I guess so. I do not follow the political realm of things here in the Sandbox like I try to follow what is going on at home in the States. There has been a conflict here - men from Yemen trying to infiltrate Saudi Arabia, at the border, not too far south from where we are to do... Who knows what... Disrupt the status quo.
All of the fighters here who have martyred themselves, fighting forces in Jizan, are going to be paid SR1,000,000 for doing so. That is $268,096.51. Probably not a bad thing. A whole heck of a lot more than families are reimbursed for soldiers who fight for America [and, by the way, that is one increase in our federal budget I would support - but make there be cuts somewhere else at the same time - how 'bout we try to recoup some of the billions paid out in FRAUD every year... again - as usual - I digress].
Have to say this, though. King Abdullah knows what dithering means and he doesn't dither. It is through his Royal order that the payment will be made to the families of the men, "of each martyr," and along with a handsome pay-off "each martyr will be promoted posthumously to a higher rank." If the jeja had just a miniscule of the "gumption" that King Abdullah has... [Remember when the jeja came to visit the Sandbox? Did you see King Abdullah bow down to him? Of course not. Don't be ridiculous. That would NEVER happen. Nope. You only saw the jeja bending over to - oh - never mind.]
This I don't quite get, though: "Also, all their sons and brothers will be recruited into the military, according to the Royal order." So, that is a good thing, then? Now, these men's martyr's "sons and brothers" get the opportunity to risk their lives, too? Is that what the "sons and brothers" want? Is that what the martyr's families want? Not that it matters what anyone else wants. The King has said what is what in a Royal order. It will be done.
But no one in Washington seems to care that whatever comes out of the mouths of our "esteemed" leaders is nothing but a big fat lie.
harry reid, just a couple of days ago, said this, about his ohhh-soooo-fabulous plan that got shoved up our unlubricated butts last night:
"We've traveled really a long ways to where we are and tonight begins the last leg of this journey that we've been on now for some time. The American people - president obama - have asked us for health insurance reform - it [that?] does two things - one, makes it more affordable for the American people - we're not going to add a dime to this - in fact, quite the opposite. We will cut the problems we have with the money around here by as much as three-quarters of a trillion dollars - and - this bill is going to do good things over the next ten years for so many different people in our society."
Oh my gosh. Just listening to this numb-nuts-gas-bag talk makes my head spin! Has this man got any more than a public school education? He comes across as someone who has no secondary education whatsoever - and these are the people we have in charge running our Country? God, help us!
Rush Limbaugh nails it:
"None of that is true. The American people are not asking for this. It's toward the bottom of the list of things they think are important. Employment - the economy - is at the top of the list right now. It's not going to be deficit neutral. There is not a word he said that's true, here. Not one."
Unfortunately, the fact that whatever comes out of the mouths of ALMOST ALL OF OUR WASHINGTON elite is a complete untruth just does not seem to matter any more. I just don't get it. I just don't. Is it just me? And, how is it that this ohhh-soooo-fabulous plan we're going to be forced to eat isn't quite good enough for "them?"
My. Gosh. What, exactly, is it going to take? I can think of only one way that any good can possibly come out of this. Just one. It is not pretty.
Nothing to see here folks, move along. Just some abused maids. Send 'em back to wherever they came from and get some more. Just two of many...
Interesting that we are not hearing much about abused maids lately. It has been quite a while since there was a report in the paper of a maid being abused. Make sure that nothing like that gets printed in one of our two English-language papers and that means that it just isn't happening any more, right? Something like that.
Or maybe not. "The abuse of foreign maids shows no signs of abating, especially with the emergence of another case involving two Indian maids." Both of them came to the Sandbox from Hyderabad and discovered after the fact that their "sponsor had made a deal with a recruitment agency" which was completely different than what they had been promised. Big surprise. One of the maids was repeatedly pushed into a swimming pool [could she swim?], beaten and locked in her "for eight days when she refused to work and said she wanted to return to India." Ahh. No. Silly woman. It doesn't work that way. You sign a contract and you work that contract out no matter what happens. She begged to be able to return to India but her sponsor wouldn't let her unless she paid him SR15,000 [$4,021.44]. That is an entire lifetime's earnings in India! If a woman - coming here to work as a maid - had that kind of money, she wouldn't need to come to the Sandbox in the first place.
One of the maids says, "We worked as slaves for months but nobody paid us a single riyal. The money we earned was given to the agency." I'd be willing to bet that the agency will say that it never got any money. You hit the nail on the head at the beginning of that statement: "We worked as slaves for months..." Did you not understand that that was exactly what was going to happen to you when you got here? Don't maids communicate back and forth and tell others what the situation is before they come here? Apparently not. She says, "And we aren't the only women, there were other women in the agency. I don't know what happened to them." You never will, either.
The other maid came "to earn money to pay for an operation for her five-year-old sick daughter who has a hole in her heart." She borrowed money to get here. [Something is terribly wrong with this system - that you have to PAY to come here...] "For one month, the sponsor kept me locked up. It was Ramadan and for the entire month he gave me nothing to eat but two dates... I used to drink water from a tap." [Water from a tap? Saltwater.] After her sponsor was finished abusing her for the month of Ramadan he turned her back over to the agency. No need to pay her for any of her work.
