Unique Economic Indicators

This is a paper I did for Economic Development of Asia for Colin White. Kinda gives a scant overview of conditions of the countries in regards to economic indicators I chose.
***
Introduction
In this paper I will go over my experiences in each individual country and try to correlate the individual indicators that I chose in my previous with their factors in the respective countries.

Indicators
To recap, here are the unique indicators not in any sequential importance:
1.      The penetration of authentic Western brands in retail.
a.      The massive quantities of knockoffs versus limited number of authentic indicate a very poor population that is conniving towards upward economic mobility via fake brand names. Vice versa an absolute lack of knockoffs and all items are conceived “real” indicate a developed economic system (also indicating enforcement of intellectual and property rights)
2.      Drivable/ paved highways with actual cars on them.
a.      Paved roads indicate economic progress but is not all inconclusive. The important factor is what types of cars populate the roads. Mass taxis indicate lower ownership of cars, while many personal cars indicate higher material wealth and prosperity.
b.      Brand of cars are also an indicator, as wealthier luxury brands (BMW, Mercedes, Audi) indicate more disposable wealth and a stronger economy.
c.      An addendum is the state of mass transit; only developed nations can afford decently working mass transit.
3.      A sense of future well-being and prosperity amongst the populace.
a.      Simply put, a foreboding feeling for the future by the population translates to a foreboding future for economic development.
4.      Locals don’t try to actively avoid the police.
a.      Well developed nations don’t have an overtly corrupt police force. The police are also actually helpful and do real policing.
5.      The availability of uncensored internet.
a.      Freedom on the World Wide Web is an indication of freedom of information and thus transparency in dealings, business economic and otherwise.

Canada
Given Canada’s entanglement with American culture and economic practices, I feel that no detailed comparison is necessary; it is a western nation in the sense of economic development.

Spain
Spain, like Canada, needs no elaboration. It is western in all senses.

Morocco
Morocco was our first real non Western nation. Morocco’s proximity to Spain gives it a distinct flavor different than the rest of the Arabic world (their king even wears a western business suit in official pictures). Given any experience in the souks, 100% of the clothing is fake articles of renowned brands like D&G, Nike, Gucci, etc. There were, however, official brand stores like Levi’s and the ever omnipresent McDonald’s, although both were in limited quantities and usually placed in the richest parts of town. Roads were paved, but not very well developed at all; most automobiles on the street were poorly driven taxis.  Mass transit was nonexistent; the train from Casablanca to Marrakech hardly counts in efficiency. The people’s view towards the government was of muted deference given the king’s absolute authority. Things are, however, looking up economically with Morocco’s overtures to build closer ties to western economies and attract capital. I had limited dealings with the police, but locals say there is a level of corruption. The internet I used wasn’t censored, but I only used Google and Facebook; I’ve been informed that the government does indeed censor “immoral” sites.

Ghana
Ghana’s authentic brand experience, much like Morocco, was limited to McDonald’s. I didn’t have much experience with the Ghanaian shopping experience so I can’t differentiate their level of knockoffs, but it should be noted there was a strong culture of local clothing as well as a mad quantity of Obama enshrined in clothing. Ghanaian roads were paved, with an eclectic mix of personal cars and taxis; I saw a few BMWs and Audis around. The condition of roads deteriorated as you moved into the country, the highway system was nonexistent with only two lane roads being the roads between cities. Ghanaians are very proud of their democratic heritage as well as Obama’s recent visit, thus they have a very healthy outlook for the future; this is reinforced by a recent string of investments by mining companies as well as GE looking to develop the country with a $400 million investment. The police are utterly corrupt with bribes rampant; I remember being stopped at least six times on my way to El Mina in a cab so the police could take bribes from our cabbie because he was carrying foreigners. Internet was choppy in Ghana, but on the whole it was relatively uncensored.

South Africa
South Africa is a land of contrasts. The “white” part is entirely westernized, while the “black” part has all the non qualities of the indicators I’ve listed. The black townships are not penetrated by authentic Western retail brands, nor do they have any real roads in the townships (at least in the Khayelitsha township where I visited). Outlook is bleak in the townships with some places peaking 50% chronic unemployment. Policing is nonexistent in townships, and some police forces still hold racist tendencies. I had no experience with internet in the townships, but given that most of them don’t even have “official” power connections it wouldn’t be surprising to expect a lack of internet.

