Monday, May 31, 2010
Hurrah ! It has arrived !
The hope of millions of Indians, who have been enduring the harshest summer in living memory, has now rolled into Kerala. The Met department on Monday announced the onset of the southwest monsoon in India after rains in the southern state for the past few days met all requisite criteria for the official declaration to be made. The monsoon is expected to be normal this year with the country projected to get 98% of its seasonal quota.
Mamata blames political opponents for derailment
Union home minister P. Chidambaram on Monday blamed Maoist insurgents for causing the train derailment that killed 147 people in West Bengal on 28 May. “The train was derailed by the removal of fish plates and the cutting off of a portion of the rail track. The derailment led to a collision with a goods train,” Chidambaram said.
Mamata claimed that removing fish plates was not possible on the long welded tracks on which the train was running when it derailed at about 1:30 AM on Friday between Khemasoli and Sardiya stations near Jhargram, about 150 km from Kolkata. "There are no fish plates. This is a long welded track. There is no question of removing the fish plates," she said.
IMO: I can understand that Chidambaram knows little about trains, and that Banerjee is inclined not to suffer fools gladly. It seems that both CPI(Marxist) and CPI(Maoist) (ie Naxals) both stood to gain from political dissent, and both want more support, which may have been the net result. India is not, in my opinion, a country where mass murder should be used in politics.
Mamata claimed that removing fish plates was not possible on the long welded tracks on which the train was running when it derailed at about 1:30 AM on Friday between Khemasoli and Sardiya stations near Jhargram, about 150 km from Kolkata. "There are no fish plates. This is a long welded track. There is no question of removing the fish plates," she said.
IMO: I can understand that Chidambaram knows little about trains, and that Banerjee is inclined not to suffer fools gladly. It seems that both CPI(Marxist) and CPI(Maoist) (ie Naxals) both stood to gain from political dissent, and both want more support, which may have been the net result. India is not, in my opinion, a country where mass murder should be used in politics.
David Laws redux
Back now in the UK I seem to hear nothing from the media but disrespectful comments about poor David Laws, who people seem to think, regretfully, should go the Timms road but a good deal further. That's just "us" (members of the general public) as distinct from "them" (MPs and the very few remaining dupes).
So, to cheer things up, here's Margaret Thatcher doing the "Dead Parrot", apparently according to some commentators, after "the Alzheimers had started to kick in" which, like Ronald Regan, did not seem to stop her. A grim reminder of the drab and gloomy Thatcher years.
IMO: Maybe David Laws doing the "Lumberjack" sketch would be far funnier, but what would his relatives think of that ? But clearly it will not do, as Monty Python is now running Pakistan and has changed his name to the Muslim name of Zadari. Still, perhaps Zadari's new 7 million pounds mansion in the UK paid for by the respectful US government will compensate for such an amateur act.
So, to cheer things up, here's Margaret Thatcher doing the "Dead Parrot", apparently according to some commentators, after "the Alzheimers had started to kick in" which, like Ronald Regan, did not seem to stop her. A grim reminder of the drab and gloomy Thatcher years.
IMO: Maybe David Laws doing the "Lumberjack" sketch would be far funnier, but what would his relatives think of that ? But clearly it will not do, as Monty Python is now running Pakistan and has changed his name to the Muslim name of Zadari. Still, perhaps Zadari's new 7 million pounds mansion in the UK paid for by the respectful US government will compensate for such an amateur act.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
This scares everybody — that we can’t make it stop, says BP chief
John Hofmeister, a former president of Shell, complained that BP and the US Government were not doing enough to clean up the spill and did not seem open to new ideas.
“We are still relying on old technology,” he said, claiming that supertankers capable of far more efficient operations were ready and waiting in the Middle East.
“The idea’s been presented to the Coast Guard. This is where I’m concerned we’ve got ‘NIH’ — not invented here — syndrome.”
Theirs is a society – and an economy – fuelled and lubricated by cheap oil (Americans currently pay just 50p a litre for their petrol, in contrast to £1.25 a litre in the UK, for example). And cheap oil has a price. Every time there is an oil disaster there are calls for urgent changes and massive investment – an end altogether to risky undersea drilling perhaps, more stringent rules, a requirement for inflatable containment rafts and emergency teams to be permanently deployed, double skinned tanker hulls and so forth.
