Living Free as a PT

by Mark Emery

  Monsieur Le Baron (Francois) had a cheese truck (how fortunate for me being a Green Bay Packer fan otherwise known as ‘Cheeseheads’ - Wisconsin is known as America’s Dairyland in case you didn’t know) . He would travel a set circuit every week and take his cheese truck to quaint farmers markets in ancient medieval villages throughout the countryside of southern France. I travelled with him a couple of times and loved it. I couldn’t count the variety of cheeses he offered but I can say with absolute certainty that some of them sure didn’t smell very good!

  The French have always been completely infatuated with the old American western movies. You know, John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, Gunsmoke and the like. They have this image of all Americans as cowboys who drink whiskey and smoke Marlboro cigarettes. That’s the typical iconic American stereotype for many French to this day.

  So Monsieur Le Baron had this same image in his mind as it related to me. He taught me, or I could even say ‘forced’ me to start drinking whiskey so I could fit his stereotype. I was only 20 at the time and had not yet developed my palette for whisky and frankly couldn’t stand the stuff. But since I was (in his mind) an American cowboy, he would frequently approach me asking if I wanted a whiskey. I would politely decline time after time and he didn’t seem to get the idea I really didn’t want it. Well, he stopped asking me and started just bringing it to me. His determination to give me a whiskey apparently was greater than my determination not to take it, and finally, to appease him, I started drinking it merely to be a gracious guest and not be rude. The first couple of drinks were absolutely horrible. But I soon learned the art of sipping and savoring the flavor and absorbing it in my olfactory receptors and thanks to this persistent, cowboy loving Frenchman, I’m now a fanatical whiskey lover! Although thankfully, I never caught on to smoking Marlboros or roping cattle!

  These are the cultural dilemmas one encounters in the international life. Let’s segway over to politics.

  Rabble Rousing at the University

  I was studying at the Institute for American Universities in ‘Aix’ at that time. I.A.U. was small and it catered to Americans as the name would indicate. There was also a very large public university in town where several thousand French students attended.

  The two universities planned a cultural exchange between student groups and the French ‘Aix’ University students came over to see us at our place for the event.

  We eventually ended up discussing politics and the differences between France and the USA. In those days French President Valery Giscard d’Estaing, a moderate conservative had recently given the reigns of the government over to Francois Mitterrand, an open and avowed socialist who was just coming into power as the new French President.

  I made the comment to the group that “the French never like to admit it, but their government is clearly headed to socialism.” The French group was aghast that I would make such a declaration. This was akin to insulting Edith Piaf, the historically famous French singer. Sacrebleu!

  They fervently denied having any semblance to socialism and vehemently defended themselves as NOT being socialist. I needed only reply to them that; “Look at the facts… the government owns the main TV channels and broadcasting companies, the government owns the universities and subsidizes the students, the government owns Electricite´ de France (EDF) which owns the nuclear power industry in France and provides nearly all electricity. The government owns Aerospaciale a state-owned aerospace manufacturer that builds both civilian and military aircraft, rockets and satellites. The government owns the national railway company the SNCF and provides its citizens with government run health care and pension systems. Government is involved in nearly every aspect of life in France. How is that not Socialism?

  I had to explain to them that François Mitterand himself was elected as a member of the Parti Socialiste when he won the Presidency of France in 1981 the Socialists had achieved domination of the politics of France at the time. The municipal elections of 1977 had given Socialists unprecedented local control of cities and the 1981 national elections, in addition to electing Mitterand, gave Socialists a majority in the National Assembly, the legislature of France.

  I asked, how can you say that France is not heading in the socialist direction unless you say that they have already arrived? The room went silent. I had just cracked the popular myths that people were holding onto and forced them to take a red pill for a time. I’ve been at it ever since.

  It was clear that the students whom I was talking to had no clue as to what was really going on or what reality was. They had apparently been brainwashed by their government controlled media way back then and were flabbergasted when someone like me came along, a foreigner not affected by the government media, and burst their bubble.

  This is exactly what we see going on today all over the world including countries with a strong heritage in liberty and freedom such as Australia, Canada and the United States. The majority of people themselves refuse to see reality for what it is. And that reality is that they are currently living in various advanced forms of creeping socialism in their daily lives today and they don’t even see it! They’ll deny it to the end and ultimately be swallowed up in it if they’re not already.

  Amazing!

  This experience with the French students taught me how people become willfully blind. When offered the plain truth they refuse it because it upsets their belief system and with that, their personal identity and world view.

  If for this reason alone and no other, it validated my quest to separate myself from ‘the crowd’ and find my own way in this world so I could preserve my own critical thinking ability and in so doing, preserve my own chances for ‘self preservation’. This attitude alone would save me many times over.

  This confirms what my father told me on numerous occasions which was: “The masses are asses. Think for yourself!” Right on dad!

