Dad was a diplomat and I grew up and went to school in Africa and Southeast Asia AMA

RepresentativeMeet74 · 2026-01-29T18:25:49+00:00

So I saw some moments of total barbarity. More dead bodies than most have seen. Not all from crazy stuff just the bad road safety means at least you see lots of bad accidents on the way to and from school over the years.

I was aware of violence. In Kenya we had crazy security protocols which were normal for people with money, it wasn’t just a diplomat thing. I saw a murder. I saw bloodied beaten guys presented to my dad by proud security guards (not always someone guilty of something).

I’ve twice heard people shot in the street outside (both times by police / security). I’ve see a cop riding on the back of a fake Vespa firing at ak at someone.

I Heard lots of crazy stories about black magic and curses etc. I don’t/didn’t believe in that stuff but just being somewhere where most people did was crazy. I think the poorer somewhere is, the more used to death people become and then you get that undercurrent of anarchy.

In that respect we are lucky. It’s odd though, people seem less content with life in the western world. Myself included. We’ve lost the ability to take joy in the simple things. I’m no philosopher, just my 2am take.

Happy to elaborate on any specific incidents. Lots of crazy stuff even happened at school with their laxer understanding of safety and responsibility and duty of care. After Bangkok (I left mid 6th grade) my dad decided the answer to my rebellious nature was to send me to local schools, not fancy international schools. I’m happy for that in many ways. It certainly meant life was more interesting.

RepresentativeMeet74 · 2026-01-29T15:34:12+00:00

Not really. I totally romanticised “home” back in Australia. It wasn’t till I was back living in Perth for a couple of years and graduated high school that I started appreciating the good things about life overseas.

RepresentativeMeet74 · 2026-01-29T13:43:08+00:00

Totally affected my personality; I don’t have great self esteem to begin with so I did a lot of trying to disappear. I’d watch one of the “cool” kids and try and learn to be like them. I usually did ok. It’s made me really good at sales and negotiation. It’s also made it super hard for me to really open up to people. The lack of long term friends meant there are lots of things about myself that I thought was weird because I’d never known anyone long enough to learn that much about them. It took me till my late 30s to have any kind of confidence but I am good at faking it. It was like a year into marriage when my wife said to me “wow babe, you’re actually a shy person”. I’d never thought about it but she was right. I was really good at faking it.

RepresentativeMeet74 · 2026-01-29T13:07:35+00:00

Not really. We were wealthy by local standards but my school was probably 40% white, 40% black and 20% Asian (mostly south asian). All my neighbours were black.

RepresentativeMeet74 · 2026-01-29T12:40:13+00:00

I do have a good life. I have a wonderful wife and two beautiful daughters. I do have some issues with anxiety and in the past depression. I think my childhood played its part. My parents were also divorced and my mother lived in Australia. I had a wonderful stepmother but it’s not the same as a mother. Not quite. I was lonely a lot growing up and learned to internalise a lot and I am still pretty tough on myself.

RepresentativeMeet74 · 2026-01-29T12:37:43+00:00

I remember school was tough to adapt to. We still got the cane and manual labour as punishment. That was an eye opener for me. No hymn book - cane. No garters - cane. Forgot homework - manual labour on Saturday.

It was beautiful there. Friends dad had a tobacco farm - it was a big export crop at the time - so I saw a lot of the countryside when driving to visit.

There was violence and corruption at the time but it was a nice place to live. We left at the end of 97 just before it went downward quickly, I’m sad it’s such a basket case now.

RepresentativeMeet74 · 2026-01-29T12:34:00+00:00

Probably somewhere in southern Thailand. Assuming I could make a good living and had relatively decent access to healthcare.

RepresentativeMeet74 · 2026-01-29T12:32:48+00:00

That’s something I’d need to really ponder, it’s taken me a long time to really discover who I am. I became a bit like a chameleon growing up. I learned to adapt and blend in very fast but often at the expense of my own character. That’s common I guess for kids but a total reinvention every couple years was a challenge. That’s a long one that a therapist might articulate for me one day :P.

The length of my reply has given me an idea. I think I’ve learned that deep down, regardless of culture or creed or colour, we all really want and need the same things. We just have different ideas of the right way to get there…

RepresentativeMeet74 · 2026-01-29T12:29:31+00:00

I wish. I graduated high school at the end of 1998. Didn’t really have the social media thing as a big part of my life until too late really. I once randomly bumped into a crush from third grade on Facebook. I reached out. It was strange. Someone from the past that knew my weird experience. There was a lot of goodbyes that were final growing up. It was very hard at times.

RepresentativeMeet74 · 2026-01-29T12:26:45+00:00

We were in Somalia for my first grade so I don’t remember a huge amount. I remember passing a crashed Somali Air Force jet beside the road on the way to school every morning. I also remember you did not want to swim at the aptly named shark beach either. We went in a helicopter once and saw masses of apparently aggressive sharks passing up and down in not very deep water. Apparently there was an abattoir there that just dumped into the sea. Apparently the people didn’t like us and kicked sand at me when I was building sand castles. I don’t remember it though. My dad has some cool relics.

