Cottleston Pie

Good morning (or evening...or afternoon, depending on where you're tuning in from)!

It's almost 8AM and I've decided it was time to dust off the ol' blog for an update of sorts on my situation. I thought it might be easier to organize my thoughts if I used headings.

weather!
In my opinion, winter is beginning to get a little bit too enthusiastic. I was on the back of Ying's motorcycle the other day, and she turned around at a red light and said "by the way, it's winter now". I said "oh...okay, cool." And that was that. I suppose the luxury of gradual season transition is a luxury we just don't appreciate enough living in North America. No fall colors, no brisk nippy walks on windy days through fallen leaves, no birds flying south for the winter, just..."it's winter now". Anyway, there were about two or three days when the weather was absolutely PERFECT, cool in the mornings and evenings, sunny warm during the day, and dry all the time (I've had to start watering the plants on my balcony again). But NOW, it's getting kind of...well..cold at night. I was walking home from Tops the other night after a fruitful grocery expedition (no pun intended) and I realized I was uncomfortable. I kid you not, it took me a few seconds to place the feeling. I was COLD! For the first time in literally months. It was bizarre, made even more bizarre by the fact that the feeling was unfamiliar. I mean, buses and movie theatres are usually uncomfortably chilly, but this was outside. Unheard of. Anyway, I just checked the weather report, and the low last night was 14. It's now climbed to 17 (though I think higher because my apartment faces East) I had to close the door to my balcony because it got too chilly. But it's still perfect during the day, so one can't complain too loudly.

food!
Still awesome, next question.

money!
Doing well in the saving department, especially considering that I started this month by dropping the down payment on the family vacation, which has effectively forced me to save a whole ton of money, simply because it wasn't in my accout to spend. I was a little bit worried for a while, but I've calculated I should be able to make it to the end of the month without too much difficuly, so I think I'm home free.

loy krathong and yi peng!
It's here!

Loy Krathong is one of the biggest Thai annual holidays (second only to Songkran) and occurs on the full moon of the 12th month of the traditional Thai lunar calendar (it's a different year here than it is in North America, so if you pick up a Thai newspaper this morning it would read November 11th, 2551. Anyway, the holidy usually falls on November of the western calendar. Loy means float, and Krathong is a small raft, maybe a about the span of a large hand that's traditionally constructed from banana leaves, or part of the trunk (although now you can find ones made of everything from elaborately folded whisky bottles to aluminum coke cans. They're decorated with flowers, candles and incense, and then released on a river.

Apart from venerating the Buddha with light, the act of floating a Krathong symbolizes the relase of grudges, anger and impurities, wiping the slate clean as it were to start afresh. People also cut their fingernails or hair and add them to the raft as a symbol of letting go of the negative aspects of themselves, and for good luck. The rafts are also to thank and to honor Phra Mae Kongkha, the Goddess of Water.

In Chiang Mai, we also celebrate Yi Peng. This involves the release of 'kom', which are these really cool floating lanterns. Let me try to describe them. They're usually made of white tissue paper, which is stuck together to form a large bag-type thing, which is closed at one end, and held open at the other by a circle of wire (ranging in diameter from 1.5 feet to maybe 3.5 feet). At the open end is attached a brick of cloth and parafin mixed together, to provide fuel to heat the air inside the bag. When the brick is lit, the air inside heats up, and the bag expands, and can range in length from 1.5 feet to maybe 6 or 7 feet tall when upright. These lanterns, when released, float up into the night sky, like a huge orange jellyfish, slowly growing smaller as it gets higher and higher. The release of the lanterns symbolizes ridding ones self of bad luck and other troubles. Last saturday night, I went to Mae Jo university with a bunch of friends to release lanterns. It's a HUGE event every year, and there were thousands of people there. I was a genius and forgot to bring my camera, and that's a shame because truly it was one of the most beautiful things I'd ever seen. We were eating dinner, because someone heard that the lanterns were supposed to be released at about 9PM, but at about 8, we were walking down the street, when I looked up and saw thousands and thousands of these pinpricks of light rising into the sky from somewhere far away. We were probably about 1km from the launch site, which in retrospect I think was a good thing because it really let you get the big picture. The sky was literally filled with them, all rising and then floating away on the wind, orange, delicate and beautiful. I've never seen anything like it. Anyway, the path to the launch site was absolutely RAMMED with people, so it took us about an hour to get there, at which time we launched our three lanterns, and headed out. I'm going to have to rely on pictures stolen from others to give you an idea what it was like, but I have to say, absolutely nothing can compare with being there.

