Travelling light

I'm doing some pro bono work for a thing called the Emirates Travellers' Festival.  The ETs are a group of youngish Emiratis who travel the world by Land Cruiser mostly, going to difficult and interesting places and educating people about the UAE and Arab and Muslim culture and doing occasional good works.  And learning and learning and learning along the way.

And now these guys are working on setting up a Festival to be a celebration of Travelling - for whatever reason be it thrill seeking or charitable works or education or some combination.  It's to be a chance for people from all over the world to share and enjoy.

Today I was interviewing Sheikh Awad about this.  He's the driving force behind both the Emirates Travellers themselves and the Festival though he's got himself a veritable army of helpers and advisors. 

He's a genuine enthusiast.  He did a piece to camera, impromptu, in Arabic and English extolling the virtues to be gained from meeting different cultures and seeing different places.  It came from the heart and just drips with the enthusiasm and joy you can see in his eyes.

But what comes across so strongly in conversation is how much he wants to share these experiences and the learnings.  It's all been wholly positive.  Now, he mentions in passing that some places were difficult and risky but I'm made to swear I won't mention which places.  Not from fear on his part but from a desire not to put anyone off from trying if they want to.

And I also come across a trait I see in too few people here - expat or otherwise.  He must have told me a dozen times in the conversation that we have to make careful plans but in the end we have to "...just try it...get started and get on..."  He's happy to pull it together and dot i's and cross t's but just keen to get on. "Take a few risks; not stupid ones but some or you'll get nowhere".  It's nearly a mantra.

I've also been teaching business people about Entrereneurialism and that sums it up perfectly.  The managers I've been working with often understand intellectually but over here the culture is not one of taking risk.  Remember most of our workforce is expatriate and if they cross their bosses they can be fired and sent home at pretty much a moments notice.  That fear engenders neither any climate of risk taking nor does it make providing real customer focussed service possible.  Because staff are more frightened of the boss than they are concerned for the customer.  After all the customer can't have them deported.

This produces a badly skewed work culture where intelligent people will not challenge patently foolish instructions, where filling in the appropriate chit is more important than problem solving and where even the smallest risk is avoided because of the potential for disproportionate punishment.

It's REALLY holding back our development.  Somehow we have to remove the fear and replace it with pride.  A revision of visa rules might be all that's needed to get things rolling.  Perhaps coupled with the carrot of possible permanent residence if not citizenship for those who show the most commitment.