Day 190: Xmas Travel

Dinner Menu:

• "Daddy's pasta dish"
• Salade verte
• Eau pétillante (maison)

It's that time of the year where we have to start planning for Xmas.  Probably the only time in the year my family (excluding my wife) manages to plan ahead for something.  This year Samantha has kindly agreed to host us again in and around her village in the south west of France.  In previous years this would have entailed an 8-9 hour drive from Paris costing around 150€.  Now thanks to Fianna's Electric car it will take half the time.  As the Electric car is not practical for long trips we will take a TGV to Bordeaux (2hrs) and rent a car (1h30mins).  True this will probably cost more but think of the environmental and economic benefits.  A train journey saves a lot on CO2 emissions plus I will need to keep myself busy with a book or a film both of which are non polluting economic activities.  Everybody wins!  

Day 189: Space

Today was a fasting day:

A few days ago I watched the first episode of a new series on netflix.  I'm not sure what it is about but it starts with a (failed) attempt to send a manned rocket to Mars.  It reminded me that the last time we sent a man to the moon was 46 years ago.  Looking back it seems crazy that the United States put so much money ($100 Billion) and effort into a what turned out to be a dead end.  There are now a number of projects which have as their goal to reach Mars.  I don't know how much is being spent on this new objective but it seems to me as pointless as the planet itself.  I was an avid science fiction reader in my youth so I can understand the dream of new worlds, but Mars has no capacity whatsoever to be "terra formed".  If we want to escape our planet rather than stop destroying it (never the best option) let's just have a few theoretical physicists think about light speed to planets far far away....  That should take a while and cost relatively little.

Day 188: Scooters

Dinner Menu

• Blanquette de Veau de Ratoune au girolles avec pommes de terres et carottes cuite au Romertopf
• Salade verte
• Fromages variés et baguette
• Eau pétillante (maison)

My Dad arrived in the late afternoon as he is staying the night.  One of the first things he asked was whether I used the Electric Kick Scooters (not Mopeds) which have appeared all over Paris.  Considering the tone of my blog which shows my enthusiasm for electric vehicles and the shared economy you can guess my response.  I was one of the first users when they started appearing in Paris in July.  Now there is three different companies providing them and they are all over the city.  The speed with which Parisians have taken to this new mode of transportation is quite amazing.  A combination of failure by the City government to ensure a smoothly running Velib bike sharing scheme and the exceptional weather we have been having in Paris means that the scooters are the ideal solution at the right time.  I hope the system will be encouraged and developed.  Any alternative to cars is great in my view.  I would like all petrol and diesel engines to be banned from Paris before I "retire".

Day 187: Violence

Today was a Fasting Day.

After yesterday's post on the long term trend towards Freedom I see that Brazil the fifth largest country in the world voted 46% for a an extreme right candidate who has repeatedly called for military rule and is consistently racist and misogynistic.  It reminded of a conversation I had with Sasha last time she was in Paris, where she was saying how she felt there was more freedom in South America than there is in Europe.  She was referring to the fact that there are a lot more rules and laws in Europe and that in general these are upheld rather then ignored.  I see her point, but sometimes the absence of clear accepted regulation can descend into extreme violence.  Although the response is ultimately wrong, I can understand why if you live in Brazil or the Philippines where violence, corruption and crime have reached unbearable levels, voting for "law and order" can probably feel like voting for freedom.  Its easy to condemn the Brazilian result from the comfort of a rich liberal society with historically low levels of crime. Over 60,000 people were murdered in Brazil last year and over 12,000 in the Philippines that compares to less than a 5,000 in Europe which has a population of 500M.  Freedom from violence must be seen as a fundamental right which cannot be ignored.  Whatever I may think of Duterte and Bolsonaro (and Trump to a lesser extent) I cannot ignore the fact that their electoral success is legitimate even if it is misguided. 

