Here There and Everywhere

Expat wanderer

Name that Country: A Most Difficult Challenge

This morning, as I was praying for Panama – there is always a diocese listed in the daily lectionary to be prayed for somewhere in the world – I was thinking how I know where Panama is. When we are praying for Nigeria, there are names I haven’t heard of. I now Lagos, and Port Harcourt, but where is Abuja? Owerri? I go to GoogleEarth and look them up.

 

I struggle with how little the average American knows about geographical location. It’s just embarrassing. Through all the years I lived abroad, most of the time, unless it was Germany, people couldn’t quite place where I was living. Many had heard of Tunisia; we had troops there in World War II, and Saudi Arabia, because they had seen it often enough on the news, but the rest of the Arab Gulf, Jordan, Syria, North Africa – beyond them.

 

Then, on the first night of one of my grad classes, the professor handed us this map and gave us ten minutes to put in the appropriate country names. He did not, thanks be to God, ask us to put in capitals. Not a single one of us got them all, and this was a class full of nation-oriented people.

samerica

 

 

It was also on the final exam, three months later, and most of us got them all right – thanks to some fervent cramming and study groups.

 

Here are a couple more maps, in case you are feeling cocky. See if you can accurately fill in the name of each country:

african_color

 

 

 

Unknown

Bonne chance!

 

 

 

July 16, 2013 Posted by | Africa, Cultural, Education, Entertainment, ExPat Life, Experiment, Geography / Maps, Germany, GoogleEarth, Interconnected, Jordan, Lectionary Readings, Middle East, Pet Peeves, Random Musings, Travel, Tunisia | | Leave a comment

Specialization and Work

In today’s A Word a Day, Anu Garg quotes that great science fiction writer, Robert Heinlein. If you don’t know him, get a copy of his Stranger in a Strange Land, and move on from there. He makes you laugh, and cry, and THINK. I am in the middle of reading World War Z, very different from the movie, very thought provoking, and this quote fits beautifully the mid-crisis work of survival after society has collapsed. People need to be able to do things with their hands, things that help with the very real business of survival:

Science-fiction author Robert Heinlein once said, “A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”

(How can you not love a man who believes that everyone should be able to change a diaper?)

I’ve always wanted to spin wool. I think I need to learn. I’ve often thought about how we would manage the basic necessities in a post-unthinkable-collapse society, you know, the basics like food, shelter, clothing, medications . . . Maybe, living in the South, I should learn how to work with cotton . . . or linen. Now I have to find out if flax will grow in Florida . . .

July 15, 2013 Posted by | Arts & Handicrafts, Civility, Community, Experiment, Family Issues, Financial Issues, Health Issues, Living Conditions, Political Issues, Survival, Technical Issue, Work Related Issues | 5 Comments

FaceBook and Iran TV Media

When I get something like this, my immediate reaction is concern:  “when did I indicate a ‘like’ for Iran TV Media? When did I sign up for this service?”

 

Oh wait. I didn’t!

 

Aha! There is a little barely noticeable option here, “This is SPAM”

Click.

Gone!

Screen shot 2013-07-14 at 2.18.08 PM

July 14, 2013 Posted by | Lies, Scams | | Leave a comment

Rape Victim Spends Seven Months in Jail, Framed by her Rapist

Jerry Ramrattan raped his ex-girlfriend Seemona Sumasar, and she filed rape charges against him. He tried to encourage her, and to intimidate her into dropping the charges, but she wouldn’t. He then concocted a scheme where three different victims claimed she had robbed them, and she went to jail, losing her time, her house, her company and her daughter for seven months while she tried to prove herself innocent. In the end, one of the supposed robbery victims came forward and told the truth, leading the police to requestion the other two victims. In a very short time, they had the true picture, but meanwhile, Seemona Sumasar spent seven months in jail, innocent of any crime, victim only to Ramattan’s anger at being accused of rape. Now, he has been sentenced to 32 years in prison. Wooo HOOOO.

This is from the New York Times City Blog:

Man Is Sentenced for Raping Ex-Girlfriend and Then Framing Her

By DAN BILEFSKY
DESCRIPTION

Updated 5:42 p.m. | The Queens private detective who raped his ex-girlfriend and then framed her for a series of fictional crimeswas sentenced to the maximum of 32 years in prison on Wednesday, bringing to a close one of the most bizarre cases to grace a courtroom.

