You Can't Make Such Stuff Up
The following is a collection of things I run across that prove beyond a doubt that truth is in fact stranger than fiction.
No Wonder These People Think Gringos Are Crazy!
This jewel comes from Colombia. A small weekly publication, oriented towards news for American expatriates living or visiting Colombia, added an 'Advice Column' - kind of a Dear Abby column. The author of the new column was an American lady who had moved to Cartagena, Colombia a few months earlier, after living for several years in Costa Rica.
There are two versions about what motivated her LAST column. One story says that she had been drinking when she wrote it. The other suggests that she had made up her mind she was leaving and going back to Costa Rica. Either way, what happened to the editors? But, here is the rest of the story.
A woman wrote in complaining that she and her husband had attended several Colombian weddings recently, and waited for an hour and a half to two hours at the reception for the bride and groom to arrive. She ended with, "Can you enlighten me because, frankly, I am ..."
The columnist responded with "Rather than be confused, use your imagination. There could be several reasons for such delays - the couple could have discovered they didn't have the taxi fare to get there and had to hitch a ride on an ox cart, or possibly the groom's zipper got stuck, or maybe the bride went into labor."
End of answer, end of column. Can't make this s... up!
The Skoll Awards
The Skoll Center for Social Entrepreneurship was founded by Jeff Skoll, the first president of eBay in 1999. The organizations goal is to encourage innovative solutions to the world's most complex challenges - climate change, water scarcity, poverty, public health, etc. The Skoll Center recently awarded honored, which included grants, to several organizations for their accomplishments.
A Panamanian company won an award for their initiatives to harness the energy of waterfalls in the mountainous regions of Panama to provide electrical power for the indigenous people in the vicinity. Their procedures are not only ecologically friendly, but protect the aesthetic appearance of the waterfall, e.g. they are invisible to a sightseer.
But, the award that caught my attention was the award given to a company called Apopo for their HeroRATS program. Apopo is training giant African pouched rats for a variety of tasks which capitalize on the rat's extraordinary sense of smell. There are some areas that the rats are already being used with great success, the most notable is in detecting landmines in some of Africa's historically war torn areas. However, the one that caught my attention is that the rats are being used to detect tuberculosis in humans.
I am having a hard time trying to visualize the 'bed-side manner' protocols the doctor uses when he gets ready to roll out Reggie the Rat to 'sniff-up' the patient for the TB test.
Too Good To Pass Up
My friend, Sally Johns, in Golfito, Costa Rica sent me these gems. I have to share classics. These pics answered unequivocally the age-old question, ¨Why do women live longer than men?¨
Click on the thumbnail to view the full-size picture.
Panama Politicians
Only in Panamanian politics. You have to live here for a while to understand what constitutes normal here. I was only gone for six weeks, so maybe I need to be re-programmed. Pinch me, do I understand these things?
- President-elect Martinelli is already facing a crises 30 days before he is even inaugurated. In 2004, various reforms to the Panamanian constitution were enacted. One of the provisions rolled back the government transition date from the first of September to the first of July. So, this is the first government transition, (Presidential inauguration and swearing-in of the new Assembly, governors, mayors and local representatives) that will take place on the 1st of July. However, a separate law covers the pay of all those people mentioned above, and it has never been changed - that law specifies pay to September 1. So legislators approved an article that would pay all of these people, including themselves per the existing law - pay them for July and August even though they leave office on July 1st.
The national Comptroller announced that he 'does not endorse" such payments (whatever that means). Legislators responded that they would take the issue to the Supreme Court. And Martinelli, who said previously that he would remain reticent on national issues until after he was inaugurated, came roaring out of the chute because these payments were going to be made "on his watch." His exact words, roughly from the Spanish translation, was "..over my dead body!" Oh boy. Put on your hard hats muchachos, the inauguration is coming!
- Anti-corruption prosecutors have charged 34 people with embezzlement and forgery in a scheme that involved distribution of checks to suppliers for items that were never ordered or delivered. The scam totaled over $1.5.million and involved several government agency regional directors, assistant directors and program accountants. The ministry involved was the Fund for Fairness and Quality in Education.
- A commission appointed by the Supreme Court has recommended changes to the current jury selection procedures, and that those changes be included in the new Criminal Procedure Code scheduled to go into force on September 2. According to the report, one of the system's crucial faults centers around the practice of leaving the jury selection to officials "who are tasked to go out in search of hundreds of people, chosen at random, to participate in the final selection process." However, the report notes that, in practice, these officials usually "return to the court with the first eight people who haven't declined to participate in the process."
A Quick Peek At Columbia
I am putting together a video with pictures taken on my recent cruise stops in Colombia - both in Cartagena and Santa Marta. Here are some advance 'teaser' samples.
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