Monday, June 25, 2007

The Liquid/Laptop Interface, and Other Stories

The last couple of days have not been the most wonderful. This morning, for the first time in my life, I managed to spill a few good slurps of hot tea onto my laptop keyboard. Suppress your mortification, it's not dead, only wounded. I can switch it on, but the keyboard just types any old drivel (not unlike me then), and the steering of the mouse is wildly erratic. Tomorrow I shall purchase a miniscule screwdriver and invalidate my warranty. Can't hardly wait.

Yesterday morning was blighted by a phone call from a Pakistani gentleman who said he wanted to buy our telly, as advertised on a posterette at Jebel Ali Choithram's. 'What brand is it?' He asked.
'I don't know - it's just some Chinese junk.'
'How much is it?'
'What it says on the poster.'
'It's too much.'
'OK, bye.'
'No wait. What else you selling?' Like a moron I told him. He insisted that I leave work and meet him at my apartment an hour later. He'd said he wanted stuff because his wife and daughter were arriving in Dubai tomorrow. Yeah, right. He was a dealer and he was interested in every appliance in the place. It was almost impossible to get rid of him. So, he's buying/bought: the fridge and cooker; the TV; the satellite decoder (won't work in Europe); the surround sound system (won't work anywhere); an old mobile phone; a broken bed and an exercise bike (crikey where did that come from!). I'm too ashamed to tell you how little I've let him have all this stuff for.

Saturday, June 23, 2007

ImbeSalik - I Dare You To Give a Better Option

The once challenging and brave Emirats Toady would have derided the new road toll scheme with the venom it deserves. But since its new management team took over about a year ago, it is desperate to put a positive gloss on the entire fiasco. That is a really hard thing to do, and Assistant Editor Hakam Kherallah shoots himself in the foot trying to do it. He says, basically, all you whingers out there, suggest a better alternative. If this guy was genuous, he would know that every single critic of imbeSalik has already done so. The alternative is: wait until the Metro is up and running, and the RTA have figured out how to run a useable bus service. That's all. Once these things are in place I doubt you would hear much protest against the toll scheme. But to introduce imbeSalik at a time when the viable transport alternatives are ABSOLUTELY ZERO just tells me that the RTA either has no clue about what it is doing, or it does have a clue and does not care one iota about the expense, pain, frustration and chaos that this scheme is going to cause. I suspect the latter is true.

If the aim of this insane project is simply to raise money for the RTA then I don't think most people would object to a serious rise in vehicle registration costs. But they insist on presenting this as a way of reducing congestion. I'm sorry. The way this scheme is designed will only shift congestion onto other roads that are completely unable to cope with it. RTA chief Mattar Al Tayer insults his customers by saying we are not traffic experts. I happen to know several critics of the scheme who are traffic experts, and I think the rest of us have a pretty good idea of how things work simply because we use the roads every day.

If it looks like a dog, smells like a dog, it's probably a dog.

It's Really Happening!

Yes, folks, it's true. All of our talk over the last few years about us leaving this miracle of unsustainable wonderfulness in July 2007 is true. I mean, it's always been true. But a week ago I actually got in touch with a couple of removals companies, and two days ago I awarded one of them the job. Within two hours they dropped off a load of cartons, which BetterArf is dutifully filling with books (I would help but a) I don't think we should take all of these books, and b) I'm busy writing my own book). We have thousands of books and CDs and DVDs, and that is mostly what we are taking with us.

We plan to sell most of our furniture. I think it's a shame that IKEA has not introduced a library service whereby you deposit the furniture that you bought from them at your local store, and they give you a voucher. And when you get to where you're going you present the voucher and can withdraw more or less the same furniture that you had deposited in Dubai. IKEA is being slammed a bit for its apparent lack of greenness - I think this would be a really good thing for them to do. But hey.

We actually put some unwanted, unsellable stuff outside our building this morning: 4 steel-framed rattan chairs whose rattan has gone to ratshit, a sofa-bed and two cushions. When we headed out the door for a luncheon engagement, the chairs were gone, and when we returned from our extremely long lunch, the cushions were gone, but the sofa-bed remained.

A bit like Tony Blair, we are now engaged on a succession of farewell do's. We had one this afternoon. An extended South African Christmas Lunch, hosted by the biscuit-dropper John. Marvellous, it was. We had roast lamb that he got from a farmer/butcher friend in SA. Two days ago this lamb had been trotting around a field where the grass was interspersed with rosemary and other herbs. Dee-licious! The concluding biscuits were served on a high-lipped tray.

I have to say, I am really looking forward to a complete change of lifestyle. It's already starting to happen. I have virtually finished all of the work that I have to do for my lovely clients. I am not taking on any new work until I get settled in Spain. But really, I plan to focus on Web 2.0 projects (or as the Spanish would say 'red dos punto cero') of my own, and writing outrageous novels. The current novel is storming along - 45,000 words so far, all of them good.

Moving house is supposed to be one of the most stressful of life's little events, but I'm not feeling it yet. Quite the opposite, in fact, this feels like a release!

Qari Ziyad Patel

Qari Ziyaad Patel was born in Ladysmith, Kwazulu Natal, South Africa. His early school years spanned across various schools where he took up many leadership roles and was the key in initiating many structures for learners at the particular schools in the region. During this period he was elected chairman of the Representative Council of Learners, was also a member of the Youth sector of the

Friday, June 22, 2007

Topik 21: MUSLIM dan Pola DSK

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim

Banyak sekali kita bertemu dengan pola-pola DSK di Al-Quran. Sebut contoh: muslim (orang yang tunduk), mu'min (orang yang beriman), mufsid (orang yang merusak), mundzir (orang yang memberi peringatan). Itu semua yang didepannya diawali oleh huruf Mim, yang merupakan ciri-ciri kata-benda orang (kata benda pelaku).

Belum lagi kata kerja sedang (KKS) yang berpola DSK, seperti: yuslim (sedang tunduk), yu'min (sedang beriman), yufsid (sedang merusak), yundzir (sedang memberi peringatan).

Perhatikan surat Al-Baqaroh ayat 1 - 12. Semua kata-kata itu Anda temukan, bukan?

Semuanya berpola DSK. Apa itu pola DSK?

Pola DSK adalah pola yang harokat huruf pertama Dhommah, huruf kedua Sukun, huruf ketiga Kasroh. Ya, Dhommah, Sukun, Kasroh (DSK).

Mari kita ambil contoh:




Disitu terlihat apa yang saya maksud DSK. Lihat, lingkaran-lingkaran kecil warna merah. Lingkaran pertama untuk D (dhommah), lingkaran kedua untuk S (Sukun) lingkaran ketiga untuk K (Kasroh).

Apa pentingnya DSK? Ini saya kasih bocorannya ya... hihi...

Pertama-tama bahwa jika Anda ketemu DSK, misalkan kata: yuslim -Kata Kerja Sedang KKS(dia tunduk), atau muslim ISIM-kata benda (orang yang tunduk), maka jika ketemu DSK seperti ini ingat-ingatlah pesan "guru":

"Hai anak-ku jika kamu menemui pola DSK, maka sebenarnya akar katanya sudah mendapat tambahan Alif"

Nah Anda sebagai anak yang baik, membaca-baca lagi buku, apa sih maksud "guru". Setelah Anda baca-baca buku pelajaran bahasa Arab, Anda jadi mengerti. Maksud Pak Guru sbb:

Ambil contoh: kata muslim. Terdiri dari 4 huruf kan: mim, sin, lam, mim

Akar katanya adalah: sin lam mim (sa-li-ma) سلم

Di kamus, kata salima itu artinya: selamat, sentosa

Lalu Anda buru-buru mengambil kesimpulan, ooh kalau begitu kata muslim (ada tambahan mim), artinya orang yang selamat, atau orang yang sentosa (bahagia). Nah ini kesimpulan anda terlalu terburu-buru.

Yang betul itu, seperti ini.

Anda dapatkan kata:
مُسْلِمٌ

Muslim. Lihat harokatnya: DSK kan?

Lalu cari akar katanya: - buang mim di depan, menjadi: sin lam mim.

Cari di kamus, kata sin-lam-mim. Di kamus anda akan ketemu kata SALIMA artinya selamat, sentosa.

Nah, karena muslim itu DSK, maka Anda harus mencari di kata ALIF SIN LAM MIM

أسلم

itulah pentingnya pola DSK. Artinya apa? Artinya, untuk tahu arti kata muslim, anda cari di kata

أسلم aslama

Di kamus anda ketemu kata tsb:

أسلم aslama, artinya: menyerah, atau tunduk

Dengan demikian orang yang menyerah, atau orang yang tunduk disebut:

مسلم muslim

Kira-kira Anda mengerti gak? Saya ulangi. Kalau ketemu di Al-Quran, suatu kata baik dia kata benda, atau kata kerja yang punya pola DSK, maka jangan Anda kira, maksud kata tsb adalah akar kata 3 huruf nya, tapi akar kata 3 huruf plus Alif.

