Month 7 Day 6

Notebook Entry
None

Journal Entry
Anyway, so I caught the flight from Kuwait to Dubai at 0330. The security at these ariports is crazy, we are not even traveling to the states and we had to go through three separate metal detectors to make it to the gate. The [flight] to Dubai was nice becasuse it is Emerates air so there is no expense spared. I started to watch Waiting for Superman, a documentary about the American education system and I cried sevel times throughout. It is so much more appalling when they talk about the amount of money being spent, really paltry sums when compared to our misguided misadventure on this side of the world. $600 million wasted-that is enough to run our wars over here for 12 hours. It just pisses me off. I could really empathize with the teachers though. Above all my job is that of a [teacher]. I am trying to get these guys to learn when they have no desire to do so, no incentive to succeed. The other thing that came to mind when watching the film was the linguist trying to come to America. I cried when some of the kids tried to go to better charter schools so that they could eventually move up to colleges, and I think about the resistance that I get from Sammy when I tell him the only way that he is going to get a letter of recommendation from me is if he actually has a plan about what he is going to do when he arrives. He’s like I’m going to live with my brother, or I’m going to live with this Marine Lt. I’m like [dude], you need to have a long term plan that shows how you can end up competing with other people who are screpping for jobs. Some of the people you are going to be competing with are exactly the people depicted in the film. That is uneducated, high school drop outs or poor performers, because an Afghan education will not count for shit in America (with good reason).

Arrived in Dubai and saw another magnificent airport and thought more about the odd mentality that people have about economics and about how people in these coutries could be forgiven for thinking that productivity grows on trees. They don’t understand to a man that production is synonomous with GDP-Gross domestic product, that you have to be able to make things or ideas in order to advance material wellbeing. The Emeraties and Kuwaitines shod in all white robes carrying multiple Ipads, iPods and [Blackberries] per person were grave portent of the [world] without oil. Where these people disintegrate because [they] don’t actually make stuff, (dubai being the obvious attempted exception).

I also watched Freakonomics. Right now my eyes are so tiered that I am not looking at the screen as I type this. I have my eyes shut my head back against the seatrest and a blanket on my lap. The combination of the zero sleep last night, the glass of wine, and the dry air has sapped my energy. I would like to hold on until the
Aussie night, but I don’t know if I can.

In Kuwait international Airport

In Dubai