Using knowledge he acquired partly from watching crime dramas like “C.S.I.,” the private detective, Jerry Ramrattan, 39, orchestrated what prosecutors in Queens called one of the most elaborate frame-ups in recent history.

Mr. Ramrattan’s ex-girlfriend, Seemona Sumasar, 36, had accused him of raping her. After she refused to drop the rape charges, he concocted a schemethat landed her in jail for seven months, making it seem as though Ms. Sumasar was the likely perpetrator of a series of brazen armed robberies, for which she was accused of impersonating a police officer.

At his trial in State Supreme Court in Queens, prosecutors produced evidence that Mr. Ramrattan cajoled and extorted witnesses to falsely testify that she had robbed them. He even staged fake crime scenes, prosecutors said, in which he planted evidence, handcuffing one of Ms. Sumasar’s supposed victims to a pole and planting several bullets at the scene of one of the imaginary crimes.

Before Mr. Ramrattan was sentenced on Wednesday, Ms. Sumasar delivered a stinging victim impact statement, noting that he showed no remorse and was so intent on revenge that he would have stopped at nothing to destroy her. “I don’t have words for you,” she said as as he stared ahead, stone-faced, while she spoke. “You are pure evil. You are a sociopath. You need help.”

“Someone needs to put a stop to your madness,” she added.

During her seven months in jail, awaiting a robbery trial, Ms. Sumasar, a former Morgan Stanley analyst, was separated from her young daughter. She lost her business, and her house went into foreclosure. Her bail was set at $1 million, which she could not afford. Mr. Ramrattan, meanwhile, was free until an informant came forward in late 2010 and exposed his plot.

Mr. Ramrattan was convicted in November of a series of charges, including rape, conspiracy and perjury. The nearly monthlong trial offered two opposing plot lines that were seemingly irreconcilable. Prosecutors portrayed Ms. Sumasar as a single mother duped by a wily confidence man intent on malicious vengeance. But the defense characterized her as a dejected lover who had turned on Mr. Ramrattan after he said he was leaving her to return to his wife and family.

Members of the jury said the guilty verdict was predicated on their acceptance of Ms. Sumasar’s account of being bound with duct tape and viciously raped by Mr. Ramrattan, which apparently gave him a motive to create his ruse.

In his plea for leniency, Mr. Ramrattan insisted that he was innocent, saying that he had spent years helping the police solve cases as an informant. “I stand before you with no choice but to accept what is going to happen,” he said. “Think about all the cases I made over the years, the rape victims I assisted. I maintain my innocence.”

Before he was escorted away by police, he added: “There is more to come.” As he spoke, his mother, Shirley Ramrattan, began wailing and was escorted from the courtroom.

His lawyer, Frank Kelly, told the judge that Mr. Ramrattan was not the “monster” he had been made out to be.

But Justice Richard Buchter said Mr. Ramrattan deserved no mercy, calling him a “diabolical conniver and sinister manipulator” who had “shamelessly exploited the criminal justice system.”

The Queens district attorney’s office and the Nassau County district attorney’s office had insisted on Ms. Sumasar’s guilt up until she was freed just weeks before her own robbery trial was set to begin. Ms. Sumasar filed a civil suit in December against the New York City Police Department and the Nassau County Police Department for negligence leading to her wrongful imprisonment..

Justice Buchter railed against the Nassau County police, who had wrongly imprisoned Ms. Sumasar, saying that it did not take “a Sherlock Holmes” to deduce that a 5-foot-2 former Wall Street analyst with no criminal record would not have held people up at gunpoint.

He chastised the police for their egregious handling of the case, saying detectives had “turned a blind eye” to Ms. Sumasar’s protestations that she was innocent and had too easily been taken in by Mr. Ramrattan.

“The police were duped by liars by whom they had a right to be suspicious, and as a result a rape victim was framed by her rapist,” the judge said. “She was victimized by the rapist and then again by the criminal justice system.”

He added: “The defendant is the architect of his own ruin. He deserves no mercy from me, and he won’t get any.”

