So write before I die / “E liked it all!”
Like Kipling himself, from early on Itil Asmon was fascinated by poetry and travel. Born in 1936 in Palestine, again like Kipling he had a happy childhood, followed by a generally miserable teen-age period. Life really started for Itil when he started university in the United States and discovered mountain climbing, skiing and kayaking. After receiving his B.Sc. (1957) and M.Sc. (1958) with honors from the California Institute of Technology (in hydraulic engineering), he started traveling in earnest, logging 50,000 kilometers hitch-hiking around Europe in the 1960s including a year at the University of Grenoble, a year working in hydro-electric engineering in Oslo, and a year as water supply engineer of Tromsø, far north of the Arctic Circle – all for intensive skiing and mountain climbing.
Turning 30, he decided (i) to keep on traveling, (ii) to have other people pay for his travels, and (iii) to do something socially useful rather than travel merely as a tourist. The logical course was to become an international development consultant. To this end he returned to the US and from 1967 to 1970to do his Ph.D. studies (in water sector development) at the University of California, Berkeley, where he lived at the center of the student protests of 1968.
Having received his degree, Itil started his career in international agricultural development, working (always as an independent consultant) for the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, USAID, FAO, UNDP and other development organizations, and picking up twelve languages along the way. In 41 years he has worked in 63 countries in Latin America, Africa, Asia, the Middle East and the Former Soviet Union. In these travels Kipling’s poetry had long been his bedside companion, and finally he decided to write a book about it on which this website is based. His motto at the top of this page is from ‘The Sestina of the Tramp-Royal’
For any corrections, additions and clarifications, or if you wish to take issue with anything written here, you are welcome to contact the author at itilasmon@gmail.com