Egypt & Jordan - A trip to treasure

Every trip is an adventure and so Saritha and I set of on another one this November to Egypt and Jordan. 10 planes,14 days, 9 stops, a million laughs and a world of excitement.

November 3
JFK from Dulles International on board Jetblue. These folks can teach those idiots who run United, Delta and American….talk about service back in America. Kudos Jetblue! A 5 hour wait for our red eye on Royal Jordanian through Amman, Jordan to Cairo Egypt. If anybody ever has to catch a flight from JFK’s Terminal 4 and want to grab a bite/drink @ the Bar Avion…Don’t! They are not nice to say the least….I know folks in NY tend to be rude and abrupt, but I would expect better treatment of patrons at a restaurant. The lady playing hostess should find a different line of work. The Royal Jordanian service is excellent, wonderful attitude of the onboard crew…again I would get them to tutor those idiots who run United, Delta and American. 12hours later we are in Amman’s Queen Alia Airport. Saritha manages to finagle our way in to the business lounge to wait another 4 hours for our flight to Egypt. The allure of “free” beer, snacks in a business lounge in an airport always makes me thirsty and hungry…even after 12 hour flights. An hour & half plane ride later we land at Cairo’s International Airport on Nov 4 about 10pm local. No jetways here but an old rickety bus that drags our tired behinds to the terminal. We proceed to the visa counter, where we pay $15/visa sticker to a bored official who barely looks at our passports while continuing to smoke. I know we are in for some fun in this country. Quick immigration and of to collect our baggage….this is where it hits us smack in the face. The Egyptians love their “bakshish”(tips), they will not fart in the wind with out someone paying them bakshish. One kind lady in our group is harassed at the baggage carousel where the porter wont let her collect her bags with out tips….so after some drama and our local baby sitter getting involved we are hustled to our bus for the ride to our hotel. We drive though the Heliopolis suburb of Cairo, that is clearly affluent, home to their army, president and other assorted rich folks. Also located here is the home of the founder/builder Baron Empain of this neighborhood built in the shape of a Hindu temple for his Indian bride. Let me caveat something here…every story we heard is apparently a “theory” and after 14 days on this adventure, I am convinced no body really knows much about Egypt, short of some speculation, some intelligent, but mostly fantasy. As an example all my research indicates that Baron Empain did not have an Indian bride but was fascinated by the temples in Cambodia and Orissa, India…so really who knows what possessed the Belgian to build a house in the shape of a Hindu Temple in Cairo at the turn of the last century….more theories are welcome. The Cairo Sheraton where we stayed is on the Nile and we had a wonderful view of the water and the streets.

November 5 - Alexandria (pictures)
6am breakfast of the local fare, I particularly enjoyed the fetter, a fava bean dish that is cooked for several hours and eaten with Pita. Yogurt is particularly important to immunize your tummy to the local cuisine. The tea here though was Lipton, actually tasted very good. We head to Alexandria after breakfast, the city that is supposed to have been commissioned by Alexander the Great to be his capital, but one he never goes to see due to his death. Alexandria is about 220KM northwest of Cairo on the Mediterranean sea. The drive is pleasant with our guide Ahmed, who was recently married (2weeks) and is blissful of the world. Very smart kid with a great attitude and lot of passion for his history. He keeps his commentary alive about the history of Egypt from the pharaoh’s until the current time for Saritha and I, as I keep my ears in the car and my eyes on the scenery…mostly desert, but some vegetation on the north-north east that is part of the Nile delta. He however won’t say anything negative about Hosni Mubarak, their president and has an interesting definition of democracy…”Its democracy if you can vote”. I still think people disappear if they speak ill about their president in Egypt. Alexandria while the 2nd capital of Egypt, is a typical 3rd world city with the contradiction of poverty and affluence residing side by side. We see a lot of people just sitting around drinking tea and smoking….just like I imagined. Our 1st visit is to Kom-El_Shuqafa, catacombs. This necropolis was discovered by a wayward donkey after years of excavation had failed in 1900’s. It was considered a wonder of the middle ages, a place to hide bodies so the Christians did not mess with it, oh so morbid. We then head on to Amud El Sawari (Pompei’s pillar) and the current ruins reside on the original acropolis and was part of a temple. The last stop is the Roman theater also called Kom al-Dikka. Not a lot to write about the ruins here, but suffice to say we were about to see a lot of ruins, both Egyptian and Roman. Those of you wondering about the famous ancient wonder of the world, the Lighthouse of Alexandria…well it disappeared 3,000 thousand years ago by way of an earthquake. Well nobody told me about it and I was going to get into a fist cuff with our travel agent about it since it was not on my itinerary!!! Well that done, lunch at Aethonos, a typical tourist lunch place where the food was just about palatable washed down with the local brew Stella that was barely cold. We stop by the new library which is the 2nd largest in the world near the site of the ancient library that was burned down by Julius Caesar in one of his battles to control Egypt….the real cause is not definitive. Sight seeing done, we head back to Cairo. One of the world problems I am very keen on seeing solved is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, simply because I do not understand how as a people with more similarities than differences they are unwilling to forget the past and look forward and live together (United States of Palestine & Israel). So I ask Ahmed what he thinks and if the problem will be resolved, since all Arabs think they have a stake. I was disappointed that Ahmed did not see an end in sight. If a young man like Ahmed still prefers to look back, feels his brothers in Palestine are being hurt, the problem continues to self-propel itself. But more about that another time. We return to Cairo and face its traffic for the 1st time. It is bad, it is worse than any I have seen in LA, NY, DC, Manila, Jakarta or even Bangalore….they drive all over, honk and it is a true circus. The trip that took less than 3 hrs in the morning took well over 4 hrs to get back.

A fascinating aspect of life in Cairo. 90% of the housing is not painted with bars sticking out, looking unfinished. Apparently the property tax is applicable to only finished dwellings, so the creative Caironess prefer to keep the outside of their dwellings unfinished so they do not have to pay taxes. Wonder if that would fly here state side……….

