Thought Picnic: Palestine

Cannot stand the spin

The news junkie in me has started a news Lent very early; I have completely starved myself of news and completely switched off the news channels because they are all camped out on the matter of Gaza.

I have channel-hopped between Cartoon Network and Boomerang keeping my mind away from the misery, the suffering and the lies.

The news has been spun off the realms of information and it has become atrocious propaganda peddling of the most absurd kind, we are expected to believe all sorts of convoluted opinions rather than address the basic facts on the ground.

Addressing legitimacies

The legitimate needs for the nationhood of Israel in some place of approximation derived from some adherence to a holy writ that asserts the promise of Canaan to Abraham and his seed in Biblical times cannot be disputed for all sorts of reasons.

However, the legitimate rights of the people of Palestine who were displaced 60 years ago by the writ of the United Nations where 55% of the land was given to the Jews for the land of Israel and the contemporaneous occupiers then shunted into the remaining 45% without adequate redress cannot be ignored.

This constitutes the powder keg that the Middle East has become and represents how peace would almost be impossible in the Middle East until a man or woman properly weighs those different and critical legitimate concerns and brings an unambiguous, even-handed, visionary and accommodating deal to both sides.

The rhetoric within the history

The whole idea that Israel can be completely wiped off the map by any force or nation is hogwash. It just feeds the rhetoric necessary to run untrammelled through the disputed lands with matchless force in the unattainable quest for peace.

We cannot divorce the creation of the state of Israel from the deep contrition of Europe and the United States for allowing the Holocaust and the compelling expiatory exercise that expedited the creation of Israel without properly negotiated terms for the people of Palestine with respect to the Balfour Declaration of 1917.

It sometimes gives weight to the thought that President Ahmedinejad suggested at one time that a land for the Jews which would probably not be called Israel should really have been created somewhere in Europe rather than in the Middle East.

Is there a new Biblical captivity about?

At the back of my mind I remember the Biblical histories of Jews that suggest that Israel and Judea has always been a nation in flux depending on the relationship of their leaders and the people with God. They were mostly in conflict with the neighbouring tribes and sometimes overrun and taken into captivity until they re-established their relationship with God.

It makes one wonder if the nation is kicking against the goads for another wave of the cycle of Biblical events since the all claims derive from those historical links. It would send a shudder down the spines of all protagonists if the natural ebb and flow of the Jewish nation is interfered with by belligerence that simply exacerbates an untenable situation.

Getting to solutions

This is where the United States has not been a useful broker for peace, brow-beating Palestine into terms they would just have to accept because of the status quo will not kill the aspirations of a people for a land to a call theirs and it would not obliterate the claims of dispossession that others have made for over 60 years.

Be it the 1948 lines, the 1967 lines or the new lines drawn by the wall as a demarcation boundary between Israel and Palestine; some force for good has to be dispassionate about this issue regardless of old allegiances and deliver a plan that all can gather round and all can accommodate with compromise and negotiated for all the people in the dispute.

The Middle East conflict is no more a matter of who is right or who is wrong; the issue of defence and/or revenge is simply symptomatic of a deeper conflict that needs bold and courageous unravelling.

It cannot be assuaged by inaccurate missiles or precision guided missiles – just imagine if Palestine were just as formidably armed as Israel and matched Israel bomb for bomb and missile for missile – I am sure the guarantee of mutual self-destruction would have yielded a kind of peace settlement a long time ago. There are uneven hands in this game.

Between genocide or peace

The implacable extremists (be they settlers, fundamentalists or terrorists, they are all undesirable for peace in the Middle East ) on both sides have to be made to see the futility of efforts for better offers to the majority of the people on sides of the conflict.

In the end, tanks and amazing military force can destroy buildings, institutions and kill people but if anyone thinks the bullets and bombs of one mighty nation seeking peaceful co-existence can subjugate a cause just as passionate as it draws support and the compassion from humanity and deny the legitimate yearnings of a people for land, peace, justice and fairness – you will need a genocide worse than the Holocaust to achieve that.

The war must stop.

References

Blogs on Israel

The rebirth of Palmitos Park

Was good the first time

I first went to Palmitos Park [1] just over 4 years ago in the company of a female couple who had broke away for a week of passion from a loveless marriage and a hateful mother.

We had such a wonderful day and walking through the park was such an experience, I always wanted to visit again.

The fury of a sacking

Then in July 2007 fires viewable by satellite engulfed forests of Gran Canaria and destroyed about 70% of the park where some of the rare animals also perished.

The fire was an arsonist attack by someone who had been laid off and whilst someone demanded the death penalty for his outrageously heinous and destructive act that caused untold amounts of suffering and huge compensatory bills a more serious matter was ignored.

The fact that in many cases a person’s job is the centre of their stability and sanity, they are humans first, with feelings, responsibilities and concerns which if not properly addressed in the management and administrative desires to streamline, downsize and restructure can lead to irreparable consequences.

