Live and Work

When I went to work in the UK in 2008, I needed a work visa. I was born in the South African container, and needed permission to work in the British container. The idea of “equal pay for equal work” is a goal, not a truth. We work in containers. Even if the idea of remote work is growing. If we haven’t met the challenge of breaking down the obstacles, then you get paid based on the supply and demand of your barriers to entry. Gender gaps, race gaps, national gaps… rightly or blatantly wrongly, there are plenty of reasons (beyond merit) why people get paid differently if they have different containers. We have work to do to change that. I went to work in the UK, partly to get paid more. The reality too, is that you spend more in areas where you are paid more. Again… supply and demand. The same thing doesn't cost the same everywhere when there is friction. The real key to wealth creation is the gap between spending and earning. I came back to South Africa in December last year and now work at a company (a container) that builds a container (open-architecture platform) for South Africans to invest around the world. Getting our clients money a work visa to work (and grow) overseas, while they live (and grow) in South Africa.

 

Choose your Mountain

20-year-old Trev also had long hair. Grown during a two-year stint in the UK on a work-travel visa, in between school and university. It was the first time I had left South Africa (I had only ever even been to Cape Town once when I was two, which felt like the closest foreign place to Durban). My bravest previous adventures had been crossing the Vaal river to visit the family who said Fish with an accent. Young Trev was also a curious spirit, but those two years exposed him to how daunting a London you cannot afford is. Sitting on a bench in Kensington Gardens, he/I took the decision to accept the world hard. Money is made in containers. One of the most defendable containers is hard. Actuarial Science is not on the covers of flashy magazines, nor does it have sexy movie leads (“About Schmidt”). It does however require serious knuckling down, which creates a deep moat. A Competitive Advantage is not what you are good at. It is why others cannot do that. The mountain of professional exams is intimidating. I am grateful to young Trev that that did not scare him. It scares me. Money is made in National Containers. Salaried Containers. Professional Containers. Inherited Containers. Figure out the barriers to entry, and how to overcome them. Hard but possible is good for you.

Waves of What If

“Win-Win” was the biggest insight Adam Smith offered the world. With central decision makers trapped in Nation State gun boat diplomacy, and global pissing contests between birth-based containers competitively colonising the world… he suggested a different course. His bold idea was that people were best placed to make their own decisions, and that when two people agreed on an exchange with full transparency… both won. Agreement building. Trade. Generous problem solving. The problem with Zero-Sum thinking is you are wishing ill on your competitors. Things you don’t do become haunting waves of what if. Letting go of and wishing well alternative histories, paths, choices, and options allows you to focus simply on the problems you are working on. Not on the way you will be judged. It allows you to genuinely celebrate other people’s success, rather than seeing it as confirmation of your inadequacy.

Alternative Histories

Always Connected

Different waves of European Colonization rose from the failure of the Crusades (and the expansion of the Ottoman Empire), and the successful Reconquista (end of eight-century long Islamic rule). Cut off from the Silk Roads and Indian Ocean Trade, the religious zeal of church-sponsored missions, and the promise of wealth spurred the commercial Christian adventure seekers. The same modern mixture of “higher purpose” and “a way to pay for it”. The Old World had deep and wide connections, but restricted movement for control seekers. The first wave from 1402 (Canary Islands) to the British annexation of Kandy in 1815 focused on Trade Posts and the New World. The American Revolution, collapse of the Spanish Empire, and defeat of Napoleonic France changed the game. The Great Powers of “New Imperialism” had the fire power of the Industrial Revolution, Trade, and “Civilising Missions”. Each believing in their better version. In 1885 around a table in Berlin, “effective occupation” made these powers insist on direct rule of indigenous people to recognise claims. Then they started punching themselves in the face in two world wars, which loosened their grip. We have always been connected. It is just who is in charge and the stories they tell that change.

