The Boy

Is going to have surgery first thing tomorrow morning. I, for obvious reasons, won't be on the computer. The Boy is having a toe removed - one that started a while ago with an infected toe nail - and to this day I still do not know how he injured himself to begin with. The infection has come and gone - mostly, though, it has not gone. It moved into his bone. He has been on a course of antibiotics for too long and the infection will not clear up. Time to eliminate the problem.

A while back - around Christmas time - The Kids got into a scuffle over a toy. My fault. I only got one toy out when I should have gotten two. What the heck was I thinking?!? Actually, but for The Baby climbing up on a box in the hallway closet and then on to the top of my sewing machine case, I would not have gotten any toys out. They had plenty of new toys in their toy box collection that they were enjoying from our most recent trip to the States. I was wrapping presents - furry pig and camel golf head covers - The Baby was convinced they were toys for them - they really did look like Kid toys - minus squeakers. There was a toy high up in the closet irresistibly calling to her. I had left the closet door open and The Baby had just enough time to get in there and do a little climbing to get to the toy she saw perched on a shelf. Another few seconds and she would have been able to get it herself, although she probably would have ended up falling and getting injured in the process. I was busy. Said, "oh what the heck - here you go." A second later The Boy came racing out to the kitchen where The Baby had a new squeaky toy and the two got in a "brotherly-sisterly" fight. I took the toy away, sent them both to their rooms [their crates] and the toy got put away - high, high up out of reach to either of them.

A couple days later, I noticed The Boy's chest looked puffy - it was, quite. There was a little lump. I immediately called the vet. We went for a visit - I posted on this a month or so ago - and not only was there a "puncture wound" along with the lump but quite a bit of edema [swelling], as well. The vet assured me that the antibiotics would tackle whatever infection might be lurking there - and questioned me as to how there was a puncture wound that was NOT a bug bite. Ahh... His little Sister, maybe? In a scuffle over a toy? No worries. Well now we are worried. The swelling did not go down. The lump is bigger. Tomorrow, along with having the infected toe removed, the lump will be removed as well. A few days ago when I took The Boy in to be rechecked for the toe and the lump and the swelling - when the decision was made to remove the toe and the lump - the vet said, "If it was just infection the antibiotics he has been on would have been taken care of it." Sometimes "mass somethingorothers cause edema and we want to have a look and send whatever we find out for a biopsy." Okay. I asked the vet to write down on a piece of paper what he said when he said "mass somethingorothers" and he started to - and then turned to me and said, "Let's wait and see what we find when we go in. Otherwise I know you are going to go home and get on the computer and..." He's right. I would have done exactly that.

We have gone through this once before. Seargeant, our Rottweiler, Baby Sarge as we affectionately called him - or "Little Pooh Bear" [as in Winnie the Pooh] - passed away on March 4, 2003, after having been diagnosed some nine or ten months previously with "triple cell carcinoma." I cannot go into it. It is still too much to bear sometimes. He was our "first" four-legged canine child. It was heartbreaking for both of us - me and DH.

I'll be back after The Boy is home tomorrow and resting on his cushions and blankets depending on what happens and whether or not I get the opportunity. Being a nurse to The Boy will take priority over EVERYTHING! I am taking his crate apart because if he gets in it with his "hood" on, then he can't get out of it. His crate is his haven. His safety and his bed. The door is always wide open and he is used to just going in or coming out on his own free will. He will NOT be happy that the crate is apart - I will leave the bottom half for him - but take the top off and put it in my closet for a few days. And I will take The Baby's crate out to the garage. If The Boy can't get in his crate - he'll squeeze himself into her's, and that isn't going to work, either. I hate to have to keep the "hood" on him, but he won't leave his stitches alone - we've been through this with him before - so not taking any chances this time. Hood will be on when he is not in the room with me where I can't keep both eyes on him. It is pitiful, really. To see this little Great Dane with big, sad brown eyes staring at you with a hood on. He won't lay down with it on, he won't eat with it on, he won't get on the bed or the couch with it on... He will just stand - staring at me - blaming me for whatever because I am always the bad Mom who takes him to the doctor and he does not like it there. Blogging - either writing or reading - will be at the very bottom of my list... We will have to wait and see how things go.

Locally...

Little bit of a twist on things, here. A 23-year-old unmarried woman has been sentenced to jail and will receive 100 lashes for adultery. How do you commit adultery if you are not married? Merriam-Webster's on-line dictionary defines adultery: "Voluntary sexual intercourse between a married man and someone other than his wife or between a married woman and someone other than her husband." Semantics. Here's what happened. A "girl confessed that she had a forced sexual intercourse with a man who had offered her a ride." [Wouldn't that be considered rape?] "The man, the girl confessed, took her to a rest house... where had and four of [his] friends assaulted her all night long." So, what has happened to the man and his four friends? Are they going to be thrown in jail and lashed, too? One would think so. No information in the article on the men. The young woman is pregnant "and will be lashed after delivery of her baby..." I guess, compared to what some Middle Eastern countries do to women who have been accused of having some sort of relations with a man outside of marriage, that this young woman is probably getting off pretty lightly.

