OK, so I go down to the US embassy to have some pages added to my passport. They take it and tell be “come back at 2.” So I come back at two (5 minutes past actually) and they say I should have come at 12. Grrr… I started to argue my case, but I realized I was at a security checkpoint at the US embassy in Sana’a. They tend to be a bit uptight there, so I backed off. Still, that’s 800 riyals down the drain in cab fares and I’ll have to cancel class tomorrow to make sure I get there on time. The good news is that it is most likely done and I will have lots of new pages in my passport allowing me to leave and return…
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Best quote for today…
Brink Lindsey made the comment “The political right has never gotten over the fact that the 60’s happened and the political left haven’t gotten over the fact that the 80’s happened.” He was discussing his book “Age of Abundance” on a podcast from Cato. He talks about how good the US has it and about how the “culture wars” have simmered down a bit and what it means to the US in the future. It sounds like a really interesting book, I’ll add it to my must read list when I get back home…
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Someone has a new radio…
… and that explains the odd music I’ve been hearing. He has discovered BBC worldwide and I fear that I’ll be subjected to it all day long. Don’t get me wrong, it could be much worse, but like all Yemenis, he likes it really loud. I don’t actually know which house this is coming from, it is echoing up and down the alley. Why does he need it so freaking loud? It starts with the news around 8AM, why anyone would blast the news is beyond me. Then the music starts and it’s all rock/pop from the mid 60’s till the mid 70’s. Some standouts so far today have been “Suspicious Minds” by the King and “Wild Thing” by the Troggs. With any luck the novelty will wear off soon and he’ll go back to normal listening volumes.
I still remember John Chancellor telling us that ‘Elvis Presley, the ‘king’ of rock and roll, has died.” Of course since I was 6, I had no idea who he was, but if you’re going to interrupt my TV program for this and announce it to everyone, I figured that he must have been pretty important. Later on that night I saw the crowds that had been filmed (yes, this was before video was in widespread use) at Graceland on the 6 o’clock news. That’s when I knew that he was special. It took me a while longer to really appreciate him of course, but now I have some inkling why all those people were so upset. It’s been 30 years, unbelievable.
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Oh those Italians
Luchiano called up and invited me to his place for dinner. I went of course:-) He told me to get there at 8. I’ve always given by Italian friends (Luchiano and Luca) a hard time about how late they eat. Well, I got there at 8 and the only person there was Lauri. The rest of the guys showed up half hour later. We didn’t sit down to eat until 9:15 or so and I was famished. The food was, as usual, great. Had some homemade salami, an aged beef thing, with the necessary cheeses of course, some ham, and that was just the first course…. Between the courses, they were all engaged in very Italian conversation. I couldn’t understand a word, but that’s OK. I think that Italian is a rather lovely language and I could listen to it all night. I was reminded of the old joke, “How do you keep an Italian from talking? Make him put his hands in his pockets.” There was much gesticulating and I joked with Luchiano that I was afraid of getting hit:-) They then brought out the pasta, bookatoni I think it’s called. It looks like really thick spaghetti, but it’s actually got a small hole in the middle of it, much like a straw. It was great, but the thickness made it difficult to eat since we couldn’t swirl it on our forks like usual. Salad was next, it had an unexpected dressing made up of lemon juice and oil. Then there was an interesting fruit salad made up of cantaloupe, pineapple, and pomegranates. Pomegranates are in season right now but I hadn’t tried any yet. The ones here are a bit different than what I was used to getting in the States. First, they are much sweeter here, and the things you eat look different. Here they are red on one end and it fades into being clear on the other side. In any case, they are delicious. The last thing was the chocolate cake. One other thing I noticed was that whenever food is placed in front of an Italian, no matter how full they said they were, they would instinctively pick up their fork and start eating. THey wouldn’t always finish what they started, but they would always, sometimes absentmindedly, start eating. Despite my history of not drinking, I am beginning to appreciate an after dinner liquor. Luchiano introduced me to something called Limonchello, a lemon liquor that just seems right after one of his meals. He keeps it in the freezer, and just a little bit to sip is wonderful. Anyway, another great night and meal, what would I do without him?
