we are frying, oh!

i was all ready to declare my first liberian cooking lesson a success and then the boyfriend had to go and get sick after eating what my housekeeper and i cooked up.  but i have felt fine ever since so i am still going with the idea that it was a success, but i might include a disclaimer in all future kitchen endeavours.

it is not that i can't cook, i just have no idea what to do with all the greens in the market here.  and i can still count the number of times i have cooked chicken on one hand (three, if you are wondering).  but i am getting better at eating it (it was served a lot on my recent trip to morocco), so there's that.

mary, my housekeeper extraordinaire (and you will recall, currently my closest friend in monrovia) wanted to teach me to cook and had offered to go and buy what we needed at the market.  i figured it was a good opportunity to get a tour of the market so i asked if i could come with her, which she thought was a grand idea and off we went.

i thought our project would be cut short immediately after leaving my house and seeing the opposition party march going down the main street in protest of the recent elections and to mourn their dead from clashes with police a few weeks ago.  i looked at mary as if to inquire on the security of us wandering through the hundreds of people and she, a proud ma ellen supporter, didn't seem concerned so on we carried on amongst the chanting and yelling and shuffling throngs.  in fact, mary thought it might be a good photo opportunity, but i am still shy about whipping out my camera (slr or iphone).

the market is a huge building jammed with stuff and things and bits and bobs.  in amongst the kitchen items, there is a small produce section.  here are your choices: palm nuts, cassava leaf, potato leaf, collared greens, yams, onions, garlic, banana, plantain.  none of which i know what to do with.

mary and i had previously agreed that she'd teach me how to make collared greens so that is what we bought and had the woman in the market cut them up small, small for us with her giant (and incredibly sharp) knife.

after picking up some seasoning, a basin to wash and massage the greens, and onions, we headed back home where mary unceremoniously butchered a frozen chicken on my countertop.  i noticed she kept all the trimmings to take home with her, but otherwise all the chicken bits when into the oil.  my job was to watch her and ask questions and take photos (often at her request).

we fried the chicken with some onion and added the greens into the pot while mary sang 'we are frying, oh!'  in went the seasoning, tomato paste, chiles and then i manned the greens with instructions from mary not to stir too much and add water occasionally.  she got on with making the rice and soon, our meal was complete.

it tasted better than any west african food i have had before and it received positive reviews (apart from the upset stomach...) and was a fun process.  next up, a field trip with mary to the larger market in town.

vote compass

i am sure there will be detractors somewhere that will say that this is unscientific or overly simplified, but i think that the vote compass on the cbc website is one of many tools that we can use during this election season to figure out who we are going to vote for.  if we didn't know before.

i did the questionnaire and wasn't terribly surprised with the results, but what i loved was that you can go through your answers and see where you compare to each of the 5 federal political parties.

there were a few of the questions that i had no opinion on and a few that would have more weight in my final decision, but i think that this is a great tool, especially if you are wondering who will get your vote this may!

let's get voting!

six months in sudan

for someone who is mildly obsessed with trying to figure out if international humanitarian assistance or foreign aid makes a positive impact on the lives of those in developing countries, i found almost refreshing to read a book that describes one individual's attempt to achieve what all humanitarians set out to do - improve the lives of others.

whether james maskalyk is successful in his humanitarian quest is secondary to his telling of his six months in sudan, which is also the name of the book, and i am glad that he did not spent his words or pages delving into the academic discussions of how aid should be delivered and what the challenges are for those working in a dynamic and ever shrinking humanitarian space in conflict zones.

instead, you get a honest, heartfelt, angry, and genuine telling of maskalyk's experience of volunteering with medicins sans frontieres in abyei, sudan where there was a simple hospital, small staff and countless challenges and barriers, but he and the msf team, like countless other similar teams active throughout the world, overcome what they can and accept what they cannot change.  but if only it were that simple - to understand the beauty of the struggle and the celebration of the successes, you will have to read the book.

i have never worked in a environment as resource constrained or isolated as abyei, but i do know what it is like to question what you are doing, if it is working the way it was intended, and the pain in the ass that is internal organisational politics and i am not sure how, but maskalyk articulated it all so well.  there were certainly parts that were difficult to read and i had to put the book down a few times (sometimes to take a few breaths because he doesn't hold back on the medical details...), but the story is one of a young canadian doctor who wishes to do what he can to improve the health of those he could in a village in the contested borderland area of sudan.

read it.  you won't be disappointed.

ted talk recommendations

i have spent my morning cleaning, doing laundry, ironing, and listening to ted talks, which is such a wonderful website about 'ideas worth sharing' and if you have not already taken a perusal through their wonderful videoed lectures (there is an iphone application too for when i am at work!), here are a few talks that struck a nerve or a chord with me this morning, take a look if you have some free time.

