A Rant and Rave

It has been such a long time since I've had a rant and rave, but here is one.

Here is a book I saw at a tourist store in the Monument Valley area (so in the Navajo reservation).

"Native Wisdom for White Minds" ..... and no it is not a joke.

I am actually nearly going to stay off the issue of the "Native" term.
I am just going to say we are all native of somewhere and even in the way they mean it (where you are only a native if you live on the same continent than you ancestors did a long time ago, though how long ago is unclear) "whites" are Natives of Europe so white European wisdom should be included.... but we all know that in the way the term Native is used here "whites" are not native of anywhere.
However I do realize that right now terminology is difficult. And in fact on this trip I was really surprised to see that in the States the term "indian" appears to be OK. I tell you in Canada it is not.

What I really want to address is the "White Minds" thing. I promise you there is no such thing as "White Minds" and this is what I really want to pick on...and I can because I am what they call "white".
Here is the scoop: whites, blacks, browns, yellows etc (In case I forget anybody) are diverse groups which all contain numerous cultures and even more types of minds.
I know black people with minds, culture and way of thinking much more similar to mine than most white people I met during this trip in the States....and that is just an example.

Imagine if somebody published a book called "White Wisdom for Black Minds" they would get lynched!

Can we try to at lease ease off on the racism? At all ? Any chance? Can we try? Not just us "white people" but everybody? Can we even be allowed to say out loud (or in this case write) that there is racism against "whites"?
In South Africa, in the funniest of way, racism against "whites" is called "reverse racism" and the term would work if "racism" was what "whites" do to other races, but racism is what people do when they discriminate based on race, any race.
In fact saying "Asians are excellent at math", even though it comes across as a positive comment, is racism. It is not about which race does it, not about to what race it is done, and not about the nature of the comment, it is about discrimination based on race.

I'm just going to add: We all bleed red.

"The Man who Killed the Deer" by Frank Waters

I recommend this book to anybody interested at all in First Nations issues in North America even if you do not want to get into the politics of it. It just deals with the daily life of a simple person.

It takes place among the Pueblo Indians and was written in 1942. Normally I would be reluctant to even go close to a novel about First Nations written that long ago but I promise you it is safe to go there. You will not have to cringe or grind your teeth.

I own two copies of it. One copy is water stained because it was the cheapest copy I could originally find. The second copy I picked up for a quarter even though it has what I think is a terrible cover. Honestly had it been the original cover I had seen I may not have bought the book. Goes to show the saying is true, "you cannot judge a book by its cover".

Here is an extract from the back of one of them: "Frank Waters' The Man who Killed the Deer stands with Black Elk Speaks as one of the finest books ever written about American Indian. A novel of a Pueblo Indian caught between the ritual ways of his tribe and the alien 20th-century world of the white man, The Man Who Killed the Deer is a story of a man who lives as a stranger in both."

First it is beautifully written and it is a beautiful story; second, from my point of view, it is a great book about somebody caught between their original culture and another world regardless of how they got there.

A book recommendation

I am probably going to regret this post, but anyway here it is:

I HIGHLY recommend: "Help Me Live: 20 things people with cancer want you to know" by Lori Hope.

If you know somebody with cancer, if you work with people with cancer, even if you think you are good with it you NEED to read that book.

p. 18: "Six word in sequence that NEVER fail ..... "I don't know what to say"."
The emphasis on "NEVER" is mine. I totally recommend that line. In fact I often say that if I was to write a book on the subject it would be very short because it would be "say" "I don't know what to say"!"

There is much more to the book. There truly are 20 things that people with cancer want you to know. I don't agree with every single one of them, but nearly.

Alternatively you could talk to my friends in Joburg because they have been awesome at it, but they are the exception to the rule.

The volcanic ashes made it from Chile to Tasmania

I am still in Tasmania. It is winter here and it is cold and we have frost every night.I had hope to go to Darwin (near the northern tip of mainland Australia) this Wednesday and from there go to Kakadu National Park but the ashes of the Chilean volcano have made it all the way to Tasmania and flights in and out of Tasmania as well as some other Australian towns have been cancelled.

A week ago I went to the local library with the friends I am staying with and borrowed on their card "Desert Country" by Nicci Cumpston with Barry Patton published by the Art Gallery of South Australia. It is a fabulous book about Aboriginal art with fabulous reproductions and even some explanations for some of the paintings. This is part of the reason why I want to go to Darwin, to go to Kakadu and see some Aboriginal rock paintings. At the same time I am re-reading "Song lines" by Bruce Chatwin which I found at a charity store. The two books together help see the Aboriginal art /culture differently and I am loving it.

