During my last few years of visiting Hong Kong, I became friends with a young lawyer completing his PhD successfully at The University of Hong Kong. We shared not just ideas, but also the same accommodation at the Robert Black College. Dr. Erick Komolo (PhD) now returned to Nairobi, where he joined the faculty of the University. But Erick told me about another mission which is very close to his heart: supporting the education of girls in his home village. For that he has founded maklweta.org chaired by Mrs Margaret Greene. Erick is now raising funds to finance tuition fees for school education for girls in Homa Bay, Western Kenya. Feibai and I support his work financially to cover fees for the coming year. Please visit http://www.maklweta.org/ and consider a donation or any other form of support. Any amount will be a big contribution.
(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay
It is an old Otis Redding song of which I was reminded by a friend, and it now hums in my mind every time I sit on "my" morning bench: "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay", recorded in 1967. After so much travel in the last year, it is nice to have favorite little landmarks again. And this is really one where I like "Sittin' in the mornin' sun".
Morning view in Kalkara.
Dunning-Kruger Effect
Charles Bukowski for example, put it like this: “The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence”. I guess, everybody who deals with confident people, will have an opinion on this phenomena. Only in 1999, the researchers David Dunning and Justin Kruger have described this scientifically in Kruger, J & Dunning, D. (1999), Unskilled and unaware of it: How difficulties in recognizing one's own incompetence lead to inflated self-assessments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol 77(6), Dec 1999, 1121-1134.
Basically, they describe two effects, and let me put it a bit into my own words which are scientifically highly inaccurate. First, if you are dumb, then you are also likely to be too dumb to know that you are dumb and you end up confident about your abilities. Just think of the stereotypes of a teenager, a stock trader, a management consultant, or an American Republican President. You know what I mean. In this case there is also no reflection on abilities, which protects the subject from hitting the wall. They tend to go for a "Blitzkrieg" and have the advantage of surprise, without thinking through what made them successful in the first stage and how to sustain it. But not all dumb people are like this. Most of them are lovely, and many of them very lazy and end up as a couch potato. Laziness might be even a protection mechanism for them, without which stupidity would have already extinct itself. The majority might be hanging happily and confident with their smart phone or tablet computer over a pizza box. Only those who are dumb and ambitious become a nuisance. The smartest way to deal with that, is not to compete, but to give them the chance for self destruction in a controlled environment through further encouragement.
The second phenomena described by the Dunning-Kruger Effect, is that very talented and capable people might have the tendency to underestimate their abilities. And while the dumb and confident ones might be a nuisance or economic waste, the talented which do not dare to try something are a real tragedy. They could bring mankind forward, but they don't. Sometimes, they choose not to try, because they compare themselves with the real geniuses of all times. And of course, while they don't try, they don't develop their talent. And the less they do that, the bigger becomes the barrier in their mind. To break this cycle, it does not help to introduce new KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) or talk about ROI (Return on Invest) and "benchmarking". Smart people know very well, what really good means and they also need no target setting by some technocrates. They need just the opposite: encouragement not to think about it.
New neighbourhood in Ħaż-Żabbar
Ħaż-Żabbar was the summer residence of the knights of Malta, and received city status under the 71st Grand Master of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, the German Ferdinand von Hompesch zu Bolheim. He was unfortunate enough to only allow Napoleon's ships to enter the port in groups of two, which was received as a provocation and responded by the French invasion of Malta. But only shortly after, when the secular French started to loot the churches, Ħaż-Żabbar became a base for Maltese insurgence fighting the French. During the subsequent British era the region was heavily fortified and also the batteries close to our future home, in Fort Rinella, were installed.
