Slow and Sustained

It is not a coincidence that it is easier to make money if you are born in America. Compounding isn’t just something that happens on your investments. As a community becomes better at solving problems, the depth of service providers, and support networks expands. 

The ability to make money in America has compounded. Bryan Caplan calls the case for opening borders “Trillion-Dollar Bills on the Sidewalk”. The world would make more money if more people moved to America. 

Money is made in containers. You need to build an environment that maintains and builds capacity. It comes from simple things soaking deep. 

Like the gradual shift to long-term savings in Australia brought about by “Supers” (pension funds), where over the last 40 years they have collectively moved to being the 4th largest holders of pension savings (About AUD$3.4 trillion in assets) from saving a little more each year. 

To breathe properly while running, you need to build your capacity for abdominal breathing. As you inhale deeply, your tummy comes up rather than going in (shallow breath). You use your diaphragm to create more space. Distance runners will practice bringing their focus back to slow, gradual, inhalations and exhalations rather than panting. Breathing correctly. Running correctly. 

These seem basic, but the basics are what allow the flash. Building muscle memory for the relationship between income and expenses is like gaining control of your breath. 

Slow, sustained, strength building. Best done as a team.

Navigating Paperwork

Pushing paper is a core part of finding your way in the modern jungle. My friend Karabo wrote a guest post for my blog a few years ago where she talked about the advantages of coming from a family that valued education. The lessons learnt at the feet of gogos and uncles. Overheard conversations and helping hands. Another friend, Tom, is a Polish-British Soutie. Understanding “Rich Country Poverty” was one of the harder things for me to wrap my head around as a South African-British Soutie. Tom told me of how he volunteers to help people fill in forms. Having navigated (and navigating) my way through applying for bursaries, getting passports, fertility treatment, adoption processes, job interviews and all sorts of paper work… this makes sense. Often asking the same question repeatedly in a slightly different way, with confidence, is needed to maintain momentum. Karabo and Tom’s observations remind me of how important believing you deserve to take the steps, and getting guidance, is in a path dependant world.

A job application dated 1913

Soutie Begins

When I moved to London in 2008, there were two main obstacles to overcome. (1) Get a Visa, and (2) Get a Job. For the Visa, I used a company called Voyage Relocations. It is possible to navigate the legalities without support. I had friends who did, but I prefer the comfort of someone telling me I have filled in all the forms correctly. As my British wife and I head back in 2020, we are again using support for her Spousal visa process. It was/is nerve wracking sending original documents (degree certificates, passports, driver’s licences). The container for the opportunity to move was Age, Education, Previous Earnings, and English. For the job, I used a company called Acumen Resources. They arranged some interviews, and gave me some support in “How to do interviews”. Like exam technique and time management are the key to Conspicuous Knowledge (education as a signal), getting a job requires performing well in the lottery of CV sorting. I got interviews at McKinsey and Orbis. McKinsey said no, I wasn’t a creative enough thinker. Orbis gave it a lot of thought, but said yes. When I say McKinsey and Orbis, I mean individuals at those companies. Although we talk of the containers we call Companies as if they are people, it normally comes down to single decision makers.

One Foot in the UK, One Foot in SA

Blerrie Complicated

PK and “The Power of One” created a vivid picture of overcoming struggle, and of Oxford and the Rhodes Scholarship, for me. Cecil John Rhodes casts a shadow over South Africa with a bloody complicated legacy (or blerrie complicated, as my Grandfather would say to avoid swearing). Which includes an Oxford-like university in Grahamstown called Rhodes, surrounded by places like King William’s Town, Queenstown (where my Mom was from, with family on both sides of the Anglo-Boer war), Port Elizabeth and East London, in the area where the 1820 Settlers arrived after the Napoleonic Wars. Smack in the middle of a 100-year conflict between the Xhosa Kingdom and earlier European settlers. Rhodes’ statue also used to preside over the Rugby fields, looking with South England ambition towards the mountains, outside my leafy residence at the University of Cape Town. I applied for the Rhodes Scholarship, but didn’t get an interview. I still ended up in Oxfordshire on a different path. Living just outside the city in a small medieval market town called Burford. A Buhr is an old English fortification. A ford is a river. Crossing rivers. Crossing continents. Crossing cultures. Unpacking blerrie complication.