November 6 - Giza and Cairo (pictures)
This is the big day…the day of the Pyramids. Saritha and I finish breakfast and wander across the Nile. The Nile that flows through Cairo is fairly thin but thickly polluted. We see families living in boats and on the filth of the shores, it is rather sad spectacle. Back to the hotel to catch our tour bus to see the great pyramids of Giza. The 30 minute drive is uneventful but for the drone of our guide who claims to be an Egyptologist. My 1st view of the pyramids is from inside the bus as we take a turn and boy I was quite thrilled. We drive on to the park that houses the great pyramid of Giza also called the Pyramid of Khufu’ and the pyramid of Cheops, the two Pharaohs of the 4th dynasty. We stop by at a spot past the pyramids to take in the panoramic views as well as the standard touristy pictures. Then come the standard camels for the tourists to ride. These were nasty smelly camels, that spit at me…..that was that with us riding them. We drive the 1/2mile back to the pyramid and get a chance to crawl in to the Khufu’ pyramid. It really is a tunnel 3.5 by 3.5meter wide and some 75 feet long that allows 2 way traffic, those going in to the tomb and those crawling out at the same time. I chicken out after about 15 steps, but my brave Saritha soldiers on. The only consolation for me was that the tomb is a bare room and so I did not miss anything. More pictures and then a short drive to the Sphinx. To me the Sphinx was not as large as I expected but nevertheless quite the construction. The Sphinx is the protector of this necropolis of current Giza, which is on the west bank of the Nile. What I gathered is that all necropolis is on the west of the Nile where the sun sets and the acropolis or city of the living on the east bank where the sun rises. More pictures of the Sphinx, more theories of why the nose is missing from blaming Napolean’s bombs to Christians or Moslems, can’t remember which exactly, but were/are opposed to any sort of idol worship and defaced the Sphinx to dissuade the citizens from worshipping the Sphinx. On the tour bus to a jewellery stop for those who want to buy a Khartush, a flat pendent with your name written in hieroglyphics. Then we go to On the Run by Exxon Mobil….apparently it is a cool place to eat for the locals, yeah and no ham sandwiches. Then Saritha and I peel of on our own to go check out Cairo. 1st stop is the Citadel that was constructed by Saladin (Salāḥ ad-Dīn) in the 12 century AD to protect the city from the crusaders. The citadel now houses a couple of mosques including the famous Mohamed Ali mosque that looks identical to the blue mosque in Istanbul minus 2 minarets. The citadel also gave us some spectacular views of the city through the dusty haze of the afternoon. Out in the distance we could see the great pyramids, but just barely. Getting in to the citadel was quite the challenge as we went on a Friday it was crowed. We had to fight the locals to buy our tickets that were higher since we are foreigners and the signs were in Arabic, then the metal detector failed, so the crowd became even more antsy with a lot of pushing and showing. Then we spot another foreign tour group getting in and we snuck in to that group and made our way in. Egypt has a federal organization called Tourism and Antiquities whose mission as I understand is to protect their treasures while making the sights tourist friendly. While generally speaking they have done ok, there is plenty more for these folks to do. We then catch a rattle trap that makes for a local cab, negotiate a lousy rate for me and drive to the Egyptian museum. One of the advantages to be of Indian origin when traveling overseas from the states is that you are less likely looked as an ATM and that you’re a pain in the ass negotiator, so the local hawkers leave you alone since you are not worth the pain to them to sell. It was apparent again here in Egypt that this theory holds true. Our cab drops of on the other side of a 6 lane main street, which means 12 vehicles pass at the same time in all directions in Cairo. It was an adventure crossing the road…..& the cab man suddenly forgot to speak his broken English when I asked that he deposit us across the street. I think there is a hell only for cabbies somewhere. The Egyptian museum should be taken over by the Smithsonian in my opinion. The treasures are poorly maintained, catching dust and very badly displayed. The entrance to the museum is 35 Egyptian pounds (LE), however if you want to see the royal mummies, you have to shell another 100 local monies. At $1= LE 5.5, it is not a lot, but I find it strange that they would scam tourists this way. In any case we wanted to see it all, so we go to the 2nd floor mummy display area, buy our tickets and go in to see the mummies. I think for 5 thousand years, those dead guys looked well preserved. I counted 13 mummies, including the famous Pharaoh Ramses II, his kids, III and IV as well as other assorted pharaohs. There was one queen in the lot, queen Hatshepsut who married her 5 year old nephew and went to war with him later. The museum holds all the treasures from King Tutankhamun’s tomb including his famous mask. That mask is something else. Since the museum won’t allow pictures, I had to check in my camera before I got in and hence no pictures of the mummies or the mask. The museum has 100’s of sarcophagi and coffins, it is amazing. It is amazing that the Egyptians spent so much time thinking about their after life, it is morbid. There is no evidence of anything they did or built for their people or their life’s in their current times, just tombs, temples and more tombs. We cab it back to the hotel to meet our new friends Noel and Midge from Toronto for dinner. We head to a restaurant that is supposed to serve local cuisine called Felfela. We allow our waiter to order food for us since it is all Egyptian. The mezza is pretty good, but the main course was let us say interesting. Egypt has 2 beer’s Stella and Sakkarra. They are both good and generally come in 500ml bottles, I liked that very much….the size that is. I could look Saritha in the eye and say I only had 2 beers….I don’t think she caught on to that. The Egyptians are really greedy about their tips, despite adding 12% to the check, our waiter friend seemed to want more. When we requested he take a picture, he refused….what a guy!!!

November 7 - Luxor (pictures)
We wakeup @ 4am to get to the airport to catch a 7am to Luxor an hour or so south of Cairo. Since they did not seat Saritha and I together, we went back to get different seats and got new boarding cards with new gate information…the rest of the group where heading to an unused gate and potential sat there forever. Saritha saves the day! The visibility is poor in Cairo and delays our plane until 8.30am. We land at Luxor which is on the east bank of the Nile, the city of the living. We take a short ride by coach to our boat, the Tamar Henna, that we will be on for the next 4 nights as we cruise the Nile. The boat is good and our digs are plenty nice as well with a little balcony. In typical Egyptian fashion and is true since we got to Egypt the check in process is complicated and inefficient….they keep up to that low standard as we sit around on the boat. Lunch is on the boat and then we head to the Luxor temple. This temple was built by a series of Pharoahs from Hatshepsut, Tuthmosis III. The main part of the temple - the colonnade and the sun court were built by Amenhotep III, and a later addition by Rameses II. Now I do caution, none of this is definitive, but a best guess from all the Egyptologists. This temple is filmed in the “Mummy Returns” with all those wonderful giant columns. The temple complex is quiet large and it takes us over 2 hours to get through it. Next stop is the Karnak Temple. The Karnak temple is smaller in size to the Luxor temple and is connected by the avenue of the sphinx. They have excavated about 200 odd sphinx’s but there are plenty more to go before the avenue is opened up. Well preserved temple with some odd ball theories about it. On the way back to the boat we stop at a papyrus place to learn how papyrus is created and how Egyptians believe it is they who invented paper and not the Chinese.

November 8 - Valley of the Kings (pictures)
We wake up on the Nile, lovely feeling that. Post breakfast we travel to the Valley of the Kings. This is where several generations of Pharaohs have been entombed in tombs carved in to the walls of the mountains. The tomb entrances are typically through hallways any where from 40 feet to more than 100 feet, with a lot of decorations that include colorful carvings in the wall. No pictures are allowed here in the valley because it would increase the crowding of tourists but also the flashes could harm the colors. We see the tombs of Ramses III and IV/V which are spectacular with the decorations, such a pity no cameras were allowed. The tomb of King Tut is here as well with his mummy but we decide to skip based on the fact that the tomb is really bare, something about the tomb being built for a high priest but since King Tut died young, it was repurposed. His mummy is there though in the original sarcophagus. On the other side of the valley of the kings is the temple of queen Hatshepsut, which where we drive to. The temple is remarkable both in its construction but also the level to which it has been preserved. The temple, specifically the upper tier is carved in to the mountain and the 2 other lower tiers built on it. MY 1ST view of the temple was in the foreground of the peak of the valley of the king and looked like a brown version of the Dalai Lama’s palace in Lhasa, Tibet. Visit done we return to our boat for lunch while sailing the Nile. The Nile is exactly as I imagine, very calm waters, with palm trees dotting the banks, the poor villagers making a living out of their little farms, children and farm animals in the waters. Post lunch our guide takes time to talk to us about life in Egypt as an Egyptian. I heard a proud Egyptian’s propaganda of how wonderful living in Egypt is and women have all the freedom’s of the world and that CNN reports all BS!....I see the worlds people making a beeline to this utopia. As the evening wears on we close upon a couple of river locks that will take us from lower Nile to upper Nile, we are surrounded by water bound hawkers who throw plastic wrapped scarfs and shawls 50 feet high to us standing on the upper deck of our boat in order get us to buy their wares. Another fascinating day in Egypt on the Nile.