We moved here for a month, and do only have a 20 minutes walk to our construction site in Kalkara. Also it allows us to experience Maltese village life and a so-called "house of character" for some time. The point of my new year resolution, not to eat food which comes with a bar code, is rather easy to fulfill here. There are vegetable and fruit traders which sell their goods from their trucks, small groceries, and driving bakeries. That's it. No rubbish sold. No barcode needed. Actually, I do have to confess sometimes not to care diligently about the bar code. For example, I was eating some chocolate recently which was also traded in more modern forms of retail. But as long as nobody beeps at you at the cash out, I am flexible. Our impression, that Maltese are very friendly people, is even topped here. They are wonderful. You ask for something at the vegetable truck and all the shopping women around will give advise, recommend modifications in the cooking style, and clarify the superiority of local Maltese products over anything else. And they are right.
The house we are living in, is an about 300 year old limestone building. In summer, it must be a perfect adaption to the hot season. In winter, which we are now in, it is damp and cold. These buildings need huge efforts to renovate. Well done, it is worth it. But when we were looking at real estate in Malta, I was hesitating to go that direction. And now I am sure, this was the right decision. It would need a complete rebuilt behind the outer walls, and that needs a much larger commitment than we have time at the moment.
Nine minus two
We are moving to Ħaż-Żabbar, after having stayed at the University Residence in Lija for 6 weeks. Just changing neighborhoods. No big travel this time, no big packing, no jet lag, no friends to say good bye. We just change quarters. After over a year on the road this is a nearly forgotten experience. Only one little friend we have to leave behind: the small cat at the olive trees. We won't see each other again. But it can't see me anyways, as it is blind. They have nine lives I was told, out of which this one already used two of the quota. First, it nearly died after birth, and was found by a kind person lying in the rain. He brought it into the restaurant he was working, and took care until it recovered. Second, we found it with a bad eye infection, and starving as it could not find food. Two days more and that would have been it. So we fed it antibiotics for 10 days, and brought is back to weight. Now its fine, but blind. Seven more lives to go. Sounds a lot, but I would use them more slowly. Not easy when you are blind, I guess. And remember: cars don't count the normal way. They can easily take them all in one go. They have two ways to kill: pollution (works slowly) and impact (very fast). So, watch out! - just joking. Good luck!
Farewell lunch at the sunny place under the olive tree.
Xemxija Heritage Trail
A small Maltese heritage trail can be found in easy walking distance North-West of St. Pauls Bay. It is a nice little walk starting along a track marking an ancient Roman road, which is dated back to the first century AD. It is called Xemxija Trail after the Maltese word for light and leads into a reforestation of olive, pine and wattle trees which have been planed in the last century to help restoring the water table. It is amazing that these trees survive here. But they do quite well. At the entrance of the trail you find Roman Aperies, which are cave like structures in which bees were kept for production of honey. You also will see Punic tombs, grain storages in the limestone and Neolithic burial sites after crossing the pilgrimage way used to Mellieha. Some of the caves have been used recently and you still see the fire places. Many of them have served as shelter during World War II. Some of the abandoned farm houses have been rebuilt with original stones. This is a very nice and easy walk, for those who are not into the amusements of St. Pauls Bay. And it is easy to reach with public transport (if anything is easy to reach by public transport in Malta).
Roman Aperies, in which bees were kept and honey produced.
Pilgrimage way to Mellieha.
Lamp or candle holder in an abandoned farm house.
Burial site
Thousand year old carob tree.
My 50th birthday - Second letter to a small friend
Dear small Marcus,
two years ago I wrote to you the first time. You did not know me back then, but I knew you. Now you remember? Today is my 50th birthday and for you - in many years from now - it will be your 50th birthday too. Exactly the same one. I am the person, you are going to become.
Last time I wrote, I was still working and living in China. But since then, a lot changed. We have been leaving China in November 2014 and travelled the world for a year. You might ask yourself who are "we"? It is my wife Feibai and I. I thought, you might be interested who she is. But for you, she is not even born yet. She will be in Jiangsu Province (China) in 1984. Now you are just entering primary school yet and it is 1972. Yes, she is very smart and beautiful. But I leave that to find out for yourself. Okay?