No wonder there is a shortage of doctors, here. They are not allowed to do their job. Isn't part of being a doctor doing an examination of a patient - you know - to try to determine the cause of whatever might ail someone? I don't know if what this doctor was doing was right or wrong. It is not the first time a doctor, here, has been accused of some wrongdoing by looking at or touching "the private parts" of female patients. Is putting a stethoscope on a woman's chest considered touching "the private parts?" Probably. We'll have to wait and see what happens to this doctor on March 22nd.

Blame it on the maids. Whenever something goes missing. Money, jewelry... It is always the maids' fault. Two maids are suspected of robberies in which 50,000SR disappeared from their employers. The article does not say whether it was cash or jewels. Not much more information given than that.

Seems a tad extreme - trying to commit suicide by swallowing poisonous detergents and then stabbing yourself with a sharp instrument. The attempt was unsuccessful. Perhaps someone should delve a bit deeper into this case to determine whether or not foul play was involved. Why didn't the man just jump off a building, or hang himself?

Were the unrelated men who were caught with 15 African women which "were found to be in compromising positions" also arrested on charges of promiscuity and lewdness? The article does not say.

Road carnage. A young man was killed and two others injured when the car they were in "overturned" while "tackling a dangerous curve." No mention of how fast he was driving while "tackling" the "dangerous curve."

More Bad Shampoo is Making Babies Sick

Thirteen babies have gotten ill. And worse. One baby has died. The Saudi Food and Drug Authority is checking out the locally manufactured baby shampoo, which is supposedly polluted with "serratia marcescens, a type of germ that can cause toxemia, meningitis, conjunctivitis, and inflammation of [the] urinary system, which may lead to death." It is shampoo that is made locally, in Dammam. Apparently the shampoo has been around for twenty years. Strange how just now there is a problem with it. Speculation in the article says that poisoned water used to make the shampoo may be the cause. A month ago there were some eight shampoos pulled from the shelves that were deemed "unsafe." Now, this. I'm going to go ahead and just continue to ship the shampoo we use here - mine, DH's and The Kids' - from the States. I've been shipping it over once a year in our shipment since we moved here. I knew there was a reason why...

Lecherous Beasts, the Men. All of Them!

Men. Here. Except, they really aren't. If one was to believe every single thing printed about men in this country, you would be led to believe men have ONE thing and ONE thing only on their minds. [And, the men here are different from anywhere else, how?] Yes, I have had a couple of run-ins with young men who see a Western woman with an uncovered blonde head of hair and they automatically think, "She wants me." [And, for the record, no. I. Do. Not.] A few times at the mall or downtown young men - the older ones, never - have done their little teeth/tongue click, click, clicking sound. I'm not exactly sure what it means, but supposedly it is some sort of signal that means the young man seems to think that I am going to be willing to drop everything I am doing at the moment, throw my life to the wind [you, know, having a husband - married Seventeen Happy Years, today! - and all], and trot off to some secluded place to do the wild thing. Not going to happen, guys. Not in this lifetime, not in the next one, and I am more than positive it didn't happen in the past one, either.

There has not been one single time that a more matured - not necessarily older - man was anything but respectful to me - that I can recall as I type this - in asking for directions, or asking about merchandise in a shop, or at the bank, or anywhere else. Not once has any man over, say twenty-five or thereabouts, ever "click, click, clicked" his tongue against his teeth at me. I have a theory about the younger men - and I've posted on this before - that because this society is so segregated the young men just do not have the social skills they need to know how to act or behave around women - either young women, or women my age [who aren't so young - but are "uncovered meat" in the words of some Iman from last year - when they are not dressed head-to-toe in black]. The young men here know no differently. It really is not their fault. They are not allowed to mingle on the playground in school growing up or through junior and senior high school and they miss out on a tremendous amount of "life" in that regard from those days, forward. They are not allowed to date. Heck. They aren't allowed to be with any woman not related to them - just about ever! [I am not giving the young women, here, any breaks with this - but today this is not about them. Which is not to say that they are not part of the problem. I believe they are almost - but not quite - as much at fault.]