Day 186: Freedom

Dinner Menu:

• Araignée au chanterelles
• Polenta à la crème
• Salade verte
• Yaourt de brebis et fraises
• Verre de Ribera del Duero 2014

I have been following the American supreme court nomination and the election of a series of unpleasant nationalist governments in the US, Italy, Austria, Hungary and other countries around the world.  On the one hand it makes me despair for the world, but at the same time we need to put things in a historical context.  In most (if not all) of the world the level of freedom enjoyed by the general population and by minorities within countries is incomparable to what it was 100 years ago or even 50 years ago.  Lets just take a few examples from the 1960s:

• In the Soviet Union you could not leave the country
• Brazil and Argentina where under Military Rule
• Spain and Portugal had fascist regimes
• Discrimination and racism against blacks was still widespread in the US
• Abortion was illegal in most of the World
• Apartheid was still in full effect in South Africa
• Women in France did not have equal rights (only in 1965 were they allowed to have their own bank accounts)
• There were no Arab faces on French television, radio or in Government 
• Homosexuality was a crime in the UK
• In China the "Cultural Revolution" was in full swing

The list could go on and on. The world may be in a slight civil liberties trough but ultimately I trust that younger generations are increasingly liberal and tolerant.  The world will continue to move towards increased personal freedoms despite occasional hiccups.

Day 185: Romertopf

Dinner Menu:

• Joues de raies
• Endives à l'étouffé
• Yaourt de brebis et banane
• Eau pétillante (maison)

Today I went looking for a Romertopf in Paris.  I was going to the Cinema with Fianna at 7PM and I thought it would be nice to put something in the oven which would be ready at 9:30PM when we got out.  I remember using it quite a lot to cook first at my parents house and for a while in my twenties and thirties.  It was great because you could cook things for long time without them drying up or burning.  At some point it must have got broken or lost in one of my many moves and never replaced to the point where I completely forgot about it.  As I am the main cook in the family I am always looking for different dishes to prepare and was keen to find one.  After looking in quite a few shops in Paris including Galeries Lafayette I gave up and resorted to the solution that always works : Amazon (Certainly one of the best things about the internet).

I will receive my new Romertopf on Tuesday (I need to start planning my meal for that day).

Day 184: Marathon

Dinner Menu:

• Gnocchi aux pleurotes, crème et persil
• Salade verte
• Yaourt au brebis avec myrtilles
• Eau pétillante (maison)

I'm back and there are now less blog posts ahead of me than there are behind me.  That's actually reassuring for me.  I've always been more of a sprinter than a marathon runner.  Most of my career has been as a consultant which meant participating in short projects that were always on different subjects.  In addition I have changed jobs, countries, houses (and telephones) probably more than is reasonable.  I realise that this probably not my best character trait, focus and consistency are what get things done.   I wonder what the world will look like when the smartphone and internet generation is at its peak.  Whatever the potential benefits of instant information on our screens there is no doubting that they encourage a zapping mentality.  There is no effort required or long term benefit from reading snippets and switching between multiple contents.  

Day 183: Rest

Today was a fasting day.

Today is also my half way point: 182 blog posts behind me and 182 ahead! (Thankfully 2019 is not a leap year) 

So I'm allowing myself a rest.

Back tomorrow! 

Day 182: Mockery

Dinner Menu:

• Risotto aux pleurotes et asperges
• Salade verte
• Fromages
• Baguette au pavot

The Kavanaugh hearing in the United States are disgraceful. But the worst part isn't that a liar and potential rapist may be confirmed to the Supreme Court of what is supposed to be an exemplary democracy.  The worst part is the the US Supreme Court exits and nobody finds that strange.  How can a country be deemed truly democratic if some of the most important decisions involving society are are decided not by elected representatives but by 9 Judges who have an average age of 70. Some of the most important decisions in American society seem to be decided by the Judicial rather the Legislative branch of government.  Why is Abortion, Gun Control, Gay Marriage or Immigration decided in the courts rather than by Congress? Instead of wondering if Kavanaugh should be allowed on the court Americans should asking for its abolition as an anachronistic and anti-democratic institution.  Possibly the best outcome would be to let Kavanaugh sit on the court so that it becomes so blatantly biased that it loses all credibility and power.

