Dubai? No way.

I stopped flying Qantas for a few reasons, even though I am a fairly patriotic Australian and I love Australia and BBQs and kangaroos and footy- well, not so much the footy maybe.
I stopped flying Qantas to the US because I usually want to get to the East coast, and I could no longer take the LAX stopover. So you fly 14 hours and come of the plane only to stand in endless lines waiting to get bags, go through Customs where you are treated as if you were an Al Qaeda operative attempting to smuggle drugs, cash and bombs into the country, and then walk to the domestic terminal, check in the bags and pay overweight because it's a domestic flight and you have too much luggage, having come from the other side of the world with gifts for your grandchildren, or tons of clothes because you're going for a wedding or something, and then you have to endure 5 hours with your knees under your chin in a domestic sardine can, to be spewed out the other end, wrung out and shattered, hoping that your bags made it with you.
So I pay more and I fly Singapore Airlines. And they don't forget the Kosher food, which Qantas also tended to do.

And then I stopped flying Qantas to Europe (from where I would fly to Israel) because they made Dubai their hub. And I refuse to go to Dubai.

Dubai, Dubai, Dubai. There's a strong marketing campaign afoot. Dubai is pitching itself as this amazing shopping mecca (excuse the expression), with this crazy indoor ski slope and insane swimming pool setup (in a desert! Where ambient temperatures can be 55C! And all the water is desalinated seawater, and every litre costs more than a litre of petrol) and fun fun fun for the family. And the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world, which was one of the features in 'Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol'. So hello Hollywood! And they turn a blind eye to scantily clad Westerners, and you can get alcohol even though it's a Muslim country. Hey, let's go to Dubai and have a blast!

Except for the fact that Dubai was built and is continuing to be built by slave labour;
Bangladeshis and Indians and Filipinos and Ethiopians who are looking for a better life, a way to earn some money for a few years and then return to their families. They come to work in the endless construction that goes on, and the women come to work as nannies and housemaids for the Emiratis and the Expats. They pay a lot of money for a visa as a guest worker. They are promised good wages and good housing and good food and good hours; but when they arrive, they have their passports taken from them by the construction boss or the Madam of the family and end up at the complete mercy of their employers. The pay is never what is promised, the hours are terrible, housemaids are often physically abused, and the consulates don't care. Hundreds of workers a year get to return to their countries. In coffins.

Dubai is a con job. Dubai, with its smiling face of Sheik Mohammed al Maktoum, the absolute ruler of the place, is a place of sand and dust and smoke and mirrors. It built itself up originally with oil money, but the oil has run out and now it's about tourism and business. It pitches itself as an open minded place, open for business, open for everything. But it is ruled by medieval morals.

Where are the Human Rights organisations protesting the treatment of 'guest workers' who are in reality indentured trapped slaves? Oh, maybe they're at the soccer, in Qatar. Don't get me started on Qatar; it's Dubai times a thousand, and they at least actually do have oil wealth, which they are busy sponsoring global terrorism with, including of course, Hamas, whose 'leader', Khaled Meshaal is busy living it up in Doha while planning to build shopping malls. And now think of the frantic building going on for the FIFA world cup in 2022. (Although ISIS has threatened to bomb it. With Scud missiles. They must really hate the soccer.) And let's not forget Al Jazeera, Qatar's successful attempt to warp journalism. (Why do I not feel sorry for Peter Greste? Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas, do they not say? I'm sorry for his parents.)

That any Western democracy has any truck with these throwbacks to the Middle Ages and their sickening way of life is disgusting and disgraceful, and a testament to the power of Money. And that we hear no end of the whining of 'human rights' organisations, including the heinous UNHRC, about Israel killing babies in Gaza, lapping up every lie that Hamas throws at them even though time and time again it is proven that they inflate and distort the casualty figures, and we all know by now about Gazans used as human shields (although the New York Times still isn't convinced, despite the plethora of evidence); but it's always Israel who is the criminal. Yet these gross human rights abuses in the Emirates have been going on since the first guest workers arrived, and will continue as long as these places exist, because it's not as if the Emiratis could ever lift a finger for themselves anyway.

I, for one, will not be party to it. Even putting aside my natural lack of desire to ever set foot in any Muslim country, (although I have actually been in Jordan to visit Petra) until such time as Israel is allowed to live in peace and security, (when the Moshiach comes, it seems), even if I weren't a Zionist Jew, I would still refuse to ever transit in such a place if there were any other way possible.

