new tool

http://www.mdgmonitor.org/

The MDG Monitor shows how countries are progressing in their efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). With the 2015 target date fast approaching, it is more important than ever to understand where the goals are on track, and where additional efforts and support are needed, both globally and at the country level.

The MDG Monitor is designed as a tool for policymakers, development practitioners, journalists, students and others to:

TRACK progress through interactive maps and country-specific profiles

LEARN about countries' challenges and achievements and get the latest news

SUPPORT organizations working on the MDGs around the world

Photo credit: Danny in Malawi blog (in links "Many Gears") http://www.dannyinmalawi.blogspot.com/

Day 5 - Hike to Kay Piyat (Cap Ayet?)

Marie-Phila & Jidline, starting out on our hike

A flower on the hill

Banana Bicycle

our destination - cool water swimming hole!

Day 4

This may be an homage to McDonald's, but it is also the neighbourhood's name.

Down the street from the restaurant

Cleaning fish at the new resort

Mcdonald Welding shop

Days 2 & 3

Selena, the next door neighbour of my friend Marie-Phila

Pretty orange flowers

These next are in the front yard / cooking area of the Frecyneau family, friends from my last trip. The girl getting her hair combed is named Mirlande, she is twenty. Her daughter, Chichi (with tongue out) was often sick as a baby, but seems to be much healthier as a toddler - she even has dimples!

I'm here! I'm here! I'm here!

flowers at the almost-naval museum

I'm back in Haiti, MesiBonDye!

I had a slow start, especially with the heat here I can feel like I need to rest all of the time and sometimes need a kick in the pants to get going, but I am starting to collect a lot of photos so must not be sitting around all the time! I will blog when I'm in Canada, so as not to waste time editing constantly here, but in the meantime, to reassure you that I am alive and so is Haiti, here are some of my favourite photos so far this trip.

Day one:

my friends taking me down the path to see their cousin's new house

flowers under the bridge!

mama and kid The water tap at the new house

a ...reptile of some kind, with calabas gourdes

small Vindication

This morning I got a junk fax from Travel company with a very fancy website, whose name starts with M and has the phone number: 1-877-810-7899. I HATE Junk Mail, so I wrote them the following:

My Office received a fax publicizing your services. We are a government office and are not interested in such advertisements.

Further, this fax did not have a sender number, and seemed designed to appear as if it were a personal communication including an article in the Vancouver Sun, by a staff writer not listed with that organization. This is deceitful and unnecessary – If I had read of your current (as the article indicates) 40% discounts in a magazine advertisement, this would have been quite enough to get me to look at the company for my upcoming vacation. However, I am repelled by your form of advertisement and will not look to m- Travel anymore, and am forwarding this “article” to the Vancouver Sun copyright department.

Please remove us (613.xxx.xxxx) from your mailing list unless in response to a communication from one of our officers. Personally, I would recommend that you recognize the negative image created by this disregard for the environmental waste caused by mass, unsolicited mailings, and start exploring new ways to serve [and not annoy] your [potential] clients.

I felt very grumpy after writing it, because I feel grumpy after telling people off, even when I'm fairly certain I'm in the right. Anyway, I felt slightly better when I received this reply from the Sun:

Hello Valerie
Thanks for sending us this information - we became aware of this fake article late last week, but we didn't know it had made its way to Ontario!

We are hoping that the grammatical error in the headline and the poorly written article will tip people off to the fact that we had nothing to do with the "article". Our lawyers are trying to get the travel company to cease and desist faxing this out.

Thanks again for bringing this to our attention!

News Research Librarian
Pacific Newspaper Group Library

I'm disappointed that she doesn't say "we're suing their A%% 's off" but really, as long as they don't do it again, I don't actually need vengeance. (and this will be practice believing that!)

Russia to citizens: Have a baby, win a car

Posted on 11:08AM (EDT) on 2007-09-12

Make a baby, win a car!

Sounds like something straight out of a sci-fi game show, but this is not fiction.

In an effort to stem and hopefully reverse Russia’s declining population, residents in one region are getting the day off today to procreate.

That’s right, in Ulyanovsk, Russia, today[Sep 12] is Day of Conception.