We left China, because we have been there for really long, and it was time to see something new. Also, it is very polluted and we were afraid this could effect our health. So, I hit the road as a visiting professor traveling to many Universities around the world. It was very exciting. But I don't want to spoil it for you, by telling too much. You will see. Now we are in Malta, and decided to stay a little longer. It is a very nice place, and after a year of travel it is also time not to live out of the suitcase. In your time, Malta has just turned independent, and Dom Mintoff was just negotiating a deal with the United Kingdom and Libya to build a future for this small county. Your primary school does not have a library, and there is no Internet. But do have a look where ever you find information. It is interesting. I know, it does not make sense to ask your teachers, because they are complete idiots. Sorry to tell you that, when you just enter school and have 13 years to go. University will be great though. As of Malta, let me tell you so much for now: It does not look to good in 1972, but don't worry, it will be fine.
You with a "Schultuete" on your first day in school (1972).
I found a few of your books, TV series and toys, and attach some pictures to this letter below. Today, people at your age already have small calculators which have digital radio connections to a network of larger calculators. Digital is a way of electronic signaling by binary number which are represented as 1 and 0, meaning there either is an electric current or non. That sounds very impractical to you, I know. It will need semiconductors first and they need to become small and integrated on a so-called chip. Then it makes sense and becomes feasible. Today these chips are very cheap. And you know why? Because there are many people who want these small radio computers. They call them smart phones, or tablet computers. Now you might think that these people must be very intelligent. But it is just the opposite. Sometimes children of your age are already zombies, only staring on their devices. It is a bit like Television (TV) back in your time. You can use it for interesting things, or you can turn yourself into a "retard". Now, don't despise the zombies too early. We need them, because they are many, and their money drives the whole technical development in this area. For example, soon you will see colored TV Sets. Great! But for people like us nobody would build anything like this, because we are only a small niche market. So, the zombies are making the bulk demand, and only because of them you will see many great innovations in the future. It is like an "Idiot based R&D Crowd Financing". You will know what I mean in a few decades. The electronic calculators are now so powerful, that they can process picture and even movies. They are called "computers", and they are really fun machines. In some ways they are even better than people. That's why some boring jobs are disappearing. That's great, because then people can do more interesting things. But we have to ask ourselves, how we distribute the income made by these machines. That's going to be as interesting as the machines themselves.
So, there are exciting times to come, and you will see the whole development. In 1982 you will send your first electronic message, by saving it on a magnetic disk from one calculator and reading it from the same shared device from another computer. Today they call it electronic mail (or short "e-mail"). There is even a radio operated electronic telegram service which is called "Short Message Service" (or short "SMS"). This became so popular that after 160 years of service the Indian Telegraph Services close down in 2013. And even SMS is already challenged by WhatsApp and WeChat.
I know you will be disappointed, we did not fly to Mars yet. Part of the reason is, because we got distracted by all the small stuff we have now. And flying to Mars does not have "Idiot based R&D Crowd Financing". But we are working on it. Just takes a bit longer.
Let me close my letter with best wishes from Malta. Have a good time (I know you will).
Even we will never meet, let's stay in touch,
Marcus
Clear view on Sliema
Sliema is located North of Valletta and today we passed it for some shopping to be done and to take the ferry over to Valletta. Sliema is a new development, with a lot of apartments under construction. It has a completely different character from other places in Malta, and reminds me a bit of Theran. To distract myself from my shopping duties, I took a shot of it over the water. Luckily the shops were closed.
Sliema over the clear harbor waters
New Year Walk starting in Mdina
Yesterday we started our New Year Walk very early in the medieval city of Mdina. The town was just waking up. We walked though the network of narrow streets where the eye can only reach as far as an arrow, and from the top of the Southern city wall we overlooked the whole South of Malta in the morning sun. Then we walked through Rabat, where people were already gathering early and wishing each other a Happy New Year, some of them on the way to church, others meeting at the Labor Party's Café. Further we took the trails through little vineyards, fields and citrus gardens to the coast and had our first lunch in 2016 on the Dingli Cliffs. At January 1st the Maltese Busses suspend service from noon to 3 p.m., so that the drivers can have lunch with their families. A nice tradition (you just have to know about it). So we walked back to Rabat and arrived just in time to take the bus to St. Anton Gardens. The New Year has started with a refreshing > 20 km walk. And that's a very good beginning.