***

i have never been a fan of wwf, but its vp who deals with corporate social responsibility and sustainability makes a number of good connections and conclusions about third party verifications, the challenges of putting the decision on sustainable consumption on the consumer, and highlights some success stories of how changes have been made in industries without our even knowing.

i recently went to a lecture by alan knight of the virgin group (of richard branson fame) around third party verification in the forestry industry and what the oilsands of alberta can learn from that experience.  and this was a really nice compliment to that information and is something, to a very brief degree, contend with in my day job.

jason clay: how big brands can help save biodiversity

***

steve jobs gave a commencement address at stanford in 2005 and i absolutely love his message and the story of how he got his start and then kept moving.  i did not realise that he was an adopted child and that he had been publicly fired from apple years ago.  moving and inspiring and a great reminder not to dwell on negative even if it is difficult to suspend judgement in the moment.  (and something i direly need to be reminded of in 2010.)

steve jobs: how to live before you die

***

new york senator diane j savino makes the case for the legalisation of same sex marriage and while i don't necessarily agree with her perspective that even same sex couples should have the right to be as miserable as everyone else as i believe that it doesn't matter what the result of a marriage, all consenting adults should have access to the institution (although i do understand that this line of argumentation might be a line that resonates the best with those whose opinions in the senate she was attempting to influence), i completely agree with her take on the role of government in marriage in a democratic state.

diane j savino: the case for same sex marriage

***

two people speak about choice and they both have really valuable insight into how western developed countries can be improved and deteriorated by the powers associated with choice.

malcolm gladwell speaks to an audience about how to ask the question of what people want in different ways to get more accurate information with the intent of keeping people happy by offering them more choice.

malcolm gladwell: spaghetti sauce

alternatively, and more to my line of thinking on this concept, is barry schwartz who wrote a book entitled the paradox of choice, which i have been meaning to read for years.  he speaks to the idea that the more choices we have, the less satisfied we are with the selection with ultimately make.  i know that this is true for me - when i go to a restaurant with a huge menu i get overwhelmed and am never happy with my final choice because what could it have been like if i picked something else.  for this reason alone, i like eating at fancier restaurants who dictate the menu and refuse to allow substitutions.

schwartz connects the reduction in satisfaction with higher levels of depression and anxiety and i certainly know this is the case for me.  i feel as though there is so much i could do, but where do i start and how to pick what to do?  he uses the example of young people getting married and the selection of a mate, which also resonated with me for the same reasons as the lengthy menus as how we cherish and respect freedom not for what it gives us or what it can allow us to do for ourselves, but simply because freedom in and of itself is valuable.  and i am not always so sure this is the case.  watch it and see what he says about shifting the blame in the medical community and why we might not always be the best person to make decisions for ourselves.

barry schwartz: the paradox of choice

prop 8's demise?

proposition 8 really chapped my ass, so this is most welcome news: a judge in the us determined it was unconstitutional!

is it premature to declare The End of the Vest?!

for years i have been harping on about our prime minister's lacklustre physical appearance and his penchant for wearing ill fitting vests (in fact, i have an entire tag on this blog dedicated to it).  and have even been known to state that i am completed content with the use of public funds to hire a stylist tasked with sprucing up his appearance so that he looks less like a corpse and more like someone who i feel comfortable representing canada. 

and lo and behold, he has hired a stylist!  and people are concerned with where her salary comes from.  but i don't care!  i love that he realises that he needed help in the appearance department and is taking appropriate action.

but i am still not convinced that she can change this:

into this:

pure ignorance

today, i am exhausted. like 3 lattes and a sugary sweet pastry to try and wake up tired. so tired, in fact, that i couldn't even muster the strength to argue (i mean, discuss) with a coworker today who told me that they do not vote and never will because they think anyone who runs for office is selfish. or their party is selfish.

