Now THAT is what I call a Network...

I just had the coolest phone conversation.

Its 3am in the morning here in New Zealand and I just got off the phone with Kartik who used to be President of AIESEC in India.

The fact that our conversation even took place at all should be made a case-study and researched by some fancy think-tank who wants to examine the phenomenom called the "Global Village".

So there I am, chatting with various friends in the northern hemisphere on MSN. Kreta Shah a cute Indian girl who works for AIESEC in Denmark (and worked for AIESEC in Estonia last year) buzzed me and told me Kartik wanted to speak to me. Kartik added me on MSN and asked if it would be okay for him to give me a call. "Of course by all means" I replied, a little bit intrigued.

As it turns out, Kartik is in Mauritius (a tiny island off the coast of Africa, near Madagasar) working on a project for Inbev the huge global brewery. His next project will be in the "Heart of Africa" my dear country Nigeria! And he was wondering where he could get first-hand info about Nigeria, apart from the slanted and biased reports and accounts in Lonely Planet and on the BBC or CNN. So he turned to the Nigerian he knew who happens to be in New Zealand!!! How cool is all this? Or am I getting all tripped about this for nothing?!

I met Kartik (who is Indian by the way) in Switzerland at AIESEC's International Congress 2001 when he was still an LCP (I think) and then again at IC 2004 in Germany. He was national President then and there was a certain individual on his team who was also in Germany, although i didnt speak a single word to this individual.

I certainly had a lot to say and do to this individual the following year in Sweden when we worked together for AIESEC Sverige. I am of course talking about "my very own Indian" Amit Desai! The cute Indian girl mentioned above used to be his girlfriend.

If you are reading this and you have an international network of friends... know that you have something potentially powerful enough to make a key difference in how your life is shaped. And if you dont have one... well... I dont know what can be done... Get one I guess (an intl network I mean)