Perceiving

Life, Above all is a film about a young girl in rural South Africa trying to hold her family together as they endure a chain of tragedies. You can find the plot summary and spoiler reviews at  IMDB  or  Rotten Tomatoes . I like the choice of title which can have multiple meanings that capture the various themes in the film. First it speaks of the value of every human life. Some quotes from the movie echo harsh realities of how we could perceive people suffering from AIDS. "Those whores, they deserve what they get."  The film conveys that many of those suffering from AIDS do not deserve it, and even those who do are still beautiful human beings with a lot to give. Secondly, it resonates of hope. Where there is life, there is hope. It is a tragedy that in many places in the world, people are so unknowledgeable about AIDS and disease that they can't help but explain it through their own world view. Someone with AIDS is bewitched and they are see...

If you are able to get fresh, clean and drinkable water from a tap like I did, consider yourself lucky! Fresh clean water from a tap Many people turn on their tap and get brownish water, or worse no water. Other people don't even have a tap and must travel far to fetch water. For those who live in the first world, we hardly give any thought to the value of water and its scarcity in many parts of the world. On this day, why not take a few minutes to get more informed? Here are a few good links to get you started: World water day in pictures:  http://gu.com/p/36c88/tw For Canadians, ideas on how you can take action on World Water day:  http://canadians.org/water/issues/World_Water_Day/ Al Jazeera's documentary on Canada's oil sands and its effects on the nearby rivers. These should get the ideas flowing.

As bank profits  continue to rise--already to the tune of one to two billion dollars per quarter among Canada's big five banks--it perturbs me that they continue to make fine print changes to gouge more money from the unwitting masses. This notice came with my monthly MasterCard statement describing a change in policy that any payments made to the outstanding balance will first be applied to items with the lowest rate of interest to the items of highest rate of interest. Basic money sense knows that if you are in debt to various lenders, you pay off the high interest sums first to reduce your total payments. How do banks claim to work for us when they make illogical policies that hurt the customer and not work in their interest?

About a week ago, I read on the  news  that the French senate has passed a bill making it illegal to deny the Armenian genocide that took place under Ottoman rule. Denial is now a crime punishable by a year in prison and a fine of 45,000 euros. It is objectionable that in a democratic society in which one of the most fundamental pillars is free speech that such a law could even be passed. Never mind that this legislation seemed to come out of nowhere. What had prompted France to get in between this century-old conflict between the Turks and the Armenians at this time? History of all things is never black or white. "History is fables agreed upon" according Voltaire. France may have gained favour with its 500,000 or so resident Armenians, but this is a step back for free speech. The government should not be in the business of legislating people what to believe. Jan. 31, 2012 Latest update to this story:  France's Armenia genocide law put on hold

Upon reading this article today:  The real way to build a social network , I have become extremely aware of how I've completely undervalued my "shallower" relationships. There was a time a few years back when I felt completely overwhelmed by the amount of social obligations that I had--someone's birthday every week, house warming, baby showers, bridal showers, weddings to take up all of my weekends. I was so miserable that I had to consciously take some measures to reduce the social excess in my life. It began by cutting off or severely loosening shallow ties. It wasn't easy and I took some flak for it, but it had to be done. I jumped at the chance to work abroad for six months in a country where I didn't know anyone nor did I speak the language. I missed my close friends and family but it felt so good not to have any obligations--to own my time completely. Since coming back from that, I've changed my approach to friendships. I would invest heavily ...

Finally got a chance to make this recipe from the 2010 holiday edition of the LCBO magazine. Making the cookies are a little tricky. A lot of them turned out cracked or malformed. I got about 60% yield on the 24 cookies I made. Some lessons learned: After piping the mixture out to form the cookies, do not "top up" with extra cookie mixture at the end. Otherwise you get this nipple effect (picture below, left). Flattening the  macarons out with the back of a spoon dipped in warm water is a bad idea. While it is effective in flattening the peaks, it causes ugly bubbles like this (picture below, right) to form on the surface. Malformed cookies: (left) "nipple" effect. (right) bubbling on the surface I had a lot of leftover caramel in the end. If you don't have a super sweet tooth like me, you can get away with making just half the caramel recipe. The final product: Macaron on a plate with caramel oozing out Tin of macarons to share w...

While reading the Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley, I came across this observation by a young Malcolm about well-intentioned whites. "They'll be there to support you during thin, but not during thick." Malcolm rejects the patronizing compassion of whites towards black. How often am I guilty of the same! I meet a need and I feel good about it, but ask me for more--ask me to hang out, ask me to be your friend--I don't know about that. The best kind of friendship is a mutual sharing of joys and pains, a relationship between two equals. What we need is more friendship, not charity.