tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-41765484271646921612024-03-13T20:11:00.747-04:00The Tuque SouqThe Tuque Souqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10695625715741501833noreply@blogger.comBlogger316125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4176548427164692161.post-80576873914333164802012-11-29T20:00:00.000-05:002012-12-01T17:51:36.292-05:00Unfelled: A Naxal Encounter<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption">A forest in India. (Photo by Richard A. Johnson / 2011)</td></tr>
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The creative non-fiction short story "<a href="http://this.org/magazine/2012/11/29/2nd-place-creative-non-fiction-unfelled-a-naxal-encounter/?utm_source=thismag&utm_medium=related&utm_campaign=relatedX3" target="_blank">Unfelled: A Naxal Encounter</a>" by Richard A. Johnson (me) appears in the online edition of <i><a href="http://this.org/" target="_blank">THIS Magazine</a></i> for November/December 2012. It is the second-prize winner in the magazine's annual Great Canadian Literary Hunt.<br />
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The story traces the contours of a man called Sudhir in a place called Kandhamal in southeastern India; a rough etching of the confluence of grassroots development work, aboriginal communalism and anarchistic violence set at a roadblock in the forest.<br />
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Excerpt from "<a href="http://this.org/magazine/2012/11/29/2nd-place-creative-non-fiction-unfelled-a-naxal-encounter/?utm_source=thismag&utm_medium=related&utm_campaign=relatedX3" target="_blank">Unfelled: A Naxal Encounter</a>" (<i>THIS Magazine</i>):</div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">On
a mountain road deep in the Indian jungle, a pair of tree trunks blocks the
passage of a jeep. Inside, a wary driver and a terrified cameraman, both town
dwellers hired by a local non-governmental organization to ferry us into the
district of Kandhamal—the Kashmir of southern India, for its verdant highlands
swathed in misty luminance—and shoot footage of a development project.</span> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Behind
them sits Sudhir, whose restless eyes appraise the scene, darting into the
thick forest all around us, then back to the roadblock. In each man’s mind a
common fear unfolds: at any moment cadres of armed Maoist rebels—Naxals—will
emerge to rob them or worse, alleging them to be spies or profiteers or corrupt
bureaucrats, kidnap or even kill them.</span> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: large;">The
Kandhamal forests—lush with teak, cashew, mango, bamboo, neem, jackfruit and
the wizened banyan—emit a foreboding coolness, shrouding sunlight and vision.
They hide well those who would gladly withdraw from the world.</span></blockquote>
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Read the <a href="http://this.org/magazine/2012/11/29/2nd-place-creative-non-fiction-unfelled-a-naxal-encounter/?utm_source=thismag&utm_medium=related&utm_campaign=relatedX3" target="_blank">complete article</a> at <a href="http://this.org/">this.org</a>.</div>
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I am grateful to the judges of the Great Canadian Literary Hunt for their mention of this story, as I am grateful to my various hosts in India who made it possible. Congrats to the other winners of the <a href="http://this.org/" target="_blank">Great Canadian Literary Hunt</a>.<br />
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Also by Richard A. Johnson in <i>THIS Magazine</i>: "<a href="http://www.thismagazine.ca/issues/2007/09/dramaticrevival.php" target="_blank">A Dramatic Revival</a>"</div>
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The Tuque Souqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10695625715741501833noreply@blogger.com40tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4176548427164692161.post-54654326902990957692012-10-11T10:58:00.003-04:002012-10-12T07:50:03.881-04:00On the Importance of Mother-Tongue Early Childhood Education<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
This video tells the story of the work being done in <i>adivasi</i> (aboriginal) communities in India's Odisha state to develop preschool learning materials for children in their native language, Kui. Government preschools, where they exist in the region, offer curricula only in Odia--the state language. So when adivasi children come to school, they can't speak or understand the language of instruction, and as a result often dropout and never return to formal education.<br />
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(For more background, see this earlier Tuque Souq post: <a href="http://thetuquesouq.blogspot.ca/2010/08/what-prem-does-child-based-community.html" target="_blank">Child-Based Community Development</a>)<br />
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In the film--called <i>Ganugun Bati Ahangna</i> (Learning with Dignity)--a 5-year-old girl named Jhili overhears her friend Geeta singing a song in Kui. Jhili wants to know where her friend learned this song, and Geeta tells her that she learned it in the <i>anganwadi</i> centre, a new kind of preschool where children are exposed to the fundamentals of education in their mother tongue. The classroom environment was fun and supportive, and Geeta decided to keep attending.<br />
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Jhili says that she once attended the government preschool, but there was no singing and dancing, and there was no instruction or activities in Kui. She received a meal and learned the alphabet in Odia, but because she could not understand her teacher, and because the school was so far away, Jhili dropped out.<br />
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In the next part of the film, an <i>ebani</i> (social worker) comes to talk to the parents of Jhili's village about the importance of early childhood education for children under six years of age, and how starting to learn in one's mother tongue--and in a supportive, culturally contextualized environment--adapts the child to the learning process that will enable her or him to have a successful life in school and beyond.<br />
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The parents agree to support the new preschool and send their children to be educated.<br />
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For more information, see the Facebook page of <a href="https://www.facebook.com/odishaadivasimanch" target="_blank">ECE-MT (by Odisha Adivasi Manch)</a> and the <a href="http://www.bernardvanleer.org/" target="_blank">Bernard van Leer Foundation</a>, which supports this initiative in Odisha.<br />
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The Tuque Souqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10695625715741501833noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4176548427164692161.post-73033106320675997502012-09-11T12:13:00.000-04:002012-09-11T13:34:37.372-04:00Journey to Manitoulin Island<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Toronto to <a href="https://maps.google.ca/?ll=45.706179,-82.034912&spn=5.416652,9.09668&t=p&z=7" target="_blank">Manitoulin Island</a> via Guelph, Tobermory and Bruce National Park.<br />
Photographs with the indomitable Holga + Fuji Neopan 400.<br />
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The Tuque Souqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10695625715741501833noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4176548427164692161.post-12845880967320598662012-09-05T13:06:00.001-04:002012-09-05T13:11:01.532-04:00New eBook from the National Magazine Awards<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
This summer I helped develop and edit an <a href="http://blog.magazine-awards.com/2012/08/29/announcing-the-new-national-magazine-awards-ebook-yes-its-free/" target="_blank">eBook</a> anthology for the National Magazine Awards Foundation. The result--<i>Best in Magazines 2007-2012</i>--is, I think, quite a page turner, and it's available completely <b>free</b> via the iTunes <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/best-in-magazines-2007-2012/id530599088?mt=8" target="_blank">app store</a> exclusively for iPad users.<br />
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The collection includes more than <b>30 award-winning stories</b>, covers and photography/ illustration collections: 4 of the top winners from this year's National Magazine Awards, and the rest collected from among the best of the past 5 years.<br />
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You can <b>download the app</b> directly to your iPad <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/best-in-magazines-2007-2012/id530599088?mt=8" target="_blank">here</a> and read more about it on the NMAF site <a href="http://www.magazine-awards.com/index.cfm/ci_id/4588/la_id/1.htm" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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One of the most striking elements of the collection is that each individual piece maintains the <b>look and feel of its original</b> publication (<i>The Walrus, Explore, This Magazine, Maisonneuve</i>, etc), while the platform allows for some dynamic interface with the content. It's an example of where digital magazine publishing is now, and a set of ideas as to where it may go in the near future.<br />
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The <b>portability</b> of the content is the other great feature. The NMAF maintains an <a href="http://www.magazine-awards.com/index.cfm?ci_id=1397&la_id=1" target="_blank">online archive</a> where most of the finalists and winners from the past 5 years are available for free download in PDF format. The eBook is, in part, a repackaging of that archival content in a more user-friendly platform, one that travels well as both an <b>educational tool</b> and a <b>leisure pursuit</b>.<br />
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Finally, it's a great way to extend the naturally long life of <b>quality magazine content</b>, as well as to promote those writers, artists and publications who produce it. Readers, I'm sure, will find themselves introduced to new mags, writers, photographers and illustrators that they might not otherwise have encountered.<br />
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Unfortunately, for now this eBook is <b>only available to iPad users</b> (not other eBook and ePub platforms), which is as far as our resources could stretch in the initial development. The hope is that this is the start of something bigger, both for the <span style="font-size: x-small;">NMAF</span> and for Canadian digital magazine publishing.<br />
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If you have any <b>comments or feedback</b> on the eBook, post them here or send them to me at <br />
richard.johnson[at]magazine-awards.com.<br />
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The Tuque Souqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10695625715741501833noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4176548427164692161.post-16351959438440026692012-08-21T20:55:00.000-04:002012-08-26T15:48:55.674-04:00Aching for the Portage: A Week in Algonquin Park<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg09jM8WlTEkc3LWMQEEzYdaKFAmnbB_m2XehWtVM-CGXCDiLdS2J3YbR2zvKyoH-fDqa5Gn6-TU-RnAhEmP34faue_ij5bnyUZ9BFq7szs64FuZu-mAIjnDCFjOElKG8YrsOBcenMCJZL-/s1600/09930035.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg09jM8WlTEkc3LWMQEEzYdaKFAmnbB_m2XehWtVM-CGXCDiLdS2J3YbR2zvKyoH-fDqa5Gn6-TU-RnAhEmP34faue_ij5bnyUZ9BFq7szs64FuZu-mAIjnDCFjOElKG8YrsOBcenMCJZL-/s200/09930035.jpg" width="132" /></a></div>
The first of twenty-four portages feels like the chaos wrought by a summer storm upon a beach; the last, like an imperturbable old friend come to lean on your tired shoulder.<br />
<br />
Everything in between is no more and no less an addictive progression of ache.<br />
<br />
Before we began our Algonquin paddling adventure, I'd wondered whether the portage ache--the unique stiffening soreness of schlepping first a 55lb backpack and then a 42lb canoe over crooked forest trails as long as 2km in between each lake--would, like its counterpart the alpine ache, come to be felt as both agony and ecstasy.<br />
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When the very thing that is the cause of physical pain is also the cause of metaphysical joy, one tends to long for it, as with nostalgia. Like looking a photograph of childhood, one experiences both pleasure and pain.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMdqYBuyOooeoWj_wdZM8NolaeMK01bJ6jIwbgwYVy_YzPDOZEWrPPB5I068CofAjkAgfXy549mZPDanbGMpyA3YOOnkUndNTk_01FTKuubAf3sa4dhwHVW3DDatA_hLSSVzhKmO91xGGB/s1600/09930033.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMdqYBuyOooeoWj_wdZM8NolaeMK01bJ6jIwbgwYVy_YzPDOZEWrPPB5I068CofAjkAgfXy549mZPDanbGMpyA3YOOnkUndNTk_01FTKuubAf3sa4dhwHVW3DDatA_hLSSVzhKmO91xGGB/s200/09930033.jpg" width="132" /></a>For seven days in August we assailed the portages of Algonquin's northwest frontier, embarking our seventeen footer at Kiosk for a charted clockwise loop across no fewer than twenty-one lakes, from Kioshkokwi to lakes called Mink, Club, Mouse, Erables, Maple, Ratrap, Three-Mile, Mangotasi, North Tea and Manitou, among others.<br />
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Yes, we felt the ache. It was a great ache, attacking sharply with the inversion of the boat on our shoulders, pulling us out of breath, throbbing through our backs and legs and feet, and lingering in the form of evening spasms and morning stiffness. I miss it already.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcZsJ2hgdyhy3rrzL4WDyethkIaIrn2QqEK8kAZUqUJTygXunxNfbZ-VywjxeTW1llqsg9DVKvSGXEItLC7j7Gkej_kL1wwEUhun7F_J_mrE0qWSE80leR2CuwSgCenfCJgdc_CzoAgCWg/s1600/Algonquin_NW_Map.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcZsJ2hgdyhy3rrzL4WDyethkIaIrn2QqEK8kAZUqUJTygXunxNfbZ-VywjxeTW1llqsg9DVKvSGXEItLC7j7Gkej_kL1wwEUhun7F_J_mrE0qWSE80leR2CuwSgCenfCJgdc_CzoAgCWg/s640/Algonquin_NW_Map.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Algonquin Park, Northwest Frontier from Kiosk (Click to enlarge)</td></tr>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;"><b>ITINERARY</b></span><br />
<b>Day 1</b>: Kiosk to Mouse Lake via Kioshkokwi, Little Mink, Mink and Club lakes. 13km paddling + 4 portages (2900m total). Portages are gentle trails cushioned by pine needles; a great way to start. We faced fierce, east-blowing crosswinds and white-capped rollers crossing Mouse Lake to a good campsite on the southern shore, though it made for a mucky evening swim.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1DxPk4RZ15qbXckSjQyd6Zlpen0KJXVH-nE6oYz2FJlSE6a4sHcRlZl70gtR20bP3MmngUcYh7dT6TEuTVjOx0fFFpnnZmbmUeWFsgdiS_MjyFCEwwiVZ_abDyNT7HlFum5WhnWGuQSLx/s1600/09920019.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1DxPk4RZ15qbXckSjQyd6Zlpen0KJXVH-nE6oYz2FJlSE6a4sHcRlZl70gtR20bP3MmngUcYh7dT6TEuTVjOx0fFFpnnZmbmUeWFsgdiS_MjyFCEwwiVZ_abDyNT7HlFum5WhnWGuQSLx/s640/09920019.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Paddling out on Kioshkokwi. Photo by Richard A. Johnson.</td></tr>
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<b>Day 2</b>: Mouse Lake to Maple Lake via Big Thunder and Erables lakes. 9km paddling + 4 portages (3700m total). Erables is a beautiful and peaceful paddle, with good-looking campsites. The island campsites on Maple Lake are justifiably popular, but we arrived too late to snag one, and so took a decent alternative on the western shore.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhduvD-tHtAZ2EHGwzq3Jyq_VMFS9MCqk686RS3FZeKQmzEPl4HompWgHPpJngNa7g-y3-g_nVV2PCCMhe9GXYBYn2hG2cBUbiQEl7-GIl2d-M-ukaDiRGfm57f3KKqi_Pc2HfyXeKKhEzH/s1600/09930023.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhduvD-tHtAZ2EHGwzq3Jyq_VMFS9MCqk686RS3FZeKQmzEPl4HompWgHPpJngNa7g-y3-g_nVV2PCCMhe9GXYBYn2hG2cBUbiQEl7-GIl2d-M-ukaDiRGfm57f3KKqi_Pc2HfyXeKKhEzH/s640/09930023.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dawn over Maple Lake. Photo by Richard A. Johnson.</td></tr>
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<b>Day 3</b>: Maple Lake to Three Mile Lake via Ratrap, Boggy and North Sylvia lakes. 8km paddling + 4 portages (3100m total). Despite the toponyms, this is a beautiful stretch of landscape. The portages get a bit steeper and twisting as the day progresses, but the last one ends at a great beach. The rain began this day, and we scarcely saw the sun thereafter for 4 days.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnmiSBHP7Nqv6WEU66NSZXCFmrP2TwRK2DFLqGqa8Zr_keYZMdckFTaB-gaPs7FcvLv0l8_WOOQVqkyEjFDL2OFpzpRBBSvojnBmx1DB6lEuPseZeeg6-Jl3OxPLkNhzd_DVAn37fZmOQ_/s1600/09930008.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="416" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnmiSBHP7Nqv6WEU66NSZXCFmrP2TwRK2DFLqGqa8Zr_keYZMdckFTaB-gaPs7FcvLv0l8_WOOQVqkyEjFDL2OFpzpRBBSvojnBmx1DB6lEuPseZeeg6-Jl3OxPLkNhzd_DVAn37fZmOQ_/s640/09930008.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Island campsite at Three Mile Lake. Photo by Richard A. Johnson.</td></tr>