Aboriginal paintings when viewed as abstracts are beautiful but are even better when a little sense is made out of them. (I wouldn't pretend that I can make much more than a small part of what they really represent)

My little bit of No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency

"No.1 Ladies Detective Agency" is the first book of a series by Alexander McCall Smith. They are very popular. I think it is the first book of the series which was made into a movie. I have to admit that I tried to read the first one but could never get into it and never tried again, though I really like other books by McCall Smith.
Anyway, the main character of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency is Precious Ramotswe (aslo known as Mma Ramotswe). She lives in Mochudi in Botswana but apparently some of McCall Smith's settings are inspired from Gaborone and apparently one of the place where she goes for tea is inspired from the tea room at the hotel where I was staying.

 

This is the balcony from which I took the market photos, so you can see why it would be a good spot for a lady detective to observe what is going on.

Just outside Gaborone you can go and visit the film set, and you have the Number 1 Ladies' Detective opera house. You can also take The Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency Tour!

As an aside, hotels in Gaborone are outrageously expensive. This hotel which was a three stars was clean but was ultimately very plain. The space between wall tiles in the bathroom had gaping holes which I wouldn't care about if it wasn't  for the fact that this was the most expensive hotels I have ever paid for (I can't stay "stayed at" because through my job I have stayed at some pretty fancy hotels). 

Due to some mistake of the travel agent I stayed for two nights for the price of one night (the hotel did not have to take the loss), so it was supposed to be a really good deal, but even at half price it was grossly overpriced.

Botswana tourist industry is known for being very expensive.

Reading: The Earthsea Quartet

These days I do not have much time to read. It seems that all my time goes to Mandarin, sorting out books at the charity store, shopping for food and cooking. But when I have time to read I am reading the Earthsea Quartet (A Wizard of Earthsea; The Tombs of Atuan; The farthest Shore and Tehanu) by Ursula Le Guin. The edition I bought (secondhand obviously) is published by Puffin which made me think that it was one of her children's book but here is a small extract from The Farthest Shore :
- " You fear them because you fear death, and rightly : for death is terrible, and must be feared," the mage said. He laid new wood on the fire, and blew on the small coals under the ashes. A little flare of brightness bloomed on the twigs of brushwood, a grateful light to Arren. "And life also is a terrible thing," Ged said, "and must be feared, and praised." -

It doesn't sound very much like a book for children to me. So far the books were a bit like Harry Potter in the sense that you can take what you want out of it and either read a lot of moral and messages or just read the story but the third book of the series is a little heavier and I can't help but wonder who was the targeted audience. I am not complaining I am enjoying the books but hte "Puffin" on the cover is the real puzzle

Two authors I want to remember

OK, this is of no interest to anybody else but myself.
I just read two good books, nothing special but entretaining in a style I like and I want to be able to remember them so I am listing them here for myself:

"the last days of Newgate" by Andrew Pepper
"The last Dickens" by Matthew Pearl.

Normally when I go to a second-hand bookstore if I don't know what I want I always start with the letter "M" (assuming that authors are in alphabetical order. I've had much success with the letter "M" but now becaue of the two books mention above I first look at the letter "P".

Waiting for a reasonable time to go to the airport

I am flying out this afternoon and all I am doing now is pacing (well right now I am taking a break from pacing to do the last of the internet stuff I want to do).  You'd think I would first finish my packing then pace! But really I have so little packing to do that I know I can sort it out in 15 minutes.

I still have to take the truck to storage, put it on jacks (the camper is a little too heavy for me to let it sit on the truck for months on end).

I wish I could just go to the airport and go.

So, the itinerary as it stands is:
Santiago, Chile (just for 4 days since I delayed my ticket out of Calgary)
Buenos Aires, Argentina (5 days)
Johannesburg .... with no ticket to get out of South Africa at this point..... And by the way, do NOT fly into South Africa without another ticket to get out. Sometimes (not often I'll grant you) the airline check that you have a way out or a visa before they let you board the plane....this is of course unless you have a visa... I have a visa until May 2013 or something like this.