November 9 - Edfu & Kom Ombo (pictures)
Today is our 1st relax scheduled day of the tour, just 2 temples one before lunch and one after and mostly sailing up the river (Nile is the only river that flows south to north in the world) to Aswan, where lies the famous High Dam. The first temple of the day is to Edfu. As with any temple in Egypt we get a long explanation of what the Egyptologist think it could have been built for. This one is for Ptolemy II’s coronation while depicting his fight with his uncle, who murdered his father. A replica of the boat used in the fight is in sanctuary. The walls show carvings of the fight and also what looks like a pig. Our guide would not admit that those were pigs but rather hippo’s. Not sure 5K years ago if Hippo’s waded the waters of Nile or not, but surely he did not want to admit pigs lived in a muslim land even during the pagan worshiping ancient Egyptians…oh well. Back to the boat for some more sailing to Kom Ombo, another temple on the bank of the Nile. This is in the context of Egyptian temples, a modern temple that took 450 years to complete but was ruined in a large earth quake in 14AD. More columns, ruins and hieroglyphics. The temple looks nice in the twilight of the dusk and I have some pictures to prove it. Oh one very interesting discovery Noel and I make….we see a stone breast for the 1st time on a temple carving. Still wondering about that.

November 10 - Abu Simbel (pictures)
Early morning we catch an Egypt Air plane to Abu Simbel from Aswan. The 1 hour plane ride over desert Egypt resembles the grand canyon from the air, except it looks more brown. The Abu Simbel temple is about 200 meters upland from its original location, which is submerged under Lake Nasser. The original temple was broken in to 17 thousand pieces and then rebuilt at its current location. The main temple for King Ramses II is essentially carved in to the side of the mountain and has a grand look to it with 4 large sitting King Ramses statues greeting you. A 2nd temple about 100 feet to its right pays homage to the cow goddess through queen Nefertari. The temples are both on the banks of the giant man made lake of lake Nasser. We spend about 90 minutes on the grounds of Abu Simbel before catching our plane back to Aswan for lunch. Post lunch we get a couple of Felucca’s (local sail boats) on the Nile of Aswan for little gander around the Elephantine island. Any interaction with Egyptians as a tourist always ends in them trying to sell you something and so it is repeated on our felucca. At a landing location close to downtown Aswan we get back on land and walk to the local souk (market) for some shopping. Our guide leads the way as we make our way through the many local streets, interesting sights all through with typical Coke, Pepsi, McDonalds and other symbols of American capitalism every where….the hypocrisy of hating America but liking everything about continues to baffle me. The Aswan souk is remarkably quiet, nothing like the Khan El Khalili market in Cairo. The Egyptian hawkers have learnt that western tourists do not like to be hassled while shopping so, their new tag line is “Hassle free shopping”, all this while they pester you to buy. Saritha and I go a little overboard at the local spice store and buy more spices than we really need. Once we are done shopping we head back to the boat by way of a local cab, now that was an interesting trip. This is another cab that is held together by duct tape and smells strongly of gas and he goes weaving in & out of traffic made up of other crazy cabs like him, horse carts and more. It was relief to see our boat and to be back on it for dinner and a belly dance show. As the night winds through I wonder about this oldest civilization and how little they have accomplished despite having a head start. What gives Egypt?

November 11 - Aswan (pictures)
Today we head back north to Cairo, but before that there are 3 stops to make in the Aswan area. The first is the location of the unfinished obelisk. Now there are 2 theories about this, the first is that there was a workers strike and they up and left and the second is that due to the structure of the granite, the obelisk could not be raised and so was left unfinished. Either ways I do not understand the concept of an obelisk. Next stop is to the island temple of Philae. We get on a boat to get to the temple and YES!!! the boat man sure as you can be tried selling more jewellery and assorted crap to us and Saritha almost fell prey to it. The Philae temple is typical of Egyptian temples and we are templed out this point….so while we learn this is one of 18 temples like Abu Simbal to have been relocated due to the creation of lake Nasser and other random theories about the temple, we are looking to move on. So of to the High Dam of Aswan the was responsible for Lake Nasser where pictures are not allowed, but they dont really care. 2 hour plane ride from Aswan returns us to Cairo. The airport hotel drive is close to as long as it took to get to Cairo from Aswan. By the time we get to the hotel we are cooked!. However Saritha and I are itching for the local fare and some of our new friends tell us about Taaza, a hole in the wall near the Sheraton we are at that serves some real good food. Saritha and I decide to head there. As we are crossing the street, my peripheral vision picks up a well dressed Egyptian crossing the street opposite us and doing a double take to return back to the side of the street we are on and strike a conversation with me….yes, his father has a store behind the gas station and he would really like us to go see it….right! I shooo him off and walk about ½ mile to the Taaza, where a kind waiter decides that we may need an English menu after all. Once we order, we settle to wait. A lady in her 40’s walks in with her kid and is looking to find a spot to sit, so I offer to make space for her. So in return for my kindness she decides she needs to talk to me. Her 1st question is if I am a Nubian!!!....Nubian’s are Egyptian/Sudanese people in the current times, you are particularly dark with curly hair….none of which I am, but Saritha thinks this hysterical. So I tell the Egyptian lady I am “Ameriki”, ah! She says something in Arabic which I think means ATM, because next thing she wants me to buy her and her little brat dinner. 10 minutes of this nonsense, we get our food and we are out of there. Now just as we are crossing the street, Saritha and I notice a boy playing on the other side of the street, but looking at us he crosses in a jiffy and he has tears streaming down his face and he wants money. In 30 minutes we see a very sad face of Egyptian life of deception….man, woman and child, it did not matter.

November 12 - Amman (pictures)
We checkout of our hotels and on to the coach for our ride to the airport and on to Amman, Jordan. Fairly uneventful ride to the airport, quick security, if that is what the Egyptian likes to call it, immigration and on to duty free…where thanks to Bo my wonderfully eclectic friend we find that they are selling beer for $1/can….so Noel and I hustle over and buy them all, though not much was left thanks to Bo in the 1st place. 3 hour later we are in Amman and driving south on the desert highway to Wadi Musa (Petra). This was not before I had to hit the ATM in the airport to get some Jordanian Dinar (JD), which by the way equals about $0.70/ 1 JD…very hard to think of the green back lower than any other, but even more so in Jordan whose GDP of $31B is less than that of lowest GDP states like MT, ND, ME etc. The desert highway is just that, tarmac through the heart of the Jordanian desert. We stop a rest place that also sells dead sea products and all of a sudden I had a very happy wife. We reach Wadi Musa, the little town outside the famous Petra park and check in to our resort of Beit Zaman that is really a restored ancient village. Very nice setting in the middle of the valley and the sun going down while watching the olive trees in the far.