There is an article in one of today's papers about pick-up trucks being a nuisance to residents in Madinah. As I was reading it earlier I had to pause and just say to myself, "No wonder men here get such a bad rap. Given their 'ulterior motives.'" It says, "Small pickup trucks... have become a nuisance to the residents of and visitors to the holy city, particularly women who complain of harassment by the drivers." Ladies, give 'em a break. Lend 'em just a little bit of slack for goodness sakes. I've seen some of you uncovered and you are NOT all that and a bag of chips! Trust me on this one - if the men saw you "uncovered" they'd run, fast and far. [Which, again, is not to say that there is not some stunning beauty, here. Oh. There is. I've posted on that, too.] What? Did the driver of the truck ask you - as a cab driver is likely to do - where you needed to be dropped off? That constitutes harassment?!? I think not. "Many residents and visitors... especially women, say these vehicles are filling a gap caused by the insufficient number of licensed taxis." They probably are. If women could drive themselves wherever they needed to go, NONE of this would even be an issue. But they can't and they never will, not here in The Sandbox. [That is a whole other post - the degree of control that some men fear they would lose. I'm not going there today, either.] "These drivers are aggressively seeking out customers, which has given rise to the phenomenon of strange men in unmarked cars offering their services to women. Some say the drivers often have ulterior motives."

Come on. Be real. I don't know what is being shown on all those Saudi soaps you are watching because my Arabic is so basic, and I know Oprah is on MBC, but obviously you are watching far too much of both. Turn Oprah off. She has nothing worthwhile to say. She is an angry, bitter woman who just happens to have a lot of money. Try watching Monk or Lost or 24 or just about anything else. I'd be willing to bet that MOST of those men have no other motive than trying to make a living. One woman who, naturally, didn't want to be named, said "The concerned authorities are turning a deaf ear to thise phenomenon. We are being harassed openly by the drivers of the pickups and nothing is being done to deter them." She agrees with me in part though, and did "not condemn all of the drivers saying that some are simply trying to make money, but others seem to be flirting or otherwise directing untoward attention at women." What? Did someone "click, click, click" his teeth/tongue at you? Yeah. I didn't think so. Like I said. Someone simply was being a gentleman and opened the door of the truck for you, placed your groceries in the back of the truck bed and asked you where you wanted to go. Oh. My. Pretty untoward if you ask me!

A woman not afraid to identify herself, Hanadi Al-Subahi, said "I was expecting to see a fleet of (marked) taxis like those in Jeddah... Instead, we saw a large number of pickups whose drivers were quarreling to take us... In the process, they exchanged bad words that I feel ashamed of repeating [don't be shy, Hanadi, we've all heard bad words before]. We had no other option but to take one of them though it was dirty and the seats were uncomfortable. Where are the officials who would stop these drivers, who roam the streets?" Pssst. Hanadi. Let me fill you in on a little secret. You know all that Saudiziation thing trying to happen? A lot of cab drivers from other countries were fired so that Saudi's could have those jobs. Know what happened? Many of the Saudi's that were hired couldn't be bothered showing up for work. The cab companies are having an incredibly difficult time getting drivers. Oh, and back, again, to the fact that if authorities were that worried about you getting in a car with a driver who might have "ulterior motives" then they would let you rent a car and drive yourself. Pick your battles. You can't have it both ways.

Another brave identified woman, Manal Al-Qathami, says she "was surprised that women would use these gypsy cabs, but said she could understand the situation, thanks to the small number of available taxis." Bingo! She "would like to see officials form the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice crack down on these drivers who harass women." Sweetie, they are much too busy already protecting your butt from anyone who has a camera phone and a couple of pictures on it: blackmail. It is a very big problem here. She finally got in a pickup truck after she "waited in vain for a taxi for more than 45 minutes." It was worth "risking harassment." [Did you actually get harassed? No? Yeah. I didn't think so.]

Another resident - who goes by "Mother of Muhammad" and can't be bothered to use her real name said that "she can't believe that a city as big as Madinah would not have enough taxis." Believe it. A city much smaller, where I live, doesn't have enough either. [See above. Not enough drivers.] "Whenever I want to go to the market, I can't find a taxi; just these pickups, which are designed to transport goods and animals." [Some material just writes itself. I'm staying away from that one!] She says that each time she uses one of these drivers, she ends up dealing with uninvited and crude advances. [I already called B.S. in one post today. Can I do it again? It's my blog. I call BULL SHIT on that!] "I wonder when officials will take necessary measures to protect the dignity of women... and protect them against this vulgarity." Again, see above. Who wants to bet she is one of the women who SHOULD remain covered at all times and not one of the stunning beauties I've posted on? Five riyals says she is hideously ugly and fat, too...

Awwwhhh. Isn't he Cute!

Adorable. A baby camel. Cute. Cute. Cute. Too bad he has been saddled with a name so unbefitting of a camel's majestic stature. Talk about insult. Poor little guy...

There is a cartoon out there floating around the blogosphere of a teacher doing attendance with all the kids in her class named after "teh one" and his wider "other half." I saw it yesterday. This morning when I wanted to post it here, I couldn't find it. If anyone else has seen it and knows where I can find it, I'll add it to this post.

Found it! Borrowed from Sigmund, Carl and Alfred:

Locally...

