Go on an Oman desert journey of a lifetime

There is no one in the world offering a better Oman desert trip- no one following Thesiger's old routes so closely and carefully and absolutely no one with Mahmoud Mohareb's desert driving experience. I have made several trips with him and have known him for many years- he is 100% reliable. If you want a real desert experience in a wonderful and unspoilt country of deserts (and great beaches) do yourself a favour and sign up for one of his tours. Let him know your general interest and he will let you know upcoming dates. I believe the next one is Feb 13 2024- this is not on the website so you'll need to contact him through the website below.

https://tribeoman.com

riverman

the river, or going down it changes you or something in you.

you certainly feel the stress, the tension leaving.

common or garden until it becomes of vital importance

it really doesn't matter if you catch fish or not- others do

life shouldn't be confused with a holiday

so make it less like a holiday

update on homemade books

I have been recently working on some more homemade books- these are one off or limited print runs. I will post up more information from time to time on instagram on roberttwiggerinstantart.

entrepreneurism versus big business

I have always been a fan of people setting up a small business that attempts to make money.

I am particularly fond of people who start with stalls, or festivals or online efforts even.

But big business has other ideas. Their idea of business is: have an idea, get a loan, buy machines and property, make money, pay off shareholders gloating in the background. 

They believe the only thing holding people back from starting a business is getting a loan.

I know a few people who scored such loans and then went bust after a few years. So indirectly the cheap loan was helping the ordinary people who worked for them for a few years. Most businesses go bust in the first five years so maybe this model of wealth trickle down does work....a bit.

But the real things that stop people starting a viable business are mental not physical. The feeling that anything is possible, that you aren't being 'held back'. The people who set up environments who encourage this feeling do work at least as important as banks.

keith johnstone quotes

Bore the sudience a little.

Go on stage to make relationships- at least you won't be alone.

Be average.

Be obvious.

We've been told to 'do our best' since childhood- and what did that achieve? Words get used up, lose their power to make us act in the way we want to act. Even my parrotting these phrases- which are still potent- reduces them a little.

Keith's talent (he has recently died but his books on impro are all available) was to say the opposite of the prevailing wisdom- to point out that chink which had been missed. He also showed that contradictory advice could be very functionally helpful.

influence not power

Western 'thinking' is very concerned about power and domination. So much so it undervalues and overlooks how people influence each other. The justification for such ideas that the oppressed are now 'allowed' to oppress their former masters comes directly from this simplistic model of the world being full of the dominated and the dominators.

Of course when you look at real life or your own life this model breaks down.

We actually all live in a world of multiple influences. And one of the odd laws of influence is that if one person influences another there is a reverse flow of influence too. 

If there is a strong caring relationship influence can flow both ways- despite or inspite of, the 'power' dynamic.

It makes more sense to indentify influence than to get sucked into pointless and simplistic debates about who has power over whom and what they 'deserve' because of such power dynamics.

conning people

Phineas T. Barnum wrote that the people 'enjoy being bilked', that they actively like being tricked into paying for something that fails to come up to their expectations. How can this be so? It certainly defies the dry abstract analysis of the average economist...But the reason is simple. The half of us that is still a child engages a belief in the impossible. This is the part that is childish and not childlike, the part that wants to believe a drop of yoghurt culture will turn a lake into yoghurt. But that's impossible- I know, they reply, but just imagine if it worked! And that cosy dreamlike image- and it could be of anything- is what that half of us desires. But when the talking monkey or the man with two heads is proved a con, the other half, the pessimistic cynic can take over and say, "I told you so". Alternating between credulity and cynicism describes the voting public- but both attributes share a common feature- a lack of real world experience, digested real world experience. People who go from chlldhood dreams to fearful pessimism have to find a way to re-engage with experience. Sometimes this can happen by travelling, but not always.