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kids on a rope :)

There is a short list now of places that I absolutely MUST see and it’s one of those wonderfully pleasant dilemmas each year deciding which destination (maybe two if times are flush) will be knocked off the list.

I have had some wonderful adventures by visiting a place at a special moment in its history so I decided to finally see the fjords since 2014 would be Norway’s 200^th anniversary. And I would start in Oslo on May 17^th to see the National Day up close and personal.

It’s definitely a worthwhile endeavour. I think I saw every school child in Norway! But it may have just been all the children in Oslo.

That is the focus of the day. There is a children’s parade to the palace where they are greeted by the king and queen of Norway. I think I saw them waving on the balcony but I was just floating with the experience so I am sure better preparation would have allowed a closer royal sighting. But I think monarchies in the 21^st century are dumb so…

following the locals 🙂

I was excited to manage to score a good spot for the parade despite not even being clear on where the parade route was. The hotel staff were vague (I gather no one bothers unless they know kids in the parade). The tradition is to dress up in traditional costumes so I just followed a group looking as though they had stepped from 19^th century Norway out of the hotel until I saw a big crowd, where I parted company with the people in fancy dress in case they were going somewhere the bouncers were checking for embroidery instead of designer threads.

I managed to get a great view of the parade and sported the sunburn for a couple of days to prove it. (Do recommend a hat if you watch the parade!) It goes on for a long time. I can understand Norwegians shunning it after a few years. But there are lots of small children. While not every child is in traditional

wave that flag!

dress, almost everyone looks festive.

It’s a very cool experience as children are inherently entertaining. But what is also really heartwarming about 21^st century Oslo is the inclusiveness of the society.

Sunday is the day to go to the National Gallery. It’s free! Free and Norway are not concepts you normally put together … but on Sunday you can see The Scream, antique furniture and thought provoking modern art all for free!

Combined with the parade, it offered some insight into Norwegian culture (the history is still a bit murky – plan is to clear that upon my return to Oslo). One of the museums proclaimed Norway the “peace nation”. And this is where you can score a Nobel Peace Prize.

I love nations with a smart agenda. I had envisioned Norway as one of those countries that was beyond post-modern – a country of the future. It has not disappointed. The museums were interesting and provocative (a big emphasis on human rights and free speech) but what was most gratifying to see was the diversity of children included in the National Day parade.

The whole world was represented. Not only different skin tones but different facial features. Some wore traditional Norwegian dress, which really warmed my heart. I think immigration is a total force for good. But, if you change countries, you should be madly in love with a foreign national or madly in love with what that foreign country represents. Some countries posit better concepts than others. If you like your own culture, stay put. Immigration works when people come to a new place for the right reasons.

I haven’t met enough people yet to have a solid prognosis on 21^st century Norway. But I have never seen such a variety of foreign faces in a European country. And everyone was included – a handicap did not exclude you. You just had someone pushing your wheelchair.

a rope of the world 🙂

The small children were attached to a rope to deter wandering. But the diversity of the rope gave one hope for the 21^st century. As does the fresh air. Go Norway! I think there is much the rest of the world can learn from these reformed Vikings 😉

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shining examples, social commentary, travel stories

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it’s not easy being deutsch ;)

I am still feeling a little shell-shocked by the World Cup. In the best possible way of course 😉 I have already publicly declared my support for die Mannschaft 🙂

go deutschland!!!

But they were playing Messi! And, as expected, I had to remember not to hold my breath for 124ish minutes. As I’ve previously acknowledged, I was lured into (world) football by lust – and friendship. It was a way to connect, but I also loved the concept of a true world game and the potential that offered for connection between cultures.

So it’s been an unexpected journey since 2002 when a Canadian friend who had grown up in Iran first introduced me to the concept. It took a couple World Cups before that hmmm…interesting grew into anything further.

my world cup coach 🙂

But now that I am a Whitecaps seasons’ ticket holder bringing along boys who will teach me the game, my first serious World Cup was a revelation. Because I now cared, I needed a team and my long, complicated history with the Deutsch meant they had to be my team. Luckily one of my friends was also supporting Germany so it provided an extra level of engagement. As I told Rodz, it would not have been the same without him. There is something magical about the fan experience.

