Easter Weekend at Augusta National (longwinded)

Well the Villanova Wildcats did not make it happen but it was fun for a while, I usually have no emotional ties to anyone in the final 4 so it made me pay attention the best I could, I did not watch any of the action.

Things over here are about the same as they have been for the last few months. The city is quiet. The more I learn about the plans they have to build this place into a vacation destination the more I think they over shot it just a bit. I mean the Palm Jebel Ali is built. It has been for a while now, it is just dirt. The World is out there, but it is still such an engineering challenge to make it work and I think ~90% of it is still just dirt. The Palm Deira has a 12 year reclamation plan; and then that many years again to build the bridges and everything else. Or something like that. It will be big enough to hold 700,000 to 1MM plus people. Who? Do you really want that many expats living off the coast? I guess if they can afford it then it will help the local economy. I hope they build a Bentley dealership right in the middle.

I wrote in an email to employee that I think Dubai is like a Lamborghini and Abu Dhabi is like a Ferrari. Abu Dhabi has some jaw dropping projects that are just beautiful. Totally unique and not 160 stories tall. The hotel and F1 race track are amazing. The Ferrari theme park which is on the same island is awesome. The city itself has some high raise slums that are full of the people who swing the hammers and make it grow (Dubai keeps those low rise) but it has a central city feel and a kind of a soul as I was once told. But both cities need to figure that problem out because if the locals don’t do the work, and the wages you want to pay for the work means you need very low cost housing, something has to give. I have been to capital a number of times now but I really don’t know all that much about it. I have not seen all the neighbor hoods. It has many islands. I do know one thing though, the KSA and the Emirate of Abu Dhabi have bank and they will have it for a number of years to come. They are loaded.

But anyway, Dubai says it will be ahead of the curve on the rebound. The government did something good about a month ago, they announced that they were going to put in about $30 Billion into the economy, into the banks, to add some liquidity to the systems. That is what they need here. People want to build, but they can’t get a loan. You know the story.

I see what is going on in the US through a filter, through web articles. From the family. I am not living it on the ground. I go to my websites and I have totally distant news sources on TV and in print that don’t get the USA and what it is and how it works. I mean I’m sorry, a Brit reporting from Doha, Qatar for Aljazeera does not have the pulse of SoCal. I mean just for starters, and this I think can put it in perspective, they all see the US as just one thing. One place. It is like saying to someone from Vermont that I am from California. It is true, but you need to narrow it down a bit. Just like the difference between the east and west coast of Florida. They are different places. But the world just sees us as the States and thinks we all think as one. How the hell is that kind of thinking going to be able to give me the news about what is going on back home.

Viviane put in here 30 days notice and started her exit plan. This is a good thing because it puts things into motion. This place is not home, but I am not leaving tomorrow. I have a place to go but outside of family and friends, not a whole lot to come back to, as in terms of work.

I worked the fourth of July last year and I am going to work Easter this year. This is something that no American Catholic should have to do when you are at the stage I am in my career. But I am going to rally through. I volunteered for this bull shit and I need to hold up my end of the deal. I came into this country on May 10 but started with Hill on the 5th. Once I am at the 11th of May I pass a huge mile stone legally. I must work here a year. Now I love Hill International, if I did not work for such a great company and if I did not have Viviane in my life, I would be a lost and bitter soul in the Middle East.

The world does not revolve around college athletics and things like the Masters, but my little life like to think it does on the weekends and I miss it. I saw next to no football, basketball and right now the guys are hitting the little white ball around in the middle of the night from my perspective. I can’t watch it anyway, but to track it live means an all-nighter which is just silly.

I see that ASU is in the news. Just like the Notre Dame thing I have my opinion but I will just sit back and watch. The double standard in the US Media is so disgusting. Their selective tolerance is so clear to me. The elitism is palpable. Do me a favor, every time Obama does something, good or bad imagine if a Republican did it and what the media response would be. The teleprompter thing. His lack of response to the pirates, (“a distraction” it’s a test you moron) the economy, a visit to the tonight show?! You’re the president, his current international apology tour. I love how if I said Hussein before I was a racist, now it is OK. What if Bush referred to the Austrian language? Etc. Just a few examples off the top of my head.

Well I am ending with a rant. What else is new. I am fine. I am in the stretch run. I hope to take the slow way home, through Europe or Down Under and then a long stay over in Brazil before La La Land.

Go the church and hug the kids. Being an American all by itself is a blessing. Never forget that. We are blessed. Celebrate.

BrotherBill