Pool Guy is Going on Vacation

He thinks he leaves today or tomorrow [you don't know?!?]. It hasn't occurred to me, until today, that this man has been coming to clean our pool for over two years, three days a week, without a break. We have a bit of difficulty communicating sometimes, and I really didn't understand what he was telling me at first - something like, "Filipino coming to clean it" as he was motioning to the pool. What? "Going to vacation." Yes, we just got back. "the Filipino is cleaning now." There was more to it than that - with me mostly saying, "What?" However, he finally was able to make me understand that he is going on vacation for two months and that someone else [the Filipino] will be coming to clean the pool in his absence. I wish he would have told me last week so that I could have been prepared and given him a little something extra before he left - hardly worth giving him the seven riyals in my wallet. Too late for that now, though. It will just have to wait until Christmas, which is fine. Hopefully he will have a great vacation. Two-plus years without one, working six days a week. All of 'em. The guys that come here to work from other countries - they work for two years, six days a week, before they get a break for a month or two.

A report here about the 24-year old Pakistani-Canadian man who has been accused of murder and is facing execution. He was back in court the other day, for the first time since being found guilty of killing a student in a brawl in January, 2007. The man, Mohamed Kohail "was denied permission to speak during his five-minute appearance Monday before three judges of the General Court... who looked bored and played with their cellphones..." Telling statement, there [emphasis, mine]. Three men, who have all been found guilty in connection with the murder of the student, insist they are innocent. "The older Kohail has said he was tortured into confessing." Kohal would not be the first Canadian that has made such an allegation... William Sampson says he was "forced to confess after police hung him upside down, kept him awake for more than a week and threatened to harm his family." I read Mr. Sampson's book. To say that it was chilling is an understatement.

In today's Saudi Gazette - which is not up on-line as I type this - there is an article on page two, "It's too early for Obama to get peace prize, say Saudis." Ya' think? Most of the rest of the world would be hard-pressed to disagree. "The announcement on Friday that... [the jugearedjackass] was awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize received a mixed response from Saudis and and expatriates in the Kingdom with many so unenthusiastic that they declined to comment at all." Hmmph. Tarek A. Mishkhas, an executive editor of Urdu News, said he [the jeja] "has done nothing yet. It is too early for such a prize. He has neither achieved peace in the Middle East, nor solved other problems. ...[the jeja's] name was never mentioned in the media as being in the running for the prize. His choice is really surprising, and it may even raise some questions." You are spot on, there, Mr. Mishkhas. Ezzuddin A. Hafez, a manager at an educational institution in Jeddah says, "[he] has done nothing to show that he deserves such a prestigious prize and to award it on expectations does not make any sense." No kidding. Khaleda Siddiqui, a housewife, put it a bit more bluntly, "Peace is something that [he] has not achieved, yet. And to award him a Nobel Prize for Peace is absurd." Yeah it is. That imgage that the jeja thinks he has throughout the world? Not quite as spectacular as he makes it out to be. [When the article is finally up and on-line, I'll put the link here.]

On today's agenda... Going to clean the shelves over the washer and dryer area. I've been putting it off long enough... I know. I know. My life is so thrilling and exciting I can barely stand it!