Times

Don’t pee at the Holy Bamboo Tree!

Do you speak italian ?

Racconti

►Sonabel beth jakob
This morning was spent at the electric company office in Dassasgho, again trying to close down our account. I had plenty of time to look around and count the fellow sufferers - I mean clients- waiting in line. Sixty two of us there were, crammed into a small waiting room served by six glacially slow Sonabel agents.
At one point during the wait, the power went off for quite a while.

►Big pharma beth jakob He sees very poor families that have obviously scraped up their last few resources to buy, for example, the frequently prescribed effervescent medication called Efferalgan. All it is is a fancy delivery system for paracetamol, which can be bought for a few cents in generic form.

►Are the boys back? beth jakob It seems like the marabout’s donkey had wandered off and was nowhere to be found. The five boys searched all day and couldn’t find the animal anywhere. The marabout chased the boys out and said they could not come back to the house until the donkey was found. Not to eat, sleep, wash, nothing. They weren’t to come back without the donkey.beth jakob

Antiques Roadshow beth jakob

►Malaria beth jakob Have you smacked a mosquito today?

Elina October 2006

Lift Me Up
There are all sorts of interesting occupations in China, which you would not come across very often in Europe.
I have written before about ear cleaners, with their little stools and array of tools, waiting for customers in parks somewhere out there in central China.
Now I'd like to share another occupation with you, something that I see every day in our very own building: Lift attendant.
Forget the people you sometimes might see in extra fancy hotels in the west, someone standing in a uniform with polished buttons, ready to take the wealthy guests to their floor.
I'm talking the guardian of the one single lift in our very normal apartment building, with her little box-like miniature desk in one corner of the already small lift, and the stack of daily newspapers she sells those riding the lift for 5 mao each. This is the woman who makes sure the lift is used properly, and there is no joyriding, no sir.
And the best bit is that she is equipped with a custom-made stick for pressing the buttons, with a ball of some soft, rubbery material taped to one end, so she doesn't have to reach her arm too far to press the buttons, but she can stay put on her little chair and just use the stick.
Oh, it's brilliant.
Not to even mention the fact that the lift only goes to three floors our of 10: the 1st, 8th and 10th.
But sometimes, when she's taking a break, or maybe having a nap in the little office, with the hard bed right next to the lift on the first floor, we get to ride the lift by ourselves and PRESS THE BUTTONS on our own. Man, do I feel like a rebel every time I manage to get away with that!

►WORK SUCKS

Friday, January 02, 2009 Iran Visitor Recycling in Tehran
Collecting recyclable materials in Tehran for money is undertaken by a small army of economic migrants from Iran's outlying regions and neighbouring nations such as Afghanistan.

►WORK SUCKS

Osaka Gas puts a bug up your butt.
Hitachi, Osaka Gas Use Wearable Sensors to Raise White-collar Productivity
June 9, 2008 Taro Toporific
►WORK SUCKS

Car Dealer Confessions Tug Pullman

Rookie Car Salesman…On The Point.
When my intensive car dealership training commenced (about 2 days), I was paired with a veteran used car sales person whom they introduced as my “Mentor”.
This gentleman enjoyed two hobbies: chewing tobacco and collecting the business cards of Sales People who either quit or were fired. His first action as my professional mentor: Showing me his “Wall of Shame”. Under his desk was a cork board, upon which he tacked the business cards of departed Sales People.

►WORK SUCKS

Ruud Elmendorp
Need something in your house or garden? Mabati Workshop can do something for you.
Useless scrap metal there changes into art.
Saving environment and creating jobs.

►WORK SUCKS

Alarm bell goes, it's six in the morn,
Salaryman lets out a mighty yawn.

He calls to his wife, to get the breakfast on,
But then remembers, she’s in a different futon.

She's in another room, on the second floor,
He likes it like that, cos he can't hear her snore.

It was her idea, to have separate bedding,
Thirty years earlier, just after the wedding.

