| From:
Mike Violette
and
Desmond Fraser, Directors
of AmericanTCB, Inc. Received: Friday, April 20, 2007 |
|
|
The Travel Monologues Skirting the Dragon: Wherein We Get Along Through Asia and The Orient Mike Violette and Desmond Fraser
Hi Again, I was not overly impressed with the fatty chicken, the lump of lukewarm rice and manufactured green beans, but I was not about to return the plate to the kitchen because it was two hundred miles away and thirty-two thousand feet down. Besides, the other two hundred and twenty sardines weren’t complaining as the fifteen hour flight from Dulles to Tokyo Narita got underway, heading towards Taipei, Taiwan. We’ll find some good food under one of those great Chinese signs.
I guess it’s just competition, but it is noteworthy how many other international carriers (whom we fly when we need arises) generally provide more palatable dishes covering shorter flight distances than our chosen carrier—but there are bennies and for that, I guess, we should be thankful (after all, being card-carrying frequently-flying mileage travel junkies with special security-lines privileges that most airports now have set aside from the general security lines). But in the end, we get packaged like the rest, but just ahead of, the other sardines. A small grace, but that would be like boasting: “you get there fast so that you can practice your strip-down act first.” Yes, shoes, belts, jackets and all metallic objects, and God forbid Mike is not asked to take his only clean fresh pair of underwear from his carry-on. Bad for the public, bad for the private(s). One nice privilege: Getting an extra 20 pounds of luggage weight? Yes, luggage weight, and most importantly five inches more leg room in Economy plus…(Desmond) “boy I can use that, is it five inches Mike? (Mike) No it is seven inches”…but not the “fatty chicken, the lump of lukewarm rice and manufactured green beans” that is now par for course. God forbid—dare we complain—that there are no other choices, except if we had shelled out big bucks for the swanky Biz or First class seats. We ride as we choose and can afford. So we and the rest of the bait-fish hopscotch through Japan and into Taipei (Tai Bei—“Bei” being the same “Bei” as in “Beijing” and means “North”). Taipei is less than 15 miles from the China Sea at the upper end of the ~250 mile long island.
It amazes us every time we leave the shores of our great country, the cultural impact that we levy on other societies. Take as an example the export of Rap Music; we hear the thump while we walked the duty-free areas of Narita airport in transit. Good for us—or perhaps not very favorable—for lack of using the word “bad” which can mean good if you are using “Rapper’s Vocabulary” or may mean something else. I don’t know. Anyway, this leads me to the recent “Don Imus Incident”: he recently lampooned about the Rutgers University basket ball women’s players publicly, using disgusting everyday words from Rappers (who by the way believes it is “cool” to degrade women so vilely). Well, this old icon has said every terrible thing about everyone; including whites, blacks, Jews, Arabs, Hispanics, and others alike in the past; perhaps retributive justice does indeed repay us for our past indiscretions after all. But, when Rap music infuses words in our culture that degrades women openly and publicly. The finger often points most directly at onself. More distressingly, it is when these very words could be heard overseas as we experienced in Narita airport. However it is refreshing to note that there are also good examples of positive US cultural, benevolent and innovative contributions to the world at large, the Obelisk in Buenos Aires: a look-alike of the Monument in Washington DC is a fine example, or from other societies such as the Grass Mountain beyond Bright Sunny Mountain in Taipei that resembles the Great Wall in China. See pictures of the Grass Mountain and the Great Wall as you scroll down the text of this Blog. We’ve been here numerous times before, but there’s always a new discovery and this trip is no different. Taiwan: For our seventh largest trading partner, Taiwan gets no official respect. Since 1979 all that tribute now goes to China, whose onerous size and economic clout make it the nine hundred pound gorilla in the Orient. But as we’ll find out, the gorilla has neighbors and the neighbors don’t always kowtow and the perfect blend of the wonderfully complex relationship that China maintains with Taiwan radiates a particularly interesting color. For this is a curious relationship involving offspring and parents (and which is which depends on the angle which the light is shined); the friendly folks running the PRC have the “home field advantage”, but much of the deeper cultural richness was preserved in Taiwan during the Mao purges and insanity of the cultural revolution—not to mention the classic (traditional) Mandarin writing. Whatever side you’re leaning, it’s a touchy subject and dialogue is conducted in loudly whispered conversations and no one really knows how it’s going to turn out—at least that’s what they say in public, but several scenarios are certainly possible. China and Taiwan will reunite eventually (author’s opinion). Taiwan, though, with its wealth, will not be a “vassal” province and more than likely will have a profound amount of political clout in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. This will likely take form as the business and economic interests get so intertwined that a natural morphing of ideals (linking the pragmatic Communist with Taiwan-style Chinese democracy) will create political parity and the two countries will agree that it’s time to share the same bed—much like partners in a sparring marriage where it’s obvious that the two aren’t going to go their separate ways and decide that they’ll try to patch things up and move on. The prickliest issue revolves around declaring independence. From a very small survey and observations lite, the pragmatic and business interests see unification with the mainland as an eventual reality, this statement is normally suffixed with “after evolution of the mainland government, of course.” During this Spring month, we’ll return to Taiwan, the country we are most familiar with and probably a place where most Westerners would find the most parallels with home. It is the most Chinese and the most Western of the countries we’ve been to, a wonderful confluence of the Grand Chinese culture and the Western way of doing business and a natural place to launch from to the rest of Asia. But it’s not always been this way. Chiang-Kai-Shek came to Taiwan (Formosa) in 1949 after losing to the Communist forces under the leadership of Mao Ze Dong, who effectively marshaled peasant forces and took advantage of the weaknesses of the Nationalists to unite the country. Even with significant US support, Chiang lost the war to the more determined Chinese communists, whose populism first enamored the peasantry then subsequently subjugated it. Chiang uprooted his government and a central core of Chinese culture and set up shop in Taiwan, pushing out many of the Taiwanese native peoples who wilted without much resistance from the 2 or so million people who made the journey across the Taiwan Straights. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT: Guómíndǎng) fought the communist party and lost. The survivors fled the mainland and headed to Taiwan. While it may sound like they just popped over and started operation, for most, it was true exile that sundered families, businesses and institutions and created a hardship for a half of a generation or more: tent-living, near-subsistence existence and grave physical challenges. But many of the people who fled were learned and the intelligentsia of China: doctors, government officials, professionals, skilled warfighters and bureaucrats that in fairly short order established a functioning government, albeit under military rule. By the time relations had warmed between Washington and Beijing, Taiwan was on its way towards a functioning democratic and market-based system; all this with some difficulties for sure, but without significant internal sectarian violence or strife. Taiwan’s first popularly-elected government took power not so very long ago in 1991, most likely leveraged by the unprecedented explosion of the personal computer and information technology markets in the late 80s and 90s. For a statistical and more studied analysis of Taiwan generational attitudes, see: Shelley Rigger’s Policy Study: Taiwan’s Rising Rationalism: Generations, Politics and “Taiwanese Nationalism” (© 2006 East West Center, Washington DC). Rigger’s work was a study into the explanations of the attitudes of Taiwanese-Chinese vis-à-vis independence from China, involving analysis of generational attitudes and sentiments that prevail in Taiwan. Her study breaks the Taiwanese population into four generations: Those born by 1931 that lived under the influence of Japanese authoritarian rule, those born up to 1953 and grew up under the authoritarian rule of the Nationalist KMT, those that experienced the transition to democracy and those that were born after 1968 who had no direct experience with either the “loss” of China to the communists nor the repressive military regime that ruled Taiwan. A view of the summary of the analysis is that the driving force of Taiwan youth and the next leaders neither fear China as an enemy nor wish to be isolated from it. The prevailing attitude seems to be to “hope for the best,” preserve the status quo and wait for China to evolve. In my lifetime? Maybe, that probably depends on whether my body survives the long flights, fatty chicken airplane food and the countless revolutions of the luggage carousel.
But here in the thick of things, we are interested in electronics market and electronics are everywhere, permeating Taiwan life, employment and leisure. I would liken the environment to the inside of a nuclear reactor, where the critical mass of enterprise, education, opportunity and a densely populated society created a critical mass that sparked a chain-reaction of technology and product development. An amazing, almost amusing array of gadgetry is constantly under development and being hawked. Coupled with the same sort of factors that produced the Japanese and Korean electronics titans, the miniaturization of electronics makes it possible for me to type these words, flying 400 mph at 32,000 feet above the South China Sea.
In between, we layover for a few hours at Narita. Desmond checks his email and my PC decides to give me the “Blue Screen of Death”. Ah, time to buy a Mac.
We arrive at Chiang Kai Shek International Airport around nine p.m., after routing via Tokyo Narita airport on a 20 hour end-to-end journey. No matter how you journey, there is no way to escape the fact that a full twenty-four hour period elapses from leaving the house to arriving at the hotel (or vice versa).
The flight, on a series of two Boeing 777s is one of the smoothest that we’ve experienced, leaping over the top of the planet, not quite getting to the Arctic, somehow in the process skipping a complete day, which rode past us without a wink of twilight. The light is so intense that to crack the window shade is to let a literal stab of light into the darkened cabin. One of the bennies of international flight is opting for the “Economy Plus” seating, which essentially removes your knees from the backside of the seat in front. A welcome bit of space in the aluminum tube. Picked up by the “E-Go” car service (everything is “E” something these days, and Taiwan’s amazing economy, based on electronic innovation, is a breeding ground for e-this and e-that. We arrive at the Grand Victoria hotel in the Nei Hu district of Taipei, the capital of Taiwan. The growth in Taipei is something that might be called frenetic in the states, but in the context of the bee-hive activity that is most Asian cities, seems almost normal. The Grand Victoria is clean and neat and that is most important. Lazy as I am, the need to speak English is again abrogated by the clean and friendly workers at the front desk. Really, it’s not a problem getting along in Taiwan if you want to stick to your native tongue. For the most part, an occasional “ni hao” and “xie xie” will do, more often than not bringing a chuckle to your acquaintance’s face. (“Your Chinese is Soooo Good!”). Bill (ATCB President) and Mandy (ATCB first lady) greet us for a quick reunion and a welcome respite from traveling. To grind the jet lag out, one tactic is to stay up late and exhaust oneself. We do this and double the effort with beers at a local brewhouse and hang out with the guy in lederhosen, because he brings us beer.
The next day is a Sunday and we head out to Ya Ming Shan (Bright Sunny Mountain), packed into the “Space Gear” van that has been our faithful carriage these four years. The Space Gear van is owned by Trivet Industrial Corporation who has warmly hosted ATCB in the Nei Hu district of Taipei these past three years. We are safely ensconced by the good graces of Mr. Jones Yen, whom we met some years ago during our preliminary forays into Asia and before putting our feet on the ground in a more or less permanent fashion. Major Chen our General in Taiwan:
On the way to Grass Mountain, we stop at a roadside stand for Yam Soup and Yam Ice Cream. Mandy shows that it is indeed enjoyable (and it is.).
Some exercise is appreciated; the top of the mountain and the pathways are reminiscent of the way the Great Wall lies upon the mountains North of Beijing. On the way down, we stop at the university and for a quick bite. One of the dishes is a stir-fried fish and peanuts side dish.
Nice. The following day we take the High Speed Rail to the Center of Taiwan (Taichung), skipping along on the Maglev at top speeds of 300km/hour (nearly 190 mph), making the usual four hour car ride there in less than 60 minutes.
Our friends at the Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation greet us and we discuss some testing and some cooperation. Maybe a seminar in the near future
We have a little R&R at a local seafood restaurant. Several Taiwan Beers are passed around (several? Did we stop at several). Jerry gives us a lesson in finishing up the fish (head). Starting with the eyeball. Desmond is not so sure about that.
