Torrence Harder - Reflections

In Greek mythology, Apollo has been variously recognized as a god of light and the sun; truth and prophecy; medicine, healing, music, poetry, and the arts; and more. Apollo is the son of Zeus and Leto, and has a twin sister, the chaste huntress Artemis. When Hera discovered that Leto was pregnant and that her husband Zeus was the father, she banned Leto from giving birth on terra firma.  In her wanderings, Leto found the newly created floating Aegean island of Delos, which was neither mainland nor a real island, so she gave birth there. The island was surrounded by swans. Afterwards, Zeus secured Delos to the bottom of the ocean. Apollo was born on the seventh day of the month, according to Delian tradition: the day of the full moon.

The island of Delos, isolated in the centre of the roughly circular ring of islands called the Cyclades, near Mykonos, is one of the most important mythological, historical and archaeological sites in Greece. Delos had a position as a holy sanctuary for a millennium before Greek mythology made it the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis. During the third century BC, Apollo became identified with Helios, god of the sun. Evidently, Apollo came to the Aegean from Anatolia during the Iron Age, c. 1100 to 800 BC. Homer pictures him on the side of the Trojans, during the Trojan War. Apollo was the protector god who wards off evil. The possibility that the name was inherited has been confirmed by inscriptions in western Anatolia, c. 1280 BCE: Aplu Enlil, meaning “the son of Enlil“, the Babylonian god of the sun.

In literary contexts, Apollo represents harmony, order, and reason, characteristics contrasted with those of Dionysus, god of wine, who represents ecstasy and disorder. The Greeks thought of the two qualities as complementary: the two gods were almost brothers. Apollo is often associated with the Greek ideal of moderation and virtue that opposes gluttony. On one occasion, Apollo fell in love with Cassandra. He promised Cassandra the gift of prophecy to seduce her, but she rejected him. Enraged, Apollo indeed gifted her with the ability to know the future, with a curse that she could only see the future tragedies and that no one would ever believe her.

I am the eye with which the Universe
Beholds itself, and knows it is divine;
All harmony of instrument or verse,
All prophecy, all medicine, is mine,
All light of art or nature; – to my song
Victory and praise in its own right belong.

-Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Hymn of Apollo“, Verse VI, 1820.

After a disastrous 1095-9 First Crusade, the Order of St. John (“Hospitallers”) was established by Pope Paschal II in 1113 to guard the Holy Sepulchre, to tend Christian pilgrims with a hospice in Jerusalem… and to fight. But by 1187 these Knights were driven from Jerusalem. In 1306, after two centuries fighting infidels from their bases in Acre and Cyprus, the Hospitallers bought Rhodes from a Genoese pirate named Admiral Vignoli. Rhodian peasants were subjugated to medieval feudal serfdom which tied them to servitude marina. Of course the Turk Sulieman the Magnificent attacked this marauding force of “crusading” corsairs. So after a 200 year stay on Rhodes, the Order of St. John was again forced to leave in 1523, embarking on a lonely eight year odyssey before finding yet another home: Malta.

In 1530, Spanish Emperor Charles V gave Malta to the Hospitallers in return for one falcon yearly rent. The island’s lonely outpost was a stepping stone for Turks to invade Christiandom and a convenient hub for the Hospitaller corsairs, commissioned to interrupt infidel commerce and to enslave seaports. Malta became a thorn for Turks. On May 18, 1565, Suleiman again attacked the Hospitallers with a standing army of 28,000. The Hospitaller defenders included 500 Knights and 3,000 Maltese men-at-arms. The first month’s siege of Fort Saint Elmo cost the Turks 6,000 men. Finally breaching the main Hospitaller fort at Birgu, the Turks were decimated by the Knight’s ferocity. After five months, Spanish reinforcements led by Don Garcia de Toledo ended the siege and the victory was celebrated by all the Christian monarchies of Europe.

Hospitaller Knights took vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. The Knights owed their obedience to their Grand Master who was subject only to the Pope. This stratagem avoided interference from any Christian state by granting the Order its own sovereignty. The Order had eight tongues from France, Provence, Auvergne, Aragon, Castile, Italy, Germany and England. The Grand Master was elected for life and was subject only to the authority of the Pope. The Order fostered a sense of nostalgia for the medieval notions of chivalry and the rank of Knight became the exclusive preserve of the European nobility.

As years passed after the 1565 victory, corruption and internal dissension undermined the effectiveness and reputation of the Order. A wealthy Knight claimed poverty by pledging his assets to the Order. A chaste Knight took care of his children but never married. And the Knights self-serving obedience to their Order showed no compassion to the people of Malta. On June 9, 1798, Napoleon Bonaparte, while on his way to Egypt, stopped briefly at Malta and ordered the Hospitallers to leave. Grand Master von Hompesch sailed away without a fight.

“Alone, alone, all, all alone,
Alone on a wide, wide sea.”

-Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Secretary to the Civil Commissioner, Malta, 1804.

Gaudí designed La Sagratha Familia to have 18 towers, 12 for the 12 apostles, 4 for the 4 evangelists, one for Mary and one for Jesus. He developed a new method of structural calculation based on a model built with cords and small sacks of lead shot. The outline of the church was traced on a wooden board (1:10 scale), which was then placed on the ceiling of a small house next to the work site. Cords were hung from the points where columns were to be placed. The sacks of pellets, weighing one ten-thousandth part of the weight the arches would support, were hung from each arch formed by the cords. Photographs were then taken of the resulting model from various angles. When the photographs were turned upside-down, the lines of tension formed by the cords and weights revealed the lines of pressure of the compressed structure.

By 1906 Gaudi had become a living legend, the most famous architect working in the Iberian Peninsula. Eccentric, egocentric and focused, there was no doubting his genius. But there was a gathering backlash. Gaudí’s originality was ridiculed by his jealous peers. Even so, as time passed his work became more famous. Today, Gaudi stands as one of history’s most original architects.

The Gaudi myth of the hermit and the dejected beggar dates effectively from 1914 on. In subsequent years, Gaudi’s appearance changed.  He became like a shadow, appearing more translucent. He changed from his usual model of shoe to his own invention of esparto grass soles with leather uppers held together with elastic. His suits hung off his hollow shoulders, the overused pockets collapsed, while his trousers flapped around thin legs. One day Gaudi was mistaken for a tramp and offered a limosna – alms.

