"Most people have no idea of the giant capacity we can immediately command when we focus all of our resources on mastering a single area of our lives." -Tony Robbins
Traveling is one of my favorite things in life. I have been traveling to both domestic and foreign locations since a young age with my family. The experiences have taught me so much about how industrious the human spirit is.
One of the most impressive things that I learned while traveling is just how people deal with things. There are so many places that don't have nearly close to the luxuries or even the basic conveniences that we have here in the US. What do people do, figure something else out. So many of the basic things that we take for granted as time savers today are completely unnecessary. People washed clothes before washing machines. People cooked before Cuisinart food processors. Despite lacking things, people seem to make due with what they have and flourish.
Whenever someone asks me what the craziest thing I saw in Cairo, I am always taken back to one day when I was walking around the city with my mom. We are waiting at an intersection and across the street we see a guy with a goat trying to hail a cab. Eventually a cab stops for him. At this point I was very curious to see what he was going to do with this goat. Without hesitation, the man asks the cab driver to pop the trunk and proceeds to place the goat in the trunk. Now the goat didn't like this too much as you'd imagine. The man needed to get the goat to lie down before he could close the trunk. The man tried pulling the legs out from under the goat multiple times, but to no avail. The goat would keep jumping back up before the man could close the trunk. Finally, after multiple times he finally moved quick enough to close the trunk with the goat inside. He proceeded to get into the cab and they drove off. I was stunned by this whole exchange. How did a cab driver let this guy put a goat in his car? How did this guy think this was a reasonable thing to do? The thought of trying to do this in the US made me laugh out loud, but in Egypt this acceptable. The man needed to go somewhere with his goat, the cab driver needed a fare. Economics ran its course, and the goat was in the trunk. People figure out ways to get what they need done, it may be a little different but it will get done.
While I was in middle school, my family took a trip to china where we took a cruise down the Yangtze river. During our cruise we noticed many different fishing boats that had birds chained to them. When we asked our guide about these birds they explained that they helped the fisherman fish. The birds would dive and grab fish but could not swallow them due to the chains. After catching the fish, the fisherman would take the birds out of their mouth and repeat. My mind was blown. These fisherman were using live animals as fishing poles and doing it effectively.
Its an age old saying, but where there is a will there is a way. When people need to get things done, there isn't always the perfect tool or way to do it, but things just have to get done and humans are good at figuring out how to get things done.
Dec 23, 2011
Dec 21, 2011
Blast from the Past: Cairo Apartment Search
While I feel a little bit like a 90's sitcom flashback episode where they just recycle old footage, I was thinking about the only other blog that I have had today and thanks to some clever google searches was able to find it. Today's post is from my time spent studying abroad in Egypt. Enjoy!!!
As I write this post, I am laying in the couch of my very own apartment in Cairo. It seems like a minor accomplishment in the grand scheme of things but after you read what I had to do to get to this point, you'll understand.
Last semester, I lived in the student housing for the University where I shared a 3 person room with 4 people. The room we shared was adequate, but Kayvan and I decided that we wanted to find a place for ourselves and move to a different area of the city. Pairing up with Demetri, we felt we had a great group dynamic for an apartment, all we had to do next was find an apartment. The process of finding of an apartment here can be undertaken in a couple ways. You can either go door to door and ask the door man to see if there are any open apartments. While this process sounded inefficient and arduous, we assumed this could very possibly be the most logical, so we pounded the pavement asking around for empty apartments. After 6 hours of waking for two days straight not finding anything, we decided, despite the guide to living in Cairo guide given to us by the University, that this method was terrible. Then next method is to hire a simsar to find you an apartment. This is really where the story gets interesting. A Simsar is a person who hangs out in an area and has a knowledge of the empty apartments in the area. You explain to him what you want and then them find it for you. If you rent the apartment they show you then you pay some portion of the rent to them. The price, as are most things in Egypt, is negotiable. The government registered simsars are supposed to charge 10% of the entire contract, ie all the rent you will ever pay. Other accounts argue that it should be 10% of one months rent, so once again we have no clue how much we are going to get ripped off for, but hey thats half the fun.
