Three Nights in the Land of Fire - A Travelogue

February in Abu Dhabi means temps in the 80s, but February in the land of fire means winds strong enough to knock you off balance and evening lows below freezing. Walking across an open area, like a plaza or square, elicited several “okay, we can do this” intra-group pep talks as we traversed old town. This is my second recent trip into “real winter.” The trip to the Hague was a good dress rehearsal because those Azeri gusts don't play. 

This plaza features wonderful dining and is an absolute wind-tunnel after dark

The Skinny on Azerbaijan - With a population of four million people, Baku, the capital, is as beautiful as any city I've visited. Its legacy as a major stop on the Silk Road gives it a deeply historical feel, like Xi'an or Istanbul. Two vestiges of the Silk Road come together in Azerbaijan: the trade routes brought Islam further to the east and brought dumplings from China westward into Slavic and Turkic cuisine. 

The country is 96% Muslim but due to the imposed atheism of the Soviet era, the government and broad culture are secular. All the mosques we saw in the city were built in the classical style, but we learned they were of recent vintage, mostly built after the collapse of the USSR. Like we saw in Georgia, the architecture fell into three main buckets: ancient AF (classical), Soviet AF (brutalist), or futuristic AF.

Azerbaijan was on the business end of several historical  conquests, having previously been a part of the Persian Empire, Russian Empire, and Soviet Union. The people are Turkic, like the people of Central Asia, Turkey, and the Uighers in China’s Xinjiang Province. But I noted they don't make the Turkic/Turkish distinction we make in English—our guides repeatedly called their countrymen "Turkish people." To that end, the Turkish flag is often displayed alongside the Azeri flag in the country. I've read elsewhere that Azerbaijan is culturally and politically Turkey's little brother. That largely checked out but leaves out the Soviet/Russian Empire thing. 

Speaking of Russia, their relationship with Azerbaijan is complex. Azeris share a border with their colonizers. Students in primary school are taught the language and Russian is widely spoken by Azeris in the streets. Russian tourists fill the historical sites. But Azeris are apprehensive about their relationship with their northern neighbors. I heard the phrase “we have to keep Russia happy” no fewer than six times when discussing events in the Caucasus Region.

The Heydar Aliyev Center, the Presidential Museum, and center for explaining the Azeri side of their conflict with Armenia

Generally, I was struck talking to Azeris by their sense of pride in their country, their Islamic faith, and the ways in which the government provides for the people (from their oil & gas profits). Azerbaijan is a post-communist state but dodged the neoliberal shock doctrine and IMF structural adjustment bullet, that stripped many states of generous public benefits over the last thirty years. Put differently, the legacy of communism there is a fairly generous social welfare system, rather than a stripped down neoliberal shell of a state. They provide well for their people, especially for a country with a per capita GDP that ranks between Barbados and Albania:

• Azeri workers get roughly a month of paid time off each year

• Public university tuition is free for students who are academy qualified based on national exams 

• Tuition is also free (public or private) for people seeking employment in essential careers: doctors, pilots, etc.

• They enjoy more or less zero out of pocket health care for basic and preventative care services

• Typical rents run between $200 to $300/per month in the city

• The government pays a subsidy to new parents, a one time baby bonus 

• They pay roughly $30 per month for utilities and the country subsidizes energy bills in the winter for all citizens 

That’s quite a list. 

Places that have less than the US seem to offer their citizens more but we somehow call them developing states.  

Once More Unto the Dunes, Dear Friends, Once More

Liwa is a small town on the edge of civilization. Just outside the town is the Moreeb Dune, the largest on the planet–a behemoth, more of a sand mountain than dune. Beyond the dune is hundreds of miles of desert, then the Saudi border, then hundreds more miles of desert. In many ways, it feels like the end of the Earth. The area beyond Liwa is called the Empty Quarter and is a favorite of Hollywood filmmakers. They like to capitalize on the other worldly nature of it. It has served as the planet Jakku in the (unfortunate) Star Wars: the Force Awakens and the planet Arrakis in the adaptation of Dune by Denis Villeneuve. 

We planned a November escape to Liwa back in September, while the school year was still new. It is a favorite retreat of hours. We can make the 200-ish kilometer drive in two hours, under two,  if we really mean it. It’s a drive that takes you through the heart of the city, through the villas in the burbs (where most Emirati families live), into a sprawling industrial area that goes on for miles, and eventually into the open desert. 

Our hotel was on the edge of the built landscape, when you looked out beyond the pool (see image), there was nothing but dunes, just like Arrakis. Near it is the Al Dhafra camel racing track and the surrounding stables filled with camels of every size, color, and type. I never feel further from home when I am looking at a camel.

Camel tracks are a bit of an enigma to us. Camel racing is a past-time here, one that we have tried but repeatedly failed to take in. We have driven alongside the exterior of the track watching practice. We have visited tracks in Al Wathba and Al Ain but we never seem to be able to find the rhythm and see an actual race. We have been foiled by the early start times; they start as early as six in the morning to avoid the heat (ain’t nobody got time for that, after a full week of teaching). We were also stopped by Covid, the races and the Camel Beauty Pageant were suspended in 2020 and closed to the public for much of 2021. We’ve also been foiled by information posted online that is outdated, or only posted in Arabic, or both. This isn’t something you can just Google. It’s literally tribal knowledge. And it just hasn’t been meant to be. 

