Good deeds...?

"What better place than here? What better time than now?"

That's precisely what I thought when I decided to do a good deed. And that good deed would be charity... helping the needy. Giving food to people who might be struggling to fill their bellies throughout the day. Being compassionate about those who are less fortunate and might even not have a shelter to cover themselves from rain. What can be more self rewarding than the feeling of having helped someone who needed it?

With that in mind, while walking through the aisles of a grocery store, I decided to buy two food items, some snacks. But one would be for myself, and the other one would be for a needy person. So I did. I paid for them and placed one of the snacks in the inner pocket of my coat, while I just walked out and had my snack.

It didn't take me too long to find a candidate to be recipient of my spare snack. Two blocks away from the grocery store, I found a man in his 40's (I think), not extremely bad dressed but not very tidied up indeed, asking for spare change. And right across the street... another guy, this one in his early 30's and more or less in the same physical condition, doing the same. Some 20 meters ahead, a third individual with a wildly grown white beard, worn out clothes, and probably in his 50's. Some older, some younger... but all of them in need.

Having this scenario, I entered a dilemma: Under what grounds does one decide to give food to one homeless person, but not the other one across the street? How to choose who needs it more? Should I just stand and observe which one receives coins less often than their counterparts? Or maybe we should just be able to tell by their physical aspect? Is that a reliable indicator? Is the old one always more in need than the young one? Oh well. I came up with so many questions, and with so little answers.

Determining what person was in more need was not the only issue. Think about this: how correct is it to give food to one homeless person, while just telling the others that I don't have any spare change? That is quite a tough scenario, especially if those others witnessed how you handed food to a needy guy, just like themselves. Is it more correct (or ethical, if you like) to not give anything to anybody under those conditions? How could I look those people in the eyes and tell them "sorry, I don't have anything to help you with"...?

I ended up giving the spare snack to some needy woman a few blocks further away. She was in her 50's, lacked her front teeth and appeared hungry. But let's face it, she was probably not the only hungry one there. Strangely, I thought that I'd feel alright by giving food to a needy person. But after accomplishing my good deed, the sentiment of fulfillment was not as powerful as I expected. It was very far from that. Not that I felt miserable either, but I could not avoid thinking whether she was indeed the correct choice... and all my questions just kept bouncing all around my head as I kept walking on the streets, finding panhandlers literally in every corner.

Moreover, these thoughts can be extrapolated to so many levels...

Honduran "coup d'état"?

During the last couple of days, I have been following close the events related to the so-called coup d'état in Honduras, in which President Manuel Zelaya was arrested and forced into exile by the Honduran Army, and Mr. Roberto Micheletti was sworn as new President under the approval of the Parliament.

Indeed, this political crisis in Honduras has received a full coverage from the media around the world, which has been greeted by the international community with less than sympathy. Leaders from around the globe, especially from countries in the Americas, have promptly expressed their disapproval of the "coup d'état", and demanded the restoration of Mr. Zelaya in power. What the international community is ignoring though, is that Mr. Zelaya was arrested and overthrown because he refused to follow the orders issued by the Supreme Court of Honduras, which forbid him of going ahead with a referendum to modify the Constitution in order to reelect himself as President, when the current Constitution clearly prohibits reelection and its promotion, and demands that any public servant incurring on those activities to be removed from their position.

As one could expect, the first leaders to condemn the "coup" were Mr. Zelaya's closest supporters: President Hugo Chavez, from Venezuela; President Rafael Correa, from Ecuador, President Evo Morales, from Bolivia, and President Daniel Ortega from Nicaragua. All of which are loyally aligned to Mr. Chavez's ideas to shift Latin America towards socialism and, by the way, to turn their backs to the Empire (a.k.a the United states) and its allies. In fact, Chavez was prompt to threaten the newly formed government of Honduras with a military operation, should his friend and ally Manuel Zelaya not be restored in office.

No surprises up to this point. The impressive part comes when President Barack Obama, too, joins Chavez's group to declare the "coup d'état" as illegal. And so do virtually all the regional leaders, even some of the most conservatives and tending less to meddle into foreign affairs: Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, among others. But what everybody is ignoring here, as I previously pointed out, is that President Zelaya violated the national Constitution and the mandates issued by the Supreme Court of his country, which constitutes an abuse of power and hence makes him unfit to rule the country.