Abdu can be found sitting in one of a couple coffee shops in the Abdeen palace area, and if he's not there just ask the coffee shop proprietor, he can find him. We got Abdu's name from asking a couple different people in the area where we could find a simsar and they all pointed us to Abdu. We go to the cafe that Abdu is supposedly going to be at and ask the owner where Abdu the Simsar is, he tells us to wait a second, goes next door and yells Abdu. Eventually, an older gentleman emerges in a soiled sweater and trousers. Time had not treated Abdu fairly, his weathered skin and lazy eye being a testament to that. He saunters up to us, cigarette in hand, and puts his hand out, the one with the cigarette, for a shake. After exchanging names and pleasantries, he pulls up a chair and has us sit. We outline what we want, we give him our phone numbers, and he hands us his business card telling us to come back later in the day to see the apartments. Flash forward in the day, we pull out the buisness card to figure out what time he wants to meet. Located on the card, next to the drawings of picturesque villas homes we find 4 different phone numbers for our beloved simsar. We go one by one calling the number and asking for Abdu, none resulting in success. Deciding that we committed to meeting Abdu, we return to the coffee shop where we met him at. Upon our return, the owner says he is praying and that he'll be back in 15 minutes. We sit down and order a cup of tea waiting for his return. Eventually, he comes back, takes a seat with us and discusses what he has found, and offers to show us them. Before we leave, a phone call from the coffee shops interrupts our departure as the phone call was for Abdu. Consequently, we realize that the phone numbers on the card are merely the phone numbers of all the coffee shops that he frequents. We saw two different apartments with Abdu, the first was decent but a little small and the second seemed like the wrong building for us as we were stared down as we climbed the stairs by the occupants and upon discovering a family of cockroaches the owner responded with "no problem, one day they are all gone". So, we bid farewell to Abdu and try our luck with another simsar.
We got Sanaa's phone number off Cairo Scholars, an email service for American students studying in Cairo to exchange tips, tricks, and other information between each other. A English fluent former AUC student, Sanaa now works in real estate among other endeavors. I explain to her what we are looking for and she says to call back the next day. The next day, we call her and set up a meeting time to see the apartments. I had class, but my faithful companions view the other apartments and report back. Out of the four she showed them, two of them were nice places and we schedule a time to go back for me to look at them for myself and work out the details. I view the two apartments and find only minor flaws in them definitely nothing that would prevent me from living in them. The one thing that seems a miss is the level of what we came to call "Foreigner Friendly" ness. By this euphemism, we mean buildings where the other tenets will not give us trouble if we drink alcohol or have our female friends over. Upon further inquiry, the answer goes from "yes, no problem" to "absolutely not". We thank her for her time, and keep on looking.
Asad, a copt, works out of his small office located behind saloon style doors in the first floor of a large apartment building. Once again we got Asad's name by asking people in the area for a simsar. We enter the office and take a seat on his couch and begin to converse. Once again we outline our dream apartment, while Asad takes puffs from his cigarette in a long holder. He takes it all in, then offers us tea. We accept and drink tea while we watch Asad continually light a new cigarette and place it in his holder while searching through his books for a suitable apartment. He makes some phone calls, and eventually tells us to come back tomorrow to see the apartments. We return the next day and he takes us to the first apartment. It seemed okay, but it was clear that it wasn't really finished yet as all of the tools and supplies still lay on the dining room table. They assure us it can be ready the next day, but some of the major flaws dissuaded us. Next day we come back to see another apartment with Asad which, he says is exactly what we want. He also informs us that his comission is a full months rent. We respond that seems a little high as we have heard half a months rent is what seems standard. After a long puff from his cigarette, he says, okay. The apartment has amazing location a mere 3 blocks from campus and 1 from the Department of the Interior (the most feared in Egypt because of their questionable human rights recored). Despite the strange quasi hanging terrace in the kitchen covered in fake plants, all things seemed to check out in the apartment. We sit down to discuss the price so that we can think it over. First price is 4000 Egyptian Pounds which is around $722 per month for a three bedroom apartment. While far from unreasonable in American prices, this is well over double the value of the apartment. We say this is higher than we are ready to agree to and say we need to discuss it with our parents before we can make any promises. He drops the price to 3750 pounds. We say that a lower price would make it easier, but still say our parents consent is necessary. In this instance we weren't trying to negotiate but rather just have some time to think it over before we commit. He drops to 3500, final price. We stick to our party line and thank him for his time. On our walk home, Asad calls us, 3000 pounds ($541). We thank him and tell him we will get back to him the next day. After discussion, we decide to keep looking because of the feeling of the other tenets and the fact that the apartment, judging by similar in the area, should be around 2000 pounds.
