Welcome to the dark side

The ancient Greeks believed in different Gods and Goddesses and they described them the immortals, how ever many of them were believed to have feelings and emotions, such as love and hate. With these gods being  concerned with aspects of life and death, there feelings and emotions are often shown to drive there judgment on many things.
below is a list of the most important or shall i say famous once :-

AEOLUS

the keeper of the winds. in most stories he is reported as helpful but some times he can’t keep the winds under control.

APHRODITE

daughter of Uranus and Hephaestos, goddess pf love and beauty. she was born in the sea and came to land in a shell ! naturally she was very charming but also vain, a combination that won her many admirers. she is also thought to have provoked the Trojan war by promising Helen to Paris , if he judged her to be the most butiful goddess. she was know by many symbols like :  the rose, doves, sparrows, dolphins and the rams.

APOLLO

the god of the sun, light and truth (prophisy too), he controled the sun’s movement across the sky, he loved art and was a musician. The twin brothere of Artemis his sister, witch he was very protective of along with his mother, so much so that he killed the serpent Python at the shrine at Delphi, and made Delphi his oracle.
his symbol was a laurel tree.

ARES

the god of war ! , likes to pick fights and has a short fuse, he was everyt thing a greek woman wanted , young , strond , handsome an expret in weaponry and the tactics of war, but he was a jealous lover.
his symbolse are : flaming tourch, a spear, dogs and vultures.

ARTEMIS

naturally if Apolo is the sun god then , this makes her the moon goddess. she was also the huntress, merciless in her vengeance, so bad was it that here silver arows brought plague and death.
she was also the protector of young girls and pregnant women. and she hand healing poweres.
she is the mistress of wild animals and her symbols are the cypress trees, deers and dogs.

ASCLEPIUS
god of medicine, the sun of apolo and coronis. he was a mortal ! but a hell of a doctor, but he crossed the line by bringing the dead back to life. he was killed by Zeus , but then was revived to become a god.

To Be Con. …
 

There use to be a time when kids learn what’s right and what’s wrong by observing the world around them and being inquisitive about events that force emotions upon them, when this happens the kid seeks an adult he feels is trustworthy and wise to try and help him explain how these events make him feel and to know that it’s ok , that an emotion , a feeling that arises as a result of witnessing an event is your body’s way of telling you how you feel about it , mixed emotions that should be discussed and put into perspective to help this kid express him or herself , because confused emotions could lead to many complexes and future mental obstacles.

It use to be the parent’s job or the teacher’s at school, but in today’s world it’s the ever entertaining  house hold’s most treasured member of most families the Television !

I know what you’re thinking!  I know you probably heard about the effect of TV on children at one point or another and parental control and all that stuff, like the report from the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) that states: that most kids plug into the world of television long before they enter school.

Under the age of 8 years, most kids don’t understand that commercials are for selling a product. Children 6 years and under are unable to distinguish program content from commercials, especially if their favorite character is promoting the product. Even older kids may need to be reminded of the purpose of advertising.

So when a big telecommunication company puts an add about a boy, that is attending a foot ball game and sees that the game is going slow and suddenly decides to slip through security (cops) and enter the field as the security (police) shout out to him to stop and run after him to stop him and he completely ignores them and race to kick the ball only to be man handled (dragged by both cops from either side of him by holding his arms) out of the football field and a message is displayed on the screen : something like “take the challenge !”Ok challenge who? The authorities! Break the law if you feel like it, people will cheer for you if you disregard the rules and break the law, and if cops are preventing people from entering a location you are some sort of hero to outsmart them and slip past them? I’m sorry, I really don’t’ get it , it’s just a cheap way of getting people to send SMS messages to collect money with no regards to what sort of example are they setting for children.

With that said I’ll recommend that you talk to kids about what they see on TV and share your own beliefs and values. If something you don’t approve of appears on the screen, you can turn off the TV, then use the opportunity to ask thought-provoking questions such as, “Do you think it was OK when the boy broke the law and ran passed the police men and didn’t stop when they told him to do so?’’ Or “Do you think it was OK when those men got in that fight? What else could they have done? What would you have done?” Or, “What do you think about how those teenagers were acting at that party? Do you think what they were doing was wrong?” If certain people or characters are mistreated or discriminated against; talk about why it’s important to treat everyone fairly, despite their differences. You can use TV to explain confusing situations and express your feelings about difficult topics (sex, love, drugs, alcohol, smoking, work, behavior, family life).