In autumn 1925, Gaudi finally made the decision to live in his La Sagrada Familia studio. Around 6 pm the evening of June 7, 1926 following his habitual route Gaudi walked across Barcelona looking unusually distracted. The Number 30 Tram, unable to slow down, hit what the driver described as a drunken tramp. Stopping briefly, the tramp was pushed to one side and the tram continued on its way. Two pedestrians went over to help the victim. There were no papers on him and just a handful of raisins and nuts in his pockets. Four times they tried to flag down taxis to take him to the nearest hospital but each time they were refused. The following morning, Gaudi was found by his assistants with a Gospel in his pocket and his underpants held together by two safety pins.

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world;
The unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself.
Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”
- George Bernard Shaw, 1856-1950.

The 2010 Chilean earthquake occurred off the coast of the Maule Region of Chile on February 27, 2010, at 03:34 in the morning, rating a magnitude of 8.8 on the Richter scale and lasting 90 seconds. The earthquake triggered a tsunami which devastated several coastal towns in south-central Chile. Tsunami warnings were issued in 53 countries, causing minor damage in the San Diego area of California and in the Tohoku region of Japan. Seismologists estimate that the earthquake was so powerful that it may have shortened the length of the day by 1.26 microseconds and moved the Earth’s figure axis by 8 centimeters. Precise GPS measurement indicated the telluric movement moved the entire city of Concepción with over 200,000 inhabitants 10 feet to the west. A tsunami in the deep ocean has a wavelength of about 120 miles and travels at well over 500 miles per hour. Due to the enormous wavelength a tsunami has average amplitude of only about 3.3 feet at sea. This makes tsunamis difficult to detect over deep water. Surprisingly, ships rarely notice a tsunami’s passage. As early as 426 BC the Greek historian Thucydides inquired about the causes of tsunami first arguing that ocean earthquakes must be the cause. Throughout recorded history, many tsunamis in a wave shoaling process have grown dangerously high, in some cases 100 feet or as high as a ten story building, as they reached a distant shore.

“One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.”

- William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, Act III, Scene 3.

Segesta’s 5^th Century B.C. Doric temple is one of the best preserved in the world. The 36 columns represent one system of ancient Greek classical architecture, following strict rules of harmony. And the temple was built with great care, so as to look true to the eye and to convey a sort of magical attraction. The terraces are curved, so that the eye may get the impression in the distance, that they are plane. This optic correction, made with millimeter precision to deceive the eye, makes the building look perfect.

“The location of the temple is singular: it stands at the top of a long, wide valley, on a hill that is isolated but surrounded by rocks; and it has got quite a wide-ranging view over the village, but a limited one over the sea. The fertile but sad region is all cultivated, but you cannot see one single house in it. Numberless butterflies swarm on the thistle in bloom. The wind blew among the columns as in a wood, while birds of prey flitted, chirping over the cornices.” – Goethe, A Journey to Segesta, Sicily, 1787.

” Beauty is truth, truth beauty

That is all ye know on earth

And all ye need to know. “

- John Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn, 1819.

Many civilizations have flourished on Menorca, a strategic island in the Balearic Islands with naval control over the western Mediterranean. Talayotic culture, circa 1200 – 800 BC within the Bronze Age, is the first accurate historical civilization recorded on the island. Structures include taules or monuments in the form of a T made up of two large blocks of stone (see picture). Amazingly, at the site of Torre d’en Gaumes, Menorca, an Egyptian medicine man named Imohep was found buried in the middle of a taule. With little archeological evidence, we can only wonder about this 400 year civilization so many centuries ago. The civilizations following Talayotic culture were Phoenician, Greek and Roman.

Now, as twilight fades over the British Empire, few remember Menorca was once occupied by the British. At its height in 1922, the British Empire had held sway over one-quarter of the world’s population and approximately a quarter of the Earth’s total land area for over a century. In 1756 a French army commanded by Louis François Armand du Plessis, duc de Richelieu landed near Ciutadella and marched across the island to lay siege to the British at Mahon which eventually surrendered. Following this defeat, the unfortunate British Admiral Byng was shot before the mast on the quarterdeck of HMS Monarque in the English Channel for failing to engage the French fleet and thereby lift the siege. This incident provoked Voltaire’s famous quip: “In Britain, it is wise from time to time to kill an admiral in order to encourage the others.” (Candide, 1759) To mark the occasion, Richelieu had a sauce called mahon-esa, based on the local aioli sauce, served at the victory banquet in Paris. This delicacy, which his chef had invented while on the island, has become today’s ubiquitous “mayonnaise”, still a favorite after 250 years.

“Could mayonnaise now be forever?”

-Anonymous.

