Celebrating July 4th at Millennium Park

Karen, Eva, her friend Alexa, and I headed downtown Chicago on July 4th to watch fireworks by Lake Michigan and celebrate the holiday.  Millennium Park was of course one of our visits.  Tall faces, like monoliths, are a bit of an oddity, especially men who look creepy.  But because they're animated, that is, occasionally smiling, blinking and spouting water, they're fun for us families.  We've had a relatively cool and rainy summer, so we Chicagoans aren't so desperate for cooling.  Still it was warm and sunny enough on that afternoon to enjoy the splashing and wetness.

Celebrating US Service Men and Women

It was May 26th 2014, and my family and I took in a bit of the Grayslake parade on Lake Street.  It was a day to celebrate all the men and women who served our country, and remember the dead among them.  I don't know how many Americans appreciate what Memorial Day truly means, but to the extent we enjoy it with family and friends, the holiday serves its purpose.  

Thinking of Mark Rothko and Kazimir Malevich

Maybe I had Mark Rothko in mind.  Maybe even Kazimir Malevich.  

For the longest time, abstract art didn't quite grab me.  Art that had at least a hand or foot on reality gave me an anchor for experiencing it and understanding it.  But in recent years I have come to better appreciate abstract art, and Rothko and Malevich prompted me to frame these shots of intriguing pieces at the Chicago Cultural Center in a certain way.  

Years ago I was at a small gallery in Dubai, and after several minutes of looking around, the owner wondered if I were an artist.  I was flattered that she asked.  She noted that I had a more than usual or passing interest in the art.  As with other art elsewhere, I walk slowly and I pause.  I reflect on what I see and what I experience.  I look at a piece from a distance, then move closer, and closer, to see the elemental strokes that often give me insight on the artist himself or herself.  

From a distance, it was Rothko and Malevich.  Up close, however, these are all old-time slides.  Before there was PowerPoint, we took photographs with certain film that produced "positives" (rf. negatives) like these.  I wouldn't characterize myself as detail oriented.  But with art pieces, I am, apparently.  See how our world view shifts and alters, upon moving closer or stepping back.

Up Close on a Steinway & Sons Piano

From a distance, I saw the empty rows of chairs and heard a pianist casually at play at the Chicago Cultural Center.  Up close, however, I marveled at this Steinway & Sons piano.  Its mélange of shapes made it challenging to compose in a photograph, but I liked the last one the best.  Where I managed to capture its texture, too, and the sheen of light on its body and cover.  While the metal stands for microphones contrasted its wooden warmth and sensuality, the arching windows in the background paid a kind of homage to it.

Victor Hugo at the Chicago Cultural Center

I punctuate this Victor Hugo quote at the Chicago Cultural Center as (rf. goodreads):

A library implies an act of faith, which generations, still in darkness hid, sign in their night in witness of the dawn.

A history supervisor wrote an explanation:

This is a quote from Victor Hugo's poem, "A Qui La Faute?" from 1872. It means that by collecting books and by collecting knowledge (in a library), people are making an investment that future generations will continue to learn and grow intellectually. The symbolism is that we are all "in the dark" in our own time, but that by recording and storing our knowledge in the safety of a library, future generations will be able to see the light and learn from our mistakes and our experience.

You see, the light of humankind only grows brighter, generation after generation.  It isn't as though we are in darkness now, because we have the benefit of light from our predecessors.  We learn, I hope, from the knowledge, experience and mistakes of the past, just as much as our successors will learn from us in their time.

Friendship with a Libyan Gentleman

Oil facilities in Libya

In the British Airways lounge at Heathrow Airport, I laid down on a simple chaise longue for a nap.  It was a long layover en route from Chicago to Kuwait.  The gentleman to my right noticed the firm logo on my laptop screen, and initiated a conversation.  He was en route to Kuwait, too.  In fact, he was doing an expat assignment there for a multinational oil and gas company, and he welcomed a visit from me and my colleague to talk about what our consulting firm did.  We were glad for that.

He was a gracious Libyan gentleman - Khlefa - bright, friendly and articulate.  Before our visit, he invited us for dinner at his home, and we met two of his daughter in a rather spacious villa in a quiet section of Kuwait.  He hoped to return to London, but he and his family have a home in Houston, too.  At one point later on, he told me that his wife had had an accident in their Houston bathroom, and he needed to travel there to help take care of her.  We met once while he was passing through Chicago and another time in Dubai as well when I lived there.  

We must've met first in 2005, and as I write this I am impressed with how many conversations we had actually had.  It didn't seem like many at all, until now.  I had hoped to travel to Tripoli, and for a client engagement.  At my request, he sent me links and files about the oil and gas sector in Libya.  But I must've surmised that the prospects of such an engagement was a down-the-road thing, so I simply parked that information.  

