Happy New Year 2016

My 2016 mobile phone screensaver :)!

Happy New Year

This year, I will not be running on Lollipop, but on Marshmallow (Android 6.0) on my Nexus 5X, and here is my 2016 screen saver: my daughter Josie's foot in a Wonder Woman thong! ... the road is going to be tough ... but here we come 2016!

My 2015 in Review

Well, the year has been dominated by hospital stays ...

..and random acts of violence by disenfranchised and radicalized souls in Paris.

Enough imagery has been around the subject. Intolerance is not about belief, it is about power. 

It is about abuse of power.

There has been delightful moments as well .. Oscar releasing a koala in the wild in St Bees Island, Queensland, in May, while on a research trip with his dad ...

 and being invited to co-fly the plane on the way to the Island :)

'Maman, this is the best day of my life', he texted me'

A bit of extravaganza for my birthday in June : I was reunited with invaluable friends for a week in a house that looked like a trendy retreat temple :) with some very creative stained glasses in some of the bedrooms, 50m from the beach in Byron Bay, surrounded by two wooden decks with plenty of space for all - meditation in a tent at a backpacking place next door a few times :), running with lit up balloons at night on the beach, going crazy with Mimi-closet burlesque dress ups in a farm nearby, cooking delightful meals all together with the kids in the evening, Australian floral essences massages, a memorable meal at the nearby Fig Tree Restaurant, a favourite of mine.

And a kangaroo family in the garden here for the long run, so it seems ?

I am not going to be very eloquent.
At the moment, I am just hoping for better time as I am concentrating very heavily on my daughter's health and well-being, after four trips to emergency services in the last three weeks.
We are now organizing a trip to Sydney for the end of January to have access to special imaging equipment (one machine of this kind in Australia), and an subject expert specialist visit on recommendation of her surgeon.

We were extremely appreciative of being able to spend Christmas with her at home rather than in the hospital. We even saw red Christmas tinsel garland drawing heart rate curve displayed on the wall of emergency ward this year: while there seem to be no boundaries to humour, this shows how close to Christmas we were then.

As a result, we made Christmas day extra special this year. Each and every one of us present (a very small committee) made a special dish: a special gingerbread house, a bûche de Noêl decorated with cherries, a sophisticated filling for the five-K turkey, scallops feuilletés with home made chicken stock among other secret ingredients, and rosemary parsnips and potatoes.

We all enjoyed our presents in the morning: our presents from her to us were even sealed with blue wax and a «J» (nice touch :).

A few days ago, I got excellent news from work that should make the next few months much easier for me, and the prospect of new exciting management developments that are coming as a breeze of fresh air to me (sadly, I lost many friends at work who went to seek jobs elsewhere this year).

I hope this wave of good news is going to continue blowing in 2016 ... if it does, there will be HEAPS OF CATCHING UP TO DO!

Spotted from the sky!

My husband and my son were spotted from a patrol helicopter on Thursday the 29th of September while they were canoeing off Byron Bay and encountered two whales - a mother and a calf

Here is the patrol report

As I scrolled down their patrol reports, here's what I found: the black dot on the bottom left is a shark just behind the surf line

This picture was taken a day or two later after the canoe trip. It may not be the same mother and calf as it is a whale migration area, but what a beautiful sight!

My last day working with the Refugees' and the New migrants' kids

My Girafe :)!

My Farewell Picture from Refugee Kids

Today was a sad day: it was my last day working at that Special School (2 hours a week for one year). As some people I know would say: don't feel sorry it is over, just be happy it happened ... well, I suppose so :( I will miss the kids' incredible WILL to learn, their energy, the beautiful African smiles and clothe colours & designs, the laughs, the cheekiness, the 'Thank you Miss' 

(although I am a Mrs but who cares :)!

I learned that literacy is not complicated, just READ READ READ and SUPPORT A READER ... that is all. Always encourage, just enjoy each other's voice: the voice of the child who tries, and make your voice pleasant to the child who listens. Just be kind to each other, and the rest is just magic unfolding through your eyes. You don't fully understand why, but before you know it, the child becomes more and more proficient: it is not totally your making!

My kids were from China, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, Thailand, Cambodia, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Somalia, Erythrea, Irak, Congo, Russia, etc. some were refugees (I'd say 80%), and some were from newly arrived migrant families. 

