Odds and Ends

Living the life of a bachelor again reminds me why so many of us leave it for the confines of marriage. The most difficult part is the meals - eating alone. It's tough to go out to a restaurant: "Table for one?" They don't like it either. Wastes a perfectly good table. The like us to eat at the bar, with all the other lonely castoffs. At least I know mine is temporary.

I've been meaning to get around to a few things on my blog, and now is as good a time as any. I try not to get too political here - I have a different blog for that - because this is my story about living abroad. My recent medical experiences in both Jakarta and Singapore have provided timely insight into a current national debate in the US, and I've now decided, after much internal debate and consideration, that I am in favor of some type of nationalized health care.

I'm a free-market capitalist to the core. Any economist worth his degree, however, will admit that, in the interests of efficiency, the government has to take on some roles. For me, those roles have been limited to: educating the populous, protecting the populous (police, fire, military), providing reliable transportation (roads), regulating (minimally) commerce, and negotiating internationally. I will now add providing basic health care to the population to my list of essential government functions.

Anyone who has had a baby recently and viewed their insurance payout information knows how expensive it is. Nearly $10,000 if you have an epidural and a vaginal delivery. In Singapore, if we had to pay it out of pocket, the cost would be $1,400, including three nights in a private room. My endoscopy, which my father tells me can cost well over $2,000 in the US, had a total cost, including filling my prescriptions, of $500. The procedure itself was just $300.

Health care costs in the US are out of line. Much of this is due to the fact that doctors have to carry malpractice insurance that costs them $100-$200k per year. They have to earn $200,000 just to cover their premiums. It's obvious to me why small towns no longer have doctors. They can't make enough money to cover their premiums, pay their office expenses, and still earn a living.

Another major contributor is the amount of relatively healthy people who visit the ER for a cold. ER's are required by law to not turn anyone away. They can't deny someone treatment for not having insurance. When these people don't pay their bills, the hospitals have to make up the cost somewhere - so they take from people with insurance. If everyone has insurance for basic needs - annual check ups, annual colds; and everyone has catastrophic insurance for major medical like severe car accidents, this problem goes away. We also would still have an auto industry and more small businesses.

Everything in between those two extremes - basic, preventive care and catastrophic injury (like amputation) - would need to be covered by private insurance. Viagra, Ritalin, xanax - those would all be covered by private insurance.

If third world nations are able to keep medical costs low, I would think the US could do a better job. My advice to Obama: Think big, start small, start now.

Tomorrow I'll post on the other topic - career management.

Back in Jakarta

I returned to Jakarta late last night. The city is empty. Everyone is still on holiday, so traffic is non-existent. I woke late, left my house late, and still arrived to work on time. My commute home was 90 minutes last week. Today, 20 minutes. If Jakarta was always like this, more people would move here (creating a fallacy of composition!).

My last three days in Singapore involved visiting a new part of an old favorite, and going places we've never been. Sunday, we went to Santosa Island and visited a different beach. I purchased a kite to fly at the beach, but we never had enough wind to get it airborne. I don't know that I've ever been to a beach that did not have wind.

Monday, we spent most of the day in the room, but did make it to the section of Singapore known as Little India for dinner. Deepavali, the Hindu "Festival of Lights", is not for a few days, but they had already decorated for the event.

Tuesday, we went to....well, tried to go to.... Downtown East. It's a section of Singapore near Pasir Ris that has an amusement park and a water park.


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We were going for the water park and all dressed in our swimsuits. When we arrived, we learned that Tuesdays are the only day of the week the park is not open. The amusement park was only open Friday - Sunday. Luckily, there was a large lake nearby in the Pasir Ris Park. Unfortunately, there were signs indicating a high bacteria content in the water and advised against swimming in it. So, we made use of the large grassy area to play my daughters favorite game after Hide and Seek - Tag.