Day 181: Cables

Dinner Menu:

• Pintade farcie aux pommes
• Pommes de terres et carottes au four
• Salade verte
• Fromages
• Baguette
• Mangue et yaourt
• Eau pétillante maison

I recently bought myself a new phone and sold my old one for practically the same price.  As I was getting together all the pieces of my old phone to put in its original box I realise I have an impressive amount of wires, chargers, cables, plugs etc which I have accumulated over the past 25 years.  I don't want to throw them away, but I would be happy to give them or sell them for a token amount if I knew where.  Actually I'm sure there must be lots of people with redundant or old cables they don't know what to do with.  What would be great would be a 24hour warehouse in central Paris where people could drop all their cables and buy or borrow used cables for a small amount.  I should check, but I wouldn't be surprised if I have over 50 old cables in the house.  A cable weighs on average 40g, if everyone in paris contributed one cable that would be 400tons of cable recycled! That's my next project after the student flat!

Day 180: Stuck

Today was a fasting day.

Sasha was on her way from Toulouse to Mexico today via London and New York (which is the shortest route) when she was confronted with the down side of ultra low cost flights.  As she was about to get on to the flight from London to New York there was an announcement to say that as the company had just gone bust all flight were cancelled.  The combination of capitalism and the internet allows us to find amazingly cheap deals on all sorts of goods and services but this can have negative aspects.  In my lifetime passenger numbers have gone from 100 Million to 4 Billion per year.  If (or when) the rest of the world flew as much as the US does today that would be 30 billion flights (that's a lot of CO2 released in the atmosphere).  As always with these kind of issues I find myself confronted with a limited number of realistic solutions:

1. Introduce regulation to make flights much more expensive which would limit the number of people who could fly on them.  (Not very democratic or fair to people with limited means)
2. Introduce worldwide rationing of airline tickets with a lottery system for allocating tickets.
3. Hope that technology will solve the pollution problem (clean planes, faster boats, tele-transportation).

I can't see other options.  But would happy to listen to outside the box thinking.

PS: The travel agency managed to get Sasha on a different plane which means she lost a few hours but will still make her destination with all required stops and at no extra cost!

Day 179: Lobster

Dinner Menu:

• Homard entier
• Frites
• Salade
• 1 Verre de chardonnay
• 1/4 Cheese cake & 1/4 de Crumble aux Pommes

Thanks Theo!  It was his 16th birthday today and as he is a foodie who likes lobster we all went to dinner at a restaurant called Pinces (Claws) where we had a lobster each (except Eliot who had steak!).   Theo asked me today what would be better in my opinion banning all industrial cattle farming or banning all industrial fishing ?  My natural inclination would be to ban cattle farming as it creates a lot more CO2 emissions and I prefer losing beef rather than fish from my diet.  Having said that I then thought that might mean we would replace the beef by catching even more fish which would devastate the ocean.  But some quick google research shows we consume 70 Million tons of beef a year compared to  200M tons of farmed or wild fish so we could probably replace all the beef with fish & poultry (which has a much lower environmental impact). I hope my butcher doesn't read my blog!

Happy Birthday Theo!

Day 178: Movie

Fianna and I went to see a movie tonight with another Franco-American couple whose daughter  is in Theo's class.  The film was called Thunder Road and I think it was supposed to be funny, dramatic, meaningful and independent, needless to say I was not impressed.  For some reason I find it particularly annoying to go to the cinema and be disappointed.  This is not true for books or bande déssinée.  My initial thought is that I don't like wasting 2 hours of my life, but if I'm honest that's not a good enough reason.  I know that I "waste my time" doing all sorts of things which don't annoy me as much.  I think its the fact that I feel trapped, I have to spend the full 2 hours in the cinema with limited opportunity to escape.  I remember watching Titanic (one of the most popular movies) of all time and feeling if only I could leave but not doing so because of the people I was with.  Maybe I should practise going to the cinema alone, sitting on the aisle and leaving in the middle of the movie, that way I wouldn't feel trapped and if I stayed to the end of a bad movie it would be a choice rather than an imposition.

