horrah

Gentle Readers,

On a recent flight, our descent was quite the experience. Violent turbulence ensued and it was the first time I ever questioned the feat of technology that is aviation and the years of experience at the front of the plane.

On our first approach, we were maybe 50 metres off the ground before the pilot put her into full throttle for a go-around. His bold faced lie to comfort us was that there were some geese on the runway.

We finally landed and the aircraft bounced to a stop before taxiing. Of course, all the passengers started to clap. I never got why people clap when a plane lands the way its supposed to. While a sigh of relief may be appropriate, the clap always bothers me.

Word on the street is that we're supposed to boo if the landing gear fail to deploy and jeer if the plane catches on fire.

Sooo Cold

*Click photos to enlarge

Gentle Readers,

On the third of January, I left the UAE to make my way west. While I roginially intened to spend a few weeks in Kenya, the political situation and the volatile nature of the nation's stability prevented me from making the trip.

Innsbruck, Austria.

Marein, myself, and Killian out to dinner. Marein wasn't so happy about all the photos...

On the top of Nordpark with Innsbruck below

On a last minute decision, I'm making my way west via Europe. On the 3rd, however, I was able to spend the say in Doha, Qatar with a friend of mine. After Doha, I proceeded to meet with some old friends of mine in Innsbruck, Austria and the German Alps. I've now known Killian and Marein for ten years and it seemed like it was just months ago that I last saw them, when in reality it had been years. Too long. I spent two nights in Innsbruck with Marein before making our way to Pfronten, Germany, their hometown.

Amano, and my friends' mother, Sylvi. I love ze germans.

Killian and Marein's house on the left and their father's blacksmith shop on the right.

Putting me in shock after living in the Middle East for 5 months was not only being surrounded by white people, but the Polar Fete. Its an annual party I was assured couldn't be missed. The party started at 10pm and ended at 7am. It was outdoors on the side of a mountain. Cold. Wet. It was, however, a very good time. SO COLD.

In the blacksmith shop with their father, Phillip who is a Master Metalworker

I spend one of my days in Pfronten in their father's blacksmith shop. In the process of making something, I managed to drive a nail through my thumb. all is well, my fingernail is a little black, and I have a good story. It was the first time I've ever totally blacked out. It was a good time.

I'm currently in Gallway, Ireland. Again, cold. I'm visiting a good friend of mine in the city and will be soon making my way down south to see my old nanny. The group I am now with in Gallway is entirely American. It is quite odd, and makes me a little uncomfortable having usually been one of two Americans in my previous group of friends.

I'm Getting Good at This

Gentle Readers,

I'm getting pretty good at this whole spontaneity business. For the last three weeks I have anticipated leaving for Kenya tomorrow for safari and to see an old friend. However, as you may heave heard, recent elections have left the country on the brink of civil war and all travel to the country is highly discouraged. The airport is only open on and off, there are large blazes across the city of Nairobi, blackouts have become a common occurance, and all news media outlets have been shut down by the government. All of this has developed within the last day. I am receiving reports from both the embassy and staff from the African Wildlife Foundation (my former employer) headquarters regarding developments of the situation and it seems to be getting worse by the minute. As per the advice of my would-be warden at the embassy and all the staff at AWF, I have deferred my travels to Africa. I have canceled my flight and am in the midst of making other arrangements.

All of this happened within the span of about 6 hours, mind you.

Click here to read up on why I'm not going.
Or here.
Or here.

Currently, I am scheduled to leave for Innsbruck, Austria on the third to visit an old friend and possibly hit up skiing in the Alps. After that, though still in the initial sages of planning, I'll be heading to Dublin to see yet another dear friend and my old nanny. Yes, I had an Irish nanny. And no, I have no articles of winter clothing with me.

I'll keep y'all updated.

Peace

Independence

Gentle Readers,

I have now experienced two independence days while here. First was the UAE, and second, Bahrain. While in each respective country it was very interesting to observe displays of nationality. At first I was critical of the fierce nationalism having seen flags on cars, highways, buildings, and Christmas lights of the national colors everywhere.