Open again for business

The proprietors of Palmitos Park immediately took on the task of rebuilding the park and bringing it back to its former glory with even more to show to amuse, impress and enthral.

The park opened again to the public on the 4^th of August 2008 and I decided I would visit again to see the place and see how it had recovered.

Set in grounds, well, not grounds but a gorge that has been landscaped in a melding of nature and human influence covering about 200,000 square metres, it is mainly a botanical garden and an aviary, but there are mammals, reptiles and fish there too.

Crazy thoughts and amazing results

The best part of an afternoon can easily be spent there, taking you to elevations so high with breath-taking views and then into deep gullies all accessible with properly sign-posted exhibits around the park.

A site is dedicated to how much destruction the park suffered and the regeneration process; all the pictures would be uploaded in due course.

One thing I find most fascinating about this park is that many years ago some mad visionary would have prospected for the land to build the park and the land owners might have thought he should be certified.

I chatted to an older couple there and considered how overwhelmed they would have been if they were presented with all that land on an idyllic island to make the magic of an abode talk less of a tourist attraction of international repute and significance.

Taming the landscape

The Canary Islands are full of crazy ideas of 20 or 30 years ago that have become landmarks of the must-see variety, what these people have done is to combine that quality of genius and imagination with the altruistic goal of conservation and produced these amazing attractions.

Like I have written of before architects are no more afraid to build into the hills, gullies and literally untameable landscape; I think the courage to do these things came from the madness that drove the other men to tame landscapes that once looked like they would remain pristine through to eternity.

If you are ever in Gran Canaria, make Palmitos Park a compulsory destination on your itinerary, even if you did nothing else.

Source

[1] Palmitos Park - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hotel life: $1 to swim in Togolese waters

Easy regimen

You may wonder if there is something called hotel life – a life almost regimented but leisurely, where people are paid to be obsequious and even though it could be a luxury you hardly think of it until you return home.

The regimen as far as my hotel is concerned centres around meal times, with breakfast being a free seating arrangement that last until 10:30AM and dinner being two fixed seatings at 06:00PM and 08:00PM in the winter time and thirty minutes later for the summer months with variations for special days.

Hotel life revolves around the comforts and ease of life, the new people you meet, the conversations and stories that ensue depending on where you are staying and long for, the staff that give you recognition and time to even make your stay more pleasurable ensuring that you return again.

Unstable tables

I am now on my third table after first sitting alone in crowded area but without the ability to communicate with neighbouring tables – just because I am alone does not mean I also want to be lonely in a crowd.

So, I let the maître d’hôtel know that I would prefer to seat where I could interact with other guests over dinner and he went one better that I am now sat with couples that speak English.

Almost 7 days through my holiday they needed to join up tables for a group of 7 and had successfully kicked me off to a lone table unbeknownst that it was the New Years Eve gala, by then the first couple had left and they seized the opportunity to make me an unwilling participant in a their musical chairs charade – once I cottoned on what they were up to, I remonstrated; kept my table and still ended up isolated – the guests on other adjoining tables had left too.

After that day, I was assigned another table that would be mine for the rest of my holiday, 2 tables in the open with a couple occupying the adjoining table for that duration of time.

Hampshire recordings

The first couple; say Paul and Penny were from Hampshire and ran a scientific video management company; it was their first time at the Riu Palace Maspalomas and they were on holiday for a week.

We were talking about embryology, in-vitro fertilisation and animal testing for a while as they also produce educational video for medical purposes. They seemed to be quite well travelled very knowledgeable and regaled me with their adventures of sailing in storms, mountain climbing and other hair-raising stuff.

They probably were in their late fifties had been married 30 years and they would have enriched the lives and experiences of anyone who encountered them – it was a pleasure to have them for company.

unClassy looks in Nottinghamshire

At my next table and next couple, it was their second time at the hotel and they had been around for over a week on a 2-week holiday and I was to spend 5 nights with them. Robin and Rachel ran two companies, one to do with light haulage and the other to do with “classy” furnishings in Nottinghamshire.

They were going to celebrate their 27^th wedding anniversary and though they were an interesting couple it was obvious that they had worked hard to arrive where they were, probably quite hard-nosed and ruthless too.

Robin had piercings and tattoos whilst Rachel would clothes that were quite expressive bordering on the indecent – our conversation never got elevated beyond people, events and ideas were difficult going.

Robin also had the most unadventurous diet, they could not enjoy the New Years Eve gala because it was not roast beef and they returned from the fusion kitchen because he could not stomach what was on offer.

I was tempted and voiced the idea of taking Rachel to an exclusive Spanish restaurant whilst sending Robin off to ten-pin bowling – nice people in general though they had so much to complain about the hotel I thought I was staying in another one.