Statue Removed, Shadow Remains

Learning Curve

I last lived in Cape Town in 2006. I was there for my four years of university, and two and a half years of work. Sitting around a dinner table at a conference with some colleagues, a job opening in Joburg was mentioned. I hadn’t been in my current role long enough to be bored. Most roles have a learning curve. A time when you are finding the toilet. A time when you start getting the hang of things. A time when you hit your stride. I was still in the learning phase, but the Joburg role was appealing. I had been doing technical work, and the marketing role meant I would get to speak to human beings. I had finished my professional exams, and my buddy had a few to go. A joke that this would be a (brief) chance to be his boss, turned into (brief) reality. I loved Cape Town. That was not why I left. Life decisions are complicated, and full of trade-offs. 14 years later, I am plotting a return to the mountain. Still on a life-long learning curve. With a different set of trade-offs.

Hopping the Pond

I am navigating all the hoops involved in country and continent hopping. I did it in the other direction in 2008, aged 28, when all I had to do was pack a bag and jump on a plane. That, and get permission. In a world with borders and restricted movement, I had to get a work visa based on qualifications, language, age, and proof that I could self-support. Like borrowing money, where you need to prove you don’t need to borrow it. In the other direction, I am a citizen. This time, the lottery of birth works in my favour. My British wife is going through the process of getting a visa. Thanks to Social Media, in many ways I never “left” South Africa. During Lockdown, does it matter if you are reading Sindile Vabaza’s musings on your computer in the Cotswolds or in Claremont? In other ways, I have been a Scatterling of Africa and am returning home. Everything is temporary. The body regenerates every 7-10 years. We choose what we want to keep, what we want to discard, and what we want to add. Reinventing. Reinvesting. This time, I am “not leaving” the UK. I am not leaving the old colleagues, clients, neighbours, artists, dancers, yogis, family and friends who are not defined by the random location they were dropped on this planet.

Putney, London, United Kingdom, 2008

Opening Up

Having grown up in Apartheid South Africa, I am a supporter of the Four Freedoms of Movement – Goods, Capital, Services, and Labour. Wealth compounds over the very long term. The marginal contribution is amplified or muted by what came before. A lottery of birth shouldn’t determine the impact of our effort. I believe in “Open Borders” (See the book by Caplan and Weinersmith) but ironically/hypocritically (?) came to the UK on a Highly Skilled Migrant Program that allowed me to arrive without a job offer. This opportunity wasn’t (and isn’t) open to everyone. I got a job offer before moving, but didn’t like the idea of being tied to a company. Still, I went through the process and now hold two passports. Two of the things I don’t believe in. Caplan calls this a “keyhole solution”. Better than closed borders by targeting the specific objections as narrowly as possible. Typical keyhole solutions include immigration tariffs, guest worker programs, and linguistic and cultural fluency requirements.

Open Borders

Bryan Caplan has teamed up with cartoonist Zach Weinersmith to produce a fantastic book called “Open Borders: The Science and Ethics of Immigration”. I am a migrant myself, and am a dual citizen of South Africa and the United Kingdom. I was 14 when Apartheid “within” South Africa ended, and so have to agree with Caplan’s perspective that the Four Freedoms of Labour, Goods, Services and Capital without the right to live and work where we want is Global Apartheid. The attempt at introducing “Dompas” (Dumb passports) to keep people in their homelands provided fuel for the fires of brave freedom fighters like Gandhi and Mandela. With a chapter entitled “Trillion-Dollar Bills on the Sidewalk”, the case isn’t purely altruistic. Caplan takes the reasoning behind opponents’ arguments seriously and builds pragmatic solutions to various concerns. Particularly interesting in a microambitious way, are the Keyhole Solutions, which directly address issues. Nudging forward together. 

