A Different Drummer

It has been great having the first wife in town. Below, we share a loving gaze that can only come from the staggering goodness of the Black Cod Miso at Nobu. Pictures like these are also part of the benefit of living with a professional photographer...

This article on the Taliban takeover of the Swat valley in Pakistan is absolutely terrifying:

Using a portable radio transmitter, a local Taliban leader, Shah Doran, on most nights outlines newly proscribed “un-Islamic” activities in Swat, like selling DVDs, watching cable television, singing and dancing, criticizing the Taliban, shaving beards and allowing girls to attend school. He also reveals names of people the Taliban have recently killed for violating their decrees — and those they plan to kill.

“They control everything through the radio,” said one Swat resident, who declined to give his name for fear the Taliban might kill him. “Everyone waits for the broadcast.”

This is in a valley 100 kilometres from the capital of Pakistan. It is a good example of how, as mentioned earlier, the world pretty much doesn't care about crimes against humanity when they are committed by primative savages like the Taliban, rather than modern democracies like Israel.

Growing up in the world's least religious country, in one its most solidly atheist families, is probably not the best way to develop a mind open to the beauty and power of religion. Following that up by spending a few years in the most religious place on Earth, surrounded by God's people, opened me up a little, at least to the intense emotional lure of speaking to your God.

Speeches like this, the highlight by far of Obama's inauguration yesterday, are as close as religion gets to touching my heart.

"As we leave this mountaintop help us to hold on to the spirit of fellowship and the oneness of our family. Let us take that power back to our homes, our workplaces, our temples and our mosques, wherever we seek your will.

Bless president Barack, first lady Michelle, look over little angelic Sasha and Malia. We go down and walk together as children, praying that we wont get weary in the difficult days ahead. We know you will not leave us alone with your hands of power and your heart of love.

Help us then now Lord to work for that day when nation will not lift up sword against nation, when tanks will be beaten into tractors, when every man and every woman will sit under his and her own vine and fig tree and none shall be affraid. When justice will roll down like water and righteousness as a mighty stream.

Lord in the memory of all the saints who from their labours rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us to pray for the day when black will not be asked to get back, when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man, and when white will embrace what is right. Let all those who do justice and love mercy say amen."

Amen.

One of the best Dubai photos ever on the front page of today's National

Last night Bruce Springsteen won a Golden Globe for his song "The Wrestler", from the wonderful Darren Oronofsy film of the same name.

We were lucky enough to see an early screening in December when the movie played at the Dubai Film Festival, and it is seriously good - some truly laugh out loud moments, but also incredibly sad - not the frontal sadness assault of dead children but the far more lurking, inevitable sadness of watching people past their prime realise that their best years are over. It is absolutely worth seeing.

But the most intense thing for me was the Springsteen song, played over the closing credits. I cannot think of another song written for a film that just captures the entire feeling of the movie and pushes it forward. OK I can - "Exit Music" by Radiohead, which plays at the end of Romeo and Juliet. But bear with me here...

So in tribute to The Boss and his new Golden Globe, I give you The Wrestler, the song, by Bruce Springsteen. See the movie and it will mean so much more...

It is a weird and interesting question, one that catches me particularly given I feel so connected to this part of the world over all others. How come the death of Palestinian civilians gets more attention than similar deaths anywhere else?

Ideally, every time an innocent civilian dies at the hands of military violence, the world would take note. Practically, there is only so much attention the world can give, and it feels like the overwhelming majority of it is paid on the Middle East.

Why? I could list off a hundred theories, and I'd love whoever reads this to leave their thoughts in the comments. Here is mine:

Israel is seen as a member of the modern, developed Western world, one of "us". When machete-wielding crazies take people to pieces in Africa, it is just too confusing and weird, too hard to understand motivations and prescribe solutions. But the feeling changes when a basically Western army and people, using our weapons and in good standing with the West, start killing people in big numbers.

We hold Israel to a way higher standard, because they are one of us. Israelis and their supporters call hypocrisy when people constantly talk about Israeli war crimes, Israeli breaches of human rights standards etc, but those same people never really complain about all the other nasty third world war criminals, including those of its enemies like Hamas, Hezbollah etc.

It is not exactly hypocrisy though - it's an acceptable kind of cultural supremacism, and it is pretty much a compliment to Israel. We accept that insane tribal conflicts will go on in the deep recesses of Africa, and we expect repressive military dictatorships in places like North Korea or Egypt or Zimbabwe. We are not shocked by the indifference to death of Islamic fundamentalists. But when a democratic, enlightened, prosperous nation and government go on a killing spree, it is disgusting and wrong, because they know the evil of what they are doing.

