Archive for February 24th, 2009
In Real Estates
The course was offered in a large room by a shopping center on the extension of Connecticut Avenue; it was mainly the legal aspects of doing Real Estates and the exam was mainly about its corresponding laws. I easily passed the exam and I presented myself to the Realtor who paid for the announcement. This Real Estate institution would be sold to Weichert Realtors two months later and my passage to Hell started big time. This lady Realtor got pissed off because I accepted to sit for an Open House for another Realtor in the same office and fired me from her “support”. Another lady office manager in Kensington (with the same institution) welcomed me in her office. She ordered me to place at least 50 cold call generating business such as “Would you list or buy properties?” By now you can have a feeling that females predominated in this line business, at least on percentage basis and in Montgomery County; the independent Realtors, those wiling to pay monthly dues for using a trademark name and pocket the whole commission on sales, were mostly males.
I diligently did what she wished me to do as a passage for learning the “trade”; I walked house to house in many neighborhoods, every day, asking to list properties; I mailed countless brochures but nothing would do. I didn’t make a dime for a whole year and I had spent my last nickel. I was a wreck and my acquaintances were scared of the thinness of my face and assumed that I might have AIDS or something.
I finally managed to list a property and sold it but the manager bilked me from the modicum profit I made; not only Weichert wanted 70% on the lousy commission that I set for 3% to list an old and small property but it subtracted around $400 of my net income on the ground of a technicality on one of the clauses referring to a lousy refrigerator. The worst is that I had the clause correct and had to go to small claims bureau to recover my money after at least five visits to Downtown Washington D.C. and the general manager of Weichert wasting his “precious time” joining me to refute my case. That is not the end of the story; the next year the IRS wanted part of the money that I recovered from small claims and I had to send at least six letters explaining that I didn’t make a dime last years and showed them the long list of ads that I paid for with my credit cards.
I was fired by the office manager on Christmas Day and my lousy car broke down and it was snowing and I was happy where I rented a room; the married son of the good and classy lady had separated from his wife and returned to give hell at “home”. The garage charged me $1000 for a transmission that failed to function. I was accepted by the across the road Re/Max office because the manager heard what a hard working guy I was at Weichert. I didn’t make a dime the next year too and the part owner of Re/Max in Kensington fired me but another part owner re-instated me and asked me to collaborate with a successful Realtor. Things started to move and I made money but nothing was saved because expenses on ads evaporated every income and the IRS was in wait on the assumption that Realtors make more money than they declare.
Persia/Iran Empires. Part 1
Posted on: February 24, 2009
Persia/Iran Empires (Part 1, February 21, 2009)
Iran is strategically located within major rivers or beds of civilizations.
On the Western borders, it enjoyed the civilizations of the Tiger and the Euphrates Rivers (current Iraq), on the eastern borders it was in contact with the Indus River civilizations (current, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India), on the northern borders it was linked to the Amou Daria River and the Central Asian Rivers civilizations, and in the south it has the sea, facing the Arabic Peninsula.
Depending on the period of neighboring power influences, Iran was the deep country supplying manpower, complementary skills, and soldiers. For example, Afghanistan was frequently part of the various Persian Empires that extended to the Indus, to Turkey, and even into Egypt.
The Persian language dominated the cultures of all this vast Empire.
Currently, variants of the Persian language are spoken in Afghanistan and Tajikistan.
Generally, most of the Persian Empires started from south-east Iran, a mostly desert region that extended to the Indus.
Later, the Empires expanded to greener pastures: To the west toward Iraq (Elam in antiquity or Khuzistan today), to the north (Parthia, Khorassan, and Central Asia), to the east toward Afghanistan and India, and to the north-west toward Turkey, and Armenia..
After the Babylonian and Assyrian Empires, the various Persian Empires dominated Iraq. The Arab Moslem Empire dominated Iran militarily for less than three centuries, but the Persian civilization and customs dominated the political and cultural landscape in Iraq and Afghanistan during and after the Abbasid Dynasty.
The newly built city of Baghdad around 765 by the Abbasid Dynasty was very close to Persia’s main Capital Ctesiphon by the Tiger River.
Three main Persian Empires lasted long enough to leave powerful imprint on the geo-cultural landscape in this area.
The Achaemenid Dynasty (1000 to 331 BC) was vanquished by Alexander of Macedonia; the Sassanid Dynasty (240 to 650 AC) was vanquished by the Moslem Arabs; and the Safavid Dynasty (1500 to 1722 AC) before our modern times.
The Ottoman Empire checked the Safavid expansion toward Turkey, especially because the Safavid Dynasty was mainly of Turkish origin from the Caspian Sea.
The Afghan invasion put an end to its effective authority. The various Mogul Dynasties extended their influence from Iran to India before the British colonizers ruled.
Adonis Diaries 