I seriously doubt that this is a case of coup d'état, as the regional leaders and the media alike have been reporting. This is more a case in which the people decided to overthrow a power-abusive tyrant, in the hopes of restoring real democracy and Rechtsstaat. I welcome the bravery of the people of Honduras and hope that this transition will bring a bright future to their country.

With information from Yahoo! News
Photos by Reuters and ABN, respectively

"Camping weekend" in Italy

The recent earthquake in the city of L'Aquila, in central Italy, left the town in ruins and 17,000 people lost their homes. The response by the Italian government was prompt, setting tents for the affected people and providing them with food and temporary shelter; an experience that the Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, suggested the homeless inhabitants of L'Aquila should enjoy as a "camping weekend".

This absurd comment, far from injecting positiveness into the public and confidence that the Italian Government is working for the well being of the people of L'Aquila, sparked a wave of criticism towards Berlusconi and raised doubts about the seriousness with which he is handling the aftermath of the devastating earthquake in Italy. It is not rocket science to figure out that the Italian public, and particularly the people directly affected by the earthquake, would not enjoy to have someone making inappropriate comments about their tragedy. And what could be worse than having an Italian leader himself making them?

But, as a report that appeared in The Guardian suggests, the help that the Italian government has provided to the people of L'Aquila is far from feeling as a "camping weekend", especially when as many as 200 people lacked a tent to sleep during the night, which was worsened by the rain and cold conditions in the area. Needless to say, the mood of the people affected by the earthquake does not allow them to enjoy the "camping weekend" at all. Despite Berlusconi's bizarre comments, it is remarkable that the Italian Government has had a fast response to help its citizens in these hard times.

My sympathy goes to the people from L'Aquila, wishing that they recover fast from this catastrophe.

Photo by AP

Terrell Owens, the newest Buffalo Bill

As a Buffalo Bills fan myself, this is some news that I could just not leave out of my blog: Terrell Owens signed a one-year deal with the Bills, in a move that was completely unexpected, and also totally unusual in the traditional modus operandi of the team.

How good, or bad, is this radical step taken by the Bills? Terrell Owens is a very talented player, who has made a huge reputation with his performance on the field... and his eccentricities outside. He is famed not only for his outstanding abilities as a tight end, but also for his disciplinary slip ups that have caused some indiscipline in the teams where he has played in the past. And this is definitely a matter of interest for the Bills, who traditionally have had low-profile, young rosters of players who typically keep themselves away from the limelight of disciplinary issues.

On the other hand, the Bills' performance as a team has been far from outstanding during the last ten years. The reasons? Nothing has been proved for sure, but I would think there have been several flaws in the game structure planned by the Bills in the last decade. But, although there have been several improvements in the game style utilized by the team (most remarkably during the last season), and even though the current roster is made up by energized and passionate people, a couple of pieces are still lacking from the puzzle to achieve success: I would say those are experience, and steady perseverance. And Terrell Owens is definitely a player that will bring both to the teams' performance during the following season.

I welcome the deal signed with Terrell Owens, on a personal title I think his participation with the Bills will definitely boost up the teams' possibilities of (finally) making it to the playoffs, for the first time in about a decade.

What media don't mention about the Gaza conflict

This new year 2009 has started pretty fast. And very hard as well. The news of another conflict in the Middle East is definitely not the kind of news that anybody would expect to start a new year. But, if you ask me, it was just about time until this conflict ignited.

I have heard from different newspapers and other information sources the outrage that the Israeli invasion on Gaza has brought. Thousands of people around the world have demonstrated their disapproval of the operation performed by the Israeli Army (IDF), and most of the media I've seen have clearly put Israel in negative light for its actions. Is this a fair judgment?