Afro-Eurasian Land Mass

Making your Jam

I buy many of the stronger arguments about eating less meat, and so am slowly changing my habits. I also buy the argument that we have a quota of self-discipline. There are no brownie points for martyrs and ideologues. Actions are what matter, so deep pragmatism is the most effective path. By definition. My approach has been to gently expand my vocabulary (the foods my tongue recognises) and sentences (the foods I can cook). Addition is the best form of breaking of control. If I look forward to vegetarian dishes, I don’t feel hard done by, by the missing meat. I now love making soup and jams… and experimenting. My meat consumption has gone down. Similarly, I think the way to unwind our identity problems (Nations, Companies, Prejudice) is competition. Start seeing yourself in more places till those places become a part of you. We are a collection of our habits, and our habits build from the words and sentences we attach meaning to and build meaning from.

Stories that Serve

Compound growth is both powerful and dangerous. I am a believer in both localisation and globalisation. In unlearning and learning. In strong foundations and courageous stretching. Conn Iggulden is a powerful storyteller who bases his tales on as much factual evidence as he can. Then fills in the gaps, collapses characters into each other and creates a story. I think that is how our memory and sense making works. His conqueror series focuses on the rise of Genghis Khan. An interesting part of that is how connected Genghis stays with his people. The life of the leader and the life of the people don’t have multiple layers of abstraction. Genghis still lives in a Ger (a portable round tent). Part of our strength lies in the institutions we build. The Nations, Companies, and Groups that we use. But if they become more powerful than us, we need to reconnect them to the base. Stories shouldn’t be more powerful than the people they serve.

Ger

Marlboro Man

There is no point in being angry at God if you are an atheist. There is no one to direct the anger at. I am anationalist and an acorporatist. Not in the sense that I don’t believe in Nations and Corporations. Just that I don’t believe they are people. There are people that believe in them, and they have power to impact actions. But they are stories. Stories that influence the choices of others and create vested interests worth protecting. The tobacco industry loves high taxes and zero advertising. This stops new entrants and protects the lingering story of the old titans. Similarly the Asset Management industry wouldn’t be happy if the cost of investing fell to zero. To manage money for others requires Capital, a buffer for insecure income, and financing a stream of expenses. Needing money to make money protects those who already have money. They want the associated expenses as a barrier to entry. A way to prevent staff from getting ideas. Senior analysts don’t break away to do their own thing because they have fired enough junior analysts to know the lightning that started their careers has to hit twice. They know the emperor is wearing no clothes. They also know that winners tend to keep winning. Starting is hard. If we want real change, we need to empower starters.

Old Stories Have Power

Occupé

Complexity is hard to deal with. So we ask easier questions. We model reality with stories and characters. We come up with simplifying numbers to make choices. Everything we think and say is based on assumptions. Under each assumption is another assumption. Till you get to axioms. Statements we regard as accepted or self-evidently true. If we don’t agree on those, it gets progressively harder to agree on the simplified versions higher up the house of cards. I am attempting to burst my English bubble. It’s hard. I love writing, listening and talking. But it is almost all in English. Other languages offer slight twists of perspective. Take the word “Busy”. To me that’s the root. French is occupé. That feels more insidious. Like an occupied country during war time. It’s more like a thesaurus than another language. There is some common ground. But I am still just at the stage where I hear a string of unintelligible, but very sexy, sound when I hear French. I still need to do the deep work to be able to connect. To train my ear. Train my tongue. Train the way I see the world. That feels like rewiring who I am. Just like unwinding prejudice.