More Than a Whisper

Trev:

I got my British Passport a year before the Brexit Referendum. As someone who believes the C20th introduction of passport control was simply the physical role out of Global Apartheid, getting another passport has its ironies. Rather than burning Dompas like Madiba, I was collecting another one of the things I don't believe in. I came on a Migrants Program that gave me the opportunity because of my education, salary, language, age and work experiences. Kind of like a lottery for those who have previously won the lottery. Still, I was proud. Like a recovering Alcoholic, the description of Britain at my Citizenship Ceremony reminded me of the scene of Marcus Aurelius in the Gladiator. "There was a dream that was Rome. You could only whisper it. Anything more than a whisper and it would vanish, it was so fragile." There were people from all over the world becoming citizens of a country that seemed to stand for so many things I believed in. Then 2016 happened and whispers became shouts.

More Than a Whisper

Alex:
The way you pitch it is as if the primary reason behind Brexit was closing the borders. You and I have very similar beliefs. We both want this "Rome" with an open society that is inclusive. We both believe in Freedom of Trade, Movement, Services, and People. I didn't see the Referendum as anything other than a vote of no confidence in the INSTITUTION of the EU. Not Europe. Britain can't physically leave Europe. It is a part of it. All the crying and gnashing of teeth makes out as if all Brexiteers are racists and xenophobes. What about the European border in Ceuta? You can't paint the EU as this Liberal Democracy. I was voting against a Brussels run by technocrats.

Paul: 
I didn't actually think the vote would go through. I have just been a Eurosceptic for years. I was undecided when I stepped into the voting booth, but I didn't feel it would be right to moan about the EU and then vote for them. I have business in Europe, but the European regulations make my life an absolute nightmare. I prefer hiring Brits. I really didn't think Brexit would actually happen, and even when it did, I didn't think there wouldn't be some sort of deal that allowed life to carry on pretty much as normal. It doesn't make sense for anybody for us to not be able to keep on doing what we do. Anyway, if things don't work out, I am okay. I'll just close up shop and go traveling.

Stewart:
I don't really follow all this nonsense. I have my own stuff to worry about. There is no point in worrying anyway. The people in London will do what they do and life will go on. It is not going to affect me. I voted for Brexit because the NHS is creaking at the seams with all the immigrants in the waiting rooms, and the jobs going to people who aren't even from here. Look after your own first I say. Don't have guests until you can afford to keep your house in order. You have to choose. If you want to have a Welfare State that looks after people, it is simple maths that you can't afford to look after everybody else too. Get rid of that stuff, and then sure... people who can afford to look after themselves are welcome to come.

Angela:
The reality is we are a small island. Environmentally, we can't afford to have more people here. 60 million plus is probably too many already. There aren't enough houses, which is why housing is unaffordable for the people who were born here. I am all for being accommodating to others, but there is the question of sustainability. The roads are clogged. The trains are clogged. The Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty are being filled with new housing that doesn't have the necessary schools and facilities. We may be a rich country in theory, but there are lots of problems we need to sort out. Leaving the EU is the only way we can do that.

Michelle:
There are fundamental political differences between the UK and the EU. You either believe in central decision-making technocrats, or you believe in devolved responsibility. In the UK, you hire and fire your political representatives directly. I can meet with my Member of Parliament, and it doesn't matter how much of a big wig they are, they have to serve their constituency. Nigel Farage certainly doesn't represent my views, and I resent being associated with him because I am against the EU. There is some irony that he has never ever won a seat in the UK, and his voice has been handed to him by Europe. Nigel is not the voice of Leave.

Trev:
The problem I have with these views is that they are mostly ideological. Much like my "I don't believe in Passports". The problem is Passports are a real thing. It doesn't matter if I believe in them or not. At the end of the day, I have to use them to move around. I am a deep pragmatist. What we do matters. Results matter. Yes, beliefs matter, but in the real world, we have to work with other people. The EU may have chosen Proportional Representation over "First Past The Post" seats. That has advantages and disadvantages. South Africa made the same choice. The inability of minority parties to get a voice in the UK is one of the disadvantages. Sustainability, Resource Allocation, and Regulatory Simplicity are all important... but we can't just vote for everyone to agree with us. The EU is much more likely to reform from within. It is better with the UK in it.