I'm in Jakarta now until next weekend. I'm sure the time will pass quickly

Back in Singapore

It's been a while since I last posted on my blog. I spent most of the last week exhausted because I didn't get any sleep on Sunday night. Why? Opening weekend of the NFL and I stayed up all night watching the games. Well, "watching" is probably not the most appropriate term. We don't have a channel in Jakarta - or Singapore - that broadcasts the NFL. I found some sites online that broadcast them, including NFL.com, but none of them were free and 1) I'm too cheap to pay for something like that and 2) I don't like watching a game if I already know the outcome. So, I "watched" the games by watching the statistics update real time on NFL.com. Nothing like watching a game by watching numbers come in and reading the play-by-play. I never did catch up on my sleep for that and I spent the week tired.

Thursday night, I caught my flight to Singapore. My mom arrived in Singapore Monday night, so I was looking forward to seeing her as well as my wife and daughter. Just like the first flight here, this flight was delayed about an hour - for the same reason. I think I'm going to change my future flights to Singapore. I don't think this flight will ever leave on time.

Friday, we had an appointment to take pregnancy photos in Singapore. We went to The Studio Loft on Pagoda street in Chinatown. About two hours later, we were done taking pictures and walked around the many shops in the area before returning to our apartment. At night, we walked along the river from our apartment to Clarke Quay where we ate at our favorite restaurant in Singapore - Tapas.

Today - Saturday - it rained most of the day, so we spent much of the day indoors playing Candy Land and Uno. We did find time during a break in the storms to go swimming. This evening, we saw the movie "G Force". Tomorrow, we are planning to return to Santosa Beach and fly a kite that we bought today (and I have to assemble tonight).

Tomorrow I'll take some pictures to upload so those of you unfamiliar with Singapore can see many of the things I'm talking about.

Odds and Ends

Television in Jakarta is horrible. On the plus side, this means I read a lot more (see below). On the downside, it means I am missing the only sport I have an interest in - the NFL. What passes for sports here is Soccer, Cricket and Formula One auto racing. Occasionally I am able to catch an Australian rules football game, or even a rugby match, though I can't quite appreciate these sports like I can those I grew up with.

Before boarding my flight from Singapore back to Jakarta, I bought two books: "The Richest Man in Town" and "Outliers". Each book I read in their entirety in less than 2 days. Great books. Anyone who aspires to have great success, or wants to be an entrepreneur, must read "The Richest Man in Town". "Outliers" is the third book by Malcolm Gladwell - his first two books being "The Tipping Point" and "Blink". I think "Outliers" should be required reading for anyone with children.

Shootings started up again at our mine site this week. We had one on Wednesday, and another on Saturday morning. Even with the presence of 600 military troops, the capture of whomever is attacking our buses and employees remains elusive. What remains to be seen is if the continued tension will cause people to break, or will they begin to accept it as just another hardship of living in Papua and working in a mine.

The fasting is nearly over. The devout have been fasting for over three weeks. It appears that by the third week, lack of consistent food and water takes its toll. Traffic jams are much louder with blaring horns. People are more apt to criticize the behavior of others. Jakartans are just more on edge. Oh, and traffic is still outrageously bad.

Big Inspiration from Small Packages

Inspiration comes in many shapes and forms. Politicians look to former political giants Lincoln, Jefferson and Franklin as model statesmen. Musicians look to Mozart, The Beatles, B.B. King. I recently learned a lesson in optimism, confidence, bravery and determination from a very unlikely source: my three year old daughter.

My wife and daughter are living in Singapore while I am living the "bule jomblo" (expat bachelor) life in Jakarta. This means my daughter is not attending school, and my wife needs to find activities to occupy her young mind and energetic spirit. In one such attempt, they visited an indoor playground in Singapore. Initially, due to the cost, my wife considered leaving and going somewhere else. Eventually, she decided to pay the fee and resolved to stay at least a few hours to obtain full value from the price. Here is the rest of the story, as my wife relayed it to me.

When they first arrived, there were kids in abundance, mostly my daughter's age. My daughter had fun running, and climbing and laughing with the other children. Within twenty or thirty minutes, however, one by one, they started leaving. When they had all departed, my daughter played by herself for a while, and then approached my wife and said: "There are no more kids to play with, I want to go home."

