One Christmas, in London, December air

I do love London at Christmastime. Just a few pictures to share from my recent trip:

First, to the left, we have Oxford Street and its lights. Now I know that Londoners think the whole thing is cheezy, but I don't care.

During the daytime, you'll find brass bands playing Christmas carols on the street as well. Both of these shots were taken near Selfridge's, my favorite, or should I say favourite, shopping spot in the world.

However, I was annoyed at the redesign of the interior - the ground floor used to have a whole section devoted to men's accessories, with lots and lots of great ties, etc. but now this has been eliminated and incorporated with the overall men's department upstairs. A bit annoying.

I also did some shopping in the Covent Garden market, which features all sorts of delicious foods and crafts. While there I enjoyed a cup of "Christmas mulled wine" with a friend - a mixture of wine and spices served warm.

But neverthless, for me London in late December is a real treat, much like 5th Avenue in NYC. Merry Christmas to all!
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September update

Dear readers,

Please excuse me for not having updated the blog for the past 2+ weeks - it is not that I didn't have much to say or observe - quite the contrary!

But a perfect storm of a hectic schedule, preparations for another long stay in Senegal (from whence I write today), and sadly, the passing of Sito (the preferred Arabic word to call one's grandmother) Gertrude Fattell Ajjan, who was 84, made keeping up to date with the blog all the more difficult. May God have mercy on her.

On a brighter note, you will notice (and hopefully enjoy) the new expanded 3-column look of the blog, which penalizes my overseas cybercafe readers with 800x600 displays (sorry guys), but offers the vast majority more content on-screen and easier access to clips of my tv appearances, which I hope will continue.

I plan to update with a series of quick posts getting up-to-date, and inshallah I will regain my usual pace shortly.

Best,
George
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My Brave New iWorld

When Apple instituted price cuts for the iPhone, I decided it was time to get on board, especially since I am already on AT&T and since the unlocking mechanism had been thoroughly validated (enabling me to use my overseas SIM cards in the phone).

A hint - I bought it refurbished from Apple for $349 plus tax, which essentially is the sum I will collect by selling my old iPod, my old piece-of-crap Motorola L7 (SLVR), and my old Canon digital camera - since the iPhone has all-in-one, I can essentially upgrade for free.

2 caveats:

1. the camera is very limited (no zoom)
2. internet access will cost me $20 extra per month as mandated by AT&T.

That is well-worth it though, considering that I have mobile email/internet access for the first time ever, and what a treat! Even in Senegal, if I find a WiFi zone, I'm online on the road. Very cool.

Complaints:

• the Safari browser doesn't display Arabic characters (or any other non-latin alphabet, for that matter)
• no video camera
• no cut and paste on email

But overall, I'm thrilled!
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Patriotism and Gospel beasts

Just a belated note on American Independence Day, which of course was on July 4th. I spent the day in Boston which some friends, one of whom was studying for his citizenship exam. I looked through the preparatory materials and became fixated upon the Oath once must take before earning citizenship in the United States (if not running for Bergen County Freeholder):

"I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen;

that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic;

that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by law;

that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law;

that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law;

and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God."

This is serious stuff, especially the part about renouncing past allegiances. While I think immigration hawk Tom Tancredo goes overboard when he describes his vision of legal immigration, he is absolutely right to insist upon cutting political ties to one's country of origin. (Don't expect this administration to say much about that though - how would they determine America's foreign policy if not for the sleazy double-agents that hang around Liz Cheney?) (continued...)

Illegal immigration aside, we have a problem with legal immigration too. Most treasure their adopted country and express their profound appreciation for the opportunities afforded them here in the US, but I find it troubling how many naturalized American citizens I have met whose behavior clearly does not reflect the Oath that they took. Some treat a US passport like a contingency credit card, and I find it disgusting.

Anyway, while watching the fireworks and the Boston Pops concert on TV, my friend read through some of the questions that might appear on the citizenship exam. When he got to one which asked "what is the most important right given to US citizens?" the 1st Amendment initially passed through my mind. But then I realized, since we live in a republic, we choose our leaders to make the laws that govern us - so the right to select those leaders is a pre-cursor to any others that may be derived from our choice to elect them.

On a separate topic, there was interesting discussion about the difference between a jahash (جحش) and a hamar (حمار). Both, it seems, are words for donkey or ass - and clutch insults, I might add. Then there is a mule (بغل) - offspring of a male donkey and a female horse, and a hinney (نغل)- offspring of a male horse and a female donkey. I speculated that perhaps the Arabic names جحش and حمار are now synonymous, but once each related to a different breed. Wikipedia says:

"By 1800 B.C., the ass had reached the Middle East where the trading city of Damascus was referred to as the 'City of Asses' in cuneiform texts. Syria produced at least three breeds of donkeys, including a saddle breed with a graceful, easy gait. These were favored by women...