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<b>Day 4</b>: Three Mile Lake to Biggar Lake via Upper Kawa, Kawa and Sinclair lakes. 7km paddling + 4 portages (3200m total). A monotonous day, as the scenery between Three Mile and Biggar is unspectacular, and the paddling in between each portage is shorter than the portages themselves. Biggar is beautiful, and the campsites on the north shore of the main channel (9 in total) are about as sublime as this part of the park has to offer.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmdwu3Q0h78bJvGnAy47E6M08h2KXHPGG22Mt6vz0Kl1xhfJpGGlMSu3C1h4RriZXIrTOL6r2uppXKsTW5RAE3zQdjkNSc9qnvkbNGNzlqf9jBHj9PJ9QA68SKanNlYSTBpJdKR2enozCn/s1600/09930011.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmdwu3Q0h78bJvGnAy47E6M08h2KXHPGG22Mt6vz0Kl1xhfJpGGlMSu3C1h4RriZXIrTOL6r2uppXKsTW5RAE3zQdjkNSc9qnvkbNGNzlqf9jBHj9PJ9QA68SKanNlYSTBpJdKR2enozCn/s640/09930011.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Early morning on Three Mile Lake. Photo by Richard A. Johnson.</td></tr>
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<b>Day 5</b>: Biggar Lake to Manitou Lake via Hornbeam, Mangotasi and North Tea lakes. 14km of paddling + 4 portages (1100m total). The portages around the rapids between Biggar and Mangotasi are quite photogenic. We spotted moose on the western shore of Biggar, then beaver and blue heron on Mangotasi. The sandbar between Mangotasi and North Tea lakes was barely covered with low water levels, so we had to drag it. The island campsites on southern Manitou are the way to go.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGH5oop9TvEEMJEn-FTZorIJHgd5HcpJSPAYQZEePusuVL1t3GzyJnjL3iJf1NLAOzPitg9CjSRke6rz4yk2giw1D_KN37IO7ilQoyAX_S1BeKAwJzVCVj8kIT2dhTrsl750FaykgDlUJe/s1600/09920036.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGH5oop9TvEEMJEn-FTZorIJHgd5HcpJSPAYQZEePusuVL1t3GzyJnjL3iJf1NLAOzPitg9CjSRke6rz4yk2giw1D_KN37IO7ilQoyAX_S1BeKAwJzVCVj8kIT2dhTrsl750FaykgDlUJe/s640/09920036.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wooded campsite on an island on Manitou Lake. Photo by Richard A. Johnson.</td></tr>
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<b>Day 6</b>: Manitou Lake to Manitou Lake. 4km paddling, no portages. We'd planned a more robust route to the northwest, via Lorne, Kakasamic, Fassett and Shada lakes, then back onto Manitou. But health issues directed us to the more direct route northward. Nevertheless, Manitou's famed headwinds and storminess (especially travelling north) made the journey a slog in the cold drizzle. The northern Manitou campsites are not quite as memorable as their southern counterparts.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQkMu4YYbJ3wqu4rYwKFn1od7nX9YXEW-fdKBNJxKCSxBdSnQlI3TaQKsmHTOpYUHBHz4F3Vouf5iWwzU8BbImnWfgYk232ryjS5rfZDU-wq8PJ2rxuvvPh4bECktGt_VwZuKYXT18Jlu_/s1600/09920029.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQkMu4YYbJ3wqu4rYwKFn1od7nX9YXEW-fdKBNJxKCSxBdSnQlI3TaQKsmHTOpYUHBHz4F3Vouf5iWwzU8BbImnWfgYk232ryjS5rfZDU-wq8PJ2rxuvvPh4bECktGt_VwZuKYXT18Jlu_/s640/09920029.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pulling the canoe into a campsite on northern Manitou Lake. Photo by Richard A. Johnson.</td></tr>
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<b>Day 7</b>: Manitou Lake to Kiosk via Amable du Fond and Kioshkokwi Lake. A great finish: wild raspberries grow in abundance near the du Fond beach, the start of the portage. The portages of lower Amable du Fond are beautiful and (in our direction) all downhill; you can do them all as one single portage, or paddle the middle section (even in low water, as we faced). The cove out into Kioshkokwi is studded with grounded drift logs, making it a bit of an obstacle course.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTo7BrslegdYDJjznXH6_OVpp_0BzIRBN-bSOK5pw6p8hvZcJtQwOQWbKykySMSOJ4b0gl9KeBxVuJmHnLpWWBsNgh0e4SDk_l_dOBY6RWxisaBUUMQXRp7b6Rz78DeDhpOJz7cjDz7vR_/s1600/09920025.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTo7BrslegdYDJjznXH6_OVpp_0BzIRBN-bSOK5pw6p8hvZcJtQwOQWbKykySMSOJ4b0gl9KeBxVuJmHnLpWWBsNgh0e4SDk_l_dOBY6RWxisaBUUMQXRp7b6Rz78DeDhpOJz7cjDz7vR_/s640/09920025.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Portager's view of the trail near Amable du Fond. Photo by Richard A. Johnson.</td></tr>
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View complete photo gallery <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/13413398@N05/sets/72157631257463124/show/" target="_blank">here</a>.<br /><br /></div>
The Tuque Souqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10695625715741501833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4176548427164692161.post-85924341601913191012012-08-18T15:37:00.000-04:002012-08-18T15:37:00.949-04:00Dog Days of Spadina<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Toronto, August 15, 2012. The Spadina Avenue corridor from Bloor to King Streets is a brocade of barriers, hard hats, steel beams and jackhammers, as the <span style="font-size: x-small;">TTC</span>'s construction teams retool the streetcar infrastructure to conform to the <a href="http://lrv.ttc.ca/" target="_blank">new trams</a> arriving next year.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ_H1Z0P8aG0hEnTYA9eInIt5nG_ruRbPyZHODZWEh7u226STyD3pMNVTF8q-l-8FY3fAIinrw-7txhxZ2kCl0YHIK2o6ruSfKAdOwswSR6s7suQzRUPUvksIiWVMsob5uHoA2RtqIuoAy/s1600/09920001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ_H1Z0P8aG0hEnTYA9eInIt5nG_ruRbPyZHODZWEh7u226STyD3pMNVTF8q-l-8FY3fAIinrw-7txhxZ2kCl0YHIK2o6ruSfKAdOwswSR6s7suQzRUPUvksIiWVMsob5uHoA2RtqIuoAy/s640/09920001.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">King Street</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuzCPd_RE7o4ctm3yo8mYWmxp5qqM2Mggyn4sxOHTvXU5xSaVg84kf59pCfzLRE_AqC_lUvpGP8V6zfL45oi9__eO38HOgkDji6ma7UdtXbao4BfJxogjdqkjprHnMflMg5VJI1yZa4nn7/s1600/09920002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuzCPd_RE7o4ctm3yo8mYWmxp5qqM2Mggyn4sxOHTvXU5xSaVg84kf59pCfzLRE_AqC_lUvpGP8V6zfL45oi9__eO38HOgkDji6ma7UdtXbao4BfJxogjdqkjprHnMflMg5VJI1yZa4nn7/s640/09920002.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Adelaide Street</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGrArPsnsFbYwagRP3jwsMiIrbuc0mjLb-UUa2-1gw83yhyEl9zM0cP93ifkr60SagpjpjMnQhffeicOJc7hfF5P4sF6-xPDjwpmQlOCPfAl-InXf993lzYiNK_DgIGYJpgETR4vazlhzE/s1600/09920003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGrArPsnsFbYwagRP3jwsMiIrbuc0mjLb-UUa2-1gw83yhyEl9zM0cP93ifkr60SagpjpjMnQhffeicOJc7hfF5P4sF6-xPDjwpmQlOCPfAl-InXf993lzYiNK_DgIGYJpgETR4vazlhzE/s640/09920003.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Richmond Street</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJc_LfRNZ9BpWLNXf89KrQqKSLuIlMuSGX455HoZUKE5AikVG4BKpT3PM_ItdXtwkSInWnT6aRkxqfX9D2spl23pm0jbjNLpwp5HcYeOnAn3l_1IgP-RuN5eFy6GRcxKZ3FwzM0vLaKYCE/s1600/09920005.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJc_LfRNZ9BpWLNXf89KrQqKSLuIlMuSGX455HoZUKE5AikVG4BKpT3PM_ItdXtwkSInWnT6aRkxqfX9D2spl23pm0jbjNLpwp5HcYeOnAn3l_1IgP-RuN5eFy6GRcxKZ3FwzM0vLaKYCE/s640/09920005.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Queen Street</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOLnNtqCbZ0AgPH3lp3EvZJMPGWs27KL1WNwUGrZO6Zi1LsSIqCT1DpIFl0pfbAzfNg6RF2kMZPkowLZWZN4UJFe9bxMeZVrIZqpgkHk4m9UmcMElZ1Gx8LEkwr6e6HLVmHWV_eVme7Wws/s1600/09920006.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOLnNtqCbZ0AgPH3lp3EvZJMPGWs27KL1WNwUGrZO6Zi1LsSIqCT1DpIFl0pfbAzfNg6RF2kMZPkowLZWZN4UJFe9bxMeZVrIZqpgkHk4m9UmcMElZ1Gx8LEkwr6e6HLVmHWV_eVme7Wws/s640/09920006.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sullivan Street</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzI3aVFfrniq2e_yzarY8mKjSpsp7atT5AER1jmLlrvjoPJyrej6X1PzEmDsdPxj2J5ku8ZJqMkiDbArz_QfRfodZ8GR74dbv0bUheUI4ihYT_sPplyApO5E7kW7XtoWBJcpXzjlyzi-Vx/s1600/09920008.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzI3aVFfrniq2e_yzarY8mKjSpsp7atT5AER1jmLlrvjoPJyrej6X1PzEmDsdPxj2J5ku8ZJqMkiDbArz_QfRfodZ8GR74dbv0bUheUI4ihYT_sPplyApO5E7kW7XtoWBJcpXzjlyzi-Vx/s640/09920008.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dundas Street</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguxnURB_VpJykTkUmXPU9HmJ3yJDfnPH1nvmrG_4er5M2rpy5noFFs9wzyxW6XC94LQI7unvG0NUikooVSAsUgF6fLY16PJZfgVKaMtTuyi9wvvipzmu1fgykNvHEhyphenhyphenrziJm49Uzw_6Jw0/s1600/09920010.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguxnURB_VpJykTkUmXPU9HmJ3yJDfnPH1nvmrG_4er5M2rpy5noFFs9wzyxW6XC94LQI7unvG0NUikooVSAsUgF6fLY16PJZfgVKaMtTuyi9wvvipzmu1fgykNvHEhyphenhyphenrziJm49Uzw_6Jw0/s640/09920010.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nassau Street / Kensington Market</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9XjSLyyQ49KJA8E0-UaEBao3EzKkuWUCvrWNjsNNjlBvh4MZHtpe-qXR2-z9c-OnfsYHMb6veQdY7yModwQp0aPEMwhd0_S2SrV0ZJRxju7PIO6sq5Y1E6XiUowp4z773WJDsO6njE_N4/s1600/09920012.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9XjSLyyQ49KJA8E0-UaEBao3EzKkuWUCvrWNjsNNjlBvh4MZHtpe-qXR2-z9c-OnfsYHMb6veQdY7yModwQp0aPEMwhd0_S2SrV0ZJRxju7PIO6sq5Y1E6XiUowp4z773WJDsO6njE_N4/s640/09920012.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">College Street</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0AhBs9bVhAJ6OHZRyB5VrcTuMdO33sYRDfBqlg372o9uB_uyCcCcybzQpZIgrzaFlyDQ5O8C8h84DnRyA9uOX9PihJqDmOpDjKrs0tIDdNJZ-atxSzV4X0oaC7F3jmWIpquz-ngpKJjcR/s1600/09920016.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0AhBs9bVhAJ6OHZRyB5VrcTuMdO33sYRDfBqlg372o9uB_uyCcCcybzQpZIgrzaFlyDQ5O8C8h84DnRyA9uOX9PihJqDmOpDjKrs0tIDdNJZ-atxSzV4X0oaC7F3jmWIpquz-ngpKJjcR/s640/09920016.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Harbord Street</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1XW-wq4PTqjsGuo-a9LC2nAEwo0vTHJzXesyFl1wpV5aM1c55eqE7a-gRqtSqsIfhRZiiRTGqZKipv5G5hShLzEYAcfMu3pBGeKS28CXTx8DD62RwXA1XKENfysNLOmHhwp_Qhdu_SMR6/s1600/09920017.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1XW-wq4PTqjsGuo-a9LC2nAEwo0vTHJzXesyFl1wpV5aM1c55eqE7a-gRqtSqsIfhRZiiRTGqZKipv5G5hShLzEYAcfMu3pBGeKS28CXTx8DD62RwXA1XKENfysNLOmHhwp_Qhdu_SMR6/s640/09920017.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sussex Street</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPyYQXxWFqwaBto2eaVtDGVkBZOdWMp6__LE2daV_91OAuXLzTwcWh7NbX_LZvGwwlp-pTaRlmrtpgTVK1uNRvlbck8PC8bFY6GWQaJUxOZMjtFB-LehVu6Hsnccn-BNg00V-4N3FITAm2/s1600/09920018.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPyYQXxWFqwaBto2eaVtDGVkBZOdWMp6__LE2daV_91OAuXLzTwcWh7NbX_LZvGwwlp-pTaRlmrtpgTVK1uNRvlbck8PC8bFY6GWQaJUxOZMjtFB-LehVu6Hsnccn-BNg00V-4N3FITAm2/s640/09920018.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Spadina Station / Bloor Street</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
The Tuque Souqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10695625715741501833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4176548427164692161.post-38891544894398143542012-08-16T11:30:00.000-04:002012-08-16T11:40:49.333-04:00The Stewart-Colbert Road Map for Middle East Peace<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
This month the Comedy Central duo of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert released an advance draft of their highly anticipated <b>Road Map for Middle East Peace</b>, and there is no questioning where the comic cartographers sit on the controversial issues of land dispute between Israel and Palestine. As revealed recently in broadcasts of their respective and influential political shows, <i>The Daily Show</i> and <i>The Colbert Report</i>, having assessed the facts of the heretofore intractable quarrel, Stewart and Colbert appear united in their drawing of Israel:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3t5OPilIhswrmruK26xHJQZ0ejX1NNDvW1knBbOgVpi8_yhF_BhYKbr8SBoKCr3WxipDbq4hBsZxiq1W5KSwwZma8gMwuaKw8_qLZkrXFUvChCsqEZlafUraxqF7y2UJkyEcDabVz1-iO/s1600/daily-show-israel-map.tiff" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="356" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3t5OPilIhswrmruK26xHJQZ0ejX1NNDvW1knBbOgVpi8_yhF_BhYKbr8SBoKCr3WxipDbq4hBsZxiq1W5KSwwZma8gMwuaKw8_qLZkrXFUvChCsqEZlafUraxqF7y2UJkyEcDabVz1-iO/s640/daily-show-israel-map.tiff" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX2H0biUNKd2iWNlVbnFubTzddeScOrpNry1znwfHwvNXUFM0A82x7GVj9evSIu5R2eHvxcz9B3LsHL8V_cxxXT9NSnzI2Zvq41S84R2IYdVPUxCmWHpf-P9Xb-qcdotz4bjy-f39f5zu2/s1600/colbert-report-israel-map.tiff" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="418" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX2H0biUNKd2iWNlVbnFubTzddeScOrpNry1znwfHwvNXUFM0A82x7GVj9evSIu5R2eHvxcz9B3LsHL8V_cxxXT9NSnzI2Zvq41S84R2IYdVPUxCmWHpf-P9Xb-qcdotz4bjy-f39f5zu2/s640/colbert-report-israel-map.tiff" width="640" /></a></div>
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Notice that on both maps, what appears to be a beaver-toothed bite taken out of Israel's eastern border is indeed the fullest extent of the West Bank along the so-called '<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b5/We-map.png" target="_blank">Green Line</a>' of the 1967 ceasefire, right down to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latrun" target="_blank">Latrun</a> pimple dangling just northwest of Jerusalem, which was one of the first <a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/Westbankjan06.jpg" target="_blank">areas of the West Bank</a> to be commandeered by the Israeli military after the Six Day War conquest. </div>
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Quite clearly, the Stewart-Colbert Peace Plan envisions a free Palestine at the 1967 borders, not along lines drawn since by Israel's settlements in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judea_and_Samaria_Area" target="_blank">Judea and Samaria</a>, nor by the infamous <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_West_Bank_barrier" target="_blank">separation wall</a>. </div>
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Furthermore, we notice that beyond a doubt the Stewart-Colbert map does not grant even the so-called Jerusalem <a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7c/Greater_Jerusalem_May_2006_CIA_remote-sensing_map_3500px.jpg" target="_blank">suburb settlements</a> (Ma'aleh Adumim, Pisgat Ze'ev, Ramot Allon, Neve Ya'akov, Gilo, Har Homa, et al) to Israel, even though Israel <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem_Law" target="_blank">effectively annexed</a> East Jerusalem in 1980.</div>
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The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza_strip" target="_blank">Gaza Strip</a>, to be sure, is carved out and served to Palestine in the Stewart-Colbert plan, but Israel has long wished away that parcel of poverty. </div>
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More subtly but just as critical to a comprehensive settlement in the region, the Stewart-Colbert Road Map for Middle East Peace evidently has not awarded the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golan_heights" target="_blank">Golan Heights</a> to Israel, either. Israel formally <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golan_Heights_Law" target="_blank">annexed</a> the upland region of its northeastern frontier in 1981, after having captured it from Syria in '67 and held it in '73. </div>
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Perhaps this is a nod to the hoped-for liberation of Syria by the rebels fighting the regime of Bashar al-Assad: in a post-Arab-Spring Middle East, Israel will, say Stewart and Colbert, gladly return the Golan to its previous owners.<br />
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Will this latest attempt at a two-state solution in Israelestine be as laughable as those of earlier shuttle diplomats and political cartographers. Stay tuned to your favourite comedy shows to find out the truth.</div>