Fortunately, there is always Singapore. Which is essentially a police state, I know, ruled by a benign despot. Or Hong Kong, run by a prime human rights abuser, China. Or Bangkok, which is undergoing some serious political turmoil. Oh well. Believe me, if I could travel to Israel by Kvitzas HaDerech, I would.

It's not a perfect world. But Dubai is a whole other level of evil.

Big Diet Things: Gluten, fructose and other misunderstood villains.

This is a true story, not a word of a lie:

Not long ago I entered a health food store looking for gluten flour. I use this to 'strengthen' flour for bread baking. 'Strong' flour, i.e. flour with a high gluten content, is better for baking bread as it results in a chewy, 'bready' texture rather than a 'cakey' texture. I'm sure you know what I mean.

I couldn't find any on the shelves, so I asked a slim, pale slip of a health food shop assistant if there was any in stock, and she said, 'Yes, we have a whole range of gluten-free flours, over there.' So I said, no thank you, I am actually after GLUTEN flour. She stared at me, uncomprehending, went even paler and retreated, horrified, stammering that she had to speak to the manager. I could see her whispering to several other employees, all of whom glanced at me and then resumed their feverish whispering. And then the manager came from out the back and was briefed of this bizarre request from this strange, plump, rosy-cheeked woman who was clearly mental. The manager laughed and calmed everyone down, saying 'Relax everyone! Gluten flour is used in bread baking, very common.' Then he came over to me and said that these youngsters had never heard of such a thing as actually seeking out gluten  because everybody is avoiding gluten, so they all panicked as they thought I was deranged.

Because it turns out that gluten is quite the bad boy these days. We all know about coeliac disease which is a kind of allergy to gluten, a protein found in wheat, rye and other grains. (Rice is usually OK, as is corn, buckwheat and quinoa.) It causes intestinal symptoms, intractable anaemias and generally makes the sufferer feel foul when untreated. It has a genetic component, thus runs in families, is associated with certain antibodies in the blood (but possessing these antibodies doesn't necessarily mean you have coeliac) and the gold standard of diagnosis is through small bowel biopsy which shows clear changes in the lining of the small intestine. But it can be tricky to diagnose:

'Coeliac disease affects on average approximately 1 in 70 Australians. However, approximately 80% currently remain undiagnosed. This means that approximately 330,000 Australians have coeliac disease but don’t yet know it.

More and more people are being diagnosed with coeliac disease. This is due to both better diagnosis rates and a true increase in the incidence of coeliac disease.' (Coeliac Australia) 

[I don't know if this is true or not, it seems a little excessive to me, but I guess Coeliac Australia should know what they are talking about]

A study from New Zealand found that gluten avoidance was five times more common than medically diagnosed coeliac disease. FIVE TIMES. (Maybe there's your missing 80% of undiagnosed coeliacs? Just a thought.)

Also, about 20% of Americans avoid gluten. Why? Probably they feel better not eating wheat.

Apparently there is a growing phenomenon of 'non-coeliac gluten sensitivity' which is, to say the least, controversial. 

The trouble is that many of the symptoms are similar to Irritable Bowel Syndrome, i.e., diarrhoea, constipation, abdominal bloating and pain. And until a few years ago, IBS was considered to be, well,  in the province of psychosomatic disorders, or functional disorders, or call it what you want but since there are no tests and the symptoms are largely subjective, you were considered a bit mental. As a doctor, back in the day when I was in General Practice, I confess doing a mental eye-roll when presented with IBS. And Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (I remember when it was called 'Yuppie Flu'). Talk about 'heart-sink' patients. And Fibromyalgia, G-d help us all. Some things gain 'legitimacy' when a blood test is actually found which does provide objective evidence. Not always. IBS (and CFS and FM) still is largely a diagnosis of exclusion, i.e., make sure you're not missing something really nasty like bowel cancer or something, and then just use the descriptive term- Irritable Bowel.

And yet: These people feel better off wheat/ gluten. So is it in their heads? Maybe it's not the gluten in the wheat, it's the fructose. And now we are on to the other Big Diet Thing now; everyone is fructose intolerant. Well, maybe it is common! There's a lot of confusion.

You know what is really common? Eating too much. That's common. You know what else? Eating processed crap and drinking soda. That's common too. I just saw the stupidest Diet Coke ad I have ever seen. Apparently it's not a real ad but a pregnancy announcement which is even more stupid. All I could think was, you're pregnant and you're drinking Diet Coke? Are you nuts? Diet Coke and sodas in general are The Devil's Piss as far as I am concerned. How can we look at the surge in diagnoses of learning disorders and autism spectrum disorders and ADHD and ignore that pregnant women are drinking this crap, and that there MIGHT be a connection? (OOH no, it's vaccines, right?)

