"Abu Hassan"

Well, Google still considers me an 'adult' site (meaning a very puerile site) so I won't show up on most Google Blog searches, or even on the 'most recently posted' blogs. If I ever find out why, I'll try to fix the classification.

Today, Abu Hassan (real name, Farook bin Hassan) called me and said he had a business deal for me. I said I'd come right away. He called at 11:00 a.m. The meeting was for 3:00 p.m. I raced to his office, arriving at noon. Abu Hassan (or Farook, to be more accurate) received lots of calls, and tried to extract money from each one. Finally, he took me to lunch at a Yemeni restaurant. Usually, he shouts, This man 'American. Great Shatan!!' hoping some suicide bomber will take the hint, but not today. Today, he'd asked Muhammed Ali to join us for lunch.

When an Arab man has a son, he receives the honorific Abu (i.e., 'father'). Farook bin Hassan married very late, and needed the honorific long before he'd 'earned' it. So he started calling himself 'Abu Hassan,' (Hassan's Father) instead of his 'real' name, 'bin Hassan,' (Hassan's Son).

So today we had lunch with Muhammed Ali. Muhammed Ali handed me a contract last year. 150 workers, @ $1,500 each worker for a work permit. The $224,000 was to be split, 30% to Muhammed Ali, 50% to Muhammed Ali's local sponsor, 20% to Farook. No money was to be wasted on work permits. The investors were to get nothing. I was not inclined to invest.

Today, I was still not inclined to invest, so Farook felt like I was cheating him out of 20% of $224,000. Muhammed Ali asked me, 'What happened?' I said 'My partner got two Egyptians, and they can't meet on the days I'm free.' Muhammed Ali said, 'So the business is off?' I said, 'No, but very difficult. Maybe in 6 months.' I got a 'free' lunch out of the deal. Farook asked me, 'So you can stay until night?' I said, "No, I only have 3 hours today, and we've used them on lunch."

Even though Google doesn't allow anyone to read this blog, I still feel inclined to write it. So I had to get home to put a few words on blogspot. Which was why I told Farook I had to leave.