  My question to myself, to you and others is simple: “How can one live a life built on lies and not want to know the truth?” Sadly most people do. Not me!

  It was at this point that I achieved the ‘PT’ level of ‘Proactive Thinker’!

  Back to ‘The Real World’!

  So back at St. Norbert College and the IBLAS program where I spent my last semester after returning from France, my class was importing handicrafts from Central America through a black market channel we had set up. We were selling the handicrafts to help fund campus charity projects.

  Our import business was a project in the IBLAS program to learn the ins and outs of importing goods. St. Norbert being a Jesuit college (quasi Catholic) there were many priests on campus, they were in faculty, administration and involved in everything. We identified and contacted some priests who travelled to Central American missions and co-opted them to be used as mules to bring us back boxes of goods we could sell. This way we completely avoided much of the red tape (taxes) and bureaucracy on commercially imported goods.

  So I have the friars at St. Norbert College to thank for giving me my first lesson in how to position yourself properly so that the taxes and regs don’t always apply to you! What college have you ever heard of which would teach you that with actual hands on experience? I was impressed!

  Recruited by the Pros

  Well, despite my dreams to the contrary, my dedicated 10 year career in football had its moments but didn’t end in any professional gridiron glory after playing intensely from little league through college.

  But my professional career in business sure started with a bang! With my background and experience, I was shooting for a job in international business of course.

  A long story short, I answered an ad I saw in the Chicago Tribune where I was living at the time and the ad was clear that this international company was seeking someone with a Masters degree in international business (which I didn’t have). I only had a Bachelors degree. They also wanted 5 years corporate international experience minimum (
which I didn’t have). The job was ‘Area Market Manager’ to develop distribution for the company’s consumer products in Europe and Africa.

  This was the dream job that I figured would take me at least 5 to 10 years to work into starting as a fresh grad. I took a flyer on it, answered the ad and got invited for an interview.

  As it turned out, after much deliberation and delay I got the job. I was ecstatic! The way I figured it, the company had set their sights high with the requirements they were seeking and like I said earlier, in those days degrees in international business were rare. To find an MBA in that niche with five years or more of overseas experience might have been a bit of a stretch or wishful thinking.

  Here I came along, with excellent French language skills to get me through most of North Africa Arab nations and West African nations which were largely ex French and British colonies. Plus, I actually had experience living overseas and with those qualifications I likely surpassed other candidates who applied. Then, being a fresh grad they could get away with paying me much less than what they were advertising for and they got a lot more value!

  So, the bottom line was that they found an excellent free agent with top skills and experience and they were able to stay well under the salary cap! It wasn’t quite what I had envisioned as a kid playing football, but still, I was off to the pros in a different league!

  Dumped in the Scrub Brush

  I’ll never forget taking my first trip to Africa on an ‘Air Afrique’ airlines which doesn’t exist anymore. We were on final approach moments before touch down in Dakar, Senegal. It was my first stop on a direct flight from JFK in New York.

  I was looking out the window and all I saw was sun bleached dirt and scrub brush on the African plain. I remember it as plain as day, like it was yesterday. I was thinking to myself, “Geez Mark. Here you are in the bushland of Africa. What the hell have you done now?”

  Prior to that, the first several months on the job were spent preparing for and planning the trip. I was translating the product catalog and brochures into French. I was researching the major importers and distributors in the key cities in Senegal, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Cameroon and Nigeria mostly. Nigeria was the main target as it was the most populous and richest country in West Africa being an oil producer and member of OPEC.

  Then my boss Ali Khan, who was a serious but delightful Pakistani, basically said, OK Mark you’re ready to travel. Here’s your expense account, tickets etc. and don’t come back until you sell something! And off I went ready for anything! And it was a good thing too as ‘Anything’ was quite likely to happen as I was about to find out.

  The company I worked for was EKCO Housewares. You probably recognize the name and have some of their products in your home. People in social gatherings would often ask me what I did. My short reply was, “Oh, I sell pots and pans in Africa!’. And I swear the image people would have in their minds upon hearing that was to imagine me with a large sample case strapped to my back, scurrying from grass hut to grass hut trying to sell my wares on the Serengeti. Not quite.

  A little closer to reality was that I would try to configure orders and sell the product by the container load. I’d deal with chain stores, grocery and department stores, importers and distributors some of whom had their home offices in London or Paris where I’d occasionally visit to meet the top brass to launch new product promotional campaigns or just try to schmooze them for a large order.

  In order to secure payment in dollars when the country had its own national currency (like the Nigerian Naira) I’d have to arrange an irrevocable letter of credit from an international bank which was confirmed by a bank in the USA. This led me into some interesting meetings in banking and politics as the two are inextricably intertwined.

