Dilbert and the World Bank

I think that someone ‘Photoshopped’ this, but it is very, very applicable …. Click on the image for a full-sized version.

Death by Powerpoint

I was asked to be the keynote speaker at a conference in Romania organized by the World Road Congress PIARC. The subject was risk management in highway operations and I was pleased to have the opportunity to represent the World Bank at the conference. My presentation was well received—and some even didn’t mind my comment that we should not talk about ‘acts of God’ but instead ‘natural disasters’. Several commented that it greatly contrasted with those of the other speakers. For this I can thank Presentation Zen: the saviour from what I call ‘Death by Powerpoint’ (DBP).

Visiting Athens

After attending a conference in Romania I had decided to run the Athens Classic Marathon so that gave me an excuse to finally visit Greece. Ever since I was young I was fascinated with Greek history—in fact, I only got into second year of engineering school because I got an A+ in my classical history humanities course which got my overall average just above the cut-off. So I arrived Friday morning from Romania excited to finally see some of the places which have long held my imagination.

Book of the Year – ‘The Glass Castle’

One of the few benefits of being a perpetual traveller is the fact that I get to catch up on my reading during my trips. I accumulate various technical journals which I lug with me, eventually discarding, as well as books. Last mission I finished ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’ by Hemingway and for this mission my friend Genie suggested ‘The Glass Castle’ and went as far as lending me her copy. I’m glad she did, as it is the best book I’ve read this year, or probably the last several years.

Georgia’s Third East-West Highway Project

As part of preparing our project we had a short video made which gives an excellent overview of the work we have been doing in Georgia. My colleague Tamara Sulukhia did a great job of condensing a 50+ project description down to under six minutes.

My Last Ride in Georgia (Hopefully Just For Now!)

It looks like next year I will phasing out of the South Caucasus to  work elsewhere for the Bank so I decided that this trip I would take my bicycle with me back to the USA. My next trip will be in November when it will be too late for cycling outside anyway. When I arose on Saturday and saw the brilliant blue sky, with the peaks of the Caucasus mountains in the distance I knew that it was time for a road trip—my last one for a while, but hopefully not forever.

One Night in Istanbul

Flying to Georgia or Armenia is not very convenient. One flies from Washington D.C. to Munich and then after spending 14 hours in Munich you fly out around 21:30, arriving around 03:00.  As someone who normally rises around 05:00 for my triathlon training, this puts another layer of unpleasantness to an already challenging trip. I was pleased to find a more civilized way of arriving by travelling through Istanbul.  The flight arrives at 16:30 although it means overnighting in Istanbul. Not a difficult choice … I had really enjoyed my earlier visit and it would be nice to see the city outside of winter.

To Russia on The Georgian Military Road

The plan was simple. Head part way up the Georgian Military Road into the Caucasus mountains and cycle towards the Russian border. But what do they say about the best laid plans of mice and men?

 

The Kakheti Region of Georgia

Our next road project in Georgia is the Vaziani-Gombori-Telavi (VGT) road, east of Tbilisi. After a frenetic week in Tbilisi appraising the Third Highway Project, my colleague Elena and I had a break from the office to do a field visit to familiarize ourselves with the VGT road. We also used the opportunity to visit some other parts of Kakheti Region, a place neither of us had been before.

Ancient Burial Site

At a recent meeting in Washington I was discussing the issue of chance archaeological finds with the World Bank’s regional safeguards co-ordinator. She commented that in Georgia you cannot put a shovel in the ground without finding something ancient. Very true. In fact, we had just recently uncovered a 7,000 year old burial site when excavating the new section of the East-West highway. While being inconvenient from a progress point of view, has yielded invaluable insights into ancient Georgia.