My second week in Houston has flown by. At work I have been doing rather basic computational work, transferring data from an old Wood Group intranet site on to a new one that is run off of a more efficient platform, called Microsoft SharePoint. I have one more week in the Corporate Communications department, before handing over my projects to Nina on Friday and moving through to Business Development.

I mentioned in my last blog that without fail the Wood Group employees had all been extremely welcoming and their decency and hospitality continued on throughout this week. On Tuesday  I was sitting at my desk uploading company photos to the new site when the executive in the office next door to me stopped by to offer me 4 tickets to go and see the Houston Astros baseball team play the St Louis Cardinals.  The match was incredible. I had been told that baseball was a slow and tedious sport but the 4 of us were able to witness a spectacle seldom seen in baseball, the ‘grand slam’. A grand slam is the maximum amount of points that can be scored at any one time during a baseball match and as the Astros secured theirs, we went wild along with the hardcore fans sitting beside us, despite not truly understanding what was happening!

The atmosphere within the stadium was incredible compared to what you would expect at home at a football match. Before the first pitch, the entire crowd stands for the national anthem. I would look around the stadium during the match and see away team fans interspersed with the Astros crowd, everyone discussing the match in an amicable manner, no fighting or arguments. The national anthem maybe serves as a reminder that at the end of the day they are all unified.

As well as the baseball, we were invited to a barbeque at the home of one of the WG employees called Brent. Brent’s wife and baby were away visiting relatives so Brent invited a big group of guys round for some beers, barbeque and X-box. We had interesting discussions regarding the conflicting mentalities of Britain and America towards work and the Republican and Democratic parties.  Practically all of the people that I have discussed politics with in Texas have been Republican. What a surprise, I hear you say. However, rather than a staunch support and affiliation with candidates such as McCain and Palin, their alignment with the party is down to the fact that they see the Republicans as more rigidly defending the American dream. The American dream being the concept, that if you consistently work hard, you will prosper as a result.

America owes a vast amount of its wealth and standing in the world to the American dream and I am in agreement with the Republican concept that in order for business to prosper, both here and back home in Scotland, the taxation system needs to reward those who have money, in order to incentivise going into business in the first place. It is just unfortunate that our Government in Westminster seems so intent on consistently raising taxation for those who have been successful as it counters what the Saltire Foundation is trying to produce. Whilst Scottish individuals may be perfectly able to lead growth in the business sector, the ultimate question is whether or not they are willing to, in a country that does not properly reward any financial success.