Cruising the Gulf of Mexico! 

A humongous 16-storey "monster" ship, a luxury stateroom with balcony, unlimited dining options at amazing world class restaurants, free drinks, live music, dancing - what's not to like?

I wasn’t sure what to expect when the suggestion of a November cruise came up. I had done some cruising in the past: the Greek Islands, Egypt, the Bahamas, Alaska, but that was a long time ago. I was already going to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Schedules would have to be changed and last-minute flights booked. I managed and reached New Orleans the night before. 

My heart sank when I heard there’d be 6,000 people on the ship! Thank goodness, one didn’t see them all at once, although the scene at the Port of New Orleans was intimidating and chaotic with several hundred people and a line that snaked endlessly around long corridors. An hour or so later we’d reached the security check-in which seemed brief and perfunctory after the long wait. 

Norwegian Breakaway - the Largest Ship to Dock in New Orleans!

But that was all forgotten when we boarded the “Norwegian Breakaway,” which we were told was the largest ship to ever dock in New Orleans. She was a beauty! I had already upgraded to a mini suite and spent forever on my balcony, enjoying the breeze, the balmy weather, and the mesmerizing blue of the Western Caribbean. Except for one hot and humid day at Cozumel, daily temps were in the upper 70s with little or no rain. 

Shipboard activities ranged from nightly game shows to major theatrical productions, bingo, karaoke, and the casino. I looked in on some of these but what I enjoyed most was the live music, the spa, and daily dinners with the “Caesar’s” gang: our intrepid leaders Sha Ree and Minyanna along with Tom and Kendra; our adventure to the icy-cold Skyy Bar, and enjoying Japanese, Brazilian, French, and other cuisines. 

I was also chuffed to do some salsa dancing and - most unexpectedly - to find an excellent partner, Nestor from Puerto Rico. It was quite an experience (and somewhat daunting) to dance salsa, merengue, and machada on the open top deck of the 16th floor still damp from a passing rain shower - after first having trod the entire length of the ship from fore to aft in the semi-dark with scaredy-cat thoughts of toppling overboard! 

Cruise "Horror" Stories!

I had watched cruise “horror” stories on YouTube the week before I departed and tried not to think about catastrophic power failures, toilets backing up, contagious sicknesses, and a morgue on every ship. Yes, sadly, people die on cruises; some even commit suicide! One person was evacuated by helicopter from our cruise because of a medical emergency. If I wasn't at the spa then getting acupuncture, I would have run up to look! Why are disaster scenarios so morbidly fascinating?

Lots of older people like to cruise and they go from one cruise to the next without a break; they say it’s cheaper than paying rent and getting maids to clean up their homes!  I spoke to several. One of them, Sam (a disabled former engineer from Montgomery, Alabama in his mid-80s), told me he was recovering from five hip surgeries earlier this year. 

I met a woman, Pamela, from a Chicago suburb, who was cruising with her blind daughter. She was recently widowed and spoke movingly about missing her husband and their travels together. 

It was a seven-day cruise. We were four days at sea and three days docked at Cozumel, Mexico; Harvest Caye, Belize; and Costa Maya, Mexico - in that order. Ports were bustling places with activities ranging from snorkeling, tubing, swimming with dolphins, and zip lining, to visiting cacao and rubber plantations, and Mayan archaeological sites. I’m a history buff so I chose the Mayan sites. (Full disclosure: I was too chicken to zipline having tried it out in Costa Rica and been scared out of my wits)! Check out my Maya blog on shore excursions to Tulum, Nim Li Punit, and Chacchoben. 

Spice Farm, Belize

I enjoyed visiting the Spice Farm in Belize, privately owned for 27 years by India-born Thomas Mathew, from Kerala. It grows basil, oregano, nutmeg, cinnamon, cardamom, lemon grass, turmeric, curry leaf, black pepper, and vanilla, as well as moringa (or drumstick), coffee, coconut, teak, sandal wood, cacao, mahogany, spiny bamboo, cashew, and exotic flowers: jasmine, water lilies, black orchid, and birds of paradise. 

Best of all, I had forgotten all about my serious pollen allergies and was handling, smelling, and tasting the cinnamon, lemon grass, and black pepper leaves with no ill effects!  (Twice this year, while in New York, I got severe skin hives from being in the vicinity of lilies and bamboo plants and was put on an intense dose of Prednisone!  Or maybe it’s a North America thing with suspect pollen, ragweed, mold spores, even fertilizer). 

Tequila Tasting!

We did a fun excursion to a tequila tasting warehouse in Cozumel! Tequila is like wine, the most expensive kinds are aged and can range in price from 700 to 1,000 dollars a bottle. Made from the blue agave plant, it is akin to cashew or coconut "feni” from Goa. By law, tequila must be produced in Mexico. There are three types: blanco, reposado, and añejo - and the luxury Don Julio brand with its extra añejo is considered the granddaddy of super premium tequila!  (Pity there was no similar rum tasting in Belize, a major manufacturer and exporter of rum)!

My steward, Dede, did his best to make the trip unforgettable. My only grouse was that the air conditioning was too strong. The cabin was freezing. I had to turn it off and get blankets. The restaurants were also freezing which impacted what we wore - we couldn’t really dress up! The Internet did not work either except briefly on the final night and that was a bit of a bummer!

