Thursday, April 29, 2010

「兩週一聚」第三十七期: 「大愚若智, 我做過最傻的事」/ 2weeks1gather #37: 「The Fool and His 'Wise' Acts」

我一世人大愚若智,做出的傻事有大丶中丶小三鑊,和年紀成正比例。

1. 小鑊: 孩子時在火車站多手,叮叮噹噹地搖那開車的訊號鐘,好不快活自豪。幸好火車司机沒有發動引擎,否則後果不堪切想。不過,照顧我的嫲嫲卻被黑口黑面的站長指罵了一大頓。

2. 中鑊: 在中學時替鄰居死黨,監工設計雕刻校長图章,印刷教師報告,摹做名列前矛成績表乙份,滿以為可以瞞過他父親。不過,紙不能包火,東窗事發後,兩位少年都吃了一頓鳮毛掃炆豬肉。

3. 大鑊:
在楓葉國畢業後進入社会大學,入世未深,当波士和老總火併時,左右做人難,不知如何是好,又感情用事,做事欠缺理智。結果,城門失火,殃及池魚,幾乎無辜做了炮灰。

可幸大愚有大志,儍事做盡,智由心生,從苦頭舔出如下感受教訓:

1. 小鑊: 孩提時代的天真丶無過兩號列車,叮噹一声在火車站開走了。不過,成熟和責任列車卻是姗姗來遲。

2. 中鑊: 在法律眼中,無知丶有意是和少年丶成人的定義有直接關係。

3. 大鑊: 精人出口,笨人出手,黨派之爭,引火自焚。在社会做事最重要的是宗旨,做人也要有宗旨,不可胡信他人的指南指北針。

結語: 如果智慧是人生目標,我大愚若智所做出的儍事就是旅途中的里程碑。

Reference:
* Please click here to read my full blog-story "名列前矛 / The High Flyer" http://lotusandcedar.blogspot.com/2008/12/high-flyer.html
* For non-Cantonese readers: "大鑊" is a slang that means big disasters (refers to man-made, not natural disaters). For more Cantonese slangs, please see "笑談廣東話 / 曾教授的廣東話俗語"
Wikipedia http://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-hk/%E7%AC%91%E8%AB%87%E5%BB%A3%E6%9D%B1%E8%A9%B1

Other 2weeeks1gather articles:
10年04月30日第三十七期 – 「大愚若智:我做過最傻的事」

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

旅遊南非洲 (四): 1994年4月27日自由日 / Travel to South Africa (4): Freedom Day April 27, 1994

攝影圖片Photo #1: Under Apartheid laws 種族隔離制度統治, blacks and coloured peoples were prohibited in areas designated for whites only.


攝影圖片Photo #2: During the Apartheid era, violent confrontations were common in South Africa, especially in black townships, as shown in this painting.

攝影圖片Photo #3: This is an artist's interpretation of the military/police of the Apartheid government.

攝影圖片Photo #4: Click the photo below to read the definitions of "Whites", "Honour Whites", "Blacks" and "Coloured People" under the Apartheid laws.

攝影圖片Photo #5: An artist's painting of a native.

攝影圖片Photo #6: Nobel Square in the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront features statues of South Africa's four Nobel Peace Prize winners - Albert Luthuli, Desmond Tutu, F.W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela.

旅遊南非洲 (四): 自由日 / Travel to South Africa (4): Freedom Day

To commemorate South Africa's Freedom Day on April 27th, I have posted the above six photos, some of which I took when I was travelling in Cape Town.

According to Wikipedia:

"... Freedom Day is a South African public holiday celebrated on April 27. It celebrates freedom and commemorates the first post-apartheid elections held on that day in 1994. The elections were the first non-racial national elections where everyone of voting age of over 18 from any race group including non-citizens were allowed to vote, no voters roll was used. Previously, under the apartheid regime, non-whites had only limited rights to vote.

自由日是南非共和國的一個公共假日,定在每年的4月27日。自由日是為了慶祝南非1994年廢除種族隔離制度之後,人民獲得政治自由和進行了南非歷史上第一次不分種族的全民大選而設立的節日。這次大選,凡是南非年滿18歲的國民,不分種族,都具有投票權。而在此之前,在種族隔離制度統治下,南非非白種人在大選中投票只有有限的權利。..."

While it is easy to celebrate the victory of freedom over apartheid, one should not have the illusion that everything is hunky-dory in South Africa. Based on recent newspaper reports (especially those published after the murder of Eugene Terreblanche, a key figure of the far-right AWB) and my conversations with some of the locals during the trip, there are serious concerns and a deep sense of uncertainty abt the social, economic, and political future of the country.

Some Afrikaners fear that once Mr. Nelson Mandela 納爾遜•曼德拉passes away, South Africa will go the way of Zimbabwe and whites will be forced off the lands and even killed by the likes of Julius Malema (the ANC youth leader who sang an anti-apartheid song that advocated "kill the Boer" at a rally; "boer" is a farmer in Afrikaans布林語 - 南非通用的荷蘭語). Meanwhile, many blacks who are still living in shanty towns and neighbourhoods run by tsotsi (thugs) are complaining bitterly that their lives remain poor in the post-apartheid era.

South Africa is a beautiful country and it will be a shame if it goes down the drain like so many other failed states on the continent. Let's hope the peoples of South Africa will continue to work with each other across the spectrum of the rainbow for the better future of their country.