Directions, if you want to try at home:
Mike will try anything once. APRIL 16. 2007 A day of grief for all who love Virginia Tech and freedom from gun tyranny. I am pained to my heart for my alma mater.
APRIL 17, 2007 It is difficult to shake the agony of the terror of the previous day, but we do some planning and figuring out our next dozen steps. It’s great fun to look at all the options and like any good planning (“Plans are nothing, Planning is Everything” – Ike E.) we shake out several options for going forward. Hopefully, something will shake out and more than likely it will be something that we haven’t envisioned. Some of the steps include formalizing our corporate structure in Taiwan and China and selecting the steps forward. Ms. Maryann Wo with the Maryland Department of Business Development represents Maryland business interests out of her office in the World Trade Center in Taiwan. She accesses the helpful folks at the Taiwanese Economic Development authorities who give us the road map to the next phase of our Taiwan Development.
Our stay ends with giving Bill a Birthday Bash complete with harmonized birthday greetings from the wait staff at Shintori restaurant.
Capitalization and investment. The one thing that one does need to think about is the amount of money needed to seed foreign operations. Many governments welcome foreign activities, of course, and one of the things that is used as a scorecard is the foreign capital deposited into a local bank, which will have to do in Taiwan and China. The amounts, though not large by most standards, are not insignificant for use. We figure that we’ll pony up $20K for Taiwan and $150K for China. Good investment for starters. Leave pretty early the next day for Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon. Talk to you later. |
Grass
Mountain is beyond Bright Sunny Mountain. This is where the water
buffalo now roam, seeing as the traditional bovine muscle machinery have
been replaced by diesel-drinking mechanics. Rather than slaughter the
buffalo, the Taiwan authorities have moved them up the mountain into
this preserve, where they have lots of room to wander about. I’m not
sure how a water buffalo feels about living in grass on a mountain with
no water in sight, but I guess you can’t worry about everything.
| From:
Mike Violette
and
Desmond Fraser, Directors
of AmericanTCB, Inc. Received: Friday, April 23, 2007 |
|
The Travel Monologues Skirting the Dragon: Wherein We Get Along Through Asia and The Orient Mike Violette and Desmond Fraser [APRIL 18, 2007] Back to Vietnam Fly all the live long day to get to Ho Chi Minh City because it takes a stop in Bangkok to get there. The Bangkok airport is grand and modern—no opportunity is missed to hit travelers up for duty-free engorgement—passengers are cordoned off in sterile holding pens for insertion into flying aluminum tubes. One of these days, we’ll venture into Bangkok proper. We have been told that there are unbelievable experiences to be had many times by ATCB’s President, Bill Graff (now residing in Taipei whose birthday party if you recall while perusing our Taiwan Blog we hosted at Shintori). We’ll scratch together a trip and let you know how we find it.
The Thai King, the venerable Bhumibol Adulyadej: "Strength of the Land, Incomparable Power" has been monarch since 1946 and is the longest-serving monarch in Thai history. His background is international as he was born in the US and educated abroad. His 60 year reign has produced much adulation as well as intense criticism. There are many laws protecting the king from direct insult and the banners at the airport echo the state reverence. Youtube was banned in Thai-E-space because of a short flick that was critical of the King’s reign.
But we’re not staying to tool around here, but heading back for the second time to Ho Chi Minh City. We wrote about our first adventures back in November (see here: http://www.atcb.com/blog/2006-November-Asia-India.asp) so we won’t go over some of the original ground we tried to cover then. In fact, it’s not possible because we’re doing a few things differently, like staying at the Continental Hotel in the center of old Saigon, for starters. This venerable institution was originally constructed during French Colonial Rule and retains the charm of a European Hotel: Wide corridors exposed to the outside world, big rooms, high ceilings, a beautiful brick-paved courtyard, and a sultry, Greta Garbo feel. One can imagine the many soirees that have been held in its four floors over time. Sometimes buildings have a soul; these walls whisper to you.
The Continental was a central location for war correspondents during the Nam conflict. Lies and stories, deceit and intrigue, maybe some secrets passed or secrets made in these halls.
Lust and deception? Love and redemption? (includes Room Service):
But we’re now back on the best of terms (Vietnam = Peace, figure that one?) The first night in HCMC is too brief and after being battered during the car ride from the airport, it’s early retirement. The next day Desmond is hanging in HCMC to work exploratory work for perhaps our efforts to diversify, but for now we will keep it a coded mission (remember we told you a little about Alp&Alley during our Asia Blog last November?