It made me, however, think of the United states where such displays of national pride are an everyday occurance. How must the rest of the world view America's strong national pride when in our country, much less what she looks like 'round the fourth of July.

Whirlwind

*Click photos to enlarge

Gentle Readers,

I have just returned from a weekend in the Kingdom of Bahrain with Sara and Max. Its a small Island nation in the middle of the Arabian Gulf maybe 20 miles across. This little jaunt was, I consider, the pinnacle in my beginning to enjoy the thrill of extreme spontaneity. Thanks to a generous transportation agreement, we were able to decide where we wanted to go when we got to the airport so long as we gave our crew ample time to prepare for the journey. We decided upon Bahrain which was the original plan.

The "World" islands off the coast of Dubai as seen from above

Poor quality I know, but being in a moving vehicle at nighttime is not conducive to taking photographs, the new world trade center building in Bahrain will be self sufficient thanks to these wind turbines and photo voltaic cells lining the entire building.

We arrived around 630pm on Thursday and had a vehicle waiting for us which took us to a villa that had been made available for our stay. Per Sara's Uncle's suggestion, we went to a restaurant at the Ritz-Carleton called Trader Vic's. It was right on the beach and had amazing food. Naturally, I went for the duck breast again which has become my favorite meal. After the meal we went to a club called BJ's which was quite interesting. The music was a flashback to 1993, and while people complained about the music selection we all secretly enjoyed a trip to the past. I mean, who WOULDN'T enjoy a good dance to Jock Jams Volume II?

The living room of our house in Bahrain

Cars at the Saudi border. Which of these does not belong??

On the Causeway to Saudi

The next day, we drove around the to see what it had to offer and went for lunch and sheesha. The evening brought dinner at the Island's most exclusive lounge with Sara's Uncle. Again, amazing food and drinks. The Dom and Crystal was free flowing in that place.

Sara with her uncle, our gracious host Mohammad

Yesterday, Saturday, we did much of the same. We ended up at a yacht club and had the most amazing seafood meal of my life. Squid, oysters on the half shell, mussles, hamour, lobster, the whole works.

Saw this in a mall, and though it will only mean anything to three people, I couldn't pass it up.

At the yacht club. Our car and seafood restaurant on the left.

Bahrain, though it does not have much oil of its own is heartily supported by its close neighbor, Saudi Arabia. Since its Independence in 1971, Saudi has sent millions of gallons of oil to the nation free of charge in order to buy its support. It is widely known that this agreement was made by the Saudis so the Iranians could not do the same which would procure a militarily strategic location for the Iranians, with whom none of its Arab neighbors are comfortable with.

Saudi Supported Oil refinery

In a last hurrah at the airport, the Dom Perignon made another appearance before catching our plane.

In other news, today is also bringing unknowns. Holding true to the spirit of spontaneity, this afternoon I'll either be making my way to the country of Oman, or I might be taking off with Max for Azerbaijan for a week or so. We'll be making up our minds in a few hours I suppose.

Incredible?

*Click photos to enlarge

Gentle Readers,

This one may be long, just a heads-up.

It has now been three days since my return to the UAE from India. Max and I went to Britain's former crown jewel for six days over the UAE's independence holiday weekend. We visited Saad in his hometown of Bhopal who was there for holiday as well.

Grand Mosque in Bhopal. Supposedly one of the five largest mosques in Asia.

While Saad's family's house is in the nicest neighborhood of town, a look across the valley makes sure you don't forget where you are.

I will preface by saying that we were no where near tourist India, we were in INDIA India and did none of one's normal tourist activities. In the words of a good friend, "If you want to see the Taj Mahal, google image it."