Photo Credit:
* First and last photo: Wikipedia
* Second, third, fourth and fifth photos: Lotusandcedar

Friday, April 23, 2010

行俠仗義 / Re-reading a Refreshing Story

Sometimes, it is fun re-reading old blog articles. I had completely forgotten Xiao Zhu's funny story "今日做左八婆,好嘢!" until I re-read it via Space's Apr 26, 2010 blog article "Curiosity Killed the CAT!". I have a good laugh again. Among the 109 comments posted at Xiao Zhu's place, this was my response at the time ....

一馬当先,江湖兒女現本色
二郎擔山,酒林莽漢敗勢斜
三環吐月,軟硬兼施連又連
四平大馬,黑白分明人上人


Please click here to read the original story "今日做左八婆,好嘢!" posted by Xiao Zhu on Sunday, July 15, 2007 -->
http://xiaozhu1979.blogspot.com/2007/07/blog-post_15.html

Thursday, April 22, 2010

塵永綠 / Ash of the Evergreen Stock

在新鮮人処貼上了這打油詩:

塵永綠

維園阿伯住木屋
財經旺巿問陸叔
陸叔只知凡間事
貪字変貧眼碌碌

*******************************************

And, here is the song to go with the poem - to the tune of "Evergreen Tree" sung by Cliff Richard

塵永綠 / Ash of the Evergreen Stock

Oh darling, will our stock grow like an evergreen tree?
Stay ever green and young, as the index go.
Your money could make stock grow like an evergreen tree
Bloom in the bullish sun, and bearish snow

On ev'ry branch will blossom, dreams for me and you
Our tree of stock will stay evergreen, if our faith stays ever true

Oh darling, I love my stock don't you know that I'll be
true, till I turn black and blue
On the evergreen tree
On the evergreen tree
On the evergreen tree


This song is dedicated to 陳永陸, a HK celeb and King's College grad :)

Reference:
* Fresh Designer 願! 2010年4月22日

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

父權丶女權丶人權丶公民權 / Father's Rights, Daughter-Woman's Rights, Human Rights, & Citizen's Rights


(以下不是官方檔案翻譯,請參閱後列的詳細新聞資料來源)

加拿大國家电臺 CBC / Current Review 節目在四月八日報導一段有關父權丶女權丶人權丶和公民權的事件。一個24歲持印度和加拿大双重國籍 (註一) 的少女墮入愛河,但遭家庭反对,住在沙地阿拉伯的父親遊說女兒倍伴他往「朝聖」,但在女兒到埗後立刻收藏了她的護照丶入境簽証和其它文件。少女往沙國加拿大領事館求助,但官員告訴她在沙地阿拉伯,結了婚的女人是丈夫擁有物,而未婚女子全屬父權管轄之下,再者她父親是用印度護照申請兩人入境,加拿大外交部愛莫難助。該少女在电話採訪中說被父親用父權「軟禁」在沒有女權的沙地阿拉伯已近兩年半,而且曾「恐嚇」她 honour killing 的可能性。加拿大外交部 Parliamentary Secretary 在 Calgary 对採訪記者說,父女不和事件,其中涉及別國法律和風俗,加國很難干預,只能「慫慂」沙國官員幫忙,希望那父親允許女兒出境回加云云。

大家都知道世界上不平等丶不公平的事情實在是不計其數,在很多以男系為主的社会,女性被封建陋俗蹂躪至死亦是日有所聞。沒有錯,不平則鳴,如果我們見死不救,持著『各家自掃門前雪,莫管他人瓦上霜』的態度去做人,在道德和公理方面都說不過去,人禍烈火亦会擴散漫燃。但在决斷插手執行這個拔刀相助的義務之前,做第三者的仍需要衡量利害,考慮有沒有過份侵犯了別個家庭或國家的父權丶女權丶人權丶或公民權。

支持父权的人会說,這是家庭私事,父親有权反对女兒与「不良」少年談婚論嫁。支持女权的人会反駁,24歲女人是成人,她有自主权,不是父親或任何男人擁有物。支持人权的会指出,男女是应該平等,少女是因沙國不平等法侓而被軟禁,她的人权是被侵犯了。而在加拿大支持憲法的人則說,持加籍護照的少女是擁有公民权,加拿大有義務幫助,要求政府官員透過外交關係,保謢她返回加國。

少女在沙地阿拉伯被「軟禁」已有兩年半,該地官員說未得她父親允許,沙國仍要依法例拒絕簽發出境証。在第三者或旁覌者眼中來看,究竟在父權丶女權丶人權丶和公民權之中,那一個是至尊或比較上重要呢?

(註一): 印度大使館官員告訴CBC訪問記者,持有加拿大公民護照的人,其原有的印度護照是自動作廢。

Photo Credit: CBC / Picture of Canadian Citizen Nazia Quazi

References:

* CBC Radio / "The Current" April 8, 2010 broadcast: "Canadian Stuck in Saudi Arabia - Nazia Quazi" On-line broadcast --> http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/2010/04/april-08-2010.html

Part 1: Nazia Quazi is a dual Indian and Canadian citizen. But for the last two years, she has been stuck in Saudi Arabia. She says her father is holding her in the country against her will. And now she's worried she won't ever be able to leave. She says it all began when she fell in love with the wrong man. Nazia Quazi was in Riyadh. The CBC did get in touch with Nazia Quazi's father. He refused to speak with us on air and said that this is a purely personal problem. (... please listen to broadcast on-line)

Part 2: We started this segment with a clip of Nazia Quazi. She's a 24-year-old woman with dual Indian and Canadian citizenship. And in our first half-hour, she told us how she has been trapped in Saudi Arabia for the last two years. Under Saudi law, a woman needs her male guardian's permission to leave the country. In Nazia Quazi's case, her male guardian is her father. And he won't give his permission. Nazia Quazi alleges her father has abused her. She has approached the Canadian government for help. To find out what role Ottawa is playing in her case, we reached Deepak Obhrai. He's the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs responsible for consular services. He was in Calgary . (... on-line broadcast)