And when they talk about it in our manner - smooth-talking spokesmen in suits eloquently explaining in American accents how they respect human rights and want peace and are ready to negotiate, it seems far worse than hearing an insane paramilitary commander in Congo talk about exterminating their enemies, or hearing a Hamas spokesman scream about drowning Jews in a sea of their own blood.

Equally, we know that a country like Israel aspires to be a member in good standing among Western nations - it has more to lose by being seen as a nation that commits war crimes. Constantly emphasisng the nastiness of Sudan or Burma will mean little to its leaders and change nothing in their behaviour. In the case of Israel, which genuinely cares about its international reputation, things are different.

This is the same reason we care a lot about a company like Nike using sweatshop slave labour, but care much less about the actual slave labour situation in China. Nike interfaces with the West, relies on a good reputation in the West, is of the West, and therefore accountable to us. We have leverage, far deeper and more powerful leverage than the sanctions or bombs we can drop on other countries.

I think the same goes for why Israel's bad behaviour attracts such passionate responses by non-Westerners. The average Egyptian or Indonesian knows there is pretty much no point engaging in mass protest against other third-world despots, because they know exactly how little such protests matter in changing things. Did the Iran-Iraq war, a far bloodier and more insane conflict than the US invasion, attract mass worldwide protest and generate such anger?

This is yet another way where I feel the South Africa example should inform the way we approach Israel. (The power of a campaign of strict non-violence by Palestinians combined with an organised international effort focussed on human rights is another example, for another post.)

South Africa's whites, like Israel's Jews, were culturally "ours", and needed to be accepted by us for their long-term viability as a nation. Being shown up as nasty oppressive bastards hurt them far more than it would hurt the Chinese re: Tibet, etc etc.

I think I am fine with this situation, because it focusses attention on the places where attention can lead to changes. It is efficient. Ultimately, in an eyes-on-the-prize sense, there should be widespread action against all acts of organised state / paramilitary violence, serious enough to discourage similar violence in the future.

That isn't happening any time soon though, so we may as well focus on the ones where the attention is worthwhile.

Jeffrey Goldberg, who writes about Israel and the Jewish world better than anyone, has been in blogging paralysis during the Gaza war. His explanation:

"Gaza has overdetermined me into paralysis. I actually feel too close to this problem, a problem that symbolizes all problems. It's true: I have friends in Gaza about whom I worry a great deal; I've seen many people killed in Gaza; I've served in the Israeli Army in Gaza; I've been kidnapped in Gaza; I've reported for years from Gaza; I hope my former army doesn't kill the wrong people in Gaza; I hope Israeli soldiers all leave Gaza alive; I know they'll be back in Gaza; I think this operation will work; and I have no actual hope that it will work for very long, because nothing works for very long in the Middle East. Gaza is where dreams of reconciliation go to die. Gaza is where the dream of Palestinian statehood goes to die; Gaza is where the Zionist dream might yet die. Or, more to the point, might be murdered. I'm not a J Street moral-equivalence sort of guy. Yes, Israel makes constant mistakes, which I note rather frequently, but this conflict reminds me once again that Israel is up against an implacable force, namely, an interpretation of Islam that disallows the idea of Jewish national equality.

My paralysis isn't an analytical paralysis. It's the paralysis that comes from thinking that maybe there's no way out. Not out of Gaza, out of the whole thing."

Dubai Mall, is there anything you don't have? Once you get past the 33,000 fish swimming in the world's largest acquarium, and Kinokuniya, the Japanese bookstore of unearthly greatness, can you ask for more?

I ask for Bubble Tea. And Dubai Mall delivers!


A fairly solid attempt, reminiscent of the fine bubble teas of many a Chinatown, although a couple of flaws: where's the flavours? I want my green apple, or passinfruit, or "5 Jelly Grass" or whatever other weird Singapore flavour is going down. They only had one flavor here: tea.

Second, isn't half the fun of bubble tea meant to be watching them seal it with that cartoony clear plastic that you pop open with the pointy straw? Serving it up in a frappucino cup seems like missing the point a bit.

But all in all, here's to the best - perhaps the only - bubble tea in the Middle East. It was a fine accompaniment to a long gaze at a school of reef sharks swimming around in the giant aquarium. They looked confused, happy, well fed and massively metaphorical.