SYMBOLISM OF WELCOME FROM TICUNA ALONG THE AMAZON

I am in Miami, preparing to travel down to the Amazon. This journey has its own peculiar history, the way it was planned and hoped for.
Things happen for a reason. The purpose and destinations on this trip all changed just two days before the trip. 
I could have cancelled the trip but I decided to go on with the trip.
I lit the candles to wish Shabbat Shalom to my friends across the world.

Right at that moment, I received a photo taken in a small village in the Amazon.
It was full moon.

I immediately understood the symbolism. 
The trip was fraught with difficulties beyond my control but the message was clear from the Indians who sent it to me.
Your trip will be fine and we are waiting here for you.
I felt immensely happy.
I always feel that the Spirits will not abandon me, even though human beings might.
Spirits have a better knowledge of your true self than people who are trying to assess it through prisms of their own calculation, in biased and tainted fashion.

I gave thanks to the spirits.
I will thank them personally when I reach the Great River, I will take the sacred tobacco given to me by my Ojibway brother.

A SHORT VIDEO ABOUT DAYS IN COCHIN, INDIA

FOR some lucky reason, I end up in Fort Cochin  few times a year. I am not devoted to India and in fact, my visit to Cochin begins with arrival at its airport and ends with my departure from the same airport a few days later. 
Something about the city is attractive to me, I feel very much at home, comfortable with the friendships I have struck up over the year, delicious food, delightful inn keepers and an ambiance of tolerance and acceptance.
This short video was made by my iphone which presented me with this video Visit to India 2017 November.
I was visiting the Synagogue in Ernakulum where I had the chance to meet Raghu Rai, well known Indian photographer who was a protege of Cartier-Bresson. 
You also see Abraham Ben Hur, a researcher into the history of Kerala and an ardent supporter of Jews and Israel, as well as some local Jews.
Since the time of this visit in November 2017, I have been in Cochin two more times and each time something delightful happens, usually meeting some interesting people. During the last stay at Bristow's Hotel facing the Arabian sea, I met the owner and his wife as well as a mother and daughter travel team from Hamburg.
I am looking forward to my next trip which would be at the end of July 2018.

DR MAHATHIR AND THE NEW MALAYSIA BUT CUBAN-MALAYSIAN FRIENDSHIP REMAINS THE SAE

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DR MAHATHIR: WHAT HAS MALAYSIA TO DO WITH CUBA?

On first reckoning, you would think that these two countries have nothing in common. One is in South East Asia, predominantly Muslim, upper end on the development scale; the other a small island the other side of the world, communist, with very high standards of Education and Medical Care. Both have a modicum of Democracy, but Malaysia is not a one party state.

Dr. Mahathir is known as a Fox among even the most cunning of politicians.

Recently at the age of 92 he was reelected as PM of Malaysia defeating a well oiled machinery of the long governing Muslim dominated party, where the former PM and his cronies stole about a billion dollars worth of Government money. Dr. Mahathir promises to rectify these mistakes

But he had not forgotten his old ally, Cuba

In 2003, when the Non Aligned Government heads of state met in KL, Fidel Castro was healthy and present and I remember a photo of them together at the Malaysian Embassy (resulted from that meeting). The wily Dr. M, as he is known, used his good offices with Fidel; to prod the Americans, gain some respect in the process.

Fidel in return promised 45 medical scholarships to deserving Malaysian students and opening of an Embassy in KL. I had met two of the last four Malaysian Ambassadors to Cuba, Joji Samuel who is now his country's ambassador to Thailand and Omar Khairy who became a good friend and the last three out of four Cuban ambassadors to Malaysia have been my friends: Pedro Monzon, Carlos Amores and Ibete Fernandez.

Whenever I am in KL, I try to stop by the Embassy for a chat or we share a coffee or a meal. Each of these ambassadors is extraordinary , as Cuba is very selective on who represents the country abroad and I have learned a lot from them.

This morning, a good friend of mine from KL, sent me this link to an article in the New York Times about Dr. Mahathir Mohammed and what he is trying to accomplish in that debt ridden, corruption wrapped country.

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/06/14/world/asia/malaysia-mahathir-mohamad.html

In the article, there are four photographs, I am sure carefully chosen, symbolically the three of them are representing the Islamic values of the country, where you see Mahathir or his assistants dressed in traditional Islamic way of the Malay people (which by the way is quite recent that is another story) and the only other picture shows Dr. Mahathir receiving the Cuban Ambassador to Malaysia, Mrs. Ibete Fernandez.

I looked at the symbolism of this photo and its context.

NYT is a widely read and the most respected newspaper in the USA. Dr. Mahathir is no friend of Trump and is aware of his anti-Cuban policies. By showing the only political photo in this article in the most prestigious daily newspaper in USA, where people would see him receiving the Cuban Ambassador to his country is a manoeuvre by the clever Dr. Mahathir. An Average Malaysian who may not see this article (even though it came to me from a Malaysian friend of mine), lots of Americans would see it and read it and would see the photo of my friend Ibete, who is the Cuban Ambassador with Dr. Mahathir, thus emphasizing the symbolism of friendship over distance from Cuba and how we value friendships when the country closest to Cuba maintains such a hostile attitude towards Cuba.

I enjoyed reading the article and seeing the photo of Cuban Ambassador with Dr. Mahathir

COME TO ISRAEL AND EAT SOME OF THE BEST FOOD IN THE MIDDLE EAST

 Three days of Eating in Haifa on a recent visit to Israel.