Slavery is in the past! Choose yourself a worthy job!

►BUENOS AIRES. Cartoneros

►Elina in China

►Mosquito kate 1001 uses for mosquito-nets

►South Africa They run for their lives today like they did 200 years ago to escape the Zulu Impis. But where will you run now people of Matabeleland and Zimbabwe?!

►BLACK XENOPHOBIA “I might not be South African, but…” : a poem against xenophobia

Inflation

Beth Jakob in ►A camel blocking the gate

Beth Jakob as

►Expat tax payerTalk to Mme. D- at the tax office. She’ll help you.

►African Woman KENIA I've woken up to war cries outside my window. Kibera has poured out into our neighbourhood, one rival group hunting down another, sticks and stones in hand. There are cries of war renting the air.

►Kenya / Tourism Board: ‘We are digging our graves…"
January 14th, 2008

► Mad Kenia I have no tribe MiweMiwe

Though i have no tribe,
I do have roots
My roots are deep and wide

► Mad Kenia Africa Expat Wife During rainy season you will see many women with plastic bags on their heads to protect their carefully coiffed hair. You also see both men and women painstakingly washing their shoes in puddles to clean the mud off. Kenyans are probably some of the best turned out, best looking people you can find in the world. Correct me if I'm wrong

January 21, 2008 Update on Kibera slum today
Just had a quick work with our former night watchman who lives in Kibera slum. He said 'we have been living with the sounds of gunfire every day since we last spoke.
I asked if he had managed to get any food or aid from the Kenya Red Cross - he said;
'we got one bag of rice but it's very difficult, there are just too many people scrambling.'
I asked if there were any kiosks or shops (dukas) now open in Kibera. He said they were almost all destroyed or burnt and the one or two that are now open are selling at very high prices (i.e. 50 shillings for a loaf of bread v. 30 shillings normal price).
I asked if he has managed to get his anti retroviral drugs from the HIV clinic. 'Yes' he confirmed that he had drugs but they gave out enough for only two weeks rather than the usual two months, due to lack of supplies.
We agreed to stay in touch.

Africa Expat Wife

►Burkinabè INFLATION beth jakob

Other things are going on right now, of course. There is a food-supply problem in Ouagadougou now, for example. The price of food staples is rocketing. Cooking oil is up by 25%. A sack of rice that used to cost about 25 US dollars is now up to 30 dollars.

►Burkinabè These young kids are sent out by their Islamic teachers to beg for coins.

►Rumour MillThe Ouaga rumour mill is grinding away at full force this evening. The info is often unreliable and garbled, but the radio and tv stations here are under pressure from the government NOT to cover "sensational breaking news" (as we'd call it in the USA).

Africa Expat Wife

►Diversity is beautiful When I lived in Kibera some years ago, I shared my modest crib with Onyango, Kimani, Kipngeno, Mutisya and Abdi. Abdi and Kimani shared a bed because Abdi was new to the city and was hiding from authorities since he had no legal papers. The only thing that separated our bedrooms was a leso and old dirty bed sheet that Mutisya had picked on his way from industrial area. We shared everything and we showered in shifts and on alternate Sundays.

►Lenin One Cold War Was Enough

Do you speak Italian?

buy Sapodilla Stories

Do you speak Italian?

buy Sapodilla Stories

►Stories from Sudan Agnes Adwoa

►Justice An Egyptian donkey has been jailed for stealing corn on the cob from a field belonging to an agricultural research institute in the Nile Delta, local media reported on Thursday.

►Meet Farshid Farshid is nine years old. Maybe ten, or even eight –hard to tell anyone’s age here. He is ‎in the second grade. Of course schools in Kabul are out in the winter, so Farshid spends ‎most of his time outdoors, working. ‎

Farshid is cold –Very cold. Right now, he is standing near a fish-seller’s stall –keeping ‎warm in the heat of the gas stove. The water in the stream in front of the shop is frozen ‎solid. Last night they announced the highest and lowest temperatures for Kabul on the ‎TV. The lowest would be -10 ºC tonight. Weathermen being liars everywhere, I feel it is well ‎past that already.‎

►Recycle Kintambo, Kinshasa

Wonders never cease. A new private initiative is being launched to collect and - ta da! - recycle household rubbish.

