Hodgepodge

Doha court has jailed a construction site supervisor for two years after a crane collapsed, killing four men and injured three others, Qatar daily Gulf Times reported on Sunday. The supervisor, from Syria, and his employer were also fined 20,000 Qatari riyals ($5,499) each for the accident which killed three Filipino men and one Indian man. That's what a human life costs in building one of the wealthiest countries of the Arab Gulf. No matter how I look at it, the misery that Asian construction workers go through in the Gulf is something that never ceases to boggle my mind.

Speaking of Asian workers in general, I wonder how some of the well-off households in Jordan can bear to pay their domestic Asian house maids monthly salaries that sometimes do not amount to more than $150. Many would argue that this is the prevailing rate for such labor! And how they love to harp on this fact. Well, I wish whoever is convinced of this argument rethinks it when they are on one of heir extravagant sprees. Nothing against wealth...but everything against selfishness and lack of empathy.

Then again, these Jordanians might be economically inclined to subscribe to Jeffrey Sachs' "Beatrice Theorem" of development economics: Small inputs can lead to large outcomes. Sachs' small input in this case is a $120 goat that grazed the way to the university education of one lucky Ugandan girl named "Beatrice".   In this case our Asian maid would have a surplus of $30 to blow.

Having your cake and eating it too. I never understood this saying. If I have my cake, you can bet I will want to eat it too. What is wrong with that? In fact I am now going to have a large slice of it as we speak.

News that is worthy of a sequel for Mel Brooks' "History of the World": Jewish archeologist in Israel are now claiming that writing on a newly found tablet proves that the story of Jesus' resurrection was not unique but part of a recognized Jewish tradition prior to Jesus birth. In other words Jesus's story was  plagiarized.  What is even more interesting is the reported fact that 'The tablet, probably found near the Dead Sea in Jordan according to some scholars who have studied it, is a rare example of a stone with ink writings from that era — in essence, a Dead Sea Scroll on stone?"  If this tablet was found in Jordan, what the hell is it doing in Israel?

Speaking of resurrection.  If I do not go to sleep now, tomorrow I will look like someone resurrected from death.

Good night!