Category: Musings

Letter from Payson – first impressions

Ma’am, it’s only a small cow town!

On February 26th Jean and I, and a caravan of dogs and cats, arrived at our new home in Payson, Arizona.

We chose Payson simply because we wanted seasons. Payson is about an hour NE of Phoenix up at 5,000 feet and has very distinct seasons!

Home and snow — Snow in the garden - late March!

Both of us for different reasons thought we knew America pretty well. Jean was married to an American for nearly 30 years and I had been doing business in the US for a long time, even having my own (small) US company based in New Jersey.

But what neither of us anticipated was the wonderful warmth and friendliness of the Payson inhabitants. Despite the fact that Payson is hurting big time as a result of the economic situation, the majority of people that we met were happy, smiling and wonderfully accepting of a couple of Brits turning up in their town.

Indeed, Jean spoke to this stranger in the local supermarket, a tall guy complete with the boots and Stetson hat, and asked simply, “Why are so many people in Payson smiling?”

His reply was simply, “Ma’am, it’s only a small cow town!”

Well here’s a couple of newcomers to this small cow town who like it!

Payson and the Mogollon Rim in the background.

By Paul Handover

The Flirting Pilot

A departure from economics!

I have hit a man only once in my adult life. Only once, but this was a full-out, closed-fist, knock-you-off-your-feet slug that dared him to come back for more. And he didn’t. One slug did it! How empowering!

Bob (name changed) took me and George (my then-fiancé and now ex-husband) for a ride in a four-seat plane above the skyline in downtown Dallas, Texas late one summer night when the skies were dark and the stars were bright.

Bob was a friend of Allen, who was a very good friend of mine and an accomplished private pilot who had introduced me to the joys of flying. Allen trusted Bob and I trusted Allen, so I was not unusually concerned about Bob’s ability to get us back down safely. But I hadn’t factored in Bob’s judgment, or lack thereof.

I think, in hindsight, that Bob had hoped I would show up for the ride alone despite the fact that I had arranged it as a surprise for George. The plan was for George to sit up front and play co-pilot. Upon arrival at the hanger, however, Bob promptly stuck George in the back seat of the plane and then turned his full attention to me. I’m usually fairly dense to these things, but it was apparent even to me that Bob considered this to be a “date.” He was charming, animated and very friendly, while virtually ignoring George’s very existence. We reviewed the safety measures, checked out the plane, and away we went.

Bob was showing me a series of maneuvers, swooping and banking and it was all lovely and exciting until…..a sudden plunge…..and everything instantly blacked out. It was very disorienting — even though my eyes were wide open and I was totally conscious, I could not see a thing.

The sirens started blaring; a recorded voice shouted “Stall! Stall! Stall!” I called to George but he didn’t answer. Either he was unconscious or couldn’t hear me over the noise, but I wasn’t sure which. I reached out to Bob, but he was unresponsive and felt limp. Now I was really worried. Momentarily terrified, actually, with that cold feeling of raw fear in the pit of my stomach. I thought to myself, “If I am blacked out and cannot see, then HE, the, um, PILOT, might be blacked out as well!”

I had what seemed like a very long time to ponder what I could do to survive this emergency, and keep George alive, who was there because of me! I tried to feel my way along the control panel to find the radio to call out “May Day,” but that wasn’t going too well. Somehow — I don’t know how because I still could not see! — Bob got us out of the descent, pulling the nose up and righting the plane. The sirens and warnings stopped. After a few more moments, my vision came back, and my stomach returned to its rightful place. We landed in one piece.

But when ole’ Bob got out of the pilot’s seat and walked around the plane to help me exit, I had a little surprise for him. Actually, it was a surprise for me, too, because I didn’t plan it and didn’t “see” or “feel” it coming. The next thing I knew I had drawn my right arm back, made a fist, and threw it into his left shoulder with everything I had. POW!

