FINAL ASSORTED OBSERVATIONS FROM ABROAD

We leave tomorrow; today is my last day at work here in the West Bank, and for my last trick:

We had dinner last night at a restaurant called Shalizar in Jerusalem, which advertised itself as a dining establishment that served Oriental cuisine. Recall, please, that the "Orient" in classic use referred to the Near/Middle East, Persia, Afghanistan, etc., which is not to be confused with the Far East, i.e. eastern Han China, Korea, Japan, etc. The food, which was excellent, turned out to be what is to me now very familiar and much loved Central Asian party food - lamb or chicken served on rice with oil and garnished with almond slivers with bread, sour yoghurt, relishes, and assorted other items. This meal has become comfort food, and the flavors bring to mind being a guest in all manner of rugged places I've been wherein men with guns serve the meal with all gentility while you sit on cushions. Flashbacks, I tell you. By the way, even in the Muslim quarter of Jerusalem kids still call out "hey, China!" and "nihao!" From now on, instead of telling them I'm an American, maybe I'll tell them I'm Genghis Khan...

If I were king of English I'd do away with corporate-speak, all of the syntactic shortcuts that function as a kind of shorthand, sure, telegraphing certain meanings in a compact way, but they can allow people to get away without actually thinking about what they're saying. Words and phrases like "synergies", "stakeholders", "paradigm shift" - I don't think they mean what they think they mean. I would love to encourage a paradigm shift for these stakeholders away from these synergies.

I've been commuting from Jerusalem to Ramallah for the last few days in the office. It's only about 15km (or about 8 miles) but it takes about 40 minutes or so - there are two checkpoints between here and there, staffed by armed Israeli teenagers, bored, hot, maybe a little scared or more bored, armed with American made weapons, M16s, M4s, looking in the car, checking out the occupants (our cab driver going to Bethlehem was all over the place, could never find a good volume for music, I felt a little embarrassed for him while he tried to flirt unsuccessfully with one of the office women, but he was canny: every time we'd roll up to a checkpoint he'd start blasting the music to an obnoxious level and looking like he was having fun; I realized that someone driving a vehicle bomb would probably be the opposite, really quiet, sweating bullets, serious as cancer, and since he was purposefully acting silly the soldiers paid him no mind at all). This morning, on the way to the office, we rolled by a checkpoint, and at first I just kept looking out my window, until I realized that there were two Palestinian Red Crescent Society ambulances parked with their lights flashing, and then I saw an enormous crowd of men and covered women thronging around two Palestinian policemen who were standing on the hood of their truck, arms outstretched and trying to direct the mob. "What in the world is going on?" "They're trying to get to Jerusalem for Friday prayers, but there are many road closures." It is a mad press of humanity, men, women and children shoving up against barriers erected by the Israelis. Crowds, or maybe more accurately, mobs, scare the hell out of me; the last angry mob I faced was in Afghanistan, and like a rabid dog, it is an entity that is not to be messed with, you either run or you put it down, but we cruise by and they fade into the rearview mirror, and they are still there when we return to Jerusalem in the afternoon...

"Today is your last day?" "Yes, today is my last day." "And you're leaving tomorrow night?" "Yes, I'm leaving tomorrow night, but I hope I'll be back, Inshallah." "Yes, Inshallah." I wonder if Genghis Khan was ever invited back? By the appropriate stakeholders?