Jan 4 - Ghana High Commission – Ottawa

I read on a few Facebook status entries today that” it was hard to go back to reality”… and reality in that context meant: getting up early to return to work. Reality may suck but every day is reality. The truth is that we have to get up in the morning no matter what… even if it is to face unemployment, to care for one’s children or to enjoy a longer holiday. Getting up this morning wasn’t so bad… it felt almost like that first day of a new school year (I was even wearing a brand new sweater).

In the afternoon, I welcomed a pleasant surprise. I got my visa to Ghana from the High Commission! If all goes well, I should be in Accra in early February attending an educational fair promoted by the Canadian Trade Commission. I have to admit that I don’t know much about Ghana. From recent current affairs I know it is the homeland to former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and that it served as a stop point for President Obama during his first African tour. I could Wikipedia it for more tips but I’d rather discover facts on my own soon… those that can only be experienced in situ. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghana

Today’s book: Divisadero by Sri-Lankan/Canadian Michael Ondaatje. My chosen movie: Broken Embraces (“Abrazos Rotos”) by Spanish director and scriptwriter Pedro Almodóvar. I watched it in April 09 along with my friends P&B in Palma de Mallorca. That night we lost our only house keys. Did not find out until a few drinks later and upon driving for several km into Alaró where P&B live. One thing was clear, their windows are theft-prove. Back in Palma and overflowing frustration, we ended up spending the night at the house of P’s mom. But happy endings happen and ours took place at lunch time the next day when the administrators of the movie theatre confirmed the janitor had found our beloved keychain. Lost & Found stories are way more fun when the latter precedes the loss. Despite its drama, Broken Embraces also leaves a happy scent in the air… a la Almodóvar: filled with colour, irony and dark humour (Stephanie Meyer could gather some ideas from Harry and Diego’s vampire story: Dona Sangre/Give Blood). It was inspiring to watch it once more, this time at the Bytowne theatre … Ottawa’s pride and only alternative cinema (http://www.bytowne.ca)/...

Tip of the day: If you like Almodóvar’s work, you can rent Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and compare it to Broken Embraces. If you do, please let me know what the key is to a great Gazpacho!

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Jan 3 Home - Ottawa - Canada

The holidays are over and it is time to set the mind for work. I am enjoying this experience of blogging as I review my day. I know there are going to be busy days when I will have no time to shoot a video or to write... I hope to have the discipline to catch up. This will make more sense at the end of the year when I can look back.

I had my annual physical today. Results are great. Blood pressure: 121/78 almost ideal. It’s snowed on and off in Ottawa and the roads are slushy. I had leftovers for lunch but decided to cook for dinner. Saša barbequed some pork shops while I baked my second-ever gužvara.

Ingredients:
350 g Feta Cheese
350 g Philadelphia
4 eggs
A glass of Club Soda
½ glass of grape seed oil
The rest is a family secret.

TV series of the moment: Brothers & Sisters (3rd season). My chosen author Portuguese Nobel Laureate Jose Saramago and my fauvorite of his, The Cave.

Tip of the Day: Get a physical!
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Jan 2 Chateau Frontenac – Quebec City – Canada

La Ville de Québec was founded in 1608. It recently celebrated 400 years of existence and resistance. This walled city, one of the oldest European settlements in North America has remained a symbol and a beacon for French Canada. The Château Frontenac is an imposing hotel within the old city overlooking the Saint Laurence river, la Citadelle and the famous plains of Abraham where the British army lead by General Wolfe fought French General Montcalm (neither one lived to tell about it). The Château, ‘the castle’, was inaugurated in 1893 as another stop point along the Canadian Pacific railway.
As I shop at Simons along rue Saint Jean, under a constant fall of snowflakes, I remember meeting 'Bonhomme' during my first and only winter Carnival in 2004 at -35 degrees (http://www.carnaval.qc.ca/2010/fr) . 'Le Carnaval' is a freezing excuse to visit Quebec in the winter time.

I love this city for its preserved history, for its surprising jewels, for the randomness of its curvy streets. It's got style, it tells stories. One can easily entertain in ghost tales, war stories, and narrations of heroes and princesses along with political disagreements, younger revolutions and the contemporary evolution of the French language. The past smoothly meets the present while the youngsters sunbathe on the edges of the fortified city walls and the horse carriages tour visitors right behind an electric bus. In every season, this UNESCO World Heritage site is worth a visit.

Tip of the day: I recommend the “3 Quick & Easy Walking Tours of Old Quebec” guide. Each of the three tours starts at the Samuel de Champlain monument. You can request the guide at the Maison Historique James Thompson (47, Rue St. Ursule). Greg, the owner, is very nice!
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Jan 1 Auberge Saint Antoine – Quebec City – Canada

The Saint Antoine (my patron) is the kind of hotel that gives you decoration ideas. Excellent use of space. Its theme: archeological findings. The auberge has exposed foundations as well as these neat glass cubes within the stone walls displaying “recovered artifacts”. I bid farewell to 2009 with a 6-course meal at Panage (chef executif Francois Blais)… Saint-Sylvestre menu: Duck Foi Gras with Pear and Almond (Vin Gris semi-sweet L'Orfailleur, Canada 2006); Atlantic Scallop with New Brunswick Caviar Mousseline Sauce (Villa Bucci wine, Italy, Reserve 2004); Liquorice Perfumed Veal, sweetbread with Rosemary Sauce and Lemon Pulp (Lithos la Clape, Fench wine, 2007); Nunavut Wild Caribou "En Panade de Cepes" with Porcini Mushroom Mustard Sauce (Ernie Els Wine, Elizabeth Els Vineyard, South Africa, 2004); Organic Blue Cheese "Le Bleu D'Elizabeth" with Candid fruit (In Pincis Wine, Agricola San Felice, Italy 1997); Chocolate, Cigar and Rhum (Ron Santa Teresa).