The bias that the media has against Israel is nothing new. Throughout the years, sources of information have depicted Israel as a repressive State that systematically abuses the rights and freedoms of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. Even though it is not a secret that the current military operation in the Gaza Strip is the result of more than 10 years of daily missiles launched from Gaza into Israel, some people have tagged the current operation as a butchery and a genocide orchestrated against Palestinian civilians by the Israeli Army. Is this an accurate judgment? Here are a few facts that should be considered when making up our minds:

• Israel is a sovereign, democratic, non-repressive State (Fact: The Israeli population is comprised of Jews, Christians, Muslims, and other minorities. Despite the Jewish majority among Israeli nationals, there are Israeli Christian and Muslim minorities that enjoy full Israeli citizenship, which includes the possession of Israeli identity cards, enjoy freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and right to vote).
  
• The current operation in Gaza is NOT aimed against Palestinian civilians, as some media have (willingly or unwillingly) reported (Facts: 800,000+ leaflets disseminated by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to Gaza civilians instructing them to stay away from terrorist and weapons storage sites // 70+ times the IDF warned populated areas before conducting airstrikes).
• The Operation Cast Lead (as the military operation in Gaza has been dubbed) is the result of the ongoing missile attacks made by Hamas against Israeli civilian targets (Facts: 10,000+ rockets and mortars fired from Gaza since 2001 // 6,500+ rockets and mortars fired from Gaza since Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 // 3,200+ rockets and mortars fired from Gaza in 2008 alone // 28 deaths caused by rockets and mortars fired from Gaza into Israel since 2001. The dead include Israelis, Palestinians and foreign workers).
• Most of the Palestinian casualties during the Operation Cast Lead so far are a result of Hamas using the civilian population as human shields to protect themselves and their weapons across Gaza (Facts: 3 mosques in Gaza used as weapons, ammunitions and explosives depots that were struck by the Israel Defense Forces during the operation in Gaza. The strikes occurred only at night and never during prayer times, to avoid civilian casualties // 0 -that is, zero- wounded Palestinians allowed by Hamas to cross from Gaza into Egypt for treatment, whereas at least 20 Palestinians, including 2 children, have been evacuated to Israel for medical treatment).
• Hamas has constantly refused to negotiate peace with Israel, ignoring the willingness of the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority to reach agreements through negotiations. Instead, Hamas believes in the jihad (holy Muslim war) to reach its goals (Facts: In 2005, Israel evacuated 100% proportion of the Gaza Strip and handed it over to the Palestinians // Hamas' charter explicitly calls for the destruction of the State of Israel and the instauration of an Islamic State in the territory that comprises Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza. // Hamas' charter also explicitly considers peace talks and negotiations a waste of time, and considers Jihad as the only path to success).

Whereas the death of Palestinian civilians must be condemned by all means, it is also true that those casualties cannot be blamed on Israel alone. Hamas has a track record of utilizing civilians to protect their own terrorist interests, and at the end of the day, Palestinians in Gaza elected Hamas as their leadership in early 2006, being clearly aware of Hamas' ideology and modus operandi. Hamas is a terrorist organization, and the world should fight terrorism so we can have the hope of handing a peaceful world to the generations to come...

With information from The Israel Project and Hamas Charter
Photo by AP

The light at the end of the tunnel?

Roughly three weeks have passed since I wrote my last entry in my blog. And believe me, it's not a lack of interest in writing stuff here -- at the end of the day, writing is one of my favorite things to do in life. But there have been other factors that have kept me of writing posts, most notably lack of time and lack of good (i.e. positive) things to write about.

Yes, there have been interesting things going on in our world lately. Most of them have not been positive though: A series of despicable terrorist attacks against tourist and religious centers in Mumbai, India, left hundreds of casualties and thousands of injuries. Also, the world economic recession has prompted a wave of layoffs that have left thousands of people around the world without a job. On top of that, the purchasing power of consumers worldwide appears to be reducing more and more everyday, and we are just wondering when will this economic recession come to an end...

Even though there is a real scarcity of positive topics to write about recently, from time to time it's possible to hear out there things that really make us remember that ours is a civilization in motion, and that there is always a flip side to all the turmoil that happens at times. This time, it is a news that, if it is true, will bring benefits and hope to thousands, maybe millions, of people who live with HIV.