  So getting the order was one thing. But it was only the first step. In the case of Nigeria and a couple others, then you’d have to apply for a permit from government to be allocated the US dollars to send from the country’s foreign currency reserves in the central bank. There was ‘no sale’ until that happened.

  Corruption in Nigeria

  With all of the oil and investment money floating around Nigeria, corruption in politics had permeated everything. As in most places, getting elected to office was the equivalent of getting a license to steal. Add to that the historical tribal tensions which have always existed throughout history between the three main tribes there and which persist to this day and you have a formula for some real problems.

  Nigerians still identify with their tribes. So much so, that each tribe has their own ‘mark’ to permanently identify its members. They scar their face with a specific pattern of stripes or marks which identified the tribe so it would be permanent and obvious to all which tribe one belonged to. There was no ‘switching parties’!

  So I was doing my thing on another trip to Adventureland. I had arranged a huge order which would make me a superstar with my EKCO team. In the hotel bar I had run into a wild eyed Irishman named Kelly who was a wheeling dealing Tasmanian devil and he fell in love with our broad lines of products. He came up with a plan to place orders for 40 container loads to be distributed throughout a network of clients he had. This was huge.

  At the time, the central bank of Nigeria was located in the national telecommunications building which was a prominent and new high-rise office building. With the new orders all lined up I was preparing to head to the central bank with the Kelly that week to apply for the foreign currency exchange permits.

  It just so happened to be election season in Nigeria at the time. Of course, during their tenure the politicians in office at the time were actively sending millions of dollars of ill gotten gains from corruption to their personal accounts in Switzerland which still had a modicum of privacy in those days. With the new regime soon to be coming into office after elections, they had to cover their tracks (sound familiar?). So what was the best way to do this? Of course! Burn the entire national bank building down. What else?

  National telecommunications were down. Banking was down. The country came to a halt. But for the corrupt politicians, at least their money was safe in Switzerland!

  In writing this, I did a couple searches real quick on the topic and damn, if they hadn’t done it again just as recently in May of 2018 ! Hey, It must work!

  Don’t we see the Democrats in the USA doing the same thing today in 2018-2019 using ‘Bleach Bit’ and hammers to hard drives? They’re burning the country and its institutions down figuratively without any concern for the collateral damage they create just to save their asses from the Trump truth tribunals. It’s the same playbook. I never thought I’d see people in my home country stooping to the level of the tribal animals as I saw in Nigeria, but here we are.

  Scotch & a Wild Irishman - Stimulates Creative Thinking

  This order I was working on was too important to just ‘let go’ due to circumstances. I needed to solve this problem. So I got back with Kelly the wild Irishman to do some brainstorming. It took a couple bottles of good Scotch over a few nights to fuel the creative think tank but it did the job and after some serious configurations and some good laughs, the result was in.

  We arrived at a solution using countertrade. Countertrade is the international exchange of goods rather than cash. This would be tricky though because I knew EKCO had no interest in being terribly creative. Cash was the only solution for us to ship product.

  So here’s how the deal went down.

  The Nigerian importers (our customers) would arrange to sell goods they had access to, to a German client Kelly had. The amount of the sale of goods would equate roughly to the amount of goods to be shipped from EKCO in Chicago to Nigeria. This took some time to configure. We’d have to sell the idea to qualified players. Not an easy task.

  Through nothing short of a miracle, we found the players and they were game. A letter of credit in favor of EKCO would be lodged by the German importer whereby be
fore having funds released to EKCO, the Nigerian client’s shipment would have to arrive in Germany in acceptable condition, and then EKCO would receive the bank advice whereupon EKCO would ship it’s goods to Nigeria knowing that all the preconditions have been met and the money for payment was sitting in the German bank awaiting delivery.

  Upon receipt of the EKCO shipment in Nigeria, the German bank would be notified and then release funds to EKCO. So instead of the German buyer paying the Nigerian for his goods, he’d pay EKCO that amount and the Nigerian would receive payment for his shipment to Germany not in cash but in goods from EKCO which he could then sell for a nice profit.

  Naturally, this is not something you do every day, but for an order of 40 container loads, it was worth the effort.

  Bear this situation in mind if ever confronted with a cash shortage and you really want to sell something!

  Somehow I can’t help but think that my friend Francois LeBaron who introduced me to fine Scotch whiskey back in France had a hand in this! This was ‘proof’ that ‘everything happens for a reason’.

  Liberia Rolls Out the Red Carpet

  The first business meetings I had in Africa were in Monrovia, Liberia. Monrovia is an interesting place. Named after the US President James Monroe in 1816, with the aim of establishing a self-sufficient colony for emancipated American slaves, something that had already been accomplished in Freetown, Sierra Leone, the first settlers arrived in Africa from the United States, under the auspices of the American Colonization Society. They landed at Sherbro Island in present-day Sierra Leone.