► italian vintage ads

4Healing Iraq you may see a 14 year old kid rasing a gun in your face and asking you to obey him in order to check you for guns and explosives,

ireland blogDecember Horse on Dublin’s Moore Street Market
►Traffic Police

Amanda leese banks? no thanks!
►Susu
Susu is a traditional form of banking in Liberia. The goal is financial management, and the investors act more as a support staff than as investors. That is to say, money changes hand, but no profit is generated. The benefit, still, is huge. Just ask Jonathon.

►WORK SUCKS Aaron Stewart

oUR TOMATOES ARE PICKED BY SLAVE

JJ ►WORK SUCKS
Here in Vietnam, not much is mentioned to Human Resource. In fact, few people really understand what Human Resource is. They think its just someone who pays salary. Pay raises are normally 10% every year, regardless of performance.

I think this is due to the fact that most companies here are small companies and started as family run business. They usually consist of about 20-30 employees. The employees don't have titles at all; they just work at whatever needs to be done.

I just find it ironic that back in America, I hated anyone or anything that had to do with HR. It just felt like some nazi rhetoric just to keep us all brainwashed and working robots.

JJ

►WORK SUCKS

Funmi Iyanda

All is well that ends well

Now to a really funny story, only I am not sure who should be laughing. Most of it happened on phone. Let’s ets all her Biola, she is a friend’s friend.
Biola: Hi Funmi, how now? I’m just calling to let you know that I am getting married next month o, so you must buy your aso ebi.
FI: HEY, congratulations, so you and Mike (not his real name) finally settled your differences
(Last month, I had been called in to counsel and hold the hankie in the latest episode of “Mike has started again oh” beating episode. They had been going out for two turbulent years).
Biola: Mike ke! That one na history jare praise God.
FI: You finally called it quits and you have found someone else and is ready to marry so fast? Good girl! Who is the lucky so and so!
Biola: It’s my first boyfriend from secondary school.
FI: Oh! You guys met again? How nice.
Biola: Met again? l have always seen him on the side now, l go to him for money when I’m broke, we have sex occasionally, you know, that kind of thing.
FI, So what has changed now?
Biola: The thing is, he has a problem with women; they won’t leave him alone so he can’t commit to one woman. His family is worried so they said he should marry me since I was his first girlfriend and they like me and I am Yoruba like him.
FI: But what does he want? What did he say?
Bola. He agrees now, he is not fooling me about the other women, he cant help that but he agrees that at least we have known each other since we were young especially when he didn’t have money so he choose me because yes his mum and family like me and he is ready to settle down now.
FI: If that is his story, what is yours? Why are you marrying him
Biola: (Deapan) Because I love him.

At this point, I meekly ordered my aso ebi and dutifully attended the wedding, the bride wore white. They separated 3 years later, his mother didn’t like her “barrenness”, he became violent and abusive, and she found religion. The last time I visited her; she had a curious book on her side table titled When God When?

►Carbon cuts

mary S. Thumb

►Here Comes The Bride I got the front seat in our car and no one wanted to sit on the white woman’s lap, which is what I was afraid was going to happen. Instead, five large Liberian ladies (as they call women here) piled into the back.

►Marriage DM Shiite seeks VGL SF for love ZEYAD

SOMEDAY MY PRINCESS WILL COME. BUT WHAT IF SHE IS A SUNNI?

Arjen Westra

►Namibia The Himba Millionaires

That is the name I gave to this small community of Himba people in Namibia’s Northwest where is just passed some days ago. Probabely the only Himba-community with a white female Minister of Finance.