Luc Montagnier, the French scientist who, with the help of a group of collaborators discovered in 1982 the retrovirus guilty of causing HIV in patients, believes that within 5 years there will be a vaccination to treat and prevent HIV available in the markets. According to a note published by CBC news, there are no evident clues as to why would Montagnier set the 5 year timeframe to come up with a treatment and preventive vaccination. But I want to believe that Mr. Montagnier has some inside information, that he knows well the status of all the research done so far surrounding the treatment of HIV, and that his predictions will be correct.

It is hard to imagine that the day when the cure for HIV will be available is coming. Too good to feel true, but the fact that my mind cannot currently see that happening does not mean by any means that I am negative or skeptical about Mr. Montagnier predictions. At the end of the day, he is the expert and he knows much more about the topic than I do... and if his thoughts are correct, then mankind will have given another huge leap in 5 years time.

Very nice indeed. I would love to hear about the day when the announcement of the cure of cancer and other diseases will be made, if ever. These successes will benefit millions of people around the world, and all the generations to come.

With information from CBC news, available here.

XPS or PDF?

It is unbelievable how little time I have had lately to post new entries to my blog. But there are good reasons for that: work has kept me busy, contributing to other blogs has also absorbed a little bit of my spare time, and ultimately fixing some issues with financial institutions lately has had its effect on my schedule as well.

And it is precisely about these issues with the financial institutions I want to talk about. Not about the issues themselves -- but rather about some interesting findings I made in order to get them solved. I will start by saying that right now I am on an extended stay in another city for work purposes, and currently I don't have a printer to print out stuff from my computer. Moreover, I don't speak the local language in order to go out to the streets and asking pedestrians about a place where they can print out stuff for me. In the meantime, I still have to pay bills back home, so instead of printing out the receipts of my payments, I thought that it would be easier just to keep copies of my online receipts, and storing them in my computer.

Well, of course I am not a computer geek, and there are a lot of things that I don't know about computers. And my surprise was big when I learned that the only way to keep my online receipts stored in my computer was to save them as XPS files, which by the way, I never heard of before. But, since I discovered that it was possible to view those files later using Internet Explorer, I thought that it would do no harm to keep them in such format, and just printing them out whenever I needed them. Later, I found out that XPS is a file format developed by Microsoft, which is designed to keep files in the same way that PDFs work, overall (as I said, I am not very techie, so I won't discuss here any technical specifications or processes of each type of file).

The time to utilize those receipts came to me much earlier than I expected, when I had to show them to financial institutions in order to avoid getting charged with unfair interests. So I thought that sending them the online receipts along with instructions to open them with Internet Explorer would be enough for them to get my issue solved as soon as possible. But my surprise would be big when I found out that the bank could not open the files, and they were requesting me to convert to another file format!

The natural option to send this kind of information is PDF files. But I wondered whether there was a way to convert XPS files into PDF's? I found in the internet a couple of programs that pretty much converted any type of MS Office document (.doc, .xls, .ppt, etc) to PDF format. However, they were not freeware, and I had no guarantee that they would work on XPS files as well. What to do?

After about an hour of doing extensive research through the web, I came across a site that spoke about an utility named CutePDF writer, which essentially is a freeware program that "installs itself as a printer subsystem", according to its creators. In other words, it is possible to "print" any document that can be printed out from any computer into a PDF file. The interface is not rocket science, in fact everything works exactly in the same way as printing out anything through a regular printer, with the difference that instead of getting a hard copy of the file, you will get a window that will ask you for a folder where to save your new PDF. Amazing!

I believe that XPS files work quite well, but their main drawback is that they are virtually unknown among regular, not-so-techie users, such as myself. In the meantime, I believe that PDF's will still be the standard for non-modifiable documents, and CutePDF is about the best way to create such widely used documents... I would dare to say, even better than using Adobe's products themselves.

President Obama... the wind of change?

This is today's news that is not news anymore: Barack Obama is voted president of the United States.

Yes, it is true that Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States. I am not sure whether that is necessarily a relevant fact; it might be if we consider it as a proof that minorities in the United States are progressing in terms of holding more relevance in national decisions. However, I don't necessarily see the election of Barack Obama as a reflection of such progress; let's not forget that other African Americans have already held important national positions in the past. For instance, the current Secretary of State, Condolezza Rice, and her predecessor Colin Powell.