The Tuque Souqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10695625715741501833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4176548427164692161.post-49509380507279018812012-07-18T08:19:00.001-04:002012-08-01T06:57:46.051-04:00Summer Travel Reading, from the NMA Archives<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">A friend dropped us a note recently from his travels in Austria: “I never imagined this place would be so stimulating: the mountains, the gardens, the café life; even the stodgy old Habsburg homes have some life to them.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://www.magazine-awards.com/multimedia/nmaf/awards_submission_archive_2011/15573.PDF" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #c52020; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-1857" height="300" scale="0" src="http://magazineawards.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/the_big_blue-tiff.jpg?w=226&h=300" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; float: right; height: auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 5px 0px 5px 15px; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="The Big Blue" width="226" /></a>It’s summer, deep summer, which means most of us are either travelling or dreaming of travelling. We of the latter shade perhaps are undertaking dozens of vicarious journeys on Facebook and Pinterest. And whether we’re actually on the road or just imaginarily so, we like our travel reading: none better than the collection of award-winning travel stories at the <strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.magazine-awards.com/index.cfm/ci_id/1397/la_id/1" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #c52020; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">National Magazine Awards Archive</a></strong>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">A few suggestions for your summer pleasures and days:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“<a href="http://www.magazine-awards.com/multimedia/nmaf/awards_submission_archive_2011/15573.PDF" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #c52020; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">The Big Blue</a>” <span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: black; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">by Charles Wilkins, <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">explore</em></span></strong><span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: black; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> (2011 Gold winner in Travel)</span><br style="line-height: inherit;" />Sixteen brave souls, one uniquely engineered rowboat, 5000 kilometres of open ocean. The author–the unsinkable Charles Wilkins, admittedly not the youngest or fittest of oarsmen–spent 18 months training for this record-breaking attempt to cross the Atlantic from Morocco to Barbados without the aid of sail or motor. This blogger felt almost guilty reading of this adventure from the comfort of a Toronto patio, as Wilkins dispatched:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“I was cold, I was exhausted, I was starved… What’s more, I had been beaten up–slapped around by waves that sometime before midnight had started coming hard out of the east onto our port flank… At one point, when for the briefest of moments my focus had lapsed (my brain having detoured into fantasies of my former life as a human being), an uncooperative wave had snatched my oar, driving the handle into my chest, pinning me with savage efficiency against the bulkhead that defined the prow end of the rowing trench.” [<a href="http://www.magazine-awards.com/multimedia/nmaf/awards_submission_archive_2011/15573.PDF" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #c52020; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Read more</a>]</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“<a href="http://www.magazine-awards.com/multimedia/nmaf/awards_submission_archive_2009/8337.PDF" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #c52020; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Walking the Way</a>” <span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: black; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">by Timothy Taylor, <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Walrus</em></span></strong><span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: black; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> (2009 Gold winner in Travel)</span><br style="line-height: inherit;" /><a href="http://www.magazine-awards.com/multimedia/nmaf/awards_submission_archive_2009/8337.PDF" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #c52020; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-1860" height="210" scale="0" src="http://magazineawards.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/walking_the_way-tiff.jpg?w=300&h=210" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; float: left; height: auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 5px 15px 5px 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Walking the Way" width="300" /></a>A fixture of bucket lists for centuries, Spain’s Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage trail seems, by the grace of those who walk it, an uneven plane of surrealism, uniting disparate senses of faith and devotion on a single, very literal path. And few writers put pen to trail as evocatively as Timothy Taylor:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“Nobody talks about religion, faith, metaphysics… Nobody says, because not long ago at a party I got into a drunken argument about philosophical materialism–the belief that the only thing that exists is physical matter–and found myself yelling at a woman, ‘Then why are we here? Why are <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">you</em>here?’ Nobody would admit to that. To losing it. To getting belligerent over the possibility of transcendence. Nobody would admit that, because it would indicate that you somehow <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">needed</em> to walk 800 kilometres across Spain.” [<a href="http://www.magazine-awards.com/multimedia/nmaf/awards_submission_archive_2009/8337.PDF" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #c52020; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Read more</a>]</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“<a href="http://www.magazine-awards.com/multimedia/nmaf/awards_submission_archive_2008/4783.PDF" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #c52020; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">St. Petersburg the Great</a>” <span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: black; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">by Noah Richler, <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">enRoute</em></span></strong><span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: black; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> (2008 Gold winner in Travel)</span><br style="line-height: inherit;" /><a href="http://www.magazine-awards.com/multimedia/nmaf/awards_submission_archive_2008/4783.PDF" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #c52020; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-1859" height="300" scale="0" src="http://magazineawards.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/stpetersburg_the_great-tiff1.jpg?w=253&h=300" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; float: right; height: auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 5px 0px 5px 15px; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="St Petersburg the Great" width="253" /></a>A mindful travelogue in the modern mold–a studious writer eager to discover what lies beneath; a photographer (Robert Lemermeyer) with a keen sense of place–it satisfies both the memories of those who’ve already been there and the desires of we who long to go. Not just restaurants–ingredients. Not just vodka–conversation. (Not just English–bilingual; it’s <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">enRoute</em> after all.) Richler keeps the reader at his elbow:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“In St. Petersburg, the noteworthy is either tawdry or a few steps underground or magnificent and palatial beyond imagining. It is as if Peter’s lofty dream and the lowly serfdom that made it possible persist in the soul of the city because neither ever existed without the other.” [<a href="http://www.magazine-awards.com/multimedia/nmaf/awards_submission_archive_2008/4783.PDF" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #c52020; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Read more</a>]</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Read these travel stories and more at the National Magazine Awards archive: <strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.magazine-awards.com/index.cfm?ci_id=1397&la_id=1" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #c52020; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">magazine-awards.com/archive</a></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">[Cross posted with the <a href="http://blog.magazine-awards.com/" target="_blank">Magazine Awards</a> blog]</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">More summer reading from the <b>National Magazine Awards</b><span style="color: #555555;">: </span><a href="http://blog.magazine-awards.com/2012/07/24/summer-reading-great-essays-from-the-nma-archives/" style="color: #555555;" target="_blank">Essays</a><span style="color: #555555;"> | </span><a href="http://blog.magazine-awards.com/2012/07/31/summer-reading-series-3-olympic-sports-recreation/" style="color: #555555;" target="_blank">Sports & Recreation</a></span></div>
</div>The Tuque Souqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10695625715741501833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4176548427164692161.post-37279694280613206462012-05-25T08:59:00.002-04:002012-05-26T12:18:14.477-04:00The Fine Art of Magazine Cover Virality<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeg86fwO3NiiRMXe-FOlZpitqVAWr4tx3pRj8SlWxTw5gdwydF9uPWs9GEN9E1-WvjR_SciSAcmG8ivfEx37O0rHbSrKugR3wx1k99BzNM44CZVXWh-IYFa6SwNJjtrXNNm6645xJSyPXM/s1600/listicle-foreign-policy-sex-2012.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeg86fwO3NiiRMXe-FOlZpitqVAWr4tx3pRj8SlWxTw5gdwydF9uPWs9GEN9E1-WvjR_SciSAcmG8ivfEx37O0rHbSrKugR3wx1k99BzNM44CZVXWh-IYFa6SwNJjtrXNNm6645xJSyPXM/s400/listicle-foreign-policy-sex-2012.jpeg" title="Foreign Policy Why Do They Hate Us" width="297" /></a></div>
When did we all become so completely obsessed with magazine covers?<br />
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It seems none of us can get enough <a href="http://www.adweek.com/files/listicle-bloomberg-businessweek-shuttle-2012.jpg" target="_blank">suggestive poses</a>, <a href="http://www.adweek.com/files/listicle-newsweek-diana-2012.jpg" target="_blank">egregious photoshopping</a>, <a href="http://jezebel.com/time-magazine/" target="_blank">bold breastfeeding</a>, <a href="http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/front/images/magazine/covers/210x280/201205.jpg" target="_blank">Zuckerberg hate-ons</a>, <a href="http://assets.texasmonthly.com/tmdp/images/jessicasimpson.jpg" target="_blank">Demi rip-offs</a> or wholesome <a href="http://img1.bdbphotos.com/images/orig/i/o/iou2runfbmh1hmn.jpg" target="_blank">conservative cleavage</a> (not exactly <a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b4/Maxim_cover_April_2004.png" style="font-style: italic;" target="_blank">Maxim</a> is it?).<br />
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Indeed, this recent <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/press/10-most-controversial-mag-covers-recently-published-140686?page=1" target="_blank">AdWeek retrospective</a> of arresting magazine covers is mostly <a href="http://www.adweek.com/files/listicle-rolling-stone-true-blood-2012.jpg" target="_blank">T&A</a>, and no where does it suggest that you actually read these mags.<br />
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The new cover of <i>Foreign Policy</i>, a so-called Sex Issue (wait, wasn't <a href="http://downmagaz.ws/uploads/posts/2011-08/1313519894_foreignpolicy.jpg" target="_blank">this issue</a> sexy enough?) would be an arrestable offence in many countries (which is essentially the point of author <a href="http://jezebel.com/5904610/why-does-the-middle-east-hate-women" target="_blank">Mona Eltahawy</a>'s <a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/The_Sex_Issue" target="_blank">cover story</a>).<br />
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The recent <a href="http://www.magazine.org/ASME/2012bestcover/covers.aspx#2" target="_blank">Cover of the Year winner</a> at the American National Magazine Awards? Yup, not exactly <i><a href="http://thecraftsdept.marthastewart.com/2012/03/the-april-cover.html" target="_blank">Martha Stewart Living</a></i>.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghUsiVS_jvRtRC4-2m-EFQM2NCNT6HiD28-gkTLG9_HuAec5OIDqz-9xGtP0zYVqcF-Sw1Het5ctM3o186q6aqKH-NhYUYbVQcMgC2zQqeRm7yESyBr_zx2awQsfTUNuXqr43yT82WmNmK/s1600/NewYorker_GayObama.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghUsiVS_jvRtRC4-2m-EFQM2NCNT6HiD28-gkTLG9_HuAec5OIDqz-9xGtP0zYVqcF-Sw1Het5ctM3o186q6aqKH-NhYUYbVQcMgC2zQqeRm7yESyBr_zx2awQsfTUNuXqr43yT82WmNmK/s200/NewYorker_GayObama.jpeg" width="144" /></a></div>
There's even more to the cover craze: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bizweekdesign/6749160233/" target="_blank">covers</a> that didn't make it to print but we still want to go viral; <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/sites/default/files/2012/03/newsweek_retro_mad_men.jpg" target="_blank">covers</a> that exploit your infatuation with non-print media; <a href="http://www.magazine.org/ASME/2012bestcover/photos/004.jpg" target="_blank">covers</a> that test your capacity for irony, and <a href="http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/120514031139-magzine-covers-newsweek-new-yorker-story-top.jpg" target="_blank">covers</a> that suggest a certain someone is gee-ay-why.<br />
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(Before being outed Obama was also a <a href="http://www.rayfowler.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/time_cover_121007.jpg" target="_blank">tiny-headed</a> <a href="http://images.nymag.com/images/2/news/11/09/israel110926_cover_260x350.png" target="_blank">Jewish</a> <a href="http://www.thisblogrules.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/The-New-Yorker-July-21-2008.jpg" target="_blank">Mullah</a> <a href="http://stocklandmartelblog.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/nadav-kander-blog0006.jpg" target="_blank">Rodin sculpture</a>.)<br />
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There are even covers that aren't even covers yet, hence this <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/05/first-president-magazine-covers.html#" target="_blank">masterful mash-up</a> of future magazine covers from <i>New York</i> magazine.<br />
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And then there are <a href="http://www.condenaststore.com/-sp/The-New-Yorker-Cover-April-16-2012-Prints_i8751357_.htm" target="_blank">covers</a> that circumvent breasts and rainbows and go to right to subliminal messaging for a certain Canadian Prairie town (suck it, Winnipeg!).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk0u-vF3yVuimXkqYl9n6mDWYapYtJUIM-0mAvXlXf0-H87tNmX91yEkCrXDvUsGliOAsU1UcvJkJF_dLPsODDrkx-cyeuJcQ97txU8CHUU6HDE7z-LQW7IRI7yzYGhQpSvLfNMurBjLoL/s1600/NewYork_Cover_of_the_Year.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk0u-vF3yVuimXkqYl9n6mDWYapYtJUIM-0mAvXlXf0-H87tNmX91yEkCrXDvUsGliOAsU1UcvJkJF_dLPsODDrkx-cyeuJcQ97txU8CHUU6HDE7z-LQW7IRI7yzYGhQpSvLfNMurBjLoL/s200/NewYork_Cover_of_the_Year.jpeg" width="150" /></a></div>
What do all these covers have in common? They appear to be based on the idea that going viral (which all these covers have to varying degrees, except those <i>Martha Stewart</i> eggs) is the best way to sell a magazine brand, if not an actual magazine.<br />
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And you know what? It works. Will you ever forget the images of breast-munching chair-boy or body-paint burqa, even after Twitter has short-circuited your temporal lobe? No. Will you actually believe the American president is a homosexual when you pull his lever in November? Maybe.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNOAGzrDsrWXsSnDNzlmKK9fEqnPcZV-JfVz6AhAdmHqTFIaeEao6B3yI2ULMGSQBqtXXlTyNsyMjIJYIRdgazfp-NZWRa7gKuFMclAoaEziaMFa8MeZOEw8siyqvxfUZChpG3re9bkG0a/s1600/TIME_breastfeeding_cover.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNOAGzrDsrWXsSnDNzlmKK9fEqnPcZV-JfVz6AhAdmHqTFIaeEao6B3yI2ULMGSQBqtXXlTyNsyMjIJYIRdgazfp-NZWRa7gKuFMclAoaEziaMFa8MeZOEw8siyqvxfUZChpG3re9bkG0a/s200/TIME_breastfeeding_cover.jpeg" width="150" /></a></div>
Will you remember that these covers stood in for forward-thinking social debates on post-feminist parenting, post-nationalist feminism and post-stupidity human rights? Probably not. But then, you (and I) probably hadn't read the issue by the time you helped its cover go viral.<br />
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Hooray for the new magazine model: look, but don't touch!<br />
