In STEPS TO PARADISE AND BEYOND, which follows Footfalls Echo in the Memory as the second volume of his autobiography, VERNER BICKLEY describes the events and issues that were important to him during a period of his life spent in Hawaii and Saudi Arabia. In Hawaii from 1971 to 1981, he served as the Director of the Culture Learning Institute at the East-West Center, established by the U.S. Congress in Hawaii in 1960 and functioning as a U.S-based institution for public diplomacy with international governance, staffing, students and Fellows.For nine years (1972-1980), Verner led a small team of anthropologists, cross-cultural psychologists and linguists, focusing on the different ways in which individuals and whole societies cope in bicultural and multicultural contexts and how they address problems presented by different cultural norms. In this book he recalls some of the highlights of his stay in Hawaii; he touches briefly on President Obama's education in Oahu and on the life of the President's mother as an East-West Center "grantee." He recalls the impact made by Captain Cook on the Hawaiian Islands and the much later controversy surrounding Hawaiian claims to regain its independence from the United States. He mentions the support that his Institute provided for the pioneering voyage of the canoe, Hõküle'a, from Hawaii to Tahiti, disproving the theories of Thor Heyerdahl, and he describes his personal hasty retreat from South Korea when he was informed of the assassination of President Park Chong Hee.After nine interesting years in Hawaii, Verner moved to Saudia Arabia for a two-year assignment with the national airline, Saudia. Responsible for a multi-national staff of 100 persons, mainly, but not exclusively, in Jeddah and Riyadh, he recalls in particular the dare-devil driving of newly-rich Saudis; an interesting visit to a staff member imprisoned in one of Jeddah's gaols; the restrictions suffered by women, in particular the ban on their driving any form of vehicle, and the adherence in practice to the precepts of the 18th century divine, Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab.
About the Author: VERNER BICKLEY'S experiences have created in him an interest in cross-cultural experiences and attitudes and a desire to communicate what he has learnt. He hopes he can not only interest his readers, but encourage them to build on their own desire to learn about and empathise with other cultures. "At the Culture Learning Institute, Dr. Bickley impressed me as a man of abiding commitment, great warmth, impeccable integrity, and deep intellect. So it was with both enjoyment and nostalgia that I read his manuscript entitled "Steps to Paradise and Beyond." ...The world that Dr. Bickley describes in his account has changed in many ways. This is most obviously true of the rapidly growing economies of Asia, where Beijing or Shanghai streets dominated by bicycles remains only a distant memory. The East-West Center has changed too. For budgetary reasons the separate research institutes are gone, and the institution no longer hands out the generous multi-year graduate student scholarships of the kind received by Stanley Ann Dunham, the mother of Barack Obama. ... Dr. Bickley's book should remind us that the present emerges out of the past, and that much of what we today take for granted about our world derives from the ingenuity, labor and persistence of those who came before. Dr. Bickley describes many of the projects of his era at the East-West Center and includes a list of the publications he was associated with. These and the students he and others mentored are among the proudest products of his generation at the East-West Center, and remain a vital part of the region's intellectual heritage and its internationalized human resource base of today." - Charles E. Morrison, President, East-West Center (from his Preface)