Torrence Harder Class of ‘65 Reunion E-mail Interview Questions

By Peter Barton

November 22, 2009

1. You fund a chair in the Cornell Literature Department and host the annual William H. and Jane Torrence Harder Lecture and Garden Party at Cornell Plantations each September. Yet you graduated Cum Laude in Economics at Cornell then went on to similar scholarship achievements at The Wharton School. Had you to do it over again, would you be a Literature major? No. I was able to read literature at Harvard University’s Extension School for ten years.
2. As I recall through the years you were an advocate of short story and essay writing or even short flash quips on what you felt were evocative social commentary and topical urgencies. Does the laconic form suit your temperament or have you just not had the time to contemplate a novel or some other sort of long form narrative? Reading a lot makes your fingers itch. I’ve tended to writing essays.
3. You lived for many years in Concord, MA right in Walden Woods. In fact we walked several times through Bear Neck Hill where Thoreau sat and made notes and meditated on the natural order of things. Now you are on a three-year seafaring venture focused around the Mediterranean. Can I assume that nature still informs your literary scholarship or are such environments simply the backdrop for a more social and philosophical viewpoint? Sailing is a perfect form of meditation, living with nature.
4. You were intricately involved with Wall Street and even pioneered the FirstCall electronic Wall Street research worldwide distribution among other successful business ventures. And you have put together so many venture capital investment companies and groups including a million dollar capital fund partnerhip for the Lennox-based Shakespeare & Company. Is your writing meant to reconcile the gap between the writing life and corporate culture—and by ‘reconcile’ I mean in the mathematic metaphor of a true connection which disturbs the gap between two otherwise oppositional standpoints on living your life? I have always invested in people, not business strategies. Shakespeare is in a class by himself writing about human nature. There is nothing to reconcile.
5. Your sailing vessel is named S/Y Freesia; where did you get the name? How long is she? She has been calling you to sea for many years, so now how do you get along? Is she the right fit and fiddle for your dream voyage? S/Y Freesia was named after the flower. She is 76 feet long and all that I need to travel the world.
6. The Mediterranean ports and cities sometimes evoke a stark contrast between past and present; everyone today wanting to live a contemporary life style with all the gadgets and toys of the time, fresh architecture and so on. Are you enticed by the historic aspects of this journey or are you a thoroughly modern kind of voyager—yacht clubs, grand hotels, James Bondian amenities? Life aboard S/Y Freesia is simple ocean going fare. Which way and with what force is the wind blowing today?
7. Where does Asian philosophy fit into the present tense of Torrey Harder? You have been reading into Buddhist literature but also come from a tradition grounded in European and American writers like Emerson, Rilke, Wordsworth and what might be called secular humanist and nature-bound writers—the Green Earth and Transcendentalism. Is this another gap you seek to reconcile formally, east and west, nature and the divine plan, or are you simply drawn into this sense of a secular spirituality through what Rilke called ‘external equivalents in nature that replicate internal experiences ’? Henry David Thoreau was a Sanskrit scholar at Harvard and a lifelong Buddhist.
   Rilke also wrote:
   “Rose, pure contradiction, joy
   To be nobody’s sleep
   Under so many
   Eyelids.”
   -1926.
8. How is your management company faring in your absence? By that I mean, have you set things up on automatic pilot or do you rely on key thinkers and core operatives to handle the day-to-day affairs. A lot of what you engage in can be quite volatile as evidenced in the recent financial upheavals and shifts in asset wealth investments. Fortunately, my thirteen company Presidents have run my companies. I don’t do anything. Of course, high speed Internet is everywhere.
9. You had a lot of dreams when we were classmates in Ithaca. In fact you were one the bigger dreamers I knew in those days even though I was in the Art and Architecture College. How would you rate your dream success rate? I mean did they all come true, just some, or are you still a seeker after goals creative and financial, perhaps spiritual as well? I think you can let your dreams go by sitting quietly abiding and focusing on your breathing. Having compassion and a spiritual component to life is critical.
10. Physically your sea voyage will come to an end. Do you think you will be able to settle back on land satisfied? Or are you planning some other type of seafaring challenge, the Pacific Rim, say, or south to the Indonesian Islands or Istanbul to Rhodes? Istanbul and Rhodes are in the Mediterranean. S/Y Freesia will sail in Greece and Turkey next summer. Isn’t every present moment impermanent?

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821) crowned himself Emperor Napoleon I on December 2, 1804 at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. The coronation of Napoleon I has been said to mark a transparently masterminded piece of modern propaganda. Napoleon had faced Jacobin plots as France’s ruler and his police uncovered an assassination plot against him which was ostensibly sponsored by the Bourbon opposition. Napoleon used the plot to justify creation of a hereditary monarchy in France with himself as Emperor.

The House of Bonaparte was to be an imperial, royal European dynasty with members of his family on the thrones of the Kingdoms of Italy, Spain, Westphalia, Holland and Naples. The dynasty also made very powerful enemies with England, Russia, Germany, and Austria. Within ten years the House of Bonaparte collapsed under its own weight.

Following his Russian defeat and the Treaty of Fontainebleau, Emperor Napoleon I was exiled to Elba where he arrived at Portoferraio on May 3, 1814 with a personal guard of six hundred men. Despite luxurious accommodations high above Portoferraio, Napoleon felt more comfortable sleeping on his field army cot (photo attached). Napoleon’s stay on Elba is the basis for the famous English saying: “Able was I ere I saw Elba.”

“Power tends to corrupt, absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

- Lord John Emerich Edward Dalton-Acton, 1^st Baron Acton, Royal Victorian Order, 1834-1902

S/Y Freesia’s starboard spring line cleat was bent and ripped from the deck by the surging sea swell while tied to a fuel dock seeking shelter from a local gale in Porto Masuccio Salernitano, Italy at approximately 1900 hours October 23, 2009. S/Y Freesia had just sailed from Isola d’Capri by the Amalfi Coast and Galli Islands (“The Sirens”) to Salerno.

“You will come to the Sirens, they who bewitch all men. Whoever sails near them unaware shall never again see his wife and children once he has heard the Siren voices. They enchant him with their clear songs, as they sit in a meadow that is heaped with the bones of dead men, bones on which still hangs their shriveled skin. Drive your ship past this place, and so that your men do not hear their song, soften some beeswax and with it seal their ears. But if you yourself should wish to listen to the Sirens, get your men to bind you hand and foot with ropes against the mast-step. In this way you may listen in rapture to the voices of the two Sirens. But should you begin to beg your comrades to unloose you, you must make sure that they bind you even more tightly.”

-The Odyssey, Book 12

“When you do dance, I wish you

A wave o’ the sea, that you might ever do

Nothing but that.”

- William Shakespeare, Winter’s Tale, Act IV, Scene 3.

The word “madersa” comes from madrasa, a classical Arabic word for “school” – which meant of course, Koranic school, in which the only subject was the memorization of the Koran. Founded in the 10^th century in Fez, Morocco, the Kairaouine Madersa is the Western world’s first center of higher education, predating Oxford, La Sorbonne and Bologna. In the Middle Ages, Kairaouine Madersa enrolled some 2,000 students and housed a library of 30,000 volumes. Some of its most famous students are Averroes, Maimonides and Pope Sylvester II, a master mathematician who introduced the zero into European mathematics.

Moses Maimonides, (1135-1204) was the preeminent medieval Jewish philosopher and one of the greatest Torah scholars of the Middle Ages. With the contemporary Muslim sage Averroes (1126-1198), he promoted and developed the philosophical tradition of Aristotle. As a result, Maimonides and Averroes would gain a prominent influence in the West, where Aristotelian thought had been lost for centuries. Thomas Aquinas was notable reader of Maimonides.