Ahmed comes from a recommendation of a friend of Demetri who found an apartment through him earlier and said he will find us the kind of place we are looking for. We arrange a meeting to see an apartment in Garden City, a part of the city know for lots of trees and where many foreign embassies are located. Waiting outside of out meeting spot, Ahmed drives up and yells "Demetri?". We respond that we are the group looking for the apartment, and he drives us over to the place. A three bedroom apartment, completely furnished. Many brand new appliances, including the washing machine and air conditions. Everything seemed to work out. We, at this point, were skeptical. After sitting and discussing price, everything seems reasonable. Upon further inspection, we find little things here and there that need to be cleaned or fixed. Once again we get the it will be ready tomorrow. We agree on the terms and say that we will give them a down payment to hold the place but want to have everything cleaned and fixed before we sign the lease. Two days later we return, place is completely clean, almost everything fixed. The water heater and come lights don't quite work. After discussion with the landlord, we decided to sign the lease, but not pay the simsar until he has finished fixing everything. And there is was, we finally had an apartment. All of the sudden.
After a couple of days we move in and spend the night. I wake up the next morning refreshed and go into the bathroom to brush my teeth. The water is extremely cold, so I decided to turn on the recently fixed warm water. Warm water comes out as expected, but the steam coming from the water heater was not expected. I quickly turn off the water hoping this will solve the problem. It doesn't. Gradually more and more steam starts coming out, and I don't know what to do, so I wake up Demetri. We observe the bathroom filling with steam and debate what to do. Then, BAAAAMMMMM, something explodes and more steam comes billowing out. Startled to say the least, we frantically figure out what to do. We hadn't pay the simsar yet, so he still had to fix things that broke, so we called him. Waking him up at the early hour of 11am, he tells us a plumber will come later to fix it. After a couple days, and a couple different plumbers, the water heater finally gets fixed.
All in all, the apartment search was a daunting task but we completed it with success and found a great apartment despite its eccentricities.
As I write this post, I am laying in the couch of my very own apartment in Cairo. It seems like a minor accomplishment in the grand scheme of things but after you read what I had to do to get to this point, you'll understand.
Last semester, I lived in the student housing for the University where I shared a 3 person room with 4 people. The room we shared was adequate, but Kayvan and I decided that we wanted to find a place for ourselves and move to a different area of the city. Pairing up with Demetri, we felt we had a great group dynamic for an apartment, all we had to do next was find an apartment. The process of finding of an apartment here can be undertaken in a couple ways. You can either go door to door and ask the door man to see if there are any open apartments. While this process sounded inefficient and arduous, we assumed this could very possibly be the most logical, so we pounded the pavement asking around for empty apartments. After 6 hours of waking for two days straight not finding anything, we decided, despite the guide to living in Cairo guide given to us by the University, that this method was terrible. Then next method is to hire a simsar to find you an apartment. This is really where the story gets interesting. A Simsar is a person who hangs out in an area and has a knowledge of the empty apartments in the area. You explain to him what you want and then them find it for you. If you rent the apartment they show you then you pay some portion of the rent to them. The price, as are most things in Egypt, is negotiable. The government registered simsars are supposed to charge 10% of the entire contract, ie all the rent you will ever pay. Other accounts argue that it should be 10% of one months rent, so once again we have no clue how much we are going to get ripped off for, but hey thats half the fun.
Abdu can be found sitting in one of a couple coffee shops in the Abdeen palace area, and if he's not there just ask the coffee shop proprietor, he can find him. We got Abdu's name from asking a couple different people in the area where we could find a simsar and they all pointed us to Abdu. We go to the cafe that Abdu is supposedly going to be at and ask the owner where Abdu the Simsar is, he tells us to wait a second, goes next door and yells Abdu. Eventually, an older gentleman emerges in a soiled sweater and trousers. Time had not treated Abdu fairly, his weathered skin and lazy eye being a testament to that. He saunters up to us, cigarette in hand, and puts his hand out, the one with the cigarette, for a shake. After exchanging names and pleasantries, he pulls up a chair and has us sit. We outline what we want, we give him our phone numbers, and he hands us his business card telling us to come back later in the day to see the apartments. Flash forward in the day, we pull out the buisness card to figure out what time he wants to meet. Located on the card, next to the drawings of picturesque villas homes we find 4 different phone numbers for our beloved simsar. We go one by one calling the number and asking for Abdu, none resulting in success. Deciding that we committed to meeting Abdu, we return to the coffee shop where we met him at. Upon our return, the owner says he is praying and that he'll be back in 15 minutes. We sit down and order a cup of tea waiting for his return. Eventually, he comes back, takes a seat with us and discusses what he has found, and offers to show us them. Before we leave, a phone call from the coffee shops interrupts our departure as the phone call was for Abdu. Consequently, we realize that the phone numbers on the card are merely the phone numbers of all the coffee shops that he frequents. We saw two different apartments with Abdu, the first was decent but a little small and the second seemed like the wrong building for us as we were stared down as we climbed the stairs by the occupants and upon discovering a family of cockroaches the owner responded with "no problem, one day they are all gone". So, we bid farewell to Abdu and try our luck with another simsar.