The election of Barack Obama is in fact relevant for many reasons other than his race. He brings tons of hope to some Americans, who believe that the power of change towards a better future for the nation is in Mr. Obama's hands and ideals. He's also becoming president in times of turmoil, when the U.S. is submerged in the worst economic recession that the country has seen since the Great Depression of 1929. Also, his coming to office will come by the time when U.S. troops are still present in Iraq, in what has proven to be one of the most unpopular wars of all times amongst the U.S. citizens. People trust that Mr. Obama will be that person who will finally direct the country to the path of sustained progress for all.

I sincerely hope that Mr. Obama can achieve that. It would be extremely sad if, at the end of the road, he proves to be another populist that comes to power by means of selling people hope without necessarily making that become true. The winds of change appear to finally have hit the US, and let's hope that change works for the best interests of the free world.

Ironic? The plastic bags case

Back in January, I wrote a post about activists in city of Vancouver, Canada, trying to convince the local authorities to eventually impose a ban on plastic grocery bags. It is certainly a great idea, as plastic grocery bags have proven to be harmful to the environment (low biodegradability, pollution of waters, etc).

No wonder that this kind of ideas are promoted in a country like Canada, and more specifically from the province of British Columbia, where inhabitants boast about their green practices, such as recycling materials and utilizing cleaner transportation (trolleybuses, bicycles, buses that run with biofuels, and so on). Interestingly, even though lots of British Columbians already own reusable grocery bags and use them routinely, it is still very common to see patrons who prefer to avoid paying CAD$0.99 to buy a reusable bag. Instead, they still choose the standard plastic bags, which stores happily provide for free... and which, of course, won't be reused in most of the cases.

Whilst Canada is highly regarded as one of the cleanest countries in terms of green living habits, China is regarded as exactly the opposite. Discharge of industrial waste into rivers, uncontrolled emission of greenhouse gases, and lack of recycling programs in place, are some of the issues that have given China its fame as a non environmentally-friendly country.

Now to the ironic part: since June this year, the Chinese authorities have started a campaign to shift the peoples' habits from choosing plastic grocery bags to leaning for reusable types in the very short run. Even though reusable bags are not readily available for purchase everywhere in China (as opposed to what happens in Canada), grocery stores apply a fee to new plastic bags for customers! Of course, the purchase of plastic bags is not mandatory, but it is a standard practice across the country. The result? People are avoiding the use of plastic bags, and they are carrying their groceries in other non-disposable items (such as backpacks). Their strategy is definitely working!

The question is: why can they succeesfully put in place these practices in China (a country that traditionally doesn't emphasize a lot the preservation of the environment) in an accelerated fashion, whereas in Canada it is progressing in slow motion...? Just an idea to think about.

Learning survival Chinese, the hard way!

I seldom use my blog to write about personal experiences. However, I will have to make an exception for this post, as my story today is really worth of posting on my site. I think that, other than doing nice dramatic novel, the story reflects the taste of issues of life that some people have to deal with when traveling and living in foreign lands. Enjoy.

Shanghai, 5:50 am. It's still dark outside. As a result of the jet-lag, I wake up early on a Sunday morning and decide to check my email and checking whether any friends are available for chat prior to taking a shower. If I only knew of how messy would be my first morning in Shanghai...!

I send a couple of emails, check my facebook, and surf the web for a bit. At about 6:50 am, I see that it's not that dark in the street anymore, and decide that it's a perfect time to take a shower. Hum... last night, when I took a shower, I remember that for some reason the water heater was not working properly, so it would probably be a good idea to see if I can fix that before having to take another cold shower, just last yesterday. I approach the electric heater, and notice that it's indeed connected, so everything should be working. But hey!! What are those two valves (one blue, one red) below the heater? Maybe they are for turning it on? Let's find out. I'll start by turning the blue one... geez... it's hard... maybe I can try to turn it harder... success!!! I finally moved it... but wait... What the...?!!

"Houston... ehh... we've got a problem here!!". Indeed, I just popped out the valve, and now I have a beautiful fountain inside my apartment, furiously throwing out water and flooding the place! Great! Now, WHAT SHOULD I DO?

