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veiledsentiments · Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA

Good Grief!! Apparently his 'wasta' wasn't as good as he thought since he seems to be in jail. I've never met the fellow and I must say after reading his stuff, that fact makes me smile.

VS

Cleopatra · Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2009 4:40 pm Post subject:

Perhaps Harry is a more gifted writer than I had given him credit for.

If he could make a Riyadh embassy party sound like a cross between Oscars' night and a James Bond film, no surprise that he could make a teacher's life in Thailand sound like a star-studded existence on fantasy island, with 'beautiful' students and escapades on millionaire's yachts. Methinks, however, that Harry's life in Thailand - like his life in Riyadh - was rather more mundane than he would like us all to think. Especially when he found out the hard way that the Thais, unlike the Saudis, aren't all that squeamish when it comes to imprisoning citizens of 'white people countries' (sic).

Never Ceased To Be Amazed · Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2009 4:44 pm Post subject:

johnslat · Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2009 4:45 pm Post subject:

Dear Cleopatra,
A "more gifted writer" - No (not unless you think, say, Harold Robbins was gifted.)
A rich, if disgustingly sleazy, fantasy life - Definitely.

Do I hear Hollywood calling?

Regards,
John

Cleopatra · Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2009 4:51 pm Post subject:

johnslat · Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2009 4:58 pm Post subject:

Dear Cleopatra,

Ah, but sleaze has a very long shelf-life in Hollywood.

And as for this:

"Now, if he had only managed to get himself arrested in Iran or Syria...."

Hey, no problem - we'll just switch locations. As a bonus, that'll let us use all those scruffy-looking, evil terrorist Arab stereotypes, make it more topical.

Besides, no one in the USA knows where Thailand is, anyway.

Regards,
John

Asda · Joined: 01 Jun 2008 Posts: 231

I would like to call upon the words of Confucious, who was rumoured to have said:

"Man who walks into airplane door sideways is going to Bangkok!"

Laughing

Sheikh N Bake · Joined: 26 Apr 2007 Posts: 1307 Location: Dis ting of ours

And who wants his hand that close to Nicole Kidman's buttock anyway?

johnslat · Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 4:13 pm Post subject:

Dear Sheikh,
Keith Urban, presumably, and (don't tell my wife), I suppose I could survive it.
Regards,
John

Sheikh N Bake · Joined: 26 Apr 2007 Posts: 1307 Location: Dis ting of ours

To each his own, Johns.

Julia Stiles good.

Erika Christensen veddy good.

Nicole Kidman same-same cold white fish.

sheikh radlinrol · Joined: 30 Jan 2007 Posts: 1222 Location: Spain

Arab Strap · Joined: 25 Feb 2004 Posts: 246 Location: under your bed

My right hand is vigorously networking..."

You've got to admire his imaginative use of the euphemism here....

It does make one wonder whose buttocks he's within touching distance of in his cell.

Cleopatra · Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2009 11:40 am Post subject:

Well, according to one of the reports I read, Mr. Nicolaides claimed to be sharing his cell with 90 other inmates, some of whom were hostile to him because of the nature of the charges against him.

Of course, this could be yet another of the 'senior lecturer's' exaggerations, albeit one which is rather less glamorous than some of the fibs from Harry's days of yore...

johnslat · Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2009 5:58 pm Post subject:

"Well, according to one of the reports I read, Mr. Nicolaides claimed to be sharing his cell with 90 other inmates . . ."

No shortage of buttocks to go around there, it would seem.

". . . .some of whom were hostile to him because of the nature of the charges against him. "

Including, especially, his own. Ah, the life of an EFLer: exotic places to visit, new friends to make, and perhaps even romance to be found.

jabberjaw · Joined: 09 Mar 2007 Posts: 57

You all have really missed the point on this one. One of the things about being Western is that you tend to take free speech for granted. Criticizing the government is something that many late night talk show hosts do all the time to audiences of millions of people and they're not put in jail for it. They're paid millions of dollars a year, get book deals, and are revered.

No matter what you think of Mr. Nicolaides there is one very significant thing that you're leaving out. That's that one of our peers is stuck in prison in a third world country for three years because he made some innocuous comments about an outdated and tyrannical form of government.

Whatever his flaws may be we have no good reason to believe that he deserves this kind of treatment. I wonder how many of you have stopped to ask yourselves how he must be feeling right now. I'm sure he's got to be scared and going out of his mind. Instead of picking him apart and kicking a dead horse maybe you could direct your negativity to a more proper place and that's to the monarchy in Thailand that's committing a human rights violation against Mr. Nicolaides.

I know people who love going to Thailand on vacation and who talk about it as a great place to retire. It's funny how stories like this are omitted in those tales. Knowing that this kind of injustice goes on there I'll think twice about sending my hard earned money into their tourist industry as long as they think they can get away with treating Westerners in this manner.

It's also noteworthy that perhaps one of the reasons there's no successful international union to fight for teachers' salary and benefits which should be doubled is that so many of us lack the ability or desire to show a little compassion for our peers and to recognize and oppose obvious injustices when they occur. The fact that he's a former Saudi EFLer should bring one obvious point home. What happened to Mr. Nicolaides could just have easily happened to you or me.