An Asian has been arrested for p0rn0graphy. Police broke into a shop during a prayer time and found the worker "operating a computer" that had "hundreds" of movie clips. "On questioning him, he admitted that he was selling them to teenagers." What teenagers? I think we all know the answer to that. The economic rule of supply and demand... If there was no demand, there would be no supply.

On Thursday night the "Anti-narcotics squad" arrested a Saudi national with 38 kilograms of hashish. That is almost 83 and a half pounds of the stuff. Someone is in big trouble. But again, back to the rule of supply and demand. There must be a market for it or no one would risk it. Who is smoking it? Probably just expats. Yeah. Right.

Gotta call B.S. on this. It is just happening too frequently. All this "blackmailing" over pictures on phones and computers. I'm just curious, how many women out there have even slightly seductive photos of themselves on their computers? I don't have a single one! Seems to be all the rage, here.

Wonder if this businessman will be successful in his appeal. He has been sentenced to four months in jail and 120 lashes for "allegedly organizing a musical function that allowed mingling of men and women." Come on, now. You KNOW you are NOT allowed to do something like that! He is accusing the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice for bringing false charges against him.

WHAT THE !&#@!!!

Michael Phelps just got suspended for three months by USA Swimming. Does this mean Barack Hussein Obama should be suspended for three months, too? [Oh, please, let it be so!] "The sport's national governing body has also cut off its financial support to Phelps for the same three-month period, effective Thursday." Do we get to cut off financial support to BHO? [What a gift that would be...] This just isn't right. None of it, insofar as Michael Phelps is concerned. The young man made a mistake and he owned up to it but now he's being punished. How many other no-so-young men make mistakes? BHO snorting lines of coke? Bill Clinton smoking dope but not inhaling [yeah, sure]? Even George W. Bush doesn't get a pass, here [don't even bother commenting on anything GWB might have done]. Our country is in some of the biggest trouble it has ever been in and about to spend more money than it will ever be able to repay and instead of that being news, Michael Phelps is in the spotlight for some nitwit snapping a photo of him having some fun. I just don't get it and I guess I probably never, ever will.

PWIP

Pool work in progress. Rev's guys showed up a couple of days ago and started removing the old tile. This morning they were here bright and early with their hammers and some sort of big "pounding" things [awls, maybe?] and some sort of tile cutter that sounds like an electric drill - but much louder. The neighbors are probably really enjoying the deafening pounding and such that is going on so bright and early on what is the equivalent to Sunday in the States. But for the fact that they are making a complete mess - and I knew it was gonna be messy - I'm not quite sure what all is going on in the back yard. The two guys keep going in and out of the gate, though, which, of course, keeps The Kids on full alert and they HAVE to bark each and every time that gate opens. [Same two guys, Kids, not new intruders! Go ahead and relax just a little bit. Please? Oh what the heck. Never mind. You are both just doing your job. Carry on... But maybe we could turn it down? Just a notch.]

There is a pile of broken tile parked at the end of our driveway. It will be interesting to see how long it stays there before Rev sends someone with a truck to haul it off. Did he really think the regular trash pick-up men were going to pick that mess up and take it away? The man has already used up his quota of my nerves. He is NOT getting any more. Each and every time DH says something about the pool or the work or questions if the new tile got delivered I tell him he is going to have to call Rev. I cannot bring myself to being thoroughly annoyed and frustrated at the mere thought of dealing with Mr. Yeah Yeah Yeah. DH gets action when he calls. Hey, I'm just a woman, after all, and what do women know about pool repairs and tile work...

Heh Heh

Found the picture I was looking for the other day to post here, on some sheriff trying to bust Michael Phelps for an indiscretion after a photo appeared. I borrowed it from Pamela at Atlas Shrugs. If you don't know Pamela and haven't read what she has to say - you are missing out - the woman knows what is going on.

And while I was searching for the picture of "teh one" smoking a joint, I found another that just has to be put up - just for posterity. I borrowed it from Kevin at The Black Sphere, who by the way, along with a really eclectic group of pictures has some good stuff. Worth reading.

Heh. Heh. But dayum. Purple is was my favorite color! Why oh why oh why couldn't that pimp suit be burgandy or royal blue?

What a Novel Idea!

