Air Turbulence

A few years ago, air turbulence did not bother me that much but during the last two years, I have fallen into the trap of not liking it at all and I am sure many people would not like to have a bumpy flight to their destination. A little bit of turbulence is expected (although I don’t even like it a little bit) but my tolerance level for air turbulence has gone down considerably and I am not happy about it. Even a little bit of turbulence makes me nervous and jumpy and I need to overcome that. And the fact that the pilot announces that the plane may hit some minor turbulence adds to my nervous. And the fact that I love to travel and visit new places especially Hawaii makes me madder that I have to endure turbulence in order to reach my favorite destinations. But as with acrophobia (which is fear of heights), this fear of air turbulence does not stop from traveling as with fear of heights has not stopped me from going on whiteface mountain in New York state which is at above 4000 feet elevation and also did not stop me from going to the Mount Haleakala in Maui (elevation above 10,000 feet).

And we were also planning to go to the Swiss Alps where the mountain reaches more than 10,000 feet so why am in complaining about Air turbulence, that is the question I keep on asking myself. If you are in a car and you drive, you also get shaken when an 18 wheeler passes by you, it is the same with Air turbulence and if there is not that much then I need to start taking nervous medicine to keep me calm even on flights with less than two hours of duration. People become nervous when it is their first flight and I have done many hours on flight since I was very young so why now I am getting the jitters and next time I take a flight I need to take a stock of this situation.

Arab League

Now I come to another of this so called unity among Muslims and introduce you to an organization that is as useless as the one described before that is OIC. Established in 1945, it has now 22 members all of them related by the Arab Ethnicity with little else in common in terms of their relationships among themselves and with the outside world. Here again I will give you examples which will show how this organization has been unable to help Arab in resolving their conflict among themselves or even project any kind of real power to the outside world. Let’s start with Palestinian issue which has been festering since the late forties; no Arab league success has been witnessed in this area. Along with the Israel-Arab War, this organization has simply ignored the Palestinian issue since their members tend not to agree on anything. Same thing goes with the First Gulf war, when Iraq invaded Kuwait; it was only the United States that was able to unite quarrelsome countries into a ragtag team of members to oust Iraq from Kuwait.

When the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003, the voice of Arab league was again muted or silent and when the Arab spring came, there was no effort to resolve this issue among them. Now again with the U.S. moving its embassy to Jerusalem, the Arab League is just reduced to denunciation and nothing much. Although headquartered in Cairo, Egypt, it is predominantely influenced by the Saudis as they have the money to muscle with the kind of voice that the Arab league finds when it does. During the Saudi Boycott of Qatar (which is still ongoing), Arab League does not count as they are just sitting pretty on the sidelines. And the Yemen war which is also part of the Arab League and also the OIC, nothing has changed much. No discussion to end this war. Both the OIC and the Arab League are on the whole useless organization which cannot resolve any of the issues facing the Muslim world and it is complete waste of resources as the Islamic (and Arab) countries pursue their own path based on their own self interest.

On the lighter side-Movies-The Dark Tower (2017)-Idris Elba

The last gunslinger tries to prevent the destruction of the dark tower which holds the universe together from an evil entity. Although a massive novel, the movie makers manage to condense it to 90 minutes. I have not read the novel and I wonder what was left behind. On its own, an okay fantasy movie. Recommended with caution.

On the lighter side-Movies-Wonder Woman (2017)-Gal Gadot, Chris Pine

An Amazonian warrior leaves her home to fight a world war waged by the enemy of her people. Special effects and action galore. Recommended