Friday, September 30, 2011

Hepatitis A

Hepatitis A Virus (HAV) wird durch Schmierinfektion und durch den Genuss von verunreinigtem Wasser oder Nahrungsmitteln übertragen und ist in südlichen Ländern sehr stark verbreitet.

Welche Erkrankung tritt auf?

Das Hepatitis A Virus (HAV) verursacht die infektiöse Gelbsucht (Hepatitis A.)

Was ist Hepatitis A?

Die infektiöse Gelbsucht, eine Virusinfektion, kann asymptomatisch verlaufen aber auch den Tod verursachen. Es können Fieber, Erbrechen, Unwohlsein mit Durchfall und Muskelschmerzen und schwere Abgeschlagenheit auftreten. Der Schweregrad der Erkrankung ist altersabhängig. Bei Kindern kann die Infektion ohne ausgeprägte Symptome oder ohne Gelbsucht ablaufen. Üblicherweise kommt es nach ungefähr vier Wochen zur Normalisierung der Serumtransaminasewerte. Allerdings wird bei rund 15 % der Erkrankten ein protrahierter Verlauf beobachtet.


Mehr : Hepatitis A

Food Safety Almanac

Revised Food Safety Almanac published

The EU Food Safety Almanac gives an overview of the competent public authorities and the structures of food and feed safety within the Eu- ropean Union. The emphasis is on risk assess- ment. This overview of the organisational links and cooperation within the European Union not only facilitates the search for European partners but also avoids duplication of work. Likewise, it promotes the clear setting out of responsibilities.


Diagram depicting the structure of governmental authorities:
Legal foundation:
Institutions at the central level:
Responsibility:
Regional and local level:
EFSA network:

http://www.bfr.bund.de/cm/364/eu-food-safety-almanac.pdf

FDA Warns Consumers Not to Eat Raw Oysters Harvested from Hood Canal Area 4 in Washington State

Fast Facts
• The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers not to eat raw oysters harvested from an area of Hood Canal in Washington State following an outbreak of illness in that state caused by Vibrio parahaemolyticus bacteria.

• Raw oysters harvested from “growing area 4” in Hood Canal from August 30 to September 19 have been linked to three confirmed and two possible cases of Vibrio parahaemolyticus illness.

• All ill persons reported consumption of raw oysters.

• There have been no reports of hospitalizations or deaths resulting from consuming the oysters.

• The Washington State Department of Health has closed the growing area associated with the illnesses. Commercial oyster harvesters and dealers who obtained oysters from this growing area have initiated a recall and notified their commercial customers in affected states of the recall.

• Shipping and other records provided by Washington State indicate that oysters harvested from this area were distributed to establishments in 23 states and four foreign countries. Washington State authorities have notified those states involved of the recall.

• Those who have recently purchased oysters should check with the place of purchase and ask if they were harvested from the affected growing area.



read more at : Press Announcements > FDA Warns Consumers Not to Eat Raw Oysters Harvested from Hood Canal Area 4 in Washington State

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Three children killed in suspected food poisoning case | Kanglaonline

Three children killed in suspected food poisoning case | Kanglaonline

From Kaimuanthang
LAMKA, September 29: As many as three children have died last night at Pamzal village located at about 20 kms from Thanlon sub divisional headquarters and is about 150 kms from Ccpur Police station in a food poisoning related incident .

The three children have been identified as Kaiminthang, 13, and his brother Hauminlian ,10, s/o T Chinkholal and Jamngaihching d/o T Ginmung all from the same village according to a source.

The source has further maintained that the three children were taking dinner with curry prepared from potatoes, brinjal and pumpkins.

Later in the evening at about 7pm, they turned unconscious and behave in a manner as if they wanted to vomit but cannot and soon after they breathed their last and their have been no time for any medical intervention added the source.

Many believe that their food may have been contaminated with some pesticides yet details are being awaited.

100 hotel guests and staff hit in norovirus outbreak - Scotsman.com News

100 hotel guests and staff hit in norovirus outbreak - Scotsman.com News

100 hotel guests and staff hit in norovirus outbreak

Click on thumbnail to view image
Click on thumbnail to view image
Click on thumbnail to view image
Click on thumbnail to view image
Click on thumbnail to view image

Published Date: 30 September 2011
GUESTS were told to stay in their rooms following a suspected outbreak of vomiting bug norovirus in a capital hotel.
About 100 guests and staff at the Edinburgh Marriott hotel in Glasgow Road are believed to have contracted the illness last week.

Health officials were called in to deal with the virus after guests showed symptoms of vomiting and diarrhoea.

It is almost exactly a year since the chain was blighted by an outbreak of the same virus in its Glasgow hotel.

"We can confirm that last week some of our guests at Edinburgh Marriott were ill with norovirus," said a spokeswoman for the hotel chain. "As soon as we were made aware of the situation, we immediately involved National Health Service and implemented the appropriate protocols; which included reiterating our food safety and hotel hygiene protocols with all our employees, encouraging our guests to exercise vigilance and practise thorough hand-washing, and placing hand sanitisers on every floor."

She added: "Marriott takes hotel hygiene and cleanliness very seriously. The hotel is operating normally, and we have had no further confirmed cases of norovirus since last Saturday."

The illness, known as the winter vomiting bug, is acute, but symptoms usually last only between one and three days.

  • Last Updated: 29 September 2011 11:42 PM
  • Source: The Scotsman
  • Location: Edinburgh

PEPA unable to inspect hospitals | Pakistan Today | Latest news, Breaking news, Pakistan News, World news, business, sport and multimedia

“Infectious waste can also cause fatal diseases like hepatitis A and B, AIDS, typhoid and boils,” she said.

Read more at : PEPA unable to inspect hospitals | Pakistan Today | Latest news, Breaking news, Pakistan News, World news, business, sport and multimedia

JAUNDICE - HEPATITIS E : (JAMMU AND KASHMIR) CONTAMINATED WATER, REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

JAUNDICE - HEPATITIS E: (JAMMU AND KASHMIR) CONTAMINATED WATER, 
REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

A local news agency reported on Thu 22 Sep 2011 that 3 people including 
2 infants have died while 13 people have been hospitalized in south Kashmir's 
Shopian district due to an outbreak of jaundice. It said that 2 pregnant women 
hailing from Karwadah in the district were suffering from jaundice and were 
shifted to the SMHS hospital [in Srinagar] today [22 Sep 2011]. 
Both women delivered, but the infants did not survive and passed away 
minutes after being born.