Coba bandingkan:
سلم - salima: dia selamat, atau dia sentosa
أسلم - aslama: dia tunduk

Beda kan... antara selamat, dengan tunduk... Maka kata bentukan dari أسلم - aslama, itu juga merujuk kepada makna : tunduk.

Contoh:

Aku telah tunduk: أسلمت - aslamtu
Aku selalu tunduk: أسلم - uslimu
Dia telah tunduk: أسلم - aslama
Dia selalu tunduk: يسلم - yuslimu

dst...

Demikian telah kita jelaskan pola DSK, dimana pola ini bermanfaat mana kala Anda, ingin mencari tahu arti kata di kamus. Sebagai penutup, kita beri contoh: kata mufsiduun. Perhatikan kata ini akar katanya: fasada. Tetapi karena kata bentukannya mufsiduun, berpola DSK, maka Anda harus mencari di kamus arti mata mufsiduun itu pada kata أفسد - afsada, bukan di kata فسد . Artinya, kalau ingin tahu apa arti kata mufsiduun, carilah di entri kata afsada.

Insya Allah akan kita lanjutkan pada topik berikutnya...

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Doing business in the Middle East: Can I get some customer service please???

From my time in Kuwait, I’ve come to realize that there is a very weak customer service ethos in the private sector versus what is commonly found in the US. The customer service experience is often ruder and likely to leave you feeling angry and embittered at such appalling treatment which can include long wait times until your served, disorganization, disinformation, and just plain incompetence. I’m not referring to restaurants or shops at the traditional market. In fact, most modern western restaurants tend to be staffed by Filipino expatriate workers who in my view provide excellent service. Instead I am referring to more complex businesses, like the airline or cell phone industries from which I draw my experiences.

It’s important to note the structure of the Kuwaiti economy before further explanation. Although the number of Kuwaitis working in the private sector has been increasing rapidly in the past few years, 80% of the workers are still expatriates, mostly from other poorer Arab countries and south Asia. Thus, in the private sector, a person mostly deals with a non-Kuwaiti. However, laws in Kuwait make sure that the owners are Kuwaiti, as every business in Kuwait requires a Kuwaiti sponsor. So the customer service experience is born from this hybrid environment. This is sort of my disclaimer in saying that I’m not blaming anyone, only describing my following experiences with three companies: Jazeera Airways, Kuwait Airways, and the mobile phone service provider MTC Vodafone.

Jazeera Airways
In January, two friends that were visiting Kuwait purchased 3 tickets from Jazeera Airways for three of us to go to Dubai for the coming weekend. Jazeera Airways is a new budget airline that is based in Kuwait and started flying in October 2005. As it turned out, one of the two friends and I became very sick with flu and decided that we couldn’t go. So we called up Jazeera Airways and asked them what to do. The customer service agent said that refunds can’t be issued, but if a doctor’s note is provided, the tickets can be changed to fly on a later date without penalty. So we went ahead and changed two of the tickets to fly two weeks later. The third friend went ahead to Dubai by himself. My friend and I then went to the local clinic and received a doctor’s not saying we were sick.

But, I realized we forgot to ask to whom to present the doctor’s note. When I checked the reservation online, it showed that I was charged the booking change fee. I waited a week later after I got better to take care of this. I first began by calling the Jazeera Airways customer service number but their network was constantly busy. I called in the morning, afternoon, and evening. Sometimes I would connect and the line would just be cut off After 3 days of trying I finally was connected and allowed to carry an uninterrupted conversation with the agent. He informed me that I would have to pay the booking change fee. I was surprised as I was initially told otherwise by the very first agent my friends and I spoke with. Realizing that’s its always best to deal with this kind of situation in person, I asked where to go to speak to someone in person.

I was directed to head Jazeera Airways office at the airport. They don’t take customer inquiries after 2 pm so I went at around 11 am. I walked into the reception and was handed a ticket number for my turn in line. I sat down and looked around the room whose seats were all full and realized that about 15 people were in front of me. After about 30-45 minutes, my turn was called and I was ushered into the customer service room with my doctor’s note. The setting was unprofessional. The room was as bare as can be with only a desk and some chairs. Two employees sat with laptops on side of the desk and customers on the other side. No wonder it was such a long wait to get in, there were only two people serving customers.

I sat down and explained my story to the employee. In short, he told me that I should not have changed the booking until I came to their office with the doctors’ note. He said that because I already made the change in their system there was nothing he could do about it and that I would have to pay the booking change fee. When I tried to reason with him that most probably the customer service agent who I spoke with provided incorrect information, he wouldn’t budge and said that it was too late to do anything because the change was already recorded in the system. He did make a small offer to cancel the entire reservation after I pay the booking change fee and apply the entire amount paid for the fee plus the airline tickets as credit with the airline to be used at a later date. That sounded okay to me for the time being. But in order to pay the booking change fee, I would have to go up two levels to the Jazeera Airways desk in the airport, pay, and then return with the receipt. I didn’t understand why I couldn’t pay at their headquarters. After about 15 minutes, I was back in the reception only to be prevented by the security guard from going back to the customer service room even though the agent made clear to him and the receptionist to let me back immediately when I return. After 10 minutes of silent indignation, I was allowed back to complete the process.

I still had every intention of flying to Dubai so I asked him to make new reservations for me. Low and behold, because the dates I intended to fly on were in a few days, the ticket prices had almost doubled so that I was nearly spending all the credit granted to me. I still made the new reservation. However, when I went home to check the ticket prices again, I realized that on the day I was leaving there were two flights to Dubai both in the morning, yet the customer service agent decided to put me on the more expensive flight. Talk about adding insult to injury. In the end, I spent an hour and 45 minutes at the Jazeera airways office. I realized I could only have done this because I didn’t have a job. A working person would have had to take a half day off to take care of something like this. I was furious at the time at the horrible customer service meted out by Jazeera Airways. Yet I would still fly Jazeera Airways again because their ticket prices are the cheapest and most often the other alternative is the equally if not more dysfunctional Kuwait Airways. Jazeera has nice website which allows you to purchase tickets without ever having to deal with an employee which is great. So I just hope I don’t ever have to make a change again.


Kuwait Airways
Later that January, I was searching for airline tickets to go to the US for a brief visit with a week long stop on the way going in London. Kuwait Airways reportedly had the cheapest tickets going to Atlanta, my home city, non-stop via NYC and using Delta to connect to Atlanta. However, I wanted to know if it was feasible to fly on Kuwait Airways to London, connect to Atlanta with Delta, and then return via NYC the normal route that I have taken before. It seemed to me like a straightforward question that required a straightforward answer. Yet little did I know of the dysfunctional system into which I was plunging to get my answer. But to use an analogy from Alice in Wonderland, I wanted to know how deep the rabbit hole went.

My journey begins with a simple phone call to the Kuwait Airways reservation numbers. I’m often connected right away. Checking the flight schedules and finding open seats was an easy matter. But when I asked him the simple matter of the price, after all, that was the deterministic factor as to whether I purchase a ticket with Kuwait Airways, he replied that he can’t give me a price. Instead, he told me that I needed to call the sales office at a different number and ask them for the price. That seemed very odd to me. I have to call one number to make a reservation and then another number to inquire about the price. I asked him what kind of system is this, but my question was of no avail. He and most of the operators I spoke to were Indians. They had no fault as to the disorganization of the company. That instead most likely fell on the shoulders of higher up managers who were Kuwaiti and oversaw the operations of the entire company.

So I called the sales office to see if I could get my answer. But the lines were so busy that I could never get through. When I called back the reservation number since I knew I could get through to them, I was told that sales office network is often times flooded with calls because it is the number for the Kuwait Airways headquarters in downtown Kuwait. I was advised to go to the headquarters in person to get a straight answer to my question of how much the itinerary would cost. I also realized that the times I called back the reservation number to make changes to the reservation, I was receiving different answers. One person gave me a ballpark figure while another two did not. Also, during this time I went to a travel agent to see if he could get a price for me. It turned out the travel agent was ripping me off by charging a considerable amount more than if I had made the reservation with Kuwait Airways myself. I found this out from when I called the reservation number and the operator informed me of the reservation made by the travel agent.

As a result, I decided to go to the Kuwait Airways headquarters. I knew from my experience with Jazeera Airways that I would probably be waiting a while before I was served. So I grabbed a book I was reading and headed off in the evening. I found the place without difficulty. Yet when I entered the fairly large customer service room, I was struck by the aura of shabby professionalism. I grabbed a ticket number to wait for my turn to be served. As I found a place to sit down in the almost entirely South Asian crowd, I realized that I held ticket number 73 yet they were still serving something like ticket number 48. I gasped as I realized I was in for quite a wait before I could see how far the rabbit hole went.

