Can you teach an old dog new tricks?

According to my Mom the answer is no. That is the excuse she uses every time when we try to get her to try something new... like computers. I guess it is genetic, though, as my Grandma Griffin refused to learn to drive. However, this generation of the Griffin/Hutton side of the family believes in lifelong learning, and that is pretty much what my life is dedicated to accomplishing.

Take for instance this Ph.D. work. It is still the hardest thing I have ever done and has stretched me far beyond my comfort zone... and keeps stretching me. However, I do love it on the other hand, as I am learning such incredible things every day.

I grew up riding horses and have owned my own (as an Oklahoman it is almost mandatory to be a cowboy at some stage in your life). Some people reserved the boots/jeans/cowboy hat for '89er day in school (commemoration of the opening of Oklahoma Indian Territory to settlers in 1889 commemorated by the land-run of that year), but I wore them often. While I was figuring out my life in college I spent a lot of time working at a stables in northwest Oklahoma City and riding almost every day. I loved it! But, the opportunities to ride have diminished over time (and it is much easier to just jump on my trusty BMW motorcycle) and I honestly cannot remember when I last rode a horse. That is where my title to this post comes in. This last weekend a friend invited me to go horseback riding and I jumped at the chance. I am very comfortable around horses, not intimidated by their size or demeanor, so that was just great. However, when I got on, I almost fell off the other side because this was an English saddle (with no saddle horn and short stirrups) and English riding! In fact, the horse I was riding was a Lipizzaner and was trained in classic English riding. I've never heard some of the terms my instructor gave me like, "Express your horse" or "Impulse your mare" in the context of riding. Some of the fineries of English riding seemed a bit ridiculous to this ole cowhand, but I was game and really enjoyed myself.

The other thing I am doing is announcing my run for Congress in the 1st Congressional District of Washington (please note that this may change based upon the redistricting that is going on in Washington state because we got a new Congressional District this year). I loved running in 2006 and 2008 , even though those were the worst years to run as a Republican in a couple of decades (another horse analogy is, "if you get bucked off the horse, pick yourself up and get back on). I took 2010 off to work on this Ph.D., but have decided that when I get this Ph.D. I will throw my efforts into a hot Congressional Race. The key to any race is raising money, and the two times I ran you could not get anyone to give you money to run against an entrenched incumbent. This time is different, however, as there is no incumbent! That makes this an attractive race to run and I will face more competition than I have in the past. I can't wait to get back to the States and crank up my campaign. However, raising money is the key, so if you have $25 to spare, please go to my website and donate it now: www.larryishmael.com/contribute.

Thanks for reading the saga of my life, and keep checking back to this blog to see how things are going in all respects!

Juggling Multiple Balls in the Air

I really am enjoying this year in South Africa. I feel very much at home and my circle of friends is expanding with the different activities I've been involved in here. My singular focus has been the dissertation, but I also have to remember that there is an election year coming up and I need to be positioned for that now. So, I spent Monday working on my "unofficial announcement" that I will be running for the 1st Congressional seat again in 2012. I ran in 2006 and 2008, but took 2010 0ff to concentrate on my Ph.D. work. Now, as my dissertation work is starting to shape up nicely, I hope to be Dr. Ishmael by the time the election rolls around next year.

The field for 2012 will be interesting. I hear that the incumbent, Jay Inslee, will be running against Rob McKenna for Governor of the state of Washington, which leaves the 1st CD seat open for the first time in recent memory. Now that is good timing for someone who has worked so hard for so long to win that seat, namely me! But, others are cropping up on the horizon like: Joe Marine (who ran in 2002), James Watkins (who ran in 2010), and possibly even John Koster (who ran for the 2nd CD seat in 2010 and 2004). But, I like my chances. My name recognition is second to John Koster, and I have no real negatives at this juncture. You really need to run at least twice to get name recognition high enough to win.

Now that I have informally announced, I can run my Congressional Exploratory Campaign until I have raised the limit for "testing the waters," and then I will officially declare and register with the FEC. There is much work to assemble a team between now and then, and that means I need to start that process right now even though I'm still in South Africa.

I have a cadre of Stellenbosch students and professors in the Political Science department who are keenly interested in my campaign as South Africa is maturing as a democracy and they look to the way the US conducts theirs to learn who to do and what not to do going forward. It is, if you will, a case study in democracy for them which is why they are so interested.

