Spanish classes with Debora & Villa 31

Today was the second day of my Spanish classes – two hours per day, supposedly group lessons. However, because I’m the only person at my current level (Advanced C1), these group classes have shrunk and are now one-to-one classes. I’m not complaining – I’m paying the same ridiculously cheap group class rate (29 pesos/hour) for more intensive private tuition. The only thing that I feel slightly disappointed about is that I was really looking forward to making new friends with other foreignors in my Spanish group course – like the great friends that I made in Las Lilas in Singapore. Other than that however, I really like my classes so far.

The best part of the classes are the conversations that I have with my professor, Debora. We spend quite alot of time conversing only in Spanish – which is perfect because she can understand some English words so if I need to explain something too technical she helps me to translate it into Spanish, but other than that she doesn’t speak to me in English AT ALL. It’s great because I’ve realized when I was taking German classes in Mannheim that that is almost the best way to learn a completely new language; being forced to express and understand completely in the foreign language is the most accelerated manner of learning. So I’m really glad for that – I think I will be really fluent in a few weeks, not to kiss my own ass, but I really think so.

Today, we had a conversation for 1.5 hours before starting with grammar, but oh how much I learnt in those 90 minutes! We started talking about my day, but then later we somehow digressed and proceeded to talking about the slums (also known as shanty towns) in Argentina, called “Villas” – derived from the word “villages”- which is a paradox since the same word in English means nice grand house where the rich people stay in! The most peculiar thing about some of the slums in buenos aires are that they are situated next to some of the richest neighbourhoods in this Porteno city. For example “Villa 31″, proably the biggest slum in Buenos Aires, is situated across the railway tracks from Puerto Madero, which for me is one of my favourite places in the city. From Sheraton Hotel just across the Microcentro (the central business district if you may), you can see the shanty towns, a combination of houses made up of tin, clay and other scrap materials; a weird neighbourhood lacking in any proper street signage or infrastructure, without much electricity or safety. Apparently, 10-15 years ago, the area currently occupied by Villa 31 was worthless; the land on which those little houses sat was of no value to anyone, and since Puerto Madero had not yet been properly constructed and created to be such a beautiful place, the government didn’t give two dimes about who wanted to build a little tin house on that piece of land.

Now however, the tables have turned. With Puerto Madero being such an attractive tourist destination and place to relax and enjoy, the current Kirchner government wishes to reclaim the land on which Villa 31 sits. It wants to shift the entire shanty town to a place out of sight, out of mind, as far away as possible. The government doesn’t really care much for the poor; there are too many of them for the government to do very much; or maybe the government just would rather spend its money elsewhere more productive. The funny thing however is, from my knowledge, that it is the votes of the poor that helped the current government to be where they are today. However, excuse my limited political knowledge if you find this statement inaccurate or politically incorrect.

Debora did tell me however that there is currently quite a good project that the Kirchner government has executed thus far, to its credit, it has implemented a plan which tries to keep poor children off the streets (away from drugs, delinquency, robberies, and other crimes in general) by incentivizing their parents to enroll them into school, which is free up to a certain educational level. Parents, regardless of income level (I believe) are able to claim 200 pesos per child per month from the government as long as a current certificate of enrollment into a school is produced. This is quite a brilliant idea to me, as while education may not be the only way to keep kids out of crime and to give them a good future, it certainly is the most important and efficient methods to give them an understanding of the potential they can have; and it allows them a path to greater financial freedom. Parents with many mouths to feed (especially if they are poor) may find it hard to understand and see so much into the long term, particularly if they would rather see the benefits of their children working from a young age to ease the financial burden.

This is the part of Buenos Aires life that you get exposed to briefly when you see children lying on the subway platforms and their mothers begging for money; the man on the subway or the bus giving a speech about his unfortunate situation; or the youths that knock on your car window when you stop at a traffic light, demanding money in exchange for cleaning your windscreen. But, as a tourist, as a visitor, they are but another part of the city; you don’t actually realize or understand the lives that the slum-swellers suffer not because they don’t want to work; but because of the economic situation in their home towns in other smaller provinces that forced them to the capital to find jobs; but even with those meagre salaries, they have to live in badly constructed houses without any job security and without a tangibly potential career that most teenagers take for granted.