Pope Sylvester II, (946-1003), born Gerbert d’Aurillac, was a prolific scholar, teacher, and Pope. He endorsed and promoted the Arabic knowledge of mathematics and astronomy in Europe, reintroducing the abacus which had been lost to Europe since the end of the Greco-Roman era. He was the first French Pope, reigning from 999 until his death. Gerbert studied Arabic digits and applied this knowledge to the abacus with the number zero represented by an empty column.

‘Tis education forms the common mind:

Just as the twig is bent, the tree’s inclined.

- Alexander Pope, 1688-1744

If the Federal government borrows $1.6 trillion dollars a year for the next two years, Interest on the Federal Debt will grow 35%, faster than any other Federal expenditure. In fact, Interest on the Federal Debt could soon become the largest single line item in the Federal Budget, surpassing Defense, Social Security and Health and Human Services. Should worldwide interest rates rise even one percent, a likely occurrence, then Interest on the Federal Debt would dwarf all other Federal expenditure categories.

A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining,

but wants it back the minute it begins to rain.

- Mark Twain (1835 – 1910)

Built between 1334 and 1354, the room depicts the seven heavens of the Muslim cosmos and suggests the complexity of Allah’s infinite universe. In 1492, the Moorish King, Boabdil, signed the terms of his surrender before leaving for Africa ending a 700 year long Moorish battle of conquest in Spain. Shortly thereafter in this same room, Christopher Columbus made his pitch to Isabel and Ferdinand to finance a sea voyage to the Orient. Born in Genoa in October 1451 to a family of wool weavers, Columbus had gone to Lisbon to join his younger brother Bartholomew in chart making. He then made several voyages to Iceland, Madeira and Africa. On the last he was the master of a Portuguese ship. Columbus now moved back to Lisbon to promote the idea that it was possible to sail west to the Orient rather than around the treacherous Cape of Good Hope. For ten years Columbus attempted to get backing for the venture, but Portugal, France and England all turned him down. In the Salon de Embajadores, Alhambra Palace, the Spanish king, the queen and the greatest minds from the University of Salamanca gathered while Columbus produced maps and charts to make his case that he could sail west to reach the East. Ferdinand and the professors called Columbus mad, not because they thought the world was flat, but because they thought Columbus had underestimated the size of the globe and thus the length of his journey. But Isabel said “Si, Senor”. Queen Isabella supplied the vessels and men he required and the concessions to trade and future power he demanded. Columbus set off to sail along latitude 28°N believing he would reach Japan. On 12 October 1492 he made landfall in the Bahamas at an island he named San Salvador.

Subsequently, after three voyages to the New World, and becoming rich with gold, Columbus gained a bad reputation amongst the colonists, was arrested, and returned to Spain in chains. Though pardoned, Columbus fell out of favor with the court. He died in Valladolid in 1506, felled by gout and by grief at seeing himself fallen from his high estate. He also died thinking he’d visited Asia, unaware he’d opened up Europe to a New World.

“Nail to the mast her holy flag,

Set every threadbare sail,

And give her to the god of storms,

The lightning and the gale.”

- Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1841 – 1935

“I went to the woods (sea*) because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, to discover that I had not lived.”

- H. D. Thoreau, Living in a simple cabin beside Walden Pond for two years, two months and two days, 1854.

* Torrence Harder, North Atlantic Passage aboard S/Y Freesia, 2009.

Pegador def’n Species found in the city of Angra do Heroismo, Terceira, Azores. A pegador wearing a traditional red and green hat “sticks” himself between the horns of an angry charging wild thousand pound bull to the applause of his fellow countrymen. Occupation not recommended.

S/Y Freesia set sail from Palm Beach, Florida at 1435 hours, Thursday, May 7, 2009 on her North Atlantic crossing to Gibraltar. Happily, Rosemary decided to join us on board for the passage to Bermuda. As Captain, I’m assisted by Harry Simpson and Greg Geisel. Harry holds the prestigious British Yachting Master’s License, has sailed all his life and has crossed the Atlantic thirteen times. Greg holds the U.S. 100 Ton Captain’s License and has many years experience chartering, delivering and managing sailboats.

“O’er the glad waters of the dark blue sea;
Our thoughts as boundless,
Our souls as free,
Far as the breeze can bear, the billows foam,
Survey our empire, and behold our home.”
Lord Byron 1788-1821 The Corsair

SUBJECT: Great Barrier Reef

DATE SENT: January 23, 2009

For the past three days we have been aboard the Coral Princess from Townsville to Cairns, Australia. Each day we stop at different reefs and snorkel and scuba dive. I haven’t been scuba diving for over five years, so the first few dives were shallow ones to get back into the rhythm. Today’s dive on Nathan Reef was spectacular. We can see the coral abundant and very colorful. The Reefs are 1,500 miles long and in the section we are anchored in, we are alone. We will visit half a dozen reefs, there are thousands. Coral is animal and mineral. Fixed in place but very active. Each year it spawns eggs at a certain Full Moon and the eggs travel with the currents. An amazing amount has been learned about coral in the past ten years. The Reefs in the Caribbean
are in dangerous condition. Human activity is killing the coral life. Coral cleans the ocean’s waters making possible many different kinds of species to survive. Human life on the planet doesn’t get it.

I’ve been reading Joseph Campbell’s Myths of Light. Many of his lectures and writings were not published during his lifetime. The Joseph Campbell Foundation staff is now engaged in assembling those works and sharing his observations with mankind. Myths of Light traces the Sanskrit works on the kundalini energy force which progresses through the body from the spine to the eye in the brain. I’ve taken notes and am planning on editing the ideas for my own awareness.

Now, I am reading the ship’s log of Peter Blake, KBE, a New Zealand sailor of world rank who sailed to Antarctica, Argentina, Brazil and lastly the Amazon before being killed by river pirates. He had devoted his life to making the world aware of the environment. His observations are particularly poignant here on the Great Barrier Reef. Tomorrow, we will come ashore and go to
the airport for our flight to Bangkok. We have a day of rest in Bangkok before continuing on to Siem Reap and Angkor Wat. I hope to deal with all my email and issues then since I have been without internet for four days.

