Poop on Your Pop Can?

You really need to remember - you shouldn't believe everything you read.
A friend of mine was telling me recently about a warning she had seen printed in the June issue of CARP magazine. It came from the desk of Lillian Morgenthau, the founder and president of this Canadian association for the 50-plus. Morgenthau tells her readers that it's important to wash all cans before opening them, and zeroes in on soda cans in particular. Says she, "A study in Spain showed the tops of soda cans are contaminated with rodents' droppings and full of bacteria." The reason for this, according to Morgenthau, is that cans are stored "in warehouses or containers that may be infested with rodents that move freely among these canned and packaged goods."
On the same page as this warning, is the listing of positions held at the magazine, including that of "Fact Checker/Researcher". The little miss doing this job shouldn't get paid for this one. "A study in Spain showed the tops of soda cans are contaminated with rodents' droppings..." What a sweeping statement to make, without anything with which to prove it. Think about it. That statement means ALL cans are contaminated. Period. It means that every single can filled is exposed to rodent droppings.
It sounds like someone has fed the urban myth e-mail about the woman/man who dies in Texas/Belgium after drinking from a coke can to Morgenthau. The myth assures people that rat urine/droppings contain "deathly substances", but it just isn't true. IF a rat is infected with a deadly disease, its excrement and urine will indeed contain deadly substances, but not otherwise. Neither is it true that there has been such a study conducted. Note the lack of details citing the facility by which the supposed study was conducted.
While I would never argue against cleaning the top of a can from which you are about to ingest or imbibe the contents, I also know, just as you do, that there are countless people who do not clean the can tops. Neither do they die. Admit it. There's a damn good chance you've popped the tab at least once on an unwashed can and put it to your mouth. Since you're alive to read this right now, it rather puts the lie to Ms Morgenthau's grim little article, doesn't it?
Come on, Morgenthau, get your fact checker to do a little more fact checking before you go printing such drivel in your magazine.

The Not-So-Fast Takeout

The not-so-fast part is what Pam's Caribbean Kitchen takes special pride in. The fact of the cooking done there is that most of it is done from scratch, so you should plan to spend a little time waiting for your order, but if it's West Indian food you're after, and you want the taste to be worth the wait, then this is the place to go. Located at 1160 Bloor Street West, the restaurant is a modest establishment, but clean and bright, with beautiful runners accenting each of the tables and a couple of plants posturing in the sunlight from the front window. Hubby and I ate boneless chicken roti there yesterday for under $8.00 each. The meal was great.
Being a neighbour of Bloor Collegiate, Pam offers student specials that include BBQ chicken or stew beef with peas and rice. The hungry scholar can throw in a bottled juice and dine well for about $6.00. The price tag compares favourable with other lunch food places, but Pam's got most of them beat with the value she offers for your dollar. She sources her ingredients as much as possible from the nearby Dufferin Grove Organic Farmers' Market. Go through the list from Subway to McDonald's and you won't find a single place that can better that.
If you do eat in-house, don't go looking for alcoholic beverages. The place is not licensed. If you'd like to chow down on some of this great food at home, call 416-533-368 and you can talk to Pam about having your next family get-together catered with some of the best West Indian. Try some of everything, 'cause "everything" covers so much, from vegan chickpea chana to house-made green mango hot sauce; from butterflied shrimp with garlic to biryani rice with raisins.
Enjoy!

