Barcelona - OK - I know you are not going to believe this, BUT...

Yes, right by this old farm house somewhere outside of the Barcelona, the students in my undergraduate learning circle for international business were introduced to... (drum roll...)
the most secretive manufacturing plant of the world's MOST expensive SUPER CAR!
Only 12 cars are manufactured a year for a selective group of customers who are willing to pay..........$700,000 EUROS PER CAR!
The cars are hand made bit by bit from the most advanced materials in the world and are designed like fighter jets, yet perform as well as a Formula One race car while being able to drive in regular streets!
Introducing the TRAMONTANA super car. Named after a wind the blows in the mountains surrounding ths tiny village where this secret factory exists, the car looks like something from another planet. Yet the 20 or so odd people who work in this incredible company are so warm and unassuming that you will never believe they are responsible for such a marvel.
Needless to say, we felt very privileged to share their story and their dreams...
www.tramontanagroup.com

A Wedding on The Ship??? Oh my...

When the day arrived for Kirsten and Jovanni's wedding, we we thrilled. We almost did not get to experience this wonderful union after Jovanni broke his collar bone, and ended up having emergency surgery in Cape Town. We had so much fun planning the event, that I swear we were going to have the wedding even if he was on a stretcher:)

But everything worked out and the ceremony took place, as planned, on the deck with all the students and staff dressed up in their best cloths and the bride and groom wearing their colorful red, gold, purple, and green Indian and Chinese outfits matching the swaths of fabric used to decorate the ceremony area (we never miss a point to celebrate multi culturalism!)

The student band played music, the captain conducted the traditional ceremony, one of our professors read from the song of songs and our academic dean distributed red string for all of us to tie around out wrists as we all joined the couple spiritually as a community. And the Morrocan students led us all in a dance around the couple that got us all clapping and cheering as lound as we could!

Everywhere you looked you saw smiling faces and everyone talked about how fortunate we were to participate in such a festival of love! Kirsten and Jovanni read their vows in Italian (which proved again that this IS the language of love) and danced the night away to music played by no other but our crew's band.

And they even played a traditional "Mazel Tov" tune in my honor while the cake was being cut!

I can go on and on, but the pictures will tell a much better story... As soon as we get to Barcelona, I will share them with you!

Cape Verde - Music is Thy Love

Cape Verde was just a short re-fueling stop for us with the possibility of a quick swim in the ocean and a local fish meal. Yet it turned out to be another lesson in life around our world that will remain in our minds and hearts for a long time.

The island of St. Vincent has not seen a drop of rain since 1984. As a result, it magnificent mountains are totally barren. Against their brown backdrop, the local population has painted their house in bright pastel colors and developed a local craft specialty in colorfully painted fabrics perhaps to counter the stark scenery surrounding them. Some even said the place looks like the surface of the moon...

And to stimulate the senses more, the locals delight your ears with amazing music that is prevalent everywhere you go. (pictures to come when we reach Barcelona). Since we arrived on a Satruday, we were able in a couple of hours to witness teens beating drums on the beach, formal bands playing in little town hotels and a band of youg adults jamming in an Internet cafe. We were even lucky to hear some drumming on African drums in the open market as one of our staff asked the vendors if they will let us hear how their drums sound and ended up getting the vendor from Senegal to compete with a local vendor as to whose drumming was better!

As you can imagine, the local music store was one of the nicest of all other stores and is the destination of the European tourists who love to come here. Music also dominates the yearly carnival and a big music festival they hold in the summer. We were told that anyone at Cape Verde can play some form of a musical instrument or at least knows how to drum. Music, they say, is what they have to pass the days that amny times lack any other interesting activity.

The pace of the island was as slow as they come, and no one rushed to talk to us or offer us anything except for a few poor kids, who we were told are sometimes part of an organized thieves group. Mostly, though, we were left to wonder the empty streets and enjoy the warm and mild sunshine...

In my business classes we talked about Cape Verde's ambitions to become a destination for foreign investments. Here and there we saw signs of new resort communities being built for possibly foreigners who would like a second home here. Yet, it was difficult to ascertain whether the locals' dream will become a reality soon. As an alternative, we learned that this Island has the best tasting tuna anywhere and the other islands grow some wonderful coffee. Our guide summed it all by saying "We at St. Vincente do not grow anything except for lots of beautiful children..." Judging by his good looks, many of us females understood why...