For some perspective on Nazia Quazi's case, we were joined by Gar Pardy. A long-time diplomat, he worked for the Canadian Foreign Service for nearly four decades. He led the Canadian Consular Service for 11 years. And he was closely involved in the case of William Sampson, the Canadian who was facing execution in Saudi Arabia until he was released seven years ago. Gar Pardy retired from the foreign service in 2003. He was in our Ottawa studio. (... on-line broadcast)

Leaving the country is hardly the only thing that women in Saudi Arabia cannot do without a man's permission. Among other things, women can't drive or vote or get married. And when Wajeha Al-Huwaider tried to change that by taking to the streets with a sign saying "Give Women Their Rights" ... she was arrested. That hasn't stopped her from speaking out. She's the co-founder of the Society for Defending Women's Rights in Saudi Arabia. She was in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. (... on-line broadcast)

We also requested an interview with the Saudi Ambassador to Canada. He was unavailable this morning. (... end of broadcast)

* CBC News Apr 20, 2010 "Ottawa vet to return Saudi medal in protest" (http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2010/04/20/ottawa-saudi-medal-quazi-brousseau.html)

A Gulf War naval veteran was unsuccessful at returning a medal to the Saudi Arabian embassy to protest the treatment of an Ottawa woman. Mark Brousseau showed up at the embassy in Ottawa on Tuesday, but he couldn't get anyone to come to the locked gate to receive his Liberation of Kuwait medal. The award had been given to him by the Saudi government after the Gulf War in 1991. He said he now plans to mail the medal to the embassy. Brousseau was trying to protest Saudi Arabia's failure to allow Nazia Quazi, a 24-year-old Canadian citizen, to leave the country. She has been stranded in Saudi Arabia for the past three years after her father allegedly took away her travel documents to prevent her from returning to Canada. Saudi law prohibits an unmarried woman from leaving the country unless she obtains her male guardian's consent. Nazia Quazi, 24, has been stranded in Saudi Arabia since 2007.

"I was here to try and make a difference in one girl's life," Brousseau said. "I'm not trying to change Saudi Arabia's policy. I'm basically just trying to make them aware that there's other people in the world that don't condone it .… This woman is a Canadian citizen. Let's show her the respect she deserves." Brousseau said she heard Quazi describe her plight on the radio. "It really tugged at my heart strings," he said. He hopes his gesture will motivate others to let the Canadian and Saudi Arabian governments that the situation is "unsatisfactory."

Quazi entered Saudi Arabia in 2007 on a visitor's visa to see her family. She claims her father, an Indian national working in Saudi Arabia, sponsored her for a permanent visa without her knowledge, and took away her Canadian and Indian passports. She alleges that he has refused to let her leave because her family didn't approve of her boyfriend.


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Updated

May 10, 2010 National Post http://www.nationalpost.com/story.html?id=3010760:
"After three years trapped in Saudi Arabia, Nazia Quazi can finally return to Canada ...."

May 10, 2010 CBC News "Free of father's control" http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/News/ID=1490294685: "Bjorn Singhal, boyfriend of an Ottawa woman who was held in Saudi Arabia for 3 years under the country's male guardianship system, talks with CBC's Carole MacNeil ...."

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

評論立體電影《超世紀封神榜》 / The 3D movie: "Clash of the Titans" ... not worth the cash


I saw the movie "Clash of the Titans 3D" at the Coliseum cinema this Tuesday.

Well, I must say the storyline was not that original (shadows of Lord of the Rings) and the 3D did not enhance the movie (unlike Alice in Wonderland 3D). It was disenchanting to see GI Joe flying on Black Beauty with pigeon wings and fighting a worm from Dunes in an effort to save a woman who had been offered up by the tribe as sacrifice to the big beast. And the serpent-like Medusa was no match for Angelina (heart throbbing) in Beowulf.

Good that I went on a Tuesday when admission was only half-price.

Photo Credit/references:

Chinese: 《超世紀封神榜》電影海報 Wikipedia

《超世紀封神榜》是部2010年奇幻冒險電影,由路易斯•賴托瑞(Louis Leterrier)執導。電影重拍1981年戴斯蒙•戴維斯(Desmond Davis)執導的《諸神恩仇錄》,改編希臘神話英雄柏修斯大戰梅杜莎和挪威海怪救出安朵美達公主的故事。演員山姆•沃辛頓飾演主角英雄柏修斯,連恩•尼遜飾演宙斯,其他演員有雷夫范恩斯、艾莉莎•黛娃洛絲等人演出。電影原定2010年3月26日,因臨時轉製為3D電影而延後到4月2日全球同步上映,而香港則搶先於4月1日上映。

情節: 權力鬥爭促使人民與統治者,及統治者與神之間的對立;但眾神之間的戰爭卻會摧毀整個世界。在人間成長的柏修斯(山姆•沃辛頓飾)要從復仇心重的冥王黑帝斯(雷夫•范恩斯飾)手中拯救自己的家人。柏修斯憑著無懼勇氣,自薦向冥王宣戰以換取天帝宙斯(連恩•尼遜飾)的神力並解放人間地獄。柏修斯於是帶領著士兵朝著詭異的世界展開冒險之旅。他要戰勝惡魔和怪獸,唯一的方法是接受自己身為神衹的身份,並創造屬於自己的命運。


English: Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clash_of_the_Titans_(2010_film)

Plot: The film begins with a narration that explains the three Olympians who battled the Titans long ago: Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. Hades provides their means of defeating the Titans with his creation, the Kraken. After the Titans' defeat, Zeus created humans and ruled them while Poseidon ruled the sea, but Hades, having been deceived by his brother Zeus was forced to rule the Underworld, learns an alternative means of gaining power from humans different from his brothers receiving theirs from human devotion: fear!