The aim is to get pregnant, and to give birth on June 12, 2008, which, coincidentally, is Russia Day or Russia's Independence Day. Successful new parents will win prizes, including a car or new appliances.

rest of article at: http://www.revolutionhealth.com/blogs/newsbarista/russia-to-citizens-h-7327

Farewell to "Flush and Forget"

DEVELOPMENT: Farewell to "Flush and Forget"
Analysis by Lester R. Brown

WASHINGTON, Aug 24 (IPS) - In urban settings, the one-time use of water to disperse human and industrial wastes is becoming an outmoded practice, made obsolete by new technologies and water shortages.

Water enters a city, becomes contaminated with human and industrial wastes, and leaves the city dangerously polluted. Toxic industrial wastes discharged into rivers and lakes or into wells also permeate aquifers, making water -- both surface and underground -- unsafe for drinking. And their toxic wastes are destroying marine ecosystems, including local fisheries.

The time has come to manage waste without discharging it into the local environment, allowing water to be recycled indefinitely and reducing both urban and industrial demand dramatically.

rest of article @: http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39012

68 pounds of clothing

http://www.ehponline.org/members/2007/115-9/focus.html

According to the EPA Office of Solid Waste, Americans throw away more than 68 pounds of clothing and textiles per person per year, and clothing and other textiles represent about 4% of the municipal solid waste.

I hate facebook but love Canada

I'm concerned that people may get the wrong impression of me from my recent posts. I apologize if anyone is trying to catch up with me by reading this, and offer you this photograph which I hope will inspire your continued patience in me. Or something.

More on Trees...

@ http://racinette.blogspot.com/2005/08/forestry-as-good-thing-news-article.html

by Dr. Patrick Moore, chief
scientist of Greenspirit Strategies Ltd. in Vancouver.

Excerpts:
There is a misconception that cutting down an old tree will result in a net release of carbon. Yet wooden furniture made in the Elizabethan era still holds the carbon fixed hundreds of years ago.
__________















Although old trees contain huge amounts of carbon, their rate of sequestration has slowed to a near halt. A young tree, although it contains little fixed carbon, pulls CO2 from the atmosphere at a much faster rate.

__________

Using wood sends a signal to the marketplace to grow more trees and to produce more wood.
That means we can then use less concrete, steel and plastic -- heavy carbon emitters through their production.

Treehuggers nomore?

Their Bark Is Worse For Our Blight
Decade-long study says trees may not be good at offsetting carbon

Step away from the vegetation, treehuggers, and find something else to embrace. New research finds that when it comes to offsetting greenhouse gases, trees may not be up to the challenge. For 10 years, Duke University researchers plied a stand of North Carolina loblolly pines with higher-than-normal levels of carbon dioxide; they found that the foliaged friends grew more than non-gassed trees, but did not consistently absorb significantly higher levels of CO2. "The responses are very variable according to how available other resources are -- nutrients and water -- that are necessary for tree growth," says researcher Heather McCarthy. "It's really not anywhere near the magnitude that we would really need to offset emissions." For tree planting to have a discernible offsetting effect under the conditions they tested, the amount of fertilizer required would impact groundwater quality at a level "intolerable to society," says project director Ram Oren. Sigh. Ocean-hugging, anyone?

straight to the source: Wilmington Star-News, Associated Press, Margaret Lillard, 08 Aug 2007

straight to the source: LiveScience, Andrea Thompson, 08 Aug 2007

Easter Dinner

This is Sam, a Quebequois. You can tell he’s from Québec because he is eating potatoes, and pouring over them a yummy brown sauce.

Except it’s not gravy, it’s maple syrup!

I tried, it’s surprisingly good.

But then, I was so happy to spend Easter weekend with Sam, Marie-Eve, and the Robert clan, and the food was so scrumptious, that my taste buds might not have believed me and just assumed they were eating something yummy.

Merci Ma femme pour la belle vaccance!

A Haiti night

The last month or so I've been thinking about Haiti even more than usual, and last night I thought for a minute or so that I'd been transported back in my dreams: I awoke in the middle of the night because I was too hot, because my fan had turned off, because the power had gone out. People who've live in Ottawa longer tell me it is as normal an experience here as in Haiti, which just goes to show you...something.

Probably, that even when you think you're open minded and not unnecessarily patronizing, that your perception may not match the facts.

or maybe just that Canada isn't entirely a frozen waste-land.