Thank you for reading, I wish you and your family a safe and healthy upbringing. 

Upon resuming work on the 11^th of August I was asked to gather what ever significant official documents to justify why I resumed work on this particular date and not sooner well let me explain that upon my arrival  back to my beloved country I have made a phone call to the acting head of my section to inquire about the time allowed before coming in to work , and my distinguished head informed me that after such travels an employee is allowed a period of two days after the end of a training course.. and with that out of the way I will resume to make my statements :-

First of all I would like to draw your attention, as I’m sure you kind Sir/Madam  would already be enlightened to the fact that there is a big difference between the time in the state of Kuwait and the state of Washington in the U.S.A  with that note , and technically speaking : when I had to leave  Washington  state on the 8^th by U.S.A calendar at the time I did , it was the already the 9^th  by Kuwait calendar.

Also kindly remember not to neglect the fact that , the traveling arrangements were made by the hosting organization, all this and more are stated in the funding agreement signed by the acting general director of my organization at the time .

On a personal note : I find the fact that some employees should spend the early hours of the working day justifying things of this nature and , counting there blessings they kept personal copies of documents they originally didn’t have to just to clarify there situation , extremely counter productive  and mentally demoralizing, I heat to think what would become of such “employees” should they not question there organizations competency in such maters and actually trust the system adopted by there regulatory body and not keep personal copies of such trivial documents knowing that in an ideal situation they would never be put in a situation to justify a Seville service to there country and there organization . I personally find it …….. distasteful and vulgar and to a high extent shameful .

To think that the most advanced and developing countries established laws and appointed government sponsored organizations like the E.P.A to make sure they avoid making bad decisions when it comes to the environment, well this is true I suppose for the rest of the world but not , sadly the situation in an Oil rich country like Kuwait.

I was in a trainer’s course in Sharm Alshake this month to become a new code trainer, I’m happy to report that today I’m one of the first trainers of new code in the Arab world, when I got back I was surprised to find that my department had brought in a coral reef expert from Egypt to help in the assessment of the state and help conserve what’s left of the coral reefs in the islands of Kuwait, of course this is not by choice we are being forced to present data that details the efforts of the country in maintaining a healthy aquatic environment to other associations we have signed up with to as you say “join their club”, so I had a meeting with this fine gentlemen, as I walked into the office that was temporarily assigned to him, I introduced myself and explained that I’m a TDI (Technical Divers International) advanced Nitrox diver, his reaction was “Finally some one that can clarify this misunderstanding” I had a puzzled look on my face and the man explained : “I got  an e-mail from your department inviting me to come over for a week to look at some collected data on coral reefs, I was surprised when I arrived that there was no data and I was asked to start a project and hand in a detailed progress report before I leave! , so I thought I could do some pulmonary work to generally assess the situation, I asked for a team of 5 divers including me to make us a total of 6 so each diver has a buddy for safety, the department provided me with a list of at least 18 people that claimed that they are expert divers and are willing to take on this one week task, when the time came for them to do the job only 2 people out of the 18 showed up one of them said he didn’t bring his equipment the other one said the water was too cold, I then discovered that all 18 of them had open water  license, so buoyancy was going to be a big issue, another important note was that in this time of year Kuwait has strong currents and winds , so diving in this conditions with inexperienced divers is not an option, when I tried explaining this points to your boss she said that her husband’s hobby is fishing and that he claims that this is the best time to go fishing! What the hell dose fishing on a bloody pear have to do with assessing coral reefs!”he looked at me and said “you have to help me set up a meeting with your boss and help explain the situation” I smiled and shook his hand one more time and said “Welcome to E.P.A Kuwait , I’ll do my best” “at the meeting I explained how if they want a team of divers they are going to need training be for we can do this and that the weather conditions are not suitable to do the work at this time of the year, so we agreed that the guys would get the training they need by an expert, I am responsible to lead this team, but my only condition is that they get the proper training, after long discussions to save face with the visiting prophesier they boss reluctantly agreed. They guy looked at me and said wow it’s just one of thaws’ days , I looked back t him and said “welcome to EPA Kuwait , where all the days are this type of day”.