November 13 - Petra (pictures)
The grand day of playing Indian Jones is here…I am back in my Arab garb, ready for any adventure. Our guide Rabee very kindly helps tie my …….correctly and then we head in to the park. Petra he claims was along the silk route and was used by the merchants to rest before they headed of to Istanbul. I am not convinced since this area is particularly inhospitable and is filled with tombs like it would be a necropolis. So more theories and hypothesis as we walk through the gorge. The colors of the rock and facades that have been carved in to the side of the mountains is just wonderful…well worth the visit and then some more. We walk ½ mile to the dam and the beginning of the “Siq”, the actual gorge where the Romans carved water channels in the walls of the gorge. ½ mile through the gorge and some indescribable scenes later, we come to a small opening (yes play this music while you read this part...) we come upon the awesome site of the treasury. The treasury is the tomb of a Nabataean king and the rumor was that there was treasury in the façade that now stands destroyed and one can see bullet marks left by the Bedouins and other rogues. This famous site is best seen and less written about. We stop and take more pictures than I have of any vista and then walk further on to see other facades and the amphitheater. It is all very breathtaking and I must say the Jordanians have maintained well. On the way back, I walk but Saritha gets on a horse for the trudge back. Petra done we drive back to Amman where we spend the night. Saritha had heard of another hole in the wall setup in Amman called Reem that is famous for its lamb wraps and has attracted the royal family. So we decide that for dinner, but before we know the entire group of about 15-20 has congregated in Bo’s room and we are ordering for wraps while Megan orders cup cakes. We head out to pick up the 20 wraps that we ordered, wait a while watching this operation. The lamb is on a vertical rotating spit slowly being cooked, one guys shaves the meet, another opens a pita puts hummus, tomatoes, onions and a bunch of meat on it while the 3rd wraps it. A wrap takes 30 seconds to make and $2.50 each with the cab fare. While this was fascinating, I was left wondering what was so special since it was a little to dry for me.

November 14 - Jerash & Amman (pictures)
Our penultimate day in Jordan has us going north for an hour to Jerash from Amman (Philadelphia in the Roman times), one of the Decapolis (10 cities) of the Roman period. Jerash’s claim to fame is that it is the best preserved ruins outside of Rome and I must agree with that though I have not seen all of the Roman ruins. Jerash’s “cardo maximus” or main street is remarkably well preserved where one can see the chariot wheel markings, however the “Decumanus Maximus”, the east west street not so much. The amphitheater is really in a good shape too and I climbed it all the way up to get some fascinating views. This is also a city supposedly visited by Jesus Christ. There are more columns, fountains, temples, and gates…lets not forget those admirable Roman gates. Lunch is delicious and very Jordanian and then we drive back to Amman for more sights. The first one here is the citadel where one gets a chance to see Amman being built on 7 hills, a so wonderful panoramic view. We then drive down through the city to another amphitheater that is about good looking as the one in Jerash. We also get some time to shop in downtown Amman, where remarkable none of the shop keepers bother us, in fact their tactic is to ignore us. At one shop where we checking out the typical arab tops women wear…I asked after the price, the shop keeper told me “that is not important” and proceeded to show the garment to Saritha, very smooth I thought. The last nights dinner is with our new wonderful friends Betty and Bud at an Iraqi restaurant names Zad El Khair. Apparently this is the best Iraqi food outside of Iraq. Since Saritha chose the fish, a carp from the Jordan river we went to choose it. The chef once we chose the fish, so non challantly picked it out of the tank and dropped it on the floor….talk humane fishing! That aside I must say the food, their hospitality and the ambience was a wonderful way to wrap our vacation.

November 15
Time to bid Good Bye to Egypt and Jordan. I stop to think how different these two Arab neighbors are, one so pleasant the other so chaotic. Both with such enriching histories, so much turmoil but yet so much potential. I wish the people and these lands much peace and prosperity and despite minor challenges, recommend a visit to all my friends. Those altruistic thoughts done, on to a 12hour plane ride from Queen Alia to JFK…….with thoughts of the next adventure on top of the mind and a screaming kid in the background.

The United States of Israel and Palestine

Consider this setting; Jerusalem, Israel, its a little after dusk one early June in 2005. An Arab gentleman settled in the US, an American Jew who had immigrated to Israel, an Israeli Jew and me an Indian Hindu settled in the US are sitting together at a roadside cafe to share a dinner meal. All of us come from different places, practice different religions, different educations, variety of political ideals, yet we had a wonderful meal and a great conversation. The fact that Jerusalem was (& continues to be) in turmoil with its Arab neighbors had no visible or perceptible impact to the dinner party. Our discussions were wide ranging that I can not recall it, but I do remember that it was warm, friendly and that we left smiling and happy.

That incident has since been playing at the back of my mind, never quite clear why until recently I realized that the dinner was about "Unity" of mind, needs and spirit.

When President Obama went to Cairo to deliver what turned out to be yet another articulate and passionate argument for the world at large to change the way it goes about its business, it struck me that perhaps the way everyone seems to be heading towards a solution for the Israeli-Palestinian is actually wrong. Yes it is a cliché! But the reality is that this multi-flavored single dimensional solution to an age old problem is not practical as history has shown us. So my proposal to eliminating the problem is "Unification"...yes, the "United States of Israel and Palestine" and let us not get hung up about whether it should be Israel or Palestine that should come first in the naming convention. The unified state is not by any means a new or radical idea. It has been explored since the mid 1940 under a proposal called “Binational Solution”.

The UN decided in 1947, in its post WWII wisdom to partition Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state, and a UN-administered Jerusalem. Sure enough the Arab states rejected it as is still the case that they have not recognized Israel (sans Egypt and Syria). Israel accepted it and later in 1947 declared its Independence. While the land of Palestine has been fought over for centuries from crusades on to now for religion, power, money and more, I don’t believe there ever has been a victor. However I believe the future has a chance if looked at from a new lens, one that is devoid of too much attachment to the history and the hate that typically is associated with it. As such I will resist going in to anymore history since this essay is forward looking and will defeat the purpose if we look too much in the rear view mirror.

The rational behind the unification idea is essentially a default stemming from the failure of existing proposals;

I. Two state solutions have been proposed, attempted and failed miserably for a variety of reasons.

Since the 1949 Armistice agreements with Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria to the Camp David accord of 2000 between Israel and Palestine, there have been about 7 different treaties that got signatures in addition to several more plans that have been published. The key to all this is that both the Palestinians and Israelis have their own piece of sovereign land and that they exist as peaceful neighbors. Reality is that Israel can never really and truly live peacefully in a region that is intrinsically predisposed to hate it. So while by some miracle of fate, two states are formed the likelihood of sustaining that new reality is flimsy at best. Also I question that if 60 years of treaties and plans have not been able to move the needles, what is the wisdom in continuing to pursue this Two State agenda.

Starting to look at it from a security perspective, Israeli’s will never feel secure as an island nation; surrounded by its enemies. It really does not change anything from today’s status quo. Israel today spends about the equivalent of 8% of their GDP on their defense which is a significant number and that number will continue to grow higher as the sovereign state of Palestine will look at arming itself. A right it will gain with total independence. Add on to that others in the neighborhood will add on to their own spending (2008 est military spending as a percentage of GDP Jordan 8.6%, Saudi Arabia 10%, Iraq 8.5%) which before one knows will turn in to a middle east arms race.. a real nightmare. This will accentuate the instability that will by now be exacerbated by social issues that will worsen, such as

1. Lack of education – Increased government spending on military typically makes education and other social programs a casualty, e.g. Pakistan, Central American banana republics, Iraq (pre “post Saddam”), North Korea.