This was not what my wife had hoped for. For the price we paid, thirty minutes was far too short a time to spend there. Attempts to cajole her back out to the floor to play be herself were pointless. So, my wife agreed they could leave.

As they were packing their things in preparation to leave, a group of five girls, aged 8-10, burst through the doors and began running to one of the fort-like play sets at the top of some stairs in the back of the indoor playground. As they sped by my much more diminutive, much younger daughter, without hesitation, she took off after them shouting "Wait up guys! Wait up!"

My wife was immediately concerned. These girls were much older and not likely to want to play with a child my daughter's age. Anyone who was ever in the third grade knows that playing with a pre-schooler during your free time is not at the top of your list. My wife was rightfully concerned. My daughter was nothing but optimism.

My daughter made her way to the top of the stairs and watched the older girls for just a few seconds before venturing: "Can I play with you guys?" Imagine that. A three-year-old girl, in a strange country, looking at five girls with dark eyes and dark hair who could not look more different from my blond-haired, chubby cheeked daughter, and believing, without a doubt, that they would want to play with her. That requires confidence. But confidence alone doesn't explain offering yourself up to the unknown, you must also be brave.

The eldest of the girls was the first to respond. She didn't mince words, and simply said "No." From a distance, my wife could see the disappointment my daughter felt. Her head dropped. Her shoulders drooped, and she began to slowly turn away to walk back to the safety of her mother. My wife was prepared with consoling words. Words she didn't have to utter because one of the younger girls said "I'll play with you."

My daughter lit up like fireworks at the closing of DisneyLand. She walked over to the girl and said, "Do you want to play tag?" The much taller, much older girls said "Sure" and took off.

Now, I wasn't there to see it in person, but from what my wife told me, this girl was fast....and serious. She was running like Jackie Joyner-Kersey when she won Olympic gold. Her arms were bent and pumping back and forth. Her hands were flat, with fingers firmly together, pointing forward. She was the bionic woman and my daughter was a mere mortal, helplessly chasing after her.

Many kids would have just given up. Recognized the superiority of their opponent and just stopped trying. Not my daughter. She persisted. She followed the catchphrase of her favorite Animal Mechanical cartoon character: "I can do this!" She never did catch her - this isn't a Disney cartoon - but she never gave up, either. She was determined to have fun playing tag with this older girl, and the fact that she would never catch her wasn't going to stop her. That's determination.

As parents, we hope that we are able to impart many characteristics to our children - pride, ambition, humility, kindness. We view it as our job, as good parents, to be role models and their inspiration. I find that the longer I am a parent, the more time I spend watching my daughter grow, the more she becomes my inspiration and my role model. We want to help our children become good people. Along the way, they help us become better people, too.

Change is inevitable; growth is optional

Seemingly every week, I oscillate between to opposing opinions of the merits of seeing the world. On the one hand, this assignment has taught me that seeing the world is not nearly as important as being close to the ones you love. That travelling and seeing the world really adds no value to your life. What do you really gain from seeing the Eiffel Tower (as I've done twice), or seeing the Mayan temples in Yucatan (as I've done twice)? A picture? I can buy one of those in a store and it will be of higher quality than the one I take. Bragging rights? Taking a vacation for the three minutes it takes you to tell the story of climbing to the top of the Mayan temple is an expensive way to get a story. So travelling as a means to an end is pointless.

On the other hand, if you take the time to experience the people, see not just the tourist destinations, but absorb the livelihood, you are enriched beyond your wildest imagination. Most people spend their vacations moving from one tourist destination to the next so they can say they've been there, seen that, done that. You gain very little from that, besides the few historical facts you'll obtain from the guided tour.

What living in Jakarta, versus visiting Jakarta, has taught me is to really gain anything from international travel, you have to experience it. Go and eat where the locals eat, not at the American restaurants, or the ones in your hotel. Find the places where the locals eat (if you can eat there safely). Don't buy a hamburger, try the local favorite. Instead of staying by the pool at your hotel, or only visiting museums and amusement parks, walk the streets. Shop where the locals shop. See where the locals live, love, and play. Take your kids to the parks, the beaches, and the playgrounds that locals do.