Corner in Mdina on the first of January 2016
Lunch time on the Dingli Cliff
Farewell 2015
Now 2015 is nearly over. We left at the Malta University Library, as it closed at noon and everybody was starting to get ready to welcome 2016. Then strolled down Msida for Thai lunch and Spanish beer at Good Thaimes, and thereafter walked along the harbor and the Royal Yacht Club. Malta showed itself in dramatic light and dark clouds today. We took a last glimpse over the water and then said farewell to 2015. Happy New Year to all of you!
The marina between Valletta, Msida and Sliema.
After a year of world travel
Friends ask me to write a book on it, and I think I could. But there are other books which wait to be written. And I also think the current bibliography of travel books is already quite oversupplied. Traveling the world for a year is these days the standard repertoire of many young lives, and it is a “must” before enrolling into a University. How often did I meet young lads from all over the world in Australia working in a bar or harvesting a field? But I am going to be 50 years old next week. So, I was not going on that kind of trip.
Also, I was not hating my job, looking for a meaning, wanting to make a change, give back to society (blabla). Neither was I stressed, suffering burn out, getting gluten intolerant or anything which could fill a self-help book. I was also not bored. But I was starting to experience a shift in my interest. So, I spent three months training up my successor, and left my office. Shortly after, my wife Feibai and I left our home in Beijing and embarked on our journey.
Let me not summarize what we did during that journey, because it is already covered in this blog. But do let me share some things, and write a few lines for those who are considering an extensive journey themselves. It goes without saying that Feibai made different experiences, and if you read Chinese, you may have a look at her website: www.ispywithmylittleeye.info
I started preparation about a year before actually leaving, as I had twelve months notice period with my employer. Perhaps it is interesting to know, that I did not have much of finding period before I resigned. But as I had the experience of a sabbatical before, I was very sure that I will figure it out and manage. So, I regard my resignation from Volkswagen as the first milestone and the start of the process itself. I told myself: if I can’t figure it out in a year, then I would be an idiot anyways and also useless for the company. Some colleagues told me, that there are smarter ways to leave and negotiate a more “golden handshake”. First of all, that’s not my style. And secondly some of them are still negotiating while I read of them in the Financial Times and hear from their lawyers.
Today I would say, starting planning a year before is too much. The reason is, that you have to work with other people’s schedules. And they simply don’t plan that long ahead. In my case, I wanted to spend my time in the academic community of different Universities around the world. And before they have made their plans for the academic year, there is not much concrete you can plan together. For the academic engagements, it was of course very useful that I have been able to split my time between corporate and academic activities since 2005. It would be impossible to start this from a “cold call”. So, if you will, I have laid the foundation for our journey already during a period of a decade before.
I remember one evening at our home in Beijing in 2014 with our dear friends rObin Golestan, Curtis Schmitt and Felix Sommerville-Latte. Beside dinner, the question was: where would you go if the world is a village? This was a great starting point, with the character of a brain storming. But the world is not a village and we narrowed it down very quickly. To travel the whole world, one year is not long enough. A good pace is, to stay a month in a place. Two weeks is the absolute minimum. Otherwise you are just packing and traveling again and never arrive. I found that a week is a very human time unit to think in: arriving a week, staying two and leaving one week, makes a month already.
