samarkand and Bukhara. My trip earlier this year was all business and I met with the DPM amd Minister of Finance amongst others and promptly got a project sold!

I am heading there again for the official opening of the office where the Minister will grace. Am flying there after a Global Public Sector meeting from London on Uzbekistan Airways flight HY204 to Tashkent. Not surprisingly it was delayed for nearly an hour because the flight had arrived late by 30 minutes. I know the math doesn’t add up but out of a busy airport like Heathrow, turnaround times is slower and then you lose your air traffic slots. 

London remains one of the capitals of the world but I wonder for how much longer. Infrastructure has not kept paced with the population that driving anywhere within the city (esp. during rush hour takes an hour). No. 10 is now a revolving door with PMs coming and going, mostly because of party infighting. Then there is the low brow distaste that is served on public media and I was appalled with an episode of Naked Attraction I chance upon while surfing the channels in my hotel room. More importantly, the economy is anaemic and the pound has taken a beating as the markets did not appreciate the growth policy the (new) government has proposed. In fact, just before I flew out of London, the Chancellor of the Exchequer was dismissed: a scapegoat for the times. 

On the other hand, the former Soviet Union state of Uzbekistan has leaders who care about the development of their country. No doubt, some level of corruption exists, but unlike in many parts of the world, the leaders I met here are not out to manipulate the population for their own gains. Here, they are keen to learn of the successes and failures of others. 

When I was first here 5 years ago, I took a quick private day trip to Chimgan countryside and encountered people who looked like me and especially an old stall keeper who resembled my grandmother. The Hakka people are said to have originated from the north of China where we had lived as nomadic groups in the Steppes that spanned all across Central Asia. Maybe that is why I felt a certain kinship with this people and are back here again for the fourth time in five years and no doubt there will be more trips to come, perhaps with J in tow as well.

The Uzbekistan Airways flight is really basic. I am in business class, so the seats are bigger but that;s about it. There is no inflight entertainment, the pilots take longer to get to cruising altitude (or to let the passengers know that they are there) and the cabin crew generally just huddle in the galley than walking the aisles to serve the passengers. Reminds me of what it was like 30 years ago in Vietnam. Vietnam has certainly come a long way since then and these central Asia states are indeed the next frontier.

There is, however, some charm to this “old world” operations. I spent the parts of my flight reading. A Paul Theroux travel book no less (and this one is about his travels from Cairo to Capetown which is something I would like to do). And now midway through the flight, writing. Normally, I would have been on to my second movie on the inflight entertainment, a mindless activity that one would promptly forget unlike the more engaging reading and writing I am doing now.

So, there is a silver lining in every circumstance, and in the case of Uzbekistan, it may well be a golden lining! When I was here five years ago, I even encouraged the team to author a report and tell the world the potential of this region. Now, I am back here advising the government to live up to the potential.

 

 

No doubt the universe is unfolding as it should

My dearest J, as I conclude a meeting with some colleagues here, it gave me an opportunity to reflect upon one's career journey

There are about 45 of us and we come from all corners of the world and lead different topics our respective region. I am now the Social Impact leader for Asia Pacific, for instance.

A handful of the folks are in their fifties (like me) and doing this to guide the young and ensure the firm keeps growing and our voices at these meetings are wise

Most of them are in their 40s and then a handful in their 30s. You may call those in the latter group young HighFlyers. However, therein lies the dilemma. Good as they are, they just don't have the experience like the 40, let alone 50 years old have and inevitably their perspectives come across as more academic than pragmatic. Some of them may have peaked too early even.

No doubt exposure to the broader group will help them grow. The larger point I am making though is there is a time and place for everything

By the way, this verse from the book of Ecclesiastes is my favourite and I got it inscribed on a watch I gifted mom for our 25th anniversary. And in your case, though you may not feel so every now and then, the universe is unfolding as it should and your path ahead will be a happy one

I dedicated a poem <If by Rudyard Kipling> to you in recognition of what a fine young man you are growing into nearly a decade ago. Here's another with much words of wisdom.

Desiderata

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.

Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexatious to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment, it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.

Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.

And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be.

And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.

Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.
by Max Ehrmann ©1927

Trust your week is going well, especially as it is N's birthday today