Can You Hear Me Now?

September 07, 2006 12:00am

FOUR prisoners in an El Salvador jail hid mobile phones, a phone charger and spare chips in their bowels so they could co-ordinate crimes from their cells, prison officials said today.

The men, all gang members, wrapped their phones and accessories in plastic and inserted them into their rectums "far enough to reach their intestines," Ramon Arevalo, director of the maximum security Zacatecoluca prison, said.

Mr Arevalo said the ruse was discovered during X-ray examinations following six weeks of investigations.



The men, members of the ultra-violent Mara Salvatrucha street gang and the first in El Salvador known to go to such lengths to make phone calls in jail, used the mobile phones to manage robberies, blackmail and murders outside, Mr Arevalo said.

The Zacatecoluca prison is also known by the nickname "Zacatraz," after the US island penitentiary Alcatraz.

Zacatecoluca is about 65km east of the capital San Salvador and currently home to 337 inmates.

The Land Down Under, A.K.A., The Bush

There are those that would refer to our current global situation as an "energy crisis." I find it flabergasting that people can so quickly forget even recent history and all the damage Jimmy Carter did during his term, specifically the oil embargo crisis of 1973.

If we were to learn anything from that fiasco, it's that the more the government gets involved in trying to solve problem of supply and demand, the worse that problem will become.

On the other hand, the beautiful mechanisms of capitalism allow responses well beyond the confines of even the specific industries affected by "crisis." In Japan, for example, the crisis of the mid-Seventies caused major industry to recuse from global petroleum and invest heavily in another fast growing and potentially profitable industry: electronics.

Well, as the the giant said, "It is happening again."

From Reuters:

Brothel owners claim the system works much the same way as supermarkets which offer shoppers discounted gas prices by presenting their grocery bills when they fill up their tanks.

"If you come in and spend time with one of our lovely ladies, we'll give you a discount of 20 cents a liter," Kerry, manager of Sydney brothel The Site, told Reuters Wednesday.

There is no link between brothels, petrol providers or supermarkets but brothels like The Site and Madame Kerry's say the system is simple.

Once you've filled up your car, bring your receipt to the brothel and they'll discount the price of your visit.

The bill for a full 50-liter tank at 126.9 cents per liter comes to A$63.45 ($48.22). With the offered 20c a liter discount, the petrol bill would have instead come to A$53.45.

That A$10 difference is taken off the A$150 cost of a 30-minute session with one of the brothel's "service providers."

That's one of the innumerable beauties of capitalism. You don't even have to be a part of the affected industry to try and make a difference, to help people, and to make money doing it. Of course, the down side is that, in order to take advantage of the money-saving offer, you have to sleep with an actual Australian woman.