There are 9 lakes in Bhopal

We flew into Nagpur, a large industrial city in the center of the country. As we disembarked the plane at 330am, Max and I gave each other an unwary glance as we realized what we had just gotten ourselves into. The international airport can accommodate one airplane at a time and passengers must walk 500 yards to the terminal as the tarmac is in such disrepair, planes cannot pull any closer. There was a roof over only half of the airport, wires both strewn about the floor, and hanging from concrete pylons above ones head. In the airport, we managed to bypass both passport and customs control (unbeknown to us as no one but the security officers guarding the entrance of the parking lot were wearing uniforms, everyone else was plain clothed.) without any problem until we reached the parking lot and had a handful of AK-47s pointed at us, which seemed to be a recurring theme of the trip, but those are stories for another time...

Even outside of the riot scenes, we were the subject of many disgruntled people as our 4x4s were vastly outnumbered by motorbikes on the narrow streets of the city.

Saad and me.

We made our way to the train station via tuk-tuk (those three wheeler taxis you see everywhere on national geographic). The train station was an eye-opening sight to say the least. The train ride was a 7 hour trip, though we did have beds which made it reasonable. We arrived around 1130 and were greeted at the airport by Saad and his cousin marking the beginning of our stay being as much as a local we could be (which was, however, difficult being the only two white people in a city of 1.4 million).

Rather than pay for electricity, many residents attach their own wires to municipal utilities without permission.

Some 1500 year old temple:

Most of our days consisted of driving around in jeeps, lounging around town, racing motorcycles through the streets, and fearing for our lives.

Bhopal night scene. My motorcycle was the red one on the left.

Thanks to the Brits, India drives on the "wrong side of the road." Or in our case, not on the road at all.

As you may or may not know, Bhopal is the location of the worst industrial disaster in history. A white administered Union Carbide chemical plant in the city caught ablaze at midnight some 20 years ago killing nearly 5000 people instantly while exposing nearly 500,000 to the 40 tons of methyl isosyanate (a chemial compound widely used in the production of pesticides, rubber, and plastic) that had leaked from the plant, leaving coming generations with severe health issues. Union Carbide hardily neglected their responsibility to aid those in Bhopal and there is still widespread resentment related to the issue. We happened to be in the city during the anniversary of the event and saw widespread protests.

One of the many riots we encountered. In the background you can see some effigies of white people are being wheeled down the street to where they will be burned.

One day, we drove around a corner into the middle of one of these riots. It was common to see rioters burning effigies of white people, we had many stones thrown at our 4x4, a good number of burning torches were brandished in our direction, and if I knew Hindi I'm certain I would of been highly offended or taken aback by what I heard. But hey, ignorance is bliss, I guess. All in all, we feared for our safety quite a bit but made it back from the trip physically unscathed.

Random lady in a dry riverbed near a bridge.

Our train back to Nagpur had many problems with the emergency air brakes which would randomly engage, bringing the train to a grinding halt about every hour. Here, the dining car throws scraps out the windows to monkeys.

While sometimes a nuisance, it afforded the opportunity to get out and walk around.

Unless of course you happen to stop on the middle of a bridge...

Max and I returned to Nagpur on the evening of our last day in order to catch our 4am flight the next morning. We made a whilwind tour of Nagpur night life, which didn't take long as we spent most of our time back where we started, Shisha Place on the second floor of the Skyline Hotel. We were literally the only people in the club (I use the term generously) and ended up making good friends with the bartenders and management.

The Nagpur airport was, again, quite an experience as I was forced to surrender about 750 dollars worth of personal property to AK-47 wielding customs officials who would not otherwise let us out of the country.

All in all, the trip was quite the experience. I will not say I did not enjoy myself, but it wasn't exactly the little getaway any of us were expecting. I do find solace in the fact that I came away from the trip with many many stories, most of which will be highly inappropriate to share until my nieces and nephews (sorry, Jon) or grandchildren are my age now.

P.S. Sorry for the small number of photos, but I was forced to erase the vast majority of my memory card for the amusement of our favorite customs officials. Good times...