This is a picture on Wikipedia taken...whoa, it was actually taken the night I was there, November 8th. I suppose this is what it was like to actually be in it. (Photo Credit: Wikipedia)

.

These other three were taken by my friend Ekk, who was also at Mae Jo saturday night.

visa!
My last visa run was an absolute disaster. Instead of a straightforward trip to Mae Sai and back to get my passport stamped, I ended up being shuffled onto a bus that was going on a sightseeing trip around the north of thailand, a fact i was not made aware of until the bus was already moving. Anyway, an 9 or 10ish hour trip to the border turned into a 14 hour one. We went to Chiang Rai, the Golden Triangle, Wat Chedi Luang, two hilltribe villages and Mae Sai. Although i did get a free (though mediochre) buffet lunch out of it. I booked it with the same travel agent that I booked my christmas vacation with, so I'm torn between going back to have a sit down and a chat with her about why she didn't let me know that this is what she was signing me up for, and assuming she had a good excuse for giving me the runaroud (maybe there weren't enough people going on visa runs that day to organize a van straight to the border and back?).

I just realized today was Rembembrance Day. I will definitely be taking my minute of silence at 11...I wonder if the Canadian Embassy is doing anything.

wedding!
Relax, it wasn't mine, althogh going as Ying's 'plus one' I did get asked a disturbing number of times when our wedding was going to be, but I'm sure it was all good natured...right? Anyway, it was a good time, with good food and good fun had by all.

The girl getting married was one of Ying's co-workers. It took place in the yard of their new house, and the setup was kind of similar to a North American wedding, with chairs and tables arranged in tents outside, and a stage at the front where there were performances later in the evening. The groom's arrival marked the start of the actual ceremony, the video of which is below.



Above: The groom was preceded by a few minutes, by a pickup, who's bed was occupied by a group of women who weren't trying very hard to hide the fact that they were intoxicated. One of them immediately spied me waiting quietly trying to quietly blend into the crowd with little success and made a stumbly beeline in my direction. Holding a full glass of what I later found out to be straight whisky on the rocks. She had a dangerously playful glint in her eye. As she walked over, Ying quickly whispered that refusing a drink from this lady would be rude, but that I could just pretend to have some and that would be fine. With all eyes on me, I was commanded to drink in Thai, to which I politely accepted, lifting the glass and taking a small sip.
"More!" was the response, she wasn't buying my ruse. I took another larger one, and she seemed satisfied and moved on, trying to force drinks on the other wedding guests. After a few other people refused to drink, she whirled back around to face me, demanding I drink some more. I didn't feel so bad refusing after I'd seen others do the same, so I said I was full (quite a useful phrase to know, as it allows the refusal of food without causing the giver or the reciever to lose face...nobody can help being full, and it's not a reflection of the culinary skills (or lack thereof) of the cook). But this lady was having none of it. After three or four forceful reptitions of the command, I gave in. But my sip wasn't big enough, so I was made to take another one. At this point fortunately the groom arrived and the wedding began, but before turning to join the procession, the lady told me not to leave, as she would find me later. This was the procession:



The procession made it's way like this from the road in to the house, stopping at three points, where two people were positioned with chains (I think they were silver or gold) blocking the path (or the doorway).
The groom had to present the people with money to allow the procession to pass, it was all very ceremonial. I liked it.

The ceremony in the house. After the appropriate exchanging of gifts of gold had occurred, this was the groom giving the ring. After this happened, the bride and groom had to sit at an altar just off the left side of the picture, and everyone at the wedding who was older than they were came and tied a white bracelet on each of their wrists (you can see at least one bracelet on each of their wrists already in the picture) and say something to wish them luck in their new marriage.

