1 post tagged “friedman”
Wow. I've been away from Richmond for a week and a half. Nothing like a change of perspective and unplugging oneself to get refreshed.
Mexico was terrific. Bird and I stayed at the Moon Palace (all inclusive resort, which is pretty popular in that area) just outside of the Cancun strip and I haven't had service like that ever. You just had to think of something and it was there. Mostly lounged at the pool, sunning myself. On Thursday we went to Cozumel. Bird went diving and I went snorkeling, absolutely gorgeous. Haven't seen that many fish ever. My favorites were the queen parrot fish, reminded me of herds of cows (they were enormous) as their school leasurely swam by, munching at the coral (you could actually hear them munching).
Next day we were off to Chichen Itza (our guide coached us for several minutes on how to correctly pronounce it: "Do NOT say Chicken Pizza"). I had NO IDEA that this site is so amazing. Everyone has seen pictures of the El Castillo, but there are literally hundreds of other ruins. A proper city. Unfortunately, because of vandals (graffiti) you can no longer climb to the top of any of the temples. If you have the chance to go, skip taking a tour and rent a car. The tour we were on only gave us 2 1/2 hours at the site, which wasn't nearly long enough. Splurge and get a tour guide, it's completely worth it.
It is very humbling to walk around Chichen Itza. We feel that we're so advanced as a society, but in all honesty, we just have faster communication tools. And lousy architecture. Though definitely a better standard of living and health care for the entire populace.
On Saturday I flew back to DC and attended the Schwab Impact Conference. The speakers were amazing: Dr. Alan Greenspan, Dr. Steven Levitt (author of "Freakonomics" which I'm definitely going to read), Thomas Friedman (author of "The World is Flat"), Sir Richard Branson. I could go on for hours about all of the stimulating concepts they discussed and the kajillion ideas they sparked off.
In a nutshell:
Greenspan is MUCH more open about voicing his opion now that he's no longer at the Fed. He applauded hedgefunds because he feels they squelch inefficiencies in the the market and also voiced that his major concern for the US was that it would subscribe to a protectionist policies.
Dr. Levitt's entire point was to understand exactly what question you are asking. If you don't ask the right question, you cannot uncover what you are looking for.
Mr. Friedman elloquently summed up the history of our information revolution.
Sir Branson was the most interesting of all. Mainly, not because of what he said, but because of what he is. This gentleman is fearless. Ok, maybe he has 2% fear in there somewhere, but anyone who's been pulled out of the sea 6 times because his hot-air balloons keep coming down out of the sky... need I say more? He didn't spark of great geneous, he didn't spark of having one great idea... instead you had the sense that the man is filled with an amazing belief in his people (Virgin) and truly understands the value of empowering them, which in turn sets him free to work on new projects that inspire his belief in humanity. A true Explorer and, I might add, a Hero. His company (there are actually 300 companies under Virgin) has a policy that no one will develop AIDS. Anyone who is HIV positive who's white blood cell count drops below a specific point (which he knew off the top of his head) was immediately put on drugs to suppress the full blown development of AIDS. And yes, his company pays for it. He is also actively involved in alternative fuel source development.
So, I'm going to stop here. It's great to be back and it was great to be gone. I hope all of you are doing well!