Apparently It Was Thankgiving Day?

*Click Photos to Enlarge

Gentle Readers,

The Thursday of Thanksgiving I was all packed and ready to go camping. We we scheduled to leave at 2:45 so I headed out to get some lunch shortly before that. As I entered Deli Marche (one of the nicer establishments in the student center which serves freshly prepared stir fry with fresh ingredients) in the student center, I was ecstatic at what I saw; three massive roasted turkeys with chefs behind each one. Accompanying the turkey were sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, and apple pie. While I am highly appreciative, the staff at Deli Marche should stick to their Asian specialties. I will preface that the turkey was the best I've had in my life as it was very juicy, but the "gravy" they used was indeed stir fry sauce. The sweet potatoes while delicious, were cinnamon apple flavored, the stuffing was served cold, and the apple pie was... well, nothing beats a homemade apple pie. The meal, however foreign, left me in high spirits and a triptophan induced coma.

My friend Rajeev took Max and I camping in Fujairah for the night. It was a three hour drive to reach our destination. Upon arrival, it was dark which made things a little difficult to setup and we took a leap of faith hoping we were in a good spot somewhere between the town of Fujairah and the Omani border. We soon figured out the only thing in the tent bag was the tent; no stakes, poles, nothing; but have no fear, we did have tiki torches.


This presented us with some difficulties as we debated between being ingenuitive with the supplies available, or figuring out where we were going to sleep when that time came. That time indeed came and saw Rajeev sleeping in the backseat of the truck, Max zipping himself inside of the tent despite it being collapsed (something to do with a fear of crabs), and I slept right on the beach in a sleeping bag.

I awoke sweating profusely in the sleeping bag as the Arabian sun has no mercy even at 830 in the morning. Much of the day was spent lounging on the beach, taking advantage of our isolated location to get our mind off things.

Looking down the shore shortly after dawn:

Before making our way home, we packed up our site and drove a few miles down the road to do some more exploring. Max was determined to swim to an island before the end of the trip so we set out to do just that. The swim was a somewhat short jaunt out to a few rocky outcrops in the sea. There was nothing much to see in the ocean on the way out, though I nearly had a heart attack when I thought I saw a barracuda.

Max and I after reaching our island. Turns out he doesn't have the same affinity for swimming as he does for beaches, though all in all we had a good time.

Upon reaching the island though, we saw hundreds and thousands of fish in all shapes, sizes and colors. We did some skin diving for about an hour, amazing aquatic life. I took joy in diving down about 20 feet to depths and schools of fish under scuba divers nearby.

Looking back to shore from the island we swam to:

Going through my head; "I'm doing this for free, suckers..." Though there is an advantage for paying for all the gear as I sliced my leg and foot open pretty bad while maneuvering under some rock formations before rejoining Rajeev.

Nowhere in Sharjah or Dubai can you find good, fresh produce. But in the mountains in the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE... go figure...

Fishing commenced at our campsite.

Beach scenes to make you jealous

Coral hurts

I Didn't See Nermel

*Click Photos to Enlarge

Gentle Readers,

I have just returned from a day in Abu Dhabi, the Capitol of the UAE, a three hour drive to the south. Saad, Sara and I went to a conference at the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research. The topic of the conference is Future Arabian Gulf Energy Sources, and focused, obviously, on the future of oil and renewable energy resources in the GCCs. The conference was attended primarily by members of the UAE's legislative body, municipal administrators, industry representatives, and diplomats, but with a little string pulling and lying, we were able to gain seats as registered participants. We got plastic ID badges, leather bound folders, books, pens and all. We heard speakers from the IAEA, Saudi and Emirati utility firms, as well as a German research institute. The overall sentiment was that the GCCs are not in the slightest bit interested in replacing their electricity utilities with renewable energy resources. This is somewhat understandable as oil is what has allowed their region to prosper economically. The German, being a stereotypical, intuitive, and reasonable German, tactfully asked the leaders at the summit why not make the common sense switch to renewable electricity production? He addressed the GCC's concerns of not making oil profits by asking why they would want to waste their oil on domestic electricity production within the region when they could convert to renewable energy sources while both increasing supply available to sell in international markets and conserving what they would otherwise be using and extend the longevity of their fossil fuel deposits. He ended by stating that 65% of all electricity production could be supplied by totally renewable energy resources by 2050. Thats a staggering number when you think about it.

