Bu Yousef’s Haiti Challenge
My Kuwait blogging friend, Bu Yousef, is about to send a donation to the World Food Program designated to help Haiti. He has set a challenge to all bloggers and blog readers. Please, go comment on his post. For every unique comment he gets on his post (one per person), his donation will go up $1 from a minimum $50 to a maximum of $200. It’s up to us.
I would love for BuYousef to hit his maximum. I would love for him to be so overwhelmed, that he ups his maximum to $250. 😉
Please go say good morning/good evening to BuYousef, and do it NOW! Thank you!
Bu Yousef, AdventureMan and I will match your donation. 🙂
Volunteer Day at Animal Friends Kuwait
God bless the work of your hands, all you who work to help those who have no voices, who rescue the animals, give them food and shelter, and adopt them.
Animal Friends and K’S PATH will be hosting its bi-annual Shelter Open Day where everyone is invited to come out, visit with the animals and learn all about their rescue and care. Visitors will be able to walk the dogs, cuddle the cats, play with the puppies, brush the donkeys, watch the baboons and so much more. The weather is beautiful, so come and make a day of it.
When: Friday 29 January, 2010, 11:00am to 3pm
Where: Animal Friends Shelter and K’S PATH sanctuary in Wafra
Cost: Free, although we certainly appreciate donations
Notes: Please leave your own pets at home and refreshments will be available for sale.
Huge Yard Sale — antiques, collectibles, book worm’s treasure trove, gently used infant clothing and toys, gently used adult clothes and shoes, Indonesian teak furniture, home wares, gourmet kitchen gadgets, dishes, pots and pans and so much more. Come on over and rummage through the goods and you might find a treasure. All funds will go to support Animal Friends.
When: Saturday 6 February, 2010, 10:00am to 3pm
Where: Fintas, Block 4, Street 11, House 29
Notes: Refreshments will be available for sale.
Different Languages, Different Tribes, One God
This is the meditation from yesterday, from Forward Day by Day. I really like it. We all talk about tribalism, as if we were not ourselves from tribes, even self-made tribes. It can be a tribe based on family, or based on nationality, or, in the USA, sometimes on nation-of-origin. It can be a tribe that calls itself Alpha Beta Zeta, or Rotary. Any kind of grouping that distinguishes between “us” and “them” is a kind of tribalism, in my opinion. And it costs us so much, in terms of energy and focus and resources, when, as i see it, we are all one family under God.
Psalm 118. I called to the LORD in my distress; the LORD answered by setting me free.
In the depths of the long civil wars here, the people cried to the Lord in their distress and were set free. The results have been amazing: the crossing of tribal lines to form one people whose most precious commonality is their belief in Jesus. Sitting in church on Sundays, that lesson comes true. When we pray the Lord’s Prayer, or recite the creeds, or sing our favorite hymns, we do so in our own languages, so that a cacophony of voices rises to the heavens. It is not unusual to hear 12 or 13 languages spoken simultaneously, all praying the same thing at the same time.
We are set free when we forget to which human tribe we belong and focus on being members of God’s tribe of beloved children. This is how peace will be achieved, not just in this land, but in all of creation: by ignoring our differences and focusing on the freedom we have in God and from God.
Some days, listening to all the languages and praying in my own, I am moved to tears by the beauty of the holy noise we are making. We are set free in those moments, and our distress falls away.
PRAY for the Diocese of Aguata (Province of the Niger, Nigeria)
Pink Glove Dance Reaches Millions :-)
Remember the Pink Glove Dance? Today, in AOL News, is a report that over three million people have clicked on the U-Tube Video promoting free mammograms for women who can’t afford them:
Pink Glove Dance Reaching Millions
AOL News
(Dec. 5) — A video showing hundreds of dancing hospital employees wearing pink gloves in support of breast cancer awareness has become an Internet sensation.
The video, put together over two days with the help of 200 employees at a Portland, Oregon hospital, has more than 3 million hits and thousands of comments on YouTube.
Martie Moore, nursing manager at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center, told CNN the hospital has received hundreds of calls, e-mails and notes about the video.
