Airline Woes

Almost each one of us will have an airline story to tell - be it flight delay or poor food or customer service etc. Incidentally, I for one, should confess that I dont have any bad experience with any of the airlines I have traveled so far in the past 10+ years. I am neither a business traveler nor a holder of any "miles card" with any airline. Each time I pick one based on cost and travel itinerary ease. The closest I came to a bad experience, if you want to call it one, was with Air India when I flew with them during my grad school days. But then it was just a delay and I had all the time in the world so din't care much. AI compensated with good food for me then.

When I say I din't have any bad experience, I should also add, that for no apparent reason, I used to cautiously avoid any European airline however fast the travel is with them. After moving to US west coast, Singapore and Cathay kind of became the norm. Recently in the unfortunate event of my father's demise, we had to travel via Europe in (drums roll !!) Lufthansa - Now I have something to tell for a bad airline experience or rather experiences -

* On our way back to San Diego, we missed our connection at Washington due to immigration delay. We had only 1.5hrs time there to clear immigration/customs. Even after my repeated phone calls to makemytrip.com and Lufthansa in India itself, asking them to change my itinerary to allow more time, they refused. Each one pointed the other and said if the system approves, its good. But then Murphy prevailed and United flight connection miss seemed certain. The Lufthansa staff there talking to us were outright adamant that it was not their problem and that hotel acco was out of the question. When all hopes seemed to end, fortunately to our luck, we found out the connection had actually got delayed too because the UA pilot din't show up in time. Thanks to him we made it SD as planned. I dont know what I would have done with my kid and my elderly mom in Washington winter (thanksgiving day) had the United airline pilot not delayed the connection by showing up late.

* Now after six months later, I was facing the undesirable task of sending my mother , that too alone by herself, in the same Lufthansa airline. The confirmation of elderly wheelchair assistance was consoling. But again Murphy prevailed and that too where it mattered. My mom was told there is not a wheel chair available when she got off at Frankfurt. Somebody directed her towards an elevator and left. Apparently she had no clue where to go. Imagine a first timer, alone, tired and old, in a foreign airport with trouble understanding the staff's english accent too. Apparently, she got the courage to keep going and asked a passenger-cart driver to take her to the next gate and the blue-collared gentlemen/women had obliged to our relief. I couldnt imagine what would have happened had she missed the connection.

All the while my notion about most European airlines was that if not for their vantage position connecting the americas and the east, they would be flying empty. It just got confirmed. There we go then -Now I too have an airline to hate !

Still: Blue Angels captured with D40 during Miramar Air show.

The Hidden Costs of Oil Dependence

Recently we went on a NYC trip with my mother accompanying us. Having visited exotic Maldives earlier, Hawaii has been on my wish list ever since I came to San Diego. So initially I tried to lure them to Hawaii instead of NYC saying we can rest on the beaches etc . But my mother single-handedly vetoed the proposal saying "resting is all she is doing currently and she doesnt have to go to Hawaii to do the same". My wife, the metro-phile that she is, was relieved. Anyways, given my penchant for nature and places that glorify that in pristine form, two pieces of news got my attention recently.

First one of them is disturbing to say the least - the Oil spill from a BP oil rig in Gulf of Mexico - I trust the BP folks are doing their best to stop it. When the effects are so obvious and visible, there is very little they could do to cover it up. They even tried misquoting the barrels of oil leaked per day but truth came out eventually. What troubles me is the sheer damage to nature that this oil leak has wreaked - think about the pollution to the otherwise pristine sea water, habitats of countless aquatic life forms destroyed beyond repair, loss of marine life and its effect on the lower food chain, the oil reaching the shore damaging flora and fauna there. I cant imagine how long will it take before nature recovers from this setback. Nature, in my view is like a good parent - very forgiving. But then I am starting to doubt if we as humans are testing its patience and good nature under the pretext of civilization. This hidden cost, borne out of excess dependence on oil, is not even measurable.

