Stat Spike
Blogging keeps me humble. I can write my heart out, and maybe not even get a single comment. I can write a two sentence entry on live Olympic coverage on July 31st, and get no response, and then ten days days later it is driving my stats to new heights – two record days in a row, all because people are looking for live Olympic coverage. No comments, or few. Total hoot.
Riots and Internet Offenders
From today’s Arab Times:
Kuwait preparing law to punish ‘Internet offenders’: Al-Othman
KUWAIT CITY (AP): Kuwait’s prosecutor general says Internet offenders will no longer be able to escape punishment in this country. Hamed Al-Othman says in an interview with Al-Qabas daily published Sunday he has prepared a bill that criminalizes promoting vice, incitement against the country’s leadership, divulging state secrets, or insulting Islam on the Web. If convicted, offenders would be sentenced to up to one year in jail and/or a fine, but face seven years in prison if their victims are minors. Al-Othman’s office confirmed that he made the comments to Al-Qabas.
The draft Internet crime and data information law recently passed by the Public Prosecution Department will be forwarded to the Council of Ministers for their consideration, adds Al-Othman.
Al-Othman explained the importance of passing such a law at this time, saying “it’s obvious to all who care about protecting our customs and the future generations that such a law is needed to combat the increasing electronic crimes associated with the ever-improving electronic technology. “The law will include 37 articles and punishment for those who fall foul of the law will be either jail sentence or financial fine,” he added.
Protest turns violent in fight over pay
KUWAIT CITY : A riot by about 2,000 workers of Al-Jawhara Company for Stevedor-ing and Cleaning in their camp in Hassawi led to the destruction of six vehicles and injuries to five camp officials, says K. John, the company’s Operations Manager. The manager was speaking to the Arab Times Sunday after the riot was brought under control by policemen. The riot, which began Saturday night, reached its peak by Sunday morning and continued till noon. The workers, John said, were disgruntled over their wages and were demanding a hike, talks over which have been going on for the last couple of weeks. “The recent outbursts in other cleaning companies stoked the angry workers to violence Saturday,” he added.
Meanwhile, late Sunday evening, the Ministry of Social Affairs agreed to almost all demands of workers of cleaning companies who had threatened to go on strike, besides setting a minimum wage of KD 40 for cleaning workers – without any deductions an embassy official said on condition of anonymity. The embassy official added that the ministry has also asked the cleaning companies to pay for health and residency fees of their workers and that companies which violate the rights of workers will face “full force of the law.” The official also said that Bangladeshi officials, who maltreat or exploit their workers, will be referred to the concerned authorities.
A mob of hundreds of Bangladeshi cleaners had attacked their company’s office in Jleeb Al-Shyoukh Saturday evening, and beat up five supervisors who were reportedly exploiting the workers, some cleaners told the Arab Times.
The workers were protesting about their unpaid wages and poor working conditions. All five supervisors are Bangladeshis and are currently being treated at the Farwaniya hospital.
A cleaner said the condition of the two injured officials was critical. However, this could not be independently confirmed.
The cleaners reportedly damaged furniture, computers, printers and other office equipment in the attack that lasted for a few minutes.
According to the workers, no arrests were made and a large police force was deployed at the camp from Saturday evening until late Sunday afternoon.
The timely arrival of police and embassy officials prevented the situation from spiraling out of control, added the cleaners. The workers said that they embarked on indefinite strike from Sunday and that they will not return to work unless all their problems are redressed by the company.
This is the first violent demonstration to grip Kuwait since the strikes of Bangladeshi cleaners began last Sunday.
Some of the problems facing the workers include: underpayment; company is making them pay for the health and residency fees; some cleaners are made to work for more than eight hours without any overtime benefits; company is not allowing workers to take vacation every two years; company is not granting sick leave, among other problems.
About 5,000 Bangladeshi cleaners are employed with this local company and are placed at various government establishments.
Jleeb Al-Shyoukh is home to thousands of Bangladeshi cleaners, who live in squalid camps and a majority of them are paid as low as KD 18 salary.