The idea to do it all on one “Around the World Ticket” looked as a tempting budget option, but was not feasible, mainly because Feibai holds a passport of The People’s Republic of China. Visa and residency rules make it virtually impossible for her to travel the world in one go. And on the way, I also figured out that it would be very hard for me (holding a German passport) to do so. It is not just that you get the right of adobe in a country or territory. But it becomes quickly a very complicated mosaic of visa types, work permits, insurances, taxation rules and residence permits. Most of them are results of national legislation, bi- and multilateral agreements, protection of local employees, national interests in skilled workforce, protection of intellectual property and more and more unfortunately also national security. It is a mess. And the information on it is not clear either. Try the Internet? Great thing to book tickets and accommodation. But for most things beyond that, it is overrated.
We did not really need to fix a travel budget. But still I decided to follow our cash flow in an Excel sheet. After we left from China to our starting position in Germany in December 2014, we were unlucky enough to find our inventory which was shipped from Beijng, was destroyed by sea water. This was a bit of a shock. The insurance settled our claim with a bulk sum and we decided to add this to our travel budget for 2015. Quite often we heard the comment, that we must be “very rich” that we can afford a year of travel. Luckily we prefer a traveling style which is modest and we do not like staying in hotels. This is why on the cost side of a year of travel, it adds up to the equivalent of the purchase of a Volkswagen Golf GTI. Not sure, whether all these deciding for that car are “very rich”. It is just a different choice made.
There are quite a few changes you have to make during the transition from an automotive manager to a traveling scholar. Power corrupts. As a small preparation exercise: why don’t you pick up your secretary’s office phone for an afternoon and pretend to be her holiday substitute? Yes, that’s all the “rubbish” she is dealing with. Soon you will do all this yourself. You will feel surrounded by idiots. You may want to “fire them all”, but you can’t. People might not even pick up the phone when you call them, they will not respond, they will come late. Students will play with their phones and computers while you talk to them. You will think, they do not give a shit who you are. But that’s not true. That’s just who you are. And that’s how they are. Live with it.
Finally, because I want to keep the initial promise not to write a book: what happens after the travel? Will you start splitting your days again in 15-minute time slots again go back to “meetings”. No, but now I do the things we actually like doing myself and don’t delegate the fun part to somebody else. And we both have a full project list for 2016. It will be a year with more reflection and less exploration. There are a lot of things to write up, except the book on the travel of ourselves. We keep that until we retire. And I guess, if so, it will only make a chapter in something else.
Again, if you like to browse through more of what we have seen during 2015 and beyond, have a look at the entries of www.marcusschuetz.org or www.ispywithmylittleeye.info. And then when you really want to do a journey like this yourselves (and not just talk about it), then you are welcome to get in touch for any practical advice.
Blind little friend
In the Malta University Residence we also live together with a bunch of cats. They have quite a good life here. But about a week ago, I noticed that one of the kittens was starving and looked like about to die within a few days. It has severely infected eyes and could not find food any more. Looked like what is called a cat flue, which is a virus infection of Feline Herpes Virus-1 (FHV-1), or Feline Calicivirus (FCV), and often comes with bad secondary bacterial infections or toxoplasmosis. There was no way to touch the little guy and bring it to a vet without getting it fight for its life. So all I could do, is to feed it and get the immune system back to shape. As it can't see the food, anything which smells strongly works well, for example sardines. Today it looked relatively fine again, enjoying the sunshine. So I now try additionally to cope with the bacterial part of the problem and smashed an Amoxicillin tablet, which is for human use down to about 2kg / 80kg bodyweight ratio (about 1/40th of the human dose, as I can measure this with my bare eyes). Did not do it earlier, because it might cause a diarrhea, which is not a good idea on a starving animal. Let's see.