Mike is heading to Hanoi to do noble Conformity Assessment outreach. As mentioned, with Vietnam’s entry into the WTO, there is pressing requirement for systems and infrastructure. Now that the commitment has been made, it’s time to get out the shovel, clean the barn and spread the fertilizer…and that’s just what we do. [APRIL 19, 2007] Today is Mike’s sortie North of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), up a few hundred miles to Hanoi. An iconic, nearly mythic place that peppered the news of my youth. My dad flew C123s (995 take-offs and landings, all successful) over the southern part of the country in 1968 and described the beautiful country and beaches. I get to fly a little farther north than he would have been allowed to make this visit. This visit is part curiosity, part business and a large part personal; I begin to realize an overwhelming need to break through old barriers, physical and psychological. Attitudes change in a half-a-generation. Witness the progress Taiwan has made. Witness the changes in China. The road is long, but the path is wide, but not all is uphill. In my youthful psyche Hanoi was a place of horrors, a place where downed airline pilots spent years in suffering under the cruel hands of demonic guards. Dispiriting and frightful and for some reason fascinating: could people really treat each other that way? Sad but True and War is Hell and it is nice to think that thirty years on, a new Vietnamese generation exists that knows not the horrors of war, terror from above and the sleepless worry of the wondering about the next day. I guess I want to prove to myself that healing happens as surely as the human spirit endures. There are others who have the benefit of direct experience. One of them, Hank Kenny, is a close friend of my father’s and has made Vietnam a distinct focus in his academic career and a book “In the Shadow of the Dragon,” about the influence of China on Vietnam for the past 2000 years. Kenny lost a leg in the war, didn’t let his personal loss turn to bitterness, but re-engaged that country as soon as Americans were let back in. Aside from his scholarly work, he toiled to work to bring home the US soldiers that were MIA and KIA. As he unwinds his case for the crossroads Vietnam faces now, he offers insight into the complex history of Vietnam, whose motivations for independence stretch back farther than the finding of America by the Vikings. Past is prologue and the Vietnamese have always deemed independence a right of existence: first from China (for many generations), then from Colonial France, which brought Ho Chi Minh’s struggles to the world and finally our engagement—which was fueled by US fears of Communistic aggression and the generally unstable period of time after World War II—and the last wilting of colonial dominion. Kenny’s argument casts the long history of Vietnam in the present light of change. That is, Vietnam in the shadow of the Dragon has shaped its dealings internationally as well as its internal domestic development. From one of our kind and newly-open colleagues, a peek inside is near; it is a wondrous thing to know, for me, some access to the ministry of Vietnam. Closed, cloaked and mysterious. I’ll have scotch and cigarettes with them later in Hanoi. The basic understanding I have is that they meet for two months per year in the National Assembly. Every five years, a new government is elected, consisting (essentially) of a President, who appoint the prime minister and the rest of the ruling administration. To know Hanoi is to understand Hanoi. But first you have to get there. The departure from HCMC airport is not without some hiccups familiar to air travelers anywhere: The plane is busted…They’ll fix it in an hour…oh, not until eleven…Ah! Now! OK, time to head to the gate….Line up, check in, stand around…Head to the door… Close! We’re on the bus! Whoops! Plane is still not ready…Back inside…Sit down... Change gates…Head back out…Line up, check in, stand around. This, all without any general or specific grumbling from the masses. The way I figure it: with a history of a few thousand years, what’s another hour or so? Besides, these folks have had real hardships, not manufactured ones that compel a crazed nut to buy a semiautomatic pistol and play out video game fantasies in a hatred-fueled craze with real live people for targets. Love Hokies. We fly in. Take a look from overhead.
The trip is uneventful. Hanoi is different and the same as HCMC. It is definitely more rural in its immediate environs. Markets, baskets of fruit, scooters, people walking. I feel like acting like my dog and sticking my head out the window so as not to miss it all.
The mission? Oh yes. Aside from peeling back a bit of the onion of history and getting a “temperature check” of the development and attitudes in Vietnam’s capital, the purpose is to make arrangements to develop a Conformity Assessment workshop in Vietnam. You see, the integration of Vietnam into the World Trade Organization (WTO) means that Standards will have to be adopted and maintained for Vietnamese goods to circulate on the world market. So the government is eager to promote the understanding and implementation of product testing and assessment. That’s our gig, as you recall. So I’m meeting with STAMEQ, the Directorate for Standards and Quality at their headquarters in Hanoi. I’ll also have a chance to visit mon ami Mr. Thuyet at the Ministry of Science and Technology. We had an opportunity to host them in March in DC and a reciprocal invitation is being honored. Here’s where Vietnam stands in the world of Product Testing: The framework and technical understanding is advanced. The business foundation is not (yet) there to justify a robust product testing and evaluation business. What this will take is a transition from low tech manufacturing to high tech manufacturing (which is already occurring) to the evolution into engineering and design, which comes naturally in an innovative society, which this is. Where we fit: Education and Engagement—the hallmarks of understanding. Our approach is to provide the education that the budding entrepreneurs need to help develop the products in accordance with international standards. With education, Vietnamese product quality and systems will improve substantially, offering direct competition to her more economically-mature neighbors. The meeting with Stameq goes well. We agree to a one-day seminar in Hanoi and the same in HCMC. The focus is on the two biggest export sectors: (1) Foods and (2) Electronics/Electrical products. We’ll have a general session in the morning and specific breakouts in the afternoon. It’ll probably end up costing four hundred million dong, give or take a few hundred thousand. We’ll be in for a few million ourselves. (Not to worry, there will be something left over for retirement, if that ever comes).
Then I get a Hanoi City Tour; the one hour version from Mr. Vu. Wandering along West Lake, there’s a fruit cellar and some people taking some leisure on some paddle boats.
This guy is friendly, so we get his picture. He says: “Welcome to Vietnam!” He smiles. I feel it.
Me and Ho.
And a place to take coffee and watch the street scene at the City View Café. Il faut etre Francais…
And a view of the building, reminiscent of the neighbors’ activity north of Vietnam. Cranes and high rises pop up like may apples.
But the business is done and, like anyone anywhere, the bonding takes place after the work is finished. In that way, I’ve found that the Vietnamese are more like Americans than the Chinese. Without too much generalization, the Chinese require the social and ceremonial interlocution before any deals are done. With the Vietnamese it seems to be: let’s figure out what we have to do, then we’ll go kill a bottle of scotch. Now, did they read my mind?? We have a relaxing and entertaining time at the Wild Lotus restaurant somewhere in the middle of the city swirl and rivaling any meal space I’ve enjoyed anywhere.
I crash at the Nikko Hotel. Very swank. Even a heated toilet. I revel, but I don’t dwell, because I have to get up at 4:30 to get to the airport. One “good” thing about jet lag is you don’t know what time it is, so like a soldier, you sleep when you can and march when you must.
Before I leave, one view of a typical city block. There are many modern parts of the city, a lot of life in the labyrinth and lots of work to do here, too.