If America decides it never wants to see this happen again, it will have to dig deep into its collective wallet and pay a higher price for its oil. And the chances of that happening are even less than the chances of success in the latest plan to cap the Deepwater Horizon well.
IMO: America has been laying off its problems to India and China for a long time. It is perhaps best that it now has to face a little of its own extravagences and vanities at last. Australians, for good reason, had for years talked of the English as "pommie whingers", who couldn't even stand the heat and the flies. I faced 115 degrees Fahrenheit temperature as a child of six, without caring much, and really had to laugh. To me, India for example seems relatively cool. Now the US, with their President Jubilation T. Cornpone Obama, cannot stand their own eccentric economic gambling follies. America seem to be made up of "just US whingers". But it could have been much worse for the US. For example, they could have even been nuked into the ground by a perhaps mistaken but basically well meaning Russia during the US inspired "cold war", the invention of vile capitalist criminal gamblers, who preferred gambling to civilised compromise.
“We are still relying on old technology,” he said, claiming that supertankers capable of far more efficient operations were ready and waiting in the Middle East.
“The idea’s been presented to the Coast Guard. This is where I’m concerned we’ve got ‘NIH’ — not invented here — syndrome.”
Theirs is a society – and an economy – fuelled and lubricated by cheap oil (Americans currently pay just 50p a litre for their petrol, in contrast to £1.25 a litre in the UK, for example). And cheap oil has a price. Every time there is an oil disaster there are calls for urgent changes and massive investment – an end altogether to risky undersea drilling perhaps, more stringent rules, a requirement for inflatable containment rafts and emergency teams to be permanently deployed, double skinned tanker hulls and so forth.
If America decides it never wants to see this happen again, it will have to dig deep into its collective wallet and pay a higher price for its oil. And the chances of that happening are even less than the chances of success in the latest plan to cap the Deepwater Horizon well.
IMO: America has been laying off its problems to India and China for a long time. It is perhaps best that it now has to face a little of its own extravagences and vanities at last. Australians, for good reason, had for years talked of the English as "pommie whingers", who couldn't even stand the heat and the flies. I faced 115 degrees Fahrenheit temperature as a child of six, without caring much, and really had to laugh. To me, India for example seems relatively cool. Now the US, with their President Jubilation T. Cornpone Obama, cannot stand their own eccentric economic gambling follies. America seem to be made up of "just US whingers". But it could have been much worse for the US. For example, they could have even been nuked into the ground by a perhaps mistaken but basically well meaning Russia during the US inspired "cold war", the invention of vile capitalist criminal gamblers, who preferred gambling to civilised compromise.
Saturday, May 29, 2010
UK Labor Leadership
Parliamentary figures for expense claims
Ed Miliband
2008/9 £7,783
2007/8 £7,670
2006/7 £7,795
2005/6 £7,246
Ed Balls
2008/9 £11,840
2007/8 £12,219
2006/7 £15,979
2005/6 £13.618
David Miliband
2008/9 £ 9,083
2007/8 £17,387
2006/7 £16,728
2005/6 £21,611
Andy Burnham
2008/9 £12,301
2007/8 £10,504
2006/7 £13,461
2005/6 £16,147
John McDonnell
2008/9 £0
2007/8 £0
2006/7 £0
2005/6 £0
Dianne Abbott
2008/9 £0
2007/8 £0
2006/7 £0
2005/6 £0
2008/9 £7,783
2007/8 £7,670
2006/7 £7,795
2005/6 £7,246
Ed Balls
2008/9 £11,840
2007/8 £12,219
2006/7 £15,979
2005/6 £13.618
David Miliband
2008/9 £ 9,083
2007/8 £17,387
2006/7 £16,728
2005/6 £21,611
Andy Burnham
2008/9 £12,301
2007/8 £10,504
2006/7 £13,461
2005/6 £16,147
John McDonnell
2008/9 £0
2007/8 £0
2006/7 £0
2005/6 £0
Dianne Abbott
2008/9 £0
2007/8 £0
2006/7 £0
2005/6 £0
Most of these are almost certainly too low, Tory figures were much higher anyway. So as hunch might say, best choices might be McDonnell and Abbott. Those would be my choice, Abbott seems nice but McDonnell is probably more experienced.