Millennia later, a fisherman named Spyros finds a coffin adrift in the sea, discovering a baby, Perseus, and his dead mother, Danaë, inside. Spyros decides to raise Perseus as his own. Years later, Perseus and his family are fishing when they witness a group of soldiers from Argos destroying a statue of Zeus as a declaration of war against the gods. Hades appears and commands harpies to massacre the soldiers before he himself destroys Perseus's family's fishing boat. Perseus tries to save his family, but to no avail, the surviving soldiers take Perseus back to Argos. During a feast for the returning soldiers King Cepheus and Queen Cassiopeia of Argos compare themselves and their daughter, Andromeda, to the gods much their daughter's dismay. After convincing his brother to let him loose on humanity to punish Argos for its defiance, Hades appears in the courtroom before killing the remaining soldiers while Perseus is unaffected. Revealing Perseus to be the demigod son of Zeus, and aging Cassiopeia to death, Hades threatens that if Princess Andromeda is not sacrificed to the Kraken, Argos will be destroyed in 10 days.

The king seeks the help of Perseus after he is placed in the dungeon. Perseus initially refuses until he meets Io, a woman who does not age as punishment for refusing to be seduced by a god. Io then reveals his conception was a punishment conducted by Zeus on Acrisius, the former king of Argos who was married to Danaë, for his actions against the gods. When Acrisius sets Danaë and the baby Perseus adrift in their coffin; an enraged Zeus struck Acrisius with lightning, leaving him hideously disfigured. After learning that killing the Kraken would allow him to have his revenge against Hades, Perseus accepts as he and Argos' finest soldiers embark on a quest to find the Stygian Witches with a pair of hunters and Io following. To counter this turn of events, Hades enlists Acrisius, now called Calibos, to kill off Perseus by giving him a bit of his power.
While in the woods, Perseus and his men discover a sword forged in Olympus that will only display power if it is wielded by Perseus. Perseus refuses both it and
Pegasus that the gods are offering as assistance, as he does not wish to be a god. Calibos attacks the group, but Calibos is unsuccessful, losing his hand before escaping. However, Calibos's blood forms giant scorpions from the sand that attack Perseus and his group. Though they slay several scorpions, most of the group are slain, and the survivors are surrounded by more of the monsters. They are saved by the Djinn, cursed men with magical powers, who tame the scorpions. Though not trusted prior to healing Perseus's wound, a Djinn joins Perseus's group as his kind wish to see the gods defeated.

At the Garden of Stygia, the Stygian Witches tell Perseus that the head of Medusa could kill the Kraken, but that Perseus and his group will die in the process. After leaving the witches, with the hunters taking their leave, Perseus is visited by Zeus who offers him asylum on Mount Olympus. He refuses. Zeus gives him instead a golden drachma, which Perseus later learns is a means to bribe Charon for passage into the Underworld. While Io remains outside Medusa's lair, due to a spell that forbids any woman from entering the area, Perseus's remaining soldiers fight hard to stay alive, turning to stone one by one by her gaze. But with the Djinn self-destructing himself and Draco's sacrifice, Perseus manages to behead Medusa. Perseus emerges in time to see Calibos kill Io by stabbing her from behind. Perseus engages Calibos in combat and kills him using the sword from Olympus, turning him back into Acrisius in human form. With his final breath, Acrisius tells Perseus to never become a god. Perseus rides Pegasus back to Argos with Medusa's head to find some citizens of Argos have formed a cult of Hades and are planning to sacrifice Andromeda to the Kraken. Hades reveals to Zeus the destruction of Argos will give him enough power to overthrow the other Olympians. As the Kraken begins its advance, Zeus learns of Hades's true agenda and is powerless to stop him as the god leaves for Argos to ensure his victory.

Perseus returns to Argos, but Hades sends his harpies to stop him before Perseus defeats the creatures sent by Hades and uses the head of Medusa to turn the Kraken into stone as Cepheus is killed by the cult leader before being crushed under the shattering Kraken. Using the sword, Perseus drives Hades back to the Underworld. After saving Argos from destruction, Andromeda suggests that Perseus become king and rule Argos at her side, but he declines. Zeus appears before Perseus again and offers to make him a god, but for a second time he refuses. Zeus warns Perseus that Hades will return to rule the world in darkness when he amasses enough fear from mankind. Since Perseus is intent to stay on Earth, Zeus resurrects Io, and the two embrace while Pegasus flies above them.

Monday, April 19, 2010

電腦工作坊: 課程教材 / Computer Workshops: Course materials


I have been "teaching" my Mom's friends how to use the Internet. One of the challenges for me is to explain in Chinese all the technical stuff in layman's terms. Some of the participants, just like my Mom, have never touched a mouse or keyboard before and only one person owns a computer (actually a fairly nice laptop).

During the first two workshops, when I was explaining what a computer and the Internet were, I was greeted with some glassy looks. At the third workshop, I decided the "students" should have some hands-on experience. The lady owning the laptop was doing well. But abt 1/2 of the participants had difficulties completing the exercise, partly because the computers were too slow, and partly because they had a hard time grasping the concept (which of course is my responsibility to explain). I think I might have to split the group in two next week and focus more on the basics for the less advanced participants.

Given that I have no formal IT training and am younger than my "students", I secretly get a kick out of being called 老師. Some 老師 I am, ha ha !!

