after_alex

Once I get back to the US, one of the things I’m looking forward to again is easy access to alcohol. In particular, I miss just sitting down and opening a nice lager after a long day. Mmm. I think the US has made great strides in the brewing and vintage industries, particular with great ideas like “Wine in a box.” But when it comes to practicality, perhaps other country markets like China have advanced past the US. Take for example, the low-end of version of wine in a box, “Beer in a Bag!” I found this post on one of my favorite sites, Baba Ganoush on TastyBooze..

Photo from Break.com.

Alls i gotta say is “What a great idea.” Who’da thunk it, Only the Chinese. Not is this option only cheap, but it’s also environmentally friendly and recyclable! Fill it back up after you’re done. It’s safe too, because you can’t cut yourself on a ‘broken’ container. Just don’t suffocate yourself while drinking the contents.

Perhaps I’ve been inured by the consistent threats here lately. The bombs inside Kabul are now more frequent and perhaps more consistent.

Despite the overhanging suspicions of terrorists fomenting in the city we’ve continued our daily lives. Last week a bomb hit the German Embassy a few miles away from my office, but luckily I was way out on the other end of town…so I didn’t even realize what had happened until after waay after the fact.

Sometimes I need to go out to government offices early. This morning we sorta knew that terrorists would try an attack, to “celebrate” the inauguration of President Obama..and send a little message to the world. Nevertheless, I did the foolish thing of attempting to get out to the ministry office…assuming i could beat the any morning bombs (which is when they usually happen). For better or for worse, the bombs actually were earlier than I hoped…and now I’ll forego my meetings with government counterparts out there.

Hmm. Time to step back and look at big picture… talk about “work-life balance”.

In a recent demonstration, a young girl kicks ass. Gotta say that it was not only entertaining, but also enlightening for me as martial artist…

I never heard of Yong Moo Do, but YouTube facilitates my learning.

Yong Moo Do seems to be a modern combination of Tae Kwon Do, Ai Ki Do, and Jiu Jistu. Some Hap Ki Do techniques in there too. Nice.

One of my Afghan colleagues came into the office this morning looking pretty tired. Apparently he spent all yesterday, our weekly day off, looking for a new “used” Toyota Corolla.

His family had sold their last one, so…they’ve decided to trade down. That’s right, trade DOWN. Whereas they had an early 200x model Corolla, they’re now looking for an older one. A 1997 or 1998 model. You’re probably wondering, “Why for god sakes?” Afghans are getting more affluent by the day, especially with the steady influx of foreign capital, job creation, recycled money, etc.

The neat feature to this story is that newer Toyota Corollas actually have a steep discount, compared to older models. The reason…Afghans are more likely to get kidnapped in a new car. ..or so the belief suggests…

Like in Iraq, kidnapping is becoming a profitable pastime in Afghanistan. There’s lots of wealthy returnees coming back to the country, and with the current state of lawlessness, corruption, and wealth disparity we’re seeing a rise in kidnap-for-ransom. Therefore, you are supposedly targeting yourself for with the ‘nappers every time you step into that shiny-yet-dusty ‘05 Corolla you so proudly purchased.

So how that plays back into our story can be broken down with an analysis of supply and demand. An old Toyota Corolla…’97 or ‘98 costs about $11K here. And a newer ‘05 or 06 model also costs about $10K. Usually, you’d see a discount for the older vehicle, rather than the newer one. But because demand is so high for the older models (no one wants to stick out), and newer models keep coming in (the supply continually increases)…we see a steeper price on the older models. Go figure.

The funny part of the purchase decision is that there’s lots of Corollas around. Good for convenience — bad for selection. About 70% of the cars in Afghanistan are Toyota Corollas. Yep. All those used Corollas are disappearing from the streets and lots of Canada, US, Japan, and Dubai… find their way to Afghanistan. What that also means is that there’s plenty of auto shops here, and labor is certainly cheap. Sooo…”total cost of ownership” on a used car (including maintenance fees) comes out to less when you consider the risk of being kidnapped in a brand-new or late model car.

Thus, there’s lots of old, used Toyota Corollas on the street, and they’re priced high — not just because of transport costs — because of the increased risk with purchasing a newer model. Who’da known that getting a new “used” car would put your life in danger….

Are you ready for a deep mental tour? Let me pour out some of what’s on my mind…

Sometimes I get really sick of life. I feel suffocated by the boredom, stunted by exhaustion. I’d say the best times when I felt alive I was at school. It wasn’t just the activity of being at school, but rather the constant re-affirmation that the world is large …much larger than me, and that there is plenty of time to hunt down every corner of it that I please.

After I graduated from college (which took me a while; I was persistent in my denial of “growing up”), I tried to retain a lot of that curiosity about the world and the self-entertainment that I can provide myself by just being interested. Willfully passionate, shall we say it? But every once in a while, I just ran out of steam. I got fed up with my ‘condition’ and my current state of life. Then other times I found a re-ignition of perspective, sometimes spurned by shifting my circumstances (i.e. location or job), or finding a new hobby.

In Afghanistan, the curse of exhaustion comes quick. This is not a place where you would expect to stay, for long. Man, almost every day I wake up and look in the mirror only to find new wrinkles on my face…and that same creeping feeling that I’m just really tired. However, once in a while, given that good day at work or that interesting conversation with a friend here…I’ll once again find new meaning and something to keep myself interested in my environment and my life here. It’s strange. Very strange.

I think part of the roller-coasterness of this trip is that I’ve intentionally placed myself into a moment where my perspective quickly broadens, while gaining a maturity that’s more than what I want. I came to Afghanistan originally with some questions that I couldn’t answer. They were mainly abstract questions about how i fit in here. But, like many other realizations in life, it’s just a matter of time before some insights are won. My personal realizations parallel those that I come to understand, for example, with some of the books on my shelf.

As a curious person, I frequently collect books on unfamiliar topics to learn and to probe. All too frequently, I get books that I realize I’m way too immature for, so I leave them on the shelf. Like growing up with hand-me-down clothes, I eventually mature to the point where I understand what’s going on and can once again approach those old gray books. It’s like gaining a taste for whiskey, or even better yet, milk. At some point, you just get it. Sometimes it requires some personal event to trigger a realization, sometimes it takes a global crisis. Take, for example, that Barry Eichengreen book on Capital Flows and Crises that I got 3 years ago. I had no idea how to gestate the ideas in that thing in 2006, although I knew a bit about financial crises here and there. But now…man NOW. We’re in the middle of a crisis, and even though Eichengreen writes about historical events over a century ago, I GET what he’s talking about.

So that’s a little like my personal bit. Sometimes it takes a global event, sometimes just the right turn in the morning to give me that edge. That, I would say, makes the nicer kind of discoveries to keep me interested.