The Syrian Wild Ass (Equus hemionus hemippus) was a wild ass found in the mountains and desert/steppe of Syria. The last one died at Schönbrunn Zoo, 1928."

Of course, the most easily-cited historical text of reference is always the Bible. In John 12:14, the beast that carries Jesus into Jerusalem is called جحش أتان. And in Matthew 21:5, it is أتان وجحش إبن أتان. The female donkey is called أتان, so does this mean that جحش is a baby donkey? But in the Old Testament, the animal is repeatedly called חמור in Hebrew, which of course is nearly identical to حمار. In the Koran, جحش does not appear, nor does أتان, but حمار appears twice - in Sura 2:259 and Sura 62:5.

If anyone can shed any light on this, please feel free to comment!
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Fare thee well, 'President of Europe'

I moved to London almost 6 years ago, in August of 2001 - a 2 year stint during which I earned my MBA at the London Business School. It was quite a tumultuous time to live outside the US for the first time in my life. Case and point: while most North Jersey natives looked across the Hudson on September 11, 2001 and saw the Twin Towers come tumbling down, I was across the Atlantic, zipping up and down the Finchley Road, as the lease of my first flat had started on that fateful day.

I recall buying a calling card at a vendor in the O2 center, which would enable me to call back to the US for 2p per minute (since £1~$1.40 at the time - now that I am an exporter I curse the day the dollar will strengthen to that level again, although it served me well at the time given London's high cost of living). I got home at about 2:30 pm (5 hours ahead of East Coast time) and decided to give my family a ring and tell them I was settled in, especially so that they might ship over some warmer clothes.

Try as I might, again and again and again, no connection. What a scam, I thought - no wonder they charge only 3 cents a minute, you can never get through! So I called my sister Valerie, who was still at Boston College at the time. Same thing, no connection. (continued...)

Annoyed, I ran into my flatmate, coincidentally another New Jersey native, Andrew Kotliar, who had a bizarre text message saying, "umm, America is under attack right now." Huh? So we headed upstairs to begin setting up the flat, but before we could do so, Liam, the porter of Grove Hall Court, told us that something was going on in New York, and knowing that we were both from the area, advised us to turn on the TV and get up to speed.

We didn't have a TV set up yet, so we went down to the London Business School and watched the whole thing unfold on CNN. It was like a movie. Although, it was then clear to me why I wasn't able to make a phone connection to either New Jersey or Boston!

Anyway, in the aftermath of that day, Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair became a very close ally of President Bush - in a primetime address before a joint session of Congress just a few days afterward, which Blair attended, Bush singled him out and stated:

"America has no truer friend than Great Britain. Once again, we are joined together in a great cause -- so honored the British Prime Minister has crossed an ocean to show his unity of purpose with America. Thank you for coming, friend."

Our porter Liam mocked Blair, saying that his country's head of state was acting like Bush's lapdog and that Britain was just riding America's coattails. Now, despite my opposition to the Iraq War and his slightly more eloquent rephrasing of neoconservative delusions, there was always something about Blair that appealed to me, probably because of a shared taste in music, as explained by this article about Blair's 50th Birthday in 2003.

And yet it is one of King Crimson's songs that still weighs heavily on the prime minster. "I saw him not long ago and we spent about 20 minutes talking about the music we listened to at college," said [Blair's bandmate from ages past]. "We were talking about 21st Century Schizoid Man, which had an incredible guitar solo in the middle of it."

...it's the guitar solo in the song that is more important to Blair. It is howling, angular, eerie, and lots of other words that one wouldn't have thought applied to the prime minister.

(neocon promoter or not, you gotta love him rocking out on a Telecaster)

On Blair's international image, I am reminded of the visit of my high school friend Chris Hunter in late 2001, as we sat in Cafe Rouge on St. John's Wood High Street, and stumbled into a hilarious discussion with a rather obnoxious English young lady. She recounted for us her impressions of our countrymen from a recent trip stateside, and we got quite a laugh out of her mocking Americans for referring to Blair as the "President of Europe".

Also in late 2001, my parents came to visit London, and their visit overlapped with Blair's trip to Damascus to meet with Syrian President Bashar Assad. I was reminded of that recently after reading a piece by Syrian analyst Sami Moubayed, who was also in London at the time:

"Assad shattered the prime minister's imagination when he said, 'We cannot accept what we see every day on our television screens, the killing of innocent civilians. There are hundreds dying every day.'

...He linked the Palestinian groups, both those residing in Syria and the occupied territories, to European resistance fighters in World War II seeking to liberate their lands from Nazi occupation. Assad argued that in Europe the great symbol of resistance had been Charles de Gaulle. 'Can anyone accuse de Gaulle of being a terrorist? No way.'