[APRIL 20, 2007] I almost get killed in a taxi before I get breakfast today; well, maybe I would have escaped with minor injuries because we were only doing thirty-five mph down a cantankerously-clogged Hanoi street. A few minutes after boarding Cab 9989 at the Nikkon Hotel, I am thinking that I am just over-reacting when my breath leaves my body a block from embarking the hotel driveway. The first sign: and oncoming delivery car wants to occupy the same space that my driver has selected. Grills nearly touch; the other driver shouts expletives to my curiously calm driver. He is unfazed, so I figure that he is measured and responsible. But as we tool through the increasingly thickening traffic in an Asia Rush Hour Maelstrom (you have to enjoy the adrenalin to survive here), my driver has a minor problem staying right of the concrete abutments separating the (nominally) two-way divided traffic; this was the second sign from providence that my clock may have run out and we avoid the near-miss head-on with a few angstroms of margin. Finally, three’s a charm: I’m guessing my luck will hold until the left front wheel of the car rolls up on the sloping edge of a Vietnamese-style “Jersey wall.” Fear is followed by relief and a nervous laugh, which gives way to a kernel of anger. This guy is more than the usual reckless; I just think he doesn’t have a clue how to handle a hurtling piece of plastic and steel. I’ve got to get out of this cab! I notice that he doesn’t have a seatbelt—it’s missing from the car pylon. I click mine tight for the final ten minutes and when I leave I don’t take his card. Back to HCMC. Desmond has completed his exploratory meetings, so we reconnect we eat lunch at a Nam Phan, a swanky Vietnamese cuisine restaurant in downtown HCMC and brief each other about our individual meetings, (more info about Desmond’s meetings to come in a future correspondence). Lunch was quick but fantastic, before we had to head back to our Hotel for our STAMEQ meeting where we make a plan and will head back to HCMC and Hanoi in October for a conference. More chances to plunge into the mix. The final icing on the visit is the hell-ride I get on the back seat of a scooter driven by a 60 year old former South Vietnamese regular who gives me a real view of Saigon, whipping in and out of traffic featuring narrow escapes, a running narrative and a giddy “Now I’ve tasted it” feeling. We visit the (former) US embassy. Now posting a BIG RED FLAG with a BIG YELLOW STAR.
And take a photo op with Omar (as in Omar Sharif and one of the few Vietnamese I’ve met that has taken a Western name) the tour guide, former 2nd Lt of the South Vietnamese Army, former political prisoner and exuberant raconteur. I take his card.
Great. Exhilaration and exhaustion and head back the Continental to pack and crash as we get ready for India and rise the next day to fly back to Bangkok and onto India. But I’m sick of airplane peanuts.
|
| From:
Mike Violette
and
Desmond Fraser, Directors
of AmericanTCB, Inc. Received: Sunday, May 6, 2007 |
||||||
|
The Travel Monologues Eyeing the Tiger Mike Violette and Desmond Fraser Our next series of notes and observations come from our good fortune to join the Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP). You’ve met them before, in the guise of their agents and staff during our short gig in Bangalore last year and our most recent excursions through South America: truly exceptional support from our home in the Commonwealth.
For the most regrettable of reasons, the Governor’s mission goes on without Governor Kaine; one can only imagine the turmoil that shook the roots of his team last week. Since he and his wife and security team hit Japan and had to turn around, heading the mission in his place is Secretary of Commerce Patrick Gottshalk and Secretary of Technology Aneesh Chopra. We’ll meet them and get to know the rest of the delegation (of somewhere over 90 people) during our visits here. Love Hokies. We’ll also take a core sample of the India tech and testing market and certification systems. In vector mathematics, there are arrays that can be used to describe a system, the simplest being a 2X2 array like a table, like below. A Basic Matrix
See the pattern? These matrices can be anyone of N dimensions with relationships that extend in multiple dimensions. For a “linear system” the results are predictable. At this point, to us, the India system looks more like this:
But we’ll figure it out. Loads of pictures in this installment. There’s no way to do justice to the expanse of activity and the richness of this country’s heritage, culture and multi-hued lifestyles and living standards. [April 21, 2007] The Departure from Vietnam is at a leisurely and civilized 11 a.m., the taxi guy isn’t going to kill us and the traffic on a Saturday morning is relatively subdued. We arrive unscathed and prepared to play sardine again.
No problems getting through departures but the freaking plane ride routes us back through Bangkok and, through a miscalculation of our gate location, we almost miss our flight, even with a 3 hour layover. Note to self: scope out gate before settling down with gin and tonics. But arrive we do—in Dehli—late as hell and we are driven to the Taj Palace hotel by our courteous and solicitous Mr. Deepak. These all-day-long flight days are basically blank, so in the interest of not making anything to fill this space, let’s go on to tomorrow. [April 22, 2007] That’s better. (By the way, thanks to you for staying with us during this trip. It’s been a marathon already and it feels like I’ve been away for months, not a week. I hope someone has cut my grass in the meantime. Sam, if you’re reading this, the gas is right next to the mower.) India has such a rich and ancient history that it would be an injustice if we attempt to paint an overview of its past. One decision we made the previous evening was to hit the Taj Mahal, one of the seven wonders of the world. Mr. Deepak pledges to take us out the next day in his fine Toyota four-door sedan, in which we comfortably ride the four hours to Agra. Comfort is a sublime experience as we cut through the mid-section of a rural area occasionally bisected by teeming mini-towns and crossroads. Even back from Vietnam and traveling to China, there is nothing like the sheer density and texture of the gatherings of the people at these crossroads and scattered everywhere along the route. Words fail, and the American mind has to recalibrate what is being seen as there are no parallels in the US, Europe or South America.
And it gets a little crazy when the camels cross through.
Daily life moves on at a chaotic pace. With 1+B people, it’s no wonder that things get a little frenetic around here. Still, the squashman sells what he can as the morning commute goes on to the road to Agra.
But we finally make it to the Taj and succumb to the photographers and a few of the hawkers of doo-dads and hand-carved games.