US is wasting essential water in China, India
Intel is going head-to-head with businesses like Coca-Cola to swallow up scarce water resources in the developing world, business newswire Bloomberg reported this week. Chip fabrication plants in those countries, as well factories such as the soft drink giant's bottling plants, are swallowing up scarce resources needed by the 1.6 billion people who rely on water for farming.
At the current rate, India will have exhausted its fresh water supplies by 2050. The weakest monsoon for more than three decades cut rice output in India last year by as much as 10 per cent, while southwestern China suffered its worst drought in a century earlier this year. China has already polluted 70 per cent of its rivers and lakes, while half of all cities suffer contaminated groundwater.
IMO: Beijing Enterprises Water Group warns “Wars may start over the scarcity of water.” And Australians have already been jailed in China for trying to get more money for Aust mineral resources so I would say that is hardly an idle boast. The Chinese have almost sold their economy out to the US, Chinese are committing suicide at the Apple chip factory and so on. India is hardly any better off. Nobody should buy Pepsi or Coke after what has happened in Kerala, quite intentionally because of the cheap lolly water companies. Eccentrics like Warren Buffett, so typical of US capitalism, must accept blame for many of the problems.
At the current rate, India will have exhausted its fresh water supplies by 2050. The weakest monsoon for more than three decades cut rice output in India last year by as much as 10 per cent, while southwestern China suffered its worst drought in a century earlier this year. China has already polluted 70 per cent of its rivers and lakes, while half of all cities suffer contaminated groundwater.
IMO: Beijing Enterprises Water Group warns “Wars may start over the scarcity of water.” And Australians have already been jailed in China for trying to get more money for Aust mineral resources so I would say that is hardly an idle boast. The Chinese have almost sold their economy out to the US, Chinese are committing suicide at the Apple chip factory and so on. India is hardly any better off. Nobody should buy Pepsi or Coke after what has happened in Kerala, quite intentionally because of the cheap lolly water companies. Eccentrics like Warren Buffett, so typical of US capitalism, must accept blame for many of the problems.
David Laws and expenses
Craig Murray says "Laws' explanation for his behaviour is that he did not wish to come out as gay. That is his right. Had he therefore not made any second home expenses claims, he would have forfeited £40,000 and deserved great sympathy for the sacrifice made to his domestic privacy. Nobody would have launched an investigation into why the very wealthy David Laws did not make a second home claim. To "protect your privacy" by making taxpayer funded rent payments to your partner against the rules, was always going to be counter-productive. It also involved what I presume (and I do not know) is a further little lie to the Commons that he was renting a bedroom in his partner's house, when it is surely more likely that they share one".
IMO: AFAIK the rule against paying partners in this way was not made or publicised till about 2006. At that point Laws should have stopped claiming payments and this clearly could have been noticed, and that makes more sense of his explanation. Now this would have admittedly made very difficult his further political career, so at that point the matter becomes a question of politics. But then we can reflect that if he is so smart at cutting costs and such a good businessman, who apparently became extremely wealthy by the age of 28 (marriage or criminality been the usual ways), he should have had the street smarts to cover for himself on the financial issue. For example he could have anonymously donated the £40,000 to a charity after 2006, or even to some tax redemption fund. There are almost certainly better ways than that, I write impromptu and certainly know little about such matters. So I do not buy the view about that greedy gay dud that "such a brilliant man should not have to resign". Furthermore there is the even shadier view, even given by the Telegraph I think, that Laws could simply resign now and take the job again when people had forgotten the matter. Now it seems obvious that the whole bunch of UK MPs are largely swindling the general public, and brief known figures are certainly optimistically ridiculously low. So what to do ? Well it could be best to let him parrot on about cuts and even live up to some of his claims but to improve voting procedure enormously NOW and not let these swindling cretins who call themselves MPs get the 5 year compulsory term.