Please...No More

Hmm... my blog is rapidly becoming just another advertising billboard. Sorry about that- nothing in my life right now seems worth you spending your life reading about. I volunteered at an outdoor movie theatre, ate a bag of candy, spiral bound a report at work. Oh, and I read a bunch of books about Haiti. If you want to read about them, you might as well just read them. In the mean time, adverts:

An orphanage that I visited in Haiti has since built a school. I think that is neat, because the orphanage kids will not get lower quality education, nor be completely isolated from their peers who are not institutionalized. The community students also get a chance to go to school, which is exciting. (Schools aren’t free once you factor uniforms & books (and often in indebted countries, tuition), so many Haitian children don’t attend.)

In exciting news, their latest update included the following bit of information:

A child, Tia, in the Twillingate area of Newfoundland, at age 5, saw a child sponsorship program on TV and with tears on her face ran to her father wanting to help the children who did not have what she had - food, clothes and medical help, etc. Seeing Tia's passion for the children, inspired her father, Randy Hann, an artist, to do a drawing of his daughter, Tia, with tears on her face holding the globe. This drawing is called "Please ... No More", and is on sale at the art shop of Randy and his family in Twillingate. All sales from the drawing have since been used to fund child support programs.

The Orphanage director was in Newfoundland visiting family, and met with the Hann family, who will now partner with HATS-Haiti to use the funds from the sale of this drawing "Please . . No More" to help start a lunch program for the school children from the community . That’s pretty cool- amazingly generous of Mr Hann, and the existence of generous people makes me happy, so I wanted to advertise for him here. (Although I don't support organizations who give away tiny amounts of the profits they've made from labourers, this is a different sort of fish, I hope)

http://www.randyhann.com/drawingsstyles.htm

Spiderella exposure

A friend sent me a note a while ago, that her friend's boyfriend made a movie, and it is so cool that I am still thinking about it, so thought I would share it with you.

The message reads:

I am writing to alert you to a new show on the CBC called exposure, showcasing some of Canada's amateur talent.

The lovely Paul, with whom i am madly in love, has submitted his most recent movie, entitle "Spiderella " to the website.

It is now up to us to view and vote for his movie. Bear in mind that it was conceived and directed entirely by Paul Fryer, including the piano soundtrack. The animation is a bit crude, but imagine what he could do with the proper equipment.

The movie is just under ten lovely minutes, and i hope you enjoy.

REMEMBER TO VOTE, and rate this movie, if you liked it (and even if you didn't - vote cause i told you to ). The top rated movies will recieve Exposure on the CBC tv program of the same name. Tell your friends. Get them to vote. I promise you, this is only the tip of what Paul is capable of. I know that i am biased, but this movie is
only one example of the millions of reasons that i love him. Give him a chance, his creative talents will win you over too...

http://www.cbc.ca/exposure/node/4589

Another new word

A bromide ion is a bromine atom with charge of −1.

Compounds with bromine in formal oxidation state −1 are called bromides. This can include ionic compounds such as caesium bromide or covalent compounds such as sulfur dibromide.

Bromide compounds, especially potassium bromide, were frequently used as sedatives in the 19th and early 20th century. This gave the word "bromide" its colloquial connotation of a boring cliché, a bit of conventional wisdom overused as a sedative.

I feel that "I feel" is unfortunate when ubiquitous

Since I came to Ottawa I've started saying "I feel that" all the time, and it's been annoying me. Now another vote towards change:

I have been thinking about our real views of authority in the church. I believe, like good Christians should, that the Bible is authoritative in matters of faith and life. But as I have been discussing different issues with people, I notice a new authority emerging among Christians. It is summed up in the phrase, “I feel that…” It doesn’t matter if the feeling runs counter to the Scripture, it seems to be authoritative. This is a recipe for disaster in people’s lives and in the church. The Wesleyan theological tradition has four criteria for determining truth. It is like a baseball diamond where home plate is Scripture. If it can’t cross that plate there is no score. The other criteria are: tradition, reason and experience. “I feel that”, is just a lazy way of justifying one’s opinions without having to think about them.
(Taken from my Pastor's email, "Looking Forward to Sunday" on Tuesday July 10th, 2007)

ébauche= draft/outline
civière = stretcher

L'ébauche des instructions pour comment se servir de la civière ne seront prêtes qu'après l'urgence pour laquelle ont leur aura besoin.

