New York City, Indian Victories, Biomechanics and Left-handedness

I’ve been lazy about writing recently even though there were a number of issues that I had thoughts about. I’ve decided to just do a “digest” today!

New York City

New York City experienced an unforgettable summer in 1977: scorching heat, a crippling July power blackout which saw widespread arson and looting and resulted in millions of dollars worth of damage, a serial killer dubbed the Son of Sam, rising crime and financial crisis.

Fast forward thirty years and there seems to be no improvement. A few inches of rain last week caused total chaos in the city, disrupting the entire transport system for hours. A few weeks ago a manhole cover blew up causing one death and traffic chaos in mid-town Manhattan up until a few days ago. Add to that the huge power outage in Queens last year and the black out that affected the entire North East corridor in 2004. In other words NYC is pretending to be a first world city when in reality it isn’t. The subway system is archaic, nasty, inefficient and expensive, the city streets are dirty and smelly and sidewalks are forever overflowing with garbage bags and stink of dog urine and faeces. The traffic is unbearable and the air polluted. Housing standards are poor unless you are rich and can afford decent accommodation. Similarly if you cannot afford insurance forget about proper health care. Now, don’t get me wrong- I generally like living in NYC because there is so much else to it beyond some of the negatives I have listed. My problem is with those Americans and New Yorkers who act as if their way of life is the only way to live, as if their city/country is the best in the world and who complain incessantly about the minutest of inconveniences they experience when travelling overseas.

Speaking of New York City, Thursday, August 9th marked 10 years since the day Abner Louima was beaten, brutalised and sexually assaulted by NYPD officers. Louima had intervened in a fight between two women and was arrested by police who were summoned. He was beaten up on the way to the police station and then further beaten up and sodomised with a plunge while there. Louima suffered massive internal injuries as a result and several of his teeth were also broken when the plunger was forced into his mouth! When he was finally taken to the hospital, the police alleged he had received them from abnormal homosexual activities- a nurse who doubted the claim raised the alarm. The police tried to cover up but protests and public outrage meant that some of the guilty persons were punished. Some were acquitted because of technicalities! Fox News and one of its right wing ideologues Sean Hannity backed the police and insisted that Louima had sustained his injuries through homosexual activity. The main perpetrator Justin Volpe confessed to sodomising Louima with the help of another officer and changed his plea to guilty during the trial. Fox News still continues to spread its right wing propaganda and lies and 10 years later, black or indeed Muslim men would be foolish to assume that their basic human rights are assured in this city!

Indian Overseas Victory

India won a rare overseas victory and their first in England since 1986 when the last test was drawn. A 1-0 margin may not seem great but to rebound and totally outplay England in the last two matches after fighting to save the Lord’s test is testament to the team unity, belief and spirit in this team that combined youth and experience. The English are as usual whinging! What makes the Indian victory even more gratifying to everyone who dislikes the English team is that it came in the face of sledging and unsportsmanlike behaviour from most of the England players.

Foot and Knee

Therapy for my knee is coming along fine and I finally got rid of the cane over the weekend. I had actually stopped using it for two days in between but had to start back because my limp came back with a vengeance! My foot is still not used to all the walking, weight bearing and work shoes and I have decided to wear semi-casual shoes/loafers and no tie to work in August as there are hardly any meetings going on. If there is a meeting I wear a suit and proper footwear. I was actually becoming worried about my painful foot and went to the podiatrist last week Tuesday. His partner was there and attended to me as he has done the other two times I was there. Basically it is just a matter of my foot getting accustomed to normal usage and until it does so I will feel discomfort. Biomechanics also play a part as some tendons are still tight from lack of use and so other tendons overcompensate and then hurt.

Lefthanders Day

Today is left-handers day- A day for left-handed people to celebrate their left-handedness and raise public awareness about being left-handed. I have no idea if I am right of left-handed. The usual indicator used by society is the hand one writes with so on that basis I would be considered right-handed. However, I can also write with my left hand but having never practised, not very well- not that my writing done with my right hand looks much better! I play all sports with my left hand/foot. There are some things I can do comfortably with both, some with only one, for example, if I am hammering I use my right but if I am chopping with a cutlass I have to use my left, I prefer to use a mouse with my left but I can also use it with my right, I dial and text on my mobile with my left but I dial on my home phone with my right, when I point at something or I react if something is dropped it’s with my left hand, I stir coffee or pots with either and I serve food from pots and bowls with either, I use the remote control in my left and I cannot imagine shifting gears with my right. I always thought that I read magazines and newspapers from back to front because of being taught Arabic and Urdu (Arabic and Urdu script like most Eastern languages go from right to left) from a young age but it seems as if most lefthanders also do this!

