Towards and beyond the divine market

Bear with me, this is a long post that takes time to get to the point. It is essentially a way for me to summarize different things I have seen/heard and use them as a means to defend a my own position on capitalism.

The last twenty years has seen the advancement of a single belief with many names: the idea that many average individuals empowered to interact and make decisions can be more intelligent than a single (or even a few) supremely intelligent people. This notion has been proven in many areas and called many names:

-The decline of socialism and spread of market-oriented economies in Russia and even China are testament to the idea that many consumers making decisions can more efficiently allocate resources than a benevolent, omnipotent central planner.

-The rise of open source as a lower cost mechanism for software development. This method entails allowing communities of developers to modify code freely instead of a small team developing for a company.

-The notion of empowering communities to change through community organizing espoused by Obama and used in his campaign field operations for political success. This contrasts with the convention of mass-marketing a political candidate through television and ground efforts.

-The internet leveraging user generated content to enhance the body of knowledge–think Wikipedia vs. Encyclopedia Brittanica (do they even exist)? As a matter of fact, the internet is the testing ground for many decentralizing concepts, including ‘crowdsourcing’ to produce everything from music (Indaba) to scientific solutions (InnoCentive) to T-shirts (Threadless).

-In the field of strategy, Michael Porter teaches about the productivity gains from competitiveness, how several competing companies can be better innovators than a single dominant player despite advantages conferred by scale.

-In a very different way, the field of biology contains decentralized wisdom. Evolution is just the idea of developing a species through repeated transactions (lives of organisms within their ecosystems) with the winners surviving and the loser species going bankrupt/extinct.

The above examples are just a few, and the list of books documenting the wisdom of this decentralized intelligence in its various forms are long and cover many different disciplines. But although we use the “Market” to solve many of our societal problems, we don’t fully understand how it works and can not forecast what its answers will be. In fact, there is much evidence that the “market” does not serve us well in all circumstances:

-First off, the “Market” is a whimsical creature that sometimes does not see clearly. Stock market bubbles arise from systematic misperceptions of an asset’s value. The entire field of behavioral finance has arisen to show how people’s biases can manifest themselves in anomalies in market valuations despite all of our best efforts.

-Second, the market does not efficiently solve the provision of public goods because of free rider problem. For instance, no company wants to pay the entire cost of a national defense though everyone benefits from its presence. Most would agree on the above, but the rest gets dicey.

-American farm yield increases over time have lead to less profitability, because supply increases have led to falling prices. Due to game theory, farmers individually respond to this by producing more. The book Omnivore’s dilemma by Michael Pollan documents how our food production is unsustainable, and how market forces, left unencumbered, would perpetuate this mess.

-Most people value human life first and foremost. Yet as a 2004 paper by Aidan Hollis describes, our pharmaceutical industry is focusing its research on drugs that are not actually extending human lives. This is why we have more Viagra clones and incremental improvements on Lipitor than malaria cures or cures for neurodegenerative diseases like ALS.

-Sticking with healthcare, we as a society would benefit from focusing on healthy living to prevent diseases rather than products and services to cure them. And yet our healthcare system does not focus on this most efficient way of improving the quality of our lives.

-This is harder for me to prove, but our human capital does not flow to areas where it can be most valuably deployed, merely where it is most rewarded. This is why a tax accountant gets paid more to help navigate a confusing tax system than the person who creates tax law and could make it simpler. Or how people working in industries that create jobs (see any growing industry) get paid less than industries that do nothing of the sort (see, law and finance). In light of the above, do you believe that the free markets lead to the proper allocation of human capital? The same thing can be argued for financial capital.

-The market reaches the wrong conclusions if left to its own devices across several industries: predatory lending practices in financial services (extending beyond the sub-prime mortgages to other areas of consumer finance); pollution-emitting chemical manufacturers; textile manufacturing encouraging shady labor practices in our own country one hundred years ago and the developing world today; our farming industry reliant on migrant and illegal labor, particularly for certain labor intense tasks like strawberry picking.

In light of this evidence, the 20th century thinking has generally fallen into one of two camps. Either the Market is god or the Market is the devil.

The believers in the market believe that free markets can solve all of our problems, and that problems only arise when the market is distorted by government, or even sometimes the imperfection of its own participants. Believers align along similar lines regarding several issues: pro-globalization, for small government, anti-union, incentive-based pay for public servants, etc.