Second one is rather interesting and in a way related to the one above. Recently came across this news . To cut to the chase, an ad agency on behalf of the supporters of clean energy bill sponsored an ad campaign on DC buses that portrayed Iran president Ahmedinajad and the words "Iran makes a KILLING everyday we wait". I thought it was political (US vs Iran stuff) till I read the news fully. The ad sponsors are just trying to get attention of public towards their "clean energy bill measure" by using the political tussle between the nations highlighting how an oil exporting country like Iran, which is US' nemesis on world stage, is benefiting from US' oil dependence. At the outset, very creative ad for a very very noble cause I admit , cleverly designed to capture public attention using the current political climate. But the way in which it tried to grab attention is distasteful and, as you see in the article, has led to ethnic Iranian groups protesting against it.

Still: One of nature's delight, unbridled beauty of Niagara Falls (horse shoe falls). My camera battery was dying and just managed this one shot of the falls from the boat. Taken with Lz8 P&S.

The Olive Branch Legacy

During my school days history classes, a fair bit of importance was given to "the United Nations Organization", UN for short - How it was conceived and, what does it do etc etc. I even remember participating in oratorical contests where in we have to speak about UN and its achievements. My mom being the history professor will dutifully fill me with info on the same and I grew up thinking very high about this world body.

My first shock or setback to that mentality came after I landed in the US - the birthplace of the very UN concept and the home of three of its important organs - General assembly, Secretariat and (drums roll !!!) the "Security Council". I was shocked to see UN not even getting a mention in media that a dumb movie star or a franchise sports player in US get. Back home in India, DoorDarhsan news tends to give headline importance to anything UN related. Then as I matured, it dawned upon me how the super powers merely use it as a "diplomatic tool" to cover their acts while in the background going ahead with their military interests. The Iraq war was the last straw in my confidence that UN would be worth something in the future. Like the rest of the world, I could only watch Kofi Annan (bless his soul) haplessly trying to impart sense into Bush and his puppeteers without much avail. The list goes on. The last known respect, in my view, a super power has given to this world body on a "issue of significance" has been the Cuban Crisis (thanks to some level-heads at the helm of US that time) when US took to this world body to put its case.

Recently when I visited NYC a second time, this time with mom, we decided to visit the UN headquarters in Manhattan. She was interested as history prof and my interest was mixed by now. By now, not surprising to me, UN HQ is not high on any NYC tourists list. Here's some of the things that caught by attention there -

1. Most visitors there were from 3rd world. I was about to conclude that they were the only ones but then a throng of europeans I guess came in as well.

2. An airport style security to the world body's visitor center entrance. In a movie style stunt, I was even asked to drink and show that what I was carrying in my backpack was indeed drinking water.

3. The workers, majority of them, are not Americans. Even the lift operator had an east european accent. Not sure if they have a quota system of sorts.

4. You can take a walking tour to General Assembly hall for $11. I decided a dinner in NYC Saravana Bhavan was worthier.

5. Most displays/posters there were geared towards CTBT and the effect of nuclear race etc. Japan for its part has contributed a section depicting the ills of a nuclear attack. Two posters in all intrigued me -

a. One showed a world map and indicated the nuclear war heads, nuclear tests and test sites each country had. No prize for guessing the winner - US and Russia at top two. I remember a May 1997 news article where US termed India as "a Nuclear Nation" after the Pokhran-II tests. So much for CTBT...

b. The second one is very interesting - In a typical US style of conveying things, this one showed what the effect would have been had the "Hiroshima Bomb" be dropped in today's NYC's Times Square. The hotel we stayed in our trip was near Newark airport, 30 miles from NYC. From the pic, it seemed, we would have been a goner too. Not sure if this poster was Japan's idea or some one else's.

6. The best touch of all - Silk portraits of all the UN Secretary Generals - beautifully done art work, very realistic. Courtesy of - guess who ? - see today's pic for the answer.

Again, I left the visitor center with my idea reinforced. UN is a human creation. Its not going to work unless we respect and... Ok. Never mind.