The municipal elections here in South Africa took place this year (last week), with federal elections in two years. Although the major party in South Africa is the African National Congress (ANC), the party of Nelson Mandela, the second most powerful is the Democratic Alliance (DA). The DA runs the Western Cape province where I reside here, and is held in high esteem. They were recently re-elected to serve another 4 years with a 79.4% mandate. But, the interesting thing is that the main issue of this election cycle was "service delivery."

What, you may ask, is service delivery? Well, it is the cumulative grouping of all government services to the public. They use it to measure how well your garbage service works, how good the roads are, how effective the schools are, and every other measure of customer service the local government provides to its residents. It is something that all levels of society (from the richest to the extremely poor) can measure as it effects their own lives, and the party that does the best job of it gets elected for another term. Pretty basic, right? Well, why don't we do it in the USA?

Can you imagine how the US Congress would fare if the residents/constituents of each Congressional District (and all combined) measured service delivery? A more simplistic way of stating it is that the Congressional approval ratings are truly in the tank. Depending on the poll, the approval rating is between 12% and 27% for the Congress as a whole. Now, if you were to measure service delivery, it would be even lower still! You see, service delivery is about what they have actually accomplished to improve the lives of their residents, not just spouting dogma about what it would be like if they had their party's way.

What do you think of your service delivery from Jay Inslee? What has he done to improve your life? Nada. Zip, Zilch. Has the nation's fiscal situation been improved? Are you getting more out of those government services that affect your life for the taxes you pay? Heck, they can't even balance the budget! They cannot so much as speak with civility towards each other, so how do you expect them to work together to provide any "service delivery?"

Of course, the key to service delivery is that it not be built on an ever increasing national debt. A balanced budget amendment would also be required so that the old adage, "a chicken in every pot" wasn't used. How about the government sending out a "customer survey" on how happy the taxpayers are with each department of the government? Can you imagine one from the IRS? The House? The Senate? The Presidency? Imagine a government who took these customer service survey results and had to respond to them with actual programs to improve the service delivery they offered their clients! Now that is a world I would be proud to call my own!

Okay, enough about politics, so back to writing my dissertation....

And the beat goes on.......

This week is more of the same: read, research, write, edit, and write again. This dissertation is possibly the hardest thing I've ever done. By virtue of the fact that this is the highest award to which a scholar can aspire, it was not designed to be easy. Possibly the hardest part is that one receives criticism on what has been done, but there is no encouragement on how it should be done better. I guess that is the nature of the beast, but it doesn't make it any easier.

I have made some breakthroughs along the way, and every day brings more knowledge on the subject matter, but at some point the old brain gets maxed out with information overload. I will admit that this process has made me much more organized than I have been since I left school 100 years ago. That can only serve me well in a variety of different respects, so this whole process broadens the horizon.

But, when there is too much information overload it is time to relax a bit and do something else. That is why having people around to interact with is so important. My landlords are wonderful and have been so incredibly nice and welcoming. In fact, I scored two free meals at their house this week, both at dinner parties they hosted. It is a bit unusual to have Americans around this place (there are loads of Germans here for some reason), so I guess my accent and political perspectives are currently in vogue for dinner parties. I haven't felt too much like an organ grinder's monkey yet, but that may come!

The place is just so beautiful that even short distractions to hear and see the exotic birds that live around here, the tropical plants, and the expansive views of the mountains are just so awesome that it allows me to get that little respite I so desperately need. The name of this estate is "The Squirrel's Peep," and for good reason. There are plenty of squirrels around the place who live in a huge pine tree near the veranda. They are so active and fun to watch! We even have humming birds around that actually stop flying and suck their nectar right from the branch where they are perched. All told, it is really idyllic here, and this is a healthy environment in which to study. The climate here is very much like that of the northern Mediterranean. It is occasionally cold and rainy, but most days are sunny and in the upper 60s and low 70s. It is truly like a Seattle summer in so many ways.

Okay, back to the beat (as Cher used to sing), so the beat goes on.... ladidady di, ladidady da.....