Mauritius
Mauritius is almost up to western economic development in every sense, except for authentic Western brands. Of course there were McDonald’s there, but there were also some knockoffs I found in the market in Port Louis. The resort area of Flic en Flac could be comparable to Hawaii or other resort locations. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be much to distinguish Mauritius from a developed nation.

India
India is a nation of massive contrasts. On one hand, in the bustling cities such as Delhi or Bombay it feels very developed and very modern with all of the ritz and glamour expected. The roads are there, the Louis Vuittons are there as well as indigenous brands, the shiny new BMWs are there, the job opportunities are there, and so is the free internet. One thing all of India has in common is rife corruption, police and otherwise. On the flipside, there’s poor India with the masses huddled together and yearning for opportunity. This side lacks everything the up and coming economic movers have. India is simply developing on a massive scale. However, the future is bright given recent western capital investments in Indian companies and infrastructure, as well as some recent world class Indian companies taking the stage.

Vietnam
The children of the dragon have come a long way since the post-Vietnam War era and communism. I was there about ten years ago. Even though I was only in my young teens then I still remember what it was like. There are many knockoff brands in the open air markets (as many as Morocco) but there are also an increased number of authentic Western stores and local brands (some of which cost as much as their western counterparts!). There are significantly better paved roads now, the government has even taken the initiative to widen the many alleyways in residential areas, my aunts’ houses have had to follow this law and decrease their front parts. The economy has been growing for the past decade and the general feeling amongst my family there is that there is a future and opportunity being created for them, although unemployment still poses a problem. Police are still corrupt but there is an ongoing trend by the central government to crack down on corruption. The internet I used was for the most apart unobtrusive, however there are still some sites that are deemed subversive by the government and thus blocked.

Hong Kong
Another western nation, with the notable exception of ten thousand dollar watch shop stores next to cellphone shops that sell knockoff Iphone Airs.

China
China, like India, is developing in every sense of the word. The similarities are all too striking, with the coastal regions being the wealthy powerhouses while the interior is still very poor. China on the whole is more economically developed than India and is in a better position to take advantage of its natural resources and strengths. The authoritative government can push down policy quicker than democratic India. China also has a very censored internet, with Facebook still blocked from the previous Tibetan and Uighur riots. Certain parts of Shanghai looked and felt like any western city. China may still be developing but soon it will become the most developed.

Japan
Japan is a developed nation, possibly more westernized than most western nations in the sense that their economy is very stable and prices are through the roof. Japan has all the positives of the indicators with no negatives (possibly except for the extremely high price levels).

Conclusion
These are my observations from the voyage so far. Some are more astute than others given the varying length of time and degree of participation I had in each country. As country count increased my eyes became more open to the intricacies of the economies.

Spring (Fall) Break 09

Mauritius… Spring (Fall) Break 09!

Mauritius is like Cancun for Europeans, it's one of their hidden gems of a vacation spot. We docked in Port Louis, then went to Flic en Flac (Andy Rachel and I) the first day. Carter, Jo, and Yvette joined us the second day. We partied with fellow SASholes in our villa. Our villa right across from the beach! W0000t. And by Villa I mean 3rd floor of a 4 yr old hotel in a family suite with balcony, pool, kitchen, etc. All for like $50 a night per person. Anyways, Mauritius was like living in a Spring Break thing, but kinda unnecessary, I would have much rather had more time in other countries than go to Mauritius for 2 nights. Funny story is we booked a different place for the first night but that hotel was out of the way and kinda crappy so Andy weaseled our way out of there and got full money back. Also, Mauritian culture is a broad mix of Chinese, Indian, and others. It's really a melting pot. There's also a lot of Indian immigrants coming in, like the assistant manager at our hotel.  People there are really friendly as well and the alcohol is cheap.

Besides that, nothing honorable or worth mentioning at the moment given my procrastination.

Conclusion: There's nothing really long to write about Mauritius, it's a great vacation spot in the Pacific, but probably wouldn't return.

TIA

Let's see…. Docked in Cape Town, beautiful harbor that's well developed, sweet view of Table Mountain as we were docking. Rich waterfront that's well developed and full of white people and a lack of black people (the ever so present ominous theme of racial tensions in South Africa).