Prosecuting Terrorism

Canada has not exactly made a sterling reputation for itself with our handling of other cases involving terrorism. The final results from prosecuting the 1985 Air India bombings are woefully inadequate, and have perhaps sent a message to would-be terrorists that they can act with impunity on Canadian soil. It's a message we really do not want to send, and one that we have a chance to turn around with our handling of the Toronto 18.
Justice John Sproat got it all off to a great start this morning when he delivered his decision finding a 20-year-old Torontonian guilty of participating in a terror cell. The group was plotting the deaths of civilians as well as that of the Prime Minister, who was to have been beheaded if the terrorists' plans had come to fruition.
Because the criminal found guilty this morning was underage at the time of his arrest two years ago, he can not be named. Sproat, however, said that there was "overwhelming" evidence that a terrorist group did indeed exist. He also stated, "(The youth) knew what (the alleged leader) was all about and what the group was about."
Under Canadian law, it is not necessary that the accused know specifics of any plot or planned attack. It is only necessary that he knowingly participate in a terrorist enterprise. Although no evidence has been presented to indicate the accused did know of specific plots, he spent months shoplifting camping gear and walkie-talkies for the group and also attended a training camp just weeks before the arrests in June 2006 of the 18. In his report, Sproat reprinted in full the jihadist exhortation given at that camp by the ringleader. In it, the leader rants on about their supposed mission, declaring, "Whether we get arrested, whether we get killed, we get tortured, our mission's greater than just individuals ... Rome has to be defeated. And we have to be the ones to do it, no holding back." According to Sproat, after that speech the accused would have known absolutely that he was taking part in a terrorist enterprise.
I don't care what his age was then or what it is now. I think the book should be thrown at him. He should be punished to the fullest extent possible under Canadian law. It should all start with the publication of his name, today. He was willingly participating in a group that wanted to strike at innocent civilians, and murder them. He was willingly taking part in a group that wanted to trample on the rights of others. To me, that is more than sufficient cause to consider any and all of his supposed rights to be at an end. His actions declare loud and long that he was giving them up himself, so why should we argue with him? He should be kept under lock and key for many, many long years, and placed in hard labour rather than given an easy ride. Digging drainage ditches or using a sledge hammer daily to break up boulders somewhere would be commensurate with what his own actions declared him worthy of. He should never be allowed to get an education at the taxpayers' expense, like Homolka did. Canada needs to stop being so goddamn polite that we even help murderers and their wanna-be imitators to acquire university degrees, instead of coming down hard on their heads.
I hope our justice system will actually enact a little just retribution here, and throw the bloody book at the terrorist.

Yeah, Right

The unnamed teen who walked into his former high school in Regina on Tuesday of this week, brandishing a weapon, has been called a "good kid" by his parents. Yeah, right.
This good kid was expelled from the school, Luther College, last year. That fact alone would help you to believe he must have been good. He entered the school chapel at about 10:20 a.m. with a list of grievances which he demanded be read aloud. If not, said he, he would shoot. That also helps you believe this is a really good kid, right? Another couple of facts that back up the good kid claim is vice-principal Nancy Ostine's reaction to seeing the teen, and school president Bruce Perlson's comments on her action. Ostine saw the teem running in the halls, recognized him and, “I was worried and on alert and ran upstairs and called 911,” she said. Perlson said Ostine had reason to be concerned, because "(t)here was a hint that he had issues,” and he added that Tuesday's event did not surprise him. This "good kid" was expelled last year, “dismissed for cause for his behaviour,”. Vice-principals don't dial 911 when they see a former student in the school, not if they actually were a decent type. School presidents don't say they're not surprised if a former student comes back to threaten others with a weapon, not if they were actually a good member of the school community.
Oh yeah, it's easy to tell, alright. This is one really good kid.

Safeguarding Sir Paul

From the deadly serious quandary of whether or not global peace is possible, to the not quite so significant question of whether or not Macca should keep his scheduled date to perform this Thursday in Tel Aviv. Says Sir P., he will bring a "message of peace" in his "Friendship First" concert. Just think of the incredible difference this is bound to make. I bet the world can hardly wait.
Groups from both sides of the Palestinian/Israeli mine field have tried to influence the former Beatle to take their side in the decades-long dispute, but Sir Paul is not taking sides with anyone, other than perhaps his own pocket book. You have to give him credit, anyway, for going ahead with the performance. After all, no matter how much of an effort is made in the way of protection, it is always possible that some nutcase may be able to breach the security. Of course, you also have to give credit to the Israeli intelligence service for undertaking the protection of the musician and any of his adult children who decide to accompany their famous dad. I'm sure the whole thing has to be a logistical nightmare for them.
Why couldn't the singer warble away on film and send the reel to Tel Aviv, along with the money it would take to keep Sir Walrus safe. I'm sure it could be put to a great many better uses in the strife-torn area than babysitting the beatle.