A bit about Abu Dhabi: it reminded me a lot of Hollywood except with nicer cars. Palm tree lined boulevards, immaculate skyscrapers, but much more somber than their neighbor to the north, Dubai. After the conference, we went to lunch at the rooftop restaurant in the Royal Meridian Hotel. It was an amazing restaurant with an even more astounding view as we were on one of the highest floors in all of Abu Dhabi. We were appropriately dressed as we had just come from the conference: jacket and collared shirt required. I had one of the most amazing Cesar salads I've had in my life followed by a medium rare roasted duck breast with cherry and green onions. It was some of the best service I've ever encountered at a restaurant.

Table at Al Fanar rooftop restaurant

View from the top: overlooking the Corniche and the Persian Gulf

A bit of Abu Dhabi's Skyline

The Royal Meridian - Restaurant naturally on top

Note: I'll try to include more photos in future posts. I don't want to bore you too much with my words.

But You Can't Take the Norse...

Gentle Readers,

It is with great pleasure that I bring you the following news:

Not only are many of my friends here now using the phrase "Uff-Da,"

but they're using it in the correct context.

You Were Right, Sam Cooke.

But not for the better.

Gentle Readers,

I went to the Dubai Atuoshow this weekend. Its the largest exhibition of its kind in the Middle East, which is of no surprise, and it only comes around every two years. The event attracts the world's premier automobile manufacturers, and is the only autoshow with a strict formal dress code that I'm aware of.

The event brought me to a somewhat disturbing realization that I'd prefer not to delve into. However, it goes along these lines; I was surrounded by and sat in the most exotic and luxurious vehicles made and wasn't even phased, as if it were second nature. This place gets to you, and when it does, it hits you like a brick wall.

No, its Not Killing Your Elm Trees

Its long, I know, but some may find it interesting... some. I won't be offended if you don't.

Gentle Readers,

One can make the argument that the oil rich nations of the middle east, or any oil rich nation for that matter, are the mercantile or "rent" states of the 21st century. Today, however, oil has replaced the gold and silver that once flooded the markets of colonial Spain in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Simply put, any country that relies heavily on the extraction of a natural resource found within its sovereign territory for revenue is a Rent State. By definition, "countries that receive on a regular basis substantial amounts of external economic rent," are rentier. The massive funds procured by the sale of petroleum are essential to understanding the political economy of not only the UAE, but all oil rich states.

Within the UAE, there are seven emirates (or states) with a very weak federal government, but a strong sheik, the monarch with the final say on all things pertaining to the country. This monarch, the leader of Abu Dhabi (capital of the UAE) is also considered the leader of the country. In addition, Abu Dhabi is the only emirate that has oil within its territory. The capital uses this to its advantage to gain a political following on two levels. First, Abu Dhabi subsidizes the six other emirates with remittances creating subservient governments in each of these territories as they rely almost wholly on Abu Dhabi's sharing of oil revenue. Any leader who may oppose a decision made my the leaders in Abu Dhabi will be either cut off or immediately removed. Second, the oil remittances win over the support of the populous. The Sheiks provide schooling, housing, land, as well as a monthly stipend in exchange for political backing. One must note, however that these are only bestowed upon the approximately 800,000 Emirati citizens though the number of people in the country numbers 4,000,000. The Sheiks in the UAE have experienced very little resistance due to their calculated spending of oil money as is the case for many of the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council - Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE) countries.

