Thank you very much, I wasn’t paying attention and would have missed this!

Hey Shawn, I probably won’t be there during those dates but I’ve been 3x this year, DM if you have any questions about the city, getting around, visas, etc.

Not pointless at all - an often unpleasant and sometimes dangerous side effect of nausea and vomiting is severe dehydration, which can be managed with anti-emetics and fluids.

First trip to India, and I made the mistake of eating a samosa from the street. That’s a rookie mistake you’ll only make one time. Later that evening I was at my friend’s house, puking and shitting my guts out. I didn’t know which end of my body to point at the toilet. After everything finally evacuated I laid naked in the cold tile floor, my face in the lining of my stomach, and my friends announced that we were going to hospital. They picked me up off the floor, showered and dressed me, then carried me two blocks to the local doctors’s office. He saw me immediately and diagnosed food poisoning, of course. Incredulous of the quick disposition I asked, “but how do you know? Do you need blood tests?” to which he replied: “I looked at you!” Good enough. They gave me a shot of Zofran, which was life-changing, and a bag of fluids, which my body absorbed in minutes. Less than one hour later we were out the door. My friend paid the doctor’s fee, 800 rupees, about $10 at the time. The pharmacy gave me a bag of drugs for about $3.

In the US this would have been $3,000.

You’ll live like royalty on that budget.

The third world is catching up quickly, yes. And when building they have the advantages of green fields and generally cheaper labor. I just returned from Punta Cana and was really impressed by their new airport: wide floors covered with polished limestone, brightly lit, with plenty of art and seating and power outlets and conditioned air.

I returned to my home airport, which has also begun a multi-year refurbishment. It will be much nicer, eventually, but we’ll have to live with the dust during the refurbishment.

I think it has to do with the “surprise effect”. You go somewhere new, and see all these cool new places for the first time. Surprise! Then you come home to the boring things in which you’ve lived your whole life. It’s much more expensive to redevelop property in the US, but it does happen. Look at the new airport at LGA…stunning and innovative, and totally redeveloped in 6 years. Anything is possible with the right motivation and financial resources.

COVID and remote working have handed us a once-in-a-century chance to rebuild our downtown spaces and give them fresh, innovative updates. Make them spaces where people want to live and work and play. It will take time and hundreds of billions of dollars. But we have all the resources, we just need the ideas and the willpower.