Sheki, Azerbaijan  This trip was a study in contrasts, the glamour, and luxury of the capital Baku and its Caspian Sea oil deposits and the third world poverty of its rural countryside and medieval agriculture. I was there to improve the latter, but what I found was surprising. In the end, it's not about oil or vegetables, it's about the human spirit. I took this photo of a 5th generation farmer and his 7th generation grandson after his wife had served us a modest lunch of homegrown vegetables and pork, the meat sliced razor-thin to stretch their budget after entertaining western visitors. I've never had a better meal, before or since.   Forget Baku and their moguls, the real Azeri's live on the farms, that's where I discovered how wonderful life can be, fewer conveniences and more love. This man was the perfect host, he offered us what he had, no shyness, no apologies just knowing that what he had would be more than enough. My life in the developing world changed m

  The Russians invented it, we're playing it. Do you remember Christopher Walken in Deer Hunter, the epic film about the absurdity of the Viet Nam War? That classic scene when Walken was forced to play Russian roulette for the entertainment of his captors had me flinching in my seat as he pulled the trigger. When your life depends on chance, in Walken's case, 6 cylinders in a pistol chamber, one loaded, five empty. The chamber is spun around like a casino wheel, you aim the pistol at your temple and pull the trigger.  You're playing the ultimate game of chance, if you win you live, if you lose you die. The odds are 6 to 1, not bad in Vegas, but are you willing to bet your life or your good health on it? Remember, in a game of chance, the odds favor the house. Why am I going on like this? It's simple, I have family and friends who are rationalizing their protection against COVID, they're thinking that with such a small fraction of the community getting sick that I

How often do we learn something awful, clam up, and ignore it, hoping it will go away.  It never does, it just gets worse and our silence becomes its enabler.  Life is like that, we don't want to get involved. We have enough to worry about and ignorance, after all, is bliss. Wrong, ignorance is acceptance. The easy analogy is governance. We sit in a management meeting or a board of directors where we become aware of something nefarious and keep silent for fear of being disloyal.  To speak up takes courage and courage has consequences. When a whistleblower comes forward they are vilified, they become the victim of power and power corrupts. We've seen this in Washington for years, management teams being selected for their weakness rather than their strength. Weakness breeds indecision and silence, strength breeds courage. A new administration always starts with a ray of hope that the management team, aka the cabinet, will be outspoken and advise and consent with courage, not sile