March 2018: Month In Review

SOFIA, Bulgaria- Last month was a busy one. But I suppose I say that about every month. I focused on video early on and pushed back the articles to later in the month — and then had to eat it by scrambling to get everything done and spending my remaining days in Rhodes in a room at a desk.

One of my goals in Rhodes was to catch up. My backlog of unfinished projects piled up too high and I had to clear some of it out — which meant a month of not taking on anything new.

You see, my work is a two act play: collecting content and processing content. One is irrelevant without the other. Obviously, there is a sequential order to how this needs to be done. The issue is that I often collect so much content from one country that I spend the entire first portion of time in the next country processing it — I enter a new place where there is all kinds of things that I want to go out and see and do and learn about sitting in a room finishing up what I did somewhere else in the world.

There is no way to get around this state of affairs without having an artificial cut off point around two weeks before I leave a place — which would ultimately be detrimental, as the longer you’re based somewhere the better your access and ability to collect content tends to become — and it’s generally not that much of a problem unless the backlog builds up so high that I’m not able to take on any new projects the entire time I’m in a given place. So I need to take what I call a “process month” a couple of times a year. This is where I hideout and clear off the slate.

That’s exactly what I did in Rhodes.

Because of that I’m in a better place at the beginning of April in Bulgaria. This month I’m looking at five articles on Forbes, one article for this Harvard journal called New Geographies, a short doc about the fishermen of Penang that’s almost finished, and, as of now, that’s about it. My goal is to clear up time to complete a significant portion of the Silk Road book without going broke.

Where I published

Forbes

5 New Cities That Are Set To Shake Up The Future (For Better Or Worse)
An epidemic of new cities are popping up all over Asia and Africa. What these places become are going to tell the story of geo-economics in the coming decades.

Meet The Man Fighting America’s Trade War Against Chinese Counterfeits
Counterfeits have become the world’s #1 criminal enterprise. Governments, legal systems, and law enforcement agencies have found themselves unable to do anything about the torrents of counterfeits streaming in over their borders. That’s where Craig Crosby comes in.

The Hidden Economic Rationale Of China-Europe Rail
As the trans-Eurasian rail network matures skepticism is running rife about its economic viability. However, these trains are about something much bigger than simply turning a profit.

Ghost Towns Or Boomtowns? What New Cities Really Become
Literally hundreds of new cities accounting for trillions of dollars of investment are being built across Asia and Africa right now. Is this the biggest real estate bubble in history or a sign of a rising new economic order?

5 New Silk Road Projects That Will Alter Your View Of How The World Works
Eurasia, the continental landmass containing both Europe and Asia, is rapidly being strung together into a contiguous market covering upwards of 65% of the population, 75% of energy resources and 40% of GDP in the world. This is something that has never happened before.

The Guardian

I wrote a story for the Guardian this month about the epidemic spread of land reclamation projects throughout the emerging markets of Asia and how this is impacting local communities and the environment, with a focus on the fishermen of Penang.

Modus Magazine

I wrote a short article for Modus Magazine about why I feel that Chengdu will become “the city that wins the future.” It was pretty much a look into how inland hubs in Eurasia are becoming more prominent as the landmass climbs the ladder of transit-oriented development.

YouTube

I published five videos on my YouTube channel this month, as our subscriber count rose to more than 15,900.

Vagabond Journey

I have no idea how many posts I put up on this blog in March. I sort of realized the long-term value of continuing this project — it’s my daily diary, without it I have no reliable record of what happens — and I began posting incessantly once again.

I counted them. I posted 61 times in March.

Conclusion

So that about wraps up what March 2018. I’m excited about April — I’m in Sofia now and there is a trip to Oman planned — and I hope to get a nice chunk of the New Silk Road book finished. Other than that, expect daily blog posts.

As always, thank you very much for reading.

Walk Slow,

Wade