Andrew:
I have severe Brexit Fatigue. There are more important issues that which club different Rich countries belong or don't belong to. "Meanwhile in China" the world is carrying on while the Government of the UK grinds to a halt in this big talk shop. Whatever happens, won't change that much anyway. Like the Y2K "Crisis", the Global Financial "Crisis", the news always needs some Armageddon event to keep it entertained. Proper Crises like the World Wars, the resulting global flu pandemics, and the starvations in China and (now) Venezuela are proper things worth worrying about. Not how long it takes to fill in some bloody forms so you can sell your stuff or have to put another sticker on it. Britain "exiting" Europe is like a divorce where the spouses stay living in the same house. It's ridiculous, and we talk about it too much.

Alex:
I would probably change my vote now. I still believe I voted in good conscience the specific question that was asked. I wanted to leave the EU. I didn't want to end Freedom of Movement or any of the other nastinesses that get attributed to me because I think the EU is a bullying Leviathon. I think we have handled the negotiations terribly. Other politicians could have done a better job at negotiating with the EU instead of pandering to them. All the political parties are pretty weak at the moment, at a time when we needed strong leadership.

Trev:
I worry that the price of Brexit is simply a dismantling of the United Kingdom. The real world price of Britain leaving the EU, in my view, is that the UK will be dismantled. Ireland will reunify (I can't see any other solution to the "Backstop" issue) and stay in the EU. Scotland will then be left with a choice between the UK and the EU, and politically I think Scotland is more aligned with the EU. Andrew is probably right that "all will be fine". Relatively speaking, I do think there are bigger issues to worry about. It just makes me sad. I certainly feel that the first few sparks of seeing Britain as an "X years sober" alcoholic are at real risk of quite a few years of falling off the wagon. I am positive. I do think we can sober up again. It just didn't need to be this hard. 

[Alex, Paul, Angela, Stewart, Michelle and Andrew are fictional]

Trevor Blogs

My surname is Black. It isn't based on Black(smith) like many surnames that are descriptive of what an ancestor did. In this case (so the family legend goes), all the thieves in Scotland were gathered up and kicked out. They were stripped of their clan names and given colours instead - Green, White, Brown, and Black. The colour was based on the nature of their crimes. Black for being a sheep thief. I love how specific that is. My ancestor was a Sheep Thief. Not goats, bread or anything else. Sheep.

My friend Shaun's sheep

(I didn't steal them)

A whole bunch of refugees, criminals, explorers, soldiers, deserters, missionaries, reprobates and saints from all over landed up in South Africa. Then there was me.

Even though it isn't derived from working iron, the nature of one man's activities still defined my family. Ken Robinson (in my favourite TED talk) mentions how 7 of his 8 grandparents lived within a mile of each other. We used to live where we were born, do what our parent of the same gender did, and marry someone from nearby. Our life had a playbook which we followed. Life defined us. Work defined us.

It is a very new world we are living in. in 1820, only 6% of the world didn't live in what we would define today as extreme poverty. Only 12% were literate. None wrote blogs. My life resembles yours far more than it does my ancestors. Becoming Trevor Blogs wouldn't solve it either. The next generation is likely to do jobs we hardly recognise. 

I doubt my ancestor, the Scot who got nabbed stealing a sheep and exiled, chose to do that for a living. He didn't wake up in the morning, make his bed, and set out trying to be the best thief he could be. Gradually we have fought our way out of poverty. We have fought our way out of work defining us.

Yet, increasingly by choice, we still feel compelled to answer the question as a kid, 'what do you want to be?' by the type of work we intend to do.

We are more than the work we do. We are more than the constraints of our ancestors.

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

Orange

Languages like English, Afrikaans and isiXhosa are kitchen languages. They are combinations of various inputs. That is why they are so colourful. The (Sweet) Orange is a hybrid fruit. It is a combination of a Pomelo and a Mandarin.

Sweet Oranges were first mentioned in Chinese literature in around 314 BC. How they came to be cultivated around the world has hints in the names they are called in various languages. The word 'Orange' comes from the Sanskrit word... Naranja. The Indo-European languages stretched all the way to Europe. When Alexander conquered the world... he didn't head west, he headed east. If he had been someone who grew up in Apartheid South Africa (like me), Alexander would have been unlikely to make it into a 'white school'. The language spread though... and Oranges are called Naranja in Spanish, and Orange in German/French/English (i.e. Apartheid White). They were brought to Spain by the North African Moors, who had become Muslims through their connections to the lands just south of Alexander.

