MY THIRTIES - EGYPT, MALAYSIA AND DESERT SANDS WITH DAR AL-HANDASAH
In the UK of the early 1970s it was not so hard to get a job if you had a university education and I soon started work with a small consulting group in London, Economic Consultants Limited (I still keep up with an old colleague Colin Fletcher).
They had an office in an old drum factory near Covent Garden and the company had been founded and run by a practical economist Bill Luttrell who had done some path-breaking work on industrial economics.
I was hired for 6 months to help with a Planning Appeal. 3M had wanted to relocate their HQ from Wigmore Street to Crawley in West Sussex – but this was opposed by West Sussex County Council on the grounds that 1,000 new jobs in the area would ‘overheat’ the local labour market (what is now known as a NIMBY –‘not in my back yard’ reaction).
We didn’t win the Appeal but I stayed on with ECL when they won a contract with the British Overseas Development Agency to prepare the North Perak Regional Planning and Development Study. Maureen, Dani and I left our flat in Willesden Green and happily went off into the blue to live in Ipoh, Malaysia. It was here that I first started 'hashing' across the tin tailings and through rubber plantations and jungle. I met one of my old Ipoh Hasher friends, Malcolm Lambert years later in the 1980s when I joined ‘Manila’s Finest’ – the Manila Men’s Hash.
From Malaysia, we went on to Egypt to participate in the Suez Master Plan Study. The Canal Zone was being redeveloped after being opened following the 1974 peace. We lived in Dokki, Cairo and became absorbed into the large expatriate population that descended on Egypt at that time.
I always remember the Governor of Suez telling us that he was glad to have British consultants because we were from a poor country too!
Sadly my relationship with Maureen collapsed in Cairo and she and Dani returned to Australia. Shortly afterwards, the regulations on immigration into Australia changed making it much more difficult for me to return.
This meant that I became more determined to make a new life in South East England. Between the Malaysia and Egypt assignments, we had bought a house 22 Haddon Court, Shakespeare Road, Harpenden, Hertfordshire and when I returned from Cairo, I set about refurbishing and furnishing it (creepers had grown up between the floor boards in the lounge!).
The house had been sold when it was built in 1972 for GBP 8,000. I bought it for GBP 17,500 – but sold it in 1979 for GBP 42,000. These figures give some idea of the tremendous impact of inflation in the UK following the 1972 Oil Shock when petroleum went up from US $8 to US$30 per barrel and the western economies printed money to stave off economic collapse.
The other side of this coin was the fact that the Oil Economies were awash with cash and needed consultants to spend it for them (oops sorry to advise on their economic development). This also exacerbated political tensions in the affected countries and led on to the Lebanese Civil War. As a result Dar Al-Handasah (Arabic ‘House of Engineers’), a large Lebanese engineering group, decided to move most of its head office functions from Beirut to London.
When they advertised for British staff, I got the job of head of the Economics Section at double my previous salary. This lead to a lot of overseas work in Nigeria and the Middle East. Crashing about up-country in Range Rovers in Nigeria was a good deal of fun - and I was very happy to be able to explore a country that I had always been interested in, after reading a marvelous geography by Buchanan and Pugh, ‘Land and People of Nigeria’.
I hope we did something useful – I was quite proud of the Social Cost-Benefit Analysis that I did for the Bauchi-Gombe Sites and Services and Slum Upgrading Project – this received direct praise from Alan Walters who was then with the World Bank. Walters later became Special Adviser to Mrs. Thatcher, the UK Prime Minister of the 1980s.
The work in the Middle East included some stopovers and an assignment in Beirut. These took place during lulls in the Civil War. I remember sitting having a coffee on the sidewalk of Hamra – the main street of West Beirut –when a colleague came by in an old souped-up sports car. At his insistence we crossed the Green Line and went off to Jounieh to sample some special French-style crepes. Twice crossing the apparently deserted and totally quiet front-line in a back-firing bomb was a complete nightmare – we were lucky to survive.