but honestly, i might not have had the energy to tell this person they were wrong on a number of levels, but i sure do now and man, are they ever wrong!

it irritates me to no end when people paint all 'politicians' with the same brush and write them off as being liars, selfish, arrogant, ignorant, or altogether useless. the problem with that thinking (and there are many) is that while some of them quite possible are, it all comes down to just being an excuse for not getting off your own duff and casting a vote. or getting off your arse and reading a newspaper to figure out which party is which and who stands for what.

and as someone who has participated in the democratic system on a few different levels, i want to smack these people who cast off all those involved in politics in the forehead and tell them that like politicans or not, they still make the rules and still get a vote in parliament/legislature and those are rules that you and i have to live by, whether we like them or not. so you might as well put your ballot in the box and do that small part to participate in our democracy.

and don't even get me started on those who would die (and do) to live in a democracy like ours!!

bon courage!

i was honoured to be asked to represent the u of c alumni as a distinguished graduate at yesterday's convocation ceremony and did not realise that it would be quite the task to speak into a microphone in front of hundreds of people (that jack simpson gymnasium is big!) to recite the oath of the graduates until i got to the venue.

through my nerves, i managed to have a really great time and enjoyed congratulating all the new graduates. being part of the platform and sitting on the stage for graduation is much more interesting and enjoyable than actually being a graduate, in my opinion!

one of the perks of spending my afternoon at the convocation was an invitation to the dinner honouring the honourary degree recipients and i met so many fascinating and inspiring people. and who knew that my volunteer work with the federal liberal party would come in handy when i ran into the candidate yesterday and she introduced me to provincial mla's and offered to help me any way she can.

my new goal is to get an honourary degree so i can continue to attend those dinners. it seems WAY more appealing than going back to uni for years!

this year, u of c gave honourary degrees to Dr James Orbinski, Phil Fontaine, and Johann Koss and it was my goal to meet each of them, but sadly it was not to be and i will not be whisked off to work with msf canada, the ministry for indian affairs, or right to play. but i will not be discouraged.

books about africa

i was recently asked for an email with my suggestions on books about africa and this is what i came up with so i figured it might be useful to someone so i am also posting it here.

here are some of my favourite books about africa:

The Zanzibar Chest (Aidan Hartley) - memoir about life as a foreign correspondent in Africa and that whole post colonial guilt thing.

Sweetness in the Belly (Camilla Gibb) - fiction about a white woman who grows up in Muslim Ethiopia, amazing read.

Half of a Yellow Sun (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie) - fiction set during the Baifran war in Nigeria, awesome and based on a lot of real events.

My Traitor's Heart (Rian Malan) - memoir of an Afrikaaner who fought against apartheid in South Africa, truly explores the white guilt and the issue of Africanness, I think you'd like it a lot.

In the Footsteps of Mr Kurtz (Michela Wrong) - journalist writes about Mobutu and his rule in the DRC, the one I was telling you about. Tough to get through at times, but you'll learn a lot about why the country remains effed to this day.

We Wish to Inform you That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families (Philip Gourevitch) - excellent account of the genocide in Rwanda and the role of the international community in prolonging the killings.

Shake Hands With the Devil (Romeo Dallaire) - the book that the commander of UN peacekeepers in Rwanda during the genocide wrote about his experience and frustrations with the UN system and watching people die, also a bit tough at times, but there is a glossary that always helps!

Don't Let's Go To the Dogs Tonight (Alexandra Fuller) - memoir of a poor, white Zimbabwean family, so interesting and an easy read.

Tick Bite Fever (David Bennun) - funny memoir of growing up white in Africa. Not fantastic, but an easy read.

Swahili For the Broken Hearted (Peter Moore) - I don't love his writing, but he did a trip through Africa riding solely on public transport and wrote about it, so there are some gems in amongst the other bits.

A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali (Gil Courtemanche) - fiction (but probably mostly true) about the expats during the genocide in Rwanda. The story will make you cry, but I loved the raw writing of the French Canadian author.

Acts of Faith (Philip Caputo) - an awesome novel about the war in Southern Sudan, the community of pilots, how the UN capitulates war, and the scandals of it all, a really great read and I know from my pilot friends that the story is true and the names were just changed.