Literature 422- kid's books for you

Hey Jenanne , this post’s for you!

When I was in second year college, my mom took me for a portrait, and I finally convinced her to have the background be Winnie-ther-Pooh. I’m not sure how I managed this; she refused to give the pictures out to anyone. It is with some reluctance that, knowing this, I post this portrait, as it flatters neither my intellect nor my features. I don’t know that either of those deserve acclamation, so I’ll post this and just hope my mom forgives me, as there is one feature which begs for acclaim:

The beautiful cover of Babushka’s Mother Goose, by Patricia Polacco. The last time I went to the library, I somehow ended up in the children’s section, and ended up with two armloads of late-fines a-growing. I feel compelled to inform you of three.

1. Harlem, a poem by Walter Dean Myers (pictures by Christopher Myers, 1997)

I want to decorate my room with the pictures in this book; I want to know Harlem natives so I can decorate my ears with the words of this book, so I can share with them its sense of joy (and sometimes, frustration.)

In storefront temples
Jive and Jehovah artists
Lay out the human canvas
The mood indigo

….

Caught by a full lipped, full hipped
Saint washing collard greens in a cracked
Porcelain sink
Backing up Lady Day on the radio

….

A huddle of horns and a tinkle of glass, a note
Handed down from Marcus to Malcolm to a brother
Too bad and too cool to give his name

2. The Emperor’s New Clothes. I read this to my two best friends, and one suggested it should be read to the staff at her (professional office) job. Turns out, the stories we knew as children, society hasn’t really learned, and as an adult this story was as funny and important as when I read it twenty years ago. Next time I’m feeling stressed about clothes or appearances or fitting in, I’m going to read this rather than watch TLC.

3. Babushka’s Mother Goose, by Patricia Polacco, is exactly what it sounds like: Eastern European versions of classic nursery tales. It is fun to read such near-familiar, foreign lines.

Diadushka Planted a Turnip
The turnip grew and grew until it was very very big
Diadushka went to pick it.
He pulled and pulled,
But he could not pull it out!
So he called Babushka.

Babushka pulled Diadushka,
And Diadushka pulled the turnip.
They pulled and pulled,
But they could not pull it out!
So they called…

It is, as you can tell, especially fun to read aloud, and, as I hope you can see from the cover, especially enjoyable to sit and look. Jenanne- I’m sorry it’s not Ukrainian, but I’m sure you’ll love this book all the same!

What About Excess Waist?

To cut down waste, some Hong Kong restaurants charge for leftovers

Do you miss the good ol' days of childhood? The park, the play dates, the eat-everything-on-your-plate-or-else lectures? Well, we can't fit you on the child-size slide or bring back your pre-K paramour, but if you want to be chided for leaving leftovers, get ye to Hong Kong. In an effort to cut down on excess waste, some restaurants in the territory are fining diners who don't finish their meals. The amount of edibles ending up in the trash of Hong Kong's restaurants, hotels, and food manufacturers has more than doubled in the last five years, and cuisine accounts for one-third of daily landfill waste. And it's not just the trash problem; foodstuffs give off methane, a potent greenhouse gas, as they rot. While the government has set up an experimental composter that converts four tons of food waste a day into mulch, some establishments are taking matters into their own hands: At one upscale diner, patrons must pay 64 cents for every ounce of food they don't ingest.

straight to the source: The Christian Science Monitor, Peter Ford, 18 Apr 2007

(excerpt from Grist List)

this is how late I am in my readings...(sorry)

Haiti win Digicel Caribbean Cup

Haitians clinch title in 2-1 thriller in Port of Spain

Posted on January 24, 2007

Tuesday, January 23rd, 2007 – Hasely Crawford Stadium, Trinidad: After the toughest route to the final, playing more qualification games than any other team, Haiti lifted the Digicel Caribbean Cup after defeating Trinidad & Tobago 2-1 in a thrilling final.

Watched by an expectant crowd of 18,000, Wim Rjisbergen’s Soca Warriors could not break down a stubborn home defence, expertly marshaled by Digicel Man of the Match Richard Pierre Bruny, as Luis Amelia Garcia’s side took their chances to bring the Digicel Caribbean Cup back to Port-au-Prince for the very first time.