Day 177: De-Growth

Today was a fasting day

My daughter tells me that as I write a lot about environmentalism I should write about de-growth (décroissance).  She recently saw a documentary on the negative effects of electric dams.  Hydro-electricity is often seen as renewable and therefore green but in actual fact it creates plenty of havoc through the destruction of all the local ecosystems (not sure that is true of nuclear plants!).  I think I understand the intellectual logic behind de-growth, we have a finite amount of resources which means that if we continue to pursue constant growth we will run out at some point in the future.  But I don't understand what we are supposed to do in practise.  Ultimately I find that there are quite few inconsistencies which I find difficult to resolve:

• What is the ideal amount of economic activity we should be aiming for ?
• It's impossible to have zero environmental impact so how much is acceptable?
• How do you convince (rather then compel) people to give up things that they expect and that make their life easier or better? (I'm not giving up my standing desk!)
• Proponents of de-growth are often anti-technology but I feel that being anti-technology is like being anti-human.  Isn't our intelligence what makes us difference from all other animals? I don't understand how we can decide the point at which technology is bad?  Is a plough bad or an oven or a pen ? 

As you can tell I'm not an advocate of de-growth I think I'd rather work towards smart-growth...

Day 176: Go

I received a GO today.  Which, for those of you who have who don't know what I do, means that a client agreed to a give me a project.  This was a tough negotiation which has resulted in a 2M€ project spread over 16 months.  It's always nice to get a go ahead as it shows a client has faith in you and in addition this is an interesting project which is different to our usual ones. It also means that I will most definitely be working for my current firm until 2019....No comment. 

I had a long (and fruitful) day today so I am allowing myself a short blog with no meaningful lessons.

Back to normal tomorrow

Day 175: Hospital

One of my best friends has been in hospital for the past 5 weeks recovering from a pretty complicated operation.  I understand that it has been and is still a pretty traumatic experience and that he is keen to break out of the hospital environment.   I can most definitely sympathise with this sentiment.  My 15 days of post operative stay in hospitals in Arizona and California confirmed my phobia of those buildings.  I understand that in certain cases there is a need for overnight or even extended stays in medical facilities but I can't help feeling that there must be a healthier and more humane option than these huge "health facilities". I am convinced that in many cases patients would benefit from an early release to their home environment with possibly a daily visit if necessary.  Or why don't we put technology to good use ?  I'm sure that we could devise smartphone apps that could provide remote monitoring of people at home.  After a difficult illness or medical procedure the sooner you can be home the better chance of healing.  Lets devise human sized hospitals, as I have said in a previous blog: small is beautiful.   

Day 174: Squash

Dinner Menu:

• Bar de ligne au four
• Riz
• Haricots verts
• Fromages
• Mangue et yaourt de brebis

This weekend I played squash with my friend Guy.  I introduced him to the game over 30 years ago but since then he has played a lot more than me and is definitely at a higher level.  People (my wife, my mother, my daughter) keep telling me I should do more exercise but as I have mentioned before (Exercise blog) most of the physical activity people do in big cities is not to my liking.  I guess I should look for some Squash or Tennis partners who are there more regularly. Then again a big part of the enjoyment comes from winding down with a juice afterwards and discussing the ups and downs of life.  The solution as alwasy in the 21st century is probably a smartphone app.  SquashBook the app to find friends to practice your sport with.

Day 173: Zen

Today was a fasting day!