Emma's War (Deborah Scroggins) - non fiction, about a British woman who rocks up in Southern Sudan in the middle of a civil war, marries one of the rebel war lords, becomes his second wife, and then actively participates in the war, alienating most people she knows. I also think you'd really like this as it shows the naivity and sincerity of foreign aid workers and those who feel th eneed to 'save' Africa. One of the characters in the book above is based on her, undoubtedly.

You asked for it, and there you have it! I surprised myself with how many books I could pull out of my head and I clearly could start my own post-colonial African literature course...

What can I say - I didn't have a TV for a number of years... nothing like reading a book when you are in bed with a hangover in Nairobi.

the casualties of war

i woke up this morning to the news that the sri lankan civil war is over. just like that, over.

you don't hear news like this very often. a conflict that simply ends when the leaders of one side are killed. i am not saying that the effects of the decades old civil war are over, but that the hostile combat will end without anyone to lead the rebel tamil tigers.

this is all the more interesting when considering that outside of sri lanka, the most money was raised for the tamil tigers by the diaspora community here in canada before our government banned them as a terrorist group a few years ago, making it illegal for tamil canadians to support them financially. additionally, the tamil communities in ottawa and toronto recently staged protests that shut down main vehicular arteries as a response to the human rights abuses against the tamil people in sri lanka.

and this is where my education comes to my mind. had the canadian government or any other foreign power decided to take action against the sri lankan government due to its alleged (and surely accurate) mistreatment of civilians who were in the line of fire and had to flee their homes, the sri lankan government would not have been free to corner and capture (or kill, as it were) the leaders of the rebel movement, effectively ending the war.

and this is where my favourite professor mark duffield would say that when aid groups interfere in warzones and concern themselves with the conduct of war, they can effectively prolong conflict.

i am all too familiar with the immense challenges of establishing, building, and maintaining peace after an armed conflict, but none of this can be done until two sides of a war stop shooting at each other and that had not happened in so many years in sri lanka so i am hopeful that this will be the beginning of the country's arrival at peace and reconciliation between two ethnic groups and two religions that share the island country.

great article by Fukuyama

if you are interested in politics, foreign aid, and african development, you might find this article interesting. it is written by Francis Fukuyama, an academic that i read during my masters degree, and it compares the philosophies of Wangari Maathai and Dambisa Moyo, two female african leaders in the discussion on foreign aid and its utility and effectiveness.

as you can see below, i just finished Maathai's autobiography and have ordered Moyo's book called Dead Aid from amazon so this was quite a timely piece for me. maybe you might just feel the same.

lots of learning from a nobel laureate

another good book about africa, development, and the fight for better governance and democracy is Wangari Maathai's book Unbowed. she is the woman who won the 2004 nobel peace prize for her work promoting environmental conservation while simultaneously fighting for women's rights, good governance, and human rights, demonstrating that they are not mutually exclusive nor attainable in isolation.

i liked reading the story of where Maathai came from, how she became a professor, and how she found herself in the middle of a civil rights movement. i had always wondered why she had won the nobel peace prize, but after reading about her struggles and what she had to get through just to plant trees with her organisation the Green Belt Movement, i am utterly impressed that she continued to fight corrupt officials, the undemocratic system in kenya, and cultural moors that said she should not be a divorced, single mother working in academia.

as i read about the corruption rampant within ngos and the government of kenya, i totally related to this frustration and as Maathai fought to overcome the barriers to sustainable economic and social development in kenya, i felt vindicated that i had struggled with similar challenges, but saddened that there are not more Maathais who can withstand such pressures and bullying to create lasting organisations and programmes that are homegrown, grassroots, and owned by the people at whom development is always targeted.

i now know why there is a sign at freedom corner in uhuru park and why there are green belt signs in the green spaces between the roads throughout nairobi. i understand what happened to the parcelling out of land after colonialism and after moi finally stepped down from power. the book was published after the post-election violence of 2007-2008, but it does shed a lot of light on the history of the violence that erupted after the most recent irregular election. i now know a lot more about the place i called home for 2 years and i think that even people who've never visited kenya would also enjoy learning a thing or two about Maathai and her life.

