Happy (Canadian) Thanksgiving
Tomorrow is the official Canadian Thanksgiving, although our Canadian friends have been partying and dining in splendor throughout the weekend. If you have any Canadian friends, be sure to greet them on their special holiday.
Wikipedia says:
Thanksgiving, or Thanksgiving Day (Canadian French: Action de grâce), is an annual one-day holiday to give thanks to God for the things one has at the close of the harvest season. The holiday is celebrated on the second Monday in October.
While the actual Thanksgiving holiday is on a Monday, Canadians might eat their Thanksgiving meal on any day of the three day weekend. Thanksgiving is often celebrated with family, it is also often a time for weekend getaways for couples to observe the autumn leaves, spend one last weekend at the cottage, or participate in various outdoor activities such as hiking, fishing, and hunting.
I saw several references to the Canadian Thanksgiving deriving from the American Thanksgiving, but Wikipedia says otherwise:
The history of Thanksgiving in Canada goes back to an explorer, Martin Frobisher, who had been trying to find a northern passage to the Orient. In the year 1578, he held a formal ceremony, in what is now the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, to give thanks for surviving the long journey.
This feast is considered by many to be the first Thanksgiving celebration in North America, although celebrating the harvest and giving thanks for a successful bounty of crops had been a long-standing tradition throughout North America by various First Nations and Native American groups. First Nations and Native Americans throughout the Americas, including the Pueblo, Cherokee, Cree and many others organized harvest festivals, ceremonial dances, and other celebrations of thanks for centuries before the arrival of Europeans in North America [2]. Frobisher was later knighted and had an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean in northern Canada named after him — Frobisher Bay.
At the same time, French settlers, having crossed the ocean and arrived in Canada with explorer Samuel de Champlain, also held huge feasts of thanks. They even formed ‘The Order of Good Cheer’ and gladly shared their food with their First Nations neighbours.
The centerpiece of the Canadian Thanksgiving is the turkey and stuffing, surrounded by dishes made of root vegetables and gourds – beets, turnips, pumpkin, squashes, etc.
Those Canadians with French roots add special dishes to the mix:
Tortiere (a fabulous meat pie)
Maple Syrup Pie
I grabbed these photos from a fabulous Quebec blogger page where she has included recipes for the above, and for many other Canadian specialties. I wish One Whole Clove were still blogging. In the meanwhile, visit her pages for some delicious and out-of-the-ordinary delights.
Wishing all of our Canadian friends a delicious and delightful Thanksgiving, with many many blessings for which to be thankful, and for an abundant year to come.
Pollution Invading Kuwait Hospitals
Thanks to long time Kuwaiti-blogger Hilaliya who alerts us to this article from Al Watan.
Americans put this same granite in their kitchens, and are now paying to have their beautiful granite countertops radon tested – and pulled out. Imagine preparing food on countertops that emit radiation! Imagine inviting patients into a hospital emitting radiation! Some granites emit more radiation than others – these need to be radon tested.
Pollution is invading our hospitals
Dr. Essam Abdullatif AlـFulaij
It seems that we need an uprising at the Ministry of Health. Patients as well as doctors and staff are at risk because of the use of inappropriate construction materials which cause pollution. Despite the warnings of some engineers, the officials at the ministry neglected the issue and concealed the facts so as not to get involved.
In August 2008, Amar magazine published a report by engineer Fotouh AlـAsfour in which she strenuously rang the alarm over what is happening at our hospitals. She submitted the report to two former health ministers and the Ministry of Health”s Engineering Department, members of the Municipal Council and the Parliament but no action was taken.
In her report, Fotouh said: “Having designed and supervised the construction of hospitals and medical centers for the health sector, I know the standards and specifications for materials used in hospitals to protect patients, visitors and hospital staff from microbial contamination. The project to renew hospitals, which began several years ago, has largely contributed to the deterioration of health conditions of both citizens and residents and the mortality rate has increased due to the high level of pollution caused by microbial contaminated materials that were used in the modernization of these hospitals in the absence of proper guidance and control.”
She added: “The use of granite in hospitals is not recommend at all as it is the second biggest cause of lung cancer after smoking, as reported by the American Lung Association. Granite radiates “radon gas” and its impact is worse when using the kind produced by China. It is really strange that granite has been used to decorate the entrance and most wings at the Hussein Makki Jumaa Center for Cancer Treatment.”