July 14, 2013 Posted by | Community, Crime, Family Issues, Financial Issues, Law and Order, Lies, Mating Behavior, Relationships, Scams, Women's Issues, Work Related Issues | Leave a comment

Korean Air Pilots Mistakenly Identified in TV News Prank: Sum Ting Wong

Someone will lose their job, if it is ever discovered who pranked this totally politically incorrect news broadcast.  This from Reuters via Huffington Post on AOL:

NTSB Intern Mistakenly Confirmed To KTVU Wrong Asiana Names, Statement Says

(Please note offensive language in paragraph 6)

July 12 (Reuters) – The National Transportation Safety Board apologized on Friday after an intern mistakenly confirmed to a local television station racially offensive fake names for the pilots of an Asiana flight that crashed in San Francisco.

“The National Transportation Safety Board apologizes for inaccurate and offensive names that were mistakenly confirmed as those of the pilots of Asiana flight 214, which crashed at San Francisco International Airport on July 6,” the NTSB said in a statement.

“Earlier today, in response to an inquiry from a media outlet, a summer intern acted outside the scope of his authority when he erroneously confirmed the names of the flight crew on the aircraft,” the NTSB said.

The crash of the Boeing 777 plane resulted in the deaths of three teenage girls in a group of students from eastern China who were visiting the United States for a summer camp, one of whom died on Friday in the hospital. Over 180 passengers and crew members were injured.

On Friday, an anchor for Oakland, California, station KTVU read a list of the supposed names of the pilots of the South Korean carrier on its noon broadcast after an employee apparently called the NTSB seeking to verify them.

The names appear to mock the events of the crash. The prank names were: Captain Sum Ting Wong, Wi Tu Lo, Ho Lee Fuk and Bang Ding Ow.

 

 

July 13, 2013 Posted by | Communication, Cross Cultural, Cultural, Humor, Joke, Lies, Words | , , , | 4 Comments

Justin Cronin: The Twelve

Screen shot 2013-07-13 at 9.07.49 AM

 

I had downloaded The Twelve to my iPad for a trip, but didn’t get to it, and sort of forgot it was there until my son mentioned he was listening to it on audio-books, and it was good, maybe even better than the first book in the trilogy, The Passage. He had loaned me The Passage several years ago when it came out, and as soon as I finished, I got on the list to download as soon as the next book came out – it was that good.

 

Cronin’s gift is an ability to create a future world entirely different from our own, with a devastating enemy – the virals – who, literally, are us, transformed. Cronin can make the enemy terrifying, destructive, truly horrifying – and can make them also captive to their repugnant nature and even pitiable. I think that is an amazing dance for an author to accomplish.

 

The setting is post-apocalyptic USA; the government had a sector working on a secret weapon which – of course – was not able to be contained, creating 12 super vampire-like creatures called Virals, who in turn create hordes of minions. This volume, The Twelve, is set more than 100 years later, but shifts back to earlier times to help us understand how this disaster occurred, and how characters relate back to the earliest times of the disaster.  The populations live in fear of sudden attacks; one family, out on a picnic, are almost totally wiped out by an eclipse for which the Virals were prepared – and the families were not.

 

As I read his books, I find them very cinematic, but, as my son and I discussed, too complex for a movie; it would need a gritty HBO series like The Wire, or OZ, or Deadwood to capture the subtleties, the nuances that make this a best-selling series. The heroes and heroines are all make for the screen, their relationships – and inter-relationships – make them interesting, and then, as we learn more, interesting again. We never know enough to make a final judgement on any character; the characters are complex and the relationships obscure until the author chooses to reveal. It makes it fun to try to spot them before he tells us. I missed a couple!

 

Although it can be read as a great-adventure stand-alone, you’ll be happier if you read The Passage before you read The Twelve. If you have a problem with postponing gratification, you might want to wait until the third and conclusive volume of the trilogy is published  – and that may be a year or so.

July 13, 2013 Posted by | Adventure, Books, Character, Community, Fiction, Health Issues, Living Conditions, Political Issues, Relationships, Social Issues, Survival | , | Leave a comment

The Shrink-Wrapped Pensacola Specialty Pawn Shop Car

00ShrinkWrapCar

 

How cool is this? We saw this car at Taco Rock and loved the optical illusion. We also loved it that the car makes a memorable impression; you’ll think of it and you will think Pensacola Specialty Pawn. It’s an effective ad if you remember who the ad is for 🙂

 

When we walked inside, AdventureMan asked “Whose car is that with the mobster paint job?” and a guy picking up a take-out order grinned and said it was his. He told us it was a shrink-wrap technique – it’s temporary! When you get tired of it and want to try something else, it just peels off and you put something else on. I think that is so totally cool.