Electronic Music Malta
Earlier in 2015 Electronic Music Malta (EMM) founded itself out of Maltese music enthusiasts, and yesterday night we joined friends for a performance in St James Cavalier, Valletta. Before appreciating the performance itself, I was impressed by St James Cavalier itself and how "the war machine has turned into a cultural center", with a sparkling cultural life in the walls of the old gun battery. It reminded me of the of B-05, just that of course in the middle of a beautiful city like Valletta, such efforts are by far more easy going. For the electronic music itself, I found the electronics more fascinating than the music at first. Most of the equipment in use, is built and assembled by the artists themselves, and it is far ahead of anything you may think of when it comes to entertainment audio equipment or commercial DJs. The repertoire was covering legends like Jean Michelle Jarre, a piece from Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, Kraftwerk to Depeche Mode and others. I can't say, it is my kind of music. But without it, there would be no electronic dance music either. And without that there would be no pop music the way we know it. So, I appreciate electronic music as a research lab with all its experimental features which go beyond creating only tones by electronic means.
Bajja Ta' Fomm-ir-Rih
During all the past weeks we have been spoiled with a bright blue sky, and today on the third of Advent, the rain set in. Every drop counts to replenish the groundwater table of the arid islands, and we enjoyed the rainy day as much as the sunny times. The flora immediately stretches out for the water and the smell of fennel and thyme raises into the air. In the morning we joined friends for a walk to the beautiful North-Western coast of Malta and went down to Il-Bajja Ta' Fomm-ir-Rih. It is a very picturesque trail along a geological terrace where porous limestone formations are moving backward on harder Miocene Greensands which form the cliff. You literally walk on that edge. By public transport you can reach quite close by taking Line 109 to Il-Bahrija.
Malta neighborhoods
During my first week at Malta University, I received to kind invitation and honor to join the Congregation for the Conferment of Degrees in the Jesuit Church in Valletta, just beside the old University campus and opposite the Maltese headquarter of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem Knights of Malta. The whole place was breathing history and to my surprise I was told that the odd height of the steps to the library were because in the past the knights used to go up there with their horses. The congregation itself was a very graceful event and paid honor to the graduate's achievements, not just by the marvelous setting, but also the well chosen words - out of which some were in Latin.
Marsaxlook fishing village
On Saturday we explored the South of Malta, and returned to the fishing village Marsaxlook, this time not for the Sunday fish market but to explore the neighborhood. On Sunday we were shown around some North-Eastern villages of Malta by my University host and friend. It is easy to fall in love with Malta like this. The morning started with picking up the catch of the day of Lampuki (Maltese Dorade or Mahi-Mahi) at the vendor beside our residence. And we kept enjoying the wonderful day, strolling though the villages and having the island's best octopus.
Catch of the day. Half of that is our dinner.
Welcome to Malta
We arrived in Malta and are exploring the premises. Already found all we need: grocery, library and post office. And there is an archery club, which needs a trial. Food is wonderful, the sky is mostly blue, and people are very friendly.
Malta University Residence as seen during the morning exercise.
Hong Kong
"One country, two systems" was one of the mantras and rules of the hand over of Hong Kong, a former British colony, to the People's Republic of China (PRC). One country, two systems means Communism (with Chinese characteristics) and Capitalism in a special administrative region. This gave the PRC a capitalist experimental zone, and it gave Hong Kong the chance to develop into a model zone for application in other Chinese cities. But while the Mainland's development breathtakingly performed the largest economic development in human history and dragged hundreds of millions of people out of poverty, the autonomous Hong Kong failed to deliver many of the results expected. It could not translate its prosperity into quality of life, did not develop models showcasing applicable examples to PRC. Instead, it turned into a frightened local society, with no significant culture, a one cylinder economy, a lack of entrepreneurship and an overall fading capability to lift itself out of this situation. In the best case, Hong Kong is a well managed high density storage and logistics system for about 7 million life human bodies - or a free trade zone in the Southern suburbs of Shenzhen. Given the expectations, what can be achieved with the experiment of Hong Kong, it is a compete system failure. Now some Hong Kongers might ask: what about the rule of law, the low levels of corruption, the superior education system ...? Sure, that's good. Make something out of it. And do not just maintain it, but bring it to the next level. Other Hong Kongers will blame it on the Mainland China. But the simple reality is, that non of the problems of Hong Kong has been induced by the Mainland. All self made problems. Just the opposite: without Mainland support and good will, Hong Kong would be gone by now. Hong Kong has nobody to blame, but itself.
