LETTER FROM ABROAD: THE SAFEST
LETTER FROM ABROAD: THE SAFEST PLACE IN WESTERN CIVILIZATION
Yale Kramer
On a recent rainy August Tuesday the newsboys'-- in London the newsboys are gruff but affable middle-aged men--headlines were screaming "London braces for terror attack!" The story described the measures being formulated to deal with a possible terror attack, but strangely enough it did not mention where to find the safest refuge in London.
The center of fashionable London is Knightsbridge. It is the equivalent of the area surrounding Madison Avenue between 57th and 79th Streets in New York, or North Michigan Avenue in Chicago. You will find names like Dior, Armani, Gucci, Valentino wherever you look. And at the very heart of Knightsbridge stands Harrods, the queen of department stores.
Harrods makes Bloomingdale's look like Sears. The food halls alone are an astonishment, providing delicacies from the world over. If you were a Saudi prince and you wished to buy your little princeling a small electric Alfa Romeo for his birthday so that he could drive around the old oil farm, you could pick one up for a mere $29,000, your choice of colors.
A while back, some 17 or 18 years ago, the store fell on hard times and its previous owners quietly put Harrods up for sale. One Mohamed El Fayyed, an Egyptian of fabled wealth who had for years been trying break into the British upper classes--Ascot and all that--decided to pick it up for what was to him a song. The changes he has made since his takeover have been both subtle and gross. There is now an Egyptian Hall in which the pillars have been converted to look like gigantic ancient Egyptian statues. The net effect is garish and phony, but the large space holds the most expensive women's handbags in Christendom.
Just outside of the Hall of Expensive Handbags there is a shrine to El Fayyed's dead son, Dodi Fayyed, and his last lover, Princess Di, formerly of the Royal Family. The shrine, with large photos of the handsome pair, is never without a large number of devoted worshippers of Princess Di, snapping photos and throwing coins into the fountain beneath the images of the dead couple.
But the centerpiece of the shrine is a large pyramid of solid transparent plastic which contains two relics of the pair and their deep love for one another. The first is a crystal wine glass--purported to be the last goblet the two drank from in their suite at the Ritz in Paris only minutes before they met their dramatic death in a high speed car crash. The other object is the diamond engagement ring by which Dodi plighted his troth to Diana. It may not be beautiful but it is large--about the size of an extra-large pecan from Harry and Jane's Sunnyfield Farm in Georgia.
But what makes Harrods a haven from the anxieties of terrorism are the hundreds of women dressed in middle-eastern garb snapping up luxurious merchandise like there was no tomorrow--jewelry, handbags, undergarments, scarves, silver--many dressed in their native jilbaab with only their eyes showing, but wearing shoes from Burberry, with it's iconic tartan design showing, and large chained handbags from Chanel at $3000-$5000 a pop.
These women clearly know quality when they see it in the West and want to own its many forms. Their husbands are not with them in Harrods but their drivers await them at the exits on the south side of the building, the quiet side, and when they emerge loaded with packages the drivers spring to life, stowing their merchandise and opening the passenger doors of the Bentleys.
Their husbands, the princes, are not with them because they are gambling in the posh clubs of Mayfair not far from the Saudi Embassy. These are the very same men who support terrorist organizations that threaten America's infidel values; who pay large sums to organize madrassas all over the world to teach hatred of Western civilization to small Muslim children.
You can bet that as long as the wives and daughters of these Middle Eastern potentates go on buying their accessories at Mohamed El Fayyed's emporium no suicide bomber will ever get near it. So if you're looking for some repose in this terror torn world of ours try Harrods