Although I have a reputation as being quite relaxed and unfazed by adversity I think I am still further  than I would like to being a Zen Master.  When things that I care about or that I have committed to others don't go as planned I don't have the ability to just let go.  I had promised to send a client a revised proposal for a big project which we are close to winning by today.  The client expected it during the day and called me at 7 PM to ask me why he had not received it yet.  I told  him that there were some internal procedures which  needed to be finalised but he should have it quickly.  I then had to wait 3 hours while different people involved decided whether we should have a comma here or a semicolon there! Finally I was able to send something which was not substantively different from what everybody had agreed to 6 hours earlier.  My point here isn't about the total stupidity of the process, its about the fact that I wasn't able to just accept that it was out of my hands and I could not do more than I had done.  For 3 hours I could feel myself boiling inside (similar to when I'm stuck in a traffic jam) which is probably not good for my mental or physical health. What's interesting is that this is not systematic, I don't get as upset for train or plane delays for example. 

So still work to do to attain perfect detachment!

Day 172: Series

The number and variety of series which are now available on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and HBO is quite stunning.  There are series for all tastes and genres.  Comedy, Drama, Romance, Fantasy, Western, Crime, Artsy, SciFi, etc... As with  everything the quality is quite varied.  One common thread that I have observed is that series are often longer than they need to be.  Its as if what would have been a 90 minutes film in the pre-streaming days is now made into 10 or 12 50 minute episodes. I think its a combination of 2 factors:

1. Directors always need more time and more scenes.  They probably find it difficult to cut and trim once they have shot something.  (eg. Director's cuts of films are always much longer than the "original" version)
2. The streaming companies have such a need for new and original content that whenever they get a good concept they need to maximise the amount viewing they can get out of it.  Thus we get  long repetitive scenes that don't always bring much to the story.

Although I have seen some good series I'm not sure that ever increasing length is a good trend.  I recently watched the first series of A Handmaid's Tale 10 episodes of over 1 hour each.   As it happens I have read the book (300 pages published in 1985) and seen the Film (1h49 mins in 1990) both of which are quite good.  Although the photography and depiction of the story in the series is very well done I don't feel the extra 9 hours were necessary (actually they have to invent all sorts of extra scenes and flashbacks to try and use up the time).  

More thoughts on this in a future blog,  Fianna is waiting for me so we can watch the next episode of our current series!

Day 171: Cheese

Dinner Menu:

• Rougets au four avec courgettes, carottes et navets
• Fromage variés
• Baguette 

As we were running low on cheese and Sasha wanted to go out so we went to our local fromager to stock up.  We bought:

• Figou (goat cheese with a fig inside)
• Chèvre frais au thym et citron
• Gouda aux truffes
• Mimolette extra vielle
• Tome corse
• Roquefort
• Chèvre cendré
• Crottins de chèvre
• Baguettes fraîches (tradition, graines et pavots)

I think this is the main reason I would find it difficult to live elsewhere than France.  I often wonder (see previous blogs) which location(s)  Fianna will retire to and its difficult to find the right balance.  But one thing is clear I will need to have regular access to a proper  fromagerie artisanale preferably with a good wine merchant next door and of course a boulangerie!

Day 170: Miracle

Dinner Menu:

• Whisky Japonais
• Spaghetti Vongole
• Salade verte
• Fromage
• Baguette
• Vouvray

I had what should be considered good news today.  It is highly likely that I will win a big Consulting job for my company.  The good part is that I will probably keep my job at least until 2019 (as I wished for at new year) the bad part is that I will probably keep my job at least until 2019!  Overall its probably a good thing since it gives me more time to prepare my inevitable next steps. The other piece of good news is that it seems that my CEO has hired a Managing Director for Europe which means that he would  between me and her! Hooray!  If that is the case I would be delighted.  Anything that insulates me from my present boss can only be highly positive.  If his role is confirmed and implemented as it should be meaning the new MD is a real buffer I could end up lasting in this job until 2020.  Now that would be a real miracle!

Day 169: Credit

Today was a fasting day.