The anti-markets tend to believe that the market leads to a race to the bottom. That the market encourages otherwise good people to be evil and that there needs to be strong safety nets and intervention to counterbalance its effects. They tend to align along the opposite side of most of these issues and believe that the combination of government intervention, more regulation, and a larger non-profit sector are the better way to solve the problem.

In my opinion, both are wrong.

The anti-markets cannot ignore how terribly inefficient the public sector is. Look at our public education system. Or any program initiated by the UN. Or the fact that yesterday’s government intervention encourages tomorrow’s crisis. There are some who believe that pro-housing policies such as the Community Reinvestment Act helped contribute to the sub-prime mortgage crisis. And Bush’s requirements for using corn-based ethanol are what contributed to our food price increase given the fact that our food supply is mostly relies on corn to feed our animals and create our sweeteners. Similarly, what kind of distortions will our current push for subsidizing solar technologies yield that could hurt us tomorrow? Even worse, what will the nationalizing of our banking system end up doing to its efficiency?

The free-marketers are a tougher species to argue with because they are more willing to be blind to their counterfactual. For instance, when discussing the pharmaceuticals example cited above, a free marketer might say, “People might say that they value human lives, but the market is proof that Americans actually value sexual functionality for Americans over the lives of the poor. I know, its sad, but its true.” If this was the case, then why would these same Americans elect to pour millions and even billions of dollars to charity to save the poor (for which they receive nothing)? And even if we are as selfish as is made out to be, then why would we perpetuate a healthcare system which does not encourage more cost-effective mechanisms to save our own lives?

My answer is that the market is neither good nor evil, but an amoral agent operating within the context surrounding it to maximize the value that can be extracted. Consumers are not omniscient buyers, nor are they rational or organized enough to force change quickly, so they often act against their own best interest.

So if the market is imperfect, then how to solve it without government intervention? I don’t fully know. For me, the best answer rests in evolution. As an aside, I personally view evolution as God’s blueprint, not proof of lack of existence.

Evolution manipulates species by context. Little changes in a species’ environment can have profound changes on its genetic makeup.

Similarly, what small change to the context of the markets is required to make it work in the manner that we’d like? Here is where I’m trying to develop my thinking.

For instance, we can encourage a more long-term approach to healthcare by devoting billions of taxpayer dollars to tax incentives for people to be healthier. But the reason that this is not done by private payers is that they only have to pay the cost of someone’s healthcare for a limited time frame. The reason that this is not done by consumers is that they are not properly educated about the costs borne by not changing, nor do they even bear the costs for not changing. If for some reason, payers had to cover a portion of the lifetime cost of healthcare for a patient, they might be more holistic and long-term. Similarly, if patients bore the cost and received the education, they might be as well.

Similarly, our pharmaceutical industry’s portfolio of drugs is a product of a couple features within its market context: its extremely expensive to conduct R&D for drugs (due to the expense of field testing as well as a necessarily cumbersome approval process), and very profitable once the drug is proven (given strong intellectual property protection). Are there ways to manipulate these two elements of context in a manner that might encourage more enlightened R&D investment?

This is where my thinking stops, but hopefully I will have more up here over time. Unsure how different this is from the thinking being applied to regulation today. But it feels like an extension of this framework (assessing misalignment between industry function and its best functioning for societal benefit as a product of contextual features and then working to address those) might yield better regulatory results than our current thinking.

A lot of little things

Tax policy

My professor coincidentally made a semi-relevant argument on the redistributive benefits of a progressive tax system.  He argues that it is much less important (in reducing inequality) to implement a progressive tax system than it is to have progressive spending policies (ie those that support the poor more than the rich).  Makes sense.  Consider two households, one earning 10 and the other earning 50.  Both are taxed 20% in a flat system  After tax in both systems, the households earn 8 & 40.  But then lets say the revenue earned from the taxes is then split equally on a per capita basis.  This  means that the tax revenue (12) is provided 6 and 6 back to the households.  This has a much greater impact on the equality of folks than say halving the tax rate for the poor and doubling it for the rich.  So therefore, he argues, it is better to make a tax system simple and enforceable than complicated.  If you want to create equality, focus on spending that is progressive (primary education, health care) and no regressive (social security, tertiary education, etc.).  Very interesting point.  More coming later

Back into blogging

Well, since I last blogged, a lot in my life has changed. I’m now a second year MBA student. As a student, I’ve been exposed to a ton of exciting people and ideas–in the last 15 months, I’ve seen forty plus entrepreneurs who have started successful businesses, Al Gore, Barack Obama, Vinod Khosla, John Doerr, Tiki Barber, David Gergen, Bill Donaldson, and others.