 

July 12, 2013 Posted by | Arts & Handicrafts, Beauty, Cultural, Financial Issues, Humor, Marketing, Pensacola, Technical Issue | | 4 Comments

Once-A-Year Burger at Red Robin’s

AdventureMan and I are not vegetarian; we eat a lot of fish and we try not to eat a lot of beef, pork or lamb. Lamb isn’t so much of a problem here in Pensacola – you don’t even see it on the menu that often. But pork – and beef – are everywhere.

 

Once a year I have a burger. Really. AdventureMan will order a burger more often, and I might take one bite here and there, but once a year, usually around the 4th of July, I will have my onec-a-year burger.

 

(Do you have any idea how many calories one burger has in a resturant? It’s all the extras, the bacons, the sauces, the fried onions, it can be two days worth of calories in ONE burger. It can seriously clog your veins in as little as two hours after you eat one. )

 

Because I only have one, it has to be a really really good one. I got hooked on Red Robin burgers back in university; then, Red Robin was really a college beer joint that served really good burgers.  I ordered the A-1 Peppercorn Burger, but when it came, it came on some kind of a roll 😦 not the real hamburger bun.

 

 

00Burger

It was everything I had hoped for – and more. The meat was cooked perfectly, not overdone; juicy and not greasy. The bacon (yes, yes, I did. It’s just once a year) was crisp. The sauce was peppery, just the way I like it. And yes, I ate the onion rings, too.

Now I’m good for another year 🙂

July 12, 2013 Posted by | Aging, Cooking, Cultural, Eating Out, Food, Health Issues, Restaurant | , | Leave a comment

Qatar MOI States Employers Will Be forced to Abide by the Rules

It doesn’t matter how enlightened the legislation – if the law is not enforced, the rules on the book are laughable. It gives the illusion of a lawful society, but if citizens know that they will not be penalized for breaking the law, they will scoff at the law and do as they please. People who came to the country expecting to make a fair wage and be treated decently and with dignity find themselves without proper paperwork due to the corruption of their employer or recruiter.

If the MOI in Qatar enforces this law, a terrible situation will be slightly better. This, from The Qatar Gulf Times:

 

By Ramesh Mathew/Staff Reporter

 

With the Ministry of Interior (MoI) taking a firm stand on ID cards, residents believe that this will safeguard the interests of workers as their employers will now be forced to abide by the rules.

A report in the Tuesday edition of Gulf Times had quoted a senior official as saying that residents should always carry their residence permit ID cards and produce the same whenever asked by the authorities concerned. Those failing to do so would be fined up to QR10,000, the report had said, adding that the MoI could also transfer the sponsorship of expatriates if they proved that they were abused by sponsors under Law No 4/2009.

Welcoming the MoI’s decision, legal expert and rights activist Nizar Kochery said this would make employers more accountable as any long delay or failure on their part to stamp the visas of their staff would invite a hefty fine.

“There have been cases of companies refusing to stamp visas for long periods and workers being picked up by the law-enforcing agencies for failing to produce valid residence proof,” said Kochery, adding that the ministerial reaffirmation would force employers to stamp visas promptly.

Reacting to the report, an Asian diplomat said his country’s mission frequently received complaints from people alleging that their employers had not stamped their visas even months after their arrival in Qatar.

“The embassy receives such complaints from expatriates every week though there has been a drastic fall in their numbers in recent times due to strict enforcement of the rules by the local authorities,” he added.

Kochery said there should also be stringent implementation of the rules pertaining to expatriates’ passports. “Though the ministry issued guidelines more than three years ago on the issue of custody of passports, complaints of violation of this norm continue,” the legal expert said.

The ministry had instructed employers to hand over the passports of employees after the completion of formalities. However, there have been cases of some employers retaining the passports in violation of the local rules.

