Monday 31 December 2012

Farewell to an Abu Dhabi institution.

An article in today's The National bids a fond farewell to one of Abu Dhabi's institutions. When I arrived in Abu Dhabi a scant 5 years ago the only form of public transport was the Green and Gold taxi. As of midnight tonight the last of these will cease to provide a service. A few years ago a more modern Silver taxi was introduced with better trained, uniformed drivers. The Green and Gold taxis were phased out to their ultimate demise at midnight tonight.

When I arrived in Abu Dhabi I relied solely on these taxis for transport around the city. They were cheap. For less than $1 you could get just about anywhere you wanted. The drivers looked like they had just stepped out of the Swat Valley and were generally a friendly bunch happy to be doing what they did.

If you got into the front seat it was usually a signal to the driver that conversation was in order. Their first question was always "where are you from?" Now bearing in mind that most of the drivers were from the sub continent the answer "South Africa" usually drew enthusiastic responses.

In those days there were no messages generated by the meter telling them to slow down and it seems that their sole purpose in life was to try and get to 120 km p h within the city limits. Their favourite spot was the underpass along the Corniche (our beachfront) which had a nice dip to help them gather speed. This acceleration was usually accompanied by an enthusiastic "Aaaah! Hansie Cronje!" in response to my answer to the "where you from?" question. All this usually accompanied by them taking one hand off the steering wheel and their eyes off the road while making batting motions with their now free hand.

The Road Transport Agency decided that the time had come to bring the taxi industry in line with 20th century standards and the new Silver taxis with their smartly uniformed drivers was introduced. Despite the uniforms the drivers are pretty much the same and cricket still seems to be the main 'thing' about being a South African although one now occasionally gets an "Aaaah!! Nelson Mandela!" instead of an "Aaaah! Hansie Cronje!".

I used one of the old Green and Gold taxis a few months ago. They are now in a very bad state of repair and the one I used did not have a working meter and the price was negotiated before we took off. I feel sorry for the last few drivers working these taxis as it is unlikely that they will be employed by the new taxi companies.

I wish the few drivers left a happy New Year and hopefully a successful new revenue stream. And to you my dear reader I hope that you have a happy, healthy and wealthy New Year.

'Til next post...

Saturday 29 December 2012

Ric's Believe it or Not!! The 2nd

So now for the disclaimer. Nothing that I am about to reveal has any basis in science. Very little of it is based on fact. In fact nothing of it is based on fact. This entire hypothesis is entirely the product of my ever fertile imagination, however, once you have read it through, I dare you to tell me you think it's complete nonsense.

So where do I begin? I think the best way to handle this and to get your mind into a frame that will get around what I will reveal is to ask a few questions. Don't worry this is not a test and I will answer the questions for you anyway.

Those of you of the Woodstock Generation will understand where I am coming from when I ask you how much you knew about cancer when you were growing up? When I was growing up cancer was not something that we knew too much about. I am sure people were dying of it, but they were few and far between. And what about other dread diseases? Did you know anyone who suffered from Alzheimer's? Were any of your friends Autistic?

Sure these diseases were around, but no one seemed to worry about them as we do now. Well I say worried, but we aren't worrying about them nearly enough. And why is that? Well we are constantly being told that the reason we know more about these diseases because people are living longer. Okay fair enough now I know why Grandpa had cancer, but what about the kids and young adults that are getting it? Can you explain that? Well I can.

Oh, and why are childhood diseases, that were almost eradicated, coming back? Well it is that whole Autism thing isn't it? Some study suggested that the successful vaccination program was one of the reasons Autism is on the rise. Even though the results of that study has since been proven incorrect many parents are not allowing their children to be inoculated. This is one of the many sideshows that the powerful forces have put into place to distract us from the real problem.

Remember Obama's universal health care plan? Seems to have died a death doesn't it? Not surprising. We have plenty else to worry about don't we? When will this economic crisis go away? Why can't the politicians get to grips with it? It seems that we got into the mess very easily, why can't we get out of it just as easily? Could it be that the powerful forces want to keep our mind off things?

Lastly, I think that the seeds of this nefarious plot were laid back in the 1950s. I think that it was when the powerful forces, worrying about population growth, worrying about climate control and worrying about the planets shrinking natural resources hit upon a solution to all their problems. Over the last 60 years they have been putting their plans into motion. Unfortunately for us and our descendants, I think I have stumbled across it too late.

Ponder the questions above and think of the time line and see if you come to the same conclusion as I have.