All these people, professors, and ideas have inspired me to think more about the world around me. It is a huge world with so many problems and no clear right answers. I have so many questions. Its awkward to bring them up in casual conversation (as I’ve learned the hard way ).

Also, I have a terrible memory. The logic is that hopefully, by keeping a daily journal of all these thoughts, I will be able to retain more. I imagine that if I actually start wanting to get people’s opinions on things, its easiest to get it through a public forum. Hence, a blog.  If you don’t care about the question below, you probably don’t want to read any further or ever come back here

Tax system–how will more redistribution impact growth?

A friend of mine argued that tax increases for the rich will hurt the economy. She cited the article below.

Article arguing for tax cuts for wealthy.

My (completely unqualified) response:

1) While tax cuts helped the economy, it was not the sole cause of earnings growth and therefore higher tax revenue—The author cites figures from 2003 to 2006, after Bush’s tax cuts, to show that they resulted in higher earnings. He mentions that many millionaires were created in this period. A very convenient alignment of facts that ignores what actually caused this wealth: asset price increases on the back of a rising stock market and, more importantly, a real estate bubble. There were more millionaires probably because people could sell off their homes for much higher prices, therefore declaring large capital gains and moving them into high tax brackets and increasing tax revenue. The Case Shiller index of homes went up 50%+ in that time period and the stock market went up 40%. These increases are probably the result of low interest rates and too much easy money flowing around, NOT directly from tax cuts (although I will discuss how the two are related later). These asset price increases were not sustainable and should not be applauded. My wager is that labor income (as opposed to capital income) probably did not increase that dramatically over the same time period.

2) Our system actually needs to be more progressive. Our tax system is in fact not very progressive at all when compared to Europe, and particularly Northern Europe. The author argues that with the top 1% earning 22% of the income and paying 40% of the taxes, the system is progressive and even more so than it used to be. He mentions that during the Carter administration they only paid 19% of the taxes but leaves out a critical fact–how much of the income did they earn during Carter? I found the answer—less than 10%!!! In other words, over the last 30 years, the rich have gotten 2.2 (!!!!) times wealthier than the poor in this country and this is naturally why they have a higher tax burden. I don’t have any sympathy for the rich in this country in an era where the CEO makes 262 times the average worker, when they used to make 35 times in 1978. Tax increases cannot dull the rising inequality in this country, but our economy is changing structurally in ways which aren’t good. While I don’t believe in big government, I think policy over the next 25 years should address this.

3) A progressive tax system is built on the philosophy that equality of opportunity trumps the need to reward initiative. The author cites that there is turnover among the top 1%, implying that it is not some wealthy class monopolizing these ranks and that the country has equality of opportunity. Baloney. I’ve also heard the argument that if we tax the rich, people will stop trying as hard or move to another country. Also baloney. Regarding equality of opportunity, I look at my own story. I graduated at the top of my class, got scholarships, and went to a good school where I was able to access high paying jobs, which helped me find even more high paying jobs. But I went to college with a lot of people, whose parents’ alumni status, willingness to invest in private school educations and donate to colleges gave them a leg up to get in school. These people had access to the same opportunities I did and worked hard for them, but they sure had a leg up to get there. And even I benefited from this—my public school was in a great district in a state known for good education. If my parents were farmers in rural Mississippi there is no way I would have had similar opportunities as easily. With the middle class disappearing, more people will have less access to opportunity over time. Regarding the taxation of the rich—America is a competitive place for the rich to live. Their kids can attend the top schools in the world, become entrepreneurs in the best place in the world to do so, and benefit from the culture, diversity and freedoms that make this country great. Don’t tell me that if tax rates go up 4% people will move to Australia. They might try to shelter their income, but this just argues for a better, loophole free tax system.

