I hate to start the year on a grumpy note. They say start as you would like to finish, and I want to finish 2017 on a really high note, so don’t judge me on this column. The truth is that I am worried about service. Not just service in SA. As Donald Trump has showed us, mediocrity has gone global. If you don’t believe me, think of Vladimir Putin in Russia. Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey. Yahya Jammeh and his second putsch in Gambia. Brexit. It’s depressing. Jacob Zuma almost — just almost — comes across as a saint once you’ve done the rounds of global leadership mediocrity. Anyway, there was a time once when service was king and Emirates was the airline that epitomised that sentiment. Oh, Singapore Airlines was amazing too (I have flown with them — stupendous). So I flew Emirates in December. My 13-year-old was offered a kiddies’ meal. She politely declined and said she wanted the fish from the adult offering. The purser arrived, hugely aggrieved. "She has to eat! It’s an eight-hour...

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