He stumbled, grabbed his arm, and said “Ow! What did you do THAT for?” Well, I didn’t think I had to explain how I thought he had just put my life and that of a friend in danger just to show off. I didn’t think he would see it the way I did, that he had flown that plane beyond his ability to control it. And even if he was in control the entire time, which I doubted, he scared the bajeebees out of me which was reason enough for me to sock him one!

I don’t recommend physical violence, even if the assailant is half the size of the perpetrator, but I have to tell you that to my knowledge, Bob never took another unsuspecting victim up for a little spin around the tops of buildings in downtown Dallas. And I know that if I ever really need to wind it up and let her go, I do have it in me.

By Sherry Jarrell

The State of the Union?

A view of the Union from across the Pond

Dr Sherry Jarrell commented recently on her disappointment with President Obama, with two specific criticisms:

A) the way he speaks to the people, or perhaps to some of the people

B) his handling of the economy

With this in mind and given that the President has now been in office for long enough for a judgement to be made, here is a view from this side of the water.

HOME

How he speaks to the people. I can’t judge this; I don’t currently have a television, let alone one with access to all the US media; And “yes”, I know this is a bit bizarre, but there you go …

What does surprise me is that during the election he showed himself to be an orator of considerable talent. Indeed, without this talent to inspire people it seems unlikely that he could have got elected in the first place. So what has gone wrong? Do the people he is speaking badly to perhaps deserve it?

The economy? Dr Jarrell is the expert. However, I just caught sight of a headline about US growth, which seems to be picking up surprisingly well.

Surely it is not all gloom, even if unemployment is high at nearly 10%. However, if you think this is bad you should visit Spain.

Health? As a European, one struggles to understand why he has been criticized by some on this issue. The US can’t afford it? Well, perhaps the bankers should be giving up some of their vast salaries and bonuses to help pay for it.

Priorities? How can the USA possibly NOT have a universal health system, when poor little Cuba has one? As I understand it, health consumes about 17% of US GDP, which is WAY above other comparable nations.

Something is wrong here. Have the medical profession and pharmaceutical companies got Americans by the short and curlies? And even this 17% didn’t until now include tens of millions of people. I would really like to have someone’s take on this.

The Republicans? Well, are we seeing a great party beginning to implode? The hysteria over the health reforms is astonishing. The “Tea Party” group has issued all kinds of threats and complaints that even senior members of the Republican party have not criticized. What is going on here?

Do they have no understanding of how modern, civilised societies work? As a friend of mine put it (as it happens a strong supporter of the Cuban regime, which I certainly am NOT) “You judge a society by the way it treats its poorest and weakest members.” On this score, the Republicans are living on another planet.

I read a fascinating take on this the other day in the New York Times. In essence, Frank Rich claims that the Tea Party hysteria is nothing to do with the health system, but concerns the fact that WASPs feel threatened as they will soon be in a minority in the USA.

Yup – hard to believe for a British kid brought up on John Wayne, the Pilgrim Fathers, New England and all that … but true. Even so, if the Republicans are not to become a laughing-stock they need to find some more statesmanlike leaders. Sarah Palin just doesn’t cut the mustard I’m afraid.

Oil & Energy? Well, he is cracking down on gas-guzzlers. He has to have points there, surely? It is both essential and long overdue. On the other hand, he has sanctioned oil exploration in hitherto off-limits areas, the idea being to reduce dependency on imported oil. Very commendable, but the aim of all nations is to reduce consumption, isn’t it?

AWAY

As a European, whatever impression one has of the USA has to be tempered by remembering that one does not live there. One simply cannot pick up the real mood of the country unless one has feet on the ground, and so all the above comments are impressions, possibly misplaced.

But on INTERNATIONAL affairs one is on slightly firmer ground, and of course what the US does internationally also concerns us more directly. When he took office, I decided I would judge him on one thing in particular ……

Palestine: There has been precious little movement since 9/11. Lots of “talks”, “negotiations” and proposals of course, but underlying it all the feeling that the Israelis are not going to give up anything at all.

The present government in particular seems like an immovable object on many key issues that must – frankly – be resolved by compromise on all sides. This is where an irresistible force comes in, and this can only be Obama.