4) Tax cuts for the wealthy might not provide the best economic stimulus. If you give one dollar to wealthy, what do they do? Probably save 95 cents and spend 5 cents. If you give one dollar to the poor and middle class, what do they do? Probably spend 70 cents and save 30. Savings flows through the system as increased capital—when you put your money in the bank, they lend it to people or invest it. Spending flows through the system as increased demand for products and services. Well when Bush made those tax cuts for the wealthy, they were coupled with loose monetary policy. Loose monetary policy (low interest rates) and more money for the wealthy to save probably helped contribute to the large amounts of capital that were being thrown around. With a lot of capital to deploy, the banks were forced to reduce their standards for lending to homeowners. This in conjunction with a policy bias towards making it easier for people to buy homes created a lot of this sub-prime mess. Right now, it probably makes more sense than it did in 2001 to cut taxes, but with people lacking confidence in the markets, people are only buying safe stuff like treasuries. I don’t think giving them money will stimulate the economy. I think the economy needs to be stimulated through higher demand, not more savings, hence it probably makes more sense economically to provide that one dollar to the middle class and poor than it does to the rich right now.

That’s all for now. If you disagree, I would love to know why…

Like, um, a week in the valley, part 2 (Los Angeles)

All right, so I’ve wanted to make music ever since I was about 12 and first tried to sing along with all the stuff I heard on TV, hahaha.  I’ve been writing material for like the last six years and have been working on this particular album for about a year and a half.  I’m so close to the finish line of one of my major dreams in life (the others are really random, both large and small).  But it feels weird.  I finished most of the songs three months ago or longer.  While I haven’t showed many of my friends my material, it almost doesn’t even feel like I wrote it anymore.  But anyway, the label I work with is out here, so I’ve been working with them on the finishing touches for the album.  These include: 1) tweaking mixes to a couple of songs, 2) a last minute dash of creativity to try and write a song that I really want to put on the album (we’ll see if I can bang it out), and 3) putting together promo material, including photo shoots and shooting music videos.  The first two I’ve done before and are not really challenging.  But the last part is pretty tough for me.  I’m floored by the people I work with and the way they’ve taken ownership of my music and made me feel like part of a family.  But I’m pretty freaked out by the concept of being on screen and for that long!  We’ll see where this week leads, but thus far it has involved:

-A casting session that involved me meeting and taking pictures with about thirty auditioning actresses and some actors.  Really a tough day for me–sigh, I don’t know how many more beautiful women I could meet before being completely exhausted…

Exhibit 437-In the room after finishing up a casting session.  From left to right, Tim, a label employee, Kate, the owner of the space, Rohit, the director, and Scott, the assistant director.  Will certainly have more interesting pics before the week is up.

-Production planning meetings, writing sessions, more meetings, shopping trips, Mexican food runs.  All pretty busy but I still have some free time and am starting to really miss BS-ing with my friends.  If you read this and we haven’t caught up in a while, give me a call!

 Out for now, more when it comes.

Ami San Francisco watha

OK so I lied–I’m not going to stop blogging until I get back to New York, because I am doing some cool things out in the states.

 This last weekend, I was in San Francisco for the Konkani Youth Convention.  I’m sure you have a couple of questions at this point: 1) what the heck is a Konkani?, 2) um, dude, aren’t you 25?  Well, Konkani is a language spoken by a peoples that moved across the country from North India through Goa (where a Portugese influenced version is spoken) and through to Southern India, mostly around a coastal town called Mangalore.  Its my ethnic background.  As small a minority as Indians are in America, Konkanis are smaller amongst Indians–for roughly every 1000 Indian, 1 is Konkani.  So for our well attended North America wide youth convention we couldn’t even sell out the San Francisco Omni with only 100 ish attendees from the US and Canada.  And second, “youth” is defined as 18-30, or realistically speaking, any young person who is unmarried.  For those of you who have been to conventions like this, it is NOT (really) a meat market.  It was really well organized, but pretty jam packed with things to do so that by the time I got to LA I was exhausted.

 

Exhibit 187- If something were to have happened at this field, the Konkani-American population would have neared extinction.

Highlights of the convention

-As organizers introduced themselves for the opening ceremony, they gave superficial information, such as where they live/work/etc.  One of the organizers deadpans, “I work at Chlorox…BLEATCH!”  Such a quality line dropped so randomly caught us off guard and we could not stop laughing.  Fair warning–I plan on using this often.