I had an FDP visit with Mitnick on the first day to the Khayelitsha township. If you've seen the movie District 9, the townships for the most part are exactly like the slums the prawns live in. We went on a bus tour for part of the township, went to some place where single mothers made things to sell and I got an overpriced art décor piece from there, but that's alright it was for a good cause. I brought some cotton candy for the kids but I gave it to the guy incharge of the charity place, I sure hope he gave it away to the kids. Drove on the bus some more  to see other parts of town, stopped at a bed and breakfast ran by this nice old lady. She talked about the township and how she started her B&B to help guide visitors safely through townships to explore that side of South African life. There was a bar right across the dirt path that was full of black people drinking early in the morning; I should mentions a lot of townships have very very high unemployment rates 50+%. Hoped back on a bus, went to a weaving place where all female weavers made stuff, everything was horribly overpriced. Played some minor soccer with the neighborhood kids. Then went to another B&B where the lady running it was some sort of scholarship recipient from U of Pittsburgh or something. Told her schpeel, got fed some South Africanish food. Had a walking tour of the township, kind of creepy as it was getting dark and everyone was staring at us. Got back in our bus and left. Some of the girls that were handing out stickers got mobbed by little kids as we were leaving. Note for the townships: even though most houses were built out of sheets of metal and were shantytowns that had public water sprouts and stole electricity, I peered inside a lot of them and everyone had nice furniture, working stoves, and a big TV. More thought on that later.


Also, went to Robben Island where the South African apartheid assholes kept the political prisoner… really interesting stuff about the island itself and our tour guide was a former prisoner, as well as most of the tour guides. I'm not going to spoil their wonderful and tumultuous struggle but it was inspiring to say the least. Go see it or read about it.

I'm going to gloss over South Africa, it just wasn't a memorable port ,everything was too much like America. The underlying racial tensions, however, were sweet and I made friends with a club manager named Sidney at a club that I forget the name of, got his views on South Africa as well as America. The coolest thing I did there was that me and Carter went parasailing off of Lion's Head mountain on the last day and the guys told us it was the most perfect day they had seen in 4 months for parasailing, got great footage from that. Also bought some neat wooden African stuff. Also the main bar street of Capetown, Longstreet had an asston of security guys patrolling the street, but I was told by a local that if you even go a block off of Long Street at night you're at risk of being mugged or kidnapped, no joke. Otherwise….

Conclusion: I don't foresee me coming back to South Africa. And, it's really not safe there, according to SAS, people who live there (white & black), and the overall experience.

Ghana pt 2

Carter and I rented a cab to go to El Mina, where there was supposd to be some scenery. It was just an old fort that they used to ship slaves out of, nothing really spectacular there. Funny story along they way, we got stopped by about 4 or 5 different cops because they saw Carter's white self and wanted a mad bribe from our cabby. Of course the cops were friendly to us and our cabby was a fox so we didn't pay the cops squat. Lol@ police corruption. Another funny thing that happened is outside of the castle in El Mina there were some kids up to no good trying to sham us out of money. They pretended they were part of a school collection drive or some crap like that, an offical SAS trip had come to the castle before we did and we had SAS branded items on us so they figured we were part of the same SAS group. Anyways one of these guys had a shirt that said "Fuck all of my enemies"… If you're trying to get "charity" donations that kinda shirt probably doesn’t help. Anyways they gave us seashells with our names written in sharpie as a gift for donations. I told them I didn't have any money but I had a bottle of Deet. One of the guys thought I was going to give the bottle to him in return, but I gave him a spray in the chest, got in my cab and left. He didn't get ripped off, the marker rubbed off of the shell 1/2 hour later and they didn't clean the insides so those shells stunk horribly a day later. We got back to town right at the beginning of rushhour so we missed most of that, but traffic was backed up for at least a good 4 miles in some places, shitty roads man. I gave our cabbie my pair of fOakleys I got in Morocco as a departing gift. Nothing much happened after this, met up with Prosperity again to try to trade my Puma hat for a mask but he wouldn't budge on the negotiations so I just left. Chilled out some more, went back to the ship, and sailed off.