My fascination and respect for the Germans has spanned decades and is more novella than blog post. Just a few highlights on the journey to die Mannschaft…

I grew up in the 80s when the Germans seemed to understand economics so much better than North America so I was soft on them at a young age 🙂 Then my arrival in Deutschland happened to coincide with the Berlin Wall falling…

People, Germans CAN get emotional 😉 And that is how I met them. One of my young memories was wishing I could speak German! Because I was missing out on the whole story.

the wall comes down… jurgen and the bear named snuff 🙂

The beginning also of my love affair with the Dutch. That is how I met some now middle aged guy named Jurgen I would love to connect with as he is the most incredible memory for me of November 1989. Because, of course, the Dutch speak so many languages – and he had skipped school to come to Berlin – and tried to negotiate with the dudes sporting guns on the top of the wall to pose with the stuffed bear I was carrying around Europe as a mascot…

That experience played a big part in me falling in love with a German guy years later…

And so it goes… and how I learned it’s not so easy being German (another subject worthy of a novella)… I look like I am… and was happy to fly the flag.

They represented many of the things I love about the Deutsch. They played as a team. They had a plan and stayed focused. They looked for opportunities and then brought their special sauce to capitalize.

I can’t quite believe the team I picked for my first World Cup has won 🙂 Vielen dank!!! It is not easy watching soccer in Vancouver. Very few people care. It was hard to just go home after such a historic victory so I thought I would try for a celebratory beer at a bar sporting a German flag (we had watched it at the Commodore courtesy of the White Caps).

It ended up being a perfect ending. Wearing a jersey and having a German flag sticking out of your purse will help you connect 🙂 So, ended the wonderful day connecting with some German tourists. They taught me a new word – Weltmeister.

So true…Messi tried… Schweinsteiger manned up big time… and a couple of substitutes won the World Cup…

Götze – you make me inspired to perfect the “o” umlaut – the hardest thing for an English speaker to say properly. Handing off from Klose… wow! And Schürrle deserves a lot of love (a game of umlauts apparently 😉 … and Neuer – mein Gott!

But everyone played a part… it was a team victory over the entire tournament. Face it – Germany has its shit together 🙂

Why it is not a generally beloved country… but go meet some Germans. I have met a lot and, almost uniformly, they are amazing people with a dark, wicked sense of humour. What are you gonna do when most people think you are a Nazi? 😉

Ich liebe Deutschland – not just today 😉 And Müller… also mein Gott! But it couldn’t have been done without Lahm, özil, Podolski, Hummels, Khedira, Kroos, Boeateng…

I will need a new jersey for 2018 😉 But I will paint an extra star on this one as proof I believed from the beginning 😉

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shining examples, social commentary

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how do you spend your days…

I wrote about the World Press photo contest in an earlier post. The first time I checked it out I was on my way to Egypt in the middle of the first democratic election in its history so it was especially poignant to see all the photos from the Arab Spring.

http://www.worldpressphoto.org/awards/2014

This time the poignant photos were from the Philippines. I was in Australia when the storm hit so saw lots of coverage along with lots of talk of global warming. Sadly a lot of the winning photos depict conflict and devastation. That is, of course, the stuff of photojournalists.

The contest though is about photography so there are some happy photos too. And all sorts of interesting subjects, from a cougar stalking the Hollywood sign to a lady who has rescued so many stray dogs it seems there is no room left for her.

It’s a fascinating mix of subjects and points of view to consider. It definitely makes one examine one’s own life and – in my case, appreciate how easy my life is and how privileged I am. The winning photo this year is beautiful and haunting, like a master painting. It depicts migrants standing on a beach on the coast of Africa, holding up mobile phones trying to get a signal so they can communicate with the people they’ve left behind and give an update on their progress in finding a better life.

As I noted last time, it starts in Amsterdam but moves around so check it out if it comes to a city near you.

