Amiram Hayardeny’s BigMouth

Three beggars have been chosen to represent their communities in pleading with the king to grant them some charity money so they can survive.  The three beggars discussed their way of arrival.  There were quite a few options.  They could drive in, using cars manufactured by their senders.  That option was put off.  Gasoline is too expensive.  They could take the train, but there is no direct route between Detroit to Washington DC.  This option was not selected either.  They even considered a commercial flight, but that turned out to be too crowded.  First class was too expensive.  Almost a thousand dollars.  So they chose to use three private jets.  Each of the beggars came with one private jet.

When they arrived, they were placed in a large room, with many cabinet members, members of the media, photographers and others.  Everyone wanted to see how the king will help the beggars in their mission to feed their respective communities.  There was silence in the large room.  You could hear a pin drop.  The king raised his hand, everyone stopped breathing.  The king started asking questions.

“I’m going to ask the three beggars here to raise their hand if they flew here commercial,” he said.  The beggars sat still.  “Let the record show no hands went up”, the king exclaimed.  The audience went even more silent than before.  “Second,” he kept on, “I’m going ask you to raise your hand if you’re planning to sell your jet . . . and fly back commercial.”   Still no movement on the beggars’ part.   “Let the record show no hands went up” the king said.

The beggars left empty-handed.  Upon arrival, there was no welcoming party at the airport.  Instead, when the three beggars arrived at their exquisite offices, each one of them had a wrapped gift on his desk.  Each one of them opened it up to discover a set of filthy clothes, torn shoes, a crummy hat and a leftover sandwich.  Next time, the attached note said, when you go begging for us, look more like us.

The lesson is simple: beggars cannot look better, feel better, own more than the begged.  A beggar should be a beggar.

So far, the three executives have shown the sin of avarice (greed), the sin of arrogance.  But most of all, the ultimate sin of commonsenselessness…

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I was sitting with the receptionist in my new office the other day.  We were going over some processes, in fact, she was giving me some instructions.  As we were speaking, a door opened, and two people came out.  One was the COO, the other was an old friend.  A class mate.  We went to high school together.  We looked at each other, we shook hands, exchanged emails, and parted.  Last time we met was over twenty eight years ago.

This can only happen in Israel.

A few days go by, and an email comes in.  My new old friend said he visits the area where I work on occasion.  We decided to have lunch.  No date was set yet.

Another couple of days pass, and another email came in.  It was yet another old class mate, who happen to know the other guy.  Naturally.  He said he would love to come for lunch.  I said it would be great, and that our other friend would be there too.  We were all excited, expecting, anticipating the reunion.

Today, a few hours ago, one guy called and I went downstairs to meet him.  We hugged, and a few minutes later the other called saying he was coming up.  We met for lunch in a great Brazilian restaurant.  Papagayo.  And if we didn’t have enough surprises yet, there was our third class mate, accompanied by the fourth, who came with him.

There we were, four old friends.  Indeed, two of them are good friends, two others saw each other a couple of times during the last three decades.  Four old friends meeting after more than a quarter century.

This is Israel.  The land of everlasting friendship.

Names start flying around.  Two dead friends are brought up.  One killed in a car accident, the other suffered a heart attack.  Three are divorced, two remarried.  All successful in their respective occupations.  Children, school, military services.  Degrees, ranks, and wars.  Experiences, jokes, comedy and tragedy.  Friendship.

As I said before.  Only in Israel.  Only at home.  Welcome home Amiram.  You’ve been missed.

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I remember clearly a couple of years ago, driving my car and hearing a short news items along the following lines: “an strong earthquake was felt in the Indian Ocean.  Some casualties have been reported”.  In retrospect, I remember clearly that the message along with the tone communicated a small, almost negligible seismic event.  The next news cast already reported of a “few dozen casualties”.  To make a long story short, it took weeks before the full magnitude of the event, including the quarter million dead, completely destroyed communities, diseases and economic disaster, was clear.  A very interesting place to follow the development of the crisis as presented in the news media can be found here.

A few months ago, some American banks reported a sub-prime mortgage problem.  Many dismissed it as a local event.  Bank managers, including the manager of the Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns and others interviewed extensively, showing confidence in their organizations.  Weeks, sometimes days, and even hours later, organizations went under.  It seems to me that the magnitude of this economic downturn is not yet realized, and most certainly, its end is not yet known.  A very interesting place to follow the history of this crisis, including its legislative roots, can be found here.

