Where Old School Buses Go To Die

I have made several trips to Haiti over recent years. Given the country's desparate poverty and rampant kidnapping activity, I don't get out much while I'm there. Most of what I have seen has been from behind the locked doors of an SUV, or wandering a quiet back street of a rural village.

However, I have seen enough. Haiti has a per capita annual GDP of USD 1316, making it one of the poorest places on Earth. It has been stripped bare of vegetation for consumption and fuel and the Haitians have resorted to digging chalk out of hillsides on the side of the road to thin construction cement to make it go further. Some of the poorest Haitians make a dish which is essentially cookies made of mud which they sell on the street.

Consider for example this map of Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, which I took from my hotel room at the Villa Creole. The seashore is on the left. As you move to the right, or uphill, the roads simply end in a giant blank area. This would be where the core of the city lives. Houses are built of whatever material is at hand and roads are unpaved tracks which cannot be mapped.

Until you arrive on the right-hand side of the map, which is Petionville. While we see pictures of starving children, mud cookies and schools buried in mudslides due to deforestation, what we do not hear about is the 5% of the Haitian population which lives very comfortably in relative wealth in Petionville on the mountainsides. These are the educated elite, often with relatives in the United States or France.

For most Haitians though, daily life is difficult. Use of public transportation is common, generally consisting of tap-taps, shiny tricked out vehicles painted with religious slogans very much like the Jeepney used in the Philippines. Where tap-taps aren't available, almost anything imaginable gets pressed into service. Seeing large trucks with people piled on top careening down the street is not uncommon.

This includes our old schoolbuses which are pressed into service as mass transit vehicles. Who knows how their old bones arrive on this impoverished island, along with all the other 10-20 year old cars of US manufacture. But there they are, with their Haitian routes painted on their doors next to their original cities of US ownership. I remember pulling up to my first one and seeing "Petionville-Centreville" and "W. Berlin, NJ" juxtaposed on the same panel. Their drivers make good use of the flashing signals at night; they simply leave them running as they drive as there are no street lights in Haiti.

Haitians are nothing if not enterprising. They have to be to survive. On my last trip I was hustled by a taxi driver at the airport who was looking for a fare. When the airport security guards came to push him out the door, he kept asking if he could have the "blanc" fare; "blanc" being the lone white man in the airport (me). I understand enough French (or Creole) to have figured that one out.

Driving down a street in Port-au-Prince, or over the 6 hour mountain road to Jacmel, is never dull. It is usually a riot of open air markets blocking the road, grade school children in uniforms skipping about, burning trash, tap-taps loaded with bodies, chickens, goats and graves. I have yet to see any signs of voodoo, but I know its practiced by 60% of the population from my survey work. Perhaps next time?

Eight Hours In Rome

I recently had the opportunity to enjoy a 8 hour layover in Rome. Rome is a big place, so I picked something to see which could be thoroughly covered in 8 hours minus taxi time. St Peter's Basilica and the Castel St. Angelo were the selections of the day.

St. Peter's sits at the heart of the Vatican City; independent country, seat of the Pope and heart of the Catholic Church. The city, in turn, sits in the middle of the city of Rome. It has been independent of Rome and Italy since 1929. It is the smallest country in the world, by any measure.

The Vatican City consists of far more than just St. Peter's Basilica and Square. There are delicious museums, well manicured gardens, an art gallery and of course offices of the various bodies of the Holy See. But the Basilica and Square are the heart of it all.

St. Peter's Square, in front of the Basilica, is by tradition the site of the crucifixion and burial of St. Peter in 64 A.D. Interestingly, at the time it was a Roman circus, Nero's Circus, of which the stolen Egyptian obelisk from Heliopolis still remains as the focal point. More recently, the actual burial site of St. Peter has been unearthed north of the circus in a pre-Constantinian necropolis. I intend to visit him on my next opportunity.

St Peter's Basilica itself is immense. It is the second Basilica, having been built on top of the original which Emperor Constantine consecrated in 329 A.D. The interior of the building itself is magnificent. It is hard to grasp just how big it really is, even when standing inside the dome and looking down.

