Category Archives: Uncategorized
Women & War
Today I had the great pleasure of attending a panel discussion centered around the topics presented in this book, Women and War: Power and Protection in the 21st Century.
As the book’s title might suggest, the panel discussion focused on the gendered aspects of war. One note: War is inherently gendered. If you take anything away from this blog it should be that everything is gendered. Why? Because gender, and the way we interact with gender, is part of the function that informs our personal identity. What defines our beliefs, our behaviors, and, most importantly, our value set is often rooted in gender. Gender is everything, baby.
Back to what I was saying. Read the rest of this entry
Dear Corruption, Are You There?
Yesterday in my “Political Economy of Violence, Conflict and Development” Class (huge name, I know) a friend and I were discussing corruption. My thoughts were as follows … I don’t understand corruption. I get the minor corruption of some, taking a bit of cash from the company till, or using grant programs to buy X, Y or Z when you don’t truly need the free money, or regifting (haha I had to). But, I really don’t understand the massive corruption. You know the type; stealing of aid money to fund a Bentley purchase or two or three, paying workers at a company one owns little more than enough to get by, or taking people’s money in a supposed investment scheme to later spend all their retirement plans and never look back. What is wrong with people?
My friend on the other hand said … I understand the massive corruption. I get the greedy desire to buy Bentleys and siphon off loads of money. But, I really don’t understand the minor corruption. What is the point?
This leads me to the You, my beloved readers. I want to know what you think about corruption. What are your thoughts on the big vs. small-scale actions? Friends, Family, Rotarians alike tell me your thoughts.
Overcast
Today was a beautiful, drizzly, curl-up in bed, read a book, grab a good coffee type of day. I love these types of days whether here, in London, or in the States. It makes me feel like the Earth is taking back it’s right to live, wild and unruly. Making weather happen regardless of what we human beings think or want. A figurative, “This is my land, biotch!”
To Leicester And Back
September 25-27, 2009
Leicester, UK
I chose to start this blog with this amazing to shot because I think it speaks true to the beauty of Leicester and the surrounding area; truly a scenic town, lovely people full of wit and humor (both of which I adore), and a great experience meeting and greeting all the Rotary Ambassadorial Scholars sent to the UK. A bit of background on this trip might be due. Each year a LINK Weekend is arranged in each area that Rotary Scholars are sent. Everyone meets for a few days, gets to know one another, learns about Rotary and, best of all, visits a new city which always involves meeting new Rotarians.
In my case I met Brian and Jill when I was assigned to stay at their home with a fellow scholar, Lauren (from Texas). After arriving in Leicester (about 2 hours North of London by train), Lauren and I were whisked away to Brian and Jill’s home for a quick spot of tea and some chit-chat. Brian and Jill are part of old Leicester, meaning their families have been in the area for years. At one point, from what I can gather, Brian’s family owned much of what is now the city of Leicester. What do Brian and Jill do professionally, you ask?
Milk delivery!
That’s right Brian’s family has owned, for the better part of a century, a business that delivers FRESH milk right to each customer’s door every morning – 365 days per year. His grandfather bought into the business a long, long while back. His father then worked there. Later Brian and his brother and sister took over the job. And now, Brian’s son runs the place.
These are the delivery “floats” which are similar to golf carts but for the purpose of delivering the milk rather than golf clubs.
Following our “get to know you sessions” with Jill, she went to off to run some errands and prepare dinner while Brian, Lauren and I began our Tour de Leicester a la Car, see picture below.
The tour begins.
Our first stop was way into the countryside of rolling hills and farmland. Our destination: An enormous resevoir home to sailing and fishing and, of course, a partially submerged church. To explain, this resevoir was man made using a damn and collecting the water which runs off from the winter months. During the construction I’m not sure if the planning didn’t account for the church or if maybe they never imagined the potential size of this resevoir. But, as the water collected the poor little church was taken over by the water. It’s now a great sit to see and the resevoir, or decent size lake if you ask me, is a great place to take the family for va-ca or just a simple sailing trip on the weekends.
Me and Lauren with the submerged church in the background.
Our tour of Leicester concluded after visiting two of the local “public” (in the US we’d call these boarding private schools) schools that Brian attended and has since sent his children and grandchildren to. Useful tip: All schools in the UK generally require uniforms so when you see kids running around in suits they don’t necessarily attend a prepy private (or in the UK “public”) school.
The following day we met with our fellow scholars for some bonding activities. Here’s a brief picture summary …
Group shot
Preparing for the Lord Mayor’s address.
Morris Dancers entertaining us at our Barn Dance. I know what you’re thinking … Barn Dance? Allow me to explain. In the UK aparantly Barn Dance is more of a festive dancing and mingling where entertainers, like these Morris Dancers, perform and then lead the group in a variety of interactive dances … Grab your partner and swing them round!
All in all Leicester was a charming city full of laughter and home to a stunning countryside.