-There were three gujus who showed up at the convention, proving the rarely repeated theory that gujus wish they were konkani (if you don’t know what a guju is, don’t worry about it)

-Sunil, one of my friends there, is a great dude, dancer, and clown.  Watching him 1) dance, 2) kick game to girls was well worth the price of admission.

Exhibit 193- Sunil with our friend Shilpa.

-Konks are a small community.  Really small.  If you were to stick my parents or my aunt in a room full of Konkanis, we could find some indirect relation with probably about half of the people in the room.  I just found out I’m distant cousins with one of my friends this weekend when I met her mom.

Exhibit 153-Although I don’t think I’m related to anybody in the picture, Meghana on the far left is another Acharya!

 -I always have mixed feelings about these things.  On one hand, since Konkani is a language I’ve pretty much only spoken with family, its really cool to meet people from all across the country who you share that bond with. I also always seem to emerge from these things with some pretty random and completely irrational crushes on people. On the other hand, these conventions are different for different people. For a small, core group, these conventions are time to meet up with friends they correspond with and meet up with regularly, and even some family members (see above).  For another group, its their first time meeting Konkani people so they come alone looking to make friends.  Its tough for the second category to really interact with the first category and form lasting friendships.  I fall somewhere in the middle, but more often feel as though in the second category.  Its a shame, but since my culture is pretty important to me, I hope to get more involved by helping to organize these things in the future. 

 -There was a seminar on community service, further hammering home my guilt for not being involved enough over these last few years.  On the bright side, I found out that Asha Philadelphia, a charity focused on Indian education that my friends and I co-founded while at Penn, was being run by a Konkani for the last few years.  How random is that?

After a crazy schedule of early morning seminars and late night parties, I flew out to LA on Sunday late night for the last chapter–working with the label for marketing material for my album.

Rounding the corner of New Zealand and heading home

I spent a day and a half in Auckland.  Here are my thoughts:

-New Zealanders are obsessed with rugby, particularly their national team, whom they call the all-blacks (who wear, surprisingly, all black).  Since the Maori represent 20% of their population and are disproportionately represented in their rugby teams, the all black supposedly do this Maori warrior dance called the haki (sp) dance before every match, which means I officially have to see New Zealand compete in a rugby match at some point in my lifetime.

-I caught a show in the Auckland national museum of Maori culture.  I have a lot of really cool pics of some of the songs and dances.  To intimidate opponents on the battlefield, Maori warriors would stick out their tongues and open their eyes really wide.  I hope to use this during a negotiation at some point in my life.  I have a pic of me practicing which I will post soon enough.

-Other than the museum and hanging out with Pravin’s friend Arnie, Auckland was pretty ho hum.  I stayed at this weird bed and breakfast where the staff was three random Japanese women (see: my obsession with the Japanese) and you weren’t around to walk around the B&B with shoes.  Other than that, I’ve just been preparing to return to the states and also for the Konkani Youth Convention in San Francisco this weekend.  One more blog to wrap up my thoughts on the trip and add some pics and the travelling part of this blog is pretty much over.  Sigh–I guess all good things must come to an end.

Venaca, Fiji!

So, believing that my flight was at 4 pm, I arrived at Auckland airport at 2, only to discover that it doesn’t leave until 6 pm.  With time to kill, I found some free internet and decided to finish out Fiji.  No pics, will have to add them later:

Fijian culture–or what little I’ve learned

There were several unique things about Fijian culture that were very interesting:

Exhibit 214- Me and my Pravin, brother-in-law’s brother in the Peace Corps, on the first night.

-Drinking.  Fijians love to drink.  Kava is the popular ceremonial drink that everyone must try when they come out here.  It is made from the roots of a tree, is very cheap, and supposedly tastes like muddy water (I didn’t get to try any–long story).  The effect is that it mostly makes you tired, but some types are slightly hallucenogenic.  Fijians call it ‘grog’ and it they drink it out of these things that look like bowls with four posts on them. 

-Drinking part two-Fijians drink taki style, which is wear one person makes drinks and passes one cup around to everyone.  Everyone downs each drink quickly, and although it sounds like it can be a slow process, Friday night proved otherwise.  It is an insult in Fijian culture to tell guests to leave before all the drinks have been consumed.