Occupied France

Stuff the Stuff

Connecting lifestyles to scorecards of success is both incorrect and dangerous. Capital can live forever if treated well. It can sustainably generate real returns, and feed life, or it can be spent. 0-5% real growth each year adds up, even if it doesn’t seem as impressive as a new car, a bigger house, or a fancy holiday. “The Stuff” we judge each other by. The stuff we form our prejudices around. It also traps us in a lifestyle connected to the privilege, or lack thereof, we are born into. Privilege includes skills and talents, as well as the social capital and network we use to get an income. The dance between privilege, merit, income, and lifestyle, traps us in dated and formulaic wobbles out of sync with the music of the time. Traps us in racism, classism, nationalism and projected fears. Real Creativity needs space to breathe. That space can only come if we rewrite the rule book. Rewrite rules that have been soaked so deep, we don’t even know they are made up. Stuff the stuff, we make the rules.

Free to Dance

Avoiding Knob Nuts

A few years back, I got some of my money a job at Colgate. I brush my teeth every day, twice a day. I plan to continue doing that. I like businesses that solve problems people recognise. That solve them in a way that the customer is happy. Buying toothpaste is not something I think about a lot. Regular, content, repeat business. I also like companies that laugh in the general direction of Nation States. Multi-national companies that recognise that where you are born is pretty random. That have suppliers, customers, and shareholders all over the world. The great thing about my money working at Colgate is it can’t be made redundant without the other owners and managers hurting too. Some knob nut can’t turn around and decide to let my money go because they had to make a “tough business decision”. My money’s life isn’t turned upside down by some clown with the power over a real person’s life. People need toothpaste. My money makes toothpaste. Can I think about something else?

Sea and Hill

Trev:

I grew up in Apartheid South Africa as it was gasping for its last breaths, and as the new South Africa was filling its lungs for the first times with a new cry. The road from Durban to Pietermaritzburg winds through Kwa-Zulu Natal with what were the white suburbs on either side, and the separated suburbs a little further back. One of my defining experiences was being taken to Umlazi as a 17-year-old. A place of almost half a million people, hidden behind a hill I never ventured beyond. There, but not. Gradually my high-school class filled with people from outside my bubble. I finished school when South Africa was just about to turn 4-years-old. That was my first experience of Global Apartheid. Seeing that the sea is just a big hill.

Simon:
It must have been weird living in such a backward society. I grew up in England, which is a proudly liberal. Britain has an awkward history too, but we are able to have a good laugh about it. It feels good to be proud of my country. It must be horrible to not be proud of your country. We have been on the right side of history in the end. You need to let go of your history in the same way. You shouldn't let Apartheid define you. It wasn't your fault, in the same way as England's history isn't my fault. I can be proud of the positives now, and move forward in a society that is equal.

Trev:
That doesn't sit well with me. I am proud of South Africa, but not in a Nationalistic way. When we first got the new South Africa flag, I was all-in for the story of Nation Building. I have lots of pictures of myself with a "Y-Front on my face" as the Barmy Army would put it. I was also one of the loudest singing the love child of Nkosi-Sikeleli iAfrika and Die Stem. When I got to the UK for the first time (a gap between school and uni), I was actually pretty annoying in my "South Africa is so amazing"ness. The problem is, it feels very much like the feeling I had growing up if you just focus on the positives. Life in a police state is backward, but all you know.

Marco:
I don't know. That's all too much like lecturing to me. Life is too short. I have enough problems of my own to focus on. What exactly is the point of carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders? A Liberal Society lets everyone just crack on with what is important to them. There is nothing holding anyone back. It is all about getting the right mindset. If you are constantly looking for excuses, you will find them. No one owes you anything. If you want something work for it. That applies to everyone else too, so I don't see why I (or you) need to feel any responsibility for sorting other people's issues out.

Trev:
I do think mindset is important. Except our mindsets aren't our own. We are part of a community, and we don't just move as individuals. It isn't as simple as snapping out of it. I don't think we necessarily recognise just how valuable being part of a set up that lets you focus on your own problems is. I love the UK. It is an awesome place, but I don't think there is sufficient reflection on issues like Colonialism and Imperialism. I don't think there is sufficient discussion about how we empower people to have similar opportunities to take advantage of the progress the world has seen. Even within the UK, I don't think it is as meritocratic as those who have succeeded believe. It is easy to say we get what we deserve, when we have succeeded.