Engineer Fotouh stressed the importance of urgent attention saying: “In conclusion, the main reason behind writing this report is not criticism or accusation, but to attract officials” attention to urgently deal with the issue. Reform is not costly and should not be postponed, because the price of further delay is the loss of more lives. A specialized committee must be formed to follow up the issue and replace these materials with medical materials, especially in the Operating Rooms, Intensive Care Units and premature babies wards, causalities, and then in other awards.”
We hope that the report will be considered by officials to protect our patients and hospital staff. It”s time to stop these deadly dangers that are even affecting doctors. The lives of human beings are precious.
Last updated on Friday 10/10/2008
Great Kuwait Sunset Challenge Deadline
So here is how it is going to work. I am going to give you this one last weekend and one last week to come up with your sunset photo. Bu Yousef, AbdulAziz and Someday have shown us that yes, it is possible to find a sunset in Kuwait without streetlights and electrical wires, even a sunset over the water.
I haven’t seen a sunset behind a mosque, or behind one of the fabulous dhows or . . . Liberation Tower, Kuwait Towers. There are still a lot of options out there, and you have ONE WEEK. One week, today, I will post a series of photos narrowed down – some have already been disqualified, because although they were beautiful, they were not Kuwait.
YOU will vote. For one week, bloggers and commenters can vote. Together, we will choose the one we think wins the Great Kuwait Sunset Challenge.
(I already know what the next challenge is going to be. 🙂 )
Millions Lost Trillions
I used to finish my assignements early in grade school. Mostly I always had a book with me to read, but one teacher challenged me to write all the numbers to 1 million.
“Piece of cake” I thought. (Arrogant little brat!)
I learned my lesson. It took me forever. I wouldn’t give up, and I filled sheets and sheets of paper with numbers, all the way to one million.
It’s a lesson I won’t forget.
But a billion? A trillion? Those are numbers that boggle my mind. I can’t think that big.
So far, the losses are mostly on paper – they won’t be real losses until investors go to sell, or cash in.
It’s a huge demographic, the baby-boomers getting ready to retire – or as this article from the Washington Post states – maybe not so fast:
Retirement Savings Lose $2 Trillion in 15 Months
By Nancy Trejos
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 8, 2008; Page A01
The stock market’s prolonged tumble has wiped out about $2 trillion in Americans’ retirement savings in the past 15 months, a blow that could force workers to stay on the job longer than planned, rein in spending and possibly further stall an economy reliant on consumer dollars, Congress’s top budget analyst said yesterday.
For many Americans, pensions and 401(k) plans are their only form of savings. The dwindling of these assets — about a 20 percent decline overall — is another setback just as many people are grappling with higher gas and food prices, more credit card debt, declining home values and less access to loans.
You can read the entire article in the Washington Post, here.
Sudan Protects Women from Alien Influences
This is from today’s Daily Star
South Sudan arrests 20 women for wearing pants, short skirts
By Agence France Presse (AFP)
JUBA, Sudan: A Southern Sudan Cabinet minister said on Tuesday that more than 20 women were arrested and beaten for allegedly dressing inappropriately under a new edict against “bad behavior.” “Between 20 and 30 girls were picked up from different points, hurled into police lorries, arrested and taken to the police station and some of them were beaten,” said Mary Kiden Kimbo, the gender, social welfare and religious affairs minister in the semi-autonomous southern government.
“This is absolutely not acceptable: it is not the job of police to judge what is and what is not a correct way to dress in such a manner of blanket punishment,” she said.
The police crackdown on young women wearing trousers or short skirts follows an order from the commissioner of Juba county, the capital of Southern Sudan. Most of the women, said to be in their late teens and 20s, were rounded up as they left Catholic mass in Juba on Sunday, Kimbo said.
Others were picked up in market places.
The order bans “all bad behaviors, activities and imported illicit cultures,” according to a copy seen by AFP, signed by Juba’s commissioner, Albert Pitia Redantore.
Inappropriate behavior may include wearing tight trousers, short skirts or skimpy tops considered “Western” attire.