Left-handedness is genetic and about 10% of people worldwide are left-handed. One of my four sisters is totally left-handed and cannot do anything with her right. She has a left-handed daughter. The other three are right-handed but one of them has two children that are both left-handed. As for me, I like to think I am non-conformist- physical reaction as an extension of my thought process!

This is New York: Wasted Time Reprieve

A man with a noticeable limp and a cane gets onto a train. Not a soul offers him a seat. He stands uncomfortably and holds onto a pole with other people as the train slowly moves off. He then shuffles to the middle of the car to grasp a longer pole which allows him to be a bit steadier. The train progresses slowly along the track and across the bridge into Manhattan; his left foot is getting tired from the weight on it because he is hesitant to put too much weight onto his injured right one. He has to wait until a number of stops later to grab a seat when someone gets up to exit the train. This is New York!

I guess if I want a seat I will have to leave home at 6:30 am! On the television programme House, House makes a comment once about what people allow him to get away with because he walks with a cane. Obviously this doesn’t pertain to New York!

I left work around 7:15 pm and luckily I got a seat on the way home.

A tough day made even worse when I saw her. The lessons one must take from the past two and a half years.

Insurance Battles and a Superpower’s Dim-witted Population

I had another doctor’s appointment yesterday- cortisone shot, reminder that I was not to be tempted into going out in the nice weather and advised to keep on alternating between boot and sneaker with a view towards giving up the boot. I am now up to three hours a day in sneakers. It has been ok, although the ankle strap and still slightly swollen foot means that the shoe starts to feel tight towards the end and my foot hurts a bit. My therapy has been put on hold this week as the therapist battles the insurance company to get authorisation for more sessions. For physical therapy, the insurance company works through a middle man company that assesses the therapist’s progress reports and makes a determination on the number of sessions required. In the first instance twelve sessions were authorised and upon a further request for twelve more, they only approved three. So some guy sitting in an office decides that someone who has only now reached the stage of walking with a cane and boot doesn’t need anymore physical therapy. I am far from regaining full mobility in my foot, I still cannot walk without assistance, my big toe still does not have the range of motion it should have, I still have tendonitis and pain in various parts of my foot, but this idiot in his response to the therapist has said that I should do foot exercises at home. What is worse is that when I called the insurance company, I was told that my plan allowed for as many sessions as the doctor and therapist thought I needed. However the request for authorisation must go through the middle company hired by my insurance and they have taken it upon themselves to be anal. I would like to see the fool face to face- my cane can be used for much more than helping me walk! I can only sympathise with the millions of people who cannot afford insurance and must suffer in the world’s most prosperous nation!

And speaking of the world’s most prosperous nation, have a look at these two videos posted on YouTube. There are other similar videos there so help yourselves to a laugh. I have lived in New York City for 2 ½ years and each day it perplexes me how this country remains a super power with such a stupid populace!

Sarwan’s Initiation, Honouring Lara and Not Having an Impact

The first match of the four test West Indies versus England series begins tomorrow at Lords. I have not yet decided whether to purchase the package being offered by willow.tv. I am still contemplating whether I should waste $100 to watch the West Indies get beat. I would love for the team to win but I know better than to get my hopes up high. Fazeer Mohammed has written a good preview which can be read here.


While the West Indies play England on the field, off the field the MCC Museum at Lords is holding an exhibition in honour of Brian Lara. The exhibition which charts his career and numerous achievements will feature various types of memorabilia including the bats with which he scored his 375, 400 and 501. Here is the BBC’s take.

I came across an interesting blog about a man and his family’s attempt to live in New York City for one year and not make an impact on the environment. I try my best to do whatever I can for the environment but I know it’s far from enough. This guy must be admired for going to such lengths. His fascinating story is a must read. I have also added it to the sidebar.

Jamestown

400 years ago, a group of Englishmen settled on James River and established Jamestown, the first English colony in North America. It was the beginning of a grim history of oppression, genocide and slavery as Native American tribes were systematically slaughtered and driven from their lands and African slaves were brought to the new colony to provide labour. Today, the US commemorates 400 years of settlement, but as I sit here in my apartment in New York City, a thought goes out to those millions of people who suffered and died over the course of the past 400 years so that a certain group of people could enrich itself.

Noisy Neighbours

I moved into my apartment in Park Slope in November 2004. I like my apartment and its location and I enjoyed whatever little time I got to spend in it until recently. I have a new neighbour and his three kids make tons of noise. It is only since he moved in a few months ago that I realised the walls are paper thin! My building is a new one and has seven floors. I am on the top floor which has four apartments and when I came here I was the only person living on the floor. A weird woman with a parrot and two dogs (one morning she told me that the dog was still a baby and went to nursery school!) then moved in, an elderly couple followed by her and then a couple with a little girl. Weird woman I smelt more than I saw or maybe it was the dogs; either way the scent in the corridor or inside the elevator always meant she had just came/went. She moved out just over a year later and a young couple with a little boy moved in. The elderly couple seems to live part of their time somewhere else and is very pleasant. The couple with the little girl lived in the apartment next to me and it is when they moved out a few months ago that my nightmare began. I never had any problems with them and I even remember asking the lady once when we were in the elevator if she by any chance ever heard my music and she said no but she wished she did becaue her bedroom faced the street and the noise from the traffic bothered her.