What is funny, is that Oranges were introduced to the areas Alexander came from, from the west. So in Greek, an Orange is Portokali, Turkish it is Portokal, Arabic it is Boutouqal, and Persian it is Portegal. Like the Spanish, the Portuguese had the Sanskrit name... Laranja. Thanks to the Portuguese traders who 'brought' them this delight.

The traveling cultures had named it differently. They saw it earlier. The Northern Germans call the orange an Apfelsine, Dutch Appelsine, Swedish Apelsin, and Norwegians Appelsin. An apple from China. Even though the Chinese call it Chéngzi. The Russians call it something similar to the Spanish (Oranzhevyy) but the Mongolians (who now use Russian script) show the link between Russia and China (via them) and call them jürj.

The Mongol leader Genghis ruled an Empire that stretched from Poland and Hungary to the eastern edge of modern Russia. The Turks led the Ottoman Empire. Al-Andulus streched Muslim rule from Northern Africa into Spain. The Norman French colonised England and basically never left, but rather melted into the upper classes. The richest man ever to live was from Timbuktu in Mali - Mansa Musa. He too traveled west to look for culture, and famously caused huge inflation in Egypt on route to Mecca because of his generosity.

If we define 'we' by group identities, then we have all had our turn on top and underneath. But lest that give you an air of superiority or inferiority - our tongues betray us. There is only one us, and ideas spread even if they take on different local forms.

Orange Stand in Morroco

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

Early Colonies

For obvious reasons, Colonialism is associated with its most recent incarnation. A distant land with a superiority complex, on a mixture of a commercial and civilizing mission. Money and God. But we have always been wanderers. We know that every person alive descended from a single female who lived in Africa. People arrived in South America in the Paleolithic period when people grouped into small bands and went searching for food.

The early colonists wouldn't have been connected to earlier settlements other than by new wanderers, old lingering words, and a stretched supply line of physical features that adjusted to local conditions. They would mostly have been starting again.

I know how useless I am at a lot of pretty basic tasks. Mostly because I never had to learn them. Either because someone else did them because they loved me, or I could pay. I certainly don't personally know all the people who do things for me, or what doing those things for me entails. I don't even know where my food comes from.

I like the idea of a society where you don't ask anyone to do anything for you that you would not be prepared to do for yourself. That doesn't mean you have to do everything, or could do everything, but it removes the 'those tasks are below me' element.

The life of Genghis Khan, who founded one of the largest Empires the world has ever seen, was not that different from the lowest members of his original band of wanderers. Maybe just a slightly bigger Ger. As we have stopped wandering, the lives of those who stand still seem to have stretched apart.

I wonder how we would think differently if we were part of small groups of 150 people that connected us to everyone else. Names. Faces. Stories. The stuff that makes us human.

A Mongolian Ger

Tonga

The Lapita were seafarers who lived around 3,000 years ago, exploring islands hundreds of miles apart. Tonga is made up of 169 islands, with 36 of them inhabited. Tongan is a Polynesian language closely connected to that spoken in Hawaii (an 18-hour flight away). The first Europeans visited in 1616 with a brief trading visit from a Dutch vessel. Sovereignty was never given to a foreign power, but it did have 'protected state' status from the United Kingdom from 1900 till 1970. It was only united as a Kingdom in 1845, and (with the help of a missionary) declared a Constitutional Monarchy in 1875 adopting the western royal style. It is the only Pacific nation to maintain its Monarchical government.

Lapita Pottery

Tajikistan

Civil war has often followed independence from foreign conquerors. Tajikistan became an independent nation following the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union. Its Civil War lasted from 1992 to 1997. This was not because of ethnic diversity. The vast majority are Tajiks, an Iranian group of people speaking a variety of Persian. Like the Germanic Migration Period (375-568) and the Bantu Expansion (from 1,000 BCE reaching South Africa by maybe 300 AD), distinct 'Nations' of people are often connected by hints at the past in their word choices. Their primary language has Persian roots. The second language is mainly Russian. The religion is mainly Islam. Lingering reminders of the various powers that have come and gone. The majority of ethnic Russians left when the Soviet era ended. The Civil War was fought between regional groups with opposition parties seeing reduced Russian influence as an opportunity for their brand of ideology.