A "new team" of traffic policemen are going to be deployed and tasked with "creating awareness among the public about the new traffic rules." I have an even better idea: How about deploying a team that can be tasked with actually enforcing the old traffic rules? A team that actually stops violators for speeding and running lights and reckless driving. The new officers will supposedly "issue tickets to those who violate traffic laws especially those who use mobile phones while driving." Yeah. Right. The problem is that there are not going to be enough traffic police to even make the smallest effort to curb mobile use. I mean, come on - they'll have to stop practically everyone! "The new traffic law strictly prohibits drivers from using mobile phones while at the wheel with violators liable to be fined from SR150 to SR300." $40.21 to $80.42 fines are going to mean nothing to most of the violators. And - oh - they are just going to make a call from their mobiles to somebody with some "wasta" to get out of the ticket, anyway. The new rules mean litterbugs are going to be fined, too. Um hmm. Sure they are. "...those driving with babies and toddlers in the front seat will also be punished, as babies and toddlers must be seated in the back seat of the vehicle." Pluheeze! We all know that is never going to change. "The Eastern Province traffic department... will work... to enforce the new rules, and for this purpose, checking will be more strict. Surveillance cameras have been installed at different places to keep an eye on the violators. Driving through red lights, going the wrong way down one-way streets, speeding, etc. will be considered an obstruction to public safety and violators will face severe punishment..." Hey? Can we get some parking tickets thrown in there for good measure, too? You know, for the men who park in the streets because they are too important to be bothered to find somewhere to park and walk the twenty or so steps to go where they need to go - so they just block traffic for everyone else?

Privacy Wall Repair

Finally. And, no, no one called me like the woman at maintenance said they would. Yeah. Shocking, isn't it? I was on the phone two mornings ago with a friend and actually had a question for her husband - who wasn't home. She said, "He better get home pretty soon - I'm going to be late for work and he needs to give me a ride." No problem - I'll just jump in the truck right now and give you a ride. Why didn't you just ask? So, two minutes later I was in front of her house and she jumped in the truck. She is doing "follow-up" work, part-time, making telephone calls to see if people are satisfied with maintenance. I just happened to mention that I had called about our privacy wall and was told that someone would call me and that I never got a call. Friend told her supervisor about it and lo and behold - I finally got a call and someone came to find out what our problem was. [I've got the supervisor's name and number on speed dial, now.] Here is the problem:

If the gate was shutting properly I wouldn't care about the cracked cement. This isn't our house - we rent it - and if it falls apart it is not a big concern. I do, however, need to be able to shut, lock and latch the gate door. And, right now, because the wall is separating - the gate has shifted and is moving downward. I don't know how else to describe it. I can get the gate shut, but it barely locks now - and only with difficulty. It cannot be latched at all. That is a problem. I want to be able to let The Kids out without having to worry that the gate is going to be opened and that The Kids will have the opportunity to escape. I am not so much worried about The Baby - she doesn't leave my side when we are outside the yard - but The Boy? He'd be off like a shot and wouldn't come back if there was something more interesting - say, a cat, to chase. It scares me to think what could / would happen if The Boy were to get out.

A maintenance crew came yesterday to fix the wall. Another crew is coming Saturday - in shallah - to repair the gate and get it to close properly so that I can lock and latch it, and someone else is coming to paint the repaired cement wall.

The supervisor of the crew that was here yesterday afternoon answered every single one of my questions with "in shallah." Sometimes I think if I hear that one more time I am going to snap! It means, "God willing." Yeah. I know what it means. It means if the sun and the moon and the stars are all lined up properly, if the day of the week doesn't end in "Y" and if whoever is in charge that day doesn't wake up to soggy corn flakes or runny eggs then the matter will be taken care of. I don't want to hear "in shallah." I want an answer to my questions - a simple "yes" or "no" will suffice just fine, thankyouverymuch!

Challenging P-I-T-A, This Stupid Computer!

Why? Why?? WHY?!? Something that is probably so easy has to be so challenging, to me. Eons ago, when we still lived in New Hampshire, the early 90's, we got our first computer. A Packard Bell. Dear Son - who was probably nine or ten at the time - and I unloaded the box, and got out all the components and were hooking things up. I had the manual in my hand. It wasn't a manual. It was a text book. I started on page one. Put this cable here and connect it to... An hour or so later I was on page 40 and still hooking the computer and it peripherals up. DS, said, "Mom you don't have to do that. All you have to do is this." Ten minutes later he was playing on the computer. I would have been up all night installing everything just like the book said and probably still would not have had the thing up and running.

We got a new printer a couple of months ago. Something happened to the computer when we DH hooked it up. Now, when I go to load pictures on the computer, it takes them - but when I try to click on them - I get error messages. I don't know what is going on with it. I have to shut the entire computer down and restart it to get it to work again. I'm sure it is probably a simple "fix" that any nine or ten-year-old could take care of. Me? Ut-uh. Technically challenged and I get so frustrated with it! It is a pain in the ass [P-I-T-A], is what it is!!! And I just don't have the patience for it like I used to. [Did I ever have patience? No. I don't think so. I have a lot less now.]

A Couple Links to Posts from the ME

Lest someone think that some of the posts I put up are just too far-fetched to be believable, here is a little round-up from a couple of [selective*] sites of other bloggers, here, on this side of the world:

Coolred's Rant has a great story about pouring Pepsi on a Porsche that was parked in the middle of the road. Kudos Coolred! I'm going to have to remember this for future use. Usually I only have water with me. [Note to self: Put a can of Diet Coke in pocketbook. (I don't drink Pepsi.)]