The article says, "Both women are appealing to the Indian community and to the authorities to come forward and save them and help them return to India." Let us know how that works out for you. Maids. Along with the rest of the imported laborers. Disposable help. Plenty more available where they came from.
Of course it hasn't passed yet. Just the bought and paid to "vote for cloture" so that it can be debated on the Senate floor. Fools. We have fools in elected positions spending every freakin' dime that Americans have not yet made. If this ridiculousness passes - and it will - so much for having my surgery in February in N.C. I refuse to give another dime more than I have to to the American government.
For all of you out there who think you are going to have free medical care and will have health insurance coverage for the rest of your sorry little lives, do you realize what your congress critter has just done? Women no longer need that pap smear and they will no longer be a candidates for a mammogram for early detection. Cervical cancer kills. Breast cancer? Don't worry about it. Men? That PSA test isn't really necessary either, since prostate cancer is slow-growing... [Good thing you can afford to pay for your colonoscopy, Katie!] I, personally, can afford to pay out of my pocket for health care - and will - but the rest of you that voted for anyone that has a "D" behind their name? You are going to be $hit out of luck. Don't come crying to me.
There will be a 5% "botox" excise tax on every cosmetic surgery [and similar] procedure - beginning in 2010. That is $585. more that I would have to pay. Not paying it. Oh, I'll still have my surgery done. I just won't have it done in the States. If this monstrosity does pass...
Americans are being taxed to death - literally - and there is a percentage of the public - some 47% of them - that thinks this is okay. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. How's that hopechange working out for everyone? Jobs? You are not going to have one. You won't be able to afford a home and that SUV you had your eye on? Ha! Regardless of this whole climate change scam, the government is going to force you to drive some little buggy with a scooter engine.
Is no one else upset that the people running our federal government are going to be covered by different standards for medical care and insurance? If it is good enough for the American people, shouldn't it be good enough for them, too?
Vote the whole lot of 'em out. With few exceptions most of them are not worth what we've paid them for.
Oh, and this butt-phukking we're about to get? There will be a tax on lubricants, too. Just bend over and take it.
A problem, here? Apparently it is. Child begging is a problem. Is that the same as child labor? Both could be considered forms of child abuse, right? I don't know so much that "child labor" is necessarily child abuse, but then that would be dependent on the "labor." Didn't children in many countries use to help their parents on the family farm? Was that considered child labor? My mother used to make us clean our rooms and follow a "chore chart," detailing which of us four girls were assigned to vacuuming, or doing dishes, or cleaning a bathroom, etc. [My brother was NEVER included. Where was the ACLU, then?] I recall that we - me and my three sisters - believed that having to do chores around the house was child abuse at the time - making us contribute labor to help clean the home we lived in, instead of letting us play or read or talk on the phone [we did not have a television set in our house until I was almost ten-years-old - and then - we never had cable!] - or whatever it was that we used to like to do. I digress...
Muhammad Al-Naji, from King Khaled University, "has recommended a new law enforcing the protection of childhood in the Kingdom in accordance with the regulations of the International Labor Organization of the United Nations." This, in a country that cannot agree on what age should be set that allows a little girl - a CHILD - to get married, now someone wants to set a minimum wage for children to work? Let us know how that is going to work out.
The example shown in the article has to do more with "child begging" than "child labor," in my opinion. A reporter tells of a five-year-old Afghani child who followed him "begging him to buy some gum." You can see this first-hand at any major traffic light downtown - little children running to your car, hand held out begging - occasionally they have gum that they will sell. No. I don't buy the gum. And no, I don't give out money either. At the parking lots of grocery stores the begging is much more aggressive and the mother's are the ones racing to the cars with their hands held out. Regularly we read reports that the authorities are going to crack down on this begging behavior, but I have yet to see that happen. How then, are they going to crack down on the children who are doing it for work?
So this reporter has this conversation with the five-year-old who is "working" [selling gum - basically, begging]:
Child says, "I have a young brother."
Reporter asks, "Where is he... Is he selling her with you?"
Child responds, "He is in Afghanistan, with my father."
Reporter asks, "Where is your mother?"
Child says, "She is in Makkah, please, buy this from me, please!"
Well, sure. There has to be some "human interest" in the story or no one would bother reading it. I don't buy it. Dad is in Afghanistan with a younger brother and the mother is here in Saudi Arabia? Doing what, exactly? Everyone knows that women in Middle Eastern countries are not allowed to travel alone! Color me skeptical. And, if the mother is actually here, then she came as a maid or something and the poor child is the product of his Mom having relations with someone who she is not married to. I guess there is always the chance that the woman could have come here as a maid and been only just pregnant enough so that no one noticed, but you can bet that as soon as the family she was working for figured it out that she was out of that house so fast... Which would make her being here illegal, at this point.
"Despite the attempts made by the reporter to find out about his family background, the boy's greater concern was to get rid of the gum box between his two little hands before the end of the day." Well, of course it was. The child was brought here - by someone [read between the lines] - to beg and make money. Isn't that what the problem here really is? How many times have we read about all the children that have been caught being "smuggled" in through the Yemen border to beg. Especially during holiday times, like Ramadan and now, Eid. If there are Saudi children out there working, they are few and far between.
