Mayors in this part of the world are quite powerful, almost like kings. The mayor of this town is well known for his strong armed tactics, yet the majority of citizens flock to the polls and re-elect him time after time. He is credited with turning this city around from being a syndicate-infested killing field 15-20 years ago to a fairly safe city today. He is probably most well known for his anti-drug campaigns. It is said that he once pushed an unrepentant drug lord out of a helicopter into the sea. He has also had an anti-smoking campaign - smoking is now banned in most public places. He has had a garbage campaign and as a result this city is one of the cleanest in Asia. He was annoyed at young upper class kids drag racing on public streets and threatened to catch them and tie them up naked in front of city hall. Since it is known that he does what he threatens to do, the kids believed him and the drag racing problem has ceased. He has banned firecrackers within city limits, and recently banned rowdy music and drinking in cemetaries.
Of course some bans are easier to enforce than others. It is illegal to give to beggers, but, well, obviously this is not strictly enforced. It is illegal to sell pirated CDs but as soon as the police stop patrolling the pedestrian bridges, the sellers return. It is illegal to urinate just anywhere. Of course you cannot police a whole city's urinating habits but at least I have observed guys being a LITTLE bit more discrete about it. This month begins a traffic campaign. Starting today if you want to turn left you are to get in the left lane. If you want to turn right you are to get in the right lane. If you want to go straight, stay in the middle lane and if you don't you will regret it. We can expect that at least for the month of December this will be enforced. But old habits die hard - why not get in the left lane to go straight, especially when the center lane is backed up? To tell the truth, traffic in this city generally moves VERY well. Especially when you consider how very few traffic lights there are. In fact it seems that the more traffic police there are on the streets, the more snarled traffic becomes.
I hope that one of these days the mayor can figure out a way to stop the teen aged gangs.....
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Monday, November 20, 2006
ting-ting-ting
Remember those musical greeting cards? You open them up and a small disc embedded in the card starts ting-ting-tinging Happy Birthday or Jingle Bells or something. Some Asian entrepenuer began inserting those ting-ting-tings into Christmas decorations. A few years ago I was in the village in church. The pastor had gotten some ornament with lights that he attached to the pulpit. He'd turn it on during the church service and just let it ting-ting-ting through the whole service. I guess he thought it was just super cool. It drove me crazy. I am sure that I was the only one in the congregation that knew that every tune it played was about Rudolph, or white Christmases, jingle bells, etc. Not exactly fitting for the local climate not to mention the sermons being preached. I avoided services as much as possible that trip. Upon returning to the third of my worlds I discovered that "musical" decorations were on sale here too.
Now my neighbor has put up a whole string of Christmas lights - "musical" ones - ting-ting-tinging outside my window. Did they think to put the ting-ting-ting INSIDE their apartment so they could enjoy it? Oh no. They put it OUTSIDE so I could hear the ting-ting-ting reverberating between the buildings. Not only that, they typically turn it on and then go out for the evening! What's worst of all is that it is a cheapie. It plays only one or two lines each of Jingle Bells, White Christmas, Here Comes Santa Claus, We Wish you a Merry Christmas and then starts over again. Over and over and over and over.........
Am I going crazy?!!! I am considering going over there one of these evenings soon and unscrewing a lightbulb....and if that doesn't work I have scissors.... >:-)
(No, don't worry. you won't see headlines saying I was electrocuted cutting wires. There are other more culturally appropriate ways of trying to deal with it. You know, the third party approach...)
Now my neighbor has put up a whole string of Christmas lights - "musical" ones - ting-ting-tinging outside my window. Did they think to put the ting-ting-ting INSIDE their apartment so they could enjoy it? Oh no. They put it OUTSIDE so I could hear the ting-ting-ting reverberating between the buildings. Not only that, they typically turn it on and then go out for the evening! What's worst of all is that it is a cheapie. It plays only one or two lines each of Jingle Bells, White Christmas, Here Comes Santa Claus, We Wish you a Merry Christmas and then starts over again. Over and over and over and over.........
Am I going crazy?!!! I am considering going over there one of these evenings soon and unscrewing a lightbulb....and if that doesn't work I have scissors.... >:-)
(No, don't worry. you won't see headlines saying I was electrocuted cutting wires. There are other more culturally appropriate ways of trying to deal with it. You know, the third party approach...)
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Lamp shade hats
Yesterday I went to a graduation. I've managed to avoid them for a long, long time but finally one came along that I just couldn't say no to. This was someone receiving a master's degree in business administration. She wanted me to go along as the "parent". You see each graduate is allowed only one guest. It is usually a parent or sibling or aunt or uncle. But in this case none of her family was available so I got the honors. Literally. I was given a green ribbon with "PARENT" written down it to stick on my blouse. And my friend had to wear a yellow one saying "GRADUATE". (I suppose that was just in case someone wondered if she was really a graduate or whether she just always wears long baggy black polyester gowns in the tropical heat.)
