stx today,comments

dougtamjj i responded to your pm

Trw...Keep'm coming these are great!!! As soon as I get home I have to check to see what the latest episode holds.... I love the stories!
Bob

We're Baaack!
Sorry folk, not sure if i'm in the right place for such an inquiry. Not very computer literate and suspect was dropped on my head as a child the only excuse for possibly "getting it wrong".

Seems flight to STX finally about to happen in a few days. Asked Juanita if she knew if there might be a vehicle I could rent that might not "break the bank" for the month I hope to stay at her place.
She suggested I inquire on this forum. Ran out of "piss and vinegar" a long time ago, drive with great care (old bones do not heal very fast) so if someone has a loner available would treat it kindly.

This forum has been a great source of information and intertainment the last week or so.

""Posted by: Trade (IP Logged)
Date: Today, 06:56PM
Chickens eat centipedes, dogs eat chickens, cats kill bats, lizards eat bugs - it's all real life food chains. There are worse things than chickens to wake up next to in the Caribbean.
~Trade~""

...............makes me wonder. WHAT worse things than chickens to wake up next to????????????
Not allowed to bring my semi automatic on de plane 🙁
Thanks All
George

just poured really hard up here in lavallee for about 10 minutes,yesterday at work one of the ladies told me she flushes her body with half a bottle of heineken and a cup of castor oil, she told me she does this to keep away the "cancer" and that this will "flush the cancer"out of her body but then in the same breath she also told me that she will not work on tuesday nights because thats her "making love"night and we had to turn off some of the overhead lights because they were making her menopause hot flashes kick in,oh the joy,well i'm off to the first job of the day.

A CUP of caster oil??? That'll flush her innards out of her body.

Hey George,
Go over to the Classified section and post the request for a car there. Good luck.

Went to Fsted to pick up some permits I applied for 10 months ago from DPNR. Got a flat tire on the way and lucked out because the spare was good, changed it and continued on my way. Just passing Kmart ran out of gas really close to a gas station. Got gas and drove on. Got to DPNR and realized I didn't bring a check. Left and went back to the car and I locked my keys in the car. Called to see how much a locksmith would charge - $$50 and only had 18 in my wallet. Walked to the auto parts store and bought a screw driver and took out the small window in back right in front of the police station with officers walking past. No one questioned what I was doing got in the car and drove back to Csted got a check went back picked up the permits and got a cold beer. Not fun but I got it done. I wish I had a memory that worked.

It's ok Bombi, my hubby is the same way. When he leaves the house I ask him, did you change your pockets, how much gas is in the car, do you have money, where are you going and why. I usually have to tell him to change his shirt as well. He is the most brilliant man I have ever met. He has 3 US patents and his mind is constantly going non stop. I just figure there is too much going on in his brain to remember the little things. I am sure you are the same way. It is just the way you are. No worries.

This message string keeps me going. I can hardly wait for the next 12 months to pass.

Would it be terribly rude for me to leave the hubby mainland until he can come over? 🙂

I have to chime in; we live in a small house on a big piece of land we share with 9 dogs ,13 cats, 3 house chickens and a rooster and 40 other chickens that live in a pen almost as big as out house. Everyone gets along fine.

We keep finding strays on the street and bringing them home; one dog got his head stuck behind the toilet so we doused him with Wesson Oil and slid him out--we blocked the area with a couple bricks so it wouldn't happen again.

We've been here close to 20 years, arrived a few months before Hugo-- and would never think of moving.

Everyday is an adventure living on St Croix.

yes it is and i love it very much

Adventure or sometimes like living in a Griswold movie. 🙂 I'm so delighted I don't work on a cruise ship. While some of the passengers seem to be very nice people there sure are a lot of idiots on board. I was in Gourmet Gallery yesterday & while being checked out, this rude girl butts in on the middle of the transaction & blurts out loudly, "CAN YOU BRING FOOD ON THE SHIP?" I asked her why she'd want to & told her they'll hold liquor but I didn't know about food.