I read and counted the minutes until about an hour and 15 minutes had elapsed and my number was called. By that time the room had largely emptied itself of customers. The employee I spoke with was Indian. I explained to her my proposed itinerary of flying to London with Kuwait Airways and then to Atlanta with Delta and then returning via NYC with Kuwait Airways. When I asked her for the price, which was the entire purpose of my coming to the main office, she responded that she didn’t know. She said that it wasn’t clear how much the portion of the trip from London to Atlanta with Delta would cost. She then gave me the phone number of the Delta representative in Kuwait and asked me to call them to see how much they would charge for the ticket with Kuwait Airways. I was puzzled and appalled at such a request. “Isn’t that your job,” I replied. She answered with an insufficient answer that I no longer recall. In the end she then transferred me to the manager who sat a few desks down from her.

The manager was Kuwaiti and was busy handling referrals from other employees. I waited my turn for about 15 minutes and then presented him with my itinerary. He finally provided a price that was uncompetitively high. Even though I asked him a few more questions afterwards, he was no longer attentive to me and began dealing with another customer’s request. He muttered some responses and I realized that I had my key piece of information. By the time I left the main office I had spent a little more than 2 hours. In the end, the journey into the rabbit hole required dealing with an incompetently disorganized reservation system that provided exceptionally poor service with long wait times.

I was beginning to understand a key quality to doing business in the Middle East: patience, lots and lots of patience.


MTC Vodafone
I can easily say that I bestow upon MTC Vodafone the title of the worst business that I have ever had to deal with. I have never left feeing so aggravated and embittered from such sheer incompetence an utter lack of service.

My unfortunate relationship with MTC began when I arrived to Kuwait. I immediately sought a SIM card to gain service. I was taken to a shop and purchased a MTC SIM card with the pre paid deal where I would buy purchase credit before use. There are only two cell phone providers in Kuwait, MTC and Wataniya. I didn’t think much of which carrier to choose since I was new to using a cell phone in Kuwait.

After a month I realized that a pre paid plan was much more expensive than a post paid one. So I went to the MTC headquarters at the beginning of March and checked out the services they offered. Their plans were not as competitive as Wataniya, but I didn’t want to switch companies and get a new number and the cheapest post paid plan Wataniya offered was more than I would use in terms of minutes versus. I went to the MTC headquarters and asked to switch to a post paid plan. I was told that I would need to have a civil ID, which is issued by the state of Kuwait to residents, and that my passport would not suffice. Because I have Kuwaiti family members, this didn’t pose a problem. One of them could be the account holder. So I returned a few days later with my cousin but was told that I could not switch to post paid. My cousin was 18 years old and was too young to be the account holder. I would need to come back with someone 21 or older. I was annoyed why this wasn’t explained to me on my first visit. Then, finally, on my third visit with my uncle, I switched to a post paid plan. Of course, it wasn’t explained to me before the different costs for switching and changing the name of the account holder. Before I knew it, I was being nickel-and-dimed. Additionally, I was given a SIM card with same phone number which was a hassle because I had to re-input the phone numbers from my old SIM card onto the new one; something that I had hoped to avoid by not changing companies. I also requested for international roaming service, which, although expensive, would be useful since there would be times I would travel outside of Kuwait. In order to do so I had to pay a $345 deposit which was very annoying and not required by Wataniya.

After that, things were okay for a while. When I received my first bill for March, I tried paying online. However, every time that I tried, my credit card was rejected. So I called the customer service number to inquire. I was informed that only credit cards issued by a bank in Kuwait could be used to pay online. That was odd. I had used my credit card without difficulty at the MTC main office. I asked them why I could use my credit card at the main office in person, but not online. It was explained to me that in the past they did accept payment by foreign credit cards, but due to a reason with the way the transaction was processed and payment transferred to MTC, the service was cancelled. The customer service agent placed the blame on the US side, saying that the credit card companies took to long to process the transaction. I responded that there are hundreds of companies around the world who accept credit cards online which indicates to me that the system on the US side of things are handled just fine. By this point, I had a growing realization of the incompetence of MTC and figured this was some way of theirs to deflect blame onto another person or entity. In the end, I went down to the main office and paid my bill in person with the same credit card that was rejected online. But the trouble did not stop there. The post paid I had accepted advertised the cost per minute for calling phones within Kuwait during the day versus night. Nowhere was it mentioned the price of receiving calls and that is because, as in Egypt and Syria where I had cell phone previously and many countries around the world, there is no cost for receiving phone calls. The cost is born only the person making the phone call. That is why there is a custom for a cheap person to leave missed calls. But I digress.

At one point I had received a call from a close friend in England and we spoke for about an hour. I did not think it was costing me anything since I had received the call. However, when I went to check my account online, I discovered I had used most of my credit for the month yet only the first week of the month had passed. I guessed it had something to do with receiving the international call from England. When I called the customer service number to inquire I was informed that in fact I am charged a fee for receiving international calls which is equivalent to the fee for calling a phone in Kuwait. I was furious. No where on the advertisement for the post paid plan I had subscribed to, and which was still lying around my room at the time, was it stated that there is a cost for receiving international calls. Thus, at the time when I went to pay my first bill, I asked the employee I was dealing with for a written piece of paper where it stated that there was a cost for receiving international phone calls. After some searching, the only thing he could find was a webpage he pulled up from the company intranet, which means that it is only available to someone on the company network, where it stated the cost for receiving international phone calls. I asked him if he thought this kind of information should be available to customers and whether he thought it was wrong for the company to hide it like that. He passively agreed and mentioned this is something that should be changed. I asked him for a copy of the contract to see where I could find the clause about pricing. I read that the charges would be set according to published prices. While the price of receiving international costs may not have been published to the public, I suppose in the mind of the company’s managers, it is sufficient to publish it on their company’s intranet pages.

What lack of justice! In the US there are consumer and government organizations where a person can file a complaint about such kinds of dishonest business practices or even resort to the courts. But I despaired that such avenues were unavailable in Kuwait. I left MTC feeling extremely frustrated once again. Afterwards, I felt I had to accept the fact that I would endure lying, deception, and corruption when living in the developing world. Kuwait may have the material manifestations of a developed country, but it is lacking the spiritual foundations for one; including honesty and respect for the law. But I later found out that it is known among people here that receiving international calls is not free. So perhaps MTC, thinking it was presumed knowledge, did not bother to publish their cost.

At least I hoped that perhaps now there would be no more surprises as my phone plan was set and I knew to go pay in person. I had been annoyed once by MTC when I changed from pre to post paid and twice when I paid my first bill. I could not, however, have been more completely wrong in my expectation. The worst episode of utter incompetence that I have ever dealt with was coming up next a month later when I had to pay my second bill in May.

I went down to the MTC headquarters in the evening to pay my bill. I was told the balance and immediately paid first. Then I asked for a breakdown and a copy of the bill. I probably should have asked to see the details of the bill first, but I assumed it to be correct and wanted to pay it first before entering into further affairs. When I received a copy of the bill, I saw that there were three sub-items: the amount owed for March, April, and May. The amount from March immediately aroused my suspicions. It was May and I had already paid my bill for March last month in April. How is it that I was still being charged for March expenditures in May? Although the amount for March was trivial, 0.185 KD = $0.65, I was still concerned about what seemed to me to be an error. So I asked the employee to explain to me how this cost was derived. He tried to explain and searched through my account records to find an answer but couldn’t. So he called a co-worker who had more experience to find an answer. After some looking through the account and printing out details of past expenditures, her conclusion was that it was a mistake and I should file a complaint. I said ok, let me file it now. But the catch was that I needed my uncle, the owner of the account, and his civil ID and I had to come tomorrow to do it. Now I didn’t want to bother my uncle with wasting his time to come to MTC to fight over $0.65, so I said that was unacceptable solution. I asked, “Why do I need my uncle to file a complaint so that an accountant can explain my bill to me and correct whatever mistake there is?” I asked her if I could speak to the manager.

A few minutes later, the manager came and asked what the problem is. I told him that all I want is an explanation of my bill, an explanation of where the cost from March came from. After looking through my account, he said that there was no mistake, disagreeing with the previous co-worker. However, he wasn’t able to explain me where the $0.65 came from. Was it for text messaging or for going over my monthly credit? By this point, the place was empty and had closed for the evening. A fourth employee, aroused by the commotion and curious as to why I had not left yet, asked me what the problem was. I explained for the fourth time that all I want is an explanation of my bill. After looking around she was able to give me a sufficient answer, finally. She explained that the bill I owed in March was 20.185 KD but when I came to pay it in April, the agent I dealt with rounded down and charged me only 20 KD, leaving the remaining 0.185 KD to roll over to the subsequent month and hence appearing on my bill in May. She explained to me rounding down a bill is a common practice among the employees and that she does it herself as well. The reason: it makes for easier paying. That is because most customers pay in cash, unlike me, and therefore not dealing in coins is easier. Nevertheless, I found this custom to be a great annoyance as I wasn’t asked if I wanted to round down my bill in addition to the fact I was paying by credit card and hence I wouldn’t deal with coins anyway.

