One for the Road - Dubai, Feb. 1, 2010

Log margin notes:
On the way back home, the Lost Nav was blown off course by Emirates Airlines' changing schedules. It could have been a ploy to get me to spend money in Dubai.
I learned of the layover days before, but I still headed to the Delhi airport thinking that my Asian adventuring was over.
Still, the flight change left me with a 10-hour layover and I didn't want to miss an opportunity to see another part of the world. In Delhi I met two guys headed to San Francisco, who also had pretty serious layovers, and we decided from the Delhi airport to hit the town in the broke desert Disney.
First thing's first: The terminal in Dubai is huge. The showcase building never runs out of long clean corridors, massive high ceilings supported by marble-looking pillars, glass elevators and adds one indoor waterfall. The Emirates terminal is supposedly the largest air terminal in the world.
Friendly, young and Western-styled immigration officers told the Americans that no visas were necessary to head out into town for a few hours. The Indian passport holders were sent off for an ID check before their passports were stamped.
A quick security check of my carry-on bag was conducted through passport control. Apparently, it is not permissible to bring matches into Dubai.
The three of us headed into town to see the Dubai Mall and the tallest building in the world the Burj Khalifa (2,717 ft).
The taxi ride through the night highways reminded me of Florida... wide highways lined with shopping strips, glass buildings and Western fastfood joints.
When we arrived it seemed that the Dubai Mall is just a mall. It's a big, nice mall, with an ice rink and a little aquarium. It's clean, it smells good, but it's a mall. Maybe it's a big deal for all of the tourists I saw there. There were more tourists than locals. The style of dress ran the range from women's burkas and men's white dishadasha robes and shora headdress to average Western.
After a quick trip around one of the mall's levels, we decided on some dinner.
We made our way outside to a man-made pond that separated the mall... from another mall. A broad selection of outdoor cafes lined both sides of the pond and tourists gathered on a bridge to watch a water show provided by the pond's fountains right at the foot of the Khalifa tower.
The Vegas-style show ended in a few minutes and we sat down to some moderately priced Middle Eastern food.
The next stop was a hotel for a cold beverage before it was time to get back on the plane for a 14-hour half-day of pain. (Hotels are the only businesses allowed to serve alcohol.)
The hotel, a monument to what a traditional Arabian palace must certainly look like, also boasted its own pond and a view of the new off-shore, sail-shaped Burj Al-Arab hotel.
We sat on beanbag chairs at the hip outdoor patio bar while fancy society swells from Europe and West Asia drank fruity drinks and smoked hukkahs in the 60F degree air.
The Dubai experience was only a few hours and it was plenty for me to feel I had seen all there was to see in the Arabian peninsula's no-gambling tribute to Las Vegas phony glamor and excess.
On the way back from the outdoor bar I remembered the first conversation I had in India. I met a friend named Madhur in the Mumbai airport. He told me Mumbai was dirty and hectic and I should leave quickly or I'll never want to come back to India. He also told me I should someday make a point to visit Dubai.
I told him I had a few months to spend in India, one month back in New York and then 27 months in Morocco.
So when would I ever go all the way to Dubai?

Fire on the Mountain - Srinigar, Kashmir, Jan. 29, 2010

[Backdated]
Travel log:
A river of fire ran down a wooded Himalayan hillside above Dal Lake in Srinagar.
The plume of smoke made an exclamation point across a ridge that needs no emphasis.
The fire brought streamers of black charcoal raining down over the city. Even the locals looked up in disgusted wonderment.
"He is a crazy guy," said a man selling food on the roadside by Dal Lake.
The "he" the man referred to sets fires illegally on the foothills and runs. Later he collects his bounty of charcoal to sell.
"Twenty, 25 years ago these mountains used to be beautiful," the vendor said.
They are still quite impressive.
The snowless Himalayan foothills frame Dal Lake, the center of Srinagar's tourism industry.
Houseboats with English names sit just across from the walkway with its streetlamps by the lake. Ferrymen call out and follow foreigners to offer rides across or around the lake on their brightly colored gondolas called 'shikaras.'
Small, but well-kept hotels and restaurants sit opposite the lakeshore on Boulevard Road.
Tourism is a major source of income for the, at times, war torn state of Jammu & Kashmir.
Still, the place looks distinctly more wealthy than other parts of India.
The poverty, begging, smog and crumbling structures in the major cities of Mumbai and Delhi are not found in Srinagar. Streets and sidewalks are in good order, buildings have a fresh coat of paint. Some people even live in single-family homes. There is a large police and paramilitary presence; and aside from fairly frequent spools of barbed wire, the place can look a bit like Long Island.
Especially in the majority Muslim Kashmir Valley, the government pumps in a lot of money to appease calls for independence or even a desire for full Pakistani rule, Indian security experts say.
Money comes from the Muslim world as well, in order to help the Kashmiris stuck under Indian rule in Indian-administered Kashmir.
"They're twisting both," said a former Central Reserve Police officer.
The influx of cash leaves Kashmir one of the most war torn and one of the most well-off regions on the country.
Violence occasionally breaks out, usually surrounding nervy relations between protesters and security officers. Officers also touch off conflict as they cordon off houses and begin searches for militants in hiding.
Mostly Kashmiris are interested in independence, but there are too many barriers.
There is first a contented feeling among the people. The surroundings are pleasant and aside from occasional shootouts, life is good.
The Indian security apparatus also believes that Kashmiris understand that a greater Pakistani influence would likely be counter-productive.
Pakistan's unstable government is not even able to control all of its own territory and could do nothing to benefit the people of Kashmir, they say.
There is also no provision in the Indian constitution to allow for states to just walk away, said Rajendra Kumar, additional director general of police intelligence in J&K.
"How can you allow this?" he asked, adding that other Indian states may begin their own calls for independence.
Plus, China creates another problem.
China helped build and for practical purposes controls the Karakoram Highway from China to Pakistan through Pakistani-administered Kashmir.
Rajendra said that China has claimed that if the status of Kashmir changes, they will deal with the new government. What kind of deal Beijing intends to make is unclear.
India's security community increasingly feels surrounded by China.
The economic rival to the east has made news with incursions across the Line of Actual Control on the mountainous Chinese border on the other side of Jammu & Kashmir state on the Siachin Glacier. China has built naval ports in Gwardar, Pakistan and to the south in Hambantota, Sri Lanka. On Dec. 16, local Maoists took over Katmandu, Nepal.
India, the world's largest democracy, founded on peace, has fires to put out in its own backyard, but like the other great democracies, the US, UK, France; we are learning that democracies are a challenge to protect.

