Wanderlust Heaven!

The view encompasses the whole and genuine meanness of life, though. The harbor is fronted by a sizeable shantytown, and you just shudder to think of the lives of the people under those tin roofs.

That night my friend/old colleague Nikhil and I went out for dinner. He took me to Trishna, a place I’d never been before. It was very good – particularly the crab, which was basically a pile of crab meat lightly spiced that melted in your mouth. Nikhil and I caught up on various gossip, talked about my general waywardness, and shared observations on India and where it’s going. Nikhil’s done a fine job leading the Indian practice of Monitor – revenues are the highest ever and the team seems strong. Nice to get a bit of good news from ‘the old country.’ Was also happy to see that Nikhil has stopped smoking. Given his high levels of stress, and his ‘prosperous’ size, smoking simply isn’t a good idea if he wants to live a long time.

Things were hopping around town that night. Turned out that it was Eid al-Fitr, the end of Ramadan, and Muslims were celebrating. After spending every day for an entire month fasting, wouldn’t you be glad to be over with it too? Not everyone was glad for the Muslims, though. I had two cabbies tell me over the weekend that ‘those people are no good.’ The Hindu-Muslim divide is well-known and there are occasional flare-ups of violence, so I wasn’t shocked to hear this. Still, it was depressing…didn’t give me a sense that universal brotherhood is any closer. India has the second-largest Muslim population in the world, so they’re around to stay in India and it would be best not to hound them into becoming disenfranchised and bitter.

Did some thinking about the US political environment while in Mumbai – and most of the balance of this posting concerns that. The mid-term elections are a week away – finally, a referendum of sorts on the Second Bush Administration. This administration has been so bad, so incompetent, that I’ve been wishing the US had a parliamentary system so that the government could fall at any moment. Perhaps the presidential system has been good for the US – it’s hard to argue with the success of the US in the past 200 years – but nothing good lasts forever.

Here’s hoping the Democrats take both houses of Congress. I’m cautiously optimistic – probably more so about the House of Reps – but worry about the power of incumbency. Those running for another term win something like 95% of the time, usually more due to their ability to send out free mail, get TV exposure, etc. than due to their stellar performance. But sometimes the worm turns, and (allow me to mix my metaphors) a bit of judo can be effective. This is probably a very good year to paint the incumbent Congress as incompetent and throw the bums out.

Of course, the ultimate goal remains: US regime change. Unfortunately, the worst bums have two years to go. The best we can hope is to cripple them (further) politically and prevent any more fuckups. At this point, that actually sounds pretty good and I’ll be glad to take it.

The ‘war on terror’ (I refuse to capitalize it) has been an utter joke and disaster – except as a marketing tool for the Bush Administration, which has callowly used it to scare US voters. Unfortunately for all of us, that re-election strategy worked, whereas the ‘war’ has not. All it’s done, as far as I can tell, is to ramp up recruitment for the bad guys, and perhaps to push out the timing of the next 9-11-like event. Once we’re out of Iraq, how will we prevent all hell from breaking loose?

The thing that really gets me is this: for decades, militant Arabs/Muslims have been trying to connect all the dots in the Middle East. Palestinians blame their troubles on Israel – well, OK, that argument can be made. But you never saw Saddam Hussein talking about Israel or going to the mosque until it became apparent that W’s daddy was going to kick his ass. Then he donned the khaffiyeh and starting quoting Muhammed. And insurgents in Syria, Egypt et al loved to blame Israel for their internal issues – although all of these countries have ethnic and political tensions that are uniquely theirs. I agree that you need to go back in time and understand the history that created these unstable states – the Ottoman occupation for centuries, the fall of that empire, the British and French mandates, the jury-rigged borders created upon independence – but I’d argue that the distinct issues facing each country outweigh the common ones. Saddam Hussein doesn’t get to invade Kuwait and threaten Saudi Arabia, and say that Israel’s occupation of Palestine made him do it.

