Kith & Kin: a recurrent issue

[Dayuhan]

Yep, there are some strange folk at the fish bowl (embassy), and some do need a wake up call. I used to think State forced most to have multiple lobotomies as I had no other explanations when queried

Lobotomies were probably not necessary, they simply imposed an incomprehensible labyrinth of restrictive and contradictory rules governing every aspect of what anyone is allowed to do or say, which has the same effect. The embassy here is not at all like a fishbowl. You can look into a fishbowl.

Many of the reasons the embassy is incapable is due to a lack of knowledge of the country they occupy and call home for a scant 2 years. The expats fill that gap - assuming the embassy personnel realize they are not the center of the universe and that the expats are in fact humans.

I've never heard of anyone from the embassy here asking an expat for information or an opinion. Certainly nobody has ever asked me, though I might conceivably be useful. Maybe they talk to the expats who frequent their (very limited) social circles, who of course are the ones least likely to be able to tell them anything useful.

The embassy local staff generally have the greatest amount of experience and get to deal with all the disgruntled locals and Americans while the US staff barely figure out how to get home each evening before their tour is up.

Disgruntled locals don't get in the door here. The numerous disgruntled Americans are dealt with by a corps of unreasonably pretty local girls, which I guess is suppose to defuse the disgruntled. We have large numbers of retirees here, mostly male, perennially disgruntled, and often with serious alcohol problems... that's a stereotype of course, but it is not without basis. Of course those who meet that stereotype are the ones most likely to have problems and least likely to be able to solve them on their own! There always seems to be some old geezer in there shouting about how he built a house for some girl he picked up in a bar and she threw him out of it and gawdemmit the US guvvermint oughta do something about it!

In short, without people like you and I, the embassy can't help the rest.

Here they're so isolated that I can't imagine how I'd help them, or even offer to. They aren't even allowed to reveal their names, for security reasons.

I doubt the embassy in the PI could even give you a list of local funeral parlors Not sure about your situation, but if I was dying I would drive myself to the graveyard - it would be faster !

I know they have lists of approved doctors they give to people who are sick, and lists of approved lawyers they give to people who have gotten into legal issues. There's a possibly apocryphal tale of someone who called a lawyer on the list and discovered he'd been dead for some time. A funeral parlor list wouldn't half surprise me.

I don't fully blame them for the distance and the mess over there; it really is an awkward job. I know they are constantly inundated with requests to locate Americans who have gone AWOL and immersed themselves in a sea of booze and hookers, with families imagining kidnapping or worse. Then there's the mail-order bride seekers, the pedophiles, the crooks on the lam, and other assorted dregs. Good reason to stay away from the expat scene, for those who can.

They have a system here for reducing traffic in the offices. There's a deal with FedEx where you send docs in, they process and send back by FedEx. I had a phone conversation once with someone who absolutely refused to believe that FedEx does not deliver to the place where I live, in fact that they'd have to deliver c/o someone else 120km away, who would then send stuff up on a local bus. She kept telling me that "FedEx delivers everywhere".

It's not just the US embassy, of course. Some years back an Irish fellow went in the caves here (where I live) without a light or a guide, fell down a shaft, died. The local guides retrieved the remains and set up a proper drunken Igorot wake. The embassy was notified. No reply was received. Eventually he started to stink, so they buried him in the local cemetery. Nothing was ever heard from the embassy. Months later some family members showed up, decided he was ok where he was, and left. Sic transit gloria mundi...

[Stan]

I'm darn glad I served in places where most of the people you have don't want to go

We will have to get together, and over several brews recant our stories !

Eventually he started to stink, so they buried him in the local cemetery. Nothing was ever heard from the embassy. Months later some family members showed up, decided he was ok where he was, and left. Sic transit gloria mundi...

That's priceless !

[ganulv]

Some years back an Irish fellow went in the caves here (where I live) without a light or a guide, fell down a shaft, died. The local guides retrieved the remains and set up a proper drunken Igorot wake. The embassy was notified. No reply was received. Eventually he started to stink, so they buried him in the local cemetery.