A cagey opening 20 minutes saw few chances created before the game burst into life on 21 minutes when the Haitians silenced the noisy home crowd by opening the scoring.

Cadet Elphine made a surging run down the right before squaring the ball for Brunel Fucien. Fucien’s first time shot was pushed away by Williams in the Trinidad & Tobago goal but Boucicaut Alexandre was on hand to turn the ball home.

Trinidad struggled to come back into the game but showed their first real threat in stoppage time at the end of the first half. Kerry Baptiste fired just wide 1 minute into stoppage time and Kerwin Jemmott came even closer seconds later, Gabard in the Haiti goal blocking his long range shot.

But Rjisbergen’s side couldn’t keep their momentum after the break and on 52 minutes Haiti seemed to have one hand on the Digicel Caribbean Cup. A goalmouth scramble resulted from a Williams’ fumble and Brunel Fucien turned the ball home to give the Haitians a two goal lead.

With the crowd silenced, Haiti seemed comfortably on top but the game changed with a set piece. Trinidad earned a free kick fully 35 yards out on 66 minutes giving Nigel Daniel a sight of goal. Daniel’s vicious right foot strike, a real contender for goal of the tournament, left Gabard with no chance and brought the game alive again.

With the crowd performing an enthusiastic Mexican wave, the Soca Warriors poured forward in search of an equalizer. Substitute Joel Bailey almost found the net on 76 minutes, his header from Power’s long cross well held by Gabard.

As the crowd grew increasingly tense, the Soca Warriors threw 4 up front in the closing minutes and goalkeeper Gabard became the Haitian hero. He denied Glasgow after a flowing move, tipped over a Theobald free kick and then with only 2 minutes left on the clock brilliantly saved from Darryl Roberts after a mazy run.

Despite 4 nail biting minutes of stoppage time, Haiti held on for a famous victory which will be celebrated long into the night in Port-au-Prince.

Trinidad and Tobago: Jan Michael Williams, Makan Hislop (Joel Bailey 64), Osei Telesford, Leslie Fitzpatrick ,Kerwin Jemmot, Darryl Roberts, Gary Glasgow, Kerry Baptiste, Seon Power, Nigel Daniel, Densill Theobold

Haiti: Fenelon Gabard, Gilles Frantz (Dacius Gilles 90), Guillaume Stephane, Brunel Fucien, Cadet Eliphene (Lormera Roody 90), Boucicaut Alexandre (Raymond Ednerson 63), James Marcelin, Richard Pierre Bruny, Chery Mones, Vubert Alain, Maynard Josue

Skeptic

I was catching up on a Haitian Mailing list I’m a part of:

“These are inhuman hatred acts towards not only a Haitian man and his son but towards the whole nation of Haiti, based on generalized ethnic prejudices.”

I rolled my eyes and sighed at the sensationalism of the writer. The whole nation? Really? Couldn’t it just be a slight against two men?

Then I remembered what acts were being discussed, and I repented of my prejudice. The story really does seem to show prejudice against Haiti as a country. A man is arrested, apparently, while entering America legally with a legal passport, his medicine is thrown out, (“his son is told he will be given ‘American equivalents.’”) and he dies.

A man with a passport and family in the country he is trying to enter dies in custody. I roll my eyes.

Something is wrong.

Maybe “generalized ethnic prejudices” aren’t so far-fetched.

The man was a Baptist minister, and Grandfather of a prominent Haitian writer, although that only makes the case more high-profile, it doesn’t actually prove the accusations true… but they deserve my researching further before rolling my eyes and going on to the next story of educational abuse.

Original story at : http://www.nchr.org/irp/Timeline.htm

The comment I quote from is part of a mail list, and not, as far as I know, available anywhere else.
The picture is from someone else's Haiti blog.

i wanna go back to school!

Well, maybe not, I'm still not convinced I'm smart enough to waste tax payer's dollars on it. and really, I also want to go back to see my friends and be with my books, so I'm not entirely making the decision with the right thoughts in mind. But also, my school is the coolest school ever because it made the coolest grammar aid ever, and I want to share it with you. If you ever want to write in French, this is the place to go.

http://bonpatron.com/

Also, just a note that I'm feeling grincheux towards the world this week, especially people writing blogs and seeming like they are ... just having a completely different understanding of the world than me. Like, I know they're trying, but I'm afraid they're making things worse, or at least, not making them better, and I wonder whether my judgement is really about them, or about myself, in a sell-out office job.