Constantine's original basilica was built over the traditional tomb of St. Peter. For me, the tomb of Pope John Paul II in the grottos under the Basilica was perhaps the most moving moment of the visit. While I can remember the Pope and his moral leadership in life, I was struck by the emotional reverance of a Filipino man who was kneeling in tears, praying in front of the tomb. He was surrounded by a shuffling, oblivious crowd of tourists who parted around him as they passed. This man was however so committed, so absorbed by his passion, that he had closed his eyes and blocked these hundreds from his mind. It was moving just to see him.


The Catholic Church has of course not survived for 2000 years on faith alone. The Pope has a personal bodyguard of 134 Pontifical Swiss Guards. Since 1506, the Guards have been recruited from Catholic males with prior service in the Swiss military to provide personal protection for the Pope. To this day the Guards continue in this tradition, wearing the uniforms and carrying the weapons of the 16th century.

The guards played a role in protecting the Pope at the Castel St. Angelo. The Castel is attached to the Vatican City via a raised fortified passage over the streets along an old city wall. The Castel itself was originally the tomb of the Emperor Hadrian. It became a virtually impregnable fortress from the later Roman period onwards. I had the good fortune to arrive during a festival week of Roman culture and history, so the Castel was open late and free of charge. Wandering the tunnels and chambers, I could see the complexity of an assault.

For those who are opera lovers, the final scenes of Puccini's Tosca should come to mind. The Castel had come to have a reputation for torture and political imprisonment at the time of the opera's setting. Those final scenes are set on the ramparts of the Castel and the opera closes with Tosca throwing herself from the battements to her death on the rocks below.

The St. Angelo bridge in front of the Castel was built in 239 A.D. across the river Tiber to lead from the city of Rome to the tomb. It was originally called the Elian Bridge. Apparently in later periods, its statues were added depicting scenes from the Passion of Christ and were adorned with the heads of prisoners executed in the Castel, hung to serve as reminders to the living.

Greek and Egyptian

I continue to be fascinated by the many faces of Egypt. On my last trip I had the opportunity to return to Alexandria on the shore of the Mediterranean and explore some of its history.

The city of Alexandria was established on by Alexander the Great on the site of a smaller Egyptian coastal town after he conquered Egypt. First under the Greeks, then the Romans, and finally the Byzantines, it served as the capital of Egypt and home to the Ptolomaic Pharohs, including Cleopatra. As such, it is distinctly different from Arabic Cairo with a Graeco-Roman, Christian foundation overlaid with a modern Islamic, Mediterranean facing society I find fascinating.

Alexandria was the home to 2 of the 7 wonders of the ancient world; the Pharos Lighthouse and the ancient Library of Alexandria. The lighthouse apparently stood from the time of the ancient Greeks through the Crusades and was eventually brought low by an earthquake. Its remains have recently been discovered in the water off a jetty.

If you stand on that jetty where the tower once stood and look back across the bay, you see the post-modern Library of Alexandria. Very much a modern library and museum, it stands in the middle of the old Greek city.

The ancient Library was the home of some of the greatest minds of antiquity. It was as much a university, or Museum, as it was a library. It was originally founded by students of Aristotle, which included Alexander the Great. Great innovations included hydraulics, mathematical map-making, Euclidian geometry, Archimedes discovery of pi, spherical geometry, as well as innovations in anatomy and astronomy.

The Ptolomaic Pharohs also created a strange combination of Egyptian, Greek, Roman and eventually Christian religions in an attempt to bring together Greek and Egyptian subjects. This included the worship of Serapis, who was at once Osiris, Pluto or Hades, and eventually also Jesus.

This is perhaps most evident in burial sites. I had the opportuity to explore a extensive underground catacomb burial in Alexandria called the Catacombs of Kom el-Shuqafa.It is a fascinating and very elaborate underground cemetery. I had images of a Dungeons and Dragons adventure as I was wandering around the chambers and staircases. The walls bore images of Serapis's Apis bull with a sun disk we all know so well from Charles Heston's The Ten Commandments.