It was also a way to escape from the rain in Amsterdam. It is a city that is noted for its “four seasons in one day” weather but this time there seemed to be only one – I think it was winter. It was windy, cold, with lots of persistent rain in any event. It was pretty miserable but it’s still hard not to love Amsterdam. And one has to admire the Dutch, biking with an umbrella in one hand!

I still haven’t written about last year’s trip to Amsterdam so I am going to mix it up a bit to hit some of the highlights from both visits.

For now we will stick with culture. The other thing that got me to drag myself across town in the pouring rain was an exhibit at the Hermitage. The Hermitage in Amsterdam is pretty cool. I have been there on most visits as the concept is that they will bring a subset of the 3,000,000 (I think) objects from the Hermitage in St Petersburg to Amsterdam as part of a special exhibition.

http://www.hermitage.nl/en/

The current exhibition is called The Silk Road and it provides a glimpse into centuries of world history. There are artifacts from all kinds of countries, some that sounded familiar and some not.

I learned quite a bit of stuff from the exhibition but what was most interesting is that the Silk Road wasn’t just an ancient highway. It was a network of intrepid merchants and few travelled the entire length of the trading area. There was a lot of desert and camels involved and oases were key.

It certainly makes my current trip around Europe look like a piece of cake. Without all those early entrepreneurs, our current 24/7 world would not have been possible. They carried silk, spices and other hot commodities but they also carried ideas and influence.

It all definitely makes you think of your daily life, your goals and your impact on the world.

p.s. I also picked up a book on the Silk Road by Colin Thubron since I needed some English language reading material 🙂 Why haven’t I discovered him before? Highly recommended!

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artsy stuff, social commentary, travel stories

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finding real VIPs…

One of the most exciting aspects of attending SXSW is that it attracts an interesting, eclectic crowd. Of course, not all interesting people are created equal – and I am a connoisseur 🙂 I’ve started to think of them as “my tribe”.

Almost all of my friendships were an act of serendipity – and generally include a good narrative. Meeting V was no different 🙂

I felt like a voyeur at SXSW. Most people come with an agenda, especially for the interactive conference. But I was just there to soak up the atmosphere and celebrate my birthday so every day was a random walk. I looked for catalysts or recommendations to inspire the day’s plan.

The easiest day to plan was when my new friend Quin was pitching his business idea in the Startup Village at the Hilton. I wanted to make sure I had a seat for his presentation so sat through 8 pitches from young entrepreneurs. Fascinating – and they are so impressive!

I had an entertaining time with the angel investor sitting beside me and got a better idea what professional investors are looking for. You can check out Quin and his revolutionary new footwear technology at the plantiga website:

http://www.plantiga.com/#about

He was busy being courted by venture capitalists and meeting basketball players so I didn’t get to hang out with him in Austin but going to watch him was how I met V and had one of the most memorable evenings of my life.

It might never have happened had it not been pouring rain at the end of the seminars. We decided to hide inside and have a drink hoping for the rain to stop. The rain never stopped but, without it, V and I might have just gone our separate ways and the fascinating conversation would never have happened.

It’s not often you meet someone who totally gets it when you describe the Ngorongoro Crater as “the Disney version of the Serengeti”. Someone who encourages you to be an intellectual snob.

SXSW is a haven for snobs like me. I grew up in a trailer park so I’m never snobby about things you can’t control about your past. But I am a bit snobby about how you live your future. Whether you try. Whether you have the confidence to learn things and develop your own opinions.

I am snobby about whether you are a VIP – but likely not the way you might suspect. V doesn’t even know yet but he was the inspiration for my repurposing of that term. It came about because we went to an event that night that we thought was a comedy performance by Seth Myers, but instead was Seth showing up and standing behind a velvet rope with the other VIPs while the proletariat stood on the other side of the rope and took photos with Seth when he came close to the Berlin Wall divide.

Seth seemed like a nice guy and I doubt most people there thought much about it but V and I wondered just what separated the people on either side of the rope… and which side likely had the more interesting people…

I am fascinated by the concept of celebrity, especially in these days when it seems almost anyone can get 15 minutes of fame, especially if you are willing to let cameras invade your privacy or act like a moron.