In the end, it took one hour and 45 minutes, 16 print outs detailing different aspects of my account history, and 4 different employees to finally get an explanation for the charge of $0.65. What complete and utter incompetence! I was no longer frustrated and angry at the employees. Rather I truly felt sorry for them, for their lack of intelligence and inadequate training.

I was beginning to see how these inconveniences and annoyances that occur when dealing with businesses and even bureaucracies in the Middle East was a larger symptom of the dysfunctions of a culture, a culture whose work ethic did not call people to the highest standards of service, and a mentality that seemed stuck in a system where takes knowing someone to get things done.

Thus, when I remember passing through the Qatar Airport in May and the American middle-aged gentleman with military cropped hair sternly but clearing stating, “That is dishonest,” to the cashier at a bookshop, when he saw the price of the book he wished to purchase rung up for a much higher price than what was on the price tag, I could empathize with those same feelings of aggravation. When will the situation improve? I hope sooner than later.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Is Omotic Afroasiatic?

Omotic, a small group of non-Cushitic, non-Semitic languages spoken in the highlands of Ethiopia, has always been the odd one out in Afroasiatic; by anyone's tree it is the first to have split off, and the noted Chadicist Paul Newman expressed scepticism about its membership in the family. I know little about Omotic, or Cushitic for that matter, but after reading a few sketch grammars in Omotic Language Studies , I found it very difficult to imagine these languages as Afro-Asiatic; with Berber or Hausa or Beja or Semitic the cognates are instantly visible, but none of the most familiar grammatical morphemes or lexical items seemed to be present. However, a paper I just came across by Rolf Theil is the first I've seen to present an argument against the hypothesis, and a pretty good one at that. There are parts I would question - for example, the suggestion that pronouns are unreliable (they are conspicuously unreliable in regions where extensive politeness systems have developed, like East and Southeast Asia, but I didn't think highland Ethiopia fell in that category) - but the overall argumentation seems good. In particular, the attempt to show that a roughly equal number of similarities can be observed between Omotic and families other than Afro-Asiatic is on the right track - if Omotic were to have more similarities with Afro-Asiatic than with any other family, then merely pointing out problems with some of those similarities would be inadequate. I'll be interested to see the reactions of people better acquainted with the family.

On another note, I passed my upgrade presentation yesterday - yay!

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Are we prepared?

SalamsI woke up this morning to see the sun was beaming in through my window. Seeing as it is also a really relaxing and refreshing walk through the park as part of my journey to work, I decided to walk it there today. A huge plus point is that I also get to have more time in the company of Shaykh Juhani’s Qur’an tilawat.At work, about mid way through the morning the thunderstorms started. Ooops,

Monday, June 18, 2007

Being, the oppressed

NOTE: Original post by Salam Adil restored after a little "Konfusion".

They say "If you go looking for trouble, you will find it". April Girls goes looking for beauty and finds it in abundance. She introduces herself as:
I believe in God, in humanity, in non-violent communication and in a global-unity-in-diversity that allows each and every culture its own specialness, while setting them all in the context of a universal care and fairness that honors the uniqueness of each.
And she takes a unique perspective on world events. Here she writes about the second bombing of the Samarra shrine:
There are 6,601,676,326 ways to God. (Right now.) That many ways to worship, to think, to talk, to act, to take in this world. Has that not been realized? So what is with all this 'holier than thou' attitudes running rampant? And on a universal level I have to add! What is going on? Do you not believe you are walking on the One True Path? Is that not enough? Does your path force you to hurt, rape, murder and destroy this planet?

Ugaritic inscription


Last weekend I got a chance to indulge my longstanding passion for ancient Semitic languages at the Louvre. The Ugaritic collection was, as you might expect, especially good; I took many photographs, including this particularly clear one here, a ceremonial axe from the 13th or 12th century BC. Since the Ugaritic alphabet only contained some 30 letters, it's easy enough to read the inscription (turn it 90 degrees counterclockwise), although no word dividers are present:

xrṣn rb khnm

which the museum caption translates as "la hache du Grand Prêtre". xrṣn is presumably "axe"; I can't find it in my small dictionary, but it looks like it might be related to xurāṣ "gold" (itself cognate not only to Hebrew ḥarūṣ, but also to Greek chrysos, a Semitic loanword.) rabb- means "great one", identical to Arabic ربّ "lord" and cognate to Hebrew rav "great one; rabbi". kāhin- is "priest", identical to the Arabic كاهن "soothsayer" and cognate to Hebrew kohen "priest" - yes, the same word from which the surname "Cohen" comes from. -īm is the oblique plural, identical to Hebrew -īm (which however is no longer inflected for case) and cognate to Arabic -īn. Once you start looking, it's so easy to spot the connections between Semitic languages; no wonder people a thousand years ago noticed.

Sunday, June 17, 2007

More Blogs

1. Last of Iraqis: Iraqi dentist who is a relative of Zeyad, still living in Iraq, and that's a big plus. A solid blog with perhaps the best blog-coverage so far of the 2nd Askari incident, as well as an interesting video of Adhamiya. Blogs dilligently.
2. Kurdistan Diary: Okay, don't flame me for this but Kurdistan is still part of Iraq at least nominally so far, this one anyway has interesting stuff to say, starting with this unusual post about wanting to fight for the troublesome PKK.
3. Check out this another Kurdish blog from an engineer in Irbil, The World Has Another Face, however if he didn't say he is Kurdish you would hardly recognize it, filled with the same emotions and sentiments for Iraq as any other normal Iraqi, this blog is mostly poems written in Arabic, he has another blog, which is mentioned on his sidebar, which is filled with interesting pictures.

I also added the new blog URL for 3eeraqimedic, who deleted her blog on a panic moment but we managed to persuade her otherwise.

Saturday, June 16, 2007

Most Sectarian Blog Ever - Revisited

Following on from The Kid declaring The Shaqawa to be 'The Most Sectarian Blog Ever' it is time to revisit this award in light of the last blog I reviewed.

Having written a positive post about Layla Anwar's blog An Arab Woman Blues it is time for some balance. When I reviewed her blog for the previous post I just read through a couple of posts and thought "she has issues but that's OK." Then I wondered ... this blog has been going on for a year now why on earth has no other IraqBlogCount member picked it up.

A short scan through her archive and I realized... Layla Anwar represents a part of Iraqi society that most ordinary Iraqi's would rather block out or pass on as not Iraqi. Her blog blatantly and crudely embodies the fanatical pro-Saddam sect that dogged the existence of nearly every Iraqi with ties to their country. And sectarian she is. You see, during the thirty years of Saddam's reign he built around his personality cult his own sect just as fanatical as any Shia or Sunni extremists that makes life in Baghdad hell for ordinary Iraqis.

What interests me is that our two most-sectarian bloggers have much more in common than they would like to admit.

A reverential love for their sect leader....

Here Layla is writing to Saddam:
I will address you as Saddam Hussein, Sir.
Even though I still consider you to be the legitimate President of Iraq, allow me not to use any formalities here. Let us forget titles , ranks and the rest . ... I don't care what they say about You . The misuses and abuses of power, the Dujails, the Anfals and the rest of the well knitted pieces of grossly exaggerated melodramas. I know one Truth Sir,You stayed in Iraq and did not run away like the rest.
And here is Shaqawa writing about Hakim:
Hakim is of course the leader of SIIC, the largest group of the largest list in parliament. So he is very powerful. He is the son of the Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Mohsen al-Hakim, who was the most important leader of the Shi’a before Sayyid Abul-Qasim al-Khoei and Sayyid Ali al-Sistani. ... Of course there are so many sad stories in Iraq. Hakim getting sick is just one thing out of very many... I think there are some very good things about Hakim and also if Hakim is not acting as a leader for Iraq because of his health, it is bad for the Iraqi people
A pathological hatred of the opposition...

Compare...
Tawafuq MP Adnan al-Dulaimi ... this son of a bitch is suspected of crimes far beyond his most visible criminal act of wearing a stupid hat.
with...
Seems that the man in black, the turbaned, psychotic, farce called Muqtada al Sadr has returned as the Savior of Iraq.
And the irony that both bloggers do not consider themselves Sectarian. Layla talks proudly of her Shia roots while Shaqawa will write of his objectivity.

But, the real question is who wins. Well, after Layla's fawning letter to Saddam and labelling of Basra as an Iranian enclave; I am sorry Shaqawa you are going to have to hand over your award!

Friday, June 15, 2007

The Omars

The what? I hear you all ask. 'The Omars' is Dubai Drama Group's version of the Oscars, in which awards are given for Best This, Best That and Best T'other. It's a tradition, or an old charter, or something.

The first Omars were held about 10 or 11 years ago, and every year thereafter until the group got sick 3-4 years ago. Now in its resurgent splendour (which has happened largely due to us being able to use DUCTAC rather than previous wildly unsuitable venues), the DDG is back, big time. We fully expect TV coverage from CNN and BBC World for tonight's ticket-only, sold-out, secret-location event.