More

Suffering from a tummy ache? - The Times of India

Suffering from a tummy ache? - The Times of India

Food poisoning: The possibility of having a food-related illness is especially high with the holiday season here. Doctors say that it's mainly due to foods that have been left out for long at parties (all those tempting buffets) that cause problems. There are several types of viruses that can come into action even a day later. Research suggests undercooked eggs, salad dressings and even your meat and veggies can be the culprit.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

into the hills

As the T8 warning seems to be holding, SB and I have decided to head out for a hike on the Dragon's Back.  I wonder if we will run into the T8 Harriers; one of SB's friends was going out to meet them for a noon hash.  And I really hope the warning won't get lifted because I'm not going back to the office at this point.  After having to pay the taxi driver $60 to take us from Happy Valley to the MTR, which is usually a $20 fare we are on our way.  SB loves these storms and is very excited to experience the wind from up above as well as view the ocean from down below in Big Wave Bay.  I am going because I don't trust him not to go swimming in dangerous waves.  We will probably stand at the headland and argue over just what constitutes a dangerous wave until one washes us both into the ocean.

Surveillance for Waterborne Disease Outbreaks Associated with Drinking Water --- United States, 2007--2008

Surveillance for Waterborne Disease Outbreaks Associated with Drinking Water --- United States, 2007--2008

Etiology

Of the 36 drinking water--associated outbreaks, 21 (58.3%) were caused by bacteria, five (13.9%) were caused by viruses, three (8.3%) were caused by parasites, and one (2.8%) was caused by a chemical. Two (5.6%) outbreaks had multiple etiologies: one (2.8%) was caused by bacteria and viruses, and one (2.8%) was caused by bacteria and parasites. Four (11.1%) had unidentified etiologies: one was suspected to be caused by norovirus (Table 8; Figure 5).

Governor of Epidemic County Considers Restrictions on Public Events | News | ERR

Read more : Governor of Epidemic County Considers Restrictions on Public Events | News | ERR

Viljandi County governor Lembit Kruuse is considering a suspension on public events due to an outbreak of hepatitis A.

DPHHS: Norovirus continues to spread through state

DPHHS: Norovirus continues to spread through state

...The virus is highly contagious and can spread rapidly. A person can become ill by ingesting the virus from contaminated food or water or by close contact with someone who is ill. Touching surfaces or objects that are contaminated with norovirus, and then transferring the virus hand to mouth is another common way of becoming infected...

Debate Over Reopening Wards After Norovirus Outbreaks - Career Advice - CareerBuilder.com

Debate Over Reopening Wards After Norovirus Outbreaks - Career Advice - CareerBuilder.com

Hospital wards should be reopened after a gap of 48 hours following a norovirus outbreak, new guidance is expected to say putting pressure to reduce closure periods...

The 5 Deadliest Food-Borne Illnesses - and How to Prevent Them - Forbes

The 5 Deadliest Food-Borne Illnesses - and How to Prevent Them - Forbes

...
5 - Hepatitis A
Surprised? "I admit, I was" says Melanie Haiken, Contributor. We don’t think of Hep A as a food-borne bacteria, but in fact contaminated food is proving to be a serious route of transmission for this deadly bacteria. The worst outbreak of Hepatitis A ever reported in the U.S. claiming more than 660 victims including four fatalities came from green onions served at a Chi-Chi’s restaurant in Pennsylvania. Frozen strawberries from Mexico contaminated with Hepatitis A caused a severe outbreak in 1997 as well, affecting thousands of schoolchildren who’d been served the strawberries in school lunches.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Source of Zoonoses by EFSA

Hépatite E

Hépatite E
En France, l’hépatite E circule de façon sporadique. En 2009, plus de 250 cas ont été recensés, dont la moitié dans le sud de la France.
Certaines personnes sont susceptibles de développer des formes graves d’hépatite E : personnes immunodéprimées, personnes atteintes d’hépatopathie chronique et femmes enceintes. Une fiche destinée aux professionnels de santé résume les connaissances actuelles et les principales recommandations utiles à leurs patients à risque.




MIcrobial Source Tracking


Origin of Microbial contamination - MST (microbial source tracking)


ceeram offers diagnostic tools that are affordable, quick and performing.

> Detection & Identification of a fecal contamination
- human contamination
- Cow Contamination
- Hog Contamination

> Analysable Matrices
- Swimming water,
- Irrigation Water,
- Subterranean Water,
- Shellfish Waters,
- Shellfish, Bivalves Molluscians

Fecal pollution can have an impact on human health, because of bacteria, virus or parasites, as well as on local businesses, should recreational areas be closed (Directive 2006/7/CE on recreational water) and shellfish waters (Directive 2006/113/CE on shellfish waters).

Microbial Source Tracking method developed by ceeram allows the identification of a fecal contamination origin through the detection of two relevant markers : bacteriophage ARN F-specific & Bacteroides.

Exclusion. Un collectif associatif dénonce une situation "grave" - France - Le Télégramme

Exclusion. Un collectif associatif dénonce une situation "grave" - France - Le Télégramme

Et de relever la "dégradation des indicateurs de santé", citant 15.000 cas de rougeole, le retour de l'hépatite A, la recrudescence de la tuberculose, avec 120 cas sur 100.000 personnes "précaires", contre huit normalement.

deviant domestics

I no longer read my free copy of The Standard to preserve my sanity; the only thing that I miss is the elderly newspaper distributor who would always exchange pleasant greetings with me.

Last night I had to make an exception when one of my Filipina friends brought out the paper to point out a story about the methods used by domestic helpers to gain residency.  Without citing any sources or data the "journalist" stated that Indonesian helpers try to marry SE Asian men with permanent residency whilst Filipina helpers prefer Chinese men.  Perhaps the writer was a single lady concerned with her marriage prospects since she would be competing against women who can cook, clean, run a household and rear children with time to spare?

The other residency achievement method involved purposely getting pregnant on home leave and giving birth in Hong Kong.  The only source used in the article was some lady who bemoaned her helper having gotten pregnant and not being able to do heavy lifting.  This reminded me of the horrible lady who lives in my neighborhood that is always screaming verbal abuse at her helper; last month she was standing at the tram stop waiting for a taxi while the helper had to haul all three of her suitcases for her.  She couldn't even be bothered to manage the small carry on, which would have greatly lessened the helper's burden of moving three suitcases with only two arms. 

I wonder when The Standard will get around to reporting the statistics of births by ladies on domestic worker visas.  What are the odds of your helper getting herself knocked up and not being able to carry your 12 year old son to his piano recital?

animal picture of the day

Can you believe this pwecious wittle seal pup was outcast from his colony for being ginger?!

Neither can I.