I look forward to my next visit to Alexandria. Perhaps I will be able to reach the El Alamein battle ground which is accessed via a road from the city.

Sachertorte, Scotch and Mamaliga

I recently had the treat of returning to Moldova. My firm has won a contract to support creating a local television network in the country, in part based on my previous work experience in the country. Who would have ever have guessed Romanian language skills and experience living in Moldova would yield again?

Moldova is one of those few countries left where the government is still run by freely elected post-Soviet Communists (think Cuba and Belrus). It also still has a cold combat zone where the ex-Soviet cum Russian-speaking 14th Army sits on one side of the Dniester river and rejects the authority of the Romanian-speaking Moldovan government based on the other. All this in a country the size of Maryland.

When I lived there 12 years ago, the capital was a provincial center of concrete-built Soviet architecure. There were few street lights. The heat didn't work in the winter. Black outs were common. You bought gasoline from petrol truck parked on the side of the road and rode the bus next to a chicken. The village was right out of the 16th century, except for eletricity and television, complete with a common well.

Today, Moldova is in the midst of the free-wheeling capitalization changes Moscow experienced 5-10 years ago. The streets of Chisinau are brightly lit and lined by high-end storefronts. Hotels with Western amenities are available. Grocery stores and casinos abound. Underneath it all however is the old Moldova; streets thronged with fashionably-dressed people chatting with neighbors, small shops and restaurants selling the basics for almost nothing, and the atmosphere of a small, French provicial capital made of concrete.

I had several excellent meals with the growing family of an old friend from my previous days in Moldova. Placenta (pla-chen-ta), mamaliga and the ever excellent Moldovan wines were laid out on the lace-covered table. It is a diplomatic family now, last living in Berlin. I enjoyed chatting with the son in German and Romanian and the grown ups in English. The placenta were excellent, coming from the Opera House where I used to spend my Saturday evenings many years ago. My old comrade and I also shared a lunch in an excellent ethnic Moldovan restaurant under the image of the Moldovan icon Saint Stephen the Great.

As frosting on the experience, I transited through the airport in Vienna to and from the country. You can't get to Moldova direct from anywhere. Though the time was short, it was a joy to use my German on some natives along the way. Of course, some Sachertorte, apple strudel and soft pretzels were obligatory.

I thoroughly enjoyed speaking with the people around me from Washington to Chisinau and back. On each leg of the journey were combinations of German, English, Romanian and Russian speakers. It is a completely different experience when you know the languages of the people on every step of your journey. I don't get that opportunity very often. The Austrian was quaint.

The Scotchman was the exception.

For the first time in my many travels, I was seated next to the proverbial passenger who won't stop talking. It was the brief flight from Vienna to Chisinau, which was fortunate. Though he was speaking English, I could not understand a word he was saying. And he wouldn't stop.

He also kept showing up. Chisinau is a small place, even smaller for those who don't speak the languages. I ran into him in the hotel elevator. As soon appeared, he would start talking incomprehensibly. I passed him a breakfast and he stood by table, or sat down at it uninvited, and started talking. I quickly learned to avoid public spaces at the hotel.

I look forward to going back soon. Perhaps I will return to the largest wine cellar in the world on my next trip; Milestii Mici. I'll just pray my airplane seatmates speak a language I understand, or don't speak at all.

Food & Fragrance

Tourism is a major industry in Egypt; home of the Pyramids. It is such a dominant force in the economy that Egypt has national Tourism Police who guard sites, tourists and hotels. Despite the drop in revenue as a consequence of political violence, tourism remains a significant contributor to Egypt's economy and the premier source of its foreign exchange earnings.

The majority of visitors to Egypt, almost 61 percent, come from Western and Southern Europe. Tourists from other parts of the Middle East, especially from the Arab Gulf region, account for 19 percent of the total number, while Americans and Eastern Europeans each represent 6 percent of the total, and Asian visitors make up 5 percent.