We got Sanaa's phone number off Cairo Scholars, an email service for American students studying in Cairo to exchange tips, tricks, and other information between each other. A English fluent former AUC student, Sanaa now works in real estate among other endeavors. I explain to her what we are looking for and she says to call back the next day. The next day, we call her and set up a meeting time to see the apartments. I had class, but my faithful companions view the other apartments and report back. Out of the four she showed them, two of them were nice places and we schedule a time to go back for me to look at them for myself and work out the details. I view the two apartments and find only minor flaws in them definitely nothing that would prevent me from living in them. The one thing that seems a miss is the level of what we came to call "Foreigner Friendly" ness. By this euphemism, we mean buildings where the other tenets will not give us trouble if we drink alcohol or have our female friends over. Upon further inquiry, the answer goes from "yes, no problem" to "absolutely not". We thank her for her time, and keep on looking.
Asad, a copt, works out of his small office located behind saloon style doors in the first floor of a large apartment building. Once again we got Asad's name by asking people in the area for a simsar. We enter the office and take a seat on his couch and begin to converse. Once again we outline our dream apartment, while Asad takes puffs from his cigarette in a long holder. He takes it all in, then offers us tea. We accept and drink tea while we watch Asad continually light a new cigarette and place it in his holder while searching through his books for a suitable apartment. He makes some phone calls, and eventually tells us to come back tomorrow to see the apartments. We return the next day and he takes us to the first apartment. It seemed okay, but it was clear that it wasn't really finished yet as all of the tools and supplies still lay on the dining room table. They assure us it can be ready the next day, but some of the major flaws dissuaded us. Next day we come back to see another apartment with Asad which, he says is exactly what we want. He also informs us that his comission is a full months rent. We respond that seems a little high as we have heard half a months rent is what seems standard. After a long puff from his cigarette, he says, okay. The apartment has amazing location a mere 3 blocks from campus and 1 from the Department of the Interior (the most feared in Egypt because of their questionable human rights recored). Despite the strange quasi hanging terrace in the kitchen covered in fake plants, all things seemed to check out in the apartment. We sit down to discuss the price so that we can think it over. First price is 4000 Egyptian Pounds which is around $722 per month for a three bedroom apartment. While far from unreasonable in American prices, this is well over double the value of the apartment. We say this is higher than we are ready to agree to and say we need to discuss it with our parents before we can make any promises. He drops the price to 3750 pounds. We say that a lower price would make it easier, but still say our parents consent is necessary. In this instance we weren't trying to negotiate but rather just have some time to think it over before we commit. He drops to 3500, final price. We stick to our party line and thank him for his time. On our walk home, Asad calls us, 3000 pounds ($541). We thank him and tell him we will get back to him the next day. After discussion, we decide to keep looking because of the feeling of the other tenets and the fact that the apartment, judging by similar in the area, should be around 2000 pounds.
Ahmed comes from a recommendation of a friend of Demetri who found an apartment through him earlier and said he will find us the kind of place we are looking for. We arrange a meeting to see an apartment in Garden City, a part of the city know for lots of trees and where many foreign embassies are located. Waiting outside of out meeting spot, Ahmed drives up and yells "Demetri?". We respond that we are the group looking for the apartment, and he drives us over to the place. A three bedroom apartment, completely furnished. Many brand new appliances, including the washing machine and air conditions. Everything seemed to work out. We, at this point, were skeptical. After sitting and discussing price, everything seems reasonable. Upon further inspection, we find little things here and there that need to be cleaned or fixed. Once again we get the it will be ready tomorrow. We agree on the terms and say that we will give them a down payment to hold the place but want to have everything cleaned and fixed before we sign the lease. Two days later we return, place is completely clean, almost everything fixed. The water heater and come lights don't quite work. After discussion with the landlord, we decided to sign the lease, but not pay the simsar until he has finished fixing everything. And there is was, we finally had an apartment. All of the sudden.