Step 1: Remain calm. Breathe deep. Now, time to think fast... what to do?
Step 2: Try to fix the problem yourself. Well, if popping off the valve started all this problem, just putting the valve back will solve it. But the pressure of the water is so high, that it's just impossible to put it back. The water itself will just push it off forever!
Step 3: Shut down the water stream coming from the street!. Great idea!!! Now, where the hell can I find the valve to shut it down...?! No clue!!
Step 4: If you can't fix the problem yourself, just ask for help!

Okay, so here I go. While my apartment is getting flooded by tens of liters of water per minute, I run out and the first thing that I decide to do is to knock my neighbor's door as loud as possible. No answer. Is anybody living there at least? Who'll know? At the end of the day, yesterday I was so tired after my 12 and a half hour-long flight that I didn't really feel like going out to explore the surroundings here. Big mistake.

As no one answers next door, I come back to the apartment to admire the flooding there! Ok, if things are to get screwed up, at least let's try to make the best out of it. I take my whole luggage lying on the floor and throw it outside the apartment before the furious water reaches the area where I left it since the night before. Of course, I didn't have time to close the suitcases properly and make sure that things would remain inside of them, so there you have clothes flying to the hall outside my apartment and making a mess outside. But at least, my luggage was not getting wet.

Ok, my stuff is safe for now, but that's not even close to a solution for the problem here. What now? Let's go downstairs and ask for help! Barefoot, but well equipped with my pyjama, my keys, my wallet, and the little booklet of "survival Chinese" phrases, I rush downstairs and run to the entrance of the complex (yes, I live in a complex of 5 buildings) to seek help. I don't find anybody, except for the security guard, who seems to be enjoying a lot his Sunday morning. I enter his office, and take out my Chinese pocket emergency phrasebook to utter some words that let him know that I am in trouble.

"Jiu ming a!" ("help!", according to my booklet) I yell, to which the guy leans back on his chair, smiles at me as if he was enjoying seeing my agitation there, and calmly replies something in Chinese (something like "bu duo", who'll know?), which I assumed meant "I don't understand". I try to give him some keywords that would hopefully make him understand what's the matter. Almost playing charades, I explain "wo de... jia... you shui...!!!" (my... house... has... water). The guy keeps smiling, and he replies something in Chinese that of course I couldn't understand, but from his behavior I assume that he did not get a hint of what was going on. Given my failure to obtain any help from this guy, I just rush to my building, and then up to the apartment, to see if I can make a skype call to my landlord. When I walk inside, unsurprisingly, I find out that the water keeps raising its level, and now it is about to reach the area of my bedroom and bathroom. Isn't that cool.

Well, people normally don't enjoy to work on a Sunday morning if it's not absolutely necessary, so the landlord decides that he wants the day off, and the best way to make sure that people won't bother him is to turn off the cellphone. On his end, turning it off proves to be a great success, since he is not bothered by my calls asking for help! On my end, it is just a prolongation of the wet tragicomedy in my apartment.

So what other big ideas come to my mind? Well, try knocking another neighbor's door to ask them for help! There is another apartment across the hall on the floor I live in, so hopefully someone will come and give me a helping hand. I rush there, knock the door desperately, and some voice inside says something in Chinese. I ask for help in English, hoping that the person inside is a foreigner and can finally understand that I have little problem to take care of. But my hopes vanish quickly, as after explaining that my place was getting flooded, the same voice replies again in Chinese, saying something that I can't understand, but which clearly suggests that he won't open the door, let alone giving any help.

7:00 am. Just about ten minutes, which appear to be more like hours, have passed since the incident began. The flooding, of course, keeps getting worse as time goes by, and I am already in an act of desperation. What else can I do? I have no choice but to rush downstairs again and trying to convince the security guy, who is about the only person around, to come and see by himself what is really going on, which I cannot explain in Chinese. So there I go. Nicely dressed with my colorful pyjama, I run across the yard and find again the security guy leaning on his chair. He looks at me and makes a gesture that I understand like if he was saying "You again?! What the hell do you want?!". Given the fact that he does not understand English whatsoever, I try to come up again with some keyword that picture my case there: "Wo de jia... you shui... qing lai jian!" (my house... has water... please come to see!). Just like before, the guy smirks and replies something like "bu duo", and then starts talking very long sentences that of course I don't understand. But clearly, he doesn't seem to be interested in coming to see, even though I am waving my hand, signaling him that I want him to come. It looks that body language is also not effective for these matters.