It was the kind of cultural event where everyone pretends to know what to do, but actually, I think not everyone did know. I wasn't the only one watching everybody else to try to get some clues. Kids were selling ribbon and flower garlands and corsages. Hmm. Maybe we're supposed to buy them. Yes indeed as it turns out. They are a necessary part of the ceremony. Fortunately the kids were also selling little cloth and bamboo hand fans because all the pre-ceremony standing around was done outside in the sun.
About 1:30 we were finally lined up and marched single file into the gymnasium. We had to all walk to the front and then circle back down the other side to our seats. Masters and PhDs were first in and sat near the front. There were probably over 500 grads all together. Undergrads had colored cords strung through their gowns along the yoke front and back. Masters had wide satin borders down the front of their gowns, colored according to major. They also wore square black boxy hats with long fringe all the way around. Looked a lot like lamp shades.
Extra guests filled the bleachers way up in the balcony. Not sure what they could see from up there. It was pomp and circumstances as a university leader solemnly paraded in with the college emblem on a stick. All the staff paraded in behind him in their colorful graduation regalia. Some intrepid boy scouts stood at attention across the front of the stage holding various flags. Peppy march band music was piped in from somewhere.
And then we waited. And waited. It turned out that a major donor to the university was going to be given an honorary PhD in humanities that day. He is a very wealthy man, owns the national airline and a big brewery in addition to other businesses. But even he couldn't get the plane to arrive on time. So we all had to wait 45 minutes for him and his party to arrive. Those boy scouts deserve a badge - they stood there at attention the entire time and didn't falter or faint.
Finally Mr T arrived and the shown was on. He was awarded the first degree and all his honors were read out. Then he read a speech in English. It was very disapppointing - he's either not a very good reader or he needs new glasses. After some other speeches, the grads and "parents" had to stand and award each other with the corsages and garlands/leis. You would have been really embarassed if you hadn't bought some because your poor grad would have been the only one without one. And you would have been the only "parent" without one. Then some more speeches. Then the grads and parents had to stand again and the poor parents had to try to figure out how to put the "hoods" or whatever they are around the shoulders of the grad and stick it in place with straight pins. These hoods are more colored satiny stuff with weird projections and protruberances. I think I finally got it on more or less right but no guarantee I could do it correctly a second time! Even the undergrads had these "hood" thingys so it was quite colorful.
Then we had to line up by departments, two by two. As two intrepid people read out the names of each and every grad and their "parent", groups of 6 pairs of "parents" and grads had to go up front to a line of colorful university staff handing out fake diplomas. It was kind of like going forward to take communion - the staff stood behind a long table and on our side of the table the space was divided into six sections so that each pair of us went up a step to stand in one of the sections before one of the staff and recive a rolled up fake diploma. We got a guy with a cool purple fringy hat. We both shook his hand and then backed down off the step and paraded back around to our seats.
This took awhile as there were several hundred grads but finally it ended. Then they had everybody but the masters change their tassle to the other side of their hats. (The lamp shade hats didn't allow for moving the fringe anywhere.) They made the grads all stand and give an oath of loyalty to their alma mater, sing the school song, plus a school "victory" song. And then they were pronounced graduated and some nets on the ceiling full of balloons and confetti were opened and all that stuff floated down on top of us. That was kind of cool. After the emblem on a stick and the staff paraded out, the rest of us were allowed to leave.
Of course you have to hang around awhile and take pictures of your grad and all their friends and the "parents". But finally it's time to leave and you wend your way slowly out to the main road and join the rush hour traffic trying to find transportation home.
I am grateful graduations don't occur every week!
It was the kind of cultural event where everyone pretends to know what to do, but actually, I think not everyone did know. I wasn't the only one watching everybody else to try to get some clues. Kids were selling ribbon and flower garlands and corsages. Hmm. Maybe we're supposed to buy them. Yes indeed as it turns out. They are a necessary part of the ceremony. Fortunately the kids were also selling little cloth and bamboo hand fans because all the pre-ceremony standing around was done outside in the sun.
About 1:30 we were finally lined up and marched single file into the gymnasium. We had to all walk to the front and then circle back down the other side to our seats. Masters and PhDs were first in and sat near the front. There were probably over 500 grads all together. Undergrads had colored cords strung through their gowns along the yoke front and back. Masters had wide satin borders down the front of their gowns, colored according to major. They also wore square black boxy hats with long fringe all the way around. Looked a lot like lamp shades.
Extra guests filled the bleachers way up in the balcony. Not sure what they could see from up there. It was pomp and circumstances as a university leader solemnly paraded in with the college emblem on a stick. All the staff paraded in behind him in their colorful graduation regalia. Some intrepid boy scouts stood at attention across the front of the stage holding various flags. Peppy march band music was piped in from somewhere.