Prospects of a brighter future was beaming in all eyes! Some kids had to travel a long and complicated way to come here and sometimes, but they did not complain easily. The only question I would allow myself to ask them was: 'how long have you been learning English?', and sometimes, they would explain a lot, sometimes not much at all, and I would not ask more. Sometimes, they would say: 'I did not go to school because there was war'. While reading how to make kites, a little girl told me about all the kites she made back then in Irak.

Eid Mubarak token on my last day - that was lucky :)

Farewell Card from the amazing Team Leaders with beautiful Rooster painting from the Kids

Corina 50

After a long long long time apart, my friends and I finally reunited for a big occasion, the big scary 50, and for the first time, I celebrated my birthday in Australia.

I rented a dream house on the beach for a day, and we all went a bit crazy, drunk from the joy of being reunited and letting lose.

C'est une maison bleue ...

In fact, it was all the more special that my twin friend, baring the same first name, came all the way from France (20 000 kms) to celebrate her birthday with me - we are both born the same day.

Corina 50 from Corina Roe

Imagine you could have a marriage that would be an like Art work ...

"I was really excited to discover that marriage is simply what two people say it is. So like an art work, we could create anything we want inside of it" 

(Jonathan Rosen, a man whose wife said he saved her from a morbidly bland existence: )

How to put an end to world poverty by P. Singer

I just finished the excellent book 'The life you can save' talking about how to alleviate world poverty by Peter Singer I got acquainted to (his readings) while I was studying International Relations. 

What struck me is how simple it could be...

Solution 1 - If we calculate how much income falls below the poverty line in the world, and then how much money it would take to move all the poor above this line to the level they have enough to meet their basic needs, it would be 124 billions USD (2001, Jeffrey Sachs)

The annual gross annual income of 22 OECD nations is 20 trillions USD, therefore the contribution needed is 0.62% of income (less than 1%). For someone who earns 50K a year, this means $300 !

By comparison, in 1999, Americans spent 116 billion USD on alcohol (Journal of medical association, 289, 2003 pp989-95)

So all it would take to end world poverty is that OECD country people ask their employers to implement a opt-out solution (meaning you have to explicitly say no if you don't want to participate) to take 1% off their salary (unless they explicitly say 'no'). He explains that this is already done by some US companies, and it was modelled out of the organ donor scheme in Austria which saw more than 90% accepting to give organs in case they die thanks to an 'opt-out' solution as opposed to 17% in a similar country, Germany only because in Germany it is voluntary (as opposed to opt-out).

Another advantage of this solution is that you can use it as a much needed and valuable team building tool in companies: employees will have something worthwhile talking about at coffee breaks, when they will have to decide in which fund they should put their common money. Peter Singer explains that although many people do make donations on their own, they don't talk about it as not to 'offend' or as not to seem 'counter mainstream'.

or

Solution 2 - We see a massive pledge in the West of stopping alcohol & soft drink consumption. I propose that every time you compulsively wish to buy a beer or a soft drink, you press on a three dollars button on your 'Save the world' phone app, and we will get to 124 billions easily ... at the same time, we sort out road death toll, obesity and domestic violence seriously ... real problems!

This would not solve the world poverty permanently, but it would save lives. Of course the solutions are more complex than that and multifaceted... but that is another few chapters of Peter Singer's book, 'The Life you can save'.

If you wish to meet the standards, visit www.TheLifeYouCanSave.com (Peter Singer)

Is 1% too much?

Well, let us be reminded that the large world religions had worked it out before the economists: 

'your surplus at the present time should supply their needs, so that their surplus may also supply your needs, that there may be equality' (Paul, in the second letter to the Corinthians)

Same thing with Judaism. The Hebrew word for 'charity', tzedakah, simply means Justice. In the Talmud, it is said that Jews should give 10% of their income as tzedakah.

In Islam, the requirement is to give 2.5% in addition to sadaqa, which would resemble more voluntary work (optional)

What are we talking about when we talk about poverty here?