“A similar fine (like the one for not carrying IDs) should be imposed on erring employers for illegally keeping their workers’ passports,” he said.

A few years ago, this newspaper had reported about a theft in a manpower company’s office in Musheireb. More than 150 passports of workers, which the firm had kept in its custody in violation of rules, went missing in the incident. Meanwhile,  residents have also said similar penalties were required to curb violations regarding exit permits as well. A social activist in the Indian community said there have been complaints of employers failing to arrange exit permits for their workers on time even during emergencies.

There have also been reports of residents, mainly drivers, lodging complaints with embassies, alleging that their sponsors take away their licences when they go on vacation.

“The MoI should consider imposing hefty fines on such employers as well. Like a passport, a driving licence is not only the property of an individual, but is also a proof of identification under the local rules,” said Kochery.

July 11, 2013 Posted by | Bureaucracy, ExPat Life, Interconnected, Kuwait, Law and Order, Leadership, Lies, Living Conditions, Pet Peeves, Qatar, Relationships, Scams, Social Issues, Transparency, Work Related Issues | , , , | Leave a comment

New Driving License Restrictions to Ease Traffic in Qatar

It looks like rather than investing in better highways, Qatar will follow in Kuwait’s footsteps to restrict driver’s licenses. This is another example of a law that invites unequal enforcement. “Ambiguous” implies that the rule will not be applied to everyone, but will be subject to bribery and connections to the right people.

Why do I even care, you might ask. As a white Western woman, this rule won’t apply. I won’t be stopped in traffic stops; if I am, and can’t show a valid license, I will politely be told I need to get one. But I publish this because it isn’t fair. It applies to my fellow expat wives, as well as to the hairdresser who would come to my home to cut my hair, or the carpenter with his own little business who wants to deliver the new couch he made for me. And, if the traffic doesn’t get better by eliminating catagories of employment, the next step considered is often eliminating licenses for WOMEN.

If the taxi situation in Doha were not so abysmal, it could be bearable not to have a license, but once the state took over the taxi business and ruthlessly clamped down on independently owned and operated taxis, taxi transportation was no longer the blessing it once was. Even at the most posh hotels in town, you might wait an hour for a taxi to show up. Or maybe things have radically improved in the time since I have been gone, but I somehow doubt it.

From the Qatar Gulf Times:

Driving schools in Qatar have started  “implementing” the Traffic Department’s decision to make certain categories of expatriate workers ineligible for driving licences but there was some ambiguity in the whole exercise as the plan is in its initial phase, sources yesterday said.

According to an unofficial list those who are eligible include sales representatives, accountants, administrators, representatives, sales supervisors, receptionists, clearance agents and fitness trainers. Also, professionals like doctors, engineers, pilots, architects and lawyers will find no problem in getting a licence.

However, people who work as clerks, stewards, cashiers, salesmen, foremen, tailors, blacksmiths, masons, cooks, carpenters, plumbers, painters, electricians, mechanics, computer technicians, waiters, barbers, beauty saloon workers, store keepers, photographers and secretaries will not be issued driving licences.

People who are brought to the country on driver visas, whether they are sponsored by companies or individuals, will not find it difficult to get a licence, the source said.

An employee of a driving school said the Traffic Department had yet to issue an official and final roster of categories that will be allowed to apply for a licence.

“Right now, they are in the process of  implementing the new rule and so there is some ambiguity,” he said.

The licensing section of the Traffic Department had earlier issued a circular limiting the issuance of driving licences to certain categories of expatriate workers. The move is aimed at easing traffic congestion on Qatar roads.

The source also referred to  another change in policy where students who failed the road test four times might  not be given a fifth chance anymore.

He  disclosed that there was a plan to ban  old cars on Qatar’s roads. “The new rules will be implemented very strictly.”

Earlier reports said that the Central Municipal Council (CMC) members had welcomed the move, saying it would significantly contribute to reducing the growing number of new vehicles on roads, which was cited as one of  the major causes of traffic jams.

The source said the Traffic Department will also study the impact of the new rule  in the coming months.

July 11, 2013 Posted by | Bureaucracy, ExPat Life, Living Conditions, Political Issues, Qatar, Social Issues, Survival, Technical Issue, Transparency, Values, Women's Issues, Work Related Issues | Leave a comment