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Oh, and while I've got you panting for magazines, check out the <a href="http://blog.magazine-awards.com/2012/05/15/meet-the-nma-finalists-for-magazine-covers/" target="_blank">Best Cover nominees</a> for the Canadian <a href="http://blog.magazine-awards.com/" target="_blank">National Magazine Awards</a>. The winner will be announced June 7.</div>The Tuque Souqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10695625715741501833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4176548427164692161.post-4791366991427200562012-04-25T14:41:00.000-04:002012-04-25T14:41:00.387-04:00Memorable Mag Covers: Maisonneuve's Crème brûlée<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It's May 1 that the Canadian <a href="http://www.magazine-awards.com/" target="_blank">National Magazine Awards</a> will reveal the nominees for the 35th anniversary awards. Counting down the days till the announcement, they're showcasing some of the <a href="http://blog.magazine-awards.com/" target="_blank">cool creative</a> from the past few years. One award we never tire of reviewing: Magazine Covers.<br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This one, which can best be described as "spacemen walking on </span><em style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: normal; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">crème brûlée" from Maisonneuve, was the 2007 winner for best magazine cover in Canada. <a href="http://blog.magazine-awards.com/2012/04/25/national-magazine-award-winning-covers-2007-2010/" target="_blank">View more here</a>.<br /> </em><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXnyawl22J22p74Zul3ZYpIo9nEiEsQixkuVio3BN9A4f1xUn_rT3cqHo2791Lsw0A4u2t8R8I1CRQdPcnK7_2TroGaTfMiSQiM8eIWQmKzUy8YS4fCx1AV-feDcQ0pHjnHoMKt7KlAYeh/s1600/2007_Maisonneuve2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXnyawl22J22p74Zul3ZYpIo9nEiEsQixkuVio3BN9A4f1xUn_rT3cqHo2791Lsw0A4u2t8R8I1CRQdPcnK7_2TroGaTfMiSQiM8eIWQmKzUy8YS4fCx1AV-feDcQ0pHjnHoMKt7KlAYeh/s640/2007_Maisonneuve2.jpg" width="467" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><em style="background-color: white; font-style: normal; line-height: 16px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><br /></em></span></div>The Tuque Souqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10695625715741501833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4176548427164692161.post-37411402852878011312012-04-11T17:54:00.001-04:002012-04-11T18:00:31.575-04:00Saturday Evening Post Ads, 1968<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Few of us were alive and/or cognizant during the glory era of <i>The Saturday Evening Post</i>, the bedrock of the American magazine publishing establishment from, say, 1903 (when the mag famously introduced readers to Jack London's <i>The Call of the Wild</i> in serialized form) until 1969 (when a defamation lawsuit shuttered the publication, if temporarily). While the <i>Post</i> re-emerged in 1971 and has <a href="http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/" target="_blank">continued to exist</a> in various forms since, it's more homage to its former grandiosity than it is vanguard of the magazine institution.<br />
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That said, the Post's innate aura of nostalgia (Norman Rockwell aside, please) draws one to its yellowing pages even today, and one can't help but breathe musty fumes of historical embers from one page to the next in, for example, the April 20, 1968 issue which I happened upon recently.<br />
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Most remarkable for a condensation of the grandiloquent Canadian-born economist and statesman <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kenneth_Galbraith" target="_blank">John Kenneth Galbraith</a>'s novel <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Triumph-Novel-Modern-Diplomacy/dp/0395665132" target="_blank">The Triumph</a></i> and a cover story on how America's police were honing their crowd-busting skills in the midst of the race riots of the Civil Rights era, one also finds comfort in the now-quaint historicity of its ads. To wit:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYGBLh03Z8kzKucCCxHgWFchCHYJJ8yEeKEjC0o5ABzKV3gtHiOvCiY_nygMNIGg4Wg3DtpEXbNA1DUN-ZL2K4O0UyLBFOnNAI7um6wEBzqPtrBhV94Q4PsWrl07m0zb1G5j0EzOBJHm9Z/s1600/SatEvePostad-Records.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYGBLh03Z8kzKucCCxHgWFchCHYJJ8yEeKEjC0o5ABzKV3gtHiOvCiY_nygMNIGg4Wg3DtpEXbNA1DUN-ZL2K4O0UyLBFOnNAI7um6wEBzqPtrBhV94Q4PsWrl07m0zb1G5j0EzOBJHm9Z/s400/SatEvePostad-Records.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>Ah, the Record-Club trap. Sure, you can get Sinatra for 99 cents. Then Dean Martin will cost you more.</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhykpCOv2E3VrthkxuUYooIcrhHfUl6kn4flH0kXe_NDdh2ifKMamzIZLthNNPkZ9lNbjae0arnw6NaRzlyz4hlRkBv7LTA5YtUIiE7xMVzqzVxRkqg2nZhyphenhyphenlz3I0JZwOSCu1Mr8n2p-ARc/s1600/SatEvePostad-Polaroid.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhykpCOv2E3VrthkxuUYooIcrhHfUl6kn4flH0kXe_NDdh2ifKMamzIZLthNNPkZ9lNbjae0arnw6NaRzlyz4hlRkBv7LTA5YtUIiE7xMVzqzVxRkqg2nZhyphenhyphenlz3I0JZwOSCu1Mr8n2p-ARc/s400/SatEvePostad-Polaroid.jpg" width="305" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>This image tugs on more heart strings than you knew you had.</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkSnWbnehlTluEwfxjvCUjE6ZTemEqEhHSx91Hg5Ak-Zm7dwS4sxpi5C1C8XJp9AcbhRio6GqcXOOhWFDNWpo7CuD1BukqIRfZr4sAnAx6ewuEnEWQoZjMZoggxIlDqKYF8OxFtPLrveMv/s1600/SatEvePostAd-Camaro.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="252" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkSnWbnehlTluEwfxjvCUjE6ZTemEqEhHSx91Hg5Ak-Zm7dwS4sxpi5C1C8XJp9AcbhRio6GqcXOOhWFDNWpo7CuD1BukqIRfZr4sAnAx6ewuEnEWQoZjMZoggxIlDqKYF8OxFtPLrveMv/s400/SatEvePostAd-Camaro.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>What happened to the guy who thought it was a good idea to print "Pay More" in size-144 font?</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht73TXbgjLdyVp2pGPCXXQe-8WdKaO3hgtnT5CjGpmKySzBe9uA6utKxzBAscdhg52riSvP1vOAnXSS7i2GUZ2h6MNO8cnQSI4IydO7enhF4Jy1MRFaU7gyKtG8cYbGjNKR3qjqfDOV4mG/s1600/SatEvePostad-Thermos.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht73TXbgjLdyVp2pGPCXXQe-8WdKaO3hgtnT5CjGpmKySzBe9uA6utKxzBAscdhg52riSvP1vOAnXSS7i2GUZ2h6MNO8cnQSI4IydO7enhF4Jy1MRFaU7gyKtG8cYbGjNKR3qjqfDOV4mG/s400/SatEvePostad-Thermos.jpg" width="308" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>A 1968 ad that refers to 1907 as the good old days. Ah, the good old days.</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioeAvuub-Y7l4JIf8y9zLZZXoLgffWm3kftbQHEkd8xF6SviCI9bwmkJNwL_tj9MjPIGr8c897CgSggFVHrEl_iHgn6arHUw_hSAz6S-XMWquklb6LvUW9vUsCCk8W1NFAbvywF5fpy2vb/s1600/SatEvePostad-CC.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="251" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioeAvuub-Y7l4JIf8y9zLZZXoLgffWm3kftbQHEkd8xF6SviCI9bwmkJNwL_tj9MjPIGr8c897CgSggFVHrEl_iHgn6arHUw_hSAz6S-XMWquklb6LvUW9vUsCCk8W1NFAbvywF5fpy2vb/s400/SatEvePostad-CC.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>These fictional barkeeping ballplayers are now a huge draw on <a href="https://www.google.ca/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=palucci+goldstein+quinn+ad+1968" target="_blank">eBay</a>.</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Click <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/13413398@N05/sets/72157629425539914/show/" target="_blank">here to view the full album</a> of 29 bourbon-shilling, muscle-car-bragging, cigarette-filter-innovation-boasting ads from the April 20, 1968 issue of <i>The Saturday Evening Post</i>.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">{Related post: <a href="http://thetuquesouq.blogspot.ca/2012/01/life-magazine-ads-year-in-pictures-1988.html" target="_blank">Life Magazine Ads: Year in Pictures 1988</a>}</div></div>The Tuque Souqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10695625715741501833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4176548427164692161.post-27228172932576745572012-04-06T11:55:00.001-04:002012-04-06T11:57:59.822-04:00Why Greg Mortenson's Shame is on Us<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR4HcudGU03bgN0MukxEIZ_pdoao2pLJaUGZtfDEjTtwvSRRTm1xRxvvuCkAgCissJoxPBXf52juHFctFeuDgXgj4dtddl23skQX809OrwzW2z0FbWqVMCBH03FVoiYKOHLl64s2oWP61E/s1600/3cupsoftea.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR4HcudGU03bgN0MukxEIZ_pdoao2pLJaUGZtfDEjTtwvSRRTm1xRxvvuCkAgCissJoxPBXf52juHFctFeuDgXgj4dtddl23skQX809OrwzW2z0FbWqVMCBH03FVoiYKOHLl64s2oWP61E/s1600/3cupsoftea.jpeg" /></a></div>Now that self-made humanitarian and "stones-into-schools" false prophet Greg Mortenson has been ordered to <a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1157049--three-cups-of-tea-author-mortenson-mismanaged-charity-must-reimburse-1-million?bn=1" target="_blank">repay more than $1-million</a> to the charity he founded, exploited and financially mismanaged, it's as good a time as any to assess the disgraced <i>Three Cups of Tea</i> author and his crumbling empire of goodness.<br />
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Quick recap of Mortenson's (true) journey:<br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;"><li>In 1993 Mortenson allegedly took a wrong turn (how prescient) while descending from a harrowing and unsuccessful summit attempt of K2 in Pakistan's Karakoram Range, into the village of Korphe where he discovered his inner altruist; </li>
<li>In 1996 he founded the non-profit Central Asia Institute (<span style="font-size: x-small;">CAI</span>) with seed money from a Swiss millionaire to fund educational development in rural Pakistan and Afghanistan;</li>
<li>In 2006 he co-authored the best-seller <i>Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace... One School at a Time</i>, and became a huge draw as a motivational speaker while <a href="https://www.ikat.org/wp-includes/documents/Financials/CAIAuditedFSFYE%209-30-09.pdf" target="_blank">all his expenses were being paid</a> by <span style="font-size: x-small;">CAI</span>;</li>
<li>He collected no fewer than thirty-nine literary and humanitarian <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Mortenson#Recognition" target="_blank">awards and honorary degrees</a> between 2004 and 2011;</li>
<li>In 2010, US President Barack Obama <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/apr/18/greg-mortenson-three-cups-tea" target="_blank">donated $100,000</a> from the proceeds of his Nobel Prize to <span style="font-size: x-small;">CAI</span>;</li>
<li>In April 2011 the investigative news show <i>60 Minutes</i> <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7363068n" target="_blank">exposed</a> the fact that Mortenson's famous 1993 sojourn to Korphe, as well as other claims made in the book (such as his capture by the Taliban, and, er, building lots of schools) almost certainly <b>never happened</b>;</li>
<li>A day after the <i>60 Minutes</i> report, celebrated journalist, mountaineer and <span style="font-size: x-small;">CAI</span> donor Jon Krakauer released his own damning investigation of Mortenson, <i><a href="http://byliner.com/originals/three-cups-of-deceit" target="_blank">Three Cups of Deceit: How Greg Mortenson, Humanitarian Hero, Lost His Way</a></i>, detailing Mortenson's rap sheet of hypocrisy and how he (Krakauer) was duped into investing.</li>
</ul><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/investigations/charities/article/220756--charity-scams-bust-public-trust" target="_blank">Charity fraud</a> doesn't often come with the kind of alarm bells as <i>Three Cups of Tea</i>, a nauseating read whose obnoxious aggrandizement of Mortenson is both its marketing genius (it was published by Viking Press) and its flashing red warning light.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT5hR_JoWUHtWI4MExEY2oUmEHizIP87oiRBejUEgMp7ef1hTE1WNdpd6c52FaIF0SR7uYz3bPyoHgwILRP8RQtqtRF1Y063w-8rQddu_Ci0vgM3CWgfhPUx53X4py1mN3NpaXFldh3jNl/s1600/3cupsofdeceit.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT5hR_JoWUHtWI4MExEY2oUmEHizIP87oiRBejUEgMp7ef1hTE1WNdpd6c52FaIF0SR7uYz3bPyoHgwILRP8RQtqtRF1Y063w-8rQddu_Ci0vgM3CWgfhPUx53X4py1mN3NpaXFldh3jNl/s320/3cupsofdeceit.jpeg" width="216" /></a></div>That is not to say that its millions of readers should be (solely) blamed for seeing a halo form above the author's head. Our appetite for such tales is as ravenous as our wallets are fat and our secret shame of wealth is heavy. Greg Mortenson created a religion and made himself its prophet. And like others before him, things didn't quite pan out the way he'd prophesied, if mainly because, as <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/21/opinion/21kristof.html?_r=1" target="_blank">Nicholas Kristof noted</a>, "Greg is more of a founding visionary than a disciplined <span style="font-size: x-small;">CEO</span>."<br />
<br />
Krakauer and others concede that Mortenson is not pure evil (Bernie Madoff is the cited contrast), just someone in whom we invested an unholy amount of unearned trust.<br />
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That is why, we must conclude, bold promises attached to fabricated tales of education-starved children in Asia resulted in tens of millions in book sales and funds raised, a charity-funded book tour, private jets, disgruntled donors, shoddy financial statements, deliberate misinformation, and yes, a few schools.<br />
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In other words, Greg Mortenson did what he did because nobody stopped him. Nobody checked the facts, and nobody tempered his idealism (or our own) with a dose of reality. Or if they did, it didn't work.<br />
<br />
His real success was not in exploiting his unique encounter with poverty in Pakistan to build schools, but in exploiting our naïveté with respect to encountering poverty. Greg Mortenson's shame is on us.<br />
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May we think about that before we write our next cheque to charity.</div>The Tuque Souqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10695625715741501833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4176548427164692161.post-41681178826614589472012-04-04T05:17:00.001-04:002012-04-04T16:55:02.266-04:00Jenin's Freedom Theatre marks anniversary of founder's murder<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJgoV01a2VIJF2N5hS1wsAQ2ypXWOoBLtTdVMMlzsHcuhAx-aLvnEMMT_w5LsTD7SGDj3jg-dfJ6qm-iD37M-G7cip4X8u4pf8M3UUkRRWSWRir_KD5ZiCvVDiyNMxtlo0T5oqwPzt4M_9/s1600/jmk-jenin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJgoV01a2VIJF2N5hS1wsAQ2ypXWOoBLtTdVMMlzsHcuhAx-aLvnEMMT_w5LsTD7SGDj3jg-dfJ6qm-iD37M-G7cip4X8u4pf8M3UUkRRWSWRir_KD5ZiCvVDiyNMxtlo0T5oqwPzt4M_9/s1600/jmk-jenin.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Juliano Mer-Khamis<br />
(photo courtesy Freedom Theatre)</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>Today marks the one-year anniversary of the murder of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juliano_Mer-Khamis" target="_blank">Juliano Mer-Khamis</a> -- the Israeli actor and co-founder of Palestine's <a href="http://www.thefreedomtheatre.org/" target="_blank">Freedom Theatre</a> -- who died in a <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/israeli-actor-juliano-mer-khamis-shot-dead-in-jenin-1.354044" target="_blank">hail of gunfire</a> from still-unknown assailants on April 4, 2011, just a few steps from the door of his beloved children's drama centre in the West Bank refugee camp of Jenin.<br />
<br />
Juliano's murder has been blamed on radical Islamists who may have opposed the Freedom Theatre's co-educational curriculum of dance, drama, street art and photography, and the elements of cooperation and non-violent peace-building inherent in the joint Palestinian-Israeli, grassroots project.<br />
<br />
The focus of today's sombre commemoration of Juliano's life and death is the shameful absence of justice, as his friends and the many supporters of the Freedom Theatre stage a <a href="http://thefreedomtheatre.org/news.php?id=223/" target="_blank">demonstration</a> outside the Ramallah headquarters of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, demanding more action in bringing the murderer(s) to justice.<br />
<br />
Community theatre companies in the Israeli cities of Jaffa and Haifa are staging <a href="http://thefreedomtheatre.org/news.php?id=223/" target="_blank">special performances</a> to mark the anniversary in solidarity with the Freedom Theatre.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbaGcx0shih21FupUgGC5W7KaQm_YTZrRA92O0KCkaEpLQooyUsuKYUd05THmkTNizzQ0XjjK3l9YjYMIi6HoWcVh8r5tGqlNeY7Q-Jg3io_QBOOJ82qMAPrq_Z_s78vNKTrsgbMXjF2z_/s1600/arna_herstory.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbaGcx0shih21FupUgGC5W7KaQm_YTZrRA92O0KCkaEpLQooyUsuKYUd05THmkTNizzQ0XjjK3l9YjYMIi6HoWcVh8r5tGqlNeY7Q-Jg3io_QBOOJ82qMAPrq_Z_s78vNKTrsgbMXjF2z_/s1600/arna_herstory.jpeg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Arna Mer-Khamis<br />
