Tuesday, April 22, 2008
About Habs Riots...
Quite frankly, I'm not surprised that these unfortunate events have been turned by many into a discrimination against the whole French Community. It's like that every bad behavior of a handful of stupid peasants is a good reason to categorize every single French Canadian as if they were all the same. Too easy. However, it shows clearly to everyone how the Quebec's people are perceived by a majority of English Canadians. This is not, it seems to me, a good motive to even include and associate the hockey team with these stupid rioters' actions. There are stupid people everywhere in this world. But I'm convinced that 96% of Canadians (of any culture) are good people.
When a soccer riot happen in Italy, Russia, or England, are we so quick to say that the whole Italian, Russian, or England people are all idiots and stupid? I don't think so. I wonder if someone can explain to me why every riot in Quebec is taken as a political motive to express hatred against Canadians of French culture? Is this common in the world or a particularity of Canada? Maybe. Furthermore, maybe the image that Canada convey to the world is more shown by the reaction to these riots than by the riots themselves? Following this reasoning, would it be suitable to cut all relations with a nation where stupid sport riots happen? Or put them on an Island and never speak with them again because they are all stupid? I think that all Canadians should reflect on this.
To see the comments, go on: http://ca.sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/nhl_experts/post/
Victorious-Montreal-fans-help-city-burn-off-exc?urn=nhl,78297&cp=1#comments
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Waydowntown!
Monday, March 24, 2008
Art and Entertainment
Friday, March 14, 2008
Maple Syrup
I also remember nights of boiling sap , sitting, chatting and listening to a Montreal Canadiens hockey game diffused on a battery radio. There was no electricity there, just wood and fire to keep us dry and warm. I wish you were there to really see what all this really mean to me but the only way I have is to write that story which just tip of the iceberg of my memory.
20 minutes blog
It's now the season of maple sugar in Quebec, the province where I was born. I'm kind of melancholic when I think about me growing up with that culture, and these adorable memories that I have from it. My granddad on my dad's side had a "cabane a sucre" which is the place where maple syrup is produced, and every spring from 0 to 12 years old I was at the "cabane a sucre" with my brothers, cousins, uncles and aunts, and my grand parents. I'll try to explain a little bit of the history that I know of the maple syrup production, how we harvest the juice from the trees, and how this is, it seems to me, a very rich tradition of the French-Canadian culture. First when our French ancestors came in America, they develop deep relationships with the native tribes who where living in Quebec and the south east part of Ontario. Among these tribes were the "Montagnais" and "Iroquois" and "Hurons" people which revealed the secret that the maple trees were holding to us French foreigners. During the spring (from about March to April) the juice of these trees is going up from the roots to the top of the branches.(which is the same for every kind of tree.) but one particular and unique quality of the maple tree juice or sap is that it is very sweet. Then during the spring, if you make a little incision in the bark of the tree, the sap will come out and we collect it to drink it or to boil it. Our ancestors owe to the native people this amazing discovery. To be continued....
Monday, March 10, 2008
Breakthroughs
Psychological Breakthrough: Dr. Ellen Jane Langer – 1982
In 1982, American Dr. Ellen Jane Langer was credited to have discovered the relation between thinking and having a longer, healthier, and more productive life. In her research, she demonstrated that more mentally active people were having a longer life expectancy. Her motive was to prove the direct relationship between low mental activity and the degeneration of elderly people. In doing so she offered hope to millions of people whose problem were previously seen as irreversible and inevitable such as senility or depression. By her work, numerous articles, and six academic books, she has exposed how the human limits were defined by our own minds. She is the author of Mindfulness and The Power of Mindful Learning. Dr. Langer is the first woman to become tenured in psychology at