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Wrap up of Yemeni newspapers
The front page of the Yemen observer has the incredible headline of “Tribes clash over national Solidarity Council.” Just a little background, the Solidarity Council is a gathering of the various Sheiks across Yemen. In essence, it is a shadow government and it is stronger than the federal government in certain areas. Certainly, any law that is going to succeed will need the Sheiks cooperation. Predictably, a group of sheiks does not like the tribe that founded the council and so they have splintered off. The man that is leading this is the Sheik of one of the most powerful tribes in the north (the other powerful tribe in the north is the one that started this whole process) and refers to himself as the “Sheik of Sheiks” in Yemen. Well, can you believe that some other sheiks are objecting to him using this title? Surprise surprise. It’s all about as Arab as it gets, I can’t wait to see what happens, I should bring some popcorn…
Another story on the front page is titled, “Locusts invade Sana’a, become snack food.” There is a plague of locusts in Yemen right now. They’re causing all sorts of problems in the agricultural areas, but here they are considered a blessing. Everyone says that they are delicious, and they are considered halaal (Ok to eat). With so many people needing food, this is like manna from heaven. I dunno, in the words of a character from the film “Pulp Fiction”, “Sewer rats may taste like pumpkin pie but I wouldn’t know cause I won’t eat the MFer…” This weeks op-ed is actually a list of various recopies for locusts…
The Children’s parliament is continuing to demand that the government bring an end to child labor in Yemen. Most of the kids that work are on farms, here in the city they are mostly selling things. As usual, all sorts of laws are demanded that will “stop” this scourge. Many people are quite confused about what causes child labor to appear and disappear. Most people think that it is evil, greedy businesses that force children to work instead of going to school. The fact is that poverty is the driving force behind child labor. The kids that are working would rather eat than go to school, it’s all about alternatives… If they weren’t worried about starving, or losing their home/apartment, the parents would make sure they were in school. Get rid of the poverty and you get rid of child labor, new laws won’t do a damn thing about it.
The Yemen Times had a long article on how tobacco use should be considered haraam (forbidden by God) in Islam. Some of the arguments are pretty obscure, but the ones about not harming your health and not wasting your money seem pretty tight. I have heard some people, including my first teacher, that think along these lines, but the vast majority of people just shrug it off. Another interesting bit from the Qran that I had not heard before was about not disturbing other people. The article talked about smoke bothering other people. It sounds like a good argument, but I can assure you that the people here pay no attention to that particular bit from their holy book.
The last article was about the dwindling populations of nubian ibexes in Yemen. They are an endangered species that is fast disappearing. The way the article tells it, the decrease is due primarily to tourism hunting. The sad state of the Yemeni federal government pretty much ensures that whatever law they pass will be ineffective. There is a really inexpensive and effective way of preserving them, simply give all of the Ibexes to one of the local tribes. Better yet, give them to the sheik of one of the tribes. If something is owned, the owner has an incentive to take care of their possession. Conservation becomes part of the ownership. The tribe that owns it can control the amount of hunting and trapping and generate income from it. The key is to have lock solid property rights with no vaguness. The easier it is to identify the owner, the better this works. When no one owns the animals, it becomes a free for all. “If I don’t get them, then someone else will.” It is the classic tragedy of the commons scenario. Giving property rights to the animals has worked well in other places. African Elephants and certain types of trees in Africa (In Ghana I think) have benefitted from this. It is very effective. The owners (who are most assuredly armed) are very good about discouraging poachers and are even motivated to take some vet classes in order to care for the animals. It doesn’t cost anyone a cent and the animals can survive, what could be simpler?
My latest favorite government institutions and departments here:
The General Investment Authority, Public body of the Book, Ministry of Guidance and Endowments, and The minister of culture. Is it any wonder the economy here is terrible with so many government institutions sucking money out of it without creating any positive effects for the economy? They, like all frivolous government institutions are a net negative on the economy. The situation is similar in the US, the government is enormous, but we have a much stronger economy and can tolerate some inefficiencies. They need every bit of efficiency they can get here, maybe they should think about trimming the government a little?
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More on temperature stations
The more I look into the methodologies used to calculate “average” temperatures, the more I shake my head. Urban areas are hotter than rural ones. This is due to all sorts of things. From heat absorbing concrete and asphalt to air conditioners, there are plenty of things that give rise to the so called “urban heat island” effect. Over the past 100 years, many of the temperature stations in the US have been swallowed up by urbanization. One would assume that they would give us higher temperature readings than the stations in the country do.