The dress code is 'look divine'. BetterArf, therefore, is going as herself, a Goddess. And I may be going dressed in elegant swathes of exotic cloth á la Muammar Gaddafi because the Tux rental shop on Diyafah Street, Satwa, has disappeared without trace. Grr.

Anyway, Keefieboy is looking forward to a terrific evening of fun and silliness. And the resurgence of the DDG is one of the things that we will definitely be missing about Dubai as we pack up our troubles in the old 20-foot-container bag.

Topik 20: FASADA atau AFSADA? NAZALA atau ANZALA?

Bismillahirrahmaanirrahiim

Baiklah... topik yang lalu pertanyaan ini sudah dimunculkan. Kita bahas dalam topik ini ya... Insya Allah.

Sebagaimana telah disinggung sedikit, hampir semua kata kerja dalam bahasa Arab terdiri dari 3 huruf. Beda dong ya sama bahasa Indonesia. Kata kerja "mempersatukan" dalam bahasa kita "asal" katanya (root) adalah satu (4 huruf). Kata "satu" ini mendapat awalan mem-per dan akhiran an. Banyak sekali orang asing yang sangat kesulitan dengan aturan imbuhan (awalan + akhiran) dalam bahasa Indonesia ini. Misalkan dalam tata bahasa Indonesia disebutkan:

me-xx-kan : membuat sesuatu menjadi xx
memper-xx-kan : membuat sesuatu menjadi saling ber-xx

maka,
me-satu-kan atau menyatukan (asimilasi) : membuat sesuatu menjadi satu
memper-satu-kan : membuat sesuatu saling bersatu

Nah, dalam bahasa Arab kata kerja juga mendapat imbuhan yang merubah arti. Dalam bahasa Arab proses penambahan imbuhan ini baik berupa awalan, sisipan, atau akhiran akan membentuk kata kerja baru yang disebut Kata Kerja Turunan (KKT).

Ada 12 jenis kata kerja turunan dalam bahasa Arab, akan tetapi yang paling sering digunakan hanya ada 8. Insya Allah kita akan bahas satu persatu nanti.

Oke biar gak bertele-tele kita akan kasih satu contoh. Kata kerja NAZALA نزل adalah kata kerja dasar (kadang disebut juga kata kerja asal, atau root word). NAZALA نزل artinya turun. Harap diingat lagi pelajaran-pelajaran sebelumnya yaitu kata kerja asal selalu bentuknya past tense dengan pelaku Dia laki-laki.Kita sudah jelaskan mengenai hal tersebut pada topik KKL (kata kerja lampau). Silahkan baca-baca lagi topik 1 s/d 5. Dengan aturan ini maka NAZALA نزل arti harfiahnya Dia turun.

Oh ya sebelum lupa, salah satu keunikan bahasa Arab adalah bahwa pada suatu kata kerja, pasti melekat siapa pelakunya. Contoh NAZALA artinya turun. Siapa pelakunya? Karena ini kata kerja asal (root) maka pelakunya adalah Dia laki-laki. Bagaimana kalau pelakunya saya, misalkan dalam kalimat:

"saya turun". Bahasa arabnya NAZALTU نزلتُ

Perhatikan: saya turun (2 kata) dalam bahasa arab hanya menjadi satu kata NAZALTU (inilah salah satu alasan mengapa terjemahan buku bahasa arab ke bahasa Indonesia menjadi lebih tebal dari buku aslinya).

Baiklah, kembali ke topik utama.

Kalau saya mau katakan "dia turun", maka kata turun disini tidak memerlukan objek. Beda kasusnya kalau saya sebut "dia makan", maka kata makan disini butuh objek (penderita). Saya bisa mengatakan "dia makan nasi". Kata nasi disini adalah objeknya.

Kalau begitu kata kerja dapat kita bagi menjadi kata kerja yang perlu objek dan kata kerja yang tidak perlu objek.

Sekarang kalau saya bertanya,bagaimana teknik mengubah kata kerja yang tidak perlu objek menjadi kata kerja yang perlu objek?

Proses pengubahan ini dalam bahasa arab disebut proses membentuk Kata Kerja Turunan Pertama atau KKT I

KKT I
Kata turun atau NAZALA, kalau saya ubah kata turun menjadi menurunkan, maka inilah yang disebut KKT I. Kenapa? Karena kata "turun" adalah kata kerja tidak perlu objek, dan kata "menurunkan" adalah kata kerja yang perlu objek.

Contohnya:
Dia turun : NAZALA نزل
Dia menurunkan buku: ANZALA AL-KITAABA أنزل الكتابَ

Kata turun dalam kalimat pertama tidak perlu objek. Tapi kata kerja pada kalimat kedua memerlukan objek.

Bagaimana prosesnya membentuk KKT I? Ternyata cukup sederhana. Kita hanya perlu menambahkan alif didepan kata kerja asal yang 3huruf. Huruf pertama sukunkan, huruh kedua dan ketiga fathahkan.

Sehingga:
nazala : dia turun نزل
anzala :dia menurunkan (sesuatu) أنزل

Allah menurunkan Quran : Allahu anzala al-quraana الله أنزل القرأن
Sama juga halnya dengan:

karuma : dia mulia كرم
akrama : dia memuliakan (seseorang) أكرم

Dia memuliakan ustadznya : akrama ustaazahu أكر م أستاذه

Atau contoh lain:
fasada: dia rusak فسد
afsada: dia merusakkan (sesuatu) أفسد

Dia merusakkan bumi : afsada al-ardha أفسد الأرض

Demikianlah telah kita bahas KKT I. Sebagai info tambahan bentuk kata kerja turunan tipe I (KKT I) ini cukup banyak ditemukan dalam Al-Quran. Untuk lebih mendalami KKT I ini insya Allah dua topik didepan akan mengkaji lebih dalam bentuk KKT I ini.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Salaah

Salaahby AhmedTo the Masjid we goCome sun, rain or snowFive times a dayMuslims are obliged to prayWe prepare by doing ablutionAll the while engaging in devotionWith our hearts inclined we do standTo obey Almighty Allah’s commandWe raise our hands and say takbeerSalah starts and our worries disappearBeautiful recitation of the Qur’an is heardOur hearts captivated by these blessed wordsStanding,

An Arab Woman's Blues

Layla Anwar gives the world a piece of her mind in beautifully powerful prose that leaves you simply awestruck. One commenter summed her blog up in one word - "wow". Here are her words on the plight of Iraqi women:
You know what woman battering is don't you?

It is basically when a man beats, strikes, punches, kicks, pounds...a woman and sometimes severly enough that she ends up in hospital and sometimes severly enough to bring about her death.

It is interesting to note that the verb "to batter" is also used in cooking i.e to make a dough. The French have similar anologies between battering a woman and food. They would say he turned her into a "compote".(compote is cooked fruits). Ditto for Arabic expressions. They would say he broke her bones, they became like "soup"...

Am sure other "cultures" have more analogies of the same sort. I will leave it to you to dig up some expressions that you are familiar with, along the same lines...

Did you notice something here? A common trait in the use of words, in the use of language?

It is as if they allude to render that "thing" liquefied, easily moulded, soft to the palate...
In sum, easily mixed and easily digestible. I will also leave it to you to make further associations on the same theme.

No society is immune from woman battering. I will not dwell on figures now. All societies are guilty of it. East and West, equally guilty. And R.Kipling was wrong when he said that East and West shall never meet. They do meet. They met. They met in Iraq.

They met in Iraq, the land, the earth, the Mother...
They also met and agreed on her daughters bodies - Iraqi Women.

That body which, since the "liberation", has become a public commodity. A public thing. A thing to be veiled, a thing to be controlled, a thing to be ordered about, a thing to be disposed of, a thing to be battered, moulded, shaped into a liquefied, soft, yielding thing. A digestible thing.

Yes, batter, pound, strike, punch, beat, rape, torture, imprison...that "thing" and ultimately dispose of it, annihilate it.

Both "East and West" are bent on the destruction of Iraqi women.
It is as if, plundered, occupied Iraq has become the center point, the "lieu" where these forces can pour out their venom, their deep hatred, their frustrated instincts, their perversities...In sum their collective misogyny.

Danger Zone

A new technology blog from Iraq! Everything is here from controlling USB devices without kernel modules in Linux to finding good cheep hotels and Internet access in Basra.

Hasan worked in Qatar and moved back to Iraq after his contract ended. He chose Basra because Baghdad is just too dangerous. Good luck and keep posting we need to hear more from that city. He writes:

unlike Baghdad , Basrah is full of life. The streets are always crowded and you don't have to take the same cautions like in Baghdad.

Police are army checkpoints are everywhere in the city which makes you feel safe , I saw some British patrols during the day there , I tried to avoid them. But they looked more friendly than the American army.