Now, instead of my peaceful retreat from New York City, I feel as if I am living next to a school. My apartment is filled with constant loud screaming- both babysitter and kids, doors banging, balls bouncing, kids thumping hardwood floors as they run up and down, and toilet seats, yes toilet seats slamming! I say my apartment is filled because that is what it seems like- the noise is so loud and the walls so thin it appears as if it is next to me. I love children and I believe in them playing and being happy so I refrained from complaining at first. However, there is also something called discipline and consideration for others and when it got to a point where it became unbearable I knocked on the door and politely asked the babysitter (father was not there) to ask the kids to tone it down a little. A few minutes of peace and then the ruckus resumed. I called the landlord next day and told him that I was having a problem with noise from my neighbours and I was letting him know before I went to speak to the father. The landlord said that the guy was a reasonable man but if the noise continued he would have a word with him. I waited a few days to see if there would be any change but there was none so I went to speak to the father. Before I could finish what I was saying, he bluntly said that they were kids and there wasn’t much he could do! I said I know they are kids, but the noise is quite a lot and I am just asking for them not to bang on the walls, not to scream so loudly and not to run up and down so much. He then stated that I should be grateful as they only stayed with him for two weeks each month- he is divorced and they spend the other two weeks with their mom. So I should be grateful that children who don’t belong to me or are not related to me only invade my apartment with noise for two weeks a month!

The noise abated for the next two weeks but today it returned with a vengeance- the twirps are back. They came home from school and the noise began. I started to get a headache so I called the landlord who told me there was nothing he can do as it is just kids playing and not loud music in the middle of the night! I was flabbergasted. He was insistent that there is nothing he can do. I decided to go and once again ask them to keep down the noise. The babysitter answered, I was very polite, she gave me attitude and parroted the father- they are kids, full stop.

I am at my wits end and I have no idea what to do. I love children. I have 14 nephews and nieces and I know how noisy they can be, especially boys and for the most part the noise does not bother me. However, there is a limit and I don’t see why I should have to sit in my apartment and be subjected to a racket caused by a stranger’s kids!

LA Riots Fifteen Years On

Fifteen years ago, Los Angeles, California broke out in riots after an all-white jury acquitted four white police officers charged with the beating of black motorist, Rodney King. The brutal beating of Rodney which was captured on video followed by the appalling decision would serve to highlight, that in “the land of the free and home of the brave”, the black man was still not an equal. The four policemen were retried, two were acquitted again and two were found guilty and sentenced to two years in prison. King’s treatment was not isolated and before the end of the century, a number of other incidences had occurred involving police brutality and abuse against black men. The cases of Haitian immigrant Abner Louima who was severely beaten and then sexually abused by New York City police officers in a Brooklyn station in 1997 and Amadou Diallo, the unarmed Guinean immigrant who was shot 41 times and killed by New York City police officers in 1999 stand out.

The Cricketing Price of Living in NYC

A colleague from our Consulate here in NYC provided us with the information on how we could watch Cricket World Cup in the so-called capital of the world. Basically, it will cost $450 if you don’t have Dish Network- $250 for installation and rental of equipment and $199 for the cricket! The price one has to pay for living in NYC. If I was home, it would have been on tv for free. I will have to resort to watching it on the internet which will cost me $199.

I watched a Globe Trekker feature on Venezuela with Ian Wright, one of my favourites of the Globe Trekker team. It’s a beautiful and physically diverse country. There are so many places on my list of countries to visit, from Venezuela, Brazil, Mali and Kenya to Italy, Algeria, Mongolia and New Zealand and everywhere else in between. I love travelling, exploring and learning about different peoples and cultures and one of my dreams is to take a year or two off from work and life and just travel around the globe. Anyone willing to sponsor me? I can guarantee thousands of photos and volumes of journals!

I had my cast changed on February 19th. There was no real improvement but the doc said this was normal after only three and a half weeks and that when I came back to have it checked in another three weeks- March 12th- he expected to see a marked change. I hope so because I really don’t want to have to do surgery and be stuck home for even longer. At the beginning there wasn’t as much itching as I had anticipated there would be, but in the past two weeks it has flared up. I have been using a wire hanger but sometimes it can’t reach certain spots so I just sit and swear like I was doing a few minutes ago!