Then I turn to leave & the exit was blocked by about 6 ship passengers plotting how to smuggle booze on board that the crew wouldn't stash in the hold. One said, "I'll get a bottle of iced tea, dump it & we can put brandy in it." The other one said, 'Yeah but what do they charge for the iced tea here?" I keep saying politely, "Excuse me. Excuse me. Excuse me." And they're not moving. All I wanted to do was go home.

I wanted to shout, "If you can't afford iced tea OR to buy a drink onboard, WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE IN FEBRUARY?"

I manage a condo and this past Saturday we had our owners meeting, 40 out of 60 were there. I was a little nervous about giving my state of the condo tap dance because I knew that one owner who was unhappy with a decision I had made was to be gunning for me. He degraded me in front of the group as well as the general quality and the integrity of just about the entire work force of STX. I took it and corrected him when I could get a word in. I finished my rap and felt I had keep my cool and had done the best I could under the circumstances and I left.
Several owners followed me out and apologized for the rude stateside man from NY, who is also a lawyer and gave me praise.The state side guy was supposed to stay for two weeks but because everyone was vexed by his being a jumbie he and his wife left early.
I guess what I learned is just to embrace the warm and friendly culture and remember why I moved here and enjoy the pace, the scene and the depth and beauty of STX and leave your state side expectations at the airport but continue to use them as an outline.

you did good Bombi,i deal with high maitenence upper east coast people all day long and they can be rather trying at times.

boss from my 18milebenefitjob called and asked if i'd like the night off,hmmm,lol of course i'd like the night off,so i'm cleaning and then will be going over to off the wall with the sunday times and i'm going to eat and READ finally,well maybe talk some. I work with a crucian women at one of my jobs and for awhile there she wanted to feed me to the lobsters, you could just feel the animosity pouring off of her,i suppose i represent the great straight white satan to her,i don't know but she was always very short and rude when dealing with me, when i had the other ladies laughing and high fiving me she'd just scowl and stomp around and just generally be mean,so well me being me i would get my snide digs in as well and it seemed like we were trying to out mean each other and i was having alot of fun with it and the other ladies all loved it,well the other half and i ran into her at the ag fair on monday and i said hello and all the nice pretty stuff we say to each other the world over and told the other half she wants to feed me to the lobsters and he just laughs and thinks i may be right because he's lived with me for so many years. On tuesday i go to work and i'm waitering away and she's waitering away as well and for some reason comes up to me and asks "who was that guy you were with at the fair" and i said (wondering how this was going to go over) he's my other half and we've been together for 16 years and the look on her face was priceless and she said WHAAAAAAT and i said yes indeedy i'm a homo, her whole entire attitude changed towards me in about 5 seconds, she went from thinking i'm this straight white jerk here to push her around and tell her what to do, to me being the white gay guy that she can relax and be herself around and so for the last 3 days she's been fun to work with and the tension at work has vanished and now she's high fiving me and we all have a good time doing our job. So I'm wondering what you straight white men did to these women here recently to make them dislike you all so much or is it part of the whole slavery thing and the fact that so many of you white guys had your way with the women or is it just an issue with this particular woman or is it just a man/woman thing and color has nothing to do with it?

Now you know why the French call us the "Ugly Americans"....

The French have a lot of room to talk.

trw - she probably thinks Tim is cute and wonders if she can have her way with him if she gets on your good side. 😉

charlotte the french were the cruelest slave owning empire out of all of them down here,the great slave owners on haiti took great pleasure in burying black men up to their necks and then using their heads as bowling pins, the french are the worst as far as cruelty goes on a worldwide slave owning basis thats why haitian slaves were the first to revolt down here,look how the french turned their backs on the jewish population in france so they could save a few pictures in the louvre,they literaly laid down for and with the germans so paris would not get bombed. King leopold of the belgians was almost as bad during the rubber plantation days in africa, the arabs today are great slave owners and they started the african slave trade hundreds of years before the europeans ever did.

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Modern Slavery
Human bondage in Africa, Asia, and the Dominican Republic

by Ricco Villanueva Siasoco

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This article was posted on April 18, 2001.

When a ship carrying hundreds of people was recently turned away from Benin, Africa, officials suspected that the children on board were human slaves. The incident once again brought attention to the problem of slavery. At this moment, millions of men, women, and children—roughly twice the population of Rhode Island—are being held against their will as modern-day slaves.