And then we waited. And waited. It turned out that a major donor to the university was going to be given an honorary PhD in humanities that day. He is a very wealthy man, owns the national airline and a big brewery in addition to other businesses. But even he couldn't get the plane to arrive on time. So we all had to wait 45 minutes for him and his party to arrive. Those boy scouts deserve a badge - they stood there at attention the entire time and didn't falter or faint.
Finally Mr T arrived and the shown was on. He was awarded the first degree and all his honors were read out. Then he read a speech in English. It was very disapppointing - he's either not a very good reader or he needs new glasses. After some other speeches, the grads and "parents" had to stand and award each other with the corsages and garlands/leis. You would have been really embarassed if you hadn't bought some because your poor grad would have been the only one without one. And you would have been the only "parent" without one. Then some more speeches. Then the grads and parents had to stand again and the poor parents had to try to figure out how to put the "hoods" or whatever they are around the shoulders of the grad and stick it in place with straight pins. These hoods are more colored satiny stuff with weird projections and protruberances. I think I finally got it on more or less right but no guarantee I could do it correctly a second time! Even the undergrads had these "hood" thingys so it was quite colorful.
Then we had to line up by departments, two by two. As two intrepid people read out the names of each and every grad and their "parent", groups of 6 pairs of "parents" and grads had to go up front to a line of colorful university staff handing out fake diplomas. It was kind of like going forward to take communion - the staff stood behind a long table and on our side of the table the space was divided into six sections so that each pair of us went up a step to stand in one of the sections before one of the staff and recive a rolled up fake diploma. We got a guy with a cool purple fringy hat. We both shook his hand and then backed down off the step and paraded back around to our seats.
This took awhile as there were several hundred grads but finally it ended. Then they had everybody but the masters change their tassle to the other side of their hats. (The lamp shade hats didn't allow for moving the fringe anywhere.) They made the grads all stand and give an oath of loyalty to their alma mater, sing the school song, plus a school "victory" song. And then they were pronounced graduated and some nets on the ceiling full of balloons and confetti were opened and all that stuff floated down on top of us. That was kind of cool. After the emblem on a stick and the staff paraded out, the rest of us were allowed to leave.
Of course you have to hang around awhile and take pictures of your grad and all their friends and the "parents". But finally it's time to leave and you wend your way slowly out to the main road and join the rush hour traffic trying to find transportation home.
I am grateful graduations don't occur every week!
Sunday, November 12, 2006
Smoke and haze
Imagine living in a city where instead of a dry season you had a smoke season. Imagine for over two months having the airport closed due to low visibility. And not only the airport. Sometimes the roads into town are also closed, even river traffic has difficulty due to poor visibility. Imagine having to frequently use headlights to drive around town in the daytime. Imagine school being cancelled for days at a time because the smoke is so thick that there is a real danger of children being hit by cars on their way to and from school. Not to mention the air quality in unairconditioned schools. People who can afford it leave town for the season. But most must stay.
I was planning to go there this week for a workshop, but was informed today that the workshop has been cancelled. The area covered by smoke is steadily decreasing as the rains finally begin to fall. But this city is right in the heart of it and so far the particulate matter in the air is still well in the dangerous zone, and the airport is still closed.
According to the local news, the government is renting two water bomber planes from the former Sov.U. The planes can scoop up 12 tons of seawater and fly in to the worst of the fires and dump it. Friday the pilots said they were were disappointed because they had not been able to get to the worst burning places due to poor visibility. Saturday one of the planes slid off the runway in a neighboring city and is now awaiting repairs. It was thought that poor visibility was the major contributing factor to the accident.
The smoke is the result of farmers and plantation owners burning the land off every year as a cheap and convenient way of clearing it. Because there is so much peat, the peat continues to smolder long after the surface fire has gone out and only a period of substantial sustained rainfall puts it out.
Thursday, November 02, 2006
Update on D
D has been out of the hospital for over a month now. He is doing very well, though he still has drainage from the major knife wound in his abdomen. The doctor says some internal stitches are infected but the body will eventually reject them (or was it eject them?) He is eating well, no more fever. He would like to play basketball but the doctor says to wait. He still wears only elastic waisted pants because of the wound and he still walks a bit bent over, but he is alive and on the mend.
Enough funds came in to pay for all his medicines. His aunt was able to get the mayor's office to pay for his hospitalization as he is technically an orphan. His extended family was finally able to get a loan on their coconuts (4 families' coconuts). The terms are that the lendor gets to harvest the coconuts for five years and the family gets a loan of $480. By the time the loan came through D was out of the hospital, so it was decided to use part of the money to pay off the mango orchard loan. So now they have the use of the mango orchard again which should help them pay off the coconut loan. If they are lucky and careful, they might be able to pay off the coconuts early. Of course they would have to add extra because the 5 years of harvests was the interest...
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