And before I could start the countdown (distracted by those 5 glasses of wine and a shot of Venezuelan rhum), the New Year was upon me. Personal resolutions: can’t think of all but I’d like to cook more and exercise the art of eating slowly. In addition to my gourmet ambitions I’d like to attempt a photo-video project that involves this blog. My job as an international marketer and recruiter for Algonquin College in Ottawa requires much traveling. I constantly meet prospective college students from around the world and try to lure them to Canada. As I visit all these places, and meet interesting people, taste local foods, I plan to record my personal impressions. A year in snap shots. I aim to quote local authors and explorers who have written about those places while I add my notes as the voice of a curious onlooker. In a previous life, or in the core of my alter ego, I was or have been a writer… my blog shall serve as the window to my personal take on our intriguing world.

Today’s author is Quebec City born Claire Montreuil (1914), popularly known as Claire Martin. Martin is a winner of the Governor General’s award in 1966 with La Joue Droite ('The right Cheek'). Her autobiography "In an Iron Glove" (Dans un Gant de Fer) narrates her nightmerish experience at the Ursulines Convent in QC.

Tip of the day: Quebec City, La Ville de Quebec is a place one must see in this lifetime.
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I guess people read my blog

I've had two interesting reactions to my comment of Dan Halton's Montreal Protest coverage. I never thought anybody read my blog. Interesting. I guess it is a public display... another form of media. That makes me think of Yoani Sanchez in Cuba, and her Generation Y blog... a window to the world, a way to "hang your dirty cloths out in the public sphere".

I am glad debate is being generated somehow. That we as viewers, and public in general, have a say on what is being presented to us on the news... it is a principle of democracy.

I just hope my comments don't become problematic. I don't have the power to face corporate interests.

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Beauties and Beasts: there is always more than one side...

"The monster of Amstetten", the Austrian Josef Fritzl, was condemend to life in prison today. I could almost hear the clapping of the media followers... "Yes, burn the monster!" 

Interestingly enough, this world needs monsters for the rest of us to "feel better about ourselves". Monsters are cruel, wicked and inhuman creatures. They display psycho-pathologies that sit at the extremes of the spectrum. They are "what we are not" or "what we fear to become". They need to be pointed at, taken out of the bunch, segregated, sentenced to death because they are poison, bad weed, malice, perversion. 

Josef Fritzl did committ "serious crimes", those perfect capital sins, sweet desserts for a sensational media feast. Hungry photographers harrased him around the courthouse to capture his evil nature and reporters drooled over their computer keybords while narrating the list of human rights violated by the monster, the beast, the raper, slaver and murderer. 

Why are we obssessed with such "creatures"? is it their uniqueness or their similutude to ourselves? Is it our fear of them or our fear of being like them? Our hunger of such details is almost pornographic... it generates excitment and sells quite well in the shock value, attention-grabbing market. 

I have an idea. Monsters are clear examples of what "we shouldn't be". They are easy targets that remind our society what happens when we misbehave. They are warnings of how justice can implacably reach  the violators, grab them and punish them. Monsters cause chaos, and we don't want chaos, we want order, we want good people, obedient people that behave, follow rules and orders, respect others... wackos and outsiders should be taken out of comission, caged... so we can exhibit them as samples of what has gone raw.

We often centre our attention on the weak and vulnerable, meaning the ones who have suffered the impact of "monsters". The monsters don't matter, they are monsters, and they have to be treated as such... their remorse is non-existent... remeber, they are monsters... And what about their mental health?... hmmm.. that's an excuse to let them go free... and be careful... they are dangerous!!! What about our social responsability in their acts? Well... there is no such thing, it is all about individual actions, we cannot take charges for what other people do... 

When "mosnteres" arise we hardly ever take a look at ourselves... we don't look inwards, we search outwards... Hardly ever societies  take resposability for the "success and the failure" of individuals, or try to understand differences, or consider the beast as much as the beauty... isn't that the paradox of such tale? That there may be the "haunted soul" of a human being behind those beast-like features? Beauties and Beasts form part of the Black and White world we love to believe we live in... but our societies also produce many grey offspring like the ones conceived from the incestous relationship between Fritzl and his daughter Elizabeth. 

Austrians (and with them us all) may prefer to identify ourselves with the "victim" than with the agressor, because it sounds and feels better to be the tortured beauty than the raping monster. 

Society: all the bridges that you burn may come back one day to haunt you! 

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Dan Halton: Show me the other side of the story!

I just watched the first segment of the CBC's Sunday show and I am disgusted. There was an anti police brutality protest in Montreal today, and as expected, police showed its brutality against the protestors. What are we viewers being shown? Only how "brutal" the protestors were? The police...hmmm... they were just protecting innocent bystanders and vulnerable businesses? Fine, the protestors threw bananas at the police (and some stones), they set fire to garbage cans and broke some VIP corporate windows... let's say they "should be penalized"... but come on mr. journalist... show me the other side of the story... have at least one protestor express his/her viewpoint... don't only ask police their view, they will always find a way to justify violence... I expect a right wing agenda from our government not from our national broadcaster. I am skeptical enough about news and the distorted power of media, but don't give me such easy reasons to justify my claim... trick me a bit more so I can generate debate, try to confuse me, make me believe you stand on every side, that everybody has a voice... don't be so obvious...

Shame on Dan Halton for such a poor report. His background in Political Science and Masters in International Relations should give him deeper insight into the core of news stories... 

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