One possibility that I am considering is to ship Freesia to Fiji in the spring of 2010. This would provide for a sail in the South Pacific Islands without having to endure the long passage from the Western Hemisphere. Peter Blake sailed the Southern Ocean five times, four as a sail boat racer and once as an expedition leader. The Southern Ocean is the most dangerous ocean on the planet. I can probably take a pass.

We moved on to Sydney to see Madam Butterfly at the Sydney Opera House. The performance was magical. I think Australia must pride itself on having the best opera in the world. Of course Americans take a bad rap in Madam Butterfly and it was a bit difficult to sit and see the American flag disrespected as a prop. But the performance was the best opera I have ever seen.

One last thought. While in Sydney, we visited my Wharton friend Anders. After graduation, Anders came to Australia from Helsingborg, Sweden. His grandfather acquired 25 or 30 ocean going cargo ships and his father was the first to bring containers to Japan. His father left the firm to Anders and his younger brother who was really interested in golf. Eventually, Anders bought
his brother out. With his many talents, Anders persevered, bought his brother out and after many years sold the firm to a British company. He is now retired and living on his estate in Robertson, one and a half hours outside of Sydney. He seemed quite happy in his beautiful garden, but I couldn’t quite get my mind around a contemporary friend’s retirement. MindEdge is the latest
new company, number thirteen, with our involvement beginning in February 2008. Perhaps there are two or three more companies in me. I have no plans for retirement. Life is short. Enjoy what you do. I love you both.

SUBJECT: Angkor Wat

DATE SENT: January 29, 2009

Arriving, I’m not sure what my impression is of Angkor Wat. The guide books quote theories as to why Angkor Wat was built and declined, conflicting theories. Now, I come away with my own take on the subject. Early Cambodian Kings imported the worship of Hinduism from India because it made them more powerful as a God King. Suryavarman II came to the throne at 25 years of age and ruled for 37 years from 1113 to 1150. During that time, he created the largest religious temple in the world inside a moat ten feet deep, an eighth of a mile wide and three and one half miles around. The architecture was superb and the monument has stood the forces of time. But Suryavarman II also invaded Vietnam and Cham. Those wars ended in a standstill during his lifetime, but the seeds of revenge were sown and the Vietnamese and Cham peoples invaded Cambodia and sacked Angkor Wat within its first few years of life. The place was simply looted beyond recognition. After two successor but failed Kings, Suryavarman’s nephew, Jayavarman VII, brought the army together in the jungles of Cambodia in 1187, invaded the Angkor Wat region and expelled the invaders. He then set about a 40 year building boom which built Angkor Thom, a complex seven miles in circumference. Today, one of his temples, Bayon, has been rescued from the jungle. The other major works can be visited with three hundred year old trees growing up using the stones as their root system. I’m impressed that termites can build mounds under the stones which over time topple huge stone walls and buildings. Man must learn to respect nature. Today, in Cambodia, no one is Hindu. Most Cambodians are Buddhist but many also practice the ancient animistic religion worshiping nature, a religion which historically preceded the 200 AD introduction of Hinduism. So visiting Angkor Wat sort of makes me wonder about what man can do when he gets his mind set in a given direction. Life is but an illusion. Our minds look out at reality and we think we see the real thing. But our minds are really bouncing from thought to thought so fast that we can’t ever really calm down enough to experience the nature in which we live. In a way, Angkor Wat is one of the most spectacular
buildings on earth, it is also a monument to madness.

SUBJECT: Bangkok

DATE SENT: February 2, 2009

The Oriental Hotel in Bangkok is arguably one of the best hotels in the world. Many books have been written by authors in residence there. The gentle Thai smile and sweet nature is combined with an efficiency of unparallel service. The Oriental was kind enough to give us a gracious suite overlooking the river life of Bangkok. We both declined our butler’s offer to unpack our bags, still enjoying doing a little “work” ourselves. After a perfunctory couple of days of sightseeing: a canal boat experience, Wat Arun, the Royal Palace, Wat Pho and the National Museum, we set about shopping in the Flower Market and enjoying a dinner cruise on the river. Of course we promptly returned to Wat Pho for a foot massage. The Thai massage we enjoyed at the Oriental bent and folded us in every conceivable direction. But the highlight of our stay was a Zen Meditation Retreat “Awaken Our Pure Original Spirit” with Reverend Shunan Noritake at the Thai World Fellowship of Buddhists Center. Reverend Noritake, born in Taiwan, was visiting from Kyoto, Japan. In 1988 he became the 688th Head Priest of Myoshin-ji. The Myoshin-ji Rinzai School of Zen Buddhism was founded in 1337. When he walked into the room, Rev Noritake’s presence was immediate and extraordinary. He spoke for forty minutes or so and then took questions for about an hour. Finally, he led us in a Zen meditation. Rosemary and I were sort of laughing and bouncing as we went down the stairs into the park in front of the Buddhist Center. Next is Hong Kong. The Oriental service ends when their personal porter gives you your hand bag to go through security at the airport. We had to carry our own hand bags from security onto the Cathay Pacific 747 jet. Not to worry, another Mandarin Oriental porter greeted us in Hong Kong three hours later.