Now that I have signed the promesse de vente on my first mini-apartment I have to find the financing to allow me to complete the sale.  This involves calling some banks and credit organisations and then preparing a solid administrative file.  The file (dossier in french) is composed of a series of documents (payslips, bank statements, tax certificate, ID, etc).  In the old days all these documents would be original or copies of your actual documents.  Nowadays (thankfully) everything is done electronically.  All your documents are scanned copies which you send to the bank by e-mail.  As I am preparing my documentation I realise that considering my knowledge of computing it would actually be relatively easy for me to create all these documents with whatever numbers would suit me. The banks don't ask to see originals anymore they just assume that a pdf file or image file is an actual document.  I'm thinking I should do a whole false dossier for "fun" and then when the bank gives me the loan I could sell them a Consulting project to oversee their loan procedures.  Or I could publish it as a case study in a newspaper.

Day 168: Exercise

Dinner Menu:

• Emincé de veau (de Maurin) aux girolles et à la crème
• Riz
• Salade verte aux avocats
• Eau avec bulles maison

The multiplication of shared electric vehicles (scooters, bikes, mopeds) in Paris means that I am getting further away form my goal of 10,000 steps a day.  I know that exercise is good for you but I find it difficult to practise it in Paris.  I have never liked running which would be the easiest one to do, I do enjoy cycling but in Paris you end up stopping at traffic lights most of the time.  I'm also a fan of swimming but their aren't that many pools in Paris and they are often overcrowded which I find unpleasant. I do enjoy tennis or squash but I'm lacking a regular partner (although my friend Guy is planning to spend more weekends in Paris).  What I need is a swimming pool in my basement or even better in my attic with an electric roof.   My ideal exercise is a swim in the morning before getting dressed and preferably in cold water.   While I work out how to get a pool in my building I have the 5 minute cold shower and 4 minute plank every morning... close enough I guess.

Day 167: Forgiveness

Today was a fasting day.

Also it was (or will be) Yom Kippur a Jewish holiday about which I know nothing other than its the day my wife asks me to forgive her for any past wrongs real or imagined she may have done.  Forgiveness seems to have a big part in most monotheist religions (Islam, Christianity and Judaism that I know of).  In principle I'm all in favour of letting bygone be bygones, however in religion it is often about asking God to forgive you for your sins, which seems to me a little self serving.  You repent or otherwise show contrition (through fasting) and God gives you a free pass until the next time.  Be that as it may,  I do feel that the capacity for forgiving others is a fundamental requirement to having a healthy mind (and happy marriage). 

More importantly I wonder why we don't use forgiveness to contribute to healing our societies. I would like to see regular pardons of all our prison population irrespective of whether they recognise their "sins".  The hardest but most beneficial act is to forgive those who don't recognise that they may have been at fault.

So I forgive Fianna and anyone else who happens to be reading this blog for any offence that I might have caused knowingly or not and I am happy to receive forgiveness in return from anyone whether I deserve it or not.

Day 166: Legislation

Dinner Menu:

• Côte de boeuf de Galice
• Purée de pomme de terre
• Purée de céleri et navet
• Salade verte
• Tarte aux abricots
• Côte de Bordeaux

In pursuit of my ambition to become a slumlord I signed the promesse de vente (the preliminary contract before completion) on my first property today. There was a minor issue because the property is designated as a "commercial workshop" which means that I might not be able to rent it out as student accommodation.  I think this has been resolved but it does raise the question of why a property should need to be designated in the first place.  Does the state really need to get involved in deciding whether a property should be an apartment, a workshop, an office or a shop ?  Why can't the owner or occupier decide what use he or she wants to make of the space ?  I understand that anarchy is complicated and may require some more thought before being implemented but it seems to me that our societies are becoming overly complex.  There are over 12,000 laws and 140,000 decrees in France at present.  And yet there is a French saying that nul n'est censé ignorer la loi (no one can plead ignorance of the law).  That doesn't seem realistic to me.  Maybe we should have a manageable number of laws (120 ?) and any new law would have to replace an existing law.  