Brothers in Law

Reading a Language Log post I just noticed a rather laughable argument apparently being used in the Jose Padilla trial (according to AP):
FBI wiretaps played in court for jurors contain frequent references to "brothers," which prosecutors say means mujahedeen fighters looking for a battle. Defense lawyers contend the term is a common expression among male Muslims.
If the AP article has correctly represented the prosecution argument, they must be either absolutely desperate or thoroughly unqualified. As the defense correctly states, "brother" is fairly commonly used between male Muslims, in accordance with a hadith saying that "A Muslim is the brother of a Muslim"; it carries absolutely no implication of being a fighter. Google will turn up numerous examples; for an illustrative sample, consider this slightly frivolous MPAC forum discussion about finding motivational speakers, where other Muslims are called by the terms "brs", "bros", "akhee" (Arabic for "my brother"), and "Brother".

However, in fairness, other reports indicate that the prosecution claims that the defendants used some kind of system of codewords: they claim innocuous words like "picnics", "football", and "marriage" were used with much more sinister intended meanings. If their claim is that "brother" meant "fighter looking for battle" in this alleged code, as opposed to in normal usage, then that might not be completely absurd; I haven't found any transcripts, so I can't attempt to evaluate the plausibility of such a claim.

The usual arguments about the correct translation of "jihad" and "Allah" apparently came up as well - I don't think I'll bother adding to the thousands of web pages discussing that issue.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Salik Day Approaches

Much has been written in the press and in the blogs (Grumpy Goat, Half Man Half Beer, Secret Dubai) about the impending launch (and hopefully rapid sinking) of 'Salik', the imbecilic road toll scheme that is due to start operating near Garhoud Bridge and Mall of the Emirates on July 1st. There have been public spats between the Police and the RTA about it. Gulf News in the last few days has reported the unanimously unfavourable opinions of many Dubai residents. In the keep-your-head-down-and-don't-rock-the-boat culture of Dubai, this is not far from open rebellion.

I enjoyed this comment:

Salah Bu Farousha, Traffic Public Prosecutor, said he supports Salik, but has reservations.
"It is a trial and we should not make premature conclusions. If people do not cooperate, it will be a problem. I am sure RTA has approved this project after thorough studies. Recently traffic police were asked if they are ready in case of traffic congestions and they said yes they are ready," he said.


Do I detect a note of irony in the above? And this is the first time I've heard the scheme described as a trial. Nice one Salah - hopefully the RTA will adopt this terminology so they won't be too embarrassed when either Sheikh Mohammed or the sheer unworkability of Salik forces them to postpone the damn thing.

Not wishing to gloat or anything, but I will be out of Dubai about a week after the chaos mayhem bedlam scheme starts. But I do feel that every word of justification uttered by the TRA on this subject is disingenuous tosh. The object of this scheme is nothing more or less than to extract more money from drivers. If it were otherwise then the scheme would only operate at peak times, rather than the proposed 24 hours a day. There are zero viable transport alternatives available. Having recently tried to use the 8A bus 'service' from the Gardens to Media City, I have found the timetabling to be a cynical work of fiction. If you use a taxi, you'll have to pay the toll. The Metro is still two years away.

The saddest thing about this disaster-in-the-making is the blinkered attitude of RTA management. It will cause much more congestion at peak time as thousands upon thousands of cars try to get off SZR before going under a toll gantry. Once you've passed the toll gate, you will be able to hurtle along at 120 kph. But before you get to that you will be stuck in the queue of people trying to get off the road because they do not want to pay the toll - at Mall of the Emirates this will mean SEVEN lanes of traffic trying to organise itself into TWO lanes for the last free exit. There will be chaos like you've never seen before - and we've all seen some chaos on Dubai's roads. Many roads in Bur Dubai which are already overloaded, will grind to a complete halt. Al Wasl Road, Jumeirah Road and Al Sufouh Road will all be jammed solid. Emirates Road and Al Khail Road are already over capacity.

And yet the TRA will claim a great success because the stretches of road immediately before and after the toll gates will show a huge reduction in traffic.

If this is indeed about money, why not slap a few hundred dirhams on the annual vehicle registration fee? I don't think people actually mind paying a bit of money extra if they know it helps to improve the infrastructure. But to have to pay extra money to join a scheme that is ABSOLUTELY GUARANTEED TO INCREASE CONGESTION is madness, pure and simple.

Bad to the Bone

Just what the Iraqi blogodrome needs another young woman with attitude. Glory Rose gives us the stream of conscience that passes through her mind from day to day in her blog 3adma (which is Arabic for bone). She introduces herself as "a half Iraqi half Egyptian girl living in Cairo, studying medicine, having a pretty much messed up life".

Is a TESOL/TEFL Course Right for You?














As most people already know The TESOL(Teaching English to Students of Other Languages) Certificate is designed to allow native English speakers to travel to different parts of the world (where English is in demand) and teach English. The biggest benefit is you can travel and see the world and earn money along the way to support this travel lust. All of this is essentially true however what I have defined above is not for everyone. Or more specifically, not for everyone's goals.

Who is this Certifcate for?

Native or Near Native English speakers 21 or over in good health

I use the age of 21 because in many countries, a university degree is required for being issued a work visa. However this is not the case for all countries. Although it may require you to work a bit harder in some countries to find a job.

There is no age limit as long as the person in question is in good physical and mental condition. Almost every course, we get a few people over fifty which adds to the quality of the course.

People who want to live in a country other than their own

The TESOL Certificate really is designed to teach in a non-native English speaking country. That said, due to the lack of ESOL teachers in the United States and England, it is possible to find an ESL position in your home country provided you agree to continue your education in the field. I do have former expatriate friends who have returned home and found positions without much difficulty.

People who are able to spend at least one year in a given country and teach English

The idea of travelling the world and teaching English conjures up romantic images for many people. They imagine themselves as free spirits who are in one country one day and who could end up in a completely different part of the world the next.

While a lot of that is true, know that teaching contracts are typically one year, sometimes two. Yes contracts can be broken but if you are some one who chronically leaves after a few months, you'll find it increasingly difficult to get the next job. Yes, contracts cramp our inner free sprit but understand that there are few countries that offer short term work (3-4 months)that pays. Plan to commit to at least a year in one place.

People who want an ESL teaching position to support only themselves and maybe one other person

We do not join the ESL biz to become rich or to support an entire family by ourselves. We do it to spend a long time outside of our home country. That said no matter which country we look at, ESL teachers are well-paid as is proportionate to the standard of living in the host country. It is enough to live comfortably on for one person, maybe two, assuming the second person is not too demanding.

People who just want to teach a little English and travel, that's all

If you are looking to climb a corporate ladder, rest assured there isn't one in the ESL jungle. Well, let's just say it's a short one. What this means is, don't take an ESL position expecting promotions, significant pay raises and title positions. You will be hired as a teacher and after a few years you will still be a teacher. Yes, its possible to rise to head teacher and get a little more money. It is possible to get more trainning and make attempts at being a director of studies but that is about it along the direct line from English teacher.

Monday, June 11, 2007

Topik 19: Al-Baqaroh 12 & Manfaat Kamus

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim

Alhamdulillah kita sudah sampai pada Al-Baqaroh ayat 11. Terakhir kita "terhenti" di ayat ini kan (lihat topik 16). Cukup panjang kita bahas ayat 11 ini sampai ke Topik 18. Kali ini kita mencoba baranjak maju ke ayat selanjutnya, yaitu ayat 12.

Kita cuplik ayat 12 ini:




Kita coba terjemahkan:

الا - alaa : ingatlah (dihafalkan saja)
ان - inna : sesungguhnya (akan dibahas dalam bab Harf Inna)
هم - hum : mereka
هم - hum : mereka (sebagai fa'il/pelaku)--> dibaca humu, karena setelahnya ada AL
المفسدون - al mufsiduuna : orang-orang yang berbuat kerusakan (fa'il)
و - wa : dan (terkadang bisa berarti tetapi)
لكن - la kinna : akan tetapi (akan kita bahas dalam bab Harf Inna)
لا - laa : tidak
يشعرون : mereka senantiasa (sedang) menyadari

Ingatlah, sesungguhnya mereka(lah) orang-orang yang berbuat kerusakan, akan tetapi tidak(lah) mereka (sedang) menyadari(nya).

Kita coba bahas ya.

Ada satu kata kerja (fi'il) dalam ayat ini yaitu : يشعرون - yas'uruuna : mereka sedang menyadari. Sisanya adalah isim dan harf. Isim yang menarik untuk dibahas adalah المفسدون - al mufsiduuna, dalam bentuk ma'rifah (spesifik), jika kita buang alif-lam menjadi مفسدون - mufsiduuna, dalam bentuk nakiroh (umum).

Oke kita bahas dua topik itu saja ya... Baiklah:

Kata يشعرون

Lihat pelajaran-pelajaran sebelumnya. Kita dihadapkan dengan kata kerja. Bagaimana tahunya dong mas? Sebenarnya sudah diajarkan dalam topik yang lalu, tapi tidak ada salahnya diulang disini. Oke tandanya bahwa dia itu kata kerja:
1. Dia diawali ya diakhiri waw nun.( يـ ... ون )
2. Ingat kembali bila ada pasangan YA, WAW, NUN itu merupakan ciri yang kuat dari fi'il mudhori' (KKS)
3. Arti dari KKS yang ada YA, WAW, NUN itu : mereka sedang ... kata-kerja
4. Jika kita buang YA, WAW, NUN, maka akan lahir kata kerja aslinya.