I bought myself  "The Tiger: a true story of vengeance and survival" by John Vaillant to read on the plane. I can't wait to get on the plane to start it, maybe I'll cheat and start it in the lounge before boarding. I heard an interview of the author about it on CBC and it sounds great.

Hippocrene Books - Publishing house

I've mentioned in a  previous post that I had borrowed from our library "Taste of Nepal" and today as I thought I would go through it to find a another daal recipe (I've already made Mismaas Dall quite successfully I thought) I noticed on the front page a list of "The Hippocrene Cookbook Library" which is quite unusual and quite extensive. Out of curiosity I thought I would go to their web page and I was not disappointed. They have books like "The Kerala Kitchen: Recipes and Recollections from the Syrian Christian of South India" !!! This sounds absolutely fabulous to me. Now I will have to go to our library' catalog and see if they  have it.
I can't buy anything right now I am moving. If anything I need to get rid of things.

Two reasons why I wanted to post about this publishing house:
1. I want to be able to find the link again

2. I saw in their list of cookbooks on their webpage: " Imperial Mongolian Cooking" by Marc Cramer. They describe the book as follow: "This collection includes 120 easy-to-follow recipes, a glossary of spices and ingredients and a list of samples menues. It includes such dishes as "Bean and Meatball Soup", "Spicy Steamed Chicken Dumplins", "Turkish Swordfish Kabobs" and "Uzbek Walnut Fritters"." and I wondered if you (really mostly wondering if A., I don't know many other people with interest in Central Asia really) have heard of it.
......... (added later, after further browsing of the web page) they have "Art of Uzbek Cooking". When I was in Kazakhstan I used to go to this little Uzbek restaurant. They had great food. In fact in Kazakhstan Uzbek food was reputed, and recognized by all, as the best food in all of Central Asia. ..... Oh no! I am salivating just to think of it!

Calgary ... not even a rant!!!

I always say that I do not like Calgary and it is true. The worse things about Calgary as far as I am concerned is that it is very unfriendly and that ultimately what people always quote as its best feature "It is near the Rockies" is partially untrue, it is really nearly 2 hours drive from the Rockies. I can really rant about why I do not like Calgary but I'll spare you .. and myself.

But for a change here is what I like about Calgary:
- It has a river with a pathway all along it. In fact last Sunday I was able to walk 15kms on the pathway starting right from my house and it was a very pleasant walk.
- It has a great library system. You can borrow books (obviously), books on CDs, books as MP3, DVDs, music CDs etc. And it has a great collection.

Here is the kind of stuff I was able to borrow from the library last week:
- "Taste of Nepal" a cook book by Jyoti Pathak. Honestly, how often do you see Nepalese cookbooks?
- "50 great curries of India" by Camellia Panjabi. My all time favourite curry cookbook. I found it originally in Heathrow but right now my copy is in storage in South Africa. Every single recipe in this book always works beautifully and every recipe I've tried (and I have done quite a few, though admittedly I take liberties with recipes) taste fabulous
- "660 curries" by Raghavan Iyer another book I have in storage in South Africa.
- Two versions of Latin American Spanish courses (for Chile and Argentina where I am going next)
- "Wolf totem" by Jiang Rong a near autobiography (but a novel) depicting the dying culture of the Mongols and which came highly recommended on a blog I follow.
- "Frost Nixon" a movie which I have seen several times but which I really like
- 2 versions of "King Lear" which I have to admit I had never seen before and turns out to be a bit of a disappointment. Honestly the three daughters, the youngest being the nicest but unrecognized etc etc this was NOT an Shakespeare idea there are dozens of legends on this theme which obviously predate Shakespeare and do it better. What is it about three daughters / three sons, the youngest always being the nicest anyway ... OK don't say it, I know
- "Half Nelson" a GREAT movie. I highly recommend it.
etc etc etc. I am not going to list everything I borrowed.

Things have changed quite a bit in Calgary since I was last here:
- Storefronts for rent are not that unusual
- houses for rent or sale are everywhere
- every second store does NOT have a sign looking for staff
- It seems to me that there is more ethnic diversity (Hurray!) (I found a great little halal butcher shop and was able to buy excellent goat and lamb - excellent lamb in Calgary had seemed impossible especially after Tasmania where the lamb is beautiful)
- food has become much more expensive. I noticed that now grocery store display the price of fruits and vegetable in pounds as opposed to kilograms (which they used to do since we are a metric country!!!) to make the prices seem more reasonable.