Source: Caters News Agency

Another Father/Son Retreat at St. Benedict Abbey in Still River, MA

"If our children are going to hear God's true calling for [each of] them, they must be exposed to different vocations in the Catholic Church, including the religious life. Here is a rare opportunity for you to give your 14- to 17-year-old son exposure to just that." - Kathleen Laplante, this entry

Father/Son Retreat
October 21 to 23, 2011
.
St. Benedict Abbey
Still River, MA

Here is a note from one of the monks, Fr. Marc Crilly, OSB, who is also a priest.
.
Fr. Marc Crilly, OSB
September 11, 2011
Thanks to your support and prayers, our last Father/son weekend retreat [August 12-14] was a great success. It was so successful, in fact, that we are trying to get another one going for next month, October 21-23. If you know of any young man, 14 or older, who might be interested in such a retreat, could you please pass on this information?  ...he can reach our Vocations Director, Fr. Anthony, at abbeyvocation@aol.com   And could you please continue to pray for vocations to our community? Thanks again so much.

God bless.

Fr. Marc



You can read about the previous father/son retreat here, and you can find their web site here


image - http//abbey.org

71 students down with food poisoning | BorneoPost Online | Borneo , Malaysia, Sarawak Daily News

71 students down with food poisoning | BorneoPost Online | Borneo , Malaysia, Sarawak Daily News

Meanwhile, state Health deputy director, Dr Hayati Mohd Radzi, said the department had taken samples of the food which was served to the students for analysis and also ordered the dining hall to be closed temporarily. — Bernama

Nevermind

One day you wake up and are confronted with the news that Nirvana's breakthrough album is twenty years old.  Has it been two decades since your twelve year old self bought that CD for a older friend's birthday party and immediately became the birthday girl's favorite party guest?  But oh, yes, it really has been twenty years since you showed up at the party with that tacky, see through red blouse with the black lace bra that frankly had nothing much to cover up.  Flat chested as you were, John C still found a reason to sneak you into a closet and make out with you while In Bloom blared in the background.

Back in the present I have been playing the album on my Ipod at the office.  My friend at Microsoft tells me that her radio station in Seattle has been playing Nevermind almost nonstop.

Monday, September 26, 2011

and on and on

On Saturday I went on one of my semi-annual benders although I wasn't really drinking so I don't know if it counts as one.  I used to force SB to stay awake with me but in the past couple of years he has run off to sleep and left me to my own devices.  He does not like long spells of unrest whereas I was conditioned through seven and a half years of architecture school to all night work sessions.  It has come in handy at the office a few times.

The day started with us meeting SB's former classmate who was in town on business.  Next, I spent the rest of the afternoon cheering three squads of my club's rugby players who were playing in friendly matches at Aberdeen Sports Ground.  Then I was off to the Jockey in Happy Valley for a farewell party for Elliot, the manager of the past five years.  Throughout the evening a large assortment of patrons and hospitality staff from other pubs came and went, presenting a living slide show of his life at the pub.  I limited my drinking to a couple glasses of wine over the span of almost twelve hours of revelry.  I intended to stay awake until 3am to see the France vs. new Zealand rematch but the next thing I knew it was 6:30 and I had missed the match.

With more speed than a vampire in the moments before first dawn I scurried home and attempted to sneak into bed without SB noticing the time.  Unfortunately he was in the center of the bed with the sheets rolled around him in a large cocoon with two large feet sticking out at one end and a dishevelled head sticking out of the other end.  I managed to squeeze into the space next to him and then attempted to subtly nudge him to his side of the bed.  Maybe I could take one end of the sheet and drag him or slowly unroll him in one direction.  My attempts woke him up but thankfully he is not a morning person and so true wakefulness was eluded.  He lifted his head out of the cocoon and make a few smacking noises for me to kiss him before falling back asleep as I was heaving him in one direction.  We both awoke by 9am with him none the wiser about my very late night.

to the edge

SB brought his skates with him when he went home for the express purpose of getting them sharpened by Michelle at Ambis Industries but it was closed on the day that he drove through town.  As far as we know the quonset hut that houses Ambis is no longer used for any other metal works even though the equipment is still there.  Word of mouth is that no one had the talent for more complex metalwork after Mr. Ambis passed on but the family continues the tradition of skate sharpening a few times per week.  As a side note, boilermakers make a very healthy living these days due to their rarity.

Being committed to achieving the perfect edge, SB drove on for 57 more miles to McKie Sport Shop in Syracuse where his skates were ground and honed to his preferred radius and rocker contour.  When he arrived home, he had me stand in front of him while he gently and lovingly removed the purple, velour blade covers and unveiled the glorious sharpness of his skates.  So now I know what he was doing instead of picking up my engagement ring.  I wasn't sure if I should clap my hands in delight over the shininess of his blades or strangle him.

On Thursday night SB attended the draft for the upcoming hockey season at MegaIce.  He was drafted into the Div. 1 league as well as the newly inaugurated contact league.  For him this means that he will be allowed to check other players for the first time in years.  For me it means twice as much stinky gear drying in the entryway.  Ugh.  SB was instructing one of the new contact players on how to complete a check when I left the draft.  I have to give props to these young guys who have never played contact but are willing to take it on.  It was nice of him to offer advice rather than going Godzilla on them. 

SB did express pleasure at the thought of taking on one particular player who has been a bit of a teacher's pet (in this case a referee's pet).  The two of them played on the same team for the scrimmage before the draft.  According to SB their conversation went like this:

SB: I'm really disappointed that we're scrimmaging on the same team.  I was looking forward to hitting you.
Referee's Pet: There must be another reason why you're playing in this league.
SB: I'm sure there is; I just can't think of it right now.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Norovirus shuts down school

Outbreak of norovirus closes two schools
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-15031613

Disease menu - hepatitis a

Trace the source of diseases plaguing the district and you will reach hotels supplying low quality food and water. As there is no effective mechanism to check what hotels serve, health officials feel that contamination of food and water could be the main reason for the regular outbreak of diseases (hepatitis A)

http://m.timesofindia.com/city/kochi/Disease-menu-at-city-hotels/articleshow/10109564.cms

Hep. E danger for some patients at risk

http://healthmad.com/conditions-and-diseases/hepatitis-e-danger-for-some-patients-at-risk/