Photo Credit: "Chinese abacus" Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abacus

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Here is the one-pager I gave out last week:

1. 請用「谷歌」搜索加航網址,有關購買渥太華/香港來回机票的班机日期丶時間丶價錢等詳細消息。
(谷歌Google; 搜索search; 加航Air Canada; 網址website; 購買机票Ticket purchase; 渥太華/香港來回Ottawa/Hong Kong return; 班机flight; 日期丶時間丶價錢date, time, price; 詳細消息detailed information)

2. 請上互聯網,用維基百科搜索有關以下城市的資料: 加拿大渥太華丶古巴夏灣拿丶中國香港特區丶美國紐約市。
(互聯網Internet; 維基百科Wikipedia; 城市city; 資料information, data; 加拿大渥太華Canada Ottawa; 古巴夏灣拿Cuba Havana; 中國香港特區China Hong Kong SAR; 美國紐約市USA New York City)

3. 我想用谷歌地图搜索以下地點丶路線: 由日健往珠城酒楼丶大統華、羅馬鬥獸場丶巴黎鉄塔。
(谷歌地图Google Map; 地點place; 路線route; 日健Yet Keen; 珠城酒楼Chu Shing Restaurant丶大統華TNT、羅馬鬥獸場Rome Colosseum / coliseum; 巴黎鉄塔Paris Eiffel Tower)

4. 請上網在「您喉」視頻搜索一些周旋丶吳鶯鶯丶葛蘭等歌星唱的金曲。
(上網go onto the Net; 「您喉」視頻「YouTube」video; 周旋丶吳鶯鶯丶葛蘭; 歌星singers; 金曲golden oldies)

5. 請上網找日健丶和自己的电話号碼丶地址。
(电話号碼telephone number; 地址address)

6. 請上網找博友 lotusandcedar 的主要網頁,看旅遊摩洛哥的相片。
(博友blogger; 主要網頁home page); 旅遊摩洛哥travel to Morocco; 相片photo)

Sunday, April 18, 2010

家庭內部的暴力行為 / Domestic Violence


I made the following comments in response to Jenni's 20100407 article 活下去的勇氣 posted at C9樂園

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Haricot 四月 18, 2010 at 12:19 上午 Reply

Here are some sources of info for your references:

Symptomology
ICD9 code 995.81 shows the syndrome as including "battered person/man/spouse syndrome NEC" and any person presenting with identified physical descriptors rather than psychological descriptors falls under the general heading of "Adult physical abuse", classified under "Injury and Poisoning". In lay terms, this is a reference to any person who, because of constant and severe domestic violence usually involving physical abuse by a partner, becomes depressed and unable to take any independent action that would allow him or her to escape the abuse. The condition explains why abused people often do not seek assistance from others, fight their abuser, or leave the abusive situation. Sufferers have low self-esteem, and often believe that the abuse is their fault. Such persons usually refuse to press criminal charges against their abuser, and refuse all offers of help, often becoming aggressive or abusive to others who attempt to offer assistance. Often sufferers will even seek out their very abuser for comfort shortly after an incident of abuse.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battered_person_syndrome

Learned helplessness
a condition of a human being or an animal in which it has learned to behave helplessly, even when the opportunity is restored for it to help itself by avoiding an unpleasant or harmful circumstance to which it has been subjected. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_helplessness

Fear, Obligation & Guilt
The acronym FOG stands for Fear, Obligation & Guilt - feelings which often result from being in a relationship with a person who suffers from a Personality Disorder. It is our hope that the information on this site may help some navigate out of the FOG in their own lives.
http://www.outofthefog.net/index.html
http://www.outofthefog.net/CommonBehaviors/AbusiveCycle.html
http://www.outofthefog.net/CommonNonBehaviors.html

Friday, April 16, 2010

懷念2003年5月第一個馬拉松賽跑 / Memory of My First Marathon in May 2003

Upon learning that the half-marathon and 10k events had already been sold out two months before the Ottawa race week-end in May, I made the painful decision of committing myself to the full-marathon, despite my unsettling wounded-knee.

I register for the local race partly because the spring marathon in Ottawa has always occupied a special place in my heart. Back in the summer/fall/winter seasons of 2001 and 2002, I was training hard for my first Marathon. Unfortunately, unbeknown to everyone, the cancer in my father had relapsed and spread. In the weeks leading up to Marathon 2002, my life was in turmoil and the whole family was preoccupied with the rollercoaster rides of good and bad news. On April 1oth of 2002, the family finally concurred with the doctor to take life-support off my father. He was gone within an hour.

For the next 10 months or so, I was too busy to grieve. Then in the winter of 2003, I was running on top of Mount Royale in Montreal when all of a sudden the death of my father hit me and I burst out into tears. I was both caught by surprise and felt embrassed by the concerned looks from passers-by. Three months later, I ran my first marathon in Ottawa. Altho I have now done more than a dozen of these races, the memory of the first one in May of 2003 has always been bitter-sweet, because I was running that event for my father.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

「兩週一聚」第三十五期: 「認命」与「硬命」 / 2weeks1gather #35: C'est la Vie

我住在加拿大首都渥太華,過了河就是魁北克省,所以無論日常在工作丶交際丶或其它場合,都接觸頗多操流利法語的人仕,而法裔中能說得一口好英文的亦大不乏人。我和這些双語公民交流日多,發覺他/她們說這句 C'est la vie!!的時候,並不是平舖直敘地数列日常工作生活,而是用不同語氣表達兩種不同的感受,如以下兩個例子:

