This is Very Disturbing to Me

Among the plethora of disturbing things that seem to keep coming at us regularly these days. An excerpt from a Reuters article regarding the Madoff scandal:

Even investors who managed to pull their funds out of Madoff's firm two years ago, or more, may have to return money, said Jeff Marwil, a partner at law firm Winston & Strawn, which is representing a group of Madoff investors.

"It's about the equalization of harm," Marwil said.

CLAWING BACK LOSSES

Under U.S. bankruptcy code, investors that pulled money out of a fraudulent fund up to two years before it went under must give their money back, if they knew or should have known the fund was bogus, Winston & Strawn's Marwil said. And state law typically broadens that window to four to six years.

Marwil, who is representing the bankrupt Bayou Group of hedge funds, successfully took back funds from investors that had withdrawn money years before Bayou went under.

"Our view was there were sufficient red flags for any investor to know there was a problem at Bayou. I think a similar argument could be made here," Marwil said.

So my question is…how in god's name can you possibly argue that someone who was smart enough to pull money out of something (hence the "should have known" part of it) should in ANY WAY be responsible for helping out those who also "should have known".

Although I don't know why I'm at all surprised by this, when you consider that we've all been required to participate in the "equalization of harm" with the bailouts to the banks, homeowners and possibly the auto industry.

I may as well go live in Europe at this point. Oh wait, that's right…I am!! :-)

My thought for this morning

Try to always speak truth with respect and compassion.

KHAOS

A friend/coworker once gave me the nickname Khaos (a derivation of the word chaos obviously, and also transliterated greek for the goddess of air). He gave me this name because of my tendency to thrive on drama. I would get excited when there was upheaval in the office, liked to listen to the latest office rumors (and occasionally spread one or two myself, although never maliciously!), etc.

This nickname is appropriate in more ways than one, however. A trend seems to have developed back in 2002 when I was planning a trip to Madagascar and the country broke out in civil war. I had to cancel my trip and reschedule for the following summer, when the nation was once again fit for receiving visitors. Since then I've been in Burma when a small coup occurred, Turkey just before gunmen killed three cops at the US consulate in Istanbul, and now, as I prepare to move to Crete for six months, it looks as thought the citizenry of Greece has decided to revolt against the government. My dad jokes that if you want to topple a government, just invite me. Of course, I have nothing to do with any of these events (although the delusions of grandeur are somewhat fun to entertain); the world is just a chaotic place. But damn it...I really hope the Greeks get their shit together over the next few months. I'll still go if I can get a flight. But if I can't, then I'll go somewhere else. Turkey, maybe. Or Cyprus! Things have been pretty quiet there for a while...perhaps it's time for a little Khaos!!

Winner: Strangest Reproduction Ritual in the Animal Kingdom

A co-worker and I had a conversation today regarding which species has the strangest mating rituals. After considering the Black Widow spider, Praying Mantis, Binobo Monkey and whale, we decided that the garden slug takes top prize. This was copied and pasted from the following link: http://ifaq.wap.org/sex/sexandgardenslug.html

Sex and the Garden Slug

Now that it's garden season, here's an interesting tidbit from the Field Guide to the Slug.

Although slugs are hermaphroditic, each animal equipped with both male and female reproductive organs, they mate with themselves only if no other slugs are around. Given a choice, they seek partners with whom to trade genetic material, a move that, by favoring the passage of chromosomes from both parents to the offspring, nurtures a healthier pool of slug genes. The actual exchange of sperm is preceeded by an elaborate courtship ritual, which supposedly reduces the chance of two individuals of separate species mating and giving rise to hybrids.

During courtship, two slugs will circle each other ... with both partners engaged in ritualized bouts of lunging, nipping, and sideswiping with their tails. The two slugs may also display their disproportionately large sex organs. The great grey garden slug's penis is nearly half its total body length. In fact, penis size is reflected in the scientific name of one banana slug species: dolichophallus -- Latin for "long penis."

"The sight of a courting pair of slugs majestically circling one another ... while they solemnly wave their oversized penises overhead puts the most improbably athletic couples of Pompeii and Khajuraho into a more appropriate and severely diminished perspective," note researchers C. David Rollo and William G. Wellington. "Athletic" is an even more appropriate adjective for great grey garden slugs, which are able to copulate in midair, suspended by stretchy strands of mucus up to 17 3/4 inches long.

As courtship progresses, a banana slug pair intertwines ... stimulating each other for several more hours. Their genital areas swell as the pair move even closer together. Penetration takes place, then each slug alternately releases and receives sperm.

