Orphan's Christmas

Every year for the past five or so my brother and I have been hosting our annual Orphan's Christmas. Since most of our family lives back East we decided to have friends over who aren't from Calgary and therefore may not have anything to do for Christmas. The number of people who come varies year to year, but this year was the biggest group yet. On Christmas eve we had some twenty or so people over for drinks and snacks and then on Christmas day we had others over for turkey dinner. We actually managed to cook the turkey right side up this time so that was nice! It was a great holiday and so great to have so many awesome people come and celebrate with us!

Christmas Party

So last night was our Christmas party at work! I had a blast, as I did last year too. We flew two Jetstreams down to Medicine Hat where we had a nice dinner, won some prizes (I won a dvd player), mingled, had some drinks, did some dancing and so on! It was a good time!

Tagged by Izzy

A- Available or single? Single (very) but ok with that
B- Best Friend? Suzie Q, S and N & Noels
C- Cake or Pie? Cake I guess
D- Drink of Choice? Timmy Ho's or Red wine
E- Essential Item? hmmmmmmm....
F- Favorite Color? I don't know - not a fan of this question - depends on what the color is attached to...
G- Gummi Bears or Worms? Bears for sure!
H- Hometown? Waterborough, New Brunswick
I- Indulgence? I'd have to go with chocolate I guess
J- January or February? Um, I like em both - I guess whichever turns out to be warmer
K- Kids and names? eeekkkkkkkkk!!!!!!
L- Life is incomplete without? family, friends, love
M- Marriage Date? I'll be eloping so it will be a surprise!
N- Number of Siblings? 1
O- Oranges or apples? apples for sure because it takes me an hour to eat an orange (gotta peal off all that gross white stuff)
P- Phobias/Fears? losing my medical
Q- Favorite Quote? Oh my, I have so many. Here is my favorite these days: "Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places--close to home--so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Such are the places where every man, woman and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, and equal dignity, without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere."Eleanor Roosevelt
R- Reason to Smile? 9 days till Christmas!!!
S- Season? If this means which one do I like - well I love Spring and Fall for different reasons
T- Tag three people! Canagal, Noels, Pingcat
U- Unknown Fact about Me! I think that the only time I was truly in love was when I was in grade 9 - He's married now.
V- Vegetable you hate? Asparagus - gross!
W- Worst habit? Ha, my friends know what that is...
X- X-Rays you've had? teeth and back
Y- Your favorite food? Salmon and N.B. Strawberries
.Z- Zodiac? Cancer

Elie Wiesel's Speech

I read the book Night by Elie Wiesel a while back and at the end of his book was his acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to him in 1986, on December 10th oddly enough. Anyway, I think I have read this speech twenty times. I just find it so powerful so I thought I would put it on my blog so you guys can read it too. In case you are unfamiliar with this man, he was a survivor of Nazi concentration camps and the book Night is a very honest and horrific account of his childhood experiences during that time.

The Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech Delivered by Elie Wiesel in Oslo on December 10, 1986

Your Majesty, Your Royal Highnesses, Your Excellencies, Chairman Aarvik, members of the Nobel Committee, ladies and Gentlemen:

Words of gratitude. First to our common Creator. This is what the Jewish tradition commands us to do. At special occasions, one is duty-bound to recite the following prayer: “Barukh atah Adonai…shehekhyanu vekiyamanu vehigianu lazman hazeh” – “Blessed be Thou…for giving us life, for sustaining us, and for enabling us to reach this day.”

Then, thank you, Chairman Aarvik, for the depth of your eloquence. And for the generosity of your gesture. Thank you for building bridges between people and generations. Thank you above all, for helping humankind make peace its most urgent and nobel aspiration.

I am moved, deeply moved by your words, Chairman Aarvik. And it is with a profound sense of humility that I accept the honor – the highest there is – that you have chosen to bestow upon me. I know your choice transcends my person.