The idea for the video came from Medline Industries Inc., the company that makes the pink gloves. The company said it would donate a portion of its glove sales to fund mammograms for women who would struggle to pay for them, ABC News reported.
The employees dance to “Down” by singer Jay Sean. Moore said many of the employees had been personally affected by breast cancer.
The janitor who closes out the video with a solo performance had a mother who battled with breast cancer. Moore said he told her, “This is just a disease that just keeps touching lives.”
Pink Glove Dance
I love this, the whole idea, I love it so much it made me cry to watch it. I’m shy about dancing, but these people – they were dancing for a cause. They didn’t care about making fools of themselves, they just let go and had a good time promoting breast cancer prevention awareness. You gotta love it:
When the video gets 1 million hits, Medline will be making a huge contribution to the hospital, as well as offering free mammograms for the community.
Can You Help Animal Friends Kuwait?
Dear Friends of the Animals,
It is that time again, we are preparing 8 dogs to go to the US in the middle of September for their much deserved chance at a loving home. We are proud to report that in the month of June, we sent 21 dogs to their freedom. Without our transport program, we would not be able to help as many dogs as we do and our shelter would be crammed with adoptable dogs with less of a chance at adoption. For all of you that ask us for help, remember that the space made at the shelter to help you happens because of our transport program. It costs us 150KD per dog to send so we need your help. If you can sponsor one or more dogs to go to the US you will be saving not just that life but many more. Take the initiative and make a huge difference in the lives of many dogs.
You can either transfer the money directly into our bank account, drop it off at my house or we would be happy to come to you to collect your generous donation. Contact us if you can help!!
Humanely,
Ayeshah Al-Humaidhi
Animal Friends League of Kuwait
P.O. Box 26112
13122 – Safat
Kuwait
+965-6657-3430 (Kuwait)
+965-2244-3859 (Fax)
http://www.animalfriendskuwait.org
Guerilla Art at the Gas Works
Yesterday Mom pulled out a clipping from the Seattle Times about an unknown sculptor who had left a collection of fascinating sculptures – papier mache’ with golden highlights – of people emerging from their shells. They were delivered by stealth to the park by by the artist and friends, and left displayed to the wonderment of runners, joggers, walkers and picnicking families who discovered them at the Gasworks Park.
“Guerrilla-art in Seattle
In what was advertised as a gift to the citizens of Seattle, a gold-colored sculpture by an unknown artist turned up in Gas Works Park on Tuesday, August 25, 2009. “Anew is gifted to the citizens of Seattle in the spirit of awakening,” the artist wrote in a plaque attached to the sculpture.”
(This is not my photo; this photo is from the Seattle Times Photo Gallery and you can purchase a copy of it from them)
How cool is that? The park officials were all set to pick the art works up and dispose of them, but people started calling in, by the hundreds, “no! leave it there! It is wonderful!” And, amazement of amazements, the city listened, and left the sculptures there.
In today’s Seattle Times is a follow up:
Guerrilla artist goes public; golden man already taken
By Susan Gilmore
Seattle Times staff reporter (you can read the entire article by clicking on the blue type)
The artist who left a sculpture in Seattle’s Gas Works Park earlier this week says she was “amazed and overwhelmed” by the response to the art.
“I spent some time both in the afternoon and evening standing with the crowd, watching their reactions, and I am overflowing with joy,” said Cyra Hobson, 31, in an e-mail sent Wednesday night.
The Seattle Parks Department said Wednesday it will leave the multipiece sculpture in place until Labor Day rather than removing it today, as had been planned.
So Mom and I decided we wanted to take a look, which is a lot braver than you can imagine. Mom has always been active, but she is no longer able to walk as long as she wants to walk – at 86, she hates to accept any limitations, so off we go.
We get to the Gas Works Park and it is another gorgeous day, warm, without being hot, and we walk. And we walk. And we don’t see one single piece of sculpture. People have taken her at her word – they are all gone!