Well, there have been positive signs, but I have yet to see evidence that pressure on Israel will be both real and sustained. Sometimes “negotiations” and “frank-talking” are just NOT enough, and this is one of them. The jury has retired with some recent positive feelings, but it is still out, and very sceptical.

Iran/China?: Obama has tried to be nice to these people, but – as with Israel – being nice sometimes doesn’t do it. There is I feel serious trouble ahead with China, one way or the other. Will Obama be tough enough to deal with it? The jury is still out on that one, too.

SUMMARY: Humans tend to be optimistic folk: we believe there is a solution out there somewhere. We believed Obama might be it.

We were as ever hopelessly-idealistic. Nevertheless, I am mindful that this is an extremely inexperienced President, chosen by Americans for his youth, optimism and charisma more than his long experience as a statesman.

He will need time. Unlike some Americans – who already think he is the anti-Christ (those strange Republicans again) – I am prepared to wait a bit longer to make a final judgement.

By Chris Snuggs

Europe Uber Alles, Pt 2.

A Guest post by Patrice Ayme

Part One ended saying:

The euro, long in planning by some European institutions, was introduced minimally, namely without the governmental apparatus generally associated to a currency. This is the way Europeans have found to progress peacefully towards greater harmony: do what is necessary, and nothing more than that, and do it with total consensus.

Everybody knew that a currency without a government to create and anchor it had never happened before, and was unlikely to endure.

Part Two continues

That fit the European federalists just right, and could not have escaped the understanding of Paris and Berlin. As it turned out, the PIIGS’ crisis is putting back Paris and Berlin, the historical engine of Europe, back on top, and this, for an excellent reason.

“PIIGS” stand for Portugal Ireland Iceland Greece Spain. All of them ran bubble economies, partially propelled by taxes from the richest European countries (including France and Germany). It became ridiculous as, for example, Ireland was getting European subsidies while the Irish were already way richer than those subsidizing them. (OK Iceland is not in the EU, yet, but it begged to enter the Eurozone, and it has disappeared the savings of countless Brits and Dutch, which means it has some outstanding business with the rest of Europe, that it will have to sort out, after executing a few more whales, guilty as charged.)

Some acknowledge the convenience of a common European currency and easier border transits, while remaining obsessed by what they view as gigantic differences between European countries. Those quaint nationalists and parochial types obsess that core differences between countries are so strong and deep-rooted that any form of real European union is a ridiculous concept. This is triply erroneous.

Read the rest of this Post

Europe Uber Alles

Welcome Patrice Ayme

On the 22nd March, Learning from Dogs had the pleasure of a Post from our first Guest Author, Elliot Engstrom. We were then doubly delighted to have Per Kurowski join us as our second Guest Author with his introductory Post.

Now we have the additional honour of welcoming Patrice Ayme to the growing ranks of Guest Author to Learning from Dogs.

Patrice, like Elliot and Per, also is a prolific blogger. He describes himself as:

I was born in Europe, raised in Africa, and lived in America. So doing, I learned to compare different cultures, even during my early childhood, and to appreciate superiority of many of their traits, even the most surprising. I consider myself Senegalese, and proudly so. I studied, and know, several languages, not just Latin, and several cultures, deeply, by living through and inside them for years. I have done formal studies in mathematics and physics at three leading Universities receiving the highest degrees, and putting me in a good position to learn to differentiate between hard knowledge and wishful thinking, differently from many a common philosopher. I am a specialist of non commutative geometry, arguably the most abstract field of knowledge in existence (even hard core logic, model theory, is used in my approach).

Here is Patrice’s first Guest Post for Learning from Dogs.

——————————

GREEK TROJAN HORSE TO CONQUER BETTER EUROPEAN UNION

Abstract:

The European currency, the euro, is, foremost, a solution to a problem. War. All other problems, and the euro solves many, pale in significance relative to this one.

Many talk about “problems” with the euro, and, oozing with glee all over, perceive weakness. They are right, there is weakness, but it is not European weakness. Just the opposite.