"The reporter watched from a distance to see who would eventually come to collect the child. At 11 P.M., after all the shops had closed, an old man with a white beard dressed in Afghani-type clothes appeared and called to the boy. Sajid immediately went to the man and handed over the money... The old man took Sajid to a car filled with other children and drove away." There you go. Someone brought a bunch of children, illegally, into the Sandbox and is making them beg. Whoever that someone is, you can bet that whatever the childrens' earning are for the day that he has to share that money with someone else further up the food chain or he wouldn't be allowed to stay and get away with the scam that happens, here, far too frequently.
Apparently child labor violations, "including forced child labor, are rarely reported, investigated, or prosecuted in major urban areas... investigations are nonexistent in more remote regions." Why? Why is that? Is it because, as I have suggested, that others are making money off these little beggars, too? Just a guess on my part. But, for all its differences, Saudi Arabia is no different than any other country in one regard. It is all about money. Whoever is paying gets to play. Same as Chicago style politics. Why try to make it be something it isn't? "It has become one of the most distressing sights throughout the Kingdom to see children of families out of school working at car workshops, traffic lights and outside malls." Really? I don't think so. You get hardened to it after a while. I might have thought it was distressing when I first got here, but not any more. And if someone wanted to stop it they could. You can see little children running out to vehicles at the traffic lights with Traffic Police RIGHT THERE AT THE SAME LIGHT and they don't seem to be bothered by it - the begging children - either.
"Family disintegration, low cultural awareness, ignorance... and trafficking of children from neighboring countries, especially Yemen, are the factors contributing to this problem," says a Saudi social researcher, Saud Al-Shehri. Did I not say the same thing about children being brought in illegally from Yemen? Couldn't even get half-way through the article without finding out that that is more than mere speculation on my part, and is a fact. As far as "family disintegration" goes, I say that when a man is allowed to have four wives and four different families that that could would certainly play a major part in disintegration. But, again, that is just my opinon. Look at the "family disintegration" in the States. What are the statistics that show that so many young men that are now crowding the prision system came from single-parent homes? I don't care who you are, I do not think you can be an effective FATHER if you have four different wives and four different sets of children living in four different households. That is "family disintegration." Just the same as it is for some man in the States that thinks he's some kind of stud or something and has children by numerous different women without ever making them his wife and without ever taking responsibility for the children he has fathered.
Supposedly a number of these women, some "88 percent" are mothers that "are illiterate and only nine per cent of them hold even an elementary school certificate." They knew how to do one thing, though, didn't they?! Procreate. There are a lot of single mothers in the States that have pulled themselves up and provided for their children without the benefit of college educations! Just because someone is illiterate doesn't give them the "right" to send their children to go out and beg. How many children do you have to have before you figure out what "caused" you to have them in the first place? "Poverty forces these children to resort to begging and finding street jobs to make a living for themselves and their family members." I disagree. If you have a child then it is YOUR job to provide for your children, not the other way around - that the children should have to provide for you. When did it become acceptable for the children to have to work and not the parents? You cannot imagine how many children I see running to our truck at the traffic lights where a figure dressed in head-to-toe black stands back on the sidewalk watching. Children, no doubt, command more empathy than a full-grown woman [or man - who knows whether it is a man or woman underneath all that fabric?!!] insofar as begging goes. That is why children are the ones who do this - because the adults are not as prosperous. I feel a whole lot more sorry for a child in this predicament than I do for an adult. [No matter. No one gets money from me that way. And we "give" plenty to charity. You are a serviceman and in need? I'm ready with a donation. You need assistance getting your pet some surgery and you work as hard as you can to make ends meet? Let me get my checkbook. You want me to give you what I've worked for because YOU don't want to work? Bugger off.]
"According to UNICEF [a thoroughly over-rated "charity" that takes far too much money administratively and leave little for the actual recipients], an estimated 158 million children aged 5-14 are engaged in child labor - one in six children in the world." I'm calling bull$hit on that. One in six? Perhaps in certain countries - China, North Korea... But not all over the world.
Another you man who "has worked as a laborer in Jeddah since he was 10 years old" did not want to speak to a reporter. Instead, "his employer, Abu Yousef [son of Yousef - not the man's real name], encouraged him to do so." He too had a tale of woe, being "forced to work so that he can pay for school and help provide for his family." I can see the being responsible for paying for schooling - and it truly is unfortunate that "public" schools are not the norm world-wide, but again, WHY is it a child's responsibility to have to provide for the family. Did the reporter - whoever it was - even ask ONE child what the parents - or parent - did to provide for the family?!! Abu Yousef, who by the way is a Palestinian mechanic, no doubt here on a work visa, said that his protege "is attending French school in the morning and comes to the shop at five in the evening. He is a professional mechanic now and can fix any car." What nationality is this young man, who is now 19? African. Another child smuggled in when he was a small kid, maybe? Abu Yousef has another child now working for him - a 10-year-old boy - who has been "working for him for three years." What is it with all of these children from other countries? Does anyone think for a single solitary second that the authorities here are going to care about children that have been imported? And, as I stated above, someone wants to set a law as to a minimum age? Sure.
