Juxtapositions, contradictions

Today I’m seated in the lap of luxury, eating overpriced food and being tended to by people from Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, India and Bangladesh who are likely here without any family members. At the same time, a cyclone breaks out in Myanmar, killing tens of thousands, Lebanon is again under the threat of a ‘civil’ war, mothers give birth at checkpoints in the West Bank, people starving in Gaza…what is this life, and what is my role in the world? Times like these I wonder why in the hell I’ve chosen to study art.

I’m thinking about this and walk outside to meet M at the beach and the sun, which had thoroughly browned me in the 45 minutes I was outside earlier, had all but disappeared behind this gray sky. Along with the gray came wind, and rain. Again! Rain….and the wind was whipping these cold rain drops and all the employees were rushing around to close up the beach (yeah, the beach closes at 6, or apparently when there’s weird weather). M was not looking forward to sand in her eyes and the subsequent eye infections this brings, so she headed in. Being the “I want to learn it for myself” type, I hung out to experience the weather. Also, there was no sand whipping around, so I felt safe. It was pretty amazing. Wind is normal, but this rain is not. We came upstairs to read an article that reported that the rain Abu Dhabi got the other day was due to cloud seeding. In other words, the rain was man-made. If you're interested in learning about artificial rain in the UAE click here..