Today was a bit weird; you could say I have experienced the “it’s not you it’s me” scenario, this is unfortunate for me, this was not an intimate relationship, this was just a very good relationship bounded by respect and mutual trust all the way, I guess this is the reason why my “Friend” decided to pull me to the side and tell me that we won’t be seeing each other outside the work place and that all conduct from now on are strictly professional, at first I was taken back by this notion, so I asked was it something I said or did? The answerer came back (yup you guessed it), technically it was “No. it’s nothing you have done or said”, basically I was told that I am respected as a brother and welcomed to advice n the work place, my “Friend” is just not comfortable with the outings, I respect that , this displays a rare human quality we don’t see this days, my “friend” could have easily made excuses tell I just stopped asking (like some other person I know), but instead had the human courtesy to talk to me about it, I respect that , and I would not want someone that has such high quality and ethics to feel uncomfortable , so I guess it falls upon me to honor this trust and respect, that’s what I did, I said I appreciate the talk , I sure do , but in all honesty I did have feelings of great lose, this intellectual “Friend” gave me a lot to think of and many good advice, so to my “Friend” thank you for the good advice and all the time, I shall cherish this moments greatly. Thank you for your honesty and trust.

Good day to you all, today I would like to talk about communication, a basic and primal quality in all living things, it is the key to reaching an understanding, when a level of agreement is reached based on that understanding goals are achieved and progress is made and so life evolves, new horizons dawn and civilizations raised over the foundations structured and enforced by this new found understandings.

There are many examples of communication in nature all around us, just look at how a beehive functions, depending on each and every individual bee to play its part in every day hive activities. Ants are another good example of such a structured community with loyalties to the colony and their spices of ant. I myself keep an ant farm and let me tell you it is very nice to watch! It’s made out of some nutrient gel material so we can see the ants tunneling and storing food and even farming, yeas ants do display activates that resemble farming as they sometimes feed on fungi , thus creating caverns and providing them with the right temperature and humidity for the fungi to grow!

It is truly sad to see that most humans do suffer from communication problems, if ants and all other living things got it straight I guess this proves you don’t need the full mass of a human brain to get it right, yet it is amazing how some people really don’t know how to pull it off.

I have experienced this laity with my boss, a work place kinda resembles a colony, a system where we all play a part in keeping it running smoothly, but I guess we just had a communication problem, long story short , we had a meeting , in this meeting I have explained that I have been assigned to a position that does not fit my expertise, she said that I was a scientist (microbiology , specifically a mycologist) and that I have wonders capabilities and that I would be an asset to the department, so I have to do this job ( work in a zoology lab looking at zooplankton), to simplify the matter, this is like asking a physicist to do a biologists job, I have explained to her that I have never worked on zooplankton or studied them in university or my diploma of higher education, my field was microbiology of extreme environments working with bacteria, viruses and especially fungi. In all my papers and work I have never touched upon zooplankton , if I wanted to then I should have been a zoologist, and the job description clearly stated that there is a microbiology lab in the department , so what the hell am I doing in the zooplankton lab ? the answer to that question was, you have a wealth of knowledge your C.V show substantial amount of work and dedication I think you can lead this lab to taxonomical studies in zooplankton!

Well it was obvious I was not getting anywhere and that this boat was sinking, because in my C.V I stated all the projects and experiments I have undertaken and all of them where on land and in hostile environment dealing with fungi mostly and some bacteriological and viral work.

I have tried one last time to explained that this is not my filed of expertise and that I’m in no man’s land, she said don’t worry you’ll be fine! , is this a joke, for the love of god it felt so wrong, I felt underappreciated, all this years of hard work for nothing , well I’m not certainly using any of the knowledge I have in this bloody filed, I might as well work as a garbage man or a janitor  (with all due respect to both professions) I’m just trying to say that you don’t need to be a rocket scantest to work in a gas station as the guy who pumps the fuel, even the methods used in the damn lab are nor recognized universally as scientifically precise , it’s a joke, this is monkey business, in my evaluation it is a waste of time and a disgrace to the country, the boss did not even know what the hell do her employees do in that lab!