There is much, much more. I could drone on and on and on. But frankly, my "I don't care" is in full gear today and I really, really don't care, today... Call me cold-hearted. I just don't see that it is my responsibility to take care of everyone else. I don't want to do it here, and I will absolutely stead-fastedly refuse to do so in the States. We will go somewhere else. Plenty of other countries that would be happy to have the dollars that DH and I have. There are gated communities in Mexico where we could live like gazillionaires. Cyprus. Brazil. There are always going to be child beggars because there are always going to be ADULTS / PARENTS who refuse to take responsibility for their own children. I will just refuse to support those people. DH and I have worked far too hard for what we have. In order to get it, it is going to have to be pried from our cold... hands.
In lighter news... A job that you should not have is breaking spells. Yeah. I don't know. Maybe there really is something to all of this black-hocus-pocus-bullarky. Not something I believe in, but that isn't to say that I totally disregard it. I know it is big in some parts of the South in the United States. I know that there are other countries where it is part of the culture. I attribute it all to being uneducated and - ooh - how to say this delicately - third world. [So much for being delicate.] But then, part of whether or not you fall for it also has to do with frame of mind. I can sometimes believe you can will yourself not to feel good and vice versa to will yourself to feel better. "I do not have a cold. It is all in my head." Umm, that fever, the runny nose, the sore throat, and that cough? Not so "made-up" after all... Whatever. Do I believe some magic spell can be cast upon me and that someone with special powers can undo that? No. I do not. Many, here in the Sandbox, do believe in all of that though, and if you get caught practicing your special gift? Depending on your nationality you will be punished - some more severely than others. [See my archives for much more harsh punishments.] If you are a Saudi - shocker - the nationality IS published - then you can be punished and sentenced to two years in jail and 500 lashes for being a magician. Good grief. Wonder what kind of sentences David Copperfield or Kris Angel would receive here.
Maybe the patch shouldn't be worn to bed. I don't recall having such an odd / bad dream in a long, long time. I kept waking up - checking the clock - realizing it was no where near time to get up - falling back asleep and picking up the dream where it left off. Not settling. Not settling at all. I really wanted to stay in bed this morning and make sure that it ended "happily ever after" [i.e., "alive"] but I couldn't. DH was in the dream so I know it ended just fine.
Strangly, DH looked a lot like Sawyer [from Lost], with red sun-glasses. DH doesn't wear red. At all. Ever. And the day he wears red sun-glasses? There is a problem. There was also a small lavender horse - or maybe it was a donkey - no, I'm pretty sure it was a horse - in there at the beginning, but something happened to him even though he was supposed to be my pet. I clearly remember him running and trying to cross the road - there were "bad guys" doing something that made him want to run away - but he came back to me when I called him. Then, he disappeared. He wasn't in the whole dream, either. Hard to fit a small horse in the back of a VW.
Perhaps if I hadn't been locked up in a garage with a bunch of other mostly unknowns - along with my husband who looked like Sawyer [who was, at the end, trying to save us! he is a hero!!!] - and forced to eat scrambled eggs that no one took the squiggly's off of and miniature little spicy beef sausages - like pigs in a blanket - with the mustard already in them - YUCK! - I would have been able to sleep and get to the end of the dream... But with a meal like that - when you don't eat beef at all, and the thought of eating an egg that still has the squiggley on it... Had to get up. Surely if I wouldn't have gotten up, the ending of the dream would not have been pretty as food like that would never stay down.
There were an awful lot of "bad guys" in the dream. Which, by the way, took place in Concord, N.H. [where I grew up as a child], but had a garage like the one I used to park in in Springfield, Massachusetts. Back to the "bad guys." They were mostly young and handsome. And mostly they were all very "ethinc" looking [read that however you want - they looked like "locals" from here in the Sandbox, but in Concord, N.H.] Huh? A few older "bad guys," though, one that was fairly mean to a donkey - which is how I know that what I had was a small lavender horse. Throw in a couple of old women "bad guys" for good mixture - but mostly they just got yelled at by the men "bad guys" so they were out of the dream for the most part.
Plus there was this very weird thing about going to work late at night, very, very late. Was I driving to Boston? The drive was clearly on Highway 93 South. Then, getting stopped on the highway because for some reason it was closed. Waiting at a rest area and meeting up with a group of women who needed a ride. I think I even knew a couple of them. So we all piled back into my VW Beetle - light blue - like I had for my first car, eons ago - and headed "home." We got into a car accident on an on-ramp - on a steep uphill on-ramp - like that would even be possible. It was more like a roller coaster, actually. When we got to the very, very top, I flipped the car - IN THE SAND! We were completely off the road/roller coaster and in sand. I don't mean sand on the side of the road. I mean sand. Soft sand, though, like at the beach. Everyone was fine. Shaken up. Gee. Who would have guessed? We got rescued by a group of misfits who led us straight into the hands of the "bad guys." Only the misfits didn't know it then.
The "bad guys" weren't "bad guys," at first. They tried to be our friends. They wanted us to sell magazines door-to-door [Newsweek - of all magazines!] and they made me pay for 42 subscriptions up front on my credit card. $6,935.00. What? Sixty-Nine Hundred and something dollars for 42 subscriptions of Newsweek?!? [Nope. Not 40 subscriptions or 45, but 42. It started out with 21, but I said something about that being too easy so they doubled the amount of subscriptions we had to sell.] When I protested paying for the subscriptions up front is when we all got locked in a garage... Like a car repair garage. Someone had a cell phone - not me - and that is how DH came to try to rescue us - but he was far outnumbered and got thrown in the garage with us.
