Happy Halloween
This is from the New Yorker
We love their cartoons. This one, unfortunately, is more true than funny.
Pollution Invading Kuwait Hospitals
Thanks to long time Kuwaiti-blogger Hilaliya who alerts us to this article from Al Watan.
Americans put this same granite in their kitchens, and are now paying to have their beautiful granite countertops radon tested – and pulled out. Imagine preparing food on countertops that emit radiation! Imagine inviting patients into a hospital emitting radiation! Some granites emit more radiation than others – these need to be radon tested.
Pollution is invading our hospitals
Dr. Essam Abdullatif AlـFulaij
It seems that we need an uprising at the Ministry of Health. Patients as well as doctors and staff are at risk because of the use of inappropriate construction materials which cause pollution. Despite the warnings of some engineers, the officials at the ministry neglected the issue and concealed the facts so as not to get involved.
In August 2008, Amar magazine published a report by engineer Fotouh AlـAsfour in which she strenuously rang the alarm over what is happening at our hospitals. She submitted the report to two former health ministers and the Ministry of Health”s Engineering Department, members of the Municipal Council and the Parliament but no action was taken.
In her report, Fotouh said: “Having designed and supervised the construction of hospitals and medical centers for the health sector, I know the standards and specifications for materials used in hospitals to protect patients, visitors and hospital staff from microbial contamination. The project to renew hospitals, which began several years ago, has largely contributed to the deterioration of health conditions of both citizens and residents and the mortality rate has increased due to the high level of pollution caused by microbial contaminated materials that were used in the modernization of these hospitals in the absence of proper guidance and control.”
She added: “The use of granite in hospitals is not recommend at all as it is the second biggest cause of lung cancer after smoking, as reported by the American Lung Association. Granite radiates “radon gas” and its impact is worse when using the kind produced by China. It is really strange that granite has been used to decorate the entrance and most wings at the Hussein Makki Jumaa Center for Cancer Treatment.”
Engineer Fotouh stressed the importance of urgent attention saying: “In conclusion, the main reason behind writing this report is not criticism or accusation, but to attract officials” attention to urgently deal with the issue. Reform is not costly and should not be postponed, because the price of further delay is the loss of more lives. A specialized committee must be formed to follow up the issue and replace these materials with medical materials, especially in the Operating Rooms, Intensive Care Units and premature babies wards, causalities, and then in other awards.”
We hope that the report will be considered by officials to protect our patients and hospital staff. It”s time to stop these deadly dangers that are even affecting doctors. The lives of human beings are precious.
Last updated on Friday 10/10/2008
Warning for American Expat Taxpayers
Many American expats working in the Gulf put off filing taxes because they are working so hard they don’t have the time or energy to pull it all together.
We received a bulletin from our tax preparer today saying the following:
IRS CRACKS DOWN ON LATE FILING EXPATS – To receive the FEI exclusion, the IRS requires that you file within 1 year from the original due date of the return (determined without regard to any extensions). The IRS has recently issued guidance to begin enforcing this long overlooked tax rule. If you have not filed your Expat tax returns for 2006 and earlier years, please contact us ASAP to discuss your options. Worse case scenario – if you owe taxes the IRS can disallow your FEI exclusion, even if you have earned it, thus making 100% of all of your earnings taxable without any benefit of the FEI exclusion. Working in a combat zone does not guarantee Expats any relief from the IRS.
Our tax preparer specializes in expat taxes. He has a thriving business, and really knows our unique situation.
Steven Palazzo, CPA
Palazzo & Co, CPA
PO Box 4634
Biloxi, MS 39535
228-396-8800 – Office
866-272-9224 – Toll Free
305-768-0483 – Fax
WWW.PALAZZOCPA.COM
spalazzo@palazzocpa.com
I publish this because the earned income exclusion is probably the best tax deduction most of us will ever have. You don’t want to lose the exclusion, and your hard earned money, by failing to file in a timely manner.
Millions Lost Trillions
I used to finish my assignements early in grade school. Mostly I always had a book with me to read, but one teacher challenged me to write all the numbers to 1 million.
“Piece of cake” I thought. (Arrogant little brat!)
I learned my lesson. It took me forever. I wouldn’t give up, and I filled sheets and sheets of paper with numbers, all the way to one million.
It’s a lesson I won’t forget.
But a billion? A trillion? Those are numbers that boggle my mind. I can’t think that big.