Andrew:
Would you like some cheese with your whine? Colonialism and Imperialism happened a long time ago. Anyway, I wasn't part of all that. My parents and their parents also struggled. England was colonised by the Vikings, the French, and various European Monarchs had their turn. William of Orange was Dutch, and the latest lot are German and Greek. Russia was colonised by the Mongols. The Slavs, where we get the word Slave, were as white as Prince George's bottom. Look at Singapore and Rwanda... if you stop making excuses and start taking responsibility, your situation changes. Whine just gives you a hangover. At what point do we get to move on?

Trev:
I do think there is a balance. Yes, responsibility is important but some of the obstacles are structural. It is very hard to see why it is hard to break out of those restraints when you aren't under them. Particularly us as white, English-Speaking, males, who went to decent schools, and were part of strong communities. The world is largely set up for us. Even if we stumble, and go rogue for a while. We'll have buddies and family to help us up again. It can't all just be about sorting ourselves out. There must be some sort of shared responsibility.

Arthur:
There is shared responsibility. It's called tax. It's called the Welfare State. At some point people need to wipe their own bottoms. I am so tired of being told I can't have an opinion on anything because of my genitalia and lack of tan. I am also tired of being told I don't care, or am evil, because I just want to get a job I am good at, build a life I want to live, do things I enjoy, and pay a truck ton of tax along the way to a state that can help others who don't have the advantages I do. What more can you expect from me?

Trev:
Except taxes are National. It is the Umlazi problem I started with. The world is Global now. In the same way as I grew up where the "Whites Only Areas" were sustained by Black Labour. Building borders and sinking boats is just a way of creating open-air prisons. The UK is a country of migrants. The US is a country of migrants. The EU has a long history of migration. Instanbul, in Turkey, was the capital of the Roman Empire. Alexandria in Egypt, one of the centres of learning. How can we just focus on Nation States? Surely there is a better form of community.

Max:
Because Nation States are the most effective form of Government we have come up with. Because not participating in  "Civilising Missions" is the lesson learned from failed Colonialism and Imperialism. Because Free Trade is the best way to let other countries sort themselves out in their own way, in their own time. We haven't exactly had a sterling history of military interventions in imposing ourselves on others. Borders will gradually become more invisible as and when it is safe. You are living in la-la-land if you think it is fine to thrust "progress", whatever that is, on people. Or to expect people to put at risk all they have built up, to let whoever wants to come, in.

[Simon, Marco, Andrew, Arthur, and Max are fictional]

Multi-National Communities

Companies are 'legal people'. We talk about them as if they are real, and the law treats them as if they are real. The same is true of Countries. America exists because we say America exists. We have flags, sing songs, and try to build walls to wish them into reality. Whatever real means. Despite all that, they may not be real, but they do exist.  They have power. We ascribe actions and beliefs to them. Blame and credit. They affect us.

Under Mercantilism, the State was a Company. Nations competed in Gun-boat trade and raids. It was only the realisation that trade can be win-win that replaced gunpowder with relationship building. Companies used to receive charters that would allow them to create laws, administer them, and enforce them with police and armies. That was not clever. India was ruled by a "British" Company for 101 years. British in that, like people, we used to believe that the idea of a State and a Company are linked in the DNA.

When Companies and Countries blurred

Multi-National Companies get a little more complicated. Demand and Supply chains mean it is unclear where value is created. It is unclear where value is consumed. It is complicated, uncertain, and ambiguous. Employees can come from anywhere. Customers from anywhere.  Parts and Advice from anywhere. Owners from everywhere. Meetings can be online with participants in Sau Paulo, Bermuda, Shanghai and Sydney. This has massively diminished the power of Nation States. When your "enemy" is no longer clear because you are interdependent.