Oh. Did I mention that there was one of those cattle air-pump-killing-guns like in the movie "No Country for Old Men?" One of the "bad guys" had it and was shooting up oil tankers that would drive by with it.
Yeah.
If anyone even wants to try deciphering that wildness for me, have at it.
In the meantime, no more patches on at night. And if quitting smoking is going to be this bad, I will not be a non- smoker. Oh. My. Gosh.
I feel a nap coming on today. I really - REALLY - did not sleep very well last night.
...there isn't any of that wicked liquid allowed here, right?
Another quickie article and another quickie game of "guess the nationality."
The police have had to "rescue... a woman found running down a street... 'half-naked' with her drunken husband in pursuit." So. Let's see. The husband gets drunk, the couple gets in an argument and the husband turns violent. The woman has to "flee the house" and does not have time to put her black bag head-to-toe covering on. The article doesn't say whether or not either of the two were arrested for anything - but if the husband was arrested for his "drunkenness and violent behavior," shouldn't the wife have been arrested for venturing out without her obligatory covering?
That particular "act" seems to be reserved for use only by Americans. No other country in the world uses such unbecoming methods to extract information from "infiltrators" or enemies. Cough. Cough.
Yemeni infiltrators will be tried. The conflict between Saudi Arabia and Yemen is one I know very little about. I know this though: Saudi Arabia has "brass ones" when it comes to dealing with issues that might threaten its security. There is no waffling back and forth about what to do. There is no commander in training pants that says, "go easy on the illegals - don't bother arresting them." Not a chance. Instead, there are orders issued which direct forces here to shoot the "infiltrators" on sight if the approach the border. Those that are not shot on sight and happen to be captured? You do not want to be one of those...
Good for Saudi. Wish the United States would take a few lessons on how this kind of "diplomacy" is handled.
There is no "oh, what should we do" with regard to the trials of the "infiltrators," either. The Chairman of the Supreme Judiciary Council, Salah Bin-Humaid, announced yesterday "that the Kingdom would try the Yemeni infiltrators who attacked a Saudi border post... ...the trials would be carried out in coordination with relevant agencies." A specific starting date was not given. Interesting. A country that understands security risks and holds its cards close, instead of laying them face down for all the other players to see. What a novel idea!
"The matter will be handled by security and military authorities... the trials [will] start soon after the end of the ongoing military operation to cleanse the area of intruders." Can you imagine? No ACLU lawyers. No putting the Kingdom on trial about their methods for abstracting information. No congress critters involved. Oh my. Anyone want to place bets on whether or not the men who will be put on trial will be found guilty? No worries for anyone being called for jury duty thereafter having a permanent bulls-eye on their back.
For its many faults - and what countries don't have them - faults, that is - the Kingdom deserves much credit for the way it chooses to deal with enemies and terrorists. Swiftly and to the point. [No. Really. No pun intended.]
You can bet - that although no trial date has been announced - that anyone being held in custody, here, for being involved in breaching the Kingdom's security, is not be coddled with "special" meals, or given all sorts of rights and special accommodations while languishing in jail. From what little I do know, it is doubtful that jails and prisons on this side of the world are anywhere near as comfy as those in the United States.
Saudi Arabia also has it right when it can say who is the enemy - or terrorist. Is this country trying to be so politically correct that it cannot call a spade a spade? No. Absolutely not. "The way the militias operate and the amount of money they spend on the conflict make the involvement of foreign powers almost a certainty." No beating around the bush, there. Saudi officials know who the enemy is, know who is involved, and are bound and determined to stop it. The United States? Hmmph. Most of the authorities in charge there are still in the very early planning stages of trying to figure out who it is they need to stop. And once they do figure it out? No worries. There will be a little tea party - cookies and lemonade will be served and everyone will sit around in a circle holding hands and sing kumbaya. Umm hmm. That'll stop it.
Blows, bows... Same same. After all "bow" is just "blow" without the "l" and "blow" is the same bending as a "bow" with the extra letter, right? Yeah. Okay. It is a stretch. But a good one!
It is all over the interwebs. Doesn't the jugearedjackass have someone helping him with protocol? All those czars and nary a one of them has a f'ng clue. We know the jeja is utterly and totally lacking one - a clue, that is - along with a brain and balls.
Go here to see the difference between a "Hero" and a "Zero." As usual, Zip nails it!
"Against Medical Advice." I just finished James Patterson's book - co-authored with Hal Friedman - about Mr. Friedman's son, Cory, who spent many agonizing years trying to cope with OCD and Tourette's Syndrome. Although it was a good [not great, slightly better than okay, and not bad] story, it was disappointing as a book. Story wise, I'd give it a 6 out of 10; book wise, I'd give it a 3.
Surely it was because James Patterson's name was so familiar that prompted me to pick the book up on the shelf to begin with... I can't tell you exactly what it was about the book that made me actually purchase it. I know that no one ever actually recommended the book to me - and although I would not discourage anyone from reading it - I wouldn't recommend it, either. The dust jacket tells the entire story and unless you want to read a memoir about the details of OCD and Tourette's Syndrome - skip it. Just read the dust jacket. I am not attempting to minimize what Cory went through or his parents and sister, there is just nothing earth-shattering about his story. Cory is "fine" now, with relatively minimal symptoms of the two illnesses or diseases from which he was originally diagnosed.