SUBJECT: George

DATE SENT: February 5, 2009

Aside from enjoying the Mandarin Oriental’s three floor world class spa and their oriental variety of massages, and of course several trips to my tailor for fittings, the unexpected highlight of our Hong Kong R&R stay was George. George, aka Colin Dawson, is the friend of a couple we met on the flight from Los Angeles to Auckland. George met us at 7 pm in the Mandarin Oriental’s Captain’s Bar. Having never met the man, I tried to explain to the Head Waiter who I was endeavoring to meet. The reply, “Oh you mean George, he’s a regular, I’ll bring him right over.” Born in Sussex, England, George came to Hong Kong 14 years ago because brokering marine insurance for Lloyd’s of London was not that good. So now when George wakes up in the morning, he tends to his most amazing business: insuring hundreds of the largest mega yachts, 10,000,000 Euros and up, all over the world. George just gets to know the owners, all their foibles, their crew, their yachting program and of course George insures their yacht. Owners are known to call their friends to exclaim, “Well if George is good enough for me, why aren’t you using him?” Soon we are off to the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club bar for another cocktail. The Commodore stops by to introduce himself. Anyone with George needs to be properly met. Then up to dinner where half the wait staff seems now on alert around our table. The Yacht Club stands on a large peninsula jutting into Hong Kong Harbor providing its members with the best view possible. And we have the best table possible. Incredibly, over four bottles of wine and superb conversation, I ran out of stories to tell, but George has a seemingly endless supply. Fortunately, Rosemary was able to place George’s nose into a little vanilla ice cream, leaving him incredulous that he could still fall for such a prank. Be it the Nantucket Bucket Race, the St. Bart’s Bucket, the Bermuda Race, the Sydney to Hobart Race, the America’s Cup in Auckland, Cowes Week, Sardinia, whatever you see in any yachting magazine, picture George with the owner on the aft deck. Or picture George with eleven friends having dinner in the formal dining room at the New York Yacht Club in Newport. George decides to have everyone stand on their chair in the middle of dinner while he recites a boisterous French Ballad. The Club members initially frown over their menus and peer irritated. But George brings them to their feet while they provide him with a standing ovation. The next morning when George arrives at the Club, he is met in awe by the Club staff who endeavor to serve his every need. I’ll just have to say, George is one extraordinary human being, well worth the time enjoyed.

SUBJECT: Zimbabwe

DATE SENT: February 11, 2009

With our world economic systems still in freefall, the gentle cheerful nature of the Zimbabwean people stands in stark contrast. Everything has already bottomed in Zimbabwe. There is no further down to go. You can “buy” a ten trillion Zimbabwean dollar bill for one U.S. dollar from a street vendor. There is no money. The schools are closed, except Catholic schools. Only hospitals funded internationally function. There is a cholera epidemic in Harare where the water is contaminated. Food is bartered and brought in from Zambia and Botswana. Except in the largest hotels, credit cards are not accepted. A business that makes money is bankrupt. The government sees the checking account has money and seizes it, only occasionally releasing a few funds on a whim. The workers toil seven days a week for six weeks, then get one week off. Their compensation is afternoon gruel (“soba”), otherwise they would starve. Their families, many kilometers away, forage for survival. People in need of medical care simply die. Mugabe has hired foreigners to guard his palace. The police chief is a thug. South African’s President Mbeki has been an enabling wimp. For temporary personal political advantage, Mugabe destroyed the prosperous primarily white, but socially conscious, farming system of Southern Rhodesia. There are no beggars now because there is nothing to beg. The hard working young men on the streets ask for money for food, clothing and shelter for their families. 90% of the productive land is now producing nothing at all. There are few cars in the streets because people can’t afford gas. Villages are primitive cinder block with metal roof, dark, dirty settings. And yet, the people are cheerful, gentle and kind. They are quite religious, Christian. And with the pending change in the political situation, there is a quiet hope for a better future. When in Cuba a few years back, things were bad, but nothing like this. Rosemary carried a $150 wad of $1 bills to give out to people in the streets of Victoria Falls, her dream. When she started in front of a souvenir store, a teenager tried to sell her a wooden elephant. Security guards clubbed the kid to the ground and tried to handcuff him. We objected. I stood frozen still in the Buddhist peace position. Our red headed friend was immediately fiercely in the face of the security officers tugging the teenager towards freedom. From nowhere, a large and very unruly crowd overpowered the security guards as well. They let the teenager go. Now the crowd offered to “line up” for Rosemary’s largess. Inexplicably, Rosemary declined the offer and moved off causing pandemonium. She then made her distribution amongst chaos. When near the end of her stash, Rosemary looked up at the crowd and announced: “It’s time to take a picture”! A hundred young men immediately lined up to take Rosemary’s instruction on how properly to pose. These young Zimbabwean men have a lot of heart. Tomorrow, Mugabe’s power is shared with a new Prime Minister. Hopefully, change will be beneficial. In the late afternoon, we took a sunset cruise on the Zambezi River to see the hippos and other wild life. A gentleman from Harare sat beside us with his family, wife and two sons. He had parked his Mercedes 500 SEL by the dock. Turns out he sells insurance, very friendly, intelligent and inquisitive: international companies, foreign investments. If your wealth comes from outside where the government can only grasp part of what you bring in, you live like a king. In my lifetime, I will never see anything worse than this. At least in India and China they have not’s have always had nothing. Southern Rhodesia was once the bread basket of Africa. I will start to make a small investment in Paul Dube and his son Daniel to see how far they can go when given the chance to educate themselves. We must bring a little entrepreneurial excitement to this place.

Plato said the good ruler is a reluctant man. The really wise man knows what an awful thing it is to govern, and keeps away from it.

SUBJECT: John Maynard Keynes

DATE SENT: February 14, 2009

As we travel around the world reading the devastating economic news, I wonder what will happen to the U.S. economy. Peculiarly, I’m struck with this image of the Bloomsbury Literary Group setting in England years ago. John Maynard Keynes, a famous Bloomsbury Group member, was well known for his electric personality. I have always admired his uncanny ability to speculate in the securities markets and amass a personal fortune for himself using only ten minutes a day. But I thought it was well documented that the ideas espoused in his General Theory simply did not work for Roosevelt during the Great Depression. Government spending did not “prime the pump” and “lift” the economy out of the Great Depression. It took over ten years and the advent of World War II to revive the economy and business expectations. I hope we don’t consider ourselves lucky to experience a similar scenario now. So why do so many seemingly intelligent people believe that the Keynesian approach will work for Obama when it failed Roosevelt? The fastest growing U.S. government expenditure is now interest on the Federal debt. I hope for something better, but fear for the worst. I read that Lawrence Summers, Obama’s Harvard trained economic guru is a famously arrogant man. If so, this is unfortunate. We need to be in the moment, not push the moment. As America follows Lawrence Summers down Keynes’s well trod, but failed path, I ask “How could this happen?” Today, philosophers of economic thought probably can’t get a PhD from any self respecting American university. Econometricians rule the economics discipline. After all, Nobel Prizes have gone to a steady stream of econometricians over the past twenty-five years. When economics is perfectly described by mathematical equations, there is no room for economics as philosophy or worse, as a literary art form. Evidently, wisdom is embodied in those mathematical symbols. Now, nature has reared herself to interrupt those neat mathematical trend lines. Evidently, man’s predictive mathematical modeling algorithms still can’t predict nature. Predictably, the economic profession finds itself humbled by nature. But, borrowing two trillion dollars mostly from foreigners in not a humble act. Fortunately, the enthusiasm and popularity surrounding Obama is very helpful in raising spirits and hopefully business attitudes. But in my opinion, government spending is not the answer to human entrepreneurship, creativity and expectation.