The Lippo Center seen from one of my secret ways, from campus to the lecture halls at Admiralty. I developed my ways of moving around in Hong Kong, avoiding the buzz and staying in a nice environment. I call these the "Academic Ho-Chi-Min Paths".
We have spent the last two months in Hong Kong. I have lived before in a remote corner on Lamma Island, a small island in the South China Sea. Here there are no cars and no greed. And from there I watched Hong Kong and five years of my life passing by. Sometimes, back then sitting at the waterside with a cold bottle of Tsingtao beer, we joked that we are the third system in the one country, two systems debate. Now, when we return to Hong Kong, we stay on campus of The University of Hong Kong. The faculty guesthouse is again an island, remote from the reality of the buzzing city: on the slope to the Victoria Peak, hidden behind large Bauhinia trees. From here ambulated in the Academic Bermuda Triangle, spanning between library, lecture hall and long walks. And we got lost there for two months. It is always enjoyable and interesting. And more so, it feels like an important contribution to one of the last outstanding strengths of Hong Kong, which is education. So, we will return for that next year.
The Robert Black's College Guesthouse. Our temporary home in Hong Kong. Here is where visiting faculty and the Swire Scholars stay. It has the best fun breakfasts with consistent food choices (which never change), and a very nice team taking care of it all.
The Bauhinia tree outside my window
When I step on the balcony these mornings, I am greeted by a Bauhinia tree, which is also called Hong Kong Orchid Tree. Its flower is the symbol of Hong Kong, and you see it also on the flag of the city. It is an indigenous plant which does not grow naturally in many other places. But it is cultivated in tropical and sub-tropical botanical gardens. When you travel a lot, it is always good to have something in the morning, reminding you where you are. This tree nearly touches my window in one of the rooms of the Robert Black College Guest House on the campus of The University of Hong Kong. The morning walk up to the Victoria Peak is an easy one, but it brings you to another world above the busy city. Many people take this as a start into the day. Some just for fitness, others to practice an instrument (which they can't do in their small flat), and again others to read the newspaper or finalize their bet for today's horse races. You never know what the new day brings. And it is good to start it up here.
Bauhinia tree on the campus of The University of Hong Kong.
Bitcoin
When I go to museums, may they be attached to the history of the Roman Empire or Chinese Dynasties or whatever, there is always one department, which I find utterly boring. It is the one with coins. It is not that I find payment systems irrelevant. But those representing thousands of years of royal counterfeits, presidents, dictators and governments, are just too much of the same for me. Sovereigns try to centralize money on themselves, their central banks and treasuries, as a means of control. Only few "currencies" stay independent from that. For example gold, diamonds and alike, which can be transferred pier to pier for payment - if accepted. They are mined, processed, traded and change ownership. There are markets where you can sell them for "money" which is accepted in the grocery store (can't pay with diamonds in mine). When they are lost, they are gone. Nobody exactly knows how much is around. Besides, they also finance wars and crime for example in the form of blood diamonds. But don't think the Petrodollar does not do that.
Very similar work a new set of digital currencies, also called "cryptocurrencies" or "virtual money", of which Bitcoin is the most prominent representative. And this one is quite interesting.
The sign is still up (October 2015, Bonham Road, Hong Kong)
It is said that Bicoin goes back to Satoshi Nakamoto who created the open source software for it in 2009. It is not publicly known who he is, and not even whether he exists, is a person, or a group of people. All Bitcoin transactions (clocks) are publicly recorded in a log called block chain. As the block chain grows longer over time, the pier to pier transactions can take a few minutes. There is no bank between the vendor and buyer, and charges are payed by the buyer only. Like this there is an incentive for vendors to accept Bitcoin. And the charges are very small, compared with the 2-3% which are for example imposed by credit cars companies. All you need is to open a Bitcoin Wallet. It is like an account. This has an address, equivalent to IBAN and BIC of conventional bank accounts. Should your computer break or get stolen, your wallet is protected by "Wallet Words" and for everyday use, you can simply use a password. There are different wallets available, which run on computers, tablets or smart phone. I use Multibit HD, which is easy to set up by following a simple online tutorial. There are also hardware wallets available, which are for example called TREZOR, and much safer than running a wallet on your computer or phone.
