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RE: Day 11, Part 1 - Team Beck hits the Rijksmuseum and other stunning Amsterdam attractions
OMG! My friend Kiligirl, I must say Ellie Mae is plumb wore out after that trip to the museum. I don't know when if I could walk away from those Rembrandt's. For sure I would have to park myself in the gardens or waunder around because it looks like a fun place to get lost in.
The black door was a hit as were the bagels and lox. The exit was supreme leaving in a Tesla taxi! Wow! No wonder I am worn out. Time to go out to the cement pond and relax a bit.
Love from Ellie Mae. 🐓🐓
Hi, Ellie Mae, believe it or not, that day is only half over. There's more to come. Did you catch the library? And just for honesty's sake, we didn't take the taxi, we just took a photo of it. Hope you have a great night after a refreshing dip in the cement pond! 😊😊
How could I miss the library? Just forgot to mention it in my reply. Probably a part of me still sitting in there just touching and feeling the books. I am such a geek about the books. I will have to show you a photo of the cement pond soon. Tarzan might swim with the gators but I am not that brave. Working up to it! Hope you are well my Friend. Just have a few minutes this morning before work. Will give a real shout out when I get home. Love you much from your friend. Ellie Mae🐓🐓ps check out my post of the writing challenge. Think you will like it.
Looking forward to it, Ellie Mae! I have a few minutes now so will head right on over to your post. Pictures of the cement pond - worth waiting for, but if there are gators lurking there....😱😱 Glad you caught the library 😘😘. Glad for you that you live in Florida and not Puerto Rico! They look really hard done by. Love from this side of the pond.
I feel so bad about Puerto Rico. I heard that we were sending a ship over to help with housing on a temporary basis. I hope that is true. Three million people without services could be a big liability if things don't happen quickly.
I know many people in Afrika also live in similar conditions. I realize my niavete is undeniable. Is is possible to educate on such a massive scale? Or is the corruption so insidious that survival is the main objective? Please Kiligirl help me to understand. There seem to be pockets like Johannesburg that are thriving . Where do your projects fit into this arena?
What has pulled you into this world besides @timbeck?
It has been a rather unusual day. A friend at work was not feeling well and had to be taken to the ER. Not her heart thank goodness , but she gave us all a good scare.
I will soon take some pictures of the cement pond. The whole thing is quite large right now. We don't need any more rain for a while.
Hope you are not working too hard, but know different.
Is Emma off to college or on to travel and find her way now that she is a worldly person?
See you soon my pen pal on the other side of the world! Ellie Mae🐓🐓
I saw an interview with the 2IC from FEMA this morning which improved my hope levels for Puerto Rico - seems like they're getting the logistics right, and he expressed a great deal of compassion for the local responders, realising a lot of them and their families are victims too.
Gee, you ask hard questions about Africa and service delivery, Ellie Mae. It's difficult to give a short, pat answer to some deeply complex and old problems but I'll cheat and try with one word: governance. Without getting into a big ideological discussion, there's generally been a divide between the more socialist public sector and capitalist private sector and over the last half century it's been difficult for them to find common ground. With weak governance comes weak institutions, which has led to endemic corruption. Add to that the legacies of colonialism (and in South Africa, apartheid) as well as deeply unfair trade practices over the decades, and these systemic issues have filtered down to African people, except for a few, simply not enjoying the benefits of the natural capital their countries hold. The private sector is increasingly welcomed in Africa, but it's so hard to generalise. Zambia has one way of dealing with private companies, Botswana has another, Namibia has another, Mozambique has another...all are different and it's important to understand what drives the economies. Where I fit in? Working with private investors who are looking to deliver sustainable solutions in infrastructure. In the countries I'm working in, that implies "clean" (environmentally friendly and not corrupt), locally engaged and affordable both to the consumer and the supplier (otherwise they'd go out of business).
