Job Discussion Forums

[scot47]

Interesting that there is a large number of......'eccentrics' attracted to this place, and posting here.

Could this area be the last refuge of the true TEFL eccentric (PCspeak for 'nutter').

[hawlermonkey]

Teaching English overseas is an adventure for the young
and an occupation for the eccentric.

[mistral]

Scot & Monkey. You're both right. From what I recall in my brief stay there last year, the university is indeed a haven for eccentrics and young adventurers. The students quite liked them at first - until the chaos set in and they found out that none of them could teach! Kurdistan deserves better.

[veiledsentiments]

I'd say that a quick read around this board would suggest that it is a pretty widespread problem. Rural Oman is drawing the same type... as does KSA.

Could the wilds of fractured Iraq be the last stop for them all?

VS

[scot47]

The problem started when Institutions in Britain began to implement 'Care in the Community'. That is another way of saying that the Lunatic Ayslums opened their doors. A fair percentage of the inmates seem to end up in the M.E.

[dmb]

The last couple of threads about Kurdistan have been blocked. Is there a political agenda here? Even in Turkey we have independent candidates for the upcoming election.

[veiledsentiments]

Political agenda? I'd say it is more the usual locking when threads turn into the same spitting contest from the same posters saying the same things over and over... and it becomes personal accusations.

If it was a political agenda, wouldn't they have been 'disappeared'??

VS

[scot47]

From his Balkan Redoubt one of the eccentrics maligned here has written to me in his own defence and asked me to pass on his comments to the wider world :


"A SPURIOUS AND TEMPORARY NOTORIETY




A MAN IN ************ WRITES:

It is interesting that both Ha'il University AND the University of Kurdistan at Hawler / Erbil - UKHR - are being put down / bad-mouthed / slagged off / brutally criticized on *Dave's ESL Cafe* on the 'net. Nowt to do with me, I can tell ye!
Mars must be in the cusp of Saturn, that's the only explanation!
Perhaps surprisingly, I too have a sort of walk-on part - a cameo role - as an object of contempt and derision but I won't be joining in. Life's simply too short !

Being bad-mouthed anywhere on the 'net gives one a spurious and short-lived notoriety [who in the name of Shaitan even remembers any of this stuff a month or two later?] but one or two points about my two-day trip to Kurdistan and UKHR must be made:

-1- I never ever in all of my life met Rennankampf. He and I have exactly 2 acquaintances from Jubail days in common and we have over the last year or so exchanged about eight or ten e-mails. That's the lot. He did not write me a reference to submit to UKHR, nor could he have done so.

In any case, I applied to work at UKHR a very long time ago, when a poor lady called *********** - later alleged to have had "stability issues" - was in charge of recruiting.

-2- Every seat of education, distinguished or otherwise, needs plenty of trustworthy and dependable workhorses, several platoons of earnest dullards [if only to do the invigilation and marking] and a handful of first-rate mentally-active creative smarties.

Horrendous and lasting difficulties arise when then the first two categories assume power and drive the third over the horizon. Several observers believe, or affect to believe, that this has happened at UKHR.

-3- I do not recall horning in on anyone's conversation in the manner of an H. M. Bateman cartoon bore. It is possible that my memory is at fault here. Due to the horrendous state of my gob, I was full of painkillers at the time [cf. the Twinkies defense in S.F.]

-4- In the course of what must have been one of my insufferably loud and interrupting monologues, I guess I must have spoken of my collection of cuttings from the English-language Saudi press, particularly those in the
**Guidance to Pious Muslims**
section of the Jeddah-published 'Arab News' -

Enough said.

A Much Maligned Eccentric

(MOD edit)

[veiledsentiments]

Oops Scot... I see they edited out part of your friend's message... probably to avoid taking the conversation in a new and interesting direction.

VS

[scot47]

The fact is that the EFL community(???) like the wider world have as much interest in Kurdistan as they do in the Planet Tralfamador.

[scot47]

My much maligned eccentric friend is now en route for a job with the "Mayor of Kabul", Karzai who claims to be running the country.

I have suggested he acquire a 'goollie chit', in the form of a certificate of conversion, before he goes.

[grahamb]

Scot47's knowledge of faraway planets makes one wonder what he indulged in back in the swinging sixties!

[scot47]

At no time have I ever used psychotropic substances, except C2HO5H. And a few others. But now I lead a RIGHTEOUS life !

[grahamb]

Sounds like a bit of the KSA rubbed off on you, paisano!

[scot47]

The Generous One has guided me to the Righteous Path !