Muses of Murari

Imagine yourself travelling 152,000 miles covering 116 countries in a customized Mercedes car in three years. Sounds exciting? Not all, can have that privilege of leaving our commitments for a while and chasing the dream of travelling around the world. But, Jim Rogers had the dream, the courage, the enthusiasm & of course, more importantly, the money to fund his travel! And not only he did that and he also shared his experiences in his fantastic book – Adventure Capitalist. He also wrote a book called “Investment Biker”, which he wrote, after covering the world  on a motor cycle!

In the book he writes innumerable experiences with various people and governments in the countries he and his wife (he got married while he was on this trip!) had. The investments he had in various countries for a decade and how they were maturing and his opinions on various countries and their future prospects, were discussed. Also he has written more on native culture, rulers, the economies, bureaucratism, ethnic conflicts, internal politics, popular food and many more.

He rates India as number one most bureaucratic country. I expected more from him on India, but it turned out to be not so, except a mention by author at the end of the book, a want to travel south India. He traveled many countries which I am not even aware of. Ever heard about a country called Swaziland. It is an African country, whose kings have as many as wives they want, and looks for virgin girls to marry every year in an yearly event. Weird? How about this fact. Women tourists from Europe traveling African countries like Kenya, looking for young black men for sex. Yes, you heard it right, Sex tourism.

Jim pondered about lot on the economies and businesses in countries he had visited. He also pondered on how rulers in many countries missed the bus and hurting their own economies through their policies. China’s one child policy was and how it favored boy to girl child, South Korea’s closed economy and yet it has out-grown its North counterpart, Japan’s enormous cash and their aging population, China’s magnificent raise, Mexico’s depleting oil reserves, Arabian extraordinary growth, Saudi Arabia women’s rights, Tanzania’s wonderful future prospects, Singapore’s excellent progress and plights of many African countries are some of the topics he elaborated. He says, African countries are sitting on enormous amount of untapped natural reserves, waiting for an exploiting hand. Poverty, diseases, civil war are tearing many African countries apart, he points out. One interesting point he explains, that the clothes given in some European churches for African countries as charity, were sold by middle men to the intended people and how it was throwing local Tailors, yarn producers out of work. The countries like USA subsidizing its farmers, is hurting many farmers in many countries and the author predicts, the farming skill will be completely wiped out in African countries.

The author towards end, blasts his own country policies. He asked a right question at one point. What USA has to do with North Korean security problems? If anything that is dangerous from N.Korea, the neighboring countries like Japan, China, S.Korea have to worry. Why American tax payer monies are spent on foreign policies that are not necessary otherwise? He also blasts former Federal Reserves head Alan Greenspan for his mismanagement and its subsequent stock market disasters. He reflects on the fact that many countries (many are African countries) hate USA for many reasons. He also observes, that the world follows the news about USA, but, the US media never shows proper coverage on world news. He rates European media are better than American media in covering world news. He also criticizes Americans less knowledgeable on other countries! ( I remember, in one of online videos, when asked, a common American, on where Iran was on the map, he pointed out Australia!)

This book, in point of view, is an excellent read. I enjoyed it, until at the end of the read, where few pages got loosend out and came out completely. Blame it on publishers or my handling, it was sad end to a wonderful read!

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