Verner Bickley 
Steps to paradise and beyond [PDF ebook] 

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. 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.