Anyway, that’s what happened and now I’m just stuck in this hell hole! This brings to mind something I read on a fridge magnet “we don’t believe in miracles we depend on them”

For the readers that have never heard of the EPA, I don’t blame you it’s a real joke! (not in all countries but certainly in my country and trust me it’s not a poor country), like most government paying jobs it’s a slow growing organization (wait that’s an understatement , let’s face it it’s not slow it’s simply dead), I mean come on when you get a report from the countries institution for scientific studies ( which they funded a European country a lot of money to come and do), [I know this for a fact because I have attended the presentation], show that even if we virtually stop all polluting activities from factories shutting down to simply lettering on an individual scale (be it a cigarette bud or a candy wrapper), the country environment will keep suffering, spiraling down for the next 50 years!

Well if that’s not eye popping then let me tell you a story from my personal experience, well I graduated university with a degree in microbiology as my major and English literature as my minor, I even got a diploma of higher education (in microbiology). Most of my work in microbiology was specialized in mycology (dealing with Fungi), I have written many papers and preformed various experiments all the way to genetic analysis to reinforce many of my findings, but enough of the technical talk and back to the story: as I was saying, the next step in my career was to find a job, get some OJT (On Job Training), then find a good project to use when I apply for my PhD. This would be the goal of any scientist that is passionate about his/her work, so I applied for a job, young and egger full of energy I wanted a chance to show what I’m made of, mentally preparing for all the I would face, how to prove my worth, I even when out and got the latest books and research papers offered in my field of expertise, needless to say I made sure I had everything I needed to always be in tip top of shape.

In a country like my country, you don’t just go and apply for a government job directly you go throw what they call the system! Yup it’s a system that you register in and based on the government sectors that need someone like you, you are drafted to that sector. Sounds good? Yah but does it work? That’s the million dollar question, well let’s say I had 3 choices: - A) Ministry of health B) Ministry of education (as a high school teacher) or C) the EPA. Now naturally for an environmental scientist the obvious choice will be the EPA, so now I was prepared to take my place in the scientific community, go out there see for myself , take samples , analyst them in the lab come up with conclusions to solve environmental problems , make environment friendly suggestions for saving the environment, collaborate with other scientific minds , work as a team, with the group of the elite, be inspired and hopefully find a topic important enough to per sue a PhD in and come back to lead my country forward a step in environmental studies. Ok we all know what happened next , unfortunately this was not the case, I got the job , got drafted to he living resources department, where they stuck me in a zoology lab , looking at stuff I have never seen before or know anything about ! well you can imagine my disappointment, it was degrading, it made me feel like I have wasted all this years of a academic achievement, because I don’t get to use any of the knowledge I have obtained all the way to this point in anything, it was a totally different filed, with no one qualified to train me to do this job , you understand how I must feel ( ok I don’t mean to brag but don’t you think it’s a bit stupid to just put people where you need man power instead of expertise),I tried talking to the boss, but that didn’t work out to good , it was a dead end, I was stuck , yah pretty much, so I took a look all around me, to see this scientific community and how it functions…. Well let me call it as I see it, we are sopuse to be at work at 8:00am , some people show up at 9:30am , the daily ritual seems to be :-

1-      Read the paper and have a cup of coffee.

2-      Order breakfast from any restaurant.

3-      Stopover other coworkers to exchange gossip while waiting for the food to arrive.

4-      Eat on the lab bench and plot and spread rumors about other co-workers, discriminating them based on race and religious beliefs.

5-      Take a quick look at some samples (not more than 3-5 min each) and make a general assessment of No. and types that you’re seeing and chart it down ( it don’t matter if your right or wrong, no one has the scientific background or the decency to check if it’s right or wrong so what the hell).

6-      Look busy when the boss passes by  if he/she passes by mistake , and it’s probably because she/he lost his or her way and ventured towards the laboratories, then leave (we are suppose to leave at 1:45pm but some people leave at 12:00pm).

For honesties sake not all of them are that bad there are 2 other people that actually leave when they are suppose to.

When I talked to the boss about me not being the right person to do this particular job, I found out from aware meeting that for the past 3 years she/he was completely oblivious of what people do in the lab!

So not to keep going on about it, this is the reality of the EPA in some countries, unfortunately countries like my country.