This Past Weekend

I worked on my dissertation virtually all day on Friday, so there was no need to get out of my pajamas (it is winter here). I made good progress in addressing the issue set forth by my adviser, so at the end of the day I was looking forward to the dinner party I was invited to attend. I did actually get showered, shaved, brushed my teeth, and got dressed up in time for the party. I even went out and bought a bouquet of flowers for the hostess. In fact, my invite came from my landlords here, so I just had to go through the door in my kitchen into their dining room to attend.
The couple who rent me this beautiful flat are absolutely amazing. I suspect they are in their early 50s, are primarily English speaking South Africans, and have four daughters. The eldest is 19 and attends my university as a "first year" (we call it "freshman"), the next is 17, the next is 16, and the youngest of all is Lilly, 9 years old. The family is all white with one exception: little Lilly is an AIDS orphan that my landlords adopted at 6 weeks old. Lilly was born with HIV, so they put her on a drug cocktail regimen that has kept her long past the expected prediction that she would only live 6 months. Lilly is on HIV medication still, and will be for the rest of her life, but she should have a long lasting and rewarding life. I forgot to say that Lilly is a black African. To hear my landlords explain her, she has been the biggest blessing in their lives. Whomever believes that racism still exists in South Africa needs to meet Lilly.
The dinner party was wonderful. Two of the guests were retired apple farmers. Having no children interested in continuing the family farm, they each sold out for a pile of money. One of the aforementioned had actually been a migrant worker in Vantage, Washington 20 some years ago earning money by picking apples. He knew all the places I mentioned, so it was proof once again just how small the world is. Overall, the party was just fantastic and wasn't over until past midnight (I usually turn into a pumpkin by 10 pm).
The next day, Saturday, Chris Coxwell and I went riding on our motorbikes (motorcycles in America). We typically ride dirt roads for between 300 and 400 kilometers, and Saturday was no exception. For once, Chris agreed to stop for what he calls "breakfast" at 12:30 pm (I think he likes to eat around 3). We stopped at a Wimpy Restaurant (the largest chain of fast food places in South Africa). They have burgers, but also great breakfasts and full sit down meals. That was a nice stop, then we hit the road again. Somewhere along the way I hit a big pothole and bent the rim on my front tire. Much to my surprise, it punctured the inner tube and caused a slow leak. I found the front end rather wobbly and just as I pulled into a gas station it went flat. Chris is an engineer and former race car driver, so he had the tools to replace the inner tube. We sat down and did just that, but that tube also popped, so I called BMW On Call and an hour and a half later they were there with a nice BMW X3 and motorcycle trailer. Chris had to get home for a party, so I just hung out at a little pizza place awaiting the BMW guy, and it was wonderful pizza (baked in a clay oven with very thin cracker like crust). He arrived right on time and we loaded the bike quickly and he got me home by about 8:30 pm. This works better than AAA in the USA!

Sunday was a lazy day and I just watched TV, listened to podcasts of Pastor Joe's sermons, and rested my tired and achy body. It was pleasant to just do nothing all day!
Today I had to go to the huge library at the University to get a book I wanted. In the process I saw that in the past couple of months the school has vastly increased the number of computer work stations at the library. This place is getting back to first world status quicker than you might think!
So, I am back at home working on the dissertation again. The day is nice and I enjoy the sunshine even though it is hazy out. It makes for a great work environment. This truly is one of the most beautiful places on the planet!

Pursuing a Ph.D. is a truly humbling experience. I have worked hard on my dissertation chapters and the latest one I turned in was destroyed by my adviser. I was quite proud of my work and had two other professors praise me for it, but my adviser wants it much better. That is the humbling part. He's not trying to pick on me, just make me better. It is so frustrating, though, as a "mature" student because I am not exactly brimming in self confidence by going back to school at my advanced age. But I will persevere, it just requires that I dig deeper.

Some cool things happened lately. I attended a research seminar for graduate students that was quite informative. There were several professors there, and since this is a research institute, the mantra for professors is "publish or perish." They explained the intricacies of how to go about research and whether you want to be a pure academic or a prostitute for money (as they explained it). Interestingly enough, all said that even if you pursue the career of a "pure academic" you have to face the realities that only certain projects will be funded because they have been established as areas where that discipline is designed to go. To give an example, I am not able to get financing from traditional sources because my paper of cleaning up the air by addressing specific toxic pollutants does not speak to Climate Change. In fact, I'm not a big believer in man-made climate change, but the reality is that by addressing traditional pollutants it also cuts down on the production of green house gases (GHG). So, that seminar was a nice affirmation of the experiences I have been having in seeking funding.