I’m just starting to understand and comprehend this city that I’m living in; so many many other things that I have yet to come across; so few that I can surely say I understand enough to explain. But thank god for spanish lessons; they come in quite handy to understanding this city. More updates another time. Maybe next time I will write about the many Chinese that are living in Argentina and their Chinese supermarkets (supermercados Chinos). But I’ll save that for another time.

Volcanic surprise!

Europe never fails to surprise! It seems to have claimed centre stage since the Greek crisis emerged late last year, and the ECB and the Euro have been the highlights of news reports. Now, in another uprising, the Icelandic volcanic eruption that stranded so many passengers going to and fro Europe, has managed to leave the crowd on the edge of its seat, not sure what to expect next.

Just when we thought the euro was about to cut its losses from a potential loan package for Greece from the Eurozone, the ash had to cloud the optimism, and that plan had to be delayed. Airline companies are also estimated to lose US$200 million a day from all the delays and cancellations of flights. So many people have been stuck at airports; honey-mooners have had to delay their trips, and businessmen have to resort to buying vehicle passenger tickets on ferries in order to find an alternative to returning home.

Sometimes I wonder if the weather and the financial markets are in cahoots with each other, or just simply try to outdo the other in terms of throwing everyone by surprise. The Haitian earthquake, the chilean earthquake, the Goldman fraud saga, the volcanic ash, then what next?

I think reporters and journalists have it easy; newsmakers are everywhere, everyday.

Bending, not bowing, in the Economist terms

A year ago, the dollar was probably not the currency you would want to invest in; alternatives like the euro were more highly sought after.

A year later on, today, the euro has fallen and taken a hard hit since Greece and its other south European neighbours started showing signs of trouble. In a state of panic, worries abounded that the global economy will not recover as quickly because of contagion between Greece and its southern continental counterparts. The dollar, which has almost always been a safe haven in times of trouble, started rebounding, and getting stronger.

And with Tim Geithner delaying the report to condemn China as a currency manipulator, will we be seeing China bending halfway to de-peg the Yuan? The Chinese mentality must be understood for anyone to play mind games or psychoanalyze any Chinese giant, country or person. As Sun Tzu said in his very famous quote – “Know your enemy and yourself, a hundred battles, a hundred won.” In a way, this ancient Chinese proverb is extremely apt in the currency conflict between USA and China. When USA tried to throw its weight around by threatening to impose import tariffs, the last thing China would do is to bow and give in to demands which would make the Middle Country appear subservient to the Land of the Free.

In Chinese culture, (I can say this because I am of the Chinese race), the concept of “face” is of crucial importance. Anyone dealing with Chinese for anything should always heed my word of caution – If a Chinese finds himself in a situation where doing something will cause him to “lose face”, or to look like he has lost and has to give in to another, the Chinese is probably going to find every way not to do it. Even if there might be some benefits to agreeing with another party and acting out in both their interests, if there is any way outsiders would see the situation and diagnose that the Chinese is giving in to the other, defences will be up and mighty sky-high. However, if there was a way to put the suggestion across without making it seem that the Chinese guy is conceding to demands of someone else, but in a way that makes it look like the Chinese has decided to do something out of his own accord and graciousness, the chances of a deal happening increase rapidly.

A lot of time is wasted, because the final outcome reached might be the same if they Chinese had just conceded in the first instance, or if the Chinese decided to act in his generosity. Yet, many non-Chinese, and perhaps Westerners particularly, fail to understand this pertinent concept. In my experience with talking to Western colleagues and first hand experience in seeing the way they handle situations, I understand the they are generally more straightforward and don’t beat about the bush. They want something, they say it directly, whether or not it makes the other party look bad. In a completely Western society, this would be the most efficient and quickest method to getting things done. But in a society where the Chinese are increasingly powerful and don’t need to kiss anybody’s feet anymore, this attitude will lead to plenty of time wasting and sour relations, as news reports on deteriorating US-Sino relations have clearly shown.

It appears that Geithner may have done some studying of Chinese attitudes and what is important to them and their “face” – he seems to have chosen the right diplomatic tool this time. Will the Chinese now give “face”? The saga continues….

How long can the dollar remain on its pedestal?