Part of the reason for the low numbers of Americans may be the difficulty in getting there. My flights to Egypt are regularly 20-24 hour affairs with multiple legs. The shortest routings I have found are through London or New York. No matter how you slice it though, its a long time to sit in economy class. Fortunately, the carriers are almost always foreign (British or Egypt Air) and wine is therefore usually available for free to spice up the meals.

Given the role of tourism in the economy, Egypt is a unique place where Arab culture and a service industry catering to Western visitors mix in unique ways. In no other Middle Eastern country have I haggled with Arab street vendors over unwritten prices in English. Drivers get kickbacks for dropping tourists off at start or end-points co-located with various tourism businesses, so you are inevitably "invited" to visit a papyrus-making shop or a perfume maker on every trip you take. Even hotel cars will drop you at prearranged pick-up points for carriage rides and shops whose vendors will follow you down the street to get your business.

The perfume shops are especially interesting. They are all the same, pitching their version of knock-offs of designer brands. They shamelessly sell them this way too. "This perfume is the same as ......" They have decidedly Egyptian names like Secrets of Egypt, Essence of Eucalyptus, Siwa Oasis with extract from 52 flowers, Lotus Flower, as well as frankincense and myrrh. Of course, they try to sell you 4 bottles for price of 3....

Despite the badgering and haggling, the experience has its own charms. Carriage rides amongst the Pyramids, smelling spices in the shadow of a camel, and eating roasted pigeon in a fine hotel restaurant are just a few of them. As a classic example of the fusion that is Egypt, some of the best Italian food I've ever had is served inside the Marriott hotel I use, which used to be a royal Egyptian palace. It is place to visit with a pocket full of cash, infinite patience, your best negotiating skills, and a tolerance for people trying to take your money at every turn.

Where in the World...?

Whew. I've covered a lot of ground since March. The countries I can recall include Sudan, Egypt, Turkey, Germany, India and Mexico. I managed to dodge this month's trip to Afghanistan.

Folks working at my company travel many different places. Some are friendly; some are not. We recently made it mandatory to complete a series of travel safety courses for our travellers, primarily in the event of kidnapping. Classes range from hotel, airport and taxi safety to pistol and assault rifle use. My favorite day of classes was actually offensive driving at a place called Trigger Time outside Fort Bragg. We shared a class with some US Army Psychological Operations folks preparing for deployment. Its amazing what you can do to other cars and trucks with a little 4 cylinder sedan and speed. Of course, those of you who know me know that the range time was a blast as well. The Glock 22 is now my favorite side arm.

Fortunately, I have not had to use most of these skills on travel. My recent trip to Sudan was uneventful. For the most part there was little tension or military presence in Khartoum during my visit. Anti-aircraft artillery was evident at the airport and “technicals” (trucks mounted with heavy machine guns) were present at most government buildings. However, people were generally relaxed.

My only experiences with Sudan’s oft discussed security apparatus were tangential. The border control people at the airport are the only ones with computer systems in the building. More evident was the influence of the religious police, which is the system most Sudanese comment on. Sharia law is strictly enforced, though most people I talked to viewed it unfavorably. No alcohol, headscarves de riguer, etc. Compliance is mostly a product of fear.

Air service includes Lufthansa and Egypt Air, both of which come through Cairo. I used Emirates from Dubai. There is still a steel wing and engine nacelle at the end of the airstrip from the plane that burned in June to remind us why we don’t want to fly Sudan Air. Sudan Air also makes the U.S Department of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control list of Specially Designated Nationals (nasty people). Wouldn't want the fare for my plane ticket funding terrorists!

Hotel amenities in Khartoum are sparse. I used the Grand Holiday Villa which was passable except for the roaches on the dining room tables. Sudan is one of those places that requires additional exotic vaccinations. No one asked for my vaccination card proving yellow fever vaccination on my return trip though. I was a bit disappointed.

In contrast, my recent trip to Delhi and Ahmedabad in India were downright pleasant. I enjoyed the hospitality of our supplier firm while visiting, including an evening prayer visit to a Sikh temple with one of their staff of that faith.

