09-11 London 1986
Kelly was twelve years of age and said with great angst, “Daddy, my nose is too big.” “Well”, I replied, "When you are older I will take you to London and you can examine the crypts of the Kings of England at Westminster Abbey. You have the nose of kings." We went to London and…
09-12 Japan 1987
"When I was 15 years of age, my father made me promise that when I became an adult, I would never live in a two-story house." This astounding statement came from our combination bus driver and guide when I went with Bob and Stacy Morrow on a tour of Japan in advance of the International…
09-13 The Soviet Union 1988
The new Secretary General of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, came to power in 1985, promising perestroika (restructuring) and glasnost (openness) which meant tourism was open to the world. Mary and I arranged a two-week tour of the Soviet Union in advance of the International Small Business Congress in Helsinki, Finland….
09-14 Warsaw 1992
I was naturally curious about going to Warsaw, Poland, because it was where our grandfather Halter was born. And more importantly, it was at the extermination camp at Treblinka, that over 60 of our grandfather’s uncles, aunts and cousins were gassed during WW2.After my grandfather’s mother had died when he was a boy, the father…
09-15 Switzerland 1993
A young girl was making me a sandwich in a small shop in Interlaken, cutting the crust off the bread with care and precision. Then I went for a walk in the outskirts of the town and went up to a home to look at the wood piled outside. It was cut and stacked again…
09-16 Jakarta 1994
It was supposed to be a joyful experience, but instead this trip was one of our truly scary adventures. We arrived in Jakarta about three days in advance of the 21st International Small Business Congress, and were met at the Airport by the Canadian Trade Commissioner.He asked us to look at the local English language…
09-17 New Zealand 1994
New Zealand was on the edge of bankruptcy in 1984 and was forced to eliminate massive subsidies on sectors like sheep farming and forestry, and the ripple effect killed hundreds of thousands of small firms. So, after the 21st International Small Business Congress held in Jakarta, I headed off to Wellington with the Morrows to…
09-18 Israel 1995
I arrived in Israel a week after Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated, to attend the 22nd International Small Business Congress in Tel Aviv. The nation was in mourning. In advance of the Congress, I visited the site where he was shot and his burial site. He was killed by a political extremist of the…
09-19 Brazil 1998
It was a huge surprise when my travel agent warned me in advance of my flight to Rio de Janeiro in 1989 to not use the taxis. "Take the hotel bus from the Airport and then if you want to go to a restaurant or a jewellry store, call them in advance and they will…
09-20 Maui
There is magic, and then there is magic! And Maui in Hawaii is the real thing. We spent the month of January there over a period of ten years exploring this Island with its amazing history and beauty. Our condo was in the Town of Kihei, which is in the south part of the Island…
09-21 Prague 1999
The predecessor organization to Vubiz Ltd was a not-for-profit called The Learning Institute for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises, which was a partnership with Jim Rapino at Confederation College in Thunder Bay. Confederation College had a contract to take training on free-market economics to countries like Poland, the Ukraine and The Czech Republic. So in…