The Elephant Story

Behind The Scene In the Middle East

Sep 14, 2020 | 0 comments

Transparency is a rare commodity in the Middle East. I doubt that any of you have ever read The Petroleum Economist. However, in a recent issue I was in an article entitled Pharos’s Main Man Goes Back to the East Med Future-The Independent’s CEO was Making Oil Discoveries in the Gulf of Suez in the 1970’s and is Now Back in the Region. To add clarity to all of this unknown press, Pharos is the name we adopted for our company when we made a very decisive move to the Middle East/North Africa region. Nonetheless, we are still very active...

Caution--Some COVID-19 Cures Can Be Hazardous to Your Health

Sep 07, 2020 | 0 comments

There has been a host of potential Covid-19 cures that have been suggested by politicians, faith healers and crackpots. One of the first ones to spring up was to inject patients with disinfectants such as bleach. Thankfully, medical experts suppressed that concept before an inordinate number of people died. Outside of the United States, there have been a significant number of prescriptions offered by a variety of Asian locations that come at a time when universities, research institutes and pharmaceutical companies are attempting to develop vaccines and treatments. Recently, the Nikkei Asian Review published an article entitled Cow Urine...

Keep an Eye on the Exit as Well as the Entrance

Aug 31, 2020 | 0 comments

In the late sixties, I happened to be in a nearly empty bar in Vientiane, Laos when my companion pointed out three Lao guys across the room saying they were Pathet Lao (Lao communist fighters) and planning to kill me when I left the bar. It was suggested that I say in Lao that I was going the toilet, quickly take the back door and run like hell. It made several distinct impressions on me. The first impression was why would you want to kill someone you do not know in a non-combat situation and, the more lasting mental imprint,...

Who Is That Masked Man - The Lone Ranger?

Aug 24, 2020 | 0 comments

We thought we might as well join the great face mask debate as everyone else seems to have weighed in on the issue. The Elephant Story in Comfort, Texas is on the side of caution as evidenced by our entry sign shown below. We have had one customer react badly to the store entry requirement of wearing a mask, but we feel strongly about it to protect our employees and customers. However, in our part of the world we have thrown politics to the side and opted for science, unlike some pockets of government. We also take exception to the...

"NO MAN IS AN ISLAND"

Aug 10, 2020 | 0 comments

Most of us are familiar with the famous quotation from John Donne's Devotions published in 1624. Almost four hundred years later, many leaders do not recognize the integral connections not only in a country, but the world itself. For the past four years, the U.S. has pursued a policy of isolation with construction of a wall to protect the "national interests" from an immigration invasion from Mexico and Central America. Oddly, funding from the U.S. Defense Budget was diverted for this heroic effort. However, despite the belief that the Covid-19 invasion would disappear in warmer weather, the pandemic reached a...