I've clearly demonstrated that I don't have the will to keep the
full website up, so here's a more barebones try. Posts here will
mix adventures, tall tales and borderline useful information -
particularly on health economics. Have I told you my solution for
the US health care system yet? Stay tuned.
Pictures will be housed elsewhere (cuz doing that manually is a
big pain). The old gonzodeli content is still here, just needs a
little work to rejig the links.
Let's see how this goes.
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Contents
23 Jul - Livingstone | 21 Jul - Report from Dhaka
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23 Jul 11
Day 4 in Livingstone (as in "Dr
Livingstone, I presume"). With mission: accomplished yesterday and
no one working on Saturday, it seemed a perfect time to visit
Victoria Falls. Many years ago, a volcanic eruption left a giant
slab of lava here. It shrank as it cooled into hard basalt rock,
leaving huge cracks in the surface. In most spots, limestone
filled the cracks, so you'd never know they were there. Except a
few miles down the road, where the Zambezi River wound its way to
town and eroded out the limestone, exposing the cracks. The last
crack exposed is the modern geological Victoria Falls where the
languid, mile-wide river dives into a 360ft gorge (for comparison,
Niagara is 170ft) and rushes through a narrow (300ft) channel.
With a single entry visa, I stuck to the
Zambian side of the falls. The Zimbabwean side is supposed to be
cool but unpredictable. A friend waited 3 hours at the bridge over
the border gorge as the lone guard checked passports on a train
and several buses before he gave up. I'll let the pictures
tell the rest. They're so
intense.
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21 Jul 11
Just arrived in Livingstone, Zambia. I don't
have much of interest to report yet except that, never having
had a million of anything before, I was psyched to take out 1
million kwacha on arrival. Turns out that is not much money. My
cheeseburger dinner set me back over 40k.
So
here are some tales from Bangladesh last month
instead.
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Traffic in Dhaka
Dhaka does not have much in the way of
redeeming features. Least charming has to be the infamous traffic.
It is downright Lagos-esque. For example, after moving closer to
my office, I could catch a cab to work, which would take about
45 minutes. Or I could walk the whole way to work, which would
take about 45 minutes. Seriously.
Friends occasionally mooted causes and
solutions to the problem. We even had a visitor from MIT in town
just to study traffic (sadly funny that the 5 days he was in
town were all hartals (strikes) or weekends). Ideas ranged from
limiting autorickshaw licenses to rural development programs to
building whole other cities (none of which would solve the
problem, but I won't rant about that just now).
To me, the problem is obvious - gas is way
too cheap as its heavily subsidized by the government. The
obvious result is long
lines at the pump, horrible air pollution, brutal
congestion and probably smuggling. (Arbitrage!) But don't take
my word for it - there's a fine literature on the economics of
gas prices & traffic. Some of my favorites: Automobile
Externalities and Policies and Road
User and Congestion Charges: Theory & Practice of Excise
Taxation. Asthma
is burgeoning too. The Iranians had the same problems
until this year. They declared "economic jihad"
(sic) and slashed their gas subsidy. Iran - paragon of economic
prudence.
[Dhaka
photo album]
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The Gym in Dhaka
Not unlike India, my gym in
Bangladesh was a source of endless absurdity. It was an
adventure just to find the place. When I finally got there
(the second trip because it was "ladies' time" when I first
arrived), I had to negotiate terms of membership. I had only
2 weeks left in town, but they offered monthly & daily
packages. At first, it looked like I was in for a hard slog.
Then, the owner asked me where I was from. I nearly blurted
out "the US" before remembering my deal with Morgan.
"Argentina."
"Argentina?! Maradona! Messi! Very good! Best team,
Argentina! Don't worry - I give you very good price!"
Not only that, but he gave me a free glass of orange juice.
Calling it a "gym" is a little generous.
It's really somebody's house with the furniture pulled out,
linoleum laid down and old equipment stuffed in. So you did
your cardio in the front living room. Bench
was in one bedroom, abs in another. The cable machine
must have been the master bedroom cuz the bathroom (now
locker room) was attached.
It some ways, it was the crappiest gym
I've ever been to. It others, it was the best. Where else
can you kill cockroaches with 45lb plates? Where else is
there a kid paid to follow you around and adjust the weights
for you? Or to hold
the pullup rack so you don't tip it over? Of course,
this meant he would follow me around and stare while I
lifted. That was awkward, but it was adorable when he tried
to pick up the bar I used for clean-lunges, which I'm fairly
sure must have been the heaviest bar anyone had ever used
there. But what, you ask, are clean-lunges? There was
nothing resembling a squat rack, so the only way to do
lunges was to clean & jerk the bar first.
[Dhaka
photo album]
