Day: May 2, 2008

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Donate 12 Angry Men For A Good Cause

Edit (06/30/08): Greetings to all those visitors coming from MyFamily.com. It’s a pleasure to have a whole bunch of visitors being referred from there and if one of you want to leave a comment regarding what the reference between my blog post here and something on MyFamily.com is, I would greatly appreciate it.

Original Post (05/02/08): Usually following each semester, I place my books up on Amazon and I did just that this semester and I have sold about half of my stuff but this recent one caught my eye. This semester I had taken a class called Political Science II in which we read a book that almost everyone knows or has heard of before called “12 Angry Men“. When I put this book up for a sale, a High School teacher from Portola, California reached out saying her public school did not have the funding to purchase textbooks so it was up to the teachers to get the materials. She asked how many copies of this book I had available and if I would be willing to send them her way at a discount rate or even donate the book(s).

Personally, I have no problem donating my copy even though that is the only one I have. I sent my professor an email earlier today to see if he could ask the rest of our class if anyone else that book lying around, collecting dust with no purpose to send it my way and I would donate those as well. Certainly those of you who are reading this and if you have a copy of 12 Angry Men (see below for book specifications) and want to donate, please let me know. Also, I have added a Donate button via PayPal on the right side bar and all funds collected in the span that these books go out, will help subsidize the cost of the books and shipping.

I have also enclosed the email that i received earlier today.

Hi, I’m a high school English teacher at Portola High School in Portola, CA, and we will be reading/performing the play “12 Angry Men” this quarter. My school has no funds for purchasing any classroom materials, so it is up to me personally to purchase any materials I need in my classroom. I’m writing today to ask if you would be willing to give a discount (or donate!!!) for “12 Angry Men” for as many copies as you have available. I have 60 sophomores, but no more than 20 in a class, so I really only need a total of 20 copies. Can you let me know how many new and used copies you have and how much you’d be willing to sell them for? Thank you so much for your consideration.

Detailed Information:

  • Title: 12 Angry Men
  • Paperback: 96 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin Classics (August 29, 2006)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0143104403
  • ISBN-13: 978-0143104407

I have always been a fan of public education and since I was quite fortunate to have fantastic teachers in the 5 different public schools that I went to during my childhood, I am always willing to lend them a hand in anyway I can. I’m assuming the English teacher who contacted me wouldn’t mind so if anyone wants to donate the book directly, you can sent to the following address:

Viki Spain
Portola High School
155 Sixth Ave.
Portola, California 96122-9543

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Linguist Recruitment

So I received a partially handwritten letter from a Recruiting Specialist from Aegis (Mission Essential Personnel) who are a Federal Sub-Contractor for the US Military and “looking for individuals who are fluent in both Pashto and Dari to provide translation support to the US military in Afghanistan.” They are offering a starting package of $210,000 with benefits I was interested in “bridging critical communication gaps, as well as providing a tremendous service” to the armed forces. In addition, they are offering $2,000 for any individual I can refer to them from my contacts in the “Afghan-American” community.

You always hear about these things from the news or something online but rarely get something in the mail regarding. Now I don’t know a single word of Pashto or Dari so the decision for me is quite easy but I wonder how successful their recruiting efforts are especially in today’s waning economic days. They offer quite a salary with complete benefits… could be very enticing.

First thing I thought of when I read the name Aegis was the XBox Live arcade game called “Aegis Wings” that I played a lot with my buddies Joe and Chad but turns out that these guys have one of the bigger contracts in Iraq, nevermind Afghanistan. Except for that quote below, I can’t say I know much else about this company but I’ll be sure to keep an interest in them.

Aegis, one of the biggest security companies operating in Iraq. The company was recently awarded a £220 million security contract in Iraq by the United States government. Aegis conducts a number of security duties and helped with the collection of ballot papers in the country’s recent referendum. – Source

I have also included the contents of the entire letter below if anyone is interested in reading it.

LOOKING FOR PASHTO/DARI LINGUISTS

Hello,

My name is xxxxx xxxxxx and I work for a company called Aegis MEP. We are a Federal Sub-Contractor for the U.S. military and are searching for individuals who are fluent in both Pashto and Dari to provide translation support to the U.S. military in Afghanistan. This is an excellent opportunity for helping reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan by bridging critical communication gaps, as well as providing a tremendous service to our armed forces.

I wanted to inquire to see if you would be interested in working on a referral basis for any contacts that you have in the Afghan-American community that are interested in this opportunity. I can offer you $2,000 per individual that is hired. We offer a very competitive compensation package with pay starting at $210,000 per year with medical, dental and insurance benefits. We feel our employees are the focal point of continued success.

Please let me know if you are interested, and I can offer you more details regarding the position.