ABHA, 9 January 2008 — In a case of self-prescription gone terribly wrong, a 60-year-old man near this southwestern Saudi city climbed a nearby electrical tower and grabbed onto the hot cables, which gave him such a jolt that he was thrown 20 meters and fell to the ground. According to yesterday’s Okaz newspaper, the man survived the shock of his life. When asked what persuaded him to do such a crazy thing, he said that he suffered form a car-accident induced case of hearing loss. Some friends told him that electrical shocks could cure deafness. Similar to a last year’s incident in the Kingdom where a man inflicted terrible damage to his gums after somebody told him that brake fluid could cure toothaches, this is another case of medical hearsay resulting in self-inflicted injury. If asked, most doctors are likely to say that people should seek the advice of real experts, not self-appointed ones, when it comes to matters of health.
The Tale of the Two Goats
ABHA, 9 January 2008 — In a story that reads like a parable, the daily Okaz reported yesterday the case of a young boy who wanted a mobile phone so badly that he resorted to selling the two goats his father gave him to have slaughtered to get a mobile phone. The father was preparing a meal for important guests when he asked his son to take two goats to a local butcher to have slaughtered and cooked. The boy took the goats and sold them to buy a mobile phone, then returned home to tell his mother that the animals had escaped. Eventually he confessed to his ruse and apologized. The father, thanks to the urging of his family, decided to forgive his son instead of holding a deep-seeded grudge that could have lasted for months if not years. The moral of the story: forgive and forget, at least on the first offense.
Currency Trading, Third-Grade Style
JEDDAH, 9 January 2008 — A third-grade primary school student at a public school here decided to get an early start on the profession of currency trading. Noticing that his fellow classmates were really interested in owning the newly minted one-riyal bill, the boy decided to weigh the value of this demand. It turned out that the value was 200% more than the base value. In other words: the value placed by fellow students on the new one-riyal bill was three old riyals. So the boy, who happened to be the only one at his school in possession of the new bill decided to flat the new currency on the local exchange. A father complained to the school when his child asked him for extra money in order to buy the bill from the little broker. Apparently the man isn’t aware of the rule dictating supply and demand, and he seemed to take umbrage at the fact that this kid learned two other important rules when it comes to capitalism: #1.) There’s a sucker born every minute; and #2.) A fool and his money are soon parted.
