My Uncle, Gene Heck

I've been writing this post in my mind for several days, but I'm having the most difficult time actually putting pen to paper, so to speak. As some of you already know, last Wednesday morning my beloved uncle, the one I am here visiting, passed away.

I've felt this overwhelming need to share with all of you, who I care so much for, how great and cherished my uncle was, but any truly just account seems impossible. The best I can hope for is to try to describe Gene, the uncle that I loved.

Gene was one of the most generous people I've ever met, whether it was his time or his money, he was willing to share it. I remember growing up that my Dad would have to pay the dinner check secretly or before Gene realized it, in order to avoid a check standoff, where Gene just wouldn't give up. Even though Gene was visiting us in Dallas from a million miles away, and there would be six of us and only one of him, he always wanted to treat. And being over here I've found that this experience is shared by many. Gene was just that kind of stand up guy. But also, Gene gave his time and his abilities. I remember when I was doing a debate through my high school as a Freshman. Gene asked me what the topic was about, and I told him. He came back the next day with some copies he made at the SMU library and an underlined section in the Federalist Papers, and then he came to my debate to cheer me on. He was so supportive; I'll always remember that.

The anecdote only begins to speak to my uncle the intellect. He could read like I look at pictures. He's written over 20 books on topics ranging from Middle Eastern history to modern political economics, some of which are still available on amazon. He has a PhD and four or five master's degrees. He loved learning, and he loved being an explorer of the world of ideas. In many ways, Gene was the embodiment of a head in the clouds academic. I recall a story of Einstein's past, where he called his secretary and asked the all important question, "what's my address?" The story has a reminiscence of Gene to it. And if there is only one thing, I could learn from Gene, it'd be to marry the right woman. My Aunt Adrienne was his guide, his focus, his true north. Adrienne is a Vollmer (like my mother), and as best I can tell, while they where many hats, on the inside they are all engineers at heart. Where he saw big ideas, she saw plans and processes. I don't think he could have accomplished half of what he did without her. It's a rare and beautiful love and marriage that lasts 40 years in today's society, and any man that found that is truly fortunate.

It wasn't until I got here that I was introduced to Gene the businessman. Gene's been in Saudi almost 40 years, and there just aren't any other Americans that can say that. He was beloved and remembered (in their own words) by Arabs,"We have lost a man of high moral values, a great scholar and a leader who selflessly served the American Business Community in KSA ...Gene and I were talking to each other to get together for a lunch before the end of this month! I could not believe this and could not sleep a couple of nights, just thinking of him, his talent, vision, economic expertise and knowledge of not only KSA but the Muslim and Arab world." and Americans, "if you stepped off a plane in Saudi Arabia for the first time and went to the US Embassy and asked them what to do to get started doing business in Saudi Arabia, they would, without hesitation, direct you to Gene." The word iconic is used a lot and seems to fit.

But what I will always remember is Gene the uncle and friend, whose visits I always cherished and set aside time for. We would spend hours drinking, debating, and solving the world's problems. If being politically like-minded made a friendship, ours would have been a hard one, but it only reminds me of an anecdote he liked to tell about what Ronald Reagan said to Democratic speaker of the house and good friend Tip O'Neal at a toast, "If I was granted two tickets to heaven, I'd gladly take you with me. But if I had only one ticket, I'd gladly give it up and go to hell with you." My uncle was a master of anecdotes and jokes. They were clever and insightful, and many, especially the Saudi ones, I am only now truly understanding. He was a drinking buddy's, drinking buddy, and some of his wisdom I heed even today, "If you drink alone, you're an alcoholic, but if you drink in front of your computer, you're a writer." He enjoyed life deeply, and each moment I got to spend with him made me enjoy life that much more.

While this loss is devastating, in the few days I've had to reflect on his passing, I've realized how blessed I am to be on this trip. I got to spend three weeks with Gene, and the two of us have never been closer. I was able to better appreciate his life here, and meet a few of the many people who his life has touched. I would never trade that to ease the pain I feel now.

I hope you find rest and peace, Gene.

Forever and ever, Amen.

