African Safari I

Don't know if it was the best thing to do - kids arrived on 23rd Dec morning, and we left for Nairobi on 24th Dec night. So they did a 12 hour time leap east, and then 6 hours west ... their body clocks must have been thoroughly confused!

Doha airport, Qatar ... Qatar Airways seems to be doing their best to wean away traffic from Emirates. They seem to be succeeding too. Airport under renovation ... we had to take a bus to the waiting terminal. A bus!!! Who uses buses nowadays, with all the air corridors?!
All right, the airport is under renovation, they explain. And the transit terminal is certainly adequate, and shows promise.
A hot chocolate from the coffee shop revives the kids and me. S prefers to prowl the shops and the airport lounges. Free and fast wifi makes the wait pleasant ... out come two laptops and two iPads. So much for an internet free holiday!

Nairobi airport. A reminder that Africa is indeed a poor continent (so what if we paid first world rates for the safari hotels!) The airport reminds me of Delhi airport in its pre-refurbished days ... scratch that ... it reminds me more of Bhutan, Paro airport twenty years ago. See a mixture of races waiting at the Immigration line ... and for the first time, we notice the number of Indians. Had forgotten that Kenya has a big Indian population. It's a sight that we will continue to see all through our stay.

Immigration ... A and D hadn't got their tourist visas, S and I had. Turns out we needn't have bothered, they were through the Visa on Arrival line faster than us. Our Immigration officer took ages to clear the three men ahead of us, though he waved us through quickly enough. Fingerprints and photograph on arrival ... hmm, maybe not as backward as I thought.


N and her fiance G waiting for us with the safari car. A forty minute drive through the outskirts of town to her apartment, and as we drive, it hits us ... we are in Africa!

Wide open spaces, flat grasslands as far as the eye can see ... such a difference from the tall cement jungles and ever present up and down roads of Hong Kong. And the sky ... such a clear blue! It strikes us again how polluted Hong Kong is ... something we tend to forget, living there all the time.

N's apartment is beautiful, cool, golden brown walls, wide balconies and open windows. Grills on all the windows remind us that Nairobi is not such a safe city to live. But the complex is pretty, the apartment equally so, the rooms spacious ... N is well settled. Lovely to see the little girl I first saw as a roly poly chatterbox five year old, grown into this poised, beautiful, smart and confident young lady, who's doing so well in life.

First day we settle down and get to know her fiance. Tall, good looking, bright blue eyes ... is he good enough for our precious girl? We decide he is ... A and D take to him instantly. He's quiet and serious to start with, but opens up with the mad S family slowly.

N had planned a festive Christmas dinner at a well known restaurant nearby, with the interesting name "Carnivore". It promises exactly what it delivers. We're all pretty adventurous, and try almost everything on the menu ... S and I balk at ox balls, but A and D are in the mood to try everything. Yep, ox balls are exactly what they say they are. One bite is enough ... after all, they can now truthfully claim they've tasted them. Ostrich and crocodile meat is as far as I'm prepared to go!

Tomorrow we plan a trip to feed giraffes. Tonight jet lag finally catches up.

Mind Set Needs Change ... but in the meantime?

Delhi Gang Rape ...
As the full horror of the story unfolds, we watched the TV reports with growing anger and unease.  Satisfaction that the protests are not dying out, as we feared might happen ... anger that the police resort to lathi charge and tear gas and water cannons ... where were these weapons when a girl was being raped by a group of men worse than animals? The protestors, men and women alike, are fighting because the horror and brutality of the case has finally woken people out of their slumber.

The regularity of rapes and crimes against women has desensitised people to the horror that the victims go through, to the point that the cases have just become statistics.
It took a case unparalleled in sheer brutality and viciousness to wake up people ... the same way that it took unparalleled contempt of court and law shown by a few high-ranking individuals to shake a population out of its slumber in the Jessica Lal case. And now that they have woken up, the people show no signs of going back to sleep.

More power to them. 

Why Indian men rape

There was a petition to demand chemical castration as punishment for rapists. Sounds like a good solution. Rape is not a capital offense. Life imprisonment means housing these criminals at state expense for fourteen years, with no guarantee that they will have reformed when they are released. Prison life is not really conducive to reform, it might produce more hardened criminals instead.

Rape destroys a woman's life ... let the punishment be similar. Let the rapist's life be destroyed ... or at least, his ability to rape again be destroyed. Castration will kill both his ability and his libido - make him a namard, in other words. A big insult for any man in India.
Let the punishment affect his future generations ... Indians want sons to carry on the family name ... a castrated male cannot carry on any name ... and so the family pressure will build ... don't you dare molest a woman, or else our khandaan ka naam is destroyed. Sounds good. Simple, effective, and a good deterrent.

And in the meantime, educate men ... teach them to respect their women. let them see the respect at home ... Fathers respect mothers, husbands respect wives, brothers respect sisters ...

The Sun Sets on 2012

Newton shootings, Afghanistan bomb blast and Delhi gang rape ... this along with the number of deaths of loved ones as well as loved public figures ... 2012 was truly Annus Horribilis! No wonder the Mayans predicted the end of the world on 21/12/12 ... the world as it is today, needs to end, so that something better can rise.

One piece of good news this year ... my son starting college at the place of his choice. Start of a new phase of his life ... God bless him.

One irreparable loss ... my father.

And so the circle of life rolls on ... 

Hoping and praying for a better 2013 ... starting with celebrating the dawn of the New Year in a safari camp in Serengiti National Park, in the midst of nature and God's creatures.

Knee Jerk Reactions?

One man uses a shoe bomb and everyone has to take off their shoes at all airports across the US.

A man uses assault weapons to kill 20 children and 6 teachers, and muted debate starts on gun control measures. Why no knee jerk reactions here? Neither after Colorado ... nor after Virginia Tech ... nor after Newton ...

An interesting article http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/18/opinion/what-drives-suicidal-mass-killers.html?hp&_r=0

Korean Connection

Ban Ki Moon told South Korean singer PSY that he was now the most famous South Korean after his hit Gangnam Style, even more famous than Ban Ki Moon. Apparently Gangnam style is now Youtube’s most watched video, surpassing Justin Bieber’s ‘Baby’.

Samsung, the S Korean electronics giant recently paid a $1.5 billion fine to Apple for patent violation. Apparently they’re laughing all the way to the bank – that $1.5 billion is the smartest investment they ever made. Not only has it served as advertisement for their smart phone, but also advertised that Apple considers their Galaxy as the most serious competitor to the iPhone. Considering their usual advertising budget for a new model is around the same amount, they’re not complaining.
Apparently there’s truth in the saying … no publicity is bad publicity.