Let Me Get This Straight

You can shoot the workers outside the factory, but not inside? Got it? Thanks.

What Is Luxury?

While I was in Haiti I stayed at the finest hotel in Dajabon. That is my walk in closet. Well maybe that is my Walking Closet (see earlier post for picture). The other photo is of my room, taken from the outside. You can see the sides of the door. The bed is pressed up to the wall on the left, which you can't see. You can, however, see the wall on the right. At the rear right is the table. Actually, it is more like half of an ironing board.

My American Idol Audition

I spent all of last week in Haiti. To be more accurate, A, it was only the work week, and B, when you cross into the Free Zone you are in Haiti. All the other time was spent in Dajabon, the Dominican border town. Well, it wasn't really American Idol, but it was an audition. Grupo M is the largest manufacturer of clothing in the DR. They have moved a lot of their operation to Haiti and they are in the process of moving everything there for many reasons. The labor is cheaper, the labor laws are much more favorable and I would be pretty sure that they are getting huge concessions from the Haitian government. I would guess that they are giving employment to close to 5,000 people that never had jobs before. These workers are only interested in doing their jobs well. They are very cooperative and that number should grow steadily in the coming years. The factories that I visited are huge. And hot? It was usually over 100 degrees on the floor after 1 P.M. I was there to observe and I did get a little involved with a number of things in a number of factories. If there were a job title that I could invent to describe what I could best bring to the company it would be "Director of Enlightened Thinking and Common Sense". They don't have any of either. The majority of the management is only interested in doing what it takes to get by. They certainly, from what I could tell from my short time there, don't have any interest in improving what they do.
(Photo explanation-In the DR the people who can afford one, and that is not everyone, drive a motor bike or scooter to work. They are considered the "wealthier" workers. In Haiti, the rich ones have bicycles, which they store on hooks, as seen in the photo.)

More Later

The Perfect Age

This is a theory that I came up with a long time ago and had forgotten about it till today. If I have ever had to guess a girl's age I have always said 27. It's the perfect age to guess. If the girl is younger than 27 she will be flattered that she looks mature, more like an older woman. If, on the other hand, the woman is older than 27 she will be delighted that she looks younger. Wait a minute. No wonder I had forgotten about it. Other than Massiel, most of the women in my life over the past 15 years have all been so old that this wouldn't work. Somehow the idea of using 37, 47 or more doesn't seem to be so clever. But if the person is in the 20-35 years old range, go with 27.

Majung Fish

Massiel and I, along with her friend Yadira, drove over to Maimon today. Tomorrow is Massiel's birthday. Being a huge fan of birthdays, I felt badly that I am forced to go to Haiti tomorrow morning. I will be spending the whole week there. It is sort of an audition for a job, which I need. Maimon is on the way to Puerto Plata and it is known as a town full of roadside stands that sell very fresh fish, usually fried. It's really great food. When I asked Massiel what we could do to celebrate her birthday today, this was her idea. The place that I always go to (I should mention that I have probably eaten in Maimon 5 times in ten years) is called Jhoan's. Today when we got there at 3 o'clock and it was jammed. We had to wait about 20 minutes for a table and when we finally got one it took a while for them to clean it. When everything was ready and the waitress came over to take our order I ordered my favorite, which is Mero. Massiel in her truly discerning manner told the waitress, " Just bring me something big. Any type of fish, just make it big". I told Massiel that I hoped that they brought her this "new" fish that has become popular. She asked what kind and I told her it was the Majung fish, majung being the word for big turd in Spanish. I described it as being a long brown fish with wings.

Mangled English

Me, I'd prefer a walk in closet.

Hey, Where Have You Been?

I haven't been writing for a while. I have been kind of bummed by my lack of activity lately. I did go to Haiti, but that was kind of boring as well. Anyway, I was watching the NBC Nightly News and they had an ad for a stop smoking drug called Chantix. Once before, with a drug called Abilify, I posted the warning that comes with it, but this was too good to pass up.

Warning:

Serious neuropsychiatric events, including, but not limited to depression, suicidal ideation, suicide attempt and completed suicide have been reported in patients taking CHANTIX. Some reported cases may have been complicated by the symptoms of nicotine withdrawal in patients who stopped smoking. Depressed mood may be a symptom of nicotine withdrawal. Depression, rarely including suicidal ideation, has been reported in smokers undergoing a smoking cessation attempt without medication. However, some of these symptoms have occurred in patients taking CHANTIX who continued to smoke.

All patients being treated with CHANTIX should be observed for neuropsychiatric symptoms including changes in behavior, hostility, agitation, depressed mood, and suicide-related events, including ideation, behavior, and attempted suicide. These symptoms, as well as worsening of pre-existing psychiatric illness and completed suicide have been reported in some patients attempting to quit smoking while taking CHANTIX in the post-marketing experience. When symptoms were reported, most were during CHANTIX treatment, but some were following discontinuation of CHANTIX therapy.

These events have occurred in patients with and without pre-existing psychiatric disease. Patients with serious psychiatric illness such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depressive disorder did not participate in the pre-marketing studies of CHANTIX and the safety and efficacy of CHANTIX in such patients has not been established.

Advise patients and caregivers that the patient should stop taking CHANTIX and contact a healthcare provider immediately if agitation, hostility, depressed mood, or changes in behavior or thinking that are not typical for the patient are observed, or if the patient develops suicidal ideation or suicidal behavior. In many post-marketing cases, resolution of symptoms after discontinuation of CHANTIX was reported, although in some cases the symptoms persisted; therefore, ongoing monitoring and supportive care should be provided until symptoms resolve.

The risks of CHANTIX should be weighed against the benefits of its use. CHANTIX has been demonstrated to increase the likelihood of abstinence from smoking for as long as one year compared to treatment with placebo. The health benefits of quitting smoking are immediate and substantial.