Softball

I had a couple of softball games the last couple of days. It was fun. I hit the ball pretty hard in the first game; a fly out to left and two hard line drive singles was enough to get me moved from batting last to fourth. Then I had a couple of infield hits and a sac fly (one might of been an error, didn't see it). All in all, I should be much better at softball than I am. I've always had three mistakes that tend to creep into my swing: weight on the front foot (lunging), head coming up, and shoulder flying out too soon. All are probably related, especially the last two. I'm still not used to sitting back as much as I need to in softball, so it's easy for these problems to creep into my swing.

We all have uniforms complete with baseball pants. Grown men in baseball pants look ridiculous.

English is Everywhere

One thing that is noticeable immediately when you enter Riyadh is that English is everywhere. Almost all signs are written in Arabic and in English. There is much, much more English here than in European cities like Rome and Paris. We've always had English speaking waiters, and random people we run into from guards or shop keepers, seem to always speak English. My uncle speaks very good Arabic and almost never uses it. As far as I can tell, there isn't much of a reason to learn Arabic. Not that it wouldn't be nice, but it doesn't seem necessary to do well in Saudi. An interesting example from a story that an official told my uncle, about a bad move Northrop made, "Most defense contractors send a retired general who says, 'I know what these planes can do, because I've flown them for 30 years.' Northrop sends an Egyptian who says, 'Hi, I'm Ahmed, and I can speak Arabic."

The Rug Shop

We went to the rug shop in the old city center a few days ago. I didn't have my pictures on the computer, so I wanted to go ahead and post them now. The rug shop is beautiful. The tall guy in the picture is John, one of my uncle's friends. He was the one in the market for a new rug and on the far left is the shop owner. He is Pakistani, and he at least convinced me he had wonderful rugs. The thread counts of his best rugs are 900 to 950 knots per inch. Many of them are from Iran, but not necessarily all. The rugs are beautiful and have a light and dark side, meaning when you turn the rug 180 degrees the colors look very different. You sit at one end of the shop and they serve tea and water and show you rugs. I really enjoyed it. A top quality rug costs at least $3,000 and the most expensive we looked at were around $8,000.

Traditional Dinner

Basel took Gene and I to Najd Village, a restaurant that serves traditional Saudi Arabian food in a traditional Saudi Arabian environment. The building is made of mud with strong trees forming the structure. We ate outside sitting under a patio in little walled off areas. Each is like a little traditional living room; we eat on the floor on a carpet leaning against pillows. The food is served family style all in the middle of the rug. The food was pretty good and even Gene enjoyed it. He even tried the baby camel, which is a big step for him. It was a beautiful night and made for a great time.

A Compound

When I'm at my uncle's place, I live on a compound called Al Yamamah. "Compound" sounds a bit harsh to American ears, but it's a bit more like a gated community or a suburb (for some of the bigger ones) than a base. That being said, there is a lot more security than the typical gated community, at least, getting in and out.

This is the first guard house. The picture is being taken on the way out, so cars would be coming in the opposite lane. The procedure is, you drive up and stop and open the latch on your hood. One guard will check under your hood and the other uses a mirror to check under your car. They are looking for bombs, of course. Then you drive to the next guard house, in between the two are barricades, that you must slalom through. They would be tough to navigate at high speeds if you tried to just crash your way through the first guard house.

This is the second gaurd house. I can't really tell what people do here, except wave you through. Though, I imagine they know our car and it's probably where visitors and what not check in.

Next, I've got a picture of the gate and the wall around the compound.

So that is the basic security of our compound. There are only two American families on the compound, so we really aren't a target for anything and it feels very safe. I thought I had some pictures of the grounds, but not the case, so I'll try to take some and post them soon.

Kingdom Tower

Went to Kingdom Tower yesterday, but I couldn't get the post up. It was during the daytime, but this picture is much cooler. At the very top, 100 floors up, there is a sky walk that we walked across. There is a restaurant on the 77th that we checked out and will eat dinner at one of these nights. We made reservations for tomorrow, but we'll probably be out at the "countryside" instead.

Skylines: Dubai vs. Riyadh

UAE's per capita GDP of $38k is more than KSA's of $23k, but it's still interesting how different the skylines are. Again, a lot of this is due to Saudi restrictions on height of buildings that was waved for its two big towers.

