Work Update

Lately something has felt...not right about the company I work with. Definitely not right. All the signs point to the sad fact that somebody is pissed off with me for reasons unrelated to work. Again? And to thing I was so sure freelancing would guarantee this problem would stop.

First they don't give me the complete tools to deal with a scene where the actors are whispering and you hear the inaudible dialog through this thing an obsessed freak is using to eavesdrop on them. Naturally I couldn't make out any words except for a few obscenities yelled toward the end, so I decided to leave the part out. Stupid, I guess, but I thought if I couldn't hear it maybe it was intended to convey an argument to the viewer without making out the exact words. My work was deemed unsatisfactory because I should've asked for help since "they had ways to deal with that". How am I supposed to know that? This is an issue that should be mentioned when you're a trainee, not after a year and a half.

Then they were searching for something online and came across my resume on a freelancing website. They were very disturbed to find it was updated for the period after I started working for them. Did they mention it? Nah. Only when I dropped by last week did I find out they'd concluded I was "bored" with working for them and job-hunting. Granted, the vice-manager said she would never jump to a conclusion without asking me first. What about the manager himself? Oh, him. Well, why would I update my resume if I wasn't looking for a job elsewhere? I tried explaining the fact that I'm not just a freelance subtitlor but a freelance copyeditor/subtitlor/indexer, and it's only natural for me to maintain an updated resume. Who's to say somebody who wrote a cookbook and is looking for a copyeditor wouldn't consider me seeing I've subtitled cooking shows?

Then, after waiting two whole months, they complain about the declining quality of my work because I don't stick to the maximum-35-characters-per-line rule but often stretch the lines to 37. I tried explaining that my trainer never clarified the details of the rule when he told me almost two years ago, back when I was a trainee, that 37 characters are OK if you're pressed for space. Turns out "if you're pressed for space" entails making sure the sentence has no space-consuming letters. How am I supposed to figure this out on my own?

And finally, the icing on the cake. MBC issued a new rule after Elliott Spitzer's callgirl scandal. The word callgirl was mentioned repeatedly throughout several episodes, and I along with several others translated it into the most accurate Arabic word there is. MBC felt it was too explicit and said to stop using that word and only go for another word that conveyed a lack of morals rather than the escort profession. They called me and told me about that and of course I stuck to the new rule ever since. The two episodes immediately following the call were timecoded and revised in Syria because the Cairo office was off. So imagine what a blow it was to me when I dropped by last week to find everybody asking me in silent disappointment how I could've forgotten to stick to the rule, and that the manager was furious and very disappointed and wondering if I wasn't concentrating... What on earth! Not concentrating? That doesn't even exist in my book! How can you not concentrate? I'm not some 16-year-old who's stuck in class with her mind on the hot new substitute teacher! I'm a reliable, careful professional freelancer who never makes the same mistake twice and who went on working all the way to the day she had her C section!
Again, I have to credit the vice-manager for mentioning this exact point, probably because she noticed I had no response to all the accusations thrown at me.

Anyway, I know what I did and I always keep a copy of the work I send out, so I assured them I'd forward them those two days' work so they can see for themselves. I checked my work before forwarding and sure as anything the censored word was not there. So I forwarded it and called the office to let them know I'm waiting for feedback. That was two weeks ago. I called again last week and couldn't reach the vice-manager so I asked the secretary to please let me know of all the developments. Nobody called.

What topped it all off was yesterday morning. My deadline for submitting the second half is 13:00 in daylight saving time, noon otherwise. I rarely go beyond the deadline, but when things go smoothly (translation: when my daughter isn't crying or sitting in my lap or nursing) I can sometimes finish as early as 10. It doesn't happen often and my average has been 11 to 11:15. Yesterday morning was pretty rough on the toddler front, and I was still working on the second half at 11:40. My cell phone rang and I was stunned to hear the secretary ask why I was late. I told her it's true I was later than usual, but that I was still within my deadline according to my arrangements with the vice manager. She chirped, "She was the one who told me you were late and asked me to call you up."

Wow. I wonder what'll happen now. I need a job, obviously, and full-timing or part-timing is not an option. I will not be separated from my toddler at her age, even if it means barely getting by. Obviously I hope it doesn't come to that, but leaving my house is definitely not an option. Which leaves freelancing for somebody else. Piece of cake...once I find someone to work for. It hurts very bad though... Story of everybody's life, I guess. To be so dedicated and then not be appreciated but actually get blamed for someone's else's (possibly intentional?) mistakes, and maybe even get sacked.


Ah well, I believe in destiny, so come what may I'll be OK with it knowing that is what God intended. And no doubt there are people with more serious problems in life. So I guess I'm over it already. It's always a waste of time to sit and wallow in self-pity.