After a couple of days we move in and spend the night. I wake up the next morning refreshed and go into the bathroom to brush my teeth. The water is extremely cold, so I decided to turn on the recently fixed warm water. Warm water comes out as expected, but the steam coming from the water heater was not expected. I quickly turn off the water hoping this will solve the problem. It doesn't. Gradually more and more steam starts coming out, and I don't know what to do, so I wake up Demetri. We observe the bathroom filling with steam and debate what to do. Then, BAAAAMMMMM, something explodes and more steam comes billowing out. Startled to say the least, we frantically figure out what to do. We hadn't pay the simsar yet, so he still had to fix things that broke, so we called him. Waking him up at the early hour of 11am, he tells us a plumber will come later to fix it. After a couple days, and a couple different plumbers, the water heater finally gets fixed.
All in all, the apartment search was a daunting task but we completed it with success and found a great apartment despite its eccentricities.
Dec 20, 2011
Best and Worst Places to fly into in the US
Between traveling for work and various family vacations, I have traveled through many different airports and developed some likes and some dislikes.
Favorites
SFO - San Francisco is the main airport I fly in and out of when I go home. Despite problems a few years back due to construction and maze of overpasses and different lanes going everywhere, the experience flying at SFO is excellent. SFO has the best assortment of food that I've seen at any airport. From Peets Coffee to Andales Taqueria, the airport food is actually food you want to eat as opposed to the typical Panda Express / Sbarro options.
MKE - Milwuakee's airport is one of the easiest airports to fly out of that I think I've ever been to. While there aren't many flights to choose from, you can usually find a good flight option or two. The biggest plus to MKE is just how easy getting there and through security is. Being located 15 minutes away from downtown, MKE is quick and easy to get to. Once you're at the airport, security is a breeze making it about as convenient as it can be.
DCA - Washington DC's Regan airport provides the best access to a city of any airport I think I've ever flown into. The airport is only slightly outside the city but linked up to the city's metro system which means getting where you want to go after your flight will take you less than an hour to most places for only $2-3. Part of DCA's appeal is also the alternatives to fly to DC which are Dulles (which is infinitely times further away) or Balitmore (which is even further away). If you're flying to DC its worth paying the extra money to fly to DCA, trust me.
Worst
FLL - Maybe I'm being too harsh on Fort Lauderdale's airport, but after getting stuck there for 12+ hours I hope to never have to fly through there again. After missing an admittedly tight connection on our way back from Peru, Hannah and I were stuck all day as Spirit Airlines (worst airline ever) only had another connecting flight that evening (after we arrived before 6am). Not that I'm that much of a coffee fiend, but this airport was so bad it didn't even have a starbucks. Aside from coffee, the food options were limited and we had to evacuate at one point due to some sort of fire / bomb scare. The only plus side was that they randomly had a jazz band playing in the lobby for a few hours of our wait but this doesn't correct the horrible experience we had there.
LAX - Los Angeles' airport is the definition of a clusterf***. There are just so many people and even more cars all moving around this disorganized mess of an airport. While the lane systems seem to make sense, the 15 different types of buses and all the horrible drivers bring the whole complex to a snail's crawl. Last time I was there I needed to switch between terminals which required asking 3 different people which bus I needed to get on (only 1 of which actually knew). After sitting in the bus for what seemed like 45 min, I arrived at the terminal which probably wasn't further than 300 yards away.
Favorites
SFO - San Francisco is the main airport I fly in and out of when I go home. Despite problems a few years back due to construction and maze of overpasses and different lanes going everywhere, the experience flying at SFO is excellent. SFO has the best assortment of food that I've seen at any airport. From Peets Coffee to Andales Taqueria, the airport food is actually food you want to eat as opposed to the typical Panda Express / Sbarro options.
MKE - Milwuakee's airport is one of the easiest airports to fly out of that I think I've ever been to. While there aren't many flights to choose from, you can usually find a good flight option or two. The biggest plus to MKE is just how easy getting there and through security is. Being located 15 minutes away from downtown, MKE is quick and easy to get to. Once you're at the airport, security is a breeze making it about as convenient as it can be.