So far, the losses are mostly on paper – they won’t be real losses until investors go to sell, or cash in.
It’s a huge demographic, the baby-boomers getting ready to retire – or as this article from the Washington Post states – maybe not so fast:
Retirement Savings Lose $2 Trillion in 15 Months
By Nancy Trejos
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 8, 2008; Page A01
The stock market’s prolonged tumble has wiped out about $2 trillion in Americans’ retirement savings in the past 15 months, a blow that could force workers to stay on the job longer than planned, rein in spending and possibly further stall an economy reliant on consumer dollars, Congress’s top budget analyst said yesterday.
For many Americans, pensions and 401(k) plans are their only form of savings. The dwindling of these assets — about a 20 percent decline overall — is another setback just as many people are grappling with higher gas and food prices, more credit card debt, declining home values and less access to loans.
You can read the entire article in the Washington Post, here.
Imagine That!
Today I am so honored. I received a letter from MR.JOHNSON TSVANGIRAI the son of
MR.MORGAN TSVANGIRAI leader of the MDC(Movement for Democratic Change) in
Zimbabwe. Imagine that! He is writing to me! And . . . he wants to share a LOT of money with me.
It must be because I love Africa so much – do you think? I mean, how did he get my name (Intlxpatr) and why else would he be so generous to me?
But I don’t really have the time right now, so I am passing along this “opportunity” to you. It claims to be from a Zimbabwean, but it sure sounds Nigerian scam to me!
Dear Sir/Madam,
With warm heart I offer my friendship and greetings, and I hope this mail meets
you in good time.I humbly ask that you take due consideration of its importance
and immense benefit and also sincerely seek your confidence, as I make this
proposal to you as a person of integrity.I am MR.JOHNSON TSVANGIRAI the son of
MR.MORGAN TSVANGIRAI leader of the MDC(Movement for Democratic Change) in
Zimbabwe.
I got your contact through Network online in my search for a reliable and
reputable individual to handle a very confidential transaction which involves
the transfer of funds to a foreign account and I decided to write you because
of the present political situation in my country today which forced me to seek
political asylum in the Netherlands as instructed by my father because his life
has been threatened by the present leader of ZANU-PF (Zimbabwe African National
Union ? Patriotic Front) and president of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe,My
father who holds a seat in parliament presently in Zimbabwe envisaged this
crisis hence he had transfered most of his liquid funds to Johannesburg – South
Africa to deposit the sum of US$9.5 Million (Nine Million Five Hundred
Thousand United States Dollars)with a Security and Finance Company as if he
foresaw the looming political danger in Zimbabwe.
The money was deposited in a Box as valuables/Antiques to avoid much demurrage
from the Security and Finance Company. These funds where meant for the purchase
of New Machineries and Chemicals for Farms and the establishment of new farms
in Lesotho and Swaziland. The land and political problem arose when President
Robert Mugabe introduced a new land act that wholly affected the Rich White
Farmers and some few black farmers.we vehemently condemned the “Modus Operandi”
adopted by the government. This resulted to mob action by the war veterans and
some political thugs. Heads of governments from the west,especially
Britain,France and United States of America have voiced their condemnation of
Mugabe’s plan. Subsequently, South African Development Community (S.A.D.C) has
continuously supported President Mugabe’s new land act, it is against this
background that I and my family who were residing in South Africa have decided
to transfer my Father’s Estate Funds to the Netherlands.
As the eldest son of my Father, I am saddled with the responsibility of seeking
a genuine foreign partner that will participate in investing these Funds in a
Lucrative Business, These funds have been transferred without the knowledge of
my government who are tactically freezing our family’s wealth and South
Africa’s government seems to be applying the same policies as that of the
present government in Zimbabwe. I am faced with the dilemma of investing this
funds in South Africa for fear of encountering the same experience in future
since both countries have almost the same political history.
For more information concerning the brutality of the Mugabe government please
click this links:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1833968,00.html
http://allafrica.com/stories/200806240076.html
http://www.america.gov/st/peacesec-
english/2008/June/20080606162832dmslahrellek0.9750025.html
http://www.ambafrance-uk.org/Presidency-communique-on-Zimbabwe.html
More so, the South African Foreign Exchange policy does not allow such
investment hence I have gone to the Netherlands to seek “POLITICAL ASYLUM”.As a
businessman I want to entrust my future and that of my family into your hands,
I must let you know that this transaction is 100% risk free and the nature of
your business does not necessarily matter. For your assistance, we are offering
you 20% of the total sum, 75% for Me and My Family while 5% will be mapped out
for any expenses we may incure during the course of this transaction. We wish
to invest our share of the money on commercial property based on your advice.
