Quiet Ironies en route to Africa

Today this blog takes a different turn.  If you missed the first installment of Kigozi’s adventures in Africa, I hope you can join the fun here and refer to it as necessary for background information.  If you’re returning with interest in my travels, thanks for reading and please don’t hesitate to comment, challenge, contradict, argue with, encourage, or make fun of me.  I welcome your reactions.

I’m taking a break from academic work for a bit to smile at some of the quiet ironies that make us forget the mundane indignities of travel.  Observe: the “first class” and “business class” lounge:

Wow, isn’t that great? Mr. International Business Traveler will think: “Nice chairs, very quiet and comfortable…Emirates Airlines sure did build a nice terminal. But hey, wait a minute! Aren’t those chairs right over there that look just as comfortable for the schmucks in economy class? Where’s my smug sense of bourgeois satisfaction?”

Well, it’s probably upstairs somewhere swimming in a glass of overpriced booze that has a nice view of the Burger Falafel King next to it. Maybe you can even see us mere mortals enjoying some of the same high-speed internet that you’re using to work for Big Brother.

Note here that were it not for the fully reclining seats, I would never throw such thinly veiled jealous quips toward the traveling elite.  All the same, this is a pretty cool airport whether you’re rockin’ a Rolex cell phone or not.

I hope you’ll stick with me for some more exciting images of Dubai and later Uganda. I’ll even promise not to engage in such blatantly futile class warfare. Truth be told, Emirates has the coolest in-flight entertainment system I’ve ever seen, and this airport’s cold slickness betrays the otherwise friendly demeanor of its staff.

Until next time…