Kita elaborasi sedikit teknik ini:
Kata يشعرون kalau kita buang YA, WAW, NUN, maka tersisa شعر - sy 'u ru . Tinggal tiga kata: SYIN, 'AIN, RA.

Beberapa waktu yang lalu ada yang email ke alamat yahoo saya, menanyakan bagaimana caranya kita tahu harokat suatu huruf. Misal kita dikasih 3 huruf, arab gundul, شعر , nah bagaimana cara membacanya?

Oke kita bisa dapatkan banyak kemungkinan:
SYA 'A RA
SYA 'A RI
SYA 'A RU

SYA 'I RA
SYA 'I RI
SYA 'I RU

dst, banyak sekali kemungkinannya. Akan tetapi yang umum adalah biasanya (mayoritas) kata kerja asli yang terdiri dari tiga huruf itu harokatnya fathah semua, sehingga yang kita gunakan adalah:

شعر - sya 'a ra

untuk kepastian harokat tersebut kita perlu kamus (periksa di kamus). Di kamus akan ada entri berikut

شعر - يشعر : sya'a ra (KKL) - yas 'u ru (KKS) yang bisa berarti:
1. bersyair
2. menyadari / mengetahui

Maka kita pilih yang lebih tepat arti yang no. 2.

Disini dapat kita lihat arti pentingnya kamus bahasa Arab:
Jika kita sudah dapat akar kata (3 huruf) seperti SYIN 'AIN RA diatas, maka kita bisa mencari tahu 3 hal:
1. Kita bisa tahu apa KKL (Kata Kerja Lampau / fi'il madhy)
2. Kita bisa tahu apa KKS (Kata Kerja Sedang / fi'il mudhori')
3. Kita bisa tahu harokat untuk KKL dan KKS nya

Kembali lagi ke kasus diatas, kata يشعرون dalam Al-Baqaroh 12, jika kita pecah:
شعر - sya 'a ra : dia telah mengetahui
يشعر - yas 'u ru : dia sedang mengetahui
يشعرون - yas 'u ruu na : mereka sedang mengetahui

Oke mudah-mudahan jelas ya pren...

Sekarang kita masuk ke topik selanjutnya yaitu:

Kata al-mufsiduuna المفسدون

Kata al-mufsiduuna, ini adalah kata benda. Why? Jawabannya telah dijelaskan di topik-topik yang lalu, tapi kita ulangi saja disini ya:

1. Adanya huruf alif dan lam, ciri kata benda
2. Jikapun alif lam dibuang maka tinggal مفسدون - mufsiduuna, maka adanya MIM ... WAW NUN, maka ini ciri kata benda orang

Oke sekarang kita coba urai lagi...

Kata مفسدون - mufsiduuna, apa akar katanya?

Oke berikut kita coba teknik mencari akar kata untuk kata al-mufsiduun diatas:

Pertama-tama adanya MIM ... WAW NUN, berarti ciri dari kata benda orang, yang bisa berarti orang yang ...kata-kerja.

Oke kalau kita buang MIM, YA, NUN maka akan tersisa huruf FA SIN DAL.

فسد , sekali lagi, setelah proses pembuangan sebagian huruf kita tidak bisa langsung menentukan harokat masing-masing huruf bisa: fasada, fasadi, fasadu, fasuda, dst.

Lalu mana yang harus dipilih? Ini menjadi satu persoalan. Persoalan ke dua adalah, apakah akar kata al-mufsiduuna itu FASADA atau AFSADA? Loh apa lagi nih... bingung... biar gak bingung, Insya Allah temukan jawabannya dalam topik berikut, kita akan bahas mengenai topik DSK (Dhommah, Sukun, Kasroh), yang mana pola ini banyak sekali kita temui dalam al-Quran. Sebagai bocoran saja untuk topik depan, kata kerja asli (yang terdiri dari tiga huruf) dalam bahasa arab mempunyai 12 bentuk turunan. Yang umum adalah 8 bentuk. Bentuk yang sangat sering muncul dalam Al-Quran adalah bentuk turunan I.

Contoh kata kerja berikut:
nazala: turun
anzala: menurunkan (bentuk turunan I)

Nah bentuk turunan I ini yang Insya Allah kita akan pelajari. Kita akan mencari tahu apakah kata yang dipakai dalam Al-Baqarah 12 ini (dalam mufsiduun) itu:

fasada
afsada (bentuk turunan I).

Insya Allah.

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani

Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani is one of the leading Islamic scholars living today. He is an expert in the fields of Islamic Jurisprudence, Economics, Hadith and Tasawwuf. Born in Deoband in 1362H(1943 CE), he graduated par excellence form Dars e Nizami at Darul Uloom, Karachi, Pakistan. Then he specialized in Islamic Jurisprudence under the guidance of his eminent father, Mufti Muhammad Shafi, the

Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Teach People Good

Abu Umama reported that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said,"Allah and His angels and the people of the heavens and the earth, even the ants in their rocks and the fish, pray for blessings on those who teach people good." [at-Tirmidhi]

Monday, June 4, 2007

You Know You've Been in Dubai Too Long When...

...the Government announces another amnesty for illegal residents. This is the third amnesty during our time here. They seem to be happening about every five years. There are two reasons for people being here illegally

1) They entered the country without any kind of visa, in which case they deserve everything they get, and

2) They had some kind of visa, but it expired and, for whatever reason, they did not leave.

We know lots of people who were caught in situation 2. The policy has always been that once your visa has expired, you are liable to a fine of Dhs 100 per day of your overstay. This very quickly builds up into a fine that nobody in this situation can pay. For example, say you had a job, but you were dismissed or the company closed down. Your residence visa gets cancelled. You have 30 days in which to leave the country. But you have bankrupted yourself to get here and you really do not want to leave just now. So you bust your guts trying to find a job. You have some good interviews and a couple of verbal offers. But you have to wait for those offers to turn into written offers.

This will always take time because the owner of the company or whoever is responsible is too busy/out of the country/too lazy. Your deadline comes and goes. You are taking a flyer, but you feel it is justified because very soon you will have a job offer, and that will turn into a job, and everything will be fine. Except, when the person responsible for making your written offer finally gets down to it, he decides he doesn't want you at salary xx,xxx per month, he's giving the job to the tea-boy at xxx per month. Now you are trapped. You have virtually no money, and you are already on day 15 of your overstay. You now have no choice but to hang on until you do get a job.

You (well maybe not you, but I) hear all kinds of stories about people who have surrendered themselves to the authorities. Of people (typically Asians) who are fined the full Dhs 100 per day for their entire overstay period, and are accommodated at HH's pleasure until they deign to pay the amount. Which of course they do not have, an so they languish in jail until somebody pays their fine or they get pardoned as part of a Ramadan clean-out. And others (typically westerners, but I'm not saying there's any racial bias here) who just get fined an admin fee and are able to sort themselves out for about Dhs 1,000.

I know of one Brit who had overstayed for about 15 years. He took advantage of the last amnesty, and the Immigration officials all wanted signed copies of his documents because they had never seen such an extreme case!

The daily fine policy has exactly the opposite effect to what it should have. You very quickly reach a point of no return, not out of malice, and not deliberately; but very quickly you find yourslef so deep in the mire that you cannot even dream about how you might get out of it. It forces people not to come forward and try to get their status sorted out. It discourages employers from hiring people with an overstay problem. It actually causes many more problems than it solves. And it makes it necessary to hold an amnesty every five years.

Topik 18: Tolonglah!

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim

Kita masih akan lanjutkan mengenai topik Fi'il Amr (Kata Kerja Perintah). Pada topik sebelumnya telah kita bahas 6 langkah mudah membentuk Fi'il Amr. Masih ingat kan? Gak ingat juga gak apa... Hehe... Topik kali ini akan kita lanjutkan lagi, pendalaman 6 langkah tsb.

Kita akan beri 2 contoh: yaitu menolong - nashoro نَصَرَ dan mempelajari/belajar - 'allama علّم

Contoh 1: نصر

Kita latih lagi 6 langkah tsb:
Langkah 1. KKL menolong --> NASHARA نصر
Langkah 2. KKS menolong --> YANSHURU ينصُرُ
Langkah 3. Buang YA --> NSHURU نْصُرُ
Langkah 4. Harokat akhir matikan --> NSHUR نصُرْ
Langkah 5. Harokat NUN sukun --> tambahkan alif --> Kemungkinan UNSHUR, INSHUR, atau ANSHUR
Langkah 6. Pilih UNSHUR, INSHUR, atau ANSHUR.