Finally, all we demand from you is assurance that you will not sit on this
funds when it finally gets to your personal or company’s account in your
country. If this proposal is acceptable by you, please confirm your interest
via Email and i shall forward for your perusal any documentations to satisfy
you that this project is Legitimate.
Thank you for your Anticipated Co-operation as I await your prompt response.
God bless.
Yours Faithfully,
Mr.Johnson Tsvangirai.
(For the TsvangiraiFamily).
“Illusions Driving Market Havok”
A fascinating article in today’s BBC News sheds light on our cascading stock markets. . . it isn’t rational, but it is explainable:
‘Illusions driving market havoc’
City traders may be seeing patterns that ‘aren’t really there’
The mind naturally creates illusions and superstitions at times of stress – and this could be adding to the global financial crisis, say scientists.
US researchers say feeling “out of control” makes us more likely to misinterpret information as we search for signs of order.
The study in the journal Science found investment decisions of volunteers were adversely affected by these feelings.
Simple psychological techniques might improve their performance, they said.
The researchers, from the University of Texas and Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, believe that humans cope with feeling out of control by trying to impose order subconsciously – even in situations where there is none.
At a simple level, they demonstrated the principle by asking volunteers to look for images embedded in “snowy pictures”.
Those whose feelings of control had earlier been undermined were more likely to claim to have seen an image, even where none existed.
However, the researchers believe that other kinds of illusion, from conspiracy theories to superstitions, stem from the same basic subconscious problem, and that it may be contributing to the current havoc on the world’s financial markets.
Read the entire article Here.
International Medical Corps Thanks YOU
This announcement was in the e-mail this morning. I love it when a striving non-profit finds a cost-effective way to spread the word and compete for the funding they need. Smart non-profits get grants, get corporate donations and use the least costly ways to raise additional funds from individual donors. They maintain a very low expenses rate and a high services rate.
Hi again,
I am so excited and wanted to thank you so much for your help! There were more
than 87,000 votes cast and thanks to you & everyone who blogged & voted, our
project, “Saving the Lives of Malnourished Children,” is now in the Top 5 of
American Express Members Project. It got pretty close at the end and we only
made it by 147 votes. We really couldn’t have done it without you!
We are now guaranteed at least $100,000 in funding, but we still need your help.
The second round of voting has begun and the project with the most votes will
receive $1.5 million. Your vote and the votes of your readers will determine how
many lives we can save. I would be so grateful if you could repost to keep the
conversation and awareness out there and if you could thank your readers for
voting for us too.
http://internationalmedicalcorps.smnr.us/
Please let me know if you can post and please vote again for “Saving the Lives
of Malnourished Children.” Voting ends October 13th. Thank you so much.
Chessia
—
Chessia Kelley, International Medical Corps
ckelley@imcworldwide.org
http://imcworldwide.org
“You Read the Policy?”
“You read the policy?” the insurance lady asked, and I could hear the laughter restrained in her voice.
“Yes, I did. It doesn’t cover much! With all the restriction, the flood insurance has to work together with the high wind insurance, and it seems to me I need to put the majority of my coverage there,” I replied.
“I’ve just never had a customer before who actually read through the policy,” she responded, her voice still bordering on laughter.
She and I get along great. She helped me out when a company refused to insure our Florida house, a year after all the insurance agencies had taken a major battering from an onslaught of hurricane losses.
I hate reading policies. Do you ever read through your credit card agreements before you sign them? Do you read through the restrictions on software before you download it? Do you know what your insurance REALLY covers?
Sometimes the cheapest policy isn’t always the best – it depends on how good they are when you need to make a claim. Even if you read the policies, it isn’t always what-you-see-is-what-you-get. You also need to check a company’s reputation for claims adjustments.
So far, we have been very lucky. We’ve never made a claim on our auto insurance; any accident – and there haven’t been many – have had only small damage, usually covered by the other person. The only accident I have had in the Middle East was when another American woman rear-ended me on the little road into our compound. The only claim we ever made on a house (we came home from a trip to discover a water pipe had broken) was wiped out by the deductible we had chosen, so we didn’t make the claim.