   

2. Higher unemployment – Considering that spending by the government is taking their money out of the country, the internal economy suffers by way of trade imbalances.
3. Spread of disease – Inherently medical care in the region is not one of any merit, with less money put away for medical care, impacts will hurt the population directly.

End result is the increasing spread of hopelessness amongst the youth, violence, political upheaval and regional instability that will require Arab countries and Israel to take offensive actions against each other as a deflection tactic, i.e Status Quo

Also the fact that the Palestinian territories are not contiguous makes it an inherent challenge to manage. An example is Pakistan and Bangladesh, which were part of one country (Pakistan) though not contiguous, till splitting to form two independent countries.

II. The United States of America faced a fairly similar situation with racial segregation that is solved (& continues to evolve). This is similar in that, 2 large bodies of people differentiating upon something they did not have control over.

The history of the US of A is deeply ingrained in racial segregation that stemmed from slavery. While by way of law segregation has been eliminated and by way of evolved thinking of our good citizens the practices of racial discrimination has been minimized though not completely eliminated, for humans will use racial differentiation as a tool of identification and self actualization and perhaps will always do as any living species does in some form, the key though is that America has progressed under one flag. While the nation's history post independence is over 200 years, the evolution towards true unification of minds and spirits has taken a while and continues to evolve.

A basic lesson from America's history is that people no matter where they come from or what their religious affiliations are or what they do or not for a living can live in reasonable harmony with each other if united. Unification was the key. If the result of the civil war had gone the other way and the confederates had won, we would not have been part of this great nation as ours has turned out to be. Ours is a living testament to unified power.

III. Two state solutions have failed all over the world that was created in a number of different flavors and iterations.

While the failure’s have been for a variety of reasons and the implications of failure plural, the key remains that when one looks at a geographic mass that was and perhaps is homogenized from a people, culture, economics, aspiration, race, food, language, etc. perspective and is then split for political reasons, it can not sustain the division. Let us look at some specific examples of failed two state’s,
a. India-Pakistan: Some may claim this has not failed since the countries have existed for 60 years now albeit with multiple conflicts that both sides claim victory. That India is now a fairly prosperous country laying claim to some of the brightest minds of our contemporary times is not quite the success, since Pakistan's survival as a nation is a doubt now with the Talibanisation of its western regions, their treasury has no money and their people continue to lack education. India's poverty is increasing with its burgeoning population not decreasing with its prosperity. India has no friends in its neighborhood and bears little influence in the new political world. India has not helped Pakistan avoid its impending doom aside from assiduously breaking it up aka Bangladesh.
b. East & West Germany: No argument needed they are one country now.
c. North and South Korea: One a growing, vibrant and prosperous democracy and the other a tottering dictatorial regime with no real economy.
d. North and South Vietnam: No argument needed they are one country as of 1975.

There are others that in the recent time that have formed their own countries like Bosnia, Herzegovina and others. I think it is too early to say much but based on my logic they are doomed to fail.

Further merit to the unification notion is the European Union, which is showing us that economic unification has merit to it and could be viable enough to be expanded towards geographic and political unification. Strobe Tallbott of the Brookings institute in his new book “The Great Experiment” makes a fair argument that the world in 100years will see nationhood as we know abandoned and all states will except one global authority. I am not convinced, but 100 years from now is light years in terms of knowledge evolution of people in this internet age, so who knows.

Why I think the United States of Israel and Palestine will be successful;

People – They are essentially the same people. Any one who has walked through the old city in Jerusalem will tell you that while there are separate quarters to the naked eye, if one paid more attention you will see more similarities than differences. The same harsh weather and water scarcity have taught them to adapt in a similar fashion. The foods they eat, the cloths the modern Israeli or Palestinian wears, their worldly aspirations for good education, good life, family etc are identical. They are both in quest for that elusive peace. In addition both their populations are very close in numbers, approximately 5Million each. This ensures that one group does not suffer the vagaries minorities typically tend to suffer. The fact that 130K Israelis live in settlements in West Bank today symbolizes a level of integration, albeit one that is not quite looked at that way yet. However once there is unification and the walls and fences are brought down, the land grabbing usurpers of today will become the friendly neighbors of tomorrow.

Economy – Israel’s economy is fairly robust, with a GDP of $205B in 2008, low inflation and unemployment. It also has the advantage of having some of the brightest minds in the world combined with a can do attitude. Palestine on the other hand has a rather poor economy with a GDP of only $11B, high inflation and very high unemployment. While it may not seem in pure business terms to try to merge a profitable company with an unprofitable one, consider that it is a strategic merger that will help increase substantially the stability of the region which has a direct impact to the economy. Also consider that much of the Palestinian potential has not been leveraged due to the insistent fighting, inherent poor infrastructure and lack of opportunities. The unification will by default correct that, unleashing a very potent potential of the youth of both groups.

Security – To me this is the key driver. Unification will inherently reduce and minimize greatly the tensions in the region, since the enemy is now part of the family and the family takes care of its own. Well even if it is not that dramatic, the motivations for tensions today will cease. Lebanon will have no cause to shoot rockets in to Israel, Palestinians will have no cause to throw rocks, Iranians can stop plotting with the Hamas and so on. The regions political dynamics will change and yes they may find something else to bicker about, but those will be minor compared to where we are currently.

So when the sums of all these parts are looked at holistically, it is hard to see the differences while the similarities stack up exponentially.

Challenges with the unification;

While I am convinced that unification is the only way to progress peace in the region, it is not going to be easy. Here are some challenges that I can foresee;

I. Formation of the government

While the type of government may not be a challenge since they are both democratically elected governments, the challenges will be with the governance model and how the government will be populated. If an Israeli becomes the Prime Minister, will a Palestinian be their Defense Minister? How do the two nations share what were once very closely guarded secrets, a larger issue for the undeclared nuclear Israel? What will be the level of trust? That said we have precedence’s from the unification's of Germany and Vietnam that could be leveraged, though the fact that Israel is a nuclear state does pose a fresh set of challenges. At what stage will all the secrets of both sides be disclosed to the new government and what happens from then on.

Governance of a new country is typically a challenge since processes, procedures, policies, etc need to be developed. However in this case a lot can be leveraged from the two functioning governments, but there will still be challenges in the way every day administration works.

II. True integration of the neighborhoods

It is likely that the true integration of Israeli and Palestinian neighborhoods may never happen. But some level of assimilation is bound to happen by way of free movement of population and basic real estate economics. It is very likely that there will be reconstruction and redevelopment efforts that will occur and attract a mixture of people. Improved economy will help with integration as people of specific income brackets will come together no matter if they were Palestinians or Israelis. So while this challenge is not one different from any where else in the world, its mitigation will occur gradually over time based on social, political and economic progress.