I also was invited to attend a meeting of the Rotary Club of Stellenbosch. A political science professor from the University is the president of the club and she had read my bio on the website (www.larryishmael.com/bio). She saw there that I was a Rotarian (more technically, I was a Rotarian as I could not meet the attendance requirements given my travels and previous campaigns for Congress), and invited me. The meeting was very similar to ours at the Issaquah Rotary Club, although with its own unique twist. Also, there were two North American Rotary Scholars attending, one from Atlanta and another from Ottawa, Canada.

Other than the crushing blow on the feedback from my latest dissertation chapter, life is quite good here. Most days are sunny and in the upper 60s or low 70s, but some are in the upper 70s and low 80s. The Cape Town area is so beautiful that when I wake up every morning and look out the window of my flat, a sense of awe overwhelms me. It reminds me of the days I worked in Tukwila, and every morning as I crested I90 at Eastgate I could see the Olympic mountains in front and the Cascades in my rear view mirror. Or, it reminds me of driving along the ocean road from Barra da Tijuca (in Rio) to the national airport in the center of town. God has created some amazingly beautiful places on this earth of ours, and I have been blessed to live in some of the most beautiful!

Back in Africa Again for the Final Push

This adventure has taken two years so far, and is expected to take three in total. Doing a Ph.D. at my age is quite a challenge, but doing it in the South African system, which is based on the English system, is even more challenging. There is no such thing as grade inflation or 504s or a senior citizen easy lane in this system. But, nothing is worth having that you don't have to work for.

I have learned so much in the past two years about how one goes about conducting scientific research that I did not know when I started. I chose to do my Ph.D. in Sustainable Development, which is a multi-discipline endeavor that incorporates Environmental Science, Atmospheric Science, Chemistry, Health Economics, Environmental Economics, and Public Policy. Had I known that when I started, I would probably never had started this adventure in the first place!

It all started with the trials and tribulations of getting the São Paulo Clean Air Project from a concept to reality. That took much longer than anyone anticipated, almost 12 years in total. But the lessons learned in that exercise are something I think the world should know about. So, I dreamed up the idea of recreating that project in Cape Town (a similar climate on a similar parallel in the Southern Hemisphere). Then, the stars lined up nicely for this whole thing to unfold.

Stellenbosch University is one of the oldest universities in Sub Saharan Africa. It was originally an Afrikaans university, and as such, was the lifeblood of the Afrikaaner culture. The school is very much like an Ivy League school but with apartheid long dead, the school is now quite diverse in it's student population. I first visited here in February 1976 while on business in the country and fell in love with it. Stellenbosch, the town, is over 300 years old and has a very Cape Dutch style architecture in the heart of the South African winelands. It is definitely a tourist destination.

I have spent approximately five months per year here working on my research in 2009 and 2010, and will be here a like amount of time this year. It is imperative that I spend a certain amount of time here as this is the area I conduct my research in and from which I derive my data, and I cannot think of a more beautiful place to be. Unfortunately, my research is necessary to be conducted in the winter months when they experience temperature inversions with significant amounts of vehicle pollution that stays near the ground. Back home in the Seattle area we call these days "Burn Ban Days" when one cannot light a fire in the fireplace because the temperature keeps the smoke low to the ground and is dangerous to people's cardiovascular and cardiopulmonary systems.

So, after arriving, attending a BMW motorcycle BikeFest in Oudtshoorn for a weekend, and getting settled into my new flat (apartment), I am back at it again. I love the place I stay at and it is conducive to my work as it is light, airy, and has a beautiful view of the Hottentot Mountains and Helderberg Mountain above the cabana and swimming pool. It is absolutely idyllic!

This time around I have given some seminars to grad students on the American political system and on my São Paulo Project. I've also gotten involved in the local Rotary Club as I was a member of the Issaquah Rotary Club back home. Being involved in student life is great, and I have an ever broadening group of friends here to spend time with when the studies get too intense.

More later......