But last night, watching some trash-TV promo, on the Israeli infamous Channel 2, I was enlightened.  I suddenly understood the connection and the relationships between the different elements which caused this economic disaster.  One word: Greed.  I wish there were ways to scream the word, or color it is a way that would register better with the reader.  Just saying it, or writing it, in five plain letters does not do justice to the level of uncontrollable appetite for money, and more money, and bigger cars, and fancier watches, and unnecessary gadgets, in short conspicuous consumption, amazing consumerism, driving entire economies on the ability of its people to consume things they don’t need, paying for it with money they don’t have.  The ability of people to strongly believe that the future is now.  That the continued existence of themselves and their descendants is unimportant, that savings is a bad word.  Something lead those people to believe that if they could sell an arm or a leg, and take the money to the mall to buy another pair of shoes from some brand name, which was manufacturing the shoes in some remote country by poor and staring children - is a good thing, and that it will drive everyone to prosperity.  Well, a brand named pair of shoes is not particularly attractive when one of your feet is mortgaged to finance it.  A Rolex does nothing to your social stature if your left arm is at the bank.

Destructive capitalism is driving economies, people, families and countries to starvation now.  Tycoons are no longer.  Or they are sufficiently crippled to present some humility to media interviews, if they interview at all, that is.  They are caught in a very dangerous downturn spiral.  If they interview and sound worried, the stock of the companies they represent go down the next day.  If they don’t interview, investors (what the hell is an investor?  Someone who buys a stock at 9:30 and sells it at 9:45 for a 2 cents per share profit?  Someone who gambles on the demise of a company and borrows stock to sell in the hopes that the stock will crash and he or she will be able to buy it at a lower price and live of the margin?) get nervous and sell.  If he interviews and looks smog, the stock goes down as it’s interpreted as an attempt to present confidence based on absolutely nothing.  It’s a lose-lose situation.

Anyhow, how do the two TV people, with all the right brand name clothes and gadgets, with the hair jell and the D&G glasses, deliver an explanation for the financial crisis (right, like the word crisis really represents this outstanding loss of wealth, jobs, and confidence).  This is how the conspiracy works:

A fully commercialized TV station recruits a couple of good for nothing media characters.  They are popular with the crowds.  In fact, they are idolized by the crowds.  They come up with some “reality” show - a nice name for a place for ordinary people to humiliate themselves for money (Moment of Truth, American Idol, Fear Factor to name a few, but the list is long and ugly).  This junk actually generates viewing ratings.  The rating is the new God of the twenty first century.  Businesses buy minutes or fractions of minutes to advertise whatever junk they want to sell.  Usually junk that you either don’t need, or can’t afford.  People watch the shows (very annoying experience as I can tell from the few times I did watch.  Five minutes of program for every three minutes of commercials), and race to the nearest shopping mall to buy the advertised junk.  When they get to the point that money isn’t enough anymore, they use credit.  When credit runs out, they use home equity, education funds, savings account, pawn shops, body organs, so they can buy the junk sponsored by the two celebrity clowns.

Is it really that hard to understand how an entire society finds itself completely and thoroughly broke?  Buying a house one can’t afford, with money that apparently and in retrospect, the bank couldn’t afford to give, ant a completely unreal price isn’t a good practice.  And hear this: it must lead to criminal activities.  How so?  Simple.  In yesterday’s news the following story was on the headlines.  A couple of businessmen bought land in a major development area in the US.  They brought in estimators who estimated the land to be worth almost two billion dollars.  Based on this estimate, they took a loan from the bank for over one billion dollars, putting the land down as collateral.  It happens so, that a third, independent valuation of the land found that the land was worth a fraction of the original estimate.  Less than half.  Voices are now heard that a criminal investigation should be launched.  All I can say about it, is an extremely sarcastic comment: government investment in police could provide employment for all the unemployed.  And accomplish some justice in the process as well.

Bottom line.  Consuming with no limits is indeed driving the economy.  To complete destruction.  We seem to have lost our values.  Lets reintroduce some values to our societies.  First and foremost: charity.  Not of the glamorous kind, but of the small and humane kind.  Help people directly.  People who lost their ability to provide for the families.  Go to your local town hall and ask for a family known to them to be in trouble.  And give, if you can.  Consume with respect to yourself, to your community, to your abilities, to global interests.  And don’t listen to shelled celebrities when they send you to the shopping malls to buy stuff you don’t need.  Appreciate people as the persons they are and not as the hanger they serve for brand names.  Be respectful to education, to family values.  Idolize nothing.  Doubt everything.  Trust your good judgment.

It’s just before Christmas.  People will try to tell you that the economy will go even worse if people don’t shop.  Let me tell you a little secret.  They said it last year too.  And the year before.  Societies should never be driven on how much they consume, but on how much they produce.  And this is the biggest lesson I have learned from this crisis.  A society that gives up its entire production and manufacturing capabilities, and is dependant only on consumerism, is in a much deeper problem than it thinks it is.

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It’s been over a week since we landed in Israel. And what a week it was.

It started at 3:00 AM at the Ben Gurion International Airport outside Tel Aviv. The sky was clear and the weather was warm and welcoming. So were my sister and her friend who came to pick us up from the airport. We were out pretty quickly, myself, my wife Dorit, two sleepy but very excited children, and ten pieces of luggage, totaling almost 250 kilograms.  The state of Israel was kind enough to allow us all this overweight simply because we were returning Israeli citizens on Israel’s 60th year.

