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Mar. 24th, 2003 09:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jdmkleinTo my family:
These are not meant to be entertaining. They are just to show you I am alive and well and living in Kuwait.
It's hump day.
My morbid curiosity has not gotten the better of me yet. The cable system we use offers us Iraq TV. In the beginning days of the war, we watched it periodically to see how it was being represented to the Iraqis. That soon got tiring because it is all in Arabic. I think we also get Al-Jazeerha.
The Arab newspapers announced yesterday that the university would open again on Saturday. It is in the English newspapers today. I think the university should get its collective head out of its collective ass. Stanly called this morning. He told me that on last Wednesday, the university had made the decision not to close. This news was sent out after 3:00 PM on the last day of classes for the week. Then it had to turn around the next day and announce that because of the hostilities, classes would be cancelled until further notice. Now, as hostilities are increasing and tension is mounting, the university administration makes what I think a premature announcement that classes will resume on Saturday, March 29. They wait until the last minute to make a bad decision, and now they are jumping the gun, it seems to me, to make another potentially bad one.
The way things are now, there is no reason in my mind for classes to continue on hold. But that is today, not Wednesday. That's 4 days from now and things can change dramatically between now and then. I have sent an email out to the teachers who are out of the country. I don't know if they will/can be back by Saturday. And that presents a new crop of problems for us. As it stands now, this minute, we are down to 60% of the teaching staff. At this minute one class will have to be cancelled until that one teacher gets back. Two sections of another course will have to combine with two other sections, making class sizes of over 30. Not good in a student-centered, task-based language curriculum such as we have. I am already teaching more hours than anyone else because of one teacher's absence, I'm required to teach 5, I'm teaching 12, I will not do anymore. And, I can't get in touch with that particular teacher to find out if or when she will be returning. I fully expect one of the others not to return, she has a son, unless of course his school reopens too. Of the other two, one has said he will be back as soon as he can, his ticket is open, but flights from where he is to here are not on a daily basis. The other, may have a booked ticket and may not be able to return until a specific date without penalty. This is too crazy.
And now, in my opinion, it may become most dangerous for us. If the Islamists and other terrorists feel they are losing the war, attacks on Kuwait in general and westerners in particular could become an accepted practice.
The Iraqis are not playing this war by the rules now, why should those who support them, play by them either?
The sirens have been going off all afternoon. First I hear the warning siren then I hear the all clear a very short time later. I suppose that means that whatever was coming this way has been shot down. This morning on the way to work James heard the all clear siren and then heard the threat of a gas attack was over.
I saw pictures of two of the captured Americans. They are so young. I think my children are young but when I looked at those faces my heart hurt for them. No one should have to be in a situation like that. Why can't the world live in peace? What is it that makes cultures react so strongly to those different than themselves?
I am being chided for passing out information to the teachers so far before classes resume. I am being chided for using a source available to all of them as the information source. Does she honestly think I would pass along information that is not reliable? I am her supervisor, not the other way around. I shouldn't have to account for every single piece of information I receive. I thought I was doing the right thing by giving a source that was easily found. Now I'm being second guessed by people I work with. Some days it doesn't pay to get out of bed.
I know nerves are shot or nearly so. But what I don't understand is why people don't think about what they are going to say for a nano-second before they say it. Was she pissed at the thought of having to go back to work? Was she pissed at the thought of perhaps having to double up her class with another? Does she think I would pass out false information? or intentionally send out erroneous information? Now I know my nerves are about shot. Why am I raising my blood pressure on what some other person? Her husband is Kuwaiti. She's been here for 20 some years. Her husband works for the university. Doesn't she talk to him? She should have had this information before me, one would think. My response to her was not rude, I don't think, it was to the short and to the point. Too bad for her if she lets it get up her nose.
These are not meant to be entertaining. They are just to show you I am alive and well and living in Kuwait.
It's hump day.
My morbid curiosity has not gotten the better of me yet. The cable system we use offers us Iraq TV. In the beginning days of the war, we watched it periodically to see how it was being represented to the Iraqis. That soon got tiring because it is all in Arabic. I think we also get Al-Jazeerha.
The Arab newspapers announced yesterday that the university would open again on Saturday. It is in the English newspapers today. I think the university should get its collective head out of its collective ass. Stanly called this morning. He told me that on last Wednesday, the university had made the decision not to close. This news was sent out after 3:00 PM on the last day of classes for the week. Then it had to turn around the next day and announce that because of the hostilities, classes would be cancelled until further notice. Now, as hostilities are increasing and tension is mounting, the university administration makes what I think a premature announcement that classes will resume on Saturday, March 29. They wait until the last minute to make a bad decision, and now they are jumping the gun, it seems to me, to make another potentially bad one.
The way things are now, there is no reason in my mind for classes to continue on hold. But that is today, not Wednesday. That's 4 days from now and things can change dramatically between now and then. I have sent an email out to the teachers who are out of the country. I don't know if they will/can be back by Saturday. And that presents a new crop of problems for us. As it stands now, this minute, we are down to 60% of the teaching staff. At this minute one class will have to be cancelled until that one teacher gets back. Two sections of another course will have to combine with two other sections, making class sizes of over 30. Not good in a student-centered, task-based language curriculum such as we have. I am already teaching more hours than anyone else because of one teacher's absence, I'm required to teach 5, I'm teaching 12, I will not do anymore. And, I can't get in touch with that particular teacher to find out if or when she will be returning. I fully expect one of the others not to return, she has a son, unless of course his school reopens too. Of the other two, one has said he will be back as soon as he can, his ticket is open, but flights from where he is to here are not on a daily basis. The other, may have a booked ticket and may not be able to return until a specific date without penalty. This is too crazy.
And now, in my opinion, it may become most dangerous for us. If the Islamists and other terrorists feel they are losing the war, attacks on Kuwait in general and westerners in particular could become an accepted practice.
The Iraqis are not playing this war by the rules now, why should those who support them, play by them either?
The sirens have been going off all afternoon. First I hear the warning siren then I hear the all clear a very short time later. I suppose that means that whatever was coming this way has been shot down. This morning on the way to work James heard the all clear siren and then heard the threat of a gas attack was over.
I saw pictures of two of the captured Americans. They are so young. I think my children are young but when I looked at those faces my heart hurt for them. No one should have to be in a situation like that. Why can't the world live in peace? What is it that makes cultures react so strongly to those different than themselves?
I am being chided for passing out information to the teachers so far before classes resume. I am being chided for using a source available to all of them as the information source. Does she honestly think I would pass along information that is not reliable? I am her supervisor, not the other way around. I shouldn't have to account for every single piece of information I receive. I thought I was doing the right thing by giving a source that was easily found. Now I'm being second guessed by people I work with. Some days it doesn't pay to get out of bed.
I know nerves are shot or nearly so. But what I don't understand is why people don't think about what they are going to say for a nano-second before they say it. Was she pissed at the thought of having to go back to work? Was she pissed at the thought of perhaps having to double up her class with another? Does she think I would pass out false information? or intentionally send out erroneous information? Now I know my nerves are about shot. Why am I raising my blood pressure on what some other person? Her husband is Kuwaiti. She's been here for 20 some years. Her husband works for the university. Doesn't she talk to him? She should have had this information before me, one would think. My response to her was not rude, I don't think, it was to the short and to the point. Too bad for her if she lets it get up her nose.