NEWSFLASH - Srinagar, Kashmir, Jan. 30, 2010

[backdated]

Kashmir terrorists desert or live six to eight months, J&K police say

By: Aaron Hochman-Zimmerman

Srinagar, Kashmir, Feb. 1 - There may be up to 300 active terrorists in the Kashmir Valley, but most will not continue their fight beyond the summer, according to K. Rajendra Kumar, additional director general of police intelligence for Jammu & Kashmir.

Rocket and small arms fire from the Pakistani side has supported 12 known unsuccessful attempts by militants to cross the Line of Control between Indian- and Pakistani-administered Kashmir so far in 2010.

  Still, for those who have already infiltrated, "the life of a terrorist is six to eight months" on average, said Rajendra, others simply desert once they reach the Indian side.

Before making an attempt to cross, young men are typically recruited from Kashmir as well as Pakistan and sent to training camps in Pakistan for two weeks to three months.

New terror recruits are frequently poor and illiterate, but even if they are well-motivated, they are "rag-tag criminals," Rajendra said.

Many come from prisons where inmates volunteer to fight in order to have their sentences commuted, he said.

The more intelligent trainees are selected for longer courses in cyber-terror and bomb construction.  The shorter programs are for those better suited as suicide bombers or "foot soldiers" used in hit-and-run type attacks on the police and military, he said.

In the camps, fighters are put through paces in prayers, motivational speeches, small arms and explosives.  They are also shown videos of exaggerated atrocities committed by the United States, Israel and India, he said.

They are told that Muslims have no religious freedom in Kashmir, Rajendra said, but when they arrive "they are surprised at the number of mosques in Kashmir ... they feel that they have not been told the truth."

   A few realize that they are just "cannon-fodder" and they walk away "demoralized," he said.

   More often the terrorists are fanatical.  They launched 10 attacks in January alone, a senior police official in Kashmir said, seven other stand-offs were intiated by the authorities based on reports of fighters' whereabouts.

Some militants lay low and avoid action in order to collect approximately 4,500 rupees ($100) as compensation for about one year of service, Rajendra has determined through interrogation and investigation.

During that time, they pay their way with counterfeit money "that is printed on [Pakistani] government presses" or legitimate currency provided by their terror networks, said E. Rammohen Rao, a former Border Security Forces director general and inspector general for Kashmir.

Aside from cash and sidearms, infiltrators also cross the Line of Control with heavier weaponry.

Ahead of the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Indian constitution on Jan. 26, the J&K police seized a large arms cache of anti-personnel mines, grenades, mortars and 10 kilograms of the explosive RDX, the senior police official said.

"G-d was very kind that we could recover that," he said.

On Republic Day a city-wide work stoppage halted Srinagar, but the national holiday passed without incident in the city.  In the past, boys have been paid up to 150 rupees each to pelt police with stones, Rajendra said.

"Attacks are always linked with media coverage" such as on Republic Day, said another top security official in J&K state, otherwise "nobody will know."

Motivated to fight

The fighters caught and interrogated y Indian security forces say that the case against India is made from a young age and often at Muslim schools or madrassas.

Some captured fighters say they were motivated by a religious belief in heavenly rewards, but others have told of a more tangible, earthly reward for the family of a martyr.

Among the lower social classes, parents may push their children toward martyrdom in order to elevate the status of the family, Rajendra said.

Once a son is martyred, a father becomes revered in the community; at public meetings "he can get a chair to sit," Rajendra said.

There also may be a cash benefit of about 500,000 rupees for the family of a fallen fighter, he added.

Pakistan itself has reason to support the militants in the Kashmir Valley, many Indian security officials believe.

The support for the militants themselves goes beyond covering fire during border crossings, said Rao.

"They are getting weapons from their own ISI," he said of the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence.

A theory within India's security community is that if Pakistan can show the United States that Kashmir is drawing resources from its fight against the Taliban, then it can demand more aid from the West.

"In a way, they are blackmailing the U.S. into sending more money," Rajendra said.