Once you are set up with a wallet, it is like an empty bank account. There are all kinds of silly ways of earning Bitcoins, but the most obvious one is to buy them for a start. You can for example do this with your Paypal Account, and you may find this website useful. By now you already came across the currency appreciations used for Bitcoins, which are for example BTC or XBT. One Bitcoin contains 1 000 000 bits. So, you do not have to look for "small change". There was a bitcoin hype in autumn 2013, but now the price is around 250 USD per 1 bitcoin. You might think, this is risky. But actually compared currently with a lot of currencies from emerging economies, the bitcoin is doing ver well. And just imagine 1 billion of Indians might want a stable currency and free access to world markets leaving behind their official currencies etc. This is interesting.
Bitcoin versus USD
The money supply of Bitcoin is not controlled by a central bank. Like gold, they have to be mined. This happens in the form of solving mathematical problems with computers which are specialized in doing so. The ultimate number of bitcoins is limited (like gold) and the more has been mined already, the harder the mathematical problems get (like gold mining). So, if the demand continues, the value of bitcoins will increase. Now, the mining itself seems a complicated process and I will for now not go into that.
Bitcoin can be only called "money" if they are accepted for the purchase of goods or services. So, who accepts them, and what can I buy with them? There is already a long and list of vendors who take advantage of the fee structure and accept Bitcoin. A nice geographical representation of these, you find here: http://who-accepts-bitcoins.com . To make it short: you can buy anything from a flight ticket at Expedia to a sandwich at Subway.
Of course, Bitcoin are more common to use in internet trade. But then there is a whole virtual world, where all prices are in Bitcoin. It is the "deep internet", which is sometimes also referred to as "dark net". Many people are not aware that beside the mainstream web, there are also very other forms of internet. The dark net is one of them. And then there is also still Usenet, from the time when there was an Internet but no web yet. You access the Deep Internet, by using the Tor-Browser, which you can download from the Tor-Project site: https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html.en. You will also need a PGP key to make use of it. And you might also run it in a virtual computer on your main machine (or even on a separate computer) because you never know what happens. Rule number one of the dark net is, not to talk about the dark net. So, why not let somebody else talk about it: Jamie Bartlett on How the mysterious dark net is going mainstream.
Tilburg and the Netherlands
A few months ago, we received a surprise invitation to do some work in the University of Tilburg, teaching a course in the Master in International Management. It is a small University with a very academic focus in social sciences, and it's Faculty of Business and Economics is now expanding its education stronger into practical matters. I enjoyed my time in Tilburg a lot. The city is the former "Wool Capital" of the Netherlands and went through changes away from its textile industry heritage. Seen as a resident, it is one of the successful examples of such transformations. It is a very livable city. Small enough to reach any spot (by bicycle) and big enough to support a fully fletched University and some cultural life in town. It is well located also, to hop over to Antwerp in Belgium for example, or to the other cities in Holland. My overall impression of the Netherlands was, that it is a calm and well organized place, with a practical mindset. It is not generally "entrepreneurial" though and sometimes feels a bit like an "island" in the buzz of the world. However, there are many cultural "entrepreneurs" in the Netherlands and we got an impression of that through meeting friends who are for example documentary movie producers. It is sometimes good to have a completely non-challenging environment to get some work done. And then again you need to go out. Now we are in Hong Kong. Another kind of "Island". I already taught my first EMBA Global Asia Block week on "Turn Around Management and Corporate Restructuring", and I enjoyed it a lot.
Downtown Tilburg (Netherlands)
My favorite form of urban transport.