open your heart fellow man...

its no secret that we seek to keep the best for us, then our brothers, then our cousins and then our country and then the rest of the world. this heuristic is not specific to any one culture and permeates all of mankind to differing degrees but lets examine how some may have succeeded by overcoming a basic tendency. the USA has achieved immeasurable success since its founding because of its willingness to accept people for what they could offer. a few good people were openminded and convincing enough to forward the notion of equal opportunity in america and the results speak for themselves.

i recently came across a great article in Forbes that elucidated the notion and advises americans to look beyond. i would recommend it to everyone and not just americans. we should be retaining the best foreign talent that stumbles into our fold and make them feel valued as well as going to foreign lands and seeking their wisdom to add to ours - its a collaborative effort.

turkey drops its turkeys...

turkey has finally decided to drop six zeroes from their currency. what a relief for all the poor tourists (like myself) that had to quickly count when paying the taxi 20million lira and avoid getting ripped off (as i was!).

At midnight on New Year’s eve, Turkey will cease to be the land of millionaires and billionaires.

That is when the government drops six zeroes from the national currency and Turkey loses the dubious distinction of being the country with the largest denomination in circulation, the 20,000,000 lira, worth only about $15.

[…]For many Turks, the new money will simply end the confusion of dealing in a currency in which the smallest coin in general circulation is the 50,000 and a short taxi ride can set you back 5-10m.

for anyone who's not been there you really have to experience being a billionaire for free (who needs hard work anyway?)

zagat kuwait where are you?

while wondering where to have lunch on a friday with a sudden yen for italian, i realized there isn't one (or two or ten) reliable sources for centralized and somewhat objective restaurant information, news and reviews. i think that historically there hasn't been much to talk about on the restuarant scene in kuwait compared to soho or saint germain but for god's sake there should be something i can page (or surf) through to get a quick idea of what's out there!

now i feel for those poor few visitors to kuwait that seem perplexed to figure where to go and have to get lucky to bump into a non-indian for directions (assuming they're not after chapati)!

anyone got any thoughts out there?