Kita berhenti sejenak disini. Kita dihadapkan dengan 3 pilihan. Dalam topik 18 ini, langkah ke 6 kita pertajam sbb:
6.1 Jika KKL terdiri dari 4 huruf, huruf pertama alif fathah, maka alif tambahan (hasil langkah 5) berharokat Fathah (lihat contoh AFSID : RUSAKLAH, pada topik 17).
6.2 Jika KKL bukan termasuk jenis 6.1, maka harokat Alif tambahan (hasil langkah 5) adalah:
- kasroh jika huruf KKS sebelum terakhir fathah atau kasrah
- dhommah jika huruf KKS sebelum terakhir dhommah

Wuih... mangkin puyeng aje nih ane... Bang... Tenang... Tenang... Kita akan beri 2 contoh untuk memudahkan (kelihatannya saja rumit, tapi kalau dilatih dengan contoh Insya Allah gak seserem yang dibayangkan)... Oke kembali kita ke topik NASHARO. Kita sudah sampai pada langkah ke 5, dengan memberikan pilihan: UNSHUR, INSHUR, atau ANSHUR.

Mari kita terapkan rumus 6.1 dan 6.2

6.1 KKL dari MENOLONG adalah NASHARA نصر . KKL adalah 3 huruf. Sehingga rumus 6.1 ini tidak berlaku, karena rumus ini hanya berlaku untuk KKL 4 huruf, huruf pertama adalah alif berharokat fathah. Kalau demikian lanjut ke 6.2

6.2 KKL bukan termasuk jenis 6.1, maka kita tinggal melihat harokat huruf sebelum akhir dari KKSnya. Okeh... KKS dari NASHARO adalah YANSHURU, huruf terakhir dari ينصرadalah RO, huruf sebelum akhir adalah SHOD. ينصُر. Harokat SHOD apa???? Harokat SHOD dhommah ( ُ ). Jika dhommah, maka alif tambahan (hasil langkah 5) juga berharikat dhommah. Sehingga menjadi انصر UNSHUR (bukan INSHUR, atau ANSHUR).

Jadi kita ringkas:
نصر - NASHARO : (dia telah) menolong --> KKL
ينصر - YANSHURU : (dia sedang) menolong --> KKS
لا تنصر - LA TANSHUR : (hai kamu) jangan menolong ! --> Perintah larangan
انصر - UNSHUR : (hai kamu) MENOLONGLAH! --> fi'il amer (PERINTAH)

Gimana Mas, jelas kan? Hmmm... rada ribet ya... Ya, namanya belajar, musti kudu bersusah-susah dikit. Jurus yang saya berikan ini sudah yang dipermudah loh... Bisa-bisa kalau Mas belajar dengan ustadz lain, rumus yang diberikan lebih susah hehe... Atau malah disuruh gapalin rumus?

Okeh... kita masuk ke contoh 2: 'ALLAMA (mempelajari/belajar)

Kita ulangi 6 langkah diatas.
1. KKL : 'ALLAMA علم
2. KKS : YU'ALLIMU يعلم
3. Buang YA: 'ALLIMU علِّمُ
4. Harokat akhir matikan: 'ALLIM علمْ
5. Harokat huruf awal, yaitu harokat 'AIN fathah, berarti rumus 5 tidak berlaku
6. Karena rumus 5 tidak berlaku maka rumus 6 juga tidak berlaku

Kesimpulan:
علّم - 'allama: (dia telah) memperlajari/belajar --> KKL
يعلم - yu'allimu: (dia sedang) belajar --> KKS
لا تعلم - laa tu'allim: (hai kamu) jangan belajar --> Kata kerja perintah larangan
علّم - 'allim (berhenti sampai langkah 4 diatas) : (hai kamu) Belajarlah! --> Fi'il amr.

Demikian dua contoh telah diberikan untuk mempertajam teknik menentukan fi'il amr. Insya Allah untuk contoh-contoh yang lain akan kita lanjutkan.

An Odd Encounter

It was around 8:20 pm when I left my house to get in my car to go to the gym. As I closed the gate behind me, I looked about the street before hopping into my car and reversing into the street from the pavement. Just as I was about to put the car in drive, a car approaches me from the left and flashes its light. It was a modest white car with a Saudi license plate. Many Saudis like coming to Kuwait or any easily accessible neighboring country for that matter, as a chance for many them to flee the strictures of their Wahhabi state.

I paused as the Saudi man, the only person in the car and the driver, came out to walk towards me. He appeared to be a youth in his mid 20s. I stepped out of my car and met him. I expected him to ask for directions or the house of so and so, but instead he started talking to me as if he knew me. He quickly picked up that I’m not a Kuwaiti from lack of use of the dialect. I asked him who he was looking for, but it turned out he was looking for me.

He said he wanted to ask me something but I didn’t catch at the time what he said was the reason for his hesitation as I didn’t know the Arabic verb he was using at the time. However, I looked up the word later and he was saying that he wasn’t sure if he could advance his proposal with me. After beating around the bush and telling him to just ask me what was in his mind. I wondered what it could be. Was it something illicit? He said that he is from the Saudi Kingdom and his father was sick at which point he made an indication to his stomach. He said he needed some help and wondered if I could be of some assistance.

I found this to be a very odd request. The young man was neatly dressed in the typical national dress of the dishdasha and associated headgear. He had a thin moustache and was polite. His car was modest, but there was nothing about him to indicate a lack of material goods or poverty. So I couldn’t understand why he was in essence begging me for money. I quickly replied that I was sorry and could not help him.

He then uttered a few sentences praising America and how he would like to travel there because the atmosphere or situation there is good. After that we departed and I continued to the gym. I wondered if his father was really sick why he would be coming to Kuwait to beg for money. Saudi Arabia has hospitals and a fairly decent health care system. But at the same time, I felt it was more likely to be a ploy or scam to perhaps obtain money for drugs.

Saturday, June 2, 2007

Popper, Sapir, and international auxiliary languages

I've been reading some of Karl Popper's work lately, and found it quite interesting (and clearly written, which one doesn't always expect of philosophers.) Both his political and his scientific writings are dominated by the same important theme: no one can get closer to the truth without being willing to put their beliefs to the test, and the more different people doing the testing, the less likely they are to overlook a flaw in the idea. Thus dictatorship and censorship - in any power structure, governmental or academic - are not just bad, but intrinsically prone to get worse results. I noticed that he took this view to have implications for language policy too:
The adoption of rationalism implies, moreover, that there is a common medium of communication, a common language of reason; it establishes something like a moral obligation towards that language, the obligation to keep up standards of clarity and to use it in such a way that it can retain its function as a vehicle of argument. That is to say, to use it plainly; to use it as an instrument of rational communication, of significant information, rather than as a means of 'self-expression', as the vicious romantic jargon of most of our educationists has it. (It is characteristic of the modern romantic hysteria that it combines Hegelian collectivism concerning 'reason' with an excessive individualism concerning 'emotions': thus the emphasis on language as a means of self-expression instead of a means of communication.) (Karl Popper, The Open Society and its Enemies vol. II: Hegel and Marx, Routledge 1945/2003, p. 264)
While this quote is mainly about how you should use a given language, rather than which language to use, it clearly suggests the desirability of some international language, and Sapir's idea of how such a language should be built happens to be rather Popperian in spirit:
It [the international auxiliary language] must, ideally, be as superior to any accepted language as the mathematical method of expressing quantities and relations between quantities is to the more lumbering means of expressing these quantities and relations in verbal form. This is, undoubtedly, an ideal which can never be reached, but ideals are not meant to be reached; they simply indicate the direction of movement. (p. 51)... National languages are all huge systems of vested interests which sullenly resist critical enquiry... (p.60) Intelligent men should not allow themselves to become international language doctrinaires. They should do all they can to keep the problem experimental, welcoming criticism at every point and trusting to the gradual emergence of an international language that is a fit medium for the modern spirit. (p. 64, Edward Sapir, "International Auxiliary Language" in Culture, Language, and Personality, Berkeley: University of California)
So it is all the more ironic to find that Popper's paragraph continues with this:
And it implies the recognition that mankind is united by the fact that our different mother tongues, in so far as they are rational, can be translated into one another. It recognizes the unity of human reason.
This seems to imply that linguistic diversity is worthless: if something is rational, it can be explained in any language, and if it can't be explained to me in my language, it must be irrational. I rather suspect that the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis was partly intended as a rebuttal to this sort of argument. If your language tends to blind you to the differences in logical form between sentences with superficially identical structures (his example in the very essay quoted above is the perfective/imperfective distinction in English) and makes it easy to spot the differences between ones with different structures, then the ideal auxiliary language should allow you to express logical form as unambiguously as possible; and to be able to make a language free of your own linguistic biases and blind spots, you will have to carefully study many languages of as many different types as possible.

Of course, that begs the question: is there such a thing as an overall better language, or is that whole approach misconceived? Algebraic notation is unquestionably superior to English for describing physical laws, but it's not a very effective way to make a grocery list. In practice, people use different languages, and different technical vocabularies embedded in the same language, for different purposes.