House insurance freaks me out. The power of almighty God is in a hurricane; a beautiful house can be nothing but shards and embers in no time at all. If you own a Florida house, you have to have separate policies for fire, for liability, for high wind (hurricane) and for flood. The total cost of all those insurances is about equal to one house payment. The fact that all my coverages come due during hurricane season works to my agent’s advantage.
You can track any hurricane/tripical storm in the world at Weather Underground.
9/11 Conspiracy Theories Live
When most Americans hear these theories, they just laugh – it never occurs to them that anyone could take them seriously. The New York Times does an article on 9/11 conspiracy theories just as that tragic anniversary approaches:
9/11 Rumors That Become Conventional Wisdom
Justin Lane for The New York Times
CAIRO — Seven years later, it remains conventional wisdom here that Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda could not have been solely responsible for the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and that the United States and Israel had to have been involved in their planning, if not their execution, too.
Many in Cairo see the attacks as part of an anti-Muslim plot.
This is not the conclusion of a scientific survey, but it is what routinely comes up in conversations around the region — in a shopping mall in Dubai, in a park in Algiers, in a cafe in Riyadh and all over Cairo.
“Look, I don’t believe what your governments and press say. It just can’t be true,” said Ahmed Issab, 26, a Syrian engineer who lives and works in the United Arab Emirates. “Why would they tell the truth? I think the U.S. organized this so that they had an excuse to invade Iraq for the oil.”
It is easy for Americans to dismiss such thinking as bizarre. But that would miss a point that people in this part of the world think Western leaders, especially in Washington, need to understand: That such ideas persist represents the first failure in the fight against terrorism — the inability to convince people here that the United States is, indeed, waging a campaign against terrorism, not a crusade against Muslims.
“The United States should be concerned because in order to tell people that there is a real evil, they too have to believe it in order to help you,” said Mushairy al-Thaidy, a columnist in the Saudi-owned regional newspaper Asharq al Awsat. “Otherwise, it will diminish your ability to fight terrorism. It is not the kind of battle you can fight on your own; it is a collective battle.”
There were many reasons people here said they believed that the attacks of 9/11 were part of a conspiracy against Muslims. Some had nothing to do with Western actions, and some had everything to do with Western policies.
Again and again, people said they simply did not believe that a group of Arabs — like themselves — could possibly have waged such a successful operation against a superpower like the United States. But they also said that Washington’s post-9/11 foreign policy proved that the United States and Israel were behind the attacks, especially with the invasion of Iraq.
“Maybe people who executed the operation were Arabs, but the brains? No way,” said Mohammed Ibrahim, 36, a clothing-store owner in the Bulaq neighborhood of Cairo. “It was organized by other people, the United States or the Israelis.”
You can read the entire article at The New York Times.
Home Prices Drop, Sales Rise in Seattle
The Seattle Real Estate market has been fairly bullet-proof, until lately, when following the trend across the United States, prices here have also dropped, reports this morning’s Seattle Times. (If you have ever dreamed of having a home in Seattle, even after all my rain photos, now is the time!)
By ALEX VEIGA
The Associated Press
A real-estate-agents trade group says sales of existing homes rose 3.1 percent in July as buyers snapped up deeply discounted properties.
Stephanie Kuhn — who moved in March from the Seattle area to Orlando, Fla., because of a family emergency — has yet to find a buyer for her Mountlake Terrace condo.
The two-bedroom, 1,100-square-foot condo has been on the market since March but is drawing little interest.
“I can’t buy another house until I sell my house up there,” said Kuhn, 47.
Seattle and Portland, Ore., were among the top 10 metro areas in the nation with the most pronounced drop in home sales last month compared with July 2007, according to The Associated Press-Re/Max Monthly Housing Report, which analyzed all home sales recorded by all local agents.
The AP-Re/Max home-sales report was one of two released Monday. The second was from the National Association of Realtors.
Sales of existing homes in the West edged higher overall in July, as many buyers took advantage of falling prices in foreclosure-ravaged areas in California, Nevada and elsewhere, both reports show.
About 1.1 million pre-owned houses and condominiums were sold last month in the 13-state region, up almost 1 percent from the same month last year, the Realtors group reported. But the median home price plunged more than 22 percent to $273,200, it said.
You can read the rest of the article HERE.
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