Zarin Buckingham
Mentor • Speaker • Author
Building successful lives, careers, and businesses across cultures.
ABOUT ME
Imagine you are home on a winter bank holiday when all the shops are closed and you are hungry. You go to your refrigerator and find just five items inside. You must come up with a recipe to feed yourself—or whoever is with you—using only those five items. Do you like it? Maybe. Maybe you make something delicious; maybe you just make something that fills you up. That is the story of my life. By now I have learned to make a lot of good recipes, but it took a while and a few long bank holidays.
A European citizen of Persian origin, I’ve been privileged to call many places home; Alaska, Germany, Iran, Slovakia, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States, and now the Portuguese Island of Madeira. Living across cultures has taught me languages, traditions, and ways of life, but also how people think, eat, celebrate, and carry their histories.
In each country, I had the chance to integrate into local society, seeing these cultures not only through the outsider’s eyes of an immigrant, but also through the insider’s eyes of someone welcomed into their communities. That dual perspective allowed me to step in, step out, compare, reflect, and understand the collective character that shapes each place.
Crossing borders enriches you, but it also asks you to uproot and begin again. Every move brings new friendships, new lessons, and new challenges, new jobs, all of which become part of the toolkit you carry forward into the next chapter.
I have learned how to make the best of living and working across cultures and make it work to my advantage. If you are in the same situation and need some tips, you are at the right place.
MY JOURNEY
Imagine a winter bank holiday: the shops are closed, the fridge holds only five ingredients, and you must make dinner. That improvisation—making the most of what you have—has been my life: adapting, learning, and turning limited resources into something that works. I’ve lived in Alaska, Germany, Iran, Slovakia, Switzerland, the UK, the US, and now Madeira, and those moves taught me practical ways to thrive across cultures. If you’re navigating life between places and want clear, usable tips, you’re in the right place.
FOUNDER ROLES
A cross‑continental portfolio built over five decades in education, technology, entrepreneurship, cultural development, and community support.
Forel International School
Founder of an independent international school focused on multilingual education, cross‑cultural literacy, and modern pedagogical leadership.
Institute for Sustainable Education
Creator of a research‑driven platform dedicated to educational innovation, teacher development, and long‑term systemic sustainability.
Artistsplaza / Artistsplatform
Developer of a digital and physical ecosystem supporting emerging artists, cultural exchange, and creative entrepreneurship.
Brandplaza
Founder of a business and marketing platform helping small and mid‑sized enterprises build identity, visibility, and strategic communication.
Madeira Relocation Services
Founder of an education‑based relocation service offering guidance, cultural orientation, and practical support for newcomers to Madeira.
TECHNOLOGY
A parallel career in IT spanning programming, system architecture, educational technology, and corporate training.
Programming & System Design
Experience in software development, database design, and building integrated systems for educational and business environments.
IT Training & Educational Technology
Developer of training programs for adult learners, educators, and corporate teams, specializing in practical, accessible technology instruction.
Corporate IT Roles
Worked with major employers including Oracle, contributing to system implementation, user training, and workflow optimization.
PUBLICATIONS
The Madeira Handbook
A comprehensive 500+ page guide for newcomers and long‑term residents of Madeira, covering relocation, culture, bureaucracy, education, housing, and community integration. Used by expats, relocation professionals, and service providers across the island.
Barefoot on Ice
A 112,000‑word mosaic memoir currently in the querying stage. Seventy‑four modular essays exploring exile, identity, reinvention, and the architecture of a life built across continents.
New Philosophical Work
A developing manuscript examining fundamental questions of existence and meaning, drawing from Persian and Eastern mystics (Khayyam, Rumi, Attar) and comparing their insights with modern scientific understanding.
Book: The Madeira Handbook
The Madeira Handbook is a practical, experience‑based guide to building a real life on Madeira. The first edition appeared in 2024 with 356 pages, and a major 2026 expanded edition grew to well over 500 pages, adding new chapters, updated guidance, and deeper insights into how the island truly works for residents.
It’s written for people who want clarity rather than confusion, and real‑world advice rather than tourist‑style descriptions. Inside, you’ll find:
Relocation essentials — visas, banking, taxes, documentation
Housing & renovation — renting, buying, renovating, and working with local professionals
Daily life — healthcare, shopping, transportation, communication
Culture & integration — how people think, celebrate, interact, and carry traditions
Work & business — starting a business, navigating bureaucracy, finding opportunities
The handbook gives newcomers the tools to make confident decisions, avoid common pitfalls, and understand Madeira from the inside. It’s not a postcard—it’s a roadmap for real life on the island.
Book: Barefoot On Ice
Barefoot on Ice is a literary memoir and philosophical reflection on what it means to stay whole in a fractured world. Spanning six decades and multiple continents, it traces a life shaped by upheaval, migration, reinvention, and the quiet discipline of preserving personal integrity.
The title comes from a night in Bratislava: stepping out of a gala after midnight, dressed in an evening gown and high‑heeled shoes, only to find the rooftop path to the elevators frozen into a sheet of ice. Almost no one around. A stranger’s arm borrowed for a few careful steps. And then the discovery that the elevator was locked for the night. The only working one stood across the empty square. Nothing useful in the elegant little handbag. No help. No shortcuts. Just the decision to take off the shoes and glide barefoot on ice.
That moment — vulnerability, clarity, and the instinct to endure — became the metaphor for everything that followed.
From the aftermath of the 1979 Iranian Revolution to years lived across Europe and North America, and finally to a sanctuary in Madeira, the book examines the psychological cost of radical self‑reliance, the erosion of institutions, and the lifelong effort to maintain an authentic conscience in environments that often reward conformity over truth.
More than a memoir, Barefoot on Ice is a meditation on resilience, identity, and the inner strength required to navigate a world that is constantly shifting. It invites readers to reflect on their own journeys — how they adapt, what they protect, and how they remain themselves when everything around them change.
Upcoming: The God I Can Live With
This forthcoming project grew out of the Faith chapter in Barefoot on Ice. In that chapter, I describe my lifelong connection to the Bahá’í Faith, while also confronting a struggle that has followed me for years: the difficulty of reconciling a personal God with a world full of cruelty, injustice, and unanswered suffering. I found myself unable to fit an all‑loving, all‑knowing, all‑powerful God into the reality I saw around me — a conflict that echoes Ivan Karamazov and his similar struggle.
This new book begins where that struggle left off. It explores the possibility of shifting from a personal God to an ocean of life — a non‑anthropomorphic source of existence — and follows a path through the Conference of the Birds by Attar, Bahá’u’lláh’s Seven Valleys, the writings of Molana Rumi, Omar Khayyam, Plotinus, Eckhart, Spinoza, and other philosophical traditions.
It is not a book of certainties. It is a collection of assumptions, possibilities, and questions — an honest descent into a rabbit hole I felt compelled to explore. The goal is not to prove anything, but to gather ideas I can live with, even knowing they may be wrong, because nobody knows this with certainty. It is a search for a concept of the divine that does not collapse under the weight of human suffering.
Persian Food: Recipes from the Gods
Persian cuisine is one of the world's oldest culinary traditions, developed and refined over thousands of years. Known for its healthy ingredients, delicate balance of flavors, and beautiful presentation, it varies from region to region across Iran, with each area offering its own unique specialties. Colorful, fragrant, and delicious, Persian food is a feast for both the palate and the eyes. To discover authentic Persian recipes and bring these wonderful flavors into your own kitchen, visit The Delicious Crescent at https://www.thedeliciouscrescent.com/recipe-index/
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