'Til next post...


Thursday 27 December 2012

Ric's Beleive it or Not!

Okay here goes. I have many times admitted my contempt for conspiracy theories. I am the first one to send those propagating any theory to Snopes.com so that they may discover the error of their ways. My contempt for these theories stems from the fact that they, more often than not, support an already held crackpot view of the circulator of the theory.

Mainly my mistrust of these theories is that, inevitably, they involve powerful forces that are attempting to take over the world by nefarious means. These forces could be anything from the US Government (supposedly responsible for the taking down of the twin towers), to World Jewry (in the process of taking over the world one dollar at a time), to the US Government (hey there is a pattern emerging here weren't they also responsible for taking out JFK?) to The Russians (responsible for taking out JFK. What? Well which one was it? Hey could it be that the Americans and the Ruskies were working together on this?), To the US Government (not them again, but didn't they cover up the alien invasion at Roswell?).

Can you see the problem? Well if these forces are so powerful, and there are few forces more powerful than the US Government, then surely dealing with some puny conspiracy theorist should be a piece of cake condemning the theory, and possibly the theorist as well, to an ignominious death. So why do these powerful forces allow these theories to take on a life of their own? Well, I have theory. There! I said it! Against my better judgement I am admitting to having a conspiracy theory of my own.

Have you ever wondered why there are so many conspiracy theories circulating out there? There are hundreds of web sites selling a myriad of theories. This gives rise an equal myriad of web sites debunking the theories. The effect of all of this? Well, we spend our time gathering information both supporting and pooh poohing the theory trying to figure out where the truth really lies and getting absolutely nowhere in the process.

Can you see the positives for the powerful forces in making us run from pillar to post? Yes! You got it in one! You got it in one if you said that all of this is happening in order to divert our attention from the real conspiracy. If you didn't get it in one and have condemned me to the camp of conspiracy theory crackpots I feel certain that you will soon change your mind.

You will change your mind when you discover the reason for the powerful forces going to so much trouble to divert our attention. You will change your mind when you discover just how powerful those forces are. You will be amazed at the secret they are trying to keep us from talking about. You will also be terrified when provided with this knowledge.

I know the secret and I am terrified. Do you really want to know as well? Then send $500 in an unmarked envelope to....  Ha ha just kidding. No, no money required. Watch this spot, if you are brave enough, and all will be revealed...

'Til next post...

Tuesday 25 December 2012

A memory on Christmas day

A memory came to my mind this Christmas day. I had not thought about it for some time and I wondered firstly why it had come to mind and secondly whether I should share it on a day when thoughts should be light and happy.

The memory is of a story my mother told me when I was quite young about her mother who was suffering from cancer. She was in the last stages of the disease and virtually bed ridden and racked with pain. She had regular visits from a faith healer and my mother said that my grandmother gained such strengths from these visits that afterwards she would be found sitting at her dressing room table combing her hair. A very ordinary activity that otherwise she would have been unable to accomplish.

My mother told this story with not much embellishment other than what I have related above. I have no idea of what sort of "faith healer" the visitor was. I have no idea whether my grandmother was particularly religious or not. This story has resonated with me all my life. The image of my critically ill grandmother, who died long before I was born, being given strength by a faith healer and rejoicing in that strength to attend to a mundane task has never left me.

I have no idea why this memory should surface today. It came, not with sadness, but with a warmth perhaps to remind me of the power of kind and positive words. I hope you don't mind me sharing it.

'Til next post...


Monday 24 December 2012

Christmas in Abu Dhabi

I am sure that there are many of you who wonder what it is like to spend Christmas in a Muslim country. I cannot speak of all Muslim countries, but I have spent a few here in the UAE. There are certainly some obvious differences. Firstly Christmas Day is a normal working day. Anyone who who is not on annual leave and wishes to spend the day with family must take a days personal leave. Christians are not given the day off as a matter of course.

This is in line with the weekend being Friday and Saturday, the Muslim sabbath being the Friday. Sundays are a normal working day. In fact for many years the weekend was Thursday and Friday and has only changed to Friday and Saturday a few years ago. The change has been attributed to respect for the many non Muslim residents. I suspect though that a need to fit in an extra working day in sync with their main trading partners might be nearer the truth.

Not to say that there is no respect for Christians in this country. Quite the contrary Christianity is allowed to be openly practised and there are many churches in the Emirates. Trolling the malls, as is my wont, you would be hard pressed to believe you were in the Middle East. Christmas trees are everywhere. Window displays have winter scenes, after all it is winter here despite the fact that the temperatures outside are in the mid 30s.