You know what else is common? Eating disorders. Unfortunately I have seen these things, and they often go like this (I will compress 10 years of decline into a few sentences): I will no longer eat meat because I have a moral objection to eating anything that had a mother/has a face. So no fish either. And eggs. They are chicken abortions. I'll eat the whites. No, I won't. And dairy. Cows suffer so much. I'm vegan.  I eat healthy! I eat heaps of green veggies! I LOVE kale! Also I don't eat wheat, or rye or barley or oats- I'm gluten sensitive. And rice either. Oh, not gluten then. Or some special sensitivity. Or allergy. I don't eat carbs, they make me feel bloated. Or nuts. No nuts. Too much fat. Or legumes. They bloat me. I don't eat this, I don't eat that, and in the end all I eat is lettuce and broccoli. And kale. Covered in salt and spices because by now my tastebuds have gone numb because I am so mineral and protein and fat and everything deficient nothing is working anyway, least of all my starved brain.

I have seen this up close, and it's extreme and terrifying, and I think it's the tip of a disordered-eating iceberg. The rest of the iceberg is: I eat Paleo. I don't eat carbs. I'm vegetarian. I'm vegan. I'm non-coeliac gluten sensitive. Etcetera. (I'm not saying that every single vegetarian or vegan is mental, but I wonder about some.)

I'm not saying there is absolutely no such thing. Just as many cases of IBS have indeed been resolved by the FODMAP diet, and it seems that fructose does in fact have some bearing on symptoms, one day we will probably find some objective test for non-coeliac gluten sensitivity, and hurrah.

Meanwhile: Don't overeat. Don't eat too much stuff out of packets. Eat fish, eat vegetables. Eat a bit of what you fancy. And DON'T drink The Devil's Piss. Have some soda water with a bit of juice in it for a bit of cold fizz!

PS: My bread works very well, thanks for asking. I bake challah most weeks, usually half wholemeal, and I don't eat much of it. Everything in moderation. (Including moderation.)

Enough, already. Really.

So much has been happening, and so much loss. From MH17 to Protective Edge, from Robin Williams to Lauren Bacall, even locally, 2 peers of mine who died suddenly leaving barely grown families. Too much sadness.
Tisha B'Av has passed, Moshiach didn't come- you may think me naive or deluded, but I actually do believe that Moshiach will come 'even though he tarries'. He has to come.
Anti-Semitism continues to rise, Hamas is still unbeaten, ISIS continues its rampage through the region.
Yesterday I read of 2 young women, Italian aid workers, who entered Syria via Turkey in order to help the suffering of the citizenry, and were abducted by IS terrorists. So it will be pretty much a miracle if they haven't been raped to death by now. The depravity of that bunch is beyond belief. They relish their evil, posting their own videos of battlefield executions and beheadings of fellow Muslims (well, according to them, Shiites aren't Muslim, so it's OK to murder them in cold blood and chuck their bodies into rivers or peg up their heads on stakes) and rape, murder, besiege and starve 40,000 Yazidis, including of course many women and children.

But in Belfast! The good citizenry find nothing better to do than swarm a local supermarket and remove all Israeli-sourced goods from shelves, in the name of BDS.
Talk about a meeting of morons. These people were shooting and murdering and blowing each other up five minute ago. They were bombing London. Both sides produced terrorists who perpetuated the senseless 'Hatfield and McCoy' style of tit-for-tat blood feuds that went on for decades. But NOW, they are big experts on geopolitics, especially the Arab-Israeli conflict and ESPECIALLY Hamas and Israel, and they are going to fix everything by boycotting Israeli goods. Like that makes any sense. AND what do they chant? 'Palestine will be free, from the river to the sea'. Which is of course, a call for genocide and the obliteration of Israel. So basically, the Irish involved know nothing; but they know how to be anti-Semites.

Where are the protestors against the ISIS thugs and murderers and child-killers? Well, that's all too hard isn't it. Let's go for the soft target; the only free democracy in the region.

I can't keep going on and on about this. The reason I haven't written much is that there is so much written about the Gaza conflict that by the time I finish reading all the opinions, which are never-ending, and all the comment threads, and responding in cyber-warrior fashion to anti-Israel crap, I have no time to actually write stuff myself. And surely everyone is sick of it.

I'm sick of it. I'm sick of this stupid Irish joke. I'm sick of BDS-holes. And I'm sure sick of anti-Semitism in all its forms.

Moshiach, hurry up already. Enough with the tarrying. I don't know how much more of this I can take.