Day 165: Welcome

Dinner Menu:

• Coucou de Rennes au paprika fourrée aux pommes
• Pommes de terres et carottes au four
• Haricots verts
• Yaourt au brebis avec groseilles et myrtilles
• Eau avec bulles maison

This weekend was the Journées Européennes du Patrimoine.  Its 2 days during which buildings of historical or cultural interest which are normally not freely accessible open their doors to the public.  Last year we visited the Palais Royal which houses the Conseil Constitutionnel, the Conseil d'État and the Ministry of Culture (and happens to be the place where we had Lunch on Fianna and I's wedding day).  This year we visited the Cour des comptes which is the body that verifies all French public accounts (like the National Audit Office).  The building itself was quite interesting one of many quite grandiose state buildings we have in Paris.  But I was more impressed by the fact that the President of the institution was there himself to welcome all comers individually and the Secretary General and other Senior Civil servants were there to answer questions and give information on the work of the Court.  I was thinking it would make a big difference if people could do that with all state institutions at least once a year.  

Day 164: Prize

Dinner Menu:

• Sebaste au fenouil et olives
• Riz
• Eau maison

This week one of the most famous French literary prizes the Renaudot decided to include a self-published novel on its shortlist.  This has created a storm of protest from the Syndicat des Libraires  (booksellers union) not so much because it is self published but because the author has used Amazon as his platform which means bookshops cannot sell his book.  although I have some sympathy for the bookshops because I feel they do provide an important service in allowing people to browse for books physically, I still find their position untenable.  Marco Koskas' book Bande de Français was turned down by his existing publishers and therefore he had no choice other than to self publish a book he believed in. If we were to go along with the Syndicat des Libraires  it would be akin to giving physical book publishers the exclusive right to defining what can be considered a book.  I think a better solution would be for the booksellers to get it physically published now that it has been shortlisted for a Prize rather than trying to suppress it.  After all most books on Amazon started in print so why can't we also go the other way from electronic format to physical? 

Day 163: Negotiation

Today I spent the day in Hungary. I was asked to do an introduction to negotiation workshop for 33 executives from around the world. What I like about my negotiation workshops is that people are always interested and engaged in the subject.  Many people are uncomfortable with negotiation because they see it as confrontational but that is confusing the solution with the problem. Negotiation is what you do to resolve issues and conflicts not the cause of them. As long as individuals, groups or states are negotiating it means they are seeking agreement.  Disagreements happen all the time and the only way to overcome them  constructively is to talk them through which is another way of saying negotiate. 

Day 162: Europe

Today was a fasting day.

I am writing my blog from Bük a small village in Hungary. As it happens it is also today that the European Parliament voted a motion effectively condemning the Hungarian government for its attack on European democratic norms and in particular the rule of law.  This does pose an interesting theoretical question:  Is it imaginable to expel a state from the European Union because it is no longer in ligne with Fundamental European Principles.  I don't have a simple answer, but it does seem to me that sometimes liberal democracies need to stand up for their values.  I think it would be useful to clearly define a few principles to which all EU states have to sign up to, with the possibility of expelling those who do not abide by them.  The  expulsion should be a last resort requiring a lengthy process but it should be possible.  

Day 161: Bag

Dinner Menu:

• Raviolis aux tomates séchées, tomates fraiches et mozzarella
• Salade verte
• Eau avec bulles maison

I'm off to Hungary for the day tomorrow.  I am giving a Negotiation training session to 35 managers from a big Japanese company. It should be interesting.  However this blog post is not about negotiation it about packing.  I haven't packed yet and its quite late. Thankfully I am a very light packer.  I expect I will have small shoulder bag with the essentials and nothing else.  When I travel and I see people with huge suitcases, often more than one, I wonder what they are taking with them. To me the worst thing about traveling is having to take things along. I will not be reincarnated in a tortoise in a future life.  I cannot imagine a trip that would require me taking a non carry on suitcase.  They should have special planes for people who take less than 10kg of luggage with them.  All the saved  space could then be used to make more comfortable seats!