(photo courtesy<br />
www.arna.info) </i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>A ruminative month lies ahead for Jenin Refugee Camp, where Juliano's mother, the Israeli peace activist <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arna_Mer-Khamis" target="_blank">Arna Mer-Khamis</a>, founded the original Freedom Theatre in the early 1990s. April marks the ten-year anniversary of the Israeli military destruction of the camp, a two-week bombardment and <a href="http://www.un.org/peace/jenin/" target="_blank">bloody demolition campaign</a> that proved to be the most infamous flank of Israel's <a href="http://books.google.ca/books/about/Operation_Defensive_Shield.html?id=6ugvAQAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y" target="_blank">Operation Defensive Shield</a>, a military offensive designed to crush the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Intifada" target="_blank">Palestinian <i>intifada</i></a> in the spring of 2002.<br />
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Sometimes referred to as the "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Jenin" target="_blank">Battle of Jenin</a>," the assault left 23 Israeli soldiers and more than 50 Palestinian civilians and resistance fighters dead (and hundreds wounded and permanently maimed), including several who as children had participated in Arna Mer-Khamis's original Freedom Theatre.<br />
<br />
In the wake of the <a href="http://canadazone.com/album/jenin/index.htm" target="_blank">destruction</a> of the camp and the 2003 film <i><a href="http://www.arna.info/Arna/" target="_blank">Arna's Children</a></i> -- which chronicled the lives of some of the Palestinian children from the Freedom Theatre, and also of Arna herself (she died of cancer in 1995) -- Juliano and several Israeli and Palestinian activists re-started the Freedom Theatre, which for the past eight years has been training Palestinian refugee children to <a href="http://www.thefreedomtheatre.org/aboutus-new.php" target="_blank">embrace art and creative self-expression</a> as a means of resisting the Israeli occupation and building a new Palestinian society.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjME7u_Wdx01dwgGyM9EtVR_UFxIZMVHgoLlX2Lfqetjpjn0sqtDjYIhF-wIuFIA1NNMhmK2ErS02GCa9QRG4Ipfj9G7TXLhFE6pEBmoEcGOtbBzr6-OI0qHfOkdwwyId8t8UGjzaXbDTK0/s1600/zb.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjME7u_Wdx01dwgGyM9EtVR_UFxIZMVHgoLlX2Lfqetjpjn0sqtDjYIhF-wIuFIA1NNMhmK2ErS02GCa9QRG4Ipfj9G7TXLhFE6pEBmoEcGOtbBzr6-OI0qHfOkdwwyId8t8UGjzaXbDTK0/s1600/zb.jpeg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Zakaria Zubeidi (photo by Natasha Mozgovaya)</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>Perhaps the most famous of Arna's children is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zakaria_Zubeidi" target="_blank">Zakaria Zubeidi</a>, who grew up a child effectively imprisoned within the squalor of Jenin Refugee Camp, participated in the original Freedom Theatre and then, as a young man, years after the death of Arna and the disrepair of the theatre, joined the Palestinian violent resistance to the Israeli occupation, becoming a bomb-maker and a leader of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Aqsa_Martyrs'_Brigades" target="_blank">Al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigade</a>.<br />
<br />
After surviving the assault on Jenin and landing on Israel's most-wanted list, Zakaria renounced violence and embraced Juliano Mer-Khamis as his mentor, helping to found the Freedom Theatre anew. In 2007 Israel granted him amnesty, though as of December 2011 that <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/palestinian-pardoned-by-israel-put-back-on-wanted-list-1.404455" target="_blank">amnesty is revoked</a>.<br />
<br />
He remains in hiding and wanted by Palestinian security forces, such as those who will have a front-row view of today's demonstration in Ramallah, where activists face down the Palestinian (and, by extension, Israeli) powers-that-be, demanding justice for those who have died to build peace in Israel and Palestine.<br />
<br />
{<span style="font-size: x-small;">Read other <a href="http://thetuquesouq.blogspot.ca/search/label/Freedom%20Theatre" target="_blank">Tuque Souq posts</a> about the Freedom Theatre</span>}</div>The Tuque Souqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10695625715741501833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4176548427164692161.post-32576765667442812662012-03-24T12:46:00.000-04:002012-03-24T12:46:00.731-04:00Newsweek's Mad Men issue dons 60s homage ads<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPGm2Pw9NCU7Rgv93PLpkUHYng2OBw6Nc7PRC2RDtU1TKGYifbupLUxUzaGt0A23NIYvde8RNhOGnbiZpORpJBi2QMcGTleTX5gZBEM9Vmqtz94zbGyPG28iqf5yjvZ6r5WzjWlYNALEW_/s1600/newsweek-mad-men.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPGm2Pw9NCU7Rgv93PLpkUHYng2OBw6Nc7PRC2RDtU1TKGYifbupLUxUzaGt0A23NIYvde8RNhOGnbiZpORpJBi2QMcGTleTX5gZBEM9Vmqtz94zbGyPG28iqf5yjvZ6r5WzjWlYNALEW_/s200/newsweek-mad-men.jpeg" width="147" /></a></div>Ahead of this weekend's long-awaited restart of the hit <span style="font-size: x-small;">AMC</span> television series <i>Mad Men</i>, America's perennially ho-hum, middle-class mouthpiece <i><a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek.html" target="_blank">Newsweek</a></i> is hooking newsstand readers with a Draperesque issue featuring <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/sponsored/vote-for-your-favorite-retro-ad.html" target="_blank">retro advertising creative</a> inspired by the fictional firm <span style="font-size: x-small;">SCDP</span> and the show's maddeningly addictive 1960s-era pop style.<br />
<br />
This hopefully one-time-only (please don't spark a fad) collection of blissed-out, gender-normative magazine ads puts the fun in advertising fundamentalism; they're worth a <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/sponsored/vote-for-your-favorite-retro-ad.html" target="_blank">look</a> and a re-look, perhaps alongside a reading of the wonderful <i>Harper's</i> essay "<a href="http://harpers.org/archive/2012/01/page/0076" target="_blank">The False Nostalgia of <i>Mad Men</i></a>" by Jenny Diski from the January <strike>Jones</strike> issue.<br />
<br />
From the psychedelic "The Spam Who Shagged Me" page to the erect Johnston & Murphy ad and the all-the-right-props <i>Uprising</i> piece, these homages are as priceless as Peggy's glass-ceiling tantrums, as tasteless as a Patio commercial, and almost as historically accurate Cooper's infamous "slippery slope" line.<br />
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Great move by the magazine: It's Don Draper's rye-soaked train wreck, and we can't look away.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgavbosqM_0gdH8De6i69QIB8CSYu8Tp6fAAyN6ukMboezim5c8RvPTrLHRd4w2Um7Mrx8uzbrbPnxhSbEcSECURhkWu4W-AMVD7BkoP60tBPu90HgmNPbs0yqNB4WvcmZLzwWYkOXV4IA/s1600/spam-ad-newsweek-tiff.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgavbosqM_0gdH8De6i69QIB8CSYu8Tp6fAAyN6ukMboezim5c8RvPTrLHRd4w2Um7Mrx8uzbrbPnxhSbEcSECURhkWu4W-AMVD7BkoP60tBPu90HgmNPbs0yqNB4WvcmZLzwWYkOXV4IA/s640/spam-ad-newsweek-tiff.jpg" width="475" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxC0AkfXn7Cb66SK8rFPewGkW0axkGnONlKKcojZ3Mx4TNgk2LE8TDCeObTi2beh6mxwMyKpU7qQIjIe7CflzThl5X38mEyy4Wn_uw61BhzoIUs8CjHRU8b1G1iWmg5-WjDCrJu2dGdy5V/s1600/uprising-ad-newsweek-tiff.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxC0AkfXn7Cb66SK8rFPewGkW0axkGnONlKKcojZ3Mx4TNgk2LE8TDCeObTi2beh6mxwMyKpU7qQIjIe7CflzThl5X38mEyy4Wn_uw61BhzoIUs8CjHRU8b1G1iWmg5-WjDCrJu2dGdy5V/s640/uprising-ad-newsweek-tiff.jpg" width="475" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT1G49g5ozMF8_6x7oXg8DwCnK5_2pgWcKUvt_hvmBgeuc-jZzo63GZem6cqcMIVNLOIQu8X_Fa6qWOLQiNdOAvPd8KTMa97G8wDXeHV_nER6mHIbA88lKIcLZ7V-QbMyd4yoI6yfrCncQ/s1600/j-m-ad-newsweek-tiff.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT1G49g5ozMF8_6x7oXg8DwCnK5_2pgWcKUvt_hvmBgeuc-jZzo63GZem6cqcMIVNLOIQu8X_Fa6qWOLQiNdOAvPd8KTMa97G8wDXeHV_nER6mHIbA88lKIcLZ7V-QbMyd4yoI6yfrCncQ/s640/j-m-ad-newsweek-tiff.jpg" width="472" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">You can view all the ads </span><a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/sponsored/vote-for-your-favorite-retro-ad.html" style="text-align: left;" target="_blank">here</a><span style="text-align: left;"> and vote for your favourite. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">(Tip 'o the hat to the </span><a href="http://cmcblog.magazinescanada.ca/" style="text-align: left;" target="_blank">Magazines Canada</a><span style="text-align: left;"> blog.)</span></div></div>The Tuque Souqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10695625715741501833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4176548427164692161.post-5017067047186988472012-02-05T10:10:00.004-05:002012-02-08T18:37:27.844-05:00FINCA: Exploitative Fundraising or Successful Direct Marketing?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Last week I received an envelope in the mail from the <a href="http://www.finca.org/site/c.6fIGIXMFJnJ0H/b.6088193/k.BE5D/Home.htm" target="_blank">Foundation for International Community Assistance</a>, or <span style="font-size: x-small;">FINCA</span>, which consisted of this:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNbXrzVJhqQ-MT-ZoONAF2DZ3o3AW6GaNFzzn_faqqZCNLP60V5o7OSf6Td_bB11GgAgdqkIMfKJ1acLqbMpTwEFDNBmRNEzGF4dqsU7evGbzhJd2q5dQHh7HtC_IPROuvSVZq4tUeRGjz/s1600/FINCAdm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNbXrzVJhqQ-MT-ZoONAF2DZ3o3AW6GaNFzzn_faqqZCNLP60V5o7OSf6Td_bB11GgAgdqkIMfKJ1acLqbMpTwEFDNBmRNEzGF4dqsU7evGbzhJd2q5dQHh7HtC_IPROuvSVZq4tUeRGjz/s400/FINCAdm.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
Three photographs of women presenting a form of livelihood to the camera, with a letter from <span style="font-size: x-small;">FINCA</span> president and <span style="font-size: x-small;">CEO</span> Rupert W. Scofield informing me about "micro-entrepreneurship," "village banks," and how my "donation of $50 or more" can empower poor women like "Dominga" and "Robinah" (not pictured), whose brief tales of former woe and current hope are offered up as proof of <span style="font-size: x-small;">FINCA</span>'s commitment and success.<br />
<br />
As an experienced communications manager and advisor in the non-profit/<span style="font-size: x-small;">NGO</span> sector, I'm very curious about these kinds of promotions. When I see something like this, there are 5 things that immediately come to mind:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">1) <i>Who are the women (and the child) in the photographs?</i><br />
2) <i>Who is the photographer(s)?</i><br />
3) <i>Under what circumstances were the photographs taken?</i><br />
4) <i>Does the letter inform me of how my donation is managed/governed?</i><br />
5) <i>Am I encouraged to seek out more information before becoming a donor?</i></blockquote>So how did <span style="font-size: x-small;">FINCA</span> do with respect to these five benchmarks?<br />
<br />
<b>1) </b>The photographs are actually cards, and inside each is the full name, home town (or in one case only home country) and brief success story of each woman. The child's name and relationship to the woman in that photograph are not mentioned.<br />
<br />
<b>2)</b> The photographers are not named anywhere. I believe the photographer should always be credited (even though this is not standard practice with <span style="font-size: x-small;">NGO</span>s) in campaigns such as this, both for credit/copyright of an original creation (based on my experience these photos were probably taken by a frontline fieldworker who has no idea about the copyright he/she holds), and for accountability, such as #3 below.<br />
<br />
<b>3)</b> The circumstances are very important: Did the subjects assent to their photograph being taken and their image being used for direct marketing? How did they give their assent and what assurances are there that they understood the concept of what <span style="font-size: x-small;">FINCA</span> was doing with their image. There is no mention of this anywhere in <span style="font-size: x-small;">FINCA</span>'s information. Not that this is surprising or that <span style="font-size: x-small;">FINCA</span> is alone in neglecting this.<br />
<br />
There is no mention of the child's assent to participate, which is a guideline of the <a href="http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/crc.htm" target="_blank">Convention on the Rights of the Child</a> (<span style="font-size: x-small;">CRC</span>) and standard Child Rights policies that most international <span style="font-size: x-small;">NGO</span>s keep. Not naming the child (a child's right to privacy) is a good practice endorsed by the framework of the <span style="font-size: x-small;">CRC,</span> yet this is undermined by using the image of the child without her assent.<br />
<br />
It's worth noting that among <span style="font-size: x-small;">NGO</span>s the standard practice is to blanket themselves in Child Rights and other policies and therefore not have to invoke them at every turn. My point is that in the case of fundraising and marketing by an <span style="font-size: x-small;">NGO</span>, transparency must reach another level, and <span style="font-size: x-small;">FINCA</span> fails.<br />
<br />
<b>4)</b> There is no mention of <span style="font-size: x-small;">FINCA</span>'s fiscal accountability in the letter, save for a mention in Mr. Scofield's postscript that "93 cents of every dollar donated to <span style="font-size: x-small;">FINCA</span> directly supports client services." This is an impressive but wholly misleading figure. If we are to infer from this marketable statistic that 93% of donations (or 93% of all <span style="font-size: x-small;">FINCA</span>'s income) are spent servicing the grassroots financial-aid programs for the beneficiaries (the Domingas and Robinahs) and only 7% on administrative and personnel costs of <span style="font-size: x-small;">FINCA</span> and its partner <span style="font-size: x-small;">NGO</span>s in the field -- well, if true that would be remarkable.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">FINCA</span> does, as it should, publish its <a href="http://www.finca.org/site/c.6fIGIXMFJnJ0H/b.6088409/k.4C93/Financial_Statements_and_Reports.htm" target="_blank">financial statements</a> for the public to scrutinize. Nowhere within those pages could the average person interpret the "93 cents" remark. <span style="font-size: x-small;">FINCA</span> is a $500-million non-profit charitable organization that is also a bank with a corporate business model. In 2010 it collected $7m in grants, $14m in donations, and $163m in gross interest earned. It spent $81m on personnel and $56m on operating expenses (also spending on taxes, interest and foreign exchange), and curiously (for a non-profit) reported a $10-million profit. Which 93 cents of which of those dollars went to which client services?<br />
<br />
If 93% of the $14 million in donations alone goes to "client services," my response is: Why not 100%? Donations seem to be such a small part of <span style="font-size: x-small;">FINCA</span>'s total budget, and in fact come close to matching reported profit. Did <span style="font-size: x-small;">FINCA</span> think that 93% was a more believable (e.g. marketable) number than 100%?<br />
<br />
Naturally nowhere in his letter (or in <span style="font-size: x-small;">FINCA</span>'s financial statements) does Robert W. Scofield mention that his annual salary is $317,281, or more than <a href="http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=studies.ceo" target="_blank">double the median CEO salary</a> in the non-profit industry. The same source -- the <a href="http://www.bbb.org/charity-reviews/national/relief-and-development/finca-international-in-washington-dc-2704" target="_blank">Better Business Bureau</a> -- that reported his salary also reported that <span style="font-size: x-small;">FINCA</span>'s financial statements do not meet the standards of the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (<span style="font-size: x-small;">GAAP</span>); <span style="font-size: x-small;">FINCA</span> like many <span style="font-size: x-small;">NGO</span>s holds itself to International Financial Reporting Standards (<span style="font-size: x-small;">IFRS</span>) instead.<br />