DCA - Washington DC's Regan airport provides the best access to a city of any airport I think I've ever flown into. The airport is only slightly outside the city but linked up to the city's metro system which means getting where you want to go after your flight will take you less than an hour to most places for only $2-3. Part of DCA's appeal is also the alternatives to fly to DC which are Dulles (which is infinitely times further away) or Balitmore (which is even further away). If you're flying to DC its worth paying the extra money to fly to DCA, trust me.
Worst
FLL - Maybe I'm being too harsh on Fort Lauderdale's airport, but after getting stuck there for 12+ hours I hope to never have to fly through there again. After missing an admittedly tight connection on our way back from Peru, Hannah and I were stuck all day as Spirit Airlines (worst airline ever) only had another connecting flight that evening (after we arrived before 6am). Not that I'm that much of a coffee fiend, but this airport was so bad it didn't even have a starbucks. Aside from coffee, the food options were limited and we had to evacuate at one point due to some sort of fire / bomb scare. The only plus side was that they randomly had a jazz band playing in the lobby for a few hours of our wait but this doesn't correct the horrible experience we had there.
LAX - Los Angeles' airport is the definition of a clusterf***. There are just so many people and even more cars all moving around this disorganized mess of an airport. While the lane systems seem to make sense, the 15 different types of buses and all the horrible drivers bring the whole complex to a snail's crawl. Last time I was there I needed to switch between terminals which required asking 3 different people which bus I needed to get on (only 1 of which actually knew). After sitting in the bus for what seemed like 45 min, I arrived at the terminal which probably wasn't further than 300 yards away.
Dec 17, 2011
Subway Blues
"Wall Street is the only place that people ride to in a Rolls Royce to get advice from those who take the subway" -Warren Buffet
One thing that the US is lagging behind the rest of the world in is the realm of public transportation. Both at a city and regional level, most of the US requires a car to navigate. As a huge fan of public transportation, I love that I live in a city where I don't need a car but so much of the country doesn't have this luxury.
My theory behind this phenomenon is that US is more spread out than many other countries. The US being a relatively young country did not have the space constraints that many other countries did. Take for example the city of Paris. There have been inhabits for many years in the same location so the city was forced to build up eventually as opposed to being able to continually build out, as there were more cities that had already been erected on the outskirts of the city. Since the cities start to build up, you gain more of a critical mass to the point where public transportation begins to be more convenient or at least as convenient as driving a car. In addition, many of these cities were established well before the invention of cars. Without cars, greater distances were much more difficult to travel which lead city planners to focus on keeping the city denser. While some US cities like Chicago, Boston, and New York experience this phenomenon, many other US cities do not. The combination of plenty of space and growing during the age of the automobile created a more spread out city plan
Take for example Los Angeles. The city was built from nothing with very little around it, which gave it plenty of space to expand outward. Given the city's relatively short history, most of the development of the city happened after the invention of the car meaning that covering bigger distances. As the city expanded, the lack of density made a public transportation system less viable. Not that there are no buses in LA, but the majority of the population does not use it because it is so much less convenient to use that driving. With less people using the system, it makes less sense to expand the system to further places or add extra stops.
Public transportation systems are the classic situation of the chicken and the egg. You need the customers to justify expanding the system, but customers won't ride if there aren't stops that are convenient to them. Eventually some US cities will grow dense enough to warrant large public transportation systems, but until then I'm going to just keep making Hannah drive me around.
Dec 16, 2011
What do you do with a deposed dictator?
"Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime" -Ernest Hemingway
I was reading an article this morning discussing the ICC's investigation into the death of Muammar Qaddafi, the late Libyan dictator. Qaddafi was killed a month or two back a midst a bloody civil war that concluded with the rebels prevailing. As the rebels slowly gained more and more land, Qaddafi retreated to his hometown of Sirte. Qaddafi was eventually forced to flee as the rebels started to gain control of the city. While trying to flee, Qaddafi's convoy was hit by NATO airstrikes. While the stories differ at this point, Qaddafi survived the air strike but was eventually beaten and killed.
The ICC currently is pushing for the new Libyan transitional government to undertake a full blown investigation as it suspects war crimes were committed. While I understand the sentiment, I think this brings up a very interesting question about the concept of war crimes.
War is by nature a brutal thing. While some 'rules' exist, the only sort of authority to enforce them is the ICC which lacks both precedent required to enforce laws as well as the force to ensure compliance. The ICC routinely seeks to prosecute current dictators such as Mugabe in Zimbabwe or al-Bashir in Sudan but those leaders would never turn themselves in and there isn't any ICC police force to go after them. So the court is mired with an inability to act.