Twenty pounds income, nineteen and six expense: happiness. Twenty pounds income, twenty and
six expense: misery. – Charles Dickens

SUBJECT: Zulu Nyala

DATE SENT: February 17, 2009

Zululand stretches north from the Tugela River all the way to the border of Mozambique. It’s a region of rolling grasslands, gorgeous beaches, and classic African bush. It has also seen more than its share of bloodshed and death. Modern South Africa was forged in the fiery crucible of Zululand and northern Natal. Here Boers battled Zulus, Zulus battled Britons, and Britons battled Boers. Until the early 19th century the Zulus were a small, unheralded group, part of the Ngumi peoples who migrated to southern Africa from the north. King Shaka (1787-1828) changed all that. Before Shaka, warfare among the Ngumi had been a desultory affair in which small bands of warriors would hurl spears at one another from a distance and then retire. Shaka introduced the assegai, a short stabbing spear, teaching his warriors to get close to the enemy in hand-to- hand combat. He also developed the famous chest-an-horns formation, a cattle analogy for a classic maneuver in which you outflank and encircle your enemy. In less than a decade Shaka created a military machine unrivaled in black Africa. By the time of his assassination in 1828, Shaka had destroyed 300 tribes and extended Zulu power for many miles in all directions.

Fifty years after Shaka’s death, the British still considered the Zulus a major threat to their planned federation of white states in South Africa. The British solution, in 1879, was to instigate a war to destroy the Zulu kingdom. They employed similar tactic 20 years later to bring the Boer republics to heel and the rich goldfields of the Witwatersrand into their own hands. The British evidently like gold.

Only when the last tree has died
The last river been poisoned
The last fish caught
Will we realize we cannot eat money.
-Cree Indian saying.

SUBJECT: Ubuntu

DATE SENT: February 20, 2009

Ubuntu [ùɓúntú] in Zulu comes from the Zulu word “ubuntu”, translated as “humanity to others”, describing the ubuntu philosophy: “I am what I am because of who we all are”, a positive aspect of community. South Africa has come so far in just fifteen years since Apartied. With Nelson Mandela’s calm leadership and example, white, black and “colored” (a term meaning descendants from slaves brought to South Africa over the past four hundred years from Malaysia, Indonesia and other countries as distinct from the native African population) all join together to help each other. Forgiveness has trumped revenge. We visited Mandela’s cell on Robben Island where he spent 12 of his 27 years jailed as a political prisoner in solitary confinement. Few suffered more than Mandela. But he overcame everything to lead his country to forgiveness. Ubuntu. Today, the ANC, the black political party of Mandela’s successors, still controls politics. Mbeki has been found with his hand in the till. Jacob Zuma, seeking election April 12, hopes to change the judge hearing eleven counts of fraud against him. There is visible tension over whether the system will properly and fairly perform. There is even a hint of a potential brain drain from Cape Town as certain people eye other countries as safe havens. Yet locally educated Finance Minister Trevor Manuel has kept tight control over bank lending practices and foreign debt. Because of his insight, South Africa appears to be avoiding much of the economic anguish afflicting the rest of the world, particularly the U.S. Too bad U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greespan didn’t go to school with Trevor Manuel. In fact Cape Town, controlled by a coalition of whites (20% of the population) and “colored” (60% of the population), not the ANC, which dominates South Africa everywhere except Cape Town, appears to be an oasis, an economic paradise where the standard of living for most is very high and prosperity reigns. There is much to do in eliminating the squalor of the tenement communities surrounding Cape Town. And crime is rampant and an ever present fact of life. Barbed wire, guards, alarms systems and gates are everywhere. But in the past fifteen years, both the government and individual citizens have made great strides in building shelter and improving the lives of those less fortunate. We visited just a few of the 300 wineries surrounding Cape Town. Many winery owners have carved out adjacent land and charitably given that land to their workers. The workers planting and exporting herbs have prospered and built a better life for themselves. Ubuntu. Europeans, especially the British, flock to Cape Town for winter vacations. The climate, restaurants, night life, atmosphere are just special. We took a look around when we first arrived at our hotel, Cape Grace, and immediately extended our stay. Next to the Oriental in Bangkok, Cape Grace has the best service and friendliest atmosphere. And Cape Grace’s BMW 750Li and driver whisk us wherever we chose to go, keeping us from harm’s way. One day we traveled to Gnabaai a couple hours out of Cape Town to see the Great White Shark in a place called Shark Alley. At Shark Alley, 60,000 seals provide food for the sharks. For a hundred million years or so, the Great White Shark has traveled each year the 15,000 miles between the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa and the Great Barrier Reef in Northeast Australia. Now the Great White Shark is being hunted by man to extinction, mostly in the Indian Ocean. This afternoon we enjoyed a picnic while the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra played at Kirstenbosch Gardens spectacularly situated below Table Mountain. Sitting quietly listening to the music in this most idyllic setting below the majestic Table Mountain rock formations, I was reminded that since Apartheid, everything has changed in Cape Town. And everything is changing now in Cape Town. You can feel the impermanence of life. Tomorrow we fly north to London.

SUBJECT: Message from Mainos

DATE SENT: February 21, 2009

Dear Mr. T C Harder,
My name is Mainos; we exchanged business cards while we were on the Zambezi boat cruise during your visit to Zimbabwe. I trust you had a safe journey back home and that you enjoyed your stay in Zimbabwe.

Please let me know if I could be of assistance in your empire in this part of the world.Kind regards,

Mainos Mudukuti.