Other Oman has a post about her maid being hit by a car - and then another maid, who was going to visit her maid, getting picked up by the police. Doesn't come as a surprise that her maid who was hit by the car is at fault... Nope. Not a surprise, at all. "She was scolded for crossing the street in the way of a car."


*There are lots of bloggers over here. I won't be giving links to any of the ones I, personally, happen to disagree with on a consistent basis, of which there are many. You can find them on your own.

More on School...

But not my school. What the heck happened, here? Were you in danger of failing one of your memorization classes or something? Why in the world else would you accuse four of your teachers and the principal of your school of sodomizing you? Whatever the reason, looks like your plan back-fired [ha! no pun intended!!!]. A Court on Tuesday "ordered a 15-year-old student be lashed 50 times in front of all students... In addition, the student will also get 300 lashes and three months in prison for tarnishing the image of the school's principal and teachers... The court acquitted the principal and teachers of the school of the sodomy charge leveled against them by the student in his complaint two years ago." Read the article. Besides the principal and four teachers there were seven other students involved. The principal and teachers are suing, having filed "a lawsuit against the student for defaming them." Just when you think you've seen and heard it all...

"Danger, Will Robinson!"

An escaped HIV patient is on the loose. Alert the authorities. Someone find her. Stat! No. Not kidding. It is newsworthy. "Hospital management and police squabbled over whether there was a need to post police officers at her bedside." Someone tell me please, where else in the entire world would a police officer be posted at someone's bedside because they were HIV positive??? If police weren't posted at bedsides before this incident, they will be now. Fantastic use of resources! Being HIV positive is the equivalent to being a criminal. No. It is worse than criminal. Someone must be afraid that the 44-year-old Somalian woman is a threat to the rest of society, or this would not even be a story.

"According to Saudi regulations, foreigners with infections such as AIDS are not allowed to stay or work in the Kingdom." Here's the thing, though. In order to even enter The Sandbox you are tested for a myriad of diseases. Before you can get a visa you must submit to a full physical, which includes giving blood, urine and stool samples to be tested. Yes. You read that correctly. Only perfectly healthy individuals can be given the go ahead to get a visa to come here to work. [Which isn't to say that "illegals" don't enter the country, they do - but it is not nearly on the magnitude of say, illegals entering the United States.] So, then, going with the theory that the "escaped woman" was perfectly healthy before she arrived, she must have caught "it" here, right?

If He Faces Charges so Should "teh one"

No. No. No. Someone is looking into whether Michael Phelps, the young swimming sensation, "could face criminal charges in the fallout from a photo showing the swimmer smoking from a 'wacky tobbacky' pipe" at a party? What about "teh one's" own admissions to snorting coke, and the picture of him floating around the interwebs wearing his Panama hat while he is toking on a doobie? If you are going to press charges against one, then you have to do it for all. Drop it. Just leave Michael Phelps alone. Although nothing would give me greater pleasure than to see "teh one" hand-cuffed and thrown in a jail cell for life - for whatever reason - it isn't going to happen. But unless everyone one that have ever made an error in judgment - and Michael Phelps did - I am not defending him - is going to be arrested... just don't go there!

Bwahhh!

MSNBC / AP is reporting that the 32-year-old unmarried mother of six and eight new octuplets is getting outrage, rather than gifts. [Whether or not it is true - consider the news source, after all, remains to be seen.] Cry us a river. Not. Perhaps Nadya Suleman should have given the matter of how she was going to support her litters just a tad bit more consideration than she did. She wants to sell her story for $2,000,000. What story?!? That you are a lowlife welfare recipient who lives with your parents in a three-bedroom house and can barely afford the six children you already have? Perhaps Lifetime will be interested in that story line - but if they offer you $2,000,000 then they are bigger suckas than I thought they were. I doubt Halle Barry is going to want to play the star in the calamity that that would be.

The article says, "The news that she is a single mother with six other children - and that all 14 were conceived by having embryos implanted - seems to have turned off many people, and companires are not exactly rushing to get publicity for piling on the freebies." Have they finally learned something from Jon and Kate? Nah. TLC is looking at production companies - so they have some interest. How many reality shows does TLC think they can offer - the big family crap - and keep the interest of their viewers? I won't watch it. But then, I'm not at all interested in someone's family that I don't even know who had six or eight kids through the miracles of science. You conceive those babies naturally, and I might be inclined to show some interest. Until then? Not so much.

Let's just hope that the doctors - all of them - whoever they are - have signed air-tight releases so that they cannot be sued for allowing what has happened to this woman - six previous implanted embryos and now, eight. Anyone want to bet that if she can't get a $2,000,000 movie or book deal that she turns on the doctors for allowing this to happen to her?

School...