Is A Living Reality of Rights Possible?

Sunday September 21 was this year's International Day of Peace. Established by a UN resolution in 1982, it is also a day of global ceasefire meant to prove that the cessation of hostilities is possible. It is also meant, in war torn areas, to provide a much-needed opportunity for relief workers to reach civilians with food, water and medical supplies.
In Afghanistan, the day was used as by medics with polio vaccines to access some of the country's worst hot spots. they hoped to reach some 1.85 million children under the age of five in six provinces including Kandahar, Helmand and Uruzgan, all Taliban strongholds. The Taliban issued a pledge the workers would not be harmed, although only one week ago two Afghan doctors involved in the vaccination efforts were killed in a suicide bombing. While the Taliban did manage to leave the vaccine workers alone, a whole day of peacefulness seems to have been beyond their capabilities. They were responsible for the deaths of four Afghan security workers and hours of terror for about 140 civilians they held hostage over the weekend, before they were finally released.
"On September 21, the International Day of Peace, I call on world leaders and peoples around the world to join forces against conflict, poverty and hunger, and for all human rights for all," said UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon last Friday.
"We know that human rights are essential to peace," he said, "yet too many people around the world still have their rights violated, especially during and after armed conflict."
"That is why we must ensure that the rights in the Declaration are a living reality - that they are known, understood and enjoyed by everyone, everywhere," he added.
The year 2008 marks the 60th anniversary of the UN's adoption of a universal declaration of human rights. That's as may be, but those who fill the ranks of the Taliban have no real understanding of human rights. Neither are they willing to put down their weapons long enough to acquire the understanding. The saddest reality of the day comes not from realizing that peace means nothing to the Taliban, but from realizing that it means so very little to so very many all around the world. There are innumerable would-be oppressors who want their own self-declared rights to be the only ones there are, and it matters not to them how many they kill in establishing those "rights". Take a look back through the recorded history of our species and you will see time and time again how the rights of the many have been sacrificed for the wants of the few. It has happened before. It is so difficult not to believe it will happen again, and again, and again. Can we ever have a living reality of rights for all?

Number 4859

That was the number assigned to Witold Pilecki when he arrived at Auschwitz on the night of September 21, 1940, in the second Warsaw transport. Unlike the 2,000 other prisoners with whom he made the trip to hell, Witold had voluntarily inserted himself into one of the groups of people rounded up in Warsaw's Zoliborz district by SS men. Pilecki, an officer in the Polish resistance, had taken this incredible action in order to accomplish the mission of gathering intelligence on the camp and organizing and organize a resistance movement inside the camp. The camp underground worked on the possibility of an insurrection to be undertaken if the Allies were successful in an airdrop of weapons.
In 1943, Pilecki escaped from Auschwitz, bringing out with him documents he had stolen from the Germans. Pilecki then began a desperate quest to convince Allied forces to attack the camp and free the prisoners, but his report that millions were being slaughtered in the camp were dismissed as exaggeration.
Pilecki remained active in his personal struggle against oppression, taking part in the fight undertaken in August 1944 to liberate Warsaw from the Nazis. The attempt failed, but the "Great Warsaw Bastion", as the underground press called the region held by Pilecki, withstood German fire for two weeks before being taken.
After the war, Pilecki became involved in the fight against the new oppressor, the communists. He had been collecting evidence of Soviet atrocities when he was arrested in May, 1947. Accused of espionage, he was sentenced to death by the communist court in Poland. Prime Minister Cyrankiewicz, himself a former Auschwitz inmate, refuted the claim made in court that Pilecki had been the founder of the resistance movement in the camp, and refused to grant clemency. On May 25, 1948, the Poles shot and murdered a hero of Auschwitz and the Warsaw Uprising. Pilecki was placed on the list of most censured individuals and for decades, the communists sought to obliterate this great man from the collective consciousness.
In 1990, Pilecki was "rehabilitated" and taken off the censured list. In 2007, he was posthumously awarded the Order of the White Eagle, the highest Polish state distinction. The 60th anniversary of his death in May of this year was marked by several commemorative events, and there is now a campaign underway to have him honoured by declaring his death anniversary to be the "Day of the Heroes of the Struggle with Totalitarianism".
Witold's final resting place has never been found, but a grave site is not an essential for the recognition the man's memory deserves. Pilecki's is a story that should be added to the curriculum in every school, not as a Pole first of all, but as a man who would not stand idly by and witness injustice being done. This great man and every other one like him that we can find in history needs to be presented to the students of today, always in the hope that it will inspire others to follow in their footsteps when injustice comes knocking on our doors.