What those skeptics are seeing with their uncomprehending neurology is the further construction of the European imperium, according to its core principle: fix what needs to be fixed, but with complete consensus of the parties concerned, which means do it just so. It appears messy, because it’s democratic, and before the people (demos) can use its kratos (power), it needs to think right, which means it has to argue thoroughly. It looks like squabbling, but it is thinking aloud. Europe is not built for some parties to gain advantage anymore (as it was with Napoleon, or Hitler), but to solve problems and gain opportunities for all.

The euro is, for the first time, used as a weapon against Europe’s enemies. Hence all the squealing. Far from weakening Franco-German resolve, the recourse to the IMF adds another layer of authority to the European Communities. When the IMF, speaking in the name of Franco-German taxpayers, tell restive exploiters in Greece that they have to pay more taxes (only 6 plutocrats declare more than one million euro income in Greece, and more than 500 professions can retire at 50 years of age, whereas Germany just brought up the retirement age to 67!), they will have to submit under orders (imperare, to use the Roman notion)

A flight in a Hawker Hunter

A personal story about a wonderful flying experience.

This is a tale about my cousin Richard. He has never been a pilot but has always been fascinated in flying. He was reminiscing the other day about an event in a lifetime, flying in a military jet. But this was no ordinary jet, this was the iconic Hawker Hunter.

These are Richard’s words.

It all started early in 2003. Lynne and I decided to take her son Henry and his friend to Tangmere Air Museum.

We were looking around, and were particularly taken by the bright red Hawker Hunter (WB188), in which Neville Duke had broken the world speed record on 7th September 1953, between Littlehampton and Worthing piers.

The curator of the museum was listening to us, and said – ‘Sad, isn’t it, we were hoping to have a 50th anniversary re-run of the flight. We have the aeroplane and the pilot, but nobody will sponsor us the fuel‘.

In the way that Lynne does, she just said ‘That’s alright, Richard will sponsor you the fuel!’

Well, that was all very well, but how much would it cost?

Anyway, to cut a long story short, a cheque for £1,600 ($2,400) was sent to the Hunter Flying Club at Exeter, which was followed by a telephone call from them. Basically, they said they were going to use a 2 seat Hunter, and as I had paid for the fuel, would I like the left hand seat!!!

On the morning of 7th September, I drove to Exeter Airport, and was introduced to the ground crew, and to the pilot Jonathan Whaley, who has his own multi-coloured Hunter ‘Miss Demeanor’, which I am sure you will have seen on the air display circuits.

WV322 looked stunning with newly painted top, tail and fuel tanks in gleaming red to remind us of WB188, which was painted bright red so that it could be easily seen by the timekeepers.

Settling into the LH seat!

After an hours tuition on the use of the ejector seat, the time came to be shoe-horned into the cockpit, and we taxied out. Special permission had been given for us to take-off towards the East, even though the pattern for the day was to the West. This was to save as much fuel as possible, as we had a long way to go!

A very smooth take-off, and a cruise at approx 3000 feet along the south coast to Chichester, followed by a sudden turn to the left and a dive into Goodwood, where the Revival Meeting was taking place. After nearly taking the roof off the Grandstand, a climbing turn and a low pass over Tangmere (where Neville Duke was watching), and on towards Selsea Bill.

Hunter and me!

A sharp left turn, and we were on our way past Littlehampton, and on towards Worthing Pier, where family and friends were waiting.

Well! We passed Worthing Pier at about 400 knots and at 400 feet, immediately going up into a Derry turn and pulling 4G!

It was unbelievable. I remember seeing the sea a few feet above my head, followed by the pebbles on the beach, at which point I thought ‘He’s never going to get round to the end of the pier – he’s going straight across the town!’

Of course, I was wrong, and we made a slower run back past the pier, and Jonathan gave a nice little ‘Wing Waggle’ for the people watching.

