Jerry Springer Comes to Kuwait

I have to tell this story. Of course, I won’t use the names because that would be wrong (and get me in a shitload of trouble). Let me go so far as to say that this story may even be fiction. Believe what you want to believe. I am sure that I will receive a lot of comments on this "fictitious"story, so fire away, but please don't use lewd language.

I was “related” a story about someone I know (superficially – not well) who is married to a (Person of Means or “POM” for short). There is a 40-year age gap between them. She married basically to get freedom – both financially and figuratively. She no longer has to wear niqab and she isn’t watched by a “protective” family 24/7. He married to piss off his first wife (divorced) with a younger woman. Ah, the stage was set and love was in the air.

Can you smell it?

Years and abusive sex later, she (I’m going to call her Flana) has 5 children with old dude. She lives in a dump; while he “visits” his x-wife with their children every night at his former palatial residence. He goes “home” to Flana/POM's 3-bedroom decrepit 3rd-floor walk-up apartment and sleeps with Flana and their kids. Sorted.

Flana’s "allowance" for the household is 100 kd per month. The apartment where she and her kids live has holes in the wall and furniture that could have been bought at the Friday Market’s used furniture section at discounted rates. She drives a car that regularly breaks down. POM doesn’t help.

POM regularly travels outside the country. While he’s away, Flana goes to parties and even spends the night with her long-time boyfriend (I want to call him “asshole” but that would be wrong too. Let’s just call him Sam). Flana and POM are white. Sam is black.

Do you see where I’m going with this?

Flana was happy when she was pregnant with her 6th child. When the little guy was born, POM asked Flana’s friends and family repeatedly, “Why is he so dark?” Hmmmmm.

Shortly thereafter, Sam, who had been with Flana for years, suddenly tells her that he is marrying someone else and disappears.

POM goes on yet another vacation trip, but before leaving, divorces Flana in the court, discontinues payment to their 5 kids’ private schools, and arranges to have her fired from her job.

POM’s daughter from his first marriage calls to say that their family doesn’t believe that ANY of Flana’s children are POM’s, so they are arranging for DNA tests for the entire family (as they stand to inherit a considerable amount of money when POM kicks off - which might be sooner rather than later, given the circumstances).

So, in light of this, what are Flana's options? If she returns to her own family, her “protective” brothers will literally end her life, leaving her mother to raise her 6 children. Until things are resolved legally, Flana has no way of supporting her kids. She could push POM through the court; however, he could push back and she could go to jail.

In the meantime, all of the children (including new little guy – let’s call him LG) are affected. They are innocents. They are just asking where their daddy is.

It is a horrible story. Personally, I was quick to judge Flana, but what a life! It was a trade-off between a life of virtual imprisonment to a life of unhappiness. I do wonder why she didn’t use birth control. I don’t think I would even have had children with old-dude POM (maybe just one) and certainly not at all if I was unsure of the babydaddy.

And the morale of the story is… I don’t know, really. I guess "count your blessings". Sometimes I think I have problems, but then...

And now for a SAPPY E-MAIL someone sent me:

I dreamt that I went to Heaven and an angel was showing me around. We walked side-by-side inside a large workroom filled with angels.

My angel guide stopped in front of the first section and said, "This Is the Receiving Section. Here, all petitions to God said in prayer are Received."

I looked around in this area, and it was terribly busy with so many angels sorting out petitions written on voluminous paper sheets and scraps from people all over the world.
Then we moved on down a long corridor until we reached the second section.

The angel then said to me, "This is the Packaging and Delivery Section. Here, the graces and blessings the people asked for are processed and delivered to the living persons who asked for them."

I noticed again how busy it was there. There were many angels working hard at that station, since so many blessings had been requested and were being packaged for delivery to Earth

Finally at the farthest end of the long corridor we stopped at the Door of a very small station To my great surprise, only one angel was Seated there, idly doing nothing. "This is the acknowledgment Section," My angel friend quietly admitted to me. He seemed embarrassed "How Is it that there is no work going on here?" I asked.

"So sad," the angel sighed. "After people receive the blessings that they asked For, very few send back acknowledgments ."

"How does one acknowledge God's blessings?" I asked.

"Simple," the angel answered. Just say, "Thank you, Lord."

"What blessings should they acknowledge?" I asked.

"If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep you are richer than 75% of this world. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish, you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy ."

"And if you get this on your own computer, you are part of the 1% in the world who has that opportunity."

" If you woke up this morning with more health than illness ... You are more blessed than the many who will not even survive this day ."

"If you have never experienced the fear in battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation .. You are ahead of 700 million people in the world."

"If you can attend a house of worship without the fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death you are envied by, and more blessed than, three billion people In the world ."

"If your parents are still alive and still married ...you are rare."

"If you can hold your head up and smile, you are not the norm, you're unique to all those in doubt and despair."

If you can read this message, you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world who cannot read at all.