Internet Café s – The Saga Continues….

I noticed that I have not had a chance to write about my ongoing quest for the ‘best’ Internet Café, so here it goes…

India: The café was hidden in the back of a shopping mall. Once you saw the sign, you had to go up a narrow flight of stairs to a space no bigger than a single small room that was divided among 6 computer surrounded by flimsy partitions. The place was packed due to the fact that it was Sunday and the very low cost of per-minute use (about $.5). From giggling girls chatting online with prospective groom overseas to job applicant filling out online application, and – of course – bewildered tourists who barely fit their bag and themselves into the make-shift cubicles, coming in seemed like bad timing… However, when approached by the guy-in-charge (holding an old notebook with a written log of the cubicles and the computer use), I told him I wanted to use my flash drive to upload stuff to the Internet. He gave me a dirty look, took away my flash drive and proceeded to plug it into a computer to run a scan on its contents (this was a first!). When he accidently click on doing a FULL system scan, the compute came to a screeching halt…So he pick up the flash drive and told me to move to another computer (not an easy task with the impossible small maneuvering space and so many bags everywhere) where he re-booted the computer to start the scan and walked away… Running out of time by now (I told my colleagues that it will ‘only take 30 minutes, so go on shopping,’ I used the opportunity when he had his back to me to move to yet another computer to try and get onto Blogger where I wanted to upload my pictures. Well, off course he had the last laugh! The minute I put in the URL address into the browser, the browser, moving at turtle speed, froze! Disgustingly I paid him $1 and dashed out of the place…
The next day I went shopping with a friend from our staff and as she was browsing and bargaining with the shop owner, I noticed his laptop sitting on the table. I politely inquired whether he has a ‘fast Internet connection’. He said “of course’ and turned back to my friend. Well, that was all I needed to hear! I approached him with the best smile I could muster and asked will he PLEASE let me check my email. Not wanting to stop his negotiations with my friend, he patiently let me get on the Internet and I logged into my Blog immediately and started uploading some of my pictures (I did not trust I could sit there long enough to also write a posting without him getting suspicious as to what the heck I was doing). Luckily my friend ended up purchasing some of his merchandise so my only ‘real’ Internet use in India last a blissful 20 minutes! Needless to say, when he looked up and what I was doing, hoping, I am sure, that I will myself make a purchase to justify ‘high jacking’ his computer, I smiled again and told him I will try to come back the next day since there were many things in his store I wanted to buy. I never went back…

Seychelles: I was so very much looking forward to the opportunity of coming to the islands and finding a cozy Internet café on the beach with great speeds so I could merrily write my blog, upload my pictures, and get a great tan – all at the same time. WRONG! By the time I finally let a group of students to the only Internet place we could find quickly, I ended up sitting across a computer at the local telecommunication company’s offices that was so SLOW, that all of us almost had tears in our eyes L Furthermore, Blogger was BLOCKED! So much for tanning and surfing the web simultaneously!

South Africa: OK, here was finally a country that had a good telecom infrastructure and we were docked near a mall! First thing fist – is there and Internet Café there? And the answer is………..YES! HOWEVER, with 9 computers in an open space to the mall area that were filled ALL THE TIME with other tourists and our wonderful students, sitting there for long stretches of time was not a great possibility. The only time I sat there, there was a Dutch lady speaking on the phone OUT LOUD to someone for 30 minutes while looking at something on the web! Time to find a different solution… My spy network of students that always try to inform me of good Internet access spots informed me that the beautiful hotel next to the dock has FREE Internet! Have I died and gone to heaven??? On the last day of our stay, I dressed nice and walked into the hotel lobby with my laptop. Looking around I noticed a few students trying to look like hotel guests working quietly on their laptop. I found a spot near the registration desk and off I went, FINALLY, being able to do my Blog at a normal speed…UNTIL…my computer ran out of battery and I found out that the type of electrical outlets they have in South Africa did not fit my converter! By that time the lobby filled out with our students some of whom were able to get a converter from the hotel staff. What’s a professor to do?? I tried sweet talking to the students, but they were all so immersed in their own Net browsing, that they barely look at me..ouch! Finally, I marched to the reception desk, asked for a convertor, took it and hastily found a corner near the bar with an electronic outlet that I could hide at…6 hours later, the hotel was swarming with our students all trying to catch some free web time before we had to get back on the ship and sail out of South Africa… The hotel staff looked at us with exasperated looks… I made sure to tell them that we will all turn to pumpkins at 4 PM if we do not leave the hotel and get back to the ship, and they smiled wearily… This is what I call a true Cape Town Hospitality!! By the time we all got back on the ship, we were all in agreement – WE LOVE CAPE TOWN!