<br />
<b>5)</b> This, of course, is a trick question. It's antithetical to a marketing campaign to invite its audience to seek critical counsel before donating. Even if I were <span style="font-size: x-small;">FINCA</span>'s communications director I'd be hard pressed slip such a gilded layer of transparency past a marketing team besotted with donor-friendly photographs of smiling foreign women. Again, my point is based on holding <span style="font-size: x-small;">NGO</span>s, charities and non-profits to a higher standard than for-profit, consumer-based organizations.<br />
<br />
<i>This post in no way has been devised to malign <span style="font-size: x-small;">FINCA</span>; I am not accusing them of any duplicity or mismanagement, nor am I aware of their reputation amongst their donors, partners and beneficiaries. <span style="font-size: x-small;">FINCA</span> sent this unsolicited letter to me. And this is my response. I'm simply posing as a very stubborn consumer. And no, they will not be getting my $50. Not today.</i></div>The Tuque Souqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10695625715741501833noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4176548427164692161.post-79016054538170626292012-01-26T20:34:00.000-05:002012-01-26T20:34:46.118-05:00'Off the Page' interview series launches on the Magazine Awards blog<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">A special note from the Department of Blogger Self Reference (Non-Egregious Division): The <a href="http://blog.magazine-awards.com/" target="_blank">Magazine Awards</a> blog (the official blog of the <a href="http://www.magazine-awards.com/" target="_blank">National Magazine Awards Foundation</a>) earlier this month debuted a weekly interview series called "<a href="http://blog.magazine-awards.com/category/off-the-page/" target="_blank">Off the Page</a>."<div><blockquote class="tr_bq"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqJ7qdq_zvO2ql3lGckqszh_MHQ_85IoeyxogizoSA_lnJMW4lM3YbQpbg8bTV_VEYcB1uhJNUfn8540hkM0BNCv45qXEO_g3G46X95wxsOPjjZk3mFTTaNow94m7qDb0uprj_m5aB64kx/s1600/NMAF001_-_Final_Logo_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqJ7qdq_zvO2ql3lGckqszh_MHQ_85IoeyxogizoSA_lnJMW4lM3YbQpbg8bTV_VEYcB1uhJNUfn8540hkM0BNCv45qXEO_g3G46X95wxsOPjjZk3mFTTaNow94m7qDb0uprj_m5aB64kx/s1600/NMAF001_-_Final_Logo_2.jpg" /></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: -webkit-auto; vertical-align: baseline;">Off the Page</strong><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: -webkit-auto; vertical-align: baseline;"> is an exclusive new series produced by the NMAF that reaches out to former National Magazine Award winners to find out what their awards have meant to them and what they’re up to now. </em><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Off the Page </span><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: -webkit-auto; vertical-align: baseline;">will appear regularly on the NMA blog during the winter and spring of 2012.</em></span></blockquote><div><br />
</div><div>The interview series is underway, with profiles of National Magazine Award-winning writers <a href="http://blog.magazine-awards.com/2012/01/12/off-the-page-with-carol-shaben/" target="_blank">Carol Shaben</a>, <a href="http://blog.magazine-awards.com/2012/01/19/off-the-page-with-jeremy-klaszus/" target="_blank">Jeremy Klaszus</a> and <a href="http://blog.magazine-awards.com/2012/01/26/off-the-page-with-alex-leslie/" target="_blank">Alex Leslie</a>, plus illustrator <a href="http://blog.magazine-awards.com/2012/01/05/off-the-page-with-roxanna-bikadoroff/" target="_blank">Roxanna Bikadoroff</a>. I happen to know that in the coming weeks they'll be catching up with an intrepid Canadian photojournalist, a young Toronto writer with a "hot" new book, plus a fantastic Quebec journalist in a special interview to be presented <i>en forme bilingue</i>.</div><div><br />
</div><div>Your humble Tuque Souq blogger is the author of said Magazine Awards blog, in my capacity as contract Special Projects Manager of the <span style="font-size: x-small;">NMAF</span>. Thus I whole-heartedly endorse your clicking over immediately and introducing yourself to "<a href="http://blog.magazine-awards.com/category/off-the-page/" target="_blank">Off the Page</a>" and the <a href="http://blog.magazine-awards.com/" target="_blank">Magazine Awards</a> blog.</div></div></div>The Tuque Souqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10695625715741501833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4176548427164692161.post-887440758143815422012-01-19T07:55:00.025-05:002012-01-19T09:10:32.747-05:00Explorations in the Apocryphal Spelling of Tuque<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Friends, nothing is dearer to this blog than the <a href="http://thetuquesouq.blogspot.com/2009/06/tuque-by-any-other-name.html" target="_blank">sanctity</a> of its allonym. So consider us being true to our own self if we stick to our tuque and pan its increasingly common yet wholly <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuque#Spellings" target="_blank">unaccredited</a>, malapropistic alternate spelling: <i>touque</i>.<br />
<br />
It hit a little close to home this past Christmas.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eueknnJLizY/TwPRskFvf2I/AAAAAAAAA70/OSqe6M1bTBU/s1600/touque-mug.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="228" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eueknnJLizY/TwPRskFvf2I/AAAAAAAAA70/OSqe6M1bTBU/s400/touque-mug.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Christmas gift to the Tuque Souq: Love the mug; loathe the spelling</b></span></i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
Alas, alas. It's one thing to be some blogger with an innocent orthographic handicap (like this <a href="http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/touque" target="_blank">tumblr blog</a> devoted to the "touque") or <a href="http://thetuquesouq.blogspot.com/2009/06/tuque-by-any-other-name.html" target="_blank">this guy</a> with a bug up his arse about "toques."<span style="font-size: xx-small;">[1]</span><br />
<br />
But if you're going to plant copy on a mug<span style="font-size: xx-small;">[2]</span>, please call us before going to press. At no extra charge, we'll tell you: It's a <i>tuque</i>.<br />
<br />
Notwithstanding the <a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=touque&defid=1758655" target="_blank">Urban Dictionary</a>'s sparkling third definition of <i>touque</i> -- "an uncircumcised penis" -- the only legitimate use of the "touque" spelling concerns any reference to the <a href="http://www.houseofnames.com/touque-family-crest" target="_blank">Touque family</a>, a noble Kentish lineage of merry old England with an ancestry stretching to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_conquest_of_England" target="_blank">Norman Conquest</a>.<br />
<br />
Touques can wear touques -- that's their English business. And if they're chefs they might don <a href="http://www.anglicare-sa.org.au/assets/Page-Photos-150px-wide/chefs-hat.jpg" target="_blank">toques</a>. But we wear tuques, especially when drinking our coffee on a cold winter's morn.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">[1]</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i> Bug or no bug, it's still our second-most read blog post of all time, </i><i>after <a href="http://thetuquesouq.blogspot.com/2009/06/qaddafi-defends-womans-right-not-to-be.html" target="_blank">this one</a></i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">[2]</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> <i>Support local artists, like the <a href="http://www.wendytancockdesign.com/index_flash.htm" target="_blank">woman who made this mug</a>, who does some lovely work, all kidding aside</i></span></div>The Tuque Souqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10695625715741501833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4176548427164692161.post-74079570987131535912012-01-12T09:18:00.002-05:002012-01-12T09:35:41.748-05:00Adventures in Advenience: The Return of a Photographic Moment<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9r4f3x8mcIKXKpDyVnzR5lrrPQfR4gcvLoX9XViKb8GCv4pyvZ5MssLVk50RGUpfw3v8JEJbYILru9mM3njRByIaIYfKB-og072tKFkiy4LRKyYuW830WAya2_2ZifXsp_b6WZC2OOPwQ/s1600/cheb_water405.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9r4f3x8mcIKXKpDyVnzR5lrrPQfR4gcvLoX9XViKb8GCv4pyvZ5MssLVk50RGUpfw3v8JEJbYILru9mM3njRByIaIYfKB-og072tKFkiy4LRKyYuW830WAya2_2ZifXsp_b6WZC2OOPwQ/s320/cheb_water405.jpg" width="215" /></a></div>Nine years ago this month I dropped anchor in Tunisia for a six-month contract teaching English at a school in the seaside city of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sousse">Sousse</a>, packing along with me little besides my old Canon single lens reflex, an 18mm wide-angle lens and a few dozen rolls of Ilford FP4.<br />
<br />
I worked six days a week, so when that seventh day came round I was on a bus or a train somewhere into countryside as far as I could get. But it wasn't till shortly before my departure that I was able to devote an entire week to a voyage into the Sahara, at least to its border towns and not-too-distant oases.<br />
<br />
It was a hermetic experience: late May in the foothills of the Atlas Mountains, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chott_el_Djerid">Chott el-Djerid</a> salt flats, and beyond them the Sahara -- with their mirages, siestas, scorpions and utter lack of tourists -- is conducive to isolation and meditation, and I found myself subsisting on a diet of bread, water, the kindness of strangers and contemplations of photography.<br />
<br />
Two years later, after a fleeting <a href="http://www.canadazone.com/album/tunisia/index.htm">photo exhibition</a>, I was commissioned by my alumni magazine to <a href="http://cmes.hmdc.harvard.edu/ecmes/photo/an_other_perspective_of_tunisia">write a reflection</a> of my own alongside some of those photographs of Tunisia. At that time I happened to be reading a gifted copy of <i>Camera Lucida</i>, a reflection on photography by the French philosopher <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_Barthes">Roland Barthes</a>.<br />
<br />
For the magazine I penned a brief, recollected imagining of my experience behind the lens in the Tunisian desert, and in it I recalled my introduction to Barthes' concept of <b><i>advenience</i></b>, a term he employed to summarize his personal experience -- physical and emotional -- of encountering certain moving photographs.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8paeUru7xeY/TwHzUo_QUKI/AAAAAAAAA7Q/tiEQ_OGmd6M/s1600/cameralucida.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8paeUru7xeY/TwHzUo_QUKI/AAAAAAAAA7Q/tiEQ_OGmd6M/s200/cameralucida.jpeg" width="128" /></a></div>In my reflection on reading Barthes and photographing Tunisia as a foreigner in a studious, contemplative mood, I was inspired in a moment to define advenience as "the adventuresome adding of a new perspective to the whole" and thereby tie the experience of the photographer to that of the hypothetical viewer in a loose continuum of photographic intimacy.<br />
<br />
The magazine <a href="http://cmes.hmdc.harvard.edu/ecmes/photo/an_other_perspective_of_tunisia">published the piece</a>, I dutifully added it to my CV, and that seemed to wrap up tidily the Tunisia chapter of my life (aside from my lasting support for the <a href="http://thetuquesouq.blogspot.com/2009/10/tunisia-and-bahrain-plan-to-get-lucky.html">country's</a> and <a href="http://thetuquesouq.blogspot.com/2009/03/bouha-tunisia-football-is-awesome-and.html">Sousse's</a> soccer teams).<br />
<br />
That is, until about a month ago, when I received a phone call in the middle of a busy Friday afternoon from a certain Sarah in Kansas City. She was excited. There was something about a college, an exhibit and some students, but before I knew exactly what was hurtling through the receiver, I heard her reciting back to me my long tucked-away definition of advenience.<br />
<br />
As it happened, the photography students at the <a href="http://www.kcai.edu/">Kansas City Art Institute</a> were about to debut that very evening an exhibition called <i>advenience (or, an adventursome adding of a new perspective to the whole)</i>.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh4wAM90gdtpIYw5GQimB8zaJId_rHfeWXyQHGiczSO1jGyotMiGoUF_ZNE3RiTBHVCN8-oKB2cO3lADeP4LHw9RUYOdK1kRg6-7q-nAeC5M2vCj4k6MPH9InU75D69jHkzR3OZJXMr19P/s1600/advenience.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh4wAM90gdtpIYw5GQimB8zaJId_rHfeWXyQHGiczSO1jGyotMiGoUF_ZNE3RiTBHVCN8-oKB2cO3lADeP4LHw9RUYOdK1kRg6-7q-nAeC5M2vCj4k6MPH9InU75D69jHkzR3OZJXMr19P/s400/advenience.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Photograph courtesy Sarah Taylor, Kansas City Art Institute</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>The phone call was equal parts courtesy, flattery and (possibly) last-minute due diligence for my acknowledgement.<br />
<br />
Its effect, however, was to re-awaken me to the ecology of inspiration: if a handful of photography students can unite a particular collective photographic experience behind a <a href="http://www.google.ca/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=accreditation#hl=en&sclient=psy-ab&q=advenience&pbx=1&oq=advenience&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=s&gs_upl=0l0l3l1117311l0l0l0l0l0l0l0l0ll1l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&fp=7ef6fd46bf46c44e&biw=1036&bih=811">google search</a> result of an obscure academicky term that years ago I employed to interpret the momentary euphoria of clicking the shutter in a certain place and time, then perhaps we can interpret inspiration as a kind of aperture that opens up between an individual and his or her world; the sudden entrance of light onto dark, a new perspective on the whole.<br />
<br />
The adventure continues.</div>The Tuque Souqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10695625715741501833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4176548427164692161.post-66044005749759692652012-01-09T11:21:00.001-05:002012-01-09T11:22:14.108-05:00Life Magazine Ads: Year in Pictures 1988<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Chanced upon a copy of <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_(magazine)" target="_blank">Life</a></i> magazine's "<a href="http://www.life.com/gallery/65321/image/ugc1314911/1989-life-covers#index/0" target="_blank">Year in Pictures 1988</a>" (published January 1989). Aside from all the coverage of some guy named Dukakis were these spectacular advertisements from the days of yore:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXp5kYDgbxhxyqFJRnTjY-beWoI1gPRB_5vgrRnpvsx-six57uT-ubq0vSO2NFprKNb1csFnP5mzvlh-GPIANRiROwEManol6HDSJ-5s8PfCF8Q0Mo1oQWJ_CXfE3JGkFdgSJfwt7jKgC5/s1600/IMG_4156.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="252" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXp5kYDgbxhxyqFJRnTjY-beWoI1gPRB_5vgrRnpvsx-six57uT-ubq0vSO2NFprKNb1csFnP5mzvlh-GPIANRiROwEManol6HDSJ-5s8PfCF8Q0Mo1oQWJ_CXfE3JGkFdgSJfwt7jKgC5/s400/IMG_4156.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2-jMYuI0ARJsFntRCE8nyhfk5I8ntg6nvxf6tbebp1a75xZITLQC19yzPWyCOrcX_ZwSrxOIFw0rpaMwRyZ7mV532MT-wAk5se4ucmvtQ5fUsVEtr7by_FF7vdZnr4nIaHh0oaUbjTZyi/s1600/IMG_4142.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2-jMYuI0ARJsFntRCE8nyhfk5I8ntg6nvxf6tbebp1a75xZITLQC19yzPWyCOrcX_ZwSrxOIFw0rpaMwRyZ7mV532MT-wAk5se4ucmvtQ5fUsVEtr7by_FF7vdZnr4nIaHh0oaUbjTZyi/s640/IMG_4142.jpg" width="416" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd2J0a8rV6pfQQD_5Lw7qb-Ab17pFRH7ZePKfF7Mutkx-1Fj-IXQvdrN6dge8A-L6F1X2jw3rXn1ul_qtphdI71-UhCTcI2XS45dXeHruUy7xrCL-KOSM49IGjXFvRlTUdnoTS_Qpt0J9d/s1600/IMG_4180.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd2J0a8rV6pfQQD_5Lw7qb-Ab17pFRH7ZePKfF7Mutkx-1Fj-IXQvdrN6dge8A-L6F1X2jw3rXn1ul_qtphdI71-UhCTcI2XS45dXeHruUy7xrCL-KOSM49IGjXFvRlTUdnoTS_Qpt0J9d/s400/IMG_4180.jpg" width="308" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_U-PI1oMtVGead0gWDf3Gi4FKtd3rmlNHXnYTAKG8kT1BYtNA2ex2OK_WmZM7MOTVCR8jmuQTt8JdSLSITuSSAw9kIceK5trOmyD7R16-m3I3ExjoTRNHhyXiAtMJcMEQkjVgU3vgquZt/s1600/IMG_4151.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_U-PI1oMtVGead0gWDf3Gi4FKtd3rmlNHXnYTAKG8kT1BYtNA2ex2OK_WmZM7MOTVCR8jmuQTt8JdSLSITuSSAw9kIceK5trOmyD7R16-m3I3ExjoTRNHhyXiAtMJcMEQkjVgU3vgquZt/s640/IMG_4151.jpg" width="448" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBibYrkvE5nMVVDfUv7887I_uWVsiRqteoNEcBgsaPCZgDyrDDkuzgut7whPM8ccf-RrwWb9rJl6j0ankvnqZti2CodoPXArt1jUi31meSnY1bfk51FOCTcwV5Ouj0eBnKb_TUqmsTEwiv/s1600/IMG_4179.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBibYrkvE5nMVVDfUv7887I_uWVsiRqteoNEcBgsaPCZgDyrDDkuzgut7whPM8ccf-RrwWb9rJl6j0ankvnqZti2CodoPXArt1jUi31meSnY1bfk51FOCTcwV5Ouj0eBnKb_TUqmsTEwiv/s640/IMG_4179.jpg" width="409" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiriI_eA4CMUXGKxsmQcqNN7vEAB_pT8p-1BWxTVqrtplK0iYfT2cpDquXBPeS3EDMTUBycFwE1yUR6ZxxtQ0GeQM3njiMTkjJcu8j-0ka7h5W2RjHvMEaalKuOqSCGQzBMt04i1tKPwQcp/s1600/IMG_4182.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiriI_eA4CMUXGKxsmQcqNN7vEAB_pT8p-1BWxTVqrtplK0iYfT2cpDquXBPeS3EDMTUBycFwE1yUR6ZxxtQ0GeQM3njiMTkjJcu8j-0ka7h5W2RjHvMEaalKuOqSCGQzBMt04i1tKPwQcp/s640/IMG_4182.jpg" width="410" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">See the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/13413398@N05/sets/72157628788215513/" target="_blank">full gallery of thirty ads</a> from <i>Life</i>'s "Year in Pictures 1988"</div></div>The Tuque Souqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10695625715741501833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4176548427164692161.post-71854389762943303632012-01-05T08:44:00.004-05:002012-02-05T10:05:38.650-05:00BBC investigates the politics of NGOs in India<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00mmn3s/The_Documentary_The_Truth_About_NGOs_India/" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="177" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0wgJIfy2lTQ/TwTlRd9GaeI/AAAAAAAAA8M/VZGXmL6jmtQ/s320/bbc-india-tiff.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>What do non-governmental organizations (<span style="font-size: x-small;">NGO</span>s) really do to improve the lives of people in developing countries and work for sustainable development of impoverished and oppressed societies?<br />