Anyway, after all was said and done, out came the food, which was tasty and copious, and when it was all over we headed back to town.

work!
Work is still going well. I've been splitting my time between working on the farm and teaching recently (though spending more time teaching). We were able to take the students out to the farm three or four times, which was good, although the rainy season went late this year so unfortunately it was wet which makes it less pleasant and impossible to plant anything. We did dig a huge banana circle for the compost though, and have planted some sweet potatoe along the high areas near the fish ponds. The students have left for home this week, so teaching for this year is pretty much finished. I'm helping to write the curriculum manual, which we hope to finish by the time our contracts expire. This involves taking all the lesson plans, activity outlines and handouts and organizing them into a standardized, easy to use format, as well as compiling background information on the topics covered and resources where further info can be found. It's quite a job. So far I've been given all of the lesson plans, we've done so far and am working away organizing and adding to things where need be.

We're also going through the recruiting process for next year. The students have been asked to provide a picture with their application and resumes (a completely standard practise here (for many jobs, women will also be asked to provide their height and weight along with the picture), something I'm not used to at all), and we've been interviewing the people on the Thai side of the border, and intend to do phone interviews with those we can't see face to face.

There was also a HUGE fiasco last week about an ASEAN Summit planning meeting organized by the Burma Partnership Organization which I was asked to go with the NEED director to the night before, when I had been planning to be interviewing students (I'd already written the questions, sat down with the students to discuss the process and brief them on their right to refuse the interview, written the consent and release of information forms, etc). Anyway, things have worked out now (sort of, i interviewed the students the day after) but (CURSES!) the recorder I used to record the three interviews records in a file format my computer can't read (.VOC), and I couldn't find a program to convert it successfully (this is the summary of a maybe 8 hour ordeal). Anywhoo, if anyone would like to take a crack at converting the files to something you can listen to on your computer, feel free to let me know and I'll send them over, but I wouldn't bother. Thanks to the urgent words of Professor Kepe (Project Management C01), I took careful notes both during and after the interview, so I have all the answers, it's just quotations that will be difficult to use. The interviews were for a potential article for the NEED journal 'Natural Light', which we're also in the process of putting together at the moment.

books!
I've only included this because I've been reading a lot lately (coffee and books were made for each other), and felt like I should share, because I've gone through some good ones.
The Old Man and the Sea - Earnest Hemmingway's heartbreaking classic novel, I read it in grade 8 for a book report, but feel like I got much more out of it
The Interpereter of Maladies - A fantastic collection of beautifully crafted though often gut-wrenching short stories by Jhumpa Lahiri
The Tao of Pooh - My current book-on-the-go, by Benjamin Hoff. It's a really straightforward explanation of Taoism using the characters from the Winnie-the-Pooh books, which is still one of my favourite sets of books.
A Brief History of Tractors in Ukranian - Marina Lewycka's hilarious tale of intergenerational (and intercultural) discourse, also providing an incredibly interesting and detailed history of the tractor in the process.
The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho's # 1 bestseller, a fairly short and easy to read story with appeal to both children and grown-ups alike due to it's heavy use of symbolism and its relevance as an allegory for the human condition.
The Little Prince - I haven't actually read this one yet, but from what I read on the back, the description should read exactly the same as that of 'The Alchemist'

Next on my list:
Atlas Shrugged - Far too many people have recommended this novel by Ayn Rand for me not to want to read it. I've seen it at the used bookstore in town, but there's no room in the budget for new books until next month.

thesis!
I still have no idea what I'm doing my Thesis on, if anything I'm farther behind than I was before. I've done a bunch of background research on food security in Burma (which is what I interviewed the students on), and it looks like basically everyone is saying the same things. I also wrote an introductory piece for the journal, the rough draft of which I've included below...Read it, or don't it's up to you. Anyway, after all this research, I feel like researching the issues behind food security or lack thereof in Burma would be like beating a dead horse, I'd end up with tired arms and the world wouldn't really be any farther ahead for it.


My article:

Food Security - An Overview: What is it and how does it relate to Burma?

Access to safe, healthy food is one of the most fundamental human needs, and yet for many this basic need goes unmet. Over 800 million people worldwide lack access to sufficient food, the majority of which live in developing countries (FAO, 1998). As of 2004 in Burma, it was estimated that 2.4 million people lived in chronically food insecure situations (FAO, 2006). It is impossible to determine the accuracy of this statistic (the actual numbers of people without food security are likely far higher than those reported), but it does give a rough idea of the importance of food security within a Burmese context. Before we are able to examine the reasons behind why these numbers is so high, it is important to have an understanding of what food security is and exactly how it relates to Burma.