Blair came to Syria with all the arrogance that Churchill once had, yet seemed to forget that he was not Churchill and that this was not the Great Britain of 1945."

I, too, recall the newsstand headlines: "Syria Scorns Blair Appeal", and thinking oh, no, what did he say??? But my colleagues at the London Business School were intrigued, as it received front page coverage in the Financial Times. "Wow, he's really letting him have it!" said one friend. "Well, he (Assad) is quite handsome!" said another.

Actually, Blair showed character by willingly submitting himself to somewhat of an ambush in Damascus, and being cordial enough to host Assad in London for a "rematch" the following year (at which he was far more polite to his guest). I cited the confidence exemplified by Assad's approach to Blair's visit during a discussion with Syrian dissident Ammar Abdulhamid last year in Washington about the importance of image in Syria, recalling Assad's swagger as he approached the podium preparing for the ambush.

Anyway, Blair steps down on June 27, and President Bush does not seem too thrilled about it. During a Rose Garden Press Conference last week, he was pressed by a British reporter (since American reporters are all but incapable of asking tough questions) about whether he felt he was to blame for Blair's departure:

"The question is, am I to blame for his leaving? I don't know...You know, it's interesting, like trying to do a tap dance on his political grave, aren't you? I mean, this -- you don't understand how effective Blair is, I guess, because when we're in a room with world leaders and he speaks, people listen. And they -- they view his opinion as considered and his judgment as sound.

And I find it interesting the first two questions are, is this the right guy? Well, he happens to be your Prime Minister, but more importantly, he is a respected man in the international arena. People admire him. Even if they may not agree with him a hundred percent, they admire him a lot. And it's not just the American President who admires him; a lot of people admire him. And so he's effective. He's effective because he is -- his recommendations to solve problems are sound. He's also effective because he is the kind of person who follows through.

There's a lot of blowhards in the political process, you know, a lot of hot-air artists, people who have got something fancy to say. Tony Blair is somebody who actually follows through with his convictions, and therefore, is admired in the international community.

So I guess this is an appropriate question to ask -- right guy, is he still standing -- yes. This guy is a very strong, respected leader, and he's absolutely the right guy for me to be dealing with."

I guess "confusion" will be his epitaph. In any case, fare thee well, 'President of Europe'.

But one has to wonder what Bush would do if the Conservative Party, aka the Tories, in Britain (Blair is from the Labour Party, analagous to the Democrats) were not so hopelessly inept and used their linguistic elegance to pick apart the neoconservative slogans that pass for global strategy in Bush's circles.

Blair managed to steal the Tories' thunder on major issues like the Iraq War (if it was totally unconnected to America's interest, what does that say for the UK?) and Conservative MPs were obliged to play along - thus, they have no meaningful opposition positions to take.

A true conservative party in the UK has gone extinct, says British conservative writer Peter Hitchens. "Because of the cultural, educational, and moral changes they failed to resist in the 1960s and 1970s, Tories stopped passing on their values to their own children." He continues in his appraisal of new conservative leader David Cameron:

"A recent speech on foreign policy, in which he appeared to distance himself from the neoconservative stance embraced by his party some time ago, was cunningly nuanced—like much that Cameron does—to give a false impression of his true position. He knows that the neocon association is a liability. But the speech did not alter the party's ongoing support for the Iraq War or the increasingly questionable British intervention in Afghanistan...Instead it was endorsing neoconservatism and then trying to distance it from the conduct of foreign policy by George Bush and Tony Blair."

So much for Britain. Now, what about a true conservative party in the USA?
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Politicians' funeral pyre

So yesterday we heard that:

An open letter published Friday in Britain's The Independent newspaper and signed by former British Cabinet ministers and ambassadors urged Blair to help broker a swift cease-fire...The letter was also signed by musicians Damon Albarn, Peter Gabriel and Brian Eno.

It is more than clear to me that Gabriel and Eno miscalculated by not inviting their pal Robert Fripp to co-sign.

Blair was a big fan of Fripp's band King Crimson, especially their seminal 1969 track "21st Century Schizoid Man":

Blood rack barbed wire
Politicians' funeral pyre
Innocents raped with napalm fire
21st century schizoid man

Say what you want about the British Prime Minister - he's a rocker.
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James Rubin - a newscaster???

If you thought James Rubin stunk as a policy maker (Clinton-era State Department Spokesman and Chief Foreign Policy Adviser for John Kerry's abysmal Presidential bid), wait until you see him as a newscaster on Sky News!

I saw him on the air during my recent visit to London, and he was atrocious. I can't believe the Brits would accept such low quality.
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