Now the slugs must disengage -- a challenge for two animals so amply endowed and thoroughly covered in sticky mucus. After long bouts of writhing and pulling, the pair may resort to ... apophallation. Translated, this means that one slug gnaws off the penis of the other.

Is there an advantage to such odd behavior? Yes, according to Adrian Forsyth, author of A Natural History of Sex. The apophallated slug, says Forsyth, "cannot regrow his penis and is now obligated to be a female and forced to offer eggs." ... In other animal species, gigantism has been a precursor to extinction. Only by submitting to the shears can banana slugs maintain their inordinate organs.

Random Thoughts From Recent Trip to Cairo

The Sufi's say that under every loss is hidden a gain and under every gain is hidden a loss, and I witnessed that belief in action recently when events beyond my control conspired to cause me to miss my originally scheduled overnight flight to Cairo. I ended up having to spend the night at the JFK Ramada after having wasted 7 hours at DCA waiting for clearance to head to New York due to inclement weather. My initial reaction was normal; strong disappointment and frustration at losing one whole day of my already short one week vacation, and the subsequent loss of time with my Egyptian friend Ahmed, who was the whole reason for the trip. Enter Khaled, an Egyptian guy who was on the same flights as I was, who had been in the US on business for a month and was looking forward to getting home to his pregnant wife, their two children and the family business. We struck up a conversation after debarking the airplane in NY (I initiated it, trying some of my really bad Arabic on him since I heard him on his cell and knew he was Egyptian) and we ended up really hitting it off. We spent that evening getting to know each other over dinner at the airport hotel, the next morning at breakfast and all throughout the long day at JFK waiting for that evening's flight to Cairo. I'm not the kind of person who usually feels immediately at ease with new people, but Khaled was one of those rare exceptions who comes along in my life maybe every five years or so. And so we hung out, discussed many different topics: politics, relationships, business, psychology, family. We had someone take a picture of us in line at Immigration in Cairo. We exchanged contact info. He asked me to email the picture of us to him, which I did, and which was returned to me via an "Undeliverable: No such address" email. And that's cool, because the short time I spent with him was perfect just as it was, and I'll always remember him even though our paths will probably never cross again.

I eventually did make it to Cairo, and had a nice week hanging out with Ahmed. Some other memories/thoughts/observations from the trip in no particular order:

Egyptians don't like to walk on the sidewalk. Each city I've been to in Egypt so far (Alexandria, Sharm el Sheikh, Cairo and Tanta) seem to have perfectly adequate sidewalks, but most of the people seem to prefer to walk in the street. Given that the traffic in Cairo is, bar none, the worst I've seen anywhere, and that the drivers there possess what I can only describe as suicidal tendencies, I don't understand this. However, I have yet to see anyone get run over, so maybe they know something I don't. Although I did get to witness a guy reaching into a car and attempting to strangle its driver at the end of a traffic jam. Hope they sorted it out.

We met a fascinating woman while listening to some local musicians at the Naguib Mahfouz cafe in Khan el Khalili. I would have guessed her Egyptian based upon her appearance and seeming familiarity with the musicians and others in the cafe, but it turns out she's Canadian of Sudanese descent and is just one of those people who immediately makes friends with everyone around her. She was spending a brief holiday in Cairo with her adult children before going to Sudan for her annual excursion into the desert near the sea to live in a tent by herself for five months. I had to ask her a couple of times to clarify, just so I was sure I understood. "Wait, so you are going to live in a tent...will you be in a camp with others?". No. "Okay, so how far will you be from civilization during this time? Will you have access to food and medical supplies?" No, she would be taking only the barest of essentials with her, and she will catch fish for her food. She said that she usually loses quite a bit of weight before the five months is over. "So what will you do to fill the time?" She will meditate, read and swim a lot. I consider myself a fairly adventurous person, and could see doing what she does for two weeks perhaps, but 5 months? Anyway, more power to her. What really struck me about her is that she didn't seem weird. She seemed like a perfectly well adjusted, western woman in her late 50's. And not a hippy.

Egyptian women really know how to accessorize with their headgear. I know that there are some strongly differing political views on the headscarf, and I'll keep mine to myself here, but I was really struck by how good they manage to make it all look, with the matching color scheme and trendy accouterments. It made me almost want to try it myself, but I know I'd end up looking like some stunted creature from The Lord of the Rings if I tried.