HEPATITIS E VIRUSES

Hepatitis E viruses are single stranded RNA viruses, belonging to the genus hepevirus. This contains hepatitis E viruses infecting humans and other mammals, as well as avian hepatitis E virus. In humans, HEV can cause inflammation of the liver after an incubation period of 2-7 weeks. Disease typically is mild and self-limiting, but mortality up to 20% has been reported among pregnant women, and chronic infection and (severe) hepatitis may occur in immuno-compromised persons. HEV strains infecting mammals are currently classified into genotypes (gt) 1 to 4, and two additional new genotypes have been proposed. Gt 1 and 2 infections are commonly seen as causes of hepatitis in travelers to developing countries, whereas gt 3 and gt 4 were later found as causes of autochthonous infection in industrialized countries. Of these latter two genotypes, especially gt 3 is found to be widespread in commercial pig farms across the world. Underreporting of human HEV infections, and especially those caused by gt 3, is likely. HEV are newly recognized pathogens outside the tropical regions, and the treating physicians may not be aware of these pathogens becoming endemic in industrialized countries. In addition, the currently used diagnostic methods are not optimal. Retrospective studies found HEV infection as possible cause of 6-8% of all non-A-B-C hepatitis cases, and hepatitis E gt 3 is seen in patients without travel history living in regions with endemic HEV in pigs.

http://escv.ivdnews.net/public/show_abstract/1326

Friday, September 23, 2011

Revisiting Friday Penance

Have you given your Friday penance* serious consideration recently?  Is it truly suitable to you?  For example, if you abstain from meat every Friday, but you are a vegetarian, is your abstaining really a sacrifice?  Are you really fulfilling the spirit of the penance requirement?

It may be time to do something different.  If you are vegetarian, but you love ice cream, maybe it would be more fitting to abstain from ice cream on Fridays.  Give it some thought.



* In the Eastern Catholic Church, there are two days of fast and abstinence, Wednesday and Friday.  And the practice is to abstain from all foods that come from animals (meats, poultry, dairy products, eggs).  Read more about it here. 

image - www.feed132.photobucket.com

On a fever pitch - India

There have been 115 Hepatitis A cases registered this year, out of which 89 were registered this month.

Read More : http://ibnlive.in.com/news/on-a-fever-pitch/186674-60-122.html

Study proposes oyster moratorium


The research, lead by Dr. Michael Wilberg of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, blames the decline in the oyster population on disease, loss of habitat and over harvesting

Read More : http://www.delmarvanow.com/article/20110921/SH01/109210302

Thursday, September 22, 2011

chopped liver

While watching the Rugby World Cup, SB and I began a lively discussion over certain infringements at the breakdown.  A referee has to interpret the law in a multitude of ways when watching two sides contest for the ball.  The referees have been very strict about tacklers releasing players or being on the wrong side of the tackle (seemingly too strict on some occasions) but other infringements are overlooked such as ruckers not really being on their feet to begin with or going back to their hands and knees in the middle of the ruck and continuing to ruck. 

At some point in the discussion another person in the pub joined our discussion, except he didn't really join the discussion as much as he began talking to SB and ignoring me.  Another person joined in and they managed to stand in a way that completely cut me out of the discussion.  This was not deliberate (I don't think so anyway) but rather they both focused on SB while moving in closer, which caused me to be pushed out of the group and left me staring at their backs.  A few times while they were talking SB looked to me for an answer but as soon as I gave it the backs were turned again and discussion continued with SB.  Eventually I rolled my eyes and wandered off.

I was irritated and said as much to SB later.  He had sympathy for me but that isn't the same as including me in the conversation, much less pointing out to those guys that I was better able to discuss technical aspects of the game.  SB asks for my advice when we are together but he isn't exactly forthcoming to others that I know more.   I have played the game for longer than he has and I am an IRB qualified coach yet both women and men assume that he is the most knowledgeable one.  Last summer when I was coaching a tournament SB came down to observe me.  One of the parents who doesn't often go to the matches asked SB how her son was doing, missing the obvious clues such as the fact that I was wearing a kit that read "coach" and was carrying a clipboard with their lineup and statistics while SB was standing at the sidelines wearing flip-flops and carrying a coffee.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

sweet revenge and other just desserts

SB reminds me that correlation does not imply causation but there are high numbers of coincidences between activity with my phone provider and telemarketing activity.  Every time that I make a change to my service plan, whether it is to extend the contract or upgrade a service, I am inundated with annoying telemarketing callers within a week.  It is very irritating to know that China Mobile and other service providers are happy to sell my information to people who will call me during office hours and late evenings while I am also paying for the phone service that they are indirectly clogging up with unwanted calls.  I am especially irritated that some of the telemarketers call from unknown numbers because it would seem that my service provider doesn't care if it sells my info to disreputable and unethical companies.

Therefore it is with a smirk that I read a series of text messages that were recently sent to my phone from China Mobile, warning me of receiving unsolicited offers from another company to change service.  It appears that China Mobile sold off its customers' numbers to a competitor who is now asking us to switch over to a more enticing offer.  My disgust for my provider is tempered by my admiration for the cleverness of the competitor who was able to obtain a list customers by taking advantage of China Mobile's greed.  Not only do they have a high chance of offering a competitive deal due to knowing who we are all presently subscribed to but the competitor may actually be more careful about selling out our information considering how they got to us in the first place.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

packing it on before she packs it in

My coworker B was a wonder to behold over lunch today as I watched her attempting to stuff her face with a barbecue platter.  She is usually a healthy eater but she is a few weeks from giving birth to her first child and was undertaking desperate measures to catch up some weight.

For the entirety of her pregnancy B has only put on 13 pounds.  At last week's checkup she had only put on half of a pound from the previous week.  Despite this, the doctor claimed that the baby was 1.5 pounds bigger than the previous measurement and estimated it to be around 7.5 pounds.  I reassured B that I weighed 5 pounds when I was born so if the doctor was correct then it should be okay.  "So what is it?" she exclaimed to me, "If I only put on half a pound and the baby put on 1.5 pounds does that mean that I am malnourished?"

When she asked the doctor he laughed off her concern and remarked that it was a good thing because she wouldn't have to worry about all the weight she had to lose after giving birth.  Contrary to what the doctor thought, this answer did not please her at all.  B is not one of those vain women who diets or calorie counts during pregnancy though she appears to be one of those rare women who retain their perfect figures almost immediately after birth.  As much as she may enjoy that fact later, right now she would rather know that her progress is typical of other pregnant women and the variation is upsetting her.  Our other coworker is only ten weeks pregnant and has already put on ten pounds but is now avoiding telling B of her progress during B's final weeks.

For now we are treated to the sight of our small boned coworker constantly munching on snacks while looking like a snake who swallowed a bowling ball.

Christian Attitude

Jesus Washing the Apostles' Feet
I manage the Facebook Page for the Melkite Greek Catholic Church I attend.  I have been posting entries from the Primer of beliefs and traditions from the Eparchy of Newton's web site.  Today's was Christian Attitude.