underneath it all

 underneath it all you can smell the presence, you can feel the presence. its all around you in the room, it is the room. its all around you in the world. it is the world. well then what is it? the smell of wine and cheap perfume? no its not that. its humanity itself, halfway around the world it all smells the same to me. the tears the drench the sweat the stains the fear the power the love the loathing, all in all the same all over. the world over beats to the same rhythm, everyones basic primal instincts splurging out forward from whatever recesses they hide it in. it starts off small, you dont notice the underlying undulating waves at first, but as they become gradually bigger and more and more smash into you more and more frequently you suddenly feel the effects and realize them.

people, everywhere from the scorched suns of africa to the dirtiness of india to the monsoons of vietnam to the highrises of hong kong, people everywhere are the same, they come from the same mold they have the same wants and needs, they all desire the same thing. itll take a journey around the world for the surprise to not be ruined for yourself, take it and find out.

on messed up dreams

I set my alarm clock for 7:25 AM.
I dreamt my alarm clock went off at 7:25 AM.
I woke up at 7:25 AM.
My actual alarm clock wasn't properly set.
It did not go off at 7:25 AM.
What?

Ghana pt 1

To preface this, I <3 Ghana. Awesome country with awesome awesome people.

Everyone is just so friendly in Ghana, even if they're trying to nickel and dime you and you refuse. A guy who was trying to sell me stuff that I rejected explicitly told me it was their way to be super friendly regardless. Ghanaians also have a pretty sweet Fresh Prince-ish handshake that ends with a snap, its almost universal there. And, they smoke a lot of weed, freely offered (but not taken).

We ported in Tema, which is about 45 minutes away from Accra, the capital. First thing off the ship and on the bus is that many people were smiling, and everyone was waving at us and very accommodating. The roads between Tema and Accra were surprisingly modern and not full of potholes, but that isn't reflective of the rest of the country. Carter and I got a room at the Hotel Byblos, which was owned by a half Lebanese, half Ghanaian guy that was pretty cool, his wife was an American from either Minnesota or Montana. The owner guy, I'll call him Fred even though that's not his real name, was actually in some horrific car accident a few years earlier when his Ford (lol  Ford) SUV flipped over and sent him through the windshield, he broke his spine in the C5 and C6 or something like that, the Ghanaians doctor sucked and had in the hospital for weeks without a proper diagnosis, he was flown to Lebanon for treatment. And now, he smokes a lot of joints to ward off the constant pain. The Byblos was decent, for Ghanaian standards. The staff, however, were quite simply some of the most welcoming and warm hotel staffers, ever. Our first waitress there was Tina, cool awesome girl that made a lot of friends with fellow SASholes. Another waiter whose name I forget, but I'll call him Bob, was a pretty cool guy too. Actually everyone was friendly in Ghana once you introduced yourself to them, asked for their name, and did the handshake.

For the first day in Ghana, Carter, Yvette, and I went to the "cultural center", which is nothing more than a smallass souk full of Ghanaians that can't really negotiate. Everything inside was overpriced and crap. The rows of shops outside are a different story. It was a bunch of crafts and drum shops which were full of chill dudes. David, one of the owners of a shop there and whom I bought a drum from, actually met us outside and was helpful and not pushing anything on his, he gave us good advice about the shops inside and told us to stop by and played drums, and that we did. About half an hr or an hr of drum playing, which was awesome. I got myself a nice midsize drum and a sweet Ghanaian colored carrying case with it. There was another guy named Prosperity or something like that that ran a shop with his brothers, Prosperity met some girl from Philadelphia that was doing her masters from the U of Ghana and they got married, the guy was gonna immigrate to America in January, what a future. Prosperity wanted to trade my sweet Puma hat for a mask in his shop, but dude was too greedy and tried to get money from me for a small mask, that didn't happen at all. After our drum shopping experience we left the place but on the way out saw Andy and Joanna in the bar right outside so we sat down and had a drink. David joined us, so did Prosperity and his brothers. This dude name Louis came up to me and  told me that I spurned him earlier because I didn't buy his crap, but I got him a beer so it was all good.  Prosperity even got me a shot of palm wine, which is like freakin everclear, my mouth was numb after that shot. Speaking of alcohol, Ghanaian beer was actually good, I wouldn't mind having more, but it wasn't extra special.

Story to be continued, tonight we have the crew talent show going on, which may top the earlier SAS talent show we had.