Retired but not tired

Now, I am with William and Ingrid, they must be in their mid to late seventies and they are here for 2 months. Ingrid has limited mobility but she is able to get around.

As I initiated conversation, I learnt they were from Kent, in fact, William had been retired for 23 years having retired at 53 – now there aren’t many who can confidently retire at that age today.

William used to work in the City running training programmes for accountancy firms and within the accountancy professional body, this made the conversation quite engaging because my father is an accountant, a fellow of the professional body and had won the Foulks-Lynch prize in 1969.

That impressed William no end as he said my father would have been a very smart and intelligent man considering that was one of the most competitive at that time.

We talked about how the accountancy profession had changed and the names then had merged or disappeared – Deloitte, Haskins & Sells, Coopers & Lybrand, Arthur Andersen were examples.

The private seas of Togo

One story that was as astonishing as it was laughable was one where they joined a working freighter travelling the world and docked at the main port in Togo. Whilst they were still out at sea, they were asked if they wanted to take a dip in the sea to which Ingrid happily assented.

In the evening at dinner, a representative of the Togolese tourism board arrived in the company of the captain and asked everyone who had swum in their sea meaning Togolese waters to raise their hands.

For all hands raised, he demanded a dollar each, William had no change and offered a $10 bill which the representative tried to pocket without offering change – William refused to give up the $10 bill and successfully persuaded everyone else not to pay the greedy opportunist official.

But then most tourism organisations in Africa are there to discourage, dissuade and frustrate prospective tourists and like they learnt from some remote Brazilian port – no tourists, no banditos.

I think we are going to have some really interesting conversations at dinner, I have 5 more nights of that.

The three kings are in Spain

Today is the Epiphany (Pertaining to the visit of the magi with gifts to baby Jesus) holiday in Spain and going to the reception yesterday I ask for the opening hours of El Corte Inglês the huge shopping concern in Las Palmas and they were going to be open ntil midnight.

Epiphany in Spain is very much like the English Boxing Day when we are supposed to open our presents but most people do that on Christmas Day now due to a lack of knowledge of traditions and purposes of those days.

On receptionist gave me that information and this is where Javier the Duty Manager is a class act, he said it was better for me to visit Las Palmas on Thursday. Epiphany Eve is usually full of shoppers that roads have to be closed off; the shops would be heaving and it would probably be a harrowing experience.

I took his advice and well, I am off to Tenerife on Wednesday.

Hotel life: Sometimes highly fed and lowly taught people

Elvis lives

Hotel life also brings another dimension to the observation of people. Many of these people one would not meet in the course of everyday life.

The hotel provides all sorts of entertainment, imitation acts of the Drifters, the Platters, Abba and Boney M, then serious stuff like Flamenco dancers who really have to perform or the Chinese acrobats who do daring-do things almost beyond belief.

The obligatory Elvis Presley in his dying years, it makes you wonder if you can really take anyone in an Elvis costume and hair-do seriously, all that hip gyration, the mock hiccup and the leg in an epileptic fit, at least he did not end up singing Heartbreak Hotel.

Ghetto skins and rotten kids

The dress code at dinner seems a bit dumbed-down, men are supposed to be in smart casual with long-sleeved shirts but many appear in jeans and T-shirts.

Tattoos all over the body the face escaping pin-torture but no different from an inner-city graffiti wall, if it were any more appealing one would have one’s head in a sick bag for hours.

When we were kids we behaved, but the kids of today run around the place, holler at the top of their voice the unruly brood of a highly fed and lowly taught parenthood you cannot blame the kids entirely but the resulting adult of such an upbringing would be a nasty plague on society.

I scream for brandy

One other place the observation of hotel life is amusing is at the show desert table where the chef serves ice cream some hot fruit and dashes of brandy or some other strong drink.

The fruit is usually not in the debate, it is more the ice cream or the brandy where the guest battles between serving the sweet tooth or getting smashed with drink – in one instance Penny just did the fruit and the loads of brandy, she had us believe that the sauce was more syrup that alcohol – we believed her – Not!

So, the guests gesticulate for ice-cream, accept a piece ot two of fruit and then play dumb for the whiskey or brandy and finally with contritely pretension almost suggest it is too much with the waving of the hands and a big chuckle – free brandy, let’s get legless – I read from their eyes.

Living up to great aspirations

Quite fascinating stuff but we still have the lobsters and pandas to contend with; sunburnt to medium-rare and sunglasses blotting out the even tanning to the eyes – a spectacle of utter disdain – sometimes one does wonder if the hotel is losing its sophistication or many more just have the money to pay into their aspirations of the circle of decent people.

Meanwhile, the few who have been staying here for years find ways to make management know that things are not like they used to be; spare a thought for William and Ingrid from my last blog who when they first came to this island some 40 or so years ago, the site of this hotel was a rubbish dump – things are really not like they once were.

That is how hotel life changes.