Back to Selsea Bill, and Jonathan said to me that he had heard that Neville Duke had actually done three Victory rolls across Tangmere to celebrate. ‘O.K., we’ll do the same‘

Three very sharp rolls later, and he realised he had ‘rolled’ over the wrong greenhouses!. (Tangmere these days is covered in greenhouses). So, three more very tight rolls – this time in the correct place – before a fast run back into Goodwood before a sharp climb and three more rolls – wow! Nine rolls in a matter of seconds!

A turn towards the Solent, and we formated with a Russion Yak, with rear cockpit open, and a photographer giving Jonathan instructions so that he could get a good variety of shots.

YAK - photo platform!

Then, with limited fuel, it was time to go. Imagine how I felt when Jonathan handed me the controls! All my birthdays had come at once!

As we approached Exeter, the weather was closing in. We just had time for Jonathan to play his favourite game – Up over a big cumulus cloud, down the other side, banking hard through a small gap between the clouds.

At this point, I confess that the negative ‘G’ had the cold sweat appearing on my forehead. Then it was back into Exeter and a smooth landing, braking hard before the end of the runway.

‘That’s fine‘ said Jonathan, ‘We’ve still got 7 minutes fuel left‘. Sensing my concern, he added, ‘Don’t worry – You can go a long way in 7 minutes in one of these!!‘

Taxiing back to our stand, followed by being told to keep still while the ‘seat’ was disarmed, and a shaky me made my way down the ladder onto the ground, where I was offered a cup of tea – it was wonderful. The grin on my face stretched from ear to ear.

The total flight was 70 minutes, and it is 70 minutes of my life that I will never forget

Rather than dilute Richard’s account here, I will add another article with some general background information on the Hunter in the next few days.

By Bob Derham

Elliot’s schooling

Elliot Engstrom – Guest Author

Elliot was ‘exposed’ to the Learning from Dogs readership on the 22nd March as our first Guest author. He wrote about the US Government and Poverty.

Elliot has one important distinction with respect to the other authors of this Blog; he is the right side of 30 years old!

He is going to use this perspective to reflect on schooling, something that most of us ‘aged’ peeps take for granted, assuming we can remember our school days! 😉

It promises to be a fascinating reflection.

———————————–

Setting the scene

I’ve had a plethora of experiences over the past 17 years of my life. I’ve made and lost friends, had romantic

relationships, read, traveled all around the world, lived in France, and done countless other things that I consider myself immeasurably blessed to have experienced.

Despite the fluidity of where these different experiences have taken me, my entire life since the age of four has had one characteristic in common – I have been a school student.

In the spirit of “Learning from Dogs,” I thought it might be interesting to reflect a bit upon the core dynamic between education (not learning, which is a far broader topic) and schooling.

I often ask myself just how effective the modern US schooling system is as a tool of education, and whether or not its costs outweigh its benefits. I hope to have at least a rough answer to this question in the final post of this series.

In the following three posts, I will examine three topics:

– In what ways does the modern schooling system function as a positive tool for education?

– What costs involved in modern schooling hinder its ability as an educative tool, and even make it a negative influence on students?

– Considering the analyses put forth in the first two posts, do the costs or benefits or this system outweigh the other? On the whole, are school and education complements or antagonists?

This series is going to be exciting for me because, to be quite frank, I have no idea what my final answer is going to be. I guess I’ll just have to stay tuned to see where my brain takes me – and so for you!

By Elliot Engstrom

Poor old Europe!

Why has it seemed like pushing water uphill for so long?

I’m in my mid-60s, having been born six months before the end of WWII. From the earliest days that I can remember, my parents loved to holiday in France and Spain. In those days if one was to motor into Europe then it was a case of the car being craned aboard the ferry from England to France. How things change!

cross-channel-ferry — Modern cross-channel ferry

Much later on in life, I did business extensively in many European countries and, for a while, taught sales and marketing at the international school, ISUGA, in Quimper, NW France. (Indeed, fellow Blog author Chris Snuggs was my Director of Studies at ISUGA – that’s how we came to meet.) I like to think that I have a reasonable understanding of the variety of cultures that is Europe.

