Alain Bertaud: prediction

Transcript context

…For our final closing segment, a question or two about the Alain Bertaud production function. What do you feel has been the comparative advantage you’ve brought to your work that has made you successful? Being born in 1939, I was brought up during the war. I could adjust. I knew that you could adjust your comfort to whatever is available, and you don’t die from it. Then the other advantage for my wife and I was that we graduated at the time of decolonization, and a lot of countries were absolutely desperate for people where just the minimum skill you have when you just get out of university. In my book, I talk about even I was not graduated in Nigeria two years after independence. I was inspecteur de l’urbanisme. I was 25 years old. Nobody now graduating from any school will be inspecteur de l’urbanisme — not that I wish them to be inspecteur de l’urbanisme at 25 years old. This idea that you graduate from a Western university at the time of decolonization — this gives you an opportunity. When I arrived in Chandigarh, I was 23. I had taken a year off from the École des Beaux-Artes, and I arrive at the office of Pierre Jeanneret in Chandigarh, and I say, “Oh, you know, I’m looking for a job.” He gives me a job right away. Okay, it was 60 rupees a month, but it was a job. Now a Frenchman going to Hyderabad and saying, “I’m looking for a job. I am 23 years old” — nobody will take him seriously. He’ll be kicked out of the office right away. But there were other people born in 1939, right? [laughter] So what is your unique skill? No?…

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