I am in Dubai airport on way to...Istanbul. I have canceled Lebanon for the time being. I will never ever complain about Heathrow: having flowing out of Islamabad airport. The plane was delayed for a while: I asked the guy in charge for the cause and he said: "weather conditions." I asked: "what are the weather conditions that are causing the delay"? He said: "It is raining." I said: do you know that cars drive and planes fly when it is raining? He said: Oh, no. It is raining hard. See. And then he took me beyond the security point to show me the rain first hand. It is raining alright, I observed. Anybody who flies out of Islamabad airport should get two blenders as consolation prizes. If Beirut (in its prime) was a fake and vulgar imitation of Europe; then Dubai is fake and vulgar imitation of Beirut. A city without a soul: just like Rafiq Hariri's solidaire (and like the Solidaire, it is based on sleaze, prostitution, savage capitalism, and rigid hierarchies of wealth, power, prestige, and ethnitity. One local paper here headlined: Secretary-general of NATO praises (ruler) Khalifah for his security policies. Another headline stated that Shaykh Mo will assemble his cabinet. I kid you not. Welcome to Dubai: model of ugly globalization. And I have not left the airport: (I am only passing through the airport: salutations to friends, especially Rima, `Abdul-Khaliq, and Anisah). The promotional videos of Emirates airlines are quite disgusting: it is produced by people ashamed of their own race. The featured women are all blond and white and European: you would think that Dubai is a Scandinavian city. Emirate airline is certainly heading to become number one but the New York Times article about it a few days ago did not mention that no business experts believe that the airline is making profit without cash infusion from House of Maktum. Enough said: I am grumpy (politically). Pakistanis told me that the racist policies at Dubai airport require that all flights from Pakistan be taken to a very remote corner of the airport. Passengers are then bused in. The rulers don't want the Pakistanis to contaminate the White Race (the rulers are Scandinavian, always remember. Pakistanis are like Lebanese in at least in two regards: they can never stand in line: and 2) they find their children cute when they throw up in public.