Aside from the ICC, the concept of rights awarded to brutal dictators is a tough idea to wrap your head around. Take Saddam Hussein as an example. During his time in power, he was responsible for the deaths of countless innocent people and torturing even more. No one needed to be convinced that he was guilty. After the US captured him during the invasion, Hussein was given a trial but his fate was all but sealed. Hussein was going to be executed, the trial was just procedural. While this act was important in laying the foundation for a new judicial system in Iraq and bringing closure to a dark time for the Iraqi people, the trial was not a trial in the truest sense of the word, it was mostly for show.
Qaddafi was as brutal if not more brutal than the worst of them. For over 30 years, he ruled with a iron fist and quelled any opposition. The stories of hardships caused by Qaddafi are numerous, and this brutal treatment of his people were what eventually brought about the revolution and his eventual demise. The capture of Qaddafi by the Libyan rebels represented the end of a repressive era and the dawn of the new day. While I would have preferred Qaddafi had a trial to help establish the new rule of law, I do not think I have any right to tell Libyans what they should and shouldn't do with him. Did Qaddafi deserve to die for the crimes he committed, probably. Was there any chance he would be found not guilty in court, no way! Qaddafi was guilty and he was going to be executed, it was only a matter of time.
I'm okay with the way Qaddafi's life ended. It was brutal, violent, and lacked dignity which is exactly how he ruled the country and how he should leave this earth.
Dec 15, 2011
What's for dinner: Fried Rice
Okay, so I'm not actually having this for dinner but this is one of my favorite things to cook. Its a simple dish to make and you can mix and match ingredients based on what you have on hand. While its possible to make with fresh rice, its much much much better if you use left over rice. Sounds silly, but I'll sometimes cook rice the night before just to let it sit in the fridge for fried rice the next day.
Prep
Like any other stir fry type dish, getting everything ready to go before you start cooking is key. Once you start throwing things into the pan you need to have everything ready to go as the cooking process is relatively quick. I like to chop up onions, carrots, and bell peppers as my base veggies but also will throw in green onions or bok choy or something else if I have it on hand. If you are missing any of those things, no big deal just throw in what you have. Along with chopping up the veggies, I also chop up garlic separately to fry that up as well.
After cutting up the veggies, I then move on to the meats. This is piece is optional if you have left overs and can be made without any meat easily. If you are using raw chicken, marinate it for a half hour or so with some soy sauce and corn starch. The soy sauce seasons the chicken while the cornstarch gives it a more velvety texture.
Next, I prep one egg to be scrambled.
Finally, I get the sauce together. I use a combination of oyster and soy sauce with a heavier hand on the oyster. This is the flavor that you always think of fried rice, I can't really describe the taste but its good. This sauce can also be modified if you want to try a little different flare, for example if you add a little fish sauce and lime juice you will get more thai flavored sauce
Cooking
Once you have everything ready to go, its time to get your pan heated up. First, scramble the egg then remove from the pan and set aside. Next, cook the meat (if you are using raw meat) until 3/4 of the way cooked then add to the bowl with the egg. After wiping the pan with a paper towel, heat up oil real hot then drop in any chilis you may use and garlic. Before the garlic begins to burn, add the veggies and toss to coat with the oil / garlic. Let the rice cook for a little bit, then add the sauce as well as the meat / egg bowl. Mix everything together and cook for a few minutes stirring to ensure all parts get some time by the heat. Taste the rice to make sure you have enough sauce and you're good to go.
Getting the right balance of sauce to rice ratio takes a few tries to get but its easy to adjust the amount / taste of your sauce to fit you tastes. Additionally, if you are worried about too much sauce, just add a little bit at a time until it gets to the flavor that you want.
Enjoy!!!
Prep
Like any other stir fry type dish, getting everything ready to go before you start cooking is key. Once you start throwing things into the pan you need to have everything ready to go as the cooking process is relatively quick. I like to chop up onions, carrots, and bell peppers as my base veggies but also will throw in green onions or bok choy or something else if I have it on hand. If you are missing any of those things, no big deal just throw in what you have. Along with chopping up the veggies, I also chop up garlic separately to fry that up as well.
After cutting up the veggies, I then move on to the meats. This is piece is optional if you have left overs and can be made without any meat easily. If you are using raw chicken, marinate it for a half hour or so with some soy sauce and corn starch. The soy sauce seasons the chicken while the cornstarch gives it a more velvety texture.