IMO: AFAIK the rule against paying partners in this way was not made or publicised till about 2006. At that point Laws should have stopped claiming payments and this clearly could have been noticed, and that makes more sense of his explanation. Now this would have admittedly made very difficult his further political career, so at that point the matter becomes a question of politics. But then we can reflect that if he is so smart at cutting costs and such a good businessman, who apparently became extremely wealthy by the age of 28 (marriage or criminality been the usual ways), he should have had the street smarts to cover for himself on the financial issue. For example he could have anonymously donated the £40,000 to a charity after 2006, or even to some tax redemption fund. There are almost certainly better ways than that, I write impromptu and certainly know little about such matters. So I do not buy the view about that greedy gay dud that "such a brilliant man should not have to resign". Furthermore there is the even shadier view, even given by the Telegraph I think, that Laws could simply resign now and take the job again when people had forgotten the matter. Now it seems obvious that the whole bunch of UK MPs are largely swindling the general public, and brief known figures are certainly optimistically ridiculously low. So what to do ? Well it could be best to let him parrot on about cuts and even live up to some of his claims but to improve voting procedure enormously NOW and not let these swindling cretins who call themselves MPs get the 5 year compulsory term.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Air India cabin crew allegedly forced to fly against their will
Cabin crew operating on the ill-fated Mangalore route on Saturday were allegedly forced to fly against their will. One of those forced to fly was a roommate of air hostess Sujata Survase, who died in Saturday’s crash. At least five cabin crew members operating on the route were threatened with criminal cases if they did not comply with the orders to fly. The call pressurising them to undertake the duties reportedly came from the Chief Operations Officer Ritesh Verma.
IMO: Air India Express is a cut price airline which, according to Al Jazeera, has been criticised for lax safety procedures. And, FWIW, a person allegedly connected with the recent Pune bombings was arrested at Mangalore airport on Monday.
IMO: Air India Express is a cut price airline which, according to Al Jazeera, has been criticised for lax safety procedures. And, FWIW, a person allegedly connected with the recent Pune bombings was arrested at Mangalore airport on Monday.
Sarah Ferguson
An article in the Guardian newspaper says that "a newspaper reported that 82% of their readers would rather sleep with a goat " than with Sarah Ferguson. But it seems from the same article that Sarah Ferguson is better looking than most women newspaper reporters of the same age. Go figure. This is just the sort of foolish rubbish people like Rupert expects us to pay for.
Also, the Telegraph says that the equalities minister (presumably part of a 'quango' that has not met the "axe" of the Tory grandees) says that Sarah is "shoddy and grubby" and does not need more money, though the NY papers claim she has been treated meanly.
IMO: Almost all the present UK MPs are shoddy and grubby, and should be dismissed, which is what the public wants. Let us hope that they are so big headed as to alter voting arrangements in a way which does not simply increase their own chances of election but votes them out altogether and replaces them with honest decent people. The UK MPs are so self-centred that this is actually just about possible.
Also, the Telegraph says that the equalities minister (presumably part of a 'quango' that has not met the "axe" of the Tory grandees) says that Sarah is "shoddy and grubby" and does not need more money, though the NY papers claim she has been treated meanly.
IMO: Almost all the present UK MPs are shoddy and grubby, and should be dismissed, which is what the public wants. Let us hope that they are so big headed as to alter voting arrangements in a way which does not simply increase their own chances of election but votes them out altogether and replaces them with honest decent people. The UK MPs are so self-centred that this is actually just about possible.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Interesting quote in Einstein/Tagore conversation
In an interesting quotation in a conversation between Albert Einstein and Rabindranath Tagore in "A Tagore Reader", edited by Amiya Chakravarty, we find
"EINSTEIN: Modern physics would not say they (free impulse and directive will) are contradictory. Clouds look as one from a distance, but if you see them nearby, they show themselves as disorderly drops of water.
"EINSTEIN: Modern physics would not say they (free impulse and directive will) are contradictory. Clouds look as one from a distance, but if you see them nearby, they show themselves as disorderly drops of water.
TAGORE: I find a parallel in human psychology. Our passions and desires are unruly, but our character subdues these elements into a harmonious whole".
