بِسمِ اللهِ الرحمن الرحيم
If I understand the Oxford American dictionary on my computer, the word Pakistan is an acronym of sorts deriving from: Punjab, Afghan frontier, Kashmir, Baluchistan.
And the same dictionary explains that Istanbul is from the Greek meaning: into the city.
الحمد لله
♥
13 July 2008
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
Local time at present position: 12:09 p.m.
Above the Atlantic
Altitude: 36,000 feet / 11,000 meters
Vitesse: 585 miles per hour
Exterior temperature: 51 degrees C (Is that right?)
True air speed: 569 miles per hour
♥
Fuselage is horizontal
wings elate
supine ascending
no need to wait
descending remembrance
is my mending.
♥
About 1:45 p.m. Washington D.C. time:
After boarding SV0035, I set my bags in an overhead compartment and, asking a stewardess if I could take a quick picture, returned to the entrance to snap a shot of an air traffic control tower with a pair of passenger jets in the foreground. The shot came out nice; interestingly, the words Saudi Arabian were cropped on a jet’s tail by the way I framed the picture. Only the first four letters were visible: SAUD.
Now, with an hour left to land, I realize that my behavioral impulses, or lack thereof, during this flight may be reflective of Saudi culture, or at least of the culture of the Institute where I am employed, which the former English language center coordinator once described to me as follows: People here only do what they need to.
Somebody who has been cooked in a culture like that might not be as forthcoming as someone from a more open, welcoming culture, one that extends / offers a hand of assistance even when it doesn’t need to. For example, I obtained today’s editions of the Arab News and Saudi Gazette newspapers shortly after lift-off and finished with them soon afterwards, more or less, but it never occured to me to ask my neighbor, a self-declared U.S. citizen, if he would be interested in seeing them. Perhaps my introverted personality is at fault; nonetheless, such unfriendly behavior is reinforced by Saudi culture, it could be argued.
My detachedness from the needs or interests of desires of others was brought into relief by my neighbor’s behavior, which was not voluble or loquacious but slightly extroverted in a peculiarly American way.
13 July 2008 entry and link to Arab News article added November 12, 2009.
والحمدلله رب العالمين