The rentier state policy is futile without first formulating an extensive international economic integration of oil remittances. As oil money floods the market, inflation naturally occurs no matter where it is spent; be it construction, tourism development, military, or education. Nothing, aside from keeping the money out of the market will curb inflation. This begs the question of how the GCC leaders are able to succeed in securing political support from their people while keeping inflation low, yet places like Venezuela are facing inflation rates of 20.4%. It is important to keep in mind the small population of the GCC nations, with the largest being Saudi Arabia, which some argue is on the brink of a population boom which would cripple their rent state policy. Their small population allows a massive amount of currency to flood the market to produce luxury goods while funneling an even more massive amount of curreny into foreign investments such as currency, foreign stock markets (The UAE, in the last month purchased 18% of Nasdaq's worth in addition to Nasdaq's entire 28% share of the British Stock Exchange), or luring international business to the region. This effectively keeps currency out of the domestic market and prevents inflation.

Venezuela, on the other hand has a population of 26,000,000. Hugo Chavez has flooded the domestic market with its own currency in order to buy political backing. While the people may need the schools, markets, hospitals, and police forces he has created, Chavez has failed to dully keep his own currency out of the domestic marketplace leading to massive inflation rates resulting in poverty. These effects are known as Dutch Disease, which simply put, blames high interest rates on the deindustrialization of a nation's economy and reliance on the extraction of natural resources to fund a nation's development.

The "cure" to Dutch disease is a two fold approach. As previously mentioned, it is vital that the inflation of real exchange rates must be slowed by draining the domestic market of currency and investing it elsewhere. In addition, the competitiveness of the industrial sector must be restored. Alternatively, a government can resort to protectionism as a last resort. This however creates its own problems as tariffs and subsidies could potentially amplify the effects of Dutch Disease by restricting foreign investment.

Well, I wanted to talk about how the UAE government shamelessly buys support from its citizens but for better or for worse, I got off on a less biased tangent. Oh well... I'm gonna go eat some muesli with berries...

Who am I??

Ya know how the saying goes (in my case anyway), you can take me out of Minnesota, but you can't take the Minnesota out of me?

I walked outside this afternoon and thought to myself, "wow, its cold out."

Well, turns out it was a brisk 89 degrees.

Apparently you can take the Minnesota out of me. I'm concerned.

Aaaaand scene

Gentle Readers,

I have had ample time to settle back down from Sri Lanka now. In short, I had the most amazing experience of my life. The photos in the post below pretty much sum up the day to day of the trip.

The weather saw us well for most of the journey, a good healthy mix of rain and sunshine. The rain was a welcome sight as I hadn't seen any since I last left the states.

I saw a cloud on saturday and got a little excited.

The first part of the vacation was spent in the mountains in a town called Kandy. It is apparently a cultural hotbed though it was a bit too busy for our liking so we left after one day. As tourists we were perpetually hounded by touts and street dealers. We were looking for something a little more low-key. The next morning we made our way to Adams peak. The cliomb was one of the harder I've done. Once at the summit, however, there wasn't one thing that could concern us at that moment, a sort of clarity hard to find.

We later made out way to the beaches where we spent the rest of our vacation. I've never really had a proper beach vacation before, but I'll say that this one will be hard to beat. Scuba diving was quite fun as well, visibility was poor as was the coral, but I saw thousands and thousands of the most colorful fish I've ever seen. Diving was another one of those moments, like adam's peak where I had absolutely nothing on my mind expect what was in front of me. hmmm I miss skiing.

What else... Max and I are currently trying to sort out our plans for National Holiday. Azerbaijan, Ukraine, and Russia are all on the drawring board. We'll see what happens.

This weekend was quite the adventure as well. Saad, Max, and I went to a two day concert in Dubai featuring Joss Stone, Ziggy Marley, Kanye West and Mika. During Joss Stone's performace, the three of us were playing snake on my phone to see who could get top score None of us realized she was playing as no one had cheered, no introduction was made, and the music was less than spectacular. We all assumed someone of her stature would have a more commanding performace and presence. As you can tell, she made quite an impression on us.