It’ll be a long time before the dollar will be phased out as the world’s reserve currency. According to IMF data, allocated world holdings of the USD in 2008 totalled USD2.7 trillion, and with its nearest competitor, the Euro, only at a total of USD1.1 trillion in world holdings, it seems the USD still has a strong lead in the race.

However, if we noticed that USD holdings in 2000 was only 1.1trillion, it goes to say that in just 8 years, total world holdings of the dollar almost tripled, particularly in the period 2002-2007. before 2004, most of hte increase was attributable to advanced economies, but from 2006-2007, it was emerging and developing economies that ramped up dollar holdings. China must have played a large part in this, as it rapidly increased its holdings of US debt in those years, with at least USD1.3 trillion woth of foreign reserves, a large increase over the years in its effort to intervene in keeping its RMB currency cheap.

An intriguing point to note is the fact that after from 2007 to 2008, USD holdings by emerging and developing economies practically plateaued; while their holdings of EUR kept increasing, although at a slower pace. It was also during that period of time when China started to be more proactive in diversifying its FX reserves protfolio, and started entering into currency swap agreements with its major trade partners. In these swap agreements, China allows its the countries to which it exports to pay it in Renminbi instead of dollars.

China has made rather explicit remarks that it the dominance of the dollar as a worldwide reserve currency should and will end soon, yet there is a peculiar dilema that China is facing. As much as China would like to deviate from being overly reliant on the dollar, so much of its assets and foreign reserves consist of the dollar that dumping it suddenly and heavily will be China kicking itself in its foot. So rather than dumping, what is more sensible is exactly what China is doing – increasing reserves of other currencies by taking up debt other than from the US.

So, the shifting away from USD as the world’s reserve currency will be gradual, not overnight, but certainly inevitable. If China were to continue diversifying at at accelerating pace, then it’s uncertain how long or how quick it will take for the another currency to replace the dollar.

Some commodity food for thought…

Looking at the commodity trend present during the Global Financial Crisis of 2008/2009, we see that the biggest differentials in commodity prices happened between Jul 2008, when the crisis started manifesting more obviously before exploding into full form and led the free fall for almost all markets, and around March 2009, when most commodity indexes seemed to have bottomed out and started to pick up, albeit pretty slowly, and are hovering around the 150 mark. (Source: IMF; 2005 is the base year).

A look at the commodity indexes since 2000 up till 2008 show a quick simple story – In the years 2000-2004, the prices rose gradually, but after 2004, commodity prices went on up uphill climb, except for a relatively weak period during 2006. Apart from that, price index levels soared to never before highs of almost 250 till just before the GFC kicked in.

The latest commodity boom (2000-2008) was the largest and longest ofany boom since 1900, a clear sign of the huge increase in demand in the past decade, as countries like China and India no doubt contributed to this spike in their quest for growth. The current 150 levels suggest that prices some more room to increase, and for sure they will. The question is when, and by how much?

As commodity prices reflect forward looking expectations, a current gradually sloping upward curve is proof of brightening prospects, but expectations are still held back with an attitude of caution. The recent Euro crisis and worries about Greece as well as its fellow PIGS club members scared the markets somewhat – evident in the slight downturn in Feb 2010.

How long more will it take for the indexes to reach pre-mid 2008 levels? Will the next commodity boom bring the markets to even greater heights? Will it reach those new heights in the next two years? Or will the recent GFC scare overshadow any optimism in light of the global recovery?

Gross external debt – How scary is it?

According to IMF’s guide to External Debt, “Gross external debt, at any given time, is the outstanding amount of those actual current, and not contingent, liabilities that require payment(s) of principal and/or interest by the debtor at some point(s) in the future and that are owed to nonresidents by residents of an economy. Generally external debt is classified into four heads i.e. (1) public and publicly guaranteed debt, (2) private non-guaranteed credits, (3) central bank deposits, and (4) loans due to the IMF. However the exact treatment varies from country to country.”

The US and UK come in top 2 in the competition of biggest gross external debt among selected countries. The US has been for the l2 years constantly hovering around US$14 trillion, while the the UK external debt position has decreased over the last 2 years, staying roughly at US$9 trillion since mid Q209. Further down the line are Germany and France, moving almost in tandem with each other, and since Q109 have been on the slow increased upwards, and around US$5.3 trillion as of Q309.

