Feb. 1, 2011
Mr Peter Hartung
Director
Adelaide Institute
Peter, me mate – just a brief info update from me, and also sent to a number of individuals as well as to those mentioned by name below:
This morning around 1045 hours, Tuesday, 1 February 2011, James Damon drove me to Austin's Bergstrom International Airport where I had no problems booking my onward journey to Los Angeles and Brisbane and beyond. In fact, I was lucky; owing to the cold Arctic front coming south again with its cold snap already interrupting flights from the north-east of the USA, I was asked if I would like to be re-booked on the earlier LAX flight that would start boarding in about 5 minutes time. My original 6pm flight from Austin to LAX was already anticipating a delay – and that would be bad news for my trying to connect to the Qantas flight departing ten minutes to midnight at LAX.
Don't you like my use of LAX instead of Los Angeles International Airport – Tom Bradley International Terminal?
As is usual if things go right there is always that unknown factor that has control-freaks tearing out their hair - a slight problem. I had checked in my bag because it was possible for me to have it checked through to Singapore – and you recall how on our trip to Iran we found that Qantas does not transfer luggage beyond Singapore to Kuala Lumpur Airport but that this would have to be done Air Malaysia.
So, the two obliging reception ladies at the Austin Admiralty Lounge made a phone call with the question: can this black roller bag with a couple of red and orange pom-poms be found and placed on this earlier flight. Apparently only three bags had so far been received for this later flight, and word came through that my bag would be retrieved.
And I didn't even have time to indulge in a complimentary drink but had to make my way down to Gate 13, immediately, below the lounge. This was a relief because on my transit from Raleigh via Dallas-Fort Worth to Austin I had a much longer trip to get from D to A terminal, which I did per train service – but then the gate number had changed from 13 to 38 and so I actually walked the whole length of Terminal A. But you know I need the exercise and so I saw all this as a good way in getting fit...funny how sitting in a plane can also make you feel too tired for walking...
Once on the plane I found my seat, a window seat in Row 7 – later I learned that this seat costs $30,- extra, like the EXIT seats, which cost about $80,-+ – and glanced out the window where I could see the luggage conveyor belt sitting there idle but not for long. The trolley truck and three carriages came along and two held the luggage destined for LAX.
I reminisced when I saw my bag making its way into the hold because about 30 years ago I flew from Lagos/Nigeria via Nairobi/Kenya to Harare/Zimbabwe and at the transfer at Nairobi I was sitting in a window seat as I was at Austin and saw how my suitcase wasn't going into the plane's hold but was on a conveyor belt going in the opposite direction. I alerted the flight attendant and she alerted the captain who ordered the closed plane door to be re-opened and I sprinted own the gangway that was still attached to the plane and jumped across a structure in the luggage holding area, which was half roofed over, and grabbed my suitcase. As I did my pants split – but did I care for that? Somehow within a couple of minutes I was back on board with my suitcase and within another minute or so had a blanket around my waist and my pants in my hands and a needle and thread in my fingers stitching up the damage.
This time things ran more smoothly because it's all scanned technology that does the luggage handling, though Johanna informed me that her luggage from the SUA to Germany ended up somewhere in Asia – and that indicates to me the USA is still functioning, something that I noted during my six weeks stay was still a matter of fact. For example, when a 911 emergency call was made from a housing estate in Raleigh, it was only a matter of minutes before two Ambulances, three police cars and two fire trucks arrived. From hearsay reports it was a domestic between a mother and daughter – so what's new about that?
Even our trip into the snowy northern USA was without incident, except when on our way to Cleveland in front of us a truck lost pieces of its iced-up roof and a lump of it hit the windscreen, causing a fine horizontal hair-line crack, which fortunately did not extend from end to end and then only about five inches from the top. Still, in time this windscreen needs to be replaced – thanks to the weather ... and not to my driving!
All in all, here at LAX all is well and I am preparing myself for that 14+ hour flight to Brisbane, this 3-hour flight from Austin to LAX is nothing compared to what's ahead of me. Then, of course, it's a five-hour transit at Brisbane before heading for that 7h+ Singapore flight and where I will make that overnight transit Hotel stop for the minimum of six hours, then pay for each additional hour....
And the next leg of the journey to Teheran you well know, which is just over 8 hours, with that additional 50 minute flight from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
And so I depart the USA after a most enjoyable and informative time spent with friends, and I do hope my US exit will not cause headlines such as:
'Toben found with 22 books in his bag all questioning the Holocaust!'
- Raleigh: Amelia who had the patience to tolerate me for so long - but we did not talk matters Holocaust-Shoah all the time as it's really such a boring topic now because the facts are out but we lack the political power to spread the truth, which will happen automatically when it is not a business proposition anymore. The USA will be saved as a political unit if individuals return to the wisdom enshrined within the Constitution.
- Washington: Elisabeth and Willis – and Hasso – who more than any other couple I know have weathered the enemies' onslaught, even the most painful one – the enemy from within. Why have they lasted the distance? They have their moral and intellectual integrity in-tact, something that is not easy to sustain especially when former friends attempt to destroy that which they have created.
- Toledo/Maumee: Carol and Gordon – and their many cats – who delighted us with their hospitality at short notice, and a different focus/perspective as to what ails the world. That the global problems are multi-faceted and that it is simplistic to blame just one 'perpetrator' still has me pulling out the quip: 'Don't blame XXX; blame those that bend to their pressure'. The inverse of this is the thought censored by Amelia as she edited my book: 'Nobody like me: I xx xx and I bend over – it not help'. Of course, underpinning this thought structure is the death dialectic of win-lose instead of the life-giving dialectic process of win-win, which additionally has a civilizing effect – as the individuals I met embody so nicely, and that keeps me humble ...
- Austin: Johanna and James – and their 12-year old doggy- and I have a blank as to her name, which is not a rarity anymore. I think I need those memory pills that are now so quickly and freely handed to individuals who are 'suffering' usually from an 'extremely rare form of dementia'. Then again, I think I'll stick to my invisible Happiness Pills that I am selling for free to anyone who wants them. To date I have not succeeded in this venture but I must admit I myself do take one a day.
Our trip in James' 25-year-old Honda along Route 35 to San Antonio is an adventure in itself and the fuel economy is startling, and though one cylinder has a broken ring there is no smoke pouring out because the additive oil is smokeless – a miracle in technological advancements. The Alamo has a monument that lists the heroes who gave their lives for a cause – and it includes the names of two of James' ancestors. Today James is the translator of things German and although he has his Weltanschauung his primary passion is the German language, something both Johanna and James instruct in the evenings at the Free German School, Austin. James informs his students that mark Twain was a great Germanophile as well.
Of interest is that while writing this I receive a call on my mobile phone from, of all places, Israel. It's a recorded message whose content I naturally do not understand. Such is life. My mobile with Sydney time says it's 11:20am.
Sadly I missed to say hello to Michael in New York, Art in Chicago, John in Pittsburg, and Raymond in Victoria, TX,
So, now with much gratitude to the above who made my stay in the US of A a somewhat positive affair, I surprise myself in forgetting to mention the Tucson massacre and how that impacted on the dialectic set on 9:11, and its failure to fuse into a massive onslaught on the First Amendment, though little ol' Foxy Foxman had the script all ready, and now the external expression of this dialectic in the Egyptian, et al, uprising - I am now off to Teheran for that Bioethics conference where the equivalent 'uprising'a year ago failed because the Iranians are a proud nation that can withstand external interference of the materialistic and intellectual kind – until later.
Fredrick
---- Message sent via Adam Internet WebMail - http://www.adam.com.au/
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