The same goes for all of the other nations of the Middle East. Lebanon: one-third Christian, one-third Sunni, one-third Shiite – ‘nuff said. Syria: run by a nut-case family. Saudi Arabia: basically, an oil company with incompetent inbred management masquerading as a nation-state. Egypt: almost no tradition of democracy, and huge corruption. Jordan: who cares? I could go on, but my point is that these are essentially localized challenges and that any common themes are secondary. Of course, fundamentalists/militants/terrorists would dearly love to create a rallying point for all Muslims and start a cultural war, so they’ve played the Israel/racist card for decades, with some but limited impact.

Now, the Bush Administration has gone and done their job for them. The ‘war on terror’ looks to the average Muslim like a Christian crusade of the 21st century. Bush’s foolish statements (‘crusade,’ ‘Islamo-fascism’) have played into al-Qaeda’s hands; his decisions have been more damaging. Even educated Muslims in allied Arab nations like Jordan and Egypt think the US is fighting a war against Muslims and that Iran is probably next. We did a good thing in kicking the Taliban and al-Qaeda out of Afghanistan. These scumbags need a country in which to breed, so taking away Afghanistan was helpful. But now we’re in the process of handing over Iraq, which, despite its heinous pre-war nature, had nothing to do with al-Qaeda and in fact was hostile to it. Where this is all going, who knows? Certainly not the Bush Administration. But they’ll be out of office by the time the worst shit hits the fan.

As for the upcoming election…I’m just sitting here in Goa waiting for the Rove November Surprise. What cat will Rove pull out of the bag this time? And where the hell is the latest installment of ‘As Osama Turns’? That video he sent out just before the 2004 presidential election was certainly not randomly timed…and probably tipped the election in favor of W. I think that Bin Laden values Bush…who played right into his hands and is utterly predictable. Bin Laden probably sees Bush as a pig-headed ideologue in the vein of the old Soviet commissars he helped defeat in Afghanistan back in the day. So the next week could bring virtually anything – might need to spend some time checking out the news online.

And in a week’s time, let’s keep our fingers crossed for an end (or gradual choking off) of the current government by, for, and of the incurably stupid. It’s enough to make me miss Richard Nixon…and even old man Bush. At least I’ll admit I’m wrong – often. I used to think old Bush was one of the worst Presidents ever, till W came along. Fuck these assholes for screwing up the country, and the world. I’d be even more despondent if we hadn’t been through worse in the past – i.e., WW2, the Civil War, and the Lakers’ NBA triumphs. And at least the current shit is making me aware of nascent patriotic instincts that I thought I never had…

Finally – let’s hope we choose the least bad option regarding Iraq. We need to get out of there soon – our presence is causing much of the tension. I think there will be a civil war no matter what we do – so let’s just get out of there, let them duke it out, and do what we can with money and other incentives to help the place become ‘normal.’ Which may mean splitting it up into 2-3 pieces. We have to stop throwing good money after bad – and more importantly, live Americans after dead ones.

There – I said my piece. Any reactions, let’s hear ‘em. To date I’ve not heard a single decent idea on what to do with Iraq (or Iran), so I’m desperate to hear from my more intelligent peers/superiors. Chime in and win huge cash prizes!

Got back to Goa yesterday. Awesome to slide back into the ocean at Anjuna Beach, while the Shore Bar was cooking me up some garlic prawns. You can get regular sized, king or tiger prawns. The tigers are the size of your fist – and a bit chewy for my tastes. I usually go with the kings – they’re 2-3 mouthfuls and precisely the right texture. The Chinese are very into texture when it comes to food – they like all sorts of chewy and slimy foodstuffs – I’m much less adventurous, but I suppose all of us have our favorite patterns in life.

While I was tumbling around in the surf, I noticed a pretty girl wading in. But just a bit – she seemed either scared of the water or loath to get her clothes wet. Which I didn’t find attractive in the least – if she had dove right in, and come up with a laugh, I probably would have swam over and given her a big French kiss. Maybe. And later that night, at the Nine Bar, I saw a girl dancing to the techno beats with abandon – just sliding her body around, arms gliding through the air, hair swinging back and forth to the rhythm. Now that was more like it. She stood out from the dozens of others on the floor. And that, dear reader, is what I love about life.