-Generosity-Village Fijians have less of a concept of personal property.  People who live in the village are all considered “brothers.”  When Josh, one of the peace corps volunteers, saved up to buy a brother a rugby ball to share with the village, he found out the next day that he had given it to someone at university because “they really needed it”.  Spencer, another volunteer, had a friend ask if he could keri keri (sp?) his TV.  Thinking he meant watch it for a while, he agreed.  When the friend started to look for the plug to carry it away, he quickly changed his mind.

-Other random things: like other cultures, the head is considered sacred.  So whenever I walked past a group of seated people, I had to say trulo trulo (which I think means excuse me).  Locals get around the island cheaply in minivans.  These things load up at most major cities and do not leave until they are completely full.  You can catch them anywhere from the island by hitching if there is room.  11 of you (not including the driver) pack into the car which is blasting music and you go on these crammed multi-hour drives.  I had to hitch on my last day when I was travelling alone–pretty interesting, if a little nerve-wracking at times (like when the driver told me to get out and buy gas, which I did but only for the amount I owed him–I still don’t know if I did what was expected).

-People-Fijian people are melanesians, which is supposedly related to the polynesians that make up the indigenous Maori in New Zealand.  I have never really met many of either before, but they were interesting to observe — some features that could almost be called Asian and others that could be African while really being neither. 

Exhibit 937-Devon, a Peace Corps volunteer, with Laila, one of her friends.  This is probably about halfway through a crazed round of taki.

-We went to a club called The Zone in Latoka on Friday night.  As in most places, American hip hop is playing in all the clubs.  But after every song, everyone smiles and leaves the floor before the next one starts.  Seemed pretty repetitive to me, I just stayed on the floor by myself and waited for the next song (see the notes on taki for an explanation).  Supposedly, whenever you ask a Fijian girl to dance with you, she can’t say no, she must dance for one song before saying “Venaca (Thank you)” and leaving.  According to some Peace Corps people, its hard to say no in Fijian culture.  The theme song of the trip was definitely “Suicidal” (the most random hook to an R&B song ever, especially one sung to Stand by Me)–it was playing everywhere (don’t know if that is true in the states).

-Racial/political tensions-At one point, Fiji was 60% ethnic Indian.   However, only ethnic Fijians can own land (the major resorts only lease it for long periods of time).  So if, for instance, an Indian farmer leases land, builds a house and lives there for a 20 year lease, at the end of the lease, the Fijian owner can kick them out and take the land AND the house.  Under policies like this, the Indian population is dwindling and will supposedly be less than 20% in the future.  The army, as the only group on the island with guns, has all the power.  According to one taxi driver, nobody writes dissenting opinions for fear of torture at the hands of the military.  If not for a few conversations, I would have come to and left the island without noticing any of this.

Fiji overall was an awesome time, I have plenty of crazy stories that I can definitely tell in person when I get back.  Once again, the Peace Corps really impressed me as an organization.  The sacrifice that volunteers make is intense–years apart from family, friends, and even each other to learn new languages and customs–I could never do it.  They effect real change (though it is tough to quantify) but I also think the peace corps volunteers themselves are really transformed.  Amazing to see even for only the few days I got to see it.

Bula, Fiji

Fiji!  Fiji!  Fiji! 

I got off the plane from New Zealand with all the honeymooning couples and resort bound tourists, and walked past a band singing a welcome song in Fijian.  I was welcomed by two friends of Pravin in the peace corps.  When we walked past the taxis to the nearby street and hitched a ride with a mini-van full of Fijians, I knew that this was going to be a different view of Fiji than most people get. 

There is no clear word for how I’m related to him, but Pravin is my sister’s husband’s younger brother.  Before coming to Fiji for the Peace Corps for the last two years, he was living in New York, crashing on my couch on the weekends, and partying it up every weekend with me in the city.  He is a laidback, outgoing person, the kind that knows everyone in whatever small town he chooses to live in, as well as the only Indian I’ve ever met who has a full fro.  I have always wanted to visit him in Fiji, but finally got my chance this summer.  Some of my better Fiji stories will have to be told in person, but I’ll try to describe a few highlights.