On another occasion, an English friend, Malcolm Moore, and I hired a car and went down to South Lebanon. We had just finished visiting the old Druze palace at Beit Eddine when we slowly circumnavigated the guards at a checkpoint and headed off – only to hear a burst of bullets in our direction. Fortunately, a convoy of Druze soldiers came up, the firing stopped and we were left to complete our journey after our passports had been inspected by the officer in charge.
Despite all the problems, and some reservations, I formed a strong affection for my colleagues in Dar Al-Handasah and for the Arab people in general. One of my staff in the London HQ Maher El-Masri is the Minister of Economy of the shadow state of Palestine – another Fuad Siniora, became head of the Central Bank of Lebanon. Not surprisingly, I have always supported the Palestinian cause – while trying very hard to remain objective about Israel.
This period of my life was, in many respect, my ‘prime’. I was earning very good money, had a 4-bedroom townhouse near London and was running a yellow Jensen Healey sports car (the ‘Swift Banana’) . I also had a number of local friends including Colin and Sylvia Fletcher (ex-ECL) with whom I am still in touch.
However, I was becoming very ground down by constant overseas work – which resulted among other things in me contracting Hepatitis A. I was also conscious that it would be nice to put something back into the overseas development field through teaching. Yet another strand was my feeling that it would be nice to have a normal family.
However, we eventually started going out together and decided to start a family. We were married at St Alban’s Registry Office in 1979 and, when I secured an appointment as a University Lecturer with the Development and Project Planning Centre, University of Bradford, we moved to Yorkshire to ‘settle down’. We bought a house just across the road from the church in Bramhope, near Leeds (5 Church Hill).
CONSULTING ASSIGNMENTS DURING THIS PERIOD
DAR AL-HANDASAH
Syria Syrian Government / Dar Al Handasah 1979 Development Economist for pre-appraisal mission to identify opportunities for road investment in North East Syria
Nigeria Nigerian Government 1979 Project Manager Project Manager for 12 person team preparing comprehensive planning blueprint for the development of Benue State, covering all sectors of the regional economy
Lebanon Lebanese Government / Dar Al Handasah 1978 Development Economist for appraisal of design options and economic implications of the reconstruction of the Central Business District of Beirut.
Bahrain Bahrain Government / Dar Al Handasah 1978 Development Economist for appraisal and financing / pricing of three industrial estates developed on reclaimed land
United Arab Emirates Ras Al Kheimah Government / Dar Al Handasah 1977Development Economist Economist for the design, market development and economic / financial appraisal of a milk recombining factory
Nigeria World Bank / Dar Al-Handasah 1977 Development Economist Economist on design and appraisal team for the Bauchi / Gombe Sites and Services and Slum Upgrading Project - involved detailed local income surveys etc.
Jordan Jordan Valley Authority / World Bank 1976 Agricultural Economist / Development Economist Economist for the Jordan Valley Irrigation Project, Stage II, covering water demands, cropping patterns, farm budgets and economic and financial appraisal of options
Nigeria Nigerian Government / Dar Al Handasah 1976 Project Manager Team Leader for multi-disciplinary 12 person team preparing comprehensive review of development opportunities for Kwara State
ECONOMIC CONSULTANTS LTD
Egypt UKODA / Government of Egypt 1975 Development Economist Economist in multi-disciplinary team covering the planning and reconstruction of the city of Suez and the rehabilitation of adjoining agricultural land (Suez Masterplan)
Malaysia UKODA / Government of Malaysia 1975 Development Economist
Economist for the evaluation of the business case for the construction of a cement plant at Padang Rengas
Malaysia UKODA / Government of Malaysia 1974-5 Development Economist Economist in multi-disciplinary team conducting comprehensive review of resources and development opportunities for North Perak (North Perak Regional Planning and Development Study)
United Kingdom Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company 1974 Economist / Business Case Analyst Economist fore evaluation of the merits/demerits of 3M moving its HQ from London to Crawley, West Sussex ( for major planning appeal)
United Kingdom Tees and Hartlepool Port Authority 1973 Assistant Economist / Business Case Analyst Economist for evaluation of the potential for reclamation of land for industrial and port development at Seal Sands
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