First of all, it was 267 pages of mostly "white" instead of "black." In other words, it was more paper than ink. Of those 267 pages - only 99 of them contained a full 30 lines of print. 30 lines. [The book I am reading now - smaller print - 37 lines per page.] 24 pages were totally blank. Just white "filler." Of the 130-something "half" pages - I am being generous by calling them "half" pages - 20 of them had eight or less lines of type. This book could have been done in a hundred pages or so. It is a very, very quick read.
I wish I would have taken the time to read some of the reviews from Amazon before actually buying the book, myself:
Do not buy this book. I thought I would learn more about Tourette's Syndrome. I learned so little. I was left wanting so much more. Shame on Patterson for exploiting this true story for his personal gain. A missed opportunity to raise awareness and better understanding of this horrible condition. Such a superficial read when I was looking for something more substantial. Very repetitive to the point of tiresome. All of a sudden, Cory gets better. No real explanation for us to better understand this. It was as if it was time to complete the book. DONT WASTE YOUR MONEY.
As a Special Ed teacher, I was very excited to read this book. I am sad to say that I was quite disappointed in the book. First of all, I thought the layout was strange. There were 72 chapters and each chapter was one or two pages. Secondly, I thought the book lacked depth. I finished the book in two days, and I really felt I was left without much of the story. Although I don't want to ruin the ending, I thought it was also somewhat unbelievable.
Umm-hmm. My thoughts exactly. I took the time to count the pages - count how many half pages there were - and how many pages were completely blank. [Someone has just a little too much time on their hands.]
I read this book in about 4 hours,it is interesting and once you get started you do want to see how it turns out. But it is not a "keeper", just get it from the library.
You won't learn much about Tourettes, but you will learn a lot about the medical establishment's compulsion to prescribe medications and keep on prescribing regardless of the consequences.
It wasn't a bad book. I just wouldn't recommend it - unless someone was looking for a fast read about a young boy who suffers, along with his family, and then, in the end, mostly lives happily ever after. Again, not that I would discourage anyone from reading the book, I just finished it and said, "Umm-kay. Now to read something with a bit more substance."
Along with the not so good reviews over at Amazon, there are many, many good reviews of this book. To each his own.
Inom wants to go on vacation. He said, "Madam, I have to ask you something." "What?" "With your permission, Madam, I would like to go on vacation for January and February. It is three years and three months since I have been to my family." Wow. Three years and three months! Can you even imagine? I cannot.
DH and I were separated for ten or eleven weeks at a time when he came over here to work as a contractor before he was hired as a full-time employee [contractor's do not get to bring their wives and families]. Those ten and eleven week periods were the longest we were ever separated during our whole twenty years together!
Three years and three months... I know Inom has three children. When we got school back-packs for his children last year, his youngest, a little boy, was six-years-old. So, figure he is seven, now. He has seen his Dad - perhaps twice - TWICE - at most three times - in his entire short life. Amazing. I give these guys [and the women, too - the ones who come here to work as slaves maids] a lot of credit. The usual and customary vacation for these imported workers is after two years. They work two years and then go home for two months. How many of us have to even fathom something like that? Military workers. They are the ones who do it [and they have my utmost respect for doing so - along with their other many admirable qualities!!!].
The biggest part of Inom's dilemma in his question to me was whether or not he would still have a job here if he went on vacation. I'm not thrilled with him. We - he and I - have our ups and downs. Sometimes he does a great job with the work I ask him to do - other times? Not so much. I think at this point we tolerate each other. He tries to get away with as much as possible and I try not to have to "correct" him as much as possible. [He is in for a real treat later this week. I can assure you that no one is going to want to be around me in about two days. More on that when it happens.] No matter.
As far as I am concerned he can go on vacation. I won't be paying him for his vacation - I pay him while I am gone - because I realize that he is keeping that time open for me - but I am not going to pay him while he is gone. I will have to hire and pay someone else in his absence. His bother will be here and I might ask him to come work. If not, I'll ask our house-sitter / baby-sitter. I only need the "big stuff" done. I can take care of everything else.
Locally... Another child, dead. Abuse at the hands of his mother and/or his father. It was reported yesterday in one paper, and today in the other. Yesterday's paper said, "The mother of a dead two-year-old boy and the 'son of her friend' are being investigated by police..." Turns out the "friend" is more than a friend. He is the woman's ex-husband according to today's report. The child was dead for FIVE HOURS before the woman took her son to the hospital. Not much they could do at that point, Lady. Duh! A police spokesman says, "The doctor said that it is a suspected felony and the case has been transferred to the Investigation and Prosecution Board and is not being handled by the police anymore." Good. Hope they are both executed - the mother and the father - for their crime. What kind of parents - a mother and/or a father - does this to a child? A little child!?!
Lest anyone think that I think child abuse happens only on this side of the world... I do not. Child abuse knows no boundaries. This case has probably been in the news in the States, but I only just heard about it this morning. A woman monster - Antoinette Nicole Davis - has been charged with "human trafficking, felony child abuse [and] prostitution, among other charges." This monster's daughter, five-year-old daughter, Shaniya, is missing. I do not know all of the details, but if she sold her daughter to a pedophile, I only wish for terrible things to happen to her - and to him - the pedophile.