If you thought this is the place to get away from constant Christmas muzak think again. Bing Crosby, Michael Buble et al play away in the background at all the malls and most restaurants. The shops are selling Christmas trees and all the decor and trimmings. If you like you could even find an ornamental manger scene. Our local supermarket even has ornamental Jesus on the Cross which perhaps gives away the fact that the buyer might not be a Christian.

The supermarkets also have mince pies, Christmas puddings, Turkeys and all the trimmings. Celebrants from the Southern Hemisphere would feel quite at home celebrating a hot weather Christmas. It is a huge testament to the leadership of this country and to the adherents of the Muslim faith that the Emiratis so happily co exist in this manner. It is a role model for multi cultural and religious co existence and gives hope to a desire that all the world be so.

'Til next post... A MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL

Sunday 23 December 2012

For every action there is...

I am currently reading Super Freakenomics and enjoying it as much as the first book. In one of the chapters the authors discuss the unforeseen consequences of actions and decisions. It makes for fascinating reading specially if one sees examples of this almost daily in our news media.

There are two stories that illustrate this in today's news. Firstly the very sad situation of an increase in rape in India. There have been demonstrations there against this which have turned violent. Today on Sky News they interviewed victims highlighting their plight. One of the local newspapers has a lot of coverage including opinion as to why this is happening.

The newspaper's take is that the rural culture is swiftly being influenced by modern trends and outside influences. The reality is, however, a lot simpler. Because of the preference for boys there is a high incident of girl infanticide. The result is that in one state in India there are only 823 girls for every 1000 boys. The consequence of the preference for boys is a shortage of marriage partners for their precious sons. Hence the desperate actions by these boys for something that under natural circumstances would happen... well... er... um... naturally.

The second story is that the new Egyptian constitution will probably be approved in the last round of voting in the referendum. Yayyy!! Democracy in action. The problem is that the need for a referendum is a consequence of the ruling party pushing through their own agenda without taking into account the desires of the entire population. If the ruling party think that winning the referendum, a democratic process of course, will have the consequence of calming the population should think again. My guess is that it will not for a number of reasons not the least of which is that a majority vote is alone not enough to please everyone. To paraphrase Honest Abe - you can please all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but you can't please all of the people with a referendum.

I ask myself why the negative consequences of decisions cannot be seen by those making the decisions, but I guess the simple answer is that usually the decision makers are stricken with chronic stupidity.

'Til next post...

Saturday 22 December 2012

One man's death is another man's statistic

The tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School has focused everyone's attention on things like gun laws and mental illness. The sheer number of deaths and the age of the victims is almost too much to bear. What I find quite interesting is how people in different circumstances react to this kind of thing.

In countries that see the USA as an enemy it was not so much as a tragedy as an inevitable consequence of the enemies actions and a manifestation of the sick American psyche. Other mass deaths become statistics. Only the family and friends of the dead will mourn. The rest of us will see the number and possibly "tut tut".

Reading News24.com this morning I came across this heading. 765 Killed on SA roads this month. Probably none of these deaths made the headlines on their own. Usually it takes "a major fatal crash" where five or more people lose their lives in a single accident to make it newsworthy. According to statistics about 1500 people will be murdered in SA during December. How many of those have and will be reported in the major media?

How many Facebook prayers will circulate for the victims of a wedding blown up by a nutcase who disagrees with the participants religious interpretations? I could go on and on with these types of examples, but I hope I have made my point.

It is sad that some killings make the headlines, garner sympathy for survivors from around the world while others don't even make the news. We never get to know about them. The ones we do get to know about are generally just numbers. We never get to know a name or a back story. If the person being killed is thought to be an enemy there might even be rejoicing.

So what's the point of all of this? It certainly isn't to diminish those tragic deaths in Sandy Hook, but to hope that humankind would get to the point that any needless death becomes a tragedy and garners our combined energies to try to prevent any further such deaths. This week the hope. Next week? Probably more hope.

'Til next post...

Friday 21 December 2012

They Mayans did not, obviously, but I do.

Yes, ladies and Gentlemen, I have an Apocalyptic Prediction of my own. I know for certain that the world will not end with a bang. Well to be honest I don't really know that and no-one alive today or even our descendants, depending on how long it takes, will not know either, because the human race will enjoy an Apocalypse of its own long before the world does.