I've been to over fifteen nations in my life on over twenty different vacations. The ones I cherish most are the summer I spent in Mexico, the summer I spent in Germany, and my time here in Jakarta. I walked away with a richer understanding of how people in those countries lives, and how they view Americans.

The biggest impact Jakarta has had on me is my view of America, and the American way of life. I won't return a minimalist, but I will return with a much different perspective on the value of possessions. I will return with a much different view of Muslims, and stronger opinions on how the media, especially the conservative media, portray Muslims. Most importantly, I will return with a stronger appreciation for America's capacity to provide opportunity to anyone willing to work hard enough to find it.

Shootings

We haven't had a shooting at our mine site since August 30. We haven't had fatalities since the first few early in the security issue. We haven't had injuries in several weeks. As all of our press releases indicate, we've experienced no impact to production. All of this is the good news.

The bad news is our employees are tense. When you work in the natural resources industry, it is very common for your production locations to be, literally, company towns. We built the hospitals, the hotels, the schools. We manage the grocery store, the electricity, and provide the cable. It therefore becomes a logical extension that the company is responsible for the safety and security of its workers.

To a large extent, we are. We have one of the industry's best safety records, we take safety extremely seriously and one of our executives is the Chairman for an international mine safety organization. We are not responsible for crime prevention and prosecution. That has been, always will be, and always should be, a government function. When the lines between the role of a private enterprise and a government enterprise blur, employees attack what they know. The entity over which they feel they have influence.

What that means for us is we have had demonstrations. The union representing the drivers of our supply trucks staged a peaceful demonstration demanding safer operating conditions. The reality is, the company is doing everything it can. We've applied what influence we have with the Indonesian government who have recently agreed to increase the military presence from 125 to 600. Hopefully, this will affect the change we seek.

The other negative impact is the resignations. Locals and expats alike decided that economic uncertainty is more appealing than the chance of being shot. Some resigned, others asked for transfers. One of our contracting companies, I'm sure after extreme pressure from their employees, air lifted all of their employees out and has made no commitment to them returning.

But production keeps churning. Capitalism always wins. Famine, war, pestilence and psychotics cannot stop the engine of capitalism. I think everyone who stayed are still having fun, too.

Singapore Life

This visit to Singapore has been more fun than the last. We've found an area in Singapore that we really like and we have gone there for dinner the past two nights.

Most of our adventures begin by us seeking Mexican food. Our Singapore adventure is no different. On Friday, when we were ready for dinner, we asked if there were any Mexican or Spanish restaurants nearby. The front desk referred us to Cafe Iguana at Riverside Point on the Singapore River. The food was good, the ambiance was better, and the area was magnificent.

Riverside Point is near Clarke Quay. After dinner we walked across the pedestrian bridge to Clarke Quay and found an abundance of restaurants, clubs, and even a bungee ride that I plan to do when we have family visiting in October. Much to our surprise, we found another Spanish restaurant called Tapas, a Latin club, and a Spanish fast food restaurant. We ate at the Tapas restaurant - which has live Spanish music - tonight.

Clarke Quay appears to be Singapore nightlife at its best. It has tourists, expats, and affluent locals all mingling for fun, drink, and merriment along the Singapore river. I wish we had found this locale on our last trip. My review of the city may have been vastly different.

Aside from the fun we're having with the nightlife (with our daughter in tow), two other major events have marked our trip. First, was my fantasy football draft. Arguably of no interest to anyone but me, I was quite pleased that I was able to complete the draft before going to my endoscopy this morning. The second, obviously, was my endoscopy - an event in itself.