Christian Attitude

The proper attitude of a follower of Jesus Christ is clearly written on every page of the New Testament: To be a servant to one another. As fallen human beings we have a desire for others to treat us with respect, honor, deference. Jesus taught us by His own sublime example, that this is wrong. He taught us that in His Kingdom the one who considers himself least is the greatest! As St. Basil the Great wrote: "Though He was in the bosom of His God and Father since before the beginning of time, He emptied Himself and took the form of a servant."

What is a servant? A servant is someone who is concerned about the needs of others rather than his on needs and who seeks not to receive respect but to give it to others. The paradox is that in this self-emptying (which we call metanoia) that we receive the highest possible honor: the Imitation of Christ our Savior!" - http://melkite.org/PRIMER.htm#Attitude

I have a hard time with this.  I think most people do in our society.  We can't seem to distinguish between being a servant and being a slave.  Where is the line crossed?  I don't know the answer, but I am pretty sure my mind tells me I am closer to the slave line more often than I really am.  Hence, I could be of service to more people than I currently am, and hence, most of us probably could be of more service than we are.

To top it off, there are groups like the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  I don't know if that is a proper use of the word.  I am an editor, so I seek these things out.  Slave usually connotes unwillful servitude.  I know there is nothing unwillful about these Slaves; I have seen some of them in action.  So I just don't get it.  I'll keep searching though.

"Lord Jesus, show me the way."


image - http://therosarytrail.com/jesus-as-servant/

Ithaca: where literal meets figural

2004: I returned from rugby training to find the letter waiting for me on my kitchen counter. Unlike the large envelope that contained my undergraduate acceptance, this letter was a one page missive and I initially thought that it was a rejection letter. I was disappointed but not surprised considering that my undergraduate school's military tradition and athletic accolades didn't provide much advantage when applying to the top two architecture schools in the country, and Ivy League institutions no less. My joy upon discovering Cornell's acceptance of me was briefly shared with my friends (no one wants to hug a sweaty rugby player for too long) and then I spent the rest of the summer planning my move to New York.

When I arrived in Ithaca on a very rainy fall afternoon, having driven 1800 miles in two days with almost all of my worldly possessions in my car, I did not know that my history was already tied to the area. Later while searching the history of the Fingerlakes region I discovered that an ancestor with my name and birth day had lived in the neighboring lake two hundred years previously. It is strange to see your name and birthday on someone else's obituary.  After that I was informed by my landlord that I was living in E.B. White's former home; she told me this fact the indifference of someone who lived in a town so small with a history so rich that almost everyone who lived in Ithaca had experienced a piece of its history. I was told stories of how during the 1950's the local school bus driver was at a loss over what to do with the weird man who was riding along with the children. The weird man later went on to write a story about Humbert Humbert and a nymphette.

Instead of registering for classes with an advisor, students would attend sessions where instructors gave short presentations of their courses and then the studnets would choose the programme that was of the most interest. Sebatien Marot's highly exuberant and somewhat confusing montage of Duchamp, the Iroquois Confederacy, geologist Dr. Ralph Tarr, Simeon DeWitt and Rem Koolhaas was intriguing so one week later I made my way to his lecture to give him a chance to interest me and he delivered. The course provided fodder for his work in progress about the superimposition of Ithaca's geological, political, and literary layers. He took his structure from Duchamp's The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (La mariée mise à nu par ses célibataires, même) which we referred to by its informal title, The Large Glass. Much like how Duchamp used physics and mythology to frame his work, we were instructed to find our own medium with which to construct a narrative with Ithaca or Cornell as the bride while bachelors were our choice.

The assignment was (literally) a nightmare. After struggling for a month and not coming up with any direction or methodology I began combing through Cornell's archives, hoping that inspiration could be found in the millions of books located in the stacks. A few weeks before the end of the course I had amassed a mountain of interesting pieces of history and not much else. I stopped attending Marot's office hours because I had nothing further to say. I had dreams about failing the course when I stood up to present and had nothing. Then one day as I was walking home across the suspension bridge I found clarity. Or sorta clarity. I was standing on the bridge looking out at the gorge and began to picture the layers of rock abstractly as layers of people. I would have a three layered Mise-en-scène with a geological bride and each layer represented by a Cornell bachelor whose work pertained to the layer! I rushed home to share my burst of inspiration with my roommates who in turn looked at me like I had hit my head on some of those layers.

One week later I presented the class with my apparatus. Using a system of hinges, springs and slides the shaky and clearly last-minute assemblage of a box slowly unfurled to reveal three representational layers. The bottom was my sub-terra of Ithaca's deep gorges and glacial lakes, shown through my interpretation of the research of Tarr. The middle layer was the terra of physical earth and spiritual inhabitants represented through my interpretation of Nabokov's gnostic themes. The upper layer was the extra-terra and could only be represented through Carl Sagan's lens. As I unfolded the components of my box into its final, sculptural form I spoke abut the works of Tarr, Nabokov and Sagan and how they expanded the fields of geology, literature and astronomy. Then I waited in silence for what seemed like an eternity. I began to rethink my presentation. The other students had lectured for much longer amounts of time with visual aides while I spoke as an aid to my visual apparatus. Then, finally, the silence was broken by a juror scraping his chair across the floor as he scooted in to grasp my project. He liked it. They liked it. I passed. Hallelujah.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Cornell is in Ithaca, NY, Where Greek meets Indian

The above quote from E.B. White marked the beginning of my course taught by Sebastien Marot.  It was uncanny how much Marot's dissertation would reflect upon my life.  I came to Cornell as a tabula rasa in many aspects and left the weight of Ithaca's history imprinted upon my person.  More on that in the next post but for now I will share the words of one of my favorite instructors.


"Sub-urbanism and Super-urbanism may be considered the most significant subversions to which the concept and practices of urbanism are currently subjected, one being initiated from the realm of landscape architecture, and the other by one of the most creative vanguard of contemporary architecture. While sub-urbanism could be described as a design experiment which holds the site as the matrix in which the program is to be deciphered, super-urbanism, quite to the contrary, stands for an attempt at literally inventing the site through the manipulation and building of the program.

The contemporary hero of super-urbanism is Rem Koolhaas and Delirious New York its undisputed manifesto. For several reasons, which are interesting to reflect upon, sub-urbanism has not yet found such a hero, and has certainly not produced a tale that would have the power of challenging Koolhaas’ “Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan”. Our ambition, however delirious or playful it may seem, is to correct that by moving the stage set from Manhattan to Ithaca (the seat of Cornell University) where it happens that Koolhaas actually started to work out his theoretical and poetic plot.

Our intention, drawing, like Koolhaas, on the critical paranoid method, is to gather the ingredients of a relative manifesto for sub-urbanism able to suggest both that sub-urbanism can only be advocated relatively (not absolutely), and that super-urbanism is but a moment of sub-urbanism. A tale cannot be challenged, except with another tale.