So while acknowledging the convenience of a common currency (sort of) and ease of border transits, the one thing that has remained in my mind is that each country in Europe is very, very different to the other. These core differences have always struck me as so strong and deep-rooted that any form of real union was a ridiculous concept. The present deep problems with Greece seem to be the tip of this fundamental issue. Thus a couple of recently published articles, on Baseline Scenario and The Financial Times seem worthy of being aired on Learning from Dogs.

First, the article by Simon Johnson on Baseline Scenario:
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The GPS and the AAAs

Welcome Per Kurowski Egerström

On the 22nd March, Learning from Dogs had the pleasure of a Post from our first Guest Author, Elliot Engstrom. We are doubly delighted to have Per Kurowski join us as our second Guest Author.

Per is a prolific blogger. He has had a full career including serving as an Executive Director of the World Bank from 2002 until 2004 for Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Spain and Venezuela. More about Per’s life experiences can be found here.

Here is Per’s first Guest Post for Learning from Dogs.

——————-

The GPS and the AAAs

Not so long ago I asked my daughter to key in an address in the GPS and then even while I continuously heard a little voice inside me telling me I was heading in the wrong direction I ended up where I did not want to go.

Something similar caused the current financial crisis.

First the financial regulators in Basel decided that the only thing they would care about was the risk of individual financial defaults and not one iota about any other risks.

Second then, though they must have known these were humanly fallible they still empowered some few credit rating agencies to be their GPS on default risks.

Finally, by means of the minimum capital requirements for banks, they set up all the incentives possible to force them to heed what the GPS said and to ignore any internal warning voices.

Of course, almost like if planned on purpose, it all ended up in a crisis. In just a couple of years, over two trillion dollars followed some AAA signs over the precipice of badly awarded mortgages to the subprime sector. Today, we are still using the same financial risk GPS with the same keyed in instructions… and not a word about it in all recent Financial Regulatory Reform proposals

I hate the GPS type guidance of any system since I am convinced that any kid brought up with it will have no clue of what north, south, east or west means; just as the banker not knowing his client’s business or how to look into his client’s eyes or how to feel the firmness of his client’s handshake, can only end up stupidly following someone else’s opinion about his client on a stupid monitor.

I hate the GPS type guidance system because, on the margin, it is making our society more stupid as exemplified by how society, day by day, seems to be giving more importance to some opaque credit scores than to the school grades of their children. I wait in horror for some DNA health rating scores to appear and cause a total breakdown of civilization as we know it.

Yes, we are buried under massive loads of information and these systems are a tempting way of trying to make some sense out of it all, but, if we used them, at least we owe it to ourselves to concentrate all our efforts in developing our capacity to question and to respond adequately when our instincts tell us we’re heading in the wrong way.

Not all is lost though. I often order the GPS in my car to instruct me in different tongues so as to learn new languages, it gives a totally new meaning to “lost in translation”, and I eagerly await a GPS system that can describe the surroundings in more extensive terms than right or left, AAA or BBB-, since that way not only would I get more out of it but, more importantly, I would also be more inclined to talk-back.

By Per Kurowski

Snowdrops

The snowdrop – a real harbinger of Springtime

The winter can seems very long when the temperature remains extremely cold and the news headlines show dramatic pictures of villages completely cut off by drifting snow. And the old debate about cold weather payments for pensioners comes around once again.

We are often still able to enjoy time in our garden well into October, but the weeks that follow up to March can be very long and drawn out. Then comes my favourite flower, The Snowdrop.

There are several different types of this beautiful little plant, and in the county of Hampshire in England [where Bob and his family live, Ed.], in particular there seem to be clumps of this special white flower everywhere.

However the other day I was able to see a complete field of them in the grounds of Heale House, a private residence owned by Patrick Hickman,an ex Lancaster pilot, now 89, who is still very active and keeping his yew bushes well trimmed in the art of topiary.

Heale House is open at this time of year for people to visit the lovely gardens and again enjoy the snowdrops.

Spring has arrived, but it is the first flower that is my favourite!

By Bob Derham

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