Sri Lanka I

I've got the photos up to give you a day by day account of what I did. Commentary of what we did are just blow the photos. Click on the first one, then use the thumbnails on the right to click to the next photo.

I'll write more about the experience once I recover. I'm exhausted...

As you'll see from the photos, it took some serious self discipline to get myself on the plane back to school.

Copy and paste the link below into your nav bar to see em.

http://www.dropshots.com/newestexpat#albums/Sri%20Lanka

Cheers,
Thomas

Checking Pulse

I am alive and well.

I'll post soon when I don't have to pay for internet.

ciao

No Reservations

Two pairs of pants check
Two shirts check
Clean underwear check
sandals check
Swim suit check
First aid kit check
Malaria pills check
Immunization certs. check
Passport check
Camera equipment check
200 bucks cash check (No pun intended)
Will's travel teddy check

I'll be falling off the face of the planet for a while. I should be back by the end of the month if at all. hahaha you think I'm kidding.

Weekend Update

*Click photos to enlarge

Gentle Readers,

Perhaps you care, perhaps you don't, but the following is an account of my weekend. I'm trying to give you a balance of an account of my experience as well as a cultural and regional observation, I hope I'm doing alright.

Thursday evening was Andres' birthday so we went out for diner and drinks. Dinner was at a steakhouse in Emirates mall so naturally I ordered the Salmon. I'll spare you the picture in which we are all adorned in birthday hats. After dinner, we proceeded to Buddha Bar. There are five additional locations in Amman, Beirut, Cairo, New York, and Paris; Its hard to explain, but they produce a series of "Chill" music in house and currently have more than eight compilations. I encourage you look it up. Needless to say, its quite an experience.

Some of my good friends and me at Buddha Bar: F -Kunall, myself, Bahore, Camelia, Andres, and Aisha b- Kelly, Riaz, and Yasmeen.

Take Two:
Max, Myself, Camellia, Bahore, and Andres

Friday brought a much needed day/night off. Max and I hunkered down in the apartment and watched six or seven movies? There was a really good one with Robin Williams. It took place in Alaska, he had a wife with tourette's, and killed his brother for the insurance money, very nice dark comedy (what more could you want in a movie?), right up my alley. It was like a watered down version of Fargo, I think it was called The Big White.

Today, Saturday, a few of us went to the beach. Now that the weather has calmed down, every day is amazing. Theres no need to ever check a weather report as it will without a doubt be 90-95 and sunny. The water has also cooled considerably. Just three weeks ago the water was near 102 degrees, now its a perfect 85 degrees.

Camellia and me at Mamzar Beach.
Salt water does wonders for hair.

Some of the UAE's trademark island making in progress just offshore.
Volvox Regina say what?

Note to self: Never wear the CCCP soccer jersey in public again.


Class tomorrow, Eid break in t minus FIVE DAYS. STOKED. Post Eid vacation entry should be a good one.


Ciao.

Remeber Remember August 30??

It just doesn't have the same ring to it as the fifth of November... V would be disappointed.

The following is a story that has seen a little press over here and it came up in two lectures today so I thought I'd shed some light on it.

As some of you may know, six nuclear warheads were flown from Minot Air Force Base to Barksdale AFB in Louisiana on the 30th of August. In main stream media, the event has passed over as a mishap, lapse in security. First, many officers in the chain of command are involved with removing from storage and activation of nuclear warheads and special conditions must be met for transit as the air transport of unprotected nuclear warheads has been banned since 1968 (see "Palomares Incident" and "B-52 Crash at Thule Air Base"). The event has been deemed, by the pentagon, as an error in routine transfer. Previous to 1991 this would have been a plausible explanation. During the cold war, bombers, as a matter or protocol, were continuously armed with nuclear weapons. With the end of the Cold War, then president, George H. W. Bush ordered all nuclear weapons be reomoved from aircraft and stored in secure facilities nearby so as to prevent an incident like that of August, 30th. The pentagon counters that the warheads were bound for decommissioning, yet W-80 warheads, like the six transported on the 30th, are decommissioned at Kirkland AFB in New Mexico, not Louisiana (here, warheads are separated from their delivery mechanisms and are sent by train to the Department of Energy's Pantex decommissioning facility across the border in Texas).