In November of 1996, world leaders met in Rome, Italy at the World Food Summit to discuss this pressing global issue. It was here that an internationally understood definition of food security was drafted. According to this document, “Food security exists when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.” (FAO, 1998). According to this definition, for there to be true food security food must be available, affordable and utilized (AusAID, 2008). This means that food security involves far more than simply production. It also involves the complex issues of food distribution and utilization. Even when sufficient supplies of food are being produced, parts of the population will continue to live without food security if this food is not equitably distributed. This is often argued to be the case in Burma.

One of the major causes behind the lack of food security in Burma is poverty. Without the money to afford adequate food, achieving personal food security is very difficult. Farmers with low income tend to own smaller farms, thus reducing the amount of food they can produce. These farmers are also less able to buy agricultural equipment, or fertilizers and pesticides which further limits food production within a conventional agriculture framework (USAID, 2008). This also places limits on farmers’ abilities to feed themselves and their families, and on their ability to produce food to sell, generating personal income and providing food to others.

Recent economic inflation has contributed heavily the problem. Between 2005 and 2008, average global food prices doubled, rising 43% in the past year alone (USAID, 2008). This rise in food prices occurred while average income stayed constant, which caused the number of people who could no longer afford adequate food to increase dramatically. Many who were living just above the poverty line now find themselves below it, due to higher food prices.

In Burma, the effects of rising food prices were further exacerbated in 2008 by Hurricane Nargis. The hurricane struck during the initial few days of the dry season rice harvest, which meant that it did the maximum amount of crop damage. The affected states, often referred to as the ‘rice basket of Burma’ produce 60% of Burma’s rice and 50% of Burma’s poultry (USAID, 2008). To make matters worse, much of the harvest that could be salvaged could not be distributed because of damaged road and bridge infrastructure. Thus, it is unsurprising that in the 3 weeks following the hurricane, already elevated food prices in Rangoon increased by a further 50% (USAID, 2008). The effects of Hurricane Nargis will continue to be felt in Burma for a long time, mainly due to it’s devastating impacts on key food production areas in Burma.

Government and military programs and policies also negatively effect the food security of Burmese citizens. Military operations greatly increase the burden on rural farmers and greatly reduce their capacity to grow food to feed themselves and their community. These operations include land confiscation, counterinsurgency programs, displacement and forced relocation, crop and livestock destruction and farmer extortion. SPDC structural and economic policies such as crop quotas, genetically modified crop production and unofficial taxes, also worsen the food security situation by lowering farmer income from the food they do manage to produce. Furthermore, government run programs such as national security projects, development projects and agricultural planning projects work to exacerbate the situation due to corruption and an overall lack of concern for human rights by the Burmese government and military.

Because food security is such a basic human need, the effects of its absence are far reaching and very damaging. The most obvious effects are on human health. Without adequate food, malnutrition becomes a serious risk. Increased malnutrition also increases susceptibility to opportunistic diseases (The Peace Way Foundation, 2004). Some of the worst affected victims health-wise, of food insecurity are children. Lack of proper food and nutrition prevents healthy child development, the effects of which are felt throughout the rest of the children’s lives. It also increases infant mortality rates. A lack of food security can lead to increased debt when farmers cannot grow enough food to feed themselves, let alone to sell to pay for food and seed for the following year. This often forces them to seek out money to borrow from loan sharks, the military or the government, all of which have involve incredibly inflated interest rates and can easily trap people in a cycle of increasing debt (The Peace Way Foundation, 2004).

Food security in Burma is an important current issue, the causes of which are numerous and diverse. In the following pages, the different issues pertaining to food security in Burma will be examined and analyzed, and potential solutions offered to the problem. While the causes may seem simple, the solutions are anything but.

Reference List

AusAID. 2008. Global Education: Food Security. Accessed October 13, 2008.

FAO. 1998. Rome declaration on world food security and world food summit plan of action. Accessed October 16, 2008.

FAO. 2006. Food security statistics: Number of undernourished persons. Accessed October 16, 2008.

USAID. 2008. Global food insecurity and price increase update # 1. Accessed October 13, 2008.

The Peace Way Foundation. 2004. The right to food denied: The current situation of food security in Burma. Accessed October 12, 2008.