IMO:It is interesting how, as early as 1930, polymath Tagore tries to update Einstein's views to a level perhaps more commensurate with 21st Century views, and of course we are probably left at the very least with the hunches of famous men, and these are hopefully a good deal more illuminating than many opinions.
IMO:It is interesting how, as early as 1930, polymath Tagore tries to update Einstein's views to a level perhaps more commensurate with 21st Century views, and of course we are probably left at the very least with the hunches of famous men, and these are hopefully a good deal more illuminating than many opinions.
Congress to back Trinamool in a hung KMC
“Just because there was no alliance before the polls does not necessarily mean we will not support a political party to wrest the KMC from the CPM in case of a hung House,” state Congress working president Pradip Bhattacharjee said at a press conference held at party headquarters Bidhan Bhawan. He claimed the Congress would increase its 2005 tally in the KMC polls for which would be held on May 30. The seat-sharing talks between allies Congress and the Trinamool had broken down after the former demanded 50 seats in the KMC, which Mamata Banerjee’s party refused.
IMO: So the TMC-Congress alliance in WB may up to a point continue. Didi has metamorphosed from a street-fighter to a credible political alternative to the Left monolith. And a very worthwhile alternative. For example, just like CPI(Marxist) has a chronic reputation of cheating and lieing to large minorities like the Muslims, yet again CPI(Marxist) are doing it ! As Didi points out, Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee's claim that his government would complete identification of one crore Muslims for reservation in government jobs by June was an attempt to "cheat" them. After so many years in power, his claim is at best unlikely. The CPI's monkey Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee evidently has run out of new tunes for the CPI's organ. And not only does Didi support minorities, but also intellectuals as in the important current railways exhibition of the work of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, much praised by all.
IMO: So the TMC-Congress alliance in WB may up to a point continue. Didi has metamorphosed from a street-fighter to a credible political alternative to the Left monolith. And a very worthwhile alternative. For example, just like CPI(Marxist) has a chronic reputation of cheating and lieing to large minorities like the Muslims, yet again CPI(Marxist) are doing it ! As Didi points out, Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee's claim that his government would complete identification of one crore Muslims for reservation in government jobs by June was an attempt to "cheat" them. After so many years in power, his claim is at best unlikely. The CPI's monkey Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee evidently has run out of new tunes for the CPI's organ. And not only does Didi support minorities, but also intellectuals as in the important current railways exhibition of the work of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, much praised by all.
Saturday, May 22, 2010
The X-51 Waverider
The X-51 Waverider will accelerate to speeds of Mach 6. This should first fly next Tuesday. The X-51 is expected to lead in the short term to new missiles able to strike faraway targets quickly and hit so fast as to be extremely difficult to defend against.
At present the Indian developed and built BrahMos is the only operational supersonic cruise missile with a speed of 2.8 Mach and is three-and-a-half times faster than the American Tomahawk cruise missiles. Brahmos-2 is said to reach about Mach 5 so far.
The Bahmos missile has already been inducted into the Navy and the Indian Army, and the IAF is also working on integrating it on its frontline air superiority fighter SU-30MKI. A number of Naval ships have been armed with the BrahMos and the under-construction Talwar Class frigates in Russia will also have it as their main weapon.
At present the Indian developed and built BrahMos is the only operational supersonic cruise missile with a speed of 2.8 Mach and is three-and-a-half times faster than the American Tomahawk cruise missiles. Brahmos-2 is said to reach about Mach 5 so far.
The Bahmos missile has already been inducted into the Navy and the Indian Army, and the IAF is also working on integrating it on its frontline air superiority fighter SU-30MKI. A number of Naval ships have been armed with the BrahMos and the under-construction Talwar Class frigates in Russia will also have it as their main weapon.
Friday, May 21, 2010
Timms stabbing
From what we can tell, this seems to have been done by a 23 year old Muslim woman. Much more should be known of the facts, details and motivation before drawing any real conclusions but the young lady seems to have been upset at the time and until recently Timms was Financial Secretary to the Treasury, a position very closely related to both finance and taxation. Timms was probably a sensible and easy to locate target for the particular attack, which on the whole seems to have been carried out with some common sense, if it could be taken as reasonable. On the question of reasonableness, certainly Fred Goodwin, Andy Hornby and many similar characters have been subject to very many suggestions that they should be killed, and it is hardly necessary to emphasise that they seem to have been paid big money by such people as Timms.