The first time I had an endoscopy, about seven years ago, I was awake for the whole ordeal and was able to watch myself swallow on some LCD screens over the gurney. This time, they knocked me out cold. My appointment with the doctor was at 10:30. He spent five minutes with me and sent me to the operating room for an endoscopy. At 11:45, they brought me in for the procedure. They sprayed my throat with a numbing agent that made it difficult for me to swallow and then gave me a shot. My doctor told me it would be like having five drinks. I told him he better make it a double, then, as five wouldn't be enough. After they gave me the shot I think I had time for two thoughts - the first one being, I wonder if I'll be awake for this, the second one being, I can feel it now. The next thing I knew I was waking up an hour later in recovery. Between my second thought and when I woke up they could have shaved my head and painted a clown face on me for all I knew. Whatever sedative they used would have been a great party favor in college.

When I woke up, I wasn't quite sure where I was or how I got there. I did find a device sitting on my belly that enabled me to call the nurse , so I called one. She brought me food and drink - hot chocolate and biscuits. I called her a second time - and she brought me more food and drink, this time an egg sandwich and orange juice. I had to fast all morning before the procedure, so I thought about pressing my luck with a third time, and then remembered I needed to go get the results from my doctor.

The results were what I expected - I have GERD. But, I have the mildest case of GERD. I have pictures - high definition, color pictures - if anyone is interested. With this diagnosis, they finally gave me the medication I asked for 7 weeks ago. Within four hours of taking it, I feel so much better.

I have so much more to catch everyone up on. There have been continued shootings at our mine site - though I haven't heard of any this week. I need to give pictures and information about our housing in Singapore. Finally, some more "human interest" information on how this assignment is changing, at least me, but more likely all of us. Those will have to wait for a later post.

Last month's pictures

Pictures of some of the events I described over the last few weeks.

When I bowled in the company Olympics, we discovered that Spin City had the lane rails necessary for our daughter to play and decided we would go back. We did, and taught her the "between the legs" stance for bowling. She did pretty well.




Because my wife and daughter are moving to Singapore, we had to make on last trip to Hacienda before they left.



My pictures of the earthquake damage didn't turn out very well. This is the best of the bunch and is a picture of the wall outside the bathrooms behind the elevator shafts at the center of the building.



My daughter attended a birthday party for a classmate at school and ballet. We're good friends with the parents, too. The two families spend a lot of time together. At this party, we had the blowup slide, and then the ballet teacher and some of her friends performed ballet for about 20 minutes while all the children (and adults) watched. My daughter commented "They are dancing like me!"






Last but not least, my wife had a birthday on 2 September. This is a picture of the family before we left our daughter at home and went out for a spa treatment and dinner.

Singapore....Finally!

By most accounts, I like living in Jakarta. The people are friendly, accommodating, and helpful (my wife will say too helpful at the department stores). There are a few idiosyncratic aspects of Jakarta, however, that will annoy the typical Westerner...which means they drive me batty!

On our trip to Singapore last night, we experienced one such issue. We arrived at the airport shortly after 5 PM for our 7:30 pm international flight. I still don't have my Indonesian tax ID (it takes 181 days), so I'm still required to pay the $250 'fiskal' tax for myself and my wife anytime we leave the country. You can't pay this tax at airline check-in, and you can't obtain it in advance. To pay fiskal, first you need your boarding pass. Then you have to go to one of the banks in the airport. There are two or three behind every airline's ticket counter. Of course last night, the only ones open were at the opposite end of the airport from where we checked in.

We flew Garuda, which is Indonesia's flagship carrier - it would be like the US having an airline called "Bald Eagle". We received our hand written boarding passes after waiting 20 minutes. I'm not sure if they didn't have a functioning printer, if the airport isn't wired for computers, or if Garuda is just too cheap to buy printers. I know Cathay Pacific can check me in within a few minutes and I get a printed boarding pass. They were nice enough not to charge us for our 14kg (25 lbs) overage on luggage because the extra weight was for a stroller and a car seat.

After a quick bite to eat at an airport restaurant that satisfied none of us, we went to the gate printed on our boarding pass: E4. Empty. Not even a gate agent. Keep in mind that the airports in Jakarta, each gate is a separate room and they typically have you go through security for a third time as you enter the gate. So an empty gate for a flight was a bit odd. At 30 minutes before departure, and still no one else, I decided I'd check the screen outside the gate to make sure it was headed to Singapore. It wasn't. It said Surabaya.