All pretty logical, no? Well get this, the people at NASA that publish the most often used temperature data for climate change have a rather odd methodology. When they look at a specific geographical area, there are both urban and rural readings to choose from. One would think that the rural readings would be the more accurate. If they were to use the urban readings at all, you would think they would introduce a downward “correction” based on the rural readings. How much downward is certainly debatable, but the general direction it should go in isn’t in question. What do they do? They bias the rural readings upwards to come closer to the urban readings! I can’t think of a defense for this at all, assuming that accuracy is the goal of course… There are some glaring examples of this. The station in the Grand Canyon can be assumed to be an accurate reading location. There’s nothing there that could really screw things up. The Flagstaff location on the other hand is on an asphalt parking lot and is lined with air conditioning vents on one side. Not surprisingly, the Flagstaff station records significant;y higher temperatures. The Grand Canyon result is “corrected” upwards to come closer to the Flagstaff result. Unbelievable…
Not only is there weird things going on with individual stations, but entire periods of time have had a “correction” done to them. The early part of the 20th century was “corrected” downwards. In other words, the people at Nasa (Hanson cough cough) feel that the the stations during the early part of the century were giving us readings hotter than they should have and the stations now are giving us readings cooler than they should. What?! If anything, the opposite should be true, what mechanism would bias readings hotter back then? Urbanization can certainly help explain higher than expected readings at some stations, but not back then… Weirder and weirder.
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And the odd music continues
Yesterday it was “Auld Lang Syne.” No really, I got home from class and using the internet and there it was. “Should old acquaintance be forgot..” I mentioned to Henry that I don’t actually know the words and he started to sing it. I was surprised by the Scottish in it. He said, “Well, yeah, it is a Scottish song after all…” No wonder I didn’t know the words. I had no idea, I’m willing to bet all of the versions I’ve heard have been “Americanized.” I wonder what I’ll hear today…
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Had fun last night
I went over to Luchiano’s place last night. We haven’t seen each other in a couple of months. Both of us were gone in the month of July and our schedules had been out of whack for the rest of it. Anyway, he, his girlfriend and I chatted a while at his place and then went out to the Chinese restaurant I like here. Hit a juice bar on the way home (strawberry juice mmmmm) and that’s when he told me… Turns out he’ll be visiting the US in October. Why? Oh yeah, he’s getting married and going to Miami and some other places on his honeymoon!
That took me by surprise. Congratulations Luchiano! Mabrook, mabrook, aleph mabrook! Hmmm, I have to figure out what kind of wedding gift I can get him from here, maybe I’ll see something in Greece…
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Maybe I am getting better
Our new housemate came yesterday. I wondered if we were going to get our “required” German student. We have always (with a small gap) had at least one German here since I’ve been here. Simon is from Austria, I’d say that’s close enough. Anyway, he showed up and needed to eat. He doesn’t know a lick of Arabic so he depended on me for everything. He’s a lot like I was when I first got here. To him, I’m as fluent as a native speaker even though I know all too well my limitations with this language. Anyway, I took him to eat and talked to the waiter and got our food with no problem.
We both stayed out late last night (more about that later) but he went with Henry and the girls to the Russian club and I went to Luchiano’s house. He woke up quite late and missed his driver from work. He borrowed my phone to call in. I could hear him say, “No, don’t send a driver, it’s my fault, I’ll just take a cab…” I didn’t have time to ask him how he was “Just” going to take a cab when he can’t talk to any of the drivers or negotiate a fare. I got dressed and walked him down to a waiting cab. I asked the driver if he knew the university on the street that Simon was given over the phone. The cabbie responded that there wasn’t one on that street. I had no idea where Simon wanted to go, so I was strictly a translator. We figured out that Simon had been given some bad information. Eventually, I thought I knew where he wanted to go, but since he didn’t speak any Arabic, had no phone, and had no Yemeni money, I told him that he’d better call for a driver. If the cabbie and I were wrong, God only knows where he’d end up and God only knows how he’d get back.
It was a bit of a hassle this morning, but it did allow me to realize how far I’ve come with my Arabic. I had no trouble with anything really. I still miss some words, and there are plenty that I still don’t know but I have come a long way. I feel much better about my Arabic skills, and my potential for learning the more advanced stuff as well. It just takes time…