My Reply

Dear Mainos

Thank you for your email message. We are currently leaving Cape Town for London on our around the world experience. Zimbabwe needs new leadership in my humble opinion. As a private person, I can do very little to help the people of Zimbabwe. I came away with only one small project. The problem is that Mugabe is a control freak who hasn’t a thread of compassion for his fellow man. He will rest in the appropriate place awaiting other’s forgiveness. He is nothing. To shave in the morning looking at Mugabe’s face must be a nightmare. By contrast, South Africa has the benefit of Nelson Mandela’s example. The world stands in awe of Nelson Mandela. He exemplifies what a human being can become on our planet. Life in South Africa is getting better with the passage of each morning’s sunrise. We all benefit breathing at the same moment with Nelson Mandela. The contrast could not be more marked. So without Mugabe, perhaps we could find a mutually beneficial business activity to help the people of Zimbabwe. Until then, I thank you for your message.

All the best…

Torrey Harder

A final thought (not sent to Mainos):

Shaving this morning, I realized: My own Buddhist self image is tarnished by pride in the knowledge that each week in over one hundred countries one million of my fellow human beings are receiving better medical care because of UpToDate in medicine. (You can go to www.uptodate.com and read the references to the academic and medical research that has been published on the subject.) My practice would have me begin today quietly abiding, watching each breath and focusing on the moment until my mind can just let go and be without such mental formations and clutter. I strive but still remain imperfect in so many ways. There is so much work much to do. Fortunately for us all there are a few who manage to become Bodhisattvas living amongst us today. I know two: the Dalai Lama and Nelson Mandela.

SUBJECT: London

DATE SENT: March 2, 2009

Arriving early at the Cape Town airport lounge awaiting British Airways Flight 42 to London, I feel peculiarly stiff. Why did I not unpack my blue blazer? I sit up a bit straighter and gaze upon properly dressed Brits while still in khakis and a dress shirt. I’m recalling Britain as a land where one does what one ought! I had better not violate proper British sensibilities. Upon arrival at Heathrow, the air is for the first time in two months cold and the sky is dismal. I wonder if I stayed here for very long with all the strictures, if I would ever have accomplished anything in life. But then again, those proper Brits ruled to world for several hundred years with their amazing energy, audacity and style. They clearly brought home the gold from around the world. The architecture of London always captivates me. Our hotel, The Ritz, is less than a mile from the gates of Buckingham Palace. The Royals are all up in Windsor unveiling a statue of a young looking Queen Mother on a pedestal in front of her late husband George VI. When the Royal Family gathers for occasions such as this, there are rules for the order they stand in: the Queen, then Prince Charles, followed by William, Harry and Andrew. But alas we are informed by the press that today Lord Nicholas Windsor is standing right next to Prince Harry and Vice Admiral Timothy Laurence next to William. Imagine that! The closest I have ever stood next to a British royal is about twenty-five feet outside the Queen’s Enclosure at Ascot. It was on a hot day and I was sweating profusely in an itchy wool morning suit with top hat. So obviously I have no way of commenting on the Royals. Still, they are very much in the press. I wonder if the average Royal with all the gold, possessions, guards, pomp and circumstance is happier, as happy or less happy than the average Buddhist monk walking the streets of Bangkok with his robes, calm mind, compassionate heart and ordinary bowl for the morning’s meal. Buddha Shakyamuni decided that living as a prince in a palace was not the way to eliminate mental anguish and suffering. So he gave up all the comforts of his palace, including the companionship of his wife and son, and embarked on the homeless life. He undertook six years of strict asceticism before attaining enlightenment sitting beneath a bodhi tree. One last thought, the Queen has served her subjects admirably for over fifty years. She quite justly commands the respect of everyone. Her service is made even more remarkable given the dishonest nature of the British press. Saying anything negative about the Thai Royal Family is a criminal offence strictly enforced. Given her remarkable reign and presence, the British Parliament should pass a law protecting their Queen from such a slanderous press.

On Saturday we travel to Cirenchester to visit with Rosemary’s friends Sir Crispin Tickell and Lady Penelope. I personally find it quite an honor to visit with Sir Crispin. For many years he was Warden, Green College, Oxford. He is well known as one of the world’s finest environmental minds. During Margaret Thatcher’s years in office, Sir Crispin first served as British Ambassador to Mexico and later during the first Gulf War as the British Ambassador to the United Nations and Representative on the Security Council, 1987-1990. One always brings walking shoes for a visit with Sir Crispin. Soon we found ourselves in the Cotswold’s, the hunt went by with pink coats, their hounds and the clop clop clatter of horses hoofs on the road. Unfortunately, I was suffering. Some African insect had chosen my right calf muscle for lunch. The symptoms were afternoon chills, fever, loss of energy and arthritic aches in the joints. Sir Crispin is Aldous Huxley’s great grandson. He urged us to visit the Darwin Exhibit at the Museum of Natural History the next day. All I could do was report in to St. Thomas Hospital for tests to see if we couldn’t discover which particular insect type had chosen me as his morsel in the great food chain of life.

In the evening despite my reduced circumstance, we had dinner with our friend Uwe Kitzinger and his lovely wife Sheila at a 450 year old Coach Inn beside Blenheim Palace. Uwe had just returned from visiting with Svetlana Broz, Marshall Tito’s granddaughter, in Sarajevo. He brought fresh reports on how life is there. Many years ago, Uwe invited us to sail aboard his sloop, Anne of Cleves, in Croatian waters around Split, Hvare and Kortula with Svetlana and her bodyguard. With her writings on good people in a bad war, Svetlana is a bit of a celebrity in Serbia and Croatia. She is also a target for the Serbian underground. Uwe was the first Dean of Insead, 1976-1980, arguably the finest European Business School, and founding President of Templeton College, Oxford. I got to know Uwe through Rosemary when, in retirement, Harvard invited Uwe to be a Visiting Scholar at Lowell House. The perks, apartment all expenses etc. are grand, so Harvard limits the tenure of a Visiting Scholar to five years. When Uwe’s tenure was up, he was asked to report to an administrative committee to discuss his tenure. Harvard informed him that officially, the university could not remember when Uwe first arrived. Uwe eventually stayed at Harvard for eleven or twelve years on his own volition. Few have received a more elegant academic compliment than Harvard gave Uwe.

So now, as I write this email, I sit aboard flight BA 213 from Heathrow to Boston. Our around the world adventure will soon end. Life is impermanent. We must be happy with the constant changing nature of our existence. I am smiling to know that soon we will be together again.