Perspectives...

So yeserday was a very interesting day, where specific events got me thinking about completey unrelated things, which I wouldn't have though about if the events hadn't happened.

Yesterday Raleigh got its share of Alberta. So while the Hurricanes were planning to play against the Oilers to take the Stanley Cup (which wasn't to happen, at least not yesterday), hurricane Alberta was saying hello to the general public. It wasn't like trees were blown out from their roots by gnashing winds, it was more of a long laborious downpour, coupled by fairly strong winds. Nothing that Islamabad doesn't train you for, as a matter of fact, I have seen much much worse there. But what got me thinking...lets get to those events...

(BTW this doesn't mean that at all other times I am not thinking, I am a thinker, just that I am not thinking about the things that I was thinking about yesterday)

Well first the electricity in our office premises went out. And it was pitch dark, except for a few generator powered lights! And then power kept coming and going the whole day. And if that wasn't enough, the roof at our office started leaking. And no I am not kidding!

So the whole day went by, with no power, and dripping ceilings. More then 500 man hours down the drain! Hailing from a third world country, I am used to these things. Even though the roofs don't usually leak there (see we contruct using brick and concrete), but power is quite often the issue. But when this sort of a thing happens there, we are prepared, with emergency power supplies, and planning, like using laptops instead of PCs, giving you 2-5 hrs of electricity independent computing power. Over here the situation was completely different. The whole day went by and nothing could be done...

What I got to thinking as a consequence was why do 3rd world countries remain 3rd world? Is it a lack of resources, or is it something a lot deeper and sinister. I think we have ample resources there, but like the power supply, the enthusiasm and commitment to excel is intermittent. What impresses me most about my american friends is that they're stable, and extremely consistent. They would keep going, like a pair of Duracell batteries. While my friends in Islamabad may finish 5 days work in 1 day; they might also spend 5 days doing nothing. Here they would just keep on working consistently, and in the long run this is what would seperate us.

When the electricity goes out here, the servers all crash and work is halted, and no one does anything for one complete day. But they would return the next day to pick up where they left off. When the same thing happens in Pakistan, we would bust our guts to get work done on the insane day, come up with brillant solutions to keep the wheels turning, but by the time the next day arrives we'd be drained and incapable of doing anything.

So next time I get an email from our Kenya office saying we'd be out of contact today due to power failure, I'd interpret it differently, and look at the whole situation as one big balancing act.

I am not really sure where I am trying to get with this, but I am sure that there is somewhere you can get with this discussion, a place that would hold the key to why there's so much of a difference withing the communities on this planet.

Always in awe...see you later...