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Plenty, as I learned in India over the course of a year with an exceptionally dedicated and scrupulous <span style="font-size: x-small;">NGO</span> called <span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://thetuquesouq.blogspot.com/search/label/PREM" target="_blank">PREM</a></span>. But the world of <span style="font-size: x-small;">NGO</span>s and so-called development, like many a human endeavor, is rife with contradiction, corruption and power politics.<br />
<br />
Part 2 of a new three-part radio documentary by Allan Little called "<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00mmn3s/The_Documentary_The_Truth_About_NGOs_India/" target="_blank">The Truth about <span style="font-size: x-small;">NGO</span>s</a>" examines the complex and ever-changing world <span style="font-size: x-small;">NGO</span>s inhabit in India. Though the focus is mainly on Mumbai, not on the rural jungles of Odisha, many of the issues are the same: credibility, transparency, efficacy, relevance and corruption (both ethical and fiduciary). Further, it explores in basic detail the complicated relationship between <span style="font-size: x-small;">NGO</span>s and government, and the role of the wealthy, powerful and often out-of-touch international <span style="font-size: x-small;">NGO</span>s (e.g. Oxfam, Save the Children, others).<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00mmn27/The_Documentary_The_Truth_About_NGOs_Malawi/" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="177" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QjXYsGAnFOs/TwRe39sCaFI/AAAAAAAAA8A/0pr4-wfM5hE/s320/bbc-malawi-tiff.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Part 1 of Allan Little's <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00mmn27/The_Documentary_The_Truth_About_NGOs_Malawi/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: x-small;">NGO</span> reportage</a> examined <span style="font-size: x-small;">NGO</span> involvement in influencing government and policy in Malawi, and in foisting Western cultural values onto local society via the power vested in them by the money these <span style="font-size: x-small;">NGO</span>s receive from foreign donors. What is a human rights struggle in the West (gay marriage, e.g., or economic equality) becomes a form of neo-colonialism in Africa. And by making local <span style="font-size: x-small;">NGO</span>s dependent on this stream of funding, the foreign donors and the agendas they represent and can wield wide-ranging, undemocratic power in the developing world. It's no stretch to imagine that local government and those opposed to <span style="font-size: x-small;">NGO</span>s can paint them as agents of a new imperialism.<br />
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Part 3, on <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00mmnqy/The_Documentary_The_Truth_About_NGOs_Haiti/" target="_blank">Haiti</a>, is airing this week.<br />
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<i>[Tip of the hat to <a href="http://photosbydean.ca/" target="_blank">Dean Bradley</a> for alerting us to these documentaries.]</i></div>The Tuque Souqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10695625715741501833noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4176548427164692161.post-18378832873357361362012-01-03T00:01:00.004-05:002012-01-03T00:01:01.570-05:00Jenin's Freedom Theatre Embraces 2012<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bHBlfdcIbes/TwHDJo53oRI/AAAAAAAAA6g/EpUEYGNvzWc/s1600/The+Freedom+Theatre.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bHBlfdcIbes/TwHDJo53oRI/AAAAAAAAA6g/EpUEYGNvzWc/s1600/The+Freedom+Theatre.jpeg" /></a></div>2011 was a year of tough perseverance for the <a href="http://www.thefreedomtheatre.org/">Freedom Theatre</a> in Jenin Refugee Camp, Palestine. The joint Palestinian-Israeli project -- a collective community rehabilitation endeavor, art school and theatre troupe -- suffered an enormous tragedy with the April 4 murder (still unsolved) of its founder and leader, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juliano_Mer-Khamis">Juliano Mer Khamis</a>.<br />
<br />
Israeli <a href="http://www.thefreedomtheatre.org/news.php?id=212">military raids</a> into Jenin Refugee Camp have intensified lately, with the targets including Freedom Theatre <a href="http://www.thefreedomtheatre.org/news.php?id=210">volunteers</a>. Co-founder <a href="http://thetuquesouq.blogspot.com/2009/04/fire-with-fire-freedom-theatre-defies.html">Zakaria Zubeidi</a>, a former leader of the camp's armed resistance to Israeli occupation who renounced violence in 2006, recently had his <a href="http://www.thefreedomtheatre.org/news.php?id=213">amnesty revoked</a> by Israel and faces possible re-arrest.<br />
<br />
To welcome a new and hopefully more peaceful year, the Freedom Theatre is engaging supporters in a <a href="http://www.thefreedomtheatre.org/support.php">fundraising campaign</a> to sustain its <a href="http://www.thefreedomtheatre.org/projects-gallery.php">various programs</a>, including the acting school, photography school, community art projects and stage productions. From its latest press release:<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">The accomplishments of The Freedom Theatre over the past six years are many and we are confident that we will continue implementing creative projects that change the lives of children and youth in the local community – but we need your assistance. You can best help us by signing up for a monthly donation program, becoming a long-term partner of The Freedom Theatre. We hope to get 1000 people from around the world to donate at least 10 USD/EUR or equivalent per month.</blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9TTxsxRcTaY/TwHEIIKHljI/AAAAAAAAA7E/c9ej7hFpWSs/s1600/The_Freedom_Theatre_header.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9TTxsxRcTaY/TwHEIIKHljI/AAAAAAAAA7E/c9ej7hFpWSs/s1600/The_Freedom_Theatre_header.png" /></a></div><br />
<div class="p1">If you're so inclined, please support the Freedom Theatre. For more information [shameless plug alert] check out this 2007 article from <i><a href="http://www.thismagazine.ca/issues/2007/09/dramaticrevival.php">This Magazine</a></i>, written by Tuque Souq author Richard A. Johnson.</div><div class="p1"><br />
</div><div class="p1"><b><i>Related posts: </i></b></div><div class="p1"><a href="http://thetuquesouq.blogspot.com/2009/04/fire-with-fire-freedom-theatre-defies.html">Jenin's Freedom Theatre defies critics, arsonists</a></div><div class="p1"><a href="http://thetuquesouq.blogspot.com/2008/11/jenins-freedom-theatre-opens-new.html">Freedom Theatre opens new production on a new stage</a></div></div>The Tuque Souqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10695625715741501833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4176548427164692161.post-88446739479878737032012-01-01T22:50:00.005-05:002012-01-01T23:00:30.174-05:00Happy New Year<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PSFDjrQ_ZQQ/TwErY3tdknI/AAAAAAAAA6I/fHdzM4VnB9g/s1600/happy-2012.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PSFDjrQ_ZQQ/TwErY3tdknI/AAAAAAAAA6I/fHdzM4VnB9g/s1600/happy-2012.jpg" /></a></div>Happy 2012 from the Tuque Souq. We're undergoing a wee redesign in both the visual and conceptual senses. Please bear with us; we'll have the souq all cleaned up and ready for the new year soon.</div>The Tuque Souqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10695625715741501833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4176548427164692161.post-50174492734125902932011-10-02T07:38:00.005-04:002011-10-12T16:52:34.026-04:00Vote for 'Adivasi Community Preschool'<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiMrc-dAypCNvdqH9ebTeJGgTLg2E5_El8N59VGIcjTHNLW90XfjsW2UwhLBl13wPvOBwghDoAsLOJvO9J9N-sK9vTIlECO-uLEz-6CO09xdwGsoW44DFsANvo9Uy8Txd8uzeEE78qvErw/s1600/RJ_Contest01_3girls.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiMrc-dAypCNvdqH9ebTeJGgTLg2E5_El8N59VGIcjTHNLW90XfjsW2UwhLBl13wPvOBwghDoAsLOJvO9J9N-sK9vTIlECO-uLEz-6CO09xdwGsoW44DFsANvo9Uy8Txd8uzeEE78qvErw/s320/RJ_Contest01_3girls.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">There are still two more days to vote in this year's Click About It international photography competition, in partnership with OxFam. Your humble blogger is in the running, with an exhibit called <b><a href="http://wildfireapp.com/website/302/contests/131787/voteable_entries/26621715?order=recency">Adivasi Community Preschool</a></b>. <br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Click here to see <a href="http://wildfireapp.com/website/302/contests/131787/voteable_entries/26621715?order=recency">my entry</a>, <a href="http://wildfireapp.com/website/302/contests/131787/voteable_entries">all entries</a> and <a href="http://wildfireapp.com/website/302/contests/131787">more information</a> about the contest. Public voting ends October 3, after which the contest's own judges weigh in. The winner is announced October 12.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">[Update Oct 12: The winners have been announced and can be <a href="http://wildfireapp.com/website/302/contests/131787/prize_giving">found here</a>.]</span></div>The Tuque Souqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10695625715741501833noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4176548427164692161.post-3451238784381012852011-09-30T10:24:00.002-04:002011-09-30T14:52:18.757-04:00101 Icelandic: A Thorough Tongue-Twisting Trek Through a Thwarting Language<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It is entirely possible that the most garrulous person in all of Iceland is a man who spends most of his day alone on a mountain ridge between two volcanoes. Sigur<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; line-height: 19px;">ð</span>ur Sigur<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; line-height: 19px;">ð</span>ursson is a seasonal warden of a lonely trekkers hut at a place called Fimmv</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 19px;">ö</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">r<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; line-height: 19px;">ð</span>uh<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; line-height: 19px;">á</span>ls, and if you think you can hike up to his domain for a cozy night underneath the aurora borealis without learning how to pronounce </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Fimmv</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 19px;">ö</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">r<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; line-height: 19px;">ð</span>uh<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; line-height: 19px;">á</span>ls</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">--and without developing an affinity for the Icelandic language--you are sorely mistaken.<br />
</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd1JaDEoi-NYL29K_X0FbR5wgT3U9jM7FusNMubggCXGjS1uUvtCkMfCn2Cvb_qUFGtcK0-cpxJUuhY0iFXGUbwv3jeWCjZCfFPtWgptT_V5vebDsf9OkOkt7DMDHc9MLMxeXKo5gMNCPb/s1600/IMG_1941.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd1JaDEoi-NYL29K_X0FbR5wgT3U9jM7FusNMubggCXGjS1uUvtCkMfCn2Cvb_qUFGtcK0-cpxJUuhY0iFXGUbwv3jeWCjZCfFPtWgptT_V5vebDsf9OkOkt7DMDHc9MLMxeXKo5gMNCPb/s320/IMG_1941.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It's simple when you chop it down to the roots, he says (and given the lunar landscape of his realm he's certainly not talking about trees). Fimm is five. V</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 19px;">ö</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">r</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 19px;">ð (pronounced vordh) is cairn. H</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; line-height: 19px;">á</span>ls is neck. The Neck of the Five Cairns. That's where we are.*</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">As he pours a cup of tea from the snow he kindly melts for all his guests (the nearest stream is about 2km away), </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Sigur<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; line-height: 19px;">ð</span>ur continues the lesson. He is wearing insulated snow pants held up over his robust middle with suspenders, and his high, round cheeks are rosy from a long day spent hammering trail-marking stakes into the ground; there is a semblance of a bald, beardless Santa Claus about his presence. It's a mid-September afternoon, but it's only three degrees at </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Fimmv</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 19px;">ö</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">r<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; line-height: 19px;">ð</span>uh<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; line-height: 19px;">á</span>ls</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">.**</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Over there, he points out the window, is M<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; line-height: 19px;">ýrdalsj</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; line-height: 19px;">ö</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; line-height: 19px;">kull. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">M<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; line-height: 19px;">ýr is a wetland. Dal is a valley.*** J</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 19px;">ö</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">kull is, of course, a glacier. The Wetland Valley Glacier. Behind it is </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; line-height: 19px;">þ</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 16px;">ó</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; line-height: 19px;">rsm</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; line-height: 19px;">ö</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">rk, the Forest of Thor.**** Nearby is Go</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">ðaland, Land of the Gods. And of course on the other side is </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Eyjafjallajökull, Island Mountain Glacier.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 19px;">Now you see how we Icelanders name our places.<br />