III. Integration of minds and spirits

How do you replace hatred and distrust developed and built over 60+ years with one of trust and common patriotism for a new nation? This is going to be the biggest struggle. On a positive note, this will correct itself with new generations as they will not grow in the tension and the hatred their parents experienced. But the 1^st several years, this is a true challenge that will need some work. Unfortunately I am not aware of precedence’s, short of getting Gandhi, King and Mandela out there on an extended mission. But jokes aside, this is the biggest challenge that will confront the unification.

While there may appear to be more challenges than I can list or articulate, it is certainly a better problem to solve than what happens on a daily basis trying to falsely mitigate the tensions. What sort of life is that?

So for many peace in the middle east has and may remain a joke, but I believe a new look at old ideas is perhaps our best chance of giving peace a real chance.

PS - For anybody set to accuse me of being an idealist here, consider that for a foundation to be built, a level of idealism has to be instilled. The 21^st century did not take nobility of action out, but in a way is forcing us to go back to those roots and admit right and wrong, no matter the consequences. To me the unification of Israel and Palestine is that corner stone, peace to the holy land and prosperity to a tortured population is a much desired outcome and I hope we are closer to it than we care to admit.

The Paris of South America: A travelogue

This is my 1st attempt at a travelogue and so it may be more detailed than folks care about, but it certainly allows me to keep our memories.

My lovely wife Saritha and I decided to get down to Buenos Aires, Argentina for a few days to get away from it all. It was a wonderful trip that started at Dulles International on 5/21 a late Thursday night direct flight to Buenos Aires. We got on a red eye about 10pm and were in Buenos Aires at about 9am the following morning.



Day 1 Friday 5/22 (pics);
Landing was smooth that even Saritha commented. We landed 20 mins ahead of schedule, walked out of the plane with masks. Yes, the Argentines decided that all visitors should don masks to reduce the risk of the swine flu. So masks on, multiple entry forms completed we walked out of the plane in to the immigration lines, which took less than 5mins to be done and out to collect our bags. Then on outside to exchange money. Money exchange is tricky in Argentina since there are limited places that do it and since counterfeit currency is a real menace. Thankfully we do not experience any. With new Argentine peso and feeling 3.5times richer, we went to look for transportation to take us to our downtown hotel. Folks at the information were particularly friendly and so based on information we received, we found a shuttle service from Manuel Tienda that was about 40% cheaper and equally convenient as a taxi. These folks drive in to central bus station in downtown Buenos Aires (San Martin) and then take you by car to the final destination. We arrived at our hotel (Plaza Marriott) in San Martin that was celebrating its 100 yrs and home to one of the top 9 bars in the world (more about that later). We got an early check in and were out of the hotel by 1pm. The weather was beautiful, sunny and 70F in early winter (while beautiful, very worrying from a global climate perspective). There was classical band playing infront of San Martin plaza at the beginning of Florida Ave with close to a hundred appreciators. We grabbed a sandwich from a take away place called Aroma on Av Florida and found a city tour operator. City tour has been our standard form of day 1 recon of any new place we visit in collaboration with a travel book like lonely planet, it gives you a good idea of what we can visit again indepth. A $20/person fare gives us a 4.5 hours tour of both south and northern part of this beautiful city aptly called the Paris of South America. The boulevards are wide (as many as 6 lanes on each side), lovely architectures with tall doors and windows set in the classical European patterns, the buildings are old giving them an even more dignified look. Amongst the stops were the pink presidential palace at the foot of the Plaza de Mayo where we stared at the 2nd floor balcony at length trying to visualize Eva Peron singing "Don't cry for me Argentina". Other spots included La Boca; the bohemian fun town, Recoleta; including the cemetery were Eva Peron is consecrated, then to San Telmo which is known for weekend fairs, Palermo and finally to Peurto Madero; the newly built water front touristic restaurants which is where we went for our 1st dinner. In fact we walked down from the hotel, about a mile or so...proving that BA is a fairly safe city, just need to be aware of your surroundings. We also booked a day trip to go to Colonia in Uruguay by bottom on Sunday. Dinner was all right, very tourist, non of the Argentine flavours except for a small bottle of Malbec (Faber) we polished. One thing to remember is to always have the restaurants call a cab for you vs hailing one on the street, which can be very dicey the folks tell me. Cabs are quite cheap, $1 minimum and a 20min ride could cost up to $6.



Day 2, Saturday May 23(pics);
We wake up late, but rested surely. Breakfast in the hotel, standard international fare, nothing exotic...however I did find a caramel spread; very nice and worth a taste or more. So now we are looking 3 specific things we want to, a. A trip to an estancia (ranch) to meet some gauchos (cowboys), a tango show off-course and trip to Tigre'. The concierge at the Marriott while was helpful it did not quiet get us the tours we were looking for so we stroll down Florida avenue and around and find a tourism office that looks credible and a very friendly and helpful agent. Banks are closed here on Saturday and Sunday and so money exchange is not going to happen, however everyone is happy taking US $'s. About 2pm after a quick take away sandwich again, we are picked up to go to Tiger, north of BA on the banks of Rio De La Plata. We drive to Maipu in the province of Buenos Aires (the province of BA is different from the federal district of BA, the capital) to catch the tourist train that costs 12 times more than the local train (1 peso vs 12peso) to San Sidro. Its a short train ride about 15-20mins if that much. We hang out in San Sidro for about 30mins eating gelato @ Freddo (its worth a try, especially the banana creme), visiting the local cathedral (like any former Spanish colony, there is no shortage of cathedral's) and the fare of crap, uh I mean antiques and other sundries. Then we get on a bus to drive to Tigre which is about 15mins away and then hop on to a catamaran for a 1 hour ride down the river. The banks have very cute homes and the guide tells me they cost between 30-40K US.....yeah I am thinking what you are thinking ;~). Bus ride back in to BA through easy traffic and we are now ready for dinner. Now dinner is a big family and friends thing in Argentina and does not start until late....like 9-10pm (bit of a challenge for me since that is bed time for me). For dinner we head to La Troupe about 20mins by taxi from our hotel in Plaza San Martin. Javier Milstein who manages the restaurant is the quintessential host, who ordered our wines and dinner....all very delicious. This is a typical BA restaurant sans tourists and out of the way, it has trees that grow from inside the restaurant that shoots out of the roof. I definitely recommend the restaurant. The parilla or grilled meats typical come with 10-15 little sides and are replaced with every course. The Malbec's especially from the Mendoza region....oooh, they are giving the Shiraz that I love so dearly a run for their money. Meals are fairly inexpensive and this one cost us about $40 which would have been, I am guessing about $120 or so at home. Taxi ordered by the restaurant takes us back to the hotel, where we find our selves at the Plaza Bar. Apparently Forbes Magazine chose the Plaza Bar as one of the top 9 hotel bars in the world....now I am really not sure why that is. Again not expensive at all, couple of Quilmes (Argentine beer), wines & tips set us back only about $20.