The lecture will link several narratives, moments and people that were critical in shaping the “topolitics” of Ithaca and Cornell: geographers, scientists, agronomists, engineers, architects, artists and writers. In so doing it will seek to illustrate the idea that every landscape is made of a dense fabric of tales, representations and constructions, and that every building or project is a poem composed and written in that three (or four) dimensional page already saturated with real and virtual constructs.

...In 1978, the year Colin Rowe's Collage City and Oswald Mathias Ungers' "Berlin: The City as a Green Archipelago" both came out, Rem Koolhaas published Delirious New York, A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan, a theoretical and poetical masterpiece which can be considered as the manifesto for contemporary super-urbanism (the program fashions the site). Interestingly enough, those three urban manifestoes, each magnetized by a fetish metropolis (Rome, Berlin, New York) share the same "distance point" in the little city of Ithaca, NY, seat of Cornell University where their three authors interacted in 1972-73 and started to build up their theoretical plots. By a curious loop in history, it so happens that this frontier town, located on the inlet of a lake that could figure the geographical antithesis of the Island of Manhattan, was founded by the designer of New York's famous grid (surveyor general Simeon De Witt). Exploiting those coincidences within the laudatio urbis of a hyperlandscape where the poetical adventures of Robert Smithson, Gordon Matta-Clark and Vladimir Nabokov each found their "North-West passage", our ambition is to reverse Rem Koolhaas' demonstration in Delirious New York and produce a relative manifesto for sub-urbanism (the site invents the program). In other words, to quote Fitzcarraldo in Werner Herzog's film, "I am planning something geographical"."

- Sebastien Marot, 'Palimpsestuous Ithaca: A Relative Manifesto for Sub-Urbanism'


Francesco Marullo wrote a fantastic breakdown of Marot's lecture here:

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Alabama Supreme Court Gives Legal Recognition To The Unborn Child - And Other Happenings

My gosh, I miss blogging. My life went off on a tangent and took me away to other things. Here is just a smidgen of important happenings.


Alabama Supreme Court gives legal recognition to the unborn child
"This decision makes Alabama the tenth state to specifically permit wrongful-death actions pre-viability. This is a huge victory not only for April Mack, but also for the legal recognition of the unborn child, because this case recognizes the personhood of the unborn child under civil law."

150 women religious in the Boston Archdioces celebrate Jubilee year of entrance and profession, marking anniversaries of 25, 50, 60, 65, 70, and 75 years
This is akin to married couples celebrating those anniversaries.  May God bless these religious.

The Melkite Greek Catholic Church celebrated the Universal Exaltation of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross (once there, scroll down for description)
"The Cross, which was a tree of death, was transformed into The Holy Cross, which is the Tree of Life."

Protestant Life Chain founder begs pastors to denounce contraception
How refreshing to have some non-Catholics tout Catholic teaching.

More agreement from non-Catholics about the deception of contraception
- A Protestant's Confession
- The Sexual Revolution Comes of Age in the Church
- Population Explosion or an Emerging Birth Dearth: The Facts
- Abortifacient Birth Controls: The Leading Killer of Human Beings in America and the World
- Our hypocrisy is screaming at us
- For the Christian Home to Consider & more

Spawned by someone challenging the Church's stand on reserving priestly ordination to men alone, I read the then Cardinal Ratzinger's letter about the role of men and women in the Church.  It's on the shorter side for one of these letters and is worth reading - and proclaiming!

17 Loaves of Banana Bread

On a personal note, I baked 17 loaves of banana bread at St. Benedict Abbey recently. 
It was one of my smaller batches, since I often bake 20 and more at a time.  :-)






images - http://www.justthefactsbaby.com/pregnancy/article/second-trimester-infant-development/48
personal files

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Dear Rick Perry

How can someone with so little faith in the government be so certain about capital punishment?

234 authorized executions in Texas place you at numero uno of any governor in the history of the United States.

You say that you don't lose any sleep over that fact but I would be having nightmares over the death of Cameron Todd Willingham who was executed for the murder of his three daughters in a case of arson that was later reexamined by the Texas Forensic Commission and Craig Beyler, a fire scientist, and determined that no evidence existed to conclude arson was committed.
But you replaced the chair of the commission, who cancelled the meeting that would have finalized the conclusion that an innocent man was executed under your reign just before Beyler was to present his evidence to the commission.  You denied Willingham's family the peace of mind of knowing that the fire was a terrible accident and their son and husband was innocent but at least it kept your record clean.  Maybe someone who would make such a cynical move without qualms can sleep very well at night.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

fitting a square peg into a round hole


When we moved into our flat last year I decided to switch dining tables.  Our old set was inherited from the previous tenant whose flat SB had subleased when he moved here and it was miserably uncomfortable.  My posterior quarters actually went numb during Thanksgiving dinner in 2009.  I found a replacement set online from an expat who was leaving Hong Kong.  The viewing times for her moving sale were during my office hours so I would be buying it sight unseen but it was originally purchased from G.O.D. so I went to the store to view it there.  The store no longer carried the same set but had a similar one with zebra wood and I liked it a lot.  However, when the second hand set was delivered it became clear that the table was much, much bigger than the one I had viewed at G.O.D.  It took up almost the entire dining area!  One of the movers looked at me with a deadpan expression and suggested that I could move it to the bedroom and place a mattress on top.  We kept it in the dining area even though it significantly reduced the space.  In the meantime I have heard endless comments from SB besmirching my architectural abilities.

Recently my firm has upgraded our printers.  The new color plotters arrived last week and are slightly larger than the previous ones, taking up a bit of the aisle in the printing shop.  The last of the copiers was supposed to be installed today but we ran into a problem: it does not fit.  The ink cartridges alone are larger than my personal printer.  The thing is so large that it would not fit through the opening of the office and even if it did, it would take up all of the circulation space.  It is about the size of a small car.

There is not much worse than the sight of half a dozen architects standing around with measuring tape and scratching their heads.

Canadian Woman Strangles Newborn; Walks Free

We really need it.