The company driver took me to Humayun's Tomb and the Tomb of Isa Khan one morning when I could squeeze out an hour of daylight to visit. This site was particularly interesting, as Isa Khan was an Afghan Islamic ruler of the Delhi area and Humayun was a Persian Islamic ruler of who followed on not much later. A good bridge from my experience with Afghanistan next door. Humayun's Tomb apparently was the predecessor to the Taj Mahal, which used the same plans and increased the scale.

I enjoyed plenty of good Indian fare at local restaurants and had the opportunity to stay at a first rate hotel (a nice switch from Sudan, Haiti and Afghanistan). The breakfast buffet at the hotel was a reflection of India's business partners, Japanese, British, Indian and American fusion. Baked beans and mushrooms with sushi and granola cereal? Would you like some Darjeeling tea and fresh mango juice with that?

In what other country can you fly a domestic airline called Spicejet?

Next stop is Aswan, Egypt.

Where Are The Egyptians?

"In 1996, the weekday edition of the New York Times was estimated to contain more information than the average person was likely to come across during their whole lifetime in seventeenth century England."

I recently read this sentence in a marketing research book. It got me thinking about the relationship of education to quality of life. It also made me think about what must be the vast difference between the thinking of ancient and modern man.

On this trip I saw my first airline passanger unable to read, and therefore unable to find her seat assignment. I've spent days discussing with newspaper managers the fact that the majority of Egyptian consumers have stopped reading in favor of TV news because they don't like to read; TV is easier. It makes me wonder if years from now the human mind will have plenty to know, but will need information fed in soundbites which might have been digestable to our seventeenth century ancestors.

I was discussing with a German colleague who works in Egypt the idea of "my brain is too full." He was quick to point out that the Egyptian equivalent is "my head is empty." I was immediately struck by the difference. The first is focused on the continued acquisition of knowledge: The second on retaining on what you already know. Is this the difference between a post-Renaissance or Enlightenment society and one that is otherwise?

Yet, a core of young, educated and fairly wealthy Egyptians prefer the Internet and newspapers to TV. They like to actively read and seek out the truth in news by comparing sources. They work to know, rather than knowing to work. So perhaps there is hope, both in Egypt and for humanity as a whole.

Certainly exposure to the sculpture of ancient Egypt suggests even ancient man had some inquisitive and educated thinkers. The Pyramids remain an impressive feat by modern standards. The building blocks and the buildings are huge.; the planning and precision required to be successful impressive. Now imagine doing it all without iron or steel and a total body of human knowledge reducable to the weekday edition of the New York Times.

Ancient Egyptian sculpture is similar. At the Egyptian Museum in Cairo I've seen the accuracy of sculpture in facial features and sharp and precise detail in various mediums, both carved and in relief on the same work.

Ancient Egyptian art is nuanced with sharp colors, including variety of skin colors (women being mostly light and men mostly dark). High cheekbones, small jaws and aquiline noses are all evident, as are the African features of one Pharoh from the Nubian kingdom. Even death masks are highly accurate. Art of later dynasties reflected deformed heads and physical diseases like elephantitis in royal persons. Compared to Ptolomaic (Greek) and barbarian art of the same periods, the Egyptians were leagues ahead of their neighbors.

Similarly, the Egyptians made papyrus paper long before paper existed anywhere else. Their methods were used for centuries until Chinese paper was introduced. Later they developed cuniform tablets with clay envelopes.

Today, the Egyptian Museum reflects the modern, sound-byte mind. Storage boxes are scattered and stacked about the exhibit floors. The exhibits often have no or partial labels. Things are poorly organized and nearly incomprehensible to someone without some knowledge of Egyptian history acquired through reading, or the aid of a paid guide with a full head.

It makes me wonder what happened to the ancient Egyptians who put up such tremendous architecture and art. Where are the faces depicted in the sculpture? I look. I watch. Occassionally, I'll see someone on the street with the same chin or cheekbones. And sometimes, just sometimes, they are even carrying a newspaper.....