Events cause ripples felt far from the source. From AFP:
India’s vital outsourcing industry, which relies heavily on the Internet, was grappling with a major communications disruption Thursday after damage to undersea cables thousands of kilometres away in the Mediterranean.
Internet connections may take up to 15 days to return to normal, businesses said, adding that telecommunications in neighbouring Bangladesh and Sri Lanka were also affected.
The same disruption hit the UAE, though services are being re-routed to compensate. This, sadly, does not explain why I can’t get internet in my apartment.
Spare a thought for the presenter of Beadle’s About, who has died from pneumonia at age 59. Although you may not have liked his shows, he did raise more than £100 million (E133m) for charity and for that alone he deserves respect. He was diagnosed with leukemia in 2005 and was a devoted supporter of charitable organisations that helped children with the disease.
Or commentators at least. From Gideon Rachman in the FT:
The (Davos) meeting took place against a background of crashing stock markets, panicky interest-rate cuts and a massive bank fraud. The global financial system is now so complicated that nobody really knows how deep its problems run. This central “known unknown” means that all the subsequent big questions are much harder to answer. Will America face a serious recession? It all depends. How bad will the knock-on effects be for the rest of world? Search me. How should politicians and regulators react? Difficult to say.
So the august analysis of Mr Rachman is: “I dunno”. Thanks, Gideon.
I’m being flippant though. The thrust of his column is on the looming battles for food, oil and water. Food, you say? Oh, yes. It’s very much on the cards.
Black Industries, the makers of Warhammer, is to close.
Kevin Rountree General Manager of BL Publishing said ‘As a result of the continued and impressive success of our core novels business, which we have built around 40K and Warhammer, we have decided to focus all of our efforts on growing this part of our business. Black Industries has seen fantastic success, most recently with Talisman and Dark Heresy. This change does not take away from that achievement rather it allows BL Publishing to focus on producing the best novels we can. This is a purely commercial decision and will enable us to carry on the huge growth that we have recently been experiencing with our novels’.
Don’t get me wrong, novels based in such universes are excellent. It’s just sad when a pen and paper RPG falls by the wayside. Speaking of pen-and-paper-based adventure, does anybody else miss the Fighting Fantasy books?
Feliberto Carrasco, 81, shocked his family and friends at the weekend when he woke up at his wake. He had been found limp and cold and so his loved ones made arrangements with a funeral home in the town of Angol, Chile.
The man who “rose from the dead” said he was not in any pain, and only asked for a glass of water.
Local radio also surprised listeners by announcing a correction to Carrasco’s death announcement, saying the news had been premature.
Applying for your residency visa involves filling about a ridiculous amount of forms and getting a medical. But some of the questions asked on the application throw up questions about myself.
One is “religion/sect”. I seldom refer to religion when talking about myself — I don’t like labels. But this was a required question: and so down on the form went “Christian/Catholic”. I can’t say I’m accustomed to referring to the divisions of Christianity as sects, even though that’s exactly what they are. For me the word conjures up images of small, close-knit groups.
Of course such divisions do not apply solely to Christianity, there is a large one in Islam as well. But again — and even though I’m familiar with the word from Northern Irish history — the word “sect” doesn’t quite capture it for me. My brain doesn’t seem to want to accept it.
I’m not used to thinking of myself as a “Westerner” either, though the term is in common usage regarding surveys by one of the papers here. Is that my own bias, or do people of all nations who relocate find themselves in the same jarring situation?
My name has also proved interesting. Nobody can pronounce the English form correctly, so there is much confusion when they see my Irish one. Which, incidentally, has had at least five different spelling variations since I got here. Trying to explain that Irish people have names in both the Irish and English languages doesn’t seem to work as well as I’d like. That said most people seem cool with it. I just wish people would spell the damn thing right!
ADDENDUM: Facebook has again been blocked at work, so I can’t regularly check messages or play Scrabulous etc. Getting the web at home is not as straightforward as it appears, as is much here. FB access depends on finding internet cafes, and I may only get in once or twice a week until further notice.
It’s been raining on and off for the last four days. The drizzle is considered lucky here as, apart from, y’know, falling in the desert, it coincided with George Bush’s visit. Curiously, it also coincided with my recovery from a head cold that kept me off work for a day (this is bad for me). Ah well.
Above you see a genuine Abu Dhabi puddle, complete with a genuine AD taxi — incidentally if you ever visit, the white and gold cabs are the cheapest. Silver ones cost much more.
Much of the city’s lustre is lost beneath an overcast sky. Perhaps it’s that I live in a developing part of town, or perhaps it’s something else. Certainly this is very much a city of contrasts — rent is sky high, food and taxis are cheap. There are wonderful new buildings alongside ones that are fit to be torn down (and probably will be to make room for new, shiny highrises), as you can see below. Abu Dhabi is both wealthy and poor.
The familiar is very different here, as evidenced in the below photos. That’s not to say it’s bad — I like it here — but it takes time to adjust. That I was able to settle into the apartment so soon is helping a lot. That my Arabic is still rubbish is not, even if it’s not the barrier you might think.
There’s still so much to see here, and I will post more photos when I get a chance.
I’m living in a desert and yet I have the worst cold I’ve had in a year. Friendly neighbourhood pharmacist to the rescue… with tablets the overdose manifestations of which range from depression to euphoria to death. Mmm, tasty.
UPDATE: And just to add to the fun, today is the day the company has decided to take headshot photos of all employees. The red and runny nose makes for a winning portrait, I’m sure you’ll agree.
