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OldUffingtonians

I was known as Robert 'Arry 'Arari because nobody chose to pronounce my name correctly and I didn't realise at the time that I was too shy to tell people.

After the obligatory 7 years incarceration, 'Arry 'Arari left WCGS in '69/70 (can’t exactly remember which) and Bob Harari went on to study business studies at Enfield College of Technology (now probably known as the University of North East something or other...).
After a great marriage to a Kiwi, no kids and a surreal divorce, I spent a year in Houston - Texas, helping to open up an int'l shipping office.

On my return, a friend of a friend of a friend etc etc asked me to sell chemicals and fertilisers in Idi Amin's Uganda. (I was innocent about Africa then).  After a few years opening up remote parts of Africa to the pleasures of import and export of anything, a business partner and I setup our own Djibouti/Madagascar based trading company. That was fun. The 1984 Ethiopian famine/Bob Geldorf's Band Aid being the main highlight of that business period.

By 1987, tired of intercontinental commuting, I chose to export from London, without realising that to be good at international trade - regular travel has to come into it somewhere - and I was really tired of it! So I existed for a few years - no Porsches or gold plated underwear...just a reasonable living.

In 1992, World Food Program, the food mandated UN agency, contacted me to see if I’d be interested in working in Somalia during the war/famine – I grabbed the lifeline to start travelling again as I knew Somalia well and quite liked the country.
After working 8 years for them and the EU in Somalia, Afghanistan. Pakistan, Tajikistan, the Yemen Arab Republic. and burning out from working in too many war zones (sorry that should read - as per UN - conflict zones!) – I yet again returned to Blighty.

For the past 2 years, have lived more or less singly on fresh air, some old dosh, unemployment benefits and helping as a volunteer teaching time management and cookery for MIND in Ealing, a charity. I now work full time for them.