Then, the security guy finally gets his rear off the chair and he appears to be eager to do something. "Maybe he did understand this time!!" I thought. He yells something, for which he gets an answer from some guy who was in the backroom of his "office". Then they start making a conversation, replying forth and back to whatever they were saying, until their conversation comes to an end when the two of them start laughing (probably at me!). Again, he starts talking to me something in Chinese, and I just keep saying the words "jia... shui!" (house... water!). The guy heads off the "office", and comes into his washroom, where he turns the knob of his sink to show me the running water. He points at it and says "shui?", as if he was trying to make sure that I knew what was I saying. I nod, so he goes back into the "office", picks up the phone and calls some number. After his conversation on the phone, he gives me some instructions in Chinese, from which I only understood the words "zheli" (there) and "wu" (five), which I thought might mean that someone would be coming to the building number 5 (which is my building) to take care of my case.

I rush back to the entrance of the building to wait for the help to come, but no one appears to be coming in this direction. So I rush up again to see the progress of the flooding, and hopefully to come up with the bright idea that will get me out of my little problem here. When I reach the apartment, naturally, i discover that the water has already reached even the bathroom and bedroom. Of course, water keeps coming, and coming, and coming, and coming...

07:05 am. My desperation is extreme. Since no one appears to understand that there was a problem here, I just start yelling "HELP! HELP!" across my floor, hoping that someone, either at my floor or from a nearby floor, will at least be attracted to come out and see why is there someone shouting that early in the morning. Then suddenly, the doors of the elevator open, and a Chinese guy, also dressed in a pyjama and smoking a cigarette comes out. It was the help that the security guy called before (and probably just like you, I have no idea how he knew what floor exactly to come), so I quickly wave my hand so he can walk inside the apartment and see what is going on there. He follows me and sees the beautiful mess that the flooding was causing inside, to which his immediate reply was a lengthy, yet calm "ooooooooooooh!" exclamation. Then, clearly unimpressed by the scenario, he walks out of the apartment, and with his hand signals me to follow him. I do so, and he shows me a little door in the opposite side of the floor, which he opens. Inside, there is a knob that he turns, and as soon as he does so, the sound of the water coming out of the water heater ceases. Then, in a perfect Chinese accompanied by some charades, he explains to me that, whenever I'm ready to resume the water stream into my apartment, I should just turn that knob. I tell him a number of times "Xiexie! xiexie!" (thank you! thank you!), and with all the calm of the world he gets inside the elevator and leaves.

I spend the next couple of hours drying up the place. First, I need to "shovel" water with a dustpan into the sink or into the shower, since those are the only sewers in my house. While I am doing that, someone knocks the door of my apartment and, since the door was already open, just walks in and starts talking to me in English (at last!). It is my neighbor, the guy who lives in the apartment next door, where I thought that probably no one lived... another foreigner, this one from England, in China. He sees the mess, asks me about what happened there, and apologizes for not coming out to help before. But at the end of the day, I was feeling good that at least I could talk to someone! We agree to go sometime for a few beers. The rest of the morning I would have to spend it waiting for the landlord to come, bring some people to fix the heater, cleaning up... and who knows what else. But I feel great that the problem is under control now.

The morale of this story, is that learning some "survival language" when traveling to a foreign country is crucial. I saw myself in big trouble with this problem, and the desperation of not being able to explain to people what exactly I wanted was utterly frustrating. That's probably the key drawback of living as an expat, and I learned that too quickly in this trip. I am sure that I'll find myself in many other situations in which language barriers will be an issue, so I'd better learn quicker some survival phrases. My recommendation? Instead of learning things like "hello" or "my name is Eddie" in the local language when visiting a foreign place, it is best to learn things like "help!", "I need a doctor", "does anybody here speak English?" or "call the police". I am just learning it the hard way.

For now, it is noon, and I still haven't had my shower...