The boat was also a bit rocky and I know that a few passengers suffered from motion sickness. I was in good shape though having bought Dramamine wristbands (as per YouTube advice)!  Another great purchase was the insect repellent bracelets and stickers for one’s clothes or backpacks, and the magnetic wall hooks for the cabin. So useful!

Cruising the Gulf of Mexico could be so much fun!  Who knew?  

New Orleans Postcript: Live Jazz, Gumbo Festival

There is something so special and vibrant about New Orleans, that most diverse and interesting of American cities. On the final day before flying home we spent several hours enjoying New Orleans' sunny weather, listening to live street jazz at the French Market, consuming coffee and beignets at the Cafe du Monde, and enjoying brass bands at the Treme Creole Gumbo Festival - although it was a challenge finding vegan gumbo minus gluten and seafood! 

Ludi Joseph

Washington, D.C.

Dec. 3, 2018

Churchill, More Villain Than Hero?

For a few years now, Indian Parliamentarian and former U.N. Under Secretary General, Shashi Tharoor - author of “Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India” - has been doing a systematic and very effective takedown of Britain’s sense of self with regard to its colonial legacy in India - and especially its nostalgia for Empire!

Tharoor has done this in the media and on university panels with devastating exposés of everything the Brits were proudest of: the railways, the civil service, education, the courts, industry, and so on. He claims that, far from doing any good, Britain destroyed India’s agriculture, as well as its textile, shipbuilding and nascent steel industries, and left it much worse off and with a drastically lowered GDP after 200 years of what he refers to as “rapacious and pitiless taxation” and misrule. 

Tharoor’s latest target is Winston Churchill who, as Britain’s prime minister, was nothing short of a war criminal when he diverted much needed grain supplies away from starving Indians in 1943 - to Allied forces in Europe - thereby causing the deaths of more than three million people during the Bengal famine.

1943 Bengal Famine

Nobel economist Amartya Sen was among the first who wrote about Churchill’s role in the 1943 Bengal famine; so has journalist Madhusree Mukherjee. It is a horrifying account of imperial brutality that tarnishes Churchill’s image with a litany of unheroic deeds!  British soldiers were ordered to throw thousands of tons of rice into the sea to ensure it did not benefit Japanese invaders.  This “scorched earth” policy (i.e., destroying all food and water in an area of conflict while civilians starved), has been directly attributed to Churchill.

In a recent opinion piece in Bloomberg  (see link below), Tharoor refers to the flap in the British media when Labour Party politician John McDonnell called Churchill a “villain” for his repressive role in curbing the 1910 Wesh miner’s strike.  As Tharoor points out, a single miner died as a result of Churchill’s policies in Wales, whereas upwards of 3 million died in the Bengal famine directly attributed to Churchill‘s skewered policies in India. 

Ultimate White Supremacist?

Churchill was the ultimate “White Supremacist” whose views were anachronistic, even Malthusian: democracy and freedom were not meant for inferior or darker races, he wrote; Britons were “a stronger race, a higher-grade race" compared to the people who they conquered. 

Besides the Bengal famine and brutal repression of the Mau Mau in Kenya, in my view Churchill is not solely to blame for other evils laid at his door. Much of it was British government policy. He was a product of his times and a product of Empire - very much in the mould of that other infamous jingoist and fellow Nobel laureate, Rudyard Kipling. Churchill may not have been evil personified but (in the estimation of many) evil enough!

Battle of Gallipoli (1915-16)

There is another item to add to the misdeeds and fiascos for which Churchill is at least partially responsible: the disastrous Battle of Gallipoli (1915-16). This was during World War I and, as First Lord of the Admiralty, Churchill fancied himself a military strategist who pushed to open an eastern front. 

More than half a million soldiers (Allied and Ottoman) perished as a result of the harebrained notion to open a passage to Russia through the Straits of the Dardanelles. Churchill and other Allied commanders underestimated the Ottomans. He infamously (and rather fatuously, it turns out!) said in 1915: “A good army of 50,000 men and sea power: that is the end of the Turkish menace.” (See photo below). 

Indian Deaths Unacknowledged

About 4,700 young Indian soldiers also died fighting under the British flag at Gallipoli, but (as in other battlefields in Europe, Singapore, Malaya, etc.) local tour guides forget to mention Indian military deaths until specifically (and rather forcefully) reminded to do so by yours truly! C’est la vie!  

Pioneer Newspaper

As a footnote, let me add that both Kipling and Churchill wrote for the Pioneer newspaper in Lucknow.  (Both were reportedly also fired but I couldn’t swear to that!). When the newspaper was resurrected by the Thapar Group in the mid-1990s, I was appointed the Washington D.C. correspondent for a few years... I remember getting a kick out of that knowledge!  One can imagine the reaction in the context of Empire (colonisation, even race!) but, at this point, that seems - somehow - both incongruous and fitting!  

Ludi Joseph

Feb. 18, 2019

Enclosures:

Gallipoli map, photos 

Bloomberg Opinion piece 

The Rest of Us Always Knew Churchill Was a Villain