We can also massively diminish the power of Companies through cross-border community building. Companies and Countries don't need to be our sole providers of support and financial security. Multi-National Communities can be strengthened so that we don't have to be defined by where we were born, and the job that we do.

The questions become more challenging. When everyone looks like you, sounds like you, experiences the world similar to you, and has a similar story of origin... it makes it easier to point your anger somewhere else and band together. When things are bad... hit someone (else). Interdependent Communities have a lot more flavour... but they need building.

We are all Community Builders.

Beyond Nations

Nationalism is a very young concept. As a way of organising ourselves, we have trialled and errored lots and lots. Nations came out of the enlightenment as a push back against Monarchs and 'the divine rule of Kings'. The appetite of Monarchs meant they were less likely to define their subjects too tightly. More was better. As we started to define ourselves by a 'The People', Racism and Prejudice reared its ugly head. Companies also started life like countries. The East India Company ruled India for 101 years. Companies had armies and flags. Eventually we realised that wasn't such a good idea. Mercantilism was when Countries treated themselves like Companies that competed in Win-Lose scenarios. The Kings and Queens were war-like CEOs. Gradually we realised that was stupid. Free Trade can be win-win. It is important to remember all these things (money, countries, religions, languages) are shared stories that help us cooperate. We can rewrite and update the stories as we learn. Carry on trialling. Carry on erroring. Carry on learning.

British East India Company

Public Company

A Public Company offers shares. Its ownership is dispersed among the general population. Stock Exchanges allow individuals to become owners. These companies are 'listed'. Because companies are formed under the legal systems of particular countries, they have a nationality. Even if the company has clients and suppliers all over the world. They are legal people. Like legal money. Like Nations themselves. They are ideas that become real because we choose to believe they are real. The Dutch East India Company (VOC) was the first company to issue shares of ownership to the public. A key feature of companies is the separation of the identity from the owners. Realising you are not your job is one thing. Taking your money and putting it to work in a company that has nothing to do with you is another. You are detaching. You are no longer the breadwinner.

Bad Ideas Die

The Congress of Berlin was held in 1878. It was there that modern Colonialism was born. The New World had gone after independence, and so the European Powers needed to expand their influence in the Old World. They drew up borders cutting up Africa. 

As part of this policy, Britain wanted to replicate the Federal model of Canada where it had influence in Africa. Cecil John Rhodes wanted a British territory that extended from the Cape to Cairo. That is about 7,250km. About the same as London to Mumbai. At the time, South Africa was not a country. Britain fought a series of Anglo-somebody wars to make it such. Local resistance was fierce. A policy of burning farms to destroy supply lines, and Concentration Camps for the women and children (Scorched Earth) gave victory at the cost of entrenched hatred from the Boers. The Zulu armies also inflicted substantial defeats first time around, most famously at Isandlwana, before the British used internal differences to support rivals to power. Conquered, South Africa became a Union in 1910.

Isandlwana

Like the American South, there was a lot of appeasement to be done after the wars. Union Building meant that the losers had to be allowed to feel proud again. This was all at the time of the rise of resentment-driven Nationalism. Dutch was the preferred language of the Boer elite before the World War I to World War II years. World War I killed Empires. World War II killed Colonialism. The post-World War II years saw the rise of Nations built on anger. Built on a desire to be proud. No one won the second World War. It started when Stalin and Hitler invaded Poland. Stalin never left. The Cold War that followed got mixed up with De-colonisation and the rise of Nationalism. It mixed competing economic models with rising Identity Politics.

The Berlin Wall fell when I was 9 years old. It was a different border, but equally as divisive. It was the life-blood of the Apartheid Government which was supported as a buffer against Communism. I was 14 when South Africa transitioned from the Apartheid Government. 1994.