The next close cluster of countries in this data set is made up of Italy, Spain and Japan, which have been up and down since Q407 but staying mostly within the range of US$2-3 trillion. In the lowest rung, countries with less than US$1 trillion of debt as of Q309, in descending order are are Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Greece, Russia, Korea, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Argentina, South Africa, Thailand.

Suddenly it appears that the most developed countries (US, UK, EU nations and Japan) have relatively alot more gross external debt than the less developed nations, which also form the emerging markets. This is an interesting observation as I had originally expected that the poorer nations would be the ones sinking in debt, and not the other way round.

Yet looking at the absolute values of gross external debt may be a biased argument. A country may have alot of gross external debt, but if measured as a proportion of GDP, it may tell us a different story. As a measure of sustainablity of external debt, this might provide some insight on the ability of a country to finance its debt and how unhealthy its external debt position really is.

Using this measure instead, we see that the UK is now right at the top (421% at end 2009), followed by, but not closely, Hong Kong at 316%. Trailing further behind is France at 200%, then Spain, Italy and Germany at 176%, 165% and 130%. So far, the results tally with the gross observations.

However, it is now surprising to see that the US, whose absolute gross external debt at Q309 was a towering US$14 trillion, has a gross external debt to GDP ratio of only 96% (compared to the UK, which was just 2nd behind the US in gross terms but as a proportion stands at 421%.) Canada is also not too far behind at 68%. The other countries in the data set (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Greece, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Russia, South Africa, Thailand) fall in the seemingly healthy range of 25-50% range.

The sheer magnitude of the US economy, first in the world and unrivalled even by its closest competitors, is perhaps the reason why proportionally, US external debt looks less scary than the absolute figures. However, that means the external debt from just the US alone is almost as huge as the entire American economy – Now maybe that’s something to worry about.

Exports, exports everywhere!

Absolute current account balance and the that as a percentage of GDP show two very interesting perspectives.
Looking at absolute current account balances, we see China scaling its own mountain (around US$400 bn) when the rest of developing Asia’s C/A balances are mostly staying within the +/- US$50 billion range. One glance at the absolute C/A balance graphs throws the attention solely on the Dragon of the East; the other developong Asian nations seem to have less newsworhthy stories. Since the early 2000s, China has set its own pace; following none other in its race to growth. Rich in natural resources, and cheap labour, its manufacturing industry blows out exports like bubbles, with their unprecendented increase propped up by heavy FX intervention to keep the RMB competitive. Surely, the Chinese do things with a aim in mind – to be fulfilled despite protests from its any trade partner or supranational.

Turn the page with me and let’s now look at the C/A balance, but as a percentage of GDP. Suddenly China drops out of the limelight and other Asian stories emerge. It’s easy to get carried away with the China growth story. Certainly, one nation cannot have the rest of the world at its mercy, simply because it has duly earned the title “Factory of the World” – or can it? But the sheer size of the 1.34 billion population nation should not be forgotten. When looking at C/A accounts in proportion to GDP, we see China (roughly 10% in 2008) coming in third behind Brunei (51%) and Malaysia (18%). The rest of the developing Asian countries don’t go much more than +3% for surpluses but do hit -16.5% for decifits, with Laos setting the record, followed by Vietnam with a deficit of 12% of GDP.

For the last 5-7 years at least, there seems to be a consistent list of obvious C/A surplus nations (Brunei, Malaysia, China, Myanmar, Thailand), and the corresponding list of C/A deficit nations (Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka). The former list is also generally made up of countries richer in the region; the latter list the opposite. Well, obviously we know from Y = C + I + G + (X-M), that net exports (X-M) are positively correlated to GDP. And as factories and companies shift operations towards the countries with the cheapest labour, exports tend to follow a natural upward curve, and so does the C/A balance, unless imports increase much faster (such as in the case of Vietnam, in which case exports have been sky-rocketing but imports have also been rapidly rising, particularly for machinery and spare parts, reflecting strong investment growth).