Car Free Day

Did you know that September 22 is international Car Free Day and has been since 2000? If the thought of getting involved in a carfree movement is sounding interesting to you, here's a little info to hopefully pique your interest further. The term carfree movement, as used by the World Carfree Network, is used to refer to:
*those promoting alternatives to car dependence and car culture, including alternative modes such as cycling, walking and public transport;
*those promoting carfree lifestyle choices, within either a car-dependent, car-lite* or carfree local context;
*those promoting the building of (usually mixed-use) carfree environments# on either brownfield or greenfield sites (usually sited to ensure easy access to a variety of non-automotive transport modes);
*those promoting carfree days, using the events as tools to bring about long-term on-the-ground change in infrastructure and priorities (example: Bogota); and
*those promoting the transformation of existing villages, towns and cities (or parts of them) into carfree environments.
Check out the website to see some of the resources they offer for "architects, planners, teachers/professors, students, decision-makers and engaged citizens." If you live in Toronto, you could pack up the family on Sunday September 21 and head on over to the 4th annual parade down Queen Street. Meet at the south gates of Trinity Bellwoods Park at 4 pm and march along when the parade makes its way at 5 pm to Old City Hall. On Monday the 22nd, Yonge Street will be closed to traffic from 10 am til 3 pm from Shuter to Dundas and people like Canadian Idol Finalist Mookie Morris will be on hand to help the carfree types party hearty.
Why not join in?

Philanthropic Fitness

When a simple, easy way to help build a better world comes to my attention, I like to share the news, so here I go.
I just found out about Eric Harr and his "I Am Powerful" workout. A quick peek at the website tells you that it's a global movement to fight poverty, "about seizing the moment, empowering yourself with better health as you empower women and families in poor communities around the world to improve their lives."
The idea is you download one of Eric's training programs and then log the hours you spend using it. For each hour of your exercise, Harr donates $5. to CARE, up to a max of $50,000. There are motivational prizes offered to help you keep on track, both with your own physical improvement, and with your contribution to the betterment of others less fortunate than you. If you plan to exercise anyway, why not investigate this plan and see just how much multitasking you can manage while you work up that sweat?

Riddle Me This

I haven't got the answer to this poser. Have you?

Why does the CBC send out the message that the Paralympics are not worth broadcast time? Much fuss was made about all the miracles in raising consciousness that the Olympics were supposed to achieve in sequestered China, one of them being to help change the general attitude toward the differently abled, in a country where they are not always accorded the best treatment. Just take a look around here, however, and you have to wonder why there was so much fuss made about the state of affairs in China. Why wasn't some of that fuss directed at the powers-that-be here in Canada? If they give full coverage to the "able-bodied" Olympians and their efforts and then consign the Paralympians to a mere two or three minute mention in the evening newscast, they are trumpeting the message that the second group are also second-rate in their estimation. The CBC should learn a lesson from the BBC, who gave full coverage to both games.