It is interesting to note the following: Barksdale AFB in Louisiana is openly known to be the staging grounds for the majority of the Air Force's operations bound for Iraq. It has also been made public that the pentagon has conceived a 3 day blitz offense that identifies 1200 targets for destruction in Iran. Media here speculates that the warheads, small in their payload (W-80s have an adjustable yield of between 5 and 150 kilotons. To put this into perspective, the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki had a yield of 13 and 20 kilotons respectively and the US's largest tested warhead [Castle Bravo, 1954] had a yield of 15,000 kilotons), were meant to be adjusted to a small yield and dropped on a strategic position in Iran, after which media would conclude there was a mishap at one of Iran's nuclear facilities (The speculated target is Natanz, a plant 200 miles south of Tehran allegedly used for uranium enrichment) giving a pretext for the 3 day air blitz plan. Wow, that was quite a sentence...

This brings the argument back to how it happened, and why it wasn't followed through with. Media say that in order to covertly execute such a maneuver, orders must come directly from the executive office. Barring you the details, in the event of what is called a "National Special Security Event," the secret service is allowed to circumvent the normal chain of command and deliver executive orders to anyone they see fit. This explains how it happened in the first place. However, since May of 2006, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, namely General Pace have convinced administration officials not use to the weapons at all, much less through the conventional chain of command. Like I said previously, with the declaration of a Special Security Event, the traditional chain of command can be skipped. General Pace's apprehensions are shared my many top military brass and to many, the exposure of the incident is seen as what's known as a Push Back; an organized disobedience of orders by military officials.

Interesting timing considering the troop surge as well.

Anyway, I'm not sure how much of the story I buy, but it is, however, extremely thought provoking and something to gravely consider.

Dilbert?

Gentle Readers,

I have discovered that there is little more satisfying than removing a nasty paper jam from a really fancy printer or copier.

Today was my first day on the job at the university's library. I'll be spending half of my time doing IT stuff to day I set-up a ghost network and relayed and uploaded a program to the 135 computers in the building simultaneously. How I figured it out without causing every single one of them to crash, I don't know. The other half of my job is reshelving books. If any of y'all are reading are from AUS and you need to find books anytime this semester, you're screwed. I don't know the first thing about the dewey decimal system...

Barzar tonight. Excitement.

Ski Fast, Safety Last

Gentle Readers,

*Click photos to enlarge

I made the visit to Ski Dubai this evening with three of my good friends; Camellia and Afsoon from Iran, and Andres from Puerto Rico. The place was quite interesting. The snow was of quality that rivaled Afton Alps, though that doesn't say much (sorry, Afton). Ski, boot, and clothing rental is included in the price for a two hour session on the slopes. They've done a really good job with the whole alpine motif, its quite nice.

I enjoyed my experience but couldn't help notice it was a microcosm of Westerners, many who you could tell resided in the Emirates. It was evident that many of us were there for the same reason. We wanted to take part in something that once brought us great enjoyment, but in the present we were only reminded of what once was, and left us wanting more though the fact we were in the desert seemed to be in everyones mind. Its difficult to explain, I hope that makes sense. This is just an observation I made.

After skiing, we continued the alpine experience and went to a bar named Apres for martinis. It overlooks the slope and has the whole alpine thing goin' on as well. Very nice.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself and my company and its definitely an experience for the record books. After all, how many people can say they've skied in the desert?

Apres is among the windows on the wall at the base of the slope

I couldn't help but notice that little yellow sign. Provocative on so many levels.

Camellia and Myself