The order, dated October 2, said that it aimed to “preserve the cultural values, dignity and achievements of the people of southern Sudan, checking out the intrusion of foreign cultures into our societies, for the sake of bringing up [a] good generation.” Those deemed in contravention of the order are liable to three months imprisonment. Those convicted for a second time face another three-month sentence and a fine of 600 Sudanese pounds ($300).
Traditional values are important in largely Christian and animist Southern Sudan, which is recovering from decades of war against the mainly Muslim north. It was the imposition of Sharia law by the north that helped spark the southern rebellion, which was rooted in complaints of marginalization.
“This kind of thing looks like the old days of Sharia law, and it is dangerous because creating such a situation can encourage mob justice,” Kimbo told AFP.
The minister said that the principle of gender equality was enshrined in Southern Sudan and added that she was investigating the matter. – AFP
Morality Police Accuse Married Couple of Being Alone Together
This is one weird story. Saw it in today’s Kuwait Times, but it is not on the online version, so I had to copy it from the Arab News website. The woman’s family and the man’s family all verified that this couple are married, but they are continually harassed by the morality police, saying they are not married.
Vice cops accused of attacking married couple in Madinah
Fatima Sidiya I Arab News
JEDDAH: A 22-year-old Saudi woman told Arab News yesterday that she and her husband of four years were stopped on a road by the religious police of Al-Jurf, west of the holy city of Madinah, accused of being an unrelated man and woman in an illegal state of seclusion (khulwa) at about 1 a.m. on Sunday.
“As we were driving home, my husband and I realized we were being followed by three men in a car,” said the woman, who did not want her name published. “They were coming from both sides of the car and (at one point in the chase) were also in front of our car. I was afraid of having an accident. The whole scene looked just like something in a movie.”
She also said that because no police officer was accompanying the three members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, her husband was afraid to stop. Eventually, the commission vehicle got in front of the car they were pursuing and forced the couple to stop, according to the woman.
Abdullah Al-Zahrani, the head of the Madinah branch of the commission, confirmed to Arab News yesterday that the commission was tailing the couple, but he maintains that the three commission members did not abuse the suspects. He also claims that the two are not married.
“The woman is neither his wife nor his cousin,” said Al-Zahrani.
When asked if the police, in response to the woman’s complaint, had questioned the commission members over what happened early Sunday morning, he said the police did not seek any clarification. “The police did not question the commission members, as they (the commission) are a monitoring body, which hands suspects over to the police for further investigation,” he said.
The couple has filed a complaint and the Commission for Investigation and Prosecution is looking into the case.
Relatives have come out in defense of the commission’s denial that the two are married. According to the woman, a commission member told her husband: “If you bring everybody in your family to tell me she is your wife, I will not believe them. You are lying; she is not your wife.”
According to the woman, she and her husband had been visiting her husband’s family and decided to return home late at night.
After the two were pulled over, said the woman, “one of them pulled my arm and was shouting at me, telling me to get into their car. I was shocked. How could a man from the commission touch a woman when he is not her mahram (a woman’s legal male escort or guardian)? He ordered me to get into the commission car and said they would keep everything secret in order to protect my reputation.”
The commission considers unrelated men and women in cars to be committing the moral crime of khulwa.
The woman said that her husband objected to her treatment, and asked the men to take him in custody instead. At that point, the woman said an older man who happened to be passing by intervened and protested against the commission members touching a woman, “but the commission member told him that I had forced him to do so.”
The woman says that two of the commission members got into her husband’s car with her and accused her of being an immoral woman for being out late at night with an unrelated man. The members of the commission also said that the woman had committed a crime and that she therefore deserved to be punished.
“This is the first time I have seen anything like this,” she said. “One of the members was totally unreasonable and was aggressive from the start. He didn’t want to hear anything that contradicted his set ideas and beliefs. He looked to be in his late 20s. Only one of the three was rational and wanted to talk to us away from the public eye. But he then went and got into their car. The members refused to come to the police during the investigation and said that I had insulted them. I did no such thing; I simply told them over and over: ‘I swear to God that I am this man’s wife.’”
The woman said that after hearing what had happened, her brothers went to the commission branch in Al-Jurf, furious and telling the commission members to stay away from their sister.
She said a commission member then hit one of her brothers and broke his nose.
“My brother became unconscious and an ambulance came and took him to the hospital,” she said.