Johannesburg has TERRIBLE service delivery issues and the politics around this are really hot. Our government is embroiled in the most disgusting corruption scandal you can imagine. We talk about it under the heading of "state capture". If you Google "state capture, gupta, zuma" you'll get some idea of what's going on here. We have our own version of Wikileaks - we call it Zuptagate - and the leaked e-mails continue to provide evidence of a systematic approach over more than a decade to actually - and I'm not making this up - steal the country dry. The current play is for the public sector workers' pension funds. They've already drained our national air carrier, electricity supplier and rail transport company among others. Our ratings downgrade to junk status is directly attributable to the actions of the corrupt individuals engaged in this warfare, and this in turn DIRECTLY affects the poor, as it makes prices of everything go up. We're further vulnerable because we're experiencing a severe drought and our farmers are struggling. As we say in South Africa: eish.
@tim-beck wasn't the reason I moved here. Didn't meet him until I'd been here about 7 years and was well settled! I came out to southern Africa because of a project I was managing, got myself transferred to Johannesburg and then stayed when the company decided to close the office and "bring me home" (moment of clarity: home - here).
Phew. Hope that starts to answer your questions.
Sorry about your friend at work! Hope she'll be ok.
Looking forward to those pictures of the cement pond. I forgot to mention in my comment on your excellent Texas post that I laughed out loud when I read "Black Gold. Texas Tea." I can't get the banjo music out of my head now!
Got what I think is the final draft logo for 6th Wave Africa - think it's pretty good. We've finally got some movement (in a weird direction, but at least it's movement) on our main Zambia investment so I'll be focusing there for the next while, not neglecting my Namibia client and technology partners, of course!
Emma was in university for 2 years in a challenging programme - architecture - but struggled to keep up with the punishing projects and deadlines (she's an extremely methodical person which tends to work against the first year students, including her...there simply isn't enough time for perfection; it's all about learning what "good enough" means). She's been working in property management since early in the year and I don't think anyone is more surprised than her at how good she is at it. Smart young woman, methodical, quick learner - there's no reason she wouldn't excel at it. She was managing a building with 400 tenants. They liked what she did so much they've now put her on a much bigger project that her predecessor didn't manage as methodically, shall we say. She's looking around for somewhere else to go in Europe on the cheap before her Schengen visa expires!
Gotta get to work now. Have a grand day tomorrow and catch up then 😊😊
Dear Friend, I know the questions are difficult. Guess I was hoping you would have a good explanation for the corruption that has taken hold of the world in general. Did not sleep well so as you might notice was up around 5am answering your replies. Had to go back and reread this morning. Didn't mean to sound curt. Sorry if my words came out that way.
I fear the US is on a similar transition though the economical implications are not yet as clear as perhaps Afrika. Everything here has become so politicized that this has become my hope for the future. Steemit!
If you can make any headway with your current projects then they will certainly make a difference for the good. When you remove all of the obstacles the problems become so much easier to solve.
Oh the new continent . Isn't it amazing? I did go to the Guardian to see what they had to say, wouldn't that have been an interesting journey?!
I heard today that 90% of the roads in Puerto Rico have been cleared of debris so that supplies can start to move in. 80 % still without all services. Actually think that is pretty good progress considering we are still cleaning up trees, roofs, mold etc 3 weeks later. The county says it may take another 3 months just to pick up downed trees. If they can restore power grids and get sewage water and food under control quickly it will be so much better for the people there.
Architecture is a tough degree. Maybe Emma is more of an urban planner the way she manages her complex. She sounds like a bright young woman. She has a good role model in you.
Haven't yet had time to google state capture. Will give it till morning when my brain kicks in again.
The cement pond and other bodies of water are higher than perhaps 12 years ago when we moved here. Pictures to follow very soon. I promise. Also giving some thought to Georgia O'Keefe. Wish we had visited her Ghost Ranch while we were in Taos a few years ago. I wonder if the steemit van can make the trip? Lol!
Hope you had a great day. The piece I wrote was about scientists that are now able to take DNA from ancient manuscripts. Dating them, identifying scribes and what ledgers were made of. More about books! Surprise!
That's it from which ever side of the world this is. Much Love from your friend Ellie Mae. 🐓🐓
Wow, what a great answer, and here I am in the middle of putting together a proposal (that's good news) but it means I don't have time to do your response justice now. I'll give you a MUCH better answer on the weekend while everyone else is asleep. But sorry you woke up at 5am! Hope you're sleeping better now and get this message hours from now :-).
Much love from the original continent, hopefully not one which will change its name to Corruptia...😘😘