Toyor Al Janah: It's All That And Then Some

I have to talk about this new channel I stumbled upon the other day. I cannot believe it actually does exist. I thought it was over for all media that actually attempts to teach children about morals, values, ethics. Boy was I wrong! I have to apologize to my non-Arabic-speaking friends that this is about an Arabic channel. Most of you have children with Arab men though so it will be relevant in some way. Translation: Please read on because I'm desperate for everybody to read every single word I'm going to say about Toyor Al Janah.

I found this new channel accidentally a week ago. What a wonderful surprise it was! The last time I saw material for children this sincere was back when I myself was to all purposes a child, back in the UAE in the late eighties and early nineties. Anybody familiar with Al Manahil? Gone were the days of shows like that one, I believed, sick beyond measure of the poor Arabic used nowadays and zero morals our children are exposed to even in milk or cereal ads. So when I was flipping between channels hoping to escape the horribly ubiquitous reality shows and music videos brimming with debauchery, especially the whore of all channels, Melody Channel, I was very surprised to find a channel that actually spoke correct classical Arabic. I looked closer and was even more surprised to find they were actually singing to a real tune. Impeccable language (music to the ears of a hard-core stickler like me), sound morals, and an attractive package? To kids? What gives?

Toyor Al Janah are trying really hard to avoid the trap every show with a message has fallen into: lying to children and then patronizing them. You lose credibility before your first episode is over. Toyor Al Janah, however, are trying to level with the children and are doing all they can to avoid the silly naivety most children shows exhibit. Children aren't unerring, rosy-cheeked cherubs on Toyor Al Janah, but when they make mistakes they aren't hung for them either. Adults aren't matronly overweight women you'd rather hear not see, or burly father-figure men kids can't relate to. Half the kids nowadays have parents who strive to look younger than their own brood, and Toyor Al Janah shrewdly realized that. The role models on the channel are fit, jean-clad young men who look like something a 7-year-old of today's cynical generation might want to turn into. The only burly, stereotypically dad-looking man featured is actually not a role model: In a refreshing music video where the kids gently chide their father for lying. He doesn't think twice until the very last second of the video, where he decides to stop lying but in a more realistic, understated way – more giving in to his kids, quietly, out of shame, rather than a showy feat of corny glory a la hero-returns-to-straight-and-narrow situations. There's actually a great deal of comic sarcasm throughout the videos. And yet it managed to warm my heart and bring tears to my eyes. Teachers treated respectfully again? Big issues like honesty, prayers, altruism...encouraged again? My eyes still fill every time I watch the videos.

The critical element in Toyor Al Janah, which in my opinion is key to all children shows that actually succeed in reaching kids and making an impact, is carefully measured understatement. Yup. No preaching, no kids who meekly obey the rules, no children who magically never err again once they are punished or scolded. It's not Disney Land and that's why it's believable. The teacher who sings about how important it is to concentrate in class and what it does for your future casually lets out a resigned "dismissed" when his class ask to go out and play at the end of the song. They do add that they’re late, but the point is made, and you don't see them swarming around a grinning teacher who hugs them all and there the song ends. It's understated and the message you get, simple though it is, is that it's OK to make mistakes and that you will consequently be corrected, corrected, and corrected yet again… Things the media nowadays sadly deem uncool, silly, retarded, out of date. At the same time, the car in another music video is a brand new convertible, the scenes are strewn with status symbols, a very different approach than the old method where Muslims were always linked to shabby poor surroundings with messages to the viewer that they need to be happy with them in order to be a good Muslim. Finally somebody realized that amid all the relentless, aggressive marketing schemes targeted at today's children, you need to present religion as elegantly as possible. You need to market it, so to speak, just as aggressively as commercial commodities are thrust at kids. You need a bright, appealing commodity, featuring status symbols. Why not? Toyor Al Janah wisened up to the fact that this is not your average straightforward seven year old; the sad fact is these children are being turned into miniature cynics and snobs far too soon, and to expect them to relate or want to relate to the image of a man content to plough away in a field and only eat one meal a day, albeit a meal of a few crumbs, and pray to God thankfully before falling into a deep untroubled sleep is frankly… unrealistic, and I'm being very polite using that word.

I need to have many more gos talking about this channel and all the amazing work they've done, but this'll do for now. Keep up the super work, guys. God bless you. To my non-Arab friends with kids who speak Arabic: Try to show them the videos I've uploaded here. I guarantee you they'll love them. Suffice it to say this is the only stuff my daughter enjoys aside from Baby Einstein and Peep and Quack.