neck hairs are up

i read the globe and mail online everyday that i am at work. sometimes, i read the comments section, but rarely do i feel compelled to add to the bickering and arguing that goes on in there. today was one of those rare days that i felt i had to say something. if there is anything that gets my back up, it is people writing off the un or any government as being wholly fantastic or awful.

if you are interested in what i had to say, take a look at the comments on this article.

call me a commie homo-loving son of a gun

milk.

i am sure that enough people have said it, but let me repeat the praise for the brilliant acting of sean penn and the story of harvey milk. i had never realised why gay parades were so flamboyant, why gay groups have marched rather than just rallied, or the thinking behind forcing people out of the closet. more than anything, however, i am truly amazed that just 30 years ago there was public support for removing gay teachers from their teaching positions for, well, being gay.

this movie is just so good. and i think that those who don't identify as commie homo-loving sons of guns should get themselves to the theatre to see this movie just as much as the rest of us.

it makes my heart hurt a little bit when i think that in the last us federal election, proposition 8 was passed, restricting the right of marriage to only heterosexual couples and demonstrating that harvey milk's fight is far from over. and i hope that in 30 year's time, someone makes a film about the 2008 proposition 8 vote and that our grandchildren are appalled by the outcome and that speaking out against the rights of all citizens was acceptable in their grandparents' lives.

soapbox, perhaps

because you cannot turn your head without hearing or reading about the ECONOMIC DOWNTURN, i have a little something (else) to say about it too. i had coffee with my top colombian chum yesterday and he made a really good point, one that i think we often forget. he said, and i have to agree with him, that these types of crises are commonplace in so many other countries, especially in latin america. there have been economic crises, recoveries, absolute meltdowns, among other daily struggles in so many other parts of the world. people living through such things have learned to become industrious, resourceful, and hopeful in light of so-called impending doom.

and people from those countries, including colombia, are now living and working and prospering in canada. it is my prediction that it is these communities that will weather this economic storm better than anyone else and may come out the winners in the us, the uk, and canada. he also used an ever favourite english expression to recommend that canadians should just 'chill out.'

similarly, i am not so sure why canadians are up in arms about obama's economic stimulus package that includes a 'buy american' clause. how on earth can canadians say that these are unlawful protectionist policies that break trade law? we would do the exact same thing, international protocol or not. remember that little problem with the beef years ago? same thing. we rallied around our beef industry and insisted on exclusively buying canadian beef and gave all those who didn't the evil stink eye. and i think that that was an appropriate response, just as americans trying to save their own mortgages is the right response for them. now, it is our dorky pm's job to play the game, be diplomatic, and represent canadian interests. and stay away from vests of any persuasion.

and you knew it was coming, everyone is going to have something to say about the woman who just gave birth to octuplets in california. my first instinct is to think this is a product of a private health care system that would allow someone to pay for fertility treatment even though they already had 6 children and that i cannot understand a mother choosing to put 8 lives in danger rather than reducing the number of fetuses early on. but as one doctor put it, his job is not to police births, but to provide information and education to parents. and we would all be in serious trouble if our doctors were allowed to police our behaviour, yet i think in an environment where we enjoy the benefits of public health care, the burden those babies will put on our health care system may change that thinking. a little Handmaid's Tale-esque, but it does make me think.

luckily for me, i am not raising 14 children so i won't need to think about it for too long and get back to organising my daytimer to fit all my commitments and engagements in while enjoying this great weather with a run tonight!

scowly face vs illfitting vest

i don't know why, but this photo struck me. ignatieff looks mean and menacing and not the person that i want making the fateful decision about our government. but it could be this guy, which is far more frightening:

small step for womenkind

obama signed an executive order today that removes the ban on funding to programs or agencies that support women's right to choose to have an abortion. i hope he also chooses to sign a similar order that would remove the obstacles in obtaining american funding for programs that take a harm reduction approach to commercial sex work because for the last 8 years, organisations that do anything less than remove women from the sex trade were ineligible for funding. proposals written to american donors also had to say 'prostitution' rather than 'commercial sex work' or 'transactional sex.' and it made my job a little tough when i had to go through and find and replace all instances of 'commercial sex work' with 'prostitution' in any work i submitted to them. it also hurt my heart a little bit when i had to do it.

