The Red Velvet Lawyer

The Last 18 Months: Transition Back to the US, Into Retirement, During a Pandemic In January 2021, Qatar University College of Law advised that it would apply the Qatari retirement cap of 65 years and not renew my contract.  QU had waved the retirement cap for two years.  Even so, the news made me very sad (and a bit angry).  I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Qatar and my job as a clinical professor of law teaching college-level law students.  I loved my expat friends, my students, and all of my QU faculty colleagues.   The news forced me to plan my move back to the US.  Before the pandemic started, I had planned to retire to Chiang Mai, Thailand, a northern university town, with an ancient moat, ring roads, and elephant rescue parks to the north in the mountains.    When the country closed its borders, I considered other countries that offered retirement visas without me having to return to the US to begin the process.  I looked at Malaysia and Ecuador, but the pandemic had slowed the v

  How a Pandemic Caused Economic, Political, Social, and Religious Upheaval in France The Black Death  reached Italy's shores at the Messina port in October 1347.   The Genoese ship had stopped previously in a port on the Black Sea.  They offloaded trade goods and a devastating infection.   The diseased sailors showed strange black swellings about the size of an egg or an apple in the armpits and groin.  The swellings oozed blood and pus and were followed by spreading boils and black blotches on the skin from internal bleeding.  The sick suffered sever pain and died quickly within five days of the first symptoms. As the disease spread, other symptoms of continuous fever and spitting of blood appeared instead of the swellings or buboes.  These victims coughed ans sweated heavily and died even more quickly, within three days or less, sometimes in 24 hours.  In both types everything that issued from the body -- breath, sweat, blood from the buboes and lungs, bloody urine, and blood=bl

Isolated.  Confined. Extreme Environments. Stay home.  Stay 6 feet apart. Wear a mask properly.  Wash you hands frequently.  We know the precautions the experts advise us to take. Yet even in Qatar, where most people have followed government guidelines, people have let their guard down.  During my venture to the mall this week, I saw some people, including shop employees, ignoring these rules.   Afterward, I returned to my one bedroom apartment.  Took off my "outside shoes" at the door.  Sprayed them with disinfectant.  Washed my hands.  Sterilized my mask.  Shed my clothes and took a long shower.  Then, I put my clothes in the washer.  Then, returned to my purchases.  Sprayed them with disinfectant.  Then washed my hands again.  I've been doing this since March 10 when Qatar University switched to distance learning. Some days, I want to skip a step.  But, I don't.  For me, pandemic fatigue has not set in.  My will to survive this world event is greater than any short

The High-Risk of Aging Into Poverty or  Social Security is a Feminist Issue Over the last week, the two parties in the US tried to reach agreement about a relief package providing benefits during the pandemic that would help unemployed people buy food and other necessities and forestall evictions from housing .  When impasse in the negotiations continued,  Trump stepped in with several (potentially unlawful) executive orders providing some relief. However, he also gave employees and employees relief from payroll taxes that fund Social Security and Medicare benefits for older people in the US. This week a Democratic campaign strategist, Paul Begala, discussed his book, You're Fired: The Perfect Guide to Beating Donald Trump (Simon & Schuster 2020).  In an interview , he said that Democratic candidates should run on this messaging: the GOP wants to gut Social Security (SS), Medicare, and Medicaid, and abolish the Affordable Health Care Act during a pandemic.   This attack on

Can it Sustain the Success as  Businesses Re-Open? During the last week of June, Qatar saw an increasing decline in new cases.  Qatari officials began to talk about being past the peak of infection.  The contemplated a four phase re-opening .  A partial re-opening began June 15, with precautions put in place to prevent a spike in cases.  July 1 brought Phase 2 of the re-opening, with more shops, mosques, and outdoor venues re-opening.  See my June post for more information about the rules governing the Phase 2 reopening.  Officials stressed that the transition from one stage to anothe r is subject to the cooperation of all members of society and their application of precautionary measures, and the need to adhere to the procedures in place determined by the Council of Ministers.  It advises family members to limit visits to other family members and keep them to no longer than 15 minutes.  As Qatar marked these milestones, a different story unfolded in the US.  During th