South Africa is dealing with multiple centuries-old wounds. History has been written and rewritten to suit whatever unifying or dividing story was being peddled at the time. Not much is commonly known about the 2,000 year expansion of Bantu people. Not much is known about the 1,000 years of Islamic trade, cultural exchange, and religious expansion. Not much is known about the History of people who lived prior to printing press. Or who owned the printing press, and what message they wanted to spread. Not much is known.

South Africa's wounds are not only local. They are mixed with the same blades that have cut up the rest of the world in different ways. Some countries are dominated by ex-Slave populations. South Africa was the boundary of people who pushed away from Slavery. That maintained independence right up until the late 19th century. Some countries are predominantly the descendants of Slave Owners. In some countries, the population mix changed because of the arrival of Indentured Labourers from India. See the Caribbean. See Durban. Even that dynamic of the difference between Indentured Labourers and Slaves causes tension. The rights of Indigenous peoples versus the rights of people who came, not as Colonisers, but by force.

The Cape Colony shared a lot of history with Indonesia and Malaysia. The Cape still shares flavours with South America, where there was a long history of mixing of locals and those who came by sea. Creole languages hundreds of years in the making with the tastes of many ports. Before the French Revolution and the Enlightenment invented the idea of 'The People'. The positive being Democracy. The negative being the need to separate people into false groups based on made up stories like race, religion, and language. Before the American Revolution cut ties from distant Monarchies. Then both the French and the Americans proceeded on 'Civilising Missions'.

I am a Soutie. I have one foot in the United Kingdom, and one foot in South Africa. My bits hang in the sea. Social Media means I am still connected daily to the very raw conversations about unravelling the Cold War, Imperialism, Colonialism, Apartheid, Racism, Privilege and various other obstacles to people getting along. At the same time, I now live in a divided Britain that spends most of its time calling the other side names, and not much time listening. A wealthy Britain that is still not happy. A Britain that spends a lot of time navel gazing, and not much time reflecting on this complicated past of which it was very much a part.

As I look on this long history of pain, I am actually incredibly positive. Our challenges today look insurmountable. Unless you step back. Unless you see the things in our recent history that we have conquered. Concentration Camps. Scorched Earth. Empires. Colonies. Slavery. Indentured Labour. Scientific Racism. Wars of Religion. The world is less racist, sexist, homophobic, and generally intolerant than it has ever been. Bad Ideas may seem to spread faster, but we are getting better and better at killing them. If we identify people not by the bad ideas, but by our shared ability to improve. Our shared resilience.

Bad ideas die. That is worth celebrating.

1994 South African Elections

Nationality and Language

Like most countries, most modern languages were standardised and formalised very recently. Yet nationality and language are such a big part of our identity. My fiancée is English. I am English. But I mean something different. In Britain, saying you are English speaking doesn't mean a lot. Almost everyone speaks English. In South Africa, your language is part of your identity. Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, English, Northern Sotho, Tswana, Sotho, Tsonga, Swazi, Venda, and Ndebele are all official languages. These distinctions (language and country) are often described as something permanent. Something we are. That is laughable when they were made up in the last two hundred years. Your country is not something you are. Your language is not something you are. They are both stories you learned. Learning never ends.

South Africa - Dominant Language Map

Mare Nostrum

L'unificazione dell'Italia iniziò solo nel 1815, dopo le guerre napoleoniche. Fu completato quando Roma divenne la capitale del Regno d'Italia nel 1871. Gli stati della nazione hanno bisogno di una storia di origine "Batman Begins". L'Italia ha scelto la brusca fine dell'Impero Romano d'Occidente 1.400 anni prima. I poeti avevano risvegliato i cuori nel Quattrocento, parlando di "antico valore nei cuori italiani non è morto", e Machiavelli cercava un leader politico che la "liberasse dai barbari". Ironia della sorte, dopo che la storia fu creata, l'unificazione dell'Italia portò la convinzione che il nuovo paese meritasse il proprio impero d'oltremare. Nostaligia è stata stimolata a dipingere il quadro del Mare Nostrum - reclamando le coste del Mediterraneo.

