This isn't a real post...

Well it's late at night, and I don't really have anything on my mind right now that I want to post about. Really I just wanted my blog to move up the "recently posted" list on the nomadlife blog. Is that wrong? Have I acted deceptively? If you're honest about your intentions, is it still deceptive?

What is the point of the nomad life?

So here is an extract from an email that I wrote to Jen ealier today:

"I've been thinking daily in the back of my mind what I want to do next year... ...But I think the bottom line comes down to this. The nomad/AIESEC lifestyle, and changing location and job every year or so, is an excellent way to gather new skills and experiences, know new places, and have your ideas, world-view and thinking shaped. But it is only a means to an end. There comes a point during your wanderings where you figure out something that you actually want to DO, or something you want to create/impact/change, for the next few years anyway. The nomad lifestyle helps you figure this out. But when you come to that point, it is no longer good enough to go off for a new experience / job / country just for the sake of getting a new experience. Instead you need to set about doing / creating / changing / impacting the thing that you want. And I have a pretty strong feeling that I will be at that stage by the end of this year. Not sure exactly what it will be, but I'm 80% sure it will be in Australia..."

What do other people think about this? Is being a nomad simply a means to an end (of being a change agent), or is the nomad lifestyle an adequate end in itself? Thoughts?

Tranieeships and the world of work

I think I have a pretty good traineeship. It dawned on me today some of the similarities between my current traineeship with PricewaterhouseCoopers here in Colombia and working for AIESEC as an LC member.

My first priority in my job is client work, and when I have client work to do, then that needs to be done. But so far over these first two and a half months, that has probably only been about 60% of my time. With the other 40% I have a pretty wide amount of discretion as to how I spend that time, and I like that. It gives me the chance to think of something I want to do, then do it, much like being a member in AIESEC. I have a vast array of possible experiences to pick and choose from, and am limited pretty much just by my imagination and my ability to explain how it could be beneficial to PwC.

From PwC's point of view, they took a trainee so as one of the guys in my team can spend a little less time working on reports for clients and a little more time marketing for new clients. Beyond that, their priority is to provide me with a good experience that lets me learn and experience the things that I want. And maybe in the process I will be able to provide a new perspective on something. So I think this works out well for all of us.

I think I am going to look into the idea of expanding the range of services that our team offers to included actuarial related services. There's a sizeable market for it here in Colombia, and very little in the way of local providers. Time to discuss the idea with my team's Partner.

Bad news from Cairo

Having lived in Cairo, Egypt for 6 months last year, this news article of a bomb in Khan al-Khalili comes as much worse news to me than than reports of bombings else where in the world, although when thought about from an objective point of view all should seem more or less equally upsetting. But we humans by and large are not objective creatures.

I gather this happened only a matter of hours ago. The leading english language newspaper in Egypt is yet to report about it on its website, but I expect that will change quite soon.

I remember thinking and feeling last year that Cairo was the safest place in the Arab world. And my guess is that if I were there now, I would still feel the same way. After all, an attack of this nature can happen in any city in any country, and I think it's a waste of time and energy to live in fear of it. I hope this does nothing to discourage people around the world from seeing all that Egypt and its culture has to offer, and I have faith that Egypt itself, and its people, will only emerge stronger from this event, and indeed from each passing day for many years to come.

The Arab world is a dynamic world at the moment. Inshallah it will be steered on a positive course.

Contemporary Buddhism

Touche...

Easter in a catholic country

Okay, well it's about time I updated this bloody thing. The use of the word bloody just then, coupled with the vegemite sandwich I am currently eating from my desk at work, reminds me that I was planning on writing a post in predominately Australian english. But that can wait for the moment.

A couple of weeks ago I got to experience Easter in Colombia, which in reality is much more of a christian (and catholic) country than Australia ever will be. And the differences were notable.

In many ways Easter was more low-key here, and a westerner could be forgiven for not noticing it if it wasn't for the frequent reference to holidays from work and university during "Semana Santa" (holy week, the week leading up to easter sunday). This is because there was no commercialism. None at all. No chocolate bunnies, no easter egg displays in supermarkets, no junk mail with cartoon rabbits all over it arriving in your letterbox. Not even any traditions involving painted regular eggs. Instead you had people making plans to go to mass with their families, churches a little bit busier than usual, and that was about it.

It didn't occur to me until just now, but good friday I spent climbing up a 5100m mountain with about 60 other AIESECers. And at the time I hadn't even realised it was good friday. The 60 of us were also given packed lunches at the start of the day, organised by some other AIESECers, and I have also just now realised that meat was included in every one of them, in the form of ham on a breadroll. And the Colombian catholics never gave it a second thought, just as they hadn't with the lack of easter eggs. Now my mother is a catholic, which meant that when I was a little kid I had to be one as well, and I remember facing strong opposition in those days from my mother dared I try to eat meat on good friday. I also used to work in a fish and chip shop in Australia where we would sell 5 times as much fish on good friday as we would any other day of the year. So why in Australia, where most people who claim to be catholic are token catholics at best, are there two obvious easter related behaviours (one commercial in nature, and one self-sacrificial in nature), and yet in Colombia, where people practice catholicism with far more frequency and regularity, there are no easter eggs and no deprivation of meat on good friday? And which is the "better" catholic way of observing easter?

What is easter like in other parts of the world? I suspect the Australian way bares many similarities to the european way. In Egypt last year, there was pretty much no sign of it at all, except for those few entrepreneurial traders catering specifically for the american population in Cairo.

Personally, I like the Colombian way. It gives me hope that December will also pass peacefully without songs and messages to buy presents shoved in my face 50 times a day by every avenue of Australian society.