Peace Corps

-This was my first exposure to the Peace Corps, but even after a few days, I’m very impressed.  Peace Corps volunteers really make an effort to integrate with local customs and serve without an agenda.  My first clue came at my first dinner in Fiji–which was a going away dinner for Devon, one of Praveen’s peace corps classmates who had worked in healthcare in Fiji.  When toasting Devon, one of her Fijian coworkers began to cry.  It was a touching, if a little awkward, moment for a fresh off the plane tourist to witness. 

-The local languages in Fiji are Fijian, Fijian Hindi, and English.  In the villages, where the Fijian people are predominant, English might not be spoken.  However in the cities where there are more Indians and tourists, Hindi and English are spoken.  Peace Corps volunteers must become fluent in one or both of the non-English languages.  Pravin’s friend Josh can supposedly speak accentless Fijian and even understands probably more Hindi than I do.  Not bad for an American living there only two years!

-There are many unwieldy and bureaucratic aspects of Peace Corps, but for the most part these rules do more good than harm.  For instance, Peace Corps volunteers are not allowed to rent or buy cars because they must live as equals to their peers.  And for the most part, they do live as locals.  Many stay in villages for their two years and don’t leave.   Volunteers become so integrated that it is not uncommon for them to end up marrying them (as one of Pravin’s friends is doing). 

I have more thoughts on Fiji, but my time at the cafe is running out.  Will try to throw up some pics and will probably edit this posting to expand on it, but more later… 

Kia Ora: New Zealand, the Canada of the South Pacific

OK, so I must admit, as I sit here in an internet cafe surrounded by Fijian schoolchildren playing Grand Theft Auto, New Zealand feels like a very long time ago.  Here are some notes from the New Zealand craziness:

Adventure sports

I have always wanted to try hang gliding and so decided to give it a shot while in New Zealand.  I was not disappointed–although it is fairly expensive ($140 US+ for a flight), hang gliding is awesome.  You go up to the top of a mountain, strap into a hang glider (with someone else unforunately for beginners), and basically run off of the mountain.  Within a few seconds, you are flying through the air.  I thought you pretty much glide straight down, but we actually just hung around in the air for a solid 5 minutes on the flight before deciding to descend.  We were flying pretty tamely for most of it, but my flier let steer for a little while which was cool.  And as we descended, we got to do a bunch of tricks which were amazing.  I was hooked: I definitely want to find a way to do more hang gliding in the future.

What makes it so interesting is that you can do pretty much whatever you want up there: swoop, fly up, turns, etc.–its basically the closest a person can get to being an eagle.  I definitely recommend it:

Exhibit 111- Hang gliding around the mountains of Queenstown.  I’m the dot on the left.  I’ve got other pics, and will show them when I get back.

The other (not so amazing) experience was jet boating.  There are canyons with some very shallow rivers around Queenstown, and you get in these jetboats that fly around in them at speeds of up to 50 mph.  Because of the way these boats are built, there are able to move people and tons of weight through water that is no deeper than 10 inches.  Its a very popular thing to do in Queenstown (with over 2 Million people having tried the Shotover Jet).  They bounce you around and do three sixties, and steer you right up to the walls of the canyons so you think you are going to run into them.  But I didn’t really enjoy it because a) it gets old after about 10 minutes (its a 25 minute ride), and b) it was 30 degrees and I was basically freezing my arse off the entire time. 

Highlights/notes of New Zealand

-My way back from Queenstown I got to do at a leisurely pace and enjoy the amazing views on the road back.  The road to Christchurch winds through snowcapped mountains, turqoise lakes, and tons of greenery.  My camera (and, lets face it, my photography skills) did not really do much justice to the views so you will have to take my word for it.

 

 Exhibit 171- I decided to ride off the road randomly on the highway and found my way to this lake–beautiful mountains around a (tasty) fresh water lake, quiet, and completely empty. 

-Here are a few facts about a country: a) their accents are similar to a neighbor country (Australia/US) except for the way they pronounce a vowel sound (e/ou), b) these neighbors think they are superior and more exciting country, c) they are good at a sport less popular in the neighboring country (rugby/hockey, OK this one is a bit of a stretch), d) there are many jokes about how unpopulated their countries are (New Zealand has more sheep than people).  I was not the first person to realize that New Zealand is to Australia what Canada is to us Americans.  Not that I think the US is at all a, um, superior country to, uh, Canada (trying not to smile).