IMO: The girl is lucky that Timms is not dead as she may have been jailed for much longer, and she will certainly be made a subject of public obloquy. This condemnation will often be carried out by the same Press and politicians who inspire such people in the first place, and who themselves are often and almost usually corrupt and base as their suggested victims. Papers like the sanctimonious Guardian may be more to blame than most, as many people have their own sense to place Press lobbies like Fox News.
IMO: But there are many further questions which need considering. For example the ultimate morality of the attempted assassination. One feels it might be regarded as reasonable as, say, a position to be held by Hitlerites assassinating a non-Aryan or by Roman Catholic pedophile priests who may wish to protect their hierarchy. That is not to condemn such groups without recourse but merely to point out that morality often is best to have a context for it to have obvious meaning. A further fact is the question of the fact that the assassination was carried out by a woman. Just last week, the experimental philosopher Jesse Prinz published an interesting article with many literature references, some of which deal with the subject of female morality. I won't go into details here but a lot more can be said.
IMO: The girl is lucky that Timms is not dead as she may have been jailed for much longer, and she will certainly be made a subject of public obloquy. This condemnation will often be carried out by the same Press and politicians who inspire such people in the first place, and who themselves are often and almost usually corrupt and base as their suggested victims. Papers like the sanctimonious Guardian may be more to blame than most, as many people have their own sense to place Press lobbies like Fox News.
IMO: But there are many further questions which need considering. For example the ultimate morality of the attempted assassination. One feels it might be regarded as reasonable as, say, a position to be held by Hitlerites assassinating a non-Aryan or by Roman Catholic pedophile priests who may wish to protect their hierarchy. That is not to condemn such groups without recourse but merely to point out that morality often is best to have a context for it to have obvious meaning. A further fact is the question of the fact that the assassination was carried out by a woman. Just last week, the experimental philosopher Jesse Prinz published an interesting article with many literature references, some of which deal with the subject of female morality. I won't go into details here but a lot more can be said.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Saudi woman beats up religious cop
In Saudi Arabia, a Saudi woman whose male friend collapsed on being questioned by a member of the notorious morality police (the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice) laid a beating on the religious cop. The cop went to hospital with bruises.
"To see resistance from a woman means a lot," Wajiha Al-Huwaidar, a Saudi women's rights activist, told The Media Line news agency. "People are fed up with these religious police, and now they have to pay the price for the humiliation they put people through for years and years. This is just the beginning and there will be more resistance."
In England, too, Deputy Leader Clegg does intend to "get rid of the unnecessary laws" and "introduce a mechanism to block pointless new criminal offences"and to ask the public "which laws you think should go" as they "tear through the statute book".
IMO: I refuse to take a view on the issues, but for years I have said something like this will happen - in Saudi Arabia. I do not think that it would be popular if the cops were beaten up by women in London, England, but I imagine many women would like to. Indeed, one woman recently nearly murdered a UK M.P. (named Timms). At least one can hope that Clegg will not make minatory shooting of dogs legal, as doubtless one of his Liberal predecessors would have wished.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Ash cloud from Iceland
There is another ash cloud in Iceland disrupting air travel.
Like so many other people we were delayed by the volcanic eruptions during April. In our case we were held up in Turkey.
The airline seemed not to have any idea how to handle the delay and they bundled us, along with bukha'd pilgrims just back from Mecca and multifarious other persons, to a "faux 5-star" hotel. The pilgrims from Mecca turned out to be a likeable and interesting bunch and Fatima, in particular, seemed to show that wearing a burkha need not necessarily diminish the manifestation of character and strong personality. After holding us all in the hotel for a couple of days, during which if we had been told the airline's subsequent behaviour we could quite possibly have obtained transportation elsewhere, the hotel threw us out at 4:30 in the morning on the pretext that we would obtain a flight at 7:30 am. Of course there was no such flight and we were effectively left to find our way. One pilgrim tried vociferously for a long time on our behalf, with the aim to simply provide us all with some sort of accommodation. He very intelligently suggested many possibilities which could have easily remedied the matter at little expense to the airline, pointing out also that such behaviour as to throw his family which had 3 very young children out of a hotel which they hadn't wanted to visit in the first place, was bad behaviour. We finally obtained a flight pass written on the spot by airport staff for travel to London by air two days later, and proceeded to doss down at the airport. I began to feel as if I had somehow found myself as a character in George Orwell's "Down and Out in London and Paris", possibly with all that such a fate implies. And indeed, worse was to come. Naturally we were then told that the airport was due to close for a very long time and that there would only be two more flights, one to Rome where there were no connections by that time, and one back to Mumbai. We therefore went back to Mumbai and so lost the fare cost.