If I were to see the end of my days in Igorot country I would much prefer my remains get the hanging coffin treatment. Though what with the caving and all I would guess this fellow is happily spending eternity beneath the ground.

[Dayuhan]

I'm darn glad I served in places where most of the people you have don't want to go

I don't have to deal with them either, luckily... they rarely come up to where I am, and if any stray in they generally leave quickly. Lived in the Subic area for a while, and that was strange. That place has more than its share of the moldy expat community.

We will have to get together, and over several brews recant our stories

Stop by if you're in this hemisphere. That would be a lot of stories, I suspect!

If I were to see the end of my days in Igorot country I would much prefer my remains get the hanging coffin treatment. Though what with the caving and all I would guess this fellow is happily spending eternity beneath the ground.

Cliff burials are actually unique to our town, never heard of them elsewhere in the area. You have to be a respected elder to get one, though, and falling down a hole doesn't earn one much respect here. Another odd part of that story is that the relatives who came over said the guy's father had died in a fall on a construction site. Apparently the family had some issues with gravity.

[ganulv]

[T]he relatives who came over said the guy's father had died in a fall on a construction site. Apparently the family had some issues with gravity.

They fought the law. And the law won.

[davidbfpo]

A short article by a British Yemeni student, which opens with:

The Yemeni diaspora in the UK, which has taken an active role in co-ordinating international action, encapsulates this phenomenon. The Yemeni diaspora has historically reflected divisions and phenomena present in Yemen, including the tension between North and South Yemen and the lack of women in community leadership roles. The Yemeni revolution challenged many of these deeply engrained norms and customs, and has, in turn, impacted the diaspora. All in all, the Yemeni revolution has been a positive force in the Yemeni diaspora, uniting, empowering and mobilizing the community to engage with policy makers and high-level UK government officials to voice its concerns and opinions about UK-Yemen relations.

Link:http://muftah.org/the-yemeni-revolut...SGAmCE.twitter

The author contends that the Yemeni community is uniting, as an observer this was sometimes hard to discern, even when meeting with the UK Ambassador to Yemen - who was on a tour of the communities in the UK.

[davidbfpo]

WoTR has an article on India's growing presence in the Middle East, notably the Persian Gulf region, which has some fascinating snippets, but I will cite the first passage which is relevant here, with my emphasis:

There are over 6 million Indian citizens working in the Middle East. That is more than the population of Finland. This provides some context as to why India has now actively started to build its relations further with the region. It also raises the question as to why it has waited for so long to do so.

Link:http://warontherocks.com/2014/04/ind...-persian-gulf/

Elsewhere I have seen articles on the deaths amongst construction workers from the sub-continent on building for the World Cup in Qatar 2022; concern being expressed, not as I recall by their home governments. Here is one BBC report:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-26482775

[davidbfpo]

Recently I read an article on traders from the Congo (DRC) in China (PRC), which came as a surprise, as it referred to a few thousand.

According to a Wiki piece there are:

According to a local newspaper report in 2008, the number of Africans in Guangzhou had been increasing by 30-40% each year, and formed the largest black community in Asia....from Nigeria, Mali, Guinea, Cameroon, Liberia nd the DRC....

Academics have attempted to estimate the size of the population. Huang Shiding of the Guangzhou Institute of Social Sciences in 2007 estimated the number of permanent residents of foreign nationality (six months and above) to be around 50,000, of which some 20,000 are of African origin. Roberto Castillo, a graduate student researching Africans in Guangzhou, estimated in 2013 fewer than 10,000 Africans residing in Guangzhou and 20-30,000 Africans travelling through Guangzhou at any one time. Castillo cautions that firm numbers are difficult as many Africans in Guangzhou are in constant transit so the concept of residence in this context is different from the usual understanding

Link:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africans_in_Guangzhou

Apparently there are 300-500k expats in Shanghai, mainly from Taiwan and Asia. Plus a large number of students, many from the USA. They mainly live in one side of the city, alongside their Starbucks and the like.