Words To Live By

A meat truck, being driven dangerously, cut me off today in its hurry to deliver to a supermarket near my house. The meat company name was Agrofex and their slogan is, "Better meat for a better country". Can't argue with that, can you?

Dominican Lip Service

There's no sex involved, but you are going to get screwed.

I just finished my sentence in hell. For the last 6 weeks I have been working for a major garment manufacturer. At one point, this company was the largest employer in the DR. Eight years ago I was in charge of screen printing for a big US company working here. It took about 2 weeks to realize that all the Dominican company was interested in was billing the customer. Quality? That was a 4 letter word, and was never to be spoken aloud. After about 3 months I convinced my company to move all of their production to a Korean printer, Jae Lee. Jae did such a good job that after about 9 more months, my company told me that they didn't need me anymore, since Jae's work was always problem free. Fast forward 8 years and now I am working for the Dominican company. The only thing that changed was that instead of the 10 or so factories pumping out bad quality work, now they are down to one in Santiago and 3 in Haiti. Same guiding philosophy = Get the work out.

They have a catchy slogan about being creators of value. The company slogan should be, "We can't make it properly, but we will have a hell of an excuse ready, and after all, isn't that just as good?"

I resigned yesterday.

Chutzpah-Different Definitions From Different Sources

From Dictionary.com:


chutz·pa
   /ˈxʊtspə, ˈhʊt-/ Show Spelled[khoot-spuh, hoot-spah

1. unmitigated effrontery or impudence; gall.

2. audacity; nerve.


From me:

Just got an email from my ex-wife that was actually a list of ironic questions, like why is rush hour when traffic moves the slowest, why don't psychics win the lotto, or how come in a pharmacy the people who are sick, and need prescriptions have to walk all the way to the back of the store to get their medicine, but the cigarettes are right up front? The one they left out was why is she sending me this?

Title of the email: Spread the stupidity. To send an email with that title, now that takes chutzpah.

Great News

I have been the recipient of various scam emails for many years. I have never been tempted to claim my 1,000,000 Euro Lotto Prize I have never been willing to help a Nigerian bank official smuggle out some ill gotten gains, of which he was willing to give me 40%. Nor have I ever been tempted to claim the $40,000,000 US that an African industrialist, who had no next of kin, left behind, after dieing in a plane crash. Never.
So it was with great joy that I received this email today, that really seems like its on the up and up. Well, maybe not really, but you have to give these people an A for effort:

Hello,


I'm Ms. Elizabeth Park Fowler of Saddle River, N.J. 07458, I'm a US citizen, I'm 51yrs Old. I'm one of those that took part in the Compensation in Nigeria many years ago and they refused to pay me, I had paid over $68,000 while in the US, trying to get my payment all to no avail.


So I decided to travel down to Nigeria with all my compensation documents, And I was directed to meet Barrister Allen Green, who is the member of COMPENSATION AWARD AUTHORITY and a Human Rights Activist (Lawyer), and I contacted him and he explained everything to me. He said whoever is contacting us through emails now are fake.



He took me to the paying bank for the claim of my Compensation payment. Right now I'm the most happiest woman on earth because I have received my compensation funds amountering to $5,500,000.00.



Moreover, Barrister Allen Green, showed me the full information of those that are yet to receive their payments and I saw your email as one of the scam victims, that is why I decided to email you to stop dealing with those people, they are not with your fund, they are only making money out of you. I will advise you to contact Barrister Allen Green.



You have to contact him directly on this information below;


COMPENSATION AWARD AUTHORITY
Name : Barrister Allen Green(Legal Practitioner And Adviser)
Email: rev.allen_green01@xtra.co.nz
Direct Cell Number: +234-806-690-3178


You really have to stop dealing with those people that are contacting you and telling you that your fund is with them, it is not in anyway with them, they are only taking advantage of you and they will dry you up until you have nothing.


The only money I paid after I met Barrister Allen Green was just $350 for the paper works, take note of that.


Thank You and Be Blessed.
Ms. Elizabeth Park Fowler (Elizabeth)
Trustee/Treasurer, Triad Foundation Inc.
1902 South Wykagyl Street
Tampa, FL USA. 31609
Education: BS, Business Administration

Seems like she is talking straight from the heart.

Dragonflies Have 4 Wings

From the good deed of the week Department:

I never really got a close look at dragonfly. Sure I see them all the time on my ride to Dajabon, and I have seen thousands of them in my life, but I never really saw one kind of sitting around. They are always so busy moving. In the factory, on Wednesday, a dragonfly was just kind of sitting on the side of a sewing machine. The operator apparently didn't want to kill it so she just kind of left it there. I looked carefully at it, and for the first time I realized that a dragonfly has four wings, two on each side. Closer study revealed that the two wings on one side seemed to have made contact with a spider web, or some dust and dirt that seemed to join them together. The dragonfly was trying to take off from the machine but the two joined wings were not working. I took out my Swiss Army Knife and opened the scissor. I thought that if I could cut the wings apart that maybe they would work. I carefully cut them apart and the dragonfly flew away. I was so proud. I felt like Dr. Kildare.

Medical Care In The DR (update)

Massiel and I are very lucky that about 2 1/2 years ago we found a wonderful woman, by the name of Paulina, to be our housekeeper. She is one of my favorite Dominicans. She is very sweet, honest, and more hard working than you can imagine. She actually invents things to clean. Our apartment sparkles, thanks to her. Many years ago, while working for someone she fell and somehow her leg popped out of its socket and she was left with one leg shorter than the other. She could not afford any medical care, so she was left in this condition. For all these years she has walked with a very noticeable limp. This is how she was when we met her. About 3 or 4 months ago she told us that she was going into the hospital to have an operation that would fix her leg. About a month ago after much testing, she was finally admitted to one of the free, public hospitals in Santiago to have corrective surgery. This is surely one of the few benefits available to the poor here in the DR. They couldn't, however, operate right away. The two reasons given were that the piece that they were going to put into her hip had not as yet arrived, and that she was going to need people to donate blood for her, because she would need blood during the operation. The piece got there first and then it was a matter of hunting up enough people to give blood. Finally that happened. The operation was a success and after a few days, she was released from the hospital and sent home. She complained of weakness shortly after she got home and after a couple more days she started passing out. She was taken back to the hospital. They discovered that she was anemic, because while she was in the hospital, including the operation, she never received any of the blood that was donated for her. She is now out and recuperating nicely.