The seeds of this Apocalypse have already been sown. The human race is already stricken with a life threatening affliction for which there is no known cure. The symptoms are being exhibited in all corners of the globe. No race, creed or religion is untouched by this insidious affliction. There is no vaccine. There is nothing one can do to prevent it. We all exhibit signs of it from time to time. No one, yes not even you, is immune. The human race is, unfortunately and tragically, stricken with chronic stupidity.

I am reminded of this on a daily basis. The newspapers are the best place to see where the latest outbreaks are taking place. Our local papers have reported recently on the Taliban in Pakistan having killed at least half a dozen women aid workers who are working for the UN program to eradicate polio. They were instituting a program of inoculation to the local population. The Taliban obviously do not give credence to this "Western" interference in their affairs. Their way of demonstrating their dissent is not by way of debate or logic, but by eradicating those providing the vaccinations. These workers are local women by the way and not foreigners.

How stupid is this? Their good works are condemning their children to the possibilities of contracting a debilitating disease. It is reminiscent of those that are boycotting immunisation for their children because of research which said that there is a link between autism and immunisation. Never mind that this research has been thoroughly debunked. It seems that they are trading a high chance of their children contracting possibly deadly diseases for a minuscule chance that they might become autistic. It seems that a companion affliction of chronic stupidity is incipient selfishness. Do they not see that although their kid will not become autistic he will more likely than not contract some eminently preventable disease and pass it onto others and may even die from one of these preventative diseases.

Chronic stupidity combined with incipient selfishness is often accompanied by an overwhelming belief in conspiracy theories specially if these are circulated on the Internet or via emails. What are the chances that humankind can survive this deadly combination of afflictions? How long have we got? Will it be Global Warming or a combination of many stupidities? Well I will leave you to your own devices on this question, but will provide you with this unalterable fact to ponder on. More and more atomic bombs are falling into the hands of the chronically stupid...

'Til next post...

Thursday 20 December 2012

Their world as they know it will come to an end

Everyone loves a good Apocalyptic Prediction. A good Apocalyptic Prediction can only be trumped by an even better Conspiracy Theory. I do not claim to know when the world will end or who shot JFK, but one thing I can predict with certainty is that at 00:00.01 tomorrow morning the Mayan Era will come to an end and along with it the industry built around the fact that their calendar ends today.

Museums will pack away their Mayan exhibits and look for something else to lure visitors. Apocalyptic Predictors will be looking for the next big thing and Conspiracy Theorists will crawl out of the woodwork in the hope that their crackpot theory will become the next big Internet thing. And there we have it. The whole Mayan Calendar Myth could not have happened without the power of the Internet.

In general people believe implicitly in anything they read on the Internet. The mantra "I read it on the Internet it must be true" has replaced "I read it in the newspaper it must be true". Unfortunately neither of these mantras is true anymore. One only has to have an email account or a Facebook page to receive the biggest load of drivel on a daily basis.

The sad thing is that the drivel circulated in this way is passed on by believing recipients ensuring that the message gets to a massive amount of people. Even if the information is palpably untrue it is passed on willy nilly without any recourse to fact checking sites like Snopes or Hoaxslayer. I don't think we need to agonise why people are so gullible.

Usually the message feeds readers closely held beliefs. These beliefs might be political, religious, sexual or just about anything you can think about. If the message is powerful enough it is amazing how quickly it circulates.

Yesterday a story started to circulate on Facebook that children had been abducted from various malls in South Africa. This story gained credibility with detailed descriptions of events down to a young mite who was found by mall security in one of the toilets having already been changed into new clothes and had her hair cut by the perpetrators. The more detailed the information is it seems the more likely it is to be believed.

Thankfully this rumour was soon squashed, but I would not be surprised if it surfaces again over the next few days. This was a perfect Internet rumour. It dials into South African's fear of crime. It had a feel of credibility. People were commenting that it could be true because the malls were extremely busy with pre Christmas shoppers. There was lots of scary detail. Even those that were saying that it might be a hoax because there was nothing on the news sites were still hesitant to condemn it outright.

Despite many of these things being proven as hoaxes people still leap onto the bandwagon to repeat these stories. A friend of mine regularly sends me this sort of stuff. I have often debunked his stories by quoting from or sending him links to Snopes.com. Despite this he still sends on stuff without checking its veracity. The problem is obviously that we so want to believe this crap that we will avoid the truth from getting in the way of a good story.