Then, in anger another brother erroneously went to the wrong commission center to retaliate against the attack on his brother. He was then arrested.
But the police reportedly released the two brothers after confirming their identities. The woman claims that the local police view this particular branch of the commission as problematic.
Maj. Muhsin Al-Radadi, a spokesman for the Madinah police, said that the only reports they received about this incident were about the brother who went to the incorrect commission center.
“The commission members (at Al-Azizia commission branch) were attacked in their offices by a young man,” he said, adding that he wouldn’t comment on hearsay regarding the other events.
“We were not doing anything that was remotely immoral or inappropriate,” said the woman. “Even my eyes were covered. The members shamed us in the area where we live and my husband and I cannot now go out of the house.”
She says that the incident has instilled fear in her about venturing out of the house.
“I will not go to a public place or anywhere in a car unless a lot of my family is with me,” she said.
Sunset Someday
Awwwww. . . .I couldn’t resist. Here is the Great Kuwait Sunset Challenge entry from Kuwait Blogger Someday (Red) who actually found a vantage point for a sunset WITH NO STREETLIGHTS!
Woooo Hoooo on you, Someday!
I totally love the way she framed the photo with palm branches, don’t you? She urges you to look closely, there really is a setting sun in the photo!
Seven Day Warning: Blog Action Day October 15
Only one week to go! Today is Wednesday, October 8th – just one short, sweet week before Blog Action Day.
They sent this reminder today:
7 Days to Go – Have you Registered?
Hello Bloggers!
We’ve got just 7 days to go before Blog Action Day 2008 – and we want to make sure everyone who participated in 2007 has had a chance to register their blogs to post up on October 15th and join us once more in shaking the internet!
Register at: BlogActionDay.org
In 2008 we’re discussing Poverty and we’re all set for a huge year with thousands of bloggers registered to participate, including dozens of top bloggers like TechCrunch, LifeHacker and more!
Additionally we have members of both the Spanish and English parliaments planning on participating, a ton of great organisations including the United Nations Millenium Campaign, Friendster, MySpace, Kiva, BlogTV, Blog.de, and lots more.
Head over to BlogActionDay.org for all the updates and news!
We have a lot of material here in Kuwait. I see we already have a lot of Kuwait bloggers registered! Wooo HOOOO on Kuwait! 🙂
“Illusions Driving Market Havok”
A fascinating article in today’s BBC News sheds light on our cascading stock markets. . . it isn’t rational, but it is explainable:
‘Illusions driving market havoc’
City traders may be seeing patterns that ‘aren’t really there’
The mind naturally creates illusions and superstitions at times of stress – and this could be adding to the global financial crisis, say scientists.
US researchers say feeling “out of control” makes us more likely to misinterpret information as we search for signs of order.
The study in the journal Science found investment decisions of volunteers were adversely affected by these feelings.
Simple psychological techniques might improve their performance, they said.
The researchers, from the University of Texas and Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, believe that humans cope with feeling out of control by trying to impose order subconsciously – even in situations where there is none.
At a simple level, they demonstrated the principle by asking volunteers to look for images embedded in “snowy pictures”.
Those whose feelings of control had earlier been undermined were more likely to claim to have seen an image, even where none existed.
However, the researchers believe that other kinds of illusion, from conspiracy theories to superstitions, stem from the same basic subconscious problem, and that it may be contributing to the current havoc on the world’s financial markets.
Read the entire article Here.
600 Speeding Tickets Issued over Eid Holidays
600 speeding tickets issued over Eid
From today’s Al Watan staff
KUWAIT: Highway Traffic Police launched a campaign against reckless and speeding drivers during the Eid holidays, which was aimed at eliminating tragic car accidents. According to instructions passed by Major General Mahmoud AlـDousari, Highway Traffic officers set up surprised checkpoints along the King Fahed Expressway.
They succeeded in handing out over 600 speeding tickets and seized 20 violating vehicles.
A reliable source said: “A reckless motorist driving a German car was speeding on the safety shoulder of the highway bypassing all other vehicles, which were lined up at a security check point. Highway patrols pursued the speeding driver before arresting him.”
I wish they had the police out regularly. The roads yesterday were full of people weaving in and out, too fast. We watched one car clip another entering the speedway, neither of them slowed a bit.
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