"An Alberta judge has let a woman who strangled her newborn son walk free by arguing that Canada’s absence of a law on abortion signals that Canadians 'sympathize' with the mother."
~~~~

“'We live in a country where there is no protection for children in the womb right up until birth and now this judge has extended the protection for the perpetrator rather than the victim, even though the child is born and as such should be protected by the court,' said Jim Hughes, national president of Campaign Life Coalition."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is so sad.  My heart literally aches.  As one acquaintance asked, "so when do Dads get the same power to kill?"  Read the full article here



image - http://livinghour.org/blog/progressive_christianity/justice-the-long-arc-of-the-moral-universe/

tick tock

I am attending two weddings next month.  One of the brides met her future husband a few months before SB proposed to me.  This fact led me to bring up our delayed/aborted wedding plans with SB.  He told me that he had been thinking a lot about our wedding plans and then began to list out ideas in a way that sounded like some kind of stream of consciousness performance.  The conversation died a painful death soon after. 

With each passing day of our years' long engagement I become more convinced to elope.  I do not think that I will survive wedding planning with SB; his ADHD will push my patience to the breaking point.  Since his informal proposal in 2009 he has thought really hard at short intervals about my ring but there is still nothing in the works.  I told him to just ask his mother for the ring that his father gave to her but he forgot to do that when he was visiting her last month and hasn't thought about it since.  I originally wasn't sure that I wanted the ring because his parents are divorced but any squeamishness has been overridden by despair at the thought of him choosing one for me before this decade is over.

He has all sorts of random and varied ideas about how he would like our wedding to be but he has done absolutely nothing to bring anything about because his ADHD makes him adverse to decision making and favorable to procrastination.  I have no interest in planning a wedding alone, especially since I am sure it would include having to buy the ring and arrange for when he should give it to me down to writing the proposal script. Yeah, not interested.  At. All.

I can't even pretend to support his ideas anymore because the more he talks, the further away it becomes.  I want to give him a deadline to put a plan together or else we should elope and get it over with.  I am stuck between Scylla and Charybdis because he hates being given deadlines and yet he only makes decisions when forced to.  I want the wedding to be a joyful occasion but it is becoming an endless frustration waiting for him to dream on while several of our grandparents have literally dropped dead in the meantime.  We both agree that happily ever after is our goal rather than the wedding itself.  I would even live happily ever after without the legal bindings if only we could just get it over with, one way or another.  Oh please let it be over soon.

Monday, September 12, 2011

Sloppy Catholicism

I saw this article and cringed.

The title is Welcome Home Lance Corporal Alex Sanford.
The editing was atrocious:

- While in Afghanistan he was part o the force that pushed into Trek Nawa...

- Alex and his fellow Marines subsisted on MRE's (meals- ready- to -eat), while makin their quarters...

- He looks forward to connecting up with friends an purchasing a truck...

- He and his family would like to thank the community for their continue support of our troops.

This is indicative of the casual approach we take to so many things these days, including our own Catholic Faith.  We don't dot the i's or cross the t's or spell things correctly.  It sends the wrong messages and leaves us more distant from God.  In parallel to the errors listed above:

- Leaving out one letter of a two letter word is like leaving out Joseph when talking about the parents of Jesus, or leaving out Abel when talking about the children of Adam and Eve.

- Adding unnecessary spaces in the explanation of an acronym is like keeping people confused about the Truth.

- Omitting the "g" in an "ing" word is like listing all your sins but never going to Confession.

- Leaving out one letter of a three letter word is like leaving out Jesus from the Trinity.

- Forgetting the "d" at the end of a past tense verb is like telling people the Passion is occurring today, not way back in Jesus' time.

With these oversights, we have to constantly re-interpret what we are reading, if we take the time, that is.  It is an annoyance and a distraction and we miss out on what the author really wants us to know. 

The same thing occurs with our Faith.  When we are less than thorough in things like learning the Catechism, or doing our Confession, or receiving the Eurcharist, others have to re-interpret what they are observing, and at the same time, we are personally missing the fullness of God's plan of salvation for us.

What are you doing to deepen your knowledge and practice of the Catholic Faith?


image - personal files

Sunday, September 11, 2011

a whole lot of shaking going on

The floor underneath me has been shaking on and off since this morning.  My coworker thinks that it is from some nearby MTR construction or pile driving in a neighboring site.  I work at the Hopewell Centre in Wanchai.  If anyone can tell me why the ground is shaking I would really appreciate it.  I am feeling more skittish about it than I probably should and would like to ease my mind.

Friday, September 9, 2011

UMCOR Builds on 9/11 Response


Like many people, I anticipated the arrival of the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks for some time. Although I was not in my current position with UMCOR at the time of those terrible events, I recall feeling a sense of pride as a United Methodist pastor serving in a local congregation that "my" church was responding.

UMCOR responded as it always does, with special attention to the most vulnerable populations. Love in the Midst of Tragedy was UMCOR’s three-tiered response to those events. In addition to focusing on the most vulnerable survivors and other affected people, its programs promoted peace and reconciliation and also extended a hand to a displaced Afghan population that was returning home after two harsh decades.

It is fitting that at this tenth anniversary of 9/11 UMCOR continues to build on its response to that tragedy as it addresses current emergencies around the world. In just the past six months, these have included the triple disaster in Japan; a rash of violent tornadoes through the US South; a third straight year of record flooding in North Dakota; a still unfolding recovery in Haiti; epic flooding caused by back-to-back hurricanes/tropical storms along a string of Eastern states; and wildfires that have burned tens of thousands of acres in Texas.

Yes, it is fitting that UMCOR should honor those who experienced not only the horror of 9/11 but the solidarity and self-giving that were part of the response to the events of that late-summer day by continuing to be present in times of emergency or disaster, to offer a hand and to offer hope.

*Rev. Cynthia Fierro Harvey is the head of UMCOR.

You can also read 9/11 reflections from the General Board of Global Ministries General Secretary Thomas Kemper here.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

a decade later

I will tell this story to the best of my recollection.

SB's friend K is a remarkable man.  Years ago he quit his finance job and spent years traveling around the world, engaging in all sorts of exciting activities.  He kayaked from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.  He rode his bicycle across the United States.  While in India he grew a beard so that he could enter Yemen with minimum attention. 

Ten years ago during he worked in a finance company on Church Street in New York City.  One morning he was having a meeting in the center of his office when a huge explosion rocked the building.  Nothing was spoken after that; the meeting broke up as each colleague ran for an exit.  Interestingly, each of the four colleagues at the meeting chose a different emergency exit.  Three of them made it out of the building in minutes but K had chosen the wrong exit.

