Dear Gary,

First of all, please allow me to wish both you and yours A Very Happy New Year - '05! Secondly, I'd like to apologize to you and everyone else if my response to your post on the Asian tragedy in any way sounded as if I don't view the carnage as seriously as it deserves to be. It was merely your intensity and repetition that got to me. Were you, perhaps, a salesman before you took up ESL? If so, you MUST have done well!

Yes, I, too, am quite familiar with what you have described. Apparently the assailants -- all three of the nasty beggars -- had their sights on me for several days before springing into action. To make a long story short, they got roughly $500 cash, while I sustained a minor concussion, thus making me obliged to accept the hospitality of a Rio de Janeiro hospital for 4 days followed by an additional week's "vacation" from my nouns, adjectives, and pronouns. Did I wish to return home? You bet your Blue Azar I did! Did I feel I wanted immediate and unlimited retribution (better known in the States as "blood")? ROGER to that as well! And RIGHT ON AGAIN! ... One does become possessed with the notion that foreign teachers are the targets of every assaulter, crook, and con artist in any large city of any country on this planet. Therefore, there's really nowhere to run. Ergo, this is a risk you take by assuming residence anywhere.

Dear fellow, WHY do you insist upon referring to your own kind as lacking intestinal fortitude? I am proud to say that, only a few years ago, I was part of an ESL teachers' "rebellion" waged against an employer who, as is quite familiar these days, took his lion's share but refused to give anything in return ... not even a fair wage. There were also other infractions which I'll spare you of at the moment, but I merely wish to make it clear that this group of colleagues constituted some of the wisest and bravest of any ESL instructors with whom I've ever had the pleasure of being employed. YES! We proved our point and induced the timely observance of a much fairer code of consideration by the employer who, ironically enough, turned out to be a pretty decent fellow in his own right! No, Gary, I disagree: ESL instructors most assuredly DO have the ability to work together and make their statement loud and clear!

To cap off my opinion, I feel that, as adults living in an ultra-temperamental world society, we who travel to far-off places with only the purest and most honorable of intentions -- in this case abetting the cause of world communication -- should, nonetheless, be prepared to face the adversities of life which never seem to disappear. Getting hurt on foreign soil is never "easy" to bear under the circumstances. However, the fact that it often occurs far from home should never give you a false impression that it is, in any way, "exclusive" and could not occur even in your own backyard. That's the way I handled the problem when it came to my turn. Of course, I am an individual and cannot speak for everyone.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, ALL! May the future bring us all only the happiest of thoughts, activities, and experiences.

The Arrogant One