例一: 認命(Sigh! That's life !!)
老公: B仔阿媽,上星期我買D六合彩有無中呀?
老婆: 哽係無喇,如果中咗你就就唔会見我係嚟度同你一齊捱騾仔喇!!
老公: 咁下次我就去買多几佰張,中嘅机会咪大D啦!!中咗我就唔駛再睇人眉頭眼額,請個菲傭服侍妳,又送阿B仔入私校讀書 ......。
老婆: 阿老公,如果你係夠運,買一張都会中頭獎。但如果係倒霉丶運氣滯,買一佰張都係假,無得中。買咗彩票咁多年你都唔係唔知啩?!!
老公: 係咁講,都係命水整定我地一世窮!!
老婆: (暗自說) 嫁咗俾你就真係命水整定。唉! C'est la vie !!! :(


例二: 硬命(Tough! that's life !!)
阿媽: 做乜嘢D餸菜攤到凍哂都唔食?
阿B: 唔鍾意食。
阿媽: B仔,唔好咁揀飲擇食呀,乖乖地,食几啖啦!
阿B: 啐!我唔肚餓!!
阿媽: 嗱,你唔食我就執枱嘅喇!
(三十分鐘後)
阿B: 我肚餓呀,可唔可以叫外賣 pizza 呀?
阿媽: 你扭計有晚飯唔食,唔得!
何B: 我真係好肚餓呀!!妳都唔会咁忍心餓死我嘛?!!
阿媽: Too bad ! C'est la vie !!!


第一個例子是表達無夸,結論是認命。

第二個例子是負面語,或反語,結論是 Too bad, so sad!! Life is tough, put up or shut up !!! 成年人粗俗一句講 :Tough tit !! 硬乳頭!!

Monday, April 12, 2010

滑雪意外 / Ski Accident

It has been almost three week since I twisted my left knee quite badly on the second last day of my cross-country ski trip on top of the Chic-Choc Mountains. Like all my previous close-calls (such as falling 35 feet down a rock cliff, flipping over my uncle's car on the icy highway btwn Jasper and Banff), the accident happened in slow-motion.

I clearly remember the cold air and the beautiful snow when the tip of my left-ski decided to spear side way into the snow-bank. My knee followed the ski and both came to a sudden stop. Meanwhile, the rest of my body, unaware of the unscheduled rendezvous, was still hurling itself downhill in the opposite direction. My poor knee took the blunt of the twisting forces and the ligaments inside stretched to its limits. I knew I was in trouble when my leg was just dangling weakly below the kneecap after I got up. The next day, I wrapped my swollen knee with a pair of long-john, swallowed a painkiller, and spent the next 3 hours 15 min skiing 18 kilometres out of the mountain back to the parking lot.

So far, I have been able to get around with a bit of a limp, altho it was hard to do kick-boxing and Zumba-dancing with just one good leg. But I am determined to get myself back into shape. You see, there is a running marathon coming up end of May. Did I not tell you I stare at goats and believe in mind-over-body?

Related blog article:
旅遊魁北克省加斯佩半島思索山Travel to Chic Choc Mountains Gaspé Peninsula Québec http://lotusandcedar.blogspot.com/2010/03/travel-to-chic-choc-mountains-gaspe.html

Thursday, April 08, 2010

金絲貓,豹虎 / Thiania Subopressa, Jumping Spiders

In a recent exchange with Fresh Designer, I told him unabashedly that I liked 金絲貓 in my teen years. So, here it is, my "confession":

金絲貓的英文名是 Thiania Subopressa,是很多血氣方剛年青人心中的寵玩物,他們会不惜重金收購,或翻山超嶺去找尋夢寐難求的雌性「老篤」,找到之後就用有棘硬葉摺成一個姆指大的籠作金屋藏「嬌」用,而這個「嬌」其實是femme fatale, 類似黑寡婦型的蜘蛛女殺手。

我住在廉租屋村的時候,週末常和一班亍坊小童上賽西湖找金絲貓,週日學校午膳時間就攀爬般含道旁的引水道上香港大學區的山林樹叢,沿途留意蛛絲「貓」跡,看看有沒有絲纏的双葉。

鬥金絲貓不屬鬥鳮丶鬥狗之類的違法活動,是小孩子的玩意,不過,這種聚集是不是殘忍丶是不是人類好勇鬥狠因子遺傳的表現,哪就是見仁見智了。


YouTube video: "紅的 v.s. 赤蠍"



Reference: Wikipedia "豹虎/金絲貓" http://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-hk/%E8%B1%B9%E8%99%8E

"... 金絲貓(Thiania subopressa)正確名稱為豹虎 ...在1907年發現並命名 ...牠們不懂結網而擅跳躍,生長於山澗邊的樹葉中,會以螞蟻,細少的生物為主要食糧 ...覓食時可離開巢外很遠的地方,從不迷路。會以光身葉,葉底與葉面相互粘在一起作巢,柚葉、荔枝葉、黃皮葉都是其至愛。但有毛的植物是不可能覓得牠們的。

... 當雌性金絲貓產卵後,約兩星期就會破繭而出,各走各路,各自獨立生活,同性從不同居。金絲貓是可雄可雌的昆蟲,未到最後一次脫殼,很難評定是撲(雌)還是篤(雄)。

... 金絲貓與其他蜘蛛一樣,離群獨居,各自捕獵。每當兩隻金絲貓相遇,其尾部均會向一方擺動,俗稱「砵」,擺出戰爭架或,篤更為張開雙螫,步步逼近與對方角力,招式為衝撞、飛撲、兩螫角力、重噬對手、鎖緊對方肢體,俗稱「渣」。..."