Do I have the right to represent the multitudes who have perished? Do I have the right to accept this great honor on their behalf? I do not. No one may speak for the dead, no one may interpret their mutilated dreams and visions. And yet, I sense their presence. I always do – and at this moment more than ever. The presence of my parents, that of my little sister. The presence of my teachers, my friends, my companions…

This honor belongs to all the survivors and their children and, through us, to the Jewish people with whose destiny I have always identified.

I remember: it happened yesterday, or eternities ago. A young Jewish boy discovered the Kingdom of Night. I remember his bewilderment, I remember his anguish. It all happened so fast. The ghetto. The deportation. The sealed cattle car. The fiery altar upon which the history of our people and the future of mankind were meant to be sacrificed.

I remember he asked his father, “Can this be true? This is the twentieth century, not the Middle Ages. Who would allow such crimes to be committed? How could the world remain silent?”

And now the boy is turning to me. “Tell me,” he asks, “what have you done with my future, what have you done with your life?” And I tell him that I have tried to fight for those who would forget. Because if we forget, we are guilty, we are accomplices.

And then I explain to him how naïve we were, that the world did know and remained silent. And that is why I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must – at that moment – become the center of the universe.

Of course, since I am a Jew profoundly rooted in my people’s memory and tradition, my first response is to Jewish fears, Jewish needs, Jewish crises. For I belong to a traumatized generation, one that experienced the abandonment and solitude of our people. It would be unnatural for me not to make Jewish priorities my own: Israel, Soviet Jewry, Jews in Arab lands… But others are important to me. Apartheid is, in my view, as abhorrent as anti-Semitism. To me, Andrei Sakharov’s isolation is as much a disgrace as Joseph Begun’s imprisonment and Ida Nudel’s exile. As is the denial of Solidarity and its leader Lech Valesa’s right to dissent. And Nelson Mandela’s interminable imprisonment.

There is so much injustice and suffering crying out for our attention: victims of hunger, of racism and political persecution – in Chile, for instance, or in Ethiopia – writers and poets, prisoners in so many lands governed by the left and by the right.

Human rights are being violated on every continent. More people are oppressed than free. How can one not be sensitive to their plight? Human suffering anywhere concerns men and women everywhere. That applies also to Palestinians to whose plight I am sensitive but whose methods I deplore when they lead to violence. Violence is not the answer. Terrorism is the most dangerous of answers. They are frustrated, that is understandable, something must be done. The refugees and their misery. The children and their fear. The uprooted and their hopelessness. Something must be done about their situation. Both the Jewish people and the Palestinian people have lost too many sons and daughters and have shed too much blood. This must stop, and all attempts to stop it must be encouraged. Israel will cooperate, I am sure of that. I trust Israel, for I have faith in the Jewish people. Let Israel be given a chance, let hatred and danger be removed from their horizons, and there will be peace in and around the Holy Land. Please understand my deep and total commitment to Israel: if you could remember what I remember, you would understand. Israel is the only nation in the world whose existence is threatened. Should Israel lose but one war, it would mean her end and ours as well. But I have faith. Faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and even in His creation. Without it no action would be possible. And action is the only remedy to indifference, the most insidious danger of all. Isn’t that the meaning of Alfred Nobel’s legacy? Wasn’t his fear of war a shield against war?

There is so much to be done, there is so much that can be done. One person – a Raoul Wallenberg, an Albert Schweitzer, a Martin Luther King Jr. – one person of integrity can make a difference, a difference of life and death. As long as one dissident is in prison, our freedom will not be true. As long as one child is hungry, our life will be filled with anguish and shame. What all these victims need above all is to know that they are not alone; that we are not forgetting them, that when their voices are stifled we shall lend them ours, that while their freedom depends on ours, the quality of our freedom depends on theirs.

That is what I say to the young Jewish boy wondering what I have done with his years. It is in his name that I speak to you and that I express to you my deepest gratitude as one who has emerged from the Kingdom of Night. We know that every moment is a moment of grace, every hour an offering; not to share them would mean to betray them.

Our lives no longer belong to us alone; they belong to all those who need us desperately.