Next, I prep one egg to be scrambled.
Finally, I get the sauce together. I use a combination of oyster and soy sauce with a heavier hand on the oyster. This is the flavor that you always think of fried rice, I can't really describe the taste but its good. This sauce can also be modified if you want to try a little different flare, for example if you add a little fish sauce and lime juice you will get more thai flavored sauce
Cooking
Once you have everything ready to go, its time to get your pan heated up. First, scramble the egg then remove from the pan and set aside. Next, cook the meat (if you are using raw meat) until 3/4 of the way cooked then add to the bowl with the egg. After wiping the pan with a paper towel, heat up oil real hot then drop in any chilis you may use and garlic. Before the garlic begins to burn, add the veggies and toss to coat with the oil / garlic. Let the rice cook for a little bit, then add the sauce as well as the meat / egg bowl. Mix everything together and cook for a few minutes stirring to ensure all parts get some time by the heat. Taste the rice to make sure you have enough sauce and you're good to go.
Getting the right balance of sauce to rice ratio takes a few tries to get but its easy to adjust the amount / taste of your sauce to fit you tastes. Additionally, if you are worried about too much sauce, just add a little bit at a time until it gets to the flavor that you want.
Enjoy!!!
Dec 14, 2011
Person of the Year?
Time recently published their Person of the year article where they pick the most influential person of the past year. They awarded this year to "The Protester". Besides my obvious quibbles about that not being an actual person, I think they did get the spirit of the award right but in my mind there is an actual protester whom they should have awarded this prize to.
Mohammad Bouazizi was a Tunisia fruit seller who supported his family after his father passed away while he was young. Bouazizi had been undergoing harassment from government officials who would try to extort bribes or would mess with his fruit cart. One day after a government official stole his scales, he went to the governors office to complain. Getting frustrated that he was not being heard, Bouazizi threatened to light him self on fire if they did not listen to his complaint. When they didn't listen, he walked into the middle of the street and lit himself on fire. Bouazizi died days later but this act galvanized many people to rise up. Within a month, the Tunisian president, who had ruled for 23 years and did not look like he was going anywhere, was forced to step down from power. The success further galvanized people across the middle east to organize protests through social media channels which eventually overturned some of the worlds longest running dictators like Qaddafi (Libya) and Mubarak (Egypt).
For a half a century, the status quo of military dictators seemed so entrenched. Even when I asked Egyptians while studying in Cairo, they basically assumed that Mubarak's son would take power and life would keep going on like usual. Its sometimes hard to imagine for Americans, but until these revolutions over half of the country had never seen anyone else rule than the dictator in power. While people recognized that this was less than ideal, that was just the way things were and was something that you just had to accept. Bouazizi changed that. Was Bouazizi trying to galvanize a revolution across the middle east? Probably not. He had just had enough of his situation and wanted to be heard.
While "the protester" is the one who actually executed the revolution, the revolution would never have happened without Bouazizi, so in my opinion he deserves to be Person of the Year.
Mohammad Bouazizi was a Tunisia fruit seller who supported his family after his father passed away while he was young. Bouazizi had been undergoing harassment from government officials who would try to extort bribes or would mess with his fruit cart. One day after a government official stole his scales, he went to the governors office to complain. Getting frustrated that he was not being heard, Bouazizi threatened to light him self on fire if they did not listen to his complaint. When they didn't listen, he walked into the middle of the street and lit himself on fire. Bouazizi died days later but this act galvanized many people to rise up. Within a month, the Tunisian president, who had ruled for 23 years and did not look like he was going anywhere, was forced to step down from power. The success further galvanized people across the middle east to organize protests through social media channels which eventually overturned some of the worlds longest running dictators like Qaddafi (Libya) and Mubarak (Egypt).
For a half a century, the status quo of military dictators seemed so entrenched. Even when I asked Egyptians while studying in Cairo, they basically assumed that Mubarak's son would take power and life would keep going on like usual. Its sometimes hard to imagine for Americans, but until these revolutions over half of the country had never seen anyone else rule than the dictator in power. While people recognized that this was less than ideal, that was just the way things were and was something that you just had to accept. Bouazizi changed that. Was Bouazizi trying to galvanize a revolution across the middle east? Probably not. He had just had enough of his situation and wanted to be heard.
While "the protester" is the one who actually executed the revolution, the revolution would never have happened without Bouazizi, so in my opinion he deserves to be Person of the Year.
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