DID YOU KNOW

AVIATION HEAVEN?

I have not discussed politics in this blog till now. 

The blog is called 1984 Redux because today we face the danger of becoming ‘blind sheep’ just like the masses in 1984. They could not remember what happened beyond the last few weeks or months; a lack of historical memory that author George Orwell saw as key to political manipulation and the destruction of a healthy and free society.

(Remember the slogan; Who controls the present controls the past; who controls the past controls the future.)

 

Last week, news broke in the Globe and Mail (though known to AFP as of April 24, 2013 http://www.france24.com/en/20130424-qatar-wants-host-world-aviation-group) that Qatar, with a citizenry of just 250,000, will be seeking to have the headquarters of the International Civil Aviation Organization relocated from its longtime base in Montreal, Canada to Doha at this year’s September UN meetings.  As of last week, It has gotten the 23 states of the Arab league to endorse this application and, according to the Globe and Mail, this is being done, in part, to punish Canada for its pro-Israel stance under the Harper government.

And according to the AFP:

“ Montreal has been the ICAO's home since it was created in 1944, but Qatar is offering to build spectacular new offices to house the UN agency...  Furthermore, Qatar says, Montreal is cold and too far from European and Asian aviation hubs. To sweeten the deal, Doha said it would also offer to void income taxes for ICAO staff living in the country, if the agency moved there.”

Now Montreal does have winter and snow and cold, but as I recall, Qatar and the Arabian peninsula’s desert is no moderate climate either.  Temperatures are over 100° Fahrenheit  in May, June, July, August, September and October and ‘drop’ to mid-80s in the ‘winter’. There are regular dust storms as well. (http://traveltips.usatoday.com/average-temperature-rain-fall-qatar-13455.html) 

 

As for the access to European and Asia hubs, and don’t forget the United States and South America, here are the facts:

	Montreal  (miles)	Doha (miles)
London	3243.16	3236.85
Paris	3417.99	3088.78
Frankfurt	3772.85	2678.65
Tokyo	6449.91	5124.29
New York, USA	331.12	6688.93
Washington, D.C., USA	488.93	6892.07
Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)	5092.87	7154.25

 

Finally, the AFP and G&M reports seem to imply that the ICAO has only one office.  In fact, the ICAO website points out that it has 7 other, regional offices, with the existing Middle East headquarters  in Cairo, Egypt. (http://www.icao.int/secretariat/Pages/regional-offices.aspx)

 

More importantly, and here is where 1984 comes in:

In theory I have no objection to moving any international organization headquarters, be it aviation, the United Nations itself, the International Court at the Hague or the Olympics.

Any move needs to meet the following criteria to be justified and viable:

1. The current office location must be flawed from a business standpoint.  The location must be unable to keep up with technology and communication needs of the business, have problems attracting/keeping able staff or is now in a war zone.

2. The prospective new location must:

     a.  be equal to or superior to the current location on the above three items

b.  be feasible for current staff to relocate without major obstacles to family and culture shock.

·         Specifically, any openly gay and lesbian employees should be free to live as they do now without threat of violence.  The same for employees with strong religious beliefs:  be they Sikhs, Hindus, Muslims, Jews, Bahia, Christians, Mormons, etc. They must be able to have religious freedom in any new location – just as they have in Canada.

 

·         Women employees must have equal rights as per the United nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. (https://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/ intrernational charter of human rights and freedoms) They must be able to drive a car, walk outdoors alone and in their normal dress without harassment or violence.

 

·         Racism  -- based on ethnicity or colour -- cannot be legal in the new host. All Jews, for example, are barred from travelling to or working in any of the countries of the Arabian Peninsula.

 

·         All employees and their families and descendents must have the right, if they wish, to become lifelong citizens with full rights of their new home country. This is not allowed in any Arab state.

 

 c. the new location must be a democracy rather than a dictatorship, oligarchy or all powerful
  kingship – i.e., a role model of freedom to its own people and the international community.

 

By the above criteria, Qatar, a sheikdom following  Sharia law,  is far from an acceptable choice,  as is currently any Arab state. 

Only Turkey comes close of the Muslim lands, and by far the best choice in the Middle East is --

ISRAEL.

 

Put simply, a move to Qatar would not only be -- for staff -- a move half way around the world, but a regression into the Medieval past!