My Arabic reading and writing class is going okay. Just okay. I so much liked the instructor I had for this same course three or four years ago. He was great. The instructor I have now? Not so much. She thinks she is great. Others may be benefitting from her method of teaching more than I am, I don't know. I've not asked. It is pretty clear for a certain reason which I won't go into - other than to say they are blatantly political - that I am not going to be best buddies with at least half the class. She has asked us how we like the course so far - and she specifically asked me if I like it better than the first course I took. Umm. No.

Arabic is NOT easy to begin with. I don't care what anyone says. Especially the older you are. When you are a child, learning new languages is not nearly the challenge it is when you are an adult. It doesn't make it any easier when several of the letters have no English equivalent. For example the "L" sound in Arabic has the same sound as it does in English, however for one particular Arabic letter, there is NOTHING equivalent in the English language. They call it the "ain" but it is pronounced nothing like "ain." It is one of several "gutteral" sounds made with your throat but not your tongue - or something like that. Not particularly lady-like, that's for sure. I'll never get it. Ever.

The instructor I have now is, in my opinion, argumentative and if you question something she cannot give you a reason. The books that we are using - both of them - according to her, are wrong. She says, "Do it this way, or you will otherwise may be confused." WHAT? Just the strong accent she has when talking to us is confusing. I am not faulting her English - she's got it down, for the most part, but her incredibly heavy accent does make it difficult to understand her sometimes much of the time. She is not from Saudi Arabia but she is an Arab. I pointed out a couple of times that the way she wants us to write certain letters is unlike anything I have ever seen in writing - and by that I mean printed writing - books, newspapers... "I will show you all the ways. You choose the one which you want. You are not children. I cannot force you to do one way or the other." Yes. She actually said that.

How about just showing us how to do things like the books - both of our books - show us? That is a lot less confusing. We are beginners. Later on when we want to expand our knowledge we'll write the "s's" and the "la's" ["la" is a combination letter - not really a letter - but a letter we learn - it is the "l" and the "alif" together] differently. She didn't appreciate me saying that none of the books in the class room we're in - an Arabic class for elementary students - have "s's" written the way she writes them, our two books we are using to learn from don't do it her way, and my two dictionaries do not write "s's" that way either. She says, "In print you will see it that way [the way I learned the last time I took this same class, and the way it is written in ALL the books], but in handwriting you will see it this way." Perhaps. But I'm not looking to be able to actually be corresponding with anyone using Arabic - I just want to read simple signs and be able to decipher some words. I don't think it is asking too much. Let's not even get into the fact that for someone that is teaching a WRITING course I have never seen such sloppy, messy writing in my life.

By the time I get home, two nights a week, after the two-hour classes, my mind is mush. We don't have assigned homework. We are not being graded. We have all paid to take this class for our own personal learning or enrichment purposes. As I have said before, my desire to learn this language is not so much so that I can say that I've immersed myself in the culture [it won't happen - I won't let it], but for more personal reasons. I want to know what is being said around me. I want basic knowledge with no intention of ever becoming fluent - in speaking Arabic or reading and writing Arabic. That said, Arabic is a beautiful language to write - and that aspect of it - but for an instructor that insists we should writing things differently than what the books show us - I am enjoying very much. So, to keep up - we're going at a pretty fast pace - I have to review both my notes and the work that we've covered in our books. Today I went to pick up my notebook and the books and just cringed. So did not want to work on my Arabic in preparation for class... Five days until the next one.

The same instructor teaches the more advanced reading and writing course. I really want to take it, but just am not sure I can handle another class with this woman!

The more you steal, the better.

Some men just do not learn by example. These two are getting off pretty easy, though. They were caught stealing 16 sheep. 16 sheep! [Yes. There is definitely a joke to be made, but I'm not going there.] They have been sentenced to three months in prison and 200 lashes. Compare that to the two young men who got caught stealing two sheep - they were sentenced to three years in prison and 2,000 lashes.

Moral of the story? The more sheep you steal, the less severe your punishment.

47 isn't too old...

...to get out of prison and get married and start a family. Oh - and hire a driver. "Abu Kab" won't be driving ever again as per the terms of his sentence for the vehicular manslaughter of three young men which happened a couple of years ago when "Abu Kab" was joy riding. [More here.] I don't know if we have ever been told the real name of "Abu Kab" which means, "the man with the hat." The family of two of the boys that "Abu Kab" killed isn't happy with the sentence; twenty years in prison, 3,000 lashes and a lifetime ban on driving. They wanted nothing less than the death penalty - which was what the original sentence was. The other family of one young man who died in the accident has forgiven "Abu Kab." Authorities are making an example out of "Abu Kab," and what he did was wrong, so I am not defending him. But what about the rest of the drivers - the majority of which are young men - that are such a menace on the roads? How about doing something about them, too?