Fresh Designer's article: "又是四月一日" http://freshdesigner.blogspot.com/2010/04/blog-post.html

Sunday, April 04, 2010

Miss Emily Brown: The Diary of Amy Briggs

I was in the crowd at the Black Sheep Inn Pub, Wakefield, Quebec on Apr 2, 2010 listening to Miss Emily Brown's musical performance, including this beautiful song called "The Diary of Amy Briggs". According to "A Story Told Well (ASTW)" that produced the video clip below:

" ... In September 2009, we spent a day with Miss Emily Brown in Vancouver, BC as she cooled her heels between tours and recorded material for her upcoming release "In Technicolour". A freshly-landed Hannah Epperson backs her up on violin, having just returned from a half year overseas in Berlin, Germany. This song was recorded in a pathway near Main and 25th with the sun hanging low in the west..."

Enjoy !!!


Please note Miss Emily Brown is currently on a cross-country tour from Newfoundland to BC. Her music can be purchased on-line at:
- itunes http://itunes.apple.com/ca/artist/miss-emily-brown/id287220319
- payplay.fm http://payplay.fm/missemilybrown
- cdbaby.com http://cdbaby.com/cd/missemilybrown

More information about the songs she has written and sung can be found at:

http://web.mac.com/emilyemillard/emily_brown_music/home.html
or http://emilybrownmusic.com/

Reference:


"About Miss Emily Brown" by Leah Bailly, http://web.mac.com/emilyemillard/emily_brown_music/about.html

"...Emily Millard was born in Iroquois, Ontario, a hometown she describes as “an airstrip, a beach, one diner and my parents’ house. That's how it feels.” In the 1950s, the original town was replaced by a Garden City town, designed and relocated by Ontario Hydro to make way for Toronto-bound ships. “As a kid I would look down off the docks at the old roads submerged under water,” she explains. “It is a very nostalgic community. We have to confront the past and the present all of the time. ”

At nineteen, Emily moved to Vancouver Island, where she studied poetry and recorded her first “clunky folk songs” in a friend’s art studio. In 2004, Emily relocated to Nelson BC, where the Kootenays’ hush and the Selkirk School of Music taught her jazz. She sang in a nightclub. And as she composed, she dug in auntie’s closets for autoharps and toy guitars. “An autoharp is not the sort of thing you can buy,” says Emily. “That would be too weird. You have to just find them.”

With the success of her first album, Miss Emily Brown toured to dozens of festivals and venues across Canada and the US in 2008-2009. In the winter of 2009, Emily was the recipient of a Canada Council for the Arts grant for composition, which she used to research and write her second album, In Technicolor. The project began with her grandmother’s wartime journal, but developed into a complex compendium of songs dealing with themes of femininity and independence under extreme duress ..."

Saturday, April 03, 2010

加拿大楓樹糖漿: 富爾頓楓樹農場 / Canadian Maple Syrup - Fulton's Sugar Bush

It's Maple Syrup Time. Hi Girls !!

Last Sunday, I went with K and my mother to Fulton's Pancake House and Sugar Bush where we enjoyed home-made sausages, baked beans and fluffy pancakes covered with REAL maple syrup. Going to the sugar bush is one of those annual events that we always do together. Here are some of the photos I took. Enjoy !!!

References:
* 加拿大的楓樹糖 / Canadian Maple Syrup - Sugar Bush http://lotusandcedar.blogspot.com/2007/04/canadian-maple-syrup-sugar-bush.html

Friday, April 02, 2010

國家藝術中心劇場: "一場心血" / National Arts Centre Studio: "Where the Blood Mixes"




On Tuesday, K and I went to the NAC to see "Where the Blood Mixes", a play that had been nominated for a 2009 Governor General’s Literary Award. While the Residential School experience is a key theme of the current story, it was not in the original that playwright Kevin Loring wrote abt a decade ago (please see below the article written by Joe Wiebe for more details). With the added bitter-taste ingredient, the show really brings into focus, the impact of government policies on aboriginal children who were forced into Residential Schools for "white-wash" to rid of their uncivilized "redskin" culture.

Both K and I quite enjoyed the play. The performers really did a good job in bringing out the desperation of the community and the relationships btwn the characters. At the end of the show, I told music composer Jason Burnstick that some of my friends are involved with/impacted by the Residential School program. He looked at me and said: "So, you understand." To me, it was both a comment and a question. Could we outsiders ever understand what the Residential School students have gone thru?

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"The Long Journey" - An interview of Kevin Loring by Joe Wiebe

Kevin Loring has been on a long journey with his play Where the Blood Mixes. The now-35-year-old actor/playwright began writing it a decade ago when he was in theatre school at Langara College’s Studio 58 in Vancouver. What he first came up with was much different than what the play looks like now.

"It was a twelve-minute solo show called The Ballad of Floyd," he remembered in a recent interview. "It was about a man in a bar celebrating his daughter’s birthday all by himself. It seems like he’s having a good time, but then as the night progresses you realize that he’s really quite lonely, and he’s celebrating his daughter’s birthday because she has left and is living in the Downtown East Side."

Loring performed that version himself twice-once for his graduation and once at the Talking Stick Cabaret, a precursor to the Talking Stick Festival, which now features aboriginal artists from across the country.

After that, he decided to expand the play into a full-length version with other actors playing the characters. "It was almost a Groundhog Day scenario where Floyd keeps waking up in the bar over and over again," Loring explained. "It’s like he can’t leave the bar; he’s stuck there until he breaks the cycle."

He kept working on the play, and during a workshop at Toronto’s Factory Theatre in 2004, he was thrilled to find himself working with Gary Farmer, the well-known actor.