In the meantime, Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown from the Arab Spring that swept Northern African and the Middle East, and was brutalized and killed by rebels in October 2011.  Then Islamic militants attacked the American diplomatic mission in Bengazi in September 2012, and the notion of consulting in Libyan receded further from my mind.  I lost track of my friend, but in recent weeks I thought of finding him again.

Kenya on My Business Radar

Downtown Nairobi

A colleague e-mailed me recently:  Benson and his partner were in the US, seeking investors for their oil and gas services company in Kenya.  We exchanged e-mails the week before last, and spoke on the phone.

Hope this email finds you well.

I found your contact via linkedin and thought of reaching out to you in reference to a newly discovered Gas & Oil exploration venture my partners have been working on back in Kenya. Due to your vast experience & exposure escpically working with Gas & Oil companies globally i felt you'd be the ideal individual to reach out to.

My business partners & I run a gas and oil exploration consultancy/support services company in Kenya, whereby we specialize in project support and other services needed in the oil & gas, power generation and petrochemical industry

Currently we are in the US scouting out for potential business partners/investors who would be interested in partnering with us in terms of the Gas & exploration business back in Kenya.

Please persuse through our attached profile and let me know when would be the best time for me to reach-out to you via phone for a partial introduction. Currently i am in Minneapolis.

Many thanks for your e-mail.

I had an old colleague from BP, who was from Libya. He and I talked just a little about the oil and gas sector in his home country, but we were mostly focused, at the time, on BP's efforts to build a relationship with the Kuwaiti government.

The focus of my consulting work remains on the Middle East (GCC), and Africa isn't on my radar for the foreseeable future. But I will look at your profile more closely. How long will you be in the US?

Will here until the 24th (Tuesday).

Apologies for missing your call last Friday. I just left you a voice mail message at the number you called me from.

I'm very experienced in the oil and gas industry, mainly in the Middle East, but unfortunately I'm not in a position to invest and I'm not in contact with investors. In the future, I would like to be part of a consortium that has equity stake in an oil and gas venture, but that's several years away.

It looks like GASOILEX is in the same industry as Halliburton and Schlumberger, except that your company doesn't offer well management, right?

In any event, I don't know if you have a flight out of the US tomorrow, but please feel free to ring me again in the morning.
We had a good conversation, and promised to send him another e-mail:

It was very good to connect with you earlier today.

I have friends and colleagues in the oil and gas sector throughout the Middle East (GCC) - mainly in Kuwait, but also in UAE, Saudi Arabia and Oman. None of them, though, are investors. But they may have direct or indirect contacts who are investors. The main purpose of my communications with friends and colleagues, as well as senior leaders and decision-makers, in the region is to build client relationships and develop business for my consulting firm.

Because looking for investors is not my main purpose, it's a long-term proposition to make this a part of my contacts and communications and eventually to reach prospective investors directly. Again, for the future, I'm keen on being part of an oil and gas consortium, that is, with equity stake in an oil and gas E&P venture.

The companies that I'm focusing most in the GCC are: Kuwait Petroleum Corp., Saudi Aramco, and Qatar Petroleum. In North America: ExxonMobil, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips. In Europe: Shell and BP. I also have Halliburton on my radar, because I have a colleague in their Kuwaiti operations.

The foregoing are on my side of things.

As I mentioned earlier, I'm keen to learn more about the oil and gas sector in Kenya as a whole and about GASOILEX in particular. Any resources that you think would be helpful for me, please send me links or materials. I'd love a chance to travel there, perhaps for a client engagement: The focus of my consulting firm is leadership, people and results. For example, I do executive coaching, leadership training and human resources development, and high potential identification.

Please have a look at my website, if you haven't had a chance yet: Ron Villejo Consulting.

Let's connect again, when you and your partner reach home, and continue our conversation.

It was somewhat fortuitous that Benson would contact me.  I had been thinking about gathering a consortium to invest in an oil and gas company, but definitely for way down the road.  Not anytime soon.  Still I thought it was a good idea to get to know this gentleman and his company.  There is so much to look into and learn about:  Kenya as a country, and its people, culture and oil and gas sector.  

I can mention GASOILEX to keep contacts in the Middle East, but I'd better be sure first that everything is well and good with their company.  What I had imagined was an Exploration & Production venture, maybe in Europe, so this company didn't quite fit the bill.  Moreover, I'd install, perhaps, one of the executives I'm coaching for a Middle Eastern client as the Managing Director.         

Anyway let's see where this goes.