Another worker told the Arab Times that the problem had been simmering for a long a time and that the five supervisors were warned by them not work against workers’ interests.
He added that the trouble began when some of the workers confronted the supervisors as to why they were deducting their pay and that two supervisors reportedly threatened some cleaners, thereby leading to the showdown.
He said that the officials of the ministry of social affairs and labour rushed to the camp Saturday evening and urged the workers not to resort to violence and that they would put an end to their grievances as soon as possible.
Expressing his views on the company’s alleged apathy, another worker said: “We tried to resolve our problems with the company in an amicable manner, but our appeals fell on deaf ears. The supervisors in question are hand in glove with the company’s managers and used to report every development that took place at the camp.”
“When we decided to go on strike a few days ago, the supervisors quickly informed the company. The company then scuttled our plans by turning up the heat on our representatives. We know it is wrong to take the law in our hands but our situation was worsening by the day.”
The ministry of social affairs and labour has taken tough measures against cleaning companies that violate rights of workers, even as the ministry recently said that it had cancelled the contract of a company whose workers went on strike last Sunday.
On Saturday, senior officials of the ministry managed to convince some 7,000 Bangladeshi cleaners to drop their strike, who had threatened to stop work on Sunday if their demands were not met.
According to the workers, the ministry has agreed to all their demands and that they would be paid KD 40 salary, up from KD 8. It was also reported earlier that the ministry will soon send inspectors to labour camps to take a stock of workers’ living conditions and also to address their grievances.
When asked why the workers were unhappy over the wages, John said the issue is very complex, and the government is partly to be blamed for the current state of affairs. “The workers demand health insurance, which is KD 50 per person, while it is only KD 10 for domestic maids. This makes it very difficult for companies to provide health insurance of its workers.
“The municipality pays just about KD 23 per cleaning worker, and the government can’t expect us to pay more than that. Our workers receive anywhere between KD 20 and KD 70 depending upon their rank and job.
“Tendering rules also need to be reformed by the government. There are many small players who make abysmally low quotes to win tenders and bring down the quality of this sector. This despite the fact that we need to show bank guarantees of very huge sums to win tenders,” John explained.
Stressing the cleaning companies are an asset to the nation and should be treated with due importance, John said “the government has to provide us lands at subsidized rates to help sustain the industry.
“The workers ransacked the rooms in the camp and destroyed some computers. We also suspect that workers from neighboring camps joined in the riot, adding to the ferocity of the violence. The project manager had to be rescued from the camp by the police from the marauding rioters,” he revealed.
When asked what future course of action the company is planning to take, John said a meeting of the Cleaning Companies Association was called Sunday evening, “and the issue was to be discussed to find a solution to this problem that’s getting out of hand.”
“The demands of the workers are not wholly over the board given the inflation rates in the state. If the issue is not resolved many government institutions and private companies will be hit,” John added.
“The workers at Al Jawhara Company do not have any unpaid dues and all their salaries are paid in time,” he concluded.
Also:
KUWAIT: Acting Assistant Undersecretary of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour for labour sector Hamad Al-Me’dhadi revealed Sunday that the main reason behind the majority of recent strikes was the demand for salary increase.
He said that the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour will report to the Cabinet on these strikes coinciding with another report to be submitted by the Ministry of Interior in this regard.
He added that ministry officials met with a representative of the Bangladeshi embassy and informed him that the strike of laborers must be expressed in an orderly manner and according to official channels.
He pointed out that it had been agreed with the Bangladeshi embassy that there should be representatives for all those laborers so that the ministry’s legal researchers and inspectors can listen to the workers demands.
Meanwhile, the issue of continuous strikes by expatriate workers and their rights are on top of the agenda for the Council of Ministers’ meeting on Monday. The meeting will be presided by the Acting Prime Minister and the Defense Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah.
“The Cabinet is ready to sanction erring companies and they may request the National Assembly to pass the new labor law at the beginning of the next parliamentary term,” Source added.