"On the first day of rehearsals we’re all getting ready to sit down and read the play," Loring recalled. "The director asks everybody what they thought and they all say polite things. Then Gary pipes up. He takes the script and slams it on the table and says, ‘25 years in the business and I’m still reading drunk Indians in a bar. So what?!’"

For the playwright, it was a bolt out of the blue: "He was totally right. It was probably the most important note that I got in the development of the piece."

At the same time, it was a shock to Loring’s confidence. "It was terrifying," he admitted with a laugh. And although the workshop went well, "I knew that Gary was right. What he said really struck a chord."

Afterwards, Loring wasn’t sure how to move forward with the script, so he didn’t touch it for almost two years. But then he was invited to do another workshop with Sharon Pollock in Calgary.

"Leading up to that, I re-wrote it from beginning to end, page one to the end of the play." He felt that what was missing was a sense of the community where the characters live, so he specifically set it in Lytton, his own hometown.

"The new draft incorporated elements of what it’s like-the landscape, the rivers, that specific bar-and issues surrounding alcoholism and poverty, and just the struggle of the people there. It was so different from the previous versions of the play that I renamed it Where the Blood Mixes."

The title is a reference to the mistranslation of the N’lakap’mux place name for Lytton, which is Kumsheen. For years, it was believed to mean "the place where the rivers meet"-the confluence of the muddy Fraser and the clear blue Thompson-but the correct translation is "the place inside the heart where the blood mixes."

But there was still one element missing, which he didn’t discover until another workshop at Queens University: the fact that "all of the main characters are either directly or indirectly affected by their experiences at residential school."

It was a theme he had avoided in earlier drafts because "it’s a pretty loaded thing in the community," he said, "especially in native theatre."

"I figured I can’t really write about the experience of being at residential school because I wasn’t there, but I can definitely write about the aftereffects, what the echoes in the community have been. So I used that workshop to try that out on an audience, and when I heard it read it was like: boom, now it’s a play, now it’s about something. It all made sense. It was the missing ingredient."

Finally, the play was ready for the stage. The first productions were seen at Toronto’s Luminato Festival and Vancouver’s Magnetic North Festival in June 2008.

"At Magnetic North, we opened on the day of the Apology at the House of Commons," Loring said, referring to the federal government’s historic apology to former students of the residential school program, which occurred on June 11, 2008. "That day, we opened in Vancouver to a full house. It was unplanned, but you couldn’t plan it better."

Loring, who sees himself as "about half and half" a playwright and actor, is currently the playwright-in-residence at the National Arts Centre, where he is working on a new script. He also has a commission to write a script for Vancouver’s Green Thumb Theatre.

After this run at the Belfry [theatre in Victoria, BC], the play will move to Vancouver’s Firehall Arts Centre from February 24 to March 6 as part of the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad. From there, it goes on to Winnipeg, Ottawa and Toronto in March and April.

But for Loring, the most meaningful performance of the play may have already occurred. In 2008, after the show was staged in Toronto and Vancouver, it went on a tour of the BC Interior, including a stop in Lytton.

"It was amazing. It was absolutely amazing," Loring said with tangible excitement in his voice. "That day, it wasn’t like just doing a play, it was real. It was real for the people there; it was real for me."

"It was a beautiful sunny day in February," Loring remembered. "We filled up the Memorial Hall up on the Reserve. We had a big feast afterwards and everybody was all smiles and laughing. There were lots of tears and lots of laughter and shouts during the run of the show. It was a good day."

Clearly, with the success of Where the Blood Mixes, Kevin Loring can look forward to many more good days in theatre.

————————————–

Joe Wiebe is a Vancouver freelance writer and one-time BBOB (Belfry Box Office Blonde). Read more of his writing at www.joewiebe.com or www.thirstywriter.com.

References:
* The Interview http://www.belfry.bc.ca/interview-with-kevin-loring-playwright-where-the-blood-mixes/

Related articles (written by Haricot / lotusandcedar):
* 探訪克裡駝鹿族國 ∕ Visiting the Moose Cree First Nation (Part 3) http://lotusandcedar.blogspot.com/2008/02/visiting-moose-cree-first-nation-part-3.html

Thursday, April 01, 2010

旅遊南非洲 (三): 獵豹 / Travel to South Africa (3): Cheetah


I took this photo at a national park in South Africa. The cheetah was lurking behind the fence eyeing the tourists (especially the little girl next to me) when all of a sudden it charged !!! In less than a second, the cat was lunging at the fence that separated the girl and its jaws. Everyone was shocked by the cheetah's speed and ferocity and the poor child was just screaming. Later the local guide told us: Big cats all have an instinct to kill the young and weak. Death by a cheetah is excruciating. A human does not have a long neck like other preys, so the cat doesn't know what to do and will just bite at the head and claw the body open, as opposed to puncturing the neck artery and bleeding the prey to death. In the veld, it is eat, or be eaten. (You get the picture)

Reference:

* Wikipedia "Cheetah 獵豹" http://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-hk/%E7%8C%8E%E8%B1%B9
"...獵豹主要分佈在非洲與西亞..是陸上奔跑最快的動物,全速奔馳的獵豹,時速可以超過110公里,相當於百米世界冠軍的三倍快。 ..它可以在3步之內,從靜止加速到時速65公里,幾秒鐘就會達到全速110公里。..接近全速時,獵豹每秒鐘大約跑3步,這時它的呼吸頻率從平時約每分鐘65次竄升到150次。..."
(Haricot: It usually takes me 10 minutes to raise my heartbeat from abt 40-50 to 150 bpm. I am lunch !!!!)
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