Now, trade surplus, and a huge one at that, is usually a highly sensitive topic, particularly so because before the Global Financial Crisis of 2007-2009, the main export markets for developing Asian economies were the US and Europe. China has been the main targetboard for dart calls of letting its currency revalue, and more recently, these have intensified, as economists around the globe (well, maybe excluding the Middle Kingdom), have been pushing for rebalancing of economies. Many asian countries, pegged to some extent to the Yuan, will only allow currency appreciation if China does so first. And well, what does China say in response to calls for currency appreciation?

NO! Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said in a conference over the weekend of 12-14th of March that he does not believe the RMB is undervalued, despite protests from Washington and prominent US economists like Paul Krugman that if China were to allow the RMB to depreciate, global growth would increase by around 1.5 percentage points. Yet it seems that there will be no one-off revaluation (like that in July 2005) as Wen stressed the importance of keeping the Yuan “basically stable” and that timing for any monetary policy changes must be appropriate. In this response, his tone was serious, and unyielding, making US President Obama look weak against China.

Relations between the huge chinese nation and the world’s number one economy have been deteriorating, since a long time ago. Right now, the US recent meetign with the Dalai Lama and the American arms sales to Taiwan, is what has main a strained relationship even more fragile. Wen’s deliberate comments about the declining value of dollar assets as a result of the growing US fiscal deficit rubbed a sore wound. China’s proactive policy to engage in bliateral agreements and currency swaps allowing it’s main export buyers to pay it in RMB instead of the USD and it’s slow but definite shift in weightage of foreign reserves away from the USD, is all fueling speculations of how much longer it will be before the RMB because one of the world’s reserve currencies, and when will the USD lose that power.

Much is unfolding in this current climate – all very exciting developments that will take a while to fully bloom, but still nonetheless, exciting.

The heart of poverty

Standing in the busy street, walking by the cars bustling beside you, sitting in the comfort of the hotel-chauffered car, or squeezing among three others in a rick, one thing that hits you as you travel about India is the immense poverty in which so many Indians are trapped, and other than which they know nothing else.

Everywhere you go, you see men, women and children running, walking, strolling about without shoes or slippers, their feet bare on the soil and its elements. Just watching the people of India going about their daily lives, you immediately grasp the extent of how destitute and impoverished they are. In the cities where the nation’s increasing prosperity has flowed to some, many others are still left behind in the dirt of deficiency and lack, being trampled upon by the crowd of those who have found quick wealth. The income disparity and large gap is blindingly obvious, with flashy cars complete with white-uniformed drivers just inches away from the physically disabled beggar, whose hands quiver from days’ worth of hunger.

Driving past poor neighbourhoods in the suburbs to reach the grand gates of our five star hotel, I cringe when I see young children walking alone in the dark alleys, to huts made out of stone and dried leaves for the roofs. The bumpy rides show how badly maintained the roads are, and as you turn corners and are presented with a sight of a cow and a goat sharing their dinner at the neighbourhood trash corner, the odour of decaying rubbish and scraps of leftovers makes your stomach churn and waves of nausea wash relentlessly over you. What makes it worse is when you see and old bearded man, skinning as a beanpole, walk towards them to try his luck at the same pile of trash. It makes you turn away, from pity and also guilt, for wasting half of the chicken bryani ordered at the hotel cafe, and for making a face at the fish and chips that wasn’t as tasty as you would have liked.

At the tourist sites, homeless beggars lurk in anticipation of the donations of pity tourists often give, and it has become their occupation and expertise to stretch out their hands in a bid to get their daily allowance. Women hang their hand-made bead necklaces on both arms, and follow you non-stop asking, almost pleading with you to buy their wares. They see you are not interested and they keep dropping their prices, desperation overwhelming their greed to make a quick buck from foreignors. Babies in their arms, these women as wafer-thin from the lack of proper nourishment, and their hungry young children suck at their breasts, dried from the lack of milk. They walk around, sweat glistening on their foreheads, one child in front and one at the side, eyes wide from the draining heat yet alert to the sounds and sights of foreignors.