The Taj Mahal was constructed by Shah Jahan for his wife Mumtaz, who died during the delivery of their 14th child (woo!). After Mutaz’s death in 1631, (about 10 years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth rock) construction continued for the next 20+ years. For 350 years, the building is absolutely a shining beacon to adoration. The Shah imported 20,000 workers from Persia, he being from the Moghul dynasty, and the painstaking work shook the treasury. Ornate, delicate, detailed and delightful inlay of semi-precious stones ring the doorways and liven the white marble. It is not until you get close that you can see the exacting work that has weathered the past 3 and a half centuries.
The Shah and his wife are buried in the Taj. Mumtaz lies in the center of the symmetrical building, directly under the zenith of the 75m tall dome; the Shah’s tomb is placed off-center next to his beloved wife. A duplicate of the royal couple’s resting place is at the ground level and the actual burial chamber several meters down, directly under the replica. A tall ornate fence is constructed around the replica tombs to keep people from walking over the burial site belowground. We return to Dehli, passing brightly-clothed Hindu women on foot and on motorscooter.
Arriving back at the hotel in time for cocktails (of course). We make new and meet old acquaintances. We catch up with Bea and her friend Yvonne. We galavanted around South America with Bea and for some reason, she can’t shake us.
Our friends Vinay and Vijay Singh and Purnima Gupta greet us. The Singh’s firm Universal Technologies make successful connections between US and Indian firms wishing to expand business and cooperation opportunities. Purnima made things happen for us last November during our 27 hour stay in India. We meet Joe Adams of the VEDP and Zarina Fazaldin of L&Z Historic in Richmond.
And for some reason, our cameras have an affinity for lovely ladies.
We attended VEDP’s Welcoming reception in the evening and chit-chatted with other delegates from the Commonwealth while enjoying some of Delhi’s finest Indian hors d’oeuvres while we listen to Secretary Gottschalk’s welcoming remarks and stated purpose of the delegation. [April 23, 2007] Monday morning, our first official day, American Embassy personnel provided a wealth of political and economic statistics about India during a breakfast briefing. Here are some quick facts we noted that might be of interest to you in understanding India today as an important US ally and trade partner: · The US Embassy consular department issues 650,000 visas including the H 1 B (issued to foreign workers with skills need by US companies) to Indians, including 30,000 green cards each year. · Direct Foreign Investment from the US to India is now approximately $16Billion, and this figure will continue to grow. · Closer Indian-Russian relationship primarily developed by India’s former prime minister, Indira Gandhi,--assassinated in 1984 by her body guards-- resulted in bilateral isolation for approximately sixty years between US and India. This isolation has thawed since economic reforms, resulting in better cooperation with the US. Although many mid-level Indian bureaucrats who attended the Patrice Lumumba Peoples Friendship University in the former Soviet Union (which schooled third world students in Marxist philosophy during the height of the Cold War) are still enamored with Russia. But these attitudes are changing, too. · In a country of twenty eight states, twenty official languages, and whose government consists of eleven coalition parties, all bilateral relationships with India requires a certain finesse—a sort of “bilateral rapprochement” as described by the Embassy Political Affairs staff—especially because of the calculus involved in managing coalition parties on this issue. · India has the twelfth largest economy and is the fourth largest consumer economy in the world, based on purchasing power equity. Her growth rate trajectory is similar to that of China, with annual growth rate of nine percent. · With one-half of its population under twenty five years or younger, India has the largest educated consumer base potential in the world. Delegates were privy to the aforementioned stats about India, including the plan to spend $370Billion dollars over the next five years overhauling the country’s infrastructure. American companies were been encouraged by Embassy personnel to look closer at India for business opportunities. The Indian government is also investing in renewable and clean energy technology as it takes steps to clean up the environment and become less dependent on oil consumption; opportunities also exists in the household wares, furniture, and textile sectors. US equipment manufacturers in these sectors have the possibility of selling their equipment to Indian consumers and factories. The speakers also elaborated on efforts taken by the Indian government and the Department of Commerce in providing training to India’s Intellectual Property (IP) officials to protect the rights of foreign and Indian patents holders; this issue has caused many US companies not to consider selling their equipment in developing countries for fear that their patents may be compromised. The US Embassy Defense attaché informed us that before 2001 there were zero percent military equipment sales by US companies to India, this number has grown to four hundred million US dollars with potentially up to Ten Billion Dollars worth of military equipment sales to be acquired by the Indian Ministry of Defense over the next several years. Other opportunities for US companies are available as Indians apply their capability in the manufacturing sector. The US embassy staff provided valuable information and tidbits and reminded us this was the time to be engaged in India, we are at the cusp of remarkable changes in India as she embarks on her promise to deliver goods and services to her billion people. When she fulfills this promise it will catapult her into the twenty first century. We meet Cdr. Ram Shahdadpuri from AE Telelink, an electrical engineer from India’s Navy who has develop his company to produced Arcnet and other telecom products for our first matchmaking meeting. AE Telelink System Ltd also offers embedded software development for local as well as international clients. We promised to be in touch and to look for areas that we may cooperate in the future. Next on our list was Mr. Naveen Rao from MROTEK, his firm specializes in telecommunication product hardware development in which transmitters are integrated into their design; the possibility for providing homologation services were discussed, we concluded our meeting by pledging to remain in contact . Finally, we ended our first day matching making meeting in Dehli, by meeting Dr. A. Mathur, from Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Dr. Mathur is CEO of STQC Directorate, he explains the nuances of India’s certification process eloquently to us, we absorbed and made notes quickly. Proposals to stay in touch and a possible joint seminar were discussed. We now have a better understanding of certifying Indian produced products in India as well as homologating foreign products into India.
Eating an Elephant [April 24, 2007] Last seen heading to Chennai. I wonder if the guy flying the plane uses this thing?
So at this point, a few days in, the Big Question is: How do you eat an elephant? Answer: One bite at time. And in the same vein, a Taste of India is all you can get during one of these trips. And so for my friend, Mr. Dave C, so he doesn’t get disappointed that we neglect the amazing culinary delights of the Indian subcontinent, here is a plate for viewing. Delightful mix of curries, paneers, naan and yoghurts. Enjoy.