Thank you, Chairman Aarvik. Thank you, members of the Nobel Committee. Thank you, people of Norway, for declaring on this singular occasion that our survival has meaning for mankind.

December 10 - Human Rights Day

So December 10th is Human Rights Day.

I wonder what it feels like to be really hungry? I know what it feels like to be at work all day and not have time or maybe no opportunity to eat - often due simply to poor planning on my part. But, then you arrive home and regretfully eat something bad for you at midnight so that you satisfy that hunger. That is not hunger. I remember once when I was in junior high I participated in the 24 hour famine to raise money for some sort of organization. The drill was that I couldn't eat for 24 hours, however you were allowed to drink water and juice. Honestly, it wasn't terribly difficult and I don't think I was ever really that hungry. In my entire lifetime I have never experienced true hunger where I had no opportunity to have or gain access to food when needed.

I wonder what it feels like to be thirsty? Sure, I've gotten myself dehydrated before for failure to drink water when I should have, but it was never because there was nothing available to drink. Yeah, I've felt thirst but never thirst when I had no idea where I might find something safe to drink. At my house, the worst we suffer is when the water cooler bottle is empty and we forget to get it refilled and are therefore forced to drink tap water - which is perfectly safe, but just doesn't 'taste' as good as the bottled stuff. No, I have never suffered from thirst.

I wonder what it feels like to have children that you can't feed and have to watch them get so thin and lethargic that they can't even muster the strength to swat a fly off of their lips. I find it difficult to watch these children on tv without wanting to cry and I don't even know their names. I can't even begin to imagine what their parents suffer.

It is an unfair world where some people can have 15 cars in their garage and other people can't find a single sip of clean water. Whenever their are extremes in society - it is a disaster, well it is certainly a disaster for those at the poverty end. Generally, where one fits into this spectrum is simply a matter of where or to whom you were born. I wish I could save the world, but I can't. I can however post what I think and wear my campaign against poverty bracelet and encourage others to participate in the protest against the world's extremes of poverty and hope that someday the world will become a better place for everyone.

United Nations Link: http://www.un.org/events/humanrights/2006/

Little Las Vegas

I went to High Level yesterday and to the locals it is otherwise known as Little Las Vegas. They have about four hotels on the main street in town which are named after places in Las Vegas. Their signs are all brightly lit in flashing and neon signs! The people there seem to take it all very seriously! I was therefore, pretty excited to experience the place.

We were lucky enough to have day rooms at the Flamingo, although the sign was fancier than the hotel itself! The desk guy offered to take me to the fourth floor and show me their jacuzzi rooms which hosted mirrors around the tub as well as on the ceiling! I declined that very exciting opportunity as we were just about to check out! The only gambling type thing I saw were a few VLTs..... So now I can at least say that I have been to Little Las Vegas!

Guns n Roses

I just got home now at approximately 0300 from the Guns and Roses concert. It was a pretty good concert once they got Axel Rose's volume adjusted properly. For the first number of songs you could hardly hear a word he was singing. They played all of their classics like Patience, November Rain, Sweet Child of Mine and so on and then a few new ones that I'd never heard before. Hearing them takes me back a number of years and makes me think of home and my old friends back there. It was more fun for my brother who has wanted to see them for ever. I practically had to carry him home....too many Saddledome beer (aka heroin beer)!! Anyway, it was a fun night with a fun bunch of friends!

Sebastian Bach (formerly of Skid Row) opened for Axel and he was really fantastic. He has such an amazing voice and can hit the most incredibly high notes. He was also a bit more interactive with the crowd than Axel was.

I must say that the highlight of the night for me was when Bubbles (yes, Bubbles from the Trailer Park Boys of back home) came on to the stage to sing one of his songs with Axel Rose. Apparantly Axel had visited Bubbles Bar back east and met him and invited him to come along on tour with him! They sang Bubbles' most famous song, Liquor and Whores! I actually know the words to that song...how sad is that! I just blame it on being from back east!!

PS. Watch the Halifax show of Axel and Bubbles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVsp9gos3_8