I accepted my job knowing that it wouldn't hurt anyone and would give me money and breathing space to figure out this whole life thing, so I don't think I could be feeling guilty about not doing more than that, especially after barely four weeks.

I think I may just be full of ranceur because these people have managed to find a way to think they are doing good but aren't using those opportunities how I would.

I'm further bitter because I don't want any one to feel like I'm attacking them, and I know how defensive people can get if they feel their work is being criticized, but... I really do wonder if I can support some of the stuff I'm reading about. So maybe I should go home to sleep instead. Except I guess 5:40 isn't really sleeping time. I could eat legitimately though.

(yup, I sure don't have to wonder how I end up fat and with no clean clothes- but at least my escape mechanisms don't affect my ability to walk normally:)

I'm also going to use hunger as an excuse to not correct the grammar and random cliches and lazy writing above. It will be good for my pride to have this up there and remember that I'm not an author, however much tripe I write.

Seeing Red

I'm going to pray that all of you are smart enough to figure out that buying something you don't need because part of the money will go somewhere good is not as effective as just giving money, but for anyone who wants numbers-based accusations:

An article in Advertising Age last week reported that since the campaign
launched in the U.K. last March, its corporate sponsors (which include the Gap,
Motorola and Apple, among others) have spent some $100 million on marketing but raised just $18 million for the Geneva-based Global Fund

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17613550/site/newsweek/

Apparently, there is also this site which may have useful information: http://www.buylesscrap.org/ I haven't been there yet and am not responsible for its content. Time to get back to making money myself. (yes, i'm aware i'm a sell out. No, I don't think that's acceptable. Give me a few weeks with a full fridge to learn balance, eh!)

pretty fusion

My friend sent the below message, and it is worth checking on:

It’s Silent Auction time again. I have a set of 3 beautiful Polar Bears with their young up for bid.

Please go to my website and check out the Silent Auction Page to view them and see more details.

If you are not interested in Polar Bears, there is much more to see at my website. I have all sorts of Fine Art for all tastes and interests.

If you know of anyone that may be interested in this Auction or viewing other artwork, please forward this e-mail to them. The website address is:

http://www.jencotecreations.homestead.com/

my new work vocabulary

Haute gestion: upper management

Retrousser les manches: roll up your sleeves

Palier: make up for

Croire qu'on fait notre possible: believe you're doing your best

Amertume: bitterness

Écrouler : collapse

Prendre pour acquis : take for granted

to action: delegate: get someone else to do something while keeping most of the credit.

Katimavik Update

My friend got this back from her MP:

Dear XXXXX,

Thank you for your letter and the copy you sent to our Prime Minister
regarding your concerns about the Katimavik program.
It seems that there had been some speculation that the Katimavik program
would be cut. Earlier last year year there was an internal audit after
financial irregularities were identified at Katimavik. The audit report
is being studied by the Department of Canadian Heritage and will be
discussed with Katimavik officials soon.
However, I have been assured that the program remains intact and will
continue because Canada's New Government supports youth and youth
programs that promote active citizenship and engagement in Canadian
society. Katimavik is an important youth program with a strong brand and
a three-decades old tradition and will be funded because of the
contribution the program makes to youth in Canada.
Again, thank you for writing and may the blessed season of Christmas
bring you peace and joy.

Sincerely,

Richard M. (Dick) Harris, M.P.
Cariboo - Prince George, B.C.
B.C. Caucus Chair
606 Justice Building
Tel: (613) 995-6704
Fax: (613) 996-9850

I'm concerned by "Strong Brand"
In the 80s, Katimavik was not worth its salt, it was just some after school sports program, as far as I can tell. I object to using brands if you're not true to the original product. That's why eaton's (the purple version) is lame, why I don't read Maclean's - the cosmo version- and why no one drank new coke.

However, some change is good... in the first years, not all the sleeping barns were heated. I'm not opposed to taking advantage of some of the privileges of living in a first world country, and hot showers and warm beds are pretty much the top of that list. Especially if you're going to discourage sharing beds- which Katimavik does, despite its "hippy" take on nature and consumerism.