-The New Zealanders have really made an effort to integrate Maori (indigenous polynesian) culture into their tradition. I have heard that some school districts in New Zealand require everyone to learn Maori.  Kia Ora is hello in Maori.  Maoris look very different from what I was expecting–they look almost east Asian.

-I was able to go out in Christchurch on Thursday night thanks to an introduction my friend/coworker  Jen made.  Although the night was fairly ho hum, Molly, the American expat I hung out with was very cool and interesting–I have had great luck on the trip thus far.  We went out to some local Christchurch nightspots (either dead or cheesy on Thursday night)–NZ loves its American 80s music!

-As for food, I found myself longing for Japanese cuisine (and ended up eating at Japanese noodle shops twice).  If you ever end up in New Zealand, do NOT try muttonbird.  It is a species endemic to New Zealand that only Maori people are licensed to hunt.  It has the texture of chicken but the taste of (bad) fish.  However, if you are in Queenstown and eat meat, definitely head  over to Ferg Burger–a local burger joint with really good food.  MMmmm.

Sheep shagger island, New Zealand

Apparently, South Islanders in New Zealand are called sheep shaggers and North Islanders are called Jeffers (I think the North Islanders won the nickname contest).  Anyways, one story before I bounce to dinner:

The Road to Queenstown

So after people kept telling me about Queenstown being the adventure capital of the world, I decided I had to go.  Problem was that it was too expensive to fly from Bangkok to there, so I decided I would take the scenic route and fly into Christchurch (on a red eye) and drive from there (about 300 miles on a supposedly beautiful road).  I wanted to challenge myself.  So my day started with a full Monday morning in Thailand (still tired from the night out in Bangkok) where I successfully tracked down the Harry Potter book, and included a nine hour red eye flight with a screaming infant sitting right next to me, followed by an hour in Christchurch, then a six hour drive to Queenstown and ended with a late night reading binge in Queenstown on Tuesday night.  Over the course of the superday, I ended up starting and finishing the final Harry Potter book, logging in about 20 hours of travel time, and napping fitfully while guilty dreaming of masking tape for infants.

Exhibit 713-My kiwi-mobile.  After turning on the windshield wipers repeatedly, I realized that most things are flipped in a right-hand drive vehicle.

    On the road to Queenstown, I was ridiculously tired after two nights of not sleeping.  Its winter in New Zealand, so night fell at 5 pm after the first hour of my trip, and the roads were winding and occasionally icy.  There were no lights alongside them.  I could also go for about twenty minutes without seeing any cars, and 5 minutes without seeing any signs of life.  So I decided to go as fast as possible.

However, New Zealand highways are not highways.  They are single lane roads where you pass by going into lanes of cars headed in the other direction.  I passed almost every car I encountered on the trip (which wasn’t very many).  When the roads weren’t winding through mountains, I basically floored it.   Hypothetically, a car containing me could have hit 140 kmph speeds in zones that ranged from 80 to 100, which I later heard would have resulted in my license being revoked (if I was actually driving that fast).  I took no bathroom breaks except one quick frantic roadside in the last 20 minutes of the journey when I couldn’t hold it anymore.  Fear of either getting pulled over or getting into an accident basically kept me awake (helped by lots of rocking out to hip hop and the classic rock that kiwis are apparently obsessed with).  Finally, I arrived in Queenstown, and slowed to a modest 65 ks.

Exhibit holy crap - Race against the sun and my eyelids on a deserted one lane road towards the mountains.

  Of course, I passed a cop who quickly turned around and came after me.  I slowed down the car, turned into the first street I could find, pulled over, turned off the car and started looking at the maps.  The cop turned into my street, drove past me the first time very slowly, unsure if it was me.  I reverted to my natural expression (confused) as I poured through the maps.  She went down the street before turning around and coming back to me and stopping. ”You realize you were doing 64 ks een a 50 zone?”  Me (mumbling): “Yes, I was trying to slow down from the highway, and I’m a little lost.”  Clearly the pity route worked as she did not give me a ticket and even gave me directions.  Phew.

After checking out the local nightlife, I decided to read a few more pages of the final Harry Potter book and ended up staying up pretty much the whole night as I finished it.  When I finally turned in, I was so tired that weird electronica like sounds were playing in my head very loudly.  I was grooving to it, knowing I would never remember it in the morning.  More on NZ later.