maybe this will also be a sign to countries like kenya that keep abortion illegal, forcing women out to the streets' chopshops when they have unwanted pregnancies, to change their thinking.

may i also mention that in kenya, a wife cannot prosecute their husband for forcing them to have sex as rape cannot legally occur within a marriage under the Sexual Offenses Act of the country...

hopeful dreams

in my dreams last night:

• i had a visit from an ex boyfriend who was on a roadtrip and it seemed as though we were in kenya. or some other semi-tropical locale. we were bustling around trying to find fresh flowers in an old buick. or what i think was a buick.
• i went to a private concert to celebrate obama's inauguration and i danced with him. i wonder how many other people in the world dreamed of uncle barry last night?

on the train this morning:

• a lady fell down the stairs, launching her t ho's in the process, and was more than mortified. i really felt for her, i hope she knows that.
• there was a big black dude sitting across from me in an obama t shirt and he was just happy. i wonder if he suspected that i am also feeling very hopeful today.

listy listy

i am back at work after a nice and relaxing few days off full of reading, movie watching, and general laziness. it did not hurt that the weather was crummy and my head/chest cold has returned so i am trying not to feel guilty about not doing a whole lot of anything while i was away from my cubicle.

and since i am back at work and managed to be rather productive this morning, that means a blog post for the internet just so it knows that i am still promising that i have not disappeared.

as always, here is a list of things that have been on my mind:

• how, in 2008, is is ok for israel to fire rockets into groups of civilians in the gaza strip? i admittedly do not know the intricities of the conflict between israel and hamas and i do recognise that hamas is a terrorist organisation that has been elected into some legitimate form of government, but it just seems like a pretty obscene use of force for the israelis to have killed 350 people and for hamas to have killed 4. what is more frightening is the response that the 'extremists' in the arab world will have.
• i got a super fantastic new camera for christmas. it is so fantastic that as it is not sitting in front of me at the moment, i cannot tell you the details of its fantasticness, just that i am very excited to learn how to use it and take some snappity snaps.
• i am a movie going machine lately and have seen Seven Pounds, which is a good piece of entertainment (although it disturbed my sister). will smith's constant scowl/grimace kind of got a bit distracting (i think it is the same one he wore through the Pursuit of Happyness). i have also seen The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which was awesome. that Cate Blanchett is sure something.
• i also had my annual viewing of Love Actually. then i immediately wanted to uproot and move to london.
• i keep daydreaming about beach vacations, i think it might have something to do with this cold snap. not sure if you can call it a 'snap' if it lasts weeks though.
• i went to the mall yesterday and managed to earn money, which was nice. it was more of returns and price adjustments, which is not exactly earning money, but it still felt good. economic downturn, be damned!
• i have no plans for new year's eve. and the thought of moving around the city that night is enough to make me want to stay at home with the huge book i am in the middle of. then again, someone may convince me to go out and ring in the new year, if only to say good riddance to these last months of 2008.

this might just get interesting, after all

canadian politics promise to become a little more interesting this week, with a potential coalition in the works between the liberals and ndp with a little help from our friends, the bloc quebecois.

i have been following this story and the facebook status updates of friends saying that this is undemocratic and i am not sure that i agree. if, together, more people voted for the liberals and the ndp than the conservative, then wouldn't a combination of them represent more of the electorate than a minority conservative government?

it sounds a bit simplistic and theoretical when i put it like that, but that is my initial thought.

perhaps i would be more miffed if i had voted conservative and supported them, but maybe this is a way to get around the ineffective minority situation that brought us to an election in the first place. at least, if two parties have a formal agreement to get along for a year then maybe parliament can actually get something done. and the netherlands has some sort of magic minority system where the leading party never has a house majority (it is explained in the book Infidel, actually) and they must always make coalitions to form government.

now, if dion has said he is stepping down and the other yahoos are all gearing up for a liberal party leader fight, then i am just not sure that this is going to work at all. but so far, i am liking it.

and thanks to k for the reminder that today is world aids day. last year on this day i was in a small coastal town in kenya, where they had banners up and a little street parade to commemorate the day. i also remember i was lathered in sunscreen and working on my equatorial tan, drinking diet cokes to stave off the 40 degree heat. i could go for a little of that right about now.