These last few weeks have been interesting and have me more untethered than usual.

There's a side of me that has been immersed in Trinidad and Tobago, where aspiring to be a gentleman farmer seems to have reached the glass ceiling created by an integrity not shared by politicians and people past and present. This is the culmination of about 9 years of effort, trying to do things not as they are done but as they should be done. And, damn me, it hasn't worked.¹

Then there is my overgrown 'save the world' gland that got me to be a participant in CARDICIS3 - regarding the enabling of rebuilding of Haiti by Haitians after the earthquake of January 12th, 2010. But the problems are deeper than that of an earthquake and the system failures preceded the actual disaster. 'Continuance', a phrase often associated with mankind's adaptation to disasters (and the misnomer 'disaster management'), is really not an option since the preceding conditions that, while endemic to the entire world, demonstrate their untenability in the extremes of Haiti. And there I am again, trying to do things not as they are done but as they should be done. And, damn me, I don't think I'll see progress there either.² The focus on treating the symptoms by creating systems that do so simply makes treating the disease more complicated, in my opinion.

In both of the above, I do not feel I can have an effect. I have weathered much in the first and that makes me leery of expending time and energy in the second, especially in a context that is so complicated by design. Bureaucracy shows disdain for change, by its very conceptual definition, and because of that the necessary simplifications for solution of problems are defied on cultural grounds.

And then I have been given the opportunity to assist those who share my genes.

Perhaps that is why, today, I am happy to drive people around. There is a demonstrable effect.

¹You can follow stuff on Trinidad and Tobago at KnowTnT.com.
²