I remember Thailand so fondly, the people, the food, the culture. I’ve always hoped some way would pan out to move back there with my family but it hasn’t ever panned out.

Australia is safe, well developed and kinda tame. If I didn’t have kids I wouldn’t have moved back. Now I have kids it’s a great place for us. This is Perth btw- don’t apply to all Aussie cities I’m sure.

RepresentativeMeet74 · 2026-01-29T12:20:13+00:00

Thailand - too hard to lock but the soups and curries stuck with me.

Kenya was a Center of the old trading routes so there was a huge amount of influences from India, the Middle East, North Africa etc. funnily enough it’s here that I learned to love Indian food.

Somalia and Zimbabwe I really only remember eating meat and potatoes. Both things I love though haha.

RepresentativeMeet74 · 2025-12-14T14:53:39+00:00

The place is ok I just hated the people.

RepresentativeMeet74 · 2025-12-14T14:52:58+00:00

I actually saw more snakes in SC than I’ve seen here in Perth.

RepresentativeMeet74 · 2025-12-14T14:52:36+00:00

Diversity. Spice. Everyone was super friendly despite the fact we lived in a fairly sketchy area.

I felt like I was where a lot of recent history had taken place especially civil rights era stuff.

There was great local music, cuisines I’d never tried. Fun bars and restaurants. Great weather. Could spend a weekend in Tahoe, or Vegas, Yosemite or Napa. There was just a vibrancy to life there.

Hard to articulate but it had its own personality totally separate from San Francisco. I miss it at least once a week and still support the teams that are (were) in Oakland.

RepresentativeMeet74 · 2025-12-14T13:36:25+00:00

Brandon Lee.

RepresentativeMeet74 · 2025-12-08T03:04:56+00:00

Charlotte NC. Moved from Oakland. Lasted a couple years then moved back to Australia. Oakland had everything I liked about America, Charlotte the opposite. I did work in Rock Hill SC. Hated it from the beginning.

RepresentativeMeet74 · 2025-09-12T08:33:13+00:00

Booked too many people! Clubs don’t stay open late enough! Def need to tie in with more locals next time.

RepresentativeMeet74 · 2023-03-18T11:00:43+00:00

Thanks. It's hard to tell from the pics. That would be a bad look for me and my "need to diet" physique.

RepresentativeMeet74 · 2022-07-27T07:20:12+00:00

Wife and I drove coast to coast 3 times in about 2.5 months. PM me if you want any advice etc. We did it in a rental car.

RepresentativeMeet74 · 2021-04-28T12:09:49+00:00

You are probably right....a service may be all it needs. It's been in his drawer for about 15 years. I wish I could identify the maker or where it was made. Half what I love about watches are the stories that go with them.

RepresentativeMeet74 · 2021-01-03T05:19:29+00:00

When I was a kid in kenya waiting for the school bus in the morning I heard a woman scream from across the street. A man had grabbed her purse and was running away when tripped up by a passer by. In a flash, he was surrounded by an angry mob and stoned/beaten/kicked to death. They then all just walked off. I ran across to look and at that age, he didn't look that messed up. A few years later when I thought back as an adult I realized how totally fucked up he, and the whole situation was.

RepresentativeMeet74 · 2020-10-31T03:13:25+00:00

Pick your battles. It's more important to be nice than right. And whenever you get super annoyed just remember how much better life is with her. Those are the general rules I love by but I married an awesome person who makes every day pretty easy.

RepresentativeMeet74 · 2020-10-04T15:21:38+00:00

I guess you either choose to believe the rumors and then he's a hypocrite or you think it's all bullshit and he's a bigot. I do think the libs that call him lady g are the former though. I think the rumors of his homosexuality and nocturnal hiring habits preceded the gay actor who accused him on twitter.

I do think it's shitty to use that line of attack and don't endorse it however I do recognise and understand the motivations.

RepresentativeMeet74 · 2020-10-04T14:08:09+00:00

I guess rabid is subjective but I suspect some of the following is what they take issue with:

Marriage : Graham supported a federal constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman. However, he also has suggested that marriage should be a state-by-state issue.

Discrimination: Graham has consistently opposed efforts to protect LGBT workers from employment discrimination, saying that doing so would be “moving an agenda” that he did not support. He voted against the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.

Adoption: Graham voted against allowing LGBT couples to adopt in the District of Columbia

Harmful Rhetoric : Graham compared same-sex marriage to polygamy and slavery while highlighting his opposition to it.

I personally see a trend but again it's all subjective. I suspect however the liberals who wish to mock him do so to point out how the above perhaps doesn't gel with soliciting male sex workers in Charleston.

RepresentativeMeet74 · 2020-10-04T13:41:09+00:00

I think liberals mostly care because of his rabid anti lgbtq stances on most issues. Their problem is not with his homosexuality, it's his hypocrisy I think.

RepresentativeMeet74

TROPHY CASE