By Francis A. Clifford Cardozo and Valiya Sajjad
Arab Times Staff
Please Treat as Urgent and Confidential
My good friend Adamu Attah, head of the FILE DEPARTMENT at the African Development Bank wants to give me money! I am printing his letter, exactly as written, because I am thinking my bank friend really needs some grammar, spelling and spacing review. In any case, I am much too busy these days to collect my 40% of 15.5 million dollars.
But it is summertime, and some people have a lot of time on their hands, and if you want to contact my friend Adamu Attah, here is his address:
adamu_attah1@sify.com
Please. Please. Do not send him any money, not for fees, not for deposits, not for anything. This is another of those hoax spams that some people actually respond to. Please, please, don’t be one of them.
FROM THE DESK OF ADAMU ATTAH
THE HEAD OF FILE DEPARTMENT,
AFRICAN
DEVELOPMENT BANK (ADB)
OUAGADOUGOU BURKINA-FASO WEST
AFRICA.
TREAT AS URGENT AND CONFIDENTIAL.
PLANE CRASH WEB
SITE…http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/859479.stm
(“remittance of $15.5million u.s.a dollars
confidential is the case”)
compliments of the season
2008,
i am (adamu attah),head of file department & debt recovering in
african development bank ouagadougou burkina-faso in west
africa.
first, i must solicit your confidence in this transaction.this
is by
virtue of its nature as being utterly confidential and top
secret.
however after series of petition was recieved by this present
regime from foreign contractors and inability of the african
development bank (adb)to fulfill their obligation for the payment to
its foreign creditors, in conjunction with the council of ministers,
they mandated us to carry out a careful and comprehensive review of all
overdue payments to foreign contractors and to effect payments
immediately.
during the above mentioned process, we discovered an
abandoned sum of us$15.5 m (fifteen million five hundred thousand us
dollars) in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customer who
died along with his entire family in a plane crash that happened in
(monday 31st july 2000).since we got information about his death, we
have been expecting his next of kin to come over and claim his money
because we cannot release it unless some body applies for it as next of
kin or relation to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines
and laws but unfortunately we learnt that all his supposed next of kin
or relation died alongside with him at the plane crash leaving nobody
behind for the claim.
it is therefore upon this discovery that i and
other officials in my
department now decided to make this business
proposal to you and release the money to you as the next of kin or
relation to the deceased for safety and subsequent disbursement since
nobody is coming for it and we don’t want this money to go into the bank
treasury as unclaimed bill.
i agree that 40% of this money will be for
you as a foreign partner, in respect to the provision of a foreign
account,and 50% would be for me, while 10% will be for expenses incure
during the transaction. there after i will visit your country for
disbursement according to the percentage indicated.therefore, to enable
the immediate transfer of this fund to you as arranged, you must apply
first to the bank as relation or next of kin of the deceased indicating
your bank name, your bank account number, your private telephone and fax
number for easy and effective communication and location wherein the
money will be remitted.
upon the receipt of your reply, i will send to
you by email the text of the application to fill and send to the bank. i
will not fail to bring to your notice that this transaction is
hitch-free risk and this transaction will only take us 14 banking days
because as a banker, i know what to do and move the fund into your
account without any delay and thatyou should not entertain any atom of
fear as all required arrangement have been made for the transfer.
you
should contact me as soon as you receive this letter so that i will
send you the text of the application to apply to the bank and the data
information of the deceased .
your’s faithfully,
adamu attah
from (adb) ouagadougou burkina-faso.
Need Recommendation
I need your technical expertise.
A year ago, knowing I really like uploading photos to illustrate my posts, I went ahead and bought the biggest upgrade. It was stupid – I didn’t notice it was only for one year, I thought it was for the life of the blog, but that isn’t really relevant. It was stupid for another reason – no matter how much I upload, I have used ZERO capacity of the 28GB upgrade.
That upgrade is about to run out.
I have 6MB of stuff uploaded. Do I need another upgrade? If we (bloggers on WordPress) all have an automatic 3GB of upload space – it seems to me that 6MB is a whole lot less that 3GB. But maybe the 6MB is just the photos, and maybe the blog entries also add up?
My question: Do I need an upgrade?
