While still living in the States, I was sitting in my car in front of a major university. I was returning from what I felt was a successful interview, after applying to study librarianship there.

Several big, tough thugs approached my rolled-down window. One put a sharp object to the back of my neck, and the other put it on my forehead. They demanded - and accepted - an expensive watch that I had received for my engagement.

I wrote the university that I would study elsewhere, for reasons of security. To their credit, they apologized.

Shortly thereafter, I was approached by other tough guys while stopped at a red light. I will never know whether their intentions were honorable. I stepped on the accelerator and zoomed away, through the red light. I had been traumatized by the previous incident.

While teaching in a Brooklyn high school, a youthful, reckless driver who should have been in class plowed into my car, totalling it. All of the students in the school heard the crash, and they ran to the window to see what happened. I had hundreds of witnesses.

Nonetheless, my insurance company refused to press charges, because it would have damaged this child's future. They also used a legal technicality that I never understood as a defense so that they would not have to pay for the damages.

When I bought another car, I discovered that I was an assigned risk. That means that I could not select my own insurance company. I was assigned to a company by the government, since I was a risk. That "risk" was the result of my being involved in a moving vehicle accident.

True, the accident was not my fault. I was not even there - I was teaching. Yet, I was "involved" in the accident, since it was my car. Needless to say, my insurance rates reflected the fact that the company was doing my a favor by insuring somebody at risk.