Sobering Notes from Dr. Allen Whiteside - Director of Health Economic and HIV/AIDS Research Division, U of Durban

Dr. Whiteside has been working for 26 years for HIV/AIDS research in Africa. He came to the Scholar Ship to give the plenary lecture during our conference on the economic impact of HIV/AIDS that brought in experts from all over world to a symposium organized by our research institute.

he shared with us stats that we have maybe forgotten about -- the 33.5 million people living with HIV (with the highest prevalence shifting to Russia and Asia) and how this data is being incredibly misused. He believes that it will take at least another 8 to 10 years before we will really see the infection manifest itself! Swaziland has now the worse epidemic in the world and no resources to fight it. 50% of young women between the ages of 20 to 25 are infected, while 45% of men between the ages of 35 to 39 are.

He is mostly concerned because, in his own words, "we have never seen in the developing world where there is less than zero percent population growth! When life expectancy is less than 30 years old, where do we go from there?"

The economic impact of this projection is catastrophic, in his mind, and points to a systemic crisis that Africa and the parts of Asia and Eastern Europe are now facing. As the population will drop, the per capita income will go up, and now counties will have a hard time getting foreign aid...

Some disturbing thoughts he left us with:
1) Do we have a responsibility to the citizens of the workd?
2) Do we have responsibility for this epidemic?
3) Is this just a Darwinian event?

West Cape Wineries - Or A Lazy Day of Drinking...

I finished my sightseeing in Cape Town by taking a tour of the wine country. Needless to say, it was a tour full of guilty pleasure -- lots of wine tasting and even... Chocolate (there is no better combination than champaign and chocolate or even a nice deep red wine with chocolate, we discovered... especially when your chocolate has ingredients such as fresh ginger and even red pepper! )

The Dutch settlers were the ones that brought wine making to South Africa and to this date most of the "wine farms" (as they are being called here) are owned and operated by Afrikaners. However, a new generation of black and colored workers is now seen in all the wineries, as was the case with the ones we have visited. They have discovered the availability of training and jobs in this great industry and are slowly making their way into it. Of course, they are not owners yet, but clearly that time will come as well (all in all, our Zulu tour guide told us, the biggest problem in South Africa is land ownership since 87% of the land is owned by just 3 million people leaving black and colored folks with almost no way to acquire land. This is what has also given birth to the black and colored townships that dot the route between Cape Town and the wineries and are a very sore spot for everyone. Our guide claims that the government is going to try and build some temporary housing in front of the townships by 2010 when the World Cup will take place here, in an attempt to disguise the townships shacks from a view from the highways going in and out of town).

After tasting over 20 varieties of South African wines, our group was convinced of the wonderful quality of wine produced here and the care so evidently being taken in every one of the farms we have visited. They all looked like the belonged on a movie set!

Yet our Zulu guide reminded us that not too long ago, the black laborers on the wine farms were paid in wine bottles containing spoiled wine which many blacks believe was in the root of spreading infertility among the workers... Right now, during the summer harvest, you see a lot of blacks commuting to the farms from the townships to work in the vineyards, many of them happy for the temporary employment they provide.

We left the wine country in a mellow mood, having even visited a quaint and old French village in the midst of the sprawling farms. Right next to small bistros with French sounding menus, you were able to purchase African wooden sculptures of jungle animals. And down the road, we even stopped at a cheetah farm that raises baby Cheetahs as preservation of the species. Ah, Africa the magnificent!

OnBoard Workshop - Training Young African Scientists in Enterpreneurship

Everywhere you go, you see the above smiling faces of young Black Africans working diligently and proudly. And you cannot help yourself but wonder - how do they do it? As we all receive warnings about the rampant violence in the country and the desperate battle with HIV/AIDS, coupled with tremendous unemployment and an energy crisis, we look at their faces and hear their voices and the word "hope" seems to be the only antidote...