It would have been possible to continue to England in another week if Turkish Airlines had put us up for another week, because the airports in the UK started from April 25th, but absolutely no arrangements were made on our behalf by Turkish Airlines despite continued requests. We eventually had to go by another airline, Jet Airways, at our own expense, as Turkish Airlines refused their agreed comitment.
What happened to the pilgrims ? I do not know, but I hope they had better luck than we did. I must say that I was left with the impression that Mecca is currently suffering a problem faced by many people today - extreme overcrowding. It is a real shame, and a pious pilgrimage should allow easy access to joy not worry. I am not up to date on Muslim pilgimages as I am not a Muslim, but when I visited the Mosque at Srinagar some years ago it looked like a great place for pilgrims to go and is one of only a handful of such mosques. If only Pakistan would cease fighting over the area the Srinagar mosque could make a good profit for the Indian Government (India has the second largest Muslim population in the world) and indeed for Kashmir. Much to say there.
Like so many other people we were delayed by the volcanic eruptions during April. In our case we were held up in Turkey.
The airline seemed not to have any idea how to handle the delay and they bundled us, along with bukha'd pilgrims just back from Mecca and multifarious other persons, to a "faux 5-star" hotel. The pilgrims from Mecca turned out to be a likeable and interesting bunch and Fatima, in particular, seemed to show that wearing a burkha need not necessarily diminish the manifestation of character and strong personality. After holding us all in the hotel for a couple of days, during which if we had been told the airline's subsequent behaviour we could quite possibly have obtained transportation elsewhere, the hotel threw us out at 4:30 in the morning on the pretext that we would obtain a flight at 7:30 am. Of course there was no such flight and we were effectively left to find our way. One pilgrim tried vociferously for a long time on our behalf, with the aim to simply provide us all with some sort of accommodation. He very intelligently suggested many possibilities which could have easily remedied the matter at little expense to the airline, pointing out also that such behaviour as to throw his family which had 3 very young children out of a hotel which they hadn't wanted to visit in the first place, was bad behaviour. We finally obtained a flight pass written on the spot by airport staff for travel to London by air two days later, and proceeded to doss down at the airport. I began to feel as if I had somehow found myself as a character in George Orwell's "Down and Out in London and Paris", possibly with all that such a fate implies. And indeed, worse was to come. Naturally we were then told that the airport was due to close for a very long time and that there would only be two more flights, one to Rome where there were no connections by that time, and one back to Mumbai. We therefore went back to Mumbai and so lost the fare cost.
It would have been possible to continue to England in another week if Turkish Airlines had put us up for another week, because the airports in the UK started from April 25th, but absolutely no arrangements were made on our behalf by Turkish Airlines despite continued requests. We eventually had to go by another airline, Jet Airways, at our own expense, as Turkish Airlines refused their agreed comitment.
What happened to the pilgrims ? I do not know, but I hope they had better luck than we did. I must say that I was left with the impression that Mecca is currently suffering a problem faced by many people today - extreme overcrowding. It is a real shame, and a pious pilgrimage should allow easy access to joy not worry. I am not up to date on Muslim pilgimages as I am not a Muslim, but when I visited the Mosque at Srinagar some years ago it looked like a great place for pilgrims to go and is one of only a handful of such mosques. If only Pakistan would cease fighting over the area the Srinagar mosque could make a good profit for the Indian Government (India has the second largest Muslim population in the world) and indeed for Kashmir. Much to say there.
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