But what’s great about a Trade Mission is that there are another few dozen pairs of eyes that are seeing things that you may have missed. There is a great opportunity to share and compare notes, exchange anecdotes about “the Karachi to Lahore airplane ride from hell”, the “greatest street market” in Istanbul and the “best foot massage” in Beijing, seeing the world from a mix of experience, attitude and opinion. The over-riding viewpoint that I’ve developed is the more one travels, the more measured one’s view of the world becomes; people are not “bad,” cultures have more in common than in conflict and the next trip is better than the last. As Americans, we don’t spend enough time visiting and interacting with cultures before we decide what is best for the US, especially when we act unilaterally. If we did, I am sure that we would foster greater sympathies in the masses of people who live in the developing world and declaw many of the enemies of freedom. From a broader point of view, that is what these missions can accomplish. A principal component of this mission is the delegation from the Governor Kaine’s office. I can’t vouch for their opinion of foot massages, but on this trip the politicos are primarily aligned with the development of commerce and Virginia Industry (Virginia #1 for Business says Forbes) and it’s a matter of global and local competitiveness that drives the Virginia government to support our modest efforts to take a bite out of the Elephant (without getting squished). Out and about before breakfast, we get on the bus and head to the airport. Look! Everyone is so happy to get on another crammed flight! Must be the curry! Face enemies oing the camera we have Iqbal Tabil, Brian Moran, Yvonne Frank and Shamin Tabil. It’s Oh-Dark-Thirty to make the 6:45 a.m. flight to Chennai.
Skipping the usual grueling and grumbling and (now) stale observations about the flora and fauna of the air and water, we arrive in Chennai and dip our toe in the water, staying at the Taj Coromandel and take an afternoon visit to SAMEER, a premier and established electromagnetic development and test center located a modest commute from our hotel. SAMEER is a state of the art lab with recently invested facilities who performs work in RF product development, microwave hardware, and our favorite: EMC testing. Our hosts could not be more welcoming and give us a tour and a photo op with Messrs. K. and S.
Back at the hotel, we are invited to get on another bus and head to the Welcome Reception given by the Tamil Nadu Biz Development folks, FICCI, and sponsored by Mr. Ravi Sannareddy and his company Megasoft, a successful venture operating in Herndon, VA and Chennai that is doing the Virginia-India cooperation in grand style. Tamil Nadu is one of the more developed states in the southeast corner of the country. It is evident that we’re not in Dehli any more because the taxis are yellow here.
The reception is one of the times our group officially crosses paths with the Governor’s Group; the unofficial times were at the bar and in the spirit of preserving political aspirations, no documentary evidence has been saved about those meetings (see me for more details). Organizers and sheperders Rick Richardson and Vince Barnett of VEDP dealt with the difficult logistics of re-casting the trip after the tragedy and did a great job. At the FICCI gathering, good tidings are exchanged and Tamil Nadu promotes its benefits and business-friendly environment.
Secretary of Commerce Patrick Gottschalk makes a good point for future cooperation. Pat was backed up by his deputy Rick Siger.
And Secretary of Technology Aneesh Choprah rouses the crowd with a stirring pro-technology speech.
The fairer members of our delegation are well-pleased, not to mention resplendent in their business casual.
While organizer Vijay Singh and VEDP Director Paul Grossman would rather be no where else.
What’s India without awesome statistics? Points to consider about the great state of Tamil Nadu: There are 252 colleges in the state and last year they graduated 79,800 engineering graduates (about the same as the whole US). Labor rates command an approximately ten-to-one advantage over the US, although my friend Iqbal points out that the Indian model of enterprise falls back on an attitude that includes “just add more people.” Anyway, with 230 polytechnic institutes, there are another 63,000 technicians injected into the labor force. We talked about some of this last year. See: http://www.atcb.com. Overall, the India IT Industry has an annual turnover of $36.4B with software exports of better than $23B and this is the interesting part for us: Hardware exports are about half-a-billion bucks and bound to spurt up in the next few years. We’ll be watching, from here, Shiva willing. Recalling the wage leverage previously referenced (and even if it is more like a five-to-one and not ten-to-one ratio), the $23B IT output might be more like an equivalent in the US of $100B. Some other critical bragging right that TN has—which are of particular interest in India with its developing infrastructure–is the electric power generating capacity of the state. In a country where brown- and blackouts are frequent, power is of critical importance to manufacturing and data processing operations. In Tamil Nadu, the power generation capacity is advertised as being better than 12.6 Gigawatts. An interesting statistic that is claimed is that almost one-half of the juice is from Wind and Water: clean and renewable, which is a critical issue in environmentally-strapped India. Another resource in the modern age is the data bandwidth availability. The advertised net bandwidth is something on the order of 13.5 terrabits per second. That’s a lot of YouTube. It’s also a lot of backbone for off-shore, outsourced, data communications, analysis, video, you name it. Friedman talked about the fiber optic capacity laid in the heady days of the .com boom which has now been used to build the IT communications spine linking India with the rest of the world.
In all, about 85 Virginians made the trip, split into a couple of different groups. There was the official delegation and the political delegation and the big deal delegation and the guys like us, the “match-making delegation,” who, in all, managed to work in about 150 meetings (combined) in the three cities. We’re bonding with the other match-making participants, representatives from companies such as Base-X, Interchange Group, DeRoyal, i411, CV International, Thomson Strategies, Short Commercial Acquisitions, SpectraQuest, Bode, L&Z, TMGE and our friends Bea, Yvonne, Terry, Doug, Michael, Iqbal, Shamin, Wayne, Zamina, Stephanie, Suri and Ed. These companies represent companies as diverse as Modular Enclosures to Medical Devices, Mergers and Acquisitions to Forensics, Freight-forwarding to E-Advertising. One gets the sense that these folks are primarily modern-day adventurers with a bit of the pioneering spirit that makes Americans respected and admired all over the world. We’re escorted by Vijay and Vinay Singh, Purnima Gupta, Raj Malhotra, Zakim and Rajeesh of Universal Technologies and what’s really great is that we all fit on one bus.