Sudanese slaves await redemption in Madhol, Sudan, in December 1997. An Arab trader sold 132 former slaves, women and children, for $13,200 (in Sudanese money) to a member of Christian Solidarity International. (AP Photo)

Sometimes referred to as bonded laborers (because of the debts owed their masters), public perception of modern slavery is often confused with reports of workers in low-wage jobs or inhumane working conditions. However, modern-day slaves differ from these workers because they are actually held in physical bondage (they are shackled, held at gunpoint, etc.).

Modern-day slaves can be found laboring as servants or concubines in Sudan, as child "carpet slaves" in India, or as cane-cutters in Haiti and southern Pakistan, to name but a few instances. According to Anti-Slavery International, the world's oldest human rights organization, there are currently over 20 million people in bondage.

Where does this slavery take place? Who are the faces behind these atrocities?

Slave Trading on Africa's West Coast

The slave trade in Africa was officially banned in the early 1880s, but forced labor continues to be practiced in West and Central Africa today. UNICEF estimates that 200,000 children from this region are sold into slavery each year. Many of these children are from Benin and Togo, and are sold into the domestic, agricultural, and sex industries of wealthier, neighboring countries such as Nigeria and Gabon.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
UNICEF estimates that 200,000 children from West and Central Africa are sold into slavery each year.

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The most recent incident involved the MV Etireno, which was refused from ports in Gabon and Cameroon. When the ship reached Cotonou, Benin, in April, 2001, police began an investigation of the captain and crew. More adults than children were believed to be aboard.

Chattel slavery in Sudan

The enslavement of the Dinkas in southern Sudan may be the most horrific and well-known example of contemporary slavery. According to 1993 U.S. State Department estimates, up to 90,000 blacks are owned by North African Arabs, and often sold as property in a thriving slave trade for as little as $15 per human being.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"There he found several Dinka men hobbling, their Achilles tendons cut because they refused to become Muslims."

—from an ASI report on Sudanese slavery

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Animist tribes in southern Sudan are frequently invaded by Arab militias from the North, who kill the men and enslave the women and children. The Arabs consider it a traditional right to enslave southerners, and to own chattel slaves (slaves owned as personal property).

Physical mutilation is practiced upon these slaves not only to prevent escape, but to enforce the owners' ideologies. According to an ASI report: "Kon, a thirteen-year-old Dinka boy, was abducted by Arab nomads and taken to a merchant's house. There he found several Dinka men hobbling, their Achilles tendons cut because they refused to become Muslims. Threatened with the same treatment the boy converted."

In a detailed article by Charles Jacobs for the American Anti-Slavery Group (ASI), Jacobs recounts how a 10-year-old child was taken in a raid on her village in southern Sudan, and branded by her master with a hot iron pot.

Child "carpet slaves" in India

Kidnapped from their villages when they are as young as five years old, between 200,000 and 300,000 children are held captive in locked rooms and forced to weave on looms for food. In India—as well in other countries—the issue of slavery is exacerbated by a rigid caste system.

Many of our images of human slavery, like the one above, date from the American Civil War. However, there are an estimated 200 million people in bondage today.
The International Labor Rights and Education Fund is one organization that has rescued many of these child slaves. The group recalls this scene: "Children work in damp pits near the loom. Potable water is often unavailable and food consists of a few chapatis [bread balls], onions and salt...The children often are made to sleep on the ground next to their looms, or in nearby sheds. After working from ten to fourteen hours, they are expected to clean out their sheds and set up work for the next day."

Shackled laborers in Pakistan

Many of the bonded laborers are shackled in leg-irons in Pakistan. Though much of the debt these cane-harvesters have incurred is real, the practice of exchanging human labor for landowners' loans is illegal.

In a 1992 law passed by the Pakistani government, landlords are barred from offering loans in exchange for work or to hold workers hostage to their debts. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has freed approximately 7,500 bonded laborers since 1995.

By the commission's estimates, there are still roughly 50,000 bonded laborers in southern Singh. Many of those freed now reside in the city of Hyderabad in makeshift camps. Most are afraid to return to their homeland, however, for fear they will be recaptured and enslaved again.