Tajik Girls celebrating Persian New Year

The Marshall Islands

While (and before) Phoenicians were colonising the Mediterranean, our most adventurous ancestors were heading far east. Micronesian colonists arrived in the Marshall islands around 2000 BC while the Old World was being dominated by the Egyptians and Babylonians. The world population reached around 50 million towards 1000 BC. The Marshallese used stick charts to navigate their way between the c. 2,100 islands in the Micronesia region. The European age of discovery was about 3,500 years later with Spain claiming the islands in 1592, and other European powers recognising that sovereignty in 1874. The islands get their name from a British explorer who visited in 1788. Spain sold the islands to the German Empire in 1885. The United States conquered the islands in 1944 and began testing of Nuclear bombs on the Bikini Atoll in 1946. The Bikini is named after these islands because of the 'explosive effect' of the garment. The Marshall islands gained self-government from the US in 1979, signing a Compact of Free Association in 1986.

Stick Charts for navigation

Pacific Cultural Areas

Kyrgyzstan

Colonial legacies include language, religion, food, mannerisms and other deep cultural ties. Independence doesn't mean unrelated. The word 'independent' would be unnecessary if there was nothing in common. Kyrgyzstan is geographically isolated, but is right at the heart of the Silk Road from which ideas and armies have flowed from China, India, Persia to the Mediterranean. Kyrgyz is one of at least 35 Turkic languages. The country also had more than a century of Russification as Russia implemented cultural assimilation. Extensive contact, evidenced by language traits, existed between Proto-Turks and Proto-Mongols. 'Kyrgyz'  derives from a Turkic "we are forty" which came from a legendary character who united forty regional 'independent' clans. They had been fighting, but to fight - you have to care about something in common. As Nomadic people, the Kyrgyz tend to move back and forth over the mountains depending on where life is perceived as better. Better rain or better government.

Turkic Languages

Eastern Orthodox Christianity

Muslim World

Asia including Turco-Mongol Nations - 1335

Golden Horde and Chagatai Khanate

English

Celtic Britons were pushed North from central Europe, arriving on the island in the Iron Ages. Romans first attempted a conquest in the first century and left in 410 AD. Anglo-Saxon settlers then arrived in Great Britain in the 5th Century. During the 9th century, all invading German tribes were referred to as Englisc. In the 11th century the Normans conquered England which saw the start of Middle English with mass adoption of vocabulary from Norman French. The 15th century (c. 1440) printing press was the life-blood of invention. Writers like Chaucer took the wheel, and the King James Bible (completed in 1611) started to spread. The languages spread by colonialism were incredibly young, and newly standardised. 'Nations' only became a thing as sovereignty shifted from a person to 'The People' after the French and American Revolutions. As the British Empire unwound over the 20th century, there is no one national authority that sets the standards for the language. That seems appropriate for something that has so many sources of influences. English is a love child of Europe.

Origins of English

Timor-Leste

Timor-Leste (formerly East Timor) is just to the north of Australia, separated by the Timor Sea. The first humans arrived 42,000 years ago with at least three major waves of immigration following before Europeans arrived. Today, 97% of the 1.2 million population are Roman Catholic. Used as an underdeveloped trading post, it was known as Portuguese Timor until it declared independence in 1975. Nine days later, it was invaded by Indonesia (with British, US and Australian support) and declared that country's 27th province. The fear was of a new communist country. Two decades of conflict followed until a United Nations-sponsored Act (the Cold War now over) based on 'self-determination' finalised independence. Timor-Leste became the first new sovereign nation of the 21st century. It is part of a free trade zone called the Timor-Leste-Indonesia-Australia Growth Triangle (TIA-GT), but is labelled by the IMF as "the most oil-dependent economy in the world". Nearly half the population lives in extreme poverty.

Statue of Saint Mary

Balide Church, Timor-Leste