With that in mind, I volunteered to give a one day workshop on board the ship to a group of 12 Black African scientists and researchers struggling with the challenge of transforming their innovations into the future commercial successes that will power their country's economy. They came from various African countries, like Kenya, Uganda, and Ghana, but were mostly from South Africa and they spend a full day with me drinking every bit of information and stories i have shared with them in total concentration.

I was humbled by their hunger and determination and moved by their request, "Please come back; stay here for a year and train us!".

I knew that I will not be able to teach them in one day the essence of being an entrepreneur, so I aimed for inspiring them and making them believe a bit more in their ability to be change agents and catalysts within their scientific community. I know that some of the examples I have given them were so US-Centric that it made me embarrassed at times for using them (where the hell will they find VC's to drop $2 million in their lap and then afford to fail??). But they re-assured me that they wanted to learn to place the bar high so their goals will be far reaching and powerful to motivate them to persevere.

When it was all over, they gathered around me and wanted me to give them a copy of all my presentations plus any other materials I had. It was the ultimate gratification knowing they will probably go on to share it with many and that this one day's experience will be multiplied many more times...

We are now at the mid point of our voyage. We have been taking more than giving to date. Africa gave me the chance to give back and for that I am grateful...

Rugby - How Dare We Cheer for New Zealand while in South Africa!

OK - So rugby in South Africa is a very very important sport and most of us know nothing about it. So what? So that is the reason why we were in for an interesting surprise when we decided to follow our Kiwi On Board Excursions' Director, Kim, to go and cheer for her home team The Crusaders from New Zealand who were playing South Africa.

Can you imagine 60 of us, all dressed in black and red or in Crusaders' shirts, sitting amongst the South Africans who, by the way, knew in advance that they were going to be CRUSHED by the visiting team? It was one thing if we knew what we were cheering for, but most of us were clueless! Luckily for us the Crusaders led the whole time, so when we cheered, it was always for OUR team, or the winning team!

In the process, we learned a lot about rugby (what a fun game!) and how quickly the South African seating next to us stopped explaining it to us once they realized we were cheering for the wrong team!

A good time was had by all of us (especially with beer being barely a buck:), and we are all now "rugby converts"... That is, of course, until we get to Europe, where we were told we might be able to go to a local soccer game. Barcelona - here comes your Scholar Ship Cheerleaders!

The Cape Town Waterfront - A Model Development and Our "Front Yard"

Our backyard has become this amazing waterfront development that is now the signature of Cape Town. It is a complex of shops, restaurants, live events, and hotels in the midst of a working harbor with magnificent views of Table Mountain. The whole development is designed with great care to keep the surrounding views unobstructed while allowing tourism to flourish alongside commercial port activities. This well developed and managed complex has gotten so much attention, that it is now used as a model for other countries to follow and the people involved in its creation and maintenance have become consultants.

One clear measure of its success has been its recent acquisition:Dubai-based Istithmar & UK-based London & Regional Properties have won the race for one of South Africa’s most-visited property and leisure developments, as they confirmed that their joint venture had successfully bid US$ 1 billion for the V&A Waterfront Company.V&A Waterfront now attracts more than 22 million visitors a year, making it Africa’s number one property, leisure and retail development.
The Victoria & Alfred Waterfront in Cape Town is a mixed-use prime waterfront real estate development in which shopping and entertainment venues are intermingled with office locations, world-class hotels and luxury apartments in the residential marina and active fishing port. Its leading hotels include Sun International’s Table Bay Hotel and The Cape Grace.

A "One of Its Kind" six stars hotel is under construction. Once finished, it will be the most luxurious hotel in all of Africa!