I’m certainly interested in meeting people whose accomplishments I admire. I recently came across the reply to a fan letter I wrote to Robertson Davies as a teenager. His reply was fascinating and insightful (it will get into the blog at some point). I would be thrilled to meet Jon Stewart because he is so damn smart and really tries to engage people and get them to care about important things. He is one of my heroes.

But most of my heroes are not famous. I have zero interest in meeting most of the people the world currently seems to consider VIPs… which gets us to the redefinition V has inspired. I AM interested in VIPs… the difference is that my VIPs are VERY INTERESTING PEOPLE. I would encourage you to seek them out. They are the one that may not rock – but they WILL rock your world. Thanks, V 🙂

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life philosophy, social commentary, travel stories

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eat crickets or educate girls? ;)

WTF… at SXSW, that stands for “what the future?” It was one of my favourite parts and I spent most of the final day learning all kinds of wild things about the present that had escaped my attention since the regular media is more interested in Kardashians than crickets.

I started the day in the very first session learning about the next industrial revolution according to the CEO of inventables. He was very convincing! And we even got to see the mayor of Chicago make a personalized bottle opener live using the company’s 3-D printing technology.

https://www.inventables.com/about

It’s definitely food for thought. Long ago, when I was at business school, the concept du jour was just-in-time manufacturing. At the time, it was revolutionizing the business cycle and suggesting Americans should be doing group calisthenics like the Japanese.

The other concept I remember was the idea of customization – moving away from Henry Ford’s factory and letting customers have more say in the final product. The concept was very compelling but the mechanics of the production process and the supply chain made it difficult to make customers happy AND maximize profits.

But then Apple started making ipods in different colours. People were willing to spend more to express their individualism. And individualism came at a much cheaper price thanks to new global supplies of cheap labour and containerization.

But, if the inventables CEO is right, we won’t need cheap developing country labour or container ships. We will be able to customize and manufacture products in our own garage. It’s a seductive and revolutionary concept – the point of WTF.

The next two sessions offered literal food for thought! Apparently there is some recent study that predicts the already overcrowded planet earth will add another 2 billion people by 2060 – and it will be impossible to feed all those mouths without some really inventive changes in the way we think of food. I’m not sure the spoiled western world is quite ready for most of it yet but it’s exciting to know someone is thinking of the future.

The first idea is growing hamburger from stem cells in a lab! Dr. Mark Post actually made a hamburger in a lab in Maastricht. If petri dish hamburger isn’t your thing, another very enthusiastic presenter shared his vision of 3-D printer food. It sounds nuts but the concept is kind of a cross between a blender and a manufacturing extrusion device. You put various components into separate chambers and they are combined in the machine and popped out in time for dinner! You can even add medicine or vitamins. Apparently Star Trek wasn’t as far-fetched as it seemed.

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/aug/05/first-hamburger-lab-grown-meat-press-conference

These food concepts are enticing and appealing but also expensive. The next presentation was focused on saving space, conserving resources and cutting costs. Of course, it’s a hard sell in the western world where insects are not considered a proper food source but rather a gross challenge for reality show contestants.

But the intrepid team put forward a credible case for insect farms and cricket flour. I didn’t get a chance to try the cricket cookies as I had to run back for the keynote presentation but I did eat a deep-fried locust in Thailand – and can confirm it just tasted like deep-fried batter rather than bug 🙂

Around the same time as I was learning about the threats to the global food supply from overpopulation, I caught an episode of Bill Maher where he interviewed Alan Weisman about his book “Countdown”.

http://littlebrown.com/countdown.html

I still find it shocking that not everyone realizes the way to save the planet is simply to educate girls. Educated women don’t have so many babies – and women tend to be more concerned about the collective so it’s all win-win.

Of course getting there is the challenge. The one thing I learned from Alan and Bill that I did not expect is that Iran is a model for population control. No weird, destructive one child policy required. They simply made contraception free and educated women.

So, the choices is yours, people… don’t call women sluts for using contraception, support organizations that help girls go to school (the more the better) or learn how to not gag on your insects… 🙂

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social commentary, travel stories

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a unique perspective on this crazy world

Archive for the ‘social commentary’ Category

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