Kabul. Doha. Jeddah. A Journey in Three Acts: Learn. Yearn. Earn.
Being There
From Afghanistan War Zone to Myanmar's Digital Silence
A Watershed Experience: Live Missions, Cultural Contrasts, and the Power of American English
"I won the lottery" because as Bruce Springsteen says, "I was born in the USA"
The Journey Timeline
Active War Zone
Running live missions in Eastern Afghanistan Forward Operating Base. A watershed experience where language literally meant life or death.
Funding Freedom
Underwrote foreign travels with high-paying military contracts. Every deployment was an investment in future adventures.
Digital Silence
3 days in Yangon experiencing the "digital homeless" - a world without internet, logos, or 24-hour news cycles.
The American Dream
Understanding the lottery ticket of American birth and the responsibility that comes with speaking the world's most powerful language.
The Reality of War Zones
In Afghanistan, communication wasn't just about connection—it was about survival. Every word mattered, every translation could mean the difference between life and death. The weight of carrying American English in a place where language barriers could turn deadly was both a privilege and a tremendous responsibility.
There are some similarities between Afghanistan and Myanmar—Drugs, long civil wars and emerging economies... but I digress...actually reminisce, harking back to SE Asia and 3 days in Yangon:
Digital World
CNN, 24-hour news cycle, smartphones, internet connectivity, McDonald's, logos everywhere, constant stimulation
Analog Myanmar
No TV, no logos, no McDonald's, few cell phones, sim cards cost $500, broken phone systems, digital homeless
Yangon's analog eyes don't see our digital world. But does it matter? Internet or InterNOT? Traveling in places without electricity with TCNs, Third Country Nationals, are not voyages of discovery, but rituals of reassurance. So with curiosity, vulnerability and vocabulary, I will articulate the Myanmar sound bite.
DetermiNATION Myanmar
The largest experiment in anarchy that we have ever had is not the internet, it's Myanmar
These people in Burma, aka Golden land, are so sweet. Yet they are the digital homeless, who couldn't tell you the difference between google and facebook, a laptop or an ipad. My conscience, however, permits me to love them.
The Art of Buying Nothing
No TV. No Logos. No McDonald's. No McDonnell Douglas. Few cell phones. A sim card costs $500 and the phone system is broken. Few cars. There is no CNN, 24 hour news cycle, no tivoization to time shift your day, no napsterization or digital downloads—this is the "axis of evil" the millions of people who make less than $2 bucks a day. Countries, like people however, are loved for their failures. It's a shame I can't spend any money in this place and help the damn economy. I am unable to buy anything for 72 hours.
What Happened to Downtime?
Deep Thinking & Sacred Space in the United States of Unconsciousness is extinct versus the real deal—Living in a quasi "airplane mode." For the uninitiated, and digital homeless—setting their lives to "airplane mode" disables phone calls, text messaging, wi-fi, Bluetooth, and GPS. It is distinct. It's their blisscipline.
Traveling is a Life Sentence—We yearn for journeys like prisoners dream of rooms without bars. And we all want time off for good behavior.
Ramen Noodles 2.0
Choosing between the digital and the analog is like arguing against the laws of gravity or is it?
If Ramen noodles are a dish of effortless purity than Yangon's outdoor market of fresh produce, the egg or tea, gives you oodles and oodles of these ubiquitous states of grace with a marriage of nothing more than hot water.
The fact that there is no refrigeration and everybody is hustling to eat something for the day, Yangon will stick with you like gum in your hair until you get it out with peanut butter. Or better yet, just shave all your hair off. Hair is ego anyway.
Tune in Turn on Drop Out! and Be Here Now.
Freedom is what you do with what has been done to you. As I said, I was born in the USA, and being born there—my life has to be my message—Star-spangled happiness, because love is a responsibility and I love America, and its A-list language, American.
The messianic metaphor of the American Dream becomes the lottery and game show mentality – that outside chance that the planets will line up to liberate us from financial worries once and for all. Yet we were all born (in America) having winning tickets as a mere circumstance of birth – and cashing them in is a simple matter of choice.
Hugs and Drugs
The joke goes, you call a person who speaks 3 languages trilingual, 2, bilingual, 1, American. What is the most powerful drug known to mankind? American English. I used to have a "drug" problem but now I make enough money, and found my voice.
Write? Right.
Blogging is literature in a hurry. People climb mountains because they are there. In blogging there is no there there. Why do bloggers blog? Because it isn't there. It's always shifting and changing and the searching that makes it fun.
In a world of constant digital noise, the act of writing becomes both rebellion and necessity. We blog not because we have all the answers, but because the questions keep evolving. Each post is a snapshot of a moment in time, a digital fossil of our thoughts, forever preserved in the amber of the internet.
From the Forward Operating Base in Afghanistan to the peaceful streets of Yangon, the power of words transcends borders. Whether it's coordinating life-saving missions or simply sharing a moment of human connection across cultures, language remains our most powerful tool for building bridges in a divided world.