Al Faisaliah

Left, my picture. Right, professional from the web.

Two days ago, we went to an ABGR steering committee meeting at the Al Faisaliah, where the headquarters of Exxon-Mobile in Riyadh is. I don't know if it matters, since you wouldn't be able to get up the elevator without an escort anyway, but I won't tell you what floor it's on. When you get to the floor, nothing is marked, and the first room you get into is like a safe room, only one door can be open at a time. That is, everyone goes in, you shut the door, then the next door will open after whatever security precedure is done.

Once you get up in the tower, the view is amazing. Riyadh is a sprawling city; Basel seemed to think it is the third largest by land area in the world, but that claim is not easy to back up, because defining such a question meaningfully is not easy. The take away point though is that Riyadh is sprawling and flat. The city has had several ordinances against building tall buildings. There are two sky scrapers, this one and the Kingdom Tower.

The ABGR steering committee was interesting. I have never really sat in a grown up meeting like that, where everybody was an equal and making group decisions. It's kind of interesting and I enjoyed it. As part of the meeting, the group agreed to give 100,000 SR (about $26,500) to the American school in Riyadh. The school is very close to where my uncle lives, so I look forward to checking it out.

We had delicious Turkish food after the meeting. For the first time, we were still downtown at nightfall. The city lights up so beautifully. It looks a bit old and dust covered during the day, but at night shines like a jewel in the desert.

Breakfast with the ABGR

The American Business Group of Riyadh is a professional organization promoting business between American and Saudi companies. I've been impressed with the organization, while here and attended a breakfast they had yesterday. The speaker was Gregory Gause from the University of Vermont. I'll try to briefly summarize his talk. First, even though he identified himself as a lifelong Republican who switched parties, because of the Iraq war, he gave credit to both President Bush and King Fahd for spending lots of political capital on maintaing the US-Saudi relationship after 9-11. He then discussed what he saw as two myths and two legitimate problems in the future for US-Saudi relations.

Myth 1: China will began projecting force in the Gulf. This myth extrapolates from the fact that China increasingly has economic interests in the Middle East and will further those interests by projecting military power, thus threatening the U.S.'s own military. Gause thought that this was wrongheaded. He said for better or worse, the Gulf is more or less an American lake and it makes little sense for China to do anything but free ride off that fact. Since China's main interest is in the free flow of oil, and the U.S. was already providing the security to meet that goal, there is little reason for China to expend its own resources. Twenty years down the road the geopolitics may be different, but for now, he saw China as a non-problem.

Myth 2: The U.S. will sell out Saudi interests in brokering a deal with Iran. This is apparently a real concern from Saudis. The Saudis are in a precarious position, because they really don't want a U.S./Iranian conflict, since it may well play out in their backyard. But they also fear U.S. becoming too chummy with Iran and brokering a deal that hurts Saudi interests. Iran has 3 times the population of Saudi and have gained considerable power since we invaded Iraq. But Gause thought that Iran's power was a bit overblown. Iran has terribly mismanaged their own government and economy in recent years and not capitalized on the fall of Sadam. Also, if the U.S. couldn't dominate the region, there is no reason to believe Iran would be able to, even if the U.S. brokered an unlikely deal.

The two problems are:

Israel - No suprise here. The ongoing problem of the middle east that has been managed so far, but he pointed out that the Palestinian problem is increasingly a problem all Muslims identify with even if they have no connection to it directly. He thought that when Patreaus went before congress and said flat out that the lack of a Palestinian state was costing Amercian lives was not a monumental shift in policy, but enough to sit back and take notice.

Environment - He saw the U.S.'s new interest in Green technology and the environment as potentially a challenge for the relationship. The Saudis have fought a little bit to keep oil prices down below $100, helping broker important deals at OPEC in part to mitigate pressure to develop alternative energies. Gause didn't have a strong opinion about whether a Cap and trade or other important environmental bill would pass, but it is something that seriously concerns the Saudis.

Lunch with the Fabulous Basel

My first business lunch in the kingdom was with the incredible Basel Al-Jabr, CEO of MASIC. Here is a nice picture of Basel I found on the internet from a few years ago. He is a very insightful and articulate guy. He is from Riyadh, but after undergraduate work he spent a few years in the states in L.A. preparing for and completing his MBA. When I asked him about Saudi's future he named five important sectors.