Clotex - Saving South Africa's Dying Textile Sector

With my international business students, we went to visit Clotex - Clothing and Textile Service Center - an NGO that was created to try and save the West Cape's dying industry. We met with the 2 volunteer executives who has been in the industry for many years and are now fighting to help many of the very small shops to survive. The base of the industry has collapsed and in 2003 South Africa was a net-exporter of clothing. In 2008, it is expected that there will be 700 million Rands of exports and 4 billion Rands of imports!
The German Government, through GTZ, came in to do a study about the industry only to find out that nobody knew what can make it survive and how. The local government decided to provide basic training to many of the smaller companies that had zero access to finance (especially since many did not bother to register as a small business being very afraid of the rampant corruption in the government sector after the fall of Apartheid).
Another HUGE problem, we were told, if the fact that training must be ongoing since so many workers actually die from AIDS every day!
Their mission:
CLOTEX aims - with respect to the growth and pipeline efficiency of the clothing and textile industry in the Western Cape - to facilitate access to information, advice, trade contracts and opportunities as well as councelling for SMME's in the industry and its related sub-sectors, with particular though not exclusive emphasis on the emergent and formally disadvantaged entrepeneurs. CLOTEX's current role is to mainly focus on increasing employment through the development needs of entrepreneurs operating small, medium and micro enterprises (SMME's).
Our host felt that the industry as a whole lacks benchmarks to success (such as those established by Zara and H&M), and its members need to also take advantage of the current exchange rate which really works to their favor in terms of exporting. Yet the organization can only serve as a facilitator outside the trade unions and use countries such as Italy as a benchmark for success in terms of creating high value textile and clothing products.
The small quarters of the organization and its humble leaders made it clear to us that this organization has an uphill battle ahead... Later we found out that many of the industries in this country face similar challenges.

Jewish Museum - Holocaust Survivors' Encounter

CleaPart of our port program for the post graduate international business students included a visit to the Jewish Museum. Clearly i was delighted about the choice, but more so with the fact that the museum was chosen since it chronicles the tremendous contributions the Jews have made to the growth of South Africa's economy as a whole, and Cape Town, in particular. As we entered the museum, after going through a security door, we all of a sudden heard a huge explosion. Our guide, an elderly docent, turned to us with a puzzled look, while I felt fear gripping me... what was it? Another explosion erupted in what seemed like next door and the docent smiled all of a sudden -- "Ah," he said,"it is only the cannon from the parliament building which is next to us. Must be an important visitor coming in." Above you can see Natalie's picture with him. It was her president, Mr. Sarkozy, who came to Cape Town on the day we arrived...

Our docent went on to tell us all about how his great grandfather came to Cape Town and helped build a thriving Jewish community that went on to give birth to some of the country's leading industrialists as well as fighter of Apartheid (the museum was re-dedicated by Nelson Mandela after he became president). When asked about the future, he told our students about his kids, who grew up with all the privileges of the while society during Apartheid, but are now working hard to re-built South Africa...

Next to the Jewish Museum is the Holocaust Memorial which is dedicated to:

• serServing as a memorial to the 6 million Jews who where killed in the Holocaust and all victims of Natzism and teaches about the consequences of prejudice, racism and discrimination while promoting an understanding of the dangers of indifference, apathy and silence. One of the most illuminating exhibits of the memorial is the comparison of ads and pamphlets showing the inferior profile of a black person that proliferated during Apartheid vs. the ones used by the Nazis. aparently, the creator of the Apartheid regime were students of Nazi propaganda...

One of the touching experiences I had after going through the exhibits was meeting the docent there who asked me the sign the visitors book and realized that both our parents were in Bergen Belsen... her mother, that dies recently, was older than my Dad, but somehow we felt a sense of c\immediate closeness as their offsprings. We hugs with tears in our eyes as we shared with each other tid bits about being the child of a survivor. It was as if we knew so much about each other, even though we were total strangers... I was so sorry when I had to rush to join my group but turned around to wave at her and say "Shalom!" out loud... Then I realized, I did not even ask for her name...

The Ostrich Farm - So Glad We Got To See It!

OK, so I look stupid sitting on top of an Ostrich! But who could have resisted such an opportunity? We were delighted when we were told we will be visiting an ostrich farm to learn about the important industry of ostrich farming. But we were NOT ready to fall in love with those beautiful birds only to be told, in great detail while eating their delicious meat, how wonderful they are as a "product" since ALL of any bird can be used - for meat, feathers, leather, and eggs!

The South African owner of the farm was very proud to tell us how he makes designer purses from the leather and tries to sell the meat for profit either locally or abroad (depending on the bird-flu alert that exists each season) while using the egg shells for create beautiful works of art. We all learned about his opinion on how South African farmers lack in intelligence to push the industry forward while the Southern European are pushing theirs forward with a true long term vision. Yet somehow watching him having lunch with his wife and two children on a beautiful porch with amazing vistas surrounded by his big farm and beautiful birds, it was hard to relate to his words...
Yet, as business students we had to acknowledge that the he had a real challenge on his hands with an industry that has an extremely volatile demand curve and a highly fickle market, working with animals that can turn wild at any moment, even when you assume they have become fully domesticated that you try to climb on their back and take a stupid picture...