He ended up in a mass of confusion as people were running in both directions.  The exit floor had become blocked with debris and smoke so eventually he made his way onto a refuge floor with several colleagues.  After about half an hour later he went back to the staircase and discovered that some of the smoke had cleared and firefighters were ascending the stairs.  Some of the people on the refuge floor opted to wait but he decided to go down the staircase.  The fire at the bottom was not as bad as it had seemed.

Once outside he began walking from the building with a couple of women who had exited with him.  He had lost his colleagues.  As they walked away a loud noise drew his attention.  He looked back to see a sight that most of the world has now also seen.  He told the women with him not to turn around but they did.  One woman fell to the ground.  Eventually they did the only thing left to do and began walking again.  He lived close to his office so he took the women to his home where they stayed for some amount of time before going on.  I didn't ask if he found out their names or ever saw them again. 

Most of us know where we were at that time.  I spent that morning in the stairwell of my school, offering comfort to a stranger.  We have forged a friendship out of the day that we were united by our grief and fear though we have never spoken about it.  But I am writing it down now as a record or what was lost and gained.

Catholic Prayers From The East

I bought a wonderful Eastern prayer book published by Sophia Press.  It is called the Publicans Prayer Book.  When I read it, I yearn for the Divine.  Here are some samples.
Morning Prayer
O Heavenly King, Consoler, Spirit of Truth, present in all places and filling all things, the Treasury of Blessings and the Giver of Life, come and dwell in us, cleanse us of all stain and save our souls, O Good One!

Fifth Ode - Excerpt
You are the source of all light and Creator of the ages, O Lord:  direct us in the light of Your commandments, for we know no other God but You.

From The Great Fast, First Ode
It is time for repentance; I come to You, my Creator.  Remove my heavy yoke of sin, and in Your compassion, grant me the forgiveness of my sins.
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me!
Like the Prodigal, O Savior, I have squandered the wealth of my soul on dissolute living, and I am barren of the fruits of virtue.  In my hunger, I cry out:  O compassionate Father, come out to meet me and take pity on me!


From The Paschal Hour
Christ is risen from the dead, and by His death, He has trampled upon Death, and has given life to those who were in the tombs! (This sounds wonderful when chanted in church.)

From Anavathmi, p. 475
Many a pain have I sustained since my youth. Be my assistance, O my Savior, and save me.

O you, the enemies of Sion, flee in your shame before the Lord, for you shall wither like grass before the fire...


Prayer to Your Guardian Angel
O Holy Angel, interceding for my wretched soul and passionate life, forsake me not, a sinner, nor shrink from me for my intemperance. Give no place for the subtle demon to master me through the violence of my mortal body. Strengthen my poor and feeble hand, and guide me in the way of salvation. O holy Angel of God, guardian and protector of my wretched body and soul, forgive me for all the insults I have given You every day of my life, and for whatever sins I may have committed during the past night. Protect me during the present day, and guard me from every temptation of the Enemy, that I may not anger God by any sin. And pray to the Lord for me that he may strengthen me in His fear, and make me, His slave, worthy of His goodness. Amen.



Prayer to the Most Holy Theotokos
(Mother of God, i.e. Mary)
O most Holy Lady, Mother of God, light of my poor soul, my hope, my protection, my refuge, my comfort and my joy:  I thank You for having enabled me to be a partaker of the most Pure Body and the most Precious Blood of Your Son.  Enlighten the eyes of my heart, You who carried the Source of Immortality.  O most tender and loving Mother of the merciful God, have mercy on me, and grant me a repentant and contrite heart with humility of mind...make me worthy always, even to my last breath, to receive the most Pure Mysteries of Christ for the healing of my soul and body.  Give me tears of repentance and thanksgiving, that I may  chant and praise You all the days of my life, You who are ever blessed and glorified.  Amen.


images - http://mi9.com/wallpaper/free-good-morning-rising-sun-wallpaper_84537/
http://www.stltoday.com/lifestyles/faith-and-values/civil-religion/sharon-autenrieth/image_af5a113e-7036-11e0-9e6f-0019bb30f31a.html
http://www.examiner.com/eastern-orthodoxy-in-san-francisco/eastern-orthodoxy-101-theotokos

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

horrible

Like many other media sources this morning's Standard reported the airplane crash that killed most of the members of KHL's Lokomotiv Yaroslavl.  They also couldn't resist including a picture of a body being hauled out of the wreckage, unlike other media organizations.  Scanning through the rag at my bus stop, I was unprepared to come across the image but was immediately disgusted.  I also felt horror because the body had more than a passing resemblance to SB's physique.  I would have been devastated to see my beloved's body plastered across a newspaper. 

I will agree that images of death can be important to convey the gravity of a situation.  I can even agree that they are truthful images that are part of a record.  But I do not agree with the tabloid-like exploitation of such images for shock and titillation value.  I will say no thank you next time the paper is offered to me at my bus stop.

Passing on the Gift: Haiti Day 2- Sept. 6, 2011

Madame Marie Therese in La Tremblay, Haiti, discusses her participation in the PAUA Agriculture project with UMCOR's director of marketing and communications J. Rollins.  Photo: J. Rollins/UMCOR

The day began with a rooster crowing outside my window at 5 a.m., beating my alarm clock by half-an-hour.

Everyone gathered in the common area of the Methodist Guest House on the Frere campus for a delicious breakfast (the hospitality is incredible) and then set out for three site visits: a recipient from the Emergency Agriculture program Projet d’Assistance Urgente d’Agriculture (PAUA) at La Tremblay; a trip through Camp Corail, a resettlement camp; and the construction site of a school at Leveque.

It was overwhelming to see the estimated 100,000 temporary and transitional homes at Camp Corail, encouraging to see the progress of construction at the Laveque school, and heartwarming to meet Madame Marie Therese at the PAUA site at La Tremblay.

M. Therese was a recipient of goats as part of the agricultural project, which reached out to 1,600 most vulnerable families in all of Haiti. The project focuses on livestock and grain distribution in six of the most difficult places to access in Haiti. M. Therese and her husband chose to raise goats instead of growing crops due to the difficult access to water. They use the milk from the goats, and also breed them to sustain themselves and others in their village.

M. Therese said that without this program, she is not sure how she and her husband would have survived. Neither could work after the earthquake, and they struggled to meet day-to-day needs.

Today, when she saw Collins Zamar, PAUA project coordinator, approaching her home with our group, she came out and greeted us with a large smile. She explained that she was not feeling well, but she did not want to pass up the opportunity to tell us how the program had changed their lives. She said she was looking forward to the day when she would “pass on the gift” to another family in need.

A component of PAUA is that recipients of livestock and grain are required to give a percentage of seed harvested or livestock produced to others in their community—thus keeping the program going and changing the lives of their neighbors, friends, and loved ones.

I thought of M. Therese for the rest of the day and felt lucky to share in her joy. My sentiment was best described in our liturgy that started this day:

For men, women, and children in communities adversely affected by natural disasters;
For friends, and well wishers who are actively involved in Haiti’s ongoing development;
For a positive outcome of this roundtable meeting;
Lord in your mercy,
Hear our prayer.


James Rollins, director of communications for UMCOR