Wednesday 19 December 2012

Do I Know Hitler

Living in Abu Dhabi can sometimes make some of the most mundane situations interesting. The maintenance man in our apartment block is a very jovial Bangladeshi man. His name is Shakedir and he is extremely helpful and competent. A few days ago he came in to do a few chores for me.

As usual he regaled me with stories of his life in "the Towers". This day's story was about one of the residents, a doctor, who had asked him to do some work and who then denied anything of the sort when Shakedir got into trouble for doing the work. A simple story, but long in the telling and difficult to get the gist of because of Shakedir's version of the English language.

After the story about the doctor there was a pause in the conversation. Shakedir then stopped what he was doing for a moment, looked at me and asked "Do you know Hitler?" I was a bit taken aback by this diversion from stories about the joys of working in "the Towers" and did not, for a few seconds, know how to answer that question.

To put things into perspective Hitler is not a monster in this part of the world. Mein Kampf is freely available in bookstores along with other anti-Semitic publications banned in most countries of the Western world. So bearing this in mind I replied "Yeeeees I know Hitler". I wanted to say "Not personally though.", but I thought the sarcasm would be lost on him.
'Well," he said, "when British mothers want to scare their children they say Hitler is coming. Do you know what Bangladeshi mothers say when they want to scare their children?" By this stage I was desperate to know what Bangladeshi mothers say to scare their children and I said so. He looked at me quite solemnly and said "They say the Pakistanis are coming."

This story was not quite random. He went on to tell me how as a child of 11 he had lived through the troubled birth of his nation and its independence from Pakistan. It was a sad story and testament to his strength of character that he is the man he is today.

It is very sad that children have to grow up with fear of oppressors. As per Shakedir's example our parents and grandparents grew up fearing Hitler. I was fortunate growing up in the 1950's. It was a peaceful time with no apparent enemies so we had to borrow bad guys from our parents and other cultures. I am sure a game of Cowboys and Indians would not have generated the kind of fear that "Hitler is coming" would have done to kids growing up in Britain in the 1940s or "The Pakistanis are coming" would have done to kids growing up in Bangladesh in the 1970s.

The sad thing is today our grandchildren could be similarly scared if we were to day to them "the Terrorists are coming."

Monday 17 December 2012

The Clue is in the Words

The senseless mass killing at Sandy Hook has sent the world into a tailspin. Virtually every cable News provider has been giving wall to wall coverage. Lots of questions have been raised in respect of "why". Are there too many guns in the hands of the public? Is America becoming more evil as God is marginalised in their society? Should we be paying more attention to warning signs sent out by our mentally disturbed citizens? And so the questions are tumbling out of the mouths of everyone prepared to offer an opinion. Lots of questions. Very few answers.

Yesterday I was listening to a cleric trying to make some sense of the tragedy. He used the phrase "dead centre" to describe the essence of the problem. These words jumped out at me. Here was a cleric, using mild, soothing language to assure us that God has not deserted us and yet he used words which describe a target. The sort of target that a shooter might use to practice on to make sure he/she can hit "dead centre" when aiming at a target, whether that target be an ever decreasing set of circles or, God forbid, another human being.

How much of our language has an underlying violence to it? Quite a bit. Just consider these few examples.

"I was under the whip"
"I whipped them into shape"
"I got burnt in the financial crisis"
"That exam was torture"
"We shot that idea to pieces"
"I had him in my sights"
"I ate him for breakfast"
"My point hit him right between the eyes"

I think you get the picture and that picture is not pretty. Even the meekest and mildest of us has no qualms in describing life in the most horrible of violent images (my example above of the mild mannered cleric for instance). Is a propensity toward violence endemic in our make-up? Is the language we use indicative of that violent nature or just colourful descriptions? If we controlled our language would we even need to control guns?

The problem, of course, is that in order to change our language we would have to fundamentally change our society. Violence in movies, literature, video games etc., etc., would have to be removed so as to remove access to violent language. I guess the whole notion is stupid. Yet look at how easily the "normal" human being can veer into violence. Just look at football hooligans, road rage perpetrators, political demonstrators. These are the men and woman you live next door to, work with. These are you and me not just deranged lunatics sending out warning signals.

I believe the problem to be a lot simpler than I am making it out to be. In essence we are animals. Without the trappings of a civilised society it would be a "man eat man" world out there. If that be true then perhaps softer words might just soothe the savage beast.

This week the questions. Next week? More questions!

'Til next post...