What does "human trafficking" even mean? My goodness! I guess I was naive enough to think that this kind of thing only happens other places - like here, in the Sandbox - but not in the United States. So POS Antoinette Nicole Davis SOLD HER LITTLE GIRL and the last time that little girl was seen was entering a hotel room with a 29-year-old man - another POS - Mario Andrette McNeill?! He has been arrested and charged with kidnapping. What else did he do to this little girl, I wonder? And what kind of mother sells her 5-year-old child to someone?
As of right now, I have no idea whether this poor little girl - this innocent CHILD - is okay, or not. Her Daddy, Bradley Lockhart, has been raising Shaniya "for several years but last month decided to let her stay with her mother. He said Davis struggled financially over the years, but she recently obtained a job and her own place, so [he] decided to give her a change to raise their daughter. I should've never let her go over there." Hindsight is always 20/20... No one is blaming you Mr. Lockhart. My thoughts are with you and I will keep you and your little girl in my prayers hoping that she will be safely returned to your arms.
As to that monster who gave birth to her and the man who kidnapped her? If anything happens to Shaniya, I hope they will get what they deserve. Here? They would be executed beheaded. And quickly, I might add.
for absolutely everything, isn't there! I did my nails today. I started doing acrylics again when I was in the States in August. No one here can do them - which isn't to say that you cannot have them done - you can. No one can do them like I can do them. Our "Beauty Shop" does not do them. Why? No idea. They could [would!] make a fortune off women, here, if they would do them. There are a couple of shops off our compound that do them. I've been to one of them. They do them all by hand - no drills or electric "files" - and that is what I wanted. [I think drills, or electric files, are possibly the worst thing you could possibly do to your nails - but that's just me.] It took the poor girl three hours to do my nails when I went there last year. The reason I went was because it takes me three hours and I didn't want to spend that much time on my nails... It takes me three hours because I have such a hard time doing my right hand with my useless left hand. Ambidextrous? Not me.
Anyway - as I was cleaning out some of my supplies - getting rid of some old polish that is just too thick to use anymore - I came across one that was a favorite - there is no polish left in the bottle - but I saved the bottle in hopes that someday I would be able to replace it. It is made by Sally Hansen and is #04, "Passion Frost." A deep purple frost. I luved that polish!!! I haven't seen it in a CVS or Walgreens in eons. Hey - what if I could find it on the internet? What a novel idea?
Alas, the polish is not to be found - but who knew that there are blogs out there that are totally devoted to nail polish? First I found this one [really like the OPI "It's Sheer Luck" color], which led me to this one. The color I was looking for by Sally Hansen is very similar to one of the Jessica polishes she posts about - called "Grecian Touch." I'll see if I can't find that polish somewhere... If not here, then when I go home in February.
The other polish that I have decided that I must have is one I used the entire time I was in the States is one of OPI's as well: Black Cherry Chutney. Matches everything. A perfect "purple" neutral. I'll order it on-line if I can't find it easily. I know Sally Beauty Supply does not carry OPI [I tried to find it there before I headed home to the Sandbox]. ULTA does carry OPI but I didn't have the opportunity to go and get it. With Sephora over here, perhaps I can get my nails on it sooner rather than later. [Ha! Pun intended.]
Blogs on fingernail polish. My gosh. You learn something new every day, don't you?!
One paper says "Saudi Arabia has one of the world's highest road accident rates." The other paper says "...road deaths are down by 50 percent." Choice. It is all about choice in deciding which article you want to believe. No matter. Still plenty of PCRC. Nothing is going to change that, either. Authorities can go ahead and pat themselves on the back and say that they are doing everything they can. Everyone, here, knows that that is not the case. Not with statistics like this:
"Last year 458,931 accidents took place... killing 6,458 people and injuring 36,486. Speeding and disregard for safety regulations were cited as the main causes of accidents..." Gee. 'Ya think? "A study from the Ministry of Health estimates that the average vehicular collision that involves fatal or non-fatal injuries results in SR100,000 to SR120,000 [$26,809.65 and $32,171.58, respectively] in medical expenses... the annual cost of road accidents is estimated at about SR26 billion [6,970,509,383.37], which is equal to four percent of the country's gross domestic product." [Emphasis, mine.] "...about one-third of beds in government hospitals are occupied by accident victims. About 45 percent of accidents are caused by speeding..." Job security for ex-pat medical professionals from all over the world. The Sandbox has been "singled out by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the record holder of the highest death toll due to traffic accidents with over 49 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants." Hey. Every country has to be "best" at something, right?
Sadly, yesterday morning, a man [women don't drive here] "took the lives of two Indian electricians." The two young men were killed on their way to a construction site - one of them, Rajesh, was only 28. The other, Ullas was 32. Both were married and one of them has a one-year-old baby. "Police are asking any possible eyewitnesses to come forward to assist in apprehending the driver of the other vehicle who fled the scene of the accident." Umm hmm. I think we all know that these were just two imported workers. Plenty more available where these two came from. Nothing to see here, folks. Move along.