In the cities, where the markets are still bright and much alive at ten o’clock at night, the narrow streets see cars, motorbikes and bicycles jammed next to each other. You have to weave your way through rows or parked motorbikes to cross from the streets to the pavements, which are then blocked by all the items for sale and the unending stream of pedestrians and saturday night shoppers. Children skip up the stairs to the bright and colourfully-lit shops, as the orchestra of honks and chatter make a rhythm which gives the cities their heartbeat. The word “foreignor” is labelled all over your face as you walk, flinching when a sweaty arm brushes against you, the owner never once realizing and never once turning around to apologize. This is the way things work, you don’t have much time to be worried and particular about personal space — most people here do not understand that concept. Finally, when inside an acessory shop, you feel relieved from the rush outside, but then the heat and unventilated air gushes at you, and discomfort leads the beads of perspiration that start to form. Amazed at the thousands of selections of bangles and earrings and bindis and necklaces there are to choose from, I am always at a loss, and take an extremely long amount of time to appreciate and then finally come to a decision of which to buy. I love the colours and vibrancy, but at the same time, I am also struck by the shop attendants, just young children who have to work to sell the items, whether because it is a family-run business, or because they have the work from the young age of eight. They flock anxiously to you as you enter the shop, asking what you would life. My initial irritation at having an attendant hovering relentlessly at my side slowly grows into admiration of their persistance and constant smiles and politeness. I am also always full of respect for them, for they embrace what they have without complaints, unlike us who live in large clean cities and have made complaining an elevated form of art.

Yet what really makes me feel for Indians is their kind and helpful souls, their willingness to help you push your bus when the engine doesn’t start, and their beautiful smiles when you thank them, realizing that they did it without asking for money, even if they were poor and sitting at the roadside hoping someone would stop by to buy the clothes they had hung up for sale.

India makes you want to go home, to be in the comfort of the hotel, to have the soft bed to sleep on and clean potable water running from the tap. India creates a longing to return and show your fellow countrymen what they are taking for granted, and to shake them up and tell them what so many here in this nation of over a billion do not even know they lack. India makes me ashamed of complaining, of splashing money away like water when young children work so hard just to kill their hunger. India makes me see its people in a different light, makes me appreciate and be thankful for what I do not have to go through, and makes me a little more emphathatic, and for that I am grateful.

An Indian Intensity

There is an intensity about India that I cannot quite describe.

It hits you the moment you arrive at the airport, a thick dense smell hovering in the air you breathe, in the soot puffing out of the vehicles and the sea of dark shiny faces squashed closed together eagerly awaiting the arrival of their loved ones.

It has the power to momentarily stun you especially if you’re coming from a neat, organized society like Singapore, whether the buses and trains run mostly on time, where the air is fresh and clean and the streets are not just black tar covered in piles of trash. In India, roads belong to motorists and pedestrians alike, both taking unyielding claim on the public land, both declaring their possession with a undebiable mix of unconcern and right. Old men walk barefoot on land filthy with spit, faeces, rubbish overspilling from a dump, the smell rotting in your nose. A natural reflex is for me to wrinkle my nose and make a face at the horrifying indifference with which India’s people accept it as a norm in life. Well, it has become and always will be a norm in their lives, and while they wear suits and ties in the clean offices of the multi-national companies, the people blend so well together once on the streets, not standing out from the rest of the bustling of night markets of Pondy Bazaar, and Spencer’s Plaza.

Business men walk right next to beggars who look at you, hands outstretched for a coin or two. Crazy old men walk right in the middle of the street, weaving their way among the cars as they rant to themselves, lost in a world to which only they have access to. As you walk inches close to the ricks (or tuk-tuks like they call them in Thailand), its not hard to feel so much like an outsider, because everything seems so different and hard to accept. Restaurants have people walking barefoot in and out, old people sit and even lie stretched out on the pavements streaked with dirt, and eat with their blackened fingers, yet they have a peaceful look as they view their environment, contemplating their thoughts. It’s hard for me to imagine the lives they live, or more rightly put, I imagine them living boring mundane lives, each day living for the next, but what puzzles me is how they accept the fate they were born in. But I have to constantly remind myself that they can accept what they have because they never had the chance to choose something better. Then when I think that, I feel bad, for their lack of choice, which might also allow them to live contented lives, and I also feel a huge sense of relief that I was born in society where things work, where healthcare is easily though not cheaply available, and where education has lifted so many out of poverty and a fate of impoverishment.

