22 October 1999

Just a few more hours now and I'll be home -- one more flight. One trans-Atlantic trip from Moscow to Manhattan and this particular chapter will be finished. And once again, it's been both enlightening and gratifying. Evangelism is now.
The flight from Jo'burg to Brussels went well enough. I fell asleep a few minutes after take off and didn't wake up until breakfast was being served the following morning - a testimony to how much I travel now, I think. Sometimes I wake up in a hotel room and not know what city I'm in much less what country, which is how I started out this morning. From Brussels I hopped to Paris, then to Zurich, and finally to Istanbul, nearly a full 24 hours after leaving the RSA. And as luck would have it, my luggage did not arrive with me. My bag finally decided to arrive the following night, opting for a rest in Zurich, it seems, for reasons still unclear to me. But my bag and I both survived the ordeal and were happily reunited without incident.
Istanbul is a fascinating city. Strategically located at the crossroads of Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and even Africa, the city reflects many cultural influences and is even somewhat greater than the sum of the parts. Decidedly Islamic, incredibly lit mosques are plentiful. But the secular government of Turkey remains pro Western and in many ways it felt very much like a visit to a modern European city. I was surprised to find quite a number of Internet cafes near the waterfront tourist district in Istanbul - more than I would have expected. Bandwidth wasn't quite what I'd have hoped, and the keyboards were a bit puzzling, but I did manage an online fix while there at a fairly average (by world standards) second floor e-bistro.
The Sun event in Istanbul went well enough. I gave both a Jini presentation as well as one for the Java Foundation Classes.
While their English wasn't the best, the Turkish programmers were attentive, intelligent and appreciative of Sun's messages. Despite the fact that we've only been in Turkey for four years now, the local Sun office there was impressively staffed and has achieved a great deal of growth.
From Istanbul to Moscow we traveled via Munich. I shared the flights with one of my fellow evangelists and my new manager, whom I got to know a little better during this trip. My previous manager was one of the best I've had in my software career - a tough act to follow - but I'm glad to report that my new manager seems to be quite adept and eager to continue the evangelist tradition. There is so much more we need to accomplish. And he seems to be ready to confront the challenges we face.
It was a little chilly in Moscow - a high each day around freezing. But my Java jacket kept me warm. :) We stayed at a rather opulent Marriott (the Marriott Royal). It seems there are only two kinds of hotels in Moscow: the very opulent and the very dismal. Having experienced both now, I must say I do prefer the former. :)
It had been 7 years since I last set foot in Moscow. During the summer of 1992 I traveled to Russia with my MBA cohorts from the University of San Francisco during the international component of our studies. We stayed at one of the more dismal hotels during that visit, but we learned a lot about business and Russia. An article in Newsweek I read on the flight from Munich said that Russian productivity had dropped 50% since 1992. But from what I could see, Moscow at least, had been prospering.
A city that once had one McDonald's now hosted one just about everywhere. Billboards littered the drive from the airport. A large neon Coke sign gives a Times Square feel to the central Moscow area along with all the other Western based advertisement. The emerging global culture has embraced Moscow now. So while productivity may have dropped, the acculturalization of Russia has continued. Coke, McDonald's, Cell Phones, M-TV -- these are the earmarks of a culture that has been assimilated. There was no sign of the bread lines that had once been so common.
The Sun event the first day was held in an entertainment center - a roller rink with video games all around. About 500 or so attended, I think. I talked about Jini and Solaris in two different presentations. The crowd was receptive and asked good questions. But for me, the highlight of the trip took place the following day at the State University of Moscow where we addressed 200 computer science students in a very dark but staid classroom on the campus.
The students couldn't have been more attentive. And their questions - some of which betrayed their relative immaturity - were often as challenging as they were thoughtful. We had an interpreter for both events, but I had a feeling that we could have done just as well with the students if we'd simply spoken English. They were bright, eager, and had that certain gleam in their eyes that says they are ready to face the obstacles ahead, unfettered by cultural or even technical legacy of the past. Not unlike my own son, a member of the "Nintendo generation," the Russian young are not intimidated by technology. And many of them have grown up with the Internet. As such, they don't see the world in quite the same way as older adults do. And like a young man I met in Jo'burg, their view of this world can have a tremendously positive impact. We were discussing all the problems South Africa faces in the wake of Apartheid - tremendous unemployment, high crime, corruption. How do you deal with such problems. "Problem?" the young man replied. "I don't see problems. I see opportunities." We should all see the world through such eyes.