Don't read this if you are afraid of the truth ... (aren't we all)

We are talking about 24 000 children who die from avoidable causes every day

We are talking of the millions of women who are living with repairable fistulas

We are talking about the millions of people who are blind but who could see again

The good news

We can do it. In 1960, 20 million children died before their 5th birthday because of poverty. In 2007, it is 10 million a year with a population that has more than doubled (UNICEF figures)

Yet, the 10 million remains a tragedy in a world where these lives could be saved a the cost of few less damn soft drinks a year for the wealthiest.

As Peter Singer says, 'if you are paying for something to drink when safe drinking water comes out of your tap, you have money to spend on things you don't really need'

Silver Jewels

During Uni break, my daughter attended a 7 days Tafe Prof Course of Jewelry Manufacturing 

Voici l'Oeuvre d'Art!

Entire collection :) - Silver

Pendant with skin like texture in the middle of the flowers

Classical Earrings - Will be great with a pair of jeans

Pinky finger ring

Necklace made from scratch (silver thread)

Silver Alliance

Pendant

D'aguilar National Park

Today, the hibiscus flower came back to life

After shocking high temperatures last week 36C, combined to a very high level of humidity +60%, it felt we were in 38C+ temperature, with no respite at night. 

In addition, since the beginning of the summer holiday, all members of my family fell sick one after the other, including myself at the end.

Yesterday, we could FINALLY breathe again, after very much welcomed rain at night, and the first thing I saw this morning was a pink hibiscus flower coming back to life, opening up again.

Je vous présente ..... sa majesté La Fleur !!!

Other lesser creatures hanging out in my garden :))) - Please note, I only have wild plants that I do not need look after, and I like them all the more for that :)

My children made a Thai Meal for us

 This is what they did in a Thai restaurant's kitchen, with the help of Taya M., and that they brought back home for us to eat!

Pad Thai, Spring rolls, Massaman Beef curry (a family favourite), sweet chilly chicken

And their teacher has a blog full of delicious recipes and wise advice. They even learned an important fact of Thai cuisine: a wok lasts longer than most marriages: 20 years!

Taya M. Blog link: www.meatpietopadthai.com

If all people could JUST SPEAK NICELY to each other...

Below are my favourite pictures surrounding the very necessary Marche Repuplicaine that took place on the 11th of January 2014, following the attacks on Charlie Hebdo magazine and a Kosher shop Porte de Vincennes killing many innocent people, when four millions French people marched together (for a moment at least) to show their disbelief, grievance and unprecedented human solidarity. Unfortunately, I was not there, but two of my friends told me they took me with them at the march. One of them had a nephew who went to school near the kosher shop.

Res Publica

Let's not forget a Muslim policeman was among those who protected the republic civilians

During the kosher shop siege, Lassana Bathily above managed to save 6 Jewish people (including a baby) he hid in a cold room after switching off the cold air in a spontaneous act of great courage. He was thanked by Pt François Hollande and by Benjamin Netanyahou in the Grande Synagogue of Paris in a discourse in Hebrew.

'J'AI SAUVÉ DES HUMAINS' (Lassana Bathily)

Prayers in Synagogues

Language variances is also part of freedom of expression

And then, the news of unlikely couples marching together came:

Benyamin Nétanyahou et Mahmoud Abbas défileront tous les deux à Paris

Le Monde.fr avec AFP | 10.01.2015 à 23h52 • Mis à jour le 11.01.2015 à 09h28

While this infuriated many people, I do think it was a generous move from them both. The most important was to avoid the 'Us versus Them' (West versus East, or Jews vs Muslims) divides at any cost, and this was going to help

This is a post that particularly talked to me. I always like to read two sides of an argument, and I don't think Tariq Ramadan was going to march, but I agreed with what he had to say that particular day. 

On the Jan 9th, 2015 6:40am, Tariq Ramadan's FaceBook Post

(Oxford Professor of Islamic contemporary studies)

"There is a big difference between asserting a responsible word that, on the one hand, denounces and condemns the heinous acts committed in the name of our religion or our nation, and, on the other hand, cultivating a sense of guilt and self-flagellation. Every conscience must develop a critical loyalty: to have the courage to denounce and condemn those who act in the name of our religion and/or nation whereas they betray its very principles. 
This does not mean, however, to have selective emotions and indignation depending on whether the victims are "ours" or not. Any innocent person who is murdered, any being who is tortured, any individual who is treated without dignity must find us standing up, consistent, clear and determined in our denunciation: whether it is a French, an American, an African, an Arab, a Palestinian, a Jew, a Christian, a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Hindu, an Asian ...