Want to increase revenues in The Sandbox? Issue speeding tickets and tickets for reckless driving and for running red lights. Creating a bunch of laws does not solve the road carnage problem. Enforce those laws. Give the traffic police the tools to do their jobs. Put video cameras on their 1980 Toyota's. Install cameras at lights. Quit allowing the few who are stopped to make a phone call to their Daddy or boss or whoever has the "wasta" to get them out of the tickets. Punish everyone [not just the select few expatriate drivers]. Issue fines with the tickets. 1000SR for the first speeding ticket, 2500 for the second and 5000 for the third. Three months in jail for the third speeding ticket if it happens within a three year period of the first and second ticket, and take that man's driving privilege away for a year. A lot could be done to solve the problem and yet nothing is done.

Need proof that nothing is done? "Abu Kab" had 66 previous driving violations. 66! But it took the death of three innocent boys to finally do something about his driving. Do the math. Assume he started driving when he was 16; he is 27, now. That is eleven years of driving which means he racked up some 6 violations a year. A few fines, a little jail time, and revocation of his driving privileges might mean that the three boys he killed would be alive today. Just saying...

Until someone finally says enough is enough, the situation will only continue to get worse. What is it going to take?!? Don't the rest of us have the right to be safe in our vehicles? Yeah. Apparently not.

Are we up to six? Or is it seven?

I've lost track. I think it is seven. A Saudi man was beheaded yesterday.

Another Maid...

...has committed suicide. The 26-year-old Indonesian woman hung herself. Does anyone think that perhaps the employers of all these suicides should be given a little bit more than a quick glance? What were her working conditions? Was she being abused? Was there nothing that gave some indication that she was so unhappy and miserable that she saw no other way out of her situation?!? Sad. Just. Sad.

There is No Smoking

What airline allows passengers to smoke? I recall reading sometime ago about an airline that was going to offer flights for smokers - it was going to cater to smokers - I do not recall the name of the airline or what routes it was going to fly. Other than that airline, then, is there any other that allows smokers to light up? Does that announcement "smoking is prohibited" mean nothing? You can't go a few hours without a cigarette that you are willing to violate the law and light up anyway?!? My goodness. I'm a smoker. There is NO way I'd risk lighting up a cigarette on a flight. I just don't look good in orange... When I do the long international flights I cover myself with nicotine patches and chew nicotine gum. Is it worth being caught and then punished, all because you can't control yourself? I guess it must be. You received 30 lashes yesterday for smoking on a Saudia flight. Was it worth it? Do tell!

Another Lingering Story

The case of "Abu Kab," has been in the news for the last couple of years... It is the "case of the notorious joy rider know as Abu Kab - the 'guy with the cap - who was behind the wheel of a car that crashed while performing a driving stunt" which killed three young passengers. Originally, "Abu Kab" was sentenced to death but that sentence was overruled and now he is due for sentencing today. Interesting that "Abu Kab" failed to appear at his last court hearing on January 27th. Will he appear today, or is he long gone? Was his passport "ticked" somehow so that he couldn't leave The Sandbox? Time will tell. If he shows, and if the verdict is published, I'll post it.

Labor Woes

I am pretty sure I blogged about this sometime ago, although I was unable to find anything about it with a cursory search. Perhaps I'll try to find it and exert a bit more effort later. No matter. The story remains status quo. The poor, old workers are still unpaid and are faring no better now than they were some four years ago when they filed their complaints of nonpayment of wages. The men - four of them - are seeking six years of unpaid earnings. Six years! They want their end of service benefits, and airline tickets back to Pakistan. They are SOL, if you ask me. And I don't make fun of these kinds of situations.

The factory they were employed at for many, many years has closed. The man that owned the factory died eleven years ago and his son took it over. His son made promises and his son hasn't kept any of those promises. Now the factory is being auctioned off in The Sandbox's version of foreclosure. The son, Walid Ezzi [a published name!], sounds a bit miffed, "There is nothing to be done to solve the workers' problem. Why are you writing about this again?" Perhaps Mr. Ezzi, authorities should be looking at your assets "to solve the workers' problem." Are you living in squalor with no money to buy food? Are you able to support your family in some way? How is it that were able to keep your father's company running so long? Never mind. The answer to that is simple. You didn't pay your workers. Apparently you didn't pay any of your debts either, or you wouldn't have 19,883,336SR [$5,330,653.08] in unpaid bills. Some might label a man like you, Walid Ezzi, a lowlife scum.

Throw him in jail until he can come up with some of the money. You don't accumulate that kind of debt and not having something to show for it. Do some searching. Freeze his bank account[s]. Freeze his families bank accounts as well. Sell all of his assets. His house. His Mercedes. Do whatever needs to be done. Pay the workers their due and punish Walid Ezzi. Make an example out of him. Let others know that what he did was wrong and it won't be tolerated. Nothing like a pending ten year prison sentence - to give a man some time to sort things out.