I was happy to learn that the Hyatt we were staying in had somewhat relaxed it's "no alcohol" policy, so I was able to get a glass of wine in the revolving lounge there. Ahmed told me the story behind the "ban", which is that the manager of the hotel is a Saudi guy who broke with religious tradition and got really, really drunk one night. Upon awakening the next morning, his guilt was so overwhelming that he had his staff smash every wine glass in the hotel's numerous restaurants and dump every ounce of liquor down the drain. Apparently Hyatt wasn't on board with his solution, they've been "negotiating" a lot since then, and it looks like there's been some concession.

There's a song by the Refreshments called Banditos, and my favorite part of the song goes "So give your ID card to the border guard, yeah your alias says that you're Jean-Luc Picard of the United Federation of Planets, 'cause they won't speak English anyway. Everybody knows, that the world is full of stupid people..." Egypt has a law that says that unmarried couples can't have sex, or share a residence of any kind. Seriously...it's a law. So without going into details that might incriminate myself, let me just say that yes, the world is full of stupid people. And stupid laws. And that a little creativity can enable two consenting unmarried adults to share a hotel room for a week. And gain a foreigner admittance to tourist sites at local prices. Take that, stupid laws.

My relationship with Ahmed has consisted of three visits to Egypt and many, many romantic emails. It has been wonderful in so many ways...he is passionate and respectful in a way that I don't find common (or even existent) in western men. I believe that this is a product of his culture, a culture that tries to protect women, that glorifies the idea of true love, and that tries to suppress the natural inclinations of men and women. The illicit nature of our relationship is surely a rush for the both of us. He can not be honest with his family about me, and I think that it will ultimately be the undoing of our relationship. This culture has introduced me to someone who makes me feel, for the first time in my life, like a princess. A princess in exile.

Falling in Love

A friend once gave me a framed quote by someone named Judith Thurman, printed on face of a card with a picture the sun setting over two hills, and a road running off over the hills.

"Every dreamer knows that it is entirely possible to be homesick for a place you've never been to, perhaps more homesick than for familiar ground."

I’ve experienced this before, the longing for a place far away (or maybe not so far away) that I’ve seen in pictures, or read about. A place that I know I just have to visit, or else my life will not be complete. Some places came pretty close to fulfilling my expectations: Cairo, Cape Town and Istanbul. Then there were others which were interesting or beautiful in their own right, but with which I just didn’t feel that “soul connection”. Rio de Janeiro, Burma, Madagascar.

But there is one place, or more accurately a group of places, where I have always felt at home and blissfully happy when I visit, and that is the Greek Isles. I’ve visited Mykonos, Santorini, Hydra, Ios, Paros and Aegina and loved them all (although Santorini is beautiful in a painfully exquisite way and will probably always be my favorite place in the entire world.)

It is with this knowledge that I have decided to quit my job and move to Crete for six months. I have never been to Crete. But I have been reading about her, and looking at photographs of her, and I am head over heels.

OK, it’s not as irresponsible as it sounds. I’ve still got some of the proceeds left from the sale of my house four years ago, the portion that hasn’t gone towards botox treatments, exotic trips abroad, a wedding, expensive restaurant meals and wine dinners, my small but high-end wine collection, gifts for high maintenance boy-toys, or the bottomless pit that has been the stock market for the last few months. I’ve actually still got enough savings left to take this “sabbatical” and have a cushion of about three months to find a new job and apartment upon my return.

As for the inevitable (and reasonable) question as to why I would quit a perfectly secure, decent paying job….well, I’m just not into it anymore. My formerly stable, conservative company has been bought and sold three times in the last two years. We are now part of one of those big corporations, and I never wanted to work for a big corporation. My co-workers with whom I’ve shared the last 10 years are leaving for other opportunities. I’m pretty sure I could make a salary of about 20-30% more if I exit this industry, which relies heavily on bonuses as part of their compensation structure (and those aren’t looking to be very healthy for the next several years). The bottom line is that everything is changing, and now seems like as good a time as ever to do this thing that I’ve always dreamed of doing before starting over at a new company in a new industry where I’ll most likely be condemned to two weeks of vacation per year for a while.

This is actually what prompted me to start this blog. I’ll be living in the small, traditional village of Drapanias in the northwest part of Crete, and I anticipate having a lot of free time. Since I’m not an EU citizen, I cannot legally work in Greece, and although I plan to do a lot of hiking, reading, traveling to nearby destinations and perhaps some volunteer work at one of the animal shelters on the island, I know that I’ll have many quiet opportunities to put my thoughts and experiences down so that I’ll be able to go back and read them again some day. I guess there will also be some friends who will check in with me via the blog from time to time. And maybe even the occasional unsuspecting stranger/victim who happens upon it…