I had this strange dream recently about getting on a flight in Mumbai, flying to Tehran and then on to Tel Aviv and then back to London.However, when I woke up I remembered that in February 1970 I did just exactly that. I took TWA Flight 001, the round the world service, from Bombay (as it was called then) and landed the next morning in Tehran. I still remember the luminescent blue haze around the mountains that encircle the city of Tehran as one landed. I enjoyed a very pleasant couple of days with my Iranian friends, the famous French singer Charles Aznavour was appearing in concert and I enjoyed a nice glass of chilled champagne in the bar of the Hilton hotel. I then flew on to Tel Aviv and proceeded to Jerusalem where I remember thinking it was distinctly cooler than Mumbai and Tehran and I wished I’d brought a pullover.
Would that that dream would come true, but then Martin Luther King also had a dream and if he hadn’t then Obama wouldn’t be the President of the United States. So let’s keep dreaming and hoping for a better future where men and women of good will dominate politics and international affairs instead of the Chavez’s and Ahmadinejad’s of this world.