There is some traffic on our way to the Chennai airport. Commuting is a challenge all over the world. These guys are car-pooling (or is it ox-pooling?) and trying to take a right turn into oncoming traffic. The flow snarls.
(And not everyone obeys the safety recommendations; the cart driver is only wearing a turban.) And see things that shake your sense of human existence. No wonder reincarnation is a popular notion here.
Finally, after a typical bump and grind bone-rattling-whoops-that’s-not-the-clutch-that’s-the-brake ride, we arrive. It’s not hard to get a taxi at the airport. Off to Bombay, sorry, Mumbai—What a long day. You say New Delhi, I say Just Delhi You say Bombay town, I say Mumbai now Let’s call the whole thing off. [April 25, 2007] MUMBAI We’ll sleep here the next few nights.
Mumbai coats the Arabian Sea with a thick layer of humanity. A little north of half-way up the western coast of India, Mumbai is a port city and the “Gateway to India” is built seaside in front of our hotel. This port contains the physical and symbolic representation of the Bombay of British colonial rule, which dissolved under the withering gentleness of the wisdom of Mahatma Gandhi. For India, Gandhi has the relative attributes of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. British-style architecture has been preserved throughout the city in the customs-house, the post-office and the university and other institutions that dot the urban chaos. The Taj, where we’re staying, has a stunning old world charm in the main part of the hotel that is still functioning and grand as ever. It overlooks this port view. Boats in the bay handle walking and swimming cargo.
Enough with superlatives for superlatives just don’t work here. What does work are the taxis: lots of three wheeled machines and puny Fiats, many held together with bubble-gum and wire—the transportation for the masses. And the busses, too, carry the maximum load. The streets support a mass of homeless people and the Taj Palace is the picture of refinement. There is plenty to write about in India: the socio-economic distance between the very poor and the very rich, the burgeoning middle class, many of them new participants in the economy since the liberalizations of 1991 and the hype and reality of this vast economy and culture. Delightful are the common scenes that are indelibly “Bombay.”
And the uncommon beauty.
My memories of India are dominated by the news images of Indira Gandhi (no relation to Mahatma), daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru (first PM of India after independence). Both Indira and her son Rajiv were assassinated in gruesome ways by political enemies seven years apart (1984 and 1991, respectively). The Gandhi political line continues to this day with Indira’s grandson Rahul taking more bold steps into the political scene after being somewhat tentative during his youthful days (hey! what youngster knows from the beginning that he wants to run a country—uh, gee, what are the hours?). And who could blame someone for being tentative in the world’s most populous democracy and the attendant hectic tussle between over twenty registered political parties and a coalition government in a country with complex and seemingly intractable problems. Makes one yearn for the relative calm of the Virginia Assembly, I would guess. Our new friend Brian Moran, delegate from Alexandria, has made trip to observe first-hand the “operations” side of the Economic Development in the Commonwealth.
He comments that it is unusual for the political types to see the results of the policy and legislation “in action.” We’re glad he’s along and hopefully we’ll see more of him on the international outreaches that the Commonwealth hosts; well maybe he’d like to work as an engineering intern one of these summers at our lab in Delhi. Oh, yeah, he’s got a day job. After the first night in Mumbai, which extended not-too-severely into the first morning, we head up to rest for a few brief hours.
We’ve got a meeting at the offices of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and our new acquaintance Dr. G.K., who is running new product initiatives within the IIT (and with the nod from the IIT and government folks). Until two years ago it was not possible for Universities to engage in private-sector for-profit activities. With a change in the rules, it became possible and encouraged for professors to create companies and work the company product developments into the curricula. This fosters engineering innovation in the student body. The upshot is that this new arrangement will incubate new product ideas and probably more than a few successful engineering entities. We plan to stay in touch.
The second night we are in Mumbai (the night after the elevator shot), we bus it over to the World Trade Center Institute, we are feted by the local government. The US embassy has participation, too. There were at least 200 people there.
Kim Weir makes things happen in here International Investment role and is a fave of traveling delegations. The VALET program, an initiative driven by Paul Grossman and shepherded by Kim, provides state assets and information to work for VA companies looking on the outside. Me? Just looking for an unashamed photo op.
After the last of the last of the meetings, we are free to do what is only possible in this city: get your shoes shined at least ten times in one block. Some shopping (be ready to be pestered like no where else in the world). Rude is OK and for chrissakes don’t stop to look at anything, you won’t be able to leave without dropping a few coins. At the end of the last day we finish with the Tata Sons-sponsored reception, which was held at the Rendez-vous room atop the Taj. Very nice, some good speechifying and a glow cast generally on those who favor the rum and cokes. Tata Sons (Tata Group) is the largest conglomerate in India with 2006 revenues of some $22B. The Tata empire dates back to 1868 timeframe and the group is involved with every imaginable industry in India, from textiles to oil to steel to hotels. Aside from their successes, the Tata Group of companies pioneered corporate and community responsibility. Read more about this fascinating company in your spare time. You’ll find plenty written about it. We take a last pic with the Universal Technologies Team. Desmond shows off his new “genie” shoes which he will bravely sport through the airports of Frankfurt and Dulles as we take a deep breath and head for our homes in Virginia.
I’ll be looking forward to cutting the grass and breathing some green air. We’ll write soon. Write now: sales@atcb.com. Special THANKS to:
And Hokie Pride But NO THANKS to the guy who got my 300 rupees for the classic line: “yes, these are the real jumbo balloons.” If you go to Bombay and before you get suckered like me, first insist on a demonstration and ask him to blow one up (take no balloon substitutes) and if you find this guy, tell him he owes me 300 rupees, or at least a couple of jumbo balloons for free.
Caveat Emptor, all over the world. Mike and Desmond May 2007 |