Oil and gas - obviously still the lifeblood of the kingdom's economy, but there is still lots of room for new technologies to be deployed and increasing efficency in production in years to come.

Construction - right now there are more projects than available companies in Saudi Arabia, Basel thought there was a $120 billion back log in projects.

Middle income and low income housing - Over half of Saudi's population is below the age of 25. In the coming years, these people will getting married and buying a house. I personally hope they build the housing, so these kids don't have to live with their parents.

Education - Saudi's take education very seriously. There is a higher concentration of American trained Ph.D.s in KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) than anywhere else in the world. There will be a continued effort to educate the young population and also to improve graduate studies in the kingdom.

Consumer goods - he didn't give a lot of explanations, but if KSA continues to grow this would be an obvious candidate. We also got into a discussion of KSA's income distribution, and the middle class seems to be much more prevalent than I had thought before I came. I will have to try to find some numbers, but that is certainly the feel I get from the city.

Telecomm - lots of room for growth here. Most everyone has a cellphone, but the internet is not nearly as pervasive. My uncle just purchased internet for his apartment and bought 12 months of unlimited internet for $56 a month that is running at 603 kbps. I think it's close to state of the art here, and it is wireless (wimax) and easy to set up, but slow.

I really enjoyed meeting Basel. He invited me to join him at a very old traditional restaurant, where we'll sit on the floors and eat the traditional food from Riyadh. I can't wait.

Health Care: What's the Problem?

I promised some wonky posts and here is the first. I find that the graph above is almost completely unknown by the general public. What the graph shows is the expenditure of each country on health care per person in the country. What's really nice is that the graph breaks down public and private spending. Look at just the dark blue, public spending, starting at the U.S. and scanning over you'll quickly see that the U.S. spends more tax dollars than France, Germany, Denmark, England and Japan. That is, in some ways we have "socialized medicine" already we just do it so badly that we don't get anything for it. Of course, the even more obvious note is just the staggering amount the U.S. spends on health care per person compared to other advanced countries. We spend more than twice as much the average OECD country. A caveat is that only Norway and Switzerland are approximately the same as the US in terms of standard of livings, GDP per capita, Norway having slightly better and the Swiss slightly worse. [Luxembourg is habitually ignored, because it is strange in many ways. Its GDP/per cap is approaching twice the U.S.'s].

So these are the numbers, the question becomes "are we getting a good deal?" I'm going to leave that to the readers.

Jet Lag

I got in late the 29th, plane at 9:20pm, cleared customs 2 hours later and in bed around 1am. I woke up at 6:45am the first day and was starting to get tired at 9:30am. I stayed up until 10 or so though. The next day I woke up early again, but didn't hit the wall until 3:30pm. Yesterday I got up at 5:30am and didn't really hit the wall. I stayed up until about 10:30pm. But unfortuanetly, while I wanted to call an into jet lag last night, this morning I woke up at 3:30am and couldn't get back to sleep. I stayed in bed until 5am and then got up. Today is the last day of the weekend, so we are celebrating the coming day. I've got a lot of research to do though. I've got a lot of wonkish posts I want to write today.

Censorship

Aside from the internet gaming that I can't participate in from here, the Saudi censorship hasn't been very noticeable. Worried calls from mothers are another story. Yet, I have always found appeasement to be an underrated strategy, so I acquiesce. Sadly, I was going to have a post that titled G @ mbling is Illegal at Bushwood, Sir where I was going to take great pains to avoid potential censorship, but the best part of the post was the title. The truth is that I haven't run into too many things that were censored, though those certainly exist. And while I don't know what gets a site banned, it doesn't seem to be based on simple word searches. Citizens are encouraged to report objectionable sites, and I'm pretty sure that creates a big discrepency. It's probably just easier to block something an angry reader or group of readers suggests than check them all.

Since my only follower so far is a fellow gamer, I'll add some items of interest:
Stox (ok)
Kill Phil (ok)
Card Runners (oddly blocked), the only one without a potentially censorable word in the title.