France mourns its dead people, as Syria, Iraq, Congo, Palestine, Afghanistan or Pakistan does. The extremist terror, the indiscriminate violence through drones, the death of so many innocent people, the legalized torture is intolerable, appalling, and unacceptable. What is happening today is not an issue for the Muslims invited, again and again, to apologize ... it is the responsibility of all of us, all human beings, as we are called to stand up and denounce, together, all the horrors, wherever they are in the name of our principles, on behalf of all victims, with the same force, the same determination, the same courage."

In the meanwhile... let's not forget the foot soldiers: while Lebanon and Jordan refugees are fighting on-going snow storms, UNHCR's helpline team in Jordan have received 237,147 calls from refugees seeking help and advice since March 2014.

#IWasNotCharlie, but #IAmHumain

and I subscribe to Freedom of expression within respect of human dignity and sensitivities

The Cartoon pictures were all the more difficult to absorb by some members of the Muslim community because generally, the relation/closeness to God in Muslim faith (emulation/identification to the prophet himself as an example of a good life to lead, a close figure) is conceptualized differently to Christian relation to God (traditional distant Father figure one must obey to). This identification of the prophet persona means that when you insult Mohammed, you actually insult every Muslim much more directly. Of course, it is hard to know/conceptualize such thing, and what is funny for one person is not for another one. I learned this in the course of my thesis research work at UQ.

Charlie Hebdo was founded in the 60s during the big sexual and cultural revolution in secular France. Today, France is a different society sitting with a less secular audience (globally) where multiculturalism requires more nuances and sophistication in interactions and humour, I believe.

[Update of 17/1 - Today, Gérard Biard, Charlie Hebdo Editor in Chief, responded to the criticisms of the cartoons by Pope François in an NBC (US) interview in which he was trying to explain that God should be an intimate figure, not a political figure: 

Source Text: "A chaque fois que nous dessinons Mahomet, à chaque fois que nous dessinons un prophète, à chaque fois que nous dessinons Dieu, nous défendons la liberté de conscience". "Nous disons que Dieu ne doit pas être une personnage politique et ne doit pas être un personnage public. Il doit être un personnage intime. La religion ne doit pas être un discours politique" "Si la foi, si le discours religieux descendent jusqu'à la politique, il devient un discours totalitaire. C'est de ça dont nous préserve la laicité, qui est le garant de la démocratie, qui est garant de la pax. La laicité ça permet à tous les croyants et aux autres de vivre en paix" "C'est cela que nous défendons"

FR Translation (by myself) " Each time we draw Mahomet, each time we draw a prophet, each time we draw God, we defend freedom of conscience*, we say that God should not be a political figure, he should not be a public figure, he should be an intimate figure. Religion should not be a political discourse (…). If faith, if religious discourse ‘goes down’ to politics, it becomes a totalitarian discourse (…) this is what secularism prevents from happening, as a warrant of democracy, a warrant of peace. Secularism allows for all believers and those who don't believe in God to leave in peace. This is what we defend.

In my mind, Gérard Biard has a point with 'not letting religious discourse rule politics', but I want to shout 'Mr Biard, I understand you are a deeply grieving man right now, but if only you knew how much you agree with Muslim people about the intimacy of their relationship with God!' ... yet, this is the very reason why many Muslims got upset, please understand! 

*the expression 'liberté de conscience' was wrongly translated 'freedom of religion' in the NBC script, implying there is only a choice between religions, thus leaving out atheists in the process and missing entirely the point about secularity. Please NBC, treat translation respectfully, get quality translators that you pay decently, that would be a first step towards respect of humanity subjects and humanity in general.

At the end, most people will agree that the real problem is extremism, so let's not become freedom of expression extremists, this would defeat the purpose. Freedom of expression should be used as a constructive tool to enable quality conversations to advance peace and knowledge in the world, the arts etc.,  not as an identity marker of the West against the East.

These are the words of my son (13) in response to the Charlie Hebdo controversy

If all people could JUST SPEAK NICELY to each other, there would not be so many problems everywhere ...