Day 3, Sunday May 24(pics);
An hour's boat ride on the Buquebus ship at Puerto Madero gets us to Colonia in Uruguay. Immigration is in Argentina for Uruguay and vice versa. Its funny to have the Argentine immigration office stamp our passports and then give it to the Uruguayan immigration office sitting right next to him for his stamps. Never seen that before and all so simple and efficient. The ship is big and based on the safety sheet (yes I read that on boats since I can't swim) I figure it can carry about 600 people. Uneventful on the Rio De La Plata which is supposedly the widest river in the world and it certainly seemed liked that gets us to Colonia, Uruguay little past noon. We walk to the historic district through very quiet and quaint streets. There is a slight wind, the trees are shedding in this late fall early winter time, stray dogs lie still in the warm sun as do the few Uruguayans....beautiful all around. Historic Colonia is a typical Spanish town, pretty little houses, bunch of ruins, couple of plaza's (got to have those) and yes couple of cathedral's too. We wander around absorbing this beauty and I wonder why I should not just stay....still don't have that answer and yet I am back home! Its lunch time and so we select this cute restaurant on the water and seat ourselves (you generally seat yourselves unless its crowded and there is a host/hostess around)....10mins go by and nobody comes around, so we leave. Repeat restaurant 2 and 3....perhaps we don't have the patience or were hungry or just don't get that there is no rush in Uruguay & for good reason. Me on the other hand have to be places....yeah right!!! Anyways restaurant 4 greets us and gets us a menu in minutes, sandwich and pizza and big bottle of beer in 10mins, all very tasty & costs us $11 with a handsome tip.....Boy!!! if this recession does not correct fast, we are heading back to Colonia for sure....for good that is. More wandering, but this time towards the ship for a 5.30 cast off. In BA by 6.30pm, walk back to the hotel that is about 1.5miles away. The trip to Uruguay is about 200peso/person, perhaps a little high for an afternoon away, but we enjoyed it very much and highly recommend it. Late night dinner at La Cabrera in the Palermo district which is again not a usual touristy restaurant rather a local eatery. While most restaurants in BA do take reservations, La Cabrera will only do so for an 8.30 pm sitting. Since we were planning on doing what most Porteno's do, i.e eat after 9.30pm we arrived at the restaurant without reservation. The hostess very kindly took our names down and offered champagne while we waited on the sidewalk with about 10 others who had arrived there before us. She offered us some hors d'oeuvre still on the sidewalk. While we waited and new guests arrived, we are surprised by the way folks were being seated, there was really no pattern or logic. So close to an hour in to our wait and 2 glasses of very bad tasting champagne, Saritha decides to act. She goes in and sits in the foyer and tells the hostess she is tired, all while the hostess is telling everyone it would take another 30 mins. The hostess quickly returns and seats us!..moral: If you want a seat in a BA restaurant, feign tiredness. The meal was good, the wine was excellent and the desert of chocolate ice cream and truffles had me die and go to heaven. This was probably the priciest meal we had in BA and cost about $50, which would cost us $150 at home. Oh just to clear the air, the reason I did not catch a cab to go elsewhere in a huff for making us wait for an hour was that we were having fun talking to other guests, commenting on an older gentlemen make a meal of the hors d'oeuvre, reused peanuts and olives, the Aussie bloke who was the only one in shorts on a chily night......so do try La Cabrera, but know you know what to expect. Oh by the way that hostess was so calm and smiling all the time and did not let any pressure get to her. I wish I could learn that from her. Again restaurant got us a cab to get back....clearly a standard operating procedure.


Day 4, Monday May 25(pics);
Yipppieeeeeee its time to go check the gaucho's. Well the reality is that there are at least 2 kinds of estancia's....the real ones and the touristy ones. If you are in BA and not in Patagonia, you get stuck with the touristy ones and that is where we ended. About 90KM/60miles from BA, Don Silvano is glorified hay ride with teenagers dressed as gaucho's giving us horse back rides. They did serve some wicked empanada's and I regret not over indulging them. They have a large grill at the back where they grilled a variety of meats and sausages. The lunch had a variety show of songs and dances from the local artists that included a tango show. Our group had folks from the US, Guatemala and Chile. Also at lunch was a gentleman tourist from Nepal, apparently the 1st at Don Silvano, and they had him go up the stage and sing a song. It sounded like a Nepali nursery rhyme, but I give him credit for singing it and the crowd loved it. Interestingly we kept bumping in to this guy at the hotel, airport and he also landed at Dulles....hmmm. The elderly lady sitting next to me from Indianapolis who while kept thanking for taking care of her as I poured her wine and got her food, argued vehemently about how President Obama was not good for the country, tsk tsk some people never know what a vacation is. After lunch they took us back and showed us some gaucho stuff like herding horses, racing horses, tripping horses....you get the picture. If you go to BA, skip this $60 waste of time. Also remember for those of us returning to the US, we get to go to "special customs" since we were on a farm with farm animals.
Another uneventful drive back to BA and we get picked up to go to a Tango show. We get a 1 hour tango class, which was fun and it reaffirmed that both Saritha and I have a pair of left foot each :). They serve us dinner and some cheap cruddy Malbec. At the table with us is a teacher from the DC area on vacation and a guy from India on a world trip. He claimed he has traveled all of Africa, Asia and 2 months in South America...I say claims because when the teacher said she was from Washington DC, he asked "Where is that". I pray god be with him if he is truly traveling the world. The Tango lasted a little over an hour & "yawn" and well we are glad we did it, else we would have returned home wondering. Its late, almost past midnight and time to hit the sack.



Day 5, Tuesday May 26(pics);
Time to go home :~( and back to the daily grind. Time has flown but I think I have liked BA. It has been many years since I was in Paris and very briefly, but I see why BA is called the Paris of South America, the wide boulevards, the architecture, the plaza's, the outdoor cafe's, the attitude of the porteño's (Folks from BA are called Porteño's but careful not call the folks from the province of BA that). We spent most of the day walking around the centro and doing some souvenir shopping, the advantage of beautiful weather and a walking city. At lunch time we went to Cafe Tortoni which is about 150 years old and a gathering spot for the elites to discuss politics etc. While the guide books and people said it was pricey, a lunch of sandwiches, quiche/salad pie, beer, cafe cost us about $15. This cafe is a tourist spot, so there we were clicking pictures and posing. After lunch we wandered to the Plaza de Mayo again and tried to visualize Eva Peron in the pink palace that is today the Presidential office. The plaza is a little decrypt, which is shame considering the President can see it everyday and assume it would bother her to have it cleaned up. We walk through the financial district of BA and find lots and lots and lots of banks whose names I had never heard before. A quiet cathedral in the middle of the money makers catches our attention and we go in to bow our heads and calm ourselves. We head back to the hotel, check out and head to the airport. The taxi ride is about 40 mins during rush hour BA, which surprisingly does not exist. Efficient airport processes, last beer in BA, check email, browse duty free to reaffirm that the priciest shops in the US are cheaper than airport duty free around much of the world, then on to one of the least friendly airlines "United" for the ride back home.

We enjoyed the downtime very much and glad we selected BA for as long as we did. Lovely city, friendly folks, great weather and easy on the pocket book. Ciao as they said in BA to us!

Jihadi - Will you ever become a friend?

I have been thinking about a variety of issues as have a lot of people, issues that concern us directly everyday or those that have the potential to, those that the media has made the central focus of such as the suffering economy by way of rising unemployment, foreclosures, tanking stock market and investments or political challenges or now the swine flu. Unless these impact you directly, it is just news on the TV or other media, however I suspect many have good and viable ideas to solve some of these challenges that may never see the light of the day. I would like to encourage those ideas to come out as often as possible and shared as virally as possibly as there could be a real solution that may work.

