Week 11
Short week this week, and not too much to report. Work has been a lot of tying up the discussions from the Work-Planning Session while continuing to procure new projects and prepare for the upcoming audit.
One major event of the week did stick out to me quite a bit. An event that I think highlights a bit of the challenges in the environment we are working in. Near the beginning of August, a couple of politicians had gone on public record stating that men who wear shorts should be publicly insulted and humiliated for doing so. This statement came at a time when temperatures were easily reaching into the 100s (and the humidity against the sea is pretty high as well). In response, a large group of Azerbaijani youth held a demonstration by the Parliament building and the Park Boulevard area to promote the free and un-harassed wearing of shorts. It was nearly 106 degrees during this demonstration. Being a foreigner myself, I get quite a number of weird looks wherever I go. So I abandoned long pants for shorts a long time ago. Never once during the summer was it an issue for me; however, sticking to the city kept me in a much more liberal crowd of persons.