Oh well. We missed an ephemeral moment in time, a great happening, but we still had a great adventure. The view from the Gas Works park (which is – no kidding – on the site of a defunct Gas Works factory, so they turned it into a park for families, joggers, dog walkers, etc.) is phenomenal – at one time, there was a jet, a helicopter and a pontoon plane in the air, a car/boat, several kayaks and a fishing boat in the water, and dogs and children everywhere.
Of course I took some photos to share with you:
This is a “Duck.” Right now it is a boat, but it can also put down wheels and function as an open tour bus on land:
Parents Don’t Want Raped 8-Year-Old, Says She Shamed Them
This very sad, very strange story is from today’s BBC News. Parents of the girl, living in Phoenix, say she brought shame on them (eight years old) and they don’t want her back. People all over the US are sending money and offers to adopt her. Eight years old – all she wanted was a stick of gum.
Offers of help are pouring in for an eight-year-old Liberian girl disowned by her own family in Phoenix, Arizona, after being raped by four boys.
The girl is under the care of the Arizona Child Protective Service (CPS) because her parents said she had shamed them, and they did not want her back.
Phoenix police said calls had come in from all over the US offering money, or even to adopt the young girl.
The boys, Liberian immigrants aged nine to 14, have been charged with rape.
The case has sparked outrage across the US and even drawn condemnation from Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, an outspoken anti-rape campaigner.
“I think that family is wrong. They should help that child who has been traumatised,” Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf told CNN.
“They too need serious counselling because clearly they are doing something, something that is no longer acceptable in our society here,” she added.
Brutal attack
Media reports said the girl was lured into a shed on 16 July with promises of chewing gum by the four young boys. There, they held her down and took turns assaulting her for 10 to 15 minutes, before her screams alerted officers nearby.
The oldest suspect, a 14-year-old boy, will be tried as an adult on charges of kidnapping and sexual assault, police said on Friday. He is being held in police custody until trial.
The other three – aged 9, 10, and 13 – are charged as juveniles with sexual assault and kidnapping.
But the police said no charges will be filed against the parents.
“They didn’t abandon the child,” Phoenix police sergeant Andy Hill told AFP news agency. “They committed no crime. They just didn’t support the child, which led to CPS coming over there.”
Sgt Hill said people from eight or nine US states had called wanting to adopt the girl or donate money.
“It has been unbelievably fantastic in terms of support for the child,” he said.
I’m hoping that this traumatized little girl gets a new family who treasures her, helps her overcome this attack, sends her to school through university and helps her to prevail.
Updating Qateri Hospitality
In a dry and thirsty land, where there is no water, there is a wonderful tradition of providing water for the laborer, and the passer-by. In Tunisia and Jordan, we used to see running water in nearly every village, a place where donkeys could drink and people could fill their containers. Then, in Qatar and Kuwait, we began to see the outdoor kiosk type of water dispenser, running sweet water from a tap. Now, Qatar is providing bottled water in locations where there are workers who don’t have ready access to water during the hot hot hot summer.
Drinking water for the toiling masses
Web posted at: 7/16/2009 2:0:11
Source ::: THE PENINSULA
DOHA: The Qatar Charity has launched a unique humanitarian campaign to support people working outdoors during hot summer.
The Charity has started distributing bottled water to workers who don’t have easy access to drinking water while working outdoors. The one-month campaign titled “Suqya” (an meaning supply of drinking water) also aims at installing public water coolers in select places across the city.
Jassim Abdulla Jassim, director of the Charity said the campaign was first launched in summer last year. It has now been re-launched with a new name and new mission.
“Our goal is to provide relief to the hundreds of people working outside during summer as well as the pedestrians. We started the project last year and plans to continue it in the coming years,” said Jassim.
Bottled water is being distributed in construction sites, parks and other public places. Some 67 water coolers have been installed in various parts of the city as part of the campaign.
“These coolers come with a unique design and have been installed in crowded areas, so that more people can benefit from them. Through this project, we are trying to revive the traditional Qatari hospitality. Every Qatari household used to offer drinking water to the passer by free of charge,” said Ahmed Al Miraisi, deputy director of the Charity.
He urged companies and individuals to extend their support to the project.
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