More PCRC: A 30-car pile-up happened on Thursday - because of fog - and because men in this country refuse to slow down and refuse to follow traffic regulations. No one died, but "12 persons of various nationalities suffered injuries in the multiple collisions, some described as serious." See? Like I said. Job security for the various medical ex-pat professionals.
Nothing will change here until authorities get serious about the situation. Until then? Traffic accidents, galore. "Population control road carnage." That is just the way it is.
The "Kittahs." There was the male that I fed for a couple of months. He was hanging around. He needed food. We called him Boots. An all black cat with white feet and legs. Boots seemed appropriate and fitting. He was clearly a male cat. Then, about a month ago - probably longer - Boots started hanging out down the street. Fine by us. We knew he was never going to be one of The Kids, but if you have two, then what's another. Besides, isn't it all the rage to "adopt" from overseas? Both The Boy and The Baby are from the States. Boots is from the Sandbox. There you go. A happy diversified family. Yeah. Not really, but kind of sort of, right?
In Boots place a young "kittah" started hanging around. Kitten, not little small kitten, but not a full-grown cat, either. Related to Boots? Maybe. Off-spring, perhaps. Black. Same green eyes. A single white foot. And a perfect white stripe up its nose. We started calling the kitten Stripe. I went to let The Boy outside in the back yard a couple of weeks ago and had NO idea Stripe was out there. Don't 'cha know The Boy spotted Stripe RIGHT away and raced to "attack." This was like a week after The Boy had been attacked by a "Killer Kittah" two blocks behind us when we were all out for a daily walk one morning. From out of nowhere - whoosh - The Boy was being attacked! Did he learn his lesson? Apparently not. I screamed. "NNOOOOOO!!" and Stripe darted underneath the gate to safety. We double check now, before letting either of The Kids outside, to make sure that the back yard is cat free. A few days ago, as I was getting ready to let The Boy out in the morning, I watched Stripe scale the cement wall to get outside of the yard. Stripe no longer fits underneath the gate.
Two days ago, I went out to feed Stripe. Stripe doensn't wander far from the yard and has taken to sitting on our front stoop in the morning in anticipation of breakfast. I finally figured out what gender Stripe is - female - and noticed that she has been putting on weight. Quite a bit of weight, actually. I think there are going to be Baby Furballs in the near future. This says that pregnancy in cats becomes noticeable in about the fifth week. Full gestation is 63 - 65 days. Well, if I've noticed... And it was this week that I noticed... Let's say Stripe is five weeks pregnant. She has another five weeks and couple days, more or less, before this young cat becomes a Mommy herself. [No we certainly were not planning on a teenage pregnancy, here. Caught us a bit off guard. To say the least.]
Great. Just what the Sandbox needs. More unplanned "ferel" kittahs. Stripe wants to be part of the family. And, we'd be willing to have her if we could get her in a cage and I could get her to a vet to get her shots, and flea treatment, etc. I am a bit worried about her condition, though. Perhaps she will find somewhere else to have her kittens. I don't know. There is not a "dark" safe place outside the house for her to do this. I've considered a box - upside down - with a hole cut in it so that she can freely enter and exit [heck, I'll cut windows in it for "light" if she wants it...] I've considered opening up the garage just enough so that she can come and go freely. The problem with that is that it faces the road - a busy street - and I do NOT want kittens roaming the street. It is a dilemma.
I have no idea what we are going to do about this situation. If anyone has any suggestions, they would be more than welcome! The kittens - if they are born in our yard - will definitely have to be caught and taken to PAWS [as if PAWS doesn't already have enough of a "cat" problem!], or to the kennel, here. Perhaps kittens could all find home. I don't know. But I also know that we do not need or want more than one cat to "diversify" our family...
What to do. What to do. I could be really wrong about Stripe being pregnant. Although DH said to me yesterday, "I think you're right about Stripe." Hmmm. I think I am too. Worms? Could worms make a small cat - not much older than a kitten herself - wide around the middle? Why? Why do I have to have such a big heart where animals are concerned? I can't just let them go hungry... This isn't the first episode with stray cats, here. Last year when there were a few of them around I was putting food out and then I called PAWS and borrowed one of their have-a-heart traps. As soon as we baited the trap and put it out - all three cats disappeared - not a single one of them went into the trap. But that did take care of the cat problem, at our house. They just went somewhere else to be a problem.
Once upon a time, in the not too distant past, there was a Woman who thought she was living the American Dream. Her childhood, although now not particularly memorable, was fairly normal. She went to school. She got a job. She met a tall, blonde and handsome pilot and married him. It was all good. They were the perfect “Ken and Barbie” couple. The handsome pilot built her the house of her dreams in North Carolina, where she thought they would live for the remainder of their many, many days to come. Circumstances, totally out of the control of this lovely Ken and Barbie couple, changed everything. Shortly afterward, they came to find themselves living a whole new life in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. Oh, sure, they are still the perfect “Ken and Barbie” couple, but Barbie now wears an abeyah over her designer outfits when she leaves her house, she has given up her pink convertible because she is not allowed to drive, and she no longer has an office that she visits five days a week, instead choosing to spend her time as a stay-at-home wife and an over-protective, doting Mommy to their two absolutely adorable, much loved and very, very pampered four-legged “Kids.”