So, now I have to figure out where my plane IS leaving from. This is where it starts to get really annoying. Inside each gate are 7 - 10 large, flat screen televisions. None of them have arrival/departure information. In the terminal, there are dozens of flat screens. Again, none of them have arrival departure information. So, we begin our walk. Luckily, the gate next to us - E5, says "Singapore" and our flight, so we go in there. Still no gate agent, though I verify with others already in the gate that they are headed to Singapore.

Ten minutes to departure and I don't see a plane, and still no gate agents. I'm growing concerned now. Then, a Garuda employee comes over and directs all of us to gate E6. The sign outside E6 reads "Security Check In". No destination, no flight number. There are, however, gate agents who verify our tickets and seat numbers. This is the right place.

We get to the gate, and there is still no plane. 7:30 comes and goes. No plane, no announcement. No arrival/departure information, so I have nothing to review to learn of our new departure time. I ask the gate agent who tells me thirty minutes (8 PM). I return to my seat and they announce our new departure time - apparently I'm not the only one asking - and it isn't 8 PM, it's 8:20 PM. At 8, our plane arrives. At 8:30, I get up and ask them again when we will be leaving. They tell me fifteen minutes. I sit down, and a different agent comes up to us and asks us to board since we are travelling with a small child.

We finally leave Jakarta around 9 PM, arriving in Singapore at 11:30 PM local time. We arrive at our new apartment around 12:30 AM. Other than for a few minutes during descent, our daughter has not slept. She's exhausted. We're exhausted, hungry, and thirsty, so we go to 7-11 for milk, water and dried fruit (oh, and the pregnant one got Doritos and consumed nearly the whole bag!), before going to bed.

We finally fall asleep around 2 AM local time. One thing is for sure, everything is always an adventure. If this assignment doesn't teach me patience, nothing will.

September also brings Earthquakes

I've experienced two earthquakes in my life. Both times have been in Jakarta. Both have been over 7.0 magnitude - I don't get the small ones. The first earthquake woke me from my sleep. This one happened while I was on a conference call with our colleagues in Africa. You can read about the details and devastation on CNN, MSNBC and Yahoo.

I had two colleagues with me in my office when the building started to shake. Initially, I thought it was just the typical sounds and shimmy we hear and feel throughout the day (I still haven't figured out what it is but I'm starting to think it has to do with air conditioning). When it persisted, and then the building started to visibly sway, we knew we were having an earthquake.

We ended our call and headed out of my office, which is nothing but walls of glass. Immediately, people started to vacate the building. I didn't. I remembered the memo the Ritz gave us after my first earthquake explaining why it is much safer to remain indoors than to go outside. Basically, if the building is still standing when the quake is done, it will remain standing. If it were going down, it would be down already. That can't be said for the external decorations which, being separate from the foundation, and only attached to the outside, could fall from the building and kill you as you stand outside. My wife had never experienced and earthquake, so I called her while it was still happening and explained that she needed to stay inside.

As I expected, as the building vacated, building management announced we'd just had an earthquake and tells everyone not to leave the building but instead to sit under a table or desk. Of course, everyone is too busy filing down the fire escape to pay heed to the instructions. Indonesia experiences several earthquakes per year, but Jakarta seldom feels them, so people have a short memory about what to do.

After ten minutes or so, I returned to my desk and completed my work for the day. I noticed a large crack in the wall of my office that hadn't been there before the earthquake. I finally left about 45 minutes later, at 3:40, when my company's emergency response team told me executive management was sending everyone home. On the way out, I swung by the restroom because I knew the drive home would be horrendous with everyone now leaving work early as a result of the quake. There were several obvious cracks in the walls. I'll be taking pictures of them tomorrow and posting them after we arrive in Singapore.

Did I mention my wife and daughter move to Singapore tomorrow? The timing couldn't be better.