Dispatches From a Dilettante (31 page)

This was a story of corruption on a grand scale with money for medicine pocketed by greedy regional bigwigs. The Garcias, who run the clinic, are run down heroes. We were in the operating ‘theatre', an open one room affair, within two minutes of getting out of the van. No scrubbing up here as we watched a woman being stitched up after having a growth removed. The stoicism of the patients was of epic proportions. As ever with medics, when we left the Garcias were having a quick smoke in the bushes behind the building.

A final ‘thank you’ to all donors. It was such a pleasure giving your money out directly at the sharp end and you have helped buy medicine, provide educational equipment, give scholarships and build schoolrooms in one of the poorest countries in the world. I can’t begin to tell you what a positive contribution you have made and it is not hyperbole to say that lives have been changed because of your generosity.

See you all soon

Your Cambodian Correspondent.

I think I learnt a lot on that trip, although it was in some ways a selfish enterprise, undertaken to mark an upcoming milestone in my own life. My American friend, who is one of life’s great pragmatists and has lived in Phnom Penh for six years, said that if she left having not actually retarded development, she would consider it an achievement. Sustainable progress in terms of education, health and infrastructure, remains elusive in Cambodia. It is still one of the poorest countries in the world, deeply scarred by the recent past and riddled with corruption as it lurches towards an uncertain future.

Massive NGO bureaucracies spend so much on their own infrastructure there that you have to question the methodology and effectiveness of some mass aid. It’s a complex country still only beginning to emerge from the horrors of the Khymer Rouge regime. Yet despite that and against the odds, there remains a generosity of spirit together with an energy and optimism, among the young particularly, that is both admirable and palpable. It’s also a country that anybody who has spent time there will never quite get out of their system.

I arrived ridiculously early at the airport for the evening flight to Seoul and Long, who drove me for the last time in his tuk tuk, was puzzled that I didn’t want to stop off for a beer or something to eat en route. But actually getting inside the terminal was a kind of cathartic formalisation that the trip was completed. All that was left to do was take the local Phnom Penh SIM card out of my phone. As I got hold of it to swop the cards one final text popped up. It was from Long and it read ‘you early paul for flight you must be very tire give regard to yr family se you soon I hope your friend long’. I looked up and the check-in desk was opening.

22.
SLAVES OF FREEDOM 2010

Writing this in the middle of the biggest recession in years it might not be the wisest thing to wax lyrical about risk taking - in life or careers. The truth is that many people finally distinguish between wisdom and knowledge relatively late in life. By the time most of us have sifted through the detritus of lost loves and broken dreams to discover the certainty of what is actually important, we are locked into relationships and financial commitments. Today, here in one of the richest countries on the planet, there are still millions who have no stable relationships, no meaningful work and who live in deep and unrelenting poverty. Never forget that, notwithstanding all our financial pressures and complicated lives, we are the lucky ones.

Those of us with jobs and homes have, if we just took a minute to step back and analyse the situation, almost total freedom and a myriad of choices as to how we live our lives in the pursuit of happiness. How can we insist on buying new cars and then claim to be stressed and financially constrained? Why do we have to jet off on holidays when surveys tell us that most don’t live up to expectations or significantly increase our sense of well being. How many people actually love the work they do and how many hide behind their so called ‘responsibilities’ as an excuse for not breaking out? Ostensibly we were happier living fifty years ago, when post war austerity meant relatively few had the material possessions that even those with modest incomes today take for granted and deem essential.

There are shelves groaning under the weight of upbeat books about how positive thinking will enable you to overcome the challenges resulting from our unbalanced lifestyles. A disturbing number are full of simplistic homilies such as ‘if you are given a lemon, make lemonade’ or ‘dance like nobody is watching’. That last particular piece of advice strikes me as a guaranteed way to lose friends, who would probably die of embarrassment, were you to act on it. ‘Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon’ is another one which initially seems quite charming. Alternatively it could lead to death by poisoning or violent assault, were you to recklessly love somebody else’s partner having wined and dined them.

After spending a lifetime observing the absurdity of work yet being strangely wedded to doing loads of it, I offer with some trepidation, my own list. They are truisms for me but I doubt you’ll agree with them all. If you think the list contains good advice I would be gratified. If you don’t I couldn’t give a fuck and would say in closing that I am sixty one and it works for me. Sadly I was fifty nine before I realised it.

A Dilettante’s guide to happiness

     1.   Revenge is a dish best left uneaten

     2.   Be quick to apologise when you have made a twat of yourself

     3.   ‘The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom’ said William Blake and there is some truth in that. Knowing when to rein in is the key.

     4.   Never trust anybody who doesn’t drink. Recovering alcoholics are the exception.

     5.   Maintain dignity but if that fails laugh loudly at yourself in the sure knowledge that it will help drown out the sound of those who are laughing at you.

     6.   All the major religions are hokum with the possible exception of Buddhism which is more a code for inner peace and deep contentment. If you are reading this and religious buy ‘The God Delusion’ by Richard Dawkins. It will make you happier. If you have already read it and are still religious go and see a doctor.

     7.   Most work meetings are a waste of time. Go out for a walk instead and come back refreshed or maybe without a job.

     8.   Always make time to see live music – even when you return home exhausted.

     9.   Fish and chips are best cooked in beef dripping.

     10. Write your own epitaph and then live it.

     11. Exercise - a sedentary life will probably be a shorter one. It also means you can enjoy more food and wine.

     12. If you are educated and not living in poverty, life is what you make it – no excuses.

[email protected]

Paul Rowson

Writer

Speaker

After a spectacularly unsuccessful school career Paul worked briefly in insurance, pubs, the building trade, rock music, teaching, radio, the charity sector the public sector, the private sector and held a miscellany of posts in the USA, England, Wales, the Bahamas and Cambodia.

He attended Woodstock, failed to score any drugs and got nowhere near the stage.

After numerous meetings with the Prince of Wales, and holding a senior post at one of the Royal Charities, Paul is a committed republican.

Paul’s cousin is the Head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales but Paul is an atheist and signed up member of the Richard Dawkins fan Club, or would be if he had one.

Until 1992, despite having a family, he had not stuck at anything longer than three years but was never actually run out of town.

His email missives from Cambodia were “brilliant dispatches from a natural raconteur”.

He is older than Methuselah and has spoken on numerous platforms here and in Europe - and some even had audiences in front of them.

Paul joined Business in the Community in 1997 as Regional Director for Wales. He became Field Director in 2000. He had responsibility for financial and operational development of the English regions, Wales and Northern Ireland with three hundred staff via eleven regional directors reporting to him.

Prior to joining BITC, Paul was the Project Director for the Penrhys Partnership – an amalgam of public, private and not-for-profit sectors working to improve the quality of life in marginalised areas. The Partnerships undertook significant Capital projects and sustained a range of successful education, cultural and training initiatives on one of the most deprived estates in Britain.

Paul is married to Elspeth, has two adult sons and enjoys music, alcohol and walking but not at the same time.