On Saturday, I suggested a half-hearted effort to drive into the desert and find the set of Dune II. But we opted to get shawarma instead. It was on the way back from this failed (but also successful mission–the shawarma was delicious) that we came upon an ocean of camels on the roads near the track. Hundreds of camels, as far as the eye could see, crossing each way, but moving in orderly lines under the guidance of their handlers. I noted the handlers. Someone goofier than me might describe them as “rugged” or “worn by the sun.” But I couldn’t stop laughing that each of them–all in their 20s–had their eyes glued to their phones while they glided about on the backs of the camels. It was a mix of the timeless and the modern, so rich we had to pull over and take the whole thing in. We may have failed to catch a race (again) and to find Zendaya (we didn’t try that hard) but we made a memory for a lifetime.

I think we will make one more stab at catching a race, later this fall in Al Ain. Wish us luck.  

A Shanghai Travelogue: On the Merits of Dumplings, Debate, and Democracy

I have history with Zhōngguó, the Middle Kingdom, enough so that when word got out last winter we were departing the states, many people assumed we were China-bound. In 2018, we hosted two Chinese exchange students: Bob and Wong. I got a dose of being a dad for a moment; it cemented for me that I’m not cut out for parenthood. In the summers of 2014 and 2015, on the invitation from a visiting professor, we went to Chengdu in Sichuan Province to teach Chinese students in a summer program. I taught a blend of US history, American college culture and knowledge, and some theater. Each time before we began our teaching, we flew into a different city and traveled overland for three weeks. We spent time in Beijing, Xi’an, Hong Kong, and Macau. 

After our second trip to China in 2015, my school hosted a visit from President Xi and I hosted him for a lecture in my Government class. He spoke to my students via a translator -- it was surreal. If you think an urban high school is a stressful place, toss a phalanx of armed Chinese and US Secret Service into the mix. I’ve opined on that experience previously, but I continue to be struck by a line in his talk: “If you want to time travel, go to China. Go to Xi’an and see the Terracotta Warriors to understand the world 1000 years ago. If you want to go 500 years in the past, go to Beijing and see the Dragon Throne and the Forbidden City. But if you want to see the future, go to Shanghai.” 

Last week I took up his offer and made my third trip to China. As chaperones, I and a colleague accompanied a travel team of thirteen students from our school’s Model United Nations Program to Concordia International School for their Model UN conference, heretofore, CISSMUN. For the unfamiliar, Model UN is the international school equivalent of US high school debate. Over three days students… rather delegates... researched and wrote resolutions on various topics that they presented to committees to be debated, amended, and voted up or down. At this conference, there were committees on human rights (HRC), world criminal justice (ICJ), global health (WHO), economic and social matters (ECOSOC), and disarmament. Students took on roles representing various states. The conference had over 1000 delegates, from over 75 schools all over African, Asia, and Oceania. It’s a fascinating environment, an ocean of pant-suits and blazers. It felt like the NFL combine for aspiring lawyers, diplomats, and NGO workers.

CISSMUN was hosted by Concordia, a Christian K-12 international school, in an expat enclave in the city. We took an overnight flight from Abu Dhabi and landed in Shanghai at ten am. Y’all, Downtown Shanghai is Blade Runner. At CISSMUN, students did homestays with local families (awesome), so I was relieved of the usual hotel bed checks in the evening (more awesome). In my off-time, I checked all the usual Nate boxes: small talk about politics, knife-cut noodles, beef noodle soup, Shanghai dumplings (xiaolongbao), and several wanders through unfamiliar neighborhoods while listening to podcasts.

I was struck by the nature of my students’ task and how they rose to the occasion; Model UN is an amazing way for students to learn about the world. Writing resolutions requires regional specific knowledge, an understanding of recent history and international law, and the ability to present your findings in an organized, compelling manner. I had several students in my delegation who are veterans of MUN, including several who chaired sessions and were main submitters of resolutions. I think it is such a smart way of preparing students for life in an increasingly complicated world. 

I especially appreciate the skill-set they are developing when contrasted to the HS debate experience. No shade or smoke to debate coaches out there, but Ted Cruz and Tucker Carlson are champion debaters. In a debate, students are often competing, rather than cooperating and sophistry is rewarded because a person willing to lie or make stuff up has an innate advantage over a person making evidence-based arguments. In Model UN, students all have a laptop in front of them. They fact-check each other in real-time and will pounce on non-sense and resolutions lacking evidence. On day two I watched a student from Hong Kong, with an Australian accent, representing Argentina, demand specificity on a human trafficking resolution, while sipping a juice box -- like a boss.

China’s human rights record is notably complicated (and the fact my student from Pakistan was unable to obtain a visa was a frustration to me). But on this trip, I heard Chinese students talk about the importance of tolerance, defend religious freedom, and call for protection of human rights. They overtly addressed their country’s domestic politics. Like my American students and my students in the Emirates, they want to build a more just and equitable future for their states. I can mess with that.