The moment you step out of the cool air-conditioned shelter of the hotel, there is a humid, hot stickiness that envelopes you in the summer heat. The first time you walk into a bakery selling indian sweet delights, the overpowering smell of gee, flour and unventilated air makes you nauseous. If you have never been exposed to Indian cuisine before, the concoction of spices, oil, butter and curries may give you a stomach upset that is quite memorable, for more appropriately, you cannot quite forget. Indians are also famous for their punctuality (or lack there of) and their promises to deliver which usually are followed through only after a few times of prodding. 2 minutes of wait time actually translates into half an hour, and a half hour really means an hour. It gets frustrating when time is of the essence, but in other circumstances, I would say I am quite amused.

Yet while I gripe about many aspects because I have not gotten used to India, I must say there are certain things that impress me alot. The high standard of English here is impressive. Probably the only country where I can get everything done and settled without referring to a translator or having to learn the national language. I honestly am very impressed. Indians are also one of the friendliest peoples that I know. They are always polite, always ready to help (although help may take a while to come) and they always check with you if everything is alright. The indian hospitality is a big factor in my impression of India, and the calendar in my room has captured an Indian chef cooking with a huge grin on his face, and that is precisely the imprint in my mind, a mascot for his fellow countrymen. India is also rich in culture, history and spirituality, with altars everywhere possible, and temples a large feature of its landscape. Every picture you can find about India leaves its shadow in your memory, because nothing about India is forgettable.

India’s intensity is beyond words, its essence barely able to be captured in pictures. You have to be here to understand it, to experience their culture, to soak in the life that is displayed all around. India is a land of great inspiration, a great evoker of thoughts and wonderment. You need to see the beggar on the street eating from the trash while a white-collar office worker walks on by, totally oblivious to the dire state of health the beggar is in, in order to appreciate what you have. You need to see the women walking and performing everyday tasks in their beautifully woven traditional saris, with their bindis proudly on their foreheads, to feel a need to go back to understand tradition and the great longing people have attached to it. It is the land where over a billion form the world’s largest democracy, where Mahatma Gandhi united his people against foreignors and inspired hundreds of millions in his advocating of support of locally-produced goods. It is also where the planet’s cheapest car can be bought, and where the Bollywood industry was birthed and continues to flourish.

India fascinates anyone, everyone who is willing to open their eyes and see the world. It certainly has opened mine.

There is electricity in the air

What a terribly exciting month; so many things have happened in just the span of the last 5 days; the first African-American to have pushed the Americans into a land brimming with the promise on which the hopes of their forefathers banked on; candidacy that was never expeced to run among the leading; least of all to win. Yet all over the world, there has been a sigh of relief; the Asian stock markets abounded with a new life; perhaps there is hope for the economy and world politics at large?

Blame it on my lack of interest in politics in previous US elections, or blame it on my youth; but this isto me definitely a point of history in the making. Never before has globalization bonded continents across in the anticipation of one common outcome, for a country that isn’t even theirs. Africa’s heartbeat can be heard across the news wires; their celelbrations for their much supported representative Obama evident so blatant and stark; bulls reserved specially for feasting upon when Obama would eventually clear the tiles and declare a landslide victory; this was a magic moment; the one which Martin Luther King would have been so proud of he would cry tears of joy; the day of fulfilment of his dream “that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’” and “that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

There is an excitement in the air; his youthful energy and charisma seems to have charmed voters and observers in the USA as well as across the shining seas. America’s economy may be down in the dumps, and may have chain-dragged everyone else (participants and passers-by) worldwide, but the extent of the ripple effect of this historic elections has proven one thing– that America is still so tremendously important that we are all banking that we made the right decision in supporting a young, inexperienced senator with what currently seems like little more than many theories and assured calmness that he will not only weather through the stormy ride but emerge victorious. In this present time; he is a symbol of hope that many are deep down praying will not be a mirage.

Further away from the political scene, November is also a month where I rejoice for my friends around. I can’t say it till I hear it for myself, but I believe wedding bells will be ringing soon; a joyous occasion is bursting to arrive. There is a spirit of festivity in the air; an electricity to light up the world that just a little while ago seemed stale and depressed. Trust me, the world is currently less preoccupied with crazy christmas shopping that will eventually manifest towards the month’s end; right now, there are more and greater things that are happening, and all I can say is, life is for the living.