Mare Nostrum

Deutsch und Zulu

Germanische Migration

Deutschland wurde erst nach dem Fall Napoleons 1814 zu einem Land. Eine Konföderation von 39 Staaten wurde gebildet. Es wurde erst 1871 als ein einziger Nationalstaat vereinigt. Ich denke oft an die Parallelen zwischen den germanischen Migrationen und den Bantu-Migrationen. Die Zulu-Nation wurde 1818 von Shaka gegründet. Vor 1800 wanderten viel kleinere Gruppen sprachlich verbundener Gruppen durch eine Welt mit weniger als einer Milliarde Menschen und ohne Grenzen. Bauern, Entdecker, Krieger, Händler und Menschen auf der Suche nach einem besseren Leben für ihre Familien. Die germanische "Migrationszeit" erlebte ihren Höhepunkt im Fall des Römischen Reiches (375-568). Wir wissen weniger über die Bantu-Migration, die allmählicher war und mindestens um 1000 v. Chr. Begann und ein viel größeres Gebiet abdeckte. Die Bantu-Erweiterung erreichte, etwa zur Zeit der germanischen Version, Südafrika.

Bantu Migrations

Continental Stories

Melilla Border

If continents are defined as discrete landmasses, then there are four continents (Afro-Eurasia, Americas, Australia and Antartica). There is no 'real' definition. They are spoken of by convention. Carthage and Rome fought three Punic Wars between 264BC and 146BC. Carthage then became the Capital of the province of Africa Proconsulis as part of the Roman Empire. The Mediterranean is a lot calmer than the English Channel. The Suez Canal is shallow, narrow, and man-made. At various times between 711 and 1492, the southern part of Spain was under the control of those who also controlled Northern Africa as Al-Andulus. Today, Melilla and Cueta are two heavily fortified Port Cities which are officially a part of Europe but on the south side of the pond. Until 1963, Algeria was considered a part of France. In 1957, when the European Economic Community was formed... Algeria (as part of France) was part of that group. Pan-Africanism began as a concept in the C20th century. The African National Congress in South Africa was formed as the South African Native National Congress in 1912.

Afro-Eurasia

Pan-African Flag

Bordered Tongues

A pet-peeve of a lot of South Africans, including myself, is when people speak of Africa as if it is one country, or one place separate from the rest of the world. Africa is HUGE. The distance from Tunis on the Mediterranean coast to Cape Town on the Southern Tip is about 8,000 km as the crow flies. That is about the same distance as Amsterdam to Beijing. If you have visited Beijing, you haven't visited Amsterdam. If you have visited Tunis, you haven't visited Cape Town.

The problem is this peeve also works both ways. A friend of mine is working on a project where a lot of business is done in Africa. That is the corporate definition of their area of interest. When he joins conference calls, they will often switch from Arabic to French. Neither of these will be their local language, but they will speak both fluently. My friend speaks neither, so then asks (slightly embarrassed) for them to swap to English. Again, fluently.

Swahili is the widest spoken African language. As Arabic and Persian traders started dealing with Africa a trading language was needed. For the equivalent of my friends business meetings - but a long time ago. It was originally written in Arabic Script. While it is now the first language of about 3-15 million people, it is spoken by about 100 million people.

My friend has started French lessons. Many non-English first language Europeans are adept at picking up new tongues, and training their ears to understand variations. This is like the many skillful linguists in South Africa which has 11 official languages. The 'borders' of these official languages were artificially created as languages were built up as one of the blocks of Nation States.

The reality is that language is as full of flavour as people. People don't stay still and don't fit into categories. To truly see, and hear, people... language needs to go back to the kitchen. Adding to your vocabulary can't stop once you have 'finished' mastering your home tongue. Your tongue needs to move with you.

A (small) start is saying someone's name the way they want to be greeted - rather than giving them a name that doesn't need any effort from you.

Language Families