After two and a half years of being away, we were home.

Those of you who experienced remote assignments, relocations, and even the simple act of moving from one place to another will recognize this feeling right away: the feeling of euphoria. Everything looks great, the people are nice, the lines are shorter, the traffic is reasonable. Obviously, this feeling is temporary, simply because every place has its own shortcomings. But the bottom line is simple: this is home, and after being away for so long, home is beautiful.

It hit me when I went to vote for the Binyamina mayor and city council. I was standing there, waiting in line, when I saw a photo of the late Ehud Manor, a famous Israeli poet and composer. He was smiling in the photo, and the quote underneath it said (in Hebrew, and in a much nicer language):

“I want to tell you, and I want you to believe me, wherever I go and wherever I live, I am a Binyaminer”

By the same token, and with direct contradiction to whatever the cosmopolitan Amiram, who lived in various parts of the US, and in Beijing, I want to make it clear and I want you to believe me when I say:

Wherever I go, and wherever I settle, whatever I do and whoever I talk to, whatever passport I carry, and whatever language I speak. I am first and foremost, and will always be, an Israeli.

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Two and a half years, thirty months, nine hundred and twelve days.  Tons of “Gong Bao Ji Ding” (chicken with peanuts) and even more “ji dan chao fan” (fried rice and eggs).  One Olympic event, two if you count the Paralympic Games separately.  Countless beautiful tourist attractions, temples, palaces, monuments, markets, and one really Great Wall.  One huge allowed city with a small but spectacular Forbidden part.  Millions of people, thousands of acquaintances, hundreds of peers and co-workers, and a handful of really special friends.

Trade shows, technical fairs, speeches, conferences and conventions, and one canceled Celine Dion concert.  Two Chinese speaking children, one able-to-get-by-in-Chinese wife and a mute - that would be me.

Hundreds of Terracotta Warriors, drums, bells, towers, bell towers, cellular phone rings, fireworks, car horns, cars, trains, buses, people and more people.  Lots of people.

One large natural disaster.  The Sichuan earthquake will always be burnt into my long term memory.  Not only the quake itself and the few horrifying minutes on the tenth floor of the Chuangxin Plaza, but the unity, the charity, the memorials.

Beijing, Shanghai, Dalian, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Tianjin, Datong, Changchun, Wuhan, but also Thailand, Japan, Korea, India and Russia.  Exploding economy, strong currency, dynamic stock market, and one big real estate bubble ready to burst.

Smoke, smog, air pollution, water pollution and one big milk scandal.

Dozens of device drivers, certification programs, software engineering, software engineers, quality processes, staff meetings, visitors, and one excellent operating system.  Undoubtedly, the Beijing site contribution to the Solaris OS is significant and will continue to be.

Rich in adventures, filled with interesting people and intriguing relationships.  A culture, thousands of years old, yet completely new to me.  Unfamiliar customs, yet a constant feeling of being at home.  This was My China Experience.  And a lot more.

Being the wanderer that I am, I get attached to people, not to places.  I will miss China.  Not the geography, but the people.

Spending two and a half years in China was an exotic experience, one that’s not shared by many.  Obviously, almost everything I saw here was new to me, the sites, the smells, the flavors.  But what made it really special are the people I met.  People from all walks of life.  From highly educated professionals, through blue collar workers, taxi drivers, waiters, shopkeepers, all the way to really poor people.  My experience with almost everyone was that they were kind, willing to help, and warmhearted.  Of course, there were exceptions, but the exceptions were the absolute the minority.

I have left places before in my life.  I left schools, military units, workplaces.  I left countries, towns and homes.  Indeed, every departure was followed by a new beginning, a new place, a change of career, a change of scenery.  I can clearly say without doubt, nobody ever said goodbye to me in a more graceful way than my Beijing team.  And there were some parties before.  Big ones.  But the goodbye party given to me in Beijing was absolutely outstanding.  Not the venue (it was our large conference room, quite adequate if I may say so myself), not the food (although pizza, wings and soda are a great combination).  There was something about the people, the words said, the pictures taken, the video playing in the background.  I felt appreciated, I felt that I was surrounded with love and affection.  I felt that I touched peoples’ lives.  I knew that when someone writes the history of Sun Microsystems, Beijing Engineering and Research Institute, I will have had a part in it.  My spirit will remain long after I depart.

We’re leaving parts of ourselves behind, and taking some of China home with us.  Our China experience will remain in our collective memories foras long as we live.

So to whoever made my stay here joyful, successful, adventurous, educational, exploratory, I offer my thanks.  To those who cared about us, helped in whatever way, made sure that we were happy and content, and to those who want it, I offer my friendship.  To a handful of people, I offer a lifelong commitment that I will be there for them whenever they need me.  Anything I can ever do for you, absolutely anything, just let me know.

This concludes my china experience.  It also concludes My China Experience.  It also concludes my Sun Microsystems experience.  I promise you though: my Big Mouth is here to stay.

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