Idiot Alert Files and the Body Shop

Someone at the Body Shop's corporate headquarters really needs to give their head a shake. while they're dong that, the Idiot Alert Files will draw up the membership papers for them.
Why would the Body Shop spend so many dollars advertising itself as a company that cares about issues like fair trade and the environment, and then send out the e-mail its sending today? The message offers a special discount, available only to members, on all purchases in-store and online this coming Thursday. The skunk in this garden party is their stipulation that you must present the e-mail to receive the discount if you shop in-store. That means every member who shops in-store will need to print off the message. How many people will do that? How many trees will they kill? WTF, folks? The idiot who came up with this no-brainer needs to go back to the drawing board and take another run at being environmentally aware.

On the Road Again

OK, maybe "road" is not quite right, since I am seated here in Glasgow Airport waiting to board a flight back home to Canada, but, you get the idea. We've been here for the last two weeks in Bonnie Scotland on a vacation we took in order to explore, to see the sights and to photograph them. Between the two of us, we have more than succeeded on that last one, having taken a total of 4,600 shots. Not all of them will survive the culling to take place once we arrive at the old homestead, but they were all wonderful in the taking. Our wanderings took us from Glasgow, through Thurso; from the Orkneys to the Outer Hebrides. We were both happiest when our lens was focused on some visual treat provided by nature, or on one of the ubiquitous ruins this country treasures. When we did find ourselves looking at Blair Castle, one that has survived the centuries in functional entirety, we both found our cameras were uninterested, to say the least.
The standing stones in the Orkneys and the Hebrides were worth hours of wonder and awe. The houses at Skara Brae were better than any angle Blair Castle had to offer. The country has more than enough beauty to occupy anyone's eyes for twice the time we had, and more. It does not, however, have an equal amount of temptations to offer in its culinary arts. Bacon was everywhere, as were sausages. Whole milk offered the lowest dairy fat content to be found, and sugar topped so many ingredient lists. Although I kept an eye open, I never once saw a yogurt label that listed live bacterial culture, although many listed "stabilizers". Fruits and veggies became superstars, for me, when they did make one of their infrequent appearances. Anything and everything make with oats, on the other hand, was easily accessed at absolutely every stopping point, and thank heavens it was. A good bowl of porridge in the morning was sometimes the best meal of the day. Perhaps the very best meal I had during the entire vacation was at the "Thai LemonGrass" restaurant in Glasgow, where we dined on our last night in the country. Their rice with chicken and cashew nuts came piled up high in a half a pineapple that had been scooped out. The presentation - wonderful. The taste - terrific.
It's a country I've wanted to see since I was very young. Several generations back, a Jamieson from Forfar parish made his way to muddy old York, and built a new home there for himself and his family. He did very well as a farmer in Ontario, and perhaps the few drops of his blood that flow through my veins have been providing the siren call I always felt when I read of the country or listened to skirl of the pipes. Whatever the cause, it has a lifelong ambition, and one I have finally had the good luck to realize. It is a beautiful country, indeed, and one I would recommend to anyone with a little time and a little cash to spend.
The one place that I found "difficult" was the battlefield of Culloden. When we walked there, it was not the terrain that provided the problem, but the history of the killing field that waylaid me. I began to feel the need to cry almost as soon as we set foot on the field. Seeing the cairns raised to the various clans decimated there; reading the signs detailing the progress of the butchery. It was all so hard. Maybe it was my connection to the country coming to the fore. Maybe it was the wild wind blowing that day that carried still a faint echo of the screams of the dying. I don't know quite what it was. I only know I was glad to have seen it, but I would never want to see it again.
Scotland the brave, you are brave and bonnie, indeed.