</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwwKVi_8E582K0mf7kUFlAe8f8uzwdnHO68bFyzH-bKIVPhGlM0miukeMUhYXPojfI5xFP13aI9KwCrdifdt0z6WQcZQdhkuN5tlqsUvdfRy02XvcSonTdGGQ2Tztd_IqvAo1u3K7LMM_R/s1600/IMG_3880.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwwKVi_8E582K0mf7kUFlAe8f8uzwdnHO68bFyzH-bKIVPhGlM0miukeMUhYXPojfI5xFP13aI9KwCrdifdt0z6WQcZQdhkuN5tlqsUvdfRy02XvcSonTdGGQ2Tztd_IqvAo1u3K7LMM_R/s320/IMG_3880.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 19px;">Many travellers find Icelanders to be quiet. People of few words. Lukewarm and distant, like the local sun. But the irrepressible Sigur</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 19px;">ð</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 19px;">ur would not shut up about the joy that is the Icelandic language until we had tied our tongues in knots and surrendered from the lesson. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 19px;">The cosmology of a place as small (pop. 320,000), as rugged (63% of the surface area is classified as "wasteland") and as isolated (no continent to call its own) as Iceland is by necessity both simple and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_purism_in_Icelandic">puristic</a>. After all, following its initial settlement era in the ninth and tenth centuries the country was set upon and dominated if not outright ruled by Norwegians, Danes, Scots, British, French, Spanish, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basque-Icelandic_pidgin">Basques</a>, Germans, Russians, Japanese, Americans and even <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Turkish_abductions">Algerian pirates</a>; by their fishing fleets and military alliances and political tyrants.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 19px;">Apropos of which, the naming of places in Iceland has long been marked with utilitarian strokes, almost as if to convince outsiders of their insignificance, or to convince Icelanders not to get too sentimental about their homeland.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 19px;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE39aEBqlHcdnVOmeTLx1Sk06ed3VpKXHYAz-wstvTDLXMuvItV-Wq6xtsBVuUpD_EUQ8WEmb7Uea1uMCgaLEDgud30q1JsHuIc_1TnFFUreB-BaZCVuedo8tkQ9ZcXxBGRASiZ462JMoO/s1600/IMG_3938.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE39aEBqlHcdnVOmeTLx1Sk06ed3VpKXHYAz-wstvTDLXMuvItV-Wq6xtsBVuUpD_EUQ8WEmb7Uea1uMCgaLEDgud30q1JsHuIc_1TnFFUreB-BaZCVuedo8tkQ9ZcXxBGRASiZ462JMoO/s320/IMG_3938.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 19px;">And further, the Icelandic language beginning in the nineteenth century went through a purist movement (which evolved into a full-fledged government language committee and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Icelandic_Language_Institute">language institute</a>) both to protect and to cultivate the Icelandic linguistic heritage. Among its sphere of influence is the coining of neologisms and the, er, <i>Icelandicizing</i> of loanwords. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;">In an oft-cited example, the Icelandic word for computer, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>tölva</i>, is a portmanteau of the word <i>tala</i> ("number") and <i>v</i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 20px;"><i>ö</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>lva</i> ("oracle"). An Oracle of Numbers, not a k</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; line-height: 19px;">ö</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;">mp</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; line-height: 19px;">ú</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;">tur.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 20px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 20px;">In 1973 they even banished the letter <i>z </i>from the <a href="http://www.omniglot.com/writing/icelandic.htm">alphabet</a>. Why? Not Icelandic. (Thanks but no thanks, England.)</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUWqKgiJYClFG5jxzlYFBg6d5uBpg_CkyTVPh6CGa3zbL7UPDvpEfiRLcnjmEh6kP-vGDCaNL7Ima479o3S64iP2TJcayL7FbDuuPX0Tbv44eC7_4Bzf_3XOLaggEFqqfK4FZYsGD66Bnv/s1600/IMG_2197.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUWqKgiJYClFG5jxzlYFBg6d5uBpg_CkyTVPh6CGa3zbL7UPDvpEfiRLcnjmEh6kP-vGDCaNL7Ima479o3S64iP2TJcayL7FbDuuPX0Tbv44eC7_4Bzf_3XOLaggEFqqfK4FZYsGD66Bnv/s320/IMG_2197.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;">So perhaps it was no coincidence that the ostensibly hermitic S</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">igur<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; line-height: 19px;">ð</span>ur</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 20px;"> (who actually spends most of the year living and working in Reykjavik) was the most talkative person we encountered in Iceland. He sits at a crossroads of some of the simplest, most unutterable toponyms in all of the country, and most of his interactions are with thrill-seeking volcano trekkers from far-flung lands, most of whom only half-heartedly attempt to pronounce </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Fimmv</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 19px;">ö</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">r<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; line-height: 19px;">ð</span>uh<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; line-height: 19px;">á</span>ls</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> before giggling and sighing, cute little Iceland.<br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Sigur<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; line-height: 19px;">ð</span>ur has heard it all. And like others before him, he's determined to <i>Icelandicize</i> your tongue, to send you on your way with a bit more respect for this rugged, hardly diminutive country than when you arrived.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We thanked him and trekked down the mountain. A few days later we found ourselves at </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Sn<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; line-height: 19px;">æ</span>fellsne</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">s. Snow Mountain Peninsula. We hiked up to </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Dj<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; line-height: 19px;">ú</span>palonssandur and down to <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; line-height: 19px;">Ö</span>nver</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 19px;">ð</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">arnes. And yeah, sometimes we wished there existed a Sigur<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; line-height: 19px;">ð</span>ur iPhone app to help us. But we sputtered Icelandic place names into the wind and giggled slightly less. He'd taught us well.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>* To clear up the confusion, the sign in the photo points to Fimmvor</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; font-style: italic; line-height: 19px;">ð</span><i>usk</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; font-style: italic; line-height: 19px;">á</span><i>li. </i>S</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">k<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; line-height: 19px;">á</span>li<i> is the Icelandic for hall or hut, which here means Sigur</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; font-style: italic; line-height: 19px;">ð</span><i>ur's hut on </i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: italic;">Fimmvor<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; line-height: 19px;">ð</span>uh<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; line-height: 19px;">á</span>ls.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>** Celsius.</i></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>*** </i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">M</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; line-height: 19px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">ýr and Dal, if you look closely, resemble the English words "mire" and "dale." Not a coincidence.</span></i></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; font-style: italic; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">**** The runic </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 19px;">þ<i> is an awesome letter and should be Iceland's next export, after the haddock run out.</i></span></span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-14AVWZtEiCmTKJmKdx8O2p7BXtx0mepur825cIaYOO0Zks7XQDszg64j5V7_GX9oBlbGr8dn7tOjVB8Jra0D3cpJwp6i0XuI3qerCuud1pvWMnK-5G2OCizMAUxOKKIhsnoonUql1sPA/s1600/IMG_3685.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-14AVWZtEiCmTKJmKdx8O2p7BXtx0mepur825cIaYOO0Zks7XQDszg64j5V7_GX9oBlbGr8dn7tOjVB8Jra0D3cpJwp6i0XuI3qerCuud1pvWMnK-5G2OCizMAUxOKKIhsnoonUql1sPA/s400/IMG_3685.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This way to Thor's favourite Peninsula.</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><i><br />
</i></span></span></div>The Tuque Souqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10695625715741501833noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4176548427164692161.post-67190888295563582702011-09-27T19:11:00.046-04:002011-09-29T19:29:19.586-04:00I, uh, Felt a Jokull (and other Icelandic things)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQOpL2BC7qzfrkth7mFobeKv0Z3akciLpJWl4e99jonJtbadchWDIWJEfDtZeb1PZHRB5k2aTrBZAc8qgGzQU7gcXVuIHUEZ3IhDLCapewkNzbsWEW1aVn3llA63-v6OpHNcuUlhOkaWjT/s1600/IMG_1955_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQOpL2BC7qzfrkth7mFobeKv0Z3akciLpJWl4e99jonJtbadchWDIWJEfDtZeb1PZHRB5k2aTrBZAc8qgGzQU7gcXVuIHUEZ3IhDLCapewkNzbsWEW1aVn3llA63-v6OpHNcuUlhOkaWjT/s200/IMG_1955_2.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It had to be high on the list of places to visit in Iceland: Eyjafjallaj</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">ö</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">kull, the ice cap and eponymous volcano that just a year ago erupted with more fury than a stampede of <a href="http://www.isbona.com/icelandicsheep.html">sheep</a>, spewing clouds of ash across Europe and sending air-traffic controllers on a long-sought holiday (by train, of course).</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">How could one visit the land of </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://www.everysinglewordinicelandic.com/post/4370121914/jokull?3d3a3f20">j</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://www.everysinglewordinicelandic.com/post/4370121914/jokull?3d3a3f20">ö</a></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://www.everysinglewordinicelandic.com/post/4370121914/jokull?3d3a3f20">kulls</a> and not deposit a soft, black footprint on the slopes of this tongue twister ("aye, if yet, la yokel"), if only to ensure that, at least at one particular moment, nature has relaxed its cycle of self-correction long enough for us humans to venture out of our caves?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In Iceland the natural world certainly has a way of reminding us not to take it for granted. Maybe it's the way the sun always seems so distant, at a languid low angle, as though <a href="http://www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk/features/2011/07/06/malicks-magic-hour/">Terrence Malick</a> is in control of the lighting. Maybe it's in the wind, which blows up, down, warm, cold, east and west, seemingly all at once. Maybe it's the absence of trees, a taut lesson that what goes down doesn't always come back up.*<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHgRKDTddurn3ZoVHNVAk9d5u1Hh2EJ4dJ0_YAUUUkaayPTUVfQso1AN-4Nt2Tv8lkaYrXAWcvAw5mYVviiCuZ0ZlQ_fQxVb3RUkqeuPjc6WstcoMmJhMK7a4jzR8dJBRHLvwrPKRLuYPr/s1600/IMG_2153.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHgRKDTddurn3ZoVHNVAk9d5u1Hh2EJ4dJ0_YAUUUkaayPTUVfQso1AN-4Nt2Tv8lkaYrXAWcvAw5mYVviiCuZ0ZlQ_fQxVb3RUkqeuPjc6WstcoMmJhMK7a4jzR8dJBRHLvwrPKRLuYPr/s400/IMG_2153.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Terrence Malick was here.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Or maybe it's the way those infamous volcanoes keep all but the most <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brenniv%C3%ADn">brennev</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_111959906">í</a></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brenniv%C3%ADn">n</a>-sodden of Icelanders (and the rest of us) continually on their toes.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Thus, climbing up and setting foot on </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Eyjafjallaj</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">ö</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">kull is sort of the human way of letting nature know that, hey, point taken.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiG22XhOiEIusfiR2AjNx7fsLUqlqoKcEF5R9Ttoml7nLsOQfyWlk_boz7yhgepcJbjttXSNTdcT241VdX4xFVOeeExECYCcCgerOx4cTYZUT-hgSG7w7RgSA6EF4LaLrVQy5hP9lyHwHlJ/s1600/IMG_1968_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiG22XhOiEIusfiR2AjNx7fsLUqlqoKcEF5R9Ttoml7nLsOQfyWlk_boz7yhgepcJbjttXSNTdcT241VdX4xFVOeeExECYCcCgerOx4cTYZUT-hgSG7w7RgSA6EF4LaLrVQy5hP9lyHwHlJ/s400/IMG_1968_2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The ice and volcanic dunes of Eyjafjallajokull, 13 September 2011.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Last year a small chunk of the world fumed right back at the Icelandic volcano, angrily protesting the flight delays and the soporific haze drifting through all that clean, human air. But in fact, the eruption of </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Eyjafjallaj</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">ö</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">kull (c'mon, you can say it) was one of the drowsiest by Icelandic standards.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">If you want to talk about devastation, look no further than <a href="http://english.ust.is/National-Parks/Protectedareas/Lakagigar/">Lakag</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 19px;"><a href="http://english.ust.is/National-Parks/Protectedareas/Lakagigar/">í</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://english.ust.is/National-Parks/Protectedareas/Lakagigar/">gar</a>, the largest volcan</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 19px;">i</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">c eruption in history.** In the summer of 1783 this twenty-five-kilometre long hole in the Earth exploded, darkening the skies of the world, blighting harvests, decimating flora and fauna, emitting rivers of fire and clouds of poisonous sulfuric gas continuously for eight months.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Lakag</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 19px;">í</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">gar was so colossal it lowered the mean atmospheric temperature of the planet by nearly <i>five</i> degrees Celsius over a year. Its devastation of crop and livestock in Iceland was responsible for the deaths of 10,000 inhabitants; one-fifth of the entire population at the time. It also got me an A in freshman-year volcanology.***</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Being that the deadly Icelandic eruption that caused Benjamin Franklin to <a href="http://www.semp.us/publications/biot_reader.php?BiotID=222">posit an early theory</a> of the delicate relationship between atmospheric composition and climate change also got me through that rough first year of university, I'd have been remiss if I didn't pay homage to this volcano, too.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi97nNr7zIIJwmKI_ugIeKejPY03TUKNTv6h4B_K0AAFLBPZthQoJ5KmXKD6F3lP6p8ocf7HTpxdk6qb0bUsdId9hUYKJGQSMpCEMOwfg5vX3z3JVUjxcJO2vWIwpWveV8yZ7nDEorkZLaO/s1600/IMG_3796.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi97nNr7zIIJwmKI_ugIeKejPY03TUKNTv6h4B_K0AAFLBPZthQoJ5KmXKD6F3lP6p8ocf7HTpxdk6qb0bUsdId9hUYKJGQSMpCEMOwfg5vX3z3JVUjxcJO2vWIwpWveV8yZ7nDEorkZLaO/s400/IMG_3796.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
Iceland is like nature's geological laboratory, an open-air museum of Earth's majestic, barely comprehensible dynamism dedicated singularly to making us feel very, very insignificant. A simple footprint is a supreme act of reverence. Point taken, world. I'll never complain about a delayed flight again.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><i>* Just as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collapse:_How_Societies_Choose_to_Fail_or_Succeed">Jared Diamond</a> foretold.</i></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">** By volume of effluent, not by number of flights cancelled.</span></i></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">*** That course, <a href="http://www.trinity.edu/departments/geosciences/Courses.htm#1303">Geosciences 1303</a>, is still offered. Also, the grade was actually an A-minus, which is to an A what Eyjafjallajokull is to Lakagigar; differently uttered but similarly impressive from the vantage of something small, like a bee.</span></i></span></div>The Tuque Souqhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10695625715741501833noreply@blogger.com0