Related Links
Encyclopedia: Slavery

Emancipation Proclamation

Sudan

India

Pakistan

Dominican Republic

Cane-cutters in the Dominican Republic

In the Dominican Republic, the collection of slaves for the busy harvest season is more random. The Dominican army, with the support of the State Sugar Council (known as the CEA), "hauls Haitians off public buses, arrests them in their homes or at their jobs, and delivers them to the cane fields," according to Charles Jacobs.

Some of the cane-cutters sign on to work voluntarily. When the number of workers does not meet the harvest's demand, the Dominican army is set into action. The army's captives are forced to work at gunpoint and beaten if they try to escape.

Beyond the Emancipation Proclamation

Accounts of human beings as modern slaves extend beyond those described here, and include young girls sold into prostitution in Thailand and slave chattels in Mauritania. Though most Americans believe slavery was abolished with the Emancipation Proclamation more than a century ago, the horrors of human beings held in bondage flourishes today.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Current Features | Spotlight Archive | Daily Almanac

Did you know? Forced to resign from the army in 1854, Ulysses S. Grant was working as a store clerk at the outbreak of the Civil War.

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today was busy! Woke up on the sailboat and headed out to drop off a contract at my broker's office. Found out my broker had headed off-island for a 3 week ski trip without preparing checks for all the transactions that will close while he is away and nobody else has signing-authority on the escrow account. Guess we'll burn up the express mail route sending them back and forth. Just hope he doesn't break his neck on the slopes before signing and mailing them back.

Wrote up an offer on a house I showed a couple yesterday and met them for signatures. Still working on another offer from a condo showing yesterday. Ran errands all over prepping for three closings next week. They always seem to come in flurries. Picked up keys. Dropped off keys. Made bank deposits. Cleaned up two condos that had just been vacated by short-term tenants. Met with Terminix at a property. Heard from a new tenant hoping not to have to pay rent for a while. Heard from another tenant who was ecstatic to have water again after I had the cistern pump repaired by a plumber who hadn't been available for a couple days due to a funeral followed by a burial at sea that had all the family/passengers seasick for the event. Heard from another new tenant about to arrive that he needs picked up at the ferry late tomorrow night. Hmmm. Good thing it's not tonight he needs picked up or he would have to wait until I was done watching Survivor. 🙂

Made a mortgage broker very happy with multiple referrals. Heard from a buyer who was about to make an offer that he will probably wait until he's back from his expedition to climb Mt. Everest this spring. He's climbed just about every other big mountain in the world but didn't complete his last attempt at Everest so is giving it one more go. I think he's nuts and hope he makes it back alive so he can then retire to STX as planned and buy this really cool estate I showed him on Monday.

Did some house cleaning, bought a few groceries, responded to several dozen emails, caught up on most of the missed phone calls from the cell service being down all morning, discovered my flight itinerary for a trip coming up this summer was altered by one of the airlines involved and now the connecting flights no longer connect, spent an hour and a half getting nowhere with the airline.

Heading over to the airport soon to help BBQ for a C-17 flight crew coming in on a quick turn for fuel. Don't want them to starve on their continuing flight after all. Then have a house guest for the night. Will undoubtedly have to stay up to watch Survivor at midnight on the feed from San Francisco rather than catching it at 9PM on the feed from Atlanta.

But right now just enjoying the sound of the water swishing into my beach as the sun goes down.

Uh, Alexandra, you & Trw both sound like roadrunners. Beep-beep!

lol Trade, i truly enjoy being around people like Alexandra,it's that whole power of attraction thing that the "secret"talks about,successful people attract others to them like moths to a flame and the burial at sea thing, starting tomorrow no lobster for me for 2 weeks lol

I cannot believe that I didn't know suvivor was on. I am so pissed. How many have I missed. I have never missed an episode since it started.

dougtamjj - this will be the third episode of the new season. I caught the first one but missed last week since it was Valentine's Day and we had 8 guests arrive on-island at 5:30 PM who wiped out any chance of my catching even the midnight timeslot. The two tribes are: "Favorites" from past Survivor series and "Fans" who are first timers. The Fans won the first night and really shocked the Favorites, but I don't know what happened the second week. I guess I'll catch the re-cap tonight.