Just call me 'conflicted'...

I was grumpy yesterday because I got to see the INS in action, with a couple of fellows who've been around town for a while.

Aziz and Komal are Uzbeks who somehow ended up in Pagosa Springs and went to work in the manner you may have read about in history books. They worked two jobs, paid taxes, and so on, sending money and goods back home to Uzbekistan. Personally, I don't know if I'd have had the cojones to do what they did, but then again, I don't live in a country that causes such thoughts to cross my mind. Anyway, they got to know me and Galina - seeing as how we all speak Russian - and I've been to their apartment and broken bread (and poured vodka) with them.

Anyway, it turns out several folks here in town have been making calls, no doubt egged on by a growing feeling of unease fanned by the government (which raises alert levels based on uncorroborated - and as the polygraph showed, untrue - allegations of informants) and the media (which absolutely must fan the glowing embers of fear whenever possible, to improve their bottom line).

So yesterday, the INS and the FBI came by to check up on them, and it turns out that - given their visas - they should not have been working. (That's what I got out of the conversation. I may be wrong, and probably am, I'm not a lawyer, and anyway, I don't particularly pay copious amounts of attention to "the big picture" when I'm interpreting, which is how I got involved.) The INS hauled both guys to a local hoosegow, in chains, in preparation for transport to Denver and a hearing.

A pox on small-town, xenophobic nitwits from the shallow end of the gene pool!

OTOH, people - including small-town, xenophobic nitwits from the shallow end of the gene pool - have a right, I suppose, to call folks like the FBI in cases where they feel threatened. (I mean, who knows? Maybe the call was related to the sentiment of "damn furriners stealing 'murican jobs!" - which would explain the participation of the INS - instead of the fact that Komal, for example, is a swarthy, black-haired man who develops a five-o'clock shadow around noon, and whose photo would not look out of place if placed among those of the 9/11 hijackers).

And if Aziz and Komal's papers had been in order, they'd be in Pagosa today. Ah, well... you buys your ticket, you takes your chances.

Cheers...

P.S. The INS guys seemed very apologetic and took extra time to explain the basis for the arrest (not criminal, but administrative) and the reason for the chains (procedure).

...the unusual occurrence at the 'anti-war' events...

There was a Sherlock Holmes story, I think it was The Adventure of Silver Blaze, where the master detective found great significance in what a farm dog did not do in the middle of the night.

Not that I'm any kind of Holmes, but I couldn't help but notice how - in all the coverage of the 'anti-war' marches over the weekend - there was not one sign that I could see that exhorted Iraq to, say, cooperate with the UN, divest itself of its WMD, account for facilities for the production of WMD that existed in 1998, or anything along those lines.

Which to me, is a pretty telling indicator of what Saturday's marches were all about.

Cheers...

Busy day...

I've got a humongous translation job waiting for me at home, along with some stuff that arrived late yesterday for another client.

In the meantime, I've installed a wireless router at the store. It took some doing, since its choice of a default LAN IP address was not what I wanted, and changing it involved a delicate dance with the machine I was using to reprogram it.

However, in the final analysis, everything is copacetic in that direction.

* * *Next, I absolutely have to finish the statements and get them sent out.

Hmmm. After that, I can go home and start translating.

Cheers...

Newspeak Dept.: 'Unilateral' clarified!

I guess it's official. On Sunday, NPR regular Mara Liasson and NPR commentator Juan Williams set Fox News Sunday host Brit Hume - and the rest of us - straight on what it means to act "in a unilateral fashion" (at least, if you're the United States).

As Liasson went on and on about how important it was to have the international community "singing from the same page" on Iraq (shame on NPR, by the way, for using an expression with such blatantly pro-religious roots), Hume interrupted to say:

[...] people keep talking about going it alone. At last count, there were 34 nations prepared to help in this.

Unfazed, Liasson replied:

Hold on, Brit, I'm talking about without the United Nations Security Council [...]

A few minutes later, Williams indicated that he, too, did not share the common dictionary definition of 'unilateral' that the rest of us understand. He started talking about how the U.S. was isolating itself and how NATO (i.e., France, Germany, and Belgium) felt "that the United States is basically acting in a unilateral fashion."

Damn. Apparently, having 16 NATO members support us (of 19, and no credit will be given if you guess who the three non-supporters are) is also evidence of 'unilateralism.' Hume brought the point up, but Williams did not rise to the bait.

Peoples of the English-speaking world! Listen to me! We must put together a petition to add another meaning to 'unilateral' in the dictionary, posthaste:

uni-lat-er-al, adj., [...] 5 : done or undertaken without (a) the approval of the United Nations Security Council, or (b) the unanimous consent of all other countries [only when used in regard to the United States, as in: "The United States and 34 other countries unilaterally decided to..."]

Such a move would, doubtless, reduce the level of confusion and uncertainty in the world, don't you think so?

Cheers...