Here is a solution to the growing Islamic fundamentalism and its negative implications to many parts of the world. I truly believe this can work, however there are some tactical challenges I envision. Solutions to those will be some that I will explore in the days to come, but for now here is how I look at it holistically.

The way I understand Islamic fundamentalism, is that groups of individuals around the world have chosen to preach and practice the Koran in a very narrow and strict manner. Perhaps a simplistic view, but true nevertheless. My meager attempts of reading of the Koran do not indicate that those who do not follow the prophet are infidels and hence should be killed. Nor did I find anything to do with how a way of life should be followed or else….While the genesis of how we got here is widely documented by the many experts in this field, one thing is clear, that it took many decades from the 60’s when the US helped the Pakistani’s create a force of Jihadi’s to fight a proxy war against India, to a fairly similar strategy to fight the Soviets in the 80’s in Afghanistan. The Iraq-Iran war also fed the growing ranks of this class of mercenaries who were nurtured by religion rather than the money. The sudden hole left by the Soviets in Afghanistan allowed for a large part of this group to organize themselves under the banner of the Taliban and form a working government. Most of us know the story from then on to where we are. While all of this was happening, the world from an economic perspective was getting more and more intertwined, i.e. a global economic village in the works. The technologies that supported economic globalization, also allowed for social collaborations across the globe which was and is generally good. However it also provided a platform for the group now being fashioned as Islamic fundamentalists to reach further and wider to preach and recruit. The influence this group was having on the wide fringes of desperate, hopeless and perhaps even the religiously motivated was increasing and is still.

While the US government with our many allies around the world battles, (what one president so inappropriately and unintelligently called the crusades), I am not sure I have seen or read any strategic plans for the ultimate quelling of the scourge of Islamic fundamentalism. I am sure there must be such well thought of strategies within the deep think tanks of the governments or other intellectual bodies, but I want to share my solution blue print nonetheless.

The plan I propose resolves in to three parts with a timeline that would take that of at least one human generation. There are tactical attributes of this plan that need to be implemented everyday starting today, but the ultimate result will take at least half the amount of time it took to create it for sustained solution that becomes routine.

The solution is three fold;

1. Population control
There in an uncontrolled rise in population in the pool of sympathizers, this at the very least exacerbates the problem. While religious followers of the faith of Islam are given the right to have 4 wives at any time, it all computes to having very large families. The social hierarchy manifests itself in that the head of the family decides the course for the family. In a situation where the head sympathizes or actively participates in the activities of the fundamentalists, there is little to no choice for the rest in the family but to follow. There is no greater and purer form of recruiting than from your own blood. Controlling this population is critical and necessary. So then begs the question, how does one do it in a humane and legal manner with out depressing the sensitivities involved? Here are a few that I can think of;
a. Education – Educate the perils of over production inside, both from a social as well as an economic perspective. If ever marketing of thoughts could be put to good use, I can not see a better opportunity. I am sure they would appreciate a bowl of rice for one person is meager as is, but for 2,3 or more people would constitute hunger. How can hungry people fight?
b. Birth control – If air dropping leaflets disparaging your leaders or food products was acceptable, I think airdropping condoms should be ok too. There are multiple other ways to distribute birth control items. Barter is an acceptable trade practice in many of the mountainous regions, home to burgeoning jihadi’s, 2 kebabos for birth control!
c. Incentives – The Chinese did this well for years though they are suffering now with not having an optimal mix of their large population in the age groups they should be. Some lessons from there combined with pure capitalistic pay for performance (or lack of it in this case) for not producing children. A years worth of food @ $100 as many philanthropic advertisements insist, could feed a family. Let us put it to use for where it may be worthwhile.

2. Science and Math
Children in this realm are taught the Koran in Madrasah’s and from what I understand, a version of it that is clearly extreme. This education is complimented by from what the media and other books by the experts claim, a doctrine of hate of the non-Islamic ways or the ways of the infidel. These children would not know then that 2+2 =4 or that the earth revolves around the earth and is round or other basic math and science elements. In my opinion this is a detriment to their overall learning and needs to be remedied. My second solution proposal is to get these children on an educational diet of science and math. Encourage them to be scientifically curious, to question what they learn and what the implications are. The critical question in this case is not so much an agreement on the need of science and math in their educational diet, but as to how would one go about delivering it.
The world or us have had enormous experience with propaganda wars, some popular and some not so. I am sure a very creative roadmap to delivery could be developed by our friends in the media, movies, some religious groups who will still knock on my door and certainly the government. We have done this successfully world over, drawn many millions of immigrants to the shore of our great nation, while skillfully selling coke and Nike products to both friends and foes (click here for a hilarious illustration in support of what I mention). Airdrops are a great source of educational delivery. Every one of those relief food packets could include a birth control artifact and a lesson in Math and Science. I have some specific ideas on how we could deliver without inciting anymore hatred or consequence than that is currently on the table, and will address them separately.

3. Optimal leverage of the new talent pool
Now consider we have a population that is not as fundamentalistic as it is today, less in number and definitely more educated than today. What do we do with them, since if that is not addressed; our problems will have quadrupled by having a vastly more dangerous enemy.
Smartly looking at it, the resources can help themselves if the right environment is created. Creating the right environment would now be a basic by product of what we may have achieved by a lower in number but a vastly better educated population.
a. In order to sustain all this education we are talking about needing teachers.
b. In order to provide organization and control to what is proposed, we will need a government that continues to improve,
c. Business around the world may now have a viable market where they can actually start making some money.
Our quasi reengineered population can feed in to this cycle of capitalism. In reality on April 17, 2009 several countries, presumably those that are at the most risk by the vengeance of the jihadi’s agreed to provide as much as $5Billion to the Pakistani’s to combat Taliban and the jihadi’s. The US itself will be spending $1.5B every year. My sense is that we take this war gradually away from the urban battlefields to the class rooms, from the mountains of Waziristan to a sustaining economic situation for the participants. Take this battle away from religion to a way of life of improved life all around. Let us put these billions of dollars in efforts to improve the hopeless situations, to better education. I say get the Halliburton’s and other contractors in Iraq, Afghanistan and others to use local staff up to 90% including the leadership. Empower people with their own destiny and please don’t be patronizing….the west may be superior economically, but yet there is lot to learn from the east. Let us be humble as the new president is eloquently doing time and again these days. Get collaborations with the local talent, business leaders going vs. hemorrhaging the billions in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Admittedly some of this sounds very easy or perhaps naïve, and the reasons why this can not work lengthy. My perspective is that we need to learn from the past and fight with our strengths. We need to take this fight away from the religions, simply because no prophet, “wanna” be prophet or god almighty himself would condone violence or hatred being perpetuated against his children…all of us. Once you take it away from religion, it boils down to a group of people whose want to fight or hate is generally stemming from a certain level of hopelessness about their own situation. Lack of basic human needs, intense sun (I suspect that has something to do with all this craziness) in the middle-east, lack of understanding of our way or life and yes some of our poorly developed foreign polices (Iraq, Pakistan, Cuba(!!!), North Korea, China, India, Libya, Israel and so on). All that said we need to re-set this now. We need to be able to call a timeout and reset how we look at things and what we do from there.

So while multiple discussions and debates occur about how bad things are and will get, here is my solution.