Mar 272016
 

Yesterday I really slept late, later than ever before — 4:50 pm!  To say the least, this cold has knocked me for a loop. Although it is getting better, it has altered my schedule.  I hope to go see my mother tomorrow providing my cold is even better than today.  This week coming up will be busy.

Short Takes

Huffington Post — What Green realized was Syrian refugees are more similar to us than they are different.

rob green

"They're just like everyone else in the community that would be helping out. And he's part of the community now."

A short article with a universal truth that we all need to remember!

PoliticoCondemnation of the attacks in Brussels, as in Paris, Istanbul, Damascus, Baghdad, Bassam or Ouagadougou, has to be firm, absolute, and without exceptions, half-measures or attempts to distinguish between victims. Clarity is essential here, as it is in the terminology we use and the solutions we propose. But before we can formulate a response, we must face the problem head on and try to understand its origins (this in no way means justifying acts of terrorism, whatever George W. Bush may have said, and what Manuel Valls says today).

It is imperative that we untangle the reasons behind this hard swerve toward violent extremism — because it is not just “mad,” “irrational” and “inhuman.” These words only serve to confuse our vocabulary, and offer no political clarification on the elements of the equation. They add blindness to an emotional reaction already stoked by fear. What we need today is reason and measured conversation — we have to be tough, yes, but above all, reasonable.  

We cannot support dictatorships, be political and economic partners with states who export literalist Salafi doctrine, be silent when civilians are massacred south of our borders and hope that we will not receive a response to the injustice and humiliation we have provoked.

The author makes some very valid points.  As to this last point made above, how many people have said "Why is Saudi Arabia an ally of the US?" .  Saudi Arabia is engaged in war crimes in Yemen using weapons bought from the US and Great Britain.  That relationship is not lost on others.  We all need to look at our relationships and define them in terms of our values.

Huffington Post — This World Water Day, however, millions of people who share our planet are constantly thinking about water. How could they not be? Their children die from waterborne illnesses, because the local stream is contaminated. Others forfeit their schooling to trek long distances for water each day. Families lose their harvests — and their food supplies — because there's no irrigation for their parched crops.

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22 March was World Water Day.  This year, the focus is on water and jobs.  Here is a short UN promo.

When I saw some of the pictures in the article, I immediately thought of my friend Lucia who is from South Sudan. The picture above could easily have been her — walking 10 kilometres to the river for water, and then 10 km home twice a day.  She and her sister did not go to school at all but rather worked in the fields and hauled water for the family to use.  What a difference a clean water source would have made to her community.  But the lack of clean potable water is not only an issue in third world countries.  This Global News piece outlines some of the problems that First Nations communities in Canada encounter.  Flint is another example.  We must ensure that clean water is available to all peoples — water to drink, water for bathing, water for food preparation.  

My Universe

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Hoppy Easter

 

easter bunny catturban

La Grande Dame

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Les Tous Petits

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La Chaton de Paques

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Harumpf!

 

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  5 Responses to “Squatch’s Open Thread 26/03/2016”

  1. My Universe: Oh, how sweet! love this!

    I hope that you are feeling better with that cold, stay hydrated and rest! Hope you can visit your mom too!

    Gotta run, the Easter Bunny is almost here (arriving shortly).
    Happy Easter, everyone, (if you celebrate). Enjoy your day, and Thanks, Lynn.

  2. Hope you've improved enough to be able to spend Easter w/ your Mom.

    And be sure that BOTH of you wash your hands frequently – because although sharing is usually an admirable trait, this is one thing you do NOT want to be sharing!

  3. Dang!!  I hope you feel better and hope she doesn't get it!!

    Amen!

    I agree to a large extent, and think that our relationships with both Israel and Saudi Arabia are suspect.

    Amen!!

    If I have to wear ears to be the Easter Kitty, forget it!!

  4. HuffPo I – Well done.  Both the actions and the article.

    Politico – Before we look at our relationships and drop every ally involved in war crimes, shouldn't we look at our own behavior and clean up our own war crimes?  If we don't, aren't we just being world class hypocrites?  Gee, I sound like Raul Castro, but if the shoe fits …

    HuffPo II – There is a reason why pretty well all major world cities are located on or near waterways, and it's not just transportation.  If you don't live near water, you don't live near survival.  And, sadly, water sources can change – like being poisoned by humans – and cities can become too heavily populated for the original water sources to handle.  THis is something we have never felt the need to think ahead about, but it's time we did.  There's an old Latin proverb, "Optimum aqua est," which doesn't exactly mean "water is best."  That would be  "Optima aqua est."  What it actually means is more like "The best thing (in the world) is water."

    Universe – Cuties.

  5. Still working on that backlog, Lynn, so another quickie.

    Politico: Thanks you for posting this excellent article, Lynn. The author's arguments are heard more and more here in Europe and in some countries even manage to block out the angry and agressive shouting of the frenzied Right Wing. "There is no failure of religious and cultural integration in Europe, but there is a disastrous deficit of effective policies related to social justice,  education, housing and employment." So true, because what most people tend to forget is that all of these young men were not only isolated from Western society, they were isolated from their own Muslim communities and family too. They kept to themselves and neither family nor friends knew where they were and what they were up to. In the suburb where they hid and planned their attacks, they were strangers to all. These young men had completely disassociated themselves from any community they were a part of before.

    HuPo: Clean, safe water is becoming the most precious commodity on this planet. The world population is ever increasing while Climate Change has resulted in more severe droughts and floods, both endangering the availability of drinkable water. We have to create new ways of obtaining drinkable water and distributing it fairly among all without endangering the equally dependent flora and fauna.

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