November 1997 Topics
Advocacy Stats, Jeito,
Pay Through the Nose, Pay to Play,
Rolling Over the Quota, Surname Shortage, Windbag, and 809 Scam
 

Mistaken identity problems occur when people have the same name. In China, 87 million people share the family name of Li.
 

Advocacy Stats
Statistics assembled or promoted by advocates of a cause with little regard for their accuracy. Inflated dates or impulse numbers might be used to solicit contributions, grants, and project funding.
“Cyberslang,” The Arizona Republic, July 1997.
 

Jeito
When Charles Kuralt, writer and broadcaster, worked in Brazil, he learned that things could not be speeded up or straightened out in Brazil, and red tape could not be cut. Everything, however, could be, with patience, sidestepped. Brazilians have a word “jeito” which is untranslatable into English, which has no such word or concept. Jeito combines the meanings of a favor, or a boon, a detour around difficulty, a solution for the insoluble. A jeito may involve a bribe, but it is more likely to consist of a kindness. Whenever he needed products of services from anyone, such as a telephone installer, a lawyer, or a customs broker, each of them came to Kuralt’s office and explained that they were seeking, and surely would find, a jeito before anything could proceed.
Charles Kuralt, A Life on the Road, Putnam, New York, 1990. p. 80.
 

Pay Through the Nose
To be charged an extremely high price or penalty. In ancient Ireland, delinquent taxpayers were punished by having their noses slit with a knife or sword. The scar was a permanent reminder to all other citizens to pay their taxes in full and on time.
Christine Ammer, Have a Nice Day - No Problem!, Plume Books, New York, 1992, p. 275.
 

Pay to Play
Donations made by brokerages and attorneys to political candidates, with the intent to influence the municipal bond underwriting business awarded by cities, towns, and other jurisdictions. Millions of dollars flow to candidates who control the $1.5 trillion municipal finance business. If bond services are not bid competitively, the municipalities receive less, and the investors pay more. Fifty brokerage firms agreed to a voluntary ban on “pay to play” in 1993. The Securities and Exchange Commission initiates enforcement cases involving municipal bonds under federal fraud laws.
“SEC Urges End to ‘Pay to Play’,” The Arizona Republic, June 27, 1997, p. E8.
 

Rolling Over the Quota
Cheating on oil production. An extra 2 million barrels a day come into the crude oil market from countries that exceed production quotas. The excess oil decreases world market trading prices. An official production ceiling, 25 million barrels a day, is set by OPEC, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Several countries have violated the production limit agreements, including Venezuela and Nigeria.
Dirk Beveridge, “Cheating to Stop, OPEC Says,” The Arizona Republic, July 1997.
OPEC map: http://home.no.net/skolisse/opec.htm
 

Surname Shortage
A surname is a person’s family name or last name. In China for example, the population tops 1.2 billion and shares only 3,100 surnames. The top five surnames cover 350 million citizens (equivalent to the population of the USA and Mexico combined). By comparison, there are 87 million Lis in China, but only 2.4 million Smiths in the United States. The surname shortage causes mistaken identity problems. Medical lab tests get mixed up. Suspects get arrested for crimes they did not commit. Mail and banking mix-ups occur because of duplicate names. The similarity of names makes fraud more difficult to trace. By contrast, Japan has 70,000 surnames for 125 million citizens.
Henry Chu, “Unusual Names are Unlike Li in China,” The Arizona Republic, July 11, 1997.
 

Windbag
A mystery packet. The contents are worth little more than those of an empty bag.
Partridge’s Concise Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, MacMillan, New York, 1989, p. 503.
 

809 Scam
The tip-off for a costly Internet scheme is 809. It is an international area code for the British Virgin Islands, Barbados, Bermuda, Bahamas, and Cayman Islands. A fraudster sends a vague e-mail message to a recipient urgently requesting him to call an 809 number. The brief message indicates that a family member is ill, a legal matter is pending, or unclaimed money is waiting. The geographic location of the sender is not identified. The message does not disclose that the call will be long distance and may cost up to $25 per minute, like a call to a phone number with a 900 area code. During the phone call, there is no disclaimer allowing the caller to hang up and avoid the fee. The e-mail is routed through several networks to disguise the sender’s server  location. You cannot contact the sender by e-mail because the sender’s server does not accept replies. To avoid becoming a victim, do not make the phone call; just use the “delete” key on your computer. Better yet, forward the e-mail to your Internet service provider and request them to block future e-mail from that sender.
Clinton Wilder, “Call - Collect,” Information Week, October 21, 1996.
 

ã Copyright 1997 Larry C. Adams.
All rights reserved.
 

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