Disturbing Change
Late yesterday, I was online on AOL checking my e-mails. I often do, Law and Order Man comes online around that time in Pensacola and we can grab a quick chat.
Only Instant Messaging didn’t show up on my screen. I took care of business, and went on to other things. We don’t chat every day, just when we can.
Today, I noticed again – I don’t have AIM. I have a couple other ways to check in online, so I tried them. No AIM. Finally, I tried iChat, which also logs into AIM. It showed me logged in, it also showed no contacts.
My other AOL entry route didn’t show the Buddy Screen, even when I asked it to repeatedly.
I am hoping this is a little AOL glitch, temporary.
You don’t think Instant Messaging is being blocked in Kuwait, do you?
Five Under Five Tag – You’re It!
It’s a slow summer day, not a lot going on, so let’s play.
I was making the Pasta Melanzane and added some sun-dried tomatoes when the smell suddenly reached my nose and I was caught by the sweet intensity of the smell. I thought to myself “so much flavor! and at so little cost!” and it started a whole train of thought.
What gives your life pleasure and doesn’t cost much? Here are the rules – the cost of your pleasure must be under 5KD (under $20 for my USA players). See if you can think of five. If you find more than five, you can list those too, if you want – the rules here are pretty vague. so – give me five!
Here are mine:
1. The sound of my husband whistling – it means he is feeling peaceful, even happy.
2. Moments with my family when I suddenly realize how special they are, and truly treasure our time together.
3. The intense flavor of sun-dried tomatoes.
4. The sound of waves crashing onto the shore.
5. The smell of the sea, cloves, lavender, baked apples, roasting meat, a fresh pine Christmas tree,
the first rain in a dry, dusty country.
Bonus: The smell of Comfort fabric softener on laundered underwear. 🙂
The sound of my friend’s voice when I don’t expect a call from her.
Grin for the Day
I am still scurrying around, catching up, trying to get life back to normal, but this morning I took a moment to catch up with I Can Has Cheeseburgers, and I found this. I hope it makes you LOL, as it did me:
more cat pictures
Followed by this one, which makes my heart sing:
more cat pictures
Stealing my Stuff
I looked down at the section of my WordPress admin page where it shows people who have connected, and saw one I didn’t recognize. I clicked on it, and found a page where there are many, many of my entries, AS IF written by this blogger. There are other entries, too, from other bloggers, but no credit given to original sources.
It is so disgusting to me. It’s stealing not to give credit.
Spam for Today
Today, in my spam queue, some lotto ticket guy wrote:
Are you proud of your blog, because it’s a mess.
I know it was only spam, and I know he sent it to thousands of people, and that is how WordPress picked it up as spam. I KNOW it wasn’t personal. But my feelings feel hurt anyway! LLOOLL at myself.
The Morning Test
Back in May, I published an e-mail I had received about The Law of the Garbage Truck. It turns out, as I learned from a comment yesterday, that it is taken from a book by David J. Pollay who has his own blog at Typepad. No, he didn’t write me a nasty e-mail; I only learned the source from a very nice comment on the original post by a co-worker.
I was intrigued, so I checked out his blog. And found his entry for today has to do with The Morning Test.
Here’s how The Morning Test works. Every day for one week write down everything that you do at night. Jot down what you eat for snacks, the TV shows you watch, the radio programs you listen to, the email you read, the sites you surf, and whatever else you may do.
This is just a snippet from what he writes, so I urge you to read his entry for today to understand fully how it works.
The reason I like it is because it ties so closely with the Garbage Truck entry – how we SPEND our time, what we DO every day with our lives truly determines who we are more than our intentions (although the intentions of our heart are important, too). I believe in the old computer adage: Garbage In, Garbage Out.
I am reluctant to take the Morning Test because I know I would have to face where I waste the most time, and where I seriously need improvement. I know I would be aghast at how much time I spend on the computer, just wandering around. There are other areas where I read books that are not enriching, watch brainless TV shows, participate in low level conversations . . . there are so many areas in my life where I fail to live up to the person I was created to be, and I know it.
And I really admire this man for putting the test out there and making us examine who we are and what we want for ourselves and our lives.
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