Today’s who-does-what guessing game is more interesting than usual.- with the the transient population of Dubai Airport’s terminal 2 reflecting the geo-politico-cultural spread of its destinations: Peshawar, Kish, Baghdad, Nairobi via Mogadishu, Kandahar, and Kabul. For a cultural observer it’s the kind of space where a flight delay is a ticket to the movies – locals would be in contention for Afghan Olympic lounging team, the ying and yang of contractors & NGO staff and a wide assortment of military with mix and match physiques, tans, kit and conversations.

The locals sport a preference for small hard suitcases, which would put them ahead of the to-kewl-for-school game in Tokyo where design house D & Dept has re-issued a range of the same. None of the cases include an elasticised luggage label – the local norm being to